d. This view
of the case seems to be supported by the fact of the dust and dross sifted
from spices being called "garbles." The weeder removes weeds from flowers
or plants, the garbler removes garbles from spices and bad bow staves from
amongst good ones. Richardson's _Dictionary_ contains the following notes
under the head _Garble_:

"Fr. _Grabeler_; It. _Garbellare_. Cotgrave says, Grabeller, to garble
spices, &c., (and hence) also to examine precisely, sift nearly, look
narrowly, search curiously into."

After giving some examples of its use, Richardson says:

"As usually applied in England, to garble is to pick out, sift out what
may serve a particular purpose, and thus destroy or mutilate the fair
character of the whole."

To go no farther, the reports of the parliamentary debates, when a "Blue
Book" happens to furnish matter for discussion, amply confirm Richardson's
definition, that _to garble_ is to pick out what may serve a purpose. In
this sense, however, E. S. T. T. must admit that it would be as much
garbling to quote all the _good_ passages of a work as to quote all the bad
ones. May we not then assume the present meaning of the word _garble_ to be
this--to quote passages with the view of conveying an impression of the
ability or intention of a writer, which is not warranted by the general
scope of the work?

C. ROSS.

_"Lyra Apostolica_" (Vol. ix., p. 304.).--There is, I believe, a slight
inaccuracy in the rotation of the names given at the above page as the
writers in the _Lyra Apostolica_. They go in alphabetical order, thus
[alpha], Bowden; [beta], Froude; [gamma], Keble; [delta], Newman;
[epsilon], Wilberforce; [zeta], Williams.

B. R. A. Y.

The poems signed [zeta]. were written by _Williams_, not by _Wilberforce_.

Can you explain the meaning of the motto on the title-page--

"[Greek: Gnoien d', hos de deron ego polemoio pepaumai]"?

M. D.

[This motto is from Homer, _Iliad_, xviii. 125. Its literal translation
is, They (the enemy) shall know that it was I who have long kept away
from the war," and, by implication, that I have now returned to it;
even I, the great hero Achilles; for he is the taunting speaker. Had it
not been for my absence, he intimates, the Trojans had not gained so
many and great victories. We must leave our correspondent to apply this
Homeric verse to the Protestant dark ages of the Georgian era, and to
the t