Deo Favente vere Faber", &c.

The above is copied from the original diploma, which Mr. Randle Wilbraham
gave to his nephew, the late Dr. William Falconer of Bath. On the death of
Mr. R. Wilbraham, Chief Justice Wilmot wrote "I have lost my old friend Mr.
Wilbraham: he died in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and has not left
a better lawyer, or an honester man behind him."

ANON.

_Unpublished Epigram by Sir W. Scott._--

"Earth walks on Earth,
Glittering in gold:
Earth goes to Earth,
Sooner than it wold:
Earth builds on Earth,
Palaces and towers:
Earth says to Earth:
Soon, all shall be ours."

The above, by Sir W. Scott, I _believe_, has never appeared in print to my
knowledge. It was recited to me by a friend of Sir W. Scott.

R. VINCENT.

_Crassus' Saying._--I find in the Diary of the poet Moore (in Lord John
Russell's edition), vol. ii. p. 148., a conversation recorded with Dr.
Parr, in which the Doctor quotes "the witticism that made Crassus laugh
(the only time in his life): 'Similes habent labra lactucas.'"

It appears (see the quotations in Facciolati) that this sage and
laughter-moving remark of Crassus was made on seeing an ass eating a
thistle; whereon he exclaimed, "Similes habent labra lactucas."

In Bailey's edition of Facciolati it is said, "Proverbium habet locum ubi
similia similibus contingunt,... quo sensu Angli dicimus, 'Like lips like
lettuce: like priest like people.'"

Out of this explanation it is difficult to elicit any sense, much less any
"witticism."

I suggest that Crassus' saying meant, "His (the ass's) lips hold thistles
and lettuces to be both alike;" wanting the discrimination to distinguish
between them. Or, if I may put it into a doggerel rhyme:

"About a donkeys taste why need we fret us?
To lips like his a thistle is a lettuce."

WM. EWART.

University Club.

* * * * * {499}

Queries.

BEES AND THE SPHYNX ATROPOS.

Huber, in his _Observations on the Natural History of Bees_, avers that the
moth called the _Sphynx atropos_ invades and plunders with impunity a hive
containing thousands of bees, notwithstanding the watchfulness, pugnacity,
and formidable weapons of those insects. To account for this phenomenon, he
states that the queen bee has the faculty of emitting a certain sound which
instantly strikes the bees motionless; and he conjectures that this
burglarious moth, being endowed w