The _two-handed engine_, I am positive, is St. Michael's sword. Farther on in the poem the bard addresses the angel St. Michael (according to Warton), who is conceived as guarding the Mount from enemies with a drawn sword, for in this form I apprehend does tradition state the vision to have been seen; and he bids him to desist from looking out for enemies towards the coast of Spain, and to "look homeward," at one of his own shepherds who is being washed ashore, in all probability upon this very promontory. Milton elsewhere (_Par. Lost_, book vi. 251.) speaks of the "huge two-handed sway" of this sword of St. Michael; and here, in _Lycidas_ he repeats the epithet to identify the instrument which is to accomplish the destruction of the wolf. St. Michael's sword is to smite off the head of Satan, who at the door of Christ's fold is, "with privy paw," daily devouring the hungry sheep. Note here that, according to some theologians, the archangel Michael, in prophecy, means Christ himself. (See the authorities quoted by Heber, _Bampton Lectures_, iv. note _l_, p. 242.) Hence it is His business to preserve _His own_ sheep. In the Apocalypse the final blow of St. Michael's (or Christ's) two-edged sword, which {498} is to cleave the serpent's head, is made a distinct subject of prophecy. (See Rev. xii. 7-10.) While on this subject allow me to ask, Can a dolphin waft? Can a shore wash? C. MANSFIED INGLEBY. Birmingham. * * * * * SCHOOL LIBRARIES. (Vol. viii., pp. 220. 395.) In returning thanks to those of your correspondents who replied to my Query, I ought, perhaps, to have begged to learn such of our public schools that were _without_ libraries, as the best means of obtaining for them bequests or gifts that would form a nucleus of a good library. For example, a correspondent informs me that the governors of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Wimborne, Dorset, are laying by 10l. a year towards the purchase of books for that purpose: that having no library at present, there now is a favourable opportunity for either a gift or a bequest: but I should in any case prefer a selection of works likely to prove readable for young people, as history, biography, travels, and the popular works of science.