302 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 94., Oct. 17. '57. 



the 21st of November, 1731, and presented to the 

 Royal Society on the 28th of October. Of this I 

 never heard anything. 



40. In reference to the very little knowledge of 

 Newton which I believe to have existed in the 

 unscientific world (as evidenced, among other 

 things, by Warburton imagining that he spent 

 his nights at a telescope, 2""* S. iii. 42.), I add 

 the following. When Mr. Baily was engaged 

 upon his account of Flamsteed, the late Mr. Epps, 

 Assistant Secretary of the Astronomical Society, 

 happened to meet with the following work at a 

 bookstall. His eye was caught by the passage 

 which I quote : so he bought the work for Mr. 

 Baily. The book is The Life and Adventures of 

 Joe Thompson ; a Narrative founded on Fact. 

 Dublin : printed for Rob. Main, 1750, 2 vols. 

 12rao. 



" If, Madam, j'our House is haunted, or your Husband 

 bewitched, I'll undertake to free him of his Enchantment, 

 which is not to be done in the old Road that has long 

 been beaten to no Purpose by the Priests. No, no, I shall 

 prescribe him somewhat to hang about his Neck, a Pre- 

 paration of Electrum Minerale, by which the great Van 

 Helmont dissolved so many Sorceries ; adding thereto the 

 Fume of Solomon and Eleazar Trees : Nay, Paracelsus is 

 pretty clear that . . . . — Here, all in a Rage, he was in- 

 terrupted by Zealot, who roared out in a violent Manner, 

 that he was an empty Preteuder, and that all that he had 

 mentioned was meer exploded Chimaera: "What is your 

 Paracelsus and Van Helmont now, whose whole Works 

 may be bought for Three-half-pence by the Pound ? I 

 thought Mr. Talisman had read better Authors, and to 

 better Purpose ; sure none but himself could peruse such 

 Rubbish : I warrant you, you are superstitious enough to 

 believe in the Philosopher's Stone too, and I dare engage 

 never looked into Sir Isaac's Principia in your Life, tho' 

 he may justly be caMed Princeps Philosophorum. Princeps 

 Philosophorum, Doctor, replies Talisman, all in an Heat, 

 Princeps Roguorum j'ou mean ; I tell you Newton was a 

 Plagiary, and borrowed everything valuable from Old 

 Daddy Flamsteed, and made no little Use of those very 

 great Men you have the Impudence to bespatter so. 

 Highly diverted at this ludicrous Scene of Absurdities, I 

 was just going to interfere with a Word of Encourage- 

 ment on the Parson's Side, who began to be out of Breath, 

 in order to keep Matters even ; when I was prevented by 

 Gage, who, banging the End of his Cane against the 

 Pavement, after an hearty Draught of Ale, cried, that he 

 was sure neither of them knew any Thing about what 

 they were talking of; and as to calling People Names, it 

 was no Argument he said ; for his Part, he never heard 

 anything bad of Sir Isaac Newton, and respected his 

 Memory for having proved the World to be like an Egg, 

 tho', ty G — d, continues he, if it is, it is an addled one. 

 Witness the two great Men that are now disputing about 



nothing ; for, d n me, if I believe there is either Devil 



or Apparition in the World, and 1 am sure it is only 

 Priestcraft and Imagination." 



41. The Longitudes examivHd; beginning with a 

 short Epistle to the Longitudinarians-, and ending 

 loith the Description of a smart, pretty Machine of 

 my own, which I am. (almost) sure will do for the 

 Longitude, and procure me the Twenty Thousand 

 Pounds, by Jeremy Thacker, of Beverley in York- 

 shire. London, 1714, 8vo. This is a satirical tract. 



It begins by saying that the tracts on longitude 

 are bought up so fast that none of them reach the 

 north of England. With the exception of a fair 

 pun, contained in the statement that Whiston was 

 a latitudinarian as well as a longitudinarian, I see 

 nothing which will bear quotation. 



42. Recherches Curieuses des Mesures du Monde, 

 P. le S. C. de V., Paris, 1626, Svo. (pp. 48.). A 

 book of geography, containing, among other things, 

 a very definite account of Prester John, in whom 

 the writer is as great a believer as in the Grand 

 Turk. A. De Morgan. 



ANCIENT IRISH MSS. IN THE MUSEUM. 



In » N. & Q." (2°'> S. iv. 225.) appeared some 

 pertinent inquiries respecting the " Book of Fe- 

 nagh," extracted from " a series of articles in the 

 Glasgow Free Press, descriptive of the Irish MSS. 

 in the national library, from ' A Celt.' " The sub- 

 jects occasionally discussed by " A Celt " are not 

 merely of insular importance. The literary reliques 

 of ancient Ireland, of which one of the largest and 

 most precious collections is in our Museum, are, 

 by the most celebrated antiquaries and philologists, 

 venerated as uniquely rich in the memorials of 

 the language, history, religious, civil and military 

 polity of the Celts, — the early occupants of a large 

 tract of the Western coasts of Asia, and apparently 

 the primitive inhabitants of Europe, whose traces 

 in the languages, topographical nomenclature, 

 traditions and historical records, are distinctly 

 identified from the Caspian to the Atlantic, and 

 from the icy north to the classic shores of Greece 

 and Italy. 



Pelloutier, Pezron, Leibnitz, Pietet, Bopp, 

 Prichard, Mone, Garnett, Latham, Murray, the 

 Grimms, Zeus Newman, Todd, O'Donovan, Mac 

 Hale, and a host of other eminent philologists, 

 have recognised and asserted the claims of the 

 language and ancient literature of Ireland. Many 

 of the literati are anxiously looking forward to the 

 publication of the " Brehon Laws" — the legislative 

 code and repertory of the judicial decisions of 

 Milesian Ireland — now in preparation for publi- 

 cation by the aid of a parliamentary grant, and 

 which worki many Celtic scholars sanguinely 

 hope, will prove the basis of the jurisprudence of 

 the greater part of the Continent. The import- 

 ance of the " issue " raised in the subjoined quota- 

 tion will be more appreciated, it is hoped, by these 

 prefatory observations. It may be proper to note 

 that Professor Curry is one of the Celtic scholars 

 engaged in the preparation of the " Brehon Laws." 



" Harleian, 432. vellum fol. 20 fols. divided into six 

 Sections. In the Catalogue of the Harleian MSS. this 

 Catalogue is thus described by the compiler: ' This work 

 is an ancient transcript of two tracts, whose text is so very 

 ancient as to be coeval with the time they relate to, and not 

 now to be thoroughly understood but by such (if there be 



