Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/142

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. VIIL AUG. ie, 1913. John Moore's brother was a resident there and also then. He was said to be upwards of 90 years of age. Could it have been the third and youngest brother (of whom no special mention is made by ) that I knew?

I am quite convinced of the truth of my statement, as the existence in Ischia of any brother of Sir John Moore was of such positive interest to all us Englishmen, and mv knowledge of the islanders before the earthquake of 1884 or 1885 in Casamicciola was fairly complete. The chief hotel, kept by an Englishwoman (married to Dombre, a Frenchman), was destroyed by the earthquake. She was well aware of the history of Sir John Moore's brother, and probably was my informant during his lifetime.

" MAN IS IMMORTAL TILL HIS WORK IS DONE " (US. vii. 330, 373). In the course of his article on ' Translation and Paraphrase ' in the current issue of The Edinburgh Review, Lord Cromer gives some instances of the Way in which writers in different languages have sometimes given indepen- dent expression to the same thought :

" A good example of this process may be found in comparing the language in which others have treated Vauvenargues' well-known saying : ' Pour executer de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si on ne devait jamais mourir.' Bacchylides put the same idea in the following words :

6VOLTOV edvTd X/>7? 5tdvfjLOV^

s, OTI r 1 atipLov 6\j/eai a\iov dos,

TrVTT)KOVT > l-TCa

(' As a mortal, thou must nourish each of two forebodings that to-morrow's sunlight will be the last that thou shalt see ; and that for fifty years thou wilt live out thy life in ample wealth.')

" And the great Arab poet, AbuTAla, who was born in A.D. 977, wrote :

If you will do some deed before you die, Remember not this caravan of death, But have belief that every little breath

Will stay with you for an eternity."

It seems to me that the idea expressed is very much that of " Man is immorta] till his work is done." W. H. PEET.

HISTORY OF CHURCHES IN SITU (11 S. vi. 428, 517; vii. 55, 155, 231, 298, 377; viii. 12. 57). The following may be added :

St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. ' A Short Guide to St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol,' com- piled from various authorities by W. IS". Madan, Ret. Commander R.N. Illustrated from photographs by J. W. Lawson, Esq.,

organist, 1862 to 1906. Contains twelve illustrations from photographs. Sold at the church, price sixpence.

Langton, Lincolnshire. ' An Account of the Church of Langton-by-Homcastle, its History and Chief Features,' by the Rector, Rev. J. ConWay Walter. The rector died recently, but I presume that the pamphlet, price one penny, is still procurable at the rectory close by.

Chelsea Old Church. The booklet relating to this church is ' A Short Account of Chelsea Old Church ' (second edition, revised and largely rewritten), with two illustrations. Price Qd. By the assistant minister, the Rev. S. P. T. Prideaux. 1911.

PENRY LEWIS.

AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED (11 S. viii. 69).

Pungent radish biting infant's tongue is in the twelfth stanza of Shenstone's ' Schoolmistress.' It is quoted in Miss Edgeworth's story ' The Good French Gover- ness.' S. B. [MR. E. H. BATES HARBIN also thanked for reply.]

HEBREW OR ARABIC PROVERB (11 S. viii. 30, 115). Alex. Negris quotes the phrase about the camel that lost its ears in his ' Dictionary of Modern Greek Proverbs,'

E. 66, and declares that it was borrowed is mistaken in deriving it from ^Esop. It is given as a Turkish proverb by the compiler of a small volume of maxims printed in Venice some seventy years ago. Benham calls it a Hebrew proverb (' Book of Quotations.' p. 854); and though it is not found in John Ray's collection, Hazlitt quotes it as an English saying. There is also the Latin phrase, " Camelus desi- derans cornua etiam aures perdidit." It has, as MR. BRESLAR says, a Semitic ring, and probably came from Turkey or Arabia.
 * om ' ^Esop's Fables.' I think that he

" THE DEAF ADDER THAT STOPPETH

HER EARS" (11 S. viii. 6). Referring to the interesting remark of your correspondent on this subject, I think that the twelfth- century explanation of the way that the adder rendered itself deaf was generally accepted by commentators and preachers not only during the twelfth century, but far into the seventeenth century. John Trapp (1656), commenting on Psalm Iviii. 4, accepts the explanation,, though Matthew Henry, a little later, rejects it as a " vulgar tradition." D WIGHT E. MARVIN.

Summit, N. J.