100 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 118. 



illiberal manner ; I mean the Scholiasts, who have 

 been treated most unjustly. A goodly host of 

 scribblers looks forth from the grave of antiquity. 

 And here, before proceeding to speak of the 

 theories of later times, it may be permitted me 

 to suggest that casual allusions by writers who 

 write not expressly on the subject, and who are 

 sufficiently accurate on those points to which 

 they have directed their attention, are often 

 more valuable than the folios of writers who go 

 on the principle of book-making. 



To enumerate the modern works of Homeric 

 controversy, would be an endless and tedious task, 

 nay, even useless, when so able and full an account 

 exists in Engelmann's Bibliotheca Classica. The 

 chief works, however, are Wolf's Prolegomena, 

 Wood's Essay on the Original Oenius of Homer ; 

 Creuzer, SymhoUk unci Mythologie ; Hermann, 

 Briefwechsel rnit Creuzer ilber Homer undHesiod ; 

 AVelckar, Der Epische Cyclus ; Lange, Ueber die 

 KykUschen Dichter und den sogenannten Epischen 

 Kyklus der Griechen; Lachmann, Fernere Betrach- 

 tungen ilber die Ilias (^Abhandl. Serlin. Acad. 

 1841); Voss, Nitzsch, 0. Muller, Thirlwall (Hist, 

 of Greece, vol. i. appendix 1 . p. 500. foil.). Quarterly 

 Review, No. Ixxxvii., Grote (Hist, of Gi-eece, pt. i. 

 chapter xxi. vol. ii.), Mure's Critical History of 

 the Language and Literature of Antient Greece, the 

 article in Smith's Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 500., and 

 Giovanni Battista Vico (Principi di Scienza nuova). 



The foregoing writers are the principal who have 

 occupied themselves with the subject. I will, 

 in my next paper, pass on to a review of the ques- 

 tion itself. Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie. 



January 26. 1 852. 



FRENCH KEVOLUTIONS FORETOLD. 



It seems strange to find in Dr. Jackson's Works 

 a prophecy which, if then thought applicable to 

 the French nation, is much more so now. I 

 have no opportunity of verifying his reference, 

 but will extract all verbatim, giving the Italics as 

 I find them : — 



" And without prejudice to many noble patriots and 

 worthy members of Christ this day living in that fa- 

 mous kingdom of France, I should interpret that dream 

 of Jiassina (see Ainioinus, aUttr Annonius) de Gestis 

 Francoriim, lib. i. c. 7. cS' 8. in ike Corpus Francice Histor., 

 J^rinted in folio, 1613, /fawoufar), Queen unto Childerick 

 the First, of the present state of France : in which the 

 last part of that threefold vision is more truly verified 

 than it was even in the lineal succession of Childerick 

 and Bassina, or any of the Merovingian or Carlovingian 

 families. The vision was of three sorts of beasts : the 

 Jirst, lions and leopards ; the second, bears and wolves ; 

 the third, of dogs, or lesser creatures, biting and devour- 

 ing one another. 



" The interpretation which Bassina made of it was 

 registered certain hundred years ago. That these 

 troups of vermin or lesser creatures did signifie a 



people without fear or reverence of their princes, so 

 pliable and devoutly obsequious to follow the peers or 

 potentates of that nation in their factious quarrels, that 

 they should involve themselves in inextricable tumults 

 to their own destruction. Had this vision been painted 

 only with this general notification, that it was to be 

 emWe?na(ica//y understood of some state in Europe: who 

 is he that can discern a picture by the known party 

 whom it represents, but could have known as easily 

 that this was a map of those miseries that lately have 

 befallne France, whose bowels were almost rent and 

 torn with civil and domestic broyls? God grant her 

 closed tooitnds fall not to bleed afresh again. And that 

 her people be not so eagerhj set to bite and tear one another 

 (like dogs or other testie creatures) until all become a 

 prey to wolves and bears, or other great ravenous beasts, 

 which seek not so much to tear or rent in heat of re- 

 venge, as lie in wait continually to devour and swallow 

 with insatiate greediness the whole bodies of mighty 

 kingdoms, and to die iier robes, that rides as queen of 

 monsters upon that mang headed beast, with streams 

 of bloud that issue from the bodies squeezed and 

 crushed between their violent teeth ; yea, even with 

 the royal bloud of kings and princes." — Works, book i. 

 cap. xiii. lib. i. pp. 46-7. : Lond. 1673, fol. 



Rt. 

 Warmington. 



IBEES NAPOLEONIENNES. 



We hear a vast deal in these ages of what are 

 called " Idees Napoleoniennes," the wisdom of 

 Napoleon, and so forth. Some of this is invented 

 by the writers, and ascribed to Napoleon ; some 

 of it is no wisdom at all ; and some is what may be 

 called second-hand wisdom, an old fiimiliar face 

 with a new dress. Of the latter sort is the famouS' 

 saying : 



" From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but 

 a step." 



For this remark Napoleon has obtained consider- 

 able notice : but the truth is, he borrowed it from 

 Tom Paine ; Tom Paine borrowed it from Hugh 

 Blair, and Hugh Blair from Longinus. Napoleon's 

 words are : — 



" Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas." 

 The passflge in Tom Paine, whose writings were 

 translated into French as early as 1791, stands 

 thus : — 



" The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly 

 related, that it is difficult to class them separately ; 

 one step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and 

 one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime 

 again. " 



Blair has a remark akin to this : 

 " It is indeed extremely difficult to hit the precise 

 point where true wit ends and buffoonery begins." 

 But the passage in Blair, from which Tom Paine 

 adopted his notion of the sublime and the ridicu- 

 lous, is that in which Blair, commenting on Lu- 

 can's style, remarks : — 



