Translated From The Spanish.

Under the enlightened patronage of these princely merchants, Florence became the Athens of Italy, and one of the favorite retreats of the muses. Her public halls were crowded with youths eager to listen to an eloquent hellenist, expatiating upon the beauties of Homer; her poets sang in the idiom of the great Mantuan; her philosophers were smitten with love for the divine Plato; and her scholars were so well read in antiquity, that students from every country came thither, to slake their thirst at what was then considered the fountain-head of ancient lore. The gardens of the Medici recalled the groves of the Academies in which the Athenian philosopher descanted upon human and divine things, and the shady porches of the Lyceum, in which the Stagirite perambulated whilst delivering his sublime lessons.

A great bustle might have been observed in these gardens on the 11th of December, 1475; artists and humanists were vieing with one another in congratulating Lorenzo the Magnificent on the birth of his second son, who, in memory of his paternal uncle, was christened Giovanni. Lorenzo was proud of his little Benjamin, and he listened with complacency to those who admired his keen, restless eye, his pure and noble forehead, his flowing hair and snowy neck. In contemplating the sweet expression of his countenance, the poet declared that he would revive classic literature; and the Neoplatonician predicted a bright era for philosophy; whilst a fugitive Hellene read in the Greek profile of the infant happy days for his dispersed countrymen; and an old sage, endowed with Simeon-like prophecy, exclaimed, "My soul, praise the Lord! Giovanni shall be the honor of the sanctuary."

The education of the young child's heart and the embellishment of his mind were, for his enlightened parents, objects of supreme importance. The former duty necessarily devolved upon themselves; and how well they succeeded was best shown by the mild and placable temper, polished manners, and kind and affable disposition of their little favorite; the latter they entrusted to scholars whose names even then were running through the schools of Europe, especially to Politiano, one of the best classical writers of therenaissance, and the preceptor of a pleiad of illustrious men. Naturally docile, well endowed with parts, in constant intercourse with men of rank and talent, Giovanni acquired a dignity of deportment, a facility of conversation, and a fund of knowledge, much beyond his years. At sixteen, he had completed the curriculum of Pisa, was graduated doctor and invested with the insignia of the cardinalate, and thus entitled to take his seat among the princes of the church. These precocious acquirements and early preferments ought to have ripened into days of serenity; but no, they were more like the calm that precedes the storm. Brought up in the school of prosperity, he was to acquire his last finish amidst the rude trials of adversity. Before attaining the highest dignity that can adorn the brow of man, he was destined to experience the instability of human affairs and the fickleness of men. The death of his father, and the demise of his munificent protector, Innocent VIII., inflicted deep wounds on his sensitive heart.In the mean time, a terrific storm was gathering in Florence. The inhabitants of this metropolis, exasperated at the seemingly unpatriotic conduct of Piero de' Medici, his elder brother, expelled from within their walls even the last scion of their noblest family; something like the ungrateful Athenians, who ostracized the very man on whom they had conferred the title of just. To cheer the dreary hours of exile, no less than to enrich his mind with useful knowledge, the expatriated cardinal resolved upon visiting the principal cities of Europe. Even here, difficulties and disquietudes unforeseen lurked in the background of the smiling ideal that he had formed of his itinerary. The suspicious authorities of Ulm and Rouen arrested the little caravan, and ordered him and his companions to confinement; the foaming billows deterred him from proceeding to England, and thus deprived him of the pleasure of visiting the land of Bede and of King Alfred. On his return, he was cast by a storm on the Genoese coast, and, thinking it advisable to relinquish his voyage, proceeded by land to Savona, where he met the celebrated Cardinal Della Rovere—a remarkable coincidence, if we consider that Della Rovere, Giulio de' Medici, and he himself were afterward raised to the dignity of the tiara. Notwithstanding all the afflictions that poured in on him, the future pontiff invariably preserved that equanimity of mind and amenity of manners which were the prominent features in his character. Better and brighter days were now about to dawn. The premature death of Piero, partially disarmed the hostility of the Florentines, and they finally threw open their gates to the illustrious representative of the time-honored family of the Medici. A year had hardly elapsed after his restoration before Rome was plunged into mourning by the death of that wary and energetic pontiff, Julius II. The conclave assembled immediately after the obsequies, and Cardinal de' Medici was called by the unanimous vote to the see of St. Peter. Giovanni de' Medici was now Leo X., and the choice of that name, as Erasmus spiritually remarks, was not without its significance. If Leo I. saved the eternal city from the ravages of the "scourge of God;" if Leo IV. again repelled from her walls the barbaric bands of Saracens, Leo X. was to make her the capital city of the republic of letters, as she was already the starry centre of the Christian world.

Italy had already taken the lead in the restoration of ancient learning, and supplied the fire from which the other nations lighted their torches. [Footnote 171] As may easily be fancied, the elevation to the pontificate of the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent spontaneously awoke the most sanguine expectations of the artists and literati. In their fervor, they imagined that genius, worth, and talent could not remain unnoticed or unremunerated. "Under these impressions," says a Protestant writer, [Footnote 172]

[Footnote 171: Hallam,Literature of Europe, vol. i. ch. i.]

[Footnote 172: Roscoe,Life and Pontificate of Leo, vol. i. p. 306.]

"Rome became, at once, the general resort of those who possessed or had pretensions to superior learning, industry, or ability. They all took it for granted that the supreme pontiff had no other objects of attention than to listen to their productions and to reward their labors." That their hopes were to be realized, was evident to all from the very first act of the new pontiff's administration, the selection as apostolic secretaries of Bembo and Sadoleti, two scholars who resume in themselves the intellectual life of the time—Sadoleti, a profound philosopher and the best exegete of his age; and Bembo, who emulated Virgil and Cicero with equal success, and recalled in his writings the elegance of Petrarch and Boccaccio. [Footnote 173]

[Footnote 173: Bettinelli. It is to Bembo that we are indebted for the restoration of the long-lost art of abbreviated or shorthand writing.]

A new era in literature and art was about to dawn; its first bright rays were for Italy, that "land of taste and sensibility." With a pontiff who could say, "I have always loved accomplished scholars andbelles-lettres; this love was born with me, and age has but increased it; for literature is the ornament and glory of the church; and I have always remarked that it knits its cultivators more firmly to the dogmas of our faith;" with such a pontiff, the intellectual movement that then pervaded Italian society was nobly sustained and enlivened, until at last the golden age again reappeared on earth. All sorts of encouragements, such as honorary employments, lucrative offices, pecuniary gratuities, and even ecclesiastical preferments, were lavished upon talent and genius. Every latent energy luxuriantly budded forth and blossomed in the genial sunshine of such munificence.

The academies of literary men philosophized on the banks of the Tiber or in the cool recesses of a fragrant villa. The lovers of the arts, the votaries of the muses, and the cultivators of polite literature sat side by side at the sumptuous banquets frequently given in the Vatican. At these grand entertainments all topics were convivially canvassed, and fancy soared aloft to delight the guests by her sublime improvisations. Popular favorites, like the poet of Arezzo and the "celestial" Accolte, read their productions in public halls to admiring multitudes; while the best scholars of the age, yielding to the invitation of Leo, filled the professorships of the great universities. Italy was then, in the beautiful words of Audin, "the promised land of the intellect;" [Footnote 174] and Rome the centre of learning and the nursery of great men. No wonder, then, that the snow-capped Alps presented but a feeble barrier to the transalpine scholar, and that every day some new Hannibal descended their craggy flanks and pushed forward to the seven-hilled city, to pay a courteous visit to the accomplished pontiff, and gratify a long-entertained desire of conversing with the celebrities of the age. The whole world thus recognized that

"The fount at which the panting mind assuagesHer thirst of knowledge, quaffing there her fill,Flows from th' eternal source of Rome's imperial hill."[Footnote 175]

[Footnote 174:Vie de Luther, vol. i. p. 179.]

[Footnote 175: Byron,Childe Harold, Canto III.]

Since the days of Petrarch, the Italian muse had all but hushed her lovely strains; her lyre was silent and unstrung. Politiano came, swept its music-breathing chords, and sent its sweet notes on the wings of the zephyrs throughout the Italian peninsula. All listened with rapture to the enchanting strains of the Tuscan siren, and, after a moment of hesitation, prepared their pens to write on every theme and to illustrate every department of science and letters. The classic models of heroic poetry, fresh from the Aldine presses or half consumed by the dust of ages, were taken down from their shelves and studied with passionate ardor. The children of song were delighted with the epic muse, and were now hard at work at their great poems.Mozarello elaborates hisPorsenna; Querno, the archpoet, cadences the twenty thousand verses of hisAlexias; Vida, like Horace of old, draws up the rules of the metrical art, and sings hisChristiadin verses of Augustan purity and elegance; Ariosto, the Homer of Ferrara, condenses into hisOrlando Furiosoa vein of poetry so remarkable for its grace and energy as to leave it doubtful whether the palm of superiority should be awarded to him, or to the author of theJerusalem Delivered. [Footnote 176] The terrible eventualities of tragedy and the more pleasing casualties of comedy were brought upon the stage by Trissino, Ruccellai, and Bibbiena; the protean burlesque assumed its most humorous forms under Berni's magic pen, and the shafts of satire were keenly pointed by Aretino, whose virulent epigrams drew upon him such an amount of physical retaliation that a contemporary writer calls him "the loadstone of clubs and daggers." [Footnote 177]

[Footnote 176: Laharpe.Cours de Littérature, vol. i. p. 435.]

[Footnote 177: See Addison,Spectator, No. 23.]

Guicciardini wrote the history of his country with the elegant diction of the great historians of Rome; Giovio's periods were so flowing as to make Leo X. declare that next to Livy he had not met with a more eloquent writer. ThePrinceof Macchiavelli enjoys a world-wide reputation, and hisHistory of Florenceis so remarkable for the beauty of its style, that it is said to have had more influence on Italian prose than any other work, except theDecameronof Boccaccio. Besides these reigning stars, there was a host of other literary celebrities who shed a brilliant lustre on Leo's golden reign. There was Fracastoro, who, at the early age of nineteen, had won the highest academic degree of the Paduan university, and was nominated to the professorship of logic; Navagero, whose aversion to an affected taste was so intense that he annually consigned to the flames a copy of Martial; Aleandro, who was only twenty-four when the celebrated Manuzio dedicated to him his edition of theIliad, alleging as a reason for conferring this honor on a person so young, that his acquirements were beyond those of any other person with whom he was acquainted, and it is well known that the Venetian typographer was the friend and correspondent of almost all the literary characters of the day; Augurelli, whom a contemporary historian calls the most learned and elegant preceptor of his time; Castiglione, who was called by Charles V. the most accomplished gentleman of the age; Leonardo da Vinci, who, long before the philosopher of Verulam, proclaimed experiment the base of the physical sciences, and, before the astronomer of Thorne, taught the annual motion of the earth; and Calcagnini, who wrote an elaborate work to defend this startling thesis. The correction of the calendar was investigated by Dulciati, and even hieroglyphics found an expounder in the encyclopedic Valeriaro, who wrote no less than fifty-eight books on that abstruse subject. Literature, indeed, was a universal hobby; it was the royal road to distinction in an age when the love of the well-turned period and the mellifluous sonnet was epidemic. The lady cultivators of polite letters were numerous, and not only accomplished proficients but formidable rivals. The sonnets of Veronica Gambara rank among the best; Vittoria Colonna, in lively description and genuine poetry, excelled all her contemporaries with the sole exception of the inimitable Ariosto; and Laura Battifera is represented as the rival of Sappho.

Notwithstanding this general enthusiasm for the amenities of literature, great attention was bestowed upon the more arid study of languages. Already the Latin muse had come to dwell again beneath the beautiful sky of Ausonia; and the humanists, fleeing from the savage fury of the triumphant Ottomans, sang, in the gardens of Florence and on the banks of the Tiber, the fall of Troy and the adventures of Ulysses. Leo X. was not only a Latin scholar, he was also a refined hellenist. Moreover, he knew what vast treasures of patristic lore are contained in the Greek fathers, and hence, as a lover of sacred and profane literature, he lavished his treasures on the revival of that beautiful tongue. A little colony, fresh from the Morea, was installed in a magnificent mansion on the Esquilian hill, and a Greek seminary was opened to impart to the Italians the true pronunciation and the very genius of the Homeric idiom. The famous Lascaris, at the invitation of Leo X., relinquished his position at the French court, in order to direct the studies of his young countrymen and superintend the editions of the Greek classics that were issued from the Roman press. The Hebrew was taught at Rome by Guidacerio, who published a grammar of that language and dedicated it to Leo X.; the Syriac and Chaldaic were taught at Bologna by Ambrozio, a regular canon of the Lateran, who at fifteen could converse in Greek and Latin with as much ease and fluency as any of his contemporaries, and who subsequently mastered eighteen languages. A useful and authentic lexicon was first given to the learned world by Varino. A new Latin version of the Bible from the Hebrew having been announced by Pagnini, Leo X. requested an interview with the author, and was so well pleased with his competency as well as with the elegance and accuracy of the work, that he defrayed all the expenses of transcription and publication. Erasmus, who corresponded with Leo, and, more than any one else, knew his great desire to promote biblical studies, inscribed to him hisNew Testamentin Greek and Latin with corrections and annotations. Giustiniani commenced, in 1516, a new edition of the Bible in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic. If to this we add that the famous Cardinal Ximenes dedicated to Leo X. his herculean work, the Complutensian Polyglot, we shall have some idea of the efforts made in the beginning of the sixteenth century toward the promotion of scriptural and philological studies. [Footnote 178]

[Footnote 178: It may here be remarked, in passing, that, before the Reformation, the Bible was translated into not only the classic and oriental languages, but also the vernacular of every nation of Europe. For particulars, see Cantu,Histoire Universelle, vol. xv. p. 12.]

It has been said that a genuine love of literature invariably evinces its existence by an insatiable thirst for books, "those souls of ages past." This love Leo X. possessed to an eminent degree; he was a second Nicholas V. At his request and under his patronage, sterling bibliophiles set out from Rome to overrun the world in quest of manuscripts. The monasteries of Britain and Germany and the ruins of the Byzantine libraries were diligently searched; ample pecuniary remuneration was everywhere offered for unpublished works; and as kings and princes encouraged this hunt after books, it may easily be fancied that volumes teemed in from every quarter. The Vatican was made the recipient of these literary treasures; and, thanks to the zeal of the popes, it now possesses the most valuable collection of manuscripts in the world.

Leo X. was not only a man of letters, he was also well versed in antiquities. Prior to his elevation to the pontificate, his greatest delight was to shut himself up in his library or museum, and there pore over his hoarded treasures. This antiquarian taste he inherited from his illustrious ancestors, whose collections were famous throughout all Italy. One day, while he was yet a cardinal, a statue of Lucretia was exhumed; his joy was supreme, and in the heat of his enthusiasm, he strung his lyre and commemorated the happy event in beautiful iambics. On another occasion, a piece of sculpture, representing the ship of AEsculapius, was, owing to his exertions, discovered in the Tiber. This was considered by his omen-liking friends as an augury of his future dignity. The discovery of the famous group known as the Laocoön was an epoch in Rome. That evening, the bells were rung to announce the event; the poets, among whom was Sadoleti, lucubrated all night, preparing their hymns, sonnets, and canzoni, to welcome the reappearance of the masterpiece. Next morning, all Rome was on foot, and the public works were suspended while the antique statue, festooned with flowers and verdure, was carried processionally to the capitol, amidst the sound of vocal and instrumental harmony. Such was the joy of the Roman artists on the discovery of a relic of ancient art.

The twin arts painting and sculpture shared largely in the munificence of the pontiff. Bramarte, Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci, the princes of modern art, were the worthy emulators of Phidias and Apelles. In immortalizing their names and that of their patron, they immortalized their age and their country. At their call, genius again returned to earth, and exhibited, in the chiselled marble and on the glowing canvas, such animated representations as filled the eye with wonder and stirred the deep foundations of the heart. Bramarte planned and commenced St. Peter's, which, in the estimation of the sceptic Gibbon, is the most glorious structure that has ever been applied to religion; for

"Majesty,Power, glory, strength, and beauty, all are aisledIn the eternal ark of worship undefiled."

Michael Angelo, whose very fragments have educated eminent artists, continuing the noble structure, placed the pride of Roman architecture in the clouds, and drew the design of the Last Judgment, which connoisseurs pronounce a miracle of genius. Raphael covered the Vatican with his inimitable frescoes and sketched his Transfiguration, which was hailed by the Roman people as the type of the beautiful, a paragon of art, and the masterpiece of painting. The profound Da Vinci painted the Last Supper and thus afforded Christian families a neat ornament for their refectories and a piece of artistic finish for their drawing-rooms. Sansovino's productions, according to the historian of the arts, were among the finest specimens of the plastic art, and Romano's were worthy of his "divine" master.

Such was the flourishing state of the arts and the great impulse given to all branches of learning just before the memorable epoch when the fetters of the human intellect were, forsooth, burst asunder by the great Saxon hero, the unfrocked monk of Wittemberg, against whom Leo X. hurled the bolt of excommunication. If this grand impetus was not followed up, if the pen was forgotten for the sword, and the altars of Apollo were deserted for those of the homicide Mars; if the era of the reformation "was truly a barbarous era," [Footnote 179] it most certainly was not owing to incapacity on the part of the Roman pontiffs, since sectarians themselves proclaim them "in general superior to the age in which they lived," [Footnote 180] while historians of the depth of Neander are struck with admiration to find the popes "ever attentive to the moral and religious wants of their people;" [Footnote 181] but it must be attributed to the immediate effects of the so-called Reformation, that spirit of blind fanaticism which was equalled only by the wholesale brigandage and all-destroying vandalism of the sainted evangelicals.

[Footnote 179: Schlegel,Philosophy of History.]

[Footnote 180: Roscoe,Life and Pontificate of Leo X.]

[Footnote 181: Neander,General History of the Christian Religion and Church.]

A kind dispensation of Providence it was, that saved Leo X. the sight of the harrowing scenes that Europe then presented. He had already occupied the throne of St. Peter eight years, eight months, and nineteen days, during all which time he had faithfully guarded the interests of the church against royal encroachments, and the liberty of his dominions against foreign aggression; he had presided over the last seven sessions of the oecumenical council of Lateran, and conferred on an English monarch the title ofDefensor fidei;and now, in the forty-seventh year of his age, cruel death takes him from the affection of his subjects, the love of his cardinals, and the veneration of men of letters. Sad was the day when it was told that Leo X. was no more. Artists and humanists dropped a tear for their friend and benefactor; the sculptor and the painter commemorated their deceased Maecenas in the virgin marble and on the glowing canvas, while the historian wrote the annals of his reign and the poet embalmed his memory in immortal verse. Rome erected his monument, and posterity, admiring the virtues of the Christian, reverencing the eminent qualities of the pontiff, and idolizing the protector of letters and art, has called the age in which he lived the golden age of Leo the Tenth.

"Humble flowers of religious poetry, and derivations of popular expressions and proverbs," is the title given by the authoress to the article headed "Cosas (humildes) de España" —Humble Things of Spain.

If there exists an individual who has read all that we have written—and the case, though not probable, is nevertheless not impossible—he must have noticed that our zeal, our labor, and our specialty is to find out origins and causes, draw inferences and conclusions, and trace things to their why and wherefore. We are really apprehensive lest in this branch we may become too notable.

Our system is the same that is followed nowadays by writers of history. Let it be understood that we do not meddle with such weighty subjects, nor venture into profound depths, and that our employment of the aforesaid modern system is solely in questions of the humble schools. Our information is all obtained from popular traditions, romances, and beliefs. The data which it is our delight to place in relief, all the world has handled as the Indians did gold before their conquerors gave it value; as future generations will give value to the things of which we treat when they lament their loss.

Our explorations in these rich mines have been rewarded. We have ascertained that the first tree that God planted was the white poplar; therefore the white poplar is the most ancient of trees—the vegetable Adam. We have learned that the serpent went straight, erect, and proud of his triumph in Paradise, until the flight into Egypt, when, encountering the Holy Family, he attempted to bite the child Jesus, and the indignant St. Joseph prevented him with these words, "Fall, proud one, and never rise again!" From that good day to this he has crawled. We have learned, moreover, that snakes and toads are permitted to exist solely for the purpose of absorbing the poisons of the earth. We have found out that the evergreen trees are endowed with their privileges of life and beauty in recompense for having given shelter and shade to the Mother and Child whenever they stopped to rest in their flight from the sword of Herod; that the rosemary enjoys its fragrance and always blossoms on Friday, the day of Our Lord's Passion, because the Blessed Virgin, when she washed the little garments of the babe, used to hang them to dry upon its branches; also, that for this very reason it has the gift of attracting peace and good-hap to the dwellings that are perfumed with it on Holy-night. That everybody has sympathy, affection, and even reverence for the swallows, because compassionately and with such sweet charity they pulled out the thorns that were piercing the temples of the divine Martyr. That the red-owl, which, grieved and appalled, witnessed the cruel crucifixion of the God-man, has done nothing ever since but repeat the melancholy cry "Cruz! Cruz!" That the rose of Jericho, which was white before, owes its purple hue to a drop of the wounded Saviour's blood that fell into its cup. That on Mount Calvary, and all along the way of agony, the gentle plants and fresh herbs wilted and died when our Lord passed by bearing his cross, and that these places were presently covered with briers. That the lightning loses its power to hurt in the whole circumference that is reached by the sound of praying. That at High Mass on Ascension-day, at the moment of the elevation, the leaves of the trees incline upon each other, forming crosses, in token of devotion and reverence. When newborn infants smile, in dreams or waking, we know that it is to angels, visible only to them. A murmur in the ears is the noise made by the falling of a leaf from the tree of life. When silence settles all at once upon several persons forming a company, it is not, as the wise ones say, because "the carriage is running upon sand," but because an angel has passed over them, and the air that is moved by his wings communicates to their souls the silence of respect, though their comprehension fails to divine the cause. Likewise, we have ascertained that the tarantula was a woman extravagantly fond of the dance, and so inconsiderate that when, on one occasion, she was dancing, and His Divine Majesty [Footnote 182] passed by, she did not stop, but continued her diversion with the most frightful irreverence. For this she was changed into a spider with the figure of a guitar delineated upon its back, and possessed of a venom that causes those who are bitten by it to dance and dance until, fainting and exhausted, they fall down in a swoon.

[Footnote 182: The Blessed Sacrament.]

In effect, we have learned many other things: some of them we have already written; the rest we mean to write; that is to say, "If the rope does not break, all will go on as usual."

But, among these things, there is one which we are going to communicate immediately, for fear lest we die of cholera, and it descend with us into the tomb; for it barely survives at present, and with it would perish its remembrance.

In times when faith filled hearts to overflowing, offerings andex-votoswere brought by thousands to the house of God. Now that we are enlightened, we have other uses for our gold, our rare objects, and fine arts; for, as the poet says,

"En el sigh diez y nueveNadie á tener fé se atreve,Y no huy que en milagros cred."[Footnote 183]

[Footnote 183: In the nineteenth century, no one dares to have faith and there is no one who believes in miracles.]

It is well—or, better said, it is ill.

The first ostrich eggs procured by the Spaniards, in their voyages to Africa, were regarded as marvels, and deposited, either as offerings orex-votos, in the churches, where, bound and tied with gay ribbons, they hung before the altars and were looked upon as ornaments of great value. And even now, before modest altars in humble villages are sometimes seen these enormous eggs; presenting with their worn and faded decorations the appearance of porcelain melons. By whom were they brought? where were they found? who hung them here? are questions that assault the mind of the beholder, and send his thoughts and fancy into the vast field of conjectures impossible to verify, but all sweet, romantic, and holy.

The imagination of the Spanish people is aninstinct. They cannot see a material object without attaching to it an ideal. Out of the fervor of their own heart they made a symbol of this.

The belief adapted to the ostrich egg, hung in front of the altar, is one that will be sagely qualified by sanctimonious devotees of literal truth as superstitious and fanatical. We offer it to the Protestant missionaries who favor us with their propaganda, as a killing weapon against the benighted and malignant papists.

It is said that the mother-bird cannot hatch these eggs, which appear to be of marble, because it is impossible for her to cover them, and because there is not heat enough in her body to warm them through; but that she has in her look such fire, kindled by her great desire to free her offspring, that by keeping her eyes continuedly and without distraction fixed upon the eggs, the ardor and concentration of her love penetrates the hard shell and delivers her little ones. And they hung these eggs before the places where the holy sacrifice of the mass is offered, to teach us to keep our eyes fixed upon the altar with equal desire, equal love, and exclusive attention and devotion. O poets! if you would fulfil your mission, which is to move the heart, learn less in palaces, and more from the people who feel and believe.

Among sayings and proverbs that have been accepted everywhere without having to show their parentage, is the well-known expression,Ahi me las den todas:May I get them all there.

One of the creditors of a certain dishonest fellow, that owed all the world and paid nobody, laid his complaint before the judge, who sent an alguacil to suggest to the debtor the necessity of paying at once.

For response to the intimation, the debtor gave the alguacil, who was a very dignified man, a slap on his face. The latter, returning to the tribunal, addressed the magistrate thus: "Sir, when I go to notify an individual on the part of your worship, whom do I represent?" "Me," answered the judge. "Well, sir," proceeded the alguacil, touching his cheek, "to this cheek of your worship they have given a slap." "May I get them all there," replied the judge.

Here is the etymology of another saying,Quien no te conozea te compre:Let some one buy you that don't know you. Three poor students came to a village where there was a fair. "What shall we do to amuse ourselves?" asked one as they were passing a garden in which an ass was drawing water from a well. "I have already hit upon a way," answered another of the three. "Put me into the machine, and you take the ass to the fair and sell him." As it was said, so it was done. When his companions had gone, the student that had remained in the place of the ass stood still. "Arre!" [Footnote 184] shouted the gardener, who was at work not far off.

[Footnote 184: Geho!]

The improvised ass neither started nor shook his bell, and the gardener mounted to the machine, in which, to his great consternation, he found his ass changed into a student. "What is this?" he cried. "My master," said the student, "some ill-natured witches transformed me into an ass, but I have fulfilled the term of my enchantment and returned to my original shape."

The poor gardener was disconsolate, but what could be done? He unharnessed the student, and, bidding him go with God-speed, set out sorrowfully for the fair to buy another beast. The very first that presented itself was his own, which had been bought by a company of gipsies. The moment he cast his eyes upon it, he took to his heels, exclaiming, "Let some one buy you that don't know you."

Yo te cono cí ciruelo—I knew you when you were a plum-tree—is a common saying. The people of a certain village bought a plum-tree of a gardener, for the purpose of having it converted into an effigy of St. Peter. When the image was finished and set up in the church, the gardener went to see it, and, observing the somewhat lavish coloring and gilding of its drapery, exclaimed:

"Gloriosisimo San Pedro,Yo te cono cí ciruelo,Y de tu fruta comi;Los misagros que tu hagasQue me me los cuelgan á mi!""Most glorious Saint Peter!I knew you when you were a plum-tree,and ate of your fruit;the miracles you do,let them hang upon me."

Ya saco raja—He has got a share—is often said, and we trace it to Estremadura, where the live-oak groves are divided into rajas;rajabeing the name of an extension yielding acorns enough to feed a given number of hogs. When therajasare public property, they are distributed at a trifling rent to the poorer householders, who are, as will be supposed, very anxious to have them. But to obtain one is difficult, for theayuntamientos, or town councils, generally give them to theirprotégésand hangers-on; and, from this circumstance, "He has got a hog-pasture," has come to be said of any person that by skill, cunning, audacity, or good luck succeeds in obtaining an advantage difficult to get, or of which the getting depends upon some one else.

El que tiene capa escapa—He that wears a cloak escapes—dates from the giving way of the new bridge at Puerto Santa Maria, under the weight of the great crowd that had collected upon it. To prevent thefts and disturbances, Captain-General O'Kelly issued an order to the effect that no person wearing a cloak should be allowed to cross the bridge. In consequence of this order, no one wearing a cloak fell into the river.

It is usual to indicate that a person is poor by saying,El esta á la cuarta pregunta—He is at the fourth question. This assertion is derived from the interrogation of witnesses for the defence in suits when, among other circumstances, that of poverty is wished to be proved. This extreme being comprehended in the fourth question, as follows: "Does the witness know, of his own knowledge, that the party he represents is poor, and possesses neither landed property nor income; so that he has absolutely no means of support except the product of his own labor?"

Chanced it, where along the strandSoftly foaming broke the sea,Lay an oyster on the sand'Mid her neighbors merrily:And her shelly doors, ablazeWith the sapphire's thousand rays,She had opened to the sighOf the zephyrs flitting by.Fell into her bosom thereJust a single drop of rain—Just a rain-drop dull and plain:When, behold! a jewel rare—A sudden pearl exceeding fair!Chanced it on the heath hard byThat a viper, lurking dread,Uttered then her hissing cry—To the zephyr raised her head:When upon her dart accurstFell a rain-drop like the first:Just a drop of poison moreTo recruit her venom's store.With twofold nature are our hearts endued,Nor open less to evil than to good:Responding kindly to the tiller's care,The soil becomes what skilful hands prepare.Dear parents, take you heed. If yours the willTo guard your children's sacred innocence,Be timely care and foresight the defence;And drop by drop instilInto their little spirits thoughts of good,To be their daily food.If you are wise, through years to comeA pearl of a child will make you blest:If not, you'll cherish in your homeA very poison to your rest.

The testimony of so distinguished an authority as M. E. Littré, of the French Institute, is now added to that of Digby, Maitland, Montalembert, and so many others, to show that the middle ages were not "barbarous." M. Littré, as is well known, is very far from being a Catholic; but, treating the subject with his great erudition from a purely historical point of view, he shows, in hisEtudes sur les Barbares et le Moyen Age, that, after the frightful degeneration of the Roman world—a degeneration aggravated and precipitated by the violent immixtion of barbarous peoples—the period of the middle ages was an era of renovation in institutions, in letters, and in morals; a renovation, slow, it is true, but certain and continuous; a renovation entirely due to Catholicity, revivifying by powerful and fecund impulsion the antique foundation formed by pagan society, and augmenting it by all that Christianity possesses superior to paganism. On this beneficial and constantly civilizing influence of the church, which formed the moral unity of a world whose material unity had disappeared, re-educating people fallen into infancy, rescuing letters by her schools, clearing the forests by her monks, founding social and political institutions worthy of the name, and the like of which the Roman empire had never seen—for the reason that all its conceptions of man and of liberty were false, and it could never raise itself to the idea of a spiritual power that was independent of the lay power—on all these points, so worthy the attention of the historian, there are, particularly in the first two chapters, some admirable pages. M. Littré speaks with admiration of the spread of monachism in the west, and distinctly recognizes the many great blessings that followed in its train. He (p. 3) reproaches Gibbon with having ignored the importance of the religious fact of Christianity. And yet his "naturalism" has led him astray from the conclusion to which the invincible logic of his own presentation of facts must bring him.

A valuable addition to biblical criticism is, unquestionably, the lately publishedSaint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians. A revised text, with introduction, notes, and dissertations. By J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., Hulsean Professor of Divinity, and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. London, Macmillan. 8vo, 337 pp. This book forms the second volume of an exegetical work that is to embrace all the epistles of St. Paul. Galatians has already been published. The present volume is particularly valuable for its introduction of the results of the latest archeological and historical research. The commentaries on Seneca and the doctrines of the Stoics are interesting, as also the remarks on the[Greek text]in verse 13 of first chapter.

A distinguished priest of the Oratory, H. de Valroger, has recently published an able and learned disquisition on biblical chronology. He terminates it thus: "No more than the Bible has the church laid down a dogmatic system of precise dates strictly connected and confining the primitive history of the world and of man within narrow and inflexible limits. No more than the Bible does the church deprive astronomers, geologists, paleontologists, archaeologists, or chronologists of the liberty of ascertaining scientifically the period of time elapsed since the creation of the world and of man, or since the deluge, which terminated the first of the reign of humanity."

In the Foreign Literary Notes of our number for June, we noticed an important publication by the Abbé Lamy on the Council of Seleuciae, a translation from one of the numerous productions of early Syrian literature, so rich in works relative to the church, its history, its discipline, and its dogmas. And, in this connection, it may be proper here to note a typographical transposition seriously interfering with a correct reading of the notice in question, namely, the six paragraphs of the first column of p. 432 that precede "Concilium Seleuciae et Ctesiphonti," etc., should follow the second paragraph on the second column of the same page.

This work of the Abbé Lamy is one out of many recent publications showing the great attention lately given to the monuments of early Syrian literature by theologians of Europe. Especially in Germany is the activity great in this new field. It has long been known that a serious chronological break existed in this literature, covering a period of nearly three hundred years, stretching from the translation of the Scriptures to the classical period of Syrian patristic literature.

Only of late years has this void been partially filled by the important work of Cureton, (W.,) entitled,Ancient Syriac Documents relative to the earliest Establishment of Christianity in Edessa. With a preface by W. Wright. London: Williams & Norgate. 1864. This work of Cureton was preceded by hisSpicilegium Syriacum, containing remains of Bardesan, Meliton, Ambrose, and Mara bar Serapion. London: Francis & Rivington. 1855.

In connection with these may be mentioned Cardinal Wiseman'sHorae Syriacae, Rome, 1828; Pohlmann,S. Ephraemi Syri Commentariorum in S. Scripturum;Lamy,Diss. de Syrorum fide et disciplina in re eucharistica; S. Ephraemi Syri Rabulae, Balaei aliorumque opera selecta. Oxford, Clarendon. 1865.

An interesting historical controversy has for some time been going on between M. Cretineau Joly, of Paris, and the Rev. Father Theiner, Prefect of the Archives of the Vatican, concerning the authenticity of the memoirs of Cardinal Consalvi, published by M. Cretineau Joly, in 1864. Father Theiner, in his History of the Concordat, throws serious doubts upon the genuineness of these memoirs. On the other hand, M. Joly, in his lately publishedBonaparte, the Concordat of 1801, and the Cardinal Consalvti, defends his position, and declares that he translated with the most conscientious exactitude the memoirs in question, "such as they were confided to me at Rome, such as I now possess them in MSS. at Paris, such as any one is free to test by examination."

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