506 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
PUNCTUATION. 
There can, I think, be little doubt but that 
many beauties in writers are obscured or lost, 
and even apparent violations of sense and gram- 
mar caused, by improper punctuation. In my 
Life of Milton (p. 297.) I have hinted at (but 
which I firmly believe to be the truth) an idea 
that the punctuation of a passage in Lycidas is 
that of the printer, and different from that de- 
signed by the poet. In like manner at the end 
of the first stahza of Gray’s Ode on Eton Col- 
lege there is a colon instead of the sign of a 
break, or aposiopesis, while there is a manifest 
interruption in the sense. But I have an idea 
that printers formerly did use the colon in this 
way. I may here observe that we make too 
little use of the dotted line (. . . .), which indi- 
eates a break in the sense as distinguished from 
the dash (—), which only denotes a pause. The 
editors of Shakspeare, for example, use the last 
alone for both break (aposiopesis) and pause. 
“N. & Q.” does not, I believe, meddle much 
with classic matters, yet perhaps I may be allowed 
to illustrate my assertion from Virgil. In the 
first Eclogue, then, I would punctuate vv. 46. seq. 
as follows : 
«“ Portunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt ! — 
Et tibi magna satis. Quamvis lapis omnia nudus, 
Limosoque palus obducat pascua junco 
Non insueta graves, ete.” 
Melibeeus pauses with surprise at manebunt, and 
then adds Eiete. He then reflects that, small and 
unfertile as Tityrus’ lands may be, his cattle are 
exempt from the evils to which his own are ex- | 
posed. The structure Quamvis, ete. had occurred 
just before, v. 33. 
“En! unquam patrios longo post tempore fines, 
Pauperis et tuguri congestum czspite culmen 
Post? ..... aliquot, mea regna videns, mirabor 
aristas ! : , 
Impius hee tam culta novalia miles habebit, 
Barbarus has segetes.” — Vv. 67. seq. 
He is going to add multos annos, or something of 
the kind, when grief stops him, and he then tells 
what he would see, adding the reason ; xam being 
in the usual manner understood in v. 69. No 
critic has as yet given a good sense to Post aliquot 
aristas, in the ordinary punctuation. 
Tuos. KeiGHTLeY. 
CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM ON HOGARTH'’S ‘‘ MARCH 
TO FINCHLEY.” 
The following bit of healthy criticism, with its 
sly hits at the prevailing prejudice in favour of 
the “old masters,” under the “cold shade” of 
which the British School struggled into being, 
may appear to merit preservation; as also the 
title of the book from which I take it, which I 
claim indulgence for transcribing entire: — 
“A description of Mr. Hogarth’s original painting, 
from whence was copied his curious Plate of the ‘ March 
to Finchley’: — 
« Sr, 
“As you desire my sentiments on Mr. Hogarth’s 
Picture, I shall begin with pointing out what appears 
most defective. Its first and greatest Fault then is its 
being too new, and having too great a resemblance to the 
Objects it represents; if this appears a Paradox, you 
ought to take particular care of confessing it. This 
Picture has yet too much of that Lustre, of that despi- 
cable Freshness which we discover in Nature, and which 
is never seen in the Cabinets of the Curious. Time has 
not yet obscured it with that venerable smoak, that 
sacred cloud, which will one day conceal it from the pro- 
phane Eyes of the Vulgar, that its beauties may only be 
seen by those who are initiated into the Mysteries of 
Art. These are its most remarkable faults, and I am 
now going to give you an idea of the subject, &c. ... . 
“ Mr. Hogarth, who lets no Opportunity escape him of 
observing the Pictoresk Scenes which numerous Assem~ 
blies frequently furnish, has not failed to represent them 
on the Spot where he has drawn the scene of his Picture. 
This Painter is remarkable for a particular Sagacity in 
seizing a Thousand little Circumstances which escape the 
Observation of the greatest part of the Spectators; and it 
is a Collection of a Number of these Circumstances which _ 
has composed, enriched, and diversified his Work. The 
scene is placed,” &c. — Tur Mripwirr, or the Oxy Wo- 
MAN’s MaGAzine, containing all the Wir, and all the 
LEARNING, and all the JuDGMENT, that has ever been, or 
ever will be inserted in all the other Magazines, or the Ma- 
GAZINE of MAGAZINES, or the GRAND MAGAZINE OF 
MAGAZINES, or any other Book whatsoever. So that those 
who buy this Book will need no other. Published pursuant 
to several Acts of Parliament, and by the Permission of 
their Most Christian and Most Catholic Majesties, the 
Great Moaul, and the States General. London: printed 
for Mary Midwife, and sold by T. Carnan, in St. Paul’s 
Churchyard. (Vol. i. p. 182.) 
I need not, perhaps, remind the reader that a 
visit to the Foundling Hospital, (Monday is the 
day on which this institution is open to the public,) 
will enable him to compare the picture as it now 
_ is, with this criticism upon its merits when fresh 
from the master’s easel. Time has dealt gently 
with this fine work, for Hogarth painted with a 
safer medium than that used by his immediate 
successors ; but still is quietly engaged in the pro- 
cess of “smoking,” which the critic has antici- 
pated, and the painter himself, in one of his well- 
known subjects, symbolised. Witiam Bares. 
Birmingham, 
BRITISH LAND AND FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 
I send a list of habitats of these Mollusca in the 
immediate vicinity of Norwich, in hopes that some 
naturalist may add those of other species not 
found in this county : 
Neritina fluviatilis. 
Paludina vivipara and achatina. 
Bithinia tentaculata and ventricosa. 
River Wensum. 
Ditto. 
Ditto. 
[2ua §, No 26,, June 28,56, 
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