How long, ye sons of men, will ye scorn the words of wisdom? How long will ye hunt for happiness in the caverns that breed despair? Will ye comfort yourselves in misery, by denying the existence of delight, And from experience in woe, will ye reason that none are happy? But its flowers are hung upon the hedges that line a narrower way; To soothe their wounded hearts with balm from the amaranths of heaven. ΘΕΩ ΔΟΞΑ. NOTES. (FIRST SERIES.) (1) " And thine enfranchised fellows hail thy white victorious sails." Page 12. See the story of Theseus, as detailed in Dryden's translation of Plutarch, Life I. (2) " Who hath companied a vision from the horn or ivory gate ?” Virg. Æn. VI. 894-897. (3) Page 14. "Sunt geminæ somni portæ ; quarum altera fertur Sed falsa ad cœlum mittunt insomnia Manes." "The sea-wort floating on the waves,” &c. Page 18. The common sea-weeds on the shores of Europe, the algae and fuci, after having, for ages, been considered as synonymous with every thing vile and worthless, have, in modern times, been found to be abundant in iodine, the only known cure for scrofula, and kelp, so useful in many manufactures. Horace has signalized his ignorance of this fact in Od III. 17, 10, “algâ inutili,” &c.; and, in II. Sat. 5, 8, ironically saying, that, ". virtus, nisi eum re, vilior algâ est." Virgil also has put into the mouth of Thyrsis, in Ecl. VII. 42 Projecta vilior algâ." 66 (4) "Hath the crocus yielded up its bulb," &c. Page 18. The autumnal crocus, or colchicum, which consists of little more than a deep bulbous root, and a delicate lilac flower, produces a substance which is called veratrin, and has been used with signal success in the cure of gout and similar diseases. A few lines lower down, with reference to the elm, I would remark, that no use has yet been discovered in the principle called "ulmine." "The boon of far Peru" is the potatoe. (5) " When acorns give out fragrant drink," &c. Page 19. At a meeting of the Medico-Botanical Society, (in 1837,) the President introduced to the notice of the members a new beverage which very much resembled coffee, and was made from acorns peeled, chopped, and roasted. Bread made from sawdust is certainly not very palatable, but no one can doubt that it is far more sweet and wholesome than "no bread;" in a famine, this discovery, which has passed almost sub silentio, would prove to be of the highest importance. The darnel, it may be observed in passing, is highly poisonous, and a proper opposite to the lotus. (6) " He, who seeming old in youth," &c. Page 24. Compare Isa. lii 14, "His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men," with the idea implied in the observation, John viii. 57, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ?" Our Lord was then thirty-three, or, according to some chronologists, even younger. (") "A sentence hath formed a character, and a character subdued a kingdom." Page 28. A better instance of this could scarcely be found than in the late Lord Exmouth, who first directed his thoughts to the sea from a casual remark made by a groom. See his life. (8) "That small cavern," &c. Page 30. The pineal gland, a small oval about the size of a pea, situated nearly in the centre of the brain, and generally found to contain, even in children, some particles of gravel. Galen, and after him Des Cartes, imagined it the seat of the soul. (9) "The Greek hath surnamed, ORDER." Page 36. Kóopos: The Latins also, who rarely can show a beautiful idea which they have not borrowed from Greece, have made a similar application of the term "mundus" to the fabric of the world. (10) " To this our day, the Rechabite wanteth not a man," &c. Page 42. I have heard it related of Wolfe, the missionary, that when in Arabia, he fell in with a small wandering tribe, who refused to drink wine, not on Mohammedan principles, but because it had in old time been "forbidden by Jonadab, the son of Rechab, their father." Compare Jeremiah xxxv. 19, "Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." It will be found in Mr. Wolfe's Journal. (1) "Of Rest." Page 43. A very obvious objection to the views of Rest here given has probably occurred to more than one religious reader of the English Bible; "there remaineth a rest for the people of God;" doubtless intending the heavenly inheritance. If the Greek testament is referred to (Heb. iv. 9,) the word translated "rest" will be found to be oaßßariopós ; a sabbatism, or perpetual sabbath, a rest indeed from evil, but very far from being a rest from good: an eternal act of ecstatic intellectual worship, or temporary acts in infinite series. It is true that another word, kaтaяavois, implying complete cessation, occurs in the context; but this is used of the earthly image, Joshua's rest in Canaan; the material rest of earth becomes in the skies a spiritual sabbath; although I am ready to admit that the apostle goes on to argue from the word of the type. In passing, let us observe, by way of showing the uncertainty of trusting to any isolated expression of the present scriptural version, that there are no less than six several words of various meaning which in our New Testament are all indifferently rendered rest as in Matt. xii. 43, àvanavais: in John xi. 13, xolμnois; in Heb. iii. 11, KaTaTavσis: in Acts 1x. 31, sípývn; in 2 Thess. i. 7, aveois: and in Heb. iv. 9, oaßßariopos. The kolμnois is, I apprehend, what is generally meant by rest; so wishes Byron's Giaour to "sleep without the dream of what he was;" so he who in life "loathed the languor of repose," avows that he "would not, if he might, be blest, and sought no paradise but Rest." Such, at least, is not the Christian's sabbath, which indeed fully agrees, as might be expected, with metaphysical inquiries: a good spirit cannot rest from activity in good, nor an evil one from activity in evil. Rest, in its common slothful acceptation, is not possible, or is at any rate very improbable, in the case of spiritual creatures. (12) Calm night that breedeth thoughts." Page 43. Eoppóvn. Another delicate example of the Greek elegance in mind and language. Compare Virgil, Geor. IV. 406, 412. "Tum variæ eludent species atque ora ferarum. Aut acrem flammæ sonitum dabit, atque ita vinclis Excidet; aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit. Sed, quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes, Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla." (14) "We wait, like the sage of Salamis, to see what the end will be " Page 54. In allusion to the well-know anecdote of Solon at the court of Croesus. |