Minor Notes.
Coincidences.—
"Jejunus raro stomachus vulgaria temnit."—Hor. Sat. 2.
"A hungry dog eats dirty pudding."
"Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt."—Hor. Sat. 1.
"He misses one post, and runs his head against t'other."
"Χελιδὼν ἔαρ οὐ ποιεῖ."—Arist. Eth., i. 7.
"One swallow don't make a summer."
J. H. B.
The English Liturgy.—
"It is deserving of notice, that although Dr. Beattie had been brought up a member of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and regularly attended her worship and ordinances when at Aberdeen, he yet gave the most decided preference to the Church of England, generally attending the service of that Church when anywhere from home, and constantly when at Peterhead. He spoke with enthusiasm of the beauty, simplicity, and energy of the English Liturgy, especially of the Litany, which he declared to be the finest piece of uninspired composition in any language." Life of Dr. Beattie, by Sir W. Forbes, Bart., vol. iii. p. 168. note.
J. M.
Oxford.
"To jump for joy."—This expression, now most often used figuratively, was probably in the olden time a plain and literal description of an actual fact. The Anglo-Norman Poem on the Conquest of Ireland by Henry II., descriptive of events which occurred at the close of the twelfth century, informs us (at p. 53.) that one of the English knights, named Maurice de Prendergast, being desirous of returning with his followers to Wales, was impeded in his march by "les traitres de Weyseford;" and that this so much provoked him, that he tendered his services to the King of Ossory, who—
"De la novele esteit heistez,
E de joie saili à pés."
This expression, "saili à pés," is translated in the Glossary "rose upon feet;" but the more correct rendering of it appears to me to be that of jumping or dancing for joy.
James F. Ferguson.
Dublin.
"What is Truth?"—Bacon begins his "Essay of Truth" (which is dated 1625) with these words:
"What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly, there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting freewill in thinking, as well as in acting."
There is a similar passage in Bishop Andrews's sermon Of the Resurrection, preached in 1613:
"Pilate asked, Quid est veritas? And then some other matter took him in the head, and so up he rose, and went his way, before he had his answer; he deserved never to find what truth was. And such is our seeking mostwhat, seldom or never seriously, but some question that comes cross our brain for the present, some quid est veritas? So sought as if that we sought were as good lost as found. Yet this we would fain have so for seeking, but it will not be."
Perhaps Bacon heard the bishop preach (the sermon was at Whitehall); and if so, the passage in Andrews will explain the word "jesting" to mean, not scoffing, but asking without serious purpose of acquiring information.
J. A. H.
Abolition of Government Patronage.—The following passage, from Dr. Middleton's Dedication of the Life of Cicero to Lord Keeper Hervey, is
interesting as showing the enlightened sentiments of an eminent scholar a hundred years ago when addressing a minister of the crown:
"Human nature has ever been the same in all ages and nations, and owes the difference of its improvements to a difference only of culture, and of the rewards proposed to its industry; where these are the most amply provided, there we shall always find the most numerous and shining examples of human perfection. In old Rome, the public honours were laid open to the virtue of every citizen; which, by raising them in their turns to the commands of that mighty empire, produced a race of nobles superior even to kings. This was a prospect that filled the soul of the ambitious and roused every facility of mind and body to exert its utmost force; whereas, in modern states, men's views being usually confined to narrow bounds, beyond which they cannot pass, and a partial culture of their talents being sufficient to procure everything that their ambition can aspire to, a great genius has seldom either room or invitation to stretch itself to its full size."
Alpha.
Oxford.