Feb. 11. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



129 



Ecclesia; ; et Gentiani Herveti oratione de reparanda 

 Ecclesiastical discipline (quae omnia, excepto primo, 

 huic appendici inserentur), a.d. 1671. In hac nostra 

 editione sequimur virum doctissimum et pium Her- 

 mannum Conringium ; adhibitis multis aliis exem- 

 plaribus, quae omnia simul in hoc uno leges. Fin' 

 autem, Lector, aliquid penitius de hoc Consilio rescire ? 

 adisis [sic] P. Paulum Vergerium (invisum aliis sed cha- 

 rum nobis nomen), illiusque annotationes, in Catalogum 

 hasreticorum consule, fol. 251. tomi primi illiusoperum 

 Tubingae editi, a.d. 1563, in 4to., et siquid noveris de 

 reliqnorum tomorum editione, nos Anglos fac, qurnso, 

 certiores. [It would seem that the need of your 

 "N. & Q,.""was felt long before anyone thought of 

 supplying it.] Audi vero, interea, vel lege, Hermannum 

 Conringium." 



And this is what that "learned and godly" man 

 says : 



" Libellus ipse Cardinalis Capuani [Nicholas Schom- 

 berg], ut creditur, cura ad amicum in Germaniam 

 missus, mox anno 1539, et populari nostra et sua est 

 lingua per Lutherum et Sturmium editus. Eundem 

 post vidgavit, cum acri ad Papam Paidum IV. (qui olim 

 fuerat auctoruni) praefatione, Petrus Paulus Vergerius, 

 postquam Protestantium partibus accessisset." 



I will not add to the length of this Note by any 

 farther quotations ; but I am bound to say that if 

 those I have given do not satisfy Novus, he may 

 expect to be overwhelmed by confirmations of 

 them. B. B. Woodward. 



Bungay, Suffolk. 



JOHN BUNYAN. 



(Vol. ix., p. 104.) 



A highly respected correspondent, Dr. S. R. 

 Maitland, has seen an advertisement in the Mer- 

 curius Reformatus of June 11, 1690, announcing 

 the intention of Bunyan's widow to publish ten ma- 

 nuscripts which her husband had left prepared for 

 the press, together with some of his printed treatises 

 which had become scarce. He inquires whether 

 such a publication took place. In reply I beg leave 

 to state that they were published in a small folio, 

 containing "ten [and two fragments] of his excel- 

 lent manuscripts, and ten of his choice books for- 

 merly printed." The volume bears the title of 

 " The Works of that eminent Servant of Christ 

 Mr. John Bunyan, late Minister of the Gospel 

 and Pastor of the Congregation at Bedford. The 

 first volume. London, by Wm. Marshall, 1692." 

 It has the portrait by Sturt, and an impression 

 from the original curious copper-plate inscribed, 

 " A Mapp, showing the order and causes of Sal- 

 vation and Damnation." In addition to the Mer- 

 curius, John Dunton and others noticed, in terms 

 of warm approval, the intended publication, which 

 became extensively patronised, but has now be- 

 come very scarce. 



To the lovers of Bunyan it is peculiarly inter- 

 esting, being accompanied by a tract called " The 

 Struggler," written by one of his affectionate and 

 intimate friends, the Rev. C. Doe, containing a 

 list of Bunyan's works, with the time when each 

 of them was published, some personal character- 

 istic anecdotes, and thirty reasons why all decided 

 Christians should read and circulate these invalu- 

 able treatises. A copy presented to me by my 

 worthy friend the late Mr. Creasy of Sleaford, 

 which is in remarkably fine condition, has on the 

 title to the Index a printed dedication to Sir John 

 Hartop of Newington, the patron and friend of 

 Dr. Watts. This volume was to have been fol- 

 lowed by a second, to complete Bunyan's works, 

 but difficulties arose as to the copyright of the 

 more popular pieces, which prevented its publi- 

 cation. The original prospectus is preserved in 

 the British Museum, which, with " The Strug- 

 gler" and a new index to the whole of these truly 

 excellent treatises, is reprinted in my edition of 

 Bunyan's whole works for the first time collected 

 and published, with his Life, in three volumes im- 

 perial 8vo., illustrated with fac-similes of all the 

 old woodcuts and many elegant steel plates. 



George Offor. 



Hackney. 



THE ASTEROIDS, ETC. 

 (Vol. IX., p. 36.) 



It is certainly an uncomfortable idea to sup- 

 pose that the asteroids are the fragments of a former 

 world, perhaps accompanied with satellites which 

 have been scattered either by internal convulsion 

 or external violence. By looking into the con- 

 stitution and powers contained within our own 

 earth, we know that the means are not wanting 

 to rend us asunder under the combined effects of 

 volcanic action, intense heat, and water, meeting 

 deep within the substance of the earth under great 

 pressure. 



However, there is much to be said against the 

 theory of Olbers, notwithstanding its plausibility. 

 The distance between the internal asteroid Flora, 

 and the external one Hygeia, exceeds ninety mil- 

 lions of miles : or nearly the distance between the 

 earth and the sun. The force which could shatter 

 a world into fragments, and drive them asunder 

 to such an extent, must indeed be tremendous. 



Mr. Hind has drawn attention to the singular 

 fact, that the asteroids " appear to separate the 

 planets of small mass from the greater bodies of 

 the system, the planets which rotate on their axes 

 in about the same time as our earth from those 

 which are whirled round in less than half that 

 time, though of ten times the diameter of the 

 earth ; and," he continues, " it may yet be found 

 that these small bodies, so far from being portions 



