"PEREANT, QUI ANTE NOS NOSTRA DIXERUNT."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR...]
SIE,—In justice to the memory of a great writer, and in mercy to the reputation of two very young ones, permit me to call attention to a singular mistake into which you have fallen in your review of "The Cruise of the ' Bacchante,' " in your last number. Speaking of the literary merits of the book, you say :— " When patriotism and the great deeds of the British Navy are the theme, the Royal sailor-lads, as becomes their lineage and their country, grow almost eloquent. On February 20th, while between Barbados and Martinique, they write thus :—" Then follows a long quotation, beginning, "We should be less than Englishmen, less than men, if we did not feel a thrill of pride," he.; and ending, "Did all those gallant souls go down to Hades in vain, and leave nothing for the Englishman but the sad and proud memory of their useless valour F" The words are, I agree with you, not " almost," but altogether "eloquent ;" and no wonder. They were written by Charles Kingsley, and may be found, by whosoever will take the trouble of identifying them, in the second chapter of his "At Last : a Christmas in the West Indies." It is true the passage has been transposed and somewhat mutilated in the transcribing, but not quite beyond recognition ; it is there, almost word for word.—I am, -Sir, &a., [Our correspondent is right. The passage in question is borrowed from Kingsley's "At Last," but without acknowledg- ment, or anything in the way of inverted commas, or otherwise, to show that it is a quotation, slightly altered.—En. Spectator.]
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