le letter of the original word
remains: the natural affinity between the two letters, as _medials_, is
evident, as in the following examples, all of which, with one exception,
are Latin derivatives: _empty_, _peremptory_, _sumptuous_,
_presumptuous_, _exemption_, _redemption_, and _sempstress_ and again,
in the words _tempt_, _attempt_, _contempt_, _exempt_, _prompt_,
_accompt_, _comptroller_ (vid. Walker's _Prin. of Eng. Pron._ pp. 42,
43.); in all which instances however, the _p_ is mute, so that "Mary" is
avenged for its being the accomplice in the desecration of her gentle
name into "Polly." Many names of the other sex lose their initials in
the diminutive; as,

_R_ichard _D_ick
_R_obert _B_ob
_W_illiam _B_ill
_E_dward _N_ed
_C_hristopher _K_it
_R_oger _H_odge,

and probably many others; but I have no list before me, and these are
all that occur.

Philologos.
Deanery of Gloucester, Shrove Tuesday, 1850.

* * * * *

PARALLEL PASSAGES OR PLAGIARISMS IN CHILDE HAROLD.

Permit me to add two further plagiarisms or parallel passages on the
subject of _Childe Harold_ to those already contributed by your valuable
correspondent "Melanion."

Mrs. Radcliffe (who I am informed was never out of England) is
describing in her _Mysteries of Udolpho_, Chap. xvi. the appearance of
Venice. "Its terraces, crowded with airy, yet majestic fabrics touched
as they now were with the splendour of the setting sun, appeared as if
they had been _called up from the Ocean by the wand of an enchanter_."

In the 1st stanza of the 4th canto of _Childe Harold_ we have the well
known lines--

"I stood in Venice on the bridge of sighs,
A palace and a prison on each hand:
I saw from out the wave her structures rise
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand."

In one of his letters Lord Byron tells us of his fondness for the above
novel.

Again in Kirke White's _Christiad_--

"The lyre which I in early days have strung,
And now my spirits faint, and I have hung
The shell that solaced me in saddest hour
On the dark cypress--"

May be compared with the last stanza but one of the 4th canto.

T.R.M.

* * * * * {300}

INEDITED LINES BY ROBERT BURNS.

The following lines by Robert Burns have never appeared in any
collection of his works. They were given to me some time ago at Chatham
Barracks by Lieut. Colonel Fergusson, R.