A  frequent  though  not  necessary  phase  of  such
temper  is  implied  in  the  dialect  made  familiar  by
the  stinging  lines  of  Lowell.  It  purports  to  be
the  speech  of  plain  folks  as  distinguished  from  those
who  have  been  trained  in  polite  amenities,  of  the
simple  as  distinguished  from  the  gently  nurtured,
of  your  every-day  hard-headed  Yankee.  A
healthy  fashion  used  to  describe  such  men  as  the
common  people,  thereby  recognised  as  the  source
of  common-sense.  Nowadays  we  are  apt  to  leave
out  the  adjective,  to  use  the  word  people  not  as
Lincoln  used  it,  including  all  sorts  and  conditions  of
men,  but  as  if  only  the  lowly  could  rightly  claim
rights.  One  consequent  difficulty  met  us  a  little
while  ago;^    when  Tacitus  described  the  thrill  of

» Cf.  p.  317.
JUVENAL  325

horror  in  the  Forum  as  the  crowd  saw  Galba  top-
pling, he  used  the  words  "Neque  populi  aut  plebis
uUa  vox";  we  now  have  no  terms  exactly  to  define
his  distinction.  We  clumsily  contented  ourselves
with  an  inadequate  translation:  *' Neither  gentle
nor  simple  uttered  a  single  sound/'  Both  populus
and  plebs  we  might  carelessly  have  translated  by
the  same  word,  people.  But  popuhis  implies  re-
sponsibility, meaning  people  of  the  better  sort;
and  plehs  implies  irresponsibility  such  as  we  now
associate  with  people  of  the  lower  sort,  sometimes
described  by  our  comparatively  new  word  Tnoh.
