Aug. 26. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



i6§ 



we read twice of "Mrs. Quintin Bagshaw, Se- 



CUndw*." JUVEKNA, 



Sir Arch. Alison, in vol. xvi. of the small 8vo. 

 edition of his History of Europe, p. 350., tells 

 us that shrapnell shells were used for the first 

 time in war at the siege of St. Sebastian, 1813 ; 

 forgetting what he before said, in vol. xii. p. 114., 

 that they were used first at the battle of Vimeira, 

 1808, five years before. Which of these two dates 

 is the correct one for their introduction in war- 

 fare ? LOCCAN. 



FEANKLIN S PABABLK. 



(Vol. X., p. 82.) 



Your correspondent M. appears to be unaware 

 of the full discussion which Franklin's " Parable " 

 has already received in Bishop iieber's Life of 

 Jeremxj Taylor and elsewhere. Many of your 

 readers probably know that it appears in a some- 

 what less questionable form (for surely a parody 

 on Scripture must be so regarded), as the con- 

 clusion of Taylor's noble Discourse of the Liberty 

 of Prophesying, where he thus introduces it: "I 

 end with a story which I find in the Jews' books." 



Bishop Heber says {Taylor's Woi^hs, 3rd edit., 

 vol. i. p. ccix.), — 



"He concludes his treatise with tlie celebrated story of 

 Abraham and the idolatrous traveller, which Franklin, 

 with some little variation, gave to Lord Kaimes as a 

 'Jewish Parable on Persecution,' and which this last- 

 named author published in his ' Sketches of the History 

 of Man.' A charge of plagiarism has, on this account, 

 been raised against Franklin ; though he cannot be proved 

 to have given it to Lord Kaimes as his OAvn composition, 

 or under ;my other character than that in which Tavlor 

 had previously published it ; that, namely, of an elegant 

 fable by an uncertain author, which had accidentally 

 fallen under his notice. It is even possible, as has been 

 obsei-ved by a writer in the Edinburgh Review (Sept. 

 1816), that he may have met with it in some magazine 

 without Taylor's name. But it has been unfortunate for 

 him that his correspondent evidently appears to have re- 

 garded it as his composition ; that it has been published 

 as such in all the editions of Franklin's collected works ; 

 and that, with all Franklin's abilities and amiable quali- 

 ties, there was a degree of quackery in his character 

 which, in this instance as well as in that of his profes- 

 sional epitaph on himself, has made the imputation of 

 such a theft more readily received against him, than it 

 would have been against most other men of equal emi- 

 nence. 



"Whether Taylor himself found this story where he 

 professes to have done, it has long been a matter of sus- 

 picion. Contrary to his general custom, he gives no 

 reference to his authority in the margin; and, as the 

 works of the most celebrated Rabbins had been searched 

 for the passage in vain, it has been supposed that he had 

 ascribed to these authors a story of his own invention, in 

 order to introduce with a better grace an apt illustration 

 of his moral. My learned friend Mr. Oxlee, whose inti- 

 mate and extensive acquaintance with Talmudic and 

 Cabalistic learning is inferior to few of the most renowned 

 Jewish doctors themselves, has at length discovered the 

 probable source from which Taylor mav have taken this 



beautiful apologue, in the epistle dedicatory prefixed to 

 the translation of a Jewish work, by George Gentius, 

 who quotes it, however, not from a Hebrew writer, but 

 from the Persian poet Saadi. The story is in fact found, 

 word for word, in the Boostkn of this last writer, as ap- 

 pears by a literal translation, which I have received from 

 the kindness of Lord Teignmouth. The work of Gentius 

 appeared in 1651, a circumstance which accounts for the 

 fact that the parable is introduced in the second, not the 

 first, edition of the Liberty of Prophesying. That Taylor 

 ascribes it to ' the Jews' books ' may be accounted for 

 from his quoting at second-hand, and' from the nature of 

 the work where he found it." 



Heber still farther illustrates the subject in a 

 note, which I need not, however, transcribe. 



C. \V. Bingham. 



The following appears to be the origin of this 

 parable : 



"lUustre tradit nobilissimus autor Sadus venerandse. 

 antiquitatis exemplum, Abrahamum patriarcham hospi- 

 talitatis gloria celebratum, vix sibi felix faustumque 

 credidisse hospitium, nisi externum aliquem, tanquam 

 aliquod praesidium domi, excepisset hospitem, quem omiii 

 officiorum genere coleret. Aliquando ciim hospitem domi 

 nou liaberet foris eum qu^siturus campestria petiit. Forte 

 virum quendam, senectute gravem, itinere fessum, sub 

 arbore recumbentem conspicit. 



" Quem comiter exceptum domum hospitem deducit, et 

 omni ofliieio colit, cum coenam appositam Abrahamus et 

 familia ejus a precibus auspicarentur, senex manum ad 

 cibum protendit, nullo religionis aut pietatis auspicio 

 usus. Quo viso, Abrahamus eum ita affatur. ' Mi senex, 

 vix decet canitiem tuaiu sine previa Numinis venera- 

 tione cibum sumere.' Ad quae senex : 'Ego ignicola sum, 

 istiusmodi morum ignarus, nostri enira majores nuUani 

 talem me docuere pietatem.' Ad quam vocem horrescens 

 Abr.xhanius, rem sibi cum ignicola profano et a sui Nu- 

 minis cultu alieno esse, eum e vestigio et a Cajna remo- 

 tum, ut sui consortii pestem et religionis hostem dome 

 ejicit. Sed ecce Summus Deus Abrahamum statim monet 

 'Quid agis Abrahame? Itane viro fecisse te decuit? 

 Ego isti seni quantumvis in me usque ingrato, et vitam 

 et victum centum amplius annos dedi, tu homini nee 

 unam coenani dare, unumque eum momentum ferre 

 l)Otes?' Qua Divina voce monitus Abrahamus senem 

 ex itinere revocatuni domum reducit, et tantis officiis 

 pietate et ratione colit, ut suo exemplo, ad veri Numinis 

 cultum eum perduxerit." — G. Gentius, Historia Judaica 

 Res JudcBorum ab eversa JEde Hierosolymitana ad hcec fere 

 iempora usque complete, Amstelodam., anno 1651. 



Bishop Jeremy Taylor introduces the same 

 story at the end of his Liberty of Prophesying^ 

 saying he found "it in the Jews' books." He died 

 in 1667. Franklin was not born until 1706. 



J. G. 



Exon. • 



ARMS OF GENEVA. 



(Vol. ix., p. 110.) 



Your correspondent L. C. D. expresses some 

 perplexity on the subject of two shields ascribed 

 to Greneva by different authorities. This seems 

 to me to have arisen from not having sufficiently 

 distinguished between the free city of Geneva, 



