Aug. 20. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



177 



•* Down-Hill's so pleasing to the traveller's sight, 

 And th' marine prospect would your heart delight." 



" The rabbit tribe about me run their waj-, 

 Their little all to man becomes a prey. 

 The busy creatures trot about and run ; 

 Some kill them with a net, some with a gun. 

 Alas ! how little do these creatures know 

 For what they feed their young, so careful go. 

 The little creatures trot about and sweat, 

 Yet for the use of man is all they get." 



" He closed his eyes on ev'ry earthly thing. 

 Angles surround his bed : to heaven they bring 

 The soul, departed from its earthly clay. 

 He died, he died ! and calmly pass'd away, 

 His children not at home ; his widow mourn, 

 And all his friends, in tears, seem quite forlorn." 



Some of the London booksellers ouglit to re- 

 print this -work as a curiosity of literature. Some 

 of the subsci'ibers took a number of copies, and 

 one might be pi'ocured for the purpose. The 

 country seats of the largest subscribers are de- 

 scribed in the poem. 



The book ends with these lines (added by the 

 " devil " of the printing-office, no doubt) : 



" The above rural, pathetic, and very sublime per- 

 formance was corrected, in every respect, by the author 

 himself." 



This is erased with a pen, and these words written 

 below — "Printer's error." Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



"trom the sublime to the ridiculous," etc. 

 (Vol. v., p. 100.) 



Since my former communication on the use of 

 the phrase "From the sublime to the ridiculous 

 there is but a step," I have met with some farther 

 examples of kindred forms of expression, which 

 you may deem worth inserting in " N. & Q." 



Shakspeare has an instance in Romeo and Juliet, 

 where he describes " Love " as — 



" A madness most discreet,' 

 A choaking gall, and a preserving sweet." 



Quarles has it in his Emblems, Book iv. Epi- 

 gram 2. : — 



" Pilgrim, trudge on ; what makes thy soul complain? 

 Crowns thy complaint ; the way to rest is pain : 

 The road to resolution lies by doubt; 

 The next way home's the farthest way about." 



We find it in this couplet in Butler : 



" For discords make the sweetest airs, 

 And curses are a kind of prayers." 



Eochester has it in the line — 



" An eminent fool must be a man of parts." 



It occurs in Junius's remark — 



" Your Miijesty may learn hereafter how nearly the 

 slave and the tyrant are allied." 



and in tlie following well-known passage in the 

 same writer : 



" He was forced to go thrjugh every division, re- 

 solution, composition, and refinement of political 

 chemistry, before he happily arrived at the caput 

 moituum of vitriol in your grace. Flat and insipid in 

 your retired state; but, brought into action, you 

 become vitriol again. Such are the extremes of alter- 

 nate indolence or fury which have governed your 

 whole administration." 



The thought here (be it said in passing) seems 

 to have been adopted from these lines in Ro- 

 chester : 



" Wit, like tierce claret, when 't begins to pall, 

 Neglected lies, and 's of no use at all ; 

 But in its full perfection of decay 

 Turns vinegar, and comes again in play." 



But the most beautiful application of this senti- 

 ment that I have met with, occurs in an essay on 

 " The Uses of Adversity," by Mr. Herman Hooker,^ 

 an American wi-iter : — 



" A pious lady, who had lost her husband, was for a 

 time inconsolable. She could not think, scarcely could 

 she speak, of anything but him. Nothing seemed to 

 take her attention but the three promising children he 

 had left her, singing to her his presence, his look, his 

 love. But soon these were all taken ill, and died within 

 a few days of each otlier ; and now the childless 

 mother was calmed even by the greatness of the stroke. 

 As the lead that goes quickly down to the ocean's 

 depth ruffled its surface less than lighter things, so the 

 blow which was strongest did not so much disturb her 

 calm of mind, but drove her to its proper trust." 



Bb:NET H. Bbeex. 



St. Lucia. 



PASSAGE IN THE BURIAL SERVICE. 



(\^ol.viii., p.78.) 



" Tn the midst of life we are in death." 



A wi'iter in the Parish Choir (vol. iii. p. 140.) 

 gives the following account of this passage. He 

 says : 



" The pa,ssage in question is found in the Cantartum 

 Sti. Gain, or choir-book of the monks of St. Gall in 

 Switzerland, published in 1845, with, however, a slight 

 deviation from the text, as we are accustomed to it. 



' Media Vita of St. Notker. 



' Media Vita in morte sumus : quem quserimus ad- 

 jutorem, nisi Te Domine, qui pro peccatis nostris juste 

 irasceris. Ad te clamaverunt patres nostri, speraverunt, 

 et liberasti cos, Sancte Deus : ad te clamaverunt patres 

 nostri, clamaverunt et non sunt confusi. Sancte Fortis, 

 ne despicias nos in tempore senectutis : cum defecerit 

 virtus nostra, ne derelinquas nos. Sancte et misericors 

 Salvator amarse morti ne tradas nos.' 



" On consulting the Thesaurus Hymnologicus of 

 Daniel (vol. ii. p. 329.) I find the following notice. 



