* *

Replies to Minor Queries.

"_God takes those soonest_," &c. (Vol. iii., p. 302.).--In Morwenstow
churchyard, Cornwall, there is this epitaph on a child:--

"Those whom God loves die young!
They see no evil days,--
No falsehood taints their tongue,
No wickedness their ways.

"Baptized, and so made sure,
To win their blest abode,--
What shall we pray for more?
They die, and are with God!"

C. E. H.

The belief expressed in these words is of great antiquity. See the story of
Cleobis and Biton, in Herod. l. 31., and the verse frown the [Greek: Dis
exapaton] of Menander:

"[Greek: Hon hoi theoi philousin apothneskei neos]."
Meineke, _Fragm. Com. Gr._, vol. iv. p. 105.

L.

I would suggest to T. H. K. that the origin of this line is Menander's

"[Greek: Hon hoi theoi philousin apothneskei neos]."
Fragm. 128. in Meineke, _Fr. Com. Gr._

imitated by Plautus:

"Quem di diligunt adulescens moritur."
_Bacch._ iv. 7. 18.

whence the English adage,

"Whom the gods love die young."

Wordsworth's _Excur._, b. i., has this sentiment:

"O, Sir, the good die first,
And those whose hearts are dry as summer dust,
Burn to the socket."

C. P. PH****.

[Several other correspondents have kindly replied to this Query.]

{378}

_Disinterment for Heresy_ (Vol. iii, p. 240.).--Mr. Tracy's will, dated
10th October, 22d Henry VIII. [1530], is given at length in Hall's
_Chronicle_ (ed. 1809, p. 796.), where will be found the particulars of the
case to which ARUN alludes. See also Burnet's _History of the Reformation_
(ed. 1841, vol. i. pp. 125. 657, 658. 673.), and Strype's _Annals of the
Reformation_, vol. i. p. 507. Strype states that Mr. Tracy's body was dug
up and burnt "anno 1532." William Tyndale wrote _Exposition on Mr. Will.
Tracies Will_, published in 8vo. at Nuremburgh, 1546. (Wood's _Athen.
Oxon._, vol. i. p. 37.)

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge, April 2. 1851.

"William Tracy, a worshipful esquire in Gloucestershire, and then dwelling
at Todington," made a will, which was thought to contain heretical
sentiments. His executor having brought in this will to be proved two years
after Tracy's death (in 1532), "the Convocation most cruelly judged that he
should be taken out of the ground, and burnt as an heretick," which was
accordingly done; but the chancellor of the diocese of Worcester, to whom
the commission was