_America._--The probability of a short western passage to India is
mentioned in _Aristotle de Coelo_, ii., near the end.

F.Q.


_Pascal's Lettres Provinciales._--I take the liberty of forwarding to
you the following "Note," suggested by two curious blunders which fell
under my notice some time ago.

In Mr. Stamp's reprint of the Rev. C. Elliott's _Delineation of
Romanism_ (London, 8vo. 1844), I find (p. 471., in note) a long
paragraph on Pascal's _Lettres Provinciales_:--

"This exquisite production," says the English editor, "_is
accompanied, in some editions of it, with the learned and
judicious observations of Nicole_, who, under the fictitious
name of Guillaume Wendrock, has fully demonstrated the truths of
those facts which Pascal had advanced without quoting his
authorities; and has placed, in a full and striking light,
several interesting circumstances which that great man had
treated with perhaps too much brevity. _These letters ... were
translated into Latin by Ruchelius_."

From Mr. Stamp's remarks the reader is led to conclude that the _text_
of the _Lettres Provinciales_ {278} is accompanied in some editions by
observations of Wendrock (Nicole), likewise in the French language. Now
such an assertion merely proves how carelessly some annotators will
study the subjects they attempt to elucidate. Nicole _translated_ into
Latin the _Provincial Letters_; and the masterly disquisitions which he