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January 29th
Born:
Emmanuel de Swedenborg, 1688-9; Thomas Paine,
political writer, 1737; William Sharp, line-engraver,
1749, London.
Died: Emperor Aurelian, 275; Bishop Sanderson,
1663; John Theophilus Fichte, philosopher, 1814,
Berlin; George III., 1820, Windsor; Agnes Berry, 1852;
Mrs. Gore, novelist, 1861.
Feast Day: St. Sulpicius Severus, about 407.
St. Gildas; the Albanian or Scot, 512. St. Gildas, the
Wise, or Badonicus, abbot (570?). St. Francis of
Sales, 1622.
ST. GILDAS
This saint, according to his legend, was the son of
Can, a king of the Britons of Alcluyd or Dumbarton,
and was born some time in the latter part of the fifth
century. He was one of twenty-four brothers, the rest
of whom were warriors, and were, with their father,
usually at war with King Arthur. But Gildas, having
shewn a disposition for learning, was sent to the
school of the Welsh saint Iltutus. He afterwards went
to study in Gaul, whence he returned to Britain, and
set up a school of his own in South Wales.
Subsequently, at the invitation of St. Bridget, he
visited Ireland, where he remained a long time, and
founded several monasteries. He returned to England,
bringing with him a wonderful bell, which he was
carrying to the Pope; and after having been reconciled
with King Arthur, who had killed his eldest brother in
battle, he proceeded on his journey to Rome. He went
from Rome to Ravenna, and on his way home stopped at
Buys, in Brittany, which was so tempting a place for a
hermit, that he determined to remain there, and he
founded a monastery, of which he was himself the first
abbot. The Bretons pretended that he died there, and
that they possessed his relics; but, according to the
Welsh legend, he returned to Wales, bringing back the
wonderful bell, which was long preserved at Lancarvan,
where he first took up his residence. He there became
intimate with St. Cadoc, and, having the same tastes,
the two friends went to establish themselves as
hermits in two desert islands, in the estuary of the
Severn, and fixed upon those which are now known by
the names of Steepholm and Flathohn, Gildas choosing
the latter; and here they remained until they were
driven away by the attacks of the Northern pirates.
Gildas then settled at Glastonbury, where he died, and
was buried in the church of St. Mary.
Such is the outline of the story of St. Gildas, which,
in its details, is so full of inconsistencies and
absurdities, that many writers have tried to solve the
difficulty by supposing that there were two or several
saints of the name of Gildas, whose histories have
been mixed up together. They give to one the title of
Gildas Badonicus, or the Historian, because, in the
tracts attributed to him, he says that he was born in
the year when King Arthur defeated the Saxons in the
battle of Mount Badon, in Somersetshire; the other
they call Gildas the Albanian or Scot, supposing that
he was the one who was born at Alcluyd. The first has
also been called Gildas the Wise. Gildas is known as
the author, or supposed author, of a book entitled De
Excidio Britannice, consisting of a short and barren
historical sketch of the history of the struggle
between the Britons and the Picts and Saxons, and of
adeclamatory epistle addressed to the British princes,
reproaching them for their vices and misconduct, which
are represented as the cause of the ruin of their
country. Some modern writers are of opinion that this
book is itself a forgery, compiled in the latter half
of the seventh century, amid the bitter disputes
between the Anglo-Saxon and British churches; and
that, in the great eagerness of the middle ages to
find saints, the name was seized upon with avidity;
and in different places where they wished to profit by
possessing his relics, they composed legends of him,
intended to justify their claim, which therefore
agreed but partially with each other. Altogether, the
legend of St. Gildas is one of the most mysterious and
controvertible in the whole Roman Calendar, and its
only real interest arises from the circumstance of the
existence of a book written in this island, and
claiming so great an antiquity.
ST. FRANCIS OF SALES
If any one is at a loss to understand how so much of
the influence which the Church of Rome lost in Europe
at the Reformation was afterwards regained, let him
read the Life of this remarkable man. Francis Count of
Sales, near Annecy, threw rank and fortune behind his
back, to devote him-self to the interests of religion.
His humility of spirit, his austerities, his fervid
devotion, gave him distinction as a preacher at a
comparatively early age. In his provostship at Geneva,
his sermons were attended with extraordinary success.
'He delivered the word of God with a mixture of
majesty and modesty; had a sweet voice and an animated
manner; but what chiefly affected the hearts of his
hearers, was the humility and unction with which he
spoke from the abundance of his own heart.' He went
about among the poor, treating them with a meekness
and kindness which wonderfully gained upon them. To
this, in a great degree, it was owing that he brought,
as has been alleged, above seventy thousand of the Genevese Calvinists back to the
Romish church.
Afterwards, in 1594, Francis and a cousin of his
undertook a mission to Chablais, on the Lake of
Geneva. On arriving at the frontiers, they sent back
their horses, the more perfectly to imitate the
apostles. The Catholic religion was here nearly
extinct, and Francis found his task both difficult and
dangerous. Nevertheless, in four years, his efforts
began to have an effect, and soon after he had so
gained over the people to his faith, that the
Protestant forms were put down by the state. 'It is
incredible,' says Butler, 'what fatigues and
hardships he underwent in the course of this mission;
with what devotion and tears he daily recommended the
work of God; with what invincible courage he braved
the greatest dangers; with what meekness and patience
he bore all manner of affronts and calumnies." St.
Francis de Sales died in 1622, at the age of
fifty-six.
SWEDENBORG
The life-history of Swedenborg is very remarkable for
its complete division into two parts, utterly alien
from each other; the first fifty-five years devoted to
pure science and to official business under the King
of Sweden, the last twenty-eight to spiritual
mysticism and the foundation of a new religion. His
voluminous works on the latter class of subjects, are
generally felt to be unreadable. There can, however,
be no reason-able doubt (as we believe) that the
author was as sincere in his descriptions of the
spiritual world as he had ever been in regard to the
most material of his original studies. Perhaps, after
all, there is some psychological problem yet to be
satisfactorily made out regarding such mystics as he,
resolving all into some law at present unknown.
A letter written by the celebrated philosopher Kant,
in 1764, and which is published in his Works,
gives the following curious details regarding
Swedenborg, of whose possession of an extraordinary
gift he considers it an indubitable proof.
'In the
year 1756,' says he [the true date, however, was
1759], 'when M. de Swedenborg, towards the end of
February, on Saturday, at 4 o'clock p.m., arrived at
Gottenburg from England, Mr.
William Costel invited him to his house, together
with a party of fifteen persons. About 6 o'clock, M.
de Swedenborg went out, and after a short interval
returned to the company quite pale and alarmed. He
said that a dangerous fire had broken out in Stockholm
at the Suderhalm (Stockholm is about 300 miles from
Gottenburg), and that it was spreading very fast. He
was restless and went out often: he said that the
house of one of his friends, whom he named, was
already in ashes, and that his own was in danger. At 8
o'clock, after he had been out again, he joyfully
exclaimed, "Thank God! the fire is extinguished the
third door from my house." This news occasioned great
commotion through the whole city, and particularly
amongst the company in which he was. It was announced
to the Governor the same evening. On the Sunday
morning, Swedenborg was sent for by the Governor, who
questioned him concerning the disaster. Swedenborg
described the fire precisely, how it had begun, in
what manner it had ceased, and how long it had
continued. . . On the Monday evening, a messenger
arrived at Gottenburg, who was dispatched during the
time of the fire. In the letters brought by him, the
fire was described precisely in the manner stated by
Swedenborg. On Tuesday morning, the royal courier
arrived at the Governor's with the melancholy
intelligence of the fire, of the loss it had
occasioned, and of the houses it had damaged and
ruined, not in the least differing from that which
Swedenborg had given immediately after it had ceased,
for the fire was extinguished at 8 o'clock.'
Kant adds:
'What can be brought forward against the
authenticity of this occurrence? My friend, who wrote
this to me, has not only examined the circumstances of
this extraordinary case at Stockholm, but also about
two months ago, at Gottenburg, where he is acquainted
with the most respectable houses, and where he could
obtain the most complete and authentic information.'
GEORGE III
The death of George III on this day in the year
1820, was an event of no political consequence, as for
ten years he had been secluded under mental eclipse.
But his people reflected with a feeling of not
unkindly interest on his singularly long reign�so long
it was that few remembered any other�on his venerable
age eighty-two�his irreproachable character as a
family man�and the many remarkable things which had
fallen out in his time. Amiable people of little
reflection viewed him as 'the good old King,' the
supporter of safe principles in church and state, the
friend of religion and virtue. Others of keener
intelligence pointed to the vast amount of disaster
which had been brought upon the country, mainly
through his wrong judgment and obstinacy�the American
colonies lost, a fatal interference with the concerns
of France in 1793, an endangerment of the peace of the
country through a persistent rejection of the claim
for Catholic emancipation.
To these
people the rule of George III appeared to have been
unhappy from the beginning. He had never ceased to
struggle for an increase of the kingly authority. He
could endure no minister who would not be subservient
to him. Any officer who voted against his favourite
ministers in parliament, he marked in a blacklist
which he kept, and either dismissed him at once or
stopped his promotion. A particular cohort amounting
to fifteen or twenty in the House of Commons, were
recognized as 'the King's Friends,' from the readiness
they sheaved to do his bidding and act for his
interest on all occasions; and this unconstitutional
arrangement was calmly submitted to. A great deal of
what was amiss in the king's system of government
might be traced to miseducation under a bad mother,
who continually dinned into his ear, 'George, be a
king!' and preceptors who were disaffected to
Revolution principles. Like other weak men, he could
not understand a conscientious dissent from his own
opinion. He argued thus:�'I think so and so, and I am
conscientious in thinking so: ergo, any other opinion
must be unconscientious.'
It is
perfectly certain, accordingly, that he looked upon
Mr.
Fox,
and the Whigs generally, as base and profligate
men�his son included in the number; and adhered to the
policy which cost him America under a perfect
conviction that only worthless people could sympathise
with the claims of the disaffected colonists. It is,
on the other hand, remarkable of the king, that
whenever resistance reached the point where it became
clearly dangerous, he gave way. After he had conceded
peace and independence to America, there was something
heroic in his reception of Mr. Adams, the first
ambassador of the new republic, when he said that,
though he had been the last man in England to resolve
on the pacification, he should also be the last to
seek to break it.
The
mistaken policy which inflicted such wretchedness on
the patriots in America, is in some measure redeemed
by his grateful generosity to the loyalists. It was
found after his death, that he had, all through the
war, kept a private register, in which he entered the
name of any one who suffered for his loyalty to Great
Britain, and full particulars regarding him, that he
might, as far as possible, afford him compensation.
One is struck by the English, character of King
George�English in his doggedness and his prejudices,
but equally English in his conscientiousness and his
frankness. It is strange to reflect on the evils
incurred by the United Kingdom through the accident of
her wrong-headed ruler being a virtuous man. Had that
latter particular been reversed, such huge political
aberrations would have been impossible.
Mr. Thackeray, in his Lectures on the Four Georges,
touches on the last days of the third with a pathos
rarely reached in modern literature. The passage is a
gem of exquisite beauty. 'I have,' says he, 'seen his
picture as it was taken at this time, hanging in the
apartment of his daughter, the Landgravine of Hesse
Hornbourg�amidst books and Windsor furniture, and a
hundred fond reminiscences of her English home. The
poor old father is represented in a purple gown, his
snowy beard falling over his breast--the star of his
famous Order still idly shining on it. He was not only
sightless: he became utterly deaf. All light, all
reason, all sound of human voices, all the pleasures
of this world of God, were taken from him. Some slight
lucid moments he had; in one of which, the queen,
desiring to see him, found him singing a hymn, and
accompanying himself on the harpsichord. When he had
finished, he knelt down and prayed aloud for her, and
then for his family, and then for the nation,
concluding with a prayer for himself, that it might
please God to avert his heavy calamity from him, but,
if not, to give him resignation to submit. He then
burst into tears, and his reason again fled.
'What preacher need moralise on this story; what words
save the simplest are requisite to tell it? It is too
terrible for tears. The thought of such a misery
smites me down in submission before the Ruler of kings
and men, the Monarch supreme over empires and
republics, the inscrutable Dispenser of life, death,
happiness, victory. "O brothers," I said to those who
heard me first in America�"0 brothers! speaking the
same dear mother tongue�O comrades, enemies no more,
let us take a mournful hand together as we stand by
this royal corpse, and call a truce to battle! Low he
lies to whom the proudest used to kneel once, and who
was east lower than the poorest: dead, whom millions
prayed for in vain. Driven off his throne; buffeted by
rude hands, with his children in revolt; the darling
of his old age killed before him untimely; our Lear
hangs over her breath-less lips and cries, "Cordelia,
Cordelia, stay a little!"
"Vex
not his ghost�oh! let him pass�he hates him,
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer!"
Hush!
Strife and Quarrel, over the solemn grave. Sound,
trumpets, a mournful march! Fall, dark curtain, upon
his pageant, his pride, his grief, his awful tragedy!'
January 30th
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