Page:Notes and Queries - Series 1 - Volume 2.djvu/16

8 Why am I chann'd by Friendship's fond essays, And, tho' unbodied, conscious of thy praise? Has pride a portion in the parted soul? Does passion still the formless mind controul? Can gratitude out-pant the silent breath, Or a friend's sorrow pierce the glooms of death? No; 'tis a spirit's nobler taste of bliss, That feels the worth it left, in proofs like this; That not its own applause but thine approves, Whose practice praises, and whose virtue loves; Who lov'st to crown departed friends with fame, Then dying late, shall all thon gav'st reclaim."

It is my own impression, as well as that of an eminent critic to whom I communicated these lines, that they have been printed. If any contributor to "" can tell where they are to be found, or can throw any light on their authorship, it will gratify

It has been a frequent subject of remark, that geometry in its purest form has been cultivated in the northern counties, but more especially in Lancashire, with extraordinary ardour and success; and this by a class of men placed in a position the most unpropitious that can be conceived for the study—by operatives of the humblest class, and these chiefly weavers. The geometrical labours of these men would have gladdened the hearts of Euclid, Apollonius, and Archimedes, and would have been chronicled by Pappus with his usual truthfulness and judicious commendation; had they only but so laboured in Greece, antecedently to, or cotemporarily with, those "fathers of geometry," instead of in modern England, cotemporarily with the Hargreaves, the Peels, and the Arkwrights. Yet not one in a thousand of your readers, perhaps, has ever heard of these men; and the visible traces of their existence and labours are very few, scarce, and scattered. A vague general statement respecting the prevalence of geometrical studies amongst the "middle-classes" of England was made by Playfair in the Edinburgh Review many years ago, which is quite calculated to mislead the reader; and the subject was dwelt upon at some length, and eloquently, by Harvey, at the British Association in 1831. Attention has been more recently directed to this subject by two living geometers—one in the Philosophical Magazine, and the other in the Mechanics'; but they both have wholly untouched a question of primary importance—even almost unmentioned:—it is, how, when, where, and by whom, was this most unlikely direction given to the minds of these men?

An answer to this question would form an important chapter in the history of human development, and throw much light upon the great educational questions of the present day. It may furnish useful hints for legislation, and would be of singular aid to those who were appointed to work out legislative objects in a true spirit. It cannot be doubted that a succinct account of the origin of this taste, and of the influences by which it has been maintained even to the present hour, would be a subject of interest to most of your readers, quite irrespective the greater or less importance and difficulty of the studies themselves, as the result would show how knowledge cannot only be effectively diffused but successfully extended under circumstances apparently the most hopeless.

Nor does Manchester stand as the only instance, for the weavers of Spitalfields display precisely the same singular phenomenon. What is still more singular is, that the same class in both localities have shown the same ardent devotion to natural history, and especially to Botany; although it is to be remarked that, whilst the botanists of Spitalfields have been horticulturists, those of Manchester have confined themselves more to English field flowers, the far more worthy and intellectual of the two.

We could add a "Note" here and there on some points arising out of this question; but our want of definite and complete information, and of the means of gaining it (except through you), compels us to leave the subject to others, better qualified for its discussion. Pray, sir, open your pages to the question, and oblige, your ever obedient servants, Hill Top, May 27. 1850.

In former times it was the practice, upon the demise of those who died under sentence of excommunication, not merely to refuse interment to their bodies in consecrated ground, but to decline giving them any species of interment at all. The corpse was placed upon the surface of the earth, and there surrounded and covered over with stones. It was blocked up, "imblocatus," and this mode of disposing of dead bodies was designated "Asinorum Sepultura." Ducange gives more than one instance, viz., "Sepultura asini sepeliantur"—"ejusque corpus exanime asinorum accipiat sepulturam."

Wherefore was this mode of disposing of the dead bodies called "an ass's sepulture?" It is not sufficient to say that the body of a human being was buried like that of a beast, for then the term would be general and not particular; neither can I imagine that Christian writers used the phrase for the purpose of repudiating the accusation preferred against them by Pagans, of worshipping an ass. (See Baronius, ad. an. 201. §21.) The dead car-