ΣΤΙΓΜΑΙ (continued 2)

Now, as to the words of Aristophanes upon which the Scholiast descants, they are these:--speaking of an apparition strangely shaped, sometimes like a camel, sometimes like an ox, a beautiful woman, a dog, &c. Bacchus replies:

Ἔμπουσα τοινὺν γ’ἐστι.

ΞΑ. πυρὶ γοῦν λάμπεται

ἅπαν το προσωπον, καὶ σκελος χαλκοῦν ἔχει.

ΔΙ. Νὴ τὸν Ποσειδῶ, καὶ βολιτινον θάτερον.

ΞΑ. Σἁφ’ ἵσθι.

The Scholiast hereupon tells us that Empusa, 418was Φαντασμα δαιμονιῶδες ὑπὸ Ἑκάτης ἐπιπεμπόμενον καὶ φαινόμενον τοἴς δυστυχοῦσιν, ὅ δοκεῖ πολλὰς μορφας αλλασσεω καὶ ὁι μεν φασιν ἀυτην μονοποδα εῖναι, καὶ ἐτυμολογοῦσιν’ ὁιονεὶ ἑνιποδα, διὰ το ἑνὶ ποδι κεχρῆσθαι. And this is all that is material in the Scholiast, except that he adds by and by, that βολιτινον σκελος is all one with the leg of an ass. And this very text and Scholiast is that to which all the authors he names, and more, do refer.

I come now to Stephen, who, in his index, and in the word ποδίζω, gives the derivation of Empusa. Ποδιζω, gradior, incedo, (not to hop) sic Suidas Ἔμπουσαν dictam ait παρὰ το ἑνὶ ποδιζειν. In the index thus: sunt qui dictam putent παρὰ τὸ ἑνὶ ποδὶζειν, quod uno incedat pedi, quasi Ἔμπουσαν, alterum enim pedem æneum habet. But neither Stephen, nor any else, except Suidas, whom the hypercritical Doctor had not seen, no, not the Scholiast of Aristophanes (a better critic than Mr. Hobbes) doth relate the etymology as their own. Nay, there is not one that saith Empusa hopped on one leg, which is to be proved out of them. The great Etymological Dictionary deriveth it παρὰπαρὰ τὸ ἐμποδιζειν, to hinder, let, &c. its apparition being a token of ill luck. But, as to the Doctor’s deduction, it saith, ἜμπουσαἜμπουσα Ψιλοῦπαι, εἰ καὶ δοκεῖ παρὰ τὸ ἕνα συγκεῖσθαι. It doth only seem so. And it is strange that ἑν should not alter only its aspiration, but change its ν into μ, which I can hardly believe admittable in Greek, least there should be no difference betwixt its derivatives and those of ἐν. When I consider the several μορμόνες which the Grecians had, some whereof did fly, some had no legs, &c.&c., I can think that the origin of this name may have been thus: some amazed person 419saw a spectrum, and, giving another notice of it, his companion might answer, it is Βριμὼ, Μορμὼ Ἡκὰτη, but he, meeting with a new phantasm, cries, ἐν ποσὶ βαίνει or βαδίζει, for which apprehension of his, somebody coined this expression of Ἔμποῦσα. It may also be possibly deduced from Ἐμποδὶζω, so that τύχη ἐμποδιζουσαἐμποδιζουσα might afterwards be reduced to the single term of Empusa. Nor do I much doubt but that those who are conversant in languages, and know how that several expressions are often jumbled together to make up one word upon such like cases, will think this a probable origination. I believe, then, that Mr. Hobbes’s friend did never tell him it was in Eustathius, or that Empusa was an hopping phantasm. It had two legs and went upon both, as a man may upon a wooden leg. ἜμποῦσαἜμποῦσα is also a name for Lamia, and such was that which Menippus might have married, which, I suppose, did neither hop nor go upon one leg, for he might have discovered it. But Mr. Hobbes did not except against the derivation, (although he might justly, derivations made afterwards carrying more of fancy than of truth, and the Doctor is not excused for asserting what others barely relate, none approve), but asked him where that is, in what authors he read that boys’ play to be so called. To which question, the Doctor, to show his reading and the good authors he is conversant in, replies, in Junius’s Nomenclator, Rider and Thomas’s Dictionary, sufficient authors in such a business, which, methinks, no man should say that were near to so copious a library. It is to be remembered that the trial now is in Westminster School, and amongst Ciceronians, neither whereof 420will allow those to be sufficient authors of any Latin word. Alas, they are but Vocabularies; and, if they bring no author for their allegation, all that may be allowed them is, that, by way of allusion, our modern play may be called Ludus Empusæ. But that it is so called we must expect, till some author do give it the name. These are so good authors, that I have not either of them in my library. But I have taken the pains to consult, first, Rider; I looked in him, (who was only author of the English Dictionary) and I could not find any such thing. It is true, in the Latin Dictionary, which is joined with Rider, but made by Holyoke; (O that the Doctor would but mark!) in the index of obsolete words, there is Ascoliasmus, Ludus Empusæ, Fox to thy hole, for which word, not signification, he quoteth Junius. The same is in Thomasius, who refers to Junius in like manner. But could the Doctor think the word obsolete, when the play is still in fashion? Or, doth he think that this play is so ancient as to have had a name so long ago, that it should now be grown obsolete? As for Junius’s interpretation of Empusa, it is this: Empusa, spectrum, quod se infelicibus ingerit, uno pede ingrediens. Had the Doctor ever read him, he would have quoted him for his derivation of Empusa, I suppose. In Ascoliasmus, he saith, Ascoliasmus, Empusæ Ludus, fit ubi, altero pede in aere librato, unico subsiliunt pede: ἀσκολιασμὸς Pollux; Almanicè, Hinckelen; Belgicè, Op een been springhen; Hinckepincken, Flandris. But what is it in English he doth not tell, although he doth so in other places often. What the Doctor can pick out of the Dutch I 421know not; but, if that do not justify him, as I think it doth not, he hath wronged Junius, and greatly imposed upon his readers.

But, to illustrate this controversy further, I cannot be persuaded the Doctor ever looked into Junius, for, if he had, I am confident, according to his wonted accurateness, he would have cited Pollux’s Onomasticon into the bargain, for Junius refers to him, and I shall set down his words, that so the reader may see what Ascoliasmus was, and all the Doctor’s authors say Ludus Empusæ and Ascoliasmus were one and the same thing. Julius Pollux (lib. ix. cap. 7): Ὁ δε Ἀσκολὶασμὸς, (old editions read it, Ἀ’σκολιασμὸς et ασκολιάζω) τοῦ ἑτέρου ποδὸς αἰωρουμένου, κατὰ μόνου τοῦ ἑτέρου πηδᾶν ἔπόιει; ὅπερ Ἀσκωλιάζὲιν ὠνόμαζον· ἤτοι εἰς μἢκος ἐνήλλαντο, ἢ ὁ μὲν ἐδίωκεν οὕτως, οἱοἱ δὲ ὑπέφευγον ἐπ’ ἀμφοῖν θὲοντες, ἕως τινὸς τῳ φερομένῳ ποδὶ ὁ διὼκων δυνηθῇ τυχεῖν· ἤ καὶ στάντες ἐπήδων, ἀριθμοῦντες τὰ πηδήματα· προσέκειτο γὰρ τῷ πλήθει τὸ νικᾶν. Ἀσκωλιάζειν δὲ ἐκαλεῖτο καὶ τὸ ἐπιπηδᾶνἐπιπηδᾶν ἀσκῷ κενῷ καὶ ὑποπλέω πνευματος, ἠλείμμένω, ἵναπερ ὀλισθάνοιεν περὶ τὴν ἀλοιφὴν. “So that Ascoliasmus, and consequently, Ludus Empusæ, was a certain sport which consisted in hopping, whether it were by striving who could hop furthest, or whether only one did pursue the rest hopping, and they fled before him on both legs, which game he was to continue till he had caught one of his fellows, or whether it did consist in the boys’ striving who could hop longest. Or, lastly, whether it did consist in hopping upon a certain bladder, which, being blown up and well oiled over, was placed upon the ground for them to hop upon, that so the unctuous bladder might slip from under them and give them a fall.” And this is all that Pollux holds forth. Now, of all these ways, there is none that hath any resemblance with our Fox to thy 422hole; but the second: and yet, in its description, there is no mention of beating him with gloves, as they do now-a-days, and wherein the play consists as well as in hopping. It might, notwithstanding, be called Ludus Empusæ, but not in any sort our Fox to thy hole; so that the Doctor and his authors are out, imposing that upon Junius and Pollux which they never said. And thus much may suffice as to this point. I shall only add out of Meursius’s Ludi Græci, that Ascolia were not Ludus Empusæ but Bacchisacra, and he quotes Aristophanes’s Scholiast in Plutus, Ἀσκώλια ἑορτὴ Διονύσου ἀσκὸν γαρ οἵνουοἵνου πληροῦντες, ἑνὶ ποδὶ τοῦτον ἐπεπήδον, καὶ ὁ πηδήσας ἆθλον εἶχε τὸν οἵνουοἵνου. As also Hesychius, ἈσκωλιάζεινἈσκωλιάζειν, κυρίως τὸ ἐπὶ τοῦς ἀσκοὺς ἅλλεσθαι.

But I could have told the Doctor where he might have read of Empusa as being the name of a certain sport or game, and that is, in Turnebus Adversaria, lib. xxvii. cap. 33. There he speaks of several games mentioned by Justinian in his Code, at the latter end of the third book, one of which he takes to be named Empusa; adding withal, that the other are games, it is indisputable, only Empusa in lite et causa erit, quod nemo nobis facile assensurus sit Ludum esse, cum constet spectrum quoddam fuisse formas, varie mutans. Sed quid vetat eo nomine Ludum fuisse? Certe ad vestigia vitiatæ Scripturæ quam proximo accedit. Yet he only is satisfied in this conjecture, till somebody else shall produce a better. And now what shall I say? Was not Turnebus as good a critic, and of as great reading as Dr. Wallis, who had read over Pollux, and yet is afraid that nobody will believe Empusa to have been a 423game, and all he allegeth for it is, quid vetat? Truly, all I shall say, and so conclude this business, is, that he had read over an infinity of books, yet, had not had the happiness, which the Doctor had, to consult with Junius’s Nomenclator, Thomasius and Rider’s Dictionary, authors sufficient in such a case.

I now come to the Doctor’s last and greatest triumph, at which I cannot but stand in admiration, when I consider he hath not got the victory. Had the Doctor been pleased to have conversed with some of the fifth form in Westminster School, (for he needed not to have troubled the learned master), he might have been better informed than to have exposed himself thus.

Mr. Hobbes had said that στιγμὴ signified a mark with a hot iron; upon which saying the Doctor is pleased to play the droll thus: “Prithee tell me, good Thomas, before we leave this point, (O the wit of a divinity doctor!) who it was told thee that στιγμὴ was a mark with an hot iron, for it is a notion I never heard till now, and do not believe it yet. Never believe him again that told thee that lie, for as sure as can be, he did it to abuse thee; ϛιγμὴ signifies a distinctive point in writing, made with a pen or quill, not a mark made with a hot iron, such as they brand rogues withal; and, accordingly, ϛιζω δῖαϛιζω, distinguo, interstinguo, are often so used. It is also used of a mathematical point, or somewhat else that is very small, στιγμὴ χρὸνου, a moment, or the like. What should come in your cap, to make you think that ϛῖγμὴ signifies a mark or brand with a hot iron? I perceive where the business lies; it was ϛίγμα ran in 424your mind when you talked of ϛιγμὴ, and, because the words are somewhat alike, you jumbled them both together, according to your usual care and accurateness, as if they had been the same.”

When I read this I cannot but be astonished at the Doctor’s confidence, and applaud him who said, ἀμάθεια θάρσὸς φέρει. That the Doctor should never hear that ϛιγμὴ signifies a mark with a hot iron, is a manifest argument of his ignorance. But, that he should advise Mr. Hobbes not to believe his own readings, or any man’s else that should tell him it did signify any such thing, is a piece of notorious impudence. That ϛιγμὴ signifies a distinctive point in writing made with a pen or quill, (is a pen one thing and a quill another to write with?) nobody denies. But, it must be withal acknowledged it signifies many things else. I know the Doctor is a good historian, else he should not presume to object the want of history to another; let him tell us how long ago it is since men have made use of pens or quills in writing; for, if that invention be of no long standing, this signification must also be such, and so it could not be that from any allusion thereunto the mathematicians used it for a point. Another thing I would fain know of this great historian, how long ago ϛίζω and διαϛίζω began to signify interpungo? For, if the mathematics were studied before the mystery of printing was found out, (as shall be proved whenever it shall please the Doctor, out of his no reading, to maintain the contrary), then the mathematical use thereof should have been named before the grammatical. And, if this word be translatitious, and that sciences were the effect of long contemplation, 425the names used wherein are borrowed from talk, Mr. Hobbes did well to say, that στιγμὴ precedaneously to that indivisible signification which it afterwards had, did signify a visible mark made by a hot iron, or the like. And, in this procedure, he did no more than any man would have done, who considers that all our knowledge proceeds from our senses; as also that words do, primarily, signify things obvious to sense, and only secondarily, such as men call incorporeal. This leads me to a further consideration of this word. Hesychius, (of whom it is said that he is Legendus non tanquam Lexicographus, sed tanquam justus author), interprets στιγμὴ, νυγμή, which is a point of a greater or lesser size, made with any thing. So ϛίζω signifies to prick or mark with anything in any manner, and hath no impropriated signification in itself, but according to the writer that useth it. Thus, in a grammarian ϛίζω signifies to distinguish, by pointing often; sometimes, even in them, it is the same with ὀβελίζω; sometimes it signifies to set a mark that something is wanting in that place, which marks were called ϛιγμαί. In matters of policy, ϛίζω signifies to disallow, because they used to put a ϛιγμὴ (not ϛίγμα) before his name who was either disapproved or to be mulcted. In punishment it signifies to mark or brand, whereof I cannot at present remember any other ways than that of an hot iron, which is most usual in authors, because most practised by the ancients. But, that the mark which the Turks and others do imprint without burning may be said ϛίζεσθαι, I do not doubt, no more than that Herodian did to give that term to the ancient Britons, of whom he says, τὰ σώματα 426ἐϛίζοντο γραφαῖς ποικίλαις, καὶ ζώων παντοδαπῶν εἰκόσιεἰκόσι. Thus, horses that were branded with κάππα and σαν (κοππἀτιαι and σαμφοραι) were said ϛίζεσθαι. Thus, in its origin, ϛιγμὴ doth signify a brand or mark with an hot iron, or the like; and that must be the proper signification of στιγμὴ, which is proper to ϛίζω, none but such as Dr. Wallis can doubt. In its descendants it is no less evident, for, from στιγμὴ comes stigmosus, which signifies to be branded; Vitelliana cicatrice stigmosus, not stigmatosus. So Pliny in his Epistles, as Robert Stephen cites it. And στιγματιας (the derivative of στιγμὴ, which signifies any mark, as well as a brand, even such as remain after stripes, being black and blue), was a nickname imposed upon the grammarian Nicanor, ὅτι περὶ στιγμῶν ἐπολυλόγησε. And, though we had not any examples of στῖγμὴ being used in this sense, yet, from thence, for any man to argue against it, (but he who knows no more than Stephen tells him) is madness, unless he will deny that any word hath lost its right signification, and is used only, by the authors we have, although neither the Doctor nor I have read all them, in its analogical signification. I have always been of opinion, that στιγμὴ signified a single point, big or little, it matters not; and στίγμα, a composure of many; as γραμμὴ signifies a line, and γράμμα a letter, made of several lines. For στίγμα signified the owl, the sæmæna, the letter K, yea, whole words, lines, epigrams engraven in men’s faces; and στιγμὴ, I doubt not, had signified a single point, had such been used, and so it became translatitiously used by grammarians and mathematicians. I could give grounds for this conjecture, 427and not be so impertinent as the Doctor in his sermon, where he told men that σοφός was not in Homer; that from ἄφρων came ebrius; that sobrietas was not bad Latin, and that sobrius was once, as I remember, in Tully. Is this to speak suitably to the oracles of God, or rather to lash out into idle words? Hath the Doctor any ground to think these are not impertinences? Or, are we, poor mortals, accountable for such idle words as fall from us in private discourses, whilst these ambassadors from heaven droll in the pulpit without any danger of an after-reckoning?

But I proceed to a further survey of the Doctor’s intolerable ignorance. His charge in the end of the school-master’s rant is, that he should remember στίγμα and στιγμὴ are not all one. I complained before that he hath not cited Robert Stephen aright; now I must tell him he hath been negligent in the reading of Henry Stephen: for in him he might have found that στίγμα was sometimes all one with στιγμὴ, though there be no example in him wherein στιγμὴ is used for στίγμα. Hath not Hesiod, (as Stephen rightly citeth it), in his Scutum, 166-67.

Στἴγματα δ’ ὥς ἐπέφαντο ἴδεῖν δεινοῖσι δράκουσι

Κυανέα κατὰ νῶτα

ubi scholiastes ὥσπερ δὲ στιγμαὶ ἦσαν ἐπάνω, τῶν ῥάχεων τῶν δρακόντων, κατάστίκτοι γὰρ καὶ ποικίλοι ὁι ὄφεις. So Johannes Diaconus upon the place, a man who (if I may use the Doctor’s phrase) was as good a critic as the Geometry Professor.

Thus much for the Doctor. To the understanding reader, I say that στιγμὴ is used for burning with a 428hot iron: 2 Macchab. ix. 11, where speaking of Antiochus’s lamentable death, his body putrefying and breeding worms, he is said, ἐις ετίγνωσιν τοῦ θεοῦ ἔρχεθαι θείᾳ μάστιγι, κατα στιγμὴν ἐπιτεινόμενος ταῖς ἀλγηδόσι; being pained as if he had been pricked or burned with hot irons. And that this is the meaning of that elegant writer, shall be made good against the Doctor, when he shall please to defend the vulgar interpretation. Pausanias, in Bœoticis, speaking of Epaminondas, who had taken a town belonging to the Sicyonians, called Phœbia (Φουβία) wherein were many Bœotian fugitives, who ought, by law, to have been put to death, saith he dismissed them under other names, giving them only a brand or mark. Πόλισμα ἑλὼν Σικυωνἰων Φουβίαν, ἔνθὰ ἦσαν το πολὺ οἱ Βοιώτιοι φυγάδες, στιγμήν ἀφίησι τοῦς ἐγκαταληφθέντας ἄλλην σφίσιν ἣν ετυχε πατρίδα ἐπονομάζων ἐκάστω. It is true στιγμὴν is here put adverbially, but that doth not alter the case. Again, Zonaras, in the third tome of his History, in the life of the Emperor Theophilus, saith, that when Theophanes and another monk had reproved the said emperor for demolishing images, he took and stigmatized each of them with twelve iambics in their faces: εἶτα καὶ τὰς ὄψεις ἀυτῶν κάτεστιξε καὶ ταῖς στιγμαῖς μέλαν ἐπέχεε γράμματα δὲ ἐτύπουν τὰ στιγματα, τὰ δὲ ἦσαν ἴαμβοι οὗτοι. A place so evident, that I know not what the Doctor can reply. This place is just parallel to what the same author saith in the life of Irene, τἀς ὄψέις σφών καταστιξας ἐν γράμμασι, μέλανος εγχεομένου τοῖς στίγμασι. If the Doctor object that he is a modern author, he will never be able to render him as inconsiderable as Adrianus Junius’s Nomenclator, Thomasius and Rider. If any will 429deny that he writes good Greek, Hieronymus Wolfius will tell them, his only fault is περισσολογια, redundancy in words, and not the use of bad ones.

Another example of στιγμὴ used in this sense, is in the collections out of Diodorus Siculus, lib. xxxiv. as they are to be found at the end of his works, and as Photius hath transcribed them into his Bibliotheca. He saith that the Romans did buy multitudes of servants and employ them in Sicily: Οἷς, ἐκ τῶν σωματοτροφείων ἀγεληδὸν απαχθεῖσιν, ἐυθύς χαρακτῆρα ἐπέβαλλον, καὶ στιγμὰς τοἴς σώμασιν. These are the words but of one author, but ought to pass for the judgment of two, seeing Photius, by inserting them, hath made them his own.

Besides, it is the judgment of a great master of the Greek tongue, that stigmata non tam puncta ipsa quam punctis variatam superficiem Græci vocaverunt. I need not, I suppose, name him, so great a critic as the Doctor cannot be ignorant of him.

Nor, were στίγματα commonly, but upon extraordinary occasions, imprinted with an hot iron. The letters were first made by incision, then the blood pressed, and the place filled up with ink, the composition whereof is to be seen in Aetius. And thus they did use to matriculate soldiers also in the hand. Thus, did the Grecian emperor, in the precedent example of Zonaras. And if the Doctor would more, let him repair to Vinetus’s comment upon the fifteenth Epigram of Ausonius.

And now I conceive enough hath been said to vindicate Mr. Hobbes, and to show the insufferable ignorance of the puny professor, and unlearned 430critic. If any more shall be thought necessary, I shall take the pains to collect more examples and authorities, though I confess I had rather spend time otherwise, than in matter of so little moment. As for some other passages in his book, I am no competent judge of symbolic stenography. The Doctor (Sir Reverence) might have used a cleanlier expression than that of a shitten piece, when he censures Mr. Hobbes’s book.

Hitherto the letter.^[1] By which you may see what came into my (not square) cap to call στιγμὴ a mark with a hot iron, and that they who told me that, did no more tell me a lie than they told you a lie that said the same of στίγμα; and, if στιγμὴ be not right as I use it now, then call these notes not στιγρας, but στίγματα. I will not contend with you for a trifle. For, howsoever you call them, you are like to be known by them. Sir, the calling of a divine hath justly taken from you some time that might have been employed in geometry. The study of algebra hath taken from you another part, for algebra and geometry are not all one; and you have cast away much time in practising and trusting to symbolical writings; and for the authors of geometry you have read, you have not examined their demonstrations to the bottom. Therefore, you perhaps may be, but are not yet, a geometrician, much less a good divine. I would you had but so much ethics as to be civil. But you are a notable critic; so fare you well, and consider 431what honour you do, either to the University where you are received for professor, or to the University from whence you came thither, by your geometry; and what honour you do to Emanuel College by your divinity; and what honour you do to the degree of Doctor, with the manner of your language. And take the counsel which you publish out of your encomiast his letter; think me no more worthy of your pains, you see how I have fouled your fingers.

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