RECOUNT, n. In American politics, another throw of the dice, accorded to the player against whom they are loaded.

EFFECT, n. The second of two phenomena which always occur together in the same order. The first, called a Cause, is said to generate the other-which is no more sensible than it would be for one who has never seen a dog except in pursuit of a rabbit to declare the rabbit the cause of the dog.

Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.

Optimist – A proponent of the doctrine that black is white.

PROVIDENTIAL, adj. Unexpectedly and conspicuously beneficial to the person so describing it.

CERBERUS, n. The watch-dog of Hades, whose duty it was to guard the entrance - against whom or what does not clearly appear; everybody, sooner or later, had to go there, and nobody wanted to carry off the entrance.

PLAGUE, n. In ancient times a general punishment of the innocent for admonition of their ruler, as in the familiar instance of Pharaoh the Immune. The plague today . . . is merely Nature's fortuitous manifestation of her purposeless objectionableness.