[The reading is steaming in the 1st edition of Paradise Lost, 1667.—Ed.]
The Word "Party" (Vol. vii., pp. 177. 247.).—The use of this word for a particular person is earlier than Shakspeare's time. It no doubt occurs in most of our earliest writers; for it is to be found in Herbert's Life of Henry VIII., in his translation of the "Centum Gravamina" presented to Pope Adrian in 1521, the 55th running thus:
"That, if one of the marryed couple take a journey either to the warres, or to perform a vow, to a farre countrey, they permit the party remaining at home, if the other stay long away, upon a summe of money payd, to cohabite with another, not examining sufficiently whether the absent party were dead."
It may also be found in Exodus xxii. 9., where, though it occurs in the plural, it refers to two individuals:
"For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour."
H. T. Ellacombe.
Clyst St. George.
Curious Fact in Natural Philosophy (Vol. vii., p. 206.).—In reply to Elginensis I send you a quotation from Dr. Golding Bird's Natural Philosophy in explanation of this well-known phenomenon:
"One very remarkable phenomenon connected with the escape of a current of air under considerable pressure, must not be passed over silently. M. Clement Desormes (Ann. de Phys. et Chim., xxxvi. p. 69.) has observed, that when an opening, about an inch in diameter, is made in the side of a reservoir of compressed air, the latter rushes out violently; and if a plate of metal or wood, seven inches in diameter, be pressed towards the opening, it will, after the first repulsive action of the current of air is overcome, be apparently attracted, rapidly oscillating within a short distance of the opening, out of which the air continues to emit with considerable force. This curious circumstance is explained on the supposition, that the current of air, on escaping through the opening, expands itself into a thin disc, to escape between the plate of wood or metal, and side of the reservoir; and on reaching the circumference of the plate, draws after it a current of atmospheric air from the opposite side.... The plate thus balanced between these currents remains near the aperture, and apparently attracted by the current of air to which it is opposed."
Dr. G. B. then describes the experiment quoted by Elginensis as "a similar phenomenon, and apparently explicable on similar principles." (Bird's Nat. Phil., p. 118.)