This practice is described by the following epigram:--
Est rosa flos, Veneris cujus quo facta laterunt,
Harpocrati matri dona dicavit Amor,
Inde rosam mensis hospes suspendit amicis
Convivii et sub ea dicta tacenda sciat.
_Potter's Ant. Greece_.
"_Cant_." This word, which is now generally applied to fanatical preachers,
and hypocritical apprentices in religion, derives its name from two Scotch
Presbyterian ministers, in the reign of Charles II. They were father and
son, both called Andrew Cant; and Whitelocke in his "Memoirs," p. 511,
after narrating the defeat at Worcester, in 1651, says, "Divers Scotch
ministers were permitted to meet at Edinburgh, to keep a day of
humiliation, as they pretended, for their too much compliance with the
King," and in the same month when Lord Argyll had called a parliament, Mr.
Andrew Cant, a minister, said in his pulpit, that "God was bound to hold
this parliament, for that all other parliaments was called by man, but
this was brought about by his own hand.
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