Minor Notes.
Egg and Arrow Ornament.—Mr. Ruskin, in his Stones of Venice, vol. i. p. 305., says—
"The Greek egg and arrow cornice is a nonsense cornice, very noble in its lines, but utterly absurd in its meaning. Arrows have had nothing to do with eggs (at least since Leda's time), neither are the so-called arrows like arrows, nor the eggs like eggs, nor the honeysuckles like honeysuckles: they are all conventionalized into a monotonous successiveness of nothing—pleasant to the eye, useless to the thought."
The ornament of which Mr. R. thus speaks is indifferently called egg and tongue, egg and dart, as well as egg and arrow. It seems to me that the egg is a complete misnomer, although common to all the designations; and I fancy that the idea of what is so called was originally derived from the full-length shield, and therefore that the ornament should be named the shield and dart, an association more reasonable than is suggested by any of the ordinary appellations. Can any of
your correspondents offer any confirmation of this?
B. J.
Liverpool, March 31. 1851.
Defoe's Project for purifying the English Language.—Among the many schemes propounded by De Foe, in his Essay upon Projects, published in 1696, there is one which still remains a theory, although eminently practicable, and well worthy of consideration.
He conceived that there might be an academy or society formed for the purpose of correcting, purifying, and establishing the English language, such as had been founded in France under Cardinal Richelieu.