Pope's "honest Factor."
—I shall be obliged if any of your readers can inform me who was the "honest factor" referred to in Pope's "Sir Balaam" in the lines:
"Asleep and naked, as an Indian lay,
An honest factor stole a gem away:
He pledg'd it to the knight," &c.
I have seen it noticed in the biography of an individual who held some official post in India, but have forgotten the name.
J. SWANN.
Norwich, May, 1851.
Meaning of "Nervous."
—Will any of your correspondents kindly oblige me, by stating what is the actual meaning of the word nervous? On reference to Johnson, I find it expressed as follows:—