Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

discarded a belief in ascetic purity for that are attributed to the Bishop of Paris, Maupassionate idolatry of woman which soon rice de Sully. The style of these discourses became its first duty and motive. Thus, the is some evidence of their authenticity and profane element soon preponderated over their design. They are evidently composed the ecclesiastical one. When nobles or comfor a popular and ignorant audience. There plaisant ecclesiastics remodelled and amplified the old work, they introduced innumeris neither scholastic subtlety, allegory, nor able episodes to gratify modern tastes. science. The ideas are precise and practiThey mixed with the mystical pictures of the cal, the illustrations familiar, and taken from old book others more fitted to flatter the im- every-day life. There are sometimes introagination of their readers. These are not duced legends for minds with an appetite, the only incompatible influences which made like that of children, for the marvellous. It the vast cycle of fiction so discordant with itself. The book is made, not only to exwas the commencement of French preachpress contradictory ideas, but it has been ing. These discourses were for a long time worked at by races essentially different in the model of the instructions that were adfeeling. Originally, it was manifestly the dressed every Sunday to the congregation. fruit of the Celtic genius, of which it pos- There are many copies of them which belong sessed the principal characteristics; then la to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. haute histoire suddenly fell into other hands, The other collections of this class belong to and the Norman genius took up and continued the work of the Breton." pretty nearly the same age, and are in style and character the same. But much of the best preaching was still in Latin. Thus the growth of French eloquence, and the development of the language in preaching and public speaking, was retarded. In the second half of the fourteenth century, and the beginning of the next, there was a remarkable religious and political movement. As society became more civilized, the power and the influence of the practised speaker increased. The same faculties were equally useful to the ambitious layman and to the ecclesiastic. Thus was gradually formed the school of eloquence, and the rich and powerful language, which reached its full maturin the sermons of Massillon and Bossuet. Thus it will be seen that the French intellect in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was already full of activity. The first impulse in every branch of thought came from the Church. But as cultivation became more general, the Church ceased to have the exclusive control of letters and science. Romances were no longer theological; and the

Upon this principle M. Moland believes that the Cycle of Saint Graal is to be interpreted, and that it may be considered as the most important literary monument of the efforts to carry out the theocratic principle in the eleventh century-efforts which soon failed utterly, and which were afterwards condemned by the popes themselves. The Romances of Saint Graal and the Round Table were expressly prohibited by the court of Rome in the fourteenth century, at the same time that the Order of Templars was abolished. We regret, on a subject so interesting, that we can only indicate the reasoning upon which this view is founded.ity The next source of French literature consists of the legends, sacred and profane, which possess a partly religious and partly historical character. The legends of the medieval church do not form a complete cycle like the book of Saint Graal, but rather resemble the fantastic and brilliant illuminations on the margin of the sacred text. They were, however, essentially a part of the pop-dramatic mysteries, though for a long time ular literature, and, like the romances, sprang immediately from the Church. From them, too, descended in a direct line the dramatic compositions called Mysteries, from which undoubtedly the theatre of modern Europe was derived.

The earliest remains of French sermons which can be considered an authentic specimen of French preaching are found in a manuscript containing a series of short instructions for each Sunday in the year, which

they preserved traces of their origin, gradually changed in character. But in each case the transition was slow, and necessarily coincided with the general advance of society. It is M. Moland's aim to mark these epochs of change, and to show how the civilization of the middle ages was created, and how it passed into the Renaissance and modern history. The result of all such investigations always proves the inseparable connection in thought and feeling between suc

1

cessive ages; and that, however far we go

nected in purpose, and serve in turn to illusback, we can never reach the fountain-head. trate the plan of inquiry laid down by the author.

It is now no longer the fashion to assume
that there was ever a period of utter dark-
ness during the middle ages.. It certainly
was not so in France. As we learn from M.
Guizot, in his History of the Civilization of
Europe, in spite of incursions of barbarians
and endless confusion the thread of Roman
civilization was never broken. Learning
was still preserved by the Church; and some
remains of Roman law still subsisted. The
seventh century was probably the darkest;
but after the age of Charlemagne the prog-
ress of learning became more conspicuous.
From that date onwards the so-called mod-
ern languages were in process of formation,
till, as we have seen, in the twelfth century
they suddenly appeared in all the luxuriance
of spontaneous growth. The French of
Paris in the nineteenth century is the legiti-
mate successor of the Norman Wallon, in
which the Romance of the Round Table and
the Assize of Jerusalem were written. The
history of this language and literature must
be always full of interest, and the study of
it cannot fail to be of use:-

"They teach us how the intellectual wealth
and moral grandeur of France were formed.
Far from diminishing our admiration for the
writers of the best periods, and the poets
of the highest order, they show us how their
advent had been arranged and timed to pro-
duce their powerful and correct genius.
They enable us better to appreciate the im-
mortal chefs-d'œuvre which can never be
forgotten or exhausted. They have, too,
another effect; they enlarge the horizon of
our vision. Whilst they give us the habit
of looking beyond those great monuments
which for many minds exclude everything
else, they at the same time prevent us from
judging with too much parti: lity the works
of our own time. They help us to keep from
being discouraged, and warn us alike not
to finish the history of our literature too
soon, or to begin it too late."

From The Philadelphia Inquirer.

HOW THOMAS JEFFERSON FORESHAD-
OWED THE FINANCIAL POLICY
FOR 1862.

A FEW days ago we submitted some remarks upon the financial policy of the Government, which summed up the present issue about as follows: The question forced upon the Government is, whether it will make long loans for large sums, at high rates of interest, or whether, by exercising its right of sovereignty and taking exclusive possession of the paper circulation of the country, it will make short loans for optional sums. without paying any interest at all. This latter it can do. by the issue of its own notes, and by causing the withdrawal of the competing circulation of the banks, such withdrawal to be effected by taxation, or any other convenient legislative device. Such a plan was suggested by the Secretary of the Treasury in his last Annual Report, and in concluding our observations upon the above issue, and the recommendations of that report, we remarked that the proposed measure did not rest upon any new theories, but upon principles which had the sanction of Jefferson, Gallatin, and Benton. It is to make the latter assertion good, at least with reference to one of these names, that we recur to the subject this morning.

In October, 1815, Mr. Jefferson wrote to Mr. Gallatin his belief that this country could be carried through the longest war, against her most powerful enemy, without ever knowing the want of a dollar, without dependence on the traitorous class of her citizens, without bearing hard on the resources of the people, or loading the public with an indefinite burden of debt. This he said could be done In dealing with a work of this kind, we" by the total prohibition of all private pamust be content to give a very general out-per," "by reasonable taxes in war," and line of the mode in which the subject is "by the necessary emissions of public pahandled, for our space will not permit us to per, of circulating size, bottomed on special dwell upon details. There is much in M. taxes."

Moland's volume that is extremely interest- But these opinions of Jefferson, written ing. The materials are treated in a clear to Mr. Gallatin when the war was over, were and scholar-like manner, and the different no mere after-thoughts of that sagacious essays of which it is made up are all con- and far-sighted statesman. Repeatedly,

while the war was in progress, he commu-dated June 24th, 1813, already referred to, nicated to public and private correspondents Jefferson wrote as follows: "In this way I the same views as to the true financial pol-am not without hope that this great, this sole icy of the Government. Thus in June and resource for loans in an agricultural country, September, 1813, he wrote to John W. might yet be recovered for the use of the na Eppes a series of letters on the finances, tion during war; and if obtained in perpetcopies of which were subsequently commu-uum, it would always be sufficient to carry nicated to the President and Mr. Monroe.us through any war; provided, that in the In these he used the following remarkable interval between war and war all the outlanguage: "The question will be asked standing paper should be called in, coin be and ought to be looked at, what is to be the permitted to flow in again, and to hold the resource if loans cannot be obtained? There field of circulation, until another war should is but one. Bank paper must be suppressed, require its yielding place again to the na and the circulating medium must be restored tional medium.” to the nation to whom it belongs. It is the only fund on which they can rely for loans; it is the only resource which can never fail them, and it is an abundant one for every necessary purpose. Let banks continue if they please, but let them discount for cash alone, or for Treasury notes."

At this point we find ourselves approaching the usual limit of a newspaper article, without having used one-half the passages in Jefferson's correspondence marked for illustration of this interesting and important subject. Pages on pages to the same effect might be quoted from his letters written durThe last quoted passage was written Sep-ing, and a few years subsequent to the war tember, 1813; but Mr. Jefferson had writ- of 1812. The foregoing however should suften to the same effect to the same gentleman fice. They all show the strong conviction in the previous June, during the first year of Mr. Jefferson that the circulating medium of the war. In September, 1814, he wrote of the country should be in possession of the to Thomas Cooper, Esq., of the eagerness Government, and under its exclusive control, with which everybody would receive Treas- that during war it was the sole, reliable, and ury notes, if founded on specific taxes; certain resource for loans, that it was an adding, that "Congress may now borrow of ample fund which could be used without the public, and without interest, all the interest; that it was the rightful franchise money they may want, to the amount of a of the nation alone; that it had been imcompetent circulation, by merely issuing providently and wrongfully surrendered; their own promissory notes of proper de- and that it should be recovered without denominations," etc. What was Jefferson's lay. His views, however, were never enidea of a competent circulation in 1814, may dorsed by legislation; and in his letter to be found in his letter to the President, dated Mr. Gallatin, above quoted, he regrets the October 11th of that year, in which he sets failure to do it in these words: "But, un it down at three hundred millions. While happily, the towns of America were considenforcing his views upon the President, he ered as the nation of America-the disposirepeats that "the circulating fund is the tion of the former as the disposition of the only one we can ever command with cer- latter; and the treasury, for want of confitainty. It is sufficient for all our wants; dence in the country, delivered itself, bound and the impossibility of even defending the hand foot, to bold and bankrupt adventurers country without its aid as a borrowing fund, and pretenders to be money-holders, whom renders it indispensable that the nation it could have crushed at any moment." should take it and keep it in their own hands, as their exclusive resource."

One more extract will complete the sèries necessary to the illustration of this branch

of the subject. In the letter to Mr. Eppes,

How history is forever repeating itself, and how striking the analogies between the financial phenomena of 1812 and those of 1862!

[ocr errors]
[graphic]
« ElőzőTovább »