m 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2nd s. no 67., Apkil 11. 



'57. 



Aristotle's Liber de Animalium Motione thus al- 

 ludes to this fable : 



" Quainobrem ita sic existimaatibus videri poterit recte 

 ab Homero fuisse dictum : 



* Sed vobis nunquam coelo,' etc. 



Quod enim omnino immobile est, a nullo moveri con- 

 tingit, Unde etiam jam dicta solvitur difiicultas, an 

 contingit cceli compositionem dissolvi vel noa contingit. 

 Siquidem ex immobili dependet principio." 



The Aristotelic philosophy, according to which 

 Nature is no fortuitous principle, no other than a 

 subordinate instrument of the Divine Wisdom, 

 does not explicitly assert a Providence. Vide 

 Hierocles in Aurea Carmina de Providentia et 

 Fato, Cantab. 1709. p. 241, et seq.; Just. Mar- 

 tyr is 0pp., Hagae Comitum, 1742, p. 549. ; Ari- 

 stotelis Dogmatum Confutatio. — Ditton's Discourse 

 concerning the Resurrection . . . together with an 

 Appendix concerning the impossible production of 

 Thought, from Matter and Motion, with some Re- 

 flections concerning the Nature of God, of Human 

 Soids, and the Universe in general. 



Plutarch, de Fato : 



"Ac fortasse multo probabiliua videbitur etiam secun- 

 dam providentiailua fato contineri atque adeo omnia quae 

 fiunt, siquidem recte a nobis fatum quod substantia defini- 

 tur in tres divisum fuit partes ; et ilia catenae fabula coe- 

 lestes orbium circuitiones cum iis recenset, quas conditione 

 quadam eveniunt." Cf. Beverovicius de Vitae Termino, 

 p. 110. 



Justin Martyr. Ad Oentes Cohortatio : 

 " Quomodo ergo Homerum e republica sua proscribit 

 Plato ? quod is in legatione ad Achillem Phoenicem illi 

 haec dicere fecit : 



' Quin dii flectuntur et ipsi,' 

 cum quidem certe Homerus non de rege et (secundum 

 Platonem) opifice deorum hoc dici scripserit : sed de diis 

 quibusdam qui complures apud Graecos habiti sunt ; sicuti 

 etiam ex Platone intelligere est, dii deorum, dicente ; uni 

 nanique et principi Deo potestatem atque imperium indeos 

 omnes Homerus per auream illara defert catenam." 



Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. xxxi. — where the 

 sequence of theory and practice is called the real 

 Golden Chain, inasmuch as this Homeric Chain is 

 only poetical and visionary. 



In recapitulation, this oft-cited fable is in vari- 

 ous ways interpreted : some understand by it 

 Vicissitude, or the succession of time and days ; 

 others the Sun (as Plato in Thecetetus) ; others the 

 orbits of the Planets ; whilst a large number con- 

 sider it to signify Necessity, the inevitable series 

 and order of causes, and that chain of events 

 which is united to God — Justice accompanying 

 Providence, as Hierocles, in the words of Plato, 

 admirably describes it in his Book on Providence 

 and Fate. 



Of this expression as applied to the harmonious 

 concatenation of the Planets there is an illustra- 

 tion in the verses of Alexander JEtolus (apud 

 Galeum ad Parthenium Nicsensem) where their 

 relative positions are described and compared to a 



seven-stringed harp, the image of the Venus-born 

 Cosmos. 



" ToiVui' Toi <7«ipr)i' o Aios Trais ripfiocrev 'EpfAjjs 

 'EiTTixTOVOV Kidapiv 0€o/A^Topos e'lKova Kocrnov. — P. 150. 



There is by the same author another description 

 of the revolution of the planets which is worthy 

 of notice, inasmuch as the Latin translation con- 

 tains many of the expressions in the verses sub- 

 joined, as Mr. Dawson Turner informed us 

 (P* S. ii. 391.), to a print of Guide's celebrated 

 Aurora, at Rome ; an account of which is given in 

 Notice des Estampes exposees a la Bibliotheque du 

 Roi, 12mo. A Paris, 1823. " Quadrijugis in- 

 vectus equis Sol aureus " — " Circumvolat aurea 

 luna," imitated in " Lucifer antevolat." The 

 number of nymphs by which the Sun is accom- 

 panied, and which hand to hand surround his 

 chariot, indicates not the Hours (P' S. iii. 287.) 

 but the Days of the Week, the names of which ir^ 

 several languages are derived from the seven 

 Planets, that Golden Chain in which originated the 

 principal Deities of Pagan Idolatry (P* S. vii. 132.). 



In addition to the modern authors enumerated 

 by EiRiONNACH I would invite his attention to 

 Bonnet's Contemplations of Nature, 1764; Apple- 

 garth's Theological Survey, and Grindon's de- 

 lightful work, entitled Life : its Nature, Varieties 

 and Phenomena. Also Times and Seasons, Lond. 

 and Manchester, 1856. 



" In thus criticising the doctrine of the Chain of Being 

 it is not intended," he remarks, " to imply that it is ex- 

 tant in modern science. No one who is conversant with 

 the writings of Cuvier, Swainson, or Lindley, believes in 

 that universal a-uvix^ia. which the authority of Aristotle 

 was for centuries sufficient to certify. All, however, are 

 not scientific botanists and zoologists, and so long as 

 popular authors continue blindly to re-assert it, — Bucke, 

 for example, in the Beuuties, Harmonies and Sublimities 

 of Nature, — so long must the error be met with new ex- 

 posure. Besides, it is by acquainting ourselves in the 

 first place with the defects and inconsistencies of the 

 popular idea, that we become best able to appreciate the 

 genuine." 



BiBLlOTHECAK. CUETHAM. 



Ben Jonson's Poem^ — The Forest — XI. Epode, 

 Bell's edition, p. 107 : 



" Now, true love 



No such effects doth protre ; 

 That is an essence far more gentle, fine. 



Pure, perfect, nay, divine ; 

 It is a golden chain let down from heaven, 



Whose links are bright and even ; 

 That falls like sleep on lovers, and combines 

 The soft and sweetest minds 



In equal knots " 



C. D. Lamont. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC COREESPONDENCE. 



Stereoscopic Effect. — I wish to call attention to a 

 curious fact, new to me, though not unlikely to be well 

 known to many others. I examined lately a small pho- 

 tographic portrait of a boy, taken on glass. It is a re- 



