Part 3
[Footnote 1: In _The English Works of Roger Ascham_, London, 1815, 8vo.: this edition is reprinted from Bennet's, with additions. Bennet took these letters from Baker's extracts (in his MSS. xiii. 275-295., now in the Harleian Collection), "from originals in Mr. Strype's hands." One letter is more fully given by Mr. Tytler, _England under Edward VI. and Mary_, vol. ii. p. 124.]
[Footnote 2: In Sir H. Ellis's _Letters of Eminent Literary Men_, Camden Soc. Nos. 4 and 5. Correcter copies than had before appeared from the Lansdowne MSS.]
[Footnote 3: Most incorrectly printed in Whitaker's _History of Richmondshire_, vol. i. p. 270. seq. The letters themselves are highly important and curious.]
[Footnote 4: Dd. ix. 14. Some of the letters are transcribed by Baker, MSS. xxxii. p. 520. seq.]
[Footnote 5: This letter has many sentences in common with that to Gardiner, of the date Jan. 18 [1554], printed by Whitaker (p. 271. seq.)]
[Footnote 6: Whitaker, who prints this (p. 289. seq.) says that it had been printed before. Where?]
[Footnote 7: This, I believe, unpublished letter is referred to by Osorius, in a letter to Ascham (_Aschami Epistolæ_, p. 397.: Oxon. 1703).]
[Footnote 8: Both of these have been printed, the letter in _Aschami Epistolæ_, lib. i. ep. 4. p. 68. seq. Compare on the commentary, ibid. pp. 70. and 209.]
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
_Symbolism in Raphael's Pictures._--In some of the most beautiful pictures of "The Virgin and Child" of Raphael, and other old masters, our Lord is represented with His right foot placed upon the right foot of the blessed Virgin. What is the symbolism of this position? In the Church of Rome, the God-parent at Holy Confirmation is, if I remember right, directed by a rubric to place his or her right foot upon the right foot of the person confirmed. Is this ceremony at all connected with the symbolism I have noticed?
WM. FRASER, B.C.L.
"_Obtains._"--Every one must have observed the frequent recurrence of this word, more especially those whose study is the law: "This practice on that principle _obtains_." How did the word acquire the meaning given to it in such a sentence?
Y. S. M.
_Army Lists for Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries._--Where are they to be found? Not at the Horse Guards, as the records there go back only to 1795. I want particulars of many officers in both centuries; some of them who came to Ireland temp. Charles I., and during Cromwell's Protectorate, and others early in the last century.
Y. S. M.
_Anonymous Poet._--
"It is not to the people of the west of Scotland that the energetic reproach of the poet can apply. I allude to the passage in which he speaks of--
'All Scotia's weary days of civil strife-- When the poor Whig was lavish of his life, And bought, stern rushing upon Clavers' spears, The freedom and the scorn of after years.'" _Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_, vol. iii. p. 263. Edin. 1819.
Who is "the poet?"
ANON.
_John Bale._--Strype, in his _Life of Parker_, book iv. sec. 3. p. 539. edit. 1711, speaking of Bale, says: "He set himself to search many libraries in Oxford, Cambridge," &c.
Bale himself, in the list of his own writings, enumerates "ex diversis bibliothecis."
Did this piece contain any account of his researches in libraries alluded to? If so, has it ever been published? Tanner makes no mention of it in his _Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica_.
H. F. S.
Cambridge.
_A short Sermon._--In an essay on Benevolence, by the Rev. David Simpson of Macclesfield, it is reported of Dean Swift, that he once delivered in his trite and laconic manner the following short sermon, in advocating the cause of a charitable institution, the text and discourse containing thirty-four words only:
"He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will He pay him again. Now, my brethren, if you like the security, down with your money."
When and where did this occur, and what was the result?
HENRY EDWARDS.
* * * * *
Minor Queries with Answers.
_Quakers' Calendar._--What month would the Quakers mean by "12th month," a century and a half since?
D.
[Before the statute 24 Geo. II., for altering the Calendar in Great Britain, the Quakers began their year on the 25th of March, which they called the _first_ month; but at the yearly meeting for Sufferings in London, Oct. 1751, a Committee was appointed to consider what advice might be necessary to be given to the Friends in relation to the statute in question. The opinion of the Committee was, "That in all the records and writings of Friends from and after the last day of the month, called December, next, the computation of time established by the said act should be observed; and that, accordingly, the first day of the eleventh month, commonly called January, next, should be reckoned and deemed by Friends the first day of the _first_ month of the year 1752." Consequently the twelfth month, a century and a half since, would be _February_. See Nicolas's _Chronology_, p. 169.]
"_Rodondo, or the State Jugglers._"--Who was the author of this political squib, three cantos, 1763-70; reproduced in _Ruddiman's Collection_, Edinburgh, 1785? In my copy I have written Hugh Dalrymple, but know not upon what authority. It is noticed in the _Scots Mag._, vol. xxv., where it is ascribed to "a Caledonian, who has laid about him so well as to vindicate his country from the imputation of the _North Briton_, that there is neither wit nor humour on the other side the Tweed."
J. O.
[A copy of this work in the British Museum contains the following MS. entry: "The author of the three Cantos of _Rodondo_ was Hugh Dalrymple, Esq. He also wrote _Woodstock_, an elegy reprinted in Pearch's _Collection of Poems_. At the time of his death he was Attorney-General for the Grenades, where he died, March 9, 1774. His daughter married Dr., afterwards Sir John Elliott, from whom she was divorced, and became a celebrated courtezan."]
_Rathlin Island._--Has any detailed account of this island, which is frequently called Rahery, {590} and is a few miles from the northern coast of Ireland, appeared in print? The locality is most interesting in many particulars, historical and geological, and might therefore be made the subject of an instructive paper. A brief account was inserted, I think, a few years ago in an English periodical.
ABHBA.
[An interesting and detailed account of this island, which he calls Raghery, is given in Hamilton's _Letters concerning the Northern Coast of the County of Antrim_, 1790, 8vo., pp. 13-33. Consult also Lewis's _Topographical History of Ireland_, vol. ii. p. 501.]
_Parochial Registers._--When and where were parochial registers first established? The earliest extant at the present day?
ABHBA.
[We fear our correspondent has not consulted that useful and amusing work, Burn's _History of Parish Registers in England, also of the Registers of Scotland, Ireland, the East and West Indies, the Fleet, King's Bench, Mint, Chapel Royal, &c._, 8vo. 1829, which contains a curious collection of miscellaneous particulars concerning them.]
_"Trevelyan," &c._--Who was the author of two novels, published about twenty years ago, called _A Marriage in High Life_ and _Trevelyan_: the latter the later of the two?
UNEDA.
Philadelphia.
[These works are by the Hon. Caroline Lucy Scott, at present residing at Petersham, in Surrey.]
_Grammar School of St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester._--Can you give me the name of the master of the Grammar School of St. Mary de Crypt in 1728?
SIGMA (1).
[Daniel Bond, B.A., was elected master March 25, 1724, and was also vicar of Leigh. He died in 1750.]
* * * * *
Replies.
CRANMER'S MARTYRDOM.
(Vol. ix., pp. 392. 547.)
I thank G. W. R. for his courteous remarks on my note on Cranmer. Perhaps I have overstated the effect of pain on the nervous system; certainly I was wrong in making a wider assertion than was required by my case, which is, that no man could hold his hand over unconfined flame till it was "entirely consumed" or "burnt to a coal." "Bruslée à feu de souphre" does not go so far as that, nor is it said at what time of the burning Ravaillac raised his head to look at his hand.
J. H. has mistaken my intention. I have always carefully avoided everything which tended to religious or moral controversy in "N. & Q." I treated Cranmer's case on physiological grounds only. I did not look for "cotemporaneous evidence against that usually received," any more than I should for such evidence that St. Denis did not walk from Paris to Montmartre with his head in his hand. If either case is called a miracle, I have nothing to say upon it _here_; and for the same reason that I avoid such discussion, I add, that in not noticing J. H.'s opinions on Cranmer, I must not be understood as assenting to or differing from them. J. H. says:
"It would surely be easy to produce facts of almost every week from the evidence given in coroners' inquests, in which persons have had their limbs burnt off--to say nothing of farther injury--without the shock producing death."
If favoured with one such fact, I will do my best to inquire into it. None such has fallen within my observation or reading.
The heart remaining "entire and unconsumed among the ashes," is a minor point. It does not seem impossible to J. H., "in its plain and obvious meaning." Do the words admit two meanings? Burnet says:
"But it was no small matter of astonishment to find his heart entire, and not consumed among the ashes; which, though the reformed would not carry so far as to make a miracle of it, and a clear proof that his heart had continued true, though his hand had erred; yet they objected it to the Papists, that it was certainly such a thing, that if it had fallen out in any of their church, they had made it a miracle."--Vol. ii. p. 429.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club.
Permit me to offer to H. B. C.'s consideration the case of Mutius Scævola, who, failing in his attempt to kill Porsenna in his own camp, and being taken before the king, thrust his right hand into the fire, and held it there until burnt; at the same time declaring that he knew three hundred men who would not flinch from doing the same thing. To a certain extent, I am inclined to think with ALFRED GATTY (Vol. ix., p. 246.), "that an exalted state of feeling may be attained;" which, though it will not render the religious or political martyr insensible to pain, it will yet nerve him to go through his martyrdom without demonstration of extreme suffering.
This ability to endure pain may be accounted for in either of the following ways:
1. An exalted state of feeling; instance Joan of Arc.
2. Fortitude; instance Mutius Scævola.
3. Nervous insensibility; which carries the vanquished American Indian through the most exquisite tortures, and enables him to fall asleep on the least respite of his agony.
Should these three be united in one individual, it is needless to say that he could undergo any bodily pain without a murmur.
JOHN P. STILWELL.
{591}
* * * * *
COLERIDGE'S UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS.
(Vol. ix., pp. 496. 543.)
Every admirer of Coleridge's writings must feel, as I do, grateful to MR. GREEN for the detailed account he has rendered of the manuscripts committed to his care. A few points, however, in his reply call for a rejoinder on my part. I will be as brief as possible.
I never doubted for an instant that, had I "sought a private explanation of the matters" comprised in my Note, MR. GREEN would have courteously responded to the application. This is just what I did _not_ want: a public explanation was what I desired. "N. & Q." (Vol. iv., p. 411.; Vol. vi., p. 533.; Vol. viii., p. 43.) will bear witness to the fact that the public required to know the reason why works of Coleridge, presumed to exist in manuscript, were still withheld from publication: and I utterly deny the justice of MR. GREEN's allegation, that because I have _explicitly_ stated the charge _implied_ by Mr. Alsop (the editor of _Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of Coleridge_) in his strictures, I have made an inconsiderate, not to say a coarse, attack upon him (MR. GREEN). When a long series of appeals to the fortunate possessor of the Coleridge manuscripts (whoever he might turn out to be) had been met with silent indifference, I felt that the time was come to address an appeal personally to MR. GREEN himself. That he has acted with the approbation of Coleridge's family, nobody can doubt; for the public (thanks to Mr. Alsop) know too well how little the greatest of modern philosophers was indebted to that family in his lifetime, to attach much importance to their approbation or disapprobation.
No believer in the philosophy of Coleridge can look with greater anxiety than I do for the forthcoming work of MR. GREEN. That the pupil of Coleridge, and the author of _Vital Dynamics_, will worthily acquit himself in this great field, who can question? But I, for one, must enter my protest against the publication of MR. GREEN's book being made the pretext of depriving the public of their right (may I say?) to the perusal of such works as do exist in manuscript, finished or unfinished. Again I beg most respectfully to urge on MR. GREEN the expediency, not to say paramount duty, of his giving to the world _intact_ the _Logic_ (consisting of the _Canon_ and other parts), the _Cosmogony_, and, as far as possible, the _History of Philosophy_. If his plea, that these works are not in a finished state, had been heretofore held good in bar of publication, we should probably have lost the inestimable privilege of reading and possessing those fragmentary works of the great philosopher which have already been made public.
C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.
Birmingham.
* * * * *
LIFE.
(Vol. vii., pp. 429. 560. 608.; Vol. viii., pp. 43. 550.)
Your correspondent H. C. K. (Vol. vii., 560.) quotes a passage from Sir Thomas Browne's _Religio Medici_, sect. xlii. The following passage from the same writer's _Christian Morals_ is much more to the point:
"When the Stoic said ('Vitam nemo acciperet, si daretur scientibus'--_Seneca_) that life would not be accepted if it were offered unto such as knew it, he spoke too meanly of that state of being which placeth us in the form of men. It more depreciates the value of this life, that _men would not live it over again_; for although they would still live on, yet _few or none can endure to think of being twice the same men upon earth, and some had rather never have lived than to tread over their days once more_. Cicero, in a prosperous state, had not the patience to think of beginning in a cradle again. ('Si quis Deus mihi largiatur, ut repuerascam et in cunis vagiam, valdè recusem.'--_De Senectute._) Job would not only curse the day of his nativity, but also of his renascency, if he were to act over his disasters and the miseries of the dunghill. But the greatest underweening of this life is to undervalue that unto which this is but exordial, or a passage leading unto it. The great advantage of this mean life is thereby to stand in a capacity of a better; for the colonies of heaven must be drawn from earth, and the sons of the first Adam are only heirs unto the second. Thus Adam came into this world with the power also of another; not only to replenish the earth, but the everlasting mansions of heaven."--Part III. sect. xxv.
"Looking back we see the dreadful train Of woes anew, which, were we to sustain, We should refuse to tread the path again." Prior's _Solomon_, b. iii.
The crown is won by the cross, the victor's wreath in the battle of life:
"This is the condition of the battle[9] which man that is born upon the earth shall fight. That if he be overcome he shall suffer as thou hast said, but if he get the victory, he shall receive the thing that I say."--2 _Esdr._ vii. 57.
Our grade in the other world is determined by our probation here. To use a simile of Asgill's, this life of time is a university in which we take our degree for eternity. Heaven is a pyramid, or ever-ascending scale; the world of evil is an inverted pyramid, or ever-descending scale. Life is motion. There is no such thing as stagnation: everything is either advancing or retrograding. Corruption itself is an activity, and evil is ever growing. According to the _habits_ formed within us, we are ascending or descending; we cannot stand still.
A man, then, in whom the higher life predominates, were he to live life over again, would {592} grow from grace to grace, and his status in the spirit world would be higher than in the first life, and _vice versâ_; an evil man[10] would be more completely evil, and would rank in a darker and more bestial form. They who hear not the good tidings will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead; and those with whom the experience of one life failed would not repent in the second.
The testimony of the Shunamite's son, Lazarus, and of those who rose from the dead at the crucifixion, is not recorded; but they who have escaped from the jaws of death, by recovery from sickness or preservation from danger, may in a certain sense be said to live life over again. After the fright is over the warning in most cases loses its influence, and we have a verification of the two proverbs, "Out of sight out of mind," and--
"The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be; The devil was well, the devil a monk would he."
In a word, this experiment of a second life would best succeed with him whose habits are formed for good, and whose life is already overshadowed by the divine life. Even of such an one it might be said, "Man is frail, the battle is sore, and the flesh is weak; even a good man may fall and become a castaway." The most unceasing circumspection is ever requisite. The most polished steel rusts in this corrosive atmosphere, and purest metals get discoloured.
Finally, it is very probable that God gives every man a complete probation; that is to say, He cuts not man's thread of life till he be at the same side of the line he should be were he to live myriads of years. Every man is made up of a mixture of good and evil: these two principles never become soluble together, but ever tend each to eliminate the other. They hurry on in circles, alternately intersecting and gaining the ascendancy, till one is at last precipitated to the bottom, and pure good or evil remains. In the nature of things there are critical moments and tides of circumstances which become turning-points when time merges into eternity and mutability into permanence: and such a crisis may occur in the course of a short life as well as in many lives lived over again.
EIRIONNACH.
[Footnote 9:
"A field of battle is this mortal life!" _Young_, N. viii.
[Footnote 10: See a recent novel by Frederick Souillet, entitled _Si Jeunesse savait, Si Vieillesse pouvait_.]
_Life and Death_ (Vol. ix., p. 481.).--The following is on a monument at Lowestoft, co. Suffolk, to the memory of John, son of John and Anne Wilde, who died February 9, 1714, aged five years and six months:
"Quem Dii amant moritur Juvenis."
SIGMA.
The following may be added to the parallel passages collected by EIRIONNACH. Chateaubriand says, in his _Memoirs_, that the greatest misfortune which can happen to a man is to be born, and the next greatest is to have a child. As Chateaubriand had no children, the most natural comment on the last branch of his remark is "sour grapes."
UNEDA.
Philadelphia.
* * * * *
INSCRIPTIONS ON BELLS.
(Vol. ix., p. 109.)
_St. Nicholas Church, Sidmouth._--Having, on October 21, 1850, taken intaglios in pressing-wax of the inscription forwarded by MR. GORDON, from which plaster casts were made, the writer is able to speak of it with some degree of confidence. The inscription, however, is not peculiar to Sidmouth: it is found at other places in the county of Devon, and perhaps elsewhere. In Harvey's _Sidmouth Directory_ for March, 1851, there is an article descriptive of all the six bells at this place, in which there is a fac-simile, engraved on wood, of the inscription in question. The words run all round the bell; and each word is placed on a cartouche. The Rev. Dr. Oliver of Exeter, in his communication to the writer on this subject, calls the bell the "Jesus Bell." The _Directory_ observes:
"It was formerly the practice to christen bells with ceremonies similar to, but even more solemn than, those attending the naming of children; and they were frequently dedicated to Christ (as this is), to the Virgin, or some saint."
Dr. Oliver to the writer says:
"I have met with it at Whitstone, near this city [Exeter], at East Teignmouth, &c.; _michi_ for _mihi_; [ihc (black-letter)], the abbreviation for Jesus. Very often the word _veneratum_ occurs instead of _amatum_, and _illud_ instead of _istud_."
The [ihc (black-letter)] stands thus: [=i]h[=c]. The _Directory_, on this abbreviated word, remarks,--
"The IHS, as an abbreviation for Jesus, is a blunder. Casley, in his _Catalogue of the King's MSS._, observes, p. 23., that 'in Latin MSS. the Greek letters of the word Christus, as also Jesus, are always retained, except that the terminations are changed according to the Latin language. Jesus is written [=IHS], or in small characters ihs, which is the Greek [Greek: [=IÊS]] or [Greek: [=iês]], an abbreviation for [Greek: iêsous]. However, the scribes knew nothing of this for a thousand years before the invention of printing, for if they had they would not have written [=ihs] for [Greek: iêsous]; but they ignorantly copied after one another such letters as they found put for these words. Nay, at length they pretended to find _Jesus Hominum Salvator_ comprehended in the word [=IHS], which is another proof that they took the middle letter for _h_, not [eta]. The dash also over the word, which is a sign of abbreviation, some have changed to the sign of the cross' [Hone's _Mysteries_, p. 282.]. The old way of {593} spelling Jhesus with an _h_ may perhaps be referred to the same mistake. The inscription, then, runs thus:
[Est mihi collatum Jesus istud nomen amatum],
which may be rendered, Jesus, that beloved name, is given to me. The bell bears no date, but is of course older than the period of the Reformation. But it remains to be observed that the last letter of the three is not an _s_ but a c. It seems that in the old Greek inscriptions the substitution of the _c_ for the _s_ was common. Several examples are given in Horne's Introduction, vol. ii. pt. 1. ch. iii. sect. 2., but we have not room to quote them. Suffice it to say that at p. 100., in speaking of the MSS. of the Codex Vaticanus, he says, 'The abbreviations are few, being confined chiefly to those words which are in general abbreviated, such as [theta]C, KC, IC, XC, for [Greek: Theos], [Greek: Kurios], [Greek: Iêsous], [Greek: Christos], _God_, _Lord_, _Jesus_, _Christ_.' At the end of these words, in the abbreviations, the _c_ is used for the _s_.--_Peter._"
This fourth bell is the oldest in the tower. The third, dated 1667, has quite a modern appearance as compared with it. The second, fifth, and sixth are all dated 1708, and the first, or smallest, was added in 1824.
PETER ORLANDO HUTCHINSON.
Sidmouth.