Burning the Dead.—"T." will find some information on this subject in Sir Thomas Browne's Hydriotaphia, chap, i., which appears to favour his view except in the following extract:—
"The same practice extended also far west, and besides Heruleans, Getes, and Thracians, was in use with most of the Celtæ, Sarmatians, Germans, Gauls, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians; not to omit some use thereof among Carthaginians, and Americans."
The Carthaginians most probably received the custom from their ancestors the Phœnicians, but where did the Americans get it?
Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone, Feb. 8. 1850.
Burning the Dead.—Your correspondent " T." (No. 14. p. 216.) can hardly have overlooked the case of Dido, in his inquiry "whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst any people, excepting inhabitants of Europe and Asia?" According to all classical authorities, Dido was founder and queen of Carthage in Africa, and was burned at Carthage on a funeral pile.
If it be said that Dido's corpse underwent burning in conformity with the custom of her native country Tyre, and not because it obtained in the land of her adoption, then the question arises, whether burning the dead was not one of the customs which the Tyrian colony of Dido imported into Africa, and became permanently established at Carthage. It is very certain that the Carthaginians had human sacrifices by fire, and that they burned their children in the furnace to Saturn.
Ecclesfield, Feb. 8. 1850.
MISCELLANIES.
M. de Gournay.—The author of the axiom Laissez faire, laissez passer, which are the sum and substance of the free trade principles of political economy, and perhaps the pithiest and completest exposition of the doctrine of a particular school ever made, was Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay, who was born at St. Malo in 1712, and died at Paris in 1759. In early life he was engaged in trade, and subsequently became Honorary Councillor of the Grand Council, and Honorary Intendant of Commerce. He translated, in 1742, Josiah Child's Considerations on Commerce and on the Interest on Money, and Culpepper's treatise Against Usury. He also wrote a good deal on questions of political economy. He was, in fact, with Dr. Quesnay, the chief of the French economists of the last century; but he was more liberal than Quesnay in his doctrines; indeed he is (far more than Adam Smith) the virtual founder of the modern school of political economy; and yet, perhaps, of all the economists he is the least known!
The great Turgot was a friend and ardent admirer of M. de Gournay; and on his death wrote a pompous Eloge on him.
Cupid Crying.—"Our readers will remember that some time since (anté, p. 108.) we copied into our columns, from the 'Notes and Queries,' an epigram of great elegance on the subject of 'Cupid Crying;' the contributor of which was desirous of finding through that medium, especially established for such discoveries, the original text and the name of its author. Subsequently, a correspondent of our own [anté, p. 132.] volunteered a translation by himself, in default of the original. The correspondent of the 'Notes and Queries' has now stumbled on what he sought, and is desirous that we should transmit it to the author of the volunteer version, with his thanks. This we take the present means of doing. Under the signature of 'Rufus,' he writes as follows: 'In a MS. book, long missing, I find the following copy, with a reference to Car. Illust. Poet. Ital. vol. i. 229, wherein it is ascribed to Antonio Tebaldeo—
"De Cupidine.
Cur natum cædit Venus? Arcum perdidit. Arcum
Nunc quis habet? Tusco Flavia nata solo.
Qui factum? Petit hæc, dedit hic; nam lumine formæ
Deceptus, matri se dare crediderat."
"Since printing this communication from 'Rufus' we have received the same original (with the variation of a single word—quid for cur in the opening of the epigram) from a German correspondent at Augsburgh. 'You will find it,' he says, 'in the Anthologia Latino, Burmanniana, iii. 236, or in the new edition of this Latin Anthology, by Henry Meyer, Lipsiæ, 1835, tom. ii. page 139, No. 1566. The author of the epigram is doubtful, but the diction appears rather too quaint for a good ancient writer. Maffei ascribes it to Brenzoni, who lived in the sixteenth century; others give it to Ant. Tebaldeo, of Ferrara.' Our readers will perceive that the translator has taken some liberties with his text. 'Lumine formæ deceptus,' for instance, is not translated by 'she smiled.' But it may be questioned if the suggestion is not even more delicate and graceful in the translator's version than in the original."—The Athenœum.
THE MIRROR.
(From the Latin of Owen.)
Bella, your image just returns your smile—
You weep, and tears its lovely cheek bedew—
You sleep, and its bright eyes are closed the while—
You rise, the faithful mimic rises too.—
Bella, what art such likeness could increase
If glass could talk, or woman hold her peace?
