Notes and Queries, Number 188, June 4, 1853

Pierrot pendu non fuisset,
Si librum reddidisset."

English school-boys use these forms:

"Hic liber est meus
Testis est Deus.
Si quis furetur
A collo pendetur
Ad hunc modum."

This is always followed by a drawing of a gibbet.

"John Smith, his book.
God give him grace therein to look;
Not only look but understand,
For learning is better than house or land.
When house and land are gone and spent,
Then learning is most excellent."

"John Smith is my name,
England is my nation,
London is my dwelling-place,
And Christ is my salvation.
When I am dead and in my grave,
And all my bones are rotten,
When this you see, remember me,
When I am 'most forgotten."

"Steal not this book, my honest friend,
For fear the gallows should be your end,
And when you're dead the Lord should say,
Where is the book you stole away?"

"Steal not this book for fear of shame,
For under lies the owner's name:
The first is John, in letters bright,
The second Smith, to all men's sight;
And if you dare to steal this book,
The devil will take you with his hook."

    Honoré de Mareville.
Guernsey.

I forward you the following inscription, which I met with in an old copy of Cæsar's Commentaries (if I remember rightly) at Pontefract, Yorkshire:

"Si quis hunc librum rapiat scelestus
Atque scelestis manibus reservet
Ibit ad nigras Acherontis undas
Non rediturus."

    F. F. G. (Oxford).

BACON'S "ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING."

(Vol. vii., p.493.)

I have to thank L. for his notice of my edition of the Advancement of Learning, as well as for the information which he has given me, of which I hope to have an early opportunity of availing myself. As he expresses a hope that it may be followed by similar editions of other of Bacon's works, I may state that the Essays, with the Colours of Good and Evil, are already printed, and will be issued very shortly. I am quite conscious that the references in the margin are by no means complete: indeed, as I had only horæ subsecivæ to give to the work, I did not attempt to make them so. But I thought it might be useful to give a general indication of the sources from which the writer drew, and therefore put in all that I could find, without the expenditure of a great deal of time. Consequently I fear that those I have omitted will not be found to be the most obvious.

I shall be glad to make a few remarks on some of the passages noticed by L.

P. 25.—Of this piece of carelessness—for which I do not the less feel that I deserved a rebuke because L. has not administered it—I had already been made aware by the kindness of a friend. I confess I had never heard of Osorius, which is perhaps no great matter for wonder; but I looked for his name both in Bayle and the catalogue of the library of the British Museum, and by some oversight missed it. I have since found it in both. I cannot help, however, remarking that this is a good example of the advantage of noting every deviation from the received text. Had I tacitly transposed three letters of the word in question (a small liberty compared with some that my predecessors have taken), my corruption of the text might have passed unnoticed. I have not had much experience in these things; but if the works of English writers in general have been tampered with by editors as much as I have found the Advancement and Essays of Lord Bacon to be, I fear they must have suffered great mutilation. I rather incline to think it is the case, for I have had occasion lately to compare two editions of Paley's Horæ Paulinæ, and I find great differences in the text. All this looks suspicious.

P. 34.—I spent some time in searching for this passage in Aristotle, but I could not discover it. I did not look elsewhere.

P. 60.—In the forthcoming edition of the Essays I have referred to Plutarch, Gryll., 1., which I incline to think is the passage Bacon had in his mind. The passage quoted from Cicero I merely meant to point out for comparison.

P. 146.—The passage quoted is from Sen. ad Lucil., 52.

P. 147.—Ad Lucil., 53.

P. 159.—Ad Lucil., 71.

Two or three other passages from Seneca will be found without any reference. One of them, p. 13., "Quidam sunt tam umbratiles ut putent in turbido esse quicquid in luce est," I have taken some pains to hunt for, but hitherto without success. Another noticeable one, "Vita sine proposito languida et vaga est," is from Ep. ad Lucil., 95.

For the reference to Aristotle I am much obliged. I was anxious to trace all the quotations from Aristotle, but could not find this one.

P. 165.—I cannot answer this question. Is it possible that he was thinking of St. Augustine? In the Confessions, i. 25., we kind the expression vinum erroris.

P. 177.—No doubt Bacon had read the treatise of Sallust quoted, but my impression is that he thought the proverb had grown out of the line in Plautus.

P. 180.—I have searched again for "alimenta socordiæ," as it is quoted in the Colours of Good and Evil, but cannot fix upon any passage from which I can say it was taken, though there are many which might have suggested it. One at p. 19. of the Advancement, which I missed at first, I have since met with. It is from the Cherson., p. 106.

    Thomas Markby.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE

Test for a good Lens.—The generality of purchasers of photographic lenses can content themselves with merely the following rules when they buy. It ought to be achromatic, i. e. consisting of the usual two pieces of crown and flint glass, that its curves are the most recommended, and that it is free from bubbles: to ascertain the latter, hold the lens between the finger and thumb of the right hand, much as an egg-merchant examines an egg before a strong gas flame, and a little to the right of it; this reveals every bubble, however small, and another kind of texture like minute gossamer threads. If these are too abundant, it should not be chosen; although the best lenses are never altogether free from these defects, it is on the whole better to have one or two good-sized bubbles than any density of texture; because it follows, that every inequality will refract pencils of light out of the direction they ought to go; and as bubbles do the same thing, but as they do not refract away so much light, they are not of much consequence.

I believe if a lens is made as thin as it safely can be, it will be quicker than a thicker one. I have two precisely the same focus, and one thinner than the other; the thinner is much the quicker of the two. An apparently indifferent lens should be tried with several kinds of apertures, till it will take sharp pictures; but if no size of aperture can make it, or a small aperture takes a very long time, it is a bad lens. M. Claudet, whose long experience in the art has given him the requisite judgment, changes the diameter of his lenses often during the day; and tries occasionally, in his excellent plan, the places of the chemical focus: by this his time is always nearly the same, and the results steady. As he is always free in communicating his knowledge, he will, I think, always explain his method when he is applied to. The inexperienced photographer is often too prone to blame his lens when the failure proceeds more from the above causes. The variation of the chemical focus during a day's work is often the cause of disappointment: though it does not affect the landscape so much as the portrait operator.

If any one has a lens, the chemical and visual focus being different, his only remedy is M. Claudet's method. And this method will also prove better than any other way at present known of ascertaining whether a lens will take a sharp picture or not. If, however, any plan could be devised for making the solar spectrum visible upon a sheet of paper inside the camera, it would reduce the question of taking sharp pictures at once into a matter of certainty.

All lenses, however, should be tried by the opticians who sell them; and if they presented a specimen of their powers to a buyer, he could see in a moment what their capabilities were.

    Weld Taylor.

Bayswater.

Photography and the Microscope (Vol. vii., p. 507.).—I beg to inform your correspondents R. I. F. and J., that in Number 3. of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (Highley, Fleet Street) they will find three papers containing more or less information on the subject of their Query; and a plate, exhibiting two positive photographs from collodion negatives, in the same number, will give a good idea of what they may expect to attain in this branch of the art.