"France," "England," "Italy," or "Belgium" is ready for the press. "Oh give but a glance, let a vista but gleam, Of any given country, and mark how they'll feel!" It is not necessary that they should know the common idiom of the natives, or even their own language grammatically; for Lady Morgan (aforesaid) stands convicted, in her printed rhapsodies, of being very little acquainted with French, and not at all with Italian: while her English, of which every one can judge, is poor enough. The Austrian authorities shut the gates of Germany against her impostures, not relishing the idea of such audacious humbug: in truth, what could she have done at Vienna, not knowing German; though perhaps her obstetric spouse, Sir Charles, can play on the German flute? "Lasciami por' nella terra il piede E vider' questi inccnosciuti lidi, Le novità vedute, e dire, 'io fui !" TASSO, Gerus. Lib. cant. 15, st. 38. There is in the county of Kildare a veritable Jesuits' college (of whose existence Sir Harcourt Lees is well satisfied, having often denounced it): it is called "Clongowes Wood;" and even the sacred "Groves of Blarney" do not so well deserve the honours of a pilgrimage as this haunt of classic leisure and studious retirement. Now Lady Morgan wanted to explore the learned cave of these literary cœnobites, and no doubt would have written a book, entitled "Jesuitism in all its Branches," on her return to Dublin; but the sons of Loyola smelt a rat, and acted on the principle inculcated in the legend of St. Senanus (Colgan. Acta SS. Hyb.): "Quid fœminis Commune est cum monachis? Admittamus in insulam." For which Prout's blessing on 'em! Amen. In glaring contrast and striking opposition to this system :f forwardness and effrontery practised by the "lady" and the "prince," stands the exemplary conduct of Denny Mullins. Denny is a patriot and a breeches-maker in the town of Cork, the oracle of the "Chamber of Commerce," and looked up to with great reverence by the radicals and sans culottes who swarm in that beautiful city. The excellence of his leather hunting unmentionables is admitted by the Mac-room fox-hunters; while his leather gaiters and his other straps are approved of by John Cotter of the branch bank of Ireland. But this is a mere parenthesis. Now when the boys in the Morea were kicking against the Sublime Porte, to the great delight of Joe Hume and other Corinthians, a grand political dinner occurred in the beautiful capital of Munster; at which, after the usual flummery about Marathon and the Peloponnesus, the health of Prince Ypsilanti and "Success to the Greeks" was given from the chair. There was a general call for Mullins to speak on this toast; though why he should be selected none could tell, unless for the reason which caused the Athenians to banish Aristides, viz. his being "too honest." Denny rose and rebuked their waggery by protesting, that, 'though he was a plain man, he could always give a reason for what he was about. to the modern Greeks, he would think twice before he either trusted them or refused them credit. He knew little about their forefathers, except what he had read in an author called Pope's Homer,' who says they were 'well-gaitered;' and he had learned to respect them. But latterly, to call a man a Greek' was, in his experience of the world, as bad as to call him a Jesuit;' though, in both cases, few people had ever any personal knowledge of a real Jesuit or a bond fide Grecian." Such was the wisdom of the Aristides of Cork. As Nevertheless, it is not my intention to enter on the debatable ground of "the order's" moral or political character. Cerutti, the secretary of Mirabeau (whose funeral oration he was chosen to pronounce in the church of St. Eustache, April 4, 1791), has written most eloquently on that topic; and in the whole range of French polemics I know nothing so full of manly logic and genuine energy of style as his celebrated "Apologie des Jésuites," (8vo. Soleure, 1778). He afterwards conducted, with Rabaud St. Etienne, that firebrand newspaper, "La Feuille Villageoise," in which there was red-hot enthusiasm enough to get all the châteaux round Paris burnt: but the work of his youth remains an imperishable performance. My object is simply to consider "the Jesuits" in connexion with literature. None would be more opposed than I to the introduction of polemics into the domain of the "belles lettres," or to let angry disputation find its way into the peaceful vale of Tempé, "Pour changer en champ-clos l'harmonieux vallon!" MILLEVOYE. The precincts of Parnassus form a "city of refuge," where political and religious differences can have no access, where the angry passions subside, and the wicked cease from troubling. Wherefore to the devil, its inventor, I bequeath the Gunpowder Plot; and I shall not attempt to rake up the bones of Guy Faux, or disturb the ashes of Doctor Titus :not that Titus, "the delight of the human race," who considered a day as lost when not signalised by some benefaction; but Titus Oates, who could not sleep quiet on his pillow at night unless he had hanged a Jesuit in the morning. I have often in the course of these papers introduced quotations from the works of the Jesuit Gresset, the kind and enlightened friend of my early years; and to that pure fountain of the most limpid poetry of France I shall again have occasion to return: but nothing more evinces the sterling excellence of this illustrious poet's mind than his conduct towards the " order," of which he had been an ornament until matters connected with the press caused his withdrawal from that society. His "Adieux aux Jésuites" are on record, and deserve the admiration which they excited at that period. A single passage will indicate the spirit of this celebrated composition: "Je dois tous mes regrets aux sages que je quitte! Car ne les crois point tels que la main de l'envie Si tu ne les connais que sur ce qu'en publie Ils te sont encore inconnus!" To the sages I leave here's a heartfelt farewell! But to come at once to the pith and substance of the present inquiry, viz. the influence of the Jesuits on the belles lettres. It is one of the striking facts we meet with in tracing the history of this "order," and which D'Israeli may do well to insert in the next edition of his "Curiosities of Literature," that the founder of the most learned, and by far the most distinguished literary corporation that ever arose in the world, was an old soldier who took up his "Latin Grammar" when past the age of thirty; at which time of life Don Ignacio de Loyola had his leg shattered by an 18-pounder, while defending the citadel of Pampeluna against the French. The knowledge of this interesting truth may encourage the great captain of the age, whom I do not yet despair of beholding in a new capacity, covering his laurelled brow with a doctor's cap, and filling the chancellor's chair to the great joy of the public and the special delight of Oxford. I have seen more improbable events than this take place in my experience of the world. Be that as it may, this lieutenant in the Caçadores of his imperial majesty Charles V., called into existence by the vigour of his mind a race of highly educated followers. He was the parent-stock (or, if you will, the primitive block) from which so many illustrious chips were hewn during the XVIIth century. If he had not intellect for his own portion, he most undeniably created it around him he gathered to his standard men of genius and ardent spirits; he knew how to turn their talents to the best advantage (no ordinary knowledge), and, like Archimedes at Syracuse, by the juxtaposition of reflectors, and the skilful combination of mirrors, so as to converge into a focus and concentrate the borrowed rays of the sun, he contrived to damage the enemy's fleet and fire the galleys of Marcellus. Other founders of monastic orders enlisted the prejudices, the outward senses, and not unfrequently the fanaticism of mankind: their appeal was to that love for the marvellous inherent to the human breast, and that latent pride which lurked long ago under the torn blanket of Diogenes, and which would have tempted Alexander to set up a rival tub. But Loyola's quarry was the cultivated mind; and he scorned to work his purpose by any meaner instrumentality. When in the romantic hermitage of our Lady of Montserrat he suspended for ever over the altar his helmet and his sword, and in the spirit of most exalted chivalry resolved to devote himself to holier pursuits-one eagle glance at the state of Europe, just fresh from the revival of letters under Leo X., taught him how and with what weapons to encounter the rebel Augustinian monk, and check the progress of disaffection. A short poem by an old schoolfellow of mine, who entered the order in 1754, and died a missionary in Cochin China, may illustrate these views. The Latin shows excellent scholarship; and my attempt at translation can give but a feeble idea of the original.* Miles resigno. Me nova buc- Me non profani tessera prælii Non indecorus transfuga, gloriæ Domare MENTES, stringere fer vidis Sacro catenis INGENIUM throno, Don Ignacio Loyola's Vigil In the Chapel of our Lady of Montserrat. When at thy shrine, most holy maid! And bared his helmed brow- Had aught to daunt, I trow; Glory!" he cried, "with thee I've Fame! thy bright theatres I shun, Hear and record my vow. The mind of man thy sway shall And to its conqueror bow. Like most other "originals," this is Prout's own.-O. Y. |