Notes.

DR. WHICHCOTE, MICHAEL AYNSWORTH, AND LORD SHAFTESBURY.

Not less remarkable and interesting than the publication of Dr. Whichcote's Sermons by the noble author of the Characteristics, is a posthumous volume (though never designed for the press) under the following title:—

"Several Letters written by a Noble Lord to a Young Man at the University.

"Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu.—Hor. Epist. ii. 1.

"Printed for J. Roberts, near the Oxford Arms, in Warwick Lane, 1716. 8vo."

The young man was Michael Aynsworth, of University College, Oxford, afterwards vicar of Cornhampton, in Hampshire, and master of the Free School there. He was a native of Dorsetshire; his father, who was in narrow circumstances, living near Wimborne St. Giles's, the seat of Lord Shaftesbury, by whom the son seems to have been nobly patronised, on account of his inclination to learning and virtuous disposition.

The published letters are only ten in number; but I have an accurate manuscript transcript of fifteen, made from the originals by R. Flexman (who had been a pupil of Aynsworth) in 1768. The transcriber's account is as follows:—

"After Mr. Aynsworth's death, these letters remained in the possession of his daughter, and at her decease passed into the the hands of the Rev. Mr. Upton, the then vicar of Cornhampton; by him they were lent to my brother John Baker, of Grove Place, in Hampshire, who lent them to me. It will be perceived that the ten printed letters are not given as they were written, every thing of a private nature being omitted, and passages only given of other letters, just as the editor judged proper."

R. Flexman has made some remarks illustrative of the letters at the end of his transcript, and added some particulars relating to Lord Shaftesbury. He justly says,—

"I think these letters will show his lordship in a more favourable light with respect to the Christian religion than his Characteristics, which, though they may be condemned on that account, will ever remain a lasting monument of the genius of the noble writer. It is certain, too, the friends of Christianity are obliged to him for the publication of one of the best volumes of sermons that ever appeared in the English language. They are twelve in number, by Dr. Benjamin Whichcote. These sermons (as well as the preface, which is admirable) breathe such a noble spirit of Christianity, as I think will efface every notion that his lordship was an enemy to the Christian religion. In this preface he calls Dr. Whichcote (from his pleading in defence of natural goodness) the 'preacher of good nature.'"

What follows will, I think, be acceptable to your correspondents C H. and C. R. S.

"I have heard that the way in which Lord Shaftesbury got possession of the manuscript sermons was this:—Going one day to visit his grandmother, the Countess Dowager, widow of the first Earl, he found her reading a manuscript; on inquiring what she was reading, she replied, that it was a sermon. His lordship expressed his surprise that she should take so much trouble as to read a manuscript sermon when there were such numbers in print. She said, she could find none so good as those she had in manuscript. Lord Shaftesbury then requested the favour of being allowed to peruse it, and having done so, he inquired of the Countess if she had any more, as he should like to read them all if she had. Having received and read them, he was so much pleased, that he resolved to print them; and having them prepared for the press, he published them with a preface recommending the sermons and highly praising the author."

It appears that the sermons were prepared for the press, at Lord Shaftesbury's instance, by the Rev. William Stephens, rector of Sutton, in Surrey; but the fact of the preface being by himself rests on the undoubted evidence of his sister, Lady Betty Harris (wife of James Harris of Salisbury, the author of Hermes), who mentioned having written it from her brother's dictation, he being at that time too ill to write himself.

The letters to Michael Aynsworth are very interesting, from their benevolent, earnest, and truly pious spirit, and might even now be read with advantage by a young student of theology: but, being very severe in many places upon the greater part of the body of the clergy called the Church of England, could have been by no means palatable to the High Church party,—

"Who no more esteem themselves a Protestant Church, or in union with those of Protestant communion, though they pretend to the name of Christian, and would have us judge of the spirit of Christianity from theirs; which God prevent! lest men should in time forsake Christianity through their means."

The eleventh letter in the MS. is important on account of the observations it contains on the consequences which must inevitably arise from Locke's doctrine respecting innate ideas. Locke had been tutor both to Lord Shaftesbury and his father:—

"Mr. Locke, much as I honour him, and well as I know him, and can answer for his sincerity as a most zealous Christian believer, has espoused those principles which Mr. Hobbes set on foot in the last century, and has been followed by the Tindals and all the other free authors of our time. 'Twas Mr. Locke that struck the home blow, (for Hobbes' character and base slavish principles of government took off the poison of his philosophy), struck at all fundamentals, threw all order and virtue out of the world, and made the very ideas of these (which are the same as those of God), unnatural and without foundation in our minds."

It is remarkable that the volume of Whichcote's Sermons printed by Lord Shaftesbury should have been republished at Edinburgh in 1742, with a recommendatory epistle, by a Presbyterian divine, Dr. Wishart, principal of the College of Edinburgh. In the very neat reprint of the collected sermons given by Dr. Campbell and Dr. Gerard, in 4 vols., 8vo., Aberdeen, 1751, prefixed to the third volume, we also find Lord Shaftesbury's preface.

S. W. Singer.

Mickleham, June 4. 1850.

THE REBEL.

Sir,—The printed copy of a song which I inclose is believed, by those who are the best judges, to be the only copy, either printed or in manuscript, now in existence. That circumstance may, perhaps, render it acceptable to you: and I am not collector of curiosities, and I beg you would do what you please with it. The verses are plainly more modern than the motto: for there are, I think, two allusions to different plays of the immortal bard of Stratford-on-Avon. But perhaps you will think that he copied from it, as it is said he sometimes did from things not so good as his own. I do not believe, for my own part, that it was written till after the Great Rebellion. Bishop Christopherson, I take it, was a Roman Catholic, but resident in England, and we see that he wrote in English. The paper, you will observe, is foreign by the texture, as well as by the water-mark, which I cannot very well make out; but it seems to be a bust of somebody; while the type looks quite English, and therefore it is no proof that it was printed abroad.

As I give you my real name, I hope you will not consider me as holding, or wishing to recommend, such opinions as are contained in the verses: and by way of protest, you will allow me to subscribe myself, your obedient servant,

Pacificus.

The Rebel.

"A New Song, or Balade, shewing the naughty conceits of Traytours; that all loial and true-hearted men may know and eschew the same.

"They counte Peace to be cause of ydelnes, and that it maketh men hodipekes and cowardes."—Bp. Christopherson, Exh. ag. Rebel. 1554.

"Printed with Permission of Superiours: And are to be had of the Printer, at his House hard by the sign of the Squirrel, over-against the way that leadeth to the Quay."

P.S. Query, What is a "hodipeke?" Is it a "hypocrite?" and should not "Phæbus," in the fourth verse, be "Phœbus?"

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.

The earliest mention of the hippopotamus is in Herodotus, who in ii. 71. gives a detailed description of this inhabitant of the Nile. He is stated by Porphyry to have borrowed this description from his predecessor Hecatæus (Frag. 292. ap. Hist. Gr. Fragm., vol. i. ed. Didot). Herodotus, however, had doubtless obtained his account of the hippopotamus during his visit to Egypt. Cuvier (Trad. de Pline, par Grandsagne, tom. vi. p. 444.) remarks that the description is only accurate as to the teeth and the skin; but that it is erroneous as to the size, the feet, the tail and mane, and the nose. He wonders, therefore, that it should have been repeated, with few corrections or additions, by Aristotle (Hist. An., ii. 1. and 7.; viii. 24.) and Diodorus (i. 35.). Compare Camus, Notes sur l'Histoire des Animaux d'Aristote, p. 418.

None of the Greek writers appear to have seen a live hippopotamus; nor is there any account of a live animal of this species having been brought to Greece, like the live tiger which Seleucus sent to Athens. According to Pliny (H. N., viii. 40.) and Ammianus Marcellinus (xxii. 15.), the Romans first saw this animal in the celebrated edileship of Æmilius Scaurus, 58 B.C., when a hippopotamus and five crocodiles were exhibited at the games, in a temporary canal. Dio Cassius, however, states that Augustus Cæsar first exhibited a rhinoceros and a hippopotamus to the Roman people in the year 29 B.C. (li. 22.) Some crocodiles and hippopotami, together with other exotic animals, were afterwards exhibited in the games at Rome in the time of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-80. See Jul. Capitolin. in Anton. Pio, c. 10.) and Commodus, against his various exploits of animal warfare in the amphitheatre, slew as many as five hippopotami (A.D. 180-92. See Dio Cass. lxxii. 10. and 19.; and Gibbon, c. 4.). Firmus, an Egyptian pretender to the empire in the time of Aurelian, 273 A.D., once rode on the back of a hippopotamus (Flav. Vopiscus, in Firmo, c. 6.): but this feat was probably performed at Alexandria.

The hippopotamus being an inhabitant of the Upper Nile, was imperfectly known to the ancients. Fabulous anecdotes of its habits are recounted by Pliny, H. N., viii. 39, 40., and by Ælian, De Nat. An., v. 53. vii. 19. Achilles Tatius, who wrote as late as the latter half of the fifth century of our era, says that it breathes fire and smoke (iv. 2.); while Damascius, who was nearly his contemporary says that the hippopotamus is an unjust animal, and represents Injustice in the hieroglyphic writing; because it first kills its father and then violates its mother (ap. Phot. Bibl. cod. 242., p. 322., b. 36. ed. Bekker.).

Strabo (xv. 1.) and Arrian (Ind., c. 6.) say that the products of the Indian rivers are similar to those of Ethiopia and Egypt, with the exception of the hippopotamus. They add, however, that according to Onesicritus, even this exception did not exist: for that the hippopotamus was found in the rivers of India. The report of Onesicritus was doubtless erroneous.

Herodotus, Aristotle, and the other Greek writers constantly call this animal ἵπποϛ ποτάμιοϛ. The Latin writers use the improper compound hippo-potamus; which, according to the ordinary rule of Greek composition, means, not a river-horse, but a horse-river. The only Greek writer in whom I have found the compound word ἱπποπόταμοϛ is Damascius, who wrote in the sixth century. Achilles Tatius, who lived about the same time, calls the animal ἵπποϛ του Νείλου which is, he says, its Egyptian name. It seems probable that the word hippopotamus is a Roman corruption of the Greek substantive and adjective, and is not a proper Greek word. Why this animal was called a horse is not evident. In shape and appearance it resembles a gigantic hog. Buffon says that its name was derived from its neighing like a horse (Quad., tom. v., p. 165.). But query whether this is the fact?

Bochart (Hierozoicon, P. ii., lib. v., c. 15, 16.) identifies the "behemoth" of Job (c. 40.) with the hippopotamus, and the "leviathan" with the crocodile. This view seems to be generally adopted by modern commentators. (See Winer, Bibl. Real-Wörterbuch, art. "Nilpferd.")

A Historia Hippopotami veterum Critica, by J. G. Schneider, is appended to his edition of Artedi Synonymia Piscium, p. 247.

The accounts of the hippopotamus since the revival of letters, beginning with that published by Federigo Zerenghi, a Neapolitan surgeon, in 1603 (see Buffon), appear to have been all derived from dead specimens, or from the reports of travellers in Africa. Query, Has there been a live hippopotamus in Europe since the reign of Commodus, with the exception of the young animal now in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park?

L.