Essays on Various Subjects. By His Eminence man. From the Examiner. I have ceased to entertain. What was but hope The car That a man gifted with brains could get through sixteen years of his prime without experiencing any of those changes of opinion which must accompany all mental growth, is as impossible as that a tree can grow for sixteen years and always keep the form it had when it first broke out of the soil. dinal has either lopped and pruned his wits most cruelly, has either kept them down by shaving diligently, as he has shaved down day by day the sproutings of au interdicted beard, or there is less of the old woman in him than he would sometimes have us suppose—and, indeed, now and then we seem to spy a beard under his muffler. THESE Essays are republications chiefly from the Dublin Review and the Catholic Magazine. Though upon "various subjects "there is a strict unity of purpose by which they are all connected; they all tend throughout carefully to promote the credit and well-being of that which his eminence regards as the true church. The first volume is upon points of faith, and practice, and church history; and has chiefly in view Roman Catholic readers. The second volume is devoted wholly to exercitations upon Puseyism. The third volume contains miscellaneous essays upon literature and art, but the topics are all chosen with the discretion of a good ecclesiastic. By far the longest essay in it is an exposition of the excellent condition of the church in Spain. The temper of all the three volumes, we must add, is excellent, and the tact displayed in them equally great. The cardinal can write nonsense when it serves a purpose, but he is always a shrewd and clever man. Few know better how to prop up, with subtle buttresses, opinions that want foundation and solidity; and, when he is clearly in the right, A cardinal, however, is on the whole a he is invulnerable against all comers. He is social mystery with which we are not now the man of his church, and of his church as specially called upon to meddle. Neither it is in our own day. He might indeed have shall we say anything of Dr. Wiseman's lived three hundred years ago, but he has Catholic endeavors to uphold the abandoned adapted himself to an easier task than he text upon the Trinity in the first epistle of would then have had. There is a great St. John, or to vindicate against unjust asdifference apparent between the movement of persion the memory of the just Pope Boniface the gaudy mitre-painted coach that jolted on VIII., or to prove the blessing power of Catholits state march over the old roads of the six-icism over Italy and Spain. Essays upon teenth century, and the same coach (only the such topics will interest all readers who know rottener for being older) that now rumbles how to derive profit from the habit of conquietly along our modern ways. There is the sidering all sides of any question. Dr. Wisesame pretension, there are the same adorn-man may not be a man of genius, but he is ments carefully relackered - the gay piece of lumber may seem to the irreverent as obsolete as the lord mayor's sarcophagus of state but on improved roads it rolls along more pleasantly than ever, and its coachman knits his brows less fiercely as his trouble with the reins is lessened. In the preface to the cardinal's first volume there occurs a profitable illustration of the spirit of the Roman church. As is the church so is the cardinal. His eminence would tell us that having dutifully cut his mind to the church pattern, he has had nothing to learn from his youth upward: singularly shrewd and ready of perception. lis mind is well trained, and is as quick and lively in its movements as it dares to be within a body columned on red stockings and crowned with the venerable hat. Often in these essays we find the driest topics made delightful by the skilful treatment of the writer. Take, for example, the subject of Biblical criticism. Dr. Wiseman having been gently admonished by a brother Romanist of too great freedom in the recommendation of a free criticism of the Scriptures, proceeds in the course of an Essay on Miracles to show mainly how a scholar may revere the Bible all the more for a minute how much pleasure is derived from the mere study of its component parts, and incidentally intellectual act of determining the character and value of old manuscripts, an art in which the practised wit can acquire great expertness. Taking the history of one particular Arabic text as made out by internal evidence, he I feel it a duty, rather than a satisfaction, to say, that, on looking over this collection of papers, stretching over a period of seventeen years, covering that critical period of life which comprises the maturity of youthful vigor, and the commencement of intellectual decline -the age of bold thoughts, and that of cautious emendations -I have not found an opinion or a feeling that gives it thus: Look into that cell. It is in an Eastern monastery, on the craggy side of Mount Libanus, with palm-trees shooting up slender around it, and waving their graceful heads to the evening breeze. All is still and calm; the chanting has ceased, and each pious recluse has slowly returned to his cell. Look again at the one we have chosen, rude and bare as it is. There, by the latticed window, thrown open to the setting sun, on his little square mat, sits, Arab-fashion, a bearded monk, grave and furrowed with lines of thought. At his left side is his inkstand with his reedholder passed behind the girdle like a dirk. In his left hand he holds his page of vellum on a slight board, in his right his ready cane pen: for he leans not his body nor his book on anything when he writes. He lives at a time when the sacred language of his country, the Syriac, is becoming less known even in religious houses, and an Arabic, or vernacular, version is required of the Psalms. He being well skilled in languages, and a worthy man, has been ordered to make it, and is already plying his sacred task. Now, first, what is he translating from? On a low three-legged stool beside him, lies the open volume. What language is it? How, you reply, "can I possibly see, at this distance of place and time?" Then I will tell you: it is a copy of the Septuagint, or ancient Greek version of the Bible. How do we know this? Every verse of his translation tells us so. For, while that version differs very remarkably from the Hebrew in its readings, his translation throughout keeps close to the former. Well, this is a very simple discovery. But we see that our good monk is not very strong in his Greek, for he keeps every now and then looking at another old volume, or rather roll, beside him. It is clearly the Hebrew original, which, being more akin to his own language, he can better master. He uses it, therefore, as another would a lexicon. Hence through his translation, when a hard and puzzling word comes in the Greek, we find him putting the very Hebrew word into his text, making quite a jumble of it. This tells us that he did not help himself out of another version already made from the Hebrew, but dealt freely with the original. But we have very curious proofs of this. We are now watching him translate Ps. lxxvii., v. 74 (69 Heb. and Gr.). He has hit upon two curious deviations from both the Greek and the Hebrew. And yet we can very easily account for them; but only one way. If in two small words together, we imagine him to have mistaken, in one a beth for a caph, in the other a caph for a beth (the two Hebrew letters being very much alike), we get just his reading. And the same verse contains another certain proof, but too complex for our present purpose. See him now fairly nonplussed. He has got to Ps. xxxix. (Heb.), v. 9 (in LXX., v. 6), and there he finds the two texts irreconcilably different. You may behold him, with his hands dropped before him on his knees, waving his body backwards and forwards, and gently stroking his beard, as Orientals do when they wish to convey electricity to their brains. And now a bright thought has struck him. He knows not which VOL. II. 8 LIVING AGE. reading to prefer, so he will put them both in ; and consequently he combines them, and gives us in his translation a double version, from the Greek and from the Hebrew. Having discovered this notable expedient, he has recourse to it again in similar difficulties: for example in Ps. xlvi. (Heb.) verses 13, 14, where he once more treats us to both texts. But this Psalm seems to have greatly perplexed him; for sometimes, as in a fit of desperation, he fairly takes his departure altogether from both his originals, and hazards a most unaccountable paraphrase of his own. He however finds another remedy in his difficulties. There he gets up, and takes down from his small library, or rather out of his book-chest, another volume. How shall we make that out? Very easily: we can see it from here, as we peep over his shoulder. It is the Syriac Peshito version. He is engaged on Ps. xcvii. (Heb.), and at every verse he looks into this translation, and does not hesitate to be guided by it. Coincidences so curious occur, as to leave us no doubt of this. The good old translator may have pretended what he liked to his less learned brethren, and may have made them suppose that he was very fluent in Greek, and read it off like an Athenian; but he cannot trick us, and we can make out, as plain as if we saw him, every book that he used. Nay, we can even decide to what country his copy of the Greek text belonged, that it had the text as corrected by Lucian and probably that it was what is called the Hexaplar copy. We may be further asked, why we put the author of this version on Mount Libanus, and not in Chaldea, or Egypt, for instance. Here again interior data combine to determine us: the translation from the Greek, and the knowledge of Hebrew, do not allow us so easily to attribute it to the first country, where the Greek language had long ceased to be known, and Hebrew to be but little cultivated, before this version was made: while the use of the Syriac version, unknown or unused in Egypt, does not permit us to assign it to the latter. But in Syria we have every requisite condition for explaining the character of this translation. Most especially interesting is the second. of Dr. Wiseman's volumes, which we recommend to the attentive study of all English churchmen who retain any doubt whatever as to the intimacy of the connection lately established between Rome and Oxford. It contains the whole of the fraternal dealings of Dr. Wiseman with our High Church party from the time of his first taking an affectionate interest in their affairs, to the time when Newman, Wilberforce, Allies, and other ferred their service to the master they had English clergymen by dozens honestly transchosen, leaving scores still behind who continue to keep dishonest occupation of their English pulpits. The line of demarcation between the High Church people, and the mere Protestants of whom his eminence speaks with a great contempt, is strongly and justly indicated in this volume. One of the essays is devoted to the task of showing that the Anglican church could not be Catholic, because even the Archbishop of Canterbury had committed himself to cooperation with the continental Protestants in sending a bishop to Jerusalem, there to preside over a chance community of" Anglicized Confession-of-Augsburgh men. Could there be any doubt therefore whether the Anglican church were in its essence Catholic or Protestant? Come out from her! cried the Romanist doctor to his friends, our reformation-hating clergy; and it is edifying to observe how cleverly he discussed with them the points on which they differed, and what exceedingly small points they were. Get out from among us! we say also to remaining Puseyites. Read Wiseman, and be converted. would produce such works as should compel all critics and all ages to admire them. In spite, however, of these curious professional opinions wherever the propagandist and the cardinal do not step out before the man of taste this astute Roman churchman shows a good deal of honest relish for the beautiful, and can prove himself sometimes an able critic on a work of art. An example of his skill in this way occurs in an essay on Italian gesticulation, one of the pleasantest in the three volumes. We all know generally how abundantly Italians gesticulate, though some of us may learn now for the first time that the gestures employed in modern Italy are the same in kind and significance with those that have been represented in old statues or upon old prints, and referred to verbally even in the days of Plautus. Let us first indicate the fulness of the language of signs used in Italy: or We have alluded to the rigidity of mind demanded by the Church of Rome, and the external pomps and vanities by which it labors to make Christians humble and devout. In his article on Spain his eminence ceiving you, a friend will simply place his fingers To convey the idea that an individual is dedwells on the treasures contained in the cathe-between his cravat and his neck, and rub the dral of Seville with the zest of an epicure latter slowly with the back of his hand. In the who has a dainty bill of fare to talk of; and Neapolitan dialect the expression is, "l'a mein a paper on Lord Lindsay's Christian Art, nata dinto allo cravattino," "'n canna;' he expresses his dislike for the irreverence or "he has put it within his cravat," or "down bad taste of those artists who present the his throat." The expression corresponds to our images of saints and holy men in any less se- terms to cram and to swallow; and the gesture raphic costume than the trappings of a bishop. represents, most practically, the enlargement of The artist who should represent a Roman in a the oesophagus necessary for conveying the deccit toga wronged the church, if such a Roman down the patient's throat. Hence, another symwas a saint. Out of respect to the ecclesias-bol of the same idea consists in opening the tical system, the iden of sanctity should mouth, and pretending to throw something into have been associated with the stole and mitre. it from the united fingers of the right hand. Almost every gesture may thus be traced to In the public square at Milan is a statue in some proverbial or idiomatic phrase, as several marble, of modern sculpture, representing a per- other instances in the course of this paper will son in a Roman toga; and we remember being show. It is indeed necessary sometimes to travel almost shocked on being told, in answer to an in- through a long chain of ideas to comprehend a quiry, that it represented St. Ambrose. We could sign. Let us suppose a youth at a window, innot give assent to our friendly and learned vited by one in the street to come down and walk, guide's arguments that this was the truer repre- by a beckoning-not as amongst us with the sentation. We could not bear to see the saint fingers upwards, which would only mean salutaotherwise than as a bishop. In like manner, we tion, but with them turned downwards, and rewould have the raiment of the celestial hierar-peatedly moved towards the palm. He answers chy, where they appear upon earth, copied from by placing his hand, with all the fingers apart, that of the church here below. For the angels before his face. What does this mean? Why, are represented to us as ministering at the altar he thus represents himself as looking through in heaven, and our faith teaches us to consider the barred window of a prison; and so, comthe triumphant and the militant, but as portions municates to his friend that domestic authority of one indivisible church, and those blessed confines him to the house. In the neighborhood spirits as fellow-ministers with our visible priest-of Naples your carriage is sure to be followed hood. Moreover, the eye of the faithful is ac-by a covey of brats, who, well aware that you customed to consider the ecclesiastical garments, used only at the altar, as the most sacred of outward apparel, and more dignified, in truth, than the most splendid distinctions of mere secular rank. The Pre-Raphaelites are the artists of whom his eminence has the most hope, the condition of their safe arrival at the pinnacle of fame being, of course, their conversion to the Roman church. Under the guidance of real Catholic devotion it is promised that they probably do not understand their slang, trust much more to the graphic language of gesture to excite your pity. For this purpose, they dispose their fore-finger and thumb in the form of a horse-shoe, and apply their points first vertically above and below the mouth, and then horizontally to its corners, alternating the movement with great rapidity. Unfortunately, the ludicrous, woe-begone expression of face which accompanies the action, usually destroys its intended pathos, and prevents even an acute observer from penetrating its poetry. It signifies that the mouth has been cross-barred or sealed up; in other words, that the sufferer has had nothing to eat for a long time. We remember observing a remarkable instance of quickness in the application of a symbol to a complicated idea, in a ragged little boy at Genoa, whose perseverance in mendicant supplication was rewarded by an Englishman with a crazia, a miserable copper-foil coin, half as thin and half as large as a wafer. An English beggar would have, perhaps, at once given vent to his indignation by throwing it on the ground; not so the little Italian. He placed the coin deliberately on the palm of his hand, brought it to the level of his mouth, and, with a roguish look at the giver, blew it away by a sharp puff upon the ground. The blow towards a person or thing is a strong expression of contempt; so that additional emphasis was given to the less refined mode of rejecting with disdain. But, at the same time, the action substantiated its own motive: the urchin most scientifically proved the cause of his discontent-the lightness of the present. Dr. Wiseman multiplies illustrations, but we have space only for one set, gestures that relate to money: 66 We will only put one more case, which concerns the most engrossing of all conversational topics-money. You will ask if a man be rich or not, by an inquiring glance and nod towards him, at the same time that you strike your pocket, or rub the points of finger and thumb, as though counting out money. Your silent friend, by the proper nods, looks, and motions of the hands, tells you << no, or 80, 80, or "exceedingly," which last is expressed by a toss of the hand and head, and a half sort of whistle, or something between that and a hiss. Well, suppose the latter; you ask, by word or by look, how he has become so. Your informant, with his thumb, rubs his forehead from side to side, to signify that it was by the sweat of his brow, his industry and application. But perhaps he does not raise his hand so high, but takes hold of his cheek between his thumb and closed fingers, shaking the hand. That informs you that he has made his fortune by bribery and peculation. He may come lower still, and, doubling up his hand, put his thumb, bont like a hook, under his chin; and you shall understand that he has taken advantage of others' necessities for his profit, having placed a hook in their jaws. Or, the two clenched fists are pressed strongly upon the chest, which means that he has been avaricious, or, analogously to the action, "close-fisted." In fine, the fingers are drawn in and closed, beginning with the first, and so to the last, making a species of curve, and the signification is, by theft and robbery. Should the answer have been unfavorable to the person's pecuniary condition, and you inquire the reason, as he was known once to have been rich, the reply may be no less varied. For instance, your informant, joining all the fingers of one or both hands together, as he wishes to be more or less emphatic, brings their tips near his mouth, and then, blowing on them a long, deliberate puff, with swelled checks, withdraws and throws them open, as though they were blown asunder and scattered by the breath. This naturally indicates that the fortune of which you asked has been dissipated one hardly knows how, but by general inattention. Should he close up his fist, and, throwing back his head, point repeatedly with his extended thumb towards his mouth, he will assign drink as the sad cause. Should the same gesture be made with the united points of all the fingers and thumb, more solid extravagance, by eating, will be denoted. In fine, if, closing his left hand before his breast, as if holding something tight between his thumb and fore-finger, he, with the same finger of the right equally shut, appear to draw that imaginary thing out with difficulty, the meaning is, that gambling has been the ruinous practice; for the action represents a trick which gamesters have in drawing out a card from their hand. And now for the application of this kind of knowledge of Italian life to works of art: Universally admired as Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" is, one of its principal beauties will be overlooked, if the action of the figures, as expressive of their words and sentiments, be not understood. Take, for instance, the figure. of Judas. The gospel gives us two characteristics of him that he was a thief, and carried a purse. The latter mark was easily seized on by every painter, and meant as emblematical of the first. Yet the sacred text represents the two as distinct. The genius of Leonardo alone contrived to keep them so in painting. In his right hand the traitor holds a purse; but his left is extended and slightly curved, in the very position we described as denoting theft, which in reality is imitative of the pilferer's act in drawing to him, and inclosing within his hand, the thing which he steals. The painter, too, by a clever device, left no doubt of the import of the action. For while all the rest of the bread on the table is of a coarse quality, he placed one white loaf just beyond Judas' hand, as the object towards which it was tending. By this simple expedient he not only defines the action, but gives us the most contemptible and detestable idea of the avaricious wretch, who could thus take advantage of the confusion which his master's home. driven declaration of a traitor's being among the company, made to pilfer a miserable morsel of finer bread. And in fact his attitude seems to represent him as looking round to see whether all are so engaged, that his hand, moving in an opposite direction from his eye, may perpetrate the theft. If from this perfect incarnation of baseness we turn to the principal figure, the purest and sweetest expression imaginable of superhuman excellence, we have the attitude and action exactly required in loving expostulation;: the hands thrown down with the palm upwards,. and the head bent forward and inclined to one side. No other action could possibly so well express the words: "One of you is about to betray me.' It was a master thought of the artist's to select this moment for the subject of his picture of the last supper. Generally the institution In justice to our friends across the Atlantic, I must say, that, during the whole time I was at the Australian gold-fields, I never recollect an American being brought up either for robbery or anything else disreputable (unless it was for not having a license, and then but seldom): they generally seemed to keep together, and if people left them alone they would not interfere with anybody, but if others would make them of the blessed Eucharist is chosen, which allows | some of our readers in the mood to cultivate no room for the play of human passions, and some further acquaintance with Dr. Wisemust uuite the expression of all the countenances man's Essays. in a common sentiment of love and adoration. But the moment here chosen, immediately after our Saviour had uttered the words just quoted, admitted every variety of expression, and greater action. On his right we have St. John in the deepest attitude of affectionate griefthat is, with his hands crossed into one another. But Peter's predominant feeling is fervid zeal; pressing upon the back of Judas, treading upon his brother's foot, he urges John by the most energetic gesture to ascertain exactly who the traitor is. Any Italian would, at once under-selves obnoxious they might rest assured they stand this upon seeing the fore-finger pressed upon John's breast. At the same time, his right arm akimbo, with a knife in his hand, too well expresses a determined purpose of defending, if necessary, by violence, the life of his master. Another of the apostles, however, meant for James, seized his shoulder to draw him back, while of the two other figures on that side, Andrew raises his haud in an attitude expressive of astonishment mingled with horror; and Philip, standing up, leans forward to ascertain the cause of a commotion, which his distance has not allowed him to hear. On the other side of our Saviour there is equal expression; one apostle is in the act of asking earnestly who is the wretch, and Jude, beside him, no less earnestly protesting his own innocence. His head leans on one side as he presses his hand to his bosom, appearing at the same time to open his vest, desirous to lay it bare before his master. The last figure on this side manifestly expresses that he considers the thing impossible, the position of the hands and head are such as, in Italy, would signify such a doubt; and the person standing up, by pointing with both his hands to our Lord, while his head is turned towards his incredulous companion, no less plainly answers him, by appealing to the express declaration of their Redeemer. Another between them is more calmly assuring him of the fact. were awkward customers to deal with. Whenever I had to settle a dispute between an American and any other nation, the former were invari ably in the right; and I only wish all gold-diggers would listen to reason as well as they would, and doubtless many squabbles would be prevented. There was a dislike generally to them, on account of the manner in which any one almost was treated who went from Australia to California. Certainly nothing would be more likely to occur than such a feeling, considering that every one who went from the Australian Colonies to that El Dorado, no matter who he was or what he was, was looked upon as a Sydneyite" - which was an insinuation that he was a convict, or had been one, or descended from one; at all events he must be connected, more or less, with convictism. There was another class of people who were a most particularly quiet, orderly, well-disposed, and industrious set of people; and those were Germans and Hungarians -in fact, any almost from the central parts of Europe. was my I think the most fortunate men, generally speaking, on the Diggings, were the Adelaide miners, who were mostly Cornishmen; also sailors, Germans, excavators, farm-laborers, and the general run of the lower orders of Irish; the most unfortunate, I think, were those who came under the denomination of "swell diggers," We have dwelt upon this sublime work of art, and soldiers, or men who have been soldiers; and selected it from a thousand others, both on the latter, after a time, preferring the police account of its truly eloquent character, and be-force to mining. There was, however, several cause it is better known than most pictures, instances of great success attending gentlemen through the many prints and even medallions who were digging; one with whom published of it. It is evident that an artist who self acquainted cleared upwards of 3000l. in wishes to paint an Italian scene, or who desires six weeks; but this was a rare occurrence. to rival the expressiveness of the great masters, Read's Australia. should be fully acquainted with this language of signs, as practised in their country. Instead of the dry and almost inanimate colloquies held among us, every knot of talkers there presents a group with varied attitudes, expression, and gesture, ready to be drawn. It is the " pays de cocagne "of artists, where, if the streets are not paved with gold, living pictures run about The collection into a goodly volume of Dr. them, seeming to call out, Come and sketch Cumming's practical exposition of Matthew's Gospel; which, after being tested by delivery A study of its peasantry is worth a thousand abstract treatises upon action and ex-in the pulpit, was published in weekly numbers. pression. .me. With this pleasant sample of the stuff that they contain we think that we shall leave Sabbath Evening Readings on the New Testament. St. Matthew. By the Reverend John Cumming, D. D., F. R. Š. E., Minister of the Scottish National Church, Crown Court, Covent Garden. The work will be found a fresh and practical commentary on the Evangelist; drawing its learned matter from other writers, but illustrat ing what is derived by a living spirit.— Spect. |