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MORMON PUBLICATIONS
Can any of your correspondents oblige me by supplying particulars of other editions of the following Mormon works? The particulars required are the size, place, date, and number of pages. The editions enumerated below are the only ones to which I have had access.
1. The Book of Mormon:
First American edition, 12mo.: Palmyra, 1830, pp. 588., printed by E. B. Grandin for the author.
First European edition, small 8vo.: Liverpool, 1841, title, one leaf, pp. 643., including index at the end.
Second European edition, 12mo.: Liverpool, 1849. Query number of pages?
Third European edition, 12mo.: Liverpool, 1852, pp. xii. 563.
2. Book of Doctrine and Covenants:
First (?) American edition, 18mo.: Kirkland, 1835, pp. 250.
Third European edition, 12mo.: Liverpool, 1852, pp. xxiii, 336.
3. Hymn Book for the "Saints" in Europe:
Ninth edition, 16mo.: Liverpool, 1851, pp. vii. 379., containing 296 hymns.
As I am passing through the press two Lectures on the subject of Mormonism, and am anxious that the literary history and bibliography of this curious sect should be as complete as possible, I will venture to ask the favour of an immediate reply to this Query: and since the subject is hardly of general interest, as well as because the necessary delay of printing any communication may hereby be avoided, may I request that any reply be sent to me at the address given below. I shall also be glad to learn where, and at what price, a copy of the first American edition of the Book of Mormon can be procured.
W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A.
14. Grove Road,
North Brixton, Surrey.
MINOR QUERIES
Dimidiation.—Is the practice of dimidiation approved of by modern heralds, and are examples of it common?
W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.
Early Christian Mothers.—Can any of your correspondents inform me whether the Christian mothers of the first four or five centuries were much in the habit of using the rod in correcting their children; and whether the influence acquired by the mother of St. Chrysostom, and others of the same stamp, was not greatly owing to their having seldom or never inflicted corporal punishment on them?
Pater.
The Lion at Northumberland House.—One often hears the anecdote of a wag who, as alleged, stared at the lion on Northumberland House until he had collected a crowd of imitators around him, when he cried out, "By Heaven! it wags, it wags," and the rest agreed with him that the lion did wag its tail. If this farce really took place, I should be glad to know the date and details.
J. P.
Birmingham.
The Cross in Mexico and Alexandria.—In The Unseen World; Communications with it, real and imaginary, &c., 1850, a work which is attributed to an eminent divine and ecclesiastical historian of the English Church, it is stated that—
"It was a tradition in Mexico, before the arrival of the Spaniards, that when that form (the sign of the cross) should be victorious, the old religion should disappear. The same sign is also said to have been discovered on the destruction of the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, and the same tradition to have been attached to it."—P. 23.
The subject is very curious, and one in which I am much interested. I am anxious to refer to the original authorities for the tradition in both cases. It is known that the Mexicans worshipped the cross as the god of rain. We have the following curious account thereof in The Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of West India, now called Newe Spayne, translated out of the Spanish tongue by T. N., anno 1578:
"At the foote of this temple was a plotte like a churchyard, well walled and garnished with proper pinnacles; in the midst whereof stoode a crosse of ten foote long, the which they adored for god of the rayne; for at all times whe they wanted rayne, they would go thither on procession deuoutely, and offered to the crosse quayles sacrificed, for to appease the wrath that the god seemed to have agaynste them: and none was so acceptable a sacrifice, as the bloud of that little birde. They used to burne certaine sweete gume, to perfume that god withall, and to besprinkle it with water; and this done, they belieued assuredly to haue rayne."—P. 41.
Edward Peacock.
Bottesford Moors, Kirton Lindsey.
Passage in St. James.—I hope you will not consider the following Query unsuited to your publication, and in that case I may confidently anticipate the removal of my difficulty.
In reading yesterday Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, I came to this passage (p. 308. Bohn's edition):
"St. James, in his epistle, notes the folly of some men, his contemporaries, who were so impatient of the event of to-morrow, or the accidents of next year, or the good or evils of old age, that they would consult astrologers and witches, oracles and devils, what should befall them the next calends—what should be the event of such a voyage—what God had written in his book concerning the success of battles, the election of emperors, &c.... Against this he opposes his counsel, that we should not search after forbidden records, much less by uncertain significations," &c.
Now my Query is, To what epistle of St. James does the eloquent bishop refer? If to the canonical epistle, to what part? To the words (above quoted) "forbidden records" there is a foot-note, which contains only the well-known passage in Horace, lib. i. od. xi., and two others from Propertius and Catullus.
S. S. S.
"The Temple of Truth."—Who was the author of an admirable work entitled The Temple of Truth, published in 1806 by Mawman?
T. B. H.
Santa Claus.—Reading The Wide Wide World recalled to my mind this curious custom, which I had remarked when in America. I was then not a little surprised to find so strange a superstition lingering in puritanical New England, and which, it is needless to remark, was quite novel to me. Santa Claus I believe to be a corruption of Saint Nicholas, the tutelary saint of sailors, and consequently a great favourite with the Dutch. Probably, therefore, the custom was introduced into the western world by the compatriots of the renowned Knickerbocker.
It is unnecessary to describe the nature of the festivity, as it is so graphically pourtrayed in Miss Wetherell's, or rather Warner's work, to which I would refer those desirous of further acquaintance with the subject; the object of this Query being to learn, through some of the American or other correspondents of "N. & Q.," the original legend, as well as the period and events connected with the immigration into "The States" of that beneficent friend of Young America, Santa Claus.
Robert Wright.
Donnybrook Fair.—This old-established fair, so well known in every quarter of the globe, and so very injurious to the morality of those who frequent it, is said to be held by patent: but is there any patent for it in existence? If there be, why is it not produced? I am anxious to obtain information upon the subject.
Abhba.
Saffron, when brought into England.—In a footnote to Beckmann's History of Inventions, &c., vol. i. p. 179. (Bohn's), is the following, purporting to be from Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 164.:
"It is reported at Saffron Walden that a pilgrim, proposing to do good to his country, stole a head of saffron, and hid the same in his palmer's staff, which he had made hollow before on purpose, and so he brought this root into this realm, with venture of his life; for if he had been taken, by the law of the country from whence it came, he had died for the fact."
Can any of your readers throw any light upon this tradition?
W. T.
Saffron Walden.
Isping Geil.—In a charter of Joanna Fossart, making a grant of lands and other possessions to the priory of Grosmont in Yorkshire, is the following passage as given in Dugdale's Monasticon (I quote from Bohn's edition, 1846, vol. vi. p. 1025.):
"Dedi eis insuper domos meas in Eboraco; illas scilicet quæ sunt inter domos Laurentii clerici quæ fuerunt Benedicti Judæi et Isping Geil, cum tota curia et omnibus pertinentiis."
Can any of your readers, and in particular any of our York antiquaries, inform me whether the "Isping Geil" mentioned in this passage is the name of a person, or of some locality in that city now obsolete? In either case I should be glad of any information as to the etymology of so singular a designation, which may possibly have undergone some change in copying.
Θ.
Humbug.—When was this word introduced into the English language? The earliest instance in which I have met with it is in one of Churchill's Poems, published about the year 1750.
Uneda.
Philadelphia.
Franklyn Household Book.—Can any reader inform me in whose keeping, the Household Book of Sir John Franklyn now is?2 Extracts were published from it in the Archæologia, vol. xv.
J. K.
James Thomson's Will.—Did the author of the Seasons make a will? If so, where is the original to be seen?
D.
Leamington.
"Country Parson's Advice to his Parishioners."—Could you inquire through your columns who the author of a book entitled The Country Parson's Advice to his Parishioners is? It was printed for Benjamin Tooke, at the Ship, in St. Paul's Church Yard, 1680.
I have a singular copy of this book, and know at present of no other copy. The booksellers all seem at a loss as to who the author was; some say Jeremy Taylor, others George Herbert; but my date does not allow the latter,—at least it makes it very improbable, unless it was published after his death. The book itself is like George Herbert's style, very solid and homely; it is evidently by some masterly hand. Should you be able to give me information, or get it for me, I should be obliged. I think of reprinting the book.
Geo. Nugée.
Senior Curate of St. Paul's, Wilton Place.
Shakspeare—Blackstone.—In Moore's Diary, vol. iv. p. 130., he says,—
"Mr. Duncan mentioned, that Blackstone has preserved the name of the judge to whom Shakspeare alludes in the grave-digger's argument?—
'If the water comes to the man,' &c."
Will one of your Shakspearian or legal correspondents have the kindness to name the judge so alluded to, and give a reference to the passage in Blackstone in which he conveys this information?
Ignoramus.
Minor Queries with Answers
Turkey Cocks.—Why are Turkey cocks so called, seeing they were not imported from Turkey?
Cape.
[This Query did not escape the notice of Dr. Samuel Pegge. He says; "The cocks which Pancirollus (ii. tit. 1.) mentions as brought from America, were Turkey cocks, as Salmuth there (p. 28.) rightly observes. The French accordingly call this bird Coq d'Inde, and from d'Inde comes the diminutive Dindon, the young Turkey; as if one should say, 'the young Indian fowl.' Fetching the Turkey from America accords well with the common notion:
'Turkeys, carps, hops, pikarel, and beer,
Came into England all in a year;'
that is, in the reign of Henry VIII., after many voyages had been made to North America, where this bird abounds in an extraordinary manner. But Query how this bird came to be called Turkey? Johnson latinizes it Gallina Turcica, and defines it, 'a large domestic fowl brought from Turkey;' which does not agree with the above account from Pancirollus. Brookes says (p. 144.), 'It was brought into Europe either from India or Africa.' And if from the latter, it might be called Turkey, though but improperly."—Anonymiana, cent. x. 79.]
Bishop St. John.—The following passage occurs at vol. iv. p. 84. of the Second Series of Ellis's Original Letters, Illustrative of English History. It is taken from the letter numbered 326, dated London, Jan. 5, 1685-6, and addressed "for John Ellis, Esq., Secretary of his Majesty's Revenue in Ireland, Dublin:"
"The Bishop of London's fame runs high in the vogue of the people. The London pulpits ring strong peals against Popery; and I have lately heard there never were such eminently able men to serve in those cures. The Lord Almoner Ely is thought to stand upon too narrow a base now in his Majesty's favour, from a late violent sermon on the 5th of November. I saw him yesterday at the King's Levy; and very little notice taken of him, which the more confirms what I heard. Our old friend the new Bishop St. John, gave a smart answer to a (very well put) question of his M– with respect to him, that shows he is not altogether formed of court-clay; but neither you nor I shall withdraw either of our friendship for him on such an account."
All who know this period of our history, know Compton and Turner; but who was Bishop St. John?
J. J. J.
[An error in the transcription. In the manuscript it reads thus: "Bishp Sr Jonn," and clearly refers to Sir Jonathan Trelawney, Bart., consecrated bishop of Bristol, Nov. 8, 1685, translated to Exeter in 1689, and to Winchester in 1707.]
Ferdinand Mendez Pinto.—
"Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude!"
Where is the original of the above to be found? Was Ferdinand Mendez Pinto a real or imaginary character?
Inquirens.
[A famous Portuguese traveller, in no good odour for veracity. His Travels have been translated into most European languages, and twice published in English. A notice of Pinto will be found in Rose's Biog. Dict., s. v.]
Satin.—What is the origin of the word satin?
Cape.
[See Ogilvie and Webster. "Fr. satin; W. sidan, satin or silk; Gr. and Lat. sindon; Ch. and Heb. sedin; Ar. sidanah."]
Carrier Pigeons.—When were carrier pigeons first used in Europe?
Cape.
[Our correspondent will find some interesting notices of the early use of the carrier pigeon in Europe in the Penny Cyclopædia, vol. vii. p. 372., art. "Columbidæ;" and in the Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. vi. p. 176., art. "Carrier Pigeon."]
Replies
"PYLADES AND CORRINA."—PSALMANAZAR AND DEFOE
(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 305. 435. 479.)
I had forwarded for insertion a short answer to the Query as to Pylades and Corinna before Dr. Maitland's communication was printed; but as it now appears more distinctly what was the object of the Query, I can address myself more directly to the point he has raised. And, in the first place, I cannot suppose that Defoe had anything to do with Pylades and Corinna, or the History of Formosa. In all Defoe's fictions there is at least some trace of the master workman, but in neither of these works is there any putting forth of his power, or any similitude to his manner or style. When the History of Formosa appeared (1704), he was ingrossed in politics, and was not, as far as any evidence has yet informed us, in the habit of translating or doing journeyman work for booksellers. Then the book itself is, in point of composition, far beneath Defoe, even in his most careless moods. As to Pylades and Corinna, Defoe died so soon after Mrs. Thomas—she died on the 3rd February, 1731, and he on the 24th April following, most probably worn out by illness—that time seems scarcely afforded for getting together and working up the materials of the two volumes published. The editor, who signs himself "Philalethes," dates his Dedication to the first volume, in which are contained the particulars about Psalmanazar, "St. John Baptist, 1731," which day would be after Defoe's death. Nor is there any ground for supposing that Defoe and Curll had much connexion as author and publisher. Curll only printed two works of Defoe, as far as I have been able to discover, the Memoirs of Dr. Williams (1718, 8vo.), and the Life of Duncan Campbell (1720, 8vo.), and for his doing so, in each case, a good reason may be given. As regards the genuineness of the correspondence in Pylades and Corinna, I do not see any reason to question it. Sir Edward Northey's certificate, and various little particulars in the letters themselves, entirely satisfy me that the correspondence is not a fictitious one. The anecdotes of Psalmanazar are quite in accordance with his own statements in his Life—(see particularly p. 183., Memoirs, 1765, 8vo.); and if they were pure fiction, is it not likely that, living in London at the time when they appeared, he would have contradicted them? In referring (Vol. vii., p. 436., "N. & Q.") to the Gentleman's Magazine for these anecdotes, I had not overlooked their having appeared in Pylades and Corinna, but had not then the latter book at hand to include it in the reference. Dr. Maitland considers Pylades and Corinna "a farrago of low rubbish, utterly beneath criticism." Is not this rather too severe and sweeping a character? Unquestionably the poetry is but so-so, and of the poem the greater part might have been dispensed with; but, like all Curll's collections, it contains some matter of interest and value to those who do not despise the minutiæ of literary investigation. The Autobiography of the unfortunate authoress (Mrs. Thomas), who was only exalted by Dryden's praise to be ignominiously degraded by Pope, and "whose whole life was but one continued scene of the utmost variety of human misery," has always appeared to me an interesting and rather affecting narrative; and, besides a great many occasional notices in the correspondence, which are not without their use, there are interspersed letters from Lady Chudleigh, Norris of Bemerton, and others, which are not to be elsewhere met with, and which are worth preserving.
For Psalmanazar's character, notwithstanding his early peccadilloes, I can assure Dr. Maitland that I have quite as high a respect as himself, even without the corroborative evidence of our great moralist, which on such a subject may be considered as perfectly conclusive.
James Crossley.
