"The 'left' hand, as distinguished from the right, is the hand which we 'leave,' inasmuch as for twenty times we use the right hand, we do not once employ _it_; and it obtains its name from being 'left' unused so often." Now I should certainly be sorry to appear "Ut lethargicus hic, cum fit pugil, et medicum urget." I am not the person to aim a word at Mr. Trench's eye. Although I am Boeotian enough to ask, I am not too far Boeotian to feel no shame in asking, whether it is quite impossible that "left" should be corruption of _lævus_, [Greek: laios]. We have, at all events, adopted _dexter_, the "right" hand, and the rest of its family. BOEOTICUS. Edgmond, Salop. _The Parthenon._--M. de Chateaubriand says that the Greek, Theodore Zygomalas, who wrote in 1575, is the first among modern writers to have made known the existence of the Temple of Minerva or Parthenon, which was believed to have been totally destroyed. The _Messager des Sciences et des Arts de la Belgique_, vol. iv. p. 24., corrects Chateaubriand, and says that Ciriaco d'Ancona had, in the year 1436, described this celebrated monument, together with other ancient buildings of Athens. I am desirous of verifying this statement, and for this purpose beg the assistance of some of your learned correspondents, who may probably be able to inform me what is the title and date of the work of Ciriaco in which this description of the Parthenon occurs. W. M. R. E. * * * * * Replies. MEDIÆVAL OR MIDDLE AGES. (Vol. v., p. 469.) The question there put by L. T. is still constantly asked, and the answer given by a reference to Mr. Dowling's work may perhaps be unsatisfactory to many, as not sufficiently defining the period at which the Middle Ages may be said to terminate. By some of the best historical writers, the commencement and termination are variously stated. In a work recently published by George T. Manning, entitled _Outlines of the History of the Middle Ages_, with heads of analysis, &c., the Querist seems answered with more precision. Mr. Manning divides General History into _three_ great divisions--Ancient History, that of the Middle Ages, and Modern History; the first division extending from the Creation to about four hundred years after the birth of Christ; the second from A.D. 400 to the close of the fifteenth century of the Christian era; the third embracing those ages which have elapsed since the close of mediæval times. The Middle Age portions he divides into _five_ great periods, denoted by the vast changes which took place in the course of that history, viz.: A.D. 400 to A.D. 800, _First Period_. A.D. 800 to A.D. 964, _Second Period_. A.D. 964 to A.D. 1066, _Third Period_. A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1300, _Fourth Period_. A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1500, _Fifth Period_. The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope being the last important event, which he places in 1497.