"These, in tranquil times, are formed to exhibit a perfect poem in palace, or temple, or landscape-garden, &c.... But alas! in times of tumult they are the men destined to come forth as the shaping spirit of ruin, to destroy the wisdom of ages in order to substitute the fancies of a day, and to change kings and kingdoms, as the wind shifts and shapes the clouds." Let the present and the future witness the truth of this insight. We have (in Coleridge's words) "lights of admonition and warning;" and we may live to repent of our indifference, if they are thrown away upon us. C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY. Birmingham. _Lord Bacon's Advice peculiarly applicable to the Correspondents of "N. & Q."_--Lord Bacon has written that-- "A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are generally the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom return." W. W. Malta. _Etymology of Molasses._--The affinity between the orthography of this word in Italian (melássa), Spanish (melaza), and French (mélasse), and our pronunciation of it (m_e_lasses), would seem to suggest a common origin. How comes it, then, that we write it with an _o_ instead of an _e_? Walker says it is derived frown the Italian "mellazzo" (_sic_); and some French lexicographers trace their "mélasse" from [Greek: melas], with reference to the colour; others from [Greek: meli], in allusion to the taste. But these Greek derivations are too recondite for our early sugar manufacturers; and the likelihood {37} is, that they found the word nearer home, in some circumstance which had less to do with literary refinement than with the refining of sugar. There is an expression in French which is identical in spelling with this word, namely, "molasse" (softish--so to speak); and which describes the liquidity of molasses, as distinguished from the granulous substance of which they are the residue. As our first sugar establishment was formed in 1643, in an island (St. Christopher) one half of which was then occupied by the French, it is possible that we may have adopted the word from them; and this conjecture is supported by the following passage in Père Labat (vol. iii. p. 93.), where he uses the word "molasse" in the sense of _soft_, to describe a species of sugar that had not received, or had lost, the proper degree of consistency. "Je vis leur sucre qui me parut très beau et bien gréné, surtout lorsqu'il est nouvellement fait; mais on m'assura qu'il devenait cendreux ou _molasse_, et qu'il se décuisait quand il était gardé quelques jours." HENRY H. BREEN. St. Lucia.