Chapter Appeal to the Country to Aquarians of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

The apple of the eye. The pupil, of which perhaps it is a corruption. If not, it is from an erroneous notion that the little black spot of the eye is a little round solid ball like an apple. Anything extremely dear or extremely sensitive.

"He kept him as the apple of his eye." - Deut. xxxii. 3.

Apple-john (An). An apple so called from its being at maturity about St. John's Day (May 6th). We are told that apple-johns will keep for two years, and are best when shrivelled.

"I am withered like an old apple-john." Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV. iii. 3.

Sometimes called the Apples of King John, which, if correct, would militate against the notion about "St. John's Day."
"There were some things, for instance, the Apples of King John, ... I should be tempted to buy." - Bigelow: Life of B. Franklin.
In the United States there is a drink called "Apple-Jack," which is apple or cider brandy.

Apple-pie Bed A bed in which the sheets are so folded that a person cannot get his legs down; from the apple turnover; or, more probably, a corruption of "a nap-pe-pli bed." (French, nappe pliée, a folded sheet.)

Apple-pie Order Prim and precise order.

The origin of this phrase is still doubtful. Some suggest cap-à-pie, like a knight in complete armour. Some tell us that apples made into a pie are quartered and methodically arranged when the cores have been taken out. Perhaps the suggestion made above of nap-pe-pli (French, nappes pliées, folded linen, neat as folded linen, Latin, plico, to fold) is nearer the mark.

It has also been suggested that "Apple-pie order" may be a corruption of alpha, beta, meaning as orderly as the letters of the alphabet.
"Everything being in apple-pie order, ... Dr. Johnson ... proposed that we should accompany him ... to M'Tassa's kraal." - Adventures in Mashonaland, p. 294 (1803).

April The opening month, when the trees unfold, and the womb of nature opens with young life. (Latin, aperire, to open.)

April Fool Called in France un poisson d'Avril (q.v.), and in Scotland a gowk (cuckoo). In Hindustan similar tricks are played at the Huli Festival (March 31st). So that it cannot refer to the uncertainty of the weather, nor yet to the mockery trial of our Redeemer, the two most popular explanations. A better solution is this: As March 25th used to be New Year's Day, April 1st was its octave, when its festivities culminated and ended.

For the same reason that the "Mockery of Jesus" is rejected as a solution of this custom, the tradition that it arose from Noah sending out the dove on the first month may be set aside.
Perhaps it may be a relic of the Roman "Cerealia," held at the beginning of April. The tale is that Proserpina was sporting in the Elysian meadows, and had just filled her lap with daffodils, when Pluto carried her off to the lower world. Her mother, Ceres, heard the echo of her screams, and went in search of "the voice;" but her search was a fool's errand, it was hunting the gowk, or looking for the "echo of a scream."
Of course this fable is an allegory of seedtime.

My April morn - i.e. my wedding day; the day when I was made a fool of. The allusion is to the custom of making fools of each other on the 1st of April.

April Gentleman (An). A man newly married, who has made himself thus "an April fool."

April Squire (An). Anovus homo, A man who has accumulated money, and has retired into the country, where his money may give him the position of a squire.

A priori [Latin, from an antecedent ]. An a priori argument is when we deduce a fact from something antecedent, as when we infer certain effects from given causes. All mathematical proofs are of the a priori kind, whereas judgments in the law courts are of the a posteriori evidence; we infer the animus from the act. (See A Posteriori.)