332 SKETCHES OF TRAVEL IN BRAZIL. oxyd of iron, pyrites, ferruginous quartz, and often more precious stones. They admit certain quantities of water into the bowls, which they move about so dexterously, that the precious metal separating from the inferior and lighter substances, settles to the bottom and sides of the vessel. They then rinse their bowls in a larger vessel of clean water, leaving the gold in that, and begin again. which are severally chaunted on as many successive evenings. It was really pleasant to hear the sound of a hundred voices mingling in this their chief religious exercise and privilege. This assembling the slaves, generally at evening, and sometimes both morning and evening, is said to be common on plantations in the country, and is not unfrequent among domestics in the cities. Mistress and servants, at these times, meet on a level. The pleasures afforded the latter by such oppor- The washing of each bowlful occupies from five to tunities, in connection with the numerous holy days eight or nine minutes. The gold produced is extremely enjoined by the Roman Catholic religion, form cer- variable in quality and in the size of its particles. The tainly a great mitigation of the hard lot of servitude. operation is superintended by overseers, the result being It was natural that I should form a pretty extensive important. When the whole is finished, the gold is acquaintance with his reverence, the Doctor of Theol- placed upon a brass pan, over a slow fire, to be dried, ogy. I found him not only possessed of a good educa- and at a convenient time is taken to the permutation tion, but of very liberal views. The results of our dis-office, where it is weighed, and a fifth reserved for the cussions upon a variety of topics were by no means government. The remainder is smelted with muriate unsatisfactory to me, although I cannot allude to them of mercury, then cast into ingots, assayed, and stamped here. The duties of a family chaplain embrace little according to its intrinsic value. mere than the task of saying mass in their private Bars of uncoined gold were formerly common in the chapel on holydays and Sundays; and if I was cor- circulating medium of Brazil. It was the boast of an rectly informed, secured in this case but small emolu- aged Paulista, with whom I conversed, that in the days ments in addition to the privilege and honor of accom- of Don John VI, it was not rare to see them large panying the family on its country excursions. enough to use in cracking nuts. Specie of all kinds, except copper, is scarce at present, and seldom met with, except at exchange offices. A few hours search among the strata developed by the excavations, and among the rocks cast up as débris from the washings, rewarded us with as large a quantity of geological specimens as we were disposed to export. In the loose soil bordering upon the washings, we met with beautiful specimens of the black oxyd of manganese. Our examination of the gold washing occurred early one morning before the rays of the sun had acquired sufficient power to cause inconvenience. It was situa- Nothing was doing at these mines when I visited ted in the alluvial soil at the foot of the mountain. them. The aspect of the place was solitary but magVery little of the precious metal is here found in com-nificent. The wide and deep excavations, the empty bination with rocks; but on the contrary it exists in channels of the deserted water-courses, and the huge particles varying in size from the finest dust to the mag- heaps of cascalhao all stood as silent, yet speaking nitude of a buck-shot, or pea. The soil is red and fer-monuments of that sucra auri fames which in every ruginous, and the gold is sometimes found near the sur-age and place has found a lodgment in the human face, but principally mingled with a stratum of gravel breast. The very earth seemed to mourn the desolaand rounded pebbles like that in which diamonds are tions inflicted upon its fair bosom, robbed of verdure as found, and like that, also, denominated cascalhao. The it was for ages, if not for ever-in thankless return for method of searching out the hidden treasure is very sim- the rifled treasure. ple. The first requisite is a stream of water of sufficiently high level to be brought by channels or pipes to the summit of an excavation. The earth is then cut into steps each twenty or thirty feet wide, two or three broad, and about one deep. "Near the bottom a trench is cut to the depth of two or three feet. On each step stand six or eight negroes, who, as the water flows gently from above, keep the earth continually in motion with shovels, until the whole is reduced to liquid mud, and washed below. The particles of gold contained in this earth descend to the trench, where, by reason of their specific gravity, they quickly precipitate. Workmen are continually employed at the trench to remove the stones, and clear away the surface, which operation is much assisted by the current of water which falls into it. After five days' washing, the precipitation in the trench is carried to some convenient stream to undergo a second clearance. For this purpose wooden bowls are provided, of a funnel shape, about two feet at the mouth, and five or six inches deep, called gamellas. Each workman, standing in the stream, takes into his bowl five or six pounds of the sediment which generally consists of heavy matter, such as granular MANY persons seem to be more solicitous for strong emotions than for right emotions. It would perhaps be a fair representation of their state to say the burden of their prayer is, that their souls may be like "the chariots of Aminidab;" or that, like Paul, they may be caught up into the third heavens. They seem desirous, perhaps almost unconsciously to themselves, to experience or to do some great as well as good thing. Would it not be better for them, in a more chastened and humble temper of mind, to make it the burden and emphasis of their supplication, that they may be meek, forbearing, and forgiving, and that they may bear the image of Christ, who came not with observation, but was "meek and lowly of heart ?" CHURCH-YARD REFLECTIONS. Original. CHURCH-YARD REFLECTIONS. IN wandering over one or two of the cemeteries of the city the other day, we were surprised, considering the recent date of the city itself, to observe how much of change and even of dilapidation has already taken place in the monuments before us. But abiding not in the marble and the mound, our thought passed beyond the symbol of decay to its reality; and the short memorials of the place served to awaken the reflection of the impossibility of giving to them a very enduring date. It is not only the mischances of the outward elements that impair the stone and masonry of man's devices, but the very inner elements of himself, the condition of his being, forbid the long endurance and the conservation of his memory upon earth! Nor is it necessary that it should be so; for the record is kept to its own definite use, where it is imperishable, and will also be sealed-in the judgment! That bereaved affection mourns is good and proper; and, within limit, the resignation to God's will salutary. But what of this? The mourner is himself swept into the grave, and those who come after him may in turn take up the wail, but cannot gainsay the decree; and the memory of a few generations is all that, in human sense, can be claimed from the immense of time for the heart. And however fame may affect to perpetuate the lucubrations, the deeds, and the performances of the eminent, yet what is its sympathy! Whilst it effects its mission of instruction and of inspiration, what does it pay back to the memory of the bestower? The cold abstractions of the intellect! the assent of a mental gratitude! the acknowledgment of a posthumous donation! Nor do we bewail this-it is one of the canons of eternity, which says to us, "Thou shalt not seek to unvail the future, neither shalt thou bewail the past;" "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Abide, O|| man, in thy being! Neither a profane curiosity, nor an occult research, shall unvail to thee, nor carry thee beyond thyself! The proper limitation, or the sentiment of remembering our dead, then, is embraced within a century, or "such a time as a man may remember his grand-father." A further retrospect, including many memories, would too much divert from present pursuits, and be a sort of injustice to new performers and new philanthropists; besides that, numerous accumulations would render the thing impossible. And here let us pause, and know how good it is that we die with our own generation. The space is brief, then, whatever may be his desiring, which is allotted to an individual in the minds of others; and to the mere matter of a name, as known to fame, "the breath of other men's opinions," this should not be grievous; for all that is really meritorious in achievement, whether of intellect, or of might, the science, the discovery, the example, remains, and is perpetuated, when the originator, the bestower, has returned to dust. What matter even if his name have perished from the record of his work? That endures for ever, satisfying benevolence, but denying the vanity which 333 has perished with his dust. The benevolence awaits MEDITATION. THE darkness of night overshadows me, and puts out the sight of every object: but mine eye is turned to thee, O my Father. I wake, and watch for the light of thy presence, for the joy of thy love. For the presence of my God, for fellowship with Jesus, for the communion of the Holy Ghost, my soul waiteth. Draw nigh, O Holy Trinity, and let me feel the breath of the Eternal breathed upon me. Speak to this helpless, needy one; this child of dust; and say, receive the Holy Ghost. Speak with that voice which said, “Let there be light," and there was light. In vain is the whisper-that thou art afar off. Thou art near. Thou, O God, seest me. Thine eye is turned towards me, as if I were alone in the vast universe of God, having no one else to look to but thee; and thou having no one else to care for but me. Thine ear is open to my request; and thy hand full of blessings is extended towards me. Mercy overshadows me; it reaches to my wants. O happy suppliant of my Father's bounty, I ask and I receive. I am not alone. The man, Christ Jesus, he is with me. I ask in his name. I present his claim, which thou wilt not deny; therefore am I heard and answered. Thou, O my Father, hast given me a name to plead, which will not only command thine ear, but reach thine heart, and draw down the richest boon a God can bestow-a humble, holy heart. Yes; I can prevail in Jesus' name, and not let my Father go without a blessing. I am not alone. Jesus, at the right hand of God, is pleading with me. Faint and feeble may be the words I utter; but they are heard, and re-echoed by my powerful Intercessor. I will breathe my breath into his ear, and sink in slumber in the arms of his love. Again, the morning dawns, the night passes, the shadows flee away. I awake, and still find myself with thee. The sunbeams of thy love penetrate my soul, and send light and gladness to its very centre. In his light I see light; light compared with which the sun itself is darkness, losing all its splendor. It is the light of the Spirit, shining on the truth, and pointing as with a sunbeam, to the way of holiness, cast up for the ransomed to walk in, which so cheers and gladdens my heart. I had long been a wanderer in the dark, dreary mazes of sin, uncheered by the hope of present salvation. But now the thick scales are fallen from my eyes, and I know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. 334 THE BIBLE AND HOMER. THE BIBLE AND HOMER. OF THE SCRIPTURES AND THEIR EXCELLENCE. How extraordinary, how interesting the work that begins with Genesis, and ends with the Revelation; which opens in the most perspicuous style, and concludes in the most figurative! May we not justly assert, that in the books of Moses all is grand and simple, like that creation of the world, and that innocence of primitive mortals which he describes; and that all is terrible and supernatural in the last of the prophets, like those civilized societies, and that consummation of ages, which he has represented? The productions most foreign to our manners, the sacred books of the infidel nations, the Zendavesta of the Parsees, the Vidam of the Bramins, the Koran of the Turks, the Edda of the Scandinavians, the Sanscrit poems, the maxims of Confucius, excite in us no surprise: we find in all these works the ordinary chain of human ideas; they have all some resemblance to each other both in tone and in ideas. The Bible alone is like none of them: it is a monument detached from all the others. Explain it to a Tartar, to a Caffre, to an American savage: put it into the hands of a bonze or a dervise, they will be all equally astonished by it-a fact which borders on the miraculous. Twenty authors,|| living at periods very distant from one another, composed the sacred books; and, though they are written in twenty different styles, yet these styles, equally inimitable, are not to be met with in any other performance. The New Testament, so different in its spirit from the Old, nevertheless partakes with the latter of this astonishing originality. But this is not the only extraordinary thing which men unanimously discover in the Scriptures: those who will not believe in the authenticity of the Bible, nevertheless believe, in spite of themselves, that there is something more than common in this same Bible. Deists and atheists, small and great, all attracted by some hidden magnet, are incessantly referring to that work, which is admired by the one and despised by the oth OF THE THREE PRINCIPAL STYLES OF SCRIPTURE. Among these divine styles, three are particularly remarkable: 1. The historic style, as that of Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, &c. 2. Sacred poetry, as it exists in the Psalms, in the prophets, in the moral treatises, &c. 3. The evangelical or Gospel style. The first of these three styles, with a charm so great as to baffle expression, sometimes imitates the narrative of the epic, as in the history of Joseph; at others bursts into lyric numbers, as after the passage of the Red Sea; here sighs forth the elegies of the holy Arab; there with Ruth sings affecting pastorals. This chosen people, whose every step is marked with miracles; this people, for whom the sun stands still, the rock pours forth waters, and the heavens shower down manna, could not have any ordinary annals. All known forms are changed in regard to them: their revolutions are alternately related with the trumpet, the lyre, and the pastoral pipe; and the style of their history is itself a continual miracle, that attests the truth of the miracles the memory of which it perpetuates. He who has the slightest portion of taste for the beautiful is marvelously astonished from one end of the Bible to the other. What can be compared to the opening of Genesis? That simplicity of language which is in an inverse ratio to the magnificence of the objects appears to us the utmost effort of genius. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. "And God saw the light that it was good." Homer and Plato, who speak with so much sublimity of the gods, have nothing comparable to this majestic simplicity. God stoops to the language of men, to reduce his wonders to the level of their comprehension, and still he is God. When we reflect that Moses is the most ancient historian in the world; when we consider him as the deliverer of a great people, as the author of one of the most excellent legislative codes that we know of, and as the most sublime writer that ever existed; when we behold him floating in his cradle upon the Nile, after The origin of the world, and the prediction of its wards concealing himself for many years in the deserts, end: The ground-work of all the human sciences: All the political precepts, from the patriarchal government to despotism; from the pastoral ages to the ages of corruption: then returning to open a passage through the sea, to produce streams of water from the rock, to converse with God in a cloud, and finally to disappear on the summit of a mountain; we cannot forbear feeling the highest astonishment. But when, with a reference to All the moral precepts applicable to all the ranks and Christianity, we come to reflect that the history of the to all the incidents of life: Finally, All sorts of known styles-styles, which, forming an inimitable work of many different parts, have nevertheless, no resemblance to the styles of men. Israelites is not only the real history of ancient days, but likewise the type of modern times; that each fact is of a two-fold nature, containing within itself an historic truth and a mystery; that the Jewish people is a symbolical epitome of the human race, representing in THE BIBLE AND HOMER. its adventures all that has happened, and all that ever will happen in the world; that Jerusalem must always be taken for another city, Zion for another mountain, the Land of Promise for another region, and the call of Abraham for another vocation; when it is considered that the moral man is likewise disguised under the physical man in this history; that the fall of Adam,|| the blood of Abel, the violated nakedness of Noah, and the malediction pronounced by that father against a son, are still manifested in the pains of parturition, in the meanness and pride of man, in the oceans of blood, which, since the first fratricide, have inundated the globe, and in the negroes, the oppressed races descended from Ham, who inhabit one of the fairest portions of the earth; lastly, when we behold the Son promised to David, appearing at the appointed time to restore genuine morality and the true religion, to unite all the nations of the earth, and to substitute the sacrifice of the internal man for blood-stained holocausts, we then want words, and are ready to exclaim with the prophet, "Before time existed, God is our King!" In Job the historic style of the Bible changes, as we have observed, into elegy. Several Hebrew scholars are of opinion that this book was written by Moses: here, indeed, we find the same simplicity, the same sublimity as in Genesis, and the same predilection for certain verbs, and certain turns of expression. Job is the perfect type of melancholy; in the works of men we meet with traces of this sentiment; and, generally speaking, all great geniuses are pensive; but no one, not even Jeremiah, he alone whose lamentations, according to Bossuet, come up to his feelings, has carried the sadness of the soul to such a pitch as the holy Arab. In vain we should attempt to account for the tears of Job, by asserting that they were excited by the sands of the desert, the solitary palm tree, the sterile mountain, and all those vast and dreary images of southern nature; in vain we should have recourse to the grave characters of the orientals: all this would not suffice. In the melancholy of Job there is something supernatural. The individual man, however wretched, cannot draw forth such sighs from his soul. Job is the emblem of suffering humanity, and the inspired writer has found lamentations sufficient to express all the afflictions incident to the whole human race. As, moreover, in Scripture every thing has a final reference to a new covenant, we are authorized in believing that the elegies of Job also were composed for the days of mourning of the Church of Jesus Christ: thus God inspired his prophets with funeral hymns worthy of departed Christians, two thousand years before these sacred martyrs had conquered life eternal. "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the Inight in which it was said, A man hath been conceived." *Job iii, 3. We have made use of Sacy's translation, for the sake of such persons as are accustomed to it; we have, however, occasionally deviated from this version when the Hebrew, the Septuagint, or even the Vulgate, employed a more energetic or beautiful expression. 335 Nothing An extraordinary kind of lamentation! but Scripture ever employed such expressions. "For now had I slept in silence, and had been at rest in my sleep."* This expression, I had been at rest in my sleep, is particularly striking. Omit the word my, and the whole beauty of it is destroyed. Sleep YOUR sleep, ye opulent of the earth, says Bossuet, and remain in YOUR dust.t 66 Wherefore is light given to the miserable, and life to those who are in bitterness of heart?" Never did an exclamation of deeper anguish burst from the recesses of a human bosom. "Man that is born of woman liveth but a short time, and is full of many troubles."|| The circumstance, born of woman, is an impressive redundance: we behold all the infirmities of man in the infirmity of his mother. The most elaborate style would not express the vanity of life with such force as these few words; he liveth but a short time, and he is full of many troubles. Finally, every reader is acquainted with that exquisite passage, in which God deigns to justify his power to Job, by confounding the reason of man; we shall therefore say nothing concerning it in this place. The third character under which we have yet to consider the historical style of the Bible is the bucolic character; but of this we shall have occasion to speak at some length hereafter. As to the second general style of the holy Scriptures, namely, sacred poetry, a great number of excellent critics having exerted their abilities on that subject, it would be superfluous for us to go over the ground again. Who, besides, is unacquainted with the choruses of Esther and Athaliah? who has not read the odes of Rousseau and Malherbe? Dr. Lowth's Essay is in the hands of every scholar,§ and La Harpe has left us an excellent prose translation of the Psalmist. The third and last style of the sacred Volume is that of the New Testament. Here the sublimity of the prophets is softened into a tenderness not less sublime; here love itself speaks; here the word is really made flesh. What beauty! What simplicity! The relig ion of the Son of God is the essence as it were of all religions, or that which is most celestial in them. The character of the evangelical style may be delineated in *Job iii, 13. + Funer. Orat. for the Chancellor Le Tellier.. § The deep and various learning of Bishop Lowth, and his elegant and refined taste, give him the strongest claims to the praise here attributed to his work on the sacred poetry of the Hebrews. "What [said he] is there in the whole compass of poetry, or what can the human mind conceive more grand, more noble, or more animated, what is there more beautiful or interesting, than the sacred writings of the Hebrew prophets. They equal the almost inexpressible greatness of the subjects, by the splen dor of their diction, and the majesty of their poetry; and as some of them are of higher antiquity than even the Fables of the Greeks, so they excel the Greek compositions as much in sublimity, as in age."-Lowth's Pralections. 336 STANZAS OF MADAME GUYON. a few words: it is a tone of parental authority mingled with a certain fraternal indulgence, with I know not what commiseration of a God, who, to redeem us, deigned to become the son and the brother of men. For the rest, the more we read the epistles of the apostles, and especially those of St. Paul, the more we are astonished; we know not what to make of the man, who in a kind of common exhortation familiarly introduces sublime expressions, penetrates into the recesses of the human heart, explains the nature of the Supreme Being, and predicts future events. (To be concluded.) 01411 STANZAS OF MADAME GUYON. [TRANSLATED BY COWPER.] "Twas my purpose, on a day, To embark and sail away; As I climbed the vessel's side, Love was sporting in the tide. "Come," he said-"ascend-make haste, Launch into the boundless waste." Many mariners were there, They that rowed us, held their eyes Love, with power divine supplied, Ship and skies were out of sight; Did I with resentment burn Next he hasten'd to convey Still, however, life was safe; Soon I saw him, with dismay, He is gone, whom I adore; How I trembled, then, and fear'd, Frown with wrath, or smile with grace, Yet he leaves me-cruel fate! Be not angry; I resign, Henceforth, all my will to thine; I consent that thou depart, Though thine absence break my heart; Go, then, and for ever too; All is right, that thou wilt do. This was just what love intended; TWILIGHT. TWILIGHT! happiest hour on earth, To thoughtless mortals given, When hush'd the voice of careless mirth, And bless'd and holy thoughts find birth, And lead the mind to heaven. All our repining we give o'er, At the blest hour of even, The thoughtless, wandering, and the gay, That leads to peace and heaven. Thrice blessed hour-O! thou art dear, When from the world we're driven, Thy influence sweetly dries the tear, And calmeth every rising fear, And bids us hope for heaven. |