372 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 207. 



would be counted as good only for the next day. 

 In the case of Liffia v. Pitcher, 1 Doid. N. S. 

 T67., Justice Coleridge said, " I am in the habit 

 of giving twenty-four hours to plead when I give 

 one day." Thus it will be perceived that a 

 lawyer's day is of different lengths. 



With regard to the time at which a person 

 arrives at majority, we have good authority in 

 support of PRorEssoB De Morgan's statement : 



" So that full age in male or female is twenty-one 

 yicars, which age is completed on the day preceding 

 the anniversary of a person's birth, who till that time 

 is an infant, and so styled in law." — Blackstone's 

 Commentaries, vol. i. p. 463. 



There is no doubt also that the law rejects 

 fractions of a day where it is possible : 



" It is clear that the law vejecteth all fractions of 

 clays for the uncertainty, and commonly allows him 

 that hath part of the day in law to have the whole day, 

 unless where it, by fraction or relation, may be a pre- 

 judice to a third person." — Sir O. Bridgm, 1. 



And in respect to the present case it is quite 

 c^ear. In the case of Reg. v. The Parish of St. 

 Maiy, Warwick, reported in the Jurist (vol. xvii. 

 p. 551.), Lord Campbell said: 



" In some cases the Court does not regard the fraction 

 of a day. Where the question is on what day a person 

 came of age, the fraction of the day on which he was 

 born and on which he came of age is not considered." 



And farther on he says : 



" It is a general maxim that the law does not regard 

 the fraction of a day." 



EUSSELL GOLE. 



I only treat misquotation as an offence in the 

 old sense of the word ; and courteously, but most 

 positively, I deny the right of any one who quotes 

 to omit, or to alter emphasis, without stating what 

 he has done. That A. E. B. did misunderstand 

 me, I was justified in inferring from his implica- 

 tion (p. 198. col. 2.) that I made the day begin " a 

 minute after midnight." 



Arthur Hopton, whom A. E. B. quotes against 

 me (but the quotation is from chapter xiv., not 

 xlii.), is wrong in his law. The lawyers, from 

 Coke down to our own time, give both days, the 

 natural and artificial, as legal days. See Coke 

 Littleton (Index, Day), the current commentators 

 on Blackstone, and the usual law dictionaries. 



Nevertheless, this discussion will serve the 

 purpose. No one denies that the day of majority 

 now begins at midnight : no one pretends to prove, 

 by evidence of decisions, or opinion of writers on 

 law, that it began otherwise in 1600. How then 

 did Ben Jonson make It begin, as clearly A. E. B. 

 shows he does, at six o'clock (meaning probably a 

 certain sunrise) ? Hopton throws out the natural 

 day altogether In a work on chronology, and lays 

 down the artificial day as the only one known to 



lawyers : it is not wonderful that Jonson should 

 have fallen into the same mistake. 



A. De Morgan. 



SIMILARITY OF IDEA IN ST. LUKE AND JUVENAL. 



(Vol. vill., p. 195.) 



I send, as a pendant to Mr. Weir's lines from 

 Juvenal, the following extract from Cicero : 



" Sed in ea es urbe, in qua hjBC, vel plura, et ornatiora, 

 parietes ipsi loqui posse videantur." — C'lc. Epist., 1. vi. S.: 

 Torquato, Pearce's 12ino. edition. 



Most, if not all, of the readers of " N. & Q." are, 

 I believe, pleased by having their attention drawn 

 to parallel passages in which a similarity of idea 

 or thought is found. Let us adopt for conciseness 

 the term "parallel passages" (frequently used in 

 " N. & Q."), as embracing every kind of similarity. 

 Contributions of such passages to " N. & Q." would 

 form a very interesting collection. I should be 

 particularly pleased by a full collection of parallel 

 passages from the Scriptures and ancient and mo- 

 dern literature, and especially Shakspeare. (See 

 Mr. Buckton's " Shakspearian Parallels," ante, 

 p. 240.) 



To prevent sending passages that have been in- 

 serted in "N. & Q.," every note should refer to 

 the note immediately preceding. I send the fol- 

 lowing parallel passages with some hesitation, be- 

 cause I have not my volumes of " N. & Q." at 

 hand, to ascertain whether they have already ap- 

 peared, and because they are probably fixmillar to 

 your readers. I do not, however, send them as 

 novelties, but as a contribution to the collection 

 which I wish to see made : 



" 'Airb 5e tov (xt] exo»''''os Kol o exf, opdricreTat ott' 

 avTov." — Matt. xxv. 29., Luke xix. 26. 



" Nil habuit Codrus. Quis enim hoc negat ? et tamea 

 illud 

 Perdidit infelix totum nihil." — Juvenal, i. iii. 208. 



The rich man says : 



" 'Vuxi], <X^'^ ■JroWi aryaOa Kelfieva els err) iroWd' avo- 

 iravov, fpdye, irie, evcppaivov." — Luke xii. 1 9. 



«'Lo, this is the man that took not God for hiss 

 strength : but trusted unto the multitude of his 

 riches." — Ps. Iii. 8. 



" For he hath said in his heart. Tush, I shall never 

 be cast down : there shall no harm happen unto me." — • 

 Ps. X. 6., &c. (See Obadiah v. 3. ; " Who shall bring 

 me down to the ground ? ") 



So NIobe boasts : 



" Felix sum, quis enim hoc neget? felixqiic manebo. 

 Hoc quoque quis dubitet? tutam me copia fecit. 

 Major sura quam cui possit Fortuna nocere." 



Ovid, Met.\i. 194. 



