Aug. 20. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



167 



" Like as it was with ^sop's damsel, turned 

 from a cat to a woman."] See Babrius, Fab. 32. 



" Ollierwise they may say, ' Multum incola fuit 

 anima mea.' "] Whence are these words bor- 

 rowed ? 



Essay XXXIX. Of Custom and Education.— 

 See Antith., No. 10. vol.viii. p. 359. 



" Only superstition is now so well advanced, that 

 men of the first blood are as firm as butchers by 

 occupation, and votary resolution is made equi- 

 pollent to custom, even in matter of blood."] This 

 is an allusion to the Gunpowder Plot. 



" The Indian wives strive to be burnt with the 

 corpse of their husbands."] The practice of sut- 

 tee is of great antiquity. See Strabo, xv. 1. § 30. 

 62. ; Val. Max. ii. 6. 14. 



" The lads of Sparta, of ancient time, were wont 

 to be scourged upon the altar of Diana, without so 

 much as quechingr'] To qiieche here means to 

 squeak. 



" Late learners cannot so well tahe the ply"'\ 

 To take the ply is to bend according to the pres- 

 sure ; to be flexible and docile under instruction. 



Essay XL. Of Fortune. — See Antith., No. II. 

 vol. viii. p. 359. 



" Serpens, nisi serpentem comederit, non fit 

 draco."] What is the origin of this saying ? 



The character of Cato the elder, cited from 

 Livy, is in xxxix. 40. ; but the words are quoted 

 memorite?', and do not agree exactly with the ori- 

 ginal. 



For the anecdote of Timotheus, see " N. & Q.," 

 Yol. vii,, p. 493. 



Essay XLII. Of Youth and Age. — See Antith., 

 No. 3. vol. viii. p. 355. 



" Hermogenes the rhetorician, whose books are 

 exceedingly subtle, who afterwards waxed stupid."] 

 Hermogenes of Tarsus, who lived in the reign of 

 Marcus Aurelius, wrote some able rhetorical works 

 while he was still a young man ; but at the age of 

 twenty-five fell into a state of mental imbecility, 

 from which he never recovered. 



" Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith in effect, 

 ' Ultima primis cedebant.' "] The allusion is to 

 Ovid, Heroid. ix. 23-4. : 



" Coeplsti melius quam desinis : ultima primis 

 Cedunt : dissimiles hie vir et ille puer." 



Essay XLIIL Of Beauty.— See Antith., No. 2. 

 vol. viii. p. 354. 



" A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert 

 Durer were the more trifler ; whereof the one 

 would make a personage by geometrical propor- 

 tions, the other by taking the best parts out of 

 divers faces to make one excellent."] With re- 

 gard to Apelles, Lord Bacon probably alludes to 

 the story of Zeuxis in Cic. De Inv. ii. 1. 



" Pulcrorum autumnus pidcher."] Query, What 

 is the source of this quotation ? 



Essay XL VL Of Gardens.— 



Many of the names of plants in this Essay re- 

 quire illustration. Gennitivgs appear to be broom, 

 from genista ; quodlins are codlings, a species of 

 apple ; ivardens are a species of pear, concerning 

 which see Hudson's Domestic Architecture of the 

 Thirteenth Century, p. 137. Bidlaces are explained 

 by Halliv/ell to be a small black and tartish plum, 

 growing wild in some parts of the country. 



" My meaning is perceived, that you may have 

 ver perpetuum, as the place affords."] The allu- 

 sion, probably, is to Virgil, Georg. ii. 149. : 



" Hie ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus a'stas." 



" Little low hedges, round, like welts, with some 

 pretty pyramids, I like well."] A welt was the- 

 turned-over edge of a garment. 



" Abeunt studia in mores."] From Ovid's 

 Epistle of Sappho to Phaon, Ep. xv. 83. 



" Let him study the schoolmen, for they are 

 cymini sectores."'] The word /cu^ji/oTrpio-Trjs is ap- 

 plied in Aristot., Eth. Nic. iv. 3., to a miserly- 

 person ; one who saves cheeseparings and candle- 

 ends. 



Essay LII. Of Ceremonies and Respects. — See 

 Antith., No. 34. vol. viii. p. 371. 



" It doth much add to a man's reputation, and 

 is (as Queen Isabella saith) like perpetual letters 

 commendatory, to have good forms."] Query, 

 Which Queen Isabella was the author of this 

 saying ? 



Essay LIIL Of Praise.— See Antith., No. 10. 

 vol. viii. p. 358. 



" Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantium."] 

 From Tacit. Agric. c. 41., where the words are: 

 " Pessimum inimicorum genus, laudantes." Lau- 

 dantium for laudantes in the text of Bacon is an 

 error. 



Essay LIV. Of Vain-glory.— See^wfiVA., No. 19. 

 vol. viii. p. 364. 



Essay LVI. Of Judicature. — 



"Judges ought to remember that their office is 

 jus dicere, and not jus t?a?-e."] Compare Aph. 44. 

 and 46., in the eighth book De Augmentis. L. 



BISHOP BTJRNET, H. WHARTON, ANI> SMITH. 



The following curious piece of literary history 

 is quoted from pp. 145 — 147. of Smith's De Re 

 Nummaria : 



" But having thus owned the bishop's generosity, I 

 must next inform the reader what occasion I have to 

 make some complaint of hard usage, partly to myself, 

 but infinitely more to Dr. H. Wharton, and that after 

 his decease also. The matter of fact lies in this order. 

 After Ant. Harmer had published his Specimen of 

 Errors to be found in the Bishop's History of the Re- 

 formation, there was a person that frequented the 

 coffee-house where we met daily at Oxon, and who 



