Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 AH>  I'm wondering whether Leacock mistyped the quotation
 AH>  when he saw a deadline looming.  In any case he says "I
 AH>  cannot forbear to quote again from this high authority"
 AH>  on the page you highlighted.  If you review what he said
 AH>  +/- two pages earlier you'll understand why he didn't go
 AH>  into detail about the source in your excerpt.

 ak>  So, the only authority he had cited earlier was
 aK>  _Encyclopaedia Britannica_


          Yes, that's how I read it....



 ak>  Although it is strange that in

 ak>  -----Beginning of the citation-----
 ak>  ....I cannot forbear to quote again from this high
 ak>  authority cited ahead, which thus expounds this
 ak>  aspect of a customary walk.
 ak> ----- The end of the citation -----

 ak>  "ahead" means "as stated above".


          In my experience it is unusual.  I did a double take there & stopped
just shy of quoting "cited ahead" (although it was included in the excerpt you
highlighted) because I thought it would best be dealt with separately.

          According to my 1983 GAGE CANADIAN DICTIONARY & various others which
Dallas found online, treating "ahead" as more or less synonymous with "before"
is semantically correct... but I see why it may be confusing to those among us
who came along after Leacock's time &/or who have never lived in Ontario.  ;-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)