Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][graphic]

Various, that the mind of desultory man, studious of change and pleased with novelty, may be indulged-Cowp.

Vol. V.

Philadelphia, Saturday, February 20, 1808.

TRAVELS.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

[blocks in formation]

No. 8.

of information, which was afterwards confirmed by my own observation, and other means of knowledge. The war had been very ruinous to the commerce of Bourdeaux, and was, therefore, by no means a popular thing, to the mercantile people: to his business it had been fatal, ours being the only vessel he had brought in for six weeks. Labour, he told me, was better paid than before the revolution, and the peasantry were now relieved from some disagreeable sources of oppression, but the articles of life were higher, taxes were greater, and the conscription, which kept all the young people in the grasp of the law, was tormenting. The monks and nuns were dispersed, their property sold, and the secular clergy were now as much too poor, as they had been too rich; but religion had not lost ground, the reestablishment of Sunday, as a day of worship, had given universal joy, and a procession had lately taken place, after an interval of many years, to the comfort of all devout people, and never had a procession been so attended, so much indeed were the hearts of people warmed by the rays

P

of returning piety, that it was become customary for the peasant in the collection of his little harvest, to put aside such a portion for the curate as was in great measure equivalent to the tithes of former times: the best meat was ten sols, and bread five sols a pound, and a day-labourer received, besides his maintenance, twenty-five sols a day, which is about an English shilling.

In the course of the third day of our detention, we had some intercourse with the guardship, and prevailed with the captain to remit one day of our quarantine, and you may conceive the alacrity, with which we made sail for Bourdeaux, on the morning of the third of September. The river soon became more narrow and we commanded an extensive view on both sides; on the right the land was still low, but thickly inhabited and abounding in vineyards, which produce the famous Medock wine, on the left there was an endless variety of all that bespeaks a flourishing population, and a well-understood agriculture; farmhouses, villages and churches were in clusters, and the fields were either still yellow from the harvest of grain, or green with vineyards; a ruined monastery, a dismantled castle, and the naked walls of a church, would present themselves, at times, as traces of the revolution, but they very rapidly passed away as if the whole scene before us, had been the effect of a magick lantern. Now and then would appear some very ancient fortress, which seemed to meet the description of Mrs. Radcliffe, that of Blaye in particular attracted our attention; and you may judge how near our vessel eame to it, if you will but take the trouble of looking at that part of the map of France, which represents the course of the Gironde: proceeding

Note. I observed at the same time in several places along the shore, a very simple mode of taking fish by planting stakes in the water, over which they are carried by the tide, and within which they are left, as it recedes.

[ocr errors]

rapidly along, we came next abreast of the cliff where a species of soft stone is procured for the buildings of Bourdeaux, and were all of us made sensible of a very great degree of optical illusion: the idea we entertain of persons seen from the top of a steeple, or of houses as we approach the shore, or of vessels at a distance, is, in a great measure derived from our experience, correcting the operation of our senses; in this instance we were, from a long discontinuation of the exercise of it, unprovided with that self-operating experience, which might have corrected the appearance of objects: these seen through a very clear atmosphere and upon a back ground of dazzling whiteness, seemed as if within one hundred yards, though, in fact at the distance of a quarter of a mile, and consequently appeared most ludicrously small; men and women on horseback seemed like pigmies upon mice, and the large vessels, waiting there for stone, looked as they could have been drawn by a thread, like the fleet of Blefescu.

The river now became narrower, under the name of the Garonne, and it was very evident, by the number of well-built houses, that we were approaching fast to some large commercial town, and shortly after, on turning a point, there appeared a noble city upon the banks of the river, by the appearance of towers, steeples, in the form of a half moon, diversified and elevated buildings, with a double row of dismantled ships (sure eviand a high commanding country of dence of the effects of war) in front, vineyards in the back ground. We had no sooner come to anchor, than the captain went on shore, to bespeak lodgings, and we had leisure for an hour or two to look about us; boats were rowing, in every direction, and several came aboard of us, with fruit, and with all that noisy importunity of service, so new to an American; at length, about half past eight, our captain hailed us from the shore, we landed, found a carriage and were

conducted along a populous and busy part of the city into a large and noble street, where the coachman stopped at the door of a hotel, and we were welcomed into an elegant apartment by a well-dressed, well-looking landlady, who having solicited our orders and directions, with an apparent enthusiasm of obligingness, made her courtesy and retired with an air hardly to be met with on your side of the Atlantick.

While a part of the family were taking a look at our accommodations, for the night, I walked out with Finto the street, which I found lined on one side with large trees, and crowded with people, and could not in the recesses or my mind but acknowledge the goodness of that Providence which had so far enabled me to put in execution a design that I had so long formed. We soon returned to supper, which whatever it might have appeared to persons differently situated, was to us all splendour, luxury, and plenty, and then retired for the night, impatient for the ensuing day, that we might look about us, and survey the new scene into which we had so suddenly been transferred.

(To be continued.)

For The Port Folio. A TREATISE ON ORIENTAL POETRY. (Concluded from page 108.)

SECTION VII.

Of their Panegyrieks.

It will again be Ferdusi who shall furnish here, the example of this kind of poetry. Although he is neither the first nor the last poet who has employed his talents to praise and dishonour the same person, perhaps we shall find enough, curious to see after such a satire, a panegyrick of the same authour on the same Mahmud, King of Persia.

"Under his reign, justice is so universal that the lamb and the wolf drink at the same brook.

From Cachemir even to the sea of China, all the nations confess his glory. As soon as the infant has moistened his lips with the milk of his mother, he raises his head and pronounces the name of Mahmud.

At the banquet, Mahmud is a heaven of liberality, and a lion or a tiger in the day of battle.

When he walks in the garden of roses, wherever he treads lilies are produced beneath his feet.

His splendour makes the world resemble

a grove in the spring; he sweetens the air, he embellishes the earth. The dew of his generosity, in falling upon

the earth, covers it every where with its extension, like the flowery bowers

of Irem.

We see by this essay in what servile manner the Asiaticks praise and almost deify their monarchs. It is useless to extend, any farther, a subject of which we find examples enough in all the Oriental books.

In general, their works commence with the praises of the divinity, afterwards come those of their prophet, and then of their patrons, as we may see in the Bustan of Sadi, of which the first part is translated by Chardin.

The poems of Abulola are the finest and most animated of this kind in the Arabian language. They resemble the odes of Pindar, and the genius of the Arabian, appears the same as that of the Grecian poet. The first ode of Abulola, begins by some reflections upon the deceiving appearances of exterior objects; afterwards the poet relates his travels, and by a natural degression, brings it to the praise of Prince Said, (a word signifying happy).

"The young maidens ask us what we seek; we answer them, Said, and the name of this prince was a happy presage. This hero follows his enemies upon his light courser, and he forms thick forests with his long lances.

His bows drawn by the archers, hasten to fix their arrows in the hearts of his enemies, and his sabres spring out of their scabbards against the necks of his adversaries.

His coursers cast themselves into the combat, and nothing can equal their swift

ness.

After about twenty very fine verses Abulola passes to the recital of his adventures and his amours, he proceeds in censuring the tribe of Bediu, and opposes to its baseness the liberality and greatness of his own prince.

But in the tribe of Adi, is a prince, who does not wait favours to be demanded

of him, he confers them without their being required.

The Pleiades fear his lance, and the Sun after having begun his course, would return to the east, that he may not expose himself to pass over his head. His courser accomplishes the task, which is prescribed to him with an incomparable swiftness, and whilst he is forced across the field of battle, the blood he tramples upon, renders the hough of his foot like a red cornelian. This horse has a higher origin than the courser Alwagih, he descends from a noble race.

Each lock of the hair of our young beauties, languishes to be the chain of his feet, and the sparkling gold desires to ornament his houghs.

Oh, Said! when nature has need of refreshing showers, it is not from the clouds, but from thy hands, whence she expects the precious drops. When the Zephyrs blow from the west, say to them, go," and they will fly to the north.

66

I swear by Heaven, if thou wert enraged against the mountain Tabir, it would change its place.

If thy cimetar were amorous of the necks of thy enemies, it would soon enjoy the object of its desires. When thy sabre is reclothed with its shining scabbard, it seems that it is covered with the stars of the night and that the moon serves it as a sandal. Upon its blade we see two opposite elements; water, when the rays of day play upon it, and fire, when it sparkles with fury.

Its two edges are too eloquent tongues which pronounce the unpremeditative harangue of death.

When the prince draws this sabre it shines

like a celestial vapour in the desert, and bloody death trickles down its blade.

This sabre sounds every cuirass, and dissolves the other cimetars of whatsoever temper they may be.

It takes each coat of mail for a lake, and

languishes to quench its thirst, with the rings interlaced with the armour." It will perhaps be a subject of cu rious speculation for some one when he understands, that this bold and sublime poet was blind from his infancy.

It would have been easy to give many other examples of the different kinds of Oriental poetry of which we have treated: but we shall have

sufficiently accomplished the design which we had in view, if by what has been said of it, the reader is excited to the study of the Oriental languages, a study easier, more instructive, and more amusing than common prejudice can imagine.

soe.

For The Port Folio.
BIOGRAPHY.

The biography of De Foe will call up in almost every mind the agreeable images, presented to childhood and youth, by that most useful of all romances, Robinson CruRestless Daniel, as he is happily named by Pope, possessed original genius, in a very eminent degree, but he degraded his fine talents, by whig virulence, and a vulgar diction. His True Born Englishman is a poem not without vigorous lines, and acrimonious satire, but the sentiments are not at all to our taste. His Essay on Projects is described as one of the most curious, if not the most valuable of his performances, but we have never been able to obtain a copy. D'Israeli mentions it in some of his charming volumes, and Dr. Franklin informs us in his life, that he had perused it with advantage. De Foe was an unbeliever, and it is a remarkable cir. cumstance that most of his party, who profess an extraordinary zeal for civil and religious liberty, are as hostile to the genius of Christianity, as they are to regular government and the stability of the times.

De Foe, a man of talents, but of indifferent character, was the darling of the whig mob, and the contempt of men of genius, because he disgra ced himself by every low artifice as a writer. He wrote poetry, and on politicks; and was a plagiary. But he could, and sometimes did write well: witness his "Robinson Crusoe," a book which has passed

through more editions than perhaps any other of the same description ever did, or will again. I have never known but one person of sense who disliked it-Rousseau, and after him all France applauded it. When Sir Thomas Robinson was in that kingdom, he was even asked, whether he was "Robinson Crusoe." De Foe was born in London, and educated at Newington Green, and was bred a hosier; but he left his trade for the uncertain and dangerous profession of a virulent party writer, which became at length his leading occupation. His "History of the Plague;" of "Colonel Jack;" "New Voyages round the World, by a Company of Merchants," "History of Moll Flanders;"" of Roxana;" Memoirs of a Cavalier;"" Religious Courtship;" and even the "Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," seem only episodes in the drama of his political life. His Shortest Way with the Dissenters," a most scandalous publication, reflecting upon the national government, civil and religious, being decreed infamous by the House of Commons, he was prosecuted for it, found guilty, and sentenced to pay a fine, to imprisonment, and the pillory; and the guilty pamphlet to be burnt by the common hangman. Unabashed, he wrote "A Hymn to the Pillory." To give a catalogue of all his writings would be to transcribe a long list, which, with a very copious account of himself, may be seen under his article, in the new edition of the "Biographia Britannica." De Foe seems well to have understood the spirit and genius of commerce; but in politicks, he was a republican; in religion, an infidel; in character, without a sufficient regard to moral obligation. He has been accused of having acted with cruelty and injustice towards poor Alexander Selkirk, the prototype of Robinson Crusoe, in not only withholding from him a share of the profits of that celebrated performance, but for superadding insult to dishonesty, by resisting his claim with opprobrious lan

guage: but as this has not been proved, it ought not to be believed. Such was De Foe, a man, who, with a right turn of mind, might have gained the esteem of his contemporaries, and the approbation of posterity. Pope compares him to Prynne, a doggrel poet, and eternal political writer, of the 17th century; and the similarity is the more observable, as each had been displayed in a pillory, and each gloried in the disgrace. Pope says, "She saw old Pryn, in restless Daniel shine;

"And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line.*

April 26, 1731, in the parish of St. This extraordinary character died, Giles, Cripplegate, leaving a widow and several children, of whom Norton is the only one whose name is at all known. indeed, who is said to have been a One Joseph De Foe, near descendent, was executed for a felony as late as 1771.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »