416 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 209. 



Ammonlus, an Egyptian Christian nearly co- 

 teraporary with Origen (third century), wrote a 

 Harmony of the four gospels, which is supposed to 

 be one of those still extant in the Bihlioth. Max. 

 Patrum. But whether the larger Harmony in 

 torn. ii. part 2., or the smaller in tom. iii., is the 

 genuine work is doubted. See a note to p. 97. 

 of Reid's Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, 1 vol. 

 edition : London, Simms and Mclntyre, 1848. 



Chris. Koberts. 



Bradford, Yorkshire. 



SMALL WORCS AND LOW WORDS. 



(Vol. ii., pp. 305. 349. 377. ; Vol. iii., p. 309.) 



A passage in Churchill, and one in Lord John 

 Russell's Life of Moore, have lately reminded me 

 of a former Note of mine on this subject. The 

 structure of Churchill's second couplet must surely 

 have been suggested by that of Pope, which formed 

 my original text : 



" Conjunction, adverb, preposUion, join 

 To add new vigour to the nervous Hne : — 

 In monosyllables his thunders roll, — 

 He, she, it, and, we, ye, they, fright the soul." 

 Censure on Mossop. 



Moore, in his Journals, notes, on the other side 

 •*of the question, a conversation between Rogers, 

 Crowe, and himself, " on the beauty of monosyl- 

 labic verses. ' He jests at scars,' &c. ; the couplet, 

 * Sigh on my lip,' &c. ; ' Give all thou canst,' &c. 

 &c., and many others, the most vigorous and 

 musical, perhaps, of any." (Lord John Russell's 

 Moore, vol. ii. p. 200.) 



The frequency of monosyllabic lines in English 

 poetry will hardly be wondered at, however it 

 may be open to such criticisms as Pope's and 

 Churchill's, when it is noted that our language 

 contains, of monosyllables formed by the vowel a 

 alone, considerably more than 500 ; by the vowel 

 e, about 450 ; by the vowel i, nearly 400 ; by the 

 vowel o, rather more than 400 ; and by the vowel 

 w, upwards of 260 ; a calculation entirely exclusive 

 of the large number of monosyllables formed by 

 diphthongs. 



I hardly know whether the following "literary 

 folly" (as "D'Israeli the Elder" would call It, see 

 Curiosities of Lit. sub tit.), suggested by dipping 

 into the above monosyllabical statistics, will be 

 thought worthy to occupy a column of " N. & Q." 

 However, it may take its chance as a supple- 

 mentary Note, without farther preface, under the 

 name, for want of a better, of Univocalic verses : 



The Jlusso- Turkish War. 

 A. Wars harm all ranks, all arts, all crafts appal : 

 At Mars' harsh blast arch, rampart, altar fall ! 

 Ah ! hard as adamant, a braggart Czar 

 Arms vassal-swarms, and fans a fatal war ! 



Rampant at" that bad call, a Vandal-band 

 Harass, and harm, and ransack Wallach-land ! ' 

 A Tartar phalanx Balkan's scarp hath past, 

 And Allah's standard falls, alas ! at last. 



The Fall of Eve. 

 E. Eve, Eden's Empress, needs defended be ; 



The Serpent greets her when she seeks the tree. 

 Serene she sees the speckled tempter creep ; 

 Gentle he seems — perversest schemer deep — 

 Yet endless pretexts, ever fresh, prefers. 

 Perverts her senses, revels when she errs, 

 Sneers when she weeps, regrets, repents she fell ; 

 Then, deep-reveng'd, reseeks the nether hell ! 



The Approach of Evening. 

 I. Idling I sit in this mild twilight dim, 



Whilst birds, in wild swift vigils, circling skim. 

 Light winds in sighing sink, till, rising bright. 

 Night's Virgin Pilgrim swims in vivid light ! 



Incontrovertible Facts. 

 O. No monk too good to rob, or cog, or plot. 

 No fool so gross to bolt Scotch collops hot. 

 From Donjon tops no Oroonoko rolls. 

 Logwood, not Lotos, floods Oporto's bowls. 

 Troops of old tosspots oft, to sot, consort. 

 Box tops, not bottoms, schoolboys flog for sport. 

 No cool monsoons blow soft on Oxford, dons, 

 Orthodox, jog-trot, book-worm Solomons 1 

 Bold Ostrogoths of ghosts no horror show. 

 On London shop-fronts no hop-blossoms grow. 

 To crocks of gold no dodo looks for food. 

 On soft cloth footstools no old fox doth brood. 

 Long-storm-tost sloops forlorn work on to port. 

 Rooks do not roost on spoons, nor woodcocks 



snort. 

 Nor dog on snowdrop or on coltsfoot rolls, 

 Nor common frog concocts long protocols. 



The same subject continued. 

 U. Dull, humdrum murmurs lull, but hubbub stuns. 

 Luculhis snuffs up musk, mundungus shuns. 

 Puss purrs, buds burst, bucks butt, luck turns up 



trumps ; 

 But full cups, hurtful, spur up unjust thumps. 



Although I am the veritable K. I. P. B. T. of 

 the former Notes, I sign myself now, in accord- 

 ance with more recent custom, 



Harry Lerot Temple. 



A chapter on rings. 



(Vol. vil. passim.) 



The Scriptures prove the use of rings in remote 

 antiquity. In Gen. xli., Joseph has conferred on 

 him the king's ring, an instance more ancient than 

 Prometheus, whom fables call the Inventor of the 

 ring. Therefore let those who will hold, with Pliny 

 and his followers, that Its use is more recent than 

 Homer. The Greeks seem to have derived the 

 custom of wearing it from the East, and Italy 

 from the Greeks. Juvenal and Perslus refer to 



