SPECIAL NOTICE.-Col. HAZARD'S New Work on St. DOMINGO, which has been so long in preparation, is now ready, At all Libraries and Bookstalls. WORKS OF TRAVEL. NOTICE.-SECOND EDITION NOW READY OF and may be had at all Booksellers' and HOW I FOUND LIVINGSTONE; Libraries. "Probably no spot on earth, take it all together, and looking Including Travels, Adventures, and Discoveries in Central Africa, and Four Months' Residence with Dr. Livingstone. The volume contains 760 pages of letter-press; a Map of Mr. Stanley's Some Extracts from Press Notices. "The freshness with which Mr. Stanley writes, his real powers of narrative and description, his quick observation and very industrious collection of materials, all going hand in hand as they do with the reader's keen interest in the subject, with admiration of the courage, energy, self-reliance, and ready resource of the traveller. render the work he has so soon published excellent reading.... His style is in general simple and straightforward... The story of it all is rell told."-From long review in the Times of Nov. 12. "Mr. Stanley's book may be pronounced thoroughly interesting and valuable."-From review in Daily Telegraph of Nov. 12. "Mr. Stanley's narrative of his search after and discovery of Livingstone is as full of romance and strange and perilous adventure as any fairy tale or Arthurian legend; albeit the romance here is all hard fact.... To convey to our readers some general idea of the leading features of this strange and thrilling history is all that we shall venture on.... It is needless to recommend a book like this, which is certain to be eagerly devoured by every one who can get hold of it; we will therefore only say that Mr. Stanley's pen is as facile and flowing as his heart is courageous."-From review in the Graphic of Nov. 9. "He has succeeded in adding much information to our geographical knowledge."-Athenæum. "For his adventures on this journey, his hair-breadth escapes, his resolute management of grumbling companions, we must refer our readers to Mr. Stanley's own pages.... We have only to commend the good humour with which he tells his story, and the clearness and simplicity of his narrative. There is in it the tone of the true traveller and discoverer.... His volume will, of course, be read all over the civilized world. It is handsomely got up, and most admirably illus trated by maps, engravings, and woodcuts."-Daily News of Nov. 12 "In spite of all defects, it is incomparably more lively than most books of African travel. The reader may follow him with unflagging interest from his start to his return, and will be disposed to part with him on excellent terms."-Saturday Review of Nov. 16. "The long and varied annals of African exploration record nothing so dramatic as the story related in Mr. Stanley's book.... Thoroughly readable throughout, and contains descriptive passages which indicate considerable literary power. The maps and illustra tions leave nothing to be desired, and we believe that the book will quite come up to the expectations of the public."-Pall Mall Gazette of Nov. 12. "In this deeply interesting volume Mr. Stanley tells his own story Has every characteristic we should desire to meet with in a book of travel. It is extremely graphic."-Morning Post of Nov. 12. "We need not anticipate the pleasure the reader will receive from the narrative.... The whole story is admirably told.... Some of the descriptions are as fine as anything in fiction."-Globe of Nov. 11. NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION (THE FOURTH). THE GREAT LONE LAND: "The tone of this book is altogether delightful and refreshing."Spectator. NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. NEVADA. By CLARENCE KING. I vol. crown 8vo cloth 6 [Fourth Edition, nearly ready. at it in its natural aspects, can be found more lovely; and it is MOUNTAINEERING in the SIERRA safe to say, probably no extent of territory, the world over, contains within itself, under proper auspices, so many elements of prosperity, wordly success, and happiness, as the Island of St. Domingo."-Chapter I. "A fresh and vigorous record of various kinds of adventure."Athenæum. "Possesses an eye and a pen for the most impressive aspects of nature."- Saturday Review. London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, LOW & SEARLE, Crown Buildings, 188, Fleet Street. brary-The Right of the Citizens of Dublin to the Phoenix Swift and Lord Palmerston-Local Distinctions-The effects tius never once uses the word FATUM, perhaps keeping in view the axiom of Epicurus, ows póvorav μǹ eivai undè eiμapμévny. II. The evidence of lines 493-4. Virgil could hardly be so inconsistent as to express in one and the same breath his ardent admiration of the atheistical doctrines of Epicurus and of the worn-out superstitions of the rural mythology; neither could he have forgotten, since he has himself imitated it in more than one place, the fine passage in the fourth book of Lucretius (572-94), in which the poet scatters the misty illusions of the old mythology, and in particular of the identical divi agrestes mentioned here by Virgil. NOTES:-A Note on Georgics ii. 490: "Felix qui potuit," &c., 445-La Rochefoucauld (François Duke of), Prince of Marsillac, 446-Miss O'Neill-A Naturalist-Dr. Williams's LiPark, 447-Curious Dutch Custom-Australian Currency Borrowed Days-Human Skin stretched on a Drum-Dean of Weather on Historical Events, 448-Derivation of Words -"Agony Columns”—Baptizing a Bell-Epitaphs at Bromham, Wilts, 449. QUERIES:-Gilray's Caricatures, 449- Henry VIII.: Historical Fact-Charles I. and Cromwell-Manuscript Treasures "The Fly is on the Turnips"-Durham Cathedral "Mother Shipton's Prophecy," 450-Old Inscription-Rev. Rann Kennedy-After Culloden-Bayard Taylor on the Turkish Bath - Arrangements of Books in the Seventeenth Century-Dumbfoundered or Dumbfounded - Regimental I see no reason to believe that Virgil refers to Badges A "Safeguard," 451-Attainder-Tennyson's Poem "Gareth and Lynette"-Laban: Nabal-Superstitions any philosopher or philosophical teaching. His Wreck of H.M.S. "Boreas"-"Studdy "-Welsh Words-aim seems to be not to contrast the pleasures of a REPLIES:-Title of "Prince," 452-The "Stage Parson" in philosophical with those of an unphilosophical life, the Sixteenth Century, 453-Human Skin on Church Doors, but to demonstrate the greater happiness of a 454-The Four White Kings-Junius and "The Irenarch "Sessions and Sizes "Sending Home"-Sir Edward country as compared with a town life in that freeHarrington-"My father gave high towers three"-William dom from anxiety which it derives from peace and Tell-Half House of God"-The De Quincis, Earls of plenty. Now, if we turn to the poetry of Greece, we find numerous passages all of a uniform and apparently stereotyped character, all bearing a marked resemblance to the passage in the Georgics, and finally all relating to one topic, viz. the Eleusinian mysteries. We find examples in the Homeric Hymn to Ceres, 480, Pindar, Fragm. 102, Who was St. Waleric? 452. Winton, 455-Heraldry of Smith-Arms of an Heiress-Col. soul's dark cottage "-"Infant Charity"-Etiquette at the or, the Melancholy Man"-John Thorpe, Architect-Charles Lamb and the Witch of Endor, 456-Homonyms - Marie Fagnani-" "Twas in Trafalgar Bay"-Cairngorm Crystals -Ethel, 457-"What keeps a spirit wholly true?"-"Our beginning shows"-Blanche Parry-Dr. Constantine Rhodocanakis-Ring Inscription-Killoggie: Collogue, 458- The Marriage of an Officer in the Army-Gibbeting Alive-Edge-Sophocles, Fragm. 719. Of these it will be suffihill Battle-Walter Scott and Caller Herring," 459-Sir cient to quote the last, since the others differ from William Petty-Kissing the Book-Old Engravings-Epping Hunt-Family Identity-"Dip of the Horizon," 460-Ira it but very slightly in sentiment and expression :Aldridge Eolian Harp- HóHoe-Tablette Book of Lady ὡς τρισόλβιοι Mary Keyes-Miserere of a Stall-The Sea Serpent, 461-Origin of the Ball-Flower in Architecture-Mnemonic Lines on the New Testament-The Rebel Marquis of Tullibardine, 462. Notes. A NOTE ON GEORGICS II. 490—“ FELIX QUI κεῖνοι βροτῶν οἱ ταῦτα δερχθεντες τέλη μόλωσ ̓ ἐς "Αιδου· τοῖσδε γὰρ μόνοις ἐκεῖ ζῆν ἐστι, τοῖς δ ̓ ἄλλοισι πάντ' ἐκεῖ κακά. The resemblance is so marked that one could almost believe that Virgil's lines are an actual translation of some passage similar to the above, which is now lost. Supplementary evidence strongly corroborates such a view of the interpretation of the passage. Have we any ground for believing that these lines are an adaptation of the language of Lucretius, or refer to his philosophy? An examination of the passage will, I think, cast an altogether different 1. Virgil never acknowledges his obligations to light upon it. My reasons for dissenting from the early Roman poets, nor, at least in the Georgics, commonly received view of the interpretation of alludes to any philosopher or philosophical specuthe lines are,-I. The evidence of Virgil's language:lation; but he distinctly refers to the Eleusinia in there is no single passage in Lucretius which bears i. 163-6, and probably in i. 39, 40, and Cicero, the faintest resemblance to that in the Georgics as in De Nat. Deor. i. 42, above quoted, tells us that a whole, and in the three scattered passages quoted one of the main subjects of consideration in the by Prof. Munro the resemblance is very slight, cer- Eleusinia was naturam cognoscere rerum. tainly not greater than in many passages of this book which contain no conscious imitation of Lucretius. On the other hand, the dissimilarities are very striking. Rerum causae is an expression wholly unknown to Lucretius; his own rerum natura is only a translation of the Greek pois, and the whole phrase, naturam cognoscere rerum, is reproduced, curiously enough, as we shall see, by Cicero (De Nat. Deor. i. 42), in speaking of the Eleusinian mysteries. Inexorabile fatum is also not Lucretian; it is a curious fact that Lucre 2. Mark the emphatic position of agrestes at the end of line 493. As yet Virgil has mentioned no gods, and yet there is evidently an implied antithesis. I can hardly doubt that the preceding lines contain a suppressed allusion to those deities through the influence of whose mystic rites, as Cicero tells us, "ex agresti immanique vita exculti ad humanitatem sumus," who, according to Isocrates (Pan. vi. 59), Tоû μù Onpides (ŷv ýμâs aïtion yeyóvaσt. The same marked contrast between these gentle gods of culture and civilization and the genii of wild nature is seen in the opening lines of and actually been nearly blinded by a shot in an enthe first book of the Georgics, where Virgil invokes-gagement, he parodied the lines he had applied to her "Vos, o clarissima mundi Lumina, labentem cœlo quæ ducitis annum ; * * * * * from the tragedy of Alcyon (I gave them lately),"Pour mériter son cœur, pour plaire à ses beaux yeux, J'ai fait la guerre aux Rois, je l'aurais faite aux Dieux,” into, "Pour mériter ce cœur, qu'enfin je connois mieux, J'ai fait la guerre aux Rois, j'en ai perdu les yeux." He has been judged most favourably by the by the passionate Cardinal de Retz. charming Madame de Sévigné, and very severely Voltaire gives, I think, a true estimate of his Rochefoucauld sont lus et l'on sait par cœur ses "Les Mémoires de La Pensées." The following autograph letter of his, written much about the same time and on the same subject as the one in my note on Turenne and Ann of Austria, is a good specimen of that love of mystery, intrigue, and hair-breadth 'scapes La Rochefoucauld delighted in. to Madame de Sillery. In it he speaks of Cardinal It is addressed Mazarin, of the arrest of the Princes (Condé, Conti, and Longueville), of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon (Mary Magdalen, niece of Cardinal Richelieu), of presse fort de le faire" evidently applies to Madame de Richelieu; and the phrase Madame de Longueville. This letter likewise shows to advantage his conciliating spirit, and that, if he was prompt in getting into broils, he was quicker in trying to get others out Et vos, agrestum præsentia numina, Fauni, Ferte simul Faunique pedem, Dryadesque puellæ." 3. In spite of all that has been said to the contrary, there can hardly be a doubt that Virgil had the mysteries in view when he wrote the sixth book of the Eneid. In line 258, "Procul, o procul este profani," is a literal translation of the hiero-literary works, thus: phant's kas kas EσTE BÉßηλot. Virgil's descriptions of Elysium and Tartarus have no more resemblance to those of Homer than they have to one another; the difference is one of design, and Virgil draws the materials of his description from the mystic poraywyía. His description of the pursuits of the heroes in Elysium corresponds minutely to that given by Pindar, Fragm. 95, and Aristophanes, Ranae, 154, of the state of the initiated after death, and the prominence which he gives to Musæus, the reputed founder of the mysteries, points to the same conclusion. His conception of the rivers of hell as marshy sloughs is also drawn from the scenery of the "mystical drama," as is shown by Plato, Phaedo, 68 C, Aristophanes, Ranae, 143. Virgil's catalogue of crimes for which the guilty soul is confined to Erebus is a literal transcription of those enumerated by Aristophanes, Ranae, 146, as excluding from the paradise of the initiated. And finally the curious doctrine of metempsychosis in lines 745-52 reappears in a slightly altered form in Plato's Phaedrus, 248 E, and Pindar, Olymp. ii. 68, in both which passages the whole imagery is drawn from the mysteries. A. GRAY. Jesus Coll. Camb. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (FRANÇOIS DUKE OF), 61 War, Literature, Philosophy. Tria juncta in uno.'' The celebrated author of the Réflexions Morales was son of Francis the fifth of that name, who was the first Duke of La Rochefoucauld; he was born in 1613, and died 17th March, 1680. His first education had been neglected, like that of all the "Grands Seigneurs" of that period, but he was richly gifted by nature, and, as Madame de Maintenon said of him, Il avoit une physionomie heureuse, l'air grand, beaucoup d'esprit et peu de savoir." Through his elevated rank and high personal qualities he was, at an early age, mixed up with the love-intrigues and political factions so prevalent during the long and agitated administrations of Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin. His passion for the beautiful and ambitious Duchess of Longueville drew him for a while headlong into the absurd wars of the Fronde; but having quarrelled with his too amorous heroine, "On me well-known one of La Rochefoucauld. I should Sillery and the small seals (which have been The address to Madame de the P.S. parlasmes icy dernierement. me fort pressé. Vous en vseres comme il vous plaira et me "Ce n'est point lhomme que vous fistes venir, ny quy m'a escrit, mais vne persone a quy les mesmes gens quil deuoit voir ont parlle. "Ce 14me Januier (1651)." 66 $ P. A. L. makes the STUFFED BIRDS SING as though they were alive. Specimens of his surprizing Art may be seen at the Finsbury Museum, opposite Finsbury Terrace, City Road, Finsbury Square, London, now open for the infavour him with their company; it consists of a Grand spection of those Ladies and Gentlemen who wish to Groupe of Stuffed Singing Birds, Singing their wild notes as natural as Life, far excelling them that was sold at the Custom House; besides several Hundreds of Birds, Beasts, Insects, and Reptiles, in high preservation, from all parts of the Known World. He has likewise purchased, at a great expence, some of the scarcest Curiosities from the late Leverian Museum. Admittance 6d. each. "Written by a Lady, on seeing Hall's Grand Zooneerophylacium. What lovely plumage now arrests the eye. MISS O'NEILL.-Mr. Walter Donaldson writes to us, stating that in 1811 he was a member of the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, when Miss O'Neill made her first appearance there. It was in a comic character, the Widow Cheerly, in Cherry's Soldier's Daughter. In Ireland, however, as in England, her great triumph was in Juliet. In Dublin, Conway played Romeo, and Percy Farren, Mercutio. In London she had the same Romeo, but Richard Jones was the Mercutio. Mr. Donaldson adds, that when Miss Walstein was brought out at Drury Lane to oppose Miss O'Neill, the former accomplished and ably-taught actress was on the shady side of forty," so that she wanted the youthful beauty of her triumphant young rival; but Miss Walstein threw all the actresses of her day into the shade, as far as the part of Lady Townly was concerned. The dignity, ease, and refinement of the true lady were natural to her. The above is the substance of Mr. Donaldson's letter, in which he also states that he was an established actor when Mr. Buckstone made his début on the Peckham stage, as Count Montalban, in the Honeymoon. While the subject is before us, we may as well add that Miss O'Neill was not the original DR. WILLIAMS'S LIBRARY.-I do not think that Bianca in Milman's Fazio. She was the first who played Bianca in London; but Miss Somerville it is generally known that there is an admirable (afterwards Mrs. Alfred Bunn) had previously library in London, very accessible, and containing played the character, at Bath. Milman's tragedy there caused its being brought out at Covent Garden. We have an impression that Fazio had been acted at two or three provincial theatres before it was successfully produced at Bath. The success of ED. books which are not readily obtainable elsewhere— Bloomsbury. Mr. Hunter, the curator, is a most I mean Dr. Williams's Library, in Queen's Square, courteous and intelligent gentleman; and it has been a real pleasure to me to find such a retreat for one's literary labours. It is a noble collection of books and MSS. There is the finest first folio liberal-minded and courteous librarian I have ever met with. I trust this note will be of service to literature, as I am afraid many are ignorant of the value of this most useful institution. A NATURALIST.-I have a lion monkey, pre- Shakspeare I have ever seen. Literary students served by T. Hall in 1810, now in excellent preser-will receive a hearty welcome from the most vation. On the back of the case is pasted a printed bill, from which it appears that he was not only a first-rate taxidermist, but a most ingenious mechanician as well-probably a better master of those arts than of English. I transcribe the bill, on the two upper corners of which appear masonic symbols: "To the Curious Observers of Natural Phænomena. T. HALL, Well known to the Virtuosi as the first Artist in Europe for stuffing and preserving all kinds of Birds, Beasts, Fish, and Reptiles, so as to resemble the atti tudes and perfections of Life, respectfully informs the Public, that, by a method peculiar to himself, he now RICHARD HOOPER. THE RIGHT OF THE CITIZENS OF DUBLIN TO THE PHENIX PARK. The following passage has lately come under my notice in a MS. in the British Museum (Egerton, 76, p. 331). It is of interest at the present time, when so much public clamour and controversy exists about the rights of the people to use the parks for popular demonstrations: "Ordered to attend at the Courts on 17 Nov. 1783 as Deputy Surveyor or General of Lands with the Book of Dublin co. which comprised (inter alia) Sir William Petty's Doun admeasurement of the Contents and Bounds of the Phoenix Park, and to give evidence touching the right of the Crown to those lands, a grant of part thereof having been previously made to John Blaquire Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, Earl Harcourt, for inclosing and erecting thereon a Lodge for the Chief Secretary, in consequence whereof a suit was instituted against the Crown by Napper Tandy, Eduard Newenham and others 'free Citizens,' incipient united Irishmen, for incroachments on the rights and liberties of the inhabitants of Dublin whose property and privileges were injured and unjustly effected by such grant. In ascertaining the right of the Crown to make such grant it clearly was proved from the Doun Survey that in 1657 the Phoenix Park contained but 467 acres lying at both sides of the Liffey, upon 64 acres of which, on the South, the Royal Hospital was built, when on the North side about 403 acres remained belonging to the Crown and to which were added 1356 acres according to a Survey of Bernard Seale taken in 1776 the content then was 1759 acres-0 r-22 p. statute measure, it was fully proved also, that these additions had been purchased from divers persons about 1666 or 1667 by the Crown, and that Government, at pleasure, had often prevented the admission of Citizens and Carriages thro' the Park, by ordering the Rangers and Keepers to lock the gates against them from time immemorial. After many and futile arguments on part of those free Citizens' (some or all of whom were afterwards Rebels, United Irishmen and Outlaws) they at this trial escaped with the disgrace of a non-suit only, and rendered thereafter for ever, the right of the Crown indisputable to the entire estate and pos session of the Phoenix Park." This account was written by the well-known CURIOUS DUTCH CUSTOм.-A publication, entitled Homes, Haunts, and Works of Rubens, Vandyke, &c., London, 1871, mentions the following custom :- "At Haarlem, it is a custom on the birth of a child to affix to the principal door, to denote the event, a pincushion, which is constructed of red silk, covered with lace, and deeply fringed. The sex of the child is defined by a small piece of white paper placed between the lace and cushion if it is a girl, but the absence of all mark denotes a boy." Mr. Fairholt observes : "This custom has other and solid advantages; it not only prevents intrusive curiosity, but for a certain period the house is protected from actions for debt, no bailiffs dare molest it, no soldiers can be billeted on it, and when troops march past, the drums invariably cease to beat. This custom is traditionally reported to have originated owing to the death of a merchant's wife, whose house had been entered noisily and rudely by officers on the occasion of his bankruptcy during the confinement." J. MANUEL. Newcastle-on-Tyne. Our new sovereign is as handsome a coin as an Englishman could wish to handle. sovereign has been our standard circulating medium And the since Victoria was first planted. Dollars (excepting as cabinet curiosities) are as unknown amongst us as grizzly bears. Yet a writer in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1871 (art. on "Applications of Photography"), gravely informs his readers that in a recent civil action in the Victorian law courts the damages were laid at 2,000 "dollars"! This slip ought not to have escaped the editor. D. BLAIR. Melbourne. rhymes on the borrowed days of the month may One rained, and one snew, And the other was the worst day that ever blew." HUMAN SKIN STRETCHED ON A DRUM.-A late query reminds me of the famous Bohemian chief, in the wars of the Hussites, J. Troknov, better known by the name of Ziska (from his being blind of one eye). He died of the plague in 1424, when his adherents, it is said, stretched his skin on a drum, the sound of which, they pretended, had the and put them to flight. virtue to frighten their enemies out of their wits P. A. L. DEAN SWIFT AND LORD PALMERSTON.-It is of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one LOCAL DISTINCTIONS.-The following lines I 66 Sligo is the Devil's place, But of all the towns I ere was in, FIRM. THE EFFECTS OF WEATHER ON HISTORICAL AUSTRALIAN CURRENCY.-The new Mint has history have been influenced or produced by the state EVENTS. It is so certain that important events in just been opened in Melbourne, and there is an of the weather at a particular time, that, with the authentic report afloat that the Home Govern-kind permission of the Editor of "N. & Q.,” I ment has under consideration the expediency of would suggest that a series of most valuable facts having all the gold coin of the realm minted here. might be gradually collected, if the readers of that |