Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/219

 w* s. i. FEE. 27, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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in the Roman Church " the so-called ' liturgical use' of incense was unknown until the tenth cen- tury."

The book is very carefully and handsomely printed ; but we wonder what meaning Mr. Staley attaches to the words "ringing the bells' anker, as though there had been a scare-fire " (p. 267), which he quotes from Gurton's ' History of the Church of Peterborough.' Whoever is responsible for it, this is an obvious misprint for " ringing the bells auke," or aukert (awkward), the old phrase for ringing them backwards, or in the wrong direction, which is still used in East Anglia when an alarm of fire is given.

' THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ARMY,' by Col. E. M. Lloyd, in the Quarterly Review for January, is an important paper written on modern lines, but perhaps not sufficiently detailed as to the earlier centuries, for when all is allowed for the develop- ments of modern days it will be admitted, we imagine, by any one conversant with the facts that the army of this country differs in origin and his- tory from that of continental states in being a far more direct growth from the levies of the Middle Ages. The standing army is an institution of rela- tively modern date ; but we cannot point to any period when our military force was a new thing. It is stated on very high authority that during the Caroline civil war the number of men on each side was from sixty to seventy thousand, and this is thought to have been about three per cent, of the population. It is difficult to accept so high an estimate. There are no trustworthy data on which to base a calculation of the population of England between the years 1642 and 1660. Our own opinion is that it has been usually greatly underrated. We admit, of course, that the cities and large towns were much smaller than they are now, though they were for the most part densely crowded, but the villages, so far as we can ascertain, had in many cases a larger population than they have at present. Mr. W. C. D. Whetham's article on ' Matter and Electricity' is striking. It would have perturbed not a little the minds of the few who were wont to speculate on the ultimate nature of things but a few years ago. What, for example, would our grand- fathers have thought of a passage like this ? " Mass, or inertia, is the most constant and permanent characteristic property of matter ; and haying ex- plained mass as due to electricity in motion, the physicist may well ask the metaphysical question, Has matter any objective reality ? may not its very essence be but a form of disembodied energy?" The people who blundered so strenuously over Berkeley s teaching regarding " substance, going so far as to call in question his honesty, or even his sanity, would have been not a little furious at suggestions such as this. They would have said that words were used in senses which conveyed no meaning whatever to the normal understanding, if, indeed, they had been content to restrain them- selves from launching forth into mere ignorant vitu- peration. The Rev. M. Kaufmann's ' Que scais-je ' is an admirable account of the influence which Montaigne has exercised over the centuries which have succeeded him. It has, we are sure, been far greater than is generally understood. Many men who have never read a word of his writings, either in the original or our own vernacular, have had their minds impressed by ideas which he was the first to make popular. In the turbulent days in

which Montaigne flourished and, so far as we can' see, lived a peaceful and contented life it is not a little surprising that he did not suffer in person or estate for the latitude of his opinions. We do- not believe he was consciously a timeserver, and he assuredly had no sympathy whatever with the violent thoughts and actions of the Calvinists ; but, on the other hand, even without reading between the lines, we may conclude that he had but little sympathy with the established forms of belief, though it is probable that he preferred the old methods of worship to anything which the men of reforming zeal were likely to introduce as a substitute for them. He was a child of the Renais- sance ; indeed, one of the most distinguished orna- ments of its later period ; but that great revival of knowledge did not produce in him violence of speech or action. At a time when most men, whether of the old way of thinking or the new, could see nothing beyond the smoke of the pit over- clouding the camp of their enemies, he had realized the virtue of tolerance ; not, indeed, worked out on logical principles, but the result of much the same processes of thought as delight us in More's ' Utopia.' We have in ' The Latest Lights on the Homeric Question' a well-considered study of a very old subject. ^Ve cannot accept all the writer's criticisms. We think, however, that the portion devoted to the ' Odyssey ' is just, and nearly always accurate. W e cannot say so much for the earlier pages, in which the genesis or perhaps we should say the growth of the 'Iliad is treated. The notion that Homer may have " composed variations on his own theme" is, we believe, contrary to the manner in which poetry, alike early and mediaeval, has been produced. ' The Metric System of Weights and Measures,' ' Some Tendencies of Modern Sport,' and ' Mr. Creevey and his Contemporaries' are well worth reading.

WE regret to hear of the death of CAPT. THORNE GEORGE, whose contributions have been pleasantly conspicuous during recent volumes. We are with- out biographical particulars.

MR. JOHN S. FARMER issues a first list of plays intended to fill up the gaps in our collected editions of Tudor dramatists, which he proposes to print by subscription should adequate support be accorded. The scheme has long commended itself to us and been advocated by us. Twelve volumes in all, the first of which will deal with John Heywood, are projected. Should these be successful, a second series will follow. Particulars may be obtained through booksellers or from the Early English Drama Society, 18, Bury Street, W.C.

UNDER the direction of the Royal Society of Literature Mr. Henry Frowde is about to publish two interesting works. One is the ' Chronicles of Adam of Usk,' edited, with a translation and notes,, by Sir E. Maunde Thompson. This contains the complete chronicle from 1377 to 1421. The unique British Museum MS., from which the same editor prepared an edition in 1876, was imperfect, ending with the year 1404 and lacking the concluding quire; and this was recently found among the l)uke of Rutland's papers at Belvoir Castle. The other book is ' Queen Elizabeth and the Levant Company,' the history of a diplomatic and literary episode of the establishment of our trade with Turkey, edited by the Rev. H. G. Rosedale, D.D., with many facsimile illustrations.