Various

“ La morale de La Rochefoucauld c'est la morale Chrétienne, moins, si je puis m'exprimer ainsi, le Christianisme lui-même; c'est tout ce qui peut humilier et abattre le cœur dans la sévère doctrine de l'Evangile, moins ce qui le relève; c'est toutes les illusions détruites sans les espérances qui remplacent les illusions. ”

“ The total, or almost total, disappearance of books at one time largely circulated, is a curious fact in the history of literature. One cause of it may be found in the efforts made by the Church of Rome to suppress those works which were supposed to contain unsound doctrine.
"Heretical books," says Mr. T. B. Macaulay, "were sought out and destroyed with unsparing rigour. Works which were once in every house, were so effectually suppressed, that no copy of them is now to be found in the most extensive libraries. ”

“ Soldiers are seldom introduced; the splendours of the just Caliph's reign are dwelt upon with fond remembrance; the style is that of a mercantile people, while riches and artificial luxuries are only rivalled by the marvellous gifts of the genii and fairies. This brilliant mythology, the offspring of the Arabian imagination, together with the other characteristics of the Arabian tales, has had an extensive influence on our own literature. Many of these tales had found their way into our poetry long before the translation of the Arabian Nights ”

“ What does the public at large know of the "Fragments of a Roman Tale," or the "Scenes from Athenian Revels;" in which the future historian tried his powers as a romancer and a dramatist—in the one case bringing before us Cæsar and Catiline, in the other Alcibiades and his comrades. There are essays too by Macaulay in Knight's Quarterly Magazine of a lighter character than those in the Edinburgh Review, but not less brilliant than any in that splendid series which now takes rank as one of the most valuable contributions of the present age to the standard literature of England. ”

“ La Rochefoucauld n'est Chrétien que pour poursuivre notre pauvre cœur jusque dans ses derniers retranchemens; il n'est Chrétien que pour verser son poison sur nos joies et sur nos rêves les plus chers.... Que reste-t-il donc à l'homme? ”

“ Marriage being a civil contract in most heathen countries, as also amongst the Jews and early Christians, polygamy is not forbidden or allowed on religious grounds. Marriage was included under the general head of covenants, כתובות‎, in the Mishna. Barbarous nations generally practised polygamy, according to Tacitus (Germ. 18.) ; excepting the Germans, who, like the Greeks and Romans, "were content with a single wife," although some exceptions were found in this respect, non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem. ”

“ Moreover, the law of nature speaks, in the nearly equal numbers of men and women that are born, or, as in this parish, by making the men the more numerous.
But Stylites starts a most interesting question in a practical point of view. It is admitted that the Gospel is not very explicit respecting polygamy; and why so? Possibly the Gospel was purposely kept silent; and the Church allowed some latitude in judgment upon a very difficult point, because it was foreseen that the custom of polygamy would prove one of the greatest obstacles to a reception of pure Christianity. ”

“ But the Mosaic law proceeded even beyond this, and allowed, on the husband's death, the right of Iboom, usually called the Levirate law, so that in case of there being no child, some one of the deceased's brothers had a right to take some one of the deceased's wives: and their progeny was deemed by the Mosaic code to be his deceased brother's, whose property indeed devolved in the line of such progeniture. It would appear that it was usual for the eldest brothers to marry, the younger brothers remaining single. ”

“ Pour les âmes fortes, il ne reste rien qu'un froid et intrépide mépris de toutes choses, un sec et stoïque contentement à envisager le néant absolu; pour les autres, le désespoir ou les jouissances brutales du plaisir comme dernière fin de la vie! ”

“ If we may believe the French translator of the Thousand and One Tales, that publication does not include the thirty-sixth part of the great Arabian collection, which is not confined to books, but has been the traditional inheritance of a numerous class, who, like the minstrels of the West, gained their livelihood by reciting, what would interest the feelings of their hearers. This class of Eastern story-tellers was common throughout the whole extent of Mahomedan dominion in Turkey, Persia, and even to the extremity of India. ”

“ Shadbolt is certainly mistaken in saying that positives printed from negatives will not stand a saturated solution of hypo. soda, unless they be printed so intensely dark that all traces of a picture by reflected light are obliterated. I have used nothing but a saturated solution for fixing my positives for a considerable time, and my experience agrees with that of other of your correspondents, that the picture is not as much reduced by a saturated solution as by a weaker one. ”

“ It appears to us impossible to produce instruments of the same size possessing a richer and finer tone, more elastic touch, or more equal temperament, while the elegance of their construction renders them a handsome ornament for the library, boudoir, or drawing-room. ”

“ It appears from Our Lord's remarks, Matt. xix. 8., Mark x. 5., that the consuetudinary law of marriage was not wholly abrogated, but was accommodated to the Jews by the Mosaic code. To understand this subject, therefore, the ancient usages and existing practices must be weighed, as well from ancient authors as from modern travellers. Whence it appears that the contract of marriage, whereby a man received a wife in consideration of a certain sum of money paid to her father, contemplated progeny as its special object. ”

“ Query whether from these bætyli our ancestors derived the word beetle, which denotes a wooden maul or hammer for driving wedges. Its head is about a foot long, flat at each end, and the rest round; so that it nearly resembles a pillow in shape, and the head, together with its handle, would well resemble a stone of similar shape suspended by a cord in the middle. Bailey derives the word in this sense, and as denoting the insect, from Sax. . If a handle was ever put in a bætylus, which was of the form I have suggested, it would form an excellent instrument for driving wedges or the like. ”

“ There is abundant evidence that the Phœnicians fled from Palestine in very early times (Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. iii. p. 479.) , and probably some of the Jews also about the time when Samaria was taken; and there can be no doubt that some Phœnicians, if not some Jews, settled in these islands at a very remote period; and it is a very remarkable fact that the Welsh spoken in North Wales is said to be nearer to the old Hebrew than any other existing language, and varying no more from it than the great length of time which has passed would lead any one to expect. ”

“ A portrait of himself was considered the gem of the pictures: such a vitality and delicacy of colouring did it possess. I mention this merely to show that sand could be applied to other branches of art besides landscapes. The history of the pictures at Windsor Castle is to be seen in one of the old Windsor Guides. Mr. Hans died at Bibrach, where doubtless many of his pictures are.
Sand-paintings cannot last long; they have in themselves the element of their own destruction, "their rough surface," which very soon collects and retains the dust. ”

“ In the recent ceremony of the French emperor's marriage, money was presented to the bride.
Stylites says, "On what ground has polygamy become forbidden among Christians? I am not aware that it is directly forbidden by Scripture." In reply to this I venture to say, that the Divine will on this matter was sufficiently indicated at the creation, when one woman was appointed for one man, as expressed in Gen. ii. 24., and quoted by Our Lord, with the significant addition of the word twain: "They twain shall be one flesh" (Matt. xix. 5.) ”

“ That the Jews do not at present, in any country, practise polygamy, it being contrary, not to the letter, but to the spirit of the law of Moses, which nevertheless provides for cases where a man has two wives at the same time ”

“ But while these tales are Arabian in their structure, the materials have been derived, not only from India, Persia, and China, but also from ancient Egypt, and the classical literature of Greece.
I shall content myself at present with adducing one example of such probable derivation from the source last mentioned. The stories to be compared are too long for quotation, which, as they are well known, will not be necessary. ”

“ Now if such stones were an object of worship among the Phœnicians, nothing is more probable than that they should take such a stone along with them in their migrations to new settlements; and it may therefore well be that the Phœnicians, who first settled in Ireland, did bring such a stone with them ”

“ E. W. J.
Te Deum.—We read frequently of this hymn being sung in the Russian Church after victories. Can any of your correspondents inform me in what language it is used in the Eastern Churches? It is, I believe, generally admitted that it was originally composed in Latin for the use of the Western Church; but if the Emperor Nicholas, in his famous manifesto (vide Vol. viii., pp. 585. 655.) , quotes from this hymn and not from the Psalms, the one being quite as likely as the other, it would almost appear that the Latin version is the one with which he is the most familiar. ”

“ P. M. of Alicia, wife of the before-mentioned Nicholas Thosmound. In the Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium of England, in 15 Edw. II., is the expression "Regalitatem de Totamon," applied to the district of Thomond in Ireland. It seems not unlikely that the two cotemporary individuals mentioned above were sons or grandsons of Turloch, or Tirrèlagh, O'Brien, sovereign of Thomond from 1367 to 1370, when he was supplanted by his nephew Brien O'Brien, ancestor of the Marquis of Thomond. For this Turloch was in some favour with the government, by whom his distress was sometimes relieved. ”

“ Theobald le Botiller. (Vol. viii., p. 367.) .—If Mr. Devereux refers to Lynch on Feudal Dignities, p. 81., he will find that Theobald le Botiller, called the second hereditary Butler of Ireland, was of age in 1220, and died, not in 1230, but in 1248; that he married Roesia de Verdon; that his eldest son and heir was Theobald, third Butler (grandfather of Edmund, sixth Butler, who was created Earl of Carrick) , and that by the same marriage he was also the ancestor of the Verdons of England and of Ireland. Now, in Lodge's Peerage by Archdall, 1789, vol. iv. p. ”

“ Inscription on the Brass of Sir G. Felbrigge.—Can any of your numerous correspondents afford me an explanation of the following fragment of an inscription from the brass of Sir George Felbrigge, Playford, Suffolk? Each word is separated by the letter , and a demi-rose conjoined. The part enclosed in brackets is now lost, but was remaining in Gough's time:
"Funda de per a dieu loange et dieu pur lalme de lui al [dieu quil est pete ei (t) ceste] ." ”

“ Smee's valuable little work on The Eye in Health and Disease, is one to which we desire to direct the attention of all our readers, for the subject is one of great importance, and more especially to reading men. ”

“ This was a remnant, as modified by Moses, of the custom of polyandry, several brothers taking one wife,—a sort of necessary result of polygamy, since the number of males and females born is equal in all countries, within certain limits of variation. The best authorities on this subject are the Mishna, Selden, Du Halde, Niebuhr, Süsmilch, and Michälis, the last in Dr. Smith's translation, at the beginning of the 2nd volume. ”

“ BEETHAM'S CAPILLARY FLUID is acknowledged to be the most effectual article for Restoring the Hair in Baldness, strengthening when weak and fine, effectually preventing falling out or turning grey, and for restoring its natural colour without the use of dye. The rich glossy appearance it imparts is the admiration of every person. ”

“ He then remarks on the privilege conceded to some to form a second marriage, after the death of the first wife, which St. Paul forbids to a bishop, who was to be, in the modern sense of the word, a monogamist. Two wives at the same time were wholly repugnant to Jewish, as well as Greek and Roman, sentiment. Ignatius (ad Polyc. 5.) says it is proper (πρέπει) for married persons to unite under the bishop's advice, so that the marriage may be κατὰ Θεὸν and not κατ' ἐπιθυμίαν; whence it is inferred that a marriage was {330}valid in his time, although no religious sanction was obtained. ”

“ Sir Henry Skipwith was created a baronet Dec. 20, 1622, and in 1629 obtained, jointly with Sir Thomas Walsingham, Knt., a grant of lands in the counties of Leicester, Derby, &c.; in 1631 a grant of free-warren for his lands in Leicestershire; in 1636 was high sheriff for the county; and in 1637 certain amerciaments against him on account of that office, which had been returned into the Court of Chancery, were certified to the Court of Exchequer. ”

“ This Abaddir is the Phœnician Aban-dir, that is, the spherical stone, exactly answering to the description of the bætylus given us by Damascius and others. The case seems to have been this; the Canaanites of the neighbourhood first worshipped the individual stone itself, upon which Jacob had poured {329}oil; afterwards they consecrated others of that form, and worshipped them; which false worship was perpetuated even to the time of St. Austin."—See note (N) , Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. i. p. ”

“ By adding about one grain of sel d'or to every eight ounces of saturated solution, very rich black tones will be obtained.
I inclose a specimen of what I have got in this way.
C. E. F.
[The specimen sent is most satisfactory; we wish that the locality of the view had been stated.—Ed.]
Mounting Positives on Cardboard.—In the absence of any other reply to J. L. S. (Vol. ix., p. 282.) , the following, as the method I always adopt, may serve his purpose. ”