2°d S. X. Sept. 15. 'CO.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



207 



youthful career. One marked instance is the 

 Vicar of Wakefield's son : another is the over- 

 benevolent man who relates his own history in 

 Letter XXVII. of the Citizen^ of the World. 

 This narrator, whose earlier life is Goldsmith's in 

 most of the facts, mentioning his father's disap- 

 pointment at his college failures, speaks as fol- 

 lows : — 



" His disappointment might be partly ascribed to his 

 having overrated my talents, and partly to my dislike of 

 mathematical reasonings, at a time when my imagination 

 and memorj', yet unsatisfied, were more eager after new 

 objects, than desirous of reasoning upon those I knew." 



Here is the plain and discriminating account of 

 a man who in after life came to understand the 

 causes of his own earlier likes and dislikes ; and 

 the account, short as it is, contains useful matter 

 for thought. I believe it may be added that, 

 f^. fond as Goldsmith is of making his young cha- 

 racters repeat his own life, he does not in any one 

 case make them give any account of unkind usage 

 received from college tutors. If there were any- 

 thing of the sort which dwelt on his mind, it is 

 ' most probable that his writings contain allusions 

 to it. Perhaps your readers may produce them : 

 I do not remember any. A. De Morgan. 



L 



MENTION OF PAINTING IN THE OLD 

 TESTAMENT. 



Being in conversation the other evening with 

 some gentlemen, queries were thrown out as to 

 what mention there was of painting in the Old 

 Testament, and whether the painting of pictures 

 was in that early period practised as an art. 

 Having had my attention directed to the subject, 

 I searched several passages of the Old Testa- 

 ment, and beg now to offer to the readers of " N. 

 & Q." a few Notes and conclusions at which I 

 arrived ; hoping hereby to open the way for 

 others, who know more of the subject than myself, 

 to give farther information through the medium 

 of the same pages. 



In Jeremiah, xxii. 14., we find a passage 

 which seems to intimate the practice of painting : 



" painted with vermilion " -r- "it^^S n'iK'p (ma- 

 shoach bashashar). The word here rendered 

 painted is somewhat approaching to our mode of 

 painting ; for TVi^D (mashoach) means spread or 

 smeared over. It is in fact the same root which 

 .is used in the expression " Anoint the shield " in 

 Isaiah xxi. 5., and which is known to us in " The 

 Messiah," i. e. " The anointed one." 



Two passages from Ezekiel may be taken to- 

 gether, viz. Ezekiel, viii. 10., where the prophet 

 speaks of " all the idols of the house of Israel 

 pourtrayed upon the wall " ; and Ezekiel, xxiii. 

 14., where he mentions " the images of the Chal- 

 dseans pourtrayed with vermilion." In both of 



these passages the \f or A pourtrayed is represented 

 in the original by the verb Pi?n (chakak), to cut 

 in or engrave. 



From these three passages, then, taken in con- 

 junction with each other, I arrive at the following 

 conclusion : That the painting here mentioned 

 was not such an art as is now in use under the 

 name of painting ; but that it was simply con- 

 fined to colouring the lines cut out by the tool of 

 the engraver. 



The note of Clemens Alexandrinus on that part 

 of St. Stephen's speech where he refers to Moses 

 being instructed in all the learning of the Egyp- 

 tians, is well known to mention painting as one 

 of those branches of learning ; but this is of little 

 assistance in the present inquiry, as he does not 

 define thekind of painting to which he refers. Nor 

 is that passage in the Second Book of Kings which 

 tells us how Jezebel painted her face of any 

 value to us, for it merely says, she " ptft her eyes 

 in paint or dye." And thus the word for paint 

 gives us no farther information on the subject. 



P. S. D. 



Minat iiatt^. 



Prevention of Rain. — The surprising an- 

 nouncement in the accompanying newspaper- 

 cutting is surely worthy of being embalmed in 

 your miscellany as an example of the " wonders " 

 of the age, if not as a tale for the special perusal 

 of the marines : — 



" No MOKE Rain. — Tbere is now before the Academy 

 of Science at Paris a wonderful invention of Mons. Hel- 

 vetius Otto, of Leipsic, by which he promises to insure 

 fine weather — in fact, by making use of his invention 

 rain cannot fall unless desired. His plan is simple enough. 

 He erects a platform at a considerable height in the air, 

 on which he places a ' propeller,' or huge bellows, worked 

 by steam. With these bellows, which are very powerful, 

 he blows away the clouds as they gather ; and as rain 

 comes from the clouds, it must necessarily follow that 

 where clouds are not allowed to gather there can be no 

 rain. He maintains that if a certain number of his ' Rain 

 Propellers,' or ' Pluvifuges,' as he has named them, are 

 placed at intervals over the citj', he can provide for the 

 inhabitants a continuance of fine weather, and a certain 

 protection from sudden showers and muddy streets, so 

 long the terror of fair pedestrians. The Academy have 

 received the proposition of Mons. Otto with acclamation, 

 so we trust it will soon be put into execution. The in- 

 vention is scarcely more wonderful than Franklin's dis- 

 covery of lightning conductors; and as the American 

 succeeded by attraction, why should not Mons. Otto by 

 repulsion ? " 



CrEDAT JuDiEUS. 



The Duke of Welongton and Ireland. — 



It has been very frequently and boldly asserted, 

 that the Duke of "Wellington was anxious to dis- 

 claim all connection with his native land, and the 

 assertion has been too readily and generally be- 

 lieved. The following extract from the speech of 

 his Excellency the Marquis >Vellesley, at the en- 



