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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. x. DEC. 5, im
religious man celebrated for loyalty as well
as military skill, and is said to have perished
in 1189, fixedly standing and facing enemies,
who sent a shower of arrows upon him.
Tanabe is held to be his birthplace, and
my wife has the honour of having a brother-
in-law a lineal descendant of Benkei's
father. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA.
Tanabe, Kii, Japan.
RICHARD DIGHTON, CARICATURIST (10 S. x. 407). Although Richard Dighton has no separate memoir in ' D.N.B.,' his indi- viduality is distinctly vouched for in the biography of his father as Robert Dighton' s son. ROBERT WALTERS.
The article in 'D.N.B.,' xv. 74, which might well have been fuller, mentions that whereas Robert signed himself "R. Dighton" and " Dighton," his son Richard wrote his name in full. SIR CHARLES KING will find an article on ' Robert and Richard Dighton, Portrait Etchers,' in No. 56 of The Con- noisseur. A. R. BAYLEY.
AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (10 S. x. 408).
Music of the spheres.
With respect to this ancient Pythagorean notion much evidence has alreadv been placed on the file of ' N. & Q.' (1 S. vi. 165 ; 4 S. ii. 561 ; iii. 19, 70), none of which I propose to repeat. I have met with no reference to it in English earlier than Florio's ' Essayes of Montaigne,' 1603, Book I. ch. 22 (1897, i. 138) :
" Celestiall musicke \vonderfull harmonie
but the hearing senses of these low worlds
creatures, dizzied and lulled asleepe cannot
sensibly perceive or distinguish the same."
Bishop John Wilkins, ' Discovery of a New World,' 1638, ed. 4, 1684, i. 42 :
" There is no Musick of the Spheres ; for if they be not solid, how can their motion cause any such sound ? it is not now, I think, affirmed by any."
Malebranch, ' Search after Truth,' ed. R, Sault, 1694, vol. i. (Book III. ii. 83) :
"The heavens, by their regular motions, made a most wonderful concert ; which men do not hear, because they are used to it."
Edward Young, ' Night Thoughts,' Night III. mentions " the spheres harmonious " and " their matchless strain,"
A strain for gods, denied to mortal ear. In 1832 W. Gardiner wrote a book': The Music of Nature .... to prove that what is passionate and pleasing in .... singing .... and performing upon musical instru- ments is derived from the sounds of the animated world.'
Dr. Greenhill, ' Religio Medici,' 1881,
p. 365, mentions a collection of passages in
Pattison's ed. of Pope's ' Essay on Man,'
i. 202, 1875, p. 85, and a discussion in
The Illustrated London News, Nov., 1880.
W. C. B.
Was not " the music of the spheres " a Pythagorean doctrine ? See Lewis's ' Astronomy of the Ancients,' p. 131.
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.
' Hudibras,' Part III. canto i., has the lines
Her voice the music of the spheres, So loud it deafens mortals' ears.
Zachary Grey gives a long note that might be of use to MR. STEWART. M. N. G.
The lines referred to by Lucis are in Long- fellow's ' Birds of Passage,' in the poem en- titled 'The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz.' They run as follows :
And Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee, Saying : " Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee."
"Come wander with me," she said,
" Into regions yet untrod ; And read what is still unread
In the manuscripts of God."
And he wandered away and away With Nature, the dear old nurse,
Who sang to him night and day The rhymes of the universe.
A. R. WALLER.
Cambridge.
The verses of which Lucis gave detached lines occur in Longfellow's tribute to Agassiz, the distinguished naturalist, on his fiftieth birthday, 28 May, 1857.
Longfellow, sixteen years later, wrote an elegiac sonnet on Agassiz, the sestet of which may not inappropriately be cited :
Ah ! why shouldst thou be dead when common men Are busy with their trivial affairs, Having and holding ? Why, when thou hadst
read
Nature's mysterious manuscript, and then Wast ready to reveal the truth it bears, Why art thou silent? Why shouldst thou be 'dead?
J. GRIGOR.
105, Choumert Road, Peckham. [Many other correspondents refer to Longfellow. 1
SCOTS GREYS : HISTORY OF THE REGI- MENT (10 S. x. 347, 396). I possess a copy of the ' History of the Royal Scots Greys,' by Edward Almack, which was published by Alexander Moring, Ltd., De La More Press, London, about eight months ago
