This note does not now appear in our Prayer Books, being omitted, I
suppose, in consequence {421} of the adoption of the new style in
England in 1752. The daily course of lessons used to begin, as it does
now, with the Book of Genesis and of St. Matthew, in January; the
collects, epistles, and gospels with those for Advent.

M.
Oxford.


_Paying through the Nose_ (No. 21. p. 335.).--I have always understood
this to be merely a degenerated pronunciation of the last word. Paying
through _the noose_ gives the idea so exactly, that, as far as the
etymology goes, it is explanatory enough. But whether _that_ reading has
an historical origin may be another question. It scarcely seems to need
one.

C.W.H.


_Quem Deus vult perdere, &c._ (No. 22. p. 351.).--The correct reading
is, "Quem Jupiter vult perdere, dementat prius." See Duport's
_Gnomologia Homerica_, p. 282. (Cantab. 1660.) Athenagoras quotes Greek
lines, and renders them in Latin (p. 121. Oxon. 1682):

"At dæmon homini quum struit aliquid malum,
Pervertit illi primitus mentem suam."

The word "dementat" is not to be met with, I believe, in the works of
any real classical author. Butler has employed the idea in part 3. canto