"AN ENGLISH GARNER." [To TRId EDITOR OF THE " SEEOTATOR."]
SIR,—In an article in the Spectator, October 14th, on Vols. IV. and. V. of "An English Garner," the following lines are quoted from a poem called " Nosce Teipsum" :—
" We that acquaint ourselves with every zono,
And pass both tropics, and behold both poles,— When we come home are to ourselves unknown, And unacquainted still with our own souls."
Probably others of your readers besides myself have noticed. how very nearly the same thing has been said by Mr. Matthew Arnold, in "A Southern Night" :— "We who pursue
Our business with unslaokening stride,
Traverse in troops, with eare.filled breast, The soft Mediterranean side, the Nile, the East, And see all sights from pole to pole, And glance, and nod, and bustle by ; And never once possess our soul Before we die."
It would be very interesting to know whether Mr. Arnold. was unconsciously reproducing a thought which had become disem- bodied in his memory. Of anything like deliberate plagiarism, he will not be suspected.—I am, Sir, &c., Wm. O. LEFROY.
United University Club, Pall Mall East, S. TV., October 17th.
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