Jan. 25. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



63 



" O be persuaded ; do not count it holy: 

 To hurt, by being just, count it unlawful : 

 I"or we would give, as much, to violent thefts. 

 And rob, in the behalf of charity." 



The meaning being, it is as unlawful to do hurt 

 by being just, as it would be to give to a robbery, 

 or to rob for a charity ; to assist a bad cause by a 

 good deed, or a good cause by a bad deed. 



The word ''ciiunt," in its second occurrence, 

 was inserted by the printer in the wrung line ; 

 when it is restored to its proper place, the passage 

 presents but little dilliculty. John Taylob. 



BLACK IMAGES OF THE VIRGIN. 



(Vol. ii., p. 510.) 



Your correspondent, '^iR. Holt White, throws 

 out a suggestion relatiye to the origin of the 

 black doll as a sign at old store shops, which 

 is ingenious, but not very probable. The images 

 of black virgins are confined, I believe, to the 

 south of Eurojje, with the exception of the cele- 

 brated shrine of Einsiedeln in Switzerland. The 

 origin of the colour appears to be oriental, as Me. 

 W. surmises. I send the following extract, iu 

 answer to his query on the subject. It is a quo- 

 tation from Grinnn, in M. Miehelet's Introduction 

 to Universal History; and, as your readers must 

 be all familiar witli the language of the gifted 

 historian, I will not make the attempt to convey 

 Lis brilliant style into another tongue. 



" Une des iJees qui reviennent le plus dans nos 

 melstersinger, dit Grimm, c'cst la comparaison de I'in- 

 carnation de Jesus Christ avec I'atirore d'nn notiveaii 

 soleil. Toute religion avait eu son soleil-dieu, et des 

 le quatrieine siecle reglise occidentale celebre la nais- 

 sauce du Christ au jour ciu le st)leil remonte, au 25 

 Decembre, c'est-a dire, au jour ou Ton celebrait la 

 iiaissance du soleil iitciucihle. C'est un rapport evident 

 avec le suleil-ditu Mithra. On lit encore, dans nos 

 poefes, que Jesus a sa naissance re])Osait sur le sein 

 de Marie, eonime un oiseau, qui, le soir, se refugie dans 

 une fleur de nuit eclose au milieu de la nier. Quel 

 rapport remarquable avec le inythe de la naissance de 

 Drama, CTifernie dans le lis des eaux, le lotus, jusqu'au 

 jour oil la fleur fut ouverte par les rayons du soleil, 

 c'est-a- dire, par Vischnou lui-nierae, qui avait produit 

 cette fleur. Le Christ, le Nouveau-jour, est ne de la 

 nuit, c'cst-a-dire de Marie la Noire, dont les pieds re- 

 posent sur la lune, et dont la tete est couronnee de 

 planetes comine d'un brillant diademe. (Voyez les 

 tableaux d'Albert DUrer.) Ainsi reparait, comme dans 

 rancien culte, cette grande divinite, a])])elee tour-ii-tour 

 Ma'ia, IJliawani, Isis, Ceres, Proserpine, Persephone. 

 Heine du ciel, elle est la nuit d'oii sort la vie, et ou 

 toute vie se replonge; mysterieuse reunion de la vie 

 et de la mort. Kile s'appelle aussi la rosee, et dans les 

 mythes alleniands, la rosi'^e est consideree coiuinc le prin- 

 cipe qui reproduit et redonnc la vie. Elle n'est pas 

 K'uleiiient la nuit, mais cunime mere du soleil, elle est 



aussi I'aurore devant qui les planetes brillent et s'em- 

 pressent, comme pour Persephone. Lorsqu'elle signifie 

 la terre, comme Certs, elle est representee avec la 

 gerbede ble; elle estPerfephone, la graine de semence ; 

 comme cette deesse, elle a sa faucllle: c'est la demi- 

 lune qui repose sous scs pieds. Enfin, comme la 

 deesse d'Ephese, la triste Ceres et Proserpine, elle est 

 belle et brillante, et repcndant sombre et noire, selon 

 I'expression du Cantique des Cantiques: ' Je suis noire, 

 mais pleine de eharmes, le soleil m'a brulee '(le Christ). 

 Encore aujourd'hui, I'image de la mere de Dieu est 

 noire a Naples, comme a Einsiedeln en Suisse. Elle 

 unit ainsi le jour et la nuit, la joie avec la tristesse, le 

 soleil et la lune (chaleur, humidite), le terrestre et le 

 celeste." 



Tliis fragment is, perhaps, rather too long ; but 

 I think your readers will consider it too beautiful 

 to abridge. The late G. Higgins, in his Anaca- 

 lepsis (ii. 100.), has some observations to the 

 same purport, and points out the resemblance of 

 some of the old Italian paintings of the Vii-o-in 

 and Child to Egyptian representations of Isis and 

 the infant Horus. 



]\Iany of these ideas have been taken up by the 

 free-masons, and are typified and symbolised in 

 their initiatorj ceremonies. J. B. Ditchfield. 



OUTLINE IN PAINTING. 



A correspondent (J. O. W. H.) at p. 318. of 

 Vol. i. asks a question on the subject of outline 

 in painting; instancing the works of Albert Durer 

 and RalTaelle as examples of defined, and those 

 of Titian, Murillo, &c., of indefined outline. He 

 wishes to know whether there is " a right and a 

 wrong in the matter, apart from anything which 

 men call taste ? " 



The subject generally is a curious one, and has 

 interested me for some time ; as experiments ex- 

 hibit several singular phenomena resulting from 

 the intert'erence and diffraction of rays of light 

 in passing by the outline of a material body. 

 As a matter of fact, I believe I may say, that there 

 is no sucli thing in nature as a perfectly defined 

 outline ; since the difiVaction of the rays, in passing 

 it, causes them to be projected upon it more or 

 less, according to the nature of the particular 

 body, and the intensity of the light. And I may- 

 remark, by the way, that I believe this circum- 

 stance of the projection of a star upon the moon's 

 disc at the time of an occultation, is to be ac- 

 counted for on this princi[)le (though with all due 

 deference to higher authority) ; a phenomenon 

 which is to this day unexplained. 



Of course every outline is rendered less defined 

 by any motion of the eye of the observer, however 

 slight. Hence, perhaps, the comparative indis- 

 tinctness of outline conunoidy seen in pictures, 

 compared with those iu nature; as the artist 



