Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/73

 9>-s.m JULY 25, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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space is limited and that here and now it is impossible to render justice to the scholarly pen by which they were produced, but it may be said again, as in * An English Estimate of Lowell ' it was said by Archdeacon Farrar, that

" whatever sorrows came to him he bore them like a good and wise man. He served his country ; he benefited his race ; he welded one more golden link in the amity of kindred nations. But above all this, and more than all this, he set a high example to his fellow-men of pure aims, of manly dignity, of faithful friendship, of honourable service. By his writings he ' lent ardour to virtue and confidence to truth.' This is the highest praise which it is given to our feebleness to win."

Englishmen had long held him in kindly remembrance as a dear friend, and now have to rejoice that St. Margaret's Church has a stately memorial of him, given by friends and brothers.

Ocean makes us two, But heart to heart is true ! And love makes one the old home and the new !

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. Westminster.

(To be continued.)

" ORACLE." This word occurs four times in the New Testament, but has quite a different meaning there from that which it has in the Old Testament, for if we identify a Divine utterance or intimation with the place where it is given, we might as well, for instance, confound "orison" with "oratory." The four places are Acts vii. 38, Rom. iii. 2, Heb. v. 12, and 1 Pet. iv. 11. In all these cases the word is plural, and is made to represent the Greek Aoyta. Now the first version which translated this by " oracles " was the Genevan, and that only in the first two of the above places, all preceding versions having " words of life " or " words of God," as also has the Rheims version, and the Genevan itself in the last two of the four places. The Autho- rized adopted this rendering in them all, and one cannot but regret that the Revised Ver- sion has followed the Authorized in doing so.

Now with regard to the word also rendered "oracle "in the Old Testament. It is TQ^ and occurs in no fewer than sixteen places, half of which are in the sixth chapter of the first book of Kings, one in the seventh chapter, and two in the eighth ; one in the third, one in the fourth, and two in the fifth chapter of the second book of Chronicles. In all these places the Septuagint leaves the Hebrew word untranslated as Safaip. Our versions have "oracle," but sometimes with the addition (either in the text or as a marginal explanation) " even the most holy

place." The word also occurs once in the first book of Psalms (xxviii. 2), and here the Septuagint does translate it, finishing the verse ets vabv ayioV &ov. Both the Authorized and Revised versions have in the text "toward Thy holy oracle"; but each has a marginal interpretation, the former " towards the oracle of Thy sanctuary," and the latter " toward the innermost place of Thy sanc- tuary." In all the passages, then, in the Old Testament it signifies a place (i.e., a "holy place "), but in the New (plural) " words," meaning Divine words or intimations ; and it would surely have been better to have sub- stituted this for "oracles," which not only gives a false idea of the meaning, but pro- bably now generally suggests the idea of heathen oracles. W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

HENRY FIELDING.

"Fordhook House, Uxbridge Road, Baling [Acton?], which is in course of demolition, was formerly the residence of Henry Fielding the novelist. There he wrote * Tom Jones and ' Amelia.' " Weekly Dispatch, 28 June.

" Wednesday, June 26, 1754. On this day, the most melancholy sun I had ever beheld arose, and found me awake at my house at Fordhook. By the light of this sun, I was, in my own opinion, last to behold and take leave of some of those creatures on whom I doated with a mother-like fondness, guided by nature and passion, and uncured and unhardened by all the doctrine of that philosophical school where I had learned to bear pains and to despise death.

" In this situation, as I could not conquer Nature, I submitted entirely to her, and she made as great a fool of me as she had ever done of any woman whatsoever ; under pretence of giving me leave to enjoy, she drew me in to suffer, the company of my little ones during eight hours ; and I doubt not whether, in that time, I did not undergo more than in all my distemper.

"At twelve precisely my coach was at the door, which was no sooner told me, than I kissed my children round, and went into it with some little resolution. My wife, who behaved more like a heroine and philosopher, though at the same time the tenderest mother in the world, and my eldest daughter followed me ; some friends went with us, and others here took their leave ; and I heard rny behaviour applauded, with many murmurs and praises to which I well knew 1 had no title ; as all other such philosophers may, if they have any modesty, confess on the like occasions.' 1 Fielding's
 * Voyage to Lisbon.'

Fielding reached Lisbon, but survived only

about two months, dying on 8 October, 1754,

in the forty-eighth year of his age ; he was

buried in the English cemetery. See * D.N.B.'

ADRIAN WHEELER.

THE FORMATION OF CLOUDS. William Cobbett, in his ' Rural Rides,' p. 538, notices the following phenomenon under date of 23 October, 1826 :