Various

“ It is, however, singular enough that the style of the Arguments about the Alteration of Triennial Elections of Parliament, without attaching too much importance to that criterion, is not the style of Defoe; and the Bill of Commerce with France is denounced in it in such terms as "that destructive bill," "that fatal bill," as one can scarcely suppose, without entertaining a meaner opinion of him than I feel assured he deserves, he could or would, under any circumstances, have made use of. ”

“ Your correspondent C. Mansfield Ingleby will pardon me if I deny the discrepancy in Coleridge's statements on the difference between these faculties. Coleridge refuses to brutes the possession of reason as a contemplative faculty; he allows them, that which in kind differs from reason, the understanding in a certain degree, and asserts that they do possess, in a very marked and characteristic manner, instinct, which, in degree only, falls below understanding. Instinct is distinguishable in degree from understanding. Reason is distinguishable from it in kind. ”

“ On examination, I found a very tiny insect, in shape like an elongated spider, whose "hind leg" kept beat with the sound; so I suppose that member to have been the instrument by which the ticking was effected. The family bereavement that ensued was the total extinction of the last dying embers of our faith in this world-famed omen; for unhappily, in this instance, no death ensued in our domestic circle. ”

“ The connexion of the unicorn with the lion in the royal arms of this country naturally forces itself upon the attention, and I find that the present arms were settled at the accession of George I. We owe the introduction of the unicorn, however, to James I.; who, as King of Scotland, bore two unicorns, and coupled one with the English lion when the two kingdoms were {584}united. ”

“ It is impossible to read Chalmers' and Wilson's Lives of Defoe without being constantly struck not merely by the want of all critical acumen and ordinary knowledge of the characteristics of Defoe's style which they display, but also by the absence of research on almost every point of importance connected with his career. Out of innumerable instances, I may mention his pamphlet on the subject of the Septennial Bill. Chalmers, and after him Wilson, are satisfied with repeating Boyer's statement that Defoe was the author of The Triennial Bill Impartially Stated, London, 1716 ”

“ Some kinds of brutes, as dogs and elephants, possess more intelligence than others, as tigers and swine; and some individual dogs possess more of this intelligence than others. This intelligence arises from the superior activity of the "faculty judging according to sense;" and, when Coleridge says that it is not clear to him "that the dog may not possess an analogon to words," he might have gone, I think, further, and have said, with much probability of truth on his side, that the dog has this analogon of words. ”

“ He notices the seven planets, seven angels, seven stars in the Pleiades and in the Great Bear, seven tones in music, seventh days in diseases, and gives an elegant elegy of Solon on the changes of every seven years in man's life. ”

“ What we want is the man, or the observation and experiment, which shall show us where the line is to be drawn, if in the nature of such gradations lines can be drawn at all, which shall distinguish the degree at which instinct overlaps understanding. The case is perhaps too hopelessly complicated. Coleridge has carefully guarded his expressions, that they should not seem to assert for brutes more than he can prove that they possess, by the use of the words "analogous or fully equivalent." ”

“ I can even fancy an individual, less anxious perhaps about grammar than benevolence, stretching forth to some unfortunate, and exclaiming, while yet his intended gift was in his own keeping, "There needs but THAT to your relief—there it is!" ”

“ I can only account for it on the supposition that Defoe, in writing from recollection of what Boyer had stated, in the following year, confounded the pamphlet praised with one of the pamphlets noticed. It appears to me that one of them, the full title of which is Some Considerations on a Law for Triennial Parliaments, with an enquiry, 1. Whether there may not be a time when it is necessary to suspend the execution even of such Laws as are most essential to the Liberties of the People? ”

“ In Shakspeare's age—
"Seal-rings were very fashionable, but were probably more limited than at present to the nobility and respectable families; for I still confine myself to the respectability of its proprietor.... After numerous and continued researches into public and private documents, I find no Stratfordian of that period so likely to own such a ring as Shakspeare."
Mr. Wheler concludes—
"At present, I possess no positive proof whatever. ”

“ It may be said that these are obscure persons; but that is the very reason why some slight, plain notice of them should exist somewhere; for the history of an art is not well written, or well understood, if there is not some easy way of learning more or less about the obscure persons who are every now and then coming on the stage. ”

“ Gen. d'Espagne, vol. i. c. i. p. 4., Emanuel de Faria y Sousa, &c., carry the links through Spain; and such indeed has been the long and general faith in the tradition, that it has been actually embodied, even to the names of those alleged leaders Heber and Heremon, in an act of parliament (of Ireland I must admit) in the eleventh year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and through an occurrence therein engrafted upon it is expressly derived one of Her Majesty's—
"Auntient and sundrie strong authentique tytles for the Kings of England to this land of Ireland." ”

“ That such a seal was used by a person connected with Shakspeare by a marriage is certain; for I possess an impression of the seal (and apparently a seal-ring) of Adrian Quiney, bailiff of Stratford in 1559-60; and who, I have every reason to believe, was the uncle of Thomas Quiney, our poet's son-in-law. ”

“ Sometimes the names given were grotesque, such as ought not to have been permitted; and sometimes the children brought into the hospital, pinned to their clothes, names in which I suppose the poor mother may have had a meaning, but which seemed to us fantastical and extravagant.
Illegitimacy is a considerable source of strange names. I could give some droll instances. Corruption is another; there are half-a-dozen names of labourers in my village which are mere corruptions by vulgar pronunciation of some of the noblest names of the peerage. ”

“ From the French recent papers we learn that Arthur O'Connor, one of the prominent actors in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, has just closed his prolonged life at his residence, the Château de Bignon, near Nemours (Seine et Marne) in France. When, in 1834, by permission of the government of Lord Grey, he and his accomplished wife were in this city (Cork) , with the view of disposing of his inherited and not confiscated property, in order to invest the produce in France, I was almost in daily intercourse with them ”

“ The term διάβολος adds, to that of κατήγορος, the idea of falsehood and injustice, essential to the accuser of the Saints, but not expressed in the latter word. Why the word should mean "a supernatural agent of evil," I cannot form the slightest idea. The name of a thing does not express all which that thing is! Physician does not mean a natural agent of good. As little can I understand how the correctness of a derivation can form "a case of ecclesiastical usage." ”

“ In the "Grammatical and Etymological Examination adapted to the Dictionary," he reckons thirteen simple vowels in our language. The tenth is the "long slender sound of a," as Walker would call it; and the sound is given us (according to Richardson) in these words: "Lame, Tame, Crane, Faint, and Layman." My Query is, ought not this sound to be transferred from the simple vowels under the true diphthongs? And ought we not to distinguish between the pronunciation of pail and pale, just as we do between neigh, and né (French) ”

“ It is of tolerably large dimensions, and evidently a gentleman's ring of Elizabeth's age. Similar seal-rings are represented on cotemporary paintings and monuments: and the crossing of the central lines of the 'W.' with the oblique direction of the lines of the 'S.' exactly agree with the characters of that day. For proof we need wander no farther than Stratford Church, where the Totness and Clopton tombs will furnish representations of rings, and Shakspeare's monument of letters, perfectly corresponding in point of shape. ”

“ The great orator's father, distinguished, per antiphrasim, as "l'Ami des hommes," for he was the most unamiable of men, had acquired and removed to the castle so called, in order to approach the royal court of Versailles. The renowned son's bursts of eloquence still, I may say, resound in my ears, dazzling and entrancing my judgment, as Lord Chatham is reported similarly to have affected his hearers. ”

“ The beard, or byssus, found in a few genera only, as Avicula, Mytilus, Pinna, and some others, is strong and silky, formed of numerous fibres produced from a gland near the foot of the soft animal, and employed by it to form an attachment to rocks or other objects. In Sicily this is sometimes made into gloves or stockings, more for curiosity than use. A byssus now before me measures six inches in length, is delicately soft and glossy, varying in colour from a rich dark brown to golden yellow, and is nearly as fine as the production of the silk-worm. ”

“ What is holy at one time, becomes the direct contrary in subsequent times and circumstances. Homer's Minerva ascended to heaven μετὰ δαίμονας ἄλλους, among the other dæmons. But that word in modern Europe means a devil of hell. ”

“ This seal of Quiney's, which is appended to a deed dated June 28, 9 Eliz., 1567, being a conveyance of property in Bridge Street, Stratford, very minutely corresponds with the Shakspeare ring in size, and has a very near resemblance to it in the string and tassels uniting the Roman initials 'A. Q.;' which ornamental junction is carved somewhat similar to what is now called The True Lover's Knot, and in the Shakspeare ring the upper bow or flourish resembles a heart. ”

“ Pegge, made a query of this term about half a century ago. He says, "The twilight, or rather the hour between the time when one can no longer see to read, and the lighting of the candle, is commonly called blindman's holiday: qu. the meaning or occasion of this proverbial saying? I conceive, that at that time, all the family being at leisure to converse and discourse, should there be a blind person in the family, it is the time when his happiness is greatest, every one then being at liberty to attend to, and to entertain him."—Anonymiana, cent. ”

“ There is one peculiarity in the chronogram sent by our correspondent, which singularly illustrates a passage in Shakspeare, and by which also it is most amusingly illustrated. It will be observed, that the Rev. G. Newton takes advantage of the double letters at the end of Farewell, to express 100: and it will be remembered that "good M. Holofernes," in Love's Labour's Lost, introduces the same thought into his sonnet as an exquisite and far-fetched fancy:
"If Sore be sore, then L to Sore
Makes Fifty Sores: Oh sore L! ”

“ If your correspondent Mr. Rix, from whom I am glad to find we are to expect the private Diary of Bohun, wishes for a more particular description of the volumes, I shall be happy to furnish it.
Jas. Crossley.
Sneezing (Vol. v., pp. 369. 500.) .—D'Israeli, in the first series of the Curiosities, in a paper on the custom of saluting persons after sneezing, says:
"A memoir of the French Academy notices the practice in the New World, on the first discovery of America." ”

“ Shakspeare also (Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 1.) speaks of the supposed mode of entrapping them:
"For he loves to hear,
That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils, and men with flatterers."
The ancients were most liberal with their descriptions of fabulous animals, and the Monoceros or Unicorn was a favourite subject with them ”

“ Widows' and Family Mourning is always kept made up, and a note, descriptive of the Mourning required, will insure its being sent forthwith, either in Town or into the Country, and on the most Reasonable Terms. ”

“ This declaration of Defoe, which claims to him the pamphlet fastened on the "ingenious and judicious Joseph Addison, Esq.," and repudiates that "judged to be written by that prostituted fool of the last ministry, D—— D— F—," will amuse your readers, as it seems to form an admirable commentary on the text—
"And every blockhead knows me by my style." ”

“ Crossley's hope that a new edition of his works might soon be published, I may say that a new biography of Marvell, with a selection from his works by a townsman, is already in the press.
Jos. A. Kidd.
Hull.
The Death-Watch (Vol. v., p. 537.) .—A good account of this small insect will be found in the second volume of the Introduction to Entomology by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. A chapter is devoted to the "Noises produced by Insects."
"In old houses, where these insects abound, they may be heard in warm weather during the whole day. ”

“ I cannot think the meaning of the signature so evident as he implies. His reason for the use of the name Juba is evidently correct: I am indebted to him for the suggestion, and must confess that the coincidence had escaped me. With regard to the word Issham, had it been intended to signify that the former name was "assumed, or false," it would certainly have been written I-sham, as C. B. evidently feels. It is possible that this part of the signature may have no meaning: this I must leave for some other correspondent to determine. ”

“ Thomas Randolph was certainly one of Jonson's sons. See in his Poems (4th edit. p. 17.) : "A {589}gratulatory to M. Ben. Jonson for his adopting of him to be his son."
In Jonson's Underwoods is a poem "To my dear Son and right learned Friend Master Joseph Rutter." This is in praise of his "first play," but I am unable to state what that play was; nor can I give further information respecting Master Joseph Rutter, than that he is apparently the author of "An Elegy upon Ben. Jonson" in Jonsonus Viribus.
Of William Cartwright Ben. Jonson used to say, "My son, Cartwright, writes all like a man." ”

“ I think Mr. Littledale's difficulty about the same Hebrew word's representing both Διάβολος and Adversarius is, on the contrary, rather a confirmation of the old derivation. Had he forgotten that "the Adversary" is often technically used for the Devil? Surely there can be no more doubt that Devil comes from Diavolo, and that from Διάβολος, than that journal comes from giorno, and that from diurnus.
C.
Mummy Wheat (Vol. v., p. 538.) .—Having a few grains of mummy wheat in my possession, I send you the following information concerning it, with a portion thereof as sample. ”

“ It {579}will be observed that Defoe does not give the title of the pamphlet, and that he does not notice that it was attributed by Boyer to Addison; which he would scarcely have omitted doing if he had written his letter with Boyer's words before him, in which also the term "inconsistency" is not used. Such is my solution of the difficulty, which unexplained would throw a new, and certainly a very unfavourable light on Defoe's character as a pamphleteer and politician. ”