[1] Of 6th March, not long ago, but I have lost note of the year.
[2] The close of the ninth book of Plato’s Republic. I use for the most
part Mr. Jowett’s translation, here and there modifying it in my own
arbitrarily dogged or diffuse way of Englishing passages of complex
significance.
[3] Plato does not mean here, merely dissipation of a destructive kind,
(as the next sentence shows,) but also healthy animal stupidities, as
our hunting, shooting, and the like.
[4] Not quite so, gentlemen of the Royal Commission. Harvests, no less
than sales, and fishermen no less than salesmen, need regulation by
just human law. Here is a piece of news, for instance, from Glasgow,
concerning Loch Fyne:—“Owing to the permission to fish for herring by
trawling, which not only scrapes up the spawn from the bottom, but
catches great quantities of the fry which are useless for market, and
only fit for manure, it is a fact that, whereas Loch Fyne used to be
celebrated for containing the finest herrings to be caught anywhere,
and thousands and tens of thousands of boxes used to be exported from
Inverary, there are not now enough caught there to enable them to
export a single box, and the quantity caught lower down the loch, near
its mouth (and every year the herring are being driven farther and
farther down) is not a tithe of what it used to be. Such a thing as a
Loch Fyne herring (of the old size and quality) cannot be had now in
Glasgow for any money, and this is only a type of the destruction which
trawling, and too short close-time, are causing to all the west-coast
fishing. Whiting Bay, Arran, has been rid of its whiting by trawling on
the spawning coast opposite. The cupidity of careless fishers,
unchecked by beneficial law, is here also ‘killing the goose that lays
the golden eggs,’ and herring of any kind are very scarce and very bad
in Glasgow, at a penny and sometimes twopence each. Professor Huxley
gave his sanction to trawling, in a Government Commission, I am told,
some years ago, and it has been allowed ever since. I will tell you
something similar about the seal-fishing off Newfoundland, another
time.”
[5] In my aunt’s younger days, at Perth, the servants used regularly to
make bargain that they should not be forced to dine on salmon more than
so many times a week.
[6] As for instance, and in farther illustration of the use of
herrings, here is some account of the maintenance of young painters and
lawyers in Edinburgh, sixty years since, sent me by the third Fors; and
good Dr. Brown, in an admirable sketch of the life of an admirable
Scottish artist, says: “Raeburn (Sir Henry) was left an orphan at six,
and was educated in Heriot’s Hospital. At fifteen he was apprenticed to
a goldsmith; but after his time was out, set himself entirely to
portrait painting. About this time he became acquainted with the famous
cynic, lawyer, and wit, John Clerk, afterwards Lord Eldon, then a young
advocate. Both were poor. Young Clerk asked Raeburn to dine at his
lodgings. Coming in, he found the landlady laying the cloth, and
setting down two dishes, one containing three herrings, and the other
three potatoes. “Is this a’?” said John. “Ay, it’s a’.” “A’! didna I
tell ye, woman, that a gentleman is to dine wi’ me, and that ye were to
get six herrin and six potatoes?”
[7] I don’t remember telling you anything of the sort. I should tell
you another story now, my dear friend.
[8] Very fine; but have all the children in Sheffield and Leeds had
their pennyworth of gospel, first?
[9] All I can say is, tastes differ; but I have not myself tried the
degree of comfort which may be attained in winter by lying on one’s
side in a coal-seam, and cannot therefore feel confidence in offering
an opinion.
[10] Very much so indeed, my good friend; and yet, the plague of it is,
one never can get people to do anything that is wise or generous,
unless they go and make monks of themselves. I believe this St.
George’s land of mine will really be the first place where it has been
attempted to get married people to live in any charitable and human
way, and graft apples where they may eat them, without getting driven
out of their Paradise.
[11] There, again! why, in the name of all that’s natural, can’t decent
men and women use their tongues, on occasion, for what God made them
for,—talking in a civil way; but must either go and make dumb beasts of
themselves, or else (far worse) let out their tongues for hire, and
live by vomiting novels and reviews!
[12] If to any reader, looking back on the history of Europe for the
last four centuries, this sentence seems ironical, let him be assured
that for the causes which make it seem so, during the last four
centuries, the end of kinghood has come.
[13] Untranslateable. It means, she made no false pretence of
reluctance, and neither politely nor feebly declined what she meant to
accept. But the phrase might be used of a person accepting with
ungraceful eagerness, or want of sense of obligation. A slight sense of
this simplicity is meant by our author to be here included in the
expression.
[14] “Trop bon.” It is a little more than ‘very good,’ but not at all
equivalent to our English ‘too good.’
[15] “Se trouva.” Untranslateable. It is very little more than ‘was’ in
front. But that little more,—the slight sense of not knowing quite how
she got there,—is necessary to mark the under-current of meaning; she
goes behind the cart first, thinking it more modest; but presently,
nevertheless, ‘finds herself’ in front; “the cart goes better, so.”
[16] There used to be an avenue of tall trees, about a quarter of a
mile long, on the Thun road, just at the brow of the descent to the
bridge of the Aar, at the lower end of the main street of Berne.
[17] “Cohue.” Confused and moving mass. We have no such useful word.
[18] “Se revit.” It would not be right to say here ‘se trouva,’ because
there is no surprise, or discovery, in the doing once again what is
done every week. But one may nevertheless contemplate oneself, and the
situation, from a new point of view. Hansli ‘se revit’—reviewed
himself, literally; a very proper operation, every now and then, for
everybody.
[19] A slight difference between the Swiss and English peasant is
marked here; to the advantage of the former. At least, I imagine an
English Hansli would not have known, even in love, whether the road was
ugly or pretty.
[20] “Se requinquait a n’en plus finir.” Entirely beyond English
rendering.
[21] “Ça.” Note the peculiar character and value, in modern French, of
this general and slightly depreciatory pronoun, essentially a
republican word,—hurried, inconsiderate, and insolent. The popular
chant ‘ça ira’ gives the typical power.
[22] “C’est seulement pour dire.” I’ve been at least ten minutes trying
to translate it, and can’t.
[23] “On est toujours homme.” The proverb is frequent among the French
and Germans. The modesty of it is not altogether easy to an English
mind, and would be totally incomprehensible to an ordinary Scotch one.
[24] “Assez brave.” Untranslateable, except by the old English sense of
the word brave, and even that has more reference to outside show than
the French word.
[25] You are to note carefully the conditions of sentiment in family
relationships implied both here, and in the bride’s reference, farther
on, to her godmother’s children. Poverty, with St. Francis’ pardon, is
not always holy in its influence: yet a richer girl might have felt
exactly the same, without being innocent enough to say so.
[26] I believe the reverend and excellent novelist would himself
authorize the distinction; but Hansli’s mother must be answerable for
it to my Evangelical readers.
[27] “Poêle a frire.” I don’t quite understand the nature of this
article.
[28] Well said, the Viscount. People think me a grumbler; but I wholly
believe this,—nay, know this. The world exists, indeed, only by the
strength of its silent virtue.
[29] Well said, Viscount, again! So few people know the power of the
Third Fors. If I had not chanced to give lessons in drawing to Octavia
Hill, I could have done nothing in Marylebone, nor she either, for a
while yet, I fancy.
[30] A lovely, classic, unbetterable sentence of Marmontel’s, perfect
in wisdom and modesty.
[31] Not for a dividend upon it, I beg you to observe, and even the
capital to be repaid in work.
[32] Or, worse still, as our public men do, upon the cost of
non-compulsory measures!
[33] These small “powers” of terminal letters in some of the words are
very curious.
[34] A lady high in the ranks of kindly English literature.
[35] Italics mine, as usual.
[36] Notes on Old Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1869. Things may
possibly have mended in some respects in the last five years, but they
have assuredly, in the country villages, got tenfold worse.
[37] “Bernard the happy.” The Beato of Mont Oliveto; not Bernard of
Clairvaux. The entire inscription is, “received St. Francis of Assisi
to supper and bed”; but it I had written it so, it would have appeared
that St. Francis’s ecstacy was in consequence of his getting his
supper.
[38] ‘Pall Mall Gazette,’ July 31st, 1873.
[39] “Rigurgitava”—gushed or gorged up; as a bottle which you have
filled too full and too fast.
[40] Sensale, an interesting Venetian word. The fair on the Feast of
the Ascension at Venice became in mellifluous brevity, ‘Sensa,’ and the
most ornamental of the ware purchaseable at it, therefore, Sensale.
A “Holy-Thursday-Fairing,” feeling herself unwell, would be the
properest translation.
[41] Observe, this is only asserted of its main principles; not of
minor and accessory points. I may be entirely wrong in the explanation
of a text, or mistake the parish schools of St. Matthias for St.
Matthew’s, over and over again. I have so large a field to work in that
this cannot be helped. But none of these minor errors are of the least
consequence to the business in hand.
[42] See first article in the Notes and Correspondence to this number.
[43] See second note at end of this letter.
[44] The passage continues thus, curiously enough,—for the parallel of
the boat at sea is precisely that which I have given, in true
explanation of social phenomena:—
“The notion that when one man becomes rich he makes others poor, will
be found upon examination to depend upon the assumption that there is
in the world a fixed quantity of wealth; that when one man appropriates
to himself a large amount of it, he excludes all others from any
benefit arising from it, and that at the same time he forces some one
else to be content with less than he would otherwise have had. Society,
in short, must be compared to a boat at sea, in which there is a
certain quantity of fresh water, and a certain number of shipwrecked
passengers. In that case, no doubt, the water drunk by one is of no use
to the rest, and if one drinks more, others must drink less, as the
water itself is a fixed quantity. Moreover, no one man would be able to
get more than a rateable share, except by superior force, or by some
form of deceit, because the others would prevent him. The mere
statement of this view ought to be a sufficient exposure of the
fundamental error of the commonplaces which we are considering.”
[45] The reader might at first fancy that the economy was not
“absolute,” but that the expenses of the traveller were simply borne by
his host. Not so; the host only gave what he in his turn received, when
he also travelled. Every man thus carried his home with him, and to
travel, was merely to walk or ride from place to place, instead of
round one’s own house. (See Saunders Fairford’s expostulation with Alan
on the charges incurred at Noble House.)
[46] But what is to be done, then? Emigrate, of course; but under
different laws from those of modern emigration. Don’t emigrate to
China, poison Chinamen, and teach them to make steam engines, and then
import Chinamen, to dig iron here. But see next Fors.
[47] The writings of our vulgar political economists, calling money
only a “medium of exchange,” blind the foolish public conveniently to
all the practical actions of the machinery of the currency. Money is
not a medium of exchange, but a token of right. I have, suppose, at
this moment, ten, twenty, or thirty thousand pounds. That signifies
that, as compared with a man who has only ten pounds, I can claim
possession of, call for, and do what I like with a thousand, or two
thousand, or three thousand times as much of the valuable things
existing in the country. The peasant accordingly gives the squire a
certain number of these tokens or counters, which give the possessor a
right to claim so much corn or meat. The squire gives these tokens to
the various persons in town, enumerated in the text, who then claim the
corn and meat from the peasant, returning him the counters, which he
calls “price,” and gives to the squire again next year.
[48] Of the industry of the Magistrate against crime, I say nothing;
for it now scarcely exists, but to do evil. See first article in
Correspondence, at end of letter.
[49] Compare, especially, Letter xxix., p. 11.
[50] It is possible that this lending office may have been organised as
a method of charity, corresponding to the original Monte di Pieta, the
modern clergymen having imagined, in consequence of the common error
about interest, that they could improve the system of Venice by
ignoring its main condition—the lending gratis,—and benefit themselves
at the same time.
[51] Read Isaiah vi. through carefully.
[52] The reader will perhaps now begin to see the true bearing of the
earlier letters in Fors. Re-read, with this letter, that on the
campaign of Crecy.
[53] I wish I could find room also for the short passages I omit; but
one I quoted before, “As no one will deny that man possesses
carnivorous teeth,” etc., and the others introduce collateral
statements equally absurd, but with which at present we are not
concerned.
[54] I must warn you against the false reading of the original, in many
editions. Fournier’s five volume one is altogether a later text, in
some cases with interesting intentional modifications, probably of the
fifteenth century; but oftener with destruction of the older meaning.
It gives this couplet, for instance,—
“Si n’avoit el plaisir de rien,
Que quant elle donnoit du sien.”
The old reading is,
“Si n’avoit elle joie de rien,
Fors quant elle povoit dire, ‘tien.’
Didot’s edition, Paris, 1814, is founded on very early and valuable
texts; but it is difficult to read. Chaucer has translated a text some
twenty or thirty years later in style; and his English is quite
trustworthy as far as it is carried. For the rest of the Romanee,
Fournier’s text is practically good enough, and easily readable.
[55] Fr. ‘chetive,’ rhyming accurately to ‘ententive.’
[56] Fr. Sarrasinesse.
[57] Even after eighteen hundred years of sermons, the Christian public
do not clearly understand that ‘two coats,’ in the brief sermon of the
Baptist to repentance, mean also, two petticoats, and the like.
I am glad that Fors obliges me to finish this letter at Lucca, under
the special protection of St. Martin.
[58] Fr.,
“Si que par oula la chemise
Lui blancheoit la char alise.”
Look out ‘Alice,’ in Miss Yonge’s Dictionary of Christian Names and
remember Alice of Salisbury.
[59] I believe the pale roses are meant to be white, but are tinged
with red that they may not contend with the symbolic brightness of the
lilies.
[60] Macintosh, 24, Paternoster Row.
[61] 2 Esdras iv. 4.
[62] See ‘Modern Painters,’ vol. iii., “The Firmament.”
[63] Compare Dante, Purg., end of Canto V.
[64] See the part of examination respecting communication held with the
brother of the prisoner.
[65] See statement at close of accounts.
[66] See second letter in Notes and Correspondence.
[67] I don’t know how far it turned out to be true,—a fight between a
dwarf and a bulldog (both chained to stakes as in Roman days),
described at length in some journals.
[68] I have heard that some impression has got abroad that in giving
this £7,000 stock to the St. George’s Company, I only parted with one
year’s income. It was a fairly estimated tenth of my entire property,
including Brantwood. The excess of the sum now at the credit of the
Trustees, over the amount subscribed, consists in the accumulated
interest on this stock. With the sum thus at their disposal, the
Trustees are about to purchase another £1,000 of stock, and in the Fors
of January will be a more complete statement of what we shall begin the
year with, and of some dawning prospect of a beginning also to our
operations.