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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61,
+No. 380, June, 1847, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 380, June, 1847
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: August 29, 2008 [EBook #26484]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, MAY, 1847 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Josephine
+Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+No. CCCLXXX. JUNE, 1847. Vol. LXI.
+
+
+
+
+NORTH AMERICA, SIBERIA, AND RUSSIA.[A]
+
+
+The circumnavigation of the world is now a matter of ordinary occurrence
+to our bold mariners: and after a few years it will be a sort of summer
+excursion to our steamers. We shall have the requisitions of the
+Travellers' Club more stringent as the sphere of action grows wider; and
+no man will be eligible who has not paid a visit to Pekin, or sunned
+himself in Siam.
+
+But a circuit of the globe on _terra firma_ is, we believe, new. Sir
+George Simpson will have no competitor, that we have ever heard, to
+claim from him the honour of having first galloped right a-head--from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Pacific to the British
+Channel. One or two slight divergencies of some thousand miles down the
+smooth and sunny bosom of the Pacific, are to be reckoned as mere
+episodes: but Sir George soon recovers his course, plunges in through
+the regions of the polar star; defies time, trouble, and Tartary;
+marches in the track of tribes, of which all but the names have expired;
+follows the glories of conquerors, whose bones have mingled five hundred
+years ago with the dust of the desert; gives a flying glance on one side
+towards the Wall of China, and on the other towards the Arctic Circle;
+still presses on, till he reaches the confines of the frozen
+civilisation of the Russian empire; and sweeps along, among bowing
+governors and prostrate serfs,--still but emerging from barbarism--until
+he does homage to the pomp of the Russian court, and finally lands in
+the soil of freedom, funds, and the income tax.
+
+What the actual object of all this gyration may have been, is not
+revealed, nor, probably, _revealable_ by a "Governor of the Hudson's Bay
+territories," who, having the fear of _other_ governors before his eyes,
+dedicates his two handsome volumes to "The Directors of the Hudson's Bay
+Company;" but the late negotiations on Oregon, the Russian interest in
+the new empire rising on the shore of the Northern Pacific, the vigorous
+efforts of Russia to turn its Siberian world into a place of human
+habitancy, and the unexpected interest directed to those regions by the
+discovery of gold deposits which throw the old wealth of the Spanish
+main into the shade, _might_ be sufficient motives for the curiosity of
+an individual of intelligence, and for the anxious inquiries of a great
+company, bordering on two mighty powers in North America, both of them
+more remarkable for the vigour of their ambition than for the reverence
+of their hunters and fishers for the _jus gentium_.
+
+Those volumes, then, will supply a general and a very well conceived
+estimate of immense tracts of the globe, hitherto but little known to
+the English public. The view is clear, quick, and discriminative. The
+countries of which it gives us a new knowledge are probably destined to
+act with great power on our interests, some as the rivals of our
+commerce, some as the dep�ts of our manufactures, and some as the
+recipients of that overflow of population which Europe is now pouring
+out from all her fields on the open wilderness of the world.
+
+This spread of emigration to the north is a curious instance of the
+reflux of the human tide; for, from the north evidently was Europe
+originally peopled. Japhet was a powerful propeller; and often as he has
+dwelt in the tents of Shem, he is likely to overwhelm the whole
+territory of the southern brother once more. The Turk, the Egyptian, the
+man of Asia Minor, the man of Thrace, will yet be but tribes in that
+army of the new Xerxes which, pouring from Moscow, and impelled from St
+Petersburg, will renew the invasions of Genghiz and Tamerlane, and try
+the civilized strength of the west against the wild courage and
+countless multitudes of Tartary. Into this strange, but important, and
+prospectively powerful country, we now follow the traveller. Embarking
+from Liverpool in the Caledonia, a vessel of 1300 tons and 450 horse
+power, he was amply prepared to face the perils of the most stormy of
+all oceans, the Atlantic. The run across lad the usual fortunes of all
+voyages, and within a week after their departure from _terra firma_ they
+saw a whale, who saw them with rather more indifference, for he lay
+lounging on the surface until the steamer had nearly run over him. At
+last he dived down, and was seen no more. Next day, while there was so
+little wind, that all their light canvass was set, they saw the
+phenomenon of a ship under close-reefed topsails. This apparent timidity
+was laughed at by some of the passengers, but the more experienced
+guessed that the vessel had come out of a gale, of which they were
+likely to have a share before long, a conjecture which was soon
+verified.
+
+On the morning of the 9th day, the captain, discovering that the
+barometer had fallen between two and three inches during the night, due
+preparations were of course made to meet the storm. It came on in the
+afternoon, a hurricane. Then followed the usual havock of boats and
+canvass, the surges making a clean breach over the deck; the passengers,
+of course, gave themselves up for lost, and even the crew are said to
+have been pretty nearly of the same opinion. However, the wind went down
+at last, the sea grew comparatively smooth, and in twenty-four hours
+more, they found themselves on the banks of Newfoundland. The writer
+thinks that it was fortunate for them that the storm had not caught them
+in the short swell of these shallow waters, as was probably the case of
+the President, whose melancholy fate so long excited, and still excites
+a feeling of surprise and sorrow in the public mind.
+
+It was lost in this very storm. Next day came another of the sea
+wonders. The cry of land started them all from the dinner table; but the
+land happened to be an immense field of ice, which, with the
+inequalities of its surface and the effect of refraction, presented some
+appearance of a wooded country. On that night the cry of "Light a-head,"
+while they were still several hundred miles from land, excited new
+astonishment. "All the knowing ones" clearly distinguished a magnificent
+revolver. The paddles were accordingly stopped to have a cast of the
+lead, but in another half hour it was ascertained that the revolver was
+a newly risen star.
+
+At length land was really seen, and after a run of fourteen days, they
+cast anchor in the harbour of Halifax. But as Boston was their true
+destination they steered for it at once. Their progress had been rapid,
+for they entered Boston Bay in thirty-six hours from Halifax, a distance
+of 390 miles. Boston is more English looking than New York. The gently
+undulating shores of the bay, highly cultivated, bring to memory the
+green hills of England, and within the town the buildings and the
+inhabitants have a peculiarly English air.
+
+As speed was an object, the party immediately left the town by the
+railway, passing through Lowell and reaching Nashua. This is one of the
+rapid growths of America. In 1819 this place was a village of but
+nineteen houses. It now contains 19,000 inhabitants, with churches,
+hotels, prisons, and banks. Here the party went off in two detachments,
+one in a sleigh with six horses, and the other rattled along in a
+coach-and-four. At the next stage the author exchanged the coach for a
+sleigh, a matter of no great importance to the world, but which may be
+mentioned as a caution against rash changes. For the first few miles the
+new conveyance went on merrily, and the passengers congratulated
+themselves on their wisdom. We must now let him speak for himself.
+
+"The sun, as the day advanced, kept thawing the snow, till at last, on
+coming to a deep drift, we were repeatedly obliged to get out, sometimes
+walking up to the knees, and sometimes helping to lift the vehicle out
+of the snow. However, at length we fairly stuck fast, in spite of all
+our hauling and pushing. The horses struggled and plunged to no purpose,
+excepting that the leaders, after breaking part of their tackle,
+galloped off over the hills and far away, leaving us to kick our heels
+in the slush, till they were brought back after a chase of several
+miles."
+
+The road now passed through Vermont, the state of green mountains. The
+country appeared striking; and Montpelier, where they breakfasted, seems
+to be a very pretty place, looking more the residence of hereditary ease
+and luxury, than the capital of a republic of thrifty graziers. It is,
+in fact, an assemblage of villas; the wide streets run between rows of
+trees, and the houses, each in its own little garden, are shaded by
+verandas.
+
+In that very pleasant little book, the "Miseries of Human Life," one of
+those small calamities is, the being called at the wrong hour to go off
+in the wrong coach from a Yorkshire inn. Time and the railroad have
+changed all this in England, but in America we have the primitive misery
+well described.
+
+The author, after forty-two hours of hard jolting, goes to bed at one
+o'clock to obtain a little repose, leaving orders to be called at five
+in the morning. He is wrapt in the profoundest of all possible slumbers,
+when a peal of blows is heard at his door. "In spite, however, of
+laziness, and a cold morning to boot," he says, "I had completed the
+operations of washing and dressing by candlelight, having even donned
+hat and gloves, to join my companions, when the waiter entered my room
+with a grin. 'I guess,' said the rascal, 'I have put my foot in it. Are
+you the man that wanted to be called at two?' 'No,' was my reply.
+'Then,' said he, 'I calculate I have fixed the wrong man, so you had
+better go to bed again.' Having delivered himself of this friendly
+advice, he went to awaken my neighbour, who had all this time been
+quietly enjoying the sleep that properly belonged to me. Instead of
+following the fellow's recommendation, I sat up for the rest of the
+night." Whether the author possessed a watch we cannot tell, but if he
+was master of that useful and not very rare article, he might have saved
+himself his premature trouble, and escaped shaving at midnight.
+
+On crossing into the Canadian territory, he encounters one of those
+evidences of popular liberty which belong to rather the American than
+the English side. In the village of St John's, some of the party went
+a-head to the principal inn, and as it was late at night, and their
+knocking produced no effect, they appealed to what they regarded as the
+most accessible of the landlord's susceptibilities, his pocket, by
+saying that they were fourteen, more coming, with a whole host of
+drivers. This appeal was the most unlucky possible, for the landlord had
+another sensibility, the fear of being tarred and feathered, if not
+hanged. On the door being opened at last, the landlord was not to be
+found; his brother wandered about, the very ghost of despair. The
+establishment was searched upside and downside, inside and outside, in
+vain; and they began to think themselves the cause of some domestic
+tragedy; but it must have been a late perpetration, for on looking into
+his bed, they found the lair warm.
+
+However, after a short time, mine host returned with a face all smiles.
+The mystery was then explained. The election had taken place during the
+day, and the landlord, having taken the part of the candidate who
+eventually succeeded, was threatened with vengeance by the losing party.
+The arrival of the travellers convinced him that his hour was come, and
+he had jumped out of bed and hidden himself in some inscrutable corner.
+But a good supper reconciled every thing.
+
+The author crossed the ice to Montreal, and had a showy view of the
+metropolis of the Canadas. A curious observation is suggested by
+Montreal, on the different characters of the English and French
+population. In the days of Wolf and Amherst, it was all French; but
+John Bull, with his spirit of activity and industry, has quietly become
+master of all the trading situations of the city, while the French have
+as quietly retreated, and spread themselves through the upper sections
+of it, to a great degree cut off from its commercial portions.
+
+From Montreal the travel began. The heavy canoes were sent forward some
+days before, under the charge of some of the Company's officers, the
+light canoes waited for the author, with Colonel Oldfield, chief
+engineer in Canada, who was going up the country on a survey of the
+navigation, and the Earls of Mulgrave and Caledon, who were going to the
+Red River, buffalo-hunting.
+
+All was now ready in form, and on the 4th of May the two canoes were
+floating on the Lactrine canal. The crews, thirteen to one vessel, and
+fourteen to the other, were partly Canadians, but principally Iroquois.
+Those _voyageurs_, as they are called, had each been supplied with a
+feather in his cap, in honour of the occasion, and evidently expected to
+produce a _sensation_ on shore. But a north-wester blowing prevented the
+hoisting of their flags, which mulcted the pageant of much of its
+intended glory. These canoes are thirty-five feet in length, and five
+feet wide in the centre; drawing about eighteen inches water, and
+weighing between three and four hundred pounds; capitally fitted for a
+navigation among rocks, rapids, and portages; but they seem most
+uncomfortable in rough weather. The waves of the St Lawrence rolled like
+a sea, the gale was biting, and the snow drifted heavily in the faces of
+the party. In this luckless condition, we are not surprised at the
+intelligence, that at St Anne's Rapids, notwithstanding the authority of
+the poet, "they sang no evening hymn."
+
+This style of travelling was not certainly much mingled with luxury.
+Next morning, after "toiling for six hours," they breakfasted, "with the
+wet ground for their table, and with rain in place of milk to cool their
+tea." On this day, while running close under the falls of the Rideau,
+they seem to have had a narrow escape from a _finale_ to their voyage;
+their canoes being swept into the middle of the river, under an immense
+fall, fifty feet in height.
+
+They now learned the art of _bivouaching_, and after a day of toiling
+through portages, reserving the severest of them, the Grand Calumet, for
+the renewed vigour of the morning, they made ready for the forest night.
+The description, brief as it is, is one among many which shows the
+_artist_ eye.
+
+"The tents were pitched in a small clump of pines, while round a blazing
+fire the passengers were collected, amid a medley of boxes, barrels,
+cloaks, and on the rock above the foaming rapids were lying the canoes;
+the men flitting about the fires as if they were enjoying a holiday, and
+watching a huge cauldron suspended above the fire. The whole with a
+background of dense woods and a lake."
+
+Yet, startling as this "wooing of nature" in her rough moods may seem to
+the silk-and-velvet portion of the world, we doubt whether this wild
+life, with its desperate toil and its ground sleep, may not be the true
+charm of travel to saint, savage, or sage, when once fairly forced to
+the experiment. The blazing fire, the bed of leaves, the gay supper,
+made gayer still by incomparable appetite, and the sleep after all, in
+which the whole outward man remains imbedded, without the movement of a
+muscle and without a dream, until the morning awakes him up a new being,
+are fully worth all the inventions of art, to make us enjoy rest
+unearned by fatigue, and food without waiting for appetite. "The sleep
+of the weary man is sweet," said the ancient and wise king who slept
+among curtains of gold, and under roofs of cedar; the true way to taste
+that sleep is to spend a day, dragging canoes up Indian portages, and
+lie down with one's feet warmed by a pine blaze and one's back to the
+shelter of a forest.
+
+But, as the time will assuredly come when this "life in the woods" will
+be no more, when huge inns will supersede the canopy of the skies, and
+down beds will make the memory of birch twigs and heather blossoms pass
+away, we give from authority the proceedings of an evening's rest, which
+the next generation will study with somewhat of the feeling of reading
+Tacitus De Moribus Germanorum.
+
+As the sun approached his setting, every eye in the canoes, as they
+pulled along, was speculating on some dry and tolerably open spot on the
+shore. _That_ once found, all were on shore in an instant. Then the axe
+was heard ringing among the trees, to prepare for the fires, and make
+room for the tents. In ten minutes, the tents were pitched, the fires
+blazing in front of each, and the supper preparing in all its
+diversities. The beds were next made, consisting of an oil-cloth laid on
+the ground, with blankets and a pillow; occasionally aided by
+great-coats, _� discretion_. The crews, drawing the canoes on shore,
+first made an inspection of their hurts during the day; and having done
+this, the little vessels were turned into a shelter, and each man
+wrapping himself in his blanket defied the weather and the world.
+
+But this state of happiness was never destined to last long. About _one_
+in the morning, the cry, of "_Leve_, _leve_," broke all slumbers. We
+must acknowledge that the hour seems premature, and that the most
+patient of travellers might have solicited a couple of hours more of
+"tired Nature's sweet restorer." But the discipline of the bivouac was
+Spartan. If the slumberer did not instantly start up, the tent was
+pulled down about him, and he found himself half-smothered in canvass.
+However, we must presume that this seldom happened, and, within half an
+hour, every thing would be packed, the canoes laden, and the paddles
+moving to some "merry old song." In this manner passed the day, six
+hours of rest, to eighteen of labour, a tremendous disproportion, even
+to the sturdy Englishman, or the active Irishman, but perfectly
+congenial to the sinews and spirit of the gay _voyageur_.
+
+A few touches more give the complete picture of the day. About eight, a
+convenient site would be selected for breakfast. Three-quarters of an
+hour being the whole time allotted for unpacking and packing, boiling
+and frying, eating and drinking. "While the preliminaries were
+arranging, the _hardier_ among us would wash and shave, each person
+carrying soap and towel in his pocket, and finding a _mirror_ in the
+same sandy or rocky basin which held the water. About two in the
+afternoon, we put ashore for dinner, and as this meal needed no fire,
+or, at least, got none, it was not allowed to occupy more than twenty
+minutes, or half an hour."
+
+We recommend the following considerations to the amateur boat clubs, and
+others, who plume themselves on their naval achievements between Putney
+and Vauxhall bridges. Let them take the work of a Canadian paddle-man to
+heart, and lower their plumage accordingly.
+
+"The quality of the work, even more than the quantity, requires
+operatives of iron mould. In smooth water, the paddle is plied with
+twice the rapidity of the oar, taxing both arms and lungs to the utmost
+extent. Amid shallows, the canoe is literally dragged by the men, wading
+to their knees or their loins, while each poor fellow, after replacing
+his drier half in his seat, laughingly strikes the heavier of the wet
+from his legs over the gunwale, before he gives them an inside berth. In
+rapids, the towing line has to be hauled along over rocks and stumps,
+through swamps and thickets, excepting that when the ground is utterly
+impracticable, poles are substituted, and occasionally also the bushes
+on the shore."
+
+This however is "plain sailing," to the Portages, where the tracks are
+of all imaginable kinds and degrees of badness, and the canoes and their
+cargoes are never carried across in less than two or three trips; the
+little vessels alone monopolizing, in the first turn, the more expert
+half of their respective crews. Of the baggage, each man has to carry at
+least two pieces, estimated at a hundred and eighty pounds weight, which
+he suspends in slings placed across his forehead, so that he may have
+his hands free, to clear his way among the branches and standing or
+fallen trunks. Besides all this, the _voyageur_ performs the part of
+bridge, or jetty, on the arrival of the canoe at its place of rest, the
+gentlemen passengers being carried on shore on the backs of these
+good-humoured and sinewy fellows.
+
+For the benefit of the untravelled, we should say, that a Portage is the
+fragment of land-passage between the foot and head of a rapid, when the
+rush of the stream is too strong for the tow-rope.
+
+At one of the halting-places on Lake Superior, a curious tale was told
+of the Indian's belief in a Providence, of which it had been the scene.
+
+Three or four years before, a party of Salteaux, much pressed for
+hunger, were anxious to reach one of their fishing stations, an island
+about twenty miles from the shore. The spring had unluckily reached that
+point, when there was neither clear water, nor trustworthy ice. A
+council was being held, to consider the hard alternatives of drowning
+and starving, when an old man of influence thus spoke:
+
+"You know, my friends, that the Great Spirit gave one of our squaws a
+child yesterday; now, he cannot have sent it into the world to take it
+away again directly. I should therefore recommend the carrying the child
+with us, as the pledge of safety."
+
+We wish that we could have to record a successful issue to this
+anticipation. But the transit was too much for the metaphysics of the
+old Indian. They went on the treacherous ice, it gave way, and
+eight-and-twenty perished.
+
+The Thunder Mountain on their route, struck them as "one of the most
+appalling objects" which they had seen, being a bleak rock twelve
+hundred feet high above the level of the lake, with a perpendicular face
+of its full height. The Indians say, that any one who can scale it, and
+"turn three times on the brink of its fearful wall, will live for ever."
+We presume, by dying first.
+
+But the shores of this mighty lake, or rather fresh-water sea, which
+seemed destined to loneliness for ever, are now likely to hear the din
+of population and blaze with furnaces and factories. Its southern coasts
+are found to possess rich veins of copper and silver. Later inquiry has
+discovered on the northern shore "inexhaustible treasures of gold,
+silver, copper, and tin," and associations have been already formed to
+work them. Sir George Simpson even speaks of the future probability of
+their rivalling in point of wealth the Altai chain, and the Uralian
+mountains.
+
+From Fort William, at the head of Lake Superior, the little expedition
+entered a river with a polysyllabic name, which leads farther on, to the
+"Far West." The banks were beautiful. When this country shall be
+peopled, it will be one of the resemblances of the primitive paradise.
+
+It is all picturesque; the river finely diversified with rapids, and
+with one cataract which, though less in volume than Niagara, throws that
+far-famed fall into the background, in point of height and wildness of
+scenery. But we must leave description to the author's pen. "The river,
+during this day's march, passed through forests of elm, oak, birch, &c.,
+being studded with isles not less fertile and lovely than its banks. And
+many a spot reminded us of the rich and quiet scenery of England. The
+paths of the numerous portages were spangled with roses, violets, and
+many other wild flowers--while the currant, the gooseberry, the
+raspberry, the plum, the cherry, and even the vine, were abundant. All
+this bounty of nature was imbued, as it were, with life, by the cheerful
+notes of a variety of birds, and by the restless flutter of butterflies
+of the brightest hues." He then makes the natural and graceful
+reflection--
+
+"One cannot pass through this fair valley without feeling that it is
+destined to become, sooner or later, the happy home of civilised men,
+with their bleating flocks, and their lowing herds--with their schools
+and their churches--with their full garners, and their social hearths.
+At the time of our visit, the great obstacle in the way of so blessed a
+consummation was the hopeless wilderness to the eastward, which seemed
+to bar for ever the march of settlement and cultivation, but which will
+soon be an open road to the far west with all its riches. That
+wilderness, now that it is to yield up its long-hidden stores, bids fair
+to remove the impediments which hitherto it has itself presented. The
+mines of Lake Superior, besides establishing a continuity of route
+between the East and the West, will find their nearest and cheapest
+supply of agricultural produce in the valley of the Kaministaquoia."
+
+One of the especial hazards of the forest now encountered them. Passing
+down a narrow creek near _Lac le Pluie_, fire suddenly burst forth in
+the woods near them. The flames crackling and clambering up each tree,
+quickly rose above the forest; within a few minutes more the dry grass
+on the very margin of the waters, was in "a running blaze, and before
+they were clear of the danger, they were almost enveloped in clouds of
+smoke and ashes. These conflagrations, often caused by a wanderer's
+fire, or even by his pipe, desolate large tracts of country, leaving
+nothing but black and bare trunks, one of the most dismal scenes on
+which the eye can look. When once the fire gets into the thick turf of
+the primeval wilderness, it sets every thing at defiance. It has been
+known to smoulder for a whole winter under the deep snow."
+
+Another Indian display quickly followed. After traversing the lake, they
+were hailed by the warriors of the Salteaux, a band of about a hundred,
+the fighting men of a tribe of five hundred. Their five chiefs presented
+a congratulatory address on their safe arrival, requesting an audience,
+which was appointed, at the rather undiplomatic hour of _four_ next
+morning. But, while the Governor was slumbering, the Indians were
+preparing means of persuasion more effective, in their conceptions, than
+even the oratory on which they seem to pride themselves very
+highly--"while they were napping, the enemy were pelting away at them
+with their incantations."
+
+In the centre of a conjuring tent--a structure of branches and bark,
+forty feet in length by ten in width--they kindled a fire; round the
+blaze stood the chiefs and "medicine men," while as many others as could
+find room were squatted against the walls. Then, to enlighten and
+convert the Governor, charms were muttered, rattles were shaken, and
+offerings were committed to the flames. After all these operations the
+silent spectators, at a given signal, started on their feet and marched
+round the magic circle, singing, whooping, and drumming in horrible
+discord. With occasional intervals, which were spent by the performers
+in taking fresh air, the exhibition continued during the whole night, so
+that when the appointed hour arrived they were still engaged in their
+observances. At length the two parties met in the open square of the
+fort. The Indians dressed in all their glory, a part of which consists
+in smearing their faces entirely out of sight with colours--the
+prevailing fashion being, forehead white, nose and cheeks red, mouth and
+chin black.
+
+The Governor and his party of course made their best effort to meet all
+this magnificence. Lord Caledon and Lord Mulgrave exhibited in
+regimentals; the rest put on their _dressing-gowns_, which, being of
+showy patterns, were equally effective. Seated in the "hall of
+conference," the pipes being sent round, hands shaken, and all due
+ceremonial having been performed, the Indian orator commenced his
+harangue in the style with which we have now become familiar. Beginning
+with the creation, &c. &c., which Sir George cut short, and suddenly
+dropping down into the practical complaint, "that we had stopped their
+rum," though our predecessors had promised to furnish it "as long as the
+waters flowed down the rapids." "Now," said he, in allusion to our empty
+casks, "if I crack a nut, will water flow from it?"
+
+The Governor replied, that the withdrawal of the rum was _not_ to save
+expense but to benefit them. He then gave them his advice on temperance,
+and promised them a small quantity of rum every autumn. He also promised
+a present for their civility in bringing their packet of furs, for which
+they should receive payment besides. Then followed a general and final
+shaking of hands, and the Congress between the English and Chippaway
+nations broke up to their mutual satisfaction.
+
+The Red River settlement, of which we heard so often during the quarrels
+between Lord Selkirk and the Company, will yet be a great colony; the
+soil is very fertile (one of the most important elements of
+colonisation,) its early tillage producing forty returns of wheat; and,
+even after twenty years of tillage, without manure, fallow, or green
+crop, yielding from fifteen to twenty-five bushels an acre. The wheat
+is plump and heavy, and, besides, there are large quantities of other
+grain, with beef, mutton, pork, butter, cheese, and wool in abundance.
+This would be the true country for emigration from our impoverished
+islands, and will, of course, be crowded when conveyances shall become
+more manageable. A railroad across Canada must still be a rather Utopian
+conception, but it might be well worth the expense of making by
+government, even though it produced nothing for the next half-dozen
+years, for the multitudes whom it would carry through the heart of this
+superb country in the half-dozen years after, and for the wealth which
+they would pour into England in every year to come.
+
+The settlement, however, meets, in its turn, the common chances of an
+American climate. In winter the cold is intense. The summer is short,
+and the rivers sometimes overflow and drown the crops. Still what are
+these things to the population, where food is plenty, the air healthy,
+and the ground cheap, fertile and untaxed. In fact, the difficulties, in
+such instances, are scarcely more than incitements to the ingenuity of
+man, to provide resources against them. The season of snow is a time of
+cheerfulness in every land of the north. In Denmark, Russia, and Canada,
+when the rivers close up, business is laid by for the next six months;
+and the time of dancing, driving, and feasting begins. Food is the great
+requisite; when that is found, every thing follows.
+
+In addition to agriculture, or in place of it, the settlers, more
+particularly those of mixed origin, devote the summer, the autumn, and
+sometimes the winter also, to the hunting of the buffalo, bringing home
+vast quantities of pemmican, dried meat, grease, tongues, &c. for which
+the Company and voyaging business affords the best market.
+
+The party now proceeded, still with their faces turned to the west, and
+marched for some days over an immense prairie, which seemed to them to
+have been once the bottom of a huge lake. A rather striking circumstance
+is, that nearly every height in this region has its romance of savage
+life. We give one of murder, for the benefit of the modern school of
+novelists.
+
+Many summers ago, a party of Assinabaians fell on a party of Crees in
+the neighbourhood of the Beatte a Carcajar, a conspicuous knoll in this
+neighbourhood, and nearly destroyed them all. Among the assailants was
+the former wife of one of the Crees, who had been carried off from him,
+in an earlier foray, by her present lord and master. From whatever
+motive of domestic memory, this Amazon rushed into the thickest of the
+fight, for the evident purpose of killing the original husband. He,
+however, escaped; and while the victors were scalping his unfortunate
+companions, creeping stealthily along for a whole day under cover of the
+woods, he laid down at night in a hollow at the top of the Knoll. But
+his wife had never lost sight of him, and no sooner had he, in the
+exhaustion of hunger and fatigue, sunk into a sound sleep, than she sent
+an arrow into his brain. She then possessed herself of his scalp, and
+exhibited it as her prize to the victors. The title of the slain savage
+was the Wolverine, and the spot is still called the Wolverine's Knoll.
+
+The Indians assert that the ghosts of the murderess and her victim are
+often to be seen struggling on the height.
+
+Human nature, left to itself, is a fierce and frightful thing; and the
+stories of savage life are nearly all of the same calibre, and all
+exhibit a dreadful love of revenge. About twenty years ago, a large
+encampment of Black-feet and others, had been formed in those prairies
+for the purpose of hunting. The warriors, however, growing tired of
+their peaceful occupation, resolved to make an incursion into the lands
+of the Assinabaians. They left behind them the old men with the women
+and children. After a successful campaign, they turned their steps
+homewards, loaded with scalps and other spoils, and on reaching the top
+of the ridge that overlooked their camp, they gave note of their
+approach by the usual shouts of victory. But no shout answered, and on
+descending to their huts, they found the whole of the inmates
+slaughtered. The Assinabaians had been there to take their revenge.
+
+On beholding the dismal scene, the triumphant warriors cast away their
+spoils, arms, and clothing, and then putting on robes of leather, and
+smearing their heads with mud, they betook themselves to the hills for
+three days and nights, to howl and moan, and cut their flesh. It is
+observed, that this mode of expressing public grief, bears a striking
+resemblance to the customs of the Jews. The track towards Fort Vancouver
+exhibited a country, which may yet make a great figure in the American
+world,--immense valleys sheltered by mountain ridges, and containing
+beautiful lakes. In one instance, their tents were pitched in a valley
+of about five hundred acres enclosed by mountains on three sides, and a
+lake on the fourth. From the edge of the waters there arose a gentle
+descent of six or eight hundred feet covered with vines, and composed of
+the accumulated fragments of the heights above; and on the upper border
+of this slope there stood perpendicular walls of granite of three or
+four thousand feet high, while among those dizzy altitudes, the goats
+and sheep bounded in playful security. This defile had been the scene of
+an exploit. One of the Crees, whom they had met a few days before, had
+been tracked into the valley along with his wife and family by five
+warriors of a hostile tribe. On perceiving the odds against him, the man
+gave himself up for lost, observing to the woman, that as they could die
+but once, they had better die without resistance. The wife, however,
+said, that "as they had but one life to lose, they had the more reason
+to defend it," and, suiting the action to the word, the heroic wife
+brought the foremost of the enemy down to the ground by a bullet, while
+the husband disposed of two others by two arrows. The fourth warrior was
+rushing on the woman with uplifted tomahawk, when he stumbled and fell.
+She darted forward, and buried her knife in his heart. The sole
+surviving assailant now turned and fled, discharging, however, a bullet
+which wounded the man in the arm.
+
+They had now reached that rocky range from which the eastern and western
+rivers of those mighty provinces take their common departure. Here they
+estimated the height of the pass to be seven or eight thousand feet
+above sea-level, while the peaks seemed to be nearly half that height
+above their heads.
+
+Of course, the party often felt the torture of mosquitoes, but one
+valley was so pre-eminently infested with those tormentors, that man and
+beast alike preferred being nearly choked with smoke, in which they
+plunged, for the sake of escaping their stings. But we advert to this
+common plague of all forest travel, only for its legendary honours.
+
+"The Canadians vented their curses against the OLD MAID, who had the
+credit of having brought the scourge upon earth, by praying for
+something to fill up the leisure of her single blessedness." And if, as
+the author observes, "the tormentors would confine themselves to
+nunneries and monasteries, the world might see something more of the
+fitness of things in the matter."
+
+At the close of August, the party reached Fort Vancouver, having crossed
+the Continent, by a route of five thousand miles, in twelve weeks'
+travelling.
+
+They now made a visit to the Russian-American Company's Establishment of
+New Archangel. This exhibited considerable signs of commerce. In the
+harbour were five sailing vessels from 250 to 350 tons; besides a large
+bark in the offing in tow of a steamer, which brought advices from St
+Petersburgh down to the end of April. An officer came off conveying
+Governor Etholine's compliments and welcome. The party landed, and were
+received in the residence situated on the top of a rock. The Governor's
+dwelling consisted of a suite of apartments communicating, according to
+the Russian fashion, with each other, all the public, rooms being
+handsomely decorated and richly furnished. It commanded a view of the
+whole establishment, which was, in fact, a little village. About half
+way down the rock, two batteries frowned respectively over the land and
+the water. Behind the Bay arise stupendous piles of conical mountains
+with summits of everlasting snow. To seaward, Mount Edgecumbe, also in
+the form of a cone, rears its trunk-headed peak, still remembered as
+the source of smoke and flame, lava and ashes, but now the repository of
+the snows of an age. Next day, the Governor, in full uniform, came in
+his gig to return the visit to Sir George on board his steamer. The
+party were invited on shore, where they were introduced to Madame
+Etholine, a pretty and lady-like woman, a native of Finland. They then
+visited the schools, in which there were twenty boys and as many girls;
+the boys were intended chiefly for the naval service, nor did religion
+seem to be neglected any more than education. The Greek Church had its
+bishop, fifteen priests, deacons, and followers, and the Lutherans had
+their clergyman. The ecclesiastics were all maintained by the Imperial
+Government. Such is Sitka, the principal depot of the Russian-American
+Company. It has various subordinate establishments. The operations of
+the Company are becoming more extensive, and at this period the returns
+of the trade amounted to about 25,000 skins of beavers, otters, foxes,
+&c.
+
+Among the company at the Russian Governor's, was a half-breed native,
+who had been the leader of an expedition equipped some years ago, for
+the discovery of what would here be styled the North-East passage. The
+Russians reached Point Barrow shortly after the expedition under Mr
+Thomas Simpson had reached the same point from the opposite direction.
+The climate seems to be sufficiently trying, and during the four days at
+Sitka there was nearly one continued fall of rain. The weather was cold
+and squally, snow had fallen, and the channels were traversed by
+restless masses which had broken off from the glaciers. In short nothing
+could exceed the dreariness of the coast.
+
+This shore, of which so much has been said and written during the late
+Oregon negociations, is described as the very scene for the steam-boat.
+Here are the Straits of Juan de Fuca; and here Admiral Fonte penetrated
+up the more northerly inlets. They are the very region made for the
+steam-boat, as in the case of a sailing vessel their dangers and delays
+would have been tripled and quadrupled. But steam has also a power
+almost superstitious on the minds of the natives; besides acting on
+their fears, it has in a great measure subdued their love of robbery and
+violence. It has given the savage a new sense of the superiority of his
+white brother.
+
+A striking instance of this feeling is given. After the arrival of the
+emigrants from Red River, their guide, an Indian, took a short trip in
+the Beaver. When asked what he thought of her, "Don't ask me," was his
+reply. "I cannot speak; my friends will think that I tell lies when I
+let them know what I have seen. Indians are fools, and know nothing. I
+can see that the iron machinery makes the ship go, but I cannot see what
+makes the iron machinery itself go." This man, though intelligent, and
+partly civilized, was nevertheless so full of doubt and wonder that he
+would not leave the vessel till he had got a certificate to the effect
+that he had been on board of a ship which needed neither sails nor
+paddles,--any document in writing being regarded by the Indians as
+unquestionable. Fort Vancouver--which will probably be the head of a
+great colony, is about ninety miles from the sea, the Colombia in front
+of it, being a mile in width--contains houses, stores, magazines, &c.
+Outside the fort, the dwellings of the servants, &c. form a little
+village. The people of the establishment vary in number, according to
+the season of the year, from one hundred and thirty to more than two
+hundred. Divine service is regularly performed every Sunday in English
+to the Protestants. But at the time of this journal there was
+unfortunately no English clergyman connected with the establishment.
+
+Sir George himself now visited California, the region which the Mexican
+war is bringing into prominent notice. The harbour of San Francisco is
+magnificent, the first view of the shore presented a level sward of
+about a mile in depth, backed by a ridge of grassy slopes, the whole
+pastured by numerous herds of cattle and horses, which, without a keeper
+or a fold, fattened whether their owners waked or slept.
+
+The harbour displays a sheet of water of about thirty miles in length
+by about twelve in breadth, sheltered from every wind by an amphitheatre
+of green hills. But this sheet of water forms only a part in the inland
+sea of San Francisco. Whaler's Harbour, at its own northern extremity,
+communicates by a strait of about two miles in width with the bay of San
+Pedro, which leads by means of a second strait into Fresh Water Bay, of
+nearly the same form and magnitude, and which forms the receptacle, of
+two great rivers, draining vast tracts of country to the south-east and
+north-east, which are navigable for inland craft, so that the harbour,
+besides its matchless qualities as a port of refuge on this surf-beaten
+coast, is the outlet of an immense, fair, and fertile region.
+
+But the beauties of nature are useless when they fall into the hands of
+idlers and fools. Every thing in those fine countries seems to be
+boasting and beggary. Every thing has been long sinking into ruin,
+through mere indolence. The Californians once manufactured the fleeces
+of their sheep into cloth. They are now too lazy to weave or spin, too
+lazy even to clip and wash the raw material, and now the sheep have been
+literally destroyed to make more room for the horned cattle.
+
+They once made the dairy an object of attention, now neither butter nor
+cheese is to be found in the province. They once produced in the
+Missions eighty thousand bushels of wheat and maize,--they were lately
+buying flour at Monterey at the rate of �6 a sack. Beef was once
+plentiful,--they were now buying salted salmon for the sea-store for one
+paltry vessel, which constituted the entire line-of-battle of the
+Californian navy.
+
+The author justly observes, that this wicked abuse of the soil and
+consequent poverty of the people results wholly from "the objects of the
+colonisation." Thus the emigrants from England to the northern colonies
+looked to subsistence from the fruits of labour; ploughed, harrowed, and
+grew rich, and civilized. On the other hand the colonists of "New
+France" a name which comprehended the valleys of the St Lawrence and
+Mississippi, dwindled and pined away, partly because the golden dreams
+of the free trade carried them away from stationary pursuits, and partly
+because the government considered them rather as soldiers than settlers.
+In like manner Spanish America, with its _Serras_ of silver, holding out
+to every adventurer the hope of earning his bread without the sweat of
+his brow, became the paradise of idlers.
+
+In California the herds of cattle, and the sale of their hides and
+tallow, offer so easy a subsistence, that the population think of no
+other, and in consequence are poor, degenerate, and dwindling. Their
+whole education consists in bullock hunting. In this view, unjust and
+violent as may be the aggressions of the American arms, it is difficult
+to regret the transfer of the territory into any hands which will bring
+these fine countries into the general use of mankind, root out a race
+incapable of improvement, and fill the hills and valleys of this mighty
+province with corn and man.
+
+At present the produce of a bullock in hide, tallow, and horns, is about
+five dollars, (the beef goes for nothing) of which the farmer's revenue
+is averaged at a dollar and a half. This often makes up a large income.
+General Vallego, who had about eight thousand head of cattle, must
+receive from this source about ten thousand dollars a-year. The former
+Missions, or Monkish revenues, must have been very large; that of San
+Jose possessing thirty thousand head of cattle, Santa Clara nearly half
+the number, and San Gabriel more than both together.
+
+It must be acknowledged that the monks had made a handsome affair of
+holiness in the good old times. Previously to the Mexican revolution
+their "missions" amounted, in the upper province alone, to twenty-one,
+every one of course with its endowment on a showy scale. Every monk had
+an annual stipend of four hundred dollars. But this was mere
+pocket-money; they had "donations and bequests" from the living and from
+the dead, a most capacious source of opulence, and of an opulence
+continually growing, constituting what was termed the pious fund of
+California. Besides all these things, they had the cheap labour of
+eighteen thousand converts. But the drones were to be suddenly smoked
+out of their hives. Mexico declared itself a republic; and, as the
+first act of a republic, in every part of the world, is to plunder every
+body, the property of the monks went in the natural way. The lands and
+beeves, the "donations and bequests were made a national property," in
+1825. Still some show of moderation was exhibited, and the names and
+some of the offices of the missions were preserved. But, in 1836, the
+Californians took the whole affair into their own hands, threw off the
+Central Government, and were "free, independent," and beggared. The
+Missions were then "secularized" at their ease. The Mexican government
+was furious for a while, and threatened the Californians with all the
+thunders of its rage; but the vengeance ended in the simple condition,
+that California should still acknowledge the Mexican supremacy, taking
+her own way in all that had been done, was doing, and was to be done.
+
+The travellers had now an opportunity of seeing the interior of a
+Californian mansion, the house of the chief proprietor in this quarter,
+General Vallego.
+
+We must acknowledge that Sir George Simpson would have much improved his
+volumes by striking out the whole of this description. It is evident
+that he was received with civilities of every kind;--he was provided
+with horses and attendants;--he was taken to see all the remarkable
+features of the estate and the habits of its people; he was _f�ted_,
+introduced to wife and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, sung
+and danced for, and smiled on and talked with, as if he had been a
+prince; and yet his whole account of this hospitality throws it into the
+most repulsive light imaginable;--cold dinners, bad attendance, rude
+furniture, and so forth, form the staple of his conceptions; and if his
+book should ever reach General Vallego's hands, which it probably will,
+through the zeal of American republication, we can easily imagine that
+he will become cautious in his hospitality for the time to come. We, at
+least, shall not extend the vexation of this Spanish gentleman by
+quoting any part of this unfortunate _bevue_. We say this with regret.
+But this style of repaying generous hospitality cannot be too distinctly
+reproved, for the sake of all future travellers who may want, not merely
+hospitality, but protection.
+
+The next subject of description is Monterey, which has lately assumed a
+peculiar interest, as one of the objects of the American invasion. The
+Bay of Monterey forms a segment of a circle with a chord of about
+eighteen miles. Monterey had always been the seat of government, though
+it consisted of but a few buildings. But, since the revolution of 1836,
+it has expanded into a population of about seven hundred souls. The town
+occupies a plain, bounded by a lofty ridge. The dwellings are the
+reverse of pompous, being all built of mud bricks. The houses are
+remarkable for a paucity of windows, glass being inordinately dear; even
+parchment almost unattainable, and the artists in window-making charging
+three dollars a-day!
+
+But, to the Californians, perhaps this privation of light is not an
+evil. While it makes the rooms cooler, it cannot, by any possibility,
+interfere with the occupations of those who do nothing. The bed affords
+a curious contrast to the rest of the furniture. While the apartments
+exhibit a deal-table, badly made chairs, probably a Dutch clock, and an
+old looking-glass, the bed "challenges admiration by snowy white sheets,
+fringed with lace, a pile of soft pillows, covered with the finest linen
+or the richest satin, and a well-arranged drapery of costly and tasteful
+curtains." Still this bed is "but a whited sepulchre," with a wool
+mattress--"the impenetrable stronghold of millions of----." We leave the
+rest to the imagination.
+
+The history of "Political Causes and Effects" would make a curious
+volume; and it would admirably display, at once the profound agency of
+Providence, and the shortsightedness of human policy. It would scarcely
+be supposed that the devastation of Europe, and the sack of Berlin,
+Vienna, and Moscow, found their origin in a Spanish treaty, on the banks
+of the Mississippi, half a century before.
+
+The power of France in the interior of America, which had extended from
+Canada to Louisiana, and which formed a line of posts for its boundary
+along this immense internal _frontier_, kept the British Colonies in a
+state of constant alarm; and, by consequence, in a state of continual
+dependence on England. But the English possession of Canada, in 1763,
+and the cession of Louisiana to Spain at the same period, as they
+lessened the alarms, loosened the allegiance of the British colonies.
+The next steps were more obvious. The war of the United States, in which
+France was an auxiliary, inflamed the French population with the hope of
+breaking down the strength of England and the aristocracy of France. But
+the expense of equipping the French allied force fell heavy on an
+exchequer already burthened by the showy extravagance of the Regent
+Orleans, and by the gross profligacies of Louis XV. To relieve the
+exchequer, the States General were summoned; and from that _moment_
+began the Revolution. The European war was the result of a republican
+government, and the conquest of the Continent the result of placing
+Napoleon on the throne of the empire. What further results may be still
+preparing are beyond our knowledge; but it can scarcely be conceived
+that the chain is yet finally broken.
+
+But before we take leave of California, we must do it the justice to
+speak of San Barbara, which, as the author _rather_ emphatically
+expresses it, is to Monterey "what the parlour is to the kitchen."
+
+The bay is an unfavourable one, being exposed to the "worst winds of the
+worst season." But the town having been selected as the favourite
+retreat of the more respectable functionaries of the province, Santa
+Barbara exhibits the charms of aristocratic manners. The houses,
+externally, are superior to any others on the coast, and, internally,
+exhibit taste in their furniture and ornament. The ladies excite the
+author's pen into absolute rapture; their sparkling eyes and glossy
+hair, are, in themselves, sufficient to negative the idea of tameness or
+insipidity, while their sylph-like figures exhibit fresh graces at every
+step. This is supported by the more important qualities, of "being by
+far the more industrious half of the community, and performing their
+household duties with cheerfulness and pride."
+
+The men are a handsome race, and the greatest dandies imaginable,
+completely modelled on the Andalusian Majo, and displaying the finest
+linen, the most embroidered pantaloons, and the most glittering jackets
+in the western world. Of course, it cannot be expected of any Spaniards
+that they should do much, and beaux so fine cannot be expected to do any
+thing. Accordingly, his day is spent in riding from house to house, on a
+horse as fine as himself, a living machine of trappings, and the nights
+in dancing, billiard-playing, and flirting.
+
+In all countries where serious things are habitually turned into
+trifles, trifles become serious things. "The balls, in fact, seem more
+like a matter of business than any thing else that is done in
+California. For whole days beforehand, sweetmeats are laboriously
+prepared in the greatest variety, and from beginning to end of the
+festivities, which have been known to last several successive nights, so
+as to make the performers, after wearing out their pumps, trip it in
+sea-boots, both men and women displaying as much gravity as if attending
+the funeral of their friends."
+
+A still more humanising portion of their tastes is their passion for
+music. The guitar is heard in every house. Father, mother, and child are
+all playing and singing; and, to the praise of their taste be it spoken,
+playing nothing but the fandangoes, seguidillas, and ballads of Spain;
+the truest, purest, and most touching of all music; well worth all the
+_hammered_ harmonies of the German school, and all the long-winded and
+laborious bravuras of the Italian. The Spanish music is the most
+refined, and yet the most natural, in the world.
+
+We are glad to see this experienced judge of men and things speaking of
+the Californians as "a happy people possessing the means of physical
+pleasure to the full," even though he qualifies the opinion by their
+"knowing no higher kind of enjoyment."
+
+It is true, that the Englishman, who knows what _intellectual_ enjoyment
+is, will not abandon that highest, though most toilsome, of all
+gratifications, for inferior indulgences; but it would be a fortunate
+hour for the Englishman when he could get rid of some portion of the
+toil that wears away his life, in exchange for the lighthearted
+pleasures and simple occupations of foreign existence. Nor is there any
+man who less prefers the dogged round of his cheerless exertions, or who
+is more genuinely susceptible of essential enjoyment. We even think that
+the cultivated Englishman has a finer relish for enjoyment than the man
+of any other country. The caperings of the Frenchman, or the grimaces of
+the Italian, have but little connexion with the mind. All foreigners
+seem wretched when they have no physical excitement. There is not a more
+miserable object on earth, than a Frenchman wandering through the
+streets of London on a Sunday, when he can neither see the print shops
+in the day, nor go to the play at night. The German is heart-broken for
+the same reason, and shrouds himself and his sorrow in double clouds of
+smoke. The Italian would worship Diana of Ephesus, or the Great African
+Snake, if its pageantry, or puppet-show, would enable him to get through
+the day of closed shops and _no_ opera! Yet, contemptible as this
+restless hunting after nothings is, it would be fortunate for us if we
+could qualify the severity and constancy of our national toil by some
+mixture of the lighter pursuits of the Continent.
+
+The fertility of California is boundless; it produces every thing that
+human appetite can desire. In the Mission-garden of San Gabriel were
+produced grapes, oranges, lemons, olives, figs, bananas, plums, peaches,
+apples, pears, pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, &c. &c., while
+in the adjoining Mission were found in addition, tobacco, the plantain,
+the cocoa-nut, the indigo plant, and the sugar cane.
+
+But Nature is nothing, in this country, without a miracle; and the
+history of every village probably furnishes its legend. The Missions,
+however, may be presumed to be the peculiar favourites of Heaven.
+
+"When Padre Pedro Cambon, and Padre Somera, were selecting a site for
+the Mission, escorted by ten soldiers, a multitude of Indians, armed,
+presented themselves, and setting up horrid yells, seemed determined to
+oppose its establishment. The fathers, fearing that war would ensue,
+took out a piece of cloth with the image of our Lady upon it, and held
+it up in view of the barbarians. This was no sooner done, than the whole
+were quiet, being subdued by the sight of this most precious image; and
+throwing on the ground their bows and arrows, their two captains came
+running to lay the beads, which they had round their necks, at the feet
+of the Sovereign Queen, in proof of their tender regard." We recommend
+the trial of this holy Cloth on General Taylor.
+
+But there is no limit to the richness of this region. The valley of the
+Zulares, in the neighbourhood, would support millions of people. Its
+lakes and rivers all abound in fish, its forests have all kinds of
+trees, some of them growing to a size which, but for the force of
+testimony, would be incredible. One of these is stated by Humboldt as of
+one hundred and eighteen feet in girth. "But this is a walking-stick
+compared with another at Bodega, as described to Sir George by Governor
+Etholine, of Sitka." It is thirty-six Russian fathoms (seven feet each)
+in span, and seventy-five in height; so that, if tapered into a perfect
+cone, it would contain nearly twenty-two thousand tons of bark and
+timber. In addition, the valley contains immense herds of wild horses,
+in troops of several thousands each. What a country will this be, when
+it shall fall into the hands of an intelligent people!
+
+The last of the five posts, San Diego, is, next to San Francisco, the
+best harbour in the province. Thus, Upper California contains, at its
+opposite extremities, two of the best harbours on the Pacific Ocean;
+each of them being enhanced in value by the distance of any others
+worthy of the name, San Francisco being nearly one thousand miles from
+Port Discovery in the north, and San Diego six hundred miles from the
+Bay of Magdalena in the south.
+
+That in the hands of any vigorous possessors this country would form a
+most powerful kingdom, is beyond all question; and Sir George Simpson
+evidently thinks that it might easily be acquired, and with a
+legitimate claim too, by England. But the still higher question is the
+policy of a perpetual increase of territory. England already has in
+America a larger extent of territory than she can people for five
+hundred years to come. But the possession of California, and perhaps of
+the whole extent of the Mexican provinces, is on the eve of decision;
+the American invasion has found no resistance that can deserve the name.
+The Mexicans fly in every quarter, and a few discharges of cannon put
+them to flight by thousands. At this moment the whole Mexican Republic,
+equal in size to half a dozen European States, appears to be crumbling
+into fragments. The rambling expeditions of the Americans are ravaging
+it in all directions with impunity, and armies which might have been
+long since annihilated by a mere guerilla war, have been suffered to
+march from city to city, with scarcely more resistance than a
+cattle-stealing skirmish. By the last intelligence, San Juan d' Ulloa
+has fallen, and Vera Cruz has capitulated after a siege of only three
+days and a half. The castle is the strongest fortification in the
+Western World--and, as Napoleon said of Malta, "It is lucky that it had
+somebody inside to open the gates for us:" the garrison of this fortress
+seems to have been placed there merely for the purpose of surrendering
+it. But, whatever may be the fate of men who had such a fortress to
+defend, and yet whose defence actually cost the assailants but
+_seventeen_ killed! there can be but one feeling of commiseration for
+the unhappy inhabitants of Vera Cruz, on whom was rained, day and night,
+a shower of shot and shell amounting to more than seven thousand of
+those tremendous missiles. It is computed that the slaughter, and that
+slaughter chiefly of women and children, amounts to thousands. These are
+terrible things, even where they may be supposed the _necessities_ of
+war. But here we can discover no necessity--Vera Cruz was _no_
+fortification, it was nearly an open town. We recollect no similar
+instance of a bombardment. In Europe, it has long been a rule of
+military morals, that no open city shall ever be bombarded. We believe
+it to be the boast of the first living soldier in the world--and we
+could have no more honourable one--that he never suffered a city to be
+bombarded; from the obvious fact, that the chief victims were the
+helpless inhabitants, while the soldiery are sheltered by the casemates
+and bomb-proofs.
+
+At all events, we must regard the contest as decided. The Government has
+exhibited nothing more than a sullen resolution; and the people little
+more than the apathy of their own cattle; the troops have exhibited no
+evidence of discipline, and the only resource of the Finance has been in
+the wild projects of an empty Exchequer. Whether the United States will
+be the more prosperous for this conquest, is a question of time alone.
+Whether the facility of the conquest may not make the multitude frantic
+for general aggression,--whether the military men of the States may not
+obtain a popularity and assume a power which has been hitherto confined
+to civil life,--whether the attractions of military career may not turn
+the rising generation from the pursuits of trade and tillage, to the
+idle, or the ferocious life of the American campaigner,--and whether the
+pressure of public debt, the necessity for maintaining their half-savage
+conquests by an army, and the passion for territorial aggrandisement,
+may not urge them to a colonial war with England,--are only parts of the
+great problem which the next five-and-twenty years will compel the
+American Republic to solve.
+
+At the same time, we cannot avoid looking upon the invasion of Mexico as
+a portion of that extraordinary and mysterious agency which is now
+shaking all the great stagnant districts of the world; which has already
+awaked Turkey in Europe and in Asia Minor; which has brought Egypt into
+civilised action; which has broken down the barbarism of the Algerines,
+and planted the French standard in place of the furies and profligacies
+of African Mahometanism. Deeply deprecating the guilt of those
+aggressions, and condemning the crimes by which they have been
+sustained, we cannot but regard changes so unexpected, so powerful, and
+so simultaneous, as the operation of a higher power than man's, with
+objects altogether superior to the shortsightedness of man, and amply
+bearing the character of working good out of evil, which belongs to the
+history of Divine Providence in all the ages of the world.
+
+There is one peculiarity in these volumes which we cannot sufficiently
+applaud, and that is, the thoroughly English spirit in which they are
+written. Without weak partiality, for the reasons are every where
+assigned; without narrow prejudice, for the facts are in all instances
+stated; and without derogating from the merits of other nations, the
+work is calculated to give a just conception of the value of England to
+the world.
+
+On his return from the Sandwich Isles--an interesting portion of his
+travels, to which we have not now time to advert in detail--and
+preparing to start from the Russian post of New Archangel by a five
+months' journey through the Russian empire, he gives a glance at what he
+has done.
+
+"I have," says he, "threaded my way round nearly half the globe,
+traversing about 220 degrees of longitude, and upwards of 100 of
+latitude, barely one fourth of this by the ocean. Notwithstanding all
+this, I have uniformly felt more at home, with the exception of my first
+sojourn at Sitka, than I should have felt in Calais. I have every where
+seen our race, under a great variety of circumstances, either actually
+or virtually invested with the attributes of sovereignty."
+
+After a few words on the vigour of the English blood, as exhibited in
+the commerce, intelligence, and activity of the United States, he
+returns to the immediate possessions and prowess of England. "I have
+seen the English posts which stud the wilderness from the Canadian lakes
+to the Pacific Ocean. I have seen English adventurers with that innate
+power which makes every individual, whether Briton or American, a real
+representative of his country, monopolising the trade, and influencing
+the destinies of California. And lastly, I have seen the English
+merchants of a barbarian Archipelago, which promises, under their
+guidance, to become the centre of the traffic of the east and the west,
+of the new world and the old. In saying all this, I have seen less than
+half the grandeur of the English race. How insignificant in comparison
+are all the other nations of the earth, one nation alone excepted.
+Russia and Great Britain literally gird the globe where either continent
+has the greatest breadth, a fact which, taken in connexion with their
+early annals, can scarcely fail to be regarded as the work of a special
+Providence. After the fall of the Roman empire, a scanty and obscure
+people suddenly burst on the west and east, as the dominant race of the
+times; one swarm of the Normans making its way to England, while another
+was establishing its supremacy over the Sclavonians of the Borysthenes,
+the two being to meet in opposite directions at the end of a thousand
+years."
+
+He regards the gigantic power of Russia as in an unconscious
+co-partnership with England in the grand cause of commerce and
+civilisation. He also makes the curious and true remark that,
+notwithstanding the astonishing successes of the Normans in Europe, they
+were never numerous enough to establish their language in any of the
+conquered countries. Their unparalleled successes, therefore, seem to
+express the idea that those feeble bands of warriors were strengthened
+every where to accomplish the purposes of Providence.
+
+We now come to the overland journey to Siberia. On the 23d of July, they
+reached the port of Ochotsk, where, however, they were met by masses of
+floating ice. Here Sir George had the first intelligence from England,
+which brought to his English heart the glad tidings of the birth of a
+Prince of Wales. They found this settlement a collection of huts on a
+shingly beach. The population is about 800 souls. A more dreary scene
+can scarcely be conceived than the surrounding country. Not a tree, and
+even scarcely a green blade is to be seen within miles of the town. The
+climate is on a par with the soil. The summer consists of three months
+of damp and chilly weather, during great part of which the snow still
+covers the hills, and the ice chokes the harbour, and this is succeeded
+by nine months of dreary winter. But when men find fault with such a
+climate as this, the fact is, that the fault is their own. Those
+climates were never intended for the residence of man; they were
+intended for the white bear, the seal, the whale, and the fur-bearing
+animals. To those inhabitants, they are perfectly adapted. If the rage
+of conquest, or the eagerness for gain, fixes human beings in the very
+empire of winter, they are intruders, and must suffer for their
+unsuitable choice of a locale.
+
+The principal food of the inhabitants is fish. On fish they feed
+themselves; their dogs--which are equivalent to their carriage
+horses--their cattle, and their poultry, are also chiefly fed on fish.
+All other provisions are ruinously dear. Flour costs twenty-eight rubles
+the pood,--(a ruble is worth about a franc, the pood is thirty-six
+English pounds.) Beef is so dear as to be regarded as a treat, and wines
+and groceries have to pay a land carriage of seven thousand miles.
+
+Here, too, the people drink tea in the style in which it was introduced
+in more primitive days into Europe. It is of the kind known as brick
+tea, being made up in cakes, and is consumed in great quantities by the
+lower orders in Siberia, being made into a thick soup, with the addition
+of butter and salt.
+
+On the 27th of the month, they began their journey across Siberia. After
+leaving the shore, and boating the river Ochota, to an encampment where
+they were to meet their horses, hired at the rate of forty-five rubles a
+horse, on an agreement to be conveyed to Yakutsh in eighteen days, they
+struck into the country, which exhibited forests of pine, their progress
+being about four or five miles an hour. The Yakuti appear to be very
+industrious; young and old, male and female, being always occupied in
+some useful employment. When not engaged in travelling or farming, men
+and boys make saddles, harness, &c.; while the women and girls keep
+house, dress skins, prepare clothing, and attend to the dairy. They are
+also remarkably kind to strangers, for milk and cream, the best things
+they had to give, were freely offered in every village. This was the
+10th of July, yet the snow was still partially lying on the ground. From
+day to day they met caravans of horses; and one day they were startled
+by the shouts of a party at the head of them. Their next sight was a
+herd of cattle running wildly in all directions, and the cause was seen
+in a huge she-bear and her cub moving off at a round trot. On this
+route, the bears are both fierce and numerous. The country had now
+become more fertile; there was no want of flowering plants, and the
+forests were enlivened by the warbling of birds, which, contrasted as it
+was with the deathlike silence of the American woods, was peculiarly
+grateful to the ear. In the course of the day, the vexatious incident
+occurred of meeting the courier, with the letters from England, which
+had been looked for so anxiously on the arrival of the travellers in
+Siberia; but the bags of course could not be opened on the road.
+
+The presence of the Cossack, who attended the party, was of great
+importance in quickening the movements of the natives; but they seemed
+kind and good-natured, full of civility to the strangers, and not
+without some degree of education. The Yakuti have a singular mode of
+estimating distances. In Germany, a common measure of distance is the
+time that it takes to smoke a pipe. In this part of Siberia, they take
+as their unit the time necessary for boiling a kettle of a particular
+sort of food. They tell you, that such and such a place is so many
+kettles off, or half a kettle, or, as the case may be, only part of a
+kettle.
+
+At last they arrive at the Lena. This is described as one of the
+grandest rivers in the world. At a distance of thirteen hundred versts
+from the sea, (three versts are equal to two miles,) it is from five to
+six miles wide. Its entire length is not less than four thousand versts.
+The word Lena implies lazy--a name justified by the circuitous flowing
+of its stream. At Yakutsk, the seat of the Governor, they were received
+with great civility in this capital of the province, latitude sixty-two
+north, and longitude one hundred and thirty east. The extreme
+temperature of summer and winter is almost beyond belief, the
+thermometer having, risen in the shade to 106� of Fahrenheit, and in
+winter having fallen to 83� below zero--making a difference of 189�. In
+this district are the enormous deposits of mammoth bones. Spring after
+spring, the alluvial banks of the lakes and rivers crumbling under the
+thaw have given up their dead; and the islands opposite to the mouth of
+the Yana, and, as there was reason for believing, even the bed of the
+ocean itself, teems with those mysterious memorials of antiquity. The
+question is, how do those bones come there? Sir George, after giving the
+opinions of some of the professors of geology, conceives the most
+natural account of the phenomenon to be, that those animals or their
+bones were swept from the great Tartarian pasturages of Cobi, by the
+waters of the Deluge, towards the ocean. We must acknowledge that this
+has long been our own opinion. It must be remembered that the Scriptural
+account states the rising of the Deluge to have been gradual. The rain
+fell forty days and nights. All living things would of course make their
+way to the heights to escape the rising inundation of the valleys. The
+cattle thus grouped together in immense herds, (the buffalos in the
+prairies at the present day sometimes exceed five thousand in one
+pasturage,) thus gathered into one mass, would be finally submerged, and
+swept away in whatever irresistible current rushed over the spot on
+which they stood. The frost of the region, which penetrates the earth to
+the depth apparently of some hundred feet, would thenceforth preserve
+them from decay. The tusks form an article of considerable trade, the
+ivory selling from a shilling to one and ninepence a pound, according to
+the perfection of the tusks.
+
+One of the travellers' especial wishes was, to have visited the town of
+Kiachta, the place of commerce between the Russians and the Chinese. But
+a note from the Governor mentioned that the Chinese had suddenly stopped
+all communication. But a few words may be given to a commerce so
+peculiar. By the treaty of Nertshinsk, a reciprocal liberty of traffic
+was stipulated; and accordingly caravans on the part of the Russian
+government, and individual traders, used to visit Pekin. But the
+Muscovites exhibited so much of the native habits in "drinking and
+roystering," that, after exhausting the patience of the Celestials
+during three-and-thirty years, they were wholly excluded. But a
+cessation of five years having taken place, the Russians in 1728
+obtained a treaty, by which individuals were permitted to trade on the
+frontier; and Kiachta was built. But public caravans were permitted to
+go on to Pekin. At length, in 1762, Catherine fixed the grand emporium
+at Kiachta.
+
+This town, standing on a beach of the same name, is within about half a
+furlong of the Chinese village of Maimatschin, (about the fiftieth
+parallel of latitude,) being one thousand miles from Pekin, and four
+thousand from Moscow. Such are the enormous distances through which the
+eagerness for money-making drives the children of men.
+
+The materials of the Russian traffic are furs, woollens, cottons, linen,
+&c., with articles in tin, copper, iron, &c.--the whole amounting to
+about nineteen millions of rubles. The Chinese products are tea, silks,
+sugar-candy, &c.--nominally to the amount of seven millions of rubles,
+but probably rising to thrice the value. The chief time of the market is
+the winter. To the chief Russian merchants this is a species of
+monopoly, and a most thriving one, some of them being _millionnaires_,
+and living in the most sumptuous manner, the "merchant princes" of the
+wilderness!
+
+We had some curiosity to know the condition of the exiles to Siberia
+from this intelligent eye-witness. But he gives little more than a
+glance to a subject on which the public mind of England is at present so
+much engaged. In Russia corporal punishment is much in use; but
+criminals are seldom put to death. They are marched off to Siberia for
+every kind of offence, from the highest political crime to petty
+larceny. The most heinous offenders are sent to the mines; those guilty
+of minor delinquencies are settled in villages, or on farms; and
+those guilty of having opinions different from those of the
+government--statesmen, authors, and soldiers--are generally suffered to
+establish themselves in little knots, where they spread refinement
+through the country. The consequence is, that "all grades of society are
+decidedly more intelligent than the corresponding grades in any other
+part of the empire, and perhaps more so than in most parts of Europe."
+
+Many of the exiles are now men of large income.--"The dwelling in which
+we breakfasted to-day," says the traveller, "was that of a person who
+had been sent to Siberia _against his will_. Finding that there was but
+one way of bettering his condition, he worked hard, and behaved well. He
+had now a comfortably furnished house and a well-cultivated farm, while
+a stout wife, and plenty of servants, bustled about the premises. His
+son had just arrived from St Petersburg, to visit his exiled father, and
+had the pleasure of seeing him amid all the comforts of life, reaping an
+abundant harvest, and with _one hundred and forty persons_ in his pay!"
+
+He adds, "In fact, for the _reforming_ of the criminal, in addition to
+the punishment of the crime, Siberia is undoubtedly the best
+_penitentiary_ in the world. When not bad enough for the mines, each
+exile is provided with an allotment of ground, a house, a horse, two
+cows, agricultural implements, and, for the first year, with provisions.
+For three years he pays no taxes whatever, and for the next ten, only
+half the full amount. To bring fear as well as hope to operate in his
+favour, he clearly understands, that his very first slip will send him
+from his home and family, to toil in the mines. Thus does the government
+bestow an almost paternal care on the less atrocious criminals."
+
+Yet with this knowledge before the British Government,--for we must
+presume that they had not overlooked the condition of the Russian
+exiles; and with the still more impressive knowledge of the growth of
+our Australian colonies, and the improvement of the convicts; the
+new-fangled and most costly plan is now to be adopted of reforming our
+criminals by keeping them at home! Thus we are to save the national
+expenditure by building huge penitentiaries, which will cost millions of
+money, and to secure society from depredation, by annually pouring out
+from those prisons, as the time of their sentences expires, the whole
+crowd of villany to live on villany once more;--making the very streets
+a place of danger, and filling the country with hungry crime.
+
+The only argument on the opposite side is, that the free settlers are
+offended by finding themselves in a population of convicts. But to this
+the obvious answer is, that the colonisation of Australia was originally
+intended as a school of reform--that the convicts have been to a great
+extent reformed, which they never would have been at home--that the
+convicts were in the colony first, and that the settlers going there,
+with their eyes open, have no reason to complain.
+
+We then have a Notice on another subject, which is at present engrossing
+the speculations of all Europe, namely, the gold-country on the
+Yenissei. Krasnoyayk, the capital, stands in a plain in the centre of
+the district, where the mania of gold-washing broke out about fifteen
+years ago. Some individuals have been singularly lucky in their search.
+One person, after having laboured in vain for three years, and expending
+a million and a half of rubles, suddenly, in this very year, had hit
+upon a depot which gave him a hundred and fifty poods of gold--worth
+thirty-five thousand rubles each, or five millions and a half of rubles.
+Gold here measures every thing: a lady's charms are by weight, "a pood
+is a good girl, and two or three poods are twice or thrice as good as a
+wife." _This_ province alone has, in this year, yielded five hundred
+poods of gold.
+
+Ekaterineburg is the centre of the mining district of the Uralian
+mountains. The population amounts to about fourteen thousand, who are
+all connected with the mines. The town has an iron foundery, a mint for
+copper and silver coin, and various establishments for cutting marble,
+porphyry, and polishing precious stones. The neighbouring mountains
+appear to be nature's richest repository of minerals, yielding, in great
+abundance, diamonds, amethysts, topazes, &c.; gold, silver, iron, and
+platina. These inexhaustible treasures chiefly belong to Count Demidoff
+and M. Yakovleff. The Count is said to receive half a million sterling
+a-year from this princely property.
+
+Hurrying now towards England, with the anxiety which every one feels to
+reach home as the end of a long journey seems to be nigh, the traveller
+passed through Kazan, second in national honour to Moscow, but found it
+in ashes from a late fire. He then hurried on to Nishney-Novgorod, the
+place of the greatest fair in the world, where the traffic brings
+traders from the ends of the earth, and where the trade amounts to
+nineteen millions sterling a-year. He then traversed the property of
+General Sheremetieff, an estate of _two days' journey_, with a hundred
+thousand serfs--a comfortable race when under a good master, each head
+of a family having a farm, and paying its rent, part in produce and part
+in work. The people appear to be a gay race--singing every where;
+singing on the roads, singing at work, and singing at cutting up their
+cabbages for the national luxury of _saurkraut_.
+
+At length was seen looming in the west, with all its steeples and domes,
+the queen of the wilderness, Moscow the Magnificent--the most
+frequently-burned of all cities, and, as Sir George observes, the most
+_retaliatory_ on the burners--it having been burned to embers _four_
+times, and each time having seen the incendiary nation ruined. It must
+be admitted, however, that the revenge, however sure, was slow, for it
+seldom occurred in less than a couple of centuries!--Napoleon's fate
+being the only instance of promptitude on this point.
+
+From Moscow to St Petersburg, a macadamised road of seven hundred versts
+conveyed the traveller to the northern city of the Czar, where, on the
+8th of October, he terminated a journey from Ochotsk, of about seven
+thousand miles. In eight days from St Petersburg he reached Hamburg, and
+in five days more arrived in London, having rounded the globe in a
+period of nineteen months and twenty-six days!
+
+We have given an abstract of this work with the more satisfaction, that
+it not merely supplies a certain knowledge of vast regions of which the
+European world knows little; but that it gives a favourable view of the
+condition, the habits, and the temper, of the multitudes of our fellow
+men, spread over those immense spaces of the globe. Personally, of
+course, a man of the official rank and individual intelligence of the
+writer, might expect the hospitality of the Russian employ�s. But he
+seems to have been met with general kindness--to have experienced no
+injury, no obstacle, and no extortion; and, on the whole, having
+exhibited the good sense which disregards the _inevitable_ annoyances of
+all journeys in distant countries, to have escaped all the severer ones
+which an ill-tempered traveller naturally brings upon himself. But the
+feature of his volumes on which we place the still higher value, is the
+honesty of his English spirit. He knows the value of his country; he
+does justice to her principles; he gives the true view of her power; he
+vindicates her intentions; and without depreciating the merits of
+foreign nations, he pays a manly tribute to the truth, by doing deserved
+honour to his own.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] _Narrative of an Overland Journey Round the World._ By Sir George
+Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson's Bay Company's Territories in
+North America.
+
+
+
+
+LETTERS ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
+
+
+VI.--RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS: THE POSSESSED: WITCHCRAFT.
+
+Dear Archy,--The subjects about which I propose writing to you to-day
+are, delusions of a religious nature;--the idea of being possessed,--the
+grounds of the belief in witchcraft. With so much before me, I have no
+room to waste. So, of the first, first.
+
+The powerful hold which the feeling of religion takes on our nature, at
+once attests the truth of the sentiment, and warns us to be on our guard
+against fanatical excesses. No subject can safely be permitted to have
+exclusive possession of our thoughts, least of all the most absorbing
+and exciting of any.
+
+    "So--it will make us mad."
+
+It is evident that, with the majority, Providence has designed that
+worldly cares should largely and wholesomely employ the mind, and
+prevent inordinate craving after an indulgence in spiritual stimulation;
+while minds of the highest order are diverted, by the active duties of
+philanthropy, from any perilous excess of religious contemplation.
+
+Under the influence of constant and concentrated religious thought, not
+only is the reason liable to give way--which is not our theme--but,
+alternatively, the nervous system is apt to fall into many a form of
+trance, the phenomena of which are mistaken by the ignorant for Divine
+visitation. The weakest frame sinks into an insensibility profound as
+death, in which he has visions of heaven and the angels. Another lies,
+in half-waking trance, rapt in celestial contemplation and beatitude;
+others are suddenly fixed in cataleptic rigidity; others, again, are
+dashed upon the ground in convulsions. The impressive effect of these
+seizures is heightened by their supervention in the midst of religious
+exercises, and by the contagious and sympathetic influence through which
+their spread is accelerated among the more excitable temperaments and
+weaker members of large congregations. What chance have ignorant people
+witnessing such attacks, or being themselves the subjects of them, of
+escaping the persuasion that they mark the immediate agency of the Holy
+Spirit? Or, to take ordinarily informed and sober-minded people,--what
+would they think at seeing mixed up with this hysteric disturbance,
+distinct proofs of extraordinary perceptive and anticipatory powers,
+such as occasionally manifest themselves as parts of trance, to the
+rational explanation of which they might not have the key?
+
+In the preceding letter, I have already exemplified, by the case of
+Henry Engelbrecht, the occurrence of visions of hell and heaven during
+the deepest state of trance. No doubt the poor ascetic implicitly
+believed his whole life the reality of the scenes to which his
+imagination had transported him.
+
+In a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury to Ambrose Mark Phillips, Esq.,
+published in 1841, a very interesting account is given of two young
+women who had lain for months or years in a state of religious
+beatitude. Their condition, when they were exhibited, appears to have
+been that of half-waking in trance; or, perhaps, a shade nearer the
+lightest form of trance-sleep. To increase the force of the scene, they
+appear to have exhibited some degree of trance-perceptive power. But,
+without this, the mere aspect of such persons is wonderfully imposing.
+If the pure spirit of Christianity finds a bright comment and
+illustration in the Madonnas and Cherubim of Raffaelle, it seems to
+shine out in still more truthful vividness from the brow of a young
+person rapt in religious ecstasy. The hands clasped in prayer,--the
+upturned eyes,--the expression of humble confidence and seraphic hope,
+(displayed, let me suggest, on a beautiful face,) constitute a picture
+of which, having witnessed it, I can never forget the force. Yet I knew
+it was only a trance. So one knows that village churches are built by
+common mechanics. Yet when we look over an extensive country, and see
+the spire from its clump of trees rising over each hamlet, or over the
+distant city its minster tower,--the images find an approving harmony in
+our feelings, and seem to aid in establishing the genuineness and the
+truth of the sentiment and the faith which have reared such expressive
+symbols.
+
+In the two cases mentioned in Lord Shrewsbury's pamphlet, it is,
+however, painful to observe that trick and artifice had been used to
+bend them to the service of Catholicism. The poor women bore on their
+hands and feet wounds, the supposed _spontaneous_ eruption of
+delineations of the bleeding wounds of the crucifix, and, on the
+forehead, the bloody marks of the crown of thorns. To convict the
+imposture, the blood-stains from the wounds in the feet ran _upwards_
+towards the toes, to complete a _facsimile_ of the original, though the
+poor girls were lying on their backs. The wounds, it is to be hoped, are
+inflicted and kept fresh and active by means employed when the victims
+are in the insensibility to pain, which commonly goes with trance.
+
+To comprehend the effects of religious excitement operating on masses,
+we may inspect three pictures,--the revivals of modern times--the
+fanatical delusions of the Cevennes--the behaviour of the
+Convulsionnaires at the grave of the Abb� Paris.
+
+"I have seen," says M. Le Roi Sunderland, himself a preacher, [_Zion's
+Watchman_, New York, Oct. 2, 1842,] "persons often 'lose their
+strength,' as it is called, at camp-meetings, and other places of great
+religious excitement; and not pious people alone, but those also who
+were not professors of religion. In the spring of 1824, while performing
+pastoral labour in Dennis, Massachusetts, I saw more than twenty people
+affected in this way. Two young men, of the name of Crowell, came one
+day to a prayer meeting. They were quite indifferent. I conversed with
+them freely, but they showed no signs of penitence. From the meeting
+they went to their shop, (they were shoemakers,) to finish some work
+before going to the meeting in the evening. On seating themselves they
+were both struck perfectly stiff. I was immediately sent for, and found
+them sitting paralysed [he means cataleptic] on their benches, with
+their work in their hands, unable to get up, or to move at all. I have
+seen scores of persons affected the same way. I have seen persons lie in
+this state forty-eight hours. At such times they are unable to converse,
+and are sometimes unconscious of what is passing round them. At the same
+time they say they are in a happy state of mind."
+
+These persons, it is evident, were thrown in to one of the forms of
+trance through their minds being powerfully worked upon; with which
+cause the influence of mutual sympathy with what they saw around them,
+and perhaps some physical agency, co-operated.
+
+The following extract from the same journal portrays another kind of
+nervous seizure, allied to the former, and produced by the same cause,
+as it was manifested at the great revival, some forty years ago, at
+Kentucky and Tennessee.
+
+"The convulsions were commonly called 'the jerks.' A writer, (M'Neman,)
+quoted by Mr Power, (Essay on the Influence of the Imagination over the
+Nervous System,) gives this account of their course and progress:--
+
+"'At first appearance these meetings, exhibited nothing to the spectator
+but a scene of confusion, that could scarcely be put into language. They
+were generally opened with a sermon, near the close of which there would
+be an unusual outcry, some bursting out into loud ejaculations of
+prayer, &c.
+
+"'The rolling exercise consisted in being cast down in a violent manner,
+doubled with the head and feet together, or stretched in a prostrate,
+manner, turning swiftly over like a dog. Nothing in nature could better
+represent the jerks, than for one to goad another alternately on every
+side with a piece of red-hot iron. The exercise commonly began in the
+head, which would fly backwards and forwards, and from side to side,
+with a quick jolt, which the person would naturally labour to suppress,
+but in vain. He must necessarily go on as he was stimulated, whether
+with a violent dash on the ground, and bounce from place to place, like
+a foot-ball; or hopping round with head, limbs, and trunk, twitching
+and jolting in every direction, as if they must inevitably fly asunder,'
+&c."
+
+The following sketch is from _Dow's Journal_. "In the year 1805 he
+preached at Knoxville, Tennessee, before the governor, when some hundred
+and fifty persons, among whom were a number of Quakers, had the jerks."
+
+"I have seen all denominations of religions exercised by the jerks,
+gentleman and lady, black and white, young and old, without exception. I
+passed a meeting-house, where I observed the undergrowth had been cut
+away for camp meetings, and from fifty to a hundred saplings were left,
+breast high, on purpose for the people who were jerked to hold by. I
+observed where they had held on, they had kicked up the earth, as a
+horse stamping flies."
+
+Every one has heard of the extraordinary scenes which took place in the
+Cevennes at the close of the seventeenth century.
+
+It was towards the end of the year 1688 a report was first heard, of a
+gift of prophecy which had shown itself among the persecuted followers
+of the Reformation, who, in the south of France, had betaken themselves
+to the mountains. The first instance was said to have occurred in the
+family of a glass-dealer, of the name of Du Serre, well known as the
+most zealous Calvinist of the neighbourhood, which was a solitary spot
+in Dauphin�, near Mount Peyra. In the enlarging circle of enthusiasts,
+Gabriel Astier and Isabella Vincent made themselves first conspicuous.
+Isabella, a girl of sixteen years of age, from Dauphin�, who was in the
+service of a peasant, and tended sheep, began in her sleep to preach and
+prophesy, and the Reformers came from far and near to hear her. An
+advocate, of the name of Gerlan, describes the following scene which he
+had witnessed. At his request she had admitted him, and a good many
+others, after nightfall, to a meeting at a chateau in the neighbourhood.
+She there disposed herself upon a bed, shut her eyes, and went to sleep;
+in her sleep she chanted in a low tone the Commandments and a psalm;
+after a short respite she began to preach in a louder voice, not in her
+own dialect, but in good French, which hitherto she had not used. The
+theme was an exhortation to obey God rather than man. Sometimes she
+spoke so quickly as to be hardly intelligible. At certain of her pauses,
+she stopped to collect herself. She accompanied her words with
+gesticulations. Gerlan found her pulse quiet, her arm not rigid, but
+relaxed, as natural. After an interval, her countenance put on a mocking
+expression, and she began anew her exhortation, which was now mixed with
+ironical reflections upon the Church of Rome. She then suddenly stopped,
+continuing asleep. It was in vain they stirred her. When her arms were
+lifted and let go, they dropped unconsciously. As several now went away,
+whom her silence rendered impatient, she said in a low tone, but just as
+if she was awake, "Why do you go away? Why do not you wait till I am
+ready?" And then she delivered another ironical discourse against the
+Catholic Church, which she closed with a prayer.
+
+When Boucha, the intendant of the district, heard of the performances of
+Isabella Vincent, he had her brought before him. She replied to his
+interrogatories, that people had often told her that she preached in her
+sleep, but that she did not herself believe a word of it. As the
+slightness of her person made her appear younger than she really was,
+the intendant merely sent her to an hospital at Grenoble, where,
+notwithstanding that she was visited by persons of the Reformed
+persuasion, there was an end of her preaching,--she became a Catholic!
+
+Gabriel Astier, who had been a young labourer, likewise from Dauphin�,
+went in the capacity of a preacher and prophet into the valley of
+Bressac, in the Vivarais. He had infected his family: his father,
+mother, elder brother, and sweetheart, followed his example, and took to
+prophesying. Gabriel, before he preached, used to fall into a kind of
+stupor in which he lay rigid. After delivering his sermon, he would
+dismiss his auditors with a kiss, and the words: "My brother, or my
+sister, I impart to you the Holy Ghost." Many believed that they had
+thus received the Holy Ghost from Astier, being taken with the same
+seizure. During the period of the discourse, first one, then another,
+would fall down; some described themselves afterwards as having felt
+first a weakness and trembling through the whole frame, and an impulse
+to yawn and stretch their arms, then they fell convulsed and foaming at
+the mouth. Others carried the contagion home with them, and first
+experienced its effects, days, weeks, months afterwards. They
+believed--nor is it wonderful they did so--that they had received the
+Holy Ghost.
+
+Not less curious were the seizures of the Convulsionnaires at the grave
+of the Abb� Paris, in the year 1727. These Jansenist visionaries used to
+collect in the church-yard of St M�dard, round the grave of the deposed
+and deceased Deacon, and before long the reputation of the place for
+working miracles getting about, they fell in troops into convulsions.
+
+Their state had more analogy to that of the Jerkers already described.
+But it was different. They required, to gratify an internal impulse or
+feeling, that the most violent blows should be inflicted upon them at
+the pit of the stomach. Carr� de Montgeron mentions, that being himself
+an enthusiast in the matter, he had inflicted the blows required with an
+iron instrument, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds, with a round
+head. And as a convulsionary lady complained that he struck too lightly
+to relieve the feeling of depression at her stomach, he gave her sixty
+blows with all his force. It would not do, and she begged to have the
+instrument used by a tall, strong man, who stood by in the crowd. The
+spasmodic tension of her muscles must have been enormous; for she
+received one hundred blows, delivered with such force that the wall
+shook behind her. She thanked the man for his benevolent aid, and
+contemptuously censured De Montgeron for his weakness, or want of faith
+and timidity. It was, indeed, time for issuing the mandate, which, as
+wit read it, ran:
+
+    "De par le roi--Defense � Dieu,
+      De faire miracle en ce lieu."
+
+Turn we now to another subject:--the possessed in the middle ages,--What
+was their physiological condition? What was really meant then by being
+possessed? I mean, what were the symptoms of the affection, and how are
+they properly to be explained? The inquiry will throw further light upon
+the true relations of other phenomena we have already looked at.
+
+We have seen that Schwedenborg thought that he was in constant
+communication with the spiritual world; but felt convinced, and avowed,
+that though he saw his visitants without and around him, they reached
+him first inwardly, and communicated with his understanding; and thence
+consciously, and outwardly, with his senses. But it would be a
+misapplication of the term to say that he was possessed by these
+spirits.
+
+We remember that Socrates had his demon; and it should be mentioned as a
+prominent feature in visions generally, that their subject soon
+identifies one particular imaginary being as his guide and informant, to
+whom he applies for what knowledge he wishes. In the most exalted states
+of trance-waking, the guide or demon is continually referred to with
+profound respect by the entranced person. Now, was Socrates, and are
+patients of the class I have alluded to, possessed? No! the meaning of
+the term is evidently not yet hit.
+
+Then there are persons who permanently fancy themselves other beings
+than they are, and act as such.
+
+In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there prevailed in parts of
+Europe a seizure, which was called the wolf-sickness. Those affected
+with it held themselves to be wild beasts, and betook themselves to the
+forests. One of these, who was brought before De Lancre, at Bordeaux, in
+the beginning of the sixteenth century, was a young man of Besan�on. He
+avowed himself to be huntsman of the forest lord, his invisible master.
+He believed, that through the power of his master, he had been
+transformed into a wolf; that he hunted in the forest as such, and that
+he was often accompanied by a bigger wolf, whom he suspected to be the
+master he served--with more details of the same kind. The persons thus
+affected were called Wehrwolves. They enjoyed in those days the
+alternative of being exorcised or executed.
+
+Arnold relates in his history of church and of heresy, how there was a
+young man in K�nigsberg, well educated, the natural son of a priest, who
+had the impression, that he was met near a crucifix in the wayside by
+seven angels, who revealed to him that he was to represent God the
+Father on earth, to drive all evil out of the world, &c. The poor
+fellow, after pondering upon this impression a long time, issued a
+circular commencing thus,--
+
+"We, John Albrecht, Adelgreif, Syrdos, Amata, Kanemata, Kilkis,
+Mataldis, Schmalkilimundis, Sabrundis, Elioris, Overarch High-priest,
+and Emperor, Prince of Peace of the whole world, Overarch King of the
+Holy Kingdom of Heaven, Judge of the living and of the dead, God and
+Father, in whose divinity Christ will come on the last day to judge the
+world, Lord of all Lords, King of all Kings," &c.
+
+He was thereupon thrown into prison at K�nigsberg, regarded as a most
+frightful heretic, and every means were used by the clergy to reclaim
+him. To all their entreaties, however, he listened only with a smile of
+pity, "that they should think of reclaiming God the Father." He was then
+put to the torture; and as what he endured made no alteration in his
+convictions, he was condemned to have his tongue torn out with red-hot
+tongs, to be cut in four quarters, and then burned under the gallows. He
+wept bitterly, not at his own fate, but that they should pronounce such
+a sentence on the Deity. The executioner was touched with pity, and
+entreated him to make a final recantation. But he persisted that he was
+God the Father, whether they pulled his tongue out by the roots or not;
+and so he was executed!
+
+The Wehrwolves, and this poor creature, in what state were they? they
+were merely insane. Then we must look further.
+
+Gmelin, in the first volume of his Contributions to Anthropology,
+narrates, that in the year 1789, a German lady, under his observation,
+had daily paroxysms, in which she believed herself to be, and acted the
+part of a French emigrant. She had been in distress of mind through the
+absence of a person she was attached to, and he was somehow implicated
+in the scenes of the French revolution. After an attack of fever and
+delirium, the complaint regulated itself, and took the form of a daily
+fit of trance-waking. When the time for the fit approached, she stopped
+in her conversation, and ceased to answer when spoken to; she then
+remained a few minutes sitting perfectly still, her eyes fixed on the
+carpet before her. Then, in evident uneasiness, she began to move her
+head backwards and forwards, to sigh, and to pass her fingers across her
+eye-brows. This lasted a minute, then she raised her eyes, looked once
+or twice around with timidity and embarrassment, then began to talk in
+French; when she would describe all the particulars of her escape from
+France, and, assuming the manner of a French woman, talk purer and
+better accented French than she had been known to be capable of talking
+before, correct her friends when they spoke incorrectly, but delicately
+and with a comment on the German rudeness of laughing at the bad
+pronunciation of strangers; and if led herself to speak or read German,
+she used a French accent, and spoke it ill; and the like.
+
+Now, suppose this lady, instead of thus acting, when the paroxysms
+supervened, had cast herself on the ground, had uttered bad language and
+blasphemy, and had worn a sarcastic and malignant expression of
+countenance,--in striking contrast with her ordinary character and
+behaviour, and _alternating with it_,--and you have the picture and the
+reality of a person "possessed."
+
+A person, "possessed," is one affected with the form of trance-waking
+called double consciousness, with the addition of being deranged when in
+the paroxysm, and then, out of the suggestions of her own fancy, or
+catching at the interpretation put on her conduct by others, believing
+herself tenanted by the fiend.
+
+We may quite allowably heighten the above picture by supposing that the
+person in her trance, in addition to being mad, might have displayed
+some of the perceptive powers occasionally developed in trance; and so
+have evinced, in addition to her demoniacal ferocity, an "uncanny"
+knowledge of things and persons. To be candid, Archy, time was, when I
+should myself have had my doubts in such a case.
+
+We have by this time had intercourse enough with spirits and demons to
+prepare us for the final subject of witchcraft.
+
+The superstition of witchcraft stretches back into remote antiquity, and
+has many roots. In Europe it is partly of Druidical origin. The
+Druidesses were part priestesses, part shrewd old ladies, who dealt in
+magic and medicine. They were called _all-rune_, all-knowing. There was
+some touch of classical superstition mingled in the stream which was
+flowing down to us;--so an edict of a council of Tr�ves, in the year
+1310, has this injunction: "Nulla mulierum se nocturnis horis equitare
+cum Dian� propitiatur; h�c enim doemoniaca est illusio." But the main
+source from which we derived this superstition, is the East, and
+traditions and facts incorporated in our religion. There were only
+wanted the ferment of thought of the fifteenth century, the vigour,
+energy, ignorance, enthusiasm, and faith of those days, and the papal
+denunciation of witchcraft by the famous Bull of Innocent the VIII. in
+1459, to give fury to the delusion. And from this time for three
+centuries, the flames, at which more than 100,000 victims perished, cast
+a lurid light over Europe.
+
+One ceases to wonder at this ugly stain in the page of history, when one
+considers all things fairly.
+
+The Enemy of mankind, bodily, with horns, hoofs, and tail, was believed
+to lurk round every corner, bent upon your spiritual, if not bodily
+harm. The witch and the sorcerer were not possessed by him against their
+will, but went out of their way to solicit his alliance, and to offer to
+forward his views for their own advantage, or to gratify their
+malignity. The cruel punishments for a crime so monstrous were mild,
+compared with the practice of our own penal code fifty or sixty years
+ago against second-class offences. And for the startling bigotry of the
+judges, which appears the most discreditable part of the matter, why,
+how could they alone be free from the prejudices of their age? Yet they
+did strange things.
+
+At Lindheim, Horst reports, on one occasion six women were implicated in
+a charge of having disinterred the body of a child to make a
+witch-broth. As they happened to be innocent of the deed, they underwent
+the most cruel tortures before they would confess it. At length they saw
+their cheapest bargain was to admit the crime, and be simply burned
+alive and have it over. So they did so. But the husband of one of them
+procured an official examination of the grave; when the child's body was
+found in its coffin safe and sound. What said the Inquisitor? "This is
+indeed a proper piece of devil's work; no, no, I am not to be taken in
+by such a gross and obvious imposture. Luckily the women have already
+confessed the crime, and burned they must and shall be in honour of the
+Holy Trinity, which has commanded the extirpation of sorcerers and
+witches." The six women were burned alive accordingly.
+
+It was hard upon them, because they were innocent. But the regular
+witches, as times went, hardly deserved any better fate--considering, I
+mean, their honest and straight-forward intentions of doing that which
+they believed to be the most desperate wrong achievable. Many there were
+who sought to be initiated in the black art. They were re-baptized with
+the support of responsible witch sponsors, abjured Christ, and entered
+to the best of their belief into a compact with the devil; and forthwith
+commenced a course of bad works, poisoning and bewitching men and
+cattle, and the like, or trying to do so.
+
+One feature transpired in these details, that is merely pathetic, not
+horrifying or disgusting.
+
+The little children of course talked witchcraft, and you may fancy,
+Archy, what charming gossip it must have made. Then the poor little
+things were sadly wrought on by the tales they told. And they fell into
+trances and had visions shaped by their heated fancies.
+
+A little maid, of twelve years of age, used to fall into fits of sleep,
+and afterwards she told her parents, and _the judge_, how an old woman
+and her daughter, riding on a broom-stick, had come and taken her out
+with them. The daughter sat foremost, the old woman behind, the little
+maid between them. They went away through the roof of the house, over
+the adjoining houses and the town gate, to a village some way off. There
+they went down a chimney of a cottage into a room, where sat a tall
+black man and twelve women. They eat and drank. The black man filled
+their glasses from a can, and gave each of the women a handful of gold.
+She herself had received none; but she had eaten and drank with them.
+
+A list of persons burned in Salzburg for participation in witchcraft
+between the years 1627 and 1629 in an outbreak of this frenzy, which had
+its origin in an epidemic among the cattle, enumerates children of 14,
+12, 11, 10, 9, years of age; which in some degree reconciles one to the
+fate of the fourteen canons, four gentlemen of the choir, two young men
+of rank, a fat old lady of rank, the wife of a burgomaster, a
+counsellor, the fattest burgess of Wartzburg, together with his wife,
+the handsomest woman in the city, and a midwife of the name of
+Schiekelte, with whom (according to an N.B. in the original report) the
+whole mischief originated. To amateurs of executions in those days the
+fatness of the victim was evidently a point of consideration, as is
+shown by the specifications of that quality in some of the victims in
+the above list. Were men devils _then_? By no means; there existed then
+as now upon earth, worth, honour, truth, benevolence, gentleness. But
+there were other ingredients, too, from which the times are not yet
+purged. A century ago people did not know--do they now?--that vindictive
+punishment is a crime; that the only allowable purpose of punishment is
+to prevent the recurrence of the offence; and that restraint, isolation,
+employment, instruction, are the extreme and only means towards that end
+which reason and humanity justify. Alas, for human nature! Some
+centuries hence, the first half of the nineteenth century will be
+charged with having manifested no admission of principle in advance of a
+period, the judicial crimes of which make the heart shudder. The old
+lady witches had, of course, much livelier ideas than the innocent
+children, on the subject of their intercourse with the devils.
+
+At Mora, in Sweden, in 1669, of many who were put to the torture and
+executed, seventy-two women agreed in the following avowal, that they
+were in the habit of meeting at a place called Blocula. That on their
+calling out "Come forth!" the Devil used to appear to them in a gray
+coat, red breeches, gray stockings, with a red beard, and a peaked hat
+with party-coloured feathers on his head. He then enforced upon them,
+not without blows, that they must bring him, at nights, their own and
+other peoples' children, stolen for the purpose. They travel through the
+air to Blocula either on beasts or on spits, or broomsticks. When they
+have many children with them, they rig on an additional spar to lengthen
+the back of the goat or their broom-stick that the children may have
+room to sit. At Blocula they sign their name in blood and are baptized.
+The Devil is a humorous, pleasant gentleman; but his table is coarse
+enough, which makes the children often sick on their way home, the
+product being the so-called witch-butter found in the fields. When the
+Devil is larky, he solicits the witches to dance round him on their
+brooms, which he suddenly pulls from under them, and uses to beat them
+with till they are black and blue. He laughs at this joke till his sides
+shake again. Sometimes he is in a more gracious mood, and plays to them
+lovely airs upon the harp; and occasionally sons and daughters are born
+to the Devil, which take up their residence at Blocula.
+
+I will add an outline of the history, furnished or corroborated by her
+voluntary confession, of a lady witch, nearly the last executed for this
+crime. She was, at the time of her death, seventy years of age, and had
+been many years sub-prioress of the convent of Unterzell, near
+Wartzburg.
+
+Maria Renata took the veil at nineteen years of age, against her
+inclination, having previously been initiated in the mysteries of
+witchcraft, which she continued to practise for fifty years under the
+cloak of punctual attendance to discipline and pretended piety. She was
+long in the station of sub-prioress, and would, for her capacity, have
+been promoted to the rank of prioress, had she not betrayed a certain
+discontent with the ecclesiastic life, a certain contrariety to her
+superiors, something half expressed only of inward dissatisfaction.
+Renata had not ventured to let any one about the convent into her
+confidence, and she remained free from suspicion, notwithstanding that,
+from time to time, some of the nuns, either from the herbs she mixed
+with their food, or through sympathy, had strange seizures, of which
+some died. Renata became at length extravagant and unguarded in her
+witch propensities, partly from long security, partly from desire of
+stronger excitement; made noises in the dormitory, and uttered shrieks
+in the garden; went at nights into the cells of the nuns to pinch and
+torment them, to assist her in which she kept a considerable supply of
+cats. The removal of the keys of the cells counteracted this annoyance;
+but a still more efficient means was a determined blow on the part of a
+nun, struck at the aggressor with the penitential scourge one night, on
+the morning following which Renata was observed to have a black eye and
+cut face. This event awakened suspicion against Renata. Then, one of the
+nuns, who was much esteemed, declared, believing herself upon her
+death-bed, that, "as she shortly expected to stand before her Maker,
+Renata was uncanny, that she had often at nights been visibly tormented
+by her, and that she warned her to desist from this course." General
+alarm arose, and apprehension of Renata's arts; and one of the nuns, who
+previously had had fits, now became possessed, and in the paroxysms told
+the wildest tales against Renata. It is only wonderful how the
+sub-prioress contrived to keep her ground many years against these
+suspicions and incriminations. She adroitly put aside the insinuations
+of the nun as imaginary or of calumnious intention, and treated
+witchcraft and possession of the Devil as things which enlightened
+people no longer believed in. As, however, five more of the nuns, either
+taking the infection from the first, or influenced by the arts of
+Renata, became possessed of devils, and unanimously attacked Renata, the
+superiors could no longer avoid making a serious investigation of the
+charges. Renata was confined in a cell alone, whereupon the six devils
+screeched in chorus at being deprived of their friend. She had begged to
+be allowed to take her papers with her; but this being refused, and
+thinking herself detected, she at once avowed to her confessor and the
+superiors, that she was a witch, had learned witchcraft out of the
+convent, and had bewitched the six nuns. They determined to keep the
+matter secret, and to attempt the conversion of Renata. And as the nuns
+still continued possessed, they despatched her to a remote convent.
+Here, under a show of outward piety, she still went on with her attempts
+to realise witchcraft, and the nuns remained possessed. It was decided
+at length to give Renata over to the civil power. She was accordingly
+condemned to be burned alive; but in mitigation of punishment her head
+was first struck off. Four of the possessed nuns gradually recovered
+with clerical assistance; the other two remained deranged. Renata was
+executed on the 21st January 1749.
+
+Renata stated, in her voluntary confession, that she had often at night
+been carried bodily to witch-Sabbaths; in one of which she was first
+presented to the Prince of Darkness, when she abjured God and the Virgin
+at the same time. Her name, with the alteration of Maria into Emma, was
+written in a black book, and she herself was stamped on the back as the
+Devil's property, in return for which she received the promise of
+seventy years of life, and all she might wish for. She stated that she
+had often, at night, gone into the cellar of the _chateau_ and drank the
+best wine; in the shape of a swine had walked on the convent walls; on
+the bridge had milked the cows as they passed over; and several times
+had mingled with the actors in the theatre in London.
+
+A question unavoidably presents itself--How came witchcraft to be in so
+great a degree the province of women? There existed sorcerers, no doubt,
+but they were comparatively few. Persons of either sex and of all ages
+indiscriminately interested themselves in the black art; but the
+professors and regular practitioners were almost exclusively women, and
+principally old women. The following seem to have been some of the
+causes. Women were confined to household toils; their minds had not
+adequate occupation: many young unmarried women, without duties, would
+lack objects of sufficient interest for their yearnings; many of the old
+ones, despised, ill treated probably, soured with the world, rendered
+spiteful and vindictive, took even more readily to a resource which
+roused and gave employment to their imaginations, and promised to
+gratify their wishes. It is evident, too, that the supposed sex of the
+Devil helped him here. The old women had an idea of making much of him,
+and of coaxing, and getting round the black gentleman. But beside all
+this, there lies in the physical temperament of the other sex a peculiar
+susceptibility of derangement of the nervous system, a predisposition to
+all the varieties of trance, with its prolific sources of mental
+illusion--all tending, it is to be observed, to advance the belief and
+enlarge the pretensions of witchcraft.
+
+The form of trance which specially dominated in witchcraft was
+trance-sleep with visions. The graduates and candidates in the faculty
+sought to fall into trances, in the dreams of which they realised their
+waking aspirations. They entertained no doubt, however, that their
+visits to the Devil and their nocturnal exploits were genuine; and they
+seem to have wilfully shut their eyes to the possibility of their having
+never left their beds. For, with a skill that should have betrayed to
+them the truth, they were used to prepare a witch-broth to promote in
+some way their nightly expeditions. And this they composed not only of
+materials calculated to prick on the imagination, but of substantial
+narcotics, too--the medical effects of which they no doubt were
+acquainted with. They contemplated evidently producing a sort of stupor.
+
+The professors of witchcraft had thus made the singular step of
+artificially producing a sort of trance, with the object of availing
+themselves of one of its attendant phenomena. The Thamans in Siberia do
+the like to this day to obtain the gift of prophecy. And it is more than
+probable that the Egyptian and Delphic priest habitually availed
+themselves of some analogous procedure. Modern mesmerism is in part an
+effort in the same direction.
+
+Without at all comprehending the real character of the power called into
+play, mankind seems to have found out by a "mera palpatio," by
+instinctive experiment and lucky groping in the dark, that in the stupor
+of trance the mind occasionally stumbles upon odds and ends of strange
+knowledge and prescience. The phenomenon was never for an instant
+suspected of lying in the order of nature. It was construed, to suit the
+occasion and the times, either into divine inspiration or diabolic
+whisperings. But it was always supernatural. So the ignorant old
+lemon-seller in Zschokke's Selbstschau thought his "hidden wisdom" a
+mystical wonder; while the enlightened and accomplished narrator of
+their united stories, stands alone, in striking advance ever of his own
+day, when he unassumingly and diffidently puts forward his seer-gift as
+_a simple contribution to psychical knowledge_. And thus, my proposed
+task accomplished, my dear Archy, finally yours, &c.
+
+                          MAC DAVUS.
+
+
+
+
+THE HYMN OF KING OLAF THE SAINT.
+
+ALTERED FROM THE ICELANDIC.
+
+
+      Swend, king of all,
+      In Olaf's hall
+    Now sits in state on high;
+      Whilst up in heaven
+      Amidst the shriven
+    Sits Olaf's majesty.
+      For not in cell
+      Does our hero dwell,
+    But in realms of light for ever:
+      As a ransom'd saint
+      To heal our plaint,
+    Be glory to thee, gold-giver!
+
+      Of raptures there
+      He has won his share,
+    All cleansed from taint of sin;
+      For on earth prepared,
+      No toil he spared
+    That holy place to win.
+      That he hath won
+      Near God's dear Son
+    Fast by the holy river--
+      Oh, such as thine
+      May the end be mine;
+    Be glory to thee, gold-giver!
+
+      His sacred form
+      Unscathed by worm,
+    And clear as the hour he died,
+      Lies at this day
+      Where good men pray
+    At morn and at eventide.
+      His nails and his hair
+      Are fresh and fair,
+    With his yellow locks still growing;
+      His cheek as red,
+      And his flesh not dead,
+    Though the blood hath ceased from flowing.
+
+      If you watch by night,
+      In the dim twilight
+    You may hear a requiem singing;
+      And the people hear
+      Above his bier
+    A small bell clearly ringing.
+      And if ye wait
+      Until midnight late,
+    You may hear the great bell toll:
+      But none can tell
+      Who tolls that bell
+    If it sounds for Olaf's soul.
+      With tapers clear,
+      Which Christ holds dear,
+    O'er the corpse so still reclining,
+      By day and night
+      Is the altar light
+    And the cross of the Saviour shining.
+      For our King did so,
+      And all men know
+    That washed from sin and shriven,
+      All free from taint,
+      A ransom'd saint,
+    He dwells with the saints in heaven.
+
+      And thousands come,
+      The deaf and the dumb,
+    To the tomb of our monarch here--
+      The sick and the blind
+      Of every kind
+    They throng to the holy bier.
+      With heads all bare
+      They breathe their prayer
+    As they kneel on the flinty ground:
+      God hears their sighs,
+      And the sick men rise
+    All whole, and healed, and sound.
+
+      Then to Olaf pray,
+      To spare thy day
+    From wrath, and wrong, and harm;
+      To save thy land
+      From the spoiler's hand,
+    And the fell invader's arm.
+      God's man is he,
+      To deal to thee
+    What is ask'd in a lowly spirit--
+      Let thy prayer not cease,
+      And wealth, and peace,
+    And a blessing thou shalt inherit.
+
+      For prayers are good,
+      If before the rood
+    Thy beads thou tellest praying;
+      If thou tellest on,
+      Forgetting none
+    Of the saints who with God are staying.
+
+                          W. E. A.
+
+
+
+
+FOUR SONNETS BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
+
+TWO SKETCHES.
+
+
+                    I.
+
+    The shadow of her face upon the wall
+    May take your memory to the perfect Greek;
+    But when you front her, you would call the cheek
+    Too full, sir, for your models, if withal
+    That bloom it wears could leave you critical,
+    And that smile reaching toward the rosy streak:--
+    For one who smiles so, has no need to speak,
+    To lead your thoughts along, as steed to stall!
+    A smile that turns the sunny side o' the heart
+    On all the world, as if herself did win
+    By what she lavished on an open mart:--
+    Let no man call the liberal sweetness, sin,--
+    While friends may whisper, as they stand apart,
+    "Methinks there's still some warmer place within."
+
+
+                    II.
+
+    Her azure eyes, dark lashes hold in fee:
+    Her fair superfluous ringlets, without check,
+    Drop after one another down her neck;
+    As many to each cheek as you might see
+    Green leaves to a wild rose! This sign, outwardly,
+    And a like woman-covering seems to deck
+    Her inner nature! For she will not fleck
+    World's sunshine with a finger. Sympathy
+    Must call her in Love's name! and then, I know,
+    She rises up, and brightens, as she should,
+    And lights her smile for comfort, and is slow
+    In nothing of high-hearted fortitude.
+    To smell this flower, come near it; such can grow
+    In that sole garden where Christ's brow dropped blood.
+
+
+            MOUNTAINEER AND POET.
+
+    The simple goatherd who treads places high,
+    Beholding there his shadow (it is wist)
+    Dilated to a giant's on the mist,
+    Esteems not his own stature larger by
+    The apparent image; but more patiently
+    Strikes his staff down beneath his clenching fist--
+    While the snow-mountains lift their amethyst
+    And sapphire crowns of splendour, far and nigh,
+    Into the air around him. Learn from hence
+    Meek morals, all ye poets that pursue
+    Your way still onward up to eminence!
+    Ye are not great, because creation drew
+    Large revelations round your earliest sense,
+    Nor bright, because God's glory shines for you.
+
+
+                    THE POET.
+
+    The poet hath the child's sight in his breast,
+    And sees all _new_. What oftenest he has viewed,
+    He views with the first glory. Fair and good
+    Pall never on him, at the fairest, best,
+    But stand before him, holy, and undressed
+    In week-day false conventions; such as would
+    Drag other men down from the altitude
+    Of primal types, too early dispossessed.
+    Why, God would tire of all his heavens as soon
+    As thou, O childlike, godlike poet! did'st
+    Of daily and nightly sights of sun and moon!
+    And therefore hath He set thee in the midst
+    Where men may hear thy wonder's ceaseless tune,
+    And praise His world for ever as thou bidst.
+
+
+
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE DECLINING OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.
+
+(BEING A FEW PAGES FROM MY EASTERN DIARY).
+
+
+----At half-past seven in the evening, we left Smyrna by the Scamandre,
+a French government steamer, and were soon gliding over a sea smooth as
+glass. The soft tints of the twilight spread gradually around us, and to
+a beautiful day there succeeded one of those marvellous nights, during
+which one cannot bring one's-self to the determination of retiring to
+rest.
+
+The dawn of day surprised me on deck. In the morning we neared the land,
+which presented to our view a desert plain, covered with dwarf oak. This
+was the site of ancient Troy; we were coasting near those famous fields,
+_ubi Troja fuit_; that stream which was throwing itself before our eyes
+into the sea, was formerly called the "Simois;" those two hillocks which
+we saw upon the coast, were the tombs of Hector and Patroclus; that huge
+blue mountain which in the distance raised towards the sky its three
+peaks covered with snow, was Ida; and behind us, from the midst of the
+sparkling waves, rose the island of Tenedos. All conversation between
+the passengers from many nations had long since ceased, and I
+contemplated in silence that grim desert, which, at Eton, I had dreamed
+of as full of movement and sound, and that calm sea which I had so often
+figured to myself as covered with the ships of Agamemnon, of Ulysses,
+and of Achilles the
+
+    "Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer."
+
+At mid-day we entered the Dardanelles, and several hours afterwards, we
+cast anchor between Sestos and Abydos, before a small white town,
+containing no remarkable objects. Sestos and Abydos, which it must be
+owned would not be by any means celebrated, were it not for the
+enterprises which cost Leander his life and Lord Byron an ague, are two
+hamlets, which, like the greater portion of Turkish villages, offer in
+no shape whatever what it is the fashion to term the Oriental type. They
+are composed of an assemblage of rose-coloured houses, whose large red
+roofs, seen through the verdure and flowers, call to one's mind the
+description of a Chinese village.
+
+Upon its arrival, the Scamandre was immediately surrounded by a
+multitude of caicks filled with bearded Turks, veiled women, and various
+coloured bales. Upon deck rose a deafening Babel of voices,--the sailors
+swore, the women screamed, and the porters fought, until at length quiet
+was restored, and one hundred and eighty-six new Mussulman passengers
+came on board the steamer. Amid the caicks ranged along the sides of the
+vessel, was one much more richly freighted than the rest; the traveller
+to whom it belonged was a young Arab, who, standing on a pile of bales,
+domineered over his boatmen by several feet. His white garments set off
+to advantage his dark complexion; and a cloak of black wool, profusely
+embroidered with gold lace, drew upon him the eyes of all. I had seldom,
+if ever, beheld a head more beautiful or more expressive than that of
+the young man. His large black eyes were full of intelligence, and in
+his bearing was a natural nobility and pride. As long as the confusion,
+described above, continued, he directed his boatmen to keep at a
+distance, but when all were embarked, and the Scamandre was ready to
+start, he hailed the vessel, and having mounted the side-ladders, gave
+his hand to six veiled women in succession, whose long white dominos
+prevented the spectators from even guessing at their age or beauty. The
+young man, once on board, conducted his odalisques to a fore-cabin,
+placed a hideous negro at the door as sentinel, and returned immediately
+to the deck, where another negro presented him with a narguileh (Turkish
+water-pipe).
+
+Nothing can less resemble our regular fortifications than the fort of
+Gallipoli, (before which we soon after passed,) and the other castles of
+the Dardanelles, which ought to render Constantinople the most
+impregnable place in the world (from the sea.) The forts are large
+buildings of a dazzling white colour, perforated with port-holes,
+similar to those belonging to a ship of war, and mounted with old guns,
+the greater portion of which are without carriages, and served,
+ordinarily, by a single artillery-man, assisted in time of war by three
+or four peasants. In the present century, however, these batteries have
+shown their prowess, and against our own countrymen too. During the
+month of February 1807, the British government, justly irritated at the
+increasing influence that the French ambassador, Count Sebastiani, was
+obtaining at the Ottoman court, despatched Admiral Sir John Duckworth,
+in command of a squadron, with orders to bombard, if necessary, the
+Seraglio itself. Unfortunately, Sir John Duckworth's plan of acting was
+exactly contrary to what would have been our gallant Nelson's in the
+same position. After having passed without difficulty before the then
+disarmed castles of the Dardanelles, after having burned the Ottoman
+fleet off Gallipoli, while the crews were peaceably celebrating on shore
+the feast of Courban-Beiram, Sir John presented himself off
+Constantinople, and threatened to bombard that city, should the Sultan
+refuse to accept the conditions he offered, at the same time he allowed
+his Imperial Highness two days to consider the terms; Nelson would have
+allowed as many hours only. The folly of Admiral Duckworth's conduct
+fully shown in the sequel, for, at the conclusion of the forty-eight
+hours, the approaches to Stamboul and Galata were bristling--thanks to
+the delay accorded, and to the exertions of the French ambassador--with
+twelve hundred pieces of cannon; while, at the same time, orders having
+been sent to the castles of the Dardanelles to mount their batteries,
+the British squadron was hemmed in on all sides, as if by enchantment.
+The besieged now became the aggressors, and there soon remained to
+Admiral Duckworth no other resource than to weigh anchor and get away as
+fast as possible, which he accordingly did. The batteries of the
+Dardanelles were now, however, prepared for him. A most destructive fire
+was opened upon the ill-fated fleet: two corvettes were sunk off
+Gallipoli; the Admiral's flag-ship, the Royal George, lost her mainmast;
+a huge marble ball, weighing eight hundred pounds, swept away a quantity
+of hands from the lower deck of the Standard, while many officers and
+seamen wore severely wounded. It must be here observed, that the
+batteries of the Dardanelles owed much of the murderous effect of their
+cannonading to the skill of eight French engineer officers, whom Count
+Sebastiani, profiting by the delay accorded by Admiral Duckworth to the
+Sultan, had despatched to the castles.
+
+These historical reminiscences did not prevent my thoughts occasionally
+reverting to the six odalisques, who formed the suite of the young Arab
+on board. Ever since their arrival, I had been reflecting that in all
+probability never would so excellent an opportunity offer itself of
+penetrating the secrets of a Mussulman harem, and of assuring myself of
+the vaunted beauty of the mysterious women of Asia. As soon as we were
+again in motion, I began to watch the black Argus to whose guard the
+fair houris were intrusted. For more than an hour I lurked without
+success about the fore-hatchway, for, faithful to his trust, the slave
+was lying at the threshold of the door that closed upon his young
+mistresses; and I was on the point of losing all patience, when I beheld
+him suddenly rise and mount rapidly on deck. He had no sooner
+disappeared than I glided into his place, and, having applied my eye to
+a large chink in the door, cast a most indiscreet glance into the cabin.
+In front of me two women were seated upon their heels, one of them had
+thrown aside her veil; and I was gazing in admiration upon a pale but
+beautiful face, set off by two immense black and brilliant eyes, when
+suddenly I heard behind me the sound of hurried steps. It was the negro
+returning to his post, who, on perceiving me, began to cry out most
+lustily. Having no desire to commence a contest with him, I proceeded
+to mount the hatchway and gain the deck.
+
+The exasperated slave, however, followed me, and hurrying to his master,
+proceeded to inform him of my escapade, pointing at the same time to me.
+Two old Turks leaped immediately to their feet with fury depicted on
+their features; and one of them placed his hand upon the hilt of his
+cangiar, and pronounced in a voice half-choked with passion the word
+"Ghiaour," (infidel): in answer to which, I politely told him, (as I was
+a good Turkish scholar,) to mind his own business, and that I was rather
+inclined to consider him the greater infidel of the two. He looked both
+surprised and vexed at this, but did not attempt to retort. As to the
+young Arab, he proved himself to be a man of sense; for, contenting
+himself with smiling at his infuriated attendant, he descended to the
+cabin of his odalisques, from whence he did not emerge during the
+remainder of our voyage. I did not again see him, and never knew who was
+the Mussulman, so handsome and at the same time so little fanatical.
+
+The strait through which we had navigated all day, gradually widened as
+we advanced; the shores as they receded were covered with opal tints;
+the vessel began to roll, and we entered the sea of Marmora. At sunset
+the Mussulmans with whom the deck was crowded collected in groups, and
+devoutly said their evening prayer. Their countenances were wrapped in
+deep devotion, and they appeared to take no notice of the satirical
+smiles, which the strangeness of their attitudes called forth from
+several unreflecting travellers, who, by wanting in respect for the
+usages of the countries through which they were passing, lowered
+themselves immensely in the estimation of the inhabitants. The
+irritation excited by the ill-timed railleries of such foolish persons,
+is no doubt one of the chief causes of the hatred in which Christians
+are held in Turkey. Surely nothing could be less calculated to excite
+mockery, than the sight of the Mussulman travellers at their evening
+devotions; besides, be it had in mind, that upon this Christian vessel,
+scarcely a Christian perhaps was thinking of his God, while not a single
+Mahometan was to be seen unengaged in prayer, as the sun sunk below the
+horizon.
+
+The following morning I was early upon deck. The sun had not yet risen,
+and the air was fresh and invigorating; while upon the white, heavy,
+oily sea, was a slight fog, which the breeze was dispersing in flakes.
+Around us a quantity of porpoises were either splashing in the midst of
+the waves or floating like buoys upon the surface. The most profound
+silence reigned upon the deck of the steamer. Wet with the night-dews,
+the half-slumbering seamen of the watch were seated in a circle near the
+funnel; while numberless Turks, rolled up in their yellow coverlets
+striped with red, were sleeping forward beneath the netting: the
+steersman at the wheel and the man on the look-out were alone really
+wide awake. Suddenly, I perceived dawning in the east a greenish light,
+which became yellow as it ascended in the heavens; the low and flat
+shore appeared like a black line upon this luminous background, and by
+degrees the sea resumed its azure tint. An hour afterwards we were
+within cannon-shot of the Seraglio; but, alas! a thick fog covered the
+city. Constantinople was invisible--and I was deploring the mischance,
+which was depriving me of a long-anticipated pleasure, when suddenly the
+sun shone forth brightly, and the fog acquired as if by enchantment a
+wonderful transparency. The curtain was, as it were, torn to bits, and
+from all quarters at once there appeared to my dazzled eyes forests of
+minarets with gilded peaks, thousands of cupolas blazing in the light,
+hills covered with many-coloured houses, surrounded by verdure; an
+immense succession of palaces with grotesque windows, blue-roofed
+mosques, groves of cypress-trees and sycamores, gardens full of flowers,
+a port filled as far as the eye could discern with ships, masts, and
+flags; in a word, the whole of that enchanted city, which resembles less
+an immense capital than an endless succession of lovely kiosks, built in
+a boundless park, having lakes for docks, mountains for background,
+forests for thickets, fleets for boats,--in fine, an incomparable spot,
+and at the same time so grand and elegant, that it seems to have been
+designed by fairies, and executed by giants.
+
+Several writers have compared the view of Constantinople to that of
+Naples. I cannot, however, agree with them. Any one can figure the
+latter capital, whilst, on the contrary, the City of the Sultan
+surpasses all that imagination can picture. Our enchantment, however,
+was of short duration: the vapours again became condensed, the view was
+gradually covered with a rosy haze, then became dim, and Constantinople
+disappeared from before us like a dream. The Scamandre, which had
+stopped for a few minutes, was again put in motion, and having rounded
+the Seraglio, cast anchor in the midst of the strait which separates
+Stamboul (the Turkish quarter) from Galata, (the European faubourg.) In
+a moment the deck of our vessel was one scene of confusion: the sailors
+were running to and fro, while the passengers were rushing one against
+another, vociferating after their baggage. Around the vessel there kept
+gliding two or three hundred black caicks, rowed by half-naked boatmen;
+and notwithstanding the orders to the contrary, a quantity of Maltese
+sailors, Turkish porters, and Levantine ciceroni came on board, and
+literally took us by storm, bawling out their offers of service, in
+almost every known language. Clouds of blue pigeons, and whitewinged
+albatros, flew about over our heads, uttering plaintive cries; add to
+these the stentorian voice of our French commander, the curiosity and
+impatience of the travellers demonstrated by their noisy exclamations,
+and one will have an idea of the spectacle offered by the deck of a
+steamer on its arrival at a Turkish port.
+
+During the hauling of the vessel to the quay, I scarcely knew upon what
+to fix my eyes, attracted as they simultaneously were by a thousand
+different objects. Here was the Golden Horn with its numberless ships,
+the cypress-trees of Galata, and the seven hills of ancient Byzantium
+covered with mosques; there, the blue waves of the Propontis, and the
+glittering banks of Scutari. Giddy with enthusiasm, and intoxicated with
+admiration, I attempted, as our caick approached the landing-place, to
+be the first to leap upon the quay, when, just as I was in the act of
+springing, my foot slipped, and I fell headlong into a miry stream. Such
+was my entrance into Constantinople.
+
+As soon as I gained footing, splashed with mud from head to foot, I
+remained a moment motionless, and almost petrified with astonishment.
+All was changed around me: the enchanted panorama had disappeared, and I
+found myself in a small filthy crossway, at the entrance of a labyrinth
+of narrow, damp, dark, muddy streets. The houses which surrounded me,
+built as they were of disjointed planks, had a miserable aspect; time
+and rain had diluted their primitive red colour into numberless nameless
+tints. One of those minarets which from afar appeared so slender and so
+beautiful, now that it was close to me proved to be merely a small
+column devoid of symmetry, while its covering of cracked plaster seemed
+on the point of falling to pieces. The Turkish promenaders whom from a
+distance I had taken for richly attired merchants, proved to be a set of
+miserable tatterdemalions with ragged turbans. Behind the porters who
+crowded to the landing-place, were butchers embowelling sheep in the
+open street; while the pavement was covered with bloody mire and smoking
+entrails, around which several score of hideous dogs, of a fallow
+colour, were growling and fighting. A fetid stench arose from the damp
+gutters, where neither air nor light have ever penetrated, where
+corruptions of all sorts amass, and where one is continually in danger
+of stepping upon a dead dog or rat. Such is without exaggeration the
+aspect of the greater part of the streets of Constantinople, and in
+particular those of Galata. This contrast between the misery of what
+surrounds you, and the incomparable beauty of the same spot when seen
+from a distance, has never yet been sufficiently remarked upon by
+travellers who seek to describe Constantinople. Perhaps they have been
+unwilling to cool the enthusiasm of their readers in dirtying with these
+hideous, but true details, their gold and silver-plated descriptions.
+
+Perfectly disenchanted by this sudden change of scene, I followed the
+bearer of my baggage up a street, which was steep, badly paved, and so
+narrow that three men could scarcely have walked along it abreast. On
+the right and left hand were disgusting little shops, or rather booths,
+filled with green fruit and vegetables. Having proceeded onwards, we
+rounded the tower of Galata, which, from a near view resembles a
+handsome dove-cote, and shortly afterwards arrived at Pera, and
+proceeded to take up our quarters at a kind of hotel, kept by one
+Giusepine Vitali, where I immediately went to bed and was soon
+afterwards fast asleep.
+
+At ten o'clock, A.M., I was awakened by my fellow-travellers, and
+accompanied them to the caravanserai of the Turning Dervishes. A
+somewhat lengthened residence in the northern provinces of Persia, where
+a Turkish idiom is spoken, had given me a tolerable fluency in that
+language, and I was thus enabled to act as interpreter to my friends.
+The cicerone of the hotel conducted us to a circular building situated
+in the midst of a small garden, whither was hurrying a crowd composed of
+Greeks, Armenians, and Turks. Having arrived at the vestibule, we took
+off our boots and confided them to the care of a man who kept a sort of
+dep�t for slippers, of which he hired out to each of us a pair. We then
+entered a large circular hall, lighted from above, in the centre of
+which was an oaken floor, waxed and polished with the greatest care, and
+protected by a balustrade. Around this arena were seated a number of
+spectators of all ages, country, and costumes, and exhaling a strong
+odour of garlic. The ceremony was commenced: for to the music of a
+barbarous orchestra, composed of small timbals and squeaking fifes,
+accompanying some nasal voices, about twenty tall, bearded young men,
+clad in long white robes, were waltzing gravely round an old man in a
+blue pelisse. These men carried on their heads a thick beaver cap,
+similar in form to a flower-pot turned upside down. Their white robes,
+made of a heavy kind of woollen stuff, were so constantly bulged out
+with the air that they seemed made of wood. With their arms extended in
+the form of a cross, the left hand being somewhat more elevated than the
+right, and their looks fixed upon the ceiling with a stupid stare, these
+Dervishes continued to turn rapidly round upon their naked feet with
+such regularity and impassibility that they seemed like automatons put
+into motion by machinery.
+
+Suddenly the music ceased, upon which the Dervishes threw themselves
+simultaneously upon their knees, inclining their heads at the same time
+to the ground. For several minutes they remained motionless in this
+position, while some attendants threw a large black cloak over each,
+upon which they again stood up and ranged themselves in a line. Upon
+this the old man in the blue pelisse, who had hitherto sat motionless
+upon his heels, began a plaintive nasal chant, to which his subordinates
+responded in a roaring chorus; this finished, the crowd began to
+disperse, and we returned to our hotel.
+
+Besides the Turning Dervishes, there are also at Constantinople the
+Howling Dervishes, who, instead of waltzing until they fall from
+giddiness, continue to utter the most frightful shrieks, until they fall
+upon the ground exhausted and foaming at the mouth. Historians have
+accorded different origins to these singular and absurd exercises; for
+my part, I am inclined to consider them as remnants of the furious
+dances taught by the ancient people of Asia to the Corybantes.
+
+The day after my arrival I embarked for Stamboul, the Turkish quarter,
+in one of those long caicks which are as it were the hackney coaches of
+Constantinople. The least oscillation is sufficient to upset these light
+barks, which are impelled with inconceivable rapidity by two or three
+fine light-looking Arnaouts, dressed in silken shirts. In two minutes,
+having traversed the Golden Horn, passing through an immense crowd of
+boats of every form, and ships of every nation, we disembarked upon a
+landing-place even more dangerous than the caick, on account of its
+slipperiness and the chances thereby of falling headlong into a
+receptacle of filth and mud. The streets of Stamboul are still more
+narrow, filthy, and fetid than those of Galata and Pera. Wooden hovels,
+badly constructed, and worse painted; a species of cages pierced with an
+infinite number of trellised windows, with one story projecting over the
+ground floor, flank on the right and on the left hand these passages,
+through which hurry a motley crowd with noiseless tread. The pavement,
+made of little stones placed in the dust, slip from under one's feet and
+expose one to continual falls. Upon the boards of the first shops one
+passes are piled heaps of large fish, whose scales glitter in the sun,
+in spite of the dust. Fawn-coloured dogs, in much greater numbers than
+at Galata, run between your legs--and wo to whosoever should disengage
+himself too energetically from these hideous brutes, which are protected
+by Mussulman bigotry! The habits of these animals, whose number amounts
+to above a hundred thousand, are exceedingly singular. They belong to no
+one, and have no habitation; they are born, they live and they die, in
+the open street; at every turn one may see a litter of puppies suckled
+by their mother. Upon what these quadrupeds feed it would be difficult
+to state. The Turkish government abandons to them the clearing of the
+streets, and the offal and every sort of filth, together with the dead
+bodies of their fellows, compose their apparently ordinary nourishment.
+At night they wander about in the burying grounds, howling in the most
+frightful manner. Whatever may be their means of existence, they
+multiply their species with the most surprising rapidity. Some years
+ago, the canine race had increased to such a degree at Constantinople
+that it became dangerous, when, to the pious horror of the Old
+Mussulmans, the Sultan Mahmood, among other reforms, caused twenty
+thousand of these animals to be, not poisoned, he would not have dared
+to so greatly offend against the prejudices of the inhabitants, but
+transported to the isles of Marmora. In a few days they had devoured
+every thing in the place of exile, after which, tormented by hunger,
+they made such a hideous row, and uttered such plaintive howls, that
+pity was taken upon them, and they were brought back in triumph to
+Constantinople. Fortunately hydrophobia is unknown in the Levant.
+
+The bazars of Constantinople have been so often described that it would
+be useless to describe them at any length. I will merely observe,
+therefore, that though infinitely more considerable, they do not
+respond, any more than those of Smyrna, to the ideas of luxury and
+grandeur which untravelled Europeans are apt to conceive of them. The
+Turkish bazars have a miserable aspect; they are nothing more than an
+immense labyrinth of large vaulted galleries, clumsily built, and at all
+times damp in the extreme. Magnificent carpets, stuffs embroidered in
+gold and silver, and other objects, the richness of which contrasts most
+singularly with the nakedness of the walls, are hung out for display on
+cords stretched transversely. The counter is a flat board of wood, very
+slightly elevated above the ground, and which serves as a divan to the
+seller and a seat to the buyer. From this place, which is usually
+covered with a mat, the Mussulman gazes in silence upon the passing
+foreigner, whom he rarely deigns to address by the name of Effendi;
+while, on the contrary, the active and loquacious Armenian even leaves
+his shop to run after him with some tempting object in his hand, at the
+same time indiscriminately giving him the title of "Signore Capitan." In
+the bazars are an astonishing number of articles which are often very
+cheap, such as tissues of silk, dressing gowns, gold embroidery, and
+Persian carpets, perfumery, precious stones, pieces of amber, furs,
+sweetmeats, pipes, morocco leather, velvet slippers, silken scarfs and
+Cachemire shawls cover a space extending over several leagues. In the
+"_Besestein_," a large building separated from the other bazars, one
+meets with in quantities those old arms, so sought after by antiquaries,
+carbines ornamented with coral, magnificent yataghans worn by the
+Janissaries before their destruction, and the famous blades of Khorasan.
+
+The commerce of Constantinople is closely allied with that of Smyrna;
+and many branches of trade, such as silk and opium, being required to
+pay duties at the customhouse of the capital, the merchants buy them at
+Constantinople merely in order to pass them over to Smyrna, where they
+find a more advantageous market for them. In consequence, these goods
+are twice borne upon the registers of the Turkish customhouses, which,
+be it observed, are exceedingly badly kept. Wool forms the principal
+branch of trade at the Porte, which is abundantly furnished with that
+article from her nearest provinces, Roumelia, Thessaly, and Bulgaria,
+which, containing about five million inhabitants, feed about eight
+million sheep, the value of which may be estimated at about two hundred
+million piastres, (the Turkish piastre, is worth about 2-1/4d.) It would
+have been impossible for such an important object to have failed
+exciting the cupidity of a government constituted like that of the
+Ottoman empire; in consequence, in 1829, they attempted to make a
+monopoly of the wool-trade. Fortunately, the clamorous despair of the
+owners of the flocks, and some good advice, caused the Divan to recall
+the measure, which would in all probability not only have given a fatal
+blow to the wool-trade, but have entirely put an end to the feeding of
+flocks throughout Turkey. Instead, therefore, of monopolising this
+branch of commerce, the government saddled it with such an exorbitant
+duty, that the provinces definitively gained little by the change. The
+price of wool was more than quadrupled, and in 1833 there was sold for
+above 170 piastres the hundredweight what in 1816 cost but forty
+piastres. The abolition of the monopolies and the modification of the
+duties have given, since the last six or seven years, some facilities to
+this trade, without, however, entirely restoring it to its former state
+of prosperity. Partly destroyed by the severe blow it had received, and
+shackled by the avarice of the Pashas, it languishes, as indeed does
+every other branch of trade and industry in the empire.
+
+Of Turkey, which men have rendered a country of misery and of famine,
+the Almighty seems to have intended to have made a land of promise. For
+agriculture, He has created immense plains, unequalled in fertility
+throughout the globe, and in the bowels of the mountains He has hidden
+incalculable treasures; and in return for all these gifts, these
+glorious gifts, what have the inhabitants done? they have left the land
+uncultivated, and the mountains unsearched. Mines of all sorts abound.
+Copper, (which is sold in secret only, and is a contraband article,)
+were its mines worked on a grand scale, would alone furnish a new
+element of commerce to Constantinople, and might help to draw it from
+its present state of torpor. But will the Turks ever dream of such a
+thing? Never! For like the dog in the fable, the Ottomans will neither
+profit themselves nor let others profit by what is in the territory. Too
+indolent to work out the natural riches of their soil, they are too
+jealous to permit others to do it for them. Besides, Europeans, by an
+ancient law which we have recently seen confirmed, having no right to
+possess land in Turkey, cannot undertake any agricultural or commercial
+speculation of any importance. In addition to this, the Turkish
+government itself is ignorant of most of the natural riches of its
+territory; for the inhabitants, well knowing the character of the men
+who have the management of affairs, take every possible precaution to
+conceal the existence of the mines, for fear they should be forced to
+work them without remuneration.
+
+The provinces of the Danube have now yielded to Thrace and to Macedon
+the furnishing of the capital with corn. This important trade has been
+ruined, like every thing else, by the barbarous measures of a stupid
+ministry. In reserving to itself the supplying of the capital, the
+government does not allow the exportation of corn without special
+permission. Without doubt, the liberty of this trade would have given a
+new impulse to agriculture, and would have restored prosperity to
+several provinces; but that would not have been for the interest of
+those personages who had the power of giving permits, and who
+consequently made a traffic of the firmans. In 1828, a circumstance
+occurred which ought to have enlightened the government on this point.
+The Russians had intercepted all communication with the capital, and in
+consequence a want of provisions occurred; for the ill-furnished public
+magazines afforded such damaged wheat only, that it could with great
+difficulty be baked into bad and unhealthy bread. To remedy this evil,
+an employ� ventured to suggest that any one who could procure corn
+should be permitted to supply the capital. The situation of affairs was
+critical, for the people were beginning to murmur; and the suggestion
+was carried into effect. No sooner was the permission accorded, than a
+multitude of farmers and merchants hastened to pour grain into the
+market, and plenty soon reappeared. This was an excellent lesson to the
+government, but how did it profit thereby? First of all it reinstated
+the monopoly, and four years afterwards, in 1832, happening to require a
+million measures for its magazines, in order to make more sure of
+speedily procuring that quantity, it forbade the _exportation_ of corn,
+inasmuch that to collect the required million of measures, it destroyed,
+in all probability, a hundred millions, and ruined about ten thousand
+cultivators. This barbarous system partly ended in 1838, but it will be
+long before its withering effects are effaced.
+
+It is in the long corridors of the bazars that the commercial business
+of the country is carried on. An immense multitude, more curious to view
+than even the exposition of the different wares, congregates thither
+daily. Constantinople, notwithstanding its state of decline, is always
+the point of intersection between the eastern and western world. At this
+general rendezvous, whither Europe and Asia send their representatives,
+one may study the human species in almost every possible variety of
+type. English, Americans, Russians, Greeks, Italians, Germans, Persians,
+Circassians, Arabs, Koords, Austrians, Hungarians, Abyssinians, Tartars,
+French, &c. &c., hurry to and fro around the Turk, who smokes and
+dreams, calm and immovable amidst the active throng, which presents an
+inconceivable medley of silk pelisses, white bornous and black robes,
+surmounted by green turbans, red fezs, and beaver hats. Numbers of
+women, covered with white dominos, advance slowly and spectre-like
+through the crowd, which every now and then opens its ranks to give
+passage to some mounted Pasha, followed by his attendants on foot. Here
+and there may be seen asses loaded with bales, and at the further end of
+the galleries are caravans of camels. One's ears are deafened with the
+piercing cries of the sherbet-sellers, and the howling of the dogs;
+while quantities of pigeons coo over the heads of the motley crowd.
+Although, on taking a general view of this spectacle, there is little to
+admire, still one may select from it an infinite number of original
+scenes and pictures full of character. Here, for instance, an ambulating
+musician sings, or rather chants to an attentive audience one of those
+interminable ballads of which the Turks never tire; there, are half a
+dozen Greeks quarrelling and vociferating so energetically, that one
+would expect nothing less than that from words they would come to
+bloodshed; while, further on, a circle of friends are regaling
+themselves over a basket of green cucumbers. Talking of cucumbers, they
+almost entirely compose, in summer, the nourishment of the Turks. The
+Sultan Mahmood II. was excessively fond of this fruit, or rather
+vegetable, and cultivated it with his own hands in the Seraglio gardens.
+Having one day perceived that some of his cucumbers were missing, he
+sent for his head gardener, and informed him that, should such a
+circumstance occur again, he would order his head to be cut off. The
+next day three more cucumbers had been stolen, upon which the gardener,
+to save his own head, accused the pages of his highness of having
+committed the theft. These unhappy youths were immediately sent for, and
+having all declared themselves innocent, the enraged Sultan, in order to
+discover the culprit, commanded them one after another to be
+disembowelled. Nothing was found in the stomach or entrails of the first
+six victims, but the autopsy of the seventh proved him to have been the
+guilty one.
+
+In the midst of the crowds in the Turkish capital, the women present a
+curious spectacle, wandering about as they do covered with white
+dominos, or rather winding-sheets. The lot of this portion of the
+Mussulman population is much less unhappy than one would be led to
+expect. They certainly hold a secondary station in society, but,
+brought-up as they are in the most complete ignorance, they are
+unconscious of their degraded position, and know not that there is a
+better. They are, in general, treated very kindly by their husbands and
+masters, and do not undergo, as it is supposed, either capricious or
+brutal treatment. Although in Europe they still believe a Turk to be
+constantly surrounded by a multitude of odalisques, to whom, as it suits
+his fancy, he throws in turn his handkerchief, at Constantinople there
+are very few Osmanlees who have three or even two wives, and even these
+they lodge in separate mansions, in general far distant from each other.
+Almost all the Turks, with the exception of the very few above mentioned
+individuals, possess in general but one wife, to whom they are most
+faithful. The grand seignior alone is a Sultan in the full and
+voluptuous acceptation of the term. He is possessor of a magnificent
+palace, where no noise from without ever penetrates, and where immense
+riches have collected together all the wonders of luxury. Marble baths,
+lovely gardens bounded by a sparkling sea, and vaulted by an indigo sky,
+legions of slaves, who have no will but his, no law but his caprices;
+and in this Eden three or four hundred women chosen from out of the most
+beautiful in the universe; this is the world, this is the life of that
+man: and yet, although he be so young, all who know him say that the
+present Sultan is morose, sad, and splenetic.
+
+On mounting, at sixteen, upon the throne of Turkey, Abdul Medjid
+announced it to be his intention to change nothing that his father
+Mahmood had established, and declared himself a partisan of the system
+of reform commenced by that sovereign. Notwithstanding the custom,
+rendered almost sacred by tradition, he renounced the turban and was
+_crowned_ with the fez. Contrary to the usage of former Sultans, who on
+their accession put to death or closely imprisoned all their brothers,
+he allowed his brother Abdul Haziz not only his life, but full liberty.
+
+The Hatti-sherif of Gulhanch, published on the 19th of November 1839,
+and which has been viewed in so many and different lights, proved at
+least the good intentions of this sovereign, called so young to support
+so weighty a burden. At various times he has manifested a desire for
+instruction, and has taken lessons in geography and in Italian; he has
+also travelled over a part of his empire.
+
+It is usual at Constantinople for the Sultan to proceed every Friday
+(the Mussulman Sabbath) to pray in one of the mosques. The one chosen is
+named in the morning, and he proceeds thither on horseback or in his
+caick, according to the quarter in which it is situated. This weekly
+ceremony is almost the sole occasion on which foreigners can see his
+highness. During my stay at Constantinople, I had several opportunities
+of gazing upon the descendant of the Prophet. He is a young man, of
+slender frame, of grave physiognomy, and a most _distingu�_ appearance.
+A crowd of officers and eunuchs formed his suite, and all heads bowed
+low at his approach. Abdul Medjid, who was the twentieth-born child of
+his father Mahmood, was born at Constantinople on the 19th of April
+1823. His black and stiff beard cause him to appear older than he is in
+reality. His eye is very brilliant, and his features regular. His face
+is somewhat marked with the smallpox; but this is not very apparent, as
+the young sultan, according to the custom of the harem, has an
+artificial complexion for days of ceremony. Naturally of a delicate
+frame, excesses have much enfeebled his constitution; his continual
+ill-health, his pallor, and his teeth already decayed, announce, that
+though so young in years, he is expiating the pleasures of a Sultan by a
+premature decrepitude. Abdul Medjid has several children, who are weak
+and sickly like their father, and the state of their health inspires
+constant anxiety.
+
+Few sovereigns have been more diversely judged than Mahmood, the father
+of the present Sultan. Lauded to the skies by some, lowered to the dust
+by others, he died before Europe was properly enlightened as to his
+intentions. Now that his work has undergone the ordeal of time, one can
+appreciate it at its real value. Ascending the throne at an epoch of
+anarchy and disorder, having at one and the same time to oppose the
+invasion of Russia, and to put down the rebellion of the Pashas, who
+were raising their pashalicks into sovereignties, Mahmood gave proofs,
+during several years, of a force of character almost inconceivable in a
+man enervated from his childhood by the pleasures of the harem.
+Unfortunately his intellect was unequal to his obstinacy: every abuse he
+put down gave rise to or made way for new abuses, which he could not
+foresee, and was unable to destroy. The established order of affairs,
+which he fought against, was a hydra, from which, for one head cut off,
+twenty sprang up. Far from augmenting his power, his greatest
+enterprises merely tended to enfeeble it. The repression of Ali the
+Pasha of Janina, cost Mahmood the kingdom of Greece; and had not the
+powers of Europe intervened, the war against Mehemet Ali would have cost
+him his throne. Even the destruction of the Janissaries, which was
+considered so great a cause of triumph by the Sultan, was it in reality
+so? It is surely permitted to doubt the circumstance. That powerful
+militia, scattered through the empire, was in some sort the focus of
+that spirit of fatalism, which had till then been the principal prop of
+the imperfect work of the Arabian impostor; to destroy it was to strike
+a death-blow to that society which breathed as it were in war alone. In
+overthrowing an obstacle which paralysed his power, Mahmood dug an abyss
+into which the Turkish empire must sooner or later fall; for the spirit
+of religious enthusiasm which he destroyed has been replaced by no other
+incentive.
+
+The chief fault of Mahmood was the cutting down without thinking of
+sowing; for without properly understanding the extent of what he was
+doing, he too hastily cast from its old course, without placing it in a
+better, a dull stupid nation, to transform which required both time and
+patience. Above all, Mahmood was guided solely by the impulses of an
+indomitable pride, and seems to have much less considered the interests
+of his empire, than the satisfying of his own vanity. He hastened to
+change the aspect and surface of things, deluding himself into the idea
+that he had metamorphosed an Asiatic people into a European state.
+Hurried away by the desire of innovation, and at the same time cramped
+by the effects of a religion which resists all progress, striving in
+vain to make the precepts of the Koran compatible with civilisation,
+Mahmood moved during the whole of his reign within a fatal circle, and,
+dying of an ignoble malady, he left his empire tottering to its fall.
+
+
+
+
+HOR� CATULLIAN�.
+
+LETTER TO EUSEBIUS.
+
+
+You desire, then, my dear Eusebius, to hear more of the Curate's
+difficulty. We left him, you remember, with Gratian, who took him by the
+arm, and walked off to see what his authority would do to quell the
+parochial disturbance. You have seen the general opinion upon the
+countenance Gratian would give to delinquents; you will not, therefore,
+augur very favourably of this expedition. Loving a little mischief, as
+you do, you will, perhaps, be not quite agreeably disappointed. Had
+Gratian trusted alone to his character, he would have failed; which
+shows that sometimes it is dangerous to have too good a one.
+
+Not a parishioner but would have looked upon the patronage of Gratian to
+the Curate as resulting from the weakness--those who meant to turn it to
+compliment would say, the excessive kindness, of his nature. A little
+malice interposing, they were by no means disposed, if they loved
+Gratian, "to love his dog,"--in the light of which comparison they now
+looked upon the Curate. Gratian's sly wit, however, availed more than
+his authority. It seems they had not proceeded very far when they met
+Prateapace. The Curate having some business in another direction, left
+Gratian with the maiden-lady. You can imagine his first advances,
+complimenting her upon her fresh morning looks. Then taking her by the
+arm, as if for familiar support, transferring his stick to the other
+hand, and looking his cajolery inimitably, and with a low voice saying,
+"My dear Miss Lydia, what is all this story I hear that you charge the
+Curate with?" "Oh, no, not I!" interrupted the maiden; "it is you have
+done that. I only know that I heard you reprove him for his behaviour to
+some one or other, whom you seriously declared either must be or ought
+to be his wife." "My dear _young_ lady," said Gratian, "that is now
+quite a mistake of yours:" he then, as he reports, told her what they
+had been reading, and that his remarks were upon the book, and the
+author of it, and had nothing to do with the Curate. To all which she
+nodded her head incredulously, and laughingly said, "Oh, you good,
+_good_-natured man; and pray who may that improper author be?" "Why,"
+quoth Gratian, "Miss Lydia Prateapace wouldn't, I know, have me
+recommend her any _improper_ author." "Oh, no, no!--I don't ask with any
+intention to read him, I assure you," she replied. Gratian went on,
+"Believe me, he is a very old author, a Roman." "A Roman indeed!" she
+quite vociferated--"one of those horrid Papists, I suppose! A Roman is
+he? Then the Curate--why should he read Papistical books, and learn such
+tricks from them?" It was in vain for Gratian to endeavour to explain.
+Miss Prateapace had but one notion of the Romans--that there never was
+one that had not kissed the Pope's toe. So here he very wisely took
+another tack, and drawing her a little aside, as if he would not have
+even the very hedges hear him, and with no little affected caution,
+looking about him, he said, in a half whisper--"Now let me, my dear
+young lady, tell you a bit of a secret. All this is an idle tale, and is
+just as I have told you; but this I tell you, that to my certain
+knowledge, the Curate's _affections_"--laying stress on the word
+affections--"are seriously engaged;" at which Miss Lydia stared, and
+looked the personification of curiosity. "Engaged is he, did you say?"
+"No, _he_ is not engaged," said Gratian, "but I happen to know that his
+affections are--" "Then," quoth she, "I suppose he has declared as much
+to the object." "Ah--no!--there is the very point--you are quite
+mistaken--she has not the slightest suspicion of it." This was scarcely
+credible to the lady's notion of love-making, but the earnest manner of
+Gratian was every thing. "No," said he; "he is a most exemplary
+conscientious young man, and so far avoids the making any show of his
+feelings, that he affects, I really believe, more indifference towards
+that lady than to any other. He tells me that he thinks it would not be
+honourable in his present circumstances and position to engage _her_
+affections; but he looks forward, as his prospects are fair." Miss Lydia
+was interested--pondered awhile, and then said, "You dear good man, do
+tell me who the lady is!" "No," replied Gratian, "I dare not betray a
+secret; but be assured, my dear Miss Lydia Prateapace, that if our
+Curate marries, he will make his choice not very far from this." "You
+don't say so!" cried she: "Really now, who can it be?" "I can only say
+one thing more," replied our fox Gratian, "and perhaps that is saying
+too much; but--" whispering in her ear--"of all the letters in the
+alphabet, her name begins with Lydia." Whereupon he made a start, put
+his finger upon his lips, as if he had in his hurry told the secret; and
+she started back a pace in another direction, looked in his face to see
+if he was in jest; finding there nothing but apparent simplicity, she
+looked a little confused, and evidently took the compliment and the
+_hopes_ into her own bosom. When she could sufficiently collect her
+thoughts, she expressed her sorrow for any mischief she might have done,
+unintentionally; and added, that she would do all in her power to set
+all things right again. At this point the Curate returned: he addressed
+her somewhat distantly, which to her was a sign stronger than
+familiarity, upon the power of which she gave him her hand _of
+encouragement_. Gratian took care to leave well alone--let go her arm,
+and leaning upon the Curate's wished her good morning, with a gracious
+smile about his insidious mouth, to which he put his finger
+significantly as if entreating her silence upon the subject of their
+conversation. I have told you the particulars of this interview,
+Eusebius, as I could gather them from Gratian's narration; and he has a
+way of acting what he says, as if he had studied in that school where
+the first requisite for an orator is--action; the second--action; the
+third--action!
+
+Our friend Gratian, Eusebius, made no matter of conscience of this
+fibbing--did not hesitate--wanted no "ductor dubitantium"--as he told it
+to us. He gave, it is true, his limb a smarter tapping; but it was no
+twinge of conscience that caused the movement of the stick, and there is
+nothing of the Franciscan about our friend. Did he _say_ a word that was
+not perfect truth?
+
+But what was the intention?--did he mean to deceive? But this is not a
+question to discuss with you. You will do more than acquit him. So I am
+answered, and silent. Gratian's answer was this. In his fabulous mood,
+he asked--"If you should see a lion, an open-mouthed lion of the
+veritable [Greek: chasm' odont�n] breed, traversing a wood, and he
+should accost you thus, 'Pray, sir, did you chance to see a man I am
+looking after go this way?' would you point out his lurking place, his
+path of escape? or would you not, if you knew he went to the right,
+direct the lion by all means to continue his pursuit on the left? Then,
+sir, which will your worshipful morality prefer, to be the accessary to
+the murder, or the principal in the deceit?"
+
+I must not omit to tell you that a few days ago Gratian and the Curate
+spent a pleasant day with the Bishop, who was not a little amused at
+their narration of the circumstances that produced the singular
+parochial epistle, which his lordship had duly received. The Bishop's
+hospitality is well seasoned with conversational ease, and perfect
+agreeability, and has besides that
+
+    "Seu quid suavius elegantiusve est"
+
+which our Catullus promises to his friend Fabullus. The Bishop, a ripe
+scholar, spoke much and critically of Catullus, and laid most stress
+upon the extreme suavity of his measures, especially in the "Acmen
+Septimius." There were present two archdeacons and a very agreeable
+classical physician. All had at one time or other, they acknowledged,
+translated "Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus." The physician said he
+had only satisfied himself with three lines, and yet he thought their
+only merit was the being line for line. He repeated both the original
+and his translation:--
+
+    "Soles occidere et redire possunt:
+    Nobis, quum semel occidit brevis lux,
+    Nox est perpetua una dormienda.
+
+    "Suns die, but soon their light restore,
+    While we, when our brief day is o'er,
+    Sleep one long night to wake no more."
+
+The Curate, with the jealousy of a rival translator, objected to "suns
+_die_," and thought "suns _set_" would be quite as well and a closer
+translation. The Physician assented. The Bishop smiled, and said, "suns
+_die_" was probably a professional lapsus. The Physician replied, that
+such would be a very unprofessional lapsus; and Gratian quoted the
+passage from Fielding, who says it is an unjust misrepresentation that
+"physicians are the friends of death," and instanced the two physicians
+who, in the case of the death of Captain Blifil, "dismissed the corpse
+with a single fee, but were not so disgusted with the living patient."
+At parting, the Bishop took the Curate most kindly by the hand, and
+recommended him by all means to cultivate the amiability of
+versification.
+
+After this, Gratian and the Curate had much business in hand, and we did
+not meet for some time. Gratian stirred a little in this affair of the
+Curate's, and with effect. We did meet, however, and recommenced the
+
+
+HOR� CATULLIAN�.
+
+You now see us again in the library--time, after tea. Gratian enjoys his
+easy-chair; a small fire--for it is not cold--just musically whispers
+among the coals, comfort. Gratian says he has had a busy day of it, and,
+though not wearied, is in that happy state of repose to enjoy rest, and
+of excitement to enjoy social converse; and after a little, preliminary
+chat, asked if there was any thing lately from Catullus.
+
+AQUILIUS.--Yes. He is returned from his unprofitable travel, and you
+seem to be in that state of sensitive quiescence, to feel with him the
+pleasures of home. He is now at his own villa, and thus welcomes, and
+acknowledges the welcome offered him by his beloved Sirmio.
+
+    AD SIRMIONEM PENINSULAM.
+
+    My Sirmio, thou the very gem and eye
+    Of islands and peninsulas, that lie
+    In that two-fold dominion Neptune takes
+    Of the salt sea and sweet translucent lakes!
+    Oh! with what joy I visit thee again,
+    Scarce yet believing, how, left far behind,
+    The tedious Thynian and Bithynian plain,
+    I see thee, Sirmio, with this peaceful mind.
+    Oh, what a blessed thing is the sweet quiet,
+    When the tired heart lays down its load of care,
+    And after foreign toil and sickening riot,
+    Weary and worn, to feel at last we are
+    At our own home--and our own floor to tread,
+    And lie in peace on the long-wish'd-for bed!
+    This, this alone, repays all labours past.
+    Hail to thee, lovely Sirmio! gladly take
+    Thine own, own master home to thee at last:
+    And all ye sportive waters of my lake,
+    Laugh out your welcome to my cheerful voice,
+    And all that laughs at home, with me rejoice.
+
+GRATIAN.--I well remember this singularly sweet, kind, affectionate
+address. It is the best version of "Home is home, be it ever so homely,"
+I know. You have needlessly repeated _own_. Why not say, loved master?
+
+CURATE.--Don't you think the _acquiescimus lecto_ would be better
+rendered "sink to rest?" I fancy the Latin expresses the sinking down of
+the wearied limbs, or rather, whole person, into the soft and deep
+feather bed.
+
+AQUILIUS.--I Set it down so, but altered it, thinking the "lie in peace"
+was in reality more quiescent than any thing expressing an act--as
+sinking is a process _in transitu_--the result, lying in peace. It has
+often been translated, among others, by Leigh Hunt, and that prince of
+translators, Elton--though I think I was not satisfied with his
+translation of the Sirmio--of the others I do not remember a word.
+
+CURATE.--Leigh Hunt overdid his work--there is more labour than ease in
+the line
+
+    "The loosened limbs o'er all the wished-for bed."
+
+Not simple enough for Catullus; neither is this--a rather affected
+line--
+
+    "Laughs every dimple in the cheek of home."
+
+GRATIAN.--No, that won't do--it is a conceit. One would imagine it
+borrowed or translated from some Italian poet.
+
+AQUILIUS.--The "loosened limbs o'er all the wished-for bed," strikes me
+as rather of the ludicrous, and not unlike the description of himself by
+Berni in his fanciful palace, where he ordered a bed, adjoining that of
+the French cook's, which was to be large enough to swim in--"Come si fa
+nel mare."
+
+GRATIAN.--Now then, Mr Curate, let us have your version.
+
+CURATE.
+
+    TO THE PENINSULA OF SIRMIO.
+
+    All hail to thee, delightful Sirmio!
+    Of all peninsulas and isles the gem,
+    Which lake or sea in its fair breast doth show
+    With either Neptune's arms encircling them.
+    What joy to find that Thynia, and that plain
+    Bithynian gone, and see thee safe again!
+    Charming it is to rest from care and cumber,
+    When the mind throws its burden, and we come
+    Wearied with pains of foreign travel home,
+    And in the bed so longed for sink to slumber.
+    This pays for all the toil, this quiet after--
+    Joy, my sweet Sirmio, for thy master's sake,
+    Make merry, frolic wavelets of my lake--
+    Laugh on me, all ye stores of home-bred laughter.
+
+GRATIAN.--I don't like "the mind _throws_ its burden:" lays it down is
+better--there is more weariness in it. You must alter that expression,
+or we see the mind like the "iniqu� mentis ascellus," dropping back its
+ears, and _throwing_ its not agreeable and easy-sitting rider. Why not--
+
+    "When the mind lays its burden down, to come?"
+
+But I see you have both of you translated away from the Latin the _Lydi�
+und�_. How comes it so?
+
+AQUILIUS.--The reasons given for the word meaning Lydian seem to be
+insufficient; because it is said the Benacus resembles the Lydian rivers
+Hermus and Pactolus in having gold; or because the Benacus was in the
+district of the Thusci, who came from the Lydians. I adopted a
+conjecture once thrown out--and I think it was by the most accomplished
+scholar, W. S. Landor, that _Lydi�_ is the adjective of the word
+_Ludius--ludi� und�_, or _Lydi� und�_, the same thing, for that ludius
+is, as the dictionary tells us, "a Lydis, qui erant optimi saltatores."
+If so, _Lydi�_ would mean the sportive, or "dancing waters of the lake."
+
+CURATE.--I took this hint from Aquilius, though I do not remember from
+whom the suggestion came. I would venture from the last line--
+
+    "Ridete quidquid est domi cachinnorum--"
+
+a remark upon a passage, the celebrated expression in the _Prometheus_
+of �schylus, the [Greek: an�rithmon gelasma]. Some call it "countless
+dimples." Now is it not possible Catullus may have thought of this, and
+as it were translated it by _quidquid est cachinnorum_? The question
+then would be, is it meant to speak to the ear or the eye? Is it of
+sound or vision? I am inclined to think it is the sound, the
+communicative laughter of the many waves. "Dimple" is too little for the
+gigantic conception of �schylus, but the laughter of the multitudinous
+ocean-waves is more after his genius. No one could translate _cachinnus_
+"a dimple." If, therefore, Catullus had in his mind the Greek passage,
+it shows his idea of the [Greek: an�rithmon gelasma].
+
+GRATIAN.--I have often admired how that can be _very_ beautiful which is
+of uncertain meaning. Is it that either construction conveys distinct
+thought--clear idea? I confess, I prefer the sound. What comes next?
+
+CURATE.--Missing one or two, we take up his "Request to his friend
+C�cilius to come to him to Verona"--who, it seems, was a native of that
+place, and fellow townsman, as well as most dear friend of Catullus.
+
+AQUILIUS.--Both poets--both kind-hearted; in fact, "The two gentlemen of
+Verona."
+
+GRATIAN.--Well, that is saying something for Latin poets. Let us have
+your version, Curate.
+
+CURATE.
+
+    INVITATION TO C�CILIUS.
+
+    Papyrus, to C�cilius tell
+    (A touching bard, my friend as well)
+    That to Verona he must come,
+    Where his Catullus is at home,
+    And new-built Comu's walls forsake,
+    And that sweet shore of Laris Lake.
+    A friend of mine and his has brought
+    To light some passages of thought,
+    Which he must hear. So if he will
+    Be thriving and improving still,
+    His speed will swallow up the distance,
+    Although with amorous resistance,
+    And both arms clinging round his neck,
+    That lovely maid his progress check,
+    With lips a thousand times that say
+    "Oh, do not, do not go away!"
+    I mean that maid who, Fame--not I--
+    Asserts for love of him would die;
+    For fire consumes her heart and head,
+    Since first the opening lines she read
+    Of Cybele the God's great queen.
+    Maid, learned as the Sapphic muse,
+    I cannot sympathy refuse;
+    For not amiss (the book I've seen)
+    Begins the tale, "The Mighty Queen."
+
+AQUILIUS.--I protest against "so if he will be thriving and improving
+still." That is the Curate's interpolation. The fact is, he must have
+rhymed a passage from his last sermon; and it has somehow or other
+slipped into his Catullus.
+
+CURATE.--No authority! What, then, is meant by "Quare si sapiet?"
+
+AQUILIUS.--Simply, if he would know the secret--the "cogitationes."
+
+GRATIAN.--I am inclined to agree with you. Now, Aquilius, we will listen
+to your version.
+
+    AQUILIUS.
+
+    Hasten, papyrus! greet you well
+    That tender poet, my sweet friend
+    C�cilius--speedily I send,
+    As speedily my message tell:
+    That he should for Verona make
+    All haste--and quit his Larian Lake,
+    And Novum Comum--for I would
+    Some certain thoughts he understood
+    And purposes, that now possess
+    A friend of mine; and his no less.
+    And if he takes me rightly, say
+    His coming will devour the way,
+    Though that fair girl should bid him stay,
+    And round his neck her arms should throw,
+    And cry, Oh, do not, do not go!--
+    That girl, who, if the truth be told,
+    E'en in her heart of hearts doth hold
+    And cherish such sweet love--since he
+    First read to her of Cybele,
+    "Great Queen of Dindymus" the tale
+    Begun. Oh, then she did inhale
+    The living breath of love, whose heat
+    Into her very life doth eat.
+    Thy passion I can well excuse,
+    Fair maid! more learn'd than the tenth muse,
+    The Lesbian maid--nor couldst thou fail
+    To find for love an ample plea,
+    In that so nobly open'd tale
+    Of the great Goddess Cybele.
+
+CURATE.--What's all this?--the "tenth muse!" where is she in the Latin?
+
+AQUILIUS.--_Sapphic� mus�_, Doctor. That is Sappho, is it not? and pray
+was Sappho one of the _nine_ muses? No; then of course she was the
+_tenth_--and was not she "the Lesbian maid?"
+
+CURATE.--Well, I admit it--you have vindicated your muse fairly, and I
+will not pronounce against her, though tempted by an apt quotation from
+the mouth of Bacchus, in the _Frogs_ of Aristophanes.
+
+    "[Greek: Aut� poth � Mouo ouk elesbiazen ou]."
+
+For your muse is certainly a Lesbian; but you have omitted "misell�,"
+which shows that the passion was not returned.
+
+GRATIAN.--I don't see that; for she throws her arms about his neck. But
+neither of you have well spoken the "millies euntem revocet," the
+calling him back after departure, and that is very good too. I see the
+note upon _Sapphic� Mus�_, speaks of various interpretations to the
+passage; but adopts this--that the maiden loving C�cilius has more sense
+(is that _doctior_? I doubt) than Sappho, who loved a youth too stupid
+ever to write a line; but this maid did not love till she had read the
+commencement of his poem. I don't see the necessity for thinking the
+passion hopeless either, because of the comparison with Sappho. Few
+Roman maidens took the Leucadian leap.
+
+CURATE.--It is very odd, and might first appear a mark of their good
+manners--that the Romans never mention "old maids." I fear there was
+another cause. I suppose the omission may be accounted for by the state
+of society, which was not favourable to their existence at all; for then
+a man could put away his wife at any moment, and for any plea, most
+women must have managed to get a husband for a long or a short time.
+
+AQUILIUS.--The only ancient old maids were the Fates and Furies--of the
+latter, the burden of the song was--
+
+    "Oh no, we never mention them,
+    Their names are never heard!"
+
+GRATIAN.--Come back to your duty: we are wandering, and leaving Catullus
+behind. What are we to have now?
+
+AQUILIUS.--An attack upon one Egnatius, who, having white teeth, took
+care to show them upon all occasions. He was not, however, celebrated
+for his tooth-powder. He is a fair mark for the wit of our author. The
+arrow of his satire was occasionally keen enough and free to fly.
+
+    IN EGNATIUM.
+
+    Egnatius's teeth are very white,
+    And therefore is he ever grinning:
+    Let pleaders in the court excite
+    All hearts to weep--from the beginning
+    E'en to the end he laughs. The while
+    The mother on the funeral bier,
+    Sheds o'er her only son the tear,
+    Alone Egnatius seems to smile,
+    Then opes his mouth from ear to ear:
+    Where'er he is, whatever doing,
+    He laughs and grins. The thing in fact is
+    A tasteless, foolish, silly practice,
+    Egnatius, and well worth eschewing.
+    Spare all this risible exertion,
+    And were you Roman or Tiburtian,
+    Sabine, Lanuvian, fat Etruscan,
+    Or porcine Umbrian with rare show
+    Of tusks--columnar--order Tuscan:
+    Or born the other side the Po,}
+    (And my compatriot, therefore know,)}
+    Where folk are civilised I trow,}
+    And wash their teeth with water cleanly--
+    Pure water such as folk might quaff--
+    I would entreat you still--don't laugh.
+    You look so sillily, so meanly,
+    As if you were but witted half.
+    Yet being but a Celtiberian,
+    Holding the custom of your nation,
+    Using that lotion called Hesperian;
+    The more you grin, folk say, forsooth,
+    What pity 'tis the whitest tooth
+    Should have the foulest application!
+
+CURATE.--I did not translate--and our host will think one translation
+quite enough.
+
+GRATIAN.--Go on then to the next. What are we to have?
+
+CURATE.--His address to his farm. Authors were happy in those days to
+have their landed estate. Horace always speaks of his with delight; so
+does Catullus, as we have seen, of his Sirmio. This farm was, it should
+seem, like Horace's, among the Sabine hills.
+
+    TO MY FARM.
+
+    My farm! which those who wish to please
+      Thy master's heart, Tiburtian call;
+    But they who call thee Sabine, these
+      Respect his feelings not at all:
+    And wishing more to tease and fret,
+    Will wager thou art Sabine yet--
+    How well it pleased me to retreat
+    To thy suburban country-seat;
+    Where I sent summarily off
+    That plaguy pulmonary cough;
+    Which, half-deserved, my stomach gave
+    Just for a hint no more to crave
+    Luxurious living. I had hoped
+    With a good dinner to have coped
+    At Sextius' table; when he read
+    A poisonous speech might strike one dead,
+    All gall and venom, to refute
+    One Attius in a certain suit.
+    Since when, a cold cough and catarrh
+    Against my battered frame made war;
+    Until I came in thee to settle,
+    And cured it with repose and nettle.
+    So, now I'm well, I thank thee, farm!
+    And that I got so little harm,
+    From such great fault. I may be pardon'd
+    If to this pitch my heart is harden'd:
+    To pray, when Sextius reads again
+    Things so abhorr'd of gods and men,
+    That that my cough and cold catarrh
+    Not mine but Sextius' health might mar--
+    Who never sends me invitation
+    But for such wretched recitation.
+
+GRATIAN.--A charitable wish this of our good Catullus! But these
+heathens knew little of "do as you would be done by." One of the neatest
+wishes of this kind is in a Greek epigram. I can't remember word for
+word the Greek, so I give the translation:--"Castor and Pollux, who
+dwell in beauteous Lacedemon, by the sweet-flowing river Eurotas, if
+ever I wish evil to my friend, may it light upon me; but if ever he
+wishes evil to me, may he have twice as much."
+
+AQUILIUS.--In a note on _vill�_, I see the derivation of that word
+given, _quasi vehilla_, because there the fruits of the farm were
+carried; so that the original idea of a villa was quite another thing
+from the modern suburban construction. Architects, when they call these
+suburban edifices villas, might as well remember how inappropriate is
+the term. But here you have my version of this address to his farm:--
+
+    AD FUNDUM.
+
+    My Farm, or Sabine or Tiburtian,
+      (What name I care not we confab in,
+    Though they who hold me in aversion,
+      Persist and wager you are Sabine,)
+
+    In your suburban sweet recesses
+      Of that vile cough I timely rid me,
+    Merited well, for those excesses
+      My stomach failed not to forbid me,
+
+    When I with Sextius was convivial,
+      Who feasting read me his invective,
+    Vilest, 'gainst Attius his rival,
+      All venom--and, alas! effective.
+
+    For surely 'twas that poison seized me,
+      A chill--a heat--a cough then shook me
+    E'en to my vitals--and so teazed me,
+      That to thy bosom I betook me.
+
+    Thanks, my good farm! my fault you pardon'd,
+      And not revenged. We've much to settle
+    On score of thanks: my chest you harden'd,
+      And healed with basil-root and nettle.
+
+    But from henceforth, if I such vicious
+      Invectives read, though Sextius pen 'em,
+    Who but invites me with malicious
+      Intent to kill me with their venom--
+
+    If e'er I yield to his endeavour,
+      Expose me to his scrip infectious--
+    I call down ague, cold, and fever,
+      Oh! fall ye not on me,--but Sextius.
+
+GRATIAN.--I see the next is that one which has been not unfrequently
+translated and imitated. Is there not one by Cowley,--if I remember,
+much lengthened?
+
+AQUILIUS.--It can scarcely be called a translation. The Latin measure is
+certainly here very sweet and tender.
+
+    DE ACME ET SEPTIMIO.
+
+    Septimius, to his bosom pressing
+    His Acme, said, "I love thee, Acme--
+    All my life-long will love thee, Acme!
+    Nor day shall come to love thee less in.
+    Or should it come, like common lover,
+    In such poor love I love thee only;
+    May Libyan lion dun discover,
+    Or torrid India's beast attack me,
+    Wandering forlorn from thee, and lonely
+      On desert shore."--
+    He said: Love, as before,
+    Upon the left hand aptly sneezed.
+    The omen showed that he was pleased
+      To give his blessing.
+
+    Then gentle Acme, softly turning
+    Upon the breast of her Septimius,
+    And unto his her face upraising,
+    And looking in his eyes so burning,
+    As if inebriate with gazing;
+    With that her rich red mouth she kissed them,
+    And said,--"My love, dear, dear Septimius!
+    Oh, let us serve our master duly--
+    Our master Love, as now caressing;
+    For never yet have Love so blessed them
+    As now my thoughts he blesseth truly,
+    Even to my heart of hearts, Septimius,
+      The inmost core."
+    She said: and, as before,
+    Love on the left hand aptly sneezed.
+    The omen showed that he was pleased
+      To give his blessing.
+
+    They loved--were loved: this sweet beginning
+    Omen'd their future bright condition.
+    Offer all Asia to Septimius--
+    Add Britain--put in competition
+    With Acme--wretchedly abstemious
+    They'd call him of your gifts, Ambition.
+    The only province worth his winning
+    Is Acme: Acme's faithful bosom
+    Knows nought on earth but her Septimius.
+    Ripe was the fruit, as fair the blossom
+    Of this their mutual love, and glowing;
+    And all admired its freshness growing.
+    Was never pair so fond and loving!
+    And Venus' self looked on approving.
+
+CURATE.--Are you correct in your translation "Love, as before?" Is it
+not that, as before he sneezed on the left, now he sneezes on the right
+hand,--_was_ unfavourable--_is_ now propitious?
+
+GRATIAN.--I see in the note that the passage bears either construction.
+There is also authority given; for what to us is the left hand, to the
+gods is the right. Now, Curate, for your Acme and Septimius.
+
+CURATE.--
+
+    OF SEPTIMIUS AND ACME.
+
+    Acme to Septimius' breast,
+    Darling of his heart, was prest--
+    "Acme mine!" then said the youth,
+    "If I love thee not in truth,
+    If I shall not love thee ever
+    As a lover doated never,
+    May I in some lonely place,
+      Scorch'd by Ind's or Libya's sun,
+    Meet a lion's tawny face;
+      All defenceless, one to one."--
+    Love, who heard it in his flight,
+      To the truth his witness bore,
+    Sneezing quickly to the right--
+      (To the left he sneezed before.)
+
+    Acme then her head reflecting,
+      Kiss'd her sweet youth's ebriate eyes,
+    With her rosy lips connecting
+      Looks that glistened with replies.
+    "Thus, my life, my Septimillus!
+      Serve we Love, our only master:
+    One warm love-flood seems to thrill us,
+      Throbs it not in me the faster?"--
+    Love, who heard it in his flight,
+      To the truth his witness bore,
+    Sneezing quickly to the right--
+      (To the left he sneezed before.)
+
+    Thus with omens all-approving,
+    Each and both are loved and loving.
+    Poor Septimius with his Acme,
+      Cares not to whose lot may fall
+    Syria's glory--wealthy province!--
+      Or both Britains great and small.
+    Acme, faithful and unfeigning,
+      Gives, creates, enjoys all pleasure,
+    With her dear Septimius reigning.--
+      Oh! was ever earthly treasure
+    Greater to man's lot pertaining?
+      Blessed pair!--thus, without measure,
+    Venus' choicest gifts attaining.
+
+GRATIAN.--You have a little run riot, good Master Curate; and run out of
+your rhyming course too, I see--for you don't mean "province" to rhyme
+to "Acme."--I see the next is, On Approach of Spring--with that
+beautiful line, "Jam ver egelidos refert tepores." I wish to see how you
+would have translated that refreshing and cool warmth of
+expression--almost a contradiction in terms--the season when we inhale
+the heavenly air with the chill off--like hot tea thrown into a glass of
+spring-cold water, and drank off immediately.
+
+AQUILIUS.--I gave it up in despair, and the Curate too has omitted it.
+There are two other perhaps untranslatable lines in this short piece:--
+
+    "Jam mens pr�trepidans avet vagari;
+    Jam l�ti studio pedes vigescunt."
+
+After two other little pieces, we come to a few lines to no less a
+personage than Marcus Tullius Cicero, who had probably in some cause
+gratuitously assisted the poet with his eloquence; for to sue _in form�
+poet�_, was, perhaps, pretty much the same as in _form� pauperis_. It
+seems that "omnium patronus" was a flattering title on other occasions,
+and by other persons bestowed upon Cicero, as well as by our poet here.
+One would almost think the orator had served the poet an ill turn, and
+that this superlative praise was but irony; for he not only calls
+Tullius the most eloquent of men, but as much the best of patrons, as
+he, Catullus, is the worst of poets. This surely must be a mock
+humility. Is it a satire in disguise, and meaning the reverse? After
+this, follows a little piece to his friend Cornellus Licinius Calvus,
+with whom he had passed a pleasant and too exciting day--but let him
+tell his own story. Shall I repeat?
+
+    AD LICINIUM.
+
+    My dear Licinius, yesterday
+    We sported in our pleasant way;
+    Tablets in hand--and at our leisure,
+    In verse as various as the measure,
+    Scribbling between our wine and laughter.
+    But when we parted, mark the after
+    Vexation;--conquered, and hard hit
+    By your all-overpowering wit,
+    I could not eat--nor yet would Sleep
+    His softly-soothing fingers keep
+    Upon my weary lids: all night}
+    I toss'd, I turned from left to right}
+    Impatient for the morning light,}
+    That I might talk with you, and be
+    Again in your society.
+    But when my limbs, as 'twere half dead,
+    Were lying on my restless bed,
+    I made these lines--which, my good friend,
+    That you may know my pains, I send.
+    Now, though so free, so bold to dare,
+    So apt to scoff--good sir, beware
+    Lest with the eye of your disdain
+    You view these lines, my vow, my pain.
+    Beware of Nemesis, beware!--
+    For Vengeance, should I cry aloud--
+    She hears--and punishes the proud.
+
+GRATIAN.--Those last lines are very grave: are they not too much so for
+the intended play of this mock anger? Let us have your version, Master
+Curate.
+
+CURATE.--I am sure you think one version quite enough. I did not
+translate it; and believe we must now turn over many pages, and then I
+have little more to offer.
+
+GRATIAN.--(Turning over the leaves of Catullus.) Here I see is that
+beautiful passage in his "Carmen Nuptiale."
+
+    "Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis."
+
+AQUILIUS.--Which did not escape the tasteful, though bold Ariosto. I
+have made a weak attempt to translate the passage; and as it stands in
+the middle of a long piece, I have taken it out as a sonnet. I will read
+it:--
+
+    UT FLOS IN SEPTIS, &C.
+
+    As in enclosure of chaste garden ground,
+      The floweret grows--where nor unseemly tread
+      Of flocks or ploughshares bruise its tender head--
+    There soft airs soothe it with their gentle sound;
+    Suns give it strength, and nurturing showers abound,
+      And raise its tall stem from its sheltered bed;
+      And many a youth and maiden, passion-led,
+    With longing eyes admiring walk around:
+    Pluck'd from the stem that its pure grace supplied,
+      Nor youths nor maidens love it as before.
+    So the sweet maiden, in the queenly pride
+      Of her chaste beauty, many hearts adore;
+    But that her virgin charter laid aside,
+      Who lov'd, who cherish'd, cherish, love no more.
+
+CURATE.--I remember Ariosto's translation--for translation it is; and
+though you know it, I will repeat it, and, by Gratian's favour, let it
+pass for my version. For once, borrowed plumes,--and I shall not be the
+worse bird--though birds of richer plumage have no song.
+
+    "La verginella � simile alla rosa,
+      Chi'n bel giardin su la nativa spina,
+    Mentre sola, e sicura si riposa,
+      Ne gregge, ne pastor sele avvicina;
+    L'aura soave, e l'alba rugidosa
+    L'acqua, la terra al suo favor s'inch a:
+    Giovani vaghi, e donne innamorate,
+    Amano averne e seni, e tempre ornate.
+    Ma non si tosto dal materno stelo,
+      Remossa viene, e dal suo ceppo verde,
+    Che, quanto avea dagli uomini, e dal cielo,
+      Favor, grazia, ebellezza, tutto perde."
+
+GRATIAN.--Let us examine the alterations made by one genius, in
+transferring to his own language the ideas of another genius of another
+country. Catullus says "the floweret,"--_flosculus_: Ariosto
+particularises the rose,--the _bel giardin_, "the beautiful garden,"
+stands for _septis in hortis_, the enclosed. Then he has given the idea
+of _secretus_, which is certainly "separated," "set apart," by the words
+_sola e sicura_, "alone and safe"--is it so good? but he gives that a
+grace, a beauty, the original perhaps has not, _riposa_--the floweret
+enjoys its secret repose. The cutting down the flower by the plough was
+unnecessary, after telling us of the enclosure; we scarcely like to be
+brought suddenly into the ploughed field. Here Ariosto is better--"nor
+shepherd nor flock come near it." That enough confirms the idea of its
+being fenced off, and they wander in their idleness, or, but for the
+fence, might have reached it; the plough and the team are a heavy
+apparatus, and would be a most unexpected intrusion,--so I like the
+Italian here better. Then, _su la nativa spina_ is good: you see the
+beautiful creature on its native stem or thorn. Then for the enumeration
+of the airs, the sun, and the shower, the Italian, in his beautiful
+language, softens the very air, and gives it a sweetness, _l'aura
+soave_, and ushers in "the dewy morn:" then, expanding to the glory of
+the full reverence of nature to this emblem of purity, he makes all bend
+and bow before it, as before the very queen of the earth. Here he
+surpasses his original. Then he gives you the object of the wishes of
+the youths and maidens, the _multi pueri mult� optaver� puell�_. They
+desire to place it in their bosoms or round their temples: and is not
+the lovingness of the youths and maidens a good addition? The _giovani
+vaghi e donne innamorate_. Both are admirable--but I incline to Ariosto.
+
+AQUILIUS.--And do you think the Latin poet the original? You forget how
+little originality the Latin authors can claim. This of Catullus is a
+translation--a free one, it is true--of perhaps a still more beautiful
+passage in Euripides. Reach the book: you will find it in that very
+singular play the Hippolytus. Ay, here it is. He offers the garland to
+the virgin goddess Artemis--(line 73)
+
+    [Greek:
+    "Soi tonde plekton stephanon ex ak�ratou
+    Leim�nos, � despoina, kosm�sas pher�,
+    Enth' oute poim�n axioi pherbein bota
+    Out' �lthe p� sid�ros, all' ak�raton
+    Melissa leim�n' �rinon dierchetai
+    Aid�s de potamiaisi k�peuei drosois.
+    Hosois didakton m�den, all' en t� physei
+    To s�phronein eil�chen es ta panth' hom�s,
+    Toutos drepesthai; tois kakoisi, d' ou themis."]
+
+"I bring thee, O mistress, this woven crown, beautifully made up of
+flowers of the pure untouched meadow--where never shepherd thinks it
+fitting to feed his flock, nor the sickle comes; but the bee ever passes
+over the pure meadow breathing of spring, and modesty waters it as a
+garden with the river-dews. To them who have, untaught, in their nature
+the gift of chastity, to these only it is at all times an allowed
+sanctity to cut these flowers, but not to the evil-minded."
+
+You cannot doubt that the passage in Catullus is taken from the
+Greek--which is of a higher sentiment in the conclusion, and is enriched
+beyond the Latin by the bee, and above all by the personification of
+Modesty tending and watering the garden, or rather these especial
+flowers, with the river-dews.
+
+CURATE.--How far more pure is the sentiment, and more quiet the imagery,
+in the Greek! The Greeks were the great originators of glorious thought
+and beautiful diction.
+
+GRATIAN.--Let us now to Catullus. What have we next?
+
+AQUILIUS.--Here is a tender little piece, to his friend Ortalus. I see
+it has an omission: this edition does not supply it; I only take what I
+see. It seems Ortalus had requested him to send him his translation from
+Callimachus, the "Coma Berenices," which for some time, through grief
+for the death of his brother, he had failed to do. He now sends the
+poem.
+
+
+    AD ORTALUM.
+
+    Though care, that unto me sore grief hath brought,
+    Calls me from converse with the sacred Nine,
+      Nor can my heart incline
+    To bring to any end inspired thought;--
+
+    (For now the wave of the Leth�an lake,
+    How recent hath it bathed in Death's dark vale
+      A brother's feet so pale;
+    And I can only sorrow for his sake.
+
+    The Trojan land on the Rhoetean shore
+    Hath hidden him for ever from these eyes,--
+      And I with glad surprise,
+    And brother's love, shall welcome thee no more.
+
+    Loved more than life, dear brother! what can I
+    But love thee still, and mourn for thee full long
+      In a funereal song,
+    In secret to assuage my grief thereby?
+
+    As amid many boughs all leaf-array'd
+    The Danlian bird, the nightingale, out-poured,
+      When Itys she deplored,
+    Her mellow sorrows in the thickest shade:)
+
+    Yet, Ortalus, 'mid tears that flow so fast,
+    The work of your Battiades I send,
+      Lest you should deem, dear friend,
+    Your wishes to the winds are idly cast,
+
+    And from my mind escaped, all unaware,
+    As falls the fruit, love's furtive gift, unbid,
+      In virgin bosom hid,
+    When she, forgetful of its lying there,
+
+    Would suddenly arise, and run to greet
+    The coming of her mother, from her vest
+      And her now loosen'd breast,
+    The shameless apple rolls before her feet.
+
+    And she, poor maid! abashed, and in the hush
+    Of shame, before her mother cannot speak,
+      While all her virgin cheek
+    Betrays her secret in the conscious blush.
+
+CURATE.--It is very tender--the last image is delicately beautiful. I
+did not translate it.
+
+GRATIAN.--Pretty as the passage of the maiden's disaster in dropping the
+lover's gift--and that, too, be it observed, in the hurry of her
+tenderness, which increases the beauty, or rather accomplishes it--yet
+is it not abrupt in a piece where there is the expression of so much
+grief? Catullus was an affectionate man, more especially affectionate
+brother; on other occasions, if I remember rightly, he deplores this
+brother's loss. Now, Master Curate, what do you offer us?
+
+CURATE.--Not now a verse translation, but an observation on a little
+piece of raillery, in which Catullus quizzes one Arrius for his
+aspirating; and, I mean it not as a pun, exasperating, though it should
+seem that his friends were not a little exasperated at his bad
+pronunciation. Do we inherit from the Romans this, our (Cockneyism, I
+was going to say, but it is too general to allow of such a limit,)
+vulgarity of speech? "Where," says Catullus, "Arrius meant to say
+commoda, he uttered it as c_h_ommoda, and _h_insidias for insidias, and
+never thought he spoke remarkably well unless he laid great stress upon
+the aspirate, calling it with emphasis _h_insidias. I believe his
+mother, his uncle, his maternal grandfather and grandmother all spoke in
+the same way. When the man went into Syria, all ears had a little rest,
+and heard those words pronounced without this emphatic aspirate, and
+began to entertain no fears respecting the use of the words; when on a
+sudden they hear--that after Arrius had gone thither, the Ionian seas
+were no longer Ionian, but Hionian." This is curious. As the Romans had
+possession here more than four hundred years, did they leave us this
+legacy?
+
+AQUILIUS--I will, then, give you versions of the two which immediately
+follow.
+
+    DE AMORE SUO.
+
+    I love and hate. You ask me how 'tis so.
+    Small is the reason which I have to show:
+    I feel it to my cost--'tis all I know.
+
+Then follows a compliment, by comparison, to his Lesbia.
+
+    DE QUINTIA ET LESBIA.
+
+    Many think Quintia beautiful: she's tall,
+    And fair, and straight. I know, I grant it all,
+    When each particular beauty I recall;
+
+    But I deny--when these are uncombined
+    To form a whole of beauty--and I find
+    So large a person with so small a mind.
+
+    But Lesbia's perfect person is all soul,
+    Compact in beauty--as if grace she stole
+    From all the rest, and made herself one perfect whole.
+
+CURATE.--This is compliment enough as far as comparison goes--but he
+pays her a much greater shortly after: for he loves her in their
+greatest quarrels.
+
+    OF LESBIA.
+
+    "Lesbia mi dicit semper male."
+
+    Lesbia's always speaking ill
+    Of me--her tongue is never still:
+    Yet may I die, but 'gainst her will,
+      She loves me, spite of her detraction.
+
+    Why think I so? Because I blame
+    Her ways, abuse her just the same:
+    Yet howsoe'er I name her name,
+      I still love Lesbia to distraction.
+
+GRATIAN.--Perhaps the constancy was more to the credit of Lesbia than
+Catullus. Now then, Aquilius.
+
+AQUILIUS.--
+
+    DE LESBIA.
+
+    Lesbia speaketh ill of me
+      Ever--nought it moves me:
+    Say she what she will of me,
+      Yet I know she loves me.
+
+    Why? Because in words of hate,
+      I am far before her;
+    Yet no jot of love abate,
+      Rather I adore her.
+
+CURATE.--I don't like "I am far before her." We say, "I am not behind"
+in hate or love--I doubt "before."
+
+AQUILIUS.--Easily mended--thus then,--
+
+    Why? Because in words of hate
+      I go far beyond her,
+    Yet no jot of love abate--
+      But still grow the fonder.
+
+GRATIAN.--Probatum est.
+
+AQUILIUS.--The Curate is too quick upon me. We must go back: he has left
+out "De Inconstantia Feminei Amoris."
+
+CURATE.--True. Here is my version. Not being a happy subject, I passed
+over it.
+
+    OF WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY.
+
+    My pretty she will none but me
+      For husband, though were Jove, her wooer.
+    So tells she me: but what a she
+      Says to her lover and pursuer,
+    Might well be written on the wind,
+    Or stream that leaves no track behind.
+
+AQUILIUS.--I object to "pretty she," for _mulier_. I think, however,
+that _mulier_ here is a word of contempt. I make it out thus:
+
+     DE INCONSTANTIA FEMINEI AMORIS.
+
+      She says--the woman says--she none would wed
+      But me, though Jove came suitor to her bed;
+      She says--but, oh! what woman says--so fair,
+      And smooth to doting man, is writ on air,
+    And on the running stream that changeth every where.
+
+AQUILIUS.--We have seen much of our friend Catullus as a loving poet,
+let us end by showing him to have been a good hater. The following is no
+bad specimen of his powers in this line:--
+
+    IN COMINIUM.
+
+    If you, Cominius, old, defiled
+      With every vice, contemn'd, and hoary,
+    From your vile life were once exiled,
+      Your carcass beasts would mar--grim, wild.
+    Vultures that tongue, defamatory
+      Of all the gentle, good, and mild;
+    And with those eyes, that all detest,
+      Pluck'd from their hateful sockets gory,
+    Crows cram their maws, or feed their nest,
+    And hungry wolves devour the rest!
+
+It was now time, Eusebius, to conclude for the night, and, indeed, to
+put our Catullus upon his shelf again. Before separating, we reminded
+Gratian that he was the arbiter, and must make his award. "I remember
+well," said he; "and you, Aquilius, made, I think, this my baculus the
+staff of office. A good umpire might, not very improperly, give the
+stick to you both, breaking it equally, "secundum artem baculinam." But
+it is a good, useful staff to me; we have had some rubs together, and I
+won't part with it. True, it has not unfrequently rubbed my pigs' backs,
+and shall again. But _the_ pig Aquilius has made his acquaintance with,
+has grunted out all his happy days; and, to do him all honour, I have
+sacrificed him upon this occasion, to appease the manes of the Latin
+poet in his anger at your bad translations. But for yourselves, I have
+still something to award. My pig has two cheeks--there is one for each,
+and you shall have them put before you at breakfast to-morrow morning;
+and thus, I think, you will agree with me that I have duly countenanced
+you both. And I hope my pig will have both sharpened your appetites and
+your wit, 'sus Minervam.' Good-night!
+
+    'To-morrow to fresh fields and turnips new.'"
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT.
+
+I here send you, Eusebius, the last of our Hor� Catullian�, which has
+been lying by a week or more. This little delay enables me to wind up
+the Curate's affair to your satisfaction. Our friend Gratian gave
+verbally the Bishop's reply to Mathew Miffins, who, seeing himself
+deserted by his principal witness and informer, Prateapace, was not
+sorry to veer round with the weather-cock, and was obsequiously civil.
+It was characteristic of our friend Gratian, that he should settle it as
+he did with that huckster. Going through, as it is called, the main
+street, I saw him engaged with Miffins, in his shop, and went in. He was
+talking somewhat familiarly with the man--of all subjects, on what do
+you suppose?--on fishing. Gratian had been a great fisherman in his day,
+as his rheumatic pains can now testify. As he afterwards told me,
+fearing he might have given the Bishop's message rather sharply, and not
+liking to pain the man, he turned off the subject, and talked of
+fishing, to which he knew Miffins was addicted; and so it ended by
+Gratian's obtaining his good-will for ever, for he sent him some choice
+hackles. Prateapace and Gadabout have returned to the church, whereupon
+the Rev. the cow-doctor has stirred up the wrath of the chapel by a very
+strong discourse upon backsliding. A poor woman spoke of it as very
+affecting, adding, "Some loves 'sons of consolation,' but I loves 'sons
+of thunder.'" Doubtless there was lightning too; and there is of that
+vivid kind which bewilders and leaves all darker than before. The Curate
+_has_ found bouquets in the vestry and the desk, and has been in danger
+of becoming "a popular."
+
+A subscription has actually been set on foot, by Nicholas Sandwell, at
+the instigation, it is said, of certain ladies, and even encouraged by
+Miffins, to purchase a coffee-pot and tea-spoons for the Curate; but an
+event a few days ago has put an end to the affair, and given rather a
+new turn to the parochial feelings. This event is of such moment, that I
+ought, perhaps, to have told you of it at first--but I should have
+spoiled my romance, my novel--and what is any writing without a tale in
+it worth now-a-days? The Curate, then, is actually married--even since
+the termination of the Hor� Catullian�.
+
+Miss Lydia, ("alas, false man!" sighed some one,) of the family at
+Ashford, is the happy bride. The Curate had unexpectedly come into a
+very decent independence; and is, and will be for ever after, according
+to the usual receipt, happy.
+
+Since this event, the bouquets have ceased to be laid in the vestry and
+the desk. Lydia Prateapace has been heard to say she should not wonder
+if all was true after all, and affects to be glad, for propriety's sake,
+that they _are_ married. Gadabout runs every where repeating what
+Prateapace said; and Brazenstare looks audacious indifference, and once
+stared in the Curate's face and asked him how many Misses Lydia there
+might be of his acquaintance. My dear Eusebius,
+
+    "So goes the world, and such the Play of Life.
+    This loves to make, and t'other mends a strife;
+    Old fools write rhymes--the Curate takes a wife."
+
+                          Yours ever, AQUILIUS.
+
+
+
+
+PROSPER M�RIM�E.
+
+
+Rarely, in these days of profuse and unscrupulous scribbling, do we find
+an author giving the essence, not a dilution, of his wit, learning, and
+imagination, dispensing his mental stores with frugal caution, instead
+of lavishing them with reckless prodigality. Such a one, when met with,
+should be made much of, as a model for sinners in a contrary sense, and
+as a bird of precious plumage. Of that feather is Monsieur Prosper
+M�rim�e. He plays with literature, rather than professes it; it is his
+recreation, not his trade; at long intervals and for a brief space, he
+turns from more serious pursuits to coquet with the Muse, not frankly to
+embrace her. Willing though she be, he will not take her for a lawful
+spouse and constant companion, but courts her _par amours_. The
+offspring of these moments of dalliance are buxom and _debonair_, of
+various but comely aspect. In two-and-twenty years he has written less
+than the average annual produce of many of his literary countrymen. In
+several paths of literature, he has essayed his steps and made good a
+footing; in not one has he continuously persevered, but, although
+cheered by applause, has quickly struck into another track, which, in
+its turn, has been capriciously deserted. His "Studies of Roman history"
+give him an honourable claim to the title of historian; his "Notes of
+Arch�ological Rambles" are greatly esteemed; he has written plays; and
+his prose fictions, whether middle-age romance or novel of modern
+society, rank with the best of their class. He began his career with a
+mystification. His first work greatly puzzled the critics. It professed
+to be a translation of certain comedies, written by a Spanish actress,
+whose fictitious biography was prefixed and signed by Joseph L'Estrange,
+officer in the Swiss regiment of Watteville. This imaginary personage
+had made acquaintance with Clara Gazul in garrison at Gibraltar. Nothing
+was neglected that might perfect the delusion and give success to the
+cheat; fragments of old Spanish authors were prefixed to each play,
+showing familiarity with the literature of the country; the style, tone,
+and allusions were thoroughly Spanish; and, through the French dress,
+the Castilian idiom seemed here and there to peep forth, confirming the
+notion of a translation. Clara was an Andalusian, half gipsy, half Moor,
+skilled in guitars and castanets, saynetes and boleros. L'Estrange makes
+her narrate her own origin.
+
+"'I was born,' she told us, 'under an orange-tree, by the roadside, not
+far from Motril, in the kingdom of Granada. My mother was a
+fortune-teller, and I followed her, or was carried on her back, till the
+age of five years. Then she took me to the house of a canon of Granada,
+the licentiate Gil Vargas, who received us with every sign of joy.
+Salute your uncle, said my mother. I saluted him. She embraced me, and
+departed. I have never seen her since.' And to stop our questions, Do�a
+Clara took her guitar and sang the gipsy song, _Cuando me pari� mi
+madre, la gitana_."
+
+Biography and comedies were so skillfully got up, the deception was so
+well combined, that the reviewers were put entirely on a wrong scent.
+Two years later, M. M�rim�e was guilty of another harmless literary
+swindle, entitled La Guzla, a selection of Illyrian poems, said to be
+collected in Bosnia, Dalmatia, &c., but whose real origin could be
+traced no further than to his own imagination. Although the name was a
+manifest anagram of Gazul, the public were gulled. The deceit was first
+unmasked in Germany, we believe, by Goethe, to whom the secret had been
+betrayed. Thenceforward the young author was content to publish under
+his own name works of which he certainly had no reason to be ashamed.
+One of the earliest of these was, "La Jacquerie"--a sort of long
+melodrama, or series of scenes, illustrating feudal aggressions and
+cruelties in France, and the consequent peasant revolts of the
+fourteenth century. It shows much historical research and care in
+collection of materials, is rich in references to the barbarous customs
+and strange manners of the times, and, like the "Chronicle of Charles
+IX.," another historical work of M. M�rim�e's, has, we suspect, been
+found very useful by more recent fabricators of romances.
+
+Educated for the bar, but not practising his profession, M. M�rim�e was
+one of the rising men of talent whom the July revolution pushed forward.
+After being _chef de cabinet_ of the Minister of the Interior, Count
+d'Argout, he held several appointments under government, amongst others,
+that of Inspector of Historical Monuments, an office he still retains.
+In 1844 he was elected to a chair in the French Academy, vacant by the
+death of the accomplished Charles Nodier. He has busied himself much
+with arch�ological researches, and the published results of his travels
+in the west of France, Provence, Corsica, &c., are most learned and
+valuable. In the intervals of his antiquarian investigations and
+administrative labours, he has thrown off a number of tales and
+sketches, most of which first saw the light in leading French
+periodicals, and have since been collected and republished. They are all
+remarkable for grace of style and tact in management of subject. One of
+the longest, "Colomba," a tale of Corsican life, is better known in
+England than its author's name. It has been translated with accuracy and
+spirit, and lately has been further brought before the public, on the
+boards of a minor theatre, distorted into a very indifferent melodrama.
+The Corsican Vendetta has been taken as the basis of more than one
+romantic story, but, handled by M. M�rim�e, it has acquired new and
+fascinating interest; and he has enriched his little romance with a
+profusion of those small traits and artistical touches which exhibit the
+character and peculiarities of a people better than folios of dry
+description. "La Double M�prise," another of his longer tales, is a
+clever _novelette_ of Parisian life. According to English notions its
+subject is slippery, its main incident, and some of its minor details,
+improbable and unpleasant, although so neatly managed that one is less
+startled when reading them than shocked on after-reflection. It
+certainly requires skilful management to give an air of probability to
+such a scene as is detailed in chapter five. A French _gentleman_, a man
+of fortune and family, mixing in good society, is anxious for an
+appointment at court, and to obtain it he reckons much on the influence
+and good word of a certain Duke of H----. There is a benefit night at
+the Opera, and the young wife of the aspirant to court honours has a
+box. Between the acts her husband, who has unwillingly accompanied her,
+rambles about the house, and discovers the Duke in an inconvenient
+corner, where he can see nothing. His grace is not alone, but in the
+society of his kept-mistress. To propitiate his patron, the unscrupulous
+husband introduces him and his companion into the box of his
+unsuspecting wife! The sequel may be imagined; the stare and titter of
+acquaintances, the supercilious gratitude of the Duke, the astonishment
+of the lady at the singular tone of the pretty and elegantly dressed
+woman with whom she is thus unexpectedly brought in contact, and whose
+want of _usage_ bespeaks, as she imagines, the newly arrived provincial.
+All this, which might pass muster in a novel depicting the manners and
+morals of the Regency, is rather violent in one of our day; but yet, so
+cleverly are the angles of improbability draped and softened down, the
+reader perseveres. The plot is very slight; the tale scarcely depends on
+it, but is what the French call a _tableau de moeurs_, with less
+pretensions to the regular progress and catastrophe of a novel, than to
+be a mirror of everyday scenes and actors on the bustling stage of Paris
+life. The characters are well drawn, the dialogues witty and dramatic,
+the book abounds in sly hits and smart satire; but its bitterness of
+tone injured its popularity, and, unlike its author's other tales, it
+met little success. The opening chapter is a picture of a lively
+Parisian _m�nage_, such as many doubtless exist; a striking example of a
+_mariage de convenance_, or mis-match.
+
+"Six years had elapsed since the marriage of Julie de Chaverny, and
+five years and six months, or thereabouts, since she had discovered that
+it was impossible for her to love her husband, and very difficult to
+esteem him. He was not a bad man, neither could he be called stupid, nor
+even silly; she had once thought him agreeable; now she found him
+intolerably wearisome. To her every thing about him was repulsive and
+unpleasant. His most trifling actions, his way of eating, of taking
+coffee, of talking, gave her umbrage and irritated her nerves. Except at
+table, the pair scarcely saw or spoke to each other; but they dined
+together several times a-week, and that sufficed to keep up the sort of
+hatred Julie entertained towards her husband.
+
+"As to Chaverny, he was rather a handsome man, a little too corpulent
+for his time of life, with a fresh complexion, full-blooded, and by no
+means subject to those vague uneasinesses which sometimes torment
+persons of more intellectual organisation. Piously convinced that his
+wife's sentiments towards him were those of tender friendship, the
+conviction caused him neither pleasure nor pain. Had he known Julie's
+feelings to be of an opposite nature, it would have made little
+difference to his happiness. He had served several years in a cavalry
+regiment, when he inherited a considerable fortune, became disgusted
+with garrison life, resigned his commission, and took a wife. It seems
+difficult to explain the marriage of two persons who had not an idea in
+common. On the one hand, a number of those officious friends and
+relations, who, as Phrosine says, would marry the republic of Venice to
+the Grand Turk, had taken much pains to arrange it: on the other,
+Chaverny was of good family; before his marriage he was not too fat; he
+was gay and cheerful, and what is called a _good fellow_. Julie was glad
+to see him at her mother's house, because he made her laugh with
+anecdotes of his regiment, droll enough, if not always in the best
+taste. She found him amiable, because he danced with her at every ball,
+and was always ready with excellent reasons to persuade her mother to
+remain late at theatre or party, or at the _Bois de Boulogne_. Finally,
+she thought him a hero, because he had fought two or three creditable
+duels. But what completed his triumph, was the description of a certain
+carriage, to be built after a plan of his own, and in which he was to
+drive Julie, as soon as she consented to become Madame de Chaverny.
+
+"A few months of married life, and Chaverny's good qualities had lost
+much of their merit. He no longer danced with his wife--that of course.
+His funny stories had long been thrice told. He complained that balls
+lasted too late; at the theatre he yawned; the custom of dressing for
+the evening he found an insufferable bore. Laziness was his bane; had he
+endeavoured to please, perhaps he would have succeeded, but the least
+exertion or restraint was torture to him, as to most fat persons. He
+found it irksome to go into society, because there the manner of one's
+reception depends on the efforts one makes to please. A rude joviality
+suited him better than refined amusements; to distinguish himself
+amongst persons of a similar taste to his own, he had only to talk and
+laugh louder than his companions--and that he did without trouble, for
+his lungs were remarkably vigorous. He also prided himself on drinking
+more champagne than most men could support, and on leaping his horse
+over a four-foot wall in true sporting style. To these various
+accomplishments he was indebted for the friendship and esteem of the
+indefinable class of beings known as 'young men,' who swarm upon our
+_boulevards_ towards eight in the evening. Shooting parties, country
+excursions, races, bachelors' dinners and suppers, were his favourite
+pastimes. Twenty times a-day he declared himself the happiest of
+mortals; and when Julie heard the declaration, she cast her eyes to
+heaven, and her little mouth assumed an expression of indescribable
+contempt."
+
+We turn to another of M. M�rim�e's books, in our opinion his best, an
+historical romance, entitled 1572, a "Chronicle of the Reign of Charles
+the Ninth." "In history," says the author in his preface, "I care only
+for the anecdotes, and prefer those in which I fancy I discover a true
+picture of the manners and characters of a particular period. This is
+not a very elevated taste; but I own, to my shame, that I would
+willingly give the whole of Thucydides for an authentic memoir of
+Aspasia, or of one of Pericles' slaves. Memoirs, the familiar gossip of
+an author with his reader, alone supply those individual portraits that
+amuse and interest me. It is not from Mezerai, but from Montlue,
+Brant�me, D'Aubign�, Tavannes, La Noue, &c., that one forms a just idea
+of the French of the sixteenth century. From the style of those
+contemporary authors, we learn as much as from the substance of their
+narratives. In L'Estoile, for instance, I read the following concise
+note. 'The demoiselle de Chateau-neuf, one of the king's _mignonnes_,
+before he went to Poland, having espoused, _par amourettes_, the
+Florentine Antinotti, officer of the galleys at Marseilles, and
+detecting him in an intrigue, slew him stoutly with her own hand.' By
+the help of this anecdote, and of similar ones, which abound in
+Brant�me, I make up a character in my head, and resuscitate a lady of
+Henry the Third's court." The "Chronicle" is the result of much reading
+and combination of the kind here referred to; and M. M�rim�e has even
+been accused of adhering too closely to reality, to the detriment of the
+poetical character of his romance. He does not make his heroes and
+heroines sufficiently perfect, or his villains sufficiently atrocious,
+to suit the palate of some critics, but depicts them as he finds
+evidence of their having existed--their virtues obscured by the coarse
+manners and loose morality, their crimes palliated by the religious
+antipathies and stormy political passions of a semi-civilised age. He
+declines judging the men of the sixteenth century according to the ideas
+of the nineteenth. And, with regard to minor matters, he does not, like
+some of his contemporaries, place in the mouth of a Huguenot leader, or
+a _Guisarde_ countess, the tame and dainty phrase appropriate enough in
+that of an equerry, or lady of the bed-chamber at the court of the
+Citizen King. Eschewing conventionality, and following his own judgment,
+and the guidance of the old chroniclers, in whose quaint records he
+delights, he has written one of the best existing French historical
+romances.
+
+It would have been easy for a less able writer than M. M�rim�e to have
+extended the "Chronique" to thrice its present length. It is not a
+complete romance, but a desultory sketch of the events and manners of
+the time, with a few imaginary personages introduced. Novel readers who
+require a regular _deno�ment_ will be disappointed at its conclusion.
+There is not even a hint of a wedding from the first page to the last;
+and the only lady who plays a prominent part in the story, a certain
+countess Diane de Turgis, is little better than she should be. And yet,
+if we follow M. M�rim�e's rule, and judge her according to the ideas and
+morals of the age she flourished in, she was rather an amiable and
+proper sort of person. True, she sets her lovers by the ears, and feels
+gratified when they cut each other's throats: she even challenges a
+court dame, who has taken the precedence of her, to an encounter with
+sword and dagger, _en chemise_, according to the prevailing mode amongst
+the _raffin�s_, or professed duellists of the time; and she writes
+seductive billets-doux in Spanish, and gives wicked little suppers to
+the handsome cavalier on whom her affections are set. But, on the other
+hand, she goes to mass, and confesses, and does her best to save her
+Huguenot lover's body and soul, and obtain the remission of her own sins
+by converting him from his heresy. So that, as times went in the year
+1572, she was to be reckoned amongst the righteous. The handsome
+heretic, in whose present safety and future salvation she takes so
+strong an interest, is one Bernard de Mergy, who has come to Paris to
+take service with the great chief of his co-religionists, Admiral
+Coligny. His brother, George de Mergy, has deserted the creed of Calvin,
+and is consequently in high favour at the Louvre, but under the ban of
+his father, a stern old Huguenot officer, who will not hear the name of
+his renegade son. Bernard, whilst regretting his brother's apostasy,
+does not deem it necessary to shun his society. On the road he has been
+cajoled or robbed of his ready cash by a pretty gipsy girl, and his
+good horse has been stolen by one of the hordes of German lanzknechts,
+whom the recent civil war had brought to France. He reaches Paris with
+an empty purse, and is not sorry to meet his brother, who welcomes him
+kindly, and supplies his wants, but refuses to recant, and attempts to
+justify his backsliding. In the course of his defence he gives an
+insight into the prevalent corruption of the time, and shows how the
+private vices of great political leaders often marred the fortunes of
+their party.
+
+"'You were still at school,' said De Mergy, 'learning Latin and Greek,
+when I first donned the cuirass, girded the Huguenot's white scarf, and
+took share in our civil wars. Your little Prince of Cond�, who has led
+his party into so many errors, looked after your affairs when his
+intrigues left him time. A lady loved me; the prince asked me to resign
+her to him; I refused, and he became my mortal enemy. From that hour he
+lost no opportunity of mortifying me.
+
+    Ce petit prince si joli
+    Qui toujours baise sa mignonne,
+
+held me up to the fanatics of the party as a monster of libertinism and
+irreligion. I had only one mistress; and as to the irreligion,--I let
+others do as they like, why attack me?'
+
+"'I thought the prince incapable of such baseness,' said Bernard.
+
+"'He is dead,' replied his brother, 'and you have deified him. 'Tis the
+way of the world. He had great qualities; he died like a brave man, and
+I have forgiven him. But then he was powerful, and on the part of a poor
+gentleman like myself, it was guilt to resist him. All the preachers and
+hypocrites of the army set upon me, but I cared as little for their
+abuse as for their sermons. At last one of the prince's gentlemen, to
+curry favour with his master, called me libertine, before all our
+captains. I struck him: we fought--and he was killed. At that time there
+were a dozen duels a day in the army, and no notice taken. In my favour
+an exception was made; I was fixed upon by the prince to serve as an
+example. The entreaties of the other leaders, including the Admiral,
+procured my pardon. But the prince's rancour was not yet appeased. At
+the fight of Jazeneuil, I commanded a company: I had been foremost in
+the skirmish; my cuirass battered and broken by bullets, my left arm
+pierced by a lance, showed that I had not spared myself. I had only
+twenty men left, and a battalion of the king's Swiss guards advanced
+against us. The Prince of Cond� ordered me to charge them; I asked for
+two companies of _reitres_, and--he called me coward.'
+
+"Mergy rose and approached his brother with an expression of strong
+interest. The Captain continued--his eyes flashing with anger at the
+recollection of the insult:--
+
+"'He called me coward before all those popinjays in gilt armour who
+afterwards abandoned him on the battle-field of Jarnac. I resolved to
+die, and rushed upon the Swiss--vowing, if I escaped with life, never
+again to draw sword for that unjust prince. Grievously wounded, thrown
+from my horse, one of the Duke of Anjou's gentlemen, B�ville--the mad
+fellow whom we dined with to-day--saved my life, and presented me to the
+duke. He treated me well. I was eager for vengeance. They urged me to
+take service under my benefactor, the Duke of Anjou; they quoted the
+line--
+
+    Omne solum forti patria est, ut piscibus �quor.
+
+I was indignant to see the Protestants summoning foreigners to their
+assistance. But why disguise the real motive that actuated me? I
+thirsted for revenge, and became a Catholic, in hopes of meeting the
+Prince of Cond� in fair fight, and killing him. A coward forestalled me,
+and the manner of the prince's death almost made me forget my hatred. I
+saw his bloody corpse abandoned to the insults of the soldiery; I
+rescued it from their hands, and covered it with my cloak. I was pledged
+to the Catholics; I commanded a squadron of their cavalry; I could not
+leave them. I have happily been able to render some service to my former
+party; I have done my best to soften the fury of religious animosities,
+and have been fortunate enough to save several of my friends.'
+
+"'Oliver de Basseville tells every body he owes you his life.'
+
+"'Behold me then a Catholic,' continued George, in a calmer voice. 'The
+religion is as good as another: and then it is an easy and pleasant one.
+See yonder pretty Madonna: 'tis the portrait of an Italian courtesan;
+but the bigots praise my piety when I cross myself before it. My word
+for it, I get on vastly better with Rome than Geneva. By making trifling
+sacrifices to the opinions of the _canaille_, I live as I like. I must
+go to mass--very good! I go there and stare at the pretty women. I must
+have a confessor--_parbleu!_ I have one, a jolly Franciscan and
+ex-dragoon, who for a crown-piece gives me a ticket of confession, and
+delivers my billets-doux to his pretty penitents into the bargain. _Mort
+de ma vie! Vive la messe!_'
+
+"Mergy could not restrain a smile.
+
+"'There is my breviary,' continued the Captain, throwing his brother a
+richly-bound book, fastened with silver clasps, and enclosed in a velvet
+case. 'Such a missal as that is well worth your prayer-books.'
+
+"Mergy read on the back of the volume, _Heures de la Cour_.
+
+"'The binding is handsome,' he said, disdainfully returning the book.
+
+"The Captain smiled, and opening it again handed it to him. Mergy then
+read upon the first page: _La vie tr�s-horrifique du grand Gargantua,
+p�re de Pantagruel: compos�e par M. Alcofribas, abstracteur de
+Quintessena._"
+
+Thus, in a single page, does M. M�rim�e place before us a picture of the
+times, with their mixture of fanaticism and irreligion, their shameless
+political profligacy and private immorality. Bernard de Mergy cannot
+prevail with his brother to return to the conventicle: so he accompanies
+him to mass--not to pray, but hoping to obtain a glimpse of Madame de
+Turgis, whom he has already seen masked in the street, and whose
+graceful form and high reputation for beauty have made strong impression
+on the imagination of this novice in court gallantries. On entering the
+sacristy, they find the preacher, a jolly monk, surrounded by a dozen
+young rakes, with whom he bandies jokes more witty than wise.
+
+"'Ah,' cried B�ville, 'here is the Captain! Come, George, give us a
+text. Father Lubin has promised to preach on any one we propose.'
+
+"'Yes,' said the monk; 'but make haste. _Mort de ma vie!_ I ought to be
+in the pulpit already.'
+
+"'Peste! Father Lubin, you swear like the king,' cried the Captain.
+
+"I bet he would not swear in his sermon,' said B�ville.
+
+"'Why not, if the fancy took me?' stoutly retorted the Franciscan.
+
+"'Ten pistoles you do not.'
+
+"'Ten pistoles? Done.'
+
+"'B�ville,' cried the Captain, 'I go halves in your wager.'
+
+"'No, no!' replied his friend, 'I will not share the reverend's money;
+and if he wins, by my faith! I shall not regret mine. An oath in pulpit
+is well worth ten pistoles.'
+
+"'They are already won,' said Father Lubin; 'I begin my sermon with
+three oaths. _Ah! Messieurs les Gentilhommes_, because you have rapier
+on hip, and plume in hat, you would monopolise the talent of swearing.
+We will see.'
+
+"He left the sacristy, and in an instant was in his pulpit. There was
+silence in the church. The preacher scanned the crowded congregation as
+though seeking his bettor; and when he discovered him leaning against a
+column exactly opposite the pulpit, he knit his brows, put his arms
+akimbo, and in an angry tone thus began:
+
+"'My dear Brethren,
+
+"_'Par la vertu!--par la mort!--par le sang!'_--
+
+"A murmur of surprise and indignation interrupted the preacher, or, it
+were more correctly said, filled up the pause he intentionally left.
+
+"---- 'de Dieu,' continued the Franciscan, in a devout nasal whine, 'we
+are saved and delivered from punishment.'
+
+"'A general burst of laughter interrupted him a second time. B�ville
+took his purse from his girdle, and shook it at the preacher, as an
+admission that he had lost."
+
+The sermon that follows is in character with its commencement. Whilst
+awaiting its conclusion, Bernard de Mergy in vain seeks the Countess de
+Turgis; it is only when leaving the church that his brother points her
+out to him. She is escorted by a young man, of slight figure and
+effeminate mien, dressed with studied negligence. This is the terrible
+Count de Comminges, the duellist of the day, the chief of those
+_raffin�s_ who fought on every pretext, and often on no pretext at all.
+He had had nearly a hundred duels, and a challenge from him was held
+equivalent to a ticket for the hospital, if not to sentence of death.
+"Comminges once summoned a man to the Pr�-aux-Clercs, then the classic
+duelling-ground. They stripped off their doublets, and drew their
+swords. 'Are you not Berny of Auvergne?' inquired Comminges. 'Certainly
+not,' replied his antagonist; 'my name is Villequier, and I am from
+Normandy.' 'So much the worse,' quoth Comminges, 'I took you for another
+man; but since I have challenged you, we must fight.' They fought
+accordingly, and the unlucky Norman was killed." Since the death of a
+Monsieur de Lannoy, slain at the siege of Orleans, Madame de Turgis is
+without a lover. Comminges aspires to the vacant post; his attentions
+are rather tolerated than encouraged; but he seems determined that if he
+does not succeed, nobody else shall, for he has constituted himself her
+constant attendant, and a wholesome dread of his formidable rapier keeps
+off rivals. He has sworn to kill all who present themselves.
+
+By the interest of Coligny, whom Charles the Ninth affects to favour
+whilst he plots his death, Bernard de Mergy receives a commission in the
+army preparing for a campaign in Flanders. He goes to court to thank the
+king, and the following scene passes.
+
+"The court was at the Ch�teau de Madrid. The queen-mother, surrounded by
+her ladies, waited in her apartment for the king to come to breakfast.
+The king, followed by the princes, slowly traversed the gallery, in
+which were assembled the nobles and gentlemen who were to accompany him
+to the chase. With an absent air he listened to the remarks of his
+courtiers, and made abrupt replies. When he passed before the two
+brothers, the Captain bent his knee, and presented the newly-made
+officer. Mergy bowed profoundly, and thanked his majesty for the favour
+shown him before he had earned it.
+
+"'Ha! it is you of whom my father the Admiral spoke! You are Captain
+George's brother?'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'Catholic or Protestant?'
+
+"'Sire, I am a Protestant.'
+
+"'I ask from idle curiosity. The devil take me if I care of what
+religion are those who serve me well.'
+
+"And having uttered these memorable words, the king entered the queen's
+apartments. A few moments later, a swarm of ladies spread themselves
+over the gallery, as if sent to enable the gentlemen to wait with
+patience. I shall speak but of one of the beauties of that court, where
+they so greatly abounded; of the Countess de Turgis, who plays an
+important part in this history. She wore an elegant riding-dress, and
+had not yet put on her mask. Her complexion, of dazzling but uniform
+whiteness, contrasted with her jet-black hair; her well-arched
+eye-brows, slightly joining, gave a proud expression to her physiognomy,
+without diminishing its graceful beauty. At first, the sole expression
+of her blue eye seemed one of disdainful haughtiness; but when animated
+in conversation, their pupils, dilated like those of a cat, seemed to
+emit sparks, and few men, even of the most audacious, could long sustain
+their magical power.
+
+"'The Countess de Turgis--how lovely she looks!' murmured the courtiers,
+pressing forward to see her better. Mergy, close to whom she passed, was
+so struck by her beauty, that he forgot to make way till her large
+silken sleeves rustled against his doublet. She remarked his emotion
+without displeasure, and for a moment deigned to fix her magnificent
+eyes on those of the young Protestant, who felt his cheek glow under her
+gaze. The Countess smiled and passed on, letting one of her gloves fall
+before our hero, who, still motionless and fascinated, neglected to pick
+it up. Instantly a fair-haired youth, (it was no other than Comminges,)
+who stood behind Mergy, pushed him rudely in passing before him, seized
+the glove, kissed it respectfully, and presented it to Madame de
+Turgis. Without thanking him, the lady turned towards Mergy with a look
+of crushing contempt; and, observing Captain George at his side,
+'Captain,' said she, very loud, 'where does that great clown spring
+from? He must be some Huguenot, judging from his courtesy.'
+
+"The laughter of the bystanders completed the embarrassment of the
+unlucky Bernard.
+
+"'He is my brother, madam,' was George's quiet reply; 'he has been three
+days at Paris, and, by my honour! he is not more awkward than Lannoy
+was, before you undertook his education.'
+
+"The Countess coloured slightly. 'An unkind jest, Captain,' she said:
+'Speak not ill of the dead. Give me your hand; I have a message to you
+from a lady whom you have offended.'
+
+"The Captain respectfully took her hand, and led her to the recess of a
+distant window. Before she reached it, she once more turned her head to
+look at Mergy.
+
+"Still dazzled by the apparition of the beautiful Countess, whom he
+longed to look at, but dared not, Mergy felt a gentle tap upon his
+shoulder. He turned and beheld the Baron de Vaudreuil, who drew him
+aside, to speak to him, as he said, without fear of interruption.
+
+"'My dear fellow,' the Baron began, 'you are a stranger at court, and
+are probably not yet acquainted with its customs?'
+
+"Mergy looked at him with astonishment.
+
+"'Your brother is engaged, and not able to advise you; if agreeable to
+you I will replace him. You have been gravely insulted; and seeing you
+in this pensive attitude, I doubt not you meditate revenge.'
+
+"'Revenge?--on whom?' cried Mergy, reddening to the very white of his
+eyes.
+
+"'Were you not just now rudely pushed aside by little Comminges? The
+whole court witnessed the affront, and expect you to notice it
+suitably.'
+
+"'But,' said Mergy, 'in so crowded a room as this an accidental push is
+nothing very extraordinary.'
+
+"'M. de Mergy, I have not the honour to be intimate with you: but your
+brother is my particular friend, and he will tell you that I practise as
+much as possible the divine precept of forgiveness of injuries. I do not
+wish to embark you in a bad quarrel, but at the same time it is my duty
+to tell you that Comminges did not push you accidentally. He pushed you,
+because he wished to insult you; and if he had not pushed you, you would
+still be insulted; for, by picking up Madame de Turgis's glove, he
+usurped your right. The glove was at your feet, _ergo_ it was for you
+alone to raise and return it. And you have but to look around; you will
+see Comminges telling the story and laughing at you.'
+
+"Mergy turned about. Comminges was surrounded by five or six young men,
+to whom he laughingly narrated something which they listened to with
+curious interest. Nothing proved that his conduct was under discussion;
+but at the words of his charitable counsellor, Mergy felt his heart
+swell with fury.
+
+"'I will speak to him after the hunt,' he said, 'and he shall tell me--'
+
+"'Oh! never put off a good resolution; besides, you offend Heaven much
+less in challenging your adversary immediately after the offence than in
+doing it when you have had time to reflect. In a moment of irritation,
+which is but a venial offence, you agree to fight; and if you afterwards
+fulfil your agreement, it is only to avoid committing a far greater sin,
+that of breaking your word. But, I forget that you are a Protestant.
+Nevertheless, arrange a meeting with him at once. I will bring you
+together.'
+
+"'I trust he will not refuse to make a fitting apology.'
+
+"'Undeceive yourself, comrade. Comminges never yet said, I was wrong.
+But he is a man of strict honour, and will give you every satisfaction.'
+
+"Mergy made an effort to suppress his emotion and assume an indifferent
+air.
+
+"'Since I have been insulted,' he said, 'I must have satisfaction. And
+whatever kind may be necessary, I shall know how to insist upon it.'
+
+"'Well spoken, my brave friend; your boldness pleases me, for you of
+course know that Comminges is one of our best swordsmen. _Par ma foi!_
+he handles his blade right cunningly. He took lessons at Rome, of
+Brambilla, and Petit-Jean will fence with him no longer.' And whilst
+speaking, Vaudreuil attentively watched the countenance of Mergy, who
+was pale, but from anger at the offence offered him rather than from
+apprehension of its consequences.
+
+"'I would willingly be your second in this affair, but I take the
+sacrament to-morrow, and, moreover, I am engaged to M. de Rheincy, and
+cannot draw sword against any but him.'[B]
+
+"'I thank you, sir. If necessary, my brother will second me.'
+
+"'The Captain is perfectly at home in these affairs. Meanwhile, I will
+bring Comminges to speak with you.'
+
+"Mergy bowed, and turning to the wall, did his best to compose his
+countenance and arrange what he should say. There is a certain grace in
+giving a challenge, which habit alone bestows. It was our hero's first
+affair, and he was a little embarrassed; he was less afraid of a
+sword-thrust than of saying something unbecoming a gentleman. He had
+just succeeded in composing a firm and polite sentence, when Baron de
+Vaudreuil, taking him by the arm, drove it out of his head.
+
+"'You desire to speak to me, sir?' said Comminges, hat in hand, and
+bowing with an impertinent politeness, which brought an angry flush upon
+Mergy's countenance.
+
+"'I hold myself insulted by your behaviour,' the young Protestant
+instantly replied, 'and I desire satisfaction.'
+
+"Vaudreuil nodded approvingly; Comminges drew himself up, and placing
+his hand on his hip, the prescribed posture in such circumstances,
+replied with much gravity:
+
+"'You constitute yourself demander, sir, and, as defendant, I have the
+choice of arms.'
+
+"'Name those you prefer.'"
+
+Comminges reflected for an instant. "'The _estoc_,' he at last said, 'is
+a good weapon, but it makes ugly wounds; and at our age,' he added, with
+a smile, 'one is not anxious to appear before one's mistress with a
+scarred countenance. The rapier makes a small hole, but it is enough.'
+And he again smiled, as he said, 'I choose rapier and dagger.'
+
+"'Very good,' said Mergy, and he took a step to depart.
+
+"'One moment!' cried Vaudreuil; 'you forget the place of meeting.'
+
+"'The Court uses the Pr�-aux-Clercs,' said Comminges; 'and if the
+gentleman has no particular preference----'
+
+"'The Pr�-aux-Clercs--be it so.'
+
+"'As to the time, I shall not be up before eight o'clock, for reasons of
+my own--you understand--I do not sleep at home to-night, and cannot be
+at the Pr� before nine.'
+
+"'Let nine be the hour.'
+
+"Just then Mergy perceived the Countess de Turgis, who had left the
+Captain in conversation with another lady. As may be supposed, at sight
+of the lovely cause of this ugly affair, our hero threw into his
+countenance an additional amount of gravity and feigned indifference.
+
+"'Of late,' said Vaudreuil, 'it is the fashion to fight in crimson
+drawers. If you have none, I will send you a pair. They look clean, and
+do not show blood. And now,' continued the Baron, who appeared quite in
+his element, 'nothing remains but to fix upon your seconds and thirds.'
+
+"'The gentleman is a new comer at Court' said Comminges, 'and perhaps
+might have difficulty in finding a third. Out of consideration for him I
+will content myself with a second.'
+
+"With some difficulty, Mergy contracted his lips into a smile.
+
+"'Impossible to be more courteous,' said the Baron. 'It is really a
+pleasure to deal with so accommodating a cavalier as M. de Comminges.'
+
+"'You will require a rapier of the same length as mine,' resumed
+Comminges; 'I can recommend you Laurent, at the Golden Sun, Rue de la
+F�ronnerie; he is the best armourer in Paris. Tell him you come from me,
+and he will treat you well.' Having thus spoken, he turned upon his
+heel, and rejoined the group he had lately left.
+
+"'I congratulate you, M. Bernard,' said Vaudreuil; 'you have acquitted
+yourself admirably. Exceedingly well, indeed. Comminges is not
+accustomed to hear himself spoken to in that fashion. He is feared like
+fire, especially since he killed Canillac; for as to St Michel, whom he
+killed a couple of months ago, he did not get much credit by that. St
+Michel was not particularly skilful, whilst Canillac, had already slain
+five or six antagonists, without receiving a scratch. He had studied at
+Naples under Borelli, and it was said that Lansac had bequeathed him the
+secret thrust with which he did so much harm. To be sure,' continued the
+Baron, as if to himself, 'Canillac had pillaged the church at Auxerre,
+and trampled on the consecrated wafers: no wonder he was punished.'
+
+"Mergy, although far from amused by this conversation, thought himself
+bound to continue it, lest a suspicion offensive to his courage should
+occur to Vaudreuil.
+
+"'Fortunately,' he replied, 'I have pillaged no church, and never
+touched a consecrated wafer in my life; so I have a risk the less to
+run.'
+
+"'Another caution. When you cross swords with Comminges, beware of one
+of his feints, which cost Captain Tomaso his life. He cried out that the
+point of his sword was broken. Tomaso instantly guarded his head,
+expecting a cut; but Comminges's sword was perfect enough, for it
+entered, to within a foot of the hilt, Tomaso's breast, which he had
+exposed, not anticipating a thrust. But you fight with rapiers, and
+there is less danger.'
+
+"'I will do my best.'
+
+"'Ah! one thing more. Choose a dagger with a strong basket-hilt; it is
+very useful to parry. I owe this scar on my left hand to having gone out
+one day without a poniard. Young Tallard and myself had a quarrel, and
+for want of a dagger, I nearly lost my hand.'
+
+"'And was he wounded?' inquired Mergy.
+
+"'I killed him, thanks to a vow I made to St Maurice, my patron. Have
+some linen and lint about you, it can do no harm. One is not always
+killed outright. You will do well also to have your sword placed on the
+altar during mass. But you are a Protestant. Yet another word. Do not
+make it a point of honour not to retreat; on the contrary, keep him
+moving; he is short-winded; exhaust his breath, and, when you find your
+opportunity, one good thrust in the breast and your man is down.'
+
+"There is no saying how long the Baron would have continued his valuable
+advice, had not a great sounding of horns announced that the King was
+about to take horse. The door of the apartment opened; and his Majesty
+and the Queen-mother made their appearance, equipped for the chase.
+Captain George, who had just left his lady, joined his brother, and
+clapped him joyously on the shoulder.
+
+"'By the mass!' he cried, 'thou art a lucky rogue! Only see this
+youngster, with his cat's mustache; he has but to show himself, and all
+the ladies are mad after him. The handsome Countess has been talking
+about you for the last quarter of an hour. Come, good courage! During
+the hunt, keep by her stirrup, and be as gallant as you can. But what
+the devil's the matter with you? Are you ill? You make as long a face as
+a preacher at the stake. _Morbleu!_ cheer up, man!'
+
+"'I have no great fancy to hunt to-day,' said Bernard; 'and I would
+rather--'
+
+"'If you do not hunt,' whispered Vaudreuil, 'Comminges will think you
+are afraid.'
+
+"'I am ready,' said Mergy, passing his hand across his burning brow, and
+resolved to wait till after the hunt to inform his brother of his
+adventure. 'What disgrace,' thought he, 'if Madame de Turgis suspected
+me of fear; if she supposed that the idea of an approaching duel
+prevented my enjoying the chase.'
+
+"During the hunt, Bernard swerves not from the side of the Countess, who
+accords him various marks of favour, and finally dismisses Comminges,
+who has also escorted her, and has a _t�te-a-t�te_ ride with her new
+admirer. She well knows that a duel is in the wind, and dreads it, for
+Mergy's sake. Hopeless of his escape with life from the projected
+combat, she tries at least to save his soul, and makes a bold attempt at
+his conversion. But on that head he is deaf even to _her_ voice.
+Baffled, she essays a compromise.
+
+"'You heretics have no faith in relics?' said Madame de Turgis.
+
+"Bernard smiled.
+
+"'And you think yourselves defiled by touching them?' she continued.
+'You would not carry one, as we Roman Catholics are wont to do?'
+
+"'We hold the custom useless, to say the least.'
+
+"'Listen. A cousin of mine once attached a relic to his hound's neck,
+and at twelve paces fired at the dog an arquebuse charged with slugs.'
+
+"'And the dog was killed?'
+
+"'Not touched.'
+
+"'Wonderful! I would fain possess such a relic.'
+
+"'Indeed!--and you would carry it?'
+
+"'Undoubtedly--since the relic saved the dog, it would of course--But
+stay, is it quite certain that a heretic is as good as a Catholic's
+dog?'
+
+"Without listening to him, Madame de Turgis hastily unbuttoned the top
+of her closely fitting habit, and took from her bosom a little gold box,
+very flat, suspended by a black ribbon. 'Here,' she said,--'you promised
+to wear it. You shall return it me one day.'
+
+"'Certainly. If I am able.'
+
+"'But you will take care of it? No sacrilege! You will take the greatest
+care of it!'
+
+"'I have received it from you, madam.'
+
+"She gave him the relic, and he hung it round his neck.
+
+"'A Catholic would have thanked the hand that bestowed the holy
+talisman.'
+
+"Mergy seized her hand, and tried to raise it to his lips.
+
+"'No, no! it is too late.'
+
+"'Say not so! Remember, I may never again have such fortune.'
+
+"'Take off my glove,' said the lady. Whilst obeying, Mergy thought he
+felt a slight pressure. He imprinted a burning kiss on the white and
+beautiful hand."
+
+"Frank and free were the dames of the ninth Charles's court. Faithless
+in the virtues of the relic, feverishly excited by the novelty of his
+situation, and by the preference the Countess has shown him, which has
+given life a tenfold value in his eyes, Mergy passes an agitated and
+sleepless night. When the Louvre clock strikes eight, his brother enters
+his apartment, bringing the necessary weapons, and vainly endeavouring
+to conceal his sadness and anxiety. Bernard examines the sword and
+dagger, the manufacture of the famous Luno of Toledo.
+
+"'With such good arms,' he said, 'I shall surely be able to defend
+myself.' Then showing the relic given him by Madame de Turgis, and which
+he wore concealed in his bosom, 'Here too,' he added with a smile, 'is a
+talisman better than coat of mail against a sword-thrust.'
+
+"'Whence have you the bauble?'
+
+"'Guess.' And the vanity of appearing favoured by the fair, made him for
+a moment forget both Comminges and the duelling sword that lay naked
+before him.
+
+"'I would wager that crazy Countess gave it you! May the devil confound
+her and her box!'
+
+"'It is a relic for protection in to-day's encounter.'
+
+"'She had better have worn her gloves, instead of parading her fine
+white fingers.'
+
+"'God preserve me,' cried Mergy, blushing deeply, 'from believing in
+Papist relics. But if I fall to-day, I would have her know that I died
+with this upon my heart.'
+
+"'Folly!' cried the Captain, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"'Here is a letter for my mother,' said Mergy, his voice slightly
+tremulous. George took it without a word, and approaching the table,
+opened a small Bible, and seemed busy reading whilst his brother
+completed his toilet. On the first page that offered itself to his eyes,
+he read these words in his mother's handwriting; '1st May 1549, my son
+Bernard was born. Lord, conduct him in thy ways! Lord, shield him from
+all harm!' George bit his lip violently, and threw down the book.
+Bernard observed the gesture, and imagining that some impious thought
+had come into his brother's head, he gravely took up the Bible, put it
+in an embroidered case, and locked it in a drawer, with every mark of
+great respect.
+
+"'It is my mother's Bible,' he said.
+
+"The Captain paced the apartment, but made no reply."
+
+According to the established rule in such cases--a rule laid down for
+the especial behoof, benefit, and accommodation of romance writers--the
+hero of a hundred duels falls by the maiden sword of the tyro, who
+escapes with a slight wound. So signal a triumph makes the reputation of
+Mergy. His wound healed, and all danger of persecution by the powerful
+family of Comminges at an end, he reappears at court, and finds that he
+has in some sort inherited the respect and consideration formerly shown
+to his defunct rival. The politeness of the _raffin�s_ is as
+overpowering as their envy is ill concealed; and, as to the ladies, in
+those days the character of a successful duellist was a sure passport to
+their favour. The raw provincial, so lately unheeded, has but to throw
+his handkerchief, now that he has dabbled it in blood. But the only one
+of these sanguinary sultanas on whom Mergy bestows a thought, is not to
+be found. In vain does he seek, in the crowd of beauties who court his
+gaze, the pale cheek, blue eyes, and raven hair of Madame de Turgis.
+Soon after the duel, she had left Paris for one of her country seats, a
+departure attributed by the charitable to grief at the death of
+Comminges. Mergy knows better. Whilst laid up with his wound, and
+concealed in the house of an old woman, half doctress, half sorceress,
+he detected a masked lady, whom he recognised as De Turgis, performing
+for his cure, with the assistance of the witch, certain mysterious
+incantations. They had procured Comminges's sword, and rubbed it with
+scorpion oil, "the sovereign'st thing on earth" to heal the wound the
+weapon had inflicted. And there was also a melting of a wax figure,
+intended as a love charm; and from all that passed, Bernard could not
+doubt that the Countess had set her affections on him. So he waits
+patiently, and one morning, whilst his brother is reading the "Vie
+tr�s-horrifique de Pantagruel," and he himself is taking a guitar lesson
+from the Signor Uberto Vinibella, a wrinkled duenna brings him a scented
+note, closed with a gold thread, and a large green seal, bearing a Cupid
+with finger on lips, and the Spanish word, _Callad_, enjoining silence.
+
+The best picture of the massacre of St Bartholomew we have read in a
+book of fiction, is given by M. M�rim�e, in small compass and without
+unnecessary horrors. Less than an hour before its commencement, the
+Countess informs her lover of the fate reserved for him and all of his
+faith. She urges and implores him to abjure his heresy; he steadfastly
+refuses--and she, her love redoubled by his courageous constancy,
+conceals him from the assassins. In the disguise of a monk, he escapes
+from Paris, and makes his way to La Rochelle, the last stronghold of the
+persecuted Protestants. On the road, he falls in with another refugee,
+the _lanzknecht_ Captain Dietrich Hornstein, similarly disguised and
+bound to the same place. There is an excellent scene at a country inn,
+where four ruffians, their hands reeking with Protestant blood, compel
+the false Franciscans to baptise a pair of pullets by the names of carp
+and perch, that they may not sin by eating fowl on Friday. Mergy at last
+loses patience, and breaks a bottle over one of their heads; and a fight
+ensues, in which the bandits are worsted. The two Huguenots reach La
+Rochelle, which is soon afterwards besieged by the king's troops. In a
+sortie, Bernard forms an ambuscade, into which his brother unfortunately
+falls, and receives a mortal wound. Taken into La Rochelle, he is laid
+upon a bed to die; and, refusing the spiritual assistance of Catholic
+priest and Protestant minister, he accelerates his death by a draught
+from Hornstein's wine flask, and strives to comfort Bernard, who is
+frantic with remorse.
+
+"He again closed his eyes, but soon re-opened them and said to Mergy:
+'Madame de Turgis bade me assure you of her love.' He smiled gently.
+These were his last words. In a quarter of an hour he died, without
+appearing to suffer much. A few minutes later B�ville expired in the
+arms of the monk, who afterwards declared that he had distinctly heard
+in the air the cries of joy of the angels who received the soul of the
+penitent, whilst subterraneous demons responded with a yell of triumph
+as they bore away the spiritual part of Captain George."
+
+"It is to be seen in any history of France, how La Noue left La
+Rochelle, disgusted with civil wars and tormented by his conscience,
+which reproached him for bearing arms against his king; how the Catholic
+army was compelled to raise the siege, and how the fourth peace was
+made, soon followed by the death of Charles IX.
+
+"Did Mergy console himself? Did Diana take another lover? I leave it to
+the decision of the reader, who thus will end the romance to his own
+liking."
+
+By his countrymen, M. M�rim�e's short tales are the most esteemed of his
+writings. He produces them at intervals much too long to please the
+editor and readers of the periodical in which they have for some time
+appeared,--the able and excellent _Revue des Deux Mondes_. Once in
+eighteen months, or two years, he throws a few pages to the public,
+which, like a starved hound to whom a scanty meal is tossed, snaps
+eagerly at the gift whilst growling at the niggardliness of the giver:
+and the publisher of the _Revue_ knows that he may safely print an extra
+thousand copies of a number containing a novel by Prosper M�rim�e. Now
+and then, M. M�rim�e comes out with a criticism of a foreign book. His
+last was a review of "Grote's Greece," and he has also written a paper
+on "Borrow's Spanish Rambles." A man of great erudition and extensive
+travel, he is thoroughly master of many languages, and, in writing about
+foreign countries and people, steers clear of the absurd blunders into
+which some of his contemporaries, of respectable talents and
+attainments, not unfrequently fall. His English officer and lady in
+Colomba are excellent; very different from the absurd caricatures of
+Englishmen one is accustomed to see in French novels. He is equally
+truthful in his Spanish characters. A great lover of things Spanish, he
+has frequently visited, and still visits, the Peninsula. In 1831 he
+published, in the _Revue de Paris_, three charming letters from Madrid.
+The action of most of his tales passes in Spain or Corsica, or the South
+of France, although he now and then dashes at Parisian society. With
+this he has unquestionably had ample opportunity to become acquainted,
+for he is a welcome guest in the best circles of the French capital.
+Still we must hope there is some flaw in the glasses through which he
+has observed the gay world of Paris. The "Vase Etrusque" is one of his
+sketches of modern French life, in the style of the "Double M�prise,"
+but better. It is a most amusing and spirited tale, but unnecessarily
+immoral. Had the heroine been virtuous, the interest of the story would
+in no way have suffered, so far as we can see; and that which attaches
+to her, as a charming and unhappy woman, would have been augmented. This
+opinion, however, would be scoffed at on the other side of the Channel,
+and set down as a piece of English prudery. And perhaps, instead of
+grumbling at M. M�rim�e for making the Countess Mathilde the mistress of
+Saint Clair--which nothing compelled him to do--we ought thankfully to
+acknowledge his moderation in contenting himself with a quiet intrigue
+between unmarried persons, instead of favouring us with a flagrant case
+of adultery, as in the "Double M�prise," or initiating us into the very
+profane mysteries of _operatic figurantes_, as in "Ars�ne Guillot." Even
+in France, where he is so greatly and justly admired, this last tale was
+severely censured, as bringing before the public eye phases of society
+that ill bear the light. Fidelity to life in his scenes and characters
+is a high quality in an author, and one possessed in a high degree by M.
+M�rim�e; but he has been sometimes too bold and cynical in the choice
+and treatment of his subjects. "_La Partie de Tric-trac_," and
+"_L'Enl�vement de la Redoute_," are amongst his happiest efforts. Both
+are especially remarkable for their terse and vigorous style. We have
+been prodigal of extracts from "Charles IX."--for it is a great
+favourite of ours--and, although well known and much esteemed by all
+habitual readers of French novels, it is hitherto, we believe,
+untranslated into English. But we shall still make room for--
+
+
+THE STORMING OF THE REDOUBT.
+
+"I rejoined the regiment on the evening of the 4th September. I found
+the colonel at the bivouac. At first he received me rather roughly; but
+after reading General B's. letter of recommendation, he changed his
+manner, and spoke a few obliging words. He presented me to my captain,
+who had just returned from a reconnoissance. This captain, whom I had
+little opportunity to become acquainted with, was a tall dark man, of
+hard and repulsive physiognomy. He had been a private soldier, and had
+won his cross and his epaulets on the battle-field. His voice, hoarse
+and weak, contrasted strangely with his gigantic stature. They told me
+he was indebted for this singular voice to a bullet that had passed
+completely through his body at Jena.
+
+"On hearing that I came from the school at Fontainbleau, he made a wry
+face, and said, 'My lieutenant died yesterday.'--I understood that he
+meant to say, 'You are to replace him, and you are not able.' A sharp
+word rose to my lips, but I repressed it.
+
+"The moon rose behind the redoubt of Cheverino, situate at twice
+cannon-shot from our bivouac. She was large and red, as is common at her
+rising; but that night she seemed to me of extraordinary size. For an
+instant the black outline of the redoubt stood out against the moon's
+brilliant disc, resembling the cone of a volcano at the moment of an
+eruption.
+
+"An old soldier who stood near me, noticed the colour of the moon. 'She
+is very red,' he said; ''tis a sign that yon famous redoubt will cost us
+dear.' I was always superstitious, and this augury, just at that moment,
+affected me. I lay down, but could not sleep; I got up and walked for
+some time, gazing at the immense line of fires covering the heights
+beyond the village of Cheverino.
+
+"When I deemed my blood sufficient cooled by the fresh night air, I
+returned to the fire, wrapped myself carefully in my cloak, and shut my
+eyes, hoping not to re-open them till daylight. But sleep shunned me.
+Insensibly my thoughts took a gloomy turn. I said to myself, that I had
+not one friend amongst the hundred thousand men covering that plain. If
+I were wounded, I should be in an hospital, carelessly treated by
+ignorant surgeons. All that I had heard of surgical operations returned
+to my memory. My heart beat violently; and mechanically I arranged, as a
+species of cuirass, the handkerchief and portfolio that I carried in the
+breast of my uniform. I was overwhelmed by fatigue, and continually fell
+into a doze, but as often as I did so, some sinister idea awoke me with
+a start. Fatigue, however, at last got the upper hand, and I was fast
+asleep when the _reveill�_ sounded. We formed up, the roll was called,
+then arms were piled, and according to all appearance the day was to
+pass quietly.
+
+"Towards three o'clock an aid-de-camp arrived with an order. We resumed
+our arms; our skirmishers spread themselves over the plain; we followed
+slowly; and in twenty minutes we saw the Russian pickets withdraw to the
+redoubt. A battery of artillery took post on our right hand, another on
+our left, but both considerably in advance. They opened a vigorous fire
+upon the enemy, who replied with energy, and soon the redoubt of
+Cheverino disappeared behind a cloud of smoke.
+
+"Our regiment was almost protected from the Russian fire by a ridge.
+Their bullets, which seldom came in our direction--for they preferred
+aiming them at the artillery--passed over our heads, or at most sent
+earth and pebbles in our faces.
+
+"When we had received the order to advance, my captain looked at me with
+an attention which made me pass my hand two or three times over my young
+mustache, in the most cavalier manner I could assume. I felt no fear,
+save that of being thought to feel it. These harmless cannon-balls
+contributed to maintain me in my heroic calmness. My vanity told me that
+I ran a real danger, since I was under fire of a battery. I was
+enchanted to feel myself so much at my ease, and I thought with what
+pleasure I should narrate the capture of the redoubt of Cheverino in the
+drawing-room of Madame de B----, Rue de Provence.
+
+"The colonel passed along the front of our company and spoke to me.
+'Well!' he said, 'you will see sharp work for your first affair.'
+
+"I smiled most martially, and brushed my coat-sleeve, on which a ball,
+fallen about thirty paces from me, had sent a little dust.
+
+"It seems the Russians perceived how small was the effect of their round
+shot, for they replaced them by shells, which could reach us better in
+the hollow where we were posted. A tolerably large fragment of one of
+these knocked off my shako and killed a mail beside me.
+
+"'I congratulate you,' said the captain, as I picked up my shako. 'You
+are safe for to-day.' I knew the military superstition which holds the
+maxim _Non bis in idem_ to be as applicable on a battle-field as in a
+court of justice. I proudly replaced my shako on my head. 'An
+unceremonious way of making people bow,' said I, as gaily as I could.
+Under the circumstances, this poor joke appeared excellent. 'I
+congratulate you,' repeated the captain; 'you will not be hit again, and
+to-night you will command a company, for I feel that my turn is coming.
+Every time I have been wounded, the officer near me has received a spent
+ball, and,' he added in a low voice, and almost ashamed, 'all their
+names began with a P.'
+
+"I affected to laugh at such superstitions. Many would have done as I
+did--many would have been struck, as I was, by these prophetic words. As
+a raw recruit I understood that I must keep my feelings to myself, and
+always appear coldly intrepid.
+
+"After half an hour the Russian fire sensibly slackened; then we emerged
+from our cover to march against the redoubt. Our regiment was composed
+of three battalions. The second was charged to take the redoubt in flank
+on the side of the gorge; the two others were to deliver the assault. I
+was in the third battalion.
+
+"On appearing from behind the sort of ridge that had protected us, we
+were received by several volleys of musketry, which did little harm in
+our ranks. The whistling of the bullets surprised me: I turned my head
+several times, thus incurring the jokes of my comrades, to whom the
+noise was more familiar. 'All things considered,' said I to myself, 'a
+battle is not such a terrible thing.'
+
+"We advanced at storming pace, preceded by skirmishers. Suddenly the
+Russians gave three hurras, very distinct ones, and then remained
+silent, and without firing. 'I don't like that silence,' said my
+captain. 'It bodes us little good.' I thought our soldiers rather too
+noisy, and I could not help internally comparing the tumultuous clamour
+with the imposing stillness of the enemy.
+
+"We rapidly attained the foot of the redoubt: the palisades had been
+broken, and the earth ploughed by our cannonade. With shouts of '_Vive
+l'Empereur!_' louder than might have been expected from fellows who had
+already shouted so much, our soldiers dashed over the ruins.
+
+"I looked up, and never shall I forget the spectacle I beheld. The great
+mass of smoke had arisen, and hung suspended like a canopy twenty feet
+above the redoubt. Through a gray mist were seen the Russian grenadiers,
+erect behind their half-demolished parapet, with levelled arms, and
+motionless as statues. I think I still see each individual soldier, his
+left eye riveted on us, the right one hidden by his musket. In an
+embrasure, a few feet from us, stood a man with a lighted fuse in his
+hand.
+
+"I shuddered, and thought my last hour was come. 'The dance is going to
+begin,' cried my captain. Good-night.' They were the last words I heard
+him utter.
+
+"The roll of drums resounded in the redoubt. I saw the musket muzzles
+sink. I shut my eyes, and heard a frightful noise, followed by cries and
+groans. I opened my eyes surprised to find myself still alive. The
+redoubt was again enveloped in smoke. Dead and wounded men lay all
+around me. My captain was stretched at my feet; his head had been
+smashed by a cannon-ball, and I was covered with his blood and brains.
+Of the whole company, only six men and myself were on their legs.
+
+"A moment of stupefaction followed this carnage. Then the colonel,
+putting his hat on the point of his sword, ascended the parapet, crying
+'_Vive l'Empereur!_' He was instantly followed by all the survivors. I
+have no clear recollection of what then occurred. We entered the
+redoubt, I know not how. They fought hand to hand in the middle of a
+smoke so dense that they could not see each other. I believe I fought
+too, for my sabre was all bloody. At last I heard a shout of victory,
+and, the smoke diminishing, I saw the redoubt completely covered with
+blood and dead bodies. About two hundred men in French uniform stood in
+a group, without military order, some loading their muskets, others
+wiping their bayonets. Eleven Russian prisoners were with them.
+
+"Our colonel lay bleeding on a broken tumbril. Several soldiers were
+attending to him, as I drew near--'Where is the senior captain?' said he
+to a sergeant. The sergeant shrugged his shoulders in a most expressive
+manlier. 'And the senior lieutenant?' 'Here is _Monsieur_, who joined
+yesterday,' replied the sergeant, in a perfectly calm tone. The colonel
+smiled bitterly. 'You command in chief, sir,' he said to me; 'make haste
+to fortify the gorge of the redoubt with those carts, for the enemy is
+in force; but General C. will send you a support.'--'Colonel,' said I,
+'you are badly wounded.'--'_Foutre, mon cher_, but the redoubt is
+taken.'"
+
+"Carmen," M. M�rim�e's latest production, appeared a few months since in
+the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, which appears to have got the monopoly of
+his pen, as it has of many of the cleverest pens in France. "Carmen" is
+a graceful and animated sketch, in style as brilliant as anything by the
+same author--in the character of its incidents less strikingly original
+than some of his other tales. It is a story of Spanish life, not in
+cities and palaces, in court or camp, but in the barranca and the
+forest, the gipsy suburb of Seville, the woodland bivouac and smuggler's
+lair. Carmen is a gipsy, a sort of Spanish Esmeralda, but without the
+good qualities of Hugo's charming creation. She has no Djali; she is
+fickle and mercenary, the companion of robbers, the instigator of
+murder. She inveigles a young soldier from his duty, leads him into
+crime, deceives and betrays him, and finally meets her death at his
+hand. M. M�rim�e has been much in Spain, and--unlike some of his
+countrymen, who apparently go thither with the sole view of spying out
+the nakedness of the land and making odious comparisons, and who, in
+their excess of patriotic egotism, prefer Versailles to the Alhambra,
+and the Bal Mabille to a village _fandango_--he has a vivid perception
+of the picturesque and characteristic, of the _couleur locale_, to use
+the French term, whether in men or manners, scenery or costume, and he
+embodies his impressions in pointed and sparkling phrase. As an
+antiquarian and linguist, he unites qualities precious for the due
+appreciation of Spain. Well-versed in the Castilian, he also displays a
+familiarity with the Cantabrian tongue--that strange and difficult
+_Vascuense_ which the Evil One himself, according to a provincial
+proverb, spent seven years of fruitless labour in endeavouring to
+acquire. And he patters Romani, the mysterious jargon of the gitanos, in
+a style no way inferior--so far as we can discover--to Bible Borrow
+himself. That gentleman, by the bye, when next he goes a missionarying,
+would find M. M�rim�e an invaluable auxiliary, and the joint narrative
+of their adventures would doubtless be in the highest degree curious.
+The grave earnestness of the Briton would contrast curiously with the
+lively half-scoffing tone of the witty and learned Frenchman. Indeed,
+there would be danger of persons of such opposite character falling out
+upon the road, and fighting a mortal duel, with the king of the gipsies
+for bottle-holder. The proverbial jealousy between persons of the same
+trade might prove another motive of strife. Both are dealers in the
+romantic. And "Carmen," related as the personal experience of the author
+during an arch�ological tour in Andalusia the autumn of 1830, is as
+graphic and fascinating as any chapters of the great tract-monger's
+remarkable wanderings.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[B] It was a rule with the _raffin�s_ not to commence a new quarrel so
+long as there was an old one to terminate.
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE AND LIVE IN IT.
+
+
+NO. III.
+
+Having disposed of two grand categories of mistakes and absurdities in
+house-building, viz., lightness of structure and badness of material, we
+shall now address ourselves more particularly to the defects of
+Arrangement and Form, or, as an architect might term it, to the
+discussion of Plan and Elevation. The former task was ungrateful enough;
+for therein we had to attack the cupidity and meanness, and the desire
+for show and spurious display, which is the besetting sin of every
+Englishman who pays poor-rates; but, the present undertaking is hardly
+less hopeless, for we have to appeal to the intelligence, not only of
+architects and builders, but also of those who commission them.
+
+Now, there is nothing drier and more unprofitable under the sun, nothing
+more nearly approaching to a state of addle, than a builder's brains.
+Your regular builders (and, indeed, not a few of your architects) are
+the sorriest animals twaddling about on two legs; mere vivified bags of
+sawdust, or lumps of lath and plaster, galvanised for a while, and
+forming themselves into strange, uncouth, unreasonable shapes. A mere
+"builder" has not two ideas in his head; he has only one; he can draw
+only one "specification," as he calls it, under different forms; he can
+make only one plan; he has one set of cornices always in his eye; one
+peculiar style of panel; one special cut of a chimney. You may trace him
+all through a town, or across a county, if his fame extends so far; a
+dull repetition of the same notion characterises all his works. He
+served his apprenticeship to old Plumbline, in Brick Lane; got up the
+_Carpenter's Vade-Mecum_ by heart; had a little smattering of drawing
+from Daub the painter, and then set up in business for himself. As for
+Mr Triangle the architect, who built the grand town-hall here, the
+other-day, in the newest style of Egyptian architecture, and copied two
+mummies for door-posts, and who is now putting up the pretty little
+Gothic church for the Diocesan Church-and-Chapel-Building and
+Pew-Extension Society, with an east window from York, and a spire from
+Salisbury, and a west front from Lincoln--why, he is the veriest stick
+of a designer that ever applied a T-square to a stretching-board. He has
+studied Wilkins's Vitruvius, it is true, and he has looked all through
+Hunt's Tudor Architecture, but his imagination is as poor as when he
+began them; he has never in his life seen one of the good buildings he
+is pirating from, barring St Paul's and Westminster Abbey; he knows
+nothing finer than Regent Street and Pall-Mall, and yet he pretends to
+be a modern Palladio. It will not do, all this sham and parade of
+knowledge; we want a new generation, both of architects and builders,
+before we shall see any thing good arising in the way of houses--but as
+this new progeny is not likely to spring up within a few days, nor even
+years, we may as well buckle to the task of criticism at once, and find
+out faults, which we shall leave others to mend.
+
+And, to lay the foundation of criticism in such matters once more and
+for ever, let us again assert that good common-sense, and a plain
+straight-forward perception of what is really useful, and suited to the
+wants of climate and locality, are worth all the other parts of any
+architect's education. These are the great qualities, without which he
+will take up his rulers and pencils in vain; without them, his ambitious
+_fa�ades_ and intricate plans will all come to nothing, except dust and
+rubbish. He may draw and colour like Barry himself; but unless he has
+some spark of the genius that animated old Inigo and Sir Christopher,
+some little inkling of William of Wickham's spirit within him, some
+sound knowledge of the fitness and the requirements of things, he had
+better throw down his instruments, and give it up as a bad job; he'll
+only "damn himself to lasting shame."
+
+A moderate degree of science, an ordinarily correct eye, so as to tell
+which is straightest, the letter I or the letter S, and a good share of
+plain common-sense--these are the real qualifications of all architects,
+builders, and constructors whatsoever.
+
+One other erroneous idea requires to be upset; the notion that our
+modern houses, merely because they are recent, are better built and more
+convenient than ancient ones. If there be one thing more certain than
+another in the matter, it is this, that a gentleman's house built in
+1700, is far handsomer, stronger, and more convenient, than one built in
+1800; and not only so, but if it had had fair play given it, would still
+outlive the newer one, and give it fifty years to boot;--and also that
+another house built in 1600, is stronger than the one raised in 1700,
+and has still an equal chance of survivorship; but that any veteran
+mansion which once witnessed the year 1500, is worth all the other three
+put together--not only for design and durability, but also for comfort
+and real elegance. Pick out a bit of walling or roofing some four or
+five centuries old, and it would take a modern erection of five times
+the same solidity to stand the same test of ages.
+
+Let it not be supposed that our ancestors dwelt in rooms smaller, or
+darker, or smokier, than those we now cram ourselves into. Nothing at
+all of the kind; they knew what ease was, better than we do. They had
+glorious bay-windows, and warm chimney-corners, and well-hung buttery
+hatches, and good solid old oak tables, and ponderous chairs: had their
+windows and doors been only a little more air-tight, their comforts
+could not have been increased.
+
+First of all, then, with regard to the plans best suited for the country
+residences of the nobility and gentry of England--of that high-minded
+and highly gifted aristocracy, which is the peculiar ornament of this
+island,--of that solid honest squirearchy, which shall be the
+sheet-anchor of the nation, after all our commercial gents, with their
+ephemeral prosperity, shall have disappeared from the surface of the
+land, and have been forgotten,--the plan of a house best suited for the
+"Fine old English Gentleman;" and we really do not care to waste our
+time in considering the convenience and the taste of any that do not
+rank with this class of men. It is absurd for any of the worthy members
+of that truly noble and generous class of men, to try to erect
+reminiscences of Italy, or any other southern clime, amid their own
+"tall ancestral groves" at home, here in old England. They have every
+right in the world to inhabit the palaces of Italy, which many a needy
+owner is glad to find them tenanting; they cannot but admire the noble
+proportions, the solid construction, the magnificent decorations, which
+meet their eyes on every side, whether at Genoa, at Verona, at Venice,
+at Florence, or at Rome. But it by no means follows, that what looks so
+beautiful, and is so truly elegant and suitable on the Lake of Como,
+will preserve the same qualities when erected on the banks of
+Windermere; those lovely villas that overlook the _Val d'Arno_, and
+where one could be content to spend the rest of one's days, with
+Petrarch and Boccacio, and Dante, and Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle,
+will not bear transplanting either to Richmond or Malvern. The climate
+and the sky and the earth of Tuscany and Piedmont, are not those of
+Gloucestershire and Warwickshire; what may be very harmonious in form
+and colour when contrasted with the objects of that country which
+produced it, may have the most disagreeable effect, and be excessively
+inconvenient, in another region with which it has no relation. Not that
+the proportions of style and the execution of detail may not be
+reproduced in England, if sufficient taste and money be applied,--but
+that all surrounding things are out of harmony with the very idea and
+existence of the building. The vegetable world is different: the
+external and internal qualities of the soil jar with the presence of the
+foreign-looking mansion. An English garden is not, nor can be, an
+Italian one; an English terrace can never be made to look like an
+Italian one; those very effects of light and shade on which the
+architect counted when he made his plans and elevations, are not to be
+attained under an English sky. The house, however closely it may be
+taken from the last Palazzo its noble owner lived in, will only be a
+poor-looking copy after all; and he will wonder, as he paces through its
+corridors and halls, or views it from every point of the compass on the
+outside, what can be the cause of such a failure of his hopes? He hoped
+for and expected an impossibility; he thought to raise up a little Italy
+in the midst of his Saxon park. Could the experiment end in any thing
+else than a failure?
+
+Every climate and every country has its own peculiarities, which the
+inhabitants are found to consult, and which all architects will do well
+to observe closely before they lay down their plans. The general
+arrangement, the plan of a house, will depend upon this class of
+external circumstances more than on any other; while the architectural
+effect and design of the elevation will have an intimate relation to the
+physical appearance of the region, to the ideas, the pursuits, and the
+history of its people.
+
+Thus it was with the ancient Greeks and Romans, as we find their
+domestic life revealed to us at Pompeii. In that delicious climate of
+Campania, where the sun shines with a whitening and ever unclouded
+splendour, and where winter's frosts may be said to be unknown, the
+great thing wanted was shady coolness, privacy, and the absence of all
+that might fatigue. Hence, in the arrangement of the Pompeian villas,
+windows were comparatively unknown: the rooms were lighted from above;
+the aperture for the light was open to the sky; whatever air could be
+procured was precious. Colonnades and dark passages were first-rate
+appendages of a fashionable man's habitation. His sleeping apartment was
+a dark recess impervious to the sun's rays, lighted only by the
+artificial glare of lamps, placed on those elegant candelabra, which
+must be admired as models of fitness and beauty as long as imitative art
+shall exist. He had not a staircase in all his house, or he would not
+have if he could help it. The fatigue of lifting the foot in that hot
+climate was a point of importance, and he carefully avoided it. The
+house was a regular _frigidarium_. It answered the end proposed. It was
+commodious, it was elegant--and it was therefore highly suitable to the
+people and the place. But it does not therefore follow that it ought to
+be imitated in a northern clime, nor indeed in any latitude, we would
+rather say in any country, except Italy itself. Few parts of France and
+Germany would admit of such erections--some portions of Spain and Greece
+might. In Greece, indeed, the houses are much after the same plan, but
+in Spain only portions of the south-eastern coast would allow of such a
+style of building being considered at all habitable.
+
+Place, then, a Pompeian villa at Highgate or Hampstead--build up an
+Atrium with an Impluvium, add to it a Caldarium if you please, and a
+Viridarium, too,--and _omne quod exit in um_: but you will not thereby
+produce a good dwelling-house; far from it, you will have a show-box fit
+for Cockneys to come and gape at: but nothing else.
+
+Now, if we would only follow the same rule of common sense that the
+Greek or Roman architect did on the shores of the Parthenopoean Gulf,
+we should arrive at results, different indeed, but equally congruous to
+our wants, equally correct and harmonious in idea. What is it that we
+want in this foggy, damp, and cloudy climate of ours, nine days out of
+every ten? Do we want to have a spacious colonnade and a portico to keep
+off every ray of a sun only too genial, only too scorching? Is the
+heavens so bright with his radiance that we should endeavour to escape
+from his beams? Are we living in an atmosphere of such high temperature
+that if we could now and then take off our own skins for a few minutes,
+we should be only too glad to do so? As far as our own individual
+sensations are concerned, we would that things were so; but we know from
+unpleasant experience that they are far otherwise.
+
+We believe that every rational householder will agree with us, that the
+first thing to be guarded against in this country is cold, next wet,
+and thirdly darkness. A man who can really prove that he possesses a
+thoroughly warm, dry, and well-lighted house, may write himself down as
+a _rerum dominus_ at once: a favoured mortal, one of Jove's right-hand
+men, and a pet of all the gods. He is even in imminent danger of some
+dreadful calamity falling upon him, inasmuch as no one ever attains to
+such unheard-of prosperity without being visited by some reverse of
+fortune. He is at the top of the fickle goddess's wheel, and the least
+impulse given to one of its many spokes must send him down the slippery
+road of trouble. Nevertheless, though difficult to attain, these three
+points are the main ones to be aimed at by every English builder and
+architect; let him only keep them as the stars by which he steers his
+course, and he will come to a result satisfactory in the end.
+
+One other point is of importance to be attended to as a _fundamental_
+one, and indeed as one of superstruction too. From the peculiarly
+changeable nature of our climate, and from the provision that has to be
+made for thoroughly warming a house, there is always a danger of the
+ventilation and the drainage being neglected. Not one architect in a
+hundred ever allows such "insignificant" points as these to disturb his
+reveries. All that he is concerned in is his elevation, and his neatly
+executed details; but whether the inhabitants are stifled in their beds
+with hot foul air, or are stunk out of their rooms by the effluvia of
+drains, are to him mere bagatelles. No trifles these, to those who have
+to live in the house; no matter of insignificance to those who have an
+objection to the too frequent visits of their medical attendant.
+
+In the first place, then, a gentleman's country house (we are adverting
+here to country residences alone--to those in the metropolitan haunts of
+men we shall return hereafter) should be thoroughly warm. Now, of course
+a man may make a fire-place as big as Soyer's great range at
+Crockford's--poor dear Crocky's, before it was reformed--and he may burn
+a sack of coals at a time in it; and he may have one of these in each
+apartment and lobby of his house--and a pretty warm berth he will then
+have of it; but it would be no thanks to his architect that he should
+thus be forced to encourage his purveyor of the best Wallsend. No:
+either let him see that the walls are of a good substantial
+thickness--none of the thin, hollow, badly set, sham walls of the
+general run of builders; but made either of solid blocks of good ashlar
+stone, with well-rammed rubble between, and this rubble again laid in an
+all-penetrating bed of properly sanded mortar with plenty of lime in it,
+and laid on hot, piping, steaming hot, if possible--and the joints of
+the stones well closed with cement or putty; or else let the walls be
+made of the real red brick, the clay two years old or more, well laid in
+English bond, and every brick in its own proper and distinct bed of
+mortar, as carefully made as before, and the joints cemented into the
+bargain. Nor let any stone wall be less than thirty-six, nor any brick
+wall than thirty inches thick; whereas, if the house exceeds two stories
+in height, some additional inches may yet be added to the thickness of
+the lower walls. These walls shall be proof against all cold, and, if
+they be not made of limestone, against wet also.
+
+"But all this is horridly expensive! why, a house built after this
+fashion would cost three times the amount of any one now erected upon
+the usual specifications!" Of course it would. Materials and labour are
+not to be had gratuitously; but then, if the house costs three times as
+much, it will be worth three times more than what it would otherwise
+fetch, and it will last more than three times as long. "But what is the
+use of building for posterity? what does it matter whether the house is
+a good one in the time of the next possessor but six? Why not 'run up' a
+building that will have a handsome appearance in the present, my own
+life-time, and if my descendant wishes for a better one and a warmer
+one, why let him build another for himself? Add to which it will grow so
+dreadfully old-fashioned in fifty years hence, that it is a hundred to
+one if it is not voted a nuisance, and pulled down as an eyesore to the
+estate." Such is the reasoning commonly used when any architect more
+honest, more scientific, and more truly economical in his regard for his
+employer's means, ventures to recommend the building of a mansion upon
+principles, and with dimensions, which can alone fully satisfy the
+exigencies of his art. We take leave, however, to observe, that such
+ought not to be the reasoning of an English nobleman or gentleman. In
+the first place, what is really erected in a proper and legitimate style
+of architecture, be it classical or medi�val, can never become
+"old-fashioned" or ugly. Is Hampton Court old-fashioned and ugly? is
+Audley End so? are Burghleigh and Hatfield so? If they are, go and build
+better. Is Windsor Castle so? yes, a large portion of it is, for its
+architecture is not very correct; and though it has been erected only so
+few years, in another fifty the reigning sovereign--if there be a
+sovereign in England in those days--will pull down most of it, and
+consider it as sham and as trumpery as the Pavilion has at length been
+found out to have been all along. True; if you build houses in a false
+and affected and unreal style of architecture, they are ugly from the
+very beginning; and they will become as old-fashioned as old Buckingham
+House or Strawberry Hill itself, perhaps in the life-time of him who
+owns them; or else, like Fonthill, they will crumble about your ears,
+and remain as monuments of your folly rather than of your taste. But go
+and build as Thorpe, or Inigo Jones, or Wren used to build. Or even, if
+you will travel abroad for your models, take Palladio himself for your
+guide, or Phillbert Delorme, or Ducerceau, or Mansard; and your
+erections shall stand for centuries, and become each year more and more
+harmoniously beautiful.
+
+Next, your house should be dry; do not, then, go and build it with a
+slightly-framed low-pitched roof, nor place it in that part of your
+grounds which would be very suitable for an artificial lake, but not for
+your mansion. Do not be afraid of a high roof; but let it tower up
+boldly into the air; let there be, as the French architects of old used
+to term it most expressively, a good "forest" of timber in its framing;
+cover it with lead, if you can--if not, with flag-stones, or else, if
+these be too dear, with extra thick slates in as large slabs as can be
+conveniently worked, and as may be suitable to the framing,--least of
+all with tiles.
+
+"But, good Lord! what ideas you have got of expense! Why, sir, do you
+know that such a house would cost a great deal of money! and besides
+this, I am almost certain that in ancient Rome, the houses had quite
+flat roofs, and even in Italy, at the present day, the palaces have
+remarkably low-pitched roofs!" Rome and Italy go to the ---- Antipodes!
+Did you not stipulate that the house should be dry? do you think that
+the old Italians ever saw a good shower of rain in all their lives? did
+they? "_Nocte pluit tot�_," is all very well in the poet's fugitive
+inscription; but did they ever see a six-weeks' rain, such as we have
+every autumn and spring, and generally in June and July, to say nothing
+of January and February, in Devonshire? My dear sir, if you wish to lie
+dry in your bed, and all your family, too, to the seventh generation,
+downwards, make your roof suited to the quantity of rain that falls;
+pitch up its sides not less steeply than forty-five degrees, and do not
+be afraid if it rises to sixty, and so gives you the true medi�val
+proportion of the equilateral triangle. Do you consider it ugly? Then we
+will ornament it; and we will make the chimney-stalks rise with some
+degree of majesty, into an important feature of the architectural
+physiognomy of the building. Are you grumbling at the expense, as you
+did just now about that of the walls? What then! are you a Manchester
+manufacturer, some dirty cotton-spinner? have you no faith in the
+future? have you no regard for the dignity and comfort of your family?
+are you, too, bitten with the demoralising commercial spirit of the age?
+are you all for self and the present? have you no obligations towards
+your ancestors? and are you unwilling to leave a name to be talked of by
+your posterity? Why, to be sure it may tighten you up for five or six
+years; but then do not stop quite so long in London: make your season
+there rather shorter, and do not go so often to Newmarket, and keep away
+from White's or Boodle's, and do not be so mad as to throw away any
+more of those paltry thousands in contesting the county. Let the
+Parliament and the country take care of themselves; they can very well
+spare an occasional debater like yourself; the "glorious constitution"
+of old England will take no harm even if _you_ do not assist in
+concocting the hum-bug that is every year added to its heterogeneous
+mixture. Lay out your money at home, drain your land, build a downright
+good house for yourself; do not forget your poor tenants, set them a
+good example, and let us put a proper roof on Hambledown Hall.
+
+Providing, however, that the worthy squire actually consents to pull out
+a few more hundreds, for the sake of having walls of proper thickness
+and roofs of right pitch, it does not quite follow that his ground-floor
+rooms will be dry, unless the mansion is well vaulted underneath, and
+well drained, to boot. We have known more than one ancient manor-house,
+built in a low dead flat, with a river running by, and the joists of the
+ground floor resting on the soil, and, yet the whole habitation as dry
+as a bone; but still more numerous are the goodly edifices which we have
+witnessed, built on slopes, and even hills, where not a spoonful of
+water, you would say, could possibly lodge, and yet their walls outside
+all green with damp, and within mildew, and discoloured loose-hanging
+paper, telling the tale of the demon of damp. When you are seriously
+bent on building a good house, put plenty of money under ground; dig
+deep for foundations, lay them better and stronger even than your
+super-structure; vault every thing under the lower rooms--ay, vault
+them, either in solid stone or brick, and drain and counter drain, and
+explore every crick and cranny of your sub-soil; and get rid of your
+land springs; and do not let the water from any neighbouring hill
+percolate through your garden, nor rise into a pleasing _jet-d'eau_
+right under the floor of your principal dining-room. If you can, and if
+you do not mind the "old-fashioned" look of the thing, dig a good deep
+fosse all round your garden, and line it with masonry; and have a couple
+of bridges over it; you may then not only effectually carry off all
+intruding visits of the watery sprites, but you may keep off hares from
+your flower-beds, two-legged cats from your larder, and sentimental
+"cousins" from your maids. You may thus, indeed, make your hall or
+mansion into a little fortified place, with fosse and counter-scarp, and
+covered way, and glacis; or at any rate, you may put a plain English
+haw-haw ditch and fence all round the sacred enclosure; and depend upon
+it that you will find the good effects of this extra expense in the
+anti-rheumatic tendencies of your habitation.
+
+And now for the plan of your mansion, for the Ground Plan--the main part
+of the business, that, on the proper proportioning and arranging of
+which the success of your edificative experiment entirely depends. Here
+take the old stale maxim into immediate and constant use, "Cut your coat
+according to your cloth;" and, if you are a man of only �2000 a-year, do
+not build a house on a plan that will require �10,000 at least of annual
+income to keep the window-shutters open. Nor, seeing that you are living
+in the country, attempt to cramp yourself for room, and build a great
+tall staring house, such as would pass muster in a city, but is
+exceedingly out of place in a park. As a matter of domestic �sthetics,
+do not think of giving yourself, and still less any of your guests, the
+trouble of mounting up more than one set of stairs to go to bed, but
+keep your reception and principal rooms on the ground floor, and your
+private rooms, with all the bed-chambers, on the floor above. Since,
+however, you have determined on going to the expense of a proper roof,
+do not suppose that we are such bad architectural advisers as to
+recommend that the roof should be useless. No; here let the female
+servants and the children of the family, perhaps, too, a stray bachelor
+friend or two, find their lodging; and above all, if you are a family
+man, if you have any of those tender yearnings after posterity, which we
+hope you have, introduce into the roof a feature which we will remind
+you of by and by, and for which, if we could only persuade people that
+such a very old and useful idea were a new one, and our own, we would
+certainly take out a patent.
+
+There should, then, be only two stories in a gentleman's country
+residence, and a dormer or mansard story if we may so term it, in the
+roof;--we will not be so vulgar as to call it a garret,--nor yet so
+classical as to resort to the appellation of an attic. If, therefore,
+you require a large house, take plenty of ground, and lay out all your
+rooms _en suite_. Let all the offices, whence any noise or smell can
+arise, be perfectly detached from the dwelling part of the
+mansion:--such as the kitchens, sculleries, laundries, &c. They should
+all be collected into a court with the coach-houses and stables on the
+outside, and the whole range of the domestic offices on the other. Never
+allow a kitchen to be placed under the same roof as your dining-room or
+drawing-room: cut it off completely from the _corps de logis_, and let
+it only communicate by a passage;--so shall you avoid all chance of
+those anticipatory smells, the odour of which is sufficient to spoil
+your appetite for the best dressed dinner in the world. If you would
+have any use for the vault under your house, keep all your cellar
+stores, and all your "dry goods" there;--it will be a test of your house
+being well-built if they do not show any effects of damp after a few
+months' stowage below the level of the soil, yet in _aere pleno_. We do
+not mean to say that we would put one of our best and newest saddles,
+nor our favourite set of harness, in one of the lower vaults, to judge
+of the dampness of the house; but depend upon it, a pair or two of old
+shoes form excellent hygrometers; and you may detect the "dew-point"
+upon them with wonderful accuracy.
+
+"But only look at how you are increasing the cost of the house by thus
+stretching out the house, and really wasting the space and
+ground!"--What! still harping on the same string--that eternal
+purse-string!--still at the gold and the notes? If you go on at this
+rate, my good sir, you will never do any thing notable in the
+house-line. Take a lesson from Louis XIV. when he built
+Versailles;--that sovereign had at least this one good quality,--he had
+a supreme contempt for money;--it cost him a great deal no doubt, but it
+is "Versailles," _nec pluribus impar_;--why, it is a quarter of a mile
+long, and there is, or rather was, room in it to have lodged all the
+crowned heads of Europe, courts, ministers, guards, and all. Never stint
+yourself for space; the ground you build on is your own; it is only the
+extra brick and mortar;--the number of windows is not increased by
+stretching the plan out, the internal fittings are not an atom more
+expensive. Be at ease for once in your life, and cast about widely for
+room.
+
+And now, dear sir, if you can but once remove this prejudice of cost
+from your mind, you may set at defiance all those twaddling architects
+who come to you with their theories of the "smallest spaces of support,"
+and who would fain persuade you that, because it is scientific to build
+many rooms with few materials, _therefore_ you ought to dwell in a house
+erected on such principles,--and that they ought to build it for you.
+You may send them all to the right-about with their one-sided contracted
+notions: is the house to be built for _your_ sake or for _theirs_? who
+is going to inherit it--you or they? who is to find out all the comforts
+and discomforts of the mansion--the owner or the architect?--If _you_,
+then keep to your two stories and to the old English method of building
+your house round one or more courts. Go upon the old palatial, baronial,
+or collegiate plan; no matter what may be the style of architecture you
+adopt, this plan will be found suitable to any. The advantages of it are
+as follows: first of all, it gives you the opportunity of having your
+rooms all _en suite_, and yet not crowded together; next, it is more
+sociable for the inmates of a large country mansion to have the windows
+of their apartments looking partly inwards, as it were to the centre of
+the house, and partly outwards to the surrounding scenery: and thirdly,
+it requires and it gives the opportunity of having that most admirable
+and most useful appendage of any large mansion,--a cloister, or covered
+gallery, running round the whole interior of the court, either
+projecting from the plane of the walls--and, if so, becoming highly
+ornamental; or else formed within the walls, and, if so, giving an
+unusual degree of warmth and ventilation. In this damp and uncertain
+climate of ours, just consider how many days there are in the course of
+the year, when the ladies and the children of a family cannot stir out
+of doors, not even into the gardens; and then think of what a comfort it
+would be to have a dry and airy and elegant promenade and place of
+exercise within their own walls. Then the children may scamper about, if
+it be, a proper cloister external to the house, and make that joyous
+noise which is so essential to their health, without any fear of
+annoying even the most nervous of mammas. Within an instant they may all
+be under her own personal inspection, and yet they may have their
+perfect freedom. Here may the ladies of the family walk for hours on a
+wet day, and enjoy themselves without trouble, and with the facility of
+being at home again in a minute. If the court is well laid out as a
+flowery parterre, and the green-house is made to contribute its proper
+supply of plants to the cloister, it becomes converted into a kind of
+conservatory, and forms of itself an artificial or winter garden. Both a
+cloister, and an internal corridor with windows opening into the former,
+may very appropriately be constructed together, and then the
+accommodation of this plan is complete.
+
+Whoever has lived in a cloistered and court-built house will know the
+convenient and comfortable feature we would here point out:--it is
+especially suited to the climate of England, and to the domestic habits
+of English families; it is one of the most ornamental features a house
+can possess; it gives great facilities to the waiting of the servants;
+it makes the house warm rather than cold; and it adds greatly to the
+comfort of the whole. As for the additional cost--let the cost be----!
+have we not entered our caveat against all such shabby pleas? Take this
+along with you, good sir,--do the thing well, or don't do it at all.
+
+
+
+
+A TURKISH WATERING-PLACE.
+
+
+Ten days ago, when snowed up by winter, recurrent for the third time
+this season, I could not compel myself to the recollection of my Adalian
+experiences. Now that I am sitting with window thrown wide open, and
+with fire raked out, the spirit of the scene encourages memories of my
+visit to that very hot emporium of Caramania.
+
+We had been kept on the Smyrna station till we pretty well knew it under
+every changing phase of season. Through the rigour of winter we had been
+brought now to the very flagrance of the dog-star, to the time when
+human nature can pretend no opposition to the mood of the lordly sun.
+Even late in the autumn, these clear skies afford so little interruption
+to the tide of sunbeams, that one is not quite exempt from risk of _coup
+de soleil_. Indeed this is perhaps the very time when the untutored
+stranger is particularly exposed to this danger. It is the only time of
+the year when travelling can be pursued as a serious occupation; or when
+one of the pale-faced Occidentals can venture forth _sub dio_ at
+mid-day, without positive madness. During the months that, on the
+admission of the indigenous, do duty as summer, the state of things is
+so evidently beyond a joke, that no idea of trifling therewith enters
+into the most unsophisticated mind. Life is reduced to something very
+like a resignation of the sturdy substance of the day, and a diligent
+employment of the two fag-ends. The intervening hours must be slept
+away, or read away, or somehow employed without the requisition of
+corporeal activity. And, considering that these are the hours during
+which musquitoes vex not, and lesser tormentors of the rampant kind are
+inactive, it is no slight boon to have such an interval, during some
+part of which you may sleep in peace. As for the night, you may use it
+for eating ices, or strolling on the Marina, or pulling out on the
+phosphorescent waters of the bay; but unless you be very fresh, you will
+hardly think of using that as the time for turning in. And thus are
+rendered grateful those slumbers which are induced by the prevailing
+spirit of noon. Of course, under such conditions of existence, there is
+no great probability that much risk will be encountered by any one
+gifted with the ordinary instinct of self-preservation. Should any one
+be foolhardy enough to dare for himself the experiment, he would
+scarcely find a _surridgi_ to furnish animals, or a guide willing to
+pilot him. And should he even make a start of it, am I not the very man
+to know what a lesson he would get in the course of the first six hours
+of his march; and to predict that he would, should any brains be then
+remaining to him, turn back on the strength of that same sample? It is
+only a very young, and somewhat foolish person, who would be at all
+likely to be found in this predicament. The dissuasion of the indigenous
+is so earnest, and so without exception, that, considering their
+knowledge of the facts, a prudent stranger must perceive in them the
+substance of reason. The Asiatics, perhaps, carry a little too far the
+dread of exposure to the atmospheric influences of summer; for they are
+careful to shut out even the cool breezes of night, and dread the odour
+of freshness that a shower calls forth from the earth. This delightful
+exhalation they affirm to be the producer of fever. But indeed we may
+concede to them the entertaining of some whimsies on this subject, as
+being the necessary contingencies on their fatal experiences of marsh
+_malaria_.
+
+Happy we Englishmen and Scotsmen, who know not what this _malaria_
+means! The worst story on the subject that I remember was a personal
+adventure of my friend Beard. The scene of this adventure is a little
+out of the way of Adalia, but it may serve to illustrate the style of
+thing prevailing generally in this direction any where within hail of a
+marsh. Beard was engaged in that (to those who like it) delightful, but
+occasionally perilous duty of surveying. This involves the being sent
+away in the boats for weeks at a stretch, during which time you go
+groping along the coast, or threading out-of-the-way channels between
+islands. It is easy to conceive that with fine weather, and healthy
+shores, this must be a welcome duty to a young officer, full of zeal,
+and unaccustomed to command. But sometimes the course will lie along
+deadly shores, past which you must creep, and snatch hydrographical
+facts from the teeth of death. Beard, poor fellow--and yet, considering
+that he lives to tell the tale, we should rather congratulate than
+pity--Beard was in command of a party of seven. Any one who knows the
+service, knows that an officer accustomed to command a particular boat,
+if he be a good fellow, acquires a strong fellow-feeling for and with
+his men. This is but human nature, seeing that they are subject to
+frequent and long isolations from the rest of the ship's company. I have
+felt this influence strongly myself, and am persuaded that a sailor is
+never so amiable a being as when away from his ship and from
+civilisation, on some scrambling boat-expedition. He then puts off
+altogether that selfishness of bearing which it often suits his humour
+while on board to affect. Beard was one who entered fully into the
+spirit of these expeditions; indeed he might have led one to suppose
+that he would willingly have agreed to pass his life in a boat. On this
+particular occasion they were coasting along Thessaly--those shores so
+beautiful to look at, but of which the beauty, when the mists of night
+descend upon them, reek with the breath of death. They proceeded
+cautiously; and as their labours were protracted into new days and
+weeks, and none of their little band had been stricken, they began to
+hope, and perhaps to believe themselves seasoned and safe. The time for
+them to rejoin the ship at last arrived, and not a man had been ill. One
+man did indeed complain in the morning, but he laid in his oar, and they
+hoped would soon be better. Presently another was forced to claim the
+same exemption, and another. In short, they reached the ship with great
+difficulty, and as by miracle, and not one of the party could mount the
+side. They were all hoisted in, and in a few hours the only man of the
+party who lived was my friend. In the pretty island of Sciathos is a
+tomb, wherein sleep the whole party save that one. I have stood by this,
+and read in the sad story of its inscription a sufficient warning on the
+subject of marsh _malaria_. Once or twice I have come in its way, but
+never willingly, and happily always without calamitous result. Once only
+I have slept within its problematical range, and that was off that
+pestiferous bit of coast near Epidaurus, and I fancy at a season when
+the marshes had not their steam up.
+
+We had among us a lesson, but not of this melancholy character, on the
+absurdity of attempting to brave the daylight heat of summer. It is so
+natural for an Englishman to look upon the mere natives of any place to
+which he may come in his travels, as cheats and ignoramuses, that we, as
+a matter of course, and most complacently, admitted the natives _en
+masse_ and every where to that rating. In the course of our vagaries we
+stumbled on the pretty island of Mytilene, in the very piping hours of
+summer. Very cool and pleasant did it look to us shipmen, hanging down
+its umbrageous olive groves nearly to the water's edge--and very
+pleasant should we have found it to be, had we been content to defer our
+landing till the authorised hour of eventide. But besides that the place
+looked so inviting, we felt bound to give way to a little enthusiasm at
+this approach to the birthplace of the lady who gave Horace the model of
+
+    "Jam satis terris nivis atque dir�" &c.
+
+so nothing could hold us in from immediate disembarkation, and a cross
+country ride. We went right across from one harbour to another--for it
+has two, which between them nearly bisect the island. But so frightful
+was the heat, that nothing but youth and English blood exempted us from
+the penalty of fever. Some of the party were very nearly knocked up
+mid-way; and we should scarcely any of us have managed to get back to
+the ship as we did, had it not been our fortune to meet a resting-place
+in the village of Loutri. Such attempts as this are the causes of the
+sad casualties that we occasionally find happening to Eastern
+travellers. How many have paid with their lives the penalty of an
+unseasonable journey in Syria, especially on the coast between Beyrout
+and Jerusalem. Only choose well your time, and you may proceed in
+perfect security, so far as the dangers of nature are concerned. Any
+attempt at forcing a journey is a folly; and a folly of which the
+correction will come with the first experiment, if it leave to the
+person any future opportunity of sublunary conduct.
+
+But no one should mention Mytilene without saving a word or two in
+praise of its beauty. All shrivelled up as we were by the heat--for we
+were almost past the sudatory stage--we drank in some refreshment from
+the scenery. Port Olivet has quite the appearance of a lake, and it is
+only when quite at the spot that you perceive the real nature of the
+locality. The hills around are finely shaded; and the masses of
+olive-trees assumed, in the then lurid glare of sky and water, that
+shadowy appearance that we used to see in Turner's pictures. They are
+very famous for the production of a fine oil from their olives, which is
+the staple commodity of the island, and of which they export
+considerable quantities. By all accounts, nature, unassisted, may claim
+the praise of this produce, for they are said to be careless
+manufacturers. We went into one or two of the [Greek: ergast�ria] to
+witness the process of compression, but could not take it upon our
+veracity to utter an opinion anent them. At least they seem in a fair
+way to improve their wares; for the new consular agent of France (whom,
+by the way, we took to his Barataria) is especially knowing in this
+line, and hopes to produce, in a short time, oil that shall be equal to
+that of France or Lucca.
+
+After all this talk about the impossibility of travelling in the summer,
+it augurs ill for our account of Adalia, to say that it was the very
+heat and rage of summer when we landed there. But as we were not
+volunteers on the occasion, we did not choose our own season. Like the
+fifty thousand Cossacks who marched off to the East Indies, not because
+they liked it, but because they were sent, we were saved all the trouble
+of deliberation; and once arrived at the spot, we were sufficiently old
+stagers to adapt ourselves to the ways and means of the place. I
+remember that we were delighted at the start: catching at the prospect
+of change, as at the hope of improvement. Certainly things were bad
+enough with us in Smyrna bay at that time. The pitch was boiling in the
+seams, the water was hissing along-side; the sky seemed an entire sun,
+so truly were the fiery rays rendered back from every part of the
+glowing concave. The sea-breeze, one's only solace under such
+circumstances, was continually forgetting to come. In spite of the
+common profession, that without the sea-breeze it would be impossible to
+live hereaway, we continued to pant through days of breezeless
+existence. At this time it was that I arrived at the conclusion which is
+now established in the code of my economics, that the endurance at
+Calcutta or Port Royal is a joke compared with what one has to undergo
+in these milder latitudes. The dweller in Anatolia has no such range of
+Fahrenheit to alarm him into defensive measures, and thus he falls
+comparatively unprepared into the conflict with the dog-days. Your
+Bengalee mounts defences of _tattees_ and punkahs that cool down a hot
+wind, or whistle air into presence in a trice. Whereas in this part of
+the world, as the Sirocco blows, so it must steal into your room,
+parching your face, and covering you all over with a clammy stickiness,
+through which you may distinctly feel the subdolent shudder of incipient
+ague. When he has darkened his room, and spread cool mats on the floor,
+the poor Smyrniot has nothing farther that he can do. And if such be the
+case of those who dwell within the mansions of Ismir, who have at least
+thick walls between them and the sun, what is likely to be the state of
+those _disgraziatos_, who people the busy town of ships in the bay?--the
+rash men
+
+    "--digitos a morte remotos
+    Quatuor aut septem."
+
+Custom, they say, may bring a man to any thing, as it did M. Chabert to
+the power of living in an oven; to which achievement, by the way, I
+should not wonder if the first step had been the passing of a hot summer
+on board ship in harbour. You may any day see, at some of our gigantic
+iron-works, custom bringing men to such a pass, that they can endure to
+stand before a fire that would be the death and cooking of an ox. And so
+I suppose it was by force of custom that we were able to undergo a style
+of thing that ought to have been the stewing of any ordinary flesh and
+blood. But it was a stupid and languid life that we were leading,
+scarcely venturing on deck even beneath the awning, and not dreaming of
+shore except quite in the evening. Sometimes a morning's interest would
+be excited by some story of plague in the Lazaretto, and a proposed
+adjournment of the ship to Vourlah, to be out of harm's way; and such
+speculations, though not exactly pleasurable, were at least
+anti-stagnative in character. In any thing like decent weather it is not
+bad fun to get down to Vourlah for a time, and to fly from the gaieties
+of the metropolis to the pleasures of the _chasse_ at Rabbit Island. It
+must ever be soothing to a spirit that has not quite forgotten "the
+humanities," to walk upon the turf which witnessed the infant gambols of
+Anaxagoras; and besides that, the locality is pretty, and worthy of
+being visited on its own account. The town is at the distance of some
+miles from the Scala, which last is the grand watering-place for the
+ships on this station. Some few years ago, when the two fleets, French
+and English, were here, an extempore town was devised on the beach, for
+the benefit of the thousand and one hangers-on who are always found in
+such neighbourhoods. This was a stretch of luxury on their part; for
+generally these nautical suttlers need no other shelter than that of the
+boat which contains their wares. They are always ready for a start, and
+glad to be allowed to follow almost any whither in the wake of a ship. I
+should think they might be rated amongst the most honest of their
+compatriots, as they certainly may amongst the most hard-working and
+courageous.
+
+But no such luck had been ours, as to be assigned so pleasant an
+adjournment. The longest cruise we had any of us managed to steal, was
+perhaps in one of the cutters, as far as what we Englishmen persist in
+calling St James's castle--a strange name for Turks to give a place, and
+which, in fact, we have devisedly corrupted from their word _sandjeak_.
+
+At last, one happy day--happy in its result, not in the complexion it
+bore at its opening--we positively did receive orders for a start, and
+this is the way it came about: The representative of sultanic dignity at
+the somewhat retired watering-place of Adalia, was a man prone, like the
+greater number of his countrymen, to judge of things altogether in the
+concrete. The idea of power could by him be deduced only from present
+violence; and without some such sensible manifestations, it became to
+him like one of Fichte's "objects," i.e. all moonshine. With regard to
+foreign powers, they existed for him, and influenced his government,
+only so far as they sent occasionally a ship of war with its suggestive
+influence of a frowning broadside to look in his way. They have no very
+distinct idea, these gentlemen, of geography, nor of political science;
+all thus are sadly out in their estimation of the relative importance of
+places. To them the seat of their government is the world; or at least
+the place in it of importance second to Constantinople. If they be
+passed over in the distribution of our _corps de demonstration_, they
+are apt to ascribe the omission to a want of power on our part. Now,
+with all their excellencies, it call hardly be denied that they are
+sadly apt to presume on any want of power in a neighbour. So it happens
+that the unfortunate consuls who are stowed away in the obscurer
+establishments, are apt to suffer from their caprice. Should it so
+happen that the particular flag over whose interests the consul is
+appointed inspector, should not have been displayed in the neighbourhood
+lately by any ship of war, the short memory of a pasha is in danger of
+forgetting that nation's claim to respect; for any thing that he knows,
+it may have been revolutionised or sunk by an earthquake,--at least he
+cannot bear the trouble of imagining any other reason for the
+non-appearance of its executive ministers, than the obvious one of its
+having no ships to send. Thus, in matters of precedence, consuls are apt
+sometimes to get snubbed--a point on which, of all others, they are
+tender: or in matters of justice, their clients will find themselves
+ousted, in spite of the proverbial integrity of the Turkish judges.
+Perhaps the readiest way of stumbling on a grievance, is the kind of
+thing that gave rise to our visit, where some of the populace presume on
+your want of protection, and commit some aggression on your rights as a
+man and a brother. This being referred to the authorities, will be apt
+to be viewed by them in the light of that consideration which they
+happen to be lending at that moment to your nation. Poor fellows! we
+must not be hard upon them; nor will we doubt the sound foundation of
+the panegyrics which many travellers have pronounced on their honesty.
+They are honest, no doubt, so far as they understand the doctrine of the
+thing; but the fact is, they do not seem to understand the subject in
+the abstract. They have no idea of judging a foreigner's cause, without
+reference to considerations of his nationality and personal importance;
+and to pronounce readily a decision in favour of one against whom should
+lie the preponderance in these particulars, would be to them an
+absurdity. We have had occasion lately to be struck with the tone in
+which certain writers have spoken on the subject of Mussulman morals.
+The first notability about such accounts is, that they are very
+different from the reports of their predecessors--of such an accurate
+man as Burkhardt for instance; and the second notability, so far as most
+of us are concerned, is, that they are contrary to the general consent
+of travellers. That there are excellent men, and honest among them, is a
+fact; and it is a fact, that in general matters of bargaining, you may
+trust to them. But when the idea of probity is carried out, so far as to
+imply a view of things comparatively disparaging to Christian morals, it
+mounts to an anti-climax, and falls over into the province of nonsense.
+The Koran has provided them with much ethical guidance, of which
+individual Turks, of any pretence to religion, must be in some degree
+observant. But it is not true that the history of such cases, in their
+administration of justice, as might have occurred in the court of the
+old [Greek: polemarchos], will allow us to conclude that they are in
+possession of a rule coercing them to be just and brotherlike towards
+the unprotected stranger, abstractly and for justice's sake. Now, with
+us you may find many individual rogues, but never a roguish court, nor
+tolerated roguish public body. And of this difference between us
+Christians and them Turks, it will not be difficult for any one to
+supply the reason, who will give himself the trouble to think about it.
+
+But as I was saying, at Adalia,--the town I mean, not the
+province,--lived, with the authority of local governor, a personage
+styled a _Caimacan_. This is a person inferior to a regular pasha,
+having in fact a sort of acting rank. One remembers this style and title
+well, because it puts us in mind of the nicest thing eatable that the
+Levant affords--_Caimac_, which is something very like Devonshire cream,
+only better. This Caimacan, being a sort of great man's great man, is
+apt not to bear his honours meekly. At the precise time of which I
+speak, the Sultan was raising considerable levies in different parts of
+his dominions, for the benefit of good order among the Albanians. Near
+Adalia was a military rendezvous for the forces raised in that
+neighbourhood, and the command _pro tempore_ of the new levies was
+assigned to the Caimacan. So that the poor man was labouring under an
+accession of dignity.
+
+At Adalia also lived a certain Ionian--from the Seven Islands, friend,
+not from Asia--who had been led thither by a speculation in the soap
+trade. To judge by the evident want of the article, would have been to
+pronounce a most favourable opinion as to the probable result of such
+speculation. In fact the man succeeded only too well; he boiled so
+successfully, and sold so cheaply, that all the native competitors were
+beaten out of the field. The true believers were, of course, indignant
+at this conduct of an infidel and a stranger; and as they could not
+weather on him in the fair way of trade, they determined to try if they
+could not "choke his luff" by a practical expedient. Paying him a visit
+one day, they spoiled his stock in trade, broke his gear, gave him a
+good thrashing, and told him to take that as a gentle hint of what they
+would do if he did not behave himself for the future. The poor fellow
+appealed to the Caimacan for satisfaction for the injury done, and for
+security against future violence. From this person he received no
+assistance, and was left to fight it out as he best could against his
+opponents.
+
+Those dear Ionians! creditable fellow-countrymen are they for us, and
+profitable. No people assert more unflinchingly their privilege of
+national relationship with ourselves, and thus do we get the credit of
+all the rows which they may kick up throughout the Mediterranean. It is
+highly amusing to see the style in which they will declare themselves to
+be Englishmen, not merely as allies and protected for the time being,
+but with the implication of a claim to identity of race. A son of Ithaca
+or Zante will talk as if he were a true Saxon. Certainly, the Turks seem
+to make little distinction between the races. That the men are under
+British protection, is for them sufficient reason for esteeming them to
+be Englishmen. Sometimes their classification of races shows an amusing
+ignorance of, and indifference to the whole set of national distinctions
+among Franks. I remember that all who attended the services of the
+British chaplaincy at Smyrna, were called English, though among them
+were many who could speak scarcely a word of the language; and so all
+who went to the dissenting meeting-house (for they have one there) were
+called Americans.
+
+Our poor soap-boiler being reduced to extremity, having lost his goods,
+and being afraid to make a fresh start of it, betook himself for
+assistance to the English vice-consul. The office was at that time
+filled by a very efficient person--one, moreover, who had for many years
+resided in the country, and understood well the language and national
+genius. But it so happened that just then a long time had elapsed since
+any of our men-of-war had paid a visit to the road-stead and consular
+dignity was in a condition of proportional depreciation. The consul,
+however, as in duty bound, paid his visit of remonstrance, and laid
+before the great man the wrong done within his jurisdiction; whereupon
+the Caimacan behaved like any thing but a gentleman, and, far from
+promising to remedy the ill done, gave him to understand that he did not
+care sixpence for soap-boiler or consul either. Mr ---- had sufficient
+knowledge of the people to know that this declaration of opinion was
+strictly true, and that the only plan to correct it, would be to prove
+himself able to summon an armed force to his assistance. Till they saw
+this, nothing would be able to persuade the Adalians that he was not
+either deserted by his country, or that his country had not lost the
+power to assist him.
+
+And thus it was that Mr ---- wrote to his chief at Smyrna a description
+of the ticklish state of circumstances, and explained that unless
+English commercial interests at Adalia were to be suffered to go
+altogether to the wall, some strong preservative must be sent thither in
+the shape of a stout ship, with a goodly array of long thirty-twos. And
+so was it that word came to the good ship Falcon, which thereupon spread
+forth her wings, or, in plain language, hoisted her topsails, and set
+forth on her conciliatory expedition. Besides that we were delighted to
+get away in any direction from the stagnation of Smyrna--a stagnation
+affecting air, sea, and society,--it was a recommendation of the cruise
+in this particular direction that none of us had ever been there before.
+There is little reason why in a general way it should be visited from
+one year's end to another,--I mean in the way of business, at least the
+business of those who have to distribute their attention throughout
+these seas for the interests of general pacification. The place, as we
+afterwards found, is not without commerce; but there are no merchants of
+our nation except the vice-consul. The advantages of this place as a
+trading station, more especially as being a station where he would find
+no competitors, had induced him to settle here. And the _prestige_ lent
+by the consular name, afforded sufficient inducement for the undertaking
+of an office, which, if it be not very lucrative, at any rate involves
+the responsibility of no very serious duties. Though now and then a man
+in office may forget himself, yet in the long run a consul is sure to be
+treated with deference, and to reap considerable commercial advantages
+from his position. Be it understood, that here there are other
+merchants,--but the indigenous, chiefly Turco-Greek. Besides a single
+gentleman who acted as assistant to the vice-consul in his various
+duties, we did not find a Frank resident. We heard, indeed, that there
+was also an Austrian, but we did not see him, so I suppose that he could
+hardly have been of much consequence.
+
+The weather at first beguiled us with symptoms of a change for the
+cooler, and lent to our sails some pleasant breezes as we passed out of
+the Gulf of Smyrna. As we sped onward, things became even better, and
+especially delighted us with their aspect off Rhodes. It is a singular
+fact, well known to those who know the locality, that the day scarcely
+occurs in the year when this island is afflicted with a calm. For some
+reason it so happens that, pass when you will, you are pretty sure to
+find a stiff breeze blowing. One of the points of the island, which
+thrusts out into the sea a long and low promontory, shows that the
+natives here know how to turn this physical provision to good effect.
+This point is in the most curious way studded with windmills, and from
+this its garniture has received its name in our geography. These poor
+machines rarely know an hour's quiet, but continually throw about their
+long arms in what, from a little distance, seems to be a mere confusion
+of material. Past this exquisitely beautiful island, of whose strand the
+recollection is fraught with associations of unfeverish existence, we
+sped rapidly before the breeze, which almost made us regret the land we
+were leaving. Truly should we have regretted it, had we but known the
+breezeless condition on which we were about to enter! For some
+four-and-twenty hours before we arrived at our port, the weather changed
+eminently for the worse. The feathery vanes stirred not, and the canvass
+flapped against the mast, as the old girl rolled lumpingly in the swell.
+She was a dear old ship as ever floated, but like all other things
+sublunary, animate, or inanimate, was not without her faults. Of these
+the worst, nay, the only one to speak of, was the habit of rolling about
+most viciously whenever she had a chance. The sun poured upon us such a
+flood of heat, that awnings became a joke. Things were so thoroughly
+heated during the day, that the night scarcely afforded sufficient hours
+to cool them down, for a fresh start next morning. We began almost to
+question whether we had not changed bad for worse; and very soon made up
+our minds that without any mistake we had. We arrived at this
+conclusion, as the port of our destination hove in sight. It was towards
+evening that we crept in to our anchorage, through an atmosphere
+scarcely sufficiently alive to give us motion, and so almost glowing
+that it seemed to burn us as we passed. The place was wrapped in
+breathless stillness: no boats came forth to try a market with us, or to
+gratify their curiosity; and no sounds issued from the shore, which
+might have been deemed almost unhaunted of men.
+
+When daylight revealed the features of the place, we perceived the
+pretensions of Adalia in the way of the picturesque to be of a high
+order. Neither was there wanting matter of admiration even in the night,
+though we were suffering too much discomfort to be easily pleased by
+mere pictures. The shore, in its way, afforded an unusual spectacle. The
+town stands on high ground, and on both sides the line of coast is
+formed by lofty cliffs, stretching far away into the distance. What of
+the beauties of these depended on the light of day for development, were
+reserved for our edification on the morrow. But the good people had
+ornamented their country just then in a fashion more appropriate to
+embellish the night than the day. Enormous fires were blazing on the
+cliffs, which skirted the bay up which we were advancing,--if we may
+apply so familiar a word to the conflagrations that met our sight. The
+most active spirit of incendiarism had been afloat, for entire woods
+were seen in a state of burning. We never discovered whether this
+destruction was by accident, or of set purpose: if it were done by way
+of obtaining charcoal, the price of that article one would think must
+have fallen in the market. But as these fires blazed away in the clear
+dry air of the night, they lit up the bay, and almost threw upon the
+waters the dark shadow of our masts and yards. At first, when at some
+distance, we had been disposed to account for the lurid appearance of
+the heavens, by supposing that distance and refraction had effected a
+cheat upon our senses. When we came nearer, the only thing we could
+suppose was, that the whole country, was in the course of destruction.
+It is hard to say whether the distance at which we anchored from the
+shore was not too great to allow of the production on us of any sensible
+effect from these fires: that we had any misgiving on the subject may
+serve to show that they were enormous. I know that at the time we made
+up our minds, that to their agency was to be attributed some portion at
+least of the heat that oppressed us. The wind came off in gusts of
+overpowering heat; not with that tepid influence that grumblers
+sometimes denounce as a hot wind, but with the full sense of having come
+from a baker's oven. At least we had a grand sight for our pains, and
+therefrom reaped some consolation as we clustered panting on the deck.
+
+I remember to have seen something in this way before, though on a
+smaller scale, and that was in the island of Euboea. Once in my life,
+I had a very near view of the recent scene of such a conflagration in
+one of the smaller Greek islands. It was in taking, according to our
+custom, a ramble right across the land, that we came on no less a
+collection of embers than the _debris_ of an entire forest, which lay
+smouldering at our feet. I know that, having commenced from curiosity
+the work of picking our way through the ashes, we found the undertaking
+more arduous than we quite fancied, and that our trowsers and shoes
+would afterwards have fetched but little in Monmouth-street. The Greeks,
+it is understood, light up their bonfires, partly by way of amusing
+themselves, and partly by way of hinting displeasure at things in
+general. Of course, it is quite obvious, that any party who wish to
+prove a minister's rule to be calamitous, assists their argument by
+increasing the sum of calamity.
+
+But night with its miseries at length was passed. During its course, the
+thermometer did not get below 90�. What it reached in the daytime it
+boots not to record--and signifies less, because when the sun is above
+us, we bargain for a hot day in summer. But oh! those nights, when by
+every precedent we should have had cooling dews, and refreshing air!
+
+However, the sun rose, and the people on shore rose too. There was no
+tumultuous rushing forth in boats to have a look at the new comers, as
+there is so apt to be on the arrival of a man-of-war. A quiet little
+dingy would steal out, manned by three or four mongrel-looking Greeks,
+and row round us at a respectful distance. The fact is, that the people
+had got scent of the reason of our coming: and as a reclamation of right
+is by them supposed to be incompatible with any thing but an angry mood,
+they were afraid to approach us. The town itself we perceived to be a
+most ill-conditioned looking place. Harbour there is none--at least none
+available in a breeze from seaward. A heavy sea sets right in, and must
+strand any thing found anchored here. We were afterwards told, that in
+the bad weather of the winter before our coming, the sea had washed some
+vessels right up into the town. This want of a harbour is the most
+serious drawback to the commerce of Adalia. It is, in every respect
+except this, adapted to serve as the general emporium of the interior.
+Even at present, notwithstanding its disadvantages, a good deal of
+business is done here: but ships can never lie before the town in peace,
+nor commence loading and unloading, with the confidence that they shall
+be able to get through their work without having first to slip cable and
+be off. But the town must be in other hands before so arduous a work is
+likely to be undertaken.
+
+A most unserviceable rumble of a fort mounted guard over the town, in a
+position little likely to be of use in repelling an attack by sea.
+Perhaps it might have been available as a maintainer of good order in
+the town, should the spirit of insubordination haply spring up therein:
+but we could hardly have credited the walls as possessed of sufficient
+stability to stand the shock of a report. We saw the artillery-men, busy
+as bees, at their guns--evidently standing by to return the salute which
+we were expected to give. But this would have been far too civil
+treatment for them, while matter of dispute between us remained. We
+maintained a dignified silence.
+
+It was not long before Mr ---- found his way off to us, and put us up to
+the actual state of affairs. It seemed that little Pedlington was in an
+uproar. The whole of the Adalian public were in a state of lively
+commotion. Of course, as they had bullied loudly, they were abject in
+concession. Those more immediately concerned in the outrage on the
+soap-boiler, would have infallibly absconded, had not the strong arm of
+the law laid an embargo upon them, and laid them by as scapegoats in the
+first instance. The prevailing opinion about us was, that we should
+certainly blow the town about their ears, but that still all must be
+essayed to conciliate us. The Caimacan himself, the great man who had
+given rise to the remonstrance on our part, had taken himself off, and
+left his deputy in command. This was professedly to look after some
+troops that he was recruiting in the neighbourhood, but we gave him the
+credit of practising a dodge to get out of the way of an awkward
+business. A striking peculiarity of the business was, that no doubt
+seemed any longer to be maintained as to the issue of the negotiation.
+The question of right and wrong was no longer considered as being open;
+but the verdict was already presumed to be given against those whom we
+challenged as offenders.
+
+It was thought advisable to pay some attention to appearances on the
+occasion of our interview with the governor. No suit prospers with them,
+in a general way, unless backed by good personal appearance. For this
+reason we mustered a strong party of officers, in imposing costume; and
+by way of evincing our determination, proceeded with as little delay as
+possible to the divan. The usual motley group of starers gathered round
+us at the landing, and escorted us up the rugged street to the _palais
+de justice_. They all seemed to be affected with the spirit of fear,
+except our partisans, who were in a state of exultation from the like
+cause. Two individuals in particular were amusingly and palpably
+possessed with the spirit of triumph, and they were the two attendants
+of the vice-consul. These men were worthy of notice on other accounts,
+but singularly remarkable in respect of the effectual manner in which
+they seemed to have divested themselves of national prejudices. They
+were enthusiastic fellows, who had not merely let out their services to
+the representative of England, but seemed fairly to have made over to
+him the allegiance of heart and head; retaining no sympathy with their
+own countrymen. Thus did they seem to rejoice eminently in our coming,
+and the consequent humbling of the local authorities. They were two
+strapping fellows--as janissaries, to be any thing worth, should always
+be--and marshalled us the way in grand style.
+
+The unhappy rabble seemed to be suffering the pangs of most cruel
+privation when the cort�ge arrived at the residence of justice, and they
+found themselves left in the lurch at the threshold. In such mood you
+see a London mob flattening their noses against the panes of a chemist's
+window, or hanging outside of a replete magistrate's office. One comfort
+is, that the economy of a Turkish _menage_ perfectly admits of the
+establishment of a line of scouts, even from the very presence-chamber:
+so that earliest intelligence may be conveyed to the gentlemen without.
+Mr ---- gave us by the way a few hints as to etiquette, and engaged to
+prompt us as occasion might demand. I have said already that he was
+perfectly up to conversation in the native language and might have well
+played the part of interpreter. One might might have supposed that this
+would have been taken by the people rather as a compliment; and that it
+would have been considered creditable to a foreign agent to have
+acquired a knowledge of the vernacular of the people with whom he had
+constantly to treat. But the contrary is the fact. To speak for one's
+self is far too simple a mode of conducting business: and he who would
+preserve his dignity in any consideration, must retain the services of a
+dragoman. To conduct an important interview without the intervention of
+this functionary would convey to the Turks an idea of slovenly
+negligence. A good thing is it when the agent, commercial or diplomatic,
+possesses sufficient knowledge of the language to enable him to check
+the version of the interpreter, who otherwise is apt to take liberties
+with his text. However, we were in this case quite safe: first, in the
+assurance of Mr ---- that he would risk his life on his dragoman's
+veracity; and next, because it was clear that no word could pass which
+was not likely to be reinterpreted to us.
+
+We marched into the room, and made our salaams-some of us inconsiderable
+ones very truculently, for we were very irate; and on all such occasions
+a man's indignation rises in exact proportion to the degree in which he
+has nothing to say to the matter. The deputy Caimacan was sitting on a
+divan at the top of the room, and rose politely as we entered. There
+were too many of us to find room in the divan, so we were scattered
+about as best we could light on places. The main difficulty was to get a
+place that looked clean enough to sit upon; for a dirtier palace I never
+saw, nor a more, beggarly. One cannot say whether the head governor had
+taken all his traps with him when he went a-soldiering; but if what we
+saw really was his establishment, it is likely enough that he had gone
+away to avoid exposing his poverty.
+
+"_Hosh Gueldin_," said the Turk; "you are welcome."
+
+And now was to be seen a fine contrast between Oriental apathy and
+British energy. The Turk sank back on his seat, as if disengaged from
+all care, and not quite up to the trouble of entertaining his morning
+visitors. The English Captain sat bolt upright, "at attention," and
+opened the business of the _s�ance_ at once.
+
+"Tell the Governor--"
+
+"Stop a moment," said Mr ----, "that's not the way to begin."
+
+"What is the way then?"
+
+"First, you must smoke a pipe--there's one coming this way. You would
+shock all their notions of propriety by entering abruptly on business.
+We must have first a little talk about things in general."
+
+Just then the Governor roused up, and addressed to the Captain, through
+the dragoman, some observation on the weather or the crops. Then came a
+servant with a chibouque and coffee: and the head negotiators were soon
+co-operatively engaged.
+
+And no bad way of beginning business either; especially in cases where
+there may be a little awkward rust to rub off. The only objection to the
+amusement in this case was, that it was not general--pipes being
+afforded only to the heads of departments. This was a style of treatment
+so different from all our experience, that it left me more fully
+persuaded than ever that the Caimacan had walked off with his goods and
+chattels, not forgetting his pipes.
+
+This fumatory process proceeded for some time, almost in silence. It
+afforded the several parties opportunity to settle the speeches they
+intended to make, and certainly must have been useful in the way of
+allaying the angry passions of their several minds. We, who had none of
+the business on our consciences, and had come merely to make up the
+show, employed this interval in taking cognizance of the localities. The
+household appointments were sadly inferior to those we had been
+accustomed to see; and especially must this condemnation fall on the
+servants, who were a most dirty, ill-conditioned set. They stood
+clustered about the doorway in groups, looking furtively at us, and
+whispering counsel.
+
+"Halloo!" said Mr ----, "they have determined to be prepared for
+contingencies. There are the culprits, I see, in waiting for the
+bastinado, if such should be your demand."
+
+And there, sure enough, they had the poor fellows just outside, waiting
+to be scourged for the propitiating of our wrath. Evidently they were
+little aware that the affair had changed altogether its complexion; and
+that the culpability had in our eyes been transferred from the original
+rioters to the protectors of the riot.
+
+When, eventually, the signal was given for commencing business, it was a
+fine thing to see how beautifully submissive the deputy had become. He
+began by declaring that he could not arrange the matter, but must refer
+it to his chief, and wanted much to put off the discussion till that
+functionary should arrive. On this it was hinted to him, that it would
+have been polite and proper had that gentleman remained in the way to
+settle the row, which had occurred by his own fault, but that we could
+not await his return. Either must they undertake at once to make full
+reparation for the wounded dignity of the Consul, and for the injurious
+treatment of the Ionian, or they would see what they should see. It
+needed little pressing on our part to break down the feint which had
+been set up by way of opposition. The deputy soon declared that all
+should be as we wished. He still stuck to his declaration, that the
+actual settlement of the business was beyond his province, and that he
+must wait for the sanction of his commanding officer. But meanwhile he
+took upon himself to declare the terms on which things might be
+considered virtually settled; and they were, that we were to have
+everything our own way. This result was obtained by us without recourse
+had to any thing like bullying; and we were able, in this instance, to
+behave in a more civilised manner, because we were backed by so much
+real authority, and show of present power. But little doubt is there,
+that, however unfavourable the inference with respect to Turkish sense
+and honesty, the mode most commonly to be recommended in dealings with
+them, is by _in terrorem_ proceeding. They cannot understand the
+co-ordinate existence, of power and moderation. Very good fun will
+sometimes be enacted by the knowing for the cowing of a pasha; and in
+almost any case the only fear of _�chouance_ is where there may exist
+too much modesty. But only bully hard, and you are tolerably sure to
+gain your point. It is by no means necessary that your arguments should
+carry the cogent force of soundness. Appearances are what weigh chiefly
+with those whose habits of thinking do not dispose them to discuss
+argument. One sharp-witted fellow that I knew brought to successful
+issue a decisive experiment on the readiness of pashas to be taken in by
+mere sound. He went into the vice-regal presence, attended by a dragoman
+whom he had previously instructed in the subject-matter to be
+propounded--some question of redress for grievance. It was necessary
+that he should say something on the occasion, and afford the appearance
+of telling the dragoman what to say: but as this person already knew his
+lesson, it was not necessary that what he said should be to him
+intelligible. Nothing occurred to him as likely to be more effective in
+delivery than the celebrated speech of Norval about the Grampian hills;
+which accordingly he recited with due emphasis, standing up to give the
+better effect to the scene. The end desired was fully attained. The
+pasha opened wide eyes, as the actor grew excited, and was visibly
+affected by the assumption of towering passion. He soon began to try to
+pacify him, and beg him to be easy. "Inshalla! all should be as he
+wished." The upshot of our argument with the deputy Caimacan was, that
+he would send immediately to his chief, for a confirmation of the
+pacification between us, and that meanwhile we were to amuse ourselves
+as well as we could. But for all we saw, amusement was one of the good
+things not easily to be had at Adalia. It is so deeply retired in
+uncivilisation, and so wanting withal in the excitements of energetic
+barbarism, that human life is there tamed down to the most passionless
+condition. It was, too, notwithstanding the season, a time of unusual
+commercial enterprise just then. It was the year of the murrain in
+Egypt, which destroyed so enormous a proportion of their cattle; and
+Mehemet Ali was sending in all directions to purchase horses, asses, and
+kine. A large corvette of his came in while we were there, on this
+service. She had landed her guns, and was filling her deck with
+livestock. There was also a deal of business going on just then in the
+timber line. But little evidence of this brisk state of the markets was
+given by the people. A good many visitors certainly came off to see us;
+but that was rather a reason why we should have accused the populace of
+idleness. We were struck with the appearance of many of the old fellows
+who honoured us with visits. They retained, without exception, the
+orthodox dress and beard of the old school. Among them were a great
+number of the green turbans, which mark the sacred person of the
+"Hadji." Such a clustering of these distinguished characters made us
+fancy at first that Adalia itself must be invested with the idea of some
+peculiar sanctity. But we found that these gentlemen were merely _en
+route_, tarrying at Adalia, a great point of embarkation, for
+opportunity to pursue their journey. The place is in one of the great
+high roads to the Hedjaz: and of the swarms who pass through it every
+year, many pilgrims have not sufficient funds to defray the expense of
+travelling either way. It then becomes a work of charity for the more
+opulent of the faithful to speed them on the journey. But that they
+depend on such means of travelling is reason sufficient to account for
+long in their line of locomotion, and for their congregating here in
+considerable numbers. Of all places likely to maintain the constant
+infection of plague, this must be one of the first: for notoriously
+among no people is the disease so rife as among the pilgrims.
+
+The worthy consul did his best to embellish the days of our sojourn with
+pleasurable episodes. Society there was not likely to be any; but yet
+such as, for want of better, they had, he undertook to show us. He
+really seemed very much obliged to us for our opportune visit, and said
+that it would be the making of him. It certainly did seem to be quite
+necessary to the maintaining of the dignity of his office. One
+invitation we had from a merchant of the place, a man whom they
+described as being very rich and of great influence; and a plan was laid
+for our having a picnic in the country. There is a place in the
+neighbourhood of the town which has been prepared expressly for the use
+of those who make rural excursions. A thick grove of trees keeps off the
+sun, and soft turf lends a seat to the revellers. We could make out the
+top of the trees from the anchorage, for the country is of an elevated
+character, hanging out on lofty cliffs the different features of its
+panorama. The effect produced by this arrangement of the scenery is
+highly beautiful. It has in profusion one element of the beautiful, and
+that is the feature of cascade. There is in one point a congress of
+waterfalls, whereat may be counted no less than nine separate streams,
+which pour down their abundance from the cliffs into the sea. The good
+consul and his satellites bore us pretty constant company; and of great
+service they were in preserving order among the motley crew that
+constantly thronged our decks. We did not like to qualify the good
+report we had so far gained and maintained, by any exhibition of
+harshness towards the mob. But the sturdy janissary of Mr ---- thought
+nothing of laying his stick across a fellow's shoulders, by way of
+reminder to behave himself. I must say that many of them deserved it,
+and for their sakes can but hope that they profited by the attention.
+
+Mr ---- had two men in attendance upon him, without whom he never
+stirred abroad. They were brothers, but filled situations of different
+rank. One was dragoman, a post of which the occupation entitled him to
+the consideration of a gentleman; the other was merely henchman or
+janissary, of which dignity the allocation is in the kitchen. I remember
+that it pained me to see one brother walk in to dinner, while the other
+poor fellow had to keep guard without. But they seemed well used to the
+enforcement of the distinction, and to find therein nothing of
+invidiousness. Fine fellows were they both, and highly lauded by their
+master. There is surely something extraordinary in these instances,
+where men are brought to devote themselves implicitly to a foreign
+service, in the heart of their country, and amid the full play of
+national prejudices. That they really are faithful followers, is I
+believe beyond doubt; and that sometimes under trying circumstances.
+With these two individuals especially, we had so much intercourse, that
+we were enabled to see how admiration for the English entered into the
+main current of their feelings. It so happened that we had come here to
+the very place where that early victim to the zeal of travel, Mr
+Daniels, had shortly before met his doom. While following in the track
+of Mr Fellowes, he caught the fatal Xanthian fever; and after many
+relapses died here. That these men were very kind and attentive to him
+may be argument only of their humanity. But there was something in the
+emotion with which they spoke of him, that betokened a sense of
+fellowship, beyond what men of such differing creeds are apt to feel for
+a travelling stranger. They spoke of sitting up with him at night,
+giving him his medicine, and weeping for him, when there remained no
+room for active solicitude. The idea of dying amidst strangers in a
+foreign land, with no familiar face at the bed-side, is a desolation
+whose thought cannot pass over the spirit without beclouding its
+sunniness. And yet we may rely upon it, that amongst those most
+affectionately tended and most generously wept, have been they who have
+met their last hour under such circumstances. Human hearts all vibrate
+in harmony to one chord: in the good this sympathy is ready; in the bad
+it is dulled; but never while life and hope remain, can the silver chord
+be said to be cut. And so it is, that the same image of the forlorn,
+which, as affecting any that we love, appeals at once to the deep wells
+of compassion, will cause the same feeling of compassion to thrill with
+the remotest stragglers of the family of Adam. It is not a matter of
+reasoning, but an instinct. There is in the sight of helpless suffering
+a power to disarm human ferocity. And if that be the gentlest
+death-pillow that is breathed upon by the prayer and lighted by the eye
+of family love, depend upon it that far from the ungentlest is that,
+whose presence has brought to rude and rough natures the putting off of
+their roughness, and the recognising of the sweet faculty of compassion.
+Happy is that desolation, even in the last hour, which can awaken the
+heaven-like eagerness to be to the dying one a minister from his far-off
+home! A man might be happy so to die, that he might light up so much of
+heaven within a human breast.
+
+Both these _attach�s_ of the consulate were men of note. The dragoman
+had been captain of a troop of cavalry in the service of Mehemet Ali,
+and on some quarrel with his commanding officer had left the service and
+kingdom. He was a person of polished manners, and some education, and
+thus enabled to produce agreeably in conversation the results of his
+experience of many lands and people. He rather astonished us with the
+extent to which he carried _jeune France_ principles, that seem so
+entirely incompatible with the holding of Mahomedanism. But wonderful it
+is to see how the French spirit circulates in the most apathetic
+societies, seeming to find in them a latent vitality suited to its
+purpose. The manners of a Mussulman are so stereotyped, and his subjects
+of conversation so provided for by law, that it seemed quite an anomaly
+to see this Turk drinking wine after dinner, and talking like a man of
+the world. It would not seem that such an effect on the personal
+character is the invariable result of educating a Turk in Paris, though
+such an effect is exactly what we might expect. I have met a native of
+Constantinople, who had brought back with him from France only the
+language and the personal deportment, retaining withal the
+anti-reforming spirit of his orthodox brethren. But this spirit of
+resistance to innovation is fast fading away; and as innovation once
+begun here must lead to revolution, it is not difficult to foresee that
+a few more years only shall have passed, when the character of the Turk
+will have become historical, and the scenes that at present embellish
+their corner of the world, will have to be sought for in the
+descriptions of pen and pencil. Whether the influence emanate from the
+throne, or whether the court be following the popular metropolitan
+movement, it is difficult to say. But among them is assuredly at work
+the spirit of change, that must shortly carry away the mouldering
+edifice of their present institutions. This is something too vetust to
+abide the shock of any agitation. Let us hope that their changes may be
+successively biassed towards the better: may they acquire the urbanity
+of our great masters in elegance, without their profligacy; and if they
+reject Mahomedanism, may it be to receive in exchange something better
+than mere infidelity.
+
+The brother of the _ci-devant_ captain was a quiet, unassuming fellow,
+who wanted language to communicate with us freely. Nevertheless he
+managed to interest us much, with an account of the sufferings and
+trials of his youth. They were by birth Moreote Turks; and in the
+revolution of that country, when first the Greeks arose against their
+Turkish masters, (for really one must particularise in talking of Greek
+revolutions,) they had suffered the loss of all their protecting
+kindred, and hardly, children as they were, by some kindly intervention,
+been themselves saved. It is a sad thing, but a truth, that in this
+exterminating war, the cold-blooded massacreing was not all on one side.
+The horror and hatred of these deeds have, with their infamy, rested
+chiefly on the Turks, because theirs was the power to exceed in
+enormity; but the black veil of guilt rests on both sides of the strife.
+Still, however blameable the Greeks may be, for the cruelty committed on
+occasion, they were far from having power to work the enormous
+destruction of harmless life, whose memory still weighs on the Turkish
+power, and whose record is still extant in the evidence of ruined and
+dispeopled cities. But a short time before coming to Adalia, we had
+visited the island of Scio--that island which once was the garden of the
+Levant, and the storehouse of her riches. Even now, the great majority
+of the Greek merchants who are so prosperous a body in London, are
+Sciotes; and in those days they had pretty well all the commerce of the
+Levant in their hands. They delighted themselves in adorning their
+beautiful island with the artifices which money can command to the
+decorating of nature. At present a mass of ruins defaces that lovely
+spot. One is disposed to wonder that the Turks have never been at the
+pains to clear away the wreck of the town, if only for the sake of
+removing the monument of their cruelty. Mere selfish motives might
+induce them to be at that pains, and to restore this island to its
+former fitness for the habitations of the rich. At present it is one
+wide ruin; noble streets are there, with the shells of their houses
+remaining, as they were left in the day of massacre and pillage. The few
+inhabitants are stowed away in the one or two odd rooms of the old
+mansions that remain; being now reduced to such poverty that they have
+had neither spirit nor money to build for themselves; and probably
+finding it more congenial to the present spirit of their fortunes to
+roost among the bats and owls, rather than in trim streets. One
+occurrence gave us much pleasure, because it gave the lie to a story
+which has many abettors. It is said that when the garrison in the
+fortress, and the fleet before the town, were promoting the havoc, the
+English consul, from some punctilio on the subject of neutrality,
+refused shelter to the miserables who fled to his threshold. One old
+woman, in the story of her sufferings, gave us a full contradiction to
+this most incredible tradition. She had invited us into her dwelling to
+look at her wares, in the shape of conserves and purses--a strange
+combination, but nevertheless the articles by the sale of which they eke
+out their living. We were fully consoled for the trouble of passing over
+and through the _debris_ of some half-dozen houses which lay between us
+and her domicile. It came out that she herself had been saved by flying
+to the English consulate. It was a comfort to hear this--and to hear it
+in a way that involved the fact of an indefinite number of refugees
+having found the same shelter. Many rejoice to say that the French
+consul was the only efficient protector in that day of horror; and of
+these times, though so recent, it is not easy always to get such correct
+information as may sustain a contradiction of popular report.
+
+In a country of such limited resources in the way of amusement, it was
+not very easy for our zealous friends to cater for us, during the long
+days that we had to await the answer from the Caimacan. Riding was out
+of the question, and there were no antiquities within reach. Thus were
+we cut off from the two great resources of men in our position. But they
+played their part of entertainers hospitably and well. They told us long
+stories of the courts, and of what was to be seen in actual service in
+the camp of the Egyptian viceroy. Above all, they did us good by showing
+how thoroughly happy the whole party had been rendered by our coming. We
+were only afraid that they might become a little too bumptious on the
+strength of it, and be after giving us another job. But they did more
+than simply bear us company; they bore us to the cool grove, which I
+have said we could descry from the deck of our ship, there to be
+introduced to certain worthies, and to make _kef_ in their company.
+Nothing to my mind comes up to an _al fresco_ entertainment--in proper
+season and country, be it understood; for an English gipsy party is a
+very different affair.
+
+Our host conceived it to be a duty incumbent on him to develop, on this
+occasion, the full power of the resources of Adalia. We should have been
+far better satisfied if he had contented himself with doing things in a
+smaller way; but he was bent on magnificence. It was quite treat enough
+to lie on the soft turf, with the thick shade above, and to allow the
+hours to pass away as they led on evening. But he had been at the
+trouble to retain a band of musicians for our sakes. Such a set they
+were!--surpassing, in discordant prowess, the worst street musicians
+among our beggar melodists. It is quite surprising that invention has so
+long slumbered with these native artistes. With Musard concerts and
+Wilhelm music-meetings all around them, it is wonderful that they do not
+catch the note of something better than their villanous mandolins and
+single-noted pipes. Does any one need to be told what a mandolin is? It
+is something very different, let me assure him, from the ideal
+instrument of Moore's Melodies. Not even the lovely maidens that Moore
+paints could render tolerable a performance upon it; whereas it is made
+to resound by some especially ugly fellow, whose rascality of
+appearance, is relieved by no touch of the poetic. I did once hear a
+Turco-Greek lady perform, and on a more civilised instrument--a lady of
+high reputation as a performer on the guitar and a vocalist. And seldom
+has the spirit of romantic preparation received a more sudden chill than
+did mine on that occasion. Nothing could be more outrageously absurd
+than the whole thing was--accompaniment and song. I never afterwards was
+solicitous to hear an Oriental's musical performance; and am quite
+satisfied, that in them dwells no musical faculty, creative or
+perceptive: or that at least it is in a dormant state.
+
+These musicians began with a symphony on the full band--mandolins
+leading, drums doing bass, and the whole lot of ugly fellows screeching
+forth what might have been esteemed air or accompaniment, as the case
+might be. That a sorry musical effect was produced will surprise no one
+who considers the build of the most musical of their instruments. The
+mandolin is by way of being a guitar, or banjo--only in a very small way
+indeed. Nothing has been added to the idea since first Mercury stumbled
+on the original _testudo_--indeed, I should guess that the dried sinews
+of a tortoise would give out a far purer sound than the jingling wires
+with which the mandolin is mounted. I have sometimes stood at the door
+of a _caf�_, or, to give it the real name [Greek: kapheneion], and
+listened in wonder to the strains of some minstrel holding forth within.
+The wonder was, not that the man should play egregiously ill, but that
+the effect of good music should be produced by his evil playing. The
+people were evidently excited to sorrow when the attempt was at a
+mournful strain, and to ardour when the lilt took a loftier flight. To
+me who stood by, the difference of intention on the part of the
+performer was hardly discernible; indeed to be recognised only by the
+occasional catching of some familiar word in the burden of the song. The
+same observation may apply to the current Greek poetry. There can be no
+mistake in the conclusion, that it produces the effect of real poetry on
+the people, urging them in the direction whither works the imagination
+of the poet. But men of taste have come to, and can come to, but one
+decision on the judgment of Romaic poetasters. The spirit of poetry has
+died out of, and is become extinct from the genius of their tongue. It
+is but the enthusiasm of by-gone days, the inkling of Attic glory, that
+lingers about the circumstances of their modern productions, and cheats
+men with the mere similarity of idiom. Poetry is of universal
+application, and were the pretensions of the modern Greek genuine, his
+productions would touch the hearts of the poetic of other lands.
+
+These fellows who entertained us on this occasion, struck a good deal of
+enthusiasm out of their jingle,--enthusiasm to themselves, be it
+remarked, and not to us. I saw them grow sad in face, while the strain
+proceeded at a slow pace, and the _voce di canto_ degenerated into a
+more lugubrious howl than ever. By these tokens, I judged them to be
+singing some tale of sorrow, and so it seemed they were. The gentleman
+who performed for us the part of Chorus, gave us to wit, that they were
+lamenting the fall of Algiers, and imprecating maledictions on the head
+of the French. This they evidently considered a delicate and appropriate
+attention to us as Englishmen. I was only surprised to find they entered
+so far into the family distinctions of the Franks. There was some heart,
+too, in the manner in which they gesticulated and declaimed; and I have
+little doubt but that they were in earnest--especially if any of these
+happened to have friends or relations down that way, who had been roused
+out of house and home by the Gallic Avatar. When they were tired with
+singing, or perhaps presumed that they had therewith tired us, they took
+to playing the fool. Not merely in a general sense, in which they may be
+said to have been so engaged all along; but with heavy effort, and under
+the express direction of a professional master of the ceremonies. The
+Adalian jester was a tall ugly fellow, who had considerable power of
+comic expression in his face, but whose forte lay in a cap of fantastic
+device. It was made of the skin of some animal, whose genus I will not
+venture to guess; and had been contrived in such fashion that the tail
+hung over the top, and whisked about at the caprice of the wearer. This
+was a never-failing source of amusement to the performer himself, as
+well as to the native bystanders. As he bobbed his head up and down, and
+ran after this tail, the people burst into peals of laughter. They were
+quite taken up with the exhibition, except when they stole a moment now
+and then for a peep to see how the Frank visitors were amused with their
+wit. Besides this, the jester had a number of practical jokes, such as
+coming quietly along-side of some unsuspecting person, and catching hold
+of his leg, barking loudly the while, so as to make him think that some
+dog had bitten him. But this part of the performance was decidedly
+coarse, and did not improve our idea of the civilisation of the place. A
+good deal of sketching was going on in the course of this day; and the
+visages of some of these musicians, and especially of the jester, and of
+a blind old choragus, have been handed down to the posterity of our
+affectionate friends. We had a visit this day of a gentler kind. A Greek
+lady, the owner of considerable landed property in the place, came with
+her youthful daughter to interchange civilities with us. She was a
+plain, almost ugly old woman; but, like nine out of ten of all women
+extant, was of kind and _feminine_ disposition. Moreover, like the rest
+of the ladies, she was very fond of talking; but, on this particular
+occasion, unhappily could speak no single word that would convey meaning
+to us. Still it was not to be expected that she could hold her tongue;
+so she squatted down by us, and talked, perhaps all the faster because
+she had the conversation all to herself. Her daughter was a young lady,
+whom by appearance in England, you would call somewhere in her teens;
+but, hereaway they are so precocious that one is constantly deceived in
+guessing their age. She would have been pretty if she had been clean;
+and was abundantly and expensively ornamented. Sometimes we hear it
+figuratively said of a domestic coquette, that she carries all her
+property on her back. These Greeks must be well off, if it may not
+sometimes be so said with propriety of them. They have a plan of
+advertising a young lady's assets, in a manner that must be most
+satisfactory to fortune-hunters, and prevent the mistakes that with us
+constantly foil the best-laid plans. They turn a girl's fortune into
+money, and hang it--it, the fortune proper--the [Greek: poion] and the
+[Greek: poson]--about her neck. They do not buy jewels worth so many
+hundreds or tens--but transpierce the actual coin, and of them compose a
+necklace of whose value there can be no doubt, and whose fashion is not
+very variable. This may be called a fair and above-board way of doing
+things. The swain, as he sits by the beloved object, may amuse himself
+by counting the number of precious links in the chain that is drawing
+him into matrimony, and debate within himself, on sure data, the
+question whether or no he shall yield to the gentle influence. There
+would not have been much doubt about the monetary recommendations of
+this young lady, for she was abundantly gilt, as became the daughter of
+one reputed so rich as the old lady. Poor girls! It makes one sad to
+look upon them, brought up with so little idea of what is girlish and
+beautiful; to see them ignorant yet sophisticated, bejeweled and
+unwashed. This poor child was decked out in the most absurd manner, and
+sat for admiration most palpably. She also sat for something else, which
+was her picture. This was taken by several of the party, so much to the
+satisfaction of mother and daughter, that the old lady insisted on
+taking her turn as model. We invariably found them pleased with the
+productions of our art in these cases, and satisfied of the correctness
+of the likeness. The only objections they would occasionally make, would
+refer to the pretermission of some such thing as a tassel in the cap.
+The fidelity of the likeness they took implicitly on trust.
+
+I have said we could not talk to this old lady, Greek though she was,
+furnished though some of us were with the language of her compatriots.
+The deficiency was on her part--not on ours. She could not speak one
+single word of her own language. And so it is, that of all the Greeks of
+Adalia, not one can converse in the language of their fathers. Separated
+from their countrymen, they have become almost a distinct race; and,
+losing that language of which they have no practice, have learnt to use
+as their own the vernacular of the land in which they are immigrants of
+such antique standing. They talk Turkish--live almost like Turks; and by
+their religion only are distinguished from their neighbours. For
+religious purposes they use their own language: and, by consequence,
+understand no single word of the ritual or lessons. This is certainly a
+singular national position--impossible, except from religious
+prevention. It is just the reverse of what may be seen elsewhere: for
+instance, in the mountains of Thessaly you find a colony of Germans,
+who, though completely shut in by the people of the land, and holding
+intercourse with none other, remain foreigners and Germans, resisting
+the tendency to amalgamation. So in Sicily you find the _Piana della
+Grecia_, where the original Greek colonists have kept their language and
+customs in their integrity. But where else, save in this one spot, will
+you find people who, after having imbibed the influences of the country
+to the extent of adoption of its language, have been able to resist
+amalgamation with its denizens in every respect?
+
+By the bye, these people have opened a sort of royal road to the
+acquisition of the Turkish language. The orthography of this language is
+a most vexed and perplexed affair. Those who have made the attempt to
+master its difficulties may say something in its vituperation; but the
+practice of many of those who are well acquainted therewith, says a
+great deal more. These Greeks, for instance, though they have adopted
+this language as their own, and have been accustomed in no other to lisp
+to their nurses, have altogether discarded the orthography. They speak
+as do the natives, but write in their own character; accommodating the
+flexible capabilities of their alphabet to the purposes of Turkish
+orthoepy. Thus have you the means of reading Turkish in a familiar
+character, which also has the advantage of presenting your words in a
+definite form. The real Turkish alphabet is any thing but definite; at
+least to one within any decent term of years of his commencing the
+study. This is a mode of teaching which I have known to be insisted on
+by at least one good master: though of course the man of any ambition
+would regard this byway to knowledge as merely a step preliminary in the
+course.
+
+This was not the only party at which we assisted during our visit. A
+rich Greek merchant invited us to enjoy the coolness of evening in his
+gardens. It was duly impressed on our minds by the gentleman of the
+place that this old fellow was worth his weight in gold. They did say
+that his name was good for �150,000--a long figure, certainly, to meet
+in such a place. He was a quiet-looking, unpretending person, with very
+much the air of a moneyed man. The hope that we had formed of seeing a
+display of the youth and fashion of Adalia was disappointed. It was by
+all express relaxation of the law of etiquette that we had the
+opportunity of seeing even the one or two ladies belonging to the
+family. Greeks, in their own country, though exceedingly jealous, and
+apt to build up alarms on the slightest foundation, are yet by no means
+chary in showing their women. In-doors and out, you will meet them, both
+old and young; and perfectly unconstrained and companionable you will
+find them. But here the case is far otherwise. They have acquired so
+much of Mussulman notions, that they do not allow their women to mix in
+society. This is the general rule: more pliant to occasion than the law
+of the Turks, which never yields. And not only here is there a strong
+feeling on this subject: the same prejudice prevails widely in the
+Turco-Greek islands. For instance, in Mytilene, on occasion of taking
+that long excursion which I have already mentioned, we observed that all
+the women we met were old and ugly. From this observed fact we drew
+conclusions unfavourable to the general appearance and presentability of
+the Mytilenian ladies. But subsequently we found the reason of the
+phenomenon to be, that the young and pretty girls were kept within
+doors, and the old ones alone allowed the privilege of walking forth--a
+difference of condition that might almost induce the girls of Mytilene
+to wish for age and wrinkles.
+
+They did not, at Adalia, use us quite so ill as to withhold their ladies
+from the entertainment. The mother was there and a daughter--a young
+lady with the romantic name of D�d�. With such a name as this she ought
+to have been very pretty, and certainly she did not fall far short of
+such condition. It was clearly to be perceived that she was unaccustomed
+to mix in general society, and that the company of strange men disturbed
+her. But she was not ungraceful either in manner or dress, or in her
+evident desire to please. The place of our reception was in the central
+court, which the best kind of houses preserve--a contrivance which gives
+to each of the four sides on which the building is disposed, the
+advantages of a pure and thorough current of air. Here we sat drinking
+sherbet, and, of course, smoking the unfailing chibouque. The lady
+mother was painfully anxious to talk to us, and pretty Miss D�d� was
+seriously bent on listening; but we could not manage to execute a
+colloquy. All the civil things imaginable were expressed to us by
+gesture, and the young lady came out strong in the presentation of
+bouquets. One fortunate man received from her an orange, the only one
+remaining at that time in the garden; this we persuaded ourselves must,
+in their symbolical language, imply a declaration of some soft interest.
+Miss D�d� would not have been such a very bad _parti_, being, as she
+was, the sole heritress of her father's thousands. However, she was, we
+understood, engaged already to a youth, who was obeying the cruel law
+prevalent in this place, which compels the accepted swain to absent
+himself from his inamorata for a long probation. I think the time was
+said to be a year; during which no communication must pass between the
+parties. Should the first overtures of a suitor be rejected, it is a
+settled matter of etiquette, that he never again is to see or speak to
+the young lady. This must be likely, we would think, to render a man
+cautious in proposing: but certainly it must tend to lessen the number
+of eventual old maids, by rendering the young ladies also chary of
+saying No, when they mean Yes. On the whole, we can scarcely admire
+their matrimonial tactics. We found that we were among a family of
+H�djis. Miss D�d� was a Hadji, and so were her father and mother. In
+their case the place of pilgrimage is Jerusalem, a visit to which
+confers on them the respectable title of Hadji for life. This old
+gentleman had made a pious use of some of his money, by promoting the
+cause of pilgrimage among his less opulent brethren. The desire to tread
+the holy soil is common to them all; not only to the religious. These
+have their motives; but so also have the disorderly and wicked, who
+think that a world of cheating and ill-living is covered over by the
+wholesome cloak of pilgrimage. There are also certain less considerable
+places of pilgrimage, invested with considerable sanctity, though
+inferior in character to the one great rendezvous of the religious.
+Health to body seems often the expected result of visits to these
+secondary places, to which recourse will frequently be had when medical
+aid has failed to be available. D�d�'s father had made himself highly
+popular by chartering a vessel, and conveying, for charity's sake, as
+many devotees as chose to go on one of these minor expeditions. The
+island of Cyprus has a convent of peculiar sanctity, a visit to which is
+highly esteemed as an antidote to bodily ills. He gave a great number
+the opportunity of testing the truth of the tradition.
+
+It was not bad fun, after all, tarrying a few days in Adalia: only, by
+choice, we would hardly choose that particular season for the excursion.
+What between the Consul's gardens, and the old Greek, and the little bit
+of business we had upon our hands, we managed to get through the time
+pleasantly enough. We saw that we had here a good specimen of the
+variety of life commonly described as deadly-lively. Were it not that
+they have such a lot of strangers constantly passing through the place,
+they might seem to be in danger of a moral_anchylosis_--of falling into
+a state of mind so rusty, as to be incapable of direction to any object,
+save such as lay before them, in the way of immediate physical
+requirement. The few days that we remained there did not afford time
+enough for the disease to make much head with us. Indeed, for us it was
+a variety of experience, sufficiently stirring for the time, to mark the
+ways of a people so deeply buried in imperturbability and incuriosity.
+
+I think we were not sorry when at last the messenger returned from the
+Caimacan, and we found we were in condition to leave the place. The
+Consul was set on his legs again, and the English name in better odour
+than ever. The _attach�s_ of the consulate had taken care that our visit
+should fail in no degree of its wholesome influence, for want of their
+good word; and I fancy that the town's people thought themselves rather
+well off that we left their town standing. We left, too, with the full
+reputation for merciful dealing; as we had spared the poor soap-rioters
+the infliction of the bastinado.
+
+And so we sped on our way to Rhodes.
+
+
+
+
+PACIFIC ROVINGS.[C]
+
+
+We were much puzzled, a few weeks since, by a tantalising and
+unintelligible paragraph, pertinaciously reiterated in the London
+newspapers. Its brevity equalled its mystery; it consisted but of five
+words, the first and last in imposing majuscules. Thus it ran:--
+
+    "OMOO, by the author of TYPEE."
+
+With Trinculo we exclaimed, "What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or
+alive?" Who or what were Typee and Omoo? Were things or creatures thus
+designated? Did they exist on the earth, or in the air, or in the waters
+under the earth; were they spiritual or material, vegetable or mineral,
+brute or human? Were they newly-discovered planets, nicknamed whilst
+awaiting baptism, or strange fossils, contemporaries of the Megatherium,
+or Magyar dissyllables from Dr Bowring's vocabulary? Perchance they were
+a pair of new singers for the Garden, or a fresh brace of beasts for the
+legitimate drama at Drury. Omoo might be the heavy elephant; Typee the
+light-comedy camel. Did danger lurk in the enigmatical words? Were they
+obscure intimations of treasonable designs, Swing advertisements, or
+masonic signs? Was the palace at Westminster in peril? had an agent of
+sure of Barbarossa Joinville undermined the Trafalgar column? Were they
+conspirators' watchwords, lovers' letters, signals concerted between the
+robbers of Rogers's bank? We tried them anagrammatically, but in vain:
+there was nought to be made of Omoo; shake it as we would, the O's came
+uppermost; and by reversing Typee we obtained but a pitiful result. At
+last a bright gleam broke through the mist of conjecture. Omoo was a
+book. The outlandish title that had perplexed us was intended to
+perplex; it was a bait thrown out to that wide-mouthed fish, the public;
+a specimen of what is theatrically styled _gag_. Having but an
+indifferent opinion of books ushered into existence by such
+charlatanical manoeuvres, we thought no more of Omoo, until, musing
+the other day over our matutinal hyson, the volume itself was laid
+before us, and we suddenly found ourselves in the entertaining society
+of Marquesan Melville, the phoenix of modern voyagers, sprung, it
+would seem, from the mingled ashes of Captain Cook and Robin Crusoe.
+
+Those who have read M. Herman Melville's former work will remember,
+those who have not are informed by the introduction to the present one,
+that the author, an educated American, whom circumstances had shipped as
+a common sailor on board a South-Seaman, was left by his vessel on the
+island of Nukuheva, one of the Marquesan group. Here he remained some
+months, until taken off by a Sydney whaler, short-handed, and glad to
+catch him. At this point of his adventures he commences Omoo. The title
+is borrowed from the dialect of the Marquesas, and signifies a rover:
+the book is excellent, quite first-rate, the "clear grit," as Mr
+Melville's countrymen would say. Its chief fault, almost its only one,
+interferes little with the pleasure of reading it, will escape many, and
+is hardly worth insisting upon. Omoo is of the order composite, a
+skilfully concocted Robinsonade, where fictitious incident is
+ingeniously blended with genuine information. Doubtless its author has
+visited the countries he describes, but not in the capacity he states.
+He is no Munchausen; there is nothing improbable in his adventures, save
+their occurrence to himself, and that he should have been a man before
+the mast on board South-Sea traders, or whalers, or on any ship or ships
+whatever. His speech betrayeth him. His voyages and wanderings
+commenced, according to his own account, at least as far back as the
+year 1838; for aught we know they are not yet at an end. On leaving
+Tahiti in 1843, he made sail for Japan, and the very book before us may
+have been scribbled on the greasy deck of a whaler, whilst floating
+amidst the coral reefs of the wide Pacific. True that in his preface,
+and in the month of January of the present year, Mr Melville hails from
+New York; but in such matters we really place little dependence upon
+him. From his narrative we gather that this literary and gentlemanly
+common-sailor is quite a young man. His life, therefore, since he
+emerged from boyhood, has been spent in a ship's forecastle, amongst the
+wildest and most ignorant class of mariners. Yet his tone is refined and
+well-bred; he writes like one accustomed to good European society, who
+has read books and collected stores of information, other than could be
+perused or gathered in the places and amongst the rude associates he
+describes. These inconsistencies are glaring, and can hardly be
+explained. A wild freak or unfortunate act of folly, or a boyish thirst
+for adventure, sometimes drives lads of education to try life before the
+mast, but when suited for better things they seldom persevere; and Mr
+Melville does not seem to us the manner of man to rest long contented
+with the coarse company and humble lot of merchant seamen. Other
+discrepancies strike us in his book and character. The train of
+suspicion once lighted, the flame runs rapidly along. Our misgivings
+begin with the title-page. "Lovel or Belville," says the Laird of
+Monkbarns, "are just the names which youngsters are apt to assume on
+such occasions." And Herman Melville sounds to us vastly like the
+harmonious and carefully selected appellation of an imaginary hero of
+romance. Separately the names are not uncommon; we can urge no valid
+reason against their junction, and yet in this instance they fall
+suspiciously on our ear. We are similarly impressed by the dedication.
+Of the existence of Uncle Gansevoort, of Gansevoort, Saratoga County, we
+are wholly incredulous. We shall commission our New York correspondents
+to inquire as to the reality of Mr Melville's avuncular relative, and,
+until certified of his corporality, shall set down the gentleman with
+the Dutch patronymic as a member of an imaginary clan.
+
+Although glad to escape from Nukuheva, where he had been held in a sort
+of honourable captivity, Typee--the _alias_ bestowed upon the rover by
+his new shipmates, after the valley whence they rescued him--was but
+indifferently pleased with the vessel on which he left it, and whose
+articles he signed as a seaman for one cruise. The Julia was of a
+beautiful model, and on or before a wind she sailed like a witch; but
+that was all that could be said in her praise. She was rotten to the
+core, incommodious, and ill-provided, badly manned, and worse commanded.
+American-built, she dated from the Short war, had served as a privateer,
+been taken by the British, passed through many vicissitudes, and was in
+no condition for a long cruise in the Pacific. So mouldering was her
+fabric, that the reckless sailors, when seated in the forecastle, dug
+their knives into the dank boards between them and eternity as easily as
+into the moist sides of some old pollard oak. She was much dilapidated
+and rapidly becoming more so; for Black Baltimore, the ship's cook, when
+in want of firewood, did not scruple to hack splinters from the bits and
+beams. Lugubrious indeed was the aspect of the forecastle. Landsmen,
+whose ideas of a sailor's sleeping-place are taken from the snow-white
+hammocks and exquisitely clean berth-deck of a man of war, or from the
+rough, but substantial comfort of a well-appointed merchantman, can form
+no conception of the surpassing and countless abominations of a
+South-Sea whaler. The "Little Jule," as her crew affectionately styled
+her, was a craft of two hundred tons or thereabouts; she had sailed with
+thirty-two hands, whom desertion had reduced to twenty, but these were
+too many for the cramped and putrid nook in which they slept, ate, and
+smoked, and alternately desponded or were jovial, as sickness and
+discomfort, or a Saturday night's bottle and hopes of better luck, got
+the upper hand. Want of room, however, was one of the least grievances
+of which the Julia's crew complained. It was a mere trifle, not worth
+the naming. They could have submitted to close stowage had the dunnage
+been decent. But instead of swinging in cosy hammocks, they slept in
+_bunks_ or wretched pigeon-holes, on fragments of sails, unclean rags,
+blanket-shreds, and the like. Such unenviable accommodations ought
+hardly to have been disputed with their luckless possessors, who
+nevertheless were not allowed to occupy in peace their broken-down bunks
+and scanty bedding. Two races of creatures, time out of mind the curse
+of old ships in warm latitudes, infested the Julia's forecastle,
+resisting all efforts to dislodge or exterminate them, sometimes even
+getting the upper hand, dispossessing the tortured mariners, and driving
+them on deck in terror and despair. The sick only, hapless martyrs
+unable to leave their cribs, lay passive, if not resigned, and were
+trampled under foot by their ferocious and unfragrant foes. These were
+rats and cockroaches. Typee--we use the name he bore during his Julian
+tribulations--records a singular phenomenon in the nocturnal habits of
+the last-named vermin. "Every night they had a jubilee. The first
+symptom was an unusual clustering and humming amongst the swarms lining
+the beams overhead, and the inside of the sleeping-places. This was
+succeeded by a prodigious coming and going on the part of those living
+out of sight. Presently they all came forth; the larger sort racing over
+the chests and planks; winged monsters darting to and fro in the air;
+and the small fry buzzing in heaps almost in a state of fusion. On the
+first alarm, all who were able darted on deck; while some of the sick,
+who were too feeble, lay perfectly quiet, the distracted vermin running
+over them at pleasure. The performance lasted some ten minutes." Persons
+there are, weak enough to view with loathing and aversion certain sable
+insects that stray at night in kitchen or in pantry, and barbarous
+enough to circumvent and destroy the odoriferous coleopter� by artful
+devices of glass traps and scarlet wafers. Such persons will probably
+form their ideas of Typee's cockroaches from their own domestic
+opportunities of observation. That were unjust to the crew of the Julia,
+and would give no adequate idea of their sufferings. As a purring tabby
+to a roaring jaguar, so is a British black-beetle to a cock-roach of the
+Southern Seas. We back our assertion by a quotation from our lamented
+friend Captain Cringle, who in his especially graphic and attractive
+style thus hits off the peculiarities of this graceful insect. "When
+full grown," saith Thomas, "it is a large dingy brown-coloured beetle,
+about two inches long, with six legs, and two feelers as long as its
+body. It has a strong anti-hysterical flavour, something between rotten
+cheese and asafoetida, and seldom stirs abroad when the sun is up, but
+lies concealed in the most obscure and obscene crevices it can creep
+into; so that, when it is seen, its wings and body are thickly covered
+with dust and dirt of various shades, which any culprit who chances to
+fall asleep with his mouth open, is sure to reap the benefit of, as it
+has a great propensity to walk into it, partly for the sake of the
+crumbs adhering to the masticators, and also, apparently, with a
+scientific desire to inspect, by accurate admeasurement with the
+aforesaid antenn�, the state and condition of the whole potato-trap." A
+description worthy of Buffon. Such were the delicate monsters, the
+savoury sexipedes, with whom Typee and his comrades had to wage
+incessant war. They were worse even than the rats, which were certainly
+bad enough. "Tame as Trenck's mouse, they stood in their holes, peering
+at you like old grandfathers in a doorway;" watching for their prey, and
+disputing with the sailors the weevil-biscuit, rancid pork, and
+horse-beef, composing the Julia's stores; or smothering themselves, the
+luscious vermin, in molasses, which thereby acquired a rich wood-cock
+flavour, whose cause became manifest when the treacle-jar ran low,
+greatly to the disgust and consternation of the biped consumers. There
+were no delicate feeders on board, but this saccharine essence of rat
+was too much even for the unscrupulous stomachs of South-Sea whalers. A
+queer set they were on board that Sydney barque. Paper Jack, the
+captain, was a feeble Cockney, of meek spirit and puny frame, who glided
+about the vessel in a nankeen jacket and canvass pumps, a laughing-stock
+to his crew. The real command devolved upon the chief mate, John
+Jermin--a good sailor and brave fellow, but violent, and given to drink.
+The junior mate had deserted; of the four harpooners only one was left,
+a fierce barbarian of a New Zealander--an excellent mariner, whose stock
+of English was limited to nautical phrases and a frightful power of
+oath, but who, in spite of his cannibal origin, ranked as a sort of
+officer, in virtue of his harpoon, and took command of the ship when
+mate and captain were absent. What a capital story, by the bye, Typee
+tells us of one of this Bembo's whaling exploits! New Zealanders are
+brave and bloodthirsty, and excellent harpooners, and they act up to the
+South-Seaman's war-cry, "A dead whale or a stove boat!" There is a world
+of wild romance and thrilling adventure in the occasional glimpses of
+the whale fishery afforded us in Omoo; a strange picturesqueness and
+piratical mystery about the lawless class of seamen engaged in it. Such
+a portrait gallery as Typee makes out of the Julia's crew, beginning
+with Chips and Bungs, the carpenter and cooper, the "Cods," or leaders
+of the forecastle, and descending until he arrives at poor Rope Yarn, or
+Ropey, as he was called, a stunted journeyman baker from Holborn, the
+most helpless and forlorn of all land-lubbers, the butt and drudge of
+the ship's company! A Dane, a Portuguese, a Finlander, a savage
+from Hivarhoo, sundry English, Irish, and Americans, a daring
+Yankee _beach-comber_, called Salem, and Sydney Ben, a runaway
+ticket-of-leave-man, made up a crew much too weak to do any good in the
+whaling way. But the best fellow on board, and by far the most
+remarkable, was a disciple of Esculapius, known as Doctor Long-Ghost.
+Jermin is a good portrait; so is Captain Guy; but Long-Ghost is a jewel
+of a boy, a complete original, hit off with uncommon felicity. Nothing
+is told us of his early life. Typee takes him up on board the Julia,
+shakes hands with him in the last page of the book, and informs us that
+he has never since seen or heard of him. So we become acquainted with
+but a small section of the doctor's life; his subsequent adventures are
+unknown, and, save a chance hint or two, his previous career is a
+mystery, unfathomable as the Tahitian coast, where, within a biscuit's
+toss of the coral shore, soundings there are none. Now and then he would
+obscurely refer to days more palmy and prosperous than those spent on
+board the Julia. But however great the contrast between his former
+fortunes and his then lowly position, he exhibited much calm philosophy
+and cheerful resignation. He was even merry and facetious, a practical
+wag of the very first order, and as such a great favourite with the
+whole ship's company, the captain excepted. He had arrived at Sydney in
+an emigrant ship, had expended his resources, and entered as doctor on
+board the Julia. All British whalers are bound to carry a medico, who is
+treated as a gentleman, so long as he behaves as such, and has nothing
+to do but to drug the men and play drafts with the captain. At first
+Long-Ghost and Captain Guy hit it off very well; until, in an unlucky
+hour, a dispute about politics destroyed their harmonious association.
+The captain got a thrashing; the mutinous doctor was put in confinement
+and on bread and water, ran away from the ship, was pursued, captured,
+and again imprisoned. Released at last, he resigned his office, refused
+to do duty, and went forward amongst the men. This was more magnanimous
+than wise. Long-Ghost was a sort of medical Tom Coffin, a raw-boned
+giant, upwards of two yards high, one of those men to whom the
+between-decks of a small craft is a residence little less afflicting
+than one of Cardinal Balue's iron cages. And to one who "had certainly,
+at some time or other, spent money, drunk Burgundy, and associated with
+gentlemen," the Julia's forecastle must have contained a host of
+disagreeables, irrespective of rats and cockroaches, of its low roof,
+evil odours, damp timbers, and dungeon-like aspect. The captain's table,
+if less luxurious than that of a royal yacht or New York liner, surely
+offered something better than the biscuits, hard as gun-flints and
+thoroughly honeycombed, and the shot-soup, "great round peas polishing
+themselves like pebbles by rolling about in tepid water," on which the
+restive man of medicine was fain to exercise his grinders during his
+abode forward. As regarded society, he lost little by relinquishing that
+of Guy the Cockney, since he obtained in exchange the intimacy of
+Melville the Yankee, who, to judge from his book, must be exceeding good
+company, and to whom he was a great resource. The doctor was a man of
+learning and accomplishments, who had made the most of his time whilst
+the sun shone on his side the hedge, and had rolled his ungainly carcass
+over half the world. "He quoted Virgil, and talked of Hobbes of
+Malmsbury, besides repeating poetry by the canto, especially Hudibras.
+In the easiest way imaginable, he could refer to an amour he had in
+Palermo, his lion-hunting before breakfast among the Caffres, and the
+quality of the coffee to be drunk in Muscat." Strangely must such
+reminiscences have sounded in a whaler's forecastle, with Dunks the
+Dane, Finland Van, and Wymontoo the Savage, for auditors.
+
+The Julia had hitherto had little luck in her cruise, and could scarcely
+hope for better in the state in which Typee found her. Besides the
+losses by desertion, her crew was weakened by disease. Several of the
+men lay sick in their berths, wholly unfit for duty. The captain himself
+was ill, and all would have derived benefit from a short sojourn in
+port; but this could not be thought of. The discipline of the ship was
+bad, and the sailors, desperate and unruly fellows, discontented, as
+well they might be, with their wretched provisions and uncomfortable
+state, were not to be trusted on or near shore. Three-fourths of them,
+had they once set foot on dry land, would have absconded, taken refuge
+in the woods or amongst the savages, and have submitted to any amount of
+tattoo, paint, and nose-ringing, rather than return to the ship.
+Already, at St Christina, one of the Marquesas, a large party had made
+their escape in two of the four whale-boats, scuttling the third, and
+cutting the tackles of the fourth nearly through, so that when Bembo
+jumped in to clear it away, man and boat went souse into the water. By
+the assistance of a French corvette, and by bribing the king of the
+country with a musket and ammunition, the fugitives were captured. But
+it was more than probable that they and others would renew the attempt
+should opportunity offer; so there was no alternative but to keep the
+sea, and hope for better days and for the convalescence of the invalids.
+Two of these died. Neither Bible nor Prayer-book were on board the
+godless craft, and like dogs, without form of Christian burial, the dead
+were launched into the deep. The situation of the survivors inspired
+with considerable uneasiness the few amongst them capable of reflection.
+The captain was ignorant of navigation; it was the mate who, from the
+commencement of the voyage, had kept the ship's reckoning, and kept it
+all to himself. He had only to get washed overboard in a gale, or to
+walk over in a drunken fit, to leave his shipmates in a fix of the most
+unpleasant description, ignorant of latitude, longitude, and of
+everything else necessary to be known to guide the vessel on her course.
+And as to the sperm whales, which Jermin had promised them in such
+abundance that they would only have to strike and take, not a single fin
+showed itself. At last the captain was reported dying, and the mate took
+counsel with Long-Ghost, Typee, and others of the crew. He would gladly
+have continued the cruise, but his wish was overruled, and the whaler's
+stern was turned towards the Society Islands.
+
+The first glimpse of the peaks of Tahiti was hailed with transport by
+the Julia's weary mariners. They had got a notion that if the captain
+left the ship, their articles were no longer binding, and they should be
+free to follow his example. And, at any rate, the sickness on board and
+the shaky condition of the barque, guaranteed them, as they thought,
+long and blissful leisure amongst the waving palm-groves and soft-eyed
+Neuhas of Polynesia. Their arrival in sight of Papeetee, the Tahitian
+capital, was welcomed by the boom of cannon. The frigate Reine Blanche,
+at whose fore flew the flag of Admiral Du Petit Thouars, thus celebrated
+the compulsory treaty, concluded that morning, by which the island was
+ceded to the French.
+
+Captain Guy and his baggage were now set on shore, and it was soon
+apparent to his men that whilst he nursed himself in the pure climate
+and pleasant shades of Tahiti, they were to put to sea under the mate's
+orders, and after a certain time to touch again at the island, and take
+off their commander. The vessel was not even allowed to go into port,
+although needing repairs, and in fact unseaworthy; and as to healing the
+sick, selfish Paper Jack thought only of solacing his own infirmities.
+The fury of the ill-fed, reckless, discontented crew, on discovering the
+project of their superiors, passed all bounds. Chips and Bungs
+volunteered to head a mutiny, and a round-robin was drawn up and signed.
+But when Wilson, an old acquaintance of Guy's, and acting consul in the
+absence of missionary Pritchard, came on board, the gallant cooper, who
+derived much of his courage from the grog-kid, was cowed and craven. The
+grievances brought forward, amongst others that of the _salt-horse_, (a
+horse's hoof with the shoe on, so swore the cook, had been found in the
+pickle,) were treated as trifles and pooh-poohed by the functionary, "a
+minute gentleman with a viciously pugged nose, and a decidedly thin pair
+of legs." But if Bungs allowed himself to be brow-beaten, so did not his
+comrades. Yankee Salem flourished a bowie-knife, and such alarming
+demonstrations were made, that the _counsellor_, as the sailors
+persisted in calling the consul, thought it wise to beat a retreat.
+Jermin now tried his hand, holding out brilliant prospects of a rich
+cargo of sperm oil, and a pocket-full of dollars for every man on his
+return to Sydney. The mutineers were proof alike against menace and
+blandishment, and, at the secret instigation of Long Ghost and Typee,
+resolutely refused to do duty. The consul, who had promised to return,
+did not show; and at last the mate, having now but a few invalids and
+landsmen to work the ship and keep her off shore, was compelled to enter
+the harbour. The Julia came to an anchor within cable's length of the
+French frigate, on board which consul Wilson repaired to obtain
+assistance. The Reine Blanche was to sail in a few days for Valparaiso,
+and the mutineers expected to go with her and be delivered up to a
+British man-of-war. Undismayed by this prospect, they continued stanch
+in their contumacy, and presently an armed cutter, "painted a 'pirate
+black,' its crew a dark, grim-looking set, and the officers uncommonly
+fierce-looking little Frenchmen," conveyed them on board the frigate,
+where they were duly handcuffed, and secured by the ankle to a great
+iron bar bolted down to the berth-deck.
+
+Touching the proceedings on board the French man-of-war, its imperfect
+discipline, and the strange, un-nautical way of carrying on the duty,
+Typee is jocular and satirical. American though he be--and, but for
+occasional slight yankeeisms in his style, we might have doubted even
+that fact--he has evidently much more sympathy with his cousin John Bull
+than with his country's old allies, the French, whom he freely admits to
+be a clever and gallant nation, whilst he broadly hints that their
+valour is not likely to be displayed to advantage on the water. He finds
+too much of the military style about their marine institutions. Sailors
+should be fighting men, but not soldiers or musket-carriers, as they all
+are in turn in the French navy. He laughs at or objects to every thing;
+the mustaches of the officers, the system of punishment, the sour wine
+that replaces rum and water, the soup instead of junk, the pitiful
+little rolls baked on board, and distributed in lieu of hard biscuit.
+And whilst praising the build of their ships--the only thing about them
+he does praise--he ejaculates a hope, which sounds like a doubt, that
+they will not some day fall into the hands of the people across the
+Channel. "In case of war," he says, "what a fluttering of French ensigns
+there would be! for the Frenchman makes but an indifferent seaman, and
+though for the most part he fights well enough, somehow or other, he
+seldom fights well enough to beat:"--at sea, be it understood. We are
+rather at a loss to comprehend the familiarity shown by Typee with the
+internal arrangements and architecture of the Reine Blanche. His time on
+board was passed in fetters; at nightfall on the fifth day he left the
+ship. How, we are curious to know, did he become acquainted with the
+minute details of "the crack craft in the French navy," with the
+disposition of her guns and decks, the complicated machinery by which
+certain exceedingly simple things were done, and even with the rich
+hangings, mirrors, and mahogany of the commodore's cabin? Surely the
+ragged and disreputable mutineer of the Julia, whose foot had scarcely
+touched the gangway, when he was hurried into confinement below, could
+have had scanty opportunity for such observations: unless, indeed,
+Herman Melville, or Typee, or the Rover, or by whatever other _alias_ he
+be known, instead of creeping in at the hawse-holes, was welcomed on the
+quarter-deck and admitted to the gun-room, or to the commodore's cabin,
+an honoured guest in broad-cloth, not a despised merchant seaman in
+canvass frock and hat of tarpaulin. We shall not dwell on these small
+inconsistencies and oversights in an amusing book. We prefer
+accompanying the Julia's crew to Tahiti, where they were put on shore
+contrary to their expectations, and not altogether to their
+satisfaction, since they had anticipated a rapid run to Valparaiso, the
+fag-end of a cruise in an English man-of-war, and a speedy discharge at
+Portsmouth. Paper Jack and Consul Wilson had other designs, and still
+hoped to reclaim them to their duty on board the crazy Julia. On their
+stubborn refusal, they were given in charge to a fat, good-humoured, old
+Tahitian, called Captain Bob, who, at the head of an escort of natives,
+conveyed them up the country to a sort of shed, known as the Calabooza
+Beretanee or English jail, used as a prison for refractory sailors. This
+commences Typee's shore-going adventures, not less pleasant and original
+than his sea-faring ones; although it is with some regret that we lose
+sight of the vermin-haunted barque, on whose board such strange and
+exciting scenes occurred.
+
+Throughout the book, however, fun and incident abound, and we are
+consoled for our separation from poor little Jule, by the curious
+insight we obtain into the manners, morals, and condition of the gentle
+savages, on whom an attempted civilisation has brought far more curses
+than blessings.
+
+    "How pleasant were the songs of Toobonai,"
+
+how gladsome and grateful the rustle of leaves and tinkle of rills, and
+silver-toned voices of Tahitian maidens, to the rough seamen who had so
+long been "cabined, cribbed, confined," in the Julia's filthy
+forecastle! Not that they were allowed free range of the Eden of the
+South Seas. On board the Reine Blanche their ankles had been manacled to
+an iron bar; in the Calabooza, (from the Spanish _calabozo_, a dungeon,)
+they were placed in rude wooden stocks twenty feet long, constructed for
+the particular benefit of refractory mariners. There they lay, merry men
+all of a row, fed upon _taro_ (Indian turnip) and bread-fruit, and
+covered up at night with one huge counterpane of brown _tappa_, the
+native cloth. It was owing to no friendly indulgence on the part of Guy
+and the consul, that their diet was so agreeable and salutary. Every
+morning Ropey came grinning into the prison, with a bucket full of the
+old worm-eaten biscuit from the Julia. It was a huge treat to the
+unfortunate Cockney, thus to be instrumental in the annoyance of his
+former persecutors; and lucky for him that their limbo'd legs prevented
+their rewarding his visible exultation otherwise than by a shower of
+maledictions. They swore to starve rather than consume the maggoty
+provender. Luckily the natives had it in very different estimation. They
+did not mind maggots, and held British biscuit to be a piquant and
+delicious delicacy. So in exchange for their allotted ration, the
+mutineers obtained a small quantity of vegetable food, and an unlimited
+supply of oranges, thanks to which refreshing regimen the sick were
+speedily restored to health. And after a few days of stocks and
+submission, jolly old Captain Bob, who spoke sailor's English, and
+obstinately claimed intimacy with Captain Cook,--whose visit to the
+island had occurred some years before his birth--relaxed his severity,
+and allowed the captives their freedom during the day. They profited of
+this permission to forage a little, in a quiet way; assisting at
+pig-killings, and dropping in at dinner-time upon the wealthier of their
+neighbours. Tahitian hospitality is boundless, and the more praiseworthy
+that the island, although so fertile, produces but a scanty amount of
+edibles. Bread-fruit is the chief resource; fish, a very important one,
+the chief dependence of many of the poorer natives. There is little
+industry amongst them, and on the spontaneous produce of the soil the
+shipping make heavy demands. Polynesian indolence is proverbial. Very
+light labour would enable the Tahitians to roll in riches, at least
+according to their own estimate of the value of money and of the
+luxuries it procures. The sugar-cane is indigenous to the island, and of
+remarkably fine quality; cotton is of ready growth; but the fine
+existing plantations "are owned and worked by whites, who would rather
+pay a drunken sailor eighteen or twenty Spanish dollars a month, than
+hire a sober native for his fish and _taro_." Wholly without energy, the
+Tahitians saunter away their lives in a state of drowsy indolence,
+aiming only at the avoidance of trouble, and the sensual enjoyment of
+the moment. The race rapidly diminishes. "In 1777, Captain Cook
+estimated the population of Tahiti at about two hundred thousand. By a
+regular census taken some four or five years ago, it was found to be
+only nine thousand!" Diseases of various kinds, entirely of European
+introduction, and chiefly the result of drunkenness and debauchery,
+account for this frightful decrease, which must result in the extinction
+of the aborigines.
+
+    "The palm-tree shall grow,
+    The coral shall spread,
+    But man shall cease."
+
+So runs an old Tahitian prophecy, soon to be realised. And if Pomaree,
+who is under forty years of age, proves a long-lived sovereign, she may
+chance to find herself a queen without subjects. Concerning her majesty
+and her court, Typee is diffuse and diverting. This is an age of queens,
+and although her dominions be of the smallest, her people few and
+feeble, and her prerogative wofully clipped, she of Tahiti has made some
+noise in the world, and attracted a fair share of public attention. At
+one time, indeed, she was almost as much thought of and talked about as
+her more civilised and puissant European sisters. In France, _La Reine
+Pomar�e_ was looked upon as a far more interesting personage than
+Spanish Isabel or Portuguese Maria; and extraordinary notions were
+formed as to the appearance, habits, and attributes of her dusky
+majesty. Distance favoured delusion, and French imagination ran riot in
+conjecture, until the reports of the valiant Thonars, and his squadron
+of protection, dissipated the enchantment, and reduced Pomaree to her
+true character, that of a lazy, dirty, licentious, Polynesian savage,
+who walks about barefoot, drinks spirits, and hen-pecks her husband. Her
+real name is Aimata, but she assumed, on ascending the throne, the royal
+patronymic by which she is best known. There were C�sars in Rome, there
+are Pomarees in Tahiti. The name was originally assumed by the great
+Otoo, (to be read of in Captain Cook,) who united the whole island under
+one crown. It descended to his son, and then to his grandson, who came
+to the throne an infant, and, dying young, was succeeded by her present
+majesty, Pomaree Vahinee I., the first female Pomaree. This lady has
+been twice married. Her first husband was a king's son, but the union
+was ill assorted, a divorce obtained, and she took up with one Tanee, a
+chief from the neighbouring island of Imeco. She leads him a dog's life,
+and he consoles himself by getting drunk. In that state, he now and then
+violently breaks out, contemns the royal authority, thrashes his wife,
+and smashes the crockery. Captain Bob gave Typee an account of a burst
+of this sort, which occurred about seven years ago. Stimulated by the
+seditious advice of his boon companions, and under the influence of an
+unusually large dose of strong waters, the turbulent king-consort forgot
+the respect due to his wife and sovereign, mounted his horse, and ran
+full tilt at the royal cavalcade, out for their afternoon ride in the
+park. One maid of honour was floored, the rest fled in terror, save and
+except Pomaree, who stood her ground like a man, and apostrophised her
+insubordinate spouse in the choicest Tahitian Billingsgate. For once her
+eloquence failed of effect. Dragged from her horse, her personal charms
+were deteriorated by a severe thumping on the face. This done,
+Othello-Tanee attempted to strangle her, and was in a fair way to
+succeed, when her loving subjects came to her rescue. So heinous a crime
+could not be overlooked, and Tanee, was banished to his native island;
+but after a short time he declared his penitence, made _amende
+honorable_, and was restored to favour. He does not very often venture
+to thwart the will of his royal wife, much less to raise his hand
+against her sacred person, but submits with exemplary patience to her
+caprices and abuse, and even to the manual admonitions she not
+unfrequently bestows upon him.
+
+Upon the whole, life, at the Calabooza was not very disagreeable. The
+prisoners, now only nominally so, had little to complain of, except
+occasional short commons, arising not from unwillingness, but from
+disability, on the part of the kind-hearted natives, to satisfy the
+cravings of the hungry whalers, whose appetites were remarkable,
+especially that of lanky Doctor Long Ghost. The doctor was a stickler
+for quality as well as quantity; the memory of his claret and beccafico
+days still clung to him, like the scent of the roses to Tom Moore's
+broken gallipot: he was curious in condiments, and whilst devouring,
+grumbled at the unseasoned viands of Tahiti. Cayenne and Harvey abounded
+not in those latitudes, but pepper and salt were on board the Julia, and
+the doctor prevailed on Rope Yarn to bring him a supply. "This he placed
+in a small leather wallet, a monkey bag (so called by sailors) usually
+worn as a purse about the neck. 'In my poor opinion,' said Long Ghost,
+as he tucked the wallet out of sight, 'it behoves a stranger in Tahiti
+to have his knife in readiness, and his castor slung.'" And thus
+equipped, the doctor and his brethren in captivity rambled over the
+verdant slopes and through the cool groves of Tahiti, bathed in the
+mountain streams, and luxuriated in orange orchards, where "the trees
+formed a dense shade, spreading overhead a dark, rustling vault, groined
+with boughs, and studded here and there with the ripened spheres, like
+gilded balls." Then they had plenty of society; native visitors flocked
+to see them, and Doctor Johnson, a resident English physician, was
+constant in his attendance, knowing that the Consul must pay his bill.
+Three French priests also called upon them, one of whom proved to be no
+Frenchman, but a portly, handsome, good-humoured Irishman, well known
+and much disliked by the Polynesian protestant missionaries. A strong
+attempt was made by Guy and Wilson to get the men to do duty. A schooner
+was about to sail for Sydney, and they were threatened to be sent
+thither for trial. They still refused to hand rope or break biscuit on
+board the Julia. Long Ghost made some cutting remarks on the captain;
+and the sailors, who had been taken down to the Consul's office for
+examination, began to bully, and talked of carrying off Consul and
+Captain to bear them company in the Calabooza. The same ill success
+attended subsequent attempts, until Captain Guy was compelled to look
+out for another crew, which he obtained with difficulty, and by a
+considerable advance of hard dollars. And at last, "It was Sunday in
+Tahiti, and a glorious morning, when Captain Bob, waddling into the
+Calabooza, startled us by announcing, 'Ah, my boy--shippee you,
+harree--maky sail!' in other words, the Julia was off," and had taken
+her stores of old biscuit with her: so the next morning the inmates of
+the Calabooza were without rations. The Consul would supply none, and it
+was pretty evident that he rather desired the departure of the obstinate
+seamen from that part of the island. The whole of his proceedings with
+regard to them had served but to render him ridiculous, and he wished
+them out of his neighbourhood; but the ex-prisoners found themselves
+pretty comfortable, and preferred remaining. They were better off than
+they had for some time been, for Jermin--not such a bad fellow, after
+all--had sent them their chests ashore; and these, besides supplying
+them with sundry necessaries, gave them immense importance in Tahitian
+eyes. They had been kindly treated before, but now they were courted and
+flattered, like younger sons in marching regiments, who suddenly step
+into the family acres. The natives crowded round them, eager to swear
+eternal friendship, according to an old Polynesian custom, once
+universal in the islands, but that has fallen into considerable disuse,
+except when something is to be gained by its observance. A gentleman of
+the name of Kooloo fixed his affections upon Typee--or rather upon his
+goods and chattels; for when he had wheedled him out of a regatta shirt,
+and other small pieces of finery, he transferred his affections to a
+newly-arrived sailor, whose chest was better lined, and who bestowed on
+him a love-token, in the shape of a heavy pea-jacket. In this garment,
+closely buttoned up, Kooloo took morning promenades, with the tropical
+sun glaring down upon him. He frequently met his former friend, but
+passed him with a careless "How d'ye do?" which presently dwindled into
+a nod. "In one week's time," says poor Typee, "he gave me the cut
+direct, and lounged by without even nodding. He must have taken me for
+part of the landscape."
+
+After a while the contents of the chests, and even the chests
+themselves--esteemed by the Tahitians most valuable pieces of
+furniture--were given or bartered away, and, as the Consul still refused
+them rations, the sailors knew not how to live. The natives helped them
+as much as they could, but their larders were scantily furnished, and
+they grew tired of feeding fifteen hungry idlers. So at last the latter
+made a morning call upon the Consul, who, being unwilling to withdraw,
+and equally so to press, charges which he knew would not be sustained,
+refused to have any thing to say to them. Thereupon some of the party,
+strong in principle and resolution, and seeing how grievous an annoyance
+their presence was to their enemy, Wilson, swore to abide near him and
+never to leave him. Others, less obstinate or more impatient of a
+change, resolved to decamp from the Calabooza. The first to depart were
+Typee and Long Ghost. They had received intelligence of a new plantation
+in Imeco, recently formed by foreigners, who wanted white labourers, and
+were expected at Papeetee to seek them. With these men they took service
+under the names of Peter and Paul, at wages of fifteen silver dollars a
+month; and, after an affecting separation from their shipmates--whose
+respectable character may be judged of by the fact, that one of them
+picked Long Ghost's pocket in the very act of embracing him,--they
+sailed away for Imeco, and arrived without accident in the valley of
+Martair, where the plantation was situate. The chapters recording their
+stay here are amongst the very best in the book, full of rich, quiet
+fun. Typee gives a capital description of his employers. They were two
+in number, both "whole-souled fellows; one was a tall robust Yankee,
+born in the backwoods of Maine, sallow, and with a long face; the other,
+a short little Cockney who had first clapped his eyes on the Monument."
+Zeke the Yankee, had christened his comrade "Shorty;" and Shorty looked
+up to him with respect, and yielded to him in most things. Both showed
+themselves well disposed towards their new labourers, whom they at once
+discovered to be superior to their station. And they soon found their
+society so agreeable, that they were willing to keep them to do little
+more than nominal work. As to making them efficient farm servants, they
+quickly gave up that idea. As a sailor, Typee had little fancy for
+husbandry; and the doctor found his long back terribly in his way when
+requested to dig potatoes and root up stumps, under a sun which, as
+Shorty said, "was hot enough to melt the nose hoff a brass monkey." Long
+Ghost very soon gave in; the extraction of a single tree-root settled
+him; he pleaded illness, and retired to his hammock, but was
+considerably vexed when he heard the Yankee propose a bullock hunting
+expedition, in which, as a sick man, he could not decently take part.
+This was only the prologue to his annoyances. Musquitoes, unknown in
+Tahiti, abound in Imeeo. They were brought there, according to a native
+tradition, by one Nathan Coleman, of Nantucket, who, in revenge for some
+fancied grievance, towed a rotten water-cask ashore, and left it in a
+neglected _taro_ patch, where the ground was moist and warm. Musquitoes
+were the result. "When tormented by them, I found much relief in
+coupling the word Coleman with another of one syllable, and pronouncing
+them together energetically." The musquito chapter is very amusing,
+showing the various comical and ingenious manoeuvres of the friends to
+avoid their tormentors, and obtain a night's sleep. At last they entered
+a fishing canoe, paddled some distance from shore, and dropped the
+native anchor, a stone secured to a rope. They were awakened in the
+morning by the motion of their boat. Zeke was wading in the shallow
+water, and towing them from a reef towards which they had drifted. "The
+water-sprites had rolled our stone out of its noose, and we had floated
+away." This was a narrow escape, but nevertheless they stuck to their
+floating bedstead as the only possible sleeping place. A day's
+successful hunting, followed by a famous supper and jollification under
+a banian-tree, put the doctor in good humour, and he made himself vastly
+agreeable. The natives beheld his waggish pranks with infinite
+admiration, and Zeke looked upon him with particular favour; so much so,
+that when upon the following morning an order came from a ship at
+Papeetee, for a supply of potatoes, he almost hesitated to tell funny
+Peter to assist in digging them up. But the emergency pressed, and the
+work must be done. So Peter and Paul were set to unearth the vegetables.
+This was no very cruel task, for "the rich tawny soil seemed specially
+adapted to the crop; the great yellow murphies rolling out of the hills
+like eggs from a nest." But when they were dug up, they had to be
+carried to the beach; and to this part of the business the lazy
+adventurers had a special dislike, although Zeke kindly provided them,
+to lighten their toil, with what he called the barrel machine--a sort of
+rural sedan, in which the servants carried their loads with comparative
+ease, whilst their employers sweated under shouldered hampers. But no
+alleviation could reconcile the sailor and the physician to this novel
+and unpleasant labour, and the potato-digging was the last piece of
+work, deserving the name, that either of them did. A few days afterwards
+they gave their masters warning, greatly to the vexation of Zeke,
+although he received the notice--with true Yankee imperturbability. He
+proposed that Long Ghost, who, after the hunt, had shown, considerable
+culinary skill, should assume the office of cook, and that Paul-Typee
+should only work when it suited him, which would not have been very
+often. The offer was friendly and favourable, but it was refused. A
+hospitable invitation to remain as guests as long as was convenient to
+them, was likewise rejected, and, bent upon a ramble, the restless
+adventurers left the vale of Martair. Even greater inducements would
+probably have been insufficient to keep them there. They had been so
+long on the rove, that change of scene had become essential to their
+happiness. The doctor, especially, was anxious to be off to Tamai, an
+inland village on the borders of a lake, where the fruits were the
+finest, and the women the most beautiful and unsophisticated in all the
+Society Islands. Epicurean Long Ghost had set his mind upon visiting
+this terrestrial paradise, and thither his steady chum willingly
+accompanied him. It was a day's journey on foot, allowing time for
+dinner and siesta; and the path lay through wood and ravine, unpeopled
+save by wild cattle. About noon they reached the heart of the island,
+thus pleasantly described. "It was a green, cool hollow among the
+mountains, into which we at last descended with a bound. The place was
+gushing with a hundred springs, and shaded over with great solemn trees,
+on whose mossy boles the moisture stood in beads." There is something
+delightfully hydropathic in these lines; they cool one like a
+shower-bath. He is a prime fellow, this common sailor Melville, at such
+scraps of description, terse and true, placing the scene before us in
+ten words. In long yarns he indulges not, but of such happy touches as
+the above, we could quote a score. We have not room, either for them,
+or for an account of the valley of Tamai, its hospitable inhabitants,
+and its heathenish dances, performed in secret, and in dread of the
+missionaries, by whom such saturnalia are forbidden. The place was
+altogether so pleasant, that the doctor and his friend entertained
+serious thoughts of settling there, or at least of making a long stay,
+when one morning they were put to flight by the arrival of strangers,
+said to be missionaries, with whom, vagrants as they were, they had no
+wish to fall in. So they returned to their friend Zeke, nursing new and
+ambitious projects. They had no intention of remaining with the
+good-hearted Yankee, but merely paid him a flying visit, and that with
+an interested motive. What they wanted of him was this. Although feeling
+themselves gentlemen every inch, they were not always able to convince
+the world of their respectability. So they resolved to have a passport,
+and pitched upon Zeke to manufacture it, he being well known and much
+respected in Imeeo. Zeke was gratified by the compliment, and set to
+work with a rooster's quill, and a piece of dirty paper. "Evidently he
+was not accustomed to composition; for his literary throes were so
+violent, that the doctor suggested that some sort of a C�sarian
+operation might be necessary. The precious paper was at last finished;
+and a great curiosity it was. We were much diverted with his reasons for
+not dating it. 'In this here damned climate,' he observed, 'a feller
+can't keep the run of the months, no how; 'cause there's no seasons, no
+summer and winter to go by. One's etarnally thinking it's always July,
+it's so pesky hot.' A passport provided, we cast about for some means of
+getting to Taloo."
+
+The decline of the Tahitian monarchy--the degradation of the regal house
+of Pomaree, is painful to contemplate. The queen still wears a crown--a
+tinsel one, received as a present from her sister-sovereign of
+England,--she has also a court and a palace, such as they are; but her
+power is little more than nominal, her exchequer seldom otherwise than
+empty. Typee draws a touching contrast between times past and present.
+"'I'm a greater man than King George,' said the incorrigible young Otoo,
+to the first missionaries; 'he rides on a horse and I on a man.' Such
+was the case. He travelled post through his dominions on the shoulders
+of his subjects, and relays of immortal beings were provided in all the
+valleys. But, alas! how times have changed! how transient human
+greatness! Some years since, Pomaree Vahinee I., granddaughter of the
+proud Otoo, went into the laundry business, publicly soliciting, by her
+agents, the washing of the linen belonging to officers of ships touching
+in her harbours." Into the court of this washerwoman-queen, Typee and
+Long Ghost were exceedingly anxious to penetrate. Vague ideas of favour
+and preferment haunted their brains. During their Polynesian cruise,
+they had seen many instances of rapid advancement; vagabond foreigners,
+of all nations, domesticated in the families of chiefs and kings, and
+sometimes married to their daughters and sharing their power. At one of
+the Tonga islands, a scamp of a Welshman officiated as cupbearer to the
+king of the cannibals. The monarch of the Sandwich islands has three
+foreigners about his court--a Negro to beat the drum, a wooden-legged
+Portuguese to play the fiddle, and Mordecai, a juggler, to amuse his
+majesty with cups and balls and sleight of hand. On the Marquesan island
+of Hivarhoo, they had found an English sailor who had attained to the
+highest dignity in the country. He had deserted from a merchant ship,
+and at once set up, on his own hook, as an independent sovereign,
+without dominions, but by disposition most belligerent. A musket and a
+store of cartridges were his whole possessions; but in a land where war
+was rife, carried on with the primitive weapons of spear and javelin,
+they were sufficiently important to make a native prince covet his
+alliance. His first battle was a decisive victory, a perfect Waterloo,
+and he became the Wellington of Hivarhoo, receiving, as reward for his
+distinguished services, the hand of a princess, and a splendid dowry of
+hogs, mats, and other produce. To conform to the prejudices of his new
+family, he allowed himself to be tattooed, tabooed, and otherwise
+paganized, becoming as big a savage as any in the island. A blue shark
+adorned his forehead; a broad bar, of the same colour, traversed his
+face. The tabooing was a less ornamental but more decidedly useful
+formality, for by it his person was declared sacred and inviolable.
+Typee and his medical friend had a strong prejudice against cerulean
+sharks and the like embellishments; but if these could be dispensed
+with, they felt no disinclination to form part of Pomaree's household.
+They had not quite made up their minds what office would best suit them,
+but their circumstances were unprosperous, and they resolved not to be
+particular. They understood that the queen was mustering around her all
+the foreigners she could recruit, to make head against the French. She
+was then at Taloo, a village on the coast of Imeeo, and thither the two
+adventurers betook themselves, hoping to be at once elevated to
+important posts at court; but quite resigned, in case of disappointment,
+to work as day-labourers in a sugar-plantation, or go to sea in a
+whaler, then in the harbour for wood and water. Disgusted with their
+desultory, hand-to-mouth existence, they yearned after respectability
+and a prime-ministership. To their sanguine anticipations, both of these
+seemed easy of attainment. Long Ghost, indeed, who, amongst his various
+accomplishments, was a very Orpheus upon the violin, insisted strongly
+upon the probability of his becoming a Tahitian Rizzio. But a necessary
+preliminary to the realisation of these day-dreams, was a presentation
+at court, and that was difficult to obtain. Once before Queen Pomaree,
+they doubted not but she, with Napoleonic sagacity, would discern their
+merits, and forthwith make Typee her admiral, and Long Ghost
+inspector-general of hospitals. But they lacked an introduction. The
+proper course, according to the practice of travelling nobodies,
+desirous of intruding their plebeianism into a foreign court, would have
+been to apply to their ambassadors. Unfortunately Deputy-Consul Wilson,
+the only person at hand of a diplomatic character, was by no means
+disposed to act as master of the ceremonies to the insurgents of the
+Julia. And their costume, it must be confessed, scarcely qualified them
+to appear at levee or drawing-room. A short time previously, their
+ragged and variegated garb had given them much the look of a brace of
+Polynesian Robert Macaires. Typee had made himself a new frock out of
+two old ones, a blue and a red, the irregular mingling of the colours
+producing a pleasing parrot-like effect; a tattered shirt of printed
+calico was twisted round his head, turban-fashion, the sleeves dangling
+behind, and bullock's-hide sandals protected his feet. The doctor was
+still more fantastical in his attire. He sported a _roora_, a garment
+similar to the South American poncho, a sort of mantle or blanket, with
+a hole in the centre, through which the head passes. This simple article
+of apparel, which in the doctor's case was of coarse brown tappa, fell
+in folds around his angular carcass, and in conjunction with a
+broad-brimmed hat of Panama grass, gave him the aspect of a decayed
+grandee. Thus clad, the two friends arrived in the neighbourhood of the
+royal residence, and there were fortunate enough to fall in with Mrs
+Po-Po, a benevolent Tahitian matron, who provided them with clean frocks
+and trousers, such as sailors wear, and in all respects was as good as a
+mother to them. Her husband, Jeremiah Po-Po, a man of substance and
+consideration, made them welcome in his house, fed and fostered them,
+without hope of fee or recompense. A little of this generous hospitality
+was owing to the hypocrisy of that villain, Long Ghost, who, finding his
+entertainers devoutly disposed, muttered a "Grace before Meat" over the
+succulent little porkers, baked _� la fa�on de Barbarie_ in the ground,
+upon which their kind-hearted Amphitrion regaled them. But neither clean
+canvass, nor simulated piety, sufficed to draw upon the ambitious
+schemers the favourable notice of Queen Pomaree. Accustomed to sailors,
+she held them cheap. A uniform, though but the moth-eaten undress of a
+militia ensign, would have been a powerful auxiliary to their projects
+of aggrandisement. Like some others of her sex, Pomaree loves a
+soldier's coat, and maintained in more prosperous days a formidable
+regiment of body-guards, in pasteboard shakos, and without breeches.
+
+To go to court, however, Typee and his comrade were fully resolved; and
+they were not very scrupulous as to the manner of their introduction.
+They made up to a Marquesan gentleman of herculean proportions, whose
+office it was to take the princes of the blood an airing in his arms.
+Typee, who spoke his language, and had been at his native village, soon
+ingratiated himself with Marbonna, who introduced them to one of the
+queen's chamberlains. Bribery and corruption now came into play: a plug
+of tobacco, proved an excellent passport to within the royal precincts,
+but then Marbonna was suddenly called away, and the intruders found
+themselves abandoned to their fate amongst the ladies of the court,
+amiable and affable damsels, whom a little "soft sawder" induced to
+conduct them into the queen's own drawing room. Here were collected
+numerous costly articles of European manufacture, sent as presents to
+Pomaree. Writing-desks, cut glass and beautiful china, valuable
+engravings, and gilt candelabras, arms and instruments of all kinds, lay
+scratched and broken, musty and rusting amongst greasy calabashes, old
+matting, paddles, fish-spears, and rubbish of all kinds. It was
+supper-time; and presently the queen came out of her private boudoir,
+attired in a blue silk gown and rich shawls, but without shoes or
+stockings. She lay down upon a mat, and fed herself with her fingers.
+Presumptuous Long Ghost, unabashed before royalty, was for immediately
+introducing himself and friend; but the attendants opposed this forward
+proceeding, and, in doing so, made such a fuss that the queen looked up
+from her calabash of fish, perceived the strangers, and ordered them
+out. Such was the first and last interview between Typee the mariner and
+Pomaree the queen.
+
+"Disappointed in going to court, we determined upon going to sea." The
+Leviathan, an American whaler, lay in harbour, and Typee shipped on
+board her. Long Ghost would have done the same, but the Yankee captain
+disliked the cut of his jib, swore he was a "Sidney bird," and would
+have nought to say to him. So Typee divided his advance of wages with
+the medical spectre--drank with him a parting bottle of wine,
+surreptitiously purchased from a pilfering member of Pomaree's
+household--and sailed on a whaling cruise to the coast of Japan. We look
+forward with confidence and interest to an account of what there befel
+him.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[C] _Omoo; A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas._ By HERMAN
+MELVILLE. London: 1847.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF THE BREAD NOW IN USE.
+
+BY PROFESSOR JOHNSTON.
+
+
+A few plain words on this subject may not be unacceptable to the popular
+reader at the present time.
+
+We are fond of what is agreeable to the eye as well as pleasant to the
+taste, and therefore we love to have our bread made of the whitest and
+finest of the wheat. Attaching superior excellence to what thus pleases
+the eye, we call the good Scotch bannock an inferior food, and the
+wholesome black bread of the north of Europe a disgusting article of
+diet. When our experience and knowledge are local and confined, our
+opinions necessarily partake of a similar character.
+
+In regard to the different qualities of wheaten flour, our judgments are
+not so severe. All things which pertain to this aristocratic grain--this
+staff of English life--like the liveries and horses of a great man--are
+treated with a certain degree of respect. Still, they are only the
+appendages of the noble seed, and the more thoroughly they are got rid
+of, the better the kernel is supposed to become.
+
+In many of our old-fashioned families, indeed, the practice still
+lingers of baking bread from the whole meal of wheat for common use in
+the kitchen or hall, and for occasional consumption on the master's
+table. An enthusiastic physician also now and then rouses himself, and
+does battle with the national organs of taste on behalf of the darker
+bread, and the browner flour--and dyspeptic old gentlemen or mammas who
+have over-pampered their sickly darlings, listen to his fervid warnings,
+and the star of the brown loaf is for a month or two in the ascendant.
+
+But gradually the warning sound is lost to the alarmed ear, and the
+pulses of the commoved air waft it on to mingle with the thousand other
+long-quenched voices which people the distant realms of space, and form
+together that unutterable harmony which, by consent of the poets, is
+named the music of the spheres.
+
+There are times, however, when good men, though aware of this passing
+tendency of human efforts, and of the thankless impotency of a struggle
+against the public voice--that _vox populi_ which wise men (so-called)
+have pronounced to be also _vox Dei_--will nevertheless return to what
+they believe to be a useful though unvalued labour. The present is one
+in which any thing which can be said in favour of the less-valued parts
+of our imperial grain, will be more readily listened to than at any
+other period in the life-time of the existing generation; and being
+listened to, may be productive of the greatest national good.
+
+I propose, therefore, to show, in an intelligible manner, that whole
+meal flour is really more nourishing, as well as more wholesome, than
+fine white flour as food for man.
+
+The solid parts of the human body consist, principally, of three several
+portions: the fat, the muscle, and the bone. These three substances are
+liable to constant waste in the living body, and therefore must be
+constantly renewed from the food that we eat. The vegetable food we
+consume contains these three substances almost ready formed. The plant
+is the brick-maker. The animal voluntarily introduces these bricks into
+its stomach, and then involuntarily--through the operation of the
+mysterious machinery within--picks out these bricks, transports them to
+the different parts of the body, and builds them into their appropriate
+places. As the miller at his mill throws into the hopper the unground
+grain, and forthwith, by the involuntary movements of the machinery,
+receives in his several sacks the fine flour, the seconds, the
+middlings, the pollard, and the bran; so in the human body, by a still
+more refined separation, the fat is extracted and deposited here, the
+muscular matter there, and the bony material in a third locality, where
+it can not only be stored up, but where its presence is actually at the
+moment necessary.
+
+Again, the fluid parts of the body contain the same substances in a
+liquid form, on their way to or from the several parts of the body in
+which they are required. They include also a portion of salt or saline
+matter which is dissolved in them, as we dissolve common salt in our
+soup, or Epsom salts in the pleasant draughts with which our doctors
+delight to vex us. This saline matter is also obtained from the food.
+
+Now, it is self-evident, that that food must be the most nourishing
+which supplies all these ingredients of the body most abundantly on the
+whole, or in proportions most suited to the actual wants of the
+individual animal to which it is given.
+
+How stands the question, then, in regard to this point between the brown
+bread and the white--the fine flour, and the whole meal of wheat?
+
+The grain of wheat consists of two parts, with which the miller is
+familiar--the inner grain and the skin that covers it. The inner grain
+gives the pure wheat flour; the skin, when separated, forms the bran.
+The miller cannot entirely peel off the skin from his grain, and thus
+some of it is unavoidably ground up with his flour. By sifting, he
+separates it more or less completely: his seconds, middlings, &c., owing
+their colour to the proportion of brown bran that has passed through the
+sieve along with the flour. The whole meal, as it is called, of which
+the so-named brown _household bread_ is made, consists of the entire
+grain ground up together--used as it comes from the mill-stones
+unsifted, and therefore containing all the bran.
+
+The first white flour, therefore, may be said to contain no bran, while
+the whole meal contains all that grew naturally upon the grain.
+
+What is the composition of these two portions of the seed? How much do
+they respectively contain of the several constituents of the animal
+body? How much of each is contained also in the whole grain?
+
+1. _The fat._ Of this ingredient a thousand pounds of the
+
+    Whole grain contain 28 lbs.
+    Fine Flour,    "    20  "
+    Bran,          "    60  "
+
+So that the bran is much richer in fat than the interior part of the
+grain, and the whole grain ground together (whole meal) richer than the
+finer part of the flour in the proportion of nearly one half.
+
+2. _The muscular matter._ I have had no opportunity as yet of
+ascertaining the relative proportions of this ingredient in the bran and
+fine flour of the same sample of grain. Numerous experiments, however,
+have been made in my laboratory, to determine these proportions in the
+fine flour and whole seed of several varieties of grain. The general
+result of these is, that the whole grain uniformly contains a larger
+quantity, weight for weight, than the fine flour extracted from it does.
+The particular results in the case of wheat and Indian corn were as
+follows:--A thousand pounds of the whole grain and of the fine flour
+contained of muscular matter respectively,--
+
+               _Whole grain._   _Fine Flour._
+Wheat,          156 lbs.               130 lbs.
+Indian Corn,    140                    110
+
+Of the material out of which the animal muscle is to be formed, the
+whole meal or grain of wheat contains one-fifth more than the finest
+flour does. For maintaining muscular strength, therefore, it must be
+more valuable in an equal proportion.
+
+3. _Bone material and Saline matter._--Of these mineral constituents, as
+they may be called, of the animal body, a thousand pounds of bran, whole
+meal and fine flour, contain respectively,--
+
+    Bran,        700 lbs.
+    Whole meal,  170  "
+    Fine flour,   60  "
+
+So that in regard to this important part of our food, necessary to all
+living animals, but especially to the young who are growing, and to the
+mother who is giving milk--the whole meal is three times more nourishing
+than the fine flour.
+
+Our case is now made out. Weight for weight, the whole grain or meal is
+more rich in all these three essential elements of a nutritive food,
+than the fine flour of wheat. By those whose only desire is to sustain
+their health and strength by the food they eat, ought not the whole meal
+to be preferred? To children who are rapidly growing, the browner the
+bread they eat, the more abundant the supply of the materials from which
+their increasing bones and muscles are to be produced. To the
+milk-giving mother, the same food, and for a similar reason, is the most
+appropriate.
+
+A glance at their mutual relations in regard to the three substances,
+presented in one view, will show this more clearly. A thousand pounds of
+each contain of the three several ingredients the following proportions.
+
+                  Whole meal.   Fine flour.
+Muscular matter,   156 lbs.       130 lbs.
+Bone material,     170  "          60  "
+Fat,                28  "          20  "
+
+Total in each,     354            210
+
+Taking the three ingredients, therefore, together, the whole meal is
+one-half more valuable for fulfilling all the purposes of nutrition than
+the fine flour--and especially it is so in regard to the feeding of the
+young, the pregnant, and those who undergo much bodily fatigue.
+
+It will not be denied that it is for a wise purpose that the Deity has
+so intimately associated, in the grain, the several substances which are
+necessary for the complete nutrition of animal bodies. The above
+considerations show how unwise we are in attempting to undo this natural
+collocation of materials. To please the eye and the palate, we sift out
+a less generally nutritive food,--and, to make up for what we have
+removed, experience teaches us to have recourse to animal food of
+various descriptions.
+
+It is interesting to remark, even in apparently trivial things, how all
+nature is full of compensating processes. We give our servants household
+bread, while we live on the finest of the wheat ourselves. The mistress
+eats that which pleases the eye more, the maid what sustains and
+nourishes the body better.
+
+But the whole meal is more wholesome, as well as more nutritive. It is
+on account of its superior wholesomeness that those who are experienced
+in medicine usually recommend it to our attention. Experience in the
+laws of digestion brings us back to the simple admixture found in the
+natural seed. It is not an accidental thing that the proportions in
+which the ingredients of a truly sustaining food take their places in
+the seeds on which we live, should be best fitted at once to promote the
+health of the sedentary scholar, and to reinvigorate the strength of the
+active man when exhausted by bodily labour.
+
+Some may say that the preceding observations are merely theoretical; and
+may demand the support of actual trial, before they will concede that
+the selection of the most nourishing and wholesome diet is hereafter to
+be regulated by the results of chemical analysis. The demand is
+reasonable in itself, and the so-called deductions of theory are
+entitled only to the rank of probable conjectures, till they have been
+tested by exact and repeated trials.
+
+But such in this case have been made; and our theoretical considerations
+come in only to confirm the results of previous experiments--to explain
+why these results should have been obtained, and to extend and enforce
+the practical lessons which the results themselves appeared to
+inculcate.
+
+Thus, from the experiments of Majendie and others, it was known that
+animals which in a few weeks died if fed only upon fine flour, lived
+long upon whole meal bread. The reason appears from our analytical
+investigations. The whole meal contains in large quantity the three
+forms of matter by which the several parts of the body are sustained, or
+successively renewed. We may feed a man long upon bread and water only,
+but unless we wish to kill him also, we must have the apparent cruelty
+to restrict him to the coarser kinds of bread. The charity which should
+supply him with fine white loaves instead, would in effect kill him by a
+lingering starvation.
+
+Again, the pork-grower who buys bran from the miller, wonders at the
+remarkable feeding and fattening effect which this apparently woody and
+useless material has upon his animals. The surprise ceases, however,
+and the practice is encouraged, and extended to other creatures, when
+the researches of the laboratory explain to him what the food itself
+contains, and what his growing animal requires.
+
+Economy as well as comfort follow from an exact acquaintance with the
+wants of our bodies in their several conditions, and with the
+composition of the various articles of diet which are at our command. In
+the present condition of the country, this economy has become a vital
+question. It is a kind of Christian duty in every one to practise it as
+far as his means and his knowledge enable him.
+
+Perhaps the amount of the economy which would follow the use of whole
+meal instead of fine flour, may not strike every one who reads the above
+observations. The saving arises from two sources.
+
+First, The amount of husk, separated by the miller from the wheat which
+he grinds, and which is not sold for human use, varies very much. I
+think we do not over-estimate it, when we consider it as forming
+one-eighth of the whole. On this supposition, eight pounds of wheat
+yield seven of flour consumed by man, and one of pollard and bran which
+are given to animals--chiefly to poultry and pigs. If the whole meal be
+used, however, eight pounds of flour will be obtained, or eight people
+will be fed by the same weight of grain which only fed seven before.
+
+Again, we have seen that the whole meal is more nutritious--so that this
+coarser flour will go farther than an equal weight of the fine. The
+numbers at which we arrived, from the results of analysis, show that,
+taking all the three sustaining elements of the food into consideration,
+the coarse is one-half more nutritive than the fine. Leaving a wide
+margin for the influence of circumstances, let us suppose it only
+one-eighth more nutritive, and we shall have now nine people nourished
+equally by the same weight of grain, which, when eaten as fine flour,
+would support only seven. _The wheat of the country_, in other words,
+_would in this form go one-fourth farther than at present_.
+
+But some one may remark, if all this good is to come from the mere use
+of the bran, why not recommend it to be withheld from the pigs, and
+consume it by man in some way alone? This would involve no change in the
+practice of our millers, and little in the habits and bread of the great
+mass of the population.
+
+But such a course, if possible, would not bring us to the economical end
+we wish to attain. Suppose it could be made palatable and eaten by man,
+little comparative saving would be effected.
+
+First, because, when eaten alone, the fine flour will not go so far as
+when mixed with a certain proportion of bran: that is to say,--a given
+weight of fine flour will produce an increased nutritive effect when
+mixed with the bran: greater than is due to the constituents of the bran
+taken alone. The mixture of the two in reality increases the virtues of
+both. Again, if eaten alone, bran would prove too difficult, and
+therefore slow of digestion in most stomachs. Much would thus pass,
+unexhausted of its nutritive matter, through the alimentary canal, as
+whole oats often do through that of horses, and thus a considerable
+waste would ensue.
+
+And further, supposing all to be dissolved in the stomach, there would
+still, of necessity, be a waste of material, since the bran actually
+contains a larger proportion of bone material and saline matter compared
+with its other ingredients, than the body, in its natural healthy state,
+can make use of. All this excess must, therefore, be rejected by the
+body, and, as nutritive matter, for the time be wasted.
+
+Lastly, it is doubtful if bran alone contains enough of starch, or of
+any substitute for it, to meet the other demands of the human system. I
+have not spoken of the use of the starch of the grain in the preceding
+observations, because, as both whole meal and fine flour contain a
+sufficient quantity of it to supply the wants of the living animal, it
+was unnecessary to the main object of this paper. But with bran the case
+is different. It is doubtful if the purposes of the starch could be
+fully, and with sufficient speed, fulfilled by the ingredients which, in
+the bran, take the place of starch in the flour. The cellular fibre or
+woody matter, of which it contains a considerable proportion, is too
+slowly soluble in the stomachs of ordinary men. While, therefore, much
+of it would pass through the body undigested, it would require to be
+eaten in far larger proportions than its composition indicates, if the
+body was to be supported, and thus a further waste would be incurred.
+
+On the whole, therefore, we come back to the whole meal, as the most
+economical as well as the most nutritive and wholesome form in which the
+grain of wheat can be consumed. The Deity has done far better for us, by
+the natural mixtures to be found in the whole seed, than we can do for
+ourselves. The materials, both in form and in proportion, are adjusted
+in each seed, as wheat, in a way more suitable to us than any which,
+with our present knowledge, we appear able to devise.
+
+A word to our Scottish readers, before we conclude. We do not recommend
+to you even the whole meal of wheat as a substitute for your oatmeal or
+your oaten-cake. The oat is more nutritive even than the whole grain of
+wheat, taken weight for weight. For the growing boy, for the
+hard-working man, and for the portly matron, oatmeal contains the
+materials of the most hearty nourishment. This it owes in part to its
+peculiar chemical composition, and in part to its being, as it is used
+in Scotland, a kind of whole meal. The finely sifted oatmeal of
+Yorkshire and Lancashire is not so agreeable to a Scottish taste, and, I
+believe, is not so nutritious, as the rounder and coarser meal of the
+more northern counties.
+
+While, therefore, the whole meal of wheat is superior to the fine flour,
+in economy, in nutritive power, and in wholesomeness, and therefore
+should be preferred by those who _must_ live upon wheat,--in all these
+respects the oat has still the advantage, and therefore ought
+religiously to be adhered to. You owe it to the experience of your
+forefathers, for a thousand years, not to forsake it.
+
+                          _Lurham, 19th May, 1847._
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO VOL. LXI.
+
+
+Abdul Medjid, the Sultan, 693.
+
+Adalia, sketches of, 737.
+
+Addington, Henry, see _Sidmouth_.
+
+Addington, Hiley, 475.
+
+Adelaide, Madame, 2, 7, 8, 12.
+
+Adventures of the Connaught Rangers, review of, 457.
+
+Aidan, Bishop, 84.
+
+Albemarle, Lord, 201.
+
+Albert, Madame, 186.
+
+Ambrosio, General, 174.
+
+America, origin of the struggle with, 207.
+
+America, how they manage matters in, 492.
+
+America, North, 653.
+
+Ancient and Modern Ballad Poetry, 622.
+
+Anglo-Saxons, Lappenberg's History of the, reviewed, 79.
+
+Angouleme, the Duc d', 5, 6.
+
+Appert, B. Dix ans � la Cour du Roi Louis Philippe, review of, 1.
+
+Aquilius, Letter from, to Eusebius, 374
+  --second, 501
+  --third, 695.
+
+Arabs in Batavia, the, 321.
+
+Archangel, New, settlement of, 661.
+
+Armenians of Smyrna, the, 238.
+
+Arnal, a French actor, 185.
+
+Arnault, M., 15.
+
+Arthur, King, 81.
+
+Assessed Taxes, inequalities of, 248.
+
+Aumale, Duc d', 17.
+
+
+Badajos, capture of, 468.
+
+Ballad Poetry, ancient and modern, 622.
+
+Balzac, M. de, 16, works of, 591.
+
+Banditti of Spain, the, 356.
+
+Batavia, city of, 320.
+
+Baths of Mont Dor, the, 448
+  --the company at, 451
+  --the forest, 454.
+
+Belgrade, siege and battle of, 36.
+
+Belisarius,--was he blind? 606.
+
+Benedict Biscop, 87.
+
+Bernard, Charles de, notices of the works of, 589.
+
+Berri, Duchesse de, 530.
+
+Blackwall, ode to, 59.
+
+Blucher, sketches of, 76.
+
+Bolingbroke, Lord, 204.
+
+Bonabat, village of, 241.
+
+Bouff�, Marie, 189.
+
+Boufflers, Marshal, 35, 36.
+
+Boujah, village of, 241.
+
+Bread, on the nutritive qualities of, by Professor Johnston, 768.
+
+Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, sonnets by:
+  --Life, 555
+  --Love, _ib._
+  --Heaven and Earth, 556
+  --The Prospect, _ib._
+  --Two Sketches, 683
+  --The Mountaineer and the Poet, 684
+  --the Poet, _ib._
+
+Brunet, an actor, 187.
+
+Bruhl, Count, 209.
+
+Bunzelwitz, camp and battle of, 43.
+
+Buonaparte, Joseph, as King of Naples, 168.
+
+Burgos, the retreat from, 471.
+
+Burke, notices of, 483, 484, 487.
+
+Busaco, battle of, 460.
+
+
+Canning, Peel's conduct towards, 97.
+
+California, sketches of, 662.
+
+Caravan Bridge of Smyrna, the, 239.
+
+Carbonari of Naples, the, 173.
+
+Cardinal's voyage, the, 430.
+
+Carlyle's Cromwell, review of, 392.
+
+Caroline, Queen of Naples, 164, 167.
+
+Catherine of Russia, intimacy of, with Voltaire, 537.
+
+Catholic question, Peel's conduct on the, 97.
+
+Catullus, translations from, No. I., 374
+  --No. II., 501
+  --No. III., 695.
+
+Cave of the Regicides, the, and how three of them fared in New
+England, 333.
+
+Championet, General, capture of Naples by, 163.
+
+Chapelle, an actor, 185.
+
+Charles X., accession of, 6.
+
+Charles de Bernard, works of, 589.
+
+Chateauroux, the Duchess of, 206, 530.
+
+Chatham, Lord, 474, 475.
+
+Cheri, Rose, 191.
+
+Chesterfield, Lord, character of, by Walpole, 198.
+
+Chinese in Batavia, the, 321.
+
+Church rate, inequality of the, 250.
+
+Ciudad Rodrigo, capture of, 467.
+
+Claqueurs of Paris, the, 183.
+
+Collier's book of Roxburghe ballads, review of, 622.
+
+Connaught Rangers, sketches of the, 457.
+
+Constantine Kanaris, epitaph of, 644.
+
+Constantinople, and the declining state of the Ottoman empire, 685.
+
+Corn law, Peel's conduct regarding the, 99.
+
+Court of Louis Philippe, sketches of the, 1.
+
+Cromwell, Carlyle's life of, reviewed, 392.
+
+Cunnersdorf, battle of, 42.
+
+Cunningham's poems and songs, review of, 622.
+
+
+Dardanelles, the, 686.
+
+Daun, Marshal, 40, 42.
+
+Dejazet the actress, 189.
+
+Delta, Scottish Melodies by:
+  --Eric's Dirge, 91
+  --The Stormy Sea, _ib._
+  --The Maid of Ulva, 645
+  --Lament for Macrimmon, _ib._
+
+Direct Taxation, on, 243
+  --true principles of, 258.
+
+Divining Rod, the, 368.
+
+Dixwell, John, the Regicide, 338.
+
+Doche, Madame, 187.
+
+Doddington, Bubb, 201, 202, 210.
+
+Dor�, a French robber, sketches of, 4.
+
+Dubois, the Abb�, 530.
+
+Duckworth, Sir John, forcing of the Dardanelles by, 686.
+
+Dumas, General, 168.
+
+Dumas, M. de, and his works, 16, 590, 591.
+
+Durham, Lord, 15, 16.
+
+Dutch, cruelties of the, in Java, 327.
+
+
+Early Taken, the, 230.
+
+Egmont, Lord, 197.
+
+Ekaterineburg, town of, 671.
+
+England, uniform triumphs of, over France, 48.
+
+Epigrams, 361.
+
+Epitaphs, 57, 61.
+
+Epitaph of Constantine Kanaris, the, 644.
+
+Eric's dirge, by Delta, 91.
+
+Erith, village of, 423.
+
+Erskine, Lord, 488.
+
+Eugene, Marlborough, Frederick, Napoleon, and Wellington, 34.
+
+Eusebius, letters to--Hor� Catullian�, 374, 501, 695.
+
+
+Famine, lessons from the, 515.
+
+Ferdinand, king of Naples, 163, 164, 167.
+
+Ferguson of Pitfour, anecdotes of, 488.
+
+Fighting Eighty-eighth, the, 457.
+
+Flour, on the various kinds of, and their nutritive qualities, 768.
+
+Fontenoy, battle of, 535.
+
+Ford's gatherings from Spain, review of, 350.
+
+Fossa del Maritimo, prison of, 167.
+
+Fox, anecdotes of, 488.
+
+France, the modern court of, 1.
+
+France, uniform triumphs of England over, 48.
+
+France, Walpole's picture of, 206.
+
+France, letter on, 547.
+
+Frederick the Great, sketch of the career of, and comparison of him
+with Marlborough and others, 37
+  --his intimacy with Voltaire, 537.
+
+Frederick, prince of Wales, death of, and his character, 200.
+
+Free trade in connexion with taxation, 243.
+
+French players and playhouses, 177.
+
+Fuentes d' Onore, battle of, 462.
+
+
+Galata, sketches of, 688.
+
+General Mack: a Christmas carol, 92.
+
+George II., Walpole's reign of, reviewed, 194.
+
+George III., anecdotes of, 490.
+
+Georges, characteristics of the reigns of the, 211.
+
+Ghosts, letters on, 440, 541.
+
+Gneisenau, General, 77.
+
+Goffe the Regicide, 333.
+
+Gold district of Siberia, the, 671.
+
+Grand Opera at Paris, the, 180, 182.
+
+Grattan's Adventures of the Connaught Rangers, review of, 457.
+
+Greeks of Adalia, the, 750.
+
+Grey, Lord, first appearance of, 479.
+
+Guilleminot, Count, 6.
+
+Gutch's Robin Hood, review of, 622.
+
+Gymnase Dramatique at Paris, the, 190.
+
+
+Hastings, Warren, trial of, 478, 487.
+
+Heaven and Earth, a Sonnet, 556.
+
+Heptarchy, the, 79.
+
+Hervey's Theatres of Paris, review of, 177.
+
+Highway Rates, inequalities of, 249.
+
+Hohenfriedberg, battle of, 39.
+
+Hohenkirchen, battle of, 42.
+
+Hor� Catullian�, No. I., 374
+  --No. II., 501
+  --No. III., 695.
+
+Horn, Count de, execution of, 534.
+
+How they manage matters in the model republic, 492.
+
+How to build a house and live in it,--No. III., 727.
+
+Hughes' Overland Journey to Lisbon, review of, 350.
+
+Hymn of King Olaf the Saint, the, altered from the Icelandic, 682.
+
+
+Imeeo, residence on island of, 763.
+
+Income Tax, inequalities of the, 253.
+
+Indian Life, anecdotes of, 658, 659, 660.
+
+Indirect Taxes, probable abandonment of, in Great Britain, 244, 245.
+
+Ireland, state of, under George II., 205
+  --necessity of Poor Law for, 247
+  --unjust exemption from taxation enjoyed by, 256.
+
+Isle of Dogs, the, 50
+  --tradition regarding, 52.
+
+Italian History, modern, 162.
+
+
+Java, sketches of, 318.
+
+Joinville, Prince de, 17.
+
+Johnston, Professor, on the nutritive qualities of the Bread now
+in use, 768.
+
+Jones, Neville, 205.
+
+Jutland 130 years since, from the Danish
+  --I., the Deer Rider, 286
+  --II., Ansbjerg, 289
+  --III., the Nisse, 292
+  --IV., the Elopement, 297
+  --V., the Horse Garden, 303.
+
+
+Kawashes of Turkey, the, 235.
+
+Khan of Magnesia, the, 309.
+
+Khans of Turkey, the, 236.
+
+Kiachta, town of, 670.
+
+Kolin, battle of, 41.
+
+Krasnoyayk, town of, 671.
+
+
+Lafayette, sketches of, 5.
+
+Lament for Macrimmon, by Delta, 645.
+
+Land, injustice of the freedom of, from legacy duty, 246.
+
+Land Tax, injustice of the, 248.
+
+Landsheck, battle of, 42.
+
+Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxons, review of, 79.
+
+Latest from the Peninsula, 350.
+
+Law of Lauriston, 533, 534.
+
+Lays and Legends of the Thames, No. II., 49
+  --the Isle of Dogs, 50
+  --the Song of the Mail Coachman, 51
+  --the Presentation, 55
+  --Epitaphs, 57, 61
+  --Ode to Blackwall, 59
+  --the Poet's Auction, 62
+  --No. III., 423
+  --the Vision, 424
+  --the Arsenal, 426
+  --True Love, 428
+  --the Cardinals' voyage, 430.
+
+Legacy duty, inequality of the, 246.
+
+Lemaitre, the Marquis, 166.
+
+Lemaitre, Frederick, 188.
+
+Lena, the river, 669.
+
+Lessons from the Famine, 515.
+
+Letters on the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions,
+  --No. I., the Divining Rod, 368
+  --II., Vampyrism, 432
+  --III., Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, 440
+  --IV., Real Ghosts and Second Sight, 541
+  --V., Trance and Sleep-waking, 547
+  --VI., Religious Delusions, the Possessed, Witchcraft, 673.
+
+Lettres de Cachet, profligate use of, in France, 538.
+
+Levasseur the actor, 192.
+
+Leuthen, battle of, 41.
+
+Life, a sonnet, 555.
+
+Lord Sidmouth's Life and Times, 473.
+
+Louis XV., sketches of, by Walpole, 206.
+
+Louis XV., De Tocqueville's Memoirs of, reviewed, 525.
+
+Louis Philippe, sketches of the court of, 1
+  --his elevation, 8
+  --and personal habits, 9.
+
+Love, a sonnet, 555.
+
+Lowositz, battle of, 40.
+
+
+Macdonald, General, administration of Naples by, 164.
+
+Mack, General, a Christmas carol, 92.
+
+Mack, General, at Naples, 163.
+
+Magnesia, a ride to, stage first, 231
+  --II. 305.
+
+Mahmood, the Sultan, 694.
+
+Maid of Ulva, the, by Delta, 645.
+
+Maida, battle of, 168.
+
+Mail Coachman, song of the, 51.
+
+Maison Dor�e at Paris, the, 177.
+
+Mammone, a Neapolitan bandit, 164.
+
+Mammoth deposits of Siberia, the, 670.
+
+Maria Theresa, accession of, and war against, 38.
+
+Marie Amelie, Queen of Louis Philippe, 7, 8, 11.
+
+Marlborough, comparison of, with Eugene, &c., 34.
+
+Marriage Bill, the Scotch, 646.
+
+Marsin, Marshal, 35.
+
+Massillon, 532.
+
+Mazarine, Cardinal, French Opera originated by, 180.
+
+Melville's Omoo, review of, 754.
+
+M�rim�e, Prosper, notices of the works of, 695.
+
+Merkatz, Lieutenant, 67, 68.
+
+Mexican War, the, 667.
+
+Mildred, a tale, Chap. IV., 18
+  --Chap. V., 23
+  --Chap. VI., 28
+  --Chap. VII., 213
+  --Chap. VIII., 217
+  --Chap. IX., 222.
+
+Minden, battle of, 42.
+
+Minerals of Lake Superior, the, 658.
+
+Mississippi Scheme, the, 533.
+
+Modern Italian History, 162.
+
+Mollwitz, battle of, 38.
+
+Mont Dor, baths of, 448.
+
+Montebello, Duchess of, 5.
+
+Monterey, town of, 664.
+
+Montreal, town of, 655.
+
+Motherwell's Poems, review of, 622.
+
+Mountaineer and Poet, the, a sonnet, 684.
+
+Muleteers of Spain, the, 352, 354.
+
+Murat, sketches of, 166, 167
+  --as King of Naples, 170
+  --death of, 175, 176.
+
+Murray, a Jacobite, sketches of, 196.
+
+Music, Turkish, 749.
+
+Mytilene, Island of, 736.
+
+
+Naples, sketch of the recent history of, 162.
+
+Napoleon, comparison of Frederick the Great with, 34, 45.
+
+Nashua, town of, 654.
+
+Nemours, the Duc de, 17.
+
+New Archangel, settlement of, 661.
+
+New Sentimental Journey, a
+  --the Baths of Mont Dor, 448
+  --the Company, 451
+  --the Forest, 454.
+
+Newcastle, the Duke of, character of, by Walpole, 202.
+
+New England, Residence of three of the Regicides in, 333.
+
+Newhaven, grave of the Regicides at, 334.
+
+North America, Siberia, and Russia, 653.
+
+Nugent, Lord, Walpole's character of, 197.
+
+
+Oatmeal, superiority of, to wheat, 772.
+
+Ochotsk, town of, 668.
+
+Oglou, Pasha, 235.
+
+Olaf the Saint, the Hymn of, altered from the Icelandic, 682.
+
+Omoo, review of, 754.
+
+Orleans, Dowager Duchess of, Anecdote of, 11.
+
+Orleans, the Regent, 530.
+
+Opera Comique at Paris, the, 180.
+
+Oswald, Prince, 84.
+
+Ottoman Empire, present state of the, 685.
+
+Overland Journey round the Globe, Simpson's, review of, 653.
+
+
+Pacific Rovings, 754.
+
+Pano di Grajo, a Neapolitan leader, 165, 169.
+
+Palais Royal, the, 191.
+
+Paris, Sketches of Society in, 13.
+
+Passaruang, town of, 332.
+
+Pauperism and its treatment, 261.
+
+Peel, Sir Robert, reflections on the career of, 93.
+
+Pelham, Lord, 204, 206.
+
+Pellew's Life of Sidmouth, review of, 473.
+
+Peninsula, latest from the, 350.
+
+P�p�, General, review of the memoirs of, 162.
+
+P�p�, Florestano, 172.
+
+Personal character, importance of, to a statesman, 93.
+
+Peterwardin, battle of, 36.
+
+Picton and the Connaught Rangers, 457.
+
+Pitt, first appearance of, 476
+  --notices of, 483, 484.
+
+Poacher, the, or Jutland 130 years since, from the Danish.
+  --I. The Deer Rider, 286.
+  --II. Ansbjerg, 289.
+  --III. The Nisse, 292.
+  --IV. The Elopement, 297.
+  --V. The Horse Garden, 303.
+
+Poet, the, a Sonnet, 684.
+
+Poet's Auction, the, 62.
+
+Poetry
+  --Eric's Dirge, by Delta, 91
+  --the Stormy Sea, by the same, _ib._
+  --General Mack, 92
+  --the Early Taken, 230
+  --To the Stethoscope, 361
+  --Epigrams, 367
+  --Four Sonnets, namely, Life, Love, Heaven and Earth, the Prospect,
+    by E. B. Browning, 555
+  --Epitaph of Constantine Kanaris, 644
+  --The Maid of Ulva, by Delta, 645
+  --The Lament of Macrimmon, by the same, _ib._
+  --The Hymn of King Olaf the Saint, 682
+  --Four Sonnets, by Elizabeth B. Browning, 683.
+
+Police Rates, inequalities of, 250.
+
+Polynesia, sketches of, 754.
+
+Pomaree, Queen, 761, 766.
+
+Pompadour, Madame de, 206.
+
+Poor, treatment of the, 262.
+
+Poors'-rate, inequality of the, 247.
+
+Popular Superstitions, Letters on the truths contained in, No. I. The
+Divining Rod, 368
+  --II. Vampyrism, 432
+  --III. Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, 440
+  --IV. Real Ghosts and Second-sight, 541
+  --V. Trance and Sleep-waking, 547
+  --VI. Religious Delusions: the Possessed: Witchcraft, 673.
+
+Portuguese troops, character of the, 464.
+
+Possession, Demoniacal, letter on, 673.
+
+Premier, reflections: suggested by the career of the late, 93.
+
+Prospect, the, a Sonnet, 556.
+
+Prosper M�rim�e, notices of the works of, 695.
+
+Prussian Military Memoirs, 65.
+
+
+Rahden, Baron von, wanderings of an old soldier, reviewed, 65.
+
+Railways in Spain, 352.
+
+Raval the Actor, 193.
+
+Red River Settlement, the, 659.
+
+Reflections suggested by the career of the late Premier, 93.
+
+Regicides, cave of the, and how three of them fared in New England, 333.
+
+Regnier, defeat of, at Maida, 168.
+
+Reichenbach, Count, 68.
+
+Reign of George II., the, 194.
+
+Religious Delusions, letter on, 673.
+
+Ride to Magnesia, a
+  --stage I. 231
+  --II. 305.
+
+Robinson, Sir Thomas, 209.
+
+Rosama, a tale of Madrid, 557.
+
+Rosbach, battle of, 41.
+
+Royal Arsenal, the, 426.
+
+Ruffo, Cardinal, 164.
+
+Russia, sketches of, 668.
+
+
+Salamanca, battle of, 470.
+
+Samson, the executioner of Paris, 15.
+
+Sanchez, Julian, a Spanish Guerilla leader, 463.
+
+San Francisco, harbour of, 662.
+
+Santa Barbara, town of, 665.
+
+Saxe, Marshal, 535.
+
+Saxony, conquest of, by Frederick the Great, 40.
+
+Scio, Island of, 748.
+
+Scotch Marriage Bill, the, 646.
+
+Scotland, new poor law for, 247.
+
+Scottish Melodies, by Delta, Eric's Dirge, 91
+  --The Stormy Sea, _ib._
+  --The Maid of Ulva, 645
+  --Lament for Macrimmon, _ib._
+
+Secker, Archbishop, character of, 198.
+
+Second-sight, letter on, 541.
+
+Selberg's Java, review of, 318.
+
+Sentimental Journey, a, see _New_.
+
+Sheldon's Border Minstrelsy, review of, 622.
+
+Sheridan, speech of, on the Begum question, 478
+  --notices of, 488.
+
+Siberia, sketches of, 668.
+
+Sidmouth, Lord, life and times of, 473.
+
+Simpson's Overland Journey Round the World, review of, 653.
+
+Sitka, Settlement of, 661.
+
+Sleep-waking, letter on, 547.
+
+Smith, John William, memoir of, by Samuel Warren, 129.
+
+Smyrna, city of, 231, 233, 735.
+
+Soor, battle of, 39.
+
+Spain, sketches of modern, 350.
+
+Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, letter on, 440.
+
+Stamboul, sketches of, 689.
+
+Stamp Duties, inequalities of, 250.
+
+Stethoscope, to the, 361.
+
+Stewart, Sir John, 169.
+
+Storming of the Redoubt, the, 724.
+
+Stormy Sea, the, by Delta, 91.
+
+Sue, Engene, 591.
+
+Superior, Lake, the minerals of, 658.
+
+Surabaya, town of, 324.
+
+
+Tahiti, sketches of, 758.
+
+Taxation, direct, 243,
+  true principles of, 258.
+
+Thames, Lays and Legends of the, _see_ Lays.
+
+Theatres of Paris, the, 177.
+
+Theatre des Vari�t�s, the, 187.
+
+Thill, Colonel, 77.
+
+Thorpe's translation of Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxons, review of, 79, 80.
+
+Tiger Hunting in Java, 326.
+
+Tocqueville's History of the reign of Louis XV., review of, 525.
+
+Torgau, battle of, 43.
+
+Treatment of Pauperism, on the, 261.
+
+True Love, 428.
+
+Turin, battle of, 35.
+
+Turkey, present state of, 685.
+
+Turkish Manners, sketches of, 231.
+
+Turkish Watering Place, a, 735.
+
+Turning Dervishes, the, 689.
+
+Two Sketches, by E. B. Browning, 683.
+
+
+United States, war of the, with Mexico, 667.
+
+Ural mountains, mines of the, 671.
+
+
+Vallego, General, 663.
+
+Valona, town of, 231.
+
+Vampyrism, letter on, 432.
+
+Vaudeville at Paris, the, 184, 185.
+
+Vestris, the Dancer, 181.
+
+Vidocq, the Thief-taker, 15.
+
+Villeroi, Marshal, 35.
+
+Visible and Tangible, the, a metaphysical fragment, 580.
+
+Vision, the, 424.
+
+Voltaire, sketches of, 536, 537.
+
+
+Walpole's reign of George II., review of, 194.
+
+Walpole, Sir Robert, notices of, 197, 203, 204.
+
+Warren, Samuel, memoir of the late John William Smith by, 129.
+
+Watermen of London, the, 262.
+
+Wellington, comparison of Marlborough with, 34
+  --Sketches of, by Von Rahden, 75, 76.
+
+Whalley the Regicide, 333.
+
+Wheat, on the nutritive qualities of, and the various kinds of
+flour from it, 768.
+
+Wilberforce, anecdotes of, 480.
+
+Wilfrith, Bishop, 88.
+
+Witchcraft, letter on, 673.
+
+
+Yakutsh, province of, 669.
+
+Yonge, Sir William, 191.
+
+
+Zenta, battle of, 35.
+
+Zorndorf, battle of, 42.
+
+Zulares, valley of, 666.
+
+
+END OF VOL. LXI.
+
+
+_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
+61, No. 380, June, 1847, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, MAY, 1847 ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26484-8.txt or 26484-8.zip *****
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 61, No. 380, June, 1847.
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61,
+No. 380, June, 1847, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 380, June, 1847
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: August 29, 2008 [EBook #26484]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, MAY, 1847 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Josephine
+Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
+
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+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_653" id="Page_653">[Pg 653]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1>
+
+<h1>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1>
+
+<h3>No. CCCLXXX. JUNE, 1847. Vol. LXI.</h3>
+
+<p class="notes">Transcriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved
+to the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.
+The index for Volume 61 is included at the end of this issue.</p>
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#NORTH_AMERICA_SIBERIA_AND_RUSSIAA"><b>NORTH AMERICA, SIBERIA, AND RUSSIA.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#LETTERS_ON_THE_TRUTHS_CONTAINED_IN_POPULAR_SUPERSTITIONS"><b>LETTERS ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THE_HYMN_OF_KING_OLAF_THE_SAINT"><b>THE HYMN OF KING OLAF THE SAINT.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#FOUR_SONNETS_BY_ELIZABETH_BARRETT_BROWNING"><b>FOUR SONNETS BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CONSTANTINOPLE_AND_THE_DECLINING_OF_THE_OTTOMAN_EMPIRE"><b>CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE DECLINING OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#HORAE_CATULLIANAE"><b>HOR&AElig; CATULLIAN&AElig;.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#PROSPER_MERIMEE"><b>PROSPER M&Eacute;RIM&Eacute;E.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#HOW_TO_BUILD_A_HOUSE_AND_LIVE_IN_IT"><b>HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE AND LIVE IN IT.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#A_TURKISH_WATERING-PLACE"><b>A TURKISH WATERING-PLACE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#PACIFIC_ROVINGSC"><b>PACIFIC ROVINGS.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#ON_THE_NUTRITIVE_QUALITIES_OF_THE_BREAD_NOW_IN_USE"><b>ON THE NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF THE BREAD NOW IN USE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#INDEX_TO_VOL_LXI"><b>INDEX TO VOL. LXI.</b></a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="NORTH_AMERICA_SIBERIA_AND_RUSSIAA" id="NORTH_AMERICA_SIBERIA_AND_RUSSIAA"></a>NORTH AMERICA, SIBERIA, AND RUSSIA.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>The circumnavigation of the world is now a matter of ordinary occurrence
+to our bold mariners: and after a few years it will be a sort of summer
+excursion to our steamers. We shall have the requisitions of the
+Travellers' Club more stringent as the sphere of action grows wider; and
+no man will be eligible who has not paid a visit to Pekin, or sunned
+himself in Siam.</p>
+
+<p>But a circuit of the globe on <i>terra firma</i> is, we believe, new. Sir
+George Simpson will have no competitor, that we have ever heard, to
+claim from him the honour of having first galloped right a-head&mdash;from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Pacific to the British
+Channel. One or two slight divergencies of some thousand miles down the
+smooth and sunny bosom of the Pacific, are to be reckoned as mere
+episodes: but Sir George soon recovers his course, plunges in through
+the regions of the polar star; defies time, trouble, and Tartary;
+marches in the track of tribes, of which all but the names have expired;
+follows the glories of conquerors, whose bones have mingled five hundred
+years ago with the dust of the desert; gives a flying glance on one side
+towards the Wall of China, and on the other towards the Arctic Circle;
+still presses on, till he reaches the confines of the frozen
+civilisation of the Russian empire; and sweeps along, among bowing
+governors and prostrate serfs,&mdash;still but emerging from barbarism&mdash;until
+he does homage to the pomp of the Russian court, and finally lands in
+the soil of freedom, funds, and the income tax.</p>
+
+<p>What the actual object of all this gyration may have been, is not
+revealed, nor, probably, <i>revealable</i> by a "Governor of the Hudson's Bay
+territories," who, having the fear of <i>other</i> governors before his eyes,
+dedicates his two handsome volumes to "The Directors of the Hudson's Bay
+Company;" but the late negotiations on Oregon, the Russian interest in
+the new empire rising on the shore of the Northern Pacific, the vigorous
+efforts of Russia to turn its Siberian world into a place of human
+habitancy, and the unexpected interest directed to those regions by the
+discovery of gold deposits which throw the old wealth of the Spanish
+main into the shade, <i>might</i> be sufficient motives for the curiosity of
+an individual of intelligence, and for the anxious inquiries of a great
+company, bordering on two mighty powers in North America, both of them
+more remarkable for the vigour of their ambition than for the reverence
+of their hunters and fishers for the <i>jus gentium</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Those volumes, then, will supply a general and a very well conceived
+estimate of immense tracts of the globe, hitherto but little known to
+the English public. The view is clear, quick, and discriminative. The
+countries of which it gives us a new knowledge are probably destined to
+act with great power on our interests, some as the rivals of our
+commerce, some as the dep&ocirc;ts of our manufactures, and some as the
+recipients of that overflow of population which Europe is now pouring
+out from all her fields on the open wilderness of the world.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_654" id="Page_654">[Pg 654]</a></span></p><p>This spread of emigration to the north is a curious instance of the
+reflux of the human tide; for, from the north evidently was Europe
+originally peopled. Japhet was a powerful propeller; and often as he has
+dwelt in the tents of Shem, he is likely to overwhelm the whole
+territory of the southern brother once more. The Turk, the Egyptian, the
+man of Asia Minor, the man of Thrace, will yet be but tribes in that
+army of the new Xerxes which, pouring from Moscow, and impelled from St
+Petersburg, will renew the invasions of Genghiz and Tamerlane, and try
+the civilized strength of the west against the wild courage and
+countless multitudes of Tartary. Into this strange, but important, and
+prospectively powerful country, we now follow the traveller. Embarking
+from Liverpool in the Caledonia, a vessel of 1300 tons and 450 horse
+power, he was amply prepared to face the perils of the most stormy of
+all oceans, the Atlantic. The run across lad the usual fortunes of all
+voyages, and within a week after their departure from <i>terra firma</i> they
+saw a whale, who saw them with rather more indifference, for he lay
+lounging on the surface until the steamer had nearly run over him. At
+last he dived down, and was seen no more. Next day, while there was so
+little wind, that all their light canvass was set, they saw the
+phenomenon of a ship under close-reefed topsails. This apparent timidity
+was laughed at by some of the passengers, but the more experienced
+guessed that the vessel had come out of a gale, of which they were
+likely to have a share before long, a conjecture which was soon
+verified.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 9th day, the captain, discovering that the
+barometer had fallen between two and three inches during the night, due
+preparations were of course made to meet the storm. It came on in the
+afternoon, a hurricane. Then followed the usual havock of boats and
+canvass, the surges making a clean breach over the deck; the passengers,
+of course, gave themselves up for lost, and even the crew are said to
+have been pretty nearly of the same opinion. However, the wind went down
+at last, the sea grew comparatively smooth, and in twenty-four hours
+more, they found themselves on the banks of Newfoundland. The writer
+thinks that it was fortunate for them that the storm had not caught them
+in the short swell of these shallow waters, as was probably the case of
+the President, whose melancholy fate so long excited, and still excites
+a feeling of surprise and sorrow in the public mind.</p>
+
+<p>It was lost in this very storm. Next day came another of the sea
+wonders. The cry of land started them all from the dinner table; but the
+land happened to be an immense field of ice, which, with the
+inequalities of its surface and the effect of refraction, presented some
+appearance of a wooded country. On that night the cry of "Light a-head,"
+while they were still several hundred miles from land, excited new
+astonishment. "All the knowing ones" clearly distinguished a magnificent
+revolver. The paddles were accordingly stopped to have a cast of the
+lead, but in another half hour it was ascertained that the revolver was
+a newly risen star.</p>
+
+<p>At length land was really seen, and after a run of fourteen days, they
+cast anchor in the harbour of Halifax. But as Boston was their true
+destination they steered for it at once. Their progress had been rapid,
+for they entered Boston Bay in thirty-six hours from Halifax, a distance
+of 390 miles. Boston is more English looking than New York. The gently
+undulating shores of the bay, highly cultivated, bring to memory the
+green hills of England, and within the town the buildings and the
+inhabitants have a peculiarly English air.</p>
+
+<p>As speed was an object, the party immediately left the town by the
+railway, passing through Lowell and reaching Nashua. This is one of the
+rapid growths of America. In 1819 this place was a village of but
+nineteen houses. It now contains 19,000 inhabitants, with churches,
+hotels, prisons, and banks. Here the party went off in two detachments,
+one in a sleigh with six horses, and the other rattled along in a
+coach-and-four. At the next stage the author exchanged the coach for a
+sleigh, a matter of no great importance to the world, but which may be
+mentioned as a caution against rash changes. For the first few miles the
+new conveyance went on merrily, and the passengers congratulated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_655" id="Page_655">[Pg 655]</a></span>
+themselves on their wisdom. We must now let him speak for himself.</p>
+
+<p>"The sun, as the day advanced, kept thawing the snow, till at last, on
+coming to a deep drift, we were repeatedly obliged to get out, sometimes
+walking up to the knees, and sometimes helping to lift the vehicle out
+of the snow. However, at length we fairly stuck fast, in spite of all
+our hauling and pushing. The horses struggled and plunged to no purpose,
+excepting that the leaders, after breaking part of their tackle,
+galloped off over the hills and far away, leaving us to kick our heels
+in the slush, till they were brought back after a chase of several
+miles."</p>
+
+<p>The road now passed through Vermont, the state of green mountains. The
+country appeared striking; and Montpelier, where they breakfasted, seems
+to be a very pretty place, looking more the residence of hereditary ease
+and luxury, than the capital of a republic of thrifty graziers. It is,
+in fact, an assemblage of villas; the wide streets run between rows of
+trees, and the houses, each in its own little garden, are shaded by
+verandas.</p>
+
+<p>In that very pleasant little book, the "Miseries of Human Life," one of
+those small calamities is, the being called at the wrong hour to go off
+in the wrong coach from a Yorkshire inn. Time and the railroad have
+changed all this in England, but in America we have the primitive misery
+well described.</p>
+
+<p>The author, after forty-two hours of hard jolting, goes to bed at one
+o'clock to obtain a little repose, leaving orders to be called at five
+in the morning. He is wrapt in the profoundest of all possible slumbers,
+when a peal of blows is heard at his door. "In spite, however, of
+laziness, and a cold morning to boot," he says, "I had completed the
+operations of washing and dressing by candlelight, having even donned
+hat and gloves, to join my companions, when the waiter entered my room
+with a grin. 'I guess,' said the rascal, 'I have put my foot in it. Are
+you the man that wanted to be called at two?' 'No,' was my reply.
+'Then,' said he, 'I calculate I have fixed the wrong man, so you had
+better go to bed again.' Having delivered himself of this friendly
+advice, he went to awaken my neighbour, who had all this time been
+quietly enjoying the sleep that properly belonged to me. Instead of
+following the fellow's recommendation, I sat up for the rest of the
+night." Whether the author possessed a watch we cannot tell, but if he
+was master of that useful and not very rare article, he might have saved
+himself his premature trouble, and escaped shaving at midnight.</p>
+
+<p>On crossing into the Canadian territory, he encounters one of those
+evidences of popular liberty which belong to rather the American than
+the English side. In the village of St John's, some of the party went
+a-head to the principal inn, and as it was late at night, and their
+knocking produced no effect, they appealed to what they regarded as the
+most accessible of the landlord's susceptibilities, his pocket, by
+saying that they were fourteen, more coming, with a whole host of
+drivers. This appeal was the most unlucky possible, for the landlord had
+another sensibility, the fear of being tarred and feathered, if not
+hanged. On the door being opened at last, the landlord was not to be
+found; his brother wandered about, the very ghost of despair. The
+establishment was searched upside and downside, inside and outside, in
+vain; and they began to think themselves the cause of some domestic
+tragedy; but it must have been a late perpetration, for on looking into
+his bed, they found the lair warm.</p>
+
+<p>However, after a short time, mine host returned with a face all smiles.
+The mystery was then explained. The election had taken place during the
+day, and the landlord, having taken the part of the candidate who
+eventually succeeded, was threatened with vengeance by the losing party.
+The arrival of the travellers convinced him that his hour was come, and
+he had jumped out of bed and hidden himself in some inscrutable corner.
+But a good supper reconciled every thing.</p>
+
+<p>The author crossed the ice to Montreal, and had a showy view of the
+metropolis of the Canadas. A curious observation is suggested by
+Montreal, on the different characters of the English and French
+population. In the days of Wolf and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_656" id="Page_656">[Pg 656]</a></span> Amherst, it was all French; but
+John Bull, with his spirit of activity and industry, has quietly become
+master of all the trading situations of the city, while the French have
+as quietly retreated, and spread themselves through the upper sections
+of it, to a great degree cut off from its commercial portions.</p>
+
+<p>From Montreal the travel began. The heavy canoes were sent forward some
+days before, under the charge of some of the Company's officers, the
+light canoes waited for the author, with Colonel Oldfield, chief
+engineer in Canada, who was going up the country on a survey of the
+navigation, and the Earls of Mulgrave and Caledon, who were going to the
+Red River, buffalo-hunting.</p>
+
+<p>All was now ready in form, and on the 4th of May the two canoes were
+floating on the Lactrine canal. The crews, thirteen to one vessel, and
+fourteen to the other, were partly Canadians, but principally Iroquois.
+Those <i>voyageurs</i>, as they are called, had each been supplied with a
+feather in his cap, in honour of the occasion, and evidently expected to
+produce a <i>sensation</i> on shore. But a north-wester blowing prevented the
+hoisting of their flags, which mulcted the pageant of much of its
+intended glory. These canoes are thirty-five feet in length, and five
+feet wide in the centre; drawing about eighteen inches water, and
+weighing between three and four hundred pounds; capitally fitted for a
+navigation among rocks, rapids, and portages; but they seem most
+uncomfortable in rough weather. The waves of the St Lawrence rolled like
+a sea, the gale was biting, and the snow drifted heavily in the faces of
+the party. In this luckless condition, we are not surprised at the
+intelligence, that at St Anne's Rapids, notwithstanding the authority of
+the poet, "they sang no evening hymn."</p>
+
+<p>This style of travelling was not certainly much mingled with luxury.
+Next morning, after "toiling for six hours," they breakfasted, "with the
+wet ground for their table, and with rain in place of milk to cool their
+tea." On this day, while running close under the falls of the Rideau,
+they seem to have had a narrow escape from a <i>finale</i> to their voyage;
+their canoes being swept into the middle of the river, under an immense
+fall, fifty feet in height.</p>
+
+<p>They now learned the art of <i>bivouaching</i>, and after a day of toiling
+through portages, reserving the severest of them, the Grand Calumet, for
+the renewed vigour of the morning, they made ready for the forest night.
+The description, brief as it is, is one among many which shows the
+<i>artist</i> eye.</p>
+
+<p>"The tents were pitched in a small clump of pines, while round a blazing
+fire the passengers were collected, amid a medley of boxes, barrels,
+cloaks, and on the rock above the foaming rapids were lying the canoes;
+the men flitting about the fires as if they were enjoying a holiday, and
+watching a huge cauldron suspended above the fire. The whole with a
+background of dense woods and a lake."</p>
+
+<p>Yet, startling as this "wooing of nature" in her rough moods may seem to
+the silk-and-velvet portion of the world, we doubt whether this wild
+life, with its desperate toil and its ground sleep, may not be the true
+charm of travel to saint, savage, or sage, when once fairly forced to
+the experiment. The blazing fire, the bed of leaves, the gay supper,
+made gayer still by incomparable appetite, and the sleep after all, in
+which the whole outward man remains imbedded, without the movement of a
+muscle and without a dream, until the morning awakes him up a new being,
+are fully worth all the inventions of art, to make us enjoy rest
+unearned by fatigue, and food without waiting for appetite. "The sleep
+of the weary man is sweet," said the ancient and wise king who slept
+among curtains of gold, and under roofs of cedar; the true way to taste
+that sleep is to spend a day, dragging canoes up Indian portages, and
+lie down with one's feet warmed by a pine blaze and one's back to the
+shelter of a forest.</p>
+
+<p>But, as the time will assuredly come when this "life in the woods" will
+be no more, when huge inns will supersede the canopy of the skies, and
+down beds will make the memory of birch twigs and heather blossoms pass
+away, we give from authority the proceedings of an evening's rest, which
+the next generation will study<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_657" id="Page_657">[Pg 657]</a></span> with somewhat of the feeling of reading
+Tacitus De Moribus Germanorum.</p>
+
+<p>As the sun approached his setting, every eye in the canoes, as they
+pulled along, was speculating on some dry and tolerably open spot on the
+shore. <i>That</i> once found, all were on shore in an instant. Then the axe
+was heard ringing among the trees, to prepare for the fires, and make
+room for the tents. In ten minutes, the tents were pitched, the fires
+blazing in front of each, and the supper preparing in all its
+diversities. The beds were next made, consisting of an oil-cloth laid on
+the ground, with blankets and a pillow; occasionally aided by
+great-coats, <i>&agrave; discretion</i>. The crews, drawing the canoes on shore,
+first made an inspection of their hurts during the day; and having done
+this, the little vessels were turned into a shelter, and each man
+wrapping himself in his blanket defied the weather and the world.</p>
+
+<p>But this state of happiness was never destined to last long. About <i>one</i>
+in the morning, the cry, of "<i>Leve</i>, <i>leve</i>," broke all slumbers. We
+must acknowledge that the hour seems premature, and that the most
+patient of travellers might have solicited a couple of hours more of
+"tired Nature's sweet restorer." But the discipline of the bivouac was
+Spartan. If the slumberer did not instantly start up, the tent was
+pulled down about him, and he found himself half-smothered in canvass.
+However, we must presume that this seldom happened, and, within half an
+hour, every thing would be packed, the canoes laden, and the paddles
+moving to some "merry old song." In this manner passed the day, six
+hours of rest, to eighteen of labour, a tremendous disproportion, even
+to the sturdy Englishman, or the active Irishman, but perfectly
+congenial to the sinews and spirit of the gay <i>voyageur</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A few touches more give the complete picture of the day. About eight, a
+convenient site would be selected for breakfast. Three-quarters of an
+hour being the whole time allotted for unpacking and packing, boiling
+and frying, eating and drinking. "While the preliminaries were
+arranging, the <i>hardier</i> among us would wash and shave, each person
+carrying soap and towel in his pocket, and finding a <i>mirror</i> in the
+same sandy or rocky basin which held the water. About two in the
+afternoon, we put ashore for dinner, and as this meal needed no fire,
+or, at least, got none, it was not allowed to occupy more than twenty
+minutes, or half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>We recommend the following considerations to the amateur boat clubs, and
+others, who plume themselves on their naval achievements between Putney
+and Vauxhall bridges. Let them take the work of a Canadian paddle-man to
+heart, and lower their plumage accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>"The quality of the work, even more than the quantity, requires
+operatives of iron mould. In smooth water, the paddle is plied with
+twice the rapidity of the oar, taxing both arms and lungs to the utmost
+extent. Amid shallows, the canoe is literally dragged by the men, wading
+to their knees or their loins, while each poor fellow, after replacing
+his drier half in his seat, laughingly strikes the heavier of the wet
+from his legs over the gunwale, before he gives them an inside berth. In
+rapids, the towing line has to be hauled along over rocks and stumps,
+through swamps and thickets, excepting that when the ground is utterly
+impracticable, poles are substituted, and occasionally also the bushes
+on the shore."</p>
+
+<p>This however is "plain sailing," to the Portages, where the tracks are
+of all imaginable kinds and degrees of badness, and the canoes and their
+cargoes are never carried across in less than two or three trips; the
+little vessels alone monopolizing, in the first turn, the more expert
+half of their respective crews. Of the baggage, each man has to carry at
+least two pieces, estimated at a hundred and eighty pounds weight, which
+he suspends in slings placed across his forehead, so that he may have
+his hands free, to clear his way among the branches and standing or
+fallen trunks. Besides all this, the <i>voyageur</i> performs the part of
+bridge, or jetty, on the arrival of the canoe at its place of rest, the
+gentlemen passengers being carried on shore on the backs of these
+good-humoured and sinewy fellows.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_658" id="Page_658">[Pg 658]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For the benefit of the untravelled, we should say, that a Portage is the
+fragment of land-passage between the foot and head of a rapid, when the
+rush of the stream is too strong for the tow-rope.</p>
+
+<p>At one of the halting-places on Lake Superior, a curious tale was told
+of the Indian's belief in a Providence, of which it had been the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Three or four years before, a party of Salteaux, much pressed for
+hunger, were anxious to reach one of their fishing stations, an island
+about twenty miles from the shore. The spring had unluckily reached that
+point, when there was neither clear water, nor trustworthy ice. A
+council was being held, to consider the hard alternatives of drowning
+and starving, when an old man of influence thus spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"You know, my friends, that the Great Spirit gave one of our squaws a
+child yesterday; now, he cannot have sent it into the world to take it
+away again directly. I should therefore recommend the carrying the child
+with us, as the pledge of safety."</p>
+
+<p>We wish that we could have to record a successful issue to this
+anticipation. But the transit was too much for the metaphysics of the
+old Indian. They went on the treacherous ice, it gave way, and
+eight-and-twenty perished.</p>
+
+<p>The Thunder Mountain on their route, struck them as "one of the most
+appalling objects" which they had seen, being a bleak rock twelve
+hundred feet high above the level of the lake, with a perpendicular face
+of its full height. The Indians say, that any one who can scale it, and
+"turn three times on the brink of its fearful wall, will live for ever."
+We presume, by dying first.</p>
+
+<p>But the shores of this mighty lake, or rather fresh-water sea, which
+seemed destined to loneliness for ever, are now likely to hear the din
+of population and blaze with furnaces and factories. Its southern coasts
+are found to possess rich veins of copper and silver. Later inquiry has
+discovered on the northern shore "inexhaustible treasures of gold,
+silver, copper, and tin," and associations have been already formed to
+work them. Sir George Simpson even speaks of the future probability of
+their rivalling in point of wealth the Altai chain, and the Uralian
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>From Fort William, at the head of Lake Superior, the little expedition
+entered a river with a polysyllabic name, which leads farther on, to the
+"Far West." The banks were beautiful. When this country shall be
+peopled, it will be one of the resemblances of the primitive paradise.</p>
+
+<p>It is all picturesque; the river finely diversified with rapids, and
+with one cataract which, though less in volume than Niagara, throws that
+far-famed fall into the background, in point of height and wildness of
+scenery. But we must leave description to the author's pen. "The river,
+during this day's march, passed through forests of elm, oak, birch, &amp;c.,
+being studded with isles not less fertile and lovely than its banks. And
+many a spot reminded us of the rich and quiet scenery of England. The
+paths of the numerous portages were spangled with roses, violets, and
+many other wild flowers&mdash;while the currant, the gooseberry, the
+raspberry, the plum, the cherry, and even the vine, were abundant. All
+this bounty of nature was imbued, as it were, with life, by the cheerful
+notes of a variety of birds, and by the restless flutter of butterflies
+of the brightest hues." He then makes the natural and graceful
+reflection&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"One cannot pass through this fair valley without feeling that it is
+destined to become, sooner or later, the happy home of civilised men,
+with their bleating flocks, and their lowing herds&mdash;with their schools
+and their churches&mdash;with their full garners, and their social hearths.
+At the time of our visit, the great obstacle in the way of so blessed a
+consummation was the hopeless wilderness to the eastward, which seemed
+to bar for ever the march of settlement and cultivation, but which will
+soon be an open road to the far west with all its riches. That
+wilderness, now that it is to yield up its long-hidden stores, bids fair
+to remove the impediments which hitherto it has itself presented. The
+mines of Lake Superior, besides establishing a continuity of route
+between the East and the West, will find their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_659" id="Page_659">[Pg 659]</a></span> nearest and cheapest
+supply of agricultural produce in the valley of the Kaministaquoia."</p>
+
+<p>One of the especial hazards of the forest now encountered them. Passing
+down a narrow creek near <i>Lac le Pluie</i>, fire suddenly burst forth in
+the woods near them. The flames crackling and clambering up each tree,
+quickly rose above the forest; within a few minutes more the dry grass
+on the very margin of the waters, was in "a running blaze, and before
+they were clear of the danger, they were almost enveloped in clouds of
+smoke and ashes. These conflagrations, often caused by a wanderer's
+fire, or even by his pipe, desolate large tracts of country, leaving
+nothing but black and bare trunks, one of the most dismal scenes on
+which the eye can look. When once the fire gets into the thick turf of
+the primeval wilderness, it sets every thing at defiance. It has been
+known to smoulder for a whole winter under the deep snow."</p>
+
+<p>Another Indian display quickly followed. After traversing the lake, they
+were hailed by the warriors of the Salteaux, a band of about a hundred,
+the fighting men of a tribe of five hundred. Their five chiefs presented
+a congratulatory address on their safe arrival, requesting an audience,
+which was appointed, at the rather undiplomatic hour of <i>four</i> next
+morning. But, while the Governor was slumbering, the Indians were
+preparing means of persuasion more effective, in their conceptions, than
+even the oratory on which they seem to pride themselves very
+highly&mdash;"while they were napping, the enemy were pelting away at them
+with their incantations."</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of a conjuring tent&mdash;a structure of branches and bark,
+forty feet in length by ten in width&mdash;they kindled a fire; round the
+blaze stood the chiefs and "medicine men," while as many others as could
+find room were squatted against the walls. Then, to enlighten and
+convert the Governor, charms were muttered, rattles were shaken, and
+offerings were committed to the flames. After all these operations the
+silent spectators, at a given signal, started on their feet and marched
+round the magic circle, singing, whooping, and drumming in horrible
+discord. With occasional intervals, which were spent by the performers
+in taking fresh air, the exhibition continued during the whole night, so
+that when the appointed hour arrived they were still engaged in their
+observances. At length the two parties met in the open square of the
+fort. The Indians dressed in all their glory, a part of which consists
+in smearing their faces entirely out of sight with colours&mdash;the
+prevailing fashion being, forehead white, nose and cheeks red, mouth and
+chin black.</p>
+
+<p>The Governor and his party of course made their best effort to meet all
+this magnificence. Lord Caledon and Lord Mulgrave exhibited in
+regimentals; the rest put on their <i>dressing-gowns</i>, which, being of
+showy patterns, were equally effective. Seated in the "hall of
+conference," the pipes being sent round, hands shaken, and all due
+ceremonial having been performed, the Indian orator commenced his
+harangue in the style with which we have now become familiar. Beginning
+with the creation, &amp;c. &amp;c., which Sir George cut short, and suddenly
+dropping down into the practical complaint, "that we had stopped their
+rum," though our predecessors had promised to furnish it "as long as the
+waters flowed down the rapids." "Now," said he, in allusion to our empty
+casks, "if I crack a nut, will water flow from it?"</p>
+
+<p>The Governor replied, that the withdrawal of the rum was <i>not</i> to save
+expense but to benefit them. He then gave them his advice on temperance,
+and promised them a small quantity of rum every autumn. He also promised
+a present for their civility in bringing their packet of furs, for which
+they should receive payment besides. Then followed a general and final
+shaking of hands, and the Congress between the English and Chippaway
+nations broke up to their mutual satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>The Red River settlement, of which we heard so often during the quarrels
+between Lord Selkirk and the Company, will yet be a great colony; the
+soil is very fertile (one of the most important elements of
+colonisation,) its early tillage producing forty returns of wheat; and,
+even after twenty years of tillage, without manure, fallow, or green
+crop, yielding from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_660" id="Page_660">[Pg 660]</a></span> fifteen to twenty-five bushels an acre. The wheat
+is plump and heavy, and, besides, there are large quantities of other
+grain, with beef, mutton, pork, butter, cheese, and wool in abundance.
+This would be the true country for emigration from our impoverished
+islands, and will, of course, be crowded when conveyances shall become
+more manageable. A railroad across Canada must still be a rather Utopian
+conception, but it might be well worth the expense of making by
+government, even though it produced nothing for the next half-dozen
+years, for the multitudes whom it would carry through the heart of this
+superb country in the half-dozen years after, and for the wealth which
+they would pour into England in every year to come.</p>
+
+<p>The settlement, however, meets, in its turn, the common chances of an
+American climate. In winter the cold is intense. The summer is short,
+and the rivers sometimes overflow and drown the crops. Still what are
+these things to the population, where food is plenty, the air healthy,
+and the ground cheap, fertile and untaxed. In fact, the difficulties, in
+such instances, are scarcely more than incitements to the ingenuity of
+man, to provide resources against them. The season of snow is a time of
+cheerfulness in every land of the north. In Denmark, Russia, and Canada,
+when the rivers close up, business is laid by for the next six months;
+and the time of dancing, driving, and feasting begins. Food is the great
+requisite; when that is found, every thing follows.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to agriculture, or in place of it, the settlers, more
+particularly those of mixed origin, devote the summer, the autumn, and
+sometimes the winter also, to the hunting of the buffalo, bringing home
+vast quantities of pemmican, dried meat, grease, tongues, &amp;c. for which
+the Company and voyaging business affords the best market.</p>
+
+<p>The party now proceeded, still with their faces turned to the west, and
+marched for some days over an immense prairie, which seemed to them to
+have been once the bottom of a huge lake. A rather striking circumstance
+is, that nearly every height in this region has its romance of savage
+life. We give one of murder, for the benefit of the modern school of
+novelists.</p>
+
+<p>Many summers ago, a party of Assinabaians fell on a party of Crees in
+the neighbourhood of the Beatte a Carcajar, a conspicuous knoll in this
+neighbourhood, and nearly destroyed them all. Among the assailants was
+the former wife of one of the Crees, who had been carried off from him,
+in an earlier foray, by her present lord and master. From whatever
+motive of domestic memory, this Amazon rushed into the thickest of the
+fight, for the evident purpose of killing the original husband. He,
+however, escaped; and while the victors were scalping his unfortunate
+companions, creeping stealthily along for a whole day under cover of the
+woods, he laid down at night in a hollow at the top of the Knoll. But
+his wife had never lost sight of him, and no sooner had he, in the
+exhaustion of hunger and fatigue, sunk into a sound sleep, than she sent
+an arrow into his brain. She then possessed herself of his scalp, and
+exhibited it as her prize to the victors. The title of the slain savage
+was the Wolverine, and the spot is still called the Wolverine's Knoll.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians assert that the ghosts of the murderess and her victim are
+often to be seen struggling on the height.</p>
+
+<p>Human nature, left to itself, is a fierce and frightful thing; and the
+stories of savage life are nearly all of the same calibre, and all
+exhibit a dreadful love of revenge. About twenty years ago, a large
+encampment of Black-feet and others, had been formed in those prairies
+for the purpose of hunting. The warriors, however, growing tired of
+their peaceful occupation, resolved to make an incursion into the lands
+of the Assinabaians. They left behind them the old men with the women
+and children. After a successful campaign, they turned their steps
+homewards, loaded with scalps and other spoils, and on reaching the top
+of the ridge that overlooked their camp, they gave note of their
+approach by the usual shouts of victory. But no shout answered, and on
+descending to their huts, they found the whole of the inmates
+slaughtered. The Assinabaians had been there to take their revenge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_661" id="Page_661">[Pg 661]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On beholding the dismal scene, the triumphant warriors cast away their
+spoils, arms, and clothing, and then putting on robes of leather, and
+smearing their heads with mud, they betook themselves to the hills for
+three days and nights, to howl and moan, and cut their flesh. It is
+observed, that this mode of expressing public grief, bears a striking
+resemblance to the customs of the Jews. The track towards Fort Vancouver
+exhibited a country, which may yet make a great figure in the American
+world,&mdash;immense valleys sheltered by mountain ridges, and containing
+beautiful lakes. In one instance, their tents were pitched in a valley
+of about five hundred acres enclosed by mountains on three sides, and a
+lake on the fourth. From the edge of the waters there arose a gentle
+descent of six or eight hundred feet covered with vines, and composed of
+the accumulated fragments of the heights above; and on the upper border
+of this slope there stood perpendicular walls of granite of three or
+four thousand feet high, while among those dizzy altitudes, the goats
+and sheep bounded in playful security. This defile had been the scene of
+an exploit. One of the Crees, whom they had met a few days before, had
+been tracked into the valley along with his wife and family by five
+warriors of a hostile tribe. On perceiving the odds against him, the man
+gave himself up for lost, observing to the woman, that as they could die
+but once, they had better die without resistance. The wife, however,
+said, that "as they had but one life to lose, they had the more reason
+to defend it," and, suiting the action to the word, the heroic wife
+brought the foremost of the enemy down to the ground by a bullet, while
+the husband disposed of two others by two arrows. The fourth warrior was
+rushing on the woman with uplifted tomahawk, when he stumbled and fell.
+She darted forward, and buried her knife in his heart. The sole
+surviving assailant now turned and fled, discharging, however, a bullet
+which wounded the man in the arm.</p>
+
+<p>They had now reached that rocky range from which the eastern and western
+rivers of those mighty provinces take their common departure. Here they
+estimated the height of the pass to be seven or eight thousand feet
+above sea-level, while the peaks seemed to be nearly half that height
+above their heads.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the party often felt the torture of mosquitoes, but one
+valley was so pre-eminently infested with those tormentors, that man and
+beast alike preferred being nearly choked with smoke, in which they
+plunged, for the sake of escaping their stings. But we advert to this
+common plague of all forest travel, only for its legendary honours.</p>
+
+<p>"The Canadians vented their curses against the <span class="smcap">old maid</span>, who had the
+credit of having brought the scourge upon earth, by praying for
+something to fill up the leisure of her single blessedness." And if, as
+the author observes, "the tormentors would confine themselves to
+nunneries and monasteries, the world might see something more of the
+fitness of things in the matter."</p>
+
+<p>At the close of August, the party reached Fort Vancouver, having crossed
+the Continent, by a route of five thousand miles, in twelve weeks'
+travelling.</p>
+
+<p>They now made a visit to the Russian-American Company's Establishment of
+New Archangel. This exhibited considerable signs of commerce. In the
+harbour were five sailing vessels from 250 to 350 tons; besides a large
+bark in the offing in tow of a steamer, which brought advices from St
+Petersburgh down to the end of April. An officer came off conveying
+Governor Etholine's compliments and welcome. The party landed, and were
+received in the residence situated on the top of a rock. The Governor's
+dwelling consisted of a suite of apartments communicating, according to
+the Russian fashion, with each other, all the public, rooms being
+handsomely decorated and richly furnished. It commanded a view of the
+whole establishment, which was, in fact, a little village. About half
+way down the rock, two batteries frowned respectively over the land and
+the water. Behind the Bay arise stupendous piles of conical mountains
+with summits of everlasting snow. To seaward, Mount Edgecumbe, also in
+the form of a cone, rears its trunk-headed peak, still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_662" id="Page_662">[Pg 662]</a></span> remembered as
+the source of smoke and flame, lava and ashes, but now the repository of
+the snows of an age. Next day, the Governor, in full uniform, came in
+his gig to return the visit to Sir George on board his steamer. The
+party were invited on shore, where they were introduced to Madame
+Etholine, a pretty and lady-like woman, a native of Finland. They then
+visited the schools, in which there were twenty boys and as many girls;
+the boys were intended chiefly for the naval service, nor did religion
+seem to be neglected any more than education. The Greek Church had its
+bishop, fifteen priests, deacons, and followers, and the Lutherans had
+their clergyman. The ecclesiastics were all maintained by the Imperial
+Government. Such is Sitka, the principal depot of the Russian-American
+Company. It has various subordinate establishments. The operations of
+the Company are becoming more extensive, and at this period the returns
+of the trade amounted to about 25,000 skins of beavers, otters, foxes,
+&amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Among the company at the Russian Governor's, was a half-breed native,
+who had been the leader of an expedition equipped some years ago, for
+the discovery of what would here be styled the North-East passage. The
+Russians reached Point Barrow shortly after the expedition under Mr
+Thomas Simpson had reached the same point from the opposite direction.
+The climate seems to be sufficiently trying, and during the four days at
+Sitka there was nearly one continued fall of rain. The weather was cold
+and squally, snow had fallen, and the channels were traversed by
+restless masses which had broken off from the glaciers. In short nothing
+could exceed the dreariness of the coast.</p>
+
+<p>This shore, of which so much has been said and written during the late
+Oregon negociations, is described as the very scene for the steam-boat.
+Here are the Straits of Juan de Fuca; and here Admiral Fonte penetrated
+up the more northerly inlets. They are the very region made for the
+steam-boat, as in the case of a sailing vessel their dangers and delays
+would have been tripled and quadrupled. But steam has also a power
+almost superstitious on the minds of the natives; besides acting on
+their fears, it has in a great measure subdued their love of robbery and
+violence. It has given the savage a new sense of the superiority of his
+white brother.</p>
+
+<p>A striking instance of this feeling is given. After the arrival of the
+emigrants from Red River, their guide, an Indian, took a short trip in
+the Beaver. When asked what he thought of her, "Don't ask me," was his
+reply. "I cannot speak; my friends will think that I tell lies when I
+let them know what I have seen. Indians are fools, and know nothing. I
+can see that the iron machinery makes the ship go, but I cannot see what
+makes the iron machinery itself go." This man, though intelligent, and
+partly civilized, was nevertheless so full of doubt and wonder that he
+would not leave the vessel till he had got a certificate to the effect
+that he had been on board of a ship which needed neither sails nor
+paddles,&mdash;any document in writing being regarded by the Indians as
+unquestionable. Fort Vancouver&mdash;which will probably be the head of a
+great colony, is about ninety miles from the sea, the Colombia in front
+of it, being a mile in width&mdash;contains houses, stores, magazines, &amp;c.
+Outside the fort, the dwellings of the servants, &amp;c. form a little
+village. The people of the establishment vary in number, according to
+the season of the year, from one hundred and thirty to more than two
+hundred. Divine service is regularly performed every Sunday in English
+to the Protestants. But at the time of this journal there was
+unfortunately no English clergyman connected with the establishment.</p>
+
+<p>Sir George himself now visited California, the region which the Mexican
+war is bringing into prominent notice. The harbour of San Francisco is
+magnificent, the first view of the shore presented a level sward of
+about a mile in depth, backed by a ridge of grassy slopes, the whole
+pastured by numerous herds of cattle and horses, which, without a keeper
+or a fold, fattened whether their owners waked or slept.</p>
+
+<p>The harbour displays a sheet of water of about thirty miles in length<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_663" id="Page_663">[Pg 663]</a></span>
+by about twelve in breadth, sheltered from every wind by an amphitheatre
+of green hills. But this sheet of water forms only a part in the inland
+sea of San Francisco. Whaler's Harbour, at its own northern extremity,
+communicates by a strait of about two miles in width with the bay of San
+Pedro, which leads by means of a second strait into Fresh Water Bay, of
+nearly the same form and magnitude, and which forms the receptacle, of
+two great rivers, draining vast tracts of country to the south-east and
+north-east, which are navigable for inland craft, so that the harbour,
+besides its matchless qualities as a port of refuge on this surf-beaten
+coast, is the outlet of an immense, fair, and fertile region.</p>
+
+<p>But the beauties of nature are useless when they fall into the hands of
+idlers and fools. Every thing in those fine countries seems to be
+boasting and beggary. Every thing has been long sinking into ruin,
+through mere indolence. The Californians once manufactured the fleeces
+of their sheep into cloth. They are now too lazy to weave or spin, too
+lazy even to clip and wash the raw material, and now the sheep have been
+literally destroyed to make more room for the horned cattle.</p>
+
+<p>They once made the dairy an object of attention, now neither butter nor
+cheese is to be found in the province. They once produced in the
+Missions eighty thousand bushels of wheat and maize,&mdash;they were lately
+buying flour at Monterey at the rate of &pound;6 a sack. Beef was once
+plentiful,&mdash;they were now buying salted salmon for the sea-store for one
+paltry vessel, which constituted the entire line-of-battle of the
+Californian navy.</p>
+
+<p>The author justly observes, that this wicked abuse of the soil and
+consequent poverty of the people results wholly from "the objects of the
+colonisation." Thus the emigrants from England to the northern colonies
+looked to subsistence from the fruits of labour; ploughed, harrowed, and
+grew rich, and civilized. On the other hand the colonists of "New
+France" a name which comprehended the valleys of the St Lawrence and
+Mississippi, dwindled and pined away, partly because the golden dreams
+of the free trade carried them away from stationary pursuits, and partly
+because the government considered them rather as soldiers than settlers.
+In like manner Spanish America, with its <i>Serras</i> of silver, holding out
+to every adventurer the hope of earning his bread without the sweat of
+his brow, became the paradise of idlers.</p>
+
+<p>In California the herds of cattle, and the sale of their hides and
+tallow, offer so easy a subsistence, that the population think of no
+other, and in consequence are poor, degenerate, and dwindling. Their
+whole education consists in bullock hunting. In this view, unjust and
+violent as may be the aggressions of the American arms, it is difficult
+to regret the transfer of the territory into any hands which will bring
+these fine countries into the general use of mankind, root out a race
+incapable of improvement, and fill the hills and valleys of this mighty
+province with corn and man.</p>
+
+<p>At present the produce of a bullock in hide, tallow, and horns, is about
+five dollars, (the beef goes for nothing) of which the farmer's revenue
+is averaged at a dollar and a half. This often makes up a large income.
+General Vallego, who had about eight thousand head of cattle, must
+receive from this source about ten thousand dollars a-year. The former
+Missions, or Monkish revenues, must have been very large; that of San
+Jose possessing thirty thousand head of cattle, Santa Clara nearly half
+the number, and San Gabriel more than both together.</p>
+
+<p>It must be acknowledged that the monks had made a handsome affair of
+holiness in the good old times. Previously to the Mexican revolution
+their "missions" amounted, in the upper province alone, to twenty-one,
+every one of course with its endowment on a showy scale. Every monk had
+an annual stipend of four hundred dollars. But this was mere
+pocket-money; they had "donations and bequests" from the living and from
+the dead, a most capacious source of opulence, and of an opulence
+continually growing, constituting what was termed the pious fund of
+California. Besides all these things, they had the cheap labour of
+eighteen thousand converts. But the drones were to be suddenly smoked
+out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_664" id="Page_664">[Pg 664]</a></span> of their hives. Mexico declared itself a republic; and, as the
+first act of a republic, in every part of the world, is to plunder every
+body, the property of the monks went in the natural way. The lands and
+beeves, the "donations and bequests were made a national property," in
+1825. Still some show of moderation was exhibited, and the names and
+some of the offices of the missions were preserved. But, in 1836, the
+Californians took the whole affair into their own hands, threw off the
+Central Government, and were "free, independent," and beggared. The
+Missions were then "secularized" at their ease. The Mexican government
+was furious for a while, and threatened the Californians with all the
+thunders of its rage; but the vengeance ended in the simple condition,
+that California should still acknowledge the Mexican supremacy, taking
+her own way in all that had been done, was doing, and was to be done.</p>
+
+<p>The travellers had now an opportunity of seeing the interior of a
+Californian mansion, the house of the chief proprietor in this quarter,
+General Vallego.</p>
+
+<p>We must acknowledge that Sir George Simpson would have much improved his
+volumes by striking out the whole of this description. It is evident
+that he was received with civilities of every kind;&mdash;he was provided
+with horses and attendants;&mdash;he was taken to see all the remarkable
+features of the estate and the habits of its people; he was <i>f&ecirc;ted</i>,
+introduced to wife and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, sung
+and danced for, and smiled on and talked with, as if he had been a
+prince; and yet his whole account of this hospitality throws it into the
+most repulsive light imaginable;&mdash;cold dinners, bad attendance, rude
+furniture, and so forth, form the staple of his conceptions; and if his
+book should ever reach General Vallego's hands, which it probably will,
+through the zeal of American republication, we can easily imagine that
+he will become cautious in his hospitality for the time to come. We, at
+least, shall not extend the vexation of this Spanish gentleman by
+quoting any part of this unfortunate <i>bevue</i>. We say this with regret.
+But this style of repaying generous hospitality cannot be too distinctly
+reproved, for the sake of all future travellers who may want, not merely
+hospitality, but protection.</p>
+
+<p>The next subject of description is Monterey, which has lately assumed a
+peculiar interest, as one of the objects of the American invasion. The
+Bay of Monterey forms a segment of a circle with a chord of about
+eighteen miles. Monterey had always been the seat of government, though
+it consisted of but a few buildings. But, since the revolution of 1836,
+it has expanded into a population of about seven hundred souls. The town
+occupies a plain, bounded by a lofty ridge. The dwellings are the
+reverse of pompous, being all built of mud bricks. The houses are
+remarkable for a paucity of windows, glass being inordinately dear; even
+parchment almost unattainable, and the artists in window-making charging
+three dollars a-day!</p>
+
+<p>But, to the Californians, perhaps this privation of light is not an
+evil. While it makes the rooms cooler, it cannot, by any possibility,
+interfere with the occupations of those who do nothing. The bed affords
+a curious contrast to the rest of the furniture. While the apartments
+exhibit a deal-table, badly made chairs, probably a Dutch clock, and an
+old looking-glass, the bed "challenges admiration by snowy white sheets,
+fringed with lace, a pile of soft pillows, covered with the finest linen
+or the richest satin, and a well-arranged drapery of costly and tasteful
+curtains." Still this bed is "but a whited sepulchre," with a wool
+mattress&mdash;"the impenetrable stronghold of millions of&mdash;&mdash;." We leave the
+rest to the imagination.</p>
+
+<p>The history of "Political Causes and Effects" would make a curious
+volume; and it would admirably display, at once the profound agency of
+Providence, and the shortsightedness of human policy. It would scarcely
+be supposed that the devastation of Europe, and the sack of Berlin,
+Vienna, and Moscow, found their origin in a Spanish treaty, on the banks
+of the Mississippi, half a century before.</p>
+
+<p>The power of France in the interior of America, which had extended from
+Canada to Louisiana, and which formed a line of posts for its boundary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_665" id="Page_665">[Pg 665]</a></span>
+along this immense internal <i>frontier</i>, kept the British Colonies in a
+state of constant alarm; and, by consequence, in a state of continual
+dependence on England. But the English possession of Canada, in 1763,
+and the cession of Louisiana to Spain at the same period, as they
+lessened the alarms, loosened the allegiance of the British colonies.
+The next steps were more obvious. The war of the United States, in which
+France was an auxiliary, inflamed the French population with the hope of
+breaking down the strength of England and the aristocracy of France. But
+the expense of equipping the French allied force fell heavy on an
+exchequer already burthened by the showy extravagance of the Regent
+Orleans, and by the gross profligacies of Louis XV. To relieve the
+exchequer, the States General were summoned; and from that <i>moment</i>
+began the Revolution. The European war was the result of a republican
+government, and the conquest of the Continent the result of placing
+Napoleon on the throne of the empire. What further results may be still
+preparing are beyond our knowledge; but it can scarcely be conceived
+that the chain is yet finally broken.</p>
+
+<p>But before we take leave of California, we must do it the justice to
+speak of San Barbara, which, as the author <i>rather</i> emphatically
+expresses it, is to Monterey "what the parlour is to the kitchen."</p>
+
+<p>The bay is an unfavourable one, being exposed to the "worst winds of the
+worst season." But the town having been selected as the favourite
+retreat of the more respectable functionaries of the province, Santa
+Barbara exhibits the charms of aristocratic manners. The houses,
+externally, are superior to any others on the coast, and, internally,
+exhibit taste in their furniture and ornament. The ladies excite the
+author's pen into absolute rapture; their sparkling eyes and glossy
+hair, are, in themselves, sufficient to negative the idea of tameness or
+insipidity, while their sylph-like figures exhibit fresh graces at every
+step. This is supported by the more important qualities, of "being by
+far the more industrious half of the community, and performing their
+household duties with cheerfulness and pride."</p>
+
+<p>The men are a handsome race, and the greatest dandies imaginable,
+completely modelled on the Andalusian Majo, and displaying the finest
+linen, the most embroidered pantaloons, and the most glittering jackets
+in the western world. Of course, it cannot be expected of any Spaniards
+that they should do much, and beaux so fine cannot be expected to do any
+thing. Accordingly, his day is spent in riding from house to house, on a
+horse as fine as himself, a living machine of trappings, and the nights
+in dancing, billiard-playing, and flirting.</p>
+
+<p>In all countries where serious things are habitually turned into
+trifles, trifles become serious things. "The balls, in fact, seem more
+like a matter of business than any thing else that is done in
+California. For whole days beforehand, sweetmeats are laboriously
+prepared in the greatest variety, and from beginning to end of the
+festivities, which have been known to last several successive nights, so
+as to make the performers, after wearing out their pumps, trip it in
+sea-boots, both men and women displaying as much gravity as if attending
+the funeral of their friends."</p>
+
+<p>A still more humanising portion of their tastes is their passion for
+music. The guitar is heard in every house. Father, mother, and child are
+all playing and singing; and, to the praise of their taste be it spoken,
+playing nothing but the fandangoes, seguidillas, and ballads of Spain;
+the truest, purest, and most touching of all music; well worth all the
+<i>hammered</i> harmonies of the German school, and all the long-winded and
+laborious bravuras of the Italian. The Spanish music is the most
+refined, and yet the most natural, in the world.</p>
+
+<p>We are glad to see this experienced judge of men and things speaking of
+the Californians as "a happy people possessing the means of physical
+pleasure to the full," even though he qualifies the opinion by their
+"knowing no higher kind of enjoyment."</p>
+
+<p>It is true, that the Englishman, who knows what <i>intellectual</i> enjoyment
+is, will not abandon that highest, though most toilsome, of all
+gratifications, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_666" id="Page_666">[Pg 666]</a></span> inferior indulgences; but it would be a fortunate
+hour for the Englishman when he could get rid of some portion of the
+toil that wears away his life, in exchange for the lighthearted
+pleasures and simple occupations of foreign existence. Nor is there any
+man who less prefers the dogged round of his cheerless exertions, or who
+is more genuinely susceptible of essential enjoyment. We even think that
+the cultivated Englishman has a finer relish for enjoyment than the man
+of any other country. The caperings of the Frenchman, or the grimaces of
+the Italian, have but little connexion with the mind. All foreigners
+seem wretched when they have no physical excitement. There is not a more
+miserable object on earth, than a Frenchman wandering through the
+streets of London on a Sunday, when he can neither see the print shops
+in the day, nor go to the play at night. The German is heart-broken for
+the same reason, and shrouds himself and his sorrow in double clouds of
+smoke. The Italian would worship Diana of Ephesus, or the Great African
+Snake, if its pageantry, or puppet-show, would enable him to get through
+the day of closed shops and <i>no</i> opera! Yet, contemptible as this
+restless hunting after nothings is, it would be fortunate for us if we
+could qualify the severity and constancy of our national toil by some
+mixture of the lighter pursuits of the Continent.</p>
+
+<p>The fertility of California is boundless; it produces every thing that
+human appetite can desire. In the Mission-garden of San Gabriel were
+produced grapes, oranges, lemons, olives, figs, bananas, plums, peaches,
+apples, pears, pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, &amp;c. &amp;c., while
+in the adjoining Mission were found in addition, tobacco, the plantain,
+the cocoa-nut, the indigo plant, and the sugar cane.</p>
+
+<p>But Nature is nothing, in this country, without a miracle; and the
+history of every village probably furnishes its legend. The Missions,
+however, may be presumed to be the peculiar favourites of Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"When Padre Pedro Cambon, and Padre Somera, were selecting a site for
+the Mission, escorted by ten soldiers, a multitude of Indians, armed,
+presented themselves, and setting up horrid yells, seemed determined to
+oppose its establishment. The fathers, fearing that war would ensue,
+took out a piece of cloth with the image of our Lady upon it, and held
+it up in view of the barbarians. This was no sooner done, than the whole
+were quiet, being subdued by the sight of this most precious image; and
+throwing on the ground their bows and arrows, their two captains came
+running to lay the beads, which they had round their necks, at the feet
+of the Sovereign Queen, in proof of their tender regard." We recommend
+the trial of this holy Cloth on General Taylor.</p>
+
+<p>But there is no limit to the richness of this region. The valley of the
+Zulares, in the neighbourhood, would support millions of people. Its
+lakes and rivers all abound in fish, its forests have all kinds of
+trees, some of them growing to a size which, but for the force of
+testimony, would be incredible. One of these is stated by Humboldt as of
+one hundred and eighteen feet in girth. "But this is a walking-stick
+compared with another at Bodega, as described to Sir George by Governor
+Etholine, of Sitka." It is thirty-six Russian fathoms (seven feet each)
+in span, and seventy-five in height; so that, if tapered into a perfect
+cone, it would contain nearly twenty-two thousand tons of bark and
+timber. In addition, the valley contains immense herds of wild horses,
+in troops of several thousands each. What a country will this be, when
+it shall fall into the hands of an intelligent people!</p>
+
+<p>The last of the five posts, San Diego, is, next to San Francisco, the
+best harbour in the province. Thus, Upper California contains, at its
+opposite extremities, two of the best harbours on the Pacific Ocean;
+each of them being enhanced in value by the distance of any others
+worthy of the name, San Francisco being nearly one thousand miles from
+Port Discovery in the north, and San Diego six hundred miles from the
+Bay of Magdalena in the south.</p>
+
+<p>That in the hands of any vigorous possessors this country would form a
+most powerful kingdom, is beyond all question; and Sir George Simpson
+evidently thinks that it might easily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_667" id="Page_667">[Pg 667]</a></span> be acquired, and with a
+legitimate claim too, by England. But the still higher question is the
+policy of a perpetual increase of territory. England already has in
+America a larger extent of territory than she can people for five
+hundred years to come. But the possession of California, and perhaps of
+the whole extent of the Mexican provinces, is on the eve of decision;
+the American invasion has found no resistance that can deserve the name.
+The Mexicans fly in every quarter, and a few discharges of cannon put
+them to flight by thousands. At this moment the whole Mexican Republic,
+equal in size to half a dozen European States, appears to be crumbling
+into fragments. The rambling expeditions of the Americans are ravaging
+it in all directions with impunity, and armies which might have been
+long since annihilated by a mere guerilla war, have been suffered to
+march from city to city, with scarcely more resistance than a
+cattle-stealing skirmish. By the last intelligence, San Juan d' Ulloa
+has fallen, and Vera Cruz has capitulated after a siege of only three
+days and a half. The castle is the strongest fortification in the
+Western World&mdash;and, as Napoleon said of Malta, "It is lucky that it had
+somebody inside to open the gates for us:" the garrison of this fortress
+seems to have been placed there merely for the purpose of surrendering
+it. But, whatever may be the fate of men who had such a fortress to
+defend, and yet whose defence actually cost the assailants but
+<i>seventeen</i> killed! there can be but one feeling of commiseration for
+the unhappy inhabitants of Vera Cruz, on whom was rained, day and night,
+a shower of shot and shell amounting to more than seven thousand of
+those tremendous missiles. It is computed that the slaughter, and that
+slaughter chiefly of women and children, amounts to thousands. These are
+terrible things, even where they may be supposed the <i>necessities</i> of
+war. But here we can discover no necessity&mdash;Vera Cruz was <i>no</i>
+fortification, it was nearly an open town. We recollect no similar
+instance of a bombardment. In Europe, it has long been a rule of
+military morals, that no open city shall ever be bombarded. We believe
+it to be the boast of the first living soldier in the world&mdash;and we
+could have no more honourable one&mdash;that he never suffered a city to be
+bombarded; from the obvious fact, that the chief victims were the
+helpless inhabitants, while the soldiery are sheltered by the casemates
+and bomb-proofs.</p>
+
+<p>At all events, we must regard the contest as decided. The Government has
+exhibited nothing more than a sullen resolution; and the people little
+more than the apathy of their own cattle; the troops have exhibited no
+evidence of discipline, and the only resource of the Finance has been in
+the wild projects of an empty Exchequer. Whether the United States will
+be the more prosperous for this conquest, is a question of time alone.
+Whether the facility of the conquest may not make the multitude frantic
+for general aggression,&mdash;whether the military men of the States may not
+obtain a popularity and assume a power which has been hitherto confined
+to civil life,&mdash;whether the attractions of military career may not turn
+the rising generation from the pursuits of trade and tillage, to the
+idle, or the ferocious life of the American campaigner,&mdash;and whether the
+pressure of public debt, the necessity for maintaining their half-savage
+conquests by an army, and the passion for territorial aggrandisement,
+may not urge them to a colonial war with England,&mdash;are only parts of the
+great problem which the next five-and-twenty years will compel the
+American Republic to solve.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, we cannot avoid looking upon the invasion of Mexico as
+a portion of that extraordinary and mysterious agency which is now
+shaking all the great stagnant districts of the world; which has already
+awaked Turkey in Europe and in Asia Minor; which has brought Egypt into
+civilised action; which has broken down the barbarism of the Algerines,
+and planted the French standard in place of the furies and profligacies
+of African Mahometanism. Deeply deprecating the guilt of those
+aggressions, and condemning the crimes by which they have been
+sustained, we cannot but regard changes so unexpected,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_668" id="Page_668">[Pg 668]</a></span> so powerful, and
+so simultaneous, as the operation of a higher power than man's, with
+objects altogether superior to the shortsightedness of man, and amply
+bearing the character of working good out of evil, which belongs to the
+history of Divine Providence in all the ages of the world.</p>
+
+<p>There is one peculiarity in these volumes which we cannot sufficiently
+applaud, and that is, the thoroughly English spirit in which they are
+written. Without weak partiality, for the reasons are every where
+assigned; without narrow prejudice, for the facts are in all instances
+stated; and without derogating from the merits of other nations, the
+work is calculated to give a just conception of the value of England to
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>On his return from the Sandwich Isles&mdash;an interesting portion of his
+travels, to which we have not now time to advert in detail&mdash;and
+preparing to start from the Russian post of New Archangel by a five
+months' journey through the Russian empire, he gives a glance at what he
+has done.</p>
+
+<p>"I have," says he, "threaded my way round nearly half the globe,
+traversing about 220 degrees of longitude, and upwards of 100 of
+latitude, barely one fourth of this by the ocean. Notwithstanding all
+this, I have uniformly felt more at home, with the exception of my first
+sojourn at Sitka, than I should have felt in Calais. I have every where
+seen our race, under a great variety of circumstances, either actually
+or virtually invested with the attributes of sovereignty."</p>
+
+<p>After a few words on the vigour of the English blood, as exhibited in
+the commerce, intelligence, and activity of the United States, he
+returns to the immediate possessions and prowess of England. "I have
+seen the English posts which stud the wilderness from the Canadian lakes
+to the Pacific Ocean. I have seen English adventurers with that innate
+power which makes every individual, whether Briton or American, a real
+representative of his country, monopolising the trade, and influencing
+the destinies of California. And lastly, I have seen the English
+merchants of a barbarian Archipelago, which promises, under their
+guidance, to become the centre of the traffic of the east and the west,
+of the new world and the old. In saying all this, I have seen less than
+half the grandeur of the English race. How insignificant in comparison
+are all the other nations of the earth, one nation alone excepted.
+Russia and Great Britain literally gird the globe where either continent
+has the greatest breadth, a fact which, taken in connexion with their
+early annals, can scarcely fail to be regarded as the work of a special
+Providence. After the fall of the Roman empire, a scanty and obscure
+people suddenly burst on the west and east, as the dominant race of the
+times; one swarm of the Normans making its way to England, while another
+was establishing its supremacy over the Sclavonians of the Borysthenes,
+the two being to meet in opposite directions at the end of a thousand
+years."</p>
+
+<p>He regards the gigantic power of Russia as in an unconscious
+co-partnership with England in the grand cause of commerce and
+civilisation. He also makes the curious and true remark that,
+notwithstanding the astonishing successes of the Normans in Europe, they
+were never numerous enough to establish their language in any of the
+conquered countries. Their unparalleled successes, therefore, seem to
+express the idea that those feeble bands of warriors were strengthened
+every where to accomplish the purposes of Providence.</p>
+
+<p>We now come to the overland journey to Siberia. On the 23d of July, they
+reached the port of Ochotsk, where, however, they were met by masses of
+floating ice. Here Sir George had the first intelligence from England,
+which brought to his English heart the glad tidings of the birth of a
+Prince of Wales. They found this settlement a collection of huts on a
+shingly beach. The population is about 800 souls. A more dreary scene
+can scarcely be conceived than the surrounding country. Not a tree, and
+even scarcely a green blade is to be seen within miles of the town. The
+climate is on a par with the soil. The summer consists of three months
+of damp and chilly weather, during great part of which the snow still
+covers the hills, and the ice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_669" id="Page_669">[Pg 669]</a></span> chokes the harbour, and this is succeeded
+by nine months of dreary winter. But when men find fault with such a
+climate as this, the fact is, that the fault is their own. Those
+climates were never intended for the residence of man; they were
+intended for the white bear, the seal, the whale, and the fur-bearing
+animals. To those inhabitants, they are perfectly adapted. If the rage
+of conquest, or the eagerness for gain, fixes human beings in the very
+empire of winter, they are intruders, and must suffer for their
+unsuitable choice of a locale.</p>
+
+<p>The principal food of the inhabitants is fish. On fish they feed
+themselves; their dogs&mdash;which are equivalent to their carriage
+horses&mdash;their cattle, and their poultry, are also chiefly fed on fish.
+All other provisions are ruinously dear. Flour costs twenty-eight rubles
+the pood,&mdash;(a ruble is worth about a franc, the pood is thirty-six
+English pounds.) Beef is so dear as to be regarded as a treat, and wines
+and groceries have to pay a land carriage of seven thousand miles.</p>
+
+<p>Here, too, the people drink tea in the style in which it was introduced
+in more primitive days into Europe. It is of the kind known as brick
+tea, being made up in cakes, and is consumed in great quantities by the
+lower orders in Siberia, being made into a thick soup, with the addition
+of butter and salt.</p>
+
+<p>On the 27th of the month, they began their journey across Siberia. After
+leaving the shore, and boating the river Ochota, to an encampment where
+they were to meet their horses, hired at the rate of forty-five rubles a
+horse, on an agreement to be conveyed to Yakutsh in eighteen days, they
+struck into the country, which exhibited forests of pine, their progress
+being about four or five miles an hour. The Yakuti appear to be very
+industrious; young and old, male and female, being always occupied in
+some useful employment. When not engaged in travelling or farming, men
+and boys make saddles, harness, &amp;c.; while the women and girls keep
+house, dress skins, prepare clothing, and attend to the dairy. They are
+also remarkably kind to strangers, for milk and cream, the best things
+they had to give, were freely offered in every village. This was the
+10th of July, yet the snow was still partially lying on the ground. From
+day to day they met caravans of horses; and one day they were startled
+by the shouts of a party at the head of them. Their next sight was a
+herd of cattle running wildly in all directions, and the cause was seen
+in a huge she-bear and her cub moving off at a round trot. On this
+route, the bears are both fierce and numerous. The country had now
+become more fertile; there was no want of flowering plants, and the
+forests were enlivened by the warbling of birds, which, contrasted as it
+was with the deathlike silence of the American woods, was peculiarly
+grateful to the ear. In the course of the day, the vexatious incident
+occurred of meeting the courier, with the letters from England, which
+had been looked for so anxiously on the arrival of the travellers in
+Siberia; but the bags of course could not be opened on the road.</p>
+
+<p>The presence of the Cossack, who attended the party, was of great
+importance in quickening the movements of the natives; but they seemed
+kind and good-natured, full of civility to the strangers, and not
+without some degree of education. The Yakuti have a singular mode of
+estimating distances. In Germany, a common measure of distance is the
+time that it takes to smoke a pipe. In this part of Siberia, they take
+as their unit the time necessary for boiling a kettle of a particular
+sort of food. They tell you, that such and such a place is so many
+kettles off, or half a kettle, or, as the case may be, only part of a
+kettle.</p>
+
+<p>At last they arrive at the Lena. This is described as one of the
+grandest rivers in the world. At a distance of thirteen hundred versts
+from the sea, (three versts are equal to two miles,) it is from five to
+six miles wide. Its entire length is not less than four thousand versts.
+The word Lena implies lazy&mdash;a name justified by the circuitous flowing
+of its stream. At Yakutsk, the seat of the Governor, they were received
+with great civility in this capital of the province, latitude sixty-two
+north, and longitude one hundred and thirty east. The extreme
+temperature of summer and winter is almost beyond belief, the
+thermometer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_670" id="Page_670">[Pg 670]</a></span> having, risen in the shade to 106&deg; of Fahrenheit, and in
+winter having fallen to 83&deg; below zero&mdash;making a difference of 189&deg;. In
+this district are the enormous deposits of mammoth bones. Spring after
+spring, the alluvial banks of the lakes and rivers crumbling under the
+thaw have given up their dead; and the islands opposite to the mouth of
+the Yana, and, as there was reason for believing, even the bed of the
+ocean itself, teems with those mysterious memorials of antiquity. The
+question is, how do those bones come there? Sir George, after giving the
+opinions of some of the professors of geology, conceives the most
+natural account of the phenomenon to be, that those animals or their
+bones were swept from the great Tartarian pasturages of Cobi, by the
+waters of the Deluge, towards the ocean. We must acknowledge that this
+has long been our own opinion. It must be remembered that the Scriptural
+account states the rising of the Deluge to have been gradual. The rain
+fell forty days and nights. All living things would of course make their
+way to the heights to escape the rising inundation of the valleys. The
+cattle thus grouped together in immense herds, (the buffalos in the
+prairies at the present day sometimes exceed five thousand in one
+pasturage,) thus gathered into one mass, would be finally submerged, and
+swept away in whatever irresistible current rushed over the spot on
+which they stood. The frost of the region, which penetrates the earth to
+the depth apparently of some hundred feet, would thenceforth preserve
+them from decay. The tusks form an article of considerable trade, the
+ivory selling from a shilling to one and ninepence a pound, according to
+the perfection of the tusks.</p>
+
+<p>One of the travellers' especial wishes was, to have visited the town of
+Kiachta, the place of commerce between the Russians and the Chinese. But
+a note from the Governor mentioned that the Chinese had suddenly stopped
+all communication. But a few words may be given to a commerce so
+peculiar. By the treaty of Nertshinsk, a reciprocal liberty of traffic
+was stipulated; and accordingly caravans on the part of the Russian
+government, and individual traders, used to visit Pekin. But the
+Muscovites exhibited so much of the native habits in "drinking and
+roystering," that, after exhausting the patience of the Celestials
+during three-and-thirty years, they were wholly excluded. But a
+cessation of five years having taken place, the Russians in 1728
+obtained a treaty, by which individuals were permitted to trade on the
+frontier; and Kiachta was built. But public caravans were permitted to
+go on to Pekin. At length, in 1762, Catherine fixed the grand emporium
+at Kiachta.</p>
+
+<p>This town, standing on a beach of the same name, is within about half a
+furlong of the Chinese village of Maimatschin, (about the fiftieth
+parallel of latitude,) being one thousand miles from Pekin, and four
+thousand from Moscow. Such are the enormous distances through which the
+eagerness for money-making drives the children of men.</p>
+
+<p>The materials of the Russian traffic are furs, woollens, cottons, linen,
+&amp;c., with articles in tin, copper, iron, &amp;c.&mdash;the whole amounting to
+about nineteen millions of rubles. The Chinese products are tea, silks,
+sugar-candy, &amp;c.&mdash;nominally to the amount of seven millions of rubles,
+but probably rising to thrice the value. The chief time of the market is
+the winter. To the chief Russian merchants this is a species of
+monopoly, and a most thriving one, some of them being <i>millionnaires</i>,
+and living in the most sumptuous manner, the "merchant princes" of the
+wilderness!</p>
+
+<p>We had some curiosity to know the condition of the exiles to Siberia
+from this intelligent eye-witness. But he gives little more than a
+glance to a subject on which the public mind of England is at present so
+much engaged. In Russia corporal punishment is much in use; but
+criminals are seldom put to death. They are marched off to Siberia for
+every kind of offence, from the highest political crime to petty
+larceny. The most heinous offenders are sent to the mines; those guilty
+of minor delinquencies are settled in villages, or on farms; and
+those guilty of having opinions different from those of the
+government&mdash;statesmen, authors, and soldiers&mdash;are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_671" id="Page_671">[Pg 671]</a></span> generally suffered to
+establish themselves in little knots, where they spread refinement
+through the country. The consequence is, that "all grades of society are
+decidedly more intelligent than the corresponding grades in any other
+part of the empire, and perhaps more so than in most parts of Europe."</p>
+
+<p>Many of the exiles are now men of large income.&mdash;"The dwelling in which
+we breakfasted to-day," says the traveller, "was that of a person who
+had been sent to Siberia <i>against his will</i>. Finding that there was but
+one way of bettering his condition, he worked hard, and behaved well. He
+had now a comfortably furnished house and a well-cultivated farm, while
+a stout wife, and plenty of servants, bustled about the premises. His
+son had just arrived from St Petersburg, to visit his exiled father, and
+had the pleasure of seeing him amid all the comforts of life, reaping an
+abundant harvest, and with <i>one hundred and forty persons</i> in his pay!"</p>
+
+<p>He adds, "In fact, for the <i>reforming</i> of the criminal, in addition to
+the punishment of the crime, Siberia is undoubtedly the best
+<i>penitentiary</i> in the world. When not bad enough for the mines, each
+exile is provided with an allotment of ground, a house, a horse, two
+cows, agricultural implements, and, for the first year, with provisions.
+For three years he pays no taxes whatever, and for the next ten, only
+half the full amount. To bring fear as well as hope to operate in his
+favour, he clearly understands, that his very first slip will send him
+from his home and family, to toil in the mines. Thus does the government
+bestow an almost paternal care on the less atrocious criminals."</p>
+
+<p>Yet with this knowledge before the British Government,&mdash;for we must
+presume that they had not overlooked the condition of the Russian
+exiles; and with the still more impressive knowledge of the growth of
+our Australian colonies, and the improvement of the convicts; the
+new-fangled and most costly plan is now to be adopted of reforming our
+criminals by keeping them at home! Thus we are to save the national
+expenditure by building huge penitentiaries, which will cost millions of
+money, and to secure society from depredation, by annually pouring out
+from those prisons, as the time of their sentences expires, the whole
+crowd of villany to live on villany once more;&mdash;making the very streets
+a place of danger, and filling the country with hungry crime.</p>
+
+<p>The only argument on the opposite side is, that the free settlers are
+offended by finding themselves in a population of convicts. But to this
+the obvious answer is, that the colonisation of Australia was originally
+intended as a school of reform&mdash;that the convicts have been to a great
+extent reformed, which they never would have been at home&mdash;that the
+convicts were in the colony first, and that the settlers going there,
+with their eyes open, have no reason to complain.</p>
+
+<p>We then have a Notice on another subject, which is at present engrossing
+the speculations of all Europe, namely, the gold-country on the
+Yenissei. Krasnoyayk, the capital, stands in a plain in the centre of
+the district, where the mania of gold-washing broke out about fifteen
+years ago. Some individuals have been singularly lucky in their search.
+One person, after having laboured in vain for three years, and expending
+a million and a half of rubles, suddenly, in this very year, had hit
+upon a depot which gave him a hundred and fifty poods of gold&mdash;worth
+thirty-five thousand rubles each, or five millions and a half of rubles.
+Gold here measures every thing: a lady's charms are by weight, "a pood
+is a good girl, and two or three poods are twice or thrice as good as a
+wife." <i>This</i> province alone has, in this year, yielded five hundred
+poods of gold.</p>
+
+<p>Ekaterineburg is the centre of the mining district of the Uralian
+mountains. The population amounts to about fourteen thousand, who are
+all connected with the mines. The town has an iron foundery, a mint for
+copper and silver coin, and various establishments for cutting marble,
+porphyry, and polishing precious stones. The neighbouring mountains
+appear to be nature's richest repository of minerals, yielding, in great
+abundance, diamonds, amethysts, topazes, &amp;c.; gold, silver, iron, and
+platina. These inexhaustible treasures chiefly belong to Count Demidoff
+and M. Yakovleff.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_672" id="Page_672">[Pg 672]</a></span> The Count is said to receive half a million sterling
+a-year from this princely property.</p>
+
+<p>Hurrying now towards England, with the anxiety which every one feels to
+reach home as the end of a long journey seems to be nigh, the traveller
+passed through Kazan, second in national honour to Moscow, but found it
+in ashes from a late fire. He then hurried on to Nishney-Novgorod, the
+place of the greatest fair in the world, where the traffic brings
+traders from the ends of the earth, and where the trade amounts to
+nineteen millions sterling a-year. He then traversed the property of
+General Sheremetieff, an estate of <i>two days' journey</i>, with a hundred
+thousand serfs&mdash;a comfortable race when under a good master, each head
+of a family having a farm, and paying its rent, part in produce and part
+in work. The people appear to be a gay race&mdash;singing every where;
+singing on the roads, singing at work, and singing at cutting up their
+cabbages for the national luxury of <i>saurkraut</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At length was seen looming in the west, with all its steeples and domes,
+the queen of the wilderness, Moscow the Magnificent&mdash;the most
+frequently-burned of all cities, and, as Sir George observes, the most
+<i>retaliatory</i> on the burners&mdash;it having been burned to embers <i>four</i>
+times, and each time having seen the incendiary nation ruined. It must
+be admitted, however, that the revenge, however sure, was slow, for it
+seldom occurred in less than a couple of centuries!&mdash;Napoleon's fate
+being the only instance of promptitude on this point.</p>
+
+<p>From Moscow to St Petersburg, a macadamised road of seven hundred versts
+conveyed the traveller to the northern city of the Czar, where, on the
+8th of October, he terminated a journey from Ochotsk, of about seven
+thousand miles. In eight days from St Petersburg he reached Hamburg, and
+in five days more arrived in London, having rounded the globe in a
+period of nineteen months and twenty-six days!</p>
+
+<p>We have given an abstract of this work with the more satisfaction, that
+it not merely supplies a certain knowledge of vast regions of which the
+European world knows little; but that it gives a favourable view of the
+condition, the habits, and the temper, of the multitudes of our fellow
+men, spread over those immense spaces of the globe. Personally, of
+course, a man of the official rank and individual intelligence of the
+writer, might expect the hospitality of the Russian employ&eacute;s. But he
+seems to have been met with general kindness&mdash;to have experienced no
+injury, no obstacle, and no extortion; and, on the whole, having
+exhibited the good sense which disregards the <i>inevitable</i> annoyances of
+all journeys in distant countries, to have escaped all the severer ones
+which an ill-tempered traveller naturally brings upon himself. But the
+feature of his volumes on which we place the still higher value, is the
+honesty of his English spirit. He knows the value of his country; he
+does justice to her principles; he gives the true view of her power; he
+vindicates her intentions; and without depreciating the merits of
+foreign nations, he pays a manly tribute to the truth, by doing deserved
+honour to his own.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> <i>Narrative of an Overland Journey Round the World.</i> By Sir
+George Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson's Bay Company's
+Territories in North America.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_673" id="Page_673">[Pg 673]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="LETTERS_ON_THE_TRUTHS_CONTAINED_IN_POPULAR_SUPERSTITIONS" id="LETTERS_ON_THE_TRUTHS_CONTAINED_IN_POPULAR_SUPERSTITIONS"></a>LETTERS ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.</h2>
+
+
+<h3>VI.&mdash;RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS: THE POSSESSED: WITCHCRAFT.</h3>
+
+<p>Dear Archy,&mdash;The subjects about which I propose writing to you to-day
+are, delusions of a religious nature;&mdash;the idea of being possessed,&mdash;the
+grounds of the belief in witchcraft. With so much before me, I have no
+room to waste. So, of the first, first.</p>
+
+<p>The powerful hold which the feeling of religion takes on our nature, at
+once attests the truth of the sentiment, and warns us to be on our guard
+against fanatical excesses. No subject can safely be permitted to have
+exclusive possession of our thoughts, least of all the most absorbing
+and exciting of any.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"So&mdash;it will make us mad."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is evident that, with the majority, Providence has designed that
+worldly cares should largely and wholesomely employ the mind, and
+prevent inordinate craving after an indulgence in spiritual stimulation;
+while minds of the highest order are diverted, by the active duties of
+philanthropy, from any perilous excess of religious contemplation.</p>
+
+<p>Under the influence of constant and concentrated religious thought, not
+only is the reason liable to give way&mdash;which is not our theme&mdash;but,
+alternatively, the nervous system is apt to fall into many a form of
+trance, the phenomena of which are mistaken by the ignorant for Divine
+visitation. The weakest frame sinks into an insensibility profound as
+death, in which he has visions of heaven and the angels. Another lies,
+in half-waking trance, rapt in celestial contemplation and beatitude;
+others are suddenly fixed in cataleptic rigidity; others, again, are
+dashed upon the ground in convulsions. The impressive effect of these
+seizures is heightened by their supervention in the midst of religious
+exercises, and by the contagious and sympathetic influence through which
+their spread is accelerated among the more excitable temperaments and
+weaker members of large congregations. What chance have ignorant people
+witnessing such attacks, or being themselves the subjects of them, of
+escaping the persuasion that they mark the immediate agency of the Holy
+Spirit? Or, to take ordinarily informed and sober-minded people,&mdash;what
+would they think at seeing mixed up with this hysteric disturbance,
+distinct proofs of extraordinary perceptive and anticipatory powers,
+such as occasionally manifest themselves as parts of trance, to the
+rational explanation of which they might not have the key?</p>
+
+<p>In the preceding letter, I have already exemplified, by the case of
+Henry Engelbrecht, the occurrence of visions of hell and heaven during
+the deepest state of trance. No doubt the poor ascetic implicitly
+believed his whole life the reality of the scenes to which his
+imagination had transported him.</p>
+
+<p>In a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury to Ambrose Mark Phillips, Esq.,
+published in 1841, a very interesting account is given of two young
+women who had lain for months or years in a state of religious
+beatitude. Their condition, when they were exhibited, appears to have
+been that of half-waking in trance; or, perhaps, a shade nearer the
+lightest form of trance-sleep. To increase the force of the scene, they
+appear to have exhibited some degree of trance-perceptive power. But,
+without this, the mere aspect of such persons is wonderfully imposing.
+If the pure spirit of Christianity finds a bright comment and
+illustration in the Madonnas and Cherubim of Raffaelle, it seems to
+shine out in still more truthful vividness from the brow of a young
+person rapt in religious ecstasy. The hands clasped in prayer,&mdash;the
+upturned eyes,&mdash;the expression of humble confidence and seraphic hope,
+(displayed, let me suggest, on a beautiful face,) constitute a picture
+of which, having witnessed it, I can never forget the force. Yet I knew
+it was only a trance. So one knows that village churches are built by
+common mechanics. Yet when we look over an extensive country, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_674" id="Page_674">[Pg 674]</a></span> see
+the spire from its clump of trees rising over each hamlet, or over the
+distant city its minster tower,&mdash;the images find an approving harmony in
+our feelings, and seem to aid in establishing the genuineness and the
+truth of the sentiment and the faith which have reared such expressive
+symbols.</p>
+
+<p>In the two cases mentioned in Lord Shrewsbury's pamphlet, it is,
+however, painful to observe that trick and artifice had been used to
+bend them to the service of Catholicism. The poor women bore on their
+hands and feet wounds, the supposed <i>spontaneous</i> eruption of
+delineations of the bleeding wounds of the crucifix, and, on the
+forehead, the bloody marks of the crown of thorns. To convict the
+imposture, the blood-stains from the wounds in the feet ran <i>upwards</i>
+towards the toes, to complete a <i>facsimile</i> of the original, though the
+poor girls were lying on their backs. The wounds, it is to be hoped, are
+inflicted and kept fresh and active by means employed when the victims
+are in the insensibility to pain, which commonly goes with trance.</p>
+
+<p>To comprehend the effects of religious excitement operating on masses,
+we may inspect three pictures,&mdash;the revivals of modern times&mdash;the
+fanatical delusions of the Cevennes&mdash;the behaviour of the
+Convulsionnaires at the grave of the Abb&eacute; Paris.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen," says M. Le Roi Sunderland, himself a preacher, [<i>Zion's
+Watchman</i>, New York, Oct. 2, 1842,] "persons often 'lose their
+strength,' as it is called, at camp-meetings, and other places of great
+religious excitement; and not pious people alone, but those also who
+were not professors of religion. In the spring of 1824, while performing
+pastoral labour in Dennis, Massachusetts, I saw more than twenty people
+affected in this way. Two young men, of the name of Crowell, came one
+day to a prayer meeting. They were quite indifferent. I conversed with
+them freely, but they showed no signs of penitence. From the meeting
+they went to their shop, (they were shoemakers,) to finish some work
+before going to the meeting in the evening. On seating themselves they
+were both struck perfectly stiff. I was immediately sent for, and found
+them sitting paralysed [he means cataleptic] on their benches, with
+their work in their hands, unable to get up, or to move at all. I have
+seen scores of persons affected the same way. I have seen persons lie in
+this state forty-eight hours. At such times they are unable to converse,
+and are sometimes unconscious of what is passing round them. At the same
+time they say they are in a happy state of mind."</p>
+
+<p>These persons, it is evident, were thrown in to one of the forms of
+trance through their minds being powerfully worked upon; with which
+cause the influence of mutual sympathy with what they saw around them,
+and perhaps some physical agency, co-operated.</p>
+
+<p>The following extract from the same journal portrays another kind of
+nervous seizure, allied to the former, and produced by the same cause,
+as it was manifested at the great revival, some forty years ago, at
+Kentucky and Tennessee.</p>
+
+<p>"The convulsions were commonly called 'the jerks.' A writer, (M'Neman,)
+quoted by Mr Power, (Essay on the Influence of the Imagination over the
+Nervous System,) gives this account of their course and progress:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'At first appearance these meetings, exhibited nothing to the spectator
+but a scene of confusion, that could scarcely be put into language. They
+were generally opened with a sermon, near the close of which there would
+be an unusual outcry, some bursting out into loud ejaculations of
+prayer, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>"'The rolling exercise consisted in being cast down in a violent manner,
+doubled with the head and feet together, or stretched in a prostrate,
+manner, turning swiftly over like a dog. Nothing in nature could better
+represent the jerks, than for one to goad another alternately on every
+side with a piece of red-hot iron. The exercise commonly began in the
+head, which would fly backwards and forwards, and from side to side,
+with a quick jolt, which the person would naturally labour to suppress,
+but in vain. He must necessarily go on as he was stimulated, whether
+with a violent dash on the ground, and bounce from place to place, like
+a foot-ball; or hopping round with head,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_675" id="Page_675">[Pg 675]</a></span> limbs, and trunk, twitching
+and jolting in every direction, as if they must inevitably fly asunder,'
+&amp;c."</p>
+
+<p>The following sketch is from <i>Dow's Journal</i>. "In the year 1805 he
+preached at Knoxville, Tennessee, before the governor, when some hundred
+and fifty persons, among whom were a number of Quakers, had the jerks."</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen all denominations of religions exercised by the jerks,
+gentleman and lady, black and white, young and old, without exception. I
+passed a meeting-house, where I observed the undergrowth had been cut
+away for camp meetings, and from fifty to a hundred saplings were left,
+breast high, on purpose for the people who were jerked to hold by. I
+observed where they had held on, they had kicked up the earth, as a
+horse stamping flies."</p>
+
+<p>Every one has heard of the extraordinary scenes which took place in the
+Cevennes at the close of the seventeenth century.</p>
+
+<p>It was towards the end of the year 1688 a report was first heard, of a
+gift of prophecy which had shown itself among the persecuted followers
+of the Reformation, who, in the south of France, had betaken themselves
+to the mountains. The first instance was said to have occurred in the
+family of a glass-dealer, of the name of Du Serre, well known as the
+most zealous Calvinist of the neighbourhood, which was a solitary spot
+in Dauphin&eacute;, near Mount Peyra. In the enlarging circle of enthusiasts,
+Gabriel Astier and Isabella Vincent made themselves first conspicuous.
+Isabella, a girl of sixteen years of age, from Dauphin&eacute;, who was in the
+service of a peasant, and tended sheep, began in her sleep to preach and
+prophesy, and the Reformers came from far and near to hear her. An
+advocate, of the name of Gerlan, describes the following scene which he
+had witnessed. At his request she had admitted him, and a good many
+others, after nightfall, to a meeting at a chateau in the neighbourhood.
+She there disposed herself upon a bed, shut her eyes, and went to sleep;
+in her sleep she chanted in a low tone the Commandments and a psalm;
+after a short respite she began to preach in a louder voice, not in her
+own dialect, but in good French, which hitherto she had not used. The
+theme was an exhortation to obey God rather than man. Sometimes she
+spoke so quickly as to be hardly intelligible. At certain of her pauses,
+she stopped to collect herself. She accompanied her words with
+gesticulations. Gerlan found her pulse quiet, her arm not rigid, but
+relaxed, as natural. After an interval, her countenance put on a mocking
+expression, and she began anew her exhortation, which was now mixed with
+ironical reflections upon the Church of Rome. She then suddenly stopped,
+continuing asleep. It was in vain they stirred her. When her arms were
+lifted and let go, they dropped unconsciously. As several now went away,
+whom her silence rendered impatient, she said in a low tone, but just as
+if she was awake, "Why do you go away? Why do not you wait till I am
+ready?" And then she delivered another ironical discourse against the
+Catholic Church, which she closed with a prayer.</p>
+
+<p>When Boucha, the intendant of the district, heard of the performances of
+Isabella Vincent, he had her brought before him. She replied to his
+interrogatories, that people had often told her that she preached in her
+sleep, but that she did not herself believe a word of it. As the
+slightness of her person made her appear younger than she really was,
+the intendant merely sent her to an hospital at Grenoble, where,
+notwithstanding that she was visited by persons of the Reformed
+persuasion, there was an end of her preaching,&mdash;she became a Catholic!</p>
+
+<p>Gabriel Astier, who had been a young labourer, likewise from Dauphin&eacute;,
+went in the capacity of a preacher and prophet into the valley of
+Bressac, in the Vivarais. He had infected his family: his father,
+mother, elder brother, and sweetheart, followed his example, and took to
+prophesying. Gabriel, before he preached, used to fall into a kind of
+stupor in which he lay rigid. After delivering his sermon, he would
+dismiss his auditors with a kiss, and the words: "My brother, or my
+sister, I impart to you the Holy Ghost." Many believed that they had
+thus received the Holy Ghost from Astier, being taken with the same
+seizure. During the period of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_676" id="Page_676">[Pg 676]</a></span> discourse, first one, then another,
+would fall down; some described themselves afterwards as having felt
+first a weakness and trembling through the whole frame, and an impulse
+to yawn and stretch their arms, then they fell convulsed and foaming at
+the mouth. Others carried the contagion home with them, and first
+experienced its effects, days, weeks, months afterwards. They
+believed&mdash;nor is it wonderful they did so&mdash;that they had received the
+Holy Ghost.</p>
+
+<p>Not less curious were the seizures of the Convulsionnaires at the grave
+of the Abb&eacute; Paris, in the year 1727. These Jansenist visionaries used to
+collect in the church-yard of St M&eacute;dard, round the grave of the deposed
+and deceased Deacon, and before long the reputation of the place for
+working miracles getting about, they fell in troops into convulsions.</p>
+
+<p>Their state had more analogy to that of the Jerkers already described.
+But it was different. They required, to gratify an internal impulse or
+feeling, that the most violent blows should be inflicted upon them at
+the pit of the stomach. Carr&eacute; de Montgeron mentions, that being himself
+an enthusiast in the matter, he had inflicted the blows required with an
+iron instrument, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds, with a round
+head. And as a convulsionary lady complained that he struck too lightly
+to relieve the feeling of depression at her stomach, he gave her sixty
+blows with all his force. It would not do, and she begged to have the
+instrument used by a tall, strong man, who stood by in the crowd. The
+spasmodic tension of her muscles must have been enormous; for she
+received one hundred blows, delivered with such force that the wall
+shook behind her. She thanked the man for his benevolent aid, and
+contemptuously censured De Montgeron for his weakness, or want of faith
+and timidity. It was, indeed, time for issuing the mandate, which, as
+wit read it, ran:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"De par le roi&mdash;Defense &agrave; Dieu,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">De faire miracle en ce lieu."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Turn we now to another subject:&mdash;the possessed in the middle ages,&mdash;What
+was their physiological condition? What was really meant then by being
+possessed? I mean, what were the symptoms of the affection, and how are
+they properly to be explained? The inquiry will throw further light upon
+the true relations of other phenomena we have already looked at.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that Schwedenborg thought that he was in constant
+communication with the spiritual world; but felt convinced, and avowed,
+that though he saw his visitants without and around him, they reached
+him first inwardly, and communicated with his understanding; and thence
+consciously, and outwardly, with his senses. But it would be a
+misapplication of the term to say that he was possessed by these
+spirits.</p>
+
+<p>We remember that Socrates had his demon; and it should be mentioned as a
+prominent feature in visions generally, that their subject soon
+identifies one particular imaginary being as his guide and informant, to
+whom he applies for what knowledge he wishes. In the most exalted states
+of trance-waking, the guide or demon is continually referred to with
+profound respect by the entranced person. Now, was Socrates, and are
+patients of the class I have alluded to, possessed? No! the meaning of
+the term is evidently not yet hit.</p>
+
+<p>Then there are persons who permanently fancy themselves other beings
+than they are, and act as such.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there prevailed in parts of
+Europe a seizure, which was called the wolf-sickness. Those affected
+with it held themselves to be wild beasts, and betook themselves to the
+forests. One of these, who was brought before De Lancre, at Bordeaux, in
+the beginning of the sixteenth century, was a young man of Besan&ccedil;on. He
+avowed himself to be huntsman of the forest lord, his invisible master.
+He believed, that through the power of his master, he had been
+transformed into a wolf; that he hunted in the forest as such, and that
+he was often accompanied by a bigger wolf, whom he suspected to be the
+master he served&mdash;with more details of the same kind. The persons thus
+affected were called Wehrwolves. They enjoyed in those days the
+alternative of being exorcised or executed.</p>
+
+<p>Arnold relates in his history of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_677" id="Page_677">[Pg 677]</a></span> church and of heresy, how there was a
+young man in K&ouml;nigsberg, well educated, the natural son of a priest, who
+had the impression, that he was met near a crucifix in the wayside by
+seven angels, who revealed to him that he was to represent God the
+Father on earth, to drive all evil out of the world, &amp;c. The poor
+fellow, after pondering upon this impression a long time, issued a
+circular commencing thus,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We, John Albrecht, Adelgreif, Syrdos, Amata, Kanemata, Kilkis,
+Mataldis, Schmalkilimundis, Sabrundis, Elioris, Overarch High-priest,
+and Emperor, Prince of Peace of the whole world, Overarch King of the
+Holy Kingdom of Heaven, Judge of the living and of the dead, God and
+Father, in whose divinity Christ will come on the last day to judge the
+world, Lord of all Lords, King of all Kings," &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>He was thereupon thrown into prison at K&ouml;nigsberg, regarded as a most
+frightful heretic, and every means were used by the clergy to reclaim
+him. To all their entreaties, however, he listened only with a smile of
+pity, "that they should think of reclaiming God the Father." He was then
+put to the torture; and as what he endured made no alteration in his
+convictions, he was condemned to have his tongue torn out with red-hot
+tongs, to be cut in four quarters, and then burned under the gallows. He
+wept bitterly, not at his own fate, but that they should pronounce such
+a sentence on the Deity. The executioner was touched with pity, and
+entreated him to make a final recantation. But he persisted that he was
+God the Father, whether they pulled his tongue out by the roots or not;
+and so he was executed!</p>
+
+<p>The Wehrwolves, and this poor creature, in what state were they? they
+were merely insane. Then we must look further.</p>
+
+<p>Gmelin, in the first volume of his Contributions to Anthropology,
+narrates, that in the year 1789, a German lady, under his observation,
+had daily paroxysms, in which she believed herself to be, and acted the
+part of a French emigrant. She had been in distress of mind through the
+absence of a person she was attached to, and he was somehow implicated
+in the scenes of the French revolution. After an attack of fever and
+delirium, the complaint regulated itself, and took the form of a daily
+fit of trance-waking. When the time for the fit approached, she stopped
+in her conversation, and ceased to answer when spoken to; she then
+remained a few minutes sitting perfectly still, her eyes fixed on the
+carpet before her. Then, in evident uneasiness, she began to move her
+head backwards and forwards, to sigh, and to pass her fingers across her
+eye-brows. This lasted a minute, then she raised her eyes, looked once
+or twice around with timidity and embarrassment, then began to talk in
+French; when she would describe all the particulars of her escape from
+France, and, assuming the manner of a French woman, talk purer and
+better accented French than she had been known to be capable of talking
+before, correct her friends when they spoke incorrectly, but delicately
+and with a comment on the German rudeness of laughing at the bad
+pronunciation of strangers; and if led herself to speak or read German,
+she used a French accent, and spoke it ill; and the like.</p>
+
+<p>Now, suppose this lady, instead of thus acting, when the paroxysms
+supervened, had cast herself on the ground, had uttered bad language and
+blasphemy, and had worn a sarcastic and malignant expression of
+countenance,&mdash;in striking contrast with her ordinary character and
+behaviour, and <i>alternating with it</i>,&mdash;and you have the picture and the
+reality of a person "possessed."</p>
+
+<p>A person, "possessed," is one affected with the form of trance-waking
+called double consciousness, with the addition of being deranged when in
+the paroxysm, and then, out of the suggestions of her own fancy, or
+catching at the interpretation put on her conduct by others, believing
+herself tenanted by the fiend.</p>
+
+<p>We may quite allowably heighten the above picture by supposing that the
+person in her trance, in addition to being mad, might have displayed
+some of the perceptive powers occasionally developed in trance; and so
+have evinced, in addition to her demoniacal ferocity, an "uncanny"
+knowledge of things and persons. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_678" id="Page_678">[Pg 678]</a></span> be candid, Archy, time was, when I
+should myself have had my doubts in such a case.</p>
+
+<p>We have by this time had intercourse enough with spirits and demons to
+prepare us for the final subject of witchcraft.</p>
+
+<p>The superstition of witchcraft stretches back into remote antiquity, and
+has many roots. In Europe it is partly of Druidical origin. The
+Druidesses were part priestesses, part shrewd old ladies, who dealt in
+magic and medicine. They were called <i>all-rune</i>, all-knowing. There was
+some touch of classical superstition mingled in the stream which was
+flowing down to us;&mdash;so an edict of a council of Tr&ecirc;ves, in the year
+1310, has this injunction: "Nulla mulierum se nocturnis horis equitare
+cum Dian&acirc; propitiatur; h&aelig;c enim d&oelig;moniaca est illusio." But the main
+source from which we derived this superstition, is the East, and
+traditions and facts incorporated in our religion. There were only
+wanted the ferment of thought of the fifteenth century, the vigour,
+energy, ignorance, enthusiasm, and faith of those days, and the papal
+denunciation of witchcraft by the famous Bull of Innocent the VIII. in
+1459, to give fury to the delusion. And from this time for three
+centuries, the flames, at which more than 100,000 victims perished, cast
+a lurid light over Europe.</p>
+
+<p>One ceases to wonder at this ugly stain in the page of history, when one
+considers all things fairly.</p>
+
+<p>The Enemy of mankind, bodily, with horns, hoofs, and tail, was believed
+to lurk round every corner, bent upon your spiritual, if not bodily
+harm. The witch and the sorcerer were not possessed by him against their
+will, but went out of their way to solicit his alliance, and to offer to
+forward his views for their own advantage, or to gratify their
+malignity. The cruel punishments for a crime so monstrous were mild,
+compared with the practice of our own penal code fifty or sixty years
+ago against second-class offences. And for the startling bigotry of the
+judges, which appears the most discreditable part of the matter, why,
+how could they alone be free from the prejudices of their age? Yet they
+did strange things.</p>
+
+<p>At Lindheim, Horst reports, on one occasion six women were implicated in
+a charge of having disinterred the body of a child to make a
+witch-broth. As they happened to be innocent of the deed, they underwent
+the most cruel tortures before they would confess it. At length they saw
+their cheapest bargain was to admit the crime, and be simply burned
+alive and have it over. So they did so. But the husband of one of them
+procured an official examination of the grave; when the child's body was
+found in its coffin safe and sound. What said the Inquisitor? "This is
+indeed a proper piece of devil's work; no, no, I am not to be taken in
+by such a gross and obvious imposture. Luckily the women have already
+confessed the crime, and burned they must and shall be in honour of the
+Holy Trinity, which has commanded the extirpation of sorcerers and
+witches." The six women were burned alive accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>It was hard upon them, because they were innocent. But the regular
+witches, as times went, hardly deserved any better fate&mdash;considering, I
+mean, their honest and straight-forward intentions of doing that which
+they believed to be the most desperate wrong achievable. Many there were
+who sought to be initiated in the black art. They were re-baptized with
+the support of responsible witch sponsors, abjured Christ, and entered
+to the best of their belief into a compact with the devil; and forthwith
+commenced a course of bad works, poisoning and bewitching men and
+cattle, and the like, or trying to do so.</p>
+
+<p>One feature transpired in these details, that is merely pathetic, not
+horrifying or disgusting.</p>
+
+<p>The little children of course talked witchcraft, and you may fancy,
+Archy, what charming gossip it must have made. Then the poor little
+things were sadly wrought on by the tales they told. And they fell into
+trances and had visions shaped by their heated fancies.</p>
+
+<p>A little maid, of twelve years of age, used to fall into fits of sleep,
+and afterwards she told her parents, and <i>the judge</i>, how an old woman
+and her daughter, riding on a broom-stick, had come and taken her out
+with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_679" id="Page_679">[Pg 679]</a></span> them. The daughter sat foremost, the old woman behind, the little
+maid between them. They went away through the roof of the house, over
+the adjoining houses and the town gate, to a village some way off. There
+they went down a chimney of a cottage into a room, where sat a tall
+black man and twelve women. They eat and drank. The black man filled
+their glasses from a can, and gave each of the women a handful of gold.
+She herself had received none; but she had eaten and drank with them.</p>
+
+<p>A list of persons burned in Salzburg for participation in witchcraft
+between the years 1627 and 1629 in an outbreak of this frenzy, which had
+its origin in an epidemic among the cattle, enumerates children of 14,
+12, 11, 10, 9, years of age; which in some degree reconciles one to the
+fate of the fourteen canons, four gentlemen of the choir, two young men
+of rank, a fat old lady of rank, the wife of a burgomaster, a
+counsellor, the fattest burgess of Wartzburg, together with his wife,
+the handsomest woman in the city, and a midwife of the name of
+Schiekelte, with whom (according to an N.B. in the original report) the
+whole mischief originated. To amateurs of executions in those days the
+fatness of the victim was evidently a point of consideration, as is
+shown by the specifications of that quality in some of the victims in
+the above list. Were men devils <i>then</i>? By no means; there existed then
+as now upon earth, worth, honour, truth, benevolence, gentleness. But
+there were other ingredients, too, from which the times are not yet
+purged. A century ago people did not know&mdash;do they now?&mdash;that vindictive
+punishment is a crime; that the only allowable purpose of punishment is
+to prevent the recurrence of the offence; and that restraint, isolation,
+employment, instruction, are the extreme and only means towards that end
+which reason and humanity justify. Alas, for human nature! Some
+centuries hence, the first half of the nineteenth century will be
+charged with having manifested no admission of principle in advance of a
+period, the judicial crimes of which make the heart shudder. The old
+lady witches had, of course, much livelier ideas than the innocent
+children, on the subject of their intercourse with the devils.</p>
+
+<p>At Mora, in Sweden, in 1669, of many who were put to the torture and
+executed, seventy-two women agreed in the following avowal, that they
+were in the habit of meeting at a place called Blocula. That on their
+calling out "Come forth!" the Devil used to appear to them in a gray
+coat, red breeches, gray stockings, with a red beard, and a peaked hat
+with party-coloured feathers on his head. He then enforced upon them,
+not without blows, that they must bring him, at nights, their own and
+other peoples' children, stolen for the purpose. They travel through the
+air to Blocula either on beasts or on spits, or broomsticks. When they
+have many children with them, they rig on an additional spar to lengthen
+the back of the goat or their broom-stick that the children may have
+room to sit. At Blocula they sign their name in blood and are baptized.
+The Devil is a humorous, pleasant gentleman; but his table is coarse
+enough, which makes the children often sick on their way home, the
+product being the so-called witch-butter found in the fields. When the
+Devil is larky, he solicits the witches to dance round him on their
+brooms, which he suddenly pulls from under them, and uses to beat them
+with till they are black and blue. He laughs at this joke till his sides
+shake again. Sometimes he is in a more gracious mood, and plays to them
+lovely airs upon the harp; and occasionally sons and daughters are born
+to the Devil, which take up their residence at Blocula.</p>
+
+<p>I will add an outline of the history, furnished or corroborated by her
+voluntary confession, of a lady witch, nearly the last executed for this
+crime. She was, at the time of her death, seventy years of age, and had
+been many years sub-prioress of the convent of Unterzell, near
+Wartzburg.</p>
+
+<p>Maria Renata took the veil at nineteen years of age, against her
+inclination, having previously been initiated in the mysteries of
+witchcraft, which she continued to practise for fifty years under the
+cloak of punctual attendance to discipline and pretended piety. She was
+long in the station of sub-prioress, and would, for her capacity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_680" id="Page_680">[Pg 680]</a></span> have
+been promoted to the rank of prioress, had she not betrayed a certain
+discontent with the ecclesiastic life, a certain contrariety to her
+superiors, something half expressed only of inward dissatisfaction.
+Renata had not ventured to let any one about the convent into her
+confidence, and she remained free from suspicion, notwithstanding that,
+from time to time, some of the nuns, either from the herbs she mixed
+with their food, or through sympathy, had strange seizures, of which
+some died. Renata became at length extravagant and unguarded in her
+witch propensities, partly from long security, partly from desire of
+stronger excitement; made noises in the dormitory, and uttered shrieks
+in the garden; went at nights into the cells of the nuns to pinch and
+torment them, to assist her in which she kept a considerable supply of
+cats. The removal of the keys of the cells counteracted this annoyance;
+but a still more efficient means was a determined blow on the part of a
+nun, struck at the aggressor with the penitential scourge one night, on
+the morning following which Renata was observed to have a black eye and
+cut face. This event awakened suspicion against Renata. Then, one of the
+nuns, who was much esteemed, declared, believing herself upon her
+death-bed, that, "as she shortly expected to stand before her Maker,
+Renata was uncanny, that she had often at nights been visibly tormented
+by her, and that she warned her to desist from this course." General
+alarm arose, and apprehension of Renata's arts; and one of the nuns, who
+previously had had fits, now became possessed, and in the paroxysms told
+the wildest tales against Renata. It is only wonderful how the
+sub-prioress contrived to keep her ground many years against these
+suspicions and incriminations. She adroitly put aside the insinuations
+of the nun as imaginary or of calumnious intention, and treated
+witchcraft and possession of the Devil as things which enlightened
+people no longer believed in. As, however, five more of the nuns, either
+taking the infection from the first, or influenced by the arts of
+Renata, became possessed of devils, and unanimously attacked Renata, the
+superiors could no longer avoid making a serious investigation of the
+charges. Renata was confined in a cell alone, whereupon the six devils
+screeched in chorus at being deprived of their friend. She had begged to
+be allowed to take her papers with her; but this being refused, and
+thinking herself detected, she at once avowed to her confessor and the
+superiors, that she was a witch, had learned witchcraft out of the
+convent, and had bewitched the six nuns. They determined to keep the
+matter secret, and to attempt the conversion of Renata. And as the nuns
+still continued possessed, they despatched her to a remote convent.
+Here, under a show of outward piety, she still went on with her attempts
+to realise witchcraft, and the nuns remained possessed. It was decided
+at length to give Renata over to the civil power. She was accordingly
+condemned to be burned alive; but in mitigation of punishment her head
+was first struck off. Four of the possessed nuns gradually recovered
+with clerical assistance; the other two remained deranged. Renata was
+executed on the 21st January 1749.</p>
+
+<p>Renata stated, in her voluntary confession, that she had often at night
+been carried bodily to witch-Sabbaths; in one of which she was first
+presented to the Prince of Darkness, when she abjured God and the Virgin
+at the same time. Her name, with the alteration of Maria into Emma, was
+written in a black book, and she herself was stamped on the back as the
+Devil's property, in return for which she received the promise of
+seventy years of life, and all she might wish for. She stated that she
+had often, at night, gone into the cellar of the <i>chateau</i> and drank the
+best wine; in the shape of a swine had walked on the convent walls; on
+the bridge had milked the cows as they passed over; and several times
+had mingled with the actors in the theatre in London.</p>
+
+<p>A question unavoidably presents itself&mdash;How came witchcraft to be in so
+great a degree the province of women? There existed sorcerers, no doubt,
+but they were comparatively few. Persons of either sex and of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_681" id="Page_681">[Pg 681]</a></span> ages
+indiscriminately interested themselves in the black art; but the
+professors and regular practitioners were almost exclusively women, and
+principally old women. The following seem to have been some of the
+causes. Women were confined to household toils; their minds had not
+adequate occupation: many young unmarried women, without duties, would
+lack objects of sufficient interest for their yearnings; many of the old
+ones, despised, ill treated probably, soured with the world, rendered
+spiteful and vindictive, took even more readily to a resource which
+roused and gave employment to their imaginations, and promised to
+gratify their wishes. It is evident, too, that the supposed sex of the
+Devil helped him here. The old women had an idea of making much of him,
+and of coaxing, and getting round the black gentleman. But beside all
+this, there lies in the physical temperament of the other sex a peculiar
+susceptibility of derangement of the nervous system, a predisposition to
+all the varieties of trance, with its prolific sources of mental
+illusion&mdash;all tending, it is to be observed, to advance the belief and
+enlarge the pretensions of witchcraft.</p>
+
+<p>The form of trance which specially dominated in witchcraft was
+trance-sleep with visions. The graduates and candidates in the faculty
+sought to fall into trances, in the dreams of which they realised their
+waking aspirations. They entertained no doubt, however, that their
+visits to the Devil and their nocturnal exploits were genuine; and they
+seem to have wilfully shut their eyes to the possibility of their having
+never left their beds. For, with a skill that should have betrayed to
+them the truth, they were used to prepare a witch-broth to promote in
+some way their nightly expeditions. And this they composed not only of
+materials calculated to prick on the imagination, but of substantial
+narcotics, too&mdash;the medical effects of which they no doubt were
+acquainted with. They contemplated evidently producing a sort of stupor.</p>
+
+<p>The professors of witchcraft had thus made the singular step of
+artificially producing a sort of trance, with the object of availing
+themselves of one of its attendant phenomena. The Thamans in Siberia do
+the like to this day to obtain the gift of prophecy. And it is more than
+probable that the Egyptian and Delphic priest habitually availed
+themselves of some analogous procedure. Modern mesmerism is in part an
+effort in the same direction.</p>
+
+<p>Without at all comprehending the real character of the power called into
+play, mankind seems to have found out by a "mera palpatio," by
+instinctive experiment and lucky groping in the dark, that in the stupor
+of trance the mind occasionally stumbles upon odds and ends of strange
+knowledge and prescience. The phenomenon was never for an instant
+suspected of lying in the order of nature. It was construed, to suit the
+occasion and the times, either into divine inspiration or diabolic
+whisperings. But it was always supernatural. So the ignorant old
+lemon-seller in Zschokke's Selbstschau thought his "hidden wisdom" a
+mystical wonder; while the enlightened and accomplished narrator of
+their united stories, stands alone, in striking advance ever of his own
+day, when he unassumingly and diffidently puts forward his seer-gift as
+<i>a simple contribution to psychical knowledge</i>. And thus, my proposed
+task accomplished, my dear Archy, finally yours, &amp;c.</p>
+
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Mac Davus</span>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_682" id="Page_682">[Pg 682]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="THE_HYMN_OF_KING_OLAF_THE_SAINT" id="THE_HYMN_OF_KING_OLAF_THE_SAINT"></a>THE HYMN OF KING OLAF THE SAINT.</h2>
+
+<h3>ALTERED FROM THE ICELANDIC.</h3>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Swend, king of all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In Olaf's hall<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now sits in state on high;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Whilst up in heaven<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Amidst the shriven<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sits Olaf's majesty.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For not in cell<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Does our hero dwell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But in realms of light for ever:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As a ransom'd saint<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To heal our plaint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Be glory to thee, gold-giver!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Of raptures there<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He has won his share,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All cleansed from taint of sin;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For on earth prepared,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">No toil he spared<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That holy place to win.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That he hath won<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Near God's dear Son<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fast by the holy river&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Oh, such as thine<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">May the end be mine;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Be glory to thee, gold-giver!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">His sacred form<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Unscathed by worm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And clear as the hour he died,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lies at this day<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where good men pray<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At morn and at eventide.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His nails and his hair<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Are fresh and fair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With his yellow locks still growing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His cheek as red,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And his flesh not dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though the blood hath ceased from flowing.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">If you watch by night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In the dim twilight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You may hear a requiem singing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the people hear<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Above his bier<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A small bell clearly ringing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And if ye wait<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Until midnight late,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You may hear the great bell toll:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But none can tell<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who tolls that bell<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If it sounds for Olaf's soul.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_683" id="Page_683">[Pg 683]</a></span>
+<span class="i2">With tapers clear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Which Christ holds dear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O'er the corpse so still reclining,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">By day and night<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is the altar light<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the cross of the Saviour shining.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For our King did so,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And all men know<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That washed from sin and shriven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">All free from taint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A ransom'd saint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He dwells with the saints in heaven.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">And thousands come,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The deaf and the dumb,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To the tomb of our monarch here&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The sick and the blind<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of every kind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They throng to the holy bier.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With heads all bare<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">They breathe their prayer<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As they kneel on the flinty ground:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">God hears their sighs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the sick men rise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All whole, and healed, and sound.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Then to Olaf pray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To spare thy day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From wrath, and wrong, and harm;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To save thy land<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From the spoiler's hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the fell invader's arm.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">God's man is he,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To deal to thee<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What is ask'd in a lowly spirit&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Let thy prayer not cease,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And wealth, and peace,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And a blessing thou shalt inherit.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">For prayers are good,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">If before the rood<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thy beads thou tellest praying;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">If thou tellest on,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Forgetting none<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the saints who with God are staying.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="right">
+W. E. A.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="FOUR_SONNETS_BY_ELIZABETH_BARRETT_BROWNING" id="FOUR_SONNETS_BY_ELIZABETH_BARRETT_BROWNING"></a>FOUR SONNETS BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO SKETCHES.</h3>
+
+
+<h4>I.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The shadow of her face upon the wall<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May take your memory to the perfect Greek;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But when you front her, you would call the cheek<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Too full, sir, for your models, if withal<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That bloom it wears could leave you critical,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And that smile reaching toward the rosy streak:&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For one who smiles so, has no need to speak,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To lead your thoughts along, as steed to stall!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_684" id="Page_684">[Pg 684]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">A smile that turns the sunny side o' the heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On all the world, as if herself did win<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By what she lavished on an open mart:&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let no man call the liberal sweetness, sin,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While friends may whisper, as they stand apart,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Methinks there's still some warmer place within."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h4>II.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Her azure eyes, dark lashes hold in fee:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her fair superfluous ringlets, without check,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drop after one another down her neck;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As many to each cheek as you might see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Green leaves to a wild rose! This sign, outwardly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And a like woman-covering seems to deck<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her inner nature! For she will not fleck<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">World's sunshine with a finger. Sympathy<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Must call her in Love's name! and then, I know,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She rises up, and brightens, as she should,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And lights her smile for comfort, and is slow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In nothing of high-hearted fortitude.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To smell this flower, come near it; such can grow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In that sole garden where Christ's brow dropped blood.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h4>MOUNTAINEER AND POET.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The simple goatherd who treads places high,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beholding there his shadow (it is wist)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dilated to a giant's on the mist,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Esteems not his own stature larger by<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The apparent image; but more patiently<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Strikes his staff down beneath his clenching fist&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While the snow-mountains lift their amethyst<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sapphire crowns of splendour, far and nigh,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Into the air around him. Learn from hence<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Meek morals, all ye poets that pursue<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your way still onward up to eminence!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ye are not great, because creation drew<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Large revelations round your earliest sense,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor bright, because God's glory shines for you.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h4>THE POET.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The poet hath the child's sight in his breast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sees all <i>new</i>. What oftenest he has viewed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He views with the first glory. Fair and good<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pall never on him, at the fairest, best,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But stand before him, holy, and undressed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In week-day false conventions; such as would<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drag other men down from the altitude<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of primal types, too early dispossessed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why, God would tire of all his heavens as soon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As thou, O childlike, godlike poet! did'st<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of daily and nightly sights of sun and moon!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And therefore hath He set thee in the midst<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where men may hear thy wonder's ceaseless tune,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And praise His world for ever as thou bidst.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_685" id="Page_685">[Pg 685]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CONSTANTINOPLE_AND_THE_DECLINING_OF_THE_OTTOMAN_EMPIRE" id="CONSTANTINOPLE_AND_THE_DECLINING_OF_THE_OTTOMAN_EMPIRE"></a>CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE DECLINING OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.</h2>
+
+<h3>(BEING A FEW PAGES FROM MY EASTERN DIARY).</h3>
+
+
+<p>----At half-past seven in the evening, we left Smyrna by the Scamandre,
+a French government steamer, and were soon gliding over a sea smooth as
+glass. The soft tints of the twilight spread gradually around us, and to
+a beautiful day there succeeded one of those marvellous nights, during
+which one cannot bring one's-self to the determination of retiring to
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>The dawn of day surprised me on deck. In the morning we neared the land,
+which presented to our view a desert plain, covered with dwarf oak. This
+was the site of ancient Troy; we were coasting near those famous fields,
+<i>ubi Troja fuit</i>; that stream which was throwing itself before our eyes
+into the sea, was formerly called the "Simois;" those two hillocks which
+we saw upon the coast, were the tombs of Hector and Patroclus; that huge
+blue mountain which in the distance raised towards the sky its three
+peaks covered with snow, was Ida; and behind us, from the midst of the
+sparkling waves, rose the island of Tenedos. All conversation between
+the passengers from many nations had long since ceased, and I
+contemplated in silence that grim desert, which, at Eton, I had dreamed
+of as full of movement and sound, and that calm sea which I had so often
+figured to myself as covered with the ships of Agamemnon, of Ulysses,
+and of Achilles the</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At mid-day we entered the Dardanelles, and several hours afterwards, we
+cast anchor between Sestos and Abydos, before a small white town,
+containing no remarkable objects. Sestos and Abydos, which it must be
+owned would not be by any means celebrated, were it not for the
+enterprises which cost Leander his life and Lord Byron an ague, are two
+hamlets, which, like the greater portion of Turkish villages, offer in
+no shape whatever what it is the fashion to term the Oriental type. They
+are composed of an assemblage of rose-coloured houses, whose large red
+roofs, seen through the verdure and flowers, call to one's mind the
+description of a Chinese village.</p>
+
+<p>Upon its arrival, the Scamandre was immediately surrounded by a
+multitude of caicks filled with bearded Turks, veiled women, and various
+coloured bales. Upon deck rose a deafening Babel of voices,&mdash;the sailors
+swore, the women screamed, and the porters fought, until at length quiet
+was restored, and one hundred and eighty-six new Mussulman passengers
+came on board the steamer. Amid the caicks ranged along the sides of the
+vessel, was one much more richly freighted than the rest; the traveller
+to whom it belonged was a young Arab, who, standing on a pile of bales,
+domineered over his boatmen by several feet. His white garments set off
+to advantage his dark complexion; and a cloak of black wool, profusely
+embroidered with gold lace, drew upon him the eyes of all. I had seldom,
+if ever, beheld a head more beautiful or more expressive than that of
+the young man. His large black eyes were full of intelligence, and in
+his bearing was a natural nobility and pride. As long as the confusion,
+described above, continued, he directed his boatmen to keep at a
+distance, but when all were embarked, and the Scamandre was ready to
+start, he hailed the vessel, and having mounted the side-ladders, gave
+his hand to six veiled women in succession, whose long white dominos
+prevented the spectators from even guessing at their age or beauty. The
+young man, once on board, conducted his odalisques to a fore-cabin,
+placed a hideous negro at the door as sentinel, and returned immediately
+to the deck, where another negro presented him with a narguileh (Turkish
+water-pipe).</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can less resemble our regular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_686" id="Page_686">[Pg 686]</a></span> fortifications than the fort of
+Gallipoli, (before which we soon after passed,) and the other castles of
+the Dardanelles, which ought to render Constantinople the most
+impregnable place in the world (from the sea.) The forts are large
+buildings of a dazzling white colour, perforated with port-holes,
+similar to those belonging to a ship of war, and mounted with old guns,
+the greater portion of which are without carriages, and served,
+ordinarily, by a single artillery-man, assisted in time of war by three
+or four peasants. In the present century, however, these batteries have
+shown their prowess, and against our own countrymen too. During the
+month of February 1807, the British government, justly irritated at the
+increasing influence that the French ambassador, Count Sebastiani, was
+obtaining at the Ottoman court, despatched Admiral Sir John Duckworth,
+in command of a squadron, with orders to bombard, if necessary, the
+Seraglio itself. Unfortunately, Sir John Duckworth's plan of acting was
+exactly contrary to what would have been our gallant Nelson's in the
+same position. After having passed without difficulty before the then
+disarmed castles of the Dardanelles, after having burned the Ottoman
+fleet off Gallipoli, while the crews were peaceably celebrating on shore
+the feast of Courban-Beiram, Sir John presented himself off
+Constantinople, and threatened to bombard that city, should the Sultan
+refuse to accept the conditions he offered, at the same time he allowed
+his Imperial Highness two days to consider the terms; Nelson would have
+allowed as many hours only. The folly of Admiral Duckworth's conduct
+fully shown in the sequel, for, at the conclusion of the forty-eight
+hours, the approaches to Stamboul and Galata were bristling&mdash;thanks to
+the delay accorded, and to the exertions of the French ambassador&mdash;with
+twelve hundred pieces of cannon; while, at the same time, orders having
+been sent to the castles of the Dardanelles to mount their batteries,
+the British squadron was hemmed in on all sides, as if by enchantment.
+The besieged now became the aggressors, and there soon remained to
+Admiral Duckworth no other resource than to weigh anchor and get away as
+fast as possible, which he accordingly did. The batteries of the
+Dardanelles were now, however, prepared for him. A most destructive fire
+was opened upon the ill-fated fleet: two corvettes were sunk off
+Gallipoli; the Admiral's flag-ship, the Royal George, lost her mainmast;
+a huge marble ball, weighing eight hundred pounds, swept away a quantity
+of hands from the lower deck of the Standard, while many officers and
+seamen wore severely wounded. It must be here observed, that the
+batteries of the Dardanelles owed much of the murderous effect of their
+cannonading to the skill of eight French engineer officers, whom Count
+Sebastiani, profiting by the delay accorded by Admiral Duckworth to the
+Sultan, had despatched to the castles.</p>
+
+<p>These historical reminiscences did not prevent my thoughts occasionally
+reverting to the six odalisques, who formed the suite of the young Arab
+on board. Ever since their arrival, I had been reflecting that in all
+probability never would so excellent an opportunity offer itself of
+penetrating the secrets of a Mussulman harem, and of assuring myself of
+the vaunted beauty of the mysterious women of Asia. As soon as we were
+again in motion, I began to watch the black Argus to whose guard the
+fair houris were intrusted. For more than an hour I lurked without
+success about the fore-hatchway, for, faithful to his trust, the slave
+was lying at the threshold of the door that closed upon his young
+mistresses; and I was on the point of losing all patience, when I beheld
+him suddenly rise and mount rapidly on deck. He had no sooner
+disappeared than I glided into his place, and, having applied my eye to
+a large chink in the door, cast a most indiscreet glance into the cabin.
+In front of me two women were seated upon their heels, one of them had
+thrown aside her veil; and I was gazing in admiration upon a pale but
+beautiful face, set off by two immense black and brilliant eyes, when
+suddenly I heard behind me the sound of hurried steps. It was the negro
+returning to his post, who, on perceiving me, began to cry out most
+lustily. Having no desire to commence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_687" id="Page_687">[Pg 687]</a></span> a contest with him, I proceeded
+to mount the hatchway and gain the deck.</p>
+
+<p>The exasperated slave, however, followed me, and hurrying to his master,
+proceeded to inform him of my escapade, pointing at the same time to me.
+Two old Turks leaped immediately to their feet with fury depicted on
+their features; and one of them placed his hand upon the hilt of his
+cangiar, and pronounced in a voice half-choked with passion the word
+"Ghiaour," (infidel): in answer to which, I politely told him, (as I was
+a good Turkish scholar,) to mind his own business, and that I was rather
+inclined to consider him the greater infidel of the two. He looked both
+surprised and vexed at this, but did not attempt to retort. As to the
+young Arab, he proved himself to be a man of sense; for, contenting
+himself with smiling at his infuriated attendant, he descended to the
+cabin of his odalisques, from whence he did not emerge during the
+remainder of our voyage. I did not again see him, and never knew who was
+the Mussulman, so handsome and at the same time so little fanatical.</p>
+
+<p>The strait through which we had navigated all day, gradually widened as
+we advanced; the shores as they receded were covered with opal tints;
+the vessel began to roll, and we entered the sea of Marmora. At sunset
+the Mussulmans with whom the deck was crowded collected in groups, and
+devoutly said their evening prayer. Their countenances were wrapped in
+deep devotion, and they appeared to take no notice of the satirical
+smiles, which the strangeness of their attitudes called forth from
+several unreflecting travellers, who, by wanting in respect for the
+usages of the countries through which they were passing, lowered
+themselves immensely in the estimation of the inhabitants. The
+irritation excited by the ill-timed railleries of such foolish persons,
+is no doubt one of the chief causes of the hatred in which Christians
+are held in Turkey. Surely nothing could be less calculated to excite
+mockery, than the sight of the Mussulman travellers at their evening
+devotions; besides, be it had in mind, that upon this Christian vessel,
+scarcely a Christian perhaps was thinking of his God, while not a single
+Mahometan was to be seen unengaged in prayer, as the sun sunk below the
+horizon.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning I was early upon deck. The sun had not yet risen,
+and the air was fresh and invigorating; while upon the white, heavy,
+oily sea, was a slight fog, which the breeze was dispersing in flakes.
+Around us a quantity of porpoises were either splashing in the midst of
+the waves or floating like buoys upon the surface. The most profound
+silence reigned upon the deck of the steamer. Wet with the night-dews,
+the half-slumbering seamen of the watch were seated in a circle near the
+funnel; while numberless Turks, rolled up in their yellow coverlets
+striped with red, were sleeping forward beneath the netting: the
+steersman at the wheel and the man on the look-out were alone really
+wide awake. Suddenly, I perceived dawning in the east a greenish light,
+which became yellow as it ascended in the heavens; the low and flat
+shore appeared like a black line upon this luminous background, and by
+degrees the sea resumed its azure tint. An hour afterwards we were
+within cannon-shot of the Seraglio; but, alas! a thick fog covered the
+city. Constantinople was invisible&mdash;and I was deploring the mischance,
+which was depriving me of a long-anticipated pleasure, when suddenly the
+sun shone forth brightly, and the fog acquired as if by enchantment a
+wonderful transparency. The curtain was, as it were, torn to bits, and
+from all quarters at once there appeared to my dazzled eyes forests of
+minarets with gilded peaks, thousands of cupolas blazing in the light,
+hills covered with many-coloured houses, surrounded by verdure; an
+immense succession of palaces with grotesque windows, blue-roofed
+mosques, groves of cypress-trees and sycamores, gardens full of flowers,
+a port filled as far as the eye could discern with ships, masts, and
+flags; in a word, the whole of that enchanted city, which resembles less
+an immense capital than an endless succession of lovely kiosks, built in
+a boundless park, having lakes for docks, mountains for background,
+forests for thickets, fleets for boats,&mdash;in fine, an incomparable spot,
+and at the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_688" id="Page_688">[Pg 688]</a></span> time so grand and elegant, that it seems to have been
+designed by fairies, and executed by giants.</p>
+
+<p>Several writers have compared the view of Constantinople to that of
+Naples. I cannot, however, agree with them. Any one can figure the
+latter capital, whilst, on the contrary, the City of the Sultan
+surpasses all that imagination can picture. Our enchantment, however,
+was of short duration: the vapours again became condensed, the view was
+gradually covered with a rosy haze, then became dim, and Constantinople
+disappeared from before us like a dream. The Scamandre, which had
+stopped for a few minutes, was again put in motion, and having rounded
+the Seraglio, cast anchor in the midst of the strait which separates
+Stamboul (the Turkish quarter) from Galata, (the European faubourg.) In
+a moment the deck of our vessel was one scene of confusion: the sailors
+were running to and fro, while the passengers were rushing one against
+another, vociferating after their baggage. Around the vessel there kept
+gliding two or three hundred black caicks, rowed by half-naked boatmen;
+and notwithstanding the orders to the contrary, a quantity of Maltese
+sailors, Turkish porters, and Levantine ciceroni came on board, and
+literally took us by storm, bawling out their offers of service, in
+almost every known language. Clouds of blue pigeons, and whitewinged
+albatros, flew about over our heads, uttering plaintive cries; add to
+these the stentorian voice of our French commander, the curiosity and
+impatience of the travellers demonstrated by their noisy exclamations,
+and one will have an idea of the spectacle offered by the deck of a
+steamer on its arrival at a Turkish port.</p>
+
+<p>During the hauling of the vessel to the quay, I scarcely knew upon what
+to fix my eyes, attracted as they simultaneously were by a thousand
+different objects. Here was the Golden Horn with its numberless ships,
+the cypress-trees of Galata, and the seven hills of ancient Byzantium
+covered with mosques; there, the blue waves of the Propontis, and the
+glittering banks of Scutari. Giddy with enthusiasm, and intoxicated with
+admiration, I attempted, as our caick approached the landing-place, to
+be the first to leap upon the quay, when, just as I was in the act of
+springing, my foot slipped, and I fell headlong into a miry stream. Such
+was my entrance into Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I gained footing, splashed with mud from head to foot, I
+remained a moment motionless, and almost petrified with astonishment.
+All was changed around me: the enchanted panorama had disappeared, and I
+found myself in a small filthy crossway, at the entrance of a labyrinth
+of narrow, damp, dark, muddy streets. The houses which surrounded me,
+built as they were of disjointed planks, had a miserable aspect; time
+and rain had diluted their primitive red colour into numberless nameless
+tints. One of those minarets which from afar appeared so slender and so
+beautiful, now that it was close to me proved to be merely a small
+column devoid of symmetry, while its covering of cracked plaster seemed
+on the point of falling to pieces. The Turkish promenaders whom from a
+distance I had taken for richly attired merchants, proved to be a set of
+miserable tatterdemalions with ragged turbans. Behind the porters who
+crowded to the landing-place, were butchers embowelling sheep in the
+open street; while the pavement was covered with bloody mire and smoking
+entrails, around which several score of hideous dogs, of a fallow
+colour, were growling and fighting. A fetid stench arose from the damp
+gutters, where neither air nor light have ever penetrated, where
+corruptions of all sorts amass, and where one is continually in danger
+of stepping upon a dead dog or rat. Such is without exaggeration the
+aspect of the greater part of the streets of Constantinople, and in
+particular those of Galata. This contrast between the misery of what
+surrounds you, and the incomparable beauty of the same spot when seen
+from a distance, has never yet been sufficiently remarked upon by
+travellers who seek to describe Constantinople. Perhaps they have been
+unwilling to cool the enthusiasm of their readers in dirtying with these
+hideous, but true details, their gold and silver-plated descriptions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_689" id="Page_689">[Pg 689]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Perfectly disenchanted by this sudden change of scene, I followed the
+bearer of my baggage up a street, which was steep, badly paved, and so
+narrow that three men could scarcely have walked along it abreast. On
+the right and left hand were disgusting little shops, or rather booths,
+filled with green fruit and vegetables. Having proceeded onwards, we
+rounded the tower of Galata, which, from a near view resembles a
+handsome dove-cote, and shortly afterwards arrived at Pera, and
+proceeded to take up our quarters at a kind of hotel, kept by one
+Giusepine Vitali, where I immediately went to bed and was soon
+afterwards fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p>At ten o'clock, <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, I was awakened by my fellow-travellers, and
+accompanied them to the caravanserai of the Turning Dervishes. A
+somewhat lengthened residence in the northern provinces of Persia, where
+a Turkish idiom is spoken, had given me a tolerable fluency in that
+language, and I was thus enabled to act as interpreter to my friends.
+The cicerone of the hotel conducted us to a circular building situated
+in the midst of a small garden, whither was hurrying a crowd composed of
+Greeks, Armenians, and Turks. Having arrived at the vestibule, we took
+off our boots and confided them to the care of a man who kept a sort of
+dep&ocirc;t for slippers, of which he hired out to each of us a pair. We then
+entered a large circular hall, lighted from above, in the centre of
+which was an oaken floor, waxed and polished with the greatest care, and
+protected by a balustrade. Around this arena were seated a number of
+spectators of all ages, country, and costumes, and exhaling a strong
+odour of garlic. The ceremony was commenced: for to the music of a
+barbarous orchestra, composed of small timbals and squeaking fifes,
+accompanying some nasal voices, about twenty tall, bearded young men,
+clad in long white robes, were waltzing gravely round an old man in a
+blue pelisse. These men carried on their heads a thick beaver cap,
+similar in form to a flower-pot turned upside down. Their white robes,
+made of a heavy kind of woollen stuff, were so constantly bulged out
+with the air that they seemed made of wood. With their arms extended in
+the form of a cross, the left hand being somewhat more elevated than the
+right, and their looks fixed upon the ceiling with a stupid stare, these
+Dervishes continued to turn rapidly round upon their naked feet with
+such regularity and impassibility that they seemed like automatons put
+into motion by machinery.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the music ceased, upon which the Dervishes threw themselves
+simultaneously upon their knees, inclining their heads at the same time
+to the ground. For several minutes they remained motionless in this
+position, while some attendants threw a large black cloak over each,
+upon which they again stood up and ranged themselves in a line. Upon
+this the old man in the blue pelisse, who had hitherto sat motionless
+upon his heels, began a plaintive nasal chant, to which his subordinates
+responded in a roaring chorus; this finished, the crowd began to
+disperse, and we returned to our hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the Turning Dervishes, there are also at Constantinople the
+Howling Dervishes, who, instead of waltzing until they fall from
+giddiness, continue to utter the most frightful shrieks, until they fall
+upon the ground exhausted and foaming at the mouth. Historians have
+accorded different origins to these singular and absurd exercises; for
+my part, I am inclined to consider them as remnants of the furious
+dances taught by the ancient people of Asia to the Corybantes.</p>
+
+<p>The day after my arrival I embarked for Stamboul, the Turkish quarter,
+in one of those long caicks which are as it were the hackney coaches of
+Constantinople. The least oscillation is sufficient to upset these light
+barks, which are impelled with inconceivable rapidity by two or three
+fine light-looking Arnaouts, dressed in silken shirts. In two minutes,
+having traversed the Golden Horn, passing through an immense crowd of
+boats of every form, and ships of every nation, we disembarked upon a
+landing-place even more dangerous than the caick, on account of its
+slipperiness and the chances thereby of falling headlong into a
+receptacle of filth and mud. The streets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_690" id="Page_690">[Pg 690]</a></span> of Stamboul are still more
+narrow, filthy, and fetid than those of Galata and Pera. Wooden hovels,
+badly constructed, and worse painted; a species of cages pierced with an
+infinite number of trellised windows, with one story projecting over the
+ground floor, flank on the right and on the left hand these passages,
+through which hurry a motley crowd with noiseless tread. The pavement,
+made of little stones placed in the dust, slip from under one's feet and
+expose one to continual falls. Upon the boards of the first shops one
+passes are piled heaps of large fish, whose scales glitter in the sun,
+in spite of the dust. Fawn-coloured dogs, in much greater numbers than
+at Galata, run between your legs&mdash;and wo to whosoever should disengage
+himself too energetically from these hideous brutes, which are protected
+by Mussulman bigotry! The habits of these animals, whose number amounts
+to above a hundred thousand, are exceedingly singular. They belong to no
+one, and have no habitation; they are born, they live and they die, in
+the open street; at every turn one may see a litter of puppies suckled
+by their mother. Upon what these quadrupeds feed it would be difficult
+to state. The Turkish government abandons to them the clearing of the
+streets, and the offal and every sort of filth, together with the dead
+bodies of their fellows, compose their apparently ordinary nourishment.
+At night they wander about in the burying grounds, howling in the most
+frightful manner. Whatever may be their means of existence, they
+multiply their species with the most surprising rapidity. Some years
+ago, the canine race had increased to such a degree at Constantinople
+that it became dangerous, when, to the pious horror of the Old
+Mussulmans, the Sultan Mahmood, among other reforms, caused twenty
+thousand of these animals to be, not poisoned, he would not have dared
+to so greatly offend against the prejudices of the inhabitants, but
+transported to the isles of Marmora. In a few days they had devoured
+every thing in the place of exile, after which, tormented by hunger,
+they made such a hideous row, and uttered such plaintive howls, that
+pity was taken upon them, and they were brought back in triumph to
+Constantinople. Fortunately hydrophobia is unknown in the Levant.</p>
+
+<p>The bazars of Constantinople have been so often described that it would
+be useless to describe them at any length. I will merely observe,
+therefore, that though infinitely more considerable, they do not
+respond, any more than those of Smyrna, to the ideas of luxury and
+grandeur which untravelled Europeans are apt to conceive of them. The
+Turkish bazars have a miserable aspect; they are nothing more than an
+immense labyrinth of large vaulted galleries, clumsily built, and at all
+times damp in the extreme. Magnificent carpets, stuffs embroidered in
+gold and silver, and other objects, the richness of which contrasts most
+singularly with the nakedness of the walls, are hung out for display on
+cords stretched transversely. The counter is a flat board of wood, very
+slightly elevated above the ground, and which serves as a divan to the
+seller and a seat to the buyer. From this place, which is usually
+covered with a mat, the Mussulman gazes in silence upon the passing
+foreigner, whom he rarely deigns to address by the name of Effendi;
+while, on the contrary, the active and loquacious Armenian even leaves
+his shop to run after him with some tempting object in his hand, at the
+same time indiscriminately giving him the title of "Signore Capitan." In
+the bazars are an astonishing number of articles which are often very
+cheap, such as tissues of silk, dressing gowns, gold embroidery, and
+Persian carpets, perfumery, precious stones, pieces of amber, furs,
+sweetmeats, pipes, morocco leather, velvet slippers, silken scarfs and
+Cachemire shawls cover a space extending over several leagues. In the
+"<i>Besestein</i>," a large building separated from the other bazars, one
+meets with in quantities those old arms, so sought after by antiquaries,
+carbines ornamented with coral, magnificent yataghans worn by the
+Janissaries before their destruction, and the famous blades of Khorasan.</p>
+
+<p>The commerce of Constantinople is closely allied with that of Smyrna;
+and many branches of trade, such as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_691" id="Page_691">[Pg 691]</a></span> silk and opium, being required to
+pay duties at the customhouse of the capital, the merchants buy them at
+Constantinople merely in order to pass them over to Smyrna, where they
+find a more advantageous market for them. In consequence, these goods
+are twice borne upon the registers of the Turkish customhouses, which,
+be it observed, are exceedingly badly kept. Wool forms the principal
+branch of trade at the Porte, which is abundantly furnished with that
+article from her nearest provinces, Roumelia, Thessaly, and Bulgaria,
+which, containing about five million inhabitants, feed about eight
+million sheep, the value of which may be estimated at about two hundred
+million piastres, (the Turkish piastre, is worth about 2-1/4d.) It would
+have been impossible for such an important object to have failed
+exciting the cupidity of a government constituted like that of the
+Ottoman empire; in consequence, in 1829, they attempted to make a
+monopoly of the wool-trade. Fortunately, the clamorous despair of the
+owners of the flocks, and some good advice, caused the Divan to recall
+the measure, which would in all probability not only have given a fatal
+blow to the wool-trade, but have entirely put an end to the feeding of
+flocks throughout Turkey. Instead, therefore, of monopolising this
+branch of commerce, the government saddled it with such an exorbitant
+duty, that the provinces definitively gained little by the change. The
+price of wool was more than quadrupled, and in 1833 there was sold for
+above 170 piastres the hundredweight what in 1816 cost but forty
+piastres. The abolition of the monopolies and the modification of the
+duties have given, since the last six or seven years, some facilities to
+this trade, without, however, entirely restoring it to its former state
+of prosperity. Partly destroyed by the severe blow it had received, and
+shackled by the avarice of the Pashas, it languishes, as indeed does
+every other branch of trade and industry in the empire.</p>
+
+<p>Of Turkey, which men have rendered a country of misery and of famine,
+the Almighty seems to have intended to have made a land of promise. For
+agriculture, He has created immense plains, unequalled in fertility
+throughout the globe, and in the bowels of the mountains He has hidden
+incalculable treasures; and in return for all these gifts, these
+glorious gifts, what have the inhabitants done? they have left the land
+uncultivated, and the mountains unsearched. Mines of all sorts abound.
+Copper, (which is sold in secret only, and is a contraband article,)
+were its mines worked on a grand scale, would alone furnish a new
+element of commerce to Constantinople, and might help to draw it from
+its present state of torpor. But will the Turks ever dream of such a
+thing? Never! For like the dog in the fable, the Ottomans will neither
+profit themselves nor let others profit by what is in the territory. Too
+indolent to work out the natural riches of their soil, they are too
+jealous to permit others to do it for them. Besides, Europeans, by an
+ancient law which we have recently seen confirmed, having no right to
+possess land in Turkey, cannot undertake any agricultural or commercial
+speculation of any importance. In addition to this, the Turkish
+government itself is ignorant of most of the natural riches of its
+territory; for the inhabitants, well knowing the character of the men
+who have the management of affairs, take every possible precaution to
+conceal the existence of the mines, for fear they should be forced to
+work them without remuneration.</p>
+
+<p>The provinces of the Danube have now yielded to Thrace and to Macedon
+the furnishing of the capital with corn. This important trade has been
+ruined, like every thing else, by the barbarous measures of a stupid
+ministry. In reserving to itself the supplying of the capital, the
+government does not allow the exportation of corn without special
+permission. Without doubt, the liberty of this trade would have given a
+new impulse to agriculture, and would have restored prosperity to
+several provinces; but that would not have been for the interest of
+those personages who had the power of giving permits, and who
+consequently made a traffic of the firmans. In 1828, a circumstance
+occurred which ought to have enlightened the government on this point.
+The Russians had intercepted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_692" id="Page_692">[Pg 692]</a></span> all communication with the capital, and in
+consequence a want of provisions occurred; for the ill-furnished public
+magazines afforded such damaged wheat only, that it could with great
+difficulty be baked into bad and unhealthy bread. To remedy this evil,
+an employ&eacute; ventured to suggest that any one who could procure corn
+should be permitted to supply the capital. The situation of affairs was
+critical, for the people were beginning to murmur; and the suggestion
+was carried into effect. No sooner was the permission accorded, than a
+multitude of farmers and merchants hastened to pour grain into the
+market, and plenty soon reappeared. This was an excellent lesson to the
+government, but how did it profit thereby? First of all it reinstated
+the monopoly, and four years afterwards, in 1832, happening to require a
+million measures for its magazines, in order to make more sure of
+speedily procuring that quantity, it forbade the <i>exportation</i> of corn,
+inasmuch that to collect the required million of measures, it destroyed,
+in all probability, a hundred millions, and ruined about ten thousand
+cultivators. This barbarous system partly ended in 1838, but it will be
+long before its withering effects are effaced.</p>
+
+<p>It is in the long corridors of the bazars that the commercial business
+of the country is carried on. An immense multitude, more curious to view
+than even the exposition of the different wares, congregates thither
+daily. Constantinople, notwithstanding its state of decline, is always
+the point of intersection between the eastern and western world. At this
+general rendezvous, whither Europe and Asia send their representatives,
+one may study the human species in almost every possible variety of
+type. English, Americans, Russians, Greeks, Italians, Germans, Persians,
+Circassians, Arabs, Koords, Austrians, Hungarians, Abyssinians, Tartars,
+French, &amp;c. &amp;c., hurry to and fro around the Turk, who smokes and
+dreams, calm and immovable amidst the active throng, which presents an
+inconceivable medley of silk pelisses, white bornous and black robes,
+surmounted by green turbans, red fezs, and beaver hats. Numbers of
+women, covered with white dominos, advance slowly and spectre-like
+through the crowd, which every now and then opens its ranks to give
+passage to some mounted Pasha, followed by his attendants on foot. Here
+and there may be seen asses loaded with bales, and at the further end of
+the galleries are caravans of camels. One's ears are deafened with the
+piercing cries of the sherbet-sellers, and the howling of the dogs;
+while quantities of pigeons coo over the heads of the motley crowd.
+Although, on taking a general view of this spectacle, there is little to
+admire, still one may select from it an infinite number of original
+scenes and pictures full of character. Here, for instance, an ambulating
+musician sings, or rather chants to an attentive audience one of those
+interminable ballads of which the Turks never tire; there, are half a
+dozen Greeks quarrelling and vociferating so energetically, that one
+would expect nothing less than that from words they would come to
+bloodshed; while, further on, a circle of friends are regaling
+themselves over a basket of green cucumbers. Talking of cucumbers, they
+almost entirely compose, in summer, the nourishment of the Turks. The
+Sultan Mahmood II. was excessively fond of this fruit, or rather
+vegetable, and cultivated it with his own hands in the Seraglio gardens.
+Having one day perceived that some of his cucumbers were missing, he
+sent for his head gardener, and informed him that, should such a
+circumstance occur again, he would order his head to be cut off. The
+next day three more cucumbers had been stolen, upon which the gardener,
+to save his own head, accused the pages of his highness of having
+committed the theft. These unhappy youths were immediately sent for, and
+having all declared themselves innocent, the enraged Sultan, in order to
+discover the culprit, commanded them one after another to be
+disembowelled. Nothing was found in the stomach or entrails of the first
+six victims, but the autopsy of the seventh proved him to have been the
+guilty one.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the crowds in the Turkish capital, the women present a
+curious spectacle, wandering about as they do covered with white
+dominos,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_693" id="Page_693">[Pg 693]</a></span> or rather winding-sheets. The lot of this portion of the
+Mussulman population is much less unhappy than one would be led to
+expect. They certainly hold a secondary station in society, but,
+brought-up as they are in the most complete ignorance, they are
+unconscious of their degraded position, and know not that there is a
+better. They are, in general, treated very kindly by their husbands and
+masters, and do not undergo, as it is supposed, either capricious or
+brutal treatment. Although in Europe they still believe a Turk to be
+constantly surrounded by a multitude of odalisques, to whom, as it suits
+his fancy, he throws in turn his handkerchief, at Constantinople there
+are very few Osmanlees who have three or even two wives, and even these
+they lodge in separate mansions, in general far distant from each other.
+Almost all the Turks, with the exception of the very few above mentioned
+individuals, possess in general but one wife, to whom they are most
+faithful. The grand seignior alone is a Sultan in the full and
+voluptuous acceptation of the term. He is possessor of a magnificent
+palace, where no noise from without ever penetrates, and where immense
+riches have collected together all the wonders of luxury. Marble baths,
+lovely gardens bounded by a sparkling sea, and vaulted by an indigo sky,
+legions of slaves, who have no will but his, no law but his caprices;
+and in this Eden three or four hundred women chosen from out of the most
+beautiful in the universe; this is the world, this is the life of that
+man: and yet, although he be so young, all who know him say that the
+present Sultan is morose, sad, and splenetic.</p>
+
+<p>On mounting, at sixteen, upon the throne of Turkey, Abdul Medjid
+announced it to be his intention to change nothing that his father
+Mahmood had established, and declared himself a partisan of the system
+of reform commenced by that sovereign. Notwithstanding the custom,
+rendered almost sacred by tradition, he renounced the turban and was
+<i>crowned</i> with the fez. Contrary to the usage of former Sultans, who on
+their accession put to death or closely imprisoned all their brothers,
+he allowed his brother Abdul Haziz not only his life, but full liberty.</p>
+
+<p>The Hatti-sherif of Gulhanch, published on the 19th of November 1839,
+and which has been viewed in so many and different lights, proved at
+least the good intentions of this sovereign, called so young to support
+so weighty a burden. At various times he has manifested a desire for
+instruction, and has taken lessons in geography and in Italian; he has
+also travelled over a part of his empire.</p>
+
+<p>It is usual at Constantinople for the Sultan to proceed every Friday
+(the Mussulman Sabbath) to pray in one of the mosques. The one chosen is
+named in the morning, and he proceeds thither on horseback or in his
+caick, according to the quarter in which it is situated. This weekly
+ceremony is almost the sole occasion on which foreigners can see his
+highness. During my stay at Constantinople, I had several opportunities
+of gazing upon the descendant of the Prophet. He is a young man, of
+slender frame, of grave physiognomy, and a most <i>distingu&eacute;</i> appearance.
+A crowd of officers and eunuchs formed his suite, and all heads bowed
+low at his approach. Abdul Medjid, who was the twentieth-born child of
+his father Mahmood, was born at Constantinople on the 19th of April
+1823. His black and stiff beard cause him to appear older than he is in
+reality. His eye is very brilliant, and his features regular. His face
+is somewhat marked with the smallpox; but this is not very apparent, as
+the young sultan, according to the custom of the harem, has an
+artificial complexion for days of ceremony. Naturally of a delicate
+frame, excesses have much enfeebled his constitution; his continual
+ill-health, his pallor, and his teeth already decayed, announce, that
+though so young in years, he is expiating the pleasures of a Sultan by a
+premature decrepitude. Abdul Medjid has several children, who are weak
+and sickly like their father, and the state of their health inspires
+constant anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Few sovereigns have been more diversely judged than Mahmood, the father
+of the present Sultan. Lauded to the skies by some, lowered to the dust
+by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_694" id="Page_694">[Pg 694]</a></span> others, he died before Europe was properly enlightened as to his
+intentions. Now that his work has undergone the ordeal of time, one can
+appreciate it at its real value. Ascending the throne at an epoch of
+anarchy and disorder, having at one and the same time to oppose the
+invasion of Russia, and to put down the rebellion of the Pashas, who
+were raising their pashalicks into sovereignties, Mahmood gave proofs,
+during several years, of a force of character almost inconceivable in a
+man enervated from his childhood by the pleasures of the harem.
+Unfortunately his intellect was unequal to his obstinacy: every abuse he
+put down gave rise to or made way for new abuses, which he could not
+foresee, and was unable to destroy. The established order of affairs,
+which he fought against, was a hydra, from which, for one head cut off,
+twenty sprang up. Far from augmenting his power, his greatest
+enterprises merely tended to enfeeble it. The repression of Ali the
+Pasha of Janina, cost Mahmood the kingdom of Greece; and had not the
+powers of Europe intervened, the war against Mehemet Ali would have cost
+him his throne. Even the destruction of the Janissaries, which was
+considered so great a cause of triumph by the Sultan, was it in reality
+so? It is surely permitted to doubt the circumstance. That powerful
+militia, scattered through the empire, was in some sort the focus of
+that spirit of fatalism, which had till then been the principal prop of
+the imperfect work of the Arabian impostor; to destroy it was to strike
+a death-blow to that society which breathed as it were in war alone. In
+overthrowing an obstacle which paralysed his power, Mahmood dug an abyss
+into which the Turkish empire must sooner or later fall; for the spirit
+of religious enthusiasm which he destroyed has been replaced by no other
+incentive.</p>
+
+<p>The chief fault of Mahmood was the cutting down without thinking of
+sowing; for without properly understanding the extent of what he was
+doing, he too hastily cast from its old course, without placing it in a
+better, a dull stupid nation, to transform which required both time and
+patience. Above all, Mahmood was guided solely by the impulses of an
+indomitable pride, and seems to have much less considered the interests
+of his empire, than the satisfying of his own vanity. He hastened to
+change the aspect and surface of things, deluding himself into the idea
+that he had metamorphosed an Asiatic people into a European state.
+Hurried away by the desire of innovation, and at the same time cramped
+by the effects of a religion which resists all progress, striving in
+vain to make the precepts of the Koran compatible with civilisation,
+Mahmood moved during the whole of his reign within a fatal circle, and,
+dying of an ignoble malady, he left his empire tottering to its fall.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_695" id="Page_695">[Pg 695]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="HORAE_CATULLIANAE" id="HORAE_CATULLIANAE"></a>HOR&AElig; CATULLIAN&AElig;.</h2>
+
+<h3>LETTER TO EUSEBIUS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>You desire, then, my dear Eusebius, to hear more of the Curate's
+difficulty. We left him, you remember, with Gratian, who took him by the
+arm, and walked off to see what his authority would do to quell the
+parochial disturbance. You have seen the general opinion upon the
+countenance Gratian would give to delinquents; you will not, therefore,
+augur very favourably of this expedition. Loving a little mischief, as
+you do, you will, perhaps, be not quite agreeably disappointed. Had
+Gratian trusted alone to his character, he would have failed; which
+shows that sometimes it is dangerous to have too good a one.</p>
+
+<p>Not a parishioner but would have looked upon the patronage of Gratian to
+the Curate as resulting from the weakness&mdash;those who meant to turn it to
+compliment would say, the excessive kindness, of his nature. A little
+malice interposing, they were by no means disposed, if they loved
+Gratian, "to love his dog,"&mdash;in the light of which comparison they now
+looked upon the Curate. Gratian's sly wit, however, availed more than
+his authority. It seems they had not proceeded very far when they met
+Prateapace. The Curate having some business in another direction, left
+Gratian with the maiden-lady. You can imagine his first advances,
+complimenting her upon her fresh morning looks. Then taking her by the
+arm, as if for familiar support, transferring his stick to the other
+hand, and looking his cajolery inimitably, and with a low voice saying,
+"My dear Miss Lydia, what is all this story I hear that you charge the
+Curate with?" "Oh, no, not I!" interrupted the maiden; "it is you have
+done that. I only know that I heard you reprove him for his behaviour to
+some one or other, whom you seriously declared either must be or ought
+to be his wife." "My dear <i>young</i> lady," said Gratian, "that is now
+quite a mistake of yours:" he then, as he reports, told her what they
+had been reading, and that his remarks were upon the book, and the
+author of it, and had nothing to do with the Curate. To all which she
+nodded her head incredulously, and laughingly said, "Oh, you good,
+<i>good</i>-natured man; and pray who may that improper author be?" "Why,"
+quoth Gratian, "Miss Lydia Prateapace wouldn't, I know, have me
+recommend her any <i>improper</i> author." "Oh, no, no!&mdash;I don't ask with any
+intention to read him, I assure you," she replied. Gratian went on,
+"Believe me, he is a very old author, a Roman." "A Roman indeed!" she
+quite vociferated&mdash;"one of those horrid Papists, I suppose! A Roman is
+he? Then the Curate&mdash;why should he read Papistical books, and learn such
+tricks from them?" It was in vain for Gratian to endeavour to explain.
+Miss Prateapace had but one notion of the Romans&mdash;that there never was
+one that had not kissed the Pope's toe. So here he very wisely took
+another tack, and drawing her a little aside, as if he would not have
+even the very hedges hear him, and with no little affected caution,
+looking about him, he said, in a half whisper&mdash;"Now let me, my dear
+young lady, tell you a bit of a secret. All this is an idle tale, and is
+just as I have told you; but this I tell you, that to my certain
+knowledge, the Curate's <i>affections</i>"&mdash;laying stress on the word
+affections&mdash;"are seriously engaged;" at which Miss Lydia stared, and
+looked the personification of curiosity. "Engaged is he, did you say?"
+"No, <i>he</i> is not engaged," said Gratian, "but I happen to know that his
+affections are&mdash;" "Then," quoth she, "I suppose he has declared as much
+to the object." "Ah&mdash;no!&mdash;there is the very point&mdash;you are quite
+mistaken&mdash;she has not the slightest suspicion of it." This was scarcely
+credible to the lady's notion of love-making, but the earnest manner of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_696" id="Page_696">[Pg 696]</a></span>
+Gratian was every thing. "No," said he; "he is a most exemplary
+conscientious young man, and so far avoids the making any show of his
+feelings, that he affects, I really believe, more indifference towards
+that lady than to any other. He tells me that he thinks it would not be
+honourable in his present circumstances and position to engage <i>her</i>
+affections; but he looks forward, as his prospects are fair." Miss Lydia
+was interested&mdash;pondered awhile, and then said, "You dear good man, do
+tell me who the lady is!" "No," replied Gratian, "I dare not betray a
+secret; but be assured, my dear Miss Lydia Prateapace, that if our
+Curate marries, he will make his choice not very far from this." "You
+don't say so!" cried she: "Really now, who can it be?" "I can only say
+one thing more," replied our fox Gratian, "and perhaps that is saying
+too much; but&mdash;" whispering in her ear&mdash;"of all the letters in the
+alphabet, her name begins with Lydia." Whereupon he made a start, put
+his finger upon his lips, as if he had in his hurry told the secret; and
+she started back a pace in another direction, looked in his face to see
+if he was in jest; finding there nothing but apparent simplicity, she
+looked a little confused, and evidently took the compliment and the
+<i>hopes</i> into her own bosom. When she could sufficiently collect her
+thoughts, she expressed her sorrow for any mischief she might have done,
+unintentionally; and added, that she would do all in her power to set
+all things right again. At this point the Curate returned: he addressed
+her somewhat distantly, which to her was a sign stronger than
+familiarity, upon the power of which she gave him her hand <i>of
+encouragement</i>. Gratian took care to leave well alone&mdash;let go her arm,
+and leaning upon the Curate's wished her good morning, with a gracious
+smile about his insidious mouth, to which he put his finger
+significantly as if entreating her silence upon the subject of their
+conversation. I have told you the particulars of this interview,
+Eusebius, as I could gather them from Gratian's narration; and he has a
+way of acting what he says, as if he had studied in that school where
+the first requisite for an orator is&mdash;action; the second&mdash;action; the
+third&mdash;action!</p>
+
+<p>Our friend Gratian, Eusebius, made no matter of conscience of this
+fibbing&mdash;did not hesitate&mdash;wanted no "ductor dubitantium"&mdash;as he told it
+to us. He gave, it is true, his limb a smarter tapping; but it was no
+twinge of conscience that caused the movement of the stick, and there is
+nothing of the Franciscan about our friend. Did he <i>say</i> a word that was
+not perfect truth?</p>
+
+<p>But what was the intention?&mdash;did he mean to deceive? But this is not a
+question to discuss with you. You will do more than acquit him. So I am
+answered, and silent. Gratian's answer was this. In his fabulous mood,
+he asked&mdash;"If you should see a lion, an open-mouthed lion of the
+veritable &#967;&#945;&#963;&#956;' &#959;&#948;&#959;&#957;&#964;&#969;&#957; breed, traversing a wood, and he
+should accost you thus, 'Pray, sir, did you chance to see a man I am
+looking after go this way?' would you point out his lurking place, his
+path of escape? or would you not, if you knew he went to the right,
+direct the lion by all means to continue his pursuit on the left? Then,
+sir, which will your worshipful morality prefer, to be the accessary to
+the murder, or the principal in the deceit?"</p>
+
+<p>I must not omit to tell you that a few days ago Gratian and the Curate
+spent a pleasant day with the Bishop, who was not a little amused at
+their narration of the circumstances that produced the singular
+parochial epistle, which his lordship had duly received. The Bishop's
+hospitality is well seasoned with conversational ease, and perfect
+agreeability, and has besides that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Seu quid suavius elegantiusve est"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>which our Catullus promises to his friend Fabullus. The Bishop, a ripe
+scholar, spoke much and critically of Catullus, and laid most stress
+upon the extreme suavity of his measures, especially in the "Acmen
+Septimius." There were present two archdeacons and a very agreeable
+classical physician. All had at one time or other, they acknowledged,
+translated "Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus." The physician said he
+had only satisfied himself with three lines, and yet he thought their
+only merit was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_697" id="Page_697">[Pg 697]</a></span> being line for line. He repeated both the original
+and his translation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Soles occidere et redire possunt:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nobis, quum semel occidit brevis lux,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nox est perpetua una dormienda.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Suns die, but soon their light restore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While we, when our brief day is o'er,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sleep one long night to wake no more."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Curate, with the jealousy of a rival translator, objected to "suns
+<i>die</i>," and thought "suns <i>set</i>" would be quite as well and a closer
+translation. The Physician assented. The Bishop smiled, and said, "suns
+<i>die</i>" was probably a professional lapsus. The Physician replied, that
+such would be a very unprofessional lapsus; and Gratian quoted the
+passage from Fielding, who says it is an unjust misrepresentation that
+"physicians are the friends of death," and instanced the two physicians
+who, in the case of the death of Captain Blifil, "dismissed the corpse
+with a single fee, but were not so disgusted with the living patient."
+At parting, the Bishop took the Curate most kindly by the hand, and
+recommended him by all means to cultivate the amiability of
+versification.</p>
+
+<p>After this, Gratian and the Curate had much business in hand, and we did
+not meet for some time. Gratian stirred a little in this affair of the
+Curate's, and with effect. We did meet, however, and recommenced the</p>
+
+
+<h3>HOR&AElig; CATULLIAN&AElig;.</h3>
+
+<p>You now see us again in the library&mdash;time, after tea. Gratian enjoys his
+easy-chair; a small fire&mdash;for it is not cold&mdash;just musically whispers
+among the coals, comfort. Gratian says he has had a busy day of it, and,
+though not wearied, is in that happy state of repose to enjoy rest, and
+of excitement to enjoy social converse; and after a little, preliminary
+chat, asked if there was any thing lately from Catullus.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;Yes. He is returned from his unprofitable travel, and you
+seem to be in that state of sensitive quiescence, to feel with him the
+pleasures of home. He is now at his own villa, and thus welcomes, and
+acknowledges the welcome offered him by his beloved Sirmio.</p>
+
+
+<h4>AD SIRMIONEM PENINSULAM.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My Sirmio, thou the very gem and eye<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of islands and peninsulas, that lie<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In that two-fold dominion Neptune takes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the salt sea and sweet translucent lakes!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh! with what joy I visit thee again,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Scarce yet believing, how, left far behind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The tedious Thynian and Bithynian plain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I see thee, Sirmio, with this peaceful mind.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, what a blessed thing is the sweet quiet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When the tired heart lays down its load of care,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And after foreign toil and sickening riot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Weary and worn, to feel at last we are<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At our own home&mdash;and our own floor to tread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And lie in peace on the long-wish'd-for bed!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This, this alone, repays all labours past.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hail to thee, lovely Sirmio! gladly take<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thine own, own master home to thee at last:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all ye sportive waters of my lake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Laugh out your welcome to my cheerful voice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all that laughs at home, with me rejoice.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;I well remember this singularly sweet, kind, affectionate
+address. It is the best version of "Home is home, be it ever so homely,"
+I know. You have needlessly repeated <i>own</i>. Why not say, loved master?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;Don't you think the <i>acquiescimus lecto</i> would be better
+rendered "sink to rest?" I fancy the Latin expresses the sinking down of
+the wearied limbs, or rather, whole person, into the soft and deep
+feather bed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_698" id="Page_698">[Pg 698]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius</span>.&mdash;I Set it down so, but altered it, thinking the "lie in peace"
+was in reality more quiescent than any thing expressing an act&mdash;as
+sinking is a process <i>in transitu</i>&mdash;the result, lying in peace. It has
+often been translated, among others, by Leigh Hunt, and that prince of
+translators, Elton&mdash;though I think I was not satisfied with his
+translation of the Sirmio&mdash;of the others I do not remember a word.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;Leigh Hunt overdid his work&mdash;there is more labour than ease in
+the line</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The loosened limbs o'er all the wished-for bed."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Not simple enough for Catullus; neither is this&mdash;a rather affected
+line&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Laughs every dimple in the cheek of home."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;No, that won't do&mdash;it is a conceit. One would imagine it
+borrowed or translated from some Italian poet.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;The "loosened limbs o'er all the wished-for bed," strikes me
+as rather of the ludicrous, and not unlike the description of himself by
+Berni in his fanciful palace, where he ordered a bed, adjoining that of
+the French cook's, which was to be large enough to swim in&mdash;"Come si fa
+nel mare."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Now then, Mr Curate, let us have your version.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span></p>
+
+<h4> TO THE PENINSULA OF SIRMIO.</h4>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All hail to thee, delightful Sirmio!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of all peninsulas and isles the gem,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which lake or sea in its fair breast doth show<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With either Neptune's arms encircling them.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What joy to find that Thynia, and that plain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bithynian gone, and see thee safe again!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Charming it is to rest from care and cumber,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When the mind throws its burden, and we come<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wearied with pains of foreign travel home,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in the bed so longed for sink to slumber.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This pays for all the toil, this quiet after&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Joy, my sweet Sirmio, for thy master's sake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Make merry, frolic wavelets of my lake&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Laugh on me, all ye stores of home-bred laughter.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;I don't like "the mind <i>throws</i> its burden:" lays it down is
+better&mdash;there is more weariness in it. You must alter that expression,
+or we see the mind like the "iniqu&aelig; mentis ascellus," dropping back its
+ears, and <i>throwing</i> its not agreeable and easy-sitting rider. Why not&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"When the mind lays its burden down, to come?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But I see you have both of you translated away from the Latin the <i>Lydi&aelig;
+und&aelig;</i>. How comes it so?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;The reasons given for the word meaning Lydian seem to be
+insufficient; because it is said the Benacus resembles the Lydian rivers
+Hermus and Pactolus in having gold; or because the Benacus was in the
+district of the Thusci, who came from the Lydians. I adopted a
+conjecture once thrown out&mdash;and I think it was by the most accomplished
+scholar, W. S. Landor, that <i>Lydi&aelig;</i> is the adjective of the word
+<i>Ludius&mdash;ludi&aelig; und&aelig;</i>, or <i>Lydi&aelig; und&aelig;</i>, the same thing, for that ludius
+is, as the dictionary tells us, "a Lydis, qui erant optimi saltatores."
+If so, <i>Lydi&aelig;</i> would mean the sportive, or "dancing waters of the lake."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;I took this hint from Aquilius, though I do not remember from
+whom the suggestion came. I would venture from the last line&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ridete quidquid est domi cachinnorum&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>a remark upon a passage, the celebrated expression in the <i>Prometheus</i>
+of &AElig;schylus, the &#945;&#957;&#951;&#961;&#953;&#952;&#956;&#959;&#957; &#947;&#949;&#955;&#945;&#963;&#956;&#945;. Some call it "countless
+dimples." Now is it not possible Catullus may have thought of this, and
+as it were translated it by <i>quidquid est cachinnorum</i>? The question
+then would be, is it meant to speak to the ear or the eye? Is it of
+sound or vision? I am inclined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_699" id="Page_699">[Pg 699]</a></span> to think it is the sound, the
+communicative laughter of the many waves. "Dimple" is too little for the
+gigantic conception of &AElig;schylus, but the laughter of the multitudinous
+ocean-waves is more after his genius. No one could translate <i>cachinnus</i>
+"a dimple." If, therefore, Catullus had in his mind the Greek passage,
+it shows his idea of the &#945;&#957;&#951;&#961;&#953;&#952;&#956;&#959;&#957; &#947;&#949;&#955;&#945;&#963;&#956;&#945;.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;I have often admired how that can be <i>very</i> beautiful which is
+of uncertain meaning. Is it that either construction conveys distinct
+thought&mdash;clear idea? I confess, I prefer the sound. What comes next?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;Missing one or two, we take up his "Request to his friend
+C&aelig;cilius to come to him to Verona"&mdash;who, it seems, was a native of that
+place, and fellow townsman, as well as most dear friend of Catullus.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;Both poets&mdash;both kind-hearted; in fact, "The two gentlemen of
+Verona."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Well, that is saying something for Latin poets. Let us have
+your version, Curate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span></p>
+
+<h4>INVITATION TO C&AElig;CILIUS.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Papyrus, to C&aelig;cilius tell<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(A touching bard, my friend as well)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That to Verona he must come,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where his Catullus is at home,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And new-built Comu's walls forsake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And that sweet shore of Laris Lake.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A friend of mine and his has brought<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To light some passages of thought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which he must hear. So if he will<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Be thriving and improving still,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His speed will swallow up the distance,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Although with amorous resistance,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And both arms clinging round his neck,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That lovely maid his progress check,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With lips a thousand times that say<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Oh, do not, do not go away!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I mean that maid who, Fame&mdash;not I&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Asserts for love of him would die;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For fire consumes her heart and head,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since first the opening lines she read<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Cybele the God's great queen.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Maid, learned as the Sapphic muse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I cannot sympathy refuse;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For not amiss (the book I've seen)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Begins the tale, "The Mighty Queen."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;I protest against "so if he will be thriving and improving
+still." That is the Curate's interpolation. The fact is, he must have
+rhymed a passage from his last sermon; and it has somehow or other
+slipped into his Catullus.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;No authority! What, then, is meant by "Quare si sapiet?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;Simply, if he would know the secret&mdash;the "cogitationes."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;I am inclined to agree with you. Now, Aquilius, we will listen
+to your version.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hasten, papyrus! greet you well<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That tender poet, my sweet friend<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">C&aelig;cilius&mdash;speedily I send,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As speedily my message tell:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That he should for Verona make<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All haste&mdash;and quit his Larian Lake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Novum Comum&mdash;for I would<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some certain thoughts he understood<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And purposes, that now possess<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A friend of mine; and his no less.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_700" id="Page_700">[Pg 700]</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And if he takes me rightly, say<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His coming will devour the way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though that fair girl should bid him stay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And round his neck her arms should throw,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And cry, Oh, do not, do not go!&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That girl, who, if the truth be told,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">E'en in her heart of hearts doth hold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And cherish such sweet love&mdash;since he<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">First read to her of Cybele,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Great Queen of Dindymus" the tale<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Begun. Oh, then she did inhale<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The living breath of love, whose heat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Into her very life doth eat.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thy passion I can well excuse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fair maid! more learn'd than the tenth muse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Lesbian maid&mdash;nor couldst thou fail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To find for love an ample plea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In that so nobly open'd tale<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the great Goddess Cybele.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;What's all this?&mdash;the "tenth muse!" where is she in the Latin?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;<i>Sapphic&acirc; mus&acirc;</i>, Doctor. That is Sappho, is it not? and pray
+was Sappho one of the <i>nine</i> muses? No; then of course she was the
+<i>tenth</i>&mdash;and was not she "the Lesbian maid?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;Well, I admit it&mdash;you have vindicated your muse fairly, and I
+will not pronounce against her, though tempted by an apt quotation from
+the mouth of Bacchus, in the <i>Frogs</i> of Aristophanes.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"&#913;&#965;&#964;&#951; &#960;&#959;&#952;' &#951; &#924;&#959;&#965;&#963;' &#959;&#965;&#954; &#949;&#955;&#949;&#963;&#946;&#953;&#945;&#950;&#949;&#957; &#959;&#965;."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>For your muse is certainly a Lesbian; but you have omitted "misell&aelig;,"
+which shows that the passion was not returned.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;I don't see that; for she throws her arms about his neck. But
+neither of you have well spoken the "millies euntem revocet," the
+calling him back after departure, and that is very good too. I see the
+note upon <i>Sapphic&acirc; Mus&acirc;</i>, speaks of various interpretations to the
+passage; but adopts this&mdash;that the maiden loving C&aelig;cilius has more sense
+(is that <i>doctior</i>? I doubt) than Sappho, who loved a youth too stupid
+ever to write a line; but this maid did not love till she had read the
+commencement of his poem. I don't see the necessity for thinking the
+passion hopeless either, because of the comparison with Sappho. Few
+Roman maidens took the Leucadian leap.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;It is very odd, and might first appear a mark of their good
+manners&mdash;that the Romans never mention "old maids." I fear there was
+another cause. I suppose the omission may be accounted for by the state
+of society, which was not favourable to their existence at all; for then
+a man could put away his wife at any moment, and for any plea, most
+women must have managed to get a husband for a long or a short time.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;The only ancient old maids were the Fates and Furies&mdash;of the
+latter, the burden of the song was&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Oh no, we never mention them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their names are never heard!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Come back to your duty: we are wandering, and leaving Catullus
+behind. What are we to have now?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;An attack upon one Egnatius, who, having white teeth, took
+care to show them upon all occasions. He was not, however, celebrated
+for his tooth-powder. He is a fair mark for the wit of our author. The
+arrow of his satire was occasionally keen enough and free to fly.</p>
+
+<h4>IN EGNATIUM.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Egnatius's teeth are very white,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And therefore is he ever grinning:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_701" id="Page_701">[Pg 701]</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let pleaders in the court excite<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All hearts to weep&mdash;from the beginning<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">E'en to the end he laughs. The while<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The mother on the funeral bier,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sheds o'er her only son the tear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Alone Egnatius seems to smile,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then opes his mouth from ear to ear:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where'er he is, whatever doing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He laughs and grins. The thing in fact is<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A tasteless, foolish, silly practice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Egnatius, and well worth eschewing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Spare all this risible exertion,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And were you Roman or Tiburtian,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sabine, Lanuvian, fat Etruscan,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or porcine Umbrian with rare show<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of tusks&mdash;columnar&mdash;order Tuscan:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or born the other side the Po,}<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(And my compatriot, therefore know,)}<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where folk are civilised I trow,}<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And wash their teeth with water cleanly&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pure water such as folk might quaff&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I would entreat you still&mdash;don't laugh.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You look so sillily, so meanly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As if you were but witted half.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet being but a Celtiberian,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Holding the custom of your nation,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Using that lotion called Hesperian;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The more you grin, folk say, forsooth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What pity 'tis the whitest tooth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should have the foulest application!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;I did not translate&mdash;and our host will think one translation
+quite enough.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Go on then to the next. What are we to have?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;His address to his farm. Authors were happy in those days to
+have their landed estate. Horace always speaks of his with delight; so
+does Catullus, as we have seen, of his Sirmio. This farm was, it should
+seem, like Horace's, among the Sabine hills.</p>
+
+<h4>TO MY FARM.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My farm! which those who wish to please<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy master's heart, Tiburtian call;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But they who call thee Sabine, these<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Respect his feelings not at all:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And wishing more to tease and fret,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Will wager thou art Sabine yet&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How well it pleased me to retreat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To thy suburban country-seat;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where I sent summarily off<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That plaguy pulmonary cough;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which, half-deserved, my stomach gave<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Just for a hint no more to crave<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Luxurious living. I had hoped<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With a good dinner to have coped<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At Sextius' table; when he read<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A poisonous speech might strike one dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All gall and venom, to refute<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One Attius in a certain suit.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since when, a cold cough and catarrh<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Against my battered frame made war;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_702" id="Page_702">[Pg 702]</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Until I came in thee to settle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And cured it with repose and nettle.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So, now I'm well, I thank thee, farm!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And that I got so little harm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From such great fault. I may be pardon'd<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If to this pitch my heart is harden'd:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To pray, when Sextius reads again<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Things so abhorr'd of gods and men,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That that my cough and cold catarrh<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not mine but Sextius' health might mar&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who never sends me invitation<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But for such wretched recitation.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;A charitable wish this of our good Catullus! But these
+heathens knew little of "do as you would be done by." One of the neatest
+wishes of this kind is in a Greek epigram. I can't remember word for
+word the Greek, so I give the translation:&mdash;"Castor and Pollux, who
+dwell in beauteous Lacedemon, by the sweet-flowing river Eurotas, if
+ever I wish evil to my friend, may it light upon me; but if ever he
+wishes evil to me, may he have twice as much."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;In a note on <i>vill&aelig;</i>, I see the derivation of that word
+given, <i>quasi vehilla</i>, because there the fruits of the farm were
+carried; so that the original idea of a villa was quite another thing
+from the modern suburban construction. Architects, when they call these
+suburban edifices villas, might as well remember how inappropriate is
+the term. But here you have my version of this address to his farm:&mdash;</p>
+
+<h4>AD FUNDUM.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My Farm, or Sabine or Tiburtian,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">(What name I care not we confab in,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though they who hold me in aversion,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Persist and wager you are Sabine,)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In your suburban sweet recesses<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of that vile cough I timely rid me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Merited well, for those excesses<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My stomach failed not to forbid me,<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When I with Sextius was convivial,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who feasting read me his invective,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Vilest, 'gainst Attius his rival,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">All venom&mdash;and, alas! effective.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For surely 'twas that poison seized me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A chill&mdash;a heat&mdash;a cough then shook me<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">E'en to my vitals&mdash;and so teazed me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That to thy bosom I betook me.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thanks, my good farm! my fault you pardon'd,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And not revenged. We've much to settle<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On score of thanks: my chest you harden'd,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And healed with basil-root and nettle.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But from henceforth, if I such vicious<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Invectives read, though Sextius pen 'em,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who but invites me with malicious<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Intent to kill me with their venom&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If e'er I yield to his endeavour,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Expose me to his scrip infectious&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I call down ague, cold, and fever,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Oh! fall ye not on me,&mdash;but Sextius.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_703" id="Page_703">[Pg 703]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;I see the next is that one which has been not unfrequently
+translated and imitated. Is there not one by Cowley,&mdash;if I remember,
+much lengthened?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;It can scarcely be called a translation. The Latin measure is
+certainly here very sweet and tender.</p>
+
+<h4>DE ACME ET SEPTIMIO.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Septimius, to his bosom pressing<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His Acme, said, "I love thee, Acme&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All my life-long will love thee, Acme!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor day shall come to love thee less in.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or should it come, like common lover,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In such poor love I love thee only;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May Libyan lion dun discover,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or torrid India's beast attack me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wandering forlorn from thee, and lonely<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">On desert shore."&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He said: Love, as before,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon the left hand aptly sneezed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The omen showed that he was pleased<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To give his blessing.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then gentle Acme, softly turning<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon the breast of her Septimius,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And unto his her face upraising,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And looking in his eyes so burning,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As if inebriate with gazing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With that her rich red mouth she kissed them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And said,&mdash;"My love, dear, dear Septimius!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, let us serve our master duly&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our master Love, as now caressing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For never yet have Love so blessed them<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As now my thoughts he blesseth truly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Even to my heart of hearts, Septimius,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The inmost core."<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She said: and, as before,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Love on the left hand aptly sneezed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The omen showed that he was pleased<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To give his blessing.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They loved&mdash;were loved: this sweet beginning<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Omen'd their future bright condition.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Offer all Asia to Septimius&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Add Britain&mdash;put in competition<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With Acme&mdash;wretchedly abstemious<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They'd call him of your gifts, Ambition.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The only province worth his winning<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is Acme: Acme's faithful bosom<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Knows nought on earth but her Septimius.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ripe was the fruit, as fair the blossom<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of this their mutual love, and glowing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all admired its freshness growing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was never pair so fond and loving!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Venus' self looked on approving.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;Are you correct in your translation "Love, as before?" Is it
+not that, as before he sneezed on the left, now he sneezes on the right
+hand,&mdash;<i>was</i> unfavourable&mdash;<i>is</i> now propitious?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;I see in the note that the passage bears either construction.
+There is also authority given; for what to us is the left hand, to the
+gods is the right. Now, Curate, for your Acme and Septimius.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_704" id="Page_704">[Pg 704]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<h4>OF SEPTIMIUS AND ACME.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Acme to Septimius' breast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Darling of his heart, was prest&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Acme mine!" then said the youth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"If I love thee not in truth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If I shall not love thee ever<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As a lover doated never,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May I in some lonely place,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Scorch'd by Ind's or Libya's sun,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Meet a lion's tawny face;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">All defenceless, one to one."&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Love, who heard it in his flight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To the truth his witness bore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sneezing quickly to the right&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">(To the left he sneezed before.)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Acme then her head reflecting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Kiss'd her sweet youth's ebriate eyes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With her rosy lips connecting<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Looks that glistened with replies.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Thus, my life, my Septimillus!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Serve we Love, our only master:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One warm love-flood seems to thrill us,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Throbs it not in me the faster?"&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Love, who heard it in his flight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To the truth his witness bore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sneezing quickly to the right&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">(To the left he sneezed before.)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thus with omens all-approving,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Each and both are loved and loving.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Poor Septimius with his Acme,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Cares not to whose lot may fall<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Syria's glory&mdash;wealthy province!&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Or both Britains great and small.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Acme, faithful and unfeigning,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Gives, creates, enjoys all pleasure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With her dear Septimius reigning.&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Oh! was ever earthly treasure<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Greater to man's lot pertaining?<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Blessed pair!&mdash;thus, without measure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Venus' choicest gifts attaining.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;You have a little run riot, good Master Curate; and run out of
+your rhyming course too, I see&mdash;for you don't mean "province" to rhyme
+to "Acme."&mdash;I see the next is, On Approach of Spring&mdash;with that
+beautiful line, "Jam ver egelidos refert tepores." I wish to see how you
+would have translated that refreshing and cool warmth of
+expression&mdash;almost a contradiction in terms&mdash;the season when we inhale
+the heavenly air with the chill off&mdash;like hot tea thrown into a glass of
+spring-cold water, and drank off immediately.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;I gave it up in despair, and the Curate too has omitted it.
+There are two other perhaps untranslatable lines in this short piece:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Jam mens pr&aelig;trepidans avet vagari;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Jam l&aelig;ti studio pedes vigescunt."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>After two other little pieces, we come to a few lines to no less a
+personage than Marcus Tullius Cicero, who had probably in some cause
+gratuitously assisted the poet with his eloquence; for to sue <i>in form&acirc;
+poet&aelig;</i>, was, perhaps, pretty much the same as in <i>form&acirc; pauperis</i>. It
+seems that "omnium patronus" was a flattering title on other occasions,
+and by other persons bestowed upon Cicero, as well as by our poet here.
+One would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_705" id="Page_705">[Pg 705]</a></span> almost think the orator had served the poet an ill turn, and
+that this superlative praise was but irony; for he not only calls
+Tullius the most eloquent of men, but as much the best of patrons, as
+he, Catullus, is the worst of poets. This surely must be a mock
+humility. Is it a satire in disguise, and meaning the reverse? After
+this, follows a little piece to his friend Cornellus Licinius Calvus,
+with whom he had passed a pleasant and too exciting day&mdash;but let him
+tell his own story. Shall I repeat?</p>
+
+<h4>AD LICINIUM.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My dear Licinius, yesterday<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We sported in our pleasant way;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tablets in hand&mdash;and at our leisure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In verse as various as the measure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Scribbling between our wine and laughter.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But when we parted, mark the after<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Vexation;&mdash;conquered, and hard hit<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By your all-overpowering wit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I could not eat&mdash;nor yet would Sleep<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His softly-soothing fingers keep<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon my weary lids: all night}<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I toss'd, I turned from left to right}<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Impatient for the morning light,}<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That I might talk with you, and be<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Again in your society.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But when my limbs, as 'twere half dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were lying on my restless bed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I made these lines&mdash;which, my good friend,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That you may know my pains, I send.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now, though so free, so bold to dare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So apt to scoff&mdash;good sir, beware<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lest with the eye of your disdain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You view these lines, my vow, my pain.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beware of Nemesis, beware!&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For Vengeance, should I cry aloud&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She hears&mdash;and punishes the proud.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Those last lines are very grave: are they not too much so for
+the intended play of this mock anger? Let us have your version, Master
+Curate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;I am sure you think one version quite enough. I did not
+translate it; and believe we must now turn over many pages, and then I
+have little more to offer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;(Turning over the leaves of Catullus.) Here I see is that
+beautiful passage in his "Carmen Nuptiale."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;Which did not escape the tasteful, though bold Ariosto. I
+have made a weak attempt to translate the passage; and as it stands in
+the middle of a long piece, I have taken it out as a sonnet. I will read
+it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<h4>UT FLOS IN SEPTIS, &amp;C.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As in enclosure of chaste garden ground,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The floweret grows&mdash;where nor unseemly tread<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of flocks or ploughshares bruise its tender head&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There soft airs soothe it with their gentle sound;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Suns give it strength, and nurturing showers abound,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And raise its tall stem from its sheltered bed;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And many a youth and maiden, passion-led,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With longing eyes admiring walk around:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_706" id="Page_706">[Pg 706]</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pluck'd from the stem that its pure grace supplied,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Nor youths nor maidens love it as before.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So the sweet maiden, in the queenly pride<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of her chaste beauty, many hearts adore;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But that her virgin charter laid aside,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who lov'd, who cherish'd, cherish, love no more.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;I remember Ariosto's translation&mdash;for translation it is; and
+though you know it, I will repeat it, and, by Gratian's favour, let it
+pass for my version. For once, borrowed plumes,&mdash;and I shall not be the
+worse bird&mdash;though birds of richer plumage have no song.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"La verginella &egrave; simile alla rosa,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Chi'n bel giardin su la nativa spina,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mentre sola, e sicura si riposa,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ne gregge, ne pastor sele avvicina;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">L'aura soave, e l'alba rugidosa<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">L'acqua, la terra al suo favor s'inch a:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Giovani vaghi, e donne innamorate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Amano averne e seni, e tempre ornate.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ma non si tosto dal materno stelo,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Remossa viene, e dal suo ceppo verde,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Che, quanto avea dagli uomini, e dal cielo,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Favor, grazia, ebellezza, tutto perde."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Let us examine the alterations made by one genius, in
+transferring to his own language the ideas of another genius of another
+country. Catullus says "the floweret,"&mdash;<i>flosculus</i>: Ariosto
+particularises the rose,&mdash;the <i>bel giardin</i>, "the beautiful garden,"
+stands for <i>septis in hortis</i>, the enclosed. Then he has given the idea
+of <i>secretus</i>, which is certainly "separated," "set apart," by the words
+<i>sola e sicura</i>, "alone and safe"&mdash;is it so good? but he gives that a
+grace, a beauty, the original perhaps has not, <i>riposa</i>&mdash;the floweret
+enjoys its secret repose. The cutting down the flower by the plough was
+unnecessary, after telling us of the enclosure; we scarcely like to be
+brought suddenly into the ploughed field. Here Ariosto is better&mdash;"nor
+shepherd nor flock come near it." That enough confirms the idea of its
+being fenced off, and they wander in their idleness, or, but for the
+fence, might have reached it; the plough and the team are a heavy
+apparatus, and would be a most unexpected intrusion,&mdash;so I like the
+Italian here better. Then, <i>su la nativa spina</i> is good: you see the
+beautiful creature on its native stem or thorn. Then for the enumeration
+of the airs, the sun, and the shower, the Italian, in his beautiful
+language, softens the very air, and gives it a sweetness, <i>l'aura
+soave</i>, and ushers in "the dewy morn:" then, expanding to the glory of
+the full reverence of nature to this emblem of purity, he makes all bend
+and bow before it, as before the very queen of the earth. Here he
+surpasses his original. Then he gives you the object of the wishes of
+the youths and maidens, the <i>multi pueri mult&aelig; optaver&aelig; puell&aelig;</i>. They
+desire to place it in their bosoms or round their temples: and is not
+the lovingness of the youths and maidens a good addition? The <i>giovani
+vaghi e donne innamorate</i>. Both are admirable&mdash;but I incline to Ariosto.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;And do you think the Latin poet the original? You forget how
+little originality the Latin authors can claim. This of Catullus is a
+translation&mdash;a free one, it is true&mdash;of perhaps a still more beautiful
+passage in Euripides. Reach the book: you will find it in that very
+singular play the Hippolytus. Ay, here it is. He offers the garland to
+the virgin goddess Artemis&mdash;(line 73)</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"&#931;&#959;&#953; &#964;&#959;&#957;&#948;&#949; &#960;&#955;&#949;&#954;&#964;&#959;&#957; &#963;&#964;&#949;&#966;&#945;&#957;&#959;&#957; &#949;&#958; &#945;&#954;&#951;&#961;&#945;&#964;&#959;&#965;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&#923;&#949;&#953;&#956;&#969;&#957;&#959;&#962; &#969; &#948;&#949;&#963;&#960;&#959;&#953;&#957;&#945;, &#954;&#959;&#963;&#956;&#951;&#963;&#945;&#962; &#966;&#949;&#961;&#969;,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&#917;&#957;&#952;'&#959;&#965;&#964;&#949; &#964;&#959;&#953;&#956;&#951;&#957; &#945;&#958;&#953;&#959;&#953; &#966;&#949;&#961;&#946;&#949;&#953;&#957; &#946;&#959;&#964;&#945;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&#927;&#965;&#964;' &#951;&#955;&#952;&#949; &#961;&#969; &#963;&#953;&#948;&#951;&#961;&#959;&#962; &#945;&#955;&#955;' &#945;&#954;&#951;&#961;&#945;&#964;&#959;&#957;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&#924;&#949;&#955;&#953;&#963;&#963;&#945; &#955;&#949;&#953;&#956;&#969;&#957;' &#951;&#961;&#953;&#957;&#959;&#957; &#948;&#953;&#949;&#961;&#967;&#949;&#964;&#945;&#953;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&#913;&#953;&#948;&#969;&#962; &#948;&#949; &#960;&#959;&#964;&#945;&#956;&#953;&#945;&#953;&#963;&#953; &#954;&#951;&#960;&#949;&#965;&#949;&#953; &#948;&#961;&#959;&#963;&#959;&#953;&#962;.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&#8009;&#963;&#959;&#953;&#962; &#948;&#953;&#948;&#945;&#954;&#964;&#959;&#957; &#956;&#951;&#948;&#949;&#957;, &#945;&#955;&#955;' &#949;&#957; &#964;&#951; &#966;&#965;&#963;&#949;&#953;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&#932;&#959; &#963;&#969;&#966;&#961;&#959;&#957;&#949;&#953;&#957; &#949;&#953;&#955;&#951;&#967;&#949;&#957; &#949;&#962; &#964;&#945; &#960;&#945;&#957;&#952;' &#8001;&#956;&#969;&#962;,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&#932;&#959;&#965;&#964;&#959;&#962; &#948;&#961;&#949;&#960;&#949;&#963;&#952;&#945;&#953; &#964;&#959;&#953;&#962; &#954;&#945;&#954;&#959;&#953;&#963;&#953;, &#948;' &#959;&#965; &#952;&#949;&#956;&#953;&#962;."<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_707" id="Page_707">[Pg 707]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>"I bring thee, O mistress, this woven crown, beautifully made up of
+flowers of the pure untouched meadow&mdash;where never shepherd thinks it
+fitting to feed his flock, nor the sickle comes; but the bee ever passes
+over the pure meadow breathing of spring, and modesty waters it as a
+garden with the river-dews. To them who have, untaught, in their nature
+the gift of chastity, to these only it is at all times an allowed
+sanctity to cut these flowers, but not to the evil-minded."</p>
+
+<p>You cannot doubt that the passage in Catullus is taken from the
+Greek&mdash;which is of a higher sentiment in the conclusion, and is enriched
+beyond the Latin by the bee, and above all by the personification of
+Modesty tending and watering the garden, or rather these especial
+flowers, with the river-dews.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;How far more pure is the sentiment, and more quiet the imagery,
+in the Greek! The Greeks were the great originators of glorious thought
+and beautiful diction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Let us now to Catullus. What have we next?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;Here is a tender little piece, to his friend Ortalus. I see
+it has an omission: this edition does not supply it; I only take what I
+see. It seems Ortalus had requested him to send him his translation from
+Callimachus, the "Coma Berenices," which for some time, through grief
+for the death of his brother, he had failed to do. He now sends the
+poem.</p>
+
+
+<h4>AD ORTALUM.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Though care, that unto me sore grief hath brought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Calls me from converse with the sacred Nine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Nor can my heart incline<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To bring to any end inspired thought;&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(For now the wave of the Leth&aelig;an lake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How recent hath it bathed in Death's dark vale<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A brother's feet so pale;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And I can only sorrow for his sake.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Trojan land on the Rh&oelig;tean shore<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath hidden him for ever from these eyes,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And I with glad surprise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And brother's love, shall welcome thee no more.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Loved more than life, dear brother! what can I<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But love thee still, and mourn for thee full long<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In a funereal song,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In secret to assuage my grief thereby?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As amid many boughs all leaf-array'd<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Danlian bird, the nightingale, out-poured,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When Itys she deplored,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her mellow sorrows in the thickest shade:)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yet, Ortalus, 'mid tears that flow so fast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The work of your Battiades I send,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lest you should deem, dear friend,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your wishes to the winds are idly cast,<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And from my mind escaped, all unaware,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As falls the fruit, love's furtive gift, unbid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In virgin bosom hid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When she, forgetful of its lying there,<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Would suddenly arise, and run to greet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The coming of her mother, from her vest<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And her now loosen'd breast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The shameless apple rolls before her feet.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And she, poor maid! abashed, and in the hush<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of shame, before her mother cannot speak,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">While all her virgin cheek<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Betrays her secret in the conscious blush.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_708" id="Page_708">[Pg 708]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;It is very tender&mdash;the last image is delicately beautiful. I
+did not translate it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Pretty as the passage of the maiden's disaster in dropping the
+lover's gift&mdash;and that, too, be it observed, in the hurry of her
+tenderness, which increases the beauty, or rather accomplishes it&mdash;yet
+is it not abrupt in a piece where there is the expression of so much
+grief? Catullus was an affectionate man, more especially affectionate
+brother; on other occasions, if I remember rightly, he deplores this
+brother's loss. Now, Master Curate, what do you offer us?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;Not now a verse translation, but an observation on a little
+piece of raillery, in which Catullus quizzes one Arrius for his
+aspirating; and, I mean it not as a pun, exasperating, though it should
+seem that his friends were not a little exasperated at his bad
+pronunciation. Do we inherit from the Romans this, our (Cockneyism, I
+was going to say, but it is too general to allow of such a limit,)
+vulgarity of speech? "Where," says Catullus, "Arrius meant to say
+commoda, he uttered it as c<i>h</i>ommoda, and <i>h</i>insidias for insidias, and
+never thought he spoke remarkably well unless he laid great stress upon
+the aspirate, calling it with emphasis <i>h</i>insidias. I believe his
+mother, his uncle, his maternal grandfather and grandmother all spoke in
+the same way. When the man went into Syria, all ears had a little rest,
+and heard those words pronounced without this emphatic aspirate, and
+began to entertain no fears respecting the use of the words; when on a
+sudden they hear&mdash;that after Arrius had gone thither, the Ionian seas
+were no longer Ionian, but Hionian." This is curious. As the Romans had
+possession here more than four hundred years, did they leave us this
+legacy?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius</span>&mdash;I will, then, give you versions of the two which immediately
+follow.</p>
+
+<h4>DE AMORE SUO.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I love and hate. You ask me how 'tis so.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Small is the reason which I have to show:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I feel it to my cost&mdash;'tis all I know.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then follows a compliment, by comparison, to his Lesbia.</p>
+
+<h4>DE QUINTIA ET LESBIA.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Many think Quintia beautiful: she's tall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And fair, and straight. I know, I grant it all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When each particular beauty I recall;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But I deny&mdash;when these are uncombined<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To form a whole of beauty&mdash;and I find<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So large a person with so small a mind.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But Lesbia's perfect person is all soul,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Compact in beauty&mdash;as if grace she stole<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From all the rest, and made herself one perfect whole.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;This is compliment enough as far as comparison goes&mdash;but he
+pays her a much greater shortly after: for he loves her in their
+greatest quarrels.</p>
+
+<h4>OF LESBIA.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Lesbia mi dicit semper male."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Lesbia's always speaking ill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of me&mdash;her tongue is never still:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet may I die, but 'gainst her will,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">She loves me, spite of her detraction.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Why think I so? Because I blame<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her ways, abuse her just the same:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet howsoe'er I name her name,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I still love Lesbia to distraction.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_709" id="Page_709">[Pg 709]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Perhaps the constancy was more to the credit of Lesbia than
+Catullus. Now then, Aquilius.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<h4>DE LESBIA.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Lesbia speaketh ill of me<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ever&mdash;nought it moves me:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Say she what she will of me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yet I know she loves me.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Why? Because in words of hate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I am far before her;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet no jot of love abate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Rather I adore her.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;I don't like "I am far before her." We say, "I am not behind"
+in hate or love&mdash;I doubt "before."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;Easily mended&mdash;thus then,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Why? Because in words of hate<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I go far beyond her,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet no jot of love abate&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But still grow the fonder.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span>&mdash;Probatum est.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;The Curate is too quick upon me. We must go back: he has left
+out "De Inconstantia Feminei Amoris."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curate.</span>&mdash;True. Here is my version. Not being a happy subject, I passed
+over it.</p>
+
+<h4>OF WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My pretty she will none but me<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For husband, though were Jove, her wooer.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So tells she me: but what a she<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Says to her lover and pursuer,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Might well be written on the wind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or stream that leaves no track behind.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;I object to "pretty she," for <i>mulier</i>. I think, however,
+that <i>mulier</i> here is a word of contempt. I make it out thus:</p>
+
+<h4>DE INCONSTANTIA FEMINEI AMORIS.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">She says&mdash;the woman says&mdash;she none would wed<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But me, though Jove came suitor to her bed;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">She says&mdash;but, oh! what woman says&mdash;so fair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And smooth to doting man, is writ on air,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on the running stream that changeth every where.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aquilius.</span>&mdash;We have seen much of our friend Catullus as a loving poet,
+let us end by showing him to have been a good hater. The following is no
+bad specimen of his powers in this line:&mdash;</p>
+
+<h4>IN COMINIUM.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If you, Cominius, old, defiled<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With every vice, contemn'd, and hoary,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From your vile life were once exiled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Your carcass beasts would mar&mdash;grim, wild.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Vultures that tongue, defamatory<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of all the gentle, good, and mild;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And with those eyes, that all detest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Pluck'd from their hateful sockets gory,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Crows cram their maws, or feed their nest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And hungry wolves devour the rest!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It was now time, Eusebius, to conclude for the night, and, indeed, to
+put our Catullus upon his shelf again. Before separating, we reminded
+Gratian that he was the arbiter, and must make his award. "I remember
+well,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_710" id="Page_710">[Pg 710]</a></span> said he; "and you, Aquilius, made, I think, this my baculus the
+staff of office. A good umpire might, not very improperly, give the
+stick to you both, breaking it equally, "secundum artem baculinam." But
+it is a good, useful staff to me; we have had some rubs together, and I
+won't part with it. True, it has not unfrequently rubbed my pigs' backs,
+and shall again. But <i>the</i> pig Aquilius has made his acquaintance with,
+has grunted out all his happy days; and, to do him all honour, I have
+sacrificed him upon this occasion, to appease the manes of the Latin
+poet in his anger at your bad translations. But for yourselves, I have
+still something to award. My pig has two cheeks&mdash;there is one for each,
+and you shall have them put before you at breakfast to-morrow morning;
+and thus, I think, you will agree with me that I have duly countenanced
+you both. And I hope my pig will have both sharpened your appetites and
+your wit, 'sus Minervam.' Good-night!</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'To-morrow to fresh fields and turnips new.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h3>POSTSCRIPT.</h3>
+
+<p>I here send you, Eusebius, the last of our Hor&aelig; Catullian&aelig;, which has
+been lying by a week or more. This little delay enables me to wind up
+the Curate's affair to your satisfaction. Our friend Gratian gave
+verbally the Bishop's reply to Mathew Miffins, who, seeing himself
+deserted by his principal witness and informer, Prateapace, was not
+sorry to veer round with the weather-cock, and was obsequiously civil.
+It was characteristic of our friend Gratian, that he should settle it as
+he did with that huckster. Going through, as it is called, the main
+street, I saw him engaged with Miffins, in his shop, and went in. He was
+talking somewhat familiarly with the man&mdash;of all subjects, on what do
+you suppose?&mdash;on fishing. Gratian had been a great fisherman in his day,
+as his rheumatic pains can now testify. As he afterwards told me,
+fearing he might have given the Bishop's message rather sharply, and not
+liking to pain the man, he turned off the subject, and talked of
+fishing, to which he knew Miffins was addicted; and so it ended by
+Gratian's obtaining his good-will for ever, for he sent him some choice
+hackles. Prateapace and Gadabout have returned to the church, whereupon
+the Rev. the cow-doctor has stirred up the wrath of the chapel by a very
+strong discourse upon backsliding. A poor woman spoke of it as very
+affecting, adding, "Some loves 'sons of consolation,' but I loves 'sons
+of thunder.'" Doubtless there was lightning too; and there is of that
+vivid kind which bewilders and leaves all darker than before. The Curate
+<i>has</i> found bouquets in the vestry and the desk, and has been in danger
+of becoming "a popular."</p>
+
+<p>A subscription has actually been set on foot, by Nicholas Sandwell, at
+the instigation, it is said, of certain ladies, and even encouraged by
+Miffins, to purchase a coffee-pot and tea-spoons for the Curate; but an
+event a few days ago has put an end to the affair, and given rather a
+new turn to the parochial feelings. This event is of such moment, that I
+ought, perhaps, to have told you of it at first&mdash;but I should have
+spoiled my romance, my novel&mdash;and what is any writing without a tale in
+it worth now-a-days? The Curate, then, is actually married&mdash;even since
+the termination of the Hor&aelig; Catullian&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lydia, ("alas, false man!" sighed some one,) of the family at
+Ashford, is the happy bride. The Curate had unexpectedly come into a
+very decent independence; and is, and will be for ever after, according
+to the usual receipt, happy.</p>
+
+<p>Since this event, the bouquets have ceased to be laid in the vestry and
+the desk. Lydia Prateapace has been heard to say she should not wonder
+if all was true after all, and affects to be glad, for propriety's sake,
+that they <i>are</i> married. Gadabout runs every where repeating what
+Prateapace said; and Brazenstare looks audacious indifference, and once
+stared in the Curate's face and asked him how many Misses Lydia there
+might be of his acquaintance. My dear Eusebius,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"So goes the world, and such the Play of Life.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This loves to make, and t'other mends a strife;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Old fools write rhymes&mdash;the Curate takes a wife."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="right">Yours ever, <span class="smcap">Aquilius</span>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_711" id="Page_711">[Pg 711]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PROSPER_MERIMEE" id="PROSPER_MERIMEE"></a>PROSPER M&Eacute;RIM&Eacute;E.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Rarely, in these days of profuse and unscrupulous scribbling, do we find
+an author giving the essence, not a dilution, of his wit, learning, and
+imagination, dispensing his mental stores with frugal caution, instead
+of lavishing them with reckless prodigality. Such a one, when met with,
+should be made much of, as a model for sinners in a contrary sense, and
+as a bird of precious plumage. Of that feather is Monsieur Prosper
+M&eacute;rim&eacute;e. He plays with literature, rather than professes it; it is his
+recreation, not his trade; at long intervals and for a brief space, he
+turns from more serious pursuits to coquet with the Muse, not frankly to
+embrace her. Willing though she be, he will not take her for a lawful
+spouse and constant companion, but courts her <i>par amours</i>. The
+offspring of these moments of dalliance are buxom and <i>debonair</i>, of
+various but comely aspect. In two-and-twenty years he has written less
+than the average annual produce of many of his literary countrymen. In
+several paths of literature, he has essayed his steps and made good a
+footing; in not one has he continuously persevered, but, although
+cheered by applause, has quickly struck into another track, which, in
+its turn, has been capriciously deserted. His "Studies of Roman history"
+give him an honourable claim to the title of historian; his "Notes of
+Arch&aelig;ological Rambles" are greatly esteemed; he has written plays; and
+his prose fictions, whether middle-age romance or novel of modern
+society, rank with the best of their class. He began his career with a
+mystification. His first work greatly puzzled the critics. It professed
+to be a translation of certain comedies, written by a Spanish actress,
+whose fictitious biography was prefixed and signed by Joseph L'Estrange,
+officer in the Swiss regiment of Watteville. This imaginary personage
+had made acquaintance with Clara Gazul in garrison at Gibraltar. Nothing
+was neglected that might perfect the delusion and give success to the
+cheat; fragments of old Spanish authors were prefixed to each play,
+showing familiarity with the literature of the country; the style, tone,
+and allusions were thoroughly Spanish; and, through the French dress,
+the Castilian idiom seemed here and there to peep forth, confirming the
+notion of a translation. Clara was an Andalusian, half gipsy, half Moor,
+skilled in guitars and castanets, saynetes and boleros. L'Estrange makes
+her narrate her own origin.</p>
+
+<p>"'I was born,' she told us, 'under an orange-tree, by the roadside, not
+far from Motril, in the kingdom of Granada. My mother was a
+fortune-teller, and I followed her, or was carried on her back, till the
+age of five years. Then she took me to the house of a canon of Granada,
+the licentiate Gil Vargas, who received us with every sign of joy.
+Salute your uncle, said my mother. I saluted him. She embraced me, and
+departed. I have never seen her since.' And to stop our questions, Do&ntilde;a
+Clara took her guitar and sang the gipsy song, <i>Cuando me pari&ograve; mi
+madre, la gitana</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Biography and comedies were so skillfully got up, the deception was so
+well combined, that the reviewers were put entirely on a wrong scent.
+Two years later, M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e was guilty of another harmless literary
+swindle, entitled La Guzla, a selection of Illyrian poems, said to be
+collected in Bosnia, Dalmatia, &amp;c., but whose real origin could be
+traced no further than to his own imagination. Although the name was a
+manifest anagram of Gazul, the public were gulled. The deceit was first
+unmasked in Germany, we believe, by Goethe, to whom the secret had been
+betrayed. Thenceforward the young author was content to publish under
+his own name works of which he certainly had no reason to be ashamed.
+One of the earliest of these was, "La Jacquerie"&mdash;a sort of long
+melodrama, or series of scenes, illustrating feudal aggressions and
+cruelties in France,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_712" id="Page_712">[Pg 712]</a></span> and the consequent peasant revolts of the
+fourteenth century. It shows much historical research and care in
+collection of materials, is rich in references to the barbarous customs
+and strange manners of the times, and, like the "Chronicle of Charles
+IX.," another historical work of M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e's, has, we suspect, been
+found very useful by more recent fabricators of romances.</p>
+
+<p>Educated for the bar, but not practising his profession, M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e was
+one of the rising men of talent whom the July revolution pushed forward.
+After being <i>chef de cabinet</i> of the Minister of the Interior, Count
+d'Argout, he held several appointments under government, amongst others,
+that of Inspector of Historical Monuments, an office he still retains.
+In 1844 he was elected to a chair in the French Academy, vacant by the
+death of the accomplished Charles Nodier. He has busied himself much
+with arch&aelig;ological researches, and the published results of his travels
+in the west of France, Provence, Corsica, &amp;c., are most learned and
+valuable. In the intervals of his antiquarian investigations and
+administrative labours, he has thrown off a number of tales and
+sketches, most of which first saw the light in leading French
+periodicals, and have since been collected and republished. They are all
+remarkable for grace of style and tact in management of subject. One of
+the longest, "Colomba," a tale of Corsican life, is better known in
+England than its author's name. It has been translated with accuracy and
+spirit, and lately has been further brought before the public, on the
+boards of a minor theatre, distorted into a very indifferent melodrama.
+The Corsican Vendetta has been taken as the basis of more than one
+romantic story, but, handled by M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e, it has acquired new and
+fascinating interest; and he has enriched his little romance with a
+profusion of those small traits and artistical touches which exhibit the
+character and peculiarities of a people better than folios of dry
+description. "La Double M&eacute;prise," another of his longer tales, is a
+clever <i>novelette</i> of Parisian life. According to English notions its
+subject is slippery, its main incident, and some of its minor details,
+improbable and unpleasant, although so neatly managed that one is less
+startled when reading them than shocked on after-reflection. It
+certainly requires skilful management to give an air of probability to
+such a scene as is detailed in chapter five. A French <i>gentleman</i>, a man
+of fortune and family, mixing in good society, is anxious for an
+appointment at court, and to obtain it he reckons much on the influence
+and good word of a certain Duke of H&mdash;&mdash;. There is a benefit night at
+the Opera, and the young wife of the aspirant to court honours has a
+box. Between the acts her husband, who has unwillingly accompanied her,
+rambles about the house, and discovers the Duke in an inconvenient
+corner, where he can see nothing. His grace is not alone, but in the
+society of his kept-mistress. To propitiate his patron, the unscrupulous
+husband introduces him and his companion into the box of his
+unsuspecting wife! The sequel may be imagined; the stare and titter of
+acquaintances, the supercilious gratitude of the Duke, the astonishment
+of the lady at the singular tone of the pretty and elegantly dressed
+woman with whom she is thus unexpectedly brought in contact, and whose
+want of <i>usage</i> bespeaks, as she imagines, the newly arrived provincial.
+All this, which might pass muster in a novel depicting the manners and
+morals of the Regency, is rather violent in one of our day; but yet, so
+cleverly are the angles of improbability draped and softened down, the
+reader perseveres. The plot is very slight; the tale scarcely depends on
+it, but is what the French call a <i>tableau de m&oelig;urs</i>, with less
+pretensions to the regular progress and catastrophe of a novel, than to
+be a mirror of everyday scenes and actors on the bustling stage of Paris
+life. The characters are well drawn, the dialogues witty and dramatic,
+the book abounds in sly hits and smart satire; but its bitterness of
+tone injured its popularity, and, unlike its author's other tales, it
+met little success. The opening chapter is a picture of a lively
+Parisian <i>m&eacute;nage</i>, such as many doubtless exist; a striking example of a
+<i>mariage de convenance</i>, or mis-match.</p>
+
+<p>"Six years had elapsed since the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_713" id="Page_713">[Pg 713]</a></span> marriage of Julie de Chaverny, and
+five years and six months, or thereabouts, since she had discovered that
+it was impossible for her to love her husband, and very difficult to
+esteem him. He was not a bad man, neither could he be called stupid, nor
+even silly; she had once thought him agreeable; now she found him
+intolerably wearisome. To her every thing about him was repulsive and
+unpleasant. His most trifling actions, his way of eating, of taking
+coffee, of talking, gave her umbrage and irritated her nerves. Except at
+table, the pair scarcely saw or spoke to each other; but they dined
+together several times a-week, and that sufficed to keep up the sort of
+hatred Julie entertained towards her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"As to Chaverny, he was rather a handsome man, a little too corpulent
+for his time of life, with a fresh complexion, full-blooded, and by no
+means subject to those vague uneasinesses which sometimes torment
+persons of more intellectual organisation. Piously convinced that his
+wife's sentiments towards him were those of tender friendship, the
+conviction caused him neither pleasure nor pain. Had he known Julie's
+feelings to be of an opposite nature, it would have made little
+difference to his happiness. He had served several years in a cavalry
+regiment, when he inherited a considerable fortune, became disgusted
+with garrison life, resigned his commission, and took a wife. It seems
+difficult to explain the marriage of two persons who had not an idea in
+common. On the one hand, a number of those officious friends and
+relations, who, as Phrosine says, would marry the republic of Venice to
+the Grand Turk, had taken much pains to arrange it: on the other,
+Chaverny was of good family; before his marriage he was not too fat; he
+was gay and cheerful, and what is called a <i>good fellow</i>. Julie was glad
+to see him at her mother's house, because he made her laugh with
+anecdotes of his regiment, droll enough, if not always in the best
+taste. She found him amiable, because he danced with her at every ball,
+and was always ready with excellent reasons to persuade her mother to
+remain late at theatre or party, or at the <i>Bois de Boulogne</i>. Finally,
+she thought him a hero, because he had fought two or three creditable
+duels. But what completed his triumph, was the description of a certain
+carriage, to be built after a plan of his own, and in which he was to
+drive Julie, as soon as she consented to become Madame de Chaverny.</p>
+
+<p>"A few months of married life, and Chaverny's good qualities had lost
+much of their merit. He no longer danced with his wife&mdash;that of course.
+His funny stories had long been thrice told. He complained that balls
+lasted too late; at the theatre he yawned; the custom of dressing for
+the evening he found an insufferable bore. Laziness was his bane; had he
+endeavoured to please, perhaps he would have succeeded, but the least
+exertion or restraint was torture to him, as to most fat persons. He
+found it irksome to go into society, because there the manner of one's
+reception depends on the efforts one makes to please. A rude joviality
+suited him better than refined amusements; to distinguish himself
+amongst persons of a similar taste to his own, he had only to talk and
+laugh louder than his companions&mdash;and that he did without trouble, for
+his lungs were remarkably vigorous. He also prided himself on drinking
+more champagne than most men could support, and on leaping his horse
+over a four-foot wall in true sporting style. To these various
+accomplishments he was indebted for the friendship and esteem of the
+indefinable class of beings known as 'young men,' who swarm upon our
+<i>boulevards</i> towards eight in the evening. Shooting parties, country
+excursions, races, bachelors' dinners and suppers, were his favourite
+pastimes. Twenty times a-day he declared himself the happiest of
+mortals; and when Julie heard the declaration, she cast her eyes to
+heaven, and her little mouth assumed an expression of indescribable
+contempt."</p>
+
+<p>We turn to another of M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e's books, in our opinion his best, an
+historical romance, entitled 1572, a "Chronicle of the Reign of Charles
+the Ninth." "In history," says the author in his preface, "I care only
+for the anecdotes, and prefer those in which I fancy I discover a true
+picture of the manners and characters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_714" id="Page_714">[Pg 714]</a></span> of a particular period. This is
+not a very elevated taste; but I own, to my shame, that I would
+willingly give the whole of Thucydides for an authentic memoir of
+Aspasia, or of one of Pericles' slaves. Memoirs, the familiar gossip of
+an author with his reader, alone supply those individual portraits that
+amuse and interest me. It is not from Mezerai, but from Montlue,
+Brant&ocirc;me, D'Aubign&eacute;, Tavannes, La Noue, &amp;c., that one forms a just idea
+of the French of the sixteenth century. From the style of those
+contemporary authors, we learn as much as from the substance of their
+narratives. In L'Estoile, for instance, I read the following concise
+note. 'The demoiselle de Chateau-neuf, one of the king's <i>mignonnes</i>,
+before he went to Poland, having espoused, <i>par amourettes</i>, the
+Florentine Antinotti, officer of the galleys at Marseilles, and
+detecting him in an intrigue, slew him stoutly with her own hand.' By
+the help of this anecdote, and of similar ones, which abound in
+Brant&ocirc;me, I make up a character in my head, and resuscitate a lady of
+Henry the Third's court." The "Chronicle" is the result of much reading
+and combination of the kind here referred to; and M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e has even
+been accused of adhering too closely to reality, to the detriment of the
+poetical character of his romance. He does not make his heroes and
+heroines sufficiently perfect, or his villains sufficiently atrocious,
+to suit the palate of some critics, but depicts them as he finds
+evidence of their having existed&mdash;their virtues obscured by the coarse
+manners and loose morality, their crimes palliated by the religious
+antipathies and stormy political passions of a semi-civilised age. He
+declines judging the men of the sixteenth century according to the ideas
+of the nineteenth. And, with regard to minor matters, he does not, like
+some of his contemporaries, place in the mouth of a Huguenot leader, or
+a <i>Guisarde</i> countess, the tame and dainty phrase appropriate enough in
+that of an equerry, or lady of the bed-chamber at the court of the
+Citizen King. Eschewing conventionality, and following his own judgment,
+and the guidance of the old chroniclers, in whose quaint records he
+delights, he has written one of the best existing French historical
+romances.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been easy for a less able writer than M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e to have
+extended the "Chronique" to thrice its present length. It is not a
+complete romance, but a desultory sketch of the events and manners of
+the time, with a few imaginary personages introduced. Novel readers who
+require a regular <i>deno&ucirc;ment</i> will be disappointed at its conclusion.
+There is not even a hint of a wedding from the first page to the last;
+and the only lady who plays a prominent part in the story, a certain
+countess Diane de Turgis, is little better than she should be. And yet,
+if we follow M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e's rule, and judge her according to the ideas and
+morals of the age she flourished in, she was rather an amiable and
+proper sort of person. True, she sets her lovers by the ears, and feels
+gratified when they cut each other's throats: she even challenges a
+court dame, who has taken the precedence of her, to an encounter with
+sword and dagger, <i>en chemise</i>, according to the prevailing mode amongst
+the <i>raffin&eacute;s</i>, or professed duellists of the time; and she writes
+seductive billets-doux in Spanish, and gives wicked little suppers to
+the handsome cavalier on whom her affections are set. But, on the other
+hand, she goes to mass, and confesses, and does her best to save her
+Huguenot lover's body and soul, and obtain the remission of her own sins
+by converting him from his heresy. So that, as times went in the year
+1572, she was to be reckoned amongst the righteous. The handsome
+heretic, in whose present safety and future salvation she takes so
+strong an interest, is one Bernard de Mergy, who has come to Paris to
+take service with the great chief of his co-religionists, Admiral
+Coligny. His brother, George de Mergy, has deserted the creed of Calvin,
+and is consequently in high favour at the Louvre, but under the ban of
+his father, a stern old Huguenot officer, who will not hear the name of
+his renegade son. Bernard, whilst regretting his brother's apostasy,
+does not deem it necessary to shun his society. On the road he has been
+cajoled or robbed of his ready cash by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_715" id="Page_715">[Pg 715]</a></span> a pretty gipsy girl, and his
+good horse has been stolen by one of the hordes of German lanzknechts,
+whom the recent civil war had brought to France. He reaches Paris with
+an empty purse, and is not sorry to meet his brother, who welcomes him
+kindly, and supplies his wants, but refuses to recant, and attempts to
+justify his backsliding. In the course of his defence he gives an
+insight into the prevalent corruption of the time, and shows how the
+private vices of great political leaders often marred the fortunes of
+their party.</p>
+
+<p>"'You were still at school,' said De Mergy, 'learning Latin and Greek,
+when I first donned the cuirass, girded the Huguenot's white scarf, and
+took share in our civil wars. Your little Prince of Cond&eacute;, who has led
+his party into so many errors, looked after your affairs when his
+intrigues left him time. A lady loved me; the prince asked me to resign
+her to him; I refused, and he became my mortal enemy. From that hour he
+lost no opportunity of mortifying me.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ce petit prince si joli<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Qui toujours baise sa mignonne,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>held me up to the fanatics of the party as a monster of libertinism and
+irreligion. I had only one mistress; and as to the irreligion,&mdash;I let
+others do as they like, why attack me?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I thought the prince incapable of such baseness,' said Bernard.</p>
+
+<p>"'He is dead,' replied his brother, 'and you have deified him. 'Tis the
+way of the world. He had great qualities; he died like a brave man, and
+I have forgiven him. But then he was powerful, and on the part of a poor
+gentleman like myself, it was guilt to resist him. All the preachers and
+hypocrites of the army set upon me, but I cared as little for their
+abuse as for their sermons. At last one of the prince's gentlemen, to
+curry favour with his master, called me libertine, before all our
+captains. I struck him: we fought&mdash;and he was killed. At that time there
+were a dozen duels a day in the army, and no notice taken. In my favour
+an exception was made; I was fixed upon by the prince to serve as an
+example. The entreaties of the other leaders, including the Admiral,
+procured my pardon. But the prince's rancour was not yet appeased. At
+the fight of Jazeneuil, I commanded a company: I had been foremost in
+the skirmish; my cuirass battered and broken by bullets, my left arm
+pierced by a lance, showed that I had not spared myself. I had only
+twenty men left, and a battalion of the king's Swiss guards advanced
+against us. The Prince of Cond&eacute; ordered me to charge them; I asked for
+two companies of <i>reitres</i>, and&mdash;he called me coward.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy rose and approached his brother with an expression of strong
+interest. The Captain continued&mdash;his eyes flashing with anger at the
+recollection of the insult:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'He called me coward before all those popinjays in gilt armour who
+afterwards abandoned him on the battle-field of Jarnac. I resolved to
+die, and rushed upon the Swiss&mdash;vowing, if I escaped with life, never
+again to draw sword for that unjust prince. Grievously wounded, thrown
+from my horse, one of the Duke of Anjou's gentlemen, B&eacute;ville&mdash;the mad
+fellow whom we dined with to-day&mdash;saved my life, and presented me to the
+duke. He treated me well. I was eager for vengeance. They urged me to
+take service under my benefactor, the Duke of Anjou; they quoted the
+line&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Omne solum forti patria est, ut piscibus &aelig;quor.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I was indignant to see the Protestants summoning foreigners to their
+assistance. But why disguise the real motive that actuated me? I
+thirsted for revenge, and became a Catholic, in hopes of meeting the
+Prince of Cond&eacute; in fair fight, and killing him. A coward forestalled me,
+and the manner of the prince's death almost made me forget my hatred. I
+saw his bloody corpse abandoned to the insults of the soldiery; I
+rescued it from their hands, and covered it with my cloak. I was pledged
+to the Catholics; I commanded a squadron of their cavalry; I could not
+leave them. I have happily been able to render some service to my former
+party; I have done my best to soften the fury of religious animosities,
+and have been fortunate enough to save several of my friends.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_716" id="Page_716">[Pg 716]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Oliver de Basseville tells every body he owes you his life.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Behold me then a Catholic,' continued George, in a calmer voice. 'The
+religion is as good as another: and then it is an easy and pleasant one.
+See yonder pretty Madonna: 'tis the portrait of an Italian courtesan;
+but the bigots praise my piety when I cross myself before it. My word
+for it, I get on vastly better with Rome than Geneva. By making trifling
+sacrifices to the opinions of the <i>canaille</i>, I live as I like. I must
+go to mass&mdash;very good! I go there and stare at the pretty women. I must
+have a confessor&mdash;<i>parbleu!</i> I have one, a jolly Franciscan and
+ex-dragoon, who for a crown-piece gives me a ticket of confession, and
+delivers my billets-doux to his pretty penitents into the bargain. <i>Mort
+de ma vie! Vive la messe!</i>'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy could not restrain a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"'There is my breviary,' continued the Captain, throwing his brother a
+richly-bound book, fastened with silver clasps, and enclosed in a velvet
+case. 'Such a missal as that is well worth your prayer-books.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy read on the back of the volume, <i>Heures de la Cour</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"'The binding is handsome,' he said, disdainfully returning the book.</p>
+
+<p>"The Captain smiled, and opening it again handed it to him. Mergy then
+read upon the first page: <i>La vie tr&egrave;s-horrifique du grand Gargantua,
+p&egrave;re de Pantagruel: compos&eacute;e par M. Alcofribas, abstracteur de
+Quintessena.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in a single page, does M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e place before us a picture of the
+times, with their mixture of fanaticism and irreligion, their shameless
+political profligacy and private immorality. Bernard de Mergy cannot
+prevail with his brother to return to the conventicle: so he accompanies
+him to mass&mdash;not to pray, but hoping to obtain a glimpse of Madame de
+Turgis, whom he has already seen masked in the street, and whose
+graceful form and high reputation for beauty have made strong impression
+on the imagination of this novice in court gallantries. On entering the
+sacristy, they find the preacher, a jolly monk, surrounded by a dozen
+young rakes, with whom he bandies jokes more witty than wise.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah,' cried B&eacute;ville, 'here is the Captain! Come, George, give us a
+text. Father Lubin has promised to preach on any one we propose.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' said the monk; 'but make haste. <i>Mort de ma vie!</i> I ought to be
+in the pulpit already.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Peste! Father Lubin, you swear like the king,' cried the Captain.</p>
+
+<p>"I bet he would not swear in his sermon,' said B&eacute;ville.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why not, if the fancy took me?' stoutly retorted the Franciscan.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ten pistoles you do not.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ten pistoles? Done.'</p>
+
+<p>"'B&eacute;ville,' cried the Captain, 'I go halves in your wager.'</p>
+
+<p>"'No, no!' replied his friend, 'I will not share the reverend's money;
+and if he wins, by my faith! I shall not regret mine. An oath in pulpit
+is well worth ten pistoles.'</p>
+
+<p>"'They are already won,' said Father Lubin; 'I begin my sermon with
+three oaths. <i>Ah! Messieurs les Gentilhommes</i>, because you have rapier
+on hip, and plume in hat, you would monopolise the talent of swearing.
+We will see.'</p>
+
+<p>"He left the sacristy, and in an instant was in his pulpit. There was
+silence in the church. The preacher scanned the crowded congregation as
+though seeking his bettor; and when he discovered him leaning against a
+column exactly opposite the pulpit, he knit his brows, put his arms
+akimbo, and in an angry tone thus began:</p>
+
+<p>"'My dear Brethren,</p>
+
+<p>"<i>'Par la vertu!&mdash;par la mort!&mdash;par le sang!'</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A murmur of surprise and indignation interrupted the preacher, or, it
+were more correctly said, filled up the pause he intentionally left.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;&mdash; 'de Dieu,' continued the Franciscan, in a devout nasal whine, 'we
+are saved and delivered from punishment.'</p>
+
+<p>"'A general burst of laughter interrupted him a second time. B&eacute;ville
+took his purse from his girdle, and shook it at the preacher, as an
+admission that he had lost."</p>
+
+<p>The sermon that follows is in character with its commencement. Whilst
+awaiting its conclusion, Bernard de Mergy in vain seeks the Countess de
+Turgis; it is only when leaving the church that his brother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_717" id="Page_717">[Pg 717]</a></span> points her
+out to him. She is escorted by a young man, of slight figure and
+effeminate mien, dressed with studied negligence. This is the terrible
+Count de Comminges, the duellist of the day, the chief of those
+<i>raffin&eacute;s</i> who fought on every pretext, and often on no pretext at all.
+He had had nearly a hundred duels, and a challenge from him was held
+equivalent to a ticket for the hospital, if not to sentence of death.
+"Comminges once summoned a man to the Pr&eacute;-aux-Clercs, then the classic
+duelling-ground. They stripped off their doublets, and drew their
+swords. 'Are you not Berny of Auvergne?' inquired Comminges. 'Certainly
+not,' replied his antagonist; 'my name is Villequier, and I am from
+Normandy.' 'So much the worse,' quoth Comminges, 'I took you for another
+man; but since I have challenged you, we must fight.' They fought
+accordingly, and the unlucky Norman was killed." Since the death of a
+Monsieur de Lannoy, slain at the siege of Orleans, Madame de Turgis is
+without a lover. Comminges aspires to the vacant post; his attentions
+are rather tolerated than encouraged; but he seems determined that if he
+does not succeed, nobody else shall, for he has constituted himself her
+constant attendant, and a wholesome dread of his formidable rapier keeps
+off rivals. He has sworn to kill all who present themselves.</p>
+
+<p>By the interest of Coligny, whom Charles the Ninth affects to favour
+whilst he plots his death, Bernard de Mergy receives a commission in the
+army preparing for a campaign in Flanders. He goes to court to thank the
+king, and the following scene passes.</p>
+
+<p>"The court was at the Ch&acirc;teau de Madrid. The queen-mother, surrounded by
+her ladies, waited in her apartment for the king to come to breakfast.
+The king, followed by the princes, slowly traversed the gallery, in
+which were assembled the nobles and gentlemen who were to accompany him
+to the chase. With an absent air he listened to the remarks of his
+courtiers, and made abrupt replies. When he passed before the two
+brothers, the Captain bent his knee, and presented the newly-made
+officer. Mergy bowed profoundly, and thanked his majesty for the favour
+shown him before he had earned it.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ha! it is you of whom my father the Admiral spoke! You are Captain
+George's brother?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Catholic or Protestant?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Sire, I am a Protestant.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I ask from idle curiosity. The devil take me if I care of what
+religion are those who serve me well.'</p>
+
+<p>"And having uttered these memorable words, the king entered the queen's
+apartments. A few moments later, a swarm of ladies spread themselves
+over the gallery, as if sent to enable the gentlemen to wait with
+patience. I shall speak but of one of the beauties of that court, where
+they so greatly abounded; of the Countess de Turgis, who plays an
+important part in this history. She wore an elegant riding-dress, and
+had not yet put on her mask. Her complexion, of dazzling but uniform
+whiteness, contrasted with her jet-black hair; her well-arched
+eye-brows, slightly joining, gave a proud expression to her physiognomy,
+without diminishing its graceful beauty. At first, the sole expression
+of her blue eye seemed one of disdainful haughtiness; but when animated
+in conversation, their pupils, dilated like those of a cat, seemed to
+emit sparks, and few men, even of the most audacious, could long sustain
+their magical power.</p>
+
+<p>"'The Countess de Turgis&mdash;how lovely she looks!' murmured the courtiers,
+pressing forward to see her better. Mergy, close to whom she passed, was
+so struck by her beauty, that he forgot to make way till her large
+silken sleeves rustled against his doublet. She remarked his emotion
+without displeasure, and for a moment deigned to fix her magnificent
+eyes on those of the young Protestant, who felt his cheek glow under her
+gaze. The Countess smiled and passed on, letting one of her gloves fall
+before our hero, who, still motionless and fascinated, neglected to pick
+it up. Instantly a fair-haired youth, (it was no other than Comminges,)
+who stood behind Mergy, pushed him rudely in passing before him, seized
+the glove, kissed it respectfully, and presented it to Madame de
+Turgis.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_718" id="Page_718">[Pg 718]</a></span> Without thanking him, the lady turned towards Mergy with a look
+of crushing contempt; and, observing Captain George at his side,
+'Captain,' said she, very loud, 'where does that great clown spring
+from? He must be some Huguenot, judging from his courtesy.'</p>
+
+<p>"The laughter of the bystanders completed the embarrassment of the
+unlucky Bernard.</p>
+
+<p>"'He is my brother, madam,' was George's quiet reply; 'he has been three
+days at Paris, and, by my honour! he is not more awkward than Lannoy
+was, before you undertook his education.'</p>
+
+<p>"The Countess coloured slightly. 'An unkind jest, Captain,' she said:
+'Speak not ill of the dead. Give me your hand; I have a message to you
+from a lady whom you have offended.'</p>
+
+<p>"The Captain respectfully took her hand, and led her to the recess of a
+distant window. Before she reached it, she once more turned her head to
+look at Mergy.</p>
+
+<p>"Still dazzled by the apparition of the beautiful Countess, whom he
+longed to look at, but dared not, Mergy felt a gentle tap upon his
+shoulder. He turned and beheld the Baron de Vaudreuil, who drew him
+aside, to speak to him, as he said, without fear of interruption.</p>
+
+<p>"'My dear fellow,' the Baron began, 'you are a stranger at court, and
+are probably not yet acquainted with its customs?'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy looked at him with astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"'Your brother is engaged, and not able to advise you; if agreeable to
+you I will replace him. You have been gravely insulted; and seeing you
+in this pensive attitude, I doubt not you meditate revenge.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Revenge?&mdash;on whom?' cried Mergy, reddening to the very white of his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"'Were you not just now rudely pushed aside by little Comminges? The
+whole court witnessed the affront, and expect you to notice it
+suitably.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But,' said Mergy, 'in so crowded a room as this an accidental push is
+nothing very extraordinary.'</p>
+
+<p>"'M. de Mergy, I have not the honour to be intimate with you: but your
+brother is my particular friend, and he will tell you that I practise as
+much as possible the divine precept of forgiveness of injuries. I do not
+wish to embark you in a bad quarrel, but at the same time it is my duty
+to tell you that Comminges did not push you accidentally. He pushed you,
+because he wished to insult you; and if he had not pushed you, you would
+still be insulted; for, by picking up Madame de Turgis's glove, he
+usurped your right. The glove was at your feet, <i>ergo</i> it was for you
+alone to raise and return it. And you have but to look around; you will
+see Comminges telling the story and laughing at you.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy turned about. Comminges was surrounded by five or six young men,
+to whom he laughingly narrated something which they listened to with
+curious interest. Nothing proved that his conduct was under discussion;
+but at the words of his charitable counsellor, Mergy felt his heart
+swell with fury.</p>
+
+<p>"'I will speak to him after the hunt,' he said, 'and he shall tell me&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh! never put off a good resolution; besides, you offend Heaven much
+less in challenging your adversary immediately after the offence than in
+doing it when you have had time to reflect. In a moment of irritation,
+which is but a venial offence, you agree to fight; and if you afterwards
+fulfil your agreement, it is only to avoid committing a far greater sin,
+that of breaking your word. But, I forget that you are a Protestant.
+Nevertheless, arrange a meeting with him at once. I will bring you
+together.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I trust he will not refuse to make a fitting apology.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Undeceive yourself, comrade. Comminges never yet said, I was wrong.
+But he is a man of strict honour, and will give you every satisfaction.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy made an effort to suppress his emotion and assume an indifferent
+air.</p>
+
+<p>"'Since I have been insulted,' he said, 'I must have satisfaction. And
+whatever kind may be necessary, I shall know how to insist upon it.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Well spoken, my brave friend; your boldness pleases me, for you of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_719" id="Page_719">[Pg 719]</a></span>
+course know that Comminges is one of our best swordsmen. <i>Par ma foi!</i>
+he handles his blade right cunningly. He took lessons at Rome, of
+Brambilla, and Petit-Jean will fence with him no longer.' And whilst
+speaking, Vaudreuil attentively watched the countenance of Mergy, who
+was pale, but from anger at the offence offered him rather than from
+apprehension of its consequences.</p>
+
+<p>"'I would willingly be your second in this affair, but I take the
+sacrament to-morrow, and, moreover, I am engaged to M. de Rheincy, and
+cannot draw sword against any but him.'<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p>
+
+<p>"'I thank you, sir. If necessary, my brother will second me.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The Captain is perfectly at home in these affairs. Meanwhile, I will
+bring Comminges to speak with you.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy bowed, and turning to the wall, did his best to compose his
+countenance and arrange what he should say. There is a certain grace in
+giving a challenge, which habit alone bestows. It was our hero's first
+affair, and he was a little embarrassed; he was less afraid of a
+sword-thrust than of saying something unbecoming a gentleman. He had
+just succeeded in composing a firm and polite sentence, when Baron de
+Vaudreuil, taking him by the arm, drove it out of his head.</p>
+
+<p>"'You desire to speak to me, sir?' said Comminges, hat in hand, and
+bowing with an impertinent politeness, which brought an angry flush upon
+Mergy's countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"'I hold myself insulted by your behaviour,' the young Protestant
+instantly replied, 'and I desire satisfaction.'</p>
+
+<p>"Vaudreuil nodded approvingly; Comminges drew himself up, and placing
+his hand on his hip, the prescribed posture in such circumstances,
+replied with much gravity:</p>
+
+<p>"'You constitute yourself demander, sir, and, as defendant, I have the
+choice of arms.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Name those you prefer.'"</p>
+
+<p>Comminges reflected for an instant. "'The <i>estoc</i>,' he at last said, 'is
+a good weapon, but it makes ugly wounds; and at our age,' he added, with
+a smile, 'one is not anxious to appear before one's mistress with a
+scarred countenance. The rapier makes a small hole, but it is enough.'
+And he again smiled, as he said, 'I choose rapier and dagger.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Very good,' said Mergy, and he took a step to depart.</p>
+
+<p>"'One moment!' cried Vaudreuil; 'you forget the place of meeting.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The Court uses the Pr&eacute;-aux-Clercs,' said Comminges; 'and if the
+gentleman has no particular preference&mdash;&mdash; '</p>
+
+<p>"'The Pr&eacute;-aux-Clercs&mdash;be it so.'</p>
+
+<p>"'As to the time, I shall not be up before eight o'clock, for reasons of
+my own&mdash;you understand&mdash;I do not sleep at home to-night, and cannot be
+at the Pr&eacute; before nine.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Let nine be the hour.'</p>
+
+<p>"Just then Mergy perceived the Countess de Turgis, who had left the
+Captain in conversation with another lady. As may be supposed, at sight
+of the lovely cause of this ugly affair, our hero threw into his
+countenance an additional amount of gravity and feigned indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"'Of late,' said Vaudreuil, 'it is the fashion to fight in crimson
+drawers. If you have none, I will send you a pair. They look clean, and
+do not show blood. And now,' continued the Baron, who appeared quite in
+his element, 'nothing remains but to fix upon your seconds and thirds.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The gentleman is a new comer at Court' said Comminges, 'and perhaps
+might have difficulty in finding a third. Out of consideration for him I
+will content myself with a second.'</p>
+
+<p>"With some difficulty, Mergy contracted his lips into a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"'Impossible to be more courteous,' said the Baron. 'It is really a
+pleasure to deal with so accommodating a cavalier as M. de Comminges.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You will require a rapier of the same length as mine,' resumed
+Comminges; 'I can recommend you Laurent, at the Golden Sun, Rue de la
+F&eacute;ronnerie; he is the best armourer in Paris. Tell him you come from me,
+and he will treat you well.' Having thus spoken, he turned upon his
+heel, and rejoined the group he had lately left.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_720" id="Page_720">[Pg 720]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'I congratulate you, M. Bernard,' said Vaudreuil; 'you have acquitted
+yourself admirably. Exceedingly well, indeed. Comminges is not
+accustomed to hear himself spoken to in that fashion. He is feared like
+fire, especially since he killed Canillac; for as to St Michel, whom he
+killed a couple of months ago, he did not get much credit by that. St
+Michel was not particularly skilful, whilst Canillac, had already slain
+five or six antagonists, without receiving a scratch. He had studied at
+Naples under Borelli, and it was said that Lansac had bequeathed him the
+secret thrust with which he did so much harm. To be sure,' continued the
+Baron, as if to himself, 'Canillac had pillaged the church at Auxerre,
+and trampled on the consecrated wafers: no wonder he was punished.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy, although far from amused by this conversation, thought himself
+bound to continue it, lest a suspicion offensive to his courage should
+occur to Vaudreuil.</p>
+
+<p>"'Fortunately,' he replied, 'I have pillaged no church, and never
+touched a consecrated wafer in my life; so I have a risk the less to
+run.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Another caution. When you cross swords with Comminges, beware of one
+of his feints, which cost Captain Tomaso his life. He cried out that the
+point of his sword was broken. Tomaso instantly guarded his head,
+expecting a cut; but Comminges's sword was perfect enough, for it
+entered, to within a foot of the hilt, Tomaso's breast, which he had
+exposed, not anticipating a thrust. But you fight with rapiers, and
+there is less danger.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I will do my best.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah! one thing more. Choose a dagger with a strong basket-hilt; it is
+very useful to parry. I owe this scar on my left hand to having gone out
+one day without a poniard. Young Tallard and myself had a quarrel, and
+for want of a dagger, I nearly lost my hand.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And was he wounded?' inquired Mergy.</p>
+
+<p>"'I killed him, thanks to a vow I made to St Maurice, my patron. Have
+some linen and lint about you, it can do no harm. One is not always
+killed outright. You will do well also to have your sword placed on the
+altar during mass. But you are a Protestant. Yet another word. Do not
+make it a point of honour not to retreat; on the contrary, keep him
+moving; he is short-winded; exhaust his breath, and, when you find your
+opportunity, one good thrust in the breast and your man is down.'</p>
+
+<p>"There is no saying how long the Baron would have continued his valuable
+advice, had not a great sounding of horns announced that the King was
+about to take horse. The door of the apartment opened; and his Majesty
+and the Queen-mother made their appearance, equipped for the chase.
+Captain George, who had just left his lady, joined his brother, and
+clapped him joyously on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"'By the mass!' he cried, 'thou art a lucky rogue! Only see this
+youngster, with his cat's mustache; he has but to show himself, and all
+the ladies are mad after him. The handsome Countess has been talking
+about you for the last quarter of an hour. Come, good courage! During
+the hunt, keep by her stirrup, and be as gallant as you can. But what
+the devil's the matter with you? Are you ill? You make as long a face as
+a preacher at the stake. <i>Morbleu!</i> cheer up, man!'</p>
+
+<p>"'I have no great fancy to hunt to-day,' said Bernard; 'and I would
+rather&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'If you do not hunt,' whispered Vaudreuil, 'Comminges will think you
+are afraid.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I am ready,' said Mergy, passing his hand across his burning brow, and
+resolved to wait till after the hunt to inform his brother of his
+adventure. 'What disgrace,' thought he, 'if Madame de Turgis suspected
+me of fear; if she supposed that the idea of an approaching duel
+prevented my enjoying the chase.'</p>
+
+<p>"During the hunt, Bernard swerves not from the side of the Countess, who
+accords him various marks of favour, and finally dismisses Comminges,
+who has also escorted her, and has a <i>t&ecirc;te-a-t&ecirc;te</i> ride with her new
+admirer. She well knows that a duel is in the wind, and dreads it, for
+Mergy's sake. Hopeless of his escape with life from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_721" id="Page_721">[Pg 721]</a></span> the projected
+combat, she tries at least to save his soul, and makes a bold attempt at
+his conversion. But on that head he is deaf even to <i>her</i> voice.
+Baffled, she essays a compromise.</p>
+
+<p>"'You heretics have no faith in relics?' said Madame de Turgis.</p>
+
+<p>"Bernard smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"'And you think yourselves defiled by touching them?' she continued.
+'You would not carry one, as we Roman Catholics are wont to do?'</p>
+
+<p>"'We hold the custom useless, to say the least.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Listen. A cousin of mine once attached a relic to his hound's neck,
+and at twelve paces fired at the dog an arquebuse charged with slugs.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And the dog was killed?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Not touched.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Wonderful! I would fain possess such a relic.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Indeed!&mdash;and you would carry it?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Undoubtedly&mdash;since the relic saved the dog, it would of course&mdash;But
+stay, is it quite certain that a heretic is as good as a Catholic's
+dog?'</p>
+
+<p>"Without listening to him, Madame de Turgis hastily unbuttoned the top
+of her closely fitting habit, and took from her bosom a little gold box,
+very flat, suspended by a black ribbon. 'Here,' she said,&mdash;'you promised
+to wear it. You shall return it me one day.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly. If I am able.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But you will take care of it? No sacrilege! You will take the greatest
+care of it!'</p>
+
+<p>"'I have received it from you, madam.'</p>
+
+<p>"She gave him the relic, and he hung it round his neck.</p>
+
+<p>"'A Catholic would have thanked the hand that bestowed the holy
+talisman.'</p>
+
+<p>"Mergy seized her hand, and tried to raise it to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"'No, no! it is too late.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Say not so! Remember, I may never again have such fortune.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Take off my glove,' said the lady. Whilst obeying, Mergy thought he
+felt a slight pressure. He imprinted a burning kiss on the white and
+beautiful hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Frank and free were the dames of the ninth Charles's court. Faithless
+in the virtues of the relic, feverishly excited by the novelty of his
+situation, and by the preference the Countess has shown him, which has
+given life a tenfold value in his eyes, Mergy passes an agitated and
+sleepless night. When the Louvre clock strikes eight, his brother enters
+his apartment, bringing the necessary weapons, and vainly endeavouring
+to conceal his sadness and anxiety. Bernard examines the sword and
+dagger, the manufacture of the famous Luno of Toledo.</p>
+
+<p>"'With such good arms,' he said, 'I shall surely be able to defend
+myself.' Then showing the relic given him by Madame de Turgis, and which
+he wore concealed in his bosom, 'Here too,' he added with a smile, 'is a
+talisman better than coat of mail against a sword-thrust.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Whence have you the bauble?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Guess.' And the vanity of appearing favoured by the fair, made him for
+a moment forget both Comminges and the duelling sword that lay naked
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>"'I would wager that crazy Countess gave it you! May the devil confound
+her and her box!'</p>
+
+<p>"'It is a relic for protection in to-day's encounter.'</p>
+
+<p>"'She had better have worn her gloves, instead of parading her fine
+white fingers.'</p>
+
+<p>"'God preserve me,' cried Mergy, blushing deeply, 'from believing in
+Papist relics. But if I fall to-day, I would have her know that I died
+with this upon my heart.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Folly!' cried the Captain, shrugging his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"'Here is a letter for my mother,' said Mergy, his voice slightly
+tremulous. George took it without a word, and approaching the table,
+opened a small Bible, and seemed busy reading whilst his brother
+completed his toilet. On the first page that offered itself to his eyes,
+he read these words in his mother's handwriting; '1st May 1549, my son
+Bernard was born. Lord, conduct him in thy ways! Lord, shield him from
+all harm!' George bit his lip violently, and threw down the book.
+Bernard observed the gesture, and imagining that some impious thought
+had come into his brother's head, he gravely took up the Bible, put it
+in an embroidered case, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_722" id="Page_722">[Pg 722]</a></span> locked it in a drawer, with every mark of
+great respect.</p>
+
+<p>"'It is my mother's Bible,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The Captain paced the apartment, but made no reply."</p>
+
+<p>According to the established rule in such cases&mdash;a rule laid down for
+the especial behoof, benefit, and accommodation of romance writers&mdash;the
+hero of a hundred duels falls by the maiden sword of the tyro, who
+escapes with a slight wound. So signal a triumph makes the reputation of
+Mergy. His wound healed, and all danger of persecution by the powerful
+family of Comminges at an end, he reappears at court, and finds that he
+has in some sort inherited the respect and consideration formerly shown
+to his defunct rival. The politeness of the <i>raffin&eacute;s</i> is as
+overpowering as their envy is ill concealed; and, as to the ladies, in
+those days the character of a successful duellist was a sure passport to
+their favour. The raw provincial, so lately unheeded, has but to throw
+his handkerchief, now that he has dabbled it in blood. But the only one
+of these sanguinary sultanas on whom Mergy bestows a thought, is not to
+be found. In vain does he seek, in the crowd of beauties who court his
+gaze, the pale cheek, blue eyes, and raven hair of Madame de Turgis.
+Soon after the duel, she had left Paris for one of her country seats, a
+departure attributed by the charitable to grief at the death of
+Comminges. Mergy knows better. Whilst laid up with his wound, and
+concealed in the house of an old woman, half doctress, half sorceress,
+he detected a masked lady, whom he recognised as De Turgis, performing
+for his cure, with the assistance of the witch, certain mysterious
+incantations. They had procured Comminges's sword, and rubbed it with
+scorpion oil, "the sovereign'st thing on earth" to heal the wound the
+weapon had inflicted. And there was also a melting of a wax figure,
+intended as a love charm; and from all that passed, Bernard could not
+doubt that the Countess had set her affections on him. So he waits
+patiently, and one morning, whilst his brother is reading the "Vie
+tr&egrave;s-horrifique de Pantagruel," and he himself is taking a guitar lesson
+from the Signor Uberto Vinibella, a wrinkled duenna brings him a scented
+note, closed with a gold thread, and a large green seal, bearing a Cupid
+with finger on lips, and the Spanish word, <i>Callad</i>, enjoining silence.</p>
+
+<p>The best picture of the massacre of St Bartholomew we have read in a
+book of fiction, is given by M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e, in small compass and without
+unnecessary horrors. Less than an hour before its commencement, the
+Countess informs her lover of the fate reserved for him and all of his
+faith. She urges and implores him to abjure his heresy; he steadfastly
+refuses&mdash;and she, her love redoubled by his courageous constancy,
+conceals him from the assassins. In the disguise of a monk, he escapes
+from Paris, and makes his way to La Rochelle, the last stronghold of the
+persecuted Protestants. On the road, he falls in with another refugee,
+the <i>lanzknecht</i> Captain Dietrich Hornstein, similarly disguised and
+bound to the same place. There is an excellent scene at a country inn,
+where four ruffians, their hands reeking with Protestant blood, compel
+the false Franciscans to baptise a pair of pullets by the names of carp
+and perch, that they may not sin by eating fowl on Friday. Mergy at last
+loses patience, and breaks a bottle over one of their heads; and a fight
+ensues, in which the bandits are worsted. The two Huguenots reach La
+Rochelle, which is soon afterwards besieged by the king's troops. In a
+sortie, Bernard forms an ambuscade, into which his brother unfortunately
+falls, and receives a mortal wound. Taken into La Rochelle, he is laid
+upon a bed to die; and, refusing the spiritual assistance of Catholic
+priest and Protestant minister, he accelerates his death by a draught
+from Hornstein's wine flask, and strives to comfort Bernard, who is
+frantic with remorse.</p>
+
+<p>"He again closed his eyes, but soon re-opened them and said to Mergy:
+'Madame de Turgis bade me assure you of her love.' He smiled gently.
+These were his last words. In a quarter of an hour he died, without
+appearing to suffer much. A few minutes later B&eacute;ville expired in the
+arms of the monk, who afterwards declared that he had distinctly heard
+in the air the cries of joy of the angels who received the soul of the
+penitent,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_723" id="Page_723">[Pg 723]</a></span> whilst subterraneous demons responded with a yell of triumph
+as they bore away the spiritual part of Captain George."</p>
+
+<p>"It is to be seen in any history of France, how La Noue left La
+Rochelle, disgusted with civil wars and tormented by his conscience,
+which reproached him for bearing arms against his king; how the Catholic
+army was compelled to raise the siege, and how the fourth peace was
+made, soon followed by the death of Charles IX.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Mergy console himself? Did Diana take another lover? I leave it to
+the decision of the reader, who thus will end the romance to his own
+liking."</p>
+
+<p>By his countrymen, M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e's short tales are the most esteemed of his
+writings. He produces them at intervals much too long to please the
+editor and readers of the periodical in which they have for some time
+appeared,&mdash;the able and excellent <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>. Once in
+eighteen months, or two years, he throws a few pages to the public,
+which, like a starved hound to whom a scanty meal is tossed, snaps
+eagerly at the gift whilst growling at the niggardliness of the giver:
+and the publisher of the <i>Revue</i> knows that he may safely print an extra
+thousand copies of a number containing a novel by Prosper M&eacute;rim&eacute;e. Now
+and then, M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e comes out with a criticism of a foreign book. His
+last was a review of "Grote's Greece," and he has also written a paper
+on "Borrow's Spanish Rambles." A man of great erudition and extensive
+travel, he is thoroughly master of many languages, and, in writing about
+foreign countries and people, steers clear of the absurd blunders into
+which some of his contemporaries, of respectable talents and
+attainments, not unfrequently fall. His English officer and lady in
+Colomba are excellent; very different from the absurd caricatures of
+Englishmen one is accustomed to see in French novels. He is equally
+truthful in his Spanish characters. A great lover of things Spanish, he
+has frequently visited, and still visits, the Peninsula. In 1831 he
+published, in the <i>Revue de Paris</i>, three charming letters from Madrid.
+The action of most of his tales passes in Spain or Corsica, or the South
+of France, although he now and then dashes at Parisian society. With
+this he has unquestionably had ample opportunity to become acquainted,
+for he is a welcome guest in the best circles of the French capital.
+Still we must hope there is some flaw in the glasses through which he
+has observed the gay world of Paris. The "Vase Etrusque" is one of his
+sketches of modern French life, in the style of the "Double M&eacute;prise,"
+but better. It is a most amusing and spirited tale, but unnecessarily
+immoral. Had the heroine been virtuous, the interest of the story would
+in no way have suffered, so far as we can see; and that which attaches
+to her, as a charming and unhappy woman, would have been augmented. This
+opinion, however, would be scoffed at on the other side of the Channel,
+and set down as a piece of English prudery. And perhaps, instead of
+grumbling at M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e for making the Countess Mathilde the mistress of
+Saint Clair&mdash;which nothing compelled him to do&mdash;we ought thankfully to
+acknowledge his moderation in contenting himself with a quiet intrigue
+between unmarried persons, instead of favouring us with a flagrant case
+of adultery, as in the "Double M&eacute;prise," or initiating us into the very
+profane mysteries of <i>operatic figurantes</i>, as in "Ars&egrave;ne Guillot." Even
+in France, where he is so greatly and justly admired, this last tale was
+severely censured, as bringing before the public eye phases of society
+that ill bear the light. Fidelity to life in his scenes and characters
+is a high quality in an author, and one possessed in a high degree by M.
+M&eacute;rim&eacute;e; but he has been sometimes too bold and cynical in the choice
+and treatment of his subjects. "<i>La Partie de Tric-trac</i>," and
+"<i>L'Enl&egrave;vement de la Redoute</i>," are amongst his happiest efforts. Both
+are especially remarkable for their terse and vigorous style. We have
+been prodigal of extracts from "Charles IX."&mdash;for it is a great
+favourite of ours&mdash;and, although well known and much esteemed by all
+habitual readers of French novels, it is hitherto, we believe,
+untranslated into English. But we shall still make room for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_724" id="Page_724">[Pg 724]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE STORMING OF THE REDOUBT.</h3>
+
+<p>"I rejoined the regiment on the evening of the 4th September. I found
+the colonel at the bivouac. At first he received me rather roughly; but
+after reading General B's. letter of recommendation, he changed his
+manner, and spoke a few obliging words. He presented me to my captain,
+who had just returned from a reconnoissance. This captain, whom I had
+little opportunity to become acquainted with, was a tall dark man, of
+hard and repulsive physiognomy. He had been a private soldier, and had
+won his cross and his epaulets on the battle-field. His voice, hoarse
+and weak, contrasted strangely with his gigantic stature. They told me
+he was indebted for this singular voice to a bullet that had passed
+completely through his body at Jena.</p>
+
+<p>"On hearing that I came from the school at Fontainbleau, he made a wry
+face, and said, 'My lieutenant died yesterday.'&mdash;I understood that he
+meant to say, 'You are to replace him, and you are not able.' A sharp
+word rose to my lips, but I repressed it.</p>
+
+<p>"The moon rose behind the redoubt of Cheverino, situate at twice
+cannon-shot from our bivouac. She was large and red, as is common at her
+rising; but that night she seemed to me of extraordinary size. For an
+instant the black outline of the redoubt stood out against the moon's
+brilliant disc, resembling the cone of a volcano at the moment of an
+eruption.</p>
+
+<p>"An old soldier who stood near me, noticed the colour of the moon. 'She
+is very red,' he said; ''tis a sign that yon famous redoubt will cost us
+dear.' I was always superstitious, and this augury, just at that moment,
+affected me. I lay down, but could not sleep; I got up and walked for
+some time, gazing at the immense line of fires covering the heights
+beyond the village of Cheverino.</p>
+
+<p>"When I deemed my blood sufficient cooled by the fresh night air, I
+returned to the fire, wrapped myself carefully in my cloak, and shut my
+eyes, hoping not to re-open them till daylight. But sleep shunned me.
+Insensibly my thoughts took a gloomy turn. I said to myself, that I had
+not one friend amongst the hundred thousand men covering that plain. If
+I were wounded, I should be in an hospital, carelessly treated by
+ignorant surgeons. All that I had heard of surgical operations returned
+to my memory. My heart beat violently; and mechanically I arranged, as a
+species of cuirass, the handkerchief and portfolio that I carried in the
+breast of my uniform. I was overwhelmed by fatigue, and continually fell
+into a doze, but as often as I did so, some sinister idea awoke me with
+a start. Fatigue, however, at last got the upper hand, and I was fast
+asleep when the <i>reveill&eacute;</i> sounded. We formed up, the roll was called,
+then arms were piled, and according to all appearance the day was to
+pass quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Towards three o'clock an aid-de-camp arrived with an order. We resumed
+our arms; our skirmishers spread themselves over the plain; we followed
+slowly; and in twenty minutes we saw the Russian pickets withdraw to the
+redoubt. A battery of artillery took post on our right hand, another on
+our left, but both considerably in advance. They opened a vigorous fire
+upon the enemy, who replied with energy, and soon the redoubt of
+Cheverino disappeared behind a cloud of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Our regiment was almost protected from the Russian fire by a ridge.
+Their bullets, which seldom came in our direction&mdash;for they preferred
+aiming them at the artillery&mdash;passed over our heads, or at most sent
+earth and pebbles in our faces.</p>
+
+<p>"When we had received the order to advance, my captain looked at me with
+an attention which made me pass my hand two or three times over my young
+mustache, in the most cavalier manner I could assume. I felt no fear,
+save that of being thought to feel it. These harmless cannon-balls
+contributed to maintain me in my heroic calmness. My vanity told me that
+I ran a real danger, since I was under fire of a battery. I was
+enchanted to feel myself so much at my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_725" id="Page_725">[Pg 725]</a></span> ease, and I thought with what
+pleasure I should narrate the capture of the redoubt of Cheverino in the
+drawing-room of Madame de B&mdash;&mdash;, Rue de Provence.</p>
+
+<p>"The colonel passed along the front of our company and spoke to me.
+'Well!' he said, 'you will see sharp work for your first affair.'</p>
+
+<p>"I smiled most martially, and brushed my coat-sleeve, on which a ball,
+fallen about thirty paces from me, had sent a little dust.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems the Russians perceived how small was the effect of their round
+shot, for they replaced them by shells, which could reach us better in
+the hollow where we were posted. A tolerably large fragment of one of
+these knocked off my shako and killed a mail beside me.</p>
+
+<p>"'I congratulate you,' said the captain, as I picked up my shako. 'You
+are safe for to-day.' I knew the military superstition which holds the
+maxim <i>Non bis in idem</i> to be as applicable on a battle-field as in a
+court of justice. I proudly replaced my shako on my head. 'An
+unceremonious way of making people bow,' said I, as gaily as I could.
+Under the circumstances, this poor joke appeared excellent. 'I
+congratulate you,' repeated the captain; 'you will not be hit again, and
+to-night you will command a company, for I feel that my turn is coming.
+Every time I have been wounded, the officer near me has received a spent
+ball, and,' he added in a low voice, and almost ashamed, 'all their
+names began with a P.'</p>
+
+<p>"I affected to laugh at such superstitions. Many would have done as I
+did&mdash;many would have been struck, as I was, by these prophetic words. As
+a raw recruit I understood that I must keep my feelings to myself, and
+always appear coldly intrepid.</p>
+
+<p>"After half an hour the Russian fire sensibly slackened; then we emerged
+from our cover to march against the redoubt. Our regiment was composed
+of three battalions. The second was charged to take the redoubt in flank
+on the side of the gorge; the two others were to deliver the assault. I
+was in the third battalion.</p>
+
+<p>"On appearing from behind the sort of ridge that had protected us, we
+were received by several volleys of musketry, which did little harm in
+our ranks. The whistling of the bullets surprised me: I turned my head
+several times, thus incurring the jokes of my comrades, to whom the
+noise was more familiar. 'All things considered,' said I to myself, 'a
+battle is not such a terrible thing.'</p>
+
+<p>"We advanced at storming pace, preceded by skirmishers. Suddenly the
+Russians gave three hurras, very distinct ones, and then remained
+silent, and without firing. 'I don't like that silence,' said my
+captain. 'It bodes us little good.' I thought our soldiers rather too
+noisy, and I could not help internally comparing the tumultuous clamour
+with the imposing stillness of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>"We rapidly attained the foot of the redoubt: the palisades had been
+broken, and the earth ploughed by our cannonade. With shouts of '<i>Vive
+l'Empereur!</i>' louder than might have been expected from fellows who had
+already shouted so much, our soldiers dashed over the ruins.</p>
+
+<p>"I looked up, and never shall I forget the spectacle I beheld. The great
+mass of smoke had arisen, and hung suspended like a canopy twenty feet
+above the redoubt. Through a gray mist were seen the Russian grenadiers,
+erect behind their half-demolished parapet, with levelled arms, and
+motionless as statues. I think I still see each individual soldier, his
+left eye riveted on us, the right one hidden by his musket. In an
+embrasure, a few feet from us, stood a man with a lighted fuse in his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I shuddered, and thought my last hour was come. 'The dance is going to
+begin,' cried my captain. Good-night.' They were the last words I heard
+him utter.</p>
+
+<p>"The roll of drums resounded in the redoubt. I saw the musket muzzles
+sink. I shut my eyes, and heard a frightful noise, followed by cries and
+groans. I opened my eyes surprised to find myself still alive. The
+redoubt was again enveloped in smoke. Dead and wounded men lay all
+around me. My captain was stretched at my feet; his head had been
+smashed by a cannon-ball, and I was covered with his blood and brains.
+Of the whole company, only six men and myself were on their legs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_726" id="Page_726">[Pg 726]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A moment of stupefaction followed this carnage. Then the colonel,
+putting his hat on the point of his sword, ascended the parapet, crying
+'<i>Vive l'Empereur!</i>' He was instantly followed by all the survivors. I
+have no clear recollection of what then occurred. We entered the
+redoubt, I know not how. They fought hand to hand in the middle of a
+smoke so dense that they could not see each other. I believe I fought
+too, for my sabre was all bloody. At last I heard a shout of victory,
+and, the smoke diminishing, I saw the redoubt completely covered with
+blood and dead bodies. About two hundred men in French uniform stood in
+a group, without military order, some loading their muskets, others
+wiping their bayonets. Eleven Russian prisoners were with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Our colonel lay bleeding on a broken tumbril. Several soldiers were
+attending to him, as I drew near&mdash;'Where is the senior captain?' said he
+to a sergeant. The sergeant shrugged his shoulders in a most expressive
+manlier. 'And the senior lieutenant?' 'Here is <i>Monsieur</i>, who joined
+yesterday,' replied the sergeant, in a perfectly calm tone. The colonel
+smiled bitterly. 'You command in chief, sir,' he said to me; 'make haste
+to fortify the gorge of the redoubt with those carts, for the enemy is
+in force; but General C. will send you a support.'&mdash;'Colonel,' said I,
+'you are badly wounded.'&mdash;'<i>Foutre, mon cher</i>, but the redoubt is
+taken.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Carmen," M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e's latest production, appeared a few months since in
+the <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>, which appears to have got the monopoly of
+his pen, as it has of many of the cleverest pens in France. "Carmen" is
+a graceful and animated sketch, in style as brilliant as anything by the
+same author&mdash;in the character of its incidents less strikingly original
+than some of his other tales. It is a story of Spanish life, not in
+cities and palaces, in court or camp, but in the barranca and the
+forest, the gipsy suburb of Seville, the woodland bivouac and smuggler's
+lair. Carmen is a gipsy, a sort of Spanish Esmeralda, but without the
+good qualities of Hugo's charming creation. She has no Djali; she is
+fickle and mercenary, the companion of robbers, the instigator of
+murder. She inveigles a young soldier from his duty, leads him into
+crime, deceives and betrays him, and finally meets her death at his
+hand. M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e has been much in Spain, and&mdash;unlike some of his
+countrymen, who apparently go thither with the sole view of spying out
+the nakedness of the land and making odious comparisons, and who, in
+their excess of patriotic egotism, prefer Versailles to the Alhambra,
+and the Bal Mabille to a village <i>fandango</i>&mdash;he has a vivid perception
+of the picturesque and characteristic, of the <i>couleur locale</i>, to use
+the French term, whether in men or manners, scenery or costume, and he
+embodies his impressions in pointed and sparkling phrase. As an
+antiquarian and linguist, he unites qualities precious for the due
+appreciation of Spain. Well-versed in the Castilian, he also displays a
+familiarity with the Cantabrian tongue&mdash;that strange and difficult
+<i>Vascuense</i> which the Evil One himself, according to a provincial
+proverb, spent seven years of fruitless labour in endeavouring to
+acquire. And he patters Romani, the mysterious jargon of the gitanos, in
+a style no way inferior&mdash;so far as we can discover&mdash;to Bible Borrow
+himself. That gentleman, by the bye, when next he goes a missionarying,
+would find M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e an invaluable auxiliary, and the joint narrative
+of their adventures would doubtless be in the highest degree curious.
+The grave earnestness of the Briton would contrast curiously with the
+lively half-scoffing tone of the witty and learned Frenchman. Indeed,
+there would be danger of persons of such opposite character falling out
+upon the road, and fighting a mortal duel, with the king of the gipsies
+for bottle-holder. The proverbial jealousy between persons of the same
+trade might prove another motive of strife. Both are dealers in the
+romantic. And "Carmen," related as the personal experience of the author
+during an arch&aelig;ological tour in Andalusia the autumn of 1830, is as
+graphic and fascinating as any chapters of the great tract-monger's
+remarkable wanderings.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> It was a rule with the <i>raffin&eacute;s</i> not to commence a new
+quarrel so long as there was an old one to terminate.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_727" id="Page_727">[Pg 727]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="HOW_TO_BUILD_A_HOUSE_AND_LIVE_IN_IT" id="HOW_TO_BUILD_A_HOUSE_AND_LIVE_IN_IT"></a>HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE AND LIVE IN IT.</h2>
+
+
+<h3>NO. III.</h3>
+
+<p>Having disposed of two grand categories of mistakes and absurdities in
+house-building, viz., lightness of structure and badness of material, we
+shall now address ourselves more particularly to the defects of
+Arrangement and Form, or, as an architect might term it, to the
+discussion of Plan and Elevation. The former task was ungrateful enough;
+for therein we had to attack the cupidity and meanness, and the desire
+for show and spurious display, which is the besetting sin of every
+Englishman who pays poor-rates; but, the present undertaking is hardly
+less hopeless, for we have to appeal to the intelligence, not only of
+architects and builders, but also of those who commission them.</p>
+
+<p>Now, there is nothing drier and more unprofitable under the sun, nothing
+more nearly approaching to a state of addle, than a builder's brains.
+Your regular builders (and, indeed, not a few of your architects) are
+the sorriest animals twaddling about on two legs; mere vivified bags of
+sawdust, or lumps of lath and plaster, galvanised for a while, and
+forming themselves into strange, uncouth, unreasonable shapes. A mere
+"builder" has not two ideas in his head; he has only one; he can draw
+only one "specification," as he calls it, under different forms; he can
+make only one plan; he has one set of cornices always in his eye; one
+peculiar style of panel; one special cut of a chimney. You may trace him
+all through a town, or across a county, if his fame extends so far; a
+dull repetition of the same notion characterises all his works. He
+served his apprenticeship to old Plumbline, in Brick Lane; got up the
+<i>Carpenter's Vade-Mecum</i> by heart; had a little smattering of drawing
+from Daub the painter, and then set up in business for himself. As for
+Mr Triangle the architect, who built the grand town-hall here, the
+other-day, in the newest style of Egyptian architecture, and copied two
+mummies for door-posts, and who is now putting up the pretty little
+Gothic church for the Diocesan Church-and-Chapel-Building and
+Pew-Extension Society, with an east window from York, and a spire from
+Salisbury, and a west front from Lincoln&mdash;why, he is the veriest stick
+of a designer that ever applied a T-square to a stretching-board. He has
+studied Wilkins's Vitruvius, it is true, and he has looked all through
+Hunt's Tudor Architecture, but his imagination is as poor as when he
+began them; he has never in his life seen one of the good buildings he
+is pirating from, barring St Paul's and Westminster Abbey; he knows
+nothing finer than Regent Street and Pall-Mall, and yet he pretends to
+be a modern Palladio. It will not do, all this sham and parade of
+knowledge; we want a new generation, both of architects and builders,
+before we shall see any thing good arising in the way of houses&mdash;but as
+this new progeny is not likely to spring up within a few days, nor even
+years, we may as well buckle to the task of criticism at once, and find
+out faults, which we shall leave others to mend.</p>
+
+<p>And, to lay the foundation of criticism in such matters once more and
+for ever, let us again assert that good common-sense, and a plain
+straight-forward perception of what is really useful, and suited to the
+wants of climate and locality, are worth all the other parts of any
+architect's education. These are the great qualities, without which he
+will take up his rulers and pencils in vain; without them, his ambitious
+<i>fa&ccedil;ades</i> and intricate plans will all come to nothing, except dust and
+rubbish. He may draw and colour like Barry himself; but unless he has
+some spark of the genius that animated old Inigo and Sir Christopher,
+some little inkling of William of Wickham's spirit within him, some
+sound knowledge of the fitness and the requirements of things, he had
+better throw down his instruments,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_728" id="Page_728">[Pg 728]</a></span> and give it up as a bad job; he'll
+only "damn himself to lasting shame."</p>
+
+<p>A moderate degree of science, an ordinarily correct eye, so as to tell
+which is straightest, the letter I or the letter S, and a good share of
+plain common-sense&mdash;these are the real qualifications of all architects,
+builders, and constructors whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>One other erroneous idea requires to be upset; the notion that our
+modern houses, merely because they are recent, are better built and more
+convenient than ancient ones. If there be one thing more certain than
+another in the matter, it is this, that a gentleman's house built in
+1700, is far handsomer, stronger, and more convenient, than one built in
+1800; and not only so, but if it had had fair play given it, would still
+outlive the newer one, and give it fifty years to boot;&mdash;and also that
+another house built in 1600, is stronger than the one raised in 1700,
+and has still an equal chance of survivorship; but that any veteran
+mansion which once witnessed the year 1500, is worth all the other three
+put together&mdash;not only for design and durability, but also for comfort
+and real elegance. Pick out a bit of walling or roofing some four or
+five centuries old, and it would take a modern erection of five times
+the same solidity to stand the same test of ages.</p>
+
+<p>Let it not be supposed that our ancestors dwelt in rooms smaller, or
+darker, or smokier, than those we now cram ourselves into. Nothing at
+all of the kind; they knew what ease was, better than we do. They had
+glorious bay-windows, and warm chimney-corners, and well-hung buttery
+hatches, and good solid old oak tables, and ponderous chairs: had their
+windows and doors been only a little more air-tight, their comforts
+could not have been increased.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, then, with regard to the plans best suited for the country
+residences of the nobility and gentry of England&mdash;of that high-minded
+and highly gifted aristocracy, which is the peculiar ornament of this
+island,&mdash;of that solid honest squirearchy, which shall be the
+sheet-anchor of the nation, after all our commercial gents, with their
+ephemeral prosperity, shall have disappeared from the surface of the
+land, and have been forgotten,&mdash;the plan of a house best suited for the
+"Fine old English Gentleman;" and we really do not care to waste our
+time in considering the convenience and the taste of any that do not
+rank with this class of men. It is absurd for any of the worthy members
+of that truly noble and generous class of men, to try to erect
+reminiscences of Italy, or any other southern clime, amid their own
+"tall ancestral groves" at home, here in old England. They have every
+right in the world to inhabit the palaces of Italy, which many a needy
+owner is glad to find them tenanting; they cannot but admire the noble
+proportions, the solid construction, the magnificent decorations, which
+meet their eyes on every side, whether at Genoa, at Verona, at Venice,
+at Florence, or at Rome. But it by no means follows, that what looks so
+beautiful, and is so truly elegant and suitable on the Lake of Como,
+will preserve the same qualities when erected on the banks of
+Windermere; those lovely villas that overlook the <i>Val d'Arno</i>, and
+where one could be content to spend the rest of one's days, with
+Petrarch and Boccacio, and Dante, and Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle,
+will not bear transplanting either to Richmond or Malvern. The climate
+and the sky and the earth of Tuscany and Piedmont, are not those of
+Gloucestershire and Warwickshire; what may be very harmonious in form
+and colour when contrasted with the objects of that country which
+produced it, may have the most disagreeable effect, and be excessively
+inconvenient, in another region with which it has no relation. Not that
+the proportions of style and the execution of detail may not be
+reproduced in England, if sufficient taste and money be applied,&mdash;but
+that all surrounding things are out of harmony with the very idea and
+existence of the building. The vegetable world is different: the
+external and internal qualities of the soil jar with the presence of the
+foreign-looking mansion. An English garden is not, nor can be, an
+Italian one; an English terrace can never be made to look like an
+Italian one; those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_729" id="Page_729">[Pg 729]</a></span> very effects of light and shade on which the
+architect counted when he made his plans and elevations, are not to be
+attained under an English sky. The house, however closely it may be
+taken from the last Palazzo its noble owner lived in, will only be a
+poor-looking copy after all; and he will wonder, as he paces through its
+corridors and halls, or views it from every point of the compass on the
+outside, what can be the cause of such a failure of his hopes? He hoped
+for and expected an impossibility; he thought to raise up a little Italy
+in the midst of his Saxon park. Could the experiment end in any thing
+else than a failure?</p>
+
+<p>Every climate and every country has its own peculiarities, which the
+inhabitants are found to consult, and which all architects will do well
+to observe closely before they lay down their plans. The general
+arrangement, the plan of a house, will depend upon this class of
+external circumstances more than on any other; while the architectural
+effect and design of the elevation will have an intimate relation to the
+physical appearance of the region, to the ideas, the pursuits, and the
+history of its people.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was with the ancient Greeks and Romans, as we find their
+domestic life revealed to us at Pompeii. In that delicious climate of
+Campania, where the sun shines with a whitening and ever unclouded
+splendour, and where winter's frosts may be said to be unknown, the
+great thing wanted was shady coolness, privacy, and the absence of all
+that might fatigue. Hence, in the arrangement of the Pompeian villas,
+windows were comparatively unknown: the rooms were lighted from above;
+the aperture for the light was open to the sky; whatever air could be
+procured was precious. Colonnades and dark passages were first-rate
+appendages of a fashionable man's habitation. His sleeping apartment was
+a dark recess impervious to the sun's rays, lighted only by the
+artificial glare of lamps, placed on those elegant candelabra, which
+must be admired as models of fitness and beauty as long as imitative art
+shall exist. He had not a staircase in all his house, or he would not
+have if he could help it. The fatigue of lifting the foot in that hot
+climate was a point of importance, and he carefully avoided it. The
+house was a regular <i>frigidarium</i>. It answered the end proposed. It was
+commodious, it was elegant&mdash;and it was therefore highly suitable to the
+people and the place. But it does not therefore follow that it ought to
+be imitated in a northern clime, nor indeed in any latitude, we would
+rather say in any country, except Italy itself. Few parts of France and
+Germany would admit of such erections&mdash;some portions of Spain and Greece
+might. In Greece, indeed, the houses are much after the same plan, but
+in Spain only portions of the south-eastern coast would allow of such a
+style of building being considered at all habitable.</p>
+
+<p>Place, then, a Pompeian villa at Highgate or Hampstead&mdash;build up an
+Atrium with an Impluvium, add to it a Caldarium if you please, and a
+Viridarium, too,&mdash;and <i>omne quod exit in um</i>: but you will not thereby
+produce a good dwelling-house; far from it, you will have a show-box fit
+for Cockneys to come and gape at: but nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if we would only follow the same rule of common sense that the
+Greek or Roman architect did on the shores of the Parthenop&oelig;an Gulf,
+we should arrive at results, different indeed, but equally congruous to
+our wants, equally correct and harmonious in idea. What is it that we
+want in this foggy, damp, and cloudy climate of ours, nine days out of
+every ten? Do we want to have a spacious colonnade and a portico to keep
+off every ray of a sun only too genial, only too scorching? Is the
+heavens so bright with his radiance that we should endeavour to escape
+from his beams? Are we living in an atmosphere of such high temperature
+that if we could now and then take off our own skins for a few minutes,
+we should be only too glad to do so? As far as our own individual
+sensations are concerned, we would that things were so; but we know from
+unpleasant experience that they are far otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>We believe that every rational householder will agree with us, that the
+first thing to be guarded against in this country is cold, next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_730" id="Page_730">[Pg 730]</a></span> wet,
+and thirdly darkness. A man who can really prove that he possesses a
+thoroughly warm, dry, and well-lighted house, may write himself down as
+a <i>rerum dominus</i> at once: a favoured mortal, one of Jove's right-hand
+men, and a pet of all the gods. He is even in imminent danger of some
+dreadful calamity falling upon him, inasmuch as no one ever attains to
+such unheard-of prosperity without being visited by some reverse of
+fortune. He is at the top of the fickle goddess's wheel, and the least
+impulse given to one of its many spokes must send him down the slippery
+road of trouble. Nevertheless, though difficult to attain, these three
+points are the main ones to be aimed at by every English builder and
+architect; let him only keep them as the stars by which he steers his
+course, and he will come to a result satisfactory in the end.</p>
+
+<p>One other point is of importance to be attended to as a <i>fundamental</i>
+one, and indeed as one of superstruction too. From the peculiarly
+changeable nature of our climate, and from the provision that has to be
+made for thoroughly warming a house, there is always a danger of the
+ventilation and the drainage being neglected. Not one architect in a
+hundred ever allows such "insignificant" points as these to disturb his
+reveries. All that he is concerned in is his elevation, and his neatly
+executed details; but whether the inhabitants are stifled in their beds
+with hot foul air, or are stunk out of their rooms by the effluvia of
+drains, are to him mere bagatelles. No trifles these, to those who have
+to live in the house; no matter of insignificance to those who have an
+objection to the too frequent visits of their medical attendant.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, then, a gentleman's country house (we are adverting
+here to country residences alone&mdash;to those in the metropolitan haunts of
+men we shall return hereafter) should be thoroughly warm. Now, of course
+a man may make a fire-place as big as Soyer's great range at
+Crockford's&mdash;poor dear Crocky's, before it was reformed&mdash;and he may burn
+a sack of coals at a time in it; and he may have one of these in each
+apartment and lobby of his house&mdash;and a pretty warm berth he will then
+have of it; but it would be no thanks to his architect that he should
+thus be forced to encourage his purveyor of the best Wallsend. No:
+either let him see that the walls are of a good substantial
+thickness&mdash;none of the thin, hollow, badly set, sham walls of the
+general run of builders; but made either of solid blocks of good ashlar
+stone, with well-rammed rubble between, and this rubble again laid in an
+all-penetrating bed of properly sanded mortar with plenty of lime in it,
+and laid on hot, piping, steaming hot, if possible&mdash;and the joints of
+the stones well closed with cement or putty; or else let the walls be
+made of the real red brick, the clay two years old or more, well laid in
+English bond, and every brick in its own proper and distinct bed of
+mortar, as carefully made as before, and the joints cemented into the
+bargain. Nor let any stone wall be less than thirty-six, nor any brick
+wall than thirty inches thick; whereas, if the house exceeds two stories
+in height, some additional inches may yet be added to the thickness of
+the lower walls. These walls shall be proof against all cold, and, if
+they be not made of limestone, against wet also.</p>
+
+<p>"But all this is horridly expensive! why, a house built after this
+fashion would cost three times the amount of any one now erected upon
+the usual specifications!" Of course it would. Materials and labour are
+not to be had gratuitously; but then, if the house costs three times as
+much, it will be worth three times more than what it would otherwise
+fetch, and it will last more than three times as long. "But what is the
+use of building for posterity? what does it matter whether the house is
+a good one in the time of the next possessor but six? Why not 'run up' a
+building that will have a handsome appearance in the present, my own
+life-time, and if my descendant wishes for a better one and a warmer
+one, why let him build another for himself? Add to which it will grow so
+dreadfully old-fashioned in fifty years hence, that it is a hundred to
+one if it is not voted a nuisance, and pulled down as an eyesore to the
+estate." Such is the reasoning commonly used when any architect more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_731" id="Page_731">[Pg 731]</a></span>
+honest, more scientific, and more truly economical in his regard for his
+employer's means, ventures to recommend the building of a mansion upon
+principles, and with dimensions, which can alone fully satisfy the
+exigencies of his art. We take leave, however, to observe, that such
+ought not to be the reasoning of an English nobleman or gentleman. In
+the first place, what is really erected in a proper and legitimate style
+of architecture, be it classical or medi&aelig;val, can never become
+"old-fashioned" or ugly. Is Hampton Court old-fashioned and ugly? is
+Audley End so? are Burghleigh and Hatfield so? If they are, go and build
+better. Is Windsor Castle so? yes, a large portion of it is, for its
+architecture is not very correct; and though it has been erected only so
+few years, in another fifty the reigning sovereign&mdash;if there be a
+sovereign in England in those days&mdash;will pull down most of it, and
+consider it as sham and as trumpery as the Pavilion has at length been
+found out to have been all along. True; if you build houses in a false
+and affected and unreal style of architecture, they are ugly from the
+very beginning; and they will become as old-fashioned as old Buckingham
+House or Strawberry Hill itself, perhaps in the life-time of him who
+owns them; or else, like Fonthill, they will crumble about your ears,
+and remain as monuments of your folly rather than of your taste. But go
+and build as Thorpe, or Inigo Jones, or Wren used to build. Or even, if
+you will travel abroad for your models, take Palladio himself for your
+guide, or Phillbert Delorme, or Ducerceau, or Mansard; and your
+erections shall stand for centuries, and become each year more and more
+harmoniously beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>Next, your house should be dry; do not, then, go and build it with a
+slightly-framed low-pitched roof, nor place it in that part of your
+grounds which would be very suitable for an artificial lake, but not for
+your mansion. Do not be afraid of a high roof; but let it tower up
+boldly into the air; let there be, as the French architects of old used
+to term it most expressively, a good "forest" of timber in its framing;
+cover it with lead, if you can&mdash;if not, with flag-stones, or else, if
+these be too dear, with extra thick slates in as large slabs as can be
+conveniently worked, and as may be suitable to the framing,&mdash;least of
+all with tiles.</p>
+
+<p>"But, good Lord! what ideas you have got of expense! Why, sir, do you
+know that such a house would cost a great deal of money! and besides
+this, I am almost certain that in ancient Rome, the houses had quite
+flat roofs, and even in Italy, at the present day, the palaces have
+remarkably low-pitched roofs!" Rome and Italy go to the &mdash;&mdash; Antipodes!
+Did you not stipulate that the house should be dry? do you think that
+the old Italians ever saw a good shower of rain in all their lives? did
+they? "<i>Nocte pluit tot&acirc;</i>," is all very well in the poet's fugitive
+inscription; but did they ever see a six-weeks' rain, such as we have
+every autumn and spring, and generally in June and July, to say nothing
+of January and February, in Devonshire? My dear sir, if you wish to lie
+dry in your bed, and all your family, too, to the seventh generation,
+downwards, make your roof suited to the quantity of rain that falls;
+pitch up its sides not less steeply than forty-five degrees, and do not
+be afraid if it rises to sixty, and so gives you the true medi&aelig;val
+proportion of the equilateral triangle. Do you consider it ugly? Then we
+will ornament it; and we will make the chimney-stalks rise with some
+degree of majesty, into an important feature of the architectural
+physiognomy of the building. Are you grumbling at the expense, as you
+did just now about that of the walls? What then! are you a Manchester
+manufacturer, some dirty cotton-spinner? have you no faith in the
+future? have you no regard for the dignity and comfort of your family?
+are you, too, bitten with the demoralising commercial spirit of the age?
+are you all for self and the present? have you no obligations towards
+your ancestors? and are you unwilling to leave a name to be talked of by
+your posterity? Why, to be sure it may tighten you up for five or six
+years; but then do not stop quite so long in London: make your season
+there rather shorter, and do not go so often to Newmarket, and keep away
+from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_732" id="Page_732">[Pg 732]</a></span> White's or Boodle's, and do not be so mad as to throw away any
+more of those paltry thousands in contesting the county. Let the
+Parliament and the country take care of themselves; they can very well
+spare an occasional debater like yourself; the "glorious constitution"
+of old England will take no harm even if <i>you</i> do not assist in
+concocting the hum-bug that is every year added to its heterogeneous
+mixture. Lay out your money at home, drain your land, build a downright
+good house for yourself; do not forget your poor tenants, set them a
+good example, and let us put a proper roof on Hambledown Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Providing, however, that the worthy squire actually consents to pull out
+a few more hundreds, for the sake of having walls of proper thickness
+and roofs of right pitch, it does not quite follow that his ground-floor
+rooms will be dry, unless the mansion is well vaulted underneath, and
+well drained, to boot. We have known more than one ancient manor-house,
+built in a low dead flat, with a river running by, and the joists of the
+ground floor resting on the soil, and, yet the whole habitation as dry
+as a bone; but still more numerous are the goodly edifices which we have
+witnessed, built on slopes, and even hills, where not a spoonful of
+water, you would say, could possibly lodge, and yet their walls outside
+all green with damp, and within mildew, and discoloured loose-hanging
+paper, telling the tale of the demon of damp. When you are seriously
+bent on building a good house, put plenty of money under ground; dig
+deep for foundations, lay them better and stronger even than your
+super-structure; vault every thing under the lower rooms&mdash;ay, vault
+them, either in solid stone or brick, and drain and counter drain, and
+explore every crick and cranny of your sub-soil; and get rid of your
+land springs; and do not let the water from any neighbouring hill
+percolate through your garden, nor rise into a pleasing <i>jet-d'eau</i>
+right under the floor of your principal dining-room. If you can, and if
+you do not mind the "old-fashioned" look of the thing, dig a good deep
+fosse all round your garden, and line it with masonry; and have a couple
+of bridges over it; you may then not only effectually carry off all
+intruding visits of the watery sprites, but you may keep off hares from
+your flower-beds, two-legged cats from your larder, and sentimental
+"cousins" from your maids. You may thus, indeed, make your hall or
+mansion into a little fortified place, with fosse and counter-scarp, and
+covered way, and glacis; or at any rate, you may put a plain English
+haw-haw ditch and fence all round the sacred enclosure; and depend upon
+it that you will find the good effects of this extra expense in the
+anti-rheumatic tendencies of your habitation.</p>
+
+<p>And now for the plan of your mansion, for the Ground Plan&mdash;the main part
+of the business, that, on the proper proportioning and arranging of
+which the success of your edificative experiment entirely depends. Here
+take the old stale maxim into immediate and constant use, "Cut your coat
+according to your cloth;" and, if you are a man of only &pound;2000 a-year, do
+not build a house on a plan that will require &pound;10,000 at least of annual
+income to keep the window-shutters open. Nor, seeing that you are living
+in the country, attempt to cramp yourself for room, and build a great
+tall staring house, such as would pass muster in a city, but is
+exceedingly out of place in a park. As a matter of domestic &aelig;sthetics,
+do not think of giving yourself, and still less any of your guests, the
+trouble of mounting up more than one set of stairs to go to bed, but
+keep your reception and principal rooms on the ground floor, and your
+private rooms, with all the bed-chambers, on the floor above. Since,
+however, you have determined on going to the expense of a proper roof,
+do not suppose that we are such bad architectural advisers as to
+recommend that the roof should be useless. No; here let the female
+servants and the children of the family, perhaps, too, a stray bachelor
+friend or two, find their lodging; and above all, if you are a family
+man, if you have any of those tender yearnings after posterity, which we
+hope you have, introduce into the roof a feature which we will remind
+you of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_733" id="Page_733">[Pg 733]</a></span> by and by, and for which, if we could only persuade people that
+such a very old and useful idea were a new one, and our own, we would
+certainly take out a patent.</p>
+
+<p>There should, then, be only two stories in a gentleman's country
+residence, and a dormer or mansard story if we may so term it, in the
+roof;&mdash;we will not be so vulgar as to call it a garret,&mdash;nor yet so
+classical as to resort to the appellation of an attic. If, therefore,
+you require a large house, take plenty of ground, and lay out all your
+rooms <i>en suite</i>. Let all the offices, whence any noise or smell can
+arise, be perfectly detached from the dwelling part of the
+mansion:&mdash;such as the kitchens, sculleries, laundries, &amp;c. They should
+all be collected into a court with the coach-houses and stables on the
+outside, and the whole range of the domestic offices on the other. Never
+allow a kitchen to be placed under the same roof as your dining-room or
+drawing-room: cut it off completely from the <i>corps de logis</i>, and let
+it only communicate by a passage;&mdash;so shall you avoid all chance of
+those anticipatory smells, the odour of which is sufficient to spoil
+your appetite for the best dressed dinner in the world. If you would
+have any use for the vault under your house, keep all your cellar
+stores, and all your "dry goods" there;&mdash;it will be a test of your house
+being well-built if they do not show any effects of damp after a few
+months' stowage below the level of the soil, yet in <i>aere pleno</i>. We do
+not mean to say that we would put one of our best and newest saddles,
+nor our favourite set of harness, in one of the lower vaults, to judge
+of the dampness of the house; but depend upon it, a pair or two of old
+shoes form excellent hygrometers; and you may detect the "dew-point"
+upon them with wonderful accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>"But only look at how you are increasing the cost of the house by thus
+stretching out the house, and really wasting the space and
+ground!"&mdash;What! still harping on the same string&mdash;that eternal
+purse-string!&mdash;still at the gold and the notes? If you go on at this
+rate, my good sir, you will never do any thing notable in the
+house-line. Take a lesson from Louis XIV. when he built
+Versailles;&mdash;that sovereign had at least this one good quality,&mdash;he had
+a supreme contempt for money;&mdash;it cost him a great deal no doubt, but it
+is "Versailles," <i>nec pluribus impar</i>;&mdash;why, it is a quarter of a mile
+long, and there is, or rather was, room in it to have lodged all the
+crowned heads of Europe, courts, ministers, guards, and all. Never stint
+yourself for space; the ground you build on is your own; it is only the
+extra brick and mortar;&mdash;the number of windows is not increased by
+stretching the plan out, the internal fittings are not an atom more
+expensive. Be at ease for once in your life, and cast about widely for
+room.</p>
+
+<p>And now, dear sir, if you can but once remove this prejudice of cost
+from your mind, you may set at defiance all those twaddling architects
+who come to you with their theories of the "smallest spaces of support,"
+and who would fain persuade you that, because it is scientific to build
+many rooms with few materials, <i>therefore</i> you ought to dwell in a house
+erected on such principles,&mdash;and that they ought to build it for you.
+You may send them all to the right-about with their one-sided contracted
+notions: is the house to be built for <i>your</i> sake or for <i>theirs</i>? who
+is going to inherit it&mdash;you or they? who is to find out all the comforts
+and discomforts of the mansion&mdash;the owner or the architect?&mdash;If <i>you</i>,
+then keep to your two stories and to the old English method of building
+your house round one or more courts. Go upon the old palatial, baronial,
+or collegiate plan; no matter what may be the style of architecture you
+adopt, this plan will be found suitable to any. The advantages of it are
+as follows: first of all, it gives you the opportunity of having your
+rooms all <i>en suite</i>, and yet not crowded together; next, it is more
+sociable for the inmates of a large country mansion to have the windows
+of their apartments looking partly inwards, as it were to the centre of
+the house, and partly outwards to the surrounding scenery: and thirdly,
+it requires and it gives the opportunity of having that most admirable
+and most useful appendage of any large mansion,&mdash;a cloister, or covered
+gallery, running round the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_734" id="Page_734">[Pg 734]</a></span> whole interior of the court, either
+projecting from the plane of the walls&mdash;and, if so, becoming highly
+ornamental; or else formed within the walls, and, if so, giving an
+unusual degree of warmth and ventilation. In this damp and uncertain
+climate of ours, just consider how many days there are in the course of
+the year, when the ladies and the children of a family cannot stir out
+of doors, not even into the gardens; and then think of what a comfort it
+would be to have a dry and airy and elegant promenade and place of
+exercise within their own walls. Then the children may scamper about, if
+it be, a proper cloister external to the house, and make that joyous
+noise which is so essential to their health, without any fear of
+annoying even the most nervous of mammas. Within an instant they may all
+be under her own personal inspection, and yet they may have their
+perfect freedom. Here may the ladies of the family walk for hours on a
+wet day, and enjoy themselves without trouble, and with the facility of
+being at home again in a minute. If the court is well laid out as a
+flowery parterre, and the green-house is made to contribute its proper
+supply of plants to the cloister, it becomes converted into a kind of
+conservatory, and forms of itself an artificial or winter garden. Both a
+cloister, and an internal corridor with windows opening into the former,
+may very appropriately be constructed together, and then the
+accommodation of this plan is complete.</p>
+
+<p>Whoever has lived in a cloistered and court-built house will know the
+convenient and comfortable feature we would here point out:&mdash;it is
+especially suited to the climate of England, and to the domestic habits
+of English families; it is one of the most ornamental features a house
+can possess; it gives great facilities to the waiting of the servants;
+it makes the house warm rather than cold; and it adds greatly to the
+comfort of the whole. As for the additional cost&mdash;let the cost be&mdash;&mdash;!
+have we not entered our caveat against all such shabby pleas? Take this
+along with you, good sir,&mdash;do the thing well, or don't do it at all.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_735" id="Page_735">[Pg 735]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="A_TURKISH_WATERING-PLACE" id="A_TURKISH_WATERING-PLACE"></a>A TURKISH WATERING-PLACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Ten days ago, when snowed up by winter, recurrent for the third time
+this season, I could not compel myself to the recollection of my Adalian
+experiences. Now that I am sitting with window thrown wide open, and
+with fire raked out, the spirit of the scene encourages memories of my
+visit to that very hot emporium of Caramania.</p>
+
+<p>We had been kept on the Smyrna station till we pretty well knew it under
+every changing phase of season. Through the rigour of winter we had been
+brought now to the very flagrance of the dog-star, to the time when
+human nature can pretend no opposition to the mood of the lordly sun.
+Even late in the autumn, these clear skies afford so little interruption
+to the tide of sunbeams, that one is not quite exempt from risk of <i>coup
+de soleil</i>. Indeed this is perhaps the very time when the untutored
+stranger is particularly exposed to this danger. It is the only time of
+the year when travelling can be pursued as a serious occupation; or when
+one of the pale-faced Occidentals can venture forth <i>sub dio</i> at
+mid-day, without positive madness. During the months that, on the
+admission of the indigenous, do duty as summer, the state of things is
+so evidently beyond a joke, that no idea of trifling therewith enters
+into the most unsophisticated mind. Life is reduced to something very
+like a resignation of the sturdy substance of the day, and a diligent
+employment of the two fag-ends. The intervening hours must be slept
+away, or read away, or somehow employed without the requisition of
+corporeal activity. And, considering that these are the hours during
+which musquitoes vex not, and lesser tormentors of the rampant kind are
+inactive, it is no slight boon to have such an interval, during some
+part of which you may sleep in peace. As for the night, you may use it
+for eating ices, or strolling on the Marina, or pulling out on the
+phosphorescent waters of the bay; but unless you be very fresh, you will
+hardly think of using that as the time for turning in. And thus are
+rendered grateful those slumbers which are induced by the prevailing
+spirit of noon. Of course, under such conditions of existence, there is
+no great probability that much risk will be encountered by any one
+gifted with the ordinary instinct of self-preservation. Should any one
+be foolhardy enough to dare for himself the experiment, he would
+scarcely find a <i>surridgi</i> to furnish animals, or a guide willing to
+pilot him. And should he even make a start of it, am I not the very man
+to know what a lesson he would get in the course of the first six hours
+of his march; and to predict that he would, should any brains be then
+remaining to him, turn back on the strength of that same sample? It is
+only a very young, and somewhat foolish person, who would be at all
+likely to be found in this predicament. The dissuasion of the indigenous
+is so earnest, and so without exception, that, considering their
+knowledge of the facts, a prudent stranger must perceive in them the
+substance of reason. The Asiatics, perhaps, carry a little too far the
+dread of exposure to the atmospheric influences of summer; for they are
+careful to shut out even the cool breezes of night, and dread the odour
+of freshness that a shower calls forth from the earth. This delightful
+exhalation they affirm to be the producer of fever. But indeed we may
+concede to them the entertaining of some whimsies on this subject, as
+being the necessary contingencies on their fatal experiences of marsh
+<i>malaria</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Happy we Englishmen and Scotsmen, who know not what this <i>malaria</i>
+means! The worst story on the subject that I remember was a personal
+adventure of my friend Beard. The scene of this adventure is a little
+out of the way of Adalia, but it may serve to illustrate the style of
+thing prevailing generally in this direction any where within hail of a
+marsh. Beard was engaged in that (to those who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_736" id="Page_736">[Pg 736]</a></span> like it) delightful, but
+occasionally perilous duty of surveying. This involves the being sent
+away in the boats for weeks at a stretch, during which time you go
+groping along the coast, or threading out-of-the-way channels between
+islands. It is easy to conceive that with fine weather, and healthy
+shores, this must be a welcome duty to a young officer, full of zeal,
+and unaccustomed to command. But sometimes the course will lie along
+deadly shores, past which you must creep, and snatch hydrographical
+facts from the teeth of death. Beard, poor fellow&mdash;and yet, considering
+that he lives to tell the tale, we should rather congratulate than
+pity&mdash;Beard was in command of a party of seven. Any one who knows the
+service, knows that an officer accustomed to command a particular boat,
+if he be a good fellow, acquires a strong fellow-feeling for and with
+his men. This is but human nature, seeing that they are subject to
+frequent and long isolations from the rest of the ship's company. I have
+felt this influence strongly myself, and am persuaded that a sailor is
+never so amiable a being as when away from his ship and from
+civilisation, on some scrambling boat-expedition. He then puts off
+altogether that selfishness of bearing which it often suits his humour
+while on board to affect. Beard was one who entered fully into the
+spirit of these expeditions; indeed he might have led one to suppose
+that he would willingly have agreed to pass his life in a boat. On this
+particular occasion they were coasting along Thessaly&mdash;those shores so
+beautiful to look at, but of which the beauty, when the mists of night
+descend upon them, reek with the breath of death. They proceeded
+cautiously; and as their labours were protracted into new days and
+weeks, and none of their little band had been stricken, they began to
+hope, and perhaps to believe themselves seasoned and safe. The time for
+them to rejoin the ship at last arrived, and not a man had been ill. One
+man did indeed complain in the morning, but he laid in his oar, and they
+hoped would soon be better. Presently another was forced to claim the
+same exemption, and another. In short, they reached the ship with great
+difficulty, and as by miracle, and not one of the party could mount the
+side. They were all hoisted in, and in a few hours the only man of the
+party who lived was my friend. In the pretty island of Sciathos is a
+tomb, wherein sleep the whole party save that one. I have stood by this,
+and read in the sad story of its inscription a sufficient warning on the
+subject of marsh <i>malaria</i>. Once or twice I have come in its way, but
+never willingly, and happily always without calamitous result. Once only
+I have slept within its problematical range, and that was off that
+pestiferous bit of coast near Epidaurus, and I fancy at a season when
+the marshes had not their steam up.</p>
+
+<p>We had among us a lesson, but not of this melancholy character, on the
+absurdity of attempting to brave the daylight heat of summer. It is so
+natural for an Englishman to look upon the mere natives of any place to
+which he may come in his travels, as cheats and ignoramuses, that we, as
+a matter of course, and most complacently, admitted the natives <i>en
+masse</i> and every where to that rating. In the course of our vagaries we
+stumbled on the pretty island of Mytilene, in the very piping hours of
+summer. Very cool and pleasant did it look to us shipmen, hanging down
+its umbrageous olive groves nearly to the water's edge&mdash;and very
+pleasant should we have found it to be, had we been content to defer our
+landing till the authorised hour of eventide. But besides that the place
+looked so inviting, we felt bound to give way to a little enthusiasm at
+this approach to the birthplace of the lady who gave Horace the model of</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Jam satis terris nivis atque dir&aelig;" &amp;c.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>so nothing could hold us in from immediate disembarkation, and a cross
+country ride. We went right across from one harbour to another&mdash;for it
+has two, which between them nearly bisect the island. But so frightful
+was the heat, that nothing but youth and English blood exempted us from
+the penalty of fever. Some of the party were very nearly knocked up
+mid-way; and we should scarcely any of us have managed to get back to
+the ship as we did, had it not been our fortune<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_737" id="Page_737">[Pg 737]</a></span> to meet a resting-place
+in the village of Loutri. Such attempts as this are the causes of the
+sad casualties that we occasionally find happening to Eastern
+travellers. How many have paid with their lives the penalty of an
+unseasonable journey in Syria, especially on the coast between Beyrout
+and Jerusalem. Only choose well your time, and you may proceed in
+perfect security, so far as the dangers of nature are concerned. Any
+attempt at forcing a journey is a folly; and a folly of which the
+correction will come with the first experiment, if it leave to the
+person any future opportunity of sublunary conduct.</p>
+
+<p>But no one should mention Mytilene without saving a word or two in
+praise of its beauty. All shrivelled up as we were by the heat&mdash;for we
+were almost past the sudatory stage&mdash;we drank in some refreshment from
+the scenery. Port Olivet has quite the appearance of a lake, and it is
+only when quite at the spot that you perceive the real nature of the
+locality. The hills around are finely shaded; and the masses of
+olive-trees assumed, in the then lurid glare of sky and water, that
+shadowy appearance that we used to see in Turner's pictures. They are
+very famous for the production of a fine oil from their olives, which is
+the staple commodity of the island, and of which they export
+considerable quantities. By all accounts, nature, unassisted, may claim
+the praise of this produce, for they are said to be careless
+manufacturers. We went into one or two of the &#949;&#961;&#947;&#945;&#963;&#964;&#951;&#961;&#953;&#945; to
+witness the process of compression, but could not take it upon our
+veracity to utter an opinion anent them. At least they seem in a fair
+way to improve their wares; for the new consular agent of France (whom,
+by the way, we took to his Barataria) is especially knowing in this
+line, and hopes to produce, in a short time, oil that shall be equal to
+that of France or Lucca.</p>
+
+<p>After all this talk about the impossibility of travelling in the summer,
+it augurs ill for our account of Adalia, to say that it was the very
+heat and rage of summer when we landed there. But as we were not
+volunteers on the occasion, we did not choose our own season. Like the
+fifty thousand Cossacks who marched off to the East Indies, not because
+they liked it, but because they were sent, we were saved all the trouble
+of deliberation; and once arrived at the spot, we were sufficiently old
+stagers to adapt ourselves to the ways and means of the place. I
+remember that we were delighted at the start: catching at the prospect
+of change, as at the hope of improvement. Certainly things were bad
+enough with us in Smyrna bay at that time. The pitch was boiling in the
+seams, the water was hissing along-side; the sky seemed an entire sun,
+so truly were the fiery rays rendered back from every part of the
+glowing concave. The sea-breeze, one's only solace under such
+circumstances, was continually forgetting to come. In spite of the
+common profession, that without the sea-breeze it would be impossible to
+live hereaway, we continued to pant through days of breezeless
+existence. At this time it was that I arrived at the conclusion which is
+now established in the code of my economics, that the endurance at
+Calcutta or Port Royal is a joke compared with what one has to undergo
+in these milder latitudes. The dweller in Anatolia has no such range of
+Fahrenheit to alarm him into defensive measures, and thus he falls
+comparatively unprepared into the conflict with the dog-days. Your
+Bengalee mounts defences of <i>tattees</i> and punkahs that cool down a hot
+wind, or whistle air into presence in a trice. Whereas in this part of
+the world, as the Sirocco blows, so it must steal into your room,
+parching your face, and covering you all over with a clammy stickiness,
+through which you may distinctly feel the subdolent shudder of incipient
+ague. When he has darkened his room, and spread cool mats on the floor,
+the poor Smyrniot has nothing farther that he can do. And if such be the
+case of those who dwell within the mansions of Ismir, who have at least
+thick walls between them and the sun, what is likely to be the state of
+those <i>disgraziatos</i>, who people the busy town of ships in the bay?&mdash;the
+rash men</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"&mdash;digitos a morte remotos<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Quatuor aut septem."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Custom, they say, may bring a man to any thing, as it did M. Chabert to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_738" id="Page_738">[Pg 738]</a></span>
+the power of living in an oven; to which achievement, by the way, I
+should not wonder if the first step had been the passing of a hot summer
+on board ship in harbour. You may any day see, at some of our gigantic
+iron-works, custom bringing men to such a pass, that they can endure to
+stand before a fire that would be the death and cooking of an ox. And so
+I suppose it was by force of custom that we were able to undergo a style
+of thing that ought to have been the stewing of any ordinary flesh and
+blood. But it was a stupid and languid life that we were leading,
+scarcely venturing on deck even beneath the awning, and not dreaming of
+shore except quite in the evening. Sometimes a morning's interest would
+be excited by some story of plague in the Lazaretto, and a proposed
+adjournment of the ship to Vourlah, to be out of harm's way; and such
+speculations, though not exactly pleasurable, were at least
+anti-stagnative in character. In any thing like decent weather it is not
+bad fun to get down to Vourlah for a time, and to fly from the gaieties
+of the metropolis to the pleasures of the <i>chasse</i> at Rabbit Island. It
+must ever be soothing to a spirit that has not quite forgotten "the
+humanities," to walk upon the turf which witnessed the infant gambols of
+Anaxagoras; and besides that, the locality is pretty, and worthy of
+being visited on its own account. The town is at the distance of some
+miles from the Scala, which last is the grand watering-place for the
+ships on this station. Some few years ago, when the two fleets, French
+and English, were here, an extempore town was devised on the beach, for
+the benefit of the thousand and one hangers-on who are always found in
+such neighbourhoods. This was a stretch of luxury on their part; for
+generally these nautical suttlers need no other shelter than that of the
+boat which contains their wares. They are always ready for a start, and
+glad to be allowed to follow almost any whither in the wake of a ship. I
+should think they might be rated amongst the most honest of their
+compatriots, as they certainly may amongst the most hard-working and
+courageous.</p>
+
+<p>But no such luck had been ours, as to be assigned so pleasant an
+adjournment. The longest cruise we had any of us managed to steal, was
+perhaps in one of the cutters, as far as what we Englishmen persist in
+calling St James's castle&mdash;a strange name for Turks to give a place, and
+which, in fact, we have devisedly corrupted from their word <i>sandjeak</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At last, one happy day&mdash;happy in its result, not in the complexion it
+bore at its opening&mdash;we positively did receive orders for a start, and
+this is the way it came about: The representative of sultanic dignity at
+the somewhat retired watering-place of Adalia, was a man prone, like the
+greater number of his countrymen, to judge of things altogether in the
+concrete. The idea of power could by him be deduced only from present
+violence; and without some such sensible manifestations, it became to
+him like one of Fichte's "objects," i.e. all moonshine. With regard to
+foreign powers, they existed for him, and influenced his government,
+only so far as they sent occasionally a ship of war with its suggestive
+influence of a frowning broadside to look in his way. They have no very
+distinct idea, these gentlemen, of geography, nor of political science;
+all thus are sadly out in their estimation of the relative importance of
+places. To them the seat of their government is the world; or at least
+the place in it of importance second to Constantinople. If they be
+passed over in the distribution of our <i>corps de demonstration</i>, they
+are apt to ascribe the omission to a want of power on our part. Now,
+with all their excellencies, it call hardly be denied that they are
+sadly apt to presume on any want of power in a neighbour. So it happens
+that the unfortunate consuls who are stowed away in the obscurer
+establishments, are apt to suffer from their caprice. Should it so
+happen that the particular flag over whose interests the consul is
+appointed inspector, should not have been displayed in the neighbourhood
+lately by any ship of war, the short memory of a pasha is in danger of
+forgetting that nation's claim to respect; for any thing that he knows,
+it may have been revolutionised or sunk by an earthquake,&mdash;at least he
+cannot bear the trouble of imagining any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_739" id="Page_739">[Pg 739]</a></span> other reason for the
+non-appearance of its executive ministers, than the obvious one of its
+having no ships to send. Thus, in matters of precedence, consuls are apt
+sometimes to get snubbed&mdash;a point on which, of all others, they are
+tender: or in matters of justice, their clients will find themselves
+ousted, in spite of the proverbial integrity of the Turkish judges.
+Perhaps the readiest way of stumbling on a grievance, is the kind of
+thing that gave rise to our visit, where some of the populace presume on
+your want of protection, and commit some aggression on your rights as a
+man and a brother. This being referred to the authorities, will be apt
+to be viewed by them in the light of that consideration which they
+happen to be lending at that moment to your nation. Poor fellows! we
+must not be hard upon them; nor will we doubt the sound foundation of
+the panegyrics which many travellers have pronounced on their honesty.
+They are honest, no doubt, so far as they understand the doctrine of the
+thing; but the fact is, they do not seem to understand the subject in
+the abstract. They have no idea of judging a foreigner's cause, without
+reference to considerations of his nationality and personal importance;
+and to pronounce readily a decision in favour of one against whom should
+lie the preponderance in these particulars, would be to them an
+absurdity. We have had occasion lately to be struck with the tone in
+which certain writers have spoken on the subject of Mussulman morals.
+The first notability about such accounts is, that they are very
+different from the reports of their predecessors&mdash;of such an accurate
+man as Burkhardt for instance; and the second notability, so far as most
+of us are concerned, is, that they are contrary to the general consent
+of travellers. That there are excellent men, and honest among them, is a
+fact; and it is a fact, that in general matters of bargaining, you may
+trust to them. But when the idea of probity is carried out, so far as to
+imply a view of things comparatively disparaging to Christian morals, it
+mounts to an anti-climax, and falls over into the province of nonsense.
+The Koran has provided them with much ethical guidance, of which
+individual Turks, of any pretence to religion, must be in some degree
+observant. But it is not true that the history of such cases, in their
+administration of justice, as might have occurred in the court of the
+old &#960;&#959;&#955;&#949;&#956;&#945;&#961;&#967;&#959;&#962;, will allow us to conclude that they are in
+possession of a rule coercing them to be just and brotherlike towards
+the unprotected stranger, abstractly and for justice's sake. Now, with
+us you may find many individual rogues, but never a roguish court, nor
+tolerated roguish public body. And of this difference between us
+Christians and them Turks, it will not be difficult for any one to
+supply the reason, who will give himself the trouble to think about it.</p>
+
+<p>But as I was saying, at Adalia,&mdash;the town I mean, not the
+province,&mdash;lived, with the authority of local governor, a personage
+styled a <i>Caimacan</i>. This is a person inferior to a regular pasha,
+having in fact a sort of acting rank. One remembers this style and title
+well, because it puts us in mind of the nicest thing eatable that the
+Levant affords&mdash;<i>Caimac</i>, which is something very like Devonshire cream,
+only better. This Caimacan, being a sort of great man's great man, is
+apt not to bear his honours meekly. At the precise time of which I
+speak, the Sultan was raising considerable levies in different parts of
+his dominions, for the benefit of good order among the Albanians. Near
+Adalia was a military rendezvous for the forces raised in that
+neighbourhood, and the command <i>pro tempore</i> of the new levies was
+assigned to the Caimacan. So that the poor man was labouring under an
+accession of dignity.</p>
+
+<p>At Adalia also lived a certain Ionian&mdash;from the Seven Islands, friend,
+not from Asia&mdash;who had been led thither by a speculation in the soap
+trade. To judge by the evident want of the article, would have been to
+pronounce a most favourable opinion as to the probable result of such
+speculation. In fact the man succeeded only too well; he boiled so
+successfully, and sold so cheaply, that all the native competitors were
+beaten out of the field. The true believers were, of course, indignant
+at this conduct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_740" id="Page_740">[Pg 740]</a></span> of an infidel and a stranger; and as they could not
+weather on him in the fair way of trade, they determined to try if they
+could not "choke his luff" by a practical expedient. Paying him a visit
+one day, they spoiled his stock in trade, broke his gear, gave him a
+good thrashing, and told him to take that as a gentle hint of what they
+would do if he did not behave himself for the future. The poor fellow
+appealed to the Caimacan for satisfaction for the injury done, and for
+security against future violence. From this person he received no
+assistance, and was left to fight it out as he best could against his
+opponents.</p>
+
+<p>Those dear Ionians! creditable fellow-countrymen are they for us, and
+profitable. No people assert more unflinchingly their privilege of
+national relationship with ourselves, and thus do we get the credit of
+all the rows which they may kick up throughout the Mediterranean. It is
+highly amusing to see the style in which they will declare themselves to
+be Englishmen, not merely as allies and protected for the time being,
+but with the implication of a claim to identity of race. A son of Ithaca
+or Zante will talk as if he were a true Saxon. Certainly, the Turks seem
+to make little distinction between the races. That the men are under
+British protection, is for them sufficient reason for esteeming them to
+be Englishmen. Sometimes their classification of races shows an amusing
+ignorance of, and indifference to the whole set of national distinctions
+among Franks. I remember that all who attended the services of the
+British chaplaincy at Smyrna, were called English, though among them
+were many who could speak scarcely a word of the language; and so all
+who went to the dissenting meeting-house (for they have one there) were
+called Americans.</p>
+
+<p>Our poor soap-boiler being reduced to extremity, having lost his goods,
+and being afraid to make a fresh start of it, betook himself for
+assistance to the English vice-consul. The office was at that time
+filled by a very efficient person&mdash;one, moreover, who had for many years
+resided in the country, and understood well the language and national
+genius. But it so happened that just then a long time had elapsed since
+any of our men-of-war had paid a visit to the road-stead and consular
+dignity was in a condition of proportional depreciation. The consul,
+however, as in duty bound, paid his visit of remonstrance, and laid
+before the great man the wrong done within his jurisdiction; whereupon
+the Caimacan behaved like any thing but a gentleman, and, far from
+promising to remedy the ill done, gave him to understand that he did not
+care sixpence for soap-boiler or consul either. Mr &mdash;&mdash; had sufficient
+knowledge of the people to know that this declaration of opinion was
+strictly true, and that the only plan to correct it, would be to prove
+himself able to summon an armed force to his assistance. Till they saw
+this, nothing would be able to persuade the Adalians that he was not
+either deserted by his country, or that his country had not lost the
+power to assist him.</p>
+
+<p>And thus it was that Mr &mdash;&mdash; wrote to his chief at Smyrna a description
+of the ticklish state of circumstances, and explained that unless
+English commercial interests at Adalia were to be suffered to go
+altogether to the wall, some strong preservative must be sent thither in
+the shape of a stout ship, with a goodly array of long thirty-twos. And
+so was it that word came to the good ship Falcon, which thereupon spread
+forth her wings, or, in plain language, hoisted her topsails, and set
+forth on her conciliatory expedition. Besides that we were delighted to
+get away in any direction from the stagnation of Smyrna&mdash;a stagnation
+affecting air, sea, and society,&mdash;it was a recommendation of the cruise
+in this particular direction that none of us had ever been there before.
+There is little reason why in a general way it should be visited from
+one year's end to another,&mdash;I mean in the way of business, at least the
+business of those who have to distribute their attention throughout
+these seas for the interests of general pacification. The place, as we
+afterwards found, is not without commerce; but there are no merchants of
+our nation except the vice-consul. The advantages of this place as a
+trading station, more especially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_741" id="Page_741">[Pg 741]</a></span> as being a station where he would find
+no competitors, had induced him to settle here. And the <i>prestige</i> lent
+by the consular name, afforded sufficient inducement for the undertaking
+of an office, which, if it be not very lucrative, at any rate involves
+the responsibility of no very serious duties. Though now and then a man
+in office may forget himself, yet in the long run a consul is sure to be
+treated with deference, and to reap considerable commercial advantages
+from his position. Be it understood, that here there are other
+merchants,&mdash;but the indigenous, chiefly Turco-Greek. Besides a single
+gentleman who acted as assistant to the vice-consul in his various
+duties, we did not find a Frank resident. We heard, indeed, that there
+was also an Austrian, but we did not see him, so I suppose that he could
+hardly have been of much consequence.</p>
+
+<p>The weather at first beguiled us with symptoms of a change for the
+cooler, and lent to our sails some pleasant breezes as we passed out of
+the Gulf of Smyrna. As we sped onward, things became even better, and
+especially delighted us with their aspect off Rhodes. It is a singular
+fact, well known to those who know the locality, that the day scarcely
+occurs in the year when this island is afflicted with a calm. For some
+reason it so happens that, pass when you will, you are pretty sure to
+find a stiff breeze blowing. One of the points of the island, which
+thrusts out into the sea a long and low promontory, shows that the
+natives here know how to turn this physical provision to good effect.
+This point is in the most curious way studded with windmills, and from
+this its garniture has received its name in our geography. These poor
+machines rarely know an hour's quiet, but continually throw about their
+long arms in what, from a little distance, seems to be a mere confusion
+of material. Past this exquisitely beautiful island, of whose strand the
+recollection is fraught with associations of unfeverish existence, we
+sped rapidly before the breeze, which almost made us regret the land we
+were leaving. Truly should we have regretted it, had we but known the
+breezeless condition on which we were about to enter! For some
+four-and-twenty hours before we arrived at our port, the weather changed
+eminently for the worse. The feathery vanes stirred not, and the canvass
+flapped against the mast, as the old girl rolled lumpingly in the swell.
+She was a dear old ship as ever floated, but like all other things
+sublunary, animate, or inanimate, was not without her faults. Of these
+the worst, nay, the only one to speak of, was the habit of rolling about
+most viciously whenever she had a chance. The sun poured upon us such a
+flood of heat, that awnings became a joke. Things were so thoroughly
+heated during the day, that the night scarcely afforded sufficient hours
+to cool them down, for a fresh start next morning. We began almost to
+question whether we had not changed bad for worse; and very soon made up
+our minds that without any mistake we had. We arrived at this
+conclusion, as the port of our destination hove in sight. It was towards
+evening that we crept in to our anchorage, through an atmosphere
+scarcely sufficiently alive to give us motion, and so almost glowing
+that it seemed to burn us as we passed. The place was wrapped in
+breathless stillness: no boats came forth to try a market with us, or to
+gratify their curiosity; and no sounds issued from the shore, which
+might have been deemed almost unhaunted of men.</p>
+
+<p>When daylight revealed the features of the place, we perceived the
+pretensions of Adalia in the way of the picturesque to be of a high
+order. Neither was there wanting matter of admiration even in the night,
+though we were suffering too much discomfort to be easily pleased by
+mere pictures. The shore, in its way, afforded an unusual spectacle. The
+town stands on high ground, and on both sides the line of coast is
+formed by lofty cliffs, stretching far away into the distance. What of
+the beauties of these depended on the light of day for development, were
+reserved for our edification on the morrow. But the good people had
+ornamented their country just then in a fashion more appropriate to
+embellish the night than the day. Enormous fires were blazing on the
+cliffs, which skirted the bay up which we were advancing,&mdash;if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_742" id="Page_742">[Pg 742]</a></span> we may
+apply so familiar a word to the conflagrations that met our sight. The
+most active spirit of incendiarism had been afloat, for entire woods
+were seen in a state of burning. We never discovered whether this
+destruction was by accident, or of set purpose: if it were done by way
+of obtaining charcoal, the price of that article one would think must
+have fallen in the market. But as these fires blazed away in the clear
+dry air of the night, they lit up the bay, and almost threw upon the
+waters the dark shadow of our masts and yards. At first, when at some
+distance, we had been disposed to account for the lurid appearance of
+the heavens, by supposing that distance and refraction had effected a
+cheat upon our senses. When we came nearer, the only thing we could
+suppose was, that the whole country, was in the course of destruction.
+It is hard to say whether the distance at which we anchored from the
+shore was not too great to allow of the production on us of any sensible
+effect from these fires: that we had any misgiving on the subject may
+serve to show that they were enormous. I know that at the time we made
+up our minds, that to their agency was to be attributed some portion at
+least of the heat that oppressed us. The wind came off in gusts of
+overpowering heat; not with that tepid influence that grumblers
+sometimes denounce as a hot wind, but with the full sense of having come
+from a baker's oven. At least we had a grand sight for our pains, and
+therefrom reaped some consolation as we clustered panting on the deck.</p>
+
+<p>I remember to have seen something in this way before, though on a
+smaller scale, and that was in the island of Eub&oelig;a. Once in my life,
+I had a very near view of the recent scene of such a conflagration in
+one of the smaller Greek islands. It was in taking, according to our
+custom, a ramble right across the land, that we came on no less a
+collection of embers than the <i>debris</i> of an entire forest, which lay
+smouldering at our feet. I know that, having commenced from curiosity
+the work of picking our way through the ashes, we found the undertaking
+more arduous than we quite fancied, and that our trowsers and shoes
+would afterwards have fetched but little in Monmouth-street. The Greeks,
+it is understood, light up their bonfires, partly by way of amusing
+themselves, and partly by way of hinting displeasure at things in
+general. Of course, it is quite obvious, that any party who wish to
+prove a minister's rule to be calamitous, assists their argument by
+increasing the sum of calamity.</p>
+
+<p>But night with its miseries at length was passed. During its course, the
+thermometer did not get below 90&deg;. What it reached in the daytime it
+boots not to record&mdash;and signifies less, because when the sun is above
+us, we bargain for a hot day in summer. But oh! those nights, when by
+every precedent we should have had cooling dews, and refreshing air!</p>
+
+<p>However, the sun rose, and the people on shore rose too. There was no
+tumultuous rushing forth in boats to have a look at the new comers, as
+there is so apt to be on the arrival of a man-of-war. A quiet little
+dingy would steal out, manned by three or four mongrel-looking Greeks,
+and row round us at a respectful distance. The fact is, that the people
+had got scent of the reason of our coming: and as a reclamation of right
+is by them supposed to be incompatible with any thing but an angry mood,
+they were afraid to approach us. The town itself we perceived to be a
+most ill-conditioned looking place. Harbour there is none&mdash;at least none
+available in a breeze from seaward. A heavy sea sets right in, and must
+strand any thing found anchored here. We were afterwards told, that in
+the bad weather of the winter before our coming, the sea had washed some
+vessels right up into the town. This want of a harbour is the most
+serious drawback to the commerce of Adalia. It is, in every respect
+except this, adapted to serve as the general emporium of the interior.
+Even at present, notwithstanding its disadvantages, a good deal of
+business is done here: but ships can never lie before the town in peace,
+nor commence loading and unloading, with the confidence that they shall
+be able to get through their work without having first to slip cable and
+be off. But the town must be in other hands before so arduous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_743" id="Page_743">[Pg 743]</a></span> a work is
+likely to be undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>A most unserviceable rumble of a fort mounted guard over the town, in a
+position little likely to be of use in repelling an attack by sea.
+Perhaps it might have been available as a maintainer of good order in
+the town, should the spirit of insubordination haply spring up therein:
+but we could hardly have credited the walls as possessed of sufficient
+stability to stand the shock of a report. We saw the artillery-men, busy
+as bees, at their guns&mdash;evidently standing by to return the salute which
+we were expected to give. But this would have been far too civil
+treatment for them, while matter of dispute between us remained. We
+maintained a dignified silence.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before Mr &mdash;&mdash; found his way off to us, and put us up to
+the actual state of affairs. It seemed that little Pedlington was in an
+uproar. The whole of the Adalian public were in a state of lively
+commotion. Of course, as they had bullied loudly, they were abject in
+concession. Those more immediately concerned in the outrage on the
+soap-boiler, would have infallibly absconded, had not the strong arm of
+the law laid an embargo upon them, and laid them by as scapegoats in the
+first instance. The prevailing opinion about us was, that we should
+certainly blow the town about their ears, but that still all must be
+essayed to conciliate us. The Caimacan himself, the great man who had
+given rise to the remonstrance on our part, had taken himself off, and
+left his deputy in command. This was professedly to look after some
+troops that he was recruiting in the neighbourhood, but we gave him the
+credit of practising a dodge to get out of the way of an awkward
+business. A striking peculiarity of the business was, that no doubt
+seemed any longer to be maintained as to the issue of the negotiation.
+The question of right and wrong was no longer considered as being open;
+but the verdict was already presumed to be given against those whom we
+challenged as offenders.</p>
+
+<p>It was thought advisable to pay some attention to appearances on the
+occasion of our interview with the governor. No suit prospers with them,
+in a general way, unless backed by good personal appearance. For this
+reason we mustered a strong party of officers, in imposing costume; and
+by way of evincing our determination, proceeded with as little delay as
+possible to the divan. The usual motley group of starers gathered round
+us at the landing, and escorted us up the rugged street to the <i>palais
+de justice</i>. They all seemed to be affected with the spirit of fear,
+except our partisans, who were in a state of exultation from the like
+cause. Two individuals in particular were amusingly and palpably
+possessed with the spirit of triumph, and they were the two attendants
+of the vice-consul. These men were worthy of notice on other accounts,
+but singularly remarkable in respect of the effectual manner in which
+they seemed to have divested themselves of national prejudices. They
+were enthusiastic fellows, who had not merely let out their services to
+the representative of England, but seemed fairly to have made over to
+him the allegiance of heart and head; retaining no sympathy with their
+own countrymen. Thus did they seem to rejoice eminently in our coming,
+and the consequent humbling of the local authorities. They were two
+strapping fellows&mdash;as janissaries, to be any thing worth, should always
+be&mdash;and marshalled us the way in grand style.</p>
+
+<p>The unhappy rabble seemed to be suffering the pangs of most cruel
+privation when the cort&egrave;ge arrived at the residence of justice, and they
+found themselves left in the lurch at the threshold. In such mood you
+see a London mob flattening their noses against the panes of a chemist's
+window, or hanging outside of a replete magistrate's office. One comfort
+is, that the economy of a Turkish <i>menage</i> perfectly admits of the
+establishment of a line of scouts, even from the very presence-chamber:
+so that earliest intelligence may be conveyed to the gentlemen without.
+Mr &mdash;&mdash; gave us by the way a few hints as to etiquette, and engaged to
+prompt us as occasion might demand. I have said already that he was
+perfectly up to conversation in the native language and might have well
+played the part of interpreter. One might might have supposed that this
+would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_744" id="Page_744">[Pg 744]</a></span> have been taken by the people rather as a compliment; and that it
+would have been considered creditable to a foreign agent to have
+acquired a knowledge of the vernacular of the people with whom he had
+constantly to treat. But the contrary is the fact. To speak for one's
+self is far too simple a mode of conducting business: and he who would
+preserve his dignity in any consideration, must retain the services of a
+dragoman. To conduct an important interview without the intervention of
+this functionary would convey to the Turks an idea of slovenly
+negligence. A good thing is it when the agent, commercial or diplomatic,
+possesses sufficient knowledge of the language to enable him to check
+the version of the interpreter, who otherwise is apt to take liberties
+with his text. However, we were in this case quite safe: first, in the
+assurance of Mr &mdash;&mdash; that he would risk his life on his dragoman's
+veracity; and next, because it was clear that no word could pass which
+was not likely to be reinterpreted to us.</p>
+
+<p>We marched into the room, and made our salaams-some of us inconsiderable
+ones very truculently, for we were very irate; and on all such occasions
+a man's indignation rises in exact proportion to the degree in which he
+has nothing to say to the matter. The deputy Caimacan was sitting on a
+divan at the top of the room, and rose politely as we entered. There
+were too many of us to find room in the divan, so we were scattered
+about as best we could light on places. The main difficulty was to get a
+place that looked clean enough to sit upon; for a dirtier palace I never
+saw, nor a more, beggarly. One cannot say whether the head governor had
+taken all his traps with him when he went a-soldiering; but if what we
+saw really was his establishment, it is likely enough that he had gone
+away to avoid exposing his poverty.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Hosh Gueldin</i>," said the Turk; "you are welcome."</p>
+
+<p>And now was to be seen a fine contrast between Oriental apathy and
+British energy. The Turk sank back on his seat, as if disengaged from
+all care, and not quite up to the trouble of entertaining his morning
+visitors. The English Captain sat bolt upright, "at attention," and
+opened the business of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell the Governor&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a moment," said Mr &mdash;&mdash;, "that's not the way to begin."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the way then?"</p>
+
+<p>"First, you must smoke a pipe&mdash;there's one coming this way. You would
+shock all their notions of propriety by entering abruptly on business.
+We must have first a little talk about things in general."</p>
+
+<p>Just then the Governor roused up, and addressed to the Captain, through
+the dragoman, some observation on the weather or the crops. Then came a
+servant with a chibouque and coffee: and the head negotiators were soon
+co-operatively engaged.</p>
+
+<p>And no bad way of beginning business either; especially in cases where
+there may be a little awkward rust to rub off. The only objection to the
+amusement in this case was, that it was not general&mdash;pipes being
+afforded only to the heads of departments. This was a style of treatment
+so different from all our experience, that it left me more fully
+persuaded than ever that the Caimacan had walked off with his goods and
+chattels, not forgetting his pipes.</p>
+
+<p>This fumatory process proceeded for some time, almost in silence. It
+afforded the several parties opportunity to settle the speeches they
+intended to make, and certainly must have been useful in the way of
+allaying the angry passions of their several minds. We, who had none of
+the business on our consciences, and had come merely to make up the
+show, employed this interval in taking cognizance of the localities. The
+household appointments were sadly inferior to those we had been
+accustomed to see; and especially must this condemnation fall on the
+servants, who were a most dirty, ill-conditioned set. They stood
+clustered about the doorway in groups, looking furtively at us, and
+whispering counsel.</p>
+
+<p>"Halloo!" said Mr &mdash;&mdash;, "they have determined to be prepared for
+contingencies. There are the culprits, I see, in waiting for the
+bastinado, if such should be your demand."</p>
+
+<p>And there, sure enough, they had the poor fellows just outside, waiting
+to be scourged for the propitiating of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_745" id="Page_745">[Pg 745]</a></span> our wrath. Evidently they were
+little aware that the affair had changed altogether its complexion; and
+that the culpability had in our eyes been transferred from the original
+rioters to the protectors of the riot.</p>
+
+<p>When, eventually, the signal was given for commencing business, it was a
+fine thing to see how beautifully submissive the deputy had become. He
+began by declaring that he could not arrange the matter, but must refer
+it to his chief, and wanted much to put off the discussion till that
+functionary should arrive. On this it was hinted to him, that it would
+have been polite and proper had that gentleman remained in the way to
+settle the row, which had occurred by his own fault, but that we could
+not await his return. Either must they undertake at once to make full
+reparation for the wounded dignity of the Consul, and for the injurious
+treatment of the Ionian, or they would see what they should see. It
+needed little pressing on our part to break down the feint which had
+been set up by way of opposition. The deputy soon declared that all
+should be as we wished. He still stuck to his declaration, that the
+actual settlement of the business was beyond his province, and that he
+must wait for the sanction of his commanding officer. But meanwhile he
+took upon himself to declare the terms on which things might be
+considered virtually settled; and they were, that we were to have
+everything our own way. This result was obtained by us without recourse
+had to any thing like bullying; and we were able, in this instance, to
+behave in a more civilised manner, because we were backed by so much
+real authority, and show of present power. But little doubt is there,
+that, however unfavourable the inference with respect to Turkish sense
+and honesty, the mode most commonly to be recommended in dealings with
+them, is by <i>in terrorem</i> proceeding. They cannot understand the
+co-ordinate existence, of power and moderation. Very good fun will
+sometimes be enacted by the knowing for the cowing of a pasha; and in
+almost any case the only fear of <i>&eacute;chouance</i> is where there may exist
+too much modesty. But only bully hard, and you are tolerably sure to
+gain your point. It is by no means necessary that your arguments should
+carry the cogent force of soundness. Appearances are what weigh chiefly
+with those whose habits of thinking do not dispose them to discuss
+argument. One sharp-witted fellow that I knew brought to successful
+issue a decisive experiment on the readiness of pashas to be taken in by
+mere sound. He went into the vice-regal presence, attended by a dragoman
+whom he had previously instructed in the subject-matter to be
+propounded&mdash;some question of redress for grievance. It was necessary
+that he should say something on the occasion, and afford the appearance
+of telling the dragoman what to say: but as this person already knew his
+lesson, it was not necessary that what he said should be to him
+intelligible. Nothing occurred to him as likely to be more effective in
+delivery than the celebrated speech of Norval about the Grampian hills;
+which accordingly he recited with due emphasis, standing up to give the
+better effect to the scene. The end desired was fully attained. The
+pasha opened wide eyes, as the actor grew excited, and was visibly
+affected by the assumption of towering passion. He soon began to try to
+pacify him, and beg him to be easy. "Inshalla! all should be as he
+wished." The upshot of our argument with the deputy Caimacan was, that
+he would send immediately to his chief, for a confirmation of the
+pacification between us, and that meanwhile we were to amuse ourselves
+as well as we could. But for all we saw, amusement was one of the good
+things not easily to be had at Adalia. It is so deeply retired in
+uncivilisation, and so wanting withal in the excitements of energetic
+barbarism, that human life is there tamed down to the most passionless
+condition. It was, too, notwithstanding the season, a time of unusual
+commercial enterprise just then. It was the year of the murrain in
+Egypt, which destroyed so enormous a proportion of their cattle; and
+Mehemet Ali was sending in all directions to purchase horses, asses, and
+kine. A large corvette of his came in while we were there, on this
+service. She had landed her guns, and was filling her deck with
+livestock. There was also a deal of business going on just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_746" id="Page_746">[Pg 746]</a></span> then in the
+timber line. But little evidence of this brisk state of the markets was
+given by the people. A good many visitors certainly came off to see us;
+but that was rather a reason why we should have accused the populace of
+idleness. We were struck with the appearance of many of the old fellows
+who honoured us with visits. They retained, without exception, the
+orthodox dress and beard of the old school. Among them were a great
+number of the green turbans, which mark the sacred person of the
+"Hadji." Such a clustering of these distinguished characters made us
+fancy at first that Adalia itself must be invested with the idea of some
+peculiar sanctity. But we found that these gentlemen were merely <i>en
+route</i>, tarrying at Adalia, a great point of embarkation, for
+opportunity to pursue their journey. The place is in one of the great
+high roads to the Hedjaz: and of the swarms who pass through it every
+year, many pilgrims have not sufficient funds to defray the expense of
+travelling either way. It then becomes a work of charity for the more
+opulent of the faithful to speed them on the journey. But that they
+depend on such means of travelling is reason sufficient to account for
+long in their line of locomotion, and for their congregating here in
+considerable numbers. Of all places likely to maintain the constant
+infection of plague, this must be one of the first: for notoriously
+among no people is the disease so rife as among the pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p>The worthy consul did his best to embellish the days of our sojourn with
+pleasurable episodes. Society there was not likely to be any; but yet
+such as, for want of better, they had, he undertook to show us. He
+really seemed very much obliged to us for our opportune visit, and said
+that it would be the making of him. It certainly did seem to be quite
+necessary to the maintaining of the dignity of his office. One
+invitation we had from a merchant of the place, a man whom they
+described as being very rich and of great influence; and a plan was laid
+for our having a picnic in the country. There is a place in the
+neighbourhood of the town which has been prepared expressly for the use
+of those who make rural excursions. A thick grove of trees keeps off the
+sun, and soft turf lends a seat to the revellers. We could make out the
+top of the trees from the anchorage, for the country is of an elevated
+character, hanging out on lofty cliffs the different features of its
+panorama. The effect produced by this arrangement of the scenery is
+highly beautiful. It has in profusion one element of the beautiful, and
+that is the feature of cascade. There is in one point a congress of
+waterfalls, whereat may be counted no less than nine separate streams,
+which pour down their abundance from the cliffs into the sea. The good
+consul and his satellites bore us pretty constant company; and of great
+service they were in preserving order among the motley crew that
+constantly thronged our decks. We did not like to qualify the good
+report we had so far gained and maintained, by any exhibition of
+harshness towards the mob. But the sturdy janissary of Mr &mdash;&mdash; thought
+nothing of laying his stick across a fellow's shoulders, by way of
+reminder to behave himself. I must say that many of them deserved it,
+and for their sakes can but hope that they profited by the attention.</p>
+
+<p>Mr &mdash;&mdash; had two men in attendance upon him, without whom he never
+stirred abroad. They were brothers, but filled situations of different
+rank. One was dragoman, a post of which the occupation entitled him to
+the consideration of a gentleman; the other was merely henchman or
+janissary, of which dignity the allocation is in the kitchen. I remember
+that it pained me to see one brother walk in to dinner, while the other
+poor fellow had to keep guard without. But they seemed well used to the
+enforcement of the distinction, and to find therein nothing of
+invidiousness. Fine fellows were they both, and highly lauded by their
+master. There is surely something extraordinary in these instances,
+where men are brought to devote themselves implicitly to a foreign
+service, in the heart of their country, and amid the full play of
+national prejudices. That they really are faithful followers, is I
+believe beyond doubt; and that sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_747" id="Page_747">[Pg 747]</a></span> under trying circumstances.
+With these two individuals especially, we had so much intercourse, that
+we were enabled to see how admiration for the English entered into the
+main current of their feelings. It so happened that we had come here to
+the very place where that early victim to the zeal of travel, Mr
+Daniels, had shortly before met his doom. While following in the track
+of Mr Fellowes, he caught the fatal Xanthian fever; and after many
+relapses died here. That these men were very kind and attentive to him
+may be argument only of their humanity. But there was something in the
+emotion with which they spoke of him, that betokened a sense of
+fellowship, beyond what men of such differing creeds are apt to feel for
+a travelling stranger. They spoke of sitting up with him at night,
+giving him his medicine, and weeping for him, when there remained no
+room for active solicitude. The idea of dying amidst strangers in a
+foreign land, with no familiar face at the bed-side, is a desolation
+whose thought cannot pass over the spirit without beclouding its
+sunniness. And yet we may rely upon it, that amongst those most
+affectionately tended and most generously wept, have been they who have
+met their last hour under such circumstances. Human hearts all vibrate
+in harmony to one chord: in the good this sympathy is ready; in the bad
+it is dulled; but never while life and hope remain, can the silver chord
+be said to be cut. And so it is, that the same image of the forlorn,
+which, as affecting any that we love, appeals at once to the deep wells
+of compassion, will cause the same feeling of compassion to thrill with
+the remotest stragglers of the family of Adam. It is not a matter of
+reasoning, but an instinct. There is in the sight of helpless suffering
+a power to disarm human ferocity. And if that be the gentlest
+death-pillow that is breathed upon by the prayer and lighted by the eye
+of family love, depend upon it that far from the ungentlest is that,
+whose presence has brought to rude and rough natures the putting off of
+their roughness, and the recognising of the sweet faculty of compassion.
+Happy is that desolation, even in the last hour, which can awaken the
+heaven-like eagerness to be to the dying one a minister from his far-off
+home! A man might be happy so to die, that he might light up so much of
+heaven within a human breast.</p>
+
+<p>Both these <i>attach&eacute;s</i> of the consulate were men of note. The dragoman
+had been captain of a troop of cavalry in the service of Mehemet Ali,
+and on some quarrel with his commanding officer had left the service and
+kingdom. He was a person of polished manners, and some education, and
+thus enabled to produce agreeably in conversation the results of his
+experience of many lands and people. He rather astonished us with the
+extent to which he carried <i>jeune France</i> principles, that seem so
+entirely incompatible with the holding of Mahomedanism. But wonderful it
+is to see how the French spirit circulates in the most apathetic
+societies, seeming to find in them a latent vitality suited to its
+purpose. The manners of a Mussulman are so stereotyped, and his subjects
+of conversation so provided for by law, that it seemed quite an anomaly
+to see this Turk drinking wine after dinner, and talking like a man of
+the world. It would not seem that such an effect on the personal
+character is the invariable result of educating a Turk in Paris, though
+such an effect is exactly what we might expect. I have met a native of
+Constantinople, who had brought back with him from France only the
+language and the personal deportment, retaining withal the
+anti-reforming spirit of his orthodox brethren. But this spirit of
+resistance to innovation is fast fading away; and as innovation once
+begun here must lead to revolution, it is not difficult to foresee that
+a few more years only shall have passed, when the character of the Turk
+will have become historical, and the scenes that at present embellish
+their corner of the world, will have to be sought for in the
+descriptions of pen and pencil. Whether the influence emanate from the
+throne, or whether the court be following the popular metropolitan
+movement, it is difficult to say. But among them is assuredly at work
+the spirit of change, that must shortly carry away the mouldering
+edifice of their present institutions. This is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_748" id="Page_748">[Pg 748]</a></span> something too vetust to
+abide the shock of any agitation. Let us hope that their changes may be
+successively biassed towards the better: may they acquire the urbanity
+of our great masters in elegance, without their profligacy; and if they
+reject Mahomedanism, may it be to receive in exchange something better
+than mere infidelity.</p>
+
+<p>The brother of the <i>ci-devant</i> captain was a quiet, unassuming fellow,
+who wanted language to communicate with us freely. Nevertheless he
+managed to interest us much, with an account of the sufferings and
+trials of his youth. They were by birth Moreote Turks; and in the
+revolution of that country, when first the Greeks arose against their
+Turkish masters, (for really one must particularise in talking of Greek
+revolutions,) they had suffered the loss of all their protecting
+kindred, and hardly, children as they were, by some kindly intervention,
+been themselves saved. It is a sad thing, but a truth, that in this
+exterminating war, the cold-blooded massacreing was not all on one side.
+The horror and hatred of these deeds have, with their infamy, rested
+chiefly on the Turks, because theirs was the power to exceed in
+enormity; but the black veil of guilt rests on both sides of the strife.
+Still, however blameable the Greeks may be, for the cruelty committed on
+occasion, they were far from having power to work the enormous
+destruction of harmless life, whose memory still weighs on the Turkish
+power, and whose record is still extant in the evidence of ruined and
+dispeopled cities. But a short time before coming to Adalia, we had
+visited the island of Scio&mdash;that island which once was the garden of the
+Levant, and the storehouse of her riches. Even now, the great majority
+of the Greek merchants who are so prosperous a body in London, are
+Sciotes; and in those days they had pretty well all the commerce of the
+Levant in their hands. They delighted themselves in adorning their
+beautiful island with the artifices which money can command to the
+decorating of nature. At present a mass of ruins defaces that lovely
+spot. One is disposed to wonder that the Turks have never been at the
+pains to clear away the wreck of the town, if only for the sake of
+removing the monument of their cruelty. Mere selfish motives might
+induce them to be at that pains, and to restore this island to its
+former fitness for the habitations of the rich. At present it is one
+wide ruin; noble streets are there, with the shells of their houses
+remaining, as they were left in the day of massacre and pillage. The few
+inhabitants are stowed away in the one or two odd rooms of the old
+mansions that remain; being now reduced to such poverty that they have
+had neither spirit nor money to build for themselves; and probably
+finding it more congenial to the present spirit of their fortunes to
+roost among the bats and owls, rather than in trim streets. One
+occurrence gave us much pleasure, because it gave the lie to a story
+which has many abettors. It is said that when the garrison in the
+fortress, and the fleet before the town, were promoting the havoc, the
+English consul, from some punctilio on the subject of neutrality,
+refused shelter to the miserables who fled to his threshold. One old
+woman, in the story of her sufferings, gave us a full contradiction to
+this most incredible tradition. She had invited us into her dwelling to
+look at her wares, in the shape of conserves and purses&mdash;a strange
+combination, but nevertheless the articles by the sale of which they eke
+out their living. We were fully consoled for the trouble of passing over
+and through the <i>debris</i> of some half-dozen houses which lay between us
+and her domicile. It came out that she herself had been saved by flying
+to the English consulate. It was a comfort to hear this&mdash;and to hear it
+in a way that involved the fact of an indefinite number of refugees
+having found the same shelter. Many rejoice to say that the French
+consul was the only efficient protector in that day of horror; and of
+these times, though so recent, it is not easy always to get such correct
+information as may sustain a contradiction of popular report.</p>
+
+<p>In a country of such limited resources in the way of amusement, it was
+not very easy for our zealous friends to cater for us, during the long
+days that we had to await the answer from the Caimacan. Riding was out
+of the question, and there were no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_749" id="Page_749">[Pg 749]</a></span> antiquities within reach. Thus were
+we cut off from the two great resources of men in our position. But they
+played their part of entertainers hospitably and well. They told us long
+stories of the courts, and of what was to be seen in actual service in
+the camp of the Egyptian viceroy. Above all, they did us good by showing
+how thoroughly happy the whole party had been rendered by our coming. We
+were only afraid that they might become a little too bumptious on the
+strength of it, and be after giving us another job. But they did more
+than simply bear us company; they bore us to the cool grove, which I
+have said we could descry from the deck of our ship, there to be
+introduced to certain worthies, and to make <i>kef</i> in their company.
+Nothing to my mind comes up to an <i>al fresco</i> entertainment&mdash;in proper
+season and country, be it understood; for an English gipsy party is a
+very different affair.</p>
+
+<p>Our host conceived it to be a duty incumbent on him to develop, on this
+occasion, the full power of the resources of Adalia. We should have been
+far better satisfied if he had contented himself with doing things in a
+smaller way; but he was bent on magnificence. It was quite treat enough
+to lie on the soft turf, with the thick shade above, and to allow the
+hours to pass away as they led on evening. But he had been at the
+trouble to retain a band of musicians for our sakes. Such a set they
+were!&mdash;surpassing, in discordant prowess, the worst street musicians
+among our beggar melodists. It is quite surprising that invention has so
+long slumbered with these native artistes. With Musard concerts and
+Wilhelm music-meetings all around them, it is wonderful that they do not
+catch the note of something better than their villanous mandolins and
+single-noted pipes. Does any one need to be told what a mandolin is? It
+is something very different, let me assure him, from the ideal
+instrument of Moore's Melodies. Not even the lovely maidens that Moore
+paints could render tolerable a performance upon it; whereas it is made
+to resound by some especially ugly fellow, whose rascality of
+appearance, is relieved by no touch of the poetic. I did once hear a
+Turco-Greek lady perform, and on a more civilised instrument&mdash;a lady of
+high reputation as a performer on the guitar and a vocalist. And seldom
+has the spirit of romantic preparation received a more sudden chill than
+did mine on that occasion. Nothing could be more outrageously absurd
+than the whole thing was&mdash;accompaniment and song. I never afterwards was
+solicitous to hear an Oriental's musical performance; and am quite
+satisfied, that in them dwells no musical faculty, creative or
+perceptive: or that at least it is in a dormant state.</p>
+
+<p>These musicians began with a symphony on the full band&mdash;mandolins
+leading, drums doing bass, and the whole lot of ugly fellows screeching
+forth what might have been esteemed air or accompaniment, as the case
+might be. That a sorry musical effect was produced will surprise no one
+who considers the build of the most musical of their instruments. The
+mandolin is by way of being a guitar, or banjo&mdash;only in a very small way
+indeed. Nothing has been added to the idea since first Mercury stumbled
+on the original <i>testudo</i>&mdash;indeed, I should guess that the dried sinews
+of a tortoise would give out a far purer sound than the jingling wires
+with which the mandolin is mounted. I have sometimes stood at the door
+of a <i>caf&eacute;</i>, or, to give it the real name &#954;&#945;&#966;&#949;&#957;&#949;&#953;&#959;&#957;, and
+listened in wonder to the strains of some minstrel holding forth within.
+The wonder was, not that the man should play egregiously ill, but that
+the effect of good music should be produced by his evil playing. The
+people were evidently excited to sorrow when the attempt was at a
+mournful strain, and to ardour when the lilt took a loftier flight. To
+me who stood by, the difference of intention on the part of the
+performer was hardly discernible; indeed to be recognised only by the
+occasional catching of some familiar word in the burden of the song. The
+same observation may apply to the current Greek poetry. There can be no
+mistake in the conclusion, that it produces the effect of real poetry on
+the people, urging them in the direction whither works the imagination
+of the poet. But men of taste have come to, and can come to, but one
+decision on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_750" id="Page_750">[Pg 750]</a></span> the judgment of Romaic poetasters. The spirit of poetry has
+died out of, and is become extinct from the genius of their tongue. It
+is but the enthusiasm of by-gone days, the inkling of Attic glory, that
+lingers about the circumstances of their modern productions, and cheats
+men with the mere similarity of idiom. Poetry is of universal
+application, and were the pretensions of the modern Greek genuine, his
+productions would touch the hearts of the poetic of other lands.</p>
+
+<p>These fellows who entertained us on this occasion, struck a good deal of
+enthusiasm out of their jingle,&mdash;enthusiasm to themselves, be it
+remarked, and not to us. I saw them grow sad in face, while the strain
+proceeded at a slow pace, and the <i>voce di canto</i> degenerated into a
+more lugubrious howl than ever. By these tokens, I judged them to be
+singing some tale of sorrow, and so it seemed they were. The gentleman
+who performed for us the part of Chorus, gave us to wit, that they were
+lamenting the fall of Algiers, and imprecating maledictions on the head
+of the French. This they evidently considered a delicate and appropriate
+attention to us as Englishmen. I was only surprised to find they entered
+so far into the family distinctions of the Franks. There was some heart,
+too, in the manner in which they gesticulated and declaimed; and I have
+little doubt but that they were in earnest&mdash;especially if any of these
+happened to have friends or relations down that way, who had been roused
+out of house and home by the Gallic Avatar. When they were tired with
+singing, or perhaps presumed that they had therewith tired us, they took
+to playing the fool. Not merely in a general sense, in which they may be
+said to have been so engaged all along; but with heavy effort, and under
+the express direction of a professional master of the ceremonies. The
+Adalian jester was a tall ugly fellow, who had considerable power of
+comic expression in his face, but whose forte lay in a cap of fantastic
+device. It was made of the skin of some animal, whose genus I will not
+venture to guess; and had been contrived in such fashion that the tail
+hung over the top, and whisked about at the caprice of the wearer. This
+was a never-failing source of amusement to the performer himself, as
+well as to the native bystanders. As he bobbed his head up and down, and
+ran after this tail, the people burst into peals of laughter. They were
+quite taken up with the exhibition, except when they stole a moment now
+and then for a peep to see how the Frank visitors were amused with their
+wit. Besides this, the jester had a number of practical jokes, such as
+coming quietly along-side of some unsuspecting person, and catching hold
+of his leg, barking loudly the while, so as to make him think that some
+dog had bitten him. But this part of the performance was decidedly
+coarse, and did not improve our idea of the civilisation of the place. A
+good deal of sketching was going on in the course of this day; and the
+visages of some of these musicians, and especially of the jester, and of
+a blind old choragus, have been handed down to the posterity of our
+affectionate friends. We had a visit this day of a gentler kind. A Greek
+lady, the owner of considerable landed property in the place, came with
+her youthful daughter to interchange civilities with us. She was a
+plain, almost ugly old woman; but, like nine out of ten of all women
+extant, was of kind and <i>feminine</i> disposition. Moreover, like the rest
+of the ladies, she was very fond of talking; but, on this particular
+occasion, unhappily could speak no single word that would convey meaning
+to us. Still it was not to be expected that she could hold her tongue;
+so she squatted down by us, and talked, perhaps all the faster because
+she had the conversation all to herself. Her daughter was a young lady,
+whom by appearance in England, you would call somewhere in her teens;
+but, hereaway they are so precocious that one is constantly deceived in
+guessing their age. She would have been pretty if she had been clean;
+and was abundantly and expensively ornamented. Sometimes we hear it
+figuratively said of a domestic coquette, that she carries all her
+property on her back. These Greeks must be well off, if it may not
+sometimes be so said with propriety of them. They have a plan of
+advertising a young lady's assets, in a manner that must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_751" id="Page_751">[Pg 751]</a></span> most
+satisfactory to fortune-hunters, and prevent the mistakes that with us
+constantly foil the best-laid plans. They turn a girl's fortune into
+money, and hang it&mdash;it, the fortune proper&mdash;the &#960;&#959;&#953;&#959;&#957; and the
+&#960;&#959;&#963;&#959;&#957;&mdash;about her neck. They do not buy jewels worth so many
+hundreds or tens&mdash;but transpierce the actual coin, and of them compose a
+necklace of whose value there can be no doubt, and whose fashion is not
+very variable. This may be called a fair and above-board way of doing
+things. The swain, as he sits by the beloved object, may amuse himself
+by counting the number of precious links in the chain that is drawing
+him into matrimony, and debate within himself, on sure data, the
+question whether or no he shall yield to the gentle influence. There
+would not have been much doubt about the monetary recommendations of
+this young lady, for she was abundantly gilt, as became the daughter of
+one reputed so rich as the old lady. Poor girls! It makes one sad to
+look upon them, brought up with so little idea of what is girlish and
+beautiful; to see them ignorant yet sophisticated, bejeweled and
+unwashed. This poor child was decked out in the most absurd manner, and
+sat for admiration most palpably. She also sat for something else, which
+was her picture. This was taken by several of the party, so much to the
+satisfaction of mother and daughter, that the old lady insisted on
+taking her turn as model. We invariably found them pleased with the
+productions of our art in these cases, and satisfied of the correctness
+of the likeness. The only objections they would occasionally make, would
+refer to the pretermission of some such thing as a tassel in the cap.
+The fidelity of the likeness they took implicitly on trust.</p>
+
+<p>I have said we could not talk to this old lady, Greek though she was,
+furnished though some of us were with the language of her compatriots.
+The deficiency was on her part&mdash;not on ours. She could not speak one
+single word of her own language. And so it is, that of all the Greeks of
+Adalia, not one can converse in the language of their fathers. Separated
+from their countrymen, they have become almost a distinct race; and,
+losing that language of which they have no practice, have learnt to use
+as their own the vernacular of the land in which they are immigrants of
+such antique standing. They talk Turkish&mdash;live almost like Turks; and by
+their religion only are distinguished from their neighbours. For
+religious purposes they use their own language: and, by consequence,
+understand no single word of the ritual or lessons. This is certainly a
+singular national position&mdash;impossible, except from religious
+prevention. It is just the reverse of what may be seen elsewhere: for
+instance, in the mountains of Thessaly you find a colony of Germans,
+who, though completely shut in by the people of the land, and holding
+intercourse with none other, remain foreigners and Germans, resisting
+the tendency to amalgamation. So in Sicily you find the <i>Piana della
+Grecia</i>, where the original Greek colonists have kept their language and
+customs in their integrity. But where else, save in this one spot, will
+you find people who, after having imbibed the influences of the country
+to the extent of adoption of its language, have been able to resist
+amalgamation with its denizens in every respect?</p>
+
+<p>By the bye, these people have opened a sort of royal road to the
+acquisition of the Turkish language. The orthography of this language is
+a most vexed and perplexed affair. Those who have made the attempt to
+master its difficulties may say something in its vituperation; but the
+practice of many of those who are well acquainted therewith, says a
+great deal more. These Greeks, for instance, though they have adopted
+this language as their own, and have been accustomed in no other to lisp
+to their nurses, have altogether discarded the orthography. They speak
+as do the natives, but write in their own character; accommodating the
+flexible capabilities of their alphabet to the purposes of Turkish
+orthoepy. Thus have you the means of reading Turkish in a familiar
+character, which also has the advantage of presenting your words in a
+definite form. The real Turkish alphabet is any thing but definite; at
+least to one within any decent term of years of his commencing the
+study. This is a mode of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_752" id="Page_752">[Pg 752]</a></span> teaching which I have known to be insisted on
+by at least one good master: though of course the man of any ambition
+would regard this byway to knowledge as merely a step preliminary in the
+course.</p>
+
+<p>This was not the only party at which we assisted during our visit. A
+rich Greek merchant invited us to enjoy the coolness of evening in his
+gardens. It was duly impressed on our minds by the gentleman of the
+place that this old fellow was worth his weight in gold. They did say
+that his name was good for &pound;150,000&mdash;a long figure, certainly, to meet
+in such a place. He was a quiet-looking, unpretending person, with very
+much the air of a moneyed man. The hope that we had formed of seeing a
+display of the youth and fashion of Adalia was disappointed. It was by
+all express relaxation of the law of etiquette that we had the
+opportunity of seeing even the one or two ladies belonging to the
+family. Greeks, in their own country, though exceedingly jealous, and
+apt to build up alarms on the slightest foundation, are yet by no means
+chary in showing their women. In-doors and out, you will meet them, both
+old and young; and perfectly unconstrained and companionable you will
+find them. But here the case is far otherwise. They have acquired so
+much of Mussulman notions, that they do not allow their women to mix in
+society. This is the general rule: more pliant to occasion than the law
+of the Turks, which never yields. And not only here is there a strong
+feeling on this subject: the same prejudice prevails widely in the
+Turco-Greek islands. For instance, in Mytilene, on occasion of taking
+that long excursion which I have already mentioned, we observed that all
+the women we met were old and ugly. From this observed fact we drew
+conclusions unfavourable to the general appearance and presentability of
+the Mytilenian ladies. But subsequently we found the reason of the
+phenomenon to be, that the young and pretty girls were kept within
+doors, and the old ones alone allowed the privilege of walking forth&mdash;a
+difference of condition that might almost induce the girls of Mytilene
+to wish for age and wrinkles.</p>
+
+<p>They did not, at Adalia, use us quite so ill as to withhold their ladies
+from the entertainment. The mother was there and a daughter&mdash;a young
+lady with the romantic name of D&uacute;d&ugrave;. With such a name as this she ought
+to have been very pretty, and certainly she did not fall far short of
+such condition. It was clearly to be perceived that she was unaccustomed
+to mix in general society, and that the company of strange men disturbed
+her. But she was not ungraceful either in manner or dress, or in her
+evident desire to please. The place of our reception was in the central
+court, which the best kind of houses preserve&mdash;a contrivance which gives
+to each of the four sides on which the building is disposed, the
+advantages of a pure and thorough current of air. Here we sat drinking
+sherbet, and, of course, smoking the unfailing chibouque. The lady
+mother was painfully anxious to talk to us, and pretty Miss D&uacute;d&ugrave; was
+seriously bent on listening; but we could not manage to execute a
+colloquy. All the civil things imaginable were expressed to us by
+gesture, and the young lady came out strong in the presentation of
+bouquets. One fortunate man received from her an orange, the only one
+remaining at that time in the garden; this we persuaded ourselves must,
+in their symbolical language, imply a declaration of some soft interest.
+Miss D&uacute;d&ugrave; would not have been such a very bad <i>parti</i>, being, as she
+was, the sole heritress of her father's thousands. However, she was, we
+understood, engaged already to a youth, who was obeying the cruel law
+prevalent in this place, which compels the accepted swain to absent
+himself from his inamorata for a long probation. I think the time was
+said to be a year; during which no communication must pass between the
+parties. Should the first overtures of a suitor be rejected, it is a
+settled matter of etiquette, that he never again is to see or speak to
+the young lady. This must be likely, we would think, to render a man
+cautious in proposing: but certainly it must tend to lessen the number
+of eventual old maids, by rendering the young ladies also chary of
+saying No, when they mean Yes. On<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_753" id="Page_753">[Pg 753]</a></span> the whole, we can scarcely admire
+their matrimonial tactics. We found that we were among a family of
+H&aacute;djis. Miss D&uacute;d&ugrave; was a Hadji, and so were her father and mother. In
+their case the place of pilgrimage is Jerusalem, a visit to which
+confers on them the respectable title of Hadji for life. This old
+gentleman had made a pious use of some of his money, by promoting the
+cause of pilgrimage among his less opulent brethren. The desire to tread
+the holy soil is common to them all; not only to the religious. These
+have their motives; but so also have the disorderly and wicked, who
+think that a world of cheating and ill-living is covered over by the
+wholesome cloak of pilgrimage. There are also certain less considerable
+places of pilgrimage, invested with considerable sanctity, though
+inferior in character to the one great rendezvous of the religious.
+Health to body seems often the expected result of visits to these
+secondary places, to which recourse will frequently be had when medical
+aid has failed to be available. D&uacute;d&ugrave;'s father had made himself highly
+popular by chartering a vessel, and conveying, for charity's sake, as
+many devotees as chose to go on one of these minor expeditions. The
+island of Cyprus has a convent of peculiar sanctity, a visit to which is
+highly esteemed as an antidote to bodily ills. He gave a great number
+the opportunity of testing the truth of the tradition.</p>
+
+<p>It was not bad fun, after all, tarrying a few days in Adalia: only, by
+choice, we would hardly choose that particular season for the excursion.
+What between the Consul's gardens, and the old Greek, and the little bit
+of business we had upon our hands, we managed to get through the time
+pleasantly enough. We saw that we had here a good specimen of the
+variety of life commonly described as deadly-lively. Were it not that
+they have such a lot of strangers constantly passing through the place,
+they might seem to be in danger of a moral<i>anchylosis</i>&mdash;of falling into
+a state of mind so rusty, as to be incapable of direction to any object,
+save such as lay before them, in the way of immediate physical
+requirement. The few days that we remained there did not afford time
+enough for the disease to make much head with us. Indeed, for us it was
+a variety of experience, sufficiently stirring for the time, to mark the
+ways of a people so deeply buried in imperturbability and incuriosity.</p>
+
+<p>I think we were not sorry when at last the messenger returned from the
+Caimacan, and we found we were in condition to leave the place. The
+Consul was set on his legs again, and the English name in better odour
+than ever. The <i>attach&eacute;s</i> of the consulate had taken care that our visit
+should fail in no degree of its wholesome influence, for want of their
+good word; and I fancy that the town's people thought themselves rather
+well off that we left their town standing. We left, too, with the full
+reputation for merciful dealing; as we had spared the poor soap-rioters
+the infliction of the bastinado.</p>
+
+<p>And so we sped on our way to Rhodes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_754" id="Page_754">[Pg 754]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PACIFIC_ROVINGSC" id="PACIFIC_ROVINGSC"></a>PACIFIC ROVINGS.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>We were much puzzled, a few weeks since, by a tantalising and
+unintelligible paragraph, pertinaciously reiterated in the London
+newspapers. Its brevity equalled its mystery; it consisted but of five
+words, the first and last in imposing majuscules. Thus it ran:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"OMOO, by the author of TYPEE."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>With Trinculo we exclaimed, "What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or
+alive?" Who or what were Typee and Omoo? Were things or creatures thus
+designated? Did they exist on the earth, or in the air, or in the waters
+under the earth; were they spiritual or material, vegetable or mineral,
+brute or human? Were they newly-discovered planets, nicknamed whilst
+awaiting baptism, or strange fossils, contemporaries of the Megatherium,
+or Magyar dissyllables from Dr Bowring's vocabulary? Perchance they were
+a pair of new singers for the Garden, or a fresh brace of beasts for the
+legitimate drama at Drury. Omoo might be the heavy elephant; Typee the
+light-comedy camel. Did danger lurk in the enigmatical words? Were they
+obscure intimations of treasonable designs, Swing advertisements, or
+masonic signs? Was the palace at Westminster in peril? had an agent of
+sure of Barbarossa Joinville undermined the Trafalgar column? Were they
+conspirators' watchwords, lovers' letters, signals concerted between the
+robbers of Rogers's bank? We tried them anagrammatically, but in vain:
+there was nought to be made of Omoo; shake it as we would, the O's came
+uppermost; and by reversing Typee we obtained but a pitiful result. At
+last a bright gleam broke through the mist of conjecture. Omoo was a
+book. The outlandish title that had perplexed us was intended to
+perplex; it was a bait thrown out to that wide-mouthed fish, the public;
+a specimen of what is theatrically styled <i>gag</i>. Having but an
+indifferent opinion of books ushered into existence by such
+charlatanical man&oelig;uvres, we thought no more of Omoo, until, musing
+the other day over our matutinal hyson, the volume itself was laid
+before us, and we suddenly found ourselves in the entertaining society
+of Marquesan Melville, the ph&oelig;nix of modern voyagers, sprung, it
+would seem, from the mingled ashes of Captain Cook and Robin Crusoe.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have read M. Herman Melville's former work will remember,
+those who have not are informed by the introduction to the present one,
+that the author, an educated American, whom circumstances had shipped as
+a common sailor on board a South-Seaman, was left by his vessel on the
+island of Nukuheva, one of the Marquesan group. Here he remained some
+months, until taken off by a Sydney whaler, short-handed, and glad to
+catch him. At this point of his adventures he commences Omoo. The title
+is borrowed from the dialect of the Marquesas, and signifies a rover:
+the book is excellent, quite first-rate, the "clear grit," as Mr
+Melville's countrymen would say. Its chief fault, almost its only one,
+interferes little with the pleasure of reading it, will escape many, and
+is hardly worth insisting upon. Omoo is of the order composite, a
+skilfully concocted Robinsonade, where fictitious incident is
+ingeniously blended with genuine information. Doubtless its author has
+visited the countries he describes, but not in the capacity he states.
+He is no Munchausen; there is nothing improbable in his adventures, save
+their occurrence to himself, and that he should have been a man before
+the mast on board South-Sea traders, or whalers, or on any ship or ships
+whatever. His speech betrayeth him. His voyages and wanderings
+commenced, according to his own account,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_755" id="Page_755">[Pg 755]</a></span> at least as far back as the
+year 1838; for aught we know they are not yet at an end. On leaving
+Tahiti in 1843, he made sail for Japan, and the very book before us may
+have been scribbled on the greasy deck of a whaler, whilst floating
+amidst the coral reefs of the wide Pacific. True that in his preface,
+and in the month of January of the present year, Mr Melville hails from
+New York; but in such matters we really place little dependence upon
+him. From his narrative we gather that this literary and gentlemanly
+common-sailor is quite a young man. His life, therefore, since he
+emerged from boyhood, has been spent in a ship's forecastle, amongst the
+wildest and most ignorant class of mariners. Yet his tone is refined and
+well-bred; he writes like one accustomed to good European society, who
+has read books and collected stores of information, other than could be
+perused or gathered in the places and amongst the rude associates he
+describes. These inconsistencies are glaring, and can hardly be
+explained. A wild freak or unfortunate act of folly, or a boyish thirst
+for adventure, sometimes drives lads of education to try life before the
+mast, but when suited for better things they seldom persevere; and Mr
+Melville does not seem to us the manner of man to rest long contented
+with the coarse company and humble lot of merchant seamen. Other
+discrepancies strike us in his book and character. The train of
+suspicion once lighted, the flame runs rapidly along. Our misgivings
+begin with the title-page. "Lovel or Belville," says the Laird of
+Monkbarns, "are just the names which youngsters are apt to assume on
+such occasions." And Herman Melville sounds to us vastly like the
+harmonious and carefully selected appellation of an imaginary hero of
+romance. Separately the names are not uncommon; we can urge no valid
+reason against their junction, and yet in this instance they fall
+suspiciously on our ear. We are similarly impressed by the dedication.
+Of the existence of Uncle Gansevoort, of Gansevoort, Saratoga County, we
+are wholly incredulous. We shall commission our New York correspondents
+to inquire as to the reality of Mr Melville's avuncular relative, and,
+until certified of his corporality, shall set down the gentleman with
+the Dutch patronymic as a member of an imaginary clan.</p>
+
+<p>Although glad to escape from Nukuheva, where he had been held in a sort
+of honourable captivity, Typee&mdash;the <i>alias</i> bestowed upon the rover by
+his new shipmates, after the valley whence they rescued him&mdash;was but
+indifferently pleased with the vessel on which he left it, and whose
+articles he signed as a seaman for one cruise. The Julia was of a
+beautiful model, and on or before a wind she sailed like a witch; but
+that was all that could be said in her praise. She was rotten to the
+core, incommodious, and ill-provided, badly manned, and worse commanded.
+American-built, she dated from the Short war, had served as a privateer,
+been taken by the British, passed through many vicissitudes, and was in
+no condition for a long cruise in the Pacific. So mouldering was her
+fabric, that the reckless sailors, when seated in the forecastle, dug
+their knives into the dank boards between them and eternity as easily as
+into the moist sides of some old pollard oak. She was much dilapidated
+and rapidly becoming more so; for Black Baltimore, the ship's cook, when
+in want of firewood, did not scruple to hack splinters from the bits and
+beams. Lugubrious indeed was the aspect of the forecastle. Landsmen,
+whose ideas of a sailor's sleeping-place are taken from the snow-white
+hammocks and exquisitely clean berth-deck of a man of war, or from the
+rough, but substantial comfort of a well-appointed merchantman, can form
+no conception of the surpassing and countless abominations of a
+South-Sea whaler. The "Little Jule," as her crew affectionately styled
+her, was a craft of two hundred tons or thereabouts; she had sailed with
+thirty-two hands, whom desertion had reduced to twenty, but these were
+too many for the cramped and putrid nook in which they slept, ate, and
+smoked, and alternately desponded or were jovial, as sickness and
+discomfort, or a Saturday night's bottle and hopes of better luck, got
+the upper hand. Want of room, however, was one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_756" id="Page_756">[Pg 756]</a></span> the least grievances
+of which the Julia's crew complained. It was a mere trifle, not worth
+the naming. They could have submitted to close stowage had the dunnage
+been decent. But instead of swinging in cosy hammocks, they slept in
+<i>bunks</i> or wretched pigeon-holes, on fragments of sails, unclean rags,
+blanket-shreds, and the like. Such unenviable accommodations ought
+hardly to have been disputed with their luckless possessors, who
+nevertheless were not allowed to occupy in peace their broken-down bunks
+and scanty bedding. Two races of creatures, time out of mind the curse
+of old ships in warm latitudes, infested the Julia's forecastle,
+resisting all efforts to dislodge or exterminate them, sometimes even
+getting the upper hand, dispossessing the tortured mariners, and driving
+them on deck in terror and despair. The sick only, hapless martyrs
+unable to leave their cribs, lay passive, if not resigned, and were
+trampled under foot by their ferocious and unfragrant foes. These were
+rats and cockroaches. Typee&mdash;we use the name he bore during his Julian
+tribulations&mdash;records a singular phenomenon in the nocturnal habits of
+the last-named vermin. "Every night they had a jubilee. The first
+symptom was an unusual clustering and humming amongst the swarms lining
+the beams overhead, and the inside of the sleeping-places. This was
+succeeded by a prodigious coming and going on the part of those living
+out of sight. Presently they all came forth; the larger sort racing over
+the chests and planks; winged monsters darting to and fro in the air;
+and the small fry buzzing in heaps almost in a state of fusion. On the
+first alarm, all who were able darted on deck; while some of the sick,
+who were too feeble, lay perfectly quiet, the distracted vermin running
+over them at pleasure. The performance lasted some ten minutes." Persons
+there are, weak enough to view with loathing and aversion certain sable
+insects that stray at night in kitchen or in pantry, and barbarous
+enough to circumvent and destroy the odoriferous coleopter&aelig; by artful
+devices of glass traps and scarlet wafers. Such persons will probably
+form their ideas of Typee's cockroaches from their own domestic
+opportunities of observation. That were unjust to the crew of the Julia,
+and would give no adequate idea of their sufferings. As a purring tabby
+to a roaring jaguar, so is a British black-beetle to a cock-roach of the
+Southern Seas. We back our assertion by a quotation from our lamented
+friend Captain Cringle, who in his especially graphic and attractive
+style thus hits off the peculiarities of this graceful insect. "When
+full grown," saith Thomas, "it is a large dingy brown-coloured beetle,
+about two inches long, with six legs, and two feelers as long as its
+body. It has a strong anti-hysterical flavour, something between rotten
+cheese and asaf&oelig;tida, and seldom stirs abroad when the sun is up, but
+lies concealed in the most obscure and obscene crevices it can creep
+into; so that, when it is seen, its wings and body are thickly covered
+with dust and dirt of various shades, which any culprit who chances to
+fall asleep with his mouth open, is sure to reap the benefit of, as it
+has a great propensity to walk into it, partly for the sake of the
+crumbs adhering to the masticators, and also, apparently, with a
+scientific desire to inspect, by accurate admeasurement with the
+aforesaid antenn&aelig;, the state and condition of the whole potato-trap." A
+description worthy of Buffon. Such were the delicate monsters, the
+savoury sexipedes, with whom Typee and his comrades had to wage
+incessant war. They were worse even than the rats, which were certainly
+bad enough. "Tame as Trenck's mouse, they stood in their holes, peering
+at you like old grandfathers in a doorway;" watching for their prey, and
+disputing with the sailors the weevil-biscuit, rancid pork, and
+horse-beef, composing the Julia's stores; or smothering themselves, the
+luscious vermin, in molasses, which thereby acquired a rich wood-cock
+flavour, whose cause became manifest when the treacle-jar ran low,
+greatly to the disgust and consternation of the biped consumers. There
+were no delicate feeders on board, but this saccharine essence of rat
+was too much even for the unscrupulous stomachs of South-Sea whalers. A
+queer set they were on board that Sydney barque. Paper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_757" id="Page_757">[Pg 757]</a></span> Jack, the
+captain, was a feeble Cockney, of meek spirit and puny frame, who glided
+about the vessel in a nankeen jacket and canvass pumps, a laughing-stock
+to his crew. The real command devolved upon the chief mate, John
+Jermin&mdash;a good sailor and brave fellow, but violent, and given to drink.
+The junior mate had deserted; of the four harpooners only one was left,
+a fierce barbarian of a New Zealander&mdash;an excellent mariner, whose stock
+of English was limited to nautical phrases and a frightful power of
+oath, but who, in spite of his cannibal origin, ranked as a sort of
+officer, in virtue of his harpoon, and took command of the ship when
+mate and captain were absent. What a capital story, by the bye, Typee
+tells us of one of this Bembo's whaling exploits! New Zealanders are
+brave and bloodthirsty, and excellent harpooners, and they act up to the
+South-Seaman's war-cry, "A dead whale or a stove boat!" There is a world
+of wild romance and thrilling adventure in the occasional glimpses of
+the whale fishery afforded us in Omoo; a strange picturesqueness and
+piratical mystery about the lawless class of seamen engaged in it. Such
+a portrait gallery as Typee makes out of the Julia's crew, beginning
+with Chips and Bungs, the carpenter and cooper, the "Cods," or leaders
+of the forecastle, and descending until he arrives at poor Rope Yarn, or
+Ropey, as he was called, a stunted journeyman baker from Holborn, the
+most helpless and forlorn of all land-lubbers, the butt and drudge of
+the ship's company! A Dane, a Portuguese, a Finlander, a savage
+from Hivarhoo, sundry English, Irish, and Americans, a daring
+Yankee <i>beach-comber</i>, called Salem, and Sydney Ben, a runaway
+ticket-of-leave-man, made up a crew much too weak to do any good in the
+whaling way. But the best fellow on board, and by far the most
+remarkable, was a disciple of Esculapius, known as Doctor Long-Ghost.
+Jermin is a good portrait; so is Captain Guy; but Long-Ghost is a jewel
+of a boy, a complete original, hit off with uncommon felicity. Nothing
+is told us of his early life. Typee takes him up on board the Julia,
+shakes hands with him in the last page of the book, and informs us that
+he has never since seen or heard of him. So we become acquainted with
+but a small section of the doctor's life; his subsequent adventures are
+unknown, and, save a chance hint or two, his previous career is a
+mystery, unfathomable as the Tahitian coast, where, within a biscuit's
+toss of the coral shore, soundings there are none. Now and then he would
+obscurely refer to days more palmy and prosperous than those spent on
+board the Julia. But however great the contrast between his former
+fortunes and his then lowly position, he exhibited much calm philosophy
+and cheerful resignation. He was even merry and facetious, a practical
+wag of the very first order, and as such a great favourite with the
+whole ship's company, the captain excepted. He had arrived at Sydney in
+an emigrant ship, had expended his resources, and entered as doctor on
+board the Julia. All British whalers are bound to carry a medico, who is
+treated as a gentleman, so long as he behaves as such, and has nothing
+to do but to drug the men and play drafts with the captain. At first
+Long-Ghost and Captain Guy hit it off very well; until, in an unlucky
+hour, a dispute about politics destroyed their harmonious association.
+The captain got a thrashing; the mutinous doctor was put in confinement
+and on bread and water, ran away from the ship, was pursued, captured,
+and again imprisoned. Released at last, he resigned his office, refused
+to do duty, and went forward amongst the men. This was more magnanimous
+than wise. Long-Ghost was a sort of medical Tom Coffin, a raw-boned
+giant, upwards of two yards high, one of those men to whom the
+between-decks of a small craft is a residence little less afflicting
+than one of Cardinal Balue's iron cages. And to one who "had certainly,
+at some time or other, spent money, drunk Burgundy, and associated with
+gentlemen," the Julia's forecastle must have contained a host of
+disagreeables, irrespective of rats and cockroaches, of its low roof,
+evil odours, damp timbers, and dungeon-like aspect. The captain's table,
+if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_758" id="Page_758">[Pg 758]</a></span> less luxurious than that of a royal yacht or New York liner, surely
+offered something better than the biscuits, hard as gun-flints and
+thoroughly honeycombed, and the shot-soup, "great round peas polishing
+themselves like pebbles by rolling about in tepid water," on which the
+restive man of medicine was fain to exercise his grinders during his
+abode forward. As regarded society, he lost little by relinquishing that
+of Guy the Cockney, since he obtained in exchange the intimacy of
+Melville the Yankee, who, to judge from his book, must be exceeding good
+company, and to whom he was a great resource. The doctor was a man of
+learning and accomplishments, who had made the most of his time whilst
+the sun shone on his side the hedge, and had rolled his ungainly carcass
+over half the world. "He quoted Virgil, and talked of Hobbes of
+Malmsbury, besides repeating poetry by the canto, especially Hudibras.
+In the easiest way imaginable, he could refer to an amour he had in
+Palermo, his lion-hunting before breakfast among the Caffres, and the
+quality of the coffee to be drunk in Muscat." Strangely must such
+reminiscences have sounded in a whaler's forecastle, with Dunks the
+Dane, Finland Van, and Wymontoo the Savage, for auditors.</p>
+
+<p>The Julia had hitherto had little luck in her cruise, and could scarcely
+hope for better in the state in which Typee found her. Besides the
+losses by desertion, her crew was weakened by disease. Several of the
+men lay sick in their berths, wholly unfit for duty. The captain himself
+was ill, and all would have derived benefit from a short sojourn in
+port; but this could not be thought of. The discipline of the ship was
+bad, and the sailors, desperate and unruly fellows, discontented, as
+well they might be, with their wretched provisions and uncomfortable
+state, were not to be trusted on or near shore. Three-fourths of them,
+had they once set foot on dry land, would have absconded, taken refuge
+in the woods or amongst the savages, and have submitted to any amount of
+tattoo, paint, and nose-ringing, rather than return to the ship.
+Already, at St Christina, one of the Marquesas, a large party had made
+their escape in two of the four whale-boats, scuttling the third, and
+cutting the tackles of the fourth nearly through, so that when Bembo
+jumped in to clear it away, man and boat went souse into the water. By
+the assistance of a French corvette, and by bribing the king of the
+country with a musket and ammunition, the fugitives were captured. But
+it was more than probable that they and others would renew the attempt
+should opportunity offer; so there was no alternative but to keep the
+sea, and hope for better days and for the convalescence of the invalids.
+Two of these died. Neither Bible nor Prayer-book were on board the
+godless craft, and like dogs, without form of Christian burial, the dead
+were launched into the deep. The situation of the survivors inspired
+with considerable uneasiness the few amongst them capable of reflection.
+The captain was ignorant of navigation; it was the mate who, from the
+commencement of the voyage, had kept the ship's reckoning, and kept it
+all to himself. He had only to get washed overboard in a gale, or to
+walk over in a drunken fit, to leave his shipmates in a fix of the most
+unpleasant description, ignorant of latitude, longitude, and of
+everything else necessary to be known to guide the vessel on her course.
+And as to the sperm whales, which Jermin had promised them in such
+abundance that they would only have to strike and take, not a single fin
+showed itself. At last the captain was reported dying, and the mate took
+counsel with Long-Ghost, Typee, and others of the crew. He would gladly
+have continued the cruise, but his wish was overruled, and the whaler's
+stern was turned towards the Society Islands.</p>
+
+<p>The first glimpse of the peaks of Tahiti was hailed with transport by
+the Julia's weary mariners. They had got a notion that if the captain
+left the ship, their articles were no longer binding, and they should be
+free to follow his example. And, at any rate, the sickness on board and
+the shaky condition of the barque, guaranteed them, as they thought,
+long and blissful leisure amongst the waving palm-groves and soft-eyed
+Neuhas of Polynesia. Their arrival in sight of Papeetee, the Tahitian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_759" id="Page_759">[Pg 759]</a></span>
+capital, was welcomed by the boom of cannon. The frigate Reine Blanche,
+at whose fore flew the flag of Admiral Du Petit Thouars, thus celebrated
+the compulsory treaty, concluded that morning, by which the island was
+ceded to the French.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Guy and his baggage were now set on shore, and it was soon
+apparent to his men that whilst he nursed himself in the pure climate
+and pleasant shades of Tahiti, they were to put to sea under the mate's
+orders, and after a certain time to touch again at the island, and take
+off their commander. The vessel was not even allowed to go into port,
+although needing repairs, and in fact unseaworthy; and as to healing the
+sick, selfish Paper Jack thought only of solacing his own infirmities.
+The fury of the ill-fed, reckless, discontented crew, on discovering the
+project of their superiors, passed all bounds. Chips and Bungs
+volunteered to head a mutiny, and a round-robin was drawn up and signed.
+But when Wilson, an old acquaintance of Guy's, and acting consul in the
+absence of missionary Pritchard, came on board, the gallant cooper, who
+derived much of his courage from the grog-kid, was cowed and craven. The
+grievances brought forward, amongst others that of the <i>salt-horse</i>, (a
+horse's hoof with the shoe on, so swore the cook, had been found in the
+pickle,) were treated as trifles and pooh-poohed by the functionary, "a
+minute gentleman with a viciously pugged nose, and a decidedly thin pair
+of legs." But if Bungs allowed himself to be brow-beaten, so did not his
+comrades. Yankee Salem flourished a bowie-knife, and such alarming
+demonstrations were made, that the <i>counsellor</i>, as the sailors
+persisted in calling the consul, thought it wise to beat a retreat.
+Jermin now tried his hand, holding out brilliant prospects of a rich
+cargo of sperm oil, and a pocket-full of dollars for every man on his
+return to Sydney. The mutineers were proof alike against menace and
+blandishment, and, at the secret instigation of Long Ghost and Typee,
+resolutely refused to do duty. The consul, who had promised to return,
+did not show; and at last the mate, having now but a few invalids and
+landsmen to work the ship and keep her off shore, was compelled to enter
+the harbour. The Julia came to an anchor within cable's length of the
+French frigate, on board which consul Wilson repaired to obtain
+assistance. The Reine Blanche was to sail in a few days for Valparaiso,
+and the mutineers expected to go with her and be delivered up to a
+British man-of-war. Undismayed by this prospect, they continued stanch
+in their contumacy, and presently an armed cutter, "painted a 'pirate
+black,' its crew a dark, grim-looking set, and the officers uncommonly
+fierce-looking little Frenchmen," conveyed them on board the frigate,
+where they were duly handcuffed, and secured by the ankle to a great
+iron bar bolted down to the berth-deck.</p>
+
+<p>Touching the proceedings on board the French man-of-war, its imperfect
+discipline, and the strange, un-nautical way of carrying on the duty,
+Typee is jocular and satirical. American though he be&mdash;and, but for
+occasional slight yankeeisms in his style, we might have doubted even
+that fact&mdash;he has evidently much more sympathy with his cousin John Bull
+than with his country's old allies, the French, whom he freely admits to
+be a clever and gallant nation, whilst he broadly hints that their
+valour is not likely to be displayed to advantage on the water. He finds
+too much of the military style about their marine institutions. Sailors
+should be fighting men, but not soldiers or musket-carriers, as they all
+are in turn in the French navy. He laughs at or objects to every thing;
+the mustaches of the officers, the system of punishment, the sour wine
+that replaces rum and water, the soup instead of junk, the pitiful
+little rolls baked on board, and distributed in lieu of hard biscuit.
+And whilst praising the build of their ships&mdash;the only thing about them
+he does praise&mdash;he ejaculates a hope, which sounds like a doubt, that
+they will not some day fall into the hands of the people across the
+Channel. "In case of war," he says, "what a fluttering of French ensigns
+there would be! for the Frenchman makes but an indifferent seaman, and
+though for the most part he fights well enough, somehow or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_760" id="Page_760">[Pg 760]</a></span> other, he
+seldom fights well enough to beat:"&mdash;at sea, be it understood. We are
+rather at a loss to comprehend the familiarity shown by Typee with the
+internal arrangements and architecture of the Reine Blanche. His time on
+board was passed in fetters; at nightfall on the fifth day he left the
+ship. How, we are curious to know, did he become acquainted with the
+minute details of "the crack craft in the French navy," with the
+disposition of her guns and decks, the complicated machinery by which
+certain exceedingly simple things were done, and even with the rich
+hangings, mirrors, and mahogany of the commodore's cabin? Surely the
+ragged and disreputable mutineer of the Julia, whose foot had scarcely
+touched the gangway, when he was hurried into confinement below, could
+have had scanty opportunity for such observations: unless, indeed,
+Herman Melville, or Typee, or the Rover, or by whatever other <i>alias</i> he
+be known, instead of creeping in at the hawse-holes, was welcomed on the
+quarter-deck and admitted to the gun-room, or to the commodore's cabin,
+an honoured guest in broad-cloth, not a despised merchant seaman in
+canvass frock and hat of tarpaulin. We shall not dwell on these small
+inconsistencies and oversights in an amusing book. We prefer
+accompanying the Julia's crew to Tahiti, where they were put on shore
+contrary to their expectations, and not altogether to their
+satisfaction, since they had anticipated a rapid run to Valparaiso, the
+fag-end of a cruise in an English man-of-war, and a speedy discharge at
+Portsmouth. Paper Jack and Consul Wilson had other designs, and still
+hoped to reclaim them to their duty on board the crazy Julia. On their
+stubborn refusal, they were given in charge to a fat, good-humoured, old
+Tahitian, called Captain Bob, who, at the head of an escort of natives,
+conveyed them up the country to a sort of shed, known as the Calabooza
+Beretanee or English jail, used as a prison for refractory sailors. This
+commences Typee's shore-going adventures, not less pleasant and original
+than his sea-faring ones; although it is with some regret that we lose
+sight of the vermin-haunted barque, on whose board such strange and
+exciting scenes occurred.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the book, however, fun and incident abound, and we are
+consoled for our separation from poor little Jule, by the curious
+insight we obtain into the manners, morals, and condition of the gentle
+savages, on whom an attempted civilisation has brought far more curses
+than blessings.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"How pleasant were the songs of Toobonai,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>how gladsome and grateful the rustle of leaves and tinkle of rills, and
+silver-toned voices of Tahitian maidens, to the rough seamen who had so
+long been "cabined, cribbed, confined," in the Julia's filthy
+forecastle! Not that they were allowed free range of the Eden of the
+South Seas. On board the Reine Blanche their ankles had been manacled to
+an iron bar; in the Calabooza, (from the Spanish <i>calabozo</i>, a dungeon,)
+they were placed in rude wooden stocks twenty feet long, constructed for
+the particular benefit of refractory mariners. There they lay, merry men
+all of a row, fed upon <i>taro</i> (Indian turnip) and bread-fruit, and
+covered up at night with one huge counterpane of brown <i>tappa</i>, the
+native cloth. It was owing to no friendly indulgence on the part of Guy
+and the consul, that their diet was so agreeable and salutary. Every
+morning Ropey came grinning into the prison, with a bucket full of the
+old worm-eaten biscuit from the Julia. It was a huge treat to the
+unfortunate Cockney, thus to be instrumental in the annoyance of his
+former persecutors; and lucky for him that their limbo'd legs prevented
+their rewarding his visible exultation otherwise than by a shower of
+maledictions. They swore to starve rather than consume the maggoty
+provender. Luckily the natives had it in very different estimation. They
+did not mind maggots, and held British biscuit to be a piquant and
+delicious delicacy. So in exchange for their allotted ration, the
+mutineers obtained a small quantity of vegetable food, and an unlimited
+supply of oranges, thanks to which refreshing regimen the sick were
+speedily restored to health. And after a few days of stocks and
+submission, jolly old Captain Bob, who spoke sailor's English, and
+obstinately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_761" id="Page_761">[Pg 761]</a></span> claimed intimacy with Captain Cook,&mdash;whose visit to the
+island had occurred some years before his birth&mdash;relaxed his severity,
+and allowed the captives their freedom during the day. They profited of
+this permission to forage a little, in a quiet way; assisting at
+pig-killings, and dropping in at dinner-time upon the wealthier of their
+neighbours. Tahitian hospitality is boundless, and the more praiseworthy
+that the island, although so fertile, produces but a scanty amount of
+edibles. Bread-fruit is the chief resource; fish, a very important one,
+the chief dependence of many of the poorer natives. There is little
+industry amongst them, and on the spontaneous produce of the soil the
+shipping make heavy demands. Polynesian indolence is proverbial. Very
+light labour would enable the Tahitians to roll in riches, at least
+according to their own estimate of the value of money and of the
+luxuries it procures. The sugar-cane is indigenous to the island, and of
+remarkably fine quality; cotton is of ready growth; but the fine
+existing plantations "are owned and worked by whites, who would rather
+pay a drunken sailor eighteen or twenty Spanish dollars a month, than
+hire a sober native for his fish and <i>taro</i>." Wholly without energy, the
+Tahitians saunter away their lives in a state of drowsy indolence,
+aiming only at the avoidance of trouble, and the sensual enjoyment of
+the moment. The race rapidly diminishes. "In 1777, Captain Cook
+estimated the population of Tahiti at about two hundred thousand. By a
+regular census taken some four or five years ago, it was found to be
+only nine thousand!" Diseases of various kinds, entirely of European
+introduction, and chiefly the result of drunkenness and debauchery,
+account for this frightful decrease, which must result in the extinction
+of the aborigines.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The palm-tree shall grow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The coral shall spread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But man shall cease."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So runs an old Tahitian prophecy, soon to be realised. And if Pomaree,
+who is under forty years of age, proves a long-lived sovereign, she may
+chance to find herself a queen without subjects. Concerning her majesty
+and her court, Typee is diffuse and diverting. This is an age of queens,
+and although her dominions be of the smallest, her people few and
+feeble, and her prerogative wofully clipped, she of Tahiti has made some
+noise in the world, and attracted a fair share of public attention. At
+one time, indeed, she was almost as much thought of and talked about as
+her more civilised and puissant European sisters. In France, <i>La Reine
+Pomar&eacute;e</i> was looked upon as a far more interesting personage than
+Spanish Isabel or Portuguese Maria; and extraordinary notions were
+formed as to the appearance, habits, and attributes of her dusky
+majesty. Distance favoured delusion, and French imagination ran riot in
+conjecture, until the reports of the valiant Thonars, and his squadron
+of protection, dissipated the enchantment, and reduced Pomaree to her
+true character, that of a lazy, dirty, licentious, Polynesian savage,
+who walks about barefoot, drinks spirits, and hen-pecks her husband. Her
+real name is Aimata, but she assumed, on ascending the throne, the royal
+patronymic by which she is best known. There were C&aelig;sars in Rome, there
+are Pomarees in Tahiti. The name was originally assumed by the great
+Otoo, (to be read of in Captain Cook,) who united the whole island under
+one crown. It descended to his son, and then to his grandson, who came
+to the throne an infant, and, dying young, was succeeded by her present
+majesty, Pomaree Vahinee I., the first female Pomaree. This lady has
+been twice married. Her first husband was a king's son, but the union
+was ill assorted, a divorce obtained, and she took up with one Tanee, a
+chief from the neighbouring island of Imeco. She leads him a dog's life,
+and he consoles himself by getting drunk. In that state, he now and then
+violently breaks out, contemns the royal authority, thrashes his wife,
+and smashes the crockery. Captain Bob gave Typee an account of a burst
+of this sort, which occurred about seven years ago. Stimulated by the
+seditious advice of his boon companions, and under the influence of an
+unusually large dose of strong waters, the turbulent king-consort forgot
+the respect due to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_762" id="Page_762">[Pg 762]</a></span> wife and sovereign, mounted his horse, and ran
+full tilt at the royal cavalcade, out for their afternoon ride in the
+park. One maid of honour was floored, the rest fled in terror, save and
+except Pomaree, who stood her ground like a man, and apostrophised her
+insubordinate spouse in the choicest Tahitian Billingsgate. For once her
+eloquence failed of effect. Dragged from her horse, her personal charms
+were deteriorated by a severe thumping on the face. This done,
+Othello-Tanee attempted to strangle her, and was in a fair way to
+succeed, when her loving subjects came to her rescue. So heinous a crime
+could not be overlooked, and Tanee, was banished to his native island;
+but after a short time he declared his penitence, made <i>amende
+honorable</i>, and was restored to favour. He does not very often venture
+to thwart the will of his royal wife, much less to raise his hand
+against her sacred person, but submits with exemplary patience to her
+caprices and abuse, and even to the manual admonitions she not
+unfrequently bestows upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the whole, life, at the Calabooza was not very disagreeable. The
+prisoners, now only nominally so, had little to complain of, except
+occasional short commons, arising not from unwillingness, but from
+disability, on the part of the kind-hearted natives, to satisfy the
+cravings of the hungry whalers, whose appetites were remarkable,
+especially that of lanky Doctor Long Ghost. The doctor was a stickler
+for quality as well as quantity; the memory of his claret and beccafico
+days still clung to him, like the scent of the roses to Tom Moore's
+broken gallipot: he was curious in condiments, and whilst devouring,
+grumbled at the unseasoned viands of Tahiti. Cayenne and Harvey abounded
+not in those latitudes, but pepper and salt were on board the Julia, and
+the doctor prevailed on Rope Yarn to bring him a supply. "This he placed
+in a small leather wallet, a monkey bag (so called by sailors) usually
+worn as a purse about the neck. 'In my poor opinion,' said Long Ghost,
+as he tucked the wallet out of sight, 'it behoves a stranger in Tahiti
+to have his knife in readiness, and his castor slung.'" And thus
+equipped, the doctor and his brethren in captivity rambled over the
+verdant slopes and through the cool groves of Tahiti, bathed in the
+mountain streams, and luxuriated in orange orchards, where "the trees
+formed a dense shade, spreading overhead a dark, rustling vault, groined
+with boughs, and studded here and there with the ripened spheres, like
+gilded balls." Then they had plenty of society; native visitors flocked
+to see them, and Doctor Johnson, a resident English physician, was
+constant in his attendance, knowing that the Consul must pay his bill.
+Three French priests also called upon them, one of whom proved to be no
+Frenchman, but a portly, handsome, good-humoured Irishman, well known
+and much disliked by the Polynesian protestant missionaries. A strong
+attempt was made by Guy and Wilson to get the men to do duty. A schooner
+was about to sail for Sydney, and they were threatened to be sent
+thither for trial. They still refused to hand rope or break biscuit on
+board the Julia. Long Ghost made some cutting remarks on the captain;
+and the sailors, who had been taken down to the Consul's office for
+examination, began to bully, and talked of carrying off Consul and
+Captain to bear them company in the Calabooza. The same ill success
+attended subsequent attempts, until Captain Guy was compelled to look
+out for another crew, which he obtained with difficulty, and by a
+considerable advance of hard dollars. And at last, "It was Sunday in
+Tahiti, and a glorious morning, when Captain Bob, waddling into the
+Calabooza, startled us by announcing, 'Ah, my boy&mdash;shippee you,
+harree&mdash;maky sail!' in other words, the Julia was off," and had taken
+her stores of old biscuit with her: so the next morning the inmates of
+the Calabooza were without rations. The Consul would supply none, and it
+was pretty evident that he rather desired the departure of the obstinate
+seamen from that part of the island. The whole of his proceedings with
+regard to them had served but to render him ridiculous, and he wished
+them out of his neighbourhood; but the ex-prisoners found themselves
+pretty comfortable, and preferred remaining. They were better off than
+they had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_763" id="Page_763">[Pg 763]</a></span> for some time been, for Jermin&mdash;not such a bad fellow, after
+all&mdash;had sent them their chests ashore; and these, besides supplying
+them with sundry necessaries, gave them immense importance in Tahitian
+eyes. They had been kindly treated before, but now they were courted and
+flattered, like younger sons in marching regiments, who suddenly step
+into the family acres. The natives crowded round them, eager to swear
+eternal friendship, according to an old Polynesian custom, once
+universal in the islands, but that has fallen into considerable disuse,
+except when something is to be gained by its observance. A gentleman of
+the name of Kooloo fixed his affections upon Typee&mdash;or rather upon his
+goods and chattels; for when he had wheedled him out of a regatta shirt,
+and other small pieces of finery, he transferred his affections to a
+newly-arrived sailor, whose chest was better lined, and who bestowed on
+him a love-token, in the shape of a heavy pea-jacket. In this garment,
+closely buttoned up, Kooloo took morning promenades, with the tropical
+sun glaring down upon him. He frequently met his former friend, but
+passed him with a careless "How d'ye do?" which presently dwindled into
+a nod. "In one week's time," says poor Typee, "he gave me the cut
+direct, and lounged by without even nodding. He must have taken me for
+part of the landscape."</p>
+
+<p>After a while the contents of the chests, and even the chests
+themselves&mdash;esteemed by the Tahitians most valuable pieces of
+furniture&mdash;were given or bartered away, and, as the Consul still refused
+them rations, the sailors knew not how to live. The natives helped them
+as much as they could, but their larders were scantily furnished, and
+they grew tired of feeding fifteen hungry idlers. So at last the latter
+made a morning call upon the Consul, who, being unwilling to withdraw,
+and equally so to press, charges which he knew would not be sustained,
+refused to have any thing to say to them. Thereupon some of the party,
+strong in principle and resolution, and seeing how grievous an annoyance
+their presence was to their enemy, Wilson, swore to abide near him and
+never to leave him. Others, less obstinate or more impatient of a
+change, resolved to decamp from the Calabooza. The first to depart were
+Typee and Long Ghost. They had received intelligence of a new plantation
+in Imeco, recently formed by foreigners, who wanted white labourers, and
+were expected at Papeetee to seek them. With these men they took service
+under the names of Peter and Paul, at wages of fifteen silver dollars a
+month; and, after an affecting separation from their shipmates&mdash;whose
+respectable character may be judged of by the fact, that one of them
+picked Long Ghost's pocket in the very act of embracing him,&mdash;they
+sailed away for Imeco, and arrived without accident in the valley of
+Martair, where the plantation was situate. The chapters recording their
+stay here are amongst the very best in the book, full of rich, quiet
+fun. Typee gives a capital description of his employers. They were two
+in number, both "whole-souled fellows; one was a tall robust Yankee,
+born in the backwoods of Maine, sallow, and with a long face; the other,
+a short little Cockney who had first clapped his eyes on the Monument."
+Zeke the Yankee, had christened his comrade "Shorty;" and Shorty looked
+up to him with respect, and yielded to him in most things. Both showed
+themselves well disposed towards their new labourers, whom they at once
+discovered to be superior to their station. And they soon found their
+society so agreeable, that they were willing to keep them to do little
+more than nominal work. As to making them efficient farm servants, they
+quickly gave up that idea. As a sailor, Typee had little fancy for
+husbandry; and the doctor found his long back terribly in his way when
+requested to dig potatoes and root up stumps, under a sun which, as
+Shorty said, "was hot enough to melt the nose hoff a brass monkey." Long
+Ghost very soon gave in; the extraction of a single tree-root settled
+him; he pleaded illness, and retired to his hammock, but was
+considerably vexed when he heard the Yankee propose a bullock hunting
+expedition, in which, as a sick man, he could not decently take part.
+This was only the prologue to his annoyances. Musquitoes, unknown in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_764" id="Page_764">[Pg 764]</a></span>
+Tahiti, abound in Imeeo. They were brought there, according to a native
+tradition, by one Nathan Coleman, of Nantucket, who, in revenge for some
+fancied grievance, towed a rotten water-cask ashore, and left it in a
+neglected <i>taro</i> patch, where the ground was moist and warm. Musquitoes
+were the result. "When tormented by them, I found much relief in
+coupling the word Coleman with another of one syllable, and pronouncing
+them together energetically." The musquito chapter is very amusing,
+showing the various comical and ingenious man&oelig;uvres of the friends to
+avoid their tormentors, and obtain a night's sleep. At last they entered
+a fishing canoe, paddled some distance from shore, and dropped the
+native anchor, a stone secured to a rope. They were awakened in the
+morning by the motion of their boat. Zeke was wading in the shallow
+water, and towing them from a reef towards which they had drifted. "The
+water-sprites had rolled our stone out of its noose, and we had floated
+away." This was a narrow escape, but nevertheless they stuck to their
+floating bedstead as the only possible sleeping place. A day's
+successful hunting, followed by a famous supper and jollification under
+a banian-tree, put the doctor in good humour, and he made himself vastly
+agreeable. The natives beheld his waggish pranks with infinite
+admiration, and Zeke looked upon him with particular favour; so much so,
+that when upon the following morning an order came from a ship at
+Papeetee, for a supply of potatoes, he almost hesitated to tell funny
+Peter to assist in digging them up. But the emergency pressed, and the
+work must be done. So Peter and Paul were set to unearth the vegetables.
+This was no very cruel task, for "the rich tawny soil seemed specially
+adapted to the crop; the great yellow murphies rolling out of the hills
+like eggs from a nest." But when they were dug up, they had to be
+carried to the beach; and to this part of the business the lazy
+adventurers had a special dislike, although Zeke kindly provided them,
+to lighten their toil, with what he called the barrel machine&mdash;a sort of
+rural sedan, in which the servants carried their loads with comparative
+ease, whilst their employers sweated under shouldered hampers. But no
+alleviation could reconcile the sailor and the physician to this novel
+and unpleasant labour, and the potato-digging was the last piece of
+work, deserving the name, that either of them did. A few days afterwards
+they gave their masters warning, greatly to the vexation of Zeke,
+although he received the notice&mdash;with true Yankee imperturbability. He
+proposed that Long Ghost, who, after the hunt, had shown, considerable
+culinary skill, should assume the office of cook, and that Paul-Typee
+should only work when it suited him, which would not have been very
+often. The offer was friendly and favourable, but it was refused. A
+hospitable invitation to remain as guests as long as was convenient to
+them, was likewise rejected, and, bent upon a ramble, the restless
+adventurers left the vale of Martair. Even greater inducements would
+probably have been insufficient to keep them there. They had been so
+long on the rove, that change of scene had become essential to their
+happiness. The doctor, especially, was anxious to be off to Tamai, an
+inland village on the borders of a lake, where the fruits were the
+finest, and the women the most beautiful and unsophisticated in all the
+Society Islands. Epicurean Long Ghost had set his mind upon visiting
+this terrestrial paradise, and thither his steady chum willingly
+accompanied him. It was a day's journey on foot, allowing time for
+dinner and siesta; and the path lay through wood and ravine, unpeopled
+save by wild cattle. About noon they reached the heart of the island,
+thus pleasantly described. "It was a green, cool hollow among the
+mountains, into which we at last descended with a bound. The place was
+gushing with a hundred springs, and shaded over with great solemn trees,
+on whose mossy boles the moisture stood in beads." There is something
+delightfully hydropathic in these lines; they cool one like a
+shower-bath. He is a prime fellow, this common sailor Melville, at such
+scraps of description, terse and true, placing the scene before us in
+ten words. In long yarns he indulges not, but of such happy touches as
+the above, we could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_765" id="Page_765">[Pg 765]</a></span> quote a score. We have not room, either for them,
+or for an account of the valley of Tamai, its hospitable inhabitants,
+and its heathenish dances, performed in secret, and in dread of the
+missionaries, by whom such saturnalia are forbidden. The place was
+altogether so pleasant, that the doctor and his friend entertained
+serious thoughts of settling there, or at least of making a long stay,
+when one morning they were put to flight by the arrival of strangers,
+said to be missionaries, with whom, vagrants as they were, they had no
+wish to fall in. So they returned to their friend Zeke, nursing new and
+ambitious projects. They had no intention of remaining with the
+good-hearted Yankee, but merely paid him a flying visit, and that with
+an interested motive. What they wanted of him was this. Although feeling
+themselves gentlemen every inch, they were not always able to convince
+the world of their respectability. So they resolved to have a passport,
+and pitched upon Zeke to manufacture it, he being well known and much
+respected in Imeeo. Zeke was gratified by the compliment, and set to
+work with a rooster's quill, and a piece of dirty paper. "Evidently he
+was not accustomed to composition; for his literary throes were so
+violent, that the doctor suggested that some sort of a C&aelig;sarian
+operation might be necessary. The precious paper was at last finished;
+and a great curiosity it was. We were much diverted with his reasons for
+not dating it. 'In this here damned climate,' he observed, 'a feller
+can't keep the run of the months, no how; 'cause there's no seasons, no
+summer and winter to go by. One's etarnally thinking it's always July,
+it's so pesky hot.' A passport provided, we cast about for some means of
+getting to Taloo."</p>
+
+<p>The decline of the Tahitian monarchy&mdash;the degradation of the regal house
+of Pomaree, is painful to contemplate. The queen still wears a crown&mdash;a
+tinsel one, received as a present from her sister-sovereign of
+England,&mdash;she has also a court and a palace, such as they are; but her
+power is little more than nominal, her exchequer seldom otherwise than
+empty. Typee draws a touching contrast between times past and present.
+"'I'm a greater man than King George,' said the incorrigible young Otoo,
+to the first missionaries; 'he rides on a horse and I on a man.' Such
+was the case. He travelled post through his dominions on the shoulders
+of his subjects, and relays of immortal beings were provided in all the
+valleys. But, alas! how times have changed! how transient human
+greatness! Some years since, Pomaree Vahinee I., granddaughter of the
+proud Otoo, went into the laundry business, publicly soliciting, by her
+agents, the washing of the linen belonging to officers of ships touching
+in her harbours." Into the court of this washerwoman-queen, Typee and
+Long Ghost were exceedingly anxious to penetrate. Vague ideas of favour
+and preferment haunted their brains. During their Polynesian cruise,
+they had seen many instances of rapid advancement; vagabond foreigners,
+of all nations, domesticated in the families of chiefs and kings, and
+sometimes married to their daughters and sharing their power. At one of
+the Tonga islands, a scamp of a Welshman officiated as cupbearer to the
+king of the cannibals. The monarch of the Sandwich islands has three
+foreigners about his court&mdash;a Negro to beat the drum, a wooden-legged
+Portuguese to play the fiddle, and Mordecai, a juggler, to amuse his
+majesty with cups and balls and sleight of hand. On the Marquesan island
+of Hivarhoo, they had found an English sailor who had attained to the
+highest dignity in the country. He had deserted from a merchant ship,
+and at once set up, on his own hook, as an independent sovereign,
+without dominions, but by disposition most belligerent. A musket and a
+store of cartridges were his whole possessions; but in a land where war
+was rife, carried on with the primitive weapons of spear and javelin,
+they were sufficiently important to make a native prince covet his
+alliance. His first battle was a decisive victory, a perfect Waterloo,
+and he became the Wellington of Hivarhoo, receiving, as reward for his
+distinguished services, the hand of a princess, and a splendid dowry of
+hogs, mats, and other produce. To conform to the prejudices of his new
+family, he allowed himself to be tattooed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_766" id="Page_766">[Pg 766]</a></span> tabooed, and otherwise
+paganized, becoming as big a savage as any in the island. A blue shark
+adorned his forehead; a broad bar, of the same colour, traversed his
+face. The tabooing was a less ornamental but more decidedly useful
+formality, for by it his person was declared sacred and inviolable.
+Typee and his medical friend had a strong prejudice against cerulean
+sharks and the like embellishments; but if these could be dispensed
+with, they felt no disinclination to form part of Pomaree's household.
+They had not quite made up their minds what office would best suit them,
+but their circumstances were unprosperous, and they resolved not to be
+particular. They understood that the queen was mustering around her all
+the foreigners she could recruit, to make head against the French. She
+was then at Taloo, a village on the coast of Imeeo, and thither the two
+adventurers betook themselves, hoping to be at once elevated to
+important posts at court; but quite resigned, in case of disappointment,
+to work as day-labourers in a sugar-plantation, or go to sea in a
+whaler, then in the harbour for wood and water. Disgusted with their
+desultory, hand-to-mouth existence, they yearned after respectability
+and a prime-ministership. To their sanguine anticipations, both of these
+seemed easy of attainment. Long Ghost, indeed, who, amongst his various
+accomplishments, was a very Orpheus upon the violin, insisted strongly
+upon the probability of his becoming a Tahitian Rizzio. But a necessary
+preliminary to the realisation of these day-dreams, was a presentation
+at court, and that was difficult to obtain. Once before Queen Pomaree,
+they doubted not but she, with Napoleonic sagacity, would discern their
+merits, and forthwith make Typee her admiral, and Long Ghost
+inspector-general of hospitals. But they lacked an introduction. The
+proper course, according to the practice of travelling nobodies,
+desirous of intruding their plebeianism into a foreign court, would have
+been to apply to their ambassadors. Unfortunately Deputy-Consul Wilson,
+the only person at hand of a diplomatic character, was by no means
+disposed to act as master of the ceremonies to the insurgents of the
+Julia. And their costume, it must be confessed, scarcely qualified them
+to appear at levee or drawing-room. A short time previously, their
+ragged and variegated garb had given them much the look of a brace of
+Polynesian Robert Macaires. Typee had made himself a new frock out of
+two old ones, a blue and a red, the irregular mingling of the colours
+producing a pleasing parrot-like effect; a tattered shirt of printed
+calico was twisted round his head, turban-fashion, the sleeves dangling
+behind, and bullock's-hide sandals protected his feet. The doctor was
+still more fantastical in his attire. He sported a <i>roora</i>, a garment
+similar to the South American poncho, a sort of mantle or blanket, with
+a hole in the centre, through which the head passes. This simple article
+of apparel, which in the doctor's case was of coarse brown tappa, fell
+in folds around his angular carcass, and in conjunction with a
+broad-brimmed hat of Panama grass, gave him the aspect of a decayed
+grandee. Thus clad, the two friends arrived in the neighbourhood of the
+royal residence, and there were fortunate enough to fall in with Mrs
+Po-Po, a benevolent Tahitian matron, who provided them with clean frocks
+and trousers, such as sailors wear, and in all respects was as good as a
+mother to them. Her husband, Jeremiah Po-Po, a man of substance and
+consideration, made them welcome in his house, fed and fostered them,
+without hope of fee or recompense. A little of this generous hospitality
+was owing to the hypocrisy of that villain, Long Ghost, who, finding his
+entertainers devoutly disposed, muttered a "Grace before Meat" over the
+succulent little porkers, baked <i>&agrave; la fa&ccedil;on de Barbarie</i> in the ground,
+upon which their kind-hearted Amphitrion regaled them. But neither clean
+canvass, nor simulated piety, sufficed to draw upon the ambitious
+schemers the favourable notice of Queen Pomaree. Accustomed to sailors,
+she held them cheap. A uniform, though but the moth-eaten undress of a
+militia ensign, would have been a powerful auxiliary to their projects
+of aggrandisement. Like some others of her sex, Pomaree loves a
+soldier's coat, and maintained in more prosperous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_767" id="Page_767">[Pg 767]</a></span> days a formidable
+regiment of body-guards, in pasteboard shakos, and without breeches.</p>
+
+<p>To go to court, however, Typee and his comrade were fully resolved; and
+they were not very scrupulous as to the manner of their introduction.
+They made up to a Marquesan gentleman of herculean proportions, whose
+office it was to take the princes of the blood an airing in his arms.
+Typee, who spoke his language, and had been at his native village, soon
+ingratiated himself with Marbonna, who introduced them to one of the
+queen's chamberlains. Bribery and corruption now came into play: a plug
+of tobacco, proved an excellent passport to within the royal precincts,
+but then Marbonna was suddenly called away, and the intruders found
+themselves abandoned to their fate amongst the ladies of the court,
+amiable and affable damsels, whom a little "soft sawder" induced to
+conduct them into the queen's own drawing room. Here were collected
+numerous costly articles of European manufacture, sent as presents to
+Pomaree. Writing-desks, cut glass and beautiful china, valuable
+engravings, and gilt candelabras, arms and instruments of all kinds, lay
+scratched and broken, musty and rusting amongst greasy calabashes, old
+matting, paddles, fish-spears, and rubbish of all kinds. It was
+supper-time; and presently the queen came out of her private boudoir,
+attired in a blue silk gown and rich shawls, but without shoes or
+stockings. She lay down upon a mat, and fed herself with her fingers.
+Presumptuous Long Ghost, unabashed before royalty, was for immediately
+introducing himself and friend; but the attendants opposed this forward
+proceeding, and, in doing so, made such a fuss that the queen looked up
+from her calabash of fish, perceived the strangers, and ordered them
+out. Such was the first and last interview between Typee the mariner and
+Pomaree the queen.</p>
+
+<p>"Disappointed in going to court, we determined upon going to sea." The
+Leviathan, an American whaler, lay in harbour, and Typee shipped on
+board her. Long Ghost would have done the same, but the Yankee captain
+disliked the cut of his jib, swore he was a "Sidney bird," and would
+have nought to say to him. So Typee divided his advance of wages with
+the medical spectre&mdash;drank with him a parting bottle of wine,
+surreptitiously purchased from a pilfering member of Pomaree's
+household&mdash;and sailed on a whaling cruise to the coast of Japan. We look
+forward with confidence and interest to an account of what there befel
+him.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> <i>Omoo; A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas</i>. By
+<span class="smcap">Herman Melville</span>. London: 1847.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_768" id="Page_768">[Pg 768]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="ON_THE_NUTRITIVE_QUALITIES_OF_THE_BREAD_NOW_IN_USE" id="ON_THE_NUTRITIVE_QUALITIES_OF_THE_BREAD_NOW_IN_USE"></a>ON THE NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF THE BREAD NOW IN USE.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY PROFESSOR JOHNSTON.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A few plain words on this subject may not be unacceptable to the popular
+reader at the present time.</p>
+
+<p>We are fond of what is agreeable to the eye as well as pleasant to the
+taste, and therefore we love to have our bread made of the whitest and
+finest of the wheat. Attaching superior excellence to what thus pleases
+the eye, we call the good Scotch bannock an inferior food, and the
+wholesome black bread of the north of Europe a disgusting article of
+diet. When our experience and knowledge are local and confined, our
+opinions necessarily partake of a similar character.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to the different qualities of wheaten flour, our judgments are
+not so severe. All things which pertain to this aristocratic grain&mdash;this
+staff of English life&mdash;like the liveries and horses of a great man&mdash;are
+treated with a certain degree of respect. Still, they are only the
+appendages of the noble seed, and the more thoroughly they are got rid
+of, the better the kernel is supposed to become.</p>
+
+<p>In many of our old-fashioned families, indeed, the practice still
+lingers of baking bread from the whole meal of wheat for common use in
+the kitchen or hall, and for occasional consumption on the master's
+table. An enthusiastic physician also now and then rouses himself, and
+does battle with the national organs of taste on behalf of the darker
+bread, and the browner flour&mdash;and dyspeptic old gentlemen or mammas who
+have over-pampered their sickly darlings, listen to his fervid warnings,
+and the star of the brown loaf is for a month or two in the ascendant.</p>
+
+<p>But gradually the warning sound is lost to the alarmed ear, and the
+pulses of the commoved air waft it on to mingle with the thousand other
+long-quenched voices which people the distant realms of space, and form
+together that unutterable harmony which, by consent of the poets, is
+named the music of the spheres.</p>
+
+<p>There are times, however, when good men, though aware of this passing
+tendency of human efforts, and of the thankless impotency of a struggle
+against the public voice&mdash;that <i>vox populi</i> which wise men (so-called)
+have pronounced to be also <i>vox Dei</i>&mdash;will nevertheless return to what
+they believe to be a useful though unvalued labour. The present is one
+in which any thing which can be said in favour of the less-valued parts
+of our imperial grain, will be more readily listened to than at any
+other period in the life-time of the existing generation; and being
+listened to, may be productive of the greatest national good.</p>
+
+<p>I propose, therefore, to show, in an intelligible manner, that whole
+meal flour is really more nourishing, as well as more wholesome, than
+fine white flour as food for man.</p>
+
+<p>The solid parts of the human body consist, principally, of three several
+portions: the fat, the muscle, and the bone. These three substances are
+liable to constant waste in the living body, and therefore must be
+constantly renewed from the food that we eat. The vegetable food we
+consume contains these three substances almost ready formed. The plant
+is the brick-maker. The animal voluntarily introduces these bricks into
+its stomach, and then involuntarily&mdash;through the operation of the
+mysterious machinery within&mdash;picks out these bricks, transports them to
+the different parts of the body, and builds them into their appropriate
+places. As the miller at his mill throws into the hopper the unground
+grain, and forthwith, by the involuntary movements of the machinery,
+receives in his several sacks the fine flour, the seconds, the
+middlings, the pollard, and the bran; so in the human body, by a still
+more refined separation, the fat is extracted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_769" id="Page_769">[Pg 769]</a></span> and deposited here, the
+muscular matter there, and the bony material in a third locality, where
+it can not only be stored up, but where its presence is actually at the
+moment necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the fluid parts of the body contain the same substances in a
+liquid form, on their way to or from the several parts of the body in
+which they are required. They include also a portion of salt or saline
+matter which is dissolved in them, as we dissolve common salt in our
+soup, or Epsom salts in the pleasant draughts with which our doctors
+delight to vex us. This saline matter is also obtained from the food.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is self-evident, that that food must be the most nourishing
+which supplies all these ingredients of the body most abundantly on the
+whole, or in proportions most suited to the actual wants of the
+individual animal to which it is given.</p>
+
+<p>How stands the question, then, in regard to this point between the brown
+bread and the white&mdash;the fine flour, and the whole meal of wheat?</p>
+
+<p>The grain of wheat consists of two parts, with which the miller is
+familiar&mdash;the inner grain and the skin that covers it. The inner grain
+gives the pure wheat flour; the skin, when separated, forms the bran.
+The miller cannot entirely peel off the skin from his grain, and thus
+some of it is unavoidably ground up with his flour. By sifting, he
+separates it more or less completely: his seconds, middlings, &amp;c., owing
+their colour to the proportion of brown bran that has passed through the
+sieve along with the flour. The whole meal, as it is called, of which
+the so-named brown <i>household bread</i> is made, consists of the entire
+grain ground up together&mdash;used as it comes from the mill-stones
+unsifted, and therefore containing all the bran.</p>
+
+<p>The first white flour, therefore, may be said to contain no bran, while
+the whole meal contains all that grew naturally upon the grain.</p>
+
+<p>What is the composition of these two portions of the seed? How much do
+they respectively contain of the several constituents of the animal
+body? How much of each is contained also in the whole grain?</p>
+
+<p>1. <i>The fat.</i> Of this ingredient a thousand pounds of the</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Whole grain</td><td align='left'>contain</td><td align='left'>28</td><td align='left'>lbs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Fine Flour,</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>20</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Bran,</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>So that the bran is much richer in fat than the interior part of the
+grain, and the whole grain ground together (whole meal) richer than the
+finer part of the flour in the proportion of nearly one half.</p>
+
+<p>2. <i>The muscular matter.</i> I have had no opportunity as yet of
+ascertaining the relative proportions of this ingredient in the bran and
+fine flour of the same sample of grain. Numerous experiments, however,
+have been made in my laboratory, to determine these proportions in the
+fine flour and whole seed of several varieties of grain. The general
+result of these is, that the whole grain uniformly contains a larger
+quantity, weight for weight, than the fine flour extracted from it does.
+The particular results in the case of wheat and Indian corn were as
+follows:&mdash;A thousand pounds of the whole grain and of the fine flour
+contained of muscular matter respectively,&mdash;</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><i>Whole grain.</i></td><td align='left'><i>Fine Flour.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Wheat,</td><td align='left'>156 lbs.</td><td align='left'>130 lbs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Indian Corn,</td><td align='left'>140</td><td align='left'>110</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Of the material out of which the animal muscle is to be formed, the
+whole meal or grain of wheat contains one-fifth more than the finest
+flour does. For maintaining muscular strength, therefore, it must be
+more valuable in an equal proportion.</p>
+
+<p>3. <i>Bone material and Saline matter.</i>&mdash;Of these mineral constituents, as
+they may be called, of the animal body, a thousand pounds of bran, whole
+meal and fine flour, contain respectively,&mdash;</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Bran,</td><td align='left'>700</td><td align='left'>lbs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Whole meal,</td><td align='left'>170</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Fine flour,</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>So that in regard to this important part of our food, necessary to all
+living animals, but especially to the young who are growing, and to the
+mother who is giving milk&mdash;the whole meal is three times more nourishing
+than the fine flour.</p>
+
+<p>Our case is now made out. Weight for weight, the whole grain or meal is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_770" id="Page_770">[Pg 770]</a></span>
+more rich in all these three essential elements of a nutritive food,
+than the fine flour of wheat. By those whose only desire is to sustain
+their health and strength by the food they eat, ought not the whole meal
+to be preferred? To children who are rapidly growing, the browner the
+bread they eat, the more abundant the supply of the materials from which
+their increasing bones and muscles are to be produced. To the
+milk-giving mother, the same food, and for a similar reason, is the most
+appropriate.</p>
+
+<p>A glance at their mutual relations in regard to the three substances,
+presented in one view, will show this more clearly. A thousand pounds of
+each contain of the three several ingredients the following proportions.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Whole meal.</td><td align='left'>Fine flour.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Muscular matter,</td><td align='left'>156 lbs.</td><td align='left'>130 lbs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Bone material,</td><td align='left'>170 "</td><td align='left'>60 "</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Fat,</td><td align='left'>28 "</td><td align='left'>20 "</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Total in each,</td><td align='left'>354</td><td align='left'>210</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>Taking the three ingredients, therefore, together, the whole meal is
+one-half more valuable for fulfilling all the purposes of nutrition than
+the fine flour&mdash;and especially it is so in regard to the feeding of the
+young, the pregnant, and those who undergo much bodily fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>It will not be denied that it is for a wise purpose that the Deity has
+so intimately associated, in the grain, the several substances which are
+necessary for the complete nutrition of animal bodies. The above
+considerations show how unwise we are in attempting to undo this natural
+collocation of materials. To please the eye and the palate, we sift out
+a less generally nutritive food,&mdash;and, to make up for what we have
+removed, experience teaches us to have recourse to animal food of
+various descriptions.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to remark, even in apparently trivial things, how all
+nature is full of compensating processes. We give our servants household
+bread, while we live on the finest of the wheat ourselves. The mistress
+eats that which pleases the eye more, the maid what sustains and
+nourishes the body better.</p>
+
+<p>But the whole meal is more wholesome, as well as more nutritive. It is
+on account of its superior wholesomeness that those who are experienced
+in medicine usually recommend it to our attention. Experience in the
+laws of digestion brings us back to the simple admixture found in the
+natural seed. It is not an accidental thing that the proportions in
+which the ingredients of a truly sustaining food take their places in
+the seeds on which we live, should be best fitted at once to promote the
+health of the sedentary scholar, and to reinvigorate the strength of the
+active man when exhausted by bodily labour.</p>
+
+<p>Some may say that the preceding observations are merely theoretical; and
+may demand the support of actual trial, before they will concede that
+the selection of the most nourishing and wholesome diet is hereafter to
+be regulated by the results of chemical analysis. The demand is
+reasonable in itself, and the so-called deductions of theory are
+entitled only to the rank of probable conjectures, till they have been
+tested by exact and repeated trials.</p>
+
+<p>But such in this case have been made; and our theoretical considerations
+come in only to confirm the results of previous experiments&mdash;to explain
+why these results should have been obtained, and to extend and enforce
+the practical lessons which the results themselves appeared to
+inculcate.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, from the experiments of Majendie and others, it was known that
+animals which in a few weeks died if fed only upon fine flour, lived
+long upon whole meal bread. The reason appears from our analytical
+investigations. The whole meal contains in large quantity the three
+forms of matter by which the several parts of the body are sustained, or
+successively renewed. We may feed a man long upon bread and water only,
+but unless we wish to kill him also, we must have the apparent cruelty
+to restrict him to the coarser kinds of bread. The charity which should
+supply him with fine white loaves instead, would in effect kill him by a
+lingering starvation.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the pork-grower who buys bran from the miller, wonders at the
+remarkable feeding and fattening effect which this apparently woody and
+useless material has upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_771" id="Page_771">[Pg 771]</a></span> his animals. The surprise ceases, however,
+and the practice is encouraged, and extended to other creatures, when
+the researches of the laboratory explain to him what the food itself
+contains, and what his growing animal requires.</p>
+
+<p>Economy as well as comfort follow from an exact acquaintance with the
+wants of our bodies in their several conditions, and with the
+composition of the various articles of diet which are at our command. In
+the present condition of the country, this economy has become a vital
+question. It is a kind of Christian duty in every one to practise it as
+far as his means and his knowledge enable him.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the amount of the economy which would follow the use of whole
+meal instead of fine flour, may not strike every one who reads the above
+observations. The saving arises from two sources.</p>
+
+<p>First, The amount of husk, separated by the miller from the wheat which
+he grinds, and which is not sold for human use, varies very much. I
+think we do not over-estimate it, when we consider it as forming
+one-eighth of the whole. On this supposition, eight pounds of wheat
+yield seven of flour consumed by man, and one of pollard and bran which
+are given to animals&mdash;chiefly to poultry and pigs. If the whole meal be
+used, however, eight pounds of flour will be obtained, or eight people
+will be fed by the same weight of grain which only fed seven before.</p>
+
+<p>Again, we have seen that the whole meal is more nutritious&mdash;so that this
+coarser flour will go farther than an equal weight of the fine. The
+numbers at which we arrived, from the results of analysis, show that,
+taking all the three sustaining elements of the food into consideration,
+the coarse is one-half more nutritive than the fine. Leaving a wide
+margin for the influence of circumstances, let us suppose it only
+one-eighth more nutritive, and we shall have now nine people nourished
+equally by the same weight of grain, which, when eaten as fine flour,
+would support only seven. <i>The wheat of the country</i>, in other words,
+<i>would in this form go one-fourth farther than at present</i>.</p>
+
+<p>But some one may remark, if all this good is to come from the mere use
+of the bran, why not recommend it to be withheld from the pigs, and
+consume it by man in some way alone? This would involve no change in the
+practice of our millers, and little in the habits and bread of the great
+mass of the population.</p>
+
+<p>But such a course, if possible, would not bring us to the economical end
+we wish to attain. Suppose it could be made palatable and eaten by man,
+little comparative saving would be effected.</p>
+
+<p>First, because, when eaten alone, the fine flour will not go so far as
+when mixed with a certain proportion of bran: that is to say,&mdash;a given
+weight of fine flour will produce an increased nutritive effect when
+mixed with the bran: greater than is due to the constituents of the bran
+taken alone. The mixture of the two in reality increases the virtues of
+both. Again, if eaten alone, bran would prove too difficult, and
+therefore slow of digestion in most stomachs. Much would thus pass,
+unexhausted of its nutritive matter, through the alimentary canal, as
+whole oats often do through that of horses, and thus a considerable
+waste would ensue.</p>
+
+<p>And further, supposing all to be dissolved in the stomach, there would
+still, of necessity, be a waste of material, since the bran actually
+contains a larger proportion of bone material and saline matter compared
+with its other ingredients, than the body, in its natural healthy state,
+can make use of. All this excess must, therefore, be rejected by the
+body, and, as nutritive matter, for the time be wasted.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, it is doubtful if bran alone contains enough of starch, or of
+any substitute for it, to meet the other demands of the human system. I
+have not spoken of the use of the starch of the grain in the preceding
+observations, because, as both whole meal and fine flour contain a
+sufficient quantity of it to supply the wants of the living animal, it
+was unnecessary to the main object of this paper. But with bran the case
+is different. It is doubtful if the purposes of the starch could be
+fully, and with sufficient speed, fulfilled by the ingredients which, in
+the bran, take the place of starch in the flour. The cellular fibre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_772" id="Page_772">[Pg 772]</a></span> or
+woody matter, of which it contains a considerable proportion, is too
+slowly soluble in the stomachs of ordinary men. While, therefore, much
+of it would pass through the body undigested, it would require to be
+eaten in far larger proportions than its composition indicates, if the
+body was to be supported, and thus a further waste would be incurred.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, therefore, we come back to the whole meal, as the most
+economical as well as the most nutritive and wholesome form in which the
+grain of wheat can be consumed. The Deity has done far better for us, by
+the natural mixtures to be found in the whole seed, than we can do for
+ourselves. The materials, both in form and in proportion, are adjusted
+in each seed, as wheat, in a way more suitable to us than any which,
+with our present knowledge, we appear able to devise.</p>
+
+<p>A word to our Scottish readers, before we conclude. We do not recommend
+to you even the whole meal of wheat as a substitute for your oatmeal or
+your oaten-cake. The oat is more nutritive even than the whole grain of
+wheat, taken weight for weight. For the growing boy, for the
+hard-working man, and for the portly matron, oatmeal contains the
+materials of the most hearty nourishment. This it owes in part to its
+peculiar chemical composition, and in part to its being, as it is used
+in Scotland, a kind of whole meal. The finely sifted oatmeal of
+Yorkshire and Lancashire is not so agreeable to a Scottish taste, and, I
+believe, is not so nutritious, as the rounder and coarser meal of the
+more northern counties.</p>
+
+<p>While, therefore, the whole meal of wheat is superior to the fine flour,
+in economy, in nutritive power, and in wholesomeness, and therefore
+should be preferred by those who <i>must</i> live upon wheat,&mdash;in all these
+respects the oat has still the advantage, and therefore ought
+religiously to be adhered to. You owe it to the experience of your
+forefathers, for a thousand years, not to forsake it.</p>
+
+
+<p class="right"><i>Lurham, 19th May, 1847.</i></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_773" id="Page_773">[Pg 773]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="INDEX_TO_VOL_LXI" id="INDEX_TO_VOL_LXI"></a>INDEX TO VOL. LXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Abdul Medjid, the Sultan, <a href='#Page_693'>693</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Adalia, sketches of, <a href='#Page_737'>737</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Addington, Henry, see <i>Sidmouth</i>.<br />
+<br />
+Addington, Hiley, 475.<br />
+<br />
+Adelaide, Madame, 2, 7, 8, 12.<br />
+<br />
+Adventures of the Connaught Rangers, review of, 457.<br />
+<br />
+Aidan, Bishop, 84.<br />
+<br />
+Albemarle, Lord, 201.<br />
+<br />
+Albert, Madame, 186.<br />
+<br />
+Ambrosio, General, 174.<br />
+<br />
+America, origin of the struggle with, 207.<br />
+<br />
+America, how they manage matters in, 492.<br />
+<br />
+America, North, <a href='#Page_653'>653</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ancient and Modern Ballad Poetry, 622.<br />
+<br />
+Anglo-Saxons, Lappenberg's History of the, reviewed, 79.<br />
+<br />
+Angouleme, the Duc d', 5, 6.<br />
+<br />
+Appert, B. Dix ans &agrave; la Cour du Roi Louis Philippe, review of, 1.<br />
+<br />
+Aquilius, Letter from, to Eusebius, 374<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;second, 501</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;third, <a href='#Page_695'>695</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Arabs in Batavia, the, 321.<br />
+<br />
+Archangel, New, settlement of, <a href='#Page_661'>661</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Armenians of Smyrna, the, 238.<br />
+<br />
+Arnal, a French actor, 185.<br />
+<br />
+Arnault, M., 15.<br />
+<br />
+Arthur, King, 81.<br />
+<br />
+Assessed Taxes, inequalities of, 248.<br />
+<br />
+Aumale, Duc d', 17.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Badajos, capture of, 468.<br />
+<br />
+Ballad Poetry, ancient and modern, 622.<br />
+<br />
+Balzac, M. de, 16, works of, 591.<br />
+<br />
+Banditti of Spain, the, 356.<br />
+<br />
+Batavia, city of, 320.<br />
+<br />
+Baths of Mont Dor, the, 448<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the company at, 451</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the forest, 454.</span><br />
+<br />
+Belgrade, siege and battle of, 36.<br />
+<br />
+Belisarius,&mdash;was he blind? 606.<br />
+<br />
+Benedict Biscop, 87.<br />
+<br />
+Bernard, Charles de, notices of the works of, 589.<br />
+<br />
+Berri, Duchesse de, 530.<br />
+<br />
+Blackwall, ode to, 59.<br />
+<br />
+Blucher, sketches of, 76.<br />
+<br />
+Bolingbroke, Lord, 204.<br />
+<br />
+Bonabat, village of, 241.<br />
+<br />
+Bouff&eacute;, Marie, 189.<br />
+<br />
+Boufflers, Marshal, 35, 36.<br />
+<br />
+Boujah, village of, 241.<br />
+<br />
+Bread, on the nutritive qualities of, by Professor Johnston, <a href='#Page_768'>768</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, sonnets by:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Life, 555</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Love, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Heaven and Earth, 556</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Prospect, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Two Sketches, <a href='#Page_683'>683</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Mountaineer and the Poet, <a href='#Page_684'>684</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Poet, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<br />
+Brunet, an actor, 187.<br />
+<br />
+Bruhl, Count, 209.<br />
+<br />
+Bunzelwitz, camp and battle of, 43.<br />
+<br />
+Buonaparte, Joseph, as King of Naples, 168.<br />
+<br />
+Burgos, the retreat from, 471.<br />
+<br />
+Burke, notices of, 483, 484, 487.<br />
+<br />
+Busaco, battle of, 460.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Canning, Peel's conduct towards, 97.<br />
+<br />
+California, sketches of, <a href='#Page_662'>662</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Caravan Bridge of Smyrna, the, 239.<br />
+<br />
+Carbonari of Naples, the, 173.<br />
+<br />
+Cardinal's voyage, the, 430.<br />
+<br />
+Carlyle's Cromwell, review of, 392.<br />
+<br />
+Caroline, Queen of Naples, 164, 167.<br />
+<br />
+Catherine of Russia, intimacy of, with Voltaire, 537.<br />
+<br />
+Catholic question, Peel's conduct on the, 97.<br />
+<br />
+Catullus, translations from, No. I., 374<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;No. II., 501</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;No. III., <a href='#Page_695'>695</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Cave of the Regicides, the, and how three of them fared in New England, 333.<br />
+<br />
+Championet, General, capture of Naples by, 163.<br />
+<br />
+Chapelle, an actor, 185.<br />
+<br />
+Charles X., accession of, 6.<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_774" id="Page_774">[Pg 774]</a></span>Charles de Bernard, works of, 589.<br />
+<br />
+Chateauroux, the Duchess of, 206, 530.<br />
+<br />
+Chatham, Lord, 474, 475.<br />
+<br />
+Cheri, Rose, 191.<br />
+<br />
+Chesterfield, Lord, character of, by Walpole, 198.<br />
+<br />
+Chinese in Batavia, the, 321.<br />
+<br />
+Church rate, inequality of the, 250.<br />
+<br />
+Ciudad Rodrigo, capture of, 467.<br />
+<br />
+Claqueurs of Paris, the, 183.<br />
+<br />
+Collier's book of Roxburghe ballads, review of, 622.<br />
+<br />
+Connaught Rangers, sketches of the, 457.<br />
+<br />
+Constantine Kanaris, epitaph of, 644.<br />
+<br />
+Constantinople, and the declining state of the Ottoman empire, <a href='#Page_685'>685</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Corn law, Peel's conduct regarding the, 99.<br />
+<br />
+Court of Louis Philippe, sketches of the, 1.<br />
+<br />
+Cromwell, Carlyle's life of, reviewed, 392.<br />
+<br />
+Cunnersdorf, battle of, 42.<br />
+<br />
+Cunningham's poems and songs, review of, 622.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Dardanelles, the, <a href='#Page_686'>686</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Daun, Marshal, 40, 42.<br />
+<br />
+Dejazet the actress, 189.<br />
+<br />
+Delta, Scottish Melodies by:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Eric's Dirge, 91</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Stormy Sea, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Maid of Ulva, 645</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Lament for Macrimmon, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<br />
+Direct Taxation, on, 243<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;true principles of, 258.</span><br />
+<br />
+Divining Rod, the, 368.<br />
+<br />
+Dixwell, John, the Regicide, 338.<br />
+<br />
+Doche, Madame, 187.<br />
+<br />
+Doddington, Bubb, 201, 202, 210.<br />
+<br />
+Dor&eacute;, a French robber, sketches of, 4.<br />
+<br />
+Dubois, the Abb&eacute;, 530.<br />
+<br />
+Duckworth, Sir John, forcing of the Dardanelles by, <a href='#Page_686'>686</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Dumas, General, 168.<br />
+<br />
+Dumas, M. de, and his works, 16, 590, 591.<br />
+<br />
+Durham, Lord, 15, 16.<br />
+<br />
+Dutch, cruelties of the, in Java, 327.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Early Taken, the, 230.<br />
+<br />
+Egmont, Lord, 197.<br />
+<br />
+Ekaterineburg, town of, <a href='#Page_671'>671</a>.<br />
+<br />
+England, uniform triumphs of, over France, 48.<br />
+<br />
+Epigrams, 361.<br />
+<br />
+Epitaphs, 57, 61.<br />
+<br />
+Epitaph of Constantine Kanaris, the, 644.<br />
+<br />
+Eric's dirge, by Delta, 91.<br />
+<br />
+Erith, village of, 423.<br />
+<br />
+Erskine, Lord, 488.<br />
+<br />
+Eugene, Marlborough, Frederick, Napoleon, and Wellington, 34.<br />
+<br />
+Eusebius, letters to&mdash;Hor&aelig; Catullian&aelig;, 374, 501, <a href='#Page_695'>695</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Famine, lessons from the, 515.<br />
+<br />
+Ferdinand, king of Naples, 163, 164, 167.<br />
+<br />
+Ferguson of Pitfour, anecdotes of, 488.<br />
+<br />
+Fighting Eighty-eighth, the, 457.<br />
+<br />
+Flour, on the various kinds of, and their nutritive qualities, <a href='#Page_768'>768</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Fontenoy, battle of, 535.<br />
+<br />
+Ford's gatherings from Spain, review of, 350.<br />
+<br />
+Fossa del Maritimo, prison of, 167.<br />
+<br />
+Fox, anecdotes of, 488.<br />
+<br />
+France, the modern court of, 1.<br />
+<br />
+France, uniform triumphs of England over, 48.<br />
+<br />
+France, Walpole's picture of, 206.<br />
+<br />
+France, letter on, 547.<br />
+<br />
+Frederick the Great, sketch of the career of, and comparison of him with Marlborough and others, 37<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;his intimacy with Voltaire, 537.</span><br />
+<br />
+Frederick, prince of Wales, death of, and his character, 200.<br />
+<br />
+Free trade in connexion with taxation, 243.<br />
+<br />
+French players and playhouses, 177.<br />
+<br />
+Fuentes d' Onore, battle of, 462.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Galata, sketches of, <a href='#Page_688'>688</a>.<br />
+<br />
+General Mack: a Christmas carol, 92.<br />
+<br />
+George II., Walpole's reign of, reviewed, 194.<br />
+<br />
+George III., anecdotes of, 490.<br />
+<br />
+Georges, characteristics of the reigns of the, 211.<br />
+<br />
+Ghosts, letters on, 440, 541.<br />
+<br />
+Gneisenau, General, 77.<br />
+<br />
+Goffe the Regicide, 333.<br />
+<br />
+Gold district of Siberia, the, <a href='#Page_671'>671</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Grand Opera at Paris, the, 180, 182.<br />
+<br />
+Grattan's Adventures of the Connaught Rangers, review of, 457.<br />
+<br />
+Greeks of Adalia, the, <a href='#Page_750'>750</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Grey, Lord, first appearance of, 479.<br />
+<br />
+Guilleminot, Count, 6.<br />
+<br />
+Gutch's Robin Hood, review of, 622.<br />
+<br />
+Gymnase Dramatique at Paris, the, 190.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Hastings, Warren, trial of, 478, 487.<br />
+<br />
+Heaven and Earth, a Sonnet, 556.<br />
+<br />
+Heptarchy, the, 79.<br />
+<br />
+Hervey's Theatres of Paris, review of, 177.<br />
+<br />
+Highway Rates, inequalities of, 249.<br />
+<br />
+Hohenfriedberg, battle of, 39.<br />
+<br />
+Hohenkirchen, battle of, 42.<br />
+<br />
+Hor&aelig; Catullian&aelig;, No. I., 374<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;No. II., 501</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;No. III., <a href='#Page_695'>695</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Horn, Count de, execution of, 534.<br />
+<br />
+How they manage matters in the model republic, 492.<br />
+<br />
+How to build a house and live in it,&mdash;No. III., <a href='#Page_727'>727</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hughes' Overland Journey to Lisbon, review of, 350.<br />
+<br />
+Hymn of King Olaf the Saint, the, altered from the Icelandic, <a href='#Page_682'>682</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Imeeo, residence on island of, <a href='#Page_763'>763</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Income Tax, inequalities of the, 253.<br />
+<br />
+Indian Life, anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_658'>658</a>, <a href='#Page_659'>659</a>, <a href='#Page_660'>660</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Indirect Taxes, probable abandonment of, in Great Britain, 244, 245.<br />
+<br />
+Ireland, state of, under George II., 205<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;necessity of Poor Law for, 247</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;unjust exemption from taxation enjoyed by, 256.</span><br />
+<br />
+Isle of Dogs, the, 50<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_775" id="Page_775">[Pg 775]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;tradition regarding, 52.</span><br />
+<br />
+Italian History, modern, 162.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Java, sketches of, 318.<br />
+<br />
+Joinville, Prince de, 17.<br />
+<br />
+Johnston, Professor, on the nutritive qualities of the Bread now in use, <a href='#Page_768'>768</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Jones, Neville, 205.<br />
+<br />
+Jutland 130 years since, from the Danish<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;I., the Deer Rider, 286</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;II., Ansbjerg, 289</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;III., the Nisse, 292</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;IV., the Elopement, 297</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;V., the Horse Garden, 303.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Kawashes of Turkey, the, 235.<br />
+<br />
+Khan of Magnesia, the, 309.<br />
+<br />
+Khans of Turkey, the, 236.<br />
+<br />
+Kiachta, town of, 670.<br />
+<br />
+Kolin, battle of, 41.<br />
+<br />
+Krasnoyayk, town of, 671.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Lafayette, sketches of, 5.<br />
+<br />
+Lament for Macrimmon, by Delta, 645.<br />
+<br />
+Land, injustice of the freedom of, from legacy duty, 246.<br />
+<br />
+Land Tax, injustice of the, 248.<br />
+<br />
+Landsheck, battle of, 42.<br />
+<br />
+Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxons, review of, 79.<br />
+<br />
+Latest from the Peninsula, 350.<br />
+<br />
+Law of Lauriston, 533, 534.<br />
+<br />
+Lays and Legends of the Thames, No. II., 49<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Isle of Dogs, 50</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Song of the Mail Coachman, 51</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Presentation, 55</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Epitaphs, 57, 61</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Ode to Blackwall, 59</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Poet's Auction, 62</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;No. III., 423</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Vision, 424</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Arsenal, 426</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;True Love, 428</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Cardinals' voyage, 430.</span><br />
+<br />
+Legacy duty, inequality of the, 246.<br />
+<br />
+Lemaitre, the Marquis, 166.<br />
+<br />
+Lemaitre, Frederick, 188.<br />
+<br />
+Lena, the river, <a href='#Page_669'>669</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Lessons from the Famine, 515.<br />
+<br />
+Letters on the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;No. I., the Divining Rod, 368</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;II., Vampyrism, 432</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;III., Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, 440</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;IV., Real Ghosts and Second Sight, 541</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;V., Trance and Sleep-waking, 547</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;VI., Religious Delusions, the Possessed, Witchcraft, <a href='#Page_673'>673</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Lettres de Cachet, profligate use of, in France, 538.<br />
+<br />
+Levasseur the actor, 192.<br />
+<br />
+Leuthen, battle of, 41.<br />
+<br />
+Life, a sonnet, 555.<br />
+<br />
+Lord Sidmouth's Life and Times, 473.<br />
+<br />
+Louis XV., sketches of, by Walpole, 206.<br />
+<br />
+Louis XV., De Tocqueville's Memoirs of, reviewed, 525.<br />
+<br />
+Louis Philippe, sketches of the court of, 1<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;his elevation, 8</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;and personal habits, 9.</span><br />
+<br />
+Love, a sonnet, 555.<br />
+<br />
+Lowositz, battle of, 40.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Macdonald, General, administration of Naples by, 164.<br />
+<br />
+Mack, General, a Christmas carol, 92.<br />
+<br />
+Mack, General, at Naples, 163.<br />
+<br />
+Magnesia, a ride to, stage first, 231<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;II. 305.</span><br />
+<br />
+Mahmood, the Sultan, <a href='#Page_694'>694</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Maid of Ulva, the, by Delta, 645.<br />
+<br />
+Maida, battle of, 168.<br />
+<br />
+Mail Coachman, song of the, 51.<br />
+<br />
+Maison Dor&eacute;e at Paris, the, 177.<br />
+<br />
+Mammone, a Neapolitan bandit, 164.<br />
+<br />
+Mammoth deposits of Siberia, the, <a href='#Page_670'>670</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Maria Theresa, accession of, and war against, 38.<br />
+<br />
+Marie Amelie, Queen of Louis Philippe, 7, 8, 11.<br />
+<br />
+Marlborough, comparison of, with Eugene, &amp;c., 34.<br />
+<br />
+Marriage Bill, the Scotch, 646.<br />
+<br />
+Marsin, Marshal, 35.<br />
+<br />
+Massillon, 532.<br />
+<br />
+Mazarine, Cardinal, French Opera originated by, 180.<br />
+<br />
+Melville's Omoo, review of, <a href='#Page_754'>754</a>.<br />
+<br />
+M&eacute;rim&eacute;e, Prosper, notices of the works of, <a href='#Page_695'>695</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Merkatz, Lieutenant, 67, 68.<br />
+<br />
+Mexican War, the, <a href='#Page_667'>667</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mildred, a tale, Chap. IV., 18<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Chap. V., 23</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Chap. VI., 28</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Chap. VII., 213</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Chap. VIII., 217</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Chap. IX., 222.</span><br />
+<br />
+Minden, battle of, 42.<br />
+<br />
+Minerals of Lake Superior, the, <a href='#Page_658'>658</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mississippi Scheme, the, 533.<br />
+<br />
+Modern Italian History, 162.<br />
+<br />
+Mollwitz, battle of, 38.<br />
+<br />
+Mont Dor, baths of, 448.<br />
+<br />
+Montebello, Duchess of, 5.<br />
+<br />
+Monterey, town of, <a href='#Page_664'>664</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Montreal, town of, <a href='#Page_655'>655</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Motherwell's Poems, review of, 622.<br />
+<br />
+Mountaineer and Poet, the, a sonnet, <a href='#Page_684'>684</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Muleteers of Spain, the, 352, 354.<br />
+<br />
+Murat, sketches of, 166, 167<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;as King of Naples, 170</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;death of, 175, 176.</span><br />
+<br />
+Murray, a Jacobite, sketches of, 196.<br />
+<br />
+Music, Turkish, <a href='#Page_749'>749</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mytilene, Island of, <a href='#Page_736'>736</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Naples, sketch of the recent history of, 162.<br />
+<br />
+Napoleon, comparison of Frederick the Great with, 34, 45.<br />
+<br />
+Nashua, town of, <a href='#Page_654'>654</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Nemours, the Duc de, 17.<br />
+<br />
+New Archangel, settlement of, <a href='#Page_661'>661</a>.<br />
+<br />
+New Sentimental Journey, a<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Baths of Mont Dor, 448</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Company, 451</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Forest, 454.</span><br />
+<br />
+Newcastle, the Duke of, character of, by Walpole, 202.<br />
+<br />
+New England, Residence of three of the Regicides in, 333.<br />
+<br />
+Newhaven, grave of the Regicides at, 334.<br />
+<br />
+North America, Siberia, and Russia, <a href='#Page_653'>653</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Nugent, Lord, Walpole's character of, 197.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Oatmeal, superiority of, to wheat, <a href='#Page_772'>772</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ochotsk, town of, <a href='#Page_668'>668</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_776" id="Page_776">[Pg 776]</a></span>Oglou, Pasha, 235.<br />
+<br />
+Olaf the Saint, the Hymn of, altered from the Icelandic, <a href='#Page_682'>682</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Omoo, review of, <a href='#Page_754'>754</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Orleans, Dowager Duchess of, Anecdote of, 11.<br />
+<br />
+Orleans, the Regent, 530.<br />
+<br />
+Opera Comique at Paris, the, 180.<br />
+<br />
+Oswald, Prince, 84.<br />
+<br />
+Ottoman Empire, present state of the, <a href='#Page_685'>685</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Overland Journey round the Globe, Simpson's, review of, <a href='#Page_653'>653</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Pacific Rovings, <a href='#Page_754'>754</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pano di Grajo, a Neapolitan leader, 165, 169.<br />
+<br />
+Palais Royal, the, 191.<br />
+<br />
+Paris, Sketches of Society in, 13.<br />
+<br />
+Passaruang, town of, 332.<br />
+<br />
+Pauperism and its treatment, 261.<br />
+<br />
+Peel, Sir Robert, reflections on the career of, 93.<br />
+<br />
+Pelham, Lord, 204, 206.<br />
+<br />
+Pellew's Life of Sidmouth, review of, 473.<br />
+<br />
+Peninsula, latest from the, 350.<br />
+<br />
+P&eacute;p&eacute;, General, review of the memoirs of, 162.<br />
+<br />
+P&eacute;p&eacute;, Florestano, 172.<br />
+<br />
+Personal character, importance of, to a statesman, 93.<br />
+<br />
+Peterwardin, battle of, 36.<br />
+<br />
+Picton and the Connaught Rangers, 457.<br />
+<br />
+Pitt, first appearance of, 476<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;notices of, 483, 484.</span><br />
+<br />
+Poacher, the, or Jutland 130 years since, from the Danish.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;I. The Deer Rider, 286.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;II. Ansbjerg, 289.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;III. The Nisse, 292.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;IV. The Elopement, 297.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;V. The Horse Garden, 303.</span><br />
+<br />
+Poet, the, a Sonnet, <a href='#Page_684'>684</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Poet's Auction, the, 62.<br />
+<br />
+Poetry<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Eric's Dirge, by Delta, 91</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Stormy Sea, by the same, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;General Mack, 92</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;the Early Taken, 230</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;To the Stethoscope, 361</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Epigrams, 367</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Four Sonnets, namely, Life, Love, Heaven and Earth, the Prospect, by E. B. Browning, 555</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Epitaph of Constantine Kanaris, 644</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Maid of Ulva, by Delta, 645</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Lament of Macrimmon, by the same, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Hymn of King Olaf the Saint, <a href='#Page_682'>682</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Four Sonnets, by Elizabeth B. Browning, <a href='#Page_683'>683</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Police Rates, inequalities of, 250.<br />
+<br />
+Polynesia, sketches of, <a href='#Page_754'>754</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pomaree, Queen, <a href='#Page_761'>761</a>, <a href='#Page_766'>766</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pompadour, Madame de, 206.<br />
+<br />
+Poor, treatment of the, 262.<br />
+<br />
+Poors'-rate, inequality of the, 247.<br />
+<br />
+Popular Superstitions, Letters on the truths contained in, No. I. The Divining<br />
+Rod, 368<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;II. Vampyrism, 432</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;III. Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, 440</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;IV. Real Ghosts and Second-sight, 541</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;V. Trance and Sleep-waking, 547</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;VI. Religious Delusions: the Possessed: Witchcraft, <a href='#Page_673'>673</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Portuguese troops, character of the, 464.<br />
+<br />
+Possession, Demoniacal, letter on, <a href='#Page_673'>673</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Premier, reflections: suggested by the career of the late, 93.<br />
+<br />
+Prospect, the, a Sonnet, 556.<br />
+<br />
+Prosper M&eacute;rim&eacute;e, notices of the works of, <a href='#Page_695'>695</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Prussian Military Memoirs, 65.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Rahden, Baron von, wanderings of an old soldier, reviewed, 65.<br />
+<br />
+Railways in Spain, 352.<br />
+<br />
+Raval the Actor, 193.<br />
+<br />
+Red River Settlement, the, <a href='#Page_659'>659</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Reflections suggested by the career of the late Premier, 93.<br />
+<br />
+Regicides, cave of the, and how three of them fared in New England, 333.<br />
+<br />
+Regnier, defeat of, at Maida, 168.<br />
+<br />
+Reichenbach, Count, 68.<br />
+<br />
+Reign of George II., the, 194.<br />
+<br />
+Religious Delusions, letter on, <a href='#Page_673'>673</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ride to Magnesia, a<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;stage I. 231</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;II. 305.</span><br />
+<br />
+Robinson, Sir Thomas, 209.<br />
+<br />
+Rosama, a tale of Madrid, 557.<br />
+<br />
+Rosbach, battle of, 41.<br />
+<br />
+Royal Arsenal, the, 426.<br />
+<br />
+Ruffo, Cardinal, 164.<br />
+<br />
+Russia, sketches of, <a href='#Page_668'>668</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Salamanca, battle of, 470.<br />
+<br />
+Samson, the executioner of Paris, 15.<br />
+<br />
+Sanchez, Julian, a Spanish Guerilla leader, 463.<br />
+<br />
+San Francisco, harbour of, <a href='#Page_662'>662</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Santa Barbara, town of, <a href='#Page_665'>665</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Saxe, Marshal, 535.<br />
+<br />
+Saxony, conquest of, by Frederick the Great, 40.<br />
+<br />
+Scio, Island of, <a href='#Page_748'>748</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Scotch Marriage Bill, the, 646.<br />
+<br />
+Scotland, new poor law for, 247.<br />
+<br />
+Scottish Melodies, by Delta, Eric's Dirge, 91<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Stormy Sea, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;The Maid of Ulva, 645</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Lament for Macrimmon, <i>ib.</i></span><br />
+<br />
+Secker, Archbishop, character of, 198.<br />
+<br />
+Second-sight, letter on, 541.<br />
+<br />
+Selberg's Java, review of, 318.<br />
+<br />
+Sentimental Journey, a, see <i>New</i>.<br />
+<br />
+Sheldon's Border Minstrelsy, review of, 622.<br />
+<br />
+Sheridan, speech of, on the Begum question, 478<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;notices of, 488.</span><br />
+<br />
+Siberia, sketches of, <a href='#Page_668'>668</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sidmouth, Lord, life and times of, 473.<br />
+<br />
+Simpson's Overland Journey Round the World, review of, <a href='#Page_653'>653</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sitka, Settlement of, <a href='#Page_661'>661</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sleep-waking, letter on, 547.<br />
+<br />
+Smith, John William, memoir of, by Samuel Warren, 129.<br />
+<br />
+Smyrna, city of, 231, 233, <a href='#Page_735'>735</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Soor, battle of, 39.<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_777" id="Page_777">[Pg 777]</a></span>Spain, sketches of modern, 350.<br />
+<br />
+Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, letter on, 440.<br />
+<br />
+Stamboul, sketches of, <a href='#Page_689'>689</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Stamp Duties, inequalities of, 250.<br />
+<br />
+Stethoscope, to the, 361.<br />
+<br />
+Stewart, Sir John, 169.<br />
+<br />
+Storming of the Redoubt, the, <a href='#Page_724'>724</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Stormy Sea, the, by Delta, 91.<br />
+<br />
+Sue, Engene, 591.<br />
+<br />
+Superior, Lake, the minerals of, <a href='#Page_658'>658</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Surabaya, town of, 324.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Tahiti, sketches of, <a href='#Page_758'>758</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Taxation, direct, 243,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">true principles of, 258.</span><br />
+<br />
+Thames, Lays and Legends of the, <i>see</i> Lays.<br />
+<br />
+Theatres of Paris, the, 177.<br />
+<br />
+Theatre des Vari&eacute;t&eacute;s, the, 187.<br />
+<br />
+Thill, Colonel, 77.<br />
+<br />
+Thorpe's translation of Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxons, review of, 79, 80.<br />
+<br />
+Tiger Hunting in Java, 326.<br />
+<br />
+Tocqueville's History of the reign of Louis XV., review of, 525.<br />
+<br />
+Torgau, battle of, 43.<br />
+<br />
+Treatment of Pauperism, on the, 261.<br />
+<br />
+True Love, 428.<br />
+<br />
+Turin, battle of, 35.<br />
+<br />
+Turkey, present state of, <a href='#Page_685'>685</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Turkish Manners, sketches of, 231.<br />
+<br />
+Turkish Watering Place, a, <a href='#Page_735'>735</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Turning Dervishes, the, <a href='#Page_689'>689</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Two Sketches, by E. B. Browning, <a href='#Page_683'>683</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+United States, war of the, with Mexico, <a href='#Page_667'>667</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ural mountains, mines of the, <a href='#Page_671'>671</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Vallego, General, <a href='#Page_663'>663</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Valona, town of, 231.<br />
+<br />
+Vampyrism, letter on, 432.<br />
+<br />
+Vaudeville at Paris, the, 184, 185.<br />
+<br />
+Vestris, the Dancer, 181.<br />
+<br />
+Vidocq, the Thief-taker, 15.<br />
+<br />
+Villeroi, Marshal, 35.<br />
+<br />
+Visible and Tangible, the, a metaphysical fragment, 580.<br />
+<br />
+Vision, the, 424.<br />
+<br />
+Voltaire, sketches of, 536, 537.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Walpole's reign of George II., review of, 194.<br />
+<br />
+Walpole, Sir Robert, notices of, 197, 203, 204.<br />
+<br />
+Warren, Samuel, memoir of the late John William Smith by, 129.<br />
+<br />
+Watermen of London, the, 262.<br />
+<br />
+Wellington, comparison of Marlborough with, 34<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;Sketches of, by Von Rahden, 75, 76.</span><br />
+<br />
+Whalley the Regicide, 333.<br />
+<br />
+Wheat, on the nutritive qualities of, and the various kinds of flour from it, <a href='#Page_768'>768</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Wilberforce, anecdotes of, 480.<br />
+<br />
+Wilfrith, Bishop, 88.<br />
+<br />
+Witchcraft, letter on, <a href='#Page_673'>673</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Yakutsh, province of, <a href='#Page_669'>669</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Yonge, Sir William, 191.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Zenta, battle of, 35.<br />
+<br />
+Zorndorf, battle of, 42.<br />
+<br />
+Zulares, valley of, <a href='#Page_666'>666</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>END OF VOL. LXI.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.</i></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
+61, No. 380, June, 1847, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, MAY, 1847 ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26484-h.htm or 26484-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/4/8/26484/
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Josephine
+Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images
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+</body>
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@@ -0,0 +1,9365 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61,
+No. 380, June, 1847, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 380, June, 1847
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: August 29, 2008 [EBook #26484]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, MAY, 1847 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Josephine
+Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S
+
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+No. CCCLXXX. JUNE, 1847. Vol. LXI.
+
+
+
+
+NORTH AMERICA, SIBERIA, AND RUSSIA.[A]
+
+
+The circumnavigation of the world is now a matter of ordinary occurrence
+to our bold mariners: and after a few years it will be a sort of summer
+excursion to our steamers. We shall have the requisitions of the
+Travellers' Club more stringent as the sphere of action grows wider; and
+no man will be eligible who has not paid a visit to Pekin, or sunned
+himself in Siam.
+
+But a circuit of the globe on _terra firma_ is, we believe, new. Sir
+George Simpson will have no competitor, that we have ever heard, to
+claim from him the honour of having first galloped right a-head--from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Pacific to the British
+Channel. One or two slight divergencies of some thousand miles down the
+smooth and sunny bosom of the Pacific, are to be reckoned as mere
+episodes: but Sir George soon recovers his course, plunges in through
+the regions of the polar star; defies time, trouble, and Tartary;
+marches in the track of tribes, of which all but the names have expired;
+follows the glories of conquerors, whose bones have mingled five hundred
+years ago with the dust of the desert; gives a flying glance on one side
+towards the Wall of China, and on the other towards the Arctic Circle;
+still presses on, till he reaches the confines of the frozen
+civilisation of the Russian empire; and sweeps along, among bowing
+governors and prostrate serfs,--still but emerging from barbarism--until
+he does homage to the pomp of the Russian court, and finally lands in
+the soil of freedom, funds, and the income tax.
+
+What the actual object of all this gyration may have been, is not
+revealed, nor, probably, _revealable_ by a "Governor of the Hudson's Bay
+territories," who, having the fear of _other_ governors before his eyes,
+dedicates his two handsome volumes to "The Directors of the Hudson's Bay
+Company;" but the late negotiations on Oregon, the Russian interest in
+the new empire rising on the shore of the Northern Pacific, the vigorous
+efforts of Russia to turn its Siberian world into a place of human
+habitancy, and the unexpected interest directed to those regions by the
+discovery of gold deposits which throw the old wealth of the Spanish
+main into the shade, _might_ be sufficient motives for the curiosity of
+an individual of intelligence, and for the anxious inquiries of a great
+company, bordering on two mighty powers in North America, both of them
+more remarkable for the vigour of their ambition than for the reverence
+of their hunters and fishers for the _jus gentium_.
+
+Those volumes, then, will supply a general and a very well conceived
+estimate of immense tracts of the globe, hitherto but little known to
+the English public. The view is clear, quick, and discriminative. The
+countries of which it gives us a new knowledge are probably destined to
+act with great power on our interests, some as the rivals of our
+commerce, some as the depots of our manufactures, and some as the
+recipients of that overflow of population which Europe is now pouring
+out from all her fields on the open wilderness of the world.
+
+This spread of emigration to the north is a curious instance of the
+reflux of the human tide; for, from the north evidently was Europe
+originally peopled. Japhet was a powerful propeller; and often as he has
+dwelt in the tents of Shem, he is likely to overwhelm the whole
+territory of the southern brother once more. The Turk, the Egyptian, the
+man of Asia Minor, the man of Thrace, will yet be but tribes in that
+army of the new Xerxes which, pouring from Moscow, and impelled from St
+Petersburg, will renew the invasions of Genghiz and Tamerlane, and try
+the civilized strength of the west against the wild courage and
+countless multitudes of Tartary. Into this strange, but important, and
+prospectively powerful country, we now follow the traveller. Embarking
+from Liverpool in the Caledonia, a vessel of 1300 tons and 450 horse
+power, he was amply prepared to face the perils of the most stormy of
+all oceans, the Atlantic. The run across lad the usual fortunes of all
+voyages, and within a week after their departure from _terra firma_ they
+saw a whale, who saw them with rather more indifference, for he lay
+lounging on the surface until the steamer had nearly run over him. At
+last he dived down, and was seen no more. Next day, while there was so
+little wind, that all their light canvass was set, they saw the
+phenomenon of a ship under close-reefed topsails. This apparent timidity
+was laughed at by some of the passengers, but the more experienced
+guessed that the vessel had come out of a gale, of which they were
+likely to have a share before long, a conjecture which was soon
+verified.
+
+On the morning of the 9th day, the captain, discovering that the
+barometer had fallen between two and three inches during the night, due
+preparations were of course made to meet the storm. It came on in the
+afternoon, a hurricane. Then followed the usual havock of boats and
+canvass, the surges making a clean breach over the deck; the passengers,
+of course, gave themselves up for lost, and even the crew are said to
+have been pretty nearly of the same opinion. However, the wind went down
+at last, the sea grew comparatively smooth, and in twenty-four hours
+more, they found themselves on the banks of Newfoundland. The writer
+thinks that it was fortunate for them that the storm had not caught them
+in the short swell of these shallow waters, as was probably the case of
+the President, whose melancholy fate so long excited, and still excites
+a feeling of surprise and sorrow in the public mind.
+
+It was lost in this very storm. Next day came another of the sea
+wonders. The cry of land started them all from the dinner table; but the
+land happened to be an immense field of ice, which, with the
+inequalities of its surface and the effect of refraction, presented some
+appearance of a wooded country. On that night the cry of "Light a-head,"
+while they were still several hundred miles from land, excited new
+astonishment. "All the knowing ones" clearly distinguished a magnificent
+revolver. The paddles were accordingly stopped to have a cast of the
+lead, but in another half hour it was ascertained that the revolver was
+a newly risen star.
+
+At length land was really seen, and after a run of fourteen days, they
+cast anchor in the harbour of Halifax. But as Boston was their true
+destination they steered for it at once. Their progress had been rapid,
+for they entered Boston Bay in thirty-six hours from Halifax, a distance
+of 390 miles. Boston is more English looking than New York. The gently
+undulating shores of the bay, highly cultivated, bring to memory the
+green hills of England, and within the town the buildings and the
+inhabitants have a peculiarly English air.
+
+As speed was an object, the party immediately left the town by the
+railway, passing through Lowell and reaching Nashua. This is one of the
+rapid growths of America. In 1819 this place was a village of but
+nineteen houses. It now contains 19,000 inhabitants, with churches,
+hotels, prisons, and banks. Here the party went off in two detachments,
+one in a sleigh with six horses, and the other rattled along in a
+coach-and-four. At the next stage the author exchanged the coach for a
+sleigh, a matter of no great importance to the world, but which may be
+mentioned as a caution against rash changes. For the first few miles the
+new conveyance went on merrily, and the passengers congratulated
+themselves on their wisdom. We must now let him speak for himself.
+
+"The sun, as the day advanced, kept thawing the snow, till at last, on
+coming to a deep drift, we were repeatedly obliged to get out, sometimes
+walking up to the knees, and sometimes helping to lift the vehicle out
+of the snow. However, at length we fairly stuck fast, in spite of all
+our hauling and pushing. The horses struggled and plunged to no purpose,
+excepting that the leaders, after breaking part of their tackle,
+galloped off over the hills and far away, leaving us to kick our heels
+in the slush, till they were brought back after a chase of several
+miles."
+
+The road now passed through Vermont, the state of green mountains. The
+country appeared striking; and Montpelier, where they breakfasted, seems
+to be a very pretty place, looking more the residence of hereditary ease
+and luxury, than the capital of a republic of thrifty graziers. It is,
+in fact, an assemblage of villas; the wide streets run between rows of
+trees, and the houses, each in its own little garden, are shaded by
+verandas.
+
+In that very pleasant little book, the "Miseries of Human Life," one of
+those small calamities is, the being called at the wrong hour to go off
+in the wrong coach from a Yorkshire inn. Time and the railroad have
+changed all this in England, but in America we have the primitive misery
+well described.
+
+The author, after forty-two hours of hard jolting, goes to bed at one
+o'clock to obtain a little repose, leaving orders to be called at five
+in the morning. He is wrapt in the profoundest of all possible slumbers,
+when a peal of blows is heard at his door. "In spite, however, of
+laziness, and a cold morning to boot," he says, "I had completed the
+operations of washing and dressing by candlelight, having even donned
+hat and gloves, to join my companions, when the waiter entered my room
+with a grin. 'I guess,' said the rascal, 'I have put my foot in it. Are
+you the man that wanted to be called at two?' 'No,' was my reply.
+'Then,' said he, 'I calculate I have fixed the wrong man, so you had
+better go to bed again.' Having delivered himself of this friendly
+advice, he went to awaken my neighbour, who had all this time been
+quietly enjoying the sleep that properly belonged to me. Instead of
+following the fellow's recommendation, I sat up for the rest of the
+night." Whether the author possessed a watch we cannot tell, but if he
+was master of that useful and not very rare article, he might have saved
+himself his premature trouble, and escaped shaving at midnight.
+
+On crossing into the Canadian territory, he encounters one of those
+evidences of popular liberty which belong to rather the American than
+the English side. In the village of St John's, some of the party went
+a-head to the principal inn, and as it was late at night, and their
+knocking produced no effect, they appealed to what they regarded as the
+most accessible of the landlord's susceptibilities, his pocket, by
+saying that they were fourteen, more coming, with a whole host of
+drivers. This appeal was the most unlucky possible, for the landlord had
+another sensibility, the fear of being tarred and feathered, if not
+hanged. On the door being opened at last, the landlord was not to be
+found; his brother wandered about, the very ghost of despair. The
+establishment was searched upside and downside, inside and outside, in
+vain; and they began to think themselves the cause of some domestic
+tragedy; but it must have been a late perpetration, for on looking into
+his bed, they found the lair warm.
+
+However, after a short time, mine host returned with a face all smiles.
+The mystery was then explained. The election had taken place during the
+day, and the landlord, having taken the part of the candidate who
+eventually succeeded, was threatened with vengeance by the losing party.
+The arrival of the travellers convinced him that his hour was come, and
+he had jumped out of bed and hidden himself in some inscrutable corner.
+But a good supper reconciled every thing.
+
+The author crossed the ice to Montreal, and had a showy view of the
+metropolis of the Canadas. A curious observation is suggested by
+Montreal, on the different characters of the English and French
+population. In the days of Wolf and Amherst, it was all French; but
+John Bull, with his spirit of activity and industry, has quietly become
+master of all the trading situations of the city, while the French have
+as quietly retreated, and spread themselves through the upper sections
+of it, to a great degree cut off from its commercial portions.
+
+From Montreal the travel began. The heavy canoes were sent forward some
+days before, under the charge of some of the Company's officers, the
+light canoes waited for the author, with Colonel Oldfield, chief
+engineer in Canada, who was going up the country on a survey of the
+navigation, and the Earls of Mulgrave and Caledon, who were going to the
+Red River, buffalo-hunting.
+
+All was now ready in form, and on the 4th of May the two canoes were
+floating on the Lactrine canal. The crews, thirteen to one vessel, and
+fourteen to the other, were partly Canadians, but principally Iroquois.
+Those _voyageurs_, as they are called, had each been supplied with a
+feather in his cap, in honour of the occasion, and evidently expected to
+produce a _sensation_ on shore. But a north-wester blowing prevented the
+hoisting of their flags, which mulcted the pageant of much of its
+intended glory. These canoes are thirty-five feet in length, and five
+feet wide in the centre; drawing about eighteen inches water, and
+weighing between three and four hundred pounds; capitally fitted for a
+navigation among rocks, rapids, and portages; but they seem most
+uncomfortable in rough weather. The waves of the St Lawrence rolled like
+a sea, the gale was biting, and the snow drifted heavily in the faces of
+the party. In this luckless condition, we are not surprised at the
+intelligence, that at St Anne's Rapids, notwithstanding the authority of
+the poet, "they sang no evening hymn."
+
+This style of travelling was not certainly much mingled with luxury.
+Next morning, after "toiling for six hours," they breakfasted, "with the
+wet ground for their table, and with rain in place of milk to cool their
+tea." On this day, while running close under the falls of the Rideau,
+they seem to have had a narrow escape from a _finale_ to their voyage;
+their canoes being swept into the middle of the river, under an immense
+fall, fifty feet in height.
+
+They now learned the art of _bivouaching_, and after a day of toiling
+through portages, reserving the severest of them, the Grand Calumet, for
+the renewed vigour of the morning, they made ready for the forest night.
+The description, brief as it is, is one among many which shows the
+_artist_ eye.
+
+"The tents were pitched in a small clump of pines, while round a blazing
+fire the passengers were collected, amid a medley of boxes, barrels,
+cloaks, and on the rock above the foaming rapids were lying the canoes;
+the men flitting about the fires as if they were enjoying a holiday, and
+watching a huge cauldron suspended above the fire. The whole with a
+background of dense woods and a lake."
+
+Yet, startling as this "wooing of nature" in her rough moods may seem to
+the silk-and-velvet portion of the world, we doubt whether this wild
+life, with its desperate toil and its ground sleep, may not be the true
+charm of travel to saint, savage, or sage, when once fairly forced to
+the experiment. The blazing fire, the bed of leaves, the gay supper,
+made gayer still by incomparable appetite, and the sleep after all, in
+which the whole outward man remains imbedded, without the movement of a
+muscle and without a dream, until the morning awakes him up a new being,
+are fully worth all the inventions of art, to make us enjoy rest
+unearned by fatigue, and food without waiting for appetite. "The sleep
+of the weary man is sweet," said the ancient and wise king who slept
+among curtains of gold, and under roofs of cedar; the true way to taste
+that sleep is to spend a day, dragging canoes up Indian portages, and
+lie down with one's feet warmed by a pine blaze and one's back to the
+shelter of a forest.
+
+But, as the time will assuredly come when this "life in the woods" will
+be no more, when huge inns will supersede the canopy of the skies, and
+down beds will make the memory of birch twigs and heather blossoms pass
+away, we give from authority the proceedings of an evening's rest, which
+the next generation will study with somewhat of the feeling of reading
+Tacitus De Moribus Germanorum.
+
+As the sun approached his setting, every eye in the canoes, as they
+pulled along, was speculating on some dry and tolerably open spot on the
+shore. _That_ once found, all were on shore in an instant. Then the axe
+was heard ringing among the trees, to prepare for the fires, and make
+room for the tents. In ten minutes, the tents were pitched, the fires
+blazing in front of each, and the supper preparing in all its
+diversities. The beds were next made, consisting of an oil-cloth laid on
+the ground, with blankets and a pillow; occasionally aided by
+great-coats, _a discretion_. The crews, drawing the canoes on shore,
+first made an inspection of their hurts during the day; and having done
+this, the little vessels were turned into a shelter, and each man
+wrapping himself in his blanket defied the weather and the world.
+
+But this state of happiness was never destined to last long. About _one_
+in the morning, the cry, of "_Leve_, _leve_," broke all slumbers. We
+must acknowledge that the hour seems premature, and that the most
+patient of travellers might have solicited a couple of hours more of
+"tired Nature's sweet restorer." But the discipline of the bivouac was
+Spartan. If the slumberer did not instantly start up, the tent was
+pulled down about him, and he found himself half-smothered in canvass.
+However, we must presume that this seldom happened, and, within half an
+hour, every thing would be packed, the canoes laden, and the paddles
+moving to some "merry old song." In this manner passed the day, six
+hours of rest, to eighteen of labour, a tremendous disproportion, even
+to the sturdy Englishman, or the active Irishman, but perfectly
+congenial to the sinews and spirit of the gay _voyageur_.
+
+A few touches more give the complete picture of the day. About eight, a
+convenient site would be selected for breakfast. Three-quarters of an
+hour being the whole time allotted for unpacking and packing, boiling
+and frying, eating and drinking. "While the preliminaries were
+arranging, the _hardier_ among us would wash and shave, each person
+carrying soap and towel in his pocket, and finding a _mirror_ in the
+same sandy or rocky basin which held the water. About two in the
+afternoon, we put ashore for dinner, and as this meal needed no fire,
+or, at least, got none, it was not allowed to occupy more than twenty
+minutes, or half an hour."
+
+We recommend the following considerations to the amateur boat clubs, and
+others, who plume themselves on their naval achievements between Putney
+and Vauxhall bridges. Let them take the work of a Canadian paddle-man to
+heart, and lower their plumage accordingly.
+
+"The quality of the work, even more than the quantity, requires
+operatives of iron mould. In smooth water, the paddle is plied with
+twice the rapidity of the oar, taxing both arms and lungs to the utmost
+extent. Amid shallows, the canoe is literally dragged by the men, wading
+to their knees or their loins, while each poor fellow, after replacing
+his drier half in his seat, laughingly strikes the heavier of the wet
+from his legs over the gunwale, before he gives them an inside berth. In
+rapids, the towing line has to be hauled along over rocks and stumps,
+through swamps and thickets, excepting that when the ground is utterly
+impracticable, poles are substituted, and occasionally also the bushes
+on the shore."
+
+This however is "plain sailing," to the Portages, where the tracks are
+of all imaginable kinds and degrees of badness, and the canoes and their
+cargoes are never carried across in less than two or three trips; the
+little vessels alone monopolizing, in the first turn, the more expert
+half of their respective crews. Of the baggage, each man has to carry at
+least two pieces, estimated at a hundred and eighty pounds weight, which
+he suspends in slings placed across his forehead, so that he may have
+his hands free, to clear his way among the branches and standing or
+fallen trunks. Besides all this, the _voyageur_ performs the part of
+bridge, or jetty, on the arrival of the canoe at its place of rest, the
+gentlemen passengers being carried on shore on the backs of these
+good-humoured and sinewy fellows.
+
+For the benefit of the untravelled, we should say, that a Portage is the
+fragment of land-passage between the foot and head of a rapid, when the
+rush of the stream is too strong for the tow-rope.
+
+At one of the halting-places on Lake Superior, a curious tale was told
+of the Indian's belief in a Providence, of which it had been the scene.
+
+Three or four years before, a party of Salteaux, much pressed for
+hunger, were anxious to reach one of their fishing stations, an island
+about twenty miles from the shore. The spring had unluckily reached that
+point, when there was neither clear water, nor trustworthy ice. A
+council was being held, to consider the hard alternatives of drowning
+and starving, when an old man of influence thus spoke:
+
+"You know, my friends, that the Great Spirit gave one of our squaws a
+child yesterday; now, he cannot have sent it into the world to take it
+away again directly. I should therefore recommend the carrying the child
+with us, as the pledge of safety."
+
+We wish that we could have to record a successful issue to this
+anticipation. But the transit was too much for the metaphysics of the
+old Indian. They went on the treacherous ice, it gave way, and
+eight-and-twenty perished.
+
+The Thunder Mountain on their route, struck them as "one of the most
+appalling objects" which they had seen, being a bleak rock twelve
+hundred feet high above the level of the lake, with a perpendicular face
+of its full height. The Indians say, that any one who can scale it, and
+"turn three times on the brink of its fearful wall, will live for ever."
+We presume, by dying first.
+
+But the shores of this mighty lake, or rather fresh-water sea, which
+seemed destined to loneliness for ever, are now likely to hear the din
+of population and blaze with furnaces and factories. Its southern coasts
+are found to possess rich veins of copper and silver. Later inquiry has
+discovered on the northern shore "inexhaustible treasures of gold,
+silver, copper, and tin," and associations have been already formed to
+work them. Sir George Simpson even speaks of the future probability of
+their rivalling in point of wealth the Altai chain, and the Uralian
+mountains.
+
+From Fort William, at the head of Lake Superior, the little expedition
+entered a river with a polysyllabic name, which leads farther on, to the
+"Far West." The banks were beautiful. When this country shall be
+peopled, it will be one of the resemblances of the primitive paradise.
+
+It is all picturesque; the river finely diversified with rapids, and
+with one cataract which, though less in volume than Niagara, throws that
+far-famed fall into the background, in point of height and wildness of
+scenery. But we must leave description to the author's pen. "The river,
+during this day's march, passed through forests of elm, oak, birch, &c.,
+being studded with isles not less fertile and lovely than its banks. And
+many a spot reminded us of the rich and quiet scenery of England. The
+paths of the numerous portages were spangled with roses, violets, and
+many other wild flowers--while the currant, the gooseberry, the
+raspberry, the plum, the cherry, and even the vine, were abundant. All
+this bounty of nature was imbued, as it were, with life, by the cheerful
+notes of a variety of birds, and by the restless flutter of butterflies
+of the brightest hues." He then makes the natural and graceful
+reflection--
+
+"One cannot pass through this fair valley without feeling that it is
+destined to become, sooner or later, the happy home of civilised men,
+with their bleating flocks, and their lowing herds--with their schools
+and their churches--with their full garners, and their social hearths.
+At the time of our visit, the great obstacle in the way of so blessed a
+consummation was the hopeless wilderness to the eastward, which seemed
+to bar for ever the march of settlement and cultivation, but which will
+soon be an open road to the far west with all its riches. That
+wilderness, now that it is to yield up its long-hidden stores, bids fair
+to remove the impediments which hitherto it has itself presented. The
+mines of Lake Superior, besides establishing a continuity of route
+between the East and the West, will find their nearest and cheapest
+supply of agricultural produce in the valley of the Kaministaquoia."
+
+One of the especial hazards of the forest now encountered them. Passing
+down a narrow creek near _Lac le Pluie_, fire suddenly burst forth in
+the woods near them. The flames crackling and clambering up each tree,
+quickly rose above the forest; within a few minutes more the dry grass
+on the very margin of the waters, was in "a running blaze, and before
+they were clear of the danger, they were almost enveloped in clouds of
+smoke and ashes. These conflagrations, often caused by a wanderer's
+fire, or even by his pipe, desolate large tracts of country, leaving
+nothing but black and bare trunks, one of the most dismal scenes on
+which the eye can look. When once the fire gets into the thick turf of
+the primeval wilderness, it sets every thing at defiance. It has been
+known to smoulder for a whole winter under the deep snow."
+
+Another Indian display quickly followed. After traversing the lake, they
+were hailed by the warriors of the Salteaux, a band of about a hundred,
+the fighting men of a tribe of five hundred. Their five chiefs presented
+a congratulatory address on their safe arrival, requesting an audience,
+which was appointed, at the rather undiplomatic hour of _four_ next
+morning. But, while the Governor was slumbering, the Indians were
+preparing means of persuasion more effective, in their conceptions, than
+even the oratory on which they seem to pride themselves very
+highly--"while they were napping, the enemy were pelting away at them
+with their incantations."
+
+In the centre of a conjuring tent--a structure of branches and bark,
+forty feet in length by ten in width--they kindled a fire; round the
+blaze stood the chiefs and "medicine men," while as many others as could
+find room were squatted against the walls. Then, to enlighten and
+convert the Governor, charms were muttered, rattles were shaken, and
+offerings were committed to the flames. After all these operations the
+silent spectators, at a given signal, started on their feet and marched
+round the magic circle, singing, whooping, and drumming in horrible
+discord. With occasional intervals, which were spent by the performers
+in taking fresh air, the exhibition continued during the whole night, so
+that when the appointed hour arrived they were still engaged in their
+observances. At length the two parties met in the open square of the
+fort. The Indians dressed in all their glory, a part of which consists
+in smearing their faces entirely out of sight with colours--the
+prevailing fashion being, forehead white, nose and cheeks red, mouth and
+chin black.
+
+The Governor and his party of course made their best effort to meet all
+this magnificence. Lord Caledon and Lord Mulgrave exhibited in
+regimentals; the rest put on their _dressing-gowns_, which, being of
+showy patterns, were equally effective. Seated in the "hall of
+conference," the pipes being sent round, hands shaken, and all due
+ceremonial having been performed, the Indian orator commenced his
+harangue in the style with which we have now become familiar. Beginning
+with the creation, &c. &c., which Sir George cut short, and suddenly
+dropping down into the practical complaint, "that we had stopped their
+rum," though our predecessors had promised to furnish it "as long as the
+waters flowed down the rapids." "Now," said he, in allusion to our empty
+casks, "if I crack a nut, will water flow from it?"
+
+The Governor replied, that the withdrawal of the rum was _not_ to save
+expense but to benefit them. He then gave them his advice on temperance,
+and promised them a small quantity of rum every autumn. He also promised
+a present for their civility in bringing their packet of furs, for which
+they should receive payment besides. Then followed a general and final
+shaking of hands, and the Congress between the English and Chippaway
+nations broke up to their mutual satisfaction.
+
+The Red River settlement, of which we heard so often during the quarrels
+between Lord Selkirk and the Company, will yet be a great colony; the
+soil is very fertile (one of the most important elements of
+colonisation,) its early tillage producing forty returns of wheat; and,
+even after twenty years of tillage, without manure, fallow, or green
+crop, yielding from fifteen to twenty-five bushels an acre. The wheat
+is plump and heavy, and, besides, there are large quantities of other
+grain, with beef, mutton, pork, butter, cheese, and wool in abundance.
+This would be the true country for emigration from our impoverished
+islands, and will, of course, be crowded when conveyances shall become
+more manageable. A railroad across Canada must still be a rather Utopian
+conception, but it might be well worth the expense of making by
+government, even though it produced nothing for the next half-dozen
+years, for the multitudes whom it would carry through the heart of this
+superb country in the half-dozen years after, and for the wealth which
+they would pour into England in every year to come.
+
+The settlement, however, meets, in its turn, the common chances of an
+American climate. In winter the cold is intense. The summer is short,
+and the rivers sometimes overflow and drown the crops. Still what are
+these things to the population, where food is plenty, the air healthy,
+and the ground cheap, fertile and untaxed. In fact, the difficulties, in
+such instances, are scarcely more than incitements to the ingenuity of
+man, to provide resources against them. The season of snow is a time of
+cheerfulness in every land of the north. In Denmark, Russia, and Canada,
+when the rivers close up, business is laid by for the next six months;
+and the time of dancing, driving, and feasting begins. Food is the great
+requisite; when that is found, every thing follows.
+
+In addition to agriculture, or in place of it, the settlers, more
+particularly those of mixed origin, devote the summer, the autumn, and
+sometimes the winter also, to the hunting of the buffalo, bringing home
+vast quantities of pemmican, dried meat, grease, tongues, &c. for which
+the Company and voyaging business affords the best market.
+
+The party now proceeded, still with their faces turned to the west, and
+marched for some days over an immense prairie, which seemed to them to
+have been once the bottom of a huge lake. A rather striking circumstance
+is, that nearly every height in this region has its romance of savage
+life. We give one of murder, for the benefit of the modern school of
+novelists.
+
+Many summers ago, a party of Assinabaians fell on a party of Crees in
+the neighbourhood of the Beatte a Carcajar, a conspicuous knoll in this
+neighbourhood, and nearly destroyed them all. Among the assailants was
+the former wife of one of the Crees, who had been carried off from him,
+in an earlier foray, by her present lord and master. From whatever
+motive of domestic memory, this Amazon rushed into the thickest of the
+fight, for the evident purpose of killing the original husband. He,
+however, escaped; and while the victors were scalping his unfortunate
+companions, creeping stealthily along for a whole day under cover of the
+woods, he laid down at night in a hollow at the top of the Knoll. But
+his wife had never lost sight of him, and no sooner had he, in the
+exhaustion of hunger and fatigue, sunk into a sound sleep, than she sent
+an arrow into his brain. She then possessed herself of his scalp, and
+exhibited it as her prize to the victors. The title of the slain savage
+was the Wolverine, and the spot is still called the Wolverine's Knoll.
+
+The Indians assert that the ghosts of the murderess and her victim are
+often to be seen struggling on the height.
+
+Human nature, left to itself, is a fierce and frightful thing; and the
+stories of savage life are nearly all of the same calibre, and all
+exhibit a dreadful love of revenge. About twenty years ago, a large
+encampment of Black-feet and others, had been formed in those prairies
+for the purpose of hunting. The warriors, however, growing tired of
+their peaceful occupation, resolved to make an incursion into the lands
+of the Assinabaians. They left behind them the old men with the women
+and children. After a successful campaign, they turned their steps
+homewards, loaded with scalps and other spoils, and on reaching the top
+of the ridge that overlooked their camp, they gave note of their
+approach by the usual shouts of victory. But no shout answered, and on
+descending to their huts, they found the whole of the inmates
+slaughtered. The Assinabaians had been there to take their revenge.
+
+On beholding the dismal scene, the triumphant warriors cast away their
+spoils, arms, and clothing, and then putting on robes of leather, and
+smearing their heads with mud, they betook themselves to the hills for
+three days and nights, to howl and moan, and cut their flesh. It is
+observed, that this mode of expressing public grief, bears a striking
+resemblance to the customs of the Jews. The track towards Fort Vancouver
+exhibited a country, which may yet make a great figure in the American
+world,--immense valleys sheltered by mountain ridges, and containing
+beautiful lakes. In one instance, their tents were pitched in a valley
+of about five hundred acres enclosed by mountains on three sides, and a
+lake on the fourth. From the edge of the waters there arose a gentle
+descent of six or eight hundred feet covered with vines, and composed of
+the accumulated fragments of the heights above; and on the upper border
+of this slope there stood perpendicular walls of granite of three or
+four thousand feet high, while among those dizzy altitudes, the goats
+and sheep bounded in playful security. This defile had been the scene of
+an exploit. One of the Crees, whom they had met a few days before, had
+been tracked into the valley along with his wife and family by five
+warriors of a hostile tribe. On perceiving the odds against him, the man
+gave himself up for lost, observing to the woman, that as they could die
+but once, they had better die without resistance. The wife, however,
+said, that "as they had but one life to lose, they had the more reason
+to defend it," and, suiting the action to the word, the heroic wife
+brought the foremost of the enemy down to the ground by a bullet, while
+the husband disposed of two others by two arrows. The fourth warrior was
+rushing on the woman with uplifted tomahawk, when he stumbled and fell.
+She darted forward, and buried her knife in his heart. The sole
+surviving assailant now turned and fled, discharging, however, a bullet
+which wounded the man in the arm.
+
+They had now reached that rocky range from which the eastern and western
+rivers of those mighty provinces take their common departure. Here they
+estimated the height of the pass to be seven or eight thousand feet
+above sea-level, while the peaks seemed to be nearly half that height
+above their heads.
+
+Of course, the party often felt the torture of mosquitoes, but one
+valley was so pre-eminently infested with those tormentors, that man and
+beast alike preferred being nearly choked with smoke, in which they
+plunged, for the sake of escaping their stings. But we advert to this
+common plague of all forest travel, only for its legendary honours.
+
+"The Canadians vented their curses against the OLD MAID, who had the
+credit of having brought the scourge upon earth, by praying for
+something to fill up the leisure of her single blessedness." And if, as
+the author observes, "the tormentors would confine themselves to
+nunneries and monasteries, the world might see something more of the
+fitness of things in the matter."
+
+At the close of August, the party reached Fort Vancouver, having crossed
+the Continent, by a route of five thousand miles, in twelve weeks'
+travelling.
+
+They now made a visit to the Russian-American Company's Establishment of
+New Archangel. This exhibited considerable signs of commerce. In the
+harbour were five sailing vessels from 250 to 350 tons; besides a large
+bark in the offing in tow of a steamer, which brought advices from St
+Petersburgh down to the end of April. An officer came off conveying
+Governor Etholine's compliments and welcome. The party landed, and were
+received in the residence situated on the top of a rock. The Governor's
+dwelling consisted of a suite of apartments communicating, according to
+the Russian fashion, with each other, all the public, rooms being
+handsomely decorated and richly furnished. It commanded a view of the
+whole establishment, which was, in fact, a little village. About half
+way down the rock, two batteries frowned respectively over the land and
+the water. Behind the Bay arise stupendous piles of conical mountains
+with summits of everlasting snow. To seaward, Mount Edgecumbe, also in
+the form of a cone, rears its trunk-headed peak, still remembered as
+the source of smoke and flame, lava and ashes, but now the repository of
+the snows of an age. Next day, the Governor, in full uniform, came in
+his gig to return the visit to Sir George on board his steamer. The
+party were invited on shore, where they were introduced to Madame
+Etholine, a pretty and lady-like woman, a native of Finland. They then
+visited the schools, in which there were twenty boys and as many girls;
+the boys were intended chiefly for the naval service, nor did religion
+seem to be neglected any more than education. The Greek Church had its
+bishop, fifteen priests, deacons, and followers, and the Lutherans had
+their clergyman. The ecclesiastics were all maintained by the Imperial
+Government. Such is Sitka, the principal depot of the Russian-American
+Company. It has various subordinate establishments. The operations of
+the Company are becoming more extensive, and at this period the returns
+of the trade amounted to about 25,000 skins of beavers, otters, foxes,
+&c.
+
+Among the company at the Russian Governor's, was a half-breed native,
+who had been the leader of an expedition equipped some years ago, for
+the discovery of what would here be styled the North-East passage. The
+Russians reached Point Barrow shortly after the expedition under Mr
+Thomas Simpson had reached the same point from the opposite direction.
+The climate seems to be sufficiently trying, and during the four days at
+Sitka there was nearly one continued fall of rain. The weather was cold
+and squally, snow had fallen, and the channels were traversed by
+restless masses which had broken off from the glaciers. In short nothing
+could exceed the dreariness of the coast.
+
+This shore, of which so much has been said and written during the late
+Oregon negociations, is described as the very scene for the steam-boat.
+Here are the Straits of Juan de Fuca; and here Admiral Fonte penetrated
+up the more northerly inlets. They are the very region made for the
+steam-boat, as in the case of a sailing vessel their dangers and delays
+would have been tripled and quadrupled. But steam has also a power
+almost superstitious on the minds of the natives; besides acting on
+their fears, it has in a great measure subdued their love of robbery and
+violence. It has given the savage a new sense of the superiority of his
+white brother.
+
+A striking instance of this feeling is given. After the arrival of the
+emigrants from Red River, their guide, an Indian, took a short trip in
+the Beaver. When asked what he thought of her, "Don't ask me," was his
+reply. "I cannot speak; my friends will think that I tell lies when I
+let them know what I have seen. Indians are fools, and know nothing. I
+can see that the iron machinery makes the ship go, but I cannot see what
+makes the iron machinery itself go." This man, though intelligent, and
+partly civilized, was nevertheless so full of doubt and wonder that he
+would not leave the vessel till he had got a certificate to the effect
+that he had been on board of a ship which needed neither sails nor
+paddles,--any document in writing being regarded by the Indians as
+unquestionable. Fort Vancouver--which will probably be the head of a
+great colony, is about ninety miles from the sea, the Colombia in front
+of it, being a mile in width--contains houses, stores, magazines, &c.
+Outside the fort, the dwellings of the servants, &c. form a little
+village. The people of the establishment vary in number, according to
+the season of the year, from one hundred and thirty to more than two
+hundred. Divine service is regularly performed every Sunday in English
+to the Protestants. But at the time of this journal there was
+unfortunately no English clergyman connected with the establishment.
+
+Sir George himself now visited California, the region which the Mexican
+war is bringing into prominent notice. The harbour of San Francisco is
+magnificent, the first view of the shore presented a level sward of
+about a mile in depth, backed by a ridge of grassy slopes, the whole
+pastured by numerous herds of cattle and horses, which, without a keeper
+or a fold, fattened whether their owners waked or slept.
+
+The harbour displays a sheet of water of about thirty miles in length
+by about twelve in breadth, sheltered from every wind by an amphitheatre
+of green hills. But this sheet of water forms only a part in the inland
+sea of San Francisco. Whaler's Harbour, at its own northern extremity,
+communicates by a strait of about two miles in width with the bay of San
+Pedro, which leads by means of a second strait into Fresh Water Bay, of
+nearly the same form and magnitude, and which forms the receptacle, of
+two great rivers, draining vast tracts of country to the south-east and
+north-east, which are navigable for inland craft, so that the harbour,
+besides its matchless qualities as a port of refuge on this surf-beaten
+coast, is the outlet of an immense, fair, and fertile region.
+
+But the beauties of nature are useless when they fall into the hands of
+idlers and fools. Every thing in those fine countries seems to be
+boasting and beggary. Every thing has been long sinking into ruin,
+through mere indolence. The Californians once manufactured the fleeces
+of their sheep into cloth. They are now too lazy to weave or spin, too
+lazy even to clip and wash the raw material, and now the sheep have been
+literally destroyed to make more room for the horned cattle.
+
+They once made the dairy an object of attention, now neither butter nor
+cheese is to be found in the province. They once produced in the
+Missions eighty thousand bushels of wheat and maize,--they were lately
+buying flour at Monterey at the rate of L6 a sack. Beef was once
+plentiful,--they were now buying salted salmon for the sea-store for one
+paltry vessel, which constituted the entire line-of-battle of the
+Californian navy.
+
+The author justly observes, that this wicked abuse of the soil and
+consequent poverty of the people results wholly from "the objects of the
+colonisation." Thus the emigrants from England to the northern colonies
+looked to subsistence from the fruits of labour; ploughed, harrowed, and
+grew rich, and civilized. On the other hand the colonists of "New
+France" a name which comprehended the valleys of the St Lawrence and
+Mississippi, dwindled and pined away, partly because the golden dreams
+of the free trade carried them away from stationary pursuits, and partly
+because the government considered them rather as soldiers than settlers.
+In like manner Spanish America, with its _Serras_ of silver, holding out
+to every adventurer the hope of earning his bread without the sweat of
+his brow, became the paradise of idlers.
+
+In California the herds of cattle, and the sale of their hides and
+tallow, offer so easy a subsistence, that the population think of no
+other, and in consequence are poor, degenerate, and dwindling. Their
+whole education consists in bullock hunting. In this view, unjust and
+violent as may be the aggressions of the American arms, it is difficult
+to regret the transfer of the territory into any hands which will bring
+these fine countries into the general use of mankind, root out a race
+incapable of improvement, and fill the hills and valleys of this mighty
+province with corn and man.
+
+At present the produce of a bullock in hide, tallow, and horns, is about
+five dollars, (the beef goes for nothing) of which the farmer's revenue
+is averaged at a dollar and a half. This often makes up a large income.
+General Vallego, who had about eight thousand head of cattle, must
+receive from this source about ten thousand dollars a-year. The former
+Missions, or Monkish revenues, must have been very large; that of San
+Jose possessing thirty thousand head of cattle, Santa Clara nearly half
+the number, and San Gabriel more than both together.
+
+It must be acknowledged that the monks had made a handsome affair of
+holiness in the good old times. Previously to the Mexican revolution
+their "missions" amounted, in the upper province alone, to twenty-one,
+every one of course with its endowment on a showy scale. Every monk had
+an annual stipend of four hundred dollars. But this was mere
+pocket-money; they had "donations and bequests" from the living and from
+the dead, a most capacious source of opulence, and of an opulence
+continually growing, constituting what was termed the pious fund of
+California. Besides all these things, they had the cheap labour of
+eighteen thousand converts. But the drones were to be suddenly smoked
+out of their hives. Mexico declared itself a republic; and, as the
+first act of a republic, in every part of the world, is to plunder every
+body, the property of the monks went in the natural way. The lands and
+beeves, the "donations and bequests were made a national property," in
+1825. Still some show of moderation was exhibited, and the names and
+some of the offices of the missions were preserved. But, in 1836, the
+Californians took the whole affair into their own hands, threw off the
+Central Government, and were "free, independent," and beggared. The
+Missions were then "secularized" at their ease. The Mexican government
+was furious for a while, and threatened the Californians with all the
+thunders of its rage; but the vengeance ended in the simple condition,
+that California should still acknowledge the Mexican supremacy, taking
+her own way in all that had been done, was doing, and was to be done.
+
+The travellers had now an opportunity of seeing the interior of a
+Californian mansion, the house of the chief proprietor in this quarter,
+General Vallego.
+
+We must acknowledge that Sir George Simpson would have much improved his
+volumes by striking out the whole of this description. It is evident
+that he was received with civilities of every kind;--he was provided
+with horses and attendants;--he was taken to see all the remarkable
+features of the estate and the habits of its people; he was _feted_,
+introduced to wife and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, sung
+and danced for, and smiled on and talked with, as if he had been a
+prince; and yet his whole account of this hospitality throws it into the
+most repulsive light imaginable;--cold dinners, bad attendance, rude
+furniture, and so forth, form the staple of his conceptions; and if his
+book should ever reach General Vallego's hands, which it probably will,
+through the zeal of American republication, we can easily imagine that
+he will become cautious in his hospitality for the time to come. We, at
+least, shall not extend the vexation of this Spanish gentleman by
+quoting any part of this unfortunate _bevue_. We say this with regret.
+But this style of repaying generous hospitality cannot be too distinctly
+reproved, for the sake of all future travellers who may want, not merely
+hospitality, but protection.
+
+The next subject of description is Monterey, which has lately assumed a
+peculiar interest, as one of the objects of the American invasion. The
+Bay of Monterey forms a segment of a circle with a chord of about
+eighteen miles. Monterey had always been the seat of government, though
+it consisted of but a few buildings. But, since the revolution of 1836,
+it has expanded into a population of about seven hundred souls. The town
+occupies a plain, bounded by a lofty ridge. The dwellings are the
+reverse of pompous, being all built of mud bricks. The houses are
+remarkable for a paucity of windows, glass being inordinately dear; even
+parchment almost unattainable, and the artists in window-making charging
+three dollars a-day!
+
+But, to the Californians, perhaps this privation of light is not an
+evil. While it makes the rooms cooler, it cannot, by any possibility,
+interfere with the occupations of those who do nothing. The bed affords
+a curious contrast to the rest of the furniture. While the apartments
+exhibit a deal-table, badly made chairs, probably a Dutch clock, and an
+old looking-glass, the bed "challenges admiration by snowy white sheets,
+fringed with lace, a pile of soft pillows, covered with the finest linen
+or the richest satin, and a well-arranged drapery of costly and tasteful
+curtains." Still this bed is "but a whited sepulchre," with a wool
+mattress--"the impenetrable stronghold of millions of----." We leave the
+rest to the imagination.
+
+The history of "Political Causes and Effects" would make a curious
+volume; and it would admirably display, at once the profound agency of
+Providence, and the shortsightedness of human policy. It would scarcely
+be supposed that the devastation of Europe, and the sack of Berlin,
+Vienna, and Moscow, found their origin in a Spanish treaty, on the banks
+of the Mississippi, half a century before.
+
+The power of France in the interior of America, which had extended from
+Canada to Louisiana, and which formed a line of posts for its boundary
+along this immense internal _frontier_, kept the British Colonies in a
+state of constant alarm; and, by consequence, in a state of continual
+dependence on England. But the English possession of Canada, in 1763,
+and the cession of Louisiana to Spain at the same period, as they
+lessened the alarms, loosened the allegiance of the British colonies.
+The next steps were more obvious. The war of the United States, in which
+France was an auxiliary, inflamed the French population with the hope of
+breaking down the strength of England and the aristocracy of France. But
+the expense of equipping the French allied force fell heavy on an
+exchequer already burthened by the showy extravagance of the Regent
+Orleans, and by the gross profligacies of Louis XV. To relieve the
+exchequer, the States General were summoned; and from that _moment_
+began the Revolution. The European war was the result of a republican
+government, and the conquest of the Continent the result of placing
+Napoleon on the throne of the empire. What further results may be still
+preparing are beyond our knowledge; but it can scarcely be conceived
+that the chain is yet finally broken.
+
+But before we take leave of California, we must do it the justice to
+speak of San Barbara, which, as the author _rather_ emphatically
+expresses it, is to Monterey "what the parlour is to the kitchen."
+
+The bay is an unfavourable one, being exposed to the "worst winds of the
+worst season." But the town having been selected as the favourite
+retreat of the more respectable functionaries of the province, Santa
+Barbara exhibits the charms of aristocratic manners. The houses,
+externally, are superior to any others on the coast, and, internally,
+exhibit taste in their furniture and ornament. The ladies excite the
+author's pen into absolute rapture; their sparkling eyes and glossy
+hair, are, in themselves, sufficient to negative the idea of tameness or
+insipidity, while their sylph-like figures exhibit fresh graces at every
+step. This is supported by the more important qualities, of "being by
+far the more industrious half of the community, and performing their
+household duties with cheerfulness and pride."
+
+The men are a handsome race, and the greatest dandies imaginable,
+completely modelled on the Andalusian Majo, and displaying the finest
+linen, the most embroidered pantaloons, and the most glittering jackets
+in the western world. Of course, it cannot be expected of any Spaniards
+that they should do much, and beaux so fine cannot be expected to do any
+thing. Accordingly, his day is spent in riding from house to house, on a
+horse as fine as himself, a living machine of trappings, and the nights
+in dancing, billiard-playing, and flirting.
+
+In all countries where serious things are habitually turned into
+trifles, trifles become serious things. "The balls, in fact, seem more
+like a matter of business than any thing else that is done in
+California. For whole days beforehand, sweetmeats are laboriously
+prepared in the greatest variety, and from beginning to end of the
+festivities, which have been known to last several successive nights, so
+as to make the performers, after wearing out their pumps, trip it in
+sea-boots, both men and women displaying as much gravity as if attending
+the funeral of their friends."
+
+A still more humanising portion of their tastes is their passion for
+music. The guitar is heard in every house. Father, mother, and child are
+all playing and singing; and, to the praise of their taste be it spoken,
+playing nothing but the fandangoes, seguidillas, and ballads of Spain;
+the truest, purest, and most touching of all music; well worth all the
+_hammered_ harmonies of the German school, and all the long-winded and
+laborious bravuras of the Italian. The Spanish music is the most
+refined, and yet the most natural, in the world.
+
+We are glad to see this experienced judge of men and things speaking of
+the Californians as "a happy people possessing the means of physical
+pleasure to the full," even though he qualifies the opinion by their
+"knowing no higher kind of enjoyment."
+
+It is true, that the Englishman, who knows what _intellectual_ enjoyment
+is, will not abandon that highest, though most toilsome, of all
+gratifications, for inferior indulgences; but it would be a fortunate
+hour for the Englishman when he could get rid of some portion of the
+toil that wears away his life, in exchange for the lighthearted
+pleasures and simple occupations of foreign existence. Nor is there any
+man who less prefers the dogged round of his cheerless exertions, or who
+is more genuinely susceptible of essential enjoyment. We even think that
+the cultivated Englishman has a finer relish for enjoyment than the man
+of any other country. The caperings of the Frenchman, or the grimaces of
+the Italian, have but little connexion with the mind. All foreigners
+seem wretched when they have no physical excitement. There is not a more
+miserable object on earth, than a Frenchman wandering through the
+streets of London on a Sunday, when he can neither see the print shops
+in the day, nor go to the play at night. The German is heart-broken for
+the same reason, and shrouds himself and his sorrow in double clouds of
+smoke. The Italian would worship Diana of Ephesus, or the Great African
+Snake, if its pageantry, or puppet-show, would enable him to get through
+the day of closed shops and _no_ opera! Yet, contemptible as this
+restless hunting after nothings is, it would be fortunate for us if we
+could qualify the severity and constancy of our national toil by some
+mixture of the lighter pursuits of the Continent.
+
+The fertility of California is boundless; it produces every thing that
+human appetite can desire. In the Mission-garden of San Gabriel were
+produced grapes, oranges, lemons, olives, figs, bananas, plums, peaches,
+apples, pears, pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, &c. &c., while
+in the adjoining Mission were found in addition, tobacco, the plantain,
+the cocoa-nut, the indigo plant, and the sugar cane.
+
+But Nature is nothing, in this country, without a miracle; and the
+history of every village probably furnishes its legend. The Missions,
+however, may be presumed to be the peculiar favourites of Heaven.
+
+"When Padre Pedro Cambon, and Padre Somera, were selecting a site for
+the Mission, escorted by ten soldiers, a multitude of Indians, armed,
+presented themselves, and setting up horrid yells, seemed determined to
+oppose its establishment. The fathers, fearing that war would ensue,
+took out a piece of cloth with the image of our Lady upon it, and held
+it up in view of the barbarians. This was no sooner done, than the whole
+were quiet, being subdued by the sight of this most precious image; and
+throwing on the ground their bows and arrows, their two captains came
+running to lay the beads, which they had round their necks, at the feet
+of the Sovereign Queen, in proof of their tender regard." We recommend
+the trial of this holy Cloth on General Taylor.
+
+But there is no limit to the richness of this region. The valley of the
+Zulares, in the neighbourhood, would support millions of people. Its
+lakes and rivers all abound in fish, its forests have all kinds of
+trees, some of them growing to a size which, but for the force of
+testimony, would be incredible. One of these is stated by Humboldt as of
+one hundred and eighteen feet in girth. "But this is a walking-stick
+compared with another at Bodega, as described to Sir George by Governor
+Etholine, of Sitka." It is thirty-six Russian fathoms (seven feet each)
+in span, and seventy-five in height; so that, if tapered into a perfect
+cone, it would contain nearly twenty-two thousand tons of bark and
+timber. In addition, the valley contains immense herds of wild horses,
+in troops of several thousands each. What a country will this be, when
+it shall fall into the hands of an intelligent people!
+
+The last of the five posts, San Diego, is, next to San Francisco, the
+best harbour in the province. Thus, Upper California contains, at its
+opposite extremities, two of the best harbours on the Pacific Ocean;
+each of them being enhanced in value by the distance of any others
+worthy of the name, San Francisco being nearly one thousand miles from
+Port Discovery in the north, and San Diego six hundred miles from the
+Bay of Magdalena in the south.
+
+That in the hands of any vigorous possessors this country would form a
+most powerful kingdom, is beyond all question; and Sir George Simpson
+evidently thinks that it might easily be acquired, and with a
+legitimate claim too, by England. But the still higher question is the
+policy of a perpetual increase of territory. England already has in
+America a larger extent of territory than she can people for five
+hundred years to come. But the possession of California, and perhaps of
+the whole extent of the Mexican provinces, is on the eve of decision;
+the American invasion has found no resistance that can deserve the name.
+The Mexicans fly in every quarter, and a few discharges of cannon put
+them to flight by thousands. At this moment the whole Mexican Republic,
+equal in size to half a dozen European States, appears to be crumbling
+into fragments. The rambling expeditions of the Americans are ravaging
+it in all directions with impunity, and armies which might have been
+long since annihilated by a mere guerilla war, have been suffered to
+march from city to city, with scarcely more resistance than a
+cattle-stealing skirmish. By the last intelligence, San Juan d' Ulloa
+has fallen, and Vera Cruz has capitulated after a siege of only three
+days and a half. The castle is the strongest fortification in the
+Western World--and, as Napoleon said of Malta, "It is lucky that it had
+somebody inside to open the gates for us:" the garrison of this fortress
+seems to have been placed there merely for the purpose of surrendering
+it. But, whatever may be the fate of men who had such a fortress to
+defend, and yet whose defence actually cost the assailants but
+_seventeen_ killed! there can be but one feeling of commiseration for
+the unhappy inhabitants of Vera Cruz, on whom was rained, day and night,
+a shower of shot and shell amounting to more than seven thousand of
+those tremendous missiles. It is computed that the slaughter, and that
+slaughter chiefly of women and children, amounts to thousands. These are
+terrible things, even where they may be supposed the _necessities_ of
+war. But here we can discover no necessity--Vera Cruz was _no_
+fortification, it was nearly an open town. We recollect no similar
+instance of a bombardment. In Europe, it has long been a rule of
+military morals, that no open city shall ever be bombarded. We believe
+it to be the boast of the first living soldier in the world--and we
+could have no more honourable one--that he never suffered a city to be
+bombarded; from the obvious fact, that the chief victims were the
+helpless inhabitants, while the soldiery are sheltered by the casemates
+and bomb-proofs.
+
+At all events, we must regard the contest as decided. The Government has
+exhibited nothing more than a sullen resolution; and the people little
+more than the apathy of their own cattle; the troops have exhibited no
+evidence of discipline, and the only resource of the Finance has been in
+the wild projects of an empty Exchequer. Whether the United States will
+be the more prosperous for this conquest, is a question of time alone.
+Whether the facility of the conquest may not make the multitude frantic
+for general aggression,--whether the military men of the States may not
+obtain a popularity and assume a power which has been hitherto confined
+to civil life,--whether the attractions of military career may not turn
+the rising generation from the pursuits of trade and tillage, to the
+idle, or the ferocious life of the American campaigner,--and whether the
+pressure of public debt, the necessity for maintaining their half-savage
+conquests by an army, and the passion for territorial aggrandisement,
+may not urge them to a colonial war with England,--are only parts of the
+great problem which the next five-and-twenty years will compel the
+American Republic to solve.
+
+At the same time, we cannot avoid looking upon the invasion of Mexico as
+a portion of that extraordinary and mysterious agency which is now
+shaking all the great stagnant districts of the world; which has already
+awaked Turkey in Europe and in Asia Minor; which has brought Egypt into
+civilised action; which has broken down the barbarism of the Algerines,
+and planted the French standard in place of the furies and profligacies
+of African Mahometanism. Deeply deprecating the guilt of those
+aggressions, and condemning the crimes by which they have been
+sustained, we cannot but regard changes so unexpected, so powerful, and
+so simultaneous, as the operation of a higher power than man's, with
+objects altogether superior to the shortsightedness of man, and amply
+bearing the character of working good out of evil, which belongs to the
+history of Divine Providence in all the ages of the world.
+
+There is one peculiarity in these volumes which we cannot sufficiently
+applaud, and that is, the thoroughly English spirit in which they are
+written. Without weak partiality, for the reasons are every where
+assigned; without narrow prejudice, for the facts are in all instances
+stated; and without derogating from the merits of other nations, the
+work is calculated to give a just conception of the value of England to
+the world.
+
+On his return from the Sandwich Isles--an interesting portion of his
+travels, to which we have not now time to advert in detail--and
+preparing to start from the Russian post of New Archangel by a five
+months' journey through the Russian empire, he gives a glance at what he
+has done.
+
+"I have," says he, "threaded my way round nearly half the globe,
+traversing about 220 degrees of longitude, and upwards of 100 of
+latitude, barely one fourth of this by the ocean. Notwithstanding all
+this, I have uniformly felt more at home, with the exception of my first
+sojourn at Sitka, than I should have felt in Calais. I have every where
+seen our race, under a great variety of circumstances, either actually
+or virtually invested with the attributes of sovereignty."
+
+After a few words on the vigour of the English blood, as exhibited in
+the commerce, intelligence, and activity of the United States, he
+returns to the immediate possessions and prowess of England. "I have
+seen the English posts which stud the wilderness from the Canadian lakes
+to the Pacific Ocean. I have seen English adventurers with that innate
+power which makes every individual, whether Briton or American, a real
+representative of his country, monopolising the trade, and influencing
+the destinies of California. And lastly, I have seen the English
+merchants of a barbarian Archipelago, which promises, under their
+guidance, to become the centre of the traffic of the east and the west,
+of the new world and the old. In saying all this, I have seen less than
+half the grandeur of the English race. How insignificant in comparison
+are all the other nations of the earth, one nation alone excepted.
+Russia and Great Britain literally gird the globe where either continent
+has the greatest breadth, a fact which, taken in connexion with their
+early annals, can scarcely fail to be regarded as the work of a special
+Providence. After the fall of the Roman empire, a scanty and obscure
+people suddenly burst on the west and east, as the dominant race of the
+times; one swarm of the Normans making its way to England, while another
+was establishing its supremacy over the Sclavonians of the Borysthenes,
+the two being to meet in opposite directions at the end of a thousand
+years."
+
+He regards the gigantic power of Russia as in an unconscious
+co-partnership with England in the grand cause of commerce and
+civilisation. He also makes the curious and true remark that,
+notwithstanding the astonishing successes of the Normans in Europe, they
+were never numerous enough to establish their language in any of the
+conquered countries. Their unparalleled successes, therefore, seem to
+express the idea that those feeble bands of warriors were strengthened
+every where to accomplish the purposes of Providence.
+
+We now come to the overland journey to Siberia. On the 23d of July, they
+reached the port of Ochotsk, where, however, they were met by masses of
+floating ice. Here Sir George had the first intelligence from England,
+which brought to his English heart the glad tidings of the birth of a
+Prince of Wales. They found this settlement a collection of huts on a
+shingly beach. The population is about 800 souls. A more dreary scene
+can scarcely be conceived than the surrounding country. Not a tree, and
+even scarcely a green blade is to be seen within miles of the town. The
+climate is on a par with the soil. The summer consists of three months
+of damp and chilly weather, during great part of which the snow still
+covers the hills, and the ice chokes the harbour, and this is succeeded
+by nine months of dreary winter. But when men find fault with such a
+climate as this, the fact is, that the fault is their own. Those
+climates were never intended for the residence of man; they were
+intended for the white bear, the seal, the whale, and the fur-bearing
+animals. To those inhabitants, they are perfectly adapted. If the rage
+of conquest, or the eagerness for gain, fixes human beings in the very
+empire of winter, they are intruders, and must suffer for their
+unsuitable choice of a locale.
+
+The principal food of the inhabitants is fish. On fish they feed
+themselves; their dogs--which are equivalent to their carriage
+horses--their cattle, and their poultry, are also chiefly fed on fish.
+All other provisions are ruinously dear. Flour costs twenty-eight rubles
+the pood,--(a ruble is worth about a franc, the pood is thirty-six
+English pounds.) Beef is so dear as to be regarded as a treat, and wines
+and groceries have to pay a land carriage of seven thousand miles.
+
+Here, too, the people drink tea in the style in which it was introduced
+in more primitive days into Europe. It is of the kind known as brick
+tea, being made up in cakes, and is consumed in great quantities by the
+lower orders in Siberia, being made into a thick soup, with the addition
+of butter and salt.
+
+On the 27th of the month, they began their journey across Siberia. After
+leaving the shore, and boating the river Ochota, to an encampment where
+they were to meet their horses, hired at the rate of forty-five rubles a
+horse, on an agreement to be conveyed to Yakutsh in eighteen days, they
+struck into the country, which exhibited forests of pine, their progress
+being about four or five miles an hour. The Yakuti appear to be very
+industrious; young and old, male and female, being always occupied in
+some useful employment. When not engaged in travelling or farming, men
+and boys make saddles, harness, &c.; while the women and girls keep
+house, dress skins, prepare clothing, and attend to the dairy. They are
+also remarkably kind to strangers, for milk and cream, the best things
+they had to give, were freely offered in every village. This was the
+10th of July, yet the snow was still partially lying on the ground. From
+day to day they met caravans of horses; and one day they were startled
+by the shouts of a party at the head of them. Their next sight was a
+herd of cattle running wildly in all directions, and the cause was seen
+in a huge she-bear and her cub moving off at a round trot. On this
+route, the bears are both fierce and numerous. The country had now
+become more fertile; there was no want of flowering plants, and the
+forests were enlivened by the warbling of birds, which, contrasted as it
+was with the deathlike silence of the American woods, was peculiarly
+grateful to the ear. In the course of the day, the vexatious incident
+occurred of meeting the courier, with the letters from England, which
+had been looked for so anxiously on the arrival of the travellers in
+Siberia; but the bags of course could not be opened on the road.
+
+The presence of the Cossack, who attended the party, was of great
+importance in quickening the movements of the natives; but they seemed
+kind and good-natured, full of civility to the strangers, and not
+without some degree of education. The Yakuti have a singular mode of
+estimating distances. In Germany, a common measure of distance is the
+time that it takes to smoke a pipe. In this part of Siberia, they take
+as their unit the time necessary for boiling a kettle of a particular
+sort of food. They tell you, that such and such a place is so many
+kettles off, or half a kettle, or, as the case may be, only part of a
+kettle.
+
+At last they arrive at the Lena. This is described as one of the
+grandest rivers in the world. At a distance of thirteen hundred versts
+from the sea, (three versts are equal to two miles,) it is from five to
+six miles wide. Its entire length is not less than four thousand versts.
+The word Lena implies lazy--a name justified by the circuitous flowing
+of its stream. At Yakutsk, the seat of the Governor, they were received
+with great civility in this capital of the province, latitude sixty-two
+north, and longitude one hundred and thirty east. The extreme
+temperature of summer and winter is almost beyond belief, the
+thermometer having, risen in the shade to 106 deg. of Fahrenheit, and in
+winter having fallen to 83 deg. below zero--making a difference of 189
+deg.  In this district are the enormous deposits of mammoth bones. Spring
+after spring, the alluvial banks of the lakes and rivers crumbling under
+the thaw have given up their dead; and the islands opposite to the mouth
+of the Yana, and, as there was reason for believing, even the bed of the
+ocean itself, teems with those mysterious memorials of antiquity. The
+question is, how do those bones come there? Sir George, after giving the
+opinions of some of the professors of geology, conceives the most
+natural account of the phenomenon to be, that those animals or their
+bones were swept from the great Tartarian pasturages of Cobi, by the
+waters of the Deluge, towards the ocean. We must acknowledge that this
+has long been our own opinion. It must be remembered that the Scriptural
+account states the rising of the Deluge to have been gradual. The rain
+fell forty days and nights. All living things would of course make their
+way to the heights to escape the rising inundation of the valleys. The
+cattle thus grouped together in immense herds, (the buffalos in the
+prairies at the present day sometimes exceed five thousand in one
+pasturage,) thus gathered into one mass, would be finally submerged, and
+swept away in whatever irresistible current rushed over the spot on
+which they stood. The frost of the region, which penetrates the earth to
+the depth apparently of some hundred feet, would thenceforth preserve
+them from decay. The tusks form an article of considerable trade, the
+ivory selling from a shilling to one and ninepence a pound, according to
+the perfection of the tusks.
+
+One of the travellers' especial wishes was, to have visited the town of
+Kiachta, the place of commerce between the Russians and the Chinese. But
+a note from the Governor mentioned that the Chinese had suddenly stopped
+all communication. But a few words may be given to a commerce so
+peculiar. By the treaty of Nertshinsk, a reciprocal liberty of traffic
+was stipulated; and accordingly caravans on the part of the Russian
+government, and individual traders, used to visit Pekin. But the
+Muscovites exhibited so much of the native habits in "drinking and
+roystering," that, after exhausting the patience of the Celestials
+during three-and-thirty years, they were wholly excluded. But a
+cessation of five years having taken place, the Russians in 1728
+obtained a treaty, by which individuals were permitted to trade on the
+frontier; and Kiachta was built. But public caravans were permitted to
+go on to Pekin. At length, in 1762, Catherine fixed the grand emporium
+at Kiachta.
+
+This town, standing on a beach of the same name, is within about half a
+furlong of the Chinese village of Maimatschin, (about the fiftieth
+parallel of latitude,) being one thousand miles from Pekin, and four
+thousand from Moscow. Such are the enormous distances through which the
+eagerness for money-making drives the children of men.
+
+The materials of the Russian traffic are furs, woollens, cottons, linen,
+&c., with articles in tin, copper, iron, &c.--the whole amounting to
+about nineteen millions of rubles. The Chinese products are tea, silks,
+sugar-candy, &c.--nominally to the amount of seven millions of rubles,
+but probably rising to thrice the value. The chief time of the market is
+the winter. To the chief Russian merchants this is a species of
+monopoly, and a most thriving one, some of them being _millionnaires_,
+and living in the most sumptuous manner, the "merchant princes" of the
+wilderness!
+
+We had some curiosity to know the condition of the exiles to Siberia
+from this intelligent eye-witness. But he gives little more than a
+glance to a subject on which the public mind of England is at present so
+much engaged. In Russia corporal punishment is much in use; but
+criminals are seldom put to death. They are marched off to Siberia for
+every kind of offence, from the highest political crime to petty
+larceny. The most heinous offenders are sent to the mines; those guilty
+of minor delinquencies are settled in villages, or on farms; and
+those guilty of having opinions different from those of the
+government--statesmen, authors, and soldiers--are generally suffered to
+establish themselves in little knots, where they spread refinement
+through the country. The consequence is, that "all grades of society are
+decidedly more intelligent than the corresponding grades in any other
+part of the empire, and perhaps more so than in most parts of Europe."
+
+Many of the exiles are now men of large income.--"The dwelling in which
+we breakfasted to-day," says the traveller, "was that of a person who
+had been sent to Siberia _against his will_. Finding that there was but
+one way of bettering his condition, he worked hard, and behaved well. He
+had now a comfortably furnished house and a well-cultivated farm, while
+a stout wife, and plenty of servants, bustled about the premises. His
+son had just arrived from St Petersburg, to visit his exiled father, and
+had the pleasure of seeing him amid all the comforts of life, reaping an
+abundant harvest, and with _one hundred and forty persons_ in his pay!"
+
+He adds, "In fact, for the _reforming_ of the criminal, in addition to
+the punishment of the crime, Siberia is undoubtedly the best
+_penitentiary_ in the world. When not bad enough for the mines, each
+exile is provided with an allotment of ground, a house, a horse, two
+cows, agricultural implements, and, for the first year, with provisions.
+For three years he pays no taxes whatever, and for the next ten, only
+half the full amount. To bring fear as well as hope to operate in his
+favour, he clearly understands, that his very first slip will send him
+from his home and family, to toil in the mines. Thus does the government
+bestow an almost paternal care on the less atrocious criminals."
+
+Yet with this knowledge before the British Government,--for we must
+presume that they had not overlooked the condition of the Russian
+exiles; and with the still more impressive knowledge of the growth of
+our Australian colonies, and the improvement of the convicts; the
+new-fangled and most costly plan is now to be adopted of reforming our
+criminals by keeping them at home! Thus we are to save the national
+expenditure by building huge penitentiaries, which will cost millions of
+money, and to secure society from depredation, by annually pouring out
+from those prisons, as the time of their sentences expires, the whole
+crowd of villany to live on villany once more;--making the very streets
+a place of danger, and filling the country with hungry crime.
+
+The only argument on the opposite side is, that the free settlers are
+offended by finding themselves in a population of convicts. But to this
+the obvious answer is, that the colonisation of Australia was originally
+intended as a school of reform--that the convicts have been to a great
+extent reformed, which they never would have been at home--that the
+convicts were in the colony first, and that the settlers going there,
+with their eyes open, have no reason to complain.
+
+We then have a Notice on another subject, which is at present engrossing
+the speculations of all Europe, namely, the gold-country on the
+Yenissei. Krasnoyayk, the capital, stands in a plain in the centre of
+the district, where the mania of gold-washing broke out about fifteen
+years ago. Some individuals have been singularly lucky in their search.
+One person, after having laboured in vain for three years, and expending
+a million and a half of rubles, suddenly, in this very year, had hit
+upon a depot which gave him a hundred and fifty poods of gold--worth
+thirty-five thousand rubles each, or five millions and a half of rubles.
+Gold here measures every thing: a lady's charms are by weight, "a pood
+is a good girl, and two or three poods are twice or thrice as good as a
+wife." _This_ province alone has, in this year, yielded five hundred
+poods of gold.
+
+Ekaterineburg is the centre of the mining district of the Uralian
+mountains. The population amounts to about fourteen thousand, who are
+all connected with the mines. The town has an iron foundery, a mint for
+copper and silver coin, and various establishments for cutting marble,
+porphyry, and polishing precious stones. The neighbouring mountains
+appear to be nature's richest repository of minerals, yielding, in great
+abundance, diamonds, amethysts, topazes, &c.; gold, silver, iron, and
+platina. These inexhaustible treasures chiefly belong to Count Demidoff
+and M. Yakovleff. The Count is said to receive half a million sterling
+a-year from this princely property.
+
+Hurrying now towards England, with the anxiety which every one feels to
+reach home as the end of a long journey seems to be nigh, the traveller
+passed through Kazan, second in national honour to Moscow, but found it
+in ashes from a late fire. He then hurried on to Nishney-Novgorod, the
+place of the greatest fair in the world, where the traffic brings
+traders from the ends of the earth, and where the trade amounts to
+nineteen millions sterling a-year. He then traversed the property of
+General Sheremetieff, an estate of _two days' journey_, with a hundred
+thousand serfs--a comfortable race when under a good master, each head
+of a family having a farm, and paying its rent, part in produce and part
+in work. The people appear to be a gay race--singing every where;
+singing on the roads, singing at work, and singing at cutting up their
+cabbages for the national luxury of _saurkraut_.
+
+At length was seen looming in the west, with all its steeples and domes,
+the queen of the wilderness, Moscow the Magnificent--the most
+frequently-burned of all cities, and, as Sir George observes, the most
+_retaliatory_ on the burners--it having been burned to embers _four_
+times, and each time having seen the incendiary nation ruined. It must
+be admitted, however, that the revenge, however sure, was slow, for it
+seldom occurred in less than a couple of centuries!--Napoleon's fate
+being the only instance of promptitude on this point.
+
+From Moscow to St Petersburg, a macadamised road of seven hundred versts
+conveyed the traveller to the northern city of the Czar, where, on the
+8th of October, he terminated a journey from Ochotsk, of about seven
+thousand miles. In eight days from St Petersburg he reached Hamburg, and
+in five days more arrived in London, having rounded the globe in a
+period of nineteen months and twenty-six days!
+
+We have given an abstract of this work with the more satisfaction, that
+it not merely supplies a certain knowledge of vast regions of which the
+European world knows little; but that it gives a favourable view of the
+condition, the habits, and the temper, of the multitudes of our fellow
+men, spread over those immense spaces of the globe. Personally, of
+course, a man of the official rank and individual intelligence of the
+writer, might expect the hospitality of the Russian employes. But he
+seems to have been met with general kindness--to have experienced no
+injury, no obstacle, and no extortion; and, on the whole, having
+exhibited the good sense which disregards the _inevitable_ annoyances of
+all journeys in distant countries, to have escaped all the severer ones
+which an ill-tempered traveller naturally brings upon himself. But the
+feature of his volumes on which we place the still higher value, is the
+honesty of his English spirit. He knows the value of his country; he
+does justice to her principles; he gives the true view of her power; he
+vindicates her intentions; and without depreciating the merits of
+foreign nations, he pays a manly tribute to the truth, by doing deserved
+honour to his own.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] _Narrative of an Overland Journey Round the World._ By Sir George
+Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson's Bay Company's Territories in
+North America.
+
+
+
+
+LETTERS ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
+
+
+VI.--RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS: THE POSSESSED: WITCHCRAFT.
+
+Dear Archy,--The subjects about which I propose writing to you to-day
+are, delusions of a religious nature;--the idea of being possessed,--the
+grounds of the belief in witchcraft. With so much before me, I have no
+room to waste. So, of the first, first.
+
+The powerful hold which the feeling of religion takes on our nature, at
+once attests the truth of the sentiment, and warns us to be on our guard
+against fanatical excesses. No subject can safely be permitted to have
+exclusive possession of our thoughts, least of all the most absorbing
+and exciting of any.
+
+    "So--it will make us mad."
+
+It is evident that, with the majority, Providence has designed that
+worldly cares should largely and wholesomely employ the mind, and
+prevent inordinate craving after an indulgence in spiritual stimulation;
+while minds of the highest order are diverted, by the active duties of
+philanthropy, from any perilous excess of religious contemplation.
+
+Under the influence of constant and concentrated religious thought, not
+only is the reason liable to give way--which is not our theme--but,
+alternatively, the nervous system is apt to fall into many a form of
+trance, the phenomena of which are mistaken by the ignorant for Divine
+visitation. The weakest frame sinks into an insensibility profound as
+death, in which he has visions of heaven and the angels. Another lies,
+in half-waking trance, rapt in celestial contemplation and beatitude;
+others are suddenly fixed in cataleptic rigidity; others, again, are
+dashed upon the ground in convulsions. The impressive effect of these
+seizures is heightened by their supervention in the midst of religious
+exercises, and by the contagious and sympathetic influence through which
+their spread is accelerated among the more excitable temperaments and
+weaker members of large congregations. What chance have ignorant people
+witnessing such attacks, or being themselves the subjects of them, of
+escaping the persuasion that they mark the immediate agency of the Holy
+Spirit? Or, to take ordinarily informed and sober-minded people,--what
+would they think at seeing mixed up with this hysteric disturbance,
+distinct proofs of extraordinary perceptive and anticipatory powers,
+such as occasionally manifest themselves as parts of trance, to the
+rational explanation of which they might not have the key?
+
+In the preceding letter, I have already exemplified, by the case of
+Henry Engelbrecht, the occurrence of visions of hell and heaven during
+the deepest state of trance. No doubt the poor ascetic implicitly
+believed his whole life the reality of the scenes to which his
+imagination had transported him.
+
+In a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury to Ambrose Mark Phillips, Esq.,
+published in 1841, a very interesting account is given of two young
+women who had lain for months or years in a state of religious
+beatitude. Their condition, when they were exhibited, appears to have
+been that of half-waking in trance; or, perhaps, a shade nearer the
+lightest form of trance-sleep. To increase the force of the scene, they
+appear to have exhibited some degree of trance-perceptive power. But,
+without this, the mere aspect of such persons is wonderfully imposing.
+If the pure spirit of Christianity finds a bright comment and
+illustration in the Madonnas and Cherubim of Raffaelle, it seems to
+shine out in still more truthful vividness from the brow of a young
+person rapt in religious ecstasy. The hands clasped in prayer,--the
+upturned eyes,--the expression of humble confidence and seraphic hope,
+(displayed, let me suggest, on a beautiful face,) constitute a picture
+of which, having witnessed it, I can never forget the force. Yet I knew
+it was only a trance. So one knows that village churches are built by
+common mechanics. Yet when we look over an extensive country, and see
+the spire from its clump of trees rising over each hamlet, or over the
+distant city its minster tower,--the images find an approving harmony in
+our feelings, and seem to aid in establishing the genuineness and the
+truth of the sentiment and the faith which have reared such expressive
+symbols.
+
+In the two cases mentioned in Lord Shrewsbury's pamphlet, it is,
+however, painful to observe that trick and artifice had been used to
+bend them to the service of Catholicism. The poor women bore on their
+hands and feet wounds, the supposed _spontaneous_ eruption of
+delineations of the bleeding wounds of the crucifix, and, on the
+forehead, the bloody marks of the crown of thorns. To convict the
+imposture, the blood-stains from the wounds in the feet ran _upwards_
+towards the toes, to complete a _facsimile_ of the original, though the
+poor girls were lying on their backs. The wounds, it is to be hoped, are
+inflicted and kept fresh and active by means employed when the victims
+are in the insensibility to pain, which commonly goes with trance.
+
+To comprehend the effects of religious excitement operating on masses,
+we may inspect three pictures,--the revivals of modern times--the
+fanatical delusions of the Cevennes--the behaviour of the
+Convulsionnaires at the grave of the Abbe Paris.
+
+"I have seen," says M. Le Roi Sunderland, himself a preacher, [_Zion's
+Watchman_, New York, Oct. 2, 1842,] "persons often 'lose their
+strength,' as it is called, at camp-meetings, and other places of great
+religious excitement; and not pious people alone, but those also who
+were not professors of religion. In the spring of 1824, while performing
+pastoral labour in Dennis, Massachusetts, I saw more than twenty people
+affected in this way. Two young men, of the name of Crowell, came one
+day to a prayer meeting. They were quite indifferent. I conversed with
+them freely, but they showed no signs of penitence. From the meeting
+they went to their shop, (they were shoemakers,) to finish some work
+before going to the meeting in the evening. On seating themselves they
+were both struck perfectly stiff. I was immediately sent for, and found
+them sitting paralysed [he means cataleptic] on their benches, with
+their work in their hands, unable to get up, or to move at all. I have
+seen scores of persons affected the same way. I have seen persons lie in
+this state forty-eight hours. At such times they are unable to converse,
+and are sometimes unconscious of what is passing round them. At the same
+time they say they are in a happy state of mind."
+
+These persons, it is evident, were thrown in to one of the forms of
+trance through their minds being powerfully worked upon; with which
+cause the influence of mutual sympathy with what they saw around them,
+and perhaps some physical agency, co-operated.
+
+The following extract from the same journal portrays another kind of
+nervous seizure, allied to the former, and produced by the same cause,
+as it was manifested at the great revival, some forty years ago, at
+Kentucky and Tennessee.
+
+"The convulsions were commonly called 'the jerks.' A writer, (M'Neman,)
+quoted by Mr Power, (Essay on the Influence of the Imagination over the
+Nervous System,) gives this account of their course and progress:--
+
+"'At first appearance these meetings, exhibited nothing to the spectator
+but a scene of confusion, that could scarcely be put into language. They
+were generally opened with a sermon, near the close of which there would
+be an unusual outcry, some bursting out into loud ejaculations of
+prayer, &c.
+
+"'The rolling exercise consisted in being cast down in a violent manner,
+doubled with the head and feet together, or stretched in a prostrate,
+manner, turning swiftly over like a dog. Nothing in nature could better
+represent the jerks, than for one to goad another alternately on every
+side with a piece of red-hot iron. The exercise commonly began in the
+head, which would fly backwards and forwards, and from side to side,
+with a quick jolt, which the person would naturally labour to suppress,
+but in vain. He must necessarily go on as he was stimulated, whether
+with a violent dash on the ground, and bounce from place to place, like
+a foot-ball; or hopping round with head, limbs, and trunk, twitching
+and jolting in every direction, as if they must inevitably fly asunder,'
+&c."
+
+The following sketch is from _Dow's Journal_. "In the year 1805 he
+preached at Knoxville, Tennessee, before the governor, when some hundred
+and fifty persons, among whom were a number of Quakers, had the jerks."
+
+"I have seen all denominations of religions exercised by the jerks,
+gentleman and lady, black and white, young and old, without exception. I
+passed a meeting-house, where I observed the undergrowth had been cut
+away for camp meetings, and from fifty to a hundred saplings were left,
+breast high, on purpose for the people who were jerked to hold by. I
+observed where they had held on, they had kicked up the earth, as a
+horse stamping flies."
+
+Every one has heard of the extraordinary scenes which took place in the
+Cevennes at the close of the seventeenth century.
+
+It was towards the end of the year 1688 a report was first heard, of a
+gift of prophecy which had shown itself among the persecuted followers
+of the Reformation, who, in the south of France, had betaken themselves
+to the mountains. The first instance was said to have occurred in the
+family of a glass-dealer, of the name of Du Serre, well known as the
+most zealous Calvinist of the neighbourhood, which was a solitary spot
+in Dauphine, near Mount Peyra. In the enlarging circle of enthusiasts,
+Gabriel Astier and Isabella Vincent made themselves first conspicuous.
+Isabella, a girl of sixteen years of age, from Dauphine, who was in the
+service of a peasant, and tended sheep, began in her sleep to preach and
+prophesy, and the Reformers came from far and near to hear her. An
+advocate, of the name of Gerlan, describes the following scene which he
+had witnessed. At his request she had admitted him, and a good many
+others, after nightfall, to a meeting at a chateau in the neighbourhood.
+She there disposed herself upon a bed, shut her eyes, and went to sleep;
+in her sleep she chanted in a low tone the Commandments and a psalm;
+after a short respite she began to preach in a louder voice, not in her
+own dialect, but in good French, which hitherto she had not used. The
+theme was an exhortation to obey God rather than man. Sometimes she
+spoke so quickly as to be hardly intelligible. At certain of her pauses,
+she stopped to collect herself. She accompanied her words with
+gesticulations. Gerlan found her pulse quiet, her arm not rigid, but
+relaxed, as natural. After an interval, her countenance put on a mocking
+expression, and she began anew her exhortation, which was now mixed with
+ironical reflections upon the Church of Rome. She then suddenly stopped,
+continuing asleep. It was in vain they stirred her. When her arms were
+lifted and let go, they dropped unconsciously. As several now went away,
+whom her silence rendered impatient, she said in a low tone, but just as
+if she was awake, "Why do you go away? Why do not you wait till I am
+ready?" And then she delivered another ironical discourse against the
+Catholic Church, which she closed with a prayer.
+
+When Boucha, the intendant of the district, heard of the performances of
+Isabella Vincent, he had her brought before him. She replied to his
+interrogatories, that people had often told her that she preached in her
+sleep, but that she did not herself believe a word of it. As the
+slightness of her person made her appear younger than she really was,
+the intendant merely sent her to an hospital at Grenoble, where,
+notwithstanding that she was visited by persons of the Reformed
+persuasion, there was an end of her preaching,--she became a Catholic!
+
+Gabriel Astier, who had been a young labourer, likewise from Dauphine,
+went in the capacity of a preacher and prophet into the valley of
+Bressac, in the Vivarais. He had infected his family: his father,
+mother, elder brother, and sweetheart, followed his example, and took to
+prophesying. Gabriel, before he preached, used to fall into a kind of
+stupor in which he lay rigid. After delivering his sermon, he would
+dismiss his auditors with a kiss, and the words: "My brother, or my
+sister, I impart to you the Holy Ghost." Many believed that they had
+thus received the Holy Ghost from Astier, being taken with the same
+seizure. During the period of the discourse, first one, then another,
+would fall down; some described themselves afterwards as having felt
+first a weakness and trembling through the whole frame, and an impulse
+to yawn and stretch their arms, then they fell convulsed and foaming at
+the mouth. Others carried the contagion home with them, and first
+experienced its effects, days, weeks, months afterwards. They
+believed--nor is it wonderful they did so--that they had received the
+Holy Ghost.
+
+Not less curious were the seizures of the Convulsionnaires at the grave
+of the Abbe Paris, in the year 1727. These Jansenist visionaries used to
+collect in the church-yard of St Medard, round the grave of the deposed
+and deceased Deacon, and before long the reputation of the place for
+working miracles getting about, they fell in troops into convulsions.
+
+Their state had more analogy to that of the Jerkers already described.
+But it was different. They required, to gratify an internal impulse or
+feeling, that the most violent blows should be inflicted upon them at
+the pit of the stomach. Carre de Montgeron mentions, that being himself
+an enthusiast in the matter, he had inflicted the blows required with an
+iron instrument, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds, with a round
+head. And as a convulsionary lady complained that he struck too lightly
+to relieve the feeling of depression at her stomach, he gave her sixty
+blows with all his force. It would not do, and she begged to have the
+instrument used by a tall, strong man, who stood by in the crowd. The
+spasmodic tension of her muscles must have been enormous; for she
+received one hundred blows, delivered with such force that the wall
+shook behind her. She thanked the man for his benevolent aid, and
+contemptuously censured De Montgeron for his weakness, or want of faith
+and timidity. It was, indeed, time for issuing the mandate, which, as
+wit read it, ran:
+
+    "De par le roi--Defense a Dieu,
+      De faire miracle en ce lieu."
+
+Turn we now to another subject:--the possessed in the middle ages,--What
+was their physiological condition? What was really meant then by being
+possessed? I mean, what were the symptoms of the affection, and how are
+they properly to be explained? The inquiry will throw further light upon
+the true relations of other phenomena we have already looked at.
+
+We have seen that Schwedenborg thought that he was in constant
+communication with the spiritual world; but felt convinced, and avowed,
+that though he saw his visitants without and around him, they reached
+him first inwardly, and communicated with his understanding; and thence
+consciously, and outwardly, with his senses. But it would be a
+misapplication of the term to say that he was possessed by these
+spirits.
+
+We remember that Socrates had his demon; and it should be mentioned as a
+prominent feature in visions generally, that their subject soon
+identifies one particular imaginary being as his guide and informant, to
+whom he applies for what knowledge he wishes. In the most exalted states
+of trance-waking, the guide or demon is continually referred to with
+profound respect by the entranced person. Now, was Socrates, and are
+patients of the class I have alluded to, possessed? No! the meaning of
+the term is evidently not yet hit.
+
+Then there are persons who permanently fancy themselves other beings
+than they are, and act as such.
+
+In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there prevailed in parts of
+Europe a seizure, which was called the wolf-sickness. Those affected
+with it held themselves to be wild beasts, and betook themselves to the
+forests. One of these, who was brought before De Lancre, at Bordeaux, in
+the beginning of the sixteenth century, was a young man of Besancon. He
+avowed himself to be huntsman of the forest lord, his invisible master.
+He believed, that through the power of his master, he had been
+transformed into a wolf; that he hunted in the forest as such, and that
+he was often accompanied by a bigger wolf, whom he suspected to be the
+master he served--with more details of the same kind. The persons thus
+affected were called Wehrwolves. They enjoyed in those days the
+alternative of being exorcised or executed.
+
+Arnold relates in his history of church and of heresy, how there was a
+young man in Koenigsberg, well educated, the natural son of a priest, who
+had the impression, that he was met near a crucifix in the wayside by
+seven angels, who revealed to him that he was to represent God the
+Father on earth, to drive all evil out of the world, &c. The poor
+fellow, after pondering upon this impression a long time, issued a
+circular commencing thus,--
+
+"We, John Albrecht, Adelgreif, Syrdos, Amata, Kanemata, Kilkis,
+Mataldis, Schmalkilimundis, Sabrundis, Elioris, Overarch High-priest,
+and Emperor, Prince of Peace of the whole world, Overarch King of the
+Holy Kingdom of Heaven, Judge of the living and of the dead, God and
+Father, in whose divinity Christ will come on the last day to judge the
+world, Lord of all Lords, King of all Kings," &c.
+
+He was thereupon thrown into prison at Koenigsberg, regarded as a most
+frightful heretic, and every means were used by the clergy to reclaim
+him. To all their entreaties, however, he listened only with a smile of
+pity, "that they should think of reclaiming God the Father." He was then
+put to the torture; and as what he endured made no alteration in his
+convictions, he was condemned to have his tongue torn out with red-hot
+tongs, to be cut in four quarters, and then burned under the gallows. He
+wept bitterly, not at his own fate, but that they should pronounce such
+a sentence on the Deity. The executioner was touched with pity, and
+entreated him to make a final recantation. But he persisted that he was
+God the Father, whether they pulled his tongue out by the roots or not;
+and so he was executed!
+
+The Wehrwolves, and this poor creature, in what state were they? they
+were merely insane. Then we must look further.
+
+Gmelin, in the first volume of his Contributions to Anthropology,
+narrates, that in the year 1789, a German lady, under his observation,
+had daily paroxysms, in which she believed herself to be, and acted the
+part of a French emigrant. She had been in distress of mind through the
+absence of a person she was attached to, and he was somehow implicated
+in the scenes of the French revolution. After an attack of fever and
+delirium, the complaint regulated itself, and took the form of a daily
+fit of trance-waking. When the time for the fit approached, she stopped
+in her conversation, and ceased to answer when spoken to; she then
+remained a few minutes sitting perfectly still, her eyes fixed on the
+carpet before her. Then, in evident uneasiness, she began to move her
+head backwards and forwards, to sigh, and to pass her fingers across her
+eye-brows. This lasted a minute, then she raised her eyes, looked once
+or twice around with timidity and embarrassment, then began to talk in
+French; when she would describe all the particulars of her escape from
+France, and, assuming the manner of a French woman, talk purer and
+better accented French than she had been known to be capable of talking
+before, correct her friends when they spoke incorrectly, but delicately
+and with a comment on the German rudeness of laughing at the bad
+pronunciation of strangers; and if led herself to speak or read German,
+she used a French accent, and spoke it ill; and the like.
+
+Now, suppose this lady, instead of thus acting, when the paroxysms
+supervened, had cast herself on the ground, had uttered bad language and
+blasphemy, and had worn a sarcastic and malignant expression of
+countenance,--in striking contrast with her ordinary character and
+behaviour, and _alternating with it_,--and you have the picture and the
+reality of a person "possessed."
+
+A person, "possessed," is one affected with the form of trance-waking
+called double consciousness, with the addition of being deranged when in
+the paroxysm, and then, out of the suggestions of her own fancy, or
+catching at the interpretation put on her conduct by others, believing
+herself tenanted by the fiend.
+
+We may quite allowably heighten the above picture by supposing that the
+person in her trance, in addition to being mad, might have displayed
+some of the perceptive powers occasionally developed in trance; and so
+have evinced, in addition to her demoniacal ferocity, an "uncanny"
+knowledge of things and persons. To be candid, Archy, time was, when I
+should myself have had my doubts in such a case.
+
+We have by this time had intercourse enough with spirits and demons to
+prepare us for the final subject of witchcraft.
+
+The superstition of witchcraft stretches back into remote antiquity, and
+has many roots. In Europe it is partly of Druidical origin. The
+Druidesses were part priestesses, part shrewd old ladies, who dealt in
+magic and medicine. They were called _all-rune_, all-knowing. There was
+some touch of classical superstition mingled in the stream which was
+flowing down to us;--so an edict of a council of Treves, in the year
+1310, has this injunction: "Nulla mulierum se nocturnis horis equitare
+cum Diana propitiatur; haec enim doemoniaca est illusio." But the main
+source from which we derived this superstition, is the East, and
+traditions and facts incorporated in our religion. There were only
+wanted the ferment of thought of the fifteenth century, the vigour,
+energy, ignorance, enthusiasm, and faith of those days, and the papal
+denunciation of witchcraft by the famous Bull of Innocent the VIII. in
+1459, to give fury to the delusion. And from this time for three
+centuries, the flames, at which more than 100,000 victims perished, cast
+a lurid light over Europe.
+
+One ceases to wonder at this ugly stain in the page of history, when one
+considers all things fairly.
+
+The Enemy of mankind, bodily, with horns, hoofs, and tail, was believed
+to lurk round every corner, bent upon your spiritual, if not bodily
+harm. The witch and the sorcerer were not possessed by him against their
+will, but went out of their way to solicit his alliance, and to offer to
+forward his views for their own advantage, or to gratify their
+malignity. The cruel punishments for a crime so monstrous were mild,
+compared with the practice of our own penal code fifty or sixty years
+ago against second-class offences. And for the startling bigotry of the
+judges, which appears the most discreditable part of the matter, why,
+how could they alone be free from the prejudices of their age? Yet they
+did strange things.
+
+At Lindheim, Horst reports, on one occasion six women were implicated in
+a charge of having disinterred the body of a child to make a
+witch-broth. As they happened to be innocent of the deed, they underwent
+the most cruel tortures before they would confess it. At length they saw
+their cheapest bargain was to admit the crime, and be simply burned
+alive and have it over. So they did so. But the husband of one of them
+procured an official examination of the grave; when the child's body was
+found in its coffin safe and sound. What said the Inquisitor? "This is
+indeed a proper piece of devil's work; no, no, I am not to be taken in
+by such a gross and obvious imposture. Luckily the women have already
+confessed the crime, and burned they must and shall be in honour of the
+Holy Trinity, which has commanded the extirpation of sorcerers and
+witches." The six women were burned alive accordingly.
+
+It was hard upon them, because they were innocent. But the regular
+witches, as times went, hardly deserved any better fate--considering, I
+mean, their honest and straight-forward intentions of doing that which
+they believed to be the most desperate wrong achievable. Many there were
+who sought to be initiated in the black art. They were re-baptized with
+the support of responsible witch sponsors, abjured Christ, and entered
+to the best of their belief into a compact with the devil; and forthwith
+commenced a course of bad works, poisoning and bewitching men and
+cattle, and the like, or trying to do so.
+
+One feature transpired in these details, that is merely pathetic, not
+horrifying or disgusting.
+
+The little children of course talked witchcraft, and you may fancy,
+Archy, what charming gossip it must have made. Then the poor little
+things were sadly wrought on by the tales they told. And they fell into
+trances and had visions shaped by their heated fancies.
+
+A little maid, of twelve years of age, used to fall into fits of sleep,
+and afterwards she told her parents, and _the judge_, how an old woman
+and her daughter, riding on a broom-stick, had come and taken her out
+with them. The daughter sat foremost, the old woman behind, the little
+maid between them. They went away through the roof of the house, over
+the adjoining houses and the town gate, to a village some way off. There
+they went down a chimney of a cottage into a room, where sat a tall
+black man and twelve women. They eat and drank. The black man filled
+their glasses from a can, and gave each of the women a handful of gold.
+She herself had received none; but she had eaten and drank with them.
+
+A list of persons burned in Salzburg for participation in witchcraft
+between the years 1627 and 1629 in an outbreak of this frenzy, which had
+its origin in an epidemic among the cattle, enumerates children of 14,
+12, 11, 10, 9, years of age; which in some degree reconciles one to the
+fate of the fourteen canons, four gentlemen of the choir, two young men
+of rank, a fat old lady of rank, the wife of a burgomaster, a
+counsellor, the fattest burgess of Wartzburg, together with his wife,
+the handsomest woman in the city, and a midwife of the name of
+Schiekelte, with whom (according to an N.B. in the original report) the
+whole mischief originated. To amateurs of executions in those days the
+fatness of the victim was evidently a point of consideration, as is
+shown by the specifications of that quality in some of the victims in
+the above list. Were men devils _then_? By no means; there existed then
+as now upon earth, worth, honour, truth, benevolence, gentleness. But
+there were other ingredients, too, from which the times are not yet
+purged. A century ago people did not know--do they now?--that vindictive
+punishment is a crime; that the only allowable purpose of punishment is
+to prevent the recurrence of the offence; and that restraint, isolation,
+employment, instruction, are the extreme and only means towards that end
+which reason and humanity justify. Alas, for human nature! Some
+centuries hence, the first half of the nineteenth century will be
+charged with having manifested no admission of principle in advance of a
+period, the judicial crimes of which make the heart shudder. The old
+lady witches had, of course, much livelier ideas than the innocent
+children, on the subject of their intercourse with the devils.
+
+At Mora, in Sweden, in 1669, of many who were put to the torture and
+executed, seventy-two women agreed in the following avowal, that they
+were in the habit of meeting at a place called Blocula. That on their
+calling out "Come forth!" the Devil used to appear to them in a gray
+coat, red breeches, gray stockings, with a red beard, and a peaked hat
+with party-coloured feathers on his head. He then enforced upon them,
+not without blows, that they must bring him, at nights, their own and
+other peoples' children, stolen for the purpose. They travel through the
+air to Blocula either on beasts or on spits, or broomsticks. When they
+have many children with them, they rig on an additional spar to lengthen
+the back of the goat or their broom-stick that the children may have
+room to sit. At Blocula they sign their name in blood and are baptized.
+The Devil is a humorous, pleasant gentleman; but his table is coarse
+enough, which makes the children often sick on their way home, the
+product being the so-called witch-butter found in the fields. When the
+Devil is larky, he solicits the witches to dance round him on their
+brooms, which he suddenly pulls from under them, and uses to beat them
+with till they are black and blue. He laughs at this joke till his sides
+shake again. Sometimes he is in a more gracious mood, and plays to them
+lovely airs upon the harp; and occasionally sons and daughters are born
+to the Devil, which take up their residence at Blocula.
+
+I will add an outline of the history, furnished or corroborated by her
+voluntary confession, of a lady witch, nearly the last executed for this
+crime. She was, at the time of her death, seventy years of age, and had
+been many years sub-prioress of the convent of Unterzell, near
+Wartzburg.
+
+Maria Renata took the veil at nineteen years of age, against her
+inclination, having previously been initiated in the mysteries of
+witchcraft, which she continued to practise for fifty years under the
+cloak of punctual attendance to discipline and pretended piety. She was
+long in the station of sub-prioress, and would, for her capacity, have
+been promoted to the rank of prioress, had she not betrayed a certain
+discontent with the ecclesiastic life, a certain contrariety to her
+superiors, something half expressed only of inward dissatisfaction.
+Renata had not ventured to let any one about the convent into her
+confidence, and she remained free from suspicion, notwithstanding that,
+from time to time, some of the nuns, either from the herbs she mixed
+with their food, or through sympathy, had strange seizures, of which
+some died. Renata became at length extravagant and unguarded in her
+witch propensities, partly from long security, partly from desire of
+stronger excitement; made noises in the dormitory, and uttered shrieks
+in the garden; went at nights into the cells of the nuns to pinch and
+torment them, to assist her in which she kept a considerable supply of
+cats. The removal of the keys of the cells counteracted this annoyance;
+but a still more efficient means was a determined blow on the part of a
+nun, struck at the aggressor with the penitential scourge one night, on
+the morning following which Renata was observed to have a black eye and
+cut face. This event awakened suspicion against Renata. Then, one of the
+nuns, who was much esteemed, declared, believing herself upon her
+death-bed, that, "as she shortly expected to stand before her Maker,
+Renata was uncanny, that she had often at nights been visibly tormented
+by her, and that she warned her to desist from this course." General
+alarm arose, and apprehension of Renata's arts; and one of the nuns, who
+previously had had fits, now became possessed, and in the paroxysms told
+the wildest tales against Renata. It is only wonderful how the
+sub-prioress contrived to keep her ground many years against these
+suspicions and incriminations. She adroitly put aside the insinuations
+of the nun as imaginary or of calumnious intention, and treated
+witchcraft and possession of the Devil as things which enlightened
+people no longer believed in. As, however, five more of the nuns, either
+taking the infection from the first, or influenced by the arts of
+Renata, became possessed of devils, and unanimously attacked Renata, the
+superiors could no longer avoid making a serious investigation of the
+charges. Renata was confined in a cell alone, whereupon the six devils
+screeched in chorus at being deprived of their friend. She had begged to
+be allowed to take her papers with her; but this being refused, and
+thinking herself detected, she at once avowed to her confessor and the
+superiors, that she was a witch, had learned witchcraft out of the
+convent, and had bewitched the six nuns. They determined to keep the
+matter secret, and to attempt the conversion of Renata. And as the nuns
+still continued possessed, they despatched her to a remote convent.
+Here, under a show of outward piety, she still went on with her attempts
+to realise witchcraft, and the nuns remained possessed. It was decided
+at length to give Renata over to the civil power. She was accordingly
+condemned to be burned alive; but in mitigation of punishment her head
+was first struck off. Four of the possessed nuns gradually recovered
+with clerical assistance; the other two remained deranged. Renata was
+executed on the 21st January 1749.
+
+Renata stated, in her voluntary confession, that she had often at night
+been carried bodily to witch-Sabbaths; in one of which she was first
+presented to the Prince of Darkness, when she abjured God and the Virgin
+at the same time. Her name, with the alteration of Maria into Emma, was
+written in a black book, and she herself was stamped on the back as the
+Devil's property, in return for which she received the promise of
+seventy years of life, and all she might wish for. She stated that she
+had often, at night, gone into the cellar of the _chateau_ and drank the
+best wine; in the shape of a swine had walked on the convent walls; on
+the bridge had milked the cows as they passed over; and several times
+had mingled with the actors in the theatre in London.
+
+A question unavoidably presents itself--How came witchcraft to be in so
+great a degree the province of women? There existed sorcerers, no doubt,
+but they were comparatively few. Persons of either sex and of all ages
+indiscriminately interested themselves in the black art; but the
+professors and regular practitioners were almost exclusively women, and
+principally old women. The following seem to have been some of the
+causes. Women were confined to household toils; their minds had not
+adequate occupation: many young unmarried women, without duties, would
+lack objects of sufficient interest for their yearnings; many of the old
+ones, despised, ill treated probably, soured with the world, rendered
+spiteful and vindictive, took even more readily to a resource which
+roused and gave employment to their imaginations, and promised to
+gratify their wishes. It is evident, too, that the supposed sex of the
+Devil helped him here. The old women had an idea of making much of him,
+and of coaxing, and getting round the black gentleman. But beside all
+this, there lies in the physical temperament of the other sex a peculiar
+susceptibility of derangement of the nervous system, a predisposition to
+all the varieties of trance, with its prolific sources of mental
+illusion--all tending, it is to be observed, to advance the belief and
+enlarge the pretensions of witchcraft.
+
+The form of trance which specially dominated in witchcraft was
+trance-sleep with visions. The graduates and candidates in the faculty
+sought to fall into trances, in the dreams of which they realised their
+waking aspirations. They entertained no doubt, however, that their
+visits to the Devil and their nocturnal exploits were genuine; and they
+seem to have wilfully shut their eyes to the possibility of their having
+never left their beds. For, with a skill that should have betrayed to
+them the truth, they were used to prepare a witch-broth to promote in
+some way their nightly expeditions. And this they composed not only of
+materials calculated to prick on the imagination, but of substantial
+narcotics, too--the medical effects of which they no doubt were
+acquainted with. They contemplated evidently producing a sort of stupor.
+
+The professors of witchcraft had thus made the singular step of
+artificially producing a sort of trance, with the object of availing
+themselves of one of its attendant phenomena. The Thamans in Siberia do
+the like to this day to obtain the gift of prophecy. And it is more than
+probable that the Egyptian and Delphic priest habitually availed
+themselves of some analogous procedure. Modern mesmerism is in part an
+effort in the same direction.
+
+Without at all comprehending the real character of the power called into
+play, mankind seems to have found out by a "mera palpatio," by
+instinctive experiment and lucky groping in the dark, that in the stupor
+of trance the mind occasionally stumbles upon odds and ends of strange
+knowledge and prescience. The phenomenon was never for an instant
+suspected of lying in the order of nature. It was construed, to suit the
+occasion and the times, either into divine inspiration or diabolic
+whisperings. But it was always supernatural. So the ignorant old
+lemon-seller in Zschokke's Selbstschau thought his "hidden wisdom" a
+mystical wonder; while the enlightened and accomplished narrator of
+their united stories, stands alone, in striking advance ever of his own
+day, when he unassumingly and diffidently puts forward his seer-gift as
+_a simple contribution to psychical knowledge_. And thus, my proposed
+task accomplished, my dear Archy, finally yours, &c.
+
+                          MAC DAVUS.
+
+
+
+
+THE HYMN OF KING OLAF THE SAINT.
+
+ALTERED FROM THE ICELANDIC.
+
+
+      Swend, king of all,
+      In Olaf's hall
+    Now sits in state on high;
+      Whilst up in heaven
+      Amidst the shriven
+    Sits Olaf's majesty.
+      For not in cell
+      Does our hero dwell,
+    But in realms of light for ever:
+      As a ransom'd saint
+      To heal our plaint,
+    Be glory to thee, gold-giver!
+
+      Of raptures there
+      He has won his share,
+    All cleansed from taint of sin;
+      For on earth prepared,
+      No toil he spared
+    That holy place to win.
+      That he hath won
+      Near God's dear Son
+    Fast by the holy river--
+      Oh, such as thine
+      May the end be mine;
+    Be glory to thee, gold-giver!
+
+      His sacred form
+      Unscathed by worm,
+    And clear as the hour he died,
+      Lies at this day
+      Where good men pray
+    At morn and at eventide.
+      His nails and his hair
+      Are fresh and fair,
+    With his yellow locks still growing;
+      His cheek as red,
+      And his flesh not dead,
+    Though the blood hath ceased from flowing.
+
+      If you watch by night,
+      In the dim twilight
+    You may hear a requiem singing;
+      And the people hear
+      Above his bier
+    A small bell clearly ringing.
+      And if ye wait
+      Until midnight late,
+    You may hear the great bell toll:
+      But none can tell
+      Who tolls that bell
+    If it sounds for Olaf's soul.
+      With tapers clear,
+      Which Christ holds dear,
+    O'er the corpse so still reclining,
+      By day and night
+      Is the altar light
+    And the cross of the Saviour shining.
+      For our King did so,
+      And all men know
+    That washed from sin and shriven,
+      All free from taint,
+      A ransom'd saint,
+    He dwells with the saints in heaven.
+
+      And thousands come,
+      The deaf and the dumb,
+    To the tomb of our monarch here--
+      The sick and the blind
+      Of every kind
+    They throng to the holy bier.
+      With heads all bare
+      They breathe their prayer
+    As they kneel on the flinty ground:
+      God hears their sighs,
+      And the sick men rise
+    All whole, and healed, and sound.
+
+      Then to Olaf pray,
+      To spare thy day
+    From wrath, and wrong, and harm;
+      To save thy land
+      From the spoiler's hand,
+    And the fell invader's arm.
+      God's man is he,
+      To deal to thee
+    What is ask'd in a lowly spirit--
+      Let thy prayer not cease,
+      And wealth, and peace,
+    And a blessing thou shalt inherit.
+
+      For prayers are good,
+      If before the rood
+    Thy beads thou tellest praying;
+      If thou tellest on,
+      Forgetting none
+    Of the saints who with God are staying.
+
+                          W. E. A.
+
+
+
+
+FOUR SONNETS BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
+
+TWO SKETCHES.
+
+
+                    I.
+
+    The shadow of her face upon the wall
+    May take your memory to the perfect Greek;
+    But when you front her, you would call the cheek
+    Too full, sir, for your models, if withal
+    That bloom it wears could leave you critical,
+    And that smile reaching toward the rosy streak:--
+    For one who smiles so, has no need to speak,
+    To lead your thoughts along, as steed to stall!
+    A smile that turns the sunny side o' the heart
+    On all the world, as if herself did win
+    By what she lavished on an open mart:--
+    Let no man call the liberal sweetness, sin,--
+    While friends may whisper, as they stand apart,
+    "Methinks there's still some warmer place within."
+
+
+                    II.
+
+    Her azure eyes, dark lashes hold in fee:
+    Her fair superfluous ringlets, without check,
+    Drop after one another down her neck;
+    As many to each cheek as you might see
+    Green leaves to a wild rose! This sign, outwardly,
+    And a like woman-covering seems to deck
+    Her inner nature! For she will not fleck
+    World's sunshine with a finger. Sympathy
+    Must call her in Love's name! and then, I know,
+    She rises up, and brightens, as she should,
+    And lights her smile for comfort, and is slow
+    In nothing of high-hearted fortitude.
+    To smell this flower, come near it; such can grow
+    In that sole garden where Christ's brow dropped blood.
+
+
+            MOUNTAINEER AND POET.
+
+    The simple goatherd who treads places high,
+    Beholding there his shadow (it is wist)
+    Dilated to a giant's on the mist,
+    Esteems not his own stature larger by
+    The apparent image; but more patiently
+    Strikes his staff down beneath his clenching fist--
+    While the snow-mountains lift their amethyst
+    And sapphire crowns of splendour, far and nigh,
+    Into the air around him. Learn from hence
+    Meek morals, all ye poets that pursue
+    Your way still onward up to eminence!
+    Ye are not great, because creation drew
+    Large revelations round your earliest sense,
+    Nor bright, because God's glory shines for you.
+
+
+                    THE POET.
+
+    The poet hath the child's sight in his breast,
+    And sees all _new_. What oftenest he has viewed,
+    He views with the first glory. Fair and good
+    Pall never on him, at the fairest, best,
+    But stand before him, holy, and undressed
+    In week-day false conventions; such as would
+    Drag other men down from the altitude
+    Of primal types, too early dispossessed.
+    Why, God would tire of all his heavens as soon
+    As thou, O childlike, godlike poet! did'st
+    Of daily and nightly sights of sun and moon!
+    And therefore hath He set thee in the midst
+    Where men may hear thy wonder's ceaseless tune,
+    And praise His world for ever as thou bidst.
+
+
+
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE DECLINING OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.
+
+(BEING A FEW PAGES FROM MY EASTERN DIARY).
+
+
+----At half-past seven in the evening, we left Smyrna by the Scamandre,
+a French government steamer, and were soon gliding over a sea smooth as
+glass. The soft tints of the twilight spread gradually around us, and to
+a beautiful day there succeeded one of those marvellous nights, during
+which one cannot bring one's-self to the determination of retiring to
+rest.
+
+The dawn of day surprised me on deck. In the morning we neared the land,
+which presented to our view a desert plain, covered with dwarf oak. This
+was the site of ancient Troy; we were coasting near those famous fields,
+_ubi Troja fuit_; that stream which was throwing itself before our eyes
+into the sea, was formerly called the "Simois;" those two hillocks which
+we saw upon the coast, were the tombs of Hector and Patroclus; that huge
+blue mountain which in the distance raised towards the sky its three
+peaks covered with snow, was Ida; and behind us, from the midst of the
+sparkling waves, rose the island of Tenedos. All conversation between
+the passengers from many nations had long since ceased, and I
+contemplated in silence that grim desert, which, at Eton, I had dreamed
+of as full of movement and sound, and that calm sea which I had so often
+figured to myself as covered with the ships of Agamemnon, of Ulysses,
+and of Achilles the
+
+    "Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer."
+
+At mid-day we entered the Dardanelles, and several hours afterwards, we
+cast anchor between Sestos and Abydos, before a small white town,
+containing no remarkable objects. Sestos and Abydos, which it must be
+owned would not be by any means celebrated, were it not for the
+enterprises which cost Leander his life and Lord Byron an ague, are two
+hamlets, which, like the greater portion of Turkish villages, offer in
+no shape whatever what it is the fashion to term the Oriental type. They
+are composed of an assemblage of rose-coloured houses, whose large red
+roofs, seen through the verdure and flowers, call to one's mind the
+description of a Chinese village.
+
+Upon its arrival, the Scamandre was immediately surrounded by a
+multitude of caicks filled with bearded Turks, veiled women, and various
+coloured bales. Upon deck rose a deafening Babel of voices,--the sailors
+swore, the women screamed, and the porters fought, until at length quiet
+was restored, and one hundred and eighty-six new Mussulman passengers
+came on board the steamer. Amid the caicks ranged along the sides of the
+vessel, was one much more richly freighted than the rest; the traveller
+to whom it belonged was a young Arab, who, standing on a pile of bales,
+domineered over his boatmen by several feet. His white garments set off
+to advantage his dark complexion; and a cloak of black wool, profusely
+embroidered with gold lace, drew upon him the eyes of all. I had seldom,
+if ever, beheld a head more beautiful or more expressive than that of
+the young man. His large black eyes were full of intelligence, and in
+his bearing was a natural nobility and pride. As long as the confusion,
+described above, continued, he directed his boatmen to keep at a
+distance, but when all were embarked, and the Scamandre was ready to
+start, he hailed the vessel, and having mounted the side-ladders, gave
+his hand to six veiled women in succession, whose long white dominos
+prevented the spectators from even guessing at their age or beauty. The
+young man, once on board, conducted his odalisques to a fore-cabin,
+placed a hideous negro at the door as sentinel, and returned immediately
+to the deck, where another negro presented him with a narguileh (Turkish
+water-pipe).
+
+Nothing can less resemble our regular fortifications than the fort of
+Gallipoli, (before which we soon after passed,) and the other castles of
+the Dardanelles, which ought to render Constantinople the most
+impregnable place in the world (from the sea.) The forts are large
+buildings of a dazzling white colour, perforated with port-holes,
+similar to those belonging to a ship of war, and mounted with old guns,
+the greater portion of which are without carriages, and served,
+ordinarily, by a single artillery-man, assisted in time of war by three
+or four peasants. In the present century, however, these batteries have
+shown their prowess, and against our own countrymen too. During the
+month of February 1807, the British government, justly irritated at the
+increasing influence that the French ambassador, Count Sebastiani, was
+obtaining at the Ottoman court, despatched Admiral Sir John Duckworth,
+in command of a squadron, with orders to bombard, if necessary, the
+Seraglio itself. Unfortunately, Sir John Duckworth's plan of acting was
+exactly contrary to what would have been our gallant Nelson's in the
+same position. After having passed without difficulty before the then
+disarmed castles of the Dardanelles, after having burned the Ottoman
+fleet off Gallipoli, while the crews were peaceably celebrating on shore
+the feast of Courban-Beiram, Sir John presented himself off
+Constantinople, and threatened to bombard that city, should the Sultan
+refuse to accept the conditions he offered, at the same time he allowed
+his Imperial Highness two days to consider the terms; Nelson would have
+allowed as many hours only. The folly of Admiral Duckworth's conduct
+fully shown in the sequel, for, at the conclusion of the forty-eight
+hours, the approaches to Stamboul and Galata were bristling--thanks to
+the delay accorded, and to the exertions of the French ambassador--with
+twelve hundred pieces of cannon; while, at the same time, orders having
+been sent to the castles of the Dardanelles to mount their batteries,
+the British squadron was hemmed in on all sides, as if by enchantment.
+The besieged now became the aggressors, and there soon remained to
+Admiral Duckworth no other resource than to weigh anchor and get away as
+fast as possible, which he accordingly did. The batteries of the
+Dardanelles were now, however, prepared for him. A most destructive fire
+was opened upon the ill-fated fleet: two corvettes were sunk off
+Gallipoli; the Admiral's flag-ship, the Royal George, lost her mainmast;
+a huge marble ball, weighing eight hundred pounds, swept away a quantity
+of hands from the lower deck of the Standard, while many officers and
+seamen wore severely wounded. It must be here observed, that the
+batteries of the Dardanelles owed much of the murderous effect of their
+cannonading to the skill of eight French engineer officers, whom Count
+Sebastiani, profiting by the delay accorded by Admiral Duckworth to the
+Sultan, had despatched to the castles.
+
+These historical reminiscences did not prevent my thoughts occasionally
+reverting to the six odalisques, who formed the suite of the young Arab
+on board. Ever since their arrival, I had been reflecting that in all
+probability never would so excellent an opportunity offer itself of
+penetrating the secrets of a Mussulman harem, and of assuring myself of
+the vaunted beauty of the mysterious women of Asia. As soon as we were
+again in motion, I began to watch the black Argus to whose guard the
+fair houris were intrusted. For more than an hour I lurked without
+success about the fore-hatchway, for, faithful to his trust, the slave
+was lying at the threshold of the door that closed upon his young
+mistresses; and I was on the point of losing all patience, when I beheld
+him suddenly rise and mount rapidly on deck. He had no sooner
+disappeared than I glided into his place, and, having applied my eye to
+a large chink in the door, cast a most indiscreet glance into the cabin.
+In front of me two women were seated upon their heels, one of them had
+thrown aside her veil; and I was gazing in admiration upon a pale but
+beautiful face, set off by two immense black and brilliant eyes, when
+suddenly I heard behind me the sound of hurried steps. It was the negro
+returning to his post, who, on perceiving me, began to cry out most
+lustily. Having no desire to commence a contest with him, I proceeded
+to mount the hatchway and gain the deck.
+
+The exasperated slave, however, followed me, and hurrying to his master,
+proceeded to inform him of my escapade, pointing at the same time to me.
+Two old Turks leaped immediately to their feet with fury depicted on
+their features; and one of them placed his hand upon the hilt of his
+cangiar, and pronounced in a voice half-choked with passion the word
+"Ghiaour," (infidel): in answer to which, I politely told him, (as I was
+a good Turkish scholar,) to mind his own business, and that I was rather
+inclined to consider him the greater infidel of the two. He looked both
+surprised and vexed at this, but did not attempt to retort. As to the
+young Arab, he proved himself to be a man of sense; for, contenting
+himself with smiling at his infuriated attendant, he descended to the
+cabin of his odalisques, from whence he did not emerge during the
+remainder of our voyage. I did not again see him, and never knew who was
+the Mussulman, so handsome and at the same time so little fanatical.
+
+The strait through which we had navigated all day, gradually widened as
+we advanced; the shores as they receded were covered with opal tints;
+the vessel began to roll, and we entered the sea of Marmora. At sunset
+the Mussulmans with whom the deck was crowded collected in groups, and
+devoutly said their evening prayer. Their countenances were wrapped in
+deep devotion, and they appeared to take no notice of the satirical
+smiles, which the strangeness of their attitudes called forth from
+several unreflecting travellers, who, by wanting in respect for the
+usages of the countries through which they were passing, lowered
+themselves immensely in the estimation of the inhabitants. The
+irritation excited by the ill-timed railleries of such foolish persons,
+is no doubt one of the chief causes of the hatred in which Christians
+are held in Turkey. Surely nothing could be less calculated to excite
+mockery, than the sight of the Mussulman travellers at their evening
+devotions; besides, be it had in mind, that upon this Christian vessel,
+scarcely a Christian perhaps was thinking of his God, while not a single
+Mahometan was to be seen unengaged in prayer, as the sun sunk below the
+horizon.
+
+The following morning I was early upon deck. The sun had not yet risen,
+and the air was fresh and invigorating; while upon the white, heavy,
+oily sea, was a slight fog, which the breeze was dispersing in flakes.
+Around us a quantity of porpoises were either splashing in the midst of
+the waves or floating like buoys upon the surface. The most profound
+silence reigned upon the deck of the steamer. Wet with the night-dews,
+the half-slumbering seamen of the watch were seated in a circle near the
+funnel; while numberless Turks, rolled up in their yellow coverlets
+striped with red, were sleeping forward beneath the netting: the
+steersman at the wheel and the man on the look-out were alone really
+wide awake. Suddenly, I perceived dawning in the east a greenish light,
+which became yellow as it ascended in the heavens; the low and flat
+shore appeared like a black line upon this luminous background, and by
+degrees the sea resumed its azure tint. An hour afterwards we were
+within cannon-shot of the Seraglio; but, alas! a thick fog covered the
+city. Constantinople was invisible--and I was deploring the mischance,
+which was depriving me of a long-anticipated pleasure, when suddenly the
+sun shone forth brightly, and the fog acquired as if by enchantment a
+wonderful transparency. The curtain was, as it were, torn to bits, and
+from all quarters at once there appeared to my dazzled eyes forests of
+minarets with gilded peaks, thousands of cupolas blazing in the light,
+hills covered with many-coloured houses, surrounded by verdure; an
+immense succession of palaces with grotesque windows, blue-roofed
+mosques, groves of cypress-trees and sycamores, gardens full of flowers,
+a port filled as far as the eye could discern with ships, masts, and
+flags; in a word, the whole of that enchanted city, which resembles less
+an immense capital than an endless succession of lovely kiosks, built in
+a boundless park, having lakes for docks, mountains for background,
+forests for thickets, fleets for boats,--in fine, an incomparable spot,
+and at the same time so grand and elegant, that it seems to have been
+designed by fairies, and executed by giants.
+
+Several writers have compared the view of Constantinople to that of
+Naples. I cannot, however, agree with them. Any one can figure the
+latter capital, whilst, on the contrary, the City of the Sultan
+surpasses all that imagination can picture. Our enchantment, however,
+was of short duration: the vapours again became condensed, the view was
+gradually covered with a rosy haze, then became dim, and Constantinople
+disappeared from before us like a dream. The Scamandre, which had
+stopped for a few minutes, was again put in motion, and having rounded
+the Seraglio, cast anchor in the midst of the strait which separates
+Stamboul (the Turkish quarter) from Galata, (the European faubourg.) In
+a moment the deck of our vessel was one scene of confusion: the sailors
+were running to and fro, while the passengers were rushing one against
+another, vociferating after their baggage. Around the vessel there kept
+gliding two or three hundred black caicks, rowed by half-naked boatmen;
+and notwithstanding the orders to the contrary, a quantity of Maltese
+sailors, Turkish porters, and Levantine ciceroni came on board, and
+literally took us by storm, bawling out their offers of service, in
+almost every known language. Clouds of blue pigeons, and whitewinged
+albatros, flew about over our heads, uttering plaintive cries; add to
+these the stentorian voice of our French commander, the curiosity and
+impatience of the travellers demonstrated by their noisy exclamations,
+and one will have an idea of the spectacle offered by the deck of a
+steamer on its arrival at a Turkish port.
+
+During the hauling of the vessel to the quay, I scarcely knew upon what
+to fix my eyes, attracted as they simultaneously were by a thousand
+different objects. Here was the Golden Horn with its numberless ships,
+the cypress-trees of Galata, and the seven hills of ancient Byzantium
+covered with mosques; there, the blue waves of the Propontis, and the
+glittering banks of Scutari. Giddy with enthusiasm, and intoxicated with
+admiration, I attempted, as our caick approached the landing-place, to
+be the first to leap upon the quay, when, just as I was in the act of
+springing, my foot slipped, and I fell headlong into a miry stream. Such
+was my entrance into Constantinople.
+
+As soon as I gained footing, splashed with mud from head to foot, I
+remained a moment motionless, and almost petrified with astonishment.
+All was changed around me: the enchanted panorama had disappeared, and I
+found myself in a small filthy crossway, at the entrance of a labyrinth
+of narrow, damp, dark, muddy streets. The houses which surrounded me,
+built as they were of disjointed planks, had a miserable aspect; time
+and rain had diluted their primitive red colour into numberless nameless
+tints. One of those minarets which from afar appeared so slender and so
+beautiful, now that it was close to me proved to be merely a small
+column devoid of symmetry, while its covering of cracked plaster seemed
+on the point of falling to pieces. The Turkish promenaders whom from a
+distance I had taken for richly attired merchants, proved to be a set of
+miserable tatterdemalions with ragged turbans. Behind the porters who
+crowded to the landing-place, were butchers embowelling sheep in the
+open street; while the pavement was covered with bloody mire and smoking
+entrails, around which several score of hideous dogs, of a fallow
+colour, were growling and fighting. A fetid stench arose from the damp
+gutters, where neither air nor light have ever penetrated, where
+corruptions of all sorts amass, and where one is continually in danger
+of stepping upon a dead dog or rat. Such is without exaggeration the
+aspect of the greater part of the streets of Constantinople, and in
+particular those of Galata. This contrast between the misery of what
+surrounds you, and the incomparable beauty of the same spot when seen
+from a distance, has never yet been sufficiently remarked upon by
+travellers who seek to describe Constantinople. Perhaps they have been
+unwilling to cool the enthusiasm of their readers in dirtying with these
+hideous, but true details, their gold and silver-plated descriptions.
+
+Perfectly disenchanted by this sudden change of scene, I followed the
+bearer of my baggage up a street, which was steep, badly paved, and so
+narrow that three men could scarcely have walked along it abreast. On
+the right and left hand were disgusting little shops, or rather booths,
+filled with green fruit and vegetables. Having proceeded onwards, we
+rounded the tower of Galata, which, from a near view resembles a
+handsome dove-cote, and shortly afterwards arrived at Pera, and
+proceeded to take up our quarters at a kind of hotel, kept by one
+Giusepine Vitali, where I immediately went to bed and was soon
+afterwards fast asleep.
+
+At ten o'clock, A.M., I was awakened by my fellow-travellers, and
+accompanied them to the caravanserai of the Turning Dervishes. A
+somewhat lengthened residence in the northern provinces of Persia, where
+a Turkish idiom is spoken, had given me a tolerable fluency in that
+language, and I was thus enabled to act as interpreter to my friends.
+The cicerone of the hotel conducted us to a circular building situated
+in the midst of a small garden, whither was hurrying a crowd composed of
+Greeks, Armenians, and Turks. Having arrived at the vestibule, we took
+off our boots and confided them to the care of a man who kept a sort of
+depot for slippers, of which he hired out to each of us a pair. We then
+entered a large circular hall, lighted from above, in the centre of
+which was an oaken floor, waxed and polished with the greatest care, and
+protected by a balustrade. Around this arena were seated a number of
+spectators of all ages, country, and costumes, and exhaling a strong
+odour of garlic. The ceremony was commenced: for to the music of a
+barbarous orchestra, composed of small timbals and squeaking fifes,
+accompanying some nasal voices, about twenty tall, bearded young men,
+clad in long white robes, were waltzing gravely round an old man in a
+blue pelisse. These men carried on their heads a thick beaver cap,
+similar in form to a flower-pot turned upside down. Their white robes,
+made of a heavy kind of woollen stuff, were so constantly bulged out
+with the air that they seemed made of wood. With their arms extended in
+the form of a cross, the left hand being somewhat more elevated than the
+right, and their looks fixed upon the ceiling with a stupid stare, these
+Dervishes continued to turn rapidly round upon their naked feet with
+such regularity and impassibility that they seemed like automatons put
+into motion by machinery.
+
+Suddenly the music ceased, upon which the Dervishes threw themselves
+simultaneously upon their knees, inclining their heads at the same time
+to the ground. For several minutes they remained motionless in this
+position, while some attendants threw a large black cloak over each,
+upon which they again stood up and ranged themselves in a line. Upon
+this the old man in the blue pelisse, who had hitherto sat motionless
+upon his heels, began a plaintive nasal chant, to which his subordinates
+responded in a roaring chorus; this finished, the crowd began to
+disperse, and we returned to our hotel.
+
+Besides the Turning Dervishes, there are also at Constantinople the
+Howling Dervishes, who, instead of waltzing until they fall from
+giddiness, continue to utter the most frightful shrieks, until they fall
+upon the ground exhausted and foaming at the mouth. Historians have
+accorded different origins to these singular and absurd exercises; for
+my part, I am inclined to consider them as remnants of the furious
+dances taught by the ancient people of Asia to the Corybantes.
+
+The day after my arrival I embarked for Stamboul, the Turkish quarter,
+in one of those long caicks which are as it were the hackney coaches of
+Constantinople. The least oscillation is sufficient to upset these light
+barks, which are impelled with inconceivable rapidity by two or three
+fine light-looking Arnaouts, dressed in silken shirts. In two minutes,
+having traversed the Golden Horn, passing through an immense crowd of
+boats of every form, and ships of every nation, we disembarked upon a
+landing-place even more dangerous than the caick, on account of its
+slipperiness and the chances thereby of falling headlong into a
+receptacle of filth and mud. The streets of Stamboul are still more
+narrow, filthy, and fetid than those of Galata and Pera. Wooden hovels,
+badly constructed, and worse painted; a species of cages pierced with an
+infinite number of trellised windows, with one story projecting over the
+ground floor, flank on the right and on the left hand these passages,
+through which hurry a motley crowd with noiseless tread. The pavement,
+made of little stones placed in the dust, slip from under one's feet and
+expose one to continual falls. Upon the boards of the first shops one
+passes are piled heaps of large fish, whose scales glitter in the sun,
+in spite of the dust. Fawn-coloured dogs, in much greater numbers than
+at Galata, run between your legs--and wo to whosoever should disengage
+himself too energetically from these hideous brutes, which are protected
+by Mussulman bigotry! The habits of these animals, whose number amounts
+to above a hundred thousand, are exceedingly singular. They belong to no
+one, and have no habitation; they are born, they live and they die, in
+the open street; at every turn one may see a litter of puppies suckled
+by their mother. Upon what these quadrupeds feed it would be difficult
+to state. The Turkish government abandons to them the clearing of the
+streets, and the offal and every sort of filth, together with the dead
+bodies of their fellows, compose their apparently ordinary nourishment.
+At night they wander about in the burying grounds, howling in the most
+frightful manner. Whatever may be their means of existence, they
+multiply their species with the most surprising rapidity. Some years
+ago, the canine race had increased to such a degree at Constantinople
+that it became dangerous, when, to the pious horror of the Old
+Mussulmans, the Sultan Mahmood, among other reforms, caused twenty
+thousand of these animals to be, not poisoned, he would not have dared
+to so greatly offend against the prejudices of the inhabitants, but
+transported to the isles of Marmora. In a few days they had devoured
+every thing in the place of exile, after which, tormented by hunger,
+they made such a hideous row, and uttered such plaintive howls, that
+pity was taken upon them, and they were brought back in triumph to
+Constantinople. Fortunately hydrophobia is unknown in the Levant.
+
+The bazars of Constantinople have been so often described that it would
+be useless to describe them at any length. I will merely observe,
+therefore, that though infinitely more considerable, they do not
+respond, any more than those of Smyrna, to the ideas of luxury and
+grandeur which untravelled Europeans are apt to conceive of them. The
+Turkish bazars have a miserable aspect; they are nothing more than an
+immense labyrinth of large vaulted galleries, clumsily built, and at all
+times damp in the extreme. Magnificent carpets, stuffs embroidered in
+gold and silver, and other objects, the richness of which contrasts most
+singularly with the nakedness of the walls, are hung out for display on
+cords stretched transversely. The counter is a flat board of wood, very
+slightly elevated above the ground, and which serves as a divan to the
+seller and a seat to the buyer. From this place, which is usually
+covered with a mat, the Mussulman gazes in silence upon the passing
+foreigner, whom he rarely deigns to address by the name of Effendi;
+while, on the contrary, the active and loquacious Armenian even leaves
+his shop to run after him with some tempting object in his hand, at the
+same time indiscriminately giving him the title of "Signore Capitan." In
+the bazars are an astonishing number of articles which are often very
+cheap, such as tissues of silk, dressing gowns, gold embroidery, and
+Persian carpets, perfumery, precious stones, pieces of amber, furs,
+sweetmeats, pipes, morocco leather, velvet slippers, silken scarfs and
+Cachemire shawls cover a space extending over several leagues. In the
+"_Besestein_," a large building separated from the other bazars, one
+meets with in quantities those old arms, so sought after by antiquaries,
+carbines ornamented with coral, magnificent yataghans worn by the
+Janissaries before their destruction, and the famous blades of Khorasan.
+
+The commerce of Constantinople is closely allied with that of Smyrna;
+and many branches of trade, such as silk and opium, being required to
+pay duties at the customhouse of the capital, the merchants buy them at
+Constantinople merely in order to pass them over to Smyrna, where they
+find a more advantageous market for them. In consequence, these goods
+are twice borne upon the registers of the Turkish customhouses, which,
+be it observed, are exceedingly badly kept. Wool forms the principal
+branch of trade at the Porte, which is abundantly furnished with that
+article from her nearest provinces, Roumelia, Thessaly, and Bulgaria,
+which, containing about five million inhabitants, feed about eight
+million sheep, the value of which may be estimated at about two hundred
+million piastres, (the Turkish piastre, is worth about 2-1/4d.) It would
+have been impossible for such an important object to have failed
+exciting the cupidity of a government constituted like that of the
+Ottoman empire; in consequence, in 1829, they attempted to make a
+monopoly of the wool-trade. Fortunately, the clamorous despair of the
+owners of the flocks, and some good advice, caused the Divan to recall
+the measure, which would in all probability not only have given a fatal
+blow to the wool-trade, but have entirely put an end to the feeding of
+flocks throughout Turkey. Instead, therefore, of monopolising this
+branch of commerce, the government saddled it with such an exorbitant
+duty, that the provinces definitively gained little by the change. The
+price of wool was more than quadrupled, and in 1833 there was sold for
+above 170 piastres the hundredweight what in 1816 cost but forty
+piastres. The abolition of the monopolies and the modification of the
+duties have given, since the last six or seven years, some facilities to
+this trade, without, however, entirely restoring it to its former state
+of prosperity. Partly destroyed by the severe blow it had received, and
+shackled by the avarice of the Pashas, it languishes, as indeed does
+every other branch of trade and industry in the empire.
+
+Of Turkey, which men have rendered a country of misery and of famine,
+the Almighty seems to have intended to have made a land of promise. For
+agriculture, He has created immense plains, unequalled in fertility
+throughout the globe, and in the bowels of the mountains He has hidden
+incalculable treasures; and in return for all these gifts, these
+glorious gifts, what have the inhabitants done? they have left the land
+uncultivated, and the mountains unsearched. Mines of all sorts abound.
+Copper, (which is sold in secret only, and is a contraband article,)
+were its mines worked on a grand scale, would alone furnish a new
+element of commerce to Constantinople, and might help to draw it from
+its present state of torpor. But will the Turks ever dream of such a
+thing? Never! For like the dog in the fable, the Ottomans will neither
+profit themselves nor let others profit by what is in the territory. Too
+indolent to work out the natural riches of their soil, they are too
+jealous to permit others to do it for them. Besides, Europeans, by an
+ancient law which we have recently seen confirmed, having no right to
+possess land in Turkey, cannot undertake any agricultural or commercial
+speculation of any importance. In addition to this, the Turkish
+government itself is ignorant of most of the natural riches of its
+territory; for the inhabitants, well knowing the character of the men
+who have the management of affairs, take every possible precaution to
+conceal the existence of the mines, for fear they should be forced to
+work them without remuneration.
+
+The provinces of the Danube have now yielded to Thrace and to Macedon
+the furnishing of the capital with corn. This important trade has been
+ruined, like every thing else, by the barbarous measures of a stupid
+ministry. In reserving to itself the supplying of the capital, the
+government does not allow the exportation of corn without special
+permission. Without doubt, the liberty of this trade would have given a
+new impulse to agriculture, and would have restored prosperity to
+several provinces; but that would not have been for the interest of
+those personages who had the power of giving permits, and who
+consequently made a traffic of the firmans. In 1828, a circumstance
+occurred which ought to have enlightened the government on this point.
+The Russians had intercepted all communication with the capital, and in
+consequence a want of provisions occurred; for the ill-furnished public
+magazines afforded such damaged wheat only, that it could with great
+difficulty be baked into bad and unhealthy bread. To remedy this evil,
+an employe ventured to suggest that any one who could procure corn
+should be permitted to supply the capital. The situation of affairs was
+critical, for the people were beginning to murmur; and the suggestion
+was carried into effect. No sooner was the permission accorded, than a
+multitude of farmers and merchants hastened to pour grain into the
+market, and plenty soon reappeared. This was an excellent lesson to the
+government, but how did it profit thereby? First of all it reinstated
+the monopoly, and four years afterwards, in 1832, happening to require a
+million measures for its magazines, in order to make more sure of
+speedily procuring that quantity, it forbade the _exportation_ of corn,
+inasmuch that to collect the required million of measures, it destroyed,
+in all probability, a hundred millions, and ruined about ten thousand
+cultivators. This barbarous system partly ended in 1838, but it will be
+long before its withering effects are effaced.
+
+It is in the long corridors of the bazars that the commercial business
+of the country is carried on. An immense multitude, more curious to view
+than even the exposition of the different wares, congregates thither
+daily. Constantinople, notwithstanding its state of decline, is always
+the point of intersection between the eastern and western world. At this
+general rendezvous, whither Europe and Asia send their representatives,
+one may study the human species in almost every possible variety of
+type. English, Americans, Russians, Greeks, Italians, Germans, Persians,
+Circassians, Arabs, Koords, Austrians, Hungarians, Abyssinians, Tartars,
+French, &c. &c., hurry to and fro around the Turk, who smokes and
+dreams, calm and immovable amidst the active throng, which presents an
+inconceivable medley of silk pelisses, white bornous and black robes,
+surmounted by green turbans, red fezs, and beaver hats. Numbers of
+women, covered with white dominos, advance slowly and spectre-like
+through the crowd, which every now and then opens its ranks to give
+passage to some mounted Pasha, followed by his attendants on foot. Here
+and there may be seen asses loaded with bales, and at the further end of
+the galleries are caravans of camels. One's ears are deafened with the
+piercing cries of the sherbet-sellers, and the howling of the dogs;
+while quantities of pigeons coo over the heads of the motley crowd.
+Although, on taking a general view of this spectacle, there is little to
+admire, still one may select from it an infinite number of original
+scenes and pictures full of character. Here, for instance, an ambulating
+musician sings, or rather chants to an attentive audience one of those
+interminable ballads of which the Turks never tire; there, are half a
+dozen Greeks quarrelling and vociferating so energetically, that one
+would expect nothing less than that from words they would come to
+bloodshed; while, further on, a circle of friends are regaling
+themselves over a basket of green cucumbers. Talking of cucumbers, they
+almost entirely compose, in summer, the nourishment of the Turks. The
+Sultan Mahmood II. was excessively fond of this fruit, or rather
+vegetable, and cultivated it with his own hands in the Seraglio gardens.
+Having one day perceived that some of his cucumbers were missing, he
+sent for his head gardener, and informed him that, should such a
+circumstance occur again, he would order his head to be cut off. The
+next day three more cucumbers had been stolen, upon which the gardener,
+to save his own head, accused the pages of his highness of having
+committed the theft. These unhappy youths were immediately sent for, and
+having all declared themselves innocent, the enraged Sultan, in order to
+discover the culprit, commanded them one after another to be
+disembowelled. Nothing was found in the stomach or entrails of the first
+six victims, but the autopsy of the seventh proved him to have been the
+guilty one.
+
+In the midst of the crowds in the Turkish capital, the women present a
+curious spectacle, wandering about as they do covered with white
+dominos, or rather winding-sheets. The lot of this portion of the
+Mussulman population is much less unhappy than one would be led to
+expect. They certainly hold a secondary station in society, but,
+brought-up as they are in the most complete ignorance, they are
+unconscious of their degraded position, and know not that there is a
+better. They are, in general, treated very kindly by their husbands and
+masters, and do not undergo, as it is supposed, either capricious or
+brutal treatment. Although in Europe they still believe a Turk to be
+constantly surrounded by a multitude of odalisques, to whom, as it suits
+his fancy, he throws in turn his handkerchief, at Constantinople there
+are very few Osmanlees who have three or even two wives, and even these
+they lodge in separate mansions, in general far distant from each other.
+Almost all the Turks, with the exception of the very few above mentioned
+individuals, possess in general but one wife, to whom they are most
+faithful. The grand seignior alone is a Sultan in the full and
+voluptuous acceptation of the term. He is possessor of a magnificent
+palace, where no noise from without ever penetrates, and where immense
+riches have collected together all the wonders of luxury. Marble baths,
+lovely gardens bounded by a sparkling sea, and vaulted by an indigo sky,
+legions of slaves, who have no will but his, no law but his caprices;
+and in this Eden three or four hundred women chosen from out of the most
+beautiful in the universe; this is the world, this is the life of that
+man: and yet, although he be so young, all who know him say that the
+present Sultan is morose, sad, and splenetic.
+
+On mounting, at sixteen, upon the throne of Turkey, Abdul Medjid
+announced it to be his intention to change nothing that his father
+Mahmood had established, and declared himself a partisan of the system
+of reform commenced by that sovereign. Notwithstanding the custom,
+rendered almost sacred by tradition, he renounced the turban and was
+_crowned_ with the fez. Contrary to the usage of former Sultans, who on
+their accession put to death or closely imprisoned all their brothers,
+he allowed his brother Abdul Haziz not only his life, but full liberty.
+
+The Hatti-sherif of Gulhanch, published on the 19th of November 1839,
+and which has been viewed in so many and different lights, proved at
+least the good intentions of this sovereign, called so young to support
+so weighty a burden. At various times he has manifested a desire for
+instruction, and has taken lessons in geography and in Italian; he has
+also travelled over a part of his empire.
+
+It is usual at Constantinople for the Sultan to proceed every Friday
+(the Mussulman Sabbath) to pray in one of the mosques. The one chosen is
+named in the morning, and he proceeds thither on horseback or in his
+caick, according to the quarter in which it is situated. This weekly
+ceremony is almost the sole occasion on which foreigners can see his
+highness. During my stay at Constantinople, I had several opportunities
+of gazing upon the descendant of the Prophet. He is a young man, of
+slender frame, of grave physiognomy, and a most _distingue_ appearance.
+A crowd of officers and eunuchs formed his suite, and all heads bowed
+low at his approach. Abdul Medjid, who was the twentieth-born child of
+his father Mahmood, was born at Constantinople on the 19th of April
+1823. His black and stiff beard cause him to appear older than he is in
+reality. His eye is very brilliant, and his features regular. His face
+is somewhat marked with the smallpox; but this is not very apparent, as
+the young sultan, according to the custom of the harem, has an
+artificial complexion for days of ceremony. Naturally of a delicate
+frame, excesses have much enfeebled his constitution; his continual
+ill-health, his pallor, and his teeth already decayed, announce, that
+though so young in years, he is expiating the pleasures of a Sultan by a
+premature decrepitude. Abdul Medjid has several children, who are weak
+and sickly like their father, and the state of their health inspires
+constant anxiety.
+
+Few sovereigns have been more diversely judged than Mahmood, the father
+of the present Sultan. Lauded to the skies by some, lowered to the dust
+by others, he died before Europe was properly enlightened as to his
+intentions. Now that his work has undergone the ordeal of time, one can
+appreciate it at its real value. Ascending the throne at an epoch of
+anarchy and disorder, having at one and the same time to oppose the
+invasion of Russia, and to put down the rebellion of the Pashas, who
+were raising their pashalicks into sovereignties, Mahmood gave proofs,
+during several years, of a force of character almost inconceivable in a
+man enervated from his childhood by the pleasures of the harem.
+Unfortunately his intellect was unequal to his obstinacy: every abuse he
+put down gave rise to or made way for new abuses, which he could not
+foresee, and was unable to destroy. The established order of affairs,
+which he fought against, was a hydra, from which, for one head cut off,
+twenty sprang up. Far from augmenting his power, his greatest
+enterprises merely tended to enfeeble it. The repression of Ali the
+Pasha of Janina, cost Mahmood the kingdom of Greece; and had not the
+powers of Europe intervened, the war against Mehemet Ali would have cost
+him his throne. Even the destruction of the Janissaries, which was
+considered so great a cause of triumph by the Sultan, was it in reality
+so? It is surely permitted to doubt the circumstance. That powerful
+militia, scattered through the empire, was in some sort the focus of
+that spirit of fatalism, which had till then been the principal prop of
+the imperfect work of the Arabian impostor; to destroy it was to strike
+a death-blow to that society which breathed as it were in war alone. In
+overthrowing an obstacle which paralysed his power, Mahmood dug an abyss
+into which the Turkish empire must sooner or later fall; for the spirit
+of religious enthusiasm which he destroyed has been replaced by no other
+incentive.
+
+The chief fault of Mahmood was the cutting down without thinking of
+sowing; for without properly understanding the extent of what he was
+doing, he too hastily cast from its old course, without placing it in a
+better, a dull stupid nation, to transform which required both time and
+patience. Above all, Mahmood was guided solely by the impulses of an
+indomitable pride, and seems to have much less considered the interests
+of his empire, than the satisfying of his own vanity. He hastened to
+change the aspect and surface of things, deluding himself into the idea
+that he had metamorphosed an Asiatic people into a European state.
+Hurried away by the desire of innovation, and at the same time cramped
+by the effects of a religion which resists all progress, striving in
+vain to make the precepts of the Koran compatible with civilisation,
+Mahmood moved during the whole of his reign within a fatal circle, and,
+dying of an ignoble malady, he left his empire tottering to its fall.
+
+
+
+
+HORAE CATULLIANAE.
+
+LETTER TO EUSEBIUS.
+
+
+You desire, then, my dear Eusebius, to hear more of the Curate's
+difficulty. We left him, you remember, with Gratian, who took him by the
+arm, and walked off to see what his authority would do to quell the
+parochial disturbance. You have seen the general opinion upon the
+countenance Gratian would give to delinquents; you will not, therefore,
+augur very favourably of this expedition. Loving a little mischief, as
+you do, you will, perhaps, be not quite agreeably disappointed. Had
+Gratian trusted alone to his character, he would have failed; which
+shows that sometimes it is dangerous to have too good a one.
+
+Not a parishioner but would have looked upon the patronage of Gratian to
+the Curate as resulting from the weakness--those who meant to turn it to
+compliment would say, the excessive kindness, of his nature. A little
+malice interposing, they were by no means disposed, if they loved
+Gratian, "to love his dog,"--in the light of which comparison they now
+looked upon the Curate. Gratian's sly wit, however, availed more than
+his authority. It seems they had not proceeded very far when they met
+Prateapace. The Curate having some business in another direction, left
+Gratian with the maiden-lady. You can imagine his first advances,
+complimenting her upon her fresh morning looks. Then taking her by the
+arm, as if for familiar support, transferring his stick to the other
+hand, and looking his cajolery inimitably, and with a low voice saying,
+"My dear Miss Lydia, what is all this story I hear that you charge the
+Curate with?" "Oh, no, not I!" interrupted the maiden; "it is you have
+done that. I only know that I heard you reprove him for his behaviour to
+some one or other, whom you seriously declared either must be or ought
+to be his wife." "My dear _young_ lady," said Gratian, "that is now
+quite a mistake of yours:" he then, as he reports, told her what they
+had been reading, and that his remarks were upon the book, and the
+author of it, and had nothing to do with the Curate. To all which she
+nodded her head incredulously, and laughingly said, "Oh, you good,
+_good_-natured man; and pray who may that improper author be?" "Why,"
+quoth Gratian, "Miss Lydia Prateapace wouldn't, I know, have me
+recommend her any _improper_ author." "Oh, no, no!--I don't ask with any
+intention to read him, I assure you," she replied. Gratian went on,
+"Believe me, he is a very old author, a Roman." "A Roman indeed!" she
+quite vociferated--"one of those horrid Papists, I suppose! A Roman is
+he? Then the Curate--why should he read Papistical books, and learn such
+tricks from them?" It was in vain for Gratian to endeavour to explain.
+Miss Prateapace had but one notion of the Romans--that there never was
+one that had not kissed the Pope's toe. So here he very wisely took
+another tack, and drawing her a little aside, as if he would not have
+even the very hedges hear him, and with no little affected caution,
+looking about him, he said, in a half whisper--"Now let me, my dear
+young lady, tell you a bit of a secret. All this is an idle tale, and is
+just as I have told you; but this I tell you, that to my certain
+knowledge, the Curate's _affections_"--laying stress on the word
+affections--"are seriously engaged;" at which Miss Lydia stared, and
+looked the personification of curiosity. "Engaged is he, did you say?"
+"No, _he_ is not engaged," said Gratian, "but I happen to know that his
+affections are--" "Then," quoth she, "I suppose he has declared as much
+to the object." "Ah--no!--there is the very point--you are quite
+mistaken--she has not the slightest suspicion of it." This was scarcely
+credible to the lady's notion of love-making, but the earnest manner of
+Gratian was every thing. "No," said he; "he is a most exemplary
+conscientious young man, and so far avoids the making any show of his
+feelings, that he affects, I really believe, more indifference towards
+that lady than to any other. He tells me that he thinks it would not be
+honourable in his present circumstances and position to engage _her_
+affections; but he looks forward, as his prospects are fair." Miss Lydia
+was interested--pondered awhile, and then said, "You dear good man, do
+tell me who the lady is!" "No," replied Gratian, "I dare not betray a
+secret; but be assured, my dear Miss Lydia Prateapace, that if our
+Curate marries, he will make his choice not very far from this." "You
+don't say so!" cried she: "Really now, who can it be?" "I can only say
+one thing more," replied our fox Gratian, "and perhaps that is saying
+too much; but--" whispering in her ear--"of all the letters in the
+alphabet, her name begins with Lydia." Whereupon he made a start, put
+his finger upon his lips, as if he had in his hurry told the secret; and
+she started back a pace in another direction, looked in his face to see
+if he was in jest; finding there nothing but apparent simplicity, she
+looked a little confused, and evidently took the compliment and the
+_hopes_ into her own bosom. When she could sufficiently collect her
+thoughts, she expressed her sorrow for any mischief she might have done,
+unintentionally; and added, that she would do all in her power to set
+all things right again. At this point the Curate returned: he addressed
+her somewhat distantly, which to her was a sign stronger than
+familiarity, upon the power of which she gave him her hand _of
+encouragement_. Gratian took care to leave well alone--let go her arm,
+and leaning upon the Curate's wished her good morning, with a gracious
+smile about his insidious mouth, to which he put his finger
+significantly as if entreating her silence upon the subject of their
+conversation. I have told you the particulars of this interview,
+Eusebius, as I could gather them from Gratian's narration; and he has a
+way of acting what he says, as if he had studied in that school where
+the first requisite for an orator is--action; the second--action; the
+third--action!
+
+Our friend Gratian, Eusebius, made no matter of conscience of this
+fibbing--did not hesitate--wanted no "ductor dubitantium"--as he told it
+to us. He gave, it is true, his limb a smarter tapping; but it was no
+twinge of conscience that caused the movement of the stick, and there is
+nothing of the Franciscan about our friend. Did he _say_ a word that was
+not perfect truth?
+
+But what was the intention?--did he mean to deceive? But this is not a
+question to discuss with you. You will do more than acquit him. So I am
+answered, and silent. Gratian's answer was this. In his fabulous mood,
+he asked--"If you should see a lion, an open-mouthed lion of the
+veritable [Greek: chasm' odonton] breed, traversing a wood, and he
+should accost you thus, 'Pray, sir, did you chance to see a man I am
+looking after go this way?' would you point out his lurking place, his
+path of escape? or would you not, if you knew he went to the right,
+direct the lion by all means to continue his pursuit on the left? Then,
+sir, which will your worshipful morality prefer, to be the accessary to
+the murder, or the principal in the deceit?"
+
+I must not omit to tell you that a few days ago Gratian and the Curate
+spent a pleasant day with the Bishop, who was not a little amused at
+their narration of the circumstances that produced the singular
+parochial epistle, which his lordship had duly received. The Bishop's
+hospitality is well seasoned with conversational ease, and perfect
+agreeability, and has besides that
+
+    "Seu quid suavius elegantiusve est"
+
+which our Catullus promises to his friend Fabullus. The Bishop, a ripe
+scholar, spoke much and critically of Catullus, and laid most stress
+upon the extreme suavity of his measures, especially in the "Acmen
+Septimius." There were present two archdeacons and a very agreeable
+classical physician. All had at one time or other, they acknowledged,
+translated "Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus." The physician said he
+had only satisfied himself with three lines, and yet he thought their
+only merit was the being line for line. He repeated both the original
+and his translation:--
+
+    "Soles occidere et redire possunt:
+    Nobis, quum semel occidit brevis lux,
+    Nox est perpetua una dormienda.
+
+    "Suns die, but soon their light restore,
+    While we, when our brief day is o'er,
+    Sleep one long night to wake no more."
+
+The Curate, with the jealousy of a rival translator, objected to "suns
+_die_," and thought "suns _set_" would be quite as well and a closer
+translation. The Physician assented. The Bishop smiled, and said, "suns
+_die_" was probably a professional lapsus. The Physician replied, that
+such would be a very unprofessional lapsus; and Gratian quoted the
+passage from Fielding, who says it is an unjust misrepresentation that
+"physicians are the friends of death," and instanced the two physicians
+who, in the case of the death of Captain Blifil, "dismissed the corpse
+with a single fee, but were not so disgusted with the living patient."
+At parting, the Bishop took the Curate most kindly by the hand, and
+recommended him by all means to cultivate the amiability of
+versification.
+
+After this, Gratian and the Curate had much business in hand, and we did
+not meet for some time. Gratian stirred a little in this affair of the
+Curate's, and with effect. We did meet, however, and recommenced the
+
+
+HORAE CATULLIANAE.
+
+You now see us again in the library--time, after tea. Gratian enjoys his
+easy-chair; a small fire--for it is not cold--just musically whispers
+among the coals, comfort. Gratian says he has had a busy day of it, and,
+though not wearied, is in that happy state of repose to enjoy rest, and
+of excitement to enjoy social converse; and after a little, preliminary
+chat, asked if there was any thing lately from Catullus.
+
+AQUILIUS.--Yes. He is returned from his unprofitable travel, and you
+seem to be in that state of sensitive quiescence, to feel with him the
+pleasures of home. He is now at his own villa, and thus welcomes, and
+acknowledges the welcome offered him by his beloved Sirmio.
+
+    AD SIRMIONEM PENINSULAM.
+
+    My Sirmio, thou the very gem and eye
+    Of islands and peninsulas, that lie
+    In that two-fold dominion Neptune takes
+    Of the salt sea and sweet translucent lakes!
+    Oh! with what joy I visit thee again,
+    Scarce yet believing, how, left far behind,
+    The tedious Thynian and Bithynian plain,
+    I see thee, Sirmio, with this peaceful mind.
+    Oh, what a blessed thing is the sweet quiet,
+    When the tired heart lays down its load of care,
+    And after foreign toil and sickening riot,
+    Weary and worn, to feel at last we are
+    At our own home--and our own floor to tread,
+    And lie in peace on the long-wish'd-for bed!
+    This, this alone, repays all labours past.
+    Hail to thee, lovely Sirmio! gladly take
+    Thine own, own master home to thee at last:
+    And all ye sportive waters of my lake,
+    Laugh out your welcome to my cheerful voice,
+    And all that laughs at home, with me rejoice.
+
+GRATIAN.--I well remember this singularly sweet, kind, affectionate
+address. It is the best version of "Home is home, be it ever so homely,"
+I know. You have needlessly repeated _own_. Why not say, loved master?
+
+CURATE.--Don't you think the _acquiescimus lecto_ would be better
+rendered "sink to rest?" I fancy the Latin expresses the sinking down of
+the wearied limbs, or rather, whole person, into the soft and deep
+feather bed.
+
+AQUILIUS.--I Set it down so, but altered it, thinking the "lie in peace"
+was in reality more quiescent than any thing expressing an act--as
+sinking is a process _in transitu_--the result, lying in peace. It has
+often been translated, among others, by Leigh Hunt, and that prince of
+translators, Elton--though I think I was not satisfied with his
+translation of the Sirmio--of the others I do not remember a word.
+
+CURATE.--Leigh Hunt overdid his work--there is more labour than ease in
+the line
+
+    "The loosened limbs o'er all the wished-for bed."
+
+Not simple enough for Catullus; neither is this--a rather affected
+line--
+
+    "Laughs every dimple in the cheek of home."
+
+GRATIAN.--No, that won't do--it is a conceit. One would imagine it
+borrowed or translated from some Italian poet.
+
+AQUILIUS.--The "loosened limbs o'er all the wished-for bed," strikes me
+as rather of the ludicrous, and not unlike the description of himself by
+Berni in his fanciful palace, where he ordered a bed, adjoining that of
+the French cook's, which was to be large enough to swim in--"Come si fa
+nel mare."
+
+GRATIAN.--Now then, Mr Curate, let us have your version.
+
+CURATE.
+
+    TO THE PENINSULA OF SIRMIO.
+
+    All hail to thee, delightful Sirmio!
+    Of all peninsulas and isles the gem,
+    Which lake or sea in its fair breast doth show
+    With either Neptune's arms encircling them.
+    What joy to find that Thynia, and that plain
+    Bithynian gone, and see thee safe again!
+    Charming it is to rest from care and cumber,
+    When the mind throws its burden, and we come
+    Wearied with pains of foreign travel home,
+    And in the bed so longed for sink to slumber.
+    This pays for all the toil, this quiet after--
+    Joy, my sweet Sirmio, for thy master's sake,
+    Make merry, frolic wavelets of my lake--
+    Laugh on me, all ye stores of home-bred laughter.
+
+GRATIAN.--I don't like "the mind _throws_ its burden:" lays it down is
+better--there is more weariness in it. You must alter that expression,
+or we see the mind like the "iniquae mentis ascellus," dropping back its
+ears, and _throwing_ its not agreeable and easy-sitting rider. Why not--
+
+    "When the mind lays its burden down, to come?"
+
+But I see you have both of you translated away from the Latin the _Lydiae
+undae_. How comes it so?
+
+AQUILIUS.--The reasons given for the word meaning Lydian seem to be
+insufficient; because it is said the Benacus resembles the Lydian rivers
+Hermus and Pactolus in having gold; or because the Benacus was in the
+district of the Thusci, who came from the Lydians. I adopted a
+conjecture once thrown out--and I think it was by the most accomplished
+scholar, W. S. Landor, that _Lydiae_ is the adjective of the word
+_Ludius--ludiae undae_, or _Lydiae undae_, the same thing, for that ludius
+is, as the dictionary tells us, "a Lydis, qui erant optimi saltatores."
+If so, _Lydiae_ would mean the sportive, or "dancing waters of the lake."
+
+CURATE.--I took this hint from Aquilius, though I do not remember from
+whom the suggestion came. I would venture from the last line--
+
+    "Ridete quidquid est domi cachinnorum--"
+
+a remark upon a passage, the celebrated expression in the _Prometheus_
+of AEschylus, the [Greek: anerithmon gelasma]. Some call it "countless
+dimples." Now is it not possible Catullus may have thought of this, and
+as it were translated it by _quidquid est cachinnorum_? The question
+then would be, is it meant to speak to the ear or the eye? Is it of
+sound or vision? I am inclined to think it is the sound, the
+communicative laughter of the many waves. "Dimple" is too little for the
+gigantic conception of AEschylus, but the laughter of the multitudinous
+ocean-waves is more after his genius. No one could translate _cachinnus_
+"a dimple." If, therefore, Catullus had in his mind the Greek passage,
+it shows his idea of the [Greek: anerithmon gelasma].
+
+GRATIAN.--I have often admired how that can be _very_ beautiful which is
+of uncertain meaning. Is it that either construction conveys distinct
+thought--clear idea? I confess, I prefer the sound. What comes next?
+
+CURATE.--Missing one or two, we take up his "Request to his friend
+Caecilius to come to him to Verona"--who, it seems, was a native of that
+place, and fellow townsman, as well as most dear friend of Catullus.
+
+AQUILIUS.--Both poets--both kind-hearted; in fact, "The two gentlemen of
+Verona."
+
+GRATIAN.--Well, that is saying something for Latin poets. Let us have
+your version, Curate.
+
+CURATE.
+
+    INVITATION TO CAECILIUS.
+
+    Papyrus, to Caecilius tell
+    (A touching bard, my friend as well)
+    That to Verona he must come,
+    Where his Catullus is at home,
+    And new-built Comu's walls forsake,
+    And that sweet shore of Laris Lake.
+    A friend of mine and his has brought
+    To light some passages of thought,
+    Which he must hear. So if he will
+    Be thriving and improving still,
+    His speed will swallow up the distance,
+    Although with amorous resistance,
+    And both arms clinging round his neck,
+    That lovely maid his progress check,
+    With lips a thousand times that say
+    "Oh, do not, do not go away!"
+    I mean that maid who, Fame--not I--
+    Asserts for love of him would die;
+    For fire consumes her heart and head,
+    Since first the opening lines she read
+    Of Cybele the God's great queen.
+    Maid, learned as the Sapphic muse,
+    I cannot sympathy refuse;
+    For not amiss (the book I've seen)
+    Begins the tale, "The Mighty Queen."
+
+AQUILIUS.--I protest against "so if he will be thriving and improving
+still." That is the Curate's interpolation. The fact is, he must have
+rhymed a passage from his last sermon; and it has somehow or other
+slipped into his Catullus.
+
+CURATE.--No authority! What, then, is meant by "Quare si sapiet?"
+
+AQUILIUS.--Simply, if he would know the secret--the "cogitationes."
+
+GRATIAN.--I am inclined to agree with you. Now, Aquilius, we will listen
+to your version.
+
+    AQUILIUS.
+
+    Hasten, papyrus! greet you well
+    That tender poet, my sweet friend
+    Caecilius--speedily I send,
+    As speedily my message tell:
+    That he should for Verona make
+    All haste--and quit his Larian Lake,
+    And Novum Comum--for I would
+    Some certain thoughts he understood
+    And purposes, that now possess
+    A friend of mine; and his no less.
+    And if he takes me rightly, say
+    His coming will devour the way,
+    Though that fair girl should bid him stay,
+    And round his neck her arms should throw,
+    And cry, Oh, do not, do not go!--
+    That girl, who, if the truth be told,
+    E'en in her heart of hearts doth hold
+    And cherish such sweet love--since he
+    First read to her of Cybele,
+    "Great Queen of Dindymus" the tale
+    Begun. Oh, then she did inhale
+    The living breath of love, whose heat
+    Into her very life doth eat.
+    Thy passion I can well excuse,
+    Fair maid! more learn'd than the tenth muse,
+    The Lesbian maid--nor couldst thou fail
+    To find for love an ample plea,
+    In that so nobly open'd tale
+    Of the great Goddess Cybele.
+
+CURATE.--What's all this?--the "tenth muse!" where is she in the Latin?
+
+AQUILIUS.--_Sapphica musa_, Doctor. That is Sappho, is it not? and pray
+was Sappho one of the _nine_ muses? No; then of course she was the
+_tenth_--and was not she "the Lesbian maid?"
+
+CURATE.--Well, I admit it--you have vindicated your muse fairly, and I
+will not pronounce against her, though tempted by an apt quotation from
+the mouth of Bacchus, in the _Frogs_ of Aristophanes.
+
+    "[Greek: Aute poth e Mouo ouk elesbiazen ou]."
+
+For your muse is certainly a Lesbian; but you have omitted "misellae,"
+which shows that the passion was not returned.
+
+GRATIAN.--I don't see that; for she throws her arms about his neck. But
+neither of you have well spoken the "millies euntem revocet," the
+calling him back after departure, and that is very good too. I see the
+note upon _Sapphica Musa_, speaks of various interpretations to the
+passage; but adopts this--that the maiden loving Caecilius has more sense
+(is that _doctior_? I doubt) than Sappho, who loved a youth too stupid
+ever to write a line; but this maid did not love till she had read the
+commencement of his poem. I don't see the necessity for thinking the
+passion hopeless either, because of the comparison with Sappho. Few
+Roman maidens took the Leucadian leap.
+
+CURATE.--It is very odd, and might first appear a mark of their good
+manners--that the Romans never mention "old maids." I fear there was
+another cause. I suppose the omission may be accounted for by the state
+of society, which was not favourable to their existence at all; for then
+a man could put away his wife at any moment, and for any plea, most
+women must have managed to get a husband for a long or a short time.
+
+AQUILIUS.--The only ancient old maids were the Fates and Furies--of the
+latter, the burden of the song was--
+
+    "Oh no, we never mention them,
+    Their names are never heard!"
+
+GRATIAN.--Come back to your duty: we are wandering, and leaving Catullus
+behind. What are we to have now?
+
+AQUILIUS.--An attack upon one Egnatius, who, having white teeth, took
+care to show them upon all occasions. He was not, however, celebrated
+for his tooth-powder. He is a fair mark for the wit of our author. The
+arrow of his satire was occasionally keen enough and free to fly.
+
+    IN EGNATIUM.
+
+    Egnatius's teeth are very white,
+    And therefore is he ever grinning:
+    Let pleaders in the court excite
+    All hearts to weep--from the beginning
+    E'en to the end he laughs. The while
+    The mother on the funeral bier,
+    Sheds o'er her only son the tear,
+    Alone Egnatius seems to smile,
+    Then opes his mouth from ear to ear:
+    Where'er he is, whatever doing,
+    He laughs and grins. The thing in fact is
+    A tasteless, foolish, silly practice,
+    Egnatius, and well worth eschewing.
+    Spare all this risible exertion,
+    And were you Roman or Tiburtian,
+    Sabine, Lanuvian, fat Etruscan,
+    Or porcine Umbrian with rare show
+    Of tusks--columnar--order Tuscan:
+    Or born the other side the Po,}
+    (And my compatriot, therefore know,)}
+    Where folk are civilised I trow,}
+    And wash their teeth with water cleanly--
+    Pure water such as folk might quaff--
+    I would entreat you still--don't laugh.
+    You look so sillily, so meanly,
+    As if you were but witted half.
+    Yet being but a Celtiberian,
+    Holding the custom of your nation,
+    Using that lotion called Hesperian;
+    The more you grin, folk say, forsooth,
+    What pity 'tis the whitest tooth
+    Should have the foulest application!
+
+CURATE.--I did not translate--and our host will think one translation
+quite enough.
+
+GRATIAN.--Go on then to the next. What are we to have?
+
+CURATE.--His address to his farm. Authors were happy in those days to
+have their landed estate. Horace always speaks of his with delight; so
+does Catullus, as we have seen, of his Sirmio. This farm was, it should
+seem, like Horace's, among the Sabine hills.
+
+    TO MY FARM.
+
+    My farm! which those who wish to please
+      Thy master's heart, Tiburtian call;
+    But they who call thee Sabine, these
+      Respect his feelings not at all:
+    And wishing more to tease and fret,
+    Will wager thou art Sabine yet--
+    How well it pleased me to retreat
+    To thy suburban country-seat;
+    Where I sent summarily off
+    That plaguy pulmonary cough;
+    Which, half-deserved, my stomach gave
+    Just for a hint no more to crave
+    Luxurious living. I had hoped
+    With a good dinner to have coped
+    At Sextius' table; when he read
+    A poisonous speech might strike one dead,
+    All gall and venom, to refute
+    One Attius in a certain suit.
+    Since when, a cold cough and catarrh
+    Against my battered frame made war;
+    Until I came in thee to settle,
+    And cured it with repose and nettle.
+    So, now I'm well, I thank thee, farm!
+    And that I got so little harm,
+    From such great fault. I may be pardon'd
+    If to this pitch my heart is harden'd:
+    To pray, when Sextius reads again
+    Things so abhorr'd of gods and men,
+    That that my cough and cold catarrh
+    Not mine but Sextius' health might mar--
+    Who never sends me invitation
+    But for such wretched recitation.
+
+GRATIAN.--A charitable wish this of our good Catullus! But these
+heathens knew little of "do as you would be done by." One of the neatest
+wishes of this kind is in a Greek epigram. I can't remember word for
+word the Greek, so I give the translation:--"Castor and Pollux, who
+dwell in beauteous Lacedemon, by the sweet-flowing river Eurotas, if
+ever I wish evil to my friend, may it light upon me; but if ever he
+wishes evil to me, may he have twice as much."
+
+AQUILIUS.--In a note on _villae_, I see the derivation of that word
+given, _quasi vehilla_, because there the fruits of the farm were
+carried; so that the original idea of a villa was quite another thing
+from the modern suburban construction. Architects, when they call these
+suburban edifices villas, might as well remember how inappropriate is
+the term. But here you have my version of this address to his farm:--
+
+    AD FUNDUM.
+
+    My Farm, or Sabine or Tiburtian,
+      (What name I care not we confab in,
+    Though they who hold me in aversion,
+      Persist and wager you are Sabine,)
+
+    In your suburban sweet recesses
+      Of that vile cough I timely rid me,
+    Merited well, for those excesses
+      My stomach failed not to forbid me,
+
+    When I with Sextius was convivial,
+      Who feasting read me his invective,
+    Vilest, 'gainst Attius his rival,
+      All venom--and, alas! effective.
+
+    For surely 'twas that poison seized me,
+      A chill--a heat--a cough then shook me
+    E'en to my vitals--and so teazed me,
+      That to thy bosom I betook me.
+
+    Thanks, my good farm! my fault you pardon'd,
+      And not revenged. We've much to settle
+    On score of thanks: my chest you harden'd,
+      And healed with basil-root and nettle.
+
+    But from henceforth, if I such vicious
+      Invectives read, though Sextius pen 'em,
+    Who but invites me with malicious
+      Intent to kill me with their venom--
+
+    If e'er I yield to his endeavour,
+      Expose me to his scrip infectious--
+    I call down ague, cold, and fever,
+      Oh! fall ye not on me,--but Sextius.
+
+GRATIAN.--I see the next is that one which has been not unfrequently
+translated and imitated. Is there not one by Cowley,--if I remember,
+much lengthened?
+
+AQUILIUS.--It can scarcely be called a translation. The Latin measure is
+certainly here very sweet and tender.
+
+    DE ACME ET SEPTIMIO.
+
+    Septimius, to his bosom pressing
+    His Acme, said, "I love thee, Acme--
+    All my life-long will love thee, Acme!
+    Nor day shall come to love thee less in.
+    Or should it come, like common lover,
+    In such poor love I love thee only;
+    May Libyan lion dun discover,
+    Or torrid India's beast attack me,
+    Wandering forlorn from thee, and lonely
+      On desert shore."--
+    He said: Love, as before,
+    Upon the left hand aptly sneezed.
+    The omen showed that he was pleased
+      To give his blessing.
+
+    Then gentle Acme, softly turning
+    Upon the breast of her Septimius,
+    And unto his her face upraising,
+    And looking in his eyes so burning,
+    As if inebriate with gazing;
+    With that her rich red mouth she kissed them,
+    And said,--"My love, dear, dear Septimius!
+    Oh, let us serve our master duly--
+    Our master Love, as now caressing;
+    For never yet have Love so blessed them
+    As now my thoughts he blesseth truly,
+    Even to my heart of hearts, Septimius,
+      The inmost core."
+    She said: and, as before,
+    Love on the left hand aptly sneezed.
+    The omen showed that he was pleased
+      To give his blessing.
+
+    They loved--were loved: this sweet beginning
+    Omen'd their future bright condition.
+    Offer all Asia to Septimius--
+    Add Britain--put in competition
+    With Acme--wretchedly abstemious
+    They'd call him of your gifts, Ambition.
+    The only province worth his winning
+    Is Acme: Acme's faithful bosom
+    Knows nought on earth but her Septimius.
+    Ripe was the fruit, as fair the blossom
+    Of this their mutual love, and glowing;
+    And all admired its freshness growing.
+    Was never pair so fond and loving!
+    And Venus' self looked on approving.
+
+CURATE.--Are you correct in your translation "Love, as before?" Is it
+not that, as before he sneezed on the left, now he sneezes on the right
+hand,--_was_ unfavourable--_is_ now propitious?
+
+GRATIAN.--I see in the note that the passage bears either construction.
+There is also authority given; for what to us is the left hand, to the
+gods is the right. Now, Curate, for your Acme and Septimius.
+
+CURATE.--
+
+    OF SEPTIMIUS AND ACME.
+
+    Acme to Septimius' breast,
+    Darling of his heart, was prest--
+    "Acme mine!" then said the youth,
+    "If I love thee not in truth,
+    If I shall not love thee ever
+    As a lover doated never,
+    May I in some lonely place,
+      Scorch'd by Ind's or Libya's sun,
+    Meet a lion's tawny face;
+      All defenceless, one to one."--
+    Love, who heard it in his flight,
+      To the truth his witness bore,
+    Sneezing quickly to the right--
+      (To the left he sneezed before.)
+
+    Acme then her head reflecting,
+      Kiss'd her sweet youth's ebriate eyes,
+    With her rosy lips connecting
+      Looks that glistened with replies.
+    "Thus, my life, my Septimillus!
+      Serve we Love, our only master:
+    One warm love-flood seems to thrill us,
+      Throbs it not in me the faster?"--
+    Love, who heard it in his flight,
+      To the truth his witness bore,
+    Sneezing quickly to the right--
+      (To the left he sneezed before.)
+
+    Thus with omens all-approving,
+    Each and both are loved and loving.
+    Poor Septimius with his Acme,
+      Cares not to whose lot may fall
+    Syria's glory--wealthy province!--
+      Or both Britains great and small.
+    Acme, faithful and unfeigning,
+      Gives, creates, enjoys all pleasure,
+    With her dear Septimius reigning.--
+      Oh! was ever earthly treasure
+    Greater to man's lot pertaining?
+      Blessed pair!--thus, without measure,
+    Venus' choicest gifts attaining.
+
+GRATIAN.--You have a little run riot, good Master Curate; and run out of
+your rhyming course too, I see--for you don't mean "province" to rhyme
+to "Acme."--I see the next is, On Approach of Spring--with that
+beautiful line, "Jam ver egelidos refert tepores." I wish to see how you
+would have translated that refreshing and cool warmth of
+expression--almost a contradiction in terms--the season when we inhale
+the heavenly air with the chill off--like hot tea thrown into a glass of
+spring-cold water, and drank off immediately.
+
+AQUILIUS.--I gave it up in despair, and the Curate too has omitted it.
+There are two other perhaps untranslatable lines in this short piece:--
+
+    "Jam mens praetrepidans avet vagari;
+    Jam laeti studio pedes vigescunt."
+
+After two other little pieces, we come to a few lines to no less a
+personage than Marcus Tullius Cicero, who had probably in some cause
+gratuitously assisted the poet with his eloquence; for to sue _in forma
+poetae_, was, perhaps, pretty much the same as in _forma pauperis_. It
+seems that "omnium patronus" was a flattering title on other occasions,
+and by other persons bestowed upon Cicero, as well as by our poet here.
+One would almost think the orator had served the poet an ill turn, and
+that this superlative praise was but irony; for he not only calls
+Tullius the most eloquent of men, but as much the best of patrons, as
+he, Catullus, is the worst of poets. This surely must be a mock
+humility. Is it a satire in disguise, and meaning the reverse? After
+this, follows a little piece to his friend Cornellus Licinius Calvus,
+with whom he had passed a pleasant and too exciting day--but let him
+tell his own story. Shall I repeat?
+
+    AD LICINIUM.
+
+    My dear Licinius, yesterday
+    We sported in our pleasant way;
+    Tablets in hand--and at our leisure,
+    In verse as various as the measure,
+    Scribbling between our wine and laughter.
+    But when we parted, mark the after
+    Vexation;--conquered, and hard hit
+    By your all-overpowering wit,
+    I could not eat--nor yet would Sleep
+    His softly-soothing fingers keep
+    Upon my weary lids: all night}
+    I toss'd, I turned from left to right}
+    Impatient for the morning light,}
+    That I might talk with you, and be
+    Again in your society.
+    But when my limbs, as 'twere half dead,
+    Were lying on my restless bed,
+    I made these lines--which, my good friend,
+    That you may know my pains, I send.
+    Now, though so free, so bold to dare,
+    So apt to scoff--good sir, beware
+    Lest with the eye of your disdain
+    You view these lines, my vow, my pain.
+    Beware of Nemesis, beware!--
+    For Vengeance, should I cry aloud--
+    She hears--and punishes the proud.
+
+GRATIAN.--Those last lines are very grave: are they not too much so for
+the intended play of this mock anger? Let us have your version, Master
+Curate.
+
+CURATE.--I am sure you think one version quite enough. I did not
+translate it; and believe we must now turn over many pages, and then I
+have little more to offer.
+
+GRATIAN.--(Turning over the leaves of Catullus.) Here I see is that
+beautiful passage in his "Carmen Nuptiale."
+
+    "Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis."
+
+AQUILIUS.--Which did not escape the tasteful, though bold Ariosto. I
+have made a weak attempt to translate the passage; and as it stands in
+the middle of a long piece, I have taken it out as a sonnet. I will read
+it:--
+
+    UT FLOS IN SEPTIS, &C.
+
+    As in enclosure of chaste garden ground,
+      The floweret grows--where nor unseemly tread
+      Of flocks or ploughshares bruise its tender head--
+    There soft airs soothe it with their gentle sound;
+    Suns give it strength, and nurturing showers abound,
+      And raise its tall stem from its sheltered bed;
+      And many a youth and maiden, passion-led,
+    With longing eyes admiring walk around:
+    Pluck'd from the stem that its pure grace supplied,
+      Nor youths nor maidens love it as before.
+    So the sweet maiden, in the queenly pride
+      Of her chaste beauty, many hearts adore;
+    But that her virgin charter laid aside,
+      Who lov'd, who cherish'd, cherish, love no more.
+
+CURATE.--I remember Ariosto's translation--for translation it is; and
+though you know it, I will repeat it, and, by Gratian's favour, let it
+pass for my version. For once, borrowed plumes,--and I shall not be the
+worse bird--though birds of richer plumage have no song.
+
+    "La verginella e simile alla rosa,
+      Chi'n bel giardin su la nativa spina,
+    Mentre sola, e sicura si riposa,
+      Ne gregge, ne pastor sele avvicina;
+    L'aura soave, e l'alba rugidosa
+    L'acqua, la terra al suo favor s'inch a:
+    Giovani vaghi, e donne innamorate,
+    Amano averne e seni, e tempre ornate.
+    Ma non si tosto dal materno stelo,
+      Remossa viene, e dal suo ceppo verde,
+    Che, quanto avea dagli uomini, e dal cielo,
+      Favor, grazia, ebellezza, tutto perde."
+
+GRATIAN.--Let us examine the alterations made by one genius, in
+transferring to his own language the ideas of another genius of another
+country. Catullus says "the floweret,"--_flosculus_: Ariosto
+particularises the rose,--the _bel giardin_, "the beautiful garden,"
+stands for _septis in hortis_, the enclosed. Then he has given the idea
+of _secretus_, which is certainly "separated," "set apart," by the words
+_sola e sicura_, "alone and safe"--is it so good? but he gives that a
+grace, a beauty, the original perhaps has not, _riposa_--the floweret
+enjoys its secret repose. The cutting down the flower by the plough was
+unnecessary, after telling us of the enclosure; we scarcely like to be
+brought suddenly into the ploughed field. Here Ariosto is better--"nor
+shepherd nor flock come near it." That enough confirms the idea of its
+being fenced off, and they wander in their idleness, or, but for the
+fence, might have reached it; the plough and the team are a heavy
+apparatus, and would be a most unexpected intrusion,--so I like the
+Italian here better. Then, _su la nativa spina_ is good: you see the
+beautiful creature on its native stem or thorn. Then for the enumeration
+of the airs, the sun, and the shower, the Italian, in his beautiful
+language, softens the very air, and gives it a sweetness, _l'aura
+soave_, and ushers in "the dewy morn:" then, expanding to the glory of
+the full reverence of nature to this emblem of purity, he makes all bend
+and bow before it, as before the very queen of the earth. Here he
+surpasses his original. Then he gives you the object of the wishes of
+the youths and maidens, the _multi pueri multae optaverae puellae_. They
+desire to place it in their bosoms or round their temples: and is not
+the lovingness of the youths and maidens a good addition? The _giovani
+vaghi e donne innamorate_. Both are admirable--but I incline to Ariosto.
+
+AQUILIUS.--And do you think the Latin poet the original? You forget how
+little originality the Latin authors can claim. This of Catullus is a
+translation--a free one, it is true--of perhaps a still more beautiful
+passage in Euripides. Reach the book: you will find it in that very
+singular play the Hippolytus. Ay, here it is. He offers the garland to
+the virgin goddess Artemis--(line 73)
+
+    [Greek:
+    "Soi tonde plekton stephanon ex akeratou
+    Leimonos, o despoina, kosmesas phero,
+    Enth' oute poimen axioi pherbein bota
+    Out' elthe po sideros, all' akeraton
+    Melissa leimon' erinon dierchetai
+    Aidos de potamiaisi kepeuei drosois.
+    Hosois didakton meden, all' en te physei
+    To sophronein eilechen es ta panth' homos,
+    Toutos drepesthai; tois kakoisi, d' ou themis."]
+
+"I bring thee, O mistress, this woven crown, beautifully made up of
+flowers of the pure untouched meadow--where never shepherd thinks it
+fitting to feed his flock, nor the sickle comes; but the bee ever passes
+over the pure meadow breathing of spring, and modesty waters it as a
+garden with the river-dews. To them who have, untaught, in their nature
+the gift of chastity, to these only it is at all times an allowed
+sanctity to cut these flowers, but not to the evil-minded."
+
+You cannot doubt that the passage in Catullus is taken from the
+Greek--which is of a higher sentiment in the conclusion, and is enriched
+beyond the Latin by the bee, and above all by the personification of
+Modesty tending and watering the garden, or rather these especial
+flowers, with the river-dews.
+
+CURATE.--How far more pure is the sentiment, and more quiet the imagery,
+in the Greek! The Greeks were the great originators of glorious thought
+and beautiful diction.
+
+GRATIAN.--Let us now to Catullus. What have we next?
+
+AQUILIUS.--Here is a tender little piece, to his friend Ortalus. I see
+it has an omission: this edition does not supply it; I only take what I
+see. It seems Ortalus had requested him to send him his translation from
+Callimachus, the "Coma Berenices," which for some time, through grief
+for the death of his brother, he had failed to do. He now sends the
+poem.
+
+
+    AD ORTALUM.
+
+    Though care, that unto me sore grief hath brought,
+    Calls me from converse with the sacred Nine,
+      Nor can my heart incline
+    To bring to any end inspired thought;--
+
+    (For now the wave of the Lethaean lake,
+    How recent hath it bathed in Death's dark vale
+      A brother's feet so pale;
+    And I can only sorrow for his sake.
+
+    The Trojan land on the Rhoetean shore
+    Hath hidden him for ever from these eyes,--
+      And I with glad surprise,
+    And brother's love, shall welcome thee no more.
+
+    Loved more than life, dear brother! what can I
+    But love thee still, and mourn for thee full long
+      In a funereal song,
+    In secret to assuage my grief thereby?
+
+    As amid many boughs all leaf-array'd
+    The Danlian bird, the nightingale, out-poured,
+      When Itys she deplored,
+    Her mellow sorrows in the thickest shade:)
+
+    Yet, Ortalus, 'mid tears that flow so fast,
+    The work of your Battiades I send,
+      Lest you should deem, dear friend,
+    Your wishes to the winds are idly cast,
+
+    And from my mind escaped, all unaware,
+    As falls the fruit, love's furtive gift, unbid,
+      In virgin bosom hid,
+    When she, forgetful of its lying there,
+
+    Would suddenly arise, and run to greet
+    The coming of her mother, from her vest
+      And her now loosen'd breast,
+    The shameless apple rolls before her feet.
+
+    And she, poor maid! abashed, and in the hush
+    Of shame, before her mother cannot speak,
+      While all her virgin cheek
+    Betrays her secret in the conscious blush.
+
+CURATE.--It is very tender--the last image is delicately beautiful. I
+did not translate it.
+
+GRATIAN.--Pretty as the passage of the maiden's disaster in dropping the
+lover's gift--and that, too, be it observed, in the hurry of her
+tenderness, which increases the beauty, or rather accomplishes it--yet
+is it not abrupt in a piece where there is the expression of so much
+grief? Catullus was an affectionate man, more especially affectionate
+brother; on other occasions, if I remember rightly, he deplores this
+brother's loss. Now, Master Curate, what do you offer us?
+
+CURATE.--Not now a verse translation, but an observation on a little
+piece of raillery, in which Catullus quizzes one Arrius for his
+aspirating; and, I mean it not as a pun, exasperating, though it should
+seem that his friends were not a little exasperated at his bad
+pronunciation. Do we inherit from the Romans this, our (Cockneyism, I
+was going to say, but it is too general to allow of such a limit,)
+vulgarity of speech? "Where," says Catullus, "Arrius meant to say
+commoda, he uttered it as c_h_ommoda, and _h_insidias for insidias, and
+never thought he spoke remarkably well unless he laid great stress upon
+the aspirate, calling it with emphasis _h_insidias. I believe his
+mother, his uncle, his maternal grandfather and grandmother all spoke in
+the same way. When the man went into Syria, all ears had a little rest,
+and heard those words pronounced without this emphatic aspirate, and
+began to entertain no fears respecting the use of the words; when on a
+sudden they hear--that after Arrius had gone thither, the Ionian seas
+were no longer Ionian, but Hionian." This is curious. As the Romans had
+possession here more than four hundred years, did they leave us this
+legacy?
+
+AQUILIUS--I will, then, give you versions of the two which immediately
+follow.
+
+    DE AMORE SUO.
+
+    I love and hate. You ask me how 'tis so.
+    Small is the reason which I have to show:
+    I feel it to my cost--'tis all I know.
+
+Then follows a compliment, by comparison, to his Lesbia.
+
+    DE QUINTIA ET LESBIA.
+
+    Many think Quintia beautiful: she's tall,
+    And fair, and straight. I know, I grant it all,
+    When each particular beauty I recall;
+
+    But I deny--when these are uncombined
+    To form a whole of beauty--and I find
+    So large a person with so small a mind.
+
+    But Lesbia's perfect person is all soul,
+    Compact in beauty--as if grace she stole
+    From all the rest, and made herself one perfect whole.
+
+CURATE.--This is compliment enough as far as comparison goes--but he
+pays her a much greater shortly after: for he loves her in their
+greatest quarrels.
+
+    OF LESBIA.
+
+    "Lesbia mi dicit semper male."
+
+    Lesbia's always speaking ill
+    Of me--her tongue is never still:
+    Yet may I die, but 'gainst her will,
+      She loves me, spite of her detraction.
+
+    Why think I so? Because I blame
+    Her ways, abuse her just the same:
+    Yet howsoe'er I name her name,
+      I still love Lesbia to distraction.
+
+GRATIAN.--Perhaps the constancy was more to the credit of Lesbia than
+Catullus. Now then, Aquilius.
+
+AQUILIUS.--
+
+    DE LESBIA.
+
+    Lesbia speaketh ill of me
+      Ever--nought it moves me:
+    Say she what she will of me,
+      Yet I know she loves me.
+
+    Why? Because in words of hate,
+      I am far before her;
+    Yet no jot of love abate,
+      Rather I adore her.
+
+CURATE.--I don't like "I am far before her." We say, "I am not behind"
+in hate or love--I doubt "before."
+
+AQUILIUS.--Easily mended--thus then,--
+
+    Why? Because in words of hate
+      I go far beyond her,
+    Yet no jot of love abate--
+      But still grow the fonder.
+
+GRATIAN.--Probatum est.
+
+AQUILIUS.--The Curate is too quick upon me. We must go back: he has left
+out "De Inconstantia Feminei Amoris."
+
+CURATE.--True. Here is my version. Not being a happy subject, I passed
+over it.
+
+    OF WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY.
+
+    My pretty she will none but me
+      For husband, though were Jove, her wooer.
+    So tells she me: but what a she
+      Says to her lover and pursuer,
+    Might well be written on the wind,
+    Or stream that leaves no track behind.
+
+AQUILIUS.--I object to "pretty she," for _mulier_. I think, however,
+that _mulier_ here is a word of contempt. I make it out thus:
+
+     DE INCONSTANTIA FEMINEI AMORIS.
+
+      She says--the woman says--she none would wed
+      But me, though Jove came suitor to her bed;
+      She says--but, oh! what woman says--so fair,
+      And smooth to doting man, is writ on air,
+    And on the running stream that changeth every where.
+
+AQUILIUS.--We have seen much of our friend Catullus as a loving poet,
+let us end by showing him to have been a good hater. The following is no
+bad specimen of his powers in this line:--
+
+    IN COMINIUM.
+
+    If you, Cominius, old, defiled
+      With every vice, contemn'd, and hoary,
+    From your vile life were once exiled,
+      Your carcass beasts would mar--grim, wild.
+    Vultures that tongue, defamatory
+      Of all the gentle, good, and mild;
+    And with those eyes, that all detest,
+      Pluck'd from their hateful sockets gory,
+    Crows cram their maws, or feed their nest,
+    And hungry wolves devour the rest!
+
+It was now time, Eusebius, to conclude for the night, and, indeed, to
+put our Catullus upon his shelf again. Before separating, we reminded
+Gratian that he was the arbiter, and must make his award. "I remember
+well," said he; "and you, Aquilius, made, I think, this my baculus the
+staff of office. A good umpire might, not very improperly, give the
+stick to you both, breaking it equally, "secundum artem baculinam." But
+it is a good, useful staff to me; we have had some rubs together, and I
+won't part with it. True, it has not unfrequently rubbed my pigs' backs,
+and shall again. But _the_ pig Aquilius has made his acquaintance with,
+has grunted out all his happy days; and, to do him all honour, I have
+sacrificed him upon this occasion, to appease the manes of the Latin
+poet in his anger at your bad translations. But for yourselves, I have
+still something to award. My pig has two cheeks--there is one for each,
+and you shall have them put before you at breakfast to-morrow morning;
+and thus, I think, you will agree with me that I have duly countenanced
+you both. And I hope my pig will have both sharpened your appetites and
+your wit, 'sus Minervam.' Good-night!
+
+    'To-morrow to fresh fields and turnips new.'"
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT.
+
+I here send you, Eusebius, the last of our Horae Catullianae, which has
+been lying by a week or more. This little delay enables me to wind up
+the Curate's affair to your satisfaction. Our friend Gratian gave
+verbally the Bishop's reply to Mathew Miffins, who, seeing himself
+deserted by his principal witness and informer, Prateapace, was not
+sorry to veer round with the weather-cock, and was obsequiously civil.
+It was characteristic of our friend Gratian, that he should settle it as
+he did with that huckster. Going through, as it is called, the main
+street, I saw him engaged with Miffins, in his shop, and went in. He was
+talking somewhat familiarly with the man--of all subjects, on what do
+you suppose?--on fishing. Gratian had been a great fisherman in his day,
+as his rheumatic pains can now testify. As he afterwards told me,
+fearing he might have given the Bishop's message rather sharply, and not
+liking to pain the man, he turned off the subject, and talked of
+fishing, to which he knew Miffins was addicted; and so it ended by
+Gratian's obtaining his good-will for ever, for he sent him some choice
+hackles. Prateapace and Gadabout have returned to the church, whereupon
+the Rev. the cow-doctor has stirred up the wrath of the chapel by a very
+strong discourse upon backsliding. A poor woman spoke of it as very
+affecting, adding, "Some loves 'sons of consolation,' but I loves 'sons
+of thunder.'" Doubtless there was lightning too; and there is of that
+vivid kind which bewilders and leaves all darker than before. The Curate
+_has_ found bouquets in the vestry and the desk, and has been in danger
+of becoming "a popular."
+
+A subscription has actually been set on foot, by Nicholas Sandwell, at
+the instigation, it is said, of certain ladies, and even encouraged by
+Miffins, to purchase a coffee-pot and tea-spoons for the Curate; but an
+event a few days ago has put an end to the affair, and given rather a
+new turn to the parochial feelings. This event is of such moment, that I
+ought, perhaps, to have told you of it at first--but I should have
+spoiled my romance, my novel--and what is any writing without a tale in
+it worth now-a-days? The Curate, then, is actually married--even since
+the termination of the Horae Catullianae.
+
+Miss Lydia, ("alas, false man!" sighed some one,) of the family at
+Ashford, is the happy bride. The Curate had unexpectedly come into a
+very decent independence; and is, and will be for ever after, according
+to the usual receipt, happy.
+
+Since this event, the bouquets have ceased to be laid in the vestry and
+the desk. Lydia Prateapace has been heard to say she should not wonder
+if all was true after all, and affects to be glad, for propriety's sake,
+that they _are_ married. Gadabout runs every where repeating what
+Prateapace said; and Brazenstare looks audacious indifference, and once
+stared in the Curate's face and asked him how many Misses Lydia there
+might be of his acquaintance. My dear Eusebius,
+
+    "So goes the world, and such the Play of Life.
+    This loves to make, and t'other mends a strife;
+    Old fools write rhymes--the Curate takes a wife."
+
+                          Yours ever, AQUILIUS.
+
+
+
+
+PROSPER MERIMEE.
+
+
+Rarely, in these days of profuse and unscrupulous scribbling, do we find
+an author giving the essence, not a dilution, of his wit, learning, and
+imagination, dispensing his mental stores with frugal caution, instead
+of lavishing them with reckless prodigality. Such a one, when met with,
+should be made much of, as a model for sinners in a contrary sense, and
+as a bird of precious plumage. Of that feather is Monsieur Prosper
+Merimee. He plays with literature, rather than professes it; it is his
+recreation, not his trade; at long intervals and for a brief space, he
+turns from more serious pursuits to coquet with the Muse, not frankly to
+embrace her. Willing though she be, he will not take her for a lawful
+spouse and constant companion, but courts her _par amours_. The
+offspring of these moments of dalliance are buxom and _debonair_, of
+various but comely aspect. In two-and-twenty years he has written less
+than the average annual produce of many of his literary countrymen. In
+several paths of literature, he has essayed his steps and made good a
+footing; in not one has he continuously persevered, but, although
+cheered by applause, has quickly struck into another track, which, in
+its turn, has been capriciously deserted. His "Studies of Roman history"
+give him an honourable claim to the title of historian; his "Notes of
+Archaeological Rambles" are greatly esteemed; he has written plays; and
+his prose fictions, whether middle-age romance or novel of modern
+society, rank with the best of their class. He began his career with a
+mystification. His first work greatly puzzled the critics. It professed
+to be a translation of certain comedies, written by a Spanish actress,
+whose fictitious biography was prefixed and signed by Joseph L'Estrange,
+officer in the Swiss regiment of Watteville. This imaginary personage
+had made acquaintance with Clara Gazul in garrison at Gibraltar. Nothing
+was neglected that might perfect the delusion and give success to the
+cheat; fragments of old Spanish authors were prefixed to each play,
+showing familiarity with the literature of the country; the style, tone,
+and allusions were thoroughly Spanish; and, through the French dress,
+the Castilian idiom seemed here and there to peep forth, confirming the
+notion of a translation. Clara was an Andalusian, half gipsy, half Moor,
+skilled in guitars and castanets, saynetes and boleros. L'Estrange makes
+her narrate her own origin.
+
+"'I was born,' she told us, 'under an orange-tree, by the roadside, not
+far from Motril, in the kingdom of Granada. My mother was a
+fortune-teller, and I followed her, or was carried on her back, till the
+age of five years. Then she took me to the house of a canon of Granada,
+the licentiate Gil Vargas, who received us with every sign of joy.
+Salute your uncle, said my mother. I saluted him. She embraced me, and
+departed. I have never seen her since.' And to stop our questions, Dona
+Clara took her guitar and sang the gipsy song, _Cuando me pario mi
+madre, la gitana_."
+
+Biography and comedies were so skillfully got up, the deception was so
+well combined, that the reviewers were put entirely on a wrong scent.
+Two years later, M. Merimee was guilty of another harmless literary
+swindle, entitled La Guzla, a selection of Illyrian poems, said to be
+collected in Bosnia, Dalmatia, &c., but whose real origin could be
+traced no further than to his own imagination. Although the name was a
+manifest anagram of Gazul, the public were gulled. The deceit was first
+unmasked in Germany, we believe, by Goethe, to whom the secret had been
+betrayed. Thenceforward the young author was content to publish under
+his own name works of which he certainly had no reason to be ashamed.
+One of the earliest of these was, "La Jacquerie"--a sort of long
+melodrama, or series of scenes, illustrating feudal aggressions and
+cruelties in France, and the consequent peasant revolts of the
+fourteenth century. It shows much historical research and care in
+collection of materials, is rich in references to the barbarous customs
+and strange manners of the times, and, like the "Chronicle of Charles
+IX.," another historical work of M. Merimee's, has, we suspect, been
+found very useful by more recent fabricators of romances.
+
+Educated for the bar, but not practising his profession, M. Merimee was
+one of the rising men of talent whom the July revolution pushed forward.
+After being _chef de cabinet_ of the Minister of the Interior, Count
+d'Argout, he held several appointments under government, amongst others,
+that of Inspector of Historical Monuments, an office he still retains.
+In 1844 he was elected to a chair in the French Academy, vacant by the
+death of the accomplished Charles Nodier. He has busied himself much
+with archaeological researches, and the published results of his travels
+in the west of France, Provence, Corsica, &c., are most learned and
+valuable. In the intervals of his antiquarian investigations and
+administrative labours, he has thrown off a number of tales and
+sketches, most of which first saw the light in leading French
+periodicals, and have since been collected and republished. They are all
+remarkable for grace of style and tact in management of subject. One of
+the longest, "Colomba," a tale of Corsican life, is better known in
+England than its author's name. It has been translated with accuracy and
+spirit, and lately has been further brought before the public, on the
+boards of a minor theatre, distorted into a very indifferent melodrama.
+The Corsican Vendetta has been taken as the basis of more than one
+romantic story, but, handled by M. Merimee, it has acquired new and
+fascinating interest; and he has enriched his little romance with a
+profusion of those small traits and artistical touches which exhibit the
+character and peculiarities of a people better than folios of dry
+description. "La Double Meprise," another of his longer tales, is a
+clever _novelette_ of Parisian life. According to English notions its
+subject is slippery, its main incident, and some of its minor details,
+improbable and unpleasant, although so neatly managed that one is less
+startled when reading them than shocked on after-reflection. It
+certainly requires skilful management to give an air of probability to
+such a scene as is detailed in chapter five. A French _gentleman_, a man
+of fortune and family, mixing in good society, is anxious for an
+appointment at court, and to obtain it he reckons much on the influence
+and good word of a certain Duke of H----. There is a benefit night at
+the Opera, and the young wife of the aspirant to court honours has a
+box. Between the acts her husband, who has unwillingly accompanied her,
+rambles about the house, and discovers the Duke in an inconvenient
+corner, where he can see nothing. His grace is not alone, but in the
+society of his kept-mistress. To propitiate his patron, the unscrupulous
+husband introduces him and his companion into the box of his
+unsuspecting wife! The sequel may be imagined; the stare and titter of
+acquaintances, the supercilious gratitude of the Duke, the astonishment
+of the lady at the singular tone of the pretty and elegantly dressed
+woman with whom she is thus unexpectedly brought in contact, and whose
+want of _usage_ bespeaks, as she imagines, the newly arrived provincial.
+All this, which might pass muster in a novel depicting the manners and
+morals of the Regency, is rather violent in one of our day; but yet, so
+cleverly are the angles of improbability draped and softened down, the
+reader perseveres. The plot is very slight; the tale scarcely depends on
+it, but is what the French call a _tableau de moeurs_, with less
+pretensions to the regular progress and catastrophe of a novel, than to
+be a mirror of everyday scenes and actors on the bustling stage of Paris
+life. The characters are well drawn, the dialogues witty and dramatic,
+the book abounds in sly hits and smart satire; but its bitterness of
+tone injured its popularity, and, unlike its author's other tales, it
+met little success. The opening chapter is a picture of a lively
+Parisian _menage_, such as many doubtless exist; a striking example of a
+_mariage de convenance_, or mis-match.
+
+"Six years had elapsed since the marriage of Julie de Chaverny, and
+five years and six months, or thereabouts, since she had discovered that
+it was impossible for her to love her husband, and very difficult to
+esteem him. He was not a bad man, neither could he be called stupid, nor
+even silly; she had once thought him agreeable; now she found him
+intolerably wearisome. To her every thing about him was repulsive and
+unpleasant. His most trifling actions, his way of eating, of taking
+coffee, of talking, gave her umbrage and irritated her nerves. Except at
+table, the pair scarcely saw or spoke to each other; but they dined
+together several times a-week, and that sufficed to keep up the sort of
+hatred Julie entertained towards her husband.
+
+"As to Chaverny, he was rather a handsome man, a little too corpulent
+for his time of life, with a fresh complexion, full-blooded, and by no
+means subject to those vague uneasinesses which sometimes torment
+persons of more intellectual organisation. Piously convinced that his
+wife's sentiments towards him were those of tender friendship, the
+conviction caused him neither pleasure nor pain. Had he known Julie's
+feelings to be of an opposite nature, it would have made little
+difference to his happiness. He had served several years in a cavalry
+regiment, when he inherited a considerable fortune, became disgusted
+with garrison life, resigned his commission, and took a wife. It seems
+difficult to explain the marriage of two persons who had not an idea in
+common. On the one hand, a number of those officious friends and
+relations, who, as Phrosine says, would marry the republic of Venice to
+the Grand Turk, had taken much pains to arrange it: on the other,
+Chaverny was of good family; before his marriage he was not too fat; he
+was gay and cheerful, and what is called a _good fellow_. Julie was glad
+to see him at her mother's house, because he made her laugh with
+anecdotes of his regiment, droll enough, if not always in the best
+taste. She found him amiable, because he danced with her at every ball,
+and was always ready with excellent reasons to persuade her mother to
+remain late at theatre or party, or at the _Bois de Boulogne_. Finally,
+she thought him a hero, because he had fought two or three creditable
+duels. But what completed his triumph, was the description of a certain
+carriage, to be built after a plan of his own, and in which he was to
+drive Julie, as soon as she consented to become Madame de Chaverny.
+
+"A few months of married life, and Chaverny's good qualities had lost
+much of their merit. He no longer danced with his wife--that of course.
+His funny stories had long been thrice told. He complained that balls
+lasted too late; at the theatre he yawned; the custom of dressing for
+the evening he found an insufferable bore. Laziness was his bane; had he
+endeavoured to please, perhaps he would have succeeded, but the least
+exertion or restraint was torture to him, as to most fat persons. He
+found it irksome to go into society, because there the manner of one's
+reception depends on the efforts one makes to please. A rude joviality
+suited him better than refined amusements; to distinguish himself
+amongst persons of a similar taste to his own, he had only to talk and
+laugh louder than his companions--and that he did without trouble, for
+his lungs were remarkably vigorous. He also prided himself on drinking
+more champagne than most men could support, and on leaping his horse
+over a four-foot wall in true sporting style. To these various
+accomplishments he was indebted for the friendship and esteem of the
+indefinable class of beings known as 'young men,' who swarm upon our
+_boulevards_ towards eight in the evening. Shooting parties, country
+excursions, races, bachelors' dinners and suppers, were his favourite
+pastimes. Twenty times a-day he declared himself the happiest of
+mortals; and when Julie heard the declaration, she cast her eyes to
+heaven, and her little mouth assumed an expression of indescribable
+contempt."
+
+We turn to another of M. Merimee's books, in our opinion his best, an
+historical romance, entitled 1572, a "Chronicle of the Reign of Charles
+the Ninth." "In history," says the author in his preface, "I care only
+for the anecdotes, and prefer those in which I fancy I discover a true
+picture of the manners and characters of a particular period. This is
+not a very elevated taste; but I own, to my shame, that I would
+willingly give the whole of Thucydides for an authentic memoir of
+Aspasia, or of one of Pericles' slaves. Memoirs, the familiar gossip of
+an author with his reader, alone supply those individual portraits that
+amuse and interest me. It is not from Mezerai, but from Montlue,
+Brantome, D'Aubigne, Tavannes, La Noue, &c., that one forms a just idea
+of the French of the sixteenth century. From the style of those
+contemporary authors, we learn as much as from the substance of their
+narratives. In L'Estoile, for instance, I read the following concise
+note. 'The demoiselle de Chateau-neuf, one of the king's _mignonnes_,
+before he went to Poland, having espoused, _par amourettes_, the
+Florentine Antinotti, officer of the galleys at Marseilles, and
+detecting him in an intrigue, slew him stoutly with her own hand.' By
+the help of this anecdote, and of similar ones, which abound in
+Brantome, I make up a character in my head, and resuscitate a lady of
+Henry the Third's court." The "Chronicle" is the result of much reading
+and combination of the kind here referred to; and M. Merimee has even
+been accused of adhering too closely to reality, to the detriment of the
+poetical character of his romance. He does not make his heroes and
+heroines sufficiently perfect, or his villains sufficiently atrocious,
+to suit the palate of some critics, but depicts them as he finds
+evidence of their having existed--their virtues obscured by the coarse
+manners and loose morality, their crimes palliated by the religious
+antipathies and stormy political passions of a semi-civilised age. He
+declines judging the men of the sixteenth century according to the ideas
+of the nineteenth. And, with regard to minor matters, he does not, like
+some of his contemporaries, place in the mouth of a Huguenot leader, or
+a _Guisarde_ countess, the tame and dainty phrase appropriate enough in
+that of an equerry, or lady of the bed-chamber at the court of the
+Citizen King. Eschewing conventionality, and following his own judgment,
+and the guidance of the old chroniclers, in whose quaint records he
+delights, he has written one of the best existing French historical
+romances.
+
+It would have been easy for a less able writer than M. Merimee to have
+extended the "Chronique" to thrice its present length. It is not a
+complete romance, but a desultory sketch of the events and manners of
+the time, with a few imaginary personages introduced. Novel readers who
+require a regular _denoument_ will be disappointed at its conclusion.
+There is not even a hint of a wedding from the first page to the last;
+and the only lady who plays a prominent part in the story, a certain
+countess Diane de Turgis, is little better than she should be. And yet,
+if we follow M. Merimee's rule, and judge her according to the ideas and
+morals of the age she flourished in, she was rather an amiable and
+proper sort of person. True, she sets her lovers by the ears, and feels
+gratified when they cut each other's throats: she even challenges a
+court dame, who has taken the precedence of her, to an encounter with
+sword and dagger, _en chemise_, according to the prevailing mode amongst
+the _raffines_, or professed duellists of the time; and she writes
+seductive billets-doux in Spanish, and gives wicked little suppers to
+the handsome cavalier on whom her affections are set. But, on the other
+hand, she goes to mass, and confesses, and does her best to save her
+Huguenot lover's body and soul, and obtain the remission of her own sins
+by converting him from his heresy. So that, as times went in the year
+1572, she was to be reckoned amongst the righteous. The handsome
+heretic, in whose present safety and future salvation she takes so
+strong an interest, is one Bernard de Mergy, who has come to Paris to
+take service with the great chief of his co-religionists, Admiral
+Coligny. His brother, George de Mergy, has deserted the creed of Calvin,
+and is consequently in high favour at the Louvre, but under the ban of
+his father, a stern old Huguenot officer, who will not hear the name of
+his renegade son. Bernard, whilst regretting his brother's apostasy,
+does not deem it necessary to shun his society. On the road he has been
+cajoled or robbed of his ready cash by a pretty gipsy girl, and his
+good horse has been stolen by one of the hordes of German lanzknechts,
+whom the recent civil war had brought to France. He reaches Paris with
+an empty purse, and is not sorry to meet his brother, who welcomes him
+kindly, and supplies his wants, but refuses to recant, and attempts to
+justify his backsliding. In the course of his defence he gives an
+insight into the prevalent corruption of the time, and shows how the
+private vices of great political leaders often marred the fortunes of
+their party.
+
+"'You were still at school,' said De Mergy, 'learning Latin and Greek,
+when I first donned the cuirass, girded the Huguenot's white scarf, and
+took share in our civil wars. Your little Prince of Conde, who has led
+his party into so many errors, looked after your affairs when his
+intrigues left him time. A lady loved me; the prince asked me to resign
+her to him; I refused, and he became my mortal enemy. From that hour he
+lost no opportunity of mortifying me.
+
+    Ce petit prince si joli
+    Qui toujours baise sa mignonne,
+
+held me up to the fanatics of the party as a monster of libertinism and
+irreligion. I had only one mistress; and as to the irreligion,--I let
+others do as they like, why attack me?'
+
+"'I thought the prince incapable of such baseness,' said Bernard.
+
+"'He is dead,' replied his brother, 'and you have deified him. 'Tis the
+way of the world. He had great qualities; he died like a brave man, and
+I have forgiven him. But then he was powerful, and on the part of a poor
+gentleman like myself, it was guilt to resist him. All the preachers and
+hypocrites of the army set upon me, but I cared as little for their
+abuse as for their sermons. At last one of the prince's gentlemen, to
+curry favour with his master, called me libertine, before all our
+captains. I struck him: we fought--and he was killed. At that time there
+were a dozen duels a day in the army, and no notice taken. In my favour
+an exception was made; I was fixed upon by the prince to serve as an
+example. The entreaties of the other leaders, including the Admiral,
+procured my pardon. But the prince's rancour was not yet appeased. At
+the fight of Jazeneuil, I commanded a company: I had been foremost in
+the skirmish; my cuirass battered and broken by bullets, my left arm
+pierced by a lance, showed that I had not spared myself. I had only
+twenty men left, and a battalion of the king's Swiss guards advanced
+against us. The Prince of Conde ordered me to charge them; I asked for
+two companies of _reitres_, and--he called me coward.'
+
+"Mergy rose and approached his brother with an expression of strong
+interest. The Captain continued--his eyes flashing with anger at the
+recollection of the insult:--
+
+"'He called me coward before all those popinjays in gilt armour who
+afterwards abandoned him on the battle-field of Jarnac. I resolved to
+die, and rushed upon the Swiss--vowing, if I escaped with life, never
+again to draw sword for that unjust prince. Grievously wounded, thrown
+from my horse, one of the Duke of Anjou's gentlemen, Beville--the mad
+fellow whom we dined with to-day--saved my life, and presented me to the
+duke. He treated me well. I was eager for vengeance. They urged me to
+take service under my benefactor, the Duke of Anjou; they quoted the
+line--
+
+    Omne solum forti patria est, ut piscibus aequor.
+
+I was indignant to see the Protestants summoning foreigners to their
+assistance. But why disguise the real motive that actuated me? I
+thirsted for revenge, and became a Catholic, in hopes of meeting the
+Prince of Conde in fair fight, and killing him. A coward forestalled me,
+and the manner of the prince's death almost made me forget my hatred. I
+saw his bloody corpse abandoned to the insults of the soldiery; I
+rescued it from their hands, and covered it with my cloak. I was pledged
+to the Catholics; I commanded a squadron of their cavalry; I could not
+leave them. I have happily been able to render some service to my former
+party; I have done my best to soften the fury of religious animosities,
+and have been fortunate enough to save several of my friends.'
+
+"'Oliver de Basseville tells every body he owes you his life.'
+
+"'Behold me then a Catholic,' continued George, in a calmer voice. 'The
+religion is as good as another: and then it is an easy and pleasant one.
+See yonder pretty Madonna: 'tis the portrait of an Italian courtesan;
+but the bigots praise my piety when I cross myself before it. My word
+for it, I get on vastly better with Rome than Geneva. By making trifling
+sacrifices to the opinions of the _canaille_, I live as I like. I must
+go to mass--very good! I go there and stare at the pretty women. I must
+have a confessor--_parbleu!_ I have one, a jolly Franciscan and
+ex-dragoon, who for a crown-piece gives me a ticket of confession, and
+delivers my billets-doux to his pretty penitents into the bargain. _Mort
+de ma vie! Vive la messe!_'
+
+"Mergy could not restrain a smile.
+
+"'There is my breviary,' continued the Captain, throwing his brother a
+richly-bound book, fastened with silver clasps, and enclosed in a velvet
+case. 'Such a missal as that is well worth your prayer-books.'
+
+"Mergy read on the back of the volume, _Heures de la Cour_.
+
+"'The binding is handsome,' he said, disdainfully returning the book.
+
+"The Captain smiled, and opening it again handed it to him. Mergy then
+read upon the first page: _La vie tres-horrifique du grand Gargantua,
+pere de Pantagruel: composee par M. Alcofribas, abstracteur de
+Quintessena._"
+
+Thus, in a single page, does M. Merimee place before us a picture of the
+times, with their mixture of fanaticism and irreligion, their shameless
+political profligacy and private immorality. Bernard de Mergy cannot
+prevail with his brother to return to the conventicle: so he accompanies
+him to mass--not to pray, but hoping to obtain a glimpse of Madame de
+Turgis, whom he has already seen masked in the street, and whose
+graceful form and high reputation for beauty have made strong impression
+on the imagination of this novice in court gallantries. On entering the
+sacristy, they find the preacher, a jolly monk, surrounded by a dozen
+young rakes, with whom he bandies jokes more witty than wise.
+
+"'Ah,' cried Beville, 'here is the Captain! Come, George, give us a
+text. Father Lubin has promised to preach on any one we propose.'
+
+"'Yes,' said the monk; 'but make haste. _Mort de ma vie!_ I ought to be
+in the pulpit already.'
+
+"'Peste! Father Lubin, you swear like the king,' cried the Captain.
+
+"I bet he would not swear in his sermon,' said Beville.
+
+"'Why not, if the fancy took me?' stoutly retorted the Franciscan.
+
+"'Ten pistoles you do not.'
+
+"'Ten pistoles? Done.'
+
+"'Beville,' cried the Captain, 'I go halves in your wager.'
+
+"'No, no!' replied his friend, 'I will not share the reverend's money;
+and if he wins, by my faith! I shall not regret mine. An oath in pulpit
+is well worth ten pistoles.'
+
+"'They are already won,' said Father Lubin; 'I begin my sermon with
+three oaths. _Ah! Messieurs les Gentilhommes_, because you have rapier
+on hip, and plume in hat, you would monopolise the talent of swearing.
+We will see.'
+
+"He left the sacristy, and in an instant was in his pulpit. There was
+silence in the church. The preacher scanned the crowded congregation as
+though seeking his bettor; and when he discovered him leaning against a
+column exactly opposite the pulpit, he knit his brows, put his arms
+akimbo, and in an angry tone thus began:
+
+"'My dear Brethren,
+
+"_'Par la vertu!--par la mort!--par le sang!'_--
+
+"A murmur of surprise and indignation interrupted the preacher, or, it
+were more correctly said, filled up the pause he intentionally left.
+
+"---- 'de Dieu,' continued the Franciscan, in a devout nasal whine, 'we
+are saved and delivered from punishment.'
+
+"'A general burst of laughter interrupted him a second time. Beville
+took his purse from his girdle, and shook it at the preacher, as an
+admission that he had lost."
+
+The sermon that follows is in character with its commencement. Whilst
+awaiting its conclusion, Bernard de Mergy in vain seeks the Countess de
+Turgis; it is only when leaving the church that his brother points her
+out to him. She is escorted by a young man, of slight figure and
+effeminate mien, dressed with studied negligence. This is the terrible
+Count de Comminges, the duellist of the day, the chief of those
+_raffines_ who fought on every pretext, and often on no pretext at all.
+He had had nearly a hundred duels, and a challenge from him was held
+equivalent to a ticket for the hospital, if not to sentence of death.
+"Comminges once summoned a man to the Pre-aux-Clercs, then the classic
+duelling-ground. They stripped off their doublets, and drew their
+swords. 'Are you not Berny of Auvergne?' inquired Comminges. 'Certainly
+not,' replied his antagonist; 'my name is Villequier, and I am from
+Normandy.' 'So much the worse,' quoth Comminges, 'I took you for another
+man; but since I have challenged you, we must fight.' They fought
+accordingly, and the unlucky Norman was killed." Since the death of a
+Monsieur de Lannoy, slain at the siege of Orleans, Madame de Turgis is
+without a lover. Comminges aspires to the vacant post; his attentions
+are rather tolerated than encouraged; but he seems determined that if he
+does not succeed, nobody else shall, for he has constituted himself her
+constant attendant, and a wholesome dread of his formidable rapier keeps
+off rivals. He has sworn to kill all who present themselves.
+
+By the interest of Coligny, whom Charles the Ninth affects to favour
+whilst he plots his death, Bernard de Mergy receives a commission in the
+army preparing for a campaign in Flanders. He goes to court to thank the
+king, and the following scene passes.
+
+"The court was at the Chateau de Madrid. The queen-mother, surrounded by
+her ladies, waited in her apartment for the king to come to breakfast.
+The king, followed by the princes, slowly traversed the gallery, in
+which were assembled the nobles and gentlemen who were to accompany him
+to the chase. With an absent air he listened to the remarks of his
+courtiers, and made abrupt replies. When he passed before the two
+brothers, the Captain bent his knee, and presented the newly-made
+officer. Mergy bowed profoundly, and thanked his majesty for the favour
+shown him before he had earned it.
+
+"'Ha! it is you of whom my father the Admiral spoke! You are Captain
+George's brother?'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'Catholic or Protestant?'
+
+"'Sire, I am a Protestant.'
+
+"'I ask from idle curiosity. The devil take me if I care of what
+religion are those who serve me well.'
+
+"And having uttered these memorable words, the king entered the queen's
+apartments. A few moments later, a swarm of ladies spread themselves
+over the gallery, as if sent to enable the gentlemen to wait with
+patience. I shall speak but of one of the beauties of that court, where
+they so greatly abounded; of the Countess de Turgis, who plays an
+important part in this history. She wore an elegant riding-dress, and
+had not yet put on her mask. Her complexion, of dazzling but uniform
+whiteness, contrasted with her jet-black hair; her well-arched
+eye-brows, slightly joining, gave a proud expression to her physiognomy,
+without diminishing its graceful beauty. At first, the sole expression
+of her blue eye seemed one of disdainful haughtiness; but when animated
+in conversation, their pupils, dilated like those of a cat, seemed to
+emit sparks, and few men, even of the most audacious, could long sustain
+their magical power.
+
+"'The Countess de Turgis--how lovely she looks!' murmured the courtiers,
+pressing forward to see her better. Mergy, close to whom she passed, was
+so struck by her beauty, that he forgot to make way till her large
+silken sleeves rustled against his doublet. She remarked his emotion
+without displeasure, and for a moment deigned to fix her magnificent
+eyes on those of the young Protestant, who felt his cheek glow under her
+gaze. The Countess smiled and passed on, letting one of her gloves fall
+before our hero, who, still motionless and fascinated, neglected to pick
+it up. Instantly a fair-haired youth, (it was no other than Comminges,)
+who stood behind Mergy, pushed him rudely in passing before him, seized
+the glove, kissed it respectfully, and presented it to Madame de
+Turgis. Without thanking him, the lady turned towards Mergy with a look
+of crushing contempt; and, observing Captain George at his side,
+'Captain,' said she, very loud, 'where does that great clown spring
+from? He must be some Huguenot, judging from his courtesy.'
+
+"The laughter of the bystanders completed the embarrassment of the
+unlucky Bernard.
+
+"'He is my brother, madam,' was George's quiet reply; 'he has been three
+days at Paris, and, by my honour! he is not more awkward than Lannoy
+was, before you undertook his education.'
+
+"The Countess coloured slightly. 'An unkind jest, Captain,' she said:
+'Speak not ill of the dead. Give me your hand; I have a message to you
+from a lady whom you have offended.'
+
+"The Captain respectfully took her hand, and led her to the recess of a
+distant window. Before she reached it, she once more turned her head to
+look at Mergy.
+
+"Still dazzled by the apparition of the beautiful Countess, whom he
+longed to look at, but dared not, Mergy felt a gentle tap upon his
+shoulder. He turned and beheld the Baron de Vaudreuil, who drew him
+aside, to speak to him, as he said, without fear of interruption.
+
+"'My dear fellow,' the Baron began, 'you are a stranger at court, and
+are probably not yet acquainted with its customs?'
+
+"Mergy looked at him with astonishment.
+
+"'Your brother is engaged, and not able to advise you; if agreeable to
+you I will replace him. You have been gravely insulted; and seeing you
+in this pensive attitude, I doubt not you meditate revenge.'
+
+"'Revenge?--on whom?' cried Mergy, reddening to the very white of his
+eyes.
+
+"'Were you not just now rudely pushed aside by little Comminges? The
+whole court witnessed the affront, and expect you to notice it
+suitably.'
+
+"'But,' said Mergy, 'in so crowded a room as this an accidental push is
+nothing very extraordinary.'
+
+"'M. de Mergy, I have not the honour to be intimate with you: but your
+brother is my particular friend, and he will tell you that I practise as
+much as possible the divine precept of forgiveness of injuries. I do not
+wish to embark you in a bad quarrel, but at the same time it is my duty
+to tell you that Comminges did not push you accidentally. He pushed you,
+because he wished to insult you; and if he had not pushed you, you would
+still be insulted; for, by picking up Madame de Turgis's glove, he
+usurped your right. The glove was at your feet, _ergo_ it was for you
+alone to raise and return it. And you have but to look around; you will
+see Comminges telling the story and laughing at you.'
+
+"Mergy turned about. Comminges was surrounded by five or six young men,
+to whom he laughingly narrated something which they listened to with
+curious interest. Nothing proved that his conduct was under discussion;
+but at the words of his charitable counsellor, Mergy felt his heart
+swell with fury.
+
+"'I will speak to him after the hunt,' he said, 'and he shall tell me--'
+
+"'Oh! never put off a good resolution; besides, you offend Heaven much
+less in challenging your adversary immediately after the offence than in
+doing it when you have had time to reflect. In a moment of irritation,
+which is but a venial offence, you agree to fight; and if you afterwards
+fulfil your agreement, it is only to avoid committing a far greater sin,
+that of breaking your word. But, I forget that you are a Protestant.
+Nevertheless, arrange a meeting with him at once. I will bring you
+together.'
+
+"'I trust he will not refuse to make a fitting apology.'
+
+"'Undeceive yourself, comrade. Comminges never yet said, I was wrong.
+But he is a man of strict honour, and will give you every satisfaction.'
+
+"Mergy made an effort to suppress his emotion and assume an indifferent
+air.
+
+"'Since I have been insulted,' he said, 'I must have satisfaction. And
+whatever kind may be necessary, I shall know how to insist upon it.'
+
+"'Well spoken, my brave friend; your boldness pleases me, for you of
+course know that Comminges is one of our best swordsmen. _Par ma foi!_
+he handles his blade right cunningly. He took lessons at Rome, of
+Brambilla, and Petit-Jean will fence with him no longer.' And whilst
+speaking, Vaudreuil attentively watched the countenance of Mergy, who
+was pale, but from anger at the offence offered him rather than from
+apprehension of its consequences.
+
+"'I would willingly be your second in this affair, but I take the
+sacrament to-morrow, and, moreover, I am engaged to M. de Rheincy, and
+cannot draw sword against any but him.'[B]
+
+"'I thank you, sir. If necessary, my brother will second me.'
+
+"'The Captain is perfectly at home in these affairs. Meanwhile, I will
+bring Comminges to speak with you.'
+
+"Mergy bowed, and turning to the wall, did his best to compose his
+countenance and arrange what he should say. There is a certain grace in
+giving a challenge, which habit alone bestows. It was our hero's first
+affair, and he was a little embarrassed; he was less afraid of a
+sword-thrust than of saying something unbecoming a gentleman. He had
+just succeeded in composing a firm and polite sentence, when Baron de
+Vaudreuil, taking him by the arm, drove it out of his head.
+
+"'You desire to speak to me, sir?' said Comminges, hat in hand, and
+bowing with an impertinent politeness, which brought an angry flush upon
+Mergy's countenance.
+
+"'I hold myself insulted by your behaviour,' the young Protestant
+instantly replied, 'and I desire satisfaction.'
+
+"Vaudreuil nodded approvingly; Comminges drew himself up, and placing
+his hand on his hip, the prescribed posture in such circumstances,
+replied with much gravity:
+
+"'You constitute yourself demander, sir, and, as defendant, I have the
+choice of arms.'
+
+"'Name those you prefer.'"
+
+Comminges reflected for an instant. "'The _estoc_,' he at last said, 'is
+a good weapon, but it makes ugly wounds; and at our age,' he added, with
+a smile, 'one is not anxious to appear before one's mistress with a
+scarred countenance. The rapier makes a small hole, but it is enough.'
+And he again smiled, as he said, 'I choose rapier and dagger.'
+
+"'Very good,' said Mergy, and he took a step to depart.
+
+"'One moment!' cried Vaudreuil; 'you forget the place of meeting.'
+
+"'The Court uses the Pre-aux-Clercs,' said Comminges; 'and if the
+gentleman has no particular preference----'
+
+"'The Pre-aux-Clercs--be it so.'
+
+"'As to the time, I shall not be up before eight o'clock, for reasons of
+my own--you understand--I do not sleep at home to-night, and cannot be
+at the Pre before nine.'
+
+"'Let nine be the hour.'
+
+"Just then Mergy perceived the Countess de Turgis, who had left the
+Captain in conversation with another lady. As may be supposed, at sight
+of the lovely cause of this ugly affair, our hero threw into his
+countenance an additional amount of gravity and feigned indifference.
+
+"'Of late,' said Vaudreuil, 'it is the fashion to fight in crimson
+drawers. If you have none, I will send you a pair. They look clean, and
+do not show blood. And now,' continued the Baron, who appeared quite in
+his element, 'nothing remains but to fix upon your seconds and thirds.'
+
+"'The gentleman is a new comer at Court' said Comminges, 'and perhaps
+might have difficulty in finding a third. Out of consideration for him I
+will content myself with a second.'
+
+"With some difficulty, Mergy contracted his lips into a smile.
+
+"'Impossible to be more courteous,' said the Baron. 'It is really a
+pleasure to deal with so accommodating a cavalier as M. de Comminges.'
+
+"'You will require a rapier of the same length as mine,' resumed
+Comminges; 'I can recommend you Laurent, at the Golden Sun, Rue de la
+Feronnerie; he is the best armourer in Paris. Tell him you come from me,
+and he will treat you well.' Having thus spoken, he turned upon his
+heel, and rejoined the group he had lately left.
+
+"'I congratulate you, M. Bernard,' said Vaudreuil; 'you have acquitted
+yourself admirably. Exceedingly well, indeed. Comminges is not
+accustomed to hear himself spoken to in that fashion. He is feared like
+fire, especially since he killed Canillac; for as to St Michel, whom he
+killed a couple of months ago, he did not get much credit by that. St
+Michel was not particularly skilful, whilst Canillac, had already slain
+five or six antagonists, without receiving a scratch. He had studied at
+Naples under Borelli, and it was said that Lansac had bequeathed him the
+secret thrust with which he did so much harm. To be sure,' continued the
+Baron, as if to himself, 'Canillac had pillaged the church at Auxerre,
+and trampled on the consecrated wafers: no wonder he was punished.'
+
+"Mergy, although far from amused by this conversation, thought himself
+bound to continue it, lest a suspicion offensive to his courage should
+occur to Vaudreuil.
+
+"'Fortunately,' he replied, 'I have pillaged no church, and never
+touched a consecrated wafer in my life; so I have a risk the less to
+run.'
+
+"'Another caution. When you cross swords with Comminges, beware of one
+of his feints, which cost Captain Tomaso his life. He cried out that the
+point of his sword was broken. Tomaso instantly guarded his head,
+expecting a cut; but Comminges's sword was perfect enough, for it
+entered, to within a foot of the hilt, Tomaso's breast, which he had
+exposed, not anticipating a thrust. But you fight with rapiers, and
+there is less danger.'
+
+"'I will do my best.'
+
+"'Ah! one thing more. Choose a dagger with a strong basket-hilt; it is
+very useful to parry. I owe this scar on my left hand to having gone out
+one day without a poniard. Young Tallard and myself had a quarrel, and
+for want of a dagger, I nearly lost my hand.'
+
+"'And was he wounded?' inquired Mergy.
+
+"'I killed him, thanks to a vow I made to St Maurice, my patron. Have
+some linen and lint about you, it can do no harm. One is not always
+killed outright. You will do well also to have your sword placed on the
+altar during mass. But you are a Protestant. Yet another word. Do not
+make it a point of honour not to retreat; on the contrary, keep him
+moving; he is short-winded; exhaust his breath, and, when you find your
+opportunity, one good thrust in the breast and your man is down.'
+
+"There is no saying how long the Baron would have continued his valuable
+advice, had not a great sounding of horns announced that the King was
+about to take horse. The door of the apartment opened; and his Majesty
+and the Queen-mother made their appearance, equipped for the chase.
+Captain George, who had just left his lady, joined his brother, and
+clapped him joyously on the shoulder.
+
+"'By the mass!' he cried, 'thou art a lucky rogue! Only see this
+youngster, with his cat's mustache; he has but to show himself, and all
+the ladies are mad after him. The handsome Countess has been talking
+about you for the last quarter of an hour. Come, good courage! During
+the hunt, keep by her stirrup, and be as gallant as you can. But what
+the devil's the matter with you? Are you ill? You make as long a face as
+a preacher at the stake. _Morbleu!_ cheer up, man!'
+
+"'I have no great fancy to hunt to-day,' said Bernard; 'and I would
+rather--'
+
+"'If you do not hunt,' whispered Vaudreuil, 'Comminges will think you
+are afraid.'
+
+"'I am ready,' said Mergy, passing his hand across his burning brow, and
+resolved to wait till after the hunt to inform his brother of his
+adventure. 'What disgrace,' thought he, 'if Madame de Turgis suspected
+me of fear; if she supposed that the idea of an approaching duel
+prevented my enjoying the chase.'
+
+"During the hunt, Bernard swerves not from the side of the Countess, who
+accords him various marks of favour, and finally dismisses Comminges,
+who has also escorted her, and has a _tete-a-tete_ ride with her new
+admirer. She well knows that a duel is in the wind, and dreads it, for
+Mergy's sake. Hopeless of his escape with life from the projected
+combat, she tries at least to save his soul, and makes a bold attempt at
+his conversion. But on that head he is deaf even to _her_ voice.
+Baffled, she essays a compromise.
+
+"'You heretics have no faith in relics?' said Madame de Turgis.
+
+"Bernard smiled.
+
+"'And you think yourselves defiled by touching them?' she continued.
+'You would not carry one, as we Roman Catholics are wont to do?'
+
+"'We hold the custom useless, to say the least.'
+
+"'Listen. A cousin of mine once attached a relic to his hound's neck,
+and at twelve paces fired at the dog an arquebuse charged with slugs.'
+
+"'And the dog was killed?'
+
+"'Not touched.'
+
+"'Wonderful! I would fain possess such a relic.'
+
+"'Indeed!--and you would carry it?'
+
+"'Undoubtedly--since the relic saved the dog, it would of course--But
+stay, is it quite certain that a heretic is as good as a Catholic's
+dog?'
+
+"Without listening to him, Madame de Turgis hastily unbuttoned the top
+of her closely fitting habit, and took from her bosom a little gold box,
+very flat, suspended by a black ribbon. 'Here,' she said,--'you promised
+to wear it. You shall return it me one day.'
+
+"'Certainly. If I am able.'
+
+"'But you will take care of it? No sacrilege! You will take the greatest
+care of it!'
+
+"'I have received it from you, madam.'
+
+"She gave him the relic, and he hung it round his neck.
+
+"'A Catholic would have thanked the hand that bestowed the holy
+talisman.'
+
+"Mergy seized her hand, and tried to raise it to his lips.
+
+"'No, no! it is too late.'
+
+"'Say not so! Remember, I may never again have such fortune.'
+
+"'Take off my glove,' said the lady. Whilst obeying, Mergy thought he
+felt a slight pressure. He imprinted a burning kiss on the white and
+beautiful hand."
+
+"Frank and free were the dames of the ninth Charles's court. Faithless
+in the virtues of the relic, feverishly excited by the novelty of his
+situation, and by the preference the Countess has shown him, which has
+given life a tenfold value in his eyes, Mergy passes an agitated and
+sleepless night. When the Louvre clock strikes eight, his brother enters
+his apartment, bringing the necessary weapons, and vainly endeavouring
+to conceal his sadness and anxiety. Bernard examines the sword and
+dagger, the manufacture of the famous Luno of Toledo.
+
+"'With such good arms,' he said, 'I shall surely be able to defend
+myself.' Then showing the relic given him by Madame de Turgis, and which
+he wore concealed in his bosom, 'Here too,' he added with a smile, 'is a
+talisman better than coat of mail against a sword-thrust.'
+
+"'Whence have you the bauble?'
+
+"'Guess.' And the vanity of appearing favoured by the fair, made him for
+a moment forget both Comminges and the duelling sword that lay naked
+before him.
+
+"'I would wager that crazy Countess gave it you! May the devil confound
+her and her box!'
+
+"'It is a relic for protection in to-day's encounter.'
+
+"'She had better have worn her gloves, instead of parading her fine
+white fingers.'
+
+"'God preserve me,' cried Mergy, blushing deeply, 'from believing in
+Papist relics. But if I fall to-day, I would have her know that I died
+with this upon my heart.'
+
+"'Folly!' cried the Captain, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"'Here is a letter for my mother,' said Mergy, his voice slightly
+tremulous. George took it without a word, and approaching the table,
+opened a small Bible, and seemed busy reading whilst his brother
+completed his toilet. On the first page that offered itself to his eyes,
+he read these words in his mother's handwriting; '1st May 1549, my son
+Bernard was born. Lord, conduct him in thy ways! Lord, shield him from
+all harm!' George bit his lip violently, and threw down the book.
+Bernard observed the gesture, and imagining that some impious thought
+had come into his brother's head, he gravely took up the Bible, put it
+in an embroidered case, and locked it in a drawer, with every mark of
+great respect.
+
+"'It is my mother's Bible,' he said.
+
+"The Captain paced the apartment, but made no reply."
+
+According to the established rule in such cases--a rule laid down for
+the especial behoof, benefit, and accommodation of romance writers--the
+hero of a hundred duels falls by the maiden sword of the tyro, who
+escapes with a slight wound. So signal a triumph makes the reputation of
+Mergy. His wound healed, and all danger of persecution by the powerful
+family of Comminges at an end, he reappears at court, and finds that he
+has in some sort inherited the respect and consideration formerly shown
+to his defunct rival. The politeness of the _raffines_ is as
+overpowering as their envy is ill concealed; and, as to the ladies, in
+those days the character of a successful duellist was a sure passport to
+their favour. The raw provincial, so lately unheeded, has but to throw
+his handkerchief, now that he has dabbled it in blood. But the only one
+of these sanguinary sultanas on whom Mergy bestows a thought, is not to
+be found. In vain does he seek, in the crowd of beauties who court his
+gaze, the pale cheek, blue eyes, and raven hair of Madame de Turgis.
+Soon after the duel, she had left Paris for one of her country seats, a
+departure attributed by the charitable to grief at the death of
+Comminges. Mergy knows better. Whilst laid up with his wound, and
+concealed in the house of an old woman, half doctress, half sorceress,
+he detected a masked lady, whom he recognised as De Turgis, performing
+for his cure, with the assistance of the witch, certain mysterious
+incantations. They had procured Comminges's sword, and rubbed it with
+scorpion oil, "the sovereign'st thing on earth" to heal the wound the
+weapon had inflicted. And there was also a melting of a wax figure,
+intended as a love charm; and from all that passed, Bernard could not
+doubt that the Countess had set her affections on him. So he waits
+patiently, and one morning, whilst his brother is reading the "Vie
+tres-horrifique de Pantagruel," and he himself is taking a guitar lesson
+from the Signor Uberto Vinibella, a wrinkled duenna brings him a scented
+note, closed with a gold thread, and a large green seal, bearing a Cupid
+with finger on lips, and the Spanish word, _Callad_, enjoining silence.
+
+The best picture of the massacre of St Bartholomew we have read in a
+book of fiction, is given by M. Merimee, in small compass and without
+unnecessary horrors. Less than an hour before its commencement, the
+Countess informs her lover of the fate reserved for him and all of his
+faith. She urges and implores him to abjure his heresy; he steadfastly
+refuses--and she, her love redoubled by his courageous constancy,
+conceals him from the assassins. In the disguise of a monk, he escapes
+from Paris, and makes his way to La Rochelle, the last stronghold of the
+persecuted Protestants. On the road, he falls in with another refugee,
+the _lanzknecht_ Captain Dietrich Hornstein, similarly disguised and
+bound to the same place. There is an excellent scene at a country inn,
+where four ruffians, their hands reeking with Protestant blood, compel
+the false Franciscans to baptise a pair of pullets by the names of carp
+and perch, that they may not sin by eating fowl on Friday. Mergy at last
+loses patience, and breaks a bottle over one of their heads; and a fight
+ensues, in which the bandits are worsted. The two Huguenots reach La
+Rochelle, which is soon afterwards besieged by the king's troops. In a
+sortie, Bernard forms an ambuscade, into which his brother unfortunately
+falls, and receives a mortal wound. Taken into La Rochelle, he is laid
+upon a bed to die; and, refusing the spiritual assistance of Catholic
+priest and Protestant minister, he accelerates his death by a draught
+from Hornstein's wine flask, and strives to comfort Bernard, who is
+frantic with remorse.
+
+"He again closed his eyes, but soon re-opened them and said to Mergy:
+'Madame de Turgis bade me assure you of her love.' He smiled gently.
+These were his last words. In a quarter of an hour he died, without
+appearing to suffer much. A few minutes later Beville expired in the
+arms of the monk, who afterwards declared that he had distinctly heard
+in the air the cries of joy of the angels who received the soul of the
+penitent, whilst subterraneous demons responded with a yell of triumph
+as they bore away the spiritual part of Captain George."
+
+"It is to be seen in any history of France, how La Noue left La
+Rochelle, disgusted with civil wars and tormented by his conscience,
+which reproached him for bearing arms against his king; how the Catholic
+army was compelled to raise the siege, and how the fourth peace was
+made, soon followed by the death of Charles IX.
+
+"Did Mergy console himself? Did Diana take another lover? I leave it to
+the decision of the reader, who thus will end the romance to his own
+liking."
+
+By his countrymen, M. Merimee's short tales are the most esteemed of his
+writings. He produces them at intervals much too long to please the
+editor and readers of the periodical in which they have for some time
+appeared,--the able and excellent _Revue des Deux Mondes_. Once in
+eighteen months, or two years, he throws a few pages to the public,
+which, like a starved hound to whom a scanty meal is tossed, snaps
+eagerly at the gift whilst growling at the niggardliness of the giver:
+and the publisher of the _Revue_ knows that he may safely print an extra
+thousand copies of a number containing a novel by Prosper Merimee. Now
+and then, M. Merimee comes out with a criticism of a foreign book. His
+last was a review of "Grote's Greece," and he has also written a paper
+on "Borrow's Spanish Rambles." A man of great erudition and extensive
+travel, he is thoroughly master of many languages, and, in writing about
+foreign countries and people, steers clear of the absurd blunders into
+which some of his contemporaries, of respectable talents and
+attainments, not unfrequently fall. His English officer and lady in
+Colomba are excellent; very different from the absurd caricatures of
+Englishmen one is accustomed to see in French novels. He is equally
+truthful in his Spanish characters. A great lover of things Spanish, he
+has frequently visited, and still visits, the Peninsula. In 1831 he
+published, in the _Revue de Paris_, three charming letters from Madrid.
+The action of most of his tales passes in Spain or Corsica, or the South
+of France, although he now and then dashes at Parisian society. With
+this he has unquestionably had ample opportunity to become acquainted,
+for he is a welcome guest in the best circles of the French capital.
+Still we must hope there is some flaw in the glasses through which he
+has observed the gay world of Paris. The "Vase Etrusque" is one of his
+sketches of modern French life, in the style of the "Double Meprise,"
+but better. It is a most amusing and spirited tale, but unnecessarily
+immoral. Had the heroine been virtuous, the interest of the story would
+in no way have suffered, so far as we can see; and that which attaches
+to her, as a charming and unhappy woman, would have been augmented. This
+opinion, however, would be scoffed at on the other side of the Channel,
+and set down as a piece of English prudery. And perhaps, instead of
+grumbling at M. Merimee for making the Countess Mathilde the mistress of
+Saint Clair--which nothing compelled him to do--we ought thankfully to
+acknowledge his moderation in contenting himself with a quiet intrigue
+between unmarried persons, instead of favouring us with a flagrant case
+of adultery, as in the "Double Meprise," or initiating us into the very
+profane mysteries of _operatic figurantes_, as in "Arsene Guillot." Even
+in France, where he is so greatly and justly admired, this last tale was
+severely censured, as bringing before the public eye phases of society
+that ill bear the light. Fidelity to life in his scenes and characters
+is a high quality in an author, and one possessed in a high degree by M.
+Merimee; but he has been sometimes too bold and cynical in the choice
+and treatment of his subjects. "_La Partie de Tric-trac_," and
+"_L'Enlevement de la Redoute_," are amongst his happiest efforts. Both
+are especially remarkable for their terse and vigorous style. We have
+been prodigal of extracts from "Charles IX."--for it is a great
+favourite of ours--and, although well known and much esteemed by all
+habitual readers of French novels, it is hitherto, we believe,
+untranslated into English. But we shall still make room for--
+
+
+THE STORMING OF THE REDOUBT.
+
+"I rejoined the regiment on the evening of the 4th September. I found
+the colonel at the bivouac. At first he received me rather roughly; but
+after reading General B's. letter of recommendation, he changed his
+manner, and spoke a few obliging words. He presented me to my captain,
+who had just returned from a reconnoissance. This captain, whom I had
+little opportunity to become acquainted with, was a tall dark man, of
+hard and repulsive physiognomy. He had been a private soldier, and had
+won his cross and his epaulets on the battle-field. His voice, hoarse
+and weak, contrasted strangely with his gigantic stature. They told me
+he was indebted for this singular voice to a bullet that had passed
+completely through his body at Jena.
+
+"On hearing that I came from the school at Fontainbleau, he made a wry
+face, and said, 'My lieutenant died yesterday.'--I understood that he
+meant to say, 'You are to replace him, and you are not able.' A sharp
+word rose to my lips, but I repressed it.
+
+"The moon rose behind the redoubt of Cheverino, situate at twice
+cannon-shot from our bivouac. She was large and red, as is common at her
+rising; but that night she seemed to me of extraordinary size. For an
+instant the black outline of the redoubt stood out against the moon's
+brilliant disc, resembling the cone of a volcano at the moment of an
+eruption.
+
+"An old soldier who stood near me, noticed the colour of the moon. 'She
+is very red,' he said; ''tis a sign that yon famous redoubt will cost us
+dear.' I was always superstitious, and this augury, just at that moment,
+affected me. I lay down, but could not sleep; I got up and walked for
+some time, gazing at the immense line of fires covering the heights
+beyond the village of Cheverino.
+
+"When I deemed my blood sufficient cooled by the fresh night air, I
+returned to the fire, wrapped myself carefully in my cloak, and shut my
+eyes, hoping not to re-open them till daylight. But sleep shunned me.
+Insensibly my thoughts took a gloomy turn. I said to myself, that I had
+not one friend amongst the hundred thousand men covering that plain. If
+I were wounded, I should be in an hospital, carelessly treated by
+ignorant surgeons. All that I had heard of surgical operations returned
+to my memory. My heart beat violently; and mechanically I arranged, as a
+species of cuirass, the handkerchief and portfolio that I carried in the
+breast of my uniform. I was overwhelmed by fatigue, and continually fell
+into a doze, but as often as I did so, some sinister idea awoke me with
+a start. Fatigue, however, at last got the upper hand, and I was fast
+asleep when the _reveille_ sounded. We formed up, the roll was called,
+then arms were piled, and according to all appearance the day was to
+pass quietly.
+
+"Towards three o'clock an aid-de-camp arrived with an order. We resumed
+our arms; our skirmishers spread themselves over the plain; we followed
+slowly; and in twenty minutes we saw the Russian pickets withdraw to the
+redoubt. A battery of artillery took post on our right hand, another on
+our left, but both considerably in advance. They opened a vigorous fire
+upon the enemy, who replied with energy, and soon the redoubt of
+Cheverino disappeared behind a cloud of smoke.
+
+"Our regiment was almost protected from the Russian fire by a ridge.
+Their bullets, which seldom came in our direction--for they preferred
+aiming them at the artillery--passed over our heads, or at most sent
+earth and pebbles in our faces.
+
+"When we had received the order to advance, my captain looked at me with
+an attention which made me pass my hand two or three times over my young
+mustache, in the most cavalier manner I could assume. I felt no fear,
+save that of being thought to feel it. These harmless cannon-balls
+contributed to maintain me in my heroic calmness. My vanity told me that
+I ran a real danger, since I was under fire of a battery. I was
+enchanted to feel myself so much at my ease, and I thought with what
+pleasure I should narrate the capture of the redoubt of Cheverino in the
+drawing-room of Madame de B----, Rue de Provence.
+
+"The colonel passed along the front of our company and spoke to me.
+'Well!' he said, 'you will see sharp work for your first affair.'
+
+"I smiled most martially, and brushed my coat-sleeve, on which a ball,
+fallen about thirty paces from me, had sent a little dust.
+
+"It seems the Russians perceived how small was the effect of their round
+shot, for they replaced them by shells, which could reach us better in
+the hollow where we were posted. A tolerably large fragment of one of
+these knocked off my shako and killed a mail beside me.
+
+"'I congratulate you,' said the captain, as I picked up my shako. 'You
+are safe for to-day.' I knew the military superstition which holds the
+maxim _Non bis in idem_ to be as applicable on a battle-field as in a
+court of justice. I proudly replaced my shako on my head. 'An
+unceremonious way of making people bow,' said I, as gaily as I could.
+Under the circumstances, this poor joke appeared excellent. 'I
+congratulate you,' repeated the captain; 'you will not be hit again, and
+to-night you will command a company, for I feel that my turn is coming.
+Every time I have been wounded, the officer near me has received a spent
+ball, and,' he added in a low voice, and almost ashamed, 'all their
+names began with a P.'
+
+"I affected to laugh at such superstitions. Many would have done as I
+did--many would have been struck, as I was, by these prophetic words. As
+a raw recruit I understood that I must keep my feelings to myself, and
+always appear coldly intrepid.
+
+"After half an hour the Russian fire sensibly slackened; then we emerged
+from our cover to march against the redoubt. Our regiment was composed
+of three battalions. The second was charged to take the redoubt in flank
+on the side of the gorge; the two others were to deliver the assault. I
+was in the third battalion.
+
+"On appearing from behind the sort of ridge that had protected us, we
+were received by several volleys of musketry, which did little harm in
+our ranks. The whistling of the bullets surprised me: I turned my head
+several times, thus incurring the jokes of my comrades, to whom the
+noise was more familiar. 'All things considered,' said I to myself, 'a
+battle is not such a terrible thing.'
+
+"We advanced at storming pace, preceded by skirmishers. Suddenly the
+Russians gave three hurras, very distinct ones, and then remained
+silent, and without firing. 'I don't like that silence,' said my
+captain. 'It bodes us little good.' I thought our soldiers rather too
+noisy, and I could not help internally comparing the tumultuous clamour
+with the imposing stillness of the enemy.
+
+"We rapidly attained the foot of the redoubt: the palisades had been
+broken, and the earth ploughed by our cannonade. With shouts of '_Vive
+l'Empereur!_' louder than might have been expected from fellows who had
+already shouted so much, our soldiers dashed over the ruins.
+
+"I looked up, and never shall I forget the spectacle I beheld. The great
+mass of smoke had arisen, and hung suspended like a canopy twenty feet
+above the redoubt. Through a gray mist were seen the Russian grenadiers,
+erect behind their half-demolished parapet, with levelled arms, and
+motionless as statues. I think I still see each individual soldier, his
+left eye riveted on us, the right one hidden by his musket. In an
+embrasure, a few feet from us, stood a man with a lighted fuse in his
+hand.
+
+"I shuddered, and thought my last hour was come. 'The dance is going to
+begin,' cried my captain. Good-night.' They were the last words I heard
+him utter.
+
+"The roll of drums resounded in the redoubt. I saw the musket muzzles
+sink. I shut my eyes, and heard a frightful noise, followed by cries and
+groans. I opened my eyes surprised to find myself still alive. The
+redoubt was again enveloped in smoke. Dead and wounded men lay all
+around me. My captain was stretched at my feet; his head had been
+smashed by a cannon-ball, and I was covered with his blood and brains.
+Of the whole company, only six men and myself were on their legs.
+
+"A moment of stupefaction followed this carnage. Then the colonel,
+putting his hat on the point of his sword, ascended the parapet, crying
+'_Vive l'Empereur!_' He was instantly followed by all the survivors. I
+have no clear recollection of what then occurred. We entered the
+redoubt, I know not how. They fought hand to hand in the middle of a
+smoke so dense that they could not see each other. I believe I fought
+too, for my sabre was all bloody. At last I heard a shout of victory,
+and, the smoke diminishing, I saw the redoubt completely covered with
+blood and dead bodies. About two hundred men in French uniform stood in
+a group, without military order, some loading their muskets, others
+wiping their bayonets. Eleven Russian prisoners were with them.
+
+"Our colonel lay bleeding on a broken tumbril. Several soldiers were
+attending to him, as I drew near--'Where is the senior captain?' said he
+to a sergeant. The sergeant shrugged his shoulders in a most expressive
+manlier. 'And the senior lieutenant?' 'Here is _Monsieur_, who joined
+yesterday,' replied the sergeant, in a perfectly calm tone. The colonel
+smiled bitterly. 'You command in chief, sir,' he said to me; 'make haste
+to fortify the gorge of the redoubt with those carts, for the enemy is
+in force; but General C. will send you a support.'--'Colonel,' said I,
+'you are badly wounded.'--'_Foutre, mon cher_, but the redoubt is
+taken.'"
+
+"Carmen," M. Merimee's latest production, appeared a few months since in
+the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, which appears to have got the monopoly of
+his pen, as it has of many of the cleverest pens in France. "Carmen" is
+a graceful and animated sketch, in style as brilliant as anything by the
+same author--in the character of its incidents less strikingly original
+than some of his other tales. It is a story of Spanish life, not in
+cities and palaces, in court or camp, but in the barranca and the
+forest, the gipsy suburb of Seville, the woodland bivouac and smuggler's
+lair. Carmen is a gipsy, a sort of Spanish Esmeralda, but without the
+good qualities of Hugo's charming creation. She has no Djali; she is
+fickle and mercenary, the companion of robbers, the instigator of
+murder. She inveigles a young soldier from his duty, leads him into
+crime, deceives and betrays him, and finally meets her death at his
+hand. M. Merimee has been much in Spain, and--unlike some of his
+countrymen, who apparently go thither with the sole view of spying out
+the nakedness of the land and making odious comparisons, and who, in
+their excess of patriotic egotism, prefer Versailles to the Alhambra,
+and the Bal Mabille to a village _fandango_--he has a vivid perception
+of the picturesque and characteristic, of the _couleur locale_, to use
+the French term, whether in men or manners, scenery or costume, and he
+embodies his impressions in pointed and sparkling phrase. As an
+antiquarian and linguist, he unites qualities precious for the due
+appreciation of Spain. Well-versed in the Castilian, he also displays a
+familiarity with the Cantabrian tongue--that strange and difficult
+_Vascuense_ which the Evil One himself, according to a provincial
+proverb, spent seven years of fruitless labour in endeavouring to
+acquire. And he patters Romani, the mysterious jargon of the gitanos, in
+a style no way inferior--so far as we can discover--to Bible Borrow
+himself. That gentleman, by the bye, when next he goes a missionarying,
+would find M. Merimee an invaluable auxiliary, and the joint narrative
+of their adventures would doubtless be in the highest degree curious.
+The grave earnestness of the Briton would contrast curiously with the
+lively half-scoffing tone of the witty and learned Frenchman. Indeed,
+there would be danger of persons of such opposite character falling out
+upon the road, and fighting a mortal duel, with the king of the gipsies
+for bottle-holder. The proverbial jealousy between persons of the same
+trade might prove another motive of strife. Both are dealers in the
+romantic. And "Carmen," related as the personal experience of the author
+during an archaeological tour in Andalusia the autumn of 1830, is as
+graphic and fascinating as any chapters of the great tract-monger's
+remarkable wanderings.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[B] It was a rule with the _raffines_ not to commence a new quarrel so
+long as there was an old one to terminate.
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE AND LIVE IN IT.
+
+
+NO. III.
+
+Having disposed of two grand categories of mistakes and absurdities in
+house-building, viz., lightness of structure and badness of material, we
+shall now address ourselves more particularly to the defects of
+Arrangement and Form, or, as an architect might term it, to the
+discussion of Plan and Elevation. The former task was ungrateful enough;
+for therein we had to attack the cupidity and meanness, and the desire
+for show and spurious display, which is the besetting sin of every
+Englishman who pays poor-rates; but, the present undertaking is hardly
+less hopeless, for we have to appeal to the intelligence, not only of
+architects and builders, but also of those who commission them.
+
+Now, there is nothing drier and more unprofitable under the sun, nothing
+more nearly approaching to a state of addle, than a builder's brains.
+Your regular builders (and, indeed, not a few of your architects) are
+the sorriest animals twaddling about on two legs; mere vivified bags of
+sawdust, or lumps of lath and plaster, galvanised for a while, and
+forming themselves into strange, uncouth, unreasonable shapes. A mere
+"builder" has not two ideas in his head; he has only one; he can draw
+only one "specification," as he calls it, under different forms; he can
+make only one plan; he has one set of cornices always in his eye; one
+peculiar style of panel; one special cut of a chimney. You may trace him
+all through a town, or across a county, if his fame extends so far; a
+dull repetition of the same notion characterises all his works. He
+served his apprenticeship to old Plumbline, in Brick Lane; got up the
+_Carpenter's Vade-Mecum_ by heart; had a little smattering of drawing
+from Daub the painter, and then set up in business for himself. As for
+Mr Triangle the architect, who built the grand town-hall here, the
+other-day, in the newest style of Egyptian architecture, and copied two
+mummies for door-posts, and who is now putting up the pretty little
+Gothic church for the Diocesan Church-and-Chapel-Building and
+Pew-Extension Society, with an east window from York, and a spire from
+Salisbury, and a west front from Lincoln--why, he is the veriest stick
+of a designer that ever applied a T-square to a stretching-board. He has
+studied Wilkins's Vitruvius, it is true, and he has looked all through
+Hunt's Tudor Architecture, but his imagination is as poor as when he
+began them; he has never in his life seen one of the good buildings he
+is pirating from, barring St Paul's and Westminster Abbey; he knows
+nothing finer than Regent Street and Pall-Mall, and yet he pretends to
+be a modern Palladio. It will not do, all this sham and parade of
+knowledge; we want a new generation, both of architects and builders,
+before we shall see any thing good arising in the way of houses--but as
+this new progeny is not likely to spring up within a few days, nor even
+years, we may as well buckle to the task of criticism at once, and find
+out faults, which we shall leave others to mend.
+
+And, to lay the foundation of criticism in such matters once more and
+for ever, let us again assert that good common-sense, and a plain
+straight-forward perception of what is really useful, and suited to the
+wants of climate and locality, are worth all the other parts of any
+architect's education. These are the great qualities, without which he
+will take up his rulers and pencils in vain; without them, his ambitious
+_facades_ and intricate plans will all come to nothing, except dust and
+rubbish. He may draw and colour like Barry himself; but unless he has
+some spark of the genius that animated old Inigo and Sir Christopher,
+some little inkling of William of Wickham's spirit within him, some
+sound knowledge of the fitness and the requirements of things, he had
+better throw down his instruments, and give it up as a bad job; he'll
+only "damn himself to lasting shame."
+
+A moderate degree of science, an ordinarily correct eye, so as to tell
+which is straightest, the letter I or the letter S, and a good share of
+plain common-sense--these are the real qualifications of all architects,
+builders, and constructors whatsoever.
+
+One other erroneous idea requires to be upset; the notion that our
+modern houses, merely because they are recent, are better built and more
+convenient than ancient ones. If there be one thing more certain than
+another in the matter, it is this, that a gentleman's house built in
+1700, is far handsomer, stronger, and more convenient, than one built in
+1800; and not only so, but if it had had fair play given it, would still
+outlive the newer one, and give it fifty years to boot;--and also that
+another house built in 1600, is stronger than the one raised in 1700,
+and has still an equal chance of survivorship; but that any veteran
+mansion which once witnessed the year 1500, is worth all the other three
+put together--not only for design and durability, but also for comfort
+and real elegance. Pick out a bit of walling or roofing some four or
+five centuries old, and it would take a modern erection of five times
+the same solidity to stand the same test of ages.
+
+Let it not be supposed that our ancestors dwelt in rooms smaller, or
+darker, or smokier, than those we now cram ourselves into. Nothing at
+all of the kind; they knew what ease was, better than we do. They had
+glorious bay-windows, and warm chimney-corners, and well-hung buttery
+hatches, and good solid old oak tables, and ponderous chairs: had their
+windows and doors been only a little more air-tight, their comforts
+could not have been increased.
+
+First of all, then, with regard to the plans best suited for the country
+residences of the nobility and gentry of England--of that high-minded
+and highly gifted aristocracy, which is the peculiar ornament of this
+island,--of that solid honest squirearchy, which shall be the
+sheet-anchor of the nation, after all our commercial gents, with their
+ephemeral prosperity, shall have disappeared from the surface of the
+land, and have been forgotten,--the plan of a house best suited for the
+"Fine old English Gentleman;" and we really do not care to waste our
+time in considering the convenience and the taste of any that do not
+rank with this class of men. It is absurd for any of the worthy members
+of that truly noble and generous class of men, to try to erect
+reminiscences of Italy, or any other southern clime, amid their own
+"tall ancestral groves" at home, here in old England. They have every
+right in the world to inhabit the palaces of Italy, which many a needy
+owner is glad to find them tenanting; they cannot but admire the noble
+proportions, the solid construction, the magnificent decorations, which
+meet their eyes on every side, whether at Genoa, at Verona, at Venice,
+at Florence, or at Rome. But it by no means follows, that what looks so
+beautiful, and is so truly elegant and suitable on the Lake of Como,
+will preserve the same qualities when erected on the banks of
+Windermere; those lovely villas that overlook the _Val d'Arno_, and
+where one could be content to spend the rest of one's days, with
+Petrarch and Boccacio, and Dante, and Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle,
+will not bear transplanting either to Richmond or Malvern. The climate
+and the sky and the earth of Tuscany and Piedmont, are not those of
+Gloucestershire and Warwickshire; what may be very harmonious in form
+and colour when contrasted with the objects of that country which
+produced it, may have the most disagreeable effect, and be excessively
+inconvenient, in another region with which it has no relation. Not that
+the proportions of style and the execution of detail may not be
+reproduced in England, if sufficient taste and money be applied,--but
+that all surrounding things are out of harmony with the very idea and
+existence of the building. The vegetable world is different: the
+external and internal qualities of the soil jar with the presence of the
+foreign-looking mansion. An English garden is not, nor can be, an
+Italian one; an English terrace can never be made to look like an
+Italian one; those very effects of light and shade on which the
+architect counted when he made his plans and elevations, are not to be
+attained under an English sky. The house, however closely it may be
+taken from the last Palazzo its noble owner lived in, will only be a
+poor-looking copy after all; and he will wonder, as he paces through its
+corridors and halls, or views it from every point of the compass on the
+outside, what can be the cause of such a failure of his hopes? He hoped
+for and expected an impossibility; he thought to raise up a little Italy
+in the midst of his Saxon park. Could the experiment end in any thing
+else than a failure?
+
+Every climate and every country has its own peculiarities, which the
+inhabitants are found to consult, and which all architects will do well
+to observe closely before they lay down their plans. The general
+arrangement, the plan of a house, will depend upon this class of
+external circumstances more than on any other; while the architectural
+effect and design of the elevation will have an intimate relation to the
+physical appearance of the region, to the ideas, the pursuits, and the
+history of its people.
+
+Thus it was with the ancient Greeks and Romans, as we find their
+domestic life revealed to us at Pompeii. In that delicious climate of
+Campania, where the sun shines with a whitening and ever unclouded
+splendour, and where winter's frosts may be said to be unknown, the
+great thing wanted was shady coolness, privacy, and the absence of all
+that might fatigue. Hence, in the arrangement of the Pompeian villas,
+windows were comparatively unknown: the rooms were lighted from above;
+the aperture for the light was open to the sky; whatever air could be
+procured was precious. Colonnades and dark passages were first-rate
+appendages of a fashionable man's habitation. His sleeping apartment was
+a dark recess impervious to the sun's rays, lighted only by the
+artificial glare of lamps, placed on those elegant candelabra, which
+must be admired as models of fitness and beauty as long as imitative art
+shall exist. He had not a staircase in all his house, or he would not
+have if he could help it. The fatigue of lifting the foot in that hot
+climate was a point of importance, and he carefully avoided it. The
+house was a regular _frigidarium_. It answered the end proposed. It was
+commodious, it was elegant--and it was therefore highly suitable to the
+people and the place. But it does not therefore follow that it ought to
+be imitated in a northern clime, nor indeed in any latitude, we would
+rather say in any country, except Italy itself. Few parts of France and
+Germany would admit of such erections--some portions of Spain and Greece
+might. In Greece, indeed, the houses are much after the same plan, but
+in Spain only portions of the south-eastern coast would allow of such a
+style of building being considered at all habitable.
+
+Place, then, a Pompeian villa at Highgate or Hampstead--build up an
+Atrium with an Impluvium, add to it a Caldarium if you please, and a
+Viridarium, too,--and _omne quod exit in um_: but you will not thereby
+produce a good dwelling-house; far from it, you will have a show-box fit
+for Cockneys to come and gape at: but nothing else.
+
+Now, if we would only follow the same rule of common sense that the
+Greek or Roman architect did on the shores of the Parthenopoean Gulf,
+we should arrive at results, different indeed, but equally congruous to
+our wants, equally correct and harmonious in idea. What is it that we
+want in this foggy, damp, and cloudy climate of ours, nine days out of
+every ten? Do we want to have a spacious colonnade and a portico to keep
+off every ray of a sun only too genial, only too scorching? Is the
+heavens so bright with his radiance that we should endeavour to escape
+from his beams? Are we living in an atmosphere of such high temperature
+that if we could now and then take off our own skins for a few minutes,
+we should be only too glad to do so? As far as our own individual
+sensations are concerned, we would that things were so; but we know from
+unpleasant experience that they are far otherwise.
+
+We believe that every rational householder will agree with us, that the
+first thing to be guarded against in this country is cold, next wet,
+and thirdly darkness. A man who can really prove that he possesses a
+thoroughly warm, dry, and well-lighted house, may write himself down as
+a _rerum dominus_ at once: a favoured mortal, one of Jove's right-hand
+men, and a pet of all the gods. He is even in imminent danger of some
+dreadful calamity falling upon him, inasmuch as no one ever attains to
+such unheard-of prosperity without being visited by some reverse of
+fortune. He is at the top of the fickle goddess's wheel, and the least
+impulse given to one of its many spokes must send him down the slippery
+road of trouble. Nevertheless, though difficult to attain, these three
+points are the main ones to be aimed at by every English builder and
+architect; let him only keep them as the stars by which he steers his
+course, and he will come to a result satisfactory in the end.
+
+One other point is of importance to be attended to as a _fundamental_
+one, and indeed as one of superstruction too. From the peculiarly
+changeable nature of our climate, and from the provision that has to be
+made for thoroughly warming a house, there is always a danger of the
+ventilation and the drainage being neglected. Not one architect in a
+hundred ever allows such "insignificant" points as these to disturb his
+reveries. All that he is concerned in is his elevation, and his neatly
+executed details; but whether the inhabitants are stifled in their beds
+with hot foul air, or are stunk out of their rooms by the effluvia of
+drains, are to him mere bagatelles. No trifles these, to those who have
+to live in the house; no matter of insignificance to those who have an
+objection to the too frequent visits of their medical attendant.
+
+In the first place, then, a gentleman's country house (we are adverting
+here to country residences alone--to those in the metropolitan haunts of
+men we shall return hereafter) should be thoroughly warm. Now, of course
+a man may make a fire-place as big as Soyer's great range at
+Crockford's--poor dear Crocky's, before it was reformed--and he may burn
+a sack of coals at a time in it; and he may have one of these in each
+apartment and lobby of his house--and a pretty warm berth he will then
+have of it; but it would be no thanks to his architect that he should
+thus be forced to encourage his purveyor of the best Wallsend. No:
+either let him see that the walls are of a good substantial
+thickness--none of the thin, hollow, badly set, sham walls of the
+general run of builders; but made either of solid blocks of good ashlar
+stone, with well-rammed rubble between, and this rubble again laid in an
+all-penetrating bed of properly sanded mortar with plenty of lime in it,
+and laid on hot, piping, steaming hot, if possible--and the joints of
+the stones well closed with cement or putty; or else let the walls be
+made of the real red brick, the clay two years old or more, well laid in
+English bond, and every brick in its own proper and distinct bed of
+mortar, as carefully made as before, and the joints cemented into the
+bargain. Nor let any stone wall be less than thirty-six, nor any brick
+wall than thirty inches thick; whereas, if the house exceeds two stories
+in height, some additional inches may yet be added to the thickness of
+the lower walls. These walls shall be proof against all cold, and, if
+they be not made of limestone, against wet also.
+
+"But all this is horridly expensive! why, a house built after this
+fashion would cost three times the amount of any one now erected upon
+the usual specifications!" Of course it would. Materials and labour are
+not to be had gratuitously; but then, if the house costs three times as
+much, it will be worth three times more than what it would otherwise
+fetch, and it will last more than three times as long. "But what is the
+use of building for posterity? what does it matter whether the house is
+a good one in the time of the next possessor but six? Why not 'run up' a
+building that will have a handsome appearance in the present, my own
+life-time, and if my descendant wishes for a better one and a warmer
+one, why let him build another for himself? Add to which it will grow so
+dreadfully old-fashioned in fifty years hence, that it is a hundred to
+one if it is not voted a nuisance, and pulled down as an eyesore to the
+estate." Such is the reasoning commonly used when any architect more
+honest, more scientific, and more truly economical in his regard for his
+employer's means, ventures to recommend the building of a mansion upon
+principles, and with dimensions, which can alone fully satisfy the
+exigencies of his art. We take leave, however, to observe, that such
+ought not to be the reasoning of an English nobleman or gentleman. In
+the first place, what is really erected in a proper and legitimate style
+of architecture, be it classical or mediaeval, can never become
+"old-fashioned" or ugly. Is Hampton Court old-fashioned and ugly? is
+Audley End so? are Burghleigh and Hatfield so? If they are, go and build
+better. Is Windsor Castle so? yes, a large portion of it is, for its
+architecture is not very correct; and though it has been erected only so
+few years, in another fifty the reigning sovereign--if there be a
+sovereign in England in those days--will pull down most of it, and
+consider it as sham and as trumpery as the Pavilion has at length been
+found out to have been all along. True; if you build houses in a false
+and affected and unreal style of architecture, they are ugly from the
+very beginning; and they will become as old-fashioned as old Buckingham
+House or Strawberry Hill itself, perhaps in the life-time of him who
+owns them; or else, like Fonthill, they will crumble about your ears,
+and remain as monuments of your folly rather than of your taste. But go
+and build as Thorpe, or Inigo Jones, or Wren used to build. Or even, if
+you will travel abroad for your models, take Palladio himself for your
+guide, or Phillbert Delorme, or Ducerceau, or Mansard; and your
+erections shall stand for centuries, and become each year more and more
+harmoniously beautiful.
+
+Next, your house should be dry; do not, then, go and build it with a
+slightly-framed low-pitched roof, nor place it in that part of your
+grounds which would be very suitable for an artificial lake, but not for
+your mansion. Do not be afraid of a high roof; but let it tower up
+boldly into the air; let there be, as the French architects of old used
+to term it most expressively, a good "forest" of timber in its framing;
+cover it with lead, if you can--if not, with flag-stones, or else, if
+these be too dear, with extra thick slates in as large slabs as can be
+conveniently worked, and as may be suitable to the framing,--least of
+all with tiles.
+
+"But, good Lord! what ideas you have got of expense! Why, sir, do you
+know that such a house would cost a great deal of money! and besides
+this, I am almost certain that in ancient Rome, the houses had quite
+flat roofs, and even in Italy, at the present day, the palaces have
+remarkably low-pitched roofs!" Rome and Italy go to the ---- Antipodes!
+Did you not stipulate that the house should be dry? do you think that
+the old Italians ever saw a good shower of rain in all their lives? did
+they? "_Nocte pluit tota_," is all very well in the poet's fugitive
+inscription; but did they ever see a six-weeks' rain, such as we have
+every autumn and spring, and generally in June and July, to say nothing
+of January and February, in Devonshire? My dear sir, if you wish to lie
+dry in your bed, and all your family, too, to the seventh generation,
+downwards, make your roof suited to the quantity of rain that falls;
+pitch up its sides not less steeply than forty-five degrees, and do not
+be afraid if it rises to sixty, and so gives you the true mediaeval
+proportion of the equilateral triangle. Do you consider it ugly? Then we
+will ornament it; and we will make the chimney-stalks rise with some
+degree of majesty, into an important feature of the architectural
+physiognomy of the building. Are you grumbling at the expense, as you
+did just now about that of the walls? What then! are you a Manchester
+manufacturer, some dirty cotton-spinner? have you no faith in the
+future? have you no regard for the dignity and comfort of your family?
+are you, too, bitten with the demoralising commercial spirit of the age?
+are you all for self and the present? have you no obligations towards
+your ancestors? and are you unwilling to leave a name to be talked of by
+your posterity? Why, to be sure it may tighten you up for five or six
+years; but then do not stop quite so long in London: make your season
+there rather shorter, and do not go so often to Newmarket, and keep away
+from White's or Boodle's, and do not be so mad as to throw away any
+more of those paltry thousands in contesting the county. Let the
+Parliament and the country take care of themselves; they can very well
+spare an occasional debater like yourself; the "glorious constitution"
+of old England will take no harm even if _you_ do not assist in
+concocting the hum-bug that is every year added to its heterogeneous
+mixture. Lay out your money at home, drain your land, build a downright
+good house for yourself; do not forget your poor tenants, set them a
+good example, and let us put a proper roof on Hambledown Hall.
+
+Providing, however, that the worthy squire actually consents to pull out
+a few more hundreds, for the sake of having walls of proper thickness
+and roofs of right pitch, it does not quite follow that his ground-floor
+rooms will be dry, unless the mansion is well vaulted underneath, and
+well drained, to boot. We have known more than one ancient manor-house,
+built in a low dead flat, with a river running by, and the joists of the
+ground floor resting on the soil, and, yet the whole habitation as dry
+as a bone; but still more numerous are the goodly edifices which we have
+witnessed, built on slopes, and even hills, where not a spoonful of
+water, you would say, could possibly lodge, and yet their walls outside
+all green with damp, and within mildew, and discoloured loose-hanging
+paper, telling the tale of the demon of damp. When you are seriously
+bent on building a good house, put plenty of money under ground; dig
+deep for foundations, lay them better and stronger even than your
+super-structure; vault every thing under the lower rooms--ay, vault
+them, either in solid stone or brick, and drain and counter drain, and
+explore every crick and cranny of your sub-soil; and get rid of your
+land springs; and do not let the water from any neighbouring hill
+percolate through your garden, nor rise into a pleasing _jet-d'eau_
+right under the floor of your principal dining-room. If you can, and if
+you do not mind the "old-fashioned" look of the thing, dig a good deep
+fosse all round your garden, and line it with masonry; and have a couple
+of bridges over it; you may then not only effectually carry off all
+intruding visits of the watery sprites, but you may keep off hares from
+your flower-beds, two-legged cats from your larder, and sentimental
+"cousins" from your maids. You may thus, indeed, make your hall or
+mansion into a little fortified place, with fosse and counter-scarp, and
+covered way, and glacis; or at any rate, you may put a plain English
+haw-haw ditch and fence all round the sacred enclosure; and depend upon
+it that you will find the good effects of this extra expense in the
+anti-rheumatic tendencies of your habitation.
+
+And now for the plan of your mansion, for the Ground Plan--the main part
+of the business, that, on the proper proportioning and arranging of
+which the success of your edificative experiment entirely depends. Here
+take the old stale maxim into immediate and constant use, "Cut your coat
+according to your cloth;" and, if you are a man of only L2000 a-year, do
+not build a house on a plan that will require L10,000 at least of annual
+income to keep the window-shutters open. Nor, seeing that you are living
+in the country, attempt to cramp yourself for room, and build a great
+tall staring house, such as would pass muster in a city, but is
+exceedingly out of place in a park. As a matter of domestic aesthetics,
+do not think of giving yourself, and still less any of your guests, the
+trouble of mounting up more than one set of stairs to go to bed, but
+keep your reception and principal rooms on the ground floor, and your
+private rooms, with all the bed-chambers, on the floor above. Since,
+however, you have determined on going to the expense of a proper roof,
+do not suppose that we are such bad architectural advisers as to
+recommend that the roof should be useless. No; here let the female
+servants and the children of the family, perhaps, too, a stray bachelor
+friend or two, find their lodging; and above all, if you are a family
+man, if you have any of those tender yearnings after posterity, which we
+hope you have, introduce into the roof a feature which we will remind
+you of by and by, and for which, if we could only persuade people that
+such a very old and useful idea were a new one, and our own, we would
+certainly take out a patent.
+
+There should, then, be only two stories in a gentleman's country
+residence, and a dormer or mansard story if we may so term it, in the
+roof;--we will not be so vulgar as to call it a garret,--nor yet so
+classical as to resort to the appellation of an attic. If, therefore,
+you require a large house, take plenty of ground, and lay out all your
+rooms _en suite_. Let all the offices, whence any noise or smell can
+arise, be perfectly detached from the dwelling part of the
+mansion:--such as the kitchens, sculleries, laundries, &c. They should
+all be collected into a court with the coach-houses and stables on the
+outside, and the whole range of the domestic offices on the other. Never
+allow a kitchen to be placed under the same roof as your dining-room or
+drawing-room: cut it off completely from the _corps de logis_, and let
+it only communicate by a passage;--so shall you avoid all chance of
+those anticipatory smells, the odour of which is sufficient to spoil
+your appetite for the best dressed dinner in the world. If you would
+have any use for the vault under your house, keep all your cellar
+stores, and all your "dry goods" there;--it will be a test of your house
+being well-built if they do not show any effects of damp after a few
+months' stowage below the level of the soil, yet in _aere pleno_. We do
+not mean to say that we would put one of our best and newest saddles,
+nor our favourite set of harness, in one of the lower vaults, to judge
+of the dampness of the house; but depend upon it, a pair or two of old
+shoes form excellent hygrometers; and you may detect the "dew-point"
+upon them with wonderful accuracy.
+
+"But only look at how you are increasing the cost of the house by thus
+stretching out the house, and really wasting the space and
+ground!"--What! still harping on the same string--that eternal
+purse-string!--still at the gold and the notes? If you go on at this
+rate, my good sir, you will never do any thing notable in the
+house-line. Take a lesson from Louis XIV. when he built
+Versailles;--that sovereign had at least this one good quality,--he had
+a supreme contempt for money;--it cost him a great deal no doubt, but it
+is "Versailles," _nec pluribus impar_;--why, it is a quarter of a mile
+long, and there is, or rather was, room in it to have lodged all the
+crowned heads of Europe, courts, ministers, guards, and all. Never stint
+yourself for space; the ground you build on is your own; it is only the
+extra brick and mortar;--the number of windows is not increased by
+stretching the plan out, the internal fittings are not an atom more
+expensive. Be at ease for once in your life, and cast about widely for
+room.
+
+And now, dear sir, if you can but once remove this prejudice of cost
+from your mind, you may set at defiance all those twaddling architects
+who come to you with their theories of the "smallest spaces of support,"
+and who would fain persuade you that, because it is scientific to build
+many rooms with few materials, _therefore_ you ought to dwell in a house
+erected on such principles,--and that they ought to build it for you.
+You may send them all to the right-about with their one-sided contracted
+notions: is the house to be built for _your_ sake or for _theirs_? who
+is going to inherit it--you or they? who is to find out all the comforts
+and discomforts of the mansion--the owner or the architect?--If _you_,
+then keep to your two stories and to the old English method of building
+your house round one or more courts. Go upon the old palatial, baronial,
+or collegiate plan; no matter what may be the style of architecture you
+adopt, this plan will be found suitable to any. The advantages of it are
+as follows: first of all, it gives you the opportunity of having your
+rooms all _en suite_, and yet not crowded together; next, it is more
+sociable for the inmates of a large country mansion to have the windows
+of their apartments looking partly inwards, as it were to the centre of
+the house, and partly outwards to the surrounding scenery: and thirdly,
+it requires and it gives the opportunity of having that most admirable
+and most useful appendage of any large mansion,--a cloister, or covered
+gallery, running round the whole interior of the court, either
+projecting from the plane of the walls--and, if so, becoming highly
+ornamental; or else formed within the walls, and, if so, giving an
+unusual degree of warmth and ventilation. In this damp and uncertain
+climate of ours, just consider how many days there are in the course of
+the year, when the ladies and the children of a family cannot stir out
+of doors, not even into the gardens; and then think of what a comfort it
+would be to have a dry and airy and elegant promenade and place of
+exercise within their own walls. Then the children may scamper about, if
+it be, a proper cloister external to the house, and make that joyous
+noise which is so essential to their health, without any fear of
+annoying even the most nervous of mammas. Within an instant they may all
+be under her own personal inspection, and yet they may have their
+perfect freedom. Here may the ladies of the family walk for hours on a
+wet day, and enjoy themselves without trouble, and with the facility of
+being at home again in a minute. If the court is well laid out as a
+flowery parterre, and the green-house is made to contribute its proper
+supply of plants to the cloister, it becomes converted into a kind of
+conservatory, and forms of itself an artificial or winter garden. Both a
+cloister, and an internal corridor with windows opening into the former,
+may very appropriately be constructed together, and then the
+accommodation of this plan is complete.
+
+Whoever has lived in a cloistered and court-built house will know the
+convenient and comfortable feature we would here point out:--it is
+especially suited to the climate of England, and to the domestic habits
+of English families; it is one of the most ornamental features a house
+can possess; it gives great facilities to the waiting of the servants;
+it makes the house warm rather than cold; and it adds greatly to the
+comfort of the whole. As for the additional cost--let the cost be----!
+have we not entered our caveat against all such shabby pleas? Take this
+along with you, good sir,--do the thing well, or don't do it at all.
+
+
+
+
+A TURKISH WATERING-PLACE.
+
+
+Ten days ago, when snowed up by winter, recurrent for the third time
+this season, I could not compel myself to the recollection of my Adalian
+experiences. Now that I am sitting with window thrown wide open, and
+with fire raked out, the spirit of the scene encourages memories of my
+visit to that very hot emporium of Caramania.
+
+We had been kept on the Smyrna station till we pretty well knew it under
+every changing phase of season. Through the rigour of winter we had been
+brought now to the very flagrance of the dog-star, to the time when
+human nature can pretend no opposition to the mood of the lordly sun.
+Even late in the autumn, these clear skies afford so little interruption
+to the tide of sunbeams, that one is not quite exempt from risk of _coup
+de soleil_. Indeed this is perhaps the very time when the untutored
+stranger is particularly exposed to this danger. It is the only time of
+the year when travelling can be pursued as a serious occupation; or when
+one of the pale-faced Occidentals can venture forth _sub dio_ at
+mid-day, without positive madness. During the months that, on the
+admission of the indigenous, do duty as summer, the state of things is
+so evidently beyond a joke, that no idea of trifling therewith enters
+into the most unsophisticated mind. Life is reduced to something very
+like a resignation of the sturdy substance of the day, and a diligent
+employment of the two fag-ends. The intervening hours must be slept
+away, or read away, or somehow employed without the requisition of
+corporeal activity. And, considering that these are the hours during
+which musquitoes vex not, and lesser tormentors of the rampant kind are
+inactive, it is no slight boon to have such an interval, during some
+part of which you may sleep in peace. As for the night, you may use it
+for eating ices, or strolling on the Marina, or pulling out on the
+phosphorescent waters of the bay; but unless you be very fresh, you will
+hardly think of using that as the time for turning in. And thus are
+rendered grateful those slumbers which are induced by the prevailing
+spirit of noon. Of course, under such conditions of existence, there is
+no great probability that much risk will be encountered by any one
+gifted with the ordinary instinct of self-preservation. Should any one
+be foolhardy enough to dare for himself the experiment, he would
+scarcely find a _surridgi_ to furnish animals, or a guide willing to
+pilot him. And should he even make a start of it, am I not the very man
+to know what a lesson he would get in the course of the first six hours
+of his march; and to predict that he would, should any brains be then
+remaining to him, turn back on the strength of that same sample? It is
+only a very young, and somewhat foolish person, who would be at all
+likely to be found in this predicament. The dissuasion of the indigenous
+is so earnest, and so without exception, that, considering their
+knowledge of the facts, a prudent stranger must perceive in them the
+substance of reason. The Asiatics, perhaps, carry a little too far the
+dread of exposure to the atmospheric influences of summer; for they are
+careful to shut out even the cool breezes of night, and dread the odour
+of freshness that a shower calls forth from the earth. This delightful
+exhalation they affirm to be the producer of fever. But indeed we may
+concede to them the entertaining of some whimsies on this subject, as
+being the necessary contingencies on their fatal experiences of marsh
+_malaria_.
+
+Happy we Englishmen and Scotsmen, who know not what this _malaria_
+means! The worst story on the subject that I remember was a personal
+adventure of my friend Beard. The scene of this adventure is a little
+out of the way of Adalia, but it may serve to illustrate the style of
+thing prevailing generally in this direction any where within hail of a
+marsh. Beard was engaged in that (to those who like it) delightful, but
+occasionally perilous duty of surveying. This involves the being sent
+away in the boats for weeks at a stretch, during which time you go
+groping along the coast, or threading out-of-the-way channels between
+islands. It is easy to conceive that with fine weather, and healthy
+shores, this must be a welcome duty to a young officer, full of zeal,
+and unaccustomed to command. But sometimes the course will lie along
+deadly shores, past which you must creep, and snatch hydrographical
+facts from the teeth of death. Beard, poor fellow--and yet, considering
+that he lives to tell the tale, we should rather congratulate than
+pity--Beard was in command of a party of seven. Any one who knows the
+service, knows that an officer accustomed to command a particular boat,
+if he be a good fellow, acquires a strong fellow-feeling for and with
+his men. This is but human nature, seeing that they are subject to
+frequent and long isolations from the rest of the ship's company. I have
+felt this influence strongly myself, and am persuaded that a sailor is
+never so amiable a being as when away from his ship and from
+civilisation, on some scrambling boat-expedition. He then puts off
+altogether that selfishness of bearing which it often suits his humour
+while on board to affect. Beard was one who entered fully into the
+spirit of these expeditions; indeed he might have led one to suppose
+that he would willingly have agreed to pass his life in a boat. On this
+particular occasion they were coasting along Thessaly--those shores so
+beautiful to look at, but of which the beauty, when the mists of night
+descend upon them, reek with the breath of death. They proceeded
+cautiously; and as their labours were protracted into new days and
+weeks, and none of their little band had been stricken, they began to
+hope, and perhaps to believe themselves seasoned and safe. The time for
+them to rejoin the ship at last arrived, and not a man had been ill. One
+man did indeed complain in the morning, but he laid in his oar, and they
+hoped would soon be better. Presently another was forced to claim the
+same exemption, and another. In short, they reached the ship with great
+difficulty, and as by miracle, and not one of the party could mount the
+side. They were all hoisted in, and in a few hours the only man of the
+party who lived was my friend. In the pretty island of Sciathos is a
+tomb, wherein sleep the whole party save that one. I have stood by this,
+and read in the sad story of its inscription a sufficient warning on the
+subject of marsh _malaria_. Once or twice I have come in its way, but
+never willingly, and happily always without calamitous result. Once only
+I have slept within its problematical range, and that was off that
+pestiferous bit of coast near Epidaurus, and I fancy at a season when
+the marshes had not their steam up.
+
+We had among us a lesson, but not of this melancholy character, on the
+absurdity of attempting to brave the daylight heat of summer. It is so
+natural for an Englishman to look upon the mere natives of any place to
+which he may come in his travels, as cheats and ignoramuses, that we, as
+a matter of course, and most complacently, admitted the natives _en
+masse_ and every where to that rating. In the course of our vagaries we
+stumbled on the pretty island of Mytilene, in the very piping hours of
+summer. Very cool and pleasant did it look to us shipmen, hanging down
+its umbrageous olive groves nearly to the water's edge--and very
+pleasant should we have found it to be, had we been content to defer our
+landing till the authorised hour of eventide. But besides that the place
+looked so inviting, we felt bound to give way to a little enthusiasm at
+this approach to the birthplace of the lady who gave Horace the model of
+
+    "Jam satis terris nivis atque dirae" &c.
+
+so nothing could hold us in from immediate disembarkation, and a cross
+country ride. We went right across from one harbour to another--for it
+has two, which between them nearly bisect the island. But so frightful
+was the heat, that nothing but youth and English blood exempted us from
+the penalty of fever. Some of the party were very nearly knocked up
+mid-way; and we should scarcely any of us have managed to get back to
+the ship as we did, had it not been our fortune to meet a resting-place
+in the village of Loutri. Such attempts as this are the causes of the
+sad casualties that we occasionally find happening to Eastern
+travellers. How many have paid with their lives the penalty of an
+unseasonable journey in Syria, especially on the coast between Beyrout
+and Jerusalem. Only choose well your time, and you may proceed in
+perfect security, so far as the dangers of nature are concerned. Any
+attempt at forcing a journey is a folly; and a folly of which the
+correction will come with the first experiment, if it leave to the
+person any future opportunity of sublunary conduct.
+
+But no one should mention Mytilene without saving a word or two in
+praise of its beauty. All shrivelled up as we were by the heat--for we
+were almost past the sudatory stage--we drank in some refreshment from
+the scenery. Port Olivet has quite the appearance of a lake, and it is
+only when quite at the spot that you perceive the real nature of the
+locality. The hills around are finely shaded; and the masses of
+olive-trees assumed, in the then lurid glare of sky and water, that
+shadowy appearance that we used to see in Turner's pictures. They are
+very famous for the production of a fine oil from their olives, which is
+the staple commodity of the island, and of which they export
+considerable quantities. By all accounts, nature, unassisted, may claim
+the praise of this produce, for they are said to be careless
+manufacturers. We went into one or two of the [Greek: ergasteria] to
+witness the process of compression, but could not take it upon our
+veracity to utter an opinion anent them. At least they seem in a fair
+way to improve their wares; for the new consular agent of France (whom,
+by the way, we took to his Barataria) is especially knowing in this
+line, and hopes to produce, in a short time, oil that shall be equal to
+that of France or Lucca.
+
+After all this talk about the impossibility of travelling in the summer,
+it augurs ill for our account of Adalia, to say that it was the very
+heat and rage of summer when we landed there. But as we were not
+volunteers on the occasion, we did not choose our own season. Like the
+fifty thousand Cossacks who marched off to the East Indies, not because
+they liked it, but because they were sent, we were saved all the trouble
+of deliberation; and once arrived at the spot, we were sufficiently old
+stagers to adapt ourselves to the ways and means of the place. I
+remember that we were delighted at the start: catching at the prospect
+of change, as at the hope of improvement. Certainly things were bad
+enough with us in Smyrna bay at that time. The pitch was boiling in the
+seams, the water was hissing along-side; the sky seemed an entire sun,
+so truly were the fiery rays rendered back from every part of the
+glowing concave. The sea-breeze, one's only solace under such
+circumstances, was continually forgetting to come. In spite of the
+common profession, that without the sea-breeze it would be impossible to
+live hereaway, we continued to pant through days of breezeless
+existence. At this time it was that I arrived at the conclusion which is
+now established in the code of my economics, that the endurance at
+Calcutta or Port Royal is a joke compared with what one has to undergo
+in these milder latitudes. The dweller in Anatolia has no such range of
+Fahrenheit to alarm him into defensive measures, and thus he falls
+comparatively unprepared into the conflict with the dog-days. Your
+Bengalee mounts defences of _tattees_ and punkahs that cool down a hot
+wind, or whistle air into presence in a trice. Whereas in this part of
+the world, as the Sirocco blows, so it must steal into your room,
+parching your face, and covering you all over with a clammy stickiness,
+through which you may distinctly feel the subdolent shudder of incipient
+ague. When he has darkened his room, and spread cool mats on the floor,
+the poor Smyrniot has nothing farther that he can do. And if such be the
+case of those who dwell within the mansions of Ismir, who have at least
+thick walls between them and the sun, what is likely to be the state of
+those _disgraziatos_, who people the busy town of ships in the bay?--the
+rash men
+
+    "--digitos a morte remotos
+    Quatuor aut septem."
+
+Custom, they say, may bring a man to any thing, as it did M. Chabert to
+the power of living in an oven; to which achievement, by the way, I
+should not wonder if the first step had been the passing of a hot summer
+on board ship in harbour. You may any day see, at some of our gigantic
+iron-works, custom bringing men to such a pass, that they can endure to
+stand before a fire that would be the death and cooking of an ox. And so
+I suppose it was by force of custom that we were able to undergo a style
+of thing that ought to have been the stewing of any ordinary flesh and
+blood. But it was a stupid and languid life that we were leading,
+scarcely venturing on deck even beneath the awning, and not dreaming of
+shore except quite in the evening. Sometimes a morning's interest would
+be excited by some story of plague in the Lazaretto, and a proposed
+adjournment of the ship to Vourlah, to be out of harm's way; and such
+speculations, though not exactly pleasurable, were at least
+anti-stagnative in character. In any thing like decent weather it is not
+bad fun to get down to Vourlah for a time, and to fly from the gaieties
+of the metropolis to the pleasures of the _chasse_ at Rabbit Island. It
+must ever be soothing to a spirit that has not quite forgotten "the
+humanities," to walk upon the turf which witnessed the infant gambols of
+Anaxagoras; and besides that, the locality is pretty, and worthy of
+being visited on its own account. The town is at the distance of some
+miles from the Scala, which last is the grand watering-place for the
+ships on this station. Some few years ago, when the two fleets, French
+and English, were here, an extempore town was devised on the beach, for
+the benefit of the thousand and one hangers-on who are always found in
+such neighbourhoods. This was a stretch of luxury on their part; for
+generally these nautical suttlers need no other shelter than that of the
+boat which contains their wares. They are always ready for a start, and
+glad to be allowed to follow almost any whither in the wake of a ship. I
+should think they might be rated amongst the most honest of their
+compatriots, as they certainly may amongst the most hard-working and
+courageous.
+
+But no such luck had been ours, as to be assigned so pleasant an
+adjournment. The longest cruise we had any of us managed to steal, was
+perhaps in one of the cutters, as far as what we Englishmen persist in
+calling St James's castle--a strange name for Turks to give a place, and
+which, in fact, we have devisedly corrupted from their word _sandjeak_.
+
+At last, one happy day--happy in its result, not in the complexion it
+bore at its opening--we positively did receive orders for a start, and
+this is the way it came about: The representative of sultanic dignity at
+the somewhat retired watering-place of Adalia, was a man prone, like the
+greater number of his countrymen, to judge of things altogether in the
+concrete. The idea of power could by him be deduced only from present
+violence; and without some such sensible manifestations, it became to
+him like one of Fichte's "objects," i.e. all moonshine. With regard to
+foreign powers, they existed for him, and influenced his government,
+only so far as they sent occasionally a ship of war with its suggestive
+influence of a frowning broadside to look in his way. They have no very
+distinct idea, these gentlemen, of geography, nor of political science;
+all thus are sadly out in their estimation of the relative importance of
+places. To them the seat of their government is the world; or at least
+the place in it of importance second to Constantinople. If they be
+passed over in the distribution of our _corps de demonstration_, they
+are apt to ascribe the omission to a want of power on our part. Now,
+with all their excellencies, it call hardly be denied that they are
+sadly apt to presume on any want of power in a neighbour. So it happens
+that the unfortunate consuls who are stowed away in the obscurer
+establishments, are apt to suffer from their caprice. Should it so
+happen that the particular flag over whose interests the consul is
+appointed inspector, should not have been displayed in the neighbourhood
+lately by any ship of war, the short memory of a pasha is in danger of
+forgetting that nation's claim to respect; for any thing that he knows,
+it may have been revolutionised or sunk by an earthquake,--at least he
+cannot bear the trouble of imagining any other reason for the
+non-appearance of its executive ministers, than the obvious one of its
+having no ships to send. Thus, in matters of precedence, consuls are apt
+sometimes to get snubbed--a point on which, of all others, they are
+tender: or in matters of justice, their clients will find themselves
+ousted, in spite of the proverbial integrity of the Turkish judges.
+Perhaps the readiest way of stumbling on a grievance, is the kind of
+thing that gave rise to our visit, where some of the populace presume on
+your want of protection, and commit some aggression on your rights as a
+man and a brother. This being referred to the authorities, will be apt
+to be viewed by them in the light of that consideration which they
+happen to be lending at that moment to your nation. Poor fellows! we
+must not be hard upon them; nor will we doubt the sound foundation of
+the panegyrics which many travellers have pronounced on their honesty.
+They are honest, no doubt, so far as they understand the doctrine of the
+thing; but the fact is, they do not seem to understand the subject in
+the abstract. They have no idea of judging a foreigner's cause, without
+reference to considerations of his nationality and personal importance;
+and to pronounce readily a decision in favour of one against whom should
+lie the preponderance in these particulars, would be to them an
+absurdity. We have had occasion lately to be struck with the tone in
+which certain writers have spoken on the subject of Mussulman morals.
+The first notability about such accounts is, that they are very
+different from the reports of their predecessors--of such an accurate
+man as Burkhardt for instance; and the second notability, so far as most
+of us are concerned, is, that they are contrary to the general consent
+of travellers. That there are excellent men, and honest among them, is a
+fact; and it is a fact, that in general matters of bargaining, you may
+trust to them. But when the idea of probity is carried out, so far as to
+imply a view of things comparatively disparaging to Christian morals, it
+mounts to an anti-climax, and falls over into the province of nonsense.
+The Koran has provided them with much ethical guidance, of which
+individual Turks, of any pretence to religion, must be in some degree
+observant. But it is not true that the history of such cases, in their
+administration of justice, as might have occurred in the court of the
+old [Greek: polemarchos], will allow us to conclude that they are in
+possession of a rule coercing them to be just and brotherlike towards
+the unprotected stranger, abstractly and for justice's sake. Now, with
+us you may find many individual rogues, but never a roguish court, nor
+tolerated roguish public body. And of this difference between us
+Christians and them Turks, it will not be difficult for any one to
+supply the reason, who will give himself the trouble to think about it.
+
+But as I was saying, at Adalia,--the town I mean, not the
+province,--lived, with the authority of local governor, a personage
+styled a _Caimacan_. This is a person inferior to a regular pasha,
+having in fact a sort of acting rank. One remembers this style and title
+well, because it puts us in mind of the nicest thing eatable that the
+Levant affords--_Caimac_, which is something very like Devonshire cream,
+only better. This Caimacan, being a sort of great man's great man, is
+apt not to bear his honours meekly. At the precise time of which I
+speak, the Sultan was raising considerable levies in different parts of
+his dominions, for the benefit of good order among the Albanians. Near
+Adalia was a military rendezvous for the forces raised in that
+neighbourhood, and the command _pro tempore_ of the new levies was
+assigned to the Caimacan. So that the poor man was labouring under an
+accession of dignity.
+
+At Adalia also lived a certain Ionian--from the Seven Islands, friend,
+not from Asia--who had been led thither by a speculation in the soap
+trade. To judge by the evident want of the article, would have been to
+pronounce a most favourable opinion as to the probable result of such
+speculation. In fact the man succeeded only too well; he boiled so
+successfully, and sold so cheaply, that all the native competitors were
+beaten out of the field. The true believers were, of course, indignant
+at this conduct of an infidel and a stranger; and as they could not
+weather on him in the fair way of trade, they determined to try if they
+could not "choke his luff" by a practical expedient. Paying him a visit
+one day, they spoiled his stock in trade, broke his gear, gave him a
+good thrashing, and told him to take that as a gentle hint of what they
+would do if he did not behave himself for the future. The poor fellow
+appealed to the Caimacan for satisfaction for the injury done, and for
+security against future violence. From this person he received no
+assistance, and was left to fight it out as he best could against his
+opponents.
+
+Those dear Ionians! creditable fellow-countrymen are they for us, and
+profitable. No people assert more unflinchingly their privilege of
+national relationship with ourselves, and thus do we get the credit of
+all the rows which they may kick up throughout the Mediterranean. It is
+highly amusing to see the style in which they will declare themselves to
+be Englishmen, not merely as allies and protected for the time being,
+but with the implication of a claim to identity of race. A son of Ithaca
+or Zante will talk as if he were a true Saxon. Certainly, the Turks seem
+to make little distinction between the races. That the men are under
+British protection, is for them sufficient reason for esteeming them to
+be Englishmen. Sometimes their classification of races shows an amusing
+ignorance of, and indifference to the whole set of national distinctions
+among Franks. I remember that all who attended the services of the
+British chaplaincy at Smyrna, were called English, though among them
+were many who could speak scarcely a word of the language; and so all
+who went to the dissenting meeting-house (for they have one there) were
+called Americans.
+
+Our poor soap-boiler being reduced to extremity, having lost his goods,
+and being afraid to make a fresh start of it, betook himself for
+assistance to the English vice-consul. The office was at that time
+filled by a very efficient person--one, moreover, who had for many years
+resided in the country, and understood well the language and national
+genius. But it so happened that just then a long time had elapsed since
+any of our men-of-war had paid a visit to the road-stead and consular
+dignity was in a condition of proportional depreciation. The consul,
+however, as in duty bound, paid his visit of remonstrance, and laid
+before the great man the wrong done within his jurisdiction; whereupon
+the Caimacan behaved like any thing but a gentleman, and, far from
+promising to remedy the ill done, gave him to understand that he did not
+care sixpence for soap-boiler or consul either. Mr ---- had sufficient
+knowledge of the people to know that this declaration of opinion was
+strictly true, and that the only plan to correct it, would be to prove
+himself able to summon an armed force to his assistance. Till they saw
+this, nothing would be able to persuade the Adalians that he was not
+either deserted by his country, or that his country had not lost the
+power to assist him.
+
+And thus it was that Mr ---- wrote to his chief at Smyrna a description
+of the ticklish state of circumstances, and explained that unless
+English commercial interests at Adalia were to be suffered to go
+altogether to the wall, some strong preservative must be sent thither in
+the shape of a stout ship, with a goodly array of long thirty-twos. And
+so was it that word came to the good ship Falcon, which thereupon spread
+forth her wings, or, in plain language, hoisted her topsails, and set
+forth on her conciliatory expedition. Besides that we were delighted to
+get away in any direction from the stagnation of Smyrna--a stagnation
+affecting air, sea, and society,--it was a recommendation of the cruise
+in this particular direction that none of us had ever been there before.
+There is little reason why in a general way it should be visited from
+one year's end to another,--I mean in the way of business, at least the
+business of those who have to distribute their attention throughout
+these seas for the interests of general pacification. The place, as we
+afterwards found, is not without commerce; but there are no merchants of
+our nation except the vice-consul. The advantages of this place as a
+trading station, more especially as being a station where he would find
+no competitors, had induced him to settle here. And the _prestige_ lent
+by the consular name, afforded sufficient inducement for the undertaking
+of an office, which, if it be not very lucrative, at any rate involves
+the responsibility of no very serious duties. Though now and then a man
+in office may forget himself, yet in the long run a consul is sure to be
+treated with deference, and to reap considerable commercial advantages
+from his position. Be it understood, that here there are other
+merchants,--but the indigenous, chiefly Turco-Greek. Besides a single
+gentleman who acted as assistant to the vice-consul in his various
+duties, we did not find a Frank resident. We heard, indeed, that there
+was also an Austrian, but we did not see him, so I suppose that he could
+hardly have been of much consequence.
+
+The weather at first beguiled us with symptoms of a change for the
+cooler, and lent to our sails some pleasant breezes as we passed out of
+the Gulf of Smyrna. As we sped onward, things became even better, and
+especially delighted us with their aspect off Rhodes. It is a singular
+fact, well known to those who know the locality, that the day scarcely
+occurs in the year when this island is afflicted with a calm. For some
+reason it so happens that, pass when you will, you are pretty sure to
+find a stiff breeze blowing. One of the points of the island, which
+thrusts out into the sea a long and low promontory, shows that the
+natives here know how to turn this physical provision to good effect.
+This point is in the most curious way studded with windmills, and from
+this its garniture has received its name in our geography. These poor
+machines rarely know an hour's quiet, but continually throw about their
+long arms in what, from a little distance, seems to be a mere confusion
+of material. Past this exquisitely beautiful island, of whose strand the
+recollection is fraught with associations of unfeverish existence, we
+sped rapidly before the breeze, which almost made us regret the land we
+were leaving. Truly should we have regretted it, had we but known the
+breezeless condition on which we were about to enter! For some
+four-and-twenty hours before we arrived at our port, the weather changed
+eminently for the worse. The feathery vanes stirred not, and the canvass
+flapped against the mast, as the old girl rolled lumpingly in the swell.
+She was a dear old ship as ever floated, but like all other things
+sublunary, animate, or inanimate, was not without her faults. Of these
+the worst, nay, the only one to speak of, was the habit of rolling about
+most viciously whenever she had a chance. The sun poured upon us such a
+flood of heat, that awnings became a joke. Things were so thoroughly
+heated during the day, that the night scarcely afforded sufficient hours
+to cool them down, for a fresh start next morning. We began almost to
+question whether we had not changed bad for worse; and very soon made up
+our minds that without any mistake we had. We arrived at this
+conclusion, as the port of our destination hove in sight. It was towards
+evening that we crept in to our anchorage, through an atmosphere
+scarcely sufficiently alive to give us motion, and so almost glowing
+that it seemed to burn us as we passed. The place was wrapped in
+breathless stillness: no boats came forth to try a market with us, or to
+gratify their curiosity; and no sounds issued from the shore, which
+might have been deemed almost unhaunted of men.
+
+When daylight revealed the features of the place, we perceived the
+pretensions of Adalia in the way of the picturesque to be of a high
+order. Neither was there wanting matter of admiration even in the night,
+though we were suffering too much discomfort to be easily pleased by
+mere pictures. The shore, in its way, afforded an unusual spectacle. The
+town stands on high ground, and on both sides the line of coast is
+formed by lofty cliffs, stretching far away into the distance. What of
+the beauties of these depended on the light of day for development, were
+reserved for our edification on the morrow. But the good people had
+ornamented their country just then in a fashion more appropriate to
+embellish the night than the day. Enormous fires were blazing on the
+cliffs, which skirted the bay up which we were advancing,--if we may
+apply so familiar a word to the conflagrations that met our sight. The
+most active spirit of incendiarism had been afloat, for entire woods
+were seen in a state of burning. We never discovered whether this
+destruction was by accident, or of set purpose: if it were done by way
+of obtaining charcoal, the price of that article one would think must
+have fallen in the market. But as these fires blazed away in the clear
+dry air of the night, they lit up the bay, and almost threw upon the
+waters the dark shadow of our masts and yards. At first, when at some
+distance, we had been disposed to account for the lurid appearance of
+the heavens, by supposing that distance and refraction had effected a
+cheat upon our senses. When we came nearer, the only thing we could
+suppose was, that the whole country, was in the course of destruction.
+It is hard to say whether the distance at which we anchored from the
+shore was not too great to allow of the production on us of any sensible
+effect from these fires: that we had any misgiving on the subject may
+serve to show that they were enormous. I know that at the time we made
+up our minds, that to their agency was to be attributed some portion at
+least of the heat that oppressed us. The wind came off in gusts of
+overpowering heat; not with that tepid influence that grumblers
+sometimes denounce as a hot wind, but with the full sense of having come
+from a baker's oven. At least we had a grand sight for our pains, and
+therefrom reaped some consolation as we clustered panting on the deck.
+
+I remember to have seen something in this way before, though on a
+smaller scale, and that was in the island of Euboea. Once in my life,
+I had a very near view of the recent scene of such a conflagration in
+one of the smaller Greek islands. It was in taking, according to our
+custom, a ramble right across the land, that we came on no less a
+collection of embers than the _debris_ of an entire forest, which lay
+smouldering at our feet. I know that, having commenced from curiosity
+the work of picking our way through the ashes, we found the undertaking
+more arduous than we quite fancied, and that our trowsers and shoes
+would afterwards have fetched but little in Monmouth-street. The Greeks,
+it is understood, light up their bonfires, partly by way of amusing
+themselves, and partly by way of hinting displeasure at things in
+general. Of course, it is quite obvious, that any party who wish to
+prove a minister's rule to be calamitous, assists their argument by
+increasing the sum of calamity.
+
+But night with its miseries at length was passed. During its course, the
+thermometer did not get below 90 deg. What it reached in the daytime it
+boots not to record--and signifies less, because when the sun is above
+us, we bargain for a hot day in summer. But oh! those nights, when by
+every precedent we should have had cooling dews, and refreshing air!
+
+However, the sun rose, and the people on shore rose too. There was no
+tumultuous rushing forth in boats to have a look at the new comers, as
+there is so apt to be on the arrival of a man-of-war. A quiet little
+dingy would steal out, manned by three or four mongrel-looking Greeks,
+and row round us at a respectful distance. The fact is, that the people
+had got scent of the reason of our coming: and as a reclamation of right
+is by them supposed to be incompatible with any thing but an angry mood,
+they were afraid to approach us. The town itself we perceived to be a
+most ill-conditioned looking place. Harbour there is none--at least none
+available in a breeze from seaward. A heavy sea sets right in, and must
+strand any thing found anchored here. We were afterwards told, that in
+the bad weather of the winter before our coming, the sea had washed some
+vessels right up into the town. This want of a harbour is the most
+serious drawback to the commerce of Adalia. It is, in every respect
+except this, adapted to serve as the general emporium of the interior.
+Even at present, notwithstanding its disadvantages, a good deal of
+business is done here: but ships can never lie before the town in peace,
+nor commence loading and unloading, with the confidence that they shall
+be able to get through their work without having first to slip cable and
+be off. But the town must be in other hands before so arduous a work is
+likely to be undertaken.
+
+A most unserviceable rumble of a fort mounted guard over the town, in a
+position little likely to be of use in repelling an attack by sea.
+Perhaps it might have been available as a maintainer of good order in
+the town, should the spirit of insubordination haply spring up therein:
+but we could hardly have credited the walls as possessed of sufficient
+stability to stand the shock of a report. We saw the artillery-men, busy
+as bees, at their guns--evidently standing by to return the salute which
+we were expected to give. But this would have been far too civil
+treatment for them, while matter of dispute between us remained. We
+maintained a dignified silence.
+
+It was not long before Mr ---- found his way off to us, and put us up to
+the actual state of affairs. It seemed that little Pedlington was in an
+uproar. The whole of the Adalian public were in a state of lively
+commotion. Of course, as they had bullied loudly, they were abject in
+concession. Those more immediately concerned in the outrage on the
+soap-boiler, would have infallibly absconded, had not the strong arm of
+the law laid an embargo upon them, and laid them by as scapegoats in the
+first instance. The prevailing opinion about us was, that we should
+certainly blow the town about their ears, but that still all must be
+essayed to conciliate us. The Caimacan himself, the great man who had
+given rise to the remonstrance on our part, had taken himself off, and
+left his deputy in command. This was professedly to look after some
+troops that he was recruiting in the neighbourhood, but we gave him the
+credit of practising a dodge to get out of the way of an awkward
+business. A striking peculiarity of the business was, that no doubt
+seemed any longer to be maintained as to the issue of the negotiation.
+The question of right and wrong was no longer considered as being open;
+but the verdict was already presumed to be given against those whom we
+challenged as offenders.
+
+It was thought advisable to pay some attention to appearances on the
+occasion of our interview with the governor. No suit prospers with them,
+in a general way, unless backed by good personal appearance. For this
+reason we mustered a strong party of officers, in imposing costume; and
+by way of evincing our determination, proceeded with as little delay as
+possible to the divan. The usual motley group of starers gathered round
+us at the landing, and escorted us up the rugged street to the _palais
+de justice_. They all seemed to be affected with the spirit of fear,
+except our partisans, who were in a state of exultation from the like
+cause. Two individuals in particular were amusingly and palpably
+possessed with the spirit of triumph, and they were the two attendants
+of the vice-consul. These men were worthy of notice on other accounts,
+but singularly remarkable in respect of the effectual manner in which
+they seemed to have divested themselves of national prejudices. They
+were enthusiastic fellows, who had not merely let out their services to
+the representative of England, but seemed fairly to have made over to
+him the allegiance of heart and head; retaining no sympathy with their
+own countrymen. Thus did they seem to rejoice eminently in our coming,
+and the consequent humbling of the local authorities. They were two
+strapping fellows--as janissaries, to be any thing worth, should always
+be--and marshalled us the way in grand style.
+
+The unhappy rabble seemed to be suffering the pangs of most cruel
+privation when the cortege arrived at the residence of justice, and they
+found themselves left in the lurch at the threshold. In such mood you
+see a London mob flattening their noses against the panes of a chemist's
+window, or hanging outside of a replete magistrate's office. One comfort
+is, that the economy of a Turkish _menage_ perfectly admits of the
+establishment of a line of scouts, even from the very presence-chamber:
+so that earliest intelligence may be conveyed to the gentlemen without.
+Mr ---- gave us by the way a few hints as to etiquette, and engaged to
+prompt us as occasion might demand. I have said already that he was
+perfectly up to conversation in the native language and might have well
+played the part of interpreter. One might might have supposed that this
+would have been taken by the people rather as a compliment; and that it
+would have been considered creditable to a foreign agent to have
+acquired a knowledge of the vernacular of the people with whom he had
+constantly to treat. But the contrary is the fact. To speak for one's
+self is far too simple a mode of conducting business: and he who would
+preserve his dignity in any consideration, must retain the services of a
+dragoman. To conduct an important interview without the intervention of
+this functionary would convey to the Turks an idea of slovenly
+negligence. A good thing is it when the agent, commercial or diplomatic,
+possesses sufficient knowledge of the language to enable him to check
+the version of the interpreter, who otherwise is apt to take liberties
+with his text. However, we were in this case quite safe: first, in the
+assurance of Mr ---- that he would risk his life on his dragoman's
+veracity; and next, because it was clear that no word could pass which
+was not likely to be reinterpreted to us.
+
+We marched into the room, and made our salaams-some of us inconsiderable
+ones very truculently, for we were very irate; and on all such occasions
+a man's indignation rises in exact proportion to the degree in which he
+has nothing to say to the matter. The deputy Caimacan was sitting on a
+divan at the top of the room, and rose politely as we entered. There
+were too many of us to find room in the divan, so we were scattered
+about as best we could light on places. The main difficulty was to get a
+place that looked clean enough to sit upon; for a dirtier palace I never
+saw, nor a more, beggarly. One cannot say whether the head governor had
+taken all his traps with him when he went a-soldiering; but if what we
+saw really was his establishment, it is likely enough that he had gone
+away to avoid exposing his poverty.
+
+"_Hosh Gueldin_," said the Turk; "you are welcome."
+
+And now was to be seen a fine contrast between Oriental apathy and
+British energy. The Turk sank back on his seat, as if disengaged from
+all care, and not quite up to the trouble of entertaining his morning
+visitors. The English Captain sat bolt upright, "at attention," and
+opened the business of the _seance_ at once.
+
+"Tell the Governor--"
+
+"Stop a moment," said Mr ----, "that's not the way to begin."
+
+"What is the way then?"
+
+"First, you must smoke a pipe--there's one coming this way. You would
+shock all their notions of propriety by entering abruptly on business.
+We must have first a little talk about things in general."
+
+Just then the Governor roused up, and addressed to the Captain, through
+the dragoman, some observation on the weather or the crops. Then came a
+servant with a chibouque and coffee: and the head negotiators were soon
+co-operatively engaged.
+
+And no bad way of beginning business either; especially in cases where
+there may be a little awkward rust to rub off. The only objection to the
+amusement in this case was, that it was not general--pipes being
+afforded only to the heads of departments. This was a style of treatment
+so different from all our experience, that it left me more fully
+persuaded than ever that the Caimacan had walked off with his goods and
+chattels, not forgetting his pipes.
+
+This fumatory process proceeded for some time, almost in silence. It
+afforded the several parties opportunity to settle the speeches they
+intended to make, and certainly must have been useful in the way of
+allaying the angry passions of their several minds. We, who had none of
+the business on our consciences, and had come merely to make up the
+show, employed this interval in taking cognizance of the localities. The
+household appointments were sadly inferior to those we had been
+accustomed to see; and especially must this condemnation fall on the
+servants, who were a most dirty, ill-conditioned set. They stood
+clustered about the doorway in groups, looking furtively at us, and
+whispering counsel.
+
+"Halloo!" said Mr ----, "they have determined to be prepared for
+contingencies. There are the culprits, I see, in waiting for the
+bastinado, if such should be your demand."
+
+And there, sure enough, they had the poor fellows just outside, waiting
+to be scourged for the propitiating of our wrath. Evidently they were
+little aware that the affair had changed altogether its complexion; and
+that the culpability had in our eyes been transferred from the original
+rioters to the protectors of the riot.
+
+When, eventually, the signal was given for commencing business, it was a
+fine thing to see how beautifully submissive the deputy had become. He
+began by declaring that he could not arrange the matter, but must refer
+it to his chief, and wanted much to put off the discussion till that
+functionary should arrive. On this it was hinted to him, that it would
+have been polite and proper had that gentleman remained in the way to
+settle the row, which had occurred by his own fault, but that we could
+not await his return. Either must they undertake at once to make full
+reparation for the wounded dignity of the Consul, and for the injurious
+treatment of the Ionian, or they would see what they should see. It
+needed little pressing on our part to break down the feint which had
+been set up by way of opposition. The deputy soon declared that all
+should be as we wished. He still stuck to his declaration, that the
+actual settlement of the business was beyond his province, and that he
+must wait for the sanction of his commanding officer. But meanwhile he
+took upon himself to declare the terms on which things might be
+considered virtually settled; and they were, that we were to have
+everything our own way. This result was obtained by us without recourse
+had to any thing like bullying; and we were able, in this instance, to
+behave in a more civilised manner, because we were backed by so much
+real authority, and show of present power. But little doubt is there,
+that, however unfavourable the inference with respect to Turkish sense
+and honesty, the mode most commonly to be recommended in dealings with
+them, is by _in terrorem_ proceeding. They cannot understand the
+co-ordinate existence, of power and moderation. Very good fun will
+sometimes be enacted by the knowing for the cowing of a pasha; and in
+almost any case the only fear of _echouance_ is where there may exist
+too much modesty. But only bully hard, and you are tolerably sure to
+gain your point. It is by no means necessary that your arguments should
+carry the cogent force of soundness. Appearances are what weigh chiefly
+with those whose habits of thinking do not dispose them to discuss
+argument. One sharp-witted fellow that I knew brought to successful
+issue a decisive experiment on the readiness of pashas to be taken in by
+mere sound. He went into the vice-regal presence, attended by a dragoman
+whom he had previously instructed in the subject-matter to be
+propounded--some question of redress for grievance. It was necessary
+that he should say something on the occasion, and afford the appearance
+of telling the dragoman what to say: but as this person already knew his
+lesson, it was not necessary that what he said should be to him
+intelligible. Nothing occurred to him as likely to be more effective in
+delivery than the celebrated speech of Norval about the Grampian hills;
+which accordingly he recited with due emphasis, standing up to give the
+better effect to the scene. The end desired was fully attained. The
+pasha opened wide eyes, as the actor grew excited, and was visibly
+affected by the assumption of towering passion. He soon began to try to
+pacify him, and beg him to be easy. "Inshalla! all should be as he
+wished." The upshot of our argument with the deputy Caimacan was, that
+he would send immediately to his chief, for a confirmation of the
+pacification between us, and that meanwhile we were to amuse ourselves
+as well as we could. But for all we saw, amusement was one of the good
+things not easily to be had at Adalia. It is so deeply retired in
+uncivilisation, and so wanting withal in the excitements of energetic
+barbarism, that human life is there tamed down to the most passionless
+condition. It was, too, notwithstanding the season, a time of unusual
+commercial enterprise just then. It was the year of the murrain in
+Egypt, which destroyed so enormous a proportion of their cattle; and
+Mehemet Ali was sending in all directions to purchase horses, asses, and
+kine. A large corvette of his came in while we were there, on this
+service. She had landed her guns, and was filling her deck with
+livestock. There was also a deal of business going on just then in the
+timber line. But little evidence of this brisk state of the markets was
+given by the people. A good many visitors certainly came off to see us;
+but that was rather a reason why we should have accused the populace of
+idleness. We were struck with the appearance of many of the old fellows
+who honoured us with visits. They retained, without exception, the
+orthodox dress and beard of the old school. Among them were a great
+number of the green turbans, which mark the sacred person of the
+"Hadji." Such a clustering of these distinguished characters made us
+fancy at first that Adalia itself must be invested with the idea of some
+peculiar sanctity. But we found that these gentlemen were merely _en
+route_, tarrying at Adalia, a great point of embarkation, for
+opportunity to pursue their journey. The place is in one of the great
+high roads to the Hedjaz: and of the swarms who pass through it every
+year, many pilgrims have not sufficient funds to defray the expense of
+travelling either way. It then becomes a work of charity for the more
+opulent of the faithful to speed them on the journey. But that they
+depend on such means of travelling is reason sufficient to account for
+long in their line of locomotion, and for their congregating here in
+considerable numbers. Of all places likely to maintain the constant
+infection of plague, this must be one of the first: for notoriously
+among no people is the disease so rife as among the pilgrims.
+
+The worthy consul did his best to embellish the days of our sojourn with
+pleasurable episodes. Society there was not likely to be any; but yet
+such as, for want of better, they had, he undertook to show us. He
+really seemed very much obliged to us for our opportune visit, and said
+that it would be the making of him. It certainly did seem to be quite
+necessary to the maintaining of the dignity of his office. One
+invitation we had from a merchant of the place, a man whom they
+described as being very rich and of great influence; and a plan was laid
+for our having a picnic in the country. There is a place in the
+neighbourhood of the town which has been prepared expressly for the use
+of those who make rural excursions. A thick grove of trees keeps off the
+sun, and soft turf lends a seat to the revellers. We could make out the
+top of the trees from the anchorage, for the country is of an elevated
+character, hanging out on lofty cliffs the different features of its
+panorama. The effect produced by this arrangement of the scenery is
+highly beautiful. It has in profusion one element of the beautiful, and
+that is the feature of cascade. There is in one point a congress of
+waterfalls, whereat may be counted no less than nine separate streams,
+which pour down their abundance from the cliffs into the sea. The good
+consul and his satellites bore us pretty constant company; and of great
+service they were in preserving order among the motley crew that
+constantly thronged our decks. We did not like to qualify the good
+report we had so far gained and maintained, by any exhibition of
+harshness towards the mob. But the sturdy janissary of Mr ---- thought
+nothing of laying his stick across a fellow's shoulders, by way of
+reminder to behave himself. I must say that many of them deserved it,
+and for their sakes can but hope that they profited by the attention.
+
+Mr ---- had two men in attendance upon him, without whom he never
+stirred abroad. They were brothers, but filled situations of different
+rank. One was dragoman, a post of which the occupation entitled him to
+the consideration of a gentleman; the other was merely henchman or
+janissary, of which dignity the allocation is in the kitchen. I remember
+that it pained me to see one brother walk in to dinner, while the other
+poor fellow had to keep guard without. But they seemed well used to the
+enforcement of the distinction, and to find therein nothing of
+invidiousness. Fine fellows were they both, and highly lauded by their
+master. There is surely something extraordinary in these instances,
+where men are brought to devote themselves implicitly to a foreign
+service, in the heart of their country, and amid the full play of
+national prejudices. That they really are faithful followers, is I
+believe beyond doubt; and that sometimes under trying circumstances.
+With these two individuals especially, we had so much intercourse, that
+we were enabled to see how admiration for the English entered into the
+main current of their feelings. It so happened that we had come here to
+the very place where that early victim to the zeal of travel, Mr
+Daniels, had shortly before met his doom. While following in the track
+of Mr Fellowes, he caught the fatal Xanthian fever; and after many
+relapses died here. That these men were very kind and attentive to him
+may be argument only of their humanity. But there was something in the
+emotion with which they spoke of him, that betokened a sense of
+fellowship, beyond what men of such differing creeds are apt to feel for
+a travelling stranger. They spoke of sitting up with him at night,
+giving him his medicine, and weeping for him, when there remained no
+room for active solicitude. The idea of dying amidst strangers in a
+foreign land, with no familiar face at the bed-side, is a desolation
+whose thought cannot pass over the spirit without beclouding its
+sunniness. And yet we may rely upon it, that amongst those most
+affectionately tended and most generously wept, have been they who have
+met their last hour under such circumstances. Human hearts all vibrate
+in harmony to one chord: in the good this sympathy is ready; in the bad
+it is dulled; but never while life and hope remain, can the silver chord
+be said to be cut. And so it is, that the same image of the forlorn,
+which, as affecting any that we love, appeals at once to the deep wells
+of compassion, will cause the same feeling of compassion to thrill with
+the remotest stragglers of the family of Adam. It is not a matter of
+reasoning, but an instinct. There is in the sight of helpless suffering
+a power to disarm human ferocity. And if that be the gentlest
+death-pillow that is breathed upon by the prayer and lighted by the eye
+of family love, depend upon it that far from the ungentlest is that,
+whose presence has brought to rude and rough natures the putting off of
+their roughness, and the recognising of the sweet faculty of compassion.
+Happy is that desolation, even in the last hour, which can awaken the
+heaven-like eagerness to be to the dying one a minister from his far-off
+home! A man might be happy so to die, that he might light up so much of
+heaven within a human breast.
+
+Both these _attaches_ of the consulate were men of note. The dragoman
+had been captain of a troop of cavalry in the service of Mehemet Ali,
+and on some quarrel with his commanding officer had left the service and
+kingdom. He was a person of polished manners, and some education, and
+thus enabled to produce agreeably in conversation the results of his
+experience of many lands and people. He rather astonished us with the
+extent to which he carried _jeune France_ principles, that seem so
+entirely incompatible with the holding of Mahomedanism. But wonderful it
+is to see how the French spirit circulates in the most apathetic
+societies, seeming to find in them a latent vitality suited to its
+purpose. The manners of a Mussulman are so stereotyped, and his subjects
+of conversation so provided for by law, that it seemed quite an anomaly
+to see this Turk drinking wine after dinner, and talking like a man of
+the world. It would not seem that such an effect on the personal
+character is the invariable result of educating a Turk in Paris, though
+such an effect is exactly what we might expect. I have met a native of
+Constantinople, who had brought back with him from France only the
+language and the personal deportment, retaining withal the
+anti-reforming spirit of his orthodox brethren. But this spirit of
+resistance to innovation is fast fading away; and as innovation once
+begun here must lead to revolution, it is not difficult to foresee that
+a few more years only shall have passed, when the character of the Turk
+will have become historical, and the scenes that at present embellish
+their corner of the world, will have to be sought for in the
+descriptions of pen and pencil. Whether the influence emanate from the
+throne, or whether the court be following the popular metropolitan
+movement, it is difficult to say. But among them is assuredly at work
+the spirit of change, that must shortly carry away the mouldering
+edifice of their present institutions. This is something too vetust to
+abide the shock of any agitation. Let us hope that their changes may be
+successively biassed towards the better: may they acquire the urbanity
+of our great masters in elegance, without their profligacy; and if they
+reject Mahomedanism, may it be to receive in exchange something better
+than mere infidelity.
+
+The brother of the _ci-devant_ captain was a quiet, unassuming fellow,
+who wanted language to communicate with us freely. Nevertheless he
+managed to interest us much, with an account of the sufferings and
+trials of his youth. They were by birth Moreote Turks; and in the
+revolution of that country, when first the Greeks arose against their
+Turkish masters, (for really one must particularise in talking of Greek
+revolutions,) they had suffered the loss of all their protecting
+kindred, and hardly, children as they were, by some kindly intervention,
+been themselves saved. It is a sad thing, but a truth, that in this
+exterminating war, the cold-blooded massacreing was not all on one side.
+The horror and hatred of these deeds have, with their infamy, rested
+chiefly on the Turks, because theirs was the power to exceed in
+enormity; but the black veil of guilt rests on both sides of the strife.
+Still, however blameable the Greeks may be, for the cruelty committed on
+occasion, they were far from having power to work the enormous
+destruction of harmless life, whose memory still weighs on the Turkish
+power, and whose record is still extant in the evidence of ruined and
+dispeopled cities. But a short time before coming to Adalia, we had
+visited the island of Scio--that island which once was the garden of the
+Levant, and the storehouse of her riches. Even now, the great majority
+of the Greek merchants who are so prosperous a body in London, are
+Sciotes; and in those days they had pretty well all the commerce of the
+Levant in their hands. They delighted themselves in adorning their
+beautiful island with the artifices which money can command to the
+decorating of nature. At present a mass of ruins defaces that lovely
+spot. One is disposed to wonder that the Turks have never been at the
+pains to clear away the wreck of the town, if only for the sake of
+removing the monument of their cruelty. Mere selfish motives might
+induce them to be at that pains, and to restore this island to its
+former fitness for the habitations of the rich. At present it is one
+wide ruin; noble streets are there, with the shells of their houses
+remaining, as they were left in the day of massacre and pillage. The few
+inhabitants are stowed away in the one or two odd rooms of the old
+mansions that remain; being now reduced to such poverty that they have
+had neither spirit nor money to build for themselves; and probably
+finding it more congenial to the present spirit of their fortunes to
+roost among the bats and owls, rather than in trim streets. One
+occurrence gave us much pleasure, because it gave the lie to a story
+which has many abettors. It is said that when the garrison in the
+fortress, and the fleet before the town, were promoting the havoc, the
+English consul, from some punctilio on the subject of neutrality,
+refused shelter to the miserables who fled to his threshold. One old
+woman, in the story of her sufferings, gave us a full contradiction to
+this most incredible tradition. She had invited us into her dwelling to
+look at her wares, in the shape of conserves and purses--a strange
+combination, but nevertheless the articles by the sale of which they eke
+out their living. We were fully consoled for the trouble of passing over
+and through the _debris_ of some half-dozen houses which lay between us
+and her domicile. It came out that she herself had been saved by flying
+to the English consulate. It was a comfort to hear this--and to hear it
+in a way that involved the fact of an indefinite number of refugees
+having found the same shelter. Many rejoice to say that the French
+consul was the only efficient protector in that day of horror; and of
+these times, though so recent, it is not easy always to get such correct
+information as may sustain a contradiction of popular report.
+
+In a country of such limited resources in the way of amusement, it was
+not very easy for our zealous friends to cater for us, during the long
+days that we had to await the answer from the Caimacan. Riding was out
+of the question, and there were no antiquities within reach. Thus were
+we cut off from the two great resources of men in our position. But they
+played their part of entertainers hospitably and well. They told us long
+stories of the courts, and of what was to be seen in actual service in
+the camp of the Egyptian viceroy. Above all, they did us good by showing
+how thoroughly happy the whole party had been rendered by our coming. We
+were only afraid that they might become a little too bumptious on the
+strength of it, and be after giving us another job. But they did more
+than simply bear us company; they bore us to the cool grove, which I
+have said we could descry from the deck of our ship, there to be
+introduced to certain worthies, and to make _kef_ in their company.
+Nothing to my mind comes up to an _al fresco_ entertainment--in proper
+season and country, be it understood; for an English gipsy party is a
+very different affair.
+
+Our host conceived it to be a duty incumbent on him to develop, on this
+occasion, the full power of the resources of Adalia. We should have been
+far better satisfied if he had contented himself with doing things in a
+smaller way; but he was bent on magnificence. It was quite treat enough
+to lie on the soft turf, with the thick shade above, and to allow the
+hours to pass away as they led on evening. But he had been at the
+trouble to retain a band of musicians for our sakes. Such a set they
+were!--surpassing, in discordant prowess, the worst street musicians
+among our beggar melodists. It is quite surprising that invention has so
+long slumbered with these native artistes. With Musard concerts and
+Wilhelm music-meetings all around them, it is wonderful that they do not
+catch the note of something better than their villanous mandolins and
+single-noted pipes. Does any one need to be told what a mandolin is? It
+is something very different, let me assure him, from the ideal
+instrument of Moore's Melodies. Not even the lovely maidens that Moore
+paints could render tolerable a performance upon it; whereas it is made
+to resound by some especially ugly fellow, whose rascality of
+appearance, is relieved by no touch of the poetic. I did once hear a
+Turco-Greek lady perform, and on a more civilised instrument--a lady of
+high reputation as a performer on the guitar and a vocalist. And seldom
+has the spirit of romantic preparation received a more sudden chill than
+did mine on that occasion. Nothing could be more outrageously absurd
+than the whole thing was--accompaniment and song. I never afterwards was
+solicitous to hear an Oriental's musical performance; and am quite
+satisfied, that in them dwells no musical faculty, creative or
+perceptive: or that at least it is in a dormant state.
+
+These musicians began with a symphony on the full band--mandolins
+leading, drums doing bass, and the whole lot of ugly fellows screeching
+forth what might have been esteemed air or accompaniment, as the case
+might be. That a sorry musical effect was produced will surprise no one
+who considers the build of the most musical of their instruments. The
+mandolin is by way of being a guitar, or banjo--only in a very small way
+indeed. Nothing has been added to the idea since first Mercury stumbled
+on the original _testudo_--indeed, I should guess that the dried sinews
+of a tortoise would give out a far purer sound than the jingling wires
+with which the mandolin is mounted. I have sometimes stood at the door
+of a _cafe_, or, to give it the real name [Greek: kapheneion], and
+listened in wonder to the strains of some minstrel holding forth within.
+The wonder was, not that the man should play egregiously ill, but that
+the effect of good music should be produced by his evil playing. The
+people were evidently excited to sorrow when the attempt was at a
+mournful strain, and to ardour when the lilt took a loftier flight. To
+me who stood by, the difference of intention on the part of the
+performer was hardly discernible; indeed to be recognised only by the
+occasional catching of some familiar word in the burden of the song. The
+same observation may apply to the current Greek poetry. There can be no
+mistake in the conclusion, that it produces the effect of real poetry on
+the people, urging them in the direction whither works the imagination
+of the poet. But men of taste have come to, and can come to, but one
+decision on the judgment of Romaic poetasters. The spirit of poetry has
+died out of, and is become extinct from the genius of their tongue. It
+is but the enthusiasm of by-gone days, the inkling of Attic glory, that
+lingers about the circumstances of their modern productions, and cheats
+men with the mere similarity of idiom. Poetry is of universal
+application, and were the pretensions of the modern Greek genuine, his
+productions would touch the hearts of the poetic of other lands.
+
+These fellows who entertained us on this occasion, struck a good deal of
+enthusiasm out of their jingle,--enthusiasm to themselves, be it
+remarked, and not to us. I saw them grow sad in face, while the strain
+proceeded at a slow pace, and the _voce di canto_ degenerated into a
+more lugubrious howl than ever. By these tokens, I judged them to be
+singing some tale of sorrow, and so it seemed they were. The gentleman
+who performed for us the part of Chorus, gave us to wit, that they were
+lamenting the fall of Algiers, and imprecating maledictions on the head
+of the French. This they evidently considered a delicate and appropriate
+attention to us as Englishmen. I was only surprised to find they entered
+so far into the family distinctions of the Franks. There was some heart,
+too, in the manner in which they gesticulated and declaimed; and I have
+little doubt but that they were in earnest--especially if any of these
+happened to have friends or relations down that way, who had been roused
+out of house and home by the Gallic Avatar. When they were tired with
+singing, or perhaps presumed that they had therewith tired us, they took
+to playing the fool. Not merely in a general sense, in which they may be
+said to have been so engaged all along; but with heavy effort, and under
+the express direction of a professional master of the ceremonies. The
+Adalian jester was a tall ugly fellow, who had considerable power of
+comic expression in his face, but whose forte lay in a cap of fantastic
+device. It was made of the skin of some animal, whose genus I will not
+venture to guess; and had been contrived in such fashion that the tail
+hung over the top, and whisked about at the caprice of the wearer. This
+was a never-failing source of amusement to the performer himself, as
+well as to the native bystanders. As he bobbed his head up and down, and
+ran after this tail, the people burst into peals of laughter. They were
+quite taken up with the exhibition, except when they stole a moment now
+and then for a peep to see how the Frank visitors were amused with their
+wit. Besides this, the jester had a number of practical jokes, such as
+coming quietly along-side of some unsuspecting person, and catching hold
+of his leg, barking loudly the while, so as to make him think that some
+dog had bitten him. But this part of the performance was decidedly
+coarse, and did not improve our idea of the civilisation of the place. A
+good deal of sketching was going on in the course of this day; and the
+visages of some of these musicians, and especially of the jester, and of
+a blind old choragus, have been handed down to the posterity of our
+affectionate friends. We had a visit this day of a gentler kind. A Greek
+lady, the owner of considerable landed property in the place, came with
+her youthful daughter to interchange civilities with us. She was a
+plain, almost ugly old woman; but, like nine out of ten of all women
+extant, was of kind and _feminine_ disposition. Moreover, like the rest
+of the ladies, she was very fond of talking; but, on this particular
+occasion, unhappily could speak no single word that would convey meaning
+to us. Still it was not to be expected that she could hold her tongue;
+so she squatted down by us, and talked, perhaps all the faster because
+she had the conversation all to herself. Her daughter was a young lady,
+whom by appearance in England, you would call somewhere in her teens;
+but, hereaway they are so precocious that one is constantly deceived in
+guessing their age. She would have been pretty if she had been clean;
+and was abundantly and expensively ornamented. Sometimes we hear it
+figuratively said of a domestic coquette, that she carries all her
+property on her back. These Greeks must be well off, if it may not
+sometimes be so said with propriety of them. They have a plan of
+advertising a young lady's assets, in a manner that must be most
+satisfactory to fortune-hunters, and prevent the mistakes that with us
+constantly foil the best-laid plans. They turn a girl's fortune into
+money, and hang it--it, the fortune proper--the [Greek: poion] and the
+[Greek: poson]--about her neck. They do not buy jewels worth so many
+hundreds or tens--but transpierce the actual coin, and of them compose a
+necklace of whose value there can be no doubt, and whose fashion is not
+very variable. This may be called a fair and above-board way of doing
+things. The swain, as he sits by the beloved object, may amuse himself
+by counting the number of precious links in the chain that is drawing
+him into matrimony, and debate within himself, on sure data, the
+question whether or no he shall yield to the gentle influence. There
+would not have been much doubt about the monetary recommendations of
+this young lady, for she was abundantly gilt, as became the daughter of
+one reputed so rich as the old lady. Poor girls! It makes one sad to
+look upon them, brought up with so little idea of what is girlish and
+beautiful; to see them ignorant yet sophisticated, bejeweled and
+unwashed. This poor child was decked out in the most absurd manner, and
+sat for admiration most palpably. She also sat for something else, which
+was her picture. This was taken by several of the party, so much to the
+satisfaction of mother and daughter, that the old lady insisted on
+taking her turn as model. We invariably found them pleased with the
+productions of our art in these cases, and satisfied of the correctness
+of the likeness. The only objections they would occasionally make, would
+refer to the pretermission of some such thing as a tassel in the cap.
+The fidelity of the likeness they took implicitly on trust.
+
+I have said we could not talk to this old lady, Greek though she was,
+furnished though some of us were with the language of her compatriots.
+The deficiency was on her part--not on ours. She could not speak one
+single word of her own language. And so it is, that of all the Greeks of
+Adalia, not one can converse in the language of their fathers. Separated
+from their countrymen, they have become almost a distinct race; and,
+losing that language of which they have no practice, have learnt to use
+as their own the vernacular of the land in which they are immigrants of
+such antique standing. They talk Turkish--live almost like Turks; and by
+their religion only are distinguished from their neighbours. For
+religious purposes they use their own language: and, by consequence,
+understand no single word of the ritual or lessons. This is certainly a
+singular national position--impossible, except from religious
+prevention. It is just the reverse of what may be seen elsewhere: for
+instance, in the mountains of Thessaly you find a colony of Germans,
+who, though completely shut in by the people of the land, and holding
+intercourse with none other, remain foreigners and Germans, resisting
+the tendency to amalgamation. So in Sicily you find the _Piana della
+Grecia_, where the original Greek colonists have kept their language and
+customs in their integrity. But where else, save in this one spot, will
+you find people who, after having imbibed the influences of the country
+to the extent of adoption of its language, have been able to resist
+amalgamation with its denizens in every respect?
+
+By the bye, these people have opened a sort of royal road to the
+acquisition of the Turkish language. The orthography of this language is
+a most vexed and perplexed affair. Those who have made the attempt to
+master its difficulties may say something in its vituperation; but the
+practice of many of those who are well acquainted therewith, says a
+great deal more. These Greeks, for instance, though they have adopted
+this language as their own, and have been accustomed in no other to lisp
+to their nurses, have altogether discarded the orthography. They speak
+as do the natives, but write in their own character; accommodating the
+flexible capabilities of their alphabet to the purposes of Turkish
+orthoepy. Thus have you the means of reading Turkish in a familiar
+character, which also has the advantage of presenting your words in a
+definite form. The real Turkish alphabet is any thing but definite; at
+least to one within any decent term of years of his commencing the
+study. This is a mode of teaching which I have known to be insisted on
+by at least one good master: though of course the man of any ambition
+would regard this byway to knowledge as merely a step preliminary in the
+course.
+
+This was not the only party at which we assisted during our visit. A
+rich Greek merchant invited us to enjoy the coolness of evening in his
+gardens. It was duly impressed on our minds by the gentleman of the
+place that this old fellow was worth his weight in gold. They did say
+that his name was good for L150,000--a long figure, certainly, to meet
+in such a place. He was a quiet-looking, unpretending person, with very
+much the air of a moneyed man. The hope that we had formed of seeing a
+display of the youth and fashion of Adalia was disappointed. It was by
+all express relaxation of the law of etiquette that we had the
+opportunity of seeing even the one or two ladies belonging to the
+family. Greeks, in their own country, though exceedingly jealous, and
+apt to build up alarms on the slightest foundation, are yet by no means
+chary in showing their women. In-doors and out, you will meet them, both
+old and young; and perfectly unconstrained and companionable you will
+find them. But here the case is far otherwise. They have acquired so
+much of Mussulman notions, that they do not allow their women to mix in
+society. This is the general rule: more pliant to occasion than the law
+of the Turks, which never yields. And not only here is there a strong
+feeling on this subject: the same prejudice prevails widely in the
+Turco-Greek islands. For instance, in Mytilene, on occasion of taking
+that long excursion which I have already mentioned, we observed that all
+the women we met were old and ugly. From this observed fact we drew
+conclusions unfavourable to the general appearance and presentability of
+the Mytilenian ladies. But subsequently we found the reason of the
+phenomenon to be, that the young and pretty girls were kept within
+doors, and the old ones alone allowed the privilege of walking forth--a
+difference of condition that might almost induce the girls of Mytilene
+to wish for age and wrinkles.
+
+They did not, at Adalia, use us quite so ill as to withhold their ladies
+from the entertainment. The mother was there and a daughter--a young
+lady with the romantic name of Dudu. With such a name as this she ought
+to have been very pretty, and certainly she did not fall far short of
+such condition. It was clearly to be perceived that she was unaccustomed
+to mix in general society, and that the company of strange men disturbed
+her. But she was not ungraceful either in manner or dress, or in her
+evident desire to please. The place of our reception was in the central
+court, which the best kind of houses preserve--a contrivance which gives
+to each of the four sides on which the building is disposed, the
+advantages of a pure and thorough current of air. Here we sat drinking
+sherbet, and, of course, smoking the unfailing chibouque. The lady
+mother was painfully anxious to talk to us, and pretty Miss Dudu was
+seriously bent on listening; but we could not manage to execute a
+colloquy. All the civil things imaginable were expressed to us by
+gesture, and the young lady came out strong in the presentation of
+bouquets. One fortunate man received from her an orange, the only one
+remaining at that time in the garden; this we persuaded ourselves must,
+in their symbolical language, imply a declaration of some soft interest.
+Miss Dudu would not have been such a very bad _parti_, being, as she
+was, the sole heritress of her father's thousands. However, she was, we
+understood, engaged already to a youth, who was obeying the cruel law
+prevalent in this place, which compels the accepted swain to absent
+himself from his inamorata for a long probation. I think the time was
+said to be a year; during which no communication must pass between the
+parties. Should the first overtures of a suitor be rejected, it is a
+settled matter of etiquette, that he never again is to see or speak to
+the young lady. This must be likely, we would think, to render a man
+cautious in proposing: but certainly it must tend to lessen the number
+of eventual old maids, by rendering the young ladies also chary of
+saying No, when they mean Yes. On the whole, we can scarcely admire
+their matrimonial tactics. We found that we were among a family of
+Hadjis. Miss Dudu was a Hadji, and so were her father and mother. In
+their case the place of pilgrimage is Jerusalem, a visit to which
+confers on them the respectable title of Hadji for life. This old
+gentleman had made a pious use of some of his money, by promoting the
+cause of pilgrimage among his less opulent brethren. The desire to tread
+the holy soil is common to them all; not only to the religious. These
+have their motives; but so also have the disorderly and wicked, who
+think that a world of cheating and ill-living is covered over by the
+wholesome cloak of pilgrimage. There are also certain less considerable
+places of pilgrimage, invested with considerable sanctity, though
+inferior in character to the one great rendezvous of the religious.
+Health to body seems often the expected result of visits to these
+secondary places, to which recourse will frequently be had when medical
+aid has failed to be available. Dudu's father had made himself highly
+popular by chartering a vessel, and conveying, for charity's sake, as
+many devotees as chose to go on one of these minor expeditions. The
+island of Cyprus has a convent of peculiar sanctity, a visit to which is
+highly esteemed as an antidote to bodily ills. He gave a great number
+the opportunity of testing the truth of the tradition.
+
+It was not bad fun, after all, tarrying a few days in Adalia: only, by
+choice, we would hardly choose that particular season for the excursion.
+What between the Consul's gardens, and the old Greek, and the little bit
+of business we had upon our hands, we managed to get through the time
+pleasantly enough. We saw that we had here a good specimen of the
+variety of life commonly described as deadly-lively. Were it not that
+they have such a lot of strangers constantly passing through the place,
+they might seem to be in danger of a moral_anchylosis_--of falling into
+a state of mind so rusty, as to be incapable of direction to any object,
+save such as lay before them, in the way of immediate physical
+requirement. The few days that we remained there did not afford time
+enough for the disease to make much head with us. Indeed, for us it was
+a variety of experience, sufficiently stirring for the time, to mark the
+ways of a people so deeply buried in imperturbability and incuriosity.
+
+I think we were not sorry when at last the messenger returned from the
+Caimacan, and we found we were in condition to leave the place. The
+Consul was set on his legs again, and the English name in better odour
+than ever. The _attaches_ of the consulate had taken care that our visit
+should fail in no degree of its wholesome influence, for want of their
+good word; and I fancy that the town's people thought themselves rather
+well off that we left their town standing. We left, too, with the full
+reputation for merciful dealing; as we had spared the poor soap-rioters
+the infliction of the bastinado.
+
+And so we sped on our way to Rhodes.
+
+
+
+
+PACIFIC ROVINGS.[C]
+
+
+We were much puzzled, a few weeks since, by a tantalising and
+unintelligible paragraph, pertinaciously reiterated in the London
+newspapers. Its brevity equalled its mystery; it consisted but of five
+words, the first and last in imposing majuscules. Thus it ran:--
+
+    "OMOO, by the author of TYPEE."
+
+With Trinculo we exclaimed, "What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or
+alive?" Who or what were Typee and Omoo? Were things or creatures thus
+designated? Did they exist on the earth, or in the air, or in the waters
+under the earth; were they spiritual or material, vegetable or mineral,
+brute or human? Were they newly-discovered planets, nicknamed whilst
+awaiting baptism, or strange fossils, contemporaries of the Megatherium,
+or Magyar dissyllables from Dr Bowring's vocabulary? Perchance they were
+a pair of new singers for the Garden, or a fresh brace of beasts for the
+legitimate drama at Drury. Omoo might be the heavy elephant; Typee the
+light-comedy camel. Did danger lurk in the enigmatical words? Were they
+obscure intimations of treasonable designs, Swing advertisements, or
+masonic signs? Was the palace at Westminster in peril? had an agent of
+sure of Barbarossa Joinville undermined the Trafalgar column? Were they
+conspirators' watchwords, lovers' letters, signals concerted between the
+robbers of Rogers's bank? We tried them anagrammatically, but in vain:
+there was nought to be made of Omoo; shake it as we would, the O's came
+uppermost; and by reversing Typee we obtained but a pitiful result. At
+last a bright gleam broke through the mist of conjecture. Omoo was a
+book. The outlandish title that had perplexed us was intended to
+perplex; it was a bait thrown out to that wide-mouthed fish, the public;
+a specimen of what is theatrically styled _gag_. Having but an
+indifferent opinion of books ushered into existence by such
+charlatanical manoeuvres, we thought no more of Omoo, until, musing
+the other day over our matutinal hyson, the volume itself was laid
+before us, and we suddenly found ourselves in the entertaining society
+of Marquesan Melville, the phoenix of modern voyagers, sprung, it
+would seem, from the mingled ashes of Captain Cook and Robin Crusoe.
+
+Those who have read M. Herman Melville's former work will remember,
+those who have not are informed by the introduction to the present one,
+that the author, an educated American, whom circumstances had shipped as
+a common sailor on board a South-Seaman, was left by his vessel on the
+island of Nukuheva, one of the Marquesan group. Here he remained some
+months, until taken off by a Sydney whaler, short-handed, and glad to
+catch him. At this point of his adventures he commences Omoo. The title
+is borrowed from the dialect of the Marquesas, and signifies a rover:
+the book is excellent, quite first-rate, the "clear grit," as Mr
+Melville's countrymen would say. Its chief fault, almost its only one,
+interferes little with the pleasure of reading it, will escape many, and
+is hardly worth insisting upon. Omoo is of the order composite, a
+skilfully concocted Robinsonade, where fictitious incident is
+ingeniously blended with genuine information. Doubtless its author has
+visited the countries he describes, but not in the capacity he states.
+He is no Munchausen; there is nothing improbable in his adventures, save
+their occurrence to himself, and that he should have been a man before
+the mast on board South-Sea traders, or whalers, or on any ship or ships
+whatever. His speech betrayeth him. His voyages and wanderings
+commenced, according to his own account, at least as far back as the
+year 1838; for aught we know they are not yet at an end. On leaving
+Tahiti in 1843, he made sail for Japan, and the very book before us may
+have been scribbled on the greasy deck of a whaler, whilst floating
+amidst the coral reefs of the wide Pacific. True that in his preface,
+and in the month of January of the present year, Mr Melville hails from
+New York; but in such matters we really place little dependence upon
+him. From his narrative we gather that this literary and gentlemanly
+common-sailor is quite a young man. His life, therefore, since he
+emerged from boyhood, has been spent in a ship's forecastle, amongst the
+wildest and most ignorant class of mariners. Yet his tone is refined and
+well-bred; he writes like one accustomed to good European society, who
+has read books and collected stores of information, other than could be
+perused or gathered in the places and amongst the rude associates he
+describes. These inconsistencies are glaring, and can hardly be
+explained. A wild freak or unfortunate act of folly, or a boyish thirst
+for adventure, sometimes drives lads of education to try life before the
+mast, but when suited for better things they seldom persevere; and Mr
+Melville does not seem to us the manner of man to rest long contented
+with the coarse company and humble lot of merchant seamen. Other
+discrepancies strike us in his book and character. The train of
+suspicion once lighted, the flame runs rapidly along. Our misgivings
+begin with the title-page. "Lovel or Belville," says the Laird of
+Monkbarns, "are just the names which youngsters are apt to assume on
+such occasions." And Herman Melville sounds to us vastly like the
+harmonious and carefully selected appellation of an imaginary hero of
+romance. Separately the names are not uncommon; we can urge no valid
+reason against their junction, and yet in this instance they fall
+suspiciously on our ear. We are similarly impressed by the dedication.
+Of the existence of Uncle Gansevoort, of Gansevoort, Saratoga County, we
+are wholly incredulous. We shall commission our New York correspondents
+to inquire as to the reality of Mr Melville's avuncular relative, and,
+until certified of his corporality, shall set down the gentleman with
+the Dutch patronymic as a member of an imaginary clan.
+
+Although glad to escape from Nukuheva, where he had been held in a sort
+of honourable captivity, Typee--the _alias_ bestowed upon the rover by
+his new shipmates, after the valley whence they rescued him--was but
+indifferently pleased with the vessel on which he left it, and whose
+articles he signed as a seaman for one cruise. The Julia was of a
+beautiful model, and on or before a wind she sailed like a witch; but
+that was all that could be said in her praise. She was rotten to the
+core, incommodious, and ill-provided, badly manned, and worse commanded.
+American-built, she dated from the Short war, had served as a privateer,
+been taken by the British, passed through many vicissitudes, and was in
+no condition for a long cruise in the Pacific. So mouldering was her
+fabric, that the reckless sailors, when seated in the forecastle, dug
+their knives into the dank boards between them and eternity as easily as
+into the moist sides of some old pollard oak. She was much dilapidated
+and rapidly becoming more so; for Black Baltimore, the ship's cook, when
+in want of firewood, did not scruple to hack splinters from the bits and
+beams. Lugubrious indeed was the aspect of the forecastle. Landsmen,
+whose ideas of a sailor's sleeping-place are taken from the snow-white
+hammocks and exquisitely clean berth-deck of a man of war, or from the
+rough, but substantial comfort of a well-appointed merchantman, can form
+no conception of the surpassing and countless abominations of a
+South-Sea whaler. The "Little Jule," as her crew affectionately styled
+her, was a craft of two hundred tons or thereabouts; she had sailed with
+thirty-two hands, whom desertion had reduced to twenty, but these were
+too many for the cramped and putrid nook in which they slept, ate, and
+smoked, and alternately desponded or were jovial, as sickness and
+discomfort, or a Saturday night's bottle and hopes of better luck, got
+the upper hand. Want of room, however, was one of the least grievances
+of which the Julia's crew complained. It was a mere trifle, not worth
+the naming. They could have submitted to close stowage had the dunnage
+been decent. But instead of swinging in cosy hammocks, they slept in
+_bunks_ or wretched pigeon-holes, on fragments of sails, unclean rags,
+blanket-shreds, and the like. Such unenviable accommodations ought
+hardly to have been disputed with their luckless possessors, who
+nevertheless were not allowed to occupy in peace their broken-down bunks
+and scanty bedding. Two races of creatures, time out of mind the curse
+of old ships in warm latitudes, infested the Julia's forecastle,
+resisting all efforts to dislodge or exterminate them, sometimes even
+getting the upper hand, dispossessing the tortured mariners, and driving
+them on deck in terror and despair. The sick only, hapless martyrs
+unable to leave their cribs, lay passive, if not resigned, and were
+trampled under foot by their ferocious and unfragrant foes. These were
+rats and cockroaches. Typee--we use the name he bore during his Julian
+tribulations--records a singular phenomenon in the nocturnal habits of
+the last-named vermin. "Every night they had a jubilee. The first
+symptom was an unusual clustering and humming amongst the swarms lining
+the beams overhead, and the inside of the sleeping-places. This was
+succeeded by a prodigious coming and going on the part of those living
+out of sight. Presently they all came forth; the larger sort racing over
+the chests and planks; winged monsters darting to and fro in the air;
+and the small fry buzzing in heaps almost in a state of fusion. On the
+first alarm, all who were able darted on deck; while some of the sick,
+who were too feeble, lay perfectly quiet, the distracted vermin running
+over them at pleasure. The performance lasted some ten minutes." Persons
+there are, weak enough to view with loathing and aversion certain sable
+insects that stray at night in kitchen or in pantry, and barbarous
+enough to circumvent and destroy the odoriferous coleopterae by artful
+devices of glass traps and scarlet wafers. Such persons will probably
+form their ideas of Typee's cockroaches from their own domestic
+opportunities of observation. That were unjust to the crew of the Julia,
+and would give no adequate idea of their sufferings. As a purring tabby
+to a roaring jaguar, so is a British black-beetle to a cock-roach of the
+Southern Seas. We back our assertion by a quotation from our lamented
+friend Captain Cringle, who in his especially graphic and attractive
+style thus hits off the peculiarities of this graceful insect. "When
+full grown," saith Thomas, "it is a large dingy brown-coloured beetle,
+about two inches long, with six legs, and two feelers as long as its
+body. It has a strong anti-hysterical flavour, something between rotten
+cheese and asafoetida, and seldom stirs abroad when the sun is up, but
+lies concealed in the most obscure and obscene crevices it can creep
+into; so that, when it is seen, its wings and body are thickly covered
+with dust and dirt of various shades, which any culprit who chances to
+fall asleep with his mouth open, is sure to reap the benefit of, as it
+has a great propensity to walk into it, partly for the sake of the
+crumbs adhering to the masticators, and also, apparently, with a
+scientific desire to inspect, by accurate admeasurement with the
+aforesaid antennae, the state and condition of the whole potato-trap." A
+description worthy of Buffon. Such were the delicate monsters, the
+savoury sexipedes, with whom Typee and his comrades had to wage
+incessant war. They were worse even than the rats, which were certainly
+bad enough. "Tame as Trenck's mouse, they stood in their holes, peering
+at you like old grandfathers in a doorway;" watching for their prey, and
+disputing with the sailors the weevil-biscuit, rancid pork, and
+horse-beef, composing the Julia's stores; or smothering themselves, the
+luscious vermin, in molasses, which thereby acquired a rich wood-cock
+flavour, whose cause became manifest when the treacle-jar ran low,
+greatly to the disgust and consternation of the biped consumers. There
+were no delicate feeders on board, but this saccharine essence of rat
+was too much even for the unscrupulous stomachs of South-Sea whalers. A
+queer set they were on board that Sydney barque. Paper Jack, the
+captain, was a feeble Cockney, of meek spirit and puny frame, who glided
+about the vessel in a nankeen jacket and canvass pumps, a laughing-stock
+to his crew. The real command devolved upon the chief mate, John
+Jermin--a good sailor and brave fellow, but violent, and given to drink.
+The junior mate had deserted; of the four harpooners only one was left,
+a fierce barbarian of a New Zealander--an excellent mariner, whose stock
+of English was limited to nautical phrases and a frightful power of
+oath, but who, in spite of his cannibal origin, ranked as a sort of
+officer, in virtue of his harpoon, and took command of the ship when
+mate and captain were absent. What a capital story, by the bye, Typee
+tells us of one of this Bembo's whaling exploits! New Zealanders are
+brave and bloodthirsty, and excellent harpooners, and they act up to the
+South-Seaman's war-cry, "A dead whale or a stove boat!" There is a world
+of wild romance and thrilling adventure in the occasional glimpses of
+the whale fishery afforded us in Omoo; a strange picturesqueness and
+piratical mystery about the lawless class of seamen engaged in it. Such
+a portrait gallery as Typee makes out of the Julia's crew, beginning
+with Chips and Bungs, the carpenter and cooper, the "Cods," or leaders
+of the forecastle, and descending until he arrives at poor Rope Yarn, or
+Ropey, as he was called, a stunted journeyman baker from Holborn, the
+most helpless and forlorn of all land-lubbers, the butt and drudge of
+the ship's company! A Dane, a Portuguese, a Finlander, a savage
+from Hivarhoo, sundry English, Irish, and Americans, a daring
+Yankee _beach-comber_, called Salem, and Sydney Ben, a runaway
+ticket-of-leave-man, made up a crew much too weak to do any good in the
+whaling way. But the best fellow on board, and by far the most
+remarkable, was a disciple of Esculapius, known as Doctor Long-Ghost.
+Jermin is a good portrait; so is Captain Guy; but Long-Ghost is a jewel
+of a boy, a complete original, hit off with uncommon felicity. Nothing
+is told us of his early life. Typee takes him up on board the Julia,
+shakes hands with him in the last page of the book, and informs us that
+he has never since seen or heard of him. So we become acquainted with
+but a small section of the doctor's life; his subsequent adventures are
+unknown, and, save a chance hint or two, his previous career is a
+mystery, unfathomable as the Tahitian coast, where, within a biscuit's
+toss of the coral shore, soundings there are none. Now and then he would
+obscurely refer to days more palmy and prosperous than those spent on
+board the Julia. But however great the contrast between his former
+fortunes and his then lowly position, he exhibited much calm philosophy
+and cheerful resignation. He was even merry and facetious, a practical
+wag of the very first order, and as such a great favourite with the
+whole ship's company, the captain excepted. He had arrived at Sydney in
+an emigrant ship, had expended his resources, and entered as doctor on
+board the Julia. All British whalers are bound to carry a medico, who is
+treated as a gentleman, so long as he behaves as such, and has nothing
+to do but to drug the men and play drafts with the captain. At first
+Long-Ghost and Captain Guy hit it off very well; until, in an unlucky
+hour, a dispute about politics destroyed their harmonious association.
+The captain got a thrashing; the mutinous doctor was put in confinement
+and on bread and water, ran away from the ship, was pursued, captured,
+and again imprisoned. Released at last, he resigned his office, refused
+to do duty, and went forward amongst the men. This was more magnanimous
+than wise. Long-Ghost was a sort of medical Tom Coffin, a raw-boned
+giant, upwards of two yards high, one of those men to whom the
+between-decks of a small craft is a residence little less afflicting
+than one of Cardinal Balue's iron cages. And to one who "had certainly,
+at some time or other, spent money, drunk Burgundy, and associated with
+gentlemen," the Julia's forecastle must have contained a host of
+disagreeables, irrespective of rats and cockroaches, of its low roof,
+evil odours, damp timbers, and dungeon-like aspect. The captain's table,
+if less luxurious than that of a royal yacht or New York liner, surely
+offered something better than the biscuits, hard as gun-flints and
+thoroughly honeycombed, and the shot-soup, "great round peas polishing
+themselves like pebbles by rolling about in tepid water," on which the
+restive man of medicine was fain to exercise his grinders during his
+abode forward. As regarded society, he lost little by relinquishing that
+of Guy the Cockney, since he obtained in exchange the intimacy of
+Melville the Yankee, who, to judge from his book, must be exceeding good
+company, and to whom he was a great resource. The doctor was a man of
+learning and accomplishments, who had made the most of his time whilst
+the sun shone on his side the hedge, and had rolled his ungainly carcass
+over half the world. "He quoted Virgil, and talked of Hobbes of
+Malmsbury, besides repeating poetry by the canto, especially Hudibras.
+In the easiest way imaginable, he could refer to an amour he had in
+Palermo, his lion-hunting before breakfast among the Caffres, and the
+quality of the coffee to be drunk in Muscat." Strangely must such
+reminiscences have sounded in a whaler's forecastle, with Dunks the
+Dane, Finland Van, and Wymontoo the Savage, for auditors.
+
+The Julia had hitherto had little luck in her cruise, and could scarcely
+hope for better in the state in which Typee found her. Besides the
+losses by desertion, her crew was weakened by disease. Several of the
+men lay sick in their berths, wholly unfit for duty. The captain himself
+was ill, and all would have derived benefit from a short sojourn in
+port; but this could not be thought of. The discipline of the ship was
+bad, and the sailors, desperate and unruly fellows, discontented, as
+well they might be, with their wretched provisions and uncomfortable
+state, were not to be trusted on or near shore. Three-fourths of them,
+had they once set foot on dry land, would have absconded, taken refuge
+in the woods or amongst the savages, and have submitted to any amount of
+tattoo, paint, and nose-ringing, rather than return to the ship.
+Already, at St Christina, one of the Marquesas, a large party had made
+their escape in two of the four whale-boats, scuttling the third, and
+cutting the tackles of the fourth nearly through, so that when Bembo
+jumped in to clear it away, man and boat went souse into the water. By
+the assistance of a French corvette, and by bribing the king of the
+country with a musket and ammunition, the fugitives were captured. But
+it was more than probable that they and others would renew the attempt
+should opportunity offer; so there was no alternative but to keep the
+sea, and hope for better days and for the convalescence of the invalids.
+Two of these died. Neither Bible nor Prayer-book were on board the
+godless craft, and like dogs, without form of Christian burial, the dead
+were launched into the deep. The situation of the survivors inspired
+with considerable uneasiness the few amongst them capable of reflection.
+The captain was ignorant of navigation; it was the mate who, from the
+commencement of the voyage, had kept the ship's reckoning, and kept it
+all to himself. He had only to get washed overboard in a gale, or to
+walk over in a drunken fit, to leave his shipmates in a fix of the most
+unpleasant description, ignorant of latitude, longitude, and of
+everything else necessary to be known to guide the vessel on her course.
+And as to the sperm whales, which Jermin had promised them in such
+abundance that they would only have to strike and take, not a single fin
+showed itself. At last the captain was reported dying, and the mate took
+counsel with Long-Ghost, Typee, and others of the crew. He would gladly
+have continued the cruise, but his wish was overruled, and the whaler's
+stern was turned towards the Society Islands.
+
+The first glimpse of the peaks of Tahiti was hailed with transport by
+the Julia's weary mariners. They had got a notion that if the captain
+left the ship, their articles were no longer binding, and they should be
+free to follow his example. And, at any rate, the sickness on board and
+the shaky condition of the barque, guaranteed them, as they thought,
+long and blissful leisure amongst the waving palm-groves and soft-eyed
+Neuhas of Polynesia. Their arrival in sight of Papeetee, the Tahitian
+capital, was welcomed by the boom of cannon. The frigate Reine Blanche,
+at whose fore flew the flag of Admiral Du Petit Thouars, thus celebrated
+the compulsory treaty, concluded that morning, by which the island was
+ceded to the French.
+
+Captain Guy and his baggage were now set on shore, and it was soon
+apparent to his men that whilst he nursed himself in the pure climate
+and pleasant shades of Tahiti, they were to put to sea under the mate's
+orders, and after a certain time to touch again at the island, and take
+off their commander. The vessel was not even allowed to go into port,
+although needing repairs, and in fact unseaworthy; and as to healing the
+sick, selfish Paper Jack thought only of solacing his own infirmities.
+The fury of the ill-fed, reckless, discontented crew, on discovering the
+project of their superiors, passed all bounds. Chips and Bungs
+volunteered to head a mutiny, and a round-robin was drawn up and signed.
+But when Wilson, an old acquaintance of Guy's, and acting consul in the
+absence of missionary Pritchard, came on board, the gallant cooper, who
+derived much of his courage from the grog-kid, was cowed and craven. The
+grievances brought forward, amongst others that of the _salt-horse_, (a
+horse's hoof with the shoe on, so swore the cook, had been found in the
+pickle,) were treated as trifles and pooh-poohed by the functionary, "a
+minute gentleman with a viciously pugged nose, and a decidedly thin pair
+of legs." But if Bungs allowed himself to be brow-beaten, so did not his
+comrades. Yankee Salem flourished a bowie-knife, and such alarming
+demonstrations were made, that the _counsellor_, as the sailors
+persisted in calling the consul, thought it wise to beat a retreat.
+Jermin now tried his hand, holding out brilliant prospects of a rich
+cargo of sperm oil, and a pocket-full of dollars for every man on his
+return to Sydney. The mutineers were proof alike against menace and
+blandishment, and, at the secret instigation of Long Ghost and Typee,
+resolutely refused to do duty. The consul, who had promised to return,
+did not show; and at last the mate, having now but a few invalids and
+landsmen to work the ship and keep her off shore, was compelled to enter
+the harbour. The Julia came to an anchor within cable's length of the
+French frigate, on board which consul Wilson repaired to obtain
+assistance. The Reine Blanche was to sail in a few days for Valparaiso,
+and the mutineers expected to go with her and be delivered up to a
+British man-of-war. Undismayed by this prospect, they continued stanch
+in their contumacy, and presently an armed cutter, "painted a 'pirate
+black,' its crew a dark, grim-looking set, and the officers uncommonly
+fierce-looking little Frenchmen," conveyed them on board the frigate,
+where they were duly handcuffed, and secured by the ankle to a great
+iron bar bolted down to the berth-deck.
+
+Touching the proceedings on board the French man-of-war, its imperfect
+discipline, and the strange, un-nautical way of carrying on the duty,
+Typee is jocular and satirical. American though he be--and, but for
+occasional slight yankeeisms in his style, we might have doubted even
+that fact--he has evidently much more sympathy with his cousin John Bull
+than with his country's old allies, the French, whom he freely admits to
+be a clever and gallant nation, whilst he broadly hints that their
+valour is not likely to be displayed to advantage on the water. He finds
+too much of the military style about their marine institutions. Sailors
+should be fighting men, but not soldiers or musket-carriers, as they all
+are in turn in the French navy. He laughs at or objects to every thing;
+the mustaches of the officers, the system of punishment, the sour wine
+that replaces rum and water, the soup instead of junk, the pitiful
+little rolls baked on board, and distributed in lieu of hard biscuit.
+And whilst praising the build of their ships--the only thing about them
+he does praise--he ejaculates a hope, which sounds like a doubt, that
+they will not some day fall into the hands of the people across the
+Channel. "In case of war," he says, "what a fluttering of French ensigns
+there would be! for the Frenchman makes but an indifferent seaman, and
+though for the most part he fights well enough, somehow or other, he
+seldom fights well enough to beat:"--at sea, be it understood. We are
+rather at a loss to comprehend the familiarity shown by Typee with the
+internal arrangements and architecture of the Reine Blanche. His time on
+board was passed in fetters; at nightfall on the fifth day he left the
+ship. How, we are curious to know, did he become acquainted with the
+minute details of "the crack craft in the French navy," with the
+disposition of her guns and decks, the complicated machinery by which
+certain exceedingly simple things were done, and even with the rich
+hangings, mirrors, and mahogany of the commodore's cabin? Surely the
+ragged and disreputable mutineer of the Julia, whose foot had scarcely
+touched the gangway, when he was hurried into confinement below, could
+have had scanty opportunity for such observations: unless, indeed,
+Herman Melville, or Typee, or the Rover, or by whatever other _alias_ he
+be known, instead of creeping in at the hawse-holes, was welcomed on the
+quarter-deck and admitted to the gun-room, or to the commodore's cabin,
+an honoured guest in broad-cloth, not a despised merchant seaman in
+canvass frock and hat of tarpaulin. We shall not dwell on these small
+inconsistencies and oversights in an amusing book. We prefer
+accompanying the Julia's crew to Tahiti, where they were put on shore
+contrary to their expectations, and not altogether to their
+satisfaction, since they had anticipated a rapid run to Valparaiso, the
+fag-end of a cruise in an English man-of-war, and a speedy discharge at
+Portsmouth. Paper Jack and Consul Wilson had other designs, and still
+hoped to reclaim them to their duty on board the crazy Julia. On their
+stubborn refusal, they were given in charge to a fat, good-humoured, old
+Tahitian, called Captain Bob, who, at the head of an escort of natives,
+conveyed them up the country to a sort of shed, known as the Calabooza
+Beretanee or English jail, used as a prison for refractory sailors. This
+commences Typee's shore-going adventures, not less pleasant and original
+than his sea-faring ones; although it is with some regret that we lose
+sight of the vermin-haunted barque, on whose board such strange and
+exciting scenes occurred.
+
+Throughout the book, however, fun and incident abound, and we are
+consoled for our separation from poor little Jule, by the curious
+insight we obtain into the manners, morals, and condition of the gentle
+savages, on whom an attempted civilisation has brought far more curses
+than blessings.
+
+    "How pleasant were the songs of Toobonai,"
+
+how gladsome and grateful the rustle of leaves and tinkle of rills, and
+silver-toned voices of Tahitian maidens, to the rough seamen who had so
+long been "cabined, cribbed, confined," in the Julia's filthy
+forecastle! Not that they were allowed free range of the Eden of the
+South Seas. On board the Reine Blanche their ankles had been manacled to
+an iron bar; in the Calabooza, (from the Spanish _calabozo_, a dungeon,)
+they were placed in rude wooden stocks twenty feet long, constructed for
+the particular benefit of refractory mariners. There they lay, merry men
+all of a row, fed upon _taro_ (Indian turnip) and bread-fruit, and
+covered up at night with one huge counterpane of brown _tappa_, the
+native cloth. It was owing to no friendly indulgence on the part of Guy
+and the consul, that their diet was so agreeable and salutary. Every
+morning Ropey came grinning into the prison, with a bucket full of the
+old worm-eaten biscuit from the Julia. It was a huge treat to the
+unfortunate Cockney, thus to be instrumental in the annoyance of his
+former persecutors; and lucky for him that their limbo'd legs prevented
+their rewarding his visible exultation otherwise than by a shower of
+maledictions. They swore to starve rather than consume the maggoty
+provender. Luckily the natives had it in very different estimation. They
+did not mind maggots, and held British biscuit to be a piquant and
+delicious delicacy. So in exchange for their allotted ration, the
+mutineers obtained a small quantity of vegetable food, and an unlimited
+supply of oranges, thanks to which refreshing regimen the sick were
+speedily restored to health. And after a few days of stocks and
+submission, jolly old Captain Bob, who spoke sailor's English, and
+obstinately claimed intimacy with Captain Cook,--whose visit to the
+island had occurred some years before his birth--relaxed his severity,
+and allowed the captives their freedom during the day. They profited of
+this permission to forage a little, in a quiet way; assisting at
+pig-killings, and dropping in at dinner-time upon the wealthier of their
+neighbours. Tahitian hospitality is boundless, and the more praiseworthy
+that the island, although so fertile, produces but a scanty amount of
+edibles. Bread-fruit is the chief resource; fish, a very important one,
+the chief dependence of many of the poorer natives. There is little
+industry amongst them, and on the spontaneous produce of the soil the
+shipping make heavy demands. Polynesian indolence is proverbial. Very
+light labour would enable the Tahitians to roll in riches, at least
+according to their own estimate of the value of money and of the
+luxuries it procures. The sugar-cane is indigenous to the island, and of
+remarkably fine quality; cotton is of ready growth; but the fine
+existing plantations "are owned and worked by whites, who would rather
+pay a drunken sailor eighteen or twenty Spanish dollars a month, than
+hire a sober native for his fish and _taro_." Wholly without energy, the
+Tahitians saunter away their lives in a state of drowsy indolence,
+aiming only at the avoidance of trouble, and the sensual enjoyment of
+the moment. The race rapidly diminishes. "In 1777, Captain Cook
+estimated the population of Tahiti at about two hundred thousand. By a
+regular census taken some four or five years ago, it was found to be
+only nine thousand!" Diseases of various kinds, entirely of European
+introduction, and chiefly the result of drunkenness and debauchery,
+account for this frightful decrease, which must result in the extinction
+of the aborigines.
+
+    "The palm-tree shall grow,
+    The coral shall spread,
+    But man shall cease."
+
+So runs an old Tahitian prophecy, soon to be realised. And if Pomaree,
+who is under forty years of age, proves a long-lived sovereign, she may
+chance to find herself a queen without subjects. Concerning her majesty
+and her court, Typee is diffuse and diverting. This is an age of queens,
+and although her dominions be of the smallest, her people few and
+feeble, and her prerogative wofully clipped, she of Tahiti has made some
+noise in the world, and attracted a fair share of public attention. At
+one time, indeed, she was almost as much thought of and talked about as
+her more civilised and puissant European sisters. In France, _La Reine
+Pomaree_ was looked upon as a far more interesting personage than
+Spanish Isabel or Portuguese Maria; and extraordinary notions were
+formed as to the appearance, habits, and attributes of her dusky
+majesty. Distance favoured delusion, and French imagination ran riot in
+conjecture, until the reports of the valiant Thonars, and his squadron
+of protection, dissipated the enchantment, and reduced Pomaree to her
+true character, that of a lazy, dirty, licentious, Polynesian savage,
+who walks about barefoot, drinks spirits, and hen-pecks her husband. Her
+real name is Aimata, but she assumed, on ascending the throne, the royal
+patronymic by which she is best known. There were Caesars in Rome, there
+are Pomarees in Tahiti. The name was originally assumed by the great
+Otoo, (to be read of in Captain Cook,) who united the whole island under
+one crown. It descended to his son, and then to his grandson, who came
+to the throne an infant, and, dying young, was succeeded by her present
+majesty, Pomaree Vahinee I., the first female Pomaree. This lady has
+been twice married. Her first husband was a king's son, but the union
+was ill assorted, a divorce obtained, and she took up with one Tanee, a
+chief from the neighbouring island of Imeco. She leads him a dog's life,
+and he consoles himself by getting drunk. In that state, he now and then
+violently breaks out, contemns the royal authority, thrashes his wife,
+and smashes the crockery. Captain Bob gave Typee an account of a burst
+of this sort, which occurred about seven years ago. Stimulated by the
+seditious advice of his boon companions, and under the influence of an
+unusually large dose of strong waters, the turbulent king-consort forgot
+the respect due to his wife and sovereign, mounted his horse, and ran
+full tilt at the royal cavalcade, out for their afternoon ride in the
+park. One maid of honour was floored, the rest fled in terror, save and
+except Pomaree, who stood her ground like a man, and apostrophised her
+insubordinate spouse in the choicest Tahitian Billingsgate. For once her
+eloquence failed of effect. Dragged from her horse, her personal charms
+were deteriorated by a severe thumping on the face. This done,
+Othello-Tanee attempted to strangle her, and was in a fair way to
+succeed, when her loving subjects came to her rescue. So heinous a crime
+could not be overlooked, and Tanee, was banished to his native island;
+but after a short time he declared his penitence, made _amende
+honorable_, and was restored to favour. He does not very often venture
+to thwart the will of his royal wife, much less to raise his hand
+against her sacred person, but submits with exemplary patience to her
+caprices and abuse, and even to the manual admonitions she not
+unfrequently bestows upon him.
+
+Upon the whole, life, at the Calabooza was not very disagreeable. The
+prisoners, now only nominally so, had little to complain of, except
+occasional short commons, arising not from unwillingness, but from
+disability, on the part of the kind-hearted natives, to satisfy the
+cravings of the hungry whalers, whose appetites were remarkable,
+especially that of lanky Doctor Long Ghost. The doctor was a stickler
+for quality as well as quantity; the memory of his claret and beccafico
+days still clung to him, like the scent of the roses to Tom Moore's
+broken gallipot: he was curious in condiments, and whilst devouring,
+grumbled at the unseasoned viands of Tahiti. Cayenne and Harvey abounded
+not in those latitudes, but pepper and salt were on board the Julia, and
+the doctor prevailed on Rope Yarn to bring him a supply. "This he placed
+in a small leather wallet, a monkey bag (so called by sailors) usually
+worn as a purse about the neck. 'In my poor opinion,' said Long Ghost,
+as he tucked the wallet out of sight, 'it behoves a stranger in Tahiti
+to have his knife in readiness, and his castor slung.'" And thus
+equipped, the doctor and his brethren in captivity rambled over the
+verdant slopes and through the cool groves of Tahiti, bathed in the
+mountain streams, and luxuriated in orange orchards, where "the trees
+formed a dense shade, spreading overhead a dark, rustling vault, groined
+with boughs, and studded here and there with the ripened spheres, like
+gilded balls." Then they had plenty of society; native visitors flocked
+to see them, and Doctor Johnson, a resident English physician, was
+constant in his attendance, knowing that the Consul must pay his bill.
+Three French priests also called upon them, one of whom proved to be no
+Frenchman, but a portly, handsome, good-humoured Irishman, well known
+and much disliked by the Polynesian protestant missionaries. A strong
+attempt was made by Guy and Wilson to get the men to do duty. A schooner
+was about to sail for Sydney, and they were threatened to be sent
+thither for trial. They still refused to hand rope or break biscuit on
+board the Julia. Long Ghost made some cutting remarks on the captain;
+and the sailors, who had been taken down to the Consul's office for
+examination, began to bully, and talked of carrying off Consul and
+Captain to bear them company in the Calabooza. The same ill success
+attended subsequent attempts, until Captain Guy was compelled to look
+out for another crew, which he obtained with difficulty, and by a
+considerable advance of hard dollars. And at last, "It was Sunday in
+Tahiti, and a glorious morning, when Captain Bob, waddling into the
+Calabooza, startled us by announcing, 'Ah, my boy--shippee you,
+harree--maky sail!' in other words, the Julia was off," and had taken
+her stores of old biscuit with her: so the next morning the inmates of
+the Calabooza were without rations. The Consul would supply none, and it
+was pretty evident that he rather desired the departure of the obstinate
+seamen from that part of the island. The whole of his proceedings with
+regard to them had served but to render him ridiculous, and he wished
+them out of his neighbourhood; but the ex-prisoners found themselves
+pretty comfortable, and preferred remaining. They were better off than
+they had for some time been, for Jermin--not such a bad fellow, after
+all--had sent them their chests ashore; and these, besides supplying
+them with sundry necessaries, gave them immense importance in Tahitian
+eyes. They had been kindly treated before, but now they were courted and
+flattered, like younger sons in marching regiments, who suddenly step
+into the family acres. The natives crowded round them, eager to swear
+eternal friendship, according to an old Polynesian custom, once
+universal in the islands, but that has fallen into considerable disuse,
+except when something is to be gained by its observance. A gentleman of
+the name of Kooloo fixed his affections upon Typee--or rather upon his
+goods and chattels; for when he had wheedled him out of a regatta shirt,
+and other small pieces of finery, he transferred his affections to a
+newly-arrived sailor, whose chest was better lined, and who bestowed on
+him a love-token, in the shape of a heavy pea-jacket. In this garment,
+closely buttoned up, Kooloo took morning promenades, with the tropical
+sun glaring down upon him. He frequently met his former friend, but
+passed him with a careless "How d'ye do?" which presently dwindled into
+a nod. "In one week's time," says poor Typee, "he gave me the cut
+direct, and lounged by without even nodding. He must have taken me for
+part of the landscape."
+
+After a while the contents of the chests, and even the chests
+themselves--esteemed by the Tahitians most valuable pieces of
+furniture--were given or bartered away, and, as the Consul still refused
+them rations, the sailors knew not how to live. The natives helped them
+as much as they could, but their larders were scantily furnished, and
+they grew tired of feeding fifteen hungry idlers. So at last the latter
+made a morning call upon the Consul, who, being unwilling to withdraw,
+and equally so to press, charges which he knew would not be sustained,
+refused to have any thing to say to them. Thereupon some of the party,
+strong in principle and resolution, and seeing how grievous an annoyance
+their presence was to their enemy, Wilson, swore to abide near him and
+never to leave him. Others, less obstinate or more impatient of a
+change, resolved to decamp from the Calabooza. The first to depart were
+Typee and Long Ghost. They had received intelligence of a new plantation
+in Imeco, recently formed by foreigners, who wanted white labourers, and
+were expected at Papeetee to seek them. With these men they took service
+under the names of Peter and Paul, at wages of fifteen silver dollars a
+month; and, after an affecting separation from their shipmates--whose
+respectable character may be judged of by the fact, that one of them
+picked Long Ghost's pocket in the very act of embracing him,--they
+sailed away for Imeco, and arrived without accident in the valley of
+Martair, where the plantation was situate. The chapters recording their
+stay here are amongst the very best in the book, full of rich, quiet
+fun. Typee gives a capital description of his employers. They were two
+in number, both "whole-souled fellows; one was a tall robust Yankee,
+born in the backwoods of Maine, sallow, and with a long face; the other,
+a short little Cockney who had first clapped his eyes on the Monument."
+Zeke the Yankee, had christened his comrade "Shorty;" and Shorty looked
+up to him with respect, and yielded to him in most things. Both showed
+themselves well disposed towards their new labourers, whom they at once
+discovered to be superior to their station. And they soon found their
+society so agreeable, that they were willing to keep them to do little
+more than nominal work. As to making them efficient farm servants, they
+quickly gave up that idea. As a sailor, Typee had little fancy for
+husbandry; and the doctor found his long back terribly in his way when
+requested to dig potatoes and root up stumps, under a sun which, as
+Shorty said, "was hot enough to melt the nose hoff a brass monkey." Long
+Ghost very soon gave in; the extraction of a single tree-root settled
+him; he pleaded illness, and retired to his hammock, but was
+considerably vexed when he heard the Yankee propose a bullock hunting
+expedition, in which, as a sick man, he could not decently take part.
+This was only the prologue to his annoyances. Musquitoes, unknown in
+Tahiti, abound in Imeeo. They were brought there, according to a native
+tradition, by one Nathan Coleman, of Nantucket, who, in revenge for some
+fancied grievance, towed a rotten water-cask ashore, and left it in a
+neglected _taro_ patch, where the ground was moist and warm. Musquitoes
+were the result. "When tormented by them, I found much relief in
+coupling the word Coleman with another of one syllable, and pronouncing
+them together energetically." The musquito chapter is very amusing,
+showing the various comical and ingenious manoeuvres of the friends to
+avoid their tormentors, and obtain a night's sleep. At last they entered
+a fishing canoe, paddled some distance from shore, and dropped the
+native anchor, a stone secured to a rope. They were awakened in the
+morning by the motion of their boat. Zeke was wading in the shallow
+water, and towing them from a reef towards which they had drifted. "The
+water-sprites had rolled our stone out of its noose, and we had floated
+away." This was a narrow escape, but nevertheless they stuck to their
+floating bedstead as the only possible sleeping place. A day's
+successful hunting, followed by a famous supper and jollification under
+a banian-tree, put the doctor in good humour, and he made himself vastly
+agreeable. The natives beheld his waggish pranks with infinite
+admiration, and Zeke looked upon him with particular favour; so much so,
+that when upon the following morning an order came from a ship at
+Papeetee, for a supply of potatoes, he almost hesitated to tell funny
+Peter to assist in digging them up. But the emergency pressed, and the
+work must be done. So Peter and Paul were set to unearth the vegetables.
+This was no very cruel task, for "the rich tawny soil seemed specially
+adapted to the crop; the great yellow murphies rolling out of the hills
+like eggs from a nest." But when they were dug up, they had to be
+carried to the beach; and to this part of the business the lazy
+adventurers had a special dislike, although Zeke kindly provided them,
+to lighten their toil, with what he called the barrel machine--a sort of
+rural sedan, in which the servants carried their loads with comparative
+ease, whilst their employers sweated under shouldered hampers. But no
+alleviation could reconcile the sailor and the physician to this novel
+and unpleasant labour, and the potato-digging was the last piece of
+work, deserving the name, that either of them did. A few days afterwards
+they gave their masters warning, greatly to the vexation of Zeke,
+although he received the notice--with true Yankee imperturbability. He
+proposed that Long Ghost, who, after the hunt, had shown, considerable
+culinary skill, should assume the office of cook, and that Paul-Typee
+should only work when it suited him, which would not have been very
+often. The offer was friendly and favourable, but it was refused. A
+hospitable invitation to remain as guests as long as was convenient to
+them, was likewise rejected, and, bent upon a ramble, the restless
+adventurers left the vale of Martair. Even greater inducements would
+probably have been insufficient to keep them there. They had been so
+long on the rove, that change of scene had become essential to their
+happiness. The doctor, especially, was anxious to be off to Tamai, an
+inland village on the borders of a lake, where the fruits were the
+finest, and the women the most beautiful and unsophisticated in all the
+Society Islands. Epicurean Long Ghost had set his mind upon visiting
+this terrestrial paradise, and thither his steady chum willingly
+accompanied him. It was a day's journey on foot, allowing time for
+dinner and siesta; and the path lay through wood and ravine, unpeopled
+save by wild cattle. About noon they reached the heart of the island,
+thus pleasantly described. "It was a green, cool hollow among the
+mountains, into which we at last descended with a bound. The place was
+gushing with a hundred springs, and shaded over with great solemn trees,
+on whose mossy boles the moisture stood in beads." There is something
+delightfully hydropathic in these lines; they cool one like a
+shower-bath. He is a prime fellow, this common sailor Melville, at such
+scraps of description, terse and true, placing the scene before us in
+ten words. In long yarns he indulges not, but of such happy touches as
+the above, we could quote a score. We have not room, either for them,
+or for an account of the valley of Tamai, its hospitable inhabitants,
+and its heathenish dances, performed in secret, and in dread of the
+missionaries, by whom such saturnalia are forbidden. The place was
+altogether so pleasant, that the doctor and his friend entertained
+serious thoughts of settling there, or at least of making a long stay,
+when one morning they were put to flight by the arrival of strangers,
+said to be missionaries, with whom, vagrants as they were, they had no
+wish to fall in. So they returned to their friend Zeke, nursing new and
+ambitious projects. They had no intention of remaining with the
+good-hearted Yankee, but merely paid him a flying visit, and that with
+an interested motive. What they wanted of him was this. Although feeling
+themselves gentlemen every inch, they were not always able to convince
+the world of their respectability. So they resolved to have a passport,
+and pitched upon Zeke to manufacture it, he being well known and much
+respected in Imeeo. Zeke was gratified by the compliment, and set to
+work with a rooster's quill, and a piece of dirty paper. "Evidently he
+was not accustomed to composition; for his literary throes were so
+violent, that the doctor suggested that some sort of a Caesarian
+operation might be necessary. The precious paper was at last finished;
+and a great curiosity it was. We were much diverted with his reasons for
+not dating it. 'In this here damned climate,' he observed, 'a feller
+can't keep the run of the months, no how; 'cause there's no seasons, no
+summer and winter to go by. One's etarnally thinking it's always July,
+it's so pesky hot.' A passport provided, we cast about for some means of
+getting to Taloo."
+
+The decline of the Tahitian monarchy--the degradation of the regal house
+of Pomaree, is painful to contemplate. The queen still wears a crown--a
+tinsel one, received as a present from her sister-sovereign of
+England,--she has also a court and a palace, such as they are; but her
+power is little more than nominal, her exchequer seldom otherwise than
+empty. Typee draws a touching contrast between times past and present.
+"'I'm a greater man than King George,' said the incorrigible young Otoo,
+to the first missionaries; 'he rides on a horse and I on a man.' Such
+was the case. He travelled post through his dominions on the shoulders
+of his subjects, and relays of immortal beings were provided in all the
+valleys. But, alas! how times have changed! how transient human
+greatness! Some years since, Pomaree Vahinee I., granddaughter of the
+proud Otoo, went into the laundry business, publicly soliciting, by her
+agents, the washing of the linen belonging to officers of ships touching
+in her harbours." Into the court of this washerwoman-queen, Typee and
+Long Ghost were exceedingly anxious to penetrate. Vague ideas of favour
+and preferment haunted their brains. During their Polynesian cruise,
+they had seen many instances of rapid advancement; vagabond foreigners,
+of all nations, domesticated in the families of chiefs and kings, and
+sometimes married to their daughters and sharing their power. At one of
+the Tonga islands, a scamp of a Welshman officiated as cupbearer to the
+king of the cannibals. The monarch of the Sandwich islands has three
+foreigners about his court--a Negro to beat the drum, a wooden-legged
+Portuguese to play the fiddle, and Mordecai, a juggler, to amuse his
+majesty with cups and balls and sleight of hand. On the Marquesan island
+of Hivarhoo, they had found an English sailor who had attained to the
+highest dignity in the country. He had deserted from a merchant ship,
+and at once set up, on his own hook, as an independent sovereign,
+without dominions, but by disposition most belligerent. A musket and a
+store of cartridges were his whole possessions; but in a land where war
+was rife, carried on with the primitive weapons of spear and javelin,
+they were sufficiently important to make a native prince covet his
+alliance. His first battle was a decisive victory, a perfect Waterloo,
+and he became the Wellington of Hivarhoo, receiving, as reward for his
+distinguished services, the hand of a princess, and a splendid dowry of
+hogs, mats, and other produce. To conform to the prejudices of his new
+family, he allowed himself to be tattooed, tabooed, and otherwise
+paganized, becoming as big a savage as any in the island. A blue shark
+adorned his forehead; a broad bar, of the same colour, traversed his
+face. The tabooing was a less ornamental but more decidedly useful
+formality, for by it his person was declared sacred and inviolable.
+Typee and his medical friend had a strong prejudice against cerulean
+sharks and the like embellishments; but if these could be dispensed
+with, they felt no disinclination to form part of Pomaree's household.
+They had not quite made up their minds what office would best suit them,
+but their circumstances were unprosperous, and they resolved not to be
+particular. They understood that the queen was mustering around her all
+the foreigners she could recruit, to make head against the French. She
+was then at Taloo, a village on the coast of Imeeo, and thither the two
+adventurers betook themselves, hoping to be at once elevated to
+important posts at court; but quite resigned, in case of disappointment,
+to work as day-labourers in a sugar-plantation, or go to sea in a
+whaler, then in the harbour for wood and water. Disgusted with their
+desultory, hand-to-mouth existence, they yearned after respectability
+and a prime-ministership. To their sanguine anticipations, both of these
+seemed easy of attainment. Long Ghost, indeed, who, amongst his various
+accomplishments, was a very Orpheus upon the violin, insisted strongly
+upon the probability of his becoming a Tahitian Rizzio. But a necessary
+preliminary to the realisation of these day-dreams, was a presentation
+at court, and that was difficult to obtain. Once before Queen Pomaree,
+they doubted not but she, with Napoleonic sagacity, would discern their
+merits, and forthwith make Typee her admiral, and Long Ghost
+inspector-general of hospitals. But they lacked an introduction. The
+proper course, according to the practice of travelling nobodies,
+desirous of intruding their plebeianism into a foreign court, would have
+been to apply to their ambassadors. Unfortunately Deputy-Consul Wilson,
+the only person at hand of a diplomatic character, was by no means
+disposed to act as master of the ceremonies to the insurgents of the
+Julia. And their costume, it must be confessed, scarcely qualified them
+to appear at levee or drawing-room. A short time previously, their
+ragged and variegated garb had given them much the look of a brace of
+Polynesian Robert Macaires. Typee had made himself a new frock out of
+two old ones, a blue and a red, the irregular mingling of the colours
+producing a pleasing parrot-like effect; a tattered shirt of printed
+calico was twisted round his head, turban-fashion, the sleeves dangling
+behind, and bullock's-hide sandals protected his feet. The doctor was
+still more fantastical in his attire. He sported a _roora_, a garment
+similar to the South American poncho, a sort of mantle or blanket, with
+a hole in the centre, through which the head passes. This simple article
+of apparel, which in the doctor's case was of coarse brown tappa, fell
+in folds around his angular carcass, and in conjunction with a
+broad-brimmed hat of Panama grass, gave him the aspect of a decayed
+grandee. Thus clad, the two friends arrived in the neighbourhood of the
+royal residence, and there were fortunate enough to fall in with Mrs
+Po-Po, a benevolent Tahitian matron, who provided them with clean frocks
+and trousers, such as sailors wear, and in all respects was as good as a
+mother to them. Her husband, Jeremiah Po-Po, a man of substance and
+consideration, made them welcome in his house, fed and fostered them,
+without hope of fee or recompense. A little of this generous hospitality
+was owing to the hypocrisy of that villain, Long Ghost, who, finding his
+entertainers devoutly disposed, muttered a "Grace before Meat" over the
+succulent little porkers, baked _a la facon de Barbarie_ in the ground,
+upon which their kind-hearted Amphitrion regaled them. But neither clean
+canvass, nor simulated piety, sufficed to draw upon the ambitious
+schemers the favourable notice of Queen Pomaree. Accustomed to sailors,
+she held them cheap. A uniform, though but the moth-eaten undress of a
+militia ensign, would have been a powerful auxiliary to their projects
+of aggrandisement. Like some others of her sex, Pomaree loves a
+soldier's coat, and maintained in more prosperous days a formidable
+regiment of body-guards, in pasteboard shakos, and without breeches.
+
+To go to court, however, Typee and his comrade were fully resolved; and
+they were not very scrupulous as to the manner of their introduction.
+They made up to a Marquesan gentleman of herculean proportions, whose
+office it was to take the princes of the blood an airing in his arms.
+Typee, who spoke his language, and had been at his native village, soon
+ingratiated himself with Marbonna, who introduced them to one of the
+queen's chamberlains. Bribery and corruption now came into play: a plug
+of tobacco, proved an excellent passport to within the royal precincts,
+but then Marbonna was suddenly called away, and the intruders found
+themselves abandoned to their fate amongst the ladies of the court,
+amiable and affable damsels, whom a little "soft sawder" induced to
+conduct them into the queen's own drawing room. Here were collected
+numerous costly articles of European manufacture, sent as presents to
+Pomaree. Writing-desks, cut glass and beautiful china, valuable
+engravings, and gilt candelabras, arms and instruments of all kinds, lay
+scratched and broken, musty and rusting amongst greasy calabashes, old
+matting, paddles, fish-spears, and rubbish of all kinds. It was
+supper-time; and presently the queen came out of her private boudoir,
+attired in a blue silk gown and rich shawls, but without shoes or
+stockings. She lay down upon a mat, and fed herself with her fingers.
+Presumptuous Long Ghost, unabashed before royalty, was for immediately
+introducing himself and friend; but the attendants opposed this forward
+proceeding, and, in doing so, made such a fuss that the queen looked up
+from her calabash of fish, perceived the strangers, and ordered them
+out. Such was the first and last interview between Typee the mariner and
+Pomaree the queen.
+
+"Disappointed in going to court, we determined upon going to sea." The
+Leviathan, an American whaler, lay in harbour, and Typee shipped on
+board her. Long Ghost would have done the same, but the Yankee captain
+disliked the cut of his jib, swore he was a "Sidney bird," and would
+have nought to say to him. So Typee divided his advance of wages with
+the medical spectre--drank with him a parting bottle of wine,
+surreptitiously purchased from a pilfering member of Pomaree's
+household--and sailed on a whaling cruise to the coast of Japan. We look
+forward with confidence and interest to an account of what there befel
+him.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[C] _Omoo; A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas._ By HERMAN
+MELVILLE. London: 1847.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF THE BREAD NOW IN USE.
+
+BY PROFESSOR JOHNSTON.
+
+
+A few plain words on this subject may not be unacceptable to the popular
+reader at the present time.
+
+We are fond of what is agreeable to the eye as well as pleasant to the
+taste, and therefore we love to have our bread made of the whitest and
+finest of the wheat. Attaching superior excellence to what thus pleases
+the eye, we call the good Scotch bannock an inferior food, and the
+wholesome black bread of the north of Europe a disgusting article of
+diet. When our experience and knowledge are local and confined, our
+opinions necessarily partake of a similar character.
+
+In regard to the different qualities of wheaten flour, our judgments are
+not so severe. All things which pertain to this aristocratic grain--this
+staff of English life--like the liveries and horses of a great man--are
+treated with a certain degree of respect. Still, they are only the
+appendages of the noble seed, and the more thoroughly they are got rid
+of, the better the kernel is supposed to become.
+
+In many of our old-fashioned families, indeed, the practice still
+lingers of baking bread from the whole meal of wheat for common use in
+the kitchen or hall, and for occasional consumption on the master's
+table. An enthusiastic physician also now and then rouses himself, and
+does battle with the national organs of taste on behalf of the darker
+bread, and the browner flour--and dyspeptic old gentlemen or mammas who
+have over-pampered their sickly darlings, listen to his fervid warnings,
+and the star of the brown loaf is for a month or two in the ascendant.
+
+But gradually the warning sound is lost to the alarmed ear, and the
+pulses of the commoved air waft it on to mingle with the thousand other
+long-quenched voices which people the distant realms of space, and form
+together that unutterable harmony which, by consent of the poets, is
+named the music of the spheres.
+
+There are times, however, when good men, though aware of this passing
+tendency of human efforts, and of the thankless impotency of a struggle
+against the public voice--that _vox populi_ which wise men (so-called)
+have pronounced to be also _vox Dei_--will nevertheless return to what
+they believe to be a useful though unvalued labour. The present is one
+in which any thing which can be said in favour of the less-valued parts
+of our imperial grain, will be more readily listened to than at any
+other period in the life-time of the existing generation; and being
+listened to, may be productive of the greatest national good.
+
+I propose, therefore, to show, in an intelligible manner, that whole
+meal flour is really more nourishing, as well as more wholesome, than
+fine white flour as food for man.
+
+The solid parts of the human body consist, principally, of three several
+portions: the fat, the muscle, and the bone. These three substances are
+liable to constant waste in the living body, and therefore must be
+constantly renewed from the food that we eat. The vegetable food we
+consume contains these three substances almost ready formed. The plant
+is the brick-maker. The animal voluntarily introduces these bricks into
+its stomach, and then involuntarily--through the operation of the
+mysterious machinery within--picks out these bricks, transports them to
+the different parts of the body, and builds them into their appropriate
+places. As the miller at his mill throws into the hopper the unground
+grain, and forthwith, by the involuntary movements of the machinery,
+receives in his several sacks the fine flour, the seconds, the
+middlings, the pollard, and the bran; so in the human body, by a still
+more refined separation, the fat is extracted and deposited here, the
+muscular matter there, and the bony material in a third locality, where
+it can not only be stored up, but where its presence is actually at the
+moment necessary.
+
+Again, the fluid parts of the body contain the same substances in a
+liquid form, on their way to or from the several parts of the body in
+which they are required. They include also a portion of salt or saline
+matter which is dissolved in them, as we dissolve common salt in our
+soup, or Epsom salts in the pleasant draughts with which our doctors
+delight to vex us. This saline matter is also obtained from the food.
+
+Now, it is self-evident, that that food must be the most nourishing
+which supplies all these ingredients of the body most abundantly on the
+whole, or in proportions most suited to the actual wants of the
+individual animal to which it is given.
+
+How stands the question, then, in regard to this point between the brown
+bread and the white--the fine flour, and the whole meal of wheat?
+
+The grain of wheat consists of two parts, with which the miller is
+familiar--the inner grain and the skin that covers it. The inner grain
+gives the pure wheat flour; the skin, when separated, forms the bran.
+The miller cannot entirely peel off the skin from his grain, and thus
+some of it is unavoidably ground up with his flour. By sifting, he
+separates it more or less completely: his seconds, middlings, &c., owing
+their colour to the proportion of brown bran that has passed through the
+sieve along with the flour. The whole meal, as it is called, of which
+the so-named brown _household bread_ is made, consists of the entire
+grain ground up together--used as it comes from the mill-stones
+unsifted, and therefore containing all the bran.
+
+The first white flour, therefore, may be said to contain no bran, while
+the whole meal contains all that grew naturally upon the grain.
+
+What is the composition of these two portions of the seed? How much do
+they respectively contain of the several constituents of the animal
+body? How much of each is contained also in the whole grain?
+
+1. _The fat._ Of this ingredient a thousand pounds of the
+
+    Whole grain contain 28 lbs.
+    Fine Flour,    "    20  "
+    Bran,          "    60  "
+
+So that the bran is much richer in fat than the interior part of the
+grain, and the whole grain ground together (whole meal) richer than the
+finer part of the flour in the proportion of nearly one half.
+
+2. _The muscular matter._ I have had no opportunity as yet of
+ascertaining the relative proportions of this ingredient in the bran and
+fine flour of the same sample of grain. Numerous experiments, however,
+have been made in my laboratory, to determine these proportions in the
+fine flour and whole seed of several varieties of grain. The general
+result of these is, that the whole grain uniformly contains a larger
+quantity, weight for weight, than the fine flour extracted from it does.
+The particular results in the case of wheat and Indian corn were as
+follows:--A thousand pounds of the whole grain and of the fine flour
+contained of muscular matter respectively,--
+
+               _Whole grain._   _Fine Flour._
+Wheat,          156 lbs.               130 lbs.
+Indian Corn,    140                    110
+
+Of the material out of which the animal muscle is to be formed, the
+whole meal or grain of wheat contains one-fifth more than the finest
+flour does. For maintaining muscular strength, therefore, it must be
+more valuable in an equal proportion.
+
+3. _Bone material and Saline matter._--Of these mineral constituents, as
+they may be called, of the animal body, a thousand pounds of bran, whole
+meal and fine flour, contain respectively,--
+
+    Bran,        700 lbs.
+    Whole meal,  170  "
+    Fine flour,   60  "
+
+So that in regard to this important part of our food, necessary to all
+living animals, but especially to the young who are growing, and to the
+mother who is giving milk--the whole meal is three times more nourishing
+than the fine flour.
+
+Our case is now made out. Weight for weight, the whole grain or meal is
+more rich in all these three essential elements of a nutritive food,
+than the fine flour of wheat. By those whose only desire is to sustain
+their health and strength by the food they eat, ought not the whole meal
+to be preferred? To children who are rapidly growing, the browner the
+bread they eat, the more abundant the supply of the materials from which
+their increasing bones and muscles are to be produced. To the
+milk-giving mother, the same food, and for a similar reason, is the most
+appropriate.
+
+A glance at their mutual relations in regard to the three substances,
+presented in one view, will show this more clearly. A thousand pounds of
+each contain of the three several ingredients the following proportions.
+
+                  Whole meal.   Fine flour.
+Muscular matter,   156 lbs.       130 lbs.
+Bone material,     170  "          60  "
+Fat,                28  "          20  "
+
+Total in each,     354            210
+
+Taking the three ingredients, therefore, together, the whole meal is
+one-half more valuable for fulfilling all the purposes of nutrition than
+the fine flour--and especially it is so in regard to the feeding of the
+young, the pregnant, and those who undergo much bodily fatigue.
+
+It will not be denied that it is for a wise purpose that the Deity has
+so intimately associated, in the grain, the several substances which are
+necessary for the complete nutrition of animal bodies. The above
+considerations show how unwise we are in attempting to undo this natural
+collocation of materials. To please the eye and the palate, we sift out
+a less generally nutritive food,--and, to make up for what we have
+removed, experience teaches us to have recourse to animal food of
+various descriptions.
+
+It is interesting to remark, even in apparently trivial things, how all
+nature is full of compensating processes. We give our servants household
+bread, while we live on the finest of the wheat ourselves. The mistress
+eats that which pleases the eye more, the maid what sustains and
+nourishes the body better.
+
+But the whole meal is more wholesome, as well as more nutritive. It is
+on account of its superior wholesomeness that those who are experienced
+in medicine usually recommend it to our attention. Experience in the
+laws of digestion brings us back to the simple admixture found in the
+natural seed. It is not an accidental thing that the proportions in
+which the ingredients of a truly sustaining food take their places in
+the seeds on which we live, should be best fitted at once to promote the
+health of the sedentary scholar, and to reinvigorate the strength of the
+active man when exhausted by bodily labour.
+
+Some may say that the preceding observations are merely theoretical; and
+may demand the support of actual trial, before they will concede that
+the selection of the most nourishing and wholesome diet is hereafter to
+be regulated by the results of chemical analysis. The demand is
+reasonable in itself, and the so-called deductions of theory are
+entitled only to the rank of probable conjectures, till they have been
+tested by exact and repeated trials.
+
+But such in this case have been made; and our theoretical considerations
+come in only to confirm the results of previous experiments--to explain
+why these results should have been obtained, and to extend and enforce
+the practical lessons which the results themselves appeared to
+inculcate.
+
+Thus, from the experiments of Majendie and others, it was known that
+animals which in a few weeks died if fed only upon fine flour, lived
+long upon whole meal bread. The reason appears from our analytical
+investigations. The whole meal contains in large quantity the three
+forms of matter by which the several parts of the body are sustained, or
+successively renewed. We may feed a man long upon bread and water only,
+but unless we wish to kill him also, we must have the apparent cruelty
+to restrict him to the coarser kinds of bread. The charity which should
+supply him with fine white loaves instead, would in effect kill him by a
+lingering starvation.
+
+Again, the pork-grower who buys bran from the miller, wonders at the
+remarkable feeding and fattening effect which this apparently woody and
+useless material has upon his animals. The surprise ceases, however,
+and the practice is encouraged, and extended to other creatures, when
+the researches of the laboratory explain to him what the food itself
+contains, and what his growing animal requires.
+
+Economy as well as comfort follow from an exact acquaintance with the
+wants of our bodies in their several conditions, and with the
+composition of the various articles of diet which are at our command. In
+the present condition of the country, this economy has become a vital
+question. It is a kind of Christian duty in every one to practise it as
+far as his means and his knowledge enable him.
+
+Perhaps the amount of the economy which would follow the use of whole
+meal instead of fine flour, may not strike every one who reads the above
+observations. The saving arises from two sources.
+
+First, The amount of husk, separated by the miller from the wheat which
+he grinds, and which is not sold for human use, varies very much. I
+think we do not over-estimate it, when we consider it as forming
+one-eighth of the whole. On this supposition, eight pounds of wheat
+yield seven of flour consumed by man, and one of pollard and bran which
+are given to animals--chiefly to poultry and pigs. If the whole meal be
+used, however, eight pounds of flour will be obtained, or eight people
+will be fed by the same weight of grain which only fed seven before.
+
+Again, we have seen that the whole meal is more nutritious--so that this
+coarser flour will go farther than an equal weight of the fine. The
+numbers at which we arrived, from the results of analysis, show that,
+taking all the three sustaining elements of the food into consideration,
+the coarse is one-half more nutritive than the fine. Leaving a wide
+margin for the influence of circumstances, let us suppose it only
+one-eighth more nutritive, and we shall have now nine people nourished
+equally by the same weight of grain, which, when eaten as fine flour,
+would support only seven. _The wheat of the country_, in other words,
+_would in this form go one-fourth farther than at present_.
+
+But some one may remark, if all this good is to come from the mere use
+of the bran, why not recommend it to be withheld from the pigs, and
+consume it by man in some way alone? This would involve no change in the
+practice of our millers, and little in the habits and bread of the great
+mass of the population.
+
+But such a course, if possible, would not bring us to the economical end
+we wish to attain. Suppose it could be made palatable and eaten by man,
+little comparative saving would be effected.
+
+First, because, when eaten alone, the fine flour will not go so far as
+when mixed with a certain proportion of bran: that is to say,--a given
+weight of fine flour will produce an increased nutritive effect when
+mixed with the bran: greater than is due to the constituents of the bran
+taken alone. The mixture of the two in reality increases the virtues of
+both. Again, if eaten alone, bran would prove too difficult, and
+therefore slow of digestion in most stomachs. Much would thus pass,
+unexhausted of its nutritive matter, through the alimentary canal, as
+whole oats often do through that of horses, and thus a considerable
+waste would ensue.
+
+And further, supposing all to be dissolved in the stomach, there would
+still, of necessity, be a waste of material, since the bran actually
+contains a larger proportion of bone material and saline matter compared
+with its other ingredients, than the body, in its natural healthy state,
+can make use of. All this excess must, therefore, be rejected by the
+body, and, as nutritive matter, for the time be wasted.
+
+Lastly, it is doubtful if bran alone contains enough of starch, or of
+any substitute for it, to meet the other demands of the human system. I
+have not spoken of the use of the starch of the grain in the preceding
+observations, because, as both whole meal and fine flour contain a
+sufficient quantity of it to supply the wants of the living animal, it
+was unnecessary to the main object of this paper. But with bran the case
+is different. It is doubtful if the purposes of the starch could be
+fully, and with sufficient speed, fulfilled by the ingredients which, in
+the bran, take the place of starch in the flour. The cellular fibre or
+woody matter, of which it contains a considerable proportion, is too
+slowly soluble in the stomachs of ordinary men. While, therefore, much
+of it would pass through the body undigested, it would require to be
+eaten in far larger proportions than its composition indicates, if the
+body was to be supported, and thus a further waste would be incurred.
+
+On the whole, therefore, we come back to the whole meal, as the most
+economical as well as the most nutritive and wholesome form in which the
+grain of wheat can be consumed. The Deity has done far better for us, by
+the natural mixtures to be found in the whole seed, than we can do for
+ourselves. The materials, both in form and in proportion, are adjusted
+in each seed, as wheat, in a way more suitable to us than any which,
+with our present knowledge, we appear able to devise.
+
+A word to our Scottish readers, before we conclude. We do not recommend
+to you even the whole meal of wheat as a substitute for your oatmeal or
+your oaten-cake. The oat is more nutritive even than the whole grain of
+wheat, taken weight for weight. For the growing boy, for the
+hard-working man, and for the portly matron, oatmeal contains the
+materials of the most hearty nourishment. This it owes in part to its
+peculiar chemical composition, and in part to its being, as it is used
+in Scotland, a kind of whole meal. The finely sifted oatmeal of
+Yorkshire and Lancashire is not so agreeable to a Scottish taste, and, I
+believe, is not so nutritious, as the rounder and coarser meal of the
+more northern counties.
+
+While, therefore, the whole meal of wheat is superior to the fine flour,
+in economy, in nutritive power, and in wholesomeness, and therefore
+should be preferred by those who _must_ live upon wheat,--in all these
+respects the oat has still the advantage, and therefore ought
+religiously to be adhered to. You owe it to the experience of your
+forefathers, for a thousand years, not to forsake it.
+
+                          _Lurham, 19th May, 1847._
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO VOL. LXI.
+
+
+Abdul Medjid, the Sultan, 693.
+
+Adalia, sketches of, 737.
+
+Addington, Henry, see _Sidmouth_.
+
+Addington, Hiley, 475.
+
+Adelaide, Madame, 2, 7, 8, 12.
+
+Adventures of the Connaught Rangers, review of, 457.
+
+Aidan, Bishop, 84.
+
+Albemarle, Lord, 201.
+
+Albert, Madame, 186.
+
+Ambrosio, General, 174.
+
+America, origin of the struggle with, 207.
+
+America, how they manage matters in, 492.
+
+America, North, 653.
+
+Ancient and Modern Ballad Poetry, 622.
+
+Anglo-Saxons, Lappenberg's History of the, reviewed, 79.
+
+Angouleme, the Duc d', 5, 6.
+
+Appert, B. Dix ans a la Cour du Roi Louis Philippe, review of, 1.
+
+Aquilius, Letter from, to Eusebius, 374
+  --second, 501
+  --third, 695.
+
+Arabs in Batavia, the, 321.
+
+Archangel, New, settlement of, 661.
+
+Armenians of Smyrna, the, 238.
+
+Arnal, a French actor, 185.
+
+Arnault, M., 15.
+
+Arthur, King, 81.
+
+Assessed Taxes, inequalities of, 248.
+
+Aumale, Duc d', 17.
+
+
+Badajos, capture of, 468.
+
+Ballad Poetry, ancient and modern, 622.
+
+Balzac, M. de, 16, works of, 591.
+
+Banditti of Spain, the, 356.
+
+Batavia, city of, 320.
+
+Baths of Mont Dor, the, 448
+  --the company at, 451
+  --the forest, 454.
+
+Belgrade, siege and battle of, 36.
+
+Belisarius,--was he blind? 606.
+
+Benedict Biscop, 87.
+
+Bernard, Charles de, notices of the works of, 589.
+
+Berri, Duchesse de, 530.
+
+Blackwall, ode to, 59.
+
+Blucher, sketches of, 76.
+
+Bolingbroke, Lord, 204.
+
+Bonabat, village of, 241.
+
+Bouffe, Marie, 189.
+
+Boufflers, Marshal, 35, 36.
+
+Boujah, village of, 241.
+
+Bread, on the nutritive qualities of, by Professor Johnston, 768.
+
+Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, sonnets by:
+  --Life, 555
+  --Love, _ib._
+  --Heaven and Earth, 556
+  --The Prospect, _ib._
+  --Two Sketches, 683
+  --The Mountaineer and the Poet, 684
+  --the Poet, _ib._
+
+Brunet, an actor, 187.
+
+Bruhl, Count, 209.
+
+Bunzelwitz, camp and battle of, 43.
+
+Buonaparte, Joseph, as King of Naples, 168.
+
+Burgos, the retreat from, 471.
+
+Burke, notices of, 483, 484, 487.
+
+Busaco, battle of, 460.
+
+
+Canning, Peel's conduct towards, 97.
+
+California, sketches of, 662.
+
+Caravan Bridge of Smyrna, the, 239.
+
+Carbonari of Naples, the, 173.
+
+Cardinal's voyage, the, 430.
+
+Carlyle's Cromwell, review of, 392.
+
+Caroline, Queen of Naples, 164, 167.
+
+Catherine of Russia, intimacy of, with Voltaire, 537.
+
+Catholic question, Peel's conduct on the, 97.
+
+Catullus, translations from, No. I., 374
+  --No. II., 501
+  --No. III., 695.
+
+Cave of the Regicides, the, and how three of them fared in New
+England, 333.
+
+Championet, General, capture of Naples by, 163.
+
+Chapelle, an actor, 185.
+
+Charles X., accession of, 6.
+
+Charles de Bernard, works of, 589.
+
+Chateauroux, the Duchess of, 206, 530.
+
+Chatham, Lord, 474, 475.
+
+Cheri, Rose, 191.
+
+Chesterfield, Lord, character of, by Walpole, 198.
+
+Chinese in Batavia, the, 321.
+
+Church rate, inequality of the, 250.
+
+Ciudad Rodrigo, capture of, 467.
+
+Claqueurs of Paris, the, 183.
+
+Collier's book of Roxburghe ballads, review of, 622.
+
+Connaught Rangers, sketches of the, 457.
+
+Constantine Kanaris, epitaph of, 644.
+
+Constantinople, and the declining state of the Ottoman empire, 685.
+
+Corn law, Peel's conduct regarding the, 99.
+
+Court of Louis Philippe, sketches of the, 1.
+
+Cromwell, Carlyle's life of, reviewed, 392.
+
+Cunnersdorf, battle of, 42.
+
+Cunningham's poems and songs, review of, 622.
+
+
+Dardanelles, the, 686.
+
+Daun, Marshal, 40, 42.
+
+Dejazet the actress, 189.
+
+Delta, Scottish Melodies by:
+  --Eric's Dirge, 91
+  --The Stormy Sea, _ib._
+  --The Maid of Ulva, 645
+  --Lament for Macrimmon, _ib._
+
+Direct Taxation, on, 243
+  --true principles of, 258.
+
+Divining Rod, the, 368.
+
+Dixwell, John, the Regicide, 338.
+
+Doche, Madame, 187.
+
+Doddington, Bubb, 201, 202, 210.
+
+Dore, a French robber, sketches of, 4.
+
+Dubois, the Abbe, 530.
+
+Duckworth, Sir John, forcing of the Dardanelles by, 686.
+
+Dumas, General, 168.
+
+Dumas, M. de, and his works, 16, 590, 591.
+
+Durham, Lord, 15, 16.
+
+Dutch, cruelties of the, in Java, 327.
+
+
+Early Taken, the, 230.
+
+Egmont, Lord, 197.
+
+Ekaterineburg, town of, 671.
+
+England, uniform triumphs of, over France, 48.
+
+Epigrams, 361.
+
+Epitaphs, 57, 61.
+
+Epitaph of Constantine Kanaris, the, 644.
+
+Eric's dirge, by Delta, 91.
+
+Erith, village of, 423.
+
+Erskine, Lord, 488.
+
+Eugene, Marlborough, Frederick, Napoleon, and Wellington, 34.
+
+Eusebius, letters to--Horae Catullianae, 374, 501, 695.
+
+
+Famine, lessons from the, 515.
+
+Ferdinand, king of Naples, 163, 164, 167.
+
+Ferguson of Pitfour, anecdotes of, 488.
+
+Fighting Eighty-eighth, the, 457.
+
+Flour, on the various kinds of, and their nutritive qualities, 768.
+
+Fontenoy, battle of, 535.
+
+Ford's gatherings from Spain, review of, 350.
+
+Fossa del Maritimo, prison of, 167.
+
+Fox, anecdotes of, 488.
+
+France, the modern court of, 1.
+
+France, uniform triumphs of England over, 48.
+
+France, Walpole's picture of, 206.
+
+France, letter on, 547.
+
+Frederick the Great, sketch of the career of, and comparison of him
+with Marlborough and others, 37
+  --his intimacy with Voltaire, 537.
+
+Frederick, prince of Wales, death of, and his character, 200.
+
+Free trade in connexion with taxation, 243.
+
+French players and playhouses, 177.
+
+Fuentes d' Onore, battle of, 462.
+
+
+Galata, sketches of, 688.
+
+General Mack: a Christmas carol, 92.
+
+George II., Walpole's reign of, reviewed, 194.
+
+George III., anecdotes of, 490.
+
+Georges, characteristics of the reigns of the, 211.
+
+Ghosts, letters on, 440, 541.
+
+Gneisenau, General, 77.
+
+Goffe the Regicide, 333.
+
+Gold district of Siberia, the, 671.
+
+Grand Opera at Paris, the, 180, 182.
+
+Grattan's Adventures of the Connaught Rangers, review of, 457.
+
+Greeks of Adalia, the, 750.
+
+Grey, Lord, first appearance of, 479.
+
+Guilleminot, Count, 6.
+
+Gutch's Robin Hood, review of, 622.
+
+Gymnase Dramatique at Paris, the, 190.
+
+
+Hastings, Warren, trial of, 478, 487.
+
+Heaven and Earth, a Sonnet, 556.
+
+Heptarchy, the, 79.
+
+Hervey's Theatres of Paris, review of, 177.
+
+Highway Rates, inequalities of, 249.
+
+Hohenfriedberg, battle of, 39.
+
+Hohenkirchen, battle of, 42.
+
+Horae Catullianae, No. I., 374
+  --No. II., 501
+  --No. III., 695.
+
+Horn, Count de, execution of, 534.
+
+How they manage matters in the model republic, 492.
+
+How to build a house and live in it,--No. III., 727.
+
+Hughes' Overland Journey to Lisbon, review of, 350.
+
+Hymn of King Olaf the Saint, the, altered from the Icelandic, 682.
+
+
+Imeeo, residence on island of, 763.
+
+Income Tax, inequalities of the, 253.
+
+Indian Life, anecdotes of, 658, 659, 660.
+
+Indirect Taxes, probable abandonment of, in Great Britain, 244, 245.
+
+Ireland, state of, under George II., 205
+  --necessity of Poor Law for, 247
+  --unjust exemption from taxation enjoyed by, 256.
+
+Isle of Dogs, the, 50
+  --tradition regarding, 52.
+
+Italian History, modern, 162.
+
+
+Java, sketches of, 318.
+
+Joinville, Prince de, 17.
+
+Johnston, Professor, on the nutritive qualities of the Bread now
+in use, 768.
+
+Jones, Neville, 205.
+
+Jutland 130 years since, from the Danish
+  --I., the Deer Rider, 286
+  --II., Ansbjerg, 289
+  --III., the Nisse, 292
+  --IV., the Elopement, 297
+  --V., the Horse Garden, 303.
+
+
+Kawashes of Turkey, the, 235.
+
+Khan of Magnesia, the, 309.
+
+Khans of Turkey, the, 236.
+
+Kiachta, town of, 670.
+
+Kolin, battle of, 41.
+
+Krasnoyayk, town of, 671.
+
+
+Lafayette, sketches of, 5.
+
+Lament for Macrimmon, by Delta, 645.
+
+Land, injustice of the freedom of, from legacy duty, 246.
+
+Land Tax, injustice of the, 248.
+
+Landsheck, battle of, 42.
+
+Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxons, review of, 79.
+
+Latest from the Peninsula, 350.
+
+Law of Lauriston, 533, 534.
+
+Lays and Legends of the Thames, No. II., 49
+  --the Isle of Dogs, 50
+  --the Song of the Mail Coachman, 51
+  --the Presentation, 55
+  --Epitaphs, 57, 61
+  --Ode to Blackwall, 59
+  --the Poet's Auction, 62
+  --No. III., 423
+  --the Vision, 424
+  --the Arsenal, 426
+  --True Love, 428
+  --the Cardinals' voyage, 430.
+
+Legacy duty, inequality of the, 246.
+
+Lemaitre, the Marquis, 166.
+
+Lemaitre, Frederick, 188.
+
+Lena, the river, 669.
+
+Lessons from the Famine, 515.
+
+Letters on the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions,
+  --No. I., the Divining Rod, 368
+  --II., Vampyrism, 432
+  --III., Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, 440
+  --IV., Real Ghosts and Second Sight, 541
+  --V., Trance and Sleep-waking, 547
+  --VI., Religious Delusions, the Possessed, Witchcraft, 673.
+
+Lettres de Cachet, profligate use of, in France, 538.
+
+Levasseur the actor, 192.
+
+Leuthen, battle of, 41.
+
+Life, a sonnet, 555.
+
+Lord Sidmouth's Life and Times, 473.
+
+Louis XV., sketches of, by Walpole, 206.
+
+Louis XV., De Tocqueville's Memoirs of, reviewed, 525.
+
+Louis Philippe, sketches of the court of, 1
+  --his elevation, 8
+  --and personal habits, 9.
+
+Love, a sonnet, 555.
+
+Lowositz, battle of, 40.
+
+
+Macdonald, General, administration of Naples by, 164.
+
+Mack, General, a Christmas carol, 92.
+
+Mack, General, at Naples, 163.
+
+Magnesia, a ride to, stage first, 231
+  --II. 305.
+
+Mahmood, the Sultan, 694.
+
+Maid of Ulva, the, by Delta, 645.
+
+Maida, battle of, 168.
+
+Mail Coachman, song of the, 51.
+
+Maison Doree at Paris, the, 177.
+
+Mammone, a Neapolitan bandit, 164.
+
+Mammoth deposits of Siberia, the, 670.
+
+Maria Theresa, accession of, and war against, 38.
+
+Marie Amelie, Queen of Louis Philippe, 7, 8, 11.
+
+Marlborough, comparison of, with Eugene, &c., 34.
+
+Marriage Bill, the Scotch, 646.
+
+Marsin, Marshal, 35.
+
+Massillon, 532.
+
+Mazarine, Cardinal, French Opera originated by, 180.
+
+Melville's Omoo, review of, 754.
+
+Merimee, Prosper, notices of the works of, 695.
+
+Merkatz, Lieutenant, 67, 68.
+
+Mexican War, the, 667.
+
+Mildred, a tale, Chap. IV., 18
+  --Chap. V., 23
+  --Chap. VI., 28
+  --Chap. VII., 213
+  --Chap. VIII., 217
+  --Chap. IX., 222.
+
+Minden, battle of, 42.
+
+Minerals of Lake Superior, the, 658.
+
+Mississippi Scheme, the, 533.
+
+Modern Italian History, 162.
+
+Mollwitz, battle of, 38.
+
+Mont Dor, baths of, 448.
+
+Montebello, Duchess of, 5.
+
+Monterey, town of, 664.
+
+Montreal, town of, 655.
+
+Motherwell's Poems, review of, 622.
+
+Mountaineer and Poet, the, a sonnet, 684.
+
+Muleteers of Spain, the, 352, 354.
+
+Murat, sketches of, 166, 167
+  --as King of Naples, 170
+  --death of, 175, 176.
+
+Murray, a Jacobite, sketches of, 196.
+
+Music, Turkish, 749.
+
+Mytilene, Island of, 736.
+
+
+Naples, sketch of the recent history of, 162.
+
+Napoleon, comparison of Frederick the Great with, 34, 45.
+
+Nashua, town of, 654.
+
+Nemours, the Duc de, 17.
+
+New Archangel, settlement of, 661.
+
+New Sentimental Journey, a
+  --the Baths of Mont Dor, 448
+  --the Company, 451
+  --the Forest, 454.
+
+Newcastle, the Duke of, character of, by Walpole, 202.
+
+New England, Residence of three of the Regicides in, 333.
+
+Newhaven, grave of the Regicides at, 334.
+
+North America, Siberia, and Russia, 653.
+
+Nugent, Lord, Walpole's character of, 197.
+
+
+Oatmeal, superiority of, to wheat, 772.
+
+Ochotsk, town of, 668.
+
+Oglou, Pasha, 235.
+
+Olaf the Saint, the Hymn of, altered from the Icelandic, 682.
+
+Omoo, review of, 754.
+
+Orleans, Dowager Duchess of, Anecdote of, 11.
+
+Orleans, the Regent, 530.
+
+Opera Comique at Paris, the, 180.
+
+Oswald, Prince, 84.
+
+Ottoman Empire, present state of the, 685.
+
+Overland Journey round the Globe, Simpson's, review of, 653.
+
+
+Pacific Rovings, 754.
+
+Pano di Grajo, a Neapolitan leader, 165, 169.
+
+Palais Royal, the, 191.
+
+Paris, Sketches of Society in, 13.
+
+Passaruang, town of, 332.
+
+Pauperism and its treatment, 261.
+
+Peel, Sir Robert, reflections on the career of, 93.
+
+Pelham, Lord, 204, 206.
+
+Pellew's Life of Sidmouth, review of, 473.
+
+Peninsula, latest from the, 350.
+
+Pepe, General, review of the memoirs of, 162.
+
+Pepe, Florestano, 172.
+
+Personal character, importance of, to a statesman, 93.
+
+Peterwardin, battle of, 36.
+
+Picton and the Connaught Rangers, 457.
+
+Pitt, first appearance of, 476
+  --notices of, 483, 484.
+
+Poacher, the, or Jutland 130 years since, from the Danish.
+  --I. The Deer Rider, 286.
+  --II. Ansbjerg, 289.
+  --III. The Nisse, 292.
+  --IV. The Elopement, 297.
+  --V. The Horse Garden, 303.
+
+Poet, the, a Sonnet, 684.
+
+Poet's Auction, the, 62.
+
+Poetry
+  --Eric's Dirge, by Delta, 91
+  --the Stormy Sea, by the same, _ib._
+  --General Mack, 92
+  --the Early Taken, 230
+  --To the Stethoscope, 361
+  --Epigrams, 367
+  --Four Sonnets, namely, Life, Love, Heaven and Earth, the Prospect,
+    by E. B. Browning, 555
+  --Epitaph of Constantine Kanaris, 644
+  --The Maid of Ulva, by Delta, 645
+  --The Lament of Macrimmon, by the same, _ib._
+  --The Hymn of King Olaf the Saint, 682
+  --Four Sonnets, by Elizabeth B. Browning, 683.
+
+Police Rates, inequalities of, 250.
+
+Polynesia, sketches of, 754.
+
+Pomaree, Queen, 761, 766.
+
+Pompadour, Madame de, 206.
+
+Poor, treatment of the, 262.
+
+Poors'-rate, inequality of the, 247.
+
+Popular Superstitions, Letters on the truths contained in, No. I. The
+Divining Rod, 368
+  --II. Vampyrism, 432
+  --III. Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, 440
+  --IV. Real Ghosts and Second-sight, 541
+  --V. Trance and Sleep-waking, 547
+  --VI. Religious Delusions: the Possessed: Witchcraft, 673.
+
+Portuguese troops, character of the, 464.
+
+Possession, Demoniacal, letter on, 673.
+
+Premier, reflections: suggested by the career of the late, 93.
+
+Prospect, the, a Sonnet, 556.
+
+Prosper Merimee, notices of the works of, 695.
+
+Prussian Military Memoirs, 65.
+
+
+Rahden, Baron von, wanderings of an old soldier, reviewed, 65.
+
+Railways in Spain, 352.
+
+Raval the Actor, 193.
+
+Red River Settlement, the, 659.
+
+Reflections suggested by the career of the late Premier, 93.
+
+Regicides, cave of the, and how three of them fared in New England, 333.
+
+Regnier, defeat of, at Maida, 168.
+
+Reichenbach, Count, 68.
+
+Reign of George II., the, 194.
+
+Religious Delusions, letter on, 673.
+
+Ride to Magnesia, a
+  --stage I. 231
+  --II. 305.
+
+Robinson, Sir Thomas, 209.
+
+Rosama, a tale of Madrid, 557.
+
+Rosbach, battle of, 41.
+
+Royal Arsenal, the, 426.
+
+Ruffo, Cardinal, 164.
+
+Russia, sketches of, 668.
+
+
+Salamanca, battle of, 470.
+
+Samson, the executioner of Paris, 15.
+
+Sanchez, Julian, a Spanish Guerilla leader, 463.
+
+San Francisco, harbour of, 662.
+
+Santa Barbara, town of, 665.
+
+Saxe, Marshal, 535.
+
+Saxony, conquest of, by Frederick the Great, 40.
+
+Scio, Island of, 748.
+
+Scotch Marriage Bill, the, 646.
+
+Scotland, new poor law for, 247.
+
+Scottish Melodies, by Delta, Eric's Dirge, 91
+  --The Stormy Sea, _ib._
+  --The Maid of Ulva, 645
+  --Lament for Macrimmon, _ib._
+
+Secker, Archbishop, character of, 198.
+
+Second-sight, letter on, 541.
+
+Selberg's Java, review of, 318.
+
+Sentimental Journey, a, see _New_.
+
+Sheldon's Border Minstrelsy, review of, 622.
+
+Sheridan, speech of, on the Begum question, 478
+  --notices of, 488.
+
+Siberia, sketches of, 668.
+
+Sidmouth, Lord, life and times of, 473.
+
+Simpson's Overland Journey Round the World, review of, 653.
+
+Sitka, Settlement of, 661.
+
+Sleep-waking, letter on, 547.
+
+Smith, John William, memoir of, by Samuel Warren, 129.
+
+Smyrna, city of, 231, 233, 735.
+
+Soor, battle of, 39.
+
+Spain, sketches of modern, 350.
+
+Spirits, Goblins, Ghosts, letter on, 440.
+
+Stamboul, sketches of, 689.
+
+Stamp Duties, inequalities of, 250.
+
+Stethoscope, to the, 361.
+
+Stewart, Sir John, 169.
+
+Storming of the Redoubt, the, 724.
+
+Stormy Sea, the, by Delta, 91.
+
+Sue, Engene, 591.
+
+Superior, Lake, the minerals of, 658.
+
+Surabaya, town of, 324.
+
+
+Tahiti, sketches of, 758.
+
+Taxation, direct, 243,
+  true principles of, 258.
+
+Thames, Lays and Legends of the, _see_ Lays.
+
+Theatres of Paris, the, 177.
+
+Theatre des Varietes, the, 187.
+
+Thill, Colonel, 77.
+
+Thorpe's translation of Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxons, review of, 79, 80.
+
+Tiger Hunting in Java, 326.
+
+Tocqueville's History of the reign of Louis XV., review of, 525.
+
+Torgau, battle of, 43.
+
+Treatment of Pauperism, on the, 261.
+
+True Love, 428.
+
+Turin, battle of, 35.
+
+Turkey, present state of, 685.
+
+Turkish Manners, sketches of, 231.
+
+Turkish Watering Place, a, 735.
+
+Turning Dervishes, the, 689.
+
+Two Sketches, by E. B. Browning, 683.
+
+
+United States, war of the, with Mexico, 667.
+
+Ural mountains, mines of the, 671.
+
+
+Vallego, General, 663.
+
+Valona, town of, 231.
+
+Vampyrism, letter on, 432.
+
+Vaudeville at Paris, the, 184, 185.
+
+Vestris, the Dancer, 181.
+
+Vidocq, the Thief-taker, 15.
+
+Villeroi, Marshal, 35.
+
+Visible and Tangible, the, a metaphysical fragment, 580.
+
+Vision, the, 424.
+
+Voltaire, sketches of, 536, 537.
+
+
+Walpole's reign of George II., review of, 194.
+
+Walpole, Sir Robert, notices of, 197, 203, 204.
+
+Warren, Samuel, memoir of the late John William Smith by, 129.
+
+Watermen of London, the, 262.
+
+Wellington, comparison of Marlborough with, 34
+  --Sketches of, by Von Rahden, 75, 76.
+
+Whalley the Regicide, 333.
+
+Wheat, on the nutritive qualities of, and the various kinds of
+flour from it, 768.
+
+Wilberforce, anecdotes of, 480.
+
+Wilfrith, Bishop, 88.
+
+Witchcraft, letter on, 673.
+
+
+Yakutsh, province of, 669.
+
+Yonge, Sir William, 191.
+
+
+Zenta, battle of, 35.
+
+Zorndorf, battle of, 42.
+
+Zulares, valley of, 666.
+
+
+END OF VOL. LXI.
+
+
+_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
+61, No. 380, June, 1847, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, MAY, 1847 ***
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