536 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 136. 



(2.) Friend, vol. i. pp. 216-7.— 



" For a moment's steady self-reflection will show us 

 that, in the simple determination ' black is not white,' 

 or 'tliat two straight lines cannot include a space,' all 

 the powers are implied that distinguish man from ani- 

 mals ; first, the power of reflection ; second, of com- 

 parison ; third, and tlierefore suspension of the mind ; 

 fourth, therefore of a controlling will, and the power of 

 acting from notions, instead of mere images exciting 

 appetites ; from motives, and not from mere dark 

 instinct." 



And after relating a story about a dog who ap- 

 peared to have employed the disjunctive syllogism 

 (in relation to which see Cottle's Reminiscences, 

 vol. i. pp. 48-9.), Coleridge remarks, — 



" So awful and almost miraculous does the simple 

 act of concluding, ' take three from four, and there re- 

 mains one,' appear to us, when attributed to one of the 

 most sagacious of all brute animals." 



Aids to Rejlection, vol. i. p. 175. — 



" Understanding is the faculty of reflection, reason 

 of contemplation." And p. 176. — " The understand- 

 ing, then, considered exclusively as an organ of human 

 intelligence, is the faculty by which we reflect and 

 generalize The whole process [of the under- 

 standing] may be reduced to three acts, all depending 

 on, and supposing a previous impression on, the senses; 

 first, the appropriation of our attention ; second (and 

 in order to the continuance of the first), abstraction, or 

 the voluntary withholding of the attention ; and, third, 

 generalisation ; and these are the proper functions of 

 the understanding." 



Aids to Rejleciion, vol. i. p. 182. note. — 



« So far, and no further, could the understanding 

 carry us; and so far as this, 'the faculty judging ac- 

 cording to sense ' conducts many of the inferior animals, 

 if not in the same, yet in instances analogous and fully 

 equivalent." 



Does Coleridge, then, mean us to understand 

 him as saying, that many of the brutes can reflect, 

 abstract, and generalise ? 



(3.) Friend, vol. i. p. 259. — 



" Reason ! best and holiest gift of God. and bond of 

 union with the Giver ; the high title by which the 

 majesty of man claims precedence above all other living 

 creatures — mysterious faculty, the mother of conscience, 

 of language " 



Aids to Reflection, vol. i. pp. 176— 182. — Cole- 

 ridge here gives his reasons for considering lan- 

 guage a property of the understanding ; and, in 

 p. 195., adds, — 



" It is, however, by no means equally clear to me 

 that the dog may not possess an analogon of words 

 which I have elsewhere shown to be the proper objects 

 of the 'faculty judging according to sense.'" 



Does Coleridge mean that the inferior animals 

 may have language ? 



Who, of your many able correspondents, will 

 assist me in unravelling this complicated tissue ? 

 C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



:^titor <h\xttiti. 



Banning or Bayning Family. — I am desirous of 

 knowing if there was a family of the name of 

 Banning or Bayning seated in Ireland at the close 

 of the sixteenth century ; and whether there was 

 any other branch in England excepting that in 

 Essex. K. 



^ Ladies styled Baronets. — An ancestor of mine, 

 Sir Anthony Chester, Bart., of Chichley Hall, 

 Bucks, in his will, dated Nov. 26, 1635, and proved 

 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Dec. 9, 

 1635 [128 Sadler], desires "to be buried in the 

 north part of Chichley Church, in the same vault 

 with Dame Elizabeth Chester, Baronet, his first 

 wife." Are there any other instances of ladies of 

 the same rank being styled Baronet about this 

 time ? I may mention that this Lady Chester was 

 daughter to Sir Henry Boteler, of Hatfield Wood- 

 hall, Herts, and sister to John Lord Boteler, of 

 Bramfield. Tewars. 



St. Christopher and the Doree. — Brand, in his 

 Popular Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 194., says that the 

 fish called the Doree is traditionally said to have 

 derived the spots on its sides from the fact of 

 St. Christopher, In wading through the arm of the 

 sea, having caught a fish of this description en 

 passant, and having left as an eternal memorial of 

 the fact an impression on its sides to be trans- 

 mitted to all posterity. 



Can any of your readers inform me from what 

 source Brand derived this idea ? E. A. H. L. 



Custom of Women wearing Masks in the Theatre. 

 — When did this custom originate ? It was not 

 common before the civil wars, nor in fashion till 

 some time after the Restoration. Masked ladies 

 are often mentioned in the prologues and epi- 

 logues to the plays of Dryden, Lee, Otway, &c. 

 The custom probably originated in France. A 

 dispute which ended in a duel (concerning a Mrs. 

 Fawkes) caused the entire prdliibltion of women's 

 wearing masks in the playhouse. This was about 

 the 5th of Queen Anne. Edward F. Kimbaui-t. 



Brass of Abbot Kirton ; Matrices. — When was 

 the brass of Abbot Kirton, in Westminster Abbey, 

 removed ? Have there been any brasses taken 

 away (of which the matrices have been also re- 

 moved) ; and if so, in whose possession are they at 

 the present time ? Unicorn. 



Lines on Chaucer. — 



" Swan-like, in dying 

 Famous old Chaucer 

 S-ing his last song." 



Who is the author of the above lines ? Eliza. 



The Nacar. — What species of shell- fish is the 

 Nacar, said to be found in some of the islands 

 of the Mediterranean, and off the east coast of 



