Bidding adieu to the famous city of Aix-la-Chapelle, which, very untraveller-like, I passed without drinking of its waters, I pushed on, and soon arrived at the city of Juliers, the capital of a Dutchy of that name, sixteen miles from Aix. The Country itself is wonderfully fruitful, teeming with abundance of all sorts of corn, wood, pasture, woad, coal and cattle; above all, a most excellent breed of horses, of which great numbers are exported.
As to the city, though a capital, there was nothing in it that I thought worth attention——that of neatness is its greatest praise. It is not, like Liege, overloaded with enormous church edifices; but, what is much better, the People are opulent, the Poor well supplied, and all happy. In all likelihood, this is owing to the inhabitants being a mixture of Protestant and Roman Catholic; for, by a treaty between the Elector Palatine and the Emperor of Brandenburg, respecting the succession of the territories of the Duke of Cleves, both the Lutherans and Calvinists of this Dutchy, and ofBerg, are to enjoy the public exercise of their religion, and all other religious rites.
If experience would allow us to wonder at any thing in the management of the Rulers of Nations, it must surely be matter of astonishment, that in an article of such consequence as eternity, and which must be directed by private sentiments alone, such violence should systematically be offered to opinion, and that Mankind should be dragooned, as they have been for so many weary centuries, into the profession of particular modes of faith. Combating opinion by force is so absurd, that I am sure those who have attempted it, never could flatter themselves with the slightest hopes of success. It is therefore clear, that it was in motives very different from real wishes for the eternal welfare of Man’s soul, that religious persecution originated. Political finesse and State stratagem are the parents of persecution: and until every Constitution is clean purged of religious prejudices, it must continue to be clogged with obstructions, and involved in confusion. If it be objected that certain religious sects are hostile to certain States, it may be answered, that they are so because the State is hostile to them. Cease to persecute, and they will cease to be hostile——Sublata causa tollitur effectus.It is folly, broad folly, to suppose that there are in any particular religion, seeds of hostility to government, any more than in any particular name, complexion, stature, or colour of the hair. Put, for experiment, all the men in the kingdom, of above five feet ten inchesheightheight, under tests and disqualifications, (and it would befull as rational as any other tests)——and, my life for it, they would become hostile, and very justly, too; for there is no principle, human or divine, that enforces our attachment to that Government which refuses us protection, much less to that which brands us with disqualifications, and stigmatises us with unmerited marks of inferiority.
The States of this Dutchy, and that of Berg, consist of the Nobility and the Deputies of the four chief towns of each; and they lay claim to great privileges in their Diets—but they are subject to the Elector Palatine, to whom they annually grant a certain sum for the ordinary charges of the Government, besides another which bears the name of a free gift.
Some Authors say that this town was founded byJulius; others deny it; the dispute has run high, and is impossible to be determined: fortunately, however, for Mankind, it does not signify a straw who built it; nor could the decision of the question answer any one end that I know, of instruction, profit or entertainment.Parva leves capiunt animas.Those who rack their brains, or rather their heads, for brains they can have none, with such finical impertinent inquiries, should be punished with mortification and disappointment, for the misuse of their time. But what else can they do? You say, Why, yes; they might sit idle, and refrain from wasting paper with such execrable stuff; and that would be better. By the bye, if there were two good friends in every library in Europe, licensed to purge it, like the Barbar and Curate inDonQuixotte, of all its useless and mischievous stuff, many, many shelves that now groan under heavy weights would stand empty.
Travelling over a very even road, and a country extremely flat, (for from Aix-la-Chapelle I met with but one hill), I arrived at Cologne, the capital, not only of the Archbishopric of that name, but of the Circle of the Lower Rhine. My spirits, which were not in the very best tone, were not at all raised on entering the city, by the ringing of Church-bells, of all tones and sizes, in every quarter. Being a stranger, I thought it had been a rejoicing day; but, on inquiry, found that it was the constant practice. Never, in my life, had I heard such an infernal clatter: never before had I seen any thing so gloomy and melancholy——the streets black——dismal bells tolling——bald-pated Friars, in myriads, trailing their long black forms through the streets, molding their faces into every shape that art had enabled them to assume, in order to excite commiseration, and begging alms with a melancholy song calculated for the purpose, somewhat like that of our blind beggars in London, and productive of the same disagreeable effect upon the spirits. In short, I was not an hour in Cologne, when those circumstances, conspiring with the insuperable melancholy of my mind, made me wish myself out of it.
Nevertheless, Cologne is a fine city; and if it be any satisfaction to you to spin those fine imaginary ligaments that, in the brain of the book-worm, connect the ancient and modern world, I will inform you, that it was anciently calledColonia Agrippina, becauseAgrippina, the mother ofNero, was born there, and honoured it with a Roman Colony, because it was her birth-place. The mind, forced back to that period; and contemplating the mischiefs of that monsterNero, cannot help wishing that Cologne had been burnt the night of her birth, and MissAgrippinaburied in the ruins, ere she had lived to give birth to that scourge of the world.
Although the established religion here be the Roman Catholic, extraordinary as it may appear, they are very jealous of powers and though the Elector, by his officers, administers justice in all criminal causes, they will not permit him, in person, to reside above three days at a time in the city, nor to bring a great train with him when he visits it; for this reason he commonly resides at Bonne.
Cologne has a very considerable trade, particularly in Rhenish wine; and its gin is reckoned the best in the world, and bears a higher price than any other in all the Nations of Europe.
Like all great Roman Catholic cities, it has a profusion of churches, crosses, miracles, saints, and church trinkets; and I really think it has more steeples and bells than any two cities in Germany. As Liege was called the Paradise of Priests, this ought to be called the Golgotha of Skulls and Skull-caps. In the church of SaintUrsula, they shew, or pretend at least to shew, the bones of eleven thousand Virgin Martyrs. The skulls of some of those imaginary Virgins are in silver cases, and others in skull-caps, of cloth, of gold, and velvet. And in the church of SaintGerion, are no lessthan nine hundred heads of Moorish Cavaliers, of the army of the EmperorConstantine, (previous to that Saint’s conversion to Christianity), who they say was beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to idols: by the bye, the Popish Divines burn, instead of beheading, for not sacrificing to idols——Every one of those heads, however, has a cap of scarlet, adorned with pearls. The whole forms a spectacle, no doubt, equally agreeable and edifying. It struck me, however, as an extremely ludicrous sight, malgre the solemnity of so many death’s heads: and when their story was recounted, I could not help internally chuckling, and saying (rather punningly, to be sure), “Ah! whatblockheadsye must have been, to suffer yourselves to be separated from your snug warm bodies, rather than drop down and worship an idol, in which so many good Christian Divines have shewn you an example!” This, you will conclude, I said to myself: an avowal of my sentiments in that place might have given my head a title to a scarlet cap and pearls; and as I had some further use for it, I did not think it expedient to leave it behind me in the Church of SaintGerion——so, very prudently, kept my mind to myself.
Coming out of the Church, a multitude of beggars, all in canonicals, or student’s habits, surrounded, beseeching me for alms——one, pour l’amour deDieu; another, pour l’amour de la Sainte Vierge; a third, pour le salut de notre Redempteur; a fourth, pour l’amour de SaintGerion; and so on!
When I had gone as far as I wished in donations, another attacked me: though I told him my charity-bank was exhausted, he persevered, and was uncommonly solicitous——till at length, having exhausted the whole catalogue of Saints that are to be found in the Calendar, he raised his voice from the miserable whine of petition, and exclaimed with great energy,“Par les neuf cent tetes des Cavaliers Maures qui sont sanctifies au Ciel, je vous conjure de me faire l’aumone!”This was too formidable an appeal to be slighted; and so, in homage to the skulls and red caps, I put my hand in my pocket, and stopped his clamours.
Those miserable modes of peculation are the most pardonable of any produced by the Church: we have no right to regret a trifle sacrificed at the shrine of compassion, even when that compassion is mistaken; but our reason revolts at imposition, when it calls coercion to its aid, and assumes the name of right.
Without any national predilection, which you know I am above, I think our Church affairs in Scotland are arranged upon a better system than any other that I know of: hence their Clergy are in general examples worthy of imitation, for learning, piety, and moral conduct.
Laboured investigations to establish connections between the history of the ancient and business of the modern world, and virulent disputes about trifles of antiquity, such as in what year this place was built, or that great man was born, when and whereJulius Cæsarlanded in England, whether he passed this road or that, what routeHannibaltook over the Alps, and such like, are so essentially uninteresting, useless and unimportant, so unprofitable, and, one would think, so painful too, that it is wonderful how so many men of great learning have been unwise enough to employ their lives in the research.
It does not follow, however, that when information that tends to recall to our minds the great men of antiquity is presented to us, we should reject it. A man of classical taste and education feels a delight in those little memorials of what gave him pleasure in his youth. I know a Gentleman, who, being at Seville, in Spain, travelled to Cordova, for no other purpose but to see the town whereLucanandSenecawere born: and I dare say, that if you were at Cologne, you would be much pleased to see the Town-house, a great Gothic building, which contains a variety of ancient inscriptions;the first to commemorate the kindness ofJulius Cæsarto the Ubii, who inhabited this place, and of whom you have found mention made by him in his Commentaries, and also his building two wooden bridges over the Rhine: a second commemoratesAugustussending a colony here. There is also a cross-bow of whalebone, twelve feet long, eight broad, and four inches thick, which they who speak of it conjecture to have belonged to the EmperorMaximin’s. There are also some Roman inscriptions in the arsenal, the import of which I now forget.
It is very extraordinary, but certainly a fact, that there are, about Cologne, families yet existing, who indulge the senseless ambition of pretending to be descended from the ancient Romans, and who actually produce their genealogies, carried down from the first time this city was made a colony of the Roman Empire. Of all kinds of vanity, this is perhaps the most extravagant: for, if antiquity merely be the object, all are equally high, since all must have originated from the same stock; and if it be the pride of belonging to a particular family who were distinguished for valour or virtue, a claim which often only serves to prove the degeneracy of the claimant, it could not apply in the case of a whole People: but this is among the frailties of humanity; and we are often so dazzled with the splendour of terrestrial glory, that we endeavour to be allied to it even by the most remote and ridiculous connections. I heard of a man, whose pride and boast, when drunk, was, that DeanSwifthad once thrown his mother’s oysters (she was anoyster-wench) about the street, and then gave her half a crown as an atonement for the injury. On the strength of this affinity did he call the Dean nothing butCousin Jonathan, though the Dean was dead before he was born!
But of all the stories I have ever heard as illustrative of this strange ambition, that which the late LordAnsonhas left us is the most striking. When that great man was travelling in the East, he hired a vessel to visit the island of Tenedos: his pilot, a modern Greek, pointing to a bay as they sailed along, exclaimed in great triumph, “There, ay, there it was that our fleet lay.”——“What fleet?” interrogatedAnson——“Why, our Grecian fleet, at the siege of Troy,” returned the pilot.
While those doughty descendants of the ancient Romans indulge the cheerless idea of their great and illustrious line of ancient ancestry, the Prince who rules them felicitates himself with the more substantial dignities and emoluments of his modern offices. As Elector and Archbishop of Cologne, he has dominion over a large, fruitful and opulent country: he is the most powerful of the ecclesiastical Electors: he has many Suffragan Princes, lay and spiritual, under him; and he is Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire. The revenues of his Archbishopric amount annually to one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling; and as Elector, he is possessed of several other great benefices. I presume, because he is a Prince, that he is a man of sense; and, I will venture to say, that, as such, he would not barter those good things for thepower to demonstrate thatLucretiawas his aunt,Brutushis grandfather, and the greatJulius Cæsarhimself his cousin-german.
Christchose his disciples out of fishermen. The Chapter of Cologne is, perhaps, on the contrary, the very most Aristocratic body existing, being composed of forty Canons, who are Princes or Counts of the Empire——Of those, twenty-five choose the Archbishop, and may advance one of their own body to that great and wealthy dignity, if they please.
From Cologne I proceeded to the town of Bonne, which is said to take its name from the pleasantness of its situation. Here the Elector resides, and has a very fine palace. The country around is extremely fruitful and pleasant, and is blessed with most of the good things which render the Rich magnificent and happy, and remind the Poor of their inferiority and wretchedness——particularly wine, which is here remarkably excellent. It contains Churches, Priests, Convents, Cloisters, &c.; but I need not mention them——what place could exist without them?
I should not forget to tell you, that, at this place,Julius Cæsarbuilt one of his bridges across the Rhine——works which would have handed down to posterity the name of a common man, for the magnitude of the structure and ingenuity of the contrivance, but are lost in the crowd of astonishing talents which distinguished that brightest of mortals. The greatest Biographer of Antiquity says of him, that he was as great a General asHannibal, asgreat an Orator asCicero; and as great a Politician asAugustus; but it might be added, that he was among the first Poets of his day——that he was of the first mechanical genius, and the finest gentleman, in Rome.
Nature seems to have formed, inCæsar, a compendious union of all human talents, as if to demonstrate how unavailing they were when opposed to strict rigid honesty and virtue in the character ofBrutus.
To go from Bonne to Frankfort, there are two ways——one over the mountains of Wetterania, the other up the river Rhine. I made no hesitation to adopt the latter, and was rewarded for my choice with the view of as fine a country, inhabited by as fine a race of People, as I had ever seen. Valleys filled with herds, plains enamelled with corn-fields, and the hills covered with vineyards, regaled the eye, and conveyed to the mind all the felicitating ideas of plenty, natural opulence, and true prosperity. My anxiety, however, to get forward, and disengage myself from a species of solitude in a country where, though travelling is cheap, accommodations of most kinds in the public houses are bad, induced me to push on, without taking the time necessary for making accurate observations on the country as I passed; so that, gliding, as it were, imperceptibly, through a number of towns, of which I recollect nothing distinctly but the names of Coblentz and Mentz, I arrived at the great, free and imperial city of Frankfort on the Maine.
Here I shall stop, for a short time, my relation, in order to give you time for just reflection and examination of what I have already written: and as, in the latter part of it, I have skimmed very lightly over the country, I desire that you will supply the deficiency of my information by close research in books; inform yourself of the great outlines of the Germanic Constitution; look back to its origin, its progress, and its establishment; thence proceed to the distinct parts, or inferior States, of which it is composed; ponder them all well; and from those draw your own inferences, and let me hear what they are with freedom: should they be wrong, I will endeavour to set them right; but should they be right, they will afford me the most lively satisfaction; for they will serve to correct one of the greatest errors under which youth labours——an overweening, sanguine imagination, that things in this life are, or at least can be modelled into perfection; whereas experience, and a just observation of the history of Mankind, will shew, that on this ball things will never be as they ought, but must remain as they are——imperfect.
The country about Frankfort is delightful, rich and fruitful, and watered by the beautiful river Maine, which divides the city into two parts, that on the North being called Frankfort, and that on the South, Saxenhausen, from the Saxons, who are supposed to have been the founders of it. The city itself is large, populous and rich, and distinguished for being the place where the Emperor and King of the Romans is elected——though, by the appointment ofCharlemagne, Cologne has a superior claim to that honour. The Magistrates, and great part of the inhabitants, are Lutherans or Calvinists; notwithstanding which, most of the Churches are in the hands of the Roman Catholics——a laudable instance of the true tolerant spirit of a wise and virtuous institution, and a heavy reflection upon, as well as a noble example to the Popish Powers of Europe.
The territory belonging to Frankfort is of very considerable extent; and the trade carried on through it, by means of the rivers Rhine and Mayne, of very great importance, not only to the country itself, but to other commercial nations, and particularlyto Great Britain, whose manufactures are sent to Frankfort, and thence circulated through the Continent, in amazing quantities.
The fairs of Frankfort are talked of all over Europe——of such importance are they in the world of commerce. They are held, one at Easter, and another in September, and continue for three weeks, during which time the resort of people there from all quarters is astonishing. Every thing is done by the Government to render them as attractive to Merchants as possible; and the taxes or duties are extremely low——a bale of the value of ten or twenty thousand crowns paying duty only about ten or eleven pence of our money. All commodities from all parts of the world are sold there, and circulated through the Empire; but, particularly, books are sold in prodigious quantities. After the fairs are over, the shops of the foreign Merchants are shut up, and their names written over their doors.
To give an idea of the great importance these fairs are to commerce, I need only mention, that in the present war, the impediments thrown by the French in the way of the transit of goods up the Rhine, and the shutting up that fair, gave a most alarming paralysis to the manufacturing establishments of England, and a shock to public credit in consequence, that would, but for the timely interference of Parliament, have, in all probability, been fatal to the national credit.
Frankfort is in many respects a pleasant place: the Merchants are extremely convivial and sociable, and form clubs, where theymeet to drink tea and coffee, and play at cards. There is a play-house also, a great number of coffee-houses, and other houses of entertainment in abundance. The country around is covered with woods and vineyards; and the circumjacent villages are very pleasant, and well supplied with houses of entertainment, to which the inhabitants of the city resort in the Summer season; and the inns in Frankfort are excellent.
A singular custom prevails here, which I think worth mentioning: Taverns are denoted by pine-trees planted before the doors of them; and the different prices of the wines in their cellars are marked in ciphers on the door-posts.
In the town here is presented the original Golden Bull, or Pope’s Authority, which contains the rules and orders to be observed at the election of the Emperors. This Golden Bull is never shewn to strangers but in the presence of two of the Council and the Secretary——It is a little manuscript in quarto, consisting of forty-two leaves of parchment, with a gold seal of three inches diameter, of the value of twenty duckets, hung to it by a cord of yellow silk. It is said to be written in Latin and Gothic characters, without diphthongs; and kept in a black box, together with two written translations of it into the German language.
It is said of Frankfort, that the Roman Catholics possess the churches, the Lutherans the dignities, and the Calvinists the riches. It is therefore one of the few places in Christendom where the churches and the riches do not go into the same hands.
From Frankfort to Augsburgh, I passed through a number of towns, all of them so very inconsiderable as not to merit any particular description. The way lies from the Palatinate through the Circle of Suabia. In the extreme end of the Palatinate, and immediately before entering the Dutchy of Wirtemberg, the country is covered with fir-trees; and money is so scarce in it, that a loaf of wheaten bread, weighing eight pounds, costs but two pence.
The city of Augsburgh is the capital of a Bishopric of that name in the Circle of Suabia, and is worthy of the attention of the classical traveller for its antiquity. About twelve years before the birth ofChrist,Augustus Cæsarsubdued all this country, and, on the place where Augsburgh now stands, formed a colony, gave the town the name of Augusta Vindelicorum, and put it under the government ofDrusus, the brother ofTiberius, afterwards Emperor of Rome. The inhabitants of this place were the Vindelic, a branch of the Illyrians. But, ancient though it be, it has little more of antiquity to entitle it to notice than the bare name; for it has been pillaged so often, particularly by that monsterAttila, that there are scarcely any remains of its antiquity to be found.
Augsburgh is now, however, a handsome city——the public buildings in general magnificent, and adorned with fountains, water engines of a curious construction, and statues.
The most rich and splendid part of the town belongs to a family of the name ofFuggers(originally descended from a weaver), who enriched themselves by commerce, and one of whomrendered not only himself, but the whole family, conspicuous, by entertaining the EmperorCharlesthe Fifth in a superb manner, and supplying him with money, and then throwing his bond into the fire; in return for which, the Emperor made him a Count of the Empire.
This city is remarkable for goldsmiths’ ware; and its mechanics are equal to any in the world, for works in gold, ivory, clocks, and time-pieces; and they engrave better than any people in Germany, which brings them considerable profits. But what they are, above all other people, eminent for, is the manufacturing steel-chains so prodigiously fine, that when one of them, of a span in length, has been put about the neck of a flea, it lifts up the whole of it as it leaps; and yet those are sold for less than a shilling of our money a piece.
Controversy, and difference in religious opinions, which has almost, ever since the commencement of Christianity, disgraced the human understanding, and defaced society, imposes upon the liberal, well-thinking traveller, the office of satirist but too often. Augsburgh, however, is a splendid exception, and holds up a most glorious spectacle of manly sense, generous sentiment, justice, and I will say policy too, vanquishing that shark-jawed enemy of Mankind, bigotry. The Magistracy of Augsburgh is composed of about an equal number of Protestants and Roman Catholics——their Senate consisting of twenty-three Roman Catholics and twenty-two Lutherans, and their Common Council of a hundred and fifty ofeach: The executive power is lodged in the Senate——the legislative authority in both bodies. But, what is hardly to be found any where, they all, as well as the People, agree together in the most perfect harmony, notwithstanding the difference of religion; and at all tables but the Communion table, they associate together, dip in the same dish, and drink of the same cup, as if they had never heard of the odious distinction of Papist and Protestant, but as being bound to each other by the great and irrefragable bond of humanity: fellow-creatures, affected by the same feelings, impelled by the same passions, labouring under the same necessities, and heirs to the same sufferings, their means of assuaging the one, gratifying or resisting another, and supplying the third, are the same, though chequered and varied a little in the mode——the road alone different, the ends alike. Is it not cruel, then——is it not intolerable, that the calamaties inseparable from humanity should be aggravated with artificial stings, and the nakedness of human nature exposed, and rendered more offensive, by factitious calamities of human contrivance? Cursed were those who first fomented those disputes, and cast those apples of discord through the world: blind were they who first were seduced from the paths of peace by them; and more cursed, and more blind, must they be, who, in this time of intellect and illumination, continue, on the one hand, to keep up a system so wicked and so detestable, or, on the other, to submit to error at once so foolish and so fatal.
For the reasons mentioned in my last, Augsburgh is a most agreeable place to live in. Touched with the sensations natural to a man who loved to see his fellow-creatures happy, my heart expanded to a system of peace and harmony, comprehending the whole globe: my mind expatiated involuntarily on the blessings and advantages derived from such a system; and, taking flight from the bounds of practicability, to which our feeble nature is pinned on this earth, into the regions of fancy, had reared a fabric of Utopian mold, which, I verily believe, exceeded in extravagance the works of all the Utopian architects that ever constructed castles in the air.
Hurried on by this delightful vision, my person paid an involuntary obedience to my mind; and the quickness of my pace increasing with the impetuosity of my thoughts, I found myself, before I was aware of it, within the Chapel-door of the Convent of the Carmelites. Observing my error, I suddenly turned about, in order to depart, when a Friar, a goodly person of a man, elderly, and of a benign aspect, called me, and, advancing towards me,asked, in terms of politeness, and in the French language, why I was retreating so abruptly——I was confused: but truth is the enemy before whom confusion ever flies; and I told him the whole of my mistake, and the thoughts from which they arose.
The good father, waving further discourse on the subject, but with a smile which I thought carried a mixture of benevolence for myself, and contempt for my ideas, brought me through the Church, and shewed me all the curiosities of the place, and particularly pointed out to me, as a great curiosity, a sun-dial made in the form of a Madonna, the head enriched with rays and stars, and in the hand a sceptre which marked the hours.
Quitting the Chapel, and going towards the Refectory, the Friar stood, and, looking at me with a smile of gaiety, said, “I have yet something to shew you, which, while Lady Madonna marks the time, will help us to pass it; and, as it will make its way with more force and subtlety to your senses than those I have yet shewn you, will be likely to be longer retained in remembrance.”
He spoke a few words in German, which of course I did not understand, to a vision bearing the shape of a human creature, who, I understood, was a lay-brother; and, turning down a long alley, brought me to his cell, where we were soon followed by the aforesaid lay-brother, with a large earthen jug of liquor, two glasses, and a plate with some delicately white biscuit.
“You must know,” said the Friar, “that the Convent of Carmelites at Augsburgh has for ages been famed for beer unequalledin any part of the world; and I have brought you here to have your opinion——for, being an Englishman, you must be a judge, the Britons being famed for luxury, and a perfect knowledge of thesavoirsavoirvivre.” He poured out, and drank to me: it looked liker the clearest Champaigne than beer——I never tasted any thing to equal it; and he seemed highly gratified by my expressions of praise, which I lavished upon it, as well from politeness, as regard to truth.
After we had drank a glass each, “I have been reflecting,” said the Friar, “on the singular flight of fancy that directed your steps into this Convent——Your mind was diseased, my son! and a propitious superintending Power has guided your steps to a physician, if you will but have the goodness to take the medicine he offers.”
I stared with visible marks of astonishment.
“You are surprised,” continued he; “but you shall hear! When first you disclosed to me those sickly flights of your mind, I could on the instant have answered them: but you are young——you are an Englishman——two characters impatient of reproof: the dogmas of a Priest, I thought therefore, would be sufficiently difficult to be digested of themselves, without any additional distaste caught from the chilling austerity of a Chapel.”
I looked unintentionally at the earthen jug, and smiled.
“It is very true,” said he, catching my very inmost thoughts from the expression of my countenance——“it is very true! gooddoctrine may, at certain times, and with certain persons, be more effectually enforced under the cheering influence of the social board, than by the authoritative declamation and formal sanctity of the pulpit; nor am I, though a Carmelite, one of those who pretend to think, that a thing in itself good, can be made bad by decent hilarity, and the animation produced by a moderate and wise use of the goods of this earth.”
I was astonished——
“You fell into a reverie,” continued he, “produced by a contemplation of the happiness of a society existing without any difference, and where no human breath should be wasted on a sigh, no ear tortured with a groan, no tears to trickle, no griefs or calamities to wring the heart.”
“Yes, father!” said I, catching the idea with my former enthusiasm; “that would be my wish——that my greatest, first desire.”
“Then seest thou,” interrupted he, “the extent of thy wish, suppose you could realize it, which, thankGod! you cannot.”
“What! thankGodthat I cannot? are these your thoughts?”
“Yes, my son; and ere Madonna marks the progress of ten minutes with her sceptre, they will be your’s too.”
“Impossible!”
“Hear me, my son!——Is not death a horrible precipice to the view of human creatures?”
“Assuredly,” said I——“the most horrible: human laws declare that, by resorting to it for punishment, as the ultimatum of all terrible inflictions.”
“When, then,” said he, “covered as we are with misery, to leave this world is so insupportable to the human reflection, what must it be if we had nothing but joy and felicity to taste of in this life? Mark me, child!” said he, with an animated zeal that gave an expression to his countenance beyond any thing I had ever seen: “the miseries, the calamities, the heart-rendings, and the tears, which are so intimately interwoven by the great Artist in our natures as not to be separated in a single instance, are in the first place our security of a future state, and in the next place serve to slope the way before us, and, by gradual operation, fit our minds for viewing, with some sort of fortitude, that hideous chasm that lies between us and that state——death. View those miseries, then, as special acts of mercy and commiseration of a beneficient Creator, who, with every calamity, melts away a link of that earthly chain that fetters our wishes to this dismal world. Accept his blessings and his goods, when he sends them, with gratitude and enjoyment: receive his afflictions, too, with as joyous acceptance, and as hearty gratitude. Thus, and not otherwise, you will realize all your Utopian flights of desire, by turning every thing to matter of comfort, and living contented with dispensations which you cannot alter, and, if you could, would most certainly alter for theworse.”worse.”
I sat absorbed in reflection——The Friar, after some pause, proceeded——
“Errors arising from virtuous dispositions and the love of our fellow-creatures, take their complexion from their parent motives, and are virtuous. Your wishes, therefore, my son! though erroneous, merit reward, and, I trust, will receive it from that Being who sees the recesses of the heart; and if the truths I have told you have not failed to make their way to your understanding, let your adventure of to-day impress this undeniable maxim on your mind——so limited is Man, so imperfect in his nature, that the extent of his virtue borders on vice, and the extent of his wisdom on error.”
I thought he was inspired; and, just as he got to the last period, every organ of mine was opened to take in his words.
“’Tis well, my son!” said he——“I perceive you like my doctrine: then (changing his manner of speaking, his expressive countenance the whole time almost anticipating his whole words) take some more of it,” said he gaily, pouring out a fresh glass. I pleaded the fear of inebriety——“Fear not,” said he; “the beer of this Convent never hurts the intellect.”
Our conversation continued till near dinner-time; for I was so delighted, I scarcely knew how to snatch myself away: such a happy melange of piety and pleasantry, grave wisdom and humour, I had never met. At length, the Convent-bell tolling, I rose: he took me by the hand, and, in a tone of the most complacent admonition, said, “Remember, my child! as long as you live, rememberthe Convent of the Carmelites; and in the innumerable evils that certainly await you if you are to live long, the words you have heard from old FriarAugustinewill afford you comfort.”
“Father!” returned I, “be assured I carry away from you a token that will never suffer me to forget the hospitality, the advice or the politeness of the good fatherAugustine. Poor as I am in natural means, I can make no other return than my good wishes, nor leave any impression behind me: but as my esteem for you, and perhaps my vanity, make me wish not to be forgotten, accept this, (a seal ring, with a device in hair, which I happened to have on my finger); and whenever you look at it, let it remind you of one of those, I dare say innumerable, instances, in which you have contributed to the happiness and improvement of your fellow-creatures.”
The good old man was affected, took the ring, and attended me to the Convent gate, pronouncing many blessings, and charging me to make Augsburgh my way back again to England if possible, and take one glass more of the Convent ale.
Leaving Augsburgh, I travelled through Bavaria a long way before I reached the Tyrol County, of the natural beauty of which I had heard much, and which I therefore entered with great expectations of that sublime gratification the beauties of Nature never fail to afford me. I was not disappointed; indeed, my warmest expectations were exceeded.
The first thing that strikes a traveller from Bavaria, on entering it, is the fort of Cherink, built between two inaccessible rocks which separate Tyrol from the Bishopric of Freisingen. So amply has Nature provided for the security of this Country against the incursion of an enemy, that there is not a pass which leads to it that is not through some narrow defile between mountains almost inaccessible; and on the rocks and brows of those passes, the Emperor has constructed forts and citadels, so advantageously placed, that they command all the valleys and avenues beneath.
After a variety of windings and turnings through mountains of stupendous height and awful aspect, I began to descend, and entered the most delightful valley I had ever beheld——deep, long,and above a mile in breadth——surrounded with enormous piles of mountains, and diversified with the alternate beauties of nature and cultivation, so as to form an union rarely to be met with, and delight at once the eye of the farmer, and the fancy of him that has a true taste for rural wildness. From the heights in descending, the whole appeared in all its glory; the beautiful river Inn gliding along through it longitudinally, its banks studded with the most romantic little villages, while a number of inferior streams were seen winding in different courses, and hastening to pour their tribute into its bosom.
Here I felt my heart overwhelmed with sensations of transport, which all the works of art could never inspire: here Nature rushed irresistible upon my senses, and, making them captive, exacted their acknowledgment of her supremacy: here vanity, ambition, lust of fame and power, and all the tinselled, gaudy, frippery to which habit and worldly custom enslave the mind, retired, to make way for sentiments of harmony, purity, simplicity, and truth: here Providence seemed to speak in language most persuasive, “come, silly Man, leave the wild tumult, the endless struggle, the glittering follies, the false and spurious pleasures which artifice creates, to seduce you from the true——dwell here——and in the lap of Nature study me:” Here, oh! here, exclaimed I, in a transport which bereft me, for the time, of every other consideration, here will I dwell for ever. The charm was too finely spun, to withstand the hard tugs of fact; and all its preciousdelusions vanished before a host of gloomy truths——deranged affairs——family far off, with the distance daily increasing——the hazards and the hardships of a long untried journey——and the East Indies, with all its horrors, in the rear. I hung my head in sorrow; and, offering up a prayer to protect my family, strengthen myself, and bring us once more together in some spot heavenly as that I passed through, was proceeding on in a state of dejection proportionate to my previous transports, when I was roused by my postillion, who, pointing to a very high, steep rock, desired me to take notice of it. I did so; but seeing nothing very remarkable in its appearance, asked him what he meant by directing my attention to it——He answered me in the following manner, which, from the singularity of the narrative, and his strange mode of telling it, I think it would injure to take out of his own words: I will, therefore, endeavour, as well as I can, to give you a literal translation of it; and, indeed, the impression it made on my memory was such, that, I apprehend, I shall not materially differ from his words:
“You must know, Sir, (for every one in the world knows it), that all these mountains around us, are the abodes of good and evil spirits, or Genii——the latter of whom are continually doing every malicious thing they can devise, to injure the people of the country,——such as leading them astray——smothering them in the snow——killing the cattle by throwing them down precipices——nay, when they can do no worse, drying up the milk in the udders of the goats——and, sometimes, putting between young men and theirsweethearts, and stopping their marriage. Ten thousand curses light upon them! I should have been married two years ago, and had two children to-day, but for their schemes. In short, Sir, if it were not for the others——the good ones——who are always employed (and the blessed Virgin knows they have enough on their hands) in preventing the mischiefs of those devils, the whole place would be destroyed, and the country left without a living thing, man or goat!”
Here I could not, for the life of me, retain my gravity any longer, but burst, in spite of me, into an immoderate fit of laughter, which so disconcerted and offended him, that he sullenly refused to proceed with the story any farther, but continued marking his forehead (his hat off) with a thousand crosses, uttering pious ejaculations, looking at me with a mixture of terror, distrust and admiration, and every now and then glancing his eye askance toward the hills, as if fearful of a descent from the evil spirits.
My curiosity was awakened by the very extraordinary commencement of his narrative; and I determined, if possible, to hear it out: so, assuring him that I meant nothing either of slight or wickedness by my laughter——that I had too serious ideas of such things to treat them with levity——and, what was more convincing logic with him, promising to reward him for it——he proceeded with his story as follows:
“Well, Sir, you say you were not sporting with those Spirits——and fortunate it is for you: at all events, SaintJohn of Godbe ourguide, and bring us safe to Innspruck. Just so the greatMaximilianwas wont to laugh at them; and you shall hear how he was punished for it——and that was the story I was about to tell you. The EmperorMaximilian, that glory of the world, (he is now in the lap of the blessed Virgin in Paradise), once on a time, before he was Emperor, that is to say, when he was Archduke, was always laughing at the country people’s fears of those spirits——and an old Father of the Church forewarned him to beware, lest he should suffer for his rashness: so one day he went out hunting, and at the foot of that mountain a most beautiful Chamois started before him; he shot at it, and missed it——(the first shot he had missed for many years, which you know was warning enough to him)——however, he followed, shooting at and missing it, the animal standing every now and then till he came up within shot of it: thus he continued till near night, when the goat disappeared of a sudden, and he found himself buried, as it were, in the bowels of the mountain: he endeavoured to find his way out, but in vain; every step he took led him more astray, and he was for two days wandering about,Christsave us! in the frightful hollows of those mountains, living all the time on wild berries: on the second night he bethought himself of his want of faith, and of the saying of old FatherJerome; and he fell on his knees, and wept and prayed all night; and the Virgin heard his prayers, he being a good man, and above all, an Emperor——Godbless you and me! we should have perished——In the morning, a beautiful young man, dressed in a peasant’s habit,came up to him, gave him victuals and wine, and desired him to follow him, which he did, you may be sure, joyfully——but, oh blessed Virgin! think what his surprise must have been, when, getting again into the plain out of the mountain, the young man disappeared and vanished all of a sudden, just at the foot of that steep rock which I shewed you, and which ever since goes by the name of the Emperor’s rock——You see what a dangerous place it is, and what dangerous spirits they must be that would not spare even the holy Roman Emperor. In my mind, the best way is to say nothing against those things, as some faithless people do, and to worship the Virgin and keep a good conscience, and then one will have the less to fear.”
By the time he had ended his narrative, we were in sight of Innspruck, when I annoyed and terrified him afresh, by laughing immoderately at the end of his story——but attoned in some measure for it, by giving him half a florin.
On inquiring at Innspruck, I found thatMaximilianhad actually lost his way in the mountain, and had been conducted out of it by a peasant, who left him suddenly; the rest was an exaggerated traditionary tale, arising from the superstitious fears of the country people.