Essay (Hume’s “Philosophical Works,” iii. 373, Edinburgh, 1826). He
there sets out that it is no modern invention as some have maintained,
for the Asiatics combined against the Medes and Persians, as Xenophon
shows in his “Institutions of Cyrus.” Likewise Thucydides exhibits the
league formed against Athens, which led to the Peloponnesian war, as
being grounded on this principle. Afterwards, when Thebes and Lacedæmon
disputed the supremacy, Athens always threw her strength into the lighter
scale to preserve the balance. She was for Thebes against Sparta till
Epaminondas won at Leuctra, and then she immediately changed sides, as
of generosity, but really jealous to preserve the balance. If you will
read Demosthenes, he says, in the Oration for the Megapolitans you may
“see the utmost refinements on this principle that ever entered into the
head of a Venetian or English speculatist.” On the rise of the crafty
Macedonian he again bugled the alarm to Greece, which brought the banners
together that fell at Chæronea. The principle was right, but the too
great delay had knit Fate’s smile into a frown. Envy (if you like to call
it so, but I call it a jealous prudence) must in a community of States
prevent any one from overtopping, as Athenian ostracism expelled the
citizen who grew too lush and vigorous for a communion in equality. Hume
points out with perspicuous beauty how England went too far. Her emulous
antagonism to France made her so alert to defend her allies that they
could count upon her as a force of their own. The expenses consequent
upon this imprudent course led to funding, _i.e._ the _National Debt_;
and that has led us into an absurd meekness, a dread of war, and the
peace barkings of the Quaker Bright; so that England dares not fire a
howitzer when Russia, contrary to her most solemn pledges, annexes Merv,
Bokara, and Khiva, and cannot find one word to say when Germany has her
foot on the throat of France. Blunders in extravagant advocacy, blunders
in parsimonious neglect of a principle, do not diminish its importance;
they only emphasize it. With a prophecy out of dry reason Hume says it
will become “more prejudicial another way, by begetting, as is usual,
the opposite extreme, and rendering us totally careless and supine with
regard to the fate of Europe.” That is how we now stand. In a very recent
French cyclopædia, _l’équilibre Européen_ is said to be quite a modern
idea, with nothing corresponding to it in antiquity. The writer pretends
that it originated with the Church, and that Podichad the King of Bohemia
sent Marini to Louis XI. to point out the necessity there was for a
_Parliament of Kings_ to adjust matters between the Church and people.
This may be the first form of a Congress. Francis I. carried on the same
policy, and Henri IV. extended it to an idea of a Christian republic of
federated nations, as against a universal monarchy. This idea enabled
Cromwell to meddle as European arbiter, whereas he ought only to have
acted as moderator and equalizer of parties. Leibnitz called the House
of Hapsburgh a continual conspiracy against the rights of the people,
and Richelieu got the _equilibrium_ established and introduced at the
Treaty of Westphalia, as a principle of the law of nations, though with
the concomitant of _Congresses_. The princes so assembled plotted against
Poland, as might have been anticipated, and in the course of seventy
years they were enabled entirely to break up the Balance of Power in
Europe. Cromwell, Richelieu, Napoleon, and Bismark, by force, finesse,
chicane, and brutal bluntness, have overturned the very groundwork of
the principle. The English, having at first stirred up war by means of
subventions, have now tumbled, only too laxly, into the stupid doctrine
of non-intervention. Congresses should never have been allowed. These
“Parliaments of Kings” can only do mischief, as they have no controlling
power to refer to. They lack a _King_ above the Parliaments, and as that
is _impossible_, Congresses can only meet for evil. The strongest are
irresistible in such congregations. The weaker can get no justice and
no sympathy. If they take the field, everybody is against them; if they
submit, they are despoiled without hope of a remedy: whereas, formerly,
a wrong done might excite a feeling of justice in a neighbour, and so
induce him to help; or, where justice was weak, fear of similar treatment
might opportunely bring forth the required aid.
[198] _Si_, for très.
[199] Read, _Qui mettra les Anglois en déconfiture_.
[200] Observe here how very different is Clarendon’s estimate of James I.
from the trash that Sir Walter Scott indulges in at the King’s expense,
in those romances of his from which half the world draw their notions of
history.
[201] Latin, _per_, during.
[202] Variant, _le tertre_, the knoll or rising ground.
[203] D. D. reads here _ne dira t-on qu’ouy_, and I think the sense
requires it.
[204] Historical discrepancies ought to be chronicled, for they confuse
all investigation, and force every conscientious new comer to commence
the whole work over again. A writer in the “Book of Days” pretends to
be particularly accurate (ii. 309), noting that “the storm in reality
happened on Monday, August 30, and must have been pretty well spent
before the Friday afternoon, when Oliver breathed his last.” Rosse, in
his “Index of Dates,” says (v. _Storms_) that there was one on September
3. Carlyle (“Cromwell Letters,” iii. 457) chronicles the stormy Monday,
but not the stormy Friday. Hume says a violent tempest “immediately
succeeded his death.” Clarendon, who may be supposed to know better than
any of them, writes (v. 648, ed. 1731:) “And this now was a day (_i.e._
the Friday) very memorable for the greatest storm of wind that had ever
been known, for some hours before and after his death.”
[205] This, of course, is “living on barley bread,” as everybody
translates it. I think, however, it has reference to the phrase _faire
ses orges_, to enrich one’s self unscrupulously at the expense of others.
If that be so, it becomes excellently applicable in the present context.
[Noël.] He had sown his wild oats, and now began _à faire ses orges_.
[206] _Tant_, should, I think, be _temps_.
[207] Greek, κόπτειν, to strike = _coup_; it may even stand here for a
_coup d’état_. [Borel.]
[208] Construction is _mettant à des plus grands le pied sur la gorge_.
[209] _Foudre_ metaphorically, saltpetre, here fireballs. The belief at
the time was that the fire was the work of incendiaries, and it has never
been disproved, though it has been ridiculed by those who set up for
liberty and enlightenment. The Illuminati will not allow London to have
been thus burnt by others; and it is quite certain that they themselves
will never set the Thames on fire. What Nostradamus asserts here, history
has asserted. That is enough for the present purpose.
[210] _La dame._ Garencières takes this for St. Paul’s, once dedicated to
Diana, who is the ancient dame. We may take it for the mother Church, if
we like; and it would not be using much violence if we read _le dome_,
for that might very well mean, as in the Latin, _doma_, house or church,
as St. Jerome uses it—_Domus Dei_, in fact.
[211] _Cherra_, future of the verb _choir_, tomber, to fall.
[212] _Secte._ By this Garencières thinks is meant the eighty-seven
churches that were burnt with St. Paul’s, belonging to the same
Protestant sect. We might read _sorte_.
[213] _Luite_, Romance for _lutte_, battle.
[214] Variant, _Luy, satallites la mort degousteront_.
[215] Esleut, or _esleu_.
[216] Romance, _dechassé_, driven away.
[217] _Versée_, for _renversée_.
[218] In this high-wind of revolution men will mask their countenances
with the cloak of hypocrisy.
[219] Latin, _vexata_, troubled.
[220] _Oncques_, never, _nunquam_.
[221] Romance, _ne_, _ni_, nor.
[222] The order is “_Qu’avint oncq’_ plus d’horreur ni plus pire à
Babel qu’il n’adviendra aux Romains par les journaux.” This is M. le
Pelletier’s reading, and he interprets it of Voltaire, the encyclopedists
and journalists of the seventeenth century, who assailed the faith and
the Church of Rome. But surely the one like Hannibal was Napoleon, and
the _journaux_ in this old speech does not stand for _journals_ and
newspapers that had no existence, and therefore no name in the time of
Nostradamus. _Journal_ meant a day’s work, such as could, in ploughing,
be done by a man with two oxen.
[223] Latin, _per_, whilst.
[224] Latin, _pro_, for.
[225] _Cruches_ = urns, Cinerary urns. Garencières read _urnes_.
[226] _Sainte Dame_ I take to be equivalent to our English _Halidom_,
consisting of _Holy_ and _Dome_—a terminative seen in kingdom and
Christendom, and signifying rule or lordship. It has also been written
as _Holidame_, as if referring to the Virgin Mary. Of course, if that
were the correct etymology, it would furnish the exact rendering of
_Sainte Dame_: but, as it is, it is equivalent. A voice feigning that
of the Blessed Virgin may well be represented by a voice feigning
that of religion and faith. I take this from Garencières, and not the
_texte-type_.
[227] _Sublimis_, high, elevated.
[228] Latin, _obnubilare_, to cloud, obscure.
[229] Romance, _comprins_, _compris_, contained in.
[230] _Sens_ = _sans_, without.
[231] _Chief_ = _chef_, God.
[232] Latin, _munimen_, rampart.
[233] Rapis, anagram, for _Paris_.
[234] Latin, _nunquam_, never.
[235] _Arroi_, for _desarroi_, disorder.
[236] “On désigne quelquefois sous ce nom un habitant d’Alexandrie dont
le véritable nom est Néopol, qui fut martyrisé sous Dioclétien. Outre
ce Saint, dont la vie est complètement inconnue, les bollandistes font
mention d’un Napoléon, brillant cavalier, neveu de Cardinal Fossa-Nuova,
qui se tua en tombant de cheval à Rome en 1218. Saint Dominique, temoin
de la douleur du pauvre cardinal, ressuscita le jeune homme. Napoléon
reconnut ce bienfait en menant une vie fort chretienne et, quand il fut
mort pour tout de bon, l’Église le béatifia. Toutefois, il n’avait pas
sa place fixe dans le calendrier. Ce fut Pie VII. qui lui assigna pour
sa fête la date du 15 août, dans le but sans doute de plaire à Napoléon
Bonaparte.”—“Grand Dictionnaire Universel du dixneuvième Siècle,” par M.
Pierre Larousse, tom. xi. p. 804. Paris: 1874.
[237] Latin, _tantum_, so much.
[238] Romance, _outre_, beyond.
[239] Latin, _castula_, tunic. It was a kind of petticoat worn by women
next the skin, and fastened under the breasts, which it left exposed. It
stands here for the goddess of Republican Liberty, which is generally
represented in this dress of the Roman virgins.
[240] Latin, _incerta_, uncertain.
[241] _Par_ = _per_, Latin, by reason of.
[242] A variant is _trombe_. We are told that the modern commentators
find in this word the anagram of _Rome_, by syncope of _t_ and _b_. So
you might in _rompu_, by substitution of _e_ for _p_ and the elision of
_u_. But as no good comes of doing either, I should suggest to leave them
alone.
[243] _Le part_ is the same word as in the last quatrain, and stands here
for the husband.
[244] _Solus_, Latin for _seul_.
[245] _Mary_, or _marri_, is from the old word _Marrir_, _s’affliger_,
and means afflicted, full of grief.
[246] _Trahyr._ _Trahitor_, _trahiter_, from Latin _traditor_ =
_traître_, English traitor.
[247] _Coutaux_ M. Le Pelletier takes as soldiers. _Par coutaux_ = _per
custodes_. They betrayed him into the hands of guards. I think it may
also mean _coustiller_, a soldier armed with the _coustille_, a short,
straight cutlass.
[248] _Avons_ = _avus_, grandfather.
[249] A variant reads _pour_.
[250] Construe _Trop de bon temps_.
[251] _Legier_, for légèrement. Romance language.
[252] _Par_, for Latin _per_, because of.
[253] _Tantum_, Latin, very.
[254] _Venustus_, Latin, comely.
[255] _Faict_, Latin, _factus_ made.
[256] _Face_, Latin, _fax_ torch.
[257] _Aduste_, Latin, _adustus_ burnt.
[258] _Chef_, head.
[259] “Le corps et la tête placés dans un panier d’osier sont à l’instant
même portés au cimetière de la Madeleine, jetés aussitôt dans une fosse
profonde de douze pieds, ouverte de six, garnie et recouverte de chaux
vive, et dissous immédiatement. On l’inhume auprès des personnes qui
avaient péri le 20 mai, 1770, jour de la fête donnée par la ville de
Paris, à l’occasion de son mariage, et auprès des Suisses morts dans la
journée du 10 août.”
[260] _Ergaste_ is _estrange_ in Pierre Rigaud’s edition. Ἐργαστήρ is a
workman, and M. le Pelletier says _Ergaster_ is Latin. It may be, but
I do not find it in Facciolati, though _ergastulum_, a workhouse, is
there given. When Marie Antoinette was in the Temple, she was reduced
to working with her hands, like a workwoman (_ergaste_). But _ergaste_
is the anagram of _estrange_, the one letter _n_ excepted. Probably
_estrange_ is the preferable reading, inasmuch as Marie Antoinette was an
Austrian, and so _étrangère_.
[261] _Prins_, Latin, _prensus_, taken, captive.
[262] _Pellix_, Latin, _pellex_, prostitute.
[263] Qui = Latin _cui_, to which.
[264] Alquiloye = _Aquilæ lex_, law or rule of the Imperial Eagle.
[265] _Subit_ stands for _subito_, suddenly.
[266] _Tiers_ = third.
[267] _Vuidez_ = Latin, _videte_, see.
[268] _Que_ = how much.
[269] _Forneron_ = Latin, _fornax_, furnace.
[270] _A_ is the Latin _a_, privative.
[271] _Cappe_, is put for _Capet_.
[272] _En bref_, _temps_, understood.
[273] _Ne_, again used for _ni_.
[274] _Sacrés_, for _consacrés_.
[275] _Prime_, Latin, _prima_, first.
[276] _Gofres_ is deep, profound.
[277] _Cultements_, Latin, _cultus_, worship.
[278] _Tiendront fort_, will struggle hard.
[279] _Detranchés_, Romance for _tranchés_, _tête_ understood.
[280] _Infelice_, Latin, unhappy.
[281] _Le_ to be understood before _conjoindra_.
[282] _Marrit_, afflicted.
[283] _Scome_, Latin, _scomma_, gibe, taunt.
[284] _Istra_ = _ira_, will go, or will go forth.
[285] _Mont_golfier, the inventor of ærostatics.
[286] _Qui_, Latin for who, a man who.
[287] _Prins_, taken.
[288] _Sext_, for _sextus_.
[289] _Mansol_, _man_, _sol_. _Manens solus_ means celibate, or priest
under vows.
[290] Latin, _incitatus_, agitated.
[291] _Pont_, pour Pontificat, or Pontifex.
[292] πολύς, grand, considerable.
[293] _Man. sol._, _manens solus_, as before.
[294] The ordo is, les deux prochains destrois fuiront le tarasc.
[295] _Prochain_ = proche parent, who partakes in a heritage.
[296] ταραχή = tumult.
[297] Romance, _destrois_, afflicted, dejected.
[298] _Mars_, god of war.
[299] _Augur_, for Roman priest.
[300] _Gens_ is Latin for _nation_.
[301] _Boreas_ is north wind, or north.
[302] _Classis_, Latin, is a body of men, used here as army.
[303] The ordo is, [où elle] aura poussé son armée trop loin vers le nord.
[304] _Seur_ = sœur.
[305] _Fatum_, Latin, fate, destiny.
[306] _Duira_, for conduira.
[307] Δαν-αρχή, Princedom of Dan. The old Kings of Denmark pretended to
derive from Dan, seventh son of Jacob, it is said.
[308] Γῆς υἱός, son of earth. _Terræfilius_, giant.
[309] _Unda_, wave, _onde_.
[310] The title of this book is “Machiavel Commenté par Nᵒⁿ Buonaparte,”
1816, published by H. Nicolle, 12, Rue de Seine. I have a copy, but there
is none in the British Museum. The Preface and the Introductory Discourse
on Macchiavelli are full of ability. The translation of the “Prince” in
French occupies the left-hand column of each page, and seems well done;
on the right-hand column are given the emperor’s annotations, where they
occur, otherwise it stands blank. They are severally initialled G., R. C.,
or E—General, Republican Consul, Emperor,—according to the period at
which Napoleon may be supposed to have written them. Some of the remarks
are clever, but perhaps scarcely show the grip of Napoleon; which,
whether right or wrong, was always that of an iron vice. I now imagine
it to be an ingenious forgery, but it is quite curious enough to merit
further inquiry. This footnote, it will be seen, does not correspond with
what I have said in the text. I wrote that under the impression that the
document was genuine, and it would be just, if the book were true. But
I leave it as it is, though it tells slightly against myself, as the
contrast, between the first and second thoughts seems to me instructive.
It shows that, let a man walk by right faith or by wrong, he must steer
by the belief that is present with him.
[311] _Signum_, ensign, standard, or perhaps symbol of rule or domination.
[312] _Sceptrum ferre_, sceptre-bearing, reigning.
[313] _Siége_, position, situation.
[314] _En séjour_, permanent, durable.
[315] _Coq_, the Gallic cock.
[316] _Tago_, or _tango_, to touch or take, le Pelletier says; but
it does not yield very good sense. Perhaps τάγμα, a regular body of
soldiers, in Dion Cassius it stands for the Roman _legion_. Garencières
reads here TAG _à misère_, “The _tag_ to misery,” and says it is
wretchedness to come from Portugal to France, _Tag_ being the _Tagus_,
on which Lisbon is situated. This might be interpreted well to mean the
mischief arising to the empire from the successes of Wellington in the
Peninsular war.
[317] The jay, of course, is Esop’s Fable of that bird, tricked out in
finer feathers than its own. The elegant rendering by La Fontaine [iv.
9, Ed., 1838] of _Le Geai paré des plumes du Paon_ had, when Nostradamus
wrote, not then taken shape. The original is so accessible, that it may
suffice to give here the English version.
“A peacock moulted, and a jay.
Assumed the feathers fine,
And, strutting in a peacock-way,
Thought ‘now I look divine.’
“The first who met him laughed outright;
Others he found to sneer;
The peacocks voted him a fright,
His brother jays all quizzed ‘the sight,’
But none would have him near.
“Of biped jays like this, there are
Thousands from here to Zanzibar;
We call them ‘plagiarist!’
But hush! For setting souls ajar
Is not my line, I wist.”
[318] This curious phrase manifestly points to Napoleon wearing short
hair, in military fashion, as distinguished from the flowing locks of
the line of Capet,—shaven as contrasted with bewigged. This is one of
the many coincidences that connect the Commonwealth of England with the
French repetition of it at the Revolution. Croppies, or Roundheads,
distinguished the sanctimonious insurgents of the Commonwealth from the
cavaliers with their flowing locks. The Tory cavaliers wore wigs; the
Whigs undermined the bewigged.
[319] _Sordide_ should be written _sordid’_, and _teste_, _test’_, if we
wish the line to scan.
[320] _Puis_, for _depuis_.
[321] Latin, _per_, pendant.
[322] Latin, _vexare_, raise, inflate, according to Le Pelletier; but
Facciolati gives no such meaning. “Vexed Bermoothes” gives it.
[323] _Dextera_, Latin, right hand, or sword hand.
[324] _Discorde_ should be _discord’_, or the line will not scan. These
may be minor matters, but those who think them unimportant are not wise.
It is an excellent rule in literature to let nothing remain wrong that
can be set right by a little scholarship and industry. In the world it is
very different; there you should never put anything right, for everything
wrong has a host of latent friends, that will fight very savagely in its
defence.
[325] _Cappe_, for Capet, says M. le Pelletier. The texte-type gives a
variation here as _la Chappe_. This yields no help at all, except as
showing by the variant that there is something wants altering. The line
will not scan as it is. I think it should be altered to _le Cap_. If
it stands for Capet it is masculine, and when it occurred before, in
Quatrain 20 of Century IX., it was given as _Esleu Cap_.
[326] These two lines furnish an hyperbaton and will be best transposed,
that the great Prince will have married a woman before the divine wrath
falls upon him.
[327] This is equivalent to _tout d’un coup_, suddenly.
[328] This line is too long by a foot; _appuy et credit_ mean the same
thing, and one should be omitted. The line should be corrected thus:
Et son appuy à un coup viendra mince.
[329] Par is Latin, _per_, throughout.
[330] Equals _qui en_.
[331] The texte-type furnishes _porter_, with _porte_ as a variant. M. le
Pelletier embodies this in his text. I should replace the word that he
excludes. Further, I should regard _passera_ as being a form of the Latin
_patior_, and the French _pâtir_, and therefore read _pâtira_. _Porter
pâtira_ will then mean suffer it to bear. _Charge_, for the scansion,
should be _charg’_.
[332] _Grande_ should be _grand’_, for the scansion.
[333] _Tranchera_ should read _il tranchera_.
[334] _Esclavonie_ is put for modern Hungary.
[335] _Olestant_ is another variation of the nom fatidique de Napoleon,
p. 171, from ὄλλυμι, to destroy, ὀλέσθαι.
[336] _Poussée_, for _repoussé_.
[337] _Entour_ should be _entour’_, for _entouré_.
[338] _Entour_ here is for _entourage_.
[339] _Cymbres_, κύμβη, cymbals.
[340] _Tube_, _tuba_, trumpet.
[341] _Sonnaillons_, literally, bell-ringing, but perhaps clarion may
serve.
[342] This line cannot be scanned; we must read _de l’Aquillon_.
[343] This requires, for both grammar and scansion, _grande_.
[344] The _E_ in _contre_ must suffer elision, thus: _contr’_. It is
right in Garencières’s.
[345] κύμβη, is a cup, usually, in Greek. M. le Pelletier gives κύμβος as
a cavity or precipice. I find no such meaning as precipice. There is a
great difficulty to settle the meaning here. Κύμβη means a cup, a boat,
a wallet, and also, is like κύβη, the head. We should perhaps simplify
the issue by confining ourselves strictly to the Latin word, _Cymba_,
which is boat or skiff. Always a light boat, as in the Georgics, i. 136,
where the little boats were made of _alnos cavatas_, the riverside alders
hollowed out. It is rather a craft for a small lake than for the sea; as
Ovid charmingly puts it:
“Non ideo debet pelago se credere, signa
Audet in exiguo ludere cymba lacu.”
But, then, what sense would it yield, “a man being between two boats,
tied hand and foot?” Between two abysses, M. le Pelletier interprets;
but, then, we do not find that, either in Greek or Latin, the word
yields that meaning. He interprets it of Elba and St. Helena. But was
an island ever called an abyss; I think as seldom as ever κύμβη meant
one. Hesychius gives κοῖλος μυχός, a hollow recess, the penetralia of
the women’s apartments, and he adds also βυθός, the depth of the sea, to
explain κύμβος. In Martinius’s “Lexicon Etymol.,” there is a very curious
quotation from Isidore, Bk. 19., which makes the _cymba_ to be the space
occupied by a ship in the displacement of the water beneath it. I think
out of all this we may extract a meaning for the _deux cymbes_. As two
places, or recessed prisons, hollowed out of the sea, he shall be put,
bound hand and foot. The line, to scan correctly, should have the word
_et_ left out.
[346] _Fitine_, φυτόν, plant, scion, child.
[347] _Pocillator_ is cupbearer.
[348] _Faucer_ is fauser, to trick.
[349] _Scyphus_, cup. There is a singular appropriateness in this word,
whether intended or not by Nostradamus, for Athenaeus describes the
Bœotians as first using huge silver drinking-cups, or scyphi, which were
denominated Herculean, because Hercules, who was very fond of feasting,
used such, and first invented the cry of “no heel taps!” _ut libantes
nihil in calice vini relinquerent_. The reader will bear in mind the
_Hercules de Gaule_ of a former quatrain.
[350] _Itales_, _Ætalia_, Elba.
[351] _Par mer_, Gulf of Genoa.
[352] _Forains_, Latin, _foris_, strangers.
[353] _Sauf_, Latin, _sabous_, English, safe.
[354] _Sauf de_ coup de feu.
[355] _Le dard du ciel_ is the thunderbolt.
[356] Latin, _ferire_, to strike.
[357] _Estandue_ is standard.
[358] Latin, _gens_, nation.
[359] Latin, _monstrum_, prodigy.
[360] _Morts_ should be read _Meurt_, perhaps, as referring to Napoleon,
who showed great delight, it is said, when he found that Wellington
intended to fight him. It cannot refer, as Le Pelletier would have it to
do, to the celebrated _mot_ of Cambronne or General Michel, as it has
been proved that it was never uttered at all, but manufactured by a wit
_après coup_.
[361] The stone is in the tree. Le Pelletier would here understand
_silex_, the flint axe of primitive ages. This seems to me to be very
far fetched, and I would rather read, with Garencières, the stone into
thunderstone or aerolite, which seems to be far less forced.
[362] Hyperbaton: the construction is _feront entrée a Paris clos
d’armée_.