species of porcelain shell, beautifully variegated with spots, resembling in some measure those in a peacock's tail.

ARGUTIÆ, witty and acute sayings, which commonly signify something further than what their mere words at first sight seem to import. Writers on rhetoric speak of divers species of argutiae, viz.

ARGUTIAE ab alieno, when something is said, which seems repugnant either to the nature and property of a thing, or to common custom, the laws, &c., which yet in reality is consistent therewith; or when something is given as a reason of another, which yet is not the reason of it. For instance, Si Cainus nihil didicisset, errasset minus; again, Aureum boe faculum est, quia plurimum jam auro bonos venit.

ARGUTIAE ab allusione, those wherein allusion is made to some history, fable, sentence, proverb, or the like; e.g. Multi umbrae captant et carmen amittunt.

ARGUTIAE à comparatione, when two things are compared together, which yet at first sight appear very different from each other, but so as to make a pretty kind of simile or diurnal; e.g. Par est pauper ille cuipiens principi omnia habent.

ARGUTIAE à repugnantibus, when two things meet in a subject, which yet regularly cannot be therein; or when two things are opposed to each other, yet the epithet of the one is attributed to the other, e.g. Dum tacent clamant.