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horseback can make use of without dismounting. There is also a small building which communicates with the garden, composed of an oratory, and several rooms, for the use of priests, destined to pray, and take care of the lamp, always alight|| before the name of God, which is engraven on a crimson triangle of three or four feet in diameter. By the side of the triangle is also placed a statue of the Holy Virgin. Saturday, the day on which the church pays her particular homage, the priests remain all day at the door of the garden, to distribute alms, without distinction, to all those who beg. To others they offer Яowers.

In the centre of the garden arises a white marble tomb: at the deceased person's head is placed an erect square stone of the same materials and length as the tomb. On it are engraven, in golden letters, the following prayer and epitaph:

PRAYER.

"May the Almighty God, Creator and Lord of all that the eye of man sees, and all that his mind comprehends, be praised for ever by those who dwell on earth, those who are not yet in existence, and those who are sunk in death."

EPITAPH.

"Here reposes the body of a just being, who never ceased to obey the laws of God during her Tife, which was too transient for her worth.(She attained only her fifty-seventh year.) In this space she fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, and clothed the naked; never did a word that could hurt any one escape her lips; she protected virtue, and looked with a compassionate eye on the vicious; she was little attached to riches, and even at her death sacrificed them to sooth the pains of others, as much as her power allowed her. Passers by pray for her, and emulate her example."

On the eve of certain days, during summer, her relatives and friends are invited to assemble in

this garden. On entering it, all approach the tomb, and the nearest relation, with downcast eyes, bows, and repeats the following words:

"Sacred manes, which this cold marble encloses, accept the homage of our remembrance, of our respect, and of our regrets, which will cease but with our lives."

After a few moments of silence, the company disperse into different alleys; some walk, others gather flowers; others praise the deceased. The garden itself presents many objects fit to awaken reflection. Those trees that tower in the vigour of youth, and spread their branches around, one day shall fall under the blows of the axe, and lie extended without life on the earth. The No. XIII. Vol. II.

stream that murmurs as it winds along offers an image of our existence, which flows through a variety of changing events, while we continunually upbraid our fate. The flowers that bloom before us resemble our life, which lasts but a few moments; they wither never to rise again; for the year will be crowned again with blossoms, but they are not those that drooped with the passing spring.

It often happens that the sentiments which the sight of tombs inspire, are rendered productive of the most important effects on surrounding families. There, husbands and wives, children and parents, who are divided by discord, are brought together to settle their differences, and not in vain; for it is in the nature of wise and timely reflection to soften the hearts of men, and opens them to the most tender feelings.

At a 'certain hour they all assemble to dine. An abundant repast is spread on the rising turf, beside a refreshing stream. It consists of one or two lambs baked in the oven, stuffed with pigeons and Corinthian grapes; a roasted chicken is placed before each guest; crabs and other shell-fish, boiled in salt water, immediately after they have been taken from the sea, follow the first course, and numerous fruits compose the desert. Several vases are filled with Grecian wines; with the celebrated wine of Cyprus, that of Tenedos, opposite the promontory of Sigeus, where once stood Troy, that of Smyrna, which heighten the complexion of the Grecian virgins, when on festivals they dance on the stones of the Caystrus, and that of the island of Chios, which kindles the enthusiasm of the poet. When Bacchus, ever young, has shed mirth and attic wit around, one of the guests begins to sing, and invites the others to dance; every one in his turn takes the part of the chorister, and the others answer in full chorus. The meaning of these songs is nearly the same as that of the following verses of an old poet :

"Snatch the bud of present joy, "Catch the moments 'ere they fly; "Since no serious thought can spread "Life beyond th' appointed hour, "Crown with pleasure's wreaths your head, "Gather Love's and Beauty's flow'r."

They dance, and the amusements continue till the shades of night descend, and then the whole company retires to the house of one of the guests, when several hours are dedicated to the cheerful sports.-Are not these the same Greeks celebrated by Anacreon, whose lives were enlivened by dances and songs?—You see, my friend, that though returning from the tombs of their friends, these people are not less amiable and joyful. M. O.

D

THE REPRESENTATIONS OF LIFE.

CONTAINED IN WORKS OF FICTION:

NOT TO BE CONSIDERED AS HAVING ANY EXISTENCE IN NATURE.

is overturned, the kingdom of the arts is no more; we have no longer any country to defend. Proscribed by republican usurpers, we

M. DE CLAIRVILLE, a native of Paris, had, like many others of the most respectable of his countrymen, emigrated at the time of the revolution. He had enjoyed an honourable and Ju-have nothing left to do but to seek an asylum in cra tive post under the monarchy, and, by his a country where happiness and freedom reign in provident foresight in placing the greatest part placid tranquillity. This asylum England affords. of his wealth in foreign countries, had saved, out Let us hasten to that fortunate land, the bulof the wreck of an ample fortune, a competency wark of civilized society, the native soil of rasufficient to enable him to live, if not in an tional liberty, where that noble plant first took ostentatious, at least in an elegant style. His fa- root, and still flourishes, bidding defiance to the mily consisted of his wife and two children, a || wintry blasts of the revolutionary storms which son and a daughter, to both of whom nature have laid waste our unfortunate country. My had been lavish of her favours. Both of them, economy and foresight, atended with the blesto a pleasing and elegant exterior, united the sing of Divine Providence, have been successful more valuable accomplishments of the mind; in securing an ample provision for myself and and their indulgent parents had not spared any you, my dear children. I yet possess enough to expence in procuring them an excellent educa-satisfy all reasonable desires. We will retire to tion. The most eminent masters, in every department of literature, had constantly attended them from the moment that they were capable of forming a thought, or articulating a sound; and their genius and docility endeared_them to their instructors.

England, where we may live in philosophical and elegant retirement; amuse our leisure with the study of literature, enjoy the protection of equitable laws, and contemplate the structure of a government which constitutes the glory and happiness of a great nation."

On their first emigration the family had re- Madame de Clairville gave her hearty assent to tired to Coblentz, where a number of emigrants the proposal, and their son and daughter rewere assembled. At first, the intention of ceived it with rapture. The arrangements were Monsieur de Clairville was to take up arms in speedily made; they embarked, and descending the counter-revolutionary cause; but circum-down the Rhine, arrived at Rotterdam, where stances convinced him that the restoration of they took shipping for London, and arrived in the monarchy was impossible. He therefore re-safety in the British metropolis. solved to renounce all concern with the public affairs, and to spend the remainder of his life in philosophic leisure. He had designed to procure a commission for his son, but the unforeseen events which had taken place, had rendered his project abortive. He addressed himself to him in these terms:

My son, you know it was my intention, as well as your own desire, that you should be honourably placed in the army; but the course of events has frustrated the design. I have ever esteemed the profession of arms in the highest degree honourable, and peculiarly appropriated to the situation and rank of a gentleman, when they are borne in defence of our country, and the support of legal authority; but I cannot reconcile myself to the idea of making war a trade, as a mere mercenary. The monarchy of France

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After some time spent in contemplating the novelty of the scene, and making comparisons between the capital of France, in which they had passed their early youth, and that of England, in which they were to fix their future residence, the young Clairville and his sister resumed their literary studies. Under the most eminent masters in Paris, they had made a tolerable proficiency in the English language. After their arrival in London, their attachment to literature continued and increased; and they laboured with assiduity to extend the sphere of their knowledge.

The young Clairvilles were well read in philosophy and the Belles Letters; but their ideas had taken a romantic turn. Their knowledge of books was extensive, and their knowledge of the world was as great as books could give. They

had read all the descriptions of rural felicity that poets have given with such enthusiastic rapture, and had caught the infection. Having been constantly accustomed to a city life, and immured first in Paris, and afterwards in London, they regarded those iminense capitals as nothing more than prisons, where the human species are in an unnatural state, where the fascinating charms of nature are unknown, her beauties unobserved, and all genial pleasures disregarded. They began seriously to sigh for rural delights; they longed to partake the enjoyment of those happy scenes which the poets of almost every age had described with such enthusiasm, and which they had contemplated in idea with such rapture, and they anxiously wished for the happy time, when, bidding adieu to the noisy tumult of the metropolis, they might enjoy the peaceful company and innocent conversation of those nymphs and swains, of whose virtues and felicity they had read such extravagant encomiums.

could scarcely suppose that so general a combination could have been formed, in order to impose on credulity, by painting ideal scenes, formed in the imagination, without any existence in reality. The favourite idea constantly recurred, and as they concluded that experi ment must be the surest method of rectifying opinion, they resolved to petition their parents to indulge them with a summer's excursion inte the country, in order to

"Clear this doubt, to know the world by sight, "To see and judge if books report it right."

This request was no sooner made than granted. M. de Clairville, whose official duties had required his residence to be constantly at Paris, had not, in the course of many years, enjoyed the opportunity of retiring for a few months into the country, and his long and unremitted application to business had not a little impaired his health. He therefore, the more ready to indulge his son and daughter in a pleasure which, innocent in itself, promised the most beneficial ef fects, and appeared equally conducive to the reestablishment of his own health, and the rectification of their notions.

Monsieur and Madame de Clairville, who were both persons of learning and experience, and equally conversant with books and with the world, had observed this romantic cast of mind in their children, and used every argument that reading and an extensive acquaintance with mankind could suggest, in order to convince them of its extravagance. In this attempt to rectify their ideas, they were exceedingly well seconded by M. de Palaise, an expelled ecclesiastic, who, like them, had emigrated from France in consequence of the revolution. This gentleman's knowledge of the world had kept pace with his literary acquisition, and his learning and observations were equally various and extensive. He represented to them the troubles and inconveniencies incident to every station, and endeavoured to convince them that no condition of life was free from those evils which are the common lot of humanity. Mademoiselle de Clairville used frequently to reply, "We do not expect to find any situation exempt from those natural evils which Providence has, with unerring wisdom, allotted to human beings; but eertainly some conditions of life are free from those artificial evils which the vices and follies of mankind produce." Her brother would sometimes add, "those brilliant and fascinating descriptions of human felicity with which pasto-pose. Although not spacious it was convenient, ral poets crowd and embellish their pages, must be drawn from some original; they cannot be wholly the work of imagination."

The reasoning of their parents and preceptors seemed sometimes to make them waver in their opinion, and suspect that there might be some degree of exaggeration in those descriptions; but as writers seemed so generally to agree in their representations of rural happiness, they

Their resolution to bid adieu for a season to the bustle of the metropolis was instantly fixed, and the preparations for their departure were soon made. M. de Palaise, who was equally acquainted with a town and a country life, and knew the mode of living and the general state of society among the lower classes, as also the || easiest mode of procuring free access to their company and conversation, advised them to tra vel in the plainest and simplest style, as any mark of ostentation would naturally keep the rustics at a distance, and whenever an opportunity of conversation occurred, induce them to appear under a mask, and disguise their opinions and sentiments. They travelled, therefore, by the stage coach, unattended by any servant except a single maid. They all spoke the language so well that it was not easy to discover they were fo reigners, and they passed for Londoners of some fortune who had retired from business. They fixed their residence in a small country village, where they had the good fortune to find a rural cottage to be let, which exactly suited their pur

and one of the handsomest houses in the village. Here they passed for a family that possessed a small independency, and had come into the country for the sake of a healthful air and cheapness of living.

The first time they made their appearance at the parish church, all eyes were fixed on them, and the young people were almost stared out of countenance. The minister made a most excel

lent

the scantiness of their food, the difficulty of pro

sermon, but little of it was remembered by || and mistresses, the hardness of their labour, or the congregation, most of whom forgot the text, while every one could remember each particular of the dress and demeanour of the strangers.

curing bread for their families, and the absolute impossibility of laying up any thing for their sup port in sickness or old age.

The young Clairvilles soon perceived, that, among these rustics, existence was one continued scene of bustle and exertion to procure the necessaries of life; that the same envyings, the same complaints of mutual wrongs, and the same spirit of cabal and intrigue existed in this small village as in places where the most important affairs are debated, and the fate of em

The first company the Clairvilles received, || were the vicar and his lady. They were both of them good-natured, chearful, intelligent, and communicative; both were of an acute penetration, and thoroughly acquainted with the world. The vicar was a consummate scholar, and his lady possessed all the knowledge, and was adorned with all the virtues suitable to her sex. In their society, the newly arrived family found that they had made a valuable acqui-pires determined. In observing the manners of sition.

The vicar, who was as good a judge of men as of books, soon discovered the strangers to be persons of no ordinary rank. He found them desirous of information, and made them acquainted with the circumstances of the village and its adjacent neighbourhood, the qualities of its soil, its productions, the employments, manners, and modes of life of the inhabitants; topics of conversation which, to the Clairvilles, were entirely new. They were delighted with his discourse,and also with the lively and sensible remarks of his wife; but from the picture of village society which they drew, the young Monsieur and Mademoiselle de Clairville scon found reasons to suspect that they should be disappointed in their expectation of contemplating, in this place, those scenes of happiness with which their fancy had been so amused. They could not avoid perceiving that the picture, drawn by the vicar, was very different from that which fancy had delineated; and their own experience alone was to determine whether the poets or the observer had incurred the mistake.

Their plain and simple style of life soon brought them into an intimate familiarity with the farmers, and even with the labourers, with whom they daily mixed in conversation. To the houses of the farmers they made frequent visits, and in all of them heard the same complaints of their high rents, their great disbursements in wages to servants and labourers, their own laborious exertions, in order to lessen, as much as possible, those enormous expences, and the impossibility of saving any thing to portion their daughters, or settle their sons. In every house they found nothing but hurry and bustle, intermixed with anxious solicitude for the advancement of their business; and heard little else than complaints against the unkindness of their neighbours, or narratives of the carelessness or idleness of their servants. When they discoursed with the servants or labourers, they were constantly entertained with an account of the niggardliness or ill nature of their masters

this sequestered spot, they found among its inhabitants a particular agreement and uniformity of taste in delighting to hear and relate the vices and follies of their neighbours. The first goodnatured gossip with whom they fell into conversation, favoured them with an account of the scandalous register of the place, from the earliest period of her remembrance; and added, by way of appendix, what she had heard from her grandmother, and other good old women of former days. These tales of scandal were sometimes interrupted by animadversions on the bad manage. ment of their neighbours in their farms or their dairies, and on the niggardly parsimony or expen sive extravagance of their housekeeping. The men informed them how well some of their neighbours might have lived, and what money they might have acquired by a proper manner of cultivating their farms, and by a strict attention to their business; and the women told them what a great quantity of butter several housewives of the village might send to market every week, if they knew how to manage their dairies. In fine, they perceived that there was some flaw in the character, the conduct, the economy, or housewifery of every one except the person who was actually favouring them with the important information.

One evening, as they were conversing by the fire-side in their little cottage, M. de Clairville asked them what they thought of rural happiness? "Indeed," said the young man, “I think the specimen we have here found, neither exhibits a very pleasing picture, nor affords any flattering expectation. I hear nothing but mutual complaints, and reciprocal censure; nothing presents any spectacle of happiness or censure; but I cannot suppose this every where the case; we must have made a wrong choice of a situation." "It appears to me," added Mademoiselle, " that the inhabitants of this village labour under some particular disadvantages, and feel the pressure of some circumstances peculiarly unfavourable, which sour their temper and render them querulous, censorious, and discontented. I do not,

therefore, despair of finding a place where things will have a different aspect."

tent of information, no higher intellectual attain ments, than in the society they had lately quitted. The principal part of the conversation generally consisted in censorious strictures, and invidious remarks on the conduct and pecuniary circumstances of their neighbours. One very commu

M. de Clairville made no comment on their suppositions. Being desirous that their own observations alone should produce conviction, he was unwilling to anticipate experience, and told them, as their expectations had here been disap-nicative person informed them, that a neighpointed, he should propose to look out for some bour's daughter had been guilty of an indiscrenew abode, where they might be more fortunate. tion some years ago; and another related, that The young people were delighted with the pro- such a one's daughter got married a while since, posal; and the necessary arrangements for carbut that her father, notwithstanding his high rying it into effect being speedily made, they de- looks, and the gay appearance of his family, parted from a place which had so greatly disap- || could give her only a very small portion; and pointed their expectations, leaving the whole that another respectable woman was to have been neighbourhood lost in conjecture. Some ima- married not long ago, and would have met with gined that urgent business had called them away; a very good match, but when it came to a point, while others supposed that they had come, at her father" could not raise the wind." The the first, to conceal themselves from the pursuit most distinguishable difference in moral ideas, of creditors, and that their abode having been dis- to be observed between their present and former covered, they had made a precipitate retreat to situation, was, that here a greater degree of inescape an arrest. solent pride seemed attached to the possession of money, and a more visible contempt manifested towards those who were destitute of that useful commodity.

After some days spent in erratic travelling, the Clairvilles arrived at last in a village where was a commodious house to be lett. Pleased with its situation, which appeared, in every respect, answerable to their views, they resolved to take it. The houses were considerably better in this vilJage than in that they had quitted; and although || the one, in which they had fixed themselves, was not the largest or best residence in the place, it was very convenient, tolerably genteel, and sufficiently large for so small a family. There they began to live in a plain, but yet somewhat more elegant style than they had hitherto done, which appeared necessary to their design, as they observed a greater air of opulence here than in the place where they had last resided. They did not, however, find the minds of the inhabitants more cultivated, nor their manners more refined, except in some ceremonious punctilios, by which a few individuals, who wished to set themselves up for persons of more than ordinary consequence, endeavoured to appear polite.

As in the village where they had before resided, so likewise in their present place of abode, the scandalous chronicle furnished an inexhaustible fund of consolation; and the good-natured gossips were extremely careful that the strangers should not long remain ignorant of its contents. Its ample page was unfolded; the follies and misconduct of the preceding, as well as the present generation, was brought upon the carpet, and detailed with the most circumstantial accuracy. They were soon favoured with an exact account of all the children that had been born before, or too soon after marriage; of all the females who had, in their former days, deviated from the path of virtue; and of all those who had been lightly talked of. These anecdotes of human frailty were repeated in almost every visit, and in almost every conversation. Each communicative companion related all the instances of female frailty which had come to her knowledge, with the sole exception of her own; and as this deficiency was commonly supplied by the information of the next friendly visitor, the history was soon rendered complete. Every officious informer, however, took care to demonstrate her aversion to scandal, by declaring, that "she would not, on any account, have her name brought into question, as all the world knew

In a short time the Clairvilles received and returned the visits of the most considerable persons of the village. The pleasure of those visits had been anticipated, with rapture, by the young Monsieur and Mademoiselle de Clairville, who had expected greater elegance of discourse, and more extensive information, among those refined villagers, than they had met with among the homely rustics of their late residence. Here, however, they again experienced the mortifica- | she was not one who liked to vilify her neightion of disappointment; and were astonished to bours."

find no greater elevation of ideas, no greater ex

[To be continued.]

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