Dec. 30. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



527 



vividly depicted in the old style of the hideous 

 monster in the corner vomiting flames, the glories 

 of the blessed contrasted in the background ; while 

 on the right-hand corner appears a well-appointed 

 clerical looking gentleman in a devotional attitude, 

 which indicates the effigies authoris. There are 

 two editions of the cut by different artists, — the 

 leading features preserved in both ; and if known 

 to any of your curious readers, I should like to 

 have its identification. 



Among another class of book-burners I fear we 

 must include the British Solomon ; it being re- 

 corded that, his own Demonologie, Edin. 1597, 

 containing a royal warrant for the existence of 

 witches and diabolical compacts, not having ex- 

 tinguished the enlightened views of Reginald Scot 

 thereupon. King James rolled the judicial charac- 

 ter and the bourreau together, and " burnt many 

 copies oi the Discoverie of Witchcraft" 1584. 



On Dec. 21, 1666-7, Evelyn says he saw one 

 Carre pilloried at Charing Cross for a libel, which 

 was burnt'before him {Diari/, vol. ii. p. 32.), re- 

 minding us of poor Prynne, who, while under- 

 going the same personal indignity, was almost 

 suffocated by the smoke arising from his pon- 

 derous Histriomastix, 1636, as the hangman stirred 

 up his fire under the very nose of the unhappy 

 author. According to Peignot, our friends on the 

 other side of the Channel set us the example of 

 "book-burning ; and he asserts that the attack of 

 Prynne's upon stage plays, &c. was the first book 

 so treated in England, although, inconsistently 

 enough, recording that Cowell's book, 1605, having 

 given offence to the English public, was handed 

 over to, and burnt by the common hangman. 



J. O. 



To these may be added, Molyneux's Case of 

 Ireland stated, and the Press newspaper, which in 

 1797 was started in Dublin, as the organ of 

 " United Irish" nationality. Mr. Deane Swift's 

 writings under the signature of " Marcus," and 

 Thomas Addis Emmet's under that of" Montanus," 

 drew down in a great degree the government 

 vengeance alluded to. Whilst Finerty, its printer, 

 remained in the stocks, Arthur O'Connor, nephew 

 and heir to Lord Longueville, held an umbrella 

 over his head. The late Lord Clon curry contri- 

 buted to the Press newspaper, both from his purse 

 and his pen. W. J. Fitzpatrick. 



Monkstown, Dublin. 



Claude's book. The Complaints of the Protestants 

 cruelly persecuted in the kingdom of France, was 

 burnt at the Royal Exchange by the public 

 executioner, in the reign of James II., according 

 to his demand. (Weiss, History of the French 

 Protestant Refugees, p. 225.) J. M. 



" EX QUOVIS LIGNO NON FIT MEBCUBnJS. 



(Vol. X., p. 447.) 



Being at present engaged in the examination of 

 Pliny's writings on the vegetable kingdom, and 

 his sixteenth book having passed through my 

 hands scarcely more than a week ago, I was some- 

 what surprised to find the editor citing, on the 

 authority of the notes to the Delphin Classics, a 

 passage which had altogether escaped me, and 

 one, too, precisely of the nature I was in search 

 of, and to glean which I had taken up his Natui^al 

 History. Having previously had occasion to more 

 than suspect these same notes, I referred at once 

 to the proverb in Erasmus, and found, as my 

 suspicions suggested, that the note-maker had 

 blundered ; after what fashion the following ex- 

 tract from the Adagia will show. It may appear 

 a waste of valuable space to quote and requote so 

 well-known a book, but as " N. & Q." has circu- 

 lated an error, it may as well also give currency 

 to its correction, and the more so since at the same 

 time the " mystical meaning " of the proverb, after 

 which Mr. Fbaser inquires, will meet with an 

 explanation more to the point than is afforded by 

 the citation of this supposititious passage in Pliny : 



" Ne h quovis ligno Mercurius fiat — id est, non omnium 

 ingenia sunt accommodata disciplinis. Sumpta est alle- 

 goria k fabris, qui materiam diligunt. Quandoquidem ad 

 alias res, alias materias convenire copiose demonstrat Theo- 

 phrastus libro de plantis quinto. Item Plinius libro de- 

 cimo-sexto: 'Quidam superstitiosius exquirunt materiam, 

 unde numen exsculpant. Et quamquam Priapus ille deus 

 facilis et crassus, baud gravatur fieulnus esse, non tamen 

 idem liceat in Mercurio deo tam ingenioso, totque praedito 

 artibus.' Tametsi mihi magis arridet, ut ad magicura 

 Mercurii simulachrum referatur, quem non ex quavis 

 materia, sed certo ligno sculpebant, alioqui non futurum 

 idoneum ad magicaj artis usum. Unde id quoque inter 

 reliqua magici criminis argumenta objectum fuerat 

 Apuleio, quod Mercurii sigillum scalpendum curasset, 

 ligno buxi, quemadmodum ostendit ipse apologia magia 

 prima. Fortassis buxus ad id potissimum deligebatur, 

 vel quod hominis pallorem prse se ferat, vel quod materies 

 sit omnium, maxime seterna. Apuleius in apologia magise 

 prima proverbium refert ad autorem Pythagoram," &c. 



Athenseus uses a similar expression : 

 "Ex thymbra nemo queat conficere lanceam, neque & 

 Socrate probum militem." 



And again : 



"Neque h thymbra lancea, neque ex hujusmodi ser- 

 monibus vir bonus sit." 



A. Challsteth. 



P. S. — Let me take this opportunity of ex- 

 pressing my regret that, under the signature of 

 " Sigma, Customs," I should have unwittingly led 

 " N. & Q." to repeat itself on the subject of 

 Byron's filchings from Rochefoucauld. I felt it 

 to be impossible that they should have remained 

 altogether unnoticed, but as the successive editors 

 of Don Juan made no comment, theirs be the 

 blame. 



