66 ERRATA RECEPTA. 



will very likely be remembered that, not many months since, a newly 

 invented lamp was extensively advertised under the name of the^ 

 Fumivore. In one of our Toronto Daily Journals this term was to 

 be seen for a series of weeks, rather conspicuously misprinted Fumi- 

 rore. It was curious to notice how quickly among the less educated 

 the Fumirore Lamp began to be talked about and inquired after. 



In connexion with misunderstandings arising from errata it may,, 

 perhaps, be expected that I should say something on the subject of a 

 wrong punctuation. But it would be endless to notice the passages 

 in authors in which a difference in the sense is produced by a differ- 

 ence in the placing, or omission, of stops. Early manuscripts, like 

 ancient inscriptions, had, as we know, no punctuation as we under- 

 stand the term. Nothing short of a miracle therefore could be 

 expected to establish among editors a unanimity on this head. It is 

 well known that advantage was taken occasionally of this abuse of 

 points to construct oracular responses which should be capable of a 

 double sense, the meaning varying as you dropped the voice in one 

 place or in another. Tbe stock example of such a sentence is the 

 answer to Pyrrhus when he inquired as to his chances against the 

 Eomans : " Aio te -S^acida Eomanos vincere posse," — travestied in a 

 recently-manufactured versicle " Aio Philistines te Bospore vincere 

 posse." And I might quote a passage from the Apology of Justin 

 Martyr (I. 6), where the punctuation has given rise to lengthened 

 debates on a deep question of orthodoxy ; and, were I at liberty to 

 explain at length, it would instantly be seen by every one that the 

 discussion was not a trivial one. I pass over this instance because, 

 to enter into particulars in regard to it, would be here out of place ; 

 and I present another which will answer my purpose just as well ; an 

 exaggerated one perhaps, and embracing details ingeniously invented 

 if not strictly true. It is a sentence supposed to be taken trom the 

 correspondence of a country newspaper, wherein the writer describes 

 what he saw as he sat in the gallery of the House of Commons : — 

 "Lord P. then entered on his head a white hat upon his feet large 

 but well-polished boots upon his brow a dark cloud in his hand his 

 faithful walking-stick in his eye a menacing glare saying nothing he 

 sat down." The whole communication is to be imagined as sent 

 without any visible markings-off of its clauses. These having been 

 supplied in the village printing office, in every instance wrongly, sad 

 senses were made out of the writer's matter, as will be seen by every, 

 one who makes the experiment on the extract presented. 



