590 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 138. 



made in the early part of the poet's life. Mr. Malone, 

 in a conversation I had with him in London^" (adds 

 Mr. Wheler), "the 20th April, 1812, about a month 

 before his death, said that he had nothing to allege 

 against the probability of my conjecture as to its owner." 



Mr. W. afterwards proceeds : 



" That such a seal was used by a person connected 

 with Shakspeare by a marriage is certain ; for I possess 

 an impression of the seal (and apparently a seal-ring) 

 of Adrian Q,uiney, bailiff of Stratford in 1559-60; 

 and who, I have every reason to believe, was the uncle 

 of Thomas Quiney, our poet's son-in-law. This seal 

 of Quiney's, which is appended to a deed dated 

 June 28, 9 Eliz., 1567, being a conveyance of property 

 in Bridge Street, Stratford, very minutely corresponds 

 with the Shakspeare ring in size, and has a very near 

 resemblance to it in the string and tassels uniting the 

 Roman initials ' A. Q. ;' which ornamental junction 

 is carved somewhat similar to what is now called The 

 True Lover's Knot, and in the Shakspeare ring the 

 upper bow or flourish resembles a heart." 



In Shalcspeare's age — 

 *' Seal-rings were very fashionable, but were probably 

 more limited than at present to the nobility and re- 

 spectable families; for I still confine myself to the re- 

 spectability of its proprietor After numerous 



and continued researches into public and private docu- 

 ments, I find no Stratfordian of that period so likely to 

 own such a ring as Shakspeare." 



Mr. Wheler concludes — 



" At present, I possess no positive proof whatever. 

 Let it be remembered that my observations are merely 

 relative. I yet hope to meet with an impression of the 

 ring in my possession ; and in this I am more parti- 

 cularly encouraged by the fact, that should success 

 attend the investigation, this seal-ring would be the 

 cnly existing article proved to have originally belonged 

 to our immortal poet." 



When Mr. Wheler wrote, the signatures in 

 Montaigne's work, &c. had not been restored to 

 the light. A Hermit at Hampstead. 



KEASON AND UNDERSTANDING ACCORDING TO 

 COLERIDGE. 



(Vol. v., p. 535.) 



Your correspondent C. Mansfield Inglebt 

 will pardon me if I deny the discrepancy in Cole- 

 ridge's statements on the difference between these 

 faculties. Coleridge refuses to brutes the posses- 

 sion of reason as a contemplative faculty ; he 

 allows them, that which in kind differs from rea- 

 son, the understanding in a certain degree, and 

 asserts that they do possess, in a very marked and 

 characteristic manner, instinct, which, in degree 

 only, falls below understanding. Instinct is dis- 

 tinguishable in degree from understanding. Rea- 

 son is distinguishable from it in kind. Some kinds 

 of brutes, as dogs and elephants, possess more ia- 



telligence than others, as tigers and swine; and 

 some individual dogs possess more of this intelli- 

 gence than others. This intelligence arises from 

 the superior activity of the "faculty judging ac- 

 cording to sense ;" and, when Coleridge says that 

 it is not clear to him " that the dog may not pos- 

 sess an analogon to words," he might have gone, 

 I think, further, and have said, with much pro- 

 bability of truth on his side, that the dog has this 

 analogon of words. I am sure I have often knowa 

 a dog's thoughts by his own way of expressing 

 them, far more distinctly than I am sometimes able 

 to gather a fellow man's meaning from his words. 

 Nay, much as I love and venerate Coleridge — • 

 his goodness, his genius, his writings, his memory 

 — I find a dog sometimes far more intelligible. 

 Language is a property of the understanding, but 

 it cannot be developed in words unless there be ia 

 the creature an adequate degree of the faculty. 

 This degree of the faculty, dogs have not. If they 

 had it, they might fairly be expected to speak, 

 read, and write. What we want is the man, or 

 the observation and experiment, which shall show 

 us where the line is to be drawn, if in the nature 

 of such gradations lines can be drawn at all, which 

 shall distinguish the degree at which instinct over- 

 laps understanding. The case is perhaps too 

 hopelessly complicated. Coleridge has carefully 

 guarded his expressions, that they should not seem, 

 to assert for brutes more than he can prove that 

 they possess, by the use of the words " analogous 

 or fully equivalent." That brutes can and do 

 reflect, abstract, and generalise, it needs but an 

 understanding of the terms, and some observatioa 

 of their habits, to feel assured. Caspar, 



GENERAL WOLFE. 



(Vol. v., pp. 185. 398. &c.) 



Since my last communication relative to this 

 celebrated soldier, I have fallen in with a volume of 

 the London Chronicle for the first half of the year 

 1760, and from it I send the following extracts : 

 although there Is more information relative to the 

 battle, these only I thought worth insertion in 

 " N. & Q." The first is entitled : 



" A CALL TO THE POETS, ON THE TAKING OF QUEBEC, \ 



" While to brave Wolfe such clouds of incense rise. 

 And waft his glory to his native skies ; 

 Shall yet no altar blaze to Moncton's name, 

 And consecrate his glorious wound to fame ; 

 Shall Townshend's deeds, o'er Canada renown'd. 

 So faint in British eulogies resound ! 

 No grateful bard in some exalted lay 

 Brave Townshend's worth to future times convey 

 Who, for his country, and great George's cause. 

 Forsook the fulness of domestic joys. 

 To crush 'midst dangers of a world unknown. 

 The savage insults on the British crown. 



