[=a]d, with
h[=a]ds, w't feete, serue them. So as w'oute theyr seruice, they
nor eate, nor drink, nor are clothed, no nor liue. We reade in ye
taleteller Esope, a doue was saued by the helpe of an ant. A lyon
escaped by the benefit of a mowse. We rede agayne, that euen ants
haue theyr choler. And not altogether quite, the egle angered the
bytle bee."

The reader will notice in this citation another instance of the verb
_miss_, to dispense with. I have now done for the present; but should
the collation of sundry passages, to illustrate the meaning of a word,
appear as agreeable to the laws of a sound philology, as conducive to
the integrity of our ancient writers, and as instructive to the public
as brainspun emendations, whether of a remote or modern date, which
now-a-days are pouring in like a flood--to corrupt long recognised
readings in our idolised poet Shakspeare, in order to make his
phraseology square with the language of the times and his readers'
capacities--I will not decline to continue endeavours such as the
present essay exhibits with a view to stem and roll back the tide.

W. R. ARROWSMITH.

Broad Heath, Presteign, Herefordshire.

* * * * *

A WORK ON THE MACROCOSM.

I intended to have contributed a series of papers to "N. & Q." on the
brute creation, on plants and flowers, &c.; and in a Note on the latter
subject I promised to follow it up. However, as circumstances have
changed my intentions, I think it may be well to mention that I have in
hand a work on Macrocosm, or World of Nature around us, which shall be
published in three separate parts or volumes. The first shall be devoted
to the Brute Creation; the second shall be an Herbal, with a Calendar of
dedicated Flowers prefixed; the third shall contain Chapters on the
Mineral Kingdom: in the last I shall treat of the symbolism of stones,
and the superstitions respecting them. I purpose in each case, as far as
possible, to go to the fountain-head, and shall give copious extracts
from such writers as St. Ildefonso of Toledo, St. Isidore of Seville,
Vincent of Beauvais, St. Basil, Origen, Epiphanius, and the Christian
Fathers.

As the work I have sketched out for myself will require time to mature,
I shall publish very shortly a small volume, containing a breviary of
the former, which will give some idea of the manner in which I shall
treat the proposed subject.

Many correspondents