Pericles," by Miss Constance O'Brien; "The Authorship of Pericles," by Mr. John Williams; The Romance-Elements of Pericles," by Mr. C. H. Herford, of Manchester; "The Botany of Pericles," by Mr. Leo H. Grindon, of Manchester; and an outline of a note on "Cerimon as the supposed representative of Dr. John Hall, and on Shakspere's other representations of doctors," by the Rev. H. P. Stokes, of Wolverhampton. Mr. John Taylor had also "The Imagery of Pericles." a paper on THE Volunteer Service Review will henceforth be published by Messrs. Wyman & Sons. M. ACHILLE FOUQUIER, the author of Chants populaires espagnols, is preparing a translation of the best of Gustavo Becquer's Spanish tales, to be illustrated with five etchings by Arcos. DR. RICHARD FRICKE, of Hasslinghausen, has just issued at Brunswick an essay of 104 pages on the "Robin Hood Ballads." THE Revue critique of January 1 announces that its prosperity is now assured-"la revue ne lutte plus pour l'existence; elle est assurée de vivre, et de bien vivre." We cannot let the opportunity pass without congratulating the editors upon the manner in which they have not only maintained, but also developed quite recently, the principles upon which the Revue critique was founded eighteen years ago. HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS. knighted by Charles I. for the gallantry he dis- MR. ALFRED N. PALMER, of Wrexham, has THE new number of the Genealogist, with which a fresh series of this periodical begins, is full of interesting matter. A reprint of the Visitation of Berkshire taken in 1566 is commenced. The paper on the ravishment of Sir John Eliot's son proves by historical evidence that Mr. Forster's statement in the Life of the patriot is incorrect. There are copious extracts from parish registers, notes on two or three old families, and a review of the metrical Chronicle of Edward the Black Prince, recently published by Mr. Fotheringham. Altogether the number is a very good one, and the new editor-Mr. Walford Selby-deserves our con MRS. HERBERT JONES, of Sculthorpe, Faken-gratulations. The first instalment of the new Peerage by G. E. C. occupies thirty-two pages coloured by hand, of the ten miniature portraits THE Norwich Mercury recently obtained a of such documents. THE sixth volume of Bracton's Commentaries on the Laws and Customs of England, edited by Sir Travers Twiss, has recently appeared in the Rolls Series, concluding the work. The Introduction throws new light on several interesting points of early English history, and more especially on the Council of Merton in Henry II.'s reign, in which the barons of England made their famous declaration, "quod nolumus leges Angliae mutare." Two contributions to the genealogical history of West-country houses have recently appeared. Mr. B. W. Greenfield traces with great caresubstantiating his statements by extracts from public records and other authentic sources-the descent of the Somersetshire family of Meriet from the thane Eadnoth, who was slain in 1068, to Sir John de Meriet (of Meriet) and his halfbrother, Thomas Meriet, of Stantwich, both of whom died before Henry V.'s reign closed. A good deal of antiquarian matter is scattered over the pages (119) of Mr. Greenfield's brochure, and some new light thrown upon the genealogies of Bonville, Carew, Seymour, and Paynel-names well known in the West of England. The history of the Bretts, of White Staunton, Somerset, from 1483 to 1749 is given by the Rev. Frederick Brown with less minuteness. Two members of the family gained some distinction-viz., Edward Brett, who was upon a statement in the number for June 2, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. C. Burdett (Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.); Joseph Barclay, Third Anglican Bishop of Jeru salem: a Missionary Biography (Partridge); Grammar and Logic in the Nineteenth Century, as seen in a Syntactical Analysis of the English Language, by J. W. F. Rogers (Trübner); A Guide to the Legal Profession, by J. Herbert Slater (Upcott Gill); Mathieson's Vade Mecum for Investors (Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.); An Almanack of the Christian Era: a Record of the Solar Physics, by A. H. Surnton (W. H. Allen); Past and Glimpse into the Future, based on The New Principia; or, the Astronomy of the Future, by Newton Crossland (Trübner); Work for Women, by Elizabeth Kingsbury (Bickers); Good Lives: Some Fruits of the Nineteenth Century, by A. Macleod Symington (Edinburgh: David Douglas); Life and Teaching of John Ruskin, by J. Marshall Mather (Manchester: Tubbs, Brook, & Chrystal); Rambling Sketches in the Far North and Orcadian Musings, by R. Menzies Fergusson (Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.); The Course of Empire: Outlines of the Chief Political Changes in the History of the World, by Charles Gardner Wheeler (Boston, U.S.: Osgood); Sithron, the Star-Stricken, translated from an Ancient Arabic Manuscript, by Salem ben Uzair (Redway); Gleanings from God's Acre: being a Collection of Epitaphs, by John Potter Briscoe (Hamilton, Adams, & Co.); Letters to a Son preparatory to School Life, by Francis Burdett Money Coutts (Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.); "Anchor Series "-Strawberry Hill, by Clara Vance, and Glencoe Parsonage, by Mrs. A. E. Porter (Edinburgh: Gemmell); Original Essays, by S. Tolver Preston (Williams & Norgate); Evolution as Taught, a Myth Illusive and Degrading (Ballantine, Hanson, & Co.) ; &c., &c. ORIGINAL VERSE. SCHUBERT'S SYMPHONY IN B MINOR. I SHUDDER at the awful airs that flow Wild tender cries that sing and dance and go In wonderful sweet troops. I cannot know What rends within my soul what unseen veil, Was I long since thrust forth from Heaven's door, The pulse of nature turned to laws of art? MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS. AMID the dearth of anything of permanent value in our magazines recently, it is refreshing to come upon an article in this month's Macmillan on "The Literature of Introspection," by M. A. W. It is a finely conceived and carefully written piece of criticism. Its general object is to illustrate the value of the literature of reverie as a means of extending psychological knowledge and power of expression. It deserves attentive reading. WE have on our table:-The English Flower recent novels. THE Theologisch Tijdschrift for January contains a noteworthy article by J. H. A. Michelsen against the critical conclusions of Dr. Westcott and Dr. Hort as to the text of the New Testament; a copious collection of facts supports his argument. Dr. Prins throws much light on the seemingly contradictory reasons given in the Gospels for the parabolic form of Christ's teaching; Dr. Blom discusses the pictures of future calamities in the middle of the Book of Revelation. The reviews and notices of books are of less importance than usual. THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION. Ferrari, being the first of a series of articles on behind him. Two letters from H.I.M. the the modern Italian drama; and an excellent Sultan disclaim all confidence in "Ismail, notice (descriptive rather than critical) of Halim, or Tewfik," and openly offer Egypt to At the end are letters from the Egyptian." It was easy to establish the Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Belgrade, fact that Arábi was declared a rebel because he and other cities. Each article is presented in a did not beat the English at Alexandria, as he French which would do credit to a child of was ordered to do; and that he was made the Paris. The English agents for the Revue inter-scape-goat for Khedivial and national sins. As nationale are Messrs. Trübner. Mr. Punch says, "Tools are made to be sold." Despite the Blue-Books, those melancholy memorials of mistakes, whose "aim is to disclose as little as possible, to make the rough smooth, the crooked straight, and to create pleasant impressions of a more or less ambiguous and indistinct nature," it was equally easy to prove the existence of a National movement and a National Party consisting of some five millions of souls, and officered by princes and princesses; ministers and presidents; the National Council and Assembly of Notables, Patriarchs and Rabbis, Ulema and Kázis, the highest officials and, briefly, "all Pachadom." To resume the long story. Political imbecility, financial mismanagement, the employment of bouches inutiles with monstrous salaries, and the greed of bourgeois-shareholders raised up universal Egypt against England and France; and she found a fitting leader in Arábi, the Fellah-pasha. The Porte, hoping once more to conduct into shrunken and starveling Constantinople a Nile flowing lire and piastres, resolved that the Khedivial family should, in Napoleonic phrase, cease to reign.' Grand old Mohammed Ali was to be succeeded by a mere Pasha, or general, removable at will, and retainable only while douceurs, avanies, and tributes came in regularly. Hence the scandalous gift of the Medjidiah and the flattering letter to the future Rebel. But the Fellah is né malin. He countered the Turkish project by a hint about transferring his allegiance from a Caliph ("Successor"), whose claims rest upon a dubious base, to the Sherif of Mecca, the direct descendant of the Apostle of Allah, whose right of succession, if he chose to assert it, is indefeasible. So England was left to hack at and, lastly, to cut the Gordian knot, and to destroy a nationality of whose birth and being she was profoundly ignorant. I. How we Defended Arábi and his Friends: a MR. A. M. BROADLEY is well known in India, better in Tunis, and best in Cairo, where his defence of "[Ahmed] Arábi the Egyptian (= El Mizri, .e., of Egypt) made an epoch. He has done well to wait for a year till the collapse of the new Joint Control, Egyptian and English; and his portly volume appears at a most timely hour when the Nile Valley threatens to be the burning question of 1884. He speaks of events quorum pars magna fuit; his able special pleading utters no uncertain note; and his motto ("Allah make thee conqueror, O Arábi!") appears in Arabic on the binding and the titlepage (vilely written), and in English on pp. 56, 173, and 502. Nor does he spare, for the benefit of the very few who can read between the lines, some choice innuendos. The tragi-comedy begins from the beginning retainer in London, and culminates in the catastrophe (chap. xxv.), the tale being told in a chatty, readable style which conceals a variety of sharpish stings. The curtain draws up on the clever tactics of Mr. Secretary Borelli Bey and the treacherous obstruction of his chief, Riváz Pasha. By pluck, persistence, and working the home press, Messrs. Broadley and Napier secured, in the preliminary skirmish, "three considerable advantages-viz., admission to the instruction, or enquiry; a right to address the court, and, what was more important, to argue from a political point of view." The enemy was then short-sighted enough to formulate the following charges against (Ahmed) Arabi and others, who were accused 1. Of having hoisted the white flag at Alexandria on the morning of the 12th July. and at the same time of having caused the burning and pillage cf the said town. 2. Of having excited the Egyptians to arm against the Khedive. And here the question is-Had Arábi and his two fellow-poseurs, Ali Fehmi and Abd el-Al, the head, the heart, and the hand to control this same National movement? The least sign of weakness would have made the programme something of this kind. Forced requisitions to be called gifts and contributions. Turks and Circassians, Bulgarians and Albanians, to be abolished by deportation to Fayzoghlu. A general cutting of Coptic and Armenian throats; and a wiping off of the " vipers," as Arábi calls the village usurers. A wholesale dismissal of European employés. The absolute repudiation of debt; and, lastly, severance from the civilised world, and the final triumph of El-Islam. I do not doubt that under such circumstances and with such expectations "Egyptian nationalism was a genuine, spontaneous, and universal expression of the aspirations of five millions of Egyptian people" (p. 434). To return to our review of the melodrame. When all Cairo was looking forward, in pleased political linen,' excitement, to a "public washing of dirty and when even the longest heads could not see a way out of the impasse, the Commission of Enquiry was suddenly resolved into a fancy court-martial, before which the seven accused were brought upon the simple charge of rebellion; they were condemned to death en bloc, and the "legal farce" ended, after a few minutes' display, with a reprieve and a sentence of banishment. Such was the dinoûment of the drama on a certain Sunday, December 3, 1882. This seasonable compromise was evidently the work of a master-hand. Happily for our national name, Lord Dufferin had been sent to Cairo; his genuine political sagacity and sound common-sense had taken in the situation, and his acuteness had suggested the " arrangement out of court." The French party, jealous and hate-full as ever, had been charmed with our dilemma: if put to death, Arábi would have become a Shahid, or martyr; if allowed to live, it was because the Káfir feared to kill him. Our "lively neighbours" revenged themselves upon Lord Dufferin by declaring Ce n'est pas un homme sérieux. The saying was neat and terse-only untrue. and press, With a few I was in Egypt during the cause célèbre, and found reason to blush for the general bearing of Europeans, including the local especially the Egyptian Gazette. notable exceptions the residents had shown excessive poltroonery. The only explanation is that they were surprised, scared, demoralised by the fanatic soldiery, and by the murderous police taking part with a mob dastardly, superstition-smit, and bloodthirsty as it was in the days of Hypatia. Whenever and wherever a gallant little knot of Europeans combined to defend itself against the canaille, they fled like a flock of sheep. It is well to note, and to remember the fact, especially throughout the country parts of Egypt, where bad days may still be in store. But men who have been scared are rarely merciful; after they get the upper hand they would be as cruel as they were cowardly. It was a sight to see their hangdog looks, and to hear them whining "he showed us no pity," when they learnt that Arábi and Co. were not to be sus. per coll. or shot, or even flogged at a cart-tail. In Mr. Broadley's little picture gallery only one figure is made to stand out from the mass of human matter around it. Yet his hero, Arábi the "Saviour of Egypt," is essentially unheroic. The big, burly, brawny Fellah-pasha had a certain measure of command; but those he commanded were dwarfs, cripples, and deformities utterly unfit to make a nation. He has never shown even the vulgar quality of personal courage. He did not "feather his nest," like the normal Pasha; but neither did he disdain to acquire the proprietary village of Hurriyah ("Liberty "), near Zagázig. His coadjutors were poor creatures; and their visages patibulaires, aided by the photo-mechanical printer, speak for themselves. Ali Fehmi, "the chief engineer," boasts (p. 319), "If I had completed the works at Tel-el-Kebir, your countrymen would not have taken them so easily! Perhaps. The final battle was fought at a simple outpost, a first line of trenches dug in the desert. The main defence was to be near Zagázig, where the hoed and flooded fields, cut by a network of small canals, would have been ugly to cross as that about Kafr Dawár. But, with an inconsequence which denoted all their actions, Arábi and his Arabists neglected to lay out the second line; and thus the decisive action took place on ground where half-disciplined and unofficered men had no chance against regulars and the admirable arrangements of their general. It is amusing to inspect the dwarf figures around the Colossus. Sir E. B. Malet "erred from a complete want of trustworthy information" (p. 352); but how could it be otherwise? "Mahdi or Saviour" (p. 353) gives a measure of what he was allowed to learn. Very small indeed looms the "young and amiable Prince" of official rose-water. His father describes him as having ni tête, ni cœur, ni courage; others, as "weak and capricious, inexperienced and unworthy;" and his "almost indescribable unpopularity" will go down to posterity in the Fellah's rhyming doggerel (p. 503) :— 'Ant-faced Tewfik! who bade thee place Thy country in such parlous case?" Imbecility of purpose, combined with "honest love of intrigue for its own sake," is the one sin never forgiven in an Eastern ruler; and Mr. Broadley is justified in quoting (p. 377): As long as Tewfik reigns there will be no peace for Egypt." 66 At length "Araby the Blest" is shipped off for the "Paradise of Adam; " and the author, concerning whom the vilest reports were spread, leaves Egypt in the form of a Cookite.' He bequeaths an especial sting in his last chapter, Egypt Present and To Come." In capitals he tells us 66 "WE MUST FALL BACK ON THE NATIONAL He assures us, and with truth, "a twelve be in a fair way to create an "intelligent, active, and ubiquitous provincial constabulary." But neither of these able and experienced officers could prevail against Fellah superstition. Arábi can, and only Arábi can. The frightful defeat of Hicks Pasha and the destruction of the two relieving parties from Suakin suggest, moreover, that, while "The Egyptian" raises the Bedawin tribes, Kabbábísh and others, our only remedy for the evil will be five thousand British bayonets-costly, but not so costly as doing nothing. For the Sudan, once thoroughly aroused, would light a fire sufficient to enflame the Moslem world. It is sad to read such craven counsels as retreating to Khartúm, and even fixing the frontier at Assoan, and to think at the same time how such measures would but increase the evil. Setting aside the sentimental view, the wilful waste of blood and gold poured during the last fifty years into the "Equatorial Provinces,' our mal-advisers would create a focus of fanaticism and of agressive Islamism that would begin by extending its influence throughout Northern Africa from Suez to Sús. It would so weaken Egypt that the "King of Kings," Johannes of Ethiopia, would find ample opportunity to carry out the plans of the last three centuries. It would give new life to the slave trade, the serpent scotched and not slain by Baker and Mr. Hake's "uncrowned king." I need not trouble you with a host of minor matters, such as closing the heart of Africa to travellers, and allowing these wealthy regions, where European interests are rapidly developing, to relapse into utter barbarism. The portrait of Riyáz Pasha is etched in with nitric acid. He is the typical donkey-boy on horseback, the best disliked man in Egypt; and this eminence he owes only to his own merits. The son of a Jew renegade, he was taken from the streets to become a "gaudily dressed long-start' haired boy in the household of Said Pasha". a den of unspeakable abominations. His bad French, learnt late in life, his mean appearance, his croaking accents, and his ill-fame for treachery and over-astuteness were neutralised by the strong will and tenacity of the Hebrew, and by the rabid fanaticism of the "vert; and, risen to power by the ruin of his patron, he became a persona grata in the eyes of Lord Beaconsfield. His ignoble treatment of Chinese It is not impossible that Arábi's services may Gordon should not be forgotten by Englishmen. be positively required. The coming question is Pecuniarily honest," he has girdled himself the Sudan, which has already assumed formidwith relations highly placed and well paid by able dimensions, and which will, if further misthe public service; and they must be "squared managed, attain gigantic proportions. In Cairo on all occasions. He is vindictive as a Mac-I saw a train-full of half-uniformed peasants cabee: "Riyaz Pacha and I [said M. Jablin after bearing bag and baggage, including Remingwriting L'Egypte nouvelle] cannot live in the tons. Some ten thousand of these wretches same country now!' He seems to have treated were to be mustered at Suez, and sent, under Mr. Broadley with the courtesy becoming his Gen. Hicks, to the Upper Nile provinces origin. Turks and Egyptians are gentlemen in with the view of putting down an insurrection official communications; this man borrows the which we should have nipped in the bud. They worst French style (and what can be worse?) looked already beaten, and I pitied the officers from the sycophant clerks who conduct his who were to command them. Then, as now, correspondence. He should be compelled to the arch-enemy was El-Mahdi, the "false follow his feeble, unstable chief; and, until he Prophet" of the European Press, a title which does so, "he will ever be a thorn in our side." very exactly describes what he is not. On the other hand, Mr. Broadley is thoroughly D'Herbelot has told the world that the Twelfth unfair and unjust to Sherif and Nubár Pashas Imám or Antistes, the lineal descendant of the -ad majorem Arabi gloriam. Sherff is no Apostle of Allah, and the legal religious head genius, nor was Lord Melbourne, but he is of Pan-Islamism, born in A.H. 255 (= A.D. 868), something better for his position he is a was Abu 'l-Kásim Mohammed, surnamed Elgentleman by birth and education, in manners Mahdi, or the Director (in the path of the and ideas. Nubár, of the International Tri- True Faith). He mysteriously disappeared bunals, has all the talents of the Armenian-(probably murdered) under Caliph El-Mohtadi; perhaps the cleverest race that now exists; and, a name from the same root (El-hady salvaas his long career proves, he is a statesman with tion), No. 14 of the Abbaside or Baghdad progressive ideas who has no terror of innova- House. One of the many Redivivi noticed in tion. He has ever proved himself a firm friend history, he declared that he would remain to England, and he will continue to do so. hidden, hence his title "El-Mutabattan," and he would re-appear in the last days; he would lead a reformed El-Islam to universal dominion, and he would thus prepare the way for certain other second comings. Consequently, every great political heave of Mohammedanism, in Africa as in Asia, has thrown up one or more Mahdis, mostly impostors, but sometimes, I doubt not, honest and self-believing enthusiasts. They generally die at the hands of their bigoted and infuriated mobs; but, meanwhile, they may do abundant damage. I found It is by no means difficult to guess how the little was known in Cairo of this latest barrister-at-law would ree the "riddle of June 11 "Director" except that he is an inspired carand June 12," when the main square of Alexan-penter and dervish. Even his name, "Modria was burnt. A most interesting document (pp. hammed Ahmed" of Dongola, means nothing. 440-50) is Arábi's memorandum of Egyptian Great men, religious or laical, always prefix, on reform (November 25, 1882), printed in parallel promotion, either "Mohammed" or some columns with Lord Dufferin's celebrated Re- variant; thus Tewfik is Mohammed Tewfik, organisation Scheme (February 6, 1883). The and Arábi is Ahmed Arábi. former commands our attention when he proposes a constitutional government with a "council of ministers, each responsible for his acts towards the whole cabinet, and the ministry, as a body, responsible to the country": the clog is absolutely necessary if "the ruler of Egypt must be an Egyptian," though this has never happened since the days of the Pharaohs. Not equally good is the idea of an Elective Chamber and a Chamber of Notables, chosen by free vote, to remain in office for five years, with legislative powers and a consultative voice for government use. Surely one chamber of 'Umdah (notables) is enough, and over-enough, to begin with. But readers must study the document for themselves. After the tragic-comic catastrophe the colours of the book fade for a while; yet there are tid-bits eminently worth digesting. Homereaders will do well to take to heart the following sentence, whose contents I have vainly repeated to them a dozen times : "In no part of the world do women contrive to exercise so much real political power as in the East; and there is probably no Oriental country in which their influence is so potent a factor in State affairs as in Egypt" (p. 373). "The Mahdi of the Sudan," said Arábi, "is the enemy of the Arabs because we know him to be an impostor []. We are Sunnis, and believe the Saviour of Islam [] will come of the Arab tribe of Koreish [Kuraysh], to which I myself belong." Setting aside this peculiar claim, we note that Arábi holds to the Fatwa or religious decree issued by the chief Ulema of El-Azhar. But I vehemently doubt that Fellah troops or even the Turkish Nizam, officered by Europeans, will fight against any Mahdi; and I believe that if they do fight it will be in a half-hearted way that secures defeat. Sir Evelyn Wood's "curious experiment may have done much to raise the status of the Egyptian soldier; and Baker Pasha may He But it is time to take leave of Mr. Broadley, and, in so doing, I must compliment him upon his exceptional freedom from mistakes. must not, however, describe El-Azhar as a "Moslem university almost as old as Islam itself" (p. 175). In p. 193 he is unjust to my noble and heroic friend the late Abd el-Kadir. "Molasem" (p. 232) is evidently a misprint; but "Ulema and journalist" (p. 237) sounds very badly: 'Ulema, like 'Umdeh, is a plural form. Is it pedantic to remark that the sentence 'Osman Pasha Fouzy was neither deprived of his honours or rank" (p. 371) is school-girl English, or, rather, not English at all? The note (p. 475) "Generally written Mahdi; I think Mehdi the more correct reading of the Arabic," should be erased; and to explain Mahdi by Messiah introduces a misleading idea. Finally, I must join issue with the learned barrister-at-law upon the subject of English Freemasonry, at least out of England. I have always found it acutely political wherever politics raged, and mostly used by the Protestant as a weapon against the Catholic. In Syria it has admitted not a few Moslems, and some of them are, perhaps, the completest rogues I ever had an opportunity to study. RICHARD F. BURTON. SELECTED FOREIGN BOOKS. GENERAL LITERATURE. TISSOT, V., et C. AMERO. Les Contrées mystérieuses et les Peuples inconnus. WARSBERG, A. Frhr. v. Paris: Firmin-Didot. 15 fr. 1. Bd. Wien: Graeser. 8 M. HISTORY. CODEX diplomaticus Anhaltinus. Hrsg. v. O. v. Heine- Ein Beitrag zur Topographie u. Geschichte Athens. 1. Abtlg. Berlin: Weidmann. 10 M. 4 M. Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey," "watches closely," eyes with suspicion, ," is not satisfactory. In the third passage-all the BISKUPSKI, L. Beiträge zur slavischen Dialektologie. passages, oddly enough, occur in one play PHILOLOGY. I. Die Sprache der Brodnitzer Kaschuben im Kreise SITLIEN, altitalische. Hrsg. v. C. Pauli. 2. Hft. ZIFTSCH, A. Ueb. Quelle u. Sprache d. mittelenglischen Akadem. Buchhandlg. 1 M. "I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard, Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and Fulfil your pleasure," either "if you suspect me' or "if you dislike or object to me may pass for a rendering. Gedichtes Séege od. Batayle of Troye. Göttingen: And in passages in Ben Jonson and in Massinger where the phrase occurs the meaning "dislikes" is, I think, preferable. However, this meaning will not suit the passage quoted by Mr. Bullen from "The Scornful Lady." it possible that there may be two phrases "to bear hard"-one Latinistic, one equestrian? The point deserves investigation. CORRESPONDENCE. THE EPITAPH ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. Athenaeum Club: Jan. 4, 1884. Permit me to tell your correspondent the story of the Countess of Pembroke's epitaph, with a preface that may be generally useful. In the Jacobean age the herse was a stage of wood, with sable drapery, set up in the centre of the church to support the coffin during the funeral, and afterwards removed to stand over the grave in the chancel or chapel until the marble tomb was ready to replace it. While the herse was so standing, a poetic mourner might lay upon it a scroll containing appropriate verse. Such a written scroll was an epitaph. In October 1621 William Browne laid upon the herse of the Countess Dowager of Pemtroke, then standing in Salisbury Cathedral, an pitaph-a scroll in which he had written these very lines, without stops or signature: "Underneath this sable Herse Lyes the subject of all verse Marble Pyles let no man raise To her name for after dayes Some kind woman borne as she Reading this like Niobe Shall turn Marble & become Both her Mourner and her Tombe" Collectors of such pieces wrote this, often from Is Meanwhile, will someone derive and illustrate the equestrian phrase, the phrase to bear a horse hard in the sense of "to keep a tight rein over"? Such a use of bear is surely to be noticed. It may come, I suppose, from the idea of "holding up." Was it ever common to speak of bearing a horse either hard or softly? JOHN W. HALES. songster," the h being an insertion; secondly, 66 66 any other Greek author than Aristophanes definitely uses Telekâs for a woodpecker: A has more common name of this bird is δρυοκολάπτης, However, it seems certain that the name of as used by Aristotle, or öpuñoλáπтηs in Aves, 480. Texas to denote a woodpecker gradually fell into disuse, and that the word was at length writers do not appear to have adopted this restricted to mean the pelican. Latin classical Greek word; pelecanus, or pellicanus, however, is used by Jerome in Ps. ci.; Pliny (x. 47) preserved for us the Greek word voкpóтaλos which does not appear to exist in any of the a pelican "), (evidently from his description writings of the Greek classical authors; onocrotalus also occurs in the Vulgate (Lev. xi. 18). Cicero (De Nat. Deor. ii. 49) evidently refers to what Aristotle has said respecting the alleged habit of the pelican to swallow shell-fish and, after a partial digestion, to throw them up again and pick out the flesh from the opened valves, but he calls the bird platalea, which modern naturalists apply to the spoonbill. I ask permission to notice certain similar Pliny merely repeats Cicero's account, and calls Greek bird-names, two of which occur in the the bird platea. But perhaps the most curious Aves of Aristophanes, as a rather curious his- thing in connexion with the pelican is the old tory attaches to them. Dr. Kennedy, in his story about its feeding its young ones with its admirable verse-translation of this play-a own blood; and, as this story seems to imply the translation which, while it rivals those of Frere probability of our English word " 'pelican and Cary (themselves excellent) in spirit, versi-having been once used for some other than the fication, and wit, surpasses both in its literal water-bird of that name, I will return to it on rendering of the Greck-gives "pelicans" as another occasion. W. HOUGHTON. the meaning of the πελεκάντες (τέκτονες σοφώτατοι) in his note on this passage (1. 1155). The passage itself is thus rendered THREE GREEK BIRD-NAMES. Preston Rectory, Wellington, Salop: THE MYTH OF CRONUS. " Settrington, York: Jan. 7, 1884. To take counsel of Hottentots or Maoris in order to interpret the Hesiodic poems is a dangerous and needless process, if they can be easily and reasonably explained as transparent nature-myths. A study of the Vedic hymns enabled Bréal and Kuhn to found that school of scientific mythology which, during the last forty years, has interpreted, with marvellous Greek myths; and it seems reasonable to assume sagacity and success, the greater number of the that the few obstinate legends which have hitherto resisted analysis will ultimately yield to the powerful philological solvent which, in other cases, has been so successful, without our being obliged to resort to a nostrum which, if tested by results, has hitherto proved to be "no method at all." Fully admitting, as Mr. Lang asserts, that no satisfactory interpretation of the myth of Cronus has, as yet, been advanced, I am, nevertheless, loth to give it up as hopeless, and would venture to submit, for his consideration, a solution on the old orthodox lines. Hence ISAAC TAYLOR. that these myths are merely poetical presenta- an English copyright of an American book can Jan. 7, 1881. The Mr. Lang, in his interesting letter in the ACADEMY of January 5, refers to the universal diffusion of a certain class of fables, in which one divinity figures as the devourer of another. This form of myth is probably nothing more than the manner in which the striking phenomena of eclipses of the heavenly bodies present themselves to the savage mind. Australian story of a creative god swallowed by the moon, and disgorged on the latter being threatened with a tomahawk, is a transparent allegory of a solar eclipse, a phenomenon ascribed in China to the devouring of the luminary by a dragon frightened into abandoning its prey by a general charivari. To begin with, it may be affirmed that the explanation of the name Cronus, which Mr. Lang attributes to Max Müller, but which is really, I believe, due to the acuteness of Welcker, has been generally accepted by mythologists as sufficient. Hence we may regard Zeus or Dyaus, "the bright sky," as, originally, the son of Uranus or Varuna, "the overarching heaven." Therefore, we may assume that Cronus, who is not a Vedic conception, has been interpolated in the genealogy of the celestial personages owing to a comparatively late Hellenic Volks-Etymologie, which arose out of a misapprehension as to the meaning of the epithets Κρονίων and Κρονίδης applied to Zeus. the myths originally told of Uranus and Zeus were transferred either to Uranus and Cronus, or to Cronus and Zeus. Anyhow, we are justified in interpreting the legend of Cronus as a legend relating to some aspect of the heavens. We may now attempt an explanation, as a nature-myth, of the story of Heaven swallowing and disgorging his own children, as well as the stone which had been given him by the Earth. The key seems to lie in the physical fact that the actual stone believed to have been disgorged by the Heaven was religiously preserved in the temple at Delphi. This stone, which fell down from heaven, must have been an aerolite. Other such aerolites were, we know, treasured and revered in other temples. At Ephesus "the image which fell down from Jupiter" (donerés) was regarded as an image of Artemis, a daughter of Heaven. At Tauris, according to Euripides, there was another meteoric image of Artemis, διοπετές ἄγαλμα, οὐρανοῦ Téσnua. At Athens, as Pausanias and Pliny A BUDDHIST BIRTH-STORY IN CHAUCER. relate, there was another, which was considered Highgate: Jan. 7, 1884. to be an image of Athena, a daughter of the Sky. The Palladium of Troy was also doubt-in the ACADEMY of December 22, Prof. Paul Referring to Mr. Francis's communication less a meteoric stone; and we may probably Meyer asks me to point out that ten years ago, regard the mis-shapen copper idol figured in in the pages of Romania, Prof. d'Ancona, in Schliemann's Troja (p. 168), which exhibits the examining into the sources and versions of familiar form and appearance of an aerolite, as the eighty-third story in Cento Novelle antiche a reproduction, on a smaller scale, of the Palla-(analogous to the incident of the robbers in dium itself, which fell from heaven. With this clue the rest of the myth presents no insuperable difficulties. The innumerable children of the overarching heaven are the stars-babes born in the evening and constantly swallowed up by their parent a few hours after birth. A flight of falling stars-possibly the November meteors-would be the disgorgement of the children who have been swallowed. The meteoric stone preserved at Delphi may have come down among such a flight of falling stars. This stone, which-though it came down from heaven-was to all outward appearance a terrestrial rather than a celestial body, was therefore said to have been presented by Mother Earth to Father Heaven, and disgorged by him together with his true children, the falling stars. The probable connexion of the words sidus and alonpos indicates that the earliest knowledge of metallic iron was derived from aërolites, many of which are solid masses of "meteoric iron." One of these of crescent form may have given rise to the legend of the "iron "sideric or sickle. The story of the mutilation is more difficult to explain; but it may be suggested that possibly the crescent moon was regarded as mutilating the centre of the sky to prevent him from procreating the infant stars whom, at their setting, he carried down and hid away in dark places of the earth. Thus the main elements of this curious myth can be explained on the same principles by which so many of the Greek nature-myths have already been interpreted. Whether, with Mr. Lang, we should consider that "the irrational element in Greek myths is a survival from savagery," or, with other mythologists, believe That The fable of the divinity who swallows and seen 66 66 APPOINTMents for NEXT WEEK. MONDAY, Jan. 14, 5 p.m. London Institution: “Th Art Season of 1883." by Mr. Henry Blackburn. 7.45 p.m. Statistical. 8 p.m. Royal Academy: "Art as influenced the Men," III., Artists of the Fifteenth Century, by Mr. J. E. Hodgson. TUESDAY, Jan. 15. 3 p.m. Royal Institution: “The 8.30 p.m. Zoological: "The Placenta of Tetraceros quadricornis," by Mr. W. F. R. Weldon; "Some Crustaceans from the Mauritius," by Mr. E. J. Miers: "Varieties and Hybrids among the Salmonidae." by Mr. F. Day. WEDNESDAY, Jan. 16, 8 p.m. Society of Arts: "Electric 8 p.m. British Archaeological: "The Remains found in the Anglo-Saxon Tumulus at Taplow," by Dr. Joseph Stevens. THURSDAY, Jan. 17, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: "The 5 p.m. London Institution: "Explosives," by Mr. H. Dixon. 8 p.m. Royal Academy: "Art as influenced by the Men," IV., The Renaissance or Poetical Period, by Mr. J. E. Hodgson. 8 p.m. Linnean: "Revision of the Tuber-bearing Species of Solanum," by Mr. J. G. Baker; "The Hypopus Question. or Life-history of Certain Acarina," by Mr. A. D. Michael; Burmese Desmidicae," by Mr. W. Joshua. 66 8 p.m. Civil Engineers: "The Steam Engine," by Mr. E. A. Cowper. FRIDAY, Jan. 18, 8 p.m. Philological: "A Dictionary Evening," by Dr. J. A. H. Murray. 9 p.m. Royal Institution: "Rainbows," by Prof. Tyndall. and Literature under Charles I.," I., by Prof. Henry Morley. Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale"), had already L. TOULMIN SMITH. ENGLISH PUBLISHERS AND AMERICAN BOOKS. In to-day's ACADEMY you ask how much the SCIENCE. The Massorah, compiled from Manuscripts, Al- banish. The The nature of the Massorah is a subject concerning which not me rely ordinary readers, but probably also a good many students, have |