and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken." "See Isaiah viii. 14, 15." The fifth line, "Ps. cxix. 165. Ezek. iii. 20." consists of scriptural references as to the cause and effect of loving the law, and vice versâ; the first reference being, "Great peace have they which love thy law, and no stumbling-block for them" [according to the original]. The second reference being, "Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand." The words in the sixth line, "A stumbling-block," evidently refer to 1 Cor. i. 23.: "But we preach Christ crucified; unto the Jews a stumbling-block." The "sculptor Israelite" may have feared that a reference to the New Testament would betray his motive, and therefore judged it prudent and expedient to omit it. The supposition that Bezaleel had 1 Cor. i. 23. in view is supported by the seventh line, "Beware of Him." The last line appears to be an appropriate conclusion; as the passage referred to describes the extent of the Lord's kingdom, as well as his reception by "all nations, tongues, and kindreds." "For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a peace offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. i. 11.

One may well imagine an Israelite or two observing from the road the Hebrew characters ר ש מ מ—for they are very large, and are seen afar off—and after puzzling over their intent and purport for some time, proceed to ask for an explanation from the major-domo. The master, delighted that the bait caught, vouchsafes, in his peculiarly eccentric style, to lecture on his own device, and thus reads to his brethren A SERMON IN STONE.[5]

MOSES MARGOLIOUTH.

[5] The writer was anxious to obtain some information respecting that curious relic from the inhabitants of the place: he was induced, therefore, to address a note of query to the present resident, of the house in question, Mr. G. C. Hague; but the following was the extent of the reply received:—"All I know of the sun-dial is this: It is told that a Jew, who was a mason, and assisted in putting up the front of Wentworth House, the mansion of the Earl Fitzwilliam, made the thing, and put it up during his leisure hours. This is all that I ever learned about it. I should be greatly obliged to you If you would inform me what the translation of the Hebrew characters is.—I am, Sir, yours, &c.
"G. C. HAGUE."

VALUE OF SHAKSPEARE'S LEAGUE.—MEANING OF SHIP.—LOG-SHIP.

So universal was Shakspeare's knowledge even of the arcana of other men's pursuits, that his commentators, in their anxiety to reduce his attainments to an ordinary standard, have attributed to him a sort of ubiquitous apprenticeship to all manner of trades and callings,—now a butcher,—now an attorney's clerk,—now a schoolmaster,—and anon a holder of horses at the theatre door, where doubtless he acquired that farrier-knowledge so profusely lavished upon Petruchio's charger in The Taming of the Shrew. Dr. Farmer, amongst other atrocities which have earned for him an unenviable immortality in connexion with Shakspeare's name, had the incredible folly to recognise, in the splendid image—

an allusion to skewer making! in which the rough-hewing was Shakspeare's, while his more skilful sire shaped the ends! Even Dr. Johnson cried "shop" at that passage of The Winter's Tale where Perdita, fearing lest Florizel's father might discover him "obscured with a swain's wearing," exclaims—

Whereupon the great critic utters this sapient apothegm, "It is impossible for any man to rid his mind of his profession"—meaning of course Shakspeare's profession of book making!

It is therefore surprising that none of them should have discovered a trace of Shakspeare in the occupation of ship-boy; since in no calling has he shown a more accurate knowledge of technicalities; and his seamanship has satisfied the strictest professional criticism. It is to this circumstance my attention is more especially directed at present by a singular blunder which I have observed in one of the illustrations to Knight's Illustrated Shakspeare.

The artist, W. Dicks, professes to illustrate Ægeon's description of his shipwreck, taking for his text these lines in the first scene of the Comedy of Errors:

But if he had studied the context he would have perceived that the "helpful ship" was not a goodly argosy, as he has depicted it, but "a small spare mast, such as seafaring men provide for storms."

Now, it must not be said that the inadvertence is Shakspeare's, because the term helpful, indicative of sudden resource, and these lines immediately following—

prove that Shakspeare never for a moment lost sight of the circumstances he was describing.

I was endeavouring to discover what particular nautical technicality might justify this application of ship in the sense of raft or float, when I recollected that sailors call the little float by which the log-line is held stationary in the water, by the term log-ship; and, by a rather singular coincidence, the origin of this very word log-ship is made the subject of comment in a recent number of "NOTES AND QUERIES" (p. 254.), by a West Indian correspondent, A. L., who thinks the term log-chip.

His story, however, if it be not altogether the offspring of his own ingenuity, appears quite unsupported by evidence; nor, even if authenticated, would it be conclusive of the inference he draws from it. For, surely, the same origin might be attributed to log itself, with equal, or even with greater probability. The very nature of log is, not only to float, but to remain sluggish or stationary in the water: and as it might not be convenient to provide a fresh log (or chip) for every occasion, there would be a clear advantage in tying a string to it, for the purpose of hauling it inboard again, to serve another turn. Moreover, I must remind A. L. that sailors do not say, "Heave the chip," but "Heave the log."

This same passage in the Comedy of Errors suggests another consideration; which is, that Shakspeare appears to have used league and mile synonymously. When Ægeon's "helpful ship" was "splitted in the midst," it was "ere the