"Sæpe audivi quod in Angliâ (quæ regio sicut in multis aliis rebus, sic præcipue in religionibus totius mundi compendium est) de ejusmodi fanaticis perhibetur, quod ita sui suarumque irrationabilium opinionum sint amantes, ut audeant propter eas divinam Providentiam angustis Ecclesiarum suarum (quæ ex angustis cujuslibet Penatibus constant) terminis circumscribere.... Et quemadmodum omnes isti miseri aperte delirant, præcipue ii quos zeli æstus eousque deducit, ut tanquam bacchantes aut cerriti per plateas, domos, templa, absque ullo ordine et respectu cursitantes concionentur, et interdum anseres, equos, vel oves (cujus rei ibi satis frequentia exempla occurrunt) dum eis homines aures præbere nolunt, ad suas opiniones convertere tentent."
R. PRICE.
Cheam.
MSS. of Locke (Vol. i., pp. 401. 462.).—In reply to a question in "NOTES AND QUERIES," I may state, that the address of the son of the late Dr. Hancock, is George H., Park Grove, Birkenhead; and he will furnish information relative to the MSS. of Locke.
AN INTENDED READER.
Sir William Grant (Vol. ii., p. 397.).—Your correspondent R. says that "Sir William Grant" was one of the few Scotchmen who had freed himself from the peculiarities of the speech of his country. Frank Horner is another." If R. means to include the Scottish accent, he is mistaken as to Sir William Grant, who retained a strong Scottish burr. If he means only correctness of diction, then I should say the number was not few. Mackintosh's and Jeffery's English was, I think, quite as pure as Horner's; and Lord Brougham, with much idiosyncrasy, had no Scotch peculiarities, at least—me judice—infinitely less than Sir William Grant. I could name twenty members of the present houses of parliament in whom I have never detected any "Scotch peculiarity."
C.
Tristan d'Acunha (Vol. ii., p. 358.).—The island is noticed, but briefly, in p. 54. of the first volume of Perouse's Voyage round the World, Lond. 1799. It is there stated that a tolerably minute account of it is contained in Le Neptune Oriental, by D'Apres (or Apres de Manvilette). This work was published in Paris, 1775, in two volumes, large folio.
C.I.R.
Arabic Numerals (Vol.ii., pp. 27. 61. 339.).— In a work in Arabic, by Ahmad ben Abubekr bin Wahshih, on Ancient Alphabets, published in the original, and accompanied with an English translation, by Von Hammer, your correspondent on the subject of Arabic numerals will find that these numerals were not invented as arbitrary signs, and borrowed for various alphabets; but that they are actually taken from an Indian alphabet of nine characters, the remaining letters being made up at each decimal by repeating the nine characters, with one or two dots. The English Preface states that this alphabet is still in use in India, not merely as a representative of numbers, but of letters of native language. The book is a neat quarto, printed in London in 1806; and the alphabet occurs in page 7. of the Arabic original.