_Hordys_ (No. 5. p. 157.).--I have waited till now in hopes of seeing an
answer from some more competent pen than my own to the Query as to the
meaning of the word "_hordys_," by your correspondent "J.G.;" but having
been disappointed, I venture a suggestion which occurred to me
immediately on reading it, viz. that "_hordys_" might be some possible
or impossible derivation from _hordeum_, and applied "irreverently" to
the consecrated host, as though it were no better than a common
barley-cake.
Whether in those early days and in Ireland, the host was really made of
barley, and whether "hordys" was a name given to some kind of
barley-cake then in vogue, or (supposing my suggestion to be well
founded) a word coined for the occasion, may perhaps be worthy of
investigation.
A.R.
Kenilworth, April 5.
_Eachard's Tracts._--The Rev. George Wyatt, who inquires (No. 20. p.
320.) about Eachard's _Tracts_, will probably get all the information he
wants from the Life of Eachard prefixed to the collected edition of his
_Works_ in three volumes, which I am sorry I have not the means at
present of referring to.
"I.O.," to whom the last of the tracts is addressed, is Dr. John Owen.
Philatus (what objection is there to Latinising, in the usual way, the
Greek termination os?) is, of course, intended for Hobbes; and, to
convey Eachard's opinion of him, his opponent in the Dialogue is
Timothy, a God-honourer.
Let me add, as you have headed Mr. Wyatt's communication "Tracts
attributed to Eachard," thereby casting a doubt upon his authorship,
that there is no doubt about Dr. John Eachard being the author of all
the tracts which Mr. Wyatt enumerates; nor was there any concealment by
Eachard. His authorship of the _Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of
the Clergy_ is notorious. The "Epistle Dedicatory," signed "J.E.,"
mentioned by Mr. Wyatt as prefixed to the Dialogue on Hobbes' _State of
Nature_, refers also to the five subsequent letters. These were
published at the same time with the Dialogue on Hobbes, in one volume,
and are answers to attacks on the _Grounds and Occasions_, &c. The
Epistle Dedicatory is addressed to Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of
Canterbury, "and," says Eachard, "I hope my dialogue will not find the
less acceptance with your Grace for these Letters which follow after."
The second edition of the volume I have by me, published in 1672: the
title, _Mr. Hobbes's State of Nature considered, &c.; to which are
added, Five Letters from the Author of "The Grounds and Occasions of the
Contempt of the Clergy."_