Si qua tamen flenti frustra tibi mosta voluptas Laus nuptæ, atque tuus nobilis ignis erit: Namque audire potis numquam jam dulce loquentis Mulcentisque feros animos curasque levantis, Et bene erat digitis docta increpuisse coruscis Cymbala nostra, vetus quæ nova nomen habent: 40 Una quibus ratio harmonicorum quæ numerorum ;' Non, ut nomine ego, sic fruor aure tua; Vivo beata; oculos jam tergite. Prospero, ut ejus Nam divina licet sim gaudia, corporis expers, 45 50 Verba sunt Pythagorica Timæi Locri de Anima mundi: Aéyo dè olde πάντες ἐντὶ κατ' ἀριθμὼς ἁρμονικὼς συγκεκραμένοι, (VALPERG.) Edit. Paris. 1768. p. 18. 2 The name of the Abbot of Caluzo amongst the Arcadian shepherds was Euforbo Melesigenio. EDIT. VOL. XXVI. CI. JI. NO. LI. N At lacrymis satis indultum; tabescere frustra Cuncti quam laudant, inprimis quos mage oportet, Lustro ætatis adhuc quarto tria pignora liquit Thoma Valperge Ode ad Fortunam. Quæ vota tot, questus tot audis, Cuncta suæ pretium Minervæ. Cumque toro diadema cæsi: Gloria te sine parta cuiquam. At interim te, non humilis metu, 55 60 Non quod gravi nunquam flagello Non delicata collibitum tibi Ille satum se Jove autumabit. Th. Valperga Epigramma. *Ορχαμ ̓ ἀοιδοπόλων, θεῖον γένος, υἱὲ Μέλητος, Εἰ δ ̓ οὐ πάντα κατ' αἶσαν ἔφησθα, τὸ αἰὲν ἀκριβὲς Th. Valperga Epitaphium. Bruta mei, Thomæ Valpergæ, hic condita pars est. The following translation of a verse in the Psalms which will be immediately recognised by every reader, is transcribed from the blank page of a book containing much other Ms. matter by the late celebrated scholar Gilbert Wakefield: Ως ἔλαφος ποταμοῖο ποθεῖ ῥόον ἀργυροδίνου, Υδατ ̓ ἐγὼ ζῶντος ζῶντα πόθημι Θεοῦ. Southey has employed this beautiful image almost totidem verbis in his poem of "Roderick, the last of the Goths:" « No hart e'er panted for the water-brooks, Μ. 196 CHRONOLOGICAL MNEMONICS. I KNOW not whether you are a friend to technical systems of facilitating the remembrance of points in chronology. The use of them has been much combated: but since they have received the sanction of some men of talent and knowledge, it would be unwise to condemn them altogether. Dr. Grey's system seems the most prevalent: and yet the grating sound of his chronological verses cannot but be thought detrimental to its success. I beg leave to offer to your readers a system, which, though much indebted to Dr. Grey's, is, I presume, free from some of its defects. Let the following vowels represent the numbers: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ū ù The numerical representation by consonants will not be quite so easily remembered, but will cause little trouble. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 b c d f g 1 m n p t The above consonants proceed in alphabetical order: except that h, j, q, are omitted for the sake of euphony k and s are omitted, that they may produce no confusion with c; and ris omitted, as the roughest letter. By way of experiment, suppose the dates of the following events, which occurred in close conjunction, be required: The death of Philip the destruction of Thebes by Alexander-the battles of Granicus, Issus, and Arbela. We may form the following spondaic : Philip slain-Thebes-del, Gran-def, Iss-ded, Arbel-deb. The similarity of the pronunciation in these fictitious syllables has a peculiar tendency to facilitate the memorial process. And if the chronological order be accurately preserved, as in the line before us, the facility is greatly increased, in consequence of the alphabetical arrangement: 1, f, d, b. However, it is admitted that this similarity cannot occur in dates of events very far distant in time. The fictitious terminations should occupy the whole of the last syllable, and that syllable only. In recommending, however, this system, I cannot but express my concern that so much time is spent on the date of minute events at our Universities. Surely the division of History into certain grand epochs, well established in the memory, and the reference of dates of a less important nature to those epochs, without the exact knowledge of their particular year, must answer every purpose of polite education-and must manifestly coincide with the necessity which that education imposes on us to attend not merely to the histories of Greece and Rome-and those unfortunately are too generally supposed to end with the death of Alexander and of the Cæsars-but to the extensive range of the whole of ancient and modern history. Technical memory is of considerable utility in other respects. There are many circumstances, which, offering in their nature no spontaneous assistance to the memory, leave a very slight impression, and are lost immediately. I read that Apollonius Tyaneus lived in the reign of Domitiau. A few weeks may erase this fact from my mind, if I suffer it to be presented to it without some artificial assistance. If, however, I bear in mind the similarity of sound in Tyaneus and Domitian, how difficult is it to forget the fact?-Again: the TTApòs among the Syracusians was inflicted for the space of five years. How easy is the association between the Teтaλioμòs and Tévre. If the Romans pollicem presserunt, the gladiator's life was spared; if they pollicem verterunt, it was destroyed. The pressure then of the hand preserved the life. I will admit that, if any passage, especially from poetry, can be obtained, which mentions the fact, this is a better method: and, if we cannot obtain a verse made ready at our hands, it will be useful to turn versifiers on the occasion. Even parts of verses are efficacious: and those measures should be adopted, which are most easy of impressing themselves on the mind. For this reason the hexameters and the pentameters will be usefully employed. Our blank verse is not at all fitted for this purpose: we must employ rhyme, if we use our common metres. In cases which admit of it, derivation should always be called to our aid. Attention to the nature of things will often facilitate our memorial operations. It is better to tell a boy that a spondee by its very name leads to a knowledge of it, than to tell him it is composed of two long syllables. The same thing may be said of an iamb. and of an anapest. And how much easier would boys find it to remember the quantity of a tribrach, if they would have sense enough to attend to its derivation! Instead of this they simply read that a tribrach is composed of three short syllables and in a little while they are quite at a loss to remember whether the syllables are two, three, or four. I have already spoken of committing verses to memory. How apt are boys to turn over the Gradus, and hastily look at the quantity of |