4810.J 
It is observed above, that the diamond 
country extends from Punnah, on three 
sides, to the distance of twenty-four 
miles. Now, as no part of this space is 
permitted to be cultivated, it may .be 
questioned, whether the possessor really 
derives so much advantage from the dia- 
mounds, as he would reap from the suc- 
cessive culture of the same compass of 
ground, either in pasture or tillage. 
NE LE 
‘Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
‘HOULD you have any thing better 
on the subject, I freely consent that 
the following be committed to the flames : 
if aot, perhaps you will allow a place in 
your acetal miscellany to these remarks, 
upon the criticism of your learned corre- 
spondent, R.B. upon the use of the 
word‘ flebilis. af CMe > last volume, p. 471.) 
My confined reading does not enabie 
me to decide, ile: ‘this word ever oc- 
curs in’ any classical writer, in the pre- 
cis® meaning in which it 1s used by Lord 
seo bat, ‘from the number of examples 
ted by Stephanus in his Thesaurus, 
none of which will apply, Lam willing to 
allow that it does not. Nevertheless I 
think it may be maintained, that, in the 
sense he bas used it, he has not deviated 
farther from the ordinary application of 
the word by other classical writers, than 
Mlorace himself has done. 
To me it appears, that R. B. has very 
properly stated, that “it isthe quality of 
exciting grief, or the quality which ren- 
ders the thing or persan the subject of 
grief; which is expressed by this verbal 
adjective 3” buts urely this definition in- 
clades:two distifict meanings, which your 
ee seems to consider as one 
and tle same, When Roman writers 
speak of a carmen jichile, or modi flebiles, 
&c. the Sard expresses the quality of ex- 
citing grief. But when Horace: says 
$ multis salle bonis flebilis occidit,” the word 
Hebilis, in the language of Re B. ex- 
presses the quality of rendering the per- 
son the subject of grief in others, and 
may be accurately translated into English 
by the word lamented. 
Now, upon examining the eeiniiles of 
the word fledilis, cited by Stephanus, of 
which there are fifteen, the oue jusé quo- 
ted from Horace is the only one, in 
which the word is affixed to the subject 
of grief, or in which it could be rendered 
lamented in English, In all the rest it 
expresses the quality of exciting grief; 
aud I believe answers exactly to: the 
English word doleful ; as cantus flebilis, 
Criticism on the Use of the word “*Flebilts.™ or 
(doleful singing); carmen ftebile, (a dole- 
ful song); clamor febilzs, (a doleful noise ;) 
elegia flebilis, (a doleful elegy); gemitus 
Jlebiles, (doleful : vroans); 70di flebzles, 
(doleful tunes) ; murmur flebile, (a dole- 
ful murmaring); guestus jicbiles, (doleful 
complainings);- voces ficbiles, (doleful 
voices); &c. é 
Rt. B. an ee to me to have made 
the same mistake in quoting Stephanus’s 
explanation of flebilis, Plenum lachrymis, 
el dignum quod fleatur, by speaking of 
it as containing one meanitg only, when 
he says, that this author ¢* bas viven many 
examples of ‘its use in that sense, but 
in no other ;” for surely this definition 
by Stepha nus, coutains two distinct ean. 
ings, the 4st. plenum lachrymis, (tearful 
or doleful); the 2nd. dignum quod fleatur, 
(that which may be lamented). Now 
itis to the first’ sense only, that all the 
examples cited by Stephanus, except the 
one quoted above from Horace, will a ape 
ply. Isubmitit therefore to yourlearmned 
readers, whether Horac e himself has not, 
by using flevilis to signify lamented, de- 
viated as far from its constaut accepta- 
tion in every other classical writer, as 
Lord Hailes has done, by using it to sigs 
nity lamenting or weeping which would 
‘come under Stephanus’ 5 defimtion of 
plenum lackryinis. 
Your’s, &c. 
SUBDOCTUS. 
P.S.—Perstiaded, in my own mind, that 
R.B. would not have written his criticism 
without having taken ordinary pains, at least, 
_to discover if any authority existed for the 
use of flcbilis in che sense in’ which’ Lord 
Hailes has applied it, I too hastily concluded 
that no such authority could be easily found. 
But, since writing the above, upon turning to 
the Index Verborum in Horace, two cases in 
point immediately occurred, viz, Cari. lib: 4 
Odne: 
Flebili sponse juvenemve raptum, 
And again, De Arte Poetic. v. 123. 
Flebilis Ino, 
’ These instances I suppose, will be amply suft 
ficient tosatisfy 8. B. thatthe word is used cor- 
rectly by Lord Bailes; and at the same tim’ 
they render the above letter, as far as respects 
his criticism, perfectly nugatory. itmay never- 
theless, serve to show that the Lexicographers 
have not well explained fcéi/isin its three signi« 
fications, and may,therefore be not altogether 
uninteresting to some of your readers. 
. Tsuspect that the quotation from Horacey 
€* multis ille bonis flebilis,” &c. afforiis the only 
example to be found in any classical writer, in | 
which flesilis has the signification there given 
it of lamented. It may “be curious too, to re- 
mark, how exactly, in every other instance, 
the 
Hogar, 
