Sir John Norris, famed in the Netherland wars, was president of Munster, and so impressed the Irish that they averred him to be in league with the devil.
It is averred that he never handled a brush without fervent prayer and he wept when he painted a Crucifixion.
In addressing the electors of Midlothian in September 1885, Gladstone had suggested the severance of the Church of England from the state as a subject on which the foundation of discussion had already been laid, and he averred the existence of "a current almost throughout the civilized world, slowly setting in the direction of disestablishment."
On the 24th of April, as she approached Edinburgh, Bothwell accordingly met her at the head of Boo spearmen, assured her (as she afterwards averred) that she was in the utmost peril, and escorted her, together with Huntly, Lethington and Melville, who were then in attendance, to Dunbar Castle.
Voltaire said that it was full of commonplaces, and that what was original was false or problematical; Rousseau declared that the very benevolence of the author gave the lie to his principles; Grimm thought that all the ideas in the book were borrowed from Diderot; according to Madame du Deffand, Helvetius had raised such a storm by saying openly what every one thought in secret; Madame de Graffigny averred that all the good things in the book had been picked up in her own salon.
