_Virgil and Goldsmith._--The same beautiful thought is traceable in both Virgil and Goldsmith. In book iii. of the _Æneid_, lines 495-6. we read: "Vobis parta quies; nullum maris æquor arandum; Arva neque Ausoniæ, _semper cedentia retro_, _Quærenda_." In the _Traveller_ these lines occur: "But me, not destined such delights to share, My prime of life in wandering spent and care; Impell'd, with steps unceasing, to pursue Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view; That, like the circle bounding earth and skies, Allures from far, yet, as I follow, flies ----" ALFRED GATTY. _Mental Almanac_ (Vol. iv., p. 203.).--MEM. The additive number for this present November is 1. Hence next Wednesday is 4 + 1, that is, the 5th. The Sunday following, is 1 + 1 + 7, that is, the 9th. And similarly for any other day or week in this month. A. E. B Leeds, Nov. 1. 1851. _Merlin and the Electric Telegraph._--The following extract from the prophecy of Merlin in Geoffrey of Monmouth's _British History_, book vii. ch. 4., reads rather curiously in these days of railways and of electric telegraph communication between France and England:-- "Eric shall hide his apples within it, and _shall make subterraneous passages_. At that time _shall the stones speak_, and the sea towards the Gallic Coast be contracted into a narrow space. _On each bank shall one man hear another_, and the soil of the isle shall be enlarged. The secrets of the deep shall be revealed, and Gaul shall tremble for fear." I should like to be informed if there have ever been any detailed and systematic attempts made at interpreting the whole of this curious prophecy of Merlin's. W. FRASER. Queries. BISHOP BRAMHALL AND MILTON. Perhaps I am convicting myself of the most benighted ignorance by asking some of your learned correspondents to elucidate for me a letter of Bramhall's, which I extract from his works. It was written to his son from Antwerp, and relates to the early years of our great Milton at Cambridge, dated: "Antwerpe, May 9/19, 1654. "That lying abusive book [viz., the _Def. Pop. Ang._] was written by Milton himself, one who was sometime Bishopp Chappell's pupil in Christ Church in Cambridge, but turned away by him, as he well deserved to have been, out of the University, and out of the society of men. If Salmasius his friends knew as much of him as I, they would make him go near to hang himself. But I desire not to wound the nation through his sides, yet I have written to him long since about it roundly. It seems he desires not to touch upon this subject."--_Works_, vol. i. p. 94, Oxford, 1842.