_Harsh and untuneful are the notes of love_,
_Unless my_ Julia _strikes the key_,
_Her hand alone can touch the part_,
_Whose dulcet movement charms the heart_,
_And governs all the man with sympathetick sway._
2d.
_O_ Julia!
The lines were very natural——for they were nothing at all to the
purpose, says _Slawkenbergius_, and ’tis a pity there were no more of
them; but whether it was that Seig. _Diego_ was slow in composing
verses—or the hostler quick in saddling mules——is not averred; certain
it was, that _Diego_’s mule and _Fernandez_’s horse were ready at the
door of the inn, before _Diego_ was ready for his second stanza; so
without staying to finish his ode, they both mounted, sallied forth,
passed the _Rhine_, traversed _Alsace_, shaped their course towards
_Lyons_, and before the _Strasburgers_ and the abbess of _Quedlingberg_
had set out on their cavalcade, had _Fernandez, Diego_, and his
_Julia_, crossed the _Pyrenean_ mountains, and got safe to _Valadolid._
’Tis needless to inform the geographical reader, that when _Diego_ was
in _Spain_, it was not possible to meet the courteous stranger in the
_Frankfort_ road; it is enough to say, that of all restless desires,
curiosity being the strongest——the _Strasburgers_ felt the full force
of it; and that for three days and nights they were tossed to and fro
in the _Frankfort_ road, with the tempestuous fury of this passion,
before they could submit to return home.——When alas! an event was
prepared for them, of all other, the most grievous that could befal a
free people.
As this revolution of the _Strasburgers_ affairs is often spoken of,
and little understood, I will, in ten words, says _Slawkenbergius_,
give the world an explanation of it, and with it put an end to my tale.
Every body knows of the grand system of Universal Monarchy, wrote by
order of Mons. _Colbert_, and put in manuscript into the hands of
_Lewis_ the fourteenth, in the year 1664.
’Tis as well known, that one branch out of many of that system, was the
getting possession of _Strasburg_, to favour an entrance at all times
into _Suabia_, in order to disturb the quiet of _Germany_——and that in
consequence of this plan, _Strasburg_ unhappily fell at length into
their hands.
It is the lot of a few to trace out the true springs of this and such
like revolutions—The vulgar look too high for them—Statesmen look too
low——Truth (for once) lies in the middle.
What a fatal thing is the popular pride of a free city! cries one
historian—The _Strasburgers_ deemed it a diminution of their freedom to
receive an imperial garrison——so fell a prey to a _French_ one.
The fate, says another, of the _Strasburgers_, may be a warning to all
free people to save their money.——They anticipated their
revenues——brought themselves under taxes, exhausted their strength, and
in the end became so weak a people, they had not strength to keep their
gates shut, and so the _French_ pushed them open.
Alas! alas! cries _Slawkenbergius_, ’twas not the _French_,——’twas
CURIOSITY pushed them open——The _French_ indeed, who are ever upon the
catch, when they saw the _Strasburgers_, men, women and children, all
marched out to follow the stranger’s nose——each man followed his own,
and marched in.
Trade and manufactures have decayed and gradually grown down ever
since—but not from any cause which commercial heads have assigned; for
it is owing to this only, that Noses have ever so run in their heads,
that the _Strasburgers_ could not follow their business.
Alas! alas! cries _Slawkenbergius_, making an exclamation—it is not the
first——and I fear will not be the last fortress that has been either
won——or lost by NOSES.
The E N D of
_Slawkenbergius_’s TALE.
[8] As _Hafen Slawkenbergius de Nasis_ is extremely scarce, it may not
be unacceptable to the learned reader to see the specimen of a few
pages of his original; I will make no reflection upon it, but that his
story-telling Latin is much more concise than his philosophic—and, I
think, has more of Latinity in it.
[9] _Hafen Slawkenbergius_ means the Benedictine nuns of _Cluny_,
founded in the year 940, by _Odo_, abbé de _Cluny._
[10] Mr. _Shandy_’s compliments to orators——is very sensible that
_Slawkenbergius_ has here changed his metaphor——which he is very
guilty of:——that as a translator, Mr. _Shandy_ has all along done what
he could to make him stick to it—but that here ’twas impossible.
[11] Nonnulli ex nostratibus eadem loquendi formulâ utun. Quinimo &
Logistæ & Canonistæ——Vid. Parce Barne Jas in d. L. Provincial.
Constitut. de conjec. vid. Vol. Lib. 4. Titul. I. n. 7 quâ etiam in re
conspir. Om de Promontorio Nas. Tichmak. ff. d. tit. 3. fol. 189.
passim. Vid. Glos. de contrahend. empt. &c. necnon J. Scrudr. in cap.
§ refut. per totum. Cum his cons. Rever. J. Tubal, Sentent. & Prov.
cap. 9. ff. 11, 12. obiter. V. & Librum, cui Tit. de Terris & Phras.
Belg. ad finem, cum comment. N. Bardy Belg. Vid. Scrip. Argentotarens.
de Antiq. Ecc. in Episc Archiv. fid coll. per Von Jacobum Koinshoven
Folio Argent. 1583. præcip. ad finem. Quibus add. Rebuff in L.
obvenire de Signif. Nom. ff. fol. & de jure Gent. & Civil. de protib.
aliena feud. per federa, test. Joha. Luxius in prolegom. quem velim
videas, de Analy. Cap. 1, 2, 3. Vid. Idea.
[12] Haec mira, satisque horrenda. Planetarum coitio sub Scorpio
Asterismo in nona cœli statione, quam Arabes religioni deputabant
efficit _Martinum Lutherum_ sacrilegum hereticum, Christianæ
religionis hostem acerrimum atque prophanum, ex horoscopi directione
ad Martis coitum, religiosissimus obiit, ejus Anima scelestissima ad
infernos navigavit—ab Alecto, Tisiphone & Megara flagellis igneis
cruciata perenniter.
——Lucas Gaurieus in Tractatu astrologico de præteritis multorum hominum
accidentibus per genituras examinatis.