2 NOTES AND QUERIES. [Nos t. 
Nay, we are sure that the proprietors would 
find themselves much benefited even if we 
were to do nothing more than to induce them 
to look over their own collections. How 
much good might we have done (as well as 
got, for we do not pretend: to speak quite dis- 
interestedly), if we had had the looking over 
and methodizing of the chaos in which Mr. 
Oldbuck found himself just at the moment, so 
agonizing to an author, when he knows that 
the patience of his victim is oozing away, and 
fears it will be quite gone before he can lay 
his hand on the charm which is to fix him a 
hopeless listener :—‘“ So saying, the Anti- 
quary opened a drawer, and began rummaging 
among a quantity of miscellaneous papers, 
ancient and modern. But it was the misfor- 
tune of this learned gentleman, as it may be 
that of many learned and unlearned, that he 
frequently experienced on such occasions, 
what Harlequin calls ’embarras des richesses 
—in other words, the abundance of his col- 
lection often prevented him from finding the 
article he sought for.” We need not add that 
this unsuccessful search for Professor Mac- 
Cribb’s epistle, and the scroll of the Anti- 
quary’s answer, was the unfortunate turning- 
point on which the very existence of the 
documents depended, and that from that day 
to this nobody has seen them, or known 
where to look for them. 
But we hope for more extensive and im- 
portant benefits, than these from furnishing a 
medium by which much valuable information 
may become a sort of common property 
among those who can appreciate and use it. 
We do not anticipate any holding back 
by those whose “ Norres” are most worth 
having, or any want of “ Quertms” from 
those best able to answer them. Whatever 
may be the case in other things, it is certain 
that those who are best informed are gene- 
rally the most ready to communicate know- 
ledge and to confess ignorance, to feel the 
value of such a work as we are attempting, and 
to understand that if it is to be well done 
they must help to do it. Some cheap and 
frequent means for the interchange of thought 
is certainly wanted by those who are engaged 
in literature, art, and science, and we only 
hope to persuade the best men in all, that we 
offer them the best medium of communication 
with each other. 
By this time, we hope, our readers are pre- 
pared to admit that our title (always one of 
the most difficult points of a book to settle), 
has not been imprudently or unwisely adopted. 
We wish to bring together the ideas and the 
wants, not merely of men engaged in the 
same lines of action or inquiry, but also (and 
very particularly) of those who are going dif- 
ferent ways, and only meet at the crossings, 
where a helping hand is oftenest needed, and 
they would be happy to give one if they knew 
it was wanted. In this way we desire that 
our little book should take “Norgs,” and 
be a medley of all that men are doing — that 
the Notes of the writer and the reader, what- 
ever be the subject-matter of his studies, of 
the antiquary, and the artist, the man of 
science, the historian, the herald, and the ge- 
nealogist, in short, Notes relating to all sub- 
jects but such as are, in popular discourse, 
termed either political or polemical, should 
meet in our columns in such juxta-position, 
as to give fair play to any natural attraction 
or repulsion between them, and so that if 
there are any hooks and eyes among them, 
they may catch each other. 
Now, with all modesty, we submit, that for 
the title of such a work as we have in view, 
and have endeavoured to describe, no word 
could be so proper as “‘Nores.” Can any man, 
in his wildest dream of imagination, conceive 
of any thing that may not be—nay, that has 
not been—treated of in a mote? ‘Thousands 
of things there are, no doubt, which cannot 
be sublimed into poetry, or elevated into his- 
tory, or treated of with dignity, in a stilted 
text of any kind, and which are, as it is, 
called, “thrown” into notes; but, after all, 
they are much like children sent out of the 
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