Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 110, December 6, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 110, December 6, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
_Theodolite_ (Vol. iv., p. 383.).--If your correspondent J. S. WOOD will
refer to Todd's _Johnson's Dictionary_, he will find the derivation of
the word thus--
"THEODOLITE (Fr. from θεῶ, Gr., contracted of θεάω, or θεάομαι, to
observe; and δολιχὸς, long. See Morin, _Fr. and Gr. Etym. Dict._),
a mathematical instrument for taking heights and distances."
HENRY WILKINSON.
Brompton, Nov. 15. 1851.
"_A Posie of other Men's Flowers_" (Vol. iv., p. 211.).--Your
correspondent MR. C. FORBES appears anxious to know where Montaigne
speaks of "a posie of other men's flowers." I believe that there is an
error in confining Montaigne's idea thus exclusively to poetry, for I
presume the passage sought for is what I shall now quote; but if so, it
applies generally to any borrowed thought from an author embellished by
another:
"La vérité et la raison sont communes à un chascun, et ne sont
plus à celui qui les adictes premièrement, qu'à qui les dict
aprez: ce n'est non plus selon Platon que selon moy, puisque luy
et moy l'entendons, et veoyons de mesme. _Les abeilles pillotent
deça delà les fleurs; mais elles en font aprez le miel, qui est
tout leur; ce n'est plus thym, ny mariolaine_; ainsi les pièces
empruntées d'aultruy, il les transformera et confondra pour en
faire un ouvrage tout sien, à scavoir son jugement,"
&c.--_Essays_, livre i. chap. 25.
I hope that this will satisfactorily answer your correspondent's
inquiry.
J. R.
_Voltaire_ (Vol. iii. p. 433.).--On the subject of _anagrams_, lately
adverted to by your correspondents, I not long since referred to that
which showed that the name of _Voltaire_, as adduced by me in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ a few years back, instead of being, as asserted
by Lord Brougham and others, that of an estate, was in fact the anagram
of his family patronymic, with the adjunct of l. j., or junior (le
jeune), to distinguish him from his elder brother. We see similarly the
President of the French National Assembly uniformly called "Dupin
l'aîné"; and his brother Charles, until created a Baron, always "Dupin
le jeune." Observing, therefore, that Voltaire was in reality Arouet le
jeune, or, as he signed it, Arouet l. j., and that the two letters u and
j were, until distinguished by the Elzevir, indiscriminately written v
and i, the anagram will thus be clearly proved: every letter, though
transposed, being equally in both:--
A R O V E T L J
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
V O L T A I R E
4 3 7 6 1 8 2 5
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