Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/521

 2nd s. NO 26., JUNE 28. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

513

able reading, I think, is that I formerly mentioned, and to which reference is made in a foot note, Fortitude Ejus Rempublicam Tenet a graceful compliment to the sovereign for the time being, and well merited by many of Victor Emanuel'ti heroic ancestors, but by none more than himself. MB. CHADWICK and MB. HACKWOOD both give the motto F. E. R. T. : my only knowledge of it is from coins, and I find it invariably reads F E R T, with no mark of abbreviation after the letters, which seems to render it probable that the true solution is yet to be sought.

As an account of the legends on the edges of coins is a desideratum, and likely to prove in- teresting to many besides myself, I send you a contribution from pieces, all of the dollar size, in my own cabinet, and hope that some better Nu- mismatist, enjoying greater advantages, will take up the subject and complete the list.

England has, Nisi Periturus Mihi Adimat Xemo. Crom- well. Decus Et Tutamen. Charles II.

This motto was suggested by Evelyn, and still retains its place on the larger denominations of our gold arid silver coins. The Commonwealth half-crowns inscribed on the edge Truth And Peace, 1651, Petrus Blondasus Inventor Fecit were never current, nor was Simon's half-crown of Charles II., having on the rim Reversus Sine Clade Victor ; they were merely pattern pieces. France. La Nation, La Loi, Et Le Koi. Louis XVI.

17'JL'.

Garantie Nationale. La Republique.

Liberte, Kgalit. Ditto.

Dieu Protege La France. Le Consulat et L'Em- pire.

Doinine Salvum Fac Eegem. Louis XVIII. Belgium. Dieu Protege La Belgique. Holland. God Zy Met Ons.

Oldenburg. Kin Gott, Ein Recht, Eino Walu'lieit. Hanover. Nee Aspera Terrent. Brunswick. Convention Voin 30 July, 1838. Sweden. Ne Lajdar Avaris Mauibus. Prussia. Gott Mit Uns. Saxony. Gott Segne Sachsen. Hesse-Darmstadt. Gott Mit Uns. The Empire. Justitia Et dementia. Austria. Recta Tueri.

Lomb. Ven. Kingdom. Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum. Sardinia. Fert, Fert, Fert. Cisalpine Republic. Unione, E Virtu. Kingdom of Italy. Dio Protegge L'ltalia. Venetian Rep., 18-18. Dio Benedite L'ltalia.

Dio Premiera La Costaura, Tuscany. Ipsa Sui Gustos Forma Decoris Erit. Naples. Gustos Regni Deus. Jos. Napoleon.

Dio Protegge II Regno. Murat.

Providentia Optimi Principis. Ferdinand II. Spain. Ley, Patria, Rey. Isabella II. Sud. Peruana. Dies Protege El Estado.

I have omitted such as merely give the value of the coin, as Kronthaler Baierischer, or the pure- ness of the metal, as 75-100 Delar Fin Silfver, deeming them of no interest.

Of the foregoing we may assign the palm to our own Decus Et Tutamen ; Tuscany' s Ipsa Sui Custos Forma Decoris Erit probably ranks next ; and then the Ne Lanlar Avaris Manibus of Swe- den. Of the Providentia Optimi Principis of the Neapolitan Bourbons may we not safely say " The force of satire can no farther go."

I have met with no legends on the edges of the coins of the New World, with the exception of those of South Peru, taking no notice of the fifty cent piece of the United States, which merely gives the value ; but as far as my means of judg- ing extend, about one half of the larger denomina- tions of coins of the different states of the Old World present inscribed edges, the rest being simply grained, exhibiting, however, much variety of pattern. JOHN J. A. BOASB.

Alverton Vean, Penzauce.

JACOB BOUME OB BEHMEN.

(1 st S. viii. 246. ; 2 nd S. i. 395.)

To complete the lucid and correct notices in the "N. & Q." concerning the above-named cele- brated individual, whom Francis Lee, in a poetical preface to the chief publication of Jane Lead's transcendental effusions, thus apostrophises :

" From thy dark cell now, great BOHEMIUS, rise ! Tutor to sages, mad to the' worldly wise. Wisdom's iirst distant phosphor, to whose sight Internal nature's ground, all naked, bright Unveils, all worlds appear, heavens spread their light. Early thou risest, glorious, but in clouds Thick set; not sent to the vulgar, nor the learned

crowds

Of reason's orb too low ; none thee descry, None but the well purg'd, mystic eagle eye Of some few anchorite elected magi. Here all past sages veil and disappear ! E'en Malebranche bends beneath his weighty character, To thee resign'd ; and 'tis but just, for he Draws all from one small rivulet of thee*, Fountain of science, art, and mystery ! Where Stagyrite, Hermes, Plato, all combine, Descartes in every page, and Boyle in ever}' line. And yet alone, by eminence, THE DIVINE ! "

I say, to complete these notices for all future in- quirers, I hand for insertion in " N. & Q." a cor- rect list of his wonderful writings, as follows :

[@sT The Emblem at the head of Bb'hme's Works, is an Angel passing through the air, blowing a Trumpet, signifying the Demonstration of the Gospel Religion, by a revelation of universal and self-evident truth ; out of which is sounding forth these words, To all Christians, Jews, Turks and Heathens, to All the Nations of the earth, This Trumpet sounds for the Last Time. ]

1. "Aurora. The Dawning of the Eternal Day, or the Infancy of Creation. An unfinished piece, of the childhood of his illumination. [Wherein he describes as

said, from Newton, if not Harvey, to Hahnemann ?
 * Of how many other originals also, may this be truly