of Sterne. Even in the present day, the name of Sydney Smith is
identical with a grin, and evangelical old Rowland Hill himself could
not keep down the busy devil of fun within him. But these are only
exceptions. The taste of the age has declared itself, rightly enough,
perhaps, against the mixture of things sacred and jocose; and the
clergyman who is so unfortunate as to possess a fund of wit, must
seek some other field for its display than the desk, happy if he be
allowed to indulge it even in private, without a brotherly hint from
that benevolent class of individuals, whose chief business in life is
to attend to the foibles of their neighbors. To the student, however,
it is a treat, to turn aside from the staid formality and correct
dulness of the present age, to the times when it was permitted to
a man to follow the bent of his genius, however devious; when
illiterate audiences, more filled with the spirit of faith than with
that of criticism, were as much edified by their preacher's jokes as
by his homilies; and when even the good man, dreaming as little as
Shakspeare himself that his tragi-comedy would fall under the ban
of posterity, went on, firing off alternately the heavy ordnance of
learned denunciation, and the lighter artillery of jest and jibe, at
the head of the conscience-stricken sinner.
Our business, however, is not with the English worthies of this
school, with whose merits and defects we are sufficiently familiar,
but to introduce the reader to another genius of the same stamp, who
flourished at Vienna, where he held no less a station than that of
preacher at the emperor's court.
PATER ABRAHAM A SANCTA CLARA, if we regard only his quaintness, his
queerness, his bad puns, and his jokes, lugged in, like Sancho's
proverbs, in season and out of season, was a lineal descendant of
those worthy travelling friars, whom Schiller has immortalized by
the Capuchin's Sermon, in the introduction to Wallenstein. But in
learning, in fervor, in rough and rude but stirring eloquence, he is
far above the herd of hedge-preachers. 'Though it appear a little
out of fashion,' there is much that is sterling in him. Few court
preachers ever spake so freely and fearlessly, or applied the lash
of satire so unsparingly to every rank and condition. Had he lived
in a more refined age, when cultivation might have chastened without
destroying his fancy, he would have stood high among popular orators.
His name is probably new to most of our readers; for few of our
German scholars ever peep into those ponderous folios in which
earlier days delighted, or trace up the stream of German literature
higher than Wieland or Klopstock. To such, it would be idle to
expatiate on the crabbed beauties which adorn the Nibelungen-lied,
the Minnesingers, old Hans Sachs, or Abraham a Sancta Clara. We
trust, however, that in the latter they will find enough of oddity,
at least, to render some slight acquaintance acceptable. His true
name was ULRICH MEGERLE, and he was born in Suabia, (the Ireland of
Germany,) in 1642. At the age of twenty, he became a bare-footed
monk, of the Augustine order, and in 1669, was invited to Vienna, in
the capacity of court preacher, an office he filled till his death,
in 1709; preaching and writing the while with untiring zeal and
industry. At a future time, we may brush the learned dust off some
other volumes of his works: at present, we will take up one of his
choicest bits of quaintness, the discourse called '_Mark!_' composed
of a series of warnings to the people of Vienna, written soon after
the plague, which swept off seventy thousand inhabitants in six
months. We have been obliged, of course, to take some few liberties
in our version. Where one of his bad German puns proved utterly
untranslateable, we have endeavored to fill its place with an English
one, equally as bad, and as near the original as possible. It will be
seen that here and there he varies the steady progress of his prose,
and breaks into a rhyming pace, something between a canter and a
hobble; showing that the amphibious measure adopted by the 'wondrous
boy that wrote Alroy,' is not altogether original. Without farther
preface, we shall proceed to our extracts. Thus, then, discourseth
our reverend friend, in his exordium, of the signs that, as usual,
preceded the pestilence:
'Signs in the heavens were furnished by the baleful and malevolent
aspects of the planets. Signs in air are usually changeful weather,
and heavy rains. Clouds, too, are so deemed; but in my poor judgment,
the plague was caused, not only by unwholesome _nebulæ_, but by
wicked _nebulones_. Signs of water are, abundance of fishes cast on
shore, crabs, frogs, and toads; and it is certain, when sharks are
found plying round courts of justice, when honesty sidles off like
a crab, and when toadies are found in the high places, that God
commonly sends a pestilence. Signs of earth, are, when idle, noxious
weeds and herbs infest the ground; and of a surety, when such plants
as sanguinary, dandy-lions, mushrooms, and painted-ladies, grow
plentifully, it is easy to see what is meant thereby!' * * *
'Death began his career in Leopoldstadt, (the suburbs,) and there
destroyed the people for a time, but in moderation. Afterward the
pestilence crossed the Danube to the other suburbs; and it seemed at
first as though Death ventured not to enter the capital, but would
content himself with the suburbs, and the dark corners, and dirty
spots thereof; so that men began wickedly to surmise, that he only
wanted to pick out the refuse, to rummage beggars' wallets, and still
his hunger with coarse crumbs; and that noble palaces, and rich
houses, were safe from his scythe. 'Holla!' said Death, 'to let you
know that no fortress is too strong for me, if girt with a fosse that
could swallow the ocean, I will, spite of you all, conquer the city!'
And he actually did in July.
'In the days of the dictator, Cæsar, an ox spoke; in the days of the
prophet Balaam, an ass spoke; in the time of the Emperor Maurice, a
metal image spoke; in the time of Beda, the stones spoke; but at this
time, in Vienna, when a sick man lay here in one corner, a dying man
groaned there in the other; a few steps off lay one already dead,
and the bodies choked the way of the passers-by; in Vienna, the very
stones spake, and warned the people to repentance. 'Up, and awake, ye
sinners! The axe is laid to the root of the tree! God's anger is at
the threshold; the voice of the Almighty is calling you to eternity;
the archangel Michael holds the balance, to weigh your life! Up! up!
and repent, for this is the only prop to which to hold fast in the
day of destruction! The penitent knockings of your heart, be sure,
can alone open the door of heaven; your hearty sighs are the only
music that please the ear of God.' Thus spake all the streets and
alleys, and the plastermen trod on, warned them to seek a plaster for
the wounds of their conscience.
'Taverns are wont to be the abode of joy and license; for it is no
secret, that when the blessed Virgin came to Bethlehem with Joseph,
she had to take shelter in a broken stall, for there was no room
for her in the tavern; and it is a truth, that God seldom finds
any room in such houses, because all things evil lodge there. For
a lamb to become a hog, an eagle a crow, and a horse an ass, is no
great miracle; for do we not see daily, that men drink like hogs
at the 'White Lamb;' that the 'Golden Eagle' makes gallows-birds,
and the 'Red-Horse' asses? But in these days, the reverse happened;
and the waiters were not so busy in counting up the drinks, as the
drinkers, who lay dead by the door the next morning. Their floors
were sprinkled, not with water, but with tears. Instead of shouting,
was sighing, and--wonderful to say!--there was more whining in them
than wine.'
After discoursing in this manner concerning the plague and its
incidents, by way of prologue, he proceeds to his practical
deductions, addressed to all classes: and first, he invokes mankind
generally, heading the invocation,
'MARK--MAN!'
''Tis not for nothing, that the word _live_, spelled backward,
readeth _evil_. 'Tis like a cloud, that fantastic child of the
summer, which is no sooner born, than the rays of the sun menace to
make an end of him. Just so our life, _vix orimur morimur_! Our first
breath is a sigh on the way to death, and the very rocking of the
cradle warns us how tottering is our existence.' * * * 'Summer comes
after spring; Saturday comes after Friday; four comes after three,
and death comes after life.
'Life and glass, they shake and they break;
Life and grass, how soon they pass!
Life and a hare, how fleet they are!
'Life is certain only in uncertainty, and is like a leaf on the tree,
a foam on the sea, a wave on the strand, a house on the sand.'
'Stop me not, while I sing my song before thy door. To-day red,
to-morrow dead; to-day your grace, to-morrow, 'God be gracious;'
to-day, a comfort to all, to-morrow, under the pall; to-day, dear,
to-morrow, the bier; to-day hurra, to-morrow, psha!
'_Omnes morimur!_ I have seen that we must all die; I have seen that
death is a player, and a roguish one, for he bowls the men down and
setteth them not up again, and attacketh not the pawn alone, but the
king; I have seen, that were I to gather together the limbs of a dead
emperor, and mix them up with water, they would not be of size enough
to stop the mouth of sneering Michal, when she opened it to laugh at
David her lord.
'Joshua, the hero, before he stormed the city of Jericho, made a
vow to the Lord that none of his army should plunder aught. God
knows, it's hard for soldiers to keep from it; and though they have
little to do with schools, they know wondrous well, that in default
of the _dativus_, they must take to the _ablativus_. Yet, spite
of the ordinance, a soldier named Achan crooked his fingers, and
helped himself to the booty. And lo! when he was caught, and brought
before the aforesaid hero, what answered he: '_Abstuli, abscondi in
terrâ, et fossam humo aperui_.' Such is the answer of Death, the
great robber and plunderer of all things. Tell me, Death, where are
Matthias the Emperor, and Matathias, the prophet? Where are Eleazer
and Eliezer? Where are Leo and Leontius, Maximus and Maximinus?
'_Abstuti et abscondi in terrâ_,' says Death!'
The Pater next takes up the religious world, commencing, as usual,
'Mark! Sir Priest!' and dilateth on the importance of the office, as
follows:
'What is worthier than pious and spiritual men, who have turned their
backs on the world, knowing that world and wild are words that
differ little in name, and none in fact. For what is this world, but
a garden full of thistles; a sugared poison, a gilded dung-hill; a
sack full of holes; a silver hook, a shop full of fool's-caps; a
drug-store, full of nauseous purges; a flowery deceit? The apostles
likened the kingdom of God to a grain of mustard-seed, not to a
sugar-plum; to sour leaven, and not to sweet-meats.'
After reminding us that Peter, in the fulness of his zeal, smote off
the high priest's servant's ear, and was reproved therefor, he goes
on to give a reason for it, which we do not recollect to have met in
any of the commentators: 'If he had been the footman of any nobleman,
or lady, merely,' says he, 'the Lord would perhaps have winked at it,
had he cut off his whole head; but the servant of a high priest was
to be respected.'[8]
We leave the divines for the present, and turn to his next 'mark,'
which is addressed to the learned, whereon he expatiates with a
fellow-feeling, and makes some displays of learning, which will
certainly excite astonishment, if not admiration. His introduction is
as follows:
'MARK--LEARNED MAN!'
'Tis well known, that Lot's wife was changed by God's decree into a
pillar of salt, because, contrary to the divine command, she looked
back; but why she was changed into a pillar of salt, and not into
a thorn-bush, which is as curious and sharp as she was herself, is
because when she entertained the angels who visited her husband, she
put no salt to the meats, that she might be free of these frequent
visitors. Salt has ever been held the symbol of science and wisdom,
as is shown, not only by its being the first syllable in the name
of King Solomon, but inasmuch as Christ says to his disciples, 'Ye
are the salt of the earth.' As meat without salt, so is man without
knowledge. As the poet saith:
'A table without a dish,
A pond without a fish,
A soup without bread,
A tailor without thread,
A horse without a tether,
A cobbler without leather,
A ship without a sail,
A pitcher without ale,
And a man without wit,
Do well together fit.'
'I have, with especial care, examined Holy Writ, and find that
therein the word husbandman occurs thirty-six times; the word field,
three hundred and fourteen times; the word sow, twenty times; the
word grow, five hundred times; the word corn, fifty-seven times;
the word reap, fifty-two times; the word barn, twenty-one times; the
word thresh, fifteen times; the word hay, forty-eight times; but the
word _straw_, only once,[9] and that with no great commendation,
where Rachel sat upon it to hide the golden images from her father
Laban. Since, therefore, the word straw occurs but once, I am free to
conclude, that it was holden for something most contemptible. And as
worthless as straw is, so is a man of straw,[10] without learning.'
And again:
'Jesus, our infant Lord, had to lie in a manger at Bethlehem, he
whose abode is the starry heaven; and when his precious body shivered
with cold, and was warmed only by his inward love to us, he to whom
all the hosts of heaven minister, had no attendants, save an ox and
an ass. St. Vincent remarketh, that the ox stood at the babe's head,
and the ass at his feet; whereby he wished to show, that asses, and
such as have no knowledge, should keep in the background, and those
only who have wisdom, stand in the high places.'
* * * * *
What is more lovely than knowledge? He who hath it, cuts the 'gordian
knot' better than the Macedonian monarch, and can answer all the
puzzling questions about which other men busy their brains in vain.
As thus: Why doth a man who hath eaten his fill, till his body is
stuffed like a travelling journeyman's knapsack, weigh less than
before? The philosopher knoweth the reason. Why doth he who has drank
too much wine, commonly fall over forward, while he who hath drank
too much beer, generally falleth over backward? The philosopher
knoweth the reason.'
And again he discusseth learnedly of lawyers:
'In the Old Testament, there was a wondrous drink for women, which
many a one had to swallow, albeit she did not complain of thirst.
For whenever a man conjectured that his spouse was faithless,
he led her to the priest at the altar, who handed her a liquor
mixed with a thousand curses, the which, were she wrongfully
accused, harmed her not; but were she really guilty, lo! she was
incontinently filled therewith, and swelled up like a sack of
Bohemian hops, and pined away; and thus they cunningly learned who
was innocent and who guilty. 'Well,' saith one, 'why happeneth
not the same now-a-days? 'Tis as necessary as in those times, and
men would crowd to buy such a drink, at whatsoever price.' To
this I answer, that such miracles are no longer needful; for the
lawyers, with their _citationes_, _notationes_, _protestationes_,
_connotationes_, _replicationes_, _contestationes_, _appellationes_,
_acceptilationes_, _certiorationes_, _confirmationes_, and the like,
make guilt or innocence as clear as day.' But mark we how Death
treats all this choice Latinity: 'What kind of tongue,' saith Death,
'is this, wherein the Latinists address me? By my life, I understand
not Latin! My father, the Devil, a substantial man, and my mother,
Sin, a notable dame as any, to save expense, gave me no learning;
therefore I care not a fig for your Latinists. The Almighty has
truly taught me somewhat, but I find my studies differ mainly from
yours; for in my grammar, _mors_ is _generis communis_; in my syntax,
the verb _vivo_ has no _infinitivum_.'
He next addresses soldiers, whom he comforts with the thought that
they need not despair of eternal life, bad as their calling is; for,
saith he:
'St. John, the angel of the apocalypse, tells us, in his description
of the heavenly Jerusalem, how he saw in his trance, that this
metropolis of God was built four-square, and each side garnished with
three doors; whence we can safely conclude, as St. Dionysius hath it,
that from all quarters and parts of the world, there is access to
heaven.
'St. Athanasius wisely observeth of the people of Israel, that when
they entered on a campaign, the ark of the covenant, wherein were
stored the laws of Moses and the ten commandments, was carried before
the host, that the warriors might have God's law continually before
their eyes. Hear this, ye Christian soldiers! The ten commandments
were the avant-guard of the army of Israel; with you, God help us!
they too commonly are sent to the rear.'
* * * * *
'Who's there?' 'No friend!' 'Who is no friend?' 'I,' says Death.
'Holla there! Guard, turn out!' 'My loving friends,' replieth Death,
'I cannot laugh in my sleeve, for I have none; but I can't help
grinning, at finding you think to frighten my scythe with your pikes
and halberts. That would be a joke! How many of the Jews have I not
destroyed? The sum total, as Holy Writ testifieth, 854,002,067! And
now shall I be afraid of _you_? No, no! Order arms! Albeit your
leader, _Mars_, and I, _Mors_, are kinsmen in name, I cannot abide
neutral, but declare open war on you! Let him who doubts my power,
go to Vienna, and ask of the first sentinel he meets!' Inasmuch as
Vienna is a rampart of all Germany against the Turk, it is girt
with thick walls, and strong towers. The heavenly city, Jerusalem,
is described by the chronicle as having twelve great gates; now as
Vienna hath six, it may justly be called half a heaven. It hath
always been the wont of the soldiery at Vienna to keep their main
force in the city, and a guard at St. Peter's church-yard; but this
time, Death, against the officers' will, changed their ordering,
and almost all the troops were bidden to _lie at ease_ in the
church-yard, while Death went the rounds, from post to post, on the
walls.'
Let us quote the conclusion of this branch of his address:
'Let the body die, then, be it in fire or in water, on earth or in
air--what matters it! Let it die, this dung-hill, this nest of worms,
this lump of filth, this dying worm, this clod of earth; let it die,
this perishing rottenness, this tricked-out decay, this painted
sepulchre, this congregation of diseases, this bundle of rags, this
six feet of nothing! Let it die!--let it perish! Let it decay,
this living hospital, this sport of chance, this little heap of
earth--when, how, where it may--it matters not! But I beseech thee,
by thy soul's salvation--I sound it in thine ears, with uplifted
hands, let not the SOUL perish! This curious and precious handiwork
and image of God--this priceless and unfading jewel of eternity--this
pure and peaceful sister of the spirits made blessed--oh let not
_this_ perish by sin, for this is the only death that is terrible
indeed!'
There are passages like the above, scattered here and there,
which will show that our author was something more than a mere
pulpit-joker, and that he had within him all the elements of high
eloquence. Our conscience, indeed, reproaches us, at times, that we
are not doing the old worthy justice, but picking out his knotty
points and excrescences, to amuse our contemporaries with their odd
twists and turns, and air of hoar antiquity, rather than laying open
the sound core and pith that lie beneath them. But our object--and
we hope it as an excusable one, in these trying times--is rather to
beguile the reader into a smile, than edify him by serious discourse,
a plenty whereof is to be found at every corner, without going back
for it to Pater Abraham a Sancta Clara.
* * * * *
FOR the present, we leave our 'man of mark,' reserving his homily
to maidens, his advice to parents, touching the use of the rod; his
counsels to the rich, etc., for another number.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Speaking of ears. That was an ingenious and kindred elucidation
of a passage of Scripture, which was given by a Methodist clergyman,
of whom we have somewhere read. 'In those ancient days,' said the
divine, 'small crimes were punished by cropping off the ears; so that
it rarely happened, that a large concourse of people could assemble,
without a considerable proportion of them, and oftentimes more, being
deprived of their auricular members. Hence we view, my brethren, the
propriety of that frequent remark of our Saviour, when addressing a
mixed multitude, 'He that _hath_ ears to hear, let him hear!'' It was
the same profound biblical critic, who made St Paul's similitude,
touching his late conversion, ('as one born out of due time,') quite
level to the comprehension of his hearers, by explaining, that the
apostle 'was undoubtedly a seven-months' child!'
EDS. KNICKERBOCKER.
[9] 'PATER ABRAHAM,' mark! You had better examine your Bible 'with
especial care' once more. Did not Pharaoh make the children of Israel
turn out the regular quantity of brick, whether they had _straw_,
or not? Our modern version, however, may not answer to the Pater's
original.
EDS. KNICKERBOCKER.
[10] Literally _strohkopf_, a straw-head, a dunce.
NATURE.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF MATTHISON.
I.
ILLUM'D by reddening skies, stands glittering
On tender blade the dew;
And undulates the landscape of the spring
Upon the clear stream's blue.
II.
Fair is the rocky rill, the blossom'd tree,
The grove with gold that gleams;
Fair is the star of eve, which close we see
To yonder purple gleams.
III.
Fair is the meadow's green, the dale's thick bush,
The hill's bright robe of flowers;
The alder-stream, the pond's surrounding rush,
And lilies' snowy showers.
IV.
Oh! how the host of beings are made one
By Love's enduring band!
The glow-worm, and the fiëry flood of sun,
Spring from one Father's hand.
V.
Thou beckonest, Almighty, if the tree
Lose but a bud that's blown;
Thou beckonest, if in immensity
One sun is sunk and gone!
FRANCIS MITFORD.
NUMBER THREE.