"Words are men's daughters, but God's Sons are things,"-- and which is in allusion to Genesis vi. 2. 4., is, I entertain no doubt, one of Dr. Johnson's insertions. JAS. CROSSLEY. "_Fine by degrees, and beautifully less_" (Vol. iii., p. 105.).--This line is from Prior's "Henry and Emma," a poem, upon the model of the "Nut-brown Maid." I copy part of the passage in which it occurs, for the sake of any of your readers who may be lovers of _context_, and may not have the poem at hand to refer to. "_Henry_ [addressing Emma]. "Vainly thou tell'st me what the woman's care Shall in the wildness of the woods prepare; 420 Thou, ere thou goest, unhappiest of thy kind, Must leave the habit and the sex behind. No longer shall thy comely tresses break In flowing ringlets on thy snowy neck; Or sit behind thy head, an ample round, In graceful braids with various ribbon bound: No longer shall the bodice aptly lac'd From thy full bosom to thy slender waist, That air and harmony of shape express, Fine by degrees, and beautifully less: 430 Nor shall thy lower garments' artful plait, From thy fair side dependent to thy feet, Arm their chaste beauties with a modest pride, And double every charm they seek to hide." C. FORBES. Temple, Feb. 10. [We are also indebted for replies to this Query to Robert Snow, Fras. Crossley, A. M., J. J. M., A. H., S. T., E. S. T. T., V., W. K., R. B., and other correspondents. C. H. P. remarks: "Pope, who died in 1744, twenty-three years after Prior, evidently had this line in view when he wrote as follows:-- "'Ladies, like variegated tulips, show; 'Tis to their changes half their charms they owe; Fine by defect, and delicately weak, Their happy spots the nice admirer take.'" And J. H. M. tells us, "The late Lord Ellenborough applied the line somewhat ignobly, when speaking of bristles, in a dispute between two brushmakers."] _"The Soul's dark Cottage"_ (Vol. iii., p. 105.).--The couplet "EFFARESS" inquires for, is to be found in Waller's poems. It is a production of his later years, and occurs in the epilogue to his "Poems of Divine Love," and "Of the Fear of God," &c., thus:-- "The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light through chinks that time has made, Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become, As they draw nigh to their eternal home. Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new." {155} There is another couplet worth citing-- "The seas are quiet, when the winds give o'er; So calm are we, when passions are no more." How different were the effusions of Waller's earlier muse! In the year 1645, Humphrey Mosley published "_Poems, &c_., written by Mr. Ed. Waller, of Beaconsfield, Esquire, lately a Member of the Honourable House of Commons." The title-page also states that--