CHAPTER CXXXIX. FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS TOLOGY. RELATING ΤΟ ONOMA Moreover there are many more things in the World than there are names for them; according to the saying of the Philosopher; Nomina sunt finita, res autem infinitæ; ideo unum nomen plura significat: which saying is by a certain, or rather uncertain, author approved: Multis speciebus non sunt nomina; idcirco necessarium est nomina fingere, si nullum ante erit nomen impositum. GWILLIM. NAMES, Reader, are serious things; and certain philosophers, as well as Mr. Shandy, have been to use the French-English of the day, deeply penetrated with this truth. The name of the Emperor of Japan is never known to his subjects during his life. And the people of ancient Rome never knew the true and proper name of their own City, which is indeed among the things that have utterly perished. It was concealed as the most awful of all mysteries, lest if it were known to the enemies of the City, they might by force of charms and incantations deprive it of the aid of its tutelary Gods.-As for that mystery which has occasioned among Hebrew Critics the Sect of the Adonists, I only hint thereat. Names, Reader, are serious things, so serious that no man since Adam has been able, except by special inspiration, to invent one which should be perfectly significant. Adan, antes que el bien le fuera oposito, Fue tan grande filosofo y dialectico, De nombres adorno tan a proposito Como quien tuvo espiritu profetico; Porque naturaleza en modo tacito Las causas descubrio a su beneplacito. Esta virtud tan alta fue perdiendose De los que del vinieron derivandose, En aplicar los nombres, y engañandose, * Cayrasco de Figueroa. Names, Reader, I repeat, are serious things: and much ingenuity has been exerted in inventing appropriate ones not only for man and beast, but for inanimate things. Godfathers and Godmothers, Navigators, Shipbuilders, Florists, Botanists, Chemists, Jockies, Feeders, Stage Coach-Proprietors, Quacks, Perfumers, Novelists and Dramatists have all displayed their taste in the selection of Names. More whimsically consorted names will seldom be found than among the Lodges of the Manchester Unity of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows-You find there Apollo and St. Peter; the Rose of Sharon, and the Rose of Cheetham; Earl Fitz-william, Farmer's Glory, and Poor Man's Protection; Philanthropic and Lord Byron, Lord John Russell and Good Intent; Queen Caroline (Bergami's Queen not George the Seconds) and Queen Adelaide. Reader be pleased to walk into the Garden with me. You see that bush,-what would you call the fruit which it bears?-The Gooseberry. But its more particular name?—Its botanical name is ribes-or grossularia, which you will Mr. Author.-Still Reader we are in generals. For you and I, and our wives and children, and all plain eaters of gooseberry-pie and gooseberry-fool, the simple name gooseberry might suffice. Not so for the scientific in gooseberries, the gooseberryologists. They could distinguish whether it were the King or the Duke of York; the Yellow Seedling or the Prince of Orange; Lord Hood or Sir Sidney Smith; Atlas or Hercules; the Green Goose or the Green Bob or the Green Chisel; the Colossus or the Duke of Bedford; Apollo or Tickle Toby; the Royal Oak or the Royal Sovereign; the Hero or the Jolly Smoaker; the Game Keeper or the Sceptre; the Golden Gourd or the Golden Lion, or the Gold-finder; Worthington's Conqueror or Somach's Victory; Robinson's Stump or Davenport's Lady; Blakeley's Chisel or Read's Satisfaction; Bell's Farmer or the Creeping Ceres; the White Muslin, the White Rose, the White Bear, the White Noble or the White Smith; the Huntsman, the Gunner, the Thrasher, the Viper, the Independent, the Glory of Eccles, or the Glory of England; Smith's Grim-Mask, Blomerly's John Bull, Hamlet's Beauty of England, Goodier's Nelson's Victory, Parkinson's Scarlet Virgin, Milling's Crown Bob, Kitt's Bank of England, Yeat's Wild-Man of the Wood, Davenport's Jolly Hatter, or Leigh's Fiddler.— For all these are Gooseberries: and yet this is none of them; it is the Old Ironmonger. Lancashire is the County in which the Gooseberry has been most cultivated; there is a Gooseberry book annually printed at Manchester; and the Manchester Newspapers recording the death of a person and saying that he bore a severe illness with Christian fortitude and resignation, add that he was much esteemed among the Class of Gooseberry Growers.-A harmless class they must needs be deemed, but even in growing Gooseberries emulation may be carried too far. The Royal Sovereign which in 1794 was grown by George Cook of Ashton near Preston which weighed seventeen pennyweights, eighteen grains, was thought a Royal Gooseberry at that day. But the growth of Gooseberries |