SHORT LETTERS

THE NUMBER SEVEN : THE METALS.

Mr. Gladstone said, " There is abuhdant evidence of a correspondence between the seven metals of Homer and the seven metals of the ancient planetary worship of the East." Only six metals were known in the time of Homer ; quicksilver afterwards became the seventh metal. Gold would naturally be associated with the sun,

on account of its colour, perfection, and beauty, and because it was ever regarded as the noblest metal. For the same reason silver would fall to the moon, with its pale, silvery colour and light. So, again, iron, the metal of war, would be associated with Mars ; lead, the dull despised metal, with Saturn, the slowest of the planets ; and quicksilver, the nimble volatile metal, with Mercury, the messenger of the gods.—

BRIAN J. A. NEILL, The Willows, Wellington, Somerset. -

WAR AGAINST RHEUMATISM—THE CHILDREN.

Referring to " Crusader's " article upon rheumatism and its prevention, and Mrs. Leaf's call for volunteers, may I draw the attention of your readers to the clinic which has been opened at this Institution to deal with rheumatism in children ? The " St. Marylebone General Dispensary Clinic for the prevention and treatment of Rheumatism and Heart Diseases in Children " is held every Tuesday at three o'clock in the afternoon, and applications for the admission of cases should be made to the Medical Director of the Clinic, at that time.—Hach STOKES (Chairman of Council), St. Marylebone General Dispensary, 77 Welbeck Street, W. 1.

THE DRINK TRADE.

The Carlisle system has shown that it is possible to get rid of private interests in the liquor trade on abso- lutely fair terms without any loss. Moreover, the disinterested management at Carlisle has been supported by the Chief Constable, by successive Mayors of the City, by a Conference representing organized Labour in the area, and in a Memorial signed by thirty-two local clergy and ministers. Why has this system not been applied to other districts ?— HAnoLD BUCKE, Rector of Gisleham, Lowestoft.

A SLUM GARDEN.

Would your readers be interested in helping to make a slum garden from a waste patch round a new Mission Church near the Custom House ? A comparatively small sum would enable me to employ three workless men in digging, making paths, flower-beds, and a trellis

under which sick folk can sit in summer. If only they saw the street, I feel someone with a garden would give us the means to make a beauty spot where all is dreariness and ugliness.—MAY WYNNE (in charge of St. Luke's Mission district), 3 Wanlip Road, Plaistow.

THE FLY IN CHURCH.

It was a great pleasure to read in your issue of February 12th the very charming verses, so full of-simplicity, about the little boy in Church. Surely we can all look back to the time " when we were very young " to the long tedious hours in Church and remember how even a fly could help -us, and if the " Aunties " did not understand, we knew somehow the " Friend for little children " did.—J. H. W.

CHRIST AND THE STARS.

I have been waiting for one of your readers to bring forward Mrs. Meynell's poem, " Christ in the Universe," which treats in exquisite fashion the possibility of other worlds having known His visitation. She holds with many others that " the Cross and Passion could never be repeated, and the poem ends thus :-

" 0 be prepared, my soul !

To read the inconceivable, to scan

The million formS of God whose stars unroll When, in our turn, we show to them a Man."

—C; M. HUDSON, Dingley, Hindhead, Surrey.

LITERARY COINCIDENCES.

With reference to Mr. Mallet's • interesting communication in the Spectator, recently, I would ask whether the:phrase in Childe Harold (iii. 98) is not a conscious imitation- of Gray's " incense-breathing. morn," rather than a coincidence. Wordsworth was undoubtedly borrowing- when-- he wrote (of a cross to be erected on a church), " And the fresh air of incense-breathing mom Shall wooingly embrace it " (Eeelesi- .astical Sonnets, iii. 40, published in 1822). The source of Gray's line has, at least since Professor Hales's edition of the Elegy in his " Longer English Poems " (1872), been tract,' in Milton, Paradise Lost, ix. 192 ff. :---

" Now, whenas sacred light began to dawn In Eden on the humid flowers, that breathed Their morning incense, when all things that breathe From the Earth's great altar send up silent praise To the Creator, and his nostrils fill With grateful smell, forth came the human pair."

—L. R. M. STRACHAN, Birmingham University.

DR. WATT'S POEMS.

I want to teach a child the llhes by Dr. Watts, minium. ing-

" Pity the sorrows of a poor old man Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door"

but am informed by my bookseller, who wrote to England on the matter, that Dr. Watts's poems are out of print.

I have procured a copy of what purports to be Dr. Watts's poems, published by the R.T.S., but this appears to be an expurgated edition, and the piece I want is omitted. Would one of your readers oblige by letting me know where I can obtain a copy of Dr. Watts ? The book was current about forty years (and more) ago.—P. TOWNSHEND, " WOOdbllITI,9 No. 1, Durban Road, Maritzburg, South Africa.

BLAKE'S GRAVE.

The Blake Society have obtained permission to place near Blake's grave in Bunhill Fields, London, a simple memo- rial to Blake and his wife Catherine, with dates of birth and death. There will be an interesting function at Bunhill

Fields on Centenary Day (August 12th), and the Society will meet at Bognor on August 13th. I shall be glad to hear from

any of your readers who are interested in our project.— THOMAS WRIGHT, Secretary of the Blake Society, Cowper School, Olney, Bucks.

" SOMETHING IN THE CUPBOARD."

Would any of your readers give me the full text of a short poem—either by A. A. Milne or Rose Fyle- man—a picture of English life, a cottage, the logs burning and the words, " Something in the cupboard that you yourself have made" ?—NoaAn SEDGWICK, The Lid Cottage, Hambledon, Hants.

THE " BIRD-LOVERS."

As a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, I should like to congratulate you on the excellent article by Mr. Ikunish Maelaren, " The Cage Bird Cult " in last week's .Spectator. I only wish all those so-called " hint-

lovers " could read it—CHARLES E. ALFORD, Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, S.W. I.

"A SURPRISED READER."

How nice and funny of you to think of such a competition as the matrimonial advertisement. I only hOpe you will get as much amusement out of judging the efforts as the competitors haVe in inventing them. It is such fun to be surprised, and you have certainly surprised one reader.—A SURPRISED READER.

HOWLERS.

I have recently comae across the following, from a essay on Nelson, in the -Lyric PublicatiOns, Seaford, Sussex :- "-Oh ! Harding, Kiss me -again," were the hateful words of a .heroik mortal who won a great battle with one eye and I wooden leg. Before the bloody context arose; this niotto was uttered by him, " The Queen expects every man to do his duty." Nelson was a brave man, but his morrals was not respectable.. Once a lady, whose name was Mrs. Hambingtoll,

nursed him, and he said, " Oh, heavins, heavins, why do I love." When he died the Queen met him in a boat and lie

Went to St. Paul's and was buried. This is a man-elous lesson to 'me- and all schoolboys. Do your duty to your pastors and marsters, and then even- with a single leg you can_ say "with this simple thing -I will do my duty.”---- R: G. CATIICART, Sandycove; Co. Dublin.