508 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»d 8. VIII. Dec. 24. '59. 



and furniture, yet it is not his Home; he must and 

 would leave it." * 



Diodorus, I may observe, tells us that the Egyp- 

 tians used to style the dwellings of the living 

 " Inns," regarding this Life as the Journey of a 

 Traveller towards his Home. Cowley has a simi- 

 lar thought in one of his Pindarique Odes, of 

 which I give the first stanza : — 

 " Life. 

 " Nascentes Morimur. Manil. 

 " We're ill by these Grammarians used, 

 We are abused by Words, grossly abused ; 

 From the Maternal Tomb 

 To the Grave's fruitful Womb, 

 We call here Life ; but Life's a Name 

 That nothing here can truly claim : 

 This wretched Inn, where we' scarce stay to bait, 

 We call our Dwelling-place ; 

 We call one Step a Jiace : 

 But Angels, in their full enlightened state 

 Angels who Live, and know what 'tis to Be, 

 Who all the nonsense of our Language see. 

 Who speak Things, and our Words (their ill-drawn 

 Pictures^ scorn: 

 When we by a foolish Figure say. 

 Behold an old Man dead ! then they 

 Speak properly, and cry, ' Behold a Man-child born ! ' " 



Yes, Leighton's Life was indeed " hid with 

 Christ in God ; " he had passed through the mys- 

 tic grades of Mortification and Annihilation f into 

 that sublime Absorption which he so well de- 

 scribes in his Rules for a Holy Life : — 



" Entering into Jesus, thou casteth thyself into an in- 

 finite Sea of Goodness, that more easily drowns and hap- 

 pily swallows thee up, than the Ocean does a drop of 

 water. Then shalt thou be hid and transformed in Him, 

 and shalt often be as Thinking without Thought, and 

 Knowing without Knowledge, and Loving without Love, 

 comprehended of Him Whom thou canst not comprehend." 

 -§v. lO.J 



I may remark here that these few lines contain 

 the sum and substance of the writings of the great 

 Mystics, and may be verified over and over again 

 in their works. I would especially compare, not 

 only this passage, but the whole tract, with Norris 

 of Bemerton's Discourse concerning Heroic Piety, 

 and with the works of Tauler, 'k Kempis, St. John 

 of the Cross, Fenelon, Guion, and Marsay. 



Abp. Leighton's Works might receive much 

 beautiful and suitable illustration from those of a 

 kindred spirit — the sweet Poet and Platonic 

 Divine, Noreis of Bem£bton.§ For instance, 



* Comment on St. Peter, ii. 11., vol. i. p. 274. Cf. vol. ii. 

 pp. 110. 347. 402. Cf. also Norris's poem. The Elevation, 

 pp. 42. 46. 



t See the preliminarj- Letter on Mystics and Mystical 

 Terms prefixed to Marsay's Discourses relating to the Spiri- 

 tual Life, Edinb., 1749. 



J Elsewhere he says : " It is but little we can receive 

 here, some drops of Joy that enter into us ; but there we 

 shall enter into Joy, as Vessels put into a Sea of Happi- 

 ness."— Vol. i. p. 194. 



§ Norris's Collection of Miscellanies is one of the most 

 delightful, and, at the same time, badly-printed books in 



compare Leighton's Lecture " Of the Happiness 

 of the Life to Come " with " An Idea of Hap- 

 piness," one of Norris's charming Miscellanies ; 

 and Leighton's remarks on the Beatific Vision 

 and the Scholastic questions about it, in the same 

 lecture, with Norris's " short and methodical ac- 

 count " of the matter in his Idea. (Miscel. 6th 

 ed. pp. 282 — 88.) Again, — that Happiness im- 

 plies consciousness of it, Non est beatus qui se iion 

 putat — cf. Leighton, vol. i. 21., ii. 4D7., with 

 Norris, p. 284. One parallel passage I would 

 fain quote at length. Leighton, speaking of un- 

 reasonable and childish Desires, asks : — 



" And what would we have ? Think we that Content- 

 ment lies in so much, and no less? When that is at- 

 tained, it shall appear as far off as before. When Chil- 

 dren are at the foot of a high Hill, they think it reaches 

 the Heavens, and yet if they were there, they would find 

 themselves as far off as before, or at least, not sensibly 

 nearer. Men think. Oh, had I this, I were well ; and 

 when it is reached, it is but an advanced standing from 

 which to look higher, and spy out for some other thing." 

 — Comment on St. Peter, v. 7., vol. ii. p. 430. ; cf. p. 148. 

 Compare Norris's fine poem entitled The Infidel : — 



" Farewel Fruition, thou grand cruel cheat. 

 Which first our Hopes does raise and then defeat ; 

 Farewel thou midwife to abortive Bliss, 

 Thou mystery of Fallacies. 

 Distance presents the object fair, 

 With charming features and a graceful air. 

 But when we come to seize th' inviting prey, 

 Like a shy Ghost, it vanishes away. 



n. 



" So to th' unthinking Boy, the distant Sky 

 Seems on some Mountain's surface to rely ; 

 He with ambitious haste climbs the ascent, 

 Curious to touch the Firmament : 

 But when with an unweary'd pace 

 Arrived he is at the long-wished-for place. 

 With sighs the sad defeat he does deplore, 

 His Heaven is still as distant as before." 



P. 19. Cf. pp. 13. 32. 133. 215. 276. 288. 



Parallel passages occur in the works of Dr. 

 Johnson (who makes the primitive Arcadians take 

 the place of children}, Thompson, Campbell, 

 Hood, and many others. I cannot refrain, how- 

 ever, from quoting a beautiful passage from 

 Bishop Hickes's Devotions : — 



" 'Tis to be happy that we run after Pleasures ; and 

 cover £sic2 in everything our own proud Will. But we, 

 ala.i! mistake our Happiness; and foolishh' seek it 

 •where it is not to be found. As silly Children think to 

 catch the Sun, when they see it setting at so near a Dis- 

 tance. They travel on, and tire themselves in vain ; for 

 the thing they seek is in another World." — Lond. 1706, 

 p. 446. Mattinsfor Commem. of Saints. 



The Simile of the Soul and the Magnetic 

 Needle, or " The Magnetism of Passion " as 

 Norris calls it, has already been illustrated in the 

 pages of " N. & Q." On this point compare 



our language; both type and paper are wretched. I 

 trust Mr. J. R. Smith will ere long include it in his ad- 

 mirable Library of Old Authors. 



