166
NOTES AND QUERIES. ens. XL FEB. 27, 1915.
Quoi ! des cohortes 6trangeres
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers ! Quoi 1 ces phalanges mercenaires
Terrasseraient nos fiers guerners 1 (bis) Grand Dieu I par des mains enchamees Nos fronts sous le joug se plolraient I De vils despotes deviendraient Les auteurs de nos destinies ! Aux armes, citoyens ! formez vos bataillons I Marchez, marchez ! qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons 1
Tremblez, tyrans ! et vous, perfides,
L'opprobre de tons les partis, Tremblez ! vos pro jets parricides
Vont enfin recevoir leur prix (bis). Tout est soldat pour yous combattre ; S'ils tombent, nos jeunes he'ros, La terre en produit de nouveaux Contre vous tout prets a se battre. Aux armes, citoyens ! formez vos bataillons 1 Marchez, marchez ! qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons !
Frangais ! en guerriers magnanimes
Portez ou retenez vos coups ; Epargnez ces tristes victimes
A regret s'arrnant centre nous ; (bis) Mais le despote sanguinaire Mais les complices de SouiHe" Tous ces tigres qui sans piti6 De'chirent le sein de leur mere ! Aux armes, citoyens ! formez vos bataillons ! Marchez, marchez ! qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons !
Amour sacre" de la patrie,
Conduis, soutiens nos bras veiigeurs ; Liberte\ Iibert6 ch^rie,
Combats avec tes defenseurs ! (bis) Sous nos drapeaux que la victoire Accoure a tes males accents ; Que tes ennemis expirants Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire ! Aux armes, citoyens ! formez vos bataillons ! Marchez, marchez ! qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons I
Nous entrerons dans la carriere
Quand nos ain^s n'y seront plus ; Nous y trouverons leur poussidre
Et la trace de.leurs vertus : (bis) Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre Que de partager leur cercueil, Nous aurons le sublime orgueil De les venger ou de les suivre. Aux armes, citoyens I formez vos bataillons 1 Marchez, marchez I qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons !
I have received inquiries as to the three lines which might not have been specially written within the last six months, and which bear the date-stamp of 1792; these -are:
Mais les complices "de Bouille" Tous ces tigres qui sans pi tie" De 1 ohirent le sein de leur mere.
JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.
DE QUINCE Y ON " TIME FOB DIRECT
INTELLECTUAL CULTURE." In De Quincey's
essay on ' Conversation ' there appears (on
pp. 163-4 of vol. xiii. of Black's edition) an
extraordinary blunder in the author's arith-
metic. He says, quite rightly, that in a life
of seventy years are 25,550 days plus leap
years ; but concludes that after deducting
one-third for sleep ; one-third for necessary
work ; over 7,000 days passed prior to twenty
years of age, and therefore negligible ; and
" the smallest allowance consistent with pro-
priety " for eating, drinking, washing (corpus
curare), you will have left " not so much as
4,000 days " for direct intellectual culture.
Now let us set the deduction ad corpus
curandum at just under an hour a day, and
we get another 1,000 days to be deducted
in seventy years. The figures then work
out approximately as follows :
ross number of days in
70 years 25,568
Deduct for sleep . . . . 8,522 Deduct for daily work and
recreation . . . . . . 8,522
Deduct for the years before
20 7,304
Deduct for eating, washing,
&c. (say) 1,065 25,413
155
Thus we shall have " for direct intellectual culture," instead of De Quincey's promised 4,000 days or thereabouts, a beggarly 155. Of course De Quincey's bases of calcula- ion can and must be radically altered, or no >ne could be " cultured " at all. But my >nly point is : How did De Qm'ncey, the areful, the critical, fall into so extraordinary a miscalculation ? C. A. DARLEY.
42, Irving Place, Blackburn.
CARDINAL BOURNE WITH THE BRITISH A.RMY IN FRANCE. The recent visit of Cardinal Bourne to the British Army in France is, I think, unique in the history of he army of this country. Bishops were requently with the English armies in nedlseval times ; but I cannot remember hat any English cardinal ever witnessed an ngagement before, as Cardinal B ^urne did . short time ago.
FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.
10, Essex Street, Norwich.
THE DEMOLITION OF No. 56, GREAT QUEEN >TREET, W.C. Yet another link with the >ast is, at the moment of writing, vanishing rom our ken by the aid of the pick and hovel in Great Queen Street, Kingsway. In Times of 30 Jan. last a letter was