other music to be heard but doleful knells, nor no other wares to be born up and down but dead corpses; it will change mansion houses into pest-houses, and gather congregations rather into churchyards than churches.... The markets will be so empty, that scarce necessaries will be brought in, a new kind of brewers will set up, even apothecaries to prepare diet drinks."—P. 255.

The early Quakers, like most other religious enthusiasts, claimed the gift of prophecy: and we are indebted to members of the sect for many contributions to this branch of literature. Humphrey Smith was one of the most celebrated of the vaticinating Quakers. Little is known of his life and career. He appears to have joined the Quakers about 1654; and after enduring a long series of persecutions and imprisonments for the sake of his adopted creed, finally ended his days in Winchester gaol in 1662. The following passage, from a Vision which he saw concerning London (London, 1660). is startling^[4]:

"And as for the city, herself and her suburbs, and all that belonged to her, a fire was kindled therin; but she knew not how, even in all her goodly places, and the kindling of it was in the foundation of all her buildings, and there was none could quench it.... And the burning thereof was exceeding great, and it burned inward in a hidden manner which cannot be described.... All the tall buildings fell, and it consumed all the lofty things therein, and the fire searched out all the hidden places, and burned most in the secret places. And as I passed through her streets I beheld her state to be very miserable, and very few were those who were left in her, who were but here and there one: and they feared not the fire, neither did the burning hurt them, but they walked as dejected mournful people.... And the fire continued, for, though all the lofty part was brought down, yet there was much old stuffe, and parts of broken-down desolate walls, which the fire continued burning against.... And the vision thereof remained in me as a thing that was showed me of the Lord."

Daniel Baker, Will Lilly, and Nostradamus, I shall reserve for another paper.

T. Sternberg.

NOTES AND QUERIES ON BACON'S ESSAYS, NO. II.

(Vol. vii., p. 6.)

Essay I. p. 2. "One of the fathers." Who, and where?

Ditto, ditto. The poet. Lucretus, ii., init. "Suave mari magno," &c.

Ditto, p. 3. (note i). Plutarch. Does Montaigne allude to Plutarch, De Liberis educandis, vol. ii. (ed. Xyland.) 11 C.: "τὸ γὰρ ψεύδεσθαι δουλοπρεπὲς κ.τ.λ."?

Essay II. p. 4. "You shall read in some of the friars' books," &c. Where?

Ditto, ditto. "Pompa magis," &c. Does Bacon quote this from memory, referring to "Tolle istam pompam, sub quâ lates, et stultos territas"? (Ep. XXIV. vol. ii. p. 92.: ed. Elzev. 1672.)

Ditto, p. 5. "We read," &c. Tac. Hist., ii. 49. "Quidam milites juxta rogum interfecere se, non noxâ neque ob metum, sed æmulatione decoris et caritate principis." Cf. Sueton. Vit. Oth., 12.

Ditto, ditto. "Cogita quamdiu," &c. Whence is this?

Ditto, ditto. "Augustus Cæsar died," &c. Suet. Vit. Octav., 99.

Ditto, ditto. "Tiberius in dissimulation." Tac. Ann., vi. 50.

Ditto, ditto. "Vespasian." Suet. Vit. Vespas., 23.

Ditto, ditto. "Galba." Tac. Hist., i. 41.

Ditto, ditto. "Septimus Severus." Whence is this?

Ditto, p. 6. (note m). "In the tenth Satire of Juvenal." V. 357., seq.

Ditto, ditto. "Extinctus amabitur idem." Hor. Epist. ii. l. 14.

Essay III. p. 8. "A master of scoffing." Rabelais, Pantagruel, book ii. cap. viii. (p. 339. vol. i. ed. Bohn, 1849.)

Ditto, p. 9. "As it is noted by one of the fathers." By whom, and where?

Ditto, p. 10. "Lucretius." I. 102.

Ditto, p. 11. "It was a notable observation of a wise father." Of whom, and where?

Essay IV. p. 13. "For the death of Pertinax." See Hist. Aug. Script., vol. i. p. 578. (Lugd. Bat. 1671.)

Ditto, ditto, (note f). "The poet." Ovid, Ar. Am., i. 655.

Essay V. ditto. "Bona rerum secundarum," &c. Does Bacon allude to Seneca (Ep. lxvi. p. 238., ut sup.), where, after stating that "In æquo est moderatè gaudere, et moderatè dolere;" he adds, "Illa bona optabilia sunt, hæc mirabilia"?

Ditto, ditto. "Vere magnum habere," &c. Whence is this?

Ditto, ditto. "The strange fiction of the ancient poets." In note (a) we find "Stesichorus, Apollodorus, and others" named. Whereabouts?

Ditto, p. 11. (note c). "This fine passage has been quoted by Macaulay." Ut sup., p. 407.

Essay VI. p. 15. "Tacitus saith." Ann., v. 1.

Ditto, ditto. "And again, when Mucianus," &c. Ditto, Hist., ii. 76.

Ditto, ditto. "Which indeed are arts, &c., as Tacitus well calleth them." Where?

Ditto, p. 17. "It is a good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard." What is the proverb?

Essay VII. p. 19. "The precept, 'Optimum elige,' &c." Whence? though I am ashamed to ask.

Essay VIII. p. 20. "The generals." See Æsch. Persæ, 404. (Dindf.), and Blomfield in loc. (v. 411. ed. suæ).

Ditto, ditto. "It was said of Ulysses," &c. By whom? Compare Od., v. 218.

Ditto, p. 21. "He was reputed," &c. Who?

(To be continued.)

P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.

FOLK LORE.

Irish Superstitious Customs.—The following strange practices of the Irish are described in a MS. of the sixteenth century, and seem to have a Pagan origin:

"Upon Maie Eve they will drive their cattell upon their neighbour's corne, to eate the same up; they were wont to begin from the rast, and this principally upon the English churl. Onlesse they do so upon Maie daie, the witch hath power upon their cattell all the yere following."

The next paragraph observes that "they spitt in the face; Sir R. Shee spat in Ladie —— face."

Spenser alludes to spitting on a person for luck, and I have