"These, in tranquil times, are formed to exhibit a perfect poem in palace, or temple, or landscape-garden, &c.... But alas! in times of tumult they are the men destined to come forth as the shaping spirit of ruin, to destroy the wisdom of ages in order to substitute the fancies of a day, and to change kings and kingdoms, as the wind shifts and shapes the clouds."
Let the present and the future witness the truth of this insight. We have (in Coleridge's words) "lights of admonition and warning;" and we may live to repent of our indifference, if they are thrown away upon us.
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.
Lord Bacon's Advice peculiarly applicable to the Correspondents of "N. & Q."—Lord Bacon has written that—
"A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are generally the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom return."
W. W.
Malta.
Etymology of Molasses.—The affinity between the orthography of this word in Italian (melássa), Spanish (melaza), and French (mélasse), and our pronunciation of it (melasses), would seem to suggest a common origin. How comes it, then, that we write it with an o instead of an e? Walker says it is derived frown the Italian "mellazzo" (sic); and some French lexicographers trace their "mélasse" from μέλας, with reference to the colour; others from μέλι, in allusion to the taste. But these Greek derivations are too recondite for our early sugar manufacturers; and the likelihood
is, that they found the word nearer home, in some circumstance which had less to do with literary refinement than with the refining of sugar.