L'"<« S. V. 117., Mar. 27. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



263 



sense {>.s= Quacks and Empirics; but, at the pre- 

 sent day, signify Buffoons, Clowns, Conjurors, 

 Jiiggle?\s, &c- 



21. " To teach Dangers to come on by over early buck- 

 ling towards them." 



"Buckling towards" is distinct, I think, from 

 our modern phrase " buckle to," " i. e. grapple, or 

 close with ; and means, I should say, bending to- 

 wards. 



To save space I shall throw a few together en 

 masse : 



" Prospectives " for Projects. — Ess. xxvi. p. 95. 

 " Purprise," im- Precinct w Enclosure — \\\. p. 207. 

 "Present," for Message or Injunction — p. 116. 

 " Tracts " for Ti-aits — p. 20. " Material " for 

 terse and matter-of-fact. — p. 93. "Muniting" for 

 defending. — p. 12. 



There are a great number, too, of such words 

 and phrases as — Adust. Equipollent. Turquets. 

 Stonds. Privadoes. Ure. Aculeate. To desti- 

 tute. To pass in Smother. To keep in Smother. 

 To obtain to, for attain to. Trench to point of 

 Estate, for trench on points of State. To set a 

 Bias upon their Bowl, i. e. to bowl crookedly, 

 &c. &c. 



Mr. Singer appends a useful note to " the 

 Vena Porta " at p. 156. ; but it occurs previously, 

 and without reference, in Ess. xix. p. 73. 



" Obnoxious," which is noted at p. 79., occurs 

 again, in the same sense, in Ess. xliv. p. 166. And 

 "Favour" occurs again in Ess. xxvii. p. 104. 



Is " (fair) " in the following passage, a misprint 

 for fain ? What puts it in a parenthesis ? 



" To him that opens himself, Men will hardly show 

 themselves adverse; but will (fair) let him go on," &c. — 

 Ess. vi. p. 21. 



The Punctuation in several parts of this book 

 is corrupt and wants looking after. Unfortu- 

 nately I only made a note of one instance, viz, : 



" It is written that Timotheus the Athenian, after he 

 had, in the Account he gave to the State of his Govern- 

 ment, often interlaced this Speech. And in this Fortune 

 had no Part, never prospered in anything he undertook 

 afterwards." — xl. p. 154. 



_ What is " the Philology of the Wheels of Vi- 

 cissitude, that is but a Circle of Tales," which 

 Bacon speaks of in the concluding passage of 

 Essay Iviii. ? 



Many of the best notes and illustrations for 

 Bacon's^ Essays are such as might be obtained 

 from his own scattered, fragmentary, and volu- 

 minous writings, many of which are little known. 

 Few writers repeat, expand, and illustrate them- 

 selves more than Lord Bacon does. 



With this concluding remark on the "Counsels 

 Civil and Moral," I shall pass on to the Essays 

 on " The Philosophy of Ancient Fables." 



It is much to be regretted that Mr. Devey did 

 not bring out an edition of the Wisdom of the 

 Ancients on the same plan as that of the Advance- 



ment of Learning, yr\\ic\\ he has already edited *, 

 viz. taking Dr. Shaw's version for a basis, and 

 tilling up the ellipses. This translation is an ex- 

 cellent one, and would require little revision of 

 any kind, beside su[)plying the omissions and re- 

 storing the arrangement. What Mr. Devey ob- 

 serves in his prefiice with regard to Shaw's version 

 of the De Augmentis, applies in some measure to 

 his versi(m of the De Sap. Vet., but the latter is 

 but slightly mutilated, and suffers chiefly from the 

 altered arrangement : 



" Dr. Shaw's translation miglit have merited approba- 

 tion, had not the learned physician been impressed with 

 the idea that he could improve Bacon by relieving his 

 work of some of its choicest passages, and entirely alter- 

 ing the arrangement. In the present version, our task 

 lias been principally to rectify Shaw's mistakes [of judg- 

 ment] b^' restoring the author's own arriiiigement, and 

 supplying the omitted portions. Such of Shaw's notes 

 as were deemed of value have been retained, and others 

 added." 



An Introduction showing to what extent Lord 

 Bacon deviated from, or enlarged upon, his pre- 

 decessors in the interpretation of the Heathen 

 Myths, and to what extent he has been followed 

 up by the Mythogrnphers since his time, from 

 Von der Hardt and Nieremberg down to Bryant, 

 Faber, Creuzer, and Mone, &c. — -such an Intro- 

 duction, I say, would be most interesting and 

 valuable. 



The text may be enriched and enlarged by ex- 

 tracts from other parts of Bacon's writings. Thus 

 in the De Augm. the Fables of Pun, Perseus, and 

 Bacchus, may be found in an expanded form. 

 The Fables of Cupid and Coelum may be enriched 

 from a fragment entitled De Principiis atque Ori- 

 ginibus, secundum Fahulas Cupidinis et Cceli : Sive 

 Parmenidis et Telesii, et prcecipue Democriti Philo- 

 sophia, tractata in fabida (Mallet's Bacon, 1740, 

 folio, vol, ii. p. 319.), 



Thus too, in the De Augm., we have the Fables 

 of Scylla (Devey's edit,, p. 3,), Atalanta (p, 53,), 

 Orpheus (p. 59.), Apollo and Esculapius (p. 156.), 

 &c., &c. And in the Essays, Briareus (p. 56.), 

 Jupiter and Metis (p. 76,), Phdus (p, 134.), Fama 

 (p. 221,), &c. 



In considering the Philosophy of Ancient Fables, 

 we must remember that what is called Heathen 

 Mythology has its origin from various sources, and 

 is very composite. It includes not merely the 

 gods whom men worshipped, but heroes and tra- 

 ditions of Ancient History (as Deucalion and Pro- 

 metheus), precepts and moral truths, &c. Their 

 Cosmogony, Philosophy, and Sciences of various 

 kinds, were identified with Theology and shrined 

 in Myths, So that Mythology, being so varied in 

 its origin and composition, is not to be explained 

 solely on any one system. Symbolism or Allegory 



* Bacon's Advancement of Learning, and Novum Or- 

 ganum. By Joseph Devey, M. A. London. H. G. Bohn, 

 1853, 



