“I come from the palace.”
“I neither wish to know whence you come, or what you do. I had once a
son called Michael Angelo. He was to have been (at least, I hoped so)
the glory, the support of my family, the joy, the comfort of my old
age, but I have lost this ungrateful and disobedient son--thank God, he
is no longer here, I sold him to the sculptor Ghirlandajo for eighteen
florins.”
“For my mother’s sake, hear me! behold me at your feet.”
“Back to your mason’s, that is your place.”
“My place!” said Michael Angelo, rising proudly from his knees,
“_my_ place is in the apartment of princes; my place is amongst the
first artists of Florence; my place is at the table of Lorenzo the
Magnificent.”
“My God, my God, he is mad!” exclaimed the poor father, passing from
rage to terror.
“But follow me, father, follow me, and you will see that the great
Lorenzo has taken me by the hand, that he has placed me in his palace,
that he expects you, that he offers you an employment, according to
your choice.”
The old Buonarotti was perfectly upset; he held his head between his
hands, and asked of himself which had lost his reason, his son or
himself. Michael Angelo not allowing him farther time for reflection,
dragged him by force to the palace of the great Medicis. The Governor
believed himself to be in a dream. No guard forbade their approach, and
the courtiers drew respectfully back to give them passage.
At the door of the Prince’s closet, a page raised the hanging curtain,
and the old Buonarotti stood with his son in the presence of the
Medicis.
“Sir,” said the Prince, coming forward and courteously addressing him,
“I have been the cause of disturbing you, in order to ask your leave
that I may retain about me a son of whom you may be justly proud, and
who bids fair to become the first artist of his time. My house shall be
his home, and his salary you will yourself name.
“In return, I make you only one request; your son has probably already
told you what. It is that you ask of me any appointment most suitable
to your taste and habits. It is granted beforehand.”
“My son,” replied the agitated father, endeavouring to master his
emotion, “will, I think, be paid beyond his deserts, if he receives
five ducats monthly.”
“And for yourself, Sir?”
“For myself, Prince, I ask a trifling situation now vacant in the
customs: it can only be given to a citizen of the State; I ask it,
because it is a post I feel I can fill with honour.”
“You will never be rich, my dear Buonarotti,” laughingly replied the
Medicis, “for, offered any situation you please, you content yourself
with a little place in the customs.”
“Enough too--for the father of a _mason_!”
And thus was Michael Angelo de Buonarotti introduced to the patronage
of the illustrious Medicis.
❦
[Sidenote: Sir Sidney Smith.]
Qui a peur du mal a déjà le mal de la peur.
Qui espère le bien a déjà le bien de l’espoir.
The above lines were written on the window of his prison by Sir Sidney
Smith, the day of his escape from the Temple; the hand of the hero of
Acre threw them on the Cairn.
❦
[Sidenote: Of Bees.]
It is easy to imagine why they are highly valued. They have always been
very numerous in Palestine. Frequent mention is made in the sacred
volume of “honey out of the rock.” The Scriptures also speak of honey
as forming a part of the presents which it was usual to send to persons
of distinction. Canaan is described as a land “flowing with milk and
honey.” John the Baptist is said to have lived upon “locusts and wild
honey,” and among the articles of food set before our Saviour, when,
after his resurrection he ate with his disciples, was a piece of an
“honeycomb.”
These combined circumstances have doubtless had their share in leading
the uninstructed, in nearly all countries and times, to look upon the
Bee with a feeling of superstitious reverence.
_Mead_, the produce of the Bee, was the favourite drink, the nectar of
the ancient Britons; and their attachment to this extraordinary little
insect ascended to a very remote period. According to their belief,
the high origin of the Bee is from Paradise, and it was on account of
man’s transgression they left it, and then God gave them a blessing.
The priests therefore maintained that no _Mass_ ought to be celebrated,
except by the light of _wax_.
These extraordinary little insects make the tops and bottoms of
their cells of three planes meeting in a point, and the inclinations
or angles at which they meet, are precisely those found out by the
mathematicians to be the best possible for saving wax and work. Who
could dream the Bee was conversant with the highest branch of the
mathematics, the fruit of Newton’s most wonderful labour, of the
source of which he was himself ignorant; one of his most celebrated
followers having found it out in a later age? This little insect works
with a truth and correctness which are perfect, and according to the
principles at which man has arrived only after ages of slow improvement
in the most difficult branch of the most difficult science. But the
mighty and all-wise Creator who made the insect and the philosopher,
bestowing reason on the latter, and giving skill to the former to work
without it, to Him all truths are known from all eternity with an
intuition that mocks even the conceptions of the sagest of human kind.
❦
[Sidenote: Bayonets.]
The word bayonet is derived from the circumstance of this weapon being
first manufactured at Bayonne.
❦
[Sidenote: Hope.]
Farewell! but not for ever, Hope replies,
Trace but his steps, and meet him in the skies;
There nothing shall renew our parting pain,
Thou shalt not wither, or I weep again.
❦
[Sidenote: Oliver Cromwell.]
It is related by Pope, and also by Spencer in his Anecdotes, that
on the night after the decollation of King Charles I. his body was
placed in a room at Whitehall, and that the Earl of Southampton sat in
the room to guard and manifest his respect to the royal corse. About
midnight the door opened, and a person so muffled that he could not
be known entered; who, after slowly walking to the coffin, looked at
the corse some time, and having exclaimed “Cruel necessity!” as slowly
retired. Lord Southampton imagined from the figure and voice, that it
was Oliver Cromwell!
Supposing this to be the case, it were only consistent with the
hypocrisy of his character, that he should assume the appearance of
feeling, in order to impress people with a character for humanity.
It is remarked in Walpoliana as a singular fact, that the descendants
of Charles I. and Oliver Cromwell intermarried in the fourth degree
By the marriage of my father, Sir Charles Shipley, connected with the
“Bradshawes,” by the Rudyerds, and my mother the great granddaughter of
the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II.
❦
[Sidenote: Origin of the term “Sandwich.”]
To the memory of “Lord Sandwich” belongs the name of that edible.
Being during his administration (as was very usual with him), at a
gambling house, he had, in the fascination of play, for more than
five and twenty hours forgotten fatigue and hunger, when suddenly,
feeling disposed to break his fast, though still riveted to the table,
he called to bid some one bring him any thing that was to be had to
eat, which happened to prove a slice of beef, and two pieces of bread.
Placing them together for the sake of expedition, he devoured them
with the greatest relish. The most ecstatic encomiums published his
discovery, and giving it his name, bequeathed it as a memento to his
country, as one of the most important acts of his administration.
❦
[Sidenote: Catherine II.]
During the splendid progress which the Empress Catherine II. made
through her dominions, she was one day expressing her opinion of the
various surmises her journey would create, and the different causes
that would be assigned for it at the several courts of Europe; adding,
“this Cabinet of Petersburgh, which is now floating down the Dneiper,
must be considered of great importance, since it affords so much
occupation to many others.” “Yes, Madam,” replied the Prince de Ligne,
“and yet I don’t know one that is so small; for its whole dimensions
are but a few inches, it extends but from one temple to the other, and
from the root of the nose to that of the hair.”
❦
Addison amused himself with inventing fourteen years of the Pretender’s
reign. The fourth year has the following passage: “He ordered the
Lord High Treasurer to pay off the debts of the crown, which had been
contracted since his accession to the throne, particularly a _milk_
score of three years’ standing.”
❦
[Sidenote: Duke of Monmouth.]
Arguments in favour of the belief that the Duke of Monmouth was
_not_ executed, as declared, but suffered to escape; an individual
who was under sentence of death having been induced to pass for this
unfortunate prince.
Hume says, Après son exécution ses partisans conservaient l’espérance
de le revoir à leur tête; ils se flattèrent que le prisonnier qu’on
avait exécuté n’était pas le Duc de Monmouth, mais qu’un de ses amis,
qui lui ressemblait beaucoup, avait eu le courage de mourir pour lui.
Sainte Foix, in a letter on the subject of the “Masque de Fer,”
dated Amsterdam, 1768, says, “Il est certain que le bruit courut dans
Londres qu’un officier de l’armée de Monmouth, qui lui ressemblait
beaucoup, fait prisonnier et sûr d’être condamné au mort, avait reçu la
proposition de passer pour lui avec autant de joie que si on lui avait
accordé la vie, et que, sur ce bruit, une grande dame, ayant gagné ceux
qui pouvaient ouvrir son cercueil, et lui ayant regardé le bras droit,
s’écria, ‘Ah! ce n’est pas le Duc de Monmouth!’”
Enfin, Sainte-Foix, qui cherche à prouver que le Masque de Fer n’était
autre que le Duc de Monmouth, cite un passage d’un ouvrage par Pyms,
et dans lequel on dit, “Le Comte Danby envoya chercher le Colonel
Skelton, qui avait eu ci-devant la Lieutenance de la Tour de Londres,
et à qui le Prince d’Orange l’avait otée pour la donner au Lord Lucas.
‘Skelton,’ lui dit le Comte Danby, ‘hier au soir en soupant avec
Robert Johnston, vous lui dites, que le Duc de Monmouth était vivant
et enfermé dans quelque chateau en Angleterre.’ ‘Je n’ai point affirmé
cela, puisque je n’en sais rien,’ dit Skelton, ‘mais j’ai dit, que,
la nuit d’après la prétendue exécution du Duc de Monmouth, le Roi,
accompagné de trois hommes, vint lui-même le tirer de la Tour, et que
le Duc fut emmené par lui.”
Sainte-Foix cite encore une conversation du père Tournemine, et ajoute:
“La Duchesse de Portsmouth dit au père Tournemine et au Confesseur du
Roi Jacques, qu’elle reprocherait toujours à la mémoire de ce Prince
l’exécution du Duc de Monmouth après que Charles Second, à l’heure de
la mort, et prêt à communier devant l’hostie, que Haldeston prêtre
catholique avait secrètement apportée, avait fait promettre au Roi
Jacques (alors Duc d’York), que quelque revolte, que quant au Duc de
Monmouth, il ne le ferait jamais punir de mort. _Aussi le Roi Jacques
ne l’a-t-il pas fait mourir_, repondit le père Sanders.”
❦
[Sidenote: Death.]
Strange, that we can live so constantly with that threatening hand hung
over us, and not think of it always! How difficult it is to realise
death! how difficult to believe that the hand with whose every vein you
are familiar will ever lose its motion and warmth! That the quick eye
will settle and grow dull. It is at first hard to believe that we _must
die_; harder still to believe the repulsive circumstances that follow
this terrible change! It is a bitter thought, at the lightest. There
is little comfort in knowing that the sense and the mind, that feel
and measure suffering, will be gone. The separation of soul and body is
too great a mystery to satisfy fear: it is the body that we know; it is
this material frame in which the affections have grown up. The spirit
is a thought, a presence, that we are told of, but do not see. The idea
of existence is connected indissolubly with the visible body, and its
pleasant and familiar scenes. We talk of, and rest our belief on the
soul’s ascent to its Maker; but it is not ourselves, it is not our own
conscious breathing identity, that we, in imagination, send up through
the invisible air; we do not understand, we cannot realise the wondrous
thought.
❦
[Sidenote: Origin of the Title of Earl.]
During the government of the Anglo-Saxons _Earldoms_ of counties were
not merely dignities of honour, but officers of justice; each person
having the charge and custody of the county of which he was Earl; and
for their assistance in the discharge of this duty, they had also
deputies, or _vicecomes_, as they were denominated, appointed, which
office still continues to be executed by the Sheriffs annually chosen
for the different counties of England and Wales. The _Earls_, in
recompense for their travelling expenses, and other charges incidental
to the affairs of this important office, had originally a salary
derived from the profits of the third penny of the county[14] granted
to them; and this custom continued for a long time after the conquest,
and was formerly inserted as a princely benevolence in their patents of
creation. These salaries were at a later period changed into pensions
for the better support of their dignity, as appears by many ancient
records. The word Earl, by the Saxons was called _Erlig_, or Ethling;
by the Germans, _Grave_, as Landgrave, Margrave, &c. and by the Dutch,
Eorle: but upon the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy,
in 1066, and the subsequent settlement of the Normans in this country
they were called _Comes_, or _Comites_, and for consequence in State
affairs were usually styled _Comes Illustres_. Formerly Kings were
addressed by the title of _Your Grace_. Henry VIII. was the first, says
Houssaie, who assumed the title of _Highness_; and at length _Majesty_.
It was Francis I. who began to give him this last title, in their
interview in the year 1520.
[14] Third part of fines arising from law-suits, the other two going to
the King.
❦
Il est des âmes que le malheur peut abattre, mais qu’il n’avilit
jamais.
❦
[Sidenote: James II.]
The Diary of James II. which from his earliest youth he had kept, he,
at the time of his abdication, as one of his last acts, confided to
the Count of Therese, by whose means the papers were sent to Italy;
and afterwards found their way to the Scotch College at Paris. About
the beginning of the French revolution, the original MSS. were sent
to St. Amiens, secreted in a cellar, afterwards buried in a garden of
a country house, and it is supposed were taken up and destroyed; but
copies were previously taken and formed into a life of James II. which,
with other papers termed the “Stuart Manuscripts,” were published.
❦
Heureux celui qui sait quitter l’état qui le quitte, et rester heureux
en dépit du sort.
❦
La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir
d’avoir quelqu’un à qui on puisse dire: La solitude est une belle chose.
❦
Peut-on se consoler de la perte d’un enfant! ce malheur, le plus
poignant de tous, semble tellement opposé à la nature, que la douleur
qu’il produit doit durer toujours.
❦
[Sidenote: Sea-fire.]
The phenomenon called by sailors _Sea-fire_, is one of the most
beautiful and interesting which is witnessed in the Hebrides. At
times the ocean appears entirely illuminated around the vessel, and a
long train of lambent corruscations are perpetually breaking upon her
sides, or pursuing her wake through the darkness. These phosphoric
appearances, concerning the origin of which naturalists are not agreed
in opinion, seem to be called into action by the rapid motion of the
ship, through the water being saturated with _fish_ and _spawn_, and
other animal substance.
❦
“_Lisez et Croyez._”
A Device on a Lady’s Seal.
Quelques censeurs peu délicats,
Oubliant ce qu’on doit aux femmes,
Ont dit, en parlant de ces dames,
“Lisez-les, ne les croyez pas.”
Ces messieurs ont fait leur histoire:
Jugeons-les par ce qu’ils ont dit.
Pour vous, Iris, quand on vous lit,
On admire autant votre esprit
Qu’on a de plaisir à vous croire.
❦
_A la même, en lui annoncant mon départ._
De mon bonheur le sort jaloux
A ne vous plus revoir me condamne peut-être.
Ah! je devais ne jamais vous connaître,
Ou rester toujours près de vous.
❦
[Sidenote: Troubadours.]
The Troubadours were the ancient wandering poets, supposed to originate
in Provence, and who composed and sung their own verses. The Trombe,
or Trompe, was an instrument of the trumpet kind, from which it is
believed the word “Trombadour,” or “Troubadour,” is derived; it being
to this instrument they sung their poems. Several princes and nobles
were among the number of these bards: Richard I. of England was of the
former. The Italian poets are said to have borrowed their best pieces
from the Troubadours; they flourished in Europe about two hundred and
fifty years, from 1120 till the year 1382.
❦
S’occuper, c’est savoir jouir;
L’oisiveté pèse et tourmente;
L’âme est un feu qu’il faut nourir,
Et qui s’éteint, s’il ne s’augmente.
❦
Je ne vous parle point d’amis, car je sais combien cette denrée là est
rare: mais je vous parle des connaissances agréables. Avec un bon soupé
on a qui on veut: et si on le juge àpropos, on se moque encore après de
ses convives.
❦
Etre avec les gens qu’on aime, cela suffit. Rêver, leur parler, ne leur
parler point, penser à eux, penser à des choses indifférentes; mais
auprès d’eux, tout est égal.
❦
[Sidenote: Pride and Humility.]
On the marriage of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, with Mary the
sister of King Henry VIII. and widow of Louis XII. of France, he
appeared at the tournament given in honour of his bride, with an
ingenious device, delicately alluding to the event which had brought
him within the pale of royalty. To the trappings of his horse, which
were one half of cloth of gold, and the other of cloth of freize, was
appended the following motto.
Cloth of gold, do not despise,
Though thou art match’d with cloth of freize;
Cloth of freize, be not too bold,
Though thou art match’d with cloth of gold.
❦
Les convalescences de l’âme sont comme celles du corps: on en sent bien
mieux le prix que celui de la santé.
❦
Les louanges les plus flatteuses, et les plus énivrantes, sont celles
que l’on reçoit unanimement devant l’objet qu’on aime.
❦
[Sidenote: Voltaire.]
Those who proclaim Voltaire to be an atheist, only evince their
ignorance of his real sentiments, and the beautiful principle by which
he was influenced; his every act tended to acquit him of the charge
of atheism. Besides, it never did, never can exist! Were it possible
our lips could deny this truth, our hearts must witness to it; and
however strongly the wretched atheist would assert the nonexistence
of the power he denies, the very faculties, the reasoning, the subtle
arguments which he employs, are these not so many attributes derived
from a power, Almighty, though indefinite, Omnipresent, though
invisible? The command of language, the superiority of talent he
proudly displays, give the lie to his own system; whilst common sense
declares beyond all doubt, the existence of that wonderful chain
of creation, of which man is the first link, formed by a Divine
intelligence, foreseeing and pre-ordaining all things. Alas! it must be
admitted, that Voltaire denied the _Divinity_ of our Saviour, although
his virtues were those of a Christian; so often evinced in acts of
the purest benevolence and philanthropy, rejecting all sectarian
intolerance, affecting no uncharitable jargon. How to be regretted that
such virtues were not guided and supported by belief!
Happy they who rely on the eternity of the soul, who believe as the
loved fall, one after one, from their side, that they have returned
to their native country, that they await the Divine reunion; who feel
that each treasure of knowledge they attain, they carry with them
through illimitable being; who see in virtue the essence of the element
of that world they are to inhabit, and to which they but accustom
themselves betimes; who comfort their weariness amidst the storms of
time, by seeing far across the melancholy seas the haven they will
reach at last; who deem that every struggle has its assured reward,
and every sorrow its balm; who know, that however forsaken or bereaved
below, they never can be alone, and never deserted; that above is the
protection of Eternal power, and the mercy of Eternal love.
❦
[Sidenote: Antipathies.]
The Princess de Lamballe fainted, if a nosegay of violets was in the
room.
A celebrated Counsellor of Parliament at Douai, if he saw an apple not
cut with a knife, but broken, would rise from table, and scarcely be
able to totter to the door; whereas, the apple cut in the usual manner,
he would have felt no ill effect.
The celebrated Lord Bolingbroke had an insurmountable horror of a cat:
he frequently visited the Marechale de Mirepoix, and always waited
in the anti-room till he was assured that all the cats, of which she
possessed several of a famous Angora breed, had been turned out.
These animals were so sociable, that they would sit on the large Loto
table, and whenever a counter rolled near them, they would play with
it with their paws in their usual graceful manner. I have often been
fortunate enough, says M. de Levis, to be of their party without ever
having to complain of them. One day, when the valet de chamber, after
carefully searching every where, believed there could not be a cat in
the apartment, Lord Bolingbroke came in, but immediately screamed and
rushed back; the next day it was discovered that one of the cats had
been accidentally shut up in a closet.
❦
[Sidenote: Anne of Austria: a Sketch.]
Anne Maurice was daughter of Philippe III. King of Spain, and of
Margarette of Austria; she was born at Valladolid, on Saturday the 22nd
of September, 1601; married to Louis XIII. King of France, called “the
Just,” the 9th of November, 1615, and not till after twenty-three years
became a mother, giving birth first to Louis XIV. and next to Philippe
of France, Duke of Orléans, who married the Princess Henrietta of
England, daughter of the unfortunate Charles I. and of Henrietta sister
of Louis XIII. At the death of this monarch, his son being only _nine_
years of age, he declared Anne of Austria Regent, and during the period
of her administration, to that in which she surrendered the direction
of his kingdom, at the majority of Louis XIV. she fully justified the
election; her great strength of mind and justice of conduct never
giving way, though intestine dissention and foreign wars rendered her
task not a little arduous. More than once the Queen Regent abandoned
her capital during the tumult of the parliamentary faction, supported
by the Duke of Orléans,[15] the late King’s brother. The spirit of
discontent gave the ministry of Cardinal Mazarin as its source, but
it was long before the Queen would yield her predilection for, and
support of this minister. His eventual exile restored peace at home,
but it was not of long duration, and the Cardinal returned to negotiate
the marriage of his sovereign with the Infanta of Spain, niece to the
Queen Regent. This amiable Princess was not only chosen by Anne of
Austria as the means of restoring peace between Spain and France, but
also as interesting to her by the ties of maternal affection, being her
brother’s daughter.
Till the death of Mazarin, Louis was little conspicuous in the
administration of his government, and so much had he felt the evil
consequence of the authority and patronage assumed by the Italian
Cardinal, that he resolved to keep the reins in future wholly in his
own hands. Mazarin had been brought forward by the minister Richelieu,
and raised from obscurity; he died possessed of incalculable riches,
after having made the fortunes of all his family.[16]