84 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"dS. N«67.,Jan. 31.'6t. 



quod hominem sibi Deus religaverit et pietate constrinx- 

 erit." 



" Two links of the Chain," says Archbishop Leighton, 

 " (namely, Election and Salvation), are up in Heaven in 

 God's own Hand; but this middle one (that is, Effectual 

 Calling) is let down to earth, into the hearts of His chil- 

 dren, and they laying hold on it have sure hold on the 

 other two : for no power can sever them," &c.* 



To the Golden Chain of Prayer, Tennyson 

 beautifully alludes in an exquisite passage of his 

 Morte (T Arthur : — 



" Pray for my Soul. More things are wrought by 

 Prater 

 Than the World dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice 

 Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 

 For what are Men better than sheep or goats 

 That nourish a blind life within the brain, 

 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of Prayer 

 Both for themselves and those who call them friend? 

 For so tiie whole round Earth is every way 

 Bound by Gold Chains about the Feet of God." 



Lord Bacon makes a beautiful application of the 

 Homeric Myth : 



" Out of the contemplation of Nature, or ground of 

 human Knowledge, to induce anj' verity or persuasion 

 concerning the points of Faith, is in my judgment not 

 safe: Da Fidei, qua: Fidei sunt, 'Give unto Faith the 

 things that are Faith's.' For the Heathens themselves 

 conclude as much in that excellent and Divine Fable of 

 The Golden Chain : That men and Gods ivere not able 

 to draw Jupiter down to the earth ; but contrariwise, Jupiter 

 was able to draw them up to Heaven. So we ouglit not to 

 attempt to draw down or submit the M\'steries of God to 

 our Reason ; but contrariwise to raise and advance our 

 Reason to the Divine Truth." — Ado. of Luarn., Picker- 

 ing's edn., p. 132. 



I would here refer to a passage in an excellent 

 work which is not within reach at present, — 

 Blackwell's Letters on Mythology, Lond. 1748, 

 8vo. p. 393. 



Lucian of Samosata, contrasting the Celestial 

 Siren of Divine Love with the Terrestrial or 

 Aphroditic, says of the former, — 



" The other is that Golden Chain which was let down 

 from Heaven, and with a divine fury ravisheth our souls 

 made to the Image of God, and stirs us up to comprehend 



• Quoted in Coleridge's Aids, sixth edit., p. 40. 



I remember having somewliere seen three Religious 

 Emblems : the 1st was called The Attraction of the Fa- 

 tlier, and represented a Hand in the clouds holding a 

 Golden Chain, the end of which passed through the up- 

 lifted hands of a kneeling figure, and was attached to his 

 heart ; underneath were the texts Hosea, xi. 4. ; John, vi. 

 44. The '2nd Emblem was entitled The Attraction of the 

 Crucified, and represented our Saviour on the Cross, on a 

 lofty hill, with a Golden Chain issuing from His Heart, 

 and held at the other end by a number of persons in a 

 dark pit or valley at a distance. The text annexed was 

 John, xii. 32. The 3rd Emblem was entitled The Com- 

 munion, or Fellotvship, of the Spirit, and represented the 

 World bound and encircled with a Chain, the links of 

 which were formed of tongues of fire. A Dove was soar- 

 ing high in the heavens, with one end of this fiery Chain 

 in its mouth. The text appended was 1 Cor. xii. 4 — 6. 



the liinate and IncOrrnptlble Beauty, to which we were 

 once created." * 



Burton quotes this passage, and, a little after, 

 proceeds : 



"God is Love Itself, the Fountain of Love Love 



is Circulus a bono in bonum, a round Circle still from good 



to good Love, saith Leo Hebrreusf, made the 



World ; and afterwards, in redeeming of it, God so loved 

 the World, that He gave His only-begotten Son for it. 

 Behold what love the Father hath'shewed .... by His 

 sweet Providence in protecting of it ... . out of His in- 

 comparable Love and Goodness, out of His Divine Nature. 

 And this is that Homer's Golden Chain, luhich reacheth 

 down from Heaven to Earth, by which every creature is an- 

 nexed, and depends on his Creator. He made all, saith 

 Moses, and it was good; and He loves it as good." — 

 Anat. Mel, Ft. 3. § i. Mem. i. subs. 2. 



The following passage is quoted by Dr. Cotton 

 Mather I, from "A Treatise entitled Schola et 

 Scala Naturee .•" 



"Nature doth not lead thee towards God by a far- 

 fetched and winding compass, but in a short and straight 

 line. The Sun waits upon the Rain, the Rain upon the 

 Grass, the Grass serves the Cattel, the Cattel serve thee, 

 and if thou serve God, then thoumakest good the highest 

 Link in that Golden Chain, whereby Heaven is joined to 

 Earth; then thou standest where thou ouglitest to stand, 

 in the uppermost round of the Divine Ladder, next to 

 the Most High : then thou approvest tlwself to be indeed 

 what thou wert designed by God to be, the High Priest 

 and Orator of the Universe; because thou alone, amongst 

 all the creatures here below, art endowed witli Under- 

 standing to know Him, and Speech to express thy know- 

 ledge of Him, in thy praises and praj'Crs to Him." 



I should be glad to get some information about 

 this Schola et Scala NaturcB. Eirionnach. 



(To he concluded in our next.") 



NELSON VERSUS WARNER. 



After so much has been heard about " the long 

 range," it will not be mal-a-pi^opos to place on 

 record the opinion that was entertained by Nelson 

 on the application of that invention to naval war- 

 fare. The original letter, from which I made the 

 subjoined copy, is in the possession of a nobleman 

 to whose ancestor it was addressed. It is inter- 

 esting to remark, that it was penned when 

 Nelson was on the eve of leaving the shores of 

 England for the last time ; and that he gave a 



* Ed. Bipont. Luciani Jup. Trag. 45. Burton does not 

 quote or refer to the Greek, but a Latin version only : — 

 "Alter, Aurea Catena coilo demissa, bonum furorem men- 

 tibus iinmittens," &c. 



t Perhaps no writer treats more excellently of The 

 Golden Chain of Love and Unity — that Vinculum Per- 

 fectionis and Catena Caritatis — than this author cited by 

 Burton — Leo Hehraus. See his Three Dialogues on Love, 

 translated into Latin by J. C. Saracen, in Pistorius's 

 volume of Cabalistic and Recondite Theology, Basil, 1587, 

 folio. See especially pp. 333. 439—442. 595— G03. 



X The Christian Philosopher, Lond. 1721, pp. 222. 



