In in 1850 and 1851, in search of the missing Crews. Biography, the ten volumes of Memoir, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore, edited by Lord John Russell, will be expected with more than usual interest, -and in this department we may mention also the forthcoming Memoirs of the Baroness d'Oberkirch, written by herself and edited by her grandson, the Count de Monthison. There is also good news for The author of Zanoni, it is true, the novel reader. has retired into Parliameut, so that for a while the muse of romance may be voiceless at Knebworth; but The long-talked-of others of the craft are in the field. novel by the author of Vanity Fair, is, we believe, in The author of the Falcon course of being printed. Family has a new story ready for the season, with the title of Reuben Medlicot. Mr. Douglas Jerrold and the authoress of Mary Barton are severally contemplating new adventures among the social wastes and prairies of English daily life. Intelligence from Parnassus is We hear that somewhat scanty, but good of its kind. Mr. Sydney Yendys, the author of The Roman, has a new poem in the press; and Mr. Tennyson has composed some battalions of stanzas, but whether they will be put under review this season is not yet certain.” We beg for two reasons to call attention to the following paragraph in Mr. Halliwell's prospectus of his projected twenty folio volume edition of Shakspeare, the subscription list to which, we understand, is filling most rapidly. We do so, first, because it is omitted from the advertisement which appeared in our columns; and secondly and chiefly, because it alludes to that point to which we believe the readers of “ N. & Q." attach most interest, namely, the Literary Illustration of the Great Poet. - --- "It is difficult to enter at length into a prospective account of the literary department of the work, without some risk of misleading the reader. This much, however, I may safely be allowed to promise, that the value of this edition will mainly depend on its antiquarian notes and collections of facts. Whatever is to be found in contemporary and early technical works, whatever real illusbearing on technical allusions, trations can be collected from the numerous Elizabethan tracts which exhibit popular life and manners as they are delineated by Shakespeare, wherever a long course of reading will assist in developing the generally hidden meaning of the colloquial phraseology used by the poet,- there will the chief labour be bestowed. In short, from every source of archæological matter-of-fact commentary, it will be my endeavour to collect that which shall be really useful to those who desire to have the best information on the many obsolete subjects alluded to by the poet. All adverse criticism on the labours of others will be carefully avoided, and, where the true interpretation is still a matter of dispute, the best opinions will be honestly reproduced and commented upon, in the hope of the discovery of Truth, not in the spirit of controversy." We have received from Mr. Walesby a copy of his Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Objects of Art, Rarities, &c., now for sale by contract, and on view at his new gallery, 5. Waterloo Place. Historical Portraits form a very important feature in Walesby's Collection, but it contains many other objects of taste of high value from their historical associations, as well as their intrinsic excellence. BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE. SMITH'S (HENRY) SERMONS AND OTHER LEARNED TREATISES, 4to. 1675, with Life by Fuller. MITFORD'S GREECE. Cadell, 1818. 8vo. Vol. I. VIRGIL'S WORKS in Latin and English, translated by Rev. C. Pitt. With Notes by Rev. Joseph Wharton. Dodsley, 1753. 8vo. Vol. I. 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By JOHN BAPTIT VON HIRSCHER, D.D., Dean of the Metropolitan Church of Freiburg, Breisgau, and Professor of Theology in the Roman Catholic University of that City. Translated and edited with Notes and Introduction by the Rev ARTHUR CLEVELAND COXE, M. A. Rector of St. John's Church, Hartford, Connecticut, U. S. "The following work will be found a noble apology, for the position assumed by the Church of England in the sixteenth century, and for the practical reforms she then introduced into her theology and worship. If the author is right, then the changes he so eloquently urges upon the present attention of his brethren ought to have been made three hundred years ago: and the obstinate refusal of the Council of Trent to make such reforms in conformity with Scripture and Antiquity, throws the whole burthen of the sin of schism upon Rome. and not upon our Reformers. 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Spain is divided between ultra-infidelity and what is so closely akin to actual idolatry, that it can only be controversially, not practically, distinguished from it: and over all hangs a lurid cloud of systematic immorality, simply frightful to contemplate. We can offer a direct, and even personal, testi mony to all that Mr. Meyrick has to say."Christian Remembrancer. "I wish to recommend it strongly.”—T. K. Arnold's Theological Critic. "Many passing travellers have thrown more or less light upon the state of Romanism and Christianity in Spain, according to their objects and opportunities: but we suspect these 'workings' are the fullest, the most natural. and the most trustworthy, of anything that has appeared upon the subject since the time of Blanco White's Confessions."- Spectator. "This honest exposition of the practical working of Romanism in Spain, of its everyday eff cts, not its canons and theories, deserves the careful study of all, who, unable to test the question abroad, are dazzled by the distant mirage with which the Vatican mocks many a yearning soul that thirsts after water-brooks pure and full."- Literary Gazette. JOHN HENRY PARKER, Oxford, and 377. Strand, London. Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by GroRGR BELL, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 18 Fleet Street aforesaid. Saturday, August 14. 1852. A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. "When found, make a note of."- CAPTAIN CUTTLE. Music of the Spheres Origin of various Books Monumental Brasses abroad, by W. Sparrow Simpson Notes on Old London Proverbs from Fuller Page 167 167 168 169 170 170 171 172 MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. "How sweet the moon-light sleeps upon this bank! Sit, Jessica: Look how the floor of heaven But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins: Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." Merchant of Venice, Act V. Se. 1. For anything I know to the contrary, Pythagoras was the first who advanced this doctrine of the music of the spheres; and Fenton, in his observations appended to Tonson's edition of Waller's Poems (page xcii. Lond. 1730), supposes him to have grounded his belief on the words of Job literally understood: "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for 175 joy," chap. xxxviii. 7. I shall have to refer to Milton more than once; but his "Christmas Hymn" is here quite to my purpose: 173 176 Lunar Occultations 176 Serpent Eating 177 "Ring out ye crystal spheres, Once bless our human ears, (If ye have pow'r to touch our senses so ;) And let your silver chime Move in melodious time, And let the base of Heaven's deep organ blow; And with your ninefold harmony Make up full consort to th' angelic symphony." Milton speaks also of the "mystical dance" of the spheres, and further adds: "And in their motions harmony divine So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear I remember also a passage in Buchanan : "Quid solem loquar aut lunam? quid cætera cœli Sidera, quæ peragunt non æquo tramite cursum, Inque chori ludunt speciem, et nunc lumine juncto Mutua conspirant, spatiis nunc dissita longis, Quæque suum servant diversa lege tenorem?" De Sphæra, lib. i. p. 420. Amstelædami, 1687, 12mo. Cowley also sings: "Quales (crediderim) divum edidit auribus olim Planturum, lib. v. page 306. Lond. 1688, 8vo. And though in the notes to his Pindaric "Ode on the Resurrection" he seems to think such Pythagorean ideas as more befitting poetry than sound philosophy, I must adduce a very quaint passage from his Davideis likewise : "Th' ungovern'd parts no correspondence knew, "Her voice, the music of the spheres, Shakspeare, as already quoted, has assigned a different reason; and Milton closely follows him in the "Arcades." "After the heavenly tune, which none can hear Of human mould, with gross unpurged ear. Indeed Milton had written an academic exercise at Cambridge, "De Concentu Sphærorum," in which he explains the theory of Plato. Thomas Warton gives much additional information in his notes upon the "Arcades," and illustrates Milton by himself: he gave some further description of this music, Par. Lost, lib. vii. 558. And as Beaumont's Psyche is less known, I may as well extract a passage from it: "Indeed those airs are so refin'd, that none Page 241. Cambridge, 1702, folio. I have one quotation more to make, but it must be a long one, as it seems to contain almost all that can be said upon the subject. It is from Bishop Martin Fotherby, and includes the opinions of the more ancient writers, as well as of Bede, St. Anselm, Boethius, and Du Bartas. It is strange to find such an argument pressed into the controversy with atheists: but the whole chapter is worth reading. He says: "And therefore, divers of them, as they ascribe a rythmical motion unto the starres; so doe they an harmonicall unto the heavens; ymagining that their moving produceth the melodie of an excellent sweete tune. So that they make the starres to be dancers, and the heavens to be musitians. An opinion which of old hath hung in the heads, and troubled the braines of many learned men: yea, and that not onely among the heathen philosophers, but also even among our Christian divines. The first author and inventor of which conceited imagination was the philosopher Pythagoras. Who broched his opinion with such felicitie and happinesse, that he wonne unto his part divers of the most ancient and best learned philosophers, as Plutarch reporteth. Plato, whose learning Tullie so much admireth, that hee calleth him The God of all Philosophers, Deum Philosophorum, he affirmeth of the heavens, that every one of them hath sitting upon it a sweet-singing syren, caro ing out a most pleasant and melodious song, agreeing with the motion of her own peculiar heaven. Which syren, though it sing of itselfe but one single part, yet all of them toge her, being eight in number (for so many heavens were onely held by the ancients) doe make an excellent song, consisting of eight parts: wherein they still modulate their songs, agreeable unto the motions of the eight celestial spheres. Arist., 1. ii. De Cœlo, c. ix. to. i. p. 588.; Cic., 1. iii. De Nat. Deor., p. 229.; Plut., 1. De Musica, to. ii. p. 707.; Cic., 1. ii. De Nat. Deor., p. 205.; Plato, 1. x. De Rep., p. 670. Which opinion of Platoes is not only allowed by Macrobius (lib. ii. De Som. Scip., e. iii. p. 90.), but he also affirmeth of this syren's song, that it is a psalme composed in the praise of God. But of the very name of a syren: which signifieth (as he Yea, and he proveth his assertion out saith) as much as Deo cunens, A singer unto God. Maximus Tyrius (Serm. xxi. p. 256.) he affirmeth of the heavens, that (without any such helpe of these |