Mr. Paul Hunfalvy, in a polemic pamphlet on note the gloss tentorium: papilionem on p. 26. by Mr. J. Norman Lockyer. APPOINTMENTS FOR NEXT WEEK. MONDAY, May 5, 4 p.m. Asiatic: "The She King for English Readers," by Mr. Clement F. R. Allen. 5 p.m. Royal Institution: General Monthly Meeting. 8 p.m. Society of Arts: Cantor Lecture," Some New Optical Instruments and Arrangements," II., 8 p.m. Aristotelian: "An Analysis of Force," TUESDAY, May 6, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: "The Physiology of Nerve and Muscle," I., by Prof. Gamgee. 8 p.m. Victoria Institute: "Prehistoric Man in Egypt and the Lebanon," by Vice-Chancellor Daw8 p.m. Biblical Archaeology: "New Texts in the Babylonian Character principally referring to by Mr. W. R. Dunstan. son. Latin name is correctly given as robor. Some English names are merely borrowed from Latin; such as plum from prunus, poppy from papaver, gladen from gladiolus; we find in the Glossary the old spellings plumae, popaeg (20), and gladina (24). Some names have been remarkably well preserved; thus the Ruscus is still called " knee-holly," from its prickly appearance and stunted growth; When we come to examine the words of compare ruscus: cnioholaen, p. 22. The very native origin, we shall find it not without next gloss is ramnus: thebanthorn. Here profit to consider them in groups or classes thebanthorn is the Middle-English therethorn; wherever this is practicable. For example, the Promptorium has: "Thethorne-tre, therewe may consider the plant-names, and may thorne-tre, Ramnus." It is curious that Halcompare the lists here given with the plant- liwell, in noting this word, should have added names in Wright's Vocabularies, especially as the remark that "ramnus is the medlar-tree," reprinted in the very convenient book on for ramnus, or rather rhamnus, is certainly the English Plant-Names by Prof. Earle. Among buckthorn. But the Promptorium also has the more noticeable are the following ancient the entry: "Theve, brusch"-i.e., brushspellings of familiar names-viz., garlac wood, as Mr. Way explains it; and the name (garlic), haeguthorn (hay-thorn, hawthorn), was probably given to any rough and thorny biouuyrt (bee-wort, apiastrum), dil (dill), bush. See Herrtage's note in the Catholicon, boecas (beech), on p. 1; mapuldur (maple- where he cites from the Medulla the entry: tree), holegn (holly), alaer (alder), saeppae "Ramnus, a whyte thorne or a thepe-bushe." (sap-tree, fir-tree), geacaes surae (gowk's This we take to be certainly the origin of the sorrel, cuckoo-sorrel), uuegbradae (waybroad, curious Norfolk name for the gooseberry-tree usually corrupted to waybread-i.e., plantain), | —viz., "fea-berry tree;" the gooseberries uuermod (wormwood), breer (brere, briar), themselves being called fapes, fabes, feabes, hindberia (hind-berry, the Northern name for feapes, feabers, also thapes, thebes, &c. raspberry), on p. 2. On p. 6, we find blitum:"Fea-berry" is for feabe-berry-i.e., thebe here clatae is the clote, of which the berry, f being a childish substitution for th, as literal sense is "ball." The clote was a name when a child says "froo for "through." given to two distinct plants, but for a similar At any rate, this is a more probable solution reason. One of these was the burdock, so than Forby's singular suggestion that all the named from the burs upon it; the other was above terms are corruptions of fea-berries," the yellow water-lily, so named from the and that the etymology is from the Anglo"ball" in the centre of the flower. It is in Saxon fean (sic), to rejoice, because "it is the former sense that it is used by Chaucer, one of the welcome first-fruits of the year," as has been shown in the note to 1. 577 of the or, in other words, from the rejoicing of "Canon's Yeoman's Tale" in the Clarendon young people who eat gooseberries. Forby's Press edition; Halliwell has expressed the suggestion is, moreover, somewhat impaired been convinced that clote could mean a bur- invariably applied to the unripe fruit; for it contrary view, but he does not seem to have by his explanation that the term is almost dock, though this is perfectly evident from is not the universal experience that the eating the old vocabularies. On p. 7 we find uulfes of green gooseberries leads to joy. camb (wolf's comb), ribbae (lit. rib, but applied to hound's tongue), and hymblicae (hemlock). Also aac (oak, mysteriously given as a gloss to color, which would appear to be an error for robor), haesil (hazel), cisirbeam (a curious error for ciris-beam-i.e., cherris9 p.m. Royal Institution : 66 Mohammedan beam, now cherry-tree), cuicbeam (quick-beam, Mahdis," by Prof. W. Robertson Smith. as a gloss to cariscus), p. 8; aesc (ash), fearn SATURDAY, May 10, 3 Royal Institution: "Recent Discoveries in Roman Archaeology," III. Tnt (fern), finugl (Middle-English finkel, from Palatine Hill, by Mr. H. M. Westropp. the Restoration of Temples," by Messrs. Theo. G. Pinches and Ernest Budge. 8 p.m. Civil Engineers: "The Antiseptic Treat-clatae; 8.30 p.m. Zoological: The Dentition of a Young Capybara," by Prof. Flower; "Amphicyclus, a New Genus of Dendroclinotous Holothurians, and its Bearing on the Classification of the Sub-order," by Prof. Jeffrey Bell. WEDNESDAY, May 7, 4.30 p.m. British Archaeological: Annual Meeting. ment of Timber," by Mr. S. B. Boulton. 8 p.m. Society of Arts: "Bicycles and TriTHURSDAY, May 8,3 p.m. Royal Institution: "Flame cycles," by Mr. C. V. Boys. and Oxidation," II., by Prof. Dewar. 5 p.m. Hellenic Society: "A Tour among the Cyclades," by Mr. J. T. Bent. 8 p.m. Society of Arts: "Cupro-Ammonium Vegetable Tissues," by Mr. C. R. Alder Wright. Solution and its Use in Waterproofing Paper and Eliminating the Effects of Polarisation and Earth 8 p.m. Telegraph Engineers: "A Method of Currents from Fault Tests," by Mr. H. C. Mance, with Supplementary Remarks and Illustrative Ex periments by Mr. Latimer Clark. 8 p.m. Mathematical: " Motion of a Network of Particles, with Some Analogies to Conjugate Functions," by Mr. E. J. Routh: "A Subsidiary FRIDAY, May 9. 7 p.m. Civil Engineers; Students' Elliptic Function," by Mr. T. Griffiths. Meeting, "The Electric Light," by Mr. A. R. 8 p.m. New Shakspere Society: Musical Evening. 8 p.m. Society of Arts: "Indigenous Education in India," by Dr. Leitner. 8 p.m. Quekett. SCIENCE. The Epinal Glossary; Latin and Old English. (Second Notice.) THE chief point of interest presented to students of English by this Glossary lies in the fact that it exhibits so many examples of English words in their eighth-century spelling, thus throwing much light upon their etymology. But, before proceeding to notice these more particularly, it is worth while remarking that the Glossary also throws light upon many words of Romance origin which subsequently found their way into our language, as well as upon other Romance words which we have not borrowed. In connexion, for example, with the Modern-English "pavilion," we may * The word hadarni, or elhadirni, really means "to speak very rapidly," Latin foeniculum, whence also the equivalent Here, at The first not neglect the important entry on p. 19, Another remarkable class of names is that of birds and insects. Of birds, we may notice aenid, a duck (1), well known as the source of English "drake; hragra, a heron (2), interesting as being cognate with the OldHigh-German heigir, the original of Italian aghir-one, Old-French hair-on, and our own her-on (borrowed from French); chyae, a chough, crauuae, a crow (8); ganot, a gannet, fine, a finch (9); hrooc, a rook (10); hebuc, a hawk, sualuuae, a swallow (11); oslae, an ousel (15); nectaegalae, a nightingale (22); staer, a stare or starling, emer, an ammer, or yellow-ammer, without an h (23); throstlae, a throstle, lauuercae, a lark, seric, a shrike (27); and so on. Among the insects we may notice briosa, breeze or gad-fly (p. 1); earuuigga, earwig (2); dora, dor, which is Norfolk for cockchafer (5); bitul, beetle (6); hnitu, nit (13); luus, louse, fleah, flea, buturfliogae, butterfly (20); mygg, midge (24). Among fish, we find uuilue, wilk or welk, which it is the fashion to mis-spell whelk (7); leax, lax-i.e., salmon (12); baers, barse, usually mis-spelt bass (13); floor, fluke or flounder, styria, sturgeon (20); hering, herring (23); smelt, smelt (24). Considering the present confusion of English spelling, it is comforting to find occasional examples of words the spelling of which is the same at this day as in the eighth century; such words are malt, east, north, wind, hood, west (written uuest), broom, frost, storm, stream, brand, web (written uueb), and elm. In many others the change has been only at the end, as loco, dros, steeli, goos, bucc, bedd, hara, disc (dish), apa, sadol, cressae, rygi (rye), with obvious meanings. It is not improbable that 6, when medial or final, had the sound of e, as in thebanthorn, thevethorn, gloob, glove, salb, salve. We will conclude this notice with a few notes upon some interesting words. "Armilausia: woodcock. 66 Kentish wore. of stal-k, which is an extended form. "Falces: THE Royal Geographical Society has decided to appoint for one year an inspector to enquire thoroughly into the state of geographical educa tion at home and on the Continent. In addition to studying the best method of geographical teaching-chiefly probably in Germany and Switzerland-he will be required to collect and report upon the best text-books, maps, models, and appliances. Some of the glosses present much difficulty, and may perhaps await their solution for some time. As an example of a difficult pair of glosses we will take the following, at the same time suggesting an explanation. On p. 9 we find, in col. c, "famfaluca leasung, THE May number of the Journal of the contains several uel faam;" and in col. e, "famfaluca: Anthropological Institute and in col. e, "famfaluca: valuable uuapul." Here leasung is a lying story, a papers by original observers, including lie; faam is foam; wapul is an adjective from traveller and naturalist, descriptive of the one by Mr. H. O. Forbes, the well-known a base wap, expressive of a boiling or bubbling natives of Timor, and another by Dr. Garson motion, whence was formed a verb wapelian, on certain skulls brought by Mr. Forbes from to bubble up, well preserved in the familiar the island of Timor-laut. African ethnology Modern-English "wabble." Somner records is represented by Mr. H. H. Johnston's paper wapul as a gloss to pompholix, and this gives on the peoples of the Congo region, while us the key. Famfaluca stands for the Greek Australia receives attention in Mr. Howitt's pompholyga, accusative of pompholyx, a tion. We understand that Mr. Howitt, who description of some curious ceremonies of initiabubble, a boss, a knob, also slag or has contributed so many excellent papers to the scoriae; further used by Pliny to denote a Anthropological Institute, is the son of William substance deposited by the smoke of smelt- and Mary Howitt. This number of the Journal ing-surfaces. Thus the gloss "foam is also contains Prof. Flower's presidential adnot far wrong; the gloss wapul-i.e., bub- dress delivered at the anniversary meeting. bling is also tolerably near; but the gloss leasung can hardly be other than a metaphor. We may also learn from this that Pliny was probably one of the authors whom the glossator read, a fact which should be noted. We may further gather from the use of the verb wapelian, to bubble up, a clear notion of the curious Provincial-English potwabbleri.e., pot-boiler (given by Halliwell). This word is THE Council of the Philological Society have also spelt potwaller, or potwalloper (see Web-resolved to recommend the anniversary meetster), presumably from weallan, to boil. ing of the society on May 16 to elect Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte a vice-president of the society. The Prince's engagements obliged him to decline the offer of the presidency. Mr. Henry Sweet will fill that post for the next two years, and will probably be succeeded by Prof. Skeat. The society's new members of council will be Mr. Henry Bradshaw, the Cambridge University librarian; the Rev. Prof. Kennedy, of Cambridge; Dr. E. L. Lushington; and Mr. Peile, of Christ's College, Cambridge. We record our thanks to the Philological and Early-English Text Societies for producing this most interesting facsimile edition, and to Mr. Sweet for his care in editing it. WALTER W. SKEAT. CORRESPONDENCE. THE death is announced of Don Eulogio Jimenez, of the Observatory of Madrid. He was one of the first mathematicians of Spain, and author of La Teoria de los Numeros, and of many educational works in arithmetic and mathematics, original and translated. PHILOLOGY NOTES. PROF. BIRT, of Marburg, is engaged on a new edition of Claudian for the 66 Monumenta Mr. Haverfield are collating parts of the MSS. Historiae Germaniae" series. Mr. Ellis and in the Bodleian and in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for him. "Andeda: brandrad" (1); this is the Northern brandreth, a trevet. "Axedones: lynisas" (1); here lynis is a linse, as in English linse-pin, corruptly "linch-pin." sercae (1) gives us the origin of sark. Acega holtbana" (2); here holt-hana is a holt-cock, now called a Alga: uaar" (2) shows us the "The Thanet men 29 (saith Somer) "call it [sea-weed] wore, or woore,' is quoted by Ray, who also gives the forms Berlin, S.W., Kleinbeerenstrasse, 7: April 27, 1884. caar and weir as being used in NorthumberIn his new edition of Thomas Wright's land. "Asfaltum: spaldr" (2); perhaps of the Corpus Glossary "is based on a collaVocabularies, Prof. Wülcker says that his text paldr is merely an English attempt at pro- tion recently made by Prof. J. Zupitza." nouncing "asphalte; in Maundeville's Being afraid that these words may lead his Travels, p. 100, it appears as aspalt. "Ami-readers into a mistake as to the extent of my culo: hraecli" (2); a rail, or night-rail, is own responsibility, I beg to state that what I PROF. HERBERT STRONG, of Melbourne Uninot uncommon in our old dramatists, and is lent to Prof. Wülcker in 1877 was not a colla-versity, who is now on a visit to this country, used by Massinger (see Nares' Glossary). tion of Wright's text with the MS., but a is engaged on a translation of Schleicher's "Actuaris: uuraec 99 (2) probably refers to transcript of the whole of the MS., Latin Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, with notes and the sea-weed known as bladder-wrack or seaglosses and all, so that the task of picking out an additional chapter. wrack. "Conuexum: hualb" (7); here hualb self. I have not yet found time to go through all the English words was entirely left to himis the word which at a later period was spelt more than the so-called "Interpretatio nominum herealf, and is the source of Middle-English ebraicorum et grecorum,' out of which Prof. orerhielren and Modern-English 66 over- Wülcker has added four more English glosses to whelm;" the Provincial-English whemmle the twenty-three printed already by Wright. means to turn a hollow vessel, such as a But, leaving a few doubtful cases out of the quesbasin, upside down, thus presenting a convex tion, I find there are five more in my transcript surface, and the Provincial-English whelver of the Interpretatio-Gacila snithstreo; Lancola in Halliwell) means a large round hat, from cellae; Sicini ac dus; Trilex Orili; Uertellum its convex shape. uerua. Sicini is a mistake for the interrogative "Caulem stela " (7); Sicine, uerua the West-Saxon hweorfa. By-thehere stela is the Provincial-English stele, way, Prof. Wilcker's Clebulum is a misprint for generally used in the sense of " handle," and Glebulum in the MS., and this a corruption of applied to a broomstick, but here in the sense Cribellum. But what is "Decurat hornnaap"? MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.-(Monday, April 21.) SIR F. GOLDSMID in the Chair.-Mr. F. V. Dickins read extracts from a translation of the roll of the Shinten Doji, a famous Japanese outlaw of the tenth century. The roll, which was exhibited, consisted of six "Makimous," or scrolls, and was finely caligraphed and illuminated, the principal scenes of the somewhat gruesome story being brilliantly depicted. Mr. Dickins ascribed it to the early days of the Tokugawa dynasty, and believed it to be the work either of a Buddhist monk or of artists maintained in the household of some feudal or vassal baron of the Shogun. The story, which was a version of one of the chief exploits of the traditional hero Gorimitsu or Raiko, presented the usual features of such tales, whether told in the Far East or the West, but possessed a special interest in the curious mixture it displayed of the scholarly sweetness characteristic of the Chinese style, and the somewhat overdone ferocity equally characteristic of the literary productions of old Japan. The whole is cast in a Buddhist mould, and permeated by an under-current of Shintuism. ing's is but a gleam of mirth playing over waters of misery too deep to be sounded. Agony and pathos may be too intense to admit of direct expression-excessive grief at times can only find vent in bitter jest, as in Hamlet. We see the same in Beethoven's work the hushed pianissimo is more impressive than the height of the crescende which preceded it. It may be doubted if any poet ever seized the shot-silk hues of the tragi-comedy of existence, or reached a deeper note of scorn at the bitter irony of fate. Turning to the immediate subject of the paper, the writer said that Shak spere had not treated his Caliban with much complexity or subtlety. Physical form apart, he is made little more than a depraved, brutish, and malicious man; his deeper nature and ultimate motives and ideas do not find expression in "The Tempest." inferior equally with the better work of the poet. Occasionally Browning is whirled away by the very sweep and torrent of his own abundance; but, making all deductions, no poet has given us greater variety or shown more originality. Browning stays by a man; he is not a fashion, not a whim; he does not belong to a period of a man's life. If it be complained that he makes us think too much, is that a highly valid objection? But, more than anything else, what justifies Browning's claim to -not mere admiration, but something deeper-is ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.-(Tuesday, April 22.) his strength, the abiding feeling that he is a masPROF. FLOWER, President, in the Chair.-The Pre-culine, a virile poet. Browning is sometimes said sident, in welcoming the members to their new to be wanting in music, but he is as musical at quarters, gave an outline of the history of the In- times as any other poet, he never confuses music stitute and of the eminent men who have presided and poetry, as a sculptor will sometimes confuse over it. The Ethnological Society, founded in the provinces of painting and sculpture by giving a bas-relief-properly the link between the two 1843, and the Anthropological Society twenty years This deficiency has bee later, were united in 1871 under the title The An- arts-the effects of a picture, sacrificing severity supplied by Browning's magnificent grotesque. thropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. and simplicity. Browning has besides helped many Our best grotesques belong to the art of the -The Marquis of Lorne sent to express his regret to simplify their minds on certain subjects of pro- Oriental and mediaeval sculptors; in literature the at his inability to attend; he exhibited a large col- found importance to the human race.-A paper by tendency is to broad farce or delicate comedy, to lection of North American objects, including a Mr. J. Cotter Morison, upon "Caliban on Setebos," which the grotesque is not necessary. Browning scalp taken last summer.-The veteran of science, his remarks by one or two observations on the sharp in outline as if by "Claus of Innsbruck cast was read by Mr. Furnivall. Mr. Morison prefaced has produced a grotesque in language as solid and Sir Richard Owen, communicated a paper on a The in bronze for me." The second title of the poem, portrait of an aboriginal Tasmanian. The paper general character of Browning's poetry. "Natural Theology in the Island," marks clearly was illustrated with two busts and several portraits very fact that the society existed, had thriven for belonging to the Institute.-Prof. A. H. Keane some years, and was now stronger than ever is enough the writer's intention. It is to describe, in then read a paper on the ethnology of the Egyptian sufficient proof that its members at least consider a dramatic monologue, the Natural TheologySoudan, which was described as a region of extreme commentary and reflection on Browning's works that is, the conception of God likely, or rather complexity a converging point of all the great not misplaced; that they think him not one of certain, to occur to such a being as Caliban. And races of the African continent, except the Hotten- those writers who disclose their full meaning to the moral conveyed is plainly this: If Caliban, by tots and Bushmen. Although official documents, contrary, a poet of such depth and volume, so consciousness, feelings, and instincts, such a the first reader at the first perusal, but, on the appropriate reasoning, deduces, from his inter such as Col. Stewart's "Report on the Soudan " for 1883, recognised only two main divisions, the hasty reading now so common, an indefinite here, what right have philosophers of another order charged with hidden and complex beauties, that, by grotesque, laughably hideous theology as you see Arab and Negro," it was shown that here were represented the Hamites, Semites, Nubians, Negroes, looked. He had found the Browning Society a help success or foundation? The writer did not approve amount of his supreme quality may readily be over- to suppose that their deductions have any better and Bantus. Of the Hamites the chief branches were the Tibbu, in Dar-Fur, and the Ethiopians, stretchand stimulus in the study of Browning's writings, of the attempt to turn Browning's works into an ing east of the Nile, without interruption, from and would fain repay a portion of the debt. It is arsenal of Agnostic argument. It is not the poet's Egypt to the Equator, and including the Galli admitted that the proper object of the poet is the business to lead us to intellectual conclusions, and Somali south of Abyssinia, various tribes presentation of the Beautiful; but beauty admits which very inferior men can do as well as he, but between Abyssinia and the coast, and the Bejas, of almost infinite degrees from the lowest stage of to give us living realities, creations organic and who occupied the greater part of the Nubian desert trivial prettiness up to the loftiest pinnacles of the vital, which take their place amid the works between Abyssinia and Egypt. The Bejas, whose sublime, and the degrees of development in the of nature as independent existences. But are we very existence was ignored by our officials, and sense of beauty among men vary to an equal ex- therefore called upon to ignore the poet's obvious who were universally confounded by newspaper tent. In some it reaches a taste for portraits of meaning in a given instance or poem? The truth is, that Caliban on Setebos" is an indirect yet correspondents with the Arabs, were the true abori- race-horses and photographs of pretty actresses ginal element in the country between Berber and for dance-tunes and easy ballads-and is merely scathing satire of a rather painful class of reasoner, Suakin, where they recently came into collision with rudimentary; such persons are impatient of the who, beginning with the admission that the nature claims of Raphael, Tintoret, or Turner, and think of the Godhead is an inscrutable mystery, proceed the partisans of Beethoven and Wagner hypo- to write long books to prove their special and crites and "superior persons." So in poetry. minute knowledge of its character, which know. Some people, not insignificant in number, do not ledge of theirs you must not contradict or deny care for poetry at all; but in these days of " cul- under penalties. Very well, the poet seems to say, ture" the confession is rarely made. There is you think Caliban's conception unlovely; what nothing criminal in the want, but surely a great surety can you offer that yours may not be equally loss. Low in the scale, but higher than the others, repulsive to other beings who may be as mach are those who like a story and tolerate the rhyming superior to you as you are to Caliban? Nay, that for the sake of the canters in the metre which beat it is not as repulsive to many of your fellow-men, through the polka and the schottische. But these who, by reason of different education and studies, cannot tolerate a great poet; they find him "ob- do not share your opinions? The opening of the scure," for they are short-sighted, and large and poem shows finely the bestial, or rather nonlofty beauty is hidden from them. This immense human, character of Caliban. He gives a good ex class resisted as long as possible the recognition of ample to some other writers on Natural Theology, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, while by getting quickly to his subject, and by avoiding they were obstreperous in applauding the brassy prolixity. The passage about the clay-bird is a resonance of Byron and the rocking sing-song of terrible one-it cuts to the bone; and even more inMoore. "Laras" and "Corsairs" gained more cisive is that which follows about the crabs. recognition in a few months than Keats has gained Having in these shown how Setebos has made all in half a century for his odes "To a Nightingale things, not for themselves or their welfare, but in and "To a Grecian Urn.” It is not denied by regard for his own exceeding power and glory, Browning's admirers that he is obscure-to those Caliban proceeds to show how capricious his Deity who have not the means of understanding him. is, with a most untheologian-like candour, for he He takes no pains to write down to the meanest calls Setebos' cruelty, not mercy, but, bluntly, capacity or to select subjects which admit of it. "spite." He believes his god envious, and hopes But that he is obscure to the gaze of reverent to deceive him Wherefore [Caliban] mainly and patient study we peremptorily deny. Not dances on dark nights "—a touch of marvellously only do we always find a meaning, but mostly fine irony. He has the fullest faith in sacrifice and find it expressed with almost unprecedented force mortification as a means of appeasing Setebos; airl and brevity. Browning has two other qualities as he details the sacrifices he will make if found which puzzle some of his critics, and which are out, we honestly pity poor Caliban, whose theology found admirable by others his subtlety and is a torment to him. Nature is hard, harsh, and humour. His subtlety is not mechanical like destructive, but not cruel and spiteful; Setebos is. that of the schoolmen or casuists, but poetical, But Caliban cherishes a hope that Setebos is not and it extends beyond his language, penetrating immortal; but a sudden thunderstorm shatters and fashioning his thought. This microscopic this mood of hopeful scepticism to pieces, and, power is not popular; and, when interwoven with and believing that it comes of his gibes reported by expanded by Browning's gift of humour, matters" His raven who tells him all," he crouches and are made worse, for people who do not under-promises to love Setebos, and do penance for his stand are apt to think the joke directed against gibes. The closing passage is magnificent, and themselves, and this may account for much of the nowhere, perhaps, out of Beethoven's or Wage resentful criticism. Like all grand humour, Brown- ner's music is there to be found a more the British forces. BROWNING SOCIETY.-(Friday, April 25.) THE HON. J. RUSSELL LOWELL, in the Chair.--The Chairman said that he did not come because he felt that for himself a Browning Society was needful to the understanding of Browning's works, but to express a debt of gratitude which had gone on increasing for now more than forty years. In 1848 Browning said that his public was small, but he himself has demonstrated that recognition was not needed to enforce his native vigour; for, in spite of indifference, he has gone on constantly producing, and deepening the impression which he has made on all thinking men. So far as he had followed the proceedings of the society, it seemed to him that less than due stress had been laid upon the dramas, which he thought the most important series of poems Browning had produced. Throughout these he never paints from actual fact, but from his idealisation of the fact. The char acters are idealisations, elevated, as in a drama they ought to be, to an ideal plane. There is a tendency in them all in favour of high-mindedness, of greatness of soul, of self-sacrifice and devotion, which is very striking, and they leave the mind ennobled after the reading of them. It is objected to Browning that he has no form. Does form mean finish and, if finish, the finish of single lines, verses, or sentences? Or does it mean style, or that larger unity which makes a theoretical unity of the piece possessing it: Men who have most discussed form have not always been successful in producing it-Goethe, for instance, whose "Faust" surely is form-less. But if "form" means the production of that which stimulates and reinforces thought by powerful emotions, the subsidence of which leaves the thoughts as a key of life and a rule for conduct, then he knew no one who had given truer examples of it than Browning. But it would be unfortunate if we were led by admiration to be indiscriminate, and insist on people liking the daring, superb, and startling modulation than in the break at the last four lines.-There followed a discussion, in which Mr. Furnivall, Mr. Moncure Conway, Mr. Barnett Smith, Dr. Berdo, Mr. Revell, and others took part. Most of the speakers repudiated the idea suggested in the paper that the poem was intended as a satire on popular religion. Mr. Furnivall explained that Setebos was the Patagonian god or demon, and contrasted, in some detail, the conception of Caliban in Shakspere and Browning respectively. FINE ART. GREAT SALE of PICTURES, at reduced prices (Engravings, Chromos, should pay a visit. Very suitable for wedding and Christmas presents. and Oleographs), 'handsomely framed, Everyone about to purchase pictures GED. REES, 115, Strand, near Waterloo-bridge. with all other students, recognises a truly original worker, one "the compass and readiness of whose memory of forms have for those who labour with him on the same lines something terrible, almost disheartening." The conclusions announced by "Lermolieff" have, apparently in every case, been accepted by Thausing, and he devotes more than one of these essays to giving wider currency to certain of them. Needless to say, the poor "Venice Sketch-Book" is relegated to the subordinate position which it is destined hereafter to occupy. The Dresden "Reading Magdalen" has to descend from her Correggiesque throne and take up her position in the ranks of her lowland companions. Gior Wiener Kunstbriefe. Von M. Thausing. (Leip-gione, on the other hand, is raised to the high zig: Seemann.) To all students of the history of art the Director of the famous Albertina Collection at Vienna has long been known as an investigator of extraordinary perseverance and power. With the majority his title to fame has mainly rested upon his work in connexion with Albrecht Dürer; but those who pursue their studies into the columns of the daily and monthly periodical literature of Germany have learnt to watch for every article from the pen of the Viennese Professor, confident that it will contain matter of more than ordinary weight and interest. The publication of this collected series of essays upon various topics connected with art will, it is to be hoped, bring a larger number of foreign readers into contact with the learned author. The subjects dealt with are very various, but they are all handled with the same firm and skilful touch. The student of place which henceforward must be his by undisputed right; and he is duly accredited, not only with the "Sleeping Venus" at Dresden, but with one, and perhaps two, pictures in the Eszterhazy Gallery in Pest. For Thausing, in accepting the method and conclusions of the Italian Senator, has done so in no cold and formal manner; he has taken them to himself as living principles, and in him they promise to produce a rich harvest. He will probably not be disposed to quarrel with us if we say that the very style of his writing has not been uninfluenced by that of "Ivan Lermolieff." Nevertheless, his own individuality is not in the least suppressed. He has come in contact, as so many others have done, with a new spirit; only he has known, more than most, how to draw increased power from the new source, and himself to advance with renewed energy along his own lines. Makart and many another of the popular artists of Vienna have long held the name of Thausing in horror; the publication of this volume is not likely to bring comfort to the soul of the painter of the " Entry of Charles V. into Antwerp." As we learn from the "Open letter to the Bügermeister of Vienna," the Keeper of the Albertina holds the singular opinion that a painter of historical pictures should have by his side a competent historian, whose advice and direction it should be his business to follow in all matters that come within his ken. Artists at Vienna, and perhaps elsewhere, may be surprised to learn that such men as Ghiberti, Perugino, and Raphael were not ashamed to place themselves under the guidance of scholars. The general public at present thinks otherwise, and the historian is left to laugh in his corner over the absurd productions of contemporary art of the historical kind. Students of social history at the period of the Reformation, for instance, have recently given vent to much unholy chuckling over the publications in connexion with the Luther commemoration. German scientific-artistic literature is wont to be wearied with discussions of interminable length upon points of detail; his complaint is that the German mind usually fails to impart a human interest to the matters with which it concerns itself, but casts the atmosphere of the dissecting-room even about the loveliest creations produced for the gladdening of the heart. With Prof. Thausing there is nothing of this. He breathes the air of the joyous Austrian capital; and in every sentence, nervous, terse, and trenchant, the author's living interest and whole-hearted enthusiasm find unconscious expression. On the other hand, let not the reader imagine that our Professor is one whit less thorough than any of his dryer contemporaries. It is his thoroughness that enables him to handle with ease matters of greatest complexity. It is hardly necessary to say that such a man, when he has come to a definite conclusion, holds his opinions strongly and expresses them plainly. Thus it was long the custom, not in Germany alone, to entrust the keeping of picture galleries and museums to the charge of retired, Among other subjects discussed in these no doubt deserving, but often unsuccessful, essays, the so-called "Giant's Portal" of the artists. Into their hands, morcover, came a cathedral at Vienna gives occasion for some good deal of the current criticism; and they wholesome remarks upon the "restoration” flooded Europe with inaccurate Catalogues disease-Phylloxera renovatrix. Akin to this and ignorant opinions. Against the retired is the question of modern forged drawings, museum director and art critic, prints, and the like with which the unwary Thansing nourishes an implacable enmity, to are still continually deceived. The Professor which from time to time he gives humorous gives an interesting account of certain inexpression. On the other hand, the whole of stances which have come under his own his sympathy, personal and literary, goes out towards his "lieben Freunde und Bruder in Rafael, Giovanni Morelli," to whom the volume is dedicated. In him he, in common artist, as notice at different times. In dealing with the question, "Was Dürer's father a Hungarian?" he is on ground which he has made peculiarly his own. The name Dürer, or, Two rather, Thüre (Dürer used a pair of doors for his seal), is the Magyar Ajtó. Now, the painter, in his own diary, tells us that his father came from "a village named Eytas, not far from Gyula, eight miles below Grosswardein," in Hungary. This does not prove that he was not the son of a German colonist there. Recently, however, it has been discovered that near Gyula are the ruins of the castle of the ancient noble Hungarian family Ajtós, and the probability that Dürer was descended from a member of this family is greatly increased. essays are consecrated to the notable sketchbook of Jaques Callot, which is among the recent acquisitions of the collection over which our author keeps guard; in one of them he admits us to a share of the littlerealised, but most keen, anxieties which tear to pieces the slumbers of museum directors when the question of securing a peculiar treasure, the question whether it be a treasure at all, is undecided. In the article on Sodoma, and in those on Lionardo da Vinci, we breathe a more peaceful atmosphere; and the accounts of a journey down the Danube, and the visits to the Eszterhazy Gallery which followed it, are all full of matters of interest, brought forward with a variety and a freshness that leave the reader always unfatigued. W. M. CONWAY. THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS. THIS second show of the Institute in the fine new rooms is a more crucial test of the great and generous change they have made than the first. In opening their exhibition to all comers they were pretty well assured that the curiosity which attends novelty would help them largely, and nearly every member was stimulated to unusual exertion in order that the experiment might not fail from any effort on his part. The result, as we know, exceeded the most sanguine expectations. But this year much of the novelty and enthusiasm of the moment has worn off, and members as a rule have scarcely exerted themselves more than was their custom in Pall Mall days; and the exhibition may therefore be viewed as a fair example of what we may expect in the future. That it is an astonishing exhibition can scarcely be maintained, that it contains any one work of supreme achievement I dare not assert, but that its average level is satisfactory may easily be granted; and there can remain little doubt that, in throwing open their galleries to all comers, the Institute acted wished that the two societies would amalganot only well, but wisely. It is still to be mate, so that we might have one exhibition each year which would authoritatively represent the state and progress of our most national art. The separation was always to be regretted from a public point of view. It was unpleasant to think of rivalry, and especially a rivalry which generated no emulation; and if no rivalry of division Was less obvious. Still, at that time both exhibitions existed, the reason were so small that it was but a small tax to visit both, and few could grumble at the journey from one part of Pall Mall to another. It is different now when the number of the pictures at the Institute reaches to thousand. To the public generally the work of "outsiders"-the future, we may say, of English over a water-colours-is of high interest; and many will find neither leisure nor inclination to enjoy the three or four hundred drawings in Pall Mall after so full a feast as the Institute provides-especially at this time of the year, when the Royal Academy and the Grosvenor are about to open their doors. The interests of the public, of this noble and specially English art, and perhaps of both societies seem alike to demand the fusion of the two bodies who together, and together only, fully represent the highest level of water-colour art in England. As might perhaps have been expected, the members have not repeated their extraordinary efforts of last year. Mr. J. D. Linton, now the President of the Institute, sends only one small drawing "Priscilla" (613), which, notwithstanding a good deal of beautiful work (the sheepskin cover of the book and the chamois pouch, for instance), is not the most attractive of his studies of this kind; and Mr. E. J. Gregory's contributions, if masterly, are small. One, under the name of "A Look at the Model," is a capital portrait of the artist. Such clever figure painters as Mr. Seymour Lucas, Mr. Charles Green, and Mr. Abbey are represented by one work only, and the same is true of one of the best landscape painters, Mr. Thomas Collier. In the latter case the drawing (427) is so fine in quality and so rich and varied a composition that, like the same artist's picture last year, to which it seems to be the fellow, it may well stand alone as a sufficient proof of skill scarcely to be equalled in its way by any other artist of this generation. Mr. Charles Green's "Tom Pinch and Ruth" (458) is also worthy of the painter-a good illustration of the famous pudding scene, and technically of very high merit. Admirable in design and very pure in feeling is Mr. Abbey's Bible Reading," the most important drawing we have seen of his, eloquent of the simplicity and piety of a Puritan household, composed of serious old ladies and sweet young women of that fresh and healthy but withal refined and gentle type which, mainly through him and Mr. Boughton, we have learnt to associate with the first settlers in New England. In this popular class of art, which may be called dramatic genre, this exhibition, if not rich, has several examples of sterling value. Mr. Frank Dadd has made considerable advance in the quality of his work, and shows, as usual, humour of a refined sort. In the "Victim of Fashion (475) we see a black poodle submitting with the trembling protest characteristic of his tribe to the hands of a barber, who is developing a moustache by the negative process of shaving his nose. The dogs, for he has to undergo the operation in public, are all well studied and life-like. Mr. Dadd paints in a light, silvery key, with strong masses of local colour, and his chief fault as a painter is that he has not always known how to keep these in subjection to the prevailing tone. There is something of this defect in this clever drawing, but it is altogether absent in his "Pigtails and Powder" (370), which, originality of design and happy humour considered, is perhaps the greatest success of the exhibition. Another drawing showing even a more decided advance over previous work is Mr. T. Walter Wilson's portrait of the President (22). Mr. J. D. Linton is represented in his studio painting his Academy picture. The portrait (a small full-length) is a characteristic likeness, and the heterogeneous "still life" of the studio is painted with great skill and care. In this work the artist seems to have entirely got rid of that somewhat patchy manner and garish colour which interfered with the due enjoyment of the many good qualities of his last year's work. An artist less known to fame than those already mentioned, Mr. H. R. T. Steer, bids fair to rival the best of them. If the red coat of his " Captain Absolute" (677) has somewhat blinded his eyes, it is an accident which, judging from his other drawings, is not likely to be often repeated. Nothing spoils the harmony of "An Interesting Volume," in which the artist has treated with great skill a very complicated scheme of light; and "A Summer Breeze" is distinguished by similar merits, and sets its little domestic drama well upon the stage. Still cleaving to his pathetic pictures of fisher life in Cornwall and to his broad and original method, Mr. Walter Langley seems to be steadily advancing to mastery, growing still larger in design and more secure in execution. All his drawings this year are admirable, from the large and noble scene in a Cornish fishing village, "Among the Missing" (275), to his study of an old woman (423). It is perhaps a matter of congratulation that he has found a new old woman, even if not of so fine a type as that we know so well. Near this fine head, and a larger drawing by Mr. Langley, in which an old man is reading the paper, are two similar subjects by Mr. Arthur Stocks; but these and his pretty "Little Rosy-cheeks (302), and all Mr. Bale's refined and beautiful work, and much else that is pretty, and clever, and praiseworthy-even Mr. Passini's brilliant "Passeggio"-must be passed by. The drawings we have named are sufficient to show how much skilful and healthy work, both humorous and pathetic, this exhibition can boast work honest, kindly, and genuine, national and vital, borrowing more from human nature than from the upholsterer, from real life than from the stage. In work of a more spiritual and imaginative order there is less movement and less success. Mr. Stock is as noble in aim as ever, and Mr. George Wilson in " Summer and the Winds" is delicate in colour and graceful (if we may be allowed the paradox) after an awkward fashion; and the measure of their success is much greater than that of Mr. Spencer Stanhope, whose dream of "Love's Peril" is surely the poorest realisation of the poorest dream that ever vexed a poet's slumber. Under the head of poetic painting may be classed Mrs. Stillman's "Luisa Strozzi (823). Portrait or not, it has a distinction of design and a richness of colour which separate it from prose life. So separated, as the poems of Mr. Dobson are separated, are the refined drawings of Mr. Fulleylove and Mr. Elgood. In a domain somewhere between fancy and reality, these artists have found a new and delightful exercise for their taste and skill. This year they fairly touch poetry of the pleasantest if not the deepest kind; and in many charming drawings full of sunshine and sweet colour they show us the terraced gardens and clipped alleys, the little fishponds and stately fountains, the level swards and flowery borders, in which our fathers delighted. It is with regret that I find myself compelled to contract within very narrow space what I have to say about the large and varied collection of pure landscape. This must either be said in many or in very few words. Of such wellknown artists as the Hines and Mr. Wimperis, Mr. Whymper and Mr. Hargitt, Mr. Frank Walton and Mr. Alfred Parsons, can more be said, without a lengthy treatise, than that they are above, or below, or on the level of their usual mark? The task of discriminating justly between the works of younger men cannot be undertaken in our space. I must therefore be content to say that, if there is nothing very new or very striking, there is plenty that worthily supports the traditions of the school. Of Mr. Thomas Collier's fine drawing I have already spok and there is an unusually large and fine disp. of the skill of Mr. H. G. Hine. This, like the of Mr. Syer, seems to wax rather than wane as years roll on. Mr. Orrock in one or two of his smaller drawings seems to me to have gone beyond his usual best, and, in a very fine drawing of "Alfriston" (948), Mr. Thorne Waite raises the hope that he will after all justify the promise of his earlier work. COSMO MONKHOUSE. EGPYT EXPLORATION FUND. IN discovering the site of the necropolis of Tanis Mr. W. Flinders Petrie has probably made the most important "find" which San yet held in store for the explorer. Mariette discovered some graves within the city precincts; but the great necropolis proves to have been extra-mural. Mr. Petrie describes it as "of considerable size;" and it is as crowded, apparently, as a London graveyard, for the upper stratum of interment lies quite near the surface. This, of course, has been much pillaged by the Arabs, but it is hoped that the more ancient and valuable sepulchres have escaped. The locality is secluded and difficult of access, and was quite unknown to Mariette. The extensive trenching of the last few weeks has brought to light a large number of ancient dwelling-houses, chiefly of Ptolemaic and Roman date, erected against and upon the gigantic temenos-wall of Pisebkhanu, which extends round three sides of the great temple, and is eighty feet in thickness. One of the most recent discoveries reported by Mr. Petrie in this part of the ruins is of a small GraecoEgyptian shrine, or chapel, occupying a cruci form recess of brickwork, which had been walled up possibly at the death of its founder. The upper end, or place of honour, was adorned with a large tablet flanked by two andro sphinxes, the tablet measuring three feet and a half in height by twenty inches in width, and the sphinxes being eighteen inches high by twenty-nine in length. The top of the tablet is rounded, and the subject is surmounted by the usual winged globe and a short inscription, below which are seen Ptolemy Phila delphus, and Arsinoë, in long Greek robes, wor shipping Khem, Horus, and Buto. Two horizontal and three vertical columns of hieroglyphed inscriptions fill the spaces above and between the heads of the deities. Ptolemy has two cartouches, and a small winged globe hovers over his head. Arsinoë, crowned with the plumes, horns, and disk of Hathor, is preceded by one cartouche. The whole of this tableau was originally gilded, and beneath it comes a pattern of striped red and blue. The bottom of the tablet is blank. Five other stelae were attached to the walls of the two siderecesses-namely, a small rough tablet of a deceased person (who may have been the founder of the chapel) with a demotic inscription; two small votive tablets to Apis, with bas-relief representations of the sacred bull; a sculptured tablet representing a king adoring Khem, Horus, Isis, and Buto; and a very well executed tablet, of Graeco-Egyptian style, messuring fourteen inches by seventeen, with fulllength figures of Ptolemy and Arsinoe in Egyp tian costume standing face to face; he wearing the Pschent, and she a head-dress composed of the helmet of Neith and the plumes and disk of Hathor. The king's left hand, uplifted. grasps an object which apparently represents s thunderbolt; but the most curious point about this stela is the fact that Arsinoe, as well as Ptolemy, has two cartouches, thus reproducing the most novel and remarkable feature in the great "Stone of Pithom discovered last year by M. Naville at Tell-el-Maskhutah. A statuette of a king twenty-two inches in height; the upper half of a tablet dedicated in memory of a "royal child," whose name, as imperfectly shown in a small photograph, seems to be Heri-Amen; two stone crowns: and a foot of a Greek statue complete the catalogue of this interesting trouvaille. The sphinxes are similar in style and treatment to the sphinxes discovered by Mariette in the avenue leading to the Serapeum at Sakkarah; but the faces are of a soft Asiatic type. Among miscellaneous objects of various kinds |