Born:
Archbishop
Cranmer, 1489,Aslacton, Notts; Frederick Theophilus
Klopstock, German poet, 1724, Quedlinburg, Saxony;
Henry, third Marquis of Lansdowne, statesman, 1780;
Joseph John Gurney, Quaker philanthropist, 1788,
Earlhaim Hall, near Norwich.
Died: Henry I, emperor
of Germany (the Fowler), 936; Michael Nostradamus
(predictions), 1566, Salon; Jean Jacques Rousseau,
1778, Ermenonville; Dionysius Diderot, philosophical
writer, 1784, Paris; Dr. Hahnemann, originator of
homoeopathy, 1843, Paris; Sir Robert Peel, statesman,
1850, London; William Berry (works on heraldry), 1851,
Brixton.
Feast day: The
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin. Saints Processus and
Martinian, martyrs, 1st century. St. Monegondes,
recluse at Tours, 570. St. Oudoceus, bishop of
Llandaff, 6th century. St. Otho, bishop of Bamberg,
confessor, 1139.
VISITATION OF
THE VIRGIN MARY
In the Romish church, the
visit paid by the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth
(St. Luke i. 39, 40) is celebrated by a festival on
this day, instituted by Pope Urban VI in 1383; which
festival continues to be set down in the calendar of
the reformed Anglican Church.
KLOPSTOCK
The German poet Klopstock
enjoyed a great celebrity in his own day, not less on
account of his Odes, many of which are excellent, than
for that more ambitious sacred poem, called The
Messiah, upon which the fabric of his fame was first
built. This celebrated epic was written in hexameters,
a species of verse little employed by his
predecessors, but not uncongenial to German rhythm.
Klopstock formed himself on Milton and Young, and is
styled in his own country the Milton of Germany: but
he soars rather with the wing of the owl than the wing
of the eagle. His ode To Young, as the composition of
a stranger, will be interesting to English readers,
and serves very well as a clue to his genius.
TO YOUNG-1752
Die, aged prophet: lo, thy
crown of palms
Has long been springing, and the tear of joy
Quivers on angel-lids
Astart to welcome thee.
Why linger? Hast thou not already built
Above the clouds thy lasting monument?
Over thy night-thoughts, too,
The pale free-thinkers watch,
And feel there's prophecy amid the song,
When of the dead-awakening trump it speaks,
Of coming final doom,
And the wise will of heaven.
Die: thou hast taught me that the name of death
Is to the just a glorious sound of joy:
But be my teacher still,
Become my genius there.
The language of this ode
approaches to a style which in English is termed
bathos. As a proof of the wide-spread fame which
Klopstock acquired in his own country, we briefly
subjoin the account of his funeral, in the words of
Mr. Taylor's Historical Survey of German Poetry: 'Klopstock died in 1803,
and was buried with great
solemnity on the 22nd of March, eight days after his
decease. The cities of Hamburg and Altona concurred to
vote him a public mourning; and the residents of
Denmark, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia joined
in the funeral-procession. Thirty-six carriages
brought the senate and magistracy, all the bells
tolling; a military procession contributed to the
order and dignity of the scene; vast bands of music,
aided by the voices of the theatre, performed
appropriate symphonies, or accompanied passages of the
poet's works. The coffin having been placed over the
grave, the preacher, Meyer, lifted the lid, and
deposited in it a copy of The Messiah; laurels were
then heaped on it; and the death of Martha, from the
fourteenth book, was recited with chaunt. The ceremony
concluded with the dead mass of
Mozart.'
THE PROPHECIES
OF NOSTRADAMUS
Princes, and other great
people, besides many learned men, three centuries ago,
paid studious attention to a set of mystic prophecies
in French quatrains, which had proceeded from a
Provencal physician, named Nostradamus, and were
believed to foreshadow great historical events. These
pre-dictions had been published in a series of little
books, containing each a hundred, and they were
afterwards collected into one volume.
Our copy of Nostradamus is one published in London in 1672,
with
English translations and notes, by a refugee French
physician, named Theophilus de Garencieres, who had
himself a somewhat remarkable history. Wood informs us
that he died of a broken heart, in consequence of the
ill-usage he received from a certain knight. He
himself, though a doctor of Oxford, and member of the
Royal College of Physicians of London, appears to have
been a devout believer in the mystic enunciations
which he endeavoured to represent in English. He had,
indeed, imbibed this reverence for the prophet in his
earliest years, for, strange to say, the brochures
containing these predictions were the primers used
about 1618 in the schools of France, and through them
he had learned to read. The frontispiece of the
English translation represents Garencieres as a thin
elderly man with a sensitive, nervous-bilious
countenance, seated, in a black gown with wig and
bands, at a table, with a book and writing materials
before him, and also a carafe bottle containing what
appears as figures of the sun and crescent moon.
Michael Nostradamus (the name
was a real one) saw the light at St. Remy, on the 14th
of December 1503, and died, as our prefatory list
informs us, on the 2nd of July 1566. He studied
mathematics, philosophy, and physic, and appears to
have gained reputation as a medical man before
becoming noted as a mystogogue. He was twice married,
and had several children; he latterly was settled at
Salon, a town between Marseille and Avignon. It was
with the view of improving his medical gifts that he
studied astrology, and thus was led to foretell
events. His first efforts in this line took the humble
form of almanac-making. His almanacs became popular;
so much so, that imitations of them appeared, which,
being thought his, and containing nothing but folly,
brought him discredit, and caused the poet Jodelle to
salute him with a satirical couplet:
'Nostra damns cum falsa
damns, nam fallere nostra est,
Et cum falsa damns, nil nisi Nostra damns.'
That is: 'We give our own
things when we give false things, for it is our
peculiarity to deceive, and when we give false things,
we are only giving our own things.' His reputation was
confirmed by the publication, in 1555, of some of his
prophecies, which attracted so much regard, that Henry
II sent for him to Paris, and consulted him about his
children. One of these, when king under the name of
Charles IX, making a progress in Provence in 1564,
did not fail to go to Salon to visit the prophet, who
was commissioned by his fellow-townsmen to give the
young monarch a formal reception. Charles, and his
mother, Catharine de' Medici, also sent for him on one
occasion to Lyon, where each gave him a considerable
present in gold, and the king appointed him his
physician. Many of his contemporaries thought him only
a doting fool; but that the great bulk of French
society was impressed by his effusions, there is no
room to doubt.
The quatrains of the Salon
mystic, are set forth by himself as arising from
judicial astrology, with the aid of a divine
inspiration. 'I am,' he said, 'but a mortal man, and
the greatest sinner in the world; but, being surprised
occasionally by a prophetical humour, and by a long
calculation, pleasing myself in my study, I have made
books of prophecies, each one containing a hundred
astronomical stanzas.' We are to understand that
Nostradamus lived much in solitude�spent whole nights
in his study, withdrawn into intense meditation�and
considered himself as thus attaining to a
participation in a supernatural knowledge flowing
directly from God. He was probably quite sincere in
believing that coming events cast their shadows on his
mind.
Nor are we left without
instances of his acting much as the seer of the
Scottish Highlands in the midst of the ordinary
affairs of life. One day, being at the castle of Faim,
in Lorraine, attending on the sick mother of its
proprietor the Lord of Florinville, he chanced to walk
through the yard, where there were two little pigs,
one white, the other black. The lord inquired in jest,
what should come of these two pigs. He answered
presently: "We shall eat the black, and the wolf shall
eat the white." The Lord Florinville, intending to
make him a liar, did secretly command the cook to
dress the white for supper. The cook then killed the
white, dressed it, and spitted it ready to be roasted,
when it should he time. In the meantime, having some
business out of the kitchen, a young tame wolf came in
and ate up the buttocks of the white pig. The cook
coming in, and fearing lest his master should be
angry, took the black one, killed, and dressed it, and
offered it at supper. The lord, thinking he had got
the victory, not knowing what was befallen, said to
Nostradamus: "Well, sir, we are now eating the white
pig, and the wolf shall not touch it." "I do not
believe it," said Nostradamus; "it is the black one
that is upon the table." Presently the cook was sent
for, who confessed the accident, the relation of which
was as pleasing to them as any meat.'
The prophecies of the Salon
seer appear to us, in these modern days, as vague and
incoherent rhapsodies, extremely ill adapted for being
identified with any actual event. And even when it is
possible to say that some particular event seems
faintly intimated in one of these quatrains, it is
generally accompanied by something else so irrelevant,
that we are induced almost irresistibly to trace it to
accident. One of the predictions which most conduced
to raise his reputation, was the following:
Le Lion jenne le vieux
surmontera,
En champ bellique par singulier duelle,
Dans cage d'or I'ceil il lui crevera,
Deltic playes une puis mourir mort cruelle.
[The young lion shall
overcome the old one,
In martial field by a single duel,
In a golden cage he shall put out his eye,
Two wounds from one; then shall he die a cruel
death.]
It was thought that this
prophecy, uttered in 1555, was fulfilled when Henry
II, in 1559, tilting with a young captain of his
guard, at a tournament, received a wound from the
splinter of a lance in the right eye, and died of it
in great pain, ten days after. But here we must
consider these two combatants as properly called
lions; we must take the king's gilt helmet for the
golden cage; and consider the imposthume which the
wound created, as a second wound; all of them
concessions somewhat beyond what we can regard as
fair.
Another of the predictions
thought to be clearly fulfilled, was the following:
Le sang de juste a Londres
sera faute,
Brulez par feu, de vingt et trois, les Six,
La Dame antique cherra de place haute
De meme secte plusieurs seront occis.
[The blood of the just
shall be wanting in London,
Burnt by fire of three and twenty, the Six,
The ancient dame shall fall from her high place,
Of the same sect many shall be killed.]
It was supposed that the death
of Charles I, and the fire of London, were here
adumbrated; but the correspondence between the
language and the facts is of the most shadowy kind.
Another line,
Le Senat de Londres metteront
a, mort le Roy,' appears a nearer hit at the bloody
scene in front of Whitehall. There is also some
felicity in 'Le Oliver se plantera en terra firme,'
if we can render it as, 'Oliver will get a footing on
the continent,' and imagine it as referring to
Cromwell's success in Flanders. Still, even these may
be regarded as only chance hits amongst a thousand
misses. One learns with some surprise that, well on in
the eighteenth century, there was a lingering respect
for the dark sayings of Nostradamus. Poor Charles
Edward Stuart, in his latter days, scanned the mystic
volume, anxious to find in it some hint at a
restoration of the right royal line of Britain.
Connected with Nostradamus and
the town of Salon, there is a ghost-story of a
striking character, which we believe is not much
known, and may probably amuse the faculty of wonder in
a considerable portion of the readers of the Book of
Days.
It was in the month of April
1697, that a spirit, which some believed to be no
other than that of the great prophet, appeared to a
man of the humbler class at Salon, commanding him on
pain of death to observe inviolable secrecy in regard
of what he was about to deliver. 'This done, it
ordered him to go to the intendant of the province,
and require, in its name, letters of recommendation,
that should enable him, on his arrival at Versailles,
to obtain a private audience of the king. "What thou
art to say to the king," continued the apparition,
"thou wilt not be informed of till the day of thy
being at court, when I shall appear to thee again, and
give thee full instructions. But forget not that thy
life depends upon the secrecy which I enjoin thee on
what has passed between us, towards every one, only
not towards the intendant." At these words the spirit
vanished, leaving the poor man half dead with terror.
Scarcely was he come a little to himself, when his
wife entered the apartment where he was, perceived his
uneasiness, and inquired after the cause. But the
threat of the spectre was yet too much present to his
mind, to let her draw a satisfactory answer from him.
The repeated refusals of the husband did but serve to
sharpen the curiosity of the wife; the poor man, for
the sake of quietness, had at length the indiscretion
to tell her all, even to the minutest particulars: and
the moment he had finished his confession, he paid for
his weakness by the loss of his life. The wife,
violently terrified at this unexpected catastrophe,
persuaded herself, however, that what had happened to
her husband might be merely the effect of an
overheated imagination, or some other accident; and
thought it best, as well on her own account, as in
regard to the memory of her deceased husband, to
confide the secret of this event only to a few
relations and intimate friends.
'But another inhabitant of the
town, having, shortly after, the same apparition,
imparted the strange occurrence to his brother; and
his imprudence was in like manner punished by a sudden
death. And now, not only at Salon, but for more than
twenty miles around, these two surprising deaths
became the subject of general conversation.
'The same ghost again
appeared, after some days, to a farrier, who lived
only at the distance of a couple of houses * from the
two that had so quickly died; and who, having learned
wisdom from the misfortune of his neighbours, did not
delay one moment to repair to the intendant. It cost
him great trouble to get the private audience, as
ordered by the spectre, being treated by the
magistrate as a person not right in the head. "I
easily conceive, so please your excellency," replied
the farrier, who was a sensible man, and much
respected as such at Salon, that I must seem in your
eyes to be playing an extremely ridiculous part; but
if you would be pleased to order your sub-delegates to
enter upon an examination into the hasty death of the
two inhabitants of Salon, who received the same
commission from the ghost as I, I flatter myself that
your excellency, before the week be out, will have me
called."
In fact, Francois Michel, for
that was the farrier's name, after information had
been taken concerning the death of the two persons
mentioned by him, was sent for again to the intendant,
who now listened to him with far greater attention
than he had done before; then giving him dispatches to
Mons de Baobefieux, minister and secretary of state
for Province, and at the same time presenting him with
money to defray his travelling expenses, wished him a
happy journey.
'The intendant, fearing lest
so young a minister as M. de Baobefieux might accuse
him of too great credulity, and give occasion to the
court to make themselves merry at his expense, had
enclosed with the dispatches, not only the records of
the examinations taken by his sub-delegates at Salon,
but also added the certificate of the
lieutenant-general de justice, which was attested and
subscribed by all the officers of the department.
Michel arrived at Versailles,
and was not a little perplexed about what he should
say to the minister, as the spirit had not yet
appeared to him again according to its promise. But in
that very night the spectre threw open the curtains of
his bed, bid him take courage, and dictated to him,
word for word, what he was to deliver to the minister,
and what to the king, and to them alone. "Many
difficulties will be laid in thy way," added the
ghost, "in obtaining this private audience; but beware
of desisting from thy purpose, and of letting the
secret be drawn from thee by the minister or by any
one else, as thou wouldst not fall dead upon the spot"
The minister, as may easily be
imagined, did his utmost to worm out the mystery: but
the farrier was firm, and kept silence, swore that his
life was at stake, and at last concluded with these
words: that he might not think that what he had to
tell the king was all a mere farce, he need only
mention to his majesty, in his name, "that his
majesty, at the last hunting-party at Fontainebleau,
had himself seen the spectre; that his horse took
fright at it, and started aside; that his majesty, as
the apparition lasted only a moment, took it for a
deception of sight, and therefore spoke of it to no
one."
This last circumstance struck
the minister; and he now thought it his duty to
acquaint the king of the farrier's arrival at
Versailles, and to give him an account of the
wonderful tale he related. But how great was his
surprise, when the monarch, after a momentary silence,
required to speak with the farrier in private, and
that immediately!
'What passed during this
extraordinary inter-view never transpired. All that is
known is, that the spirit-seer, after having stayed
three or four days at court, publicly took leave of
the king, by his own permission, as he was setting out
for the chase.
'It was even asserted that the
Duc de Duras, captain of the guard in waiting, was
heard to say aloud on the occasion: "Sire, if your
majesty had not expressly ordered me to bring this man
to your presence, I should never have done it, for
most assuredly he is a fool!" The king answered
smiling: "Dear Duras, thus it is that men frequently
judge falsely of their neighbour; he is a more
sensible man than you and many others imagine."
'This speech of the king's
made great impression. People exerted all their
ingenuity, but in vain, to decipher the purport of the
conference between the farrier and the king and the
minister Baobefieux. The vulgar, always credulous, and
consequently fond of the marvellous, took it into
their heads that the imposts, which had been laid on
by reason of the long and burdensome war, were the
real motives of it, and drew from it happy omens of a
speedy relief; but they, nevertheless, were continued
till the peace.
'The spirit-seer having thus
taken leave of the king, returned to his province. He
received money of the minister, and a strict command
never to mention anything of the matter to any person,
be he who he would. Roullet, one of the best artists
of the time, drew and engraved the portrait of this
farrier. Copies are still
existing in several collections of prints in Paris.
That which the writer of this piece has seen,
represented the visage of a man from about thirty-five
to forty years of age; an open countenance, rather
pensive, and had what the French term physionomie de
caractere.'
THE TIR FEDERAL, OR RIFLE-SHOOTING MATCH IN SOLEURE
Swiss have been famed for the
use of the rifle long before English volunteers
disputed the prize of all nations with them. Their
national gathering is the greatest festival in the
year, and is got up in so picturesque a style, that
the tourist may well tarry a few days in order to have
an opportunity of witnessing it, when he may also
observe the national manners and costume more closely
than he will be able to do in a hasty tour through the
country. It is held at each of the capitals of the
cantons in turn the first week in July, commencing
invariably on a Sunday. On Saturday evening, all the
hotels are crowded for the opening procession next
Sunday morning. From six A.M. on that day until nine,
on the occasion when the writer was present, the broad
flight of steps leading up to the cathedral at Soleure
was crowded by worshippers.
Mass was repeated again
and again to each relay, and then, the religious
duties of the day being over, all gave themselves up
to pleasure. The streets were one mass of people
waiting for the procession. The burning sun of a
beautiful summer-day lightened up the scene, the
cannon roared, bands of music added their sweet tones,
and the variety of a hundred gay and fantastic
costumes dazzled the eye of the amused spectator in
the windows. Then came the cry: 'Here is the
procession.' At its head walked the juniors, with two
pieces of cannon and fifty guns; behind them a man in
the costume of William Tell, the patron of riflemen,
preceded the body of markers, who were dressed in
bright-red blouses with white cordings, carrying at
the end of a stick the white disks which serve to mark
the shots. Then came the military band, followed by
the committee carrying the federal banner, bearing the
motto: 'LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY.
The deputations of marksmen
from each canton, in the greatest variety of
picturesque costume, followed: those of Soleure
wearing gray felt-hats, adorned with green ribbons;
the Hanseatic towns, Bremen and Lubeck, sent their
quota, dressed in rich green and gold coats, with a
high-crowned hat adorned with a plume of feathers.
Most of those present had a bouquet of flowers in the
front of their hats, no doubt given by some fair
friend.
The shooting ground was about
half a mile from the city, a beautiful plain,
surrounded by the Vosges Mountains. A splendid avenue
of trees led up to the gay pavilion of glass, where the prizes
for the successful competitors were hung. They
consisted of watches, rifles, cups, gold and silver
dishes, coffers, and purses filled with gold
Napoleons, amounting in all to a hundred and fifty
thousand francs. To the left was the stand for the
shooters, a long covered shed opposite twenty-seven
targets, furnished with long tables for the
convenience of loading. At each successful shot a
paper ticket was given to the marksman, which he stuck
in the ribbon of his hat; at the end of the day they
were presented and counted up, and he who could return
into the city in the evening with a hatful received
much applause. Not the least amusing part was to turn
to the right, and walk through the magnificent
dining-room, and then I into the temporary kitchens,
where hundreds of cooks were preparing substantial
roast and boiled joints of meat, with puddings and
pies innumerable.
The writer could not help
thinking how much better they manage the commissariat
department abroad than in England, where the cold
pork-pie and glass of ale is the usual refreshment at
rifle reviews. The women take a very active part in
the success of their brothers or lovers. Most of them
were without bonnets: the Unterwalden, in their
singular fan-like lace head-dress; the Bernese, in
their wide-brimmed hats; the Loe'che, with the circle
of plaited ribbon, giving a most singular aspect to
the scene; whilst the velvet corsage, white
habit-shirt and sleeves, silver chains, and short
petticoat bordered with red, is the picturesque
costume of most of the women. The shooting usually lasts from
Sunday to Sunday, though some-times, from the number
of competitors, it is prolonged for a few days. The
holders of prizes receive an enthusiastic ovation,
each returning to his family and business with the
reassuring sentiment that he belongs to one vast
family, bearing this device: 'One for all, and all for
one.'
OLD
SCARLETT
Died, July 2, 1591, Robert
Scarlett, sexton of Peterborough Cathedral, at the age
of 98, having buried two generations of his
fellow-creatures. A portrait of him, hung up at the
west end of that noble church, has perpetuated his
fame, and caused him to be introduced in effigy in
various works besides the present. And what a lively
effigy short, stout, hardy, and self-complacent,
perfectly satisfied, and perhaps even proud of his
profession, and content to be exhibited with all its
insignia about him!
Two queens had passed through his
hands into that bed which gives a lasting rest to
queens and to peasants alike. An officer of Death, who
had so long defied his principal, could not but have
made some impression on the minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and other magnates
of the cathedral, and
hence we may suppose the erection of this lively
portraiture of the old man, which is believed to have
been only once renewed since it was first put up. Dr.
Dibdin, who last copied it, tells us that 'old
Scarlett's jacket and trunk-hose are of a brownish
red, his stockings blue, his shoes black, tied with
blue ribbands, and the soles of his shoes red. The cap
upon his head is red, and so also is the ground of the
coat armour.
The following verses below the
portrait are characteristic of his age:
'You see old Scarlett's
picture stand on hie;
But at your feet here doth his body lye.
His gravestone doth his age and death-time shew,
His office by heis token[s] you may know.
Second to none for strength and sturdy lymm,
A scare-babe mighty voice, with visage grim;
He had interd two queenes within this place
And this townes householders in his life's space
Twice over, but at length his own time came,
What he for others did, for him the same
Was done: no doubt his soule doth live for aye,
In heaven, though here his body clad in clay.'
The first of the queens
interred by Scarlett was Catharine, the divorced wife
of Henry VIII, who died in 1535 at Kimbolton Castle,
in Huntingdon-shire. The second was Mary Queen of
Scots, who was beheaded at Fotheringay in 1587, and
first interred here, though subsequently transported
to Westminster Abbey.
A droll circumstance, not very
prominent in Scarlett's portrait, is his wearing a
short whip under his girdle. Why should a sexton be
invested with such an article? The writer has not the
least doubt that old Robert required a whip to keep
off the boys, while engaged in his professional
operations. The curiosity of boys regarding graves and
funerals is one of their most irrepressible passions.
Every grave-digger who works in a churchyard open to
the public, knows this well by troublesome experience.
An old man, who about fifty years ago pursued this
melancholy trade at Falkirk, in Scotland, always made
a paction with the boys before beginning�'Noo, laddies,
ye maun bide awa for a while, and no tramp back the
mools into the grave, and I'll be sure to bring ye a'
forrit, and let ye see the grave, when it's dune.'
CHILDREN DETAINED FOR A FATHER'S DEBT
On the 2nd of July 1839, a
singular trial came on before the Tribunal de Premiere
Instance, at Paris, to determine whether the children
of a debtor may be detained by the creditor as a
pledge for the debt. Mr. and Mrs. -----, with five
children, and some domestic servants, lived for a time
at a large hotel at Paris; and as they could not or
would not pay their account, they removed to a smaller
establishment, the Hotel Britannique, the owner of
which consented to make himself responsible for the
debt to the other house. After the family had remained
with him for a considerable time, Mr. � disappeared,
and never returned to the hotel, sending merely a
letter of excuses. Then Mrs. � went away, leaving the
children and servants behind. The servants were
discharged; but the hotel-keeper kindly supported the
five children thus strangely left on his hands, until
his bill had run up to the large sum of 20,000 francs
(about �800). A demand was then made upon him (without
revealing to him the present dwelling-place of the
parents) to deliver up the children; he refused,
unless the bill was paid; whereupon a suit was
instituted against him. M. Charles Ledru, the advocate
for the parents, passed the highest encomiums on the
generous hotel-keeper, and said that he himself would
use all his influence to induce the father to pay the
debt so indisputably due; but added, that his own
present duty was to contend against the detention of
the children as a pledge for the debt. The president
of the tribunal, M. Debelleyme, equally praised the
hotel-keeper, but decided that the law of France would
not permit the detention of the children. They were
given up, irrespective of the payment of the debt,
which was left to be enforced by other tribunals.
