The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, for the Year ...

MR. URBAN,-A doubt as to what family of Vernon had the Pipes for their armorial bearing, struck me as well as your correspondent X. (p. 338) when I first perused Rob Roy; and, on being favoured with a call by our late mutual friend, Mr. S. Pipe Wolferstan, in or about 1819, I conversed with him on the subject. You well know his acquaintance with the Vernon pedigree. I found that our conclusions were the same-that we considered that Scott's attention had been directed in some way to the bearing, which, as the arms of Pipe of Pipe, occurs so frequently among the quarterings of Vernon at Haddon, and we conjectured that the same licence which allowed him to introduce his imaginary Vernons in the novel cited, had led him to form for them an imaginary principal coat, from one of the indisputable quarterings of an ancient house of the name. As far as my own knowledge of the Vernon pedigrees extends, I have never known these organ pipes and their attendant crosslets borne otherwise than as a quartering by the ancient line mentioned. Mr. Wolferstan (paternally a Pipe) mentioned the impression which the frequent repetition of this quartering had made on him when visiting Haddon. It is well known that Haddon supplied much to the basis of the later romance of Peverel, but I am unable to say whether the carvings at that noble mansion had been inspected by, or made known to Sir Walter, before the composition of Rob Roy.

Yours, &c. LANCASTRIENSIS. "W. H. C. would be obliged by an account of the Clan of Mackinley, of which Sir Thomas Livingstone of Westquarter, Bart. is Chief, and with whom his ancestor the Earl of Linlithgow went to the battle of Sheriff-muir in the year 1715. The country they inhabit is the vicinity of Fort William, Inverness-shire, and the colour of the tartan, red with green stripes broad and small."

In a note at p. 22 of Dr. Whateley's Logic will be found the following passage: "He (Locke) presently after inserts an encomium on Aristotle, in which he is equally unfortunate; he praises him for the invention of syllogisms, to which he certainly had no more claim than Linnæus to the creation of plants and animals, or Harvey to the praise of having made the blood circulate," &c. With great deference to his lordship J. F. M. thinks that there are no grounds for this censure. The

question depends upon the force of the word invention. See the various uses of that word in Johnson, and compare the following extract. "Of all modern discoveries, &c. the noblest is that of the circulation of the blood, which was the invention of our deservedly famous Harvey." [Glanvill, Plus Ultra.]

We quite agree in the opinion of W. D. B. on the " nonsense and absurdity" of the practice sometimes adopted to commence proper names with Ff (doubled), and

that it was not the intention of our ancestors to double the letter any more than we ourselves, in most cases, do. The present capital F (as he remarks,) is nothing more than the result of a gradual alteration in writing what is commonly described as the old double F, or rather the double f; and down to this very day attorneys' engrossing clerks make use of a character very similar to the old double f, to represent the letter single. The differences in the form of the letter, as seen in writing of all descriptions from the 17th to the 19th century, consist merely in the circumstance that there was a constant and increasing tendency to lessen the latter half of the character, which originally was of equal size to the former; but is now diminished to a small loop or cross stroke. The observation, we may add, applies to the editing of old manuscripts, as well as to the orthography of proper names.

[ADVERTISEMENT.] To the Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine. No. 10, Rue des Petits Augustins, Paris. SIR,

You published an article in your January number of this year concerning "a forger of ancient coins," and you stated that his name was Hoffman or Noffman. Now, Sir, as I bear the name of Hoffman, and am a dealer in coins and medals at Paris, and occasionally visit London, that article is calculated to do me a deal of harm, as collectors, dealers, &c. may confound me with the individual alluded to. I will, therefore, feel much obliged if you will state that I am not the individual meant.

If, however, the writer of that article meant me, I beg to say that his assertion is not true, I defy him to prove it, and declare him to be an anonymous and unprincipled slanderer.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient and obliged servant, JOHN HENRY HOFFMAN,

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

Discourses on Public Education. By Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., late Head Master of Harrow School. 1845.

IN two publications which we have read with attention and profit-we allude to the work called Attica and Athens,* and to the Correspondence of Bentley-Doctor Wordsworth has earned a high reputation as a scholar and critic, and in the former work, independently of the elegant illustrations of ancient art drawn from his stores of classical learning, he has shown in his emendations of many passages of Pausanias,† and other writers, that he possesses that peculiar faculty of conjectural criticism which Ruhnken observed and lamented was often wanting in scholars of extensive learning and high repntation, and which is, as it were, the bright and guiding lamp that illuminates the obscure recesses of antiquity. Nor could his second work-the Correspondence of Bentley, the very dust of whose writings is gold-have been entrusted to more able hands. If he has in the present volume undertaken a work which is not in its nature calculated to throw such additional splendour on his literary reputation, it still may be considered as one the utility of which will spread over a wider surface, and be felt by many to whom the deeper investigations and discriminating erudition of his former writings will remain unknown. But a still higher praise is to be bestowed on the present Discourses, as they show how fully sensible Dr. Wordsworth was of the great trust committed to him when he presided over the school of Harrow, and how anxious he was that the high advantages to be derived from the system of education established there should be accompanied by as little admixture of evil as possible; that no injury to the moral sentiments and feelings should arise from the system of mental culture, nor the susceptible imagination of youth receive injurious impressions from those studies which are directed to the

"See Athens and Attica, by the Rev. C. Wordsworth, a real gem of classical criticism and research." Hamilton's Second Letter to the Earl of Elgin, p. 40.-REV. + Pausanias was the author on whom the late Professor Porson was employing his sagacious critical faculties when he died.-REV.

"Critica vis maxime judicatur mentis celeritate, quam Græci dyxwolav et EvoToxía, Latini sagacitatem, sollertiam, ingenii felicitatem vocant; hæc autem sagacitas non in hominis potestate est, non studio, labore, exercitatione comparatur, sed rarum et singulare munus est naturæ fautricis; licetque adeo, quod Democritus de poeta dixit, ad criticum transferre, criticus non fit sed nascitur." He then gives some good examples, such as those of Spanheim and Meursius, whose critical talent was in no proportion to their extensive knowledge of antiquity, and he well contrasts P. Burman and N. Heinsius.-"Alter (Heinsius) igitur poetarum Latinorum sospitator dictus est, alter (Burmannus) non potuit in tantæ gloriæ societatem venire." v. Elogium Hemsterhusii. We may here observe that the Chapter i. vol. iv. p. 100, in Mr. Hallam's History of Literature, where he gives sketches of the character and respective attainments of the scholars and critics from 1650 to 1700, might be revised and made more discriminating. The firmness of the historian's step is generally equal to the extent of his stride, yet he does not seem on this subject quite familiar with his ground,

formation and refinement of the taste, the enrichment of the imagination, and the employment and exercise of their various powers and capacities. In the present work Dr. Wordsworth has shown that he felt the duty of an instructor on points of morality and religion, as in his former he has shown that he had the talents of a critic on subjects of literature and taste.

The points discussed in the separate Discourses are various, but all bearing a close relation to the moral improvement of youth, and having a peculiar relation to the circumstances under which they are placed at school. In a few words, the chief object is to show that classical schools must be Christian schools; that the education there received is only a training or discipline of the mind fitting it for its future labours. and atchievements, admonishing those who are early captivated by the surpassing elegance and attraction of the studies in which they are engaged, that there is a knowledge to be gained and studies to be pursued still higher and better than these; pointing out the blemishes and defects existing in the fairest models of their admiration; observing that the sacred obligations of morality and the awful sanctities of religion may be wanting in those works that are distinguished by harmony of numbers, by elegance of diction, by delicacy of sentiment, and all the enchantment of words; and showing that in the licentiousness of the most exalted characters of antiquity, in the impurity of unind and language that mixed itself with the brightest thoughts and most resplendent creations of the fancy, in the serious defects that accompanied even the virtues of the greatest characters of antiquity, in the abject and degrading superstitions of the vulgar, in the uncertainty of the best philosophers, and in the impiety and profligacy of the worst, we have convincing proofs that something more was wanted than the power or wit of man could supply; and that a Divine Revelation was not only not unreasonable, but was imperiously demanded by the forlorn condition of the children of this world. The system of education so long established in our great classical schools wants no defence, but it may require an explanation. To the superficial observer it may certainly appear strange that the instruction of moderns should rest entirely on the information to be derived from the ancients, and that all the early years of life should be spent in what are called classical studies, in acquiring languages that are no longer living, and becoming acquainted with customs that have long fallen into desuetude and decay; that a boy should be set down by a grave and religious clergyman, his master, to study the loves of Jupiter and Antiope, the rape of Proserpine, the labours of Hercules, the thievery of Hermes, the drunken orgies of Bacchus and Silenus, the nuptial misfortunes of Vulcan, and the revelation of celestial charms by the three contending goddesses to the shepherd of Ida. It would seem to some that the temple of learning is entered by a somewhat fantastic porch *-that a curious and intricate system of longs and shorts,

"Aliud etiam momentum accedit quo poetarum lectionem theologis insignem usum conferre vincam. Ne sapientissimas poetarum sententias, et honeste vivendi præcepta prorsus divina commemorem; quis dubitet ad eruditionem pertinere theologi ut priscos gentilium errores, falsorumque numinum cultum et turpia mysteria cognoverit, divinæque veritatis præstantiam ac splendorem hisce nebulis queat opponere? Sed unde melius, quam ex mythologia veterum hæc intelliget? Ea vera ex poetarum carminibus potissimum derivanda quæ superstiosa illa dogmata ritusque idolatricos copiose describunt. Neque alios fontes Christianorum eruditissimè contra Gentiles antesignani Cl. Alexandrinus, Tatianus, Athenagoras, Lactantius, Tertullianus, alii successu felicissimo adierunt, Gentiles ita propriis quasi telis conficientes," &c. Alberti Oratio de Poesi Theologis Utili. After discoursing on the learning of the Greek fathers Al,

of dactyles and pœans, of strophes and diastemas, acatalectus and anapæstic dimeters, should form the elemental studies of youth, and the object of the most toilsome and tetrical labours, and, as Hesiod informs us, that the proper object of all poets is to tell lies, that Latin satires and Greek comedies should be the text-books of the future luminaries of the Church, and that young divines and beardless statesmen should be committing to memory the amatory odes of ladies of no dubious fame; while history itself hardly assumes a graver character, or affords a more instructive lesson, when it pauses to point out the continence of Scipio as a singular instance of self-restraint and virtue, or when the most brilliant and popular statesman that wielded at will the democracy of Athens, is said to have drawn his lesson of legislative wisdom from the lips of the enchanting but erring Aspasia. This, an objector would say, is to "suckle young Pagans in a creed outworn"-stuffing their heads with an extinct mythology, and filling their hearts with idle legends and fantastic visions-embodying in verbal tradition, and with the authentic power of song, the adventures and exploits of those who were but unreal shapes of poetic creation-peopling heaven itself with the loose and promiscuous rabble of Olympus, and deceiving earth with the juggling tricks and sorceries of Delphi and Dodona. Such, it may be said, is the intellectual budget which a youth is supposed to bring away from school or college by those who either favour a different system of education, formed on different principles, or who take a very defective and superficial view of the present. It is not, however, our purpose, nor have we leisure, to enter into a refutation of such one-sided arguments, or to show that those points here objected to are not themselves the intended objects of youthful study, but the accidental disadvantages that attend them, and that experience and example would support argument in proving that no injury has been derived from them. We never knew the authority of Jupiter used for a violation of the nuptial bed, or the example of Mercury leading to a temporary forgetfulness of the sacred rights of property. It would be easy to show that a system of education is formed on a study of languages, because the study of words and language is the best suited for the youthful mind; secondly, because of all languages those called classical are the most perfect and philosophic in their structure, the most delicate and discriminating in their power and signification of words;* thirdly, because they are the basis and platform on which the languages of the modern world are built; and lastly, because they contain works in every branch of human knowledge, rising to the highest pitch of excellence that ever has been attained; because their historians and philosophers are

berti adds, "Ad exemplum Plutarchi, sapientissimi hominis, Basilius, suo merito magnus dictus, Gentilium librorum, et in eis maxime poetarum, lectionem adolescentibus ingeniis commendavit; multum diversus a sacerdotibus illis Græcis, qui tanta floruerunt auctoritate apud Cæsares Byzantinos, ut integra, illorum gratia, complura veterum Græcorum, poëmata flammis perierint quod ex Dem. Chalcondylæ narratione, monumentis est consignatum. Alia enim mens Heliodoro fuit, Triccensium episcopo, qui summa sua dignitate cedere maluit, quam venustissimo ingenii suo fructu carere, quem de abolendis Ethiopicorum suorum libris elegantia poetica plenis, in conventu præsulum rigidius esset compellatus," &c.-REV.

"Satis diximus de immensa rerum copia et varietate quam mente complexus est Hemsterhusius; verum ad rerum intelligentiam nullus aditus patet, nisi per exquisitissimam scientiam linguarum, Græcæ præsertim et Latinæ. Hic quid me attinet dicere, eum longa et accurata meditatione consecutum esse, ut Græcæ linguæ naturam indolem, proprietatem, et arcana omnia teneret," &c.-Ruhnkenii Elog. Hemsterhusii.

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