OCT

ост 11

LIBRARY

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES AND QUERIES,

WITH ANSWERS.

"Who knows not Circe, the daughter of the Sun ? "-MILTON.

VOL. VI.

NOVEMBER, 1889.

No. 11.

NEW (OLD) Words. A student at a public examination read a singular verbose paper on "the parts of speech," claiming that it was proper and correct to turn all proper names into adjectives, as Skakespearean, Baconian, Andrusian, Websterian, etc., but proper names can also be used adverbially, as Socratically, Demosthenically, Byronically, etc., and said such were sanctioned by good usage, referring to Hermes. What Hermes does he mean? A LISTENER.

Undoubtedly the student referred to the grammar of John Harris, as he shows that such license may be taken in the use of words; Mr. Harris even examples the two words, "Socratically," "Demosthenically," (and also, "Cyclopically" citing it from Aristotle), page 73. There are several works entitled "Hermes :

"Hermes; or A Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar." By John Harris. Three books in one. 8vo. pp. 152. London, 1816.

"Hermes Scythicus; or, The Radical Affinities of the Greek and Latin Languages to the Gothic, illustrated from the Moseo-Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Francic, Alemannic, Suio-Gothic, Islandic, etc. Το which is prefixed a Dissertation on the Historical Proofs of the Scythian Origin of the Greeks." By John Jamieson. 8vo. pp. 368+xiv. Edinburgh, 1814.

"The Pastor of Hermas." Also called his Visions. One of the books in the Apocryphal New Testament, containing three divisionsVisions, 4 chapters; Commands, 12 chapters; Similitudes, 10 chapTwo opinions prevail as to it authorship; one is that it was Hermas mentioned in Romans XVI, 14; the other is that it is the production of Hermas, brother of Bishop Pius of Rome.

ters.

Hermes Trismegistus ("thrice-greatest.") "The Divine Pymander." Several translations of this work have been made. (See N. AND Q., Vol V, p. 44. March, 1888.)