a-d S. N» 66., Mab. 28. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



243 



" It sometimes happens that some favourite and almost 

 vernacular phrase in the language of the translator, may 

 suit a particular passage better than that mode of ex- 

 pression adopted by the author himself. In this case the 

 translation will surpass the original." — P. 143. 



" DrydeiCs two lines surpass those of Ovid : 

 " Os homini," &c. 



" Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes, 

 Beholds his own hereditary skies." 



" Several friends of mine have seen that extraordinary 

 ■woman, Mrs. Anne Moore, often mentioned in the news- 

 papers, who left off eating and drinking about three years 

 ago, and is still alive." — P. 143. 



" She has since confessed herself an impostor ; and I 

 question the veracity of her confession." 



" It would have been quite as creditable to Bishop 

 Hurd and Bishop VVarburton, if their correspondence had 

 abounded less with flatteries of each other, and abuse of 

 poor Jortin," &c. 



" / think the letters very pleasing : those of Warhurton 

 replete with wit and sentiment ; and, for aught I see — very 

 honest, artless friendship. 



" Hurd's are good letters too, but not so striking, and the 

 mutual kindness of two scholars for each other delights me, 

 who am neither Wit, nor Scholar sufficient, to detect Hypo- 

 crisy in either of them," 



Here I break off, and reserve the remainder for 

 a subsequent occasion. 



Mrs. Piozzi censures her author more than once 

 for inaccuracy of quotation : that this charge 

 should be to some extent merited is not more than 

 might be expected from the circumstances under 

 •which this poem, and its very copious notes, were 

 written. 



" I have heard Mr. Colton say," says Mr. Sherwill, in 

 his preface to Colton's posthumous poem, Modern An- 

 tiquity (12mo., London, 1835), " that when he was writing 

 his poem ' Hypocrisy,' he had no books in the room in 

 which he wrote ; and it was only when he had finished 

 that work that he examined with the originals the quo- 

 tations he applied, in order to ascertain if his memory had 

 been correct. That he wrote Modern Antiquity under the 

 same circumstances would not be difficult for me to aver." 



William Bates. 



SINGULAR SEBMON AGAINST INOCULATION. 



Among a volume of old sermons before me is 

 one preached by the Rev. Edmund Massey, M.A., 

 Lecturer of St. Alban's, Wood Street, London, 

 July 8th, 1722, as the title-page expressly says, 

 " against the dangerous and sinful practice of in- 

 oculation." The text is taken from Job, ii. 7. : 



" Sq Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, 

 and smote Job with sore boils, from the sole of his foot 

 unto his crown." * 



The author says, — 



" Remembering our text, I shall not scruple to call that 



r* See a notice of this Sermon in " N. & Q." 1'' S. vi. 

 CIC] 



a diabolical operation, which usurps an authority founded 

 neither in the laws of nature or religion; which tends in 

 this case to anticipate and banish providence out of the 

 world, and promotes the encrease of vice and immoralitj." 



For which he " offers the following considerations 

 to evince." 



" 1. A natural or physical power does not always infer a 

 moral one." 



" 2. The good of mankind, the seeking whereof is ono 

 of the fundamental laws of nature, is, I know, pleaded in 

 defence of the practice; but I am at a loss to find or un- . 

 derstand how that has been, or can be, promoted herebj-; 

 for if by good be meant the preservation of life, it is iu the 

 first place a question whether life be a good, or not? The 

 confessed miscarriages in this new method are more than 

 have happened in the ordinary way. And if this be the 

 case now, how much worse must it needs prove if God, for 

 our presumption and contemptuous distrust of his good pro- 

 vidence, should suffer this delusion to gain ground, and 

 these physicians of no value, these forgers of lies (as Job 

 expresses it) to obtain and grow into credit among us. 

 Such, I fear, they may be accounted, who so confidently 

 tell us what is impossible for them to know, namely, that 

 they who undergo their experiment are for ever thereby 

 secured from any future danger and infection." 



"3. Weigh this matter in a religious balance, it will 

 certainly be found wanting, and deceitful upon the weights, 

 I look upon this matter to be forbidden by the sixth com- 

 mandment, as lascivious thoughts are by the seventh." 



Such ai'e a few of the author's reasons for con- 

 demning, as he calls it, the introduction of this 

 damnable practice. 



At the end of the sermon there is written, in a 

 clerical hand, the following lines : 



" We're told by one of the black robe. 

 The devil inoculated Job ; 

 Suppose 'tis true, what he does tell. 

 Pray, neighbours, did not Job do well ? " 



What punishment would the author have as- 

 signed to Dr. Jenner, had he lived to witness his 

 discovery of vaccination, and the sanction of the 

 legislature to its general adoption ? J. M. Gr< 



Worcester. 



MONUMENTAL BRASSES STOLEN. 



[We shall be verj' glad if the insertion of the accom- 

 panying articles should lead to the discovery of the thief, 

 or the recovery of the brasses, or both.] 



I copy the following from the Norfolk Chronicle 

 of Feb. 21, 1857: — 



" Sacrilege. — ■ Our readers will learn with regret that 

 between Thursday the 12th and Saturday the 14tli inst., 

 the parish church of Oulton was sacrilegiously entered, 

 and its chancel despoiled of those brass effigies whicJi 

 have for centuries marked the last resting-place of certain 

 of its former patrons and benefactors. Two brasses 33 

 inches long, representing John Fastolf, Esq., and Ka- 

 therine his wife, the former of whom died in 1445, and 

 the latter in 1478 ; and a six feet brass effigy of an eccle- 

 siastic, robed, and supposed to represent one of the Fas- 

 tolf or Bacon family, have been ruthlessly torn away, 

 with which the miscreants have at present escaped. A 

 reward of 20 guineas has been offered for the apprehen- 



