2'»<i a. VIL May 28. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



433 



swallow a camel.'" — On Hie Authorised Version of the 

 Xcic Testameiit, edit. 2. p. 172. 



It is a remarkable confirmation of this conjec- 

 ture, that in a copy of the Bishops' Bible (fol. 

 Lond,, 1602), preserved in the Bodleian, " which 

 has the original MS. corrections prepared for the 

 new edition appointed by K. James" (Bodleian 

 Catalogue), it stands thus : " which strains out a 

 gnat," &c., there being no MS. correction to the 

 preposition. But in the folio, 1611, it is "at." 



It may be seen by a mere glance at the pages of 

 this copy how much more frequent the alterations 

 from the former translation are in the Old Testa- 

 ment than in the New ; and the course which is 

 seen to have been adopted by our translators 

 might serve as an useful guide in any new revi- 

 sion. All the books are not corrected. 



In connexion with this subject, I would notice 

 a variation from the edition of 1611, which pre- 

 vailed for a time, but has now been corrected, at 

 least in the Oxford Bibles, to which alone I have 

 referred ; but which still remains in the Prayer 

 Book (Epistle for Good Friday), corresponding 

 with the original sealed books. I mean the punc- 

 tuation of Hebrews x. 12., where the comma 

 should be after the words " for ever," connecting 

 them with the clause which precedes, and not with 

 that which follows them, as was printed for some 

 time. The comma is placed rightly in the com- 

 mon Bibles, at least down to 1647 ; but was 

 changed before 1769, and so continued till 1840 at 

 least, in the editions also of Scott and Mant. It 

 was altered by 1850. The stopping is correct in 

 the Scotch Prayer Book of 1637. ^ 



There is also an incorrect rendering of a word in 

 the same Epistle (x. 23.), which neither Trench 

 nor Scholefield. mention. It is " the profession of 

 our faith" in our translation, whereas, according 

 to the Greek, it should be " the profession of our 

 hope," — eAirlSos. There is so slight a trace of 

 MS. authority for iria-nm — for Tischendorf (edit, 

 7th) does not notice it — that there could not have 

 been an intention to substitute that reading. 

 Hammond corrects the translation in his margin. 



E. M. 



Oxford. 



Alliance of Secondary with Great Powers. — 

 In July, 1797, Bonaparte wrote to Talleyrand : 



" Do you wish to annex Piedmont to the Cisalpine 

 Eepublic? The best means to eft'ect this without a shock, 

 without breaking the treat}-, without impropriety, is to 

 mix with our troops a body of 10,000 Piedmontese, who 

 are the flower of the population ; six months after, the 

 King of Sardinia will be dethroned. It is the giant who 

 embraces a pigmy, and who smothers him in his embrace, 

 without being suspected of any guilty intention. This is the 

 true policy of a great nation, which is called to high 1 

 destinies." — (VieusseuxV: Napoleon Bonaparte, i. 107.) 



T. J. BUCKTON. I 



Novelties in Clockwork, — In the Diaf'y of John 

 Evelyn I find the following entry : — 



" 24"' February, 1655. I was showed a table-clock 

 whose balance was only a crystal ball, sliding on parallel 

 wires, without being at all iixcd, but rolling from stage 

 to stage till falling ou a spring concealed from sight, it 

 was thrown up to the utmost channel again, made with 

 an imperceptible declivitj-, in this continual vicissitude of 

 motion prettily entertaining the eye ever^' half minute, 

 and the next half giving progress to the hand that 

 showed the hour, and giving notice by a small bell, so as 

 in 120 half minutes, or periods of the bullet's falling on 

 the ejaculator^- spring, the clock part struck. This very 

 extraordinarj' piece (richly adorned) had been presented 

 by some German prince to our late King, and was now ia 

 possession of the Usurper; valued at 200Z." 



Few persons would, imagine that similar pieces 

 of mechanism, still to be seen in the clockmakers' 

 windows, were the invention of two centuries 

 previous ; or that what in Cromwell's time was 

 valued at 201., could now be bought for one-tenth 

 of the sum. John Pavin Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



Quadrature of the Circle. — Of the mistakes on 

 this subject, the following is not the least amus- 

 ing : — In the Dictionary of Greek and Roman 

 Biography, ^-c, it is said that Philo of Gadara 

 extended the quadrature of the circle to ten thou- 

 sand places of decimals. The authority given is 

 Eutocius, as cited by Montucla, vol. i. p. 340. 

 Montucla's words are " jusqu'a des lOOOO"*"," as 

 far as ten-thousandths : that is, to four places of 

 decimals. I notice this because the mistake is 

 one of a kind which has occurred before, and may 

 again. The fourth place of decimals is the place 

 of ten-thousandths, which is easily confounded, so 

 far as idiom is concerned, with the ten-thousandth 

 place. A. De Morgan. 



The Talking Fish is one more illustration of the 

 trite axiom, that " there is nothing new under the 

 sun," for, between two and three hundred years 

 ago, there was a work on the subject written by 

 one Thomas Scot (with a frontispiece by El- 

 stracke), bearing the following quaint title : Phi- 

 lomytkie, or Philomythologie, wherein Outlandish 

 Birds, Beasts, and Fishes are Taught to speak 

 True English plainely, 1622. W. J. Stannaru. 



Hatton Garden. 



A Fanatical Citizens Prayer. — William Cole 

 says, "This was brought to me, Aug. 21, 1776, by 

 Dr. Ewin of Cambridge, from Dr. Colignon, who 

 took it out of an old Fog's Journal." 



" O Lord, thou knowest that I have nine houses 

 in the City of London, and likewise that I have 

 lately purchased an estate in fee simple in the 

 county of Essex. Lord, I beseech thee to pre- 

 serve the two counties of Essex and Middlesex 

 from fires and earthquakes ; and as I have a mort- 

 gage in Hertfordshire, I beg thee likewise to have 

 an eye of compassion on that county. And, Lord, 



