"Ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μιχθήτω πυρί,"
the use of which has been imputed to the emperor Nero. The spirit of Madame de Pompadour's saying breathes the same selfish levity; and it amounts to the same thing. But it merits remark that the words of Metternich were of an entirely distinct signification. They did not imply that he cared only for himself and the affairs of his own life; but that he anticipated the inability of future ministers to avert revolution, and foreboded the worst. Two persons may use the same words, and yet their sayings be as different as the first line of Homer from the first of Virgil. The omission of the French verb disguises the fact, that the one was said in the optative, and the other in the future indicative.
A. N.
Eisell, the meaning of which has been much discussed in the pages of "Notes and Queries," is a word which seems to have been once the common term for vinegar. The Festival in the sermon for St. Michael's day employs this term thus:
"And other angellis with hī (St. Michael) shall brynge al the Instrumētis of our lordis passyon, the crosse; the crowne; spere; nayles; hamer; sponge; eyseel; gall, scourges t all other thynges yt wē atte cristis passyon."—Rouen, A.D. 1499, fo. cl. b.
D. Rock.
"To-day we purpose" (Vol. iii., p. 302).—The verse for which your correspondent G. N. inquires, is taken from Isabella, or the Pot of Basil, an exquisitely beautiful poem by Keats, founded on one of Boccaccio's tales.
E. J. M.
Modern Paper (Vol. iii., p. 181.).—Cordially do I agree with every word of your correspondent Laudator Temporis Acti, and especially as to the prayer-books for churches and chapels, printed by the Universities. Experto crede, no solicitude can preserve their "flimsy, brittle, and cottony" leaves, as he justly entitles them, from rapid destruction. Might not the delegates of the University presses be persuaded to give us an edition with the morning and evening services printed on vellum, instead of the miserable fabric they now afford us?
C. W. B.