nis, diu silua."

Compare Sir T Browne's _Rel. Med._ s. 45.

Seneca, _Hercul. Oet._ 1102.

Ovid. _Metamorph._ lib. i. s. viii.

Diplilus as quoted by Dr. H. More, _Vision. Apoc._ vi. 9.

Cicero, _Acad._ lib. ii. 37. "Somn. Scipionis."

---- _de Nat. Deorum._ lib. ii. 46.

Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ lib. vii. cap. 16.

These are the opinions of writers before Christ; whether they were derived
from Scripture, it is not now my purpose to discuss. See also Lipsii
_Physiologia._ On the agreement of the systems of the Stoics, of the Magi,
and of the Edda, see Bishop Percy's Notes to Mallet's _Northern
Antiquities_, vol. ii.

The general conflagration and purgatorial fire were among the tenets of the
Sibylline books, and maintained by many Fathers of the Greek and Latin
churches down to the sixth century. See _Blondel on the Sibyls_, and
Arkudius _adversus_ Barlaam. Among modern writers on this subject, it will
be sufficient to name Magius _de Mundi Exustione_, Dr. H. More, and Dr T.
Burnet. Ray, in the third of his _Physico-Theological Discourses_,
discusses all the questions connected with the dissolution of the world.

T. J.

[Footnote 1: Magius, "that prodigy of learning en pure perte" (Villebrune),
concludes from the words of the text "the _heavens_ shall pass away," that
the _universe_ will be dissolved; but that it will undergo mutation only,
not annihilation.--Cf. Steuches _de Perenni Philosophia_, lib. x. ]

_Wraxen_, (Vol. ii., p. 207.).--G. W. SKYRING will find the following
explanation in Halliwell's _Dictionary of Provincial and Archaic Words_,
"to grow out of bounds, spoken of weeds," c. Kent. Certainly an expressive
term as used by the Kentish women.

J. D. A.

_Wraxen._--Probably analogous to the Northumbrian "_wrax_, wraxing,
wraxed," signifying to stretch or (sometimes) to sprain.

A peasant leaving overworked himself, would say he had _wraxed_ himself;
after sitting, would walk to _wrax_ his legs. Falling on the ice would have
_wraxed_ his arm; and of a rope that has stretched considerably, he would
say it had _wraxed a gay feck_.

It may possibly have come, as a corruption, from the verb _wax_, to grow.
It is a useful and very expressive word, although not recognised in polite
language.

S. T. R.

_Wraxen._--Rax or Wrax is a very common word in the north of England,
meaning to stretch, so that when the old Kentish woman told MR. SKYRING'S
friend her children were wraxen, she meant their mind