_The Bellman and his History_ (Vol. iii., pp. 324. 377.).--Since my former communication on this subject I have been referred to the cut of the Bellman and his _Dog_ in Collier's _Roxburghe Ballads_, p. 59., taken from the first edition of Dekker's _Belman of London_, printed in 1608. C. H. COOPER. Cambridge, May 17, 1851. "_Geographers on Afric's Downs_" (Vol. iii., p. 372.).--Is your correspondent A. S. correct in his quotation? In a poem of Swift's, "On Poetry, a Rhapsody," are these lines:-- "So geographers, in Afric maps With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er unhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns." _Swift's Works, with Notes by Dr. Hawksworth_, 1767, vol. vii. p, 214. C. DE D. "_Trepidation talk'd_" (Vol. iii., p. 450.).--The words attributed to Milton are-- "That crystalline sphere whose balance weighs The trepidation talk'd, and that first moved." Paterson's comment, quoted by your correspondent, is exquisite: he evidently thinks there were two trepidations, one _talked_, the other _first moved_. The _trepidation_ (not a tremulous, but a turning or oscillating motion) is a well-known hypothesis added by the Arab astronomers to Ptolemy, in explanation of the precession of the equinoxes. This precession they imagined would continue retrograde for a long period, after which it would be direct for another long period, then retrograde again, and so on. They, or their European followers, I forget which, invented the _crystal_ heaven, an apparatus outside of the _starry_ heaven (these cast-off phrases of astronomy have entered into the service of poetry, and the _empyreal_ heaven with them), to cause this slow turning, or trepidation, in the starry heaven. Some used _two_ crystal heavens, and I suspect that Paterson, having some confused idea of this, fancied he found them both in Milton's text. I need not say that your correspondent is quite right in referring the words _first moved_ to the _primum mobile_. Again, _balance_ in Milton never _weighs_. _Scale_ is his word (iv. 997. x. 676.) for a weighing apparatus. Where he says of Satan's army (i. 349.), "In even balance down they light On the firm brimstone," he appears to mean that they were in regular order, with a right wing to balance the left wing. The direct motion of the crystal heaven, following and compensating the retrograde one, is the "balance" which "_was_ the trepidation _called_;" and this I suspect to be the true reading. The past tense would be quite accurate, for all the Ptolemaists of Milton's time had abandoned the _trepidation_. As the text stands it is nonsense; even if Milton did _dictate_ it, we know that he never _saw_ it; and there are several passages of which the obscurity may be due to his having had to rely on others. Witness the lines in book iv. 995-1002. M.