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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35432-8.txt b/35432-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d9c7cd --- /dev/null +++ b/35432-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7115 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Library Magazine of Select Foreign +Literature, 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: The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature + Volume 1, Part 1 + +Author: Various + +Editor: John B. Alden + +Release Date: March 1, 2011 [EBook #35432] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAGAZINE OF SELECT FOREIGN LITERATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Christine D. and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE + + LIBRARY MAGAZINE + + OF + + Select Foreign Literature. + + VOLUME 1. + + NEW YORK: + JOHN B. ALDEN, PUBLISHER, + 1883. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + + About Locusts. "Chambers's Journal," 511 + Alcohol: Its Action and Uses. J. R. Gasquet, 597 + American View of American Competition. Edward Atkinson, 335 + American Churches, The Historical Aspect of the. Dean Stanley, 641 + An Imperial Pardon. F. A. S., 64 + Art Education in Great Britain. Sir Coutts Lindsay, 477 + Artificial Somnambulism. Richard A. Proctor, 348 + Association of Local Societies, The. J. Clifton Ward, 286 + Atheism and the Church. G. H. Curteis, 217 + Austin, Alfred. Farmhouse Dirge, 177 + Atkinson, Edward. An American View of American Competition, 335 + Baker, H. Barton. Theatrical Makeshifts and Blunders, 22 + Bayne, Thomas. English Men of Letters,--Shelley, 153 + Besant, Walter. Froissart's Love Story, 675 + Biographies of the Season. "London Society," 404 + Black, Algernon. Charles Lamb, 310 + Blackie, John Stuart. On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching + the Classical Languages, 290 + Blaikie, W. G. Ferney in Voltaire's Time and Ferney To-day, 230 + Buchanan, Robert. Sydney Dobell--A Personal Sketch, 538 + Bunbury, Clement. A Visit to the New Zealand Geysers, 761 + Calculating Boys. Richard A. Proctor, 705 + Chapters on Socialism. John Stuart Mill, 257 + Chances of the English Opera, The. Francis Hueffer, 626 + Christmas in Morocco. C. A. P. ("Sarcelle,") 75 + Classical Education, On the Worth of a. Bonamy Price, 297 + Cobbett, William: A Biography. Thomas Hughes, 326 + Commercial Depression and Reciprocity. Bonamy Price, 578 + Contemporary Life and Thought in France. G. Monod, 186 + Contemporary Life and Thought in Russia. T. S., 312 + Contentment. C. C. Fraser-Tytler, 285 + Cooper, Basil H. Fresh Assyrian Finds, 463 + Count Fersen, 244 + Coup d'Etat, A, 21 + Critic on the Hearth, The. James Payn, 696 + Cupid's Workshop. Somerville Gibney, 453 + Curteis, G. H. Atheism and the Church, 217 + Dallas, W. S. Entomology, 470 + Defence of Lucknow, The. Alfred Tennyson, 385 + Desprez, Frank. The Vaquero, 104 + Difficulties of Socialism, The. John Stuart Mill, 385 + Discoveries of Astronomers, The.--Hipparchus. Richard A. Proctor, 237 + Dreamland.--A Last Sketch. Julia Kavanagh, 181 + English Men of Letters.--Shelley. Thomas Bayne, 153 + English Opera, The Chances of. Francis Hueffer, 626 + Entomology. W. S. Dallas, 470 + Ewart, Henry C. The Schoolship Shaftesbury, 204 + Farmhouse Dirge, A. Alfred Austin, 177 + Ferney in Voltaire's Time and Ferney To-day. W. G. Blaikie, 230 + Forbes, Archibald. Plain Words About the Afghan Question, 434 + Fraser-Tytler, C. C. Contentment, 285 + French Novels. "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine," 723 + French Republic and the Catholic Church, The. John Morley, 561 + Fresh Assyrian Finds. Basil H. Cooper, 463 + Friends and Foes of Russia, The. W. E. Gladstone, 129 + Froissart's Love Story. Walter Besant, 675 + Future of India, The. Sir Erskine Perry, 1 + Gasquet, J. R. Alcohol: Its Action and Uses, 597 + Gibney, Somerville. Cupid's Workshop, 453 + Gladstone, W. E. Greece and the Treaty of Berlin, 663 + Gladstone, W. E. Probability as the Guide of Conduct, 513 + Gladstone, W. E. The Friends and Foes of Russia, 129 + Greece and the Treaty of Berlin. W. E. Gladstone, 663 + Greece, The Progress of. R. C. Jebb, 366 + Growth of London, The, 158 + Hamlet, "Mr. Irving's." "Temple Bar," 386 + Happy Valley, The. L. A., 32 + Harrison, Frederic. On the Choice of Books, 414 + Historical Aspect of the American Churches, The. Dean Stanley, 641 + Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets, The--Guarini. T. Adolphus + Trollope, 85 + Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets, The.--Torquato Tasso. Frances + Eleanor Trollope, 434 + Hueffer, Francis. The Chances of the English Opera, 626 + Hughes, Thomas. William Cobbett: A Biography, 326 + Japp, Alex. H. Winter Morn in Country and Winter Morn in Town, 31 + Jebb, R. C. The Progress of Greece, 366 + Kavanagh, Julia. Dreamland: A Last Sketch, 181 + Lamb, Charles. Algernon Black, 310 + Languages, Classical, On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching + the. John Stuart Blackie, 290 + Leicester Square, Some Gossip About, 53 + Lindsay, Sir Coutts. Art Education in Great Britain, 477 + Manzoni's Hymn for Whitsunday. Dean Stanley, 637 + Merivale, Herman C. The Royal Wedding, 508 + Mill, John Stuart. The Difficulties of Socialism, 385 + Mill, John Stuart. Chapters on Socialism, 257 + Mivart, St. George. On the Study of Natural History, 609 + Monod, G. Contemporary Life and Thought in France, 186 + Morley, John. The French Republic and the Catholic Church, 561 + Musical Cultus of the Present Day, The. H. Heathcote Statham, 687 + On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching the Classical + Languages. John Stuart Blackie, 290 + On Being Knocked Down and Picked Up Again.--A Consolatory Essay, 209 + On the Choice of Books, Frederic Harrison, 414 + On the Study of Natural History. St. George Mivart, 609 + On the Worth of a Classical Education. Bonamy Price, 297 + Payn, James. The Critic on the Hearth, 696 + Perry, Sir Erskine. The Future of India, 1 + Philological Society's English Dictionary, The. "The Academy," 639 + Phoenicians in Greece, The. A. H. Sayce, 36 + Plain Words About the Afghan Question. Archibald Forbes, 454 + Price, Bonamy. Commercial Depression and Reciprocity, 578 + Price, Bonamy. On the Worth of a Classical Education, 297 + Probability as the Guide of Conduct. W. E. Gladstone, 513 + Progress of Greece, The. R. C. Jebb, 366 + Proctor, Richard A. Artificial Somnambulism, 348 + Proctor, Richard A. Supposed Changes in the Moon, 111 + Proctor, Richard A. Calculating Boys, 705 + Proctor, Richard A. The Discoveries of Astronomers--Hipparchus, 237 + Recollections of Thackeray, 126 + Rose, Edward. Wagner as a Dramatist, 493 + Royal Wedding, The. Herman C. Merivale, 508 + Russia, The Friends and Foes of. W. E. Gladstone, 129 + Sayce, A. H. The Phoenicians in Greece, 36 + Schoolship Shaftesbury. Henry C. Ewart, 204 + Schopenhauer on Men, Books and Music. "Fraser's Magazine," 751 + Some Gossip About Leicester Square, 53 + Socialism, Chapters on. John Stuart Mill, 257 + Socialism, Difficulties of. John Stuart Mill, 388 + Stanley, Dean. Manzoni's Hymn for Whitsunday, 637 + Stanley, Dean. The Historical Aspect of the American Churches, 641 + Statham, H. Heathcote. The Musical Cultus of the Present Day, 687 + Supposed Changes in the Moon. Richard A. Proctor, 111 + Sydney Dobell: A Personal Sketch. Robert Buchanan, 538 + Tasso, Torquato. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets. Frances + Eleanor Trollope, 434 + Tennyson, Alfred. The Defence of Lucknow, 385 + Thackeray, Recollections of, 126 + Theatrical Makeshifts and Blunders. H. Barton Baker, 22 + Their Appointed Seasons. J. G. Wood, 603 + Through the Ages: A Legend of a Stone Axe. "New Quarterly Magazine," 557 + Toilers in Field and Factory. "Time," 483 + Toilers in Field and Factory, No. II.--Characteristics. "Time," 549 + Transvaal, About the. "Chamber's Journal," 330 + Trollope, Frances Eleanor. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian + Poets.--Torquato Tasso, 434 + Trollope, T. Adolphus. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets, 85 + Two Modern Japanese Stories, 105 + Valvedere, Adrian de. A Woman's Love--A Slavonian Study, 59 + Vaquero, The. Frank Desprez, 101 + Visit to the New Zealand Geysers, A. Clement Bunbury, 761 + Wagner as a Dramatist. Edward Rose, 493 + Ward, J. Clifton. The Association of Local Societies, 286 + Winter Morn in Country--Winter Morn in Town. Alex. H. Japp, 31 + Woman's Love. A. A Slavonian Study. Adrian de Valvedere, 59 + Wood, J. G. Their Appointed Seasons, 603 + + + + +THE + +LIBRARY MAGAZINE + +JANUARY, 1879. + + + + +THE FUTURE OF INDIA. + + +Speculation as to the political future is not a very fruitful occupation. +In looking back to the prognostications of the wisest statesmen, it will +be observed that they were as little able to foresee what was to come a +generation or two after their death, as the merest dolt amongst their +contemporaries. The Whigs at the beginning of the last century thought +that the liberties of Europe would disappear if a prince of the House of +Bourbon were securely fixed on the throne of Spain. The Tories in the last +quarter of that century considered that if England lost her American +provinces she would sink into the impotence of the Dutch Republic. The +statesmen who assembled at the Congress of Vienna would have laughed any +dreamer to scorn who should have suggested that in the lifetime of many of +them Germany would become an empire in the hands of Prussia, France a +well-organized and orderly republic, and the "geographical expression" of +Italy vitalised into one of the great powers of Europe. Nevertheless, if +politics is ever to approach the dignity of a science, it must justify a +scientific character by its ability to predict events. The facts are too +complicated, probably, ever to admit the application of exact deductive +reasoning; and in the growth of civilised society new and unexpected forms +are continually springing up. But though practical statesmen will not aim +at results beyond the immediate future, it is impossible for men who pass +their lives in the study of the difficult task of government to avoid +speculations as to the future form of society to which national efforts +should be directed. Some theory or other, therefore, is always present, +consciously or unconsciously, to the mind of politicians. + +With respect to British India it may be observed that very different views +of policy prevail. Native writers in the Indian press view their exclusion +from all the higher offices of Government, and the efforts of Manchester +to transfer 800,000_l._ per annum raised on cotton goods to increased +taxation in India, as a policy based on mere selfishness; and a Russian +journal, apparently in good faith, assured its readers the other day, +that India pays into the British treasury an annual tribute of twenty to +twenty-five millions sterling. On the other hand, some advanced thinkers +amongst ourselves hold that India is a burden on our resources, and the +cry of "Perish India!" so far as relates to its dependence on England, is +considered to be not unsupported by sound reasoning. One of the ablest +publicists of India, in a published letter to Sir George Campbell, has +declared his conviction, after twenty years' experience in that country, +that good government by the British in India is impossible. + +It may be admitted that exaggerated notions as to the pecuniary value of +India to England prevail, and it must also be confessed that, with all our +self-complacency as to the benefits of British rule, we have to accuse +ourselves of several shortcomings. Nevertheless, it may be affirmed with +confidence that the national instinct as to the value of our possessions +in the East coincides with the views of our most enlightened statesmen. My +colleague, Colonel Yule, has pointed out, I think with entire justice, +that the task which we have proposed to ourselves in India, unlike that of +the Dutch in Java, is to improve and elevate the two hundred millions +under our charge to the utmost extent of our powers. The national +conscience is not altogether satisfied with the mode in which some of our +possessions have been acquired, but impartial inquiry demonstrates that +unless a higher morality had prevailed than has ever yet been witnessed +amongst the sons of men, the occasions for conquest and acquisition of +territory that have presented themselves to the British during the last +hundred years would not have been foregone by any nation in the world. But +the feeling I allude to quickens the sense of our obligations to the +inhabitants of India. Having undertaken the heavy task of their +government, it is our duty to demonstrate to posterity that under British +rule we have enabled them to advance in the route of civilization and +progress. We recognise that in all probability so distant and extensive an +empire cannot permanently remain in subjection to a small island in the +West, and therefore our constant task is to render the population of India +at some day or other capable of self-government. Is such a problem +susceptible of a favourable solution? I propose to discuss this question +in the following pages. + + +I. + +The late Sir George Lewis once observed to me that in his opinion, it was +labour lost to endeavour to make anything of the Hindus. They were a race +doomed to subjection whenever they came into collision with peoples more +vigorous than themselves. They possessed, in short, none of the elements +which are requisite for self-government. Any opinion of that philosophic +observer is entitled to grave consideration, and undoubtedly there is much +in the history of the past that tends to justify the above desponding +conclusion. The Persians, the Greeks, the Parthians, the Huns, the Arabs, +the Ghaznivides, the Afghans, the Moguls, the Persians a second time, and +the British have successfully entered India and made themselves masters of +the greater part of it. But Sir George had never been called upon to make +any particular study of Indian history, nor indeed was it open to him +during the earlier period of his life, which was devoted exclusively to +study, to acquire the knowledge of India which later erudition and +research have brought to light. It is possible that a closer attention to +what has occurred in the past may enable us to regard the future in a more +favourable aspect. It will, I think, be found, after such a study, that +more intrinsic vitality and greater recuperative power exist amongst the +Hindu race than they have been generally accredited with. Unfortunately +the ancient and copious literature of the Hindus presents extremely little +of historic value. The tendency of the Indian mind to dreamy speculations +on the unseen and the unknown, to metaphysics, and to poetry, has led to a +thorough disregard of the valuable offices of history. Accordingly, we +find in their great epic poems, which date back, according to the best +orientalists, at least seven centuries before Christ, the few historical +facts which are mentioned so enveloped in legends, so encumbered with the +grossest exaggerations, that it requires assiduous scholarship to extract +a scintilla of truth from their relations. + +Our distinguished countrymen, Sir William Jones and Mr. Colebrooke, led +the way in applying the resources of European learning to the elucidation +of the Sanscrit texts. And the happy identification, by the former, of the +celebrated Chandragupta of the Hindus with the monarch of Pataliputra, +Sandracottus, at whose court Megasthenes resided for seven years in the +third century before Christ, laid the first firm foundation for authentic +Indian history. Since that period the researches of oriental scholars +following up the lines laid down by their illustrious predecessors; the +rock inscriptions which have been collected from various parts of India, +the coins, extending over many ages, of different native dynasties--all +these compared together enable a student even as sceptical as Sir George +Lewis to form a more favourable idea of the Hindus in their political +capacity than he was disposed to take. + +Early European inquirers into Hindu antiquity, with the natural prejudice +in favour of their studies in a hitherto unknown tongue, were disposed to +lend far too credulous an ear to the gross exaggerations and reckless +inaccuracies of the "Máhabhárat" and kindred works. James Mill on the +other hand, who was a Positivist before Auguste Comte had begun to write, +rejected with scorn all the allusions to the past in these ancient writers +as entirely fabulous. Careful scholarship, however, working on the +materials of the past which every day's discoveries are increasing, +demonstrates that much true history is to be gathered from the works of +the Sanscrit writers. + +The celebrated granite rock of Girnar[1] in the peninsula of Guzerat +presents in itself an authentic record of three distinct dynasties +separated from one another by centuries. And we owe to what may be justly +called the genius of James Prinsep the decipherment of those inscriptions +of Asoka which have brought to the knowledge of Europe a Hindu monarch of +the third century before our era, who, whilst he has been equalled by few +in the extent of his dominions, may claim superiority over nearly every +king that ever lived, from his tender-hearted regard for the interests of +his people, and from the wide principles of toleration which he +inculcated. + +Horace Wilson, who may be safely cited as the most calm and judicious +oriental scholar of our times, asserts that there is nothing to shock +probability in supposing that the Hindu dynasties, of whom we trace +vestiges, were spread through twelve centuries anterior to the war of the +Máhabhárat.[2] This leads us back to dates about 2600 years B.C. We have, +therefore, the astounding period of over four thousand years during which +to glean facts relating to the Hindu race and their capacity for +government, such as may form foundation for conclusions as to the future. +The characteristics which have most impressed themselves on my mind after +such study of Indian records as I have been able to bestow are, first, the +very early appearance of solicitude for the interest and welfare of the +people, as exhibited by Hindu rulers, such as has rarely or never been +exhibited in the early histories of other nations; secondly, the +successful efforts of the Hindu race to re-establish themselves in power +on the least appearance of decay in the successive foreign dynasties which +have held rule among them. It is only with the latter phenomenon that I +propose now to deal, and a rapid retrospect may be permitted. + +We learn from European records that Cyrus made conquests in India in the +sixth century B.C., and the famous inscription of his successor Darius +includes Sind and the modern Afghanistan amongst his possessions. But when +Alexander entered India two centuries later he found no trace of Persian +sway, but powerful Indian princes. Taxiles, Abisares, and the celebrated +Porus ruled over large kingdoms in the Panjáb. The latter monarch, whose +family name Paura is recorded in the Máhabhárat, is described by the Greek +writers to have ruled over 300 cities, and he brought into the field +against Alexander more than 2,000 elephants, 400 chariots, 4,000 cavalry, +and 50,000 foot. Against this force Alexander was only able to bring +16,000 foot and 5,000 horse; but the bulk of the troops were Macedonians, +and the leader was the greatest general whom the world has seen. We have +full particulars of the celebrated battle which ensued, and which ended in +the complete discomfiture of Porus. The conduct of this Indian king, +however, in the battle extorted the admiration of the Greek historians. He +received nine wounds during the engagement, and was the last to leave the +field, affording, as Arrian remarks, a noble contrast to Darius the +Second, who was the first to fly amongst his host in his similar conflict +with the Greeks. Alexander, as in the Macedonian conquests generally, +left satraps in possession of his Indian acquisitions. But a very few +years ensued before we find a native of India had raised up a mighty +kingdom, and all trace of Greek rule in the Punjab disappears. +Chandragupta, or Sandracottus, is said by a Greek writer to have seen +Alexander in person on the Hydaspes. Justin relates that it was he who +raised the standard of independence before his fellow-countrymen, and +successfully drove out Alexander's satraps. He founded the Maurya dynasty, +and the vast extent of the kingdom ruled over by his grandson Asoka is +testified by the edicts which the latter caused to be engraved in various +parts of his dominions. They also record the remarkable fact of his close +alliance with the Greek rulers of Syria, Egypt, Macedon, Cyrene and +Epirus. We next find that one of the Greek princes who had established an +independent dynasty in Bactria, Euthydemus, invaded India, and made +several conquests, but he also was met in the field and overcome by +Galoka, son of Asoka, who for some time added Cashmir to his possessions. +The Bactrian dynasty was put an end to by Mithridates, 140 B.C., and +consequently the Greeks were driven eastwards, and they planted themselves +in various parts of India. We find clear traces of them in Guzerat, where +the town of Junaghur (Javanaghur) still records the name of the Greeks who +founded the city. The coins and inscriptions of the Sinha rulers of +Guzerat furnish us with some particulars as to the Greek holdings at this +period, and they seem to have extended from the Jumna on the east to +Guzerat and Kutch on the west. The Macedonians seem here, as elsewhere, to +have placed natives at the head of their district administrations, and the +Sinha rulers call themselves Satraps and Máha Rajahs, and use Greek +legends on their coins, but evidently they soon acquired complete +independence. Simultaneously or nearly so with these Indo-Greek +principalities, we find invasions of India by the race commonly called +Scythians, but more accurately Jutchi, Sacć, and White Huns. These also +formed independent kingdoms. But again native leaders of enterprise arose +who put an end to foreign dominion. Vikramadit, who founded an era 57 +B.C., and whose exploits have made a deep impression upon the native mind, +is thought to be one of the Hindu leaders who succeeded in expelling a +foreign dynasty. And it would appear that towards the middle of the third +century after Christ all foreign dominion had disappeared from the soil of +India, except perhaps some small settlements of Jutchi, on the banks of +the Indus; and except the temporary conquest of Sind by the Arabs in the +seventh century, from which they were soon expelled by the Sumea +Rajputs[3]. Thus, during a period of 600 years, we have encountered a +series of invasions and conquests of portions of India by foreign rulers, +but all successively driven out by the energy of native leaders. Thereupon +followed the establishment of native dynasties all over India. It was +chiefly during the 700 years that now ensued, up to the invasion of India +by Mahmud of Ghazni, that the great works of Sanscrit literature in +poetry, grammar, algebra, and astronomy, appeared. During this period also +the Rajputs, who have been well called the Normans of the East, seem to +have found their way to nearly every throne in India. Their acquisition of +power has never been fully traced, and probably the materials are wanting +for any full or accurate account of it; but the subject is well worthy the +attention of an Indian student. + +The Mahomedan conquests which, with the fanaticism and savage intolerance +introduced by them, commenced A.D. 1001, seem to have exercised most +depressing effects on the Hindu mind. But here again we meet with the same +phenomenon. So soon as the Mussulman rule becomes enfeebled, a native +chief rises up who is enabled to rally his countrymen around him and form +a dynasty. Sivaji in 1660-80 established an independency which his +successors, as mayors of the palace, enlarged into a kingdom, out of which +arose the native powers of Sindia, of the Gaekwar, and of the Bhonslas of +Berar. Exactly the same occurrence has been witnessed in the present +century by the success of Ranjit Sing in forming an independent +principality in the Panjáb. This remarkable man, who was absolutely +illiterate, by his own energy of character raised himself from the head of +a small Sikh clan to the head of a kingdom with a revenue of two and a +half millions sterling.[4] We may be sure that, if the British had not +been in force, natives of soldierly qualities like Jung Bahádar of Nepal, +or Tantia Topi of the mutinies, would have carved out in the present day +kingdoms for themselves in other parts of India. + + +II. + +It may be thought that in the preceding sketch I have been aiming at the +conclusion that British dominion is in danger of extinction either by +foreign invasion or internal insurrection. Nothing is more foreign from my +views. I firmly believe that British rule in the East was never so strong, +never so able to protect itself against all attacks from without or from +within, as at the present moment. In a foreign dominion such as ours, +where unforeseen contingencies may any day arise, and where a considerable +amount of disaffection must always exist, constant watchfulness on the +part of Government is no doubt required; but this position is thoroughly +recognised by all statesmen who occupy themselves with Indian affairs. I +do not for a moment delude myself with the idea that we have succeeded in +gaining the affections of the natives. No foreign rulers who have kept +themselves apart as a separate caste from the conquered nation have +succeeded in accomplishing this feat. There is something of +incompatibility between the European and Asiatic, which seems to forbid +easy amalgamation. Lord Stowell, in one of his fine judgments, has pointed +out the constant tendency of Europeans in the East to form themselves into +separate communities, and to abstain from all social intercourse with the +natives around them, and he illustrates his position with the happy +quotation-- + + Scyllis amara suam non intermiscuit undam. + +The English perhaps are distinguishable among all European nations by the +deep-rooted notions of self-superiority which their insular position and +great success in history have engendered. The southern races of Europe, +the Spanish and Portuguese, have shown no reluctance to intermix freely +with the native races of America, India, and the Philippines, such as has +always been exhibited by inhabitants of the British Isles when expatriated +to the East or West. But where race, color, religion, prejudice intervene +to prevent social intercourse between the English in India and the +natives, what a wide gulf is placed between them! + +In justice, however, it must be stated that, although the haughtiness of +demeanour and occasional brutality in manners which the _aristocratie de +peau_ sometimes engenders in our countrymen are much to be deprecated, the +estrangement which exists in India between the English and the natives is +not wholly, nor even principally, attributable to the former. A Hindu of +very humble caste would think himself polluted if he sat down to dinner +with the European governor of his Presidency. In this instance, as in so +many others, Hindu opinions have permeated the whole native community; and +other races transplanted to India, such as Mahomedans and Parsis, are +equally exclusive in their social life. When I was in Bombay I made an +attempt to break through the barrier which the latter caste had +voluntarily erected for themselves. Sir Jamshedji Jijibhai, an able, +self-raised man, was then the acknowledged head of the Parsi community, +and was distinguished for his benevolence and enlightened views. I +endeavored to persuade him to set his countrymen an example, and to come +to a dinner at which I would assemble the chief authorities of the island; +and I proposed to him as an inducement that he should send his own cook, +who should prepare for him his wonted fare. But the step was too startling +a one for him, though I was glad to find that his son, the second baronet, +was able to get over his prejudices on his visit, some years after, to +London. A ludicrous example of the same exclusive feeling has been related +in connection with a Governor-General. His lordship, desirous to break +down any notion of social inferiority on the part of a distinguished +native who was paying him a visit, placed his arm round his neck as they +walked up and down a verandah engaged in familiar conversation. The +high-bred Oriental made no sign, but as soon as he could extricate himself +from the embraces of his Excellency, he hastened home to wash away the +contamination of a Mlecha's touch. + +It may also be observed that the mutual repugnance of the two races to +such close social intercourse as intermarriage, for example, would +produce, gives rise to two excellent results. First, there is every reason +to suppose, judging by what we see of the native Portuguese in India, that +the English and Hindu would make, in the language of breeders, a very bad +cross; and it is therefore satisfactory to find that English rulers in +India, unlike the Normans in England, or the Moguls in India, have never +intermarried with the natives of the country. The second result is closely +connected with the first. What has led to the downfall of previous +foreign dynasties has been that the invaders of the country had become +effeminate by their long possession of power, and had lost the original +energy and vigour which had enabled their predecessors to gain a throne. +The constant recruitment of English rulers from their fatherland wholly +prevents this cause of internal decay from making its appearance among the +British. + +It is not, then, by our hold on the affections of the people that we +maintain our dominion in India. The strength and probable endurance of our +rule are based on our real power, on our endeavours to do justice, on our +toleration. The memory of the excesses committed under Mussulman rule has +probably become dim with the great bulk of the people, but it is very +vivid among educated Hindus. A strong conviction prevails among them that +if British rule were to disappear in India, the same rise of military +adventurers, the same struggles for power, and the same anarchy as +prevailed during the first half of the last century would again appear. +The latest expression of Hindu opinion on this subject which I have met +with is contained in a pamphlet published in the present year by Mr. +Dadoba Pandurang.[5] He is an aged scholar, and though not a Brahmin, well +versed in the Vedas, but, above all, he is distinguished by his devout +views and by his desire to elevate and improve his fellow-countrymen. He +writes:-- + + If there is a manifestation of the hand of God in history, + as I undoubtedly believe there is, nothing to my imagination + appears more vivid and replete with momentous events + calculated for the mutual welfare and good of both countries + than this political union of so large, important, rich, and + interesting a country as Hind in the further south-east with + a small but wisely governed island of Great Britain in the + further north-west.... Let us see what England has done to + India. England, besides governing India politically, has now + very wisely commenced the important duty of educating the + millions of her Indian children, and of bringing them up to + the standard of enlightenment and high civilization which + her own have obtained. She has already eradicated, I should + add here, to the great joy of Heaven, several of the most + barbarous and inhuman practices, such as Sutti,[6] + infanticide, Charak Puja,[7] and what not, which had for + ages been prevalent among a large portion of the children of + this her new acquisition. These practices, which had so long + existed at the dictation of an indigenous priesthood, except + for the powerful interference of England could not have been + abolished. + +Opinions like these, I am persuaded, prevail throughout the educated +community, and the presence of British rule amongst them is recognised as +indispensable in the present state of Hindu society. + + +III. + +With respect to a successful invasion of India, it must be confessed that +the English mind has always been keenly susceptible of alarm. The wide +plains of Hisdustan, which offer so ready an access to aggressive armies, +the absence of fortified places, and the frequency with which India has +been won and lost in a single pitched battle, all tend to encourage the +belief that some day or other British domination will be in danger from +some incursion of this sort. It may be observed that for nearly a century +past the English nation has been subjected to periodic fits of Indian +panic. Sir John Kaye, in his "History of the Afghan War," states that in +1797 the whole of India was kept "in a chronic state of unrest" from the +fears of an Afghan descent upon the plains of Hindustan. In 1800 the +Emperor Paul of Russia and Napoleon conceived "a mad and impracticable +scheme of invasion," which greatly increased local alarm. In 1809 these +fears assumed even larger proportions when an alliance between Napoleon +and Persia was on foot with a view to the proposed invasion; and the +mission to Persia under Sir John Malcolm was inaugurated. In 1838 Russia +took the place which Zeman Shah, Persia, and Napoleon had previously +occupied, and the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan was commenced by Lord +Auckland from his mountain retreat at Simla. + +Since that period the suspicions of the nation have been continually +directed against Russia by a small but able party, who, from their chiefly +belonging to the Presidency of Bombay, have been termed the Bombay school. +The late General John Jacob was the originator of the anti-Russian policy +inculcated by them. He was a man of great ability and original views, and, +if he had moved in a wider sphere, he might have left a name equal to that +of the most illustrious of his countrymen in India. But he passed the +greater part of his life on the barren wastes of Sind, and rarely came in +contact with superior minds. In 1856 General Jacob addressed a singularly +able paper to Lord Canning, then Governor-General, and which Sir Lewis +Pelly afterwards published to the world.[8] This was just at the close of +the Crimean War, when England was about to undertake an expedition against +Persia to repel her aggression on Herát. It was Jacob's firm conviction +that, unless India interposed, Russia, having Persia completely under her +control, could, whenever she pleased, take possession not only of Herát, +but of Candahar, and thus find an entrance to the plains of India, on +which our dominion was to disappear. To thwart this contingency, and +render the approach of a European army towards our frontier impossible, he +would, as an ultimate measure, garrison Herát with twenty thousand troops, +but in the first instance would occupy Quetta. These proposals were +carefully considered by Lord Canning's Government, but were rejected. + +The same arguments were brought forward eleven years later by Sir Bartle +Frere, whilst Governor of Bombay, and were laid before the Government of +India. That Government was then remarkably strong, consisting of Lord +Lawrence, Sir William Mansfield (Lord Sandhurst), Sir Henry Maine, Mr. +Massey, and Major-General Sir Henry Durand; but the proposals to improve +our frontier by extending our dominions westward, and by the annexation of +independent foreign territory, were unanimously disapproved of. + +About the same time that Sir Bartle Frere was endeavouring to stimulate +the Government of India to occupy Quetta, my distinguished colleague and +friend, Sir Henry Rawlinson, published two articles in the "Quarterly +Review,"[9] in which he called the attention of the public to the rapidly +increasing extension of the Russian dominions in the direction of our +Indian frontier, and to the necessity of maintaining outworks such as +Herát and Candahar for the protection of our Eastern Empire. But he raised +the question in a more solemn form in the confidential memorandum which he +transmitted to the Government of India in 1868, and which he afterwards +published in 1875,[10] with additional matter, forming a complete +conspectus of the aggressive policy to be adopted to guard against a +Russian invasion. The views of the Government of India on these papers +have not, I believe, been given to the world, but it is well known in +Indian circles that the masterly activity therein advocated did not find +acceptance. + +At the present moment Russophobia is raging to a greater extent than at +any previous period; but this is ground on which for the present I am +precluded from entering. It is gratifying to observe, however, that in the +great conflict of opinion which, as it will be seen, has thus been raging +for the last forty years, as to the best method of protecting our +north-western frontier from an invading foe, both schools have ultimately +agreed on one conclusion, namely, that a successful invasion of India by +Russia is in nowise probable. The one side would avert any possibility of +an attack by the occupation of Afghanistan, the Suleiman mountains, and +probably the Hindu Kush; the other would husband the resources of India, +and not waste blood and treasure in anticipation of a conflict that may +possibly never occur, and that certainly never will occur without years of +warning to the nation. + +I cannot pursue this interesting question further at a moment when the +whole question of our policy on the Indian frontier is ripening for +discussion, and when the materials on which a sound conclusion can be +drawn are not yet laid before the public. It is sufficient for my present +purpose to repeat that the probability of British dominion in the East +being terminated by a Russian invasion is rejected on all sides. + + +IV. + +If the views which have been now put forward are at all sound, we may +perhaps conclude that whilst our Indian empire requires on the part of its +rulers the utmost watchfulness to guard against dangers and contingencies +which may at any moment arise, yet that with ordinarily wise government we +may look forward to a period of indefinitely long duration during which +British dominion may flourish. That sooner or later the links which +connect England with India will be severed, all history teaches us to +expect; but when that severance occurs, if the growing spirit of +philantrophy and increasing sense of national morality which characterise +the nineteenth century continue, we may fairly hope that the Englishman +will have taught the Hindus how to govern themselves. It is England's +task, as heretofore, "to teach other nations how to live." A very long +period, however, is required before the lesson can be fully learned, and +the holders of Indian securities need not fear that the reversionary +interests of their grandchildren will be endangered. Our rule in India +dates back little more than a century; and although from the first a wise +spirit of toleration and an eminent desire to do justice have prevailed, +it is only within the last thirty or forty years that any serious attempts +to elevate the character of the nation have been manifested. + +The educational movement, which is silently producing prodigious changes +in India, received its first impulse from England, and the clause in the +Act of Parliament[11] which recognised the duty of educating the masses, +enabled men like Lord Macaulay, Sir Edward Ryan, and others, to lay the +foundations of a system which has since established itself far and wide. +But the Court of Directors never took heartily to this great innovation of +modern times, and it was only under the direction of English statesmanship +that the Indian authorities were induced to act with vigour in this +momentous undertaking. Sir Charles Wood's celebrated minute on education, +in 1858, laid the foundation of a national system of education, and the +principles then inculcated have never since been departed from. Some +generations will require to pass before the Oriental mind is enabled to +substitute the accurate forms of European thought for the loose +speculations that have prevailed through long centuries. But already happy +results are appearing, and in connection with the subject of this article +it may be noticed as a most hopeful sign of the future that our English +schools are turning out native statesmen by whom all our best methods of +government are being introduced into the dominions of native princes. + +The administration reports of some of these gentlemen may vie with those +of our best English officers; and the names of Sir Dinkar Rao, Sir Madava +Rao, Sir Salar Jung, and others, give full indication that among the +natives of India may be found men eminently qualified for the task of +government. Wittingly or unwittingly, English officials in India are +preparing materials which some day or other will form the groundwork for a +native empire or empires. I was thrown closely into contact with the Civil +Service whilst I was in India, for I employed all my vacations in +travelling through the country, mostly at a foot's pace. Everywhere I went +I found a cultivated English gentleman exerting himself to the best of his +ability to extend the blessings of civilisation--justice, education, the +development of all local resources. I firmly believe that no government in +the world has ever possessed a body of administrators to vie with the +Civil Service of India. Nor do I speak only of the service as it existed +under the East India Company, for, from all that I have heard and +observed, competition supplies quite as good servants of the State as did +in earlier days the patronage of the Court of Directors. The truth is, +that the excellence of the result has been attributable in nowise to the +mode of selection, but to the local circumstances which call forth in +either case, in the young Englishman of decent education and of the moral +tone belonging to the middle classes of this country, the best qualities +of his nature. But in these energetic, high-principled, and able +administrators we have a danger to good government which it is necessary +to point out. Every Englishman in office in India has great power, and +every Englishman, as the late Lord Lytton once observed to me, is in heart +a reformer. His native energy will not enable him to sit still with his +hands before him. He must be improving something. The tendency of the +English official in India is to over-reform, to introduce what he may deem +improvements, but which turn out egregious failures, and this, be it +observed, amongst the most conservative people of the world. Some of the +most carefully devised schemes for native improvement have culminated in +native deterioration. A remarkable illustration of this position is +afforded by the late inquiry into the causes of the riots among the +cultivators of the Deccan. It has been one of the pretensions of British +administration that they have instituted for the first time in India pure +and impartial courts of justice. And the boast is well founded. In the +Presidency of Bombay also the Government has substituted long leases of +thirty years on what may be called Crown Lands for the yearly holdings +formerly in vogue. They have also greatly moderated the assessment. The +result has been that land in the Bombay Presidency from being unsaleable +has acquired a value of from ten to twenty years' purchase. But the effect +of these two measures upon the holders of these lands has been disastrous. +Finding themselves possessed of property on which they could raise money +with facility, they have indulged this national propensity out of all +proportion to their means; and the money-lenders in their turn drag the +improvident borrowers before a court of justice, and obtain decrees upon +the indisputable terms of the contract, which no judge feels competent to +disregard. + +Another danger of the same sort arises from the short term of office which +is allowed to officials in the highest places in India. When the +Portuguese had large dominions in India, they found that their Viceroys, +if permitted to remain a long time in the East, became insubordinate, and +too powerful for the Government at Lisbon to control. They accordingly +passed a law limiting the tenure of office to five years. This limitation +seems to have been adopted tacitly in our Eastern administrative system, +and has undoubtedly been observed for more than a century. But the period +of five years is very short to enable either a Governor-General, or +Governor, or member of Council to leave his mark on the country; and there +is a temptation to attempt something dazzling which would require for its +proper fulfilment years to elaborate, but which, if not passed at the +moment, would fail to illustrate the era. + +It is needless to observe that a series of ill-considered changes, a +constant succession of new laws to be followed by amended laws in the next +session, attempts to change manners and practices (not immoral in +themselves) that have prevailed for centuries, all tend to make a +government, especially a foreign government, odious. But there is one +other rock which it is above all essential to avoid when we are +considering the problem how best to preserve the duration of British +government for the benefit of India. Every ardent administrator desires +improvements in his own department; roads, railways, canals, irrigation, +improved courts of justice, more efficient police, all find earnest +advocates in the high places of government. But improved administration is +always costly, and requires additional taxation. I fear that those in +authority too often forget that the wisest rulers of a despotic government +have always abstained from laying fresh burdens on the people. It is, in +fact, the chief merit of such a government that the taxes are ordinarily +light, and are such as are familiarised by old usage. New taxes imposed +without the will, or any appeal to the judgment, of the people create the +most dangerous kind of disaffection. But if this is true generally, it is +especially true in India, where the population is extremely poor, and +where hitherto the financier has not been enabled to make the rich +contribute their due quota to the revenue of the country. + +It has been said by some that we have not yet reached the limits of +taxation in India, but to them I would oppose the memorable saying of Lord +Mayo towards the close of his career. "A feeling of discontent and +dissatisfaction existed," in his opinion, "among every class, both +European and native, on account of the constant increase of taxation that +had for years been going on;" and he added: "The continuance of that +feeling was a political danger, the magnitude of which could hardly be +over-estimated." The Earl of Northbrook quoted and fully endorsed this +opinion in his examination before the House of Commons in the present +year.[12] + +But although this constant aim at improvement among our English +administrators too often leads to irritating changes, harassing +legislation, and new fiscal charges on the people, causes are at work +which tend to eliminate these obstacles to good and stable government. In +our experimental application of remedies to evils patent on the surface, +our blunders have chiefly arisen from our ignorance of the people. +Institutions that had been seen to work well in Europe might, it was +thought, be transplanted safely to India. Experience alone could teach +that this is often a grievous error; but experience is being daily +afforded by our prolonged rule, and by our increasing acquaintance with +the habits, wants, and feelings of the people. The tendency also to change +and improvement, which I have before observed upon as leading to +ill-considered measures, operates here beneficially, for there is never +any hesitation in a local government to reverse the proceedings of its +predecessors when found to work injuriously for the community. + +But the most cheering symptom of future good government in India is the +increased disposition of British rulers to associate natives of character +and ability with themselves in high offices of administration. Parliament +so long ago as 1833 laid down the principle that no native shall by reason +of his religion, place of birth, or colour, be disabled from holding any +office. Her gracious Majesty also in 1858 proclaimed her will "that so far +as may be, our subjects, of whatever race or creed, be impartially +admitted to offices in our service, the duties of which they may be +qualified by their education, ability, and integrity duly to discharge." + +Many obstacles have hitherto prevailed, chiefly arising out of the vested +interests of a close Civil Service, to prevent full operation being given +to a policy so solemnly laid down. But it is no breach of official +propriety to announce that Lord Cranbrook has earnestly taken up the +proposals of the present Viceroy to clear away the difficulties which have +hitherto intervened, and has sent out a despatch to India which it may be +fairly anticipated will meet the aspirations of educated natives, and will +greatly strengthen the foundations of British government in the East. + +It will thus be seen that several factors are at work which cannot fail, +under the continued rule of the British Government, to have most +beneficial effects on the national character of India. A system of +education is being established which is opening a door for the +introduction of all the knowledge accumulated in Europe, and which sooner +or later must greatly dissipate that ignorance which is at the bottom of +so many obstacles to good government in the East. Equality before the law +and the supremacy of law have been fully brought home to the cognisance of +every inhabitant of India, and they form a striking contrast, fully +appreciated by the Hindus, to the arbitrary decisions and the race +prerogatives which characterised their former Mahomedan rulers. Continuous +efforts at improvement are witnessed in every zillah of India, and if they +sometimes fail in their operation it is still patent that the permanent +welfare of the people is the constant aim and object of Government. +Moreover, the ready ear tendered to any expression of a grievance, the +minute subjection of every act of authority in India, from the deputy +magistrate up to the Governor-General, to the scrutiny of the Home +Government, secure to the meanest inhabitant of India a hearing, and +inspire the consciousness that he also is a member of the State, and that +his rights and interests are fully recognised. The association of natives +with ourselves in the task of government, which has been commenced in the +lower branches of the judicial administration with the greatest success, +and which is now about to be attempted on a larger scale, as I have before +noted, is also a fact of the greatest gravity. On the whole, after very +close attention to Indian administration for nearly forty years, of which +about twelve were spent in the country itself in a position where I was +enabled to take an impartial view of what was going on around me, I am of +opinion that a bright future presents itself, and, if I could see my way +more clearly on the very important questions of caste and of the future +religion of India, I should say a brilliant future, in which perhaps for +centuries to come the supremacy of England will produce the happiest +results in India. + + +V. + +But I must not close this article without reference to the very different +views which have been lately put forth in this Review under the +sensational title of the "Bankruptcy of India." Mr. Hyndman, after much +study of Indian statistics, has arrived at the conclusion that "India has +been frightfully impoverished under our rule, and that the process is +going on now at an increasingly rapid rate." The revenue raised by +taxation is about 36,000,000_l._, and "is taken absolutely out of the +pockets of the people," three-fourths of whom are engaged in agriculture. +The increase of 12,000,000_l._ in the revenue which has occurred between +1857 and 1876 "comes almost entirely out of the pockets of the +cultivators," and "the greater part of the increase of the salt, stamps, +and excise is derived from the same source." The cost of maintaining a +prisoner in the cheapest part of India is 56_s._ a head, or, making +allowance for children, 46_s._; but the poor cultivator has only 31_s._ +6_d._, from which he must also defray the charges "for sustenance of +bullocks, the cost of clothing, repairs to implements, house, &c., and +_for taxation_." + +He states the debt of India to be "enormous," amounting to 220,000,000_l._ +sterling, principally accumulated in the last few years. The railways have +been constructed at ruinous cost, for which the "unfortunate ryot has had +to borrow an additional five or ten or twenty rupees of the native +money-lender at 24, 40, 60 per cent., in order to pay extra taxation." +Irrigation works "tell nearly the same sad tale. Here again millions have +been squandered--squandered needlessly." Moreover, the land is fast +becoming deteriorated or is being worse cultivated. In short, through a +long indictment of twenty-three pages, of which I omit many counts, he +cannot find a single act of British administration that meets his +approval. All is naught. It is true that the Civil Service of India is +composed of men who have gained their posts by means of the best education +that England can supply, and who from an early period of manhood have +devoted their lives to the practical solution of the many difficult +problems which Indian administration presents. But Mr. Hyndman finds fault +with them all. + +The article itself is couched in such an evident spirit of philanthropy +that one feels unwilling to notice pointedly the blunders, the +exaggerations, and the inaccuracies into which the writer has fallen. But +Mr. Hyndman has entered the lists so gallantly with a challenge to all the +Anglo-Indian world, that he of course expects to encounter some hard +knocks, writing, as he does, on a subject with which he has no practical +acquaintance. He has already received "a swashing blow" respecting the +agricultural statistics on which he bases the whole of his argument. On +data supplied to him by an able native writer, whom I know intimately and +for whom I have the highest respect, he has drawn conclusions which are +so manifestly absurd, that all practically acquainted with the subject are +tempted to throw aside his article as mere rubbish. But Mr. Dádobhai, like +himself, has no knowledge of the rural life of India, or of agriculture +generally, or of the practical business of administration. He is a man who +has passed his whole life in cities, an excellent mathematician, of +unwearied industry, and distinguished, even among his countrymen, for his +patriotic endeavours to improve their condition. But the mere study of +books and of figures--especially of the imperfect ones which hitherto have +characterised the agricultural statistics of India--is not sufficient to +constitute a great administrator; and when Mr. Dádobhai, after making +himself prominent by useful work in the municipality of Bombay, was +selected to fill the high office of Prime Minister to the Gaekwar of +Baroda, he was not deemed by his countrymen to have displayed any great +aptitude in statesmanship.[13] + +The alarming picture drawn by Mr. Hyndman on data thus supplied attracted +the attention of the greatest authority in England on agricultural +matters; for intrinsic evidence clearly shows that the letters signed +"C.," which appeared in the _Times_ of the 5th of October and the 9th of +October, can proceed from no other than Mr. Caird. His refutation of Mr. +Hyndman's pessimist views is so short, that I give the pith of it here:-- + + The conclusions arrived at are so startling that though, + like Mr. Hyndman, I have never been in India, I, as an + alarmed Englishman, have tried to test the strength of the + basis upon which they rest. The only _data_ I have at hand + are taken from the figures in the last year's report of the + Punjab. The number of cultivated acres there agrees with + those quoted by Mr. Hyndman--say 21,000,000 acres--and I + adopt his average value of 1_l._ 14_s._ per acre. + + The Government assessment is 1,905,000_l._, to pay which + one-sixth of the wheat crop [the produce of 1,120,000] would + have to be sold and exported. There would remain for + consumption in the country the produce of 5,500,000 acres of + wheat and of 12,000,000 acres of other grain, the two + sufficing to yield for a year 2 lb. per head per day for the + population of 17,000,000, which is more than double the + weight of corn eaten by the people of this country. Besides + this, they would have for consumption their garden + vegetables and milk; and beyond it the money value of + 845,000 acres of oil-seed, 720,000 acres of cotton and hemp, + 391,000 acres of sugar-cane, 120,000 acres of indigo, 69,000 + acres of tobacco, 88,000 acres of spices, drugs, and dyes, + 19,000 acres of poppy, and 8,800 acres of tea; the aggregate + value of which, without touching the corn, would leave + nearly twice the Government assessment. + + Mr. Hyndman has committed the error of arguing from an + English money value at the place of production upon articles + of consumption, the true value of which is their + food-sustaining power to the people who consume them. + +When an argument is thus found so completely _pecher par sa base_, it is +needless to pursue it further. But I conceive that Mr. Hyndman, when +studying this overwhelming refutation, must feel somewhat +conscience-stricken when he reperuses such sentences of his own as the +following:--"In India at this time, millions of the ryots are growing +wheat, cotton, seeds, and other exhausting crops, and send them away +because these alone will enable them to pay their way at all. They are +themselves, nevertheless, eating less and less of worse food each year, in +spite, or rather by reason, of the increasing exports." Thus a farmer is +damaged by finding new markets for his produce! And he sells his wheat, +which is the main produce of his arable land in those parts of India where +it flourishes, to buy some cheaper grain which his land does not grow! The +youngest assistant in a collector's establishment could inform Mr. Hyndman +that the food of the agricultural population of India consists of the +staple most suitable to the soil of the district: in the Punjab wheat, in +Bengal and all well-watered lowlands rice, on the tablelands of the Deccan +jowári (_holcus sorghum_) and bájri (_panicum spicatum_), on the more +sterile plateau of Southern India the inferior grain rági (_eiuesyne +coracauna_). + +It must have been under the dominion of the idea produced by Mr. +Dádobhai's statistics as to the thoroughly wretched state of the +agricultural population of India that Mr. Hyndman has been led into +exaggerated statements which his own article shows he knew to be +inaccurate. A dreadful case of misgovernment existed in India, and, +thoroughly to arouse his countrymen to the fact, it was necessary to pile +up the agony. Thus, in one part of his article he states that the +"enormous debt" of India amounts to 220,000,000_l._, but in a later +portion he admits that it is only 127,000,000_l._, and he knows full well +that the amount of 100,000,000_l._ of guaranteed railway debt is not only +not a present debt due from Government, but is a very valuable property, +which will probably bring in some millions of revenue when they exercise +their right of buying up the interests of the several guaranteed +companies. + +Again, he speaks throughout his article of the excessive taxation imposed +on the poor, half-starved cultivators; and he gives the following table as +showing the amount "taken absolutely out of the pockets of the people:"-- + + Land revenue Ł21,500,000 + Excise 2,500,000 + Salt 6,240,000 + Stamps 2,830,000 + Customs 2,720,000 + +He thus maintains that the portion of the rent paid to Government for +occupation of the land is a tax upon the cultivator, which is about as +true as to state that the 67,000,000_l._ of rental in the United Kingdom +is a special tax on the farmers of this country. The amount derived from +excise is chiefly produced by the sale of intoxicating liquors, the use of +which is forbidden by the social and religious views of the natives; and +any contribution to the revenue under this head is clearly a voluntary act +on the part of the transgressor. The revenue from stamps proceeds chiefly +from what may be called taxes on justice; they are, in my opinion, +extremely objectionable, but weighty objections may be urged against +nearly every tax, and a large portion of this tax falls on the wealthier +class of suitors. The amount contributed by the population under the head +of customs, although it may take money out of the pocket of the rayat, +actually adds to his store; for, unless he could buy in the bazaar a piece +of Manchester long-cloth cheaper than an article of domestic manufacture, +it is manifest that he would select the latter. There remains only the +single article of salt on which the cultivator undoubtedly is taxed, and +which forms the sole tax from which he cannot escape. This tax also is +extremely objectionable in theory, more perhaps than in practice, for it +amounts to about 7-˝_d._ per head. But even if we take the whole amount +of taxation as shown by Mr. Hyndman, excluding the land revenue or rental +of the land, the average per head is only 1_s._ 6_d._, of which more than +one-third can be avoided at the pleasure of any individual consumer. It is +not, then, a misstatement to aver that the population of India is more +lightly taxed than any population in the world living under an orderly +government. + +I have thus far thought it my duty to expose what I believe to be grave +errors in Mr. Hyndman's sensational article. But I should do him great +injustice if I did not admit that he has brought out in vivid colours some +very important facts. It is true that these facts are well known to Indian +administrators, but they are facts disagreeable to contemplate, and are +therefore slurred over willingly; but they have such important bearing on +the proceedings of Government in India that they cannot be too frequently +paraded before the public eye. + +The first of these truths is the undeniable poverty of the great bulk of +the population. But here Mr. Hyndman does not appear to me to have taken +full grasp of the fact, or to have ascertained its causes. The dense +population of India, amounting in its more fertile parts to six and seven +hundred per square mile, is almost exclusively occupied in agricultural +pursuits. But the land of India has been farmed from time immemorial by +men entirely without capital. A farmer in this country has little chance +of success unless he can supply a capital of 10_l._ to 20_l._ an acre. If +English farms were cultivated by men as deficient in capital as the Indian +rayats, they would be all thrown on the parish in a year or two. The +founder of a Hindu village may, by aid of his brethren and friends, have +strength enough to break up the jungle, dig a well, and with a few rupees +in his pocket he may purchase seed for the few acres he can bring under +the plough. If a favourable harvest ensue, he has a large surplus, out of +which he pays the _jamma_ or rent to Government. But on the first failure +of the periodical rains his withered crops disappear, he has no capital +wherewith to meet the Government demand, to obtain food for his family and +stock, or to purchase seed for the coming year. To meet all these wants he +must have recourse to the village money-lender, who has always formed as +indispensable a member of a Hindu agricultural community as the ploughman +himself. + +From time immemorial the cultivator of the soil in India has lived from +hand to mouth, and when his hand could not supply his mouth from the +stores of the last harvest he has been driven to the local saukár or +money-lender to obtain the means of existence. This is the first great +cause of India's poverty. The second is akin to it, for it exists in the +infinite divisibility of property which arises under the Hindu system of +succession, and which throws insuperable obstructions to the growth of +capital. The rule as to property in Hindu life is that all the members of +a family, father, grandfather, children, and grandchildren, constitute an +undivided partnership, having equal shares in the property, although one +of them, generally the eldest, is recognised as the manager. It is in the +power of any member to sever himself from the family group, and the +tendency of our Government has been to encourage efforts of what may be +called individualism. But the new stock is but the commencement of another +undivided family, so strong is the Hindu feeling in favour of this +time-honoured custom. It is obvious that where the skill, foresight, and +thriftiness required for the creation of capital may be thwarted by the +extravagance or carelessness of any one of a large number of partners, its +growth must be seriously impeded. + +It will be seen, if the above arguments are sound, that the obstructions +which oppose themselves to the formation of capital arise out of +immemorial usages, and are irremediable by any direct interference of +Government. But whatever may be the causes of this national poverty, the +fact is undoubted, and it cannot be too steadily contemplated by those who +desire to rely on fresh taxation for their favourite projects, whether it +be for improved administration, for magnificent public works, or for the +extension of our dominions. Mr. Hyndman also points out the great +expensiveness of a foreign government, and his remarks on this subject are +undoubtedly true. The high salaries required to tempt Englishmen of +suitable qualifications to expatriate themselves for the better part of +their lives, and the heavy dead weight of pensions and furlough charges +for such officials, form, no doubt, a heavy burden on the resources of +India. The costliness of a European army is, of course, also undoubtedly +great. But these are charges which, to a less or greater degree, are +inseparable from the dominion of a foreign government. The compensation +for them is to be found in the security they provide against a foreign +invader or against internal disturbances, and the protection they afford, +in a degree hitherto unknown in India, to life, property, and character. +But Mr. Hyndman's diatribes are useful in pointing to the conclusion that +all the efforts of Government should be directed towards the diminution of +these charges, where compatible with efficiency, and his striking contrast +of the home military charges in 1862-63, which then amounted to 28_l._ +3_s._, and now have risen in the present year to 66_l._, deserves most +serious consideration. + +There is only one other statement of Mr. Hyndman which I desire to notice. +He declares the general opinion of the natives to be that life, as a +whole, has become harder since the English took the country, and he adds +his own opinion that the fact is so. Mr. Hyndman, as we have seen, knows +but little of the actual life of the agricultural population, and of their +state under native rule he probably knows less. But I am inclined to think +he fairly represents a very prevailing belief amongst the natives. A vivid +indication of this native feeling is given in the most instructive work on +Hindu rural life that I have ever met with.[14] Colonel Sleeman thus +recounts a conversation he held with some natives in one of his rambles-- + + I got an old landowner from one of the villages to walk on + with me a mile and put me in the right road. I asked him + what had been the state of the country under the former + government of the Jâts and Mahrattas, and was told that the + greater part was a wild jungle. "I remember," said the old + man, "when you could not have got out of the road hereabouts + without a good deal of risk. I could not have ventured a + hundred yards from the village without the chance of having + my clothes stripped off my back. Now the whole country is + under cultivation, and the roads are safe. Formerly the + governments kept no faith with their landowners and + cultivators, exacting ten rupees where they had bargained + for five whenever they found their crops good. But in spite + of all this _zulm_ (oppression) there was then more _burkul_ + (blessings from above) than now; the lands yielded more to + the cultivator." + +Colonel Sleeman on the same day asked a respectable farmer what he thought +of the latter statement. He stated: "The diminished fertility is owing, no +doubt, to the want of those salutary fallows which the fields got under +former governments, when invasions and civil wars were things of common +occurrence, and kept at least _two-thirds of the land waste_." + +The fact is that, under an orderly government like ours, the causes +alluded to above as impeding the growth of capital become very much +aggravated. Population largely increases, waste lands are brought under +the plough, grazing grounds for stock disappear, and the fallows, formerly +so beneficial in restoring fertility to the soil, can no longer be kept +free from cultivation. All these considerations form portions of the very +difficult problems in government which day by day present themselves to +the Indian administrator. But does Mr. Hyndman think they are to be solved +by recurrence to the native system of government; by the substitution of a +local ruler, sometimes paternal, more frequently the reverse, for the +courts of justice which now administer the law which can be read and +understood by all; by civil contracts being enforced by the armed servant +of the creditor, instead of by the officers of a court acting under +strict surveillance; by the land assessment being collected year by year +through the farmers of the revenue according to their arbitrary will, +instead of being payable in a small moderate[15] sum, unalterable for a +long term of years? If he thinks this--and his allusion to the system of +the non-regulation provinces favours the conclusion--he will not find, I +think, an educated native in the whole of India who will agree with him. + +There are great harshnesses in our rule, there is a rigidity and +exactitude of procedure which is often distasteful to native opinion, +there are patent defects arising out of our attempts to administer +justice, there is great irritation at our constant and often ill-conceived +experiments in legislation, there is real danger in the fresh burdens we +lay upon the people in our desire to carry out apparently laudable +reforms. But with all these blemishes, which have only to be distinctly +perceived to be removed from our administrative system, the educated +native feels that he is gradually acquiring the position of a freeman, and +he would not exchange it for that which Mr. Hyndman appears to desiderate. + + E. PERRY, _in Nineteenth Century_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] This rock on its eastern face contains the decrees of Asoka, who began +to reign 263 B.C.; on the western face is the inscription of Rudradáman, +one of the Satrap-rulers under an Indian Greek dynasty, circa 90 B.C.; and +the northern face presents the inscription of Skandagupta, 240 A.D. + +[2] Preface to _Vishnu Purana_. + +[3] Elphinstone, _History of India_, vol. i. p. 511. + +[4] See Aitcheson, _Treaties_, vol. vi. p. 18. + +[5] _A Hindu Gentleman's Reflections._ Spiers, London, 1878. + +[6] Widow-burning. + +[7] The swing-sacrifice. + +[8] _Views and Opinions of General John Jacob._ London, 1858. + +[9] October 1865, and October 1866. + +[10] _England and Russia in the East._ Murray. + +[11] 59 Geo. III. c. 55, s. 43. + +[12] _Report on East India Public Works_, p. 85. + +[13] The career of Mr. Dádobhai Naoroji illustrates in a remarkable manner +the operation of the system of education introduced under our government. +A Parsi, born in Bombay of very poor parents, he received his education at +the Elphinstone College, where he displayed so much intelligence that in +1845 an English gentleman, desirous to open up a new career for educated +natives, offered to send him to England to study for the bar if any of the +wealthy merchants of his community would pay half the expenses. But in +those days the Parsis, like the Hindus, dreaded contact with England, and +the offer fell to the ground. Dádobhai continued at the College, where he +obtained employment as a teacher, and subsequently became professor of +mathematics, no native having previously filled such a post. In 1845 he +left scholastics and joined the first native mercantile house established +in London. This firm commenced with great success, and Dádobhai no sooner +found himself master of 5,000l. than he devoted it to public objects in +his native city. The house of Messrs. Cama subsequently failed, and +Dádobhai returned to Bombay, where, as above noted, he took an active part +in municipal affairs, and was subsequently appointed Dewan to the Gaekwar. +He is now carrying on business as a merchant on his own account in London. + +[14] _Rambles of an Indian Official_, 1844. + +[15] So long ago as the period when Colonel Sleeman wrote, the principle +was fully established as to the moderation to be observed in the +Government assessment. He says: "We may rate the Government share at +one-fifth as the maximum and one-tenth as the minimum of the gross +produce." (_Rambles of an Indian Official_, vol i. p. 251.) In the Blue +Book laid before Parliament last Session on the Deccan riots, it will be +seen that the Government share in the gross produce of those districts +where a high assessment was supposed to have created the disturbances was +only one-thirteenth. + + + + +A COUP D'ÉTAT. + + + If little seeds by slow degree + Put forth their leaves and flowers unheard, + Our love had grown into a tree, + And bloomed without a single word + + I haply hit on six o'clock, + The hour her father came from town; + I gave his own peculiar knock, + And waited slyly, like a clown. + + The door was open. There she stood, + Lifting her mouth's delicious brim. + How could I waste a thing so good! + I took the kiss she meant for him. + + A moment on an awful brink-- + Deep breath, a frown, a smile, a tear; + And then, "O Robert, don't you think + That that was rather--_cavalier_?" [_London Society._ + + + + +THEATRICAL MAKE-SHIFTS AND BLUNDERS. + + +It is a generally received opinion that all stage wardrobes are made up of +tawdry rags, and that the landscapes and palaces that look so charming by +gaslight are but mere daubs by day. But there are wardrobes _and_ +wardrobes, scenery and scenery. The dresses used for some great "get up" +at the opera houses, or at the principal London and provincial theatres, +are costly and magnificent; the scenery, although painted for distance and +artificial light, is really the product of artists of talent, and there is +an attention to reality in all the adjuncts that would quite startle the +believers in the tinsel and tawdry view. A millionaire might take a lesson +from the stage drawing-rooms of the Prince of Wales and the Court +theatres, and no cost is spared to procure the _real_ article, whatever it +may be, that is required for the scene. These minutić of realism, however, +are quite a modern idea, dating no farther back than the days of +Boucicault and Fechter. Splendid scenery and gorgeous dresses for the +legitimate dramas were introduced by John Kemble, and developed to the +utmost extent by Macready and Kean; but it was reserved for the present +decade to lavish the same attention and expenses upon the petite drama. +Half a century ago the property maker manufactured the stage furniture, +the stage books, the candelabra, curtains, cloths, pictures, &c., out of +papier mache and tinsel; and the drawing-room or library of a gentleman's +mansion thus presented bore as much resemblance to the reality as sea-side +furnished lodgings do to a ducal palace. Before the Kemble time a green +baize, a couple of chairs and a table, sufficed for all furnishing +purposes, whether for an inn or a palace. + +In these days of "theatrical upholstery," we can scarcely realize the +shabbiness of the stage of the last century. There were a few handsome +suits for the principal actors, but the less important ones were +frequently dressed in costumes that had done service for fifty years, +until they were worn threadbare and frequently in rags. Endeavour to +realise upon the modern stage such a picture as this given by Tate +Wilkinson, of his appearance at Covent Garden as "The Fine Gentleman," in +"Lethe." "A very short old suit of clothes, with a black velvet ground, +and broad, gold flowers as dingy as the twenty-four letters on a piece of +gingerbread; it had not seen the light since the first year Garrick played +'Lothario,' at the theatre. Bedecked in that sable array for the modern +'Fine Gentleman,' and to make the appearance complete, I added an old red +surtout, trimmed with a dingy white fur, and a deep skinned cape of the +same hue, borrowed by old Giffard, I was informed, at Lincoln's Inn Fields +Theatre, to play 'King Lear' in." When West Digges appeared at the +Haymarket as Cardinal Wolsey, it was in the identical dress that Barton +Booth had worn in Queen Anne's time: a close-fitting habit of gilt leather +upon a black ground, black stockings, and black gauntlets. No wonder +Foote, who was in the pit, exclaimed, upon the appearance of this +extraordinary figure, "A Roman sweep on May-day!" When Quin played the +youthful fascinating Chamont, in Otway's "Orphan," he wore a long grisly +half-powdered periwig, hanging low down each side his breast and down his +back, a huge scarlet coat and waistcoat, heavily trimmed with gold, black +velvet breeches, black silk neckcloth, black stockings, a pair of +square-toed shoes, with an old-fashioned pair of stone buckles, stiff +high-topped white gloves, with a broad old scolloped lace hat. Such a +costume upon a personage not in his first youth, and more than inclined to +obesity, must have had an odd effect. But then, as is well known, Garrick +played "Macbeth" in a scarlet coat and powdered wig; John Kemble performed +"Othello" in a full suit of British scarlet regimentals, and even when he +had gone so far as to dress "Macbeth" as a highlander of 1745, wore in his +bonnet a tremendous hearse plume, until Scott plucked it out, and placed +an eagle's feather there in its stead. The costumes of the ladies were +almost more absurd. Whether they appeared as Romans, Greeks, or females of +the Middle Ages, they dressed the same--in the huge hoop, and powdered +hair raised high upon the head, heavy brocaded robes that required two +pages to hold up, without whose assistance they could scarcely have moved; +and servants were dressed quite as magnificently as their mistresses. + +In scenery there was no attempt at "sets;" a drop, and a pair of "flats," +dusty and dim with age, were all the scenic accessories; and two or three +hoops of tallow candles, suspended above the stage, were all that +represented the blaze of gas and lime-light to which we are accustomed. +The candle-snuffer was a theatrical post of some responsibility in those +days. Garrick was the first who used concealed lights. The uncouth +appearance of the stage was rendered still worse on crowded nights by +ranges of seats raised for spectators on each side. The most ridiculous +_contretemps_ frequently resulted from this incongruity. Romeo, sometimes, +when he bore out the body of Juliet from the solitary tomb of the +Capulets, had to almost force his way through a throng of beaux, and +Macbeth and his lady plotted the murder of Duncan amidst a throng of +people. + +One night, Hamlet, upon the appearance of the Ghost, threw off his hat, as +usual, preparatory to the address, when a kind-hearted dame, who had heard +him just before complain of its being "very cold," picked it up and +good-naturedly clapped it upon his head again. A similar incident once +happened during the performance of Pizarro. Elvira is discovered asleep +upon a couch, gracefully covered by a rich velvet cloak; Valverde enters, +kneels and kisses her hand; Elvira awakes, rises and lets fall the +covering, and is about to indignantly repulse her unwelcome visitor, when +a timid female voice says: "Please, ma'am, you've dropped your mantle," +and a timid hand is trying to replace it upon the tragedy queen's +shoulders. Of another kind, but very much worse, was an accident that +befell Mrs. Siddons at Edinburgh, at the hands of another person who +failed to distinguish between the real person and the counterfeit. Just +before going on for the sleep-walking-scene, she had sent a boy for some +porter, but the cue for her entrance was given before he returned. The +house was awed into shuddering silence as, in a terrible whisper, she +uttered the words "Out, out, damned spot!" and with slow mechanical action +rubbed the guilty hands; when suddenly there emerged from the wings a +small figure holding out a pewter pot, and a shrill voice broke the awful +silence with "Here's your porter, mum." Imagine the feelings of the +stately Siddons! The story is very funny to read, but depend upon it the +incident gave her the most cruel anguish. + +It is not, however, to the uninitiated outsiders alone we are indebted for +ludicrous stage contretemps; the experts themselves have frequently given +rise to them. All readers of Elia will remember the name of Bensley, one +of "the old actors" upon whom he discourses so eloquently--a grave precise +man, whose composure no accident could ruffle, as the following anecdote +will prove. One night, as he was making his first entrance as Richard +III., at the Dublin Theatre, his wig caught upon a nail in the side scene, +and was dragged off. Catching his hat by the feather, however, he calmly +replaced it as he walked to the centre of the stage, but left his _hair_ +still attached to the nail. Quite unmoved by the occurrence, he commenced +his soliloquy; but so rich a subject could not escape the wit of an Irish +audience. "Bensley, darlin'," shouted a voice from the gallery, "put on +your jaisey!" "Bad luck to your politics, will you suffer a _whig_ to be +hung?" shouted another. But the tragedian, deaf to all clamour, never +faltered, never betrayed the least annoyance, spoke the speech to the end, +stalked to the wing, detached the wig from the nail, and made his exit +with it in his hand. + +Novices under the influence of stage fright will say and do the most +extraordinary things. Some years ago, I witnessed a laughable incident +during the performance of "Hamlet" at a theatre in the North. Although a +very small part, consisting as it does of only one speech, the "Second +Actor" is a very difficult one, the language being peculiarly cramped. In +the play scene he assassinates the player king by pouring poison into his +ear. The speech preceding the action is as follows: + + Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; + Confederate season, else no creature seeing; + Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, + With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, + Thy natural magic and dire property + On wholesome life usurp immediately. + +Upon which follows the stage direction--"_Pours poison into his ear._" + +In a play of so many characters as Hamlet, such a part, in a second-class +theatre, can be given only to a very inferior performer. The one to whom +it was entrusted on the present occasion was a novice. Muffled in a black +coat and a black slouched hat, and with a face half hidden by burnt cork, +he looked a most villainous villain, as he stole on and gazed about in the +most approved melo-dramatic fashion. Then he began, in a strong north +country brogue,-- + + Thoughts black, hands apt,-- + +then his memory failed him, and he stuck fast. The prompter whispered +"drugs fit;" but stage fright had seized him, and he could not take the +word. He tried back, but stuck again at the same place. Half-a-dozen +people were all prompting him at the same time now, but all in vain. At +length one more practical than the rest whispered angrily, "Pour the +poison in his ear and get off." The suggestion restored a glimmering of +reason to the trembling, perspiring wretch. He could not remember the +words of Shakespeare, so he improvised a line. Advancing to the sleeping +figure, he raised the vial in his hand, and in a terribly tragic tone +shouted, "Into his ear-hole this I'll _power_!" + +Some extraordinary and agonising mistakes, for tragedians, have been made +in what are called the flying messages in "Richard III." and "Macbeth," by +novices in their nervousness mixing up their own parts with the context; +as when Catesby rushed on and cried, "My lord, the Duke of Buckingham's +taken." There he should have stopped while Richard replied, "Off with his +head! so much for Buckingham!" But in his flurry the shaking messenger +added, "and they've cut off his head!" With a furious look at having been +robbed of one of his finest "points," the tragedian roared out, "Then, +damn you, go and stick it on again!" Another story is told of an actor +playing one of the officers in the fifth act of "Macbeth." "My lord," he +has to say, "there are ten thousand----" "Geese, villain," interrupts +Macbeth. "Ye--es, my lord!" answered the messenger, losing his memory in +his terror. + +But a far more dreadful anecdote is related of the same play. A star was +playing the guilty Thane in a very small company, where each member had to +sustain three or four different characters. During the performance the man +appointed to play the first murderer was taken ill. There was not another +to be spared, and the only resource left was to send on a supernumerary, +supposed to be intelligent, to stand for the character. "Keep close to the +wing," said the prompter; "I'll read you the words, and you can repeat +them after me." The scene was the banquet; the supper was pushed on, and +Macbeth, striding down the stage, seized his arm and said in a stage +whisper, "There's blood upon thy face." "'Tis Banquo's, then," was the +prompt. Lost and bewildered--having never spoken in his life before upon +the stage--by the tragedian's intense yet natural tones, the fellow, +imitating them in the most confidential manner, answered, "Is there, by +God?" put his hand up to his forehead, and, finding it stained with rose +pink, added, "Then the property man's served me a trick!" + +Once upon a time I was present at the performance of the celebrated dog +piece, "The Forest of Bondy," in a small country theatre. The plot turns +upon a well-known story, the discovery of a murder through the sagacity of +the victim's dog. The play-bill descanted most eloquently upon the +wonderful genius of the "highly trained" animal, and was sufficient to +raise expectation on tip-toe. Yet it had evidently failed to impress the +public of this town, their experiences probably having rendered them +sceptical of such pufferies, for the house was miserably bad. The first +entrance of "the celebrated dog Cćsar," however, in attendance upon his +master, was greeted with loud applause. He was a fine young black +Newfoundland, whose features were more descriptive of good nature than +genius. He sat on his haunches and laughed at the audience, and pricked up +his ears at the sound of a boy munching a biscuit in the pit. I could +perceive he was a novice, and that he would forget all he had been taught +when he came to the test. While Aubrey, the hero, is passing through a +forest at night, he is attacked by two ruffians, and after a desperate +combat is killed; the dog is supposed to be kept out of the way. But in +the very midst of the fight, Cćsar, whose barking had been distinctly +heard all the time, rushed on the stage. Far from evincing any ferocity +towards his master's foes, he danced about with a joyous bark, evidently +considering it famous fun. Aubrey was furious, and kicked out savagely at +his faithful "dawg," thereby laying himself open to the swords of his +adversaries, who, however, in consideration that the combat had not been +long enough, generously refused the advantages. "Get off, you beast!" +growled Aubrey, who evidently desired to fight it out without canine +interference. At length, when the faltering applause from the gallery +began to show that the gods had had enough of it, the assassins buried +their swords beneath their victim's arms, and he expired in great agony; +Cćsar looking on from the respectful distance to which his master's kick +had sent him, with the unconcern of a person who had seen it all done at +rehearsal and knew it was all sham, but with a decided interest of eye and +ear in the direction of the biscuit-muncher. In the next act he was to +leap over a stile and ring the bell at a farm house, and, having awakened +the inhabitants, seize a lantern which is brought out, and lead them to +the spot where the villains have buried his master. After a little +prompting Cćsar leaped the stile and went up to the bell, round the handle +of which was twisted some red cloth to imitate meat; but there never was a +more matter-of-fact dog than this; he evidently hated all shams, even +artistic ones; and after a sniff at the red rag he walked off disgusted, +and could not be induced to go on again; so the people had to rush out +without being summoned, carry their own lantern, and find their way by a +sort of canine instinct, or scent, to the scene of the murder. But Cćsar's +delinquencies culminated in the last scene, where, after the chief +villain, in a kind of lynch law trial, has stoutly asserted his innocence, +the sagacious "dawg" suddenly bounds upon the stage, springs at his +throat, and puts an end to his infamous career. Being held by the collar, +and incited on, in the side scene, Cćsar's deep bark sounded terribly +ferocious, and seemed to foreshadow a bloody catastrophe; but his bark +proved worse than his bite, for when released he trotted on with a most +affable expression of countenance, his thoughts still evidently bent upon +biscuits; in vain did the villain show him the red pad upon his throat and +invite him to seize it. Cćsar had been deceived once, and scorned to +countenance an imposition. Furious with passion, the villain rushed at +him, drew him up on his hind legs, clasped him in his arms, then fell upon +the stage and writhed in frightful agonies, shrieking, "Mussy, mussy, take +off the dawg!" and the curtain fell amidst the howls and hisses of the +audience. + +Another laughable dog story, although of a different kind, was once +related to me by a now London actor. In a certain theatre in one of the +great northern cities business had been so bad for some time that salaries +were very irregularly paid. It is a peculiarity of the actor that he is +never so jolly, so full of fun, and altogether so vivacious, as when he is +impecunious. In prosperity he is dull and melancholy; the yellow dross +seems to weigh down his spirit, to stultify it; empty his pockets, and it +etherialises him. At the theatre in question, the actors amused themselves +if they failed to amuse the audience. Attached to this house was a mongrel +cur, whom some of them had taught tricks to while away the tedium of long +waits. "Jack"--such was his name--was well known all round the +neighbourhood, and to most of the _habitues_ of the house. Among his other +accomplishments he could simulate death at command, and could only be +recalled to life by a certain piece of information to be presently +mentioned. One night the manager was performing "The Stranger" to about +half-a-dozen people. Francis was standing at the wing waiting for his cue +when his eye fell upon Jack, who was standing just off the stage on the +opposite side; an impish thought struck him--he whistled--Jack pricked up +his ears, and Francis slapped his leg and called him. Obedient to the +summons Jack trotted before the audience, but as he reached the centre of +the stage the word "dead!" struck upon his ear. The next moment he was +stretched motionless with his two hind legs sticking up at an angle of +forty-five degrees. The scene was the one in which the Stranger relates to +Baron Steinfort the story of his wrongs, and he had come to the line, "My +heart is like a close-shut sepulchre," when a burst of laughter from the +front drew his attention to Jack. He saw the trick that had been played in +an instant. "Get off, you brute!" he growled, giving the animal a kick. +But Jack was too highly trained to heed such an admonition, having learned +beforehand that the kicking was not so bad as the flogging he would get +for not performing his part correctly. "Doan't tha' kick poor Jack," +called out a rough voice, "give un the word." "Ay, ay, give un the word," +echoed half-a-dozen voices. The manager knew better than to disregard the +advice of his patrons, and ground out between his teeth, "Here's a +policeman coming." At that "open Sesame" Jack was up and off like a shot. +It must have been one of the finest bits of burlesque to have seen that +black-ringlet-wigged, sallow, dyspeptic, tragic-looking individual, +repeating the clown's formula over a mangy cur. + +The failure or forgetfulness of stage properties is frequently a source of +ludicrous incidents. People are often killed by pistols that will not +fire, or stabbed with the butt ends. In some play an actor has to seize a +dagger from a table and stab his rival. One night the dagger was forgotten +and no substitute was there, _except a candle_, which the excited actor +wrenched from the candlestick, and madly plunged _at_ his opponent's +breast; but it effected its purpose, for the victim expired in strong +convulsions. It is strange how seldom the audience perceive such +_contretemps_, or notice the extraordinary and ludicrous slips of the +tongue that are so frequent upon the stage. + +A playbill is not always the most truth-telling publication in the world. +Managers, driven to their wits' ends to draw a sluggish public, often +announce entertainments which they have no means of producing properly, or +even at all, and have to exercise an equal amount of ingenuity to find +substitutes, or satisfy a deluded audience. Looking through some +manuscript letters of R. B. Peake's the other day, I came across a capital +story of Bunn. While he was manager of the Birmingham Theatre, Power, the +celebrated Irish comedian, made a starring engagement with him. It was +about the time that the dramatic version of Mrs. Shelley's +"Frankenstein"--done, I believe, by Peake himself--was making a great +sensation, and Power announced it for his benefit, playing "the Monster" +himself. The manager, however, refused to spend a penny upon the +production. "You must do with what you can find in the theatre," he said. +There was only one difficulty. In the last scene Frankenstein is buried +beneath an avalanche, and among the stage scenery of the Theatre Royal, +Birmingham, there was nothing resembling an avalanche to be found, and the +AVALANCHE was the one prodigious line in the playbill. Power was +continually urging this difficulty, but Bunn always eluded it with, "Oh, +we shall find something or other." At length it came to the day of +performance, and the problem had not yet been solved. + +"Well, we shall have to change the piece," said Power. + +"Pooh, pooh! nonsense!" answered the manager. + +"There is no avalanche, and it is impossible to be finished without." + +"Can't you cut it out?" + +"Impossible." + +The manager fell into a brown study for a few moments. Then suddenly +brightening up, he said, "I have it; but they must let the green curtain +down instantly on the extraordinary effect. Hanging up in the flies is the +large elephant made for 'Blue Beard;' we'll have it whitewashed." + +"What?" exclaimed Power. + +"We'll have it whitewashed," continued the manager coolly; "what is an +avalanche but a vast mass of white? When Frankenstein is to be +annihilated, the carpenters shall shove the whitened elephant over the +flies--destroy you both in a moment--and down comes the curtain." + +As there was no other alternative, Power e'en submitted. The whitened +elephant was "shoved" over at the right moment, the effect was appalling +from the front, and the curtain descended amidst loud applause. + +Not quite so successful was a hoax perpetrated by Elliston, during _his_ +management of the Birmingham Theatre, many years previously. Then, also, +business had been very bad, and he was in great difficulties. Let us give +the managers their due. They do not, as a rule, resort to swindles except +under strong pressure; then they soothe their consciences with the +reflection that as an obtuse and ungrateful public will not support their +legitimate efforts, it deserves to be swindled. And a very good reflection +it is--from a managerial point of view. No man was more fertile in +expedients than Robert William Elliston; so after a long continuance of +empty benches, the walls and boardings of the town were one morning +covered with glaring posters announcing that the manager of the Theatre +Royal had entered into an engagement with a BOHEMIAN of extraordinary +strength and stature, who would perform some astonishing evolutions with a +stone of upwards of a ton weight, which he would toss about as easily as +another would a tennis-ball. What all the famous names of the British +drama and all the talents of its exponents had failed to accomplish, was +brought about by a stone, and on the evening announced for its appearance +the house was crammed to the ceiling. The exhibition was to take place +between the play and the farce, and scarcely had the intellectual audience +patience to listen to the piece, so eager were they for the noble +entertainment that was to follow. At length, much to their relief, the +curtain fell. The usual interval elapsed, the house became impatient, +impatience soon merged into furious clamour. At length, with a pale, +distraught countenance, Elliston rushed before the curtain. In a moment +there was a breathless silence. + +"The Bohemian has deceived me!" were his first words. "_That_ I could have +pardoned; but he has deceived you, my friends, _you_;" and his voice +trembled, and he hid his face behind his handkerchief and seemed to sob. + +Then, bursting forth again, he went on: "I repeat, he has deceived me; he +is not here." + +A yell of disappointment burst from the house. + +"The man," continued Elliston, raising his voice, "of whatever name or +nation he may be, who breaks his word, commits an offence which----" The +rest of this Joseph Surface sentiment was drowned in furious clamour, and +for some minutes he could not make himself heard, until he drew some +letters from his pocket, and held them up. + +"Here is the correspondence," he said. "Does any gentleman here understand +German? If so, will he oblige me by stepping forward?" + +The Birmingham public were not strong in languages in those days, it would +seem, for no gentleman stepped forward. + +"Am I, then, left alone?" he exclaimed in tragic accents. "Well, I will +translate them for you." + +Here there was another uproar, out of which came two or three voices, "No, +no." Like Buckingham, he chose to construe the two or three into "a +general acclaim." + +"Your commands shall be obeyed," he said bowing, and pocketing the +correspondence, "I _will not_ read them. But my dear patrons, your +kindness merits some satisfaction at my hands; your consideration shall +not go unrewarded. You shall not say you have paid your money for nothing. +Thank heaven, I can satisfy you of my own integrity, and present you with +a portion of the entertainment you have paid to see. The Bohemian, the +villain, is not here. But the _stone_ is, and YOU SHALL SEE IT." He winked +at the orchestra, which struck up a lively strain, and up went the +curtain, disclosing a huge piece of sand rock, upon which was stuck a +label, bearing the legend in large letters, "THIS IS THE STONE." + +It need scarcely be added that the Bohemian existed only in the manager's +brain. But it is a question whether the audience which could be only +brought together by such an exhibition did not deserve to be swindled. + +An equally good story is told of his management at Worcester. For his +benefit he had announced a grand display of fireworks! No greater proof of +the gullibility of the British public could be adduced than their +swallowing such an announcement. The theatre was so small that such an +exhibition was practically impossible. A little before the night Elliston +called upon the landlord of the property, and in the course of +conversation hinted at the danger of such a display, as though the idea +had just struck him; the landlord took alarm, and, as Elliston had +anticipated, forbade it. Nevertheless the announcements remained on the +walls, and on the night the theatre was crowded. The performance proceeded +without any notice being taken by the management of the fireworks, until +murmurs swelled into clamour and loud cries. Then with his usual kingly +air, Elliston came forward and bowed. He had made, he said, the most +elaborate preparation for a magnificent pyrotechnic display; he had left +nothing undone, but at the last moment came the terrible reflection, would +it not be dangerous? Would there not be collected within the walls of the +theatre a number of lovely young tender girls, of respectable matrons, to +do him honour? What if the house should catch fire--the panic, the +struggle for life--ah, he shuddered at the thought! Then, too, he thought +of the property of that worthiest of men, the landlord--he rushed to +consult him--and he now called upon him--there he was, seated in the stage +box--to publicly state, for the satisfaction of the distinguished audience +he saw before him, that he had forbidden the performance from +considerations of safety. The landlord, a very nervous man, shrank to the +back of his box, scared by every eye in the house being fixed upon him; +but the audience, thankful for the terrible danger they had escaped, burst +into thunders of applause. + +The stories are endless of the shifts and swindles to which country +managers, at their wits' end, have had to resort to attract a sluggish +public. How great singers have been advertised that never heard of such an +engagement, and even forged telegrams read to an expectant audience, to +account for their non-appearance. How prizes have been distributed on +benefit nights--to people who gave them back again. How audiences, the +victims of some false announcement, have been left waiting patiently for +the performance to commence, while the manager was on his way to another +town with their money in his pocket. But there is a great sameness about +such stories, and one or two are a specimen of all. + + H. BARTON BAKER, _in Belgravia_. + + + + +I.--WINTER-MORN IN THE COUNTRY. + + + The Sabbath of all Nature! Stillness reigns + For snow has fallen, and all the land is white. + The cottage-roofs slant grey against the light, + And grey the sky, nor cloud nor blue obtains. + + The sun is moonlike, as a maiden feigns + To veil her beauty, yet sends glances bright + That fill the eye, and make the heart delight, + Expectant of some wonder. Lengthened trains + + Of birds wing high, and straight the smoke ascends. + All things are fairy-like: the trees empearled + With frosty gem-work, like to trees in dream. + + Beneath the weight the slender cedar bends + And looks more ghost-like! 'Tis a wonder-world, + Wherein, indeed, things are not as they seem. + + + + +II.--WINTER-MORN IN TOWN. + + Through yellow fog all things take spectral shapes: + Lamps dimly gleam, and through the window pane + The light is shed in short and broken lane; + And "darkness visible" pants, yawns, and gapes. + + From roofs the water drips, as from high capes, + Half-freezes as it falls. Like cries of pain + Fog-signals faintly heard, and then again + Grave warning words to him who rashly apes + + The skater, nearer. All is muffled fast + In dense dead coils of vapour, nothing clear-- + The world disguised in mumming masquerade. + + O'er each a dull thick clinging veil is cast, + And no one is what fain he would appear: + Nor any well-marked track on which to tread, + + ALEX. H. JAPP, _in Belgravia_. + + + + +THE HAPPY VALLEY. + +A REMINISCENCE OF THE HIMALAYAS. + + +The privilege which the families of officers in the service of the State +may be said exclusively to possess, of reproducing in Upper India--and +especially in the Himalayan stations, and valley of Dhera Dhoon--the +stately or cottage homes of England, is perhaps one, to a great extent, +unfamiliar to their relatives at home; and it is scarcely too much to say +that the general public, which, as a rule, considers the Indian climate an +insuperable barrier to all enjoyment, has but a faint idea of that +glorious beauty, which is no "fading flower," in this "Happy Valley," with +its broad belt of virgin forest, that lies between the Himalayas proper +and the sharp ridges of the wild Sewalic range. The latter forms a barrier +between the sultry plains and the cool and romantic retreats, where the +swords of our gallant defenders may be said to rest in their scabbards, +and where, surrounded by the pleasures of domestic life, health and +happiness may, in the intervals of piping times of peace, be enjoyed to +their fullest extent. + +In such favoured spots the exile from home may live, seemingly, for the +present only; but, in truth, it is not so, for even under such favoured +circumstances the tie with our natal place is never relaxed, and the hope +of future return to it adds just that touch of pensiveness--scarcely +sadness--which is the delicate neutral tint that brings out more forcibly +the gorgeous colours of the picture. + +The gaieties of the mountain stations of Mussoorie and Landour were now +approaching their periodical close, in the early part of October, when the +cold season commences. The attractive archery meetings on the green +plateaux of the mountain-spurs had ceased, and balls and sumptuous +dinner-parties were becoming fewer and fewer; while daily one group of +friends after another, "with lingering steps and slow," on rough +hill-ponies or in quaint jam-pans, were wending their way some six or +seven thousand feet down the umbrageous mountain-sides, watched from above +by those who still lingered behind, until they seemed like toilsome emmets +in the far distance. + +Now that our summer companions were gone we used to while away many an +hour with our glasses, scanning in that clear atmosphere the vast plains +stretched out beneath us like a rich carpet of many colours, but in which +forms were scarcely to be traced at that distance. Here, twisted silver +threads represented some great river; there, a sprinkling of rice-like +grains, the white bungalows of a cantonment; while occasionally a sombre +mass denoted some forest or mango tope. Around us, and quailing under +fierce gusts of wind from the passes of the snowy range rising in peaks +to nearly twice the altitude of the Alps, the gnarled oaks, now denuded of +their earlier garniture of parasitical ferns, that used to adorn their +mossy branches with Nature's own point lace, seemed almost conscious of +approaching winter. + +Landour, now deserted, save by a few invalid soldiers and one or two +resident families, had few attractions. The snow was lying deep on the +mountain-sides, and blocking up the narrow roads. But winter in the +Himalayas is a season of startling phenomena; for it is then that thunder +storms of appalling grandeur are prevalent, and to a considerable extent +destructive. During the night, amidst the wild conflict of the elements, +would, not unfrequently, be heard the bugles of the soldiers' Sanatorium, +calling to those who could sleep to arouse themselves, and hasten to the +side of residents whose houses had been struck by the electric fluid. + +Still, we clung to our mountain-home to the last, although we knew that +summer awaited us in the valley below, and that in an hour and a half we +might with ease exchange an almost hyperborean climate for one where +summer is perennial, or seems so--for the rainy season is but an interlude +of refreshing showers. + +At length an incident occurred which somewhat prematurely influenced our +departure. + +As we were sitting at an early breakfast one morning with the children, +Khalifa, a favourite domestic, and one who rarely failed to observe that +stately decorum peculiar to Indian servants, rushed wildly into the room, +with every appearance of terror, screaming, "Janwar! Burra janwar, +sahib!"[16] at the same time pointing to the window. + +We could not at first understand what the poor fellow meant; but on +looking out, were not a little disconcerted at the sight which presented +itself. + +Crouched on the garden-wall was a huge spotted animal of the leopard +species. It looked, however, by no means ferocious, but, on the contrary, +to be imploring compassion and shelter from the snowstorm. Still, +notwithstanding its demure cat-like aspect, its proximity was by no means +agreeable. With a strange lack of intelligence, the brute, instead of +avoiding the cold, had evidently become bewildered, and crawled up the +mountain side. As we could scarcely be expected to extend the rites of +hospitality to such a visitor, the harmless discharge of a pistol insured +his departure at one bound, and with a terrific growl. + +Wild beasts are rarely seen about European stations. Those who like them +must go out of their way to find them. But perhaps stupefied by cold while +asleep, and pinched by hunger, as on the present occasion, they may lose +their usual sagacity. + +Having got rid of our unwelcome visitor, we determined at once to leave +our mountain-home. + +The servants were only too glad to hasten our departure, and in the +course of an hour everything was packed up, and we were ready for the +descent into the plains. + +Notwithstanding the absence of a police force, robberies of houses are +almost unknown; and therefore it was only necessary for us to draw down +the blinds and lock the main door, leaving the furniture to take care of +itself. + +The jam-pans and little rough ponies were ready; the servants, although +shivering in their light clothing, more active than I had ever before seen +them; and in the course of another hour we were inhaling the balmy air of +early summer. + +The pretty little hotel of Rajpore, at the base of the mountain, was now +reached; and before us lay the broad and excellent road, shaded with +trees, which, in the course of another twenty minutes, brought us to the +charming cantonment of Deyrah. All Nature seemed to be rejoicing; the +birds were singing; the sounds of bubbling and splashing waters +(mountain-streams diverted from their natural channels, and brought into +every garden), and hedges of the double pink and crimson Bareilly rose[17] +in full bloom, interspersed with the oleander, and the mehndi (henna of +Scripture) with its fragrant clusters, filling the air with the perfume of +mignonette, presented a scene of earthly beauty which cannot be surpassed. + +"How stupid we were," I remarked, looking back at our late home, now a +mere black speck on the top of the snowy mountain far above--"how very +foolish and perverse to have fancied ourselves more English in the winter +up there, when we might all this time have been leading the life of Eden, +in this enchanting spot!" + +"Indeed we were," replied my companion. "But it is the way with us in +India. We give a rupee for an English daisy, and cast aside the honeyed +champah." + +In India there is no difficulty in housing oneself. No important agents +are necessary, and advertising is scarcely known. Accordingly, without +ceremony, we took quiet possession of the first vacant bungalow which we +came to, and our fifteen domestics did not seem to question for a moment +the propriety of the occupation. Under our somewhat despotic government, +are not the sahib lög[18] above petty social observances? + +While A. was busily employed getting his guns ready and preparing for +shikari in the adjacent forest and jungles, which swarm with peafowl, +partridges, quail, pigeons, and a variety of other game, my first care was +to summon the resident mali (gardener), and ascertain how the beautiful +and extensive garden of which we had taken possession[19] might be further +stocked. + +"Mem sahib,"[20] said the quiet old gardener, with his hands in a +supplicatory position, "there is abundance here of everything--aloo, lal +sag, anjir, padina, baingan, piyaz, khira, shalgham, kobs, ajmud, +kharbuza, amb, amrut, anar, narangi--"[21] + +"Stay!" I interrupted; "that is enough." + +But the old mali had something more to add: + +"Mem sahib, all is your own, and your slave shall daily bring his +customary offering, and flowers for the table; and the protector of the +poor will not refuse bakshees for the bearer." + +I promised to be liberal to the poor old man, and then proceeded to +inspect the flower-garden. + +Here I was surprised to find a perfect fraternisation between the tropical +flora and our own. Amongst flowers not unfamiliar to the European were +abundance of the finest roses, superb crimson and gold poincianas, the +elegant hybiscus, graceful ipomoeas, and convolvuli of every hue, the +purple amaranth, the variegated double balsam, the richest marigolds, the +pale-blue clusters of the plantago, acacias, jasmines, oranges, and +pomegranates, intermixed with our own pansies, carnations, cinerarias, +geraniums, fuchsias, and a wealth of blossoms impossible to remember by +name. + +"If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this!" + +Far more beautiful to the homely eye are such gardens than those of +Shalimar and Pinjore, with their costly marble terraces, geometrical +walks, fountains and cascades falling over sculptured slabs. + +Nor are we in India confined to the enjoyment of Nature. Art[22] finds its +way to us from Europe, and literature here receives the warmest welcome. +Our pianos, our musical-boxes--our costly and richly bound illustrated +works, fresh from England--the most thrilling romances of fiction, and all +the periodicals of the day, are regularly accumulated in these charming +Indian retreats, and keep up the culture of the mind in a valley whose +"glorious beauty" is, as I have said, no "fading flower," but the home of +the missionary, and the resort of the war-worn soldier or truth-loving +artist. + +Nor is this all. Around Deyrah is some of the most exquisitely beautiful +cave scenery, comparatively unknown even to Europeans; such, for example, +as the wondrous natural tunnel, whose sides shine with the varied beauty +of the most delicate mosaics, and are lit up by rents in the hill above; +the "dropping cave" of Sansadhara, "bosomed high in tufted trees;" and the +strange ancient shrines sculptured in the romantic glen of +Tope-Kesur-Mahadeo. + +Of these, Sansadhara has lately been made the subject of a beautiful +photograph, which, however, fails to convey the exquisite charm of the +original; but the natural tunnel and Tope-Kesur-Mahadeo have never been +presented by the artist to the public, although there are unique sketches +of them in the fine collection of a lady[23] who, as the wife of a former +Indian Commander-in-Chief, had opportunities afforded to few of indulging +her taste. + +One might exhaust volumes in attempting to describe such scenes, and even +then fail to do them the faintest justice. The Alps, with all their +beauty, lose much of their grandeur after one has been in daily +contemplation of the majestic snowy range of the Himalayas, while the +forests and valleys that skirt its base have no counterpart in Europe. In +these partial solitudes we lose much of our conventionality. The mind is +to a certain extent elevated by the grand scale on which Nature around is +presented. The occasional alarm of war teaches the insecurity of all +earthly happiness. Our life is subject to daily introspection, and before +the mind's eye is the sublime prospect, perhaps at no very distant period, +of a Christian India rising from the ruins of a sensuous idolatry in +immortal beauty. + + L. A., _in London Society_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] "Wild beast! Big wild beast, sir!" + +L. M.--I.--2. + +[17] A remarkable plant. It is in constant bloom. On every spray there is +a central crimson blossom, which only lasts one day, surrounded by five or +six pink ones, which remain for many days. + +[18] Dominant class. + +[19] House-rent is paid monthly in India, in arrear. + +[20] My lady. + +[21] Potato, spinach, fig, mint, egg-plant, onion, cucumber, turnip, +cabbage, parsley, melon, mango, guava, pomegranate, orange. + +[22] There is no intention of disparaging beautiful native art. + +[23] Lady Gomm. + + + + +THE PHOENICIANS IN GREECE. + + +Herodotus begins his history by relating how Phoenician traders brought +"Egyptian and Assyrian wares" to Argos and other parts of Greece, in those +remote days when the Greeks were still waiting to receive the elements of +their culture from the more civilized East. His account was derived from +Persian and Phoenician sources, but, it would seem, was accepted by his +contemporaries with the same unquestioning confidence as by himself. The +belief of Herodotus was shared by the scholars of Europe after the revival +of learning, and there were none among them who doubted that the +civilization of ancient Greece had been brought from Asia or Egypt, or +from both. Hebrew was regarded as the primćval language, and the Hebrew +records as the fountain-head of all history; just as the Greek vocabulary, +therefore, was traced back to the Hebrew lexicon, the legends of primitive +Greece were believed to be the echoes of Old Testament history. _Ex +Oriente lux_ was the motto of the inquirer, and the key to all that was +dark or doubtful in the mythology and history of Hellas was to be found in +the monuments of the Oriental world. + +But the age of Creuzer and Bryant was succeeded by an age of scepticism +and critical investigation. A reaction sat in against the attempt to force +Greek thought and culture into an Asiatic mould. The Greek scholar was +repelled by the tasteless insipidity and barbaric exuberance of the East; +he contrasted the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, of Sophocles and Plato, +with the monstrous creations of India or Egypt, and the conviction grew +strong within him that the Greek could never have learnt his first lessons +of civilization in such a school as this. Between the East and the West a +sharp line of division was drawn, and to look for the origin of Greek +culture beyond the boundaries of Greece itself came to be regarded almost +as sacrilege. Greek mythology, so far from being an echo or caricature of +Biblical history and Oriental mysticism, was pronounced to be self-evolved +and independent, and K. O. Müller could deny without contradiction the +Asiatic origin even of the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, where the name of +the Semitic sun-god seems of itself to indicate its source. The +Phoenician traders of Herodotus, like the royal maiden they carried away +from Argos, were banished to the nebulous region of rationalistic fable. + +Along with this reaction against the Orientalizing school which could see +in Greece nothing but a deformed copy of Eastern wisdom went another +reaction against the conception of Greek mythology on which the labours of +the Orientalizing school had been based. Key after key had been applied to +Greek mythology, and all in vain; the lock had refused to turn. The light +which had been supposed to come from the East had turned out to be but a +will-o'-the-wisp; neither the Hebrew Scriptures nor the Egyptian +hieroglyphics had solved the problem presented by the Greek myths. And the +Greek scholar, in despair, had come to the conclusion that the problem was +insoluble; all that he could do was to accept the facts as they were set +before him, to classify and repeat the wondrous tales of the Greek poets, +but to leave their origin unexplained. This is practically the position of +Grote; he is content to show that all the parts of a myth hang closely +together, and that any attempt to extract history or philosophy from it +must be arbitrary and futile. To deprive a myth of its kernel and soul, +and call the dry husk that is left a historical fact, is to mistake the +conditions of the problem and the nature of mythology. + +It was at this point that the science of comparative mythology stepped in. +Grote had shown that we cannot look for history in mythology, but he had +given up the discovery of the origin of this mythology as a hopeless task. +The same comparative method, however, which has forced nature to disclose +her secrets has also penetrated to the sources of mythology itself. The +Greek myths, like the myths of the other nations of the world, are the +forgotten and misinterpreted records of the beliefs of primitive man, and +of his earliest attempts to explain the phenomena of nature. Restore the +original meaning of the language wherein the myth is clothed, and the +origin of the myth is found. Myths, in fact, are the words of a dead +language to which a wrong sense has been given by a false method of +decipherment. A myth, rightly explained, will tell us the beliefs, the +feelings, and the knowledge of those among whom it first grew up; for the +evidences and monuments of history we must look elsewhere. + +But there is an old proverb that "there is no smoke without fire." The war +of Troy or the beleaguerment of Thebes may be but a repetition of the +time-worn story of the battle waged by the bright powers of day round the +battlements of heaven; but there must have been some reason why this story +should have been specially localized in the Troad and at Thebes. Most of +the Greek myths have a background in space and time; and for this +background there must be some historical cause. The cause, however, if it +is to be discovered at all, must be discovered by means of those evidences +which will alone satisfy the critical historian. The localization of a +myth is merely an indication or sign-post pointing out the direction in +which he is to look for his facts. If Greek warriors had never fought in +the plains of Troy, we may be pretty sure that the poems of Homer would +not have brought Akhilles and Agamemnon under the walls of Ilium. If +Phoenician traders had exercised no influence on primćval Greece, Greek +legend would have contained no references to them. + +But even the myth itself, when rightly questioned, may be made to yield +some of the facts upon which the conclusions of the historian are based. +We now know fairly well what ideas, usages, and proper names have an Aryan +stamp upon them, and what, on the other hand, belong rather to the Semitic +world. Now there is a certain portion of Greek mythology which bears but +little relationship to the mythology of the kindred Aryan tribes, while it +connects itself very closely with the beliefs and practices of the Semitic +race. Human sacrifice is very possibly one of these, and it is noticeable +that two at least of the legends which speak of human sacrifice--those of +Athamas and Busiris--are associated, the one with the Phoenicians of +Thebes, the other with the Phoenicians of the Egyptian Delta. The whole +cycle of myths grouped about the name of Herakles points as clearly to a +Semitic source as does the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis; and the +extravagant lamentations that accompanied the worship of the Akhćan +Demeter (Herod. v. 61) come as certainly from the East as the olive, the +pomegranate, and the myrtle, the sacred symbols of Athena, of Hera, and of +Aphrodite.[24] + +Comparative mythology has thus given us a juster appreciation of the +historical inferences we may draw from the legends of prehistoric Greece, +and has led us back to a recognition of the important part played by the +Phoenicians in the heroic age. Greek culture, it is true, was not the +mere copy of that of Semitic Asia, as scholars once believed, but the +germs of it had come in large measure from an Oriental seed-plot. The +conclusions derived from a scientific study of the myths have been +confirmed and widened by the recent researches and discoveries of +archćology. The spade, it has been said, is the modern instrument for +reconstructing the history of the past, and in no department in history +has the spade been more active of late than in that of Greece. From all +sides light has come upon that remote epoch around which the mist of a +fabulous antiquity had already been folded in the days of Herodotus; from +the islands and shores of the Ćgean, from the tombs of Asia Minor and +Palestine, nay, even from the temples and palaces of Egypt and Assyria, +have the materials been exhumed for sketching in something like clear +outline the origin and growth of Greek civilization. From nowhere, +however, have more important revelations been derived than from the +excavations at Mykenć and Spata, near Athens, and it is with the evidence +furnished by these that I now propose mainly to deal. A personal +inspection of the sites and the objects found upon them has convinced me +of the groundlessness of the doubts which have been thrown out against +their antiquity, as well as of the intercourse and connection to which +they testify with the great empires of Babylonia and Assyria. Mr. Poole +has lately pointed out what materials are furnished by the Egyptian +monuments for determining the age and character of the antiquities of +Mykenć.[25] I would now draw attention to the far clearer and more +tangible materials afforded by Assyrian art and history. + +Two facts must first be kept well in view. One of these is the Semitic +origin of the Greek alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet, originally +derived from the alphabet of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and imported into +their mother-country by the Phoenician settlers of the Delta, was +brought to Greece, not probably by the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon, +but by the Aramćans of the Gulf of Antioch, whose nouns ended with the +same "emphatic aleph" that we seem to find in the Greek names of the +letters, _alpha_, _beta_, _gamma_, (_gamla_). Before the introduction of +the simpler Phoenician alphabet, the inhabitants of Asia Minor and the +neighbouring islands appear to have used a syllabary of some seventy +characters, which continued to be employed in conservative Cyprus down to +a very late date; but, so far as we know at present, the Greeks of the +mainland were unacquainted with writing before the Aramćo-Phoenicians +had taught them their phonetic symbols. The oldest Greek inscriptions are +probably those of Thera, now Santorin, where the Phoenicians had been +settled from time immemorial; and as the forms of the characters found in +them do not differ very materially from the forms used on the famous +Moabite Stone, we may infer that the alphabet of Kadmus was brought to the +West at a date not very remote from that of Mesha and Ahab, perhaps about +800 B.C. We may notice that Thera was an island and a Phoenician colony, +and it certainly seems more probable that the alphabet was carried to the +mainland from the islands of the Ćgean than that it was disseminated from +the inland Phoenician settlement at Thebes, as the old legends affirmed. +In any case, the introduction of the alphabet implies a considerable +amount of civilizing force on the part of those from whom it was borrowed; +the teachers from whom an illiterate people learns the art of writing are +generally teachers from whom it has previously learnt the other elements +of social culture. A barbarous tribe will use its muscles in the service +of art before it will use its brains; the smith and engraver precede the +scribe. If, therefore, the Greeks were unacquainted with writing before +the ninth century, B.C., objects older than that period may be expected to +exhibit clear traces of Phoenician influence, though no traces of +writing. + +The other fact to which I allude is the existence of pottery of the same +material and pattern on all the prehistoric sites of the Greek world, +however widely separated they may be. We find it, for instance, at Mykenć +and Tiryns, at Tanagra and Athens, in Rhodes, in Cyprus, and in Thera, +while I picked up specimens of it in the neighbourhood of the Treasury of +Minyas and on the site of the Acropolis at Orchomenus. The clay of which +it is composed is of a drab colour, derived, perhaps in all instances, +from the volcanic soil of Thera and Melos, and it is ornamented with +geometrical and other patterns in black and maroon-red. After a time the +patterns become more complicated and artistic; flowers, animal forms, and +eventually human figures, take the place of simple lines, and the pottery +gradually passes into that known as Corinthian or Phoeniko-Greek. It +needs but little experience to distinguish at a glance this early pottery +from the red ware of the later Hellenic period. + +Phoenicia, Keft as it was called by the Egyptians, had been brought into +relation with the monarchy of the Nile at a remote date, and among the +Semitic settlers in the Delta or "Isle of Caphtor" must have been natives +of Sidon and the neighbouring towns. After the expulsion of the Hyksos, +the Pharaohs of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties carried their arms +as far as Mesopotamia and placed Egyptian garrisons in Palestine. A +tomb-painting of Thothmes III. represents the Kefa or Phoenicians, clad +in richly-embroidered kilts and buskins, and bringing their tribute of +gold and silver vases and earthenware cups, some in the shape of animals +like the vases found at Mykenć and elsewhere. Phoenicia, it would seem, +was already celebrated for its goldsmiths' and potters' work, and the +ivory the Kefa are sometimes made to carry shows that their commerce must +have extended far to the east. As early as the sixteenth century B.C., +therefore, we may conclude that the Phoenicians were a great commercial +people, trading between Assyria and Egypt and possessed of a considerable +amount of artistic skill. + +It is not likely that a people of this sort, who, as we know from other +sources, carried on a large trade in slaves and purple, would have been +still unacquainted with the seas and coasts of Greece where both slaves +and the murex or purple-fish were most easily to be obtained. Though the +Phoenician alphabet was unknown in Greece till the ninth century B.C., +we have every reason to expect to find traces of Phoenician commerce and +Phoenician influence there at least five centuries before. And such +seems to be the case. The excavations carried on in Thera by MM. Fouqué +and Gorceix,[26] in Rhodes by Mr. Newton and Dr. Saltzmann, and in various +other places such as Megara, Athens, and Melos, have been followed by the +explorations of Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, Tiryns, and Mykenć, of +General di Cesnola in Cyprus, and of the Archćological Society of Athens +at Tanagra and Spata. + +The accumulations of prehistoric objects on these sites all tell the same +tale, the influence of the East, and more especially of the Phoenicians, +upon the growing civilization of early Greece. Thus in Thera, where a sort +of Greek Pompeii has been preserved under the lava which once overwhelmed +it, we find the rude stone hovels of its primitive inhabitants, with roofs +of wild olive, filled with the bones of dogs and sheep, and containing +stores of barley, spelt, and chickpea, copper and stone weapons, and +abundance of pottery. The latter is for the most part extremely coarse, +but here and there have been discovered vases of artistic workmanship, +which remind us of those carried by the Kefa, and may have been imported +from abroad. We know from the tombs found on the island that the +Phoenicians afterwards settled in Thera among a population in the same +condition of civilization as that which had been overtaken by the great +volcanic eruption. It was from these Phoenician settlers that the +embroidered dresses known as Therćan were brought to Greece; they were +adorned with animals and other figures, similar to those seen upon +Corinthian or Phoeniko-Greek ware. + +Now M. Fr. Lenormant has pointed out that much of the pottery used by the +aboriginal inhabitants of Thera is almost identical in form and make with +that found by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, in the Troad, and he concludes +that it must belong to the same period and the same area of civilization. +There is as yet little, if any, trace of Oriental influence; a few of the +clay vases from Thera, and some of the gold workmanship at Hissarlik, can +alone be referred, with more or less hesitation, to Phoenician artists. +We have not yet reached the age when Phoenician trade in the West ceased +to be the sporadic effort of private individuals, and when trading +colonies were established in different parts of the Greek world; Europe is +still unaffected by Eastern culture, and the beginnings of Greek art are +still free from foreign interference. It is only in certain designs on the +terra-cotta discs, believed by Dr. Schliemann to be spindle-whorls, that +we may possibly detect rude copies of Babylonian and Phoenician +intaglios. + +Among all the objects discovered at Hissarlik, none have been more +discussed than the vases and clay images in which Dr. Schliemann saw a +representation of an owl-headed Athena. What Dr. Schliemann took for an +owl's head, however, is really a rude attempt to imitate the human face, +and two breasts are frequently moulded in the clay below it. In many +examples the human countenance is unmistakable, and in most of the others +the representation is less rude than in the case of the small marble +statues of Apollo (?) found in the Greek islands, or even of the early +Hellenic vases where the men seem furnished with the beaks of birds. But +we now know that these curious vases are not peculiar to the Troad. +Specimens of them have also been met with in Cyprus, and in these we can +trace the development of the owl-like head into the more perfect +portraiture of the human face.[27] In conservative Cyprus there was not +that break with the past which occurred in other portions of the Greek +world. + +Cyprus, in fact, lay midway between Greece and Phoenicia, and was shared +to the last between an Aryan and a Semitic population. The Phoenician +element in the island was strong, if not preponderant; Paphos was a chief +seat of the worship of the Phoenician Astarte, and the Phoenician +Kitium, the Chittim of the Hebrews, took first rank among the Cyprian +towns. The antiquities brought to light by General di Cesnola are of all +ages and all styles--prehistoric and classical, Phoenician and Hellenic, +Assyrian and Egyptian--and the various styles are combined together in the +catholic spirit that characterized Phoenician art. + +But we must pause here for a moment to define more accurately what we mean +by Phoenician art. Strictly speaking, Phoenicia had no art of its own; +its designs were borrowed from Egypt and Assyria, and its artists went to +school on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates. The Phoenician +combined and improved upon his models; the impulse, the origination came +from abroad; the modification and elaboration were his own. He entered +into other men's labours, and made the most of his heritage. The sphinx of +Egypt became Asiatic, and in its new form was transplanted to Nineveh on +the one side and to Greece on the other. The rosettes and other patterns +of the Babylonian cylinders were introduced into the handiwork of +Phoenicia, and so passed on to the West, while the hero of the ancient +Chaldean epic became first the Tyrian Melkarth, and then the Herakles of +Hellas. It is possible, no doubt, that with all this borrowing there was +still something that was original in Phoenician work; such at any rate +seems to be the case with some of the forms given to the vases; but at +present we have no means of determining how far this originality may have +extended. In Assyria, indeed, Phoenician art exercised a great influence +in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.; but it had itself previously +drawn its first inspiration from the empire of the Tigris, and did but +give back the perfect blossom to those from whom it had received the seed. +The workmanship of the ivories and bronze bowls found at Nineveh by Mr. +Layard is thoroughly Phoenician; but it cannot be separated from that of +the purely Assyrian pavements and bas-reliefs with which the palaces were +adorned. The Phoenician art, in fact, traces of which we find from +Assyria to Italy, though based on both Egyptian and Assyrian models, owed +far more to Assyria than it did to Egypt. In art, as in mythology and +religion, Phoenicia was but a carrier and intermediary between East and +West; and just as the Greek legends of Aphrodite and Adonis, of Herakles +and his twelve labours, and of the other borrowed heroes of Oriental story +came in the first instance from Assyria, so did that art and culture which +Kadmus the Phoenician handed on to the Greek race. + +But Assyria itself had been equally an adapter and intermediary. The +Semites of Assyria and Babylonia had borrowed their culture and +civilization from the older Accadian race, with its agglutinative +language, which had preceded them in the possession of Chaldea. So +slavishly observant were the Assyrians of their Chaldean models that in a +land where limestone was plentiful they continued to build their palaces +and temples of brick, and to ornament them with those columns and +pictorial representations which had been first devised on the alluvial +plains of Babylonia. To understand Assyrian art, and track it back to its +source, we must go to the engraved gems and ruined temples of primćval +Babylonia. It is true that Egypt may have had some influence on Assyrian +art, at the time when the eighteenth dynasty had pushed its conquests to +the banks of the Tigris; but that influence does not seem to have been +either deep or permanent. Now the art of Assyria is in great measure the +art of Phoenicia, and that again the art of prehistoric Greece. Modern +research has discovered the prototype of Herakles in the hero of a +Chaldean epic composed it may be, four thousand years ago; it has also +discovered the beginnings of Greek columnar architecture and the germs of +Greek art in the works of the builders and engravers of early Chaldea. + +When first I saw, five years ago, the famous sculpture which has guarded +the Gate of Lions at Mykenć for so many centuries, I was at once struck by +its Assyrian character. The lions in form and attitude belong to Assyria, +and the pillar against which they rest may be seen in the bas-reliefs +brought from Nineveh. Here, at all events, there was clear proof of +Assyrian influence; the only question was whether that influence had been +carried through the hands of the Phoenicians or had travelled along the +highroad which ran across Asia Minor, the second channel whereby the +culture of Assyria could have been brought to Greece. The existence of a +similar sculpture over a rock-tomb at Kumbet in Phrygia might seem to +favour the latter view. + +The discoveries of Dr. Schliemann have gone far to settle the question. +The pottery excavated at Mykenć is of the Phoenician type, and the clay +of which is composed has probably come from Thera. The terra-cotta figures +of animals and more especially of a goddess with long robe, crowned head, +and crescent-like arms, are spread over the whole area traversed by the +Phoenicians. The image of the goddess in one form or another has been +found in Thera and Melos, in Naxos and Paros, in Ios, in Sikinos, and in +Anaphos, and M. Lenormant has traced it back to Babylonia and to the +Babylonian representation of the goddess Artemis-Nana.[28] At Tanagra the +image has been found under two forms, both, however, made of the same clay +and in the same style as the figures from Mykenć. In one the goddess is +upright, as at Mykenć, with the _polos_ on her head, and the arms either +outspread or folded over the breast; in the other she is sitting with the +arms crossed. Now among the gold ornaments exhumed at Mykenć are some +square pendants of gold which represent the goddess in this sitting +posture.[29] + +The animal forms most commonly met with are those of the lion, the stag, +the bull, the cuttle-fish, and the murex. The last two point unmistakably +to a seafaring race, and more especially to those Phoenician sailors +whose pursuit of the purple-trade first brought them into Greek seas. So +far as I know, neither the polypus nor the murex, nor the butterfly which +often accompanies them have been found in Assyria or Egypt, and we may +therefore see in them original designs of Phoenician art. Mr. Newton has +pointed out that the cuttle-fish (like the dolphin) also occurs among the +prehistoric remains from Ialysos in Rhodes, where, too, pottery of the +same shape and material as that of Mykenć has been found, as well as beads +of a curious vitreous substance, and rings in which the back of the chaton +is rounded so as to fit the finger. It is clear that the art of Ialysos +belongs to the same age and school as the art of Mykenć; and as a scarab +of Amenophis III. has been found in one of the Ialysian tombs, it is +possible that the art may be as old as the fifteenth century B.C. + +Now Ialysos is not the only Rhodian town which has yielded prehistoric +antiquities. Camirus also has been explored by Messrs. Biliotti and +Saltzmann; and while objects of the same kind and character as those of +Ialysos have been discovered there, other objects have been found by their +side which belong to another and more advanced stage of art. There are +vases of clay and metal, bronze bowls, and the like, which not only +display high finish and skill, but are ornamented with the designs +characteristic of Phoenician workmanship at Nineveh and elsewhere. Thus +we have zones of trees and animals, attempts at the representation of +scenery, and a profusion of ornament, while the influence of Egypt is +traceable in the sphinxes and scarabs, which also occur plentifully. Here, +therefore, at Camirus, there is plain evidence of a sudden introduction of +finished Phoenician art among a people whose art was still rude and +backward, although springing from the same germs as the art of Phoenicia +itself. Two distinct periods in the history of the Ćgean thus seem to lie +unfolded before us; one in which Eastern influence was more or less +indirect, content to communicate the seeds of civilization and culture, +and to import such objects as a barbarous race would prize; and another in +which the East was, as it were, transported into the West, and the +development of Greek art was interrupted by the introduction of foreign +workmen and foreign beliefs. This second period was the period of +Phoenician colonization as distinct from that of mere trading +voyages--the period, in fact, when Thebes was made a Phoenician +fortress, and the Phoenician alphabet diffused throughout the Greek +world. It is only in relics of the later part of this period that we can +look for inscriptions and traces of writing, at least in Greece proper; in +the islands and on the coast of Asia Minor, the Cypriote syllabary seems +to have been in use, to be superseded afterwards by the simpler alphabet +of Kadmus. For reasons presently to be stated, I would distinguish the +first period by the name of Phrygian. + +Throughout the whole of it, however, the Phoenician trading ships must +have formed the chief medium of intercourse between Asia and Europe. Proof +of this has been furnished by the rock tombs of Spata, which have been +lighted on opportunely to illustrate and explain the discoveries at +Mykenć. Spata is about nine miles from Athens, on the north-west spur of +Hymettos, and the two tombs hitherto opened are cut in the soft sandstone +rock of a small conical hill. Both are approached by long tunnel-like +entrances, and one of them contains three chambers, leading one into the +other, and each fashioned after the model of a house. No one who has seen +the objects unearthed at Spata can doubt for a moment their close +connection with the Mykenćan antiquities. The very moulds found at Mykenć +fit the ornaments from Spata, and might easily have been used in the +manufacture of them. It is more especially with the contents of the sixth +tomb, discovered by Mr. Stamatáki in the _enceinte_ at Mykenć after Dr. +Schliemann's departure, that the Spata remains agree so remarkably. But +there is a strong resemblance between them and the Mykenćan antiquities +generally, in both material, patterns, and character. The cuttle-fish and +the murex appear in both; the same curious spiral designs, and ornaments +in the shape of shells or rudely-formed oxheads; the same geometrical +patterns; the same class of carved work. An ivory in which a lion, of the +Assyrian type, is depicted as devouring a stag, is but a reproduction of a +similar design met with among the objects from Mykenć, and it is +interesting to observe that the same device, in the same style of art, may +be also seen on a Phoenician gem from Sardinia.[30] Of still higher +interest are other ivories, which, like the antiquities of Camirus, belong +rather to the second than to the first period of Phoenician influence. +One of these represents a column, which, like that above the Gate of +Lions, carries us back to the architecture of Babylonia, while others +exhibit the Egyptian sphinx, as modified by Phoenician artists. Thus the +handle of a comb is divided into two compartments--the lower occupied by +three of these sphinxes, the upper by two others, which have their eyes +fixed on an Assyrian rosette in the middle. Similar sphinxes are engraved +on a silver cup lately discovered at Palestrina, bearing the Phoenician +inscription, in Phoenician letters, "Eshmun-ya'ar, son of Ashta'."[31] +Another ivory has been carved into the form of a human side face, +surmounted by a tiara of four plaits. On the one hand the arrangement of +the hair of the face, the whisker and beard forming a fringe round it, and +the two lips being closely shorn, reminds us of what we find at +Palestrina; on the other hand, the head-dress is that of the figures on +the sculptured rocks of Asia Minor, and of the Hittite princes of +Carchemish. In spite of this Phoenician colouring, however, the +treasures of Spata belong to the earlier part of the Phoenician period, +if not to that which I have called Phrygian: there is as yet no sign of +writing, no trace of the use of iron. But we seem to be approaching the +close of the bronze age in Greece--to have reached the time when the +lions were sculptured over the chief gateway of Mykenć, and the so-called +treasuries were erected in honour of the dead. + +Can any date be assigned, even approximately, to those two periods of +Phoenician influence in Greece? Can we localize the era, so to speak, of +the antiquities discovered at Mykenć, or fix the epoch at which its kings +ceased to build its long-enduring monuments, and its glory was taken from +it? I think an answer to these questions may be found in a series of +engraved gold rings and prisms found upon its site--the prisms having +probably once served to ornament the neck. In these we can trace a gradual +development of art; which in time becomes less Oriental and more Greek, +and acquires a certain facility in the representation of the human form. + +Let us first fix our attention on an engraved gold chaton found, not in +the tombs, but outside the _enceinte_ among the ruins, as it would seem, +of a house.[32] On this we have a rude representation of a figure seated +under a palm-tree, with another figure behind and three more in front, the +foremost being of small size, the remaining two considerably taller and in +flounced dresses. Above are the symbols of the sun and crescent-moon, and +at the side a row of lions' heads. Now no one who has seen this chaton, +and also had any acquaintance with the engraved gems of the archaic period +of Babylonian art, can avoid being struck by the fact that the intaglio is +a copy of one of the latter. The characteristic workmanship of the +Babylonian gems is imitated by punches made in the gold which give the +design a very curious effect. The attitude of the figures is that common +on the Chaldean cylinders; the owner stands in front of the deity, of +diminutive size, and in the act of adoration, while the priests are placed +behind him. The latter wear the flounced dresses peculiar to the early +Babylonian priests; and what has been supposed to represent female +breasts, is really a copy of the way in which the breast of a man is +frequently portrayed on the cylinders.[33] The palm-tree, with its single +fruit hanging on the left side, is characteristically Babylonian; so also +are the symbols that encircle the engraving, the sun and moon and lions' +heads. The chaton of another gold ring, found on the same spot, is covered +with similar animal heads. This, again, is a copy of early Babylonian art, +in which such designs were not unfrequent, though, as they were afterwards +imitated by both Assyrian and Cyprian engravers, too much stress must not +be laid on the agreement.[34] The artistic position and age of the other +ring, however, admits of little doubt. The archaic period of Babylonian +art may be said to close with the rise of Assyria in the fourteenth +century B.C.; and though archaic Babylonian intaglios continued to be +imported into the West down to the time of the Romans, it is not likely +that they were imitated by Western artists after the latter had become +acquainted with better and more attractive models. I think, therefore, +that the two rings may be assigned to the period of archaic Babylonian +power in western Asia, a period that begins with the victories of +Naram-Sin in Palestine in the seventeenth century B.C. or earlier, and +ends with the conquest of Babylon by the Assyrians and the establishment +of Assyrian supremacy. This is also the period to which I am inclined to +refer the introduction among the Phoenicians and Greeks of the column +and of certain geometrical patterns, which had their first home in +Babylonia.[35] The lentoid gems with their rude intaglios, found in the +islands, on the site of Herćum, in the tombs of Mykenć and elsewhere, +belong to the same age, and point back to the loamy plain of Babylonia +where stone was rare and precious, and whence, consequently, the art of +gem-cutting was spread through the ancient world. We can thus understand +the existence of artistic designs and other evidences of civilizing +influence among a people who were not yet acquainted with the use of iron. +The early Chaldean Empire, in spite of the culture to which it had +attained, was still in the bronze age; iron was almost unknown, and its +tools and weapons were fashioned of stone, bone, and bronze. Had the +Greeks and the Phoenicians before them received their first lessons in +culture from Egypt or from Asia Minor, where the Khalybes and other allied +tribes had worked in iron from time immemorial, they would probably have +received this metal at the same time. But neither at Hissarlik nor at +Mykenć is there any trace of an iron age. + +The second period of Western art and civilization is represented by some +of the objects found at Mykenć in the tombs themselves. The intaglios have +ceased to be Babylonian, and have become markedly Assyrian. First of all +we have a hunting scene, a favourite subject with Assyrian artists, but +quite unknown to genuine Hellenic art. The disposition of the figures is +that usual in Assyrian sculpture, and, like the Assyrian king, the +huntsman is represented as riding in a chariot. A comparison of this +hunting scene with the bas-reliefs on the tombstones which stood over the +graves shows that they belong to the same age, while the spiral +ornamentation of the stones is essentially Assyrian. Equally Assyrian, +though better engraved, is a lion on one of the gold prisms, which might +have been cut by an Assyrian workman, so true is it to its Oriental model, +and after this I would place the representation of a struggle between a +man (perhaps Herakles) and a lion, in which, though the lion and attitude +of the combatants are Assyrian, the man is no longer the Assyrian hero +Gisdhubar, but a figure of more Western type. In another intaglio, +representing a fight between armed warriors, the art has ceased to be +Assyrian, and is struggling to become native. We seem to be approaching +the period when Greece gave over walking in Eastern leading-strings, and +began to step forward firmly without help. As I believe, however, that the +tombs within the _enceinte_ are of older date than the Treasuries outside +the Acropolis, or the Gate of Lions which belongs to the same age, it is +plain that we have not yet reached the time when Assyro-Phoenician +influence began to decline in Greece. The lions above the gate would alone +be proof to the contrary. + +But, in fact, Phoenician influence continued to be felt up to the end of +the seventh century B.C. Passing by the so-called Corinthian vases, or the +antiquities exhumed by General di Cesnola in Cyprus, where the +Phoenician element was strong, we have numerous evidences of the fact +from all parts of Greece. Two objects of bronze discovered at Olympia may +be specially signalized. One of these is an oblong plate, narrower at one +end than at the other, ornamented with _repousse_ work, and divided into +four compartments. In the first compartment are figures of the nondescript +birds so often seen on the "Corinthian" pottery; in the next come two +Assyrian gryphons standing, as usual, face to face; while the third +represents the contest of Herakles with the Kentaur, thoroughly Oriental +in design. The Kentaur has a human forefront, covered, however, with hair; +his tail is abnormally long, and a three-branched tree rises behind him. +The fourth and largest compartment contains the figure of the Asiatic +goddess with the four wings at the back, and a lion, held by the hind leg, +in either hand. The face of the goddess is in profile. The whole design is +Assyro-Phoenician, and is exactly reproduced on some square gold plates, +intended probably to adorn the breast, presented to the Louvre by the Duc +de Luynes. The other object to which I referred is a bronze dish, +ornamented on the inside with _repousse_ work, which at first sight looks +Egyptian, but is really that Phoenician modification of Egyptian art so +common in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. An inscription in the +Aramaic characters of the so-called Sidonian branch of the Phoenician +alphabet is cut on the outside, and reads: "Belonging to Neger, son of +Miga."[36] As the word used for "son" is the Aramaic _bar_ and not the +Phoenician _ben_, we may conclude that the owner of the dish had come +from northern Syria. It is interesting to find a silver cup embossed with +precisely the same kind of design, and also bearing an inscription in +Phoenician letters, among the treasures discovered in a tomb at +Palestrina, the ancient Prćneste, more than a year ago. This inscription +is even briefer than the other: "Eshmunya'ar son of 'Ashtâ,"[37] where, +though _ben_ is employed, the father's name has an Aramaic form. Helbig +would refer these Italian specimens of Phoenician skill to the +Carthaginian epoch, partly on the ground that an African species of ape +seems sometimes represented on them;[38] in this case they might be as +late as the fifth century before the Christian era. + +During the earlier part of the second period of Phoenician influence, +Phoenicia and the Phoenician colonies were not the only channel by +which the elements of Assyrian culture found their way into the West. The +monuments and religious beliefs of Asia Minor enable us to trace their +progress from the banks of the Euphrates and the ranges of the Taurus, +through Cappadocia and Phrygia, to the coasts and islands of the Ćgean. +The near affinity of Greek and Phrygian is recognized even by Plato;[39] +the legends of Midas and Gordius formed part of Greek mythology, and the +royal house of Mykenć was made to come with all its wealth from the golden +sands of the Paktolus; while on the other hand the cult of Mâ, of Attys, +or of the Ephesian Artemis points back to an Assyrian origin. The +sculptures found by Perrot[40] and Texier constitute a link between the +prehistoric art of Greece and that of Asia Minor; the spiral ornaments +that mark the antiquities of Mykenć are repeated on the royal tombs of +Asia Minor; and the ruins of Sardis, where once ruled a dynasty derived by +Greek writers from Ninus or Nineveh, "the son of Bell," the grandson of +the Assyrian Herakles,[41] may yet pour a flood of light on the earlier +history of Greece. But it was rather in the first period, which I have +termed Phrygian, than in the second, that the influence of Asia Minor was +strongest. The figure of the goddess riding on a leopard, with mural crown +and peaked shoes, on the rock-tablets of Pterium,[42] is borrowed rather +from the cylinders of early Babylonia than from the sculptures of Assyria; +and the Hissarlik collection connects itself more with the primitive +antiquities of Santorin than with the later art of Mykenć and Cyprus. We +have already seen, however, the close relationship that exists between +some of the objects excavated at Mykenć and what we may call the +pre-Phoenician art of Ialysos,--that is to say, the objects in which the +influence of the East is indirect, and not direct. The discovery of +metallurgy is associated with Dodona, where the oracle long continued to +be heard in the ring of a copper chaldron, and where M. Karapanos has +found bronze plates with the geometrical and circular patterns which +distinguish the earliest art of Greece; now Dodona is the seat of primćval +Greek civilization, the land of the Selloi or Helloi, of the Graioi +themselves, and of Pelasgian Zeus, while it is to the north that the +legends of Orpheus, of Musćus, and of other early civilizers looked back. +But even at Dodona we may detect traces of Asiatic influence in the part +played there by the doves, as well as in the story of Deucalion's deluge, +and it may, perhaps, be not too rash to conjecture that even before the +days of Phoenician enterprise and barter, an echo of Babylonian +civilization had reached Greece through the medium of Asia Minor, whence +it was carried, partly across the bridge formed by the islands of the +Archipelago, partly through the mainland of Thrace and Epirus. The +Hittites, with their capital at Carchemish, seem to have been the centre +from which this borrowed civilization was spread northward and westward. +Here was the home of the art which characterizes Asia Minor, and we have +only to compare the bas-relief of Pterium with the rock sculptures found +by Mr. Davis associated with "Hamathite" hieroglyphics at Ibreer, in +Lycaonia,[43] to see how intimate is the connection between the two. These +hieroglyphics were the still undeciphered writing of the Hittite tribes +and if, as seems possible, the Cypriote syllabary were derived from them, +they would be a testimony to the western spread of Hittite influence at a +very early epoch. The Cypriote characters adopted into the alphabets of +Lycia and Karia, as well as the occurrence of the same characters on a +hone and some of the terra-cotta discs found by Dr. Schliemann at +Hissarlik, go to show that this influence would have extended, at any +rate, to the coasts of the sea. + +The traces of Egyptian influence, on the contrary, are few and faint. No +doubt the Phoenician alphabet was ultimately of Egyptian origin, no +doubt, too, that certain elements of Phoenician art were borrowed from +Egypt, but before these were handed on to the West, they had first been +profoundly modified by the Phoenician settlers in the Delta and in +Canaan. The influence exercised immediately by Egypt upon Greece belongs +to the historic period; the legends which saw an Egyptian emigrant in +Kekrops or an Egyptian colony in the inhabitants of Argos were fables of a +late date. Whatever intercourse existed between Egypt and Greece in the +prehistoric period was carried on, not by the Egyptians, but by the +Phoenicians of the Delta; it was they who brought the scarabs of a +Thothmes or an Amenophis to the islands of the Ćgean, like their +descendants afterwards in Italy, and the proper names found on the +Egyptian monuments of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, which +certain Egyptologists have identified with those of Greece and Asia Minor, +belong rather, I believe, to Libyan and Semitic tribes.[44] Like the +sphinxes at Spata, the indications of intercourse with Egypt met with at +Mykenć prove nothing more than the wide extent of Phoenician commerce +and the existence of Phoenician colonies at the mouths of the Nile. +Ostrich-eggs covered with stucco dolphins have been found not only at +Mykenć, but also in the grotto of Polledrara near Vulci in Italy; the +Egyptian porcelain excavated at Mykenć is painted to represent the fringed +dress of an Assyrian or a Phoenician, not of an Egyptian; and though a +gold mask belonging to Prince Kha-em-Uas, and resembling the famous masks +of Mykenć, has brought to the Louvre from an Apis chamber, a similar mask +of size was discovered last year in a tomb on the site of Aradus. Such +intercourse, however, as existed between Greece and the Delta must have +been very restricted; otherwise we should surely have some specimens of +writing, some traces of the Phoenician alphabet. It would not have been +left to the Aramćans of Syria to introduce the "Kadmeian letters" into +Greece, and Mykenć, rather than Thebes, would have been made the centre +from which they were disseminated. Indeed, we may perhaps infer that even +the coast of Asia Minor, near as it was to the Phoenician settlements at +Kamirus and elsewhere, could have held but little intercourse with the +Phoenicians of Egypt from the fact that the Cypriote syllabary was so +long in use upon it, and that the alphabets afterwards employed were +derived only indirectly from the Phoenician through the medium of the +Greek. + +One point more now alone needs to be noticed. The long-continued influence +upon early Greek culture which we ascribe to the Phoenicians cannot but +have left its mark upon the Greek vocabulary also. Some at least of the +names given by the Phoenicians to the objects of luxury they brought +with them must have been adopted by the natives of Hellas. We know that +this is the case with the letters of the alphabet; is it also the case +with other words? If not, analogy would almost compel us to treat the +evidences that have been enumerated of Phoenician influence as illusory, +and to fall back upon the position of O. K. Müller and his school. By way +of answer I would refer to the list of Greek words, the Semitic origin of +which admits of no doubt, lately given by Dr. August Müller in +Bezzenberger's "Beitrage zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen."[45] +Amongst these we find articles of luxury like "linen," "shirt," +"sackcloth," "myrrh," and "frankincense," "galbanum" and "cassia," +"cinnamon" and "soap," "lyres" and "wine-jars," "balsam" and "cosmetics," +as well, possibly, as "fine linen" and "gold," along with such evidences +of trade and literature as the "pledge," "the writing tablet," and the +"shekel." If these were the only instances of Semitic tincture, they would +be enough to prove the early presence of the Semitic Phoenicians in +Greece. But we must remember that they are but samples of a class, and +that many words borrowed during the heroic age may have dropped out of use +or been conformed to the native part of the vocabulary long before the +beginning of the written literature, while it would be in the lesser known +dialects of the islands that the Semitic element was strongest. We know +that the dialect of Cyprus was full of importations from the East. + +In what precedes I have made no reference to the Homeric poems, and the +omission may be thought strange. But Homeric illustrations of the presence +of the Phoenicians in Greece will occur to every one, while both the +Iliad and the Odyssey in their existing form are too modern to be quoted +without extreme caution. A close investigation of their language shows +that it is the slow growth of generations; Ćolic formulć from the lays +first recited in the towns of the Troad are embodied in Ionic poems where +old Ionic, new Ionic, and even Attic jostle against one another, and +traditional words and phrases are furnished with mistaken meanings or new +forms coined by false analogy. It is difficult to separate the old from +the new, to say with certainty that this allusion belongs to the heroic +past, this to the Homer of Theopompus and Euphorion, the contemporary of +the Lydian Gyges. The art of Homer is not the art of Mykenć and of the +early age of Phoenician influence; iron is already taking the place of +bronze, and the shield of Akhilles or the palace of Alkinous bear witness +to a developed art which has freed itself from its foreign bonds. Six +times are Phoenicia and the Phoenicians mentioned in the Odyssey, once +in the Iliad;[46] elsewhere it is Sidon and the Sidonians that represented +them, never Tyre.[47] Such passages, therefore, cannot belong to the epoch +of Tyrian supremacy, which goes back, at all events, to the age of David, +but rather to the brief period when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser laid +siege to Tyre, and his successor Sargon made Sidon powerful at its +expense. This, too, was the period when Sargon set up his record in +Cyprus, "the isle of Yavnan" or the Ionians, when Assyria first came into +immediate contact with the Greeks, and when Phoenician artists worked at +the court of Nineveh and carried their wares to Italy and Sardinia. But it +was not the age to which the relics of Mykenć, in spite of paradoxical +doubts, reach back, nor that in which the sacred bull of Astarte carried +the Phoenician maiden Europa to her new home in the west. + + A. H. SAYCE, in _Contemporary Review_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] See E. Curtins: Die griechische Götterlehre vom geschichtlichen +Standpunkt, in _Preussische Jahrbucher_, xxxvi. pp. 1-17. 1875. + +[25] _Contemporary Review_, January, 1878. + +[26] See Fouqué's Mission Scientifique á l'île de Santorin (Archives des +Missions 2e série, iv. 1867); Gorceix in the Bulletin de l'Ecole francaise +d'Athčnes, i. + +[27] See, for example, Di Cesnola's _Cyprus_, pp. 401, 402. + +[28] _Gazette Archéologique_, ii-. 1, 3. + +[29] See Schliemann's Mycenć and Tiryns, pl. 273. + +[30] Given by La Marmora in the Memorie della Reale Academia delle Scienze +di Torino (1854), vol. xiv., pl. 2, fig. 63. + +[31] Given in the Monumenti d. Instituto Romano, 1876. + +[32] Schliemann: Mycenć and Tiryns, p. 530. + +[33] See, for instance, the example given in Rawlinson's Ancient +Monarchies (1st edit.), i. p. 118, where the flounced priest has what +looks like a woman's breast. Dancing boys and men in the East still wear +these flounces, which are variously coloured (see Loftus: Chaldea and +Susiana, p. 22; George Smith: Assyrian Discoveries, p. 130). + +[34] See, for example, Layard: Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 604, 606; Di +Cesnola: Cyprus, pl. 31, No. 7; pl. 32, No. 19. A copy of the Mykenćan +engraving is given in Schliemann's Mycenć and Tiryns, pl. 531. + +[35] More especially the examples in Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, iii. +p. 403, and i. 413. For Mykenćan examples see Schliemann's Mykenć and +Tiryns, ppl. 149, 152, &c. Some of the more peculiar patterns from Mykenć +resemble the forms assumed by the "Hamathite" hieroglyphics in the +unpublished inscription copied by Mr. George Smith from the back of a +mutilated statue at Jerablűs (Carchemish). + +[36] LNGR. BR. MIGA'. + +[37] ASHMNYA'R. BNA' SHTA. + +[38] Annali d. Istituto Romano, 1876. + +[39] Kratylus, 410 A.D. + +[40] Exploration Archéologique de la Galatie et de la Bithynie. + +[41] See Herodotus, i.7. + +[42] Texier: Description de l'Asie Mineure, i. 1, pl. 78. + +[43] Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archćology, iv. 2, 1876. + +[44] I have given the reasons of my scepticism in the _Academy_, of May +30, 1874. Brugsch Bey, the leading authority on the geography of the +Egyptian monuments, would now identify those names with those tribes in +Kolkhis, and its neighbourhood. + +[45] i. pp. 273-301 (1877). + +[46] _Phoenicia_, Od. iv. 83; xiv. 291. _Phoenicians_, Od. xiii. 272; xv. +415. _A Phoenician_, Od. xiv. 288. _A Phoenician woman_, Od. xiv. 288; Il. +xiv. 321. + +[47] _Sidon_, _Sidonia_, Il. vi. 291; Od. xiii. 285; xv. 425. _Sidonians_, +Il. vi. 290; Od. iv. 84, 618; xv. 118. + + + + +SOME GOSSIP ABOUT LEICESTER SQUARE. + + +In old-world London, Leicester Square played a much more important part +than it does to-day. It was then the chosen refuge of royalty and the home +of wit and genius. Time was when it glittered with throngs of +lace-bedizened gallants; when it trembled beneath the chariot-wheels of +Beauty and Fashion; when it re-echoed with the cries of jostling chairmen +and link-boys; when it was trodden by the feet of the greatest men of a +great epoch--Newton and Swift, Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a host of +others more or less distinguished. Mr. Tom Taylor, in his interesting work +entitled "Leicester Square," tells us that the vicissitudes of a London +quarter generally tend downwards through a regular series of decades. It +is first fashionable; then it is professional; then it becomes a favourite +locality for hotels and lodging-houses; then the industrial element +predominates, and then not infrequently a still lower depth is reached. +Leicester Square has been no exception to this rule. Its reputation in +fact was becoming very shady indeed, when the improvement of its central +inclosure gave it somewhat of a start upwards and turned attention to its +early history. + +Of old, many of these grand doings took place at Leicester House, which +was the first house in the Square. It was built by Robert Sidney, Earl of +Leicester, a staunch Royalist, somewhere about 1636. His sons, Viscount +Lisle and the famous Algernon Sidney, grew up less of Royalists than he +was; and to Leicester House, with the sanction and welcome of its head, +came many of the more prominent Republicans of the day, Vane and Neville, +Milton and Bradshaw, Ludlow and Lambert. The cream of history lies not so +much in a bare notation of facts as in the little touches of nature and +manners which reproduce for us the actual human life of a former age, and +much of this may be gleaned from the history of the Sidneys. They were an +interesting family, alike from their rank, their talents, their personal +beauty, and the vicissitudes of their fortunes. The Countess was a clever +managing woman; and her letters to her absent lord when ambassador in +France convey to us many pleasant details of the home-life at Leicester +House. Still more charming is it to read the pretty little billets +addressed to the Earl by his elder girls. Of these six beautiful daughters +of the house of Sidney, four were married and two died in the dawn of +early womanhood. Of the younger of these, Lady Elizabeth, the father has a +touching entry in his journal. After narrating her death, he adds: "She +had to the last the most angelical countenance and beauty, and the most +heavenly disposition and temper of mind that I think were ever seen in so +young a creature." + +With her death the merry happy family life at Leicester House drew to a +close. The active bustling mother, whose influence had brought the +different jarring chords into harmony, died a few mouths afterwards; and +the busy years as they sped onwards, while consummating the fall of +Charles and consolidating the power of Cromwell, also put great and +growing disunion between the Sidney brothers. At the Restoration, Algernon +was in exile; Lord Lisle's stormy temper had alienated him from his +father; the Earl's favourite son-in-law was dead; of the three who +remained he was neither proud nor fond; and lonely and sick at heart, he +grew weary of the splendid home from which the fair faces of his handsome +children had gone for ever, and made preparations to leave it. He was +presented to Charles II.; and immediately afterwards retired to Penshurst +in Kent; and Leicester House was let, first to the ambassadors of the +United Provinces; and then to a more remarkable tenant, Elizabeth Stewart, +the ill-fated Princess and Queen of Bohemia. She had left England in 1613 +a lovely happy girl, the bride of the man she loved, life stretching all +rainbow-hued before her. She returned to it a weary haggard woman of +sixty-five, who had drunk to the dregs of every possible cup of +disappointment and sorrow. Her presence was very unwelcome, as that of the +unfortunate often is. Charles II., her nephew, was very loath indeed to +have the pleasure of receiving her as a guest; but she returned to London +whether he would or not, and Leicester house was taken for her. There she +languished for a few months in feeble and broken health, and there, on the +anniversary of her wedding-day, she died. + +The house immediately to the west of Leicester House belonged to the +Marquis of Aylesbury; but in 1698 it was occupied by the Marquis of +Caermarthen, who was appointed by King William III. cicerone and guide to +Peter the Great when he came in the January of that year to visit England. +Peter's great qualities have long been done full justice to; but in the +far-off January of 1698 he appeared to the English as by no means a very +august-looking potentate; he had the manners and appearance of an unkempt +barbarian, and his pastimes were those of a coal-heaver. His favourite +exercise in the mornings was to run a barrow through and through Evelyn's +trim holly-hedges at Deptford; and the state in which he left his pretty +house there is not to be described. His chief pleasure, when the duties of +the day were over, was to drink all night with the Marquis in his house at +Leicester Fields, the favourite tipple of the two distinguished topers +being brandy spiced with pepper; or sack, of which the Czar is reported to +have drunk eight bottles one day after dinner. Among other sights in +London, the Marquis took him to see Westminster Hall in full term. "Who +are all these men in wigs and gowns?" he asked. "Lawyers," was the answer. +"Lawyers!" he exclaimed. "Why, I have only two in my dominions, and when I +get back, I intend to hang one of them." + +In January 1712 Leicester House, which was then occupied by the imperial +resident, received another distinguished visitor in the person of Prince +Eugene, one of the greatest captains of the age. In appearance he was a +little sallow wizened old man, with one shoulder higher than the other. A +soldier of fortune, whose origin was so humble as to be unknown, his +laurels were stained neither by rapacity nor self-seeking; and in all the +vicissitudes of his eventful life he bore himself like a hero, and a +gentleman in the truest and fullest acceptation of the word. Dean Swift +was also at this time in lodgings in Leicester Fields, noting with clear +acute unpitying vision the foibles and failings of all around him, and +writing to Stella from time to time after his cynical fashion, "how the +world is going mad after Prince Eugene, and how he went to court also, but +could not see him, the crowd was so great." + +A labyrinth of courts, inns, and stable-yards had gradually filled up the +space between the royal mews and Leicester Fields; and between 1680 and +1700 several new streets were opened through these; one reason for the +opening of them being the great influx of French refugees into London, on +the occasion of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Many of +these exiles settled in and around Leicester Fields, and for their use +several chapels were built. The neighbourhood has ever since been a resort +of French immigrants. + +In one of these streets opening into Leicester Square, St. Martin's +Street, Sir Isaac Newton lived for the last sixteen years of his life. The +house in which he lived looks dingy enough now; but in those days it was +considered a very good residence indeed, and Like Leicester House was +frequented by the best company in the fashionable world. The genius and +reputation of its master attracted scientific and learned visitors; and +the beauty of his niece, Mrs. Catharine Barton, drew to her feet all the +more distinguished wits and beaux of the time. + +Between 1717 and 1760 Leicester House became what Pennant calls "the +pouting-place of princes," being for almost all that time in the +occupation of a Prince of Wales who was living in fierce opposition to the +reigning king. In 1718 the Prince of Wales having had a furious quarrel +with his father George I., on the occasion of the christening of the +Prince's son George William, left St. James's, and took Leicester House at +a yearly rent of five hundred pounds; and until he succeeded to the throne +in 1727, it was his town residence. + +Here he held his court--a court not by any means strait-laced; a gay +little court at first; a court whose selfish intrigues and wild frolics +and madcap adventures and humdrum monotony live for us still in the +sparkling pages of Horace Walpole; or are painted in with vivid clearness +of touch and execution, but with a darker brush, by Hervey, Pope's Lord +Fanny, who was a favourite with his mistress the handsome accomplished +Caroline, Princess of Wales. Piloted by one or other of these exact +historians, we enter the chamber of the gentlewomen-in-waiting, and are +introduced to the maids-of-honour, to fair Mary Lepell, to charming Mrs. +Bellenden, to pensive, gentle Mrs. Howard. We see them eat Westphalia ham +of a morning, and then set out with their royal master for a +helter-skelter ride over hedges and ditches, on borrowed hacks. No wonder +Pope pitied them; and on their return, who should they fall in with but +that great poet himself! They are good to him in their way, these saucy +charming maids-of-honour, and so they take the frail little man under +their protection and give him his dinner; and then he finishes off the +day, he tells us, by walking three hours in the moonlight with Mary +Lepell. We can imagine the affected compliments he paid her and the +burlesque love he made to her; and the fun she and her sister +maids-of-honour would have laughing over it all, when she went back to +Leicester House and he returned to his pretty villa at Twickenham. + +As the Prince grew older his court became more and more dull, till at last +it was almost deserted, when on the 14th of June 1727 the loungers in its +half-empty chambers were roused by sudden news--George I. was dead; and +Leicester House was thronged by a sudden rush of obsequious courtiers, +among whom was the late king's prime-minister, bluff, jolly, coarse Sir +Robert Walpole. No one paid any attention to him, for every one knew that +his disgrace was sealed; the new king had never been at any pains to +conceal his dislike to him. Sir Robert, however, knew better; he was quite +well aware who was to be the real ruler of England now; and he knew that +the Princess Caroline had already accepted him, just as she accepted La +Walmoden and her good Howard; and so all alone in his corner he chuckled +to himself as he saw the crowd of sycophants elbow and jostle and push +poor Lady Walpole as she tried to make her way to the royal feet. Caroline +saw it too, and with a flash of half-scornful mischief lighting up her +shrewd eyes, said with a smile: "Sure, there I see a friend." Instantly +the human stream parted, and made way for her Ladyship. + +In 1728 Frederick, the eldest son of George and Caroline, arrived from +Hanover, where he had remained since his birth in 1707. It was a fatal +mistake; he came to England a stranger to his parents, and with his place +in their hearts already filled by his brother. It was inevitable that +where there was no mutual love, distrust and alienation should come, as in +no long time they did, with the result that the same pitiful drama was +played out again on the same stage. In 1743 Frederick Prince of Wales took +Leicester House and held his receptions there. He was fond of gaiety, and +had a succession of balls, masques, plays, and supper-parties. His tastes, +as was natural considering his rearing, were foreign, and Leicester House +was much frequented by foreigners of every grade. Desnoyers the +dancing-master was a favourite habitué, as was also the charlatan +St-Germain. In the midst of all this fiddling and buffoonery the Prince +fell ill; but not so seriously as to cause uneasiness to any one around +him; consequently all the world was taken by surprise when he suddenly +died one morning in the arms of his friend the dancing-master. After his +death his widow remained at Leicester House, and like a sensible woman as +she was, made her peace with the king her father-in-law, who ever +afterwards shewed himself very kind and friendly to her. + +In October 1760 George III. was proclaimed king; and again a crowd of +courtiers thronged to Leicester House to kiss the hand of the new +sovereign. For six years longer the Princess of Wales continued to live at +Leicester House; and there in 1765 her youngest son died, and the +following year she removed to Carlton House. + +While the quarrel between George II. and Frederick was at its fiercest, +the central inclosure of Leicester Square was re-arranged very elegantly +according to the taste of the day; and an equestrian statue of George I., +which had belonged to the first Duke of Chandos and had been bought at the +sale of his effects, was set up in front of Leicester House, where it +remained, a dazzling object at first, in all the glory of gilding, which +passed with the populace for gold; but latterly a most wretched relic of +the past, an eyesore, which was removed in 1874 in the course of Baron +Grant's improvements. + +Leicester Square had other tenants beside Sir Isaac Newton, compared with +whom courtiers and gallants and fine gentlemen and ladies look very small +indeed. Hogarth lived in this street, and so did Sir Joshua Reynolds. +Hogarth's house was the last but two on the east side of the Square. Here +he established himself, a young struggling man, with Jane Thornhill, the +wife with whom he had made a stolen love-match. In this house, with the +quaint sign of the Golden Head over the door, he worked, not as painters +generally do, at a multitude of detached pieces, but depicting with his +vivid brush a whole series of popular allegories on canvas. When he became +rich, as in process of time he did, he had a house at Chiswick; but he +still retained the Golden Head as his town-house, and in 1764 returned to +it to die. + +In No. 47 Sir Joshua Reynolds lived, and painted those charming portraits +which have immortalised for us all that was most beautiful and famous in +his epoch. He was a kindly genial lovable man, fond of society, and with a +liking for display. He had a wonderful carriage, with the four seasons +curiously painted in on the panels, and the wheels ornamented with carved +foliage and gilding. The servants in attendance on this chariot wore +silver-laced liveries; and as he had no time to drive in it himself, he +made his sister take a daily airing in it, much to her discomfort, for she +was a homely little lady with very simple tastes. He was a great dinner +giver; and as it was his custom to ask every pleasant person he met +without any regard to the preparation made to receive them, it may be +conjectured that there was often a want of the commonest requisites of the +dinner-table. Even knives, forks, and glasses could not always be procured +at first. But although his dinners partook very much of the nature of +unceremonious scrambles, they were thoroughly enjoyable. Whatever was +awanting, there was always cheerfulness and the pleasant kindly +interchange of thought. In July 1792 Sir Joshua died in his own house in +Leicester Square; and within a few hours of his death, an obituary notice +of him was written by Burke, the manuscript of which was blotted with his +tears. + +In No. 28, on the eastern side of the Square, the celebrated anatomist +John Hunter lived. Like most distinguished men of the day, he sat to Sir +Joshua Reynolds for his portrait; but was so restless and preoccupied that +he made a very bad sitter. At last one day he fell into a reverie. The +happy moment had come; Sir Joshua, with his instinctive tact, caught the +expression and presented to us the great surgeon in one of his most +characteristic attitudes. The other celebrated surgeons, Cruickshank and +Charles Bell, also lived in this Square. The house in which Bell resided +for many years was large and ruinous, and had once been inhabited by +Speaker Onslow. Here he set up his Museum, and began to lecture on +anatomy, having for a long time, he writes, scarcely forty pupils to +lecture to. + +During all the later portion of its history Leicester Square has been +famous for shows. In 1771 Sir Ashton Lever exhibited a large and curious +Museum in Leicester House. In 1796 Charles Dibdin built at Nos. 2 and 3, +on the east side of Leicester Square, a small theatre in which he gave an +entertainment consisting of an interesting medley of anecdote and song. In +1787 Miss Linwood opened her gallery of pictures in needlework, an +exhibition which lasted forty-seven years, for the last thirty-five of +which it was exhibited at Savile House, a building which was destroyed by +fire in 1865. + +After Miss Linwood's, one of the best shows in Leicester Square was +Burford's Panorama, which is now numbered with the things that were, its +site being occupied by a French chapel and school. In 1851 a new show was +inaugurated by Mr. Wylde the geographer. It consisted of a monster globe +sixty feet in diameter, which occupied the central dome of a building +erected in the garden of the Square. The world was figured in relief on +the inside of it, and it was viewed from several galleries at different +elevations. It was exhibited for ten years, and was then taken down by its +proprietor, owing to a dispute concerning the ownership of the garden. Out +of this case, which was decided in 1867, the proceedings originated which +resulted in the purchase and renovation of the garden by Baron Grant, who +having once more made it trim and neat, handed it over to the Board of +Works.--_Chambers's Journal._ + + + + +A WOMAN'S LOVE. + +A SLAVONIAN STUDY. + + +Those races that have not undergone the beneficial and domesticating +influences of civilisation, and that are isolated from the more cultured +nations, possess to an excess the different qualities or impulses inherent +to our nature. Amongst the emotions that move the heart of man, love is +certainly the one that has the greatest empire over him; it rules the soul +so imperiously that all the other passions are crushed by it. It makes +cowards of the bravest men, and gives courage to the timid. Love is, +indeed, the great motive-power of life. + +Our passions and our emotions are, however, more subdued than those of the +semi-civilised nations; for, in the first place, we undergo the softening +influences of education, and secondly, we are more or less under the +restraint of the rules which govern society. Besides this, our mind is +usually engrossed by the numerous cares which our state of living +necessitates; for we are not like them, contented with little; on the +contrary, instead of being satisfied with what is necessary, we require +luxuries and superfluities, the procurement of which takes up a +considerable portion of our energy and our mental activity. + +The Slavonians, and more especially those belonging to the southern +regions, such as the Dalmatians and Montenegrins, are, as a general rule, +very passionate; ardent in their affections, they are likewise given to +anger, resentment, and hatred, the generic sister passion of love. + +The Slavonian women are, however, not indolent, nor do they ever indulge +in idle dreams; for they are not only occupied with the household cares, +but they also take a share, and not the smallest or the slightest, of +those toils which in other countries devolve upon the men alone. They +therefore, in the manly labours of the field, not only get prematurely +old, but they hardly ever possess much grace, slenderness, or delicate +complexions. No Slavonian woman, for instance, is ever _mignonne_. They, +in compensation, acquire in health, and perhaps in real ćsthetic beauty of +proportions, what they lose in prettiness or delicacy of appearance, +consequently they never suffer from vapours or from the numerous nervous +complaints to which the generality of our ladies are subjected; the +natural result of this state of things is _mens sana in corpore sano_; +this is doubtless the reason why Slavonian women are, as a general rule, +fond mothers and faithful wives. + +They are certainly not endowed with that charming refinement, the +_morbidezza_ of manners which but too often is but a mask covering a +morbid selfish disposition, a hypocritical and false nature. Though +ignorant, they are neither void of natural good sense nor wit; they only +want that smattering of worldly knowledge which the contact of society +imparts, and which but too often covers nothing but frivolity, gross +ignorance, and conceit. Their conversation is, perhaps, not peculiarly +attractive; for being simple and artless, speech was not given to them as +a means of disguising their thoughts; their lips only disclose the +fullness of their hearts. Conversation is, besides, a gift conferred to +few; and even in our polite circles not many persons can converse in an +interesting manner, and fewer can be witty without backbiting; moreover, +if man were suddenly to become transparent, would he not have to blush for +the frivolous demonstrations of friendship daily interchanged in our +artificial state of society? + +The different amusements that absorb so much of our time and occupy our +minds are unknown in Slavonian countries; the daily occupations and the +details of the toilet do not captivate the whole attention; so that when a +simple affection is awakening in the heart of a man or of a woman, it by +degrees pervades the whole soul and the whole mind, and a strong and +ardent passion usually ensues. Moreover, amongst those simple-minded +sincere people flirtations are generally unknown; yet when they do love, +their affections are genuine; they never exchange amongst each other those +false coins bearing Cupid's effigy, and known as coquetry; for their lips +only utter what their hearts really feel. People there do not delight in +playing with the fire of love, or trying how far they can with impunity +make game of sentiments which should be held sacred. Amongst the virile +maidens of Slavonia many of them therefore have virgin hearts, that is to +say, artless souls, fresh to all the tender sentiments; the reason of this +is, that from the age of fifteen they do not trifle with their affections +until they have become so callous and sceptical that marriage is merely +wealth or a position in life. Men do not first waste away all the tender +emotions which the human heart is capable of, and then settle down into a +_mariage de raison_. + +The following story, which happened about a century ago, will serve as an +illustration of the power of love amongst the Slavonians; it is, indeed, a +kind of repetition of the fate which attended the lovers of Sestos and +Abydos. This, however, is no legend, but an historical fact; the place +where this tragedy happened was the island of St. Andrea, situated between +those of Malfi and Stagno, not far from the town of Ragusa. + +Though no Musćus has immortalised this story by his verses, it is, +however, recorded in the "Revista Dalmata" (1859), in the "Annuario +Spalatino" of the same year, as well as other Slavonian periodicals. + +The hero of this story, whose Christian name was Teodoro, belonged to one +of the wealthiest patrician families of Ragusa, his father being, it is +said, Rector of the Republic. He was a young man of a grave character, but +withal of a gentle and tender disposition; he not only possessed great +talents, but also great culture, for his time was entirely given up to +study. + +One day, the young patrician having gone from the island of St. Andrea, +where he had been staying at the Benedictine convent, to one of the other +two neighboring islands, he in the evening wished to return to his abode. +He met upon the beach a young girl who was carrying home some baskets of +fish. Having asked her if she knew of anybody who would take him across to +the island of St. Andrea, the young girl proffered her services, which the +young and bashful patrician reluctantly accepted. + +The young girl was as beautiful, as chaste, and as proud as the Arrabiata +of Paul Heyse; and for the first time Teodoro felt a new and vague feeling +awake in his bosom. He began to talk to the girl, asking her a thousand +questions about herself, about her home; and the young girl doubtless told +him that she was an orphan, and that she lived with her brothers. Instead +of returning to his family, the young nobleman remained at the Benedictine +convent, with the purpose of studying in retirement; his mind, however, +was not entirely engrossed by his books, and his visits to the island +where Margherita lived daily became more frequent. + +The love which had kindled in his heart found an echo in the young girl's +bosom, and instead of endeavouring to suppress their feelings they yielded +to the charms of this saintly affection, to the rapture of loving and +being loved. In a few days their mutual feelings had made such progress +that the young man promised the _barcarinola_ to marry her. His noble +character and his brave spirit made him forget that he could not with +impunity break the laws of the society amongst which he lived; for that +society, which would have smiled had he seduced the young girl and made +her his mistress, would nevertheless have been scandalised had he taken +her for his lawful wife. + +Peccadilloes are overlooked, and it is almost better in high life to be a +knave than a fool; it was, indeed, a quixotic notion for a patrician to +marry a plebeian, an unheard of event in the annals of the aristocratic +republic of Ragusa. The difficulties which our hero was to encounter were +therefore insurmountable. + +In the midst of his thoughtless happiness our young lover was suddenly +summoned back to his home; for whilst Teodoro was supposed to be deeply +engaged in his studies his father, without the young man's knowledge, and +not anticipating any opposition, promised his son in marriage to the +daughter of one of his friends, a young lady of great wealth and beauty. +This union had, it is true, been concerted when the children were mere +babes, and it had until then been a bond between the two families. The +young lady being now of a marriageable age, and having concentrated all +her affections on the young man she had always been taught to regard as +her future husband, she now looked forward with joy for the anticipated +event. + +Teodoro was therefore summoned back home to assist at a great festivity +given in honour of his betrothal; he at once hastened back to Ragusa, in +order to break off the engagement contracted for him. Vainly, however, did +he try to remonstrate, first with his father and then with his mother. He +avowed that he had no inclination for matrimony, that he felt no love for +this young lady, nothing but a mere brotherly affection, and that he could +not cherish her as his wife; he found, nevertheless, both his parents +inexorable. It was too late; the father had given his word to his friend; +a refusal would prove an insult, which would provoke a rupture between +these two families; no option was left but to obey. + +Teodoro thereupon retired to his own room, where he remained in the +strictest confinement, refusing to see any one. The evening of that +eventful day, the guests were assembled; the bride and her family had +already arrived; the bridegroom, nevertheless, was missing. This was +indeed a strange breach of good manners, and numerous comments were +whispered from ear to ear. The father sent at last a peremptory order to +his undutiful son to come at once to him. The young man ultimately made +his appearance, attired like Hamlet at his stepfather's court, in a suit +of deep mourning, whilst his long hair, which formerly fell in ringlets +over his shoulders, was all clipped short. In this strange accoutrement he +came to acquaint his father before the whole assembly that he had decided +to forego the pleasure, the pomp and vanity of this world, to renounce +society, and take up his abode in a convent, where he intended passing his +days in study and meditation. + +The scene of confusion which followed this unexpected declaration can be +imagined. The guests all wished to retire: the first person, however, to +leave the house was Teodoro, expelled by his father and bearing with him +the paternal malediction. Thus this day of anticipated joy ended in +disappointment and humiliation. The discarded bride was borne away by her +parents, and it is said that her delicate health never recovered from this +unexpected blow. + +That very night the young man retired to the Benedictine convent upon the +island of St. Andrea, with the firm resolution of passing his life in holy +seclusion. When a few days had passed, his love proved, nevertheless, +stronger than his will, and he could not refrain from going to see his +Margherita, and informing her of all that had happened, telling her that +he had been driven from home, and that he had taken refuge at the convent, +where he intended passing his life in a state of holy celibacy. +Notwithstanding all his good intentions, the sight of the young girl +proved too great a temptation, her beauty overcame his resolutions, and he +swore to her that he would brave his parents' opposition, as well as the +anger of his caste, and that he would marry her in spite of his family and +of the whole world. + +He thus continued seeing this young girl, till at last the fishermen, her +brothers, having found out why this young patrician visited the island so +often, severe and jealous like all their countrymen, they waylaid him, and +threatened to kill him if he were once more caught upon these shores. The +prior of the Benedictines, finding besides that his _protege_, far from +coming to seek peace and tranquillity within the walls of his convent, +was, on the contrary, an object of scandal, expressed his intention to +expel him, should he not discontinue his visits to the neighbouring +island, and reform. + +Every new difficulty seemed to give fresh courage to the lovers; they +would have fled from their native country and their persecutors, but they +knew that they would be overtaken, brought back, and punished; so they +decided to wait some time until the wrath of their enemies had abated, and +the storm had blown over. + +As Teodoro could not go any more to see the young girl, it was Margherita +who now came to visit her lover; to evade, however, the suspicion of her +brothers, and that of the friars, they only met in the middle of the +night, and as they always changed their place of meeting, a lighted torch +was the signal where the young girl was to direct her bark. There were +nights, nevertheless, when she could not obtain a boat; yet this was no +obstacle to her brave spirit, for upon those nights, she, like Leander, +swam across the channel, for nothing could daunt this heroic woman's +heart. + +These ill-fated lovers were happy notwithstanding their adverse fortune, +for the sacred fire of love which burnt within them was bliss enough to +compensate for all their woes. Their days were passed in anxious +expectation for the hour which was to unite them on the sea-shore, amidst +the darkness of the night. There clasped in one another's arms, the world +and its inhabitants existed no longer for them; those were moments of +ineffable rapture, in which it seemed impossible to drain the whole +chalice of happiness; moments in which time and eternity are confounded, +instants only to be appreciated by those who have known the infinite bliss +of loving and being loved. Their souls seemed to leave their bodies, blend +together and soar into the empyreal spaces, the regions of infinite +happiness; for them all other sentiments passed away, and nothing was felt +but an unmitigated love. + +The dangers which encompassed them, their loneliness upon the rocky +shores, the stillness of the night, only served to heighten their joy and +exultation, for a pleasure dearly bought is always more keenly felt. + +Their happiness was, however, not to be of long duration; such felicity is +celestial; on this earth, + + "Les plus belles choses + Ont le pire destin." + +Margherita's brothers, knowing the power of love, watched their sister, +and at last found out that when the young nobleman had ceased coming, it +was she who by night visited the Island of St. Andrea, and they resolved +to be revenged upon her. They bided their time, and upon a dark and stormy +night, the fishermen, knowing that their sister would not be intimidated +by the heavy sea, went off with the boat and left her to the mercy of the +waves. The young girl, unable to resist the impulse of her love, +recommended herself to the Almighty, and bravely plunged into the waters. +Her treacherous brothers, having watched her movements, plied their oars +and directed their course towards the island; they landed, went and took +the lighted torch from the place where it was burning, and fastened it to +the prow of their boat; having done this, they slowly rowed away into the +open sea. + +Margherita, as usual, swam towards the beacon-light of love, but that +night all her efforts were useless--the faster she swam, the greater was +the distance that separated her from that _ignis-fatuus_ light; doubtless +she attributed this to the roughness of the sea, and took courage, hoping +soon to reach that blessed goal. + +A flash of lightning, which illumined the dark expanse of the waters, made +her at last perceive her mistake; she saw the boat towards which she had +been swimming, and also the island of St. Andrea far behind her. She at +once directed her course towards it, but there, in the midst of darkness, +she struggled with the wild waves, until, overpowered by fatigue, she gave +up all hopes of rejoining her beloved one, and sank down in the briny +deep. + +The cruel sea that separated the lovers was, however, more merciful than +man, for upon the morrow the waves themselves softly deposited the +lifeless body of the young girl upon the sand of the beach. + +The nobleman, who had passed a night of most terrible anxiety, found at +daybreak the corpse of the girl he loved. He caused it to be committed to +the earth, after which he re-entered within the walls of the convent, took +the Benedictine dress, and spent the rest of his life pining in grief. + + ADRIAN DE VALVEDERE, in _Tinsley's Magazine_. + + + + +AN IMPERIAL PARDON. + + +During a journey through some parts of Russia a few years ago, we engaged, +in preference to the imperial post-chaise, a private conveyance for a +considerable distance, the driver being a Jew--generally preferred in the +East on account of their sobriety and general trustworthiness. On the road +my companion became communicative, and entered into philosophic-religious +discussion--a topic of frequent occurrence among these bilingual +populations. After a somewhat desultory harangue, he suddenly became +silent and sad, having just uttered the words: "If a Chassid goes astray, +what does he become? A meschumed, _i.e._ an apostate."--"To what class of +people do you allude?" I inquired.--"Well, it just entered my head, +because we have to pass the house of one of them--I mean the 'forced +ones.'"--"Forced!" I thought of a religious sect. "Are they Christians or +Jews?"--"Neither the one nor the other," was the reply, "but simply +'forced.' Oh, sir, it is a great misery and a great crime! Our children at +least will not know anything of it, because new victims do not arise, and +on the marriage of these parties rests a curse--they remain sterile! But +what am I saying? It is rather a blessing--a mercy! Should thus a +terrible misery be perpetuated? These forced people are childless. Well, +God knows best. I am a fool, a sinner to speak about it." No entreaty of +mine would induce my Jewish companion to afford further information +concerning this peculiar people. But before the end of our journey I heard +unexpectedly more about this unfortunate class of Russian subjects. We +travelled westward through the valley of the Dniester, a district but +thinly peopled, and rested at an inn on the borders of an extensive +forest. + +Amidst the raillery going on in the principal room of this hostelry +between guests of different nationalities, we had not heard the noise of +wheels which slowly moved towards the house. It was a very poor +conveyance, containing a small cask and a basket. The young hostess arose +hastily, and, approaching the owner, said in a whisper, "What is it you +want?" A slight paleness overspread her countenance, and stranger still +was the demeanour of my coachman. "Sir, sir!" he exclaimed loudly, turning +towards me, stretching out his hands as if seeking support, or warding off +some impending danger. "What is the matter?" I rejoined, greatly +surprised: but he merely shook his head, and stared at the new comer. + +He was an elderly peasant, attired in the usual garb of the +country-people; only at a more close inspection I noticed that he wore a +fine white shirt. Of his face I could see but little, it being hidden +behind the broad brim of his straw hat. + +"Hostess," he said, addressing the young woman, "will you purchase +something of me? I have some old brandy, wooden spoons and plates, +pepper-boxes, needle-cases, &c., all made of good hard wood, and very +cheap." In an almost supplicating tone he uttered these words very slowly, +with downcast eyes. From his pronunciation he appeared to be a Pole. + +The hostess looked shyly up to him. + +"You know my brother-in-law has forbidden me to have dealings with you," +she said hesitatingly, "on account of your wife; but to-day he is not at +home." After a momentary silence, turning towards the driver, she +continued, "Reb Rüssan, will you betray me? You come frequently this way." +In reply he merely shrugged his shoulders and moved away. Turning again +with some impatience to the peasant, she said, "Bring me a dish and two +spoons." When he had gone to fetch these articles, the woman once more +accosted my coachman. + +"You must not blame me; they are very poor people!" + +"Certainly they are very poor"--he replied in a milder tone. "During life, +hunger and misery, and after death--hell! and all undeserved!" But the man +stood already, at this utterance, with his basket in the room. The bargain +was soon concluded, and the few copeks paid. Curiosity prompted me to step +forward and examine the merchandise. + +"I have also cigar-cases," said the peasant, humbly raising his hat. But +his face was far more interesting than his wares. You rarely see such +features! However great the misery on earth, this pale, pain-stricken +countenance was unique in its kind, revealing yet traces of sullen +defiance, and the glance of his eyes moved instantly the heart of the +beholder--a weary, almost fixed gaze, and yet full of passionate mourning. + +"You are a Pole!" I observed after a pause. + +"Yes," he replied. + +"And do you live in this neighbourhood?" + +"At the inn eight werst from here. I am the keeper." + +"And besides wood-carver?" + +"We must do the best we can," was his reply. "We have but rarely any +guests at our house." + +"Does your hostelry lie outside the main road?" + +"No, close to the high road, sir. It was at one time the best inn between +the Bug and the Dniester. But now carriers do not like to stay at our +house." + +"And why not?" + +"Because they consider it a sin--especially the Jews." Suddenly, with +seeming uneasiness and haste, he asked, "Will you purchase anything? This +box, perhaps. Upon the lid is engraved a fine country-house." + +Attracted by the delicate execution, I inquired, "And is this your own +workmanship?" + +"Yes," was his reply. + +"You are an artist! And pray where did you learn wood-engraving?" + +"At Kamieniec-Poddski." + +"At the fortress?" + +"Yes, during the insurrection of 1863." + +"Were you among the insurgents?" + +"No, but the authorities feared I might join them--hence I and the other +forced ones were incarcerated in the fortress when the insurrection broke +out, and again set free when it was suppressed." + +"Without any cause?" + +"Without the slightest. I was already at that time a crushed man. When yet +a youth the marrow of my bones had been poisoned in the mines of Siberia. +During the whole time of my settlement, I have been since 1858 keeper of +that inn; I gave the authorities no cause for suspicion, but I was a +'forced man,' and that sufficed for pouncing upon me." + +"Forced! what does it mean?" + +"Well, a person forced to accept, when to others free choice is +left--domicile, trade or calling, wife and religion." + +"Terrible!" I exclaimed. "And you submitted?" A little smile played around +his thin lips. + +"Are you so much moved at my fate? We generally bear very easily the most +severe pains endured by others." + +"That is a saying of Larochefoucauld," I said, somewhat surprised. "Have +you read him?" + +"I was at one time very fond of French literature. But pardon my acrimony. +I am but little accustomed to sympathy, and indeed of what avail would it +be to me now!" He stared painfully at the ground, and I also became +silent, convinced that any superficial expression of sympathy would, under +the circumstances, be downright mockery. + +A painful pause ensued, which I broke with the question, if he had worked +the engraving upon the lid of the box after a pattern. + +"No, from memory," was his rejoinder. + +"It is a peculiar kind of architecture!" + +"It is like all gentlemen's houses in Littauen; only the old tree is very +striking. It was a very old house." + +"Has been? Does it exist no longer?" + +"It was burnt down seven years ago by the Russians, after they had first +ransacked it. They evidently were not aware that they destroyed their own +property. It had been confiscated years before, and had been Crown +property since 1848." + +"And have you yet the outlines of the building so firmly engraved on your +memory?" + +"Of course! it was my birth-place, which I had rarely left until I was +eighteen years old. Such things are not easily forgotten. And although +more than twenty years have passed since this sad affair, hardly a day +passed on which I did not think of my paternal home. I was aware of the +death of my mother, and that my cousin was worse than dead--perhaps I +ought to have rejoiced when the old mansion was burnt to the ground; but +yet I could not suppress a tear when the news reached me. There is hardly +anything on earth which can now move me." I record literally what the +unfortunate man related. My Jewish coachman, not easily impressed, had +during the conversation crept gradually nearer, and shook his head +seriously and sorrowfully. + +"Excuse me, Pani Walerian," he interrupted: "upon my honour, yours is a +sad story!" He launched out into practical politics, and concluded thus: + +"A Pole is not as clever as I am. If he (the Pole) was the equal of the +Russian, well and good, fight it out; but the Russian is a hundred times +stronger; therefore, Pani Walerian, why irritate him, why confront him?" + +I could not help laughing at these remarks; but the poor "forced one" +remained unmoved; and only after some silence, he observed, turning +towards me: + +"I have never even confronted the Russians. I merely received the +punishment of the criminal, without being one, or venturing my all in my +people's cause. I was very young, when I was transported to +Siberia--little more than nineteen years old. My father had died early. I +managed our small property, and a cousin of mine, a pretty girl, sixteen +years old, lived at our house. Indeed, I had no thoughts of politics. It +is true I wore the national costume, perused our poets, especially +Mickiewicz and Slowaski, and had on the wall of my bedroom a portrait of +Kosciuszko. For such kind of high treason even the Russian Government +would not have crushed me in ordinary times--but it was the year 1848. +'Nicolai Pawlowitch' had not sworn in vain that if the whole of Europe was +in flames, no spark should arise in his empire--and by streams of blood +and tears, he achieved his object. Wherever a young Polish noble lived who +was suspected of revolutionary tendencies, repeated domiciliary searches +were made; and if only a single prohibited book was found, the dread fiat +went forth, 'To Siberia with him!' + +"In my own case it came like a thunderbolt. I was already in Siberia, and +could not yet realize my misery. During the whole long journey I was more +or less delirious. I hoped for a speedy liberation, for I was altogether +innocent, and at that time," he continued with a bitter smile, "I yet +believed in God. When all hope became extinct, I began madly to rave, but +finally settled down utterly crushed and callous. It was a fearful +state--for weeks together, all my past life seemed a complete blank, at +most I still remembered my name. This, sir, is literally true: Siberia is +a very peculiar place." + +The poor fellow had sunk down upon a bench, his hands rested powerless in +his lap. I never have seen a face so utterly worn and pain-stricken. After +a while he continued: + +"Ten years had thus passed away; at least, I was told so--I had long +ceased to count the days of my misery. For what purpose should I have done +so? + +"I had sunk so low that I felt no pity even for my terrible condition. One +day I was brought before the Inspector, together with some of my +companions. This official informed us that we had been pardoned on +condition of becoming colonists in New Russia. The mercy of the Czar would +assign to each of us a place of residence, a trade, and a lawful wife, who +would be also a pardoned convict. We must of course, in addition, be +converted to the Orthodox Greek Church. This latter stipulation did but +little concern us. We readily accepted the conditions, for the people are +glad of leaving Siberia, no matter whither, even to meet death itself. And +had we not been pardoned? Alexander Nikolajewitch is a gracious lord. In +Siberia the mines are over-crowded, and in South Russia the steppes are +empty! Oh, he is a philanthropist! decus et delicić generis humani! But +perhaps I wrong him. We entered upon our long journey, and proceeded +slowly south-west. In about eight months we reached Mohilew. Here we were +only kept in easy confinement, and above all, brought under the influence +of the pope. This was a rapid proceeding. One morning we were driven +together into a large room, about one hundred men, and an equal number of +women. Presently the priest entered; a powerful and dirty fellow, who +appeared to have invigorated himself for his holy work with a considerable +dose of gin, for we could smell it at least ten paces off, and he had some +difficulty in keeping upon his legs. + +"'You ragamuffins!' he stammered; 'you vermin of humanity! you are to +become Orthodox Christians; but surely I shall not take much trouble with +you. For, what do you think I get per head? Ten copeks, you vermin! ten +copeks per head. Who will be a missionary at such pay? I certainly do it +to-day for the last time! Indeed, our good father Alexander Nikolajewitch +caused one rouble to be set in the tariff; but that rascal, the director, +pockets ninety copeks, and leaves only ten for me. To-day, however, I have +undertaken your conversion, because I am told there are many of you. Now +listen! you are now Catholics, Protestants, Jews! That is sad mistake; for +every Jew is a blood-sucker, every Protestant a dog, and every Catholic a +pig. Such is their lot in life--but after death? carrion, my good people, +carrion! And will Christ have mercy on them at the last day? Verily no! He +will not dream of such a thing! And until then? Hell-fire! Therefore, good +people, why should you suffer such torments? Be converted! Those who agree +to become Orthodox Christians, keep silent; those who demur, receive the +knout and go back to Siberia. Wherefore, my dear brothers and sisters, I +ask, will you become Orthodox Christians?' + +"We remained silent. + +"'Well,' continued the priest, 'now pay attention! Those who are already +Christians need only to lift up the right hand, and repeat after me the +creed. That will soon be done. But with the damned Jews one has always a +special trouble--the Jews I must first baptise. Jews, step forward!--the +other vermin can remain where they now are.' In this solemn manner the +ceremony was brought to a conclusion. + +"On the day following," M. Walerian continued, "the second act was +performed: the selection of a trade. This act was as spontaneous as our +religious conversion; only, some individual regard became here +indispensable. Three young Government officials were deputed to record our +wishes, and to comply with them as far as the exigencies of the case +admitted. The official before whom I appeared was very juvenile. Though +externally very polished, he was in reality a frightfully coarse and cruel +youth, without a spark of human feeling, so far as we were concerned. We +afforded him no small amount of merriment. This youth inquired carefully +concerning our wishes, and invariably ordered the very opposite. Among us +was a noble lady from Poland, of very ancient lineage, very feeble and +miserable, whose utter helplessness might well inspire the most callous +heart with respect and compassion. The lady was too old to be married to +one of the 'forced ones,' and was therefore asked to state what kind of +occupation she desired. She entreated to be employed in some school for +daughters of military officers, there being a demand for such service; but +the young gentleman ordered her to go as laundress to the barracks at +Mohilew! An aged Jew had been sent to Siberia for having smuggled +prohibited books across the frontiers. He had been the owner of a printing +establishment, and was well acquainted with the business. 'Could he not be +employed in one of the Imperial printing offices; and if possible,' urged +the aged man, 'be permitted to reside in a place where few or no Jews +lived?' He had under compulsion changed his religion; to which he was yet +fervently attached, and trembled at the thought that his former +co-religionists would none the less avoid him as an apostate. The young +official noted down his request, and made him a police agent at Miaskowka, +a small town in the government district of Podolien, almost exclusively +inhabited by Jews. Another, a former schoolmaster, in the last stages of +consumption, begged on his knees to be permitted to die quietly in some +country village. 'That is certainly a modest request!' observed this +worthless youth; and sent him as a waiter to a hospital. Need I tell how I +fared? Being misled, like the rest, by the hypocritical air and seeming +concern of this rascal, I made known to him my desire to obtain the post +of under-steward at some remote Crown estate, where I might have as little +intercourse as possible with my fellow-men. And thus, sir, I became the +keeper of the small inn on a much-frequented highway!" + +The unfortunate man arose suddenly, and paced the room in a state of great +excitement. + +"But now comes the best of all," he exclaimed, with a desperate +effort--"the last act, the choice of a wife." Again an internal struggle +overpowered the unhappy narrator--a sudden and heavy tear rolled down his +care-worn cheek, evidently caused by the remembrance of this abominable +transaction. "It was a terrible ordeal," he said. "Sir, sir," he continued +after a momentary pause, "since the sun has risen in our horizon, he has +shone on many a cruel game which the mighty of the earth have played with +the helpless, but a more abominable farce has hardly ever been enacted +than the one I am now relating--the manner in which we unfortunate people +were coupled together. In my youth I read how Carrier at Nantes murdered +the Royalists; how he caused the first best man to be tied with a rope to +a woman, and carried down the Loire in a boat. In the middle of the river +a trap-door was suddenly opened, and the unfortunate couple disappeared in +the waves. But that monster was an angel compared with the officials of +the Czar; and these republican marriages were a benevolent act in +comparison with those we were forced to conclude. At Nantes, the victims +were tied together for a mutual death; we for our mutual lives!... On a +subsequent morning we were once more ushered into the room where our +conversion had taken place. There were present about thirty men and an +equal number of women. Together with the latter entered the official who +had so considerately ordered our lot as regards a livelihood. + +"'Ladies and gentlemen,' he commenced with a nasal twang, 'his Majesty has +graciously pardoned you, and desires to see you all happy. Now, the lonely +man is seldom a happy man; and hence you are to marry. Every gentleman is +free to select a partner, provided of course the lady accepts the choice. +And in order that none of you gentlemen may be placed in the invidious +position of having to select a partner unworthy of him, supreme +benevolence has ordered that an adequate number of ladies, partly from +penal settlements and partly from houses of correction, should be now +offered you. As his Majesty's solicitude for your welfare has already +assigned you an occupation, you may now follow unhesitatingly the +promptings of your own hearts in the choice of a wife. Ladies and +gentlemen, yours is the happy privilege to realise the dream of a purely +socialistic marriage. Make, then, your selection without delay; and as +"all genuine love is instantaneous, sudden as a lightning flash, and soft +as the breezes of spring"--to use the words of our poet Lermontoff--I +consider one hour sufficient. Bear also in mind that marriages are +ratified in heaven, and trust implicitly to your own heart. I offer you +beforehand, ladies and gentlemen, my congratulations.' + +"After this address, the young rascal placed his watch in front of him on +the table, sat down, and grinned maliciously at our helpless condition. +The full measure of scorn implied in this speech but few of us entirely +realised, for we were in truth a curious assembly. The most extravagant +imagination could hardly picture more glaring contrasts! Side by side with +the bestial Bessarabian herdsman, who in a fit of intoxication had slain +the whole of his family, stood the highly cultivated professor from Wilna, +whom the love of his country and of freedom had consigned to the mines of +Siberia; the most desperate thief and shoplifter from Moscow, and the +Polish nobleman who at the height of his misfortunes still regarded his +honour as the most precious treasure, the ex-professor from Charkow, and +the Cossac-robber from the Don; the forger from Odessa, &c. On my own +right hand stood a thief and deserter from Lipkany, and on the left a +Baschkire, who had been pardoned at the foot of the gallows, though he had +once assisted in roasting alive a Jewish family in a village inn. A madly +assorted medley of human beings! And the women! The dissolute female +gladly released from the house of correction, because she still more +depraved her already degraded companions, associated with the unfortunate +Polish lady, whose pure mind had never been poisoned by a vulgar word, and +whose quiet happiness had not been disturbed by any prospect of +misfortune, until a single letter, or act of charity to an exiled +countryman, brought her into misery. Pressing against the young girl whose +sole offence consisted in being the unfortunate offspring of a mother sent +to Siberia, might be seen the infamous hag who had habitually decoyed +young girls to ruin, in whose soul every spark of womanhood had long been +extinguished. And these people were called upon to marry; and one hour was +granted them in which to become acquainted and assorted! Sir, you will now +perhaps comprehend my emotion in relating this shocking business! + +"I consider it the most shocking and at the same time the most curious +outrage which has ever been committed." The "forced" man paused, a deadly +pallor suffused his countenance, and his agitation was great. The young +hostess appeared perfectly stunned, whilst Reb Rüssan, the coachman, bent +his head in evident compassion. + +After a while M. Walerian continued in a calmer mood. "It must certainly +have been an entertaining spectacle to notice the behaviour of this +ill-assorted people at that trying hour. Even the barefaced monster on his +raised daďs betrayed a feverish excitement: he would suddenly jump from +his chair, and again recline, playing the while nervously with his +fingers. I am hardly able to describe the details, being not altogether +unbiassed at this dreadful hour. + +"I only know we stood at first in two distinct groups, and for the first +few moments after the official announcement, not a glance was exchanged +between the two sexes, much less a word spoken. A deep silence reigned in +the room, a death-like stillness, varied only by an occasional deep sigh, +or a nervous movement. The minutes passed, certainly not many, but they +seemed to me an eternity! + +"Suddenly a loud hoarse voice exclaimed, 'Up, my lads! here are some very +pretty mates!' We all recognised the notorious thief from Moscow, a +haggard withered fellow, with the ugliest face I ever beheld. He crossed +over to the women and examined in his way which would be the most +desirable partner. Here he received an indignant push, and there an +impudent alluring glance. Others, again--the better part--recoiled from +the approach of the brute. He was followed by the Baschkire, who like a +clumsy beast of prey drew nigh, muttering incoherently, 'I will have a fat +woman, the fattest among them.' From his approach even the ugliest and +most impudent instinctively recoiled--this wooer was really too hideous, +at best only suited to a monkey. The third in order who came forward was +the Don-Cossac, a pretty slender youth. An impudent lass jauntily met him +and fell on his neck; but he pushed her aside, and walked towards the girl +who had murdered her child. The discarded female muttered some insulting +words, and hung the next moment on my own neck. I shook her off, and she +repeated the attempt with my neighbour, and again unsuccessfully. + +"Her example became contagious: presently the more shameless of the women +made an onslaught on the men. Ten minutes later the scene had changed. In +the centre of the room stood a number of men and women engaged in eager +negotiation--shouting and scolding. The parties who had already agreed +retired to the window-niches, and here and there a man pulled an +unfortunate woman, making desperate efforts to escape from him. The +females who yet retained a spark of womanhood crept into a corner of the +room; and in another recess were three of us--the ex-professor, Count S., +and myself. We had instinctively come together, watching with painful +emotion this frantic spectacle, not inclined to participate in it. To me +at least the thought of selecting a wife here never occurred. + + * * * * * + +"'Another half an hour at your disposal, ladies and gentlemen,' exclaimed +our official tormentor; 'twenty minutes--yet fifteen minutes!' + +"I stood as if rooted to the ground, my knees trembled, my agitation +increased, but I remained motionless. Indeed, as often as I heard the +unpleasant voice of the official, the blood rushed to my head, but I +advanced not one step. My excitement increased--profound disgust, bitter +despair--the wildest indignation which perhaps ever pierced a poor human +heart. 'No,' I said; 'I must assert the dignity of my manhood!' I was +determined not to make the selection of a wife under the eyes of this man. +Another impulse I could hardly suppress--viz. to throw myself upon this +imperial delegate and strangle him. And if I finally abstained from an act +of violence, it was because I yet loved life, and wished not to end it on +the gallows. Sir," continued M. Walerian, "the source of great misery on +earth is this overpowering instinct of self-preservation; without it, I +should be freed this day from all my misery. Thus I stood, so to speak, at +bay in my corner, using all my efforts to subdue the evil spirit within +me. My looks most probably betrayed me--for when my eyes met those of the +official, I noticed an involuntary shudder. A moment afterwards he +regarded me with a sly and malignant glance. I turned aside and closed my +eyes on this harassing scene. + +"'Yet five minutes, ladies and gentlemen! Those as yet undecided must +speed themselves, and unburden their heart, or I shall be compelled by +virtue of my office to tie them together. And although I shall do so +conscientiously, and to the best of my knowledge, there is this risk--that +you engage in a marriage of mere convenience, instead of one of free +choice and inclination.' + +"Though my agitation reached its climax, I made no move. I considered +myself an accomplice in this disgraceful outrage, if I within the allotted +five minutes declared my heart and made a choice. But another thought +flashed across my mind: 'I may still be able to prevent the worst. Who +knows with whom that rascal may couple me if I remain altogether passive? +Choose for yourself!'--I made a step forward--a mist seemed before my +eyes--my heart beat wildly--I staggered, I sought figures in order to +distinguish and recognise myself. + +"Sir," exclaimed the narrator with a sudden yell, "what scenes did I see +there? I am no coward, but I--I dare not venture to speak of it. Thus I +moved forward; hardly two minutes passed, but days would not suffice to +relate what passed during these terrible moments through my heart and +brain. I noticed in a corner a fainting woman, a young and delicate +creature. I learnt afterwards that she was an orphan child, born of a +dissolute woman in a penal settlement. A coarse fellow with cunning eyes +bent over her, endeavouring to raise her from the ground. I suddenly +pounced upon the fellow, struck him a heavy blow, and carried the +unconscious woman away as if a mere child. I determined to defend her to +the last. But no rescue was attempted, though the forger shook his fists +at me, but had seemingly not the courage to approach nearer. Gazing about +him, another female embraced him, a repulsive woman. He looked at her +somewhat abashed, but soon submitted to her caresses. + +"'Ladies and gentlemen! the allotted hour has passed,' said the official. +'I must beg the parties to come forward and make known to me their choice. +This may be repugnant to some of you, but my duties prescribe it. I +especially request the gentlemen in yonder corner to advance'--pointing to +myself and the forger. I clenched my fists involuntarily, but stepped +forward with the fainting woman. 'Cossacks, keep your "Kantschu" in +readiness,' said the official to the guard which surrounded him. Turning +first to me, he said: "And are you, sir, resolved to carry the woman you +now hold in your arms, not only in this room, but through life?' I nodded +assent. 'And what have you to say, damsel?' The poor creature was as yet +unconscious. 'She is in a swoon,' I replied. 'In that case I am sorry,' +continued the official, 'to have to refuse in his Majesty's name my +consent to your union. In the interests of humanity, I require an audible +yes from all parties. I have watched attentively the whole proceedings,' +continued the official--'not from mere curiosity, but partly as a duty, +and partly out of pure sympathy--and I can assure you, sir, without +disparagement to your claims, that the choice of the young lady you now +hold in your arms fell not upon you, but upon the gentleman yonder,' +pointing to the forger. 'It was probably the excess of happiness at this +selection which caused her fainting. For you there is waiting an adequate +recompense--that ripe, desirable beauty who now only reluctantly holds the +arm of your rival. Therefore, changez, Messieurs!' 'Scoundrel!' I +exclaimed, and advanced to seize him. But ere I could lay hold of him, a +fearful blow on my head stretched me stunned and bleeding to the ground. +When I had somewhat recovered, our marriage procession was in progress of +formation. The woman whom the official had assigned to me knelt at my +side, bathing my head, endeavouring to revive me. 'I like you,' she +observed, 'and will treat you well.' She raised me to my feet, placed her +arm in mine, and pushed me in the ranks of the procession, which moved +slowly towards the church. On our road a heavy hand seized me suddenly by +the collar. 'Brother,' grunted a coarse voice in my ear, 'your stout woman +takes my fancy. Will you change with me? Mine is certainly less corpulent, +but younger in years.' + +"It was the man behind me--the Baschkire. The female whom he dragged along +was a lean, ugly, dark-complexioned woman, swooning or near a swoon. An +expression of unutterable despair overspread her features, rendering them, +if possible, yet more ugly. 'A woman who can suffer so intensely as this +one unquestionably does, cannot be without a heart--is not altogether +depraved, no matter what cause brought her here.' These reflections +determined me. 'She is preferable to the woman at my side. Done!' I +whispered to the Baschkire. Just crossing the threshold of the church, a +momentary pause ensued, during which we effected the exchange; not without +a murmur, however, on the part of my intended wife. But the Baschkire kept +her quiet; and a closer inspection of her new partner seemed to satisfy +her. The poor woman I led forward seemed hardly aware of the exchange, she +was so entirely absorbed in her grief. We were married. The official only +afterwards became aware of what had happened, but could not now undo it. +But I had to suffer for it--terrible was the punishment." + +Not another word was uttered by the unfortunate man. Quite overcome by the +recital of his cruel fate, he suddenly arose and left the house. + +On account of the approach of the Jewish Sabbath, my coachman urged on our +journey. Half an hour later, we passed the lonely and desolate hostelry of +poor M. Walerian, the exile of Siberia, who owed so much to imperial +clemency.--F. A. S., _in Belgravia_. + + + + +CHRISTMAS IN MOROCCO. + + +"To-morrow Christmas for Moros!" said the gentle Hamed, our Moorish +servant, entering the room soon after the bang of the last sunset gun of +Ramadan had shaken our windows, and the thick smoke of the coarse Moorish +powder had floated away, temporarily obscuring the gorgeous hues bestowed +by the retiring luminary on the restless waters of the South Atlantic. + +"To-morrow Christmas for Moros! In the morning Hamed clean house, go for +_soko_; then all day no _trabally_; have new _haik_, new slippers, walk +about all same _tejjer_." + +By which little speech our faithful attendant meant to convey that +to-morrow's rejoicing at the termination of the long and irksome fast of +Ramadan was equivalent to the "Ingleez's" Christmas, and that, after +putting the house in order and bringing the provisions from the _soko_, or +market, he would do no more _trabally_, or work--the word being a +corruption of the Spanish _trabajo_--but would don the new _haik_ and +bright yellow slippers for which he had long been saving up, and to the +purchase of which certain little presents from the children of our +household had materially contributed; and would be entitled, by +prescriptive holiday right, to "take his walks abroad" with the _dolce far +niente_ dignity of a _tejjer_, or merchant. + +I think we members of the little English community of Mogador--or, as the +Moors fondly call this pleasantest town of the Morocco seaboard, "El +Souerah," or The Beautiful--had almost as good reason as the Moslem +population to rejoice at the termination of the great fast. The Moors not +being allowed, during the holy month, to eat, drink, or smoke betwixt the +rising and the setting of the sun--the more sternly orthodox even closing +their nostrils against any pleasant odour that might casually perfume the +air in their vicinity, and their ears against even the faintest sound of +music--debarring themselves, in fact, from whatever could give the +slightest pleasure to any of the senses, a considerable amount of gloom +and listlessness was the inevitable result. + +The servants in the various households, not over active and intelligent at +the best of times, became, as the weary days of prayer and fasting wore +on, appallingly idiotic, sleepy, and sullen, would do but little work, and +that little never promptly nor well. Meals could not be relied on within +an hour or two, rooms were left long untidy, essential little errands and +messages unperformed, and a general gloomy confusion prevailed. + +Did I, tempted by the smoothness of the sea, desire a little fishing +cruise, and send a youthful Moor to the neighbouring rocks to get me a +basket of mussels for bait, he would probably, directly he got outside the +town-gates, deposit the basket and himself in the shade of the first wall +he came to, and slumber sweetly till the tide had risen and covered all +the rocky ledges where it was possible to collect bait. Had I told the +youngster over night that he must come out to sea with me in the morning, +and take care that my boat was put outside the dock, so that she would be +afloat at a certain hour, I would find, on going down at daybreak with +rods and tackle, that the boat was high and dry upon the mud, and it would +take the united efforts of half a dozen Moors and myself to get her afloat +at the end of nearly an hour's frantic struggling and pushing through mud +and water, necessitating on my part the expenditure of a great amount of +perspiration, not a little invective, and sundry silver coins. + +And when we were fairly afloat my Mahometan youth would be so weak from +fasting that his oar would be almost useless; and when we did, after an +hour or so of the most ignominious zigzaging, reach our anchorage on one +of the fishing-grounds, then would he speedily become sea-sick, and +instead of helping me by preparing bait and landing fish, he would lean +despairingly over the side in abject misery, and implore me to go home +promptly--a piteous illustration of the anguish caused by an empty stomach +contracting on itself. + +Nor were these the only discomforts under which we groaned and grumbled. + +From the evening when the eager lookers-out from minarets of mosques and +towers of the fortifications first descried the new moon which ushered in +the holy month of fasting, every sunset, as it flushed the far-off waves +with purple and crimson and gold, and turned the fleecy cloudlets in the +western sky to brightest jewels, and suffused the white houses and towers +of Mogador with sweetest glow of pink, and gilded the green-tiled top of +each tall minaret, had been accompanied by the roar of a cannon from the +battery just below our windows. + +"What the deuce is that?" asked a friend of mine, lately arrived from +England, as we strolled homewards one evening through the dusty streets, +and the boom of the big gun suddenly fell upon his astonished ear. + +"Only sunset," I replied. + +"Queer place this," said J. "Does the sun always set with a bang?" + +"Always during Ramadan." + +"Does it rise with a bang too? I hate to be roused up early in the +morning!" + +"No, there is no gun at sunrise; but there is a very loud one at about +three in the morning, or sometimes half-past, or four, or later." + +"Shocking nuisance!" remarked J. "My bedroom window's just over that +abominable battery." + +The early morning gun was a great trial, certainly. I would not have +minded being _reveille en sursaut_, as a Frenchman would say, and then +turning comfortably over on the other side, and going to sleep again. + +But somehow or other I always found myself awake half an hour or an hour +before the time, and then I _could not_ get to sleep again, but lay +tossing about and fidgettily listening for the well-known din. At length I +would hear a sound like the hum of an enormous fiendish nightmarish +mosquito, caused by a hideous long tin trumpet, the shrill whistle of a +fife or two, and the occasional tom-tomming of a Moorish drum. "Ha, the +soldiers coming along the ramparts; they will soon fire now." + +But the sound of the discordant instruments with which the soldiery +solaced themselves in the night for their enforced abstinence from such +"sweet sounds" in the day would continue for a long time before the red +flash through my wide-open door would momentarily illumine my little +chamber on the white flat roof, and then the horrid bang would rend the +air, followed by a dense cloud of foul-smelling smoke; and then would my +big dog Cćsar for several minutes rush frantically to and fro upon the +roof in hot indignation, and utter deep-mouthed barks of defiance at the +white figures of the "Maghaseni," as they flitted ghost-like along the +ramparts below, and snort and pant and chafe and refuse to be pacified for +a long time. + +At the firing of the sunset gun the Moors were allowed to take a slight +refection, which generally consisted of a kind of gruel. I have seen a +Moorish soldier squatting in the street with a brass porringer in his lap, +eagerly awaiting the boom of the cannon to dip his well-washed fingers in +the mess. + +At about 9 P.M. another slight meal was allowed to the true believers, and +they might eat again at morning gun-fire, after which their mouths were +closed against all "fixings, solid and liquid," even against the smallest +draught of water or the lightest puff at the darling little pipe of +dream-inducing _kief_. + +On the twenty-seventh day of Ramadan we were informed that twenty-seven +guns would be fired that night, and that we had better leave all our +windows open, or they would certainly be broken by the violence of the +discharge. This was pleasant; still more delightful was the glorious +uncertainty which prevailed in the minds of our informants as to the time +at which we might expect the infliction. + +Some said that the twenty-seven guns would be fired before midnight; +Hamed opined that the cannonade would not take place till 3 or 4 A.M. Many +of the guns on the battery in close proximity to our abode were in a +fearfully rusty and honeycombed condition, so that apprehensions as to +some of them bursting were not unnatural, and I thought it extremely +probable that a few stray fragments might "drop in" on me. + +That night I burned the "midnight oil," and lay reading till nearly two, +when sweet sleep took possession of me, from which I was awakened about +four in the morning by a terrific bang that fairly shook the house. + +A minute more, and there came a red flash and another bang, presently +another. Thought I, "I will go out and see the show;" so I went on to the +flat white roof in my airy nocturnal costume, and leaning over the parapet +looked down on to the platform of the battery below. A group of dim white +figures, a flickering lantern, a glowing match, a touch at the breech of a +rusty old gun, a swift skurry of the white figures round a corner, a +squib-like fountain of sparks from the touch-hole, a red flash from the +mouth, momentarily illumining the dark violet sea, a bang, and a cloud of +smoke. + +Then the white figures and the lantern appeared again; another squib, +another flash, another bang, Cćsar galloping up and down over the roof, +snorting his indignation, but not barking, probably because he felt +"unable to do justice to the subject;" and at length, after the eleventh +gun had belched forth crimson flames and foul smoke, all was peace, save a +distant discord of tin trumpets, _gouals_ and _gimbris_, and I returned to +my mosquito-haunted couch with a sigh of relief. + +Pass we now to the eve of "Christmas for Moros," and let ethnologist and +hagiologist derive some satisfaction from the evidences I collected in +this far-away Moorish town that the gladness of the Mahometan festival +does, similarly to the purer joy of the Christian, though in a less degree +perhaps, incline towards "peace and good-will to men," charity and +kindliness. + +As we sat chatting that evening round the tea-table, to us entered Hamed, +bearing, with honest pride illumining his brown features, a great tray of +richly engraved brass, heaped up with curious but tempting-looking cakes. + +Gracefully presenting them to "the senora," he intimated that this was his +humble offering or Christmas token of good-will towards the family, and +that his mother (whom the good fellow maintains out of his modest wages) +had made them with her own hands. + +The cakes were made of long thin strips of the finest paste, plentifully +sweetened with delicious honey, twisted into quaint shapes, and fried in +the purest of oil. I need hardly say that the children were delighted, and +immediately commenced to court indigestion by a vigorous onslaught on the +new and tempting sweets. Nay, why should I blush to confess that I myself +have a very sweet tooth in my head, and such a liking for all things +saccharine that my friends say jokingly that I must be getting into my +second childhood?--an imputation which, as I am only a little on the +wrong side of thirty, I can bear with equanimity. However, I firmly +decline to inform an inquisitive public how many of those delightful +Moorish cakes I ate: truth to tell, I do not remember; but I enjoyed them +heartily, nor found my digestion impaired thereby. + +We had a little chat with Hamed--whose face was lighted up with the +broadest of grins as we praised his mother's pastry and showed our +appreciation of it in the most satisfactory manner--on certain matters of +the Mahometan religion and the position of women in the future life. Some +of the sterner Muslims believe that women have no souls; others opine that +while good men go to "_Eljannah_," or heaven, and bad ones to +"_Eljehannam_," or hell, women and mediocre characters are deported to a +vague kind of limbo which they designate as "_Bab Maroksh_," or the +Morocco Gate. + +But the gentle, liberal, and gallant Hamed informed us, in reply to an +individual query with regard to our Moorish housemaid, that "if Lanniya +plenty good, no _tiefem_ (steal), no drinkum _sharab_ (wine), and go for +_scula_ ("school," or religious instruction in the mosque, or in a +schoolhouse adjoining it), by and by she go for "_Eljannah_." + +I am hardly correct, by the way, in speaking of Lanniya as "house-_maid_," +for Moorish maidens and wives never go in the service of European +families, being prohibited by their religion from showing their faces; it +is only widows and divorced women who may go about unveiled, and mingle +with Christians. + +The next morning, soon after the last gun of Ramadan had sounded its +joyous boom in my ear, I was up and stirring, donning my shooting apparel +and preparing for an early country walk with my faithful four-footed +comrade. I had no fear of exciting the fanaticism of the Muslim population +by going out shooting on their holy day, for there is not much bigotry in +Mogador,--Moors, Christians, and Jews observing their several religions +peacefully side by side, so that three Sundays come in every week, the +Mahometan on Friday, the Jewish on Saturday, and then ours. + +The sun, just rising from behind the eastern sand-hills, was gilding all +the house-tops and minarets, till our white town looked like a rich +assemblage of fairy palaces of gold and ivory; the smiling sea, serene and +azure, came rippling peacefully up to the base of the rugged brown rocks, +enlivened to-day by no statuesque figures of Moorish fishermen; nor did a +single boat dot the broad blue expanse of the unusually smooth South +Atlantic, of which the fish and the sea-fowl were for once left in +undisturbed possession. + +As I gazed from the flat roof away over the great town, I heard from many +quarters loud sounds of music and merriment. As I passed presently through +the narrow streets, with their dead white walls and cool dark arches, +scarcely a camel was to be seen at the accustomed corners by the stores of +the merchants, where usually whole fleets of the "ships of the desert" lay +moored, unloading almonds, and rich gums, and hides, and all the varied +produce of the distant interior. + +Outside the town-gates the very hordes of semi-wild scavenger dogs seemed +to know that the day was one of peace, for they lay in the sunshine, nor +barked and snapped at the infidel intruder as he walked over the golden +sands, along the edge of the marshy pool, past the pleasant-looking +Moorish cemetery with its graceful verdant palm-trees, a calm oasis in the +sandy plain, and out across the shallow lagoon formed by overflows of high +tides, by which a few late trains of homeward-bound camels went softly +stepping, looking wonderfully picturesque as they marched through shallow +waters so beautifully gilded by the morning sun, their drivers doubtless +eager to reach their own home or the shelter of some friendly village to +participate in the modest revelries of the joyous season. How I wandered +along the shore of the "many-sounding sea," enjoying a little rough sport, +and the blithe companionship of the big doggie; how I saw never a Moor +upon the rocks, but many Jews with long bamboo rods, busily engaged in +fishing for bream and bass and rock-fish, it boots not to describe with a +minuteness which might be wearisome to my readers, for I am not now +writing "of sport, for sportsmen." + +So let us turn homewards, as the sun is getting high in the heavens, and +note the scenes by the way. + +Yonder, near the marshy corner of the plain, haunted by wild-fowl, and +carrion crows, and mongrel jackal-like dogs, is the rough cemetery of the +despised "Jehoud," the Israelites who form so large and so wealthy a +portion of the population of Mogador. Among the long flat stones that mark +the graves of the exiled sons and daughters of Israel there is a winding +crowd of white-draped figures, a funeral procession. Unwilling to intrude +upon their grief, I pass on, casting an involuntary glance at the +picturesque garb and wild gesticulations of the mourners as the women's +loud and bitter cry of "Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai!" sounds weirdly through the air, +just as it may have done in the old scriptural times, when "the mourners +went about the streets" and gave unchecked vent to their grief in public, +even as they do to this day. + +But as I neared Morocco Gate, from the neighbouring "Running Ground" came +very different sounds--a din of many drums, a squeaking of merry fifes, +the firing of many long Moorish guns, the shouting of men and boys, and +the eerie shrill _taghariet_ of the Moorish women. + +And as I passed in front of the round battery, out from the great gate of +the New Kasbah came the crowd of men, women, and children who had been +clamouring joyfully in the Running-Ground, a bright throng of brown faces +and white raiment, interspersed with the gay colours worn by the little +children, and dotted here and there by the blood-red of the national flag. +Suddenly from a cannon just behind me came a cloud of smoke enveloping me +and the dog, and a bang which fairly shook us, and then another and +another. The firing of the guns from this battery was the spectacle the +Moorish populace had come out to see. + +It was an uncomfortable sensation to have big guns going off just behind +one; they were only loaded with blank cartridge, of course, but we were +quite near enough to be knocked down by a stray piece of wadding, and +something did once whistle past my ear suggestively. + +But it would never do for an "Ingleez" to run away in the presence of a +lot of Moors; so I walked calmly across the sands while the whole battery +of guns--twelve, I think--were fired, Cćsar meanwhile prancing about +majestically, and loudly giving vent to his indignation at a proceeding +which he evidently considered, as he always does the firing of any gun or +pistol by any one but me, an express insult to his master, and an +infringement of his peculiar privileges. + +I went home by way of the Water-Port, where there was no movement of +lighters or fishing-craft, no stir of bare-legged porters and fishermen, +no bustle of Jewish and European merchants; nearly all the boats were +drawn up on the shore, and those which remained afloat, slumbered +tenantless on the broad blue bosom of the sea. On rocks, and in the +pleasant shade of walls and arches, a few figures, in bright and gauzy +_haiks_ and gorgeous new slippers, lounged and dozed, perchance tired with +the revelries they had gone through since daybreak, and recruiting their +energies for fresh rejoicings towards evening. Reaching home about eleven, +I rested a while, deposited my birds in the larder, and then proceeded to +stroll about the streets and see how the populace comported themselves on +this festive occasion. I was sorry to learn that some of the younger and +more fanatical of the Moors had been relieving their feelings by abusing +the Jews, some of whom had had stones thrown at them, and their heads +slightly broken. But this temporary riot was over, and now all was "peace +and good-will," except that perhaps there may have lurked a little not +unnatural ill-feeling in the minds of the broken-headed Israelites, who +could not help feeling rather disgusted at the manner in which the Muslim +youths had celebrated "Christmas for Moros." + +As I passed along the narrow lane wherein the soldiers of the Kaid or +Governor, in the snowiest of _haiks_ and tallest and reddest of +_tarbooshes_, squatted against the wall, chatting blithely as they awaited +the advent of their master, a grave and venerable-looking Moorish +grandpapa, hurrying along with a great armful of cakes in one of the folds +of his _haik_, stumbled against a loose stone and dropped several of the +cakes. + +I hastily stooped and picked them up; the old man muttered a few words of +blessing upon me, insisted on my accepting the dainties I had rescued from +the dust, utterly refused to receive them back, pressed my hand, and +hurried on, leaving me in a state of embarrassment, from which I was +opportunely relieved by the arrival of a bright-eyed little Moor of seven +or eight summers, who was perfectly willing to relieve me from all trouble +connected with the handful of cakes. Passing into the busy streets of the +Moorish quarter, I found the population coming out of the various mosques, +where they had been to morning service, and now going in for a systematic +course of "greetings in the market-place," and purchasing of presents. O, +for an artist's pencil and colours to depict the gorgeous costumes of the +town Moors, the quaint, wild garb of their country cousins; the gauzy +cream-tinted _haiks_ from Morocco; the rich silken _caftans_ of purple, or +crimson, or yellow, or green, or azure, or pink, sweetly half-veiled by a +fold or two of snowy gauze thrown over them; the bright red fez caps, and +voluminous snowy turbans of the patriarchal-looking old men; the broad +silken sashes from Fez, heavy and stiff with rich embroidery of gold; the +great curved daggers in their richly chased silver or brass sheaths, +suspended amid the folds of the _haik_ by thick woolen cords of gay +colours; the handsome brown faces, the flashing black eyes, the wonderful +white teeth, the sinewy brown bare legs, the brand-new yellow slippers of +the merry Moors of Mogador! + +And the negroes, or, as old Fuller would quaintly have called them, "the +images of God cut in ebony," how their honest black features glistened, +and how their bright teeth grinned beneath turban or fez, or gaudy +handkerchief of many colours! + +The negro servant of one of the European residents, a good-humoured giant +of nearly seven feet, whom his master is wont to describe as "his nigger +and a half," came stalking down amongst the little shops and stalls with a +flaunting bandanna round his head, a purple jacket, a most gorgeous sash, +a pair of green baggy breeches, a glittering silver-sheathed dagger, and a +most imposing _haik_, thrown in toga-like folds over all. + +Negro women, unveiled, white-clad, adorned as to their shiny black arms +with rude heavy bracelets of silver or brass, sat at street-corners with +baskets of sweet cakes and little loaves for sale. Veiled Moorish women, +perchance showing just one bright black eye to tantalise the beholder, +glided along like substantial ghosts in the white raiment which enveloped +them from their heads down to the little feet shod with red or yellow +slippers embroidered with gold thread or bright-coloured silks. Women +leading tiny toddlers of children, little bright-eyed boys with crowns +shaven all but one queer little tufted ridge in the middle, deftly curled +this morning by mamma's loving fingers; foreheads adorned with quaint +frontlets, from which hung curious ornaments of gold and coral and silver, +spells against the evil eye, talismans, and what not. + +Little boys in beautiful cloth or silken cloaks of pale blue, or delicate +purple, or crimson, or rich green, or golden yellow, trotting along as +proud as peacocks, holding by the hand some tiny brother who can barely +toddle. Children who have just had new slippers purchased for them, and +are carrying them home in triumph; children who, with funny little copper +coins in their hand, are congregating round the stall of the swarthy +seller of sweetstuffs, who is ejaculating loudly, "_Heloua_, _Heloua_!" +busily brandishing a feathery branch of green _artim_ the while, to keep +the vagrom flies off his stores of rich dainties composed of walnut and +almond toffee, pastes made of almonds and honey and sugar, little brown +sugar balls thickly strewn with cummin-seeds, long sticks of peppermint, +and other delicacies difficult to describe. + +As to the grown-up Moors, never was seen such a hand-shaking as is going +on amongst them. Everybody is shaking hands with everybody else, each +wishing the other the Arabic substitute for "A merry Christmas," and after +each handshaking each of the participants puts his hand to his lips and +proceeds, to be stopped two yards farther on for a repetition of the +performance. + +On we go through the meat-market, and note pityingly the leanness of the +Moors' Christmas beef, which has just been butchered, and of which an +eager good-humored crowd are buying small pieces amid much vociferation, +chaff, and "compliments of the season" generally. + +Then we come to the green-grocers' shops, where we see huge radishes, +great pomegranates, sweet potatoes, and bunches of fragrant mint for the +flavouring of the Moors' passionately loved beverage, green tea; then to +the grocers' quarter, where, asking a grave and portly Moor for a +pennyworth _fakea_ (dried fruit), he puts into half a gourd-shell a +pleasant collection of dates, almonds, figs, and raisins, hands them to us +with benign politeness. Opposite his store is a low table covered with +queer bottles of all shapes and sizes, filled with a dubious-looking pink +fluid, resembling the most delicious hair oil, but apparently highly +appreciated by the Moorish and Jewish youth who crowd around. + +In the centre is a burly brandy-bottle, bearing the well-known label of +"J. and F. Martell," now filled with a fluid presumably more innocuous +than the choicest cognac; the big bottle is flanked by rows of little +medicine-vials and long thin bottles such as are used for attar of roses +and other Eastern scents; for the vendor of this bright-coloured liquor +does not possess cups or tumblers, but dispenses it in the little bottles. +A bare-headed youth, with shaven crown, tenders a _mozouna_, receives a +two-ounce vial, empties it solemnly amid the envious looks of his +comrades, sets it down, and walks gravely away. + +Away we go too, Cćsar and I, and I note that there is hardly a Jew to be +seen in the streets; they are afraid of stone-throwing, and outbursts of +the slumbering hatred and contempt with which they are regarded by the +orthodox Muslim. + +As for Christians, Englishmen especially, they are much more tolerated and +respected; and I know that I may walk the town all day without fear of +molestation, and get plenty of kindly greetings and many a smile and shake +of the hand. + +Out of the busy market, up the narrow and shady streets, hearing sounds of +the fearsome trumpet, which I have already compared to an exaggerated +mosquito, meeting that instrument presently at a corner--a horrid tin +thing about two yards long, wielded by a sinewy little man in a blue +tunic, accompanying a gaily-dressed boy on a sleek and patient donkey. +Fifing and drumming and firing of guns going on all around. + +Fierce-looking Moors and Arabs from the country leaning on their long +silver-mounted guns, scowling at the "Kaffer," whom they have perchance +not seen until they came to El Souërah. A veiled, but evidently portly, +dame, leading by the hand a pretty little girl, in a red skirt below a +rich garment of lace or embroidery, with a crimson hooded cloak or +_djelab_ over it, rich ornaments on her smooth brown forehead, enormous +silver anklets, little bare feet, dyed, like her hands and those of most +of the little girls and many of the big ones, a bright red with henna. +Little girl shrinks behind her mother, afraid of the Giaour or of his big +dog; the Giaour slips by with a smile, doggie with a friendly wag of his +tail, and we go homeward for a while; Cćsar to make a hearty meal of the +biscuits which have come all the way from England for him; his master to +partake of lunch, then smoke a pipe on the roof, and look wistfully out +over the bright blue sky, and let his thoughts wander far, far away to +many a pleasant Christmas in a pleasant corner of the fair Western land: + + "Where is now the merry party + I remember long ago, + Laughing round the Christmas fireside, + Brightened by its ruddy glow?" + +But the Moor's Christmas has come early in October; there is time yet, and +plenty of English steamers going backwards and forwards; who knows whether +the wanderer may not yet spend the next Christmas by a genial English +fireside, and recount to prattling children on his knee (others' children, +alas!) the curious sights, sounds, and scenes of "Christmas for Moros?" +But I have not quite done with you yet, kindly reader. I must just briefly +tell you how I went out again in the afternoon with Cćsar and a two-legged +friend, and found more shopping going on and more handshaking, and found +the more festive spirits getting hilarious over green tea and coffee and +_kief_; how we strolled down to the Water-Port and sat on the quay, +surrounded by merry young Moors in their "Sunday best;" how my friend +essayed to sketch one or two of them, and they did not like it, but +thought some evil spell would be put upon them thereby; how they asked us +many questions about England, and particularly wanted to know how many +dollars we possessed; how my companion won the hearts of some of the +younger members of the party by teaching them how to whistle between their +thumbs, and how to make a certain very loud and direfully discordant +screech; and how J. and I finished the afternoon by partaking of a +delightful bottle of English ale in the courtyard of a cool store, leaning +our chairs against massive stone pillars, and smoking the pipe of peace. + +But I fear the stern Editor will not grant me any more space, and I must +leave at present the recital of all that I saw on the ensuing day, which +the gentle Hamed, if he were a _little_ more closely acquainted with our +institutions, would call "Boxing-day for Moros." + + C. A. P. ("SARCELLE"), _in London Society_, + MOGADOR. + + + + +THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE ITALIAN POETS. + + +GUARINI. + +Pastoral poetry had in Italy a tendency to a rapid degeneration from the +first. "Decipit exemplum vitiis imitabile." The earliest "pastorals" were +far from being without merit, and merit of a high order. But they were +eminently "vitiis imitabiles." Two specimens of Italian Arcadian poetry +stand out, from the incredibly huge mass of such productions still extant, +superior to all the innumerable imitations to which they gave rise in a +more marked degree even than "originals" usually surpass imitations in +value. These are the "Aminta" of Tasso, and the "Pastor Fido" of the poet +with whom it is the object of these pages to make the English nineteenth +century reader, who never will find the time to read him, in some degree +acquainted--Batista Guarini. It would be difficult to say which of these +two celebrated pastoral dramas was received with the greater amount of +delight and enthusiasm by the world of their contemporaries, or even which +of them is the better performance. The almost simultaneous production of +these two masterpieces in their kind is a striking instance of the, one +may almost say, epidemic nature of the influences which rule the +production of the human intellect; influences which certainly did not +cease to operate for many generations after that of the authors of the +"Aminta" and the "Pastor Fido," although the servile imitation of those +greatly admired works unquestionably went for much in causing the +overwhelming flood of pastorals which deluged Italy immediately subsequent +to their enormous success. + +I have said that it would be difficult to assign a preëminence to either +of these poems. But it must not be supposed that it is intended thence to +insinuate an equality between the authors of them. Tasso would occupy no +lower place on the Italian Parnassus if he had never written the "Aminta." +His fame rests upon a very much larger and firmer basis. But Guarini would +be nowhere--would not be heard of at all--had he not written the "Pastor +Fido." Having, however, produced that work--a work of which forty editions +are said to have been printed in his lifetime, and which has been +translated into almost every civilised language, including Latin, Greek, +and Hebrew--he has always filled a space in the eyes of his countrymen, +and occupied a position in the roll of fame, which render his admission as +one of our select band here imperative. He is, besides, a representative +poet; the head and captain of the pastoral school, which attained +everywhere so considerable a vogue, and in Italy such colossal +proportions. + +Guarini was born in the year 1537 in Ferrara,--desolate, dreary, shrunken, +grass-grown, tumble-down Ferrara, which in the course of one half-century +gave to the world, besides a host of lesser names, three such poets as +Tasso, Ariosto and Guarini. Ariosto died four years before Guarini was +born; but Tasso was nearly his contemporary, being but seven years his +junior. + +In very few cases in all the world and in all ages has it happened that +intellectual distinction has been the appanage of one family for as many +generations as in that of the Guarini. They came originally from Verona, +where Guarino, the first of the family on record, who was born in 1370, +taught the learned languages, and was one of the most notable of the band +of scholars who laboured at the restoration of classical literature. He +lived to be ninety years old, and is recorded to have had twenty-three +sons. It is certain that he had twelve living in 1438. One of them, +Giovanni Batista, succeeded his father in his professorship at Ferrara, to +which city the old scholar had been invited by Duke Hercules I. It would +seem that another of his sons must also have shared the work of teaching +in the University of Ferrara: for Batista the poet was educated by his +great-uncle Alessandro, and succeeded him in his professorship. Of the +poet's father we only learn that he was a mighty hunter, and further, that +he and his poet-son were engaged in litigation respecting the inheritance +of the poet's grandfather and great-uncle. It is probable that the two old +scholars wished to bequeath their property, which included a landed +estate, to their grandson and great-nephew, who already was manifesting +tastes and capacities quite in accordance with their own, rather than to +that exceptional member of the race who cared for nothing but dogs and +horses. + +Nor was Batista the last of his race who distinguished himself in the same +career. His son succeeded him in his chair at the university; and we have +thus at least four generations of scholars and professors following the +same course in the same university, which was in their day one of the most +renowned in Europe. + +All this sounds very stable, very prosperous, very full of the element of +contentment. And there is every reason to believe that the +great-grandfather, the grandfather, the great-uncle, the son, were all as +tranquil and contented and happy as well-to-do scholars in a prosperous +university city should be. But not so the poet. His life was anything but +tranquil, or happy, or contented. The lives of few men, it may be hoped, +have been less so. + +Yet his morning was brilliant enough. He distinguished himself so +remarkably by his success in his early studies that, on the death of his +great-uncle Alexander when he was only nineteen, he was appointed to +succeed him. This was in 1556, when Hercules II. was Duke of Ferrara, and +when that court of the Este princes was at the apogee of its splendour, +renown, and magnificence. The young professor remained working at the +proper labours of his profession for ten years; and they were in all +probability the best and happiest, the only happy ones of his life. Happy +is the nation, it has been said, which has no history; and much the same +probably may be said of an individual. Respecting these ten years of +Guarini's life but little has been recorded. No doubt the chronicle of +them would have been monotonous enough. The same quiet duties quietly and +successfully discharged; the same morning walk to his school, the same +evening return from it, through the same streets, with salutations to the +same friends, and leisurely pauses by the way to chat, Italian fashion, +with one and another, as they were met in the streets, not then, as now, +deserted, grass-grown, and almost weird in their pale sun-baked +desolation, but thronged with bustling citizens, mingled with gay +courtiers, and a very unusually large proportion of men whose names were +known from one end of Italy to the other. Those school haunts in the +Ferrarese University were haunts which the world-weary ex-professor must +often throughout the years of his remaining life--some forty-five of them, +for he did not die till 1612, when he was seventy-five--have looked back +on as the best and happiest of his storm-tossed existence. + +There is, however, one record belonging to this happy time which must not +be forgotten. It was at Padua, _Padova la dotta_, as she has been in all +ages and is still called, Padua the learned, in the year 1565. Guarini was +then in his twenty-eighth year, and had been a professor at Ferrara for +the last eight years. Probably it was due to the circumstance that his +friend and fellow-townsman, Torquato Tasso, was then pursuing his studies +at Padua, that the young Ferrarese professor turned his steps in that +direction, bound "on a long vacation ramble." Tasso was only +one-and-twenty at the time; but he was already a member of the famous +Paduan Academy of the "Etherials," which Guarini was not. And we may +readily fancy the pride and pleasure with which the younger man, doing the +honours of the place to his learned friend, procured him to be elected a +member of the "Etherials." Guarini (so called _nel secolo_--in the world), +was _Il Costante_--the "Constant One" among the "Etherials." Scipio +Gonzaga, who became subsequently the famous Cardinal, spoke an oration of +welcome to him on his election. Then what congratulations, what +anticipations of fame, what loving protestations of eternal friendship, +what naďve acceptance of the importance and serious value of their +Etherial Academic play, as the two youths strolling at the evening hour +among the crowds of gravely clad but in no wise gravely speaking students +who thronged the colonnades in deep shadow under their low-browed arches, +sally forth from beneath them as the sun nears the west, on to the vast +open space which lies around the great church of St. Antony! Advancing in +close talk they come up to Donatello's superb equestrian statue of the +Venetian General Gattamelata, and lean awhile against the tall pedestal, +finishing their chat before entering the church for the evening prayer. + +The "Etherials" of Padua constituted one of the innumerable "Academies" +which existed at that day and for a couple of centuries subsequently in +every one of the hundred cities of Italy. The "Arcadian" craze was the +generating cause of all of them. All the members were "shepherds;" all +assumed a fancy name on becoming a member, by which they were known in +literary circles; and every Academy printed all the rhymes its members +strung together! + +Those must have been pleasant days in old Padua, before the young +Professor returned to his work in the neighbouring university of Ferrara. +The two young men were then, and for some time afterwards, loving friends; +for they had not yet become rival poets. + +At the end of those ten years of university life he may be said to have +entered on a new existence--to have begun life afresh--so entirely +dis-severed was his old life from the new that then opened on him. +Alphonso II., who had succeeded his father, Hercules II., as Duke of +Ferrara in 1559, "called him to the court" in 1567, and he began life as a +courtier, or a "servant" of the Duke, in the language of the country and +time. + +Well, in 1567 he entered into the service of the Duke, his sovereign, and +never had another happy or contented hour! + +The first service on which the Duke employed him, and for the performance +of which he seems specially to have taken him from his professional chair, +was an embassy to Venice, to congratulate the new Doge, Pietro Loredano, +on his elevation to the ducal throne, to which he had been elected on the +previous 19th of June. On this occasion the Professor was created +Cavaliere, a title to which his landed estate of Guarina, so called from +the ancestor on whom it had been originally bestowed by a former duke, +fairly entitled him. + +Shortly afterwards he was sent as ambassador to the court of Turin; and +then to that of the Emperor Maximilian at Innspruck. Then he was twice +sent to Poland; the first time on the occasion of the election of Henry +the Third of France to the throne of that kingdom; and the second time +when Henry quitted it to ascend that of France on the death of his brother +Charles IX. The object of this second embassy was to intrigue for the +election to the Polish crown of Alphonso. But, as it is hardly necessary +to say, his mission was unsuccessful. + +It seems, too, to have been well-nigh fatal to the ambassador. There is +extant a letter written from Warsaw to his wife, which gives a curious and +interesting account of the sufferings he endured on the journey and at the +place of his destination. He tells his wife not to be discontented that +his silence has been so long, but to be thankful that it was not eternal, +as it was very near being! "I started, as you know, more in the fashion of +a courier than of an ambassador. And that would have been more tolerable +if bodily fatigue had been all. But the same hand that had to flog the +horses by day, had to hold the pen by night. Nature could not bear up +against this double labour of body and mind; especially after I had +travelled by Serravelles and Ampez,[48] which is more disagreeable and +difficult than I can tell you, from the ruggedness no less of the country +than of the people, from the scarcity of horses, the miserable mode of +living, and the want of every necessary. So much so that on reaching +Hala[49] I had a violent fever. I embarked, however, for Vienna +notwithstanding. What with fever, discouragement, an intense thirst, +scarcity of remedies and of medical assistance, bad lodging, generally far +to seek,[50] and often infected with disease, food disgusting, even to +persons in health, bed where you are smothered in feathers, in a word, +none of the necessaries or comforts of life! I leave you to imagine what I +have suffered. The evil increased; my strength grew less. I lost my +appetite for everything save wine. In a word, little hope remained to me +of life, and that little was odious to me. There is on the Danube, which I +was navigating, a vast whirlpool, so rapid that if the boatmen did not +avail themselves of the assistance of a great number of men belonging to +the locality, strong and powerful and well acquainted with the danger, who +are there constantly for the purpose, and who struggle with their oars +against the rapacious gulf, there is not a vessel in that great river +which would not be engulfed! The place is worthy of the name of "the Door +of Death," which with a notoriety of evil fame it has gained for itself. +There is no passenger so bold as not to pass that bit of the course of the +river on foot; for the thing is truly formidable and terrible. But I was +so overcome by illness, that having lost all sense of danger or desire to +live, I did not care to leave the boat, but remained in it, with those +strong men, I hardly know whether to say stupidly or intrepidly--but I +will say intrepidly, since at one point, where I was within an ace of +destruction, I felt no fear." + +He goes on to tell how at Vienna a physician treated him amiss, and made +him worse; how every kind of consideration, and his own desire to save his +life, counselled him to delay there; but how the honour, the +responsibility of the embassy wholly on his shoulders, his duty to his +sovereign prevailed to drive him onwards. He feared, too, lest it should +be supposed at Warsaw that he preferred his life to the business on which +he came, an accusation which might have been made use of by suspicious and +malignant adversaries to deprive him of all the credit of his labours, and +"to snatch from my Prince the crown which we are striving to place on his +head. It is impossible to imagine," he continues, "what I suffered in that +journey of more than six hundred miles from Vienna to Warsaw, dragged +rather than carried in carts, broken and knocked to pieces. I wonder that +I am still alive! The obstinate fever, the want of rest, of food, and of +medicine, the excessive cold, the infinite hardships, the uninhabited +deserts, were killing me. More often than not it was a much lesser evil to +crouch by night in the cart, which dislocated my bones by day, rather than +to be suffocated in the foulness of those dens, or stables rather, where +the dogs and cats, the cocks and hens, and the geese, the pigs and the +calves, and sometimes the children, kept me waiting." + +He proceeds to tell how the country was overrun, in that time of +interregnum, by lawless bands of Cossacks; how he was obliged to travel +with a strong escort, but nevertheless was obliged several times to +deviate from the direct road to avoid the Cossacks, but on two occasions +had very narrow escapes from falling into their hands. When he reached +Warsaw at last, more dead than alive, the only improvement of his position +was that he was stationary instead of in motion. "The cart no more +lacerates my limbs!" But there was no rest to be got. "The place, the +season, the food, the drink, the water, the servants, the medicines, the +doctors, mental trouble, and a thousand other ills make up my torment. +Figure to yourself all the kingdom lodged in one little town, and my room +in the midst of it! There is no place from the top to the bottom, on the +right or on the left, by day or by night, that is not full of tumult and +noise. There is no special time here destined for business. Negotiation is +going on always, because drinking is going on always; and business is dry +work without wine. When business is over, visits begin; and when these are +at an end, drums, trumpets, bombs, uproar, cries, quarrels, fighting, +split one's head in a manner piteous to think of. Ah! if I suffered all +this labour and this torment for the love and the glory of God, I should +be a martyr!" (one thinks of Wolsey!) "But is he not worthy of the name +who serves without hope of recompense?" + +He concludes his letter, bidding his wife not to weep for him, but to live +and care for her children, in a manner which indicates that he had even +then but little hope of returning alive. + +We are nevertheless assured by his biographers that he acquitted himself +upon all these occasions in such sort as to give satisfaction to his +sovereign and to acquire for himself the reputation of an upright and able +minister. The Italian practice of entrusting embassies especially to men +of letters, which we first had occasion to note when tracing the +vicissitudes of the life of Dante in the thirteenth century, which we saw +subsequently exemplified in the cases of Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Ariosto, +and which might be further exemplified in the persons of many other +Italian scholars and men of letters, still, as we see, prevailed in the +sixteenth century, and continued to do so for some little time longer. + +But in no one instance, of all those I have mentioned, does the poet thus +employed in functions which in other lands and other times have usually +led to honours and abundant recognition of a more solid kind, appear to +have reaped any advantage in return for the service performed, or to have +been otherwise than dissatisfied and discontented with the treatment +accorded to him. + +It would have been very interesting to learn somewhat of the impression +made upon an Italian scholar of the sixteenth century by the places +visited, and persons with whom he must have come in contact in those +transalpine lands, which were then so far off, so contrasted in all +respects with the home scenes among which his life had been passed in the +low-lying, fat, and fertile valley of the Po. Of all this his various +biographers and contemporaries tell us no word! But there is a volume of +his letters, a little square quarto volume, now somewhat rare, printed at +Venice in the year 1595.[51] These letters have somewhat unaccountably not +been included in any of the editions of his works, and they are but little +known. But turning to this little volume, and looking over the dates of +the letters (many of them, however, are undated), I found three written +"Di Spruch," and eagerly turned to them, thinking that I should certainly +find there what I was seeking. The letters belong to a later period of +Guarini's life, having been written in 1592, when he was again sent on an +embassy to the German Emperor. This circumstance, however, is of no +importance as regards the purpose for which I wanted the letters. I was +disappointed. But I must nevertheless give one of these letters, not +wantonly to compel my reader to share my disappointment, but because it is +a curiosity in its way. The person to whom he writes is a lady, the +Contessa Pia di Sala, with whom he was evidently intimate. He is at +Innspruck at the Court of the Emperor Maximilian. The lady is at Mantua, +and this is what he writes to her: + + "Di Spruch, Nov. 29, 1592. + + "The letter of your Illustrious Ladyship, together with + which you send me that of your most excellent brother, + written at the end of August, reached me yesterday, at first + to my very great anger at having been for so long a time + deprived of so precious a thing, while I appeared in fault + towards so distinguished a lady; but finally to my very + great good fortune. For if a letter written by the most + lovely flame[52] in the world had arrived, while the skies + were burning, what would have become of me, when, now that + winter is beginning, I can scarcely prevent myself from + falling into ashes? And in truth, when I think that those so + courteous thoughts come from the mind which informs so + lovely a person, that those characters have been traced by a + hand of such excellent beauty, I am all ablaze, no less than + if the paper were fire, the words flames, and all the + syllables sparks. But God grant that, while I am set on fire + by the letter of your Illustrious Ladyship, you may not be + inflamed by anger against me, from thinking that the terms + in which I write are too bold. Have no such doubt, my + honoured mistress! I want nothing from the flaming of my + letter, but to have made by the light of it more vivid and + more brilliant in you, the natural purity of your beautiful + face, even as it seems to me that I can see it at this + distance. My love is nothing else save honour; my flame is + reverence; my fire is ardent desire to serve you. And only + so long will the appointment in his service, which it has + pleased my Lord His Serene Highness the Duke of Mantua to + give me, and on which your Illustrious Ladyship has been + kind enough to congratulate me so cordially, be dear to me, + as you shall know that I am fit for it, and more worthy and + more ready to receive the favour of your commands, which + will always be to me a most sure testimony that you esteem + me, not for my own worth, as you too courteously say, but + for the worth which you confer on me, since I am not worthy + of such esteem for any other merit than that which comes to + me from being honoured by so noble and beautiful a lady. I + kiss the hand of your Illustrious Ladyship, wishing the + culmination of every felicity." + +Now, this letter I consider to be a very great curiosity! The other two +written from the same place, one to a Signor Bulgarini at Siena, the other +to a lady, the Marchesa di Grana, at Mantua, are of an entirely similar +description. I turned to them in the hope of finding how Innspruck, its +stupendous scenery, its court, its manners so widely different from those +to which the writer and his correspondents were used, its streets, its +people, impressed a sixteenth century Italian from the valley of the Po. I +find instead a psychological phenomenon! The writer is a grave, austere +man (Guarini was notably such), celebrated throughout Italy for his +intellectual attainments, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, with a +wife and family; he is amidst scenes which must, one would have thought, +have impressed in the very highest degree the imagination of a poet, and +must, it might have been supposed, have interested those he was writing to +in an only somewhat less degree, and he writes the stuff the reader has +just waded through. It is clear that this Italian sixteenth century +scholar, poet and of cultivated intellect as he was, saw nothing amid the +strange scenes to which a hard and irksome duty called him, which he +thought worthy of being mentioned even by a passing word to his friends! +Surely this is a curious trait of national character. + +He remained in the service of the court for fourteen years, employed +mainly, as it should seem, in a variety of embassies; an employment which +seems to have left him a disappointed, soured, and embittered man. He +considered that he had not been remunerated as his labour deserved, that +the heavy expenses to which he had been put in his long journeys had not +been satisfactorily made up to him, and that he had not been treated in +any of the foreign countries to which his embassies had carried him with +the respect due to his own character and to his office. + +He determined therefore to leave the court and retire to Padua, a +residence in which city, it being not far distant from his estate of +Guarina, would offer him, he thought, a convenient opportunity of +overlooking his property and restoring order to his finances, which had +suffered much during his travels. This was in the year 1582, when Guarini +was in the forty-fifth year of his age. It is not clear, however, that +this retirement was wholly spontaneous; and the probability is that the +Duke and his ambassador were equally out of humour with each other. And it +is probable that the faults were not all on the side of the Duke. There is +sufficient evidence that the author of the "Pastor Fido" must have been a +difficult man to live with. + +The old friendship of happier days with Tasso had not survived the wear +and tear of life at court. It was known that they no longer saw or spoke +with each other. And everybody--if not of their contemporaries, at least +of subsequent writers--jumped to the conclusion that the writer of the +"Aminta" and the writer of the "Pastor Fido" must be jealous of each +other. Jealousy there certainly was. But some frailer and more mortal +female than the Muse was the cause of it. The Abate Serassi in his life of +Tasso admits that Tasso first gave offence to Guarini by a sonnet in which +he endeavoured to alienate the affections of a lady from him, by +representing him as a faithless and fickle lover. The lines in which Tasso +attacked his brother poet are, it must be admitted, sharp enough! + + Si muove e si raggira + Instabil piů che arida fronde ai venti; + Nulla fč, null' amor, falsi i tormenti + Sono, e falso l'affeto ond' ei sospira. + Insidioso amante, ama e disprezza + Quasi in un punto, e trionfando spiega + Di femminile spoglie empi trofei.[53]... + +The attack was savage enough, it must be admitted, and well calculated to +leave a lasting wound. Guarini immediately answered the cruel sonnet by +another, the comparative weakness of which is undeniable. + + Questi che indarno ad alta mira aspira + Con altrui biasmi, e con bugiardi accenti, + Vedi come in se stesso arruota i denti, + Mentre contra ragion meco s'adira. + + Di due fiamme si vanta, e stringe e spezza + Piů volte un nodo; e con quest' arti piega + (Chi 'l crederebbe!) a suo favore i Dei.[54]... + +There is reason to think that the accusation of many times binding and +loosing the same knot, may have hit home. The sneer about bending the gods +to favour him, alludes to Tasso's favour at court, then in the ascendant, +and may well have been as offensive to the Duke and the ladies of his +court as to the object of his satire. Both angry poets show themselves +somewhat earth-stained members of the Paduan "Etherials." But the sequel +of the estrangement was all in favour of the greater bard. Tasso, in +desiring a friend to show his poems in manuscript to certain friends, two +or three in number, on whose opinion he set a high value, named Guarini +among the number. And upon another occasion wishing to have Guarini's +opinion as to the best of two proposed, methods of terminating a sonnet, +and not venturing to communicate directly with him, he employed a common +friend to obtain his brother-poet's criticism. Tasso had also in his +dialogue entitled the "Messagero" given public testimony to Guarini's high +intellectual and civil merits. But Guarini appears never to have forgiven +the offence. He never once went to see Tasso in his miserable confinement +in the hospital of St. Anne; nor, as has been seen, would hold any +communication with him. + +He must have been a stern and unforgiving man. And indeed all the +available testimony represents him as having been so,--upright, honest, +and honourable, but haughty, punctilious, litigious, quick to take +offence, slow to forget or forgive it, and cursed with a thin-skinned +_amour propre_ easily wounded and propense to credit others with the +intention of wounding where no such intention existed. The remainder of +the story of his life offers an almost unbroken series of testimonies to +the truth of such an estimate of his character. + +It was after fourteen years' service in the court of Duke Alphonso, as has +been said, that he retired disgusted and weary to live in independence and +nurse his estate in the neighbourhood of Padua. But the part of +Cincinnatus is not for every man! It was in 1582 that he retired from the +court intending to bid it and its splendours, its disappointments and its +jealousies, an eternal adieu. In 1585, on an offer from the Duke to make +him his secretary, he returned and put himself into harness again! + +But this second attempt to submit himself to the service, to the caprices +and exigencies of a master and of a court ended in a quicker and more +damaging catastrophe than the first. In a diary kept by the poet's nephew, +Marcantonio Guarini, under the date of July 13, 1587, we find it written +that "the Cavalier Batista Guarini, Secretary of the Duke, considering +that his services did not meet with sufficient consideration in proportion +to his worth, released himself from that servitude." The phrase here +translated "released himself" is a peculiar one--_si licenzio_--"dismissed +himself." To receive _licenza_, or to be _licenziato_, is to be dismissed, +or at least parted with in accordance with the will of the employer. But +the phrase used by the diarist seems intended to express exactly what +happened when the poet, once more discontented, took himself off from +Ferrara and its Duke. He seems to have done so in a manner which gave deep +and lasting offence. In a subsequent passage of the above-quoted diary we +read, "the Cavaliere Batista Guarini having absented himself from Ferrara, +disgusted with the Duke, betook himself to Florence, and then, by the +intermedium of Guido Coccapani the agent, asked for his dismissal in form +and obtained it." We happen, however, to have a letter written by this +Coccapani, who seems to have been the Duke's private secretary and +managing man, in which he gives his version of the matter. He was +"stupefied," he says, "when he received the extravagant letter of the +Cavaliere Guarini, and began to think that it would be with him as it had +been with Tasso," who by that time had fallen into disgrace. There is +reason to think that he left Ferrara secretly, without taking leave of the +Duke, or letting anybody at court know where he had gone. He did, +however, obtain his formal dismissal, as has been said, but the Duke by no +means forgave him. + +Though it would appear that on leaving Ferrara in this irregular manner he +went in the first instance to Florence, it seems that he had had hopes +given him of a comfortable position and honourable provision at Turin. He +was to have been made a Counsellor of State, and entrusted with the task +of remodelling the course of study at the university, with a stipend of +six hundred crowns annually. But on arriving at Turin he found +difficulties in the way. In fact, the angry Duke of Ferrara had used his +influence with the Duke of Savoy to prevent anything being done for his +contumacious Secretary of State. Guarini, extremely mortified, had to +leave Turin, and betook himself to Venice. + +His adventure, however, was of a nature to cause great scandal in that +clime and time. As usual, the Italians were offended at the "imprudence" +of which Guarini's temper had led him to be guilty, more than they would +have been by many a fault which among ourselves would be deemed a very +much worse one. A violence of temper or indignation shown in such a manner +as to injure _one's own_ interests is, and in a yet greater degree was, a +spectacle extremely disgusting to Italian moral sentiment. + +The outcry against Guarini on this occasion was so great that he found +himself obliged to put forth an exculpatory statement. + +"If human actions, my most kind readers," he begins, "always bore marked +on the front of them the aims and motives which have produced them, or if +those who talk about them were always well informed enough to be able to +judge of them without injury to the persons of whom they speak, I should +not be compelled, at my age, and after so many years of a life led in the +eyes of the world, and often busied in defending the honour of others, to +defend this day my own, which has always been dearer to me than my life. +Having heard, then, that my having left the service of His Serene Highness +the Duke of Ferrara and entered that of the Duke of Savoy has given +occasion to some persons, ignorant probably of the real state of the case, +to make various remarks, and form various opinions, I have determined to +publish the truth, and at the same time to declare my own sentiments in +the matter. + +"I declare, then, that previously to my said departure I consigned to the +proper person everything, small as it was, which was in my hands regarding +my office, which had always been exercised by me uprightly and without any +other object in view than the service of my sovereign and the public +welfare. Further, that I, by a written paper under my own hand (as the +press of time and my need rendered necessary), requested a free and +decorous dismissal from the Duke in question, and also, that I set forth +in all humility the causes which led me to that determination; and I added +(some of the circumstances in which I was compelling me to do so) that if +His Serene Highness did not please to give me any other answer, I would +take his silence as a consent to my request of dismissal. I declare +further that the paper was delivered to the principal Minister of his +Serene Highness, and lastly, that my salary was, without any further +communication with me, stopped, and cancelled from the roll of payments. +And as this is the truth, so it is equally true that my appointment as +reformer of the University of Turin, and Counsellor of State with six +hundred crowns yearly, was settled and concluded with His Serene Highness +the Duke of Savoy, and that I declined to bind myself, and did not bind +myself, to ask any other dismissal from His Serene Highness the Duke of +Ferrara than that which I have already spoken. And, finally, it is true +that, as I should not have gone to Turin if I had not been engaged for +that service and invited thither, so I should not have left, or wished to +leave this place,[55] had I not known that I received my dismissal in the +manner above related. Now, as to the cause which may have retarded and may +still retard the fulfillment of the engagement above mentioned, I have +neither object, nor obligation, nor need to declare it. Suffice it that it +is not retarded by any fault of mine, or difficulty on my side. In +justification of which I offered myself, and by these presents now again +offer myself, to present myself wheresoever, whensoever, and in whatsoever +manner, and under whatsoever conditions and penalties, as may be seen more +clearly set forth in the instrument of agreement sent by me to His +Highness. From all which, I would have the world to know, while these +affairs of mine are still in suspension, that I am a man of honour, and am +always ready to maintain the same in whatsoever manner may be fitting to +my condition and duty. And as I do not at all doubt that some decision of +some kind not unworthy of so just and so magnanimous a prince will be +forthcoming; so, let it be what it may, it will be received by me with +composure and contentment; since, by God's grace, and that of the serene +and exalted power under the most just and happy dominion of which I am now +living, and whose subject, if not by birth, yet by origin and family, I +am,[56] I have a comfortable and honoured existence. And may you, my +honoured readers, live in happiness and contentment. Venice, February 1, +1589." + +We must, I think, nevertheless be permitted to doubt the contentment and +happiness of the life he led, as it should seem, for the next four years, +at Venice. No such decision of any kind, as he hoped from the Duke of +Savoy, was forthcoming. He was shunted! He had quarrelled with his own +sovereign, and evidently the other would have none of him. The Italians of +one city were in those days to a wonderful degree foreigners in another +ruled by a different government; and there can be little doubt that +Guarini wandered among the quays and "calle" of Venice, or paced the great +piazza at the evening hour, a moody and discontented man! + +At last, after nearly four years of this sad life, there came an +invitation from the Duke of Mantua proposing that Guarini should come to +Mantua together with his son Alessandro, to occupy honourable positions in +that court. The poet, heartily sick of "retirement," accepted at once, and +went to Mantua. But there, too, another disappointment awaited him. The +"magnanimous" Duke Alphonso would not tolerate that the man who had so +cavalierly left his service should find employment elsewhere. It is +probable that this position was obtained for him by the influence of his +old friend and fellow-member of the "Etherials" at Padua, Scipione +Gonzaga; and it would seem that he occupied it for a while, and went on +behalf of the Duke of Mantua to Innspruck, whence he wrote the wonderful +letters which have been quoted. + +The Cardinal's influence, however, was not strong enough to prevail +against the spite of a neighbouring sovereign. There are two letters +extant from the Duke, or his private secretary, to that same Coccapani +whom we saw so scandalized at Guarini's hurried and informal departure +from Ferrara, and who was residing as Alphonso's representative at Mantua, +in which the Minister is instructed to represent to the Duke of Mantua +that his brother of Ferrara "did not think it well that the former should +take any of the Guarini family into his service, and when they should see +each other he would tell him his reasons. For the present he would only +say that he wished the Duke to know that it would be excessively pleasing +to him if the Duke would have nothing to say to any of them." + +This was in 1593; and the world-weary poet found himself at fifty-six once +again cast adrift upon the world. The extremity of his disgust and +weariness of all things may be measured by the nature of the next step he +took. He conceived, says his biographer Barotti, that "God called him by +internal voices, and by promise of a more tranquil life, to accept the +tonsure." His wife had died some little time before; and it was therefore +open to him to do so. He went to Rome accordingly for the purpose of there +taking orders. But during the short delay which intervened between the +manifestation of his purpose and the fulfilment of it, news reached him +that his friend and protectress the Duchess of Urbino, Alphonso's sister, +had interceded for him with the Duke, and that he was forgiven! It was +open to him to return to his former employment! And no sooner did the news +reach him than he perceived that "the internal voices" were altogether a +mistake. God had never called him at all, and Alphonso had! All thoughts +of the Church were abandoned on the instant, and he hastened to Ferrara, +arriving there on the 15th of April, 1595. + +But neither on this occasion was he destined to find the tranquillity +which he seemed fated never to attain! And this time the break-up was a +greater and more final one than the last. Duke Alphonso died in 1597; and +the Pontificial Court, which had long had its eye on the possibility of +enforcing certain pretended claims to the Duchy of Ferrara, found the +means at Alphonso's death of ousting his successor the Duke Cesare, who +remained thenceforward Duke of Modena only, but no longer of Ferrara. + +Guarini was once more adrift! Nor were the political changes in Ferrara +the only thing which rendered the place no longer a home for him. Other +misfortunes combined to render a residence in the city odious to him. His +daughter Anna had married a noble gentleman of Ferrara, the Count Ercole +Trotti, by whom she was on the 3rd of May, 1598, murdered at his villa of +Zanzalino near Ferrara. Some attempt was made to assert that the husband +had reason to suspect that his wife was plotting against his life. But +there seems to have been no foundation for any accusation of the sort; and +the crime was prompted probably by jealousy. Guarini, always on bad terms +with his sons, and constantly involved in litigation with them, as he had +been with his father, was exceedingly attached to this unfortunate +daughter. + +But even this terrible loss was not the only bitterness which resulted +from this crime. Guarini composed a long Latin epitaph, in which he +strongly affirms her absolute innocence of everything that had been laid +to her charge, and speaks with reprobation of the husband's[57] crime. But +scarcely had the stone bearing the inscription been erected than the +indignant father was required by the authorities of the city to remove it. +A declaration, which he published on the subject, dated June 15, 1598, is +still extant. "On that day," he writes, "the Vice-legate of Ferrara spoke +with me, in the name of the Holy Father, as to the removing of the epitaph +written by me on Anna my daughter in the church of Sta. Catherina. He said +that there were things in it that might provoke other persons to +resentment, and occasion much scandal; and that, besides that, there were +in the inscription words of Sacred Scripture, which ought not to be used +in such a place. I defended my cause, and transmitted a memorial to his +Holiness, having good reason to know that these objections were the mere +malignity of those who favour the opposite party, and of those who caused +the death of my innocent child. But at last, on the 22nd, I caused the +epitaph to be removed, intimating that it was my intention to take up the +body, and inter it elsewhere. On which it is worthy of remark, that having +made my demand to that effect, I was forbidden to do so." He further adds: +"Note! news was brought to me here that my son Girolamo, who was evidently +discovered to be the accomplice, and principal atrocious author of the +death of his sister Anna, received from the Potesta of Rovigo licence to +come into the Polisina with twelve men armed with arquebuses." + +All this is very sad; and whether these terrible suspicions may or may not +have had any foundation other than the envenomed temper generated by the +family litigations, it must equally have had the effect of making the life +of Guarini a very miserable one, and contributing to his determination to +abandon finally his native city. + +More surprising is it that, after so many disgusts and disappointments, he +should once again have been tempted to seek, what he had never yet been +able to find there, in a court. In a letter written in November, 1598, he +informs the Duke Cesare (Duke of Modena, though no longer of Ferrara) that +the Grand Duke of Florence had offered him a position at Florence. And his +Serene Highness, more kindly and forgiving than the late Duke, wrote him +an obliging and congratulatory letter in the following month. + +At Florence everything at first seemed to be going well with him, and he +seemed to stand high in favour with the Grand Duke Ferdinand. But very +shortly he quitted Florence in anger and disgust on the discovery of the +secret marriage of his third son, Guarini, with a woman of low condition +at Pisa, with at least the connivance, as the poet thought, whether justly +or not there is nothing to show, of the Grand Duke. + +After that his old friend the Duchess of Urbino once again stood his +friend, and he obtained a position in the court of Urbino, then one of the +most widely famed centres of cultivation and letters in Italy. And for a +while everything seemed at last to be well with him there. On the 23rd of +February, 1603, he writes to his sister, who apparently had been pressing +him to come home to Ferrara:--"I should like to come home, my sister. I +have great need and a great desire for home; but I am treated so well +here, and with so much distinction and so much kindness, that I cannot +come. I must tell you that all expenses for myself and my servants are +supplied, so that I have not to spend a farthing for anything in the world +that I need. The orders are that anything I ask for should be furnished to +me. Besides all which, they give me three hundred crowns a year; so that, +what with money and expenses, the position is worth six hundred crowns a +year to me. You may judge, then, if I can throw it up. May God grant you +every happiness! + + Your brother, + B. GUARINI." + +But all would not do. He had been but a very little time in this little +Umbrian Athens among the Apennines before he once again threw up his +position in anger and disgust, because he did not obtain all the marks of +distinction to which he thought that he was entitled. This was in 1603. He +was now sixty-six, and seems at length to have made no further attempt to +haunt at court. Once again he was at Rome in 1605, having undertaken, at +the request of the citizens of Ferrara, to carry their felicitations to +the new Pope, Paul the Fifth. And with the exception of that short +expedition his last years were spent in the retirement of his ancestral +estate of Guarina. + +The property is situated in the district of Lendinara, on the fat and +fertile low-lying region between Rovigo and Padua, and belongs to the +commune--parish, as we should say--of St. Bellino. The house, dating +probably from the latter part of the fifteenth century, is not much more +than a hundred yards or so from the _piazza_ of the village, which boasts +two thousand inhabitants. The road between the two is bordered with trees. +The whole district is as flat as a billiard table, and as prosaical in its +well-to-do fertility as can be imagined. It is intersected by a variety of +streams, natural and artificial. About a couple of miles from the house to +the south is the Canalbianco; and a little farther to the north the +Adigetto. To the east runs the Scortico. St. Bellino, from whom the +village is named, was, it seems, enrolled among the martyrs by Pope +Eugenius the Third in 1152. He has a great specialty for curing the bite +of mad dogs. There is a grand cenotaph in his honour in the village +church, which was raised by some of the Guarini family. But this, too, +like all else, became a subject of trouble and litigation to our poet. A +certain Baldassare Bonifaccio of Rovigo wanted to transport the saint to +that city. Guarini would not hear of this; litigated the matter before the +tribunals of Venice, and prevailed. So the saint still resides at St. +Bellino to the comfort of all those bitten by mad dogs in those parts. The +house and estate have passed through several hands since that time; but a +number of old family portraits may still be seen on the walls, together +with the family arms, and the motto, "Fortis est in asperis non turbari." +The armchair and writing table of the poet are also still preserved in the +house, and a fig-tree is pointed out close by it, under the shade of which +the poet, as tradition tells, wrote on that table and in that chair his +"Pastor Fido." There is an inscription on the chair as follows: "Guarin +sedendo qui canto, che vale al paragon seggio reale."[58] + +It was not, however, during this his last residence here that the "Pastor +Fido" was written, but long previously. It was doubtless his habit to +escape from the cares of official life in Ferrara from time to time as he +could; and it must have been in such moments that the celebrated pastoral +was written.[59] + +The idea of a scholar and a poet, full of years and honours, passing the +quiet evening of his life in a tranquil retirement in his own house on his +own land, is a pleasing one. But it is to be feared that in the case of +the author of the "Pastor Fido" it would be a fallacious one. Guarini +would not have come to live on his estate if he could have lived +contentedly in any city. We may picture him to ourselves sitting under his +fig-tree, or pacing at evening under the trees of the straight avenue +between his house and the village, or on the banks of one of the sluggish +streams slowly finding their way through the flat fields towards the Po; +but I am afraid the picture must be of one "Remote, unfriended, +melancholy, slow," with eyes bent earthwards, and discontented mind: +"remote," because to the Italian mind all places beyond the easy reach of +a city are so; "unfriended," because he had quarrelled with everybody; +"melancholy," because all had gone amiss with him, and his life had been a +failure; "slow," because no spring of hope in the mind gave any elasticity +to his step. + +One other "haunt" of the aged poet must, however, be mentioned, because it +is a very characteristic one. During this last residence at Guarina, he +hired an apartment at Ferrara, selecting it in a crowded part of the +centre of the city, especially frequented by the lawyers, that he might be +in the midst of them, when he went into the city on the various business +connected with his interminable lawsuits. The most crowded part of the +heart of the city of Ferrara! It would be difficult to find any such part +now. But the picture offered to the imagination, of the aged poet, +professor, courtier, haunting the courts, the lawyers' chambers, leaving +his, at least, tranquil retreat at St. Bellino, to drag weary feet through +the lanes of the city in which he had in earlier days played so different +a part, is a sad one. But there are people who like contention so much +that such work is a labour of love to them. And certainly, if the +inference may be drawn from the fact of his never having been free from +lawsuits in one quarrel or another, Guarini must have been one of these. +But it is passing strange that the same man should have been the author of +the "Pastor Fido." + +They pursued him to the end, these litigations; or he pursued them! And at +last he died, not at Guarina, but at Venice, on the 7th of October, 1612, +where, characteristically enough, he chanced to be on business connected +with some lawsuit. + +And now a few words must be said about his great work, the "Pastor Fido." +It is one of the strangest things in the range of literary history that +such a man should have written such a poem. He was, one would have said, +the last man in the world to produce such a work. The first ten years of +his working life were spent in the labour of a pedagogue; the rest of it +in the inexpressibly dry, frivolous, and ungenial routine of a small +Italian court, or in wandering from one to the other of them in the vain +and always disappointed search for such employment. We are told that he +was a punctilious, stiff, unbending, angular man; upright and honourable, +but unforgiving and wont to nurse his enmities. He was soured, +disappointed, discontented with everybody and everything, involved in +litigation first with his father, and then with his own children. And this +was the man who wrote the "Pastor Fido," of all poems comparable to it in +reputation the lightest, the airiest, and the most fantastic! The argument +of it is as follows: + +The Arcadians, suffering in various ways from the anger of Diana, were at +last informed by the oracle that the evils which afflicted them would +cease when a youth and a maiden, both descended from the Immortals, as it +should seem the _creme de la creme_ of Arcadian society mostly was, should +be joined together in faithful love. Thereupon Montano, a priest of the +goddess who was descended from Hercules, arranged that his only son Silvio +should be betrothed to Amaryllis, the only daughter of Tytirus, who was +descended from Pan. The arrangement seemed all that could be desired, only +that a difficulty arose from the fact that Silvio, whose sole passion was +the chase, could not be brought to care the least in the world for +Amaryllis. Meantime Mirtillo, the son, as was supposed, of the shepherd +Carino, fell desperately in love with Amaryllis. She was equally attached +to him, but dared not in the smallest degree confess her love, because the +law of Arcadia would have punished with death her infidelity to her +betrothed vows. A certain Corisca, however, who had conceived a violent +but unrequited passion for Mirtillo, perceiving or guessing the love of +Amaryllis for him, hating her accordingly, and hoping that, if she could +be got out of the way, she might win Mirtillo's love, schemes by deceit +and lies to induce Mirtillo and Amaryllis to enter together a cave, which +they do in perfect innocence, and without any thought of harm. Then he +contrives that they should be caught there, and denounced by a satyr; and +Amaryllis is condemned to die. The law, however, permits that her life may +be saved by any Arcadian who will voluntarily die in her stead; and this +Mirtillo determines to do, although he believes that Amaryllis cares +nothing for him, and also is led by the false Corisca to believe that she +had gone into the cave for the purpose of meeting with another lover. The +duty of sacrificing him devolves on Montano the priest; and he is about to +carry out the law, when Carino, who has been seeking his reputed son +Mirtillo, comes in, and while attempting to make out that he is a +foreigner, and therefore not capable of satisfying the law by his death, +brings unwittingly to light circumstances that prove that he is in truth a +son of Montano, and therefore a descendant of the god Hercules. It thus +appears that a marriage between Mirtillo and Amaryllis will exactly +satisfy the conditions demanded by the oracle. There is an under-plot, +which consists in providing a lover and a marriage for the woman-hater +Silvio. He is loved in vain by the nymph Dorinda, whom he unintentionally +wounds with an arrow while out hunting. The pity he feels for her wound +softens his heart towards her, and all parties are made happy by this +second marriage. + +Such is a skeleton of the story of the "Pastor Fido." It will be observed +that there is more approach to a plot and to human interest than in any +previous production of this kind, and some of the situations are well +conceived for dramatic effect. And accordingly the success which it +achieved was immediate and immense. Nor, much as the taste of the world +has been changed since that day, has it ever lost its place in the +estimation of cultivated Italians. + +It would be wholly uninteresting to attempt any account of the +wide-spreading literary controversies to which the publication of the +"Pastor Fido" gave rise. The author terms it a tragi-comedy; and this +title was violently attacked. The poet himself, as may well be imagined +from the idiosyncrasy of the man, was not slow to reply to his critics, +and did so in two lengthy treatises entitled from the name of a +contemporary celebrated actor, "Verato primo," and "Verato secondo," which +are printed in the four-quarto-volume edition of his works, but which +probably no mortal eye has read for the last two hundred years! + +The question of the rivalry between the "Aminta" of Tasso and the "Pastor +Fido" has an element of greater interest in it. It is certain that the +former preceded the latter, and doubtless suggested it. It seems probable +that Ginguené is right in his suggestion, that Guarini, fully conscious +that no hope was open to him of rivalling his greater contemporary and +townsman in epic poetry, strove to surpass him in pastoral. It must be +admitted that he has at least equalled him. Yet, while it is impossible to +deny that almost every page of the "Pastor Fido" indicates not so much +plagiarism as an open and avowed purpose of doing the same thing better, +if possible, than his rival has done it, the very diverse natural +character of the two poets is also, at every page, curiously indicated. +Specially the reader may be recommended to compare the passages in the two +poems where Tasso under the name of Thyrsis, and Guarini under the name of +Carino (Act 5, scene 1), represent the sufferings both underwent at the +court of Alphonso II. The lines of Guarini are perhaps the most vigorous +in their biting satire. But the gentler and nobler nature of Tasso is +unmistakable. + +It is strange that the Italian critics, who are for the most part so +lenient to the licentiousness of most of the authors of this period, blame +Guarini for the too great warmth, amounting to indecency, of his poem. The +writer of his life in the French "Biographie Universelle" refers to +certain scenes as highly indecent. I can only say that, on examining the +passages indicated carefully, I could find no indecency at all. It is +probable that the writer referred to had never read the pages in question. +But it is odd that those whose criticism he is no doubt reflecting should +have said so. No doubt there are passages, not those mentioned by the +writer in the "Biographie," but for instance the first scene of the second +act, when a young man in a female disguise is one among a party of girls, +who propose a prize for her who can give to one of them, the judge, the +sweetest kiss, which prize he wins, which might be deemed somewhat on the +sunny side of the hedge that divides the permissible from the +unpermissible. But in comparison with others of that age Guarini is pure +as snow. + +It has been said in speaking of the sad story of his daughter Anna, that +she was accused of having given her husband cause for jealousy. It would +seem very clear that there was no ground for any such accusation. But it +was said that the misconduct on her part had been due to the corruption of +her mind by the reading of her father's verses. The utter groundlessness +of such an assertion might be shown in many ways. But the savage and +malignant cruelty of it points with considerable evidence to the sources +of the current talk about the courtier poet's licentiousness. + +It is impossible to find room here for a detailed comparison between these +two celebrated pastorals; and it is the less needed inasmuch as Ginguené +has done it very completely and at great length in the twenty-fifth +chapter of the second part of his work. + +Guarini also produced a comedy, the "Idropica," which was acted with much +success at the court of Mantua, and is printed among his works, as well as +some prose pieces of small importance, the principal of which is "Il +Secretario," a treatise on the duties of a secretary, not printed among +his works, but of which an edition exists in pot quarto (186 pages) +printed at Venice in 1594. Neither have his letters been printed among his +works. They exist, printed without index or order of any kind, in a volume +of the same size as the "Secretario," printed at Venice also in 1595, but +by a different printer. + +The name, however, of Batista Guarini would have long since been +forgotten, had he not written the "Pastor Fido." + + T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE, in Belgravia. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] The now celebrated pass of the Ampezzo between Venice and Innspruck. + +[49] This must probably be Hall on the Inn, a little below Innspruck. +Certainly any boat which he got there for the descent of the river must +have been a sufficiently miserable mode of travelling. + +[50] Far, that is, from the bank of the river, where he left his boat at +night. + +[51] Lettere del Signor Cavaliere Battista Guarini, Nobile Ferrarese, di +nuovo in questa seconda impressione di alcune altre accrescinte, e dall' +Autore stesso corrette, di Agostino Michele raccolte, et al Sereniss. +Signore il Duca d'Urbino dedicate. Con Privilegio. In Venetia, MDXCV. +Appresso Gio. Battista Ciotti Senese al segno della Minerva. + +[52] I translate literally. Old-fashioned people will remember a somewhat +similar use of the word "Flame" in English. + +[53] I subjoin a literal prose translation in preference to borrowing a +rhymed one from any of Tasso's translators. This fellow "flits and circles +around more unstable than dry leaves in the wind. Without faith, without +love, false are his pretended torments, and false the affection which +prompts his sighs. A traitorous lover, he loves and despises almost at the +same moment, and in triumph displays the spoils of women as impious +trophies." + +[54] "See how this fellow, who in vain aims at a lofty goal, by blaming +others, and by lying accents, sharpens against himself his teeth, while +without reason he is enraged with me.... Of two flames he boasts, and ties +and breaks over and over again the same knot; and by these arts (who would +believe it!) bends in his favour the Gods!" ... + +[55] It is odd that he should so write in a paper dated, as the present +is, from Venice. I suppose the expression came from his feeling that he +was addressing parsons at Ferrara. + +[56] Seeing that, as has been said, his ancestors were of Verona, which +belonged to Venice. + +[57] Barotti gives it at length; but it is hardly worth while to occupy +space by reproducing it here. + +[58] "Guarini sitting here, sang, that which renders the seat the equal of +a royal throne." + +[59] It is very doubtful and very difficult to determine at what period of +his life the "Pastor Fido" was written. Ginguené (Hist. Ital. Lit. Part +II. ch. xxv.) has sufficiently shown that the statements of the Italian +biographers on this point are inaccurate. Probably it was planned and, in +part, written many years before it was finished. It was first printed in +1590. + + + + +THE VAQUERO.[60] + + + Oh, who is so free as a gallant _vaquero_? + With his beauty of bronze 'neath his shady _sombrero_: + He smiles at his love, and he laughs at his fate, + For he knows he is lord of a noble estate: + The prairie's his own, and he mocks at the great. + "Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho! + Head 'em off! Turn 'em back! + Keep 'em up to the track! + Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo! + Cric--crac!" + + Oh, Donna Luisa is proud as she's fair; + But she parted last night with a lock of her hair. + And under the stars she roams, seeking for rest, + While she thinks of the stranger that came from the West; + And Juan bears something wrapped up in his breast-- + "Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho! + Head 'em off! Turn 'em back! + Keep 'em up to the track! + Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo! + Cric--crac!'" + + His proudest possessions are prettily placed, + His love at his heart, and his life at his waist. + And if in a quarrel he happen to fall, + Why, the prairie's his grave, and his _poncho's_[61] his pall, + And Donna Luisa--gets over it all! + "Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho! + Head 'em off! Turn 'em back! + Keep 'em up to the track! + Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo! + Cric--crac!" + + The Padrč may preach, and the Notary frown, + But the _poblanas_[62] smile as he rides through the town: + And the Padrč, he knows, likes a kiss on the sly, + And the Notary oft has a "drop in his eye," + But all that he does is to love and to die-- + "Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho! + Head 'em off! Turn 'em back! + Keep 'em up to the track! + Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo! + Cric--crac!" + + FRANK DESPREZ, _in Temple Bar_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[60] A California cattle-driver. Furnished with revolver, lasso, and +long-lashed whip, these adventurous gentry conduct the half-wild cattle of +the plains over miles of their surface; and, with their gay sashes, high +boots, gilded and belled spurs, and dark, broad hats (_sombreros_), +present a very picturesque appearance. + +[61] Cloak. + +[62] Peasant girls. + + + + +TWO MODERN JAPANESE STORIES. + + +The two stories which follow were circulated in the city of Yedo some +years back, and show that the better educated classes of Japanese are +keenly alive to the absurdity of the figure cut by their countrymen when +they attempt to jump over five hundred years in five hundred days. + + +I. A REGULAR MESS. + +Some six years back lived in the beautiful village of Minoge an old lady +who kept the big tea-house of the place known as the "White Pine." Minoge +is situated at the base of the holy mountain Oyama, and during the months +of August and September trade in Minoge was always brisk, on account of +the influx of pilgrims from all parts of Japan, who came hither to perform +the holy duty of ascending the mountain, and of paying their devoirs at +the shrine of the Thunder-God, previous to making the grand pilgrimage of +Fuji-Yama. + +The old lady was well off, and her inn bore an unblemished reputation for +possessing the prettiest serving-girls, the gayest guest-chambers, and the +primest stewed eels--the dish _par excellence_ of Japanese _gourmets_--of +any hostelry in the country side. One of her daughters was married in +Yedo, and a son was studying in one of the European colleges of that city; +still she was as completely rustic and unacquainted with the march of +affairs outside as if she had never heard of Yedo, much less of +foreigners. At that time it was a very rare thing indeed for a foreigner +to be seen in Minoge, and the stray artists and explorers who had wandered +there were regarded much in the same way as would have been so many white +elephants. + +It caused, therefore, no little excitement in the village when, one fine +autumn evening, the rumour came along that a foreigner was making his way +towards the "White Pine." Every one tried to get a glimpse of him. The +chubby-cheeked boys and girls at the school threw down their books and +pens, and crowded to the door and windows; the bath-house was soon empty +of its patrons and patronesses, who, red as lobsters with boiling water, +with dishevelled locks and garments hastily bound round them, formed line +outside; the very Yakunin, or mayor, sentenced a prisoner he was judging +straight off, without bothering himself to inquire into evidence, so as +not to be balked of the sight, and every wine and barber's shop sent forth +its quota of starers into the little street. + +Meanwhile the foreigner was leisurely striding along. He was taller by far +than the tallest man in Minoge, his hair was fair, and even his bronzed +face and hands were fair compared to those of the natives. On the back of +his head was a felt wide-awake, he wore a blue jacket and blue half +trousers (Anglicč, knickerbockers), thick hose, and big boots. In his +mouth was a pipe--being much shorter than Japanese smoking tubes--in his +hand a stick, and on his back a satchel. + +As he passed, one or two urchins, bolder than the rest, shouted out, +"Tojin baka" ("Foreign beast") and instantly fled indoors, or behind their +mothers' skirts; but the majority of the villagers simply stared, with an +occasional interjection expressive of wonder at his height, fair hair, and +costume. + +At the door of the "White Pine" he halted, unstrapped his bundle, took off +his boots, and in very fair Japanese requested to be shown his room. The +old lady, after a full ten minutes' posturing, complimenting, bowing, and +scraping, ushered him into her best guest-chamber. "For," said she, "being +a foreigner, he must be rich, and wouldn't like ordinary pilgrim +accommodation." And she drew to the sliding screens, and went off to +superintend his repast. Although nothing but the foreigner's boots were to +be seen outside, a gaping crowd had collected, striving to peer through +the cracks in the doors, and regarding the boots as if they were infernal +machines. One, more enterprising than the rest, took a boot up, passed it +to his neighbour, and in a short time it had circulated from hand to hand +throughout the population of Minoge, and was even felt and pinched by the +mayor himself, who replaced it with the reverence due to some religious +emblem or relic. + +Then the hostess served up her banquet--seaweed, sweets, raw "tighe"--the +salmon of Japan--in slices, garnished with turnips and horse-radish, egg +soup with pork lumps floating in it, chicken delicately broiled, together +with a steaming bottle of her choicest "San Toku Shiu," or wine of the +Three Virtues (which keeps out the cold, appeases hunger, and induces +sleep). + +The foreigner made an excellent meal, eked out by his own white bread, and +wine from a flask of pure silver, then, lighting his pipe, reclined at +full length on the mats, talking to the old lady and her three damsels, O +Hana, O Kiku, and O Riu (Miss Flower, Miss Chrysanthemum, and Miss +Dragon). He was walking about the country simply for pleasure, he +said--which astonished the women greatly--he had been away from Yokohama +three weeks, and was now on his road to the big mountain. The party were +soon screaming with laughter at his quaint remarks and at his occasional +colloquial slips, and in a short time all were such good friends that the +old lady begged him to display the contents of his satchel. "Certainly," +said the stranger, pulling it towards him and opening it. A dirty flannel +shirt or two didn't produce much impression--perhaps wares of a similar +nature had been imported before into Minoge--nor did a hair-brush, +tooth-brush, and comb; but when he pulled out a pistol, which was +warranted to go off six times in as many seconds, and proceeded to +exemplify the same in the air, popular excitement began to assert itself +in a series of "naruhodo's" ("really!"). Then he pulled out a portable +kerosine lamp--(kerosine lamps are now as common in Japan as shrines by +the road-side)--and the light it made, throwing entirely into the shade +the native "andon," or oil wick, burning close by, raised the enthusiasm +still higher. Lastly he showed a small box of medicines, "certain cures," +said he, "for every disease known amongst the sons of men." + +The old lady and the maids were enchanted, and matters ended, after much +haggling and disputation, in the foreigner allowing them to keep the three +articles for the very reasonable sum of fifty dollars--about fifteen +pounds sterling--which was handed over to the foreigner, who called for +his bedding and went fast asleep. + +The first thing for the old lady to do the next day was to present herself +and maids in full holiday costume with their recent purchases at the house +of the mayor. The great man received them and their goods with the dignity +befitting his rank, and promised that a public trial should be made of the +pistol, lamp, and medicines, at an early date, in order to determine +whether they were worthy to be adopted as institutions in the village. + +Accordingly, by proclamation, at a fixed date and hour, all Minoge +assembled in the open space facing the mayor's house, and the articles +were brought forth. The pistol was first taken and loaded, as directed by +the foreigner, by the boldest and strongest man in the village. The first +shot was fired--it wounded a pack-horse, standing some twenty yards away, +in the leg; he took fright and bolted with a heavy load of wine tubs down +the street into the fields: the second shot went through a temple roof +opposite, and shattered the head of the deity in the shrine: the third +shot perforated the bamboo hat of a pilgrim; and it was decided not to +test the remaining three barrels. + +Then the lamp was brought forth: the wick was turned up full, and the +village strong man applied a light. The blaze of light was glorious, and +drew forth the acclamations of the crowd; but the wick had been turned up +too high, the glass burst with a tremendous report, the strong man +dropped the lamp, the oil ignited, ran about and set fire to the matting. +In ten minutes, however, the local fire brigade got the flames under, and +the experiments proceeded. + +The medicine packets were brought forth. The first was a grey powder. A +man who had been lame from youth upwards was made to limp out. The powder +mixed with water, according to directions, was given him. He hobbled away +in frightful convulsions, and nearly injured his whole limb in so doing. + +The second packet was then unsealed--it contained pills. A blind man was +called out--six pills were rammed down his throat, and he was left +wallowing in a ditch. The third packet, a small book containing sticking +plaster, was then introduced. A burly peasant, victim to fearful +toothache, was made to stand forth. The interior of his mouth was lined +with the plaster, and when he attempted in his disgust to pull it off, +away came his skin also. + +The medicines were condemned _nem. con._ + +The foreigner returned, asked how matters had gone, and was told in polite +but firm terms that his machines were not suited to the people of Minoge. +Whereupon he returned the fifty dollars to the old lady of the "White +Pine," and went away laughing. Minoge subsided into its ordinary every-day +groove of life, and it was not till some years after that the inhabitants +became better used to pistols, lamps, and European medicines. + + +II. PADDLING HIS OWN CANOE. + +Takezawa was the head of a large silk and rice house in Yedo. His father +had been head, his grandfather had been head, his great-grandfather had +been head: in fact, the date when the first of the name affixed his seal +to the documents of the house was lost in the mists of antiquity. So, when +foreigners were first allowed a foot-hold on the sacred soil of Japan, +none were so jealous of their advance, none so ardent in their wishes to +see the white barbarians ousted, as the members of the firm of Takezawa +and Co. + +But times changed. Up to the last, Takezawa held out against the +introduction of foreign innovations in the mode and manner of conducting +the affairs of the firm; other houses might employ foreign steamboat +companies as carriers for their produce from port to port, might import +foreign goods, and even go so far as to allow the better paid of their +clerks to dress themselves as they liked in foreign costume; but Takezawa +and Co. were patriotic Japanese merchants, and resolved to run on in the +old groove of their ancestors. + +But times still changed, and the great house, running on in its solid +old-fashioned manner, found itself left in the lurch by younger and more +enterprising firms. This would never do. So Takezawa consulted with his +partners, patrons, clients, and friends, and after much worthy discussion, +and much vehement opposition on the part of the old man, it was resolved +to keep pace with the times, as much as possible, without absolutely +overturning the old status of the house. + +Well, Takezawa and Co. had still a very fair share of the export rice and +silk business; but their slow, heavy-sterned junks were no match for the +swift, foreign-built steamers employed by other firms; so, with a +tremendous wince, and not without a side thought at "Hara Kiri"--(the +"Happy Despatch")--Takezawa consented to the sale of all his junks, and +the purchase with the proceeds of a big foreign steamer. + +The steamer was bought--a fine three-masted, double-funnelled boat, +complete with every appliance, newly engined, and manned by European +officers and leading seamen. From the dock at Yokoska, where she was +lying, a preliminary trip was made; and so smoothly did everything work, +and so easily did everything seem to act, under the guidance of the +Europeans, that Takezawa considered his own mariners perfectly competent +to handle the vessel after an hour's experience on board. So the Europeans +were discharged with six months' salaries--about six times as much as they +would have received at home--and Takezawa fixed a day when the ship should +be rechristened, and should make her trial trip under Japanese management. + +It was a beautiful day in autumn--the most glorious period of the year in +Japan--when Takezawa and a distinguished company assembled on board the +steamer, to give her a new name, and to send her forth finally as a +Japanese steamer. The ship looked brave enough as she lay in the +dock--ports newly painted, brass-work shining, yards squared, and half +buried in bunting. At the mizen floated the empire flag of Japan--a red +sun on a white ground--and as Takezawa gazed fore and aft, and his eyes +rested on brightness, cleanliness, and order everywhere, he wondered to +himself how he could have been such a fool as to stand out so long against +the possession of such a treasure, merely on the grounds of its not being +Japanese. A fair daughter of one of his partners dashed a cup of "sake" +against the bows of the vessel, and the newly named "Lightning Bird" +dashed forward into the ocean. Her head was made straight for Yokohama +(Takezawa had seen the Englishmen at the wheel manipulate her in that +course on her trial trip, so he knew she couldn't go wrong). And straight +she went. Every one was delighted; sweetmeats and wine were served round, +whilst on the quarterdeck a troupe of the best "Geyshas" or singing-girls +in Yedo mingled their shrill voices and their guitar notes with the sound +of the fresh morning breeze through the rigging. + +The engines worked magnificently: coals were poured into the furnaces by +the hundredweight, so as to keep a good uniform thick cloud of smoke +coming from the funnels--if the smoke lacked intensity for a minute, +Takezawa, fearful that something was wrong, bellowed forth orders for more +coal to be heaped on, so that in a quarter of an hour's time the +"Lightning Bird" consumed as much fuel as would have served a P. and O. +steamer for half a day. On she went, everybody pleased and smiling, +everything taut and satisfactory. Straight ahead was Treaty Point--a bold +bluff running out into the sea. The "Lightning Bird" was bound for +Yokohama--Yokohama lies well behind Treaty Point--but at the pace she was +going it was very apparent that, unless a sudden and rapid turn to +starboard was made, she would run, not into Yokohama, but into Treaty +Point. + +The singing and feasting proceeded merrily on deck, but Takezawa was +uneasy and undecided on the bridge. The helm was put hard a-port, the +brave vessel obeyed, and leapt on straight for the line of rocks at the +foot of the Point, over which the waves were breaking in cascades of foam. +But the gods would not see a vessel, making her first run under Japanese +auspices, maltreated and destroyed by simple waves and rocks; so, just in +time to save an ignominious run aground, the helm was put hard over, fresh +fuel was piled on to the furnaces, and by barely half a ship's length the +"Lightning Bird" shaved the Point, and stood in straight for Yokohama bay. + +Takezawa breathed freely for the moment; but, as he saw ahead the crowd of +European ships and native junks through which he would have to thread his +way, he would have given a very large sum to have had a couple of +Europeans at the wheel in the place of his own half-witted, scared +mariners. + +However, there was no help for it; the ship sped on, and the guests on +board, many of whom were thorough rustics, were in raptures at the distant +views of the white houses on the Yokohama Bund, at the big steamers and +the graceful sailing vessels on all sides. To avoid the chance of a +collision, Takezawa managed to keep his steamer well outside; they nearly +ran down a fishing junk or two, and all but sunk the lightship; still, +they had not as yet come to absolute grief. Round they went for a long +half-hour; many of the guests were suffering from sickness, and Takezawa +thought that he might bring the trip to an end. So he bellowed forth +orders to stop the engines, and anchor. The anchor was promptly let go, +but stopping the engines was another matter, for nobody on board knew how +to do so--there was nothing to be done but to allow the vessel to pursue a +circular course until steam was exhausted; and she could go no farther. It +was idle to explain to the distinguished company that this was the course +invariably adopted by Europeans, for under their noses was the graceful P. +and O. steamer, a moment since ploughing along at full steam, now riding +at anchor by her buoy. So round and round went the "Lightning Bird," to +the amazement of the crews of the ships in harbour and of a large crowd +gathered on the "Bund;" the brave company on board were now assured that +the judgment of the gods was overtaking them for having ventured to sea in +a foreign vessel, and poor Takezawa was half resolved to despatch himself, +and wholly resolved never to make such an experiment as this again. He +cursed the day when he was finally led to forsake the groove so honourably +and profitably grubbed along by his fathers, and strode with hasty steps +up and down the bridge, refusing to be comforted, and terrifying out of +their few remaining wits the two poor fellows at the wheel. After a few +circles, an English man-of-war sent a steam launch after the "Lightning +Bird," and to the intense disgust of the great Japanese people on board, +who preferred to see eccentricity on the part of their countrymen, to +interference by foreigners, but to the great delight of the women and +rustics, who began to be rather tired of the fun, the engines were +stopped. Takezawa did not hear the last of this for a long, long time; +caricatures and verses were constantly being circulated bearing upon the +fiasco, although it would have been as much as any man's life was worth to +have taunted him openly with it. But it was a salutary lesson; and +although he still kept the "Lightning Bird," he engaged Europeans to man +her, until his men proved themselves adepts, and she afterwards became one +of the smartest and fastest craft on the coast.--_Belgravia._ + + + + +SUPPOSED CHANGES IN THE MOON. + + +In this Magazine for August last I considered the moon's multitudinous +small craters with special reference to the theory that some among those +small craters may have been produced by the downfall of aerolithic or +meteoric masses upon the moon's once plastic surface. Whether it be +considered probable that this is really the case or not with regard to +actually existent lunar craters, it cannot be doubted that during one +period of the moon's history, a period probably lasting many millions of +years, many crater-shaped depressions must have been produced in this way. +As I showed in that essay, it is absolutely certain that thousands of +meteoric masses, large enough to form visible depressions where they fell, +must have fallen during the moon's plastic era. It is certain also that +that era must have been very long-lasting. Nevertheless, it remains +possible (many will consider it extremely probable, if not absolutely +certain) that during sequent periods all such traces were removed. There +is certainly nothing in the aspect of the present lunar craters, even the +smallest and most numerous, to preclude the possibility that they, like +the larger ones, were the results of purely volcanic action; and to many +minds it seems preferable to adopt one general theory respecting all such +objects as may be classed in a regular series, than to consider that some +members of the series are to be explained in one way and others in a +different way. We can form a series extending without break or +interruption from the largest lunar craters, more than a hundred miles in +diameter, to the smallest visible craters, less than a quarter of a mile +across, or even to far smaller craters, if increase of telescopic power +should reveal such. And therefore many object to adopt any theory in +explanation of the smaller craters (or some of them) which could +manifestly not be extended to the largest. Albeit we must remember that +certainly if any small craters had been formed during the plastic era by +meteoric downfall, and had remained unchanged after the moon solidified, +it would now be quite impossible to distinguish these from craters formed +in the ordinary manner. + +While we thus recognise the possibility, at any rate, that multitudes of +small lunar craters, say from a quarter of a mile to two miles in +diameter, may have been formed by falling meteoric masses hundreds of +millions of years ago, and may have remained unchanged even until now, we +perceive that on the moon later processes must have formed many small +craters, precisely as such small craters have been formed on our own +earth. I consider, at the close of the essay above mentioned, the two +stages of the moon's development which must have followed the period +during which her surface was wholly or in great part plastic. First, there +was the stage during which the crust contracted more rapidly than the +nucleus, and was rent from time to time as though the nucleus were +expanding within it. Secondly, there came the era when the nucleus, having +retained a greater share of heat, began to cool, and therefore to contract +more quickly than the crust, so that the crust became wrinkled or +corrugated, as it followed up (so to speak) the retreating nucleus. + +It would be in the later part of this second great era that the moon (if +ever) would have resembled the earth. The forms of volcanic activity still +existing on the earth seem most probably referable to the gradual +contraction of the nucleus, and the steady resulting contraction of the +rocky crust. As Mallet and Dana have shown, the heat resulting from the +contraction, or in reality from the slow downfall of the crust, is amply +sufficient to account for the whole observed volcanian energy of the +earth. It has indeed been objected, that if this theory (which is +considered more fully in my "Pleasant Ways in Science") were correct, we +ought to find volcanoes occurring indifferently, or at any rate volcanic +phenomena of various kinds so occurring, in all parts of the earth's +surface, and not prevalent in special regions and scarcely ever noticed +elsewhere. But this objection is based on erroneous ideas as to the length +of time necessary for the development of subterranean changes, and also as +to the extent of regions which at present find in certain volcanic craters +a sufficient outlet for their subterranean fires. It is natural that, if a +region of wide extent has at any time been relieved at some point, that +spot should long afterwards remain as an outlet, a sort of safety-valve, +which, by yielding somewhat more quickly than any neighbouring part of the +crust, would save the whole region from destructive earthquakes; and +though in the course of time a crater which had acted such a part would +cease to do so, yet the period required for such a change would be very +long indeed compared with those periods by which men ordinarily measure +time. Moreover, it by no means follows that every part of the earth's +crust would even require an outlet for heat developed beneath it. Over +wide tracts of the earth's surface the rate of contraction may be such, or +may be so related to the thickness of the crust, that the heat developed +can find ready escape by conduction to the surface, and by radiation +thence into space. Nay, from the part which water is known to play in +producing volcanic phenomena, it may well be that in every region where +water does not find its way in large quantities to the parts in which the +subterranean heat is great, no volcanic action results. Mallet, following +other experienced vulcanologists, lays down the law, "Without water there +can be no volcano;" so that the neighbourhood of large oceans, as well as +special conditions of the crust, must be regarded as probably essential to +the existence of such outlets as Vesuvius, Etna, Hecla, and the rest. + +So much premised, let us enquire whether it is antecedently likely that in +the moon volcanic action may still be in progress, and afterwards consider +the recent announcement of a lunar disturbance, which, if really volcanic, +certainly indicates volcanic action far more intense than any which is at +present taking place in our own earth. I have already, I may remark, +considered the evidence respecting this new lunar crater which some +suppose to have been formed during the last two years. But I am not here +going over the same ground as in my former paper ("Contemporary Review" +for August, 1878). Moreover, since that paper was written, new evidence +has been obtained, and I am now able to speak with considerable confidence +about points which were in some degree doubtful three months ago. + +Let us consider, in the first place, what is the moon's probable age, not +in years, but in development. Here we have only probable evidence to guide +us, evidence chiefly derived from the analogy of our own earth. At least, +we have only such evidence when we are enquiring into the moon's age as a +preliminary to the consideration of her actual aspect and its meaning. No +doubt many features revealed by telescopic scrutiny are full of +significance in this respect. No one who has ever looked at the moon, +indeed, with a telescope of great power has failed to be struck by the +appearance of deadness which her surface presents, or to be impressed (at +a first view, in any case), with the idea that he is looking at a world +whose period of life must be set in a very remote antiquity. But we must +not take such considerations into account in discussing the _a priori_ +probabilities that the moon is a very aged world. Thus we have only +evidence from analogy to guide us in this part of our enquiry. I note the +point at starting, because the indicative mood is so much more convenient +than the conditional, that I may frequently in this part of my enquiry use +the former where the actual nature of the evidence would only justify the +latter. Let it be understood that the force of the reasoning here depends +entirely on the weight we are disposed to allow to arguments from analogy. + +Assuming the planets and satellites of the solar system to be formed in +some such manner as Laplace suggested in his "Nebular Hypothesis," the +moon, as an orb travelling round the earth, must be regarded as very much +older than she is, even in years. Even if we accept the theory of +accretion which has been recently suggested as better according with known +facts, it would still follow that probably the moon had existence, as a +globe of matter nearly of her present size, long before the earth had +gathered in the major portion of her substance. Necessarily, therefore, if +we assume as far more probable than either theory that the earth and moon +attained their present condition by combined processes of condensation and +accretion, we should infer that the moon is far the older of the two +bodies in years. + +But if we even suppose that the earth and moon began their career as +companion planets at about the same epoch, we should still have reason to +believe that these planets, equal though they were in age so far as mere +years are concerned, must be very unequally advanced so far as development +is concerned, and must therefore in that respect be of very unequal age. + +It was, I believe, Sir Isaac Newton who first called attention to the +circumstance that the larger a planet is, the longer will be the various +stages of its existence. He used the same reasoning which was afterwards +urged by Buffon, and suggested an experiment which Buffon was the first to +carry out. If two globes of iron, of unequal size, be heated to the same +degree, and then left to cool side by side, it will be found that the +larger glows with a ruddy light after the smaller has become quite dark, +and that the larger remains intensely hot long after the smaller has +become cool enough to be handled. The reason of the difference is very +readily recognised. Indeed, Newton perceived that there would be such a +difference before the matter had been experimentally tested. The quantity +of heat in the unequal globes is proportional to the volume, the substance +of each being the same. The heat is emitted from the surface, and at a +rate depending on the extent of surface. But the volume of the larger +exceeds that of the smaller in greater degree than the surface of the +larger exceeds the surface of the other. Suppose, for instance, the larger +has a diameter twice as great as that of the smaller, its surface is four +times as great as that of the smaller, its volume eight times as great. +Having, then, eight times as much heat as the smaller at the beginning, +and parting with that heat only four times as fast as the smaller, the +supply necessarily lasts twice as long; or, more exactly, each stage in +the cooling of the larger lasts twice as long as the corresponding stage +in the cooling of the smaller. We see that the duration of the heat is +greater for the larger in the same degree that the diameter is greater. +And we should have obtained the same result whatever diameters we had +considered. Suppose, for instance, we heat two globes of iron, one an inch +in diameter, the other seven inches, to a white heat. The surface of the +larger is forty-nine times that of the smaller, and thus it gives out at +the beginning, and at each corresponding stage of cooling, forty-nine +times as much heat as the smaller. But it possesses at the beginning three +hundred and forty-three (seven times seven times seven) times as much +heat. Consequently, the supply will last seven times as long, precisely as +a stock of three hundred and forty-three thousand pounds, expended +forty-nine times as fast as a stock of one thousand pounds only, would +last seven times as long. In every case we find that the duration of the +heat-emission for globes of the same material equally heated at the outset +is proportional to their diameters. + +Now, before applying this result to the case of the moon, we must take +into account two considerations:--First, the probability that when the +moon was formed she was not nearly so hot as the earth when it first took +planetary shape; and secondly, the different densities of the earth and +moon. + +The original heat of every member of the solar system, including the sun, +depended on the gravitating energy of its own mass. The greater that +energy, the greater the heat generated either by the process of steady +contraction imagined in Laplace's theory, or by the process of meteoric +indraught imagined in the aggregation theory. To show how very different +are the heat-generating powers of two very unequal masses, consider what +would happen if the earth drew down to its own surface a meteoric mass +which had approached the earth under her own attraction only. (The case is +of course purely imaginary, because no meteor can approach the earth which +has not been subjected to the far greater attractive energy of the sun, +and does not possess a velocity far greater than any which the earth +herself could impart). In this case such a mass would strike the earth +with a velocity of about seven miles per second, and the heat generated +would be that due to this velocity only. Now, when a meteor strikes the +sun full tilt after a journey from the star depths under his attraction, +it reaches his surface with a velocity of nearly three hundred and sixty +miles per second. The heat generated is nearly fifty times greater than in +the imagined case of the earth. The moon being very much less than the +earth, the velocity she can impart to meteoric bodies is still less. It +amounts, in fact, to only about a mile per second. The condensing energy +of the moon in her vaporous era was in like manner far less than that of +the earth, and consequently far less heat was then generated. Thus, +although we might well believe on _a priori_ grounds, even if not assured +by actual study of the lunar features, that the moon when first formed as +a planet had a surface far hotter than molten iron, we must yet believe +that, when first formed, the moon had a temperature very much below that +of our earth at the corresponding stage of her existence. + +On this account, then, we must consider that the moon started in planetary +existence in a condition as to heat which our earth did not attain till +many millions, probably hundreds of millions of years after the epoch of +her first formation as a planet. + +As regards the moon's substance, we have no means of forming a +satisfactory opinion. But we shall be safe in regarding quantity of matter +in the moon as a safer basis of calculation than volume, in comparing the +duration of her various stages of development with those of our own earth. +When, in the August number of this Magazine, I adopted a relation derived +from the latter and less correct method, it was because the more correct +method gave the result most favourable to the argument I was then +considering. The same is indeed the case now. Yet it will be better to +adopt the more exact method, because the consideration relates no longer +to a mere side issue, but belongs to the very essence of my reasoning. + +The moon has a mass equal to about one eighty-first part of the earth's. +Her diameter being less than the earth's, about as two to seven, the +duration of each stage of her cooling would be in this degree less than +the corresponding duration for the earth, if her density were the same as +the earth's, in which case her mass would be only one forty-ninth part of +the earth's. But her mass being so much less, we must assume that her +amount of heat at any given stage of cooling was less in similar degree +than it would have been had her density been the same as the earth's. We +may, in fact, assume that the moon's total supply of heat would be only +one eighty-first of the earth's if the two bodies were at the same +temperature throughout.[63] But the surface of the moon is between +one-thirteenth and one-fourteenth of the earth's. Since, then, the earth +at any given stage of cooling parted with her heat between thirteen and +fourteen times as fast as the moon, but had about eighty-one times as much +heat to part with (for that stage), it follows that she would take about +six times as long (six times thirteen and a-half is equal to eighty-one) +to cool through that particular stage as the moon would. + +If we take this relation as the basis of our estimate of the moon's age, +we shall find that, even if the moon's existence as a planet began +simultaneously with the earth's instead of many millions of years earlier, +even if the moon was then as hot as the earth instead of being so much +cooler that many millions of years would be required for the earth to cool +to the same temperature--making, I say, these assumptions, which probably +correspond to the omission of hundreds of millions of years in our +estimate of the moon's age, we shall still find the moon to be hundreds of +millions of years older than the earth. + +Nay, we may even take a position still less favourable to my argument. Let +us overlook the long ages during which the two orbs were in the vaporous +state, and suppose the earth and moon to be simultaneously in that stage +of planetary existence when the surface has a temperature of two thousand +degrees Centigrade. + +From Bischoff's experiments on the cooling of rocks, it appears to follow +that some three hundred and twenty millions of years must have elapsed +between the time when the earth's surface was at this temperature and the +time when the surface temperature was reduced to two hundred degrees +Centigrade, or one hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit above the +boiling point. The earth was for that enormous period a mass (in the main) +of molten rock. In the moon's case this period lasted only one-sixth of +three hundred and twenty million years, or about fifty-three million +years, leaving two hundred and sixty-seven million years' interval between +the time when the moon's surface had cooled down to two hundred degrees +Centigrade and the later epoch when the earth's surface had attained that +temperature. + +I would not, however, insist on these numerical details. It has always +seemed to me unsafe to base calculations respecting suns and planets on +experiments conducted in the laboratory. The circumstances under which the +heavenly bodies exist, regarding these bodies as wholes, are utterly +unlike any which can be produced in the laboratory, no matter on what +scale the experimenter may carry on his researches. I have often been +amused to see even mathematicians of repute employing a formula based on +terrestrial experiments, physical, optical, and otherwise, as though the +formula were an eternal omnipresent reality, without noting that, if +similarly applied to obtain other determinations, the most stupendously +absurd results would be deduced. It is as though, having found that a +child grows three inches in the fifth year of his age, one should infer +not only that that person but every other person in every age and in every +planet, nay, in the whole universe, would be thirty inches taller at the +age of fifteen than at the age of five, without noticing that the same +method of computation would show everyone to be more than fifteen feet +taller at the age of sixty-five. It may well be that, instead of three +hundred and twenty millions of years, the era considered by Bischoff +lasted less than a hundred millions of years. Or quite as probably it may +have lasted five or six hundred millions of years. And again, instead of +the corresponding era of the moon's past history having lasted one sixth +of the time required to produce the same change in the earth's condition, +it may have lasted a quarter, or a third, or even half that time, though +quite as probably it may have lasted much less than a sixth. But in any +case we cannot reasonably doubt that the moon reached the stage of cooling +through which the earth is now passing many millions of years ago. We +shall not probably err very greatly in taking the interval as at least two +hundred millions of years. + +But I could point out that in reality it is a matter of small importance, +so far as my present argument is concerned, whether we adopt Bischoff's +period or a period differing greatly from it. For if instead of about +three hundred millions the earth required only thirty millions of years to +cool from a surface temperature of two thousand degrees Centigrade to a +temperature of two hundred degrees, we must assume that the rate of +cooling is ten times greater than Bischoff supposed. And we must of course +extend the same assumption to the moon. Now, since the sole question +before us is to what degree the moon has cooled, it matters nothing +whether we suppose the moon has been cooling very slowly during many +millions of years since she was in the same condition as the earth at +present, or that the moon has been cooling ten times as quickly during a +tenth part of the time, or a hundred times as quickly during one-hundredth +part of the time. + +We may, therefore, continue to use the numbers resulting from Bischoff's +calculation, even though we admit the probability that they differ widely +from the true values of the periods we are considering. + +Setting the moon, then, as about two hundred and fifty millions of years +in advance of the earth in development, even when we overlook all the eras +preceding that considered by Bischoff, and the entire sequent interval +(which must be long, for the earth has no longer a surface one hundred +degrees Centigrade hotter than boiling water), let us consider what is +suggested by this enormous time-difference. + +In the first place, it corresponds to a much greater interval in our +earth's history. During the two hundred and fifty millions of years the +moon has been cooling at her rate, not at the earth's. According to the +conclusion we deduced from the moon's relative mass and surface, she has +aged as much during those two hundred and fifty million years as the earth +will during the next fifteen hundred million years. + +Now, however slowly we suppose the earth's crust to be changing, it must +be admitted that in the course of the next fifteen hundred millions of +years the earth will have parted with far the greater part, if not with +the whole, of that inherent heat on which the present movements of her +surface depend. We know that these movements at once depend upon and +indicate processes of contraction. We know that such processes cannot +continue at their present rate for many millions of years. If we assume +that the rate of contraction will steadily diminish--which is equivalent, +be it noticed, to the assumption that the earth's vulcanian or +subterranean energies will be diminished--the duration of the process will +be greater. But even on such an assumption, controlled by consideration of +the evidence we have respecting the rate at which terrestrial contraction +is diminishing, it is certain that long before a period of fifteen hundred +millions of years has elapsed, the process of contraction will to all +intents and purposes be completed. + +We must assume, then, as altogether the most probable view, that the moon +has reached this stage of planetary decrepitude, even if she has not +become an absolutely dead world. We can hardly reject the reasoning which +would show that the moon is far older than has been assumed when long +stages of her history and our earth's have been neglected. Still less +reasonable would it be to reject the conclusion that at the very least she +has reached the hoar antiquity thus inferred. Assuming her to be no older, +we yet cannot escape the conviction that her state is that of utter +decrepitude. To suppose that volcanic action can now be in progress on the +moon, even to as great a degree as on the earth, would be to assume that +measurable sources of energy can produce practically immeasurable results. +But no volcanic changes now in process on the earth could possibly be +discernible at the moon's distance. How utterly unlikely does it seem, +then, that any volcanic changes can be now taking place on the moon which +could be recognized from the earth! It seems safe to assume that no +volcanic changes at all can be in progress; but most certainly the +evidence which should convince us that volcanic changes of so tremendous a +character are in progress that at a distance of two hundred and sixty +thousand miles terrestrial telescopists can discern them, must be of the +strongest and most satisfactory character. + +Evidence of change may indeed be discovered which can be otherwise +explained. The moon is exposed to the action of heat other than that which +pervaded her own frame at the time of her first formation. The sun's heat +is poured upon the moon during the long lunar day of more than a +fortnight, while during the long lunar night a cold prevails which must +far exceed that of our bitterest arctic winters. We know from the +heat-measurements made by the present Lord Rosse, that any part of the +moon's surface at lunar mid-day is fully five hundred degrees Fahrenheit +hotter than the same part two weeks later at lunar midnight. The alternate +expansions and contractions resulting from these changes of temperature +cannot but produce changes, however slowly, in the contour of the moon's +surface. Professor Newcomb, indeed, considers that all such changes must +long since have been completed. But I cannot see how they can be completed +so long as the moon's surface is uneven, and at present there are regions +where that surface is altogether rugged. Mighty peaks and walls exist +which must one day be thrown down, so unstable is their form; deep ravines +can be seen which must one day be the scene of tremendous landslips, so +steep and precipitous are their sides. Changes such as these may still +occur on so vast a scale that telescopists may hope from time to time to +recognise them. But changes such as these are not volcanic; they attest no +lunar vitality. They are antecedently so probable, indeed, while volcanic +changes are antecedently so unlikely, that when any change is clearly +recognised in the moon's surface, nothing but the most convincing evidence +could be accepted as demonstrating that the change was of volcanic origin +and not due to the continued expansion and contraction of the lunar crust. + +And now let us see how stands the evidence in the few cases which seem +most to favour the idea that a real change has taken place. + +We may dismiss, in the first place, without any hesitation, the assertion +that regular changes take place in the floor of the great lunar crater +Plato. According to statements very confidently advanced a few years ago, +this wide circular plain, some sixty miles in diameter, grows darker and +darker as the lunar day advances there until the time corresponding to +about two o'clock in the afternoon, and then grows gradually lighter again +till eventide. The idea seems to have been at first that some sort of +vegetation exists on the floor of this mighty ring-shaped mountain, and +that, as the sun's heat falls during the long lunar day upon the great +plain, the vegetation flourishes, darkening the whole region just as we +might imagine that some far-extending forest on the earth would appear +darker as seen from the moon when fully clothed with vegetation than when +the trees were bare and the lighter tints of the ground could be seen +through them. Another idea was that the ground undergoes some change under +the sun's heat corresponding to those which are produced in certain +substances employed in photography; though it was not explained why the +solar rays should produce no permanent change, as in the terrestrial cases +adduced in illustration. Yet another and, if possible, an even stranger +explanation, suggested that, though the moon has no seas, there may be +large quantities of water beneath her crust, which may evaporate when that +crust becomes heated, rising in the form of vapour to moisten and so +darken the crust. Certainly, the idea of a moistening of the lunar crust, +or of portions thereof, as the sun's rays fall more strongly upon it, is +so daring that one could almost wish it were admissible, instead of being +altogether inconsistent, as unfortunately it is, with physical +possibilities. + +But still more unfortunately, the fact supposed to have been observed, on +which these ingenious speculations were based, has not only been called in +question, but has been altogether negatived. More exact observations have +shown that the supposed darkening of the floor of Plato is a mere optical +illusion. When the sun has lately risen at that part of the moon, the +ringed wall surrounding this great plain throws long shadows across the +level surface. These shadows are absolutely black, like all the shadows on +the moon. By contrast, therefore, the unshadowed part of the floor appears +lighter than it really is; but the mountain ring which surrounds this dark +grey plain is of light tint. So soon as the sun has passed high above the +horizon of this region, the ring appears very brilliant compared with the +dark plain which it surrounds; thus the plain appears by comparison even +darker than it really is. As the long lunar afternoon advances, however, +black shadows are again thrown athwart the floor, which therefore again +appears by contrast lighter than it really is. All the apparent changes +are such as might have been anticipated by anyone who considered how +readily the eye is misled by effects of contrast. + +To base any argument in favour of a regular change in the floor of Plato +on evidence such as this, would be as unwise as it would be to deduce +inferences as to changes in the heat of water from experiments in which +the heat was determined by the sensations experienced when the hands were +successively immersed, one hand having previously been in water as hot as +could be borne, the other in water as cold as could be borne. We know how +readily these sensations would deceive us (if we trusted them) into the +belief that the water had warmed notably during the short interval of time +which had elapsed between the two immersions; for we know that if both +hands were immersed at the same moment in lukewarm water, the water would +appear cold to one hand and warm to the other. + +Precisely as in such a case as we have just considered, if we were obliged +to test the water by so inexact a method, we should make experiments with +one hand only, and carefully consider the condition of that hand during +the progress of the experiments, so in the case of the floor of Plato, we +must exclude as far as possible all effects due to mere contrast. We must +examine the tint of the plain, at lunar morning, mid-day, and evening, +with an eye not affected either by the darkness or brightness of adjacent +regions, or adjacent parts of the same region. This is very readily done. +All we have to do is to reduce the telescopic field of view to such an +extent that, instead of the whole floor, only a small portion can be seen. +It will then be found, as I can myself certify (the more apparently +because the experience of others confirms my own), that the supposed +change of tint does not take place. One or two who were and are strong +believers in the reality of the change do indeed assert that they have +tried this experiment, and have obtained an entirely different result. But +this may fairly be regarded as showing how apt an observer is to be +self-deceived when he is entirely persuaded of the truth of some favourite +theory. For those who carried out the experiment successfully had no views +one way or the other; those only failed who were certainly assured +beforehand that the experiment would confirm their theory. + +The case of the lunar crater Linné, which somewhere about November 1865 +attracted the attention of astronomers, belongs to a very different +category. In my article on the moon in the "Contemporary Review" I have +fully presented the evidence in the case of this remarkable object. I need +not therefore consider here the various arguments which have been urged +for and against the occurrence of change. I may mention, however, that, in +my anxiety to do full justice to the theory that change has really +occurred, I took Mädler's description of the crater's interior as "very +deep," to mean more than Mädler probably intended. There is now a +depression several hundred yards in depth. If Mädler's description be +interpreted, as I interpreted it for the occasion in the above article, to +mean a depth of two or three miles, it is of course certain that there has +been a very remarkable change. But some of the observers who have devoted +themselves utterly, it would seem, to the lively occupation of measuring, +counting, and describing the tens of thousands of lunar craters already +known, assert that Mädler and Lohrman (who uses the same description) +meant nothing like so great a depth. Probably Mädler only meant about half +a mile, or even less. In this case their favourite theory no longer seems +so strongly supported by the evidence. In some old drawings by the +well-known observer Schröter, the crater is drawn very much as it now +appears. Thus, I think we must adopt as most probable the opinion which +is, I see, advanced by Prof. Newcomb in his excellent "Popular Astronomy," +that there has been no actual change in the crater. I must indeed remark +that, after comparing several drawings of the same regions by Schröter, +Mädler, Lohrman, and Schmidt, with each other and with the moon's surface, +I find myself by no means very strongly impressed by the artistic skill of +any of these observers. I scarcely know a single region in the moon where +change might not be inferred to have taken place if any one of the +above-named observers could be implicitly relied upon. As, fortunately, +their views differ even more widely _inter se_ than from the moon's own +surface, we are not driven to so startling a conclusion. + +However, if we assume even that Linné has undergone change, we still have +no reason to believe that the change is volcanic. A steep wall, say half a +mile in height, surrounding a crater four or five miles in diameter, no +longer stands at this height above the enclosed space, if the believers in +a real change are to be trusted. But, as Dr. Huggins well remarked long +ago, if volcanic forces competent to produce disturbance of this kind are +at work in the moon, we ought more frequently to recognize signs of +change, for they could scarcely be at work in one part only of the moon's +surface, or only at long intervals of time. It is so easy to explain the +overthrow of such a wall as surrounded Linné (always assuming we can rely +upon former accounts) without imagining volcanic action, that, considering +the overwhelming weight of _a priori_ probability against such action at +the present time, it would be very rash to adopt the volcanic theory. The +expansions and contractions described above would not only be able to +throw down walls of the kind, but they would be sure to do so from time to +time. Indeed, as a mere matter of probabilities, it may be truly said that +it would be exceedingly unlikely that catastrophes such as the one which +may have occurred in this case would fail to happen at comparatively short +intervals of time. It would be so unlikely, that I am almost disposed to +adopt the theory that there really has been a change in Linné, for the +reason that on that theory we get rid of the difficulty arising from the +apparent fixity of even the steepest lunar rocks. However, after all, the +time during which men have studied the moon with the telescope--only two +hundred and sixty-nine years--is a mere instant compared with the long +periods during which the moon has been exposed to the sun's intense heat +by day and a more than arctic intensity of cold by night. It may well be +that, though lunar landslips occur at short intervals of time, these +intervals are only short when compared with those periods, hundreds of +millions of years long, of which we had to speak a little while ago. +Perhaps in a period of ten or twenty thousand years we might have a fair +chance of noting the occurrence of one or two catastrophes of the kind, +whereas we could hardly expect to note any, save by the merest accident, +in two or three hundred years. + +To come now to the last, and, according to some, the most decisive piece +of evidence in favour of the theory that the moon's crust is still under +the influence of volcanic forces. + +On May 19, 1877, Dr. Hermann J. Klein, of Cologne, observed a crater more +than two miles in width, where he felt sure that no crater had before +existed. It was near the centre of the moon's visible hemisphere, and not +far from a well-known crater called Hyginus. At the time of observation it +was not far from the boundary between the light and dark parts of the +moon: in fact, it was near the time of sunrise at this region. Thus the +floor of the supposed new crater was in shadow--it appeared perfectly +black. In the conventional language for such cases made and provided (it +should be stereotyped by selenographers, for it has now been used a great +many times since Schröter first adopted the belief that the great crater +Cassini, thirty-six miles in diameter, was a new one) Dr. Klein says, "The +region having been frequently observed by myself during the last few +years, I feel certain that no such crater existed in the region at the +time of my previous observations." He communicated his discovery to Dr. +Schmidt, who also assured him that the region had been frequently observed +by himself during the last few years, and he felt certain that no such +crater, &c., &c. It is not in the maps by Lohrman and by Beer and Mädler, +or in Schröter's drawings, and so forth. "We know more," says a recent +writer, singularly ready to believe in lunar changes; "we know that at a +later period, with the powerful Dorpat telescope, Mädler carefully +re-examined this particular region, to see if he could detect any +additional features not shown in his map. He found several smaller +craterlets _in other parts_" (the italics are mine), "but he could not +detect any other crater in the region where Dr. Klein now states there +exist a large crater, though he did find some very small hills close to +this spot." "This evidence is really conclusive," says this very confident +writer, "for it is incredible that Mädler could have seen these minute +hills and overlooked a crater so large that it is the second largest +crater of the score in this region." Then this writer comes in, of course, +in his turn, with the customary phrases. "During the six years, 1870-1876, +I most carefully examined this region, for the express purpose of +detecting any craters not shown by Mädler," and he also can certify that +no such crater existed, etc., etc. He was only waiting, when he thus +wrote, to see the crater for himself. "One suitable evening will settle +the matter. If I find a deep black crater, three miles in diameter, in the +place assigned to it by Dr. Klein, and when six years' observation +convinces me no such crater did exist, I shall know that it must be new." + +Astronomers, however, require somewhat better evidence. + +It might well be that a new crater-shaped depression should appear in the +moon without any volcanic action having occurred. For reasons already +adduced, indeed, I hold it to be to all intents and purposes certain that +if a new depression is really in question at all, it is in reality only an +old and formerly shallow crater, whose floor has broken up, yielding at +length to the expansive and contractive effects above described, which +would act with exceptional energy at this particular part of the moon's +surface, close as it is to the lunar equator. + +But it is by no means clear that this part of the moon's surface has +undergone any change whatever. We must not be misled by the very confident +tone of selenographers. Of course they fully believe what they tell us: +but they are strongly prejudiced. Their labours, as they well know, have +now very little interest unless signs of change should be detected in the +moon. Surveyors who have done exceedingly useful work in mapping a region +would scarcely expect the public to take much interest in additional +information about every rock or pebble existing in that region, unless +they could show that something more than a mere record of rocks and +pebbles was really involved. Thus selenographers have shown, since the +days of Schröter, an intense anxiety to prove that our moon deserves, in +another than Juliet's sense, to be called "the inconstant moon." In +another sense again they seem disposed to "swear by the inconstant moon," +as changing yearly, if not "monthly, in her circled orb." Thus a very +little evidence satisfies them, and they are very readily persuaded in +their own mind that former researches of theirs, or of their +fellow-pebble-counters, have been so close and exact, that craters must +have been detected then which have been found subsequently to exist in the +moon. I do not in the slightest degree question their _bona fides_, but a +long experience of their ways leads me to place very little reliance on +such stereotyped phrases as I have quoted above. + +Now, in my paper in the "Contemporary Review" on this particular crater, I +called attention to the fact that in the magnificent photograph of the +moon taken by Dr. Louis Rutherfurd on March 6, 1865 (note well the date) +there is a small spot of lighter colour than the surrounding region, +nearly in the place indicated in the imperfect drawing of Klein's record +which alone was then available to me. For reasons, I did not then more +closely describe this feature of the finest lunar photograph ever yet +obtained. + +The writer from whom I have already quoted is naturally (being a +selenographer) altogether unwilling to accept the conclusion that this +spot is the crater floor as photographed (not as seen) under a somewhat +higher illumination than that under which the floor of the crater appears +dark. There are several white spots immediately around the dark crater, he +says: "which of these is the particular white spot which the author" +(myself) "assumes I did not see?" a question which, as I had made no +assumption whatever about this particular writer, nor mentioned him, nor +even thought of him, as I wrote the article on which he comments, I am +quite unable to answer. But he has no doubt that I have "mistaken the +white spot" (which it seems he can identify, after all) "for Klein's +crater, which is many miles farther north, and which never does appear as +a white spot: he has simply mistaken its place." + +I have waited, therefore, before writing this, until from my own +observation, or from a drawing carefully executed by Dr. Klein, I might +ascertain the exact place of the new crater. I could not, as it turned +out, observe the new crater as a black spot myself, since the question was +raised; for on the only available occasion I was away from home. But I now +have before me Dr. Klein's carefully drawn map. In this I find the new +crater placed not nearly, but _exactly_ where Rutherfurd's crater appears. +I say "Rutherfurd's crater," for the white spot is manifestly not merely a +light tinted region on the darker background of the Sea of Vapours (as the +region in which the crater has been found is called): it is a circular +crater more than two miles in diameter; and the width of the crescent of +shadow surrounding its eastern side shows that in March 1865, when +Rutherfurd took that photograph, the crater was not (for its size) a +shallow one, but deep. + +Now, it is quite true that, to the eye, under high illumination, the floor +of the crater does not appear lighter than the surrounding region; at +least, not markedly so, for to my eye it appears slightly lighter. But +everyone knows that a photograph does not show all objects with the same +depth of shading that they present to the naked eye. A somewhat dark green +object will appear rather light in a photograph, while a somewhat light +orange-yellow object will appear quite dark. We have only to assume that +the floor of the supposed new crater has a greenish tinge (which is by no +means uncommon) to understand why, although it is lost to ordinary vision +when the Sea of Vapours is under full illumination, it yet presents in a +photograph a decidedly lighter shade than the surrounding region. + +I ought to mention that the writer from whom I have quoted says that all +the photographs were examined and the different objects in this region +identified within forty-eight hours of the time when Dr. Klein's letter +reached England. He mentions also that he has himself personally examined +them. Doubtless at that time the exact position of the supposed new crater +was not known. By the way, it is strange, considering that the name Louis +Rutherfurd is distinctly written in large letters upon the magnificent +photograph in question, that a selenographer who has carefully examined +that photograph should spell the name Rutherford. He must really not +assume, when on re-examining the picture he finds the name spelled +Rutherfurd, that there has been any change, volcanic or otherwise, in the +photograph. + +In conclusion I would point out that another of these laborious +crater-counters, in a paper recently written with the express purpose of +advocating a closer and longer-continued scrutiny of the moon, makes a +statement which is full of significance in connection with the subject of +lunar changes. After quoting the opinion of a celebrated astronomer, that +one might as well attempt to catalogue the pebbles on the sea-shore as the +entire series of lunar craters down to the minutest visible with the most +powerful telescope, he states that while on the one hand, out of +thirty-two thousand eight hundred and fifty-six craters given in Schmidt's +chart, not more than two thousand objects have been entered in the +Registry he has provided for the purpose (though he has been many years +collecting materials for it from all sides); on the other hand, "on +comparing a few of these published objects with Schmidt's map, it has been +found _that some are not in it_,"--a fact to which he calls attention, +"not for the purpose of depreciating the greatest selenographical work +that has yet appeared, but for the real advancement of selenography." +Truly, the fact is as significant as it is discouraging,--unless we are +presently to be told that the craters which are not common to both series +are to be regarded as new formations. + + RICHARD A. PROCTOR, _in Belgravia_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[63] To some this may appear to be a mere truism. In reality it is far +from being so. If two globes of equal mass were each of the same exact +temperature throughout, they might yet have very unequal total quantities +of heat. If one were of water, for instance, and the other of iron or any +other metal, the former would have far the larger supply of heat; for more +heat is required to raise a given weight of water one degree in +temperature, than to raise an equal weight of iron one degree; and water +in cooling one degree, or any number of degrees, would give out more heat +than an equal weight of iron cooling to the same extent. + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF THACKERAY. + + +In the absence of any complete biography of the late William Makepeace +Thackeray, every anecdote regarding him has a certain value, in so far as +it throws a light on his personal character and methods of work. Read in +this light and this spirit, all the tributes to his memory are valuable +and interesting. Glancing over some memoranda connected with the life of +the novelist, contained in a book which has come under our notice, +entitled "Anecdote Biographies." we gain a ready insight into his +character. And from the materials thus supplied, we now offer a few +anecdotes treasured up in these too brief memorials of his life. + +Thackeray was born at Calcutta in 1811. While still very young, he was +sent to England; on the homeward voyage he had a peep at the great +Napoleon in his exile-home at St. Helena. He received his education at the +Charterhouse School and at Cambridge, leaving the latter without a degree. +His fortune at this time amounted to twenty thousand pounds; this he +afterwards lost through unfortunate speculations, but not before he had +travelled a good deal on the continent, and acquainted himself with French +and German everyday life and literature. His first inclination was to +follow the profession of an artist; and curious to relate, he made +overtures to Charles Dickens to illustrate his earliest book. Thackeray +was well equipped both in body and mind when his career as an author +began; but over ten years of hard toil at newspaper and magazine writing +were undergone before he became known as the author of "Vanity Fair," and +one of the first of living novelists. He lectured with fair if not with +extraordinary success both in England and America, when the sunshine of +public favour had been secured. His career of successful novel-writing +terminated suddenly on 24th December 1863, and like Dickens, he had an +unfinished novel on hand. + +One morning Thackeray knocked at the door of Horace Mayhew's chambers in +Regent Street, crying from without: 'It's no use, Horry Mayhew; open the +door.' On entering, he said cheerfully: 'Well, young gentleman, you'll +admit an old fogy.' When leaving, with his hat in his hand, he remarked: +'By-the-by, how stupid! I was going away without doing part of the +business of my visit. You spoke the other day of poor George. +Somebody--most unaccountably--has returned me a five-pound note I lent him +a long time ago. I didn't expect it. So just hand to George; and tell him, +when his pocket will bear it, to pass it on to some poor fellow of his +acquaintance. By-bye.' He was gone! This was one of Thackeray's delicate +methods of doing a favour; the recipient was asked to _pass it on_. + +One of his last acts on leaving America after a lecturing tour, was to +return twenty-five per cent. of the proceeds of one of his lectures to a +young speculator who had been a loser by the bargain. While known to hand +a gold piece to a waiter with the remark: 'My friend, will you do me the +favour to accept a sovereign?' he has also been known to say to a visitor +who had proffered a card: 'Don't leave this bit of paper; it has cost you +two cents, and will be just as good for your next call.' Evidently aware +that money when properly used is a wonderful health-restorer, he was found +by a friend who had entered his bedroom in Paris, gravely placing some +napoleons in a pill-box, on the lid of which was written: 'One to be taken +occasionally.' When asked to explain, it came out that these strange pills +were for an old person who said she was very ill, and in distress; and so +he had concluded that this was the medicine wanted. 'Dr. Thackeray,' he +remarked, 'intends to leave it with her himself. Let us walk out +together.' To a young literary man afterwards his amanuensis, he wrote +thus, on hearing that a loss had befallen him: 'I am sincerely sorry to +hear of your position, and send the little contribution which came so +opportunely from another friend whom I was enabled once to help. When you +are well-to-do again, I know you will pay it back; and I daresay somebody +else will want the money, which is meanwhile most heartily at your +service.' + +When enjoying an American repast at Boston in 1852, his friends there, +determined to surprise him with the size of their oysters, had placed six +of the largest bivalves they could find, on his plate. After swallowing +number one with some little difficulty, his friend asked him how he felt. +'Profoundly grateful,' he gasped; 'and as if I had swallowed a little +baby.' Previous to a farewell dinner given by his American intimates and +admirers, he remarked that it was very kind of his friends to give him a +dinner, but that such things always set him trembling. 'Besides,' he +remarked to his secretary, 'I have to make a speech, and what am I to say? +Here, take a pen in your hand and sit down, and I'll see if I can hammer +out something. It's hammering now, I'm afraid it will be stammering +by-and-by.' His short speeches, when delivered, were as characteristic and +unmistakable as anything he ever wrote. All the distinct features of his +written style were present. + +It is interesting to remark the sentiments he entertained towards his +great rival Charles Dickens. Although the latter was more popular as a +novelist, than he could ever expect to become, he expressed himself in +unmistakable terms regarding him. When the conversation turned that way, +we would remark: 'Dickens is making ten thousand a year. He is very angry +at me for saying so; but I will say it, for it is true. He doesn't like +me. He knows that my books are a protest against his--that if the one set +are true, the other must be false. But "Pickwick" is an exception; it is a +capital book. It is like a glass of good English ale.' When "Dombey and +Son" appeared in the familiar paper cover, number five contained the +episode of the death of little Paul. Thackeray appeared much moved in +reading it over, and putting number five in his pocket, hastened with it +to the editor's room in "Punch" office. Dashing it down on the table in +the presence of Mark Lemon, he exclaimed! 'There's no writing against such +power as this; one has no chance! Read that chapter describing young +Paul's death; it is unsurpassed--it is stupendous!' + +In a conversation with his secretary previous to his American trip, he +intimated his intention of starting a magazine or journal on his return, +to be issued in his own name. This scheme eventually took shape, and the +result was the now well known "Cornhill Magazine." This magazine proved a +great success, the sale of the first number being one hundred and ten +thousand copies. Under the excitement of this great success, Thackeray +left London for Paris. To Mr. Fields, the American publisher, who met him +by appointment at his hotel in the Rue de la Paix, he remarked: 'London is +not big enough to contain me now, and I am obliged to add Paris to my +residence. Good gracious!' said he, throwing up his long arms, 'where will +this tremendous circulation stop? Who knows but that I shall have to add +Vienna and Rome to my whereabouts? If the worst come to the worst, New +York also may fall into my clutches, and only the Rocky Mountains may be +able to stop my progress.' His spirits continued high during this visit to +Paris, his friend adding that some restraint was necessary to keep him +from entering the jewellers' shops and ordering a pocketful of diamonds +and 'other trifles; for,' said he, 'how can I spend the princely income +which Smith[64] allows me for editing "Cornhill," unless I begin instantly +somewhere!' He complained too that he could not sleep at nights 'for +counting up his subscribers.' On reading a contribution by his young +daughter to the "Cornhill," he felt much moved, remarking to a friend; +'When I read it, I blubbered like a child; it is so good, so simple, and +so honest; and my little girl wrote it, every word of it.' + +Dickens in the tender memorial which he penned for the "Cornhill +Magazine," remarks on his appearance when they dined together. 'No one,' +he says, 'can ever have seen him more genial, natural, cordial, fresh, and +honestly impulsive than I have seen him at those times. No one can be +surer than I of the greatness and goodness of the heart that had then +disclosed itself.' + +Beneath his 'modestly grand' manner, his seeming cynicism and bitterness, +he bore a very tender and loving heart. In a letter written in 1854, and +quoted in James Hannay's sketch, he expresses himself thus. 'I hate +Juvenal,' he says. 'I mean I think him a truculent fellow; and I love +Horace better than you do, and rate Churchill much lower; and as for +Swift, you haven't made me alter my opinion. I admire, or rather admit, +his power as much as you do; but I don't admire that kind or power so much +as I did fifteen years ago, or twenty shall we say. Love is a higher +intellectual exercise than hatred; and when you get one or two more of +those young ones you write so pleasantly about, you'll come over to the +side of the kind wags, I think, rather than the cruel ones.' The pathetic +sadness visible in much that he wrote sprung partly from temperament and +partly from his own private calamities. Loss of fortune was not the only +cause. When a young man in Paris, he married; and after enjoying domestic +happiness for several years, his wife caught a fever from which she never +afterwards sufficiently recovered to be able to be with her husband and +children. She was henceforth intrusted to the care of a kind family, where +every comfort and attention was secured for her. The lines in the ballad +of the "Bouillabaisse" are supposed to refer to this early time of +domestic felicity: + + Ah me! how quick the days are flitting! + I mind me of a time that's gone, + When here I'd sit as now I'm sitting, + In this place--but not alone. + A fair young form was nestled near me, + A dear, dear face looked fondly up, + And sweetly spoke and smiled to cheer me-- + There's no one now to share my cup. + +In dictating to his amanuensis during the composition of the lectures on +the "Four Georges," he would light a cigar, pace the room for a few +minutes, and then resume his work with increased cheerfulness, changing +his position very frequently, so that he was sometimes sitting, standing, +walking, or lying about. His enunciation was always clear and distinct, +and his words and thoughts were so well weighed that the progress of +writing was but seldom checked. He dictated with calm deliberation, and +shewed no risible feeling even when he had made a humorous point. His +whole literary career was one of unremitting industry; he wrote slowly, +and like 'George Eliot,' gave forth his thoughts in such perfect form, +that he rarely required to retouch his work. His handwriting was neat and +plain, often very minute; which led to the remark, that if all trades +failed, he would earn sixpences by writing the Lord's Prayer and the Creed +in the size of one. Unlike many men of less talent, he looked upon +caligraphy as one of the fine arts. When at the height of his fame he was +satisfied when he wrote six pages a day, generally working during the day, +seldom at night. An idea which would only be slightly developed in some of +his shorter stories, he treasured up and expanded in some of his larger +works. + +While Alfred Tennyson the future Laureate received the gold medal at +Cambridge given by the Chancellor of the university for the best English +poem, the subject being "Timbuctoo," we find Thackeray satirising the +subject in a humorous paper called "The Snob." Here are a few lines from +his clever skit on the prize poem: + + There stalks the tiger--there the lion roars, + Who sometimes eats the luckless blackamoors; + All that he leaves of them the monster throws + To jackals, vultures, dogs, cats, kites and crows; + His hunger thus the forest monster gluts, + And then lies down 'neath trees called cocoa-nuts. + +The personal appearance of Thackeray has been frequently described. His +nose through an early accident, was misshapen; it was broad at the bridge, +and stubby at the end. He was near-sighted: and his hair at forty was +already gray, but massy and abundant--his keen and kindly eyes twinkled +sometimes through and sometimes over his spectacles. A friend remarked +that what he 'should call the predominant expression of the countenance +was courage--a readiness to face the world on its own terms.' Unlike +Dickens, he took no regular walking exercise, and being regardless of the +laws of health, suffered in consequence. In reply to one who asked him if +he had ever received the best medical advice, his reply was: 'What is the +use of advice if you don't follow it? They tell me not to drink, and I +_do_ drink. They tell me _not_ to smoke, and I do smoke. They tell me not +to eat, and I do eat. In short, I do everything that I am desired _not_ to +do--and therefore, what am I to expect?' And so one morning he was found +lying, like Dr. Chalmers, in the sleep of death with his arms beneath his +head, after one of his violent attacks of illness--to be mourned by his +mother and daughters, who formed his household, and by a wider public +beyond, which, had learned to love him through his admirable +works.--_Chambers's Journal._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[64] Of Smith, Elder, & Co., the well known publishers. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Library Magazine of Select Foreign +Literature, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAGAZINE OF SELECT FOREIGN LITERATURE *** + +***** This file should be named 35432-8.txt or 35432-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/4/3/35432/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Christine D. and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature + Volume 1, Part 1 + +Author: Various + +Editor: John B. Alden + +Release Date: March 1, 2011 [EBook #35432] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAGAZINE OF SELECT FOREIGN LITERATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Christine D. and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class='padding'> +<h1>THE<br /> +<br /> +LIBRARY MAGAZINE</h1> + +<p class='center'>OF</p> + +<h2>Select Foreign Literature.</h2> + +<p class='center'><big>VOLUME 1.</big></p> +</div> +<div class='padding'> +<p class='center'> +NEW YORK:<br /> +JOHN B. ALDEN, PUBLISHER,<br /> +1883.<br /> +</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> + + + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p class='center'> +<a href="#THE_FUTURE_OF_INDIA"><b>THE FUTURE OF INDIA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_COUP_DETAT"><b>A COUP D'ÉTAT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THEATRICAL_MAKE-SHIFTS_AND_BLUNDERS"><b>THEATRICAL MAKE-SHIFTS AND BLUNDERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#I_WINTER-MORN_IN_THE_COUNTRY"><b>I.—WINTER-MORN IN THE COUNTRY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#II_WINTER-MORN_IN_TOWN"><b>II.—WINTER-MORN IN TOWN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_HAPPY_VALLEY"><b>THE HAPPY VALLEY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_PHOENICIANS_IN_GREECE"><b>THE PHŒNICIANS IN GREECE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOME_GOSSIP_ABOUT_LEICESTER_SQUARE"><b>SOME GOSSIP ABOUT LEICESTER SQUARE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_WOMANS_LOVE"><b>A WOMAN'S LOVE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#AN_IMPERIAL_PARDON"><b>AN IMPERIAL PARDON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHRISTMAS_IN_MOROCCO"><b>CHRISTMAS IN MOROCCO.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_HOMES_AND_HAUNTS_OF_THE_ITALIAN_POETS"><b>THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE ITALIAN POETS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_VAQUERO60"><b>THE VAQUERO.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#TWO_MODERN_JAPANESE_STORIES"><b>TWO MODERN JAPANESE STORIES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SUPPOSED_CHANGES_IN_THE_MOON"><b>SUPPOSED CHANGES IN THE MOON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RECOLLECTIONS_OF_THACKERAY"><b>RECOLLECTIONS OF THACKERAY.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>PAGE.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>About Locusts. "Chambers's Journal,"</td><td align='right'>511</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Alcohol: Its Action and Uses. J. R. Gasquet,</td><td align='right'>597</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>American View of American Competition. Edward Atkinson,</td><td align='right'>335</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>American Churches, The Historical Aspect of the. Dean Stanley,</td><td align='right'>641</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>An Imperial Pardon. F. A. S.,</td><td align='right'>64</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Art Education in Great Britain. Sir Coutts Lindsay,</td><td align='right'>477</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Artificial Somnambulism. Richard A. Proctor,</td><td align='right'>348</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Association of Local Societies, The. J. Clifton Ward,</td><td align='right'>286</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Atheism and the Church. G. H. Curteis,</td><td align='right'>217</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Austin, Alfred. Farmhouse Dirge,</td><td align='right'>177</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Atkinson, Edward. An American View of American Competition,</td><td align='right'>335</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Baker, H. Barton. Theatrical Makeshifts and Blunders,</td><td align='right'>22</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bayne, Thomas. English Men of Letters,—Shelley,</td><td align='right'>153</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Besant, Walter. Froissart's Love Story,</td><td align='right'>675</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Biographies of the Season. "London Society,"</td><td align='right'>404</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Black, Algernon. Charles Lamb,</td><td align='right'>310</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Blackie, John Stuart. On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching the Classical Languages,</td><td align='right'>290</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Blaikie, W. G. Ferney in Voltaire's Time and Ferney To-day,</td><td align='right'>230</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Buchanan, Robert. Sydney Dobell—A Personal Sketch,</td><td align='right'>538</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bunbury, Clement. A Visit to the New Zealand Geysers,</td><td align='right'>761</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Calculating Boys. Richard A. Proctor,</td><td align='right'>705</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Chapters on Socialism. John Stuart Mill,</td><td align='right'>257</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Chances of the English Opera, The. Francis Hueffer,</td><td align='right'>626</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Christmas in Morocco. C. A. P. ("Sarcelle,")</td><td align='right'>75</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Classical Education, On the Worth of a. Bonamy Price,</td><td align='right'>297</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cobbett, William: A Biography. Thomas Hughes,</td><td align='right'>326</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Commercial Depression and Reciprocity. Bonamy Price,</td><td align='right'>578</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Contemporary Life and Thought in France. G. Monod,</td><td align='right'>186</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Contemporary Life and Thought in Russia. T. S.,</td><td align='right'>312</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Contentment. C. C. Fraser-Tytler,</td><td align='right'>285</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cooper, Basil H. Fresh Assyrian Finds,</td><td align='right'>463</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Count Fersen,</td><td align='right'>244</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Coup d'Etat, A,</td><td align='right'>21</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Critic on the Hearth, The. James Payn,</td><td align='right'>696</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cupid's Workshop. Somerville Gibney,</td><td align='right'>453</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Curteis, G. H. Atheism and the Church,</td><td align='right'>217</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dallas, W. S. Entomology,</td><td align='right'>470</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Defence of Lucknow, The. Alfred Tennyson,</td><td align='right'>385</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Desprez, Frank. The Vaquero,</td><td align='right'>104</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Difficulties of Socialism, The. John Stuart Mill,</td><td align='right'>385</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Discoveries of Astronomers, The.—Hipparchus. Richard A. Proctor,</td><td align='right'>237</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dreamland.—A Last Sketch. Julia Kavanagh,</td><td align='right'>181</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>English Men of Letters.—Shelley. Thomas Bayne,</td><td align='right'>153</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>English Opera, The Chances of. Francis Hueffer,</td><td align='right'>626</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Entomology. W. S. Dallas,</td><td align='right'>470</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ewart, Henry C. The Schoolship Shaftesbury,</td><td align='right'>204</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Farmhouse Dirge, A. Alfred Austin,</td><td align='right'>177</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ferney in Voltaire's Time and Ferney To-day. W. G. Blaikie,</td><td align='right'>230</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Forbes, Archibald. Plain Words About the Afghan Question,</td><td align='right'>434</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fraser-Tytler, C. C. Contentment,</td><td align='right'>285</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>French Novels. "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine,"</td><td align='right'>723</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>French Republic and the Catholic Church, The. John Morley,</td><td align='right'>561</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fresh Assyrian Finds. Basil H. Cooper,</td><td align='right'>463</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Friends and Foes of Russia, The. W. E. Gladstone,</td><td align='right'>129</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Froissart's Love Story. Walter Besant,</td><td align='right'>675</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Future of India, The. Sir Erskine Perry,</td><td align='right'>1</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gasquet, J. R. Alcohol: Its Action and Uses,</td><td align='right'>597</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gibney, Somerville. Cupid's Workshop,</td><td align='right'>453</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gladstone, W. E. Greece and the Treaty of Berlin,</td><td align='right'>663</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gladstone, W. E. Probability as the Guide of Conduct,</td><td align='right'>513</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gladstone, W. E. The Friends and Foes of Russia,</td><td align='right'>129</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Greece and the Treaty of Berlin. W. E. Gladstone,</td><td align='right'>663</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Greece, The Progress of. R. C. Jebb,</td><td align='right'>366</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Growth of London, The,</td><td align='right'>158</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hamlet, "Mr. Irving's." "Temple Bar,"</td><td align='right'>386</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Happy Valley, The. L. A.,</td><td align='right'>32</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Harrison, Frederic. On the Choice of Books,</td><td align='right'>414</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Historical Aspect of the American Churches, The. Dean Stanley,</td><td align='right'>641</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets, The—Guarini. T. Adolphus Trollope,</td><td align='right'>85</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets, The.—Torquato Tasso. Frances Eleanor Trollope,</td><td align='right'>434</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hueffer, Francis. The Chances of the English Opera,</td><td align='right'>626</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hughes, Thomas. William Cobbett: A Biography,</td><td align='right'>326</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Japp, Alex. H. Winter Morn in Country and Winter Morn in Town,</td><td align='right'>31</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Jebb, R. C. The Progress of Greece,</td><td align='right'>366</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Kavanagh, Julia. Dreamland: A Last Sketch,</td><td align='right'>181</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lamb, Charles. Algernon Black,</td><td align='right'>310</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Languages, Classical, On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching the. John Stuart Blackie,</td><td align='right'>290</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Leicester Square, Some Gossip About,</td><td align='right'>53</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lindsay, Sir Coutts. Art Education in Great Britain,</td><td align='right'>477</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Manzoni's Hymn for Whitsunday. Dean Stanley,</td><td align='right'>637</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Merivale, Herman C. The Royal Wedding,</td><td align='right'>508</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mill, John Stuart. The Difficulties of Socialism,</td><td align='right'>385</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mill, John Stuart. Chapters on Socialism,</td><td align='right'>257</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mivart, St. George. On the Study of Natural History,</td><td align='right'>609</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Monod, G. Contemporary Life and Thought in France,</td><td align='right'>186</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Morley, John. The French Republic and the Catholic Church,</td><td align='right'>561</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Musical Cultus of the Present Day, The. H. Heathcote Statham,</td><td align='right'>687</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching the Classical Languages. John Stuart Blackie,</td><td align='right'>290</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>On Being Knocked Down and Picked Up Again.—A Consolatory Essay,</td><td align='right'>209</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>On the Choice of Books, Frederic Harrison,</td><td align='right'>414</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>On the Study of Natural History. St. George Mivart,</td><td align='right'>609</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>On the Worth of a Classical Education. Bonamy Price,</td><td align='right'>297</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Payn, James. The Critic on the Hearth,</td><td align='right'>696</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Perry, Sir Erskine. The Future of India,</td><td align='right'>1</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Philological Society's English Dictionary, The. "The Academy,"</td><td align='right'>639</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Phœnicians in Greece, The. A. H. Sayce,</td><td align='right'>36</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Plain Words About the Afghan Question. Archibald Forbes,</td><td align='right'>454</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Price, Bonamy. Commercial Depression and Reciprocity,</td><td align='right'>578</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Price, Bonamy. On the Worth of a Classical Education,</td><td align='right'>297</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Probability as the Guide of Conduct. W. E. Gladstone,</td><td align='right'>513</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Progress of Greece, The. R. C. Jebb,</td><td align='right'>366</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Proctor, Richard A. Artificial Somnambulism,</td><td align='right'>348</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Proctor, Richard A. Supposed Changes in the Moon,</td><td align='right'>111</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Proctor, Richard A. Calculating Boys,</td><td align='right'>705</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Proctor, Richard A. The Discoveries of Astronomers—Hipparchus,</td><td align='right'>237</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Recollections of Thackeray,</td><td align='right'>126</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rose, Edward. Wagner as a Dramatist,</td><td align='right'>493</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Royal Wedding, The. Herman C. Merivale,</td><td align='right'>508</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Russia, The Friends and Foes of. W. E. Gladstone,</td><td align='right'>129</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sayce, A. H. The Phœnicians in Greece,</td><td align='right'>36</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Schoolship Shaftesbury. Henry C. Ewart,</td><td align='right'>204</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Schopenhauer on Men, Books and Music. "Fraser's Magazine,"</td><td align='right'>751</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Some Gossip About Leicester Square,</td><td align='right'>53</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Socialism, Chapters on. John Stuart Mill,</td><td align='right'>257</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Socialism, Difficulties of. John Stuart Mill,</td><td align='right'>388</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Stanley, Dean. Manzoni's Hymn for Whitsunday,</td><td align='right'>637</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Stanley, Dean. The Historical Aspect of the American Churches,</td><td align='right'>641</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Statham, H. Heathcote. The Musical Cultus of the Present Day,</td><td align='right'>687</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Supposed Changes in the Moon. Richard A. Proctor,</td><td align='right'>111</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Dobell: A Personal Sketch. Robert Buchanan,</td><td align='right'>538</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Tasso, Torquato. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets. Frances Eleanor Trollope,</td><td align='right'>434</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Tennyson, Alfred. The Defence of Lucknow,</td><td align='right'>385</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Thackeray, Recollections of,</td><td align='right'>126</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Theatrical Makeshifts and Blunders. H. Barton Baker,</td><td align='right'>22</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Their Appointed Seasons. J. G. Wood,</td><td align='right'>603</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Through the Ages: A Legend of a Stone Axe. "New Quarterly Magazine,"</td><td align='right'>557</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Toilers in Field and Factory. "Time,"</td><td align='right'>483</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Toilers in Field and Factory, No. II.—Characteristics. "Time,"</td><td align='right'>549</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Transvaal, About the. "Chamber's Journal,"</td><td align='right'>330</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Trollope, Frances Eleanor. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets.—Torquato Tasso,</td><td align='right'>434</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Trollope, T. Adolphus. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets,</td><td align='right'>85</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Two Modern Japanese Stories,</td><td align='right'>105</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Valvedere, Adrian de. A Woman's Love—A Slavonian Study,</td><td align='right'>59</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Vaquero, The. Frank Desprez,</td><td align='right'>101</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Visit to the New Zealand Geysers, A. Clement Bunbury,</td><td align='right'>761</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wagner as a Dramatist. Edward Rose,</td><td align='right'>493</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ward, J. Clifton. The Association of Local Societies,</td><td align='right'>286</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Winter Morn in Country—Winter Morn in Town. Alex. H. Japp,</td><td align='right'>31</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Woman's Love. A. A Slavonian Study. Adrian de Valvedere,</td><td align='right'>59</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wood, J. G. Their Appointed Seasons,</td><td align='right'>603</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE</h2> + +<h1>LIBRARY MAGAZINE</h1> + +<h3>JANUARY, 1879.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FUTURE_OF_INDIA" id="THE_FUTURE_OF_INDIA"></a>THE FUTURE OF INDIA.</h2> + + +<p>Speculation as to the political future is not a very fruitful occupation. +In looking back to the prognostications of the wisest statesmen, it will +be observed that they were as little able to foresee what was to come a +generation or two after their death, as the merest dolt amongst their +contemporaries. The Whigs at the beginning of the last century thought +that the liberties of Europe would disappear if a prince of the House of +Bourbon were securely fixed on the throne of Spain. The Tories in the last +quarter of that century considered that if England lost her American +provinces she would sink into the impotence of the Dutch Republic. The +statesmen who assembled at the Congress of Vienna would have laughed any +dreamer to scorn who should have suggested that in the lifetime of many of +them Germany would become an empire in the hands of Prussia, France a +well-organized and orderly republic, and the "geographical expression" of +Italy vitalised into one of the great powers of Europe. Nevertheless, if +politics is ever to approach the dignity of a science, it must justify a +scientific character by its ability to predict events. The facts are too +complicated, probably, ever to admit the application of exact deductive +reasoning; and in the growth of civilised society new and unexpected forms +are continually springing up. But though practical statesmen will not aim +at results beyond the immediate future, it is impossible for men who pass +their lives in the study of the difficult task of government to avoid +speculations as to the future form of society to which national efforts +should be directed. Some theory or other, therefore, is always present, +consciously or unconsciously, to the mind of politicians.</p> + +<p>With respect to British India it may be observed that very different views +of policy prevail. Native writers in the Indian press view their exclusion +from all the higher offices of Government, and the efforts of Manchester +to transfer 800,000<i>l.</i> per annum raised on cotton goods to increased +taxation in India, as a policy based on mere selfishness; and a Russian +journal, apparently in good faith, assured its readers the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> other day, +that India pays into the British treasury an annual tribute of twenty to +twenty-five millions sterling. On the other hand, some advanced thinkers +amongst ourselves hold that India is a burden on our resources, and the +cry of "Perish India!" so far as relates to its dependence on England, is +considered to be not unsupported by sound reasoning. One of the ablest +publicists of India, in a published letter to Sir George Campbell, has +declared his conviction, after twenty years' experience in that country, +that good government by the British in India is impossible.</p> + +<p>It may be admitted that exaggerated notions as to the pecuniary value of +India to England prevail, and it must also be confessed that, with all our +self-complacency as to the benefits of British rule, we have to accuse +ourselves of several shortcomings. Nevertheless, it may be affirmed with +confidence that the national instinct as to the value of our possessions +in the East coincides with the views of our most enlightened statesmen. My +colleague, Colonel Yule, has pointed out, I think with entire justice, +that the task which we have proposed to ourselves in India, unlike that of +the Dutch in Java, is to improve and elevate the two hundred millions +under our charge to the utmost extent of our powers. The national +conscience is not altogether satisfied with the mode in which some of our +possessions have been acquired, but impartial inquiry demonstrates that +unless a higher morality had prevailed than has ever yet been witnessed +amongst the sons of men, the occasions for conquest and acquisition of +territory that have presented themselves to the British during the last +hundred years would not have been foregone by any nation in the world. But +the feeling I allude to quickens the sense of our obligations to the +inhabitants of India. Having undertaken the heavy task of their +government, it is our duty to demonstrate to posterity that under British +rule we have enabled them to advance in the route of civilization and +progress. We recognise that in all probability so distant and extensive an +empire cannot permanently remain in subjection to a small island in the +West, and therefore our constant task is to render the population of India +at some day or other capable of self-government. Is such a problem +susceptible of a favourable solution? I propose to discuss this question +in the following pages.</p> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>The late Sir George Lewis once observed to me that in his opinion, it was +labour lost to endeavour to make anything of the Hindus. They were a race +doomed to subjection whenever they came into collision with peoples more +vigorous than themselves. They possessed, in short, none of the elements +which are requisite for self-government. Any opinion of that philosophic +observer is entitled to grave consideration, and undoubtedly there is much +in the history of the past that tends to justify the above desponding +conclusion. The Persians, the Greeks, the Parthians, the Huns, the Arabs, +the Ghaznivides, the Afghans, the Moguls, the Persians a second time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> and +the British have successfully entered India and made themselves masters of +the greater part of it. But Sir George had never been called upon to make +any particular study of Indian history, nor indeed was it open to him +during the earlier period of his life, which was devoted exclusively to +study, to acquire the knowledge of India which later erudition and +research have brought to light. It is possible that a closer attention to +what has occurred in the past may enable us to regard the future in a more +favourable aspect. It will, I think, be found, after such a study, that +more intrinsic vitality and greater recuperative power exist amongst the +Hindu race than they have been generally accredited with. Unfortunately +the ancient and copious literature of the Hindus presents extremely little +of historic value. The tendency of the Indian mind to dreamy speculations +on the unseen and the unknown, to metaphysics, and to poetry, has led to a +thorough disregard of the valuable offices of history. Accordingly, we +find in their great epic poems, which date back, according to the best +orientalists, at least seven centuries before Christ, the few historical +facts which are mentioned so enveloped in legends, so encumbered with the +grossest exaggerations, that it requires assiduous scholarship to extract +a scintilla of truth from their relations.</p> + +<p>Our distinguished countrymen, Sir William Jones and Mr. Colebrooke, led +the way in applying the resources of European learning to the elucidation +of the Sanscrit texts. And the happy identification, by the former, of the +celebrated Chandragupta of the Hindus with the monarch of Pataliputra, +Sandracottus, at whose court Megasthenes resided for seven years in the +third century before Christ, laid the first firm foundation for authentic +Indian history. Since that period the researches of oriental scholars +following up the lines laid down by their illustrious predecessors; the +rock inscriptions which have been collected from various parts of India, +the coins, extending over many ages, of different native dynasties—all +these compared together enable a student even as sceptical as Sir George +Lewis to form a more favourable idea of the Hindus in their political +capacity than he was disposed to take.</p> + +<p>Early European inquirers into Hindu antiquity, with the natural prejudice +in favour of their studies in a hitherto unknown tongue, were disposed to +lend far too credulous an ear to the gross exaggerations and reckless +inaccuracies of the "Máhabhárat" and kindred works. James Mill on the +other hand, who was a Positivist before Auguste Comte had begun to write, +rejected with scorn all the allusions to the past in these ancient writers +as entirely fabulous. Careful scholarship, however, working on the +materials of the past which every day's discoveries are increasing, +demonstrates that much true history is to be gathered from the works of +the Sanscrit writers.</p> + +<p>The celebrated granite rock of Girnar<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in the peninsula of Guzerat +presents in itself an authentic record of three distinct dynasties +separated from one another by centuries. And we owe to what may be justly +called the genius of James Prinsep the decipherment of those inscriptions +of Asoka which have brought to the knowledge of Europe a Hindu monarch of +the third century before our era, who, whilst he has been equalled by few +in the extent of his dominions, may claim superiority over nearly every +king that ever lived, from his tender-hearted regard for the interests of +his people, and from the wide principles of toleration which he +inculcated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p>Horace Wilson, who may be safely cited as the most calm and judicious +oriental scholar of our times, asserts that there is nothing to shock +probability in supposing that the Hindu dynasties, of whom we trace +vestiges, were spread through twelve centuries anterior to the war of the +Máhabhárat.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> This leads us back to dates about 2600 years <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> We have, +therefore, the astounding period of over four thousand years during which +to glean facts relating to the Hindu race and their capacity for +government, such as may form foundation for conclusions as to the future. +The characteristics which have most impressed themselves on my mind after +such study of Indian records as I have been able to bestow are, first, the +very early appearance of solicitude for the interest and welfare of the +people, as exhibited by Hindu rulers, such as has rarely or never been +exhibited in the early histories of other nations; secondly, the +successful efforts of the Hindu race to re-establish themselves in power +on the least appearance of decay in the successive foreign dynasties which +have held rule among them. It is only with the latter phenomenon that I +propose now to deal, and a rapid retrospect may be permitted.</p> + +<p>We learn from European records that Cyrus made conquests in India in the +sixth century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, and the famous inscription of his successor Darius +includes Sind and the modern Afghanistan amongst his possessions. But when +Alexander entered India two centuries later he found no trace of Persian +sway, but powerful Indian princes. Taxiles, Abisares, and the celebrated +Porus ruled over large kingdoms in the Panjáb. The latter monarch, whose +family name Paura is recorded in the Máhabhárat, is described by the Greek +writers to have ruled over 300 cities, and he brought into the field +against Alexander more than 2,000 elephants, 400 chariots, 4,000 cavalry, +and 50,000 foot. Against this force Alexander was only able to bring +16,000 foot and 5,000 horse; but the bulk of the troops were Macedonians, +and the leader was the greatest general whom the world has seen. We have +full particulars of the celebrated battle which ensued, and which ended in +the complete discomfiture of Porus. The conduct of this Indian king, +however, in the battle extorted the admiration of the Greek historians. He +received nine wounds during the engagement, and was the last to leave the +field, affording, as Arrian remarks, a noble contrast to Darius the +Second, who was the first to fly amongst his host in his similar conflict +with the Greeks. Alexander, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> in the Macedonian conquests generally, +left satraps in possession of his Indian acquisitions. But a very few +years ensued before we find a native of India had raised up a mighty +kingdom, and all trace of Greek rule in the Punjab disappears. +Chandragupta, or Sandracottus, is said by a Greek writer to have seen +Alexander in person on the Hydaspes. Justin relates that it was he who +raised the standard of independence before his fellow-countrymen, and +successfully drove out Alexander's satraps. He founded the Maurya dynasty, +and the vast extent of the kingdom ruled over by his grandson Asoka is +testified by the edicts which the latter caused to be engraved in various +parts of his dominions. They also record the remarkable fact of his close +alliance with the Greek rulers of Syria, Egypt, Macedon, Cyrene and +Epirus. We next find that one of the Greek princes who had established an +independent dynasty in Bactria, Euthydemus, invaded India, and made +several conquests, but he also was met in the field and overcome by +Galoka, son of Asoka, who for some time added Cashmir to his possessions. +The Bactrian dynasty was put an end to by Mithridates, 140 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, and +consequently the Greeks were driven eastwards, and they planted themselves +in various parts of India. We find clear traces of them in Guzerat, where +the town of Junaghur (Javanaghur) still records the name of the Greeks who +founded the city. The coins and inscriptions of the Sinha rulers of +Guzerat furnish us with some particulars as to the Greek holdings at this +period, and they seem to have extended from the Jumna on the east to +Guzerat and Kutch on the west. The Macedonians seem here, as elsewhere, to +have placed natives at the head of their district administrations, and the +Sinha rulers call themselves Satraps and Máha Rajahs, and use Greek +legends on their coins, but evidently they soon acquired complete +independence. Simultaneously or nearly so with these Indo-Greek +principalities, we find invasions of India by the race commonly called +Scythians, but more accurately Jutchi, Sacæ, and White Huns. These also +formed independent kingdoms. But again native leaders of enterprise arose +who put an end to foreign dominion. Vikramadit, who founded an era 57 +<span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, and whose exploits have made a deep impression upon the native mind, +is thought to be one of the Hindu leaders who succeeded in expelling a +foreign dynasty. And it would appear that towards the middle of the third +century after Christ all foreign dominion had disappeared from the soil of +India, except perhaps some small settlements of Jutchi, on the banks of +the Indus; and except the temporary conquest of Sind by the Arabs in the +seventh century, from which they were soon expelled by the Sumea +Rajputs<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>. Thus, during a period of 600 years, we have encountered a +series of invasions and conquests of portions of India by foreign rulers, +but all successively driven out by the energy of native leaders. Thereupon +followed the establishment of native dynasties all over India. It was +chiefly during the 700 years that now ensued, up to the invasion of India +by Mahmud of Ghazni, that the great works of Sanscrit literature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> in +poetry, grammar, algebra, and astronomy, appeared. During this period also +the Rajputs, who have been well called the Normans of the East, seem to +have found their way to nearly every throne in India. Their acquisition of +power has never been fully traced, and probably the materials are wanting +for any full or accurate account of it; but the subject is well worthy the +attention of an Indian student.</p> + +<p>The Mahomedan conquests which, with the fanaticism and savage intolerance +introduced by them, commenced <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1001, seem to have exercised most +depressing effects on the Hindu mind. But here again we meet with the same +phenomenon. So soon as the Mussulman rule becomes enfeebled, a native +chief rises up who is enabled to rally his countrymen around him and form +a dynasty. Sivaji in 1660-80 established an independency which his +successors, as mayors of the palace, enlarged into a kingdom, out of which +arose the native powers of Sindia, of the Gaekwar, and of the Bhonslas of +Berar. Exactly the same occurrence has been witnessed in the present +century by the success of Ranjit Sing in forming an independent +principality in the Panjáb. This remarkable man, who was absolutely +illiterate, by his own energy of character raised himself from the head of +a small Sikh clan to the head of a kingdom with a revenue of two and a +half millions sterling.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> We may be sure that, if the British had not +been in force, natives of soldierly qualities like Jung Bahádar of Nepal, +or Tantia Topi of the mutinies, would have carved out in the present day +kingdoms for themselves in other parts of India.</p> + + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>It may be thought that in the preceding sketch I have been aiming at the +conclusion that British dominion is in danger of extinction either by +foreign invasion or internal insurrection. Nothing is more foreign from my +views. I firmly believe that British rule in the East was never so strong, +never so able to protect itself against all attacks from without or from +within, as at the present moment. In a foreign dominion such as ours, +where unforeseen contingencies may any day arise, and where a considerable +amount of disaffection must always exist, constant watchfulness on the +part of Government is no doubt required; but this position is thoroughly +recognised by all statesmen who occupy themselves with Indian affairs. I +do not for a moment delude myself with the idea that we have succeeded in +gaining the affections of the natives. No foreign rulers who have kept +themselves apart as a separate caste from the conquered nation have +succeeded in accomplishing this feat. There is something of +incompatibility between the European and Asiatic, which seems to forbid +easy amalgamation. Lord Stowell, in one of his fine judgments, has pointed +out the constant tendency of Europeans in the East to form themselves into +separate communities, and to abstain from all social intercourse with the +natives around them, and he illustrates his position with the happy +quotation—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scyllis amara suam non intermiscuit undam.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p><p>The English perhaps are distinguishable among all European nations by the +deep-rooted notions of self-superiority which their insular position and +great success in history have engendered. The southern races of Europe, +the Spanish and Portuguese, have shown no reluctance to intermix freely +with the native races of America, India, and the Philippines, such as has +always been exhibited by inhabitants of the British Isles when expatriated +to the East or West. But where race, color, religion, prejudice intervene +to prevent social intercourse between the English in India and the +natives, what a wide gulf is placed between them!</p> + +<p>In justice, however, it must be stated that, although the haughtiness of +demeanour and occasional brutality in manners which the <i>aristocratie de +peau</i> sometimes engenders in our countrymen are much to be deprecated, the +estrangement which exists in India between the English and the natives is +not wholly, nor even principally, attributable to the former. A Hindu of +very humble caste would think himself polluted if he sat down to dinner +with the European governor of his Presidency. In this instance, as in so +many others, Hindu opinions have permeated the whole native community; and +other races transplanted to India, such as Mahomedans and Parsis, are +equally exclusive in their social life. When I was in Bombay I made an +attempt to break through the barrier which the latter caste had +voluntarily erected for themselves. Sir Jamshedji Jijibhai, an able, +self-raised man, was then the acknowledged head of the Parsi community, +and was distinguished for his benevolence and enlightened views. I +endeavored to persuade him to set his countrymen an example, and to come +to a dinner at which I would assemble the chief authorities of the island; +and I proposed to him as an inducement that he should send his own cook, +who should prepare for him his wonted fare. But the step was too startling +a one for him, though I was glad to find that his son, the second baronet, +was able to get over his prejudices on his visit, some years after, to +London. A ludicrous example of the same exclusive feeling has been related +in connection with a Governor-General. His lordship, desirous to break +down any notion of social inferiority on the part of a distinguished +native who was paying him a visit, placed his arm round his neck as they +walked up and down a verandah engaged in familiar conversation. The +high-bred Oriental made no sign, but as soon as he could extricate himself +from the embraces of his Excellency, he hastened home to wash away the +contamination of a Mlecha's touch.</p> + +<p>It may also be observed that the mutual repugnance of the two races to +such close social intercourse as intermarriage, for example, would +produce, gives rise to two excellent results. First, there is every reason +to suppose, judging by what we see of the native Portuguese in India, that +the English and Hindu would make, in the language of breeders, a very bad +cross; and it is therefore satisfactory to find that English rulers in +India, unlike the Normans in England, or the Moguls in India, have never +intermarried with the natives of the country. The second result is closely +connected with the first. What has led to the downfall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> of previous +foreign dynasties has been that the invaders of the country had become +effeminate by their long possession of power, and had lost the original +energy and vigour which had enabled their predecessors to gain a throne. +The constant recruitment of English rulers from their fatherland wholly +prevents this cause of internal decay from making its appearance among the +British.</p> + +<p>It is not, then, by our hold on the affections of the people that we +maintain our dominion in India. The strength and probable endurance of our +rule are based on our real power, on our endeavours to do justice, on our +toleration. The memory of the excesses committed under Mussulman rule has +probably become dim with the great bulk of the people, but it is very +vivid among educated Hindus. A strong conviction prevails among them that +if British rule were to disappear in India, the same rise of military +adventurers, the same struggles for power, and the same anarchy as +prevailed during the first half of the last century would again appear. +The latest expression of Hindu opinion on this subject which I have met +with is contained in a pamphlet published in the present year by Mr. +Dadoba Pandurang.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> He is an aged scholar, and though not a Brahmin, well +versed in the Vedas, but, above all, he is distinguished by his devout +views and by his desire to elevate and improve his fellow-countrymen. He +writes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>If there is a manifestation of the hand of God in history, +as I undoubtedly believe there is, nothing to my imagination +appears more vivid and replete with momentous events +calculated for the mutual welfare and good of both countries +than this political union of so large, important, rich, and +interesting a country as Hind in the further south-east with +a small but wisely governed island of Great Britain in the +further north-west.... Let us see what England has done to +India. England, besides governing India politically, has now +very wisely commenced the important duty of educating the +millions of her Indian children, and of bringing them up to +the standard of enlightenment and high civilization which +her own have obtained. She has already eradicated, I should +add here, to the great joy of Heaven, several of the most +barbarous and inhuman practices, such as Sutti,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +infanticide, Charak Puja,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and what not, which had for +ages been prevalent among a large portion of the children of +this her new acquisition. These practices, which had so long +existed at the dictation of an indigenous priesthood, except +for the powerful interference of England could not have been +abolished.</p></div> + +<p>Opinions like these, I am persuaded, prevail throughout the educated +community, and the presence of British rule amongst them is recognised as +indispensable in the present state of Hindu society.</p> + + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>With respect to a successful invasion of India, it must be confessed that +the English mind has always been keenly susceptible of alarm. The wide +plains of Hisdustan, which offer so ready an access to aggressive armies, +the absence of fortified places, and the frequency with which India has +been won and lost in a single pitched battle, all tend to encourage the +belief that some day or other British domination will be in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> danger from +some incursion of this sort. It may be observed that for nearly a century +past the English nation has been subjected to periodic fits of Indian +panic. Sir John Kaye, in his "History of the Afghan War," states that in +1797 the whole of India was kept "in a chronic state of unrest" from the +fears of an Afghan descent upon the plains of Hindustan. In 1800 the +Emperor Paul of Russia and Napoleon conceived "a mad and impracticable +scheme of invasion," which greatly increased local alarm. In 1809 these +fears assumed even larger proportions when an alliance between Napoleon +and Persia was on foot with a view to the proposed invasion; and the +mission to Persia under Sir John Malcolm was inaugurated. In 1838 Russia +took the place which Zeman Shah, Persia, and Napoleon had previously +occupied, and the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan was commenced by Lord +Auckland from his mountain retreat at Simla.</p> + +<p>Since that period the suspicions of the nation have been continually +directed against Russia by a small but able party, who, from their chiefly +belonging to the Presidency of Bombay, have been termed the Bombay school. +The late General John Jacob was the originator of the anti-Russian policy +inculcated by them. He was a man of great ability and original views, and, +if he had moved in a wider sphere, he might have left a name equal to that +of the most illustrious of his countrymen in India. But he passed the +greater part of his life on the barren wastes of Sind, and rarely came in +contact with superior minds. In 1856 General Jacob addressed a singularly +able paper to Lord Canning, then Governor-General, and which Sir Lewis +Pelly afterwards published to the world.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> This was just at the close of +the Crimean War, when England was about to undertake an expedition against +Persia to repel her aggression on Herát. It was Jacob's firm conviction +that, unless India interposed, Russia, having Persia completely under her +control, could, whenever she pleased, take possession not only of Herát, +but of Candahar, and thus find an entrance to the plains of India, on +which our dominion was to disappear. To thwart this contingency, and +render the approach of a European army towards our frontier impossible, he +would, as an ultimate measure, garrison Herát with twenty thousand troops, +but in the first instance would occupy Quetta. These proposals were +carefully considered by Lord Canning's Government, but were rejected.</p> + +<p>The same arguments were brought forward eleven years later by Sir Bartle +Frere, whilst Governor of Bombay, and were laid before the Government of +India. That Government was then remarkably strong, consisting of Lord +Lawrence, Sir William Mansfield (Lord Sandhurst), Sir Henry Maine, Mr. +Massey, and Major-General Sir Henry Durand; but the proposals to improve +our frontier by extending our dominions westward, and by the annexation of +independent foreign territory, were unanimously disapproved of.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<p>About the same time that Sir Bartle Frere was endeavouring to stimulate +the Government of India to occupy Quetta, my distinguished colleague and +friend, Sir Henry Rawlinson, published two articles in the "Quarterly +Review,"<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> in which he called the attention of the public to the rapidly +increasing extension of the Russian dominions in the direction of our +Indian frontier, and to the necessity of maintaining outworks such as +Herát and Candahar for the protection of our Eastern Empire. But he raised +the question in a more solemn form in the confidential memorandum which he +transmitted to the Government of India in 1868, and which he afterwards +published in 1875,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> with additional matter, forming a complete +conspectus of the aggressive policy to be adopted to guard against a +Russian invasion. The views of the Government of India on these papers +have not, I believe, been given to the world, but it is well known in +Indian circles that the masterly activity therein advocated did not find +acceptance.</p> + +<p>At the present moment Russophobia is raging to a greater extent than at +any previous period; but this is ground on which for the present I am +precluded from entering. It is gratifying to observe, however, that in the +great conflict of opinion which, as it will be seen, has thus been raging +for the last forty years, as to the best method of protecting our +north-western frontier from an invading foe, both schools have ultimately +agreed on one conclusion, namely, that a successful invasion of India by +Russia is in nowise probable. The one side would avert any possibility of +an attack by the occupation of Afghanistan, the Suleiman mountains, and +probably the Hindu Kush; the other would husband the resources of India, +and not waste blood and treasure in anticipation of a conflict that may +possibly never occur, and that certainly never will occur without years of +warning to the nation.</p> + +<p>I cannot pursue this interesting question further at a moment when the +whole question of our policy on the Indian frontier is ripening for +discussion, and when the materials on which a sound conclusion can be +drawn are not yet laid before the public. It is sufficient for my present +purpose to repeat that the probability of British dominion in the East +being terminated by a Russian invasion is rejected on all sides.</p> + + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<p>If the views which have been now put forward are at all sound, we may +perhaps conclude that whilst our Indian empire requires on the part of its +rulers the utmost watchfulness to guard against dangers and contingencies +which may at any moment arise, yet that with ordinarily wise government we +may look forward to a period of indefinitely long duration during which +British dominion may flourish. That sooner or later the links which +connect England with India will be severed, all history teaches us to +expect; but when that severance occurs, if the growing spirit of +philantrophy and increasing sense of national morality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> which characterise +the nineteenth century continue, we may fairly hope that the Englishman +will have taught the Hindus how to govern themselves. It is England's +task, as heretofore, "to teach other nations how to live." A very long +period, however, is required before the lesson can be fully learned, and +the holders of Indian securities need not fear that the reversionary +interests of their grandchildren will be endangered. Our rule in India +dates back little more than a century; and although from the first a wise +spirit of toleration and an eminent desire to do justice have prevailed, +it is only within the last thirty or forty years that any serious attempts +to elevate the character of the nation have been manifested.</p> + +<p>The educational movement, which is silently producing prodigious changes +in India, received its first impulse from England, and the clause in the +Act of Parliament<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> which recognised the duty of educating the masses, +enabled men like Lord Macaulay, Sir Edward Ryan, and others, to lay the +foundations of a system which has since established itself far and wide. +But the Court of Directors never took heartily to this great innovation of +modern times, and it was only under the direction of English statesmanship +that the Indian authorities were induced to act with vigour in this +momentous undertaking. Sir Charles Wood's celebrated minute on education, +in 1858, laid the foundation of a national system of education, and the +principles then inculcated have never since been departed from. Some +generations will require to pass before the Oriental mind is enabled to +substitute the accurate forms of European thought for the loose +speculations that have prevailed through long centuries. But already happy +results are appearing, and in connection with the subject of this article +it may be noticed as a most hopeful sign of the future that our English +schools are turning out native statesmen by whom all our best methods of +government are being introduced into the dominions of native princes.</p> + +<p>The administration reports of some of these gentlemen may vie with those +of our best English officers; and the names of Sir Dinkar Rao, Sir Madava +Rao, Sir Salar Jung, and others, give full indication that among the +natives of India may be found men eminently qualified for the task of +government. Wittingly or unwittingly, English officials in India are +preparing materials which some day or other will form the groundwork for a +native empire or empires. I was thrown closely into contact with the Civil +Service whilst I was in India, for I employed all my vacations in +travelling through the country, mostly at a foot's pace. Everywhere I went +I found a cultivated English gentleman exerting himself to the best of his +ability to extend the blessings of civilisation—justice, education, the +development of all local resources. I firmly believe that no government in +the world has ever possessed a body of administrators to vie with the +Civil Service of India. Nor do I speak only of the service as it existed +under the East India Company, for, from all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> that I have heard and +observed, competition supplies quite as good servants of the State as did +in earlier days the patronage of the Court of Directors. The truth is, +that the excellence of the result has been attributable in nowise to the +mode of selection, but to the local circumstances which call forth in +either case, in the young Englishman of decent education and of the moral +tone belonging to the middle classes of this country, the best qualities +of his nature. But in these energetic, high-principled, and able +administrators we have a danger to good government which it is necessary +to point out. Every Englishman in office in India has great power, and +every Englishman, as the late Lord Lytton once observed to me, is in heart +a reformer. His native energy will not enable him to sit still with his +hands before him. He must be improving something. The tendency of the +English official in India is to over-reform, to introduce what he may deem +improvements, but which turn out egregious failures, and this, be it +observed, amongst the most conservative people of the world. Some of the +most carefully devised schemes for native improvement have culminated in +native deterioration. A remarkable illustration of this position is +afforded by the late inquiry into the causes of the riots among the +cultivators of the Deccan. It has been one of the pretensions of British +administration that they have instituted for the first time in India pure +and impartial courts of justice. And the boast is well founded. In the +Presidency of Bombay also the Government has substituted long leases of +thirty years on what may be called Crown Lands for the yearly holdings +formerly in vogue. They have also greatly moderated the assessment. The +result has been that land in the Bombay Presidency from being unsaleable +has acquired a value of from ten to twenty years' purchase. But the effect +of these two measures upon the holders of these lands has been disastrous. +Finding themselves possessed of property on which they could raise money +with facility, they have indulged this national propensity out of all +proportion to their means; and the money-lenders in their turn drag the +improvident borrowers before a court of justice, and obtain decrees upon +the indisputable terms of the contract, which no judge feels competent to +disregard.</p> + +<p>Another danger of the same sort arises from the short term of office which +is allowed to officials in the highest places in India. When the +Portuguese had large dominions in India, they found that their Viceroys, +if permitted to remain a long time in the East, became insubordinate, and +too powerful for the Government at Lisbon to control. They accordingly +passed a law limiting the tenure of office to five years. This limitation +seems to have been adopted tacitly in our Eastern administrative system, +and has undoubtedly been observed for more than a century. But the period +of five years is very short to enable either a Governor-General, or +Governor, or member of Council to leave his mark on the country; and there +is a temptation to attempt something dazzling which would require for its +proper fulfilment years to elaborate, but which, if not passed at the +moment, would fail to illustrate the era.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is needless to observe that a series of ill-considered changes, a +constant succession of new laws to be followed by amended laws in the next +session, attempts to change manners and practices (not immoral in +themselves) that have prevailed for centuries, all tend to make a +government, especially a foreign government, odious. But there is one +other rock which it is above all essential to avoid when we are +considering the problem how best to preserve the duration of British +government for the benefit of India. Every ardent administrator desires +improvements in his own department; roads, railways, canals, irrigation, +improved courts of justice, more efficient police, all find earnest +advocates in the high places of government. But improved administration is +always costly, and requires additional taxation. I fear that those in +authority too often forget that the wisest rulers of a despotic government +have always abstained from laying fresh burdens on the people. It is, in +fact, the chief merit of such a government that the taxes are ordinarily +light, and are such as are familiarised by old usage. New taxes imposed +without the will, or any appeal to the judgment, of the people create the +most dangerous kind of disaffection. But if this is true generally, it is +especially true in India, where the population is extremely poor, and +where hitherto the financier has not been enabled to make the rich +contribute their due quota to the revenue of the country.</p> + +<p>It has been said by some that we have not yet reached the limits of +taxation in India, but to them I would oppose the memorable saying of Lord +Mayo towards the close of his career. "A feeling of discontent and +dissatisfaction existed," in his opinion, "among every class, both +European and native, on account of the constant increase of taxation that +had for years been going on;" and he added: "The continuance of that +feeling was a political danger, the magnitude of which could hardly be +over-estimated." The Earl of Northbrook quoted and fully endorsed this +opinion in his examination before the House of Commons in the present +year.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>But although this constant aim at improvement among our English +administrators too often leads to irritating changes, harassing +legislation, and new fiscal charges on the people, causes are at work +which tend to eliminate these obstacles to good and stable government. In +our experimental application of remedies to evils patent on the surface, +our blunders have chiefly arisen from our ignorance of the people. +Institutions that had been seen to work well in Europe might, it was +thought, be transplanted safely to India. Experience alone could teach +that this is often a grievous error; but experience is being daily +afforded by our prolonged rule, and by our increasing acquaintance with +the habits, wants, and feelings of the people. The tendency also to change +and improvement, which I have before observed upon as leading to +ill-considered measures, operates here beneficially, for there is never +any hesitation in a local government to reverse the proceedings of its +predecessors when found to work injuriously for the community.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the most cheering symptom of future good government in India is the +increased disposition of British rulers to associate natives of character +and ability with themselves in high offices of administration. Parliament +so long ago as 1833 laid down the principle that no native shall by reason +of his religion, place of birth, or colour, be disabled from holding any +office. Her gracious Majesty also in 1858 proclaimed her will "that so far +as may be, our subjects, of whatever race or creed, be impartially +admitted to offices in our service, the duties of which they may be +qualified by their education, ability, and integrity duly to discharge."</p> + +<p>Many obstacles have hitherto prevailed, chiefly arising out of the vested +interests of a close Civil Service, to prevent full operation being given +to a policy so solemnly laid down. But it is no breach of official +propriety to announce that Lord Cranbrook has earnestly taken up the +proposals of the present Viceroy to clear away the difficulties which have +hitherto intervened, and has sent out a despatch to India which it may be +fairly anticipated will meet the aspirations of educated natives, and will +greatly strengthen the foundations of British government in the East.</p> + +<p>It will thus be seen that several factors are at work which cannot fail, +under the continued rule of the British Government, to have most +beneficial effects on the national character of India. A system of +education is being established which is opening a door for the +introduction of all the knowledge accumulated in Europe, and which sooner +or later must greatly dissipate that ignorance which is at the bottom of +so many obstacles to good government in the East. Equality before the law +and the supremacy of law have been fully brought home to the cognisance of +every inhabitant of India, and they form a striking contrast, fully +appreciated by the Hindus, to the arbitrary decisions and the race +prerogatives which characterised their former Mahomedan rulers. Continuous +efforts at improvement are witnessed in every zillah of India, and if they +sometimes fail in their operation it is still patent that the permanent +welfare of the people is the constant aim and object of Government. +Moreover, the ready ear tendered to any expression of a grievance, the +minute subjection of every act of authority in India, from the deputy +magistrate up to the Governor-General, to the scrutiny of the Home +Government, secure to the meanest inhabitant of India a hearing, and +inspire the consciousness that he also is a member of the State, and that +his rights and interests are fully recognised. The association of natives +with ourselves in the task of government, which has been commenced in the +lower branches of the judicial administration with the greatest success, +and which is now about to be attempted on a larger scale, as I have before +noted, is also a fact of the greatest gravity. On the whole, after very +close attention to Indian administration for nearly forty years, of which +about twelve were spent in the country itself in a position where I was +enabled to take an impartial view of what was going on around me, I am of +opinion that a bright future presents itself, and, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> I could see my way +more clearly on the very important questions of caste and of the future +religion of India, I should say a brilliant future, in which perhaps for +centuries to come the supremacy of England will produce the happiest +results in India.</p> + + +<h3>V.</h3> + +<p>But I must not close this article without reference to the very different +views which have been lately put forth in this Review under the +sensational title of the "Bankruptcy of India." Mr. Hyndman, after much +study of Indian statistics, has arrived at the conclusion that "India has +been frightfully impoverished under our rule, and that the process is +going on now at an increasingly rapid rate." The revenue raised by +taxation is about 36,000,000<i>l.</i>, and "is taken absolutely out of the +pockets of the people," three-fourths of whom are engaged in agriculture. +The increase of 12,000,000<i>l.</i> in the revenue which has occurred between +1857 and 1876 "comes almost entirely out of the pockets of the +cultivators," and "the greater part of the increase of the salt, stamps, +and excise is derived from the same source." The cost of maintaining a +prisoner in the cheapest part of India is 56<i>s.</i> a head, or, making +allowance for children, 46<i>s.</i>; but the poor cultivator has only 31<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i>, from which he must also defray the charges "for sustenance of +bullocks, the cost of clothing, repairs to implements, house, &c., and +<i>for taxation</i>."</p> + +<p>He states the debt of India to be "enormous," amounting to 220,000,000<i>l.</i> +sterling, principally accumulated in the last few years. The railways have +been constructed at ruinous cost, for which the "unfortunate ryot has had +to borrow an additional five or ten or twenty rupees of the native +money-lender at 24, 40, 60 per cent., in order to pay extra taxation." +Irrigation works "tell nearly the same sad tale. Here again millions have +been squandered—squandered needlessly." Moreover, the land is fast +becoming deteriorated or is being worse cultivated. In short, through a +long indictment of twenty-three pages, of which I omit many counts, he +cannot find a single act of British administration that meets his +approval. All is naught. It is true that the Civil Service of India is +composed of men who have gained their posts by means of the best education +that England can supply, and who from an early period of manhood have +devoted their lives to the practical solution of the many difficult +problems which Indian administration presents. But Mr. Hyndman finds fault +with them all.</p> + +<p>The article itself is couched in such an evident spirit of philanthropy +that one feels unwilling to notice pointedly the blunders, the +exaggerations, and the inaccuracies into which the writer has fallen. But +Mr. Hyndman has entered the lists so gallantly with a challenge to all the +Anglo-Indian world, that he of course expects to encounter some hard +knocks, writing, as he does, on a subject with which he has no practical +acquaintance. He has already received "a swashing blow" respecting the +agricultural statistics on which he bases the whole of his argument. On +data supplied to him by an able native writer, whom I know intimately and +for whom I have the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> highest respect, he has drawn conclusions which are +so manifestly absurd, that all practically acquainted with the subject are +tempted to throw aside his article as mere rubbish. But Mr. Dádobhai, like +himself, has no knowledge of the rural life of India, or of agriculture +generally, or of the practical business of administration. He is a man who +has passed his whole life in cities, an excellent mathematician, of +unwearied industry, and distinguished, even among his countrymen, for his +patriotic endeavours to improve their condition. But the mere study of +books and of figures—especially of the imperfect ones which hitherto have +characterised the agricultural statistics of India—is not sufficient to +constitute a great administrator; and when Mr. Dádobhai, after making +himself prominent by useful work in the municipality of Bombay, was +selected to fill the high office of Prime Minister to the Gaekwar of +Baroda, he was not deemed by his countrymen to have displayed any great +aptitude in statesmanship.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The alarming picture drawn by Mr. Hyndman on data thus supplied attracted +the attention of the greatest authority in England on agricultural +matters; for intrinsic evidence clearly shows that the letters signed +"C.," which appeared in the <i>Times</i> of the 5th of October and the 9th of +October, can proceed from no other than Mr. Caird. His refutation of Mr. +Hyndman's pessimist views is so short, that I give the pith of it here:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The conclusions arrived at are so startling that though, +like Mr. Hyndman, I have never been in India, I, as an +alarmed Englishman, have tried to test the strength of the +basis upon which they rest. The only <i>data</i> I have at hand +are taken from the figures in the last year's report of the +Punjab. The number of cultivated acres there agrees with +those quoted by Mr. Hyndman—say 21,000,000 acres—and I +adopt his average value of 1<i>l.</i> 14<i>s.</i> per acre.</p> + +<p>The Government assessment is 1,905,000<i>l.</i>, to pay which +one-sixth of the wheat crop [the produce of 1,120,000] would +have to be sold and exported. There would remain for +consumption in the country the produce of 5,500,000 acres of +wheat and of 12,000,000 acres of other grain, the two +sufficing to yield for a year 2 lb. per head per day for the +population of 17,000,000, which is more than double the +weight of corn eaten by the people of this country. Besides +this, they would have for consumption their garden +vegetables and milk; and beyond it the money value of +845,000 acres of oil-seed, 720,000 acres of cotton and hemp, +391,000 acres of sugar-cane, 120,000 acres of indigo, 69,000 +acres of tobacco, 88,000 acres of spices, drugs, and dyes, +19,000 acres of poppy, and 8,800 acres of tea; the aggregate +value of which, without touching the corn, would leave +nearly twice the Government assessment.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hyndman has committed the error of arguing from an +English money value at the place of production upon articles +of consumption, the true value of which is their +food-sustaining power to the people who consume them.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p><p>When an argument is thus found so completely <i>pecher par sa base</i>, it is +needless to pursue it further. But I conceive that Mr. Hyndman, when +studying this overwhelming refutation, must feel somewhat +conscience-stricken when he reperuses such sentences of his own as the +following:—"In India at this time, millions of the ryots are growing +wheat, cotton, seeds, and other exhausting crops, and send them away +because these alone will enable them to pay their way at all. They are +themselves, nevertheless, eating less and less of worse food each year, in +spite, or rather by reason, of the increasing exports." Thus a farmer is +damaged by finding new markets for his produce! And he sells his wheat, +which is the main produce of his arable land in those parts of India where +it flourishes, to buy some cheaper grain which his land does not grow! The +youngest assistant in a collector's establishment could inform Mr. Hyndman +that the food of the agricultural population of India consists of the +staple most suitable to the soil of the district: in the Punjab wheat, in +Bengal and all well-watered lowlands rice, on the tablelands of the Deccan +jowári (<i>holcus sorghum</i>) and bájri (<i>panicum spicatum</i>), on the more +sterile plateau of Southern India the inferior grain rági (<i>eiuesyne +coracauna</i>).</p> + +<p>It must have been under the dominion of the idea produced by Mr. +Dádobhai's statistics as to the thoroughly wretched state of the +agricultural population of India that Mr. Hyndman has been led into +exaggerated statements which his own article shows he knew to be +inaccurate. A dreadful case of misgovernment existed in India, and, +thoroughly to arouse his countrymen to the fact, it was necessary to pile +up the agony. Thus, in one part of his article he states that the +"enormous debt" of India amounts to 220,000,000<i>l.</i>, but in a later +portion he admits that it is only 127,000,000<i>l.</i>, and he knows full well +that the amount of 100,000,000<i>l.</i> of guaranteed railway debt is not only +not a present debt due from Government, but is a very valuable property, +which will probably bring in some millions of revenue when they exercise +their right of buying up the interests of the several guaranteed +companies.</p> + +<p>Again, he speaks throughout his article of the excessive taxation imposed +on the poor, half-starved cultivators; and he gives the following table as +showing the amount "taken absolutely out of the pockets of the people:"—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Land revenue</td><td align='right'>£21,500,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Excise</td><td align='right'>2,500,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Salt</td><td align='right'>6,240,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Stamps</td><td align='right'>2,830,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Customs</td><td align='right'>2,720,000</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>He thus maintains that the portion of the rent paid to Government for +occupation of the land is a tax upon the cultivator, which is about as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +true as to state that the 67,000,000<i>l.</i> of rental in the United Kingdom +is a special tax on the farmers of this country. The amount derived from +excise is chiefly produced by the sale of intoxicating liquors, the use of +which is forbidden by the social and religious views of the natives; and +any contribution to the revenue under this head is clearly a voluntary act +on the part of the transgressor. The revenue from stamps proceeds chiefly +from what may be called taxes on justice; they are, in my opinion, +extremely objectionable, but weighty objections may be urged against +nearly every tax, and a large portion of this tax falls on the wealthier +class of suitors. The amount contributed by the population under the head +of customs, although it may take money out of the pocket of the rayat, +actually adds to his store; for, unless he could buy in the bazaar a piece +of Manchester long-cloth cheaper than an article of domestic manufacture, +it is manifest that he would select the latter. There remains only the +single article of salt on which the cultivator undoubtedly is taxed, and +which forms the sole tax from which he cannot escape. This tax also is +extremely objectionable in theory, more perhaps than in practice, for it +amounts to about 7-1/2<i>d.</i> per head. But even if we take the whole amount +of taxation as shown by Mr. Hyndman, excluding the land revenue or rental +of the land, the average per head is only 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, of which more than +one-third can be avoided at the pleasure of any individual consumer. It is +not, then, a misstatement to aver that the population of India is more +lightly taxed than any population in the world living under an orderly +government.</p> + +<p>I have thus far thought it my duty to expose what I believe to be grave +errors in Mr. Hyndman's sensational article. But I should do him great +injustice if I did not admit that he has brought out in vivid colours some +very important facts. It is true that these facts are well known to Indian +administrators, but they are facts disagreeable to contemplate, and are +therefore slurred over willingly; but they have such important bearing on +the proceedings of Government in India that they cannot be too frequently +paraded before the public eye.</p> + +<p>The first of these truths is the undeniable poverty of the great bulk of +the population. But here Mr. Hyndman does not appear to me to have taken +full grasp of the fact, or to have ascertained its causes. The dense +population of India, amounting in its more fertile parts to six and seven +hundred per square mile, is almost exclusively occupied in agricultural +pursuits. But the land of India has been farmed from time immemorial by +men entirely without capital. A farmer in this country has little chance +of success unless he can supply a capital of 10<i>l.</i> to 20<i>l.</i> an acre. If +English farms were cultivated by men as deficient in capital as the Indian +rayats, they would be all thrown on the parish in a year or two. The +founder of a Hindu village may, by aid of his brethren and friends, have +strength enough to break up the jungle, dig a well, and with a few rupees +in his pocket he may purchase seed for the few acres he can bring under +the plough. If a favourable harvest ensue, he has a large surplus, out of +which he pays the <i>jamma</i> or rent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> to Government. But on the first failure +of the periodical rains his withered crops disappear, he has no capital +wherewith to meet the Government demand, to obtain food for his family and +stock, or to purchase seed for the coming year. To meet all these wants he +must have recourse to the village money-lender, who has always formed as +indispensable a member of a Hindu agricultural community as the ploughman +himself.</p> + +<p>From time immemorial the cultivator of the soil in India has lived from +hand to mouth, and when his hand could not supply his mouth from the +stores of the last harvest he has been driven to the local saukár or +money-lender to obtain the means of existence. This is the first great +cause of India's poverty. The second is akin to it, for it exists in the +infinite divisibility of property which arises under the Hindu system of +succession, and which throws insuperable obstructions to the growth of +capital. The rule as to property in Hindu life is that all the members of +a family, father, grandfather, children, and grandchildren, constitute an +undivided partnership, having equal shares in the property, although one +of them, generally the eldest, is recognised as the manager. It is in the +power of any member to sever himself from the family group, and the +tendency of our Government has been to encourage efforts of what may be +called individualism. But the new stock is but the commencement of another +undivided family, so strong is the Hindu feeling in favour of this +time-honoured custom. It is obvious that where the skill, foresight, and +thriftiness required for the creation of capital may be thwarted by the +extravagance or carelessness of any one of a large number of partners, its +growth must be seriously impeded.</p> + +<p>It will be seen, if the above arguments are sound, that the obstructions +which oppose themselves to the formation of capital arise out of +immemorial usages, and are irremediable by any direct interference of +Government. But whatever may be the causes of this national poverty, the +fact is undoubted, and it cannot be too steadily contemplated by those who +desire to rely on fresh taxation for their favourite projects, whether it +be for improved administration, for magnificent public works, or for the +extension of our dominions. Mr. Hyndman also points out the great +expensiveness of a foreign government, and his remarks on this subject are +undoubtedly true. The high salaries required to tempt Englishmen of +suitable qualifications to expatriate themselves for the better part of +their lives, and the heavy dead weight of pensions and furlough charges +for such officials, form, no doubt, a heavy burden on the resources of +India. The costliness of a European army is, of course, also undoubtedly +great. But these are charges which, to a less or greater degree, are +inseparable from the dominion of a foreign government. The compensation +for them is to be found in the security they provide against a foreign +invader or against internal disturbances, and the protection they afford, +in a degree hitherto unknown in India, to life, property, and character. +But Mr. Hyndman's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> diatribes are useful in pointing to the conclusion that +all the efforts of Government should be directed towards the diminution of +these charges, where compatible with efficiency, and his striking contrast +of the home military charges in 1862-63, which then amounted to 28<i>l.</i> +3<i>s.</i>, and now have risen in the present year to 66<i>l.</i>, deserves most +serious consideration.</p> + +<p>There is only one other statement of Mr. Hyndman which I desire to notice. +He declares the general opinion of the natives to be that life, as a +whole, has become harder since the English took the country, and he adds +his own opinion that the fact is so. Mr. Hyndman, as we have seen, knows +but little of the actual life of the agricultural population, and of their +state under native rule he probably knows less. But I am inclined to think +he fairly represents a very prevailing belief amongst the natives. A vivid +indication of this native feeling is given in the most instructive work on +Hindu rural life that I have ever met with.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Colonel Sleeman thus +recounts a conversation he held with some natives in one of his rambles—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I got an old landowner from one of the villages to walk on +with me a mile and put me in the right road. I asked him +what had been the state of the country under the former +government of the Jâts and Mahrattas, and was told that the +greater part was a wild jungle. "I remember," said the old +man, "when you could not have got out of the road hereabouts +without a good deal of risk. I could not have ventured a +hundred yards from the village without the chance of having +my clothes stripped off my back. Now the whole country is +under cultivation, and the roads are safe. Formerly the +governments kept no faith with their landowners and +cultivators, exacting ten rupees where they had bargained +for five whenever they found their crops good. But in spite +of all this <i>zulm</i> (oppression) there was then more <i>burkul</i> +(blessings from above) than now; the lands yielded more to +the cultivator."</p></div> + +<p>Colonel Sleeman on the same day asked a respectable farmer what he thought +of the latter statement. He stated: "The diminished fertility is owing, no +doubt, to the want of those salutary fallows which the fields got under +former governments, when invasions and civil wars were things of common +occurrence, and kept at least <i>two-thirds of the land waste</i>."</p> + +<p>The fact is that, under an orderly government like ours, the causes +alluded to above as impeding the growth of capital become very much +aggravated. Population largely increases, waste lands are brought under +the plough, grazing grounds for stock disappear, and the fallows, formerly +so beneficial in restoring fertility to the soil, can no longer be kept +free from cultivation. All these considerations form portions of the very +difficult problems in government which day by day present themselves to +the Indian administrator. But does Mr. Hyndman think they are to be solved +by recurrence to the native system of government; by the substitution of a +local ruler, sometimes paternal, more frequently the reverse, for the +courts of justice which now administer the law which can be read and +understood by all; by civil contracts being enforced by the armed servant +of the creditor, instead of by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> officers of a court acting under +strict surveillance; by the land assessment being collected year by year +through the farmers of the revenue according to their arbitrary will, +instead of being payable in a small moderate<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> sum, unalterable for a +long term of years? If he thinks this—and his allusion to the system of +the non-regulation provinces favours the conclusion—he will not find, I +think, an educated native in the whole of India who will agree with him.</p> + +<p>There are great harshnesses in our rule, there is a rigidity and +exactitude of procedure which is often distasteful to native opinion, +there are patent defects arising out of our attempts to administer +justice, there is great irritation at our constant and often ill-conceived +experiments in legislation, there is real danger in the fresh burdens we +lay upon the people in our desire to carry out apparently laudable +reforms. But with all these blemishes, which have only to be distinctly +perceived to be removed from our administrative system, the educated +native feels that he is gradually acquiring the position of a freeman, and +he would not exchange it for that which Mr. Hyndman appears to desiderate.</p> + +<p class='right'> +<span class="smcap">E. Perry</span>, <i>in Nineteenth Century</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This rock on its eastern face contains the decrees of Asoka, +who began to reign 263 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; on the western face is the inscription of +Rudradáman, one of the Satrap-rulers under an Indian Greek dynasty, circa +90 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; and the northern face presents the inscription of Skandagupta, +240 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Preface to <i>Vishnu Purana</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Elphinstone, <i>History of India</i>, vol. i. p. 511.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See Aitcheson, <i>Treaties</i>, vol. vi. p. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>A Hindu Gentleman's Reflections.</i> Spiers, London, 1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Widow-burning.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The swing-sacrifice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Views and Opinions of General John Jacob.</i> London, 1858.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> October 1865, and October 1866.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>England and Russia in the East.</i> Murray.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> 59 Geo. III. c. 55, s. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Report on East India Public Works</i>, p. 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The career of Mr. Dádobhai Naoroji illustrates in a +remarkable manner the operation of the system of education introduced +under our government. A Parsi, born in Bombay of very poor parents, he +received his education at the Elphinstone College, where he displayed so +much intelligence that in 1845 an English gentleman, desirous to open up a +new career for educated natives, offered to send him to England to study +for the bar if any of the wealthy merchants of his community would pay +half the expenses. But in those days the Parsis, like the Hindus, dreaded +contact with England, and the offer fell to the ground. Dádobhai continued +at the College, where he obtained employment as a teacher, and +subsequently became professor of mathematics, no native having previously +filled such a post. In 1845 he left scholastics and joined the first +native mercantile house established in London. This firm commenced with +great success, and Dádobhai no sooner found himself master of 5,000l. than +he devoted it to public objects in his native city. The house of Messrs. +Cama subsequently failed, and Dádobhai returned to Bombay, where, as above +noted, he took an active part in municipal affairs, and was subsequently +appointed Dewan to the Gaekwar. He is now carrying on business as a +merchant on his own account in London.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Rambles of an Indian Official</i>, 1844.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> So long ago as the period when Colonel Sleeman wrote, the +principle was fully established as to the moderation to be observed in the +Government assessment. He says: "We may rate the Government share at +one-fifth as the maximum and one-tenth as the minimum of the gross +produce." (<i>Rambles of an Indian Official</i>, vol i. p. 251.) In the Blue +Book laid before Parliament last Session on the Deccan riots, it will be +seen that the Government share in the gross produce of those districts +where a high assessment was supposed to have created the disturbances was +only one-thirteenth.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_COUP_DETAT" id="A_COUP_DETAT"></a>A COUP D'ÉTAT.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If little seeds by slow degree<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Put forth their leaves and flowers unheard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our love had grown into a tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bloomed without a single word<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I haply hit on six o'clock,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The hour her father came from town;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I gave his own peculiar knock,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And waited slyly, like a clown.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The door was open. There she stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lifting her mouth's delicious brim.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How could I waste a thing so good!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I took the kiss she meant for him.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A moment on an awful brink—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Deep breath, a frown, a smile, a tear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, "O Robert, don't you think<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That that was rather—<i>cavalier</i>?" [<i>London Society.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THEATRICAL_MAKE-SHIFTS_AND_BLUNDERS" id="THEATRICAL_MAKE-SHIFTS_AND_BLUNDERS"></a>THEATRICAL MAKE-SHIFTS AND BLUNDERS.</h2> + + +<p>It is a generally received opinion that all stage wardrobes are made up of +tawdry rags, and that the landscapes and palaces that look so charming by +gaslight are but mere daubs by day. But there are wardrobes <i>and</i> +wardrobes, scenery and scenery. The dresses used for some great "get up" +at the opera houses, or at the principal London and provincial theatres, +are costly and magnificent; the scenery, although painted for distance and +artificial light, is really the product of artists of talent, and there is +an attention to reality in all the adjuncts that would quite startle the +believers in the tinsel and tawdry view. A millionaire might take a lesson +from the stage drawing-rooms of the Prince of Wales and the Court +theatres, and no cost is spared to procure the <i>real</i> article, whatever it +may be, that is required for the scene. These minutiæ of realism, however, +are quite a modern idea, dating no farther back than the days of +Boucicault and Fechter. Splendid scenery and gorgeous dresses for the +legitimate dramas were introduced by John Kemble, and developed to the +utmost extent by Macready and Kean; but it was reserved for the present +decade to lavish the same attention and expenses upon the petite drama. +Half a century ago the property maker manufactured the stage furniture, +the stage books, the candelabra, curtains, cloths, pictures, &c., out of +papier mache and tinsel; and the drawing-room or library of a gentleman's +mansion thus presented bore as much resemblance to the reality as sea-side +furnished lodgings do to a ducal palace. Before the Kemble time a green +baize, a couple of chairs and a table, sufficed for all furnishing +purposes, whether for an inn or a palace.</p> + +<p>In these days of "theatrical upholstery," we can scarcely realize the +shabbiness of the stage of the last century. There were a few handsome +suits for the principal actors, but the less important ones were +frequently dressed in costumes that had done service for fifty years, +until they were worn threadbare and frequently in rags. Endeavour to +realise upon the modern stage such a picture as this given by Tate +Wilkinson, of his appearance at Covent Garden as "The Fine Gentleman," in +"Lethe." "A very short old suit of clothes, with a black velvet ground, +and broad, gold flowers as dingy as the twenty-four letters on a piece of +gingerbread; it had not seen the light since the first year Garrick played +'Lothario,' at the theatre. Bedecked in that sable array for the modern +'Fine Gentleman,' and to make the appearance complete, I added an old red +surtout, trimmed with a dingy white fur, and a deep skinned cape of the +same hue, borrowed by old Giffard, I was informed, at Lincoln's Inn Fields +Theatre, to play 'King Lear' in." When West Digges appeared at the +Haymarket<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> as Cardinal Wolsey, it was in the identical dress that Barton +Booth had worn in Queen Anne's time: a close-fitting habit of gilt leather +upon a black ground, black stockings, and black gauntlets. No wonder +Foote, who was in the pit, exclaimed, upon the appearance of this +extraordinary figure, "A Roman sweep on May-day!" When Quin played the +youthful fascinating Chamont, in Otway's "Orphan," he wore a long grisly +half-powdered periwig, hanging low down each side his breast and down his +back, a huge scarlet coat and waistcoat, heavily trimmed with gold, black +velvet breeches, black silk neckcloth, black stockings, a pair of +square-toed shoes, with an old-fashioned pair of stone buckles, stiff +high-topped white gloves, with a broad old scolloped lace hat. Such a +costume upon a personage not in his first youth, and more than inclined to +obesity, must have had an odd effect. But then, as is well known, Garrick +played "Macbeth" in a scarlet coat and powdered wig; John Kemble performed +"Othello" in a full suit of British scarlet regimentals, and even when he +had gone so far as to dress "Macbeth" as a highlander of 1745, wore in his +bonnet a tremendous hearse plume, until Scott plucked it out, and placed +an eagle's feather there in its stead. The costumes of the ladies were +almost more absurd. Whether they appeared as Romans, Greeks, or females of +the Middle Ages, they dressed the same—in the huge hoop, and powdered +hair raised high upon the head, heavy brocaded robes that required two +pages to hold up, without whose assistance they could scarcely have moved; +and servants were dressed quite as magnificently as their mistresses.</p> + +<p>In scenery there was no attempt at "sets;" a drop, and a pair of "flats," +dusty and dim with age, were all the scenic accessories; and two or three +hoops of tallow candles, suspended above the stage, were all that +represented the blaze of gas and lime-light to which we are accustomed. +The candle-snuffer was a theatrical post of some responsibility in those +days. Garrick was the first who used concealed lights. The uncouth +appearance of the stage was rendered still worse on crowded nights by +ranges of seats raised for spectators on each side. The most ridiculous +<i>contretemps</i> frequently resulted from this incongruity. Romeo, sometimes, +when he bore out the body of Juliet from the solitary tomb of the +Capulets, had to almost force his way through a throng of beaux, and +Macbeth and his lady plotted the murder of Duncan amidst a throng of +people.</p> + +<p>One night, Hamlet, upon the appearance of the Ghost, threw off his hat, as +usual, preparatory to the address, when a kind-hearted dame, who had heard +him just before complain of its being "very cold," picked it up and +good-naturedly clapped it upon his head again. A similar incident once +happened during the performance of Pizarro. Elvira is discovered asleep +upon a couch, gracefully covered by a rich velvet cloak; Valverde enters, +kneels and kisses her hand; Elvira awakes, rises and lets fall the +covering, and is about to indignantly repulse her unwelcome visitor, when +a timid female voice says: "Please,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> ma'am, you've dropped your mantle," +and a timid hand is trying to replace it upon the tragedy queen's +shoulders. Of another kind, but very much worse, was an accident that +befell Mrs. Siddons at Edinburgh, at the hands of another person who +failed to distinguish between the real person and the counterfeit. Just +before going on for the sleep-walking-scene, she had sent a boy for some +porter, but the cue for her entrance was given before he returned. The +house was awed into shuddering silence as, in a terrible whisper, she +uttered the words "Out, out, damned spot!" and with slow mechanical action +rubbed the guilty hands; when suddenly there emerged from the wings a +small figure holding out a pewter pot, and a shrill voice broke the awful +silence with "Here's your porter, mum." Imagine the feelings of the +stately Siddons! The story is very funny to read, but depend upon it the +incident gave her the most cruel anguish.</p> + +<p>It is not, however, to the uninitiated outsiders alone we are indebted for +ludicrous stage contretemps; the experts themselves have frequently given +rise to them. All readers of Elia will remember the name of Bensley, one +of "the old actors" upon whom he discourses so eloquently—a grave precise +man, whose composure no accident could ruffle, as the following anecdote +will prove. One night, as he was making his first entrance as Richard +III., at the Dublin Theatre, his wig caught upon a nail in the side scene, +and was dragged off. Catching his hat by the feather, however, he calmly +replaced it as he walked to the centre of the stage, but left his <i>hair</i> +still attached to the nail. Quite unmoved by the occurrence, he commenced +his soliloquy; but so rich a subject could not escape the wit of an Irish +audience. "Bensley, darlin'," shouted a voice from the gallery, "put on +your jaisey!" "Bad luck to your politics, will you suffer a <i>whig</i> to be +hung?" shouted another. But the tragedian, deaf to all clamour, never +faltered, never betrayed the least annoyance, spoke the speech to the end, +stalked to the wing, detached the wig from the nail, and made his exit +with it in his hand.</p> + +<p>Novices under the influence of stage fright will say and do the most +extraordinary things. Some years ago, I witnessed a laughable incident +during the performance of "Hamlet" at a theatre in the North. Although a +very small part, consisting as it does of only one speech, the "Second +Actor" is a very difficult one, the language being peculiarly cramped. In +the play scene he assassinates the player king by pouring poison into his +ear. The speech preceding the action is as follows:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Confederate season, else no creature seeing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy natural magic and dire property<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On wholesome life usurp immediately.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Upon which follows the stage direction—"<i>Pours poison into his ear.</i>"</p> + +<p>In a play of so many characters as Hamlet, such a part, in a second-class +theatre, can be given only to a very inferior performer. The one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> to whom +it was entrusted on the present occasion was a novice. Muffled in a black +coat and a black slouched hat, and with a face half hidden by burnt cork, +he looked a most villainous villain, as he stole on and gazed about in the +most approved melo-dramatic fashion. Then he began, in a strong north +country brogue,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thoughts black, hands apt,—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>then his memory failed him, and he stuck fast. The prompter whispered +"drugs fit;" but stage fright had seized him, and he could not take the +word. He tried back, but stuck again at the same place. Half-a-dozen +people were all prompting him at the same time now, but all in vain. At +length one more practical than the rest whispered angrily, "Pour the +poison in his ear and get off." The suggestion restored a glimmering of +reason to the trembling, perspiring wretch. He could not remember the +words of Shakespeare, so he improvised a line. Advancing to the sleeping +figure, he raised the vial in his hand, and in a terribly tragic tone +shouted, "Into his ear-hole this I'll <i>power</i>!"</p> + +<p>Some extraordinary and agonising mistakes, for tragedians, have been made +in what are called the flying messages in "Richard III." and "Macbeth," by +novices in their nervousness mixing up their own parts with the context; +as when Catesby rushed on and cried, "My lord, the Duke of Buckingham's +taken." There he should have stopped while Richard replied, "Off with his +head! so much for Buckingham!" But in his flurry the shaking messenger +added, "and they've cut off his head!" With a furious look at having been +robbed of one of his finest "points," the tragedian roared out, "Then, +damn you, go and stick it on again!" Another story is told of an actor +playing one of the officers in the fifth act of "Macbeth." "My lord," he +has to say, "there are ten thousand——" "Geese, villain," interrupts +Macbeth. "Ye—es, my lord!" answered the messenger, losing his memory in +his terror.</p> + +<p>But a far more dreadful anecdote is related of the same play. A star was +playing the guilty Thane in a very small company, where each member had to +sustain three or four different characters. During the performance the man +appointed to play the first murderer was taken ill. There was not another +to be spared, and the only resource left was to send on a supernumerary, +supposed to be intelligent, to stand for the character. "Keep close to the +wing," said the prompter; "I'll read you the words, and you can repeat +them after me." The scene was the banquet; the supper was pushed on, and +Macbeth, striding down the stage, seized his arm and said in a stage +whisper, "There's blood upon thy face." "'Tis Banquo's, then," was the +prompt. Lost and bewildered—having never spoken in his life before upon +the stage—by the tragedian's intense yet natural tones, the fellow, +imitating them in the most confidential manner, answered, "Is there, by +God?" put his hand up to his forehead, and, finding it stained with rose +pink, added, "Then the property man's served me a trick!"</p> + +<p>Once upon a time I was present at the performance of the celebrated dog +piece, "The Forest of Bondy," in a small country theatre. The plot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> turns +upon a well-known story, the discovery of a murder through the sagacity of +the victim's dog. The play-bill descanted most eloquently upon the +wonderful genius of the "highly trained" animal, and was sufficient to +raise expectation on tip-toe. Yet it had evidently failed to impress the +public of this town, their experiences probably having rendered them +sceptical of such pufferies, for the house was miserably bad. The first +entrance of "the celebrated dog Cæsar," however, in attendance upon his +master, was greeted with loud applause. He was a fine young black +Newfoundland, whose features were more descriptive of good nature than +genius. He sat on his haunches and laughed at the audience, and pricked up +his ears at the sound of a boy munching a biscuit in the pit. I could +perceive he was a novice, and that he would forget all he had been taught +when he came to the test. While Aubrey, the hero, is passing through a +forest at night, he is attacked by two ruffians, and after a desperate +combat is killed; the dog is supposed to be kept out of the way. But in +the very midst of the fight, Cæsar, whose barking had been distinctly +heard all the time, rushed on the stage. Far from evincing any ferocity +towards his master's foes, he danced about with a joyous bark, evidently +considering it famous fun. Aubrey was furious, and kicked out savagely at +his faithful "dawg," thereby laying himself open to the swords of his +adversaries, who, however, in consideration that the combat had not been +long enough, generously refused the advantages. "Get off, you beast!" +growled Aubrey, who evidently desired to fight it out without canine +interference. At length, when the faltering applause from the gallery +began to show that the gods had had enough of it, the assassins buried +their swords beneath their victim's arms, and he expired in great agony; +Cæsar looking on from the respectful distance to which his master's kick +had sent him, with the unconcern of a person who had seen it all done at +rehearsal and knew it was all sham, but with a decided interest of eye and +ear in the direction of the biscuit-muncher. In the next act he was to +leap over a stile and ring the bell at a farm house, and, having awakened +the inhabitants, seize a lantern which is brought out, and lead them to +the spot where the villains have buried his master. After a little +prompting Cæsar leaped the stile and went up to the bell, round the handle +of which was twisted some red cloth to imitate meat; but there never was a +more matter-of-fact dog than this; he evidently hated all shams, even +artistic ones; and after a sniff at the red rag he walked off disgusted, +and could not be induced to go on again; so the people had to rush out +without being summoned, carry their own lantern, and find their way by a +sort of canine instinct, or scent, to the scene of the murder. But Cæsar's +delinquencies culminated in the last scene, where, after the chief +villain, in a kind of lynch law trial, has stoutly asserted his innocence, +the sagacious "dawg" suddenly bounds upon the stage, springs at his +throat, and puts an end to his infamous career. Being held by the collar, +and incited on, in the side scene, Cæsar's deep bark sounded terribly +ferocious, and seemed to foreshadow a bloody catastrophe; but his bark +proved worse than his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> bite, for when released he trotted on with a most +affable expression of countenance, his thoughts still evidently bent upon +biscuits; in vain did the villain show him the red pad upon his throat and +invite him to seize it. Cæsar had been deceived once, and scorned to +countenance an imposition. Furious with passion, the villain rushed at +him, drew him up on his hind legs, clasped him in his arms, then fell upon +the stage and writhed in frightful agonies, shrieking, "Mussy, mussy, take +off the dawg!" and the curtain fell amidst the howls and hisses of the +audience.</p> + +<p>Another laughable dog story, although of a different kind, was once +related to me by a now London actor. In a certain theatre in one of the +great northern cities business had been so bad for some time that salaries +were very irregularly paid. It is a peculiarity of the actor that he is +never so jolly, so full of fun, and altogether so vivacious, as when he is +impecunious. In prosperity he is dull and melancholy; the yellow dross +seems to weigh down his spirit, to stultify it; empty his pockets, and it +etherialises him. At the theatre in question, the actors amused themselves +if they failed to amuse the audience. Attached to this house was a mongrel +cur, whom some of them had taught tricks to while away the tedium of long +waits. "Jack"—such was his name—was well known all round the +neighbourhood, and to most of the <i>habitues</i> of the house. Among his other +accomplishments he could simulate death at command, and could only be +recalled to life by a certain piece of information to be presently +mentioned. One night the manager was performing "The Stranger" to about +half-a-dozen people. Francis was standing at the wing waiting for his cue +when his eye fell upon Jack, who was standing just off the stage on the +opposite side; an impish thought struck him—he whistled—Jack pricked up +his ears, and Francis slapped his leg and called him. Obedient to the +summons Jack trotted before the audience, but as he reached the centre of +the stage the word "dead!" struck upon his ear. The next moment he was +stretched motionless with his two hind legs sticking up at an angle of +forty-five degrees. The scene was the one in which the Stranger relates to +Baron Steinfort the story of his wrongs, and he had come to the line, "My +heart is like a close-shut sepulchre," when a burst of laughter from the +front drew his attention to Jack. He saw the trick that had been played in +an instant. "Get off, you brute!" he growled, giving the animal a kick. +But Jack was too highly trained to heed such an admonition, having learned +beforehand that the kicking was not so bad as the flogging he would get +for not performing his part correctly. "Doan't tha' kick poor Jack," +called out a rough voice, "give un the word." "Ay, ay, give un the word," +echoed half-a-dozen voices. The manager knew better than to disregard the +advice of his patrons, and ground out between his teeth, "Here's a +policeman coming." At that "open Sesame" Jack was up and off like a shot. +It must have been one of the finest bits of burlesque to have seen that +black-ringlet-wigged, sallow, dyspeptic, tragic-looking individual, +repeating the clown's formula over a mangy cur.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p>The failure or forgetfulness of stage properties is frequently a source of +ludicrous incidents. People are often killed by pistols that will not +fire, or stabbed with the butt ends. In some play an actor has to seize a +dagger from a table and stab his rival. One night the dagger was forgotten +and no substitute was there, <i>except a candle</i>, which the excited actor +wrenched from the candlestick, and madly plunged <i>at</i> his opponent's +breast; but it effected its purpose, for the victim expired in strong +convulsions. It is strange how seldom the audience perceive such +<i>contretemps</i>, or notice the extraordinary and ludicrous slips of the +tongue that are so frequent upon the stage.</p> + +<p>A playbill is not always the most truth-telling publication in the world. +Managers, driven to their wits' ends to draw a sluggish public, often +announce entertainments which they have no means of producing properly, or +even at all, and have to exercise an equal amount of ingenuity to find +substitutes, or satisfy a deluded audience. Looking through some +manuscript letters of R. B. Peake's the other day, I came across a capital +story of Bunn. While he was manager of the Birmingham Theatre, Power, the +celebrated Irish comedian, made a starring engagement with him. It was +about the time that the dramatic version of Mrs. Shelley's +"Frankenstein"—done, I believe, by Peake himself—was making a great +sensation, and Power announced it for his benefit, playing "the Monster" +himself. The manager, however, refused to spend a penny upon the +production. "You must do with what you can find in the theatre," he said. +There was only one difficulty. In the last scene Frankenstein is buried +beneath an avalanche, and among the stage scenery of the Theatre Royal, +Birmingham, there was nothing resembling an avalanche to be found, and the +<span class="smcap">avalanche</span> was the one prodigious line in the playbill. Power was +continually urging this difficulty, but Bunn always eluded it with, "Oh, +we shall find something or other." At length it came to the day of +performance, and the problem had not yet been solved.</p> + +<p>"Well, we shall have to change the piece," said Power.</p> + +<p>"Pooh, pooh! nonsense!" answered the manager.</p> + +<p>"There is no avalanche, and it is impossible to be finished without."</p> + +<p>"Can't you cut it out?"</p> + +<p>"Impossible."</p> + +<p>The manager fell into a brown study for a few moments. Then suddenly +brightening up, he said, "I have it; but they must let the green curtain +down instantly on the extraordinary effect. Hanging up in the flies is the +large elephant made for 'Blue Beard;' we'll have it whitewashed."</p> + +<p>"What?" exclaimed Power.</p> + +<p>"We'll have it whitewashed," continued the manager coolly; "what is an +avalanche but a vast mass of white? When Frankenstein is to be +annihilated, the carpenters shall shove the whitened elephant over the +flies—destroy you both in a moment—and down comes the curtain."</p> + +<p>As there was no other alternative, Power e'en submitted. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> whitened +elephant was "shoved" over at the right moment, the effect was appalling +from the front, and the curtain descended amidst loud applause.</p> + +<p>Not quite so successful was a hoax perpetrated by Elliston, during <i>his</i> +management of the Birmingham Theatre, many years previously. Then, also, +business had been very bad, and he was in great difficulties. Let us give +the managers their due. They do not, as a rule, resort to swindles except +under strong pressure; then they soothe their consciences with the +reflection that as an obtuse and ungrateful public will not support their +legitimate efforts, it deserves to be swindled. And a very good reflection +it is—from a managerial point of view. No man was more fertile in +expedients than Robert William Elliston; so after a long continuance of +empty benches, the walls and boardings of the town were one morning +covered with glaring posters announcing that the manager of the Theatre +Royal had entered into an engagement with a <span class="smcap">Bohemian</span> of extraordinary +strength and stature, who would perform some astonishing evolutions with a +stone of upwards of a ton weight, which he would toss about as easily as +another would a tennis-ball. What all the famous names of the British +drama and all the talents of its exponents had failed to accomplish, was +brought about by a stone, and on the evening announced for its appearance +the house was crammed to the ceiling. The exhibition was to take place +between the play and the farce, and scarcely had the intellectual audience +patience to listen to the piece, so eager were they for the noble +entertainment that was to follow. At length, much to their relief, the +curtain fell. The usual interval elapsed, the house became impatient, +impatience soon merged into furious clamour. At length, with a pale, +distraught countenance, Elliston rushed before the curtain. In a moment +there was a breathless silence.</p> + +<p>"The Bohemian has deceived me!" were his first words. "<i>That</i> I could have +pardoned; but he has deceived you, my friends, <i>you</i>;" and his voice +trembled, and he hid his face behind his handkerchief and seemed to sob.</p> + +<p>Then, bursting forth again, he went on: "I repeat, he has deceived me; he +is not here."</p> + +<p>A yell of disappointment burst from the house.</p> + +<p>"The man," continued Elliston, raising his voice, "of whatever name or +nation he may be, who breaks his word, commits an offence which——" The +rest of this Joseph Surface sentiment was drowned in furious clamour, and +for some minutes he could not make himself heard, until he drew some +letters from his pocket, and held them up.</p> + +<p>"Here is the correspondence," he said. "Does any gentleman here understand +German? If so, will he oblige me by stepping forward?"</p> + +<p>The Birmingham public were not strong in languages in those days, it would +seem, for no gentleman stepped forward.</p> + +<p>"Am I, then, left alone?" he exclaimed in tragic accents. "Well, I will +translate them for you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>Here there was another uproar, out of which came two or three voices, "No, +no." Like Buckingham, he chose to construe the two or three into "a +general acclaim."</p> + +<p>"Your commands shall be obeyed," he said bowing, and pocketing the +correspondence, "I <i>will not</i> read them. But my dear patrons, your +kindness merits some satisfaction at my hands; your consideration shall +not go unrewarded. You shall not say you have paid your money for nothing. +Thank heaven, I can satisfy you of my own integrity, and present you with +a portion of the entertainment you have paid to see. The Bohemian, the +villain, is not here. But the <i>stone</i> is, and <span class="smcap">You shall see it</span>." He winked +at the orchestra, which struck up a lively strain, and up went the +curtain, disclosing a huge piece of sand rock, upon which was stuck a +label, bearing the legend in large letters, "<span class="smcap">This is the stone.</span>"</p> + +<p>It need scarcely be added that the Bohemian existed only in the manager's +brain. But it is a question whether the audience which could be only +brought together by such an exhibition did not deserve to be swindled.</p> + +<p>An equally good story is told of his management at Worcester. For his +benefit he had announced a grand display of fireworks! No greater proof of +the gullibility of the British public could be adduced than their +swallowing such an announcement. The theatre was so small that such an +exhibition was practically impossible. A little before the night Elliston +called upon the landlord of the property, and in the course of +conversation hinted at the danger of such a display, as though the idea +had just struck him; the landlord took alarm, and, as Elliston had +anticipated, forbade it. Nevertheless the announcements remained on the +walls, and on the night the theatre was crowded. The performance proceeded +without any notice being taken by the management of the fireworks, until +murmurs swelled into clamour and loud cries. Then with his usual kingly +air, Elliston came forward and bowed. He had made, he said, the most +elaborate preparation for a magnificent pyrotechnic display; he had left +nothing undone, but at the last moment came the terrible reflection, would +it not be dangerous? Would there not be collected within the walls of the +theatre a number of lovely young tender girls, of respectable matrons, to +do him honour? What if the house should catch fire—the panic, the +struggle for life—ah, he shuddered at the thought! Then, too, he thought +of the property of that worthiest of men, the landlord—he rushed to +consult him—and he now called upon him—there he was, seated in the stage +box—to publicly state, for the satisfaction of the distinguished audience +he saw before him, that he had forbidden the performance from +considerations of safety. The landlord, a very nervous man, shrank to the +back of his box, scared by every eye in the house being fixed upon him; +but the audience, thankful for the terrible danger they had escaped, burst +into thunders of applause.</p> + +<p>The stories are endless of the shifts and swindles to which country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +managers, at their wits' end, have had to resort to attract a sluggish +public. How great singers have been advertised that never heard of such an +engagement, and even forged telegrams read to an expectant audience, to +account for their non-appearance. How prizes have been distributed on +benefit nights—to people who gave them back again. How audiences, the +victims of some false announcement, have been left waiting patiently for +the performance to commence, while the manager was on his way to another +town with their money in his pocket. But there is a great sameness about +such stories, and one or two are a specimen of all.</p> + +<p class='right'> +<span class="smcap">H. Barton Baker</span>, <i>in Belgravia</i>.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I_WINTER-MORN_IN_THE_COUNTRY" id="I_WINTER-MORN_IN_THE_COUNTRY"></a>I.—WINTER-MORN IN THE COUNTRY.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Sabbath of all Nature! Stillness reigns<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For snow has fallen, and all the land is white.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The cottage-roofs slant grey against the light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grey the sky, nor cloud nor blue obtains.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sun is moonlike, as a maiden feigns<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To veil her beauty, yet sends glances bright<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That fill the eye, and make the heart delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Expectant of some wonder. Lengthened trains<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of birds wing high, and straight the smoke ascends.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All things are fairy-like: the trees empearled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With frosty gem-work, like to trees in dream.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Beneath the weight the slender cedar bends<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And looks more ghost-like! 'Tis a wonder-world,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wherein, indeed, things are not as they seem.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II_WINTER-MORN_IN_TOWN" id="II_WINTER-MORN_IN_TOWN"></a>II.—WINTER-MORN IN TOWN.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Through yellow fog all things take spectral shapes:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lamps dimly gleam, and through the window pane<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The light is shed in short and broken lane;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And "darkness visible" pants, yawns, and gapes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From roofs the water drips, as from high capes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Half-freezes as it falls. Like cries of pain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fog-signals faintly heard, and then again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grave warning words to him who rashly apes<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The skater, nearer. All is muffled fast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In dense dead coils of vapour, nothing clear—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The world disguised in mumming masquerade.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O'er each a dull thick clinging veil is cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And no one is what fain he would appear:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor any well-marked track on which to tread,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div></div> + +<p class='right'><span class="smcap">Alex. H. Japp</span>, <i>in Belgravia</i>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_HAPPY_VALLEY" id="THE_HAPPY_VALLEY"></a>THE HAPPY VALLEY.</h2> + +<h3>A REMINISCENCE OF THE HIMALAYAS.</h3> + + +<p>The privilege which the families of officers in the service of the State +may be said exclusively to possess, of reproducing in Upper India—and +especially in the Himalayan stations, and valley of Dhera Dhoon—the +stately or cottage homes of England, is perhaps one, to a great extent, +unfamiliar to their relatives at home; and it is scarcely too much to say +that the general public, which, as a rule, considers the Indian climate an +insuperable barrier to all enjoyment, has but a faint idea of that +glorious beauty, which is no "fading flower," in this "Happy Valley," with +its broad belt of virgin forest, that lies between the Himalayas proper +and the sharp ridges of the wild Sewalic range. The latter forms a barrier +between the sultry plains and the cool and romantic retreats, where the +swords of our gallant defenders may be said to rest in their scabbards, +and where, surrounded by the pleasures of domestic life, health and +happiness may, in the intervals of piping times of peace, be enjoyed to +their fullest extent.</p> + +<p>In such favoured spots the exile from home may live, seemingly, for the +present only; but, in truth, it is not so, for even under such favoured +circumstances the tie with our natal place is never relaxed, and the hope +of future return to it adds just that touch of pensiveness—scarcely +sadness—which is the delicate neutral tint that brings out more forcibly +the gorgeous colours of the picture.</p> + +<p>The gaieties of the mountain stations of Mussoorie and Landour were now +approaching their periodical close, in the early part of October, when the +cold season commences. The attractive archery meetings on the green +plateaux of the mountain-spurs had ceased, and balls and sumptuous +dinner-parties were becoming fewer and fewer; while daily one group of +friends after another, "with lingering steps and slow," on rough +hill-ponies or in quaint jam-pans, were wending their way some six or +seven thousand feet down the umbrageous mountain-sides, watched from above +by those who still lingered behind, until they seemed like toilsome emmets +in the far distance.</p> + +<p>Now that our summer companions were gone we used to while away many an +hour with our glasses, scanning in that clear atmosphere the vast plains +stretched out beneath us like a rich carpet of many colours, but in which +forms were scarcely to be traced at that distance. Here, twisted silver +threads represented some great river; there, a sprinkling of rice-like +grains, the white bungalows of a cantonment; while occasionally a sombre +mass denoted some forest or mango tope. Around us, and quailing under +fierce gusts of wind from the passes of the snowy range<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> rising in peaks +to nearly twice the altitude of the Alps, the gnarled oaks, now denuded of +their earlier garniture of parasitical ferns, that used to adorn their +mossy branches with Nature's own point lace, seemed almost conscious of +approaching winter.</p> + +<p>Landour, now deserted, save by a few invalid soldiers and one or two +resident families, had few attractions. The snow was lying deep on the +mountain-sides, and blocking up the narrow roads. But winter in the +Himalayas is a season of startling phenomena; for it is then that thunder +storms of appalling grandeur are prevalent, and to a considerable extent +destructive. During the night, amidst the wild conflict of the elements, +would, not unfrequently, be heard the bugles of the soldiers' Sanatorium, +calling to those who could sleep to arouse themselves, and hasten to the +side of residents whose houses had been struck by the electric fluid.</p> + +<p>Still, we clung to our mountain-home to the last, although we knew that +summer awaited us in the valley below, and that in an hour and a half we +might with ease exchange an almost hyperborean climate for one where +summer is perennial, or seems so—for the rainy season is but an interlude +of refreshing showers.</p> + +<p>At length an incident occurred which somewhat prematurely influenced our +departure.</p> + +<p>As we were sitting at an early breakfast one morning with the children, +Khalifa, a favourite domestic, and one who rarely failed to observe that +stately decorum peculiar to Indian servants, rushed wildly into the room, +with every appearance of terror, screaming, "Janwar! Burra janwar, +sahib!"<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> at the same time pointing to the window.</p> + +<p>We could not at first understand what the poor fellow meant; but on +looking out, were not a little disconcerted at the sight which presented +itself.</p> + +<p>Crouched on the garden-wall was a huge spotted animal of the leopard +species. It looked, however, by no means ferocious, but, on the contrary, +to be imploring compassion and shelter from the snowstorm. Still, +notwithstanding its demure cat-like aspect, its proximity was by no means +agreeable. With a strange lack of intelligence, the brute, instead of +avoiding the cold, had evidently become bewildered, and crawled up the +mountain side. As we could scarcely be expected to extend the rites of +hospitality to such a visitor, the harmless discharge of a pistol insured +his departure at one bound, and with a terrific growl.</p> + +<p>Wild beasts are rarely seen about European stations. Those who like them +must go out of their way to find them. But perhaps stupefied by cold while +asleep, and pinched by hunger, as on the present occasion, they may lose +their usual sagacity.</p> + +<p>Having got rid of our unwelcome visitor, we determined at once to leave +our mountain-home.</p> + +<p>The servants were only too glad to hasten our departure, and in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +course of an hour everything was packed up, and we were ready for the +descent into the plains.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the absence of a police force, robberies of houses are +almost unknown; and therefore it was only necessary for us to draw down +the blinds and lock the main door, leaving the furniture to take care of +itself.</p> + +<p>The jam-pans and little rough ponies were ready; the servants, although +shivering in their light clothing, more active than I had ever before seen +them; and in the course of another hour we were inhaling the balmy air of +early summer.</p> + +<p>The pretty little hotel of Rajpore, at the base of the mountain, was now +reached; and before us lay the broad and excellent road, shaded with +trees, which, in the course of another twenty minutes, brought us to the +charming cantonment of Deyrah. All Nature seemed to be rejoicing; the +birds were singing; the sounds of bubbling and splashing waters +(mountain-streams diverted from their natural channels, and brought into +every garden), and hedges of the double pink and crimson Bareilly rose<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> +in full bloom, interspersed with the oleander, and the mehndi (henna of +Scripture) with its fragrant clusters, filling the air with the perfume of +mignonette, presented a scene of earthly beauty which cannot be surpassed.</p> + +<p>"How stupid we were," I remarked, looking back at our late home, now a +mere black speck on the top of the snowy mountain far above—"how very +foolish and perverse to have fancied ourselves more English in the winter +up there, when we might all this time have been leading the life of Eden, +in this enchanting spot!"</p> + +<p>"Indeed we were," replied my companion. "But it is the way with us in +India. We give a rupee for an English daisy, and cast aside the honeyed +champah."</p> + +<p>In India there is no difficulty in housing oneself. No important agents +are necessary, and advertising is scarcely known. Accordingly, without +ceremony, we took quiet possession of the first vacant bungalow which we +came to, and our fifteen domestics did not seem to question for a moment +the propriety of the occupation. Under our somewhat despotic government, +are not the sahib lög<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> above petty social observances?</p> + +<p>While A. was busily employed getting his guns ready and preparing for +shikari in the adjacent forest and jungles, which swarm with peafowl, +partridges, quail, pigeons, and a variety of other game, my first care was +to summon the resident mali (gardener), and ascertain how the beautiful +and extensive garden of which we had taken possession<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> might be further +stocked.</p> + +<p>"Mem sahib,"<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> said the quiet old gardener, with his hands in a +supplicatory position, "there is abundance here of everything—aloo, lal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +sag, anjir, padina, baingan, piyaz, khira, shalgham, kobs, ajmud, +kharbuza, amb, amrut, anar, narangi—"<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>"Stay!" I interrupted; "that is enough."</p> + +<p>But the old mali had something more to add:</p> + +<p>"Mem sahib, all is your own, and your slave shall daily bring his +customary offering, and flowers for the table; and the protector of the +poor will not refuse bakshees for the bearer."</p> + +<p>I promised to be liberal to the poor old man, and then proceeded to +inspect the flower-garden.</p> + +<p>Here I was surprised to find a perfect fraternisation between the tropical +flora and our own. Amongst flowers not unfamiliar to the European were +abundance of the finest roses, superb crimson and gold poincianas, the +elegant hybiscus, graceful ipomœas, and convolvuli of every hue, the +purple amaranth, the variegated double balsam, the richest marigolds, the +pale-blue clusters of the plantago, acacias, jasmines, oranges, and +pomegranates, intermixed with our own pansies, carnations, cinerarias, +geraniums, fuchsias, and a wealth of blossoms impossible to remember by +name.</p> + +<p>"If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this!"</p> + +<p>Far more beautiful to the homely eye are such gardens than those of +Shalimar and Pinjore, with their costly marble terraces, geometrical +walks, fountains and cascades falling over sculptured slabs.</p> + +<p>Nor are we in India confined to the enjoyment of Nature. Art<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> finds its +way to us from Europe, and literature here receives the warmest welcome. +Our pianos, our musical-boxes—our costly and richly bound illustrated +works, fresh from England—the most thrilling romances of fiction, and all +the periodicals of the day, are regularly accumulated in these charming +Indian retreats, and keep up the culture of the mind in a valley whose +"glorious beauty" is, as I have said, no "fading flower," but the home of +the missionary, and the resort of the war-worn soldier or truth-loving +artist.</p> + +<p>Nor is this all. Around Deyrah is some of the most exquisitely beautiful +cave scenery, comparatively unknown even to Europeans; such, for example, +as the wondrous natural tunnel, whose sides shine with the varied beauty +of the most delicate mosaics, and are lit up by rents in the hill above; +the "dropping cave" of Sansadhara, "bosomed high in tufted trees;" and the +strange ancient shrines sculptured in the romantic glen of +Tope-Kesur-Mahadeo.</p> + +<p>Of these, Sansadhara has lately been made the subject of a beautiful +photograph, which, however, fails to convey the exquisite charm of the +original; but the natural tunnel and Tope-Kesur-Mahadeo have never been +presented by the artist to the public, although there are unique sketches +of them in the fine collection of a lady<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> who, as the wife of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> former +Indian Commander-in-Chief, had opportunities afforded to few of indulging +her taste.</p> + +<p>One might exhaust volumes in attempting to describe such scenes, and even +then fail to do them the faintest justice. The Alps, with all their +beauty, lose much of their grandeur after one has been in daily +contemplation of the majestic snowy range of the Himalayas, while the +forests and valleys that skirt its base have no counterpart in Europe. In +these partial solitudes we lose much of our conventionality. The mind is +to a certain extent elevated by the grand scale on which Nature around is +presented. The occasional alarm of war teaches the insecurity of all +earthly happiness. Our life is subject to daily introspection, and before +the mind's eye is the sublime prospect, perhaps at no very distant period, +of a Christian India rising from the ruins of a sensuous idolatry in +immortal beauty.</p> + +<p class='right'> +L. A., <i>in London Society</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> "Wild beast! Big wild beast, sir!" +</p><p> +L. M.—I.—2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> A remarkable plant. It is in constant bloom. On every spray +there is a central crimson blossom, which only lasts one day, surrounded +by five or six pink ones, which remain for many days.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Dominant class.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> House-rent is paid monthly in India, in arrear.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> My lady.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Potato, spinach, fig, mint, egg-plant, onion, cucumber, +turnip, cabbage, parsley, melon, mango, guava, pomegranate, orange.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> There is no intention of disparaging beautiful native art.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Lady Gomm.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_PHOENICIANS_IN_GREECE" id="THE_PHOENICIANS_IN_GREECE"></a>THE PHŒNICIANS IN GREECE.</h2> + + +<p>Herodotus begins his history by relating how Phœnician traders brought +"Egyptian and Assyrian wares" to Argos and other parts of Greece, in those +remote days when the Greeks were still waiting to receive the elements of +their culture from the more civilized East. His account was derived from +Persian and Phœnician sources, but, it would seem, was accepted by his +contemporaries with the same unquestioning confidence as by himself. The +belief of Herodotus was shared by the scholars of Europe after the revival +of learning, and there were none among them who doubted that the +civilization of ancient Greece had been brought from Asia or Egypt, or +from both. Hebrew was regarded as the primæval language, and the Hebrew +records as the fountain-head of all history; just as the Greek vocabulary, +therefore, was traced back to the Hebrew lexicon, the legends of primitive +Greece were believed to be the echoes of Old Testament history. <i>Ex +Oriente lux</i> was the motto of the inquirer, and the key to all that was +dark or doubtful in the mythology and history of Hellas was to be found in +the monuments of the Oriental world.</p> + +<p>But the age of Creuzer and Bryant was succeeded by an age of scepticism +and critical investigation. A reaction sat in against the attempt to force +Greek thought and culture into an Asiatic mould. The Greek scholar was +repelled by the tasteless insipidity and barbaric exuberance of the East; +he contrasted the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, of Sophocles and Plato, +with the monstrous creations of India or Egypt, and the conviction grew +strong within him that the Greek could never have learnt his first lessons +of civilization in such a school as this. Between the East and the West a +sharp line of division was drawn, and to look for the origin of Greek +culture beyond the boundaries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> of Greece itself came to be regarded almost +as sacrilege. Greek mythology, so far from being an echo or caricature of +Biblical history and Oriental mysticism, was pronounced to be self-evolved +and independent, and K. O. Müller could deny without contradiction the +Asiatic origin even of the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, where the name of +the Semitic sun-god seems of itself to indicate its source. The +Phœnician traders of Herodotus, like the royal maiden they carried away +from Argos, were banished to the nebulous region of rationalistic fable.</p> + +<p>Along with this reaction against the Orientalizing school which could see +in Greece nothing but a deformed copy of Eastern wisdom went another +reaction against the conception of Greek mythology on which the labours of +the Orientalizing school had been based. Key after key had been applied to +Greek mythology, and all in vain; the lock had refused to turn. The light +which had been supposed to come from the East had turned out to be but a +will-o'-the-wisp; neither the Hebrew Scriptures nor the Egyptian +hieroglyphics had solved the problem presented by the Greek myths. And the +Greek scholar, in despair, had come to the conclusion that the problem was +insoluble; all that he could do was to accept the facts as they were set +before him, to classify and repeat the wondrous tales of the Greek poets, +but to leave their origin unexplained. This is practically the position of +Grote; he is content to show that all the parts of a myth hang closely +together, and that any attempt to extract history or philosophy from it +must be arbitrary and futile. To deprive a myth of its kernel and soul, +and call the dry husk that is left a historical fact, is to mistake the +conditions of the problem and the nature of mythology.</p> + +<p>It was at this point that the science of comparative mythology stepped in. +Grote had shown that we cannot look for history in mythology, but he had +given up the discovery of the origin of this mythology as a hopeless task. +The same comparative method, however, which has forced nature to disclose +her secrets has also penetrated to the sources of mythology itself. The +Greek myths, like the myths of the other nations of the world, are the +forgotten and misinterpreted records of the beliefs of primitive man, and +of his earliest attempts to explain the phenomena of nature. Restore the +original meaning of the language wherein the myth is clothed, and the +origin of the myth is found. Myths, in fact, are the words of a dead +language to which a wrong sense has been given by a false method of +decipherment. A myth, rightly explained, will tell us the beliefs, the +feelings, and the knowledge of those among whom it first grew up; for the +evidences and monuments of history we must look elsewhere.</p> + +<p>But there is an old proverb that "there is no smoke without fire." The war +of Troy or the beleaguerment of Thebes may be but a repetition of the +time-worn story of the battle waged by the bright powers of day round the +battlements of heaven; but there must have been some reason why this story +should have been specially localized in the Troad and at Thebes. Most of +the Greek myths have a background in space<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> and time; and for this +background there must be some historical cause. The cause, however, if it +is to be discovered at all, must be discovered by means of those evidences +which will alone satisfy the critical historian. The localization of a +myth is merely an indication or sign-post pointing out the direction in +which he is to look for his facts. If Greek warriors had never fought in +the plains of Troy, we may be pretty sure that the poems of Homer would +not have brought Akhilles and Agamemnon under the walls of Ilium. If +Phœnician traders had exercised no influence on primæval Greece, Greek +legend would have contained no references to them.</p> + +<p>But even the myth itself, when rightly questioned, may be made to yield +some of the facts upon which the conclusions of the historian are based. +We now know fairly well what ideas, usages, and proper names have an Aryan +stamp upon them, and what, on the other hand, belong rather to the Semitic +world. Now there is a certain portion of Greek mythology which bears but +little relationship to the mythology of the kindred Aryan tribes, while it +connects itself very closely with the beliefs and practices of the Semitic +race. Human sacrifice is very possibly one of these, and it is noticeable +that two at least of the legends which speak of human sacrifice—those of +Athamas and Busiris—are associated, the one with the Phœnicians of +Thebes, the other with the Phœnicians of the Egyptian Delta. The whole +cycle of myths grouped about the name of Herakles points as clearly to a +Semitic source as does the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis; and the +extravagant lamentations that accompanied the worship of the Akhæan +Demeter (Herod. v. 61) come as certainly from the East as the olive, the +pomegranate, and the myrtle, the sacred symbols of Athena, of Hera, and of +Aphrodite.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>Comparative mythology has thus given us a juster appreciation of the +historical inferences we may draw from the legends of prehistoric Greece, +and has led us back to a recognition of the important part played by the +Phœnicians in the heroic age. Greek culture, it is true, was not the +mere copy of that of Semitic Asia, as scholars once believed, but the +germs of it had come in large measure from an Oriental seed-plot. The +conclusions derived from a scientific study of the myths have been +confirmed and widened by the recent researches and discoveries of +archæology. The spade, it has been said, is the modern instrument for +reconstructing the history of the past, and in no department in history +has the spade been more active of late than in that of Greece. From all +sides light has come upon that remote epoch around which the mist of a +fabulous antiquity had already been folded in the days of Herodotus; from +the islands and shores of the Ægean, from the tombs of Asia Minor and +Palestine, nay, even from the temples and palaces of Egypt and Assyria, +have the materials been exhumed for sketching in something like clear +outline the origin and growth of Greek civilization. From nowhere, +however, have more important<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> revelations been derived than from the +excavations at Mykenæ and Spata, near Athens, and it is with the evidence +furnished by these that I now propose mainly to deal. A personal +inspection of the sites and the objects found upon them has convinced me +of the groundlessness of the doubts which have been thrown out against +their antiquity, as well as of the intercourse and connection to which +they testify with the great empires of Babylonia and Assyria. Mr. Poole +has lately pointed out what materials are furnished by the Egyptian +monuments for determining the age and character of the antiquities of +Mykenæ.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> I would now draw attention to the far clearer and more +tangible materials afforded by Assyrian art and history.</p> + +<p>Two facts must first be kept well in view. One of these is the Semitic +origin of the Greek alphabet. The Phœnician alphabet, originally +derived from the alphabet of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and imported into +their mother-country by the Phœnician settlers of the Delta, was +brought to Greece, not probably by the Phœnicians of Tyre and Sidon, +but by the Aramæans of the Gulf of Antioch, whose nouns ended with the +same "emphatic aleph" that we seem to find in the Greek names of the +letters, <i>alpha</i>, <i>beta</i>, <i>gamma</i>, (<i>gamla</i>). Before the introduction of +the simpler Phœnician alphabet, the inhabitants of Asia Minor and the +neighbouring islands appear to have used a syllabary of some seventy +characters, which continued to be employed in conservative Cyprus down to +a very late date; but, so far as we know at present, the Greeks of the +mainland were unacquainted with writing before the Aramæo-Phœnicians +had taught them their phonetic symbols. The oldest Greek inscriptions are +probably those of Thera, now Santorin, where the Phœnicians had been +settled from time immemorial; and as the forms of the characters found in +them do not differ very materially from the forms used on the famous +Moabite Stone, we may infer that the alphabet of Kadmus was brought to the +West at a date not very remote from that of Mesha and Ahab, perhaps about +800 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> We may notice that Thera was an island and a Phœnician colony, +and it certainly seems more probable that the alphabet was carried to the +mainland from the islands of the Ægean than that it was disseminated from +the inland Phœnician settlement at Thebes, as the old legends affirmed. +In any case, the introduction of the alphabet implies a considerable +amount of civilizing force on the part of those from whom it was borrowed; +the teachers from whom an illiterate people learns the art of writing are +generally teachers from whom it has previously learnt the other elements +of social culture. A barbarous tribe will use its muscles in the service +of art before it will use its brains; the smith and engraver precede the +scribe. If, therefore, the Greeks were unacquainted with writing before +the ninth century, <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, objects older than that period may be expected to +exhibit clear traces of Phœnician influence, though no traces of +writing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>The other fact to which I allude is the existence of pottery of the same +material and pattern on all the prehistoric sites of the Greek world, +however widely separated they may be. We find it, for instance, at Mykenæ +and Tiryns, at Tanagra and Athens, in Rhodes, in Cyprus, and in Thera, +while I picked up specimens of it in the neighbourhood of the Treasury of +Minyas and on the site of the Acropolis at Orchomenus. The clay of which +it is composed is of a drab colour, derived, perhaps in all instances, +from the volcanic soil of Thera and Melos, and it is ornamented with +geometrical and other patterns in black and maroon-red. After a time the +patterns become more complicated and artistic; flowers, animal forms, and +eventually human figures, take the place of simple lines, and the pottery +gradually passes into that known as Corinthian or Phœniko-Greek. It +needs but little experience to distinguish at a glance this early pottery +from the red ware of the later Hellenic period.</p> + +<p>Phœnicia, Keft as it was called by the Egyptians, had been brought into +relation with the monarchy of the Nile at a remote date, and among the +Semitic settlers in the Delta or "Isle of Caphtor" must have been natives +of Sidon and the neighbouring towns. After the expulsion of the Hyksos, +the Pharaohs of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties carried their arms +as far as Mesopotamia and placed Egyptian garrisons in Palestine. A +tomb-painting of Thothmes III. represents the Kefa or Phœnicians, clad +in richly-embroidered kilts and buskins, and bringing their tribute of +gold and silver vases and earthenware cups, some in the shape of animals +like the vases found at Mykenæ and elsewhere. Phœnicia, it would seem, +was already celebrated for its goldsmiths' and potters' work, and the +ivory the Kefa are sometimes made to carry shows that their commerce must +have extended far to the east. As early as the sixteenth century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, +therefore, we may conclude that the Phœnicians were a great commercial +people, trading between Assyria and Egypt and possessed of a considerable +amount of artistic skill.</p> + +<p>It is not likely that a people of this sort, who, as we know from other +sources, carried on a large trade in slaves and purple, would have been +still unacquainted with the seas and coasts of Greece where both slaves +and the murex or purple-fish were most easily to be obtained. Though the +Phœnician alphabet was unknown in Greece till the ninth century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, +we have every reason to expect to find traces of Phœnician commerce and +Phœnician influence there at least five centuries before. And such +seems to be the case. The excavations carried on in Thera by MM. Fouqué +and Gorceix,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> in Rhodes by Mr. Newton and Dr. Saltzmann, and in various +other places such as Megara, Athens, and Melos, have been followed by the +explorations of Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, Tiryns, and Mykenæ, of +General di Cesnola in Cyprus, and of the Archæological Society of Athens +at Tanagra and Spata.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>The accumulations of prehistoric objects on these sites all tell the same +tale, the influence of the East, and more especially of the Phœnicians, +upon the growing civilization of early Greece. Thus in Thera, where a sort +of Greek Pompeii has been preserved under the lava which once overwhelmed +it, we find the rude stone hovels of its primitive inhabitants, with roofs +of wild olive, filled with the bones of dogs and sheep, and containing +stores of barley, spelt, and chickpea, copper and stone weapons, and +abundance of pottery. The latter is for the most part extremely coarse, +but here and there have been discovered vases of artistic workmanship, +which remind us of those carried by the Kefa, and may have been imported +from abroad. We know from the tombs found on the island that the +Phœnicians afterwards settled in Thera among a population in the same +condition of civilization as that which had been overtaken by the great +volcanic eruption. It was from these Phœnician settlers that the +embroidered dresses known as Theræan were brought to Greece; they were +adorned with animals and other figures, similar to those seen upon +Corinthian or Phœniko-Greek ware.</p> + +<p>Now M. Fr. Lenormant has pointed out that much of the pottery used by the +aboriginal inhabitants of Thera is almost identical in form and make with +that found by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, in the Troad, and he concludes +that it must belong to the same period and the same area of civilization. +There is as yet little, if any, trace of Oriental influence; a few of the +clay vases from Thera, and some of the gold workmanship at Hissarlik, can +alone be referred, with more or less hesitation, to Phœnician artists. +We have not yet reached the age when Phœnician trade in the West ceased +to be the sporadic effort of private individuals, and when trading +colonies were established in different parts of the Greek world; Europe is +still unaffected by Eastern culture, and the beginnings of Greek art are +still free from foreign interference. It is only in certain designs on the +terra-cotta discs, believed by Dr. Schliemann to be spindle-whorls, that +we may possibly detect rude copies of Babylonian and Phœnician +intaglios.</p> + +<p>Among all the objects discovered at Hissarlik, none have been more +discussed than the vases and clay images in which Dr. Schliemann saw a +representation of an owl-headed Athena. What Dr. Schliemann took for an +owl's head, however, is really a rude attempt to imitate the human face, +and two breasts are frequently moulded in the clay below it. In many +examples the human countenance is unmistakable, and in most of the others +the representation is less rude than in the case of the small marble +statues of Apollo (?) found in the Greek islands, or even of the early +Hellenic vases where the men seem furnished with the beaks of birds. But +we now know that these curious vases are not peculiar to the Troad. +Specimens of them have also been met with in Cyprus, and in these we can +trace the development of the owl-like head into the more perfect +portraiture of the human face.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> In conservative Cyprus there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> was not +that break with the past which occurred in other portions of the Greek +world.</p> + +<p>Cyprus, in fact, lay midway between Greece and Phœnicia, and was shared +to the last between an Aryan and a Semitic population. The Phœnician +element in the island was strong, if not preponderant; Paphos was a chief +seat of the worship of the Phœnician Astarte, and the Phœnician +Kitium, the Chittim of the Hebrews, took first rank among the Cyprian +towns. The antiquities brought to light by General di Cesnola are of all +ages and all styles—prehistoric and classical, Phœnician and Hellenic, +Assyrian and Egyptian—and the various styles are combined together in the +catholic spirit that characterized Phœnician art.</p> + +<p>But we must pause here for a moment to define more accurately what we mean +by Phœnician art. Strictly speaking, Phœnicia had no art of its own; +its designs were borrowed from Egypt and Assyria, and its artists went to +school on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates. The Phœnician +combined and improved upon his models; the impulse, the origination came +from abroad; the modification and elaboration were his own. He entered +into other men's labours, and made the most of his heritage. The sphinx of +Egypt became Asiatic, and in its new form was transplanted to Nineveh on +the one side and to Greece on the other. The rosettes and other patterns +of the Babylonian cylinders were introduced into the handiwork of +Phœnicia, and so passed on to the West, while the hero of the ancient +Chaldean epic became first the Tyrian Melkarth, and then the Herakles of +Hellas. It is possible, no doubt, that with all this borrowing there was +still something that was original in Phœnician work; such at any rate +seems to be the case with some of the forms given to the vases; but at +present we have no means of determining how far this originality may have +extended. In Assyria, indeed, Phœnician art exercised a great influence +in the eighth and seventh centuries <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; but it had itself previously +drawn its first inspiration from the empire of the Tigris, and did but +give back the perfect blossom to those from whom it had received the seed. +The workmanship of the ivories and bronze bowls found at Nineveh by Mr. +Layard is thoroughly Phœnician; but it cannot be separated from that of +the purely Assyrian pavements and bas-reliefs with which the palaces were +adorned. The Phœnician art, in fact, traces of which we find from +Assyria to Italy, though based on both Egyptian and Assyrian models, owed +far more to Assyria than it did to Egypt. In art, as in mythology and +religion, Phœnicia was but a carrier and intermediary between East and +West; and just as the Greek legends of Aphrodite and Adonis, of Herakles +and his twelve labours, and of the other borrowed heroes of Oriental story +came in the first instance from Assyria, so did that art and culture which +Kadmus the Phœnician handed on to the Greek race.</p> + +<p>But Assyria itself had been equally an adapter and intermediary. The +Semites of Assyria and Babylonia had borrowed their culture and +civilization from the older Accadian race, with its agglutinative +language,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> which had preceded them in the possession of Chaldea. So +slavishly observant were the Assyrians of their Chaldean models that in a +land where limestone was plentiful they continued to build their palaces +and temples of brick, and to ornament them with those columns and +pictorial representations which had been first devised on the alluvial +plains of Babylonia. To understand Assyrian art, and track it back to its +source, we must go to the engraved gems and ruined temples of primæval +Babylonia. It is true that Egypt may have had some influence on Assyrian +art, at the time when the eighteenth dynasty had pushed its conquests to +the banks of the Tigris; but that influence does not seem to have been +either deep or permanent. Now the art of Assyria is in great measure the +art of Phœnicia, and that again the art of prehistoric Greece. Modern +research has discovered the prototype of Herakles in the hero of a +Chaldean epic composed it may be, four thousand years ago; it has also +discovered the beginnings of Greek columnar architecture and the germs of +Greek art in the works of the builders and engravers of early Chaldea.</p> + +<p>When first I saw, five years ago, the famous sculpture which has guarded +the Gate of Lions at Mykenæ for so many centuries, I was at once struck by +its Assyrian character. The lions in form and attitude belong to Assyria, +and the pillar against which they rest may be seen in the bas-reliefs +brought from Nineveh. Here, at all events, there was clear proof of +Assyrian influence; the only question was whether that influence had been +carried through the hands of the Phœnicians or had travelled along the +highroad which ran across Asia Minor, the second channel whereby the +culture of Assyria could have been brought to Greece. The existence of a +similar sculpture over a rock-tomb at Kumbet in Phrygia might seem to +favour the latter view.</p> + +<p>The discoveries of Dr. Schliemann have gone far to settle the question. +The pottery excavated at Mykenæ is of the Phœnician type, and the clay +of which is composed has probably come from Thera. The terra-cotta figures +of animals and more especially of a goddess with long robe, crowned head, +and crescent-like arms, are spread over the whole area traversed by the +Phœnicians. The image of the goddess in one form or another has been +found in Thera and Melos, in Naxos and Paros, in Ios, in Sikinos, and in +Anaphos, and M. Lenormant has traced it back to Babylonia and to the +Babylonian representation of the goddess Artemis-Nana.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> At Tanagra the +image has been found under two forms, both, however, made of the same clay +and in the same style as the figures from Mykenæ. In one the goddess is +upright, as at Mykenæ, with the <i>polos</i> on her head, and the arms either +outspread or folded over the breast; in the other she is sitting with the +arms crossed. Now among the gold ornaments exhumed at Mykenæ are some +square pendants of gold which represent the goddess in this sitting +posture.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>The animal forms most commonly met with are those of the lion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> the stag, +the bull, the cuttle-fish, and the murex. The last two point unmistakably +to a seafaring race, and more especially to those Phœnician sailors +whose pursuit of the purple-trade first brought them into Greek seas. So +far as I know, neither the polypus nor the murex, nor the butterfly which +often accompanies them have been found in Assyria or Egypt, and we may +therefore see in them original designs of Phœnician art. Mr. Newton has +pointed out that the cuttle-fish (like the dolphin) also occurs among the +prehistoric remains from Ialysos in Rhodes, where, too, pottery of the +same shape and material as that of Mykenæ has been found, as well as beads +of a curious vitreous substance, and rings in which the back of the chaton +is rounded so as to fit the finger. It is clear that the art of Ialysos +belongs to the same age and school as the art of Mykenæ; and as a scarab +of Amenophis III. has been found in one of the Ialysian tombs, it is +possible that the art may be as old as the fifteenth century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span></p> + +<p>Now Ialysos is not the only Rhodian town which has yielded prehistoric +antiquities. Camirus also has been explored by Messrs. Biliotti and +Saltzmann; and while objects of the same kind and character as those of +Ialysos have been discovered there, other objects have been found by their +side which belong to another and more advanced stage of art. There are +vases of clay and metal, bronze bowls, and the like, which not only +display high finish and skill, but are ornamented with the designs +characteristic of Phœnician workmanship at Nineveh and elsewhere. Thus +we have zones of trees and animals, attempts at the representation of +scenery, and a profusion of ornament, while the influence of Egypt is +traceable in the sphinxes and scarabs, which also occur plentifully. Here, +therefore, at Camirus, there is plain evidence of a sudden introduction of +finished Phœnician art among a people whose art was still rude and +backward, although springing from the same germs as the art of Phœnicia +itself. Two distinct periods in the history of the Ægean thus seem to lie +unfolded before us; one in which Eastern influence was more or less +indirect, content to communicate the seeds of civilization and culture, +and to import such objects as a barbarous race would prize; and another in +which the East was, as it were, transported into the West, and the +development of Greek art was interrupted by the introduction of foreign +workmen and foreign beliefs. This second period was the period of +Phœnician colonization as distinct from that of mere trading +voyages—the period, in fact, when Thebes was made a Phœnician +fortress, and the Phœnician alphabet diffused throughout the Greek +world. It is only in relics of the later part of this period that we can +look for inscriptions and traces of writing, at least in Greece proper; in +the islands and on the coast of Asia Minor, the Cypriote syllabary seems +to have been in use, to be superseded afterwards by the simpler alphabet +of Kadmus. For reasons presently to be stated, I would distinguish the +first period by the name of Phrygian.</p> + +<p>Throughout the whole of it, however, the Phœnician trading ships<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> must +have formed the chief medium of intercourse between Asia and Europe. Proof +of this has been furnished by the rock tombs of Spata, which have been +lighted on opportunely to illustrate and explain the discoveries at +Mykenæ. Spata is about nine miles from Athens, on the north-west spur of +Hymettos, and the two tombs hitherto opened are cut in the soft sandstone +rock of a small conical hill. Both are approached by long tunnel-like +entrances, and one of them contains three chambers, leading one into the +other, and each fashioned after the model of a house. No one who has seen +the objects unearthed at Spata can doubt for a moment their close +connection with the Mykenæan antiquities. The very moulds found at Mykenæ +fit the ornaments from Spata, and might easily have been used in the +manufacture of them. It is more especially with the contents of the sixth +tomb, discovered by Mr. Stamatáki in the <i>enceinte</i> at Mykenæ after Dr. +Schliemann's departure, that the Spata remains agree so remarkably. But +there is a strong resemblance between them and the Mykenæan antiquities +generally, in both material, patterns, and character. The cuttle-fish and +the murex appear in both; the same curious spiral designs, and ornaments +in the shape of shells or rudely-formed oxheads; the same geometrical +patterns; the same class of carved work. An ivory in which a lion, of the +Assyrian type, is depicted as devouring a stag, is but a reproduction of a +similar design met with among the objects from Mykenæ, and it is +interesting to observe that the same device, in the same style of art, may +be also seen on a Phœnician gem from Sardinia.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> Of still higher +interest are other ivories, which, like the antiquities of Camirus, belong +rather to the second than to the first period of Phœnician influence. +One of these represents a column, which, like that above the Gate of +Lions, carries us back to the architecture of Babylonia, while others +exhibit the Egyptian sphinx, as modified by Phœnician artists. Thus the +handle of a comb is divided into two compartments—the lower occupied by +three of these sphinxes, the upper by two others, which have their eyes +fixed on an Assyrian rosette in the middle. Similar sphinxes are engraved +on a silver cup lately discovered at Palestrina, bearing the Phœnician +inscription, in Phœnician letters, "Eshmun-ya'ar, son of Ashta'."<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> +Another ivory has been carved into the form of a human side face, +surmounted by a tiara of four plaits. On the one hand the arrangement of +the hair of the face, the whisker and beard forming a fringe round it, and +the two lips being closely shorn, reminds us of what we find at +Palestrina; on the other hand, the head-dress is that of the figures on +the sculptured rocks of Asia Minor, and of the Hittite princes of +Carchemish. In spite of this Phœnician colouring, however, the +treasures of Spata belong to the earlier part of the Phœnician period, +if not to that which I have called Phrygian: there is as yet no sign of +writing, no trace of the use of iron. But we seem to be approaching the +close<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> of the bronze age in Greece—to have reached the time when the +lions were sculptured over the chief gateway of Mykenæ, and the so-called +treasuries were erected in honour of the dead.</p> + +<p>Can any date be assigned, even approximately, to those two periods of +Phœnician influence in Greece? Can we localize the era, so to speak, of +the antiquities discovered at Mykenæ, or fix the epoch at which its kings +ceased to build its long-enduring monuments, and its glory was taken from +it? I think an answer to these questions may be found in a series of +engraved gold rings and prisms found upon its site—the prisms having +probably once served to ornament the neck. In these we can trace a gradual +development of art; which in time becomes less Oriental and more Greek, +and acquires a certain facility in the representation of the human form.</p> + +<p>Let us first fix our attention on an engraved gold chaton found, not in +the tombs, but outside the <i>enceinte</i> among the ruins, as it would seem, +of a house.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> On this we have a rude representation of a figure seated +under a palm-tree, with another figure behind and three more in front, the +foremost being of small size, the remaining two considerably taller and in +flounced dresses. Above are the symbols of the sun and crescent-moon, and +at the side a row of lions' heads. Now no one who has seen this chaton, +and also had any acquaintance with the engraved gems of the archaic period +of Babylonian art, can avoid being struck by the fact that the intaglio is +a copy of one of the latter. The characteristic workmanship of the +Babylonian gems is imitated by punches made in the gold which give the +design a very curious effect. The attitude of the figures is that common +on the Chaldean cylinders; the owner stands in front of the deity, of +diminutive size, and in the act of adoration, while the priests are placed +behind him. The latter wear the flounced dresses peculiar to the early +Babylonian priests; and what has been supposed to represent female +breasts, is really a copy of the way in which the breast of a man is +frequently portrayed on the cylinders.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> The palm-tree, with its single +fruit hanging on the left side, is characteristically Babylonian; so also +are the symbols that encircle the engraving, the sun and moon and lions' +heads. The chaton of another gold ring, found on the same spot, is covered +with similar animal heads. This, again, is a copy of early Babylonian art, +in which such designs were not unfrequent, though, as they were afterwards +imitated by both Assyrian and Cyprian engravers, too much stress must not +be laid on the agreement.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> The artistic position<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> and age of the other +ring, however, admits of little doubt. The archaic period of Babylonian +art may be said to close with the rise of Assyria in the fourteenth +century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; and though archaic Babylonian intaglios continued to be +imported into the West down to the time of the Romans, it is not likely +that they were imitated by Western artists after the latter had become +acquainted with better and more attractive models. I think, therefore, +that the two rings may be assigned to the period of archaic Babylonian +power in western Asia, a period that begins with the victories of +Naram-Sin in Palestine in the seventeenth century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> or earlier, and +ends with the conquest of Babylon by the Assyrians and the establishment +of Assyrian supremacy. This is also the period to which I am inclined to +refer the introduction among the Phœnicians and Greeks of the column +and of certain geometrical patterns, which had their first home in +Babylonia.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> The lentoid gems with their rude intaglios, found in the +islands, on the site of Heræum, in the tombs of Mykenæ and elsewhere, +belong to the same age, and point back to the loamy plain of Babylonia +where stone was rare and precious, and whence, consequently, the art of +gem-cutting was spread through the ancient world. We can thus understand +the existence of artistic designs and other evidences of civilizing +influence among a people who were not yet acquainted with the use of iron. +The early Chaldean Empire, in spite of the culture to which it had +attained, was still in the bronze age; iron was almost unknown, and its +tools and weapons were fashioned of stone, bone, and bronze. Had the +Greeks and the Phœnicians before them received their first lessons in +culture from Egypt or from Asia Minor, where the Khalybes and other allied +tribes had worked in iron from time immemorial, they would probably have +received this metal at the same time. But neither at Hissarlik nor at +Mykenæ is there any trace of an iron age.</p> + +<p>The second period of Western art and civilization is represented by some +of the objects found at Mykenæ in the tombs themselves. The intaglios have +ceased to be Babylonian, and have become markedly Assyrian. First of all +we have a hunting scene, a favourite subject with Assyrian artists, but +quite unknown to genuine Hellenic art. The disposition of the figures is +that usual in Assyrian sculpture, and, like the Assyrian king, the +huntsman is represented as riding in a chariot. A comparison of this +hunting scene with the bas-reliefs on the tombstones which stood over the +graves shows that they belong to the same age, while the spiral +ornamentation of the stones is essentially Assyrian. Equally Assyrian, +though better engraved, is a lion on one of the gold prisms, which might +have been cut by an Assyrian workman, so true is it to its Oriental model, +and after this I would place the representation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> of a struggle between a +man (perhaps Herakles) and a lion, in which, though the lion and attitude +of the combatants are Assyrian, the man is no longer the Assyrian hero +Gisdhubar, but a figure of more Western type. In another intaglio, +representing a fight between armed warriors, the art has ceased to be +Assyrian, and is struggling to become native. We seem to be approaching +the period when Greece gave over walking in Eastern leading-strings, and +began to step forward firmly without help. As I believe, however, that the +tombs within the <i>enceinte</i> are of older date than the Treasuries outside +the Acropolis, or the Gate of Lions which belongs to the same age, it is +plain that we have not yet reached the time when Assyro-Phœnician +influence began to decline in Greece. The lions above the gate would alone +be proof to the contrary.</p> + +<p>But, in fact, Phœnician influence continued to be felt up to the end of +the seventh century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> Passing by the so-called Corinthian vases, or the +antiquities exhumed by General di Cesnola in Cyprus, where the +Phœnician element was strong, we have numerous evidences of the fact +from all parts of Greece. Two objects of bronze discovered at Olympia may +be specially signalized. One of these is an oblong plate, narrower at one +end than at the other, ornamented with <i>repousse</i> work, and divided into +four compartments. In the first compartment are figures of the nondescript +birds so often seen on the "Corinthian" pottery; in the next come two +Assyrian gryphons standing, as usual, face to face; while the third +represents the contest of Herakles with the Kentaur, thoroughly Oriental +in design. The Kentaur has a human forefront, covered, however, with hair; +his tail is abnormally long, and a three-branched tree rises behind him. +The fourth and largest compartment contains the figure of the Asiatic +goddess with the four wings at the back, and a lion, held by the hind leg, +in either hand. The face of the goddess is in profile. The whole design is +Assyro-Phœnician, and is exactly reproduced on some square gold plates, +intended probably to adorn the breast, presented to the Louvre by the Duc +de Luynes. The other object to which I referred is a bronze dish, +ornamented on the inside with <i>repousse</i> work, which at first sight looks +Egyptian, but is really that Phœnician modification of Egyptian art so +common in the eighth and seventh centuries <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> An inscription in the +Aramaic characters of the so-called Sidonian branch of the Phœnician +alphabet is cut on the outside, and reads: "Belonging to Neger, son of +Miga."<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> As the word used for "son" is the Aramaic <i>bar</i> and not the +Phœnician <i>ben</i>, we may conclude that the owner of the dish had come +from northern Syria. It is interesting to find a silver cup embossed with +precisely the same kind of design, and also bearing an inscription in +Phœnician letters, among the treasures discovered in a tomb at +Palestrina, the ancient Præneste, more than a year ago. This inscription +is even briefer than the other: "Eshmunya'ar son of 'Ashtâ,"<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> where, +though <i>ben</i> is employed, the father's name has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> an Aramaic form. Helbig +would refer these Italian specimens of Phœnician skill to the +Carthaginian epoch, partly on the ground that an African species of ape +seems sometimes represented on them;<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> in this case they might be as +late as the fifth century before the Christian era.</p> + +<p>During the earlier part of the second period of Phœnician influence, +Phœnicia and the Phœnician colonies were not the only channel by +which the elements of Assyrian culture found their way into the West. The +monuments and religious beliefs of Asia Minor enable us to trace their +progress from the banks of the Euphrates and the ranges of the Taurus, +through Cappadocia and Phrygia, to the coasts and islands of the Ægean. +The near affinity of Greek and Phrygian is recognized even by Plato;<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> +the legends of Midas and Gordius formed part of Greek mythology, and the +royal house of Mykenæ was made to come with all its wealth from the golden +sands of the Paktolus; while on the other hand the cult of Mâ, of Attys, +or of the Ephesian Artemis points back to an Assyrian origin. The +sculptures found by Perrot<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> and Texier constitute a link between the +prehistoric art of Greece and that of Asia Minor; the spiral ornaments +that mark the antiquities of Mykenæ are repeated on the royal tombs of +Asia Minor; and the ruins of Sardis, where once ruled a dynasty derived by +Greek writers from Ninus or Nineveh, "the son of Bell," the grandson of +the Assyrian Herakles,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> may yet pour a flood of light on the earlier +history of Greece. But it was rather in the first period, which I have +termed Phrygian, than in the second, that the influence of Asia Minor was +strongest. The figure of the goddess riding on a leopard, with mural crown +and peaked shoes, on the rock-tablets of Pterium,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> is borrowed rather +from the cylinders of early Babylonia than from the sculptures of Assyria; +and the Hissarlik collection connects itself more with the primitive +antiquities of Santorin than with the later art of Mykenæ and Cyprus. We +have already seen, however, the close relationship that exists between +some of the objects excavated at Mykenæ and what we may call the +pre-Phœnician art of Ialysos,—that is to say, the objects in which the +influence of the East is indirect, and not direct. The discovery of +metallurgy is associated with Dodona, where the oracle long continued to +be heard in the ring of a copper chaldron, and where M. Karapanos has +found bronze plates with the geometrical and circular patterns which +distinguish the earliest art of Greece; now Dodona is the seat of primæval +Greek civilization, the land of the Selloi or Helloi, of the Graioi +themselves, and of Pelasgian Zeus, while it is to the north that the +legends of Orpheus, of Musæus, and of other early civilizers looked back. +But even at Dodona we may detect traces of Asiatic influence in the part +played there by the doves, as well as in the story of Deucalion's deluge, +and it may, perhaps, be not too rash to conjecture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> that even before the +days of Phœnician enterprise and barter, an echo of Babylonian +civilization had reached Greece through the medium of Asia Minor, whence +it was carried, partly across the bridge formed by the islands of the +Archipelago, partly through the mainland of Thrace and Epirus. The +Hittites, with their capital at Carchemish, seem to have been the centre +from which this borrowed civilization was spread northward and westward. +Here was the home of the art which characterizes Asia Minor, and we have +only to compare the bas-relief of Pterium with the rock sculptures found +by Mr. Davis associated with "Hamathite" hieroglyphics at Ibreer, in +Lycaonia,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> to see how intimate is the connection between the two. These +hieroglyphics were the still undeciphered writing of the Hittite tribes +and if, as seems possible, the Cypriote syllabary were derived from them, +they would be a testimony to the western spread of Hittite influence at a +very early epoch. The Cypriote characters adopted into the alphabets of +Lycia and Karia, as well as the occurrence of the same characters on a +hone and some of the terra-cotta discs found by Dr. Schliemann at +Hissarlik, go to show that this influence would have extended, at any +rate, to the coasts of the sea.</p> + +<p>The traces of Egyptian influence, on the contrary, are few and faint. No +doubt the Phœnician alphabet was ultimately of Egyptian origin, no +doubt, too, that certain elements of Phœnician art were borrowed from +Egypt, but before these were handed on to the West, they had first been +profoundly modified by the Phœnician settlers in the Delta and in +Canaan. The influence exercised immediately by Egypt upon Greece belongs +to the historic period; the legends which saw an Egyptian emigrant in +Kekrops or an Egyptian colony in the inhabitants of Argos were fables of a +late date. Whatever intercourse existed between Egypt and Greece in the +prehistoric period was carried on, not by the Egyptians, but by the +Phœnicians of the Delta; it was they who brought the scarabs of a +Thothmes or an Amenophis to the islands of the Ægean, like their +descendants afterwards in Italy, and the proper names found on the +Egyptian monuments of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, which +certain Egyptologists have identified with those of Greece and Asia Minor, +belong rather, I believe, to Libyan and Semitic tribes.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> Like the +sphinxes at Spata, the indications of intercourse with Egypt met with at +Mykenæ prove nothing more than the wide extent of Phœnician commerce +and the existence of Phœnician colonies at the mouths of the Nile. +Ostrich-eggs covered with stucco dolphins have been found not only at +Mykenæ, but also in the grotto of Polledrara near Vulci in Italy; the +Egyptian porcelain excavated at Mykenæ is painted to represent the fringed +dress of an Assyrian or a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Phœnician, not of an Egyptian; and though a +gold mask belonging to Prince Kha-em-Uas, and resembling the famous masks +of Mykenæ, has brought to the Louvre from an Apis chamber, a similar mask +of size was discovered last year in a tomb on the site of Aradus. Such +intercourse, however, as existed between Greece and the Delta must have +been very restricted; otherwise we should surely have some specimens of +writing, some traces of the Phœnician alphabet. It would not have been +left to the Aramæans of Syria to introduce the "Kadmeian letters" into +Greece, and Mykenæ, rather than Thebes, would have been made the centre +from which they were disseminated. Indeed, we may perhaps infer that even +the coast of Asia Minor, near as it was to the Phœnician settlements at +Kamirus and elsewhere, could have held but little intercourse with the +Phœnicians of Egypt from the fact that the Cypriote syllabary was so +long in use upon it, and that the alphabets afterwards employed were +derived only indirectly from the Phœnician through the medium of the +Greek.</p> + +<p>One point more now alone needs to be noticed. The long-continued influence +upon early Greek culture which we ascribe to the Phœnicians cannot but +have left its mark upon the Greek vocabulary also. Some at least of the +names given by the Phœnicians to the objects of luxury they brought +with them must have been adopted by the natives of Hellas. We know that +this is the case with the letters of the alphabet; is it also the case +with other words? If not, analogy would almost compel us to treat the +evidences that have been enumerated of Phœnician influence as illusory, +and to fall back upon the position of O. K. Müller and his school. By way +of answer I would refer to the list of Greek words, the Semitic origin of +which admits of no doubt, lately given by Dr. August Müller in +Bezzenberger's "Beitrage zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen."<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> +Amongst these we find articles of luxury like "linen," "shirt," +"sackcloth," "myrrh," and "frankincense," "galbanum" and "cassia," +"cinnamon" and "soap," "lyres" and "wine-jars," "balsam" and "cosmetics," +as well, possibly, as "fine linen" and "gold," along with such evidences +of trade and literature as the "pledge," "the writing tablet," and the +"shekel." If these were the only instances of Semitic tincture, they would +be enough to prove the early presence of the Semitic Phœnicians in +Greece. But we must remember that they are but samples of a class, and +that many words borrowed during the heroic age may have dropped out of use +or been conformed to the native part of the vocabulary long before the +beginning of the written literature, while it would be in the lesser known +dialects of the islands that the Semitic element was strongest. We know +that the dialect of Cyprus was full of importations from the East.</p> + +<p>In what precedes I have made no reference to the Homeric poems, and the +omission may be thought strange. But Homeric illustrations of the presence +of the Phœnicians in Greece will occur to every one, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> both the +Iliad and the Odyssey in their existing form are too modern to be quoted +without extreme caution. A close investigation of their language shows +that it is the slow growth of generations; Æolic formulæ from the lays +first recited in the towns of the Troad are embodied in Ionic poems where +old Ionic, new Ionic, and even Attic jostle against one another, and +traditional words and phrases are furnished with mistaken meanings or new +forms coined by false analogy. It is difficult to separate the old from +the new, to say with certainty that this allusion belongs to the heroic +past, this to the Homer of Theopompus and Euphorion, the contemporary of +the Lydian Gyges. The art of Homer is not the art of Mykenæ and of the +early age of Phœnician influence; iron is already taking the place of +bronze, and the shield of Akhilles or the palace of Alkinous bear witness +to a developed art which has freed itself from its foreign bonds. Six +times are Phœnicia and the Phœnicians mentioned in the Odyssey, once +in the Iliad;<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> elsewhere it is Sidon and the Sidonians that represented +them, never Tyre.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> Such passages, therefore, cannot belong to the epoch +of Tyrian supremacy, which goes back, at all events, to the age of David, +but rather to the brief period when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser laid +siege to Tyre, and his successor Sargon made Sidon powerful at its +expense. This, too, was the period when Sargon set up his record in +Cyprus, "the isle of Yavnan" or the Ionians, when Assyria first came into +immediate contact with the Greeks, and when Phœnician artists worked at +the court of Nineveh and carried their wares to Italy and Sardinia. But it +was not the age to which the relics of Mykenæ, in spite of paradoxical +doubts, reach back, nor that in which the sacred bull of Astarte carried +the Phœnician maiden Europa to her new home in the west.</p> + +<p class='right'> +<span class="smcap">A. H. Sayce</span>, in <i>Contemporary Review</i>.<br /> +</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See E. Curtins: Die griechische Götterlehre vom +geschichtlichen Standpunkt, in <i>Preussische Jahrbucher</i>, xxxvi. pp. 1-17. +1875.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Contemporary Review</i>, January, 1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> See Fouqué's Mission Scientifique á l'île de Santorin +(Archives des Missions 2e série, iv. 1867); Gorceix in the Bulletin de +l'Ecole francaise d'Athènes, i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> See, for example, Di Cesnola's <i>Cyprus</i>, pp. 401, 402.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Gazette Archéologique</i>, ii-. 1, 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> See Schliemann's Mycenæ and Tiryns, pl. 273.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Given by La Marmora in the Memorie della Reale Academia +delle Scienze di Torino (1854), vol. xiv., pl. 2, fig. 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Given in the Monumenti d. Instituto Romano, 1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Schliemann: Mycenæ and Tiryns, p. 530.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> See, for instance, the example given in Rawlinson's Ancient +Monarchies (1st edit.), i. p. 118, where the flounced priest has what +looks like a woman's breast. Dancing boys and men in the East still wear +these flounces, which are variously coloured (see Loftus: Chaldea and +Susiana, p. 22; George Smith: Assyrian Discoveries, p. 130).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> See, for example, Layard: Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 604, 606; +Di Cesnola: Cyprus, pl. 31, No. 7; pl. 32, No. 19. A copy of the Mykenæan +engraving is given in Schliemann's Mycenæ and Tiryns, pl. 531.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> More especially the examples in Rawlinson's Ancient +Monarchies, iii. p. 403, and i. 413. For Mykenæan examples see +Schliemann's Mykenæ and Tiryns, ppl. 149, 152, &c. Some of the more +peculiar patterns from Mykenæ resemble the forms assumed by the +"Hamathite" hieroglyphics in the unpublished inscription copied by Mr. +George Smith from the back of a mutilated statue at Jerablûs +(Carchemish).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> LNGR. BR. MIGA'.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> ASHMNYA'R. BNA' SHTA.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Annali d. Istituto Romano, 1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Kratylus, 410 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Exploration Archéologique de la Galatie et de la Bithynie.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> See Herodotus, i.7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Texier: Description de l'Asie Mineure, i. 1, pl. 78.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, iv. 2, +1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> I have given the reasons of my scepticism in the <i>Academy</i>, +of May 30, 1874. Brugsch Bey, the leading authority on the geography of +the Egyptian monuments, would now identify those names with those tribes +in Kolkhis, and its neighbourhood.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> i. pp. 273-301 (1877).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Phœnicia</i>, Od. iv. 83; xiv. 291. <i>Phœnicians</i>, Od. +xiii. 272; xv. 415. <i>A Phœnician</i>, Od. xiv. 288. <i>A Phœnician +woman</i>, Od. xiv. 288; Il. xiv. 321.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Sidon</i>, <i>Sidonia</i>, Il. vi. 291; Od. xiii. 285; xv. 425. +<i>Sidonians</i>, Il. vi. 290; Od. iv. 84, 618; xv. 118.</p></div> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SOME_GOSSIP_ABOUT_LEICESTER_SQUARE" id="SOME_GOSSIP_ABOUT_LEICESTER_SQUARE"></a>SOME GOSSIP ABOUT LEICESTER SQUARE.</h2> + + +<p>In old-world London, Leicester Square played a much more important part +than it does to-day. It was then the chosen refuge of royalty and the home +of wit and genius. Time was when it glittered with throngs of +lace-bedizened gallants; when it trembled beneath the chariot-wheels of +Beauty and Fashion; when it re-echoed with the cries of jostling chairmen +and link-boys; when it was trodden by the feet of the greatest men of a +great epoch—Newton and Swift, Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a host of +others more or less distinguished. Mr. Tom Taylor, in his interesting work +entitled "Leicester Square," tells us that the vicissitudes of a London +quarter generally tend downwards through a regular series of decades. It +is first fashionable; then it is professional; then it becomes a favourite +locality for hotels and lodging-houses; then the industrial element +predominates, and then not infrequently a still lower depth is reached. +Leicester Square has been no exception to this rule. Its reputation in +fact was becoming very shady indeed, when the improvement of its central +inclosure gave it somewhat of a start upwards and turned attention to its +early history.</p> + +<p>Of old, many of these grand doings took place at Leicester House, which +was the first house in the Square. It was built by Robert Sidney, Earl of +Leicester, a staunch Royalist, somewhere about 1636. His sons, Viscount +Lisle and the famous Algernon Sidney, grew up less of Royalists than he +was; and to Leicester House, with the sanction and welcome of its head, +came many of the more prominent Republicans of the day, Vane and Neville, +Milton and Bradshaw, Ludlow and Lambert. The cream of history lies not so +much in a bare notation of facts as in the little touches of nature and +manners which reproduce for us the actual human life of a former age, and +much of this may be gleaned from the history of the Sidneys. They were an +interesting family, alike from their rank, their talents, their personal +beauty, and the vicissitudes of their fortunes. The Countess was a clever +managing woman; and her letters to her absent lord when ambassador in +France convey to us many pleasant details of the home-life at Leicester +House. Still more charming is it to read the pretty little billets +addressed to the Earl by his elder girls. Of these six beautiful daughters +of the house of Sidney, four were married and two died in the dawn of +early womanhood. Of the younger of these, Lady Elizabeth, the father has a +touching entry in his journal. After narrating her death, he adds: "She +had to the last the most angelical countenance and beauty, and the most +heavenly disposition and temper of mind that I think were ever seen in so +young a creature."</p> + +<p>With her death the merry happy family life at Leicester House drew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> to a +close. The active bustling mother, whose influence had brought the +different jarring chords into harmony, died a few mouths afterwards; and +the busy years as they sped onwards, while consummating the fall of +Charles and consolidating the power of Cromwell, also put great and +growing disunion between the Sidney brothers. At the Restoration, Algernon +was in exile; Lord Lisle's stormy temper had alienated him from his +father; the Earl's favourite son-in-law was dead; of the three who +remained he was neither proud nor fond; and lonely and sick at heart, he +grew weary of the splendid home from which the fair faces of his handsome +children had gone for ever, and made preparations to leave it. He was +presented to Charles II.; and immediately afterwards retired to Penshurst +in Kent; and Leicester House was let, first to the ambassadors of the +United Provinces; and then to a more remarkable tenant, Elizabeth Stewart, +the ill-fated Princess and Queen of Bohemia. She had left England in 1613 +a lovely happy girl, the bride of the man she loved, life stretching all +rainbow-hued before her. She returned to it a weary haggard woman of +sixty-five, who had drunk to the dregs of every possible cup of +disappointment and sorrow. Her presence was very unwelcome, as that of the +unfortunate often is. Charles II., her nephew, was very loath indeed to +have the pleasure of receiving her as a guest; but she returned to London +whether he would or not, and Leicester house was taken for her. There she +languished for a few months in feeble and broken health, and there, on the +anniversary of her wedding-day, she died.</p> + +<p>The house immediately to the west of Leicester House belonged to the +Marquis of Aylesbury; but in 1698 it was occupied by the Marquis of +Caermarthen, who was appointed by King William III. cicerone and guide to +Peter the Great when he came in the January of that year to visit England. +Peter's great qualities have long been done full justice to; but in the +far-off January of 1698 he appeared to the English as by no means a very +august-looking potentate; he had the manners and appearance of an unkempt +barbarian, and his pastimes were those of a coal-heaver. His favourite +exercise in the mornings was to run a barrow through and through Evelyn's +trim holly-hedges at Deptford; and the state in which he left his pretty +house there is not to be described. His chief pleasure, when the duties of +the day were over, was to drink all night with the Marquis in his house at +Leicester Fields, the favourite tipple of the two distinguished topers +being brandy spiced with pepper; or sack, of which the Czar is reported to +have drunk eight bottles one day after dinner. Among other sights in +London, the Marquis took him to see Westminster Hall in full term. "Who +are all these men in wigs and gowns?" he asked. "Lawyers," was the answer. +"Lawyers!" he exclaimed. "Why, I have only two in my dominions, and when I +get back, I intend to hang one of them."</p> + +<p>In January 1712 Leicester House, which was then occupied by the imperial +resident, received another distinguished visitor in the person of Prince +Eugene, one of the greatest captains of the age. In appearance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> he was a +little sallow wizened old man, with one shoulder higher than the other. A +soldier of fortune, whose origin was so humble as to be unknown, his +laurels were stained neither by rapacity nor self-seeking; and in all the +vicissitudes of his eventful life he bore himself like a hero, and a +gentleman in the truest and fullest acceptation of the word. Dean Swift +was also at this time in lodgings in Leicester Fields, noting with clear +acute unpitying vision the foibles and failings of all around him, and +writing to Stella from time to time after his cynical fashion, "how the +world is going mad after Prince Eugene, and how he went to court also, but +could not see him, the crowd was so great."</p> + +<p>A labyrinth of courts, inns, and stable-yards had gradually filled up the +space between the royal mews and Leicester Fields; and between 1680 and +1700 several new streets were opened through these; one reason for the +opening of them being the great influx of French refugees into London, on +the occasion of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Many of +these exiles settled in and around Leicester Fields, and for their use +several chapels were built. The neighbourhood has ever since been a resort +of French immigrants.</p> + +<p>In one of these streets opening into Leicester Square, St. Martin's +Street, Sir Isaac Newton lived for the last sixteen years of his life. The +house in which he lived looks dingy enough now; but in those days it was +considered a very good residence indeed, and Like Leicester House was +frequented by the best company in the fashionable world. The genius and +reputation of its master attracted scientific and learned visitors; and +the beauty of his niece, Mrs. Catharine Barton, drew to her feet all the +more distinguished wits and beaux of the time.</p> + +<p>Between 1717 and 1760 Leicester House became what Pennant calls "the +pouting-place of princes," being for almost all that time in the +occupation of a Prince of Wales who was living in fierce opposition to the +reigning king. In 1718 the Prince of Wales having had a furious quarrel +with his father George I., on the occasion of the christening of the +Prince's son George William, left St. James's, and took Leicester House at +a yearly rent of five hundred pounds; and until he succeeded to the throne +in 1727, it was his town residence.</p> + +<p>Here he held his court—a court not by any means strait-laced; a gay +little court at first; a court whose selfish intrigues and wild frolics +and madcap adventures and humdrum monotony live for us still in the +sparkling pages of Horace Walpole; or are painted in with vivid clearness +of touch and execution, but with a darker brush, by Hervey, Pope's Lord +Fanny, who was a favourite with his mistress the handsome accomplished +Caroline, Princess of Wales. Piloted by one or other of these exact +historians, we enter the chamber of the gentlewomen-in-waiting, and are +introduced to the maids-of-honour, to fair Mary Lepell, to charming Mrs. +Bellenden, to pensive, gentle Mrs. Howard. We see them eat Westphalia ham +of a morning, and then set out with their royal master for a +helter-skelter ride over hedges and ditches, on borrowed hacks. No wonder +Pope pitied them; and on their return, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> should they fall in with but +that great poet himself! They are good to him in their way, these saucy +charming maids-of-honour, and so they take the frail little man under +their protection and give him his dinner; and then he finishes off the +day, he tells us, by walking three hours in the moonlight with Mary +Lepell. We can imagine the affected compliments he paid her and the +burlesque love he made to her; and the fun she and her sister +maids-of-honour would have laughing over it all, when she went back to +Leicester House and he returned to his pretty villa at Twickenham.</p> + +<p>As the Prince grew older his court became more and more dull, till at last +it was almost deserted, when on the 14th of June 1727 the loungers in its +half-empty chambers were roused by sudden news—George I. was dead; and +Leicester House was thronged by a sudden rush of obsequious courtiers, +among whom was the late king's prime-minister, bluff, jolly, coarse Sir +Robert Walpole. No one paid any attention to him, for every one knew that +his disgrace was sealed; the new king had never been at any pains to +conceal his dislike to him. Sir Robert, however, knew better; he was quite +well aware who was to be the real ruler of England now; and he knew that +the Princess Caroline had already accepted him, just as she accepted La +Walmoden and her good Howard; and so all alone in his corner he chuckled +to himself as he saw the crowd of sycophants elbow and jostle and push +poor Lady Walpole as she tried to make her way to the royal feet. Caroline +saw it too, and with a flash of half-scornful mischief lighting up her +shrewd eyes, said with a smile: "Sure, there I see a friend." Instantly +the human stream parted, and made way for her Ladyship.</p> + +<p>In 1728 Frederick, the eldest son of George and Caroline, arrived from +Hanover, where he had remained since his birth in 1707. It was a fatal +mistake; he came to England a stranger to his parents, and with his place +in their hearts already filled by his brother. It was inevitable that +where there was no mutual love, distrust and alienation should come, as in +no long time they did, with the result that the same pitiful drama was +played out again on the same stage. In 1743 Frederick Prince of Wales took +Leicester House and held his receptions there. He was fond of gaiety, and +had a succession of balls, masques, plays, and supper-parties. His tastes, +as was natural considering his rearing, were foreign, and Leicester House +was much frequented by foreigners of every grade. Desnoyers the +dancing-master was a favourite habitué, as was also the charlatan +St-Germain. In the midst of all this fiddling and buffoonery the Prince +fell ill; but not so seriously as to cause uneasiness to any one around +him; consequently all the world was taken by surprise when he suddenly +died one morning in the arms of his friend the dancing-master. After his +death his widow remained at Leicester House, and like a sensible woman as +she was, made her peace with the king her father-in-law, who ever +afterwards shewed himself very kind and friendly to her.</p> + +<p>In October 1760 George III. was proclaimed king; and again a crowd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> of +courtiers thronged to Leicester House to kiss the hand of the new +sovereign. For six years longer the Princess of Wales continued to live at +Leicester House; and there in 1765 her youngest son died, and the +following year she removed to Carlton House.</p> + +<p>While the quarrel between George II. and Frederick was at its fiercest, +the central inclosure of Leicester Square was re-arranged very elegantly +according to the taste of the day; and an equestrian statue of George I., +which had belonged to the first Duke of Chandos and had been bought at the +sale of his effects, was set up in front of Leicester House, where it +remained, a dazzling object at first, in all the glory of gilding, which +passed with the populace for gold; but latterly a most wretched relic of +the past, an eyesore, which was removed in 1874 in the course of Baron +Grant's improvements.</p> + +<p>Leicester Square had other tenants beside Sir Isaac Newton, compared with +whom courtiers and gallants and fine gentlemen and ladies look very small +indeed. Hogarth lived in this street, and so did Sir Joshua Reynolds. +Hogarth's house was the last but two on the east side of the Square. Here +he established himself, a young struggling man, with Jane Thornhill, the +wife with whom he had made a stolen love-match. In this house, with the +quaint sign of the Golden Head over the door, he worked, not as painters +generally do, at a multitude of detached pieces, but depicting with his +vivid brush a whole series of popular allegories on canvas. When he became +rich, as in process of time he did, he had a house at Chiswick; but he +still retained the Golden Head as his town-house, and in 1764 returned to +it to die.</p> + +<p>In No. 47 Sir Joshua Reynolds lived, and painted those charming portraits +which have immortalised for us all that was most beautiful and famous in +his epoch. He was a kindly genial lovable man, fond of society, and with a +liking for display. He had a wonderful carriage, with the four seasons +curiously painted in on the panels, and the wheels ornamented with carved +foliage and gilding. The servants in attendance on this chariot wore +silver-laced liveries; and as he had no time to drive in it himself, he +made his sister take a daily airing in it, much to her discomfort, for she +was a homely little lady with very simple tastes. He was a great dinner +giver; and as it was his custom to ask every pleasant person he met +without any regard to the preparation made to receive them, it may be +conjectured that there was often a want of the commonest requisites of the +dinner-table. Even knives, forks, and glasses could not always be procured +at first. But although his dinners partook very much of the nature of +unceremonious scrambles, they were thoroughly enjoyable. Whatever was +awanting, there was always cheerfulness and the pleasant kindly +interchange of thought. In July 1792 Sir Joshua died in his own house in +Leicester Square; and within a few hours of his death, an obituary notice +of him was written by Burke, the manuscript of which was blotted with his +tears.</p> + +<p>In No. 28, on the eastern side of the Square, the celebrated anatomist +John Hunter lived. Like most distinguished men of the day, he sat to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> Sir +Joshua Reynolds for his portrait; but was so restless and preoccupied that +he made a very bad sitter. At last one day he fell into a reverie. The +happy moment had come; Sir Joshua, with his instinctive tact, caught the +expression and presented to us the great surgeon in one of his most +characteristic attitudes. The other celebrated surgeons, Cruickshank and +Charles Bell, also lived in this Square. The house in which Bell resided +for many years was large and ruinous, and had once been inhabited by +Speaker Onslow. Here he set up his Museum, and began to lecture on +anatomy, having for a long time, he writes, scarcely forty pupils to +lecture to.</p> + +<p>During all the later portion of its history Leicester Square has been +famous for shows. In 1771 Sir Ashton Lever exhibited a large and curious +Museum in Leicester House. In 1796 Charles Dibdin built at Nos. 2 and 3, +on the east side of Leicester Square, a small theatre in which he gave an +entertainment consisting of an interesting medley of anecdote and song. In +1787 Miss Linwood opened her gallery of pictures in needlework, an +exhibition which lasted forty-seven years, for the last thirty-five of +which it was exhibited at Savile House, a building which was destroyed by +fire in 1865.</p> + +<p>After Miss Linwood's, one of the best shows in Leicester Square was +Burford's Panorama, which is now numbered with the things that were, its +site being occupied by a French chapel and school. In 1851 a new show was +inaugurated by Mr. Wylde the geographer. It consisted of a monster globe +sixty feet in diameter, which occupied the central dome of a building +erected in the garden of the Square. The world was figured in relief on +the inside of it, and it was viewed from several galleries at different +elevations. It was exhibited for ten years, and was then taken down by its +proprietor, owing to a dispute concerning the ownership of the garden. Out +of this case, which was decided in 1867, the proceedings originated which +resulted in the purchase and renovation of the garden by Baron Grant, who +having once more made it trim and neat, handed it over to the Board of +Works.—<i>Chambers's Journal.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_WOMANS_LOVE" id="A_WOMANS_LOVE"></a>A WOMAN'S LOVE.</h2> + +<h3>A SLAVONIAN STUDY.</h3> + + +<p>Those races that have not undergone the beneficial and domesticating +influences of civilisation, and that are isolated from the more cultured +nations, possess to an excess the different qualities or impulses inherent +to our nature. Amongst the emotions that move the heart of man, love is +certainly the one that has the greatest empire over him; it rules the soul +so imperiously that all the other passions are crushed by it. It makes +cowards of the bravest men, and gives courage to the timid. Love is, +indeed, the great motive-power of life.</p> + +<p>Our passions and our emotions are, however, more subdued than those of the +semi-civilised nations; for, in the first place, we undergo the softening +influences of education, and secondly, we are more or less under the +restraint of the rules which govern society. Besides this, our mind is +usually engrossed by the numerous cares which our state of living +necessitates; for we are not like them, contented with little; on the +contrary, instead of being satisfied with what is necessary, we require +luxuries and superfluities, the procurement of which takes up a +considerable portion of our energy and our mental activity.</p> + +<p>The Slavonians, and more especially those belonging to the southern +regions, such as the Dalmatians and Montenegrins, are, as a general rule, +very passionate; ardent in their affections, they are likewise given to +anger, resentment, and hatred, the generic sister passion of love.</p> + +<p>The Slavonian women are, however, not indolent, nor do they ever indulge +in idle dreams; for they are not only occupied with the household cares, +but they also take a share, and not the smallest or the slightest, of +those toils which in other countries devolve upon the men alone. They +therefore, in the manly labours of the field, not only get prematurely +old, but they hardly ever possess much grace, slenderness, or delicate +complexions. No Slavonian woman, for instance, is ever <i>mignonne</i>. They, +in compensation, acquire in health, and perhaps in real æsthetic beauty of +proportions, what they lose in prettiness or delicacy of appearance, +consequently they never suffer from vapours or from the numerous nervous +complaints to which the generality of our ladies are subjected; the +natural result of this state of things is <i>mens sana in corpore sano</i>; +this is doubtless the reason why Slavonian women are, as a general rule, +fond mothers and faithful wives.</p> + +<p>They are certainly not endowed with that charming refinement, the +<i>morbidezza</i> of manners which but too often is but a mask covering a +morbid selfish disposition, a hypocritical and false nature. Though +ignorant,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> they are neither void of natural good sense nor wit; they only +want that smattering of worldly knowledge which the contact of society +imparts, and which but too often covers nothing but frivolity, gross +ignorance, and conceit. Their conversation is, perhaps, not peculiarly +attractive; for being simple and artless, speech was not given to them as +a means of disguising their thoughts; their lips only disclose the +fullness of their hearts. Conversation is, besides, a gift conferred to +few; and even in our polite circles not many persons can converse in an +interesting manner, and fewer can be witty without backbiting; moreover, +if man were suddenly to become transparent, would he not have to blush for +the frivolous demonstrations of friendship daily interchanged in our +artificial state of society?</p> + +<p>The different amusements that absorb so much of our time and occupy our +minds are unknown in Slavonian countries; the daily occupations and the +details of the toilet do not captivate the whole attention; so that when a +simple affection is awakening in the heart of a man or of a woman, it by +degrees pervades the whole soul and the whole mind, and a strong and +ardent passion usually ensues. Moreover, amongst those simple-minded +sincere people flirtations are generally unknown; yet when they do love, +their affections are genuine; they never exchange amongst each other those +false coins bearing Cupid's effigy, and known as coquetry; for their lips +only utter what their hearts really feel. People there do not delight in +playing with the fire of love, or trying how far they can with impunity +make game of sentiments which should be held sacred. Amongst the virile +maidens of Slavonia many of them therefore have virgin hearts, that is to +say, artless souls, fresh to all the tender sentiments; the reason of this +is, that from the age of fifteen they do not trifle with their affections +until they have become so callous and sceptical that marriage is merely +wealth or a position in life. Men do not first waste away all the tender +emotions which the human heart is capable of, and then settle down into a +<i>mariage de raison</i>.</p> + +<p>The following story, which happened about a century ago, will serve as an +illustration of the power of love amongst the Slavonians; it is, indeed, a +kind of repetition of the fate which attended the lovers of Sestos and +Abydos. This, however, is no legend, but an historical fact; the place +where this tragedy happened was the island of St. Andrea, situated between +those of Malfi and Stagno, not far from the town of Ragusa.</p> + +<p>Though no Musæus has immortalised this story by his verses, it is, +however, recorded in the "Revista Dalmata" (1859), in the "Annuario +Spalatino" of the same year, as well as other Slavonian periodicals.</p> + +<p>The hero of this story, whose Christian name was Teodoro, belonged to one +of the wealthiest patrician families of Ragusa, his father being, it is +said, Rector of the Republic. He was a young man of a grave character, but +withal of a gentle and tender disposition; he not only possessed great +talents, but also great culture, for his time was entirely given up to +study.</p> + +<p>One day, the young patrician having gone from the island of St. Andrea,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +where he had been staying at the Benedictine convent, to one of the other +two neighboring islands, he in the evening wished to return to his abode. +He met upon the beach a young girl who was carrying home some baskets of +fish. Having asked her if she knew of anybody who would take him across to +the island of St. Andrea, the young girl proffered her services, which the +young and bashful patrician reluctantly accepted.</p> + +<p>The young girl was as beautiful, as chaste, and as proud as the Arrabiata +of Paul Heyse; and for the first time Teodoro felt a new and vague feeling +awake in his bosom. He began to talk to the girl, asking her a thousand +questions about herself, about her home; and the young girl doubtless told +him that she was an orphan, and that she lived with her brothers. Instead +of returning to his family, the young nobleman remained at the Benedictine +convent, with the purpose of studying in retirement; his mind, however, +was not entirely engrossed by his books, and his visits to the island +where Margherita lived daily became more frequent.</p> + +<p>The love which had kindled in his heart found an echo in the young girl's +bosom, and instead of endeavouring to suppress their feelings they yielded +to the charms of this saintly affection, to the rapture of loving and +being loved. In a few days their mutual feelings had made such progress +that the young man promised the <i>barcarinola</i> to marry her. His noble +character and his brave spirit made him forget that he could not with +impunity break the laws of the society amongst which he lived; for that +society, which would have smiled had he seduced the young girl and made +her his mistress, would nevertheless have been scandalised had he taken +her for his lawful wife.</p> + +<p>Peccadilloes are overlooked, and it is almost better in high life to be a +knave than a fool; it was, indeed, a quixotic notion for a patrician to +marry a plebeian, an unheard of event in the annals of the aristocratic +republic of Ragusa. The difficulties which our hero was to encounter were +therefore insurmountable.</p> + +<p>In the midst of his thoughtless happiness our young lover was suddenly +summoned back to his home; for whilst Teodoro was supposed to be deeply +engaged in his studies his father, without the young man's knowledge, and +not anticipating any opposition, promised his son in marriage to the +daughter of one of his friends, a young lady of great wealth and beauty. +This union had, it is true, been concerted when the children were mere +babes, and it had until then been a bond between the two families. The +young lady being now of a marriageable age, and having concentrated all +her affections on the young man she had always been taught to regard as +her future husband, she now looked forward with joy for the anticipated +event.</p> + +<p>Teodoro was therefore summoned back home to assist at a great festivity +given in honour of his betrothal; he at once hastened back to Ragusa, in +order to break off the engagement contracted for him. Vainly, however, did +he try to remonstrate, first with his father and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> then with his mother. He +avowed that he had no inclination for matrimony, that he felt no love for +this young lady, nothing but a mere brotherly affection, and that he could +not cherish her as his wife; he found, nevertheless, both his parents +inexorable. It was too late; the father had given his word to his friend; +a refusal would prove an insult, which would provoke a rupture between +these two families; no option was left but to obey.</p> + +<p>Teodoro thereupon retired to his own room, where he remained in the +strictest confinement, refusing to see any one. The evening of that +eventful day, the guests were assembled; the bride and her family had +already arrived; the bridegroom, nevertheless, was missing. This was +indeed a strange breach of good manners, and numerous comments were +whispered from ear to ear. The father sent at last a peremptory order to +his undutiful son to come at once to him. The young man ultimately made +his appearance, attired like Hamlet at his stepfather's court, in a suit +of deep mourning, whilst his long hair, which formerly fell in ringlets +over his shoulders, was all clipped short. In this strange accoutrement he +came to acquaint his father before the whole assembly that he had decided +to forego the pleasure, the pomp and vanity of this world, to renounce +society, and take up his abode in a convent, where he intended passing his +days in study and meditation.</p> + +<p>The scene of confusion which followed this unexpected declaration can be +imagined. The guests all wished to retire: the first person, however, to +leave the house was Teodoro, expelled by his father and bearing with him +the paternal malediction. Thus this day of anticipated joy ended in +disappointment and humiliation. The discarded bride was borne away by her +parents, and it is said that her delicate health never recovered from this +unexpected blow.</p> + +<p>That very night the young man retired to the Benedictine convent upon the +island of St. Andrea, with the firm resolution of passing his life in holy +seclusion. When a few days had passed, his love proved, nevertheless, +stronger than his will, and he could not refrain from going to see his +Margherita, and informing her of all that had happened, telling her that +he had been driven from home, and that he had taken refuge at the convent, +where he intended passing his life in a state of holy celibacy. +Notwithstanding all his good intentions, the sight of the young girl +proved too great a temptation, her beauty overcame his resolutions, and he +swore to her that he would brave his parents' opposition, as well as the +anger of his caste, and that he would marry her in spite of his family and +of the whole world.</p> + +<p>He thus continued seeing this young girl, till at last the fishermen, her +brothers, having found out why this young patrician visited the island so +often, severe and jealous like all their countrymen, they waylaid him, and +threatened to kill him if he were once more caught upon these shores. The +prior of the Benedictines, finding besides that his <i>protege</i>, far from +coming to seek peace and tranquillity within the walls of his convent, +was, on the contrary, an object of scandal, expressed his intention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> to +expel him, should he not discontinue his visits to the neighbouring +island, and reform.</p> + +<p>Every new difficulty seemed to give fresh courage to the lovers; they +would have fled from their native country and their persecutors, but they +knew that they would be overtaken, brought back, and punished; so they +decided to wait some time until the wrath of their enemies had abated, and +the storm had blown over.</p> + +<p>As Teodoro could not go any more to see the young girl, it was Margherita +who now came to visit her lover; to evade, however, the suspicion of her +brothers, and that of the friars, they only met in the middle of the +night, and as they always changed their place of meeting, a lighted torch +was the signal where the young girl was to direct her bark. There were +nights, nevertheless, when she could not obtain a boat; yet this was no +obstacle to her brave spirit, for upon those nights, she, like Leander, +swam across the channel, for nothing could daunt this heroic woman's +heart.</p> + +<p>These ill-fated lovers were happy notwithstanding their adverse fortune, +for the sacred fire of love which burnt within them was bliss enough to +compensate for all their woes. Their days were passed in anxious +expectation for the hour which was to unite them on the sea-shore, amidst +the darkness of the night. There clasped in one another's arms, the world +and its inhabitants existed no longer for them; those were moments of +ineffable rapture, in which it seemed impossible to drain the whole +chalice of happiness; moments in which time and eternity are confounded, +instants only to be appreciated by those who have known the infinite bliss +of loving and being loved. Their souls seemed to leave their bodies, blend +together and soar into the empyreal spaces, the regions of infinite +happiness; for them all other sentiments passed away, and nothing was felt +but an unmitigated love.</p> + +<p>The dangers which encompassed them, their loneliness upon the rocky +shores, the stillness of the night, only served to heighten their joy and +exultation, for a pleasure dearly bought is always more keenly felt.</p> + +<p>Their happiness was, however, not to be of long duration; such felicity is +celestial; on this earth,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"Les plus belles choses<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ont le pire destin."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Margherita's brothers, knowing the power of love, watched their sister, +and at last found out that when the young nobleman had ceased coming, it +was she who by night visited the Island of St. Andrea, and they resolved +to be revenged upon her. They bided their time, and upon a dark and stormy +night, the fishermen, knowing that their sister would not be intimidated +by the heavy sea, went off with the boat and left her to the mercy of the +waves. The young girl, unable to resist the impulse of her love, +recommended herself to the Almighty, and bravely plunged into the waters. +Her treacherous brothers, having watched her movements, plied their oars +and directed their course towards the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> island; they landed, went and took +the lighted torch from the place where it was burning, and fastened it to +the prow of their boat; having done this, they slowly rowed away into the +open sea.</p> + +<p>Margherita, as usual, swam towards the beacon-light of love, but that +night all her efforts were useless—the faster she swam, the greater was +the distance that separated her from that <i>ignis-fatuus</i> light; doubtless +she attributed this to the roughness of the sea, and took courage, hoping +soon to reach that blessed goal.</p> + +<p>A flash of lightning, which illumined the dark expanse of the waters, made +her at last perceive her mistake; she saw the boat towards which she had +been swimming, and also the island of St. Andrea far behind her. She at +once directed her course towards it, but there, in the midst of darkness, +she struggled with the wild waves, until, overpowered by fatigue, she gave +up all hopes of rejoining her beloved one, and sank down in the briny +deep.</p> + +<p>The cruel sea that separated the lovers was, however, more merciful than +man, for upon the morrow the waves themselves softly deposited the +lifeless body of the young girl upon the sand of the beach.</p> + +<p>The nobleman, who had passed a night of most terrible anxiety, found at +daybreak the corpse of the girl he loved. He caused it to be committed to +the earth, after which he re-entered within the walls of the convent, took +the Benedictine dress, and spent the rest of his life pining in grief.</p> + +<p class='right'> +<span class="smcap">Adrian de Valvedere</span>, in <i>Tinsley's Magazine</i>.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AN_IMPERIAL_PARDON" id="AN_IMPERIAL_PARDON"></a>AN IMPERIAL PARDON.</h2> + + +<p>During a journey through some parts of Russia a few years ago, we engaged, +in preference to the imperial post-chaise, a private conveyance for a +considerable distance, the driver being a Jew—generally preferred in the +East on account of their sobriety and general trustworthiness. On the road +my companion became communicative, and entered into philosophic-religious +discussion—a topic of frequent occurrence among these bilingual +populations. After a somewhat desultory harangue, he suddenly became +silent and sad, having just uttered the words: "If a Chassid goes astray, +what does he become? A meschumed, <i>i.e.</i> an apostate."—"To what class of +people do you allude?" I inquired.—"Well, it just entered my head, +because we have to pass the house of one of them—I mean the 'forced +ones.'"—"Forced!" I thought of a religious sect. "Are they Christians or +Jews?"—"Neither the one nor the other," was the reply, "but simply +'forced.' Oh, sir, it is a great misery and a great crime! Our children at +least will not know anything of it, because new victims do not arise, and +on the marriage of these parties rests a curse—they remain sterile! But +what am I saying?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> It is rather a blessing—a mercy! Should thus a +terrible misery be perpetuated? These forced people are childless. Well, +God knows best. I am a fool, a sinner to speak about it." No entreaty of +mine would induce my Jewish companion to afford further information +concerning this peculiar people. But before the end of our journey I heard +unexpectedly more about this unfortunate class of Russian subjects. We +travelled westward through the valley of the Dniester, a district but +thinly peopled, and rested at an inn on the borders of an extensive +forest.</p> + +<p>Amidst the raillery going on in the principal room of this hostelry +between guests of different nationalities, we had not heard the noise of +wheels which slowly moved towards the house. It was a very poor +conveyance, containing a small cask and a basket. The young hostess arose +hastily, and, approaching the owner, said in a whisper, "What is it you +want?" A slight paleness overspread her countenance, and stranger still +was the demeanour of my coachman. "Sir, sir!" he exclaimed loudly, turning +towards me, stretching out his hands as if seeking support, or warding off +some impending danger. "What is the matter?" I rejoined, greatly +surprised: but he merely shook his head, and stared at the new comer.</p> + +<p>He was an elderly peasant, attired in the usual garb of the +country-people; only at a more close inspection I noticed that he wore a +fine white shirt. Of his face I could see but little, it being hidden +behind the broad brim of his straw hat.</p> + +<p>"Hostess," he said, addressing the young woman, "will you purchase +something of me? I have some old brandy, wooden spoons and plates, +pepper-boxes, needle-cases, &c., all made of good hard wood, and very +cheap." In an almost supplicating tone he uttered these words very slowly, +with downcast eyes. From his pronunciation he appeared to be a Pole.</p> + +<p>The hostess looked shyly up to him.</p> + +<p>"You know my brother-in-law has forbidden me to have dealings with you," +she said hesitatingly, "on account of your wife; but to-day he is not at +home." After a momentary silence, turning towards the driver, she +continued, "Reb Rüssan, will you betray me? You come frequently this way." +In reply he merely shrugged his shoulders and moved away. Turning again +with some impatience to the peasant, she said, "Bring me a dish and two +spoons." When he had gone to fetch these articles, the woman once more +accosted my coachman.</p> + +<p>"You must not blame me; they are very poor people!"</p> + +<p>"Certainly they are very poor"—he replied in a milder tone. "During life, +hunger and misery, and after death—hell! and all undeserved!" But the man +stood already, at this utterance, with his basket in the room. The bargain +was soon concluded, and the few copeks paid. Curiosity prompted me to step +forward and examine the merchandise.</p> + +<p>"I have also cigar-cases," said the peasant, humbly raising his hat. But +his face was far more interesting than his wares. You rarely see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> such +features! However great the misery on earth, this pale, pain-stricken +countenance was unique in its kind, revealing yet traces of sullen +defiance, and the glance of his eyes moved instantly the heart of the +beholder—a weary, almost fixed gaze, and yet full of passionate mourning.</p> + +<p>"You are a Pole!" I observed after a pause.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied.</p> + +<p>"And do you live in this neighbourhood?"</p> + +<p>"At the inn eight werst from here. I am the keeper."</p> + +<p>"And besides wood-carver?"</p> + +<p>"We must do the best we can," was his reply. "We have but rarely any +guests at our house."</p> + +<p>"Does your hostelry lie outside the main road?"</p> + +<p>"No, close to the high road, sir. It was at one time the best inn between +the Bug and the Dniester. But now carriers do not like to stay at our +house."</p> + +<p>"And why not?"</p> + +<p>"Because they consider it a sin—especially the Jews." Suddenly, with +seeming uneasiness and haste, he asked, "Will you purchase anything? This +box, perhaps. Upon the lid is engraved a fine country-house."</p> + +<p>Attracted by the delicate execution, I inquired, "And is this your own +workmanship?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," was his reply.</p> + +<p>"You are an artist! And pray where did you learn wood-engraving?"</p> + +<p>"At Kamieniec-Poddski."</p> + +<p>"At the fortress?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, during the insurrection of 1863."</p> + +<p>"Were you among the insurgents?"</p> + +<p>"No, but the authorities feared I might join them—hence I and the other +forced ones were incarcerated in the fortress when the insurrection broke +out, and again set free when it was suppressed."</p> + +<p>"Without any cause?"</p> + +<p>"Without the slightest. I was already at that time a crushed man. When yet +a youth the marrow of my bones had been poisoned in the mines of Siberia. +During the whole time of my settlement, I have been since 1858 keeper of +that inn; I gave the authorities no cause for suspicion, but I was a +'forced man,' and that sufficed for pouncing upon me."</p> + +<p>"Forced! what does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"Well, a person forced to accept, when to others free choice is +left—domicile, trade or calling, wife and religion."</p> + +<p>"Terrible!" I exclaimed. "And you submitted?" A little smile played around +his thin lips.</p> + +<p>"Are you so much moved at my fate? We generally bear very easily the most +severe pains endured by others."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That is a saying of Larochefoucauld," I said, somewhat surprised. "Have +you read him?"</p> + +<p>"I was at one time very fond of French literature. But pardon my acrimony. +I am but little accustomed to sympathy, and indeed of what avail would it +be to me now!" He stared painfully at the ground, and I also became +silent, convinced that any superficial expression of sympathy would, under +the circumstances, be downright mockery.</p> + +<p>A painful pause ensued, which I broke with the question, if he had worked +the engraving upon the lid of the box after a pattern.</p> + +<p>"No, from memory," was his rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"It is a peculiar kind of architecture!"</p> + +<p>"It is like all gentlemen's houses in Littauen; only the old tree is very +striking. It was a very old house."</p> + +<p>"Has been? Does it exist no longer?"</p> + +<p>"It was burnt down seven years ago by the Russians, after they had first +ransacked it. They evidently were not aware that they destroyed their own +property. It had been confiscated years before, and had been Crown +property since 1848."</p> + +<p>"And have you yet the outlines of the building so firmly engraved on your +memory?"</p> + +<p>"Of course! it was my birth-place, which I had rarely left until I was +eighteen years old. Such things are not easily forgotten. And although +more than twenty years have passed since this sad affair, hardly a day +passed on which I did not think of my paternal home. I was aware of the +death of my mother, and that my cousin was worse than dead—perhaps I +ought to have rejoiced when the old mansion was burnt to the ground; but +yet I could not suppress a tear when the news reached me. There is hardly +anything on earth which can now move me." I record literally what the +unfortunate man related. My Jewish coachman, not easily impressed, had +during the conversation crept gradually nearer, and shook his head +seriously and sorrowfully.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Pani Walerian," he interrupted: "upon my honour, yours is a +sad story!" He launched out into practical politics, and concluded thus:</p> + +<p>"A Pole is not as clever as I am. If he (the Pole) was the equal of the +Russian, well and good, fight it out; but the Russian is a hundred times +stronger; therefore, Pani Walerian, why irritate him, why confront him?"</p> + +<p>I could not help laughing at these remarks; but the poor "forced one" +remained unmoved; and only after some silence, he observed, turning +towards me:</p> + +<p>"I have never even confronted the Russians. I merely received the +punishment of the criminal, without being one, or venturing my all in my +people's cause. I was very young, when I was transported to +Siberia—little more than nineteen years old. My father had died early. I +managed our small property, and a cousin of mine, a pretty girl, sixteen +years old, lived at our house. Indeed, I had no thoughts of politics. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +is true I wore the national costume, perused our poets, especially +Mickiewicz and Slowaski, and had on the wall of my bedroom a portrait of +Kosciuszko. For such kind of high treason even the Russian Government +would not have crushed me in ordinary times—but it was the year 1848. +'Nicolai Pawlowitch' had not sworn in vain that if the whole of Europe was +in flames, no spark should arise in his empire—and by streams of blood +and tears, he achieved his object. Wherever a young Polish noble lived who +was suspected of revolutionary tendencies, repeated domiciliary searches +were made; and if only a single prohibited book was found, the dread fiat +went forth, 'To Siberia with him!'</p> + +<p>"In my own case it came like a thunderbolt. I was already in Siberia, and +could not yet realize my misery. During the whole long journey I was more +or less delirious. I hoped for a speedy liberation, for I was altogether +innocent, and at that time," he continued with a bitter smile, "I yet +believed in God. When all hope became extinct, I began madly to rave, but +finally settled down utterly crushed and callous. It was a fearful +state—for weeks together, all my past life seemed a complete blank, at +most I still remembered my name. This, sir, is literally true: Siberia is +a very peculiar place."</p> + +<p>The poor fellow had sunk down upon a bench, his hands rested powerless in +his lap. I never have seen a face so utterly worn and pain-stricken. After +a while he continued:</p> + +<p>"Ten years had thus passed away; at least, I was told so—I had long +ceased to count the days of my misery. For what purpose should I have done +so?</p> + +<p>"I had sunk so low that I felt no pity even for my terrible condition. One +day I was brought before the Inspector, together with some of my +companions. This official informed us that we had been pardoned on +condition of becoming colonists in New Russia. The mercy of the Czar would +assign to each of us a place of residence, a trade, and a lawful wife, who +would be also a pardoned convict. We must of course, in addition, be +converted to the Orthodox Greek Church. This latter stipulation did but +little concern us. We readily accepted the conditions, for the people are +glad of leaving Siberia, no matter whither, even to meet death itself. And +had we not been pardoned? Alexander Nikolajewitch is a gracious lord. In +Siberia the mines are over-crowded, and in South Russia the steppes are +empty! Oh, he is a philanthropist! decus et deliciæ generis humani! But +perhaps I wrong him. We entered upon our long journey, and proceeded +slowly south-west. In about eight months we reached Mohilew. Here we were +only kept in easy confinement, and above all, brought under the influence +of the pope. This was a rapid proceeding. One morning we were driven +together into a large room, about one hundred men, and an equal number of +women. Presently the priest entered; a powerful and dirty fellow, who +appeared to have invigorated himself for his holy work with a considerable +dose of gin, for we could smell it at least ten paces off, and he had some +difficulty in keeping upon his legs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'You ragamuffins!' he stammered; 'you vermin of humanity! you are to +become Orthodox Christians; but surely I shall not take much trouble with +you. For, what do you think I get per head? Ten copeks, you vermin! ten +copeks per head. Who will be a missionary at such pay? I certainly do it +to-day for the last time! Indeed, our good father Alexander Nikolajewitch +caused one rouble to be set in the tariff; but that rascal, the director, +pockets ninety copeks, and leaves only ten for me. To-day, however, I have +undertaken your conversion, because I am told there are many of you. Now +listen! you are now Catholics, Protestants, Jews! That is sad mistake; for +every Jew is a blood-sucker, every Protestant a dog, and every Catholic a +pig. Such is their lot in life—but after death? carrion, my good people, +carrion! And will Christ have mercy on them at the last day? Verily no! He +will not dream of such a thing! And until then? Hell-fire! Therefore, good +people, why should you suffer such torments? Be converted! Those who agree +to become Orthodox Christians, keep silent; those who demur, receive the +knout and go back to Siberia. Wherefore, my dear brothers and sisters, I +ask, will you become Orthodox Christians?'</p> + +<p>"We remained silent.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' continued the priest, 'now pay attention! Those who are already +Christians need only to lift up the right hand, and repeat after me the +creed. That will soon be done. But with the damned Jews one has always a +special trouble—the Jews I must first baptise. Jews, step forward!—the +other vermin can remain where they now are.' In this solemn manner the +ceremony was brought to a conclusion.</p> + +<p>"On the day following," M. Walerian continued, "the second act was +performed: the selection of a trade. This act was as spontaneous as our +religious conversion; only, some individual regard became here +indispensable. Three young Government officials were deputed to record our +wishes, and to comply with them as far as the exigencies of the case +admitted. The official before whom I appeared was very juvenile. Though +externally very polished, he was in reality a frightfully coarse and cruel +youth, without a spark of human feeling, so far as we were concerned. We +afforded him no small amount of merriment. This youth inquired carefully +concerning our wishes, and invariably ordered the very opposite. Among us +was a noble lady from Poland, of very ancient lineage, very feeble and +miserable, whose utter helplessness might well inspire the most callous +heart with respect and compassion. The lady was too old to be married to +one of the 'forced ones,' and was therefore asked to state what kind of +occupation she desired. She entreated to be employed in some school for +daughters of military officers, there being a demand for such service; but +the young gentleman ordered her to go as laundress to the barracks at +Mohilew! An aged Jew had been sent to Siberia for having smuggled +prohibited books across the frontiers. He had been the owner of a printing +establishment, and was well acquainted with the business. 'Could he not be +employed in one of the Imperial printing offices; and if possible,' urged +the aged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> man, 'be permitted to reside in a place where few or no Jews +lived?' He had under compulsion changed his religion; to which he was yet +fervently attached, and trembled at the thought that his former +co-religionists would none the less avoid him as an apostate. The young +official noted down his request, and made him a police agent at Miaskowka, +a small town in the government district of Podolien, almost exclusively +inhabited by Jews. Another, a former schoolmaster, in the last stages of +consumption, begged on his knees to be permitted to die quietly in some +country village. 'That is certainly a modest request!' observed this +worthless youth; and sent him as a waiter to a hospital. Need I tell how I +fared? Being misled, like the rest, by the hypocritical air and seeming +concern of this rascal, I made known to him my desire to obtain the post +of under-steward at some remote Crown estate, where I might have as little +intercourse as possible with my fellow-men. And thus, sir, I became the +keeper of the small inn on a much-frequented highway!"</p> + +<p>The unfortunate man arose suddenly, and paced the room in a state of great +excitement.</p> + +<p>"But now comes the best of all," he exclaimed, with a desperate +effort—"the last act, the choice of a wife." Again an internal struggle +overpowered the unhappy narrator—a sudden and heavy tear rolled down his +care-worn cheek, evidently caused by the remembrance of this abominable +transaction. "It was a terrible ordeal," he said. "Sir, sir," he continued +after a momentary pause, "since the sun has risen in our horizon, he has +shone on many a cruel game which the mighty of the earth have played with +the helpless, but a more abominable farce has hardly ever been enacted +than the one I am now relating—the manner in which we unfortunate people +were coupled together. In my youth I read how Carrier at Nantes murdered +the Royalists; how he caused the first best man to be tied with a rope to +a woman, and carried down the Loire in a boat. In the middle of the river +a trap-door was suddenly opened, and the unfortunate couple disappeared in +the waves. But that monster was an angel compared with the officials of +the Czar; and these republican marriages were a benevolent act in +comparison with those we were forced to conclude. At Nantes, the victims +were tied together for a mutual death; we for our mutual lives!... On a +subsequent morning we were once more ushered into the room where our +conversion had taken place. There were present about thirty men and an +equal number of women. Together with the latter entered the official who +had so considerately ordered our lot as regards a livelihood.</p> + +<p>"'Ladies and gentlemen,' he commenced with a nasal twang, 'his Majesty has +graciously pardoned you, and desires to see you all happy. Now, the lonely +man is seldom a happy man; and hence you are to marry. Every gentleman is +free to select a partner, provided of course the lady accepts the choice. +And in order that none of you gentlemen may be placed in the invidious +position of having to select a partner unworthy of him, supreme +benevolence has ordered that an adequate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> number of ladies, partly from +penal settlements and partly from houses of correction, should be now +offered you. As his Majesty's solicitude for your welfare has already +assigned you an occupation, you may now follow unhesitatingly the +promptings of your own hearts in the choice of a wife. Ladies and +gentlemen, yours is the happy privilege to realise the dream of a purely +socialistic marriage. Make, then, your selection without delay; and as +"all genuine love is instantaneous, sudden as a lightning flash, and soft +as the breezes of spring"—to use the words of our poet Lermontoff—I +consider one hour sufficient. Bear also in mind that marriages are +ratified in heaven, and trust implicitly to your own heart. I offer you +beforehand, ladies and gentlemen, my congratulations.'</p> + +<p>"After this address, the young rascal placed his watch in front of him on +the table, sat down, and grinned maliciously at our helpless condition. +The full measure of scorn implied in this speech but few of us entirely +realised, for we were in truth a curious assembly. The most extravagant +imagination could hardly picture more glaring contrasts! Side by side with +the bestial Bessarabian herdsman, who in a fit of intoxication had slain +the whole of his family, stood the highly cultivated professor from Wilna, +whom the love of his country and of freedom had consigned to the mines of +Siberia; the most desperate thief and shoplifter from Moscow, and the +Polish nobleman who at the height of his misfortunes still regarded his +honour as the most precious treasure, the ex-professor from Charkow, and +the Cossac-robber from the Don; the forger from Odessa, &c. On my own +right hand stood a thief and deserter from Lipkany, and on the left a +Baschkire, who had been pardoned at the foot of the gallows, though he had +once assisted in roasting alive a Jewish family in a village inn. A madly +assorted medley of human beings! And the women! The dissolute female +gladly released from the house of correction, because she still more +depraved her already degraded companions, associated with the unfortunate +Polish lady, whose pure mind had never been poisoned by a vulgar word, and +whose quiet happiness had not been disturbed by any prospect of +misfortune, until a single letter, or act of charity to an exiled +countryman, brought her into misery. Pressing against the young girl whose +sole offence consisted in being the unfortunate offspring of a mother sent +to Siberia, might be seen the infamous hag who had habitually decoyed +young girls to ruin, in whose soul every spark of womanhood had long been +extinguished. And these people were called upon to marry; and one hour was +granted them in which to become acquainted and assorted! Sir, you will now +perhaps comprehend my emotion in relating this shocking business!</p> + +<p>"I consider it the most shocking and at the same time the most curious +outrage which has ever been committed." The "forced" man paused, a deadly +pallor suffused his countenance, and his agitation was great. The young +hostess appeared perfectly stunned, whilst Reb Rüssan, the coachman, bent +his head in evident compassion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>After a while M. Walerian continued in a calmer mood. "It must certainly +have been an entertaining spectacle to notice the behaviour of this +ill-assorted people at that trying hour. Even the barefaced monster on his +raised daïs betrayed a feverish excitement: he would suddenly jump from +his chair, and again recline, playing the while nervously with his +fingers. I am hardly able to describe the details, being not altogether +unbiassed at this dreadful hour.</p> + +<p>"I only know we stood at first in two distinct groups, and for the first +few moments after the official announcement, not a glance was exchanged +between the two sexes, much less a word spoken. A deep silence reigned in +the room, a death-like stillness, varied only by an occasional deep sigh, +or a nervous movement. The minutes passed, certainly not many, but they +seemed to me an eternity!</p> + +<p>"Suddenly a loud hoarse voice exclaimed, 'Up, my lads! here are some very +pretty mates!' We all recognised the notorious thief from Moscow, a +haggard withered fellow, with the ugliest face I ever beheld. He crossed +over to the women and examined in his way which would be the most +desirable partner. Here he received an indignant push, and there an +impudent alluring glance. Others, again—the better part—recoiled from +the approach of the brute. He was followed by the Baschkire, who like a +clumsy beast of prey drew nigh, muttering incoherently, 'I will have a fat +woman, the fattest among them.' From his approach even the ugliest and +most impudent instinctively recoiled—this wooer was really too hideous, +at best only suited to a monkey. The third in order who came forward was +the Don-Cossac, a pretty slender youth. An impudent lass jauntily met him +and fell on his neck; but he pushed her aside, and walked towards the girl +who had murdered her child. The discarded female muttered some insulting +words, and hung the next moment on my own neck. I shook her off, and she +repeated the attempt with my neighbour, and again unsuccessfully.</p> + +<p>"Her example became contagious: presently the more shameless of the women +made an onslaught on the men. Ten minutes later the scene had changed. In +the centre of the room stood a number of men and women engaged in eager +negotiation—shouting and scolding. The parties who had already agreed +retired to the window-niches, and here and there a man pulled an +unfortunate woman, making desperate efforts to escape from him. The +females who yet retained a spark of womanhood crept into a corner of the +room; and in another recess were three of us—the ex-professor, Count S., +and myself. We had instinctively come together, watching with painful +emotion this frantic spectacle, not inclined to participate in it. To me +at least the thought of selecting a wife here never occurred.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"'Another half an hour at your disposal, ladies and gentlemen,' exclaimed +our official tormentor; 'twenty minutes—yet fifteen minutes!'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I stood as if rooted to the ground, my knees trembled, my agitation +increased, but I remained motionless. Indeed, as often as I heard the +unpleasant voice of the official, the blood rushed to my head, but I +advanced not one step. My excitement increased—profound disgust, bitter +despair—the wildest indignation which perhaps ever pierced a poor human +heart. 'No,' I said; 'I must assert the dignity of my manhood!' I was +determined not to make the selection of a wife under the eyes of this man. +Another impulse I could hardly suppress—viz. to throw myself upon this +imperial delegate and strangle him. And if I finally abstained from an act +of violence, it was because I yet loved life, and wished not to end it on +the gallows. Sir," continued M. Walerian, "the source of great misery on +earth is this overpowering instinct of self-preservation; without it, I +should be freed this day from all my misery. Thus I stood, so to speak, at +bay in my corner, using all my efforts to subdue the evil spirit within +me. My looks most probably betrayed me—for when my eyes met those of the +official, I noticed an involuntary shudder. A moment afterwards he +regarded me with a sly and malignant glance. I turned aside and closed my +eyes on this harassing scene.</p> + +<p>"'Yet five minutes, ladies and gentlemen! Those as yet undecided must +speed themselves, and unburden their heart, or I shall be compelled by +virtue of my office to tie them together. And although I shall do so +conscientiously, and to the best of my knowledge, there is this risk—that +you engage in a marriage of mere convenience, instead of one of free +choice and inclination.'</p> + +<p>"Though my agitation reached its climax, I made no move. I considered +myself an accomplice in this disgraceful outrage, if I within the allotted +five minutes declared my heart and made a choice. But another thought +flashed across my mind: 'I may still be able to prevent the worst. Who +knows with whom that rascal may couple me if I remain altogether passive? +Choose for yourself!'—I made a step forward—a mist seemed before my +eyes—my heart beat wildly—I staggered, I sought figures in order to +distinguish and recognise myself.</p> + +<p>"Sir," exclaimed the narrator with a sudden yell, "what scenes did I see +there? I am no coward, but I—I dare not venture to speak of it. Thus I +moved forward; hardly two minutes passed, but days would not suffice to +relate what passed during these terrible moments through my heart and +brain. I noticed in a corner a fainting woman, a young and delicate +creature. I learnt afterwards that she was an orphan child, born of a +dissolute woman in a penal settlement. A coarse fellow with cunning eyes +bent over her, endeavouring to raise her from the ground. I suddenly +pounced upon the fellow, struck him a heavy blow, and carried the +unconscious woman away as if a mere child. I determined to defend her to +the last. But no rescue was attempted, though the forger shook his fists +at me, but had seemingly not the courage to approach nearer. Gazing about +him, another female embraced him, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> repulsive woman. He looked at her +somewhat abashed, but soon submitted to her caresses.</p> + +<p>"'Ladies and gentlemen! the allotted hour has passed,' said the official. +'I must beg the parties to come forward and make known to me their choice. +This may be repugnant to some of you, but my duties prescribe it. I +especially request the gentlemen in yonder corner to advance'—pointing to +myself and the forger. I clenched my fists involuntarily, but stepped +forward with the fainting woman. 'Cossacks, keep your "Kantschu" in +readiness,' said the official to the guard which surrounded him. Turning +first to me, he said: "And are you, sir, resolved to carry the woman you +now hold in your arms, not only in this room, but through life?' I nodded +assent. 'And what have you to say, damsel?' The poor creature was as yet +unconscious. 'She is in a swoon,' I replied. 'In that case I am sorry,' +continued the official, 'to have to refuse in his Majesty's name my +consent to your union. In the interests of humanity, I require an audible +yes from all parties. I have watched attentively the whole proceedings,' +continued the official—'not from mere curiosity, but partly as a duty, +and partly out of pure sympathy—and I can assure you, sir, without +disparagement to your claims, that the choice of the young lady you now +hold in your arms fell not upon you, but upon the gentleman yonder,' +pointing to the forger. 'It was probably the excess of happiness at this +selection which caused her fainting. For you there is waiting an adequate +recompense—that ripe, desirable beauty who now only reluctantly holds the +arm of your rival. Therefore, changez, Messieurs!' 'Scoundrel!' I +exclaimed, and advanced to seize him. But ere I could lay hold of him, a +fearful blow on my head stretched me stunned and bleeding to the ground. +When I had somewhat recovered, our marriage procession was in progress of +formation. The woman whom the official had assigned to me knelt at my +side, bathing my head, endeavouring to revive me. 'I like you,' she +observed, 'and will treat you well.' She raised me to my feet, placed her +arm in mine, and pushed me in the ranks of the procession, which moved +slowly towards the church. On our road a heavy hand seized me suddenly by +the collar. 'Brother,' grunted a coarse voice in my ear, 'your stout woman +takes my fancy. Will you change with me? Mine is certainly less corpulent, +but younger in years.'</p> + +<p>"It was the man behind me—the Baschkire. The female whom he dragged along +was a lean, ugly, dark-complexioned woman, swooning or near a swoon. An +expression of unutterable despair overspread her features, rendering them, +if possible, yet more ugly. 'A woman who can suffer so intensely as this +one unquestionably does, cannot be without a heart—is not altogether +depraved, no matter what cause brought her here.' These reflections +determined me. 'She is preferable to the woman at my side. Done!' I +whispered to the Baschkire. Just crossing the threshold of the church, a +momentary pause ensued, during which we effected the exchange; not without +a murmur, however, on the part of my intended wife. But the Baschkire kept +her quiet; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> a closer inspection of her new partner seemed to satisfy +her. The poor woman I led forward seemed hardly aware of the exchange, she +was so entirely absorbed in her grief. We were married. The official only +afterwards became aware of what had happened, but could not now undo it. +But I had to suffer for it—terrible was the punishment."</p> + +<p>Not another word was uttered by the unfortunate man. Quite overcome by the +recital of his cruel fate, he suddenly arose and left the house.</p> + +<p>On account of the approach of the Jewish Sabbath, my coachman urged on our +journey. Half an hour later, we passed the lonely and desolate hostelry of +poor M. Walerian, the exile of Siberia, who owed so much to imperial +clemency.—F. A. S., <i>in Belgravia</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHRISTMAS_IN_MOROCCO" id="CHRISTMAS_IN_MOROCCO"></a>CHRISTMAS IN MOROCCO.</h2> + + +<p>"To-morrow Christmas for Moros!" said the gentle Hamed, our Moorish +servant, entering the room soon after the bang of the last sunset gun of +Ramadan had shaken our windows, and the thick smoke of the coarse Moorish +powder had floated away, temporarily obscuring the gorgeous hues bestowed +by the retiring luminary on the restless waters of the South Atlantic.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow Christmas for Moros! In the morning Hamed clean house, go for +<i>soko</i>; then all day no <i>trabally</i>; have new <i>haik</i>, new slippers, walk +about all same <i>tejjer</i>."</p> + +<p>By which little speech our faithful attendant meant to convey that +to-morrow's rejoicing at the termination of the long and irksome fast of +Ramadan was equivalent to the "Ingleez's" Christmas, and that, after +putting the house in order and bringing the provisions from the <i>soko</i>, or +market, he would do no more <i>trabally</i>, or work—the word being a +corruption of the Spanish <i>trabajo</i>—but would don the new <i>haik</i> and +bright yellow slippers for which he had long been saving up, and to the +purchase of which certain little presents from the children of our +household had materially contributed; and would be entitled, by +prescriptive holiday right, to "take his walks abroad" with the <i>dolce far +niente</i> dignity of a <i>tejjer</i>, or merchant.</p> + +<p>I think we members of the little English community of Mogador—or, as the +Moors fondly call this pleasantest town of the Morocco seaboard, "El +Souerah," or The Beautiful—had almost as good reason as the Moslem +population to rejoice at the termination of the great fast. The Moors not +being allowed, during the holy month, to eat, drink, or smoke betwixt the +rising and the setting of the sun—the more sternly orthodox even closing +their nostrils against any pleasant odour that might casually perfume the +air in their vicinity, and their ears against even the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> faintest sound of +music—debarring themselves, in fact, from whatever could give the +slightest pleasure to any of the senses, a considerable amount of gloom +and listlessness was the inevitable result.</p> + +<p>The servants in the various households, not over active and intelligent at +the best of times, became, as the weary days of prayer and fasting wore +on, appallingly idiotic, sleepy, and sullen, would do but little work, and +that little never promptly nor well. Meals could not be relied on within +an hour or two, rooms were left long untidy, essential little errands and +messages unperformed, and a general gloomy confusion prevailed.</p> + +<p>Did I, tempted by the smoothness of the sea, desire a little fishing +cruise, and send a youthful Moor to the neighbouring rocks to get me a +basket of mussels for bait, he would probably, directly he got outside the +town-gates, deposit the basket and himself in the shade of the first wall +he came to, and slumber sweetly till the tide had risen and covered all +the rocky ledges where it was possible to collect bait. Had I told the +youngster over night that he must come out to sea with me in the morning, +and take care that my boat was put outside the dock, so that she would be +afloat at a certain hour, I would find, on going down at daybreak with +rods and tackle, that the boat was high and dry upon the mud, and it would +take the united efforts of half a dozen Moors and myself to get her afloat +at the end of nearly an hour's frantic struggling and pushing through mud +and water, necessitating on my part the expenditure of a great amount of +perspiration, not a little invective, and sundry silver coins.</p> + +<p>And when we were fairly afloat my Mahometan youth would be so weak from +fasting that his oar would be almost useless; and when we did, after an +hour or so of the most ignominious zigzaging, reach our anchorage on one +of the fishing-grounds, then would he speedily become sea-sick, and +instead of helping me by preparing bait and landing fish, he would lean +despairingly over the side in abject misery, and implore me to go home +promptly—a piteous illustration of the anguish caused by an empty stomach +contracting on itself.</p> + +<p>Nor were these the only discomforts under which we groaned and grumbled.</p> + +<p>From the evening when the eager lookers-out from minarets of mosques and +towers of the fortifications first descried the new moon which ushered in +the holy month of fasting, every sunset, as it flushed the far-off waves +with purple and crimson and gold, and turned the fleecy cloudlets in the +western sky to brightest jewels, and suffused the white houses and towers +of Mogador with sweetest glow of pink, and gilded the green-tiled top of +each tall minaret, had been accompanied by the roar of a cannon from the +battery just below our windows.</p> + +<p>"What the deuce is that?" asked a friend of mine, lately arrived from +England, as we strolled homewards one evening through the dusty streets, +and the boom of the big gun suddenly fell upon his astonished ear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Only sunset," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Queer place this," said J. "Does the sun always set with a bang?"</p> + +<p>"Always during Ramadan."</p> + +<p>"Does it rise with a bang too? I hate to be roused up early in the +morning!"</p> + +<p>"No, there is no gun at sunrise; but there is a very loud one at about +three in the morning, or sometimes half-past, or four, or later."</p> + +<p>"Shocking nuisance!" remarked J. "My bedroom window's just over that +abominable battery."</p> + +<p>The early morning gun was a great trial, certainly. I would not have +minded being <i>reveille en sursaut</i>, as a Frenchman would say, and then +turning comfortably over on the other side, and going to sleep again.</p> + +<p>But somehow or other I always found myself awake half an hour or an hour +before the time, and then I <i>could not</i> get to sleep again, but lay +tossing about and fidgettily listening for the well-known din. At length I +would hear a sound like the hum of an enormous fiendish nightmarish +mosquito, caused by a hideous long tin trumpet, the shrill whistle of a +fife or two, and the occasional tom-tomming of a Moorish drum. "Ha, the +soldiers coming along the ramparts; they will soon fire now."</p> + +<p>But the sound of the discordant instruments with which the soldiery +solaced themselves in the night for their enforced abstinence from such +"sweet sounds" in the day would continue for a long time before the red +flash through my wide-open door would momentarily illumine my little +chamber on the white flat roof, and then the horrid bang would rend the +air, followed by a dense cloud of foul-smelling smoke; and then would my +big dog Cæsar for several minutes rush frantically to and fro upon the +roof in hot indignation, and utter deep-mouthed barks of defiance at the +white figures of the "Maghaseni," as they flitted ghost-like along the +ramparts below, and snort and pant and chafe and refuse to be pacified for +a long time.</p> + +<p>At the firing of the sunset gun the Moors were allowed to take a slight +refection, which generally consisted of a kind of gruel. I have seen a +Moorish soldier squatting in the street with a brass porringer in his lap, +eagerly awaiting the boom of the cannon to dip his well-washed fingers in +the mess.</p> + +<p>At about 9 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> another slight meal was allowed to the true believers, and +they might eat again at morning gun-fire, after which their mouths were +closed against all "fixings, solid and liquid," even against the smallest +draught of water or the lightest puff at the darling little pipe of +dream-inducing <i>kief</i>.</p> + +<p>On the twenty-seventh day of Ramadan we were informed that twenty-seven +guns would be fired that night, and that we had better leave all our +windows open, or they would certainly be broken by the violence of the +discharge. This was pleasant; still more delightful was the glorious +uncertainty which prevailed in the minds of our informants as to the time +at which we might expect the infliction.</p> + +<p>Some said that the twenty-seven guns would be fired before midnight;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +Hamed opined that the cannonade would not take place till 3 or 4 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> Many +of the guns on the battery in close proximity to our abode were in a +fearfully rusty and honeycombed condition, so that apprehensions as to +some of them bursting were not unnatural, and I thought it extremely +probable that a few stray fragments might "drop in" on me.</p> + +<p>That night I burned the "midnight oil," and lay reading till nearly two, +when sweet sleep took possession of me, from which I was awakened about +four in the morning by a terrific bang that fairly shook the house.</p> + +<p>A minute more, and there came a red flash and another bang, presently +another. Thought I, "I will go out and see the show;" so I went on to the +flat white roof in my airy nocturnal costume, and leaning over the parapet +looked down on to the platform of the battery below. A group of dim white +figures, a flickering lantern, a glowing match, a touch at the breech of a +rusty old gun, a swift skurry of the white figures round a corner, a +squib-like fountain of sparks from the touch-hole, a red flash from the +mouth, momentarily illumining the dark violet sea, a bang, and a cloud of +smoke.</p> + +<p>Then the white figures and the lantern appeared again; another squib, +another flash, another bang, Cæsar galloping up and down over the roof, +snorting his indignation, but not barking, probably because he felt +"unable to do justice to the subject;" and at length, after the eleventh +gun had belched forth crimson flames and foul smoke, all was peace, save a +distant discord of tin trumpets, <i>gouals</i> and <i>gimbris</i>, and I returned to +my mosquito-haunted couch with a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>Pass we now to the eve of "Christmas for Moros," and let ethnologist and +hagiologist derive some satisfaction from the evidences I collected in +this far-away Moorish town that the gladness of the Mahometan festival +does, similarly to the purer joy of the Christian, though in a less degree +perhaps, incline towards "peace and good-will to men," charity and +kindliness.</p> + +<p>As we sat chatting that evening round the tea-table, to us entered Hamed, +bearing, with honest pride illumining his brown features, a great tray of +richly engraved brass, heaped up with curious but tempting-looking cakes.</p> + +<p>Gracefully presenting them to "the senora," he intimated that this was his +humble offering or Christmas token of good-will towards the family, and +that his mother (whom the good fellow maintains out of his modest wages) +had made them with her own hands.</p> + +<p>The cakes were made of long thin strips of the finest paste, plentifully +sweetened with delicious honey, twisted into quaint shapes, and fried in +the purest of oil. I need hardly say that the children were delighted, and +immediately commenced to court indigestion by a vigorous onslaught on the +new and tempting sweets. Nay, why should I blush to confess that I myself +have a very sweet tooth in my head, and such a liking for all things +saccharine that my friends say jokingly that I must be getting into my +second childhood?—an imputation which, as I am only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> a little on the +wrong side of thirty, I can bear with equanimity. However, I firmly +decline to inform an inquisitive public how many of those delightful +Moorish cakes I ate: truth to tell, I do not remember; but I enjoyed them +heartily, nor found my digestion impaired thereby.</p> + +<p>We had a little chat with Hamed—whose face was lighted up with the +broadest of grins as we praised his mother's pastry and showed our +appreciation of it in the most satisfactory manner—on certain matters of +the Mahometan religion and the position of women in the future life. Some +of the sterner Muslims believe that women have no souls; others opine that +while good men go to "<i>Eljannah</i>," or heaven, and bad ones to +"<i>Eljehannam</i>," or hell, women and mediocre characters are deported to a +vague kind of limbo which they designate as "<i>Bab Maroksh</i>," or the +Morocco Gate.</p> + +<p>But the gentle, liberal, and gallant Hamed informed us, in reply to an +individual query with regard to our Moorish housemaid, that "if Lanniya +plenty good, no <i>tiefem</i> (steal), no drinkum <i>sharab</i> (wine), and go for +<i>scula</i> ("school," or religious instruction in the mosque, or in a +schoolhouse adjoining it), by and by she go for "<i>Eljannah</i>."</p> + +<p>I am hardly correct, by the way, in speaking of Lanniya as "house-<i>maid</i>," +for Moorish maidens and wives never go in the service of European +families, being prohibited by their religion from showing their faces; it +is only widows and divorced women who may go about unveiled, and mingle +with Christians.</p> + +<p>The next morning, soon after the last gun of Ramadan had sounded its +joyous boom in my ear, I was up and stirring, donning my shooting apparel +and preparing for an early country walk with my faithful four-footed +comrade. I had no fear of exciting the fanaticism of the Muslim population +by going out shooting on their holy day, for there is not much bigotry in +Mogador,—Moors, Christians, and Jews observing their several religions +peacefully side by side, so that three Sundays come in every week, the +Mahometan on Friday, the Jewish on Saturday, and then ours.</p> + +<p>The sun, just rising from behind the eastern sand-hills, was gilding all +the house-tops and minarets, till our white town looked like a rich +assemblage of fairy palaces of gold and ivory; the smiling sea, serene and +azure, came rippling peacefully up to the base of the rugged brown rocks, +enlivened to-day by no statuesque figures of Moorish fishermen; nor did a +single boat dot the broad blue expanse of the unusually smooth South +Atlantic, of which the fish and the sea-fowl were for once left in +undisturbed possession.</p> + +<p>As I gazed from the flat roof away over the great town, I heard from many +quarters loud sounds of music and merriment. As I passed presently through +the narrow streets, with their dead white walls and cool dark arches, +scarcely a camel was to be seen at the accustomed corners by the stores of +the merchants, where usually whole fleets of the "ships of the desert" lay +moored, unloading almonds, and rich gums, and hides, and all the varied +produce of the distant interior.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<p>Outside the town-gates the very hordes of semi-wild scavenger dogs seemed +to know that the day was one of peace, for they lay in the sunshine, nor +barked and snapped at the infidel intruder as he walked over the golden +sands, along the edge of the marshy pool, past the pleasant-looking +Moorish cemetery with its graceful verdant palm-trees, a calm oasis in the +sandy plain, and out across the shallow lagoon formed by overflows of high +tides, by which a few late trains of homeward-bound camels went softly +stepping, looking wonderfully picturesque as they marched through shallow +waters so beautifully gilded by the morning sun, their drivers doubtless +eager to reach their own home or the shelter of some friendly village to +participate in the modest revelries of the joyous season. How I wandered +along the shore of the "many-sounding sea," enjoying a little rough sport, +and the blithe companionship of the big doggie; how I saw never a Moor +upon the rocks, but many Jews with long bamboo rods, busily engaged in +fishing for bream and bass and rock-fish, it boots not to describe with a +minuteness which might be wearisome to my readers, for I am not now +writing "of sport, for sportsmen."</p> + +<p>So let us turn homewards, as the sun is getting high in the heavens, and +note the scenes by the way.</p> + +<p>Yonder, near the marshy corner of the plain, haunted by wild-fowl, and +carrion crows, and mongrel jackal-like dogs, is the rough cemetery of the +despised "Jehoud," the Israelites who form so large and so wealthy a +portion of the population of Mogador. Among the long flat stones that mark +the graves of the exiled sons and daughters of Israel there is a winding +crowd of white-draped figures, a funeral procession. Unwilling to intrude +upon their grief, I pass on, casting an involuntary glance at the +picturesque garb and wild gesticulations of the mourners as the women's +loud and bitter cry of "Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai!" sounds weirdly through the air, +just as it may have done in the old scriptural times, when "the mourners +went about the streets" and gave unchecked vent to their grief in public, +even as they do to this day.</p> + +<p>But as I neared Morocco Gate, from the neighbouring "Running Ground" came +very different sounds—a din of many drums, a squeaking of merry fifes, +the firing of many long Moorish guns, the shouting of men and boys, and +the eerie shrill <i>taghariet</i> of the Moorish women.</p> + +<p>And as I passed in front of the round battery, out from the great gate of +the New Kasbah came the crowd of men, women, and children who had been +clamouring joyfully in the Running-Ground, a bright throng of brown faces +and white raiment, interspersed with the gay colours worn by the little +children, and dotted here and there by the blood-red of the national flag. +Suddenly from a cannon just behind me came a cloud of smoke enveloping me +and the dog, and a bang which fairly shook us, and then another and +another. The firing of the guns from this battery was the spectacle the +Moorish populace had come out to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> see.</p> + +<p>It was an uncomfortable sensation to have big guns going off just behind +one; they were only loaded with blank cartridge, of course, but we were +quite near enough to be knocked down by a stray piece of wadding, and +something did once whistle past my ear suggestively.</p> + +<p>But it would never do for an "Ingleez" to run away in the presence of a +lot of Moors; so I walked calmly across the sands while the whole battery +of guns—twelve, I think—were fired, Cæsar meanwhile prancing about +majestically, and loudly giving vent to his indignation at a proceeding +which he evidently considered, as he always does the firing of any gun or +pistol by any one but me, an express insult to his master, and an +infringement of his peculiar privileges.</p> + +<p>I went home by way of the Water-Port, where there was no movement of +lighters or fishing-craft, no stir of bare-legged porters and fishermen, +no bustle of Jewish and European merchants; nearly all the boats were +drawn up on the shore, and those which remained afloat, slumbered +tenantless on the broad blue bosom of the sea. On rocks, and in the +pleasant shade of walls and arches, a few figures, in bright and gauzy +<i>haiks</i> and gorgeous new slippers, lounged and dozed, perchance tired with +the revelries they had gone through since daybreak, and recruiting their +energies for fresh rejoicings towards evening. Reaching home about eleven, +I rested a while, deposited my birds in the larder, and then proceeded to +stroll about the streets and see how the populace comported themselves on +this festive occasion. I was sorry to learn that some of the younger and +more fanatical of the Moors had been relieving their feelings by abusing +the Jews, some of whom had had stones thrown at them, and their heads +slightly broken. But this temporary riot was over, and now all was "peace +and good-will," except that perhaps there may have lurked a little not +unnatural ill-feeling in the minds of the broken-headed Israelites, who +could not help feeling rather disgusted at the manner in which the Muslim +youths had celebrated "Christmas for Moros."</p> + +<p>As I passed along the narrow lane wherein the soldiers of the Kaid or +Governor, in the snowiest of <i>haiks</i> and tallest and reddest of +<i>tarbooshes</i>, squatted against the wall, chatting blithely as they awaited +the advent of their master, a grave and venerable-looking Moorish +grandpapa, hurrying along with a great armful of cakes in one of the folds +of his <i>haik</i>, stumbled against a loose stone and dropped several of the +cakes.</p> + +<p>I hastily stooped and picked them up; the old man muttered a few words of +blessing upon me, insisted on my accepting the dainties I had rescued from +the dust, utterly refused to receive them back, pressed my hand, and +hurried on, leaving me in a state of embarrassment, from which I was +opportunely relieved by the arrival of a bright-eyed little Moor of seven +or eight summers, who was perfectly willing to relieve me from all trouble +connected with the handful of cakes. Passing into the busy streets of the +Moorish quarter, I found the population coming out of the various mosques, +where they had been to morning service, and now going in for a systematic +course of "greetings in the market-place,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> and purchasing of presents. O, +for an artist's pencil and colours to depict the gorgeous costumes of the +town Moors, the quaint, wild garb of their country cousins; the gauzy +cream-tinted <i>haiks</i> from Morocco; the rich silken <i>caftans</i> of purple, or +crimson, or yellow, or green, or azure, or pink, sweetly half-veiled by a +fold or two of snowy gauze thrown over them; the bright red fez caps, and +voluminous snowy turbans of the patriarchal-looking old men; the broad +silken sashes from Fez, heavy and stiff with rich embroidery of gold; the +great curved daggers in their richly chased silver or brass sheaths, +suspended amid the folds of the <i>haik</i> by thick woolen cords of gay +colours; the handsome brown faces, the flashing black eyes, the wonderful +white teeth, the sinewy brown bare legs, the brand-new yellow slippers of +the merry Moors of Mogador!</p> + +<p>And the negroes, or, as old Fuller would quaintly have called them, "the +images of God cut in ebony," how their honest black features glistened, +and how their bright teeth grinned beneath turban or fez, or gaudy +handkerchief of many colours!</p> + +<p>The negro servant of one of the European residents, a good-humoured giant +of nearly seven feet, whom his master is wont to describe as "his nigger +and a half," came stalking down amongst the little shops and stalls with a +flaunting bandanna round his head, a purple jacket, a most gorgeous sash, +a pair of green baggy breeches, a glittering silver-sheathed dagger, and a +most imposing <i>haik</i>, thrown in toga-like folds over all.</p> + +<p>Negro women, unveiled, white-clad, adorned as to their shiny black arms +with rude heavy bracelets of silver or brass, sat at street-corners with +baskets of sweet cakes and little loaves for sale. Veiled Moorish women, +perchance showing just one bright black eye to tantalise the beholder, +glided along like substantial ghosts in the white raiment which enveloped +them from their heads down to the little feet shod with red or yellow +slippers embroidered with gold thread or bright-coloured silks. Women +leading tiny toddlers of children, little bright-eyed boys with crowns +shaven all but one queer little tufted ridge in the middle, deftly curled +this morning by mamma's loving fingers; foreheads adorned with quaint +frontlets, from which hung curious ornaments of gold and coral and silver, +spells against the evil eye, talismans, and what not.</p> + +<p>Little boys in beautiful cloth or silken cloaks of pale blue, or delicate +purple, or crimson, or rich green, or golden yellow, trotting along as +proud as peacocks, holding by the hand some tiny brother who can barely +toddle. Children who have just had new slippers purchased for them, and +are carrying them home in triumph; children who, with funny little copper +coins in their hand, are congregating round the stall of the swarthy +seller of sweetstuffs, who is ejaculating loudly, "<i>Heloua</i>, <i>Heloua</i>!" +busily brandishing a feathery branch of green <i>artim</i> the while, to keep +the vagrom flies off his stores of rich dainties composed of walnut and +almond toffee, pastes made of almonds and honey and sugar, little brown +sugar balls thickly strewn with cummin-seeds, long sticks of peppermint, +and other delicacies difficult to describe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<p>As to the grown-up Moors, never was seen such a hand-shaking as is going +on amongst them. Everybody is shaking hands with everybody else, each +wishing the other the Arabic substitute for "A merry Christmas," and after +each handshaking each of the participants puts his hand to his lips and +proceeds, to be stopped two yards farther on for a repetition of the +performance.</p> + +<p>On we go through the meat-market, and note pityingly the leanness of the +Moors' Christmas beef, which has just been butchered, and of which an +eager good-humored crowd are buying small pieces amid much vociferation, +chaff, and "compliments of the season" generally.</p> + +<p>Then we come to the green-grocers' shops, where we see huge radishes, +great pomegranates, sweet potatoes, and bunches of fragrant mint for the +flavouring of the Moors' passionately loved beverage, green tea; then to +the grocers' quarter, where, asking a grave and portly Moor for a +pennyworth <i>fakea</i> (dried fruit), he puts into half a gourd-shell a +pleasant collection of dates, almonds, figs, and raisins, hands them to us +with benign politeness. Opposite his store is a low table covered with +queer bottles of all shapes and sizes, filled with a dubious-looking pink +fluid, resembling the most delicious hair oil, but apparently highly +appreciated by the Moorish and Jewish youth who crowd around.</p> + +<p>In the centre is a burly brandy-bottle, bearing the well-known label of +"J. and F. Martell," now filled with a fluid presumably more innocuous +than the choicest cognac; the big bottle is flanked by rows of little +medicine-vials and long thin bottles such as are used for attar of roses +and other Eastern scents; for the vendor of this bright-coloured liquor +does not possess cups or tumblers, but dispenses it in the little bottles. +A bare-headed youth, with shaven crown, tenders a <i>mozouna</i>, receives a +two-ounce vial, empties it solemnly amid the envious looks of his +comrades, sets it down, and walks gravely away.</p> + +<p>Away we go too, Cæsar and I, and I note that there is hardly a Jew to be +seen in the streets; they are afraid of stone-throwing, and outbursts of +the slumbering hatred and contempt with which they are regarded by the +orthodox Muslim.</p> + +<p>As for Christians, Englishmen especially, they are much more tolerated and +respected; and I know that I may walk the town all day without fear of +molestation, and get plenty of kindly greetings and many a smile and shake +of the hand.</p> + +<p>Out of the busy market, up the narrow and shady streets, hearing sounds of +the fearsome trumpet, which I have already compared to an exaggerated +mosquito, meeting that instrument presently at a corner—a horrid tin +thing about two yards long, wielded by a sinewy little man in a blue +tunic, accompanying a gaily-dressed boy on a sleek and patient donkey. +Fifing and drumming and firing of guns going on all around.</p> + +<p>Fierce-looking Moors and Arabs from the country leaning on their long +silver-mounted guns, scowling at the "Kaffer," whom they have perchance +not seen until they came to El Souërah. A veiled, but evidently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> portly, +dame, leading by the hand a pretty little girl, in a red skirt below a +rich garment of lace or embroidery, with a crimson hooded cloak or +<i>djelab</i> over it, rich ornaments on her smooth brown forehead, enormous +silver anklets, little bare feet, dyed, like her hands and those of most +of the little girls and many of the big ones, a bright red with henna. +Little girl shrinks behind her mother, afraid of the Giaour or of his big +dog; the Giaour slips by with a smile, doggie with a friendly wag of his +tail, and we go homeward for a while; Cæsar to make a hearty meal of the +biscuits which have come all the way from England for him; his master to +partake of lunch, then smoke a pipe on the roof, and look wistfully out +over the bright blue sky, and let his thoughts wander far, far away to +many a pleasant Christmas in a pleasant corner of the fair Western land:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Where is now the merry party<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I remember long ago,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laughing round the Christmas fireside,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Brightened by its ruddy glow?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But the Moor's Christmas has come early in October; there is time yet, and +plenty of English steamers going backwards and forwards; who knows whether +the wanderer may not yet spend the next Christmas by a genial English +fireside, and recount to prattling children on his knee (others' children, +alas!) the curious sights, sounds, and scenes of "Christmas for Moros?" +But I have not quite done with you yet, kindly reader. I must just briefly +tell you how I went out again in the afternoon with Cæsar and a two-legged +friend, and found more shopping going on and more handshaking, and found +the more festive spirits getting hilarious over green tea and coffee and +<i>kief</i>; how we strolled down to the Water-Port and sat on the quay, +surrounded by merry young Moors in their "Sunday best;" how my friend +essayed to sketch one or two of them, and they did not like it, but +thought some evil spell would be put upon them thereby; how they asked us +many questions about England, and particularly wanted to know how many +dollars we possessed; how my companion won the hearts of some of the +younger members of the party by teaching them how to whistle between their +thumbs, and how to make a certain very loud and direfully discordant +screech; and how J. and I finished the afternoon by partaking of a +delightful bottle of English ale in the courtyard of a cool store, leaning +our chairs against massive stone pillars, and smoking the pipe of peace.</p> + +<p>But I fear the stern Editor will not grant me any more space, and I must +leave at present the recital of all that I saw on the ensuing day, which +the gentle Hamed, if he were a <i>little</i> more closely acquainted with our +institutions, would call "Boxing-day for Moros."</p> + +<p class='right'> +C. A. P. ("<span class="smcap">Sarcelle</span>"), <i>in London Society</i>,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mogador.</span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_HOMES_AND_HAUNTS_OF_THE_ITALIAN_POETS" id="THE_HOMES_AND_HAUNTS_OF_THE_ITALIAN_POETS"></a>THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE ITALIAN POETS.</h2> + + +<h3>GUARINI.</h3> + +<p>Pastoral poetry had in Italy a tendency to a rapid degeneration from the +first. "Decipit exemplum vitiis imitabile." The earliest "pastorals" were +far from being without merit, and merit of a high order. But they were +eminently "vitiis imitabiles." Two specimens of Italian Arcadian poetry +stand out, from the incredibly huge mass of such productions still extant, +superior to all the innumerable imitations to which they gave rise in a +more marked degree even than "originals" usually surpass imitations in +value. These are the "Aminta" of Tasso, and the "Pastor Fido" of the poet +with whom it is the object of these pages to make the English nineteenth +century reader, who never will find the time to read him, in some degree +acquainted—Batista Guarini. It would be difficult to say which of these +two celebrated pastoral dramas was received with the greater amount of +delight and enthusiasm by the world of their contemporaries, or even which +of them is the better performance. The almost simultaneous production of +these two masterpieces in their kind is a striking instance of the, one +may almost say, epidemic nature of the influences which rule the +production of the human intellect; influences which certainly did not +cease to operate for many generations after that of the authors of the +"Aminta" and the "Pastor Fido," although the servile imitation of those +greatly admired works unquestionably went for much in causing the +overwhelming flood of pastorals which deluged Italy immediately subsequent +to their enormous success.</p> + +<p>I have said that it would be difficult to assign a preëminence to either +of these poems. But it must not be supposed that it is intended thence to +insinuate an equality between the authors of them. Tasso would occupy no +lower place on the Italian Parnassus if he had never written the "Aminta." +His fame rests upon a very much larger and firmer basis. But Guarini would +be nowhere—would not be heard of at all—had he not written the "Pastor +Fido." Having, however, produced that work—a work of which forty editions +are said to have been printed in his lifetime, and which has been +translated into almost every civilised language, including Latin, Greek, +and Hebrew—he has always filled a space in the eyes of his countrymen, +and occupied a position in the roll of fame, which render his admission as +one of our select band here imperative. He is, besides, a representative +poet; the head and captain of the pastoral school, which attained +everywhere so considerable a vogue, and in Italy such colossal +proportions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>Guarini was born in the year 1537 in Ferrara,—desolate, dreary, shrunken, +grass-grown, tumble-down Ferrara, which in the course of one half-century +gave to the world, besides a host of lesser names, three such poets as +Tasso, Ariosto and Guarini. Ariosto died four years before Guarini was +born; but Tasso was nearly his contemporary, being but seven years his +junior.</p> + +<p>In very few cases in all the world and in all ages has it happened that +intellectual distinction has been the appanage of one family for as many +generations as in that of the Guarini. They came originally from Verona, +where Guarino, the first of the family on record, who was born in 1370, +taught the learned languages, and was one of the most notable of the band +of scholars who laboured at the restoration of classical literature. He +lived to be ninety years old, and is recorded to have had twenty-three +sons. It is certain that he had twelve living in 1438. One of them, +Giovanni Batista, succeeded his father in his professorship at Ferrara, to +which city the old scholar had been invited by Duke Hercules I. It would +seem that another of his sons must also have shared the work of teaching +in the University of Ferrara: for Batista the poet was educated by his +great-uncle Alessandro, and succeeded him in his professorship. Of the +poet's father we only learn that he was a mighty hunter, and further, that +he and his poet-son were engaged in litigation respecting the inheritance +of the poet's grandfather and great-uncle. It is probable that the two old +scholars wished to bequeath their property, which included a landed +estate, to their grandson and great-nephew, who already was manifesting +tastes and capacities quite in accordance with their own, rather than to +that exceptional member of the race who cared for nothing but dogs and +horses.</p> + +<p>Nor was Batista the last of his race who distinguished himself in the same +career. His son succeeded him in his chair at the university; and we have +thus at least four generations of scholars and professors following the +same course in the same university, which was in their day one of the most +renowned in Europe.</p> + +<p>All this sounds very stable, very prosperous, very full of the element of +contentment. And there is every reason to believe that the +great-grandfather, the grandfather, the great-uncle, the son, were all as +tranquil and contented and happy as well-to-do scholars in a prosperous +university city should be. But not so the poet. His life was anything but +tranquil, or happy, or contented. The lives of few men, it may be hoped, +have been less so.</p> + +<p>Yet his morning was brilliant enough. He distinguished himself so +remarkably by his success in his early studies that, on the death of his +great-uncle Alexander when he was only nineteen, he was appointed to +succeed him. This was in 1556, when Hercules II. was Duke of Ferrara, and +when that court of the Este princes was at the apogee of its splendour, +renown, and magnificence. The young professor remained working at the +proper labours of his profession for ten years; and they were in all +probability the best and happiest, the only happy ones of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> life. Happy +is the nation, it has been said, which has no history; and much the same +probably may be said of an individual. Respecting these ten years of +Guarini's life but little has been recorded. No doubt the chronicle of +them would have been monotonous enough. The same quiet duties quietly and +successfully discharged; the same morning walk to his school, the same +evening return from it, through the same streets, with salutations to the +same friends, and leisurely pauses by the way to chat, Italian fashion, +with one and another, as they were met in the streets, not then, as now, +deserted, grass-grown, and almost weird in their pale sun-baked +desolation, but thronged with bustling citizens, mingled with gay +courtiers, and a very unusually large proportion of men whose names were +known from one end of Italy to the other. Those school haunts in the +Ferrarese University were haunts which the world-weary ex-professor must +often throughout the years of his remaining life—some forty-five of them, +for he did not die till 1612, when he was seventy-five—have looked back +on as the best and happiest of his storm-tossed existence.</p> + +<p>There is, however, one record belonging to this happy time which must not +be forgotten. It was at Padua, <i>Padova la dotta</i>, as she has been in all +ages and is still called, Padua the learned, in the year 1565. Guarini was +then in his twenty-eighth year, and had been a professor at Ferrara for +the last eight years. Probably it was due to the circumstance that his +friend and fellow-townsman, Torquato Tasso, was then pursuing his studies +at Padua, that the young Ferrarese professor turned his steps in that +direction, bound "on a long vacation ramble." Tasso was only +one-and-twenty at the time; but he was already a member of the famous +Paduan Academy of the "Etherials," which Guarini was not. And we may +readily fancy the pride and pleasure with which the younger man, doing the +honours of the place to his learned friend, procured him to be elected a +member of the "Etherials." Guarini (so called <i>nel secolo</i>—in the world), +was <i>Il Costante</i>—the "Constant One" among the "Etherials." Scipio +Gonzaga, who became subsequently the famous Cardinal, spoke an oration of +welcome to him on his election. Then what congratulations, what +anticipations of fame, what loving protestations of eternal friendship, +what naïve acceptance of the importance and serious value of their +Etherial Academic play, as the two youths strolling at the evening hour +among the crowds of gravely clad but in no wise gravely speaking students +who thronged the colonnades in deep shadow under their low-browed arches, +sally forth from beneath them as the sun nears the west, on to the vast +open space which lies around the great church of St. Antony! Advancing in +close talk they come up to Donatello's superb equestrian statue of the +Venetian General Gattamelata, and lean awhile against the tall pedestal, +finishing their chat before entering the church for the evening prayer.</p> + +<p>The "Etherials" of Padua constituted one of the innumerable "Academies" +which existed at that day and for a couple of centuries subsequently in +every one of the hundred cities of Italy. The "Arcadian"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> craze was the +generating cause of all of them. All the members were "shepherds;" all +assumed a fancy name on becoming a member, by which they were known in +literary circles; and every Academy printed all the rhymes its members +strung together!</p> + +<p>Those must have been pleasant days in old Padua, before the young +Professor returned to his work in the neighbouring university of Ferrara. +The two young men were then, and for some time afterwards, loving friends; +for they had not yet become rival poets.</p> + +<p>At the end of those ten years of university life he may be said to have +entered on a new existence—to have begun life afresh—so entirely +dis-severed was his old life from the new that then opened on him. +Alphonso II., who had succeeded his father, Hercules II., as Duke of +Ferrara in 1559, "called him to the court" in 1567, and he began life as a +courtier, or a "servant" of the Duke, in the language of the country and +time.</p> + +<p>Well, in 1567 he entered into the service of the Duke, his sovereign, and +never had another happy or contented hour!</p> + +<p>The first service on which the Duke employed him, and for the performance +of which he seems specially to have taken him from his professional chair, +was an embassy to Venice, to congratulate the new Doge, Pietro Loredano, +on his elevation to the ducal throne, to which he had been elected on the +previous 19th of June. On this occasion the Professor was created +Cavaliere, a title to which his landed estate of Guarina, so called from +the ancestor on whom it had been originally bestowed by a former duke, +fairly entitled him.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards he was sent as ambassador to the court of Turin; and +then to that of the Emperor Maximilian at Innspruck. Then he was twice +sent to Poland; the first time on the occasion of the election of Henry +the Third of France to the throne of that kingdom; and the second time +when Henry quitted it to ascend that of France on the death of his brother +Charles IX. The object of this second embassy was to intrigue for the +election to the Polish crown of Alphonso. But, as it is hardly necessary +to say, his mission was unsuccessful.</p> + +<p>It seems, too, to have been well-nigh fatal to the ambassador. There is +extant a letter written from Warsaw to his wife, which gives a curious and +interesting account of the sufferings he endured on the journey and at the +place of his destination. He tells his wife not to be discontented that +his silence has been so long, but to be thankful that it was not eternal, +as it was very near being! "I started, as you know, more in the fashion of +a courier than of an ambassador. And that would have been more tolerable +if bodily fatigue had been all. But the same hand that had to flog the +horses by day, had to hold the pen by night. Nature could not bear up +against this double labour of body and mind; especially after I had +travelled by Serravelles and Ampez,<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> which is more disagreeable and +difficult than I can tell you, from the ruggedness no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> less of the country +than of the people, from the scarcity of horses, the miserable mode of +living, and the want of every necessary. So much so that on reaching +Hala<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> I had a violent fever. I embarked, however, for Vienna +notwithstanding. What with fever, discouragement, an intense thirst, +scarcity of remedies and of medical assistance, bad lodging, generally far +to seek,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> and often infected with disease, food disgusting, even to +persons in health, bed where you are smothered in feathers, in a word, +none of the necessaries or comforts of life! I leave you to imagine what I +have suffered. The evil increased; my strength grew less. I lost my +appetite for everything save wine. In a word, little hope remained to me +of life, and that little was odious to me. There is on the Danube, which I +was navigating, a vast whirlpool, so rapid that if the boatmen did not +avail themselves of the assistance of a great number of men belonging to +the locality, strong and powerful and well acquainted with the danger, who +are there constantly for the purpose, and who struggle with their oars +against the rapacious gulf, there is not a vessel in that great river +which would not be engulfed! The place is worthy of the name of "the Door +of Death," which with a notoriety of evil fame it has gained for itself. +There is no passenger so bold as not to pass that bit of the course of the +river on foot; for the thing is truly formidable and terrible. But I was +so overcome by illness, that having lost all sense of danger or desire to +live, I did not care to leave the boat, but remained in it, with those +strong men, I hardly know whether to say stupidly or intrepidly—but I +will say intrepidly, since at one point, where I was within an ace of +destruction, I felt no fear."</p> + +<p>He goes on to tell how at Vienna a physician treated him amiss, and made +him worse; how every kind of consideration, and his own desire to save his +life, counselled him to delay there; but how the honour, the +responsibility of the embassy wholly on his shoulders, his duty to his +sovereign prevailed to drive him onwards. He feared, too, lest it should +be supposed at Warsaw that he preferred his life to the business on which +he came, an accusation which might have been made use of by suspicious and +malignant adversaries to deprive him of all the credit of his labours, and +"to snatch from my Prince the crown which we are striving to place on his +head. It is impossible to imagine," he continues, "what I suffered in that +journey of more than six hundred miles from Vienna to Warsaw, dragged +rather than carried in carts, broken and knocked to pieces. I wonder that +I am still alive! The obstinate fever, the want of rest, of food, and of +medicine, the excessive cold, the infinite hardships, the uninhabited +deserts, were killing me. More often than not it was a much lesser evil to +crouch by night in the cart, which dislocated my bones by day, rather than +to be suffocated in the foulness of those dens, or stables rather, where +the dogs and cats, the cocks and hens, and the geese, the pigs and the +calves, and sometimes the children, kept me waiting."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>He proceeds to tell how the country was overrun, in that time of +interregnum, by lawless bands of Cossacks; how he was obliged to travel +with a strong escort, but nevertheless was obliged several times to +deviate from the direct road to avoid the Cossacks, but on two occasions +had very narrow escapes from falling into their hands. When he reached +Warsaw at last, more dead than alive, the only improvement of his position +was that he was stationary instead of in motion. "The cart no more +lacerates my limbs!" But there was no rest to be got. "The place, the +season, the food, the drink, the water, the servants, the medicines, the +doctors, mental trouble, and a thousand other ills make up my torment. +Figure to yourself all the kingdom lodged in one little town, and my room +in the midst of it! There is no place from the top to the bottom, on the +right or on the left, by day or by night, that is not full of tumult and +noise. There is no special time here destined for business. Negotiation is +going on always, because drinking is going on always; and business is dry +work without wine. When business is over, visits begin; and when these are +at an end, drums, trumpets, bombs, uproar, cries, quarrels, fighting, +split one's head in a manner piteous to think of. Ah! if I suffered all +this labour and this torment for the love and the glory of God, I should +be a martyr!" (one thinks of Wolsey!) "But is he not worthy of the name +who serves without hope of recompense?"</p> + +<p>He concludes his letter, bidding his wife not to weep for him, but to live +and care for her children, in a manner which indicates that he had even +then but little hope of returning alive.</p> + +<p>We are nevertheless assured by his biographers that he acquitted himself +upon all these occasions in such sort as to give satisfaction to his +sovereign and to acquire for himself the reputation of an upright and able +minister. The Italian practice of entrusting embassies especially to men +of letters, which we first had occasion to note when tracing the +vicissitudes of the life of Dante in the thirteenth century, which we saw +subsequently exemplified in the cases of Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Ariosto, +and which might be further exemplified in the persons of many other +Italian scholars and men of letters, still, as we see, prevailed in the +sixteenth century, and continued to do so for some little time longer.</p> + +<p>But in no one instance, of all those I have mentioned, does the poet thus +employed in functions which in other lands and other times have usually +led to honours and abundant recognition of a more solid kind, appear to +have reaped any advantage in return for the service performed, or to have +been otherwise than dissatisfied and discontented with the treatment +accorded to him.</p> + +<p>It would have been very interesting to learn somewhat of the impression +made upon an Italian scholar of the sixteenth century by the places +visited, and persons with whom he must have come in contact in those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +transalpine lands, which were then so far off, so contrasted in all +respects with the home scenes among which his life had been passed in the +low-lying, fat, and fertile valley of the Po. Of all this his various +biographers and contemporaries tell us no word! But there is a volume of +his letters, a little square quarto volume, now somewhat rare, printed at +Venice in the year 1595.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> These letters have somewhat unaccountably not +been included in any of the editions of his works, and they are but little +known. But turning to this little volume, and looking over the dates of +the letters (many of them, however, are undated), I found three written +"Di Spruch," and eagerly turned to them, thinking that I should certainly +find there what I was seeking. The letters belong to a later period of +Guarini's life, having been written in 1592, when he was again sent on an +embassy to the German Emperor. This circumstance, however, is of no +importance as regards the purpose for which I wanted the letters. I was +disappointed. But I must nevertheless give one of these letters, not +wantonly to compel my reader to share my disappointment, but because it is +a curiosity in its way. The person to whom he writes is a lady, the +Contessa Pia di Sala, with whom he was evidently intimate. He is at +Innspruck at the Court of the Emperor Maximilian. The lady is at Mantua, +and this is what he writes to her:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='right'> +"Di Spruch, Nov. 29, 1592.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"The letter of your Illustrious Ladyship, together with +which you send me that of your most excellent brother, +written at the end of August, reached me yesterday, at first +to my very great anger at having been for so long a time +deprived of so precious a thing, while I appeared in fault +towards so distinguished a lady; but finally to my very +great good fortune. For if a letter written by the most +lovely flame<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> in the world had arrived, while the skies +were burning, what would have become of me, when, now that +winter is beginning, I can scarcely prevent myself from +falling into ashes? And in truth, when I think that those so +courteous thoughts come from the mind which informs so +lovely a person, that those characters have been traced by a +hand of such excellent beauty, I am all ablaze, no less than +if the paper were fire, the words flames, and all the +syllables sparks. But God grant that, while I am set on fire +by the letter of your Illustrious Ladyship, you may not be +inflamed by anger against me, from thinking that the terms +in which I write are too bold. Have no such doubt, my +honoured mistress! I want nothing from the flaming of my +letter, but to have made by the light of it more vivid and +more brilliant in you, the natural purity of your beautiful +face, even as it seems to me that I can see it at this +distance. My love is nothing else save honour; my flame is +reverence; my fire is ardent desire to serve you. And only +so long will the appointment in his service, which it has +pleased my Lord His Serene Highness the Duke of Mantua to +give me, and on which your Illustrious Ladyship has been +kind enough to congratulate me so cordially, be dear to me, +as you shall know that I am fit for it, and more worthy and +more ready to receive the favour of your commands, which +will always be to me a most sure testimony that you esteem +me, not for my own worth, as you too courteously say, but +for the worth which you confer on me, since I am not worthy +of such esteem for any other merit than that which comes to +me from being honoured by so noble and beautiful a lady. I +kiss the hand of your Illustrious Ladyship, wishing the +culmination of every felicity."</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p><p>Now, this letter I consider to be a very great curiosity! The other two +written from the same place, one to a Signor Bulgarini at Siena, the other +to a lady, the Marchesa di Grana, at Mantua, are of an entirely similar +description. I turned to them in the hope of finding how Innspruck, its +stupendous scenery, its court, its manners so widely different from those +to which the writer and his correspondents were used, its streets, its +people, impressed a sixteenth century Italian from the valley of the Po. I +find instead a psychological phenomenon! The writer is a grave, austere +man (Guarini was notably such), celebrated throughout Italy for his +intellectual attainments, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, with a +wife and family; he is amidst scenes which must, one would have thought, +have impressed in the very highest degree the imagination of a poet, and +must, it might have been supposed, have interested those he was writing to +in an only somewhat less degree, and he writes the stuff the reader has +just waded through. It is clear that this Italian sixteenth century +scholar, poet and of cultivated intellect as he was, saw nothing amid the +strange scenes to which a hard and irksome duty called him, which he +thought worthy of being mentioned even by a passing word to his friends! +Surely this is a curious trait of national character.</p> + +<p>He remained in the service of the court for fourteen years, employed +mainly, as it should seem, in a variety of embassies; an employment which +seems to have left him a disappointed, soured, and embittered man. He +considered that he had not been remunerated as his labour deserved, that +the heavy expenses to which he had been put in his long journeys had not +been satisfactorily made up to him, and that he had not been treated in +any of the foreign countries to which his embassies had carried him with +the respect due to his own character and to his office.</p> + +<p>He determined therefore to leave the court and retire to Padua, a +residence in which city, it being not far distant from his estate of +Guarina, would offer him, he thought, a convenient opportunity of +overlooking his property and restoring order to his finances, which had +suffered much during his travels. This was in the year 1582, when Guarini +was in the forty-fifth year of his age. It is not clear, however, that +this retirement was wholly spontaneous; and the probability is that the +Duke and his ambassador were equally out of humour with each other. And it +is probable that the faults were not all on the side of the Duke. There is +sufficient evidence that the author of the "Pastor Fido" must have been a +difficult man to live with.</p> + +<p>The old friendship of happier days with Tasso had not survived the wear +and tear of life at court. It was known that they no longer saw or spoke +with each other. And everybody—if not of their contemporaries, at least +of subsequent writers—jumped to the conclusion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> that the writer of the +"Aminta" and the writer of the "Pastor Fido" must be jealous of each +other. Jealousy there certainly was. But some frailer and more mortal +female than the Muse was the cause of it. The Abate Serassi in his life of +Tasso admits that Tasso first gave offence to Guarini by a sonnet in which +he endeavoured to alienate the affections of a lady from him, by +representing him as a faithless and fickle lover. The lines in which Tasso +attacked his brother poet are, it must be admitted, sharp enough!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">Si muove e si raggira<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Instabil più che arida fronde ai venti;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nulla fè, null' amor, falsi i tormenti<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sono, e falso l'affeto ond' ei sospira.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Insidioso amante, ama e disprezza<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quasi in un punto, e trionfando spiega<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Di femminile spoglie empi trofei.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a>...<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The attack was savage enough, it must be admitted, and well calculated to +leave a lasting wound. Guarini immediately answered the cruel sonnet by +another, the comparative weakness of which is undeniable.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Questi che indarno ad alta mira aspira<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Con altrui biasmi, e con bugiardi accenti,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vedi come in se stesso arruota i denti,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mentre contra ragion meco s'adira.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Di due fiamme si vanta, e stringe e spezza<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Più volte un nodo; e con quest' arti piega<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Chi 'l crederebbe!) a suo favore i Dei.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a>...<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There is reason to think that the accusation of many times binding and +loosing the same knot, may have hit home. The sneer about bending the gods +to favour him, alludes to Tasso's favour at court, then in the ascendant, +and may well have been as offensive to the Duke and the ladies of his +court as to the object of his satire. Both angry poets show themselves +somewhat earth-stained members of the Paduan "Etherials." But the sequel +of the estrangement was all in favour of the greater bard. Tasso, in +desiring a friend to show his poems in manuscript to certain friends, two +or three in number, on whose opinion he set a high value, named Guarini +among the number. And upon another occasion wishing to have Guarini's +opinion as to the best of two proposed, methods of terminating a sonnet, +and not venturing to communicate directly with him, he employed a common +friend to obtain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> his brother-poet's criticism. Tasso had also in his +dialogue entitled the "Messagero" given public testimony to Guarini's high +intellectual and civil merits. But Guarini appears never to have forgiven +the offence. He never once went to see Tasso in his miserable confinement +in the hospital of St. Anne; nor, as has been seen, would hold any +communication with him.</p> + +<p>He must have been a stern and unforgiving man. And indeed all the +available testimony represents him as having been so,—upright, honest, +and honourable, but haughty, punctilious, litigious, quick to take +offence, slow to forget or forgive it, and cursed with a thin-skinned +<i>amour propre</i> easily wounded and propense to credit others with the +intention of wounding where no such intention existed. The remainder of +the story of his life offers an almost unbroken series of testimonies to +the truth of such an estimate of his character.</p> + +<p>It was after fourteen years' service in the court of Duke Alphonso, as has +been said, that he retired disgusted and weary to live in independence and +nurse his estate in the neighbourhood of Padua. But the part of +Cincinnatus is not for every man! It was in 1582 that he retired from the +court intending to bid it and its splendours, its disappointments and its +jealousies, an eternal adieu. In 1585, on an offer from the Duke to make +him his secretary, he returned and put himself into harness again!</p> + +<p>But this second attempt to submit himself to the service, to the caprices +and exigencies of a master and of a court ended in a quicker and more +damaging catastrophe than the first. In a diary kept by the poet's nephew, +Marcantonio Guarini, under the date of July 13, 1587, we find it written +that "the Cavalier Batista Guarini, Secretary of the Duke, considering +that his services did not meet with sufficient consideration in proportion +to his worth, released himself from that servitude." The phrase here +translated "released himself" is a peculiar one—<i>si licenzio</i>—"dismissed +himself." To receive <i>licenza</i>, or to be <i>licenziato</i>, is to be dismissed, +or at least parted with in accordance with the will of the employer. But +the phrase used by the diarist seems intended to express exactly what +happened when the poet, once more discontented, took himself off from +Ferrara and its Duke. He seems to have done so in a manner which gave deep +and lasting offence. In a subsequent passage of the above-quoted diary we +read, "the Cavaliere Batista Guarini having absented himself from Ferrara, +disgusted with the Duke, betook himself to Florence, and then, by the +intermedium of Guido Coccapani the agent, asked for his dismissal in form +and obtained it." We happen, however, to have a letter written by this +Coccapani, who seems to have been the Duke's private secretary and +managing man, in which he gives his version of the matter. He was +"stupefied," he says, "when he received the extravagant letter of the +Cavaliere Guarini, and began to think that it would be with him as it had +been with Tasso," who by that time had fallen into disgrace. There is +reason to think that he left Ferrara secretly, without taking leave of the +Duke, or letting anybody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> at court know where he had gone. He did, +however, obtain his formal dismissal, as has been said, but the Duke by no +means forgave him.</p> + +<p>Though it would appear that on leaving Ferrara in this irregular manner he +went in the first instance to Florence, it seems that he had had hopes +given him of a comfortable position and honourable provision at Turin. He +was to have been made a Counsellor of State, and entrusted with the task +of remodelling the course of study at the university, with a stipend of +six hundred crowns annually. But on arriving at Turin he found +difficulties in the way. In fact, the angry Duke of Ferrara had used his +influence with the Duke of Savoy to prevent anything being done for his +contumacious Secretary of State. Guarini, extremely mortified, had to +leave Turin, and betook himself to Venice.</p> + +<p>His adventure, however, was of a nature to cause great scandal in that +clime and time. As usual, the Italians were offended at the "imprudence" +of which Guarini's temper had led him to be guilty, more than they would +have been by many a fault which among ourselves would be deemed a very +much worse one. A violence of temper or indignation shown in such a manner +as to injure <i>one's own</i> interests is, and in a yet greater degree was, a +spectacle extremely disgusting to Italian moral sentiment.</p> + +<p>The outcry against Guarini on this occasion was so great that he found +himself obliged to put forth an exculpatory statement.</p> + +<p>"If human actions, my most kind readers," he begins, "always bore marked +on the front of them the aims and motives which have produced them, or if +those who talk about them were always well informed enough to be able to +judge of them without injury to the persons of whom they speak, I should +not be compelled, at my age, and after so many years of a life led in the +eyes of the world, and often busied in defending the honour of others, to +defend this day my own, which has always been dearer to me than my life. +Having heard, then, that my having left the service of His Serene Highness +the Duke of Ferrara and entered that of the Duke of Savoy has given +occasion to some persons, ignorant probably of the real state of the case, +to make various remarks, and form various opinions, I have determined to +publish the truth, and at the same time to declare my own sentiments in +the matter.</p> + +<p>"I declare, then, that previously to my said departure I consigned to the +proper person everything, small as it was, which was in my hands regarding +my office, which had always been exercised by me uprightly and without any +other object in view than the service of my sovereign and the public +welfare. Further, that I, by a written paper under my own hand (as the +press of time and my need rendered necessary), requested a free and +decorous dismissal from the Duke in question, and also, that I set forth +in all humility the causes which led me to that determination; and I added +(some of the circumstances in which I was compelling me to do so) that if +His Serene Highness did not please to give me any other answer, I would +take his silence as a consent to my request of dismissal. I declare +further that the paper was delivered to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> the principal Minister of his +Serene Highness, and lastly, that my salary was, without any further +communication with me, stopped, and cancelled from the roll of payments. +And as this is the truth, so it is equally true that my appointment as +reformer of the University of Turin, and Counsellor of State with six +hundred crowns yearly, was settled and concluded with His Serene Highness +the Duke of Savoy, and that I declined to bind myself, and did not bind +myself, to ask any other dismissal from His Serene Highness the Duke of +Ferrara than that which I have already spoken. And, finally, it is true +that, as I should not have gone to Turin if I had not been engaged for +that service and invited thither, so I should not have left, or wished to +leave this place,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> had I not known that I received my dismissal in the +manner above related. Now, as to the cause which may have retarded and may +still retard the fulfillment of the engagement above mentioned, I have +neither object, nor obligation, nor need to declare it. Suffice it that it +is not retarded by any fault of mine, or difficulty on my side. In +justification of which I offered myself, and by these presents now again +offer myself, to present myself wheresoever, whensoever, and in whatsoever +manner, and under whatsoever conditions and penalties, as may be seen more +clearly set forth in the instrument of agreement sent by me to His +Highness. From all which, I would have the world to know, while these +affairs of mine are still in suspension, that I am a man of honour, and am +always ready to maintain the same in whatsoever manner may be fitting to +my condition and duty. And as I do not at all doubt that some decision of +some kind not unworthy of so just and so magnanimous a prince will be +forthcoming; so, let it be what it may, it will be received by me with +composure and contentment; since, by God's grace, and that of the serene +and exalted power under the most just and happy dominion of which I am now +living, and whose subject, if not by birth, yet by origin and family, I +am,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> I have a comfortable and honoured existence. And may you, my +honoured readers, live in happiness and contentment. Venice, February 1, +1589."</p> + +<p>We must, I think, nevertheless be permitted to doubt the contentment and +happiness of the life he led, as it should seem, for the next four years, +at Venice. No such decision of any kind, as he hoped from the Duke of +Savoy, was forthcoming. He was shunted! He had quarrelled with his own +sovereign, and evidently the other would have none of him. The Italians of +one city were in those days to a wonderful degree foreigners in another +ruled by a different government; and there can be little doubt that +Guarini wandered among the quays and "calle" of Venice, or paced the great +piazza at the evening hour, a moody and discontented man!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>At last, after nearly four years of this sad life, there came an +invitation from the Duke of Mantua proposing that Guarini should come to +Mantua together with his son Alessandro, to occupy honourable positions in +that court. The poet, heartily sick of "retirement," accepted at once, and +went to Mantua. But there, too, another disappointment awaited him. The +"magnanimous" Duke Alphonso would not tolerate that the man who had so +cavalierly left his service should find employment elsewhere. It is +probable that this position was obtained for him by the influence of his +old friend and fellow-member of the "Etherials" at Padua, Scipione +Gonzaga; and it would seem that he occupied it for a while, and went on +behalf of the Duke of Mantua to Innspruck, whence he wrote the wonderful +letters which have been quoted.</p> + +<p>The Cardinal's influence, however, was not strong enough to prevail +against the spite of a neighbouring sovereign. There are two letters +extant from the Duke, or his private secretary, to that same Coccapani +whom we saw so scandalized at Guarini's hurried and informal departure +from Ferrara, and who was residing as Alphonso's representative at Mantua, +in which the Minister is instructed to represent to the Duke of Mantua +that his brother of Ferrara "did not think it well that the former should +take any of the Guarini family into his service, and when they should see +each other he would tell him his reasons. For the present he would only +say that he wished the Duke to know that it would be excessively pleasing +to him if the Duke would have nothing to say to any of them."</p> + +<p>This was in 1593; and the world-weary poet found himself at fifty-six once +again cast adrift upon the world. The extremity of his disgust and +weariness of all things may be measured by the nature of the next step he +took. He conceived, says his biographer Barotti, that "God called him by +internal voices, and by promise of a more tranquil life, to accept the +tonsure." His wife had died some little time before; and it was therefore +open to him to do so. He went to Rome accordingly for the purpose of there +taking orders. But during the short delay which intervened between the +manifestation of his purpose and the fulfilment of it, news reached him +that his friend and protectress the Duchess of Urbino, Alphonso's sister, +had interceded for him with the Duke, and that he was forgiven! It was +open to him to return to his former employment! And no sooner did the news +reach him than he perceived that "the internal voices" were altogether a +mistake. God had never called him at all, and Alphonso had! All thoughts +of the Church were abandoned on the instant, and he hastened to Ferrara, +arriving there on the 15th of April, 1595.</p> + +<p>But neither on this occasion was he destined to find the tranquillity +which he seemed fated never to attain! And this time the break-up was a +greater and more final one than the last. Duke Alphonso died in 1597; and +the Pontificial Court, which had long had its eye on the possibility of +enforcing certain pretended claims to the Duchy of Ferrara, found the +means at Alphonso's death of ousting his successor the Duke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> Cesare, who +remained thenceforward Duke of Modena only, but no longer of Ferrara.</p> + +<p>Guarini was once more adrift! Nor were the political changes in Ferrara +the only thing which rendered the place no longer a home for him. Other +misfortunes combined to render a residence in the city odious to him. His +daughter Anna had married a noble gentleman of Ferrara, the Count Ercole +Trotti, by whom she was on the 3rd of May, 1598, murdered at his villa of +Zanzalino near Ferrara. Some attempt was made to assert that the husband +had reason to suspect that his wife was plotting against his life. But +there seems to have been no foundation for any accusation of the sort; and +the crime was prompted probably by jealousy. Guarini, always on bad terms +with his sons, and constantly involved in litigation with them, as he had +been with his father, was exceedingly attached to this unfortunate +daughter.</p> + +<p>But even this terrible loss was not the only bitterness which resulted +from this crime. Guarini composed a long Latin epitaph, in which he +strongly affirms her absolute innocence of everything that had been laid +to her charge, and speaks with reprobation of the husband's<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> crime. But +scarcely had the stone bearing the inscription been erected than the +indignant father was required by the authorities of the city to remove it. +A declaration, which he published on the subject, dated June 15, 1598, is +still extant. "On that day," he writes, "the Vice-legate of Ferrara spoke +with me, in the name of the Holy Father, as to the removing of the epitaph +written by me on Anna my daughter in the church of Sta. Catherina. He said +that there were things in it that might provoke other persons to +resentment, and occasion much scandal; and that, besides that, there were +in the inscription words of Sacred Scripture, which ought not to be used +in such a place. I defended my cause, and transmitted a memorial to his +Holiness, having good reason to know that these objections were the mere +malignity of those who favour the opposite party, and of those who caused +the death of my innocent child. But at last, on the 22nd, I caused the +epitaph to be removed, intimating that it was my intention to take up the +body, and inter it elsewhere. On which it is worthy of remark, that having +made my demand to that effect, I was forbidden to do so." He further adds: +"Note! news was brought to me here that my son Girolamo, who was evidently +discovered to be the accomplice, and principal atrocious author of the +death of his sister Anna, received from the Potesta of Rovigo licence to +come into the Polisina with twelve men armed with arquebuses."</p> + +<p>All this is very sad; and whether these terrible suspicions may or may not +have had any foundation other than the envenomed temper generated by the +family litigations, it must equally have had the effect of making the life +of Guarini a very miserable one, and contributing to his determination to +abandon finally his native city.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<p>More surprising is it that, after so many disgusts and disappointments, he +should once again have been tempted to seek, what he had never yet been +able to find there, in a court. In a letter written in November, 1598, he +informs the Duke Cesare (Duke of Modena, though no longer of Ferrara) that +the Grand Duke of Florence had offered him a position at Florence. And his +Serene Highness, more kindly and forgiving than the late Duke, wrote him +an obliging and congratulatory letter in the following month.</p> + +<p>At Florence everything at first seemed to be going well with him, and he +seemed to stand high in favour with the Grand Duke Ferdinand. But very +shortly he quitted Florence in anger and disgust on the discovery of the +secret marriage of his third son, Guarini, with a woman of low condition +at Pisa, with at least the connivance, as the poet thought, whether justly +or not there is nothing to show, of the Grand Duke.</p> + +<p>After that his old friend the Duchess of Urbino once again stood his +friend, and he obtained a position in the court of Urbino, then one of the +most widely famed centres of cultivation and letters in Italy. And for a +while everything seemed at last to be well with him there. On the 23rd of +February, 1603, he writes to his sister, who apparently had been pressing +him to come home to Ferrara:—"I should like to come home, my sister. I +have great need and a great desire for home; but I am treated so well +here, and with so much distinction and so much kindness, that I cannot +come. I must tell you that all expenses for myself and my servants are +supplied, so that I have not to spend a farthing for anything in the world +that I need. The orders are that anything I ask for should be furnished to +me. Besides all which, they give me three hundred crowns a year; so that, +what with money and expenses, the position is worth six hundred crowns a +year to me. You may judge, then, if I can throw it up. May God grant you +every happiness!</p> + +<p class='right'> +Your brother, <br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Guarini</span>."<br /> +</p> + +<p>But all would not do. He had been but a very little time in this little +Umbrian Athens among the Apennines before he once again threw up his +position in anger and disgust, because he did not obtain all the marks of +distinction to which he thought that he was entitled. This was in 1603. He +was now sixty-six, and seems at length to have made no further attempt to +haunt at court. Once again he was at Rome in 1605, having undertaken, at +the request of the citizens of Ferrara, to carry their felicitations to +the new Pope, Paul the Fifth. And with the exception of that short +expedition his last years were spent in the retirement of his ancestral +estate of Guarina.</p> + +<p>The property is situated in the district of Lendinara, on the fat and +fertile low-lying region between Rovigo and Padua, and belongs to the +commune—parish, as we should say—of St. Bellino. The house, dating +probably from the latter part of the fifteenth century, is not much more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +than a hundred yards or so from the <i>piazza</i> of the village, which boasts +two thousand inhabitants. The road between the two is bordered with trees. +The whole district is as flat as a billiard table, and as prosaical in its +well-to-do fertility as can be imagined. It is intersected by a variety of +streams, natural and artificial. About a couple of miles from the house to +the south is the Canalbianco; and a little farther to the north the +Adigetto. To the east runs the Scortico. St. Bellino, from whom the +village is named, was, it seems, enrolled among the martyrs by Pope +Eugenius the Third in 1152. He has a great specialty for curing the bite +of mad dogs. There is a grand cenotaph in his honour in the village +church, which was raised by some of the Guarini family. But this, too, +like all else, became a subject of trouble and litigation to our poet. A +certain Baldassare Bonifaccio of Rovigo wanted to transport the saint to +that city. Guarini would not hear of this; litigated the matter before the +tribunals of Venice, and prevailed. So the saint still resides at St. +Bellino to the comfort of all those bitten by mad dogs in those parts. The +house and estate have passed through several hands since that time; but a +number of old family portraits may still be seen on the walls, together +with the family arms, and the motto, "Fortis est in asperis non turbari." +The armchair and writing table of the poet are also still preserved in the +house, and a fig-tree is pointed out close by it, under the shade of which +the poet, as tradition tells, wrote on that table and in that chair his +"Pastor Fido." There is an inscription on the chair as follows: "Guarin +sedendo qui canto, che vale al paragon seggio reale."<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> + +<p>It was not, however, during this his last residence here that the "Pastor +Fido" was written, but long previously. It was doubtless his habit to +escape from the cares of official life in Ferrara from time to time as he +could; and it must have been in such moments that the celebrated pastoral +was written.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<p>The idea of a scholar and a poet, full of years and honours, passing the +quiet evening of his life in a tranquil retirement in his own house on his +own land, is a pleasing one. But it is to be feared that in the case of +the author of the "Pastor Fido" it would be a fallacious one. Guarini +would not have come to live on his estate if he could have lived +contentedly in any city. We may picture him to ourselves sitting under his +fig-tree, or pacing at evening under the trees of the straight avenue +between his house and the village, or on the banks of one of the sluggish +streams slowly finding their way through the flat fields towards the Po; +but I am afraid the picture must be of one "Remote, unfriended, +melancholy, slow," with eyes bent earthwards, and discontented mind: +"remote," because to the Italian mind all places beyond the easy reach of +a city are so; "unfriended," because he had quarrelled with everybody; +"melancholy," because all had gone amiss with him, and his life had been a +failure; "slow," because no spring of hope in the mind gave any elasticity +to his step.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<p>One other "haunt" of the aged poet must, however, be mentioned, because it +is a very characteristic one. During this last residence at Guarina, he +hired an apartment at Ferrara, selecting it in a crowded part of the +centre of the city, especially frequented by the lawyers, that he might be +in the midst of them, when he went into the city on the various business +connected with his interminable lawsuits. The most crowded part of the +heart of the city of Ferrara! It would be difficult to find any such part +now. But the picture offered to the imagination, of the aged poet, +professor, courtier, haunting the courts, the lawyers' chambers, leaving +his, at least, tranquil retreat at St. Bellino, to drag weary feet through +the lanes of the city in which he had in earlier days played so different +a part, is a sad one. But there are people who like contention so much +that such work is a labour of love to them. And certainly, if the +inference may be drawn from the fact of his never having been free from +lawsuits in one quarrel or another, Guarini must have been one of these. +But it is passing strange that the same man should have been the author of +the "Pastor Fido."</p> + +<p>They pursued him to the end, these litigations; or he pursued them! And at +last he died, not at Guarina, but at Venice, on the 7th of October, 1612, +where, characteristically enough, he chanced to be on business connected +with some lawsuit.</p> + +<p>And now a few words must be said about his great work, the "Pastor Fido." +It is one of the strangest things in the range of literary history that +such a man should have written such a poem. He was, one would have said, +the last man in the world to produce such a work. The first ten years of +his working life were spent in the labour of a pedagogue; the rest of it +in the inexpressibly dry, frivolous, and ungenial routine of a small +Italian court, or in wandering from one to the other of them in the vain +and always disappointed search for such employment. We are told that he +was a punctilious, stiff, unbending, angular man; upright and honourable, +but unforgiving and wont to nurse his enmities. He was soured, +disappointed, discontented with everybody and everything, involved in +litigation first with his father, and then with his own children. And this +was the man who wrote the "Pastor Fido," of all poems comparable to it in +reputation the lightest, the airiest, and the most fantastic! The argument +of it is as follows:</p> + +<p>The Arcadians, suffering in various ways from the anger of Diana, were at +last informed by the oracle that the evils which afflicted them would +cease when a youth and a maiden, both descended from the Immortals, as it +should seem the <i>creme de la creme</i> of Arcadian society mostly was, should +be joined together in faithful love. Thereupon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> Montano, a priest of the +goddess who was descended from Hercules, arranged that his only son Silvio +should be betrothed to Amaryllis, the only daughter of Tytirus, who was +descended from Pan. The arrangement seemed all that could be desired, only +that a difficulty arose from the fact that Silvio, whose sole passion was +the chase, could not be brought to care the least in the world for +Amaryllis. Meantime Mirtillo, the son, as was supposed, of the shepherd +Carino, fell desperately in love with Amaryllis. She was equally attached +to him, but dared not in the smallest degree confess her love, because the +law of Arcadia would have punished with death her infidelity to her +betrothed vows. A certain Corisca, however, who had conceived a violent +but unrequited passion for Mirtillo, perceiving or guessing the love of +Amaryllis for him, hating her accordingly, and hoping that, if she could +be got out of the way, she might win Mirtillo's love, schemes by deceit +and lies to induce Mirtillo and Amaryllis to enter together a cave, which +they do in perfect innocence, and without any thought of harm. Then he +contrives that they should be caught there, and denounced by a satyr; and +Amaryllis is condemned to die. The law, however, permits that her life may +be saved by any Arcadian who will voluntarily die in her stead; and this +Mirtillo determines to do, although he believes that Amaryllis cares +nothing for him, and also is led by the false Corisca to believe that she +had gone into the cave for the purpose of meeting with another lover. The +duty of sacrificing him devolves on Montano the priest; and he is about to +carry out the law, when Carino, who has been seeking his reputed son +Mirtillo, comes in, and while attempting to make out that he is a +foreigner, and therefore not capable of satisfying the law by his death, +brings unwittingly to light circumstances that prove that he is in truth a +son of Montano, and therefore a descendant of the god Hercules. It thus +appears that a marriage between Mirtillo and Amaryllis will exactly +satisfy the conditions demanded by the oracle. There is an under-plot, +which consists in providing a lover and a marriage for the woman-hater +Silvio. He is loved in vain by the nymph Dorinda, whom he unintentionally +wounds with an arrow while out hunting. The pity he feels for her wound +softens his heart towards her, and all parties are made happy by this +second marriage.</p> + +<p>Such is a skeleton of the story of the "Pastor Fido." It will be observed +that there is more approach to a plot and to human interest than in any +previous production of this kind, and some of the situations are well +conceived for dramatic effect. And accordingly the success which it +achieved was immediate and immense. Nor, much as the taste of the world +has been changed since that day, has it ever lost its place in the +estimation of cultivated Italians.</p> + +<p>It would be wholly uninteresting to attempt any account of the +wide-spreading literary controversies to which the publication of the +"Pastor Fido" gave rise. The author terms it a tragi-comedy; and this +title was violently attacked. The poet himself, as may well be imagined +from the idiosyncrasy of the man, was not slow to reply to his critics,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +and did so in two lengthy treatises entitled from the name of a +contemporary celebrated actor, "Verato primo," and "Verato secondo," which +are printed in the four-quarto-volume edition of his works, but which +probably no mortal eye has read for the last two hundred years!</p> + +<p>The question of the rivalry between the "Aminta" of Tasso and the "Pastor +Fido" has an element of greater interest in it. It is certain that the +former preceded the latter, and doubtless suggested it. It seems probable +that Ginguené is right in his suggestion, that Guarini, fully conscious +that no hope was open to him of rivalling his greater contemporary and +townsman in epic poetry, strove to surpass him in pastoral. It must be +admitted that he has at least equalled him. Yet, while it is impossible to +deny that almost every page of the "Pastor Fido" indicates not so much +plagiarism as an open and avowed purpose of doing the same thing better, +if possible, than his rival has done it, the very diverse natural +character of the two poets is also, at every page, curiously indicated. +Specially the reader may be recommended to compare the passages in the two +poems where Tasso under the name of Thyrsis, and Guarini under the name of +Carino (Act 5, scene 1), represent the sufferings both underwent at the +court of Alphonso II. The lines of Guarini are perhaps the most vigorous +in their biting satire. But the gentler and nobler nature of Tasso is +unmistakable.</p> + +<p>It is strange that the Italian critics, who are for the most part so +lenient to the licentiousness of most of the authors of this period, blame +Guarini for the too great warmth, amounting to indecency, of his poem. The +writer of his life in the French "Biographie Universelle" refers to +certain scenes as highly indecent. I can only say that, on examining the +passages indicated carefully, I could find no indecency at all. It is +probable that the writer referred to had never read the pages in question. +But it is odd that those whose criticism he is no doubt reflecting should +have said so. No doubt there are passages, not those mentioned by the +writer in the "Biographie," but for instance the first scene of the second +act, when a young man in a female disguise is one among a party of girls, +who propose a prize for her who can give to one of them, the judge, the +sweetest kiss, which prize he wins, which might be deemed somewhat on the +sunny side of the hedge that divides the permissible from the +unpermissible. But in comparison with others of that age Guarini is pure +as snow.</p> + +<p>It has been said in speaking of the sad story of his daughter Anna, that +she was accused of having given her husband cause for jealousy. It would +seem very clear that there was no ground for any such accusation. But it +was said that the misconduct on her part had been due to the corruption of +her mind by the reading of her father's verses. The utter groundlessness +of such an assertion might be shown in many ways. But the savage and +malignant cruelty of it points with considerable evidence to the sources +of the current talk about the courtier poet's licentiousness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is impossible to find room here for a detailed comparison between these +two celebrated pastorals; and it is the less needed inasmuch as Ginguené +has done it very completely and at great length in the twenty-fifth +chapter of the second part of his work.</p> + +<p>Guarini also produced a comedy, the "Idropica," which was acted with much +success at the court of Mantua, and is printed among his works, as well as +some prose pieces of small importance, the principal of which is "Il +Secretario," a treatise on the duties of a secretary, not printed among +his works, but of which an edition exists in pot quarto (186 pages) +printed at Venice in 1594. Neither have his letters been printed among his +works. They exist, printed without index or order of any kind, in a volume +of the same size as the "Secretario," printed at Venice also in 1595, but +by a different printer.</p> + +<p>The name, however, of Batista Guarini would have long since been +forgotten, had he not written the "Pastor Fido."</p> + +<p class='right'> +<span class="smcap">T. Adolphus Trollope</span>, in Belgravia.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> The now celebrated pass of the Ampezzo between Venice and +Innspruck.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> This must probably be Hall on the Inn, a little below +Innspruck. Certainly any boat which he got there for the descent of the +river must have been a sufficiently miserable mode of travelling.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Far, that is, from the bank of the river, where he left his +boat at night.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Lettere del Signor Cavaliere Battista Guarini, Nobile +Ferrarese, di nuovo in questa seconda impressione di alcune altre +accrescinte, e dall' Autore stesso corrette, di Agostino Michele raccolte, +et al Sereniss. Signore il Duca d'Urbino dedicate. Con Privilegio. In +Venetia, <span class="smcap">mdxcv</span>. Appresso Gio. Battista Ciotti Senese al segno della +Minerva.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> I translate literally. Old-fashioned people will remember a +somewhat similar use of the word "Flame" in English.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> I subjoin a literal prose translation in preference to +borrowing a rhymed one from any of Tasso's translators. This fellow "flits +and circles around more unstable than dry leaves in the wind. Without +faith, without love, false are his pretended torments, and false the +affection which prompts his sighs. A traitorous lover, he loves and +despises almost at the same moment, and in triumph displays the spoils of +women as impious trophies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> "See how this fellow, who in vain aims at a lofty goal, by +blaming others, and by lying accents, sharpens against himself his teeth, +while without reason he is enraged with me.... Of two flames he boasts, +and ties and breaks over and over again the same knot; and by these arts +(who would believe it!) bends in his favour the Gods!" ...</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> It is odd that he should so write in a paper dated, as the +present is, from Venice. I suppose the expression came from his feeling +that he was addressing parsons at Ferrara.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Seeing that, as has been said, his ancestors were of Verona, +which belonged to Venice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Barotti gives it at length; but it is hardly worth while to +occupy space by reproducing it here.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> "Guarini sitting here, sang, that which renders the seat the +equal of a royal throne."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> It is very doubtful and very difficult to determine at what +period of his life the "Pastor Fido" was written. Ginguené (Hist. Ital. +Lit. Part II. ch. xxv.) has sufficiently shown that the statements of the +Italian biographers on this point are inaccurate. Probably it was planned +and, in part, written many years before it was finished. It was first +printed in 1590.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_VAQUERO60" id="THE_VAQUERO60"></a>THE VAQUERO.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, who is so free as a gallant <i>vaquero</i>?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With his beauty of bronze 'neath his shady <i>sombrero</i>:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He smiles at his love, and he laughs at his fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he knows he is lord of a noble estate:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The prairie's his own, and he mocks at the great.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Head 'em off! Turn 'em back!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Keep 'em up to the track!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Cric—crac!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, Donna Luisa is proud as she's fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she parted last night with a lock of her hair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And under the stars she roams, seeking for rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While she thinks of the stranger that came from the West;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Juan bears something wrapped up in his breast—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Head 'em off! Turn 'em back!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Keep 'em up to the track!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Cric—crac!'"<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His proudest possessions are prettily placed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His love at his heart, and his life at his waist.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if in a quarrel he happen to fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why, the prairie's his grave, and his <i>poncho's</i><a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> his pall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Donna Luisa—gets over it all!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Head 'em off! Turn 'em back!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Keep 'em up to the track!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Cric—crac!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Padrè may preach, and the Notary frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the <i>poblanas</i><a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> smile as he rides through the town:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Padrè, he knows, likes a kiss on the sly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Notary oft has a "drop in his eye,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all that he does is to love and to die—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Head 'em off! Turn 'em back!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Keep 'em up to the track!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Cric—crac!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Frank Desprez</span>, <i>in Temple Bar</i>.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> A California cattle-driver. Furnished with revolver, lasso, +and long-lashed whip, these adventurous gentry conduct the half-wild +cattle of the plains over miles of their surface; and, with their gay +sashes, high boots, gilded and belled spurs, and dark, broad hats +(<i>sombreros</i>), present a very picturesque appearance.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Cloak.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Peasant girls.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="TWO_MODERN_JAPANESE_STORIES" id="TWO_MODERN_JAPANESE_STORIES"></a>TWO MODERN JAPANESE STORIES.</h2> + + +<p>The two stories which follow were circulated in the city of Yedo some +years back, and show that the better educated classes of Japanese are +keenly alive to the absurdity of the figure cut by their countrymen when +they attempt to jump over five hundred years in five hundred days.</p> + + +<h3>I. A REGULAR MESS.</h3> + +<p>Some six years back lived in the beautiful village of Minoge an old lady +who kept the big tea-house of the place known as the "White Pine." Minoge +is situated at the base of the holy mountain Oyama, and during the months +of August and September trade in Minoge was always brisk, on account of +the influx of pilgrims from all parts of Japan, who came hither to perform +the holy duty of ascending the mountain, and of paying their devoirs at +the shrine of the Thunder-God, previous to making the grand pilgrimage of +Fuji-Yama.</p> + +<p>The old lady was well off, and her inn bore an unblemished reputation for +possessing the prettiest serving-girls, the gayest guest-chambers, and the +primest stewed eels—the dish <i>par excellence</i> of Japanese <i>gourmets</i>—of +any hostelry in the country side. One of her daughters was married in +Yedo, and a son was studying in one of the European colleges of that city; +still she was as completely rustic and unacquainted with the march of +affairs outside as if she had never heard of Yedo, much less of +foreigners. At that time it was a very rare thing indeed for a foreigner +to be seen in Minoge, and the stray artists and explorers who had wandered +there were regarded much in the same way as would have been so many white +elephants.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>It caused, therefore, no little excitement in the village when, one fine +autumn evening, the rumour came along that a foreigner was making his way +towards the "White Pine." Every one tried to get a glimpse of him. The +chubby-cheeked boys and girls at the school threw down their books and +pens, and crowded to the door and windows; the bath-house was soon empty +of its patrons and patronesses, who, red as lobsters with boiling water, +with dishevelled locks and garments hastily bound round them, formed line +outside; the very Yakunin, or mayor, sentenced a prisoner he was judging +straight off, without bothering himself to inquire into evidence, so as +not to be balked of the sight, and every wine and barber's shop sent forth +its quota of starers into the little street.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the foreigner was leisurely striding along. He was taller by far +than the tallest man in Minoge, his hair was fair, and even his bronzed +face and hands were fair compared to those of the natives. On the back of +his head was a felt wide-awake, he wore a blue jacket and blue half +trousers (Anglicè, knickerbockers), thick hose, and big boots. In his +mouth was a pipe—being much shorter than Japanese smoking tubes—in his +hand a stick, and on his back a satchel.</p> + +<p>As he passed, one or two urchins, bolder than the rest, shouted out, +"Tojin baka" ("Foreign beast") and instantly fled indoors, or behind their +mothers' skirts; but the majority of the villagers simply stared, with an +occasional interjection expressive of wonder at his height, fair hair, and +costume.</p> + +<p>At the door of the "White Pine" he halted, unstrapped his bundle, took off +his boots, and in very fair Japanese requested to be shown his room. The +old lady, after a full ten minutes' posturing, complimenting, bowing, and +scraping, ushered him into her best guest-chamber. "For," said she, "being +a foreigner, he must be rich, and wouldn't like ordinary pilgrim +accommodation." And she drew to the sliding screens, and went off to +superintend his repast. Although nothing but the foreigner's boots were to +be seen outside, a gaping crowd had collected, striving to peer through +the cracks in the doors, and regarding the boots as if they were infernal +machines. One, more enterprising than the rest, took a boot up, passed it +to his neighbour, and in a short time it had circulated from hand to hand +throughout the population of Minoge, and was even felt and pinched by the +mayor himself, who replaced it with the reverence due to some religious +emblem or relic.</p> + +<p>Then the hostess served up her banquet—seaweed, sweets, raw "tighe"—the +salmon of Japan—in slices, garnished with turnips and horse-radish, egg +soup with pork lumps floating in it, chicken delicately broiled, together +with a steaming bottle of her choicest "San Toku Shiu," or wine of the +Three Virtues (which keeps out the cold, appeases hunger, and induces +sleep).</p> + +<p>The foreigner made an excellent meal, eked out by his own white bread, and +wine from a flask of pure silver, then, lighting his pipe, reclined at +full length on the mats, talking to the old lady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> and her three damsels, O +Hana, O Kiku, and O Riu (Miss Flower, Miss Chrysanthemum, and Miss +Dragon). He was walking about the country simply for pleasure, he +said—which astonished the women greatly—he had been away from Yokohama +three weeks, and was now on his road to the big mountain. The party were +soon screaming with laughter at his quaint remarks and at his occasional +colloquial slips, and in a short time all were such good friends that the +old lady begged him to display the contents of his satchel. "Certainly," +said the stranger, pulling it towards him and opening it. A dirty flannel +shirt or two didn't produce much impression—perhaps wares of a similar +nature had been imported before into Minoge—nor did a hair-brush, +tooth-brush, and comb; but when he pulled out a pistol, which was +warranted to go off six times in as many seconds, and proceeded to +exemplify the same in the air, popular excitement began to assert itself +in a series of "naruhodo's" ("really!"). Then he pulled out a portable +kerosine lamp—(kerosine lamps are now as common in Japan as shrines by +the road-side)—and the light it made, throwing entirely into the shade +the native "andon," or oil wick, burning close by, raised the enthusiasm +still higher. Lastly he showed a small box of medicines, "certain cures," +said he, "for every disease known amongst the sons of men."</p> + +<p>The old lady and the maids were enchanted, and matters ended, after much +haggling and disputation, in the foreigner allowing them to keep the three +articles for the very reasonable sum of fifty dollars—about fifteen +pounds sterling—which was handed over to the foreigner, who called for +his bedding and went fast asleep.</p> + +<p>The first thing for the old lady to do the next day was to present herself +and maids in full holiday costume with their recent purchases at the house +of the mayor. The great man received them and their goods with the dignity +befitting his rank, and promised that a public trial should be made of the +pistol, lamp, and medicines, at an early date, in order to determine +whether they were worthy to be adopted as institutions in the village.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, by proclamation, at a fixed date and hour, all Minoge +assembled in the open space facing the mayor's house, and the articles +were brought forth. The pistol was first taken and loaded, as directed by +the foreigner, by the boldest and strongest man in the village. The first +shot was fired—it wounded a pack-horse, standing some twenty yards away, +in the leg; he took fright and bolted with a heavy load of wine tubs down +the street into the fields: the second shot went through a temple roof +opposite, and shattered the head of the deity in the shrine: the third +shot perforated the bamboo hat of a pilgrim; and it was decided not to +test the remaining three barrels.</p> + +<p>Then the lamp was brought forth: the wick was turned up full, and the +village strong man applied a light. The blaze of light was glorious, and +drew forth the acclamations of the crowd; but the wick had been turned up +too high, the glass burst with a tremendous report, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> strong man +dropped the lamp, the oil ignited, ran about and set fire to the matting. +In ten minutes, however, the local fire brigade got the flames under, and +the experiments proceeded.</p> + +<p>The medicine packets were brought forth. The first was a grey powder. A +man who had been lame from youth upwards was made to limp out. The powder +mixed with water, according to directions, was given him. He hobbled away +in frightful convulsions, and nearly injured his whole limb in so doing.</p> + +<p>The second packet was then unsealed—it contained pills. A blind man was +called out—six pills were rammed down his throat, and he was left +wallowing in a ditch. The third packet, a small book containing sticking +plaster, was then introduced. A burly peasant, victim to fearful +toothache, was made to stand forth. The interior of his mouth was lined +with the plaster, and when he attempted in his disgust to pull it off, +away came his skin also.</p> + +<p>The medicines were condemned <i>nem. con.</i></p> + +<p>The foreigner returned, asked how matters had gone, and was told in polite +but firm terms that his machines were not suited to the people of Minoge. +Whereupon he returned the fifty dollars to the old lady of the "White +Pine," and went away laughing. Minoge subsided into its ordinary every-day +groove of life, and it was not till some years after that the inhabitants +became better used to pistols, lamps, and European medicines.</p> + + +<h3>II. PADDLING HIS OWN CANOE.</h3> + +<p>Takezawa was the head of a large silk and rice house in Yedo. His father +had been head, his grandfather had been head, his great-grandfather had +been head: in fact, the date when the first of the name affixed his seal +to the documents of the house was lost in the mists of antiquity. So, when +foreigners were first allowed a foot-hold on the sacred soil of Japan, +none were so jealous of their advance, none so ardent in their wishes to +see the white barbarians ousted, as the members of the firm of Takezawa +and Co.</p> + +<p>But times changed. Up to the last, Takezawa held out against the +introduction of foreign innovations in the mode and manner of conducting +the affairs of the firm; other houses might employ foreign steamboat +companies as carriers for their produce from port to port, might import +foreign goods, and even go so far as to allow the better paid of their +clerks to dress themselves as they liked in foreign costume; but Takezawa +and Co. were patriotic Japanese merchants, and resolved to run on in the +old groove of their ancestors.</p> + +<p>But times still changed, and the great house, running on in its solid +old-fashioned manner, found itself left in the lurch by younger and more +enterprising firms. This would never do. So Takezawa consulted with his +partners, patrons, clients, and friends, and after much worthy discussion, +and much vehement opposition on the part of the old man, it was resolved +to keep pace with the times, as much as possible, without absolutely +overturning the old status of the house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>Well, Takezawa and Co. had still a very fair share of the export rice and +silk business; but their slow, heavy-sterned junks were no match for the +swift, foreign-built steamers employed by other firms; so, with a +tremendous wince, and not without a side thought at "Hara Kiri"—(the +"Happy Despatch")—Takezawa consented to the sale of all his junks, and +the purchase with the proceeds of a big foreign steamer.</p> + +<p>The steamer was bought—a fine three-masted, double-funnelled boat, +complete with every appliance, newly engined, and manned by European +officers and leading seamen. From the dock at Yokoska, where she was +lying, a preliminary trip was made; and so smoothly did everything work, +and so easily did everything seem to act, under the guidance of the +Europeans, that Takezawa considered his own mariners perfectly competent +to handle the vessel after an hour's experience on board. So the Europeans +were discharged with six months' salaries—about six times as much as they +would have received at home—and Takezawa fixed a day when the ship should +be rechristened, and should make her trial trip under Japanese management.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful day in autumn—the most glorious period of the year in +Japan—when Takezawa and a distinguished company assembled on board the +steamer, to give her a new name, and to send her forth finally as a +Japanese steamer. The ship looked brave enough as she lay in the +dock—ports newly painted, brass-work shining, yards squared, and half +buried in bunting. At the mizen floated the empire flag of Japan—a red +sun on a white ground—and as Takezawa gazed fore and aft, and his eyes +rested on brightness, cleanliness, and order everywhere, he wondered to +himself how he could have been such a fool as to stand out so long against +the possession of such a treasure, merely on the grounds of its not being +Japanese. A fair daughter of one of his partners dashed a cup of "sake" +against the bows of the vessel, and the newly named "Lightning Bird" +dashed forward into the ocean. Her head was made straight for Yokohama +(Takezawa had seen the Englishmen at the wheel manipulate her in that +course on her trial trip, so he knew she couldn't go wrong). And straight +she went. Every one was delighted; sweetmeats and wine were served round, +whilst on the quarterdeck a troupe of the best "Geyshas" or singing-girls +in Yedo mingled their shrill voices and their guitar notes with the sound +of the fresh morning breeze through the rigging.</p> + +<p>The engines worked magnificently: coals were poured into the furnaces by +the hundredweight, so as to keep a good uniform thick cloud of smoke +coming from the funnels—if the smoke lacked intensity for a minute, +Takezawa, fearful that something was wrong, bellowed forth orders for more +coal to be heaped on, so that in a quarter of an hour's time the +"Lightning Bird" consumed as much fuel as would have served a P. and O. +steamer for half a day. On she went, everybody pleased and smiling, +everything taut and satisfactory. Straight ahead was Treaty Point—a bold +bluff running out into the sea. The "Lightning Bird" was bound for +Yokohama—Yokohama lies well behind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> Treaty Point—but at the pace she was +going it was very apparent that, unless a sudden and rapid turn to +starboard was made, she would run, not into Yokohama, but into Treaty +Point.</p> + +<p>The singing and feasting proceeded merrily on deck, but Takezawa was +uneasy and undecided on the bridge. The helm was put hard a-port, the +brave vessel obeyed, and leapt on straight for the line of rocks at the +foot of the Point, over which the waves were breaking in cascades of foam. +But the gods would not see a vessel, making her first run under Japanese +auspices, maltreated and destroyed by simple waves and rocks; so, just in +time to save an ignominious run aground, the helm was put hard over, fresh +fuel was piled on to the furnaces, and by barely half a ship's length the +"Lightning Bird" shaved the Point, and stood in straight for Yokohama bay.</p> + +<p>Takezawa breathed freely for the moment; but, as he saw ahead the crowd of +European ships and native junks through which he would have to thread his +way, he would have given a very large sum to have had a couple of +Europeans at the wheel in the place of his own half-witted, scared +mariners.</p> + +<p>However, there was no help for it; the ship sped on, and the guests on +board, many of whom were thorough rustics, were in raptures at the distant +views of the white houses on the Yokohama Bund, at the big steamers and +the graceful sailing vessels on all sides. To avoid the chance of a +collision, Takezawa managed to keep his steamer well outside; they nearly +ran down a fishing junk or two, and all but sunk the lightship; still, +they had not as yet come to absolute grief. Round they went for a long +half-hour; many of the guests were suffering from sickness, and Takezawa +thought that he might bring the trip to an end. So he bellowed forth +orders to stop the engines, and anchor. The anchor was promptly let go, +but stopping the engines was another matter, for nobody on board knew how +to do so—there was nothing to be done but to allow the vessel to pursue a +circular course until steam was exhausted; and she could go no farther. It +was idle to explain to the distinguished company that this was the course +invariably adopted by Europeans, for under their noses was the graceful P. +and O. steamer, a moment since ploughing along at full steam, now riding +at anchor by her buoy. So round and round went the "Lightning Bird," to +the amazement of the crews of the ships in harbour and of a large crowd +gathered on the "Bund;" the brave company on board were now assured that +the judgment of the gods was overtaking them for having ventured to sea in +a foreign vessel, and poor Takezawa was half resolved to despatch himself, +and wholly resolved never to make such an experiment as this again. He +cursed the day when he was finally led to forsake the groove so honourably +and profitably grubbed along by his fathers, and strode with hasty steps +up and down the bridge, refusing to be comforted, and terrifying out of +their few remaining wits the two poor fellows at the wheel. After a few +circles, an English man-of-war sent a steam launch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> after the "Lightning +Bird," and to the intense disgust of the great Japanese people on board, +who preferred to see eccentricity on the part of their countrymen, to +interference by foreigners, but to the great delight of the women and +rustics, who began to be rather tired of the fun, the engines were +stopped. Takezawa did not hear the last of this for a long, long time; +caricatures and verses were constantly being circulated bearing upon the +fiasco, although it would have been as much as any man's life was worth to +have taunted him openly with it. But it was a salutary lesson; and +although he still kept the "Lightning Bird," he engaged Europeans to man +her, until his men proved themselves adepts, and she afterwards became one +of the smartest and fastest craft on the coast.—<i>Belgravia.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SUPPOSED_CHANGES_IN_THE_MOON" id="SUPPOSED_CHANGES_IN_THE_MOON"></a>SUPPOSED CHANGES IN THE MOON.</h2> + + +<p>In this Magazine for August last I considered the moon's multitudinous +small craters with special reference to the theory that some among those +small craters may have been produced by the downfall of aerolithic or +meteoric masses upon the moon's once plastic surface. Whether it be +considered probable that this is really the case or not with regard to +actually existent lunar craters, it cannot be doubted that during one +period of the moon's history, a period probably lasting many millions of +years, many crater-shaped depressions must have been produced in this way. +As I showed in that essay, it is absolutely certain that thousands of +meteoric masses, large enough to form visible depressions where they fell, +must have fallen during the moon's plastic era. It is certain also that +that era must have been very long-lasting. Nevertheless, it remains +possible (many will consider it extremely probable, if not absolutely +certain) that during sequent periods all such traces were removed. There +is certainly nothing in the aspect of the present lunar craters, even the +smallest and most numerous, to preclude the possibility that they, like +the larger ones, were the results of purely volcanic action; and to many +minds it seems preferable to adopt one general theory respecting all such +objects as may be classed in a regular series, than to consider that some +members of the series are to be explained in one way and others in a +different way. We can form a series extending without break or +interruption from the largest lunar craters, more than a hundred miles in +diameter, to the smallest visible craters, less than a quarter of a mile +across, or even to far smaller craters, if increase of telescopic power +should reveal such. And therefore many object to adopt any theory in +explanation of the smaller craters (or some of them) which could +manifestly not be extended to the largest. Albeit we must remember that +certainly if any small craters had been formed during the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> plastic era by +meteoric downfall, and had remained unchanged after the moon solidified, +it would now be quite impossible to distinguish these from craters formed +in the ordinary manner.</p> + +<p>While we thus recognise the possibility, at any rate, that multitudes of +small lunar craters, say from a quarter of a mile to two miles in +diameter, may have been formed by falling meteoric masses hundreds of +millions of years ago, and may have remained unchanged even until now, we +perceive that on the moon later processes must have formed many small +craters, precisely as such small craters have been formed on our own +earth. I consider, at the close of the essay above mentioned, the two +stages of the moon's development which must have followed the period +during which her surface was wholly or in great part plastic. First, there +was the stage during which the crust contracted more rapidly than the +nucleus, and was rent from time to time as though the nucleus were +expanding within it. Secondly, there came the era when the nucleus, having +retained a greater share of heat, began to cool, and therefore to contract +more quickly than the crust, so that the crust became wrinkled or +corrugated, as it followed up (so to speak) the retreating nucleus.</p> + +<p>It would be in the later part of this second great era that the moon (if +ever) would have resembled the earth. The forms of volcanic activity still +existing on the earth seem most probably referable to the gradual +contraction of the nucleus, and the steady resulting contraction of the +rocky crust. As Mallet and Dana have shown, the heat resulting from the +contraction, or in reality from the slow downfall of the crust, is amply +sufficient to account for the whole observed volcanian energy of the +earth. It has indeed been objected, that if this theory (which is +considered more fully in my "Pleasant Ways in Science") were correct, we +ought to find volcanoes occurring indifferently, or at any rate volcanic +phenomena of various kinds so occurring, in all parts of the earth's +surface, and not prevalent in special regions and scarcely ever noticed +elsewhere. But this objection is based on erroneous ideas as to the length +of time necessary for the development of subterranean changes, and also as +to the extent of regions which at present find in certain volcanic craters +a sufficient outlet for their subterranean fires. It is natural that, if a +region of wide extent has at any time been relieved at some point, that +spot should long afterwards remain as an outlet, a sort of safety-valve, +which, by yielding somewhat more quickly than any neighbouring part of the +crust, would save the whole region from destructive earthquakes; and +though in the course of time a crater which had acted such a part would +cease to do so, yet the period required for such a change would be very +long indeed compared with those periods by which men ordinarily measure +time. Moreover, it by no means follows that every part of the earth's +crust would even require an outlet for heat developed beneath it. Over +wide tracts of the earth's surface the rate of contraction may be such, or +may be so related to the thickness of the crust, that the heat developed +can find ready escape by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> conduction to the surface, and by radiation +thence into space. Nay, from the part which water is known to play in +producing volcanic phenomena, it may well be that in every region where +water does not find its way in large quantities to the parts in which the +subterranean heat is great, no volcanic action results. Mallet, following +other experienced vulcanologists, lays down the law, "Without water there +can be no volcano;" so that the neighbourhood of large oceans, as well as +special conditions of the crust, must be regarded as probably essential to +the existence of such outlets as Vesuvius, Etna, Hecla, and the rest.</p> + +<p>So much premised, let us enquire whether it is antecedently likely that in +the moon volcanic action may still be in progress, and afterwards consider +the recent announcement of a lunar disturbance, which, if really volcanic, +certainly indicates volcanic action far more intense than any which is at +present taking place in our own earth. I have already, I may remark, +considered the evidence respecting this new lunar crater which some +suppose to have been formed during the last two years. But I am not here +going over the same ground as in my former paper ("Contemporary Review" +for August, 1878). Moreover, since that paper was written, new evidence +has been obtained, and I am now able to speak with considerable confidence +about points which were in some degree doubtful three months ago.</p> + +<p>Let us consider, in the first place, what is the moon's probable age, not +in years, but in development. Here we have only probable evidence to guide +us, evidence chiefly derived from the analogy of our own earth. At least, +we have only such evidence when we are enquiring into the moon's age as a +preliminary to the consideration of her actual aspect and its meaning. No +doubt many features revealed by telescopic scrutiny are full of +significance in this respect. No one who has ever looked at the moon, +indeed, with a telescope of great power has failed to be struck by the +appearance of deadness which her surface presents, or to be impressed (at +a first view, in any case), with the idea that he is looking at a world +whose period of life must be set in a very remote antiquity. But we must +not take such considerations into account in discussing the <i>a priori</i> +probabilities that the moon is a very aged world. Thus we have only +evidence from analogy to guide us in this part of our enquiry. I note the +point at starting, because the indicative mood is so much more convenient +than the conditional, that I may frequently in this part of my enquiry use +the former where the actual nature of the evidence would only justify the +latter. Let it be understood that the force of the reasoning here depends +entirely on the weight we are disposed to allow to arguments from analogy.</p> + +<p>Assuming the planets and satellites of the solar system to be formed in +some such manner as Laplace suggested in his "Nebular Hypothesis," the +moon, as an orb travelling round the earth, must be regarded as very much +older than she is, even in years. Even if we accept the theory of +accretion which has been recently suggested as better according with known +facts, it would still follow that probably the moon had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> existence, as a +globe of matter nearly of her present size, long before the earth had +gathered in the major portion of her substance. Necessarily, therefore, if +we assume as far more probable than either theory that the earth and moon +attained their present condition by combined processes of condensation and +accretion, we should infer that the moon is far the older of the two +bodies in years.</p> + +<p>But if we even suppose that the earth and moon began their career as +companion planets at about the same epoch, we should still have reason to +believe that these planets, equal though they were in age so far as mere +years are concerned, must be very unequally advanced so far as development +is concerned, and must therefore in that respect be of very unequal age.</p> + +<p>It was, I believe, Sir Isaac Newton who first called attention to the +circumstance that the larger a planet is, the longer will be the various +stages of its existence. He used the same reasoning which was afterwards +urged by Buffon, and suggested an experiment which Buffon was the first to +carry out. If two globes of iron, of unequal size, be heated to the same +degree, and then left to cool side by side, it will be found that the +larger glows with a ruddy light after the smaller has become quite dark, +and that the larger remains intensely hot long after the smaller has +become cool enough to be handled. The reason of the difference is very +readily recognised. Indeed, Newton perceived that there would be such a +difference before the matter had been experimentally tested. The quantity +of heat in the unequal globes is proportional to the volume, the substance +of each being the same. The heat is emitted from the surface, and at a +rate depending on the extent of surface. But the volume of the larger +exceeds that of the smaller in greater degree than the surface of the +larger exceeds the surface of the other. Suppose, for instance, the larger +has a diameter twice as great as that of the smaller, its surface is four +times as great as that of the smaller, its volume eight times as great. +Having, then, eight times as much heat as the smaller at the beginning, +and parting with that heat only four times as fast as the smaller, the +supply necessarily lasts twice as long; or, more exactly, each stage in +the cooling of the larger lasts twice as long as the corresponding stage +in the cooling of the smaller. We see that the duration of the heat is +greater for the larger in the same degree that the diameter is greater. +And we should have obtained the same result whatever diameters we had +considered. Suppose, for instance, we heat two globes of iron, one an inch +in diameter, the other seven inches, to a white heat. The surface of the +larger is forty-nine times that of the smaller, and thus it gives out at +the beginning, and at each corresponding stage of cooling, forty-nine +times as much heat as the smaller. But it possesses at the beginning three +hundred and forty-three (seven times seven times seven) times as much +heat. Consequently, the supply will last seven times as long, precisely as +a stock of three hundred and forty-three thousand pounds, expended +forty-nine times as fast as a stock of one thousand pounds only, would +last seven<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> times as long. In every case we find that the duration of the +heat-emission for globes of the same material equally heated at the outset +is proportional to their diameters.</p> + +<p>Now, before applying this result to the case of the moon, we must take +into account two considerations:—First, the probability that when the +moon was formed she was not nearly so hot as the earth when it first took +planetary shape; and secondly, the different densities of the earth and +moon.</p> + +<p>The original heat of every member of the solar system, including the sun, +depended on the gravitating energy of its own mass. The greater that +energy, the greater the heat generated either by the process of steady +contraction imagined in Laplace's theory, or by the process of meteoric +indraught imagined in the aggregation theory. To show how very different +are the heat-generating powers of two very unequal masses, consider what +would happen if the earth drew down to its own surface a meteoric mass +which had approached the earth under her own attraction only. (The case is +of course purely imaginary, because no meteor can approach the earth which +has not been subjected to the far greater attractive energy of the sun, +and does not possess a velocity far greater than any which the earth +herself could impart). In this case such a mass would strike the earth +with a velocity of about seven miles per second, and the heat generated +would be that due to this velocity only. Now, when a meteor strikes the +sun full tilt after a journey from the star depths under his attraction, +it reaches his surface with a velocity of nearly three hundred and sixty +miles per second. The heat generated is nearly fifty times greater than in +the imagined case of the earth. The moon being very much less than the +earth, the velocity she can impart to meteoric bodies is still less. It +amounts, in fact, to only about a mile per second. The condensing energy +of the moon in her vaporous era was in like manner far less than that of +the earth, and consequently far less heat was then generated. Thus, +although we might well believe on <i>a priori</i> grounds, even if not assured +by actual study of the lunar features, that the moon when first formed as +a planet had a surface far hotter than molten iron, we must yet believe +that, when first formed, the moon had a temperature very much below that +of our earth at the corresponding stage of her existence.</p> + +<p>On this account, then, we must consider that the moon started in planetary +existence in a condition as to heat which our earth did not attain till +many millions, probably hundreds of millions of years after the epoch of +her first formation as a planet.</p> + +<p>As regards the moon's substance, we have no means of forming a +satisfactory opinion. But we shall be safe in regarding quantity of matter +in the moon as a safer basis of calculation than volume, in comparing the +duration of her various stages of development with those of our own earth. +When, in the August number of this Magazine, I adopted a relation derived +from the latter and less correct method, it was because the more correct +method gave the result most favourable to the argument<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> I was then +considering. The same is indeed the case now. Yet it will be better to +adopt the more exact method, because the consideration relates no longer +to a mere side issue, but belongs to the very essence of my reasoning.</p> + +<p>The moon has a mass equal to about one eighty-first part of the earth's. +Her diameter being less than the earth's, about as two to seven, the +duration of each stage of her cooling would be in this degree less than +the corresponding duration for the earth, if her density were the same as +the earth's, in which case her mass would be only one forty-ninth part of +the earth's. But her mass being so much less, we must assume that her +amount of heat at any given stage of cooling was less in similar degree +than it would have been had her density been the same as the earth's. We +may, in fact, assume that the moon's total supply of heat would be only +one eighty-first of the earth's if the two bodies were at the same +temperature throughout.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> But the surface of the moon is between +one-thirteenth and one-fourteenth of the earth's. Since, then, the earth +at any given stage of cooling parted with her heat between thirteen and +fourteen times as fast as the moon, but had about eighty-one times as much +heat to part with (for that stage), it follows that she would take about +six times as long (six times thirteen and a-half is equal to eighty-one) +to cool through that particular stage as the moon would.</p> + +<p>If we take this relation as the basis of our estimate of the moon's age, +we shall find that, even if the moon's existence as a planet began +simultaneously with the earth's instead of many millions of years earlier, +even if the moon was then as hot as the earth instead of being so much +cooler that many millions of years would be required for the earth to cool +to the same temperature—making, I say, these assumptions, which probably +correspond to the omission of hundreds of millions of years in our +estimate of the moon's age, we shall still find the moon to be hundreds of +millions of years older than the earth.</p> + +<p>Nay, we may even take a position still less favourable to my argument. Let +us overlook the long ages during which the two orbs were in the vaporous +state, and suppose the earth and moon to be simultaneously in that stage +of planetary existence when the surface has a temperature of two thousand +degrees Centigrade.</p> + +<p>From Bischoff's experiments on the cooling of rocks, it appears to follow +that some three hundred and twenty millions of years must have elapsed +between the time when the earth's surface was at this temperature and the +time when the surface temperature was reduced to two hundred degrees +Centigrade, or one hundred and eighty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> degrees Fahrenheit above the +boiling point. The earth was for that enormous period a mass (in the main) +of molten rock. In the moon's case this period lasted only one-sixth of +three hundred and twenty million years, or about fifty-three million +years, leaving two hundred and sixty-seven million years' interval between +the time when the moon's surface had cooled down to two hundred degrees +Centigrade and the later epoch when the earth's surface had attained that +temperature.</p> + +<p>I would not, however, insist on these numerical details. It has always +seemed to me unsafe to base calculations respecting suns and planets on +experiments conducted in the laboratory. The circumstances under which the +heavenly bodies exist, regarding these bodies as wholes, are utterly +unlike any which can be produced in the laboratory, no matter on what +scale the experimenter may carry on his researches. I have often been +amused to see even mathematicians of repute employing a formula based on +terrestrial experiments, physical, optical, and otherwise, as though the +formula were an eternal omnipresent reality, without noting that, if +similarly applied to obtain other determinations, the most stupendously +absurd results would be deduced. It is as though, having found that a +child grows three inches in the fifth year of his age, one should infer +not only that that person but every other person in every age and in every +planet, nay, in the whole universe, would be thirty inches taller at the +age of fifteen than at the age of five, without noticing that the same +method of computation would show everyone to be more than fifteen feet +taller at the age of sixty-five. It may well be that, instead of three +hundred and twenty millions of years, the era considered by Bischoff +lasted less than a hundred millions of years. Or quite as probably it may +have lasted five or six hundred millions of years. And again, instead of +the corresponding era of the moon's past history having lasted one sixth +of the time required to produce the same change in the earth's condition, +it may have lasted a quarter, or a third, or even half that time, though +quite as probably it may have lasted much less than a sixth. But in any +case we cannot reasonably doubt that the moon reached the stage of cooling +through which the earth is now passing many millions of years ago. We +shall not probably err very greatly in taking the interval as at least two +hundred millions of years.</p> + +<p>But I could point out that in reality it is a matter of small importance, +so far as my present argument is concerned, whether we adopt Bischoff's +period or a period differing greatly from it. For if instead of about +three hundred millions the earth required only thirty millions of years to +cool from a surface temperature of two thousand degrees Centigrade to a +temperature of two hundred degrees, we must assume that the rate of +cooling is ten times greater than Bischoff supposed. And we must of course +extend the same assumption to the moon. Now, since the sole question +before us is to what degree the moon has cooled, it matters nothing +whether we suppose the moon has been cooling very slowly during many +millions of years since she was in the same condition as the earth at +present, or that the moon has been cooling ten times<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> as quickly during a +tenth part of the time, or a hundred times as quickly during one-hundredth +part of the time.</p> + +<p>We may, therefore, continue to use the numbers resulting from Bischoff's +calculation, even though we admit the probability that they differ widely +from the true values of the periods we are considering.</p> + +<p>Setting the moon, then, as about two hundred and fifty millions of years +in advance of the earth in development, even when we overlook all the eras +preceding that considered by Bischoff, and the entire sequent interval +(which must be long, for the earth has no longer a surface one hundred +degrees Centigrade hotter than boiling water), let us consider what is +suggested by this enormous time-difference.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it corresponds to a much greater interval in our +earth's history. During the two hundred and fifty millions of years the +moon has been cooling at her rate, not at the earth's. According to the +conclusion we deduced from the moon's relative mass and surface, she has +aged as much during those two hundred and fifty million years as the earth +will during the next fifteen hundred million years.</p> + +<p>Now, however slowly we suppose the earth's crust to be changing, it must +be admitted that in the course of the next fifteen hundred millions of +years the earth will have parted with far the greater part, if not with +the whole, of that inherent heat on which the present movements of her +surface depend. We know that these movements at once depend upon and +indicate processes of contraction. We know that such processes cannot +continue at their present rate for many millions of years. If we assume +that the rate of contraction will steadily diminish—which is equivalent, +be it noticed, to the assumption that the earth's vulcanian or +subterranean energies will be diminished—the duration of the process will +be greater. But even on such an assumption, controlled by consideration of +the evidence we have respecting the rate at which terrestrial contraction +is diminishing, it is certain that long before a period of fifteen hundred +millions of years has elapsed, the process of contraction will to all +intents and purposes be completed.</p> + +<p>We must assume, then, as altogether the most probable view, that the moon +has reached this stage of planetary decrepitude, even if she has not +become an absolutely dead world. We can hardly reject the reasoning which +would show that the moon is far older than has been assumed when long +stages of her history and our earth's have been neglected. Still less +reasonable would it be to reject the conclusion that at the very least she +has reached the hoar antiquity thus inferred. Assuming her to be no older, +we yet cannot escape the conviction that her state is that of utter +decrepitude. To suppose that volcanic action can now be in progress on the +moon, even to as great a degree as on the earth, would be to assume that +measurable sources of energy can produce practically immeasurable results. +But no volcanic changes now in process on the earth could possibly be +discernible at the moon's distance. How utterly unlikely does it seem, +then, that any volcanic changes can be now taking place on the moon which +could be recognized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> from the earth! It seems safe to assume that no +volcanic changes at all can be in progress; but most certainly the +evidence which should convince us that volcanic changes of so tremendous a +character are in progress that at a distance of two hundred and sixty +thousand miles terrestrial telescopists can discern them, must be of the +strongest and most satisfactory character.</p> + +<p>Evidence of change may indeed be discovered which can be otherwise +explained. The moon is exposed to the action of heat other than that which +pervaded her own frame at the time of her first formation. The sun's heat +is poured upon the moon during the long lunar day of more than a +fortnight, while during the long lunar night a cold prevails which must +far exceed that of our bitterest arctic winters. We know from the +heat-measurements made by the present Lord Rosse, that any part of the +moon's surface at lunar mid-day is fully five hundred degrees Fahrenheit +hotter than the same part two weeks later at lunar midnight. The alternate +expansions and contractions resulting from these changes of temperature +cannot but produce changes, however slowly, in the contour of the moon's +surface. Professor Newcomb, indeed, considers that all such changes must +long since have been completed. But I cannot see how they can be completed +so long as the moon's surface is uneven, and at present there are regions +where that surface is altogether rugged. Mighty peaks and walls exist +which must one day be thrown down, so unstable is their form; deep ravines +can be seen which must one day be the scene of tremendous landslips, so +steep and precipitous are their sides. Changes such as these may still +occur on so vast a scale that telescopists may hope from time to time to +recognise them. But changes such as these are not volcanic; they attest no +lunar vitality. They are antecedently so probable, indeed, while volcanic +changes are antecedently so unlikely, that when any change is clearly +recognised in the moon's surface, nothing but the most convincing evidence +could be accepted as demonstrating that the change was of volcanic origin +and not due to the continued expansion and contraction of the lunar crust.</p> + +<p>And now let us see how stands the evidence in the few cases which seem +most to favour the idea that a real change has taken place.</p> + +<p>We may dismiss, in the first place, without any hesitation, the assertion +that regular changes take place in the floor of the great lunar crater +Plato. According to statements very confidently advanced a few years ago, +this wide circular plain, some sixty miles in diameter, grows darker and +darker as the lunar day advances there until the time corresponding to +about two o'clock in the afternoon, and then grows gradually lighter again +till eventide. The idea seems to have been at first that some sort of +vegetation exists on the floor of this mighty ring-shaped mountain, and +that, as the sun's heat falls during the long lunar day upon the great +plain, the vegetation flourishes, darkening the whole region just as we +might imagine that some far-extending forest on the earth would appear +darker as seen from the moon when fully clothed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> with vegetation than when +the trees were bare and the lighter tints of the ground could be seen +through them. Another idea was that the ground undergoes some change under +the sun's heat corresponding to those which are produced in certain +substances employed in photography; though it was not explained why the +solar rays should produce no permanent change, as in the terrestrial cases +adduced in illustration. Yet another and, if possible, an even stranger +explanation, suggested that, though the moon has no seas, there may be +large quantities of water beneath her crust, which may evaporate when that +crust becomes heated, rising in the form of vapour to moisten and so +darken the crust. Certainly, the idea of a moistening of the lunar crust, +or of portions thereof, as the sun's rays fall more strongly upon it, is +so daring that one could almost wish it were admissible, instead of being +altogether inconsistent, as unfortunately it is, with physical +possibilities.</p> + +<p>But still more unfortunately, the fact supposed to have been observed, on +which these ingenious speculations were based, has not only been called in +question, but has been altogether negatived. More exact observations have +shown that the supposed darkening of the floor of Plato is a mere optical +illusion. When the sun has lately risen at that part of the moon, the +ringed wall surrounding this great plain throws long shadows across the +level surface. These shadows are absolutely black, like all the shadows on +the moon. By contrast, therefore, the unshadowed part of the floor appears +lighter than it really is; but the mountain ring which surrounds this dark +grey plain is of light tint. So soon as the sun has passed high above the +horizon of this region, the ring appears very brilliant compared with the +dark plain which it surrounds; thus the plain appears by comparison even +darker than it really is. As the long lunar afternoon advances, however, +black shadows are again thrown athwart the floor, which therefore again +appears by contrast lighter than it really is. All the apparent changes +are such as might have been anticipated by anyone who considered how +readily the eye is misled by effects of contrast.</p> + +<p>To base any argument in favour of a regular change in the floor of Plato +on evidence such as this, would be as unwise as it would be to deduce +inferences as to changes in the heat of water from experiments in which +the heat was determined by the sensations experienced when the hands were +successively immersed, one hand having previously been in water as hot as +could be borne, the other in water as cold as could be borne. We know how +readily these sensations would deceive us (if we trusted them) into the +belief that the water had warmed notably during the short interval of time +which had elapsed between the two immersions; for we know that if both +hands were immersed at the same moment in lukewarm water, the water would +appear cold to one hand and warm to the other.</p> + +<p>Precisely as in such a case as we have just considered, if we were obliged +to test the water by so inexact a method, we should make experiments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> with +one hand only, and carefully consider the condition of that hand during +the progress of the experiments, so in the case of the floor of Plato, we +must exclude as far as possible all effects due to mere contrast. We must +examine the tint of the plain, at lunar morning, mid-day, and evening, +with an eye not affected either by the darkness or brightness of adjacent +regions, or adjacent parts of the same region. This is very readily done. +All we have to do is to reduce the telescopic field of view to such an +extent that, instead of the whole floor, only a small portion can be seen. +It will then be found, as I can myself certify (the more apparently +because the experience of others confirms my own), that the supposed +change of tint does not take place. One or two who were and are strong +believers in the reality of the change do indeed assert that they have +tried this experiment, and have obtained an entirely different result. But +this may fairly be regarded as showing how apt an observer is to be +self-deceived when he is entirely persuaded of the truth of some favourite +theory. For those who carried out the experiment successfully had no views +one way or the other; those only failed who were certainly assured +beforehand that the experiment would confirm their theory.</p> + +<p>The case of the lunar crater Linné, which somewhere about November 1865 +attracted the attention of astronomers, belongs to a very different +category. In my article on the moon in the "Contemporary Review" I have +fully presented the evidence in the case of this remarkable object. I need +not therefore consider here the various arguments which have been urged +for and against the occurrence of change. I may mention, however, that, in +my anxiety to do full justice to the theory that change has really +occurred, I took Mädler's description of the crater's interior as "very +deep," to mean more than Mädler probably intended. There is now a +depression several hundred yards in depth. If Mädler's description be +interpreted, as I interpreted it for the occasion in the above article, to +mean a depth of two or three miles, it is of course certain that there has +been a very remarkable change. But some of the observers who have devoted +themselves utterly, it would seem, to the lively occupation of measuring, +counting, and describing the tens of thousands of lunar craters already +known, assert that Mädler and Lohrman (who uses the same description) +meant nothing like so great a depth. Probably Mädler only meant about half +a mile, or even less. In this case their favourite theory no longer seems +so strongly supported by the evidence. In some old drawings by the +well-known observer Schröter, the crater is drawn very much as it now +appears. Thus, I think we must adopt as most probable the opinion which +is, I see, advanced by Prof. Newcomb in his excellent "Popular Astronomy," +that there has been no actual change in the crater. I must indeed remark +that, after comparing several drawings of the same regions by Schröter, +Mädler, Lohrman, and Schmidt, with each other and with the moon's surface, +I find myself by no means very strongly impressed by the artistic skill of +any of these observers. I scarcely know a single region in the moon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> where +change might not be inferred to have taken place if any one of the +above-named observers could be implicitly relied upon. As, fortunately, +their views differ even more widely <i>inter se</i> than from the moon's own +surface, we are not driven to so startling a conclusion.</p> + +<p>However, if we assume even that Linné has undergone change, we still have +no reason to believe that the change is volcanic. A steep wall, say half a +mile in height, surrounding a crater four or five miles in diameter, no +longer stands at this height above the enclosed space, if the believers in +a real change are to be trusted. But, as Dr. Huggins well remarked long +ago, if volcanic forces competent to produce disturbance of this kind are +at work in the moon, we ought more frequently to recognize signs of +change, for they could scarcely be at work in one part only of the moon's +surface, or only at long intervals of time. It is so easy to explain the +overthrow of such a wall as surrounded Linné (always assuming we can rely +upon former accounts) without imagining volcanic action, that, considering +the overwhelming weight of <i>a priori</i> probability against such action at +the present time, it would be very rash to adopt the volcanic theory. The +expansions and contractions described above would not only be able to +throw down walls of the kind, but they would be sure to do so from time to +time. Indeed, as a mere matter of probabilities, it may be truly said that +it would be exceedingly unlikely that catastrophes such as the one which +may have occurred in this case would fail to happen at comparatively short +intervals of time. It would be so unlikely, that I am almost disposed to +adopt the theory that there really has been a change in Linné, for the +reason that on that theory we get rid of the difficulty arising from the +apparent fixity of even the steepest lunar rocks. However, after all, the +time during which men have studied the moon with the telescope—only two +hundred and sixty-nine years—is a mere instant compared with the long +periods during which the moon has been exposed to the sun's intense heat +by day and a more than arctic intensity of cold by night. It may well be +that, though lunar landslips occur at short intervals of time, these +intervals are only short when compared with those periods, hundreds of +millions of years long, of which we had to speak a little while ago. +Perhaps in a period of ten or twenty thousand years we might have a fair +chance of noting the occurrence of one or two catastrophes of the kind, +whereas we could hardly expect to note any, save by the merest accident, +in two or three hundred years.</p> + +<p>To come now to the last, and, according to some, the most decisive piece +of evidence in favour of the theory that the moon's crust is still under +the influence of volcanic forces.</p> + +<p>On May 19, 1877, Dr. Hermann J. Klein, of Cologne, observed a crater more +than two miles in width, where he felt sure that no crater had before +existed. It was near the centre of the moon's visible hemisphere, and not +far from a well-known crater called Hyginus. At the time of observation it +was not far from the boundary between the light and dark parts of the +moon: in fact, it was near the time of sunrise at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> this region. Thus the +floor of the supposed new crater was in shadow—it appeared perfectly +black. In the conventional language for such cases made and provided (it +should be stereotyped by selenographers, for it has now been used a great +many times since Schröter first adopted the belief that the great crater +Cassini, thirty-six miles in diameter, was a new one) Dr. Klein says, "The +region having been frequently observed by myself during the last few +years, I feel certain that no such crater existed in the region at the +time of my previous observations." He communicated his discovery to Dr. +Schmidt, who also assured him that the region had been frequently observed +by himself during the last few years, and he felt certain that no such +crater, &c., &c. It is not in the maps by Lohrman and by Beer and Mädler, +or in Schröter's drawings, and so forth. "We know more," says a recent +writer, singularly ready to believe in lunar changes; "we know that at a +later period, with the powerful Dorpat telescope, Mädler carefully +re-examined this particular region, to see if he could detect any +additional features not shown in his map. He found several smaller +craterlets <i>in other parts</i>" (the italics are mine), "but he could not +detect any other crater in the region where Dr. Klein now states there +exist a large crater, though he did find some very small hills close to +this spot." "This evidence is really conclusive," says this very confident +writer, "for it is incredible that Mädler could have seen these minute +hills and overlooked a crater so large that it is the second largest +crater of the score in this region." Then this writer comes in, of course, +in his turn, with the customary phrases. "During the six years, 1870-1876, +I most carefully examined this region, for the express purpose of +detecting any craters not shown by Mädler," and he also can certify that +no such crater existed, etc., etc. He was only waiting, when he thus +wrote, to see the crater for himself. "One suitable evening will settle +the matter. If I find a deep black crater, three miles in diameter, in the +place assigned to it by Dr. Klein, and when six years' observation +convinces me no such crater did exist, I shall know that it must be new."</p> + +<p>Astronomers, however, require somewhat better evidence.</p> + +<p>It might well be that a new crater-shaped depression should appear in the +moon without any volcanic action having occurred. For reasons already +adduced, indeed, I hold it to be to all intents and purposes certain that +if a new depression is really in question at all, it is in reality only an +old and formerly shallow crater, whose floor has broken up, yielding at +length to the expansive and contractive effects above described, which +would act with exceptional energy at this particular part of the moon's +surface, close as it is to the lunar equator.</p> + +<p>But it is by no means clear that this part of the moon's surface has +undergone any change whatever. We must not be misled by the very confident +tone of selenographers. Of course they fully believe what they tell us: +but they are strongly prejudiced. Their labours, as they well know, have +now very little interest unless signs of change should be detected in the +moon. Surveyors who have done exceedingly useful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> work in mapping a region +would scarcely expect the public to take much interest in additional +information about every rock or pebble existing in that region, unless +they could show that something more than a mere record of rocks and +pebbles was really involved. Thus selenographers have shown, since the +days of Schröter, an intense anxiety to prove that our moon deserves, in +another than Juliet's sense, to be called "the inconstant moon." In +another sense again they seem disposed to "swear by the inconstant moon," +as changing yearly, if not "monthly, in her circled orb." Thus a very +little evidence satisfies them, and they are very readily persuaded in +their own mind that former researches of theirs, or of their +fellow-pebble-counters, have been so close and exact, that craters must +have been detected then which have been found subsequently to exist in the +moon. I do not in the slightest degree question their <i>bona fides</i>, but a +long experience of their ways leads me to place very little reliance on +such stereotyped phrases as I have quoted above.</p> + +<p>Now, in my paper in the "Contemporary Review" on this particular crater, I +called attention to the fact that in the magnificent photograph of the +moon taken by Dr. Louis Rutherfurd on March 6, 1865 (note well the date) +there is a small spot of lighter colour than the surrounding region, +nearly in the place indicated in the imperfect drawing of Klein's record +which alone was then available to me. For reasons, I did not then more +closely describe this feature of the finest lunar photograph ever yet +obtained.</p> + +<p>The writer from whom I have already quoted is naturally (being a +selenographer) altogether unwilling to accept the conclusion that this +spot is the crater floor as photographed (not as seen) under a somewhat +higher illumination than that under which the floor of the crater appears +dark. There are several white spots immediately around the dark crater, he +says: "which of these is the particular white spot which the author" +(myself) "assumes I did not see?" a question which, as I had made no +assumption whatever about this particular writer, nor mentioned him, nor +even thought of him, as I wrote the article on which he comments, I am +quite unable to answer. But he has no doubt that I have "mistaken the +white spot" (which it seems he can identify, after all) "for Klein's +crater, which is many miles farther north, and which never does appear as +a white spot: he has simply mistaken its place."</p> + +<p>I have waited, therefore, before writing this, until from my own +observation, or from a drawing carefully executed by Dr. Klein, I might +ascertain the exact place of the new crater. I could not, as it turned +out, observe the new crater as a black spot myself, since the question was +raised; for on the only available occasion I was away from home. But I now +have before me Dr. Klein's carefully drawn map. In this I find the new +crater placed not nearly, but <i>exactly</i> where Rutherfurd's crater appears. +I say "Rutherfurd's crater," for the white spot is manifestly not merely a +light tinted region on the darker background of the Sea of Vapours (as the +region in which the crater has been found is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> called): it is a circular +crater more than two miles in diameter; and the width of the crescent of +shadow surrounding its eastern side shows that in March 1865, when +Rutherfurd took that photograph, the crater was not (for its size) a +shallow one, but deep.</p> + +<p>Now, it is quite true that, to the eye, under high illumination, the floor +of the crater does not appear lighter than the surrounding region; at +least, not markedly so, for to my eye it appears slightly lighter. But +everyone knows that a photograph does not show all objects with the same +depth of shading that they present to the naked eye. A somewhat dark green +object will appear rather light in a photograph, while a somewhat light +orange-yellow object will appear quite dark. We have only to assume that +the floor of the supposed new crater has a greenish tinge (which is by no +means uncommon) to understand why, although it is lost to ordinary vision +when the Sea of Vapours is under full illumination, it yet presents in a +photograph a decidedly lighter shade than the surrounding region.</p> + +<p>I ought to mention that the writer from whom I have quoted says that all +the photographs were examined and the different objects in this region +identified within forty-eight hours of the time when Dr. Klein's letter +reached England. He mentions also that he has himself personally examined +them. Doubtless at that time the exact position of the supposed new crater +was not known. By the way, it is strange, considering that the name Louis +Rutherfurd is distinctly written in large letters upon the magnificent +photograph in question, that a selenographer who has carefully examined +that photograph should spell the name Rutherford. He must really not +assume, when on re-examining the picture he finds the name spelled +Rutherfurd, that there has been any change, volcanic or otherwise, in the +photograph.</p> + +<p>In conclusion I would point out that another of these laborious +crater-counters, in a paper recently written with the express purpose of +advocating a closer and longer-continued scrutiny of the moon, makes a +statement which is full of significance in connection with the subject of +lunar changes. After quoting the opinion of a celebrated astronomer, that +one might as well attempt to catalogue the pebbles on the sea-shore as the +entire series of lunar craters down to the minutest visible with the most +powerful telescope, he states that while on the one hand, out of +thirty-two thousand eight hundred and fifty-six craters given in Schmidt's +chart, not more than two thousand objects have been entered in the +Registry he has provided for the purpose (though he has been many years +collecting materials for it from all sides); on the other hand, "on +comparing a few of these published objects with Schmidt's map, it has been +found <i>that some are not in it</i>,"—a fact to which he calls attention, +"not for the purpose of depreciating the greatest selenographical work +that has yet appeared, but for the real advancement of selenography." +Truly, the fact is as significant as it is discouraging,—unless we are +presently to be told that the craters which are not common to both series +are to be regarded as new formations.</p> + +<p class='right'> +<span class="smcap">Richard A. Proctor</span>, <i>in Belgravia</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> To some this may appear to be a mere truism. In reality it +is far from being so. If two globes of equal mass were each of the same +exact temperature throughout, they might yet have very unequal total +quantities of heat. If one were of water, for instance, and the other of +iron or any other metal, the former would have far the larger supply of +heat; for more heat is required to raise a given weight of water one +degree in temperature, than to raise an equal weight of iron one degree; +and water in cooling one degree, or any number of degrees, would give out +more heat than an equal weight of iron cooling to the same extent.</p></div> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RECOLLECTIONS_OF_THACKERAY" id="RECOLLECTIONS_OF_THACKERAY"></a>RECOLLECTIONS OF THACKERAY.</h2> + + +<p>In the absence of any complete biography of the late William Makepeace +Thackeray, every anecdote regarding him has a certain value, in so far as +it throws a light on his personal character and methods of work. Read in +this light and this spirit, all the tributes to his memory are valuable +and interesting. Glancing over some memoranda connected with the life of +the novelist, contained in a book which has come under our notice, +entitled "Anecdote Biographies," we gain a ready insight into his +character. And from the materials thus supplied, we now offer a few +anecdotes treasured up in these too brief memorials of his life.</p> + +<p>Thackeray was born at Calcutta in 1811. While still very young, he was +sent to England; on the homeward voyage he had a peep at the great +Napoleon in his exile-home at St. Helena. He received his education at the +Charterhouse School and at Cambridge, leaving the latter without a degree. +His fortune at this time amounted to twenty thousand pounds; this he +afterwards lost through unfortunate speculations, but not before he had +travelled a good deal on the continent, and acquainted himself with French +and German everyday life and literature. His first inclination was to +follow the profession of an artist; and curious to relate, he made +overtures to Charles Dickens to illustrate his earliest book. Thackeray +was well equipped both in body and mind when his career as an author +began; but over ten years of hard toil at newspaper and magazine writing +were undergone before he became known as the author of "Vanity Fair," and +one of the first of living novelists. He lectured with fair if not with +extraordinary success both in England and America, when the sunshine of +public favour had been secured. His career of successful novel-writing +terminated suddenly on 24th December 1863, and like Dickens, he had an +unfinished novel on hand.</p> + +<p>One morning Thackeray knocked at the door of Horace Mayhew's chambers in +Regent Street, crying from without: 'It's no use, Horry Mayhew; open the +door.' On entering, he said cheerfully: 'Well, young gentleman, you'll +admit an old fogy.' When leaving, with his hat in his hand, he remarked: +'By-the-by, how stupid! I was going away without doing part of the +business of my visit. You spoke the other day of poor George. +Somebody—most unaccountably—has returned me a five-pound note I lent him +a long time ago. I didn't expect it. So just hand to George; and tell him, +when his pocket will bear it, to pass it on to some poor fellow of his +acquaintance. By-bye.' He was gone! This was one of Thackeray's delicate +methods of doing a favour; the recipient was asked to <i>pass it on</i>.</p> + +<p>One of his last acts on leaving America after a lecturing tour, was to +return twenty-five per cent. of the proceeds of one of his lectures to a +young speculator who had been a loser by the bargain. While known to hand +a gold piece to a waiter with the remark: 'My friend, will you do me the +favour to accept a sovereign?' he has also been known to say to a visitor +who had proffered a card: 'Don't leave this bit of paper; it has cost you +two cents, and will be just as good for your next call.' Evidently aware +that money when properly used is a wonderful health-restorer, he was found +by a friend who had entered his bedroom in Paris, gravely placing some +napoleons in a pill-box, on the lid of which was written: 'One to be taken +occasionally.' When asked to explain, it came out that these strange pills +were for an old person who said she was very ill, and in distress; and so +he had concluded that this was the medicine wanted. 'Dr. Thackeray,' he +remarked, 'intends to leave it with her himself. Let us walk out +together.' To a young literary man afterwards his amanuensis, he wrote +thus, on hearing that a loss had befallen him: 'I am sincerely sorry to +hear of your position, and send the little contribution which came so +opportunely from another friend whom I was enabled once to help. When you +are well-to-do again, I know you will pay it back; and I daresay somebody +else will want the money, which is meanwhile most heartily at your +service.'</p> + +<p>When enjoying an American repast at Boston in 1852, his friends there, +determined to surprise him with the size of their oysters, had placed six +of the largest bivalves they could find, on his plate. After swallowing +number one with some little difficulty, his friend asked him how he felt. +'Profoundly grateful,' he gasped; 'and as if I had swallowed a little +baby.' Previous to a farewell dinner given by his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> American intimates and +admirers, he remarked that it was very kind of his friends to give him a +dinner, but that such things always set him trembling. 'Besides,' he +remarked to his secretary, 'I have to make a speech, and what am I to say? +Here, take a pen in your hand and sit down, and I'll see if I can hammer +out something. It's hammering now, I'm afraid it will be stammering +by-and-by.' His short speeches, when delivered, were as characteristic and +unmistakable as anything he ever wrote. All the distinct features of his +written style were present.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to remark the sentiments he entertained towards his +great rival Charles Dickens. Although the latter was more popular as a +novelist, than he could ever expect to become, he expressed himself in +unmistakable terms regarding him. When the conversation turned that way, +we would remark: 'Dickens is making ten thousand a year. He is very angry +at me for saying so; but I will say it, for it is true. He doesn't like +me. He knows that my books are a protest against his—that if the one set +are true, the other must be false. But "Pickwick" is an exception; it is a +capital book. It is like a glass of good English ale.' When "Dombey and +Son" appeared in the familiar paper cover, number five contained the +episode of the death of little Paul. Thackeray appeared much moved in +reading it over, and putting number five in his pocket, hastened with it +to the editor's room in "Punch" office. Dashing it down on the table in +the presence of Mark Lemon, he exclaimed! 'There's no writing against such +power as this; one has no chance! Read that chapter describing young +Paul's death; it is unsurpassed—it is stupendous!'</p> + +<p>In a conversation with his secretary previous to his American trip, he +intimated his intention of starting a magazine or journal on his return, +to be issued in his own name. This scheme eventually took shape, and the +result was the now well known "Cornhill Magazine." This magazine proved a +great success, the sale of the first number being one hundred and ten +thousand copies. Under the excitement of this great success, Thackeray +left London for Paris. To Mr. Fields, the American publisher, who met him +by appointment at his hotel in the Rue de la Paix, he remarked: 'London is +not big enough to contain me now, and I am obliged to add Paris to my +residence. Good gracious!' said he, throwing up his long arms, 'where will +this tremendous circulation stop? Who knows but that I shall have to add +Vienna and Rome to my whereabouts? If the worst come to the worst, New +York also may fall into my clutches, and only the Rocky Mountains may be +able to stop my progress.' His spirits continued high during this visit to +Paris, his friend adding that some restraint was necessary to keep him +from entering the jewellers' shops and ordering a pocketful of diamonds +and 'other trifles; for,' said he, 'how can I spend the princely income +which Smith<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> allows me for editing "Cornhill," unless I begin instantly +somewhere!' He complained too that he could not sleep at nights 'for +counting up his subscribers.' On reading a contribution by his young +daughter to the "Cornhill," he felt much moved, remarking to a friend; +'When I read it, I blubbered like a child; it is so good, so simple, and +so honest; and my little girl wrote it, every word of it.'</p> + +<p>Dickens in the tender memorial which he penned for the "Cornhill +Magazine," remarks on his appearance when they dined together. 'No one,' +he says, 'can ever have seen him more genial, natural, cordial, fresh, and +honestly impulsive than I have seen him at those times. No one can be +surer than I of the greatness and goodness of the heart that had then +disclosed itself.'</p> + +<p>Beneath his 'modestly grand' manner, his seeming cynicism and bitterness, +he bore a very tender and loving heart. In a letter written in 1854, and +quoted in James Hannay's sketch, he expresses himself thus. 'I hate +Juvenal,' he says. 'I mean I think him a truculent fellow; and I love +Horace better than you do, and rate Churchill much lower; and as for +Swift, you haven't made me alter my opinion. I admire, or rather admit, +his power as much as you do; but I don't admire that kind or power so much +as I did fifteen years ago, or twenty shall we say. Love is a higher +intellectual exercise than hatred; and when you get one or two more of +those young ones you write so pleasantly about, you'll come over to the +side of the kind wags, I think, rather than the cruel ones.' The pathetic +sadness visible in much that he wrote sprung partly from temperament and +partly from his own private calamities. Loss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> of fortune was not the only +cause. When a young man in Paris, he married; and after enjoying domestic +happiness for several years, his wife caught a fever from which she never +afterwards sufficiently recovered to be able to be with her husband and +children. She was henceforth intrusted to the care of a kind family, where +every comfort and attention was secured for her. The lines in the ballad +of the "Bouillabaisse" are supposed to refer to this early time of +domestic felicity:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah me! how quick the days are flitting!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I mind me of a time that's gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When here I'd sit as now I'm sitting,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In this place—but not alone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A fair young form was nestled near me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A dear, dear face looked fondly up,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweetly spoke and smiled to cheer me—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There's no one now to share my cup.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In dictating to his amanuensis during the composition of the lectures on +the "Four Georges," he would light a cigar, pace the room for a few +minutes, and then resume his work with increased cheerfulness, changing +his position very frequently, so that he was sometimes sitting, standing, +walking, or lying about. His enunciation was always clear and distinct, +and his words and thoughts were so well weighed that the progress of +writing was but seldom checked. He dictated with calm deliberation, and +shewed no risible feeling even when he had made a humorous point. His +whole literary career was one of unremitting industry; he wrote slowly, +and like 'George Eliot,' gave forth his thoughts in such perfect form, +that he rarely required to retouch his work. His handwriting was neat and +plain, often very minute; which led to the remark, that if all trades +failed, he would earn sixpences by writing the Lord's Prayer and the Creed +in the size of one. Unlike many men of less talent, he looked upon +caligraphy as one of the fine arts. When at the height of his fame he was +satisfied when he wrote six pages a day, generally working during the day, +seldom at night. An idea which would only be slightly developed in some of +his shorter stories, he treasured up and expanded in some of his larger +works.</p> + +<p>While Alfred Tennyson the future Laureate received the gold medal at +Cambridge given by the Chancellor of the university for the best English +poem, the subject being "Timbuctoo," we find Thackeray satirising the +subject in a humorous paper called "The Snob." Here are a few lines from +his clever skit on the prize poem:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There stalks the tiger—there the lion roars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who sometimes eats the luckless blackamoors;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that he leaves of them the monster throws<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To jackals, vultures, dogs, cats, kites and crows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His hunger thus the forest monster gluts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then lies down 'neath trees called cocoa-nuts.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The personal appearance of Thackeray has been frequently described. His +nose through an early accident, was misshapen; it was broad at the bridge, +and stubby at the end. He was near-sighted: and his hair at forty was +already gray, but massy and abundant—his keen and kindly eyes twinkled +sometimes through and sometimes over his spectacles. A friend remarked +that what he 'should call the predominant expression of the countenance +was courage—a readiness to face the world on its own terms.' Unlike +Dickens, he took no regular walking exercise, and being regardless of the +laws of health, suffered in consequence. In reply to one who asked him if +he had ever received the best medical advice, his reply was: 'What is the +use of advice if you don't follow it? They tell me not to drink, and I +<i>do</i> drink. They tell me <i>not</i> to smoke, and I do smoke. They tell me not +to eat, and I do eat. In short, I do everything that I am desired <i>not</i> to +do—and therefore, what am I to expect?' And so one morning he was found +lying, like Dr. Chalmers, in the sleep of death with his arms beneath his +head, after one of his violent attacks of illness—to be mourned by his +mother and daughters, who formed his household, and by a wider public +beyond, which, had learned to love him through his admirable +works.—<i>Chambers's Journal.</i></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Of Smith, Elder, & Co., the well known publishers.</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Library Magazine of Select Foreign +Literature, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAGAZINE OF SELECT FOREIGN LITERATURE *** + +***** This file should be named 35432-h.htm or 35432-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/4/3/35432/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Christine D. and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature + Volume 1, Part 1 + +Author: Various + +Editor: John B. Alden + +Release Date: March 1, 2011 [EBook #35432] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAGAZINE OF SELECT FOREIGN LITERATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Christine D. and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE + + LIBRARY MAGAZINE + + OF + + Select Foreign Literature. + + VOLUME 1. + + NEW YORK: + JOHN B. ALDEN, PUBLISHER, + 1883. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + + About Locusts. "Chambers's Journal," 511 + Alcohol: Its Action and Uses. J. R. Gasquet, 597 + American View of American Competition. Edward Atkinson, 335 + American Churches, The Historical Aspect of the. Dean Stanley, 641 + An Imperial Pardon. F. A. S., 64 + Art Education in Great Britain. Sir Coutts Lindsay, 477 + Artificial Somnambulism. Richard A. Proctor, 348 + Association of Local Societies, The. J. Clifton Ward, 286 + Atheism and the Church. G. H. Curteis, 217 + Austin, Alfred. Farmhouse Dirge, 177 + Atkinson, Edward. An American View of American Competition, 335 + Baker, H. Barton. Theatrical Makeshifts and Blunders, 22 + Bayne, Thomas. English Men of Letters,--Shelley, 153 + Besant, Walter. Froissart's Love Story, 675 + Biographies of the Season. "London Society," 404 + Black, Algernon. Charles Lamb, 310 + Blackie, John Stuart. On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching + the Classical Languages, 290 + Blaikie, W. G. Ferney in Voltaire's Time and Ferney To-day, 230 + Buchanan, Robert. Sydney Dobell--A Personal Sketch, 538 + Bunbury, Clement. A Visit to the New Zealand Geysers, 761 + Calculating Boys. Richard A. Proctor, 705 + Chapters on Socialism. John Stuart Mill, 257 + Chances of the English Opera, The. Francis Hueffer, 626 + Christmas in Morocco. C. A. P. ("Sarcelle,") 75 + Classical Education, On the Worth of a. Bonamy Price, 297 + Cobbett, William: A Biography. Thomas Hughes, 326 + Commercial Depression and Reciprocity. Bonamy Price, 578 + Contemporary Life and Thought in France. G. Monod, 186 + Contemporary Life and Thought in Russia. T. S., 312 + Contentment. C. C. Fraser-Tytler, 285 + Cooper, Basil H. Fresh Assyrian Finds, 463 + Count Fersen, 244 + Coup d'Etat, A, 21 + Critic on the Hearth, The. James Payn, 696 + Cupid's Workshop. Somerville Gibney, 453 + Curteis, G. H. Atheism and the Church, 217 + Dallas, W. S. Entomology, 470 + Defence of Lucknow, The. Alfred Tennyson, 385 + Desprez, Frank. The Vaquero, 104 + Difficulties of Socialism, The. John Stuart Mill, 385 + Discoveries of Astronomers, The.--Hipparchus. Richard A. Proctor, 237 + Dreamland.--A Last Sketch. Julia Kavanagh, 181 + English Men of Letters.--Shelley. Thomas Bayne, 153 + English Opera, The Chances of. Francis Hueffer, 626 + Entomology. W. S. Dallas, 470 + Ewart, Henry C. The Schoolship Shaftesbury, 204 + Farmhouse Dirge, A. Alfred Austin, 177 + Ferney in Voltaire's Time and Ferney To-day. W. G. Blaikie, 230 + Forbes, Archibald. Plain Words About the Afghan Question, 434 + Fraser-Tytler, C. C. Contentment, 285 + French Novels. "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine," 723 + French Republic and the Catholic Church, The. John Morley, 561 + Fresh Assyrian Finds. Basil H. Cooper, 463 + Friends and Foes of Russia, The. W. E. Gladstone, 129 + Froissart's Love Story. Walter Besant, 675 + Future of India, The. Sir Erskine Perry, 1 + Gasquet, J. R. Alcohol: Its Action and Uses, 597 + Gibney, Somerville. Cupid's Workshop, 453 + Gladstone, W. E. Greece and the Treaty of Berlin, 663 + Gladstone, W. E. Probability as the Guide of Conduct, 513 + Gladstone, W. E. The Friends and Foes of Russia, 129 + Greece and the Treaty of Berlin. W. E. Gladstone, 663 + Greece, The Progress of. R. C. Jebb, 366 + Growth of London, The, 158 + Hamlet, "Mr. Irving's." "Temple Bar," 386 + Happy Valley, The. L. A., 32 + Harrison, Frederic. On the Choice of Books, 414 + Historical Aspect of the American Churches, The. Dean Stanley, 641 + Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets, The--Guarini. T. Adolphus + Trollope, 85 + Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets, The.--Torquato Tasso. Frances + Eleanor Trollope, 434 + Hueffer, Francis. The Chances of the English Opera, 626 + Hughes, Thomas. William Cobbett: A Biography, 326 + Japp, Alex. H. Winter Morn in Country and Winter Morn in Town, 31 + Jebb, R. C. The Progress of Greece, 366 + Kavanagh, Julia. Dreamland: A Last Sketch, 181 + Lamb, Charles. Algernon Black, 310 + Languages, Classical, On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching + the. John Stuart Blackie, 290 + Leicester Square, Some Gossip About, 53 + Lindsay, Sir Coutts. Art Education in Great Britain, 477 + Manzoni's Hymn for Whitsunday. Dean Stanley, 637 + Merivale, Herman C. The Royal Wedding, 508 + Mill, John Stuart. The Difficulties of Socialism, 385 + Mill, John Stuart. Chapters on Socialism, 257 + Mivart, St. George. On the Study of Natural History, 609 + Monod, G. Contemporary Life and Thought in France, 186 + Morley, John. The French Republic and the Catholic Church, 561 + Musical Cultus of the Present Day, The. H. Heathcote Statham, 687 + On a Radical Reform in the Method of Teaching the Classical + Languages. John Stuart Blackie, 290 + On Being Knocked Down and Picked Up Again.--A Consolatory Essay, 209 + On the Choice of Books, Frederic Harrison, 414 + On the Study of Natural History. St. George Mivart, 609 + On the Worth of a Classical Education. Bonamy Price, 297 + Payn, James. The Critic on the Hearth, 696 + Perry, Sir Erskine. The Future of India, 1 + Philological Society's English Dictionary, The. "The Academy," 639 + Phoenicians in Greece, The. A. H. Sayce, 36 + Plain Words About the Afghan Question. Archibald Forbes, 454 + Price, Bonamy. Commercial Depression and Reciprocity, 578 + Price, Bonamy. On the Worth of a Classical Education, 297 + Probability as the Guide of Conduct. W. E. Gladstone, 513 + Progress of Greece, The. R. C. Jebb, 366 + Proctor, Richard A. Artificial Somnambulism, 348 + Proctor, Richard A. Supposed Changes in the Moon, 111 + Proctor, Richard A. Calculating Boys, 705 + Proctor, Richard A. The Discoveries of Astronomers--Hipparchus, 237 + Recollections of Thackeray, 126 + Rose, Edward. Wagner as a Dramatist, 493 + Royal Wedding, The. Herman C. Merivale, 508 + Russia, The Friends and Foes of. W. E. Gladstone, 129 + Sayce, A. H. The Phoenicians in Greece, 36 + Schoolship Shaftesbury. Henry C. Ewart, 204 + Schopenhauer on Men, Books and Music. "Fraser's Magazine," 751 + Some Gossip About Leicester Square, 53 + Socialism, Chapters on. John Stuart Mill, 257 + Socialism, Difficulties of. John Stuart Mill, 388 + Stanley, Dean. Manzoni's Hymn for Whitsunday, 637 + Stanley, Dean. The Historical Aspect of the American Churches, 641 + Statham, H. Heathcote. The Musical Cultus of the Present Day, 687 + Supposed Changes in the Moon. Richard A. Proctor, 111 + Sydney Dobell: A Personal Sketch. Robert Buchanan, 538 + Tasso, Torquato. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets. Frances + Eleanor Trollope, 434 + Tennyson, Alfred. The Defence of Lucknow, 385 + Thackeray, Recollections of, 126 + Theatrical Makeshifts and Blunders. H. Barton Baker, 22 + Their Appointed Seasons. J. G. Wood, 603 + Through the Ages: A Legend of a Stone Axe. "New Quarterly Magazine," 557 + Toilers in Field and Factory. "Time," 483 + Toilers in Field and Factory, No. II.--Characteristics. "Time," 549 + Transvaal, About the. "Chamber's Journal," 330 + Trollope, Frances Eleanor. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian + Poets.--Torquato Tasso, 434 + Trollope, T. Adolphus. The Homes and Haunts of the Italian Poets, 85 + Two Modern Japanese Stories, 105 + Valvedere, Adrian de. A Woman's Love--A Slavonian Study, 59 + Vaquero, The. Frank Desprez, 101 + Visit to the New Zealand Geysers, A. Clement Bunbury, 761 + Wagner as a Dramatist. Edward Rose, 493 + Ward, J. Clifton. The Association of Local Societies, 286 + Winter Morn in Country--Winter Morn in Town. Alex. H. Japp, 31 + Woman's Love. A. A Slavonian Study. Adrian de Valvedere, 59 + Wood, J. G. Their Appointed Seasons, 603 + + + + +THE + +LIBRARY MAGAZINE + +JANUARY, 1879. + + + + +THE FUTURE OF INDIA. + + +Speculation as to the political future is not a very fruitful occupation. +In looking back to the prognostications of the wisest statesmen, it will +be observed that they were as little able to foresee what was to come a +generation or two after their death, as the merest dolt amongst their +contemporaries. The Whigs at the beginning of the last century thought +that the liberties of Europe would disappear if a prince of the House of +Bourbon were securely fixed on the throne of Spain. The Tories in the last +quarter of that century considered that if England lost her American +provinces she would sink into the impotence of the Dutch Republic. The +statesmen who assembled at the Congress of Vienna would have laughed any +dreamer to scorn who should have suggested that in the lifetime of many of +them Germany would become an empire in the hands of Prussia, France a +well-organized and orderly republic, and the "geographical expression" of +Italy vitalised into one of the great powers of Europe. Nevertheless, if +politics is ever to approach the dignity of a science, it must justify a +scientific character by its ability to predict events. The facts are too +complicated, probably, ever to admit the application of exact deductive +reasoning; and in the growth of civilised society new and unexpected forms +are continually springing up. But though practical statesmen will not aim +at results beyond the immediate future, it is impossible for men who pass +their lives in the study of the difficult task of government to avoid +speculations as to the future form of society to which national efforts +should be directed. Some theory or other, therefore, is always present, +consciously or unconsciously, to the mind of politicians. + +With respect to British India it may be observed that very different views +of policy prevail. Native writers in the Indian press view their exclusion +from all the higher offices of Government, and the efforts of Manchester +to transfer 800,000_l._ per annum raised on cotton goods to increased +taxation in India, as a policy based on mere selfishness; and a Russian +journal, apparently in good faith, assured its readers the other day, +that India pays into the British treasury an annual tribute of twenty to +twenty-five millions sterling. On the other hand, some advanced thinkers +amongst ourselves hold that India is a burden on our resources, and the +cry of "Perish India!" so far as relates to its dependence on England, is +considered to be not unsupported by sound reasoning. One of the ablest +publicists of India, in a published letter to Sir George Campbell, has +declared his conviction, after twenty years' experience in that country, +that good government by the British in India is impossible. + +It may be admitted that exaggerated notions as to the pecuniary value of +India to England prevail, and it must also be confessed that, with all our +self-complacency as to the benefits of British rule, we have to accuse +ourselves of several shortcomings. Nevertheless, it may be affirmed with +confidence that the national instinct as to the value of our possessions +in the East coincides with the views of our most enlightened statesmen. My +colleague, Colonel Yule, has pointed out, I think with entire justice, +that the task which we have proposed to ourselves in India, unlike that of +the Dutch in Java, is to improve and elevate the two hundred millions +under our charge to the utmost extent of our powers. The national +conscience is not altogether satisfied with the mode in which some of our +possessions have been acquired, but impartial inquiry demonstrates that +unless a higher morality had prevailed than has ever yet been witnessed +amongst the sons of men, the occasions for conquest and acquisition of +territory that have presented themselves to the British during the last +hundred years would not have been foregone by any nation in the world. But +the feeling I allude to quickens the sense of our obligations to the +inhabitants of India. Having undertaken the heavy task of their +government, it is our duty to demonstrate to posterity that under British +rule we have enabled them to advance in the route of civilization and +progress. We recognise that in all probability so distant and extensive an +empire cannot permanently remain in subjection to a small island in the +West, and therefore our constant task is to render the population of India +at some day or other capable of self-government. Is such a problem +susceptible of a favourable solution? I propose to discuss this question +in the following pages. + + +I. + +The late Sir George Lewis once observed to me that in his opinion, it was +labour lost to endeavour to make anything of the Hindus. They were a race +doomed to subjection whenever they came into collision with peoples more +vigorous than themselves. They possessed, in short, none of the elements +which are requisite for self-government. Any opinion of that philosophic +observer is entitled to grave consideration, and undoubtedly there is much +in the history of the past that tends to justify the above desponding +conclusion. The Persians, the Greeks, the Parthians, the Huns, the Arabs, +the Ghaznivides, the Afghans, the Moguls, the Persians a second time, and +the British have successfully entered India and made themselves masters of +the greater part of it. But Sir George had never been called upon to make +any particular study of Indian history, nor indeed was it open to him +during the earlier period of his life, which was devoted exclusively to +study, to acquire the knowledge of India which later erudition and +research have brought to light. It is possible that a closer attention to +what has occurred in the past may enable us to regard the future in a more +favourable aspect. It will, I think, be found, after such a study, that +more intrinsic vitality and greater recuperative power exist amongst the +Hindu race than they have been generally accredited with. Unfortunately +the ancient and copious literature of the Hindus presents extremely little +of historic value. The tendency of the Indian mind to dreamy speculations +on the unseen and the unknown, to metaphysics, and to poetry, has led to a +thorough disregard of the valuable offices of history. Accordingly, we +find in their great epic poems, which date back, according to the best +orientalists, at least seven centuries before Christ, the few historical +facts which are mentioned so enveloped in legends, so encumbered with the +grossest exaggerations, that it requires assiduous scholarship to extract +a scintilla of truth from their relations. + +Our distinguished countrymen, Sir William Jones and Mr. Colebrooke, led +the way in applying the resources of European learning to the elucidation +of the Sanscrit texts. And the happy identification, by the former, of the +celebrated Chandragupta of the Hindus with the monarch of Pataliputra, +Sandracottus, at whose court Megasthenes resided for seven years in the +third century before Christ, laid the first firm foundation for authentic +Indian history. Since that period the researches of oriental scholars +following up the lines laid down by their illustrious predecessors; the +rock inscriptions which have been collected from various parts of India, +the coins, extending over many ages, of different native dynasties--all +these compared together enable a student even as sceptical as Sir George +Lewis to form a more favourable idea of the Hindus in their political +capacity than he was disposed to take. + +Early European inquirers into Hindu antiquity, with the natural prejudice +in favour of their studies in a hitherto unknown tongue, were disposed to +lend far too credulous an ear to the gross exaggerations and reckless +inaccuracies of the "Mahabharat" and kindred works. James Mill on the +other hand, who was a Positivist before Auguste Comte had begun to write, +rejected with scorn all the allusions to the past in these ancient writers +as entirely fabulous. Careful scholarship, however, working on the +materials of the past which every day's discoveries are increasing, +demonstrates that much true history is to be gathered from the works of +the Sanscrit writers. + +The celebrated granite rock of Girnar[1] in the peninsula of Guzerat +presents in itself an authentic record of three distinct dynasties +separated from one another by centuries. And we owe to what may be justly +called the genius of James Prinsep the decipherment of those inscriptions +of Asoka which have brought to the knowledge of Europe a Hindu monarch of +the third century before our era, who, whilst he has been equalled by few +in the extent of his dominions, may claim superiority over nearly every +king that ever lived, from his tender-hearted regard for the interests of +his people, and from the wide principles of toleration which he +inculcated. + +Horace Wilson, who may be safely cited as the most calm and judicious +oriental scholar of our times, asserts that there is nothing to shock +probability in supposing that the Hindu dynasties, of whom we trace +vestiges, were spread through twelve centuries anterior to the war of the +Mahabharat.[2] This leads us back to dates about 2600 years B.C. We have, +therefore, the astounding period of over four thousand years during which +to glean facts relating to the Hindu race and their capacity for +government, such as may form foundation for conclusions as to the future. +The characteristics which have most impressed themselves on my mind after +such study of Indian records as I have been able to bestow are, first, the +very early appearance of solicitude for the interest and welfare of the +people, as exhibited by Hindu rulers, such as has rarely or never been +exhibited in the early histories of other nations; secondly, the +successful efforts of the Hindu race to re-establish themselves in power +on the least appearance of decay in the successive foreign dynasties which +have held rule among them. It is only with the latter phenomenon that I +propose now to deal, and a rapid retrospect may be permitted. + +We learn from European records that Cyrus made conquests in India in the +sixth century B.C., and the famous inscription of his successor Darius +includes Sind and the modern Afghanistan amongst his possessions. But when +Alexander entered India two centuries later he found no trace of Persian +sway, but powerful Indian princes. Taxiles, Abisares, and the celebrated +Porus ruled over large kingdoms in the Panjab. The latter monarch, whose +family name Paura is recorded in the Mahabharat, is described by the Greek +writers to have ruled over 300 cities, and he brought into the field +against Alexander more than 2,000 elephants, 400 chariots, 4,000 cavalry, +and 50,000 foot. Against this force Alexander was only able to bring +16,000 foot and 5,000 horse; but the bulk of the troops were Macedonians, +and the leader was the greatest general whom the world has seen. We have +full particulars of the celebrated battle which ensued, and which ended in +the complete discomfiture of Porus. The conduct of this Indian king, +however, in the battle extorted the admiration of the Greek historians. He +received nine wounds during the engagement, and was the last to leave the +field, affording, as Arrian remarks, a noble contrast to Darius the +Second, who was the first to fly amongst his host in his similar conflict +with the Greeks. Alexander, as in the Macedonian conquests generally, +left satraps in possession of his Indian acquisitions. But a very few +years ensued before we find a native of India had raised up a mighty +kingdom, and all trace of Greek rule in the Punjab disappears. +Chandragupta, or Sandracottus, is said by a Greek writer to have seen +Alexander in person on the Hydaspes. Justin relates that it was he who +raised the standard of independence before his fellow-countrymen, and +successfully drove out Alexander's satraps. He founded the Maurya dynasty, +and the vast extent of the kingdom ruled over by his grandson Asoka is +testified by the edicts which the latter caused to be engraved in various +parts of his dominions. They also record the remarkable fact of his close +alliance with the Greek rulers of Syria, Egypt, Macedon, Cyrene and +Epirus. We next find that one of the Greek princes who had established an +independent dynasty in Bactria, Euthydemus, invaded India, and made +several conquests, but he also was met in the field and overcome by +Galoka, son of Asoka, who for some time added Cashmir to his possessions. +The Bactrian dynasty was put an end to by Mithridates, 140 B.C., and +consequently the Greeks were driven eastwards, and they planted themselves +in various parts of India. We find clear traces of them in Guzerat, where +the town of Junaghur (Javanaghur) still records the name of the Greeks who +founded the city. The coins and inscriptions of the Sinha rulers of +Guzerat furnish us with some particulars as to the Greek holdings at this +period, and they seem to have extended from the Jumna on the east to +Guzerat and Kutch on the west. The Macedonians seem here, as elsewhere, to +have placed natives at the head of their district administrations, and the +Sinha rulers call themselves Satraps and Maha Rajahs, and use Greek +legends on their coins, but evidently they soon acquired complete +independence. Simultaneously or nearly so with these Indo-Greek +principalities, we find invasions of India by the race commonly called +Scythians, but more accurately Jutchi, Sacae, and White Huns. These also +formed independent kingdoms. But again native leaders of enterprise arose +who put an end to foreign dominion. Vikramadit, who founded an era 57 +B.C., and whose exploits have made a deep impression upon the native mind, +is thought to be one of the Hindu leaders who succeeded in expelling a +foreign dynasty. And it would appear that towards the middle of the third +century after Christ all foreign dominion had disappeared from the soil of +India, except perhaps some small settlements of Jutchi, on the banks of +the Indus; and except the temporary conquest of Sind by the Arabs in the +seventh century, from which they were soon expelled by the Sumea +Rajputs[3]. Thus, during a period of 600 years, we have encountered a +series of invasions and conquests of portions of India by foreign rulers, +but all successively driven out by the energy of native leaders. Thereupon +followed the establishment of native dynasties all over India. It was +chiefly during the 700 years that now ensued, up to the invasion of India +by Mahmud of Ghazni, that the great works of Sanscrit literature in +poetry, grammar, algebra, and astronomy, appeared. During this period also +the Rajputs, who have been well called the Normans of the East, seem to +have found their way to nearly every throne in India. Their acquisition of +power has never been fully traced, and probably the materials are wanting +for any full or accurate account of it; but the subject is well worthy the +attention of an Indian student. + +The Mahomedan conquests which, with the fanaticism and savage intolerance +introduced by them, commenced A.D. 1001, seem to have exercised most +depressing effects on the Hindu mind. But here again we meet with the same +phenomenon. So soon as the Mussulman rule becomes enfeebled, a native +chief rises up who is enabled to rally his countrymen around him and form +a dynasty. Sivaji in 1660-80 established an independency which his +successors, as mayors of the palace, enlarged into a kingdom, out of which +arose the native powers of Sindia, of the Gaekwar, and of the Bhonslas of +Berar. Exactly the same occurrence has been witnessed in the present +century by the success of Ranjit Sing in forming an independent +principality in the Panjab. This remarkable man, who was absolutely +illiterate, by his own energy of character raised himself from the head of +a small Sikh clan to the head of a kingdom with a revenue of two and a +half millions sterling.[4] We may be sure that, if the British had not +been in force, natives of soldierly qualities like Jung Bahadar of Nepal, +or Tantia Topi of the mutinies, would have carved out in the present day +kingdoms for themselves in other parts of India. + + +II. + +It may be thought that in the preceding sketch I have been aiming at the +conclusion that British dominion is in danger of extinction either by +foreign invasion or internal insurrection. Nothing is more foreign from my +views. I firmly believe that British rule in the East was never so strong, +never so able to protect itself against all attacks from without or from +within, as at the present moment. In a foreign dominion such as ours, +where unforeseen contingencies may any day arise, and where a considerable +amount of disaffection must always exist, constant watchfulness on the +part of Government is no doubt required; but this position is thoroughly +recognised by all statesmen who occupy themselves with Indian affairs. I +do not for a moment delude myself with the idea that we have succeeded in +gaining the affections of the natives. No foreign rulers who have kept +themselves apart as a separate caste from the conquered nation have +succeeded in accomplishing this feat. There is something of +incompatibility between the European and Asiatic, which seems to forbid +easy amalgamation. Lord Stowell, in one of his fine judgments, has pointed +out the constant tendency of Europeans in the East to form themselves into +separate communities, and to abstain from all social intercourse with the +natives around them, and he illustrates his position with the happy +quotation-- + + Scyllis amara suam non intermiscuit undam. + +The English perhaps are distinguishable among all European nations by the +deep-rooted notions of self-superiority which their insular position and +great success in history have engendered. The southern races of Europe, +the Spanish and Portuguese, have shown no reluctance to intermix freely +with the native races of America, India, and the Philippines, such as has +always been exhibited by inhabitants of the British Isles when expatriated +to the East or West. But where race, color, religion, prejudice intervene +to prevent social intercourse between the English in India and the +natives, what a wide gulf is placed between them! + +In justice, however, it must be stated that, although the haughtiness of +demeanour and occasional brutality in manners which the _aristocratie de +peau_ sometimes engenders in our countrymen are much to be deprecated, the +estrangement which exists in India between the English and the natives is +not wholly, nor even principally, attributable to the former. A Hindu of +very humble caste would think himself polluted if he sat down to dinner +with the European governor of his Presidency. In this instance, as in so +many others, Hindu opinions have permeated the whole native community; and +other races transplanted to India, such as Mahomedans and Parsis, are +equally exclusive in their social life. When I was in Bombay I made an +attempt to break through the barrier which the latter caste had +voluntarily erected for themselves. Sir Jamshedji Jijibhai, an able, +self-raised man, was then the acknowledged head of the Parsi community, +and was distinguished for his benevolence and enlightened views. I +endeavored to persuade him to set his countrymen an example, and to come +to a dinner at which I would assemble the chief authorities of the island; +and I proposed to him as an inducement that he should send his own cook, +who should prepare for him his wonted fare. But the step was too startling +a one for him, though I was glad to find that his son, the second baronet, +was able to get over his prejudices on his visit, some years after, to +London. A ludicrous example of the same exclusive feeling has been related +in connection with a Governor-General. His lordship, desirous to break +down any notion of social inferiority on the part of a distinguished +native who was paying him a visit, placed his arm round his neck as they +walked up and down a verandah engaged in familiar conversation. The +high-bred Oriental made no sign, but as soon as he could extricate himself +from the embraces of his Excellency, he hastened home to wash away the +contamination of a Mlecha's touch. + +It may also be observed that the mutual repugnance of the two races to +such close social intercourse as intermarriage, for example, would +produce, gives rise to two excellent results. First, there is every reason +to suppose, judging by what we see of the native Portuguese in India, that +the English and Hindu would make, in the language of breeders, a very bad +cross; and it is therefore satisfactory to find that English rulers in +India, unlike the Normans in England, or the Moguls in India, have never +intermarried with the natives of the country. The second result is closely +connected with the first. What has led to the downfall of previous +foreign dynasties has been that the invaders of the country had become +effeminate by their long possession of power, and had lost the original +energy and vigour which had enabled their predecessors to gain a throne. +The constant recruitment of English rulers from their fatherland wholly +prevents this cause of internal decay from making its appearance among the +British. + +It is not, then, by our hold on the affections of the people that we +maintain our dominion in India. The strength and probable endurance of our +rule are based on our real power, on our endeavours to do justice, on our +toleration. The memory of the excesses committed under Mussulman rule has +probably become dim with the great bulk of the people, but it is very +vivid among educated Hindus. A strong conviction prevails among them that +if British rule were to disappear in India, the same rise of military +adventurers, the same struggles for power, and the same anarchy as +prevailed during the first half of the last century would again appear. +The latest expression of Hindu opinion on this subject which I have met +with is contained in a pamphlet published in the present year by Mr. +Dadoba Pandurang.[5] He is an aged scholar, and though not a Brahmin, well +versed in the Vedas, but, above all, he is distinguished by his devout +views and by his desire to elevate and improve his fellow-countrymen. He +writes:-- + + If there is a manifestation of the hand of God in history, + as I undoubtedly believe there is, nothing to my imagination + appears more vivid and replete with momentous events + calculated for the mutual welfare and good of both countries + than this political union of so large, important, rich, and + interesting a country as Hind in the further south-east with + a small but wisely governed island of Great Britain in the + further north-west.... Let us see what England has done to + India. England, besides governing India politically, has now + very wisely commenced the important duty of educating the + millions of her Indian children, and of bringing them up to + the standard of enlightenment and high civilization which + her own have obtained. She has already eradicated, I should + add here, to the great joy of Heaven, several of the most + barbarous and inhuman practices, such as Sutti,[6] + infanticide, Charak Puja,[7] and what not, which had for + ages been prevalent among a large portion of the children of + this her new acquisition. These practices, which had so long + existed at the dictation of an indigenous priesthood, except + for the powerful interference of England could not have been + abolished. + +Opinions like these, I am persuaded, prevail throughout the educated +community, and the presence of British rule amongst them is recognised as +indispensable in the present state of Hindu society. + + +III. + +With respect to a successful invasion of India, it must be confessed that +the English mind has always been keenly susceptible of alarm. The wide +plains of Hisdustan, which offer so ready an access to aggressive armies, +the absence of fortified places, and the frequency with which India has +been won and lost in a single pitched battle, all tend to encourage the +belief that some day or other British domination will be in danger from +some incursion of this sort. It may be observed that for nearly a century +past the English nation has been subjected to periodic fits of Indian +panic. Sir John Kaye, in his "History of the Afghan War," states that in +1797 the whole of India was kept "in a chronic state of unrest" from the +fears of an Afghan descent upon the plains of Hindustan. In 1800 the +Emperor Paul of Russia and Napoleon conceived "a mad and impracticable +scheme of invasion," which greatly increased local alarm. In 1809 these +fears assumed even larger proportions when an alliance between Napoleon +and Persia was on foot with a view to the proposed invasion; and the +mission to Persia under Sir John Malcolm was inaugurated. In 1838 Russia +took the place which Zeman Shah, Persia, and Napoleon had previously +occupied, and the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan was commenced by Lord +Auckland from his mountain retreat at Simla. + +Since that period the suspicions of the nation have been continually +directed against Russia by a small but able party, who, from their chiefly +belonging to the Presidency of Bombay, have been termed the Bombay school. +The late General John Jacob was the originator of the anti-Russian policy +inculcated by them. He was a man of great ability and original views, and, +if he had moved in a wider sphere, he might have left a name equal to that +of the most illustrious of his countrymen in India. But he passed the +greater part of his life on the barren wastes of Sind, and rarely came in +contact with superior minds. In 1856 General Jacob addressed a singularly +able paper to Lord Canning, then Governor-General, and which Sir Lewis +Pelly afterwards published to the world.[8] This was just at the close of +the Crimean War, when England was about to undertake an expedition against +Persia to repel her aggression on Herat. It was Jacob's firm conviction +that, unless India interposed, Russia, having Persia completely under her +control, could, whenever she pleased, take possession not only of Herat, +but of Candahar, and thus find an entrance to the plains of India, on +which our dominion was to disappear. To thwart this contingency, and +render the approach of a European army towards our frontier impossible, he +would, as an ultimate measure, garrison Herat with twenty thousand troops, +but in the first instance would occupy Quetta. These proposals were +carefully considered by Lord Canning's Government, but were rejected. + +The same arguments were brought forward eleven years later by Sir Bartle +Frere, whilst Governor of Bombay, and were laid before the Government of +India. That Government was then remarkably strong, consisting of Lord +Lawrence, Sir William Mansfield (Lord Sandhurst), Sir Henry Maine, Mr. +Massey, and Major-General Sir Henry Durand; but the proposals to improve +our frontier by extending our dominions westward, and by the annexation of +independent foreign territory, were unanimously disapproved of. + +About the same time that Sir Bartle Frere was endeavouring to stimulate +the Government of India to occupy Quetta, my distinguished colleague and +friend, Sir Henry Rawlinson, published two articles in the "Quarterly +Review,"[9] in which he called the attention of the public to the rapidly +increasing extension of the Russian dominions in the direction of our +Indian frontier, and to the necessity of maintaining outworks such as +Herat and Candahar for the protection of our Eastern Empire. But he raised +the question in a more solemn form in the confidential memorandum which he +transmitted to the Government of India in 1868, and which he afterwards +published in 1875,[10] with additional matter, forming a complete +conspectus of the aggressive policy to be adopted to guard against a +Russian invasion. The views of the Government of India on these papers +have not, I believe, been given to the world, but it is well known in +Indian circles that the masterly activity therein advocated did not find +acceptance. + +At the present moment Russophobia is raging to a greater extent than at +any previous period; but this is ground on which for the present I am +precluded from entering. It is gratifying to observe, however, that in the +great conflict of opinion which, as it will be seen, has thus been raging +for the last forty years, as to the best method of protecting our +north-western frontier from an invading foe, both schools have ultimately +agreed on one conclusion, namely, that a successful invasion of India by +Russia is in nowise probable. The one side would avert any possibility of +an attack by the occupation of Afghanistan, the Suleiman mountains, and +probably the Hindu Kush; the other would husband the resources of India, +and not waste blood and treasure in anticipation of a conflict that may +possibly never occur, and that certainly never will occur without years of +warning to the nation. + +I cannot pursue this interesting question further at a moment when the +whole question of our policy on the Indian frontier is ripening for +discussion, and when the materials on which a sound conclusion can be +drawn are not yet laid before the public. It is sufficient for my present +purpose to repeat that the probability of British dominion in the East +being terminated by a Russian invasion is rejected on all sides. + + +IV. + +If the views which have been now put forward are at all sound, we may +perhaps conclude that whilst our Indian empire requires on the part of its +rulers the utmost watchfulness to guard against dangers and contingencies +which may at any moment arise, yet that with ordinarily wise government we +may look forward to a period of indefinitely long duration during which +British dominion may flourish. That sooner or later the links which +connect England with India will be severed, all history teaches us to +expect; but when that severance occurs, if the growing spirit of +philantrophy and increasing sense of national morality which characterise +the nineteenth century continue, we may fairly hope that the Englishman +will have taught the Hindus how to govern themselves. It is England's +task, as heretofore, "to teach other nations how to live." A very long +period, however, is required before the lesson can be fully learned, and +the holders of Indian securities need not fear that the reversionary +interests of their grandchildren will be endangered. Our rule in India +dates back little more than a century; and although from the first a wise +spirit of toleration and an eminent desire to do justice have prevailed, +it is only within the last thirty or forty years that any serious attempts +to elevate the character of the nation have been manifested. + +The educational movement, which is silently producing prodigious changes +in India, received its first impulse from England, and the clause in the +Act of Parliament[11] which recognised the duty of educating the masses, +enabled men like Lord Macaulay, Sir Edward Ryan, and others, to lay the +foundations of a system which has since established itself far and wide. +But the Court of Directors never took heartily to this great innovation of +modern times, and it was only under the direction of English statesmanship +that the Indian authorities were induced to act with vigour in this +momentous undertaking. Sir Charles Wood's celebrated minute on education, +in 1858, laid the foundation of a national system of education, and the +principles then inculcated have never since been departed from. Some +generations will require to pass before the Oriental mind is enabled to +substitute the accurate forms of European thought for the loose +speculations that have prevailed through long centuries. But already happy +results are appearing, and in connection with the subject of this article +it may be noticed as a most hopeful sign of the future that our English +schools are turning out native statesmen by whom all our best methods of +government are being introduced into the dominions of native princes. + +The administration reports of some of these gentlemen may vie with those +of our best English officers; and the names of Sir Dinkar Rao, Sir Madava +Rao, Sir Salar Jung, and others, give full indication that among the +natives of India may be found men eminently qualified for the task of +government. Wittingly or unwittingly, English officials in India are +preparing materials which some day or other will form the groundwork for a +native empire or empires. I was thrown closely into contact with the Civil +Service whilst I was in India, for I employed all my vacations in +travelling through the country, mostly at a foot's pace. Everywhere I went +I found a cultivated English gentleman exerting himself to the best of his +ability to extend the blessings of civilisation--justice, education, the +development of all local resources. I firmly believe that no government in +the world has ever possessed a body of administrators to vie with the +Civil Service of India. Nor do I speak only of the service as it existed +under the East India Company, for, from all that I have heard and +observed, competition supplies quite as good servants of the State as did +in earlier days the patronage of the Court of Directors. The truth is, +that the excellence of the result has been attributable in nowise to the +mode of selection, but to the local circumstances which call forth in +either case, in the young Englishman of decent education and of the moral +tone belonging to the middle classes of this country, the best qualities +of his nature. But in these energetic, high-principled, and able +administrators we have a danger to good government which it is necessary +to point out. Every Englishman in office in India has great power, and +every Englishman, as the late Lord Lytton once observed to me, is in heart +a reformer. His native energy will not enable him to sit still with his +hands before him. He must be improving something. The tendency of the +English official in India is to over-reform, to introduce what he may deem +improvements, but which turn out egregious failures, and this, be it +observed, amongst the most conservative people of the world. Some of the +most carefully devised schemes for native improvement have culminated in +native deterioration. A remarkable illustration of this position is +afforded by the late inquiry into the causes of the riots among the +cultivators of the Deccan. It has been one of the pretensions of British +administration that they have instituted for the first time in India pure +and impartial courts of justice. And the boast is well founded. In the +Presidency of Bombay also the Government has substituted long leases of +thirty years on what may be called Crown Lands for the yearly holdings +formerly in vogue. They have also greatly moderated the assessment. The +result has been that land in the Bombay Presidency from being unsaleable +has acquired a value of from ten to twenty years' purchase. But the effect +of these two measures upon the holders of these lands has been disastrous. +Finding themselves possessed of property on which they could raise money +with facility, they have indulged this national propensity out of all +proportion to their means; and the money-lenders in their turn drag the +improvident borrowers before a court of justice, and obtain decrees upon +the indisputable terms of the contract, which no judge feels competent to +disregard. + +Another danger of the same sort arises from the short term of office which +is allowed to officials in the highest places in India. When the +Portuguese had large dominions in India, they found that their Viceroys, +if permitted to remain a long time in the East, became insubordinate, and +too powerful for the Government at Lisbon to control. They accordingly +passed a law limiting the tenure of office to five years. This limitation +seems to have been adopted tacitly in our Eastern administrative system, +and has undoubtedly been observed for more than a century. But the period +of five years is very short to enable either a Governor-General, or +Governor, or member of Council to leave his mark on the country; and there +is a temptation to attempt something dazzling which would require for its +proper fulfilment years to elaborate, but which, if not passed at the +moment, would fail to illustrate the era. + +It is needless to observe that a series of ill-considered changes, a +constant succession of new laws to be followed by amended laws in the next +session, attempts to change manners and practices (not immoral in +themselves) that have prevailed for centuries, all tend to make a +government, especially a foreign government, odious. But there is one +other rock which it is above all essential to avoid when we are +considering the problem how best to preserve the duration of British +government for the benefit of India. Every ardent administrator desires +improvements in his own department; roads, railways, canals, irrigation, +improved courts of justice, more efficient police, all find earnest +advocates in the high places of government. But improved administration is +always costly, and requires additional taxation. I fear that those in +authority too often forget that the wisest rulers of a despotic government +have always abstained from laying fresh burdens on the people. It is, in +fact, the chief merit of such a government that the taxes are ordinarily +light, and are such as are familiarised by old usage. New taxes imposed +without the will, or any appeal to the judgment, of the people create the +most dangerous kind of disaffection. But if this is true generally, it is +especially true in India, where the population is extremely poor, and +where hitherto the financier has not been enabled to make the rich +contribute their due quota to the revenue of the country. + +It has been said by some that we have not yet reached the limits of +taxation in India, but to them I would oppose the memorable saying of Lord +Mayo towards the close of his career. "A feeling of discontent and +dissatisfaction existed," in his opinion, "among every class, both +European and native, on account of the constant increase of taxation that +had for years been going on;" and he added: "The continuance of that +feeling was a political danger, the magnitude of which could hardly be +over-estimated." The Earl of Northbrook quoted and fully endorsed this +opinion in his examination before the House of Commons in the present +year.[12] + +But although this constant aim at improvement among our English +administrators too often leads to irritating changes, harassing +legislation, and new fiscal charges on the people, causes are at work +which tend to eliminate these obstacles to good and stable government. In +our experimental application of remedies to evils patent on the surface, +our blunders have chiefly arisen from our ignorance of the people. +Institutions that had been seen to work well in Europe might, it was +thought, be transplanted safely to India. Experience alone could teach +that this is often a grievous error; but experience is being daily +afforded by our prolonged rule, and by our increasing acquaintance with +the habits, wants, and feelings of the people. The tendency also to change +and improvement, which I have before observed upon as leading to +ill-considered measures, operates here beneficially, for there is never +any hesitation in a local government to reverse the proceedings of its +predecessors when found to work injuriously for the community. + +But the most cheering symptom of future good government in India is the +increased disposition of British rulers to associate natives of character +and ability with themselves in high offices of administration. Parliament +so long ago as 1833 laid down the principle that no native shall by reason +of his religion, place of birth, or colour, be disabled from holding any +office. Her gracious Majesty also in 1858 proclaimed her will "that so far +as may be, our subjects, of whatever race or creed, be impartially +admitted to offices in our service, the duties of which they may be +qualified by their education, ability, and integrity duly to discharge." + +Many obstacles have hitherto prevailed, chiefly arising out of the vested +interests of a close Civil Service, to prevent full operation being given +to a policy so solemnly laid down. But it is no breach of official +propriety to announce that Lord Cranbrook has earnestly taken up the +proposals of the present Viceroy to clear away the difficulties which have +hitherto intervened, and has sent out a despatch to India which it may be +fairly anticipated will meet the aspirations of educated natives, and will +greatly strengthen the foundations of British government in the East. + +It will thus be seen that several factors are at work which cannot fail, +under the continued rule of the British Government, to have most +beneficial effects on the national character of India. A system of +education is being established which is opening a door for the +introduction of all the knowledge accumulated in Europe, and which sooner +or later must greatly dissipate that ignorance which is at the bottom of +so many obstacles to good government in the East. Equality before the law +and the supremacy of law have been fully brought home to the cognisance of +every inhabitant of India, and they form a striking contrast, fully +appreciated by the Hindus, to the arbitrary decisions and the race +prerogatives which characterised their former Mahomedan rulers. Continuous +efforts at improvement are witnessed in every zillah of India, and if they +sometimes fail in their operation it is still patent that the permanent +welfare of the people is the constant aim and object of Government. +Moreover, the ready ear tendered to any expression of a grievance, the +minute subjection of every act of authority in India, from the deputy +magistrate up to the Governor-General, to the scrutiny of the Home +Government, secure to the meanest inhabitant of India a hearing, and +inspire the consciousness that he also is a member of the State, and that +his rights and interests are fully recognised. The association of natives +with ourselves in the task of government, which has been commenced in the +lower branches of the judicial administration with the greatest success, +and which is now about to be attempted on a larger scale, as I have before +noted, is also a fact of the greatest gravity. On the whole, after very +close attention to Indian administration for nearly forty years, of which +about twelve were spent in the country itself in a position where I was +enabled to take an impartial view of what was going on around me, I am of +opinion that a bright future presents itself, and, if I could see my way +more clearly on the very important questions of caste and of the future +religion of India, I should say a brilliant future, in which perhaps for +centuries to come the supremacy of England will produce the happiest +results in India. + + +V. + +But I must not close this article without reference to the very different +views which have been lately put forth in this Review under the +sensational title of the "Bankruptcy of India." Mr. Hyndman, after much +study of Indian statistics, has arrived at the conclusion that "India has +been frightfully impoverished under our rule, and that the process is +going on now at an increasingly rapid rate." The revenue raised by +taxation is about 36,000,000_l._, and "is taken absolutely out of the +pockets of the people," three-fourths of whom are engaged in agriculture. +The increase of 12,000,000_l._ in the revenue which has occurred between +1857 and 1876 "comes almost entirely out of the pockets of the +cultivators," and "the greater part of the increase of the salt, stamps, +and excise is derived from the same source." The cost of maintaining a +prisoner in the cheapest part of India is 56_s._ a head, or, making +allowance for children, 46_s._; but the poor cultivator has only 31_s._ +6_d._, from which he must also defray the charges "for sustenance of +bullocks, the cost of clothing, repairs to implements, house, &c., and +_for taxation_." + +He states the debt of India to be "enormous," amounting to 220,000,000_l._ +sterling, principally accumulated in the last few years. The railways have +been constructed at ruinous cost, for which the "unfortunate ryot has had +to borrow an additional five or ten or twenty rupees of the native +money-lender at 24, 40, 60 per cent., in order to pay extra taxation." +Irrigation works "tell nearly the same sad tale. Here again millions have +been squandered--squandered needlessly." Moreover, the land is fast +becoming deteriorated or is being worse cultivated. In short, through a +long indictment of twenty-three pages, of which I omit many counts, he +cannot find a single act of British administration that meets his +approval. All is naught. It is true that the Civil Service of India is +composed of men who have gained their posts by means of the best education +that England can supply, and who from an early period of manhood have +devoted their lives to the practical solution of the many difficult +problems which Indian administration presents. But Mr. Hyndman finds fault +with them all. + +The article itself is couched in such an evident spirit of philanthropy +that one feels unwilling to notice pointedly the blunders, the +exaggerations, and the inaccuracies into which the writer has fallen. But +Mr. Hyndman has entered the lists so gallantly with a challenge to all the +Anglo-Indian world, that he of course expects to encounter some hard +knocks, writing, as he does, on a subject with which he has no practical +acquaintance. He has already received "a swashing blow" respecting the +agricultural statistics on which he bases the whole of his argument. On +data supplied to him by an able native writer, whom I know intimately and +for whom I have the highest respect, he has drawn conclusions which are +so manifestly absurd, that all practically acquainted with the subject are +tempted to throw aside his article as mere rubbish. But Mr. Dadobhai, like +himself, has no knowledge of the rural life of India, or of agriculture +generally, or of the practical business of administration. He is a man who +has passed his whole life in cities, an excellent mathematician, of +unwearied industry, and distinguished, even among his countrymen, for his +patriotic endeavours to improve their condition. But the mere study of +books and of figures--especially of the imperfect ones which hitherto have +characterised the agricultural statistics of India--is not sufficient to +constitute a great administrator; and when Mr. Dadobhai, after making +himself prominent by useful work in the municipality of Bombay, was +selected to fill the high office of Prime Minister to the Gaekwar of +Baroda, he was not deemed by his countrymen to have displayed any great +aptitude in statesmanship.[13] + +The alarming picture drawn by Mr. Hyndman on data thus supplied attracted +the attention of the greatest authority in England on agricultural +matters; for intrinsic evidence clearly shows that the letters signed +"C.," which appeared in the _Times_ of the 5th of October and the 9th of +October, can proceed from no other than Mr. Caird. His refutation of Mr. +Hyndman's pessimist views is so short, that I give the pith of it here:-- + + The conclusions arrived at are so startling that though, + like Mr. Hyndman, I have never been in India, I, as an + alarmed Englishman, have tried to test the strength of the + basis upon which they rest. The only _data_ I have at hand + are taken from the figures in the last year's report of the + Punjab. The number of cultivated acres there agrees with + those quoted by Mr. Hyndman--say 21,000,000 acres--and I + adopt his average value of 1_l._ 14_s._ per acre. + + The Government assessment is 1,905,000_l._, to pay which + one-sixth of the wheat crop [the produce of 1,120,000] would + have to be sold and exported. There would remain for + consumption in the country the produce of 5,500,000 acres of + wheat and of 12,000,000 acres of other grain, the two + sufficing to yield for a year 2 lb. per head per day for the + population of 17,000,000, which is more than double the + weight of corn eaten by the people of this country. Besides + this, they would have for consumption their garden + vegetables and milk; and beyond it the money value of + 845,000 acres of oil-seed, 720,000 acres of cotton and hemp, + 391,000 acres of sugar-cane, 120,000 acres of indigo, 69,000 + acres of tobacco, 88,000 acres of spices, drugs, and dyes, + 19,000 acres of poppy, and 8,800 acres of tea; the aggregate + value of which, without touching the corn, would leave + nearly twice the Government assessment. + + Mr. Hyndman has committed the error of arguing from an + English money value at the place of production upon articles + of consumption, the true value of which is their + food-sustaining power to the people who consume them. + +When an argument is thus found so completely _pecher par sa base_, it is +needless to pursue it further. But I conceive that Mr. Hyndman, when +studying this overwhelming refutation, must feel somewhat +conscience-stricken when he reperuses such sentences of his own as the +following:--"In India at this time, millions of the ryots are growing +wheat, cotton, seeds, and other exhausting crops, and send them away +because these alone will enable them to pay their way at all. They are +themselves, nevertheless, eating less and less of worse food each year, in +spite, or rather by reason, of the increasing exports." Thus a farmer is +damaged by finding new markets for his produce! And he sells his wheat, +which is the main produce of his arable land in those parts of India where +it flourishes, to buy some cheaper grain which his land does not grow! The +youngest assistant in a collector's establishment could inform Mr. Hyndman +that the food of the agricultural population of India consists of the +staple most suitable to the soil of the district: in the Punjab wheat, in +Bengal and all well-watered lowlands rice, on the tablelands of the Deccan +jowari (_holcus sorghum_) and bajri (_panicum spicatum_), on the more +sterile plateau of Southern India the inferior grain ragi (_eiuesyne +coracauna_). + +It must have been under the dominion of the idea produced by Mr. +Dadobhai's statistics as to the thoroughly wretched state of the +agricultural population of India that Mr. Hyndman has been led into +exaggerated statements which his own article shows he knew to be +inaccurate. A dreadful case of misgovernment existed in India, and, +thoroughly to arouse his countrymen to the fact, it was necessary to pile +up the agony. Thus, in one part of his article he states that the +"enormous debt" of India amounts to 220,000,000_l._, but in a later +portion he admits that it is only 127,000,000_l._, and he knows full well +that the amount of 100,000,000_l._ of guaranteed railway debt is not only +not a present debt due from Government, but is a very valuable property, +which will probably bring in some millions of revenue when they exercise +their right of buying up the interests of the several guaranteed +companies. + +Again, he speaks throughout his article of the excessive taxation imposed +on the poor, half-starved cultivators; and he gives the following table as +showing the amount "taken absolutely out of the pockets of the people:"-- + + Land revenue L21,500,000 + Excise 2,500,000 + Salt 6,240,000 + Stamps 2,830,000 + Customs 2,720,000 + +He thus maintains that the portion of the rent paid to Government for +occupation of the land is a tax upon the cultivator, which is about as +true as to state that the 67,000,000_l._ of rental in the United Kingdom +is a special tax on the farmers of this country. The amount derived from +excise is chiefly produced by the sale of intoxicating liquors, the use of +which is forbidden by the social and religious views of the natives; and +any contribution to the revenue under this head is clearly a voluntary act +on the part of the transgressor. The revenue from stamps proceeds chiefly +from what may be called taxes on justice; they are, in my opinion, +extremely objectionable, but weighty objections may be urged against +nearly every tax, and a large portion of this tax falls on the wealthier +class of suitors. The amount contributed by the population under the head +of customs, although it may take money out of the pocket of the rayat, +actually adds to his store; for, unless he could buy in the bazaar a piece +of Manchester long-cloth cheaper than an article of domestic manufacture, +it is manifest that he would select the latter. There remains only the +single article of salt on which the cultivator undoubtedly is taxed, and +which forms the sole tax from which he cannot escape. This tax also is +extremely objectionable in theory, more perhaps than in practice, for it +amounts to about 7-1/2_d._ per head. But even if we take the whole amount +of taxation as shown by Mr. Hyndman, excluding the land revenue or rental +of the land, the average per head is only 1_s._ 6_d._, of which more than +one-third can be avoided at the pleasure of any individual consumer. It is +not, then, a misstatement to aver that the population of India is more +lightly taxed than any population in the world living under an orderly +government. + +I have thus far thought it my duty to expose what I believe to be grave +errors in Mr. Hyndman's sensational article. But I should do him great +injustice if I did not admit that he has brought out in vivid colours some +very important facts. It is true that these facts are well known to Indian +administrators, but they are facts disagreeable to contemplate, and are +therefore slurred over willingly; but they have such important bearing on +the proceedings of Government in India that they cannot be too frequently +paraded before the public eye. + +The first of these truths is the undeniable poverty of the great bulk of +the population. But here Mr. Hyndman does not appear to me to have taken +full grasp of the fact, or to have ascertained its causes. The dense +population of India, amounting in its more fertile parts to six and seven +hundred per square mile, is almost exclusively occupied in agricultural +pursuits. But the land of India has been farmed from time immemorial by +men entirely without capital. A farmer in this country has little chance +of success unless he can supply a capital of 10_l._ to 20_l._ an acre. If +English farms were cultivated by men as deficient in capital as the Indian +rayats, they would be all thrown on the parish in a year or two. The +founder of a Hindu village may, by aid of his brethren and friends, have +strength enough to break up the jungle, dig a well, and with a few rupees +in his pocket he may purchase seed for the few acres he can bring under +the plough. If a favourable harvest ensue, he has a large surplus, out of +which he pays the _jamma_ or rent to Government. But on the first failure +of the periodical rains his withered crops disappear, he has no capital +wherewith to meet the Government demand, to obtain food for his family and +stock, or to purchase seed for the coming year. To meet all these wants he +must have recourse to the village money-lender, who has always formed as +indispensable a member of a Hindu agricultural community as the ploughman +himself. + +From time immemorial the cultivator of the soil in India has lived from +hand to mouth, and when his hand could not supply his mouth from the +stores of the last harvest he has been driven to the local saukar or +money-lender to obtain the means of existence. This is the first great +cause of India's poverty. The second is akin to it, for it exists in the +infinite divisibility of property which arises under the Hindu system of +succession, and which throws insuperable obstructions to the growth of +capital. The rule as to property in Hindu life is that all the members of +a family, father, grandfather, children, and grandchildren, constitute an +undivided partnership, having equal shares in the property, although one +of them, generally the eldest, is recognised as the manager. It is in the +power of any member to sever himself from the family group, and the +tendency of our Government has been to encourage efforts of what may be +called individualism. But the new stock is but the commencement of another +undivided family, so strong is the Hindu feeling in favour of this +time-honoured custom. It is obvious that where the skill, foresight, and +thriftiness required for the creation of capital may be thwarted by the +extravagance or carelessness of any one of a large number of partners, its +growth must be seriously impeded. + +It will be seen, if the above arguments are sound, that the obstructions +which oppose themselves to the formation of capital arise out of +immemorial usages, and are irremediable by any direct interference of +Government. But whatever may be the causes of this national poverty, the +fact is undoubted, and it cannot be too steadily contemplated by those who +desire to rely on fresh taxation for their favourite projects, whether it +be for improved administration, for magnificent public works, or for the +extension of our dominions. Mr. Hyndman also points out the great +expensiveness of a foreign government, and his remarks on this subject are +undoubtedly true. The high salaries required to tempt Englishmen of +suitable qualifications to expatriate themselves for the better part of +their lives, and the heavy dead weight of pensions and furlough charges +for such officials, form, no doubt, a heavy burden on the resources of +India. The costliness of a European army is, of course, also undoubtedly +great. But these are charges which, to a less or greater degree, are +inseparable from the dominion of a foreign government. The compensation +for them is to be found in the security they provide against a foreign +invader or against internal disturbances, and the protection they afford, +in a degree hitherto unknown in India, to life, property, and character. +But Mr. Hyndman's diatribes are useful in pointing to the conclusion that +all the efforts of Government should be directed towards the diminution of +these charges, where compatible with efficiency, and his striking contrast +of the home military charges in 1862-63, which then amounted to 28_l._ +3_s._, and now have risen in the present year to 66_l._, deserves most +serious consideration. + +There is only one other statement of Mr. Hyndman which I desire to notice. +He declares the general opinion of the natives to be that life, as a +whole, has become harder since the English took the country, and he adds +his own opinion that the fact is so. Mr. Hyndman, as we have seen, knows +but little of the actual life of the agricultural population, and of their +state under native rule he probably knows less. But I am inclined to think +he fairly represents a very prevailing belief amongst the natives. A vivid +indication of this native feeling is given in the most instructive work on +Hindu rural life that I have ever met with.[14] Colonel Sleeman thus +recounts a conversation he held with some natives in one of his rambles-- + + I got an old landowner from one of the villages to walk on + with me a mile and put me in the right road. I asked him + what had been the state of the country under the former + government of the Jats and Mahrattas, and was told that the + greater part was a wild jungle. "I remember," said the old + man, "when you could not have got out of the road hereabouts + without a good deal of risk. I could not have ventured a + hundred yards from the village without the chance of having + my clothes stripped off my back. Now the whole country is + under cultivation, and the roads are safe. Formerly the + governments kept no faith with their landowners and + cultivators, exacting ten rupees where they had bargained + for five whenever they found their crops good. But in spite + of all this _zulm_ (oppression) there was then more _burkul_ + (blessings from above) than now; the lands yielded more to + the cultivator." + +Colonel Sleeman on the same day asked a respectable farmer what he thought +of the latter statement. He stated: "The diminished fertility is owing, no +doubt, to the want of those salutary fallows which the fields got under +former governments, when invasions and civil wars were things of common +occurrence, and kept at least _two-thirds of the land waste_." + +The fact is that, under an orderly government like ours, the causes +alluded to above as impeding the growth of capital become very much +aggravated. Population largely increases, waste lands are brought under +the plough, grazing grounds for stock disappear, and the fallows, formerly +so beneficial in restoring fertility to the soil, can no longer be kept +free from cultivation. All these considerations form portions of the very +difficult problems in government which day by day present themselves to +the Indian administrator. But does Mr. Hyndman think they are to be solved +by recurrence to the native system of government; by the substitution of a +local ruler, sometimes paternal, more frequently the reverse, for the +courts of justice which now administer the law which can be read and +understood by all; by civil contracts being enforced by the armed servant +of the creditor, instead of by the officers of a court acting under +strict surveillance; by the land assessment being collected year by year +through the farmers of the revenue according to their arbitrary will, +instead of being payable in a small moderate[15] sum, unalterable for a +long term of years? If he thinks this--and his allusion to the system of +the non-regulation provinces favours the conclusion--he will not find, I +think, an educated native in the whole of India who will agree with him. + +There are great harshnesses in our rule, there is a rigidity and +exactitude of procedure which is often distasteful to native opinion, +there are patent defects arising out of our attempts to administer +justice, there is great irritation at our constant and often ill-conceived +experiments in legislation, there is real danger in the fresh burdens we +lay upon the people in our desire to carry out apparently laudable +reforms. But with all these blemishes, which have only to be distinctly +perceived to be removed from our administrative system, the educated +native feels that he is gradually acquiring the position of a freeman, and +he would not exchange it for that which Mr. Hyndman appears to desiderate. + + E. PERRY, _in Nineteenth Century_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] This rock on its eastern face contains the decrees of Asoka, who began +to reign 263 B.C.; on the western face is the inscription of Rudradaman, +one of the Satrap-rulers under an Indian Greek dynasty, circa 90 B.C.; and +the northern face presents the inscription of Skandagupta, 240 A.D. + +[2] Preface to _Vishnu Purana_. + +[3] Elphinstone, _History of India_, vol. i. p. 511. + +[4] See Aitcheson, _Treaties_, vol. vi. p. 18. + +[5] _A Hindu Gentleman's Reflections._ Spiers, London, 1878. + +[6] Widow-burning. + +[7] The swing-sacrifice. + +[8] _Views and Opinions of General John Jacob._ London, 1858. + +[9] October 1865, and October 1866. + +[10] _England and Russia in the East._ Murray. + +[11] 59 Geo. III. c. 55, s. 43. + +[12] _Report on East India Public Works_, p. 85. + +[13] The career of Mr. Dadobhai Naoroji illustrates in a remarkable manner +the operation of the system of education introduced under our government. +A Parsi, born in Bombay of very poor parents, he received his education at +the Elphinstone College, where he displayed so much intelligence that in +1845 an English gentleman, desirous to open up a new career for educated +natives, offered to send him to England to study for the bar if any of the +wealthy merchants of his community would pay half the expenses. But in +those days the Parsis, like the Hindus, dreaded contact with England, and +the offer fell to the ground. Dadobhai continued at the College, where he +obtained employment as a teacher, and subsequently became professor of +mathematics, no native having previously filled such a post. In 1845 he +left scholastics and joined the first native mercantile house established +in London. This firm commenced with great success, and Dadobhai no sooner +found himself master of 5,000l. than he devoted it to public objects in +his native city. The house of Messrs. Cama subsequently failed, and +Dadobhai returned to Bombay, where, as above noted, he took an active part +in municipal affairs, and was subsequently appointed Dewan to the Gaekwar. +He is now carrying on business as a merchant on his own account in London. + +[14] _Rambles of an Indian Official_, 1844. + +[15] So long ago as the period when Colonel Sleeman wrote, the principle +was fully established as to the moderation to be observed in the +Government assessment. He says: "We may rate the Government share at +one-fifth as the maximum and one-tenth as the minimum of the gross +produce." (_Rambles of an Indian Official_, vol i. p. 251.) In the Blue +Book laid before Parliament last Session on the Deccan riots, it will be +seen that the Government share in the gross produce of those districts +where a high assessment was supposed to have created the disturbances was +only one-thirteenth. + + + + +A COUP D'ETAT. + + + If little seeds by slow degree + Put forth their leaves and flowers unheard, + Our love had grown into a tree, + And bloomed without a single word + + I haply hit on six o'clock, + The hour her father came from town; + I gave his own peculiar knock, + And waited slyly, like a clown. + + The door was open. There she stood, + Lifting her mouth's delicious brim. + How could I waste a thing so good! + I took the kiss she meant for him. + + A moment on an awful brink-- + Deep breath, a frown, a smile, a tear; + And then, "O Robert, don't you think + That that was rather--_cavalier_?" [_London Society._ + + + + +THEATRICAL MAKE-SHIFTS AND BLUNDERS. + + +It is a generally received opinion that all stage wardrobes are made up of +tawdry rags, and that the landscapes and palaces that look so charming by +gaslight are but mere daubs by day. But there are wardrobes _and_ +wardrobes, scenery and scenery. The dresses used for some great "get up" +at the opera houses, or at the principal London and provincial theatres, +are costly and magnificent; the scenery, although painted for distance and +artificial light, is really the product of artists of talent, and there is +an attention to reality in all the adjuncts that would quite startle the +believers in the tinsel and tawdry view. A millionaire might take a lesson +from the stage drawing-rooms of the Prince of Wales and the Court +theatres, and no cost is spared to procure the _real_ article, whatever it +may be, that is required for the scene. These minutiae of realism, however, +are quite a modern idea, dating no farther back than the days of +Boucicault and Fechter. Splendid scenery and gorgeous dresses for the +legitimate dramas were introduced by John Kemble, and developed to the +utmost extent by Macready and Kean; but it was reserved for the present +decade to lavish the same attention and expenses upon the petite drama. +Half a century ago the property maker manufactured the stage furniture, +the stage books, the candelabra, curtains, cloths, pictures, &c., out of +papier mache and tinsel; and the drawing-room or library of a gentleman's +mansion thus presented bore as much resemblance to the reality as sea-side +furnished lodgings do to a ducal palace. Before the Kemble time a green +baize, a couple of chairs and a table, sufficed for all furnishing +purposes, whether for an inn or a palace. + +In these days of "theatrical upholstery," we can scarcely realize the +shabbiness of the stage of the last century. There were a few handsome +suits for the principal actors, but the less important ones were +frequently dressed in costumes that had done service for fifty years, +until they were worn threadbare and frequently in rags. Endeavour to +realise upon the modern stage such a picture as this given by Tate +Wilkinson, of his appearance at Covent Garden as "The Fine Gentleman," in +"Lethe." "A very short old suit of clothes, with a black velvet ground, +and broad, gold flowers as dingy as the twenty-four letters on a piece of +gingerbread; it had not seen the light since the first year Garrick played +'Lothario,' at the theatre. Bedecked in that sable array for the modern +'Fine Gentleman,' and to make the appearance complete, I added an old red +surtout, trimmed with a dingy white fur, and a deep skinned cape of the +same hue, borrowed by old Giffard, I was informed, at Lincoln's Inn Fields +Theatre, to play 'King Lear' in." When West Digges appeared at the +Haymarket as Cardinal Wolsey, it was in the identical dress that Barton +Booth had worn in Queen Anne's time: a close-fitting habit of gilt leather +upon a black ground, black stockings, and black gauntlets. No wonder +Foote, who was in the pit, exclaimed, upon the appearance of this +extraordinary figure, "A Roman sweep on May-day!" When Quin played the +youthful fascinating Chamont, in Otway's "Orphan," he wore a long grisly +half-powdered periwig, hanging low down each side his breast and down his +back, a huge scarlet coat and waistcoat, heavily trimmed with gold, black +velvet breeches, black silk neckcloth, black stockings, a pair of +square-toed shoes, with an old-fashioned pair of stone buckles, stiff +high-topped white gloves, with a broad old scolloped lace hat. Such a +costume upon a personage not in his first youth, and more than inclined to +obesity, must have had an odd effect. But then, as is well known, Garrick +played "Macbeth" in a scarlet coat and powdered wig; John Kemble performed +"Othello" in a full suit of British scarlet regimentals, and even when he +had gone so far as to dress "Macbeth" as a highlander of 1745, wore in his +bonnet a tremendous hearse plume, until Scott plucked it out, and placed +an eagle's feather there in its stead. The costumes of the ladies were +almost more absurd. Whether they appeared as Romans, Greeks, or females of +the Middle Ages, they dressed the same--in the huge hoop, and powdered +hair raised high upon the head, heavy brocaded robes that required two +pages to hold up, without whose assistance they could scarcely have moved; +and servants were dressed quite as magnificently as their mistresses. + +In scenery there was no attempt at "sets;" a drop, and a pair of "flats," +dusty and dim with age, were all the scenic accessories; and two or three +hoops of tallow candles, suspended above the stage, were all that +represented the blaze of gas and lime-light to which we are accustomed. +The candle-snuffer was a theatrical post of some responsibility in those +days. Garrick was the first who used concealed lights. The uncouth +appearance of the stage was rendered still worse on crowded nights by +ranges of seats raised for spectators on each side. The most ridiculous +_contretemps_ frequently resulted from this incongruity. Romeo, sometimes, +when he bore out the body of Juliet from the solitary tomb of the +Capulets, had to almost force his way through a throng of beaux, and +Macbeth and his lady plotted the murder of Duncan amidst a throng of +people. + +One night, Hamlet, upon the appearance of the Ghost, threw off his hat, as +usual, preparatory to the address, when a kind-hearted dame, who had heard +him just before complain of its being "very cold," picked it up and +good-naturedly clapped it upon his head again. A similar incident once +happened during the performance of Pizarro. Elvira is discovered asleep +upon a couch, gracefully covered by a rich velvet cloak; Valverde enters, +kneels and kisses her hand; Elvira awakes, rises and lets fall the +covering, and is about to indignantly repulse her unwelcome visitor, when +a timid female voice says: "Please, ma'am, you've dropped your mantle," +and a timid hand is trying to replace it upon the tragedy queen's +shoulders. Of another kind, but very much worse, was an accident that +befell Mrs. Siddons at Edinburgh, at the hands of another person who +failed to distinguish between the real person and the counterfeit. Just +before going on for the sleep-walking-scene, she had sent a boy for some +porter, but the cue for her entrance was given before he returned. The +house was awed into shuddering silence as, in a terrible whisper, she +uttered the words "Out, out, damned spot!" and with slow mechanical action +rubbed the guilty hands; when suddenly there emerged from the wings a +small figure holding out a pewter pot, and a shrill voice broke the awful +silence with "Here's your porter, mum." Imagine the feelings of the +stately Siddons! The story is very funny to read, but depend upon it the +incident gave her the most cruel anguish. + +It is not, however, to the uninitiated outsiders alone we are indebted for +ludicrous stage contretemps; the experts themselves have frequently given +rise to them. All readers of Elia will remember the name of Bensley, one +of "the old actors" upon whom he discourses so eloquently--a grave precise +man, whose composure no accident could ruffle, as the following anecdote +will prove. One night, as he was making his first entrance as Richard +III., at the Dublin Theatre, his wig caught upon a nail in the side scene, +and was dragged off. Catching his hat by the feather, however, he calmly +replaced it as he walked to the centre of the stage, but left his _hair_ +still attached to the nail. Quite unmoved by the occurrence, he commenced +his soliloquy; but so rich a subject could not escape the wit of an Irish +audience. "Bensley, darlin'," shouted a voice from the gallery, "put on +your jaisey!" "Bad luck to your politics, will you suffer a _whig_ to be +hung?" shouted another. But the tragedian, deaf to all clamour, never +faltered, never betrayed the least annoyance, spoke the speech to the end, +stalked to the wing, detached the wig from the nail, and made his exit +with it in his hand. + +Novices under the influence of stage fright will say and do the most +extraordinary things. Some years ago, I witnessed a laughable incident +during the performance of "Hamlet" at a theatre in the North. Although a +very small part, consisting as it does of only one speech, the "Second +Actor" is a very difficult one, the language being peculiarly cramped. In +the play scene he assassinates the player king by pouring poison into his +ear. The speech preceding the action is as follows: + + Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; + Confederate season, else no creature seeing; + Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, + With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, + Thy natural magic and dire property + On wholesome life usurp immediately. + +Upon which follows the stage direction--"_Pours poison into his ear._" + +In a play of so many characters as Hamlet, such a part, in a second-class +theatre, can be given only to a very inferior performer. The one to whom +it was entrusted on the present occasion was a novice. Muffled in a black +coat and a black slouched hat, and with a face half hidden by burnt cork, +he looked a most villainous villain, as he stole on and gazed about in the +most approved melo-dramatic fashion. Then he began, in a strong north +country brogue,-- + + Thoughts black, hands apt,-- + +then his memory failed him, and he stuck fast. The prompter whispered +"drugs fit;" but stage fright had seized him, and he could not take the +word. He tried back, but stuck again at the same place. Half-a-dozen +people were all prompting him at the same time now, but all in vain. At +length one more practical than the rest whispered angrily, "Pour the +poison in his ear and get off." The suggestion restored a glimmering of +reason to the trembling, perspiring wretch. He could not remember the +words of Shakespeare, so he improvised a line. Advancing to the sleeping +figure, he raised the vial in his hand, and in a terribly tragic tone +shouted, "Into his ear-hole this I'll _power_!" + +Some extraordinary and agonising mistakes, for tragedians, have been made +in what are called the flying messages in "Richard III." and "Macbeth," by +novices in their nervousness mixing up their own parts with the context; +as when Catesby rushed on and cried, "My lord, the Duke of Buckingham's +taken." There he should have stopped while Richard replied, "Off with his +head! so much for Buckingham!" But in his flurry the shaking messenger +added, "and they've cut off his head!" With a furious look at having been +robbed of one of his finest "points," the tragedian roared out, "Then, +damn you, go and stick it on again!" Another story is told of an actor +playing one of the officers in the fifth act of "Macbeth." "My lord," he +has to say, "there are ten thousand----" "Geese, villain," interrupts +Macbeth. "Ye--es, my lord!" answered the messenger, losing his memory in +his terror. + +But a far more dreadful anecdote is related of the same play. A star was +playing the guilty Thane in a very small company, where each member had to +sustain three or four different characters. During the performance the man +appointed to play the first murderer was taken ill. There was not another +to be spared, and the only resource left was to send on a supernumerary, +supposed to be intelligent, to stand for the character. "Keep close to the +wing," said the prompter; "I'll read you the words, and you can repeat +them after me." The scene was the banquet; the supper was pushed on, and +Macbeth, striding down the stage, seized his arm and said in a stage +whisper, "There's blood upon thy face." "'Tis Banquo's, then," was the +prompt. Lost and bewildered--having never spoken in his life before upon +the stage--by the tragedian's intense yet natural tones, the fellow, +imitating them in the most confidential manner, answered, "Is there, by +God?" put his hand up to his forehead, and, finding it stained with rose +pink, added, "Then the property man's served me a trick!" + +Once upon a time I was present at the performance of the celebrated dog +piece, "The Forest of Bondy," in a small country theatre. The plot turns +upon a well-known story, the discovery of a murder through the sagacity of +the victim's dog. The play-bill descanted most eloquently upon the +wonderful genius of the "highly trained" animal, and was sufficient to +raise expectation on tip-toe. Yet it had evidently failed to impress the +public of this town, their experiences probably having rendered them +sceptical of such pufferies, for the house was miserably bad. The first +entrance of "the celebrated dog Caesar," however, in attendance upon his +master, was greeted with loud applause. He was a fine young black +Newfoundland, whose features were more descriptive of good nature than +genius. He sat on his haunches and laughed at the audience, and pricked up +his ears at the sound of a boy munching a biscuit in the pit. I could +perceive he was a novice, and that he would forget all he had been taught +when he came to the test. While Aubrey, the hero, is passing through a +forest at night, he is attacked by two ruffians, and after a desperate +combat is killed; the dog is supposed to be kept out of the way. But in +the very midst of the fight, Caesar, whose barking had been distinctly +heard all the time, rushed on the stage. Far from evincing any ferocity +towards his master's foes, he danced about with a joyous bark, evidently +considering it famous fun. Aubrey was furious, and kicked out savagely at +his faithful "dawg," thereby laying himself open to the swords of his +adversaries, who, however, in consideration that the combat had not been +long enough, generously refused the advantages. "Get off, you beast!" +growled Aubrey, who evidently desired to fight it out without canine +interference. At length, when the faltering applause from the gallery +began to show that the gods had had enough of it, the assassins buried +their swords beneath their victim's arms, and he expired in great agony; +Caesar looking on from the respectful distance to which his master's kick +had sent him, with the unconcern of a person who had seen it all done at +rehearsal and knew it was all sham, but with a decided interest of eye and +ear in the direction of the biscuit-muncher. In the next act he was to +leap over a stile and ring the bell at a farm house, and, having awakened +the inhabitants, seize a lantern which is brought out, and lead them to +the spot where the villains have buried his master. After a little +prompting Caesar leaped the stile and went up to the bell, round the handle +of which was twisted some red cloth to imitate meat; but there never was a +more matter-of-fact dog than this; he evidently hated all shams, even +artistic ones; and after a sniff at the red rag he walked off disgusted, +and could not be induced to go on again; so the people had to rush out +without being summoned, carry their own lantern, and find their way by a +sort of canine instinct, or scent, to the scene of the murder. But Caesar's +delinquencies culminated in the last scene, where, after the chief +villain, in a kind of lynch law trial, has stoutly asserted his innocence, +the sagacious "dawg" suddenly bounds upon the stage, springs at his +throat, and puts an end to his infamous career. Being held by the collar, +and incited on, in the side scene, Caesar's deep bark sounded terribly +ferocious, and seemed to foreshadow a bloody catastrophe; but his bark +proved worse than his bite, for when released he trotted on with a most +affable expression of countenance, his thoughts still evidently bent upon +biscuits; in vain did the villain show him the red pad upon his throat and +invite him to seize it. Caesar had been deceived once, and scorned to +countenance an imposition. Furious with passion, the villain rushed at +him, drew him up on his hind legs, clasped him in his arms, then fell upon +the stage and writhed in frightful agonies, shrieking, "Mussy, mussy, take +off the dawg!" and the curtain fell amidst the howls and hisses of the +audience. + +Another laughable dog story, although of a different kind, was once +related to me by a now London actor. In a certain theatre in one of the +great northern cities business had been so bad for some time that salaries +were very irregularly paid. It is a peculiarity of the actor that he is +never so jolly, so full of fun, and altogether so vivacious, as when he is +impecunious. In prosperity he is dull and melancholy; the yellow dross +seems to weigh down his spirit, to stultify it; empty his pockets, and it +etherialises him. At the theatre in question, the actors amused themselves +if they failed to amuse the audience. Attached to this house was a mongrel +cur, whom some of them had taught tricks to while away the tedium of long +waits. "Jack"--such was his name--was well known all round the +neighbourhood, and to most of the _habitues_ of the house. Among his other +accomplishments he could simulate death at command, and could only be +recalled to life by a certain piece of information to be presently +mentioned. One night the manager was performing "The Stranger" to about +half-a-dozen people. Francis was standing at the wing waiting for his cue +when his eye fell upon Jack, who was standing just off the stage on the +opposite side; an impish thought struck him--he whistled--Jack pricked up +his ears, and Francis slapped his leg and called him. Obedient to the +summons Jack trotted before the audience, but as he reached the centre of +the stage the word "dead!" struck upon his ear. The next moment he was +stretched motionless with his two hind legs sticking up at an angle of +forty-five degrees. The scene was the one in which the Stranger relates to +Baron Steinfort the story of his wrongs, and he had come to the line, "My +heart is like a close-shut sepulchre," when a burst of laughter from the +front drew his attention to Jack. He saw the trick that had been played in +an instant. "Get off, you brute!" he growled, giving the animal a kick. +But Jack was too highly trained to heed such an admonition, having learned +beforehand that the kicking was not so bad as the flogging he would get +for not performing his part correctly. "Doan't tha' kick poor Jack," +called out a rough voice, "give un the word." "Ay, ay, give un the word," +echoed half-a-dozen voices. The manager knew better than to disregard the +advice of his patrons, and ground out between his teeth, "Here's a +policeman coming." At that "open Sesame" Jack was up and off like a shot. +It must have been one of the finest bits of burlesque to have seen that +black-ringlet-wigged, sallow, dyspeptic, tragic-looking individual, +repeating the clown's formula over a mangy cur. + +The failure or forgetfulness of stage properties is frequently a source of +ludicrous incidents. People are often killed by pistols that will not +fire, or stabbed with the butt ends. In some play an actor has to seize a +dagger from a table and stab his rival. One night the dagger was forgotten +and no substitute was there, _except a candle_, which the excited actor +wrenched from the candlestick, and madly plunged _at_ his opponent's +breast; but it effected its purpose, for the victim expired in strong +convulsions. It is strange how seldom the audience perceive such +_contretemps_, or notice the extraordinary and ludicrous slips of the +tongue that are so frequent upon the stage. + +A playbill is not always the most truth-telling publication in the world. +Managers, driven to their wits' ends to draw a sluggish public, often +announce entertainments which they have no means of producing properly, or +even at all, and have to exercise an equal amount of ingenuity to find +substitutes, or satisfy a deluded audience. Looking through some +manuscript letters of R. B. Peake's the other day, I came across a capital +story of Bunn. While he was manager of the Birmingham Theatre, Power, the +celebrated Irish comedian, made a starring engagement with him. It was +about the time that the dramatic version of Mrs. Shelley's +"Frankenstein"--done, I believe, by Peake himself--was making a great +sensation, and Power announced it for his benefit, playing "the Monster" +himself. The manager, however, refused to spend a penny upon the +production. "You must do with what you can find in the theatre," he said. +There was only one difficulty. In the last scene Frankenstein is buried +beneath an avalanche, and among the stage scenery of the Theatre Royal, +Birmingham, there was nothing resembling an avalanche to be found, and the +AVALANCHE was the one prodigious line in the playbill. Power was +continually urging this difficulty, but Bunn always eluded it with, "Oh, +we shall find something or other." At length it came to the day of +performance, and the problem had not yet been solved. + +"Well, we shall have to change the piece," said Power. + +"Pooh, pooh! nonsense!" answered the manager. + +"There is no avalanche, and it is impossible to be finished without." + +"Can't you cut it out?" + +"Impossible." + +The manager fell into a brown study for a few moments. Then suddenly +brightening up, he said, "I have it; but they must let the green curtain +down instantly on the extraordinary effect. Hanging up in the flies is the +large elephant made for 'Blue Beard;' we'll have it whitewashed." + +"What?" exclaimed Power. + +"We'll have it whitewashed," continued the manager coolly; "what is an +avalanche but a vast mass of white? When Frankenstein is to be +annihilated, the carpenters shall shove the whitened elephant over the +flies--destroy you both in a moment--and down comes the curtain." + +As there was no other alternative, Power e'en submitted. The whitened +elephant was "shoved" over at the right moment, the effect was appalling +from the front, and the curtain descended amidst loud applause. + +Not quite so successful was a hoax perpetrated by Elliston, during _his_ +management of the Birmingham Theatre, many years previously. Then, also, +business had been very bad, and he was in great difficulties. Let us give +the managers their due. They do not, as a rule, resort to swindles except +under strong pressure; then they soothe their consciences with the +reflection that as an obtuse and ungrateful public will not support their +legitimate efforts, it deserves to be swindled. And a very good reflection +it is--from a managerial point of view. No man was more fertile in +expedients than Robert William Elliston; so after a long continuance of +empty benches, the walls and boardings of the town were one morning +covered with glaring posters announcing that the manager of the Theatre +Royal had entered into an engagement with a BOHEMIAN of extraordinary +strength and stature, who would perform some astonishing evolutions with a +stone of upwards of a ton weight, which he would toss about as easily as +another would a tennis-ball. What all the famous names of the British +drama and all the talents of its exponents had failed to accomplish, was +brought about by a stone, and on the evening announced for its appearance +the house was crammed to the ceiling. The exhibition was to take place +between the play and the farce, and scarcely had the intellectual audience +patience to listen to the piece, so eager were they for the noble +entertainment that was to follow. At length, much to their relief, the +curtain fell. The usual interval elapsed, the house became impatient, +impatience soon merged into furious clamour. At length, with a pale, +distraught countenance, Elliston rushed before the curtain. In a moment +there was a breathless silence. + +"The Bohemian has deceived me!" were his first words. "_That_ I could have +pardoned; but he has deceived you, my friends, _you_;" and his voice +trembled, and he hid his face behind his handkerchief and seemed to sob. + +Then, bursting forth again, he went on: "I repeat, he has deceived me; he +is not here." + +A yell of disappointment burst from the house. + +"The man," continued Elliston, raising his voice, "of whatever name or +nation he may be, who breaks his word, commits an offence which----" The +rest of this Joseph Surface sentiment was drowned in furious clamour, and +for some minutes he could not make himself heard, until he drew some +letters from his pocket, and held them up. + +"Here is the correspondence," he said. "Does any gentleman here understand +German? If so, will he oblige me by stepping forward?" + +The Birmingham public were not strong in languages in those days, it would +seem, for no gentleman stepped forward. + +"Am I, then, left alone?" he exclaimed in tragic accents. "Well, I will +translate them for you." + +Here there was another uproar, out of which came two or three voices, "No, +no." Like Buckingham, he chose to construe the two or three into "a +general acclaim." + +"Your commands shall be obeyed," he said bowing, and pocketing the +correspondence, "I _will not_ read them. But my dear patrons, your +kindness merits some satisfaction at my hands; your consideration shall +not go unrewarded. You shall not say you have paid your money for nothing. +Thank heaven, I can satisfy you of my own integrity, and present you with +a portion of the entertainment you have paid to see. The Bohemian, the +villain, is not here. But the _stone_ is, and YOU SHALL SEE IT." He winked +at the orchestra, which struck up a lively strain, and up went the +curtain, disclosing a huge piece of sand rock, upon which was stuck a +label, bearing the legend in large letters, "THIS IS THE STONE." + +It need scarcely be added that the Bohemian existed only in the manager's +brain. But it is a question whether the audience which could be only +brought together by such an exhibition did not deserve to be swindled. + +An equally good story is told of his management at Worcester. For his +benefit he had announced a grand display of fireworks! No greater proof of +the gullibility of the British public could be adduced than their +swallowing such an announcement. The theatre was so small that such an +exhibition was practically impossible. A little before the night Elliston +called upon the landlord of the property, and in the course of +conversation hinted at the danger of such a display, as though the idea +had just struck him; the landlord took alarm, and, as Elliston had +anticipated, forbade it. Nevertheless the announcements remained on the +walls, and on the night the theatre was crowded. The performance proceeded +without any notice being taken by the management of the fireworks, until +murmurs swelled into clamour and loud cries. Then with his usual kingly +air, Elliston came forward and bowed. He had made, he said, the most +elaborate preparation for a magnificent pyrotechnic display; he had left +nothing undone, but at the last moment came the terrible reflection, would +it not be dangerous? Would there not be collected within the walls of the +theatre a number of lovely young tender girls, of respectable matrons, to +do him honour? What if the house should catch fire--the panic, the +struggle for life--ah, he shuddered at the thought! Then, too, he thought +of the property of that worthiest of men, the landlord--he rushed to +consult him--and he now called upon him--there he was, seated in the stage +box--to publicly state, for the satisfaction of the distinguished audience +he saw before him, that he had forbidden the performance from +considerations of safety. The landlord, a very nervous man, shrank to the +back of his box, scared by every eye in the house being fixed upon him; +but the audience, thankful for the terrible danger they had escaped, burst +into thunders of applause. + +The stories are endless of the shifts and swindles to which country +managers, at their wits' end, have had to resort to attract a sluggish +public. How great singers have been advertised that never heard of such an +engagement, and even forged telegrams read to an expectant audience, to +account for their non-appearance. How prizes have been distributed on +benefit nights--to people who gave them back again. How audiences, the +victims of some false announcement, have been left waiting patiently for +the performance to commence, while the manager was on his way to another +town with their money in his pocket. But there is a great sameness about +such stories, and one or two are a specimen of all. + + H. BARTON BAKER, _in Belgravia_. + + + + +I.--WINTER-MORN IN THE COUNTRY. + + + The Sabbath of all Nature! Stillness reigns + For snow has fallen, and all the land is white. + The cottage-roofs slant grey against the light, + And grey the sky, nor cloud nor blue obtains. + + The sun is moonlike, as a maiden feigns + To veil her beauty, yet sends glances bright + That fill the eye, and make the heart delight, + Expectant of some wonder. Lengthened trains + + Of birds wing high, and straight the smoke ascends. + All things are fairy-like: the trees empearled + With frosty gem-work, like to trees in dream. + + Beneath the weight the slender cedar bends + And looks more ghost-like! 'Tis a wonder-world, + Wherein, indeed, things are not as they seem. + + + + +II.--WINTER-MORN IN TOWN. + + Through yellow fog all things take spectral shapes: + Lamps dimly gleam, and through the window pane + The light is shed in short and broken lane; + And "darkness visible" pants, yawns, and gapes. + + From roofs the water drips, as from high capes, + Half-freezes as it falls. Like cries of pain + Fog-signals faintly heard, and then again + Grave warning words to him who rashly apes + + The skater, nearer. All is muffled fast + In dense dead coils of vapour, nothing clear-- + The world disguised in mumming masquerade. + + O'er each a dull thick clinging veil is cast, + And no one is what fain he would appear: + Nor any well-marked track on which to tread, + + ALEX. H. JAPP, _in Belgravia_. + + + + +THE HAPPY VALLEY. + +A REMINISCENCE OF THE HIMALAYAS. + + +The privilege which the families of officers in the service of the State +may be said exclusively to possess, of reproducing in Upper India--and +especially in the Himalayan stations, and valley of Dhera Dhoon--the +stately or cottage homes of England, is perhaps one, to a great extent, +unfamiliar to their relatives at home; and it is scarcely too much to say +that the general public, which, as a rule, considers the Indian climate an +insuperable barrier to all enjoyment, has but a faint idea of that +glorious beauty, which is no "fading flower," in this "Happy Valley," with +its broad belt of virgin forest, that lies between the Himalayas proper +and the sharp ridges of the wild Sewalic range. The latter forms a barrier +between the sultry plains and the cool and romantic retreats, where the +swords of our gallant defenders may be said to rest in their scabbards, +and where, surrounded by the pleasures of domestic life, health and +happiness may, in the intervals of piping times of peace, be enjoyed to +their fullest extent. + +In such favoured spots the exile from home may live, seemingly, for the +present only; but, in truth, it is not so, for even under such favoured +circumstances the tie with our natal place is never relaxed, and the hope +of future return to it adds just that touch of pensiveness--scarcely +sadness--which is the delicate neutral tint that brings out more forcibly +the gorgeous colours of the picture. + +The gaieties of the mountain stations of Mussoorie and Landour were now +approaching their periodical close, in the early part of October, when the +cold season commences. The attractive archery meetings on the green +plateaux of the mountain-spurs had ceased, and balls and sumptuous +dinner-parties were becoming fewer and fewer; while daily one group of +friends after another, "with lingering steps and slow," on rough +hill-ponies or in quaint jam-pans, were wending their way some six or +seven thousand feet down the umbrageous mountain-sides, watched from above +by those who still lingered behind, until they seemed like toilsome emmets +in the far distance. + +Now that our summer companions were gone we used to while away many an +hour with our glasses, scanning in that clear atmosphere the vast plains +stretched out beneath us like a rich carpet of many colours, but in which +forms were scarcely to be traced at that distance. Here, twisted silver +threads represented some great river; there, a sprinkling of rice-like +grains, the white bungalows of a cantonment; while occasionally a sombre +mass denoted some forest or mango tope. Around us, and quailing under +fierce gusts of wind from the passes of the snowy range rising in peaks +to nearly twice the altitude of the Alps, the gnarled oaks, now denuded of +their earlier garniture of parasitical ferns, that used to adorn their +mossy branches with Nature's own point lace, seemed almost conscious of +approaching winter. + +Landour, now deserted, save by a few invalid soldiers and one or two +resident families, had few attractions. The snow was lying deep on the +mountain-sides, and blocking up the narrow roads. But winter in the +Himalayas is a season of startling phenomena; for it is then that thunder +storms of appalling grandeur are prevalent, and to a considerable extent +destructive. During the night, amidst the wild conflict of the elements, +would, not unfrequently, be heard the bugles of the soldiers' Sanatorium, +calling to those who could sleep to arouse themselves, and hasten to the +side of residents whose houses had been struck by the electric fluid. + +Still, we clung to our mountain-home to the last, although we knew that +summer awaited us in the valley below, and that in an hour and a half we +might with ease exchange an almost hyperborean climate for one where +summer is perennial, or seems so--for the rainy season is but an interlude +of refreshing showers. + +At length an incident occurred which somewhat prematurely influenced our +departure. + +As we were sitting at an early breakfast one morning with the children, +Khalifa, a favourite domestic, and one who rarely failed to observe that +stately decorum peculiar to Indian servants, rushed wildly into the room, +with every appearance of terror, screaming, "Janwar! Burra janwar, +sahib!"[16] at the same time pointing to the window. + +We could not at first understand what the poor fellow meant; but on +looking out, were not a little disconcerted at the sight which presented +itself. + +Crouched on the garden-wall was a huge spotted animal of the leopard +species. It looked, however, by no means ferocious, but, on the contrary, +to be imploring compassion and shelter from the snowstorm. Still, +notwithstanding its demure cat-like aspect, its proximity was by no means +agreeable. With a strange lack of intelligence, the brute, instead of +avoiding the cold, had evidently become bewildered, and crawled up the +mountain side. As we could scarcely be expected to extend the rites of +hospitality to such a visitor, the harmless discharge of a pistol insured +his departure at one bound, and with a terrific growl. + +Wild beasts are rarely seen about European stations. Those who like them +must go out of their way to find them. But perhaps stupefied by cold while +asleep, and pinched by hunger, as on the present occasion, they may lose +their usual sagacity. + +Having got rid of our unwelcome visitor, we determined at once to leave +our mountain-home. + +The servants were only too glad to hasten our departure, and in the +course of an hour everything was packed up, and we were ready for the +descent into the plains. + +Notwithstanding the absence of a police force, robberies of houses are +almost unknown; and therefore it was only necessary for us to draw down +the blinds and lock the main door, leaving the furniture to take care of +itself. + +The jam-pans and little rough ponies were ready; the servants, although +shivering in their light clothing, more active than I had ever before seen +them; and in the course of another hour we were inhaling the balmy air of +early summer. + +The pretty little hotel of Rajpore, at the base of the mountain, was now +reached; and before us lay the broad and excellent road, shaded with +trees, which, in the course of another twenty minutes, brought us to the +charming cantonment of Deyrah. All Nature seemed to be rejoicing; the +birds were singing; the sounds of bubbling and splashing waters +(mountain-streams diverted from their natural channels, and brought into +every garden), and hedges of the double pink and crimson Bareilly rose[17] +in full bloom, interspersed with the oleander, and the mehndi (henna of +Scripture) with its fragrant clusters, filling the air with the perfume of +mignonette, presented a scene of earthly beauty which cannot be surpassed. + +"How stupid we were," I remarked, looking back at our late home, now a +mere black speck on the top of the snowy mountain far above--"how very +foolish and perverse to have fancied ourselves more English in the winter +up there, when we might all this time have been leading the life of Eden, +in this enchanting spot!" + +"Indeed we were," replied my companion. "But it is the way with us in +India. We give a rupee for an English daisy, and cast aside the honeyed +champah." + +In India there is no difficulty in housing oneself. No important agents +are necessary, and advertising is scarcely known. Accordingly, without +ceremony, we took quiet possession of the first vacant bungalow which we +came to, and our fifteen domestics did not seem to question for a moment +the propriety of the occupation. Under our somewhat despotic government, +are not the sahib loeg[18] above petty social observances? + +While A. was busily employed getting his guns ready and preparing for +shikari in the adjacent forest and jungles, which swarm with peafowl, +partridges, quail, pigeons, and a variety of other game, my first care was +to summon the resident mali (gardener), and ascertain how the beautiful +and extensive garden of which we had taken possession[19] might be further +stocked. + +"Mem sahib,"[20] said the quiet old gardener, with his hands in a +supplicatory position, "there is abundance here of everything--aloo, lal +sag, anjir, padina, baingan, piyaz, khira, shalgham, kobs, ajmud, +kharbuza, amb, amrut, anar, narangi--"[21] + +"Stay!" I interrupted; "that is enough." + +But the old mali had something more to add: + +"Mem sahib, all is your own, and your slave shall daily bring his +customary offering, and flowers for the table; and the protector of the +poor will not refuse bakshees for the bearer." + +I promised to be liberal to the poor old man, and then proceeded to +inspect the flower-garden. + +Here I was surprised to find a perfect fraternisation between the tropical +flora and our own. Amongst flowers not unfamiliar to the European were +abundance of the finest roses, superb crimson and gold poincianas, the +elegant hybiscus, graceful ipomoeas, and convolvuli of every hue, the +purple amaranth, the variegated double balsam, the richest marigolds, the +pale-blue clusters of the plantago, acacias, jasmines, oranges, and +pomegranates, intermixed with our own pansies, carnations, cinerarias, +geraniums, fuchsias, and a wealth of blossoms impossible to remember by +name. + +"If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this!" + +Far more beautiful to the homely eye are such gardens than those of +Shalimar and Pinjore, with their costly marble terraces, geometrical +walks, fountains and cascades falling over sculptured slabs. + +Nor are we in India confined to the enjoyment of Nature. Art[22] finds its +way to us from Europe, and literature here receives the warmest welcome. +Our pianos, our musical-boxes--our costly and richly bound illustrated +works, fresh from England--the most thrilling romances of fiction, and all +the periodicals of the day, are regularly accumulated in these charming +Indian retreats, and keep up the culture of the mind in a valley whose +"glorious beauty" is, as I have said, no "fading flower," but the home of +the missionary, and the resort of the war-worn soldier or truth-loving +artist. + +Nor is this all. Around Deyrah is some of the most exquisitely beautiful +cave scenery, comparatively unknown even to Europeans; such, for example, +as the wondrous natural tunnel, whose sides shine with the varied beauty +of the most delicate mosaics, and are lit up by rents in the hill above; +the "dropping cave" of Sansadhara, "bosomed high in tufted trees;" and the +strange ancient shrines sculptured in the romantic glen of +Tope-Kesur-Mahadeo. + +Of these, Sansadhara has lately been made the subject of a beautiful +photograph, which, however, fails to convey the exquisite charm of the +original; but the natural tunnel and Tope-Kesur-Mahadeo have never been +presented by the artist to the public, although there are unique sketches +of them in the fine collection of a lady[23] who, as the wife of a former +Indian Commander-in-Chief, had opportunities afforded to few of indulging +her taste. + +One might exhaust volumes in attempting to describe such scenes, and even +then fail to do them the faintest justice. The Alps, with all their +beauty, lose much of their grandeur after one has been in daily +contemplation of the majestic snowy range of the Himalayas, while the +forests and valleys that skirt its base have no counterpart in Europe. In +these partial solitudes we lose much of our conventionality. The mind is +to a certain extent elevated by the grand scale on which Nature around is +presented. The occasional alarm of war teaches the insecurity of all +earthly happiness. Our life is subject to daily introspection, and before +the mind's eye is the sublime prospect, perhaps at no very distant period, +of a Christian India rising from the ruins of a sensuous idolatry in +immortal beauty. + + L. A., _in London Society_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] "Wild beast! Big wild beast, sir!" + +L. M.--I.--2. + +[17] A remarkable plant. It is in constant bloom. On every spray there is +a central crimson blossom, which only lasts one day, surrounded by five or +six pink ones, which remain for many days. + +[18] Dominant class. + +[19] House-rent is paid monthly in India, in arrear. + +[20] My lady. + +[21] Potato, spinach, fig, mint, egg-plant, onion, cucumber, turnip, +cabbage, parsley, melon, mango, guava, pomegranate, orange. + +[22] There is no intention of disparaging beautiful native art. + +[23] Lady Gomm. + + + + +THE PHOENICIANS IN GREECE. + + +Herodotus begins his history by relating how Phoenician traders brought +"Egyptian and Assyrian wares" to Argos and other parts of Greece, in those +remote days when the Greeks were still waiting to receive the elements of +their culture from the more civilized East. His account was derived from +Persian and Phoenician sources, but, it would seem, was accepted by his +contemporaries with the same unquestioning confidence as by himself. The +belief of Herodotus was shared by the scholars of Europe after the revival +of learning, and there were none among them who doubted that the +civilization of ancient Greece had been brought from Asia or Egypt, or +from both. Hebrew was regarded as the primaeval language, and the Hebrew +records as the fountain-head of all history; just as the Greek vocabulary, +therefore, was traced back to the Hebrew lexicon, the legends of primitive +Greece were believed to be the echoes of Old Testament history. _Ex +Oriente lux_ was the motto of the inquirer, and the key to all that was +dark or doubtful in the mythology and history of Hellas was to be found in +the monuments of the Oriental world. + +But the age of Creuzer and Bryant was succeeded by an age of scepticism +and critical investigation. A reaction sat in against the attempt to force +Greek thought and culture into an Asiatic mould. The Greek scholar was +repelled by the tasteless insipidity and barbaric exuberance of the East; +he contrasted the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, of Sophocles and Plato, +with the monstrous creations of India or Egypt, and the conviction grew +strong within him that the Greek could never have learnt his first lessons +of civilization in such a school as this. Between the East and the West a +sharp line of division was drawn, and to look for the origin of Greek +culture beyond the boundaries of Greece itself came to be regarded almost +as sacrilege. Greek mythology, so far from being an echo or caricature of +Biblical history and Oriental mysticism, was pronounced to be self-evolved +and independent, and K. O. Mueller could deny without contradiction the +Asiatic origin even of the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, where the name of +the Semitic sun-god seems of itself to indicate its source. The +Phoenician traders of Herodotus, like the royal maiden they carried away +from Argos, were banished to the nebulous region of rationalistic fable. + +Along with this reaction against the Orientalizing school which could see +in Greece nothing but a deformed copy of Eastern wisdom went another +reaction against the conception of Greek mythology on which the labours of +the Orientalizing school had been based. Key after key had been applied to +Greek mythology, and all in vain; the lock had refused to turn. The light +which had been supposed to come from the East had turned out to be but a +will-o'-the-wisp; neither the Hebrew Scriptures nor the Egyptian +hieroglyphics had solved the problem presented by the Greek myths. And the +Greek scholar, in despair, had come to the conclusion that the problem was +insoluble; all that he could do was to accept the facts as they were set +before him, to classify and repeat the wondrous tales of the Greek poets, +but to leave their origin unexplained. This is practically the position of +Grote; he is content to show that all the parts of a myth hang closely +together, and that any attempt to extract history or philosophy from it +must be arbitrary and futile. To deprive a myth of its kernel and soul, +and call the dry husk that is left a historical fact, is to mistake the +conditions of the problem and the nature of mythology. + +It was at this point that the science of comparative mythology stepped in. +Grote had shown that we cannot look for history in mythology, but he had +given up the discovery of the origin of this mythology as a hopeless task. +The same comparative method, however, which has forced nature to disclose +her secrets has also penetrated to the sources of mythology itself. The +Greek myths, like the myths of the other nations of the world, are the +forgotten and misinterpreted records of the beliefs of primitive man, and +of his earliest attempts to explain the phenomena of nature. Restore the +original meaning of the language wherein the myth is clothed, and the +origin of the myth is found. Myths, in fact, are the words of a dead +language to which a wrong sense has been given by a false method of +decipherment. A myth, rightly explained, will tell us the beliefs, the +feelings, and the knowledge of those among whom it first grew up; for the +evidences and monuments of history we must look elsewhere. + +But there is an old proverb that "there is no smoke without fire." The war +of Troy or the beleaguerment of Thebes may be but a repetition of the +time-worn story of the battle waged by the bright powers of day round the +battlements of heaven; but there must have been some reason why this story +should have been specially localized in the Troad and at Thebes. Most of +the Greek myths have a background in space and time; and for this +background there must be some historical cause. The cause, however, if it +is to be discovered at all, must be discovered by means of those evidences +which will alone satisfy the critical historian. The localization of a +myth is merely an indication or sign-post pointing out the direction in +which he is to look for his facts. If Greek warriors had never fought in +the plains of Troy, we may be pretty sure that the poems of Homer would +not have brought Akhilles and Agamemnon under the walls of Ilium. If +Phoenician traders had exercised no influence on primaeval Greece, Greek +legend would have contained no references to them. + +But even the myth itself, when rightly questioned, may be made to yield +some of the facts upon which the conclusions of the historian are based. +We now know fairly well what ideas, usages, and proper names have an Aryan +stamp upon them, and what, on the other hand, belong rather to the Semitic +world. Now there is a certain portion of Greek mythology which bears but +little relationship to the mythology of the kindred Aryan tribes, while it +connects itself very closely with the beliefs and practices of the Semitic +race. Human sacrifice is very possibly one of these, and it is noticeable +that two at least of the legends which speak of human sacrifice--those of +Athamas and Busiris--are associated, the one with the Phoenicians of +Thebes, the other with the Phoenicians of the Egyptian Delta. The whole +cycle of myths grouped about the name of Herakles points as clearly to a +Semitic source as does the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis; and the +extravagant lamentations that accompanied the worship of the Akhaean +Demeter (Herod. v. 61) come as certainly from the East as the olive, the +pomegranate, and the myrtle, the sacred symbols of Athena, of Hera, and of +Aphrodite.[24] + +Comparative mythology has thus given us a juster appreciation of the +historical inferences we may draw from the legends of prehistoric Greece, +and has led us back to a recognition of the important part played by the +Phoenicians in the heroic age. Greek culture, it is true, was not the +mere copy of that of Semitic Asia, as scholars once believed, but the +germs of it had come in large measure from an Oriental seed-plot. The +conclusions derived from a scientific study of the myths have been +confirmed and widened by the recent researches and discoveries of +archaeology. The spade, it has been said, is the modern instrument for +reconstructing the history of the past, and in no department in history +has the spade been more active of late than in that of Greece. From all +sides light has come upon that remote epoch around which the mist of a +fabulous antiquity had already been folded in the days of Herodotus; from +the islands and shores of the AEgean, from the tombs of Asia Minor and +Palestine, nay, even from the temples and palaces of Egypt and Assyria, +have the materials been exhumed for sketching in something like clear +outline the origin and growth of Greek civilization. From nowhere, +however, have more important revelations been derived than from the +excavations at Mykenae and Spata, near Athens, and it is with the evidence +furnished by these that I now propose mainly to deal. A personal +inspection of the sites and the objects found upon them has convinced me +of the groundlessness of the doubts which have been thrown out against +their antiquity, as well as of the intercourse and connection to which +they testify with the great empires of Babylonia and Assyria. Mr. Poole +has lately pointed out what materials are furnished by the Egyptian +monuments for determining the age and character of the antiquities of +Mykenae.[25] I would now draw attention to the far clearer and more +tangible materials afforded by Assyrian art and history. + +Two facts must first be kept well in view. One of these is the Semitic +origin of the Greek alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet, originally +derived from the alphabet of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and imported into +their mother-country by the Phoenician settlers of the Delta, was +brought to Greece, not probably by the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon, +but by the Aramaeans of the Gulf of Antioch, whose nouns ended with the +same "emphatic aleph" that we seem to find in the Greek names of the +letters, _alpha_, _beta_, _gamma_, (_gamla_). Before the introduction of +the simpler Phoenician alphabet, the inhabitants of Asia Minor and the +neighbouring islands appear to have used a syllabary of some seventy +characters, which continued to be employed in conservative Cyprus down to +a very late date; but, so far as we know at present, the Greeks of the +mainland were unacquainted with writing before the Aramaeo-Phoenicians +had taught them their phonetic symbols. The oldest Greek inscriptions are +probably those of Thera, now Santorin, where the Phoenicians had been +settled from time immemorial; and as the forms of the characters found in +them do not differ very materially from the forms used on the famous +Moabite Stone, we may infer that the alphabet of Kadmus was brought to the +West at a date not very remote from that of Mesha and Ahab, perhaps about +800 B.C. We may notice that Thera was an island and a Phoenician colony, +and it certainly seems more probable that the alphabet was carried to the +mainland from the islands of the AEgean than that it was disseminated from +the inland Phoenician settlement at Thebes, as the old legends affirmed. +In any case, the introduction of the alphabet implies a considerable +amount of civilizing force on the part of those from whom it was borrowed; +the teachers from whom an illiterate people learns the art of writing are +generally teachers from whom it has previously learnt the other elements +of social culture. A barbarous tribe will use its muscles in the service +of art before it will use its brains; the smith and engraver precede the +scribe. If, therefore, the Greeks were unacquainted with writing before +the ninth century, B.C., objects older than that period may be expected to +exhibit clear traces of Phoenician influence, though no traces of +writing. + +The other fact to which I allude is the existence of pottery of the same +material and pattern on all the prehistoric sites of the Greek world, +however widely separated they may be. We find it, for instance, at Mykenae +and Tiryns, at Tanagra and Athens, in Rhodes, in Cyprus, and in Thera, +while I picked up specimens of it in the neighbourhood of the Treasury of +Minyas and on the site of the Acropolis at Orchomenus. The clay of which +it is composed is of a drab colour, derived, perhaps in all instances, +from the volcanic soil of Thera and Melos, and it is ornamented with +geometrical and other patterns in black and maroon-red. After a time the +patterns become more complicated and artistic; flowers, animal forms, and +eventually human figures, take the place of simple lines, and the pottery +gradually passes into that known as Corinthian or Phoeniko-Greek. It +needs but little experience to distinguish at a glance this early pottery +from the red ware of the later Hellenic period. + +Phoenicia, Keft as it was called by the Egyptians, had been brought into +relation with the monarchy of the Nile at a remote date, and among the +Semitic settlers in the Delta or "Isle of Caphtor" must have been natives +of Sidon and the neighbouring towns. After the expulsion of the Hyksos, +the Pharaohs of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties carried their arms +as far as Mesopotamia and placed Egyptian garrisons in Palestine. A +tomb-painting of Thothmes III. represents the Kefa or Phoenicians, clad +in richly-embroidered kilts and buskins, and bringing their tribute of +gold and silver vases and earthenware cups, some in the shape of animals +like the vases found at Mykenae and elsewhere. Phoenicia, it would seem, +was already celebrated for its goldsmiths' and potters' work, and the +ivory the Kefa are sometimes made to carry shows that their commerce must +have extended far to the east. As early as the sixteenth century B.C., +therefore, we may conclude that the Phoenicians were a great commercial +people, trading between Assyria and Egypt and possessed of a considerable +amount of artistic skill. + +It is not likely that a people of this sort, who, as we know from other +sources, carried on a large trade in slaves and purple, would have been +still unacquainted with the seas and coasts of Greece where both slaves +and the murex or purple-fish were most easily to be obtained. Though the +Phoenician alphabet was unknown in Greece till the ninth century B.C., +we have every reason to expect to find traces of Phoenician commerce and +Phoenician influence there at least five centuries before. And such +seems to be the case. The excavations carried on in Thera by MM. Fouque +and Gorceix,[26] in Rhodes by Mr. Newton and Dr. Saltzmann, and in various +other places such as Megara, Athens, and Melos, have been followed by the +explorations of Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, Tiryns, and Mykenae, of +General di Cesnola in Cyprus, and of the Archaeological Society of Athens +at Tanagra and Spata. + +The accumulations of prehistoric objects on these sites all tell the same +tale, the influence of the East, and more especially of the Phoenicians, +upon the growing civilization of early Greece. Thus in Thera, where a sort +of Greek Pompeii has been preserved under the lava which once overwhelmed +it, we find the rude stone hovels of its primitive inhabitants, with roofs +of wild olive, filled with the bones of dogs and sheep, and containing +stores of barley, spelt, and chickpea, copper and stone weapons, and +abundance of pottery. The latter is for the most part extremely coarse, +but here and there have been discovered vases of artistic workmanship, +which remind us of those carried by the Kefa, and may have been imported +from abroad. We know from the tombs found on the island that the +Phoenicians afterwards settled in Thera among a population in the same +condition of civilization as that which had been overtaken by the great +volcanic eruption. It was from these Phoenician settlers that the +embroidered dresses known as Theraean were brought to Greece; they were +adorned with animals and other figures, similar to those seen upon +Corinthian or Phoeniko-Greek ware. + +Now M. Fr. Lenormant has pointed out that much of the pottery used by the +aboriginal inhabitants of Thera is almost identical in form and make with +that found by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, in the Troad, and he concludes +that it must belong to the same period and the same area of civilization. +There is as yet little, if any, trace of Oriental influence; a few of the +clay vases from Thera, and some of the gold workmanship at Hissarlik, can +alone be referred, with more or less hesitation, to Phoenician artists. +We have not yet reached the age when Phoenician trade in the West ceased +to be the sporadic effort of private individuals, and when trading +colonies were established in different parts of the Greek world; Europe is +still unaffected by Eastern culture, and the beginnings of Greek art are +still free from foreign interference. It is only in certain designs on the +terra-cotta discs, believed by Dr. Schliemann to be spindle-whorls, that +we may possibly detect rude copies of Babylonian and Phoenician +intaglios. + +Among all the objects discovered at Hissarlik, none have been more +discussed than the vases and clay images in which Dr. Schliemann saw a +representation of an owl-headed Athena. What Dr. Schliemann took for an +owl's head, however, is really a rude attempt to imitate the human face, +and two breasts are frequently moulded in the clay below it. In many +examples the human countenance is unmistakable, and in most of the others +the representation is less rude than in the case of the small marble +statues of Apollo (?) found in the Greek islands, or even of the early +Hellenic vases where the men seem furnished with the beaks of birds. But +we now know that these curious vases are not peculiar to the Troad. +Specimens of them have also been met with in Cyprus, and in these we can +trace the development of the owl-like head into the more perfect +portraiture of the human face.[27] In conservative Cyprus there was not +that break with the past which occurred in other portions of the Greek +world. + +Cyprus, in fact, lay midway between Greece and Phoenicia, and was shared +to the last between an Aryan and a Semitic population. The Phoenician +element in the island was strong, if not preponderant; Paphos was a chief +seat of the worship of the Phoenician Astarte, and the Phoenician +Kitium, the Chittim of the Hebrews, took first rank among the Cyprian +towns. The antiquities brought to light by General di Cesnola are of all +ages and all styles--prehistoric and classical, Phoenician and Hellenic, +Assyrian and Egyptian--and the various styles are combined together in the +catholic spirit that characterized Phoenician art. + +But we must pause here for a moment to define more accurately what we mean +by Phoenician art. Strictly speaking, Phoenicia had no art of its own; +its designs were borrowed from Egypt and Assyria, and its artists went to +school on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates. The Phoenician +combined and improved upon his models; the impulse, the origination came +from abroad; the modification and elaboration were his own. He entered +into other men's labours, and made the most of his heritage. The sphinx of +Egypt became Asiatic, and in its new form was transplanted to Nineveh on +the one side and to Greece on the other. The rosettes and other patterns +of the Babylonian cylinders were introduced into the handiwork of +Phoenicia, and so passed on to the West, while the hero of the ancient +Chaldean epic became first the Tyrian Melkarth, and then the Herakles of +Hellas. It is possible, no doubt, that with all this borrowing there was +still something that was original in Phoenician work; such at any rate +seems to be the case with some of the forms given to the vases; but at +present we have no means of determining how far this originality may have +extended. In Assyria, indeed, Phoenician art exercised a great influence +in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.; but it had itself previously +drawn its first inspiration from the empire of the Tigris, and did but +give back the perfect blossom to those from whom it had received the seed. +The workmanship of the ivories and bronze bowls found at Nineveh by Mr. +Layard is thoroughly Phoenician; but it cannot be separated from that of +the purely Assyrian pavements and bas-reliefs with which the palaces were +adorned. The Phoenician art, in fact, traces of which we find from +Assyria to Italy, though based on both Egyptian and Assyrian models, owed +far more to Assyria than it did to Egypt. In art, as in mythology and +religion, Phoenicia was but a carrier and intermediary between East and +West; and just as the Greek legends of Aphrodite and Adonis, of Herakles +and his twelve labours, and of the other borrowed heroes of Oriental story +came in the first instance from Assyria, so did that art and culture which +Kadmus the Phoenician handed on to the Greek race. + +But Assyria itself had been equally an adapter and intermediary. The +Semites of Assyria and Babylonia had borrowed their culture and +civilization from the older Accadian race, with its agglutinative +language, which had preceded them in the possession of Chaldea. So +slavishly observant were the Assyrians of their Chaldean models that in a +land where limestone was plentiful they continued to build their palaces +and temples of brick, and to ornament them with those columns and +pictorial representations which had been first devised on the alluvial +plains of Babylonia. To understand Assyrian art, and track it back to its +source, we must go to the engraved gems and ruined temples of primaeval +Babylonia. It is true that Egypt may have had some influence on Assyrian +art, at the time when the eighteenth dynasty had pushed its conquests to +the banks of the Tigris; but that influence does not seem to have been +either deep or permanent. Now the art of Assyria is in great measure the +art of Phoenicia, and that again the art of prehistoric Greece. Modern +research has discovered the prototype of Herakles in the hero of a +Chaldean epic composed it may be, four thousand years ago; it has also +discovered the beginnings of Greek columnar architecture and the germs of +Greek art in the works of the builders and engravers of early Chaldea. + +When first I saw, five years ago, the famous sculpture which has guarded +the Gate of Lions at Mykenae for so many centuries, I was at once struck by +its Assyrian character. The lions in form and attitude belong to Assyria, +and the pillar against which they rest may be seen in the bas-reliefs +brought from Nineveh. Here, at all events, there was clear proof of +Assyrian influence; the only question was whether that influence had been +carried through the hands of the Phoenicians or had travelled along the +highroad which ran across Asia Minor, the second channel whereby the +culture of Assyria could have been brought to Greece. The existence of a +similar sculpture over a rock-tomb at Kumbet in Phrygia might seem to +favour the latter view. + +The discoveries of Dr. Schliemann have gone far to settle the question. +The pottery excavated at Mykenae is of the Phoenician type, and the clay +of which is composed has probably come from Thera. The terra-cotta figures +of animals and more especially of a goddess with long robe, crowned head, +and crescent-like arms, are spread over the whole area traversed by the +Phoenicians. The image of the goddess in one form or another has been +found in Thera and Melos, in Naxos and Paros, in Ios, in Sikinos, and in +Anaphos, and M. Lenormant has traced it back to Babylonia and to the +Babylonian representation of the goddess Artemis-Nana.[28] At Tanagra the +image has been found under two forms, both, however, made of the same clay +and in the same style as the figures from Mykenae. In one the goddess is +upright, as at Mykenae, with the _polos_ on her head, and the arms either +outspread or folded over the breast; in the other she is sitting with the +arms crossed. Now among the gold ornaments exhumed at Mykenae are some +square pendants of gold which represent the goddess in this sitting +posture.[29] + +The animal forms most commonly met with are those of the lion, the stag, +the bull, the cuttle-fish, and the murex. The last two point unmistakably +to a seafaring race, and more especially to those Phoenician sailors +whose pursuit of the purple-trade first brought them into Greek seas. So +far as I know, neither the polypus nor the murex, nor the butterfly which +often accompanies them have been found in Assyria or Egypt, and we may +therefore see in them original designs of Phoenician art. Mr. Newton has +pointed out that the cuttle-fish (like the dolphin) also occurs among the +prehistoric remains from Ialysos in Rhodes, where, too, pottery of the +same shape and material as that of Mykenae has been found, as well as beads +of a curious vitreous substance, and rings in which the back of the chaton +is rounded so as to fit the finger. It is clear that the art of Ialysos +belongs to the same age and school as the art of Mykenae; and as a scarab +of Amenophis III. has been found in one of the Ialysian tombs, it is +possible that the art may be as old as the fifteenth century B.C. + +Now Ialysos is not the only Rhodian town which has yielded prehistoric +antiquities. Camirus also has been explored by Messrs. Biliotti and +Saltzmann; and while objects of the same kind and character as those of +Ialysos have been discovered there, other objects have been found by their +side which belong to another and more advanced stage of art. There are +vases of clay and metal, bronze bowls, and the like, which not only +display high finish and skill, but are ornamented with the designs +characteristic of Phoenician workmanship at Nineveh and elsewhere. Thus +we have zones of trees and animals, attempts at the representation of +scenery, and a profusion of ornament, while the influence of Egypt is +traceable in the sphinxes and scarabs, which also occur plentifully. Here, +therefore, at Camirus, there is plain evidence of a sudden introduction of +finished Phoenician art among a people whose art was still rude and +backward, although springing from the same germs as the art of Phoenicia +itself. Two distinct periods in the history of the AEgean thus seem to lie +unfolded before us; one in which Eastern influence was more or less +indirect, content to communicate the seeds of civilization and culture, +and to import such objects as a barbarous race would prize; and another in +which the East was, as it were, transported into the West, and the +development of Greek art was interrupted by the introduction of foreign +workmen and foreign beliefs. This second period was the period of +Phoenician colonization as distinct from that of mere trading +voyages--the period, in fact, when Thebes was made a Phoenician +fortress, and the Phoenician alphabet diffused throughout the Greek +world. It is only in relics of the later part of this period that we can +look for inscriptions and traces of writing, at least in Greece proper; in +the islands and on the coast of Asia Minor, the Cypriote syllabary seems +to have been in use, to be superseded afterwards by the simpler alphabet +of Kadmus. For reasons presently to be stated, I would distinguish the +first period by the name of Phrygian. + +Throughout the whole of it, however, the Phoenician trading ships must +have formed the chief medium of intercourse between Asia and Europe. Proof +of this has been furnished by the rock tombs of Spata, which have been +lighted on opportunely to illustrate and explain the discoveries at +Mykenae. Spata is about nine miles from Athens, on the north-west spur of +Hymettos, and the two tombs hitherto opened are cut in the soft sandstone +rock of a small conical hill. Both are approached by long tunnel-like +entrances, and one of them contains three chambers, leading one into the +other, and each fashioned after the model of a house. No one who has seen +the objects unearthed at Spata can doubt for a moment their close +connection with the Mykenaean antiquities. The very moulds found at Mykenae +fit the ornaments from Spata, and might easily have been used in the +manufacture of them. It is more especially with the contents of the sixth +tomb, discovered by Mr. Stamataki in the _enceinte_ at Mykenae after Dr. +Schliemann's departure, that the Spata remains agree so remarkably. But +there is a strong resemblance between them and the Mykenaean antiquities +generally, in both material, patterns, and character. The cuttle-fish and +the murex appear in both; the same curious spiral designs, and ornaments +in the shape of shells or rudely-formed oxheads; the same geometrical +patterns; the same class of carved work. An ivory in which a lion, of the +Assyrian type, is depicted as devouring a stag, is but a reproduction of a +similar design met with among the objects from Mykenae, and it is +interesting to observe that the same device, in the same style of art, may +be also seen on a Phoenician gem from Sardinia.[30] Of still higher +interest are other ivories, which, like the antiquities of Camirus, belong +rather to the second than to the first period of Phoenician influence. +One of these represents a column, which, like that above the Gate of +Lions, carries us back to the architecture of Babylonia, while others +exhibit the Egyptian sphinx, as modified by Phoenician artists. Thus the +handle of a comb is divided into two compartments--the lower occupied by +three of these sphinxes, the upper by two others, which have their eyes +fixed on an Assyrian rosette in the middle. Similar sphinxes are engraved +on a silver cup lately discovered at Palestrina, bearing the Phoenician +inscription, in Phoenician letters, "Eshmun-ya'ar, son of Ashta'."[31] +Another ivory has been carved into the form of a human side face, +surmounted by a tiara of four plaits. On the one hand the arrangement of +the hair of the face, the whisker and beard forming a fringe round it, and +the two lips being closely shorn, reminds us of what we find at +Palestrina; on the other hand, the head-dress is that of the figures on +the sculptured rocks of Asia Minor, and of the Hittite princes of +Carchemish. In spite of this Phoenician colouring, however, the +treasures of Spata belong to the earlier part of the Phoenician period, +if not to that which I have called Phrygian: there is as yet no sign of +writing, no trace of the use of iron. But we seem to be approaching the +close of the bronze age in Greece--to have reached the time when the +lions were sculptured over the chief gateway of Mykenae, and the so-called +treasuries were erected in honour of the dead. + +Can any date be assigned, even approximately, to those two periods of +Phoenician influence in Greece? Can we localize the era, so to speak, of +the antiquities discovered at Mykenae, or fix the epoch at which its kings +ceased to build its long-enduring monuments, and its glory was taken from +it? I think an answer to these questions may be found in a series of +engraved gold rings and prisms found upon its site--the prisms having +probably once served to ornament the neck. In these we can trace a gradual +development of art; which in time becomes less Oriental and more Greek, +and acquires a certain facility in the representation of the human form. + +Let us first fix our attention on an engraved gold chaton found, not in +the tombs, but outside the _enceinte_ among the ruins, as it would seem, +of a house.[32] On this we have a rude representation of a figure seated +under a palm-tree, with another figure behind and three more in front, the +foremost being of small size, the remaining two considerably taller and in +flounced dresses. Above are the symbols of the sun and crescent-moon, and +at the side a row of lions' heads. Now no one who has seen this chaton, +and also had any acquaintance with the engraved gems of the archaic period +of Babylonian art, can avoid being struck by the fact that the intaglio is +a copy of one of the latter. The characteristic workmanship of the +Babylonian gems is imitated by punches made in the gold which give the +design a very curious effect. The attitude of the figures is that common +on the Chaldean cylinders; the owner stands in front of the deity, of +diminutive size, and in the act of adoration, while the priests are placed +behind him. The latter wear the flounced dresses peculiar to the early +Babylonian priests; and what has been supposed to represent female +breasts, is really a copy of the way in which the breast of a man is +frequently portrayed on the cylinders.[33] The palm-tree, with its single +fruit hanging on the left side, is characteristically Babylonian; so also +are the symbols that encircle the engraving, the sun and moon and lions' +heads. The chaton of another gold ring, found on the same spot, is covered +with similar animal heads. This, again, is a copy of early Babylonian art, +in which such designs were not unfrequent, though, as they were afterwards +imitated by both Assyrian and Cyprian engravers, too much stress must not +be laid on the agreement.[34] The artistic position and age of the other +ring, however, admits of little doubt. The archaic period of Babylonian +art may be said to close with the rise of Assyria in the fourteenth +century B.C.; and though archaic Babylonian intaglios continued to be +imported into the West down to the time of the Romans, it is not likely +that they were imitated by Western artists after the latter had become +acquainted with better and more attractive models. I think, therefore, +that the two rings may be assigned to the period of archaic Babylonian +power in western Asia, a period that begins with the victories of +Naram-Sin in Palestine in the seventeenth century B.C. or earlier, and +ends with the conquest of Babylon by the Assyrians and the establishment +of Assyrian supremacy. This is also the period to which I am inclined to +refer the introduction among the Phoenicians and Greeks of the column +and of certain geometrical patterns, which had their first home in +Babylonia.[35] The lentoid gems with their rude intaglios, found in the +islands, on the site of Heraeum, in the tombs of Mykenae and elsewhere, +belong to the same age, and point back to the loamy plain of Babylonia +where stone was rare and precious, and whence, consequently, the art of +gem-cutting was spread through the ancient world. We can thus understand +the existence of artistic designs and other evidences of civilizing +influence among a people who were not yet acquainted with the use of iron. +The early Chaldean Empire, in spite of the culture to which it had +attained, was still in the bronze age; iron was almost unknown, and its +tools and weapons were fashioned of stone, bone, and bronze. Had the +Greeks and the Phoenicians before them received their first lessons in +culture from Egypt or from Asia Minor, where the Khalybes and other allied +tribes had worked in iron from time immemorial, they would probably have +received this metal at the same time. But neither at Hissarlik nor at +Mykenae is there any trace of an iron age. + +The second period of Western art and civilization is represented by some +of the objects found at Mykenae in the tombs themselves. The intaglios have +ceased to be Babylonian, and have become markedly Assyrian. First of all +we have a hunting scene, a favourite subject with Assyrian artists, but +quite unknown to genuine Hellenic art. The disposition of the figures is +that usual in Assyrian sculpture, and, like the Assyrian king, the +huntsman is represented as riding in a chariot. A comparison of this +hunting scene with the bas-reliefs on the tombstones which stood over the +graves shows that they belong to the same age, while the spiral +ornamentation of the stones is essentially Assyrian. Equally Assyrian, +though better engraved, is a lion on one of the gold prisms, which might +have been cut by an Assyrian workman, so true is it to its Oriental model, +and after this I would place the representation of a struggle between a +man (perhaps Herakles) and a lion, in which, though the lion and attitude +of the combatants are Assyrian, the man is no longer the Assyrian hero +Gisdhubar, but a figure of more Western type. In another intaglio, +representing a fight between armed warriors, the art has ceased to be +Assyrian, and is struggling to become native. We seem to be approaching +the period when Greece gave over walking in Eastern leading-strings, and +began to step forward firmly without help. As I believe, however, that the +tombs within the _enceinte_ are of older date than the Treasuries outside +the Acropolis, or the Gate of Lions which belongs to the same age, it is +plain that we have not yet reached the time when Assyro-Phoenician +influence began to decline in Greece. The lions above the gate would alone +be proof to the contrary. + +But, in fact, Phoenician influence continued to be felt up to the end of +the seventh century B.C. Passing by the so-called Corinthian vases, or the +antiquities exhumed by General di Cesnola in Cyprus, where the +Phoenician element was strong, we have numerous evidences of the fact +from all parts of Greece. Two objects of bronze discovered at Olympia may +be specially signalized. One of these is an oblong plate, narrower at one +end than at the other, ornamented with _repousse_ work, and divided into +four compartments. In the first compartment are figures of the nondescript +birds so often seen on the "Corinthian" pottery; in the next come two +Assyrian gryphons standing, as usual, face to face; while the third +represents the contest of Herakles with the Kentaur, thoroughly Oriental +in design. The Kentaur has a human forefront, covered, however, with hair; +his tail is abnormally long, and a three-branched tree rises behind him. +The fourth and largest compartment contains the figure of the Asiatic +goddess with the four wings at the back, and a lion, held by the hind leg, +in either hand. The face of the goddess is in profile. The whole design is +Assyro-Phoenician, and is exactly reproduced on some square gold plates, +intended probably to adorn the breast, presented to the Louvre by the Duc +de Luynes. The other object to which I referred is a bronze dish, +ornamented on the inside with _repousse_ work, which at first sight looks +Egyptian, but is really that Phoenician modification of Egyptian art so +common in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. An inscription in the +Aramaic characters of the so-called Sidonian branch of the Phoenician +alphabet is cut on the outside, and reads: "Belonging to Neger, son of +Miga."[36] As the word used for "son" is the Aramaic _bar_ and not the +Phoenician _ben_, we may conclude that the owner of the dish had come +from northern Syria. It is interesting to find a silver cup embossed with +precisely the same kind of design, and also bearing an inscription in +Phoenician letters, among the treasures discovered in a tomb at +Palestrina, the ancient Praeneste, more than a year ago. This inscription +is even briefer than the other: "Eshmunya'ar son of 'Ashta,"[37] where, +though _ben_ is employed, the father's name has an Aramaic form. Helbig +would refer these Italian specimens of Phoenician skill to the +Carthaginian epoch, partly on the ground that an African species of ape +seems sometimes represented on them;[38] in this case they might be as +late as the fifth century before the Christian era. + +During the earlier part of the second period of Phoenician influence, +Phoenicia and the Phoenician colonies were not the only channel by +which the elements of Assyrian culture found their way into the West. The +monuments and religious beliefs of Asia Minor enable us to trace their +progress from the banks of the Euphrates and the ranges of the Taurus, +through Cappadocia and Phrygia, to the coasts and islands of the AEgean. +The near affinity of Greek and Phrygian is recognized even by Plato;[39] +the legends of Midas and Gordius formed part of Greek mythology, and the +royal house of Mykenae was made to come with all its wealth from the golden +sands of the Paktolus; while on the other hand the cult of Ma, of Attys, +or of the Ephesian Artemis points back to an Assyrian origin. The +sculptures found by Perrot[40] and Texier constitute a link between the +prehistoric art of Greece and that of Asia Minor; the spiral ornaments +that mark the antiquities of Mykenae are repeated on the royal tombs of +Asia Minor; and the ruins of Sardis, where once ruled a dynasty derived by +Greek writers from Ninus or Nineveh, "the son of Bell," the grandson of +the Assyrian Herakles,[41] may yet pour a flood of light on the earlier +history of Greece. But it was rather in the first period, which I have +termed Phrygian, than in the second, that the influence of Asia Minor was +strongest. The figure of the goddess riding on a leopard, with mural crown +and peaked shoes, on the rock-tablets of Pterium,[42] is borrowed rather +from the cylinders of early Babylonia than from the sculptures of Assyria; +and the Hissarlik collection connects itself more with the primitive +antiquities of Santorin than with the later art of Mykenae and Cyprus. We +have already seen, however, the close relationship that exists between +some of the objects excavated at Mykenae and what we may call the +pre-Phoenician art of Ialysos,--that is to say, the objects in which the +influence of the East is indirect, and not direct. The discovery of +metallurgy is associated with Dodona, where the oracle long continued to +be heard in the ring of a copper chaldron, and where M. Karapanos has +found bronze plates with the geometrical and circular patterns which +distinguish the earliest art of Greece; now Dodona is the seat of primaeval +Greek civilization, the land of the Selloi or Helloi, of the Graioi +themselves, and of Pelasgian Zeus, while it is to the north that the +legends of Orpheus, of Musaeus, and of other early civilizers looked back. +But even at Dodona we may detect traces of Asiatic influence in the part +played there by the doves, as well as in the story of Deucalion's deluge, +and it may, perhaps, be not too rash to conjecture that even before the +days of Phoenician enterprise and barter, an echo of Babylonian +civilization had reached Greece through the medium of Asia Minor, whence +it was carried, partly across the bridge formed by the islands of the +Archipelago, partly through the mainland of Thrace and Epirus. The +Hittites, with their capital at Carchemish, seem to have been the centre +from which this borrowed civilization was spread northward and westward. +Here was the home of the art which characterizes Asia Minor, and we have +only to compare the bas-relief of Pterium with the rock sculptures found +by Mr. Davis associated with "Hamathite" hieroglyphics at Ibreer, in +Lycaonia,[43] to see how intimate is the connection between the two. These +hieroglyphics were the still undeciphered writing of the Hittite tribes +and if, as seems possible, the Cypriote syllabary were derived from them, +they would be a testimony to the western spread of Hittite influence at a +very early epoch. The Cypriote characters adopted into the alphabets of +Lycia and Karia, as well as the occurrence of the same characters on a +hone and some of the terra-cotta discs found by Dr. Schliemann at +Hissarlik, go to show that this influence would have extended, at any +rate, to the coasts of the sea. + +The traces of Egyptian influence, on the contrary, are few and faint. No +doubt the Phoenician alphabet was ultimately of Egyptian origin, no +doubt, too, that certain elements of Phoenician art were borrowed from +Egypt, but before these were handed on to the West, they had first been +profoundly modified by the Phoenician settlers in the Delta and in +Canaan. The influence exercised immediately by Egypt upon Greece belongs +to the historic period; the legends which saw an Egyptian emigrant in +Kekrops or an Egyptian colony in the inhabitants of Argos were fables of a +late date. Whatever intercourse existed between Egypt and Greece in the +prehistoric period was carried on, not by the Egyptians, but by the +Phoenicians of the Delta; it was they who brought the scarabs of a +Thothmes or an Amenophis to the islands of the AEgean, like their +descendants afterwards in Italy, and the proper names found on the +Egyptian monuments of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, which +certain Egyptologists have identified with those of Greece and Asia Minor, +belong rather, I believe, to Libyan and Semitic tribes.[44] Like the +sphinxes at Spata, the indications of intercourse with Egypt met with at +Mykenae prove nothing more than the wide extent of Phoenician commerce +and the existence of Phoenician colonies at the mouths of the Nile. +Ostrich-eggs covered with stucco dolphins have been found not only at +Mykenae, but also in the grotto of Polledrara near Vulci in Italy; the +Egyptian porcelain excavated at Mykenae is painted to represent the fringed +dress of an Assyrian or a Phoenician, not of an Egyptian; and though a +gold mask belonging to Prince Kha-em-Uas, and resembling the famous masks +of Mykenae, has brought to the Louvre from an Apis chamber, a similar mask +of size was discovered last year in a tomb on the site of Aradus. Such +intercourse, however, as existed between Greece and the Delta must have +been very restricted; otherwise we should surely have some specimens of +writing, some traces of the Phoenician alphabet. It would not have been +left to the Aramaeans of Syria to introduce the "Kadmeian letters" into +Greece, and Mykenae, rather than Thebes, would have been made the centre +from which they were disseminated. Indeed, we may perhaps infer that even +the coast of Asia Minor, near as it was to the Phoenician settlements at +Kamirus and elsewhere, could have held but little intercourse with the +Phoenicians of Egypt from the fact that the Cypriote syllabary was so +long in use upon it, and that the alphabets afterwards employed were +derived only indirectly from the Phoenician through the medium of the +Greek. + +One point more now alone needs to be noticed. The long-continued influence +upon early Greek culture which we ascribe to the Phoenicians cannot but +have left its mark upon the Greek vocabulary also. Some at least of the +names given by the Phoenicians to the objects of luxury they brought +with them must have been adopted by the natives of Hellas. We know that +this is the case with the letters of the alphabet; is it also the case +with other words? If not, analogy would almost compel us to treat the +evidences that have been enumerated of Phoenician influence as illusory, +and to fall back upon the position of O. K. Mueller and his school. By way +of answer I would refer to the list of Greek words, the Semitic origin of +which admits of no doubt, lately given by Dr. August Mueller in +Bezzenberger's "Beitrage zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen."[45] +Amongst these we find articles of luxury like "linen," "shirt," +"sackcloth," "myrrh," and "frankincense," "galbanum" and "cassia," +"cinnamon" and "soap," "lyres" and "wine-jars," "balsam" and "cosmetics," +as well, possibly, as "fine linen" and "gold," along with such evidences +of trade and literature as the "pledge," "the writing tablet," and the +"shekel." If these were the only instances of Semitic tincture, they would +be enough to prove the early presence of the Semitic Phoenicians in +Greece. But we must remember that they are but samples of a class, and +that many words borrowed during the heroic age may have dropped out of use +or been conformed to the native part of the vocabulary long before the +beginning of the written literature, while it would be in the lesser known +dialects of the islands that the Semitic element was strongest. We know +that the dialect of Cyprus was full of importations from the East. + +In what precedes I have made no reference to the Homeric poems, and the +omission may be thought strange. But Homeric illustrations of the presence +of the Phoenicians in Greece will occur to every one, while both the +Iliad and the Odyssey in their existing form are too modern to be quoted +without extreme caution. A close investigation of their language shows +that it is the slow growth of generations; AEolic formulae from the lays +first recited in the towns of the Troad are embodied in Ionic poems where +old Ionic, new Ionic, and even Attic jostle against one another, and +traditional words and phrases are furnished with mistaken meanings or new +forms coined by false analogy. It is difficult to separate the old from +the new, to say with certainty that this allusion belongs to the heroic +past, this to the Homer of Theopompus and Euphorion, the contemporary of +the Lydian Gyges. The art of Homer is not the art of Mykenae and of the +early age of Phoenician influence; iron is already taking the place of +bronze, and the shield of Akhilles or the palace of Alkinous bear witness +to a developed art which has freed itself from its foreign bonds. Six +times are Phoenicia and the Phoenicians mentioned in the Odyssey, once +in the Iliad;[46] elsewhere it is Sidon and the Sidonians that represented +them, never Tyre.[47] Such passages, therefore, cannot belong to the epoch +of Tyrian supremacy, which goes back, at all events, to the age of David, +but rather to the brief period when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser laid +siege to Tyre, and his successor Sargon made Sidon powerful at its +expense. This, too, was the period when Sargon set up his record in +Cyprus, "the isle of Yavnan" or the Ionians, when Assyria first came into +immediate contact with the Greeks, and when Phoenician artists worked at +the court of Nineveh and carried their wares to Italy and Sardinia. But it +was not the age to which the relics of Mykenae, in spite of paradoxical +doubts, reach back, nor that in which the sacred bull of Astarte carried +the Phoenician maiden Europa to her new home in the west. + + A. H. SAYCE, in _Contemporary Review_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] See E. Curtins: Die griechische Goetterlehre vom geschichtlichen +Standpunkt, in _Preussische Jahrbucher_, xxxvi. pp. 1-17. 1875. + +[25] _Contemporary Review_, January, 1878. + +[26] See Fouque's Mission Scientifique a l'ile de Santorin (Archives des +Missions 2e serie, iv. 1867); Gorceix in the Bulletin de l'Ecole francaise +d'Athenes, i. + +[27] See, for example, Di Cesnola's _Cyprus_, pp. 401, 402. + +[28] _Gazette Archeologique_, ii-. 1, 3. + +[29] See Schliemann's Mycenae and Tiryns, pl. 273. + +[30] Given by La Marmora in the Memorie della Reale Academia delle Scienze +di Torino (1854), vol. xiv., pl. 2, fig. 63. + +[31] Given in the Monumenti d. Instituto Romano, 1876. + +[32] Schliemann: Mycenae and Tiryns, p. 530. + +[33] See, for instance, the example given in Rawlinson's Ancient +Monarchies (1st edit.), i. p. 118, where the flounced priest has what +looks like a woman's breast. Dancing boys and men in the East still wear +these flounces, which are variously coloured (see Loftus: Chaldea and +Susiana, p. 22; George Smith: Assyrian Discoveries, p. 130). + +[34] See, for example, Layard: Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 604, 606; Di +Cesnola: Cyprus, pl. 31, No. 7; pl. 32, No. 19. A copy of the Mykenaean +engraving is given in Schliemann's Mycenae and Tiryns, pl. 531. + +[35] More especially the examples in Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, iii. +p. 403, and i. 413. For Mykenaean examples see Schliemann's Mykenae and +Tiryns, ppl. 149, 152, &c. Some of the more peculiar patterns from Mykenae +resemble the forms assumed by the "Hamathite" hieroglyphics in the +unpublished inscription copied by Mr. George Smith from the back of a +mutilated statue at Jerablus (Carchemish). + +[36] LNGR. BR. MIGA'. + +[37] ASHMNYA'R. BNA' SHTA. + +[38] Annali d. Istituto Romano, 1876. + +[39] Kratylus, 410 A.D. + +[40] Exploration Archeologique de la Galatie et de la Bithynie. + +[41] See Herodotus, i.7. + +[42] Texier: Description de l'Asie Mineure, i. 1, pl. 78. + +[43] Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, iv. 2, 1876. + +[44] I have given the reasons of my scepticism in the _Academy_, of May +30, 1874. Brugsch Bey, the leading authority on the geography of the +Egyptian monuments, would now identify those names with those tribes in +Kolkhis, and its neighbourhood. + +[45] i. pp. 273-301 (1877). + +[46] _Phoenicia_, Od. iv. 83; xiv. 291. _Phoenicians_, Od. xiii. 272; xv. +415. _A Phoenician_, Od. xiv. 288. _A Phoenician woman_, Od. xiv. 288; Il. +xiv. 321. + +[47] _Sidon_, _Sidonia_, Il. vi. 291; Od. xiii. 285; xv. 425. _Sidonians_, +Il. vi. 290; Od. iv. 84, 618; xv. 118. + + + + +SOME GOSSIP ABOUT LEICESTER SQUARE. + + +In old-world London, Leicester Square played a much more important part +than it does to-day. It was then the chosen refuge of royalty and the home +of wit and genius. Time was when it glittered with throngs of +lace-bedizened gallants; when it trembled beneath the chariot-wheels of +Beauty and Fashion; when it re-echoed with the cries of jostling chairmen +and link-boys; when it was trodden by the feet of the greatest men of a +great epoch--Newton and Swift, Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a host of +others more or less distinguished. Mr. Tom Taylor, in his interesting work +entitled "Leicester Square," tells us that the vicissitudes of a London +quarter generally tend downwards through a regular series of decades. It +is first fashionable; then it is professional; then it becomes a favourite +locality for hotels and lodging-houses; then the industrial element +predominates, and then not infrequently a still lower depth is reached. +Leicester Square has been no exception to this rule. Its reputation in +fact was becoming very shady indeed, when the improvement of its central +inclosure gave it somewhat of a start upwards and turned attention to its +early history. + +Of old, many of these grand doings took place at Leicester House, which +was the first house in the Square. It was built by Robert Sidney, Earl of +Leicester, a staunch Royalist, somewhere about 1636. His sons, Viscount +Lisle and the famous Algernon Sidney, grew up less of Royalists than he +was; and to Leicester House, with the sanction and welcome of its head, +came many of the more prominent Republicans of the day, Vane and Neville, +Milton and Bradshaw, Ludlow and Lambert. The cream of history lies not so +much in a bare notation of facts as in the little touches of nature and +manners which reproduce for us the actual human life of a former age, and +much of this may be gleaned from the history of the Sidneys. They were an +interesting family, alike from their rank, their talents, their personal +beauty, and the vicissitudes of their fortunes. The Countess was a clever +managing woman; and her letters to her absent lord when ambassador in +France convey to us many pleasant details of the home-life at Leicester +House. Still more charming is it to read the pretty little billets +addressed to the Earl by his elder girls. Of these six beautiful daughters +of the house of Sidney, four were married and two died in the dawn of +early womanhood. Of the younger of these, Lady Elizabeth, the father has a +touching entry in his journal. After narrating her death, he adds: "She +had to the last the most angelical countenance and beauty, and the most +heavenly disposition and temper of mind that I think were ever seen in so +young a creature." + +With her death the merry happy family life at Leicester House drew to a +close. The active bustling mother, whose influence had brought the +different jarring chords into harmony, died a few mouths afterwards; and +the busy years as they sped onwards, while consummating the fall of +Charles and consolidating the power of Cromwell, also put great and +growing disunion between the Sidney brothers. At the Restoration, Algernon +was in exile; Lord Lisle's stormy temper had alienated him from his +father; the Earl's favourite son-in-law was dead; of the three who +remained he was neither proud nor fond; and lonely and sick at heart, he +grew weary of the splendid home from which the fair faces of his handsome +children had gone for ever, and made preparations to leave it. He was +presented to Charles II.; and immediately afterwards retired to Penshurst +in Kent; and Leicester House was let, first to the ambassadors of the +United Provinces; and then to a more remarkable tenant, Elizabeth Stewart, +the ill-fated Princess and Queen of Bohemia. She had left England in 1613 +a lovely happy girl, the bride of the man she loved, life stretching all +rainbow-hued before her. She returned to it a weary haggard woman of +sixty-five, who had drunk to the dregs of every possible cup of +disappointment and sorrow. Her presence was very unwelcome, as that of the +unfortunate often is. Charles II., her nephew, was very loath indeed to +have the pleasure of receiving her as a guest; but she returned to London +whether he would or not, and Leicester house was taken for her. There she +languished for a few months in feeble and broken health, and there, on the +anniversary of her wedding-day, she died. + +The house immediately to the west of Leicester House belonged to the +Marquis of Aylesbury; but in 1698 it was occupied by the Marquis of +Caermarthen, who was appointed by King William III. cicerone and guide to +Peter the Great when he came in the January of that year to visit England. +Peter's great qualities have long been done full justice to; but in the +far-off January of 1698 he appeared to the English as by no means a very +august-looking potentate; he had the manners and appearance of an unkempt +barbarian, and his pastimes were those of a coal-heaver. His favourite +exercise in the mornings was to run a barrow through and through Evelyn's +trim holly-hedges at Deptford; and the state in which he left his pretty +house there is not to be described. His chief pleasure, when the duties of +the day were over, was to drink all night with the Marquis in his house at +Leicester Fields, the favourite tipple of the two distinguished topers +being brandy spiced with pepper; or sack, of which the Czar is reported to +have drunk eight bottles one day after dinner. Among other sights in +London, the Marquis took him to see Westminster Hall in full term. "Who +are all these men in wigs and gowns?" he asked. "Lawyers," was the answer. +"Lawyers!" he exclaimed. "Why, I have only two in my dominions, and when I +get back, I intend to hang one of them." + +In January 1712 Leicester House, which was then occupied by the imperial +resident, received another distinguished visitor in the person of Prince +Eugene, one of the greatest captains of the age. In appearance he was a +little sallow wizened old man, with one shoulder higher than the other. A +soldier of fortune, whose origin was so humble as to be unknown, his +laurels were stained neither by rapacity nor self-seeking; and in all the +vicissitudes of his eventful life he bore himself like a hero, and a +gentleman in the truest and fullest acceptation of the word. Dean Swift +was also at this time in lodgings in Leicester Fields, noting with clear +acute unpitying vision the foibles and failings of all around him, and +writing to Stella from time to time after his cynical fashion, "how the +world is going mad after Prince Eugene, and how he went to court also, but +could not see him, the crowd was so great." + +A labyrinth of courts, inns, and stable-yards had gradually filled up the +space between the royal mews and Leicester Fields; and between 1680 and +1700 several new streets were opened through these; one reason for the +opening of them being the great influx of French refugees into London, on +the occasion of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Many of +these exiles settled in and around Leicester Fields, and for their use +several chapels were built. The neighbourhood has ever since been a resort +of French immigrants. + +In one of these streets opening into Leicester Square, St. Martin's +Street, Sir Isaac Newton lived for the last sixteen years of his life. The +house in which he lived looks dingy enough now; but in those days it was +considered a very good residence indeed, and Like Leicester House was +frequented by the best company in the fashionable world. The genius and +reputation of its master attracted scientific and learned visitors; and +the beauty of his niece, Mrs. Catharine Barton, drew to her feet all the +more distinguished wits and beaux of the time. + +Between 1717 and 1760 Leicester House became what Pennant calls "the +pouting-place of princes," being for almost all that time in the +occupation of a Prince of Wales who was living in fierce opposition to the +reigning king. In 1718 the Prince of Wales having had a furious quarrel +with his father George I., on the occasion of the christening of the +Prince's son George William, left St. James's, and took Leicester House at +a yearly rent of five hundred pounds; and until he succeeded to the throne +in 1727, it was his town residence. + +Here he held his court--a court not by any means strait-laced; a gay +little court at first; a court whose selfish intrigues and wild frolics +and madcap adventures and humdrum monotony live for us still in the +sparkling pages of Horace Walpole; or are painted in with vivid clearness +of touch and execution, but with a darker brush, by Hervey, Pope's Lord +Fanny, who was a favourite with his mistress the handsome accomplished +Caroline, Princess of Wales. Piloted by one or other of these exact +historians, we enter the chamber of the gentlewomen-in-waiting, and are +introduced to the maids-of-honour, to fair Mary Lepell, to charming Mrs. +Bellenden, to pensive, gentle Mrs. Howard. We see them eat Westphalia ham +of a morning, and then set out with their royal master for a +helter-skelter ride over hedges and ditches, on borrowed hacks. No wonder +Pope pitied them; and on their return, who should they fall in with but +that great poet himself! They are good to him in their way, these saucy +charming maids-of-honour, and so they take the frail little man under +their protection and give him his dinner; and then he finishes off the +day, he tells us, by walking three hours in the moonlight with Mary +Lepell. We can imagine the affected compliments he paid her and the +burlesque love he made to her; and the fun she and her sister +maids-of-honour would have laughing over it all, when she went back to +Leicester House and he returned to his pretty villa at Twickenham. + +As the Prince grew older his court became more and more dull, till at last +it was almost deserted, when on the 14th of June 1727 the loungers in its +half-empty chambers were roused by sudden news--George I. was dead; and +Leicester House was thronged by a sudden rush of obsequious courtiers, +among whom was the late king's prime-minister, bluff, jolly, coarse Sir +Robert Walpole. No one paid any attention to him, for every one knew that +his disgrace was sealed; the new king had never been at any pains to +conceal his dislike to him. Sir Robert, however, knew better; he was quite +well aware who was to be the real ruler of England now; and he knew that +the Princess Caroline had already accepted him, just as she accepted La +Walmoden and her good Howard; and so all alone in his corner he chuckled +to himself as he saw the crowd of sycophants elbow and jostle and push +poor Lady Walpole as she tried to make her way to the royal feet. Caroline +saw it too, and with a flash of half-scornful mischief lighting up her +shrewd eyes, said with a smile: "Sure, there I see a friend." Instantly +the human stream parted, and made way for her Ladyship. + +In 1728 Frederick, the eldest son of George and Caroline, arrived from +Hanover, where he had remained since his birth in 1707. It was a fatal +mistake; he came to England a stranger to his parents, and with his place +in their hearts already filled by his brother. It was inevitable that +where there was no mutual love, distrust and alienation should come, as in +no long time they did, with the result that the same pitiful drama was +played out again on the same stage. In 1743 Frederick Prince of Wales took +Leicester House and held his receptions there. He was fond of gaiety, and +had a succession of balls, masques, plays, and supper-parties. His tastes, +as was natural considering his rearing, were foreign, and Leicester House +was much frequented by foreigners of every grade. Desnoyers the +dancing-master was a favourite habitue, as was also the charlatan +St-Germain. In the midst of all this fiddling and buffoonery the Prince +fell ill; but not so seriously as to cause uneasiness to any one around +him; consequently all the world was taken by surprise when he suddenly +died one morning in the arms of his friend the dancing-master. After his +death his widow remained at Leicester House, and like a sensible woman as +she was, made her peace with the king her father-in-law, who ever +afterwards shewed himself very kind and friendly to her. + +In October 1760 George III. was proclaimed king; and again a crowd of +courtiers thronged to Leicester House to kiss the hand of the new +sovereign. For six years longer the Princess of Wales continued to live at +Leicester House; and there in 1765 her youngest son died, and the +following year she removed to Carlton House. + +While the quarrel between George II. and Frederick was at its fiercest, +the central inclosure of Leicester Square was re-arranged very elegantly +according to the taste of the day; and an equestrian statue of George I., +which had belonged to the first Duke of Chandos and had been bought at the +sale of his effects, was set up in front of Leicester House, where it +remained, a dazzling object at first, in all the glory of gilding, which +passed with the populace for gold; but latterly a most wretched relic of +the past, an eyesore, which was removed in 1874 in the course of Baron +Grant's improvements. + +Leicester Square had other tenants beside Sir Isaac Newton, compared with +whom courtiers and gallants and fine gentlemen and ladies look very small +indeed. Hogarth lived in this street, and so did Sir Joshua Reynolds. +Hogarth's house was the last but two on the east side of the Square. Here +he established himself, a young struggling man, with Jane Thornhill, the +wife with whom he had made a stolen love-match. In this house, with the +quaint sign of the Golden Head over the door, he worked, not as painters +generally do, at a multitude of detached pieces, but depicting with his +vivid brush a whole series of popular allegories on canvas. When he became +rich, as in process of time he did, he had a house at Chiswick; but he +still retained the Golden Head as his town-house, and in 1764 returned to +it to die. + +In No. 47 Sir Joshua Reynolds lived, and painted those charming portraits +which have immortalised for us all that was most beautiful and famous in +his epoch. He was a kindly genial lovable man, fond of society, and with a +liking for display. He had a wonderful carriage, with the four seasons +curiously painted in on the panels, and the wheels ornamented with carved +foliage and gilding. The servants in attendance on this chariot wore +silver-laced liveries; and as he had no time to drive in it himself, he +made his sister take a daily airing in it, much to her discomfort, for she +was a homely little lady with very simple tastes. He was a great dinner +giver; and as it was his custom to ask every pleasant person he met +without any regard to the preparation made to receive them, it may be +conjectured that there was often a want of the commonest requisites of the +dinner-table. Even knives, forks, and glasses could not always be procured +at first. But although his dinners partook very much of the nature of +unceremonious scrambles, they were thoroughly enjoyable. Whatever was +awanting, there was always cheerfulness and the pleasant kindly +interchange of thought. In July 1792 Sir Joshua died in his own house in +Leicester Square; and within a few hours of his death, an obituary notice +of him was written by Burke, the manuscript of which was blotted with his +tears. + +In No. 28, on the eastern side of the Square, the celebrated anatomist +John Hunter lived. Like most distinguished men of the day, he sat to Sir +Joshua Reynolds for his portrait; but was so restless and preoccupied that +he made a very bad sitter. At last one day he fell into a reverie. The +happy moment had come; Sir Joshua, with his instinctive tact, caught the +expression and presented to us the great surgeon in one of his most +characteristic attitudes. The other celebrated surgeons, Cruickshank and +Charles Bell, also lived in this Square. The house in which Bell resided +for many years was large and ruinous, and had once been inhabited by +Speaker Onslow. Here he set up his Museum, and began to lecture on +anatomy, having for a long time, he writes, scarcely forty pupils to +lecture to. + +During all the later portion of its history Leicester Square has been +famous for shows. In 1771 Sir Ashton Lever exhibited a large and curious +Museum in Leicester House. In 1796 Charles Dibdin built at Nos. 2 and 3, +on the east side of Leicester Square, a small theatre in which he gave an +entertainment consisting of an interesting medley of anecdote and song. In +1787 Miss Linwood opened her gallery of pictures in needlework, an +exhibition which lasted forty-seven years, for the last thirty-five of +which it was exhibited at Savile House, a building which was destroyed by +fire in 1865. + +After Miss Linwood's, one of the best shows in Leicester Square was +Burford's Panorama, which is now numbered with the things that were, its +site being occupied by a French chapel and school. In 1851 a new show was +inaugurated by Mr. Wylde the geographer. It consisted of a monster globe +sixty feet in diameter, which occupied the central dome of a building +erected in the garden of the Square. The world was figured in relief on +the inside of it, and it was viewed from several galleries at different +elevations. It was exhibited for ten years, and was then taken down by its +proprietor, owing to a dispute concerning the ownership of the garden. Out +of this case, which was decided in 1867, the proceedings originated which +resulted in the purchase and renovation of the garden by Baron Grant, who +having once more made it trim and neat, handed it over to the Board of +Works.--_Chambers's Journal._ + + + + +A WOMAN'S LOVE. + +A SLAVONIAN STUDY. + + +Those races that have not undergone the beneficial and domesticating +influences of civilisation, and that are isolated from the more cultured +nations, possess to an excess the different qualities or impulses inherent +to our nature. Amongst the emotions that move the heart of man, love is +certainly the one that has the greatest empire over him; it rules the soul +so imperiously that all the other passions are crushed by it. It makes +cowards of the bravest men, and gives courage to the timid. Love is, +indeed, the great motive-power of life. + +Our passions and our emotions are, however, more subdued than those of the +semi-civilised nations; for, in the first place, we undergo the softening +influences of education, and secondly, we are more or less under the +restraint of the rules which govern society. Besides this, our mind is +usually engrossed by the numerous cares which our state of living +necessitates; for we are not like them, contented with little; on the +contrary, instead of being satisfied with what is necessary, we require +luxuries and superfluities, the procurement of which takes up a +considerable portion of our energy and our mental activity. + +The Slavonians, and more especially those belonging to the southern +regions, such as the Dalmatians and Montenegrins, are, as a general rule, +very passionate; ardent in their affections, they are likewise given to +anger, resentment, and hatred, the generic sister passion of love. + +The Slavonian women are, however, not indolent, nor do they ever indulge +in idle dreams; for they are not only occupied with the household cares, +but they also take a share, and not the smallest or the slightest, of +those toils which in other countries devolve upon the men alone. They +therefore, in the manly labours of the field, not only get prematurely +old, but they hardly ever possess much grace, slenderness, or delicate +complexions. No Slavonian woman, for instance, is ever _mignonne_. They, +in compensation, acquire in health, and perhaps in real aesthetic beauty of +proportions, what they lose in prettiness or delicacy of appearance, +consequently they never suffer from vapours or from the numerous nervous +complaints to which the generality of our ladies are subjected; the +natural result of this state of things is _mens sana in corpore sano_; +this is doubtless the reason why Slavonian women are, as a general rule, +fond mothers and faithful wives. + +They are certainly not endowed with that charming refinement, the +_morbidezza_ of manners which but too often is but a mask covering a +morbid selfish disposition, a hypocritical and false nature. Though +ignorant, they are neither void of natural good sense nor wit; they only +want that smattering of worldly knowledge which the contact of society +imparts, and which but too often covers nothing but frivolity, gross +ignorance, and conceit. Their conversation is, perhaps, not peculiarly +attractive; for being simple and artless, speech was not given to them as +a means of disguising their thoughts; their lips only disclose the +fullness of their hearts. Conversation is, besides, a gift conferred to +few; and even in our polite circles not many persons can converse in an +interesting manner, and fewer can be witty without backbiting; moreover, +if man were suddenly to become transparent, would he not have to blush for +the frivolous demonstrations of friendship daily interchanged in our +artificial state of society? + +The different amusements that absorb so much of our time and occupy our +minds are unknown in Slavonian countries; the daily occupations and the +details of the toilet do not captivate the whole attention; so that when a +simple affection is awakening in the heart of a man or of a woman, it by +degrees pervades the whole soul and the whole mind, and a strong and +ardent passion usually ensues. Moreover, amongst those simple-minded +sincere people flirtations are generally unknown; yet when they do love, +their affections are genuine; they never exchange amongst each other those +false coins bearing Cupid's effigy, and known as coquetry; for their lips +only utter what their hearts really feel. People there do not delight in +playing with the fire of love, or trying how far they can with impunity +make game of sentiments which should be held sacred. Amongst the virile +maidens of Slavonia many of them therefore have virgin hearts, that is to +say, artless souls, fresh to all the tender sentiments; the reason of this +is, that from the age of fifteen they do not trifle with their affections +until they have become so callous and sceptical that marriage is merely +wealth or a position in life. Men do not first waste away all the tender +emotions which the human heart is capable of, and then settle down into a +_mariage de raison_. + +The following story, which happened about a century ago, will serve as an +illustration of the power of love amongst the Slavonians; it is, indeed, a +kind of repetition of the fate which attended the lovers of Sestos and +Abydos. This, however, is no legend, but an historical fact; the place +where this tragedy happened was the island of St. Andrea, situated between +those of Malfi and Stagno, not far from the town of Ragusa. + +Though no Musaeus has immortalised this story by his verses, it is, +however, recorded in the "Revista Dalmata" (1859), in the "Annuario +Spalatino" of the same year, as well as other Slavonian periodicals. + +The hero of this story, whose Christian name was Teodoro, belonged to one +of the wealthiest patrician families of Ragusa, his father being, it is +said, Rector of the Republic. He was a young man of a grave character, but +withal of a gentle and tender disposition; he not only possessed great +talents, but also great culture, for his time was entirely given up to +study. + +One day, the young patrician having gone from the island of St. Andrea, +where he had been staying at the Benedictine convent, to one of the other +two neighboring islands, he in the evening wished to return to his abode. +He met upon the beach a young girl who was carrying home some baskets of +fish. Having asked her if she knew of anybody who would take him across to +the island of St. Andrea, the young girl proffered her services, which the +young and bashful patrician reluctantly accepted. + +The young girl was as beautiful, as chaste, and as proud as the Arrabiata +of Paul Heyse; and for the first time Teodoro felt a new and vague feeling +awake in his bosom. He began to talk to the girl, asking her a thousand +questions about herself, about her home; and the young girl doubtless told +him that she was an orphan, and that she lived with her brothers. Instead +of returning to his family, the young nobleman remained at the Benedictine +convent, with the purpose of studying in retirement; his mind, however, +was not entirely engrossed by his books, and his visits to the island +where Margherita lived daily became more frequent. + +The love which had kindled in his heart found an echo in the young girl's +bosom, and instead of endeavouring to suppress their feelings they yielded +to the charms of this saintly affection, to the rapture of loving and +being loved. In a few days their mutual feelings had made such progress +that the young man promised the _barcarinola_ to marry her. His noble +character and his brave spirit made him forget that he could not with +impunity break the laws of the society amongst which he lived; for that +society, which would have smiled had he seduced the young girl and made +her his mistress, would nevertheless have been scandalised had he taken +her for his lawful wife. + +Peccadilloes are overlooked, and it is almost better in high life to be a +knave than a fool; it was, indeed, a quixotic notion for a patrician to +marry a plebeian, an unheard of event in the annals of the aristocratic +republic of Ragusa. The difficulties which our hero was to encounter were +therefore insurmountable. + +In the midst of his thoughtless happiness our young lover was suddenly +summoned back to his home; for whilst Teodoro was supposed to be deeply +engaged in his studies his father, without the young man's knowledge, and +not anticipating any opposition, promised his son in marriage to the +daughter of one of his friends, a young lady of great wealth and beauty. +This union had, it is true, been concerted when the children were mere +babes, and it had until then been a bond between the two families. The +young lady being now of a marriageable age, and having concentrated all +her affections on the young man she had always been taught to regard as +her future husband, she now looked forward with joy for the anticipated +event. + +Teodoro was therefore summoned back home to assist at a great festivity +given in honour of his betrothal; he at once hastened back to Ragusa, in +order to break off the engagement contracted for him. Vainly, however, did +he try to remonstrate, first with his father and then with his mother. He +avowed that he had no inclination for matrimony, that he felt no love for +this young lady, nothing but a mere brotherly affection, and that he could +not cherish her as his wife; he found, nevertheless, both his parents +inexorable. It was too late; the father had given his word to his friend; +a refusal would prove an insult, which would provoke a rupture between +these two families; no option was left but to obey. + +Teodoro thereupon retired to his own room, where he remained in the +strictest confinement, refusing to see any one. The evening of that +eventful day, the guests were assembled; the bride and her family had +already arrived; the bridegroom, nevertheless, was missing. This was +indeed a strange breach of good manners, and numerous comments were +whispered from ear to ear. The father sent at last a peremptory order to +his undutiful son to come at once to him. The young man ultimately made +his appearance, attired like Hamlet at his stepfather's court, in a suit +of deep mourning, whilst his long hair, which formerly fell in ringlets +over his shoulders, was all clipped short. In this strange accoutrement he +came to acquaint his father before the whole assembly that he had decided +to forego the pleasure, the pomp and vanity of this world, to renounce +society, and take up his abode in a convent, where he intended passing his +days in study and meditation. + +The scene of confusion which followed this unexpected declaration can be +imagined. The guests all wished to retire: the first person, however, to +leave the house was Teodoro, expelled by his father and bearing with him +the paternal malediction. Thus this day of anticipated joy ended in +disappointment and humiliation. The discarded bride was borne away by her +parents, and it is said that her delicate health never recovered from this +unexpected blow. + +That very night the young man retired to the Benedictine convent upon the +island of St. Andrea, with the firm resolution of passing his life in holy +seclusion. When a few days had passed, his love proved, nevertheless, +stronger than his will, and he could not refrain from going to see his +Margherita, and informing her of all that had happened, telling her that +he had been driven from home, and that he had taken refuge at the convent, +where he intended passing his life in a state of holy celibacy. +Notwithstanding all his good intentions, the sight of the young girl +proved too great a temptation, her beauty overcame his resolutions, and he +swore to her that he would brave his parents' opposition, as well as the +anger of his caste, and that he would marry her in spite of his family and +of the whole world. + +He thus continued seeing this young girl, till at last the fishermen, her +brothers, having found out why this young patrician visited the island so +often, severe and jealous like all their countrymen, they waylaid him, and +threatened to kill him if he were once more caught upon these shores. The +prior of the Benedictines, finding besides that his _protege_, far from +coming to seek peace and tranquillity within the walls of his convent, +was, on the contrary, an object of scandal, expressed his intention to +expel him, should he not discontinue his visits to the neighbouring +island, and reform. + +Every new difficulty seemed to give fresh courage to the lovers; they +would have fled from their native country and their persecutors, but they +knew that they would be overtaken, brought back, and punished; so they +decided to wait some time until the wrath of their enemies had abated, and +the storm had blown over. + +As Teodoro could not go any more to see the young girl, it was Margherita +who now came to visit her lover; to evade, however, the suspicion of her +brothers, and that of the friars, they only met in the middle of the +night, and as they always changed their place of meeting, a lighted torch +was the signal where the young girl was to direct her bark. There were +nights, nevertheless, when she could not obtain a boat; yet this was no +obstacle to her brave spirit, for upon those nights, she, like Leander, +swam across the channel, for nothing could daunt this heroic woman's +heart. + +These ill-fated lovers were happy notwithstanding their adverse fortune, +for the sacred fire of love which burnt within them was bliss enough to +compensate for all their woes. Their days were passed in anxious +expectation for the hour which was to unite them on the sea-shore, amidst +the darkness of the night. There clasped in one another's arms, the world +and its inhabitants existed no longer for them; those were moments of +ineffable rapture, in which it seemed impossible to drain the whole +chalice of happiness; moments in which time and eternity are confounded, +instants only to be appreciated by those who have known the infinite bliss +of loving and being loved. Their souls seemed to leave their bodies, blend +together and soar into the empyreal spaces, the regions of infinite +happiness; for them all other sentiments passed away, and nothing was felt +but an unmitigated love. + +The dangers which encompassed them, their loneliness upon the rocky +shores, the stillness of the night, only served to heighten their joy and +exultation, for a pleasure dearly bought is always more keenly felt. + +Their happiness was, however, not to be of long duration; such felicity is +celestial; on this earth, + + "Les plus belles choses + Ont le pire destin." + +Margherita's brothers, knowing the power of love, watched their sister, +and at last found out that when the young nobleman had ceased coming, it +was she who by night visited the Island of St. Andrea, and they resolved +to be revenged upon her. They bided their time, and upon a dark and stormy +night, the fishermen, knowing that their sister would not be intimidated +by the heavy sea, went off with the boat and left her to the mercy of the +waves. The young girl, unable to resist the impulse of her love, +recommended herself to the Almighty, and bravely plunged into the waters. +Her treacherous brothers, having watched her movements, plied their oars +and directed their course towards the island; they landed, went and took +the lighted torch from the place where it was burning, and fastened it to +the prow of their boat; having done this, they slowly rowed away into the +open sea. + +Margherita, as usual, swam towards the beacon-light of love, but that +night all her efforts were useless--the faster she swam, the greater was +the distance that separated her from that _ignis-fatuus_ light; doubtless +she attributed this to the roughness of the sea, and took courage, hoping +soon to reach that blessed goal. + +A flash of lightning, which illumined the dark expanse of the waters, made +her at last perceive her mistake; she saw the boat towards which she had +been swimming, and also the island of St. Andrea far behind her. She at +once directed her course towards it, but there, in the midst of darkness, +she struggled with the wild waves, until, overpowered by fatigue, she gave +up all hopes of rejoining her beloved one, and sank down in the briny +deep. + +The cruel sea that separated the lovers was, however, more merciful than +man, for upon the morrow the waves themselves softly deposited the +lifeless body of the young girl upon the sand of the beach. + +The nobleman, who had passed a night of most terrible anxiety, found at +daybreak the corpse of the girl he loved. He caused it to be committed to +the earth, after which he re-entered within the walls of the convent, took +the Benedictine dress, and spent the rest of his life pining in grief. + + ADRIAN DE VALVEDERE, in _Tinsley's Magazine_. + + + + +AN IMPERIAL PARDON. + + +During a journey through some parts of Russia a few years ago, we engaged, +in preference to the imperial post-chaise, a private conveyance for a +considerable distance, the driver being a Jew--generally preferred in the +East on account of their sobriety and general trustworthiness. On the road +my companion became communicative, and entered into philosophic-religious +discussion--a topic of frequent occurrence among these bilingual +populations. After a somewhat desultory harangue, he suddenly became +silent and sad, having just uttered the words: "If a Chassid goes astray, +what does he become? A meschumed, _i.e._ an apostate."--"To what class of +people do you allude?" I inquired.--"Well, it just entered my head, +because we have to pass the house of one of them--I mean the 'forced +ones.'"--"Forced!" I thought of a religious sect. "Are they Christians or +Jews?"--"Neither the one nor the other," was the reply, "but simply +'forced.' Oh, sir, it is a great misery and a great crime! Our children at +least will not know anything of it, because new victims do not arise, and +on the marriage of these parties rests a curse--they remain sterile! But +what am I saying? It is rather a blessing--a mercy! Should thus a +terrible misery be perpetuated? These forced people are childless. Well, +God knows best. I am a fool, a sinner to speak about it." No entreaty of +mine would induce my Jewish companion to afford further information +concerning this peculiar people. But before the end of our journey I heard +unexpectedly more about this unfortunate class of Russian subjects. We +travelled westward through the valley of the Dniester, a district but +thinly peopled, and rested at an inn on the borders of an extensive +forest. + +Amidst the raillery going on in the principal room of this hostelry +between guests of different nationalities, we had not heard the noise of +wheels which slowly moved towards the house. It was a very poor +conveyance, containing a small cask and a basket. The young hostess arose +hastily, and, approaching the owner, said in a whisper, "What is it you +want?" A slight paleness overspread her countenance, and stranger still +was the demeanour of my coachman. "Sir, sir!" he exclaimed loudly, turning +towards me, stretching out his hands as if seeking support, or warding off +some impending danger. "What is the matter?" I rejoined, greatly +surprised: but he merely shook his head, and stared at the new comer. + +He was an elderly peasant, attired in the usual garb of the +country-people; only at a more close inspection I noticed that he wore a +fine white shirt. Of his face I could see but little, it being hidden +behind the broad brim of his straw hat. + +"Hostess," he said, addressing the young woman, "will you purchase +something of me? I have some old brandy, wooden spoons and plates, +pepper-boxes, needle-cases, &c., all made of good hard wood, and very +cheap." In an almost supplicating tone he uttered these words very slowly, +with downcast eyes. From his pronunciation he appeared to be a Pole. + +The hostess looked shyly up to him. + +"You know my brother-in-law has forbidden me to have dealings with you," +she said hesitatingly, "on account of your wife; but to-day he is not at +home." After a momentary silence, turning towards the driver, she +continued, "Reb Ruessan, will you betray me? You come frequently this way." +In reply he merely shrugged his shoulders and moved away. Turning again +with some impatience to the peasant, she said, "Bring me a dish and two +spoons." When he had gone to fetch these articles, the woman once more +accosted my coachman. + +"You must not blame me; they are very poor people!" + +"Certainly they are very poor"--he replied in a milder tone. "During life, +hunger and misery, and after death--hell! and all undeserved!" But the man +stood already, at this utterance, with his basket in the room. The bargain +was soon concluded, and the few copeks paid. Curiosity prompted me to step +forward and examine the merchandise. + +"I have also cigar-cases," said the peasant, humbly raising his hat. But +his face was far more interesting than his wares. You rarely see such +features! However great the misery on earth, this pale, pain-stricken +countenance was unique in its kind, revealing yet traces of sullen +defiance, and the glance of his eyes moved instantly the heart of the +beholder--a weary, almost fixed gaze, and yet full of passionate mourning. + +"You are a Pole!" I observed after a pause. + +"Yes," he replied. + +"And do you live in this neighbourhood?" + +"At the inn eight werst from here. I am the keeper." + +"And besides wood-carver?" + +"We must do the best we can," was his reply. "We have but rarely any +guests at our house." + +"Does your hostelry lie outside the main road?" + +"No, close to the high road, sir. It was at one time the best inn between +the Bug and the Dniester. But now carriers do not like to stay at our +house." + +"And why not?" + +"Because they consider it a sin--especially the Jews." Suddenly, with +seeming uneasiness and haste, he asked, "Will you purchase anything? This +box, perhaps. Upon the lid is engraved a fine country-house." + +Attracted by the delicate execution, I inquired, "And is this your own +workmanship?" + +"Yes," was his reply. + +"You are an artist! And pray where did you learn wood-engraving?" + +"At Kamieniec-Poddski." + +"At the fortress?" + +"Yes, during the insurrection of 1863." + +"Were you among the insurgents?" + +"No, but the authorities feared I might join them--hence I and the other +forced ones were incarcerated in the fortress when the insurrection broke +out, and again set free when it was suppressed." + +"Without any cause?" + +"Without the slightest. I was already at that time a crushed man. When yet +a youth the marrow of my bones had been poisoned in the mines of Siberia. +During the whole time of my settlement, I have been since 1858 keeper of +that inn; I gave the authorities no cause for suspicion, but I was a +'forced man,' and that sufficed for pouncing upon me." + +"Forced! what does it mean?" + +"Well, a person forced to accept, when to others free choice is +left--domicile, trade or calling, wife and religion." + +"Terrible!" I exclaimed. "And you submitted?" A little smile played around +his thin lips. + +"Are you so much moved at my fate? We generally bear very easily the most +severe pains endured by others." + +"That is a saying of Larochefoucauld," I said, somewhat surprised. "Have +you read him?" + +"I was at one time very fond of French literature. But pardon my acrimony. +I am but little accustomed to sympathy, and indeed of what avail would it +be to me now!" He stared painfully at the ground, and I also became +silent, convinced that any superficial expression of sympathy would, under +the circumstances, be downright mockery. + +A painful pause ensued, which I broke with the question, if he had worked +the engraving upon the lid of the box after a pattern. + +"No, from memory," was his rejoinder. + +"It is a peculiar kind of architecture!" + +"It is like all gentlemen's houses in Littauen; only the old tree is very +striking. It was a very old house." + +"Has been? Does it exist no longer?" + +"It was burnt down seven years ago by the Russians, after they had first +ransacked it. They evidently were not aware that they destroyed their own +property. It had been confiscated years before, and had been Crown +property since 1848." + +"And have you yet the outlines of the building so firmly engraved on your +memory?" + +"Of course! it was my birth-place, which I had rarely left until I was +eighteen years old. Such things are not easily forgotten. And although +more than twenty years have passed since this sad affair, hardly a day +passed on which I did not think of my paternal home. I was aware of the +death of my mother, and that my cousin was worse than dead--perhaps I +ought to have rejoiced when the old mansion was burnt to the ground; but +yet I could not suppress a tear when the news reached me. There is hardly +anything on earth which can now move me." I record literally what the +unfortunate man related. My Jewish coachman, not easily impressed, had +during the conversation crept gradually nearer, and shook his head +seriously and sorrowfully. + +"Excuse me, Pani Walerian," he interrupted: "upon my honour, yours is a +sad story!" He launched out into practical politics, and concluded thus: + +"A Pole is not as clever as I am. If he (the Pole) was the equal of the +Russian, well and good, fight it out; but the Russian is a hundred times +stronger; therefore, Pani Walerian, why irritate him, why confront him?" + +I could not help laughing at these remarks; but the poor "forced one" +remained unmoved; and only after some silence, he observed, turning +towards me: + +"I have never even confronted the Russians. I merely received the +punishment of the criminal, without being one, or venturing my all in my +people's cause. I was very young, when I was transported to +Siberia--little more than nineteen years old. My father had died early. I +managed our small property, and a cousin of mine, a pretty girl, sixteen +years old, lived at our house. Indeed, I had no thoughts of politics. It +is true I wore the national costume, perused our poets, especially +Mickiewicz and Slowaski, and had on the wall of my bedroom a portrait of +Kosciuszko. For such kind of high treason even the Russian Government +would not have crushed me in ordinary times--but it was the year 1848. +'Nicolai Pawlowitch' had not sworn in vain that if the whole of Europe was +in flames, no spark should arise in his empire--and by streams of blood +and tears, he achieved his object. Wherever a young Polish noble lived who +was suspected of revolutionary tendencies, repeated domiciliary searches +were made; and if only a single prohibited book was found, the dread fiat +went forth, 'To Siberia with him!' + +"In my own case it came like a thunderbolt. I was already in Siberia, and +could not yet realize my misery. During the whole long journey I was more +or less delirious. I hoped for a speedy liberation, for I was altogether +innocent, and at that time," he continued with a bitter smile, "I yet +believed in God. When all hope became extinct, I began madly to rave, but +finally settled down utterly crushed and callous. It was a fearful +state--for weeks together, all my past life seemed a complete blank, at +most I still remembered my name. This, sir, is literally true: Siberia is +a very peculiar place." + +The poor fellow had sunk down upon a bench, his hands rested powerless in +his lap. I never have seen a face so utterly worn and pain-stricken. After +a while he continued: + +"Ten years had thus passed away; at least, I was told so--I had long +ceased to count the days of my misery. For what purpose should I have done +so? + +"I had sunk so low that I felt no pity even for my terrible condition. One +day I was brought before the Inspector, together with some of my +companions. This official informed us that we had been pardoned on +condition of becoming colonists in New Russia. The mercy of the Czar would +assign to each of us a place of residence, a trade, and a lawful wife, who +would be also a pardoned convict. We must of course, in addition, be +converted to the Orthodox Greek Church. This latter stipulation did but +little concern us. We readily accepted the conditions, for the people are +glad of leaving Siberia, no matter whither, even to meet death itself. And +had we not been pardoned? Alexander Nikolajewitch is a gracious lord. In +Siberia the mines are over-crowded, and in South Russia the steppes are +empty! Oh, he is a philanthropist! decus et deliciae generis humani! But +perhaps I wrong him. We entered upon our long journey, and proceeded +slowly south-west. In about eight months we reached Mohilew. Here we were +only kept in easy confinement, and above all, brought under the influence +of the pope. This was a rapid proceeding. One morning we were driven +together into a large room, about one hundred men, and an equal number of +women. Presently the priest entered; a powerful and dirty fellow, who +appeared to have invigorated himself for his holy work with a considerable +dose of gin, for we could smell it at least ten paces off, and he had some +difficulty in keeping upon his legs. + +"'You ragamuffins!' he stammered; 'you vermin of humanity! you are to +become Orthodox Christians; but surely I shall not take much trouble with +you. For, what do you think I get per head? Ten copeks, you vermin! ten +copeks per head. Who will be a missionary at such pay? I certainly do it +to-day for the last time! Indeed, our good father Alexander Nikolajewitch +caused one rouble to be set in the tariff; but that rascal, the director, +pockets ninety copeks, and leaves only ten for me. To-day, however, I have +undertaken your conversion, because I am told there are many of you. Now +listen! you are now Catholics, Protestants, Jews! That is sad mistake; for +every Jew is a blood-sucker, every Protestant a dog, and every Catholic a +pig. Such is their lot in life--but after death? carrion, my good people, +carrion! And will Christ have mercy on them at the last day? Verily no! He +will not dream of such a thing! And until then? Hell-fire! Therefore, good +people, why should you suffer such torments? Be converted! Those who agree +to become Orthodox Christians, keep silent; those who demur, receive the +knout and go back to Siberia. Wherefore, my dear brothers and sisters, I +ask, will you become Orthodox Christians?' + +"We remained silent. + +"'Well,' continued the priest, 'now pay attention! Those who are already +Christians need only to lift up the right hand, and repeat after me the +creed. That will soon be done. But with the damned Jews one has always a +special trouble--the Jews I must first baptise. Jews, step forward!--the +other vermin can remain where they now are.' In this solemn manner the +ceremony was brought to a conclusion. + +"On the day following," M. Walerian continued, "the second act was +performed: the selection of a trade. This act was as spontaneous as our +religious conversion; only, some individual regard became here +indispensable. Three young Government officials were deputed to record our +wishes, and to comply with them as far as the exigencies of the case +admitted. The official before whom I appeared was very juvenile. Though +externally very polished, he was in reality a frightfully coarse and cruel +youth, without a spark of human feeling, so far as we were concerned. We +afforded him no small amount of merriment. This youth inquired carefully +concerning our wishes, and invariably ordered the very opposite. Among us +was a noble lady from Poland, of very ancient lineage, very feeble and +miserable, whose utter helplessness might well inspire the most callous +heart with respect and compassion. The lady was too old to be married to +one of the 'forced ones,' and was therefore asked to state what kind of +occupation she desired. She entreated to be employed in some school for +daughters of military officers, there being a demand for such service; but +the young gentleman ordered her to go as laundress to the barracks at +Mohilew! An aged Jew had been sent to Siberia for having smuggled +prohibited books across the frontiers. He had been the owner of a printing +establishment, and was well acquainted with the business. 'Could he not be +employed in one of the Imperial printing offices; and if possible,' urged +the aged man, 'be permitted to reside in a place where few or no Jews +lived?' He had under compulsion changed his religion; to which he was yet +fervently attached, and trembled at the thought that his former +co-religionists would none the less avoid him as an apostate. The young +official noted down his request, and made him a police agent at Miaskowka, +a small town in the government district of Podolien, almost exclusively +inhabited by Jews. Another, a former schoolmaster, in the last stages of +consumption, begged on his knees to be permitted to die quietly in some +country village. 'That is certainly a modest request!' observed this +worthless youth; and sent him as a waiter to a hospital. Need I tell how I +fared? Being misled, like the rest, by the hypocritical air and seeming +concern of this rascal, I made known to him my desire to obtain the post +of under-steward at some remote Crown estate, where I might have as little +intercourse as possible with my fellow-men. And thus, sir, I became the +keeper of the small inn on a much-frequented highway!" + +The unfortunate man arose suddenly, and paced the room in a state of great +excitement. + +"But now comes the best of all," he exclaimed, with a desperate +effort--"the last act, the choice of a wife." Again an internal struggle +overpowered the unhappy narrator--a sudden and heavy tear rolled down his +care-worn cheek, evidently caused by the remembrance of this abominable +transaction. "It was a terrible ordeal," he said. "Sir, sir," he continued +after a momentary pause, "since the sun has risen in our horizon, he has +shone on many a cruel game which the mighty of the earth have played with +the helpless, but a more abominable farce has hardly ever been enacted +than the one I am now relating--the manner in which we unfortunate people +were coupled together. In my youth I read how Carrier at Nantes murdered +the Royalists; how he caused the first best man to be tied with a rope to +a woman, and carried down the Loire in a boat. In the middle of the river +a trap-door was suddenly opened, and the unfortunate couple disappeared in +the waves. But that monster was an angel compared with the officials of +the Czar; and these republican marriages were a benevolent act in +comparison with those we were forced to conclude. At Nantes, the victims +were tied together for a mutual death; we for our mutual lives!... On a +subsequent morning we were once more ushered into the room where our +conversion had taken place. There were present about thirty men and an +equal number of women. Together with the latter entered the official who +had so considerately ordered our lot as regards a livelihood. + +"'Ladies and gentlemen,' he commenced with a nasal twang, 'his Majesty has +graciously pardoned you, and desires to see you all happy. Now, the lonely +man is seldom a happy man; and hence you are to marry. Every gentleman is +free to select a partner, provided of course the lady accepts the choice. +And in order that none of you gentlemen may be placed in the invidious +position of having to select a partner unworthy of him, supreme +benevolence has ordered that an adequate number of ladies, partly from +penal settlements and partly from houses of correction, should be now +offered you. As his Majesty's solicitude for your welfare has already +assigned you an occupation, you may now follow unhesitatingly the +promptings of your own hearts in the choice of a wife. Ladies and +gentlemen, yours is the happy privilege to realise the dream of a purely +socialistic marriage. Make, then, your selection without delay; and as +"all genuine love is instantaneous, sudden as a lightning flash, and soft +as the breezes of spring"--to use the words of our poet Lermontoff--I +consider one hour sufficient. Bear also in mind that marriages are +ratified in heaven, and trust implicitly to your own heart. I offer you +beforehand, ladies and gentlemen, my congratulations.' + +"After this address, the young rascal placed his watch in front of him on +the table, sat down, and grinned maliciously at our helpless condition. +The full measure of scorn implied in this speech but few of us entirely +realised, for we were in truth a curious assembly. The most extravagant +imagination could hardly picture more glaring contrasts! Side by side with +the bestial Bessarabian herdsman, who in a fit of intoxication had slain +the whole of his family, stood the highly cultivated professor from Wilna, +whom the love of his country and of freedom had consigned to the mines of +Siberia; the most desperate thief and shoplifter from Moscow, and the +Polish nobleman who at the height of his misfortunes still regarded his +honour as the most precious treasure, the ex-professor from Charkow, and +the Cossac-robber from the Don; the forger from Odessa, &c. On my own +right hand stood a thief and deserter from Lipkany, and on the left a +Baschkire, who had been pardoned at the foot of the gallows, though he had +once assisted in roasting alive a Jewish family in a village inn. A madly +assorted medley of human beings! And the women! The dissolute female +gladly released from the house of correction, because she still more +depraved her already degraded companions, associated with the unfortunate +Polish lady, whose pure mind had never been poisoned by a vulgar word, and +whose quiet happiness had not been disturbed by any prospect of +misfortune, until a single letter, or act of charity to an exiled +countryman, brought her into misery. Pressing against the young girl whose +sole offence consisted in being the unfortunate offspring of a mother sent +to Siberia, might be seen the infamous hag who had habitually decoyed +young girls to ruin, in whose soul every spark of womanhood had long been +extinguished. And these people were called upon to marry; and one hour was +granted them in which to become acquainted and assorted! Sir, you will now +perhaps comprehend my emotion in relating this shocking business! + +"I consider it the most shocking and at the same time the most curious +outrage which has ever been committed." The "forced" man paused, a deadly +pallor suffused his countenance, and his agitation was great. The young +hostess appeared perfectly stunned, whilst Reb Ruessan, the coachman, bent +his head in evident compassion. + +After a while M. Walerian continued in a calmer mood. "It must certainly +have been an entertaining spectacle to notice the behaviour of this +ill-assorted people at that trying hour. Even the barefaced monster on his +raised dais betrayed a feverish excitement: he would suddenly jump from +his chair, and again recline, playing the while nervously with his +fingers. I am hardly able to describe the details, being not altogether +unbiassed at this dreadful hour. + +"I only know we stood at first in two distinct groups, and for the first +few moments after the official announcement, not a glance was exchanged +between the two sexes, much less a word spoken. A deep silence reigned in +the room, a death-like stillness, varied only by an occasional deep sigh, +or a nervous movement. The minutes passed, certainly not many, but they +seemed to me an eternity! + +"Suddenly a loud hoarse voice exclaimed, 'Up, my lads! here are some very +pretty mates!' We all recognised the notorious thief from Moscow, a +haggard withered fellow, with the ugliest face I ever beheld. He crossed +over to the women and examined in his way which would be the most +desirable partner. Here he received an indignant push, and there an +impudent alluring glance. Others, again--the better part--recoiled from +the approach of the brute. He was followed by the Baschkire, who like a +clumsy beast of prey drew nigh, muttering incoherently, 'I will have a fat +woman, the fattest among them.' From his approach even the ugliest and +most impudent instinctively recoiled--this wooer was really too hideous, +at best only suited to a monkey. The third in order who came forward was +the Don-Cossac, a pretty slender youth. An impudent lass jauntily met him +and fell on his neck; but he pushed her aside, and walked towards the girl +who had murdered her child. The discarded female muttered some insulting +words, and hung the next moment on my own neck. I shook her off, and she +repeated the attempt with my neighbour, and again unsuccessfully. + +"Her example became contagious: presently the more shameless of the women +made an onslaught on the men. Ten minutes later the scene had changed. In +the centre of the room stood a number of men and women engaged in eager +negotiation--shouting and scolding. The parties who had already agreed +retired to the window-niches, and here and there a man pulled an +unfortunate woman, making desperate efforts to escape from him. The +females who yet retained a spark of womanhood crept into a corner of the +room; and in another recess were three of us--the ex-professor, Count S., +and myself. We had instinctively come together, watching with painful +emotion this frantic spectacle, not inclined to participate in it. To me +at least the thought of selecting a wife here never occurred. + + * * * * * + +"'Another half an hour at your disposal, ladies and gentlemen,' exclaimed +our official tormentor; 'twenty minutes--yet fifteen minutes!' + +"I stood as if rooted to the ground, my knees trembled, my agitation +increased, but I remained motionless. Indeed, as often as I heard the +unpleasant voice of the official, the blood rushed to my head, but I +advanced not one step. My excitement increased--profound disgust, bitter +despair--the wildest indignation which perhaps ever pierced a poor human +heart. 'No,' I said; 'I must assert the dignity of my manhood!' I was +determined not to make the selection of a wife under the eyes of this man. +Another impulse I could hardly suppress--viz. to throw myself upon this +imperial delegate and strangle him. And if I finally abstained from an act +of violence, it was because I yet loved life, and wished not to end it on +the gallows. Sir," continued M. Walerian, "the source of great misery on +earth is this overpowering instinct of self-preservation; without it, I +should be freed this day from all my misery. Thus I stood, so to speak, at +bay in my corner, using all my efforts to subdue the evil spirit within +me. My looks most probably betrayed me--for when my eyes met those of the +official, I noticed an involuntary shudder. A moment afterwards he +regarded me with a sly and malignant glance. I turned aside and closed my +eyes on this harassing scene. + +"'Yet five minutes, ladies and gentlemen! Those as yet undecided must +speed themselves, and unburden their heart, or I shall be compelled by +virtue of my office to tie them together. And although I shall do so +conscientiously, and to the best of my knowledge, there is this risk--that +you engage in a marriage of mere convenience, instead of one of free +choice and inclination.' + +"Though my agitation reached its climax, I made no move. I considered +myself an accomplice in this disgraceful outrage, if I within the allotted +five minutes declared my heart and made a choice. But another thought +flashed across my mind: 'I may still be able to prevent the worst. Who +knows with whom that rascal may couple me if I remain altogether passive? +Choose for yourself!'--I made a step forward--a mist seemed before my +eyes--my heart beat wildly--I staggered, I sought figures in order to +distinguish and recognise myself. + +"Sir," exclaimed the narrator with a sudden yell, "what scenes did I see +there? I am no coward, but I--I dare not venture to speak of it. Thus I +moved forward; hardly two minutes passed, but days would not suffice to +relate what passed during these terrible moments through my heart and +brain. I noticed in a corner a fainting woman, a young and delicate +creature. I learnt afterwards that she was an orphan child, born of a +dissolute woman in a penal settlement. A coarse fellow with cunning eyes +bent over her, endeavouring to raise her from the ground. I suddenly +pounced upon the fellow, struck him a heavy blow, and carried the +unconscious woman away as if a mere child. I determined to defend her to +the last. But no rescue was attempted, though the forger shook his fists +at me, but had seemingly not the courage to approach nearer. Gazing about +him, another female embraced him, a repulsive woman. He looked at her +somewhat abashed, but soon submitted to her caresses. + +"'Ladies and gentlemen! the allotted hour has passed,' said the official. +'I must beg the parties to come forward and make known to me their choice. +This may be repugnant to some of you, but my duties prescribe it. I +especially request the gentlemen in yonder corner to advance'--pointing to +myself and the forger. I clenched my fists involuntarily, but stepped +forward with the fainting woman. 'Cossacks, keep your "Kantschu" in +readiness,' said the official to the guard which surrounded him. Turning +first to me, he said: "And are you, sir, resolved to carry the woman you +now hold in your arms, not only in this room, but through life?' I nodded +assent. 'And what have you to say, damsel?' The poor creature was as yet +unconscious. 'She is in a swoon,' I replied. 'In that case I am sorry,' +continued the official, 'to have to refuse in his Majesty's name my +consent to your union. In the interests of humanity, I require an audible +yes from all parties. I have watched attentively the whole proceedings,' +continued the official--'not from mere curiosity, but partly as a duty, +and partly out of pure sympathy--and I can assure you, sir, without +disparagement to your claims, that the choice of the young lady you now +hold in your arms fell not upon you, but upon the gentleman yonder,' +pointing to the forger. 'It was probably the excess of happiness at this +selection which caused her fainting. For you there is waiting an adequate +recompense--that ripe, desirable beauty who now only reluctantly holds the +arm of your rival. Therefore, changez, Messieurs!' 'Scoundrel!' I +exclaimed, and advanced to seize him. But ere I could lay hold of him, a +fearful blow on my head stretched me stunned and bleeding to the ground. +When I had somewhat recovered, our marriage procession was in progress of +formation. The woman whom the official had assigned to me knelt at my +side, bathing my head, endeavouring to revive me. 'I like you,' she +observed, 'and will treat you well.' She raised me to my feet, placed her +arm in mine, and pushed me in the ranks of the procession, which moved +slowly towards the church. On our road a heavy hand seized me suddenly by +the collar. 'Brother,' grunted a coarse voice in my ear, 'your stout woman +takes my fancy. Will you change with me? Mine is certainly less corpulent, +but younger in years.' + +"It was the man behind me--the Baschkire. The female whom he dragged along +was a lean, ugly, dark-complexioned woman, swooning or near a swoon. An +expression of unutterable despair overspread her features, rendering them, +if possible, yet more ugly. 'A woman who can suffer so intensely as this +one unquestionably does, cannot be without a heart--is not altogether +depraved, no matter what cause brought her here.' These reflections +determined me. 'She is preferable to the woman at my side. Done!' I +whispered to the Baschkire. Just crossing the threshold of the church, a +momentary pause ensued, during which we effected the exchange; not without +a murmur, however, on the part of my intended wife. But the Baschkire kept +her quiet; and a closer inspection of her new partner seemed to satisfy +her. The poor woman I led forward seemed hardly aware of the exchange, she +was so entirely absorbed in her grief. We were married. The official only +afterwards became aware of what had happened, but could not now undo it. +But I had to suffer for it--terrible was the punishment." + +Not another word was uttered by the unfortunate man. Quite overcome by the +recital of his cruel fate, he suddenly arose and left the house. + +On account of the approach of the Jewish Sabbath, my coachman urged on our +journey. Half an hour later, we passed the lonely and desolate hostelry of +poor M. Walerian, the exile of Siberia, who owed so much to imperial +clemency.--F. A. S., _in Belgravia_. + + + + +CHRISTMAS IN MOROCCO. + + +"To-morrow Christmas for Moros!" said the gentle Hamed, our Moorish +servant, entering the room soon after the bang of the last sunset gun of +Ramadan had shaken our windows, and the thick smoke of the coarse Moorish +powder had floated away, temporarily obscuring the gorgeous hues bestowed +by the retiring luminary on the restless waters of the South Atlantic. + +"To-morrow Christmas for Moros! In the morning Hamed clean house, go for +_soko_; then all day no _trabally_; have new _haik_, new slippers, walk +about all same _tejjer_." + +By which little speech our faithful attendant meant to convey that +to-morrow's rejoicing at the termination of the long and irksome fast of +Ramadan was equivalent to the "Ingleez's" Christmas, and that, after +putting the house in order and bringing the provisions from the _soko_, or +market, he would do no more _trabally_, or work--the word being a +corruption of the Spanish _trabajo_--but would don the new _haik_ and +bright yellow slippers for which he had long been saving up, and to the +purchase of which certain little presents from the children of our +household had materially contributed; and would be entitled, by +prescriptive holiday right, to "take his walks abroad" with the _dolce far +niente_ dignity of a _tejjer_, or merchant. + +I think we members of the little English community of Mogador--or, as the +Moors fondly call this pleasantest town of the Morocco seaboard, "El +Souerah," or The Beautiful--had almost as good reason as the Moslem +population to rejoice at the termination of the great fast. The Moors not +being allowed, during the holy month, to eat, drink, or smoke betwixt the +rising and the setting of the sun--the more sternly orthodox even closing +their nostrils against any pleasant odour that might casually perfume the +air in their vicinity, and their ears against even the faintest sound of +music--debarring themselves, in fact, from whatever could give the +slightest pleasure to any of the senses, a considerable amount of gloom +and listlessness was the inevitable result. + +The servants in the various households, not over active and intelligent at +the best of times, became, as the weary days of prayer and fasting wore +on, appallingly idiotic, sleepy, and sullen, would do but little work, and +that little never promptly nor well. Meals could not be relied on within +an hour or two, rooms were left long untidy, essential little errands and +messages unperformed, and a general gloomy confusion prevailed. + +Did I, tempted by the smoothness of the sea, desire a little fishing +cruise, and send a youthful Moor to the neighbouring rocks to get me a +basket of mussels for bait, he would probably, directly he got outside the +town-gates, deposit the basket and himself in the shade of the first wall +he came to, and slumber sweetly till the tide had risen and covered all +the rocky ledges where it was possible to collect bait. Had I told the +youngster over night that he must come out to sea with me in the morning, +and take care that my boat was put outside the dock, so that she would be +afloat at a certain hour, I would find, on going down at daybreak with +rods and tackle, that the boat was high and dry upon the mud, and it would +take the united efforts of half a dozen Moors and myself to get her afloat +at the end of nearly an hour's frantic struggling and pushing through mud +and water, necessitating on my part the expenditure of a great amount of +perspiration, not a little invective, and sundry silver coins. + +And when we were fairly afloat my Mahometan youth would be so weak from +fasting that his oar would be almost useless; and when we did, after an +hour or so of the most ignominious zigzaging, reach our anchorage on one +of the fishing-grounds, then would he speedily become sea-sick, and +instead of helping me by preparing bait and landing fish, he would lean +despairingly over the side in abject misery, and implore me to go home +promptly--a piteous illustration of the anguish caused by an empty stomach +contracting on itself. + +Nor were these the only discomforts under which we groaned and grumbled. + +From the evening when the eager lookers-out from minarets of mosques and +towers of the fortifications first descried the new moon which ushered in +the holy month of fasting, every sunset, as it flushed the far-off waves +with purple and crimson and gold, and turned the fleecy cloudlets in the +western sky to brightest jewels, and suffused the white houses and towers +of Mogador with sweetest glow of pink, and gilded the green-tiled top of +each tall minaret, had been accompanied by the roar of a cannon from the +battery just below our windows. + +"What the deuce is that?" asked a friend of mine, lately arrived from +England, as we strolled homewards one evening through the dusty streets, +and the boom of the big gun suddenly fell upon his astonished ear. + +"Only sunset," I replied. + +"Queer place this," said J. "Does the sun always set with a bang?" + +"Always during Ramadan." + +"Does it rise with a bang too? I hate to be roused up early in the +morning!" + +"No, there is no gun at sunrise; but there is a very loud one at about +three in the morning, or sometimes half-past, or four, or later." + +"Shocking nuisance!" remarked J. "My bedroom window's just over that +abominable battery." + +The early morning gun was a great trial, certainly. I would not have +minded being _reveille en sursaut_, as a Frenchman would say, and then +turning comfortably over on the other side, and going to sleep again. + +But somehow or other I always found myself awake half an hour or an hour +before the time, and then I _could not_ get to sleep again, but lay +tossing about and fidgettily listening for the well-known din. At length I +would hear a sound like the hum of an enormous fiendish nightmarish +mosquito, caused by a hideous long tin trumpet, the shrill whistle of a +fife or two, and the occasional tom-tomming of a Moorish drum. "Ha, the +soldiers coming along the ramparts; they will soon fire now." + +But the sound of the discordant instruments with which the soldiery +solaced themselves in the night for their enforced abstinence from such +"sweet sounds" in the day would continue for a long time before the red +flash through my wide-open door would momentarily illumine my little +chamber on the white flat roof, and then the horrid bang would rend the +air, followed by a dense cloud of foul-smelling smoke; and then would my +big dog Caesar for several minutes rush frantically to and fro upon the +roof in hot indignation, and utter deep-mouthed barks of defiance at the +white figures of the "Maghaseni," as they flitted ghost-like along the +ramparts below, and snort and pant and chafe and refuse to be pacified for +a long time. + +At the firing of the sunset gun the Moors were allowed to take a slight +refection, which generally consisted of a kind of gruel. I have seen a +Moorish soldier squatting in the street with a brass porringer in his lap, +eagerly awaiting the boom of the cannon to dip his well-washed fingers in +the mess. + +At about 9 P.M. another slight meal was allowed to the true believers, and +they might eat again at morning gun-fire, after which their mouths were +closed against all "fixings, solid and liquid," even against the smallest +draught of water or the lightest puff at the darling little pipe of +dream-inducing _kief_. + +On the twenty-seventh day of Ramadan we were informed that twenty-seven +guns would be fired that night, and that we had better leave all our +windows open, or they would certainly be broken by the violence of the +discharge. This was pleasant; still more delightful was the glorious +uncertainty which prevailed in the minds of our informants as to the time +at which we might expect the infliction. + +Some said that the twenty-seven guns would be fired before midnight; +Hamed opined that the cannonade would not take place till 3 or 4 A.M. Many +of the guns on the battery in close proximity to our abode were in a +fearfully rusty and honeycombed condition, so that apprehensions as to +some of them bursting were not unnatural, and I thought it extremely +probable that a few stray fragments might "drop in" on me. + +That night I burned the "midnight oil," and lay reading till nearly two, +when sweet sleep took possession of me, from which I was awakened about +four in the morning by a terrific bang that fairly shook the house. + +A minute more, and there came a red flash and another bang, presently +another. Thought I, "I will go out and see the show;" so I went on to the +flat white roof in my airy nocturnal costume, and leaning over the parapet +looked down on to the platform of the battery below. A group of dim white +figures, a flickering lantern, a glowing match, a touch at the breech of a +rusty old gun, a swift skurry of the white figures round a corner, a +squib-like fountain of sparks from the touch-hole, a red flash from the +mouth, momentarily illumining the dark violet sea, a bang, and a cloud of +smoke. + +Then the white figures and the lantern appeared again; another squib, +another flash, another bang, Caesar galloping up and down over the roof, +snorting his indignation, but not barking, probably because he felt +"unable to do justice to the subject;" and at length, after the eleventh +gun had belched forth crimson flames and foul smoke, all was peace, save a +distant discord of tin trumpets, _gouals_ and _gimbris_, and I returned to +my mosquito-haunted couch with a sigh of relief. + +Pass we now to the eve of "Christmas for Moros," and let ethnologist and +hagiologist derive some satisfaction from the evidences I collected in +this far-away Moorish town that the gladness of the Mahometan festival +does, similarly to the purer joy of the Christian, though in a less degree +perhaps, incline towards "peace and good-will to men," charity and +kindliness. + +As we sat chatting that evening round the tea-table, to us entered Hamed, +bearing, with honest pride illumining his brown features, a great tray of +richly engraved brass, heaped up with curious but tempting-looking cakes. + +Gracefully presenting them to "the senora," he intimated that this was his +humble offering or Christmas token of good-will towards the family, and +that his mother (whom the good fellow maintains out of his modest wages) +had made them with her own hands. + +The cakes were made of long thin strips of the finest paste, plentifully +sweetened with delicious honey, twisted into quaint shapes, and fried in +the purest of oil. I need hardly say that the children were delighted, and +immediately commenced to court indigestion by a vigorous onslaught on the +new and tempting sweets. Nay, why should I blush to confess that I myself +have a very sweet tooth in my head, and such a liking for all things +saccharine that my friends say jokingly that I must be getting into my +second childhood?--an imputation which, as I am only a little on the +wrong side of thirty, I can bear with equanimity. However, I firmly +decline to inform an inquisitive public how many of those delightful +Moorish cakes I ate: truth to tell, I do not remember; but I enjoyed them +heartily, nor found my digestion impaired thereby. + +We had a little chat with Hamed--whose face was lighted up with the +broadest of grins as we praised his mother's pastry and showed our +appreciation of it in the most satisfactory manner--on certain matters of +the Mahometan religion and the position of women in the future life. Some +of the sterner Muslims believe that women have no souls; others opine that +while good men go to "_Eljannah_," or heaven, and bad ones to +"_Eljehannam_," or hell, women and mediocre characters are deported to a +vague kind of limbo which they designate as "_Bab Maroksh_," or the +Morocco Gate. + +But the gentle, liberal, and gallant Hamed informed us, in reply to an +individual query with regard to our Moorish housemaid, that "if Lanniya +plenty good, no _tiefem_ (steal), no drinkum _sharab_ (wine), and go for +_scula_ ("school," or religious instruction in the mosque, or in a +schoolhouse adjoining it), by and by she go for "_Eljannah_." + +I am hardly correct, by the way, in speaking of Lanniya as "house-_maid_," +for Moorish maidens and wives never go in the service of European +families, being prohibited by their religion from showing their faces; it +is only widows and divorced women who may go about unveiled, and mingle +with Christians. + +The next morning, soon after the last gun of Ramadan had sounded its +joyous boom in my ear, I was up and stirring, donning my shooting apparel +and preparing for an early country walk with my faithful four-footed +comrade. I had no fear of exciting the fanaticism of the Muslim population +by going out shooting on their holy day, for there is not much bigotry in +Mogador,--Moors, Christians, and Jews observing their several religions +peacefully side by side, so that three Sundays come in every week, the +Mahometan on Friday, the Jewish on Saturday, and then ours. + +The sun, just rising from behind the eastern sand-hills, was gilding all +the house-tops and minarets, till our white town looked like a rich +assemblage of fairy palaces of gold and ivory; the smiling sea, serene and +azure, came rippling peacefully up to the base of the rugged brown rocks, +enlivened to-day by no statuesque figures of Moorish fishermen; nor did a +single boat dot the broad blue expanse of the unusually smooth South +Atlantic, of which the fish and the sea-fowl were for once left in +undisturbed possession. + +As I gazed from the flat roof away over the great town, I heard from many +quarters loud sounds of music and merriment. As I passed presently through +the narrow streets, with their dead white walls and cool dark arches, +scarcely a camel was to be seen at the accustomed corners by the stores of +the merchants, where usually whole fleets of the "ships of the desert" lay +moored, unloading almonds, and rich gums, and hides, and all the varied +produce of the distant interior. + +Outside the town-gates the very hordes of semi-wild scavenger dogs seemed +to know that the day was one of peace, for they lay in the sunshine, nor +barked and snapped at the infidel intruder as he walked over the golden +sands, along the edge of the marshy pool, past the pleasant-looking +Moorish cemetery with its graceful verdant palm-trees, a calm oasis in the +sandy plain, and out across the shallow lagoon formed by overflows of high +tides, by which a few late trains of homeward-bound camels went softly +stepping, looking wonderfully picturesque as they marched through shallow +waters so beautifully gilded by the morning sun, their drivers doubtless +eager to reach their own home or the shelter of some friendly village to +participate in the modest revelries of the joyous season. How I wandered +along the shore of the "many-sounding sea," enjoying a little rough sport, +and the blithe companionship of the big doggie; how I saw never a Moor +upon the rocks, but many Jews with long bamboo rods, busily engaged in +fishing for bream and bass and rock-fish, it boots not to describe with a +minuteness which might be wearisome to my readers, for I am not now +writing "of sport, for sportsmen." + +So let us turn homewards, as the sun is getting high in the heavens, and +note the scenes by the way. + +Yonder, near the marshy corner of the plain, haunted by wild-fowl, and +carrion crows, and mongrel jackal-like dogs, is the rough cemetery of the +despised "Jehoud," the Israelites who form so large and so wealthy a +portion of the population of Mogador. Among the long flat stones that mark +the graves of the exiled sons and daughters of Israel there is a winding +crowd of white-draped figures, a funeral procession. Unwilling to intrude +upon their grief, I pass on, casting an involuntary glance at the +picturesque garb and wild gesticulations of the mourners as the women's +loud and bitter cry of "Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai!" sounds weirdly through the air, +just as it may have done in the old scriptural times, when "the mourners +went about the streets" and gave unchecked vent to their grief in public, +even as they do to this day. + +But as I neared Morocco Gate, from the neighbouring "Running Ground" came +very different sounds--a din of many drums, a squeaking of merry fifes, +the firing of many long Moorish guns, the shouting of men and boys, and +the eerie shrill _taghariet_ of the Moorish women. + +And as I passed in front of the round battery, out from the great gate of +the New Kasbah came the crowd of men, women, and children who had been +clamouring joyfully in the Running-Ground, a bright throng of brown faces +and white raiment, interspersed with the gay colours worn by the little +children, and dotted here and there by the blood-red of the national flag. +Suddenly from a cannon just behind me came a cloud of smoke enveloping me +and the dog, and a bang which fairly shook us, and then another and +another. The firing of the guns from this battery was the spectacle the +Moorish populace had come out to see. + +It was an uncomfortable sensation to have big guns going off just behind +one; they were only loaded with blank cartridge, of course, but we were +quite near enough to be knocked down by a stray piece of wadding, and +something did once whistle past my ear suggestively. + +But it would never do for an "Ingleez" to run away in the presence of a +lot of Moors; so I walked calmly across the sands while the whole battery +of guns--twelve, I think--were fired, Caesar meanwhile prancing about +majestically, and loudly giving vent to his indignation at a proceeding +which he evidently considered, as he always does the firing of any gun or +pistol by any one but me, an express insult to his master, and an +infringement of his peculiar privileges. + +I went home by way of the Water-Port, where there was no movement of +lighters or fishing-craft, no stir of bare-legged porters and fishermen, +no bustle of Jewish and European merchants; nearly all the boats were +drawn up on the shore, and those which remained afloat, slumbered +tenantless on the broad blue bosom of the sea. On rocks, and in the +pleasant shade of walls and arches, a few figures, in bright and gauzy +_haiks_ and gorgeous new slippers, lounged and dozed, perchance tired with +the revelries they had gone through since daybreak, and recruiting their +energies for fresh rejoicings towards evening. Reaching home about eleven, +I rested a while, deposited my birds in the larder, and then proceeded to +stroll about the streets and see how the populace comported themselves on +this festive occasion. I was sorry to learn that some of the younger and +more fanatical of the Moors had been relieving their feelings by abusing +the Jews, some of whom had had stones thrown at them, and their heads +slightly broken. But this temporary riot was over, and now all was "peace +and good-will," except that perhaps there may have lurked a little not +unnatural ill-feeling in the minds of the broken-headed Israelites, who +could not help feeling rather disgusted at the manner in which the Muslim +youths had celebrated "Christmas for Moros." + +As I passed along the narrow lane wherein the soldiers of the Kaid or +Governor, in the snowiest of _haiks_ and tallest and reddest of +_tarbooshes_, squatted against the wall, chatting blithely as they awaited +the advent of their master, a grave and venerable-looking Moorish +grandpapa, hurrying along with a great armful of cakes in one of the folds +of his _haik_, stumbled against a loose stone and dropped several of the +cakes. + +I hastily stooped and picked them up; the old man muttered a few words of +blessing upon me, insisted on my accepting the dainties I had rescued from +the dust, utterly refused to receive them back, pressed my hand, and +hurried on, leaving me in a state of embarrassment, from which I was +opportunely relieved by the arrival of a bright-eyed little Moor of seven +or eight summers, who was perfectly willing to relieve me from all trouble +connected with the handful of cakes. Passing into the busy streets of the +Moorish quarter, I found the population coming out of the various mosques, +where they had been to morning service, and now going in for a systematic +course of "greetings in the market-place," and purchasing of presents. O, +for an artist's pencil and colours to depict the gorgeous costumes of the +town Moors, the quaint, wild garb of their country cousins; the gauzy +cream-tinted _haiks_ from Morocco; the rich silken _caftans_ of purple, or +crimson, or yellow, or green, or azure, or pink, sweetly half-veiled by a +fold or two of snowy gauze thrown over them; the bright red fez caps, and +voluminous snowy turbans of the patriarchal-looking old men; the broad +silken sashes from Fez, heavy and stiff with rich embroidery of gold; the +great curved daggers in their richly chased silver or brass sheaths, +suspended amid the folds of the _haik_ by thick woolen cords of gay +colours; the handsome brown faces, the flashing black eyes, the wonderful +white teeth, the sinewy brown bare legs, the brand-new yellow slippers of +the merry Moors of Mogador! + +And the negroes, or, as old Fuller would quaintly have called them, "the +images of God cut in ebony," how their honest black features glistened, +and how their bright teeth grinned beneath turban or fez, or gaudy +handkerchief of many colours! + +The negro servant of one of the European residents, a good-humoured giant +of nearly seven feet, whom his master is wont to describe as "his nigger +and a half," came stalking down amongst the little shops and stalls with a +flaunting bandanna round his head, a purple jacket, a most gorgeous sash, +a pair of green baggy breeches, a glittering silver-sheathed dagger, and a +most imposing _haik_, thrown in toga-like folds over all. + +Negro women, unveiled, white-clad, adorned as to their shiny black arms +with rude heavy bracelets of silver or brass, sat at street-corners with +baskets of sweet cakes and little loaves for sale. Veiled Moorish women, +perchance showing just one bright black eye to tantalise the beholder, +glided along like substantial ghosts in the white raiment which enveloped +them from their heads down to the little feet shod with red or yellow +slippers embroidered with gold thread or bright-coloured silks. Women +leading tiny toddlers of children, little bright-eyed boys with crowns +shaven all but one queer little tufted ridge in the middle, deftly curled +this morning by mamma's loving fingers; foreheads adorned with quaint +frontlets, from which hung curious ornaments of gold and coral and silver, +spells against the evil eye, talismans, and what not. + +Little boys in beautiful cloth or silken cloaks of pale blue, or delicate +purple, or crimson, or rich green, or golden yellow, trotting along as +proud as peacocks, holding by the hand some tiny brother who can barely +toddle. Children who have just had new slippers purchased for them, and +are carrying them home in triumph; children who, with funny little copper +coins in their hand, are congregating round the stall of the swarthy +seller of sweetstuffs, who is ejaculating loudly, "_Heloua_, _Heloua_!" +busily brandishing a feathery branch of green _artim_ the while, to keep +the vagrom flies off his stores of rich dainties composed of walnut and +almond toffee, pastes made of almonds and honey and sugar, little brown +sugar balls thickly strewn with cummin-seeds, long sticks of peppermint, +and other delicacies difficult to describe. + +As to the grown-up Moors, never was seen such a hand-shaking as is going +on amongst them. Everybody is shaking hands with everybody else, each +wishing the other the Arabic substitute for "A merry Christmas," and after +each handshaking each of the participants puts his hand to his lips and +proceeds, to be stopped two yards farther on for a repetition of the +performance. + +On we go through the meat-market, and note pityingly the leanness of the +Moors' Christmas beef, which has just been butchered, and of which an +eager good-humored crowd are buying small pieces amid much vociferation, +chaff, and "compliments of the season" generally. + +Then we come to the green-grocers' shops, where we see huge radishes, +great pomegranates, sweet potatoes, and bunches of fragrant mint for the +flavouring of the Moors' passionately loved beverage, green tea; then to +the grocers' quarter, where, asking a grave and portly Moor for a +pennyworth _fakea_ (dried fruit), he puts into half a gourd-shell a +pleasant collection of dates, almonds, figs, and raisins, hands them to us +with benign politeness. Opposite his store is a low table covered with +queer bottles of all shapes and sizes, filled with a dubious-looking pink +fluid, resembling the most delicious hair oil, but apparently highly +appreciated by the Moorish and Jewish youth who crowd around. + +In the centre is a burly brandy-bottle, bearing the well-known label of +"J. and F. Martell," now filled with a fluid presumably more innocuous +than the choicest cognac; the big bottle is flanked by rows of little +medicine-vials and long thin bottles such as are used for attar of roses +and other Eastern scents; for the vendor of this bright-coloured liquor +does not possess cups or tumblers, but dispenses it in the little bottles. +A bare-headed youth, with shaven crown, tenders a _mozouna_, receives a +two-ounce vial, empties it solemnly amid the envious looks of his +comrades, sets it down, and walks gravely away. + +Away we go too, Caesar and I, and I note that there is hardly a Jew to be +seen in the streets; they are afraid of stone-throwing, and outbursts of +the slumbering hatred and contempt with which they are regarded by the +orthodox Muslim. + +As for Christians, Englishmen especially, they are much more tolerated and +respected; and I know that I may walk the town all day without fear of +molestation, and get plenty of kindly greetings and many a smile and shake +of the hand. + +Out of the busy market, up the narrow and shady streets, hearing sounds of +the fearsome trumpet, which I have already compared to an exaggerated +mosquito, meeting that instrument presently at a corner--a horrid tin +thing about two yards long, wielded by a sinewy little man in a blue +tunic, accompanying a gaily-dressed boy on a sleek and patient donkey. +Fifing and drumming and firing of guns going on all around. + +Fierce-looking Moors and Arabs from the country leaning on their long +silver-mounted guns, scowling at the "Kaffer," whom they have perchance +not seen until they came to El Souerah. A veiled, but evidently portly, +dame, leading by the hand a pretty little girl, in a red skirt below a +rich garment of lace or embroidery, with a crimson hooded cloak or +_djelab_ over it, rich ornaments on her smooth brown forehead, enormous +silver anklets, little bare feet, dyed, like her hands and those of most +of the little girls and many of the big ones, a bright red with henna. +Little girl shrinks behind her mother, afraid of the Giaour or of his big +dog; the Giaour slips by with a smile, doggie with a friendly wag of his +tail, and we go homeward for a while; Caesar to make a hearty meal of the +biscuits which have come all the way from England for him; his master to +partake of lunch, then smoke a pipe on the roof, and look wistfully out +over the bright blue sky, and let his thoughts wander far, far away to +many a pleasant Christmas in a pleasant corner of the fair Western land: + + "Where is now the merry party + I remember long ago, + Laughing round the Christmas fireside, + Brightened by its ruddy glow?" + +But the Moor's Christmas has come early in October; there is time yet, and +plenty of English steamers going backwards and forwards; who knows whether +the wanderer may not yet spend the next Christmas by a genial English +fireside, and recount to prattling children on his knee (others' children, +alas!) the curious sights, sounds, and scenes of "Christmas for Moros?" +But I have not quite done with you yet, kindly reader. I must just briefly +tell you how I went out again in the afternoon with Caesar and a two-legged +friend, and found more shopping going on and more handshaking, and found +the more festive spirits getting hilarious over green tea and coffee and +_kief_; how we strolled down to the Water-Port and sat on the quay, +surrounded by merry young Moors in their "Sunday best;" how my friend +essayed to sketch one or two of them, and they did not like it, but +thought some evil spell would be put upon them thereby; how they asked us +many questions about England, and particularly wanted to know how many +dollars we possessed; how my companion won the hearts of some of the +younger members of the party by teaching them how to whistle between their +thumbs, and how to make a certain very loud and direfully discordant +screech; and how J. and I finished the afternoon by partaking of a +delightful bottle of English ale in the courtyard of a cool store, leaning +our chairs against massive stone pillars, and smoking the pipe of peace. + +But I fear the stern Editor will not grant me any more space, and I must +leave at present the recital of all that I saw on the ensuing day, which +the gentle Hamed, if he were a _little_ more closely acquainted with our +institutions, would call "Boxing-day for Moros." + + C. A. P. ("SARCELLE"), _in London Society_, + MOGADOR. + + + + +THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE ITALIAN POETS. + + +GUARINI. + +Pastoral poetry had in Italy a tendency to a rapid degeneration from the +first. "Decipit exemplum vitiis imitabile." The earliest "pastorals" were +far from being without merit, and merit of a high order. But they were +eminently "vitiis imitabiles." Two specimens of Italian Arcadian poetry +stand out, from the incredibly huge mass of such productions still extant, +superior to all the innumerable imitations to which they gave rise in a +more marked degree even than "originals" usually surpass imitations in +value. These are the "Aminta" of Tasso, and the "Pastor Fido" of the poet +with whom it is the object of these pages to make the English nineteenth +century reader, who never will find the time to read him, in some degree +acquainted--Batista Guarini. It would be difficult to say which of these +two celebrated pastoral dramas was received with the greater amount of +delight and enthusiasm by the world of their contemporaries, or even which +of them is the better performance. The almost simultaneous production of +these two masterpieces in their kind is a striking instance of the, one +may almost say, epidemic nature of the influences which rule the +production of the human intellect; influences which certainly did not +cease to operate for many generations after that of the authors of the +"Aminta" and the "Pastor Fido," although the servile imitation of those +greatly admired works unquestionably went for much in causing the +overwhelming flood of pastorals which deluged Italy immediately subsequent +to their enormous success. + +I have said that it would be difficult to assign a preeminence to either +of these poems. But it must not be supposed that it is intended thence to +insinuate an equality between the authors of them. Tasso would occupy no +lower place on the Italian Parnassus if he had never written the "Aminta." +His fame rests upon a very much larger and firmer basis. But Guarini would +be nowhere--would not be heard of at all--had he not written the "Pastor +Fido." Having, however, produced that work--a work of which forty editions +are said to have been printed in his lifetime, and which has been +translated into almost every civilised language, including Latin, Greek, +and Hebrew--he has always filled a space in the eyes of his countrymen, +and occupied a position in the roll of fame, which render his admission as +one of our select band here imperative. He is, besides, a representative +poet; the head and captain of the pastoral school, which attained +everywhere so considerable a vogue, and in Italy such colossal +proportions. + +Guarini was born in the year 1537 in Ferrara,--desolate, dreary, shrunken, +grass-grown, tumble-down Ferrara, which in the course of one half-century +gave to the world, besides a host of lesser names, three such poets as +Tasso, Ariosto and Guarini. Ariosto died four years before Guarini was +born; but Tasso was nearly his contemporary, being but seven years his +junior. + +In very few cases in all the world and in all ages has it happened that +intellectual distinction has been the appanage of one family for as many +generations as in that of the Guarini. They came originally from Verona, +where Guarino, the first of the family on record, who was born in 1370, +taught the learned languages, and was one of the most notable of the band +of scholars who laboured at the restoration of classical literature. He +lived to be ninety years old, and is recorded to have had twenty-three +sons. It is certain that he had twelve living in 1438. One of them, +Giovanni Batista, succeeded his father in his professorship at Ferrara, to +which city the old scholar had been invited by Duke Hercules I. It would +seem that another of his sons must also have shared the work of teaching +in the University of Ferrara: for Batista the poet was educated by his +great-uncle Alessandro, and succeeded him in his professorship. Of the +poet's father we only learn that he was a mighty hunter, and further, that +he and his poet-son were engaged in litigation respecting the inheritance +of the poet's grandfather and great-uncle. It is probable that the two old +scholars wished to bequeath their property, which included a landed +estate, to their grandson and great-nephew, who already was manifesting +tastes and capacities quite in accordance with their own, rather than to +that exceptional member of the race who cared for nothing but dogs and +horses. + +Nor was Batista the last of his race who distinguished himself in the same +career. His son succeeded him in his chair at the university; and we have +thus at least four generations of scholars and professors following the +same course in the same university, which was in their day one of the most +renowned in Europe. + +All this sounds very stable, very prosperous, very full of the element of +contentment. And there is every reason to believe that the +great-grandfather, the grandfather, the great-uncle, the son, were all as +tranquil and contented and happy as well-to-do scholars in a prosperous +university city should be. But not so the poet. His life was anything but +tranquil, or happy, or contented. The lives of few men, it may be hoped, +have been less so. + +Yet his morning was brilliant enough. He distinguished himself so +remarkably by his success in his early studies that, on the death of his +great-uncle Alexander when he was only nineteen, he was appointed to +succeed him. This was in 1556, when Hercules II. was Duke of Ferrara, and +when that court of the Este princes was at the apogee of its splendour, +renown, and magnificence. The young professor remained working at the +proper labours of his profession for ten years; and they were in all +probability the best and happiest, the only happy ones of his life. Happy +is the nation, it has been said, which has no history; and much the same +probably may be said of an individual. Respecting these ten years of +Guarini's life but little has been recorded. No doubt the chronicle of +them would have been monotonous enough. The same quiet duties quietly and +successfully discharged; the same morning walk to his school, the same +evening return from it, through the same streets, with salutations to the +same friends, and leisurely pauses by the way to chat, Italian fashion, +with one and another, as they were met in the streets, not then, as now, +deserted, grass-grown, and almost weird in their pale sun-baked +desolation, but thronged with bustling citizens, mingled with gay +courtiers, and a very unusually large proportion of men whose names were +known from one end of Italy to the other. Those school haunts in the +Ferrarese University were haunts which the world-weary ex-professor must +often throughout the years of his remaining life--some forty-five of them, +for he did not die till 1612, when he was seventy-five--have looked back +on as the best and happiest of his storm-tossed existence. + +There is, however, one record belonging to this happy time which must not +be forgotten. It was at Padua, _Padova la dotta_, as she has been in all +ages and is still called, Padua the learned, in the year 1565. Guarini was +then in his twenty-eighth year, and had been a professor at Ferrara for +the last eight years. Probably it was due to the circumstance that his +friend and fellow-townsman, Torquato Tasso, was then pursuing his studies +at Padua, that the young Ferrarese professor turned his steps in that +direction, bound "on a long vacation ramble." Tasso was only +one-and-twenty at the time; but he was already a member of the famous +Paduan Academy of the "Etherials," which Guarini was not. And we may +readily fancy the pride and pleasure with which the younger man, doing the +honours of the place to his learned friend, procured him to be elected a +member of the "Etherials." Guarini (so called _nel secolo_--in the world), +was _Il Costante_--the "Constant One" among the "Etherials." Scipio +Gonzaga, who became subsequently the famous Cardinal, spoke an oration of +welcome to him on his election. Then what congratulations, what +anticipations of fame, what loving protestations of eternal friendship, +what naive acceptance of the importance and serious value of their +Etherial Academic play, as the two youths strolling at the evening hour +among the crowds of gravely clad but in no wise gravely speaking students +who thronged the colonnades in deep shadow under their low-browed arches, +sally forth from beneath them as the sun nears the west, on to the vast +open space which lies around the great church of St. Antony! Advancing in +close talk they come up to Donatello's superb equestrian statue of the +Venetian General Gattamelata, and lean awhile against the tall pedestal, +finishing their chat before entering the church for the evening prayer. + +The "Etherials" of Padua constituted one of the innumerable "Academies" +which existed at that day and for a couple of centuries subsequently in +every one of the hundred cities of Italy. The "Arcadian" craze was the +generating cause of all of them. All the members were "shepherds;" all +assumed a fancy name on becoming a member, by which they were known in +literary circles; and every Academy printed all the rhymes its members +strung together! + +Those must have been pleasant days in old Padua, before the young +Professor returned to his work in the neighbouring university of Ferrara. +The two young men were then, and for some time afterwards, loving friends; +for they had not yet become rival poets. + +At the end of those ten years of university life he may be said to have +entered on a new existence--to have begun life afresh--so entirely +dis-severed was his old life from the new that then opened on him. +Alphonso II., who had succeeded his father, Hercules II., as Duke of +Ferrara in 1559, "called him to the court" in 1567, and he began life as a +courtier, or a "servant" of the Duke, in the language of the country and +time. + +Well, in 1567 he entered into the service of the Duke, his sovereign, and +never had another happy or contented hour! + +The first service on which the Duke employed him, and for the performance +of which he seems specially to have taken him from his professional chair, +was an embassy to Venice, to congratulate the new Doge, Pietro Loredano, +on his elevation to the ducal throne, to which he had been elected on the +previous 19th of June. On this occasion the Professor was created +Cavaliere, a title to which his landed estate of Guarina, so called from +the ancestor on whom it had been originally bestowed by a former duke, +fairly entitled him. + +Shortly afterwards he was sent as ambassador to the court of Turin; and +then to that of the Emperor Maximilian at Innspruck. Then he was twice +sent to Poland; the first time on the occasion of the election of Henry +the Third of France to the throne of that kingdom; and the second time +when Henry quitted it to ascend that of France on the death of his brother +Charles IX. The object of this second embassy was to intrigue for the +election to the Polish crown of Alphonso. But, as it is hardly necessary +to say, his mission was unsuccessful. + +It seems, too, to have been well-nigh fatal to the ambassador. There is +extant a letter written from Warsaw to his wife, which gives a curious and +interesting account of the sufferings he endured on the journey and at the +place of his destination. He tells his wife not to be discontented that +his silence has been so long, but to be thankful that it was not eternal, +as it was very near being! "I started, as you know, more in the fashion of +a courier than of an ambassador. And that would have been more tolerable +if bodily fatigue had been all. But the same hand that had to flog the +horses by day, had to hold the pen by night. Nature could not bear up +against this double labour of body and mind; especially after I had +travelled by Serravelles and Ampez,[48] which is more disagreeable and +difficult than I can tell you, from the ruggedness no less of the country +than of the people, from the scarcity of horses, the miserable mode of +living, and the want of every necessary. So much so that on reaching +Hala[49] I had a violent fever. I embarked, however, for Vienna +notwithstanding. What with fever, discouragement, an intense thirst, +scarcity of remedies and of medical assistance, bad lodging, generally far +to seek,[50] and often infected with disease, food disgusting, even to +persons in health, bed where you are smothered in feathers, in a word, +none of the necessaries or comforts of life! I leave you to imagine what I +have suffered. The evil increased; my strength grew less. I lost my +appetite for everything save wine. In a word, little hope remained to me +of life, and that little was odious to me. There is on the Danube, which I +was navigating, a vast whirlpool, so rapid that if the boatmen did not +avail themselves of the assistance of a great number of men belonging to +the locality, strong and powerful and well acquainted with the danger, who +are there constantly for the purpose, and who struggle with their oars +against the rapacious gulf, there is not a vessel in that great river +which would not be engulfed! The place is worthy of the name of "the Door +of Death," which with a notoriety of evil fame it has gained for itself. +There is no passenger so bold as not to pass that bit of the course of the +river on foot; for the thing is truly formidable and terrible. But I was +so overcome by illness, that having lost all sense of danger or desire to +live, I did not care to leave the boat, but remained in it, with those +strong men, I hardly know whether to say stupidly or intrepidly--but I +will say intrepidly, since at one point, where I was within an ace of +destruction, I felt no fear." + +He goes on to tell how at Vienna a physician treated him amiss, and made +him worse; how every kind of consideration, and his own desire to save his +life, counselled him to delay there; but how the honour, the +responsibility of the embassy wholly on his shoulders, his duty to his +sovereign prevailed to drive him onwards. He feared, too, lest it should +be supposed at Warsaw that he preferred his life to the business on which +he came, an accusation which might have been made use of by suspicious and +malignant adversaries to deprive him of all the credit of his labours, and +"to snatch from my Prince the crown which we are striving to place on his +head. It is impossible to imagine," he continues, "what I suffered in that +journey of more than six hundred miles from Vienna to Warsaw, dragged +rather than carried in carts, broken and knocked to pieces. I wonder that +I am still alive! The obstinate fever, the want of rest, of food, and of +medicine, the excessive cold, the infinite hardships, the uninhabited +deserts, were killing me. More often than not it was a much lesser evil to +crouch by night in the cart, which dislocated my bones by day, rather than +to be suffocated in the foulness of those dens, or stables rather, where +the dogs and cats, the cocks and hens, and the geese, the pigs and the +calves, and sometimes the children, kept me waiting." + +He proceeds to tell how the country was overrun, in that time of +interregnum, by lawless bands of Cossacks; how he was obliged to travel +with a strong escort, but nevertheless was obliged several times to +deviate from the direct road to avoid the Cossacks, but on two occasions +had very narrow escapes from falling into their hands. When he reached +Warsaw at last, more dead than alive, the only improvement of his position +was that he was stationary instead of in motion. "The cart no more +lacerates my limbs!" But there was no rest to be got. "The place, the +season, the food, the drink, the water, the servants, the medicines, the +doctors, mental trouble, and a thousand other ills make up my torment. +Figure to yourself all the kingdom lodged in one little town, and my room +in the midst of it! There is no place from the top to the bottom, on the +right or on the left, by day or by night, that is not full of tumult and +noise. There is no special time here destined for business. Negotiation is +going on always, because drinking is going on always; and business is dry +work without wine. When business is over, visits begin; and when these are +at an end, drums, trumpets, bombs, uproar, cries, quarrels, fighting, +split one's head in a manner piteous to think of. Ah! if I suffered all +this labour and this torment for the love and the glory of God, I should +be a martyr!" (one thinks of Wolsey!) "But is he not worthy of the name +who serves without hope of recompense?" + +He concludes his letter, bidding his wife not to weep for him, but to live +and care for her children, in a manner which indicates that he had even +then but little hope of returning alive. + +We are nevertheless assured by his biographers that he acquitted himself +upon all these occasions in such sort as to give satisfaction to his +sovereign and to acquire for himself the reputation of an upright and able +minister. The Italian practice of entrusting embassies especially to men +of letters, which we first had occasion to note when tracing the +vicissitudes of the life of Dante in the thirteenth century, which we saw +subsequently exemplified in the cases of Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Ariosto, +and which might be further exemplified in the persons of many other +Italian scholars and men of letters, still, as we see, prevailed in the +sixteenth century, and continued to do so for some little time longer. + +But in no one instance, of all those I have mentioned, does the poet thus +employed in functions which in other lands and other times have usually +led to honours and abundant recognition of a more solid kind, appear to +have reaped any advantage in return for the service performed, or to have +been otherwise than dissatisfied and discontented with the treatment +accorded to him. + +It would have been very interesting to learn somewhat of the impression +made upon an Italian scholar of the sixteenth century by the places +visited, and persons with whom he must have come in contact in those +transalpine lands, which were then so far off, so contrasted in all +respects with the home scenes among which his life had been passed in the +low-lying, fat, and fertile valley of the Po. Of all this his various +biographers and contemporaries tell us no word! But there is a volume of +his letters, a little square quarto volume, now somewhat rare, printed at +Venice in the year 1595.[51] These letters have somewhat unaccountably not +been included in any of the editions of his works, and they are but little +known. But turning to this little volume, and looking over the dates of +the letters (many of them, however, are undated), I found three written +"Di Spruch," and eagerly turned to them, thinking that I should certainly +find there what I was seeking. The letters belong to a later period of +Guarini's life, having been written in 1592, when he was again sent on an +embassy to the German Emperor. This circumstance, however, is of no +importance as regards the purpose for which I wanted the letters. I was +disappointed. But I must nevertheless give one of these letters, not +wantonly to compel my reader to share my disappointment, but because it is +a curiosity in its way. The person to whom he writes is a lady, the +Contessa Pia di Sala, with whom he was evidently intimate. He is at +Innspruck at the Court of the Emperor Maximilian. The lady is at Mantua, +and this is what he writes to her: + + "Di Spruch, Nov. 29, 1592. + + "The letter of your Illustrious Ladyship, together with + which you send me that of your most excellent brother, + written at the end of August, reached me yesterday, at first + to my very great anger at having been for so long a time + deprived of so precious a thing, while I appeared in fault + towards so distinguished a lady; but finally to my very + great good fortune. For if a letter written by the most + lovely flame[52] in the world had arrived, while the skies + were burning, what would have become of me, when, now that + winter is beginning, I can scarcely prevent myself from + falling into ashes? And in truth, when I think that those so + courteous thoughts come from the mind which informs so + lovely a person, that those characters have been traced by a + hand of such excellent beauty, I am all ablaze, no less than + if the paper were fire, the words flames, and all the + syllables sparks. But God grant that, while I am set on fire + by the letter of your Illustrious Ladyship, you may not be + inflamed by anger against me, from thinking that the terms + in which I write are too bold. Have no such doubt, my + honoured mistress! I want nothing from the flaming of my + letter, but to have made by the light of it more vivid and + more brilliant in you, the natural purity of your beautiful + face, even as it seems to me that I can see it at this + distance. My love is nothing else save honour; my flame is + reverence; my fire is ardent desire to serve you. And only + so long will the appointment in his service, which it has + pleased my Lord His Serene Highness the Duke of Mantua to + give me, and on which your Illustrious Ladyship has been + kind enough to congratulate me so cordially, be dear to me, + as you shall know that I am fit for it, and more worthy and + more ready to receive the favour of your commands, which + will always be to me a most sure testimony that you esteem + me, not for my own worth, as you too courteously say, but + for the worth which you confer on me, since I am not worthy + of such esteem for any other merit than that which comes to + me from being honoured by so noble and beautiful a lady. I + kiss the hand of your Illustrious Ladyship, wishing the + culmination of every felicity." + +Now, this letter I consider to be a very great curiosity! The other two +written from the same place, one to a Signor Bulgarini at Siena, the other +to a lady, the Marchesa di Grana, at Mantua, are of an entirely similar +description. I turned to them in the hope of finding how Innspruck, its +stupendous scenery, its court, its manners so widely different from those +to which the writer and his correspondents were used, its streets, its +people, impressed a sixteenth century Italian from the valley of the Po. I +find instead a psychological phenomenon! The writer is a grave, austere +man (Guarini was notably such), celebrated throughout Italy for his +intellectual attainments, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, with a +wife and family; he is amidst scenes which must, one would have thought, +have impressed in the very highest degree the imagination of a poet, and +must, it might have been supposed, have interested those he was writing to +in an only somewhat less degree, and he writes the stuff the reader has +just waded through. It is clear that this Italian sixteenth century +scholar, poet and of cultivated intellect as he was, saw nothing amid the +strange scenes to which a hard and irksome duty called him, which he +thought worthy of being mentioned even by a passing word to his friends! +Surely this is a curious trait of national character. + +He remained in the service of the court for fourteen years, employed +mainly, as it should seem, in a variety of embassies; an employment which +seems to have left him a disappointed, soured, and embittered man. He +considered that he had not been remunerated as his labour deserved, that +the heavy expenses to which he had been put in his long journeys had not +been satisfactorily made up to him, and that he had not been treated in +any of the foreign countries to which his embassies had carried him with +the respect due to his own character and to his office. + +He determined therefore to leave the court and retire to Padua, a +residence in which city, it being not far distant from his estate of +Guarina, would offer him, he thought, a convenient opportunity of +overlooking his property and restoring order to his finances, which had +suffered much during his travels. This was in the year 1582, when Guarini +was in the forty-fifth year of his age. It is not clear, however, that +this retirement was wholly spontaneous; and the probability is that the +Duke and his ambassador were equally out of humour with each other. And it +is probable that the faults were not all on the side of the Duke. There is +sufficient evidence that the author of the "Pastor Fido" must have been a +difficult man to live with. + +The old friendship of happier days with Tasso had not survived the wear +and tear of life at court. It was known that they no longer saw or spoke +with each other. And everybody--if not of their contemporaries, at least +of subsequent writers--jumped to the conclusion that the writer of the +"Aminta" and the writer of the "Pastor Fido" must be jealous of each +other. Jealousy there certainly was. But some frailer and more mortal +female than the Muse was the cause of it. The Abate Serassi in his life of +Tasso admits that Tasso first gave offence to Guarini by a sonnet in which +he endeavoured to alienate the affections of a lady from him, by +representing him as a faithless and fickle lover. The lines in which Tasso +attacked his brother poet are, it must be admitted, sharp enough! + + Si muove e si raggira + Instabil piu che arida fronde ai venti; + Nulla fe, null' amor, falsi i tormenti + Sono, e falso l'affeto ond' ei sospira. + Insidioso amante, ama e disprezza + Quasi in un punto, e trionfando spiega + Di femminile spoglie empi trofei.[53]... + +The attack was savage enough, it must be admitted, and well calculated to +leave a lasting wound. Guarini immediately answered the cruel sonnet by +another, the comparative weakness of which is undeniable. + + Questi che indarno ad alta mira aspira + Con altrui biasmi, e con bugiardi accenti, + Vedi come in se stesso arruota i denti, + Mentre contra ragion meco s'adira. + + Di due fiamme si vanta, e stringe e spezza + Piu volte un nodo; e con quest' arti piega + (Chi 'l crederebbe!) a suo favore i Dei.[54]... + +There is reason to think that the accusation of many times binding and +loosing the same knot, may have hit home. The sneer about bending the gods +to favour him, alludes to Tasso's favour at court, then in the ascendant, +and may well have been as offensive to the Duke and the ladies of his +court as to the object of his satire. Both angry poets show themselves +somewhat earth-stained members of the Paduan "Etherials." But the sequel +of the estrangement was all in favour of the greater bard. Tasso, in +desiring a friend to show his poems in manuscript to certain friends, two +or three in number, on whose opinion he set a high value, named Guarini +among the number. And upon another occasion wishing to have Guarini's +opinion as to the best of two proposed, methods of terminating a sonnet, +and not venturing to communicate directly with him, he employed a common +friend to obtain his brother-poet's criticism. Tasso had also in his +dialogue entitled the "Messagero" given public testimony to Guarini's high +intellectual and civil merits. But Guarini appears never to have forgiven +the offence. He never once went to see Tasso in his miserable confinement +in the hospital of St. Anne; nor, as has been seen, would hold any +communication with him. + +He must have been a stern and unforgiving man. And indeed all the +available testimony represents him as having been so,--upright, honest, +and honourable, but haughty, punctilious, litigious, quick to take +offence, slow to forget or forgive it, and cursed with a thin-skinned +_amour propre_ easily wounded and propense to credit others with the +intention of wounding where no such intention existed. The remainder of +the story of his life offers an almost unbroken series of testimonies to +the truth of such an estimate of his character. + +It was after fourteen years' service in the court of Duke Alphonso, as has +been said, that he retired disgusted and weary to live in independence and +nurse his estate in the neighbourhood of Padua. But the part of +Cincinnatus is not for every man! It was in 1582 that he retired from the +court intending to bid it and its splendours, its disappointments and its +jealousies, an eternal adieu. In 1585, on an offer from the Duke to make +him his secretary, he returned and put himself into harness again! + +But this second attempt to submit himself to the service, to the caprices +and exigencies of a master and of a court ended in a quicker and more +damaging catastrophe than the first. In a diary kept by the poet's nephew, +Marcantonio Guarini, under the date of July 13, 1587, we find it written +that "the Cavalier Batista Guarini, Secretary of the Duke, considering +that his services did not meet with sufficient consideration in proportion +to his worth, released himself from that servitude." The phrase here +translated "released himself" is a peculiar one--_si licenzio_--"dismissed +himself." To receive _licenza_, or to be _licenziato_, is to be dismissed, +or at least parted with in accordance with the will of the employer. But +the phrase used by the diarist seems intended to express exactly what +happened when the poet, once more discontented, took himself off from +Ferrara and its Duke. He seems to have done so in a manner which gave deep +and lasting offence. In a subsequent passage of the above-quoted diary we +read, "the Cavaliere Batista Guarini having absented himself from Ferrara, +disgusted with the Duke, betook himself to Florence, and then, by the +intermedium of Guido Coccapani the agent, asked for his dismissal in form +and obtained it." We happen, however, to have a letter written by this +Coccapani, who seems to have been the Duke's private secretary and +managing man, in which he gives his version of the matter. He was +"stupefied," he says, "when he received the extravagant letter of the +Cavaliere Guarini, and began to think that it would be with him as it had +been with Tasso," who by that time had fallen into disgrace. There is +reason to think that he left Ferrara secretly, without taking leave of the +Duke, or letting anybody at court know where he had gone. He did, +however, obtain his formal dismissal, as has been said, but the Duke by no +means forgave him. + +Though it would appear that on leaving Ferrara in this irregular manner he +went in the first instance to Florence, it seems that he had had hopes +given him of a comfortable position and honourable provision at Turin. He +was to have been made a Counsellor of State, and entrusted with the task +of remodelling the course of study at the university, with a stipend of +six hundred crowns annually. But on arriving at Turin he found +difficulties in the way. In fact, the angry Duke of Ferrara had used his +influence with the Duke of Savoy to prevent anything being done for his +contumacious Secretary of State. Guarini, extremely mortified, had to +leave Turin, and betook himself to Venice. + +His adventure, however, was of a nature to cause great scandal in that +clime and time. As usual, the Italians were offended at the "imprudence" +of which Guarini's temper had led him to be guilty, more than they would +have been by many a fault which among ourselves would be deemed a very +much worse one. A violence of temper or indignation shown in such a manner +as to injure _one's own_ interests is, and in a yet greater degree was, a +spectacle extremely disgusting to Italian moral sentiment. + +The outcry against Guarini on this occasion was so great that he found +himself obliged to put forth an exculpatory statement. + +"If human actions, my most kind readers," he begins, "always bore marked +on the front of them the aims and motives which have produced them, or if +those who talk about them were always well informed enough to be able to +judge of them without injury to the persons of whom they speak, I should +not be compelled, at my age, and after so many years of a life led in the +eyes of the world, and often busied in defending the honour of others, to +defend this day my own, which has always been dearer to me than my life. +Having heard, then, that my having left the service of His Serene Highness +the Duke of Ferrara and entered that of the Duke of Savoy has given +occasion to some persons, ignorant probably of the real state of the case, +to make various remarks, and form various opinions, I have determined to +publish the truth, and at the same time to declare my own sentiments in +the matter. + +"I declare, then, that previously to my said departure I consigned to the +proper person everything, small as it was, which was in my hands regarding +my office, which had always been exercised by me uprightly and without any +other object in view than the service of my sovereign and the public +welfare. Further, that I, by a written paper under my own hand (as the +press of time and my need rendered necessary), requested a free and +decorous dismissal from the Duke in question, and also, that I set forth +in all humility the causes which led me to that determination; and I added +(some of the circumstances in which I was compelling me to do so) that if +His Serene Highness did not please to give me any other answer, I would +take his silence as a consent to my request of dismissal. I declare +further that the paper was delivered to the principal Minister of his +Serene Highness, and lastly, that my salary was, without any further +communication with me, stopped, and cancelled from the roll of payments. +And as this is the truth, so it is equally true that my appointment as +reformer of the University of Turin, and Counsellor of State with six +hundred crowns yearly, was settled and concluded with His Serene Highness +the Duke of Savoy, and that I declined to bind myself, and did not bind +myself, to ask any other dismissal from His Serene Highness the Duke of +Ferrara than that which I have already spoken. And, finally, it is true +that, as I should not have gone to Turin if I had not been engaged for +that service and invited thither, so I should not have left, or wished to +leave this place,[55] had I not known that I received my dismissal in the +manner above related. Now, as to the cause which may have retarded and may +still retard the fulfillment of the engagement above mentioned, I have +neither object, nor obligation, nor need to declare it. Suffice it that it +is not retarded by any fault of mine, or difficulty on my side. In +justification of which I offered myself, and by these presents now again +offer myself, to present myself wheresoever, whensoever, and in whatsoever +manner, and under whatsoever conditions and penalties, as may be seen more +clearly set forth in the instrument of agreement sent by me to His +Highness. From all which, I would have the world to know, while these +affairs of mine are still in suspension, that I am a man of honour, and am +always ready to maintain the same in whatsoever manner may be fitting to +my condition and duty. And as I do not at all doubt that some decision of +some kind not unworthy of so just and so magnanimous a prince will be +forthcoming; so, let it be what it may, it will be received by me with +composure and contentment; since, by God's grace, and that of the serene +and exalted power under the most just and happy dominion of which I am now +living, and whose subject, if not by birth, yet by origin and family, I +am,[56] I have a comfortable and honoured existence. And may you, my +honoured readers, live in happiness and contentment. Venice, February 1, +1589." + +We must, I think, nevertheless be permitted to doubt the contentment and +happiness of the life he led, as it should seem, for the next four years, +at Venice. No such decision of any kind, as he hoped from the Duke of +Savoy, was forthcoming. He was shunted! He had quarrelled with his own +sovereign, and evidently the other would have none of him. The Italians of +one city were in those days to a wonderful degree foreigners in another +ruled by a different government; and there can be little doubt that +Guarini wandered among the quays and "calle" of Venice, or paced the great +piazza at the evening hour, a moody and discontented man! + +At last, after nearly four years of this sad life, there came an +invitation from the Duke of Mantua proposing that Guarini should come to +Mantua together with his son Alessandro, to occupy honourable positions in +that court. The poet, heartily sick of "retirement," accepted at once, and +went to Mantua. But there, too, another disappointment awaited him. The +"magnanimous" Duke Alphonso would not tolerate that the man who had so +cavalierly left his service should find employment elsewhere. It is +probable that this position was obtained for him by the influence of his +old friend and fellow-member of the "Etherials" at Padua, Scipione +Gonzaga; and it would seem that he occupied it for a while, and went on +behalf of the Duke of Mantua to Innspruck, whence he wrote the wonderful +letters which have been quoted. + +The Cardinal's influence, however, was not strong enough to prevail +against the spite of a neighbouring sovereign. There are two letters +extant from the Duke, or his private secretary, to that same Coccapani +whom we saw so scandalized at Guarini's hurried and informal departure +from Ferrara, and who was residing as Alphonso's representative at Mantua, +in which the Minister is instructed to represent to the Duke of Mantua +that his brother of Ferrara "did not think it well that the former should +take any of the Guarini family into his service, and when they should see +each other he would tell him his reasons. For the present he would only +say that he wished the Duke to know that it would be excessively pleasing +to him if the Duke would have nothing to say to any of them." + +This was in 1593; and the world-weary poet found himself at fifty-six once +again cast adrift upon the world. The extremity of his disgust and +weariness of all things may be measured by the nature of the next step he +took. He conceived, says his biographer Barotti, that "God called him by +internal voices, and by promise of a more tranquil life, to accept the +tonsure." His wife had died some little time before; and it was therefore +open to him to do so. He went to Rome accordingly for the purpose of there +taking orders. But during the short delay which intervened between the +manifestation of his purpose and the fulfilment of it, news reached him +that his friend and protectress the Duchess of Urbino, Alphonso's sister, +had interceded for him with the Duke, and that he was forgiven! It was +open to him to return to his former employment! And no sooner did the news +reach him than he perceived that "the internal voices" were altogether a +mistake. God had never called him at all, and Alphonso had! All thoughts +of the Church were abandoned on the instant, and he hastened to Ferrara, +arriving there on the 15th of April, 1595. + +But neither on this occasion was he destined to find the tranquillity +which he seemed fated never to attain! And this time the break-up was a +greater and more final one than the last. Duke Alphonso died in 1597; and +the Pontificial Court, which had long had its eye on the possibility of +enforcing certain pretended claims to the Duchy of Ferrara, found the +means at Alphonso's death of ousting his successor the Duke Cesare, who +remained thenceforward Duke of Modena only, but no longer of Ferrara. + +Guarini was once more adrift! Nor were the political changes in Ferrara +the only thing which rendered the place no longer a home for him. Other +misfortunes combined to render a residence in the city odious to him. His +daughter Anna had married a noble gentleman of Ferrara, the Count Ercole +Trotti, by whom she was on the 3rd of May, 1598, murdered at his villa of +Zanzalino near Ferrara. Some attempt was made to assert that the husband +had reason to suspect that his wife was plotting against his life. But +there seems to have been no foundation for any accusation of the sort; and +the crime was prompted probably by jealousy. Guarini, always on bad terms +with his sons, and constantly involved in litigation with them, as he had +been with his father, was exceedingly attached to this unfortunate +daughter. + +But even this terrible loss was not the only bitterness which resulted +from this crime. Guarini composed a long Latin epitaph, in which he +strongly affirms her absolute innocence of everything that had been laid +to her charge, and speaks with reprobation of the husband's[57] crime. But +scarcely had the stone bearing the inscription been erected than the +indignant father was required by the authorities of the city to remove it. +A declaration, which he published on the subject, dated June 15, 1598, is +still extant. "On that day," he writes, "the Vice-legate of Ferrara spoke +with me, in the name of the Holy Father, as to the removing of the epitaph +written by me on Anna my daughter in the church of Sta. Catherina. He said +that there were things in it that might provoke other persons to +resentment, and occasion much scandal; and that, besides that, there were +in the inscription words of Sacred Scripture, which ought not to be used +in such a place. I defended my cause, and transmitted a memorial to his +Holiness, having good reason to know that these objections were the mere +malignity of those who favour the opposite party, and of those who caused +the death of my innocent child. But at last, on the 22nd, I caused the +epitaph to be removed, intimating that it was my intention to take up the +body, and inter it elsewhere. On which it is worthy of remark, that having +made my demand to that effect, I was forbidden to do so." He further adds: +"Note! news was brought to me here that my son Girolamo, who was evidently +discovered to be the accomplice, and principal atrocious author of the +death of his sister Anna, received from the Potesta of Rovigo licence to +come into the Polisina with twelve men armed with arquebuses." + +All this is very sad; and whether these terrible suspicions may or may not +have had any foundation other than the envenomed temper generated by the +family litigations, it must equally have had the effect of making the life +of Guarini a very miserable one, and contributing to his determination to +abandon finally his native city. + +More surprising is it that, after so many disgusts and disappointments, he +should once again have been tempted to seek, what he had never yet been +able to find there, in a court. In a letter written in November, 1598, he +informs the Duke Cesare (Duke of Modena, though no longer of Ferrara) that +the Grand Duke of Florence had offered him a position at Florence. And his +Serene Highness, more kindly and forgiving than the late Duke, wrote him +an obliging and congratulatory letter in the following month. + +At Florence everything at first seemed to be going well with him, and he +seemed to stand high in favour with the Grand Duke Ferdinand. But very +shortly he quitted Florence in anger and disgust on the discovery of the +secret marriage of his third son, Guarini, with a woman of low condition +at Pisa, with at least the connivance, as the poet thought, whether justly +or not there is nothing to show, of the Grand Duke. + +After that his old friend the Duchess of Urbino once again stood his +friend, and he obtained a position in the court of Urbino, then one of the +most widely famed centres of cultivation and letters in Italy. And for a +while everything seemed at last to be well with him there. On the 23rd of +February, 1603, he writes to his sister, who apparently had been pressing +him to come home to Ferrara:--"I should like to come home, my sister. I +have great need and a great desire for home; but I am treated so well +here, and with so much distinction and so much kindness, that I cannot +come. I must tell you that all expenses for myself and my servants are +supplied, so that I have not to spend a farthing for anything in the world +that I need. The orders are that anything I ask for should be furnished to +me. Besides all which, they give me three hundred crowns a year; so that, +what with money and expenses, the position is worth six hundred crowns a +year to me. You may judge, then, if I can throw it up. May God grant you +every happiness! + + Your brother, + B. GUARINI." + +But all would not do. He had been but a very little time in this little +Umbrian Athens among the Apennines before he once again threw up his +position in anger and disgust, because he did not obtain all the marks of +distinction to which he thought that he was entitled. This was in 1603. He +was now sixty-six, and seems at length to have made no further attempt to +haunt at court. Once again he was at Rome in 1605, having undertaken, at +the request of the citizens of Ferrara, to carry their felicitations to +the new Pope, Paul the Fifth. And with the exception of that short +expedition his last years were spent in the retirement of his ancestral +estate of Guarina. + +The property is situated in the district of Lendinara, on the fat and +fertile low-lying region between Rovigo and Padua, and belongs to the +commune--parish, as we should say--of St. Bellino. The house, dating +probably from the latter part of the fifteenth century, is not much more +than a hundred yards or so from the _piazza_ of the village, which boasts +two thousand inhabitants. The road between the two is bordered with trees. +The whole district is as flat as a billiard table, and as prosaical in its +well-to-do fertility as can be imagined. It is intersected by a variety of +streams, natural and artificial. About a couple of miles from the house to +the south is the Canalbianco; and a little farther to the north the +Adigetto. To the east runs the Scortico. St. Bellino, from whom the +village is named, was, it seems, enrolled among the martyrs by Pope +Eugenius the Third in 1152. He has a great specialty for curing the bite +of mad dogs. There is a grand cenotaph in his honour in the village +church, which was raised by some of the Guarini family. But this, too, +like all else, became a subject of trouble and litigation to our poet. A +certain Baldassare Bonifaccio of Rovigo wanted to transport the saint to +that city. Guarini would not hear of this; litigated the matter before the +tribunals of Venice, and prevailed. So the saint still resides at St. +Bellino to the comfort of all those bitten by mad dogs in those parts. The +house and estate have passed through several hands since that time; but a +number of old family portraits may still be seen on the walls, together +with the family arms, and the motto, "Fortis est in asperis non turbari." +The armchair and writing table of the poet are also still preserved in the +house, and a fig-tree is pointed out close by it, under the shade of which +the poet, as tradition tells, wrote on that table and in that chair his +"Pastor Fido." There is an inscription on the chair as follows: "Guarin +sedendo qui canto, che vale al paragon seggio reale."[58] + +It was not, however, during this his last residence here that the "Pastor +Fido" was written, but long previously. It was doubtless his habit to +escape from the cares of official life in Ferrara from time to time as he +could; and it must have been in such moments that the celebrated pastoral +was written.[59] + +The idea of a scholar and a poet, full of years and honours, passing the +quiet evening of his life in a tranquil retirement in his own house on his +own land, is a pleasing one. But it is to be feared that in the case of +the author of the "Pastor Fido" it would be a fallacious one. Guarini +would not have come to live on his estate if he could have lived +contentedly in any city. We may picture him to ourselves sitting under his +fig-tree, or pacing at evening under the trees of the straight avenue +between his house and the village, or on the banks of one of the sluggish +streams slowly finding their way through the flat fields towards the Po; +but I am afraid the picture must be of one "Remote, unfriended, +melancholy, slow," with eyes bent earthwards, and discontented mind: +"remote," because to the Italian mind all places beyond the easy reach of +a city are so; "unfriended," because he had quarrelled with everybody; +"melancholy," because all had gone amiss with him, and his life had been a +failure; "slow," because no spring of hope in the mind gave any elasticity +to his step. + +One other "haunt" of the aged poet must, however, be mentioned, because it +is a very characteristic one. During this last residence at Guarina, he +hired an apartment at Ferrara, selecting it in a crowded part of the +centre of the city, especially frequented by the lawyers, that he might be +in the midst of them, when he went into the city on the various business +connected with his interminable lawsuits. The most crowded part of the +heart of the city of Ferrara! It would be difficult to find any such part +now. But the picture offered to the imagination, of the aged poet, +professor, courtier, haunting the courts, the lawyers' chambers, leaving +his, at least, tranquil retreat at St. Bellino, to drag weary feet through +the lanes of the city in which he had in earlier days played so different +a part, is a sad one. But there are people who like contention so much +that such work is a labour of love to them. And certainly, if the +inference may be drawn from the fact of his never having been free from +lawsuits in one quarrel or another, Guarini must have been one of these. +But it is passing strange that the same man should have been the author of +the "Pastor Fido." + +They pursued him to the end, these litigations; or he pursued them! And at +last he died, not at Guarina, but at Venice, on the 7th of October, 1612, +where, characteristically enough, he chanced to be on business connected +with some lawsuit. + +And now a few words must be said about his great work, the "Pastor Fido." +It is one of the strangest things in the range of literary history that +such a man should have written such a poem. He was, one would have said, +the last man in the world to produce such a work. The first ten years of +his working life were spent in the labour of a pedagogue; the rest of it +in the inexpressibly dry, frivolous, and ungenial routine of a small +Italian court, or in wandering from one to the other of them in the vain +and always disappointed search for such employment. We are told that he +was a punctilious, stiff, unbending, angular man; upright and honourable, +but unforgiving and wont to nurse his enmities. He was soured, +disappointed, discontented with everybody and everything, involved in +litigation first with his father, and then with his own children. And this +was the man who wrote the "Pastor Fido," of all poems comparable to it in +reputation the lightest, the airiest, and the most fantastic! The argument +of it is as follows: + +The Arcadians, suffering in various ways from the anger of Diana, were at +last informed by the oracle that the evils which afflicted them would +cease when a youth and a maiden, both descended from the Immortals, as it +should seem the _creme de la creme_ of Arcadian society mostly was, should +be joined together in faithful love. Thereupon Montano, a priest of the +goddess who was descended from Hercules, arranged that his only son Silvio +should be betrothed to Amaryllis, the only daughter of Tytirus, who was +descended from Pan. The arrangement seemed all that could be desired, only +that a difficulty arose from the fact that Silvio, whose sole passion was +the chase, could not be brought to care the least in the world for +Amaryllis. Meantime Mirtillo, the son, as was supposed, of the shepherd +Carino, fell desperately in love with Amaryllis. She was equally attached +to him, but dared not in the smallest degree confess her love, because the +law of Arcadia would have punished with death her infidelity to her +betrothed vows. A certain Corisca, however, who had conceived a violent +but unrequited passion for Mirtillo, perceiving or guessing the love of +Amaryllis for him, hating her accordingly, and hoping that, if she could +be got out of the way, she might win Mirtillo's love, schemes by deceit +and lies to induce Mirtillo and Amaryllis to enter together a cave, which +they do in perfect innocence, and without any thought of harm. Then he +contrives that they should be caught there, and denounced by a satyr; and +Amaryllis is condemned to die. The law, however, permits that her life may +be saved by any Arcadian who will voluntarily die in her stead; and this +Mirtillo determines to do, although he believes that Amaryllis cares +nothing for him, and also is led by the false Corisca to believe that she +had gone into the cave for the purpose of meeting with another lover. The +duty of sacrificing him devolves on Montano the priest; and he is about to +carry out the law, when Carino, who has been seeking his reputed son +Mirtillo, comes in, and while attempting to make out that he is a +foreigner, and therefore not capable of satisfying the law by his death, +brings unwittingly to light circumstances that prove that he is in truth a +son of Montano, and therefore a descendant of the god Hercules. It thus +appears that a marriage between Mirtillo and Amaryllis will exactly +satisfy the conditions demanded by the oracle. There is an under-plot, +which consists in providing a lover and a marriage for the woman-hater +Silvio. He is loved in vain by the nymph Dorinda, whom he unintentionally +wounds with an arrow while out hunting. The pity he feels for her wound +softens his heart towards her, and all parties are made happy by this +second marriage. + +Such is a skeleton of the story of the "Pastor Fido." It will be observed +that there is more approach to a plot and to human interest than in any +previous production of this kind, and some of the situations are well +conceived for dramatic effect. And accordingly the success which it +achieved was immediate and immense. Nor, much as the taste of the world +has been changed since that day, has it ever lost its place in the +estimation of cultivated Italians. + +It would be wholly uninteresting to attempt any account of the +wide-spreading literary controversies to which the publication of the +"Pastor Fido" gave rise. The author terms it a tragi-comedy; and this +title was violently attacked. The poet himself, as may well be imagined +from the idiosyncrasy of the man, was not slow to reply to his critics, +and did so in two lengthy treatises entitled from the name of a +contemporary celebrated actor, "Verato primo," and "Verato secondo," which +are printed in the four-quarto-volume edition of his works, but which +probably no mortal eye has read for the last two hundred years! + +The question of the rivalry between the "Aminta" of Tasso and the "Pastor +Fido" has an element of greater interest in it. It is certain that the +former preceded the latter, and doubtless suggested it. It seems probable +that Ginguene is right in his suggestion, that Guarini, fully conscious +that no hope was open to him of rivalling his greater contemporary and +townsman in epic poetry, strove to surpass him in pastoral. It must be +admitted that he has at least equalled him. Yet, while it is impossible to +deny that almost every page of the "Pastor Fido" indicates not so much +plagiarism as an open and avowed purpose of doing the same thing better, +if possible, than his rival has done it, the very diverse natural +character of the two poets is also, at every page, curiously indicated. +Specially the reader may be recommended to compare the passages in the two +poems where Tasso under the name of Thyrsis, and Guarini under the name of +Carino (Act 5, scene 1), represent the sufferings both underwent at the +court of Alphonso II. The lines of Guarini are perhaps the most vigorous +in their biting satire. But the gentler and nobler nature of Tasso is +unmistakable. + +It is strange that the Italian critics, who are for the most part so +lenient to the licentiousness of most of the authors of this period, blame +Guarini for the too great warmth, amounting to indecency, of his poem. The +writer of his life in the French "Biographie Universelle" refers to +certain scenes as highly indecent. I can only say that, on examining the +passages indicated carefully, I could find no indecency at all. It is +probable that the writer referred to had never read the pages in question. +But it is odd that those whose criticism he is no doubt reflecting should +have said so. No doubt there are passages, not those mentioned by the +writer in the "Biographie," but for instance the first scene of the second +act, when a young man in a female disguise is one among a party of girls, +who propose a prize for her who can give to one of them, the judge, the +sweetest kiss, which prize he wins, which might be deemed somewhat on the +sunny side of the hedge that divides the permissible from the +unpermissible. But in comparison with others of that age Guarini is pure +as snow. + +It has been said in speaking of the sad story of his daughter Anna, that +she was accused of having given her husband cause for jealousy. It would +seem very clear that there was no ground for any such accusation. But it +was said that the misconduct on her part had been due to the corruption of +her mind by the reading of her father's verses. The utter groundlessness +of such an assertion might be shown in many ways. But the savage and +malignant cruelty of it points with considerable evidence to the sources +of the current talk about the courtier poet's licentiousness. + +It is impossible to find room here for a detailed comparison between these +two celebrated pastorals; and it is the less needed inasmuch as Ginguene +has done it very completely and at great length in the twenty-fifth +chapter of the second part of his work. + +Guarini also produced a comedy, the "Idropica," which was acted with much +success at the court of Mantua, and is printed among his works, as well as +some prose pieces of small importance, the principal of which is "Il +Secretario," a treatise on the duties of a secretary, not printed among +his works, but of which an edition exists in pot quarto (186 pages) +printed at Venice in 1594. Neither have his letters been printed among his +works. They exist, printed without index or order of any kind, in a volume +of the same size as the "Secretario," printed at Venice also in 1595, but +by a different printer. + +The name, however, of Batista Guarini would have long since been +forgotten, had he not written the "Pastor Fido." + + T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE, in Belgravia. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] The now celebrated pass of the Ampezzo between Venice and Innspruck. + +[49] This must probably be Hall on the Inn, a little below Innspruck. +Certainly any boat which he got there for the descent of the river must +have been a sufficiently miserable mode of travelling. + +[50] Far, that is, from the bank of the river, where he left his boat at +night. + +[51] Lettere del Signor Cavaliere Battista Guarini, Nobile Ferrarese, di +nuovo in questa seconda impressione di alcune altre accrescinte, e dall' +Autore stesso corrette, di Agostino Michele raccolte, et al Sereniss. +Signore il Duca d'Urbino dedicate. Con Privilegio. In Venetia, MDXCV. +Appresso Gio. Battista Ciotti Senese al segno della Minerva. + +[52] I translate literally. Old-fashioned people will remember a somewhat +similar use of the word "Flame" in English. + +[53] I subjoin a literal prose translation in preference to borrowing a +rhymed one from any of Tasso's translators. This fellow "flits and circles +around more unstable than dry leaves in the wind. Without faith, without +love, false are his pretended torments, and false the affection which +prompts his sighs. A traitorous lover, he loves and despises almost at the +same moment, and in triumph displays the spoils of women as impious +trophies." + +[54] "See how this fellow, who in vain aims at a lofty goal, by blaming +others, and by lying accents, sharpens against himself his teeth, while +without reason he is enraged with me.... Of two flames he boasts, and ties +and breaks over and over again the same knot; and by these arts (who would +believe it!) bends in his favour the Gods!" ... + +[55] It is odd that he should so write in a paper dated, as the present +is, from Venice. I suppose the expression came from his feeling that he +was addressing parsons at Ferrara. + +[56] Seeing that, as has been said, his ancestors were of Verona, which +belonged to Venice. + +[57] Barotti gives it at length; but it is hardly worth while to occupy +space by reproducing it here. + +[58] "Guarini sitting here, sang, that which renders the seat the equal of +a royal throne." + +[59] It is very doubtful and very difficult to determine at what period of +his life the "Pastor Fido" was written. Ginguene (Hist. Ital. Lit. Part +II. ch. xxv.) has sufficiently shown that the statements of the Italian +biographers on this point are inaccurate. Probably it was planned and, in +part, written many years before it was finished. It was first printed in +1590. + + + + +THE VAQUERO.[60] + + + Oh, who is so free as a gallant _vaquero_? + With his beauty of bronze 'neath his shady _sombrero_: + He smiles at his love, and he laughs at his fate, + For he knows he is lord of a noble estate: + The prairie's his own, and he mocks at the great. + "Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho! + Head 'em off! Turn 'em back! + Keep 'em up to the track! + Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo! + Cric--crac!" + + Oh, Donna Luisa is proud as she's fair; + But she parted last night with a lock of her hair. + And under the stars she roams, seeking for rest, + While she thinks of the stranger that came from the West; + And Juan bears something wrapped up in his breast-- + "Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho! + Head 'em off! Turn 'em back! + Keep 'em up to the track! + Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo! + Cric--crac!'" + + His proudest possessions are prettily placed, + His love at his heart, and his life at his waist. + And if in a quarrel he happen to fall, + Why, the prairie's his grave, and his _poncho's_[61] his pall, + And Donna Luisa--gets over it all! + "Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho! + Head 'em off! Turn 'em back! + Keep 'em up to the track! + Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo! + Cric--crac!" + + The Padre may preach, and the Notary frown, + But the _poblanas_[62] smile as he rides through the town: + And the Padre, he knows, likes a kiss on the sly, + And the Notary oft has a "drop in his eye," + But all that he does is to love and to die-- + "Ho-ho! Hai! Ho-ho! + Head 'em off! Turn 'em back! + Keep 'em up to the track! + Ho-hillo! Ho-hillo! + Cric--crac!" + + FRANK DESPREZ, _in Temple Bar_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[60] A California cattle-driver. Furnished with revolver, lasso, and +long-lashed whip, these adventurous gentry conduct the half-wild cattle of +the plains over miles of their surface; and, with their gay sashes, high +boots, gilded and belled spurs, and dark, broad hats (_sombreros_), +present a very picturesque appearance. + +[61] Cloak. + +[62] Peasant girls. + + + + +TWO MODERN JAPANESE STORIES. + + +The two stories which follow were circulated in the city of Yedo some +years back, and show that the better educated classes of Japanese are +keenly alive to the absurdity of the figure cut by their countrymen when +they attempt to jump over five hundred years in five hundred days. + + +I. A REGULAR MESS. + +Some six years back lived in the beautiful village of Minoge an old lady +who kept the big tea-house of the place known as the "White Pine." Minoge +is situated at the base of the holy mountain Oyama, and during the months +of August and September trade in Minoge was always brisk, on account of +the influx of pilgrims from all parts of Japan, who came hither to perform +the holy duty of ascending the mountain, and of paying their devoirs at +the shrine of the Thunder-God, previous to making the grand pilgrimage of +Fuji-Yama. + +The old lady was well off, and her inn bore an unblemished reputation for +possessing the prettiest serving-girls, the gayest guest-chambers, and the +primest stewed eels--the dish _par excellence_ of Japanese _gourmets_--of +any hostelry in the country side. One of her daughters was married in +Yedo, and a son was studying in one of the European colleges of that city; +still she was as completely rustic and unacquainted with the march of +affairs outside as if she had never heard of Yedo, much less of +foreigners. At that time it was a very rare thing indeed for a foreigner +to be seen in Minoge, and the stray artists and explorers who had wandered +there were regarded much in the same way as would have been so many white +elephants. + +It caused, therefore, no little excitement in the village when, one fine +autumn evening, the rumour came along that a foreigner was making his way +towards the "White Pine." Every one tried to get a glimpse of him. The +chubby-cheeked boys and girls at the school threw down their books and +pens, and crowded to the door and windows; the bath-house was soon empty +of its patrons and patronesses, who, red as lobsters with boiling water, +with dishevelled locks and garments hastily bound round them, formed line +outside; the very Yakunin, or mayor, sentenced a prisoner he was judging +straight off, without bothering himself to inquire into evidence, so as +not to be balked of the sight, and every wine and barber's shop sent forth +its quota of starers into the little street. + +Meanwhile the foreigner was leisurely striding along. He was taller by far +than the tallest man in Minoge, his hair was fair, and even his bronzed +face and hands were fair compared to those of the natives. On the back of +his head was a felt wide-awake, he wore a blue jacket and blue half +trousers (Anglice, knickerbockers), thick hose, and big boots. In his +mouth was a pipe--being much shorter than Japanese smoking tubes--in his +hand a stick, and on his back a satchel. + +As he passed, one or two urchins, bolder than the rest, shouted out, +"Tojin baka" ("Foreign beast") and instantly fled indoors, or behind their +mothers' skirts; but the majority of the villagers simply stared, with an +occasional interjection expressive of wonder at his height, fair hair, and +costume. + +At the door of the "White Pine" he halted, unstrapped his bundle, took off +his boots, and in very fair Japanese requested to be shown his room. The +old lady, after a full ten minutes' posturing, complimenting, bowing, and +scraping, ushered him into her best guest-chamber. "For," said she, "being +a foreigner, he must be rich, and wouldn't like ordinary pilgrim +accommodation." And she drew to the sliding screens, and went off to +superintend his repast. Although nothing but the foreigner's boots were to +be seen outside, a gaping crowd had collected, striving to peer through +the cracks in the doors, and regarding the boots as if they were infernal +machines. One, more enterprising than the rest, took a boot up, passed it +to his neighbour, and in a short time it had circulated from hand to hand +throughout the population of Minoge, and was even felt and pinched by the +mayor himself, who replaced it with the reverence due to some religious +emblem or relic. + +Then the hostess served up her banquet--seaweed, sweets, raw "tighe"--the +salmon of Japan--in slices, garnished with turnips and horse-radish, egg +soup with pork lumps floating in it, chicken delicately broiled, together +with a steaming bottle of her choicest "San Toku Shiu," or wine of the +Three Virtues (which keeps out the cold, appeases hunger, and induces +sleep). + +The foreigner made an excellent meal, eked out by his own white bread, and +wine from a flask of pure silver, then, lighting his pipe, reclined at +full length on the mats, talking to the old lady and her three damsels, O +Hana, O Kiku, and O Riu (Miss Flower, Miss Chrysanthemum, and Miss +Dragon). He was walking about the country simply for pleasure, he +said--which astonished the women greatly--he had been away from Yokohama +three weeks, and was now on his road to the big mountain. The party were +soon screaming with laughter at his quaint remarks and at his occasional +colloquial slips, and in a short time all were such good friends that the +old lady begged him to display the contents of his satchel. "Certainly," +said the stranger, pulling it towards him and opening it. A dirty flannel +shirt or two didn't produce much impression--perhaps wares of a similar +nature had been imported before into Minoge--nor did a hair-brush, +tooth-brush, and comb; but when he pulled out a pistol, which was +warranted to go off six times in as many seconds, and proceeded to +exemplify the same in the air, popular excitement began to assert itself +in a series of "naruhodo's" ("really!"). Then he pulled out a portable +kerosine lamp--(kerosine lamps are now as common in Japan as shrines by +the road-side)--and the light it made, throwing entirely into the shade +the native "andon," or oil wick, burning close by, raised the enthusiasm +still higher. Lastly he showed a small box of medicines, "certain cures," +said he, "for every disease known amongst the sons of men." + +The old lady and the maids were enchanted, and matters ended, after much +haggling and disputation, in the foreigner allowing them to keep the three +articles for the very reasonable sum of fifty dollars--about fifteen +pounds sterling--which was handed over to the foreigner, who called for +his bedding and went fast asleep. + +The first thing for the old lady to do the next day was to present herself +and maids in full holiday costume with their recent purchases at the house +of the mayor. The great man received them and their goods with the dignity +befitting his rank, and promised that a public trial should be made of the +pistol, lamp, and medicines, at an early date, in order to determine +whether they were worthy to be adopted as institutions in the village. + +Accordingly, by proclamation, at a fixed date and hour, all Minoge +assembled in the open space facing the mayor's house, and the articles +were brought forth. The pistol was first taken and loaded, as directed by +the foreigner, by the boldest and strongest man in the village. The first +shot was fired--it wounded a pack-horse, standing some twenty yards away, +in the leg; he took fright and bolted with a heavy load of wine tubs down +the street into the fields: the second shot went through a temple roof +opposite, and shattered the head of the deity in the shrine: the third +shot perforated the bamboo hat of a pilgrim; and it was decided not to +test the remaining three barrels. + +Then the lamp was brought forth: the wick was turned up full, and the +village strong man applied a light. The blaze of light was glorious, and +drew forth the acclamations of the crowd; but the wick had been turned up +too high, the glass burst with a tremendous report, the strong man +dropped the lamp, the oil ignited, ran about and set fire to the matting. +In ten minutes, however, the local fire brigade got the flames under, and +the experiments proceeded. + +The medicine packets were brought forth. The first was a grey powder. A +man who had been lame from youth upwards was made to limp out. The powder +mixed with water, according to directions, was given him. He hobbled away +in frightful convulsions, and nearly injured his whole limb in so doing. + +The second packet was then unsealed--it contained pills. A blind man was +called out--six pills were rammed down his throat, and he was left +wallowing in a ditch. The third packet, a small book containing sticking +plaster, was then introduced. A burly peasant, victim to fearful +toothache, was made to stand forth. The interior of his mouth was lined +with the plaster, and when he attempted in his disgust to pull it off, +away came his skin also. + +The medicines were condemned _nem. con._ + +The foreigner returned, asked how matters had gone, and was told in polite +but firm terms that his machines were not suited to the people of Minoge. +Whereupon he returned the fifty dollars to the old lady of the "White +Pine," and went away laughing. Minoge subsided into its ordinary every-day +groove of life, and it was not till some years after that the inhabitants +became better used to pistols, lamps, and European medicines. + + +II. PADDLING HIS OWN CANOE. + +Takezawa was the head of a large silk and rice house in Yedo. His father +had been head, his grandfather had been head, his great-grandfather had +been head: in fact, the date when the first of the name affixed his seal +to the documents of the house was lost in the mists of antiquity. So, when +foreigners were first allowed a foot-hold on the sacred soil of Japan, +none were so jealous of their advance, none so ardent in their wishes to +see the white barbarians ousted, as the members of the firm of Takezawa +and Co. + +But times changed. Up to the last, Takezawa held out against the +introduction of foreign innovations in the mode and manner of conducting +the affairs of the firm; other houses might employ foreign steamboat +companies as carriers for their produce from port to port, might import +foreign goods, and even go so far as to allow the better paid of their +clerks to dress themselves as they liked in foreign costume; but Takezawa +and Co. were patriotic Japanese merchants, and resolved to run on in the +old groove of their ancestors. + +But times still changed, and the great house, running on in its solid +old-fashioned manner, found itself left in the lurch by younger and more +enterprising firms. This would never do. So Takezawa consulted with his +partners, patrons, clients, and friends, and after much worthy discussion, +and much vehement opposition on the part of the old man, it was resolved +to keep pace with the times, as much as possible, without absolutely +overturning the old status of the house. + +Well, Takezawa and Co. had still a very fair share of the export rice and +silk business; but their slow, heavy-sterned junks were no match for the +swift, foreign-built steamers employed by other firms; so, with a +tremendous wince, and not without a side thought at "Hara Kiri"--(the +"Happy Despatch")--Takezawa consented to the sale of all his junks, and +the purchase with the proceeds of a big foreign steamer. + +The steamer was bought--a fine three-masted, double-funnelled boat, +complete with every appliance, newly engined, and manned by European +officers and leading seamen. From the dock at Yokoska, where she was +lying, a preliminary trip was made; and so smoothly did everything work, +and so easily did everything seem to act, under the guidance of the +Europeans, that Takezawa considered his own mariners perfectly competent +to handle the vessel after an hour's experience on board. So the Europeans +were discharged with six months' salaries--about six times as much as they +would have received at home--and Takezawa fixed a day when the ship should +be rechristened, and should make her trial trip under Japanese management. + +It was a beautiful day in autumn--the most glorious period of the year in +Japan--when Takezawa and a distinguished company assembled on board the +steamer, to give her a new name, and to send her forth finally as a +Japanese steamer. The ship looked brave enough as she lay in the +dock--ports newly painted, brass-work shining, yards squared, and half +buried in bunting. At the mizen floated the empire flag of Japan--a red +sun on a white ground--and as Takezawa gazed fore and aft, and his eyes +rested on brightness, cleanliness, and order everywhere, he wondered to +himself how he could have been such a fool as to stand out so long against +the possession of such a treasure, merely on the grounds of its not being +Japanese. A fair daughter of one of his partners dashed a cup of "sake" +against the bows of the vessel, and the newly named "Lightning Bird" +dashed forward into the ocean. Her head was made straight for Yokohama +(Takezawa had seen the Englishmen at the wheel manipulate her in that +course on her trial trip, so he knew she couldn't go wrong). And straight +she went. Every one was delighted; sweetmeats and wine were served round, +whilst on the quarterdeck a troupe of the best "Geyshas" or singing-girls +in Yedo mingled their shrill voices and their guitar notes with the sound +of the fresh morning breeze through the rigging. + +The engines worked magnificently: coals were poured into the furnaces by +the hundredweight, so as to keep a good uniform thick cloud of smoke +coming from the funnels--if the smoke lacked intensity for a minute, +Takezawa, fearful that something was wrong, bellowed forth orders for more +coal to be heaped on, so that in a quarter of an hour's time the +"Lightning Bird" consumed as much fuel as would have served a P. and O. +steamer for half a day. On she went, everybody pleased and smiling, +everything taut and satisfactory. Straight ahead was Treaty Point--a bold +bluff running out into the sea. The "Lightning Bird" was bound for +Yokohama--Yokohama lies well behind Treaty Point--but at the pace she was +going it was very apparent that, unless a sudden and rapid turn to +starboard was made, she would run, not into Yokohama, but into Treaty +Point. + +The singing and feasting proceeded merrily on deck, but Takezawa was +uneasy and undecided on the bridge. The helm was put hard a-port, the +brave vessel obeyed, and leapt on straight for the line of rocks at the +foot of the Point, over which the waves were breaking in cascades of foam. +But the gods would not see a vessel, making her first run under Japanese +auspices, maltreated and destroyed by simple waves and rocks; so, just in +time to save an ignominious run aground, the helm was put hard over, fresh +fuel was piled on to the furnaces, and by barely half a ship's length the +"Lightning Bird" shaved the Point, and stood in straight for Yokohama bay. + +Takezawa breathed freely for the moment; but, as he saw ahead the crowd of +European ships and native junks through which he would have to thread his +way, he would have given a very large sum to have had a couple of +Europeans at the wheel in the place of his own half-witted, scared +mariners. + +However, there was no help for it; the ship sped on, and the guests on +board, many of whom were thorough rustics, were in raptures at the distant +views of the white houses on the Yokohama Bund, at the big steamers and +the graceful sailing vessels on all sides. To avoid the chance of a +collision, Takezawa managed to keep his steamer well outside; they nearly +ran down a fishing junk or two, and all but sunk the lightship; still, +they had not as yet come to absolute grief. Round they went for a long +half-hour; many of the guests were suffering from sickness, and Takezawa +thought that he might bring the trip to an end. So he bellowed forth +orders to stop the engines, and anchor. The anchor was promptly let go, +but stopping the engines was another matter, for nobody on board knew how +to do so--there was nothing to be done but to allow the vessel to pursue a +circular course until steam was exhausted; and she could go no farther. It +was idle to explain to the distinguished company that this was the course +invariably adopted by Europeans, for under their noses was the graceful P. +and O. steamer, a moment since ploughing along at full steam, now riding +at anchor by her buoy. So round and round went the "Lightning Bird," to +the amazement of the crews of the ships in harbour and of a large crowd +gathered on the "Bund;" the brave company on board were now assured that +the judgment of the gods was overtaking them for having ventured to sea in +a foreign vessel, and poor Takezawa was half resolved to despatch himself, +and wholly resolved never to make such an experiment as this again. He +cursed the day when he was finally led to forsake the groove so honourably +and profitably grubbed along by his fathers, and strode with hasty steps +up and down the bridge, refusing to be comforted, and terrifying out of +their few remaining wits the two poor fellows at the wheel. After a few +circles, an English man-of-war sent a steam launch after the "Lightning +Bird," and to the intense disgust of the great Japanese people on board, +who preferred to see eccentricity on the part of their countrymen, to +interference by foreigners, but to the great delight of the women and +rustics, who began to be rather tired of the fun, the engines were +stopped. Takezawa did not hear the last of this for a long, long time; +caricatures and verses were constantly being circulated bearing upon the +fiasco, although it would have been as much as any man's life was worth to +have taunted him openly with it. But it was a salutary lesson; and +although he still kept the "Lightning Bird," he engaged Europeans to man +her, until his men proved themselves adepts, and she afterwards became one +of the smartest and fastest craft on the coast.--_Belgravia._ + + + + +SUPPOSED CHANGES IN THE MOON. + + +In this Magazine for August last I considered the moon's multitudinous +small craters with special reference to the theory that some among those +small craters may have been produced by the downfall of aerolithic or +meteoric masses upon the moon's once plastic surface. Whether it be +considered probable that this is really the case or not with regard to +actually existent lunar craters, it cannot be doubted that during one +period of the moon's history, a period probably lasting many millions of +years, many crater-shaped depressions must have been produced in this way. +As I showed in that essay, it is absolutely certain that thousands of +meteoric masses, large enough to form visible depressions where they fell, +must have fallen during the moon's plastic era. It is certain also that +that era must have been very long-lasting. Nevertheless, it remains +possible (many will consider it extremely probable, if not absolutely +certain) that during sequent periods all such traces were removed. There +is certainly nothing in the aspect of the present lunar craters, even the +smallest and most numerous, to preclude the possibility that they, like +the larger ones, were the results of purely volcanic action; and to many +minds it seems preferable to adopt one general theory respecting all such +objects as may be classed in a regular series, than to consider that some +members of the series are to be explained in one way and others in a +different way. We can form a series extending without break or +interruption from the largest lunar craters, more than a hundred miles in +diameter, to the smallest visible craters, less than a quarter of a mile +across, or even to far smaller craters, if increase of telescopic power +should reveal such. And therefore many object to adopt any theory in +explanation of the smaller craters (or some of them) which could +manifestly not be extended to the largest. Albeit we must remember that +certainly if any small craters had been formed during the plastic era by +meteoric downfall, and had remained unchanged after the moon solidified, +it would now be quite impossible to distinguish these from craters formed +in the ordinary manner. + +While we thus recognise the possibility, at any rate, that multitudes of +small lunar craters, say from a quarter of a mile to two miles in +diameter, may have been formed by falling meteoric masses hundreds of +millions of years ago, and may have remained unchanged even until now, we +perceive that on the moon later processes must have formed many small +craters, precisely as such small craters have been formed on our own +earth. I consider, at the close of the essay above mentioned, the two +stages of the moon's development which must have followed the period +during which her surface was wholly or in great part plastic. First, there +was the stage during which the crust contracted more rapidly than the +nucleus, and was rent from time to time as though the nucleus were +expanding within it. Secondly, there came the era when the nucleus, having +retained a greater share of heat, began to cool, and therefore to contract +more quickly than the crust, so that the crust became wrinkled or +corrugated, as it followed up (so to speak) the retreating nucleus. + +It would be in the later part of this second great era that the moon (if +ever) would have resembled the earth. The forms of volcanic activity still +existing on the earth seem most probably referable to the gradual +contraction of the nucleus, and the steady resulting contraction of the +rocky crust. As Mallet and Dana have shown, the heat resulting from the +contraction, or in reality from the slow downfall of the crust, is amply +sufficient to account for the whole observed volcanian energy of the +earth. It has indeed been objected, that if this theory (which is +considered more fully in my "Pleasant Ways in Science") were correct, we +ought to find volcanoes occurring indifferently, or at any rate volcanic +phenomena of various kinds so occurring, in all parts of the earth's +surface, and not prevalent in special regions and scarcely ever noticed +elsewhere. But this objection is based on erroneous ideas as to the length +of time necessary for the development of subterranean changes, and also as +to the extent of regions which at present find in certain volcanic craters +a sufficient outlet for their subterranean fires. It is natural that, if a +region of wide extent has at any time been relieved at some point, that +spot should long afterwards remain as an outlet, a sort of safety-valve, +which, by yielding somewhat more quickly than any neighbouring part of the +crust, would save the whole region from destructive earthquakes; and +though in the course of time a crater which had acted such a part would +cease to do so, yet the period required for such a change would be very +long indeed compared with those periods by which men ordinarily measure +time. Moreover, it by no means follows that every part of the earth's +crust would even require an outlet for heat developed beneath it. Over +wide tracts of the earth's surface the rate of contraction may be such, or +may be so related to the thickness of the crust, that the heat developed +can find ready escape by conduction to the surface, and by radiation +thence into space. Nay, from the part which water is known to play in +producing volcanic phenomena, it may well be that in every region where +water does not find its way in large quantities to the parts in which the +subterranean heat is great, no volcanic action results. Mallet, following +other experienced vulcanologists, lays down the law, "Without water there +can be no volcano;" so that the neighbourhood of large oceans, as well as +special conditions of the crust, must be regarded as probably essential to +the existence of such outlets as Vesuvius, Etna, Hecla, and the rest. + +So much premised, let us enquire whether it is antecedently likely that in +the moon volcanic action may still be in progress, and afterwards consider +the recent announcement of a lunar disturbance, which, if really volcanic, +certainly indicates volcanic action far more intense than any which is at +present taking place in our own earth. I have already, I may remark, +considered the evidence respecting this new lunar crater which some +suppose to have been formed during the last two years. But I am not here +going over the same ground as in my former paper ("Contemporary Review" +for August, 1878). Moreover, since that paper was written, new evidence +has been obtained, and I am now able to speak with considerable confidence +about points which were in some degree doubtful three months ago. + +Let us consider, in the first place, what is the moon's probable age, not +in years, but in development. Here we have only probable evidence to guide +us, evidence chiefly derived from the analogy of our own earth. At least, +we have only such evidence when we are enquiring into the moon's age as a +preliminary to the consideration of her actual aspect and its meaning. No +doubt many features revealed by telescopic scrutiny are full of +significance in this respect. No one who has ever looked at the moon, +indeed, with a telescope of great power has failed to be struck by the +appearance of deadness which her surface presents, or to be impressed (at +a first view, in any case), with the idea that he is looking at a world +whose period of life must be set in a very remote antiquity. But we must +not take such considerations into account in discussing the _a priori_ +probabilities that the moon is a very aged world. Thus we have only +evidence from analogy to guide us in this part of our enquiry. I note the +point at starting, because the indicative mood is so much more convenient +than the conditional, that I may frequently in this part of my enquiry use +the former where the actual nature of the evidence would only justify the +latter. Let it be understood that the force of the reasoning here depends +entirely on the weight we are disposed to allow to arguments from analogy. + +Assuming the planets and satellites of the solar system to be formed in +some such manner as Laplace suggested in his "Nebular Hypothesis," the +moon, as an orb travelling round the earth, must be regarded as very much +older than she is, even in years. Even if we accept the theory of +accretion which has been recently suggested as better according with known +facts, it would still follow that probably the moon had existence, as a +globe of matter nearly of her present size, long before the earth had +gathered in the major portion of her substance. Necessarily, therefore, if +we assume as far more probable than either theory that the earth and moon +attained their present condition by combined processes of condensation and +accretion, we should infer that the moon is far the older of the two +bodies in years. + +But if we even suppose that the earth and moon began their career as +companion planets at about the same epoch, we should still have reason to +believe that these planets, equal though they were in age so far as mere +years are concerned, must be very unequally advanced so far as development +is concerned, and must therefore in that respect be of very unequal age. + +It was, I believe, Sir Isaac Newton who first called attention to the +circumstance that the larger a planet is, the longer will be the various +stages of its existence. He used the same reasoning which was afterwards +urged by Buffon, and suggested an experiment which Buffon was the first to +carry out. If two globes of iron, of unequal size, be heated to the same +degree, and then left to cool side by side, it will be found that the +larger glows with a ruddy light after the smaller has become quite dark, +and that the larger remains intensely hot long after the smaller has +become cool enough to be handled. The reason of the difference is very +readily recognised. Indeed, Newton perceived that there would be such a +difference before the matter had been experimentally tested. The quantity +of heat in the unequal globes is proportional to the volume, the substance +of each being the same. The heat is emitted from the surface, and at a +rate depending on the extent of surface. But the volume of the larger +exceeds that of the smaller in greater degree than the surface of the +larger exceeds the surface of the other. Suppose, for instance, the larger +has a diameter twice as great as that of the smaller, its surface is four +times as great as that of the smaller, its volume eight times as great. +Having, then, eight times as much heat as the smaller at the beginning, +and parting with that heat only four times as fast as the smaller, the +supply necessarily lasts twice as long; or, more exactly, each stage in +the cooling of the larger lasts twice as long as the corresponding stage +in the cooling of the smaller. We see that the duration of the heat is +greater for the larger in the same degree that the diameter is greater. +And we should have obtained the same result whatever diameters we had +considered. Suppose, for instance, we heat two globes of iron, one an inch +in diameter, the other seven inches, to a white heat. The surface of the +larger is forty-nine times that of the smaller, and thus it gives out at +the beginning, and at each corresponding stage of cooling, forty-nine +times as much heat as the smaller. But it possesses at the beginning three +hundred and forty-three (seven times seven times seven) times as much +heat. Consequently, the supply will last seven times as long, precisely as +a stock of three hundred and forty-three thousand pounds, expended +forty-nine times as fast as a stock of one thousand pounds only, would +last seven times as long. In every case we find that the duration of the +heat-emission for globes of the same material equally heated at the outset +is proportional to their diameters. + +Now, before applying this result to the case of the moon, we must take +into account two considerations:--First, the probability that when the +moon was formed she was not nearly so hot as the earth when it first took +planetary shape; and secondly, the different densities of the earth and +moon. + +The original heat of every member of the solar system, including the sun, +depended on the gravitating energy of its own mass. The greater that +energy, the greater the heat generated either by the process of steady +contraction imagined in Laplace's theory, or by the process of meteoric +indraught imagined in the aggregation theory. To show how very different +are the heat-generating powers of two very unequal masses, consider what +would happen if the earth drew down to its own surface a meteoric mass +which had approached the earth under her own attraction only. (The case is +of course purely imaginary, because no meteor can approach the earth which +has not been subjected to the far greater attractive energy of the sun, +and does not possess a velocity far greater than any which the earth +herself could impart). In this case such a mass would strike the earth +with a velocity of about seven miles per second, and the heat generated +would be that due to this velocity only. Now, when a meteor strikes the +sun full tilt after a journey from the star depths under his attraction, +it reaches his surface with a velocity of nearly three hundred and sixty +miles per second. The heat generated is nearly fifty times greater than in +the imagined case of the earth. The moon being very much less than the +earth, the velocity she can impart to meteoric bodies is still less. It +amounts, in fact, to only about a mile per second. The condensing energy +of the moon in her vaporous era was in like manner far less than that of +the earth, and consequently far less heat was then generated. Thus, +although we might well believe on _a priori_ grounds, even if not assured +by actual study of the lunar features, that the moon when first formed as +a planet had a surface far hotter than molten iron, we must yet believe +that, when first formed, the moon had a temperature very much below that +of our earth at the corresponding stage of her existence. + +On this account, then, we must consider that the moon started in planetary +existence in a condition as to heat which our earth did not attain till +many millions, probably hundreds of millions of years after the epoch of +her first formation as a planet. + +As regards the moon's substance, we have no means of forming a +satisfactory opinion. But we shall be safe in regarding quantity of matter +in the moon as a safer basis of calculation than volume, in comparing the +duration of her various stages of development with those of our own earth. +When, in the August number of this Magazine, I adopted a relation derived +from the latter and less correct method, it was because the more correct +method gave the result most favourable to the argument I was then +considering. The same is indeed the case now. Yet it will be better to +adopt the more exact method, because the consideration relates no longer +to a mere side issue, but belongs to the very essence of my reasoning. + +The moon has a mass equal to about one eighty-first part of the earth's. +Her diameter being less than the earth's, about as two to seven, the +duration of each stage of her cooling would be in this degree less than +the corresponding duration for the earth, if her density were the same as +the earth's, in which case her mass would be only one forty-ninth part of +the earth's. But her mass being so much less, we must assume that her +amount of heat at any given stage of cooling was less in similar degree +than it would have been had her density been the same as the earth's. We +may, in fact, assume that the moon's total supply of heat would be only +one eighty-first of the earth's if the two bodies were at the same +temperature throughout.[63] But the surface of the moon is between +one-thirteenth and one-fourteenth of the earth's. Since, then, the earth +at any given stage of cooling parted with her heat between thirteen and +fourteen times as fast as the moon, but had about eighty-one times as much +heat to part with (for that stage), it follows that she would take about +six times as long (six times thirteen and a-half is equal to eighty-one) +to cool through that particular stage as the moon would. + +If we take this relation as the basis of our estimate of the moon's age, +we shall find that, even if the moon's existence as a planet began +simultaneously with the earth's instead of many millions of years earlier, +even if the moon was then as hot as the earth instead of being so much +cooler that many millions of years would be required for the earth to cool +to the same temperature--making, I say, these assumptions, which probably +correspond to the omission of hundreds of millions of years in our +estimate of the moon's age, we shall still find the moon to be hundreds of +millions of years older than the earth. + +Nay, we may even take a position still less favourable to my argument. Let +us overlook the long ages during which the two orbs were in the vaporous +state, and suppose the earth and moon to be simultaneously in that stage +of planetary existence when the surface has a temperature of two thousand +degrees Centigrade. + +From Bischoff's experiments on the cooling of rocks, it appears to follow +that some three hundred and twenty millions of years must have elapsed +between the time when the earth's surface was at this temperature and the +time when the surface temperature was reduced to two hundred degrees +Centigrade, or one hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit above the +boiling point. The earth was for that enormous period a mass (in the main) +of molten rock. In the moon's case this period lasted only one-sixth of +three hundred and twenty million years, or about fifty-three million +years, leaving two hundred and sixty-seven million years' interval between +the time when the moon's surface had cooled down to two hundred degrees +Centigrade and the later epoch when the earth's surface had attained that +temperature. + +I would not, however, insist on these numerical details. It has always +seemed to me unsafe to base calculations respecting suns and planets on +experiments conducted in the laboratory. The circumstances under which the +heavenly bodies exist, regarding these bodies as wholes, are utterly +unlike any which can be produced in the laboratory, no matter on what +scale the experimenter may carry on his researches. I have often been +amused to see even mathematicians of repute employing a formula based on +terrestrial experiments, physical, optical, and otherwise, as though the +formula were an eternal omnipresent reality, without noting that, if +similarly applied to obtain other determinations, the most stupendously +absurd results would be deduced. It is as though, having found that a +child grows three inches in the fifth year of his age, one should infer +not only that that person but every other person in every age and in every +planet, nay, in the whole universe, would be thirty inches taller at the +age of fifteen than at the age of five, without noticing that the same +method of computation would show everyone to be more than fifteen feet +taller at the age of sixty-five. It may well be that, instead of three +hundred and twenty millions of years, the era considered by Bischoff +lasted less than a hundred millions of years. Or quite as probably it may +have lasted five or six hundred millions of years. And again, instead of +the corresponding era of the moon's past history having lasted one sixth +of the time required to produce the same change in the earth's condition, +it may have lasted a quarter, or a third, or even half that time, though +quite as probably it may have lasted much less than a sixth. But in any +case we cannot reasonably doubt that the moon reached the stage of cooling +through which the earth is now passing many millions of years ago. We +shall not probably err very greatly in taking the interval as at least two +hundred millions of years. + +But I could point out that in reality it is a matter of small importance, +so far as my present argument is concerned, whether we adopt Bischoff's +period or a period differing greatly from it. For if instead of about +three hundred millions the earth required only thirty millions of years to +cool from a surface temperature of two thousand degrees Centigrade to a +temperature of two hundred degrees, we must assume that the rate of +cooling is ten times greater than Bischoff supposed. And we must of course +extend the same assumption to the moon. Now, since the sole question +before us is to what degree the moon has cooled, it matters nothing +whether we suppose the moon has been cooling very slowly during many +millions of years since she was in the same condition as the earth at +present, or that the moon has been cooling ten times as quickly during a +tenth part of the time, or a hundred times as quickly during one-hundredth +part of the time. + +We may, therefore, continue to use the numbers resulting from Bischoff's +calculation, even though we admit the probability that they differ widely +from the true values of the periods we are considering. + +Setting the moon, then, as about two hundred and fifty millions of years +in advance of the earth in development, even when we overlook all the eras +preceding that considered by Bischoff, and the entire sequent interval +(which must be long, for the earth has no longer a surface one hundred +degrees Centigrade hotter than boiling water), let us consider what is +suggested by this enormous time-difference. + +In the first place, it corresponds to a much greater interval in our +earth's history. During the two hundred and fifty millions of years the +moon has been cooling at her rate, not at the earth's. According to the +conclusion we deduced from the moon's relative mass and surface, she has +aged as much during those two hundred and fifty million years as the earth +will during the next fifteen hundred million years. + +Now, however slowly we suppose the earth's crust to be changing, it must +be admitted that in the course of the next fifteen hundred millions of +years the earth will have parted with far the greater part, if not with +the whole, of that inherent heat on which the present movements of her +surface depend. We know that these movements at once depend upon and +indicate processes of contraction. We know that such processes cannot +continue at their present rate for many millions of years. If we assume +that the rate of contraction will steadily diminish--which is equivalent, +be it noticed, to the assumption that the earth's vulcanian or +subterranean energies will be diminished--the duration of the process will +be greater. But even on such an assumption, controlled by consideration of +the evidence we have respecting the rate at which terrestrial contraction +is diminishing, it is certain that long before a period of fifteen hundred +millions of years has elapsed, the process of contraction will to all +intents and purposes be completed. + +We must assume, then, as altogether the most probable view, that the moon +has reached this stage of planetary decrepitude, even if she has not +become an absolutely dead world. We can hardly reject the reasoning which +would show that the moon is far older than has been assumed when long +stages of her history and our earth's have been neglected. Still less +reasonable would it be to reject the conclusion that at the very least she +has reached the hoar antiquity thus inferred. Assuming her to be no older, +we yet cannot escape the conviction that her state is that of utter +decrepitude. To suppose that volcanic action can now be in progress on the +moon, even to as great a degree as on the earth, would be to assume that +measurable sources of energy can produce practically immeasurable results. +But no volcanic changes now in process on the earth could possibly be +discernible at the moon's distance. How utterly unlikely does it seem, +then, that any volcanic changes can be now taking place on the moon which +could be recognized from the earth! It seems safe to assume that no +volcanic changes at all can be in progress; but most certainly the +evidence which should convince us that volcanic changes of so tremendous a +character are in progress that at a distance of two hundred and sixty +thousand miles terrestrial telescopists can discern them, must be of the +strongest and most satisfactory character. + +Evidence of change may indeed be discovered which can be otherwise +explained. The moon is exposed to the action of heat other than that which +pervaded her own frame at the time of her first formation. The sun's heat +is poured upon the moon during the long lunar day of more than a +fortnight, while during the long lunar night a cold prevails which must +far exceed that of our bitterest arctic winters. We know from the +heat-measurements made by the present Lord Rosse, that any part of the +moon's surface at lunar mid-day is fully five hundred degrees Fahrenheit +hotter than the same part two weeks later at lunar midnight. The alternate +expansions and contractions resulting from these changes of temperature +cannot but produce changes, however slowly, in the contour of the moon's +surface. Professor Newcomb, indeed, considers that all such changes must +long since have been completed. But I cannot see how they can be completed +so long as the moon's surface is uneven, and at present there are regions +where that surface is altogether rugged. Mighty peaks and walls exist +which must one day be thrown down, so unstable is their form; deep ravines +can be seen which must one day be the scene of tremendous landslips, so +steep and precipitous are their sides. Changes such as these may still +occur on so vast a scale that telescopists may hope from time to time to +recognise them. But changes such as these are not volcanic; they attest no +lunar vitality. They are antecedently so probable, indeed, while volcanic +changes are antecedently so unlikely, that when any change is clearly +recognised in the moon's surface, nothing but the most convincing evidence +could be accepted as demonstrating that the change was of volcanic origin +and not due to the continued expansion and contraction of the lunar crust. + +And now let us see how stands the evidence in the few cases which seem +most to favour the idea that a real change has taken place. + +We may dismiss, in the first place, without any hesitation, the assertion +that regular changes take place in the floor of the great lunar crater +Plato. According to statements very confidently advanced a few years ago, +this wide circular plain, some sixty miles in diameter, grows darker and +darker as the lunar day advances there until the time corresponding to +about two o'clock in the afternoon, and then grows gradually lighter again +till eventide. The idea seems to have been at first that some sort of +vegetation exists on the floor of this mighty ring-shaped mountain, and +that, as the sun's heat falls during the long lunar day upon the great +plain, the vegetation flourishes, darkening the whole region just as we +might imagine that some far-extending forest on the earth would appear +darker as seen from the moon when fully clothed with vegetation than when +the trees were bare and the lighter tints of the ground could be seen +through them. Another idea was that the ground undergoes some change under +the sun's heat corresponding to those which are produced in certain +substances employed in photography; though it was not explained why the +solar rays should produce no permanent change, as in the terrestrial cases +adduced in illustration. Yet another and, if possible, an even stranger +explanation, suggested that, though the moon has no seas, there may be +large quantities of water beneath her crust, which may evaporate when that +crust becomes heated, rising in the form of vapour to moisten and so +darken the crust. Certainly, the idea of a moistening of the lunar crust, +or of portions thereof, as the sun's rays fall more strongly upon it, is +so daring that one could almost wish it were admissible, instead of being +altogether inconsistent, as unfortunately it is, with physical +possibilities. + +But still more unfortunately, the fact supposed to have been observed, on +which these ingenious speculations were based, has not only been called in +question, but has been altogether negatived. More exact observations have +shown that the supposed darkening of the floor of Plato is a mere optical +illusion. When the sun has lately risen at that part of the moon, the +ringed wall surrounding this great plain throws long shadows across the +level surface. These shadows are absolutely black, like all the shadows on +the moon. By contrast, therefore, the unshadowed part of the floor appears +lighter than it really is; but the mountain ring which surrounds this dark +grey plain is of light tint. So soon as the sun has passed high above the +horizon of this region, the ring appears very brilliant compared with the +dark plain which it surrounds; thus the plain appears by comparison even +darker than it really is. As the long lunar afternoon advances, however, +black shadows are again thrown athwart the floor, which therefore again +appears by contrast lighter than it really is. All the apparent changes +are such as might have been anticipated by anyone who considered how +readily the eye is misled by effects of contrast. + +To base any argument in favour of a regular change in the floor of Plato +on evidence such as this, would be as unwise as it would be to deduce +inferences as to changes in the heat of water from experiments in which +the heat was determined by the sensations experienced when the hands were +successively immersed, one hand having previously been in water as hot as +could be borne, the other in water as cold as could be borne. We know how +readily these sensations would deceive us (if we trusted them) into the +belief that the water had warmed notably during the short interval of time +which had elapsed between the two immersions; for we know that if both +hands were immersed at the same moment in lukewarm water, the water would +appear cold to one hand and warm to the other. + +Precisely as in such a case as we have just considered, if we were obliged +to test the water by so inexact a method, we should make experiments with +one hand only, and carefully consider the condition of that hand during +the progress of the experiments, so in the case of the floor of Plato, we +must exclude as far as possible all effects due to mere contrast. We must +examine the tint of the plain, at lunar morning, mid-day, and evening, +with an eye not affected either by the darkness or brightness of adjacent +regions, or adjacent parts of the same region. This is very readily done. +All we have to do is to reduce the telescopic field of view to such an +extent that, instead of the whole floor, only a small portion can be seen. +It will then be found, as I can myself certify (the more apparently +because the experience of others confirms my own), that the supposed +change of tint does not take place. One or two who were and are strong +believers in the reality of the change do indeed assert that they have +tried this experiment, and have obtained an entirely different result. But +this may fairly be regarded as showing how apt an observer is to be +self-deceived when he is entirely persuaded of the truth of some favourite +theory. For those who carried out the experiment successfully had no views +one way or the other; those only failed who were certainly assured +beforehand that the experiment would confirm their theory. + +The case of the lunar crater Linne, which somewhere about November 1865 +attracted the attention of astronomers, belongs to a very different +category. In my article on the moon in the "Contemporary Review" I have +fully presented the evidence in the case of this remarkable object. I need +not therefore consider here the various arguments which have been urged +for and against the occurrence of change. I may mention, however, that, in +my anxiety to do full justice to the theory that change has really +occurred, I took Maedler's description of the crater's interior as "very +deep," to mean more than Maedler probably intended. There is now a +depression several hundred yards in depth. If Maedler's description be +interpreted, as I interpreted it for the occasion in the above article, to +mean a depth of two or three miles, it is of course certain that there has +been a very remarkable change. But some of the observers who have devoted +themselves utterly, it would seem, to the lively occupation of measuring, +counting, and describing the tens of thousands of lunar craters already +known, assert that Maedler and Lohrman (who uses the same description) +meant nothing like so great a depth. Probably Maedler only meant about half +a mile, or even less. In this case their favourite theory no longer seems +so strongly supported by the evidence. In some old drawings by the +well-known observer Schroeter, the crater is drawn very much as it now +appears. Thus, I think we must adopt as most probable the opinion which +is, I see, advanced by Prof. Newcomb in his excellent "Popular Astronomy," +that there has been no actual change in the crater. I must indeed remark +that, after comparing several drawings of the same regions by Schroeter, +Maedler, Lohrman, and Schmidt, with each other and with the moon's surface, +I find myself by no means very strongly impressed by the artistic skill of +any of these observers. I scarcely know a single region in the moon where +change might not be inferred to have taken place if any one of the +above-named observers could be implicitly relied upon. As, fortunately, +their views differ even more widely _inter se_ than from the moon's own +surface, we are not driven to so startling a conclusion. + +However, if we assume even that Linne has undergone change, we still have +no reason to believe that the change is volcanic. A steep wall, say half a +mile in height, surrounding a crater four or five miles in diameter, no +longer stands at this height above the enclosed space, if the believers in +a real change are to be trusted. But, as Dr. Huggins well remarked long +ago, if volcanic forces competent to produce disturbance of this kind are +at work in the moon, we ought more frequently to recognize signs of +change, for they could scarcely be at work in one part only of the moon's +surface, or only at long intervals of time. It is so easy to explain the +overthrow of such a wall as surrounded Linne (always assuming we can rely +upon former accounts) without imagining volcanic action, that, considering +the overwhelming weight of _a priori_ probability against such action at +the present time, it would be very rash to adopt the volcanic theory. The +expansions and contractions described above would not only be able to +throw down walls of the kind, but they would be sure to do so from time to +time. Indeed, as a mere matter of probabilities, it may be truly said that +it would be exceedingly unlikely that catastrophes such as the one which +may have occurred in this case would fail to happen at comparatively short +intervals of time. It would be so unlikely, that I am almost disposed to +adopt the theory that there really has been a change in Linne, for the +reason that on that theory we get rid of the difficulty arising from the +apparent fixity of even the steepest lunar rocks. However, after all, the +time during which men have studied the moon with the telescope--only two +hundred and sixty-nine years--is a mere instant compared with the long +periods during which the moon has been exposed to the sun's intense heat +by day and a more than arctic intensity of cold by night. It may well be +that, though lunar landslips occur at short intervals of time, these +intervals are only short when compared with those periods, hundreds of +millions of years long, of which we had to speak a little while ago. +Perhaps in a period of ten or twenty thousand years we might have a fair +chance of noting the occurrence of one or two catastrophes of the kind, +whereas we could hardly expect to note any, save by the merest accident, +in two or three hundred years. + +To come now to the last, and, according to some, the most decisive piece +of evidence in favour of the theory that the moon's crust is still under +the influence of volcanic forces. + +On May 19, 1877, Dr. Hermann J. Klein, of Cologne, observed a crater more +than two miles in width, where he felt sure that no crater had before +existed. It was near the centre of the moon's visible hemisphere, and not +far from a well-known crater called Hyginus. At the time of observation it +was not far from the boundary between the light and dark parts of the +moon: in fact, it was near the time of sunrise at this region. Thus the +floor of the supposed new crater was in shadow--it appeared perfectly +black. In the conventional language for such cases made and provided (it +should be stereotyped by selenographers, for it has now been used a great +many times since Schroeter first adopted the belief that the great crater +Cassini, thirty-six miles in diameter, was a new one) Dr. Klein says, "The +region having been frequently observed by myself during the last few +years, I feel certain that no such crater existed in the region at the +time of my previous observations." He communicated his discovery to Dr. +Schmidt, who also assured him that the region had been frequently observed +by himself during the last few years, and he felt certain that no such +crater, &c., &c. It is not in the maps by Lohrman and by Beer and Maedler, +or in Schroeter's drawings, and so forth. "We know more," says a recent +writer, singularly ready to believe in lunar changes; "we know that at a +later period, with the powerful Dorpat telescope, Maedler carefully +re-examined this particular region, to see if he could detect any +additional features not shown in his map. He found several smaller +craterlets _in other parts_" (the italics are mine), "but he could not +detect any other crater in the region where Dr. Klein now states there +exist a large crater, though he did find some very small hills close to +this spot." "This evidence is really conclusive," says this very confident +writer, "for it is incredible that Maedler could have seen these minute +hills and overlooked a crater so large that it is the second largest +crater of the score in this region." Then this writer comes in, of course, +in his turn, with the customary phrases. "During the six years, 1870-1876, +I most carefully examined this region, for the express purpose of +detecting any craters not shown by Maedler," and he also can certify that +no such crater existed, etc., etc. He was only waiting, when he thus +wrote, to see the crater for himself. "One suitable evening will settle +the matter. If I find a deep black crater, three miles in diameter, in the +place assigned to it by Dr. Klein, and when six years' observation +convinces me no such crater did exist, I shall know that it must be new." + +Astronomers, however, require somewhat better evidence. + +It might well be that a new crater-shaped depression should appear in the +moon without any volcanic action having occurred. For reasons already +adduced, indeed, I hold it to be to all intents and purposes certain that +if a new depression is really in question at all, it is in reality only an +old and formerly shallow crater, whose floor has broken up, yielding at +length to the expansive and contractive effects above described, which +would act with exceptional energy at this particular part of the moon's +surface, close as it is to the lunar equator. + +But it is by no means clear that this part of the moon's surface has +undergone any change whatever. We must not be misled by the very confident +tone of selenographers. Of course they fully believe what they tell us: +but they are strongly prejudiced. Their labours, as they well know, have +now very little interest unless signs of change should be detected in the +moon. Surveyors who have done exceedingly useful work in mapping a region +would scarcely expect the public to take much interest in additional +information about every rock or pebble existing in that region, unless +they could show that something more than a mere record of rocks and +pebbles was really involved. Thus selenographers have shown, since the +days of Schroeter, an intense anxiety to prove that our moon deserves, in +another than Juliet's sense, to be called "the inconstant moon." In +another sense again they seem disposed to "swear by the inconstant moon," +as changing yearly, if not "monthly, in her circled orb." Thus a very +little evidence satisfies them, and they are very readily persuaded in +their own mind that former researches of theirs, or of their +fellow-pebble-counters, have been so close and exact, that craters must +have been detected then which have been found subsequently to exist in the +moon. I do not in the slightest degree question their _bona fides_, but a +long experience of their ways leads me to place very little reliance on +such stereotyped phrases as I have quoted above. + +Now, in my paper in the "Contemporary Review" on this particular crater, I +called attention to the fact that in the magnificent photograph of the +moon taken by Dr. Louis Rutherfurd on March 6, 1865 (note well the date) +there is a small spot of lighter colour than the surrounding region, +nearly in the place indicated in the imperfect drawing of Klein's record +which alone was then available to me. For reasons, I did not then more +closely describe this feature of the finest lunar photograph ever yet +obtained. + +The writer from whom I have already quoted is naturally (being a +selenographer) altogether unwilling to accept the conclusion that this +spot is the crater floor as photographed (not as seen) under a somewhat +higher illumination than that under which the floor of the crater appears +dark. There are several white spots immediately around the dark crater, he +says: "which of these is the particular white spot which the author" +(myself) "assumes I did not see?" a question which, as I had made no +assumption whatever about this particular writer, nor mentioned him, nor +even thought of him, as I wrote the article on which he comments, I am +quite unable to answer. But he has no doubt that I have "mistaken the +white spot" (which it seems he can identify, after all) "for Klein's +crater, which is many miles farther north, and which never does appear as +a white spot: he has simply mistaken its place." + +I have waited, therefore, before writing this, until from my own +observation, or from a drawing carefully executed by Dr. Klein, I might +ascertain the exact place of the new crater. I could not, as it turned +out, observe the new crater as a black spot myself, since the question was +raised; for on the only available occasion I was away from home. But I now +have before me Dr. Klein's carefully drawn map. In this I find the new +crater placed not nearly, but _exactly_ where Rutherfurd's crater appears. +I say "Rutherfurd's crater," for the white spot is manifestly not merely a +light tinted region on the darker background of the Sea of Vapours (as the +region in which the crater has been found is called): it is a circular +crater more than two miles in diameter; and the width of the crescent of +shadow surrounding its eastern side shows that in March 1865, when +Rutherfurd took that photograph, the crater was not (for its size) a +shallow one, but deep. + +Now, it is quite true that, to the eye, under high illumination, the floor +of the crater does not appear lighter than the surrounding region; at +least, not markedly so, for to my eye it appears slightly lighter. But +everyone knows that a photograph does not show all objects with the same +depth of shading that they present to the naked eye. A somewhat dark green +object will appear rather light in a photograph, while a somewhat light +orange-yellow object will appear quite dark. We have only to assume that +the floor of the supposed new crater has a greenish tinge (which is by no +means uncommon) to understand why, although it is lost to ordinary vision +when the Sea of Vapours is under full illumination, it yet presents in a +photograph a decidedly lighter shade than the surrounding region. + +I ought to mention that the writer from whom I have quoted says that all +the photographs were examined and the different objects in this region +identified within forty-eight hours of the time when Dr. Klein's letter +reached England. He mentions also that he has himself personally examined +them. Doubtless at that time the exact position of the supposed new crater +was not known. By the way, it is strange, considering that the name Louis +Rutherfurd is distinctly written in large letters upon the magnificent +photograph in question, that a selenographer who has carefully examined +that photograph should spell the name Rutherford. He must really not +assume, when on re-examining the picture he finds the name spelled +Rutherfurd, that there has been any change, volcanic or otherwise, in the +photograph. + +In conclusion I would point out that another of these laborious +crater-counters, in a paper recently written with the express purpose of +advocating a closer and longer-continued scrutiny of the moon, makes a +statement which is full of significance in connection with the subject of +lunar changes. After quoting the opinion of a celebrated astronomer, that +one might as well attempt to catalogue the pebbles on the sea-shore as the +entire series of lunar craters down to the minutest visible with the most +powerful telescope, he states that while on the one hand, out of +thirty-two thousand eight hundred and fifty-six craters given in Schmidt's +chart, not more than two thousand objects have been entered in the +Registry he has provided for the purpose (though he has been many years +collecting materials for it from all sides); on the other hand, "on +comparing a few of these published objects with Schmidt's map, it has been +found _that some are not in it_,"--a fact to which he calls attention, +"not for the purpose of depreciating the greatest selenographical work +that has yet appeared, but for the real advancement of selenography." +Truly, the fact is as significant as it is discouraging,--unless we are +presently to be told that the craters which are not common to both series +are to be regarded as new formations. + + RICHARD A. PROCTOR, _in Belgravia_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[63] To some this may appear to be a mere truism. In reality it is far +from being so. If two globes of equal mass were each of the same exact +temperature throughout, they might yet have very unequal total quantities +of heat. If one were of water, for instance, and the other of iron or any +other metal, the former would have far the larger supply of heat; for more +heat is required to raise a given weight of water one degree in +temperature, than to raise an equal weight of iron one degree; and water +in cooling one degree, or any number of degrees, would give out more heat +than an equal weight of iron cooling to the same extent. + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF THACKERAY. + + +In the absence of any complete biography of the late William Makepeace +Thackeray, every anecdote regarding him has a certain value, in so far as +it throws a light on his personal character and methods of work. Read in +this light and this spirit, all the tributes to his memory are valuable +and interesting. Glancing over some memoranda connected with the life of +the novelist, contained in a book which has come under our notice, +entitled "Anecdote Biographies." we gain a ready insight into his +character. And from the materials thus supplied, we now offer a few +anecdotes treasured up in these too brief memorials of his life. + +Thackeray was born at Calcutta in 1811. While still very young, he was +sent to England; on the homeward voyage he had a peep at the great +Napoleon in his exile-home at St. Helena. He received his education at the +Charterhouse School and at Cambridge, leaving the latter without a degree. +His fortune at this time amounted to twenty thousand pounds; this he +afterwards lost through unfortunate speculations, but not before he had +travelled a good deal on the continent, and acquainted himself with French +and German everyday life and literature. His first inclination was to +follow the profession of an artist; and curious to relate, he made +overtures to Charles Dickens to illustrate his earliest book. Thackeray +was well equipped both in body and mind when his career as an author +began; but over ten years of hard toil at newspaper and magazine writing +were undergone before he became known as the author of "Vanity Fair," and +one of the first of living novelists. He lectured with fair if not with +extraordinary success both in England and America, when the sunshine of +public favour had been secured. His career of successful novel-writing +terminated suddenly on 24th December 1863, and like Dickens, he had an +unfinished novel on hand. + +One morning Thackeray knocked at the door of Horace Mayhew's chambers in +Regent Street, crying from without: 'It's no use, Horry Mayhew; open the +door.' On entering, he said cheerfully: 'Well, young gentleman, you'll +admit an old fogy.' When leaving, with his hat in his hand, he remarked: +'By-the-by, how stupid! I was going away without doing part of the +business of my visit. You spoke the other day of poor George. +Somebody--most unaccountably--has returned me a five-pound note I lent him +a long time ago. I didn't expect it. So just hand to George; and tell him, +when his pocket will bear it, to pass it on to some poor fellow of his +acquaintance. By-bye.' He was gone! This was one of Thackeray's delicate +methods of doing a favour; the recipient was asked to _pass it on_. + +One of his last acts on leaving America after a lecturing tour, was to +return twenty-five per cent. of the proceeds of one of his lectures to a +young speculator who had been a loser by the bargain. While known to hand +a gold piece to a waiter with the remark: 'My friend, will you do me the +favour to accept a sovereign?' he has also been known to say to a visitor +who had proffered a card: 'Don't leave this bit of paper; it has cost you +two cents, and will be just as good for your next call.' Evidently aware +that money when properly used is a wonderful health-restorer, he was found +by a friend who had entered his bedroom in Paris, gravely placing some +napoleons in a pill-box, on the lid of which was written: 'One to be taken +occasionally.' When asked to explain, it came out that these strange pills +were for an old person who said she was very ill, and in distress; and so +he had concluded that this was the medicine wanted. 'Dr. Thackeray,' he +remarked, 'intends to leave it with her himself. Let us walk out +together.' To a young literary man afterwards his amanuensis, he wrote +thus, on hearing that a loss had befallen him: 'I am sincerely sorry to +hear of your position, and send the little contribution which came so +opportunely from another friend whom I was enabled once to help. When you +are well-to-do again, I know you will pay it back; and I daresay somebody +else will want the money, which is meanwhile most heartily at your +service.' + +When enjoying an American repast at Boston in 1852, his friends there, +determined to surprise him with the size of their oysters, had placed six +of the largest bivalves they could find, on his plate. After swallowing +number one with some little difficulty, his friend asked him how he felt. +'Profoundly grateful,' he gasped; 'and as if I had swallowed a little +baby.' Previous to a farewell dinner given by his American intimates and +admirers, he remarked that it was very kind of his friends to give him a +dinner, but that such things always set him trembling. 'Besides,' he +remarked to his secretary, 'I have to make a speech, and what am I to say? +Here, take a pen in your hand and sit down, and I'll see if I can hammer +out something. It's hammering now, I'm afraid it will be stammering +by-and-by.' His short speeches, when delivered, were as characteristic and +unmistakable as anything he ever wrote. All the distinct features of his +written style were present. + +It is interesting to remark the sentiments he entertained towards his +great rival Charles Dickens. Although the latter was more popular as a +novelist, than he could ever expect to become, he expressed himself in +unmistakable terms regarding him. When the conversation turned that way, +we would remark: 'Dickens is making ten thousand a year. He is very angry +at me for saying so; but I will say it, for it is true. He doesn't like +me. He knows that my books are a protest against his--that if the one set +are true, the other must be false. But "Pickwick" is an exception; it is a +capital book. It is like a glass of good English ale.' When "Dombey and +Son" appeared in the familiar paper cover, number five contained the +episode of the death of little Paul. Thackeray appeared much moved in +reading it over, and putting number five in his pocket, hastened with it +to the editor's room in "Punch" office. Dashing it down on the table in +the presence of Mark Lemon, he exclaimed! 'There's no writing against such +power as this; one has no chance! Read that chapter describing young +Paul's death; it is unsurpassed--it is stupendous!' + +In a conversation with his secretary previous to his American trip, he +intimated his intention of starting a magazine or journal on his return, +to be issued in his own name. This scheme eventually took shape, and the +result was the now well known "Cornhill Magazine." This magazine proved a +great success, the sale of the first number being one hundred and ten +thousand copies. Under the excitement of this great success, Thackeray +left London for Paris. To Mr. Fields, the American publisher, who met him +by appointment at his hotel in the Rue de la Paix, he remarked: 'London is +not big enough to contain me now, and I am obliged to add Paris to my +residence. Good gracious!' said he, throwing up his long arms, 'where will +this tremendous circulation stop? Who knows but that I shall have to add +Vienna and Rome to my whereabouts? If the worst come to the worst, New +York also may fall into my clutches, and only the Rocky Mountains may be +able to stop my progress.' His spirits continued high during this visit to +Paris, his friend adding that some restraint was necessary to keep him +from entering the jewellers' shops and ordering a pocketful of diamonds +and 'other trifles; for,' said he, 'how can I spend the princely income +which Smith[64] allows me for editing "Cornhill," unless I begin instantly +somewhere!' He complained too that he could not sleep at nights 'for +counting up his subscribers.' On reading a contribution by his young +daughter to the "Cornhill," he felt much moved, remarking to a friend; +'When I read it, I blubbered like a child; it is so good, so simple, and +so honest; and my little girl wrote it, every word of it.' + +Dickens in the tender memorial which he penned for the "Cornhill +Magazine," remarks on his appearance when they dined together. 'No one,' +he says, 'can ever have seen him more genial, natural, cordial, fresh, and +honestly impulsive than I have seen him at those times. No one can be +surer than I of the greatness and goodness of the heart that had then +disclosed itself.' + +Beneath his 'modestly grand' manner, his seeming cynicism and bitterness, +he bore a very tender and loving heart. In a letter written in 1854, and +quoted in James Hannay's sketch, he expresses himself thus. 'I hate +Juvenal,' he says. 'I mean I think him a truculent fellow; and I love +Horace better than you do, and rate Churchill much lower; and as for +Swift, you haven't made me alter my opinion. I admire, or rather admit, +his power as much as you do; but I don't admire that kind or power so much +as I did fifteen years ago, or twenty shall we say. Love is a higher +intellectual exercise than hatred; and when you get one or two more of +those young ones you write so pleasantly about, you'll come over to the +side of the kind wags, I think, rather than the cruel ones.' The pathetic +sadness visible in much that he wrote sprung partly from temperament and +partly from his own private calamities. Loss of fortune was not the only +cause. When a young man in Paris, he married; and after enjoying domestic +happiness for several years, his wife caught a fever from which she never +afterwards sufficiently recovered to be able to be with her husband and +children. She was henceforth intrusted to the care of a kind family, where +every comfort and attention was secured for her. The lines in the ballad +of the "Bouillabaisse" are supposed to refer to this early time of +domestic felicity: + + Ah me! how quick the days are flitting! + I mind me of a time that's gone, + When here I'd sit as now I'm sitting, + In this place--but not alone. + A fair young form was nestled near me, + A dear, dear face looked fondly up, + And sweetly spoke and smiled to cheer me-- + There's no one now to share my cup. + +In dictating to his amanuensis during the composition of the lectures on +the "Four Georges," he would light a cigar, pace the room for a few +minutes, and then resume his work with increased cheerfulness, changing +his position very frequently, so that he was sometimes sitting, standing, +walking, or lying about. His enunciation was always clear and distinct, +and his words and thoughts were so well weighed that the progress of +writing was but seldom checked. He dictated with calm deliberation, and +shewed no risible feeling even when he had made a humorous point. His +whole literary career was one of unremitting industry; he wrote slowly, +and like 'George Eliot,' gave forth his thoughts in such perfect form, +that he rarely required to retouch his work. His handwriting was neat and +plain, often very minute; which led to the remark, that if all trades +failed, he would earn sixpences by writing the Lord's Prayer and the Creed +in the size of one. Unlike many men of less talent, he looked upon +caligraphy as one of the fine arts. When at the height of his fame he was +satisfied when he wrote six pages a day, generally working during the day, +seldom at night. An idea which would only be slightly developed in some of +his shorter stories, he treasured up and expanded in some of his larger +works. + +While Alfred Tennyson the future Laureate received the gold medal at +Cambridge given by the Chancellor of the university for the best English +poem, the subject being "Timbuctoo," we find Thackeray satirising the +subject in a humorous paper called "The Snob." Here are a few lines from +his clever skit on the prize poem: + + There stalks the tiger--there the lion roars, + Who sometimes eats the luckless blackamoors; + All that he leaves of them the monster throws + To jackals, vultures, dogs, cats, kites and crows; + His hunger thus the forest monster gluts, + And then lies down 'neath trees called cocoa-nuts. + +The personal appearance of Thackeray has been frequently described. His +nose through an early accident, was misshapen; it was broad at the bridge, +and stubby at the end. He was near-sighted: and his hair at forty was +already gray, but massy and abundant--his keen and kindly eyes twinkled +sometimes through and sometimes over his spectacles. A friend remarked +that what he 'should call the predominant expression of the countenance +was courage--a readiness to face the world on its own terms.' Unlike +Dickens, he took no regular walking exercise, and being regardless of the +laws of health, suffered in consequence. In reply to one who asked him if +he had ever received the best medical advice, his reply was: 'What is the +use of advice if you don't follow it? They tell me not to drink, and I +_do_ drink. They tell me _not_ to smoke, and I do smoke. They tell me not +to eat, and I do eat. In short, I do everything that I am desired _not_ to +do--and therefore, what am I to expect?' And so one morning he was found +lying, like Dr. Chalmers, in the sleep of death with his arms beneath his +head, after one of his violent attacks of illness--to be mourned by his +mother and daughters, who formed his household, and by a wider public +beyond, which, had learned to love him through his admirable +works.--_Chambers's Journal._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[64] Of Smith, Elder, & Co., the well known publishers. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Library Magazine of Select Foreign +Literature, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAGAZINE OF SELECT FOREIGN LITERATURE *** + +***** This file should be named 35432.txt or 35432.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/4/3/35432/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Christine D. and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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