MISCELLANEOUS.
Rebecca.—The invention of the gamut and the lines of the stave is attributed to D’Arezzo, an Italian who flourished in the eleventh century. At the Vatican, and in the King’s Library, Paris, there are valuable copies of his famous Micrologus.
Perplexed.—We think it would be for your own happiness if you cleared up the question, as no honest man has any right to be paying his addresses to two women at once. If you have a mother, you had better let her make the inquiry.
Marguerite.—The simnel-cakes made in Lent, at Eastertide, and Christmas, in Shropshire and Herefordshire—more especially at Shrewsbury—date back to great antiquity. Herrick speaks of them in one of his epigrams, from which it appears that at Gloucester it was the custom for young people to carry simnels to their mothers on mid-Lent Sunday, called “Mothering Sunday.” In Mediæval Latin it is called siminellus, and is derived from the Latin simila, or fine flour. Like the religious signification of the hot-cross-buns, the simnel-cakes were, in early times, marked with a figure of Christ or of the Virgin Mary. The Pagan Saxons ate cakes in honour or commemoration of their goddess Eastre, and, unable to prevent people from so doing as a heathen custom, the Christian clergy had the buns marked with a cross, to remind them of our Lord and His work of redemption.
Troubled One.—We are well acquainted with the infidel argument that “the death of one man could not atone for, nor make restitution for, the sins and the debts of millions of other men.” But first, Christ was the Second Person of the Divine Trinity, and One with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and His was an infinite sacrifice for finite sin; an infinite satisfaction for finite indebtedness. Secondly, as man’s rebellion was against his Creator, and the unfulfilled obligations were to Him, his Creator had an absolute right to punish, or forgive, to claim, or to remit man’s debt on His Own terms. Thus, if He said, “I will accept man’s acknowledgment of sin and indebtedness to Me, if he offer a lamb in token thereof,” He had an indisputable right to do so; and when He accepts a Divine, and therefore infinite sacrifice, He has a right to do so. Who may presume to question it?
Two Chums.—The phrase, “Once in a blue moon” means “very rarely,” and the originator of the phrase exaggerated what it was designed to mean, as it expresses not rarity only, but impossibility of occurrence, as there is no such thing as a “blue” moon, any more than a personage correctly designated “Blue Beard.”
Constant Reader appears to have overlooked many answers to her question. Brides do not supply house-linen, nor furniture, nor any household requisites. If her parents like to make a present of such a nature, it is perfectly gratuitous. The bridegroom is naturally to have a home suitable for the reception of his bride when he takes her from her father’s house.
Tom Tit.—Certainly there are books on conchology. You have only to inquire at a good librarian’s.
MacNally.—Inquire in the Will Department, Somerset House, and see those of that date. You should give the names and probable date; 1s. is charged for a search through each year, we believe. We have looked in the London Directory and the Royal Red Book, and did not see your cousin’s address.
A. Neighbour.—To obtain any particulars respecting the writer Mary E. Wilkins, you had better write to her publisher.
Antiquary.—Of all the ancient nations of which we possess historical records, Egypt stands first. According to Canon Rawlinson (quoted by Dawson), history and archæological discoveries give the earliest date as 2760 B.C.; of Babylon, as 2300 B.C.; of Phœnicia, as 1700 B.C.; of Assyria, as 1500 B.C.; of India, as 1200 B.C., and of China, as 1154 B.C. Whether any new light has been thrown on the subject by more recent investigations and discoveries than what we receive from Canon Rawlinson, we are not at this moment prepared to say.
Country Lass.—Rosemary-tea is excellent for promoting the growth of the hair. Chemists prepare it in a cleaner form than you can at home. You cannot make your hair “wavy and glossy” unless the hair have flattened sides to each tube (we mean if the hair be round it will not curl), and if naturally rough, any gloss artificially produced would only be through greasiness. Joan and Jane are feminines of the Hebrew name John—“the gracious gift of God.”
Amateur Stamp Collector.—With reference to the uses made by the authorities at the Asile des Billodes, at Le Locle, we can only repeat what we were told by a Swiss lady, who has long maintained a girl herself in this special institution, that “she believed the stamps were sent to, and made into papier maché at, Nüremberg”; so for whatever other uses they are employed, or to whatever other destinations they may be sent (perhaps exclusive of those at Le Locle, according to their printed advertisement), it seems that a large proportion goes to that place. We have the paper, a copy of which you are so good as to send, and are quite ready to believe our friend was mistaken as regards the Asile she helps to support.
[Transcriber’s Note: the following changes have been made to this text.
Page 579: Effiie to Effie—“and now Effie”.
Page 580: Soâne to Saône—“A Summer Voyage on the Saône”.
Symond’s to Symonds’—“J. A Symonds’”.
Edmond to Edmondo—“Edmondo de Amicis”.
Taines’ to Taine’s—“H. Taine’s”.
Page 581: Teneriffe, and its Seven Satellites to Tenerife, and its Six Satellites.
Vesa to Vasa—“Gustavus Vasa”.
Alex. to Alec.—“Alec. Tweedie”.
Grohmann to Grohman—“W. A. Grohman”.
Page 583: conciousness to consciousness—“self-consciousness”.
Page 586: baking powder to baking-powder—“baking-powder. Make”.]