Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/371

 S. I. MAY 7, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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used by the natives of Africa and the Far East, and other savage and semi-civilized nations, in well-nigh all parts of the world.

Of course the story of Sir Walter Raleigh has been told at some length. There are also booklets on Cartyle, Ruskin, and Charles Lamb. Another is devoted to anecdotes concerning Victor Hugo, Kingsley, Bismarck, and other eminent men. Quotations from ancient and modern authors are numerous, one being from so old-world a poet as Pindar, his lines printed in the original Greek. He is eulogized as " poeta religiosissimus."*

There is a copy of a Bill concerning tobacco passed in the sixth session of the first Parlia- ment of George II., and a list of members of the House of Commons who voted for it is appended.

This department of the Todmorden Refer- ence Library constitutes a most interesting collection. Any one wishing to make an exhaustive study of tobacco, its growth, manufacture, influence on health, the ques- tion of its good or evil effects, the soothing and inspiring properties its votaries believe it to possess, will find on the shelves ample material for his work.

This splendid collection of works on tobacco has been made by Mr. Wm. Ormerod, of Scait- clifie Hall. Mr. Ormerod has now generously handed over the books to the Todmorden Free Library for the use of his fellow-towns- men. The task of collecting them has been the labour of years, and indicates much industry and no little talent. F.

SIR CHARLES MURRAY AND GOETHE. The late Sir Charles Murray, in a letter written by him to the Academy, recounting a visit which he paid to Goethe in 1830, says :

"I ventured to ask if he would complete his kindness by writing for me a stanza which I might keep as an autograph memento of my visit. After a minute's reflection he wrote, for me, the following quatrain :

Liegt dir gestern klar und offen, Wirkst du heute kraftig treu : Kannst auch auf ein Morgen hoffen, Das iiicht minder gliicklich sey."

It is pretty clear from the words I have italicized that Sir Charles believed these lines to be an impromptu specially composed for himself, and took the "minute's reflec- tion " to be a pause for the poet's inspiration. It is, therefore, rather amusing to learn from Hempel, in a note in his edition of Goethe's works, that the poet frequently wrote this stanza (of which he seems to have made also English and French renderings) when asked

[* This must, of course, be a joke.]

for a specimen of his autograph. The lines will be found in book iv. of the 'Zahner Xenien ' (' Werke,' ed. Hempel, vol. ii. p. 377).

Lately, in a house in Abercromby Place, Edinburgh, I came across an ancient-looking portrait of Goethe with these same lines written underneath, apparently in the poet s handwriting. The owner of the house has since informed me that on taking this pic- ture out of the frame, he found the words, "Weimar, 7 Nov., 1825" an appearance of the "impromptu" five years before it was written for Sir Charles Murray. Was this an amiable weakness on the part of the sage of Weimar a confirmation of Carlyle's fear that "the World's-wonder in his old days was growing less than many men"?*

Sir Charles mislaid the autograph, and never could find it again, though, he adds, "the stanza was indelibly engraved on my memory." He does not seem to have had the faintest suspicion that it was inscribed in a good many albums besides his own.

OSWALD HUNTER BLAIR, O.S.B.

MRS. S. F. ADAMS AND MRS. H. B. STOWE. The publication of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' naturally attracted attention to the stories and sketches which its talented authoress had already contributed to various periodicals. As there was no copyright between Great Britain and the United States the publishers had a free hand, and made use of their free- dom. There lies on my desk 'Uncle Sam's Emancipation; Earthly Care a Heavenly Discipline ; and other Tales and Sketches,' by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin ' (London, T. Nelson & Sons, 1853). At p. 30 of this little miscellany we come upon the hymn "Nearer, my God," which is thus unhesitatingly attributed to Mrs. Stowe, who had, of course, not the si ightes t share in its composition. Of the five verses the first three only are given. "Nearer, my God, to Thee," one of the loveliest hymns in any language, was written by Sarah Flower Adams, the wife of Mr. W. B. Adams, and the friend of Browning, Leigh Hunt, Mill, and other notables. She was one of the congre- gation of Mr. William Johnson Fox, who for many years united the functions of minister and member of Parliament, and was one of the most effective platform orators when Bright and Cobden were in their prime. A facsimile of the MS. of the hymn, dated 1840, is given in Dr. Moncure D. Conway's 'Cen- tenary History of the South Place Society ' (London, 1894, p. 48). The same volume

1828 (' Goethe-Carlyle Correspondence, 3 p. 81),
 * Letter from Carlyle to his brother John, 16 April,