"_To Garble_" (Vol. ix., pp. 243. 359.).--I venture, with deference, to express a doubt as to whether E. S. T. T. has correctly defined either the former or the present meaning of the verb _to garble_, when he says "it meant a selection of the good and the discarding of the bad parts of anything: its present meaning is exactly the reverse of this." The statutes referred to by your correspondent, the first enacting that no bow staves shall be sold ungarbled, and the second imposing a penalty on the sale of spices and drugs not garbled, appear to me to indicate the former meaning of the word to have been the selection (picking out) of the _bad_ and the discarding of it. Experience shows that in all operations, involving the separation of objects worthless and of value, such as weeding, sifting, and winnowing, the former is removed from the latter and discarded. This view of the case seems to be supported by the fact of the dust and dross sifted from spices being called "garbles." The weeder removes weeds from flowers or plants, the garbler removes garbles from spices and bad bow staves from amongst good ones. Richardson's _Dictionary_ contains the following notes under the head _Garble_: "Fr. _Grabeler_; It. _Garbellare_. Cotgrave says, Grabeller, to garble spices, &c., (and hence) also to examine precisely, sift nearly, look narrowly, search curiously into." After giving some examples of its use, Richardson says: "As usually applied in England, to garble is to pick out, sift out what may serve a particular purpose, and thus destroy or mutilate the fair character of the whole." To go no farther, the reports of the parliamentary debates, when a "Blue Book" happens to furnish matter for discussion, amply confirm Richardson's definition, that _to garble_ is to pick out what may serve a purpose. In this sense, however, E. S. T. T. must admit that it would be as much garbling to quote all the _good_ passages of a work as to quote all the bad ones. May we not then assume the present meaning of the word _garble_ to be this--to quote passages with the view of conveying an impression of the ability or intention of a writer, which is not warranted by the general scope of the work? C. ROSS. _"Lyra Apostolica_" (Vol. ix., p. 304.).--There is, I believe, a slight inaccuracy in the rotation of the names given at the above page as the writers in the _Lyra Apostolica_. They go in alphabetical order, thus [alpha], Bowden; [beta], Froude; [gamma], Keble; [delta], Newman; [epsilon], Wilberforce; [zeta], Williams. B. R. A. Y. The poems signed [zeta]. were written by _Williams_, not by _Wilberforce_. Can you explain the meaning of the motto on the title-page-- "[Greek: Gnoien d', hos de deron ego polemoio pepaumai]"? M. D.