Complete works of samuel.., p.364
Complete Works of Samuel Butler, page 364
“The passage in Don Quixote(I have brought my Don Quixote with me) in which Cervantes describes the mode of forming the name of Dulcinea del Toboso always appeared to me to contain words which admirably described this dexterity of these inventors of alphabets, though the artifice adopted by these inventors and Don Quixote proceeds on a different principle. ‘Buscandole nombre que no desdixasse mucho del suyo, y que tirasse, y se encaminasse al de Princesa,’ etc. In the formation of cognate letters it is contrived that they do not much gainsay each other, as it were, — that they draw near to each other in their forms and traces; that they walk, as it were, in the same track, or that they are entrack’d with one another, if I may so put it; or, in other words, that cognate letters are traced or drawn not much different from each other. You have justly seen that B and abelong to each other. Turn the curves of our English B into straight lines and you have El (two Hebrew B’s, [ [), which, accommodated to the Hebrew mode of writing from right to left, becomes]], the Hebrew Beth 3.
“Let us examine the other labials. The English F is the AEolic digamma F, and the P turned into straight lines becomes F.
“The V or V V, U or “u, contain the Beth cavity C 3. When the parallel lines in C, 2, or 3 form angles > < V, the M is M or two V V inverted, Λ Λ; hence the cognates μ and β.
“Mu and beta are, as you say, almost indistinguishable from one another. The modern Greeks represent the sound of B (English) by Μ B. The Greek Π is another a n, in Hebrew 2. The Greek Φ represented by straight lines becomes which is two F’s or
F..
“We cannot but note how S, etc., appears under a similar form in various languages: u> (Heb.), y (Ægypt.), S or w or Η, ξ or pi, -uu·, the Arabic
— , in Russian 111. N is an organical appendage to M in many cases, and hence it is like it in shape.
In modern Greek N before Π becomes as Μ, τον πατίρα., tom batera.
“There is a mingled sound of the guttural and labial in the human voice, and hence the Q and U are united with each other in Latin words, so that Gualterus becomes Walter, guerre war, etc., as all understand. Hence G and F are sometimes like each other, as Γ, F, or F, and hence F is called the two gammas, or digamma. This muffled sound is expressed in Hebrew by y (Aïn).
“Those who wish to know anything about the nature of this mingled sound of G and U or V or of the digamma would do well to study Mr. Owen’s dictionary among the Welsh words beginning with gw, where they will see how in each word the two forms are adopted, of the guttural G and the labials w and [letter illegible] beginning the word, and from hence they will pass to their parallel words in other languages, and see how terms apparently different in form belong to one another.
“Thus ‘Gwener’— ‘that confers happiness, Venus’ — becomes Wener, and hence we have the Latin Venus, Vener-is, and understand how gun in gune may belong to the Ven in Venus, and how in other dialects of the Celtic the name for woman appears under the labial form Bean, and sometimes under the guttural form Gean (see Shaw’s diet.). Wenin is another form of queen, quean, and this is the origin of the en in Helen, etc., quasi Olwen, the Celtic Venus (see Owen’s Welsh dictionary). You will at once call to mind the passage in Herodotus that the temple dedicated to a foreign Venus in Egypt was no other than the Grecian hEL-EN The war of Troy was a war of two states rivals in religion and commerce, and if Paris ravished away from Argos a material personage of flesh and blood called hEL-EN, a priestess of Olwen, whose name she bore, he likewise, we may conjecture, may have taken away the mistress — the goddess Olwen, the deity of the temple without flesh and blood, under form of a statue. The people of Argos might have considered this insult to their religion a more reasonable cause of war than the insult offered to Menelaus by taking away his wife. Herodotus would have been altogether of the same opinion. This will account for the story of the image of Helen in Lycophron, Euripides, etc. By examining Gn in Mr. Owen’s dictionary, you will see that it means whatever is delightful, beautiful — what is white, bright, fair, etc., and you will agree that it belongs to the Greek Gan-os (Γόνος), which is explained in Prelim. Dissert, to Etym. Univ., page 121. The Olwen is supposed to mean the person with fair or beautiful traces of countenance, and thus by considering the sense of 01, the track, trace, and by examining the words connected with ala, etc., in Mr. Shaw’s Gaelic dictionary, you will see how 01 belongs to Hole and to ανλαξ, Έλκος, ονλη, etc. Such is the composition of the Grecian Hel-En. These observations have drawn me from the remarks on letters, with which I will fill the remaining part of my paper.
“It might be asked whether the cavity of 3 and ρ belongs to the cavity of Beth 3, and whether their similarity arises from the connexion between the guttural and labial sound. Though the figures of letters are not taken from the supposed resemblance to the organs of speech, yet their names may, and the Hebrews might have called these letters Beth, Capa, Coph, from j-|3, the hollow, as a den, bed, etc., etc., Π33 [or rather sp], the hollow of the hand, as some have conjectured, and such might be the Hebrew idea. Yet Beith is the Irish name for B, and this signifies a birch-tree, though we are reminded of the Irish Both, a cottage or booth, which corresponds with the sense of JV3·
“Some tribes of the Celts called their alphabet from trees, and the twigs of trees under certain relations to parallel horizontal lines represented the letters. This species of writing was called the Ogham. From this the notation of musical sounds is derived, and by this Ogham we take our degrees in Cambridge. These twigs were sometimes put loosely upon the tablet, and hence, I imagine, is the story of the Sibyl’s books being dispersed by the wind. In Vallancey’s grammar the forms of the Ogham may be seen, and in other books on alphabetical writing. These are very hasty remarks, which I should have only ventured to write from your desire to hear what I think on a subject, on which I have only thought enough to convince me that nothing satisfactory can be made of it. I am, my dear Sir, your most faithful servant, “WALTER WHITER.
“There is still a little room left. The Rho of the Greeks and the English P are alike P. Hence I should conjecture some relation in their sound, and should conceive that the Greek Rho had sometimes a vowel breathing before it in the beginning of a word with a labial kind of sound. Our rudiments tell us in the same article that ΰ and p have an aspirate, νδωρ and ρήμα, where the labial and the p are brought into contact with each other. We find that many words beginning with R in some languages have a vowel breathing before the R in others, as Rapio, Repo, Roof, αρπάζω, ίρπω, ΰρόφη. The rough breathing would be the due accompaniment. I cannot but think that this observation on the P is of some weight. These are only the slightest sketches of very many things that might be said on the same subject, but I fear that even some of these things may appear fanciful. Something, however, of this sort I think must exist, if it was only developed, or if there should be evidence enough belonging to the subject to ensure conviction.”
TO A LADY.
“August 28th, 1822.
* * * * *
“I am myself a loyal member of that Church in which I have the honour to hold an office of some importance. I aim at nothing better, and in truth I know nothing better. I cannot comprehend the meaning of the term ‘evangelical,’ which some of those who profess to be its ministers assume to themselves in exclusion of the rest. I teach those principles of religion to my pupils in which I have been educated myself, and in which I believe myself, and I teach no more.”
* * * *
TO THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON BLOMIELD.
“August 31st, 1822.
“I know nothing likely to remove me hence if I have my health till this boy shall have completed his education, but of course he must take his chance as to my continuance. My belief is that I shall remain here till he is fit to go to college, and longer, but one cannot look so far into futurity, and all that I can promise is that as long as I am master of this school he shall have his board and education gratis. I should not have mentioned this had I not been tormented lately with letters of inquiry, owing to a report that I had expressed an intention of becoming a candidate for Rugby, which is, and always will be, the farthest thing from my intention.”
I presume there must have been some rumours about Dr Wooll’s intending to resign the head-mastership of Rugby. As a matter of fact he did not do so till 1828.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “SHEFFIELD INDEPENDENT.”
(Original written on the back of a document which I destroyed. — ED.)
“September 21st, 1822.
“SIR, — Observing a paragraph in the St. James’s Chronicle of September 19th quoted from the Sheffield Independent, which states that the Vicar, churchwardens, and constable of one of the most populous parishes of the High Peak had attended a large cattle fair for the purpose of selecting a bull to be baited for the pleasure of their parishioners, I beg leave to say that I shall feel much obliged to you if you will inform me which parish in the High Peak you allude to, and am, Sir,” etc.
* * * * *
FROM DR. PARR.
(Signature and address only in Dr. Parr’s handwriting.)
“November (?) 30th, 1822.
“In general terms I scouted the tale, and of course I did justice to the calm and genuine virtues of your venerable mother. I anticipated in my mind all and more than all that you have written in detail. Her whole life was a course of preparation for everything which is intelligible and credible in a future state. I quite approve of the word’veneration’ which you propose, and should disapprove of any epithet affixed to it. The term is strong, sufficiently strong, and it harmonises with the general simplicity and seriousness of the inscription.
“As to the contest in your county, I certainly exult in the victory gained over Toryism, and from the events which are passing among us and around us, your sagacity must perceive that Toryism has endangered the Church and State. I shall always reprobate the invidious and indiscriminate application of the word Radical. They who opposed the French war were called Jacobins; they who censured the measures of administration and dread the servility and corruption of Parliament are now called Radicals. This perversion of language is convenient for the very worst purposes and the very worst rulers. No man of common sense would suppose for a moment that I would co-operate with such miscreants as Hunt and Cobbett; yet I hold that Hunt was cruelly punished, and 1 further hold that Cobbett has diffused the knowledge of many substantial and important truths. Many of his disciples will in practice be found wiser and better men than their master. They will separate the tares from the wheat, and they will apply to good ends what the wretch himself proclaims for very bad ones. As to myself, I am a man of too much research and too much discernment to be even in speculation a — republican, and in practice I hope to die as I have hitherto lived, a constitutional Whig. I divide my hatred among the Ministerialists and the Radicals in portions nearly equal, but as matters now stand my fears of the Ministerialists are greater than my fears of the Radicals. I observe, too, that when men are preparing to apostatise they disguise their latent views under the pretence of condemning and resisting that which is indisputably evil. You, namesake, have too much sincerity and too much magnanimity for such paltry artifices. Again, I dislike the doctrine that all statesmen are rogues, and I have observed that doctrine employed as a pretence for joining those rogues who are in power at the time. In the present state of Europe nothing can be adiaphorous to a wise man. I have been, and ever shall be, a partisan, but my approbation of the Whigs is not indiscriminate, and they know it. My good friend, no man will undertake to defend the system upon which the English Government has been conducted since the accession of George III., and surely the party which for more than sixty y ears has deliberately sacrificed power gives the best possible pledge for sincerity. The Radicals are shrewd in their generation when they inculcate distrust and dislike of the persons with whom I sympathise. The Tories, by long success, have multiplied periis to the Church and State; the Whigs will not be permitted to save them: the Radicals would subvert them to-morrow. Namesake, I decidedly prefer Canning to Londonderry, and do not you believe that Romilly would have been a more desirable statesman than Lord Eldon? Let us talk these matters over when we meet. I hear a favourable account of the four Cambridge candidates, and particularly of Bankes, but I detest the principle on which Bankes relies. Among the Herveys, from the time of Pope to the present hour, there never was a dunce nor a worthy, unless your correspondent forms an exception. Grant has a large share of talent and virtue. Scarlett’s integrity in private life is adorned by his steadiness in public, and if he had played fast and loose he would have risen to the situation which is now filled by Abbott. Respect him at least for his consistency, and prefer him you must to such deserters as Charles Warren, Copley, and Gifford. If Scarlett fails, as I think he will, the death-blow is given to the cause of freedom in Cambridge. That the young men should have caught the contagion of servility from the old is a dreadful spectacle; but the plain truth is that, to an extent quite unprecedented, the Church and both the Universities are corrupt to the very root. Your grandchildren will be eye-witnesses of the mischief. I have lived, and happily my head will be under the sod when the storm bursts.”
* * * * *
The inscription referred to in the preceding letter is the one written by Dr. Butler for the mural tablet that stands — unless the modern practice of moving old monuments has found its way also to Kenilworth — in the old church on the south side of the chancel arch. It runs: —
NEAR THE PULPIT ARE INTERRED THE REMAINS OF MR. WILLIAM BUTLER AND LUCY HIS WIFE, THE FORMER OF WHOM DEPARTED THIS LIFE MARCH 21, 1815, IN HIS 87TH YEAR, THE LATTER NOV. 2, 1822, IN THE 84TH YEAR OF HER AGE.
THEY WERE UNOSTENTATIOUS BUT EXEMPLARY IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR RELIGIOUS, MORAL, AND SOCIAL DUTIES.
THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY THEIR ONLY SON, SAMUEL BUTLER, D.D., ARCHDEACON OF DERBY AND VICAR OF THIS CHURCH, IN VENERATION FOR THE MEMORY OF HIS BELOVED PARENTS, AND IN HUMBLE THANKFULNESS TO ALMIGHTY GOD, WHO VOUCHSAFED TO GRANT THEM LENGTH OF DAYS, ESTEEM OF FRIENDS, CONTENT OF MIND, AND AN EASY, GENTLE PASSAGE TO ETERNITY. be questioned whether this Praxis might not be re-introduced with advantage.”
I am not philologist enough to know whether the derivations given by Dr. Butler of the several prepositions will in all cases be held correct, but the book is pleasant reading from its clearness and from the excellence of the translations given as examples. These translations from a Latin writer are intended to be re-translated into Latin by the student, and the master is furnished with a key containing the original passage.
CHAPTER XVI. AN ARDUOUS UNDERTAKING.
1823. The School Lawsuit. — Correspondence, January 4th, 1823 — July 3rd, — Kennedy takes the Porson Prize whilst still at School. — His Remarks upon the Shrewsbury System. — Correspondence, August 17th, 1823 — April 19th, 1824.
IN January 1823 I meet with the first traces among Dr. Butler’s papers of a lawsuit which, originating in the reign of James I., had been continued intermittently from that date till Dr. Butler took it in hand. The successful strangling of this suit was perhaps the most arduous and important of the many services he rendered to Shrewsbury School, and it is evident from his letter to the Master and Fellows of St. John’s, written in 1835, and announcing his intended resignation, that he so considered it himself.
After a period of repose that had lasted for some years, there had been a recrudescence of legal activity between the years 1806 and 1823, which brought the school property into such serious difficulties that on the 6th of January, 1823, the trustees unanimously resolved to reduce by 50 per cent, the salaries of the masters that had been augmented since the passing of the School Act, and also to reduce by 50 per cent, the head-money allowed for each boy on the foundation. At the same time they declined, on the score of want of funds, to render assistance in the matter of closing the school-lane thoroughfare, which passed along the whole front of what are now the Museum buildings, and so into Castle Street.
Dr. Butler, knowing that the suit would never be ended as long as it was in the hands of the trustees, and seeing that things kept on going from bad to worse, determined to get the matter into his own hands, and accordingly wrote to the trustees asking them to make an order that should give him access to all documents in the hands of their bailiff and solicitor relative to the lawsuit, which he might have occasion to consult.
At their meeting in July 1823 the trustees made the necessary order; and from that time until the final settlement of their claims, in the early months of 1827, the direction of the whole matter was practically left to Dr. Butler. It should be remembered that the very arduous task on which he now entered — a work more than sufficient to occupy any man’s whole time — was undertaken in addition to the wearing labours of his school, then entering on its most brilliant period, and the by no means light business of his archdeaconry. I have heard my aunt, Mrs. Bather, say that her father’s health, at no time robust, never fully recovered from the strain now put upon it.
CORRESPONDENCE, JANUARY 4TH, 1823 — JULY 3RD, 1823.
FROM THE REV. T. S. HUGHES.
“YaRMOUTH, January 4th, 1S23.
“I have just accidentally heard the pleasing intelligence, and send you a line instantly to tell you, that I am elected Christian Advocate in the room of Lonsdale. I am writing this before going to bed, having come from a dinner party where the master of the house put me into no small surprise by wishing me joy of my new honours. Upon expressing my total ignorance of his meaning, he produced the paper which announced the appointment, very gallantly cut out the paragraph, and presented it to my dear Maria The fact is that about three months ago I sent in my name, but... I gave up all hopes of success, and had really almost forgotten the whole affair. How I came to be chosen is yet a secret; I suppose I slipped in through contending interests. The appointment is very gratifying to me, especially as it may promote my success in the world wherein I am now going to settle; and I well know that no one will rejoice more in my good prospects than you, my oldest and dearest friend.”
