The improper application I consider to be an afterthought; for, though the public may give an individual an offensive patronymic, they cannot oblige himself or family to adopt it. I think JACK does not begin at the beginning; that is, at the derivation and original meaning of the word. I have seen in some author that Cock in its original language designates a hillock. Thus Harcock, is a hillock made of hay. Cockburn, will be the burn by the hillock; Cockcroft, the croft by the hillock; Cockham, the hamlet by the hillock. So of Cockfield, Cocktree, Cocklea or Cockley, Cockville, Cocksedge, Cockhall, Cockwell, Cockshaw, Cockwood. Akercock is the name of a devil in one of our old plays. Some of the oddest names of this genus are, Benhacock, Raincock, Sandercock, and Woolcock. evidently applies to what is pointed upwards as a Hillock or Haycock, a Cocked-hat, Cock-boat, Cocked-nose; also something elevated, as Cock-loft, Weather-cock. It is also applied to the male bird. Cock That the word has been improperly applied by the vulgar, I admit, and consequently a Brass-cock is now called a Tap; and Cockburn will become Coburn; Slocock become Slo cot; Cocks, Cox; and a family of Bullcocks, which I was acquainted with, are now Belcombes. G. T. L. L. MR. URBAN, July 15. HAVING seen in one of your late numbers quotations from Chapman's and Pope's Homer, I beg to call your attention to the very spirited translation of the Hymn to Hermes by Shelley, which is little known, being only in a volume (now scarce) of his Posthumous Works. I would also trespass on your time with the following remarks on this Hymn, which appears to me to be attributed to Homer on very slight grounds, while, from internal evidence, we can scarcely allow it to be by the author of the Iliad and Odyssey. The rising and setting of the Sun, which are in these two poems so frequently described, and almost always in nearly the same phrases, are very differently introduced in the Hymn. The Sun-rise : ορφναίη δ ̓ ἐπίκουρος ἐπαύετο δαιμονίη νυξ ἡ πλείων, τάχα δ ̓ ὀρθρὸς ἐγίγνετο δημιουργός. 1. 97. Morning here comes on in sobersuited grey, rather as the banisher of night, than as Aurora pododáкTuλoswhich epithet, rarely omitted in a sunrise of the Iliad or Odyssey, is not used in the Hymn. And the Sunset, ἠέλιος μὲν ἔδυνε κατὰ χθονὸς Οκεανόν δε αὐτοῖσιν θ ̓ ἵπποισι καὶ ἅρμασιν 1.68. is different from any of those in the two other poems. Again, the Moon never is introduced in the Iliad or Odyssey, as -δία Σελήνη Πάλλαντος θυγάτηρ, Μεγαμηδείας ἄνακτος. 1. 99. While in the frequent sacrifices which occur in the two Epics the victims are never ἀμφοτέρας δ ̓ ἐπὶ νῶτα χαμαὶ βάλε φυ σιώσας ANCIENT TOMB IN ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL. THE very ancient tomb which is represented in this engraving was found in the year 1833, when the rubbish was cleared from that part of the crypt of Rochester Cathedral which is under St. William's Chapel. It remained upon the coffin of which it was the sculptured lid; and the coffin was found to contain a skeleton; its length is 5 feet 10 in. and its breadth, at the widest end, 2 ft. 14 in., and at the feet 1 ft. 8 in. The circular cavity is supposed to have been made to accommodate it to a pillar of the crypt. It rises in the fashion which has been called the dos d'âne, but which originated in the practice of making the roofs of the dwellings of the dead resemble in miniature those of the houses of the living. The peculiar elegance of the carving has induced us to engrave the present specimen. The pattern consists of two pastoral crooks, meeting at their heads, and budding and flowering like Aaron's rod. Its age is probably early in the thirteenth century. AND CALEDONIA VINDICATED. Hume. "The Masters," says Gibbon, "of the fairest and most wealthy climates of the globe turned with contempt from gloomy hills assailed by the winter tempest, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of the forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians."2 The gravest philosopher may well relax his muscles into a smile, when he finds that one of the main props, upon which the last historian leans his solid argument and legitimate conclu 1 Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. i. The historian forgets one of Cicero's golden maxims,-"Exponere simpliciter, sine ullâ exornatione:" and Quintilian truly states the result,-"Si oratio perderet gratiam simplicis et inaffectati coloris, perderet et fidem." ? Hume's Hist, of England, chap. i. sion, is no other than-Ossian! By comparing closely the above extracts, any reader may note how very mate. rially is Gibbon indebted to Hume for much more than his mere sceptical metaphysics. As Hume filched his grandest philosophical argument from one of the provosts of my native university, so his literary offspring, the historian of the Roman Empire, imbibed, like Paley himself, many of Hume's notions, and insensibly glided into the suspicious custom of transcribing, as in this instance, even his very words. Gibbon is known to have lauded Hume's writings for containing "careless, inimitable beauties;" nor do his affection and admiration seem here to forsake him. We are disposed to conjecture that Gibbon, in penning the above passage, had Hume's history nearer his elbow than "the original records, both Greek and Latin, from Dion Cassius to Ammianus Marcellinus," this being the historic range which he professed to wander over, as preparatory to the composition of his "Decline and Fall." Davies, who discharged a powerful double battery against Gibbon's history on account of his "mis. representations, inaccuracies, and plagiarism," might most justly have added this to the number. Davies need not have gone further than Dion Cassius, one of the historians whom Gibbon professed to read "with pen always in hand." Now Dion Cassius, in his Roman History, expressly states that Severus, in penetrating the region of the Caledonians, is said to have lost no less than "fifty thousand men." With this fact before us, we may most safely apply both to Hume's and Gibbon's expressions of "contempt," so flippantly flung at the brave Caledonians, the language which our great Lexicographer used in his biographical sketch of Butler, when reviewing the ridiculous plight in which Hudibras is introduced by the Poet. The reader may vary the language to suit the differences of circumstances. "It is not easy to say," says Johnson, "why Hudibras' weapons should be represented as ridiculous or useless; for whatever judgment might be passed upon the knowledge or arguments of the Presbyterians, experience had sufficiently shown that their swords were not to be despised.” " All history most assuredly proves that the swords of the ancient North Britons were very far from being treated by their foes with the contempt so unsparingly inflicted upon them by our two Historians; and it might with as much truth be said of their indomitable bravery, as the lyric poet sang of the ancient Germans "Devota morti pectora liberæ." In this case it will be found that the Muses, notwithstanding their imaginative propensities, observe the severe laws of historic truth far more strictly than our Historians, who seem here totally to forget the motto, which ought to have been emblazoned unceasingly on their banners-"Ne quid Falsi dicere audeat, ne quid Veri non audeat :"9 for Buchanan in his Sylvæ, and Burns in his celebrated song, have with all the unblemished purity of historic fidelity, embalmed the unviolated independence of their native shores. But it is most strange that the stupendous fortifications, &c. successively erected by Agricola, Adrian, and Severus, and by them 3 Dr. Parr has noticed this very circumstance. In the "Bibliotheca Parriana," is preserved the following comment of the Doctor:-" In chap. iv. p. 25, of the Procedure," there is an anticipation of Hume about cause and effect." The "Procedure" was written by Peter Browne, who was provost of the University of Dublin, and died Bishop of Cork. 4 Gibbon's Memoirs. The first attack was entitled "An examination of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth chapters of Mr. Gibbon's History, in which his view of the progress of the Christian Religion is shown to be founded on the misrepresentation of the authors he cites; and numerous instances of his inaccuracy and plagiarism are produced." The second attack was a "Reply to Mr. Gibbon's Vindication, with further instances of misrepresentation, inaccuracy, and plagiarism." 6 Dionis. Cassii, Historia Rom. lib. 76,-Пevre μvpiadas óλas. 7 Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, in Life of Butler. 8 Horat. Od. xiv. car. 18. 9 Cicero, de Orat. lib. ii. GENT. MAG. VOL. VIII. 2 K deemed so indispensable as a barrier against the incursions of the brave Caledonians, did not most effectually extinguish every vestige of contempt lurking in the mind of Gibbon and Hume. The prodigious work of Severus is too well known to require any description. Severus did not consider that the peace he had just been able to ratify, was by any means protection enough for the Romans against their northern neighbours, for he eagerly embraced the opportunity of establishing a seemingly impregnable and almost eternal barrier. What strange "contempt" Severus, to be sure, must have entertained for "the native barbarous Caledonians," when he opposed to them in this wonderful work 18 Stationes, 81 Castella, and 324 Turres; and a Roman historian 10 says that the work extended in length to 80 miles, whilst 10,000 men were constantly employed to garrison this great fortification when completed! To the north of this formidable position the Romans occupied only Valentia, which comprehended but five tribes, known by the name of Mæatæ, so that almost all that extensive district which was north of the Vallum Antonini, or the line connecting the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde, which in fact is almost the whole of the present Scotland, invincibly maintained its uninterrupted independence against the repeated attacks of the vast and victorious and incomparably disciplined armies of the whole empire, at a time too when they were commanded by the most warlike and successful generals, amongst whom Severus himself stood pre-eminently foremost. Thus the Caledonians were, as Dalrymple says of the Highlanders, "untouched by the Roman invasions on the south :"1 and hence the aspersions of both Gibbon and Hume may surely be treated with the same "contempt" which they aimed at the Caledonians. We cannot more suitably conclude our present observations than by adducing the authority of Tertullian, who, whilst his own historic assertion is corroborated, confirms likewise the above. We have peculiar pleasure in being able on such an occasion to bring forward the testimony of so eminently powerful an apologist of Christianity. Hume and Gibbon did what they could to throw " contempt" also upon the holy cause in which Tertullian was involved. An important branch of evidence for that cause this ancient Father here establishes, and likewise collaterally verifies our own statements. If Gibbon were now amongst us, he could not well endure that the Christian lips of Tertullian should be selected to expose his blundering; for nothing is more plain than that the Historian throughout his History, but most especially in his fifteenth chapter, levelled his most artful and insidious attacks at this great champion of divine truth. "Those parts of Britain," says Tertullian, "which were unconquerable and unapproachable by the Roman armies, submitted their necks to the yoke of Christ." 12 And to this we may very appropriately subjoin the earlier, and somewhat similar testimony of St. Clemens," The nations beyond the ocean were governed by the precepts of the Lord." 13 Yours, &c. BALLOONS AND PARACHUTES. IT was said by Horace, nearly two thousand years ago, that the man who first committed his fragile bark to the tempestuous waves of the ocean, must WILLIAM BAILEY. have possessed a soul firmer than the But what would this great moralist solid oak or triple brass : 10 Spartianus, in vitá Severi, lib. xviii. chap. 22. Sir John Dalrymple's "Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland," Part ii. Book 2. 12 Tertull. Adv. Jud. chap. vii. 13 Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Cor. § 20. have said, had he seen the adventurous spirits of modern times boldly cleaving the liquid air, and soaring far above the clouds, in a fragile car sustained by a few hundred yards of equally fragile silk, liable at every moment to be shivered into a thousand pieces by the surrounding elements?-what, moreover, would he have said, had he seen the same individuals, not only soaring into the realms of air, and passing to other continents, but even adventurously cutting away the very support which preserved them from destruction, and trusting themselves to a fragile basket, merely sustained by a superimpend ing roof-like thing called a para chute? It is evident that the ancients had no conception of the science or principles of aerostation; for the wings of Daedalus and Icarus are supposed to have been the white sails of their adventurous skiffs. Experiments so daring never entered the minds of their philosophers or poets. A discovery so important was reserved for modern times, when the united agencies of pneumatics and chemistry were called into operation to an extent entirely unknown to the classical ancients. As far as authentic history will enable us to trace the subject with certainty, Roger Bacon may be said to be the first who conceived the idea of rising in the air, supported by exhausted balls of thin copper; but he was evidently ignorant of the property which light air possesses of being endowed with as great a force as common air. It appears that Dr. Black of Edinburgh, was the first person who is known to have suggested the possibility of inclosing inflammable air, so as to render it capable of raising a vessel into the atmosphere. This fact was demonstrated in a series of lectures delivered by him in the years 1767 and 1768. In 1772, some other experiments were made upon the subject by Mr. Cavallo; but after trying bladders and other substances, he was unable to retain the air in any material light enough for the purpose. In the same year Stephen and John Montgolfier, paper manufacturers of Annonay near Lyons, filled a silken bag rarefied by burning paper, which rose to the height of seventy feet in the open air. Several experiments were then made by these bags, which from their increased size assumed somewhat of the form, in a diminutive shape, of our balloons. One of these balloons was about thirteen feet in diameter, and rose to the height of three thousand feet in two minutes. In 1773, M. Pilatre de Rozier, who subsequently lost his life, rose from the gardens of the Fauxbourg St. Antoine at Paris, in a species of wicker basket about three feet broad, attached to an oval-shaped balloon of seventyfour by forty-eight, which had been made by Montgolfier. With this was carried up a species of grate for the purpose of continuing at pleasure the inflation of the balloon by a fire of wool and straw. The weight of this machine was 1600 pounds. On the first attempt, it was not permitted to rise higher than eighty-four feet. On the second attempt, however, when M. Giraud de Vilette ascended with the inventor, the machine rose to the height of 332 feet. It was only prevented from ascending higher by the ropes which held it to the earth. At length the daring experiment was undertaken of trusting the balloon to the regions of aerial space. Encouraged by previous success, M. Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes first trusted a balloon to the elements, and after rising to the height of 3000 feet, they descended about five miles from the The danger place of their ascent. experienced by these gentlemen, from the lower part of the balloon having several times caught fire, which, however, was extinguished by means of a wet sponge, gave rise to the invention of inflammable air, which, owing to its small specific gravity, was found both more safe, manageable, and capable of performing longer voyages, as it does not require to be supplied with fuel like the others. About this time Count Zambeccari sent up from the Artillery Ground, in London, a small gilt balloon, filled with inflammable air, which in two hours and a half reached a spot near Petworth, in Sussex, and would not then have fallen, had it not burst. The discovery was now near as com plete as in its present state. Inflam |