September 29.--This day, popularly called Michaelmas, has been observed
in the Christian Church, at least since towards the close of the fifth
century, as the “Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.” St. Michael has
always enjoyed the reputation of preeminence over all the other angels
and archangels--and some theologians, indeed, have held that he is the
only archangel. The reverence paid to this name was equally great under
the Jewish dispensation as it has been since the introduction of
Christianity. The churches dedicated to St. Michael, in conformity to
this notion of his superior dignity, have been usually erected upon
elevated ground; that of St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall, is quoted as
an instance in this country. Michaelmas is now observed in England
principally as one of the four regular quarter days on which rents are
paid: but both here and in other parts of Christendom the day was
anciently, among all classes, one of distinguished hospitality and
festive enjoyment. Our custom of dining on goose at Michaelmas has given
occasion to the expenditure of a great deal of antiquarian ingenuity in
the attempt to trace its origin: but it seems to have arisen merely from
the circumstance of the bird being naturally in season at this time of
the year. Evidence has been produced of its existence so far back as
about the middle of the fifteenth century, and it may possibly be much
older. The old poet Gascoigne, in the work called his ‘Posies,’
published in 1575, thus alludes to this and other similar customs, which
appear to have originated in the same way:--
“And when the tenants come
To pay their quarter’s rent,
They bring some fowl at Midsummer,
A dish of fish in Lent;
At Christmas a capon,
At Michaelmas a goose,
And somewhat else at New-year’s tide,
For fear their lease fly loose.”
September 29.--The anniversary of the birth of Nelson. Horatio Nelson
was born in 1758, at the parsonage-house of Burnham-Thorpe, in Norfolk,
of which parish his father was rector. He went to sea at the age of
twelve, as a midshipman. In 1777 he was made a lieutenant, and in 1779 a
post-captain. He now went out to the West Indies in command of the
Hinchinbroke, and distinguished himself by several gallant exploits on
that station. While here he married Mrs. Nesbit, the widow of a
physician, by whom however he had no family. But the most splendid part
of Nelson’s career commenced with the war of 1793. It would be
altogether impossible for us here to present even the most rapid recital
of the numerous actions in which he bore a part from this date till his
death. Among many bright names which illuminate this part of the naval
history of England, his shines the brightest of all. Wherever the cannon
thundered on the deep, it might be said, there was Nelson. When early in
1798 he presented his claim for a pension, in consequence of the recent
loss of his right arm in an attack on Teneriffe, he stated in his
memorial that he had been present in more than a hundred engagements. On
occasion of his receiving that wound, which nearly proved fatal, he came
home for a short time to England; and Mr. Southey, by whom the story of
the hero’s life has been told with singular fascination, relates the
following anecdote in illustration of the popular feeling with which he
was regarded, which we transcribe as equally honourable to all the
parties concerned:--
“His sufferings from the lost limb were long and painful. A nerve had
been taken up in one of the ligatures at the time of the operation; and
the ligature, according to the practice of the French surgeons, was of
silk instead of waxed thread: this produced a constant irritation and
discharge; and the ends of the ligature being pulled every day, in hopes
of bringing it away, occasioned fresh agony. He had scarcely any
intermission of pain, day or night, for three months after his return to
England. Lady Nelson, at his earnest request, attended the dressing his
arm, till she had acquired sufficient resolution and skill to dress it
herself. One night, during this state of suffering, after a day of
constant pain, Nelson retired early to bed; in hope of enjoying some
respite by means of laudanum. He was at that time lodging in Bond
Street; and the family was soon disturbed by a mob knocking loudly and
violently at the door. The news of Duncan’s victory had been made
public, and the house was not illuminated. But when the mob were told
that Admiral Nelson lay there in bed, badly wounded, the foremost of
them made answer, ‘You shall hear no more from us to-night:’ and, in
fact, the feeling of respect and sympathy was communicated from one to
another with such effect, that, under the confusion of such a night, the
house was not molested again.”
Nelson’s two greatest victories, as all our readers know, were those of
the Nile and of Trafalgar. The first was gained on the 1st of August,
1798, and effected the complete destruction of the enemy’s force, all
their ships, except two, being either captured or sunk. For this
brilliant achievement he was elevated to the peerage by the title of
Baron Nelson of the Nile. The battle of Trafalgar was fought on the 21st
of October, 1805; and there this renowned captain fell amidst the blaze
of the most splendid triumph ever gained upon the seas. In reference to
Nelson’s character as an officer, Mr. Southey says, “Never was any
commander more beloved. He governed men by their reason and their
affections: they knew that he was incapable of caprice or tyranny; and
they obeyed him with alacrity and joy; because he possessed their
confidence as well as their love. ‘Our Nel,’ they used to say, ‘is as
brave as a lion, and as gentle as a lamb.’ Severe discipline he
detested, though he had been bred in a severe school; he never inflicted
corporal punishment, if it were possible to avoid it; and when compelled
to enforce it, he who was familiar with wounds and death suffered like a
woman. In his whole life Nelson was never known to act unkindly towards
an officer. If he was asked to prosecute one for ill-behaviour, he used
to answer: ‘That there was no occasion for him to ruin a poor devil, who
was sufficiently his own enemy to ruin himself.’ ... To his midshipmen
he ever showed the most winning kindness, encouraging the diffident,
tempering the hasty, counselling and befriending both.”
It is to be lamented that the private character of this gallant officer
was in his later years, deeply stained by an infatuated attachment,
which not only separated him from his wife, who ill deserved this
desertion, but also hurried him on one occasion, in order to gratify the
profligate and heartless woman who had obtained so unfortunate an
ascendancy over him, into the perpetration of an act, as foreign, we may
safely say, to his real nature, as it was opposed to humanity and to
justice.
[Illustration: Horatio Lord Nelson.]
October 3.--The birth-day of Dr. John Tillotson, one of the most eminent
of the English prelates. He was the son of Robert Tillotson, a clothier
of Sowerby, near Halifax, in Yorkshire, and here he was born in 1630.
His father, who was a rigid presbyterian, educated him in his own
principles. After having studied for some years at Clare Hall in the
University of Cambridge, young Tillotson became tutor in the family of
Prideaux, Cromwell’s Attorney-General. He had also taken orders as a
preacher among the Presbyterians; but, on the passing of the Act of
Uniformity soon after the King’s return, he submitted, and was presented
to the rectory of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. Although, however, he had
thus conformed to the Established Church, he attached himself to that
party in it which was most favourably disposed to the communion he had
left; not perhaps the most common course with those who pass over from
one denomination, whether religious or political, to another. In 1664 he
married Miss French, daughter of Dr. French, Canon of Christ Church, and
of Robina, the sister of Oliver Cromwell. He had already obtained great
distinction as a pulpit-orator, and had been chosen to the honourable
office of preacher to the society of Lincoln’s Inn, from which so many
eminent men have stepped to the highest preferments in the church. Soon
after he was also made Dean of Canterbury and one of the Prebendaries of
St. Paul’s. It was while he was residing at his deanery in 1677 that the
incident occurred which first introduced him to the Prince of Orange.
About the end of that year the Prince arrived in Canterbury from London,
accompanied by his wife the Princess Mary, to whom he had just been
united, and whom he was conducting to Holland. They had been hurried
from London (in order to withdraw them from the entertainments and other
marks of respect which the public enthusiasm was eager to bestow upon
them) in such haste, that when they reached Canterbury they found
themselves so scantily supplied with money that they were obliged to
apply for a loan to the corporation. After deliberating upon the matter,
however, that body declined advancing the required sum. In this
emergency, Dr. Tillotson hastily collected all the plate as well as cash
which he possessed or could borrow from his friends, and making his way
with it to the Prince’s attendant, Mr. Bentinck, (afterwards Duke of
Portland,) requested that he would accept of it for the service of his
master. The Prince was extremely gratified by this proof of attachment,
and Dr. Tillotson was immediately introduced to their Highnesses. On the
Revolution, King William appointed him his Clerk of the Closet, and soon
after allowed him to exchange the deanery of Canterbury for that of St.
Paul’s. On the deposition of Archbishop Sancroft in 1691 for refusing to
take the oaths of allegiance to the new sovereign, Tillotson was
reluctantly prevailed upon to accept the See of Canterbury. His
elevation, in the peculiar circumstances in which it took place, exposed
him to a great deal of bitter obloquy from the high-church party, the
virulence of whose animosity was not diminished by the liberality and
toleration of his demeanour in his high office, and the desire he
manifested rather to conciliate the adversaries of the establishment by
the removal of all unnecessary barriers of separation, than to retain
what occasioned their conscientious opposition for the mere sake of
abiding by whatever had once been adopted, and attempting to preserve a
formal and useless consistency. He was carried off by an attack of
paralysis after an illness of five days, on the 24th of November, 1694,
having held the primacy only about three years, during which short
space, however, he had become completely wearied and disgusted with its
cares and troubles. Archbishop Tillotson’s Sermons, commonly printed in
three volumes folio, or in ten volumes octavo, are still perhaps more
popular and more generally read than those of any other of our old
theological writers, except perhaps Dr. South, &c. They are written
rather in an easy than in a very polished style, and have no pretensions
to eloquence of the highest sort; but they are marked by a manly
character both of expression and of thought, and by very considerable
powers of argument and persuasion. The author, as has been already
noticed, was one of the most favourite preachers of his day.
---------------------
⁂ By the accidental substitution of one cut for another, we gave, in
No. 28, a view described as the “Remains of the Parthenon,” which is
really a representation of the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, near
Phygalia, and which was intended to accompany an account of the
Phygalian Marbles in the British Museum. We shall add a view of the
Parthenon to the next article on the Elgin Marbles.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
⁂ The Office of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is at
59, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.