As Milton, therefore, has in no other place used "proof" as an adjective without something attached to it, I feel assured that he did not use it as an adjective in the passage in question.
J.S.W.
Stockwell, Sept. 7.
Achilles and the Tortoise (Vol. ii., p. l54.).—Ιδιωτης will find the paradox of "Achilles and the Tortoise" explained by Mr. Mansel of St. John's College, Oxon, in a note to his late edition of Aldrich's Logic (1849, p. 125.). He there shows that the fallacy is a material one: being a false assumption of the major premise, viz., that the sum of an infinite series is itself always infinite (whereas it may be finite). Mansel refers to Plato, Parmenid. p. 128. [when will editors learn to specify the editions which they use?] Aristot. Soph. Eleuctr. 10. 2. 33. 4., and Cousin, Nouveaux Fragments, Zénon d'Elée.
T.E.L.L.
Stepony Ale (Vol. ii., p. 267.).—The extract from Chamberlayne certainly refers to ale brewed at Stepney. In Playford's curious collection of old popular tunes, the English Dancing Master, 1721, is one called "Stepney Ale and Cakes;" and in the works of Tom Brown and Ned Ward, other allusions to the same are to be found.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
North Side of Churchyards (Vol. ii., p. 253.).—In reference to the north region being "the devoted region of Satan and his hosts," Milton seems to have recognised the doctrine when he says—
"At last,
Far in the horizon to the north appear'd