and S. No lie, Mar. 20. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



243 



Perhaps the doctrine of transmigration was 

 never seriously held by those who taught it, but 

 employed only as an hypothesis to make the future 

 advantages of a virtuous life more intelligible and 

 striking to such as could conceive no other enjoy- 

 ment or suffering than what may be conveyed 

 through bodily organs. The spiritually disposed 

 were regarded as enthusiasts, as men deprived of 

 their senses by their attachment to the invisible 

 world* — " non habitatores hujus mundi, sed 

 animcE superstiies" In their Manichasan contempt 

 of the enjoyments of life, and Brachmanic indif- 

 ference to death, originated the expression now 

 under consideration — signifying (as the termi- 

 nation -0S71S always does) the excess of these self- 

 annihilating feelings — super stitiosi. 



" Nos eniin quia sancte et continenter vivimus, ideo di- 

 citis quia aut Deos nos facimus, aut contra Deos invidiam 

 habemus." 



Dindymus represents 

 " the world we inhabit not as the abode merely of human 

 passions or human joys, but as the temple of the living 

 God, in which praise is due, and where service is to be 

 performed." — Alison's Essays on Taste, concluding sen- 

 tence. 



BiBLIOTHECAK. ChETHAM. 



ProBposteritas. — To the valuable Note by Eiri- 

 ONNACH, on the origin of the word superstition, 

 should be added the comment and references in 

 illustration by Taylor in his Civil Law. (See Su- 

 perstitiosi in the Index.) He concludes his ob- 

 servations : 



" And, lastly, this leads rae to recommend a new word 

 to the lexicons (I do not recommend the age of it)." 



The new word is " PrEeposteritas." Taylor quotes 

 an inscription in which are the words " Infeliciss. 

 Parens Afflictus Prasposteritate." Will this new 

 word be admitted by the Dean of Westminster 

 into the new Dictionary ? To illustrate " su- 

 perstes " and " superstitio " better authority can- 

 not, perhaps, be quoted than Virgil. Evander, in 

 his lamentation over the dead body of his son Pal- 

 las, cries out, — 



" tuque, O sanctissima conjunx, 



Felix morte tua, neque in hunc servata dolorem ! 

 Contra ego vivendo vici niea fata, superstes 

 Restarem ut genitor." — ^neid, xi. 158. 



After Evander had admitted -^neas to partake 

 of a great sacrificial feast, he thus addresses his 

 guest : 



" Non hiBC solennia nobis, 

 Has ex more dapes, hanc tanti numinis aram, 

 Vana superstitio veterumque ignara Deorura 

 Imposuit." — JEneid, viii. 185. 



Burke, in his lamentation over his only son, 

 writes, " I live in an inverted order of things," 

 &c. J. W. Fakker. 



* "Sunt pra;terea homines in partibus supradictis (ultra 

 Gangem), qui amore alterius vitaj in ignem raittere se non 

 formidant." — Jacob, de Vitriaco, uhi supra. 



Wonderful Robert Walker (2°<i S. v. 172.) — 

 Your correspondent is mistaken in saying that 

 there is no biography of the Rev. Robert Walker. 

 A Memoir, written with all the simple beauty 

 which we might expect from the pen of Words- 

 worth, is appended to the Poems of the latter 

 (octavo, 1851). 



In the 7th book of The Excursion, and in the 

 18th sonnet (Part iii.), Wordsworth has trans- 

 mitted the good man's name to posterity in " im- 

 mortal verse." Some farther information of this 

 remarkable clergyman — "wonderful" he has not 

 been improperly styled — may be found in the 

 late Canon Parkinson's popular tale, The Old 

 Church Clock, of which Mr. Walker may be re- 

 garded the hero. Wordsworth gave permission to 

 Dr. Parkinson to insert " the true history of the 

 patriarch " in his tale ; and in the same work will 

 be found a second Memoir of Mr. Walker by his 

 great-grandson, the Rev. Robert W. Baraford, 

 vicar of Bishopton. • 



Mr. Walker is said (p. 172.) to have died 

 in August, 1802. This date is not correct; his 

 gravestone in Seathwaite churchyard contains the 

 following inscription : — 



" In Memory of the Rev. Robt* Walker, who died the 

 25ti» June, 1802, in the 93f<i year of his age, and 67ti> of 

 his Curacy at Seathwaite." 



J. H. M. 



" When winds breathe soft''' (2°^ S. v. 192.) — 

 Many years ago I heard that a paper containing 

 these beautiful lines had wrapped up some article 

 purchased at a cheesemonger's shop, like the frag- 

 ment of Boswell's letter discovered at Boulogne. 

 I have since seen this statement in print. My 

 late friend, Mr. Barnewell of the British Museum, 

 ascribed these lines — but I now forget on what 

 authority — to Mrs. Robinson, the Perdita of the 

 early days of George IV. J. H. M. 



These lines appear anonymously in the London 

 Magazine for April, 1747 (about twenty years 

 before Webbe began to write glees), under the 

 following very prosaic title : " On the Effects of 

 different Degrees of Wind on the Sea." In 

 Bishop's edition of the glee, " mountain Billows " 

 has been substituted for ^'■mounting Billows;" and 

 in the last line but one the word plaint, for shriek. 

 Whether these emendations (?) are Webbe's or 

 Bishop's I know not. In other respects the words 

 are the same. S. H. H. 



Barristers" Wigs and Gowns (2"^ S. v. 149.) — 

 I fully believe there is no statute or rule prohi- 

 biting attornies and others, not barristers, from 

 wearing wigs and gowns in courts of law, high 

 or low. I rather think the appearance of at- 

 tornies, who are officers of the courts, without 

 gowns, is a comparatively modern fashion. The 



