302 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VI. 146., Oct. 16. '58. 



wide prevalence of those ideas whicli lie at the 

 root of the word Superstition: — 



" The reader will remember the shameful rioting, mu- 

 tiny, and recklessness which disgraced the crew of the 

 ' Wager ; ' nor will he forget the approach to cannibalism 

 and murder on one occasion. These men had Just re- 

 turned from a tempestuous navigation, in which their 

 hopes of escape have been crushed ; and now what 

 thoughts disturbed their rest — what serious consultations 

 were they which engaged the attention of these sea-beaten 

 men? Long before Cheap's Bay had been left, the body 

 of a man had been found on the hill named ' Mount 

 Misery.' He was supposed to have been murdered by 

 some of the first gang who left the island. This body had 

 never been buried, and to such a neglect did the men now 

 ascribe the storms which had lately afflicted them ; nor 

 would they rest until the remains of their comrade were 

 placed beneath the earth, when each evidently felt as if 

 some dreadful spell had been removed from his spirit. 

 Few would expect to find many points of resemblance 

 between the Grecian mariners of the heroic ages who 

 navigated the galle3's, described by Homer, to Troy, and 

 the sailors of George II. ; .yet here, in these English sea- 

 men, was the same feeling regarding the jcnbiiried dead 

 which prevailed in ancient times." * 



The Desire for Posterity, though it seem per- 

 haps hardly sufficient to account for the acts of 

 the SuperstiHosi, is so deeply implanted in the 

 human heart, and is so connected with Man's in- 

 stinctive longing and striving after Immortality, 

 that, after all, it may possibly have been their 

 ultimate and only motive ; especially when we 

 consider the eccentricities of Paganism f and of all 

 religious fanaticism on the one hand, and the in- 

 tense humanity and domesticity of minds such as 

 Dr. Arnold's, on the other hand. Of the latter it 

 has been said : — 



" All persons have their whole and centre, to which 

 their tastes and feelings attach. Arnold's whole was the 

 house, the oi/cia, the family. ... A family was a temple 

 and church with Arnold, — a living sanctuarj' and focus 

 of religious joy, — a paradise, a heaven upon earth. It 

 was the very cream of human feeling and sentiment, and 

 the very well-spring of spiritual hopes and aspirations. 

 He thought and he taught, and he worked and he played, 

 and he looked at Sun, and Earth, and Sky, with a do- 

 mestic heart. The horizon of family life mixed with 

 the skiey life above, and the Earthly Landscape melted, 

 by a quiet process ofliature, into the Heavenly one." | 



Dr. Arnold himself declared : — 



" ' I do not wonder that it toas thought a great misfortune 

 to die childless in old times, when they had not fuller light 

 — it seems so completely wiping a man out of existence.' . . . 

 The anniversaries of domestic events — the passing away 

 of successive generations — the entrance of his sons on the 



* See Tales of Adventure by Sea and Land, London, 

 James Burns, 1847, p. 121. 



t " It is the demand of nature itself, ' What shall we 

 do to have Eternal Life?' The Desire of Immortality 

 and of the Knowledge of that wherebj' it may be attained, 

 is so natural unto all men, that even they which iire not 

 persuaded that they shall, do notwithstanding wish that 

 they might, know a way how to see no end of life. A 

 longing, therefore, to be saved, without understanding 

 the true waj' how, hath been the cause of all the Super- 

 stitions in the world." — Hooker, Serm. ii. § 23. 



J The Chiistian Remembrancer, 1844, vol. viii. p. 662. 



several stages of their education — struck on the deepest 

 chords of his nature, and made him blend with every 

 prospect of the Future, the keen sense of the continuance 

 (so to speak) of his own existence in the good and evil 

 fortunes of his children, and to unite the thought of them 

 with the yet more solemn feeling, with which he was at 

 all times wont to regard ' the blessing ' of ' a whole house 

 transplanted entire from Earth and Heaven, without one 

 failure.' " — Dr. Arnold's Life. 



This passage reminds one of what the Son of 

 Sirach says : — 



" He that teacheth his son grieveth the enemy ; and 

 before his friends he shall rejoice of him. Though his 

 father die, yet he is as though he were not dead, for he 

 hath left one behind him that is like himself. While he 

 lived, he saw and rejoiced in him ; and when he died, ho 

 was not sorrowful. He left behind him an avenger 

 against his enemies, some that shall requite kindness to 

 his friends." — Ecclus. xxx. 3 — 6. 



Bacon {Essay xxvii.) uses similar language 

 with regard to Friends : — 



"... It was a sparing speech of the Ancients to sa}', 

 ' That a Friend is another himself; ' for that a Friend is 

 far more than himself. Men have their time, and die 

 many times in desire of some things which they prin- 

 cipally take to heart; the bestowing of a Child, the 

 finishing of a Work, or the like. If a man have a true 

 Friend, he may rest almost secure that the care of those 

 things will continue after him ; so that a man hath, as it 

 were, two lives in his desires." 



In the same Essay, Bacon mentions that Septi- 

 mius Severus had such a friendship for Plantianus, 

 that he preferred him to his own son, and wrote 

 to the Senate, in the words of the SuperstiHosi : 

 " / love this mail so ivell, that I wish he may over- 

 live me." 



As Mk. Fakrer (2"" S. v. 243.) has kindly di- 

 rected my attention to an inscription, quoted by 

 Taylor in his Civil Law, in which are the words 

 " Infeliciss. Parens AfBictus Prteposteritate," I 

 should be glad to know whether there are similar 

 inscriptions on record ? Eirionnach. 



" ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS : 

 BYRON AND RIDGE, HIS FIRST PRINTER. 



As affecting the accuracy of literary history, it 

 may be worth while to correct a mistake into 

 which Moore, in his Life of Byron, has, I believe, 

 fallen, in connexion with his account of the publi- 

 cation of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. 

 In 1806 Lord Byron, being on a visit at South- 

 well, employed Mr. Ridge, a bookseller at the 

 neighbouring town of Newark, to print, " merely 

 for the perusal of a few friends to whom they are 

 dedicated," a few copies of Fugitive Pieces in 

 verse ; and who, adds the noble author, " will look 

 upon them with indulgence : and as most of them 

 were composed between the iige of fifteen and 

 seventeen, their defects will be pardoned or for- 

 gotten in the youth and inexperience of the 

 writer." " Of this edition," says Moore, " which 



