2»'i S. VIII. Aug. 6. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



113 



the small sentence whole — such as we gave it 

 just now. It flew all over the world, and was 

 often quoted, sometimes misquoted — le style c'est 

 Vhomme , . . Le style estThomme, etc., etc. Plaving 

 passed through the fiery ordeal of editorial inac- 

 curacy, blindness and over-accuracy, it had yet to 

 sustain a still more trying process. 



This be the last. 



A writer of the London Times, anxious to 

 quote in English the famous axiom, translated it 

 literally (as he thought) in the following words : 



" THE STYLE IS THE MAN HIMSELF." 



His quotation had little success. It was not 

 applauded, but criticised ; and rightly too. How 

 often does it happen that the very words of a 

 literal translation convey to the reader's mind a 

 meaning quite different from that of the original 

 text! Mistranslation here originated misquota- 

 tion. Never did Buffon think indeed to introduce 

 in his phrase the man himself, viz. the living and 

 bodily being of man, with all his external and 

 inborn, physiologic and worldly, psychic and 

 anatomical elements — including even accessories, 

 gestures, eccentricities, oddities, and so on — all 

 which constitutes the self of man, the whole 

 personality of his life and his soul. Buffon, 

 wishing to inforce the power, the essential na- 

 ture and deep personality of " style" wrote and 

 said, " Externals are not man" : 



" Style is the very man." 

 Which is quite another thing, as any Englishman 

 may see : " You are the very man I sought for " 

 — " Vous etes I'homme mkme que j'ai cherche." 

 " Meme," an adverb, not an adjective, is the only 

 possible substitute for very — a word of great pith 

 and emphasis, which I would rather think etymo- 

 logically allied to the K.e\tic guerg, and the Teuto- 

 nic gerti, than to the Latin word verus. Lui-meme, 

 a compound adjective, is rendered by himself. 

 The difference between himself and very is broad 

 and clear. 



Hence all the combats, exceptions, objections, 

 disquisitions, controversies, metaphysical misgiv- 

 ings, bibliographic uncertainties, which started 

 your correspondents ; and here ends that little 

 Comedy of Errors, which you may call Everyone 

 in the Wrong, or Everyone in the Right, after your 

 own pleasure. It may furnish to some Disraeli, 

 or rather to a Thackeray or a Doran, a very 

 choice bit of literary chit-chat ; which I do dismiss, 

 bequeath, and entrust to their own excellent taste, 

 spiritual care, humoristic whim, and philoso- 

 phical minds. Philarbte Chasles, Mazarinseus. 



Ecouen, prfes Paris, 2 Juillet, 1859. 



ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON S WORKS. 



Presentany (2°^ S. viii. 43.) — The victories of 

 the French Emperor have been presentany in the 



sense in which Pliny and other Latin writers used 

 prcesentaneus, but time only can show whether 

 they will or not in their effects be presentany in 

 Leighton's acceptation of the word — ephemeral. 

 When Sutrium, a city of Tuscany was besieged, 

 Camillus marched to its assistance, ordering his 

 soldiers to carry three days' provision and all ne- 

 cessaries with them. This enabled him to come on 

 the besiegers unawares, and to relieve the city ; 

 from which circumstance arose the proverbial ex- 

 pression, Eo Sutrium. It is at present uncertain 

 whether Eo in Sardiniam will long be synony- 

 mous with presentany succour. 



BiBLIOTHECAR. ChETHAM. 



EiRiONNACH, in his interesting note on Arch- 

 bishop Leighton's Worhs, says " Is there such a 

 word as presentany ? " Without attempting to 

 decide whether it may be legitimately used as an 

 English term, I reply that it is merely an Angli- 

 cised form of the Latin prcesentaneus, a word used 

 by Suetonius (in Nerone), the elder Pliny, and 

 other writers about the same period. Instances 

 are quoted by Scheller, in his Lexicon totius La- 

 tinitatis, as well as by Gesner and Facciolati. 



Arterus. 



Dublin. 



Sardanapalus and Archbishop Leighton (2"'^ S. 

 viii. 61.) — EiRioNNACH inquires whence Leigh- 

 ton drew his reference to " that luxurious king " 

 on whose tomb was inscribed the emblem of two 

 fingers one upon the other in the act of sound- 

 ing, with the legend "iVbre ianti est." The story 

 refers to the monument of Sardanapalus, and is 

 told at length in a fragment of Aristobulus pre- 

 served by Athenaeus (xii. 39.), to the effect that 

 Alexander when marching across Cilicia discovered 

 a tomb at Anchiale on which were carved two 

 fingers crossed, as if making a fillip — 



poTovvra," 



And below them the inscription — 



" SapSaf otTraA-Oj, AvaicvvSapa^ov Trais Ayxia.Kii)v Koi Taparov 

 eSeifjLev ^jiiepij juijj. 'EffOie, nive, nal^e, <os roAAa toutov ovk 

 afio." 



This has been thus translated by Byron in his 

 tragedy : — 



" Sardanapalus, 



The King, and son of Anacyndaraxes, 



In one day built Anchialus and Tarsus. 



Eat, drink, and love, — the rest's not worth aJUlip." 



The incident is repeated by Athenaeus in two 

 other passages ; once on the authority of Amyn- 

 tas, a companion of Alexander the Great (i&.), 

 and elsewhere (viii. 14.), on that of Chrysippus. 

 It is also related by Strabo (xiv. 672.). Calli- 

 sthenes, in a fragment preserved by Suidas, says 

 the monument was at Nineveh (v. SctpSw.), but 

 Arrlan adheres to the story of Amyntas (Anab. ii. 

 5.), J. Emerson Tbknent. 



