May 5. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



345 



rare book, and Coleridge {Lit. Remains, vol. iii. 

 p. 203.) thus speaks of it : 



" One thing is especially desirable in reference to that 

 most important, because (with the exception of the Holy 

 Living and Dying) the most popular, of Taylor's works, 

 the Liberty of Prophecying ; and this is a careful collation 

 of the different editions, particularly of the first, printed 

 before the restoration, and the last, published in Taylor's 

 lifetime, and after his promotion to the episcopal bench. 

 Indeed, I regard this as so nearl3'- concerning Taylor's 

 •character as a man, that if I find it has not been done in 

 Heber's edition, and if I find a first edition in the British 

 Museum, or Sion College, or Dr. Williams's library, I will, 

 God permitting, do it myself." 



The second edition of the Liberty of Prophecy- 

 ing is contained in the volume Taylor published 

 in 1657, in folio, under the title o{ 'Sv/j.SoXov HOlko- 

 TTo\efj.iKou, or a Collection of Polemical Discourses, 

 and here, with other additions, the parable ap- 

 pears. 



The third edition is posthumous : it appeared in 

 a larger volume, in which the title is altered to — 



" 2v/Li/3oAoi' @eo\oyi.Kov, or a Collection of Polemical Dis- 

 courses, wherein the Church of England, in its worst as 

 well as most flourishing condition, is defended in many 

 material points against the attempts of the Papists on 

 the one hand, and the Fanatics on the other. Together 

 with some additional pieces, addressed to the promotion 

 of practical religion and daily devotion. By Jer. Taylor, 

 chaplain in ordinary to King Charles the First, and late 

 Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. The third edition. 

 London, printed by R. Norton for K. Royston, 1674." 



In this volume the Liberty of Prophecying ap- 

 pears in its enlarged form, and the parable, as 

 before, concludes it. 



In the dedication of the Polemical Discourses to 

 Lord Hatton, Taylor explains the reason of the 

 additions made on account of the clamours of the 

 intolerant : 



" When a persecution did arise against the Church of 

 England, and that I intended to make a defensative for 

 my brethren and myself, by pleading for a liberty to our 

 consciences to persevere in that profession which was 

 warranted by all the laws of God and our superiors, some 

 men were angry, and would not be safe that way, because 

 I had made the roof of the sanctuary so wide that more 

 might be sheltered under it than they had a mind should 

 be saved harmless. Men would be safe alone or not at 

 all. . . . And therefore I was to defend our persons, that 

 whether our cause were right or wrong (for it would be 

 .supposed wrong), yet we might be permitted in liberty 

 and impunity : but then the consequent would be this, 

 that if we, when we were supposed to be in error, were 

 yet to be indemnified, then others also whom we thought 

 as ill of were to rejoice in the same freedom, because this 

 equality is the great instrument of justice, and if we 

 would not do to others as we desired should be done to 

 us, we were no more to pretend religion, because we de- 

 stroy the law and the prophets. Of this some were im- 

 patient ; and tkey would have all the world spare them, and 

 yet they would spare nobody. , . . But the most complained 

 that, in my ways to persuade a toleration, I helped some 

 men too far, and that I armed the Anabaptists with 

 swords instead of shields. . . . But wise men understand 

 the thing, and are satisfied ; and because all men are not 

 of equal strength, I did not only, in a discourse on pur- 



pose, demonstrate the true doctrine in that question, but 

 / have now, in this edition of that book, answered all their 

 pretensions, not only fearing lest some be hurt with their 

 ofi'ensive arms, but lest others, like Tarpeia the Roman 

 lady, be oppressed with shields, and be thought to think 

 well of their cause by pleading for their persons." 



It seems most probable that the reason why the 

 parable does not appear in some of the later edi- 

 tions of the Liberty of Prophecying may be, that 

 the text of the first edition has been followed in- 

 stead of that of the enlarged copies. Taylor 

 obtained the parable from Gentius's Historia 

 Judaica., which was printed at Amsterdam in. 

 1651, and Gentius derived it from the Boostaun 

 of the Persian poet Saadi, who may have heard 

 the story from some Jew when he was a prisoner 

 at Tripoli, and worked with the Jewish captives 

 on the fortifications there. Frar^Jclin may possibly 

 have met with it in some periodical, where it was 

 extracted, or have taken it from the Liberty of 

 Prophecying, giving it a biblical form. 



Most of the works of Taylor printed during his 

 lifetime are remarkable for their careful typo- 

 graphy and tasteful arrangement and embellish- 

 ment. It would be difficult to point out an En- 

 glish volume of the time of equal elegance in all 

 respects with that of the second edition of The 

 Great Exemplar, printed in small folio in 1653. 

 Taylor's own taste seems to have found an effec- 

 tive agent in his publisher Richard Royston ; and 

 Faithorne is here seen to great advantage, espe- 

 cially in the design and arrangement of the en- 

 graved title-page. S. W. Sikgee. 



serpent's egg (Vol. X., p. 508. ; Vol. xi., p. 271.) ; 



NEW SILK-WORM (Vol. xi., p. 264.) : BLUE KOSE 



(Vol. xi., p. 280.). 



Mb. Breen has misunderstood the Query of 

 L. M. M. R., and also committed an error which 

 should be rectified. The serpent's egg prized by 

 the Druids is the Ovum anguinum of Pliny — the 

 glei7i neidr of the ancient British — the adder 

 stone of modern folk lore. All that I have seen 

 were merely blue, green, or striped glass beads. 

 They are still used as charms to assist dentition, 

 cure ague and whooping-cough. The querist will 

 be very likely to find one in some of the London 

 curiosity shops. 



Some snakes are ovoviviparous, the young being 

 excluded from the shell previous to parturition ; 

 but others, as every English country boy knows, 

 are decidedly oviparous. The common English 

 snake {Natrixtorquatd) lays a chain of from eighteen 

 to twentv white eggs during the summer, and 

 these are hatched in the following spring. Whether 

 it be the cunning of the serpent, or natural in- 

 stinct, she prefers to lay her eggs in manure heaps, 

 old hot-beds, or at the base of lime-kilns, where 

 the artificial heat hastens the process of hatching. 



