266 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»a S. IX. April 7. '60. 



mentioning what is a very vague idea, lest I should 

 do injustice to some living critic. John Jebb. 

 Peterstow, Ross. 



THOMAS AUY: BOOKS DEDICATED TO THE 

 DEITY. 



(2 rd S. is. 180.) 

 Your correspondent has noted a remarkable 

 book by a man who deserves well of posterity, 

 inasmuch as he boldly thrust himself between 

 cruel judges and the poor wretches they were 

 sacrificing upon the absurd charge of witchcraft. 

 While everybody else appeared infatuated, this 

 respectable clergyman was looking on with horror 

 at these judicial murders, and with a view to 

 arrest such barbarities produced his Candle in the 

 Dark*, warning tbe responsible parties to whom 

 it is addressed to pause before consigning help- 

 less old men and women to death for impossible 

 crimes ! I 



Mr. Ady followed the enlightened example of 

 Reginald Scot, but unhappily the impetus given 

 to the belief in demoniacal possession by royal 

 sanction, enforced by divers godly ministers, over- 

 powered the humane attempts of the few ; and the 

 seventeenth century presents to us the humiliating 

 picture of judges, juries, and people laying aside 

 their common humanity, and under the guidance 

 of the brutal witch- finder permitting atrocities 

 more in accordance with the practice of savages 

 than with those of Christian nations. 



My copy of the Candle is an interesting one, 

 having J. Addison on the title, and being a plea- 

 sant reminiscence of old-book hunting in the 

 Tropics, but I now find it deficient in the address 

 " To the Prince of the Kings of the Earth," with 

 reference to which Cato asks if there are other 

 examples of such dedications. The subject gene- 

 rally affords ample materials for a separate Note ; 

 but I confine myself at present to the direct ques- 

 tion, by answering that this style of dedication is 

 by no means uncommon, and I find the following 

 at hand. 



The dedication to the Rev. John Home's Divine 

 Wooer, 1673, begins, — 



" Lord, I would dedicate this work to Thee, 

 For its Materials are mainly thine;" 



and thereupon puts under the patronage of the 

 Deity a farrago of 334 pages of very uninspired 

 matter. The Seraphical Shepherd, by Cornelius 

 Cayley, 1762, has a dedication to Jesus Christ, in 

 verse ; the Scotch Psalms, with the Notes and 

 Comments of Neil Douglas, 1815, bears on the 



* In allusion to tlie dark matter in hand, there is upon 

 the title an emblematic cut representing an arm issuing 

 from the clouds, bearing a lighted candle. The book was 

 reproduced in 166!, under the title A Perfect Discovery 

 of Witches. I can find nothing regarding the author, but 

 assume that he was in holy orders. 



title Dedicated to the Messiah, greatly amplified 

 on the next page, To Immanuel. A metrical 

 version of the Psalms, by John Stow, 1809, has 

 a long address, To Thee, O Jehovah ! &c. Poets, 

 particularly spiritual song writers, are very fond 

 of this questionable kind of practice ; the follow- 

 ing (all capitals in the original) I give in extenso 

 from Tetalesti, or the Final Close ; a Poem, 1794: 



" To the most Sublime, most High and Mighty, most 

 Puissant, most Sacred, most Faithful, most Gracious, most 

 Catholic, most Sincere, most Reverend, and most Righ- 

 teous Majesty Jehovah Emanuel, by indefeasible right 

 Sovereign of the Universe, and Prince of the Kings of 

 the Earth, Governor-General of the World, Chief Shep- 

 herd or Archbishop of Souls, Chief Justice of Final Ap- 

 peal, Judge of the Last Assize, Father of Mercies, and 

 Friend of Man, This Poem (a feeble testimony of his 

 obligation and hopes) is gratefully and humbly presented 

 by His Majesty's highly favoured but very unworthy 

 subject and servant The Author (David Bradberrv)." 



" J. o. 



The practice of dedicating books on various 

 subjects to "Almighty God" had in other in- 

 stances prevailed in the older times, and that with 

 the strictest feelings of reverential piety. Two or 

 three examples at hand (in reply to Cato) may be 

 shortly noted : — 



" Deo Vero, jEterno, Vni et Trino." A Latin Poem, 

 Henrici Smelii vitam complectens, terminating his elaborate 

 work Prosodia. Lvgdvni, 1619. 



"To the Honour and Glory of the Infinite, Immense, 

 and Incomprehensible Majesty of Jehovah, the Foun- 

 taine of all Excellencies, the Lord of Hosts, the Giver of 

 all Victories, and the God of Peace, by J. O. Ley, a small 

 crumme of mortality, Septemb. 23, 1648," in connexion 

 with " The Civill YVarres of England, Collected by John 

 Leycester." London, 1649. 



"The Dedication to the Infinite, Eternal, and All- 

 Wise God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, — L. N. His un- 

 worthy Servant and Steward of the Sacred Mysteries of 

 his Everlasting Gospel, humbly devoteth these First- 

 fruits of his Small things. Most Glorious and Dread Sove- 

 reign," &c. prefixed to " The Voice of the Rod or God"s 

 Controversie pleaded with Man. By L. N. *i\o^o9t)?, Ah 

 JZremis meis, Aug. 28, 1666, London, printed for Walter 

 Dight, Bookseller in Exeter, 1668." 12mo. pp. 288. 



The author, in " A Postscript to his Readers," 

 informs them, — 



" If anything in these sheets seem to be born out of due 

 time, know that they have had a hard Travail. They 

 were at first prepared for 1665, but through the astonish- 

 ing difficulty of our late Junctures," &c. had suffered 

 delay. 



It would appear that the publication had been 

 impeded both by the Plague and the Great Fire of 

 London. 



I will feel obliged to any reader of " N. & Q." 

 who can furnish me with the full name of the 

 writer of this rather learned and interesting dis- 

 sertation. In reviewing the literature of the day, 

 among some observations of a general kind, he 

 says (p. 188.) : — 



" Good Books are another part of your Priviledge. 



