and is owing to the inadvertency of the translator, who forgets what he had previously written in lines 342 to 348. "He answer'd with his deed: his bloody hand Snatch'd two, unhappy of my martial band; And dash'd like dogs against the stony floor; The pavement swims with brains and mingled gore. Torn limb from limb, he spreads his horrid feast, And fierce devours it like a mountain beast." And in lines 368 and 369; "The task thus finish'd of his morning hours, Two more he snatches, murders, and devours!" {332} by which it distinctly appears that line 405 has a reference to the _third_ "dire repast" of the Cyclops, instead of the _second_. Perhaps you will not deem me presumptuous in offering an amendment of these passages by the following substitutions:-- For lines 325 and 326, Fools that ye are! (the savage made reply, His inward fury blazing at his eye.) for line 463, Sing'd is his brow; the scorching lid grows black. for line 405, Brain'd on a rock: his third most dire repast. and for line 533, Seest thou this lid that now unfolds in vain? DAVID STEVENS. Godalming, Feb. 10. 1850. * * * * * PROVERBIAL SAYINGS AND THEIR ORIGINS--PLAGIARISMS AND PARALLEL PASSAGES. In a note to Boswell's _Life of Johnson_ (Lond. 1816. 8vo.), iv. 196., the following lines are ascribed to their real authors:-- To _Joh. Baptista Mantuanus_ (Leipz. 1511. 4to), Eclog. i.:-- "Id commune malum, semel insanivimus omnes." To _Philippe Gaultier_, who flourished in the last half of the 12th century (Lugduni, 1558. 4to. fol. xlij. recto):-- "Incidis in Scillam cupiens vitare Charybdim." At the conclusion of the same note, the authorship of "Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris," is said to remain undiscovered; but it appears to be a corrected form of a line in Albertus ab Eyb's _Margarita Poetica_ (Nuremberg, 1472. Fol.), where, with all its false quantities, it is ascribed to Ovid:-- "Solacium est miseris socios habere poenarum." _Ovidius Epistolarum_. In the same page (fol. 149. rect.), (sic) "Fecundi calices quem non fecere disertum" is transferred from Horace to Ovid; while, on the reverse of the same fol., Æsop has the credit of "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro; Hoc coeleste bonum præterit orbis opes." Of the first line of the couplet, Ménage says (_Menagiana_, Amstm. 1713. 12mo.), iii. 132., that it is "de la fable du 3'e Livre de ce même Poëte à qui nous avons dit qu'appartenoit le vers "'Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest;'" But I cannot find the reference to which he alludes. In the same fol. (149 rect.) is perhaps the earliest quotation of "Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpè cadende.--_Sapiens_," which occurs also in _Menagiana_ (Amstm. 1713. 12mo.), i. 209.:-- "Horace fait mention du Poëte Chérile, de qui l'on n'a que ce vers Grec-- "[Greek: Petran koilainei rhanis odatos endelecheiae.]"