Chapter 4

I forward you the following inscription, which I met with in an old copy of Caesar's _Commentaries_ (if I remember rightly) at Pontefract, Yorkshire:

"Si quis hunc librum rapiat scelestus Atque scelestis manibus reservet Ibit ad nigras Acherontis undas Non rediturus."

F. F. G. (Oxford).

* * * * *

BACON'S "ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING."

(Vol. vii., p.493.)

I have to thank L. for his notice of my edition of the _Advancement of Learning_, as well as for the information which he has given me, of which I hope to have an early opportunity of availing myself. As he expresses a hope that it may be followed by similar editions of other of Bacon's works, I may state that the _Essays_, with the _Colours of Good and Evil_, are already printed, and will be issued very shortly. I am quite conscious that the references in the margin are by no means complete: indeed, as I had only _horae subsecivae_ to give to the work, I did not attempt to make them so. {555} But I thought it might be useful to give a general indication of the sources from which the writer drew, and therefore put in all that I could find, without the expenditure of a great deal of time. Consequently I fear that those I have omitted will not be found to be the most obvious.

I shall be glad to make a few remarks on some of the passages noticed by L.

P. 25.--Of this piece of carelessness--for which I do not the less feel that I deserved a rebuke because L. has not administered it--I had already been made aware by the kindness of a friend. I confess I had never heard of Osorius, which is perhaps no great matter for wonder; but I looked for his name both in Bayle and the catalogue of the library of the British Museum, and by some oversight missed it. I have since found it in both. I cannot help, however, remarking that this is a good example of the advantage of noting _every_ deviation from the received text. Had I tacitly transposed three letters of the word in question (a small liberty compared with some that my predecessors have taken), my corruption of the text might have passed unnoticed. I have not had much experience in these things; but if the works of English writers in general have been tampered with by editors as much as I have found the _Advancement_ and _Essays_ of Lord Bacon to be, I fear they must have suffered great mutilation. I rather incline to think it is the case, for I have had occasion lately to compare two editions of Paley's _Horae Paulinae_, and I find great differences in the text. All this looks suspicious.

P. 34.--I spent some time in searching for this passage in Aristotle, but I could not discover it. I did not look elsewhere.

P. 60.--In the forthcoming edition of the _Essays_ I have referred to Plutarch, _Gryll._, 1., which I incline to think is the passage Bacon had in his mind. The passage quoted from Cicero I merely meant to point out for comparison.

P. 146.--The passage quoted is from Sen. _ad Lucil._, 52.

P. 147.--_Ad Lucil._, 53.

P. 159.--_Ad Lucil._, 71.

Two or three other passages from Seneca will be found without any reference. One of them, p. 13., "Quidam sunt tam umbratiles ut putent in turbido esse quicquid in luce est," I have taken some pains to hunt for, but hitherto without success. Another noticeable one, "Vita sine proposito languida et vaga est," is from _Ep. ad Lucil._, 95.

For the reference to Aristotle I am much obliged. I was anxious to trace all the quotations from Aristotle, but could not find this one.

P. 165.--I cannot answer this question. Is it possible that he was thinking of St. Augustine? In the _Confessions_, i. 25., we kind the expression _vinum erroris_.

P. 177.--No doubt Bacon had read the treatise of Sallust quoted, but my impression is that he thought the proverb had grown out of the line in Plautus.

P. 180.--I have searched again for "alimenta socordiae," as it is quoted in the _Colours of Good and Evil_, but cannot fix upon any passage from which I can say it was taken, though there are many which might have suggested it. One at p. 19. of the _Advancement_, which I missed at first, I have since met with. It is from the _Cherson._, p. 106.

THOMAS MARKBY.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Test for a good Lens._--The generality of purchasers of photographic lenses can content themselves with merely the following rules when they buy. It ought to be achromatic, _i. e._ consisting of the usual two pieces of crown and flint glass, that its curves are the most recommended, and that it is free from bubbles: to ascertain the latter, hold the lens between the finger and thumb of the right hand, much as an egg-merchant examines an egg before a strong gas flame, and a little to the right of it; this reveals every bubble, however small, and another kind of texture like minute gossamer threads. If these are too abundant, it should not be chosen; although the best lenses are never altogether free from these defects, it is on the whole better to have one or two good-sized bubbles than any density of texture; because it follows, that every inequality will refract pencils of light out of the direction they ought to go; and as bubbles do the same thing, but as they do not refract away so much light, they are not of much consequence.

I believe if a lens is made as thin as it safely can be, it will be quicker than a thicker one. I have two precisely the same focus, and one thinner than the other; the thinner is much the quicker of the two. An apparently indifferent lens should be tried with several kinds of apertures, till it will take sharp pictures; but if no size of aperture can make it, or a small aperture takes a very long time, it is a bad lens. M. Claudet, whose long experience in the art has given him the requisite judgment, changes the diameter of his lenses often during the day; and tries occasionally, in his excellent plan, the places of the chemical focus: by this his time is always nearly the same, and the results steady. As he is always free in communicating his knowledge, he will, I think, always explain his method when he is applied to. The inexperienced photographer is often too prone to blame his lens when the failure proceeds more from the above causes. The variation of the chemical focus during a day's work is often the cause of disappointment: though it does not affect the landscape so much as the portrait operator. {556}

If any one has a lens, the chemical and visual focus being different, his only remedy is M. Claudet's method. And this method will also prove better than any other way at present known of ascertaining whether a lens will take a sharp picture or not. If, however, any plan could be devised for making the solar spectrum visible upon a sheet of paper inside the camera, it would reduce the question of taking sharp pictures at once into a matter of certainty.

All lenses, however, should be tried by the opticians who sell them; and if they presented a specimen of their powers to a buyer, he could see in a moment what their capabilities were.

WELD TAYLOR.

Bayswater.

_Photography and the Microscope_ (Vol. vii., p. 507.).--I beg to inform your correspondents R. I. F. and J., that in Number 3. of the _Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_ (Highley, Fleet Street) they will find three papers containing more or less information on the subject of their Query; and a plate, exhibiting two positive photographs from collodion negatives, in the same number, will give a good idea of what they may expect to attain in this branch of the art.

Practically, I know nothing of photography; but, from my acquaintance with the modern achromatic microscope, I venture to say that photography applied to this instrument will be of no farther use than as _an assistant to the draughtsman_. A reference to the plates alluded to will show how incompetent it is to produce _pictures_ of microscopic objects: any one who has seen these objects under a good instrument will acknowledge that these specimens give but a very faint idea of what the microscope actually exhibits.

It is unfortunately the case, that the more perfect the instrument, the less adapted it is for producing photographic pictures; for, in those of the latest construction, the aperture of the object-glasses is carried to such an extreme, that the observer is obliged to keep his hand continually on the fine adjustment, in order to accommodate the focus to the different _planes_ in which different parts of the object lie. This is the case even with so low a power as the half-inch object-glasses, those of Messrs. Powell and Lealand being of the enormous aperture of 65 deg.; and if this is the case while looking through the instrument when this disadvantage is somewhat counteracted by the power which the eye has, to a certain degree, of adjusting itself to the object under observation, how much more inconvenient will it be found in endeavouring to focus the whole object at once on the ground glass plate, where such an accommodating power no longer exists. The smaller the aperture of the object-glasses, in reason, the better they will be adapted for photographic purposes.

Again, another peculiarity of the object-glasses of the achromatic microscope gives rise to a farther difficulty; they are over-corrected for colour, the spectrum is reversed, or the violet rays are projected beyond the red: this is in order to meet the requirements of the eye-piece. But with the photographic apparatus the eye-piece is not used, so that, after the object has been brought visually into focus in the camera, a farther adjustment is necessary, in order to focus for the actinic rays, which reside in the violet end of the spectrum. This is effected by withdrawing the object-glass a little from the object, in which operation there is no guide but experience; moreover, the amount of withdrawal differs with each object-glass.

However, the inconvenience caused by this over-chromatic correction may, I think, be remedied by the use of the achromatic condenser in the place of an object-glass; that kind of condenser, at least, which is supplied by the _first_ microscopic makers. I cannot help thinking that this substitution will prove of some service; for, in the first place, the power of the condenser is generally equal to that of a quarter of an inch object-glass, which is perhaps the most generally useful of all the powers; and again, its aperture is, I think, not usually so great as that which an object-glass of the same power would have; and, moreover, as to correction, though it is slightly spherically under-corrected to accommodate the plate-glass under the object, yet the chromatic correction is _perfect_. The condenser is easily detached from its "fittings," and its application to the camera would be as simple as that of an ordinary object-glass.

However, my conviction remains that, in spite of all that perseverance and science can accomplish, it never will be in the power of the photographer to produce a picture of an object under the microscope, _equally distinct in all its parts_; and unless his art can effect this, I need scarcely say that his best productions can be but useful auxiliaries to the draughtsman.

I see by an advertisement that the Messrs. Highley supply everything that is necessary for the application of photography to the microscope.

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

In reply to your correspondent J., I would ask if he has any photographic apparatus? if so, the answer to his question "What extra apparatus is required to a first-rate microscope in order to obtain photographic microscopic pictures?" would be _None_; but if not, he would require a camera, or else a wooden conical body, with plate-holder, &c., besides the ordinary photographic outfit. Part III. of the _Microscopical Journal_, published by Highley & Son, Fleet Street, will give him all the information he requires. {557}

[phi]. (p. 506.) may find a solution of his difficulties regarding the production of stereoscopic pictures, in the following considerations. The object of having two pictures is to present to _each eye_ an image of what it sees in nature; but as the angle subtended by a line, of which the pupils of the eyes form the extremities, must differ for every distance, and for objects of varying sizes, it follows there is no _absolute_ rule that can be laid down as the only correct one. For _distant_ views there is in nature scarcely any stereoscopic effect; and in a photographic stereoscopic view the effect produced is not really a representation to the eye of the _view itself_, but of _a model of such view_; and the apparent size of the model will vary with the angle of incidence of the two pictures, being _smaller_ and _nearer_ as the angle increases. I believe Professor Wheatstone recommends for landscapes 1 in 25, or about half an inch to every foot.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

_Cement for Glass Baths._--In reply to numerous inquiries which have appeared in "N. & Q." relative to a good cement for making glass baths for photographic purposes, I send a recipe which I copied a year or two ago from some newspaper, and which seems likely to answer the purpose: I have not tried it myself, not being a photographer.

Caoutchouc 15 grains, chloroform 2 ounces, mastic 1/2 an ounce. The two first-named ingredients are to be mixed first, and after the gum is dissolved, the mastic is to be added, and the whole allowed to macerate for a week. When great elasticity is desirable, more caoutchouc may be added. This cement is perfectly transparent, and is to be applied with a brush cold.

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

_Mr. Lyte's Mode of Printing._--All persons who have experienced disappointment in the printing of their positive pictures will feel obliged by MR. LYTE'S suggestion as to the bath; but as the preparation of the positive paper has also a great deal to say to the ultimate result, MR. LYTE would confer an additional obligation if he gave the treatment he adopts for this.

I have observed that the negative collodion picture exercises a good deal of influence on the ultimate colour of the positive, and that different collodion negatives will give different results in this respect, when the paper and treatment with each has been precisely the same. Does this correspond with other persons' experience?

C. E. F.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Eulenspiegel or Ulenspiegel_ (Vol. vii., pp. 357. 416. 507.).--MR. THOMS'S suggestion, and his quotation in proof thereof from the Chronicler, are farther verified by the following inscription and verses which I transcribe from an engraved portrait of the famous jester:

"Ulenspiegel.

"Ligt Begraben zu Dom in Flandern in der grosen Kirch, auf dem Grabister also Likend abgebildet. Starb A^o. 1301."

These lines are above the portrait, and beneath it are the verses next following:

"Tchau _Ulenspiegeln_ hier. Das Bildniss macht dich lachen: Was wurdst du thun siehst du jhn selber Possen machen? Zwar _Thyle_ ist ein Bild und _Spiegel_ dieser Welt, Viel Bruder er verliess; Wir treiben Narretheyen, In dem uns dunckt, dass wir die grosten Weysen seyen, Drum lache deiner selbst; diss Blat dich dir vorstellt."

The portrait, evidently that of a man of large intellect, is very life-like, and full of animation. He seems to be some fifty years of age or so; he has a cap, ornamented by large feather, on his head. He is seated in a chair, has a book in his hand, and is attired in a kind of magisterial robe bordered with fur. There is a good-humoured roguish twinkle in his eyes; and I should be inclined to call him, judging from the portrait before me, an epigrammatist rather than mere vulgar jester. The engraving is beautifully executed: it has neither date nor place of publication, but its age may perhaps be determined by the names of the painter (Paulus Furst) and engraver (P. Troschel). The orthography is by no means of recent date. I cannot translate the verses to my own satisfaction; and should feel much obliged if you, MR. EDITOR, or MR. THOMS, would favour the readers of "N. & Q." with an English version thereof.

HENRY CAMPKIN.

Reform Club.

_Lawyers' Bags_ (Vol. vii., pp. 85. 144.).--Colonel Landman is doubtless correct in his statement as to the colour of barristers' bags; but from the evidence of A TEMPLAR and CAUSIDICUS, we must place the change from green to red at some period anterior to the trial of Queen Caroline. In Queen Anne's time they were _green_.

"I am told, Cousin Diego, you are one of those that have undertaken to manage me, and that you have said you will carry a _green bag_ yourself, rather than we shall make an end of our lawsuit: I'll teach them and you too to manage."--_The History of John Bull_, by Dr. Arbuthnot, Part I. ch. xv.

T. H. KERSLEY, B. A.

Audlem, Cheshire.

_"Nine Tailors make a Man"_ (Vol. vi., pp. 390. 563.; Vol. vii., p. 165.).--The origin of this saying is to be sought for elsewhere than in England only. Le Conte de la Villemarque, in his {558} interesting collection of Breton ballads, _Barzas-Breiz_, vol. i. p. 35., has the following passage:

"Les tailleurs, cette classe vouee au ridicule, en Bretagne, comme dans le pays de Galles, en Irlande, en Ecosse, en Allemagne et ailleurs, et qui l'etait jadis chez toutes les nations guerrieres, dont la vie agitee et errante s'accordait mal avec une existence casaniere et paisible. Le peuple dit encore de nos jours en Bretagne, _qu'il faut neuf tailleurs pour faire un homme_, et jamais il ne prononce leur nom, sans oter son chapeau, et sans dire: 'Sauf votre respect.'"

The saying is current also in Normandy, at least in those parts which border on Britany. Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q." may be able to say whether it is to be found in other parts of Europe.

HONORE DE MAREVILLE.

Guernsey.

_"Time and I"_ (Vol. vii., pp. 182. 247.).--Arbuthnot calls it a Spanish proverb. In the _History of John Bull_, we read among the titles of other imaginary chapters in the "Postscript," that of--

"Ch. XVI. Commentary upon the _Spanish_ Proverb, _Time and I against any Two_; or Advice to Dogmatical Politicians, exemplified in some New Affairs between John Bull and _Lewis Baboon_."

T. H. KERSLEY, B. A.

Audlem, Cheshire.

_Carr Pedigree_ (Vol. vii., pp. 408. 512.).--W. ST. says that William Carr married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Sing, Bishop of Cork. The name is Synge, not Sing. The family name was originally Millington, and was changed to Synge by Henry VIII. or Queen Elizabeth, on account of the sweetness of the voice of one of the family, who was a clergyman, and the ancestor of George Synge, Bishop of Cloyne; Edward Synge, Bishop of Ross; Edward Synge, Archbishop of Tuam; Edward Synge, Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns; Nicholas Synge, Bishop of Killaloe; the late Sir Samuel Synge Hutchinson, Archdeacon of Killala; and of the present Sir Edward Synge.

I cannot find that any of these church dignitaries had a daughter married to Wm. Carr. Nicholas Synge, Bishop of Killaloe, left a daughter, Elizabeth, who died unmarried in 1834, aged ninety-nine; but I cannot discover that either of the other bishops of that family had a daughter Elizabeth.

GULIELMUS.

_Campvere, Privileges of_ (Vol. vii., pp. 262. 440.).--What were these privileges, and whence was the term derived?

"Veria, quae et Canfera, vel Campoveria potius dicitur, alterum est inter oppida hujus insulae, muro et moenibus clausa, situ quidem ad aquilonem obversa, et in ipso oceani littore: fossam habet, quae Middelburgum usque extenditur, a qua urbe leucae tantum unius, etc.

"Estque oppidulum satis concinnum, et mercimoniis florens, maxime propter commercia navium _Scoticarum_, quae in isto potissimum portu stare adsueverunt.

"_Scotorum_ denique, superioribus annis, frequentatione celebris et _Scoticarum_ mercium, praecipue vellerum ovillorum, stapula, ut vocant, et emporium esse coepit."--L. Guicciardini, _Belgium_ (1646), vol. ii. pp. 67, 68.

Will J. D. S. be so good as to say where he found the "Campvere privileges" referred to?

E.

_Haulf-naked_ (Vol. vii., p. 432.).--The conjecture that _Half-naked_ was a manor in co. Sussex is verified by entries in _Cal. Rot. Pat._, 11 Edw. I., m. 15.; and 13 Edw. I., m. 18. Also in _Abbreviatio Rot. Orig._, 21 Edw. III., _Rot._ 21.; in which latter it is spelt _Halnaked_.

J. W. S. R.

St. Ives, Hunts.

_Old Picture of the Spanish Armada_ (Vol. vii., p. 454.).--Although perhaps this may not be reckoned an answer to J. S. A.'s Query on this head, I have to inform you that in the steeple part of Gaywood Church near this town, is a fine old painting of Queen Elizabeth reviewing the forces at Tilbury Fort, and the Spanish fleet in the distance. It is framed, and sadly wants cleaning.

J. N. C.

King's Lynn.

_Parochial Libraries_ (Vol. vi., p. 432., &c.).--We have in St. Margaret's parish a parochial library, which is kept in a room fitted up near the vestry of the church in this town.

J. N. C.

King's Lynn.

To the list of places where there are parochial libraries may be added Bewdley, in Worcestershire. There is a small library in the Grammar School of that place, consisting, if I recollect aright, mainly of old divinity, under the care of the master: though it is true, for some years, there has been no master.

S. S. S.

In the preface to the _Life of Lord Keeper Guilford_, by Roger North, it appears that Dudleys youngest daughter of Charles, and granddaughter of Dudley Lord North, dying,--

"Her library, consisting of a choice collection of Oriental books, by the present Lord North and Grey, her only surviving brother, was given to the parochial library of Rougham in Norfolk, where it now remains."

This library then existed in 1742, the date of the first edition of the work.

FURVUS.

St. James's.

_How to stain Deal_ (Vol. vii., p. 356.).--Your correspondent C. will find that a solution of {559} asphaltum in boiling turpentine is a very good stain to dye deal to imitate oak. This must be applied when cold with a brush to the timbers: allowed to get dry, then size and varnish it.

The dye, however, which I always use, is a compound of raw umber and a small portion of blue-black diluted to the shade required with strong size in solution: this must be used hot. It is evident that this will not require the preparatory sizing before the application of the varnish. Common coal, ground in water, and used the same as any other colour, I have found to be an excellent stain for roof timbers.

W. H. CULLINGFORD.

Cromhall, Gloucestershire.

_Roger Outlawe_ (Vol. vii., p. 332.).--Of this person, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland for many years of the reign of Edward III., some particulars will be found in the notes to the _Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler_, edited for the Camden Society by Mr. Wright, p. 49. There is evidently more than one misreading in the date of the extract communicated by the REV. H. T. ELLACOMBE: "die pasche in viiij mense anno B. Etii post ultimum conquestum hibernia quarto." I cannot interpret "in viiij mense;" but the rest should evidently be "anno _Regis Edwardi tertii_ post ultimum conquestum Hiberniae quarto."

May I ask whether this "last conquest of Ireland" has been noticed by palaeographers in other instances?

ANON.

_Tennyson_ (Vol. vii., p. 84.).--Will not the following account by Lord Bacon, in his _History of Henry VII._, of the marriage by proxy between Maximilian, King of the Romans, and the Princess Anne of Britany, illustrate for your correspondent H. J. J. his last quotation from Tennyson?

"She to me Was proxy-wedded with a bootless calf, At eight years old."