JANUS DOUSA.

Amsterdam, April, 1850.

* * * * *

VERSES ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES YORKE.

I have in my possession a MS. book, in his own handwriting, of the late Rev. MARTIN STAFFORD SMITH of Bath, formerly chaplain to BISHOP WARBURTON, containing, amongst other matter, a series of letters, and extracts of letters, from the amiable and gifted, but unfortunate, CHARLES YORKE, to Bishop Warburton.  At the close of this series, is the following note and extract:—­

“Verses transcribed from the original, in Mr. C. Yorke’s own writing, among his letters to Bishop Warburton; probably manuscript, and certainly his own composition:  written from the Shades.”

      “Stript to the naked soul, escaped from clay,
      From doubts unfetter’d, and dissolv’d in day,
      Unwarm’d by vanity, unreach’d by strife,
      And all my hopes and fears thrown off with life,—­{8}
      Why am I charm’d by Friendship’s fond essays,
      And, tho’ unbodied, conscious of thy praise? 
      Has pride a portion in the parted soul? 
      Does passion still the formless mind controul? 
      Can gratitude out-pant the silent breath,
      Or a friend’s sorrow pierce the glooms of death? 
      No; ’tis a spirit’s nobler taste of bliss,
      That feels the worth it left, in proofs like this;
      That not its own applause but thine approves,
      Whose practice praises, and whose virtue loves;
      Who lov’st to crown departed friends with fame,
      Then dying late, shalt all thou gav’st reclaim.”

It is my own impression, as well as that of an eminent critic to whom I communicated these lines, that they have been printed.  If any contributor to “NOTES AND QUERIES” can tell where they are to be found, or can throw any light on their authorship, it will gratify

THE EDITOR OF BP.  WARBURTON’S
LITERARY REMAINS.

Bath, May 18. 1850.

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CULTIVATION OF GEOMETRY IN LANCASHIRE.

It has been a frequent subject of remark, that geometry in its purest form has been cultivated in the northern counties, but more especially in Lancashire, with extraordinary ardour and success; and this by a class of men placed in a position the most unpropitious that can be conceived for the study—­by operatives of the humblest class, and these chiefly weavers.  The geometrical labours of these men would have gladdened the hearts of Euclid, Apollonius and Archimedes, and would have been chronicled by Pappus with his usual truthfulness and judicious commendation; had they only but so laboured in Greece, antecedently to, or cotemporarily with, those “fathers of geometry,” instead of in modern England, cotemporarily with the Hargreaves, the Peels, and the Arkwrights.  Yet not one in a thousand of your readers, perhaps, has ever heard of these men; and the visible