2. The quality of functional disorder or weakness of the nervous system in certain respects.
WILLIAM E. C. NOURSE.
Every one knows that instances of catachresis occur in all languages; but I think this case may be more satisfactorily explained by considering that the nerves consist of two very distinct and independent classes of organs—nerves of sensation, which conduct impressions to the sensorium; and nerves of volition, which convey the mental impulse to the muscles. From this it necessarily follows that when the former class are over-active (and redundancy is decidedly the adjectival idea in the word nervous), a morbid excitability of temper, with a perturbable anxious state of mind are produced (making the "bad" sense of the word); while from a similar state of the nerves of volition results a powerful and vigorous system of muscular action and mental energy (making the "good" sense of the word).
EDWIN J. JONES.
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH'S POCKET-BOOKS.
(Vol. i., p. 198.; Vol. iv., p. 1.)
I am anxious to acknowledge that SIR F. MADDEN has established, beyond all doubt, the facts that several manuscript books were found on the Duke of Monmouth when he was captured, and that the volume rescued from oblivion by Dr. Anster, and now placed in the British Museum, is one of these, and also in Monmouth's handwriting. I take this opportunity of saying, that I, unfortunately, have not seen Dr. Anster's reply to my communication; and it is to be regretted that it was not copied from the Dublin University Magazine into "NOTES AND QUERIES," so that we (the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES") might have had the whole subject before us. This is a course which I think our kind Editor may usefully adopt on similar occasions.
Referring unsuccessfully to Lowndes' Manual for an answer to SIR F. MADDEN'S question as to the date of the first edition of Welwood's Memoirs, I was pleased, however, to find that my edition (the sixth, published in 1718) possesses a value which does not attach to previous editions, inasmuch as it contains "A short introduction, giving an account how these memoirs came at first to be writ." From this it appears that there are spurious editions of the work, for Welwood writes:
"I have given my bookseller leave to make a sixth impression of the following memoirs; and the [rather] that some time ago one Baker printed more than one edition of them without my knowledge, very incorrect, and on bad paper."
We may fairly assume, that the first edition was published at the beginning of 1699, for [the] "epistle dedicatory" to King William is dated February of that year. If this be so, it must be taken as a proof of extraordinary popularity that the work should have reached a third edition as early as 1700, as stated by SIR F. MADDEN. The "account how these memoirs came at first to be writ" possesses some interest. It appears that Queen Mary used to hold frequent converse with the Doctor on the subject of her great-grandfather's and grandfather's history, and—
"At last she fell to regret the insuperable difficulties she lay under (for I well remember that was her mind) of knowing truly the history of her grandfather's reign; saying that most of the accounts she had read of it were either panegyrick or satire, not history. Then with an inimitable grace she told me, 'If I would in a few sheets give her a short sketch of the affairs of that reign, and of the causes that produced such dreadful effects, she would take it well of me.' Such commands were too sacred not to be obeyed; and when I was retiring from her presence, she stopt me to tell me she expected I would do what she had desired of me in such a manner, and with that freedom, as if I designed it for the information of a friend, and not one of the blood of King Charles I., promising to show it to none living without my consent."