Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/391

 9 th S. I. MAY 14, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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f-easons.' It is quite a fresh conception of Thomson to fancy him in the panoply and ?. ttitude of a rebel chief. Of course nothing 1 aat Mr. Qosse has said warrants such rhe- t jrical splendour as that in which his fluent ( isciple indulges. Apart, however, from these secondary points, there remains the broad, general question that has prompted the dis- cussion of the two literary methods. Mr. Oosse is apparently credited with discovering that Thomson was a pioneer in the return to nature poetry, which the brilliant achieve- ments of the great wits that preceded him had for a time somewhat obscured. But the modern spirit, not only in poetry, but in criti- cism, is older than the century, and when Wordsworth in 1815 wrote his essay on excellent form what he and others had long thought and felt. One of the points he makes is that Thomson gave a fresh and energizing impulse to the growth of English poetry. He knew better, however, than to suggest dis- affection or to dwell fancifully on a spirited revolt against " rhyme-mongering." Words- worth was too well aware of the sovereign value of Pope's work to use depreciatory terms in referring to him, although he is unequivocal in condemnation of that great literary artist as a delineator of nature.
 * Poetry as a Study,' he put into final and

In this discriminating estimate he forestalls the latter-day critic :

"It is remarkable that, excepting the nocturnal 'Reverie' of Lady Winchilsea, and a passage or two in the ' Windsor Forest' of Pope, the poetry of the period intervening between the publication of the 'Paradise Lost' and 'The Seasons' does not

contain a single new image of external Nature

To what a low state knowledge of the most obvious and important phenomena had sunk is evident from the style in which Dryden has executed a descrip- tion of Night in one of his Tragedies, and Pope his translation of the celebrated moonlight scene in the 'Iliad.'" 'Prose Works of Wordsworth,' ii. 118. It is, of course, impossible for even literary critics to read everything ; but they should be acquainted at least with what has been said and written by leaders of departments. The smallest remark on nature poetry by the author of ' The Excursion ' has standard value. THOMAS BAYNE.

SINGULAR DISCOVERY OF A FONT. The following cutting is from a country news- paper which came into my hands a few weeks since :

"It is said that something bordering on the miraculous has lately happened at Tickton, a village in Yorkshire. One has heard that bits of the true cross discovered themselves by raising dead men to life, and relics of saints were tested by their ability to heal diseases ; but what will be thought of a cow discovering a sacred vessel, though

disguised as a trough? Yet such is the story. A farmer bought what he thought was a drinking- trough for his cattle, which did very well for all his stock but one, and this was a cow that never would drink from it. This causing some incon- venience, the farmer mentioned it, until the fact came to the ears of a local antiquary, who on ex- amination pronounced the supposed trough to be a font, and further research snowed that it had once stood in the village church. It has now been recovered and replaced."

ST. SWITHIN.

AUSTRALIAN FLORA AND FAUNA. The pub- lication of Prof. E. E. Morris's 'Dictionary of Austral-English ' best serves to show the crying want that exists for a definite system of popular nomenclature for our Australian flora and fauna. Despite the quite heroic efforts of a small army of naturalists, from Robert Brown to the late Baron von Mueller, the catalogues of our native plants and ani- mals still remain polyglot lists of a barbarous and bewildering kind. Of course the purely scientific definition of any particular object in these two kingdoms of nature is another matter altogether ; and it may fairly be assumed that this task is now completed for these parts of the southern world. But the scientific designations of plants, fishes, birds, and animals never pass into popular use. They are not merely " caviare to the general," but are even as Egyptian hieroglyphics to boys in their first reading - book. But without simple names for familiar natural objects how are children ever to be won to the study of, and a love for, the wonders of the living creation surrounding them 1

Prof. Morris has laboriously compiled a glossary of the current names for objects in our Australian natural history. This is what his ' Dictionary ' really is ; the score or so of local colloquial terms which he inserts in his pages are merely additions to the latest ' Slang Dictionary,' and seein to me to be totally out of place where they stand. A bit of street slang is just that and no more ; whoso lists may pass it on to his companion. But specific names in his own simple lan- guage for the bird, the tree, the flower, the fish he angles for in the neighbouring creek (there are no brooks in Australia), are a very essential part of the education of every Australian boy and girl. And this boon to intellect and culture no one has ever yet bestowed upon our children.

In what a chaotic state our local natural nomenclature still remains, and how totally wanting in a keen perception of natures wonders and beauties around him is as a rule the native-born Australian, may be seen at a glance through the professor's book.