Notes and Queries, Number 36, July 6, 1850 | Page 6

same nature."
He admits, however, that the civilians have, in deriving testament from _testari mentem_, imparted a greater significance to the termination "ment." Amidst such diversity of opinion, I am emboldened to offer a solution of the word "Parliament," which, from its novelty alone, if possessing no better qualification, may perhaps recommend itself to the consideration of your readers. In my humble judgment, all former etymologists of the word appear to have stumbled _in limine_, for I would suggest that its compounds are "_palam_" and "mens."
With the Romans there existed a law that in certain cases the verdict of the jury might be given CLAM VEL PALAM, viz., privily or _openly_, or in other words, by tablet or _ballot_, or by voices. Now as the essence of a Parliament or council of the people was its representative character, and as secrecy would be inconsistent with such a character, it was doubtless a _sine qua non_ that its proceedings should be conducted "_palam_," in an open manner. The absence of the letter "_r_" may possibly be objected to, but a moment's reflection will cast it into the shade, the classical pronunciation of the word palam being the same as if spelt _PARlam_; and the illiterate state of this country when the word Parliament was first introduced would easily account for a phonetic style of orthography. The words enumerated by Blackstone's annotator are purely of English composition, and have no correspondent in the dead languages; whilst _testament_, _sacrament_, _parliament_, and many others, are Latin words Anglicised by dropping the termination "_um_"--a great distinction as regards the relative value of words, which the learned annotator seems to have overlooked. "_Mentum_" is doubtless the offspring of "_mens_", signifying the mind, thought, deliberation, opinion; and as we find "_palam populo_" to mean "_in the sight of the people_," so, without any great stretch of imagination, may we interpret "_palam mente_" into "_freedom of thought or of deliberation_" or "_an open expression of opinion_:" the essential qualities of a representative system, and which our ancestors have been careful to hand down to posterity in a word, viz., Parliament.
FRANCISCUS.
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"INCIDIS IN SCYLLAM, CUPIENS VITARE CHARYBDIM."
I should be sorry to see this fine old proverb in metaphor passed over with no better notice than that which seems to have been assigned to it in Boswell's Johnson.
Erasmophilos, a correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1774, quotes a passage from Dr. Jortin's _Life of Erasmus_, vol. ii. p. 151., which supplies the following particulars, viz.:--
1. That the line was first discovered by Galeottus Martius of Narni, A.D. 1476.
2. That it is in lib. v. 301. of the "Alexandreis," a poem in ten books, by Philippe Gualtier (commonly called "de Chatillon," though in reality a native of Lille, in Flanders).
3. That the context of the passage in which it occurs is as follows:--
"-- Quo tendis inertem Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem. Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim."
where the poet apostrophises Darius, who, while {86} flying from Alexander, fell into the lands of Bessus. (See _Selections from Gent. Mag_. vol. ii. p. 199. London, 1814.)
C. FORBES.
This celebrated Latin verse, which has become proverbial, has a very obscure authority, probably not known to many of your readers. It is from Gualtier de Lille, as has been remarked by Galeottus Martius and Paquier in their researches. This Gualtier flourished in the thirteenth century. The verse is extracted from a poem in ten books, called the "Alexandriad," and it is the 301st of the 5th book; it relates to the fate of Darius, who, flying from Alexander, fell into the hands of Bessus. It runs thus:--
"-- Quo flectis inertem Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis, Quem fugias; hostes incurris dum fugis hostem; _Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim_"
As honest JOHN BUNYAN, to his only bit of Latin which he quotes, places a marginal note: "The Latin which I borrow,"--a very honest way; so I I beg to say that I never saw this "Alexandriad," and that the above is an excerpt from _Menagiana_, pub. 1715, edited by Bertrand de la Monnoie, wherein may also be found much curious reading and research.
JAMES H. FRISWELL.
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A NOTE OF ADMIRATION!
Sir Walter Scott, in a letter to Miss Johanna Baillie, dated October 12, 1825, (Lockhart's _Life of Sir W. S._, vol. vi. p. 82.), says,--
"I well intended to have written from Ireland, but alas! as some stern old divine says, 'Hell is paved with good intentions.' There was such a whirl of laking, and boating, and wondering, and shouting, and laughing, and carousing--" [He alludes to his visiting among the Westmoreland and Cumberland lakes on his way home, especially] "so much to be seen, and so little time to see it; so much to