466 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 267. 



The above extract is taken from the Boston 

 Morning Post of October 6, 1854, Might I be 

 permitted to ask, if Professor Whewell is known 

 as the acknowledged author of the Plurality of 

 Worlds ? W. W. 



Malta. 



[The authorship of the Plurality of Worlds is attri- 

 buted to Professor Whewell iu the British Museum Cata- 

 logue. The following notice respecting the author of 

 the Vestiges of Creation is given in the last Dumber of The 

 AthencBum : " Mr. Page desires us to reproduce the sub- 

 stance of a statement made by him, a few days ago, in 

 Dundee, as to the author of the Vestiges of Creation. 

 Mr. Page fixes the authorship on a gentleman who has 

 been generally credited with the work. At the time the 

 Vestiges was published, Mr. Page says he was engaged as 

 one of the literary and scientific coUaborateurs of the 

 Messrs. Chambers. The first time he saw it was in the 

 hands of Mr. Wm. Chambers, who came into his room 

 with the remark, * Here is a curious work making some 

 sensation,* and requesting that he (Mr. Page) would 

 write a notice of it for Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. 

 For this purpose Mr. Page took the work home, and he 

 had not read twenty pages of it before he felt convinced 

 that it was the production of Mr. Rob. Chambers. When 

 asked for the review, he stated that he could not prepare 

 one for two reasons : 1st, that he did not think the work 

 suited for notice in the Edinburgh Journal; and, 2nd, be- 

 cause he believed it to be the production of Mr. Rob. 

 Chambers. Mr. Wm. Chambers received this announce- 

 ment with apparent surprise, but denied all knowledge of 

 the matter; and there the subject dropt. Some time 

 after, however, and when the work was being severely 

 handled by the reviewers, Mr. Rob. Chambers alluded 

 to the matter, afi'ecting ignorance and innocence of the 

 authorship, upon which Mr. Page remarked, that had he 

 seen the sheets before going to press he could have pre- 

 vented some of the blunders. The consequence of this 

 remark was, that Mr. Rob. Chambers sent him the proof- 

 sheets of the second or third edition of the Vestiges, with 

 the request that he would enter on the margin any cor- 

 rections or suggestions that occurred. Mr. Page states 

 that he made some notes, but he does not say whether 

 these notes were adopted into the reimpression. How- 

 ever, he has, as he declares, ' made a clean breast of it ' at 

 length ; and he concludes with the remark, ' If merit is 

 attachable to the work, the author will reap his high re- 

 ward ; if demerit, the blame will at least fall on the right 

 shoulders.' "] 



ANGLO-SAXON TYPOGEAPHT. 



(Vol.x., pp. 183. 248.) 



The Query of Dr. Giles, I must confess, 

 alarmed me, as it did several of my learned friends 

 in this place. But I was reassured by the ex- 

 cellent reply of Sob. I regard the Query 

 itself as a sufficient proof of the profound igno- 

 rance respecting our own language in many 

 quarters at home where we ought to find better 

 things. 



As to the absurd idea of printing the old En- 

 glish }>orn (]>, •S) with th, it is really too bad. We 

 have an example of this kind in the Analecta 



Anglo- Saxonica, published by Klipstein (New 

 York, 1849), and I appeal to every scholar whether 

 the result is not ridiculous. 



Without reopening the question of this ancient 

 Runic letter, which was common to all the Teu- 

 tonic races, north and south, from the earliest 

 heathen times, I would merely refer anion"' 

 modern authors (for the great ancients, such as 

 Hickes and Worm, are of course well known) to 

 such names as Kemble, W. Grimm, Dieterich, 

 Lilegren, F. Magnusson, &c. 



What we ought to do is to restore this invalu- 

 able double-rune to our present alphabet, from 

 which it ought never to have been expelled in the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth century, out of an idola- 

 trous veneration for the Latin letters. This step 

 has been recommended by all the first philologists 

 of our time, such as Kemble, Jac. Grimm, Rask, 

 Latham, &c. ; has been adopted by the founders of 

 the phonetic system ; and will one day be uni- 

 versally accomplished, that is, if we have any re- 

 gard to the dictates of common sense, of English 

 philology, and of general scholarship, and the 

 wants of our own children as well as of foreigners. 



Meantime, with this exception, the Latin al- 

 phabet by all means. For farther hints on this 

 head I beg to refer to my articles in the Gentle' 

 num's Magazine for April and May, 1852. 



As to the contemplated publication, what we 

 want is, not book-making or doctored texts, but 

 editions of everything now in MS., printed with 

 religious exactness from the best text, with all the 

 important variations added below or behind from 

 the other MSS., where the same piece may occur. 

 The professed critic will afterwards come and treat 

 this text according to his own lights or theory. 



These editions must not be at prohibitory and 

 exclusive prices, but as cheap as possible ; they 

 must cost as many shillings as they have hitherto 

 cost guineas. 



The annual outlay, for a few years, of the ex- 

 pense of a single court banquet, or court cook, or 

 parliamentary blue book, would abundantly pay 

 all the expenses. Our Society of Antiquaries has 

 funds for this very purpose, and the government 

 would assist. 



Meantime let the edition of the Vercelli Poems, 

 as published by Mr. Cooper for the Record Com- 

 mission, suppressed during so many years no one 

 knows why, and still lying and rotting as parlia- 

 mentary waste paper, be immediately sold to the 

 public at a low price. This is the least return we 

 can demand from the parties interested in that 

 shameless and most expensive jobbery. How long 

 shall we continue to act as if we were mere foofi 

 or barbarians ? 



Not a moment should be lost In publishing the 

 splendid treasures of our old English authors. 

 They are of incalculable value, both In a literary 

 point of view, and as illustrations of olden tra- 



