Minor Notes.
Sir Francis Drake.—Having traversed the globe within three years, his travels were thus noticed by a poet of his day:
"Drake, pererrati novit quem terminus orbis,
Quemque semel mundi vidit uterque Polus.
Si taceant homines, faciant te sidera notum,
Sol nescit comitis non memor esse sui."
Clericus (D.)
Similarity of Idea in St. Luke and Juvenal.—Examples of identity of expression existing between the Scriptures and ancient heathen writers have already appeared in "N. & Q." Permit me to add the following passages, which appear to me to afford an instance of similarity of idea:
"Λέγω ὑμῖν, ὅτι ἐὰν οὗτοι σιωπήσωσῖν, οἱ λίθοι κεκρὰξονται."—Luc. cap xix. v. 40.
"Audis,
Jupiter, hæc, nec labra moves, quum mittere vocem
Debueras, vel marmoreus, vel aëneus?"
Juven. Sat. xiii. v. 113.
The satirist would seem to say (taking the sceptic's view), that even if Jupiter existed only in brass and marble, the very statues would "cry out" against the impious perjury.
I drop my initials, and beg to subscribe myself
Arch. Weir.
Sincere.—Trench, On the Study of Words, 4th ed., p. 197., says:
"They would be pleased to learn that 'sincere' may be, I will not say that it is, without wax (sine cerâ), as the best and finest honey should be."
Is not this derivation erroneous? Sincere does not mean "pure, like virgin-honey;" but it expresses the absence of deception. I doubt not that it is derived from—
"The practice of Roman potters to rub wax into the flaws of their unsound vessels when they sent them to market. A sincere [without wax] vessel was the same as a sound vessel, one that had no disguised flaw."
So says Bushnell (God in Christ, p. 17.). The derivation is no novelty. I reproduce it merely to correct an error which is obtaining currency under the name of Mr. French. I should be obliged to any of your correspondents who would refer me to, or still better cite, any passages in the Latin classics relating to the practice I have mentioned.
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.
Epitaph in Appleby Church-yard, Leicestershire.—
"I was a fine young man,
As you would see in ten.
And when I thought of this,
I took in hand my pen,
And wrote it down so plain
That every one might see;
How I was cut down,
Like blossoms from a tree."
J. G. L.