_Newton, Cicero, and Gravitation_ (Vol. v., p. 344.).--Newton is celebrated for having proved that all bodies attract one another with a force varying inversely as the square of the distance. What resemblance has this to a statement, that all bodies gravitate to the centre of the world, or, as explained by Cicero, the earth? which at most only implies its rotundity. Perhaps S. E. B. was joking, like Hegel, when he said that Newton called 5/A^2 gravitation, and inferred that gravitation varied as 1/A^2. Otherwise modern philosophers, as _e.g._ Kepler, would have supplied much nearer approximations to Newton's law. ALTRON. _Rhymes on the Names of Places_ (Vol. v., p. 404.).--I remember hearing the following verse in the neighbourhood of Nottingham: "Eaton and Taton, and Bramcote o' th' hill, Beggarly Beeston, and lousy Chilwell; Waterside Wilford, hey little Lenton! Ho fine Nottingham! Colwick and Snenton." The villages whose names occur are all within a few miles of Nottingham. The following rhyme I have also heard: "Derbyshire born and Derbyshire bred, Strong i' th' arm and weak i' the head." R. C. C. Oxon. _Saint Wilfrid's Needle_ (Vol. v., p. 510.), where, according to Burton, "they used to try maids whether they were honest," is not, as B. B. supposes, a stone, but a narrow passage in the crypt beneath the central tower of Ripon Minster. This crypt is of Saxon workmanship, and is probably either a part of the original church built by Saint Wilfrid, or "the new work," which, according to Leland-- "Odo, Archebishop of Cantewarbyri ... causid to be edified, wher the Minstre now is." This passage is said to have been used as a place of ordeal through which maidens of suspected honesty were caused to pass,--a feat which none but a virgin could accomplish. K. P. D. E. _"Measure for Measure," Act I. Sc. 1._ (Vol. v., p. 535.).--I should be sorry to cast a cloud over the _satisfactory_ elucidation which A. E. B. flatters himself he has made of a passage in _Measure for Measure_, for, if not convincing, it is unquestionably ingenious. I am afraid, however, there is one fatal objection, of which, when pointed out, I {574} doubt not your correspondent will see the force. He says, "the demonstrative pronoun _that_, refers to _the commission_ which the Duke holds in his hand;" but is this the language we in England use? Until the Duke presented the commission,--the act indicated by the words "there is our commission,"--there cannot indeed be much doubt that he held it in his hand; and while he did so, he would as certainly have said _this_, as I speak of _this_ pen with which I write.