Mae. 4. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



203 



continued so to 1413, when in a sedition raised by the 

 partizans of the Duke of Burgundy, his house was 

 plundered by the mob, and he obliged to fly into the 

 church of Notre Dame, where he continued for some 

 time concealed." — Du Pin, History of the Church, 

 cent. xv. ch. viii. 



It is said that the treatise in question first ap- 

 peared — 



" Appended to a MS. of Gerson's De Consolatione 

 Theologiae, dated 1421. This gave rise to the suppo- 

 sition that he was the real author of that celebrated 

 work ; and indeed it is a very doubtful point whether 

 this opinion is true or not, there being several high 

 authorities which ascribe to him the authorship of 

 that book." — Knight's Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. vi. 

 art. " Gerson." 



Was there then another John Gerson, a monk, 

 and Abbot of St. Stephen, between 1200 and 

 1240, to whom, as well as to the above, the 

 De Imitatione has been ascribed ? This, though 

 not impossible, appears extremely improbable. 

 Is H. P. prepared with evidence to prove it ? 



Du Pin, in the chapter above quoted, farther 

 says, in speaking of the De Imitatione Christi : 



" The style is pretty much like that of the other 

 devotional books of Thomas a Kempis. Nevertheless, 

 in his life-time it was attributed to St. Bernard and 

 Gerson. The latter was most commonly esteemed the 

 author of it in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 

 Afterwards some MSS. of it were found in Italy, 

 where it is attributed to one Gerson or Gessen, to 

 whom is given the title of abbot. Perhaps Gersen or 

 Gessen are only corruptions of the name of Gerson. 

 Notwithstanding, there are two things which will 

 hardly let us believe that this was Gerson's book ; one, 

 that the author calls himself a monk, the other, that 

 the style is very different from that of the Chancellor 

 of Paris. All this makes it difficult to decide to which 

 of these three authors it belongs. We must leave 

 Thomas a Kempis in possession of what is attributed 

 to him, without deciding positively in his favour." 



J. W. Thomas. 

 Dewsbury. 



This saying is quoted twice, as follows, in The 

 Chronicle of Battel Abbey from 1066 to 1177, 

 translated by Mr. Lower, 8vo., London, 1851 : 



" Thus, ' Man proposes, but God disposes,' for he was 

 not permitted to carry that resolution into effect." — 

 P. 27. 



"But, as the Scripture saith, 'Man proposes, but 

 God disposes,' so Christ suffered not His Church to 

 want its ancient and rightful privileges." — P. 83. 



Mr. Lower says in his Preface, p. x. : 



" Of the identity of the author nothing certain can 

 be inferred, beyond the bare fact of his having been a 

 monk of Battel. A few passages would almost incline 

 one to believe that Abbot Odo, who was living at the 

 date of the last events narrated in the work, and who is 

 known to have been a literary character of some emi- 



nence, was the writer of at least some portions of the 

 volume." 



It is stated at the beginning to be in part derived 

 from early documents and traditional statements. 



E. J. M. 

 Hastings. 



NAPOLEON S SPELLING. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 386. 502.) 



The question as to Napoleon's spelling may 

 seem, at first sight, to be one of little importance ; 

 and yet, if we will look at it aright, we shall find 

 that it involves many points of interest for the 

 philosopher and the historian. During a residence 

 of some years in France, I had heard it remarked, 

 more than once, by persons who appeared hostile 

 to the Napoleon dynasty, that its great founder 

 had, in his bulletins and other public documents, 

 shown an unaccountable ignorance of the common 

 rules of orthography : but I had never seen the 

 assertion put forth by any competent writer until 

 I met with the remarks of Macaulay, already 

 quoted by me, Vol. viii., p. 386. 



In reply to my inquiry as to the authority for 

 this statement, your correspondent C. has readily 

 and kindly furnished a passage from Bourrienne's 

 Memoires, in which it is alleged that Napoleon's 

 "orthographe est en general extraordinairement 

 estropiee" 



From all this it must be taken for granted, as, 

 indeed, it has never been denied, that Napoleon's 

 spelling is defective ; but the question to be con- 

 sidered is, whether that defectiveness was the effect 

 of ignorance or of design. That it did not arise 

 from ignorance would seem probable for the fol- 

 lowing reasons. 



Napoleon received his education chiefly in 

 France ; and it is to be presumed that the degree 

 of instruction in grammar, orthography, &c, ordi- 

 narily bestowed on educated Frenchmen, was not 

 withheld from him. 



To say the least of it, he was endued with suffi- 

 cient intelligence to acquire an ordinary know- 

 ledge of such matters. 



Nay more : he was a man of the highest order 

 of genius. Between the possession of genius, and 

 a knowledge of orthography, there is, I admit, no 

 necessary connexion. The humblest pedagogue 

 may be able to spell more correctly than the 

 greatest philosopher. But neither, on the other 

 hand, does genius of any kind necessarily preclude 

 a knowledge of spelling. 



While still a young man, Napoleon wrote several 

 works in French, such as the Souper de Beaucaire, 

 the Memoire sur la Culture du Murier, &c. Some 

 of the manuscripts of these writings must be still 

 extant ; and a comparison of the spelling of his 

 unpretending youth, with that of his aspiring 



