Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

VOL. 2.] Illustrations, &c.-All Souls-Mayor-A new Joanna Southcote. 151

ALL SOULS. (NOV. 2.) In Catholic countries, on the eve and day of All Souls, the churches are hung with black; the tombs are opened; a coffin covered with black, and surrounded with wax lights, is placed in the nave of the church, and, in one corner, figures in wood, representing the souls of the deceased, are halfway plunged into the flames.

LORD MAYOR'S DAY. (NOV.9.)
The word mayor, comes from the
antient English maier, able or potent, of
the verb may or can. King Richard I.
A. D. 1189, first changed the bailiffs of
London into Mayors; by whose ex-
ample, others were afterwards appointed.
A very splendid banquet is on these
occasions provided at Guildhall, at the
expense of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs,
and about 1300 persons, male and fe-
male, sit down to dinner.*

Know ye the land where the leaf of the myrtle
Is bestowed on good livers in eating sublime?
Where the rage for fat ven'son, and love of the
turtle,

Preside o'er the realms of an Epicure clime?
Know ye the land where the juice of the vine
Makes Alderinen learned,and Bishops divine?
Where each Corporation, deep flushed with
its bloom,

Waxes fat o'er the eyes of the claret's perfume ?

Thick spread is the table with choicest of fruit,

And the voice of the Reveller never is mute :

Their rich robes, tho' varied,in beauty may vie,
Yet the purple of BACCHUS is deepest in dye

"Tis the clime of the EAST---the return of the sun
Looks down on the deeds which his children
have done :

Then wild is the note, and discordant the yell,
When, reeling and staggering, they hiccup
Farewel.

The charges of the public dinners on this day commonly amount to 10,000. sterl.

THE OSTRICH.

In the thirty-ninth chapter of Job, there is a most beautiful description of the ostrich. They had at that time observed the manner in which the female ostrich abandons her brood to the natur. al heat of the sand: She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her's. Her labour is in rain; without fear, because God hath deprived her of wisdom; neither has he imparted to her understanding. What time she lifteth up her head on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.'

NEW HISTORICAL WORK. Authentic Memoirs of the Revolution in France and the Sufferings of the Royal Family; deduced chiefly from Accounts by Eye-witnesses. 8vo. 10s. 6d. A work of this kind must prove at all times pilation, it inculcates a powerful lesson upon seasonable, for although no more than a comstates and individuals, teaching the one to guard against innovations, and the other to cherish those principles of moral and political duty which are the great security of public and private happiness. We remember to havseen attempts made to abolish the commemoration of the thirtieth of January in this country, and there are many in France who, no doubt, would be equally willing that the mebe buried in oblivion. But if history be phimorial of their sanguinary revolution should losophy, teaching by example, the minute recly preserved, and prominently exhibited, to the view of successive generations, that men may learn to avoid that spirit of discontent which has enabled the crafty and turbulent to overturn monarchies and enslave the people, The present volume, which is very judiciously abstracted from the most authentic sources, contains a luminous, affecting, and candid France, particularly of the unparalleled sufnarrative of the history of revolutionary ferings of the virtuous Louis and his family.

ords of such atrocities cannot be too faithfui

NEW PROPHETESS.

Aug. 8.-It appears that Madame KruConstance, (Grand Duchy of Baden) dner has been refus d permission to reside in the kingdom of Wurtemberg. After having harangued the Jews at Gallingen the peculiar people of God, she arrived and Bandegg, whom she declared to be above 24 hours, she proceeded, on the here. Not being allowed to remain here 1st of August, to one of the cantons of Thurgovia. She there awaits the answer of the Government of St. Gall, from which she had solicited permission to establish herself in that canton. While expecting it, her missionaries preach at Houb, sometimes in the fields, calling the baroness a prophetess. She herself preaches with all the enthusiasm of an ardent and fanatic spirit. She distributes every day bread, and some hundreds of measures of economical soup. Her adherents receive them on their knees like a gift from God. Her ordinary suite is composed of about forty persons; among whom are remarked, Madame de Berekeim, two Protestant ministers, and a lame woman, who has brought her a contribution of 10,000 florins. Her adherents are in the habit of saying, “We call no one; but those who are the elect of God will follow us."-Pano.

[blocks in formation]

EVERY age has characteristics pe- English verse, with notes. Hence, in culiar to itself, by which it is dis- the vocabulary of fashion, he has since tinguished from preceding times, and in generally been designated by the appelwhich it is described to posterity. The lation of Anacreon Moore; and it is British nation at this day exhibits an likely he will retain this appellation until anomalous mixture of puritanic strictness his name be no longer remembered. So on the one hand, and of polished licen- early as his twelfth year he appears to tiousness on the other. While one there- have meditated on this performance, fore, perhaps under a serious apprehen- which, if a free one, is confessed by sion of the decline of national morality, is many to be a fascinating version of his strenuously occupied in reprobating and favourite bard. This work is introduced resisting the depravity of modern man- by an admirable Greek ode from the ners, another appears no less determined pen of the translator, and is dedicated to assert what he regards as the cause of with permission to his Royal Highness liberal and enlightened society. The the Prince Regent. It was published subject of this sketch may be considered as belonging to the latter class.

first in a quarto volume; it now appears in two small volumes, and has attained Thomas Moore is the only son of Mr. the eighth edition. Before the second John Moore, who was formerly a res- edition of his translation was sent to the pectable merchant, and who still resides press, Mr. Moore made considerable at Dublin. Thomas was born about the additions. "Among the epigrams of year 1780. His infantine days seem to the Anthologia," says he on this occahave left the most agreeable impressions sion, "there are some panegyrics on on his memory. In an epistle to his el- Anacreon, which I had translated and dest sister, dated Nov. 1803, and writ- originally intended as a kind of coronis ten from Norfolk in Virginia, he has re- to the work; but I found upon considtraced the delight of their childhood, and eration, that they wanted variety. I described the pure endearments of home, shall take the liberty, however, of subwith great felicity. Under Mr. White joining a few, that I may not appear to of Dublin,a gentleman extensively known have totally neglected those elegant triand respected, and whose worth as an butes to the reputation of Anacreon." instructor has been justly commemorated Assuming the surname of Little*, our in a sonnet addressed to him by his author committed to the world in 1801 pupil, which appeared in a periodical a volume of original poems, chiefly miscellany entitled the Anthologia Hiber- amatory. It has experienced a rapid nica, young Moore acquired the rudi- sale. Of the contents of this publicaments of an excellent education. He tion it is impossible to speak in terms of was afterwards removed in due course unqualified approbation. Many of the of time to Trinity College, in the same poems exhibit strong marks of genius, city. Moore was greatly distinguished and some of them may be perused withwhile a collegian, by an enthusiastic out exciting any asperity; while others, attachment to his country and the socia- it cannot be denied, are too much tinged bility of his disposition. On the 19th with licentiousness to allow the writer of November, 1799, he was entered a to assert, that he has produced "no member of the Honourable Society of line, which dying he would wish to blot." the Middle Temple, where he, as is usual, kept his terms, &c.

In the year 1800, and consequently when he had not completed the twentyfirst of his age, he published his translations of the Odes of Anacreon into

Towards the autumn of 1803 Mr. Moore embarked for Bermuda, where

The stature of Moore is somewhat under the common size, and it was this diminutiveness which occasioned a certain vocal performer Pocket Apollo. to designate him uuder the name of her

VOL. 2.]

Memoirs of Thomas Moore, Esq.

153

con

he had obtained the appointment of almost all from revolutionary motives, Register to the Admiralty. This was a have contributed their share to the patent place, and of a description so un- diffusion of this flattering misconcepsuitable to his temper of mind, that he tion. A visit to the country is, howsoon found it expedient to fulfil the ever, quite sufficient to correct even the duties of it by the medium of a deputy, most enthusiastic prepossessions." with whom, in consideration of circum- The feelings with which our author stances, he consented to divide the profits first visited America, and the opinaccruing from it. These, however, proved ions which he had formed when he to be wholly unworthy of Mr. Moore's quitted it, are. finely expressed in his serious attention. "Though curiosity epistle to his sister Katherine. Norfolk therefore," says he, 66 was certainly not was the place from which bis poetical the motive of my voyage to America, epistle was sent, and also the place first yet it happened that the gratification of visited by him; and here, in the friendcuriosity was the only advantage which ship of George Morgan, Esq. a gentleI derived from it." From England to man who was attached to our New-York, in his way to Bermuda, he sulate, and that of Colonel Hamilton, had the gratification of associating with the consul, he sought and found some Mr. Merry, the British envoy, who sailed relief from his chagrin and disappointwith him in the Phaeton frigate. "Having ment. "The college of William and remained about a week at New-York," he Mary at Williamsburgh," continues continues," where I saw Madame Jerome Mr. Moore, "gave me but a melancholy Bonaparte, and felt a slight shock of an idea of the republican seats of learning. earthquake, the only things that par- That contempt for the elegances of ticularly awakened my attention, I education which the American demosailed again in the Boston for Norfolk, crats affect, is no where more grossly whence I proceeded on my tour north- conspicuous than in Virginia. The men ward through Williamsburgh, Richmond, who look to advancement, study rather &c. I went to America with preposses- to be demagogues than politicians, and as sions by no means unfavourable, and every thing that distinguishes from the indeed rather indulged in many of those multitude is supposed to be invidious illusive ideas with respect to the purity and unpopular, the levelling system is of the government, and the primitive applied to education, and it has had all happiness of the people, which I had the effect which its partizans could early imbibed in my native country, desire, by producing a most extensive where unfortunately discontent at home eqnality of ignorance. The Abbé too often enhances every distant tempta- Raynal, in his prophetic admonitions to tion; and the western world has long the Americans, directing their attention been looked on as a retreat from imagi- very strongly to learned establishments, nary oppression, as the elysian Atlantis, says, When the youth of a country where persecuted patriots might find are depraved, the nation is on the detheir wishes realized, and be welcomed cline.' I know not what the Abbé by kindred spirits to liberty and repose. Raynal would pronounce of this nation I was completely disappointed in every now, were he alive to know the morals flattering expectation I had formed. of the young students at Williamsburgh." Such romantic works as The American These strictures, however warranted, Farmer's Letters, and Imlay's* Account roused the resentment of some American of Kentucky, would seduce us into a writers, whose tirades Mr. Moore's belief, that innocence, peace, and freedom good sense will know how to appreciate: had deserted the rest of the world, for yet he does not forget the kind reception Martha's Vineyard and the banks of he met with at Philadelphia in the the Ohio. The French travellers too, society of Mr. Dennie; and his friends, he trusts, will not accuse him of illiberality Imlay, a man who has rendered himself for the picture which he has given, of notorious by his ungenerous desertion of the celebrated Mrs. Wolstonecraft, afterwards the ignorance and corruption that Mrs. Godwin.---See her Life written by her surround them.

husband, and her Letter to Imlay.

W ATHENEUM. Vol. 2.

Seven days were passed by Mr. Moore

154

Memoirs of Madame de Staël.

[VOL. 2. in his passage from Norfolk in Virginia leisure, in trips from this to the sister to Bermuda, the place of his original country, the exhilaration of the tables of destination, which he reached early in fashion and conviviality, and the exertion 1804. His farewell to Bermuda has of his literary talents. The following is been long before our readers. He sailed a list of his productions, as given in the aboard the Boston frigate, in company Biographical Dictionary of Living with the Cambrian and Leander; they Authors:-The Odes of Anacreon, eparated in a few days, and the Boston, eighth edition-A Candid Appeal to after a short cruise, proceeded to New Public Confidence, &c.-Poems by the York. He was sixteen days sailing from late Thomas Little-A Letter to the Quebec to Halifax, and in October 1804 Roman Catholics of Dublin-Interceptquitted Halifax on his return to England, ed Letters, or the Two-penny Postin the Boston frigate, commanded by Bag, by Thomas Brown the younger; his friend Captain Douglas, whom he of this work there have been fourteen has highly eulogized for his attention editions-M. P. or the Blue Stocking, a during the voyage. After an absence of comic opera-and Poems from Camoens. about fourteen months from Europe, he Mr. Moore completed the translation of had the felicity of realizing that scene of Sallust which had been left unfinished domestic endearment which his imagina- by Arthur Murphy, Esq. and superin tion had so fondly pictured: since which tended the printing of the work for the time Mr. Moore has indulged in learned purchaser, Mr. Carpenter.

FURTHER NOTICE OF MADAME DE STAEL.

From the Monthly Magazine.

O speak of the literary celebrity of pursued her, and never proffered her Madame de Staël, of the elevated mouth a word: never did her pen trace talent which distinguished her, of all the one single line which was not worthy of talent which placed her among the first the cause for which she suffered. writers of the age, would be to speak of The authority which reigned in France, things known to all France and to all however, redoubled the vexatious meas Europe; to speak of her generous opin- ures against her. Exile was not suffiions, her love for liberty, her confidence cient; insulation was destined for her; in the powers of intelligences and of mo- and the master of the world, seated on rality, confidence which honours the soul the first throne of the universe, observed, which experiences it, would be, perhaps, with a suspicious eye those who dared to in the midst of still agitated parties, to go and see a woman whom he had banprovoke ill-disposed impressions; that ished to a habitation out of France. Madwhich I would paint, that which all her friends would still find a painful pleasure to describe, if a profound affliction does not rather lead all who have cherished her to refuse themselves all kinds of consolation, is that bounty, that nobility, that constant elevation of sentiment, that warmth of friendsip, that pity, that respect for infirmity, that ardour to plead the cause of the oppressed, that power of affection, in fine, which cast on the lives of all who approached her a charm, which it impossible to re-place, and the loss of which they know not how they will be able to support.

Exiled twelve years, Madame de Staël has marked that long and painful period by useful and noble works. She refused her homage to the unjust force which

ame de Staël, more inquieted for her friends than for herself, resolved, not without long hesitations and lively regrets, to put herself out of the reach of that hostile power. She could not, in all Europe, find a refuge, but among the enemies of the man who drove her from her country. But, in accepting, in spite of herself, this asylum, she did not, for an instant forget her country.

For three years she has enjoyed that France-the object, in her family, of an hereditary love; she had obtained from the king, for whom she always preserved a profound gratitude, the restitution of the sacred deposit, confided by M. Necker to the national faith. length of days were promised her. Sickness, pain, anguish, death, after five

Still young,

VOL. 2.]

Funeral of the Baroness de Staël Holstein.

155

Original Letter of Madame de Staël, to
Talma, July 1809.

months of almost uninterrupted sufferings, of the parish, M. Bernaud, pronounced have torn her from those from whom she re- in the chapel of Coppet, over the coffin, a ceived happiness, and to whom she gave it. religious discourse, extracted in a great All those who had relations with her, degree from the sermons of M. Necker. have retained thereof indelible impres- A solemn silence reigned among the sions. No one unfortunate ever approach- spectators while the procession moved ed her without being relieved; no one towards the enclosure of the tomb. afflicted without being consoled; no one proscribed without finding an asylum; no one oppressed without her pleading his cause; no superior wit, without being captivated by her; no man in power, and who merited that power, without recognizing and respecting her ascendancy. No one could pass an hour without giving that hour a separate place in his memory; and her life was necessary to those who had known her, even when they no longer saw her.

Do not believe that I am like Madame Milord, to crown you at the most pathetic moment; but, as I cannot com pare you but to yourself, I must tell you, Talma, that yesterday you surpassed perfection and even imagination. "With all its faults," there is in this piece (Hamlet,) stronger tragic elements than ours, and your talent appeared to me, in the On Saturday, the 26th of July, 1817, character of Hamlet, like unto the genius the remains of Madame de Staël arrived of Shakspeare, (but without his inequaliat Coppet, in a carriage hung with black, ties, without his familiar jests,) as altoge accompanied by M. de Staël and M. W. ther that which is most noble on the earth. de Schlegel. The 28th had been ap- That natural profoundness, those quespointed for depositing the coffin in the tions on our common destiny, in presence mausoleum where M. and Madame of that crowd who will die, and who Necker were interred. It is a square seemed to listen to you as the oracle of building of black marble, in the midst of fate; that apparition of the ghost, more shrubbery enclosed with walls, where terrific in your looks than under the most Madame de Staël was accustomed to fearful forms; that profound melancholy, take her solitary walks. Over the door that voice, those sentiment-betraying of the tomb is a basso-relievo, the design looks, a character beyond all human proof which had been furnished to the sculp- portions: all this is admirable, thrice adtor by Madame de Staël herself. She is mirable; my friendship for you enters represented in it on her knees, weeping for nothing in this emotion, the most proover the sarcophagus of her parents, who found which, in my life the arts ever appear holding out their hands to her caused me. I love you in the closet, in from Heaven. Her last wish was, that characters where you are your own peer ; her ashes should be united with theirs. but, in this character of Hamlet, such an The members of the Municipal Body of enthusiasm do you inspire me with, that the Commune of Coppet requested to be you are no longer yourself; I am no longthemselves the bearers of the coffin, de- er myself; it is a collection of poetical siring thus to pay a mark of respect to looks,accents, and gesticulations, to which the memory of one who had rendered no writer ever yet elevated himself. herself dear to them by her kindnesses. Adieu; pardon my having written to The greater number of the State Coun- you when I expect you at one o'clock in sellors of the Canton of Geneva were the day, and at eight in the evening; but, present at this melancholy and affecting if the established rules of society had not ceremony. The Duke de Noailles had forbidden me, I am not certain whether come from Rolle with the same intention. I should not have mustered up courage The procession was very numerous, for, enough to have gone myself and given besides the relatives and friends of Mad- you that crown which is due to such a ame de Staël, most of the principal in- talent, more than to any other; for you habitants of Geneva and its environs has- are not an actor, but a man who exalts tened there with eagerness. Persons of human nature in giving us a new idea of ail ages and all classes collected in crowds it. Answer me not, but love me for my to see the procession pass. The pastor admiration.

« AnteriorContinuar »