Pinakidia — 1902 historical reading — reading text

Pius VI did not falsify the saying. ———— A letter was once addressed from Rome “Alla sua Excellenza Seromfidevi,” in London. It caused much perplexity at the Post-office and British Museum, and after foiling the acumen of a minister of state, was found to be intended for Sir Humphrey Davy. ———— The vulgar Christian era is the invention of Dionysius Exiguus. ———— The book of Judith was originally written in Chaldee, and thence translated into Latin by St. Jerome. There are several particulars in our English version which are not to be found in St. Jerome, and which seem to be those readings which he professes to omit as vicious corruptions. ———— The proverb, “Evil communications corrupt good manners,” which is found in Corinthians, is a quotation, intended as such from Euripides. ———— Varro reckons three epochs: the first from the beginning of the world to the first flood, which he calls uncertain; the second from the flood to the first Olympiad, fabulous; the third from the first Olympiad to his own time, historical. ———— Politian, the poet and scholar, was an admirer of Alessandra Scala, and addressed to her this extempore: To teach me that in hapless suit I do but waste my hours, Cold maid, whene’er I ask for fruit, Thou givest me naught but flowers. ———— In the Latin version of Herodotus, the lowest of the towers forming the temple of Belus, is said to be a furlong thick and a furlong high; and some writers concluding each of the eight to be as high, make the whole one mile in height. In the Greek text, however, the lowest tower is merely said to be a furlong through — nothing is said of its height. Strabo makes the temple a furlong altogether in altitude. ———— Jacobus Hugo was of opinion that by the Harpies Homer intended the Dutch; by Euenis, John Calvin; by Antinous, Martin Luther; and by the Lotophagi, Protestants in general. ———— “Impune quae libet, facere id est esse regem,” is a definition of a king to be found in Sallust. ———— The first collection of the Iliad was by Pisistratus, or some of the Pisistratidæ. There were, after this, innumerable editions — but Aristarchus in the reign of Ptolemy Philometer, B. C. 150, published from a collection of all the copies then existing, a new edition, the text of which has finally prevailed. ———— Some one after the manner of Santeuil, composed the following quatrain for the gates of the market to be erected on the site of the famous Jacobin Club at Paris, Impia tortorum longos hic turba furores Sanguinis innocui, non satiata, aluit. Sospite nunc patriâ, fracto nunc funeris antro, Mors ubi dira fuit, vita salusque patent. ———— A version of the Psalms was published in 1642 by William Slatyer, of which this is a specimen: The righteous shall his sorrow scan And laugh at him, and say ‘Behold! What hath become of this here man That on his riches was so bold.’ At the bottom of an obelisk which Pius VI. was erecting at great expense near the entrance of the Quirinal Palace in 1783, while the people were suffering for bread, were found written these words, Signore, di a questa pietra che divenga pane. Lord, command that these stones be made bread. ———— Constantine Koliades wrote a book to prove that Homer and Ulysses were one and the same — but Joshua Barnes attributes the authorship of the Iliad to Solomon. ———— In xviii. 192, of the Iliad, Achilles says none of the armor of the chieftains will fit him except the shield of Ajax: how then did his own armor fit Patroclus? ———— Empedocles professed the system of four elements, and added thereto two principles which he called ‘principium amicitime’ and ‘principium contentionis.’ What are these but attraction and repulsion? ———— The Germans have epic poems composed in metre of sixteen and seventeen syllables. ———— In the reign of Edward VI. Dr. Christopher Tye turned the Acts of the Apostles into rhyme. They begin thus, In the former epistle to thee Dear friend Theophilus I have written the veritie Of the Lord Christ Jesus. ———— The Count Bielfeld's definition of poetry is’ L’art d’exprimer les pensées par la fiction.’ The German terms Dichtkunst, the art of fiction, and Dichten to feign, which are used for Poetry, and to make verses, are in full accordance with his definition. ———— The following Vaudeville is one of the drollest of its kind: Quand un bon vin meuble mon estomac Je suis plus savant que Balzac — Plus sage que Pibrac. Mon bras seul faisant l’attaque De la nation Cossaque La mettroit au sac. De Charon Je passerois le lac En dormant dans son bac. J’irois au fier Eac Sans que mon coeur fit tic ni tac Présenter du tabac. ———— On ancient monuments are often found the letters A. E. R. A. meaning Annus erat Regni Augusti. The ignorance of copyists may probably have formed of these letters the single word AERA. Would it not be a better derivation than the Latin AES? ———— The work of John Albert Fabricius, the Hamburg professor, entitled Bibliotheca Graeca, in which his sole object is to render an account of the Greek authors extant, occupies fourteen thick volumes in quarto. ———— The usual derivation of the word Metaphysics is not to be sustained. Meta physicam is tortured into meaning super physicam, and the science is supposed to take its name from its superiority to physics. The truth is, that Aristotle's treatise on Morals is next in succession to his Book of Physics, and this order he considers the rational order of study. His Ethics consequently commence with the words Μετα τα φυσικα &c., from which the word Metaphysics. ———— The commentators upon Mr. Beckford's Vathek say that the locusts derive their name from having been so called by the first English settlers in America. The word comes evidently from loco usto, the havoc they made wherever they passed leaving the appearance of a place desolated by fire. ———— M. Patru was convinced that in all his prose writings no sentence or part of a sentence could be found so cadenced as to form a verse. A friend, however immediately pointed out to him the words in his ‘Plaidoyers’ Septième plaidoyer pour un jeune Allemand. ———— Despreaux speaking of the cæsura in French versification, asserts, Que toujours dans nos vers — le sens coupant les mots, Suspende l’hemistiche — en marquant le repos. M. Despréaux seems to have forgotten that hemistich is a composite Greek word signifying a demi-line, and that consequently his own admired verses have no meaning at all. ———— Every one is acquainted with the excellent commencement of the Annals of Tacitus. From this, principally he has acquired his reputation for concision. It is singular that no notice has ever been taken of the extreme prolixity of their conclusion. ———— There is a dissertation upon Hebrew, or Samaritan medals by Père Soucier, in which he proves the existence of Hebrew money struck by the Jews upon the model of the coins current before the captivity. All the Hebrew medals, however, bearing a head of Moses or of Christ, are manifestly forgeries. ———— There is a book by a Jesuit, Père Labbe, entitled La Bibliothèque des Bibliothèques. It is a catalogue of all authors in all nations who have written catalogues of books. ———— Albert, in his Hebrew Dictionary, pretends to discover in each word, in its root, in its letters, and in the manner of pronouncing them, the reason of its signification. Leescher in his treatise De causis Linguae Hebreæ, carries the matter even farther. ———— Lucretius, lib. V, 93, 96, has the words, —— terras — Una dies dabit exitio. Ovid the lines, Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti, Exitio terras cum dabit una dies. ———— In Judges is this expression, ‘And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter.’ The phrase ‘to smite hip and thigh’ arises from these words. No meaning, however, can be attached to them as they stand — but the original will admit of a different signification, viz: ‘He smote them with his leg on the thigh,’ and alludes to the wrestling matches which were common in the east. In this sense the phrase exactly answers to the ‘crus femori impingere,’ and the σκελιζειν or αποσκλιζειν of the ancients. ———— It is a remarkable fact, that during the whole period of the middle ages, the Germans lived in utter ignorance of the art of writing. ———— The silver shekel of the Hebrews has on its face the rod of Aaron, with the inscription, Jeruschalaim Hakkedoucha, Jerusalem the Holy, and on the reverse a cup, with the words, Chekel Ischraei, money of Israel. ———— The Masoretical punctuation is a kind of critique upon the Hebrew text invented by the Jewish teachers to prevent its alteration. The first original being lost, recourse was had to the Masora as an infallible method of fixing the text. The verses, words, and even letters are there counted, and all their variations recorded. ———— Among the Hebrew text of the Old Testament are mingled a few passages of Chaldaic. All the characters as we have them now, are properly speaking Chaldaic. ———— A version of the Psalms in 1564, by Archbishop Parker, has the following — Who sticketh to God in stable trust, As Sion's mount he stands full just, Which moveth no whit, nor yet can reel, But standeth for ever as stiff as steel. ———— A part of the 137th Psalm runs thus: ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,’ which has been thus paraphrased in a version of the Psalms, If I forget thee ever Then let me prosper never, But let it cause My tongue and jaws To cling and cleave together. [The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 39:] 1. It is remarkable that much of what Colton has stolen from Machiavelli, was previously stolen by Machiavelli from Plutarch. A Ms. book of the “Apophthegms of the Ancients,” by this latter writer, having fallen into Machiavelli's hands, he put them nearly all into the mouth of his hero, Castrucio Castricani. [The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 40:] 1. Mr. G. E. Woodberry first called attention to the misprint by which, the not being left out, Poe was made to say that most of his article was “original” instead of “not original.” — Life, p. 96. [The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 43:] 1. Corrected by Scartazzini's Dante. — ED.