Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 5.djvu/102

 NOTES AND QUERIES. f 3. NO 109., JAN. 30. '58. than those forced out by the Press, which gives them the roughness of the husk and the stone ; so are those Doc- trines best and wholesomest which flow from a gentle pressure of the Scripture, and are not wrung into Contro- versies and Common -place. And this Treatise we set down as wanting, under the title of THE FIEST FLOW- INGS OF THE SciurruuEs." B. ix.

It is much to be regretted that the same age, the same plan, the same hands, which gave us our noble version of the Bible, did not also furnish us with a Commentary. There is not a book de- serving that name in the English language ; nor is this age likely to produce one. I think the experience of all thoughtful well-read men will bear me out when I say that professed Commen- taries and Bible Dictionaries, &c. are most un- satisfactory ; while wealth untold lies scattered Lore and there, often in books where we should least expect to find it. Professed works invari- ably leave you in the lurch when you most want help, and deluge you with useless details and common-place moralising. Thus we have long dissertations to prove that the Satyr was a goat, and that Nazareth was in this place and not in the other place ; if you come to such a word as Olives (say, the Mount of Olives), there is grand scope for dissertations on olives in general, on olive oil, the process for making it and all other oils, and so on. Few things are more abused and less understood than Notes and Comments. A good book given up to the tender mercies of an uncongenial and incompetent annotator is like a palace let to a pedlar. I shall pass over the case of Shakspeare, though few have better cause to cry, Save me from my friends ! and give as an instance an attractive-looking edition of Thom- son's Seasons, annotated by a certain Dr. Thomp- son, which I once purchased : in this extraordinary book, every peg that ingenuity could spy was laid bold of to hang thereon the most incongruous notes : thus the poet in an evil hour casually men- tions " October ale, and accordingly his Seasons are decked with a note several pages long on beer, ale, and porter, and the various processes by which they are made ! Truly, not merely a Note, but a most instructive Book might be written on Notes and Comments.

Though a Commentary on the Bible is scarcely to be looked for at the present day, yet a Common- place Book to. the Bible seems a feasible project. Suppose an Association for the purpose were formed, with a committee of editors, and that all students, scholars, reading and thoughtful men in general, were invited to send* in to the Associ- ation reference to such passages in books they have met with in the course of their reading, as most strikingly illustrate corresponding passages in Scripture : if the Association were happily organised, I have little doubt but that their call would be well responded to. With regard to detail, I would make these few suggestions : That the References be full, but choice. That the Notes be terse, pregnant, suggestive. That subordinate matters, such as Geography, Natural History, &c. be kept in subordination. That the great object and paramount aim be to throw light on the primary meaning of the text, and illustrate the great Truths, mental and moral, contained in the Bible. That the Symbolical, Lyrical, Mystical, and Esoteric meaning of Holy Scripture be espe- cially kept in mind and illustrated all through. That the Analogies of Holy Scripture and'its Unity in Variety be not lost sight of: also, that the trans- lation of Objective into Subjective truth, and the reproduction of the former in the latter, be carefully attended to. In short, that throughout there be a free passage and a close connection maintained between the Head and the Heart, and between God, Man, and Nature. History and Biography, judiciously uscil, would afford many valuable il- lustrations of great Scripture truths. If such an Association could be formed, a spe- cimen should be printed giving an example of each clause in the design. EIRIONNACH.

P.S. In Stewart's Catalogue of Bibles and Bib- lical Literature, London, 1849, under the title of "Commonplace Books of the Bible," at p. 193., are given the titles of seventeen works ; of these I subjoin three :

MARLOKATI (Aug.) Propheticre et Apostolica?, i. e. totius Divinaj ac Canonicas Scriptures Thesaurus in locos communes ordine alphabetico digestus. Lottd. : T. Vau- trollerius, 1574. Folio. Repr. Geiicvac, 1624. Folio."

"SCHMIDT (Seb.) Collegium Biblicum, in quo dicta S. Scripturw, juxta seriem locorum communium disposita, explicantur. Argent. 1676. 2 vols. 4to."

"BIBLICUS INDEX. Antverp. 1G71. 18mo."

HAXEY HOOD.

(2 nd S. iv. 486.)

I having been present at the throwing the hood at Haxey, Lincolnshire, several times, have pleasure in giving your querist A. E. what in- formation I gathered from time to time on the spot. The custom arose from the following cir- cumstance : Anciently the Mowbrays had great possessions in and about the Isle of Axholme, and a seat at which they principally resided, and were considered the greatest folks in that part of the I country. It so happened that on old Christmas Day a young lady (the daughter of the then Mowbray) was riding across the Meeres (an old road, at that time the principal one across the village) to the church, a gale of wind blew off her hood. Twelve farming men who were working in the field saw the occurrence, and ran to gather up the hood, and in such earnest were they that the lady took so much amusement at the scene, she forbade her own attendants joining in the pursuit. The hood being captured, returned, and