454 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



;;2nd s. No 49., Dec. 6. '66. 



ami probably pre-Platonic into depths-of-ages 

 unfathomable. A Desultory Header. 



Jersey. 



Mr. Riley will find a short paper on this sub- 

 ject in Blackwood, circa 1827 or 8. It quotes 

 i'rnm Dr. Leyden's beautiful " Ode to Scottish 

 Music " the stanza : 



"Ah ! sure, as Hindoo legends tell, 

 When music's tones the bosom swell. 



The scenes of former life return, 

 Ere sunk beneath the morning star, 

 "We left our parent climes afar, 



Immur'd in mortal forms to mourn." 



In a note on this passage, in Leyden's Poetical 

 Works, it is stated that the Hindoos ascribe the 

 effect which music sometimes produces on the 

 mind to its recalling undefinable impressions of a 

 ibrmer state of existence. The paper in Black- 

 wood is probably by Christopher North himself. 



Standard Office, Montrose. 



Mr. Riley will find the subject as well handled 

 as perhaps it admits of in Soame Jenyns's Essays. 

 The notion enters, more or less, into the majority 

 of oriental creeds and philosophies, and found a 

 believer in Plato. Delta. 



THOMAS rOXTON. 



(2"'' S. ii. 321.) 



I beg leave to second the call of S. N. M. for 

 some particulars about Foxton. I have in my 

 possession a small quarto MS. containing the 

 whole Psalter, metrically rendered by the indi- 

 vidual In question, who would probably have sunk 

 altogether had he not been buoyed up by The 

 Dunciad : 



" So Bond and Foxton, every nameless name, 

 All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to fame? 

 Some strain in rhyme ; the Muses on their racks, 

 Scream like the winding of ten thousand jacks : 

 Some free from rhyme, or reason, rule or check, 

 Break Priscian's head, and Pegasus' neck ; 

 Down, down they larum, with impetuous whirl, 

 The Pindars, and the Miltons of a Curll." 



Scriblerus' note to this intimates that these 

 were " Two inoffensive offenders against our Poet ; 

 persons unknown but by being mentioned by Mr. 

 Curll." 



Pope's prediction has certainly been verified ; 

 for, with the exception of a few antiquaries, the 

 public at large know as little of Thomas Foxton 

 as they do of the worthy the poet has coupled 

 him with. 



Foxton was, nevertheless, a pretty large con- 

 tributor to Curll's and other presses ; and as his 

 works collectively are recorded in no publication 



I am acquainted with, I subjoin a list of such as 

 have come under my notice. 



1. The Night Piece, a Tpoem, . . . 1719. 



2. The Character of a Fine Gentleman, with 

 Peference to Religion, Learning, and the Conduct 

 of Life. E. Curll, 1721 ; again J. Tonson, n. d. 

 Dedicated to the Rev. Mr. Shirley by T. P., who, 

 under the name of Serine, there eulogises Ad- 

 dison, lately dead. 



3. Jessina, or Delusive Gold Lamenting the MiS' 

 fortunes of a Young Lady, 8vo., 1721. 



4. South Sea Pieces to purge Court Melancholy, 

 leing a Collection of Poems, Satires, ^c, by Mr. 

 Stanhope, Mr. Arundel, Mr. Cowper, and Mr. 

 Foxton. 



5. The Joys of the Blessed, a Discourse trans' 

 lated from the Latin of Bellarmine, 1722. The 

 only copy of this production of Curll's press I 

 have seen was a mutilated one ; the book seems to 

 have been profusely ornamented with head and 

 tail pieces, which some Goth had cut out, — pro- 

 ducing " Thou shalt not make to thyself any 

 graven image," as his warrant for such Vandalism ! 



6. A Poetical Pai-aphrase on the Hymn of Praise 

 to the Creator, called Benedicite. 1727. 



7. The Tower, a Poem. 



8. Moral Songs composed for the Use of Chil- 

 dren. A neat little volume, recommended by Dr. 

 Watts. Ford, 1728, 



9. Burnett's Arch(eologi(B Philosophicce. (See 

 " N. & Q." as above.) Curll, 1729. 



10. The Female Dunciad, collected by E. Curll; 

 with the Metamorphoses of Mr. P. into a Stinging 

 Nettle. (By Mr. Foxton.) See Dunciad, Ap- 

 pendix. 



11.-4 Metrical Version of the Psalms. MS. 

 This, although wanting in direct proof of his hand, 

 is sufficiently identified by bearing the old letter- 

 ing Foxton' s Psalms, and the inscription "Co- 

 ningsby, given me by Mr. Archer, 1752. Wrote 

 by Thos. Foxton." The Moral Songs are dedi- 

 cated to this Mr. Thos. Archer, to whom Foxton 

 says he inscribed his first poem, and for whom he 

 expresses in a long and interesting address his 

 profound veneration as his early and steady pa- 

 tron, under a variety of mental and bodily suffer- 

 ing he had been called upon to endure. J. O. 



BURIAL WITHOUT COFFINS. 



(1" S. xii. 380.) 



Since I communicated a Note on the subject of 

 " Burials without Coffins," I have met with the 

 following statement in Reliquim HearniancB, Tp. 534. 

 I heartily join in the satisfaction which you have 

 expressed (ante, p. 379.) at the prospect now held 

 out by the Principal of St. Mary Hall that these 

 " Remains," so long in abeyance, will at length be 



