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THE SCOTTISH REVIEW.

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THE

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

JULY AND OCTOBER,

1894.

VOL. XXIV.

ALEXANDER GARDNER,

Ifublisber to ^er Majesty the OJueen,
PAISLEY; and 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON.

MDCCCXCIV.

TNDEX TO VOLUME XXIV.

Aarboger for Nordisk Oldkyn-
dighed og Historie, ... ... 200

Aspects of Modern .Study, being
University Extension Ad-
dresses by Various Writers, 443

Anderson, George, The Agnos-
tic and Other Poems, ... 44]

Archivio Storico Italiano, ...1S4, 420

Archivio Storico per le Province

Napolitane, ... ... ...1S5, 419

Argyllshire, by W. C. Maughan, 125

Bain, Alexander, LL.D., and
T. Whittaker, B.A., Philoso-
phical Remains of George
Groom Robertson, ... ... 433

Baker, James, F.R.G.S., Pic-
tures from Bohemia, drawn
with Pen and Pencil, . . . 443

Bibliotheque Universelle et Re-
vue Suisse, ... ... ...195, 42S

Bishop, Isabella Bird, F.R.G.S.,

Among the Tibetans, ... 444

Cameron, Alexander, LL.D.,
Reliquiae Celtic*. Edited
by Alexander MacBain,_M. A.,
and Rev. John Kennedy, ... 213

Cheetham, S. H., D.D., A
History of the Christian
Church during the First Six-
Centuries, ... ... ... 204

Collins, F. Howard, Epitome

of the Synthetic Philosophy, 209

Conder, Major C. R., LL.D.,

E.E., Jerusalem, ... ... 337

Corea, ... ... ... ... 3S7

Cowan, Rev. Henry, D.D.,
Landmarks of Church His-
tory 447

Craigie, W. A., Three Tales of

the Fiann, 270

Craik, Henry, English Prose

Selections, Vol. II., ... 222

Crockett, Rev. S. R., Mad Sir

Uchtred of The Hills, ... 447

Cultura, 419

Dawson, Sir J. W., C.M.G.,
D.C.L., The Meeting-place
of Geology and History, ... 444

Deussen, Paul, Ph.D., Elements
of Metaphysics, translated
by C. M. Duff, 222

Deutsche Rundschau,... ...173, 410

Dowden, John, D.D., Bishop
of Edinburgh, The Celtic
Church in Scotland,... ... 205

Drage, Geoffrey, The Unem-
ployed, ... ... ... 445

Drummond, Henry, The Ascent
of Man, ...

Edinburgh in 1629, by J. Bal-
four Paul,
Espaiia Moderna,

Falconer, Alexander, Scottish
Pastorals and Ballads, and
Other Poems,

Fasnacht, G. Eugene, Select
Specimens of the Great French
Writers in the Seventeenth,
Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Centuries,

Firth, C. H., M.A., The Mem-
oirs of Edmund Ludlow, ...

Fitzgerald, Edward, Letters,

Fraser, Alex. Campbell, Locke's
Essay concerning Human
Understanding,

Freemnn, Edward A.', M.A.,
etc., The History of Sicily
from the Earliest Times. Vol.

21S

1
196

222

210
213

208

VI.

INDEX.

I\ . Edited by Arthur .1.

Evans, \l. \ 136

I 'roude, J. A., Life and Letters
oi Erasmus, ... ... ... 138

G.
( rermany in L826, ... ... 1<)6

Gids, De 199,429

Gill, W . Wv.iit. From Dark-
ness to Light in Polynesia, 444
Gillespie, Rev. C. G. K., The
Sanitary Code of the Penta-
teuch, ... ... .. 444

Gioi oale Storico di Letteratura

Italian;! 183

Green, Mrs. J. li. , Town Life

in the Fifteenth Century, ... 435
Griffis, Dr., Brave Little Hol-
land, ...

Ballard, James Henry, M.A.,

The Idylls of Theocritus,

translated into English Verse,
Harper, Henry A., Walks in

Palestine,
Haynes, ('apt. A. E., B.E.,

.Man-Hunting in the Desert,
Bedley, Bishop, A Eetreat, ...
Bill, David Jayne, Genetic

Philosophy, ...
Bodder, Edwin, John Mac-

< tregor (Rob Boy), ...
Hunter, P. Hay, James In wick,

Ploughman and Elder,

Jacks, William, Nathan the
Wise, translated into English.

Jeans, .1. S., Conciliation and
Arbitration in Labour Dis-
putes,..

Jerusalem, by Major C. E.
Conder, R.E.,

Journalist in Literature, A., by
William Wallace. ...

Kauffmann, Rev. M., Heredity

and Personal Responsibility,

Mr. Ruskin as a Prac

tical Teacher,

Lane, W.. Mod. rn Egyptians,
Law, Thomas Graves, Docu-
ments illustrating Catholic
Policy in the Reign of James

VI. , 1596, 15: s,

22 1

441
444

219

447

433

439
•224

441

224

337
157

444
21

447
2 1 2

Lee-Warner, William, C.S.I.,
The Protected Princes of
India, 212

Legge, F., The Origin of Our
Civilisation, ... ... ... 306

Logic of History, The, by R.

M. Wenley, D.Sc, 297

MacCunn, Professor, Ethics of

citizenship, 223

Maclachlan, T. Banks, William

Blacklock, Journalist, ... 44S

Master Masons of Scotland,
The, 319

Maughan, W. C, Argyllshire, 125

Maxwell, Sir Herbert, M.P.,
Scottish Land-names, their
Origin and Meaning (Rhind
Lectures), ... ... ... 21G

Moltke, by W. O'Connor Mor-
ris, 74

Moorhouse, Bishop, Church

Work, ... 223

Morris, W. O'Connor, Lord
Wolseley's Life of Marl-
borough, ... ... ... 252

— Moltke, 74

Nicolson, Lawrence James, The

Songs of Thule, ... ... 441

Nuova Antologia, ... ...181,415

Nuova Eassegna, ... .. 184,418

Nys, Ernest, Les Origines dn

Droit International, ... 209

Origin of Our Civilisation, The,
byF.

Legge,

Paul, J. Balfour, Edinburgh in
1629,

Pensiero Italiano,

Pfleiderer, Otto, D.D., Philo-
sophy and Development of
Religion,

Philipps, J. Gordon, James
Macpherson, the Highland
Freebooter, ...

Poems, Sonnets, Songs and
Verses, by the author of The
Professor, etc.,

Prothero, G. W., Select Stat-
utes and other Constitutional
Documents illustrative of
the Reigns of Elizabeth and
James I.,

366

1
419

202
447
441

211

INDEX.

Vll.

Rae, John, M.A., Eight Hours

for Work, 218

Rassegna, La, ... ... .. 183,419

Bassegna Nazionale, ... ...182,417

Biforma Sociale, ... ...185,420

Eeid, Eobert (Eob Wanlock),

Poems, Songs, and Sonnets, 441

Ei vista Storica Italiana, ... 41il
Eivista delle Tradizione Popo-

lari Italiani, ... ... ...185,419

Eevue Celtique, 190, 424

Eevue des Deux Mondes, ... 190
Eevue des Etudes Juives, . . .192, 424
Eevue de l'Histoire des Ee-

ligions, ... ... . ..1S6, 420

Eevue des Eeligions, ... ...18S, 422

Eevue Semitique d'Epigraphie

et d'Histoire Ancienne, .. 194, 42(i
Ritchie, D. G., Germany in 1S26, 10(3
Eobertson, Geo. Croom, Philo-
sophical Eemains, edited by
Alex. Bain, L.L.D., and T.

Whittaker, B.A 423

Eobertson, J. N. W. B , The
Divine Liturgies of our
Fathers among the Saints,
John Chrysostom and Basil
the Great, etc., ... ... 432

Booskahyah Mysl, 179,414

Euskin as a Practical Teacher,

by M. Kaufmann, ... ... 21

Saunders, Bailey, The Life and

Letters of James Macpherson, 43!)

Scottish Church Society Con-
ference, ... ... ... 203

Scherren, Henry, Pools and

Eockponds, ... ... ... 444

Seth, James, M.A., A Study of

Ethical Principles, ... ... 434

Shuckburgh, Evelyn Shirley,
A History of Eome to the
Battle of Actium, ... ... 437

Skeafc, Eev. Walter W., Litt.D.,
etc., The Complete Works of
Geoffrey Chaucer, 214,440

Some Aspects of the Modern

Scot, by T. Pilkington White, 44

Stevens, C. Eliis, L.L.D., D.C.L.,
Sources of the Constitution
of the United States con-
sidered in Eelation to Colon-
ial and English History, ... 4.">7

Swan, Annie S., A Lost Ideal, 448

Swete, Eev. H.B., D.D., The

Apostles' Creed, ... ... 446

Theologische Studien uud Kri-

tiken, ... ... ... ...175, 412

Thomas, Llewelyn, The Earliest
Translation of the Old Testa-
ment into the Basque Lau-

Thorpe, T. E., Ph.D., Essrys
in Historical Chemistry, ...

Three Tales of the Fiann, by
W. A. Craigie,

Tudor Intrigues iu Scotland, . . .

205

217

270
225

Vaughan, D. J.

Questions of

the Day,
Vere, Aubrey de, Mediaeval

Eecords and Sonnets, ... 441

Voprosi Philosophii i Psycho-

logii, ' ...170,412

Wallace, William, A Journalist

in Literature, ... ... 157

Wenley, R. M., M.A., D.Sc,
Aspects of Pessimism, ... 206
— The Logic of History, 297

VVesteruianns Monats-Hefte, 174,411

White, T. Pilkington, Some

Aspects of the Modern Scot, 44

Wolseley's (Lord) Life of Marl-
boi'ough, by W. O'Connor
Morris, 252

THE

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

J U L Y , 189 4.

Art. I.— EDINBURGH IN 1629.

1. Historical Manuscripts Commission. Thirteenth Report.

Appendix, Part VII. The Manuscripts of the Earl of

Lonsdale.

2. Early Travellers in Scotland. By P. HUME BROWN. Edin-

burgh: 1891.

3. Scotland before 1700. Same author. 1893.

IT is but a trite observation that the Edinburgh of the early
part of the seventeenth century presented a very different
appearance from what it does to-day. And yet, though in
many points so strangely unlike, there was in some things a
strange similarity. After allowing for its vast extension, which
is indeed the growth of little more than a century, and for the
alterations produced by modern habits of life, there is still
much left to remind us of what the city must have looked like
to the eyes of the early travellers in Scotland. Then as now,
its site was unique among European towns ; on the west side
the castle reared its stately balk, oft-times wrapped in the
fleecy haze which has ever been blown in from the adjacent
Firth, and which is yet so characteristic of ' the grey
metropolis of the north,' but not unfrequently bathed in the

XXIV. I

2 Edinburgh in 162°<.

golden glow of the summer sunsets, which still occasionally
make the dark and precipitous rock blush with a softened
radiance. A Ion-- the narrow ridge of ground which sloped
from the Castle gates down to the gate of the Netherbow lay
tlw Bigh Street, which, with its adjacent alleys or closes going
off from it at right angles on either side, and the lower street
of the Cowgate to the south, practically formed the whole of
the city. It was all surrounded by a defensive wall, the last
extension of which had taken place in 1617. The Canongate,
forming a separate municipality, lay outside the Netherbow
port, and continued the ridge down to Holyrood Abbey and
Palace. What it lacked in security it made up in amenity, as
its houses had gardens of considerable extent stretching out
behind them. Holyrood, as it at present stands, would be
hardly recognizable by an erstwhile denizen of its Courts.
The Palace was a most irregular pile ; the north-east wing was
as it is now, the remainder consisting of rather mean and un-
impressive buildings arranged in three quadrangles, but the
whole was situated in large and pleasant gardens. To the
north stood the Abbey Church or Chapel Royal, the Abbey
buildings having been burned by Hertford's army in 1543. It
was a fine twelfth century Gothic building, and contained the
remains of many of the Scottish kings. Deserted by Royalty
though Church and Palace were at the time of which we
write, they were full of historic memories, and some of the
older inhabitants of the town might almost remember the time
' when mass was sung and censer swung ' within the aisles of
the former, and the exciting scenes which the walls of the
latter had but a few short years before witnessed. There they
stood, silent it is true, but otherwise little changed, while close
at hand lay then as now the mighty couchaut lion of Arthur's
Seat, keeping watch and ward over the old city at its foot.

Such were the limits of the Edinburgh of 1629. A town
which, though its streets no longer witnessed the muster of
men-at-arms to accompany their Sovereign on some war-like
expedition, or saw the royal hunting train sweep in on their
return from the chase in the neighbouring wroods of Drumselch,
had yet an individuality entirely its own. A quaint, crowded,

Edinburgh in 1629. 3

dirty, but withal picturesque town, not too orderly in its
behaviour : full of a people somewhat dour and stern in manner,
but with kindly Scottish hearts, fairly comfortable and well
off, but without many of the luxuries of life. Although the
King's presence at Holyrood was a memory of the immediate
past, there were many signs to show that Edinburgh was not
as other towns. Was there not for instance the ' riding of the
Parliament ' to be seen from time to time, when that august
body assembled for its deliberations, when the Commissioners
and noblemen all went in solemn state from Holyrood
to the hall of meeting ; did not the Lords of Session hold their
Court within the town, the cases before them attracting liti-
gants from all parts of Scotland, some of whom came with
armed retainers and all the display of a feudal retinue ? And
if such scenes were not exciting enough for the taste of the in-
habitants, they had not infrequently the opportunity of hearing
the clash of steel and shout of war, as the dependants of two
hostile factions strove with each other in the streets ; then
they might see a little group hastily bearing away a dark
burden, their passage marked by trailing drops of blood.

We generally gain a knowledge of these sights and sounds
from the sober pages of the historian, or from the musty leaves
of some official record. Sometimes, it is true, light is thrown
on them from the entries of a diarist gossiping to himself,
or more rarely from contemporary letters. In both these
cases, however, the matter is almost invariably written by one
who did not look on the scenes which he describes with a fresh
eye; he had lived all his life among them, and they did not
strike him as they would a stranger. Strangers, indeed, were
rare in Scotland in the seventeenth century and earlier, and
the few who did come, and who have left us an account of
their travels, have very generally passed over, as unworthy of
notice, just those little details which we should have liked to
know, and the knowledge of which help to make mediaeval
life so much more interesting to us. We are, therefore, all the
more glad to meet with an account which has hitherto been
unpublished, and which has not even been known to Mr. Hume
Brown, who has done so much to familiarise us with the writ-

4 Edinburgh in 1629.

inga ol the early travellers in Scotland; and the writer of
which has been at the pains of describing many things for
which we look in vain in other narratives.

The account referred to has been recently published by the
Historical Manuscript Commissioners, in the seventh appendix
to their thirteenth report, which deals with the papers belong-
ing to the Earl of Lonsdale. It was probably written by
Cristopher Lowther, afterwards Rector of Lowther, and de-
scribes a journey to Scotland and visit to Edinburgh made by
himself (if indeed he is the C. Lowther whose name is prefixed
to the narrative) and two others, Mr. R. Fallow and Peter
Manson, in 1629. It is contained in a 12mo volume, and was
likely written during the journey, as though it is graphic and
full of information, the style is poor, and the language occasion-
ally unintelligible, suggesting notes written by the way, and
unrevised. The travellers appear to have started from home
on the 5th of November, which was a strange time of year to
select for a pleasure trip, as it seems to have been, for there is
no hint of any business which took them so far from home.
After leaving Carlisle, they came through the country of the
Grahams, by Netherby, and so on by Canonbie to Langholm ;
the laud about there being noted to belong to ' my Lord Bak-
pleugh.' It may be remarked that the narrator's power of
picking up the sound of proper names appears to have been
very defective, and though spelling was not a strong point
with anybody in the seventeenth century, he makes even
wilder work than usual with the names, both of persons and
places. At Langholm, my Lord Maxfield's (.sic) steward be-
stowed ale and aquavitae on the travellers, and they stay for
the night ' in a poor thatched house, the wall of it being one
course of stones, another of sods of earth ; it had a door of
wicker rods, and the spider webs hung over our heads as thick
as might be in our bed.' They might perhaps have grumbled
less at the accommodation had they not been kept awake all
night from fear of the ' outlaws ' who were reported to be in
the town, showing that the state of the Borders was still not
so settled as it might have been. On the 7th November, Sel-
kirk was reached, on the way to which they observed that all

Edinburgh in 1G29. 5

the churches were ' poor thatched, and on some of them the
doors sodded up with no windows in.' The church at Selkirk,
however, is described as ' very pretty,' being cruciform, with
four pyramidal turrets at the corners. On the outside are the
jougs, or jogges, as our author calls them, ' which is for such
as offend, but especially women brawlers, their head being put
through it, and another iron in their mouth, so abiding foam-
ing till such time as the bailiffs please to dismiss them, it being
in the time of divine service ; ' in the church itself, it is stated,
that as throughout Scotland, when the parson is saying prayers
the people ' use a hummering kind of lamentation for their
sins.' The Selkirk inhabitants (or should we say ' souters ? ')
do not impress the travellers favourably ; they are a drunken
kind of people, we are told, and ' we had a choking smoky
chamber of drunken, unruly company thrust in upon us, called
for wine and ale and left it on our score.' But the narrative
bears additional testimony to the statement by Mr. Hume
Brown, in his introduction to ' Scotland before 1700,' that in
the seventeenth century the peasantry of Scotland enjoyed a
degree of comfort unknown to the same class in France.
' They have good victuals throughout the kingdom, unless it
be towards the south-west, but cannot dress it well.'

The next stopping-place was at Sir James Pringle's, near
Galashiels. Here we have an interesting account of the
hospitality they received, which gives a good idea of the
manner in which a country gentleman of the period lived.
Dinner and supper were brought in by the servants with their
hats on, a custom which is corroborated by Fynes Moryson,
who, writing in 1598, says that, being at a knight's house who
had many servants to attend him, they brought in the meat
with their heads covered with blue caps. After washing their
hands in a basin they sat down to dinner, and Sir James said
grace : the viands seem to have been plentiful and excellent,
' big pottage, long kale, bo we or white kale, which is cabbage,
" breoh sopps," powdered beef, roast and boiled mutton, a
venison pie in form of an egg, goose,' then they had cheese
cut and uncut and apples. But the close of the feast was the
most curious thing about it. The table cloth was removed,

(\ Edinburgh in 1629.

and on it was put a 'towel the whole breadth of the table, and
hall tin* length of it, a basin and ewer to wash, then a green carpet
laid on, then one cup of beer set on the carpet, then a little
Inn- lawn serviter, plaited up a shilling or little more broad
laid cross over the corner of the table, and a glass of hot water
set down also on the table, then be there three boys to say
grace, the 1st, the Thanksgiving ; the 2nd, the Paternoster,
the 3rd, a prayer for a blessing to God's Church. The good-
man of the house, his parents, kinsfolk, and the whole company
they then do drink hot waters, so at supper, then to bed, the
collation which [is] a stoupe of ale.' The whole account it
must be said, is not very intelligible, and it must have been a
somewhat formidable prelude to the post prandial toddy.

On leaving Galashiels, the route was taken by Heriot and
Fala hill, Arniston and Dalhousie being both observed on the
way. Passing through Lasswade and Liberton, they arrived
at Edinburgh on the 9th of November. They lodged at a
Mrs. Russell's, in Bell Wynd, which was a close leading from
the High Street to the Cowgate, about half-way between St.
Giles and the Tron. Having travelled from Carlisle within
five days, which was fairly expeditious considering the time of
year and the elementary condition of roads at that period,
our travellers rested themselves on the evening of their arrival,
but next morning they were ready to sally out on their round
of sight-seeing like the ordinary tourist of to-day. It is prob-
able, however, that they started at an earlier hour than that at
which the modern disciple of Murray and Baedeker leaves his
hotel in Princes Street. At four o'clock in the morning 'goeth
a drum about the toun.' The Court of Session, we know, sat
at 8 A.M., so that people must have been fairly afoot for the
day at a very early hour.

The value of the narrative under consideration is the minute,
and so far as his knowledge went, accurate description of
whatever particularly interested the author, though many
matters which other writers mention he passes over in silence,
or indeed in a very casual manner. But by comparing his
account with that of Sir William Brereton, who visited Edin-
burgh some seven years later, and those of other travellers

Edinburgh in 1G29. 7

which Mr. Hume Brown has edited, we are enabled on the
whole to get a very fair idea of the town in the first half of the
seventeenth century. As to the inhabitants, Mr. Lowther
merely remarks that the gentlemen are courteous and affable,
but hosts and the country clowns are ' careless and unconscion-
able ' in their usage to strangers. Brereton is not so compli-
mentary ; he describes them as ' most sluttish, nasty and sloth-
ful people,' and there does indeed seem to be a general
consensus of opinion that their habits were not over nice,
' only the nobles and better sort of them brave well-bred men
and much reformed.' He also notices the costumes which
struck the eye of a stranger : ' women (especially of the
meaner sort) chiefly wear plaids over their heads, and which
would reach almost to the ground, but that they pluck them
up and wear them cast under their arms. Some ancient
women and citizens wear satin straight-bodied gowns, short
little coats with great capes, and a broad bonne-grace coming
over their brows, and going out with a corner behind their
heads, and this bonne-grace is, as it were, lined with a white
stracht cambric suitable unto it. Young maids not married all
are bare-headed ; some with broad thin shag ruffs which lie
flat to their shoulders, and others with half bands with wide
necks either much stiffened or set in wire, which comes only
behind,' showing that the Queen Mary collar was not alto-
gether out of fashion. The custom of women wearing plaids
did not commend itself to some persons, as it tended to con-
ceal all evidence of the social status of the wearer. William
Lithgow, writing in doggerel in 1628, terms it a ' shamles cus-
tome,' and proceeds to rail against it by asking —

' Should Woemen walke lyke Sprits ? Should Woemen weare
Their Winding-sheets alyve, wrapt up I sweare
From head to foote in Plads : lyke Zembrian Ghostes
Which haunt in Groaves, and Shades, — like Fayry Hostes.

For in a word there's none, 'twixt both can judge
In show, the Matrone, from the Common Drudge.'

The street on which our travellers emerged from the evil
smelling alley in which their lodging was situated must have
presented an interesting and striking appearance on that

8 Edinburgh in 162(J.

November morning. All travellers unite in testifying to the
handsome appearance of this ' faire and spacious streete,'
though Fvnes Moryson objects to the projecting wooden gal-
leries which were built upon the second stories of the houses,
and Brereton alludes to the same blot, saying that it would
be the most stately and graceful street possible were it
not for a facing of boards which the houses have towards
the street which did 'much blemish it and derogate from
[its] glory and beauty. This lining of boards (wherein are
round holes shaped to the proportion of men's heads) and
this encroachment into the street about two yards is a mighty
disgrace unto it, for the walls (which were the outside) are
stone ; so, as if this outside facing of boards were removed,
and the houses built uniform, all of the same height, it were
the most complete street in Christendom.' Notwithstanding
these criticisms, it may be doubted whether these quaint
wooden erections did not really tend to make the street more
picturesque than it would otherwise have been, and we may
be sure that the very irregularity of the houses gave much
more character to it than would have been the case had the
houses been built of one uniform height. The roadway was
roughly paved with boulder stones, and formed a dry enough
passage, though it was so rough as not to be ridden on with-
out danger. So sensible of this were the authorities that,
although in 1625, Parliament, in its wisdom, ordered that no
Lords of Session should repair to the Court-house unless ac-
companied by their ordinary household servants, and that they
should come, 'in a seemlie manner,' on horseback, with a foot
cloth, yet the order was almost immediately cancelled since it
was found that most of the Judges lived in narrow closes,
' where there is not a convenient passage for horse and the
calsay so dangerous to be ridden upon.' Gutters ran on each
side of the street, and had enough to do to carry off the quan-
tity of filth which was thrown into them. The street itself
was filled with a stirring, eager and excitable crowd of people
of all sorts and conditions: Highland porters with dripping
'stoups' quarrelled and scolded round the wells, for every
drop of water had to be carried into the houses. The people

Edinburgh in 1629. 9

were so lazy, we are told by one writer, that they did not get
fresh water every day, but only every second day, which made
it — as at its best it was not good — very bad to drink. Here
might be seen a nobleman and his retinue in proud array and
armed to the teeth, ready to resent any insult, real or fancied,
which might be offered to their dignity ; there a dainty page
with his master's cognizance blazoned on his sleeve, carries a
letter probably addressed to some fair damsel in the neigh-
bouring Canongate ; out of that ' close mouth ' comes a
Senator of that College of Justice, which had been founded
not quite a century before, clad in his purple robes (which
were always worn on the street), and gravely taking his way
to the Court of Session ; here and there a soldier from the
Castle swaggers by with clanking sword, and hand on hip,
attracting perchance a stray glance of admiration from some
bare-footed servant lass, while all around, though the rattle of
carts and carriages, which is so distinguishing a feature in our
modern city life, is absent, a thousand noises rend the air.
The ring of the armourer's hammer, the click of looms, the
clang of St. Giles' bell, the thousand and one cries which pro-
ceed both from the peripatetic vendors of wares and from the
more substantial burgesses as they walk up and down in front
of their booths endeavouring to persuade the passers-by to
make trial of their stock, all form a scene which testifies to the
life and vigour of an ancient and prosperous burgh.

It was a scene something like this, then, that met the eyes
of Mr. Lowther and his companions as they started that morn-
ing in 1629 to view the city. Proceeding up the High Street,
they passed St. Giles, the 'krames' of various merchants nest-
ling among its buttresses, in one of which, not so long ago, the
great court goldsmith, genial George Heriot, carried on busi-
ness, (his ' Hospital ' without the walls, is mentioned, but can
only have been in the course of erection at this time.) Thev
were, let us hope, spared the infliction of seeing that dreadful
piece of municipal vandalism, the Luckenbooths, which the
fathers of the city built in the middle of the street ; at least,
the erection in its hideous entirety was not there, though part
of it may have been. Past the grim old Tolbooth, its gables

10 Edinburgh in 10- 9.

not unlikely crowned with an array of human heads, up the
steep street, passing on the way many fine residences of the
Scottish aristocracy, some of which were then but newly built,
with projecting gables and beautifully carved timbers. Arriv-
ing at the gates of the Castle, the party are obliged to submit
to the rules of the fortress and give their swords to the porter
till their return. It is described in a phrase which Mr. Louis
Stevenson might use : ' Mounted on stately rocks, having the
whole town of Edinburgh, Leith, and the sea, in its eye' Its
size was not impressive, ' being no bigger than Appleby
Castle,' but its sights were duly admired — the hewn-stone well,
thirty fathoms deep, probably the one poisoned by the English
in 1572, from which the water was drawn up by a wheel
' which one goeth in,' apparently a species of treadmill ; Mons
Meg, then as now one of the great objects of curiosity to
tourists, and about which we are told a very seventeenth cen-
tury story, which appears to have formed part of the stock-in-
trade of the guide of the period, as we find it related by
several other travellers ; and the little wooden watch-houses,
rickety enough affairs, as Brereton tells us that one with a
soldier in it was taken by a whirlwind and thrown over the
Castle wall, ' and to the bottom of this high and steep rock,
and the man not hurt or bruised, save only his finger put out
of joint.'

From the Castle the party proceeded to the Law Courts,
and it is in the description of these that the chief interest of
Lowther's narrative centres. They appear to have possessed
much interest for him, and he not only gives a very full ver-
bal description of them, but draws a careful plan of the hall in
which they were held. At the time of its institution by James
V., the Court of Session is said to have sat in the Old Tolbooth,
then of somewhat larger size than it was in 1629. The
accommodation, however, never good, became ere long so
scandalously bad that Queen Mary, in 1561, addressed a letter
to the Provost and Magistrates charging them to take down
the Tolbooth as speedily as possible, and to provide fit accom-
modation for the Courts. The Town Council, not unnaturally,
were rather taken aback by this demand, for they did

Edinburgh in 1629. 11

not see why the city should be obliged to build a Court
House for the Lords of Session. But, after much grum-
bling, and being threatened with the entire removal of
the Courts to St. Andrews if they did not do what
was required of them, they continued by dint of forced
taxation, borrowing money, and pulling down for the sake
of the building material part of the Old Tolbooth, and
the whole of an old chapel in the churchyard, to the north of
St. Giles', to erect a building called the New Tolbooth, a little
to the north of the old one, and actually attached to the west
wall of St. Giles' Church. It was here that the meetings of
the Scottish Parliament were held until the erection of the
new Parliament Hall in 1639, and the Court of Session also sat
in it, the former occupying the ' Laigh Hall,' and the latter
the upper story of the building. Wilson, in his ' Memorials,'
says that the Laigh Hall was a large and handsome room with
a fine plaster ceiling, with the rich pendants which were so
characteristic of the decoration of the period. The walls were
panelled in oak, and were not improbably filled with a series
of portraits, one of which, supposed to be that of Mary of
Guise, has fortunately been preserved.

The upper hall was. as has been said, devoted to the Courts
of Justice, and we are able to make out pretty clearly the
general outline of its arrangements from the plan which Mr.
Lowther has most fortunately embodied in his account. On
going up the stair the visitor found himself in an apartment
occupying about a third of the whole hall, and separated from
it by a wainscot partition ; immediately to the right of the
entrance and forming a sub-division of the apartment was the
Commissary Court, which was in a small room by itself, the
rest of the area being left as an unoccupied space where
litigants, counsel, and agents could consult and perambulate.
Passing through the wainscot partition alluded to above, you
entered what seems to have been a kind of waiting-room for
those connected with the cases in progress ; to the left there
was a set of benches raised in tiers for the accommodation of
the public, who could enter them from the first hall. They
were situated at right angles to the wainscot partition, and had

12 Edinburgh in 1629.

a barrier in front of them, probably spiked, to prevent access
to the body of the Court, Immediately in front of this was a
long high-backed form ' for lawyers and expectants' ; in front
of this again was the bar, with two openings in it, one for the
entrance of judges, and the other apparently for a point of
division between the parties in the case : at least we are told
that ' on either side of it the advocates, defendant and
pursuant plead.' This does not mean that one party in the
case occupied a position inside the bar, and the other outside,
but that they pled, one on the right hand and the other on
the left hand of the door. Within the bar was a table, where
the Registrars of Court sat, and beyond two staged seats, the
lower of which was occupied by the Clerks and other officials,
and the upper by the single Judge whose duty it was to
preside in this, the ' Outer House,' the Inner House Judges
taking this duty in rotation. It is not quite clear from the
plan whether there was a screen immediately to the side of
the Bench next the wainscot partition first mentioned ; it is to
be hoped there was, for the space between it and the wainscot
partition is marked as ' a place for the idle advocates to chat
and walk in ' : and it is not to be supposed that the juuior
Bar of those days were not gifted with just as much loquacity
and fondness for gossip as characterise their successors iu the
Parliament House of to-day. If this was the case it must be
confessed that the Outer House cannot have been a model of
silence and decorum ; and, indeed, if we are to believe
another account, it was not. ' In this Court,' says Brereton,
referring to the Outer House, 'I observed the greatest rude-
ness, disorder, and confusion that ever I saw in any Court of
Justice ; no, not the like disorder in any of our Sessions,
for here two or three plead and speak together, and
that with such a forced and strained voice, as the strongest
voice only carries it : yea, sometimes they speak about
two or three several causes at one and the same time,
which makes an extraordinary disorder and confusion, so as
no man breathing can hear distinctly or understand anything
so promiscuously spoken.' This of course must be somewhat
exaggerated, but after making every allowance for the pre-

Edinburgh in 1629. 13

judices of an Englishman, and his wish to tell a graphic story,
there can be no doubt that the Outer House was but a noisy
place, and must have contrasted unfavourably with the more
dignified Courts of the Southern Kingdom. Habit however is
everything, and this practice of conducting business in the
middle of a hubbub and turmoil was continued in quite as
great a degree down to our own times : for all through the
first quarter of this century, and even later, the Outer House
Judges sat in these recesses in the Parliament House, which
are now filled with statuary, and the pleadings at their bars
were conducted in the middle of a surging crowd of counsel,
agents, litigants, and Avitnesses, conversing, arguing, scolding,
and laughing, with all available lung power. Before we leave
the Outer House an extraordinary custom may be mentioned.
It is not alluded to in Lowther's narrative, though it probably
obtained in his day ; but a young law student of 1684, John
Erskine of Oarnock, whose Journal has recently been pub-
lished by the Scottish History Society, under the editorship
of Mr. Walter MacLeod, tells us, under date 29th March, that
' this being the last day of the Session, there was a party of
the Town Guard (by whose order I know not) sent to the
Parliament House to hinder the advocates' men, writers, and
others, to break down the bench and barrs in the Outer House
as their custom had been formerly : but the new custom of
bringing soldiers to keep the house in order was so far from
keeping them back or restraining their wonted folly,
that it animated the young men to be much more unruly
than at other times,' and then follows an account of a fray
describing how Lord Pitmedden (Sir Alexander Seton) came
out and commanded the soldiers to go away, and when one of
the latter seized him by the cravat or collar, how ' the lads '
were so furious that they took their sticks — always a weapon
very handy to an Edinburgh youth — charged the soldiers, and
in the twinkling of an eye swept them triumphantly out of the
Court. If this curious custom was so well established and had
risen to so great a height as to attract the notice of the autho-
rities in 1684, it was in all probability in existence in 1629, but

14 Edinburgh in 1629.

as our visitor was in Edinburgh at the beginning, and not the
end of the Session, he did not see nor perhaps hear of it.

But to return to the Courts themselves : beyond the Outer
House was a wall, the boundary of the Inner House, which
occupied the last third of the hall: this third was again divided
in half by a wall across its length. The space to the right
was empty, save for a small room off it, which might be used
for consultations, and which contained writing material.
Going through the door in the partition wall the sacred pre-
cincts of the Court itself were reached, where the ' auld fifteen'
sat in all their gravity and glory. There was here no accom-
modation for the vulgar crowd : a bar stretched across the
apartment with a door in the centre, on either hand of which,
as in the Outer House, the parties pleaded. At the back of
the Court House was a large table at which the clerks had
their places, and in front of this table the Judges sat, ' my
Lord Chancellor in the midst' in a black gown, the Lord
President on his right, in a purple gown faced with red velvet,
and the rest of the Lords according to seniority, the Lord
Advocate sitting in a corner by himself facing the Bench.
There was a fine chimney-piece of plaster work at the side,
and the law books which their Lordships might require, de-
lightfully few in number, were ranged in the embrasures of
the windows behind the table.

Having given us these details about the appearance of the
Courts, the narrator proceeds to enlighten us as to their mode
of conducting business, and his story is succinct and fairly
clear, considering it is written with a sublime disregard of
punctuation. The Inner House was not characterized by that
noise which prevailed in the Outer House ; on the contrary, it
is described as ' very orderly.' The Judges seem to have gone
into Court in the morning before any one else, and probably
held any necessary consultations with each other. ' When
they are all sat the door is shut and none but themselves
there, they will ring a bell (and then openeth the Maser the
door) when they have any business, and the Maser as they bid
him will call the parties and their advocates whom they would
have which go in thereupon with their cause ; at which time

Edinburgh in 1629. 15

the Maser will suffer any straoger to go in and hear the cause
pleaded upon acquaintance.' Then follows a description of
the hearing of a case which, with all desire to credit the nar-
rator, we do not believe he ever saw, though in all probability,
the city guide of the period, or some wicked friend with his
tongue in his cheek, were originally responsible for the state-
ment. We are gravely informed that ' the advocates and their
clients stand each on either side of the door through the bar,
at the bar, and the advocates plead in Scotch before them,
and in the time of their pleading their clients will put a double
piece or more, with an ordinary fee with the poorest and will
say to their advocates "thumb it, thumb it," and then will the
advocates plead accordingly as they feel it weigh.' People were
not very delicate in those days in the manner in which they
either received or offered money, but it would have raised a
blush, we think, even on the cheek of a seventeenth century
advocate, to be feed in such a manner as this. The touch
about modifying their pleading according to the thickness of
the coin is quite delightful, and the retailer of the story to the
travellers must have chuckled when he saw it swallowed with
ready credence. But the whole appearance of the parties at
the bar must have been but short in these days of written
pleadings. ' Their pleading,' it is said, ' is but a kind of motion
. . . after which they are all dismissed, the door shut, and
then it is voted among the Judges and according to the num-
ber of the votes it is carried and then the Chancellor if present,
if not, the President and if not he in order the next, giveth
sentence accordingly, it still remaining hidden to the parties
the carriage of the matter.'

The method of admission to the bar is next dealt with, and
we are informed that most of the advocates had travelled and
studied on the Continent, which, no doubt, was quite true, as
it was in keeping with the custom of the day; and, besides,
there was no other way of getting an insight into the civil law
but by studying it abroad, — England entirely neglecting it, as
she ever had done. Before being finally admitted as an ad-
vocate, the candidate had to ' dispute a question ' before a
Judge, probably on one of the Pandects of Justinian, a custom

16 Edinburgh in 1629.

the shadow of which has come down to our own day: it is
almost needless to add that the disputation would be in Latin,
but that could not be such a terror for candidates as might be
imagined, as the language was taught in the schools to be
used almost colloquially. The Courts of Law have always had
a reputation for being a home of good stories, and our travel-
lers picked up two in the New Tolbooth which are duly re-
corded. They were probably not very new then, and, un-
doubtedly, they are very venerable 'chesnuts' now. They
lose their force by not being given in the vernacular, but Mr.
Lowther was not equal to that. The first suggests the sub-
sequent description of Cromwell's Judges as ' a wheeu kinless
loons,' and is given as follows : — ' One being to be made Judge
of the Session not long ago, he being on his oath not to be
partial, he excepted to his friends and allies;' and there is
another not unknown one: — 'A borderer on a jury gave
amongst his fellows wittingly a false verdict, and being asked
why he did it, said " It is better to trust God with one's soul,
than their neighbour with their geere." '

But we must not ' linger longer ' over the Courts of Law :
it may be seen from the above summary that Lowther's
account of them and their frequenters is minute, interesting,
and if not accurate in every respect, is, at all events, sugges-
tive. Nothing that he saw in Edinburgh apparently attracted
his attention so much, though this may have been because he
was able to get more information from his friends on this sub-
ject than on others. On leaving the Courts, the party walked
down the High Street and Canongate to Holyrood, which is
said to be ' a very stately piece of work uniform,' (a descrip-
tion which we can hardly conceive as applying to the irregular
pile of buildings which Holyrood consisted of at that period),
* and a dainty neat chapel in it, with a pair of organs in it, and
none else in the city they being puritans.' The tombstones on
the wall of Greyfriars churchyard are mentioned, and their
absence from the interior of the church itself commented on.

There is an interesting notice of the University of Edinburgh,
then quite in its infancy, having been founded by King James
in 1582. It was a quaint and picturesque, though rather

luluiburgh in 1629. 17

mean collection of buildings, and had not yet attained to any-
great teaching powers. It was governed, according to Mr.
Lowther's information, ' by a primate and other sub-regents
to read to the several years which follow here in order, there
be five classes or seats in it, 1st of Humanity, the 2nd of
Greek, 3rd of Logic, the fourth of Natural Philosophy, the 5th
of Mathematics and Arist de cals (Aristotle's De Casio). The
first year of students be called scholars, the 2nd semibijani,
the 4th bachelors, the next degree Laureates or Masters of
Arts, and no further, tutors they call pedagogues.' It is curious
that no vestige of these names with the exception of Masters
of Arts, a term common to all British Universities, have survived
in the University of Edinburgh. The names indeed were more
characteristic than Lowther makes out; 'bejans' (bec-jaunes,
yellow beaks or callow birds) was the name usually given in
Scottish Universities to the ' freshmen,' in the second year, as
the writer says, they were only semi-bejans, in the third year
they might take the lower degree of bachelor (bas chevalier),
so obtained that name during the session as a kind of brevet
rank: the fourth year students who were completing their full
course were more often called magistrands than anything else.
It is interesting to note that the number of students attending
the University at his time was about 300. Lowther probably
gives this number on the authority of John Adamson the
Principal, or, as he calls him, the Primate, who entertained our
travellers one Thursday night at supper and ' made much ' of
them. Adamson was rather a remarkable man in his day. In
1598 we find him mentioned as Regent of Philosophy, and he
afterwards became the minister of North Berwick, where he
quarrelled with Sir John Home, who, losing his temper with
the clergyman, struck him one Sunday, and then to prevent
the consequences of a clerical investigation into the scandal
contrived to have him removed to the parish of Liberton. In
1617 he was leader of the College Regents who disputed
before the Royal pedant James VI. at Stirling, and he further
attracted the notice of the King by collecting and editing in
the following year all the orations and Latin and Greek verses
with which the Sovereign had been greeted at various places

XXIV. 2

18 Edinburgh in 1629.

during hia visit to Scotland, a performance which he repeated
when Charles T. was in the country in 1633, on which occasion
he had the honour of superintending the pageants got up to
welcome the King. He held the office of* Principal from 1623
to 1651, and is now chiefly remembered as having bequeathed
to the University the skull of George Buchanan, a possession
which it still retains. Lowther states that the Principal was a
strict if not a stern disciplinarian, much to the disgust appar-
ently of the students, as is instanced by a little story which
will however not bear repetition here. We catch an interesting
personal reminiscence of the man in being told that ' he hath
a little dog following him and two fair daughters.'

Our author seems to have gone about Edinburgh with his
eyes and his ears open, and to have lost no opportunity of
gathering information, but his notices of other matters are
short and scanty compared with those to which we have
already alluded. The understanding heart, too, did not
always accompany the open ear. In his account of the civic
government, for instance, he says ' there is an officer they call
the Danegeld which disburseth money for the town before the
bailiffs, they call him lord.' Misled by the vernacular accent,
he is obviously endeavouring to explain the office and func-
tions of that municipal dignitary known as Lord Dean of Guild,
and for ' bailiffs,' as is evident from another passage where they
are mentioned in conjunction with the Provost and Council-
lors, we should read ' bailies.'

One picturesque pageant in the life of old Edinburgh, which
happily still survives, the travellers had an opportunity of
witnessing, viz., a Royal Proclamation from the Cross. The
subject of it was very typical of the times : ' On the 10th of
November, being Tuesday, at twelve of the clock, see we three
heralds standing on the public Cross, which is in the form of a
turret, but not garetted, and a wood beam standing up in the
middle, the unicorn crowned on the top of it, there is a door up
into it. These three heralds, one after the other, did proclaim
an edict concerning the Papists of Scotland, reciting them by
their names, which get if possible ; both before and after they
proclaimed, these trumpeters sounded, and so still they do if

Edinburgh in 1 629. 19

it be from the King or his Council but if some common pro-
clamation not so in state. On this cross be all noblemen
hanged and headed, as about nine years since, 1619, or there-
abouts, the Earl of Orkney headed, his son hanged and others,
for the keeping of a castle against the King, being treason ;
on this Cross be citations read, denunciations and hornings
denounced.' With regard to this not too lucid description, it
may be remarked that the Cross of 1629 was not altogether
the original Cross of Edinburgh. That had been taken down in
1617 and rebuilt, the old shaft, however, being preserved; this
cross, in its turn, was destroyed by an act of civic vandalism in
1756, but the shaft, after many travels, was again used in the re-
construction of the edifice, on a different though neighbouring
site, a few years ago. It had witnessed many scenes in Edin-
burgh life ; many executions took place under its shadow, and
they were not confined, as the text would lead us to suppose,
to noblemen. All sorts and conditions of men here suffered the
penalties of the law; the Earl of Orkney above mentioned was
Patrick Stewart, who kept great state in his northern island
home, and had been in actual rebellion against the King. He
was brought to Edinburgh, tried on a charge of treason, and
beheaded in 1614. Amongst persons of a humbler degree
who paid the penalty of their misdeeds at the Cross may be
mentioned the Highland caterau Gilderoy, who was executed
in 1636. It was also the scene of the infliction of those minor
punishments which were characteristic of the time. Writing
in 1652, Nicoll tells us that ' twa Englisches for drinking the
King's health were taken and bund at Edinburgh Croce,
qnhair either of thame resavit thretty-nine quhipes on thair
nacked bakes and shoulderis ; thairafter their lugs were naillit
to the gallows. The ane had his lug cuttit from the ruitt with
a razor, the other being also naillit to the gibbet had his
mouth skobit (gagged) and his tong being drawn out its full
length was bound together betwix twa stiks hard togidder
with ane skainzie-thrid for the space of half ane hour thereby.'
Not only does Mr. Lowther chronicle the sights he saw, but
he gives a vocabulary of the strange words he heard, which is
both interesting and amusing, though it must be confessed

20 Edinburgh in 1629.

that lii's ears not vmfrequently deceived him. We learn that
' my do we,' meaning doo, or dove, was then as now used as a
common term of endearment, but the writer seems to have
thought it was confined exclusively to a wife, which it was
not. We note many homely Scottish words still familiar
to us, ' gigot,' ' scriver,' ' blithe,' ' sib,' ' clans,' and several
more are to be met with every day : we can even make a
good guess at what is meant by ' mores,' which is translated
' hills,' ' locky,' an old woman (lucky), ' excamen, exchange,'
(excambion), 'lumant, a chimney,' (lum or lum head), ' diswynes,
breakfast,' (dejeuner or disjeune as it was more commonly
called in Scotland), ' penyells,' in the sense of ' curtains,'
might possibly be meant for ' penkle,' which Jamieson gave as
a Perthshire word for a rag, but there are many puzzlers, such
as ' chaull, a candlestick,' ' creen, rabbit,' ' sile min, bedtester,'
' a coase or leed garran, a kitte,' and several others, the
entirely phonetic spelling which is used probably obscuring
what otherwise might be intelligible enough.

Our travellers' excursion extended as far north as Perth, but
our limits prohibit us from following their adventures in detail.
It is sufficient to say that they went to Dowhill, then an in-
habited castle, now a picturesque ruin on the estate of Blair-
adam, and stayed with the Lindsay who was laird thereof;
thence they went to Kinross, passing a place which is
chronicled as Geaney Priggle, under which curious guise it is
somewhat difficult to identify Gairney Bridge. In Lochleven
are said to be fish of various kinds — pike, many as big as a
man, eels, perches, ' gelletoughes,' char, 'camdowes.' The
latter are described as ' a kind of trout which have not scales,'
and are also mentioned by Jamieson as ' camdui,' a Lochleven
fish. As to ' gelletough,' we are told it 'is the high char,
syssinge the she,' which perplexing statement we must leave
to the consideration of ichthyologists. Passing the 'pretty
little house ' of my Lord of Burleigh, they proceeded by way
of the Bridge of Earn to Perth, where they seem to have
stayed some days. The route of their return journey is not
stated, but on the 2nd of December they re-crossed the Forth
with much danger, and again arrived in Edinburgh, where

Mr. Raskin as a Practical Teacher. 21

they spent two days iu taking leave of their friends. ' We
were offered acquaintance to my Lord Chancellor, my Lord of
Underpeter, and others of the nobles, but we weighed more
our own pains in going down the street than their counten-
ance,' from which statement we may conclude that the novelty
of the place and of their travels was beginning to pall upon
Mr. Lowther and his companions. It is unfortunate for us that
they would not avail themselves of the proferred introductions,
as it would have been interesting to know who 'my Lord of
Underpeter ' really was.

The account now given to the public by the Historical MS.
Commissioners is an important addition to the narratives which
travellers have left us of Scotland in the seventeenth century.
It is wonderful how it has escaped observation so long, and
we can only hope that its appearance may be the indirect
means of bringing to light some similar documents which may
be still slumbering among the dust of family archives.

J. Balfour Paul.

Art. II.— MR. RUSKIN AS A PRACTICAL TEACHER.

THE impractical nature of some of Mr. Ruskiu's teachings,
especially in Political Economy, his startling assertions
and vigorous protests against received opinions, and his ap-
parently eccentric criticisms have, in times past, been often
the cause of regret to his friends and the subject of severe
animadversion of his opponents. Some have even provoked
ridicule and supercilious banter. It is therefore a pleasant
surprise to find in the recently published book of Mr. W. G.
Collingwood, on the Work and Life of John Ruskin, that there
was a remarkable amount of good sense and practical wisdom
in the subject of this biography. It is a work carefully and
cautiously prepared by one whose chief claim to our attention,
apart from his intimacy with the man whose life and work he
t-o aptly records, is the transparent honesty and fairness in

22 Mr. lluskin as a Practical Teacher.

the estimate it forms of both. It was well that some one
should undertake to clear Mr. Ruskin's memory of the charge
of utter impracticability, and scoffers aud unbelievers will be
astonished to see here how much can be said in favour
of Mr. Ruskin's practical good sense. Eeaders of this Review
will be, moreover, specially pleased to discover that this is
entirely attributed to his Scottish descent and Scottish
acquaintances. As one is occasionally surprised and pleased
to find an Irishman of one's own acquaintance — and we have
known such — preternaturally calm, cool, and collected, and
able to possess his soul in patience, and straightway puts it
down to the fact that Scottish blood runs in his veins, so in
the case of Mr. Ruskin what there is of practical common
sense in his teaching on art and the art of life, both in prac-
tice and precept, is naturally attributed to his Scottish origin
and breed, and the Scots who influenced his modes of thought
and feeling, such as Sir Walter, Lord Lindsay, Principal
Forbes, but most of all Carlyle. Mr. Collin gwood informs us
even that Scotchmen such as Hogg, Pringle, and Lockhart,
were among the first to discover the genius of Ruskin. But
lest readers of this paper should be, as Scotchmen, puffed up
above measure, we could add the testimony of an English-
woman who knew Ruskin intimately, Mrs. Ritchie, the daughter
of Thackeray, speaks in her personal reminiscences of Ruskin's
' conscience and common sense wrapped up and hidden among
the flowers.' With the flowers of his poetical mind all men
are acquainted, and their sweet odour is readily acknowledged
even by his opponents ; that Ruskin's conscience had a keen
edge and was delicately formed to discern good and evil when
others more obtuse morally could see little or no distinction in
ethical niceties was never doubted by any one who had read
say a dozen pages of his voluminous works. But that there
was a practical mind which could with all sobriety of judg-
ment address itself to the bare facts of life is a new revelation
to not a few. When more than ten years ago, the present
writer, as the founder and first President of a Ruskin Society
in a northern town, was called upon to select a subject for his
inaugural address, he felt it necessary to select for his them-.',

Mr. Ruskin as a Practical Teacher. 23

' Ruskin as a practical teacher.' For addressing, as he did, an
audience of enquirers into, rather than students of, Ruskin's
methods of teaching, he felt that to remove prejudices on this
head was his first duty. Since then, with more knowledge of
his writings and progress in culture generally, such prejudices
have been partially removed, and readers of Mr. Ruskin's
books now come to them with minds better prepared and
more favourably predisposed, so as to read them with more
sympathetic insight and intelligence. Hence we find both
from the information contained in that lately published bio-
graphy, and from other sources, that these books are more
widely read than ever, and that they actually furnish at the
present time the chief source of income to their gifted author.
This may be a sordid fact to record, but of very practical sig-
nificance in the present day. And practical people may learn
a lesson, too, from this. Here is Mr. Ruskin, who starts in life
with a colossal fortune (of some £150,000 or £200,000) and we
see him in his impractical way lavishing thousands in founding
masterships of drawing, and collections to illustrate their teach-
ing ; in founding guilds for impractical objects, but on high
moral grounds, and spending what remains, in large sums, for
objects of private and public benevolence, until he is nearly
left penniless; and lo! and behold! the books he writes in the
face of opposition of all the commonsense, practical people, are
now practically a source of wealth to compensate the writer
for his noble unselfishness — the lesson is this, that of lucre as
well as of life, it is true sometimes that he who loses shall find
it, and here, too, wisdom is justified by her children. Of Mr.
Ruskin as a man, little need be said here by way of introduc-
tion to his practical teaching. We may content ourselves with
the modest estimate he gives of himself: 'Not an unjust per-
son, nor an unkind one, not a false one ; but a lover of order,
labour and peace.' By many he has been regarded at times in
the light of an intellectual despot and literary usurper, but
mainly because he was misunderstood. The consciousness of
having an important mission entrusted to him, to teach new or
neglected truths to a generation unwilling to give heed to
them, may have induced Mr. Ruskin to speak with an air of

24 Mr. Buskin as a Practical Teacher.

authority, bearing a strong resemblance to positive self-asser-
tion. But a careful perusal of his re-published works, and a
close attention to the numerous footnotes, where he becomes
his own commentator and critic, will soon acquit him of the
charge of proud self-sufficiency, for they are full of self-de-
preciatory remarks on his own productions. And no one, in
such a man, can doubt the genuineness of these expressions of
humility and self-accusation. Unlike some of his affected
followers, Ruskin is perfectly free from the ' consummate '
pharisaism and self-idolizing aestheticism which are character-
istic rather of the minor prophets of culture, sitting like the
foolish soul in Tennyson's Palace of Art, on her intellectual
throne, and saying (we cannot believe that Tennyson here re-
fers to Goethe, though Professor Seeley thinks so) : —

' I marvel if my still delight
In this great house so royal, rich and wide,
Be flattered to the height.'

He wished his followers, his biographer informs us, should live
their lives to the full in ' admiration, hope, and love,' and in
his address before the Cambridge School of Art, in 1858, Mr.
Ruskin himself says to his audience : ' There is no way of
getting good art, I repeat, but one — at once the simplest and
most difficult — namely, to enjoy it.' He shows that ' if the
artist works without delight, he passes away into space, and
perishes of cold ; if he works only for delight, he falls into the
sun, and extinguishes himself in ashes.' In other words, enjoy-
ment there must be, but mere indulgence in artistic or
aesthetic pleasure is of the evil; intellectual luxury may be-
come a snare and a selfish hoarding of art treasures for
private enjoyment, like every other form of selfishness, not to
be encouraged ; in short, artistic or literary epicureanism, Mr.
Ruskin does not preach, or practice. He would have all the
achievements of the mind, whether in literature or in art, serve
a practical purpose. ' Thus end all the evils of life, only in
death ; and thus issue all the gifts of man, only in his dis-
honour, when they are pursued, or possessed in the service of
pleasure only.'

Those who would have a competent knowledge of Mr.

Mr. Ruslin as a Practical Teacher. 25

Ruskin's theory of art, and its relation to the art of life, should
read in the first instance the ' Lectures on Art ' delivered
before the University of Oxford. Here, as Mr. Collingwood
reminds his readers, 'we must look for that matured Ruskinian
theory of art which his early works do not reach, and which
his writings between 1860 and 1870 do not touch.' Though
the Oxford lectures are only a fragment of what he ought to
have done, they should be sufficient to a careful reader; though
their expression is sometimes obscured by diffuse treatment,
they contain the root of the matter thought out for fifteen
years, since the close of the more brilliant but less profound
period of ' Modern Painters.'

But before we proceed to examine that section of the lec-
tures which bears on our present subject, it may be as well to
say a word or two on those impracticalities in Ruskin's teach-
ing which it were vain to ignore, so as to clear the way for
the unprejudiced consideration of the main argument. We
remember how, some years ago, when conversing with the
Rev. J. LI. Da vies on the economic theories of Ruskin, and the
importance attached here to ethics, our interlocutor, by a
shake of the head, gave us to understand he could not agree,
and said, his only response, ' he is so very impracticable.'
Less calm and cautious thinkers, and some less competent
to pronounce judgment on the question, will be apt
to be even more severe in their criticism on Mr. Ruskin's
economic theories. As a matter of fact, Thackeray, as editor
of the Cornhill, had to stop the publication of the essays which
were afterwards republished under the title Unto this Last,
because the public were incensed against the author of those
strange definitions and descriptions of value and wealth, and
the implied or expressed severe criticism on the prevailing
modes of industry which they contained. That wealth is ' the
possession of the valuable by the valiant,' put into big capitals ;
that to be 'valuable' is to ' avail towards life,' 'money gain
being only the shadow of the true gain, which is humanity,'
and such expressions as ' There is no wealth but life,' — this
seemed at that time the ravings of a lunatic. When he de-
scribed in Time and Tide competition ' as a confused wreck of

26 Mr. Euskin as a Pra<ib-<d Teacher.

social order and life,' and suggested in these ' Letters to a
working man of Sunderland on work' 'the necessity of some
restraint on the properties and incomes of the upper classes
within certain fixed limits,' when he speaks here of 'the
deadly influence of the moneyed power,' when in his letters to
the Pall Mall Gazette, then in its infancy, (now republished
under the title of Arrows of the Cltace) defending his own as
against the prevailing notions of the Economists, he said ' that
wages are determined by supply and demand, is no proof that
under any circumstances they must be — still less that under
all circumstances they ought to be,' and that the laws
of Political Economy are not those of the ' law of the wolf and
the locust,' but the laws of justice, he was like one speaking in
an unknown tongue. That much of what he said then in his
virtuous indignation at the commonplaces of Economic
science, falsely so called, was not always said wisely, that
there was want of moderation in the outspoken severity of his
criticism, as when in Modern Painters, quoted again in Unto
this Last, he sweepingly asserts that ' Government and Co-
operation are in all things the laws of life ; Anarchy and
Competition the laws of death,' no one can doubt. That his
actual proposals for remedying the evils he attacks were far
from practical at times must be admitted. AH the same, the
saUeut points in his ethical theory of Political Economy are no
longer controverted, and his standpoint is now adopted by
recognized teachers of the science, in a modified form at least.
In the words of his latest exponent : —

' He showed, as others have since shown more calmly and completely,
after he broke the ground for them, that the old Economy did not take in
the whole facts of the case, as any true science does, and must do .
he showed that competition, for example, was not a "law," but only a
phase of commercial society. If it were a law, properly so-called, it would
be universal and inevitable, like the attraction of gravitation ; whereas, in
many cases it was actually set aside at the will of one man or company of
men, for co-operation ; and in other cases, he showed, it stopped progress,
and the flow of wealth which it was supposed to promote . . . and
where the so-called laws of this so-called science were taken as practical
rules for life and conduct, and clashed, as they often did, with plain
morality, or were made the shield of selfishness . . . then he pressed
the conclusion that it was a superannuated creed, no better than a

Mr. Ruskin as a Practical Teacher. 27

heathenism in whose name all manner of evils might be speciously justi-
fied : " tantum religio potuit suadere malorum " — in short Ruskin 's

Economy points to an ideal, it calls a practical legislation to accept the
principle, " I ought, therefore I can," and to drag the world up to a moral
standard : whereas, the Old Economy's influence was the reverse. And in
practical issues he was fully cognisant of human infirmities, and of the
necessity for gradual evolution to the "moral culture " he speaks of.'

His biographer adds a curious anecdote to show the
practicalness of this teaching, (which, however, we must add,
Mr. Ruskin full well knew would not be received or acted
upon by practical people for many a day,) that when the
General of the Salvation Army was working out his social
scheme, he told the Rev. H. V. Mills, the first promoter of the
Home-Colony plan, that he was entirely ignorant of Political
Economy, and asked for a book on the subject. Mills there-
upon gave him Unto this Last — the Munera Pulveris would
have been a more valuable gift as a guide to the science. The
theories and schemes formulated in Fors Clavigera have been
more than ouce called ' utterly impractical.' Mr. Colliugwood
points out, that what Ruskin suggested as an ideal, was never
intended for immediate adoption, and differed from other
Utopias in being ' far nearer realization than they.' We may
add here, as an illustration of this, that one of his suggestions,
the re-introduction of the old guild system, and making it
universal, nut local, to adopt it to modern needs, is held up as
a social panacea at this very moment by practical statesmen in
Austria and France, and has been partially attempted in the
legislation of the former country. And what could be more
practical than to say, as Mr. Ruskin does to the workmen in
one of his letters in the Fors, ' Your prosperity is in your own
hands. Only iu a remote degree does it depend on external
matters, and, least of all, on forms of government.' There are
many sayings, no doubt, which are not so easily reconciled
with practical commonsense. His defiuition, e.g., of the
' civilized nation,' as consisting broadly of mob, money-collect-
ing machine (by which he means the State) and capitalists,
his unmeasured terms of contempt, in which he declaims
against machinery, the exaggerated glorification of ' hand-
labour,' and equally exaggerated dislike of steam ' smoking

28 Mr. Rmhin as a Practical Teacher.

kettles,1 his sweeping condemnation of ' this age of steam and
iron, luxury and selfishness,' and 'the discordant insolence of
modernism. ' All these must be put down as the excusable
vagaries of genius, as the rash though vigorous utterances of a
diivalric soul trying his lance in the defence of natural beauty
and wholesome simplicity, as a champion of what is noble and
true, as against all that is ugly, base and churlish, desecrating
nature and degrading humanity. Again, his efforts practically
to embody his ideals in the formation, e.g., of the St. George's
Guild :—

' A body of persons who think, primarily, that it is time for honest per-
sons to separate themselves intelligibly from knaves, announcing their pur-
pose, if God help them, to live in godliness and honour, not in atheism and
rascality ; and who think, secondarily, that the sum which well-disposed
persons usually set aside for charitable purposes (named the tenth part of
their income) may be most usefully applied in buying land for the nation,
and entrusting the cultivation of it to a body of well-taught and well-cared
for peasantry.'

His rashness in putting £7000 into the St. George's Company,
which we need not say was a bad investment; his opening a
tea-shop in Paddington Street, to be conducted on high com-
mercial principles ; his organization of crossing sweeping be-
tween the British Museum and St. Giles's, on ethical principles,
and that of bands of undergraduates for digging roads, so as
to serve their day and generation by manual labour, and for the
benefit of their own moral and mental culture ; in these things
he cannot be said to have been eminently practical. They were
protests against the false assumptions and inconsistent doings of
selfish practical people, whom he perhaps too severely taxed
with being given to ' sharp practice.' But in doing all this, he
practised what he preached, which is not always true of the
modern philanthropist. The principle which guided him
is contained in the following passage, illustrating his in-
tention in what may seem to some Quixotic attempts to realize
his ideals. It is taken from Unto this Last, and distinguishes
between true and false wealth, the methods of acquiring and
using it whem accumulated : —

' Any given accumulation of commercial wealth may be indicative, on
the one hand, of faithful industries, progressive energies, and productive

Mr. Ruskin as a Practical Teacher. 29

less tyranny, ruinous chicane . . . one man of money is the outcome of
ingenuities ; or, on the other, it may be indicative of mortal luxury, merci-
action which has created— another, of action which has annihilated — ten
times as much in the gathering of it ; such and such strong hands have
been paralyzed, as if they had been numbed by night shade ; so many
strong men's courage broken, so many productive operations hindered ;
this and the other false direction given to labour, and lying image of pros-
perity set up on Dura plains dug in seven-times-heated furnaces. That
which seems to be wealth may in verity be only the gilded index of far-
reaching ruin ; a wrecker's handful of coin gleaned from the beach to which
he has beguiled an argosy ; an army-follower's bunch of rags unwrapped
from the breasts of goodly soldiers dead ; the purchase-pieces of potter's
fields, wherein shall be buried together the citizen and the stranger.'

Stripped of its gorgeous array of style, this passage has its
practical suggestions, directly arid suggestively on the great
question, not only of getting, but also of spending the surplus
of wealth at any given time or place ; in short, on the relation
ot commerce to art, and the close connection that exists be-
tween the ideals of art and an ideal art of life. This more par-
ticularly as applying to our own times and country. For there
comes a time in the history of every great commercial com-
munity, when the mere acquisition of money for its own sake
gives way to the tendency of making a rational use of it in
surrounding ourselves with objects of art, which, for their
due appreciation, require a cultivated mind and refined taste,
the results of leisure, liberation of mind from sordid cares,
luxurious ease, and new dangers arise from these. This was
the case in the rising towns at the close of the mediaeval era,
and partly in consequence of the discovery of new treasures
in hitherto undiscovered countries. Such, again, is the case
now, owing to the vast increase of wealth as the result of the
discovery of steam and machinery, and numberless mechanical
appliances taught by modern science. With it the interest in
art and culture has been growing apace. Among the four
causes promoting art studies in our own day enumerated by
Mr. Ruskin in the ' Lectures on Art,' there are at least two
which affect Great Britain, namely, the frequent intercourse
with foreign nations, as a result of maritime greatness, and this
facilitates acquaintance with the masterpieces of foreign art ;
secondly, the impulse given to the production of art treasures

.°)0 Mr. Buskin as a Practical Teacher.

by the rapid accummulation of wealth, as a purchasing power
to acquire them. Such, too, was the case with Italian towns
<f the Renaissance. Both causes operate in the same direction.
They make us feel the want of a safe guide to the masterpieces
of art, and a guardian to warn us against faults of taste in the
encouragement of artists, but the search after the beautiful
ends, as it undoubtedly has done in quite recent times, in
aesthetic knight-errantry and sensuous degeneracy, a new fac-
tion threatening to dominate modern literature as well as
modern art, which is apt to regard them as means to ' amuse
indolence or satisfy sensibility.' Now this want of the age Mr.
Ruskin may be said to supply. This evidently he considers to
be his right province, all his works bear testimony to it, uncon-
sciously at first, too consciously since, perhaps, he has made
himself the art prophet of his age and nation. As such, it
cannot be denied that he combines in his person and doctrine
artistic thoroughness with catholicity of taste, having a fine
appreciation alike for the lofty idealism and consummate exe-
cution peculiar to the ' old masters,' and the truth loving and
truth expressing minute realism of the moderns. His lectures
on Dutch art, delivered in Edinburgh, are an excellent example
of the latter. But what is of still greater importance, he never
loses sight of the truth not appreciated by the professed lovers
of ' Art for Art's Sake,' that the fine arts are a moral force in
society, so that 'the art of any country is an exact exponent of
its ethical life,' or as Mr. Ruskin says still more distinctly in the
Crown of Wild Olive, ' what we like determines what we are,
and is the sign of what we are; and to teach taste is inevitably
to form character.' In expressions such as these, scattered
broadcast over all his writings, wo found our argument that
he is a practical teacher, showing the real bearing on every day
life of every subject in science, art, or economics, on which
he expatiates,

Thus in Mr. Ruskin's exposition of the relationship of art to
use, morals, and religion, we have an epitome of his theoretical
view of the true functions of art in human life, showing its
serviceableness in the lower and higher aims of existence, as a
means for the attainment of material competency, moral cul-

Mr. Ruskin as a Practical Teacher. 31

ture, and a refined religions cultus, with due regard to the in-
timate connection which subsists between taste and toil, ethics
and aesthetics, culture and commonsense. ' The highest thing
that art can do is to set before you the true image of the pres-
ence of a noble human being.' And accordingly he goes on to
say in the second lecture ; 'The great arts . . . have had
and can have, but three principal directions of purpose : first,
that of enforcing the religion of man ; secondly, that of per-
fecting their ethical state; thirdly, that of doing them material
service.'

We may reverse this order, and dwell on the last of them
first, so as to see what in Mr. Ruskin's opinion is the practical
value of art studies and art productions. It will be remem-
bered that he has given some hard hits to practical people, as
when he says, in Sesame and Lilies, that ' a nation cannot with
impunity . . . go on despising literature, despising science,
despising nature, despising compassion, and concentrating its
soul on pence.' Here the typical man of practical common-
sense is ready to rejoin : ' True, man does not live by bread
alone, but all the same he does not live very long without it'
If life simply becomes a graceful recreation, who will do the
hard work and collect the pence for purchasing pictures and
other art treasures? If Mr. Ruskin's father had not accumu-
lated a fortune in the wine trade, his son could not have en-
joyed the learned leisure required for writing Modern Painters.
Mr. Ruskin would agree so far with the practical man reason-
ing thus. But he would add, as he says in the Crown of Wild
Olive : —

' No nation ever made its bread either by its great arts, or its great wis-
doms. By its minor arts and manufactures, by its practical knowledges,
yes ; but its noble scholarships, its noble philosophy, and its noble art, are
always to be bought as a treasure, not sold for a livelihood. You do not
learn that you may live — you live that you may learn.'

In this work, too, showing the value of education and speaking
on England's future, he shows that as all education begins in
work, so " the only thing of consequence is what we do ; and
for man, woman, or child, the first point ot education is to
make them do their best.' But this is an eminently practical

32 Mr, Ruskin as a Practical Teacher.

view of education; one of its ends, its chief end in effect is
practical work, as thoroughness of workmanship is that on
which Mr. Ruskin constantly insists in all his lessons on Art,
never forgetting, however, the importance of 'fostering and
guarding of all gentle life and natural beauty on the earth.'
In short, in his own mind there is no violent sundering of those
two, the utile and the dulce. Speaking of their art studies as
part of the University curriculum, he says, in his inaugural
address to the students of the Cambridge School of Art, ' You
must get it (i.e. Art) to serve some serious work.' But never-
theless, it is the mission of Art, too, to provide the needful for
our moments of leisure, and to add to the charm of cultured
ease, — 'Art adds grace to utility.' If impractical people are
apt to get into raptures over sun-flowers and old china, and
are in danger of a transcendental worship of the beautiful
which strikes the practical mind as exquisite trifling, the prac-
tical man of the nineteenth century is but too apt to think
that, as Carlyle says, — we quote from memory the thought
rather than the words — there is no other heaven but success,
and no other hell but failure, in the ordinary concerns of life.
In this practical Utopia the profitable and the hideous are
often close neighbours, the dwellers in a fool's paradise, which
is only an earthly paradise of their own creation, being as
much deceived by their illusions as are the least practical of
dreamers. If wre can manage to remove the ugly neighbour
without going to extremes, there is no reason why in some
way Philistia may not be turned into Arcadia. ' To get the
country clean and the people lovely ' by improvements in
dress and dwelling, might, in a very practical way, increase
our present stock of ' mental health, power, and pleasure,' and
thus add to the 'joys of existence.'

Again, if as a commercial community, we pride ourselves
on being matter-of-fact people, we are reminded by Mr. Ruskin,
in these art lectures, that it is one of the functions of art to
record fact, as in the case of drawing rocks, plants, and wings
of animals, thus assisting in a serviceable :nanner the study of
Geology, Botany, and Zoology. Now, all these are practical,
and may become even profitable studies. In the faithful" re-

Mr. RusMn as a Practical Teacher. 33

production, moreover, of the appearances of sky, the pheno-
mena of animal life, and the skilled portraiture of human
features, art renders transitory impressions of fact more per-
manent and records otherwise easily neglected facts in an im-
pressive manner. But, we ask, what can be more practical
than facts.

Again, although it would be lowering our ideas of the func-
tions of art simply to endeavour to develop art-skill with a
view to profit, yet Mr. Ruskin even shows that a well-trained
nation may ultimately profit by the exercise of its peculiar art-
skill, though he adds, that art-skill can never be developed ' with
a view to profit ' successfully, though it may do so incident-
ally. For this reason he despairs of the English ever excelling
in decorative design, because ot the oppressive anxieties which
cramp their mind as a commercial people. But this is only a
question of degree. It is not denied that such skill can be
acquired, and that its acquisition tends to profit, and this is
pre-eminently a practical considei'ation.

Passing on from the lower to the higher function of art, from
the material to the moral standpoint of Ruskin, as an art critic,
we find him saying ' Life Avithout industry is guilt, aud industry
without art is brutality.' But the brutal man is immoral.
Hence, it would follow that art is a moralizing force. In what
way may it be regarded as a moral lever in a materialistic
age % Mr. Ruskin, with other social reformers of the day,
speaks again and again of the need of more integrity and
simplicity in modei'n life. He also points to simplicity and
sincerity and truth to nature as the first requisites of true art,
and recommends them both to artists and art-students. But
are simplicity and sincerity the characteristics of an age which
begins to take a deeper interest in art, so that the latter
becomes actually an important ethical factor in the refining
process of society ? Art has mostly flourished in the midst of a
corrupt society, the product itself of a perishing civilization,
reflecting in its later developments a contemporaneous de-
generacy in mind and morals. This is simply a historical
common-place. Mr. Ruskin replies after this manner : —
Tracing the rise, progress, and decline of high civilizations, he
xxiv. 3

34 Mr. Ruskin as a Practical Teacher.

speaks of a period bearing strong resemblance to the times we
live in, when 'conscience and intellect are so highly developed
that new forms of error begin in the inability to fulfil the
demands of the one, or to answer the doubts of the other/
' Then,' he says, ' the wholeness of the people is lost ; all kinds
of hypocrisies and oppositions of science develop themselves;
their faith is questioned on one side and compromised with on
the other ; wealth commonly increases at the same period to
a destructive extent ; luxury follows ; the ruin of the nation is
then certain.' He shows how in such a case art becomes the
exponent of each successive step in the downward course, not
as the cause, but as the consequences of such a state of things.
' If in such times fair pictures have been misused, how much
more fair realities.' And if Miranda is immoral to Caliban is
that Miranda's fault % '

Ours it would seem is an age in perilous proximity to this
stage in the development of civilization. If this be so, then the
most powerful preservation of society is the creation and main-
tenance of lofty standards and high ideals to save it from
corruption, affecting alike the canons of art itself, and the re-
gulating principles of the art of life in their mutual action and
re-action. The sensuous realism in some forms of modern art
is not so much a return- to nature as a reflection of a practical
materialism. The highest efforts of art, whether in poetry or
painting, are a rebuke to, rather than a reflection of, the pre-
vailing; utilitarianism or hedonism in ethics and aesthetics. The
art of any country is not always 'the exponent of its social and
political virtues,' nor is it true, invariably, that 'the art, or
general productive and formative energy, of any country, is^an
exact exponent of its ethical life,' as Mr. Ruskin affirms in his
inaugural lecture. For in the masterpieces of Greek sculpture,
of Gothic architecture, and Renaissance paintings, we have the
higher ideals of the best minds, the heroic efforts of a small
remnant of high-souled artists living in a realistic era, and
struggling against depressing and degrading influences around
them, who, if they could not avert the coming catastrophe,
secured at least the survival of what was best in an age of de-
cay. In this way art may preserve the continuity of human

Mr. Ruskin as a Practical Teacher. 35

development in holding up the indestructible standards of
order and goodness in the world. This moral function of art,
appealing to the imagination, stimulating noble passion, and
illuminating the path of duty, as a light in a dark place, is one
of the most important truths taught by Mr. Ruskin in his works,
and exemplified in his private and public career, ' the highest
thing that art can do is to set before you the true image of the
presence of a noble human being.' He insists on ' the ethical
state of mind and body,' the moral force which guides the
hand, the mental energy which gives muscular firmness and
subtilty to execution.' So, in the Seven Lamps of Architecture,
he shows how ' the truth, decision and temperance, which we
reverently regard as honourable conditions of the spiritual
being, have a representative or derivative influence over the
works of the hand, the movements of the frame, and the action
of the intellect.' Here, again, we are on debateable ground,
the question arises, how far can good work proceed from bad
men ? Is it true as an axiom in the theory of art that the
moral temper of the workman is shewn by his seeking lovely
forms of thought to express as well as by the force of his hand
in expression % ' Thus to select an example from the Art of
Poetry, is it possible that such a piece of work as the Para-
dise Lost could have been written by a Royalist contem-
porary of Milton, tainted though he might have been by
the profligate surroundings of his class and party, as
some of the best poems of Burns and Byron bear no
trace of the feebleness of moral fibre in their composition?
Burns and Byron were called the two ' most poetical geniuses of
the time ' by Carlyle, and no one will accuse Carlyle of obtuse-
ness in moral perception. It is almost impossible at this time of
day to decide whether any one but Milton could have written
what is best in the Paradise Lost. But there can be no doubt
that the sincerity and natural sensibility breathing through every
line of Burns's lyrics remain unimpaired by the sordid coarseness
of the man and his surroundings, while the earnestness and
energy which mark the masterpieces of Byron's muse are as little
weakened by the egotism of the ' Sulky Dandy,' or marred by the
' sulphurous humour ' of this 'Chief of the Satanic School.' True.

36 Mr. Ruskin as a 1'ntctical Teacher.

in not a few of Byron's poems we see reflected the incontrollable
individualism of the man as well as the force and ferocity of his
time. Unconsciously, he reproduces the stirring activities of
that era <>f material progress, and the rapid triumphs of the push-
ing middle cla«s. But, consciously, he rebels against all this and
the social hypocrisies and paltry pride resulting therefrom. Thus
Bvron, like Burns, becomes a compound of inspired clay.
What is best in both, i.e., the inspired portion, the product of
their best thoughts, conceived in their best moments — this
survives, the rest is destined to perish, unable to bear the crucial
test of time, ' when every man's work shall be made manifest.'
And so the truth of Mr. Buskin's dictum on the intimate
connection between art and morals remains firmly established.
' If there be, indeed, sterling value in the thing done, it has come
of a sterling worth in the soul that did it, however alloyed
and defiled by conditions of sin, which are sometimes more
appalling and more strange than those which all may detect in
their own hearts, because they are part of a personality altogether
larger than ours, and as far beyond our judgment in its darkness
as beyond our following in its light.'

We come next to speak of the relation of Art to Religion, re-
membering what Butler says in his Analogy that ' Religion is a
practical thing.' The object of Art is not only to support man
in the battle of life and in the conflict with adverse forces in the
universe, which is the province of the useful arts of life, promot-
ing technical skill and ethics, promoting the habits in moral
cc.duet, but, also, as Mr. Ruskin says again and again, with
characteristic insistence, ' Art in its higher revelations is intended
to vitalize religious faith and to supply aids for the furthering of
the higher life.' This we have reserved for treatment in the last
instance, not in the spirit of wayward caprice, but with a pur-
pose ; not because in a practical age we assign the first and fore-
most place to the practical value of Art, but because this arrange-
ment enables us to treat of the three functions of Art in the as-
cending order of importance, taking the religious aspect last, as
presumablv the most important, even to practical people. Besides,
it is not too much to assume that in the natural evolution of man
in the nineteenth century, he passes first through the two stages

Mr. Buskin as a Practical Teacher. 37

of Mammonism and Ethical Materialism before he reaches the
higher stage of religious spirituality. We know, as a matter of
course, that it is quite possible for religious idealism to co-exist
with the worship of a ' splendid materiality,' the historian of
Materialism lays this to the charge of the English people. There
is no doubt such a thing as the ' Ethics of the Dust,' we mean
here what Mr. Ruskin does not mean by this title of one of his
books, we mean gold dust. But no one in his heart believes in
these simulacra of morals and religion. They are those who, in
the words of Mr. Ruskin, turn the 'household gods of Chris-
tianity into ugly idols of their own.' The practical question
before us is how far Art may aid religion in the present day,
adding its ' sweetness ' to the ' light ' of religious thought, so that

*> CD CJ O '

grace and truth may walk the earth together, and Art, in the best
sense of the word, become auxiliary to religion.

The restlessness of our life at high pressure, wasting as it does,
our energies in the pursuit of industry, and marring, as it also
does, our enjoyments, snatched from endless occupations during
short intervals of disturbed leisure ; this restlessness of which
we hear complaints on every side, is not without its effects on the
religious life of the present day. It produces a species of stir-
ring and exciting religionism which Mr. Ruskin severely, but not
inaptly, describes as 'gas-lighted and gas-inspired Christianity.'
How far may Art become serviceable in counteracting these ten-
dencies and, as the handmaid of religion, help in adorning and
beautifying her mistress % And in order to this we may inquire
with Mr. Ruskin, ' how far in any of its agencies it has advanced
the cause of the creeds it has been used to recommend.' He
evidently considers the functions of Art to consist in producing
feelings of reverence without superstition, aiding the exercise of
practical piety as the most beautiful form of godliness. He shows
how realistic Art, in its lower forms, does not produce this effect,
addressing itself, as it does, to the vulgar desire for religious
excitement ; and in all this he is pre-eminently practical.
He shows how for a long time, e.g., the pictorial represen-
tations of Christ's Passion ' occupied the sensibility of Chris-
tian women, universally, in lamenting the sufferings of Christ
instead of preventing those of His people. He ridicules

38 Mr. I! a shin as a Practical Teacher.

the 'gentlemen of the embroidered robe/ and reminds modern
lovers of an aesthetic ritual that 'the melodious chants and
prismatic brightness of vitrious pictures and floral graces of
deep-wrought stone ' were not intended for their poor pleasure, or
to serve as means for attracting " fleshly minded persons," ' hut
th..t the artistic love of these things should not exclude practical
work among human beings, and the practice of common virtues
in ' useful and humble trades.' At the same time, Ruskin admits
that realistic art in its higher branches ' touches the most sincere
religious minds ' in fixing, re-calling and symbolizing truths in a
class of persons which cannot be reached by merely poetic design.
He points out that though religious symbolism has not unfre-
quentlv had a mischievous influence in enabling men and women
to realize as true things untrue, as in the case of representing
false Deities in Greek art, yet that these very representations, as
the expression of perfect human form, exercised an ennobling
effect on a naturally artistic people. From which it may be
deduced that Mr. Ruskin does not regard the advance of art and
religion as an unmixed good. This conclusion is strengthened
by an allusion to another phenomenon in the history of religious
art, the exhibition of a maiden's purity and maternal self-
renunciation ia the paintings of the Madonna, symbolizing
the feminine virtues of Christianitv, and thus becoming
the means of softening and refining the manners of a rude
age, whilst in the encouragement of the lower forms of
Mariolatry the same pictures exercised a baneful influence
in retarding the progress of religious culture. But in balanc-
ing the effects of art and religion thus much may be taken
for granted if we accept Ruskin's well-balanced theory that,
as art has often been ennobled bv religion, so bv the alliance of
art with religion the ideal life of man has been exalted and
transfigured, and that in the same way art may still prove a vital
element in revealing or recalling noble truths to the religious
mind, or become the acknowledged interpreter of religious
thought and feeling. Thus it happens that the severe gloom of
Egyptian, compared with the sunny airiness of Greek temples,
that the massive solemnity of Gothic architecture, compared with
the ornate style of the later Renaissance, suggest at once the

Mr. Raskin as a Practical Teacher. 39

respective phases of religious thought and feeling under varying
conditions as to time and place. Even we might try the patchwork
of Church restoration in the 19th century, as compared with the
sol id andoriginal work of 1 3th century church-architecture is in some
way symbolical of the contrast of religious life past and present,
symbolizing, so to speak, the constructive and re-constructive
tendencies of two religious eras, and reflecting the wide difference
existing between the mediaeval and modern spirit, the one rearing,
the other repairing the edifice of religious opinion in the ages of
faith and doubt, respectively.

We may mention here, too, an apparent inconsistency of Mr.
Ruskin's in connection with this subject, the architecture and
ornamentation of places devoted to sacred purposes. In the lec-
tures on art there are some paragraphs directed against localizing
the Deity in temples made with hands before ' we have striven
with all our hearts first to sanctify the body and spirit of every
child that has no roof to cover its head from the cold, and no
walls to guard its soul from corruption, in this our land.' On
the other hand, in the ' Lamp of Sacrifice,' though the main
portion of the Seven Lamps of Architecture was written at a time
when Mr. Ruskin was under the domination of anti-ecclesiastical
ideas, he speaks thus : ' I say this emphatically that the tenth
part of the expense which is sacrificed in domestic vanities, if not
absolutely and meaninglessly both in domestic discomforts and
incumbrances, would, if collectively offered and wisely employed,
build a humble church for every town in England, such a church
as it should be a joy and a blessing even to pass near in our daily
ways and walks, and as it would bring the light into the eyes to
see from afar, lifting its fair height above the purple crowd of
humble roofs.' The inconsistency disappears if we note in this
place that churches are regarded as national rather than
ecclesiastical structures, and that it is the idolatry of sacred
places at the expense of sacred human beings, and the building
up of stately edifices instead of edifying humanity, which Ruskin
attacks. He pronounces his severe strictures on the neglect of
natural and domestic sanctities on the part of those who, in their
eagerness, and at great expense, provide spiritual sanctuaries.
As it often happens, in such attacks by men of strong feeling

■lit Mi. Rushin as a Practical Teacher.

and convictions against the abuse of a thing, they unconsciously
omit tn do full justice to its legitimate uses. 'I know,' he says-
himself, by way of apology, in the fourth Lecture, ' that I gave
tome pain, which I was most unwilling to give, in speaking of
the possible abuses of religious art ; but there can be no danger,
if any, so lone as we remember that God inhabits villages as well
as churches, and ought to be well lodged there . . . in thus
putting the arts to universal use, you will find also their univer-
sal inspiration, their benediction.' So far from being not practi-
cal enough in this way of subsidiary art teaching, Mr. Ruskin is
almost more practical than the most practical people themselves
in his wrath against their fussy and fidgetty methods of adorning
religion externally, and surrounding religious worship with a
stately magnificence, he would rather see them engaged in acts
of practical beneficence. ' You might sooner get lightning out
of incense smoke than true action or passion out of your modern
English religion,' he says, in Sesame and Lilies. 'You had
better get rid of the smoke and the organ pipes, both ; leave
them, and the Gothic windows, and the painted glass, to the
property man : give up your carburetted hydrogen ghost in one
healthy expiration, and look after Lazarus at the doorstep. For
there is a true Church wherever one hand meets another help-
fully, and that is the only holy or Mother Church which ever
was, or ever shall be.' In short, he prefers holy work to holy
worship, the cultivation of virtue to religious cultus. He sees
the great danger of modern religion becoming simply a graceful
occupation of the mind, heart, and senses, an absorption in pro-
blems that interest, in emotions that please, and in religious
observances which simply delight, and in the following of which
the weightier matters are omitted or neglected ; in short, he is
deeply impressed by a sense of danger lest a graceful re-
ligionism should serve as a substitute to practical piety. ' The
greatest of all the mysteries of life,' he says, ' and the most
terrible, is the corruption of even the sincerest religion, which is
not daily founded on rational, effective, humble, and helpful
action.' This, again, we submit, is a very practical view of the
matter.

We may leave here the subject of the relation of art to reli-

Mr. Ruskin as a Practical Teacher. 41

gion, morals and use, and dwell in what remains of our space on
the relative duties of men and women in self-culture, ' social
action and affection,' and their common mission of life, taking
here Sesame and Lilies, perhaps the most popular of Mr.
Ruskin's works, for our text. The substance of the first lecture
may be described in the words of Bacon's aphorism, ' Knowledge
is Power.' Its purport is to show, besides, that companionship
with the royal leaders of thought, hence the title, 'King's
Treasuries,' is the most ennobling condition of humanity. Rules
are laid down accordingly for a careful selection of books, and
the manner of reading them. If we cannot quite reach Mr.
Ruskin's own standard of minute analysis in reading, or his
curious trick of nice discernment for the multifarious shades of
meaning in every single word, and even syllable, of the books of
great authors, we can at least see here the practical tendency of
the specialist combined with both elevation and catholicity of
thought. The advice he puts into the mouth of the great
teachers of mankind, as addressed to small learners : ' You must
rise to the level of our thoughts if you would be gladdened by
them, and share our feelings if you would recognise our presence,'
is an instance illustrating the latter. And it is the absence of
this higher sense, as distinguished from common sense, which no
doubt prevents the best ideas from gaining currency among the
literary mob, and which renders the works of Mr. Ruskin him-
self caviare to the mixed multitude of general readers. These
lack ' spiritual understanding.' And to give another instance to
show the practical nature of his teaching as an apostle of self-
culture — like Matthew Arnold, understanding thereby literary
culture as 'the study of perfection ' in the best authors, — ' Con-
sider,' he says, ' all great accomplishments as means of assistance
to others.' Literature is not to serve the purpose of self-indul-
gent intellectual luxury, but to become the instrument for effect-
ing the general good, mentally and morally.

It is needless to dwell on Mr. Ruskin's definition of the duty
of men and women respectively ; suffice it to quote a passage
recalling some well-known lines of Schiller's Glocke, though, if
space did permit, we should much like to quote an expansion of

j\-2 Mr. /i'us/, in as a Practical Teacher.

the whole idea it conveys in the sixty-eighth paragraph of
' Queen's Gardens' : —

' The man's duty, as a member of the Commonwealth, is to assist in the
maintenance, in the advance, in the defence of the State. The woman's
duty, aa a member of the Commonwealth, is to assist in the ordering, in
the comforting, ami in the beautiful adornment of the State.'

It is touching to read the following words, too, on the true
wife and the ministry of women, when we remember some of the
sad experiences of the author of the words in his own domestic
life, his ill-fated love for the beautiful Scotch ladv whom he
married, and the other whom he did not marry, but neither of
whom were destined to be to him what he yearned after in the
desire of a wife, a subject delicately skimmed over by his bio-
grapher, and which we must pass over in the same spirit: —

' Wherever a true wife comes, this home is always round her. The star
may be only over her head ; the glowworm in the night-cold grass may be
the only fire at her foot ; but home is yet wherever she is ; and for a noble
woman it stretches far round her, better than ceiled with cedar, or painted
with vermillion, shedding its quiet light far, for those who else were
homeless.'

On life in p-eneral it is well to listen to the weightv words of
a man like Ruskin, who, whatever his faults and heresies as an
economist or art teacher may amount to, commands reverential
respect when he speaks on the significance of life as a whole, and
the conclusion of this book contains the gist of the matter.
'Whatever our station in life may be,' he says in the last chapter,
headed ' The Mystery of Life and its Arts,' ' at this crisis, those
of us who mean to fulfil our duty, ought first to live on as little
as we can ; and secondly, to do all the wholesome work for it we
can, and to spend all we can spare in doing all the sure good
we can.' Thus, he thinks, the mystery of life may be solved in
performing life's common duties, and by means of harmonious
self-development to enrich the life of the race. It is the gospel
of work by those well furnished by self-culture that is preached
here, so it is in Goethe's second part of Faust, as pointed
out by the present author in a previous paper in this Review, it
is the religion of the cultured of the nineteenth century. But
whatever we may think of it from a theological point of view, it

.!//•. Ruskin as a Practical Teacher. 43

is eminently practical as a theory of life. It brings again Ruskin
before us as a practical teacher, and this is all we try to prove
in this paper. On this ' sacredness of work' he dwells in the
Crown of Wild Olive as when he says thus, that the best grace
before meat is the consciousness that we have justly earned our
dinner. What he savs of the crown of wild olive, the reward of
our labours, is true of his own work, which is to teach a practical
age how to combine what is best and most elevating in labour
and leisure, both being ' serviceable for the life that now is: nor,
it may be, without promise of that which is to come.' Throughout
these voluminous writings we shall find the same lesson taught,
the importance of practical every day duty, and the importance,
too, whilst keeping to the firm ground of the real, never to lose
sight of the deeper significance of life and its aims, its final goal.
The useful arts of life, the ideal arts of the higher life, all human
effort, in practical appliances and moral aspirings, religious in-
spiration and striving after spiritual excellence, in the opinion of
Ruskin, serve the purpose, singly and collectively, of discipline
for some distinctive good, making the increase of healthy life
and development in the individual subservient to the progress
and well-being finally of the race. For in spite of many melan-
choly and desponding utterances, Mr. Ruskin is all the time
inspired ' by a solemn faith in the advancing power of human
nature,' and ' in the promise, however dimly apprehended, that
the mortal part of it would one day be swallowed up in immor-
tality.' A complete solution of the enigmas of life we must not
expect from him. New questions rise at every turn, demanding
a practical reply which is not always forthcoming. To what
extent the refinements of art and culture incapacitate man for
the rough encounters of daily competition, how far in quickening
the finer sensibilities of man we may weaken his moral fibre, and
how much will-force may be sacrificed in the excessive develop-
ment of our receptive and aesthetic faculties ; how we may main-
tain a right balance between active energy and passive enjoyment
— these are some of the practical questions which are suggested
here, but not answered. Mr. Ruskin does not profess to answer
them fully or finally. But we owe much to him for suggesting
them, and stimulating inquiry in order to their ultimate elucida-

I 1 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

tion and solution. lie has done so effectually by the freshness
of his treatment, the simplicity of his statements, the clearness
of his reasoning, his fervid earnestness, scholarly integrity, and
enticing truth fulness in style and treatment. In the pursuit of
high aims and a noble purpose in life, he has helped as few have
done in this practical age in transforming the common into the
Divine by the foice of commanding genius, the rhythmical
cadence of his inimitable word music, itself, becoming symbolical
of the chief endeavour of his life and work, to resolve the dis-
cordant tones of modern life into something approaching to har-
monious unity.

M. Kaufmann.

Art. III.—' SOME ASPECTS OF THE MODERN SCOT.'

' O wad some power the giftie gie us,
To see oorsels as ithers see us.'

APROPOS of the great lexicographer's definition of oats as
' a grain, which in England is generally given to horses,
but in Scotland supports the people,' somebody (doubtless a
patriotic Scot) is credited with the observation that while one
country turned out the best steeds, the best people were the
product of the other. But in these days, when, as with golf,
whisky, songs of the North, and many other excellent things,
the virtues of oatmeal porridge have long since been made
known to the dwellers in the South, the point of this connota-
tion loses much of its force. Both nations have indeed bor-
rowed much from one another, as was inevitable in face of the
enormously increased facilities of intercommunication thrown
open to the two countries during the latter half of the present
century. Nevertheless, in many respects, it is undeniable that
Scotsmen and Scotswomen remain to-day, if not quite as much
so as they did a generation or two back, still very markedly
differentiated from their Southern kinsfolk. And, though to
some it may seem a bold, if not presumptuous, undertaking, on
the part of an Anglo-Briton, to make such an attempt, my aim

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 45

in this paper is to present to the reader a few personal impres-
sions or character-sketches, if I may so style them, derived
during the wanderings of many years, more or less in every
county of Scotland, and into all sorts of odd nooks and corners
therein. If one is to be permitted to venture upon I'tudes
dealing with the characteristics of a people, I suppose constant
travel among them with the eyes and ears open may be taken
as one of the best credentials for the task. Moreover, has not
the discerning Boswell truly said, ' that scenes through which
a man has passed improve by lying in the memory: they grow
mellow.' So also, I take it, of persons, manners, and customs.

It has, of course, to be noted at the outset in forming any
generalised estimate of +he Scottish character, that the High-
land Celt and the conglomerate Lowlander are in many ways
very dissimilar. In like manner, certain local and dialectic
peculiarities may be traced, as e.g., in the Aberdonian, the Ayr-
shire man, and the Borderer, while there are distinct contrasts
between the people of two cities so near to each other as Edin-
burgh and Glasgow. But this is equally true of England, or
almost any other nationality, while yet there may be sufficient
assimilation of the various components to embody one marked
main type.

It would be out of place here to enquire how far the racial
varieties, the feudal environment of his ancestors, the diversi-
fied landscape features of his country, so largely moorland or
mountainous, its climate, and sparseness of location, its admir-
able parochial system of education instituted near two cen-
turies since, and so on — have contributed to mould the char-
acter and idiosyncrasy of the Scot, and to tint his pervading
political complexion. Certain it is that these influences have
carried him on to the present time a strongly marked individu-
ality, contrasting with the rest of the inhabitants of our islands,
and one which, it will be admitted, constitutes a very interest-
ing study. Nay, has not a great living statesman paid a high
tribute to the Caledonian pre-eminence. ' I say with national
humiliation,' was the observation of Lord Salisbury on a recent
memorable occasion, ' that England has not improved so fast
as Scotland. But that is the result of that extreme superiority

46 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

in respect of all mundane affairs which is shown by all those
who arc bom north of the Tweed.'*

First, then, what is the dominant note in the average
Scotchman's character? We hear much of his thrift, his
caution, his perseverance, his dogged resolution, his faculty for
pushing his way in the world, and undoubtedly these are
strong representative constituents in his composition. But I
think it may be asserted without fear of challenge that the
keystone of his mental structure and disposition is self-esteem.
The Scot's primary form of prayer has been waggishly de-
scribed as ' 0 Lord, gie us a gude conceit o' oorselves,' and the
answer to the petition when put up is, it must be confessed,
seldom denied. The thing may be hidden in reserve, overlaid by
shyness, dignified under gravity of demeanour, but all the same
it is there, a sort of inward conviction of that superiority in
mundane affairs we have just noted. You may soften it down
by naming it self-possession or self-confidence, if you will, but
draw a northern Briton into conversation in any rank of life
below the gentle, and the strength of the sentiment will soon
make itself apparent. The history of his country, his san-
guinary and patriotic struggles against the hated Southern in
days of yore, his extraordinary success in every quarter of the
globe, the roll of great statesmen, distinguished viceroys and
proconsuls, soldiers, divines, literati, merchant princes, he is
entitled to boast of; all these are so many bays in the garland
of laurel he is ever ready to entwine round the national brow,
to minister to his own self-satisfaction.

This is not said invidiously : the Scot does well to be proud
of his countrymen and their record ; I only contend that in-
tense self-esteem is the predominant element to reckon with
in estimating his character. Often have I been amused with
the calm assumption of perfect equality with the whole world |

* Speech in the House of Lords on the Government of Ireland Bill (8th
September, 1893.) Times report.

t A Scotch M.P. [Mr. Hunter], speaking recently in the House of Com-
mons, said that his countrymen would have no grades or ranks, and that
they had always exhibited a passion for equality. — Debate on Scottish
Grand Committees, 17th April, 1894.

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 47

evinced by Sandy, the farm hand, Davie, the railway porter,
Wullie, the boots at mine inn, and such like worthies. The
self-appraisement of a certain ducal clansman ' She's as goot
as the dook, and maybe a little petter too,' entirely voices the
general underlying conviction of the modern fisherman, crofter,
or loafer in the Highland glens and estuaries, though it may
not always be expressed exactly in that way. The shop-boy
of the town, however, the artisau, the son of handicraft
whatsoever it may be, lags but little behind the Highlander in
this respect. Only the other day I had a specimen of this
conjoined to great good-nature, or I may say kindliness. In
one of the quaintest of old-world slumberous villages, not a
hundred miles from Dunedin, I accosted a fairly respectable-
looking mau, and asked if I was going right for the railway
station. 'Man, ye're gaun a far rod tull't' was the rejoinder,
and then he took me in hand, got the keys of the old show
ruins of the place, did cicerone for an hour or more, and finally
assured me it was not hindering him at all, for that ' naebody
had ony business, like, in the toon, except just in summer
when the visitors came.' I can recall another occasion when,
having some official business to transact with a small educa-
tional underling in a Scotch parish, after the business was
done he calmly invited me to join him and some other of his
village gossips in a rubber of whist !

Then again, another manifestation of the same self-estima-
tion is to be noted in the rarity of the use of ' Sir,' or ' Ma'am,'
north of Tweed. This is very striking to an Englishman.
Perhaps the freeborn Scot considers that to address such apel-
latives to others, in whatever grade of life, would be deroga-
tory ; an admission of inferiority, a badge of servility. Just
so : the self-assurance coming out again. ' A man's a man for
a' that ' — have they not their national bards word for it? The
same with the children. Who ever sees a boy' of the Scotch
working-classes doff his cap, or a girl curtsey? No disrespect
is intended, I firmly believe, in this general elimination of the
stereotyped salutation customary elsewhere. The Scot is a
born democrat, and this is one way of showing it. Personally,

18 Some Aspects of the }fo<hru Scot.

I .1111 bound to say, I have not seldom been treated exception-
ally in this matter.

An apposite instance of a boy's abrupt bluntness of speech
occurs to me. I had been sketching for two or three days in
a northern glen, within a field where a halt herd-lad was
tending cattle. Save for an occasional interval when he would
stump off with imprecatory cry to intercept a straying beast,
he had steadily taken his stand behind me and my easel, and
gazed at the developing picture, but without ever uttering a
word. At- last, near about the finishing touches, almost out of
patience with the youth's persistent but mute observation, I
suddenly wheeled round and asked him, ' Well, what do you
think of it — is it like.' ' Man — it's most horrible like,' was the
sole rejoinder.

Having started with perhaps the least eulogistic trait in the
Scot's mental repertory, let me now devote a few words to
his pronounced sense of humour. The trite saying as to the
Caledonian's difficulty in seeing a joke may be partially true
in respect of plays upon words, turns of phrases, and so forth,
as in the story of the Scotch M.P., who described a certain
lanky lantern-jawed statesman as the greatest 'allegator' in the
House, without the faintest perception of any wit in the appel-
lation.* But none who have ever clipped into the delightful
collection of stories by a late Scottish dean, which is now
almost a classic, could doubt the North Briton's possession of
a vein of genuine fun, and a broad sense of dry humour.
Possibly, it is the half-unconsciousness or quasi-innocence of
any attempt at joking, which so often enhances the real raci-
ness of the things said. Or, the mere drollery in the way of

* A capital recent case in point on the part of one of our most brilliant
Scottish statesmen was commented upon in some of the newspapers.
Speaking of Mr. Rhodes in the Matabele debate of 9th Nov. last, Mr.
Arthur Balfour said he thought 'we were exceptionally fortunate in
having snch a man, and his great resources, which had been so freely used
for extending the blessings of civilisation, extending railways and tele-
graphs and extending roads' (much laughter) ' through those dark regions.'
{Times, 10th November, 1893). The Right Honourable gentleman, so
said the newspaper, failed to see the joke !

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 49

saying them may be what so appeals to one. The pew-opener
who, seeing a young fop stopping in a church aisle to survey
his brand-new Sunday garments, remarked, ' This way, my
man, and we'll look at your new breeks when the Kirk comes
oot,' is a specimen of what I mean. Very recently I was in a
hotel 'bus en route to a railway station, a young woman being
seated opposite me, quiet looking and rather pretty. On
getting in I was smoking, and wanted to go outside, but
' boots ' interposed at the 'bus doorstep with ' She'll no mind
the smok-king — smoks herself, I shouldna' wonder,' in an in-
imitably good-humoured ami patronising manner, which none
but a Scot could emulate, the girl smiling with equal good-
nature at the remark. A Cockney young lady in similar cir-
cumstances might probably have given the man something
pretty sharp in return for his impudence I

On another occasion I was waiting at a station on the High-
land railway for the up-express, when a goods train also bound
southward came creaking and groaning along with great
shriek and splutter of steam, and drew up at the platform. As
the trains on this line are often mixed and unconscionably
lengthy, so that a traveller is liable to get a little ' mixed ' also
as to where the passenger carriages come in, I asked an
old weather-beaten porter if this was my train. ' Na, it's the
fesli train.' ' But I suppose it's going to shunt for the ex-
press,' I said, ' and not going on ahead of us.' He laughed a
broad laugh. ' Dinna you fear, ye'll just hae to wait on her.
What's a wheen passengers the like o' you to oor company be-
side the fesh train.' Not till then had I fully realised the re-
lative importance of convoys of men and of fish ! Almost as
good this in its way as Punch's railway official who, to the
frantic vociferations of an irascible old gentleman, looking out
of window of the starting train and spying his luggage left be-
hind on the platform, calmly replied, ' Ye're liggage is no sick
a fule as yoursel' — ye're in the wrang train.'

On the whole, I am not sure whether the Scot's quaint semi-
serious manner of putting his sallies is not a partly conscious
attempt to realise the aphorism Ars est celare artem.

As an illustration, however, of really unintentional humour
xxiv. 4

50 'Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

absolutely turning on the matter-of-fact attitude of the speaker,
lei me cite the following, which, so far as I know, is quite
original. It came to me from a gentleman of large means in
a midland Scottish county a good many years ago. This

gentleman, Mr. C , had a very fine hothouse vinery, which

was celebrated for its choice produce. On a particular occa-
sion when the Queen was on one of her periodical journeys
through Scotland, the Royal train was timed to stop for lun-
cheon at a well-known through station in this county, and

Mr. C availed himself of the opportunity so afforded to

send Her Majesty an offering of his best grapes. In due course,
a letter of acknowledgment expressing the Roj'al appreciation
of the gift, and complimenting the donor on the fineness of the
fruit, reached him ; and, feeling sure his head gardener would

be greatly interested in the contents of the letter, Mr. C

read it to him. The man of horticulture gravely listened, and
this was all his comment: 'She disna say onything aboot send-
ing back the basket ! '

No one who is much given to moving about the country can
fail to notice a familiar figure, which is for ever confronting
him : the commercial traveller. Now, in many respects the
Scottish ' bagman ' is distinctly featured from his English or
Hibernian brother. The trappings of his guild are, of course,
very much alike wherever you meet him. The same piles of
enormous dirty-brown stuffed bales and prodigious padlocked
baskets blocking up the doorways of the inns, or laden upon
hand-carts to be dragged from shopdoor to shopdoor, are
always in evidence. These are the sign-manual of his craft,
in every medium-sized town or village from Duncansby Head
to the Bay of Luce. You cannot well escape him if you
would, for in many of the middling Scotch towns the chief inn
has no recognised coffee-room, and the. only practicable substi-
tute for all comers is very likely to be the 'Commercial Room.'
Moreover, you soon discover that the 'commercial gentleman's'
apartment is generally better warmed, better furnished, and
better catered for than what would be assigned to you by way
of so-called coffee-room. This does not, of course, hold good
of the better class of hotels.

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 51

The Scotch man of bags is, I think, oil the whole quieter
and staider in his deportment than the average Englishman of
like avocation. I have usually found him well-informed and
very shrewd in his passing remarks on politics or other current
topics. He is generally courteous in his manner, and a kind
of 'camaraderie' of the road appears to subsist among his
fraternity. One sees, also, principally among the Scotch
' travellers,' that a silent grace is often said before meals, a
mark of reverence not too frequent at public dining-tables. I
like, too, their custom of greeting the company with a friendly
' good-night ', or ' good-morning, gentlemen,' when retiring to
rest, or on first appearance at the breakfast table. This
urbanity is noteworthy, and I must say has sometines sug-
gested to my mind a refreshing contrast with the leaden taci-
turnity so prevalent in the coffee-rooms of the larger hotels
amoug people of a higher social grade, or indeed in fashion-
able clubs where men meet and stare at one another for years,
and never utter a syllable. Most commendable too, is the
daily custom throughout Scotland of placing a charitable
money-box on the table while the itinerant traffickers are
taking their oue o'clock prandial meal. This box is labelled
'Commercial Travellers of Scotland Benevolent Fund,' and is
for the benefit of necessitous widows and families of deceased
members of that Association. It is, I believe, de rigueur for
everyone dining to contribute something to this box.

One amusing sub-variety of the bagman I have not infre-
quently met with is absolutely and peculiarly Caledonian. He
is commonly of benevolent, self-satisfied aspect and elderly.
On entering the room and hurriedly removing his wraps,
should there be others of his calling present, he will at once
seat himself by them, and after a moment's conversation launch
out into a succession of those enigmatical northern grunts,
which I am not sure that even any Scot has ever attempted
properly to translate into intelligible language. I can only
try to write them down thus : — ' Ay, umh-umh — umh-umh, ay,*
half to himself, half to his audience, with a momentary cogita-
tion after each. My own idea after long study of them is that
these guttural ejaculations may be taken to be nearly the

52 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

equivalent of 'Ileigho! 'tis a weary world, and yet not so bad
after all.'

In former days, I am told, the etiquette of the commercial
room excluded from the entree there all but those connected
with trade, but this is not so now. Moreover, a lower tariff is
charged to its occupants (if traders), but I have not found my
hotel bills diminished by occasional admission thereto. A
bumptious bagman is a very disagreeable individual to en-
counter, none the less so for being Scotch, especially when he
proves too inquisitive as to your line of business. But in my
experience these are rare, and in what situation of life are ob-
noxious people not to be met with?

It is, theu, encouraging to find amid so much that is falling
to pieces in these modern days that the race of ' commercial
gentlemen' is apparently rather improving than otherwise.
This, while partly perhaps the result of the spread of education,
may also in part be due to the fact that, under the stress of
existing trade competition, heads of business firms who used
to rely entirely on their paid traveller, now to a considerable
extent have taken to ' travel ' themselves.

Another study not without interest is the fisherman of the
Scotch coasts. I should describe him as stolid and reticent
for the most part, and apt to be somewhat stand-off to a
stranger. Of dogged pertinacity and deep-rooted prejudices,
he is inclined to keep himself to himself, and has nothing of
the frank outspoken bearing and almost polished courtesy of
the southern English fisher folk (Devonshire or Kent men, for
example). Ashore he is the laziest of operatives, lolling about
the wharves and harbour-corners with his hands invariably
deep down in his 'breeks' pockets, his women folk meanwhile
doing most of the work, and toiling along bent nearly double
under their heavy creel-loads of fish. Well does Jenny, Old-
buck's serving-wench, put it, — 'As sune as the keel o' the
coble touches the sand, deil a bit mair will the lazy fisher-
loons work, but the wives maun kilt their coats, and wade into
the surf to tak the fish ashore.' Their method of baiting the
lines with a multitude of hooks is very neat and pretty to watch,

Some Aspects of the Modem Scot. 53

the whole being arranged so systematically. In this branch
of shore labour, the men do sometimes take a share.

Some of the fishing villages along the north and east sea-
board of Scotland are singularly quaint and picturesque,
Netherlandish almost in their details,* worthy studies for a
Ruysdael or a Van de Velde. Th'e rows of little split fish
skewered on sticks or triangular lath-frames nailed along the
cottage walls, are quite distinctive features. So also are the
cottages themselves, with their vermilion pan-tiled roofs and
outlying stairways; but these are fast disappearing and giving
place to a modern style of tenement, which makes one miss
the old-world forms and warm colour. Well were it, however,
if primitive dirt and archaic scavengering could in many cases
make way for more modern sanitary arrangements. The fisher
folk of both sexes are very commonly of a serious inscrutable
cast of countenance, generated, I suppose, by the precarious
nature and constant risks of the seafaring occupation. ' It's no
fish ye're buying,' quoth the masterful Maggie to Monkbarns,
' it's men's lives.' The men do indeed carry their lives in their
hands, and it were strange if this did not give a certain
solemnity and God-fearing set to their characters. The Eye-
mouth people still speak with bated breath of the terrible
catastrophe which overtook them in the great storm or cyclone
of some years back, and turned wellnigh every homestead into
a house of mourning. The fisherman has a long memory for
such visitations.

These littoral folk, as a rule, marry early, and in many
villages almost exclusively among themselves. In fact, it is
held to be a kind of breach of etiquette or traditional custom
to assort out of your own particular locality. A natural con-
sequence of this ' in and in ' system of unions must surely be
to accentuate in time one constitutional inter-tribal type, and
not to its advantage physically or mentally. Indeed, this may
account in part for the exceeding ugliness and gaunt, flattened
figures of many of the older women. Swart and coarse-

* And without doubt the villagers themselves bear in their veins a strong
hereditary tincture of Flemish blood.

54 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

featured, they look as if they had been shrunken up by scant
fare, hard labour, and the rigour of the east wind. And, poor
souls, the conditions of their life are doubtless for the most
part trying. One also sees occasional specimens of the 'Muckle-
backit ' type ; viragoes, huge, dirty, and defiant of aspect.
But, on the other hand,, here aud there one comes, across a
fisher lass or young wife passing handsome, with ringed ears,
sunburnt hue, smoothened hair, brown, or sometimes lint-white,
aud blooming physique.

Non-conformity, I believe, is largely predominant among
the Scottish fishing communities, and as in religion so in
politics, they are intensely gregarious. I was told of one large
village on the north-east, which curiously is almost entirely
Episcopalian. Quite recently I had the good luck to witness
a fisher's wedding in one of the most notably archaic fishing
towns in Scotland. The whole piscatorial population, pretty
nearly, turned out in couples, headed by a piper, the juvenile
belongings showering rice on the bridal couple from start to
finish of the procession.

The hatred of these people to trawling is intense, and they
are uncommonly wideawake to their rights and requirements in
the matter of boats, mussel bait, and harbour facilities. If they,
and the miners, can only be persuaded that benefits to their,
class are not the monopoly of one particular political party,
the unexpected may yet happen in the future representation of
the Scottish electorate.

Another fitting subject in national portraiture is the Scottish
retail tradesman, since he exhibits points which strongly de-
marcate him from the rest of his genus. First of all, a certain
air of gravity and solid respectability generally impresses you
as customer. But something more distinctive is made apparent
to an English apprehension after some little experience of the
' gentleman ' in a Caledonian shop. While unfolding to him
your requirements, you become aware not only of an intelli-
gent readiness on his part to ascertain them, but also of a sort
of kindly impulse or persuasiveness, as it might be of an
interested Mentor, in the direction of your intended purchases.
You feel it sis genuiuely meant aud honest advice which is

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 55

being tendered, apart from and perhaps even counter to the
vendor's interests ; a feature by no means so frequent in a
London mart. Yet withal, the Scottish retailer exercises over
you a kind of gentle patronage — discusses the business on
hand from a friendly standpoint, as it were — seems to concern
himself about you apart from that business — aud does so all
the time with an air of equality which is yet so remote from
all appearance of pertness or assumption that it is impossible
to find fault with it. Nor, (and this we have already noted of
his countrymen generally), does he usually address you as ' Sir'
or ' Madam ' after the wont of his Southern congener, yet
again there is no impression of incivility about this. I have
known a Scotch salesman to pat a lady affectionately on the
shoulder to emphasize some point under explanation. Imagine
one of Peter Robinson's or Marshall & Suelgrove's employees
in London doing the same thing.

The subtle difference, then, between the Cockney shopman
and the shopman of Edinburgh or Glasgow, Dundee or Aber-
deen, is that with the former you feel yourself merely a cus-
tomer; with the latter, a customer and something more — a
man or woman ' for a' that.' It may be a spice, possibly, of
the self-appreciation we started with, the sentiment, unex-
pressed but latent, that one man is as good as another, trade or
no trade. Or, it may be the outcome of that prevalent bene-
volence and obligingness, which has given the Northern Briton
the designation of 'the kindly Scot.' Certain it is that the
relations across the counter, which obtain between the average
Scotch shopkeeper — or ' merchant ' as in the smaller localities
he prefers to call himself — and his customers, are peculiar.*
And they have always struck me as among the laudable char-
acteristics of the national idiosyncrasy, in which opinion I am
confirmed by many English friends.

Next to his self-esteem, and in a sense foster-brother to it,
comes the Scot's love of independence. Down from the days
of his forefathers, through successive epochs of turbulence and

* This racy contrast, however, between Scotch and English retailers is
diminishing year by year with the march of the times.

56 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

insecurity: whether under the tribal sway of a number of
bickering Kinglets; in deadly feud with the Norseman; in
temporary bondage to a detested foreign garrison ; during
later medisevalism the prey of contending tactions of rapacious
nobles; or, again, in the subsequent periods of civil strife when
it required all his shrewdness and calculation to steer an even
keel ; the Scot of the middle and lower classes has steadily
asserted and stubbornly maintained, side by side with a per-
sistent claim for popular rights, a character for sturdy inde-
pendence. For this principle he has not hesitated in the past
to shed his blood : for this doubtless he would in certain cir-
cumstances be as ready to shed it again. But times have
changed ; and the edifice of freedom he has slowly built up
for himself is unlikely ever to be destroyed. Unless, indeed,
he should allow himself to be hoodwinked by the false pro-
phets of a vindictive demagogism bent upon dragging down
not only Crown and Constitution, but creeds and classes, to
their own dead level ; and thus with his own hand pull out
the corner stones of the structure, and uproot the foundations
thereof.

But, happily, alongside of the intense impatience of control
and jealousy of class distinctions, which the neo-radicalism of
the day has done its best to rub into the Scottish masses, there
exists in the national fibre a counteracting element — strong
intelligence, deliberative caution, and on the whole, good
common sense ; while, above all, there is in the Scot a
shrewd perceptiveness of his own interests. If these qualities,
then, can but get fair play, may we not hope they may yet
prevail against the mass of Jacobinism and Socialistic rubbish
which is now being thrust upon hitn in all directions.

The sentiment of patriotism is one that the Scot has been
assumed to possess in a high degree. In a sense this is no
more than his due, but to-day it seems necessary to accept the
claim with a limitation, and tc ask ourselves the question, —
how comes it that it is so difficult to enlist him iu humble life
for the regular military service of his Sovereign. There was
a time not so long since when the Highland regiments, origin-
ally raised entirely among the territorial clans, drew mainly

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 57

from the same sources, and when the ruddy straight-limbed
peasant of Ross or Sutherland, Argyll or Inverness-shire,
was proud to take the royal shilling and serve his country.
Now all this is changed. We are told of thousands of starving
crofter people, of an army of unemployed soliciting work, of
fisher folk struggling precariously for a scanty subsistence.
Yet, the recruiting sergeant goes to remote localities, special
parties are sent out to make the advantages of the army
known : and all for the most part in vain. The miserable
squalid occupant of a peat hovel will rather starve, idling with
his hands in his ragged homespun pockets, and girding at his
landlord, than take in exchange good food and raiment, a
comfortable well-warmed airy lodging, reasonable hours of
work and recreation, facilities for carrying on his education,
an honest honourable occupation, with good prospect of pro-
motion to the intelligent and well-conducted man. One need
scarce go back a generation to call to mind the splendid
material Scotland was wont to supply for the voluntary
brotherhood, which has contributed so many heroic deeds of
arms to the annals of British history. Probably more Scots-
men, proportionately to the other nationalities used to work
their way up into the higher non-commissioned grades of the
army. And fine steady responsible men of weight they usually
were, in whom both the officers trusted and the private soldier
believed. But now, no ! ' Gie me ma luberty,' is pretty much
Sawney's response to the appeal to follow his country's flag.

Why is this ? The Volunteer force is undoubtedly popular
in the country, and especially flourishing North of the Tweed.
There is something akin to enthusiasm at times exhibited in its
ranks. Those who know will tell you of artillery-men in some
of the remote islands, farm labourers and others, walking seven
or eight miles from their homes, after a day's work, to attend
an evening drill, and this not seldom in the teeth of discourage-
ment from their employers, who should know better. In other
technical branches, too, the men of Volunteer Corps frequently
work with marked zeal under great difficulties. Then again,
the Militia man, with his month's training in the year, good
rations and daily pay, out of which he saves, comes in readily:

58 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

it is a sort of healthful holiday outing for him. But to get recruits
for real soldiering is quite another matter, though the Volun-
teers certainly do supply an odd one or two now and again.
And the causes are not far to seek. There is the craze for
personal independence — distaste to come under strict rule — a
rooted dislike to rigid discipline. There is the short period of
service, and the question what is to come after, in the absence
of the old pension which provided for the discharged soldier in
his declining years. Now we have ex-Tommy Atkins tramping
about the highroads of the country asking alms, or besieging
the Soldiers' Employment bureaux for work, which, until
Government finds place for its deserving dischargees in its
public service, can only be doled out to the few. And lastly,
in the old days itinerant demagogues and paid organisers had
not instilled into the crofter and farm labourer that it was the
function of the State to dry-nurse its children and enable them
to ' live and thrive ' with a maximum of wage and a minimum
of work.

So, then, the army does not tempt many to its ranks in the
Scottish Highlands, or indeed elsewhere in Scotland, outside a
few of the larger towns and manufacturing districts. Further-
more, there is said to be a curious traditional prejudice among
the country folk against soldiering, especially in the North. I
have been told that this is a survival from Culloden days,
when the English dragoons earned for themselves an unenvi-
able reputation. In some instances, too, local feeling among
quiet country folk is adverse to the recruiting agent, possibly
from a notion prevalent with some, but quite erroneous — that
soldiers are less moral than the average of the civilian class
they are taken from. To all this, it may be answered, that the
Scotch are patriotic but not inclined to militarism ; that the
red-coat enters the army, for wages rather than from warlike
ardour : that the operative classes are now better paid and
better educated ; and so on. But, all the same, the head and
front of the recruiting difficulty in Scotland comes, I rather
think, back to this — ' We'll no pairt with oor luberty ! '

In this connexion, let me mention an incident illustrative of
the martial spirit which sometimes animated the young Scotch

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 59

recruit of former days. It was told me quite recently by a
country gentleman, who at the time was adjutant of a dis-
tinguished Highland regiment. When the intending recruit
was brought up to the orderly-room for inspection by the
commanding officer of this regiment, he was measured and
found to be a trifle under the regimental standard of height.
Nevertheless, he was a strong-built and likely-looking young
fellow. The colonel reluctantly decided that the youngster
could not be accepted, being too short, and thereupon informed
him accordingly, expressing at the same time his regret. The
recruit became much excited, and exclaimed ' Oh, Col-nel,
ye'll shurely no turn me back. I'm wee but I'm tvicked.'
(' Wicked ' meant in this case, Scottice, spunky, mettled.) The
colonel stretched a point and passed him.

By way of contrast to this, I heard the other day of a young
man of the farming class in one of the northern Scottish coun-
ties, who had just enlisted out of a volunteer corps into the
regular army. No sooner was this known to his people, than
with speed the mother and. sister hasted in to the sergeant
who had enlisted him, both urgent to buy out the new recruit.
It is curious, but the old traditional prejudice against anyone
'going for a soldier' is not confined to northern Britain. And
yet it might surprise some people if they knew how many sons
of gentle-folk now enlist into the army under the stress of
high-pressure competition for commissions.

I hope I may without presumption be allowed to say a word
about the Scotch minister, who figures so largely in Northern
anecdotes of wit and humour, and whom one so often finds
possessed of a racy individuality entirely his own. A charming
picture has been painted for us of the Highland pastor of
former days by an eminent and popular son of the manse, now
gone to his rest. There was the homely, unostentatious, but
snug and comfortable dwelling-house, with its sheltering porch
and arboreal shrubbery planned out for ' a covert from the
wind,' what time —

' November chill blaws loud wi' angry sough,
The shortening winter day is near a close.'

CO Some Aspects of the Modem Scot.

There was the daily fare, plain but plentiful, at the hospi-
table board, everything good of its kind, and a never failing
welcome to the friend or stranger who should come within the
gate. There was the genial intercourse, the ready counsel
and generous help to the poor and needy. There was the
paternal tuition to the sons of the family, the helpmeet's
matronly schooling of her daughters in the housewifely craft
to fit them to become, it might be, wives and mothers in Israel
themselves. And oftentimes with but slender purse, the young
men were launched out into the university and thence passed
on into the ministry or other spheres of professional activity,
not seldom to turn out with marked distinction and success.
It is a picture of Scottish home life, frugality, self-denial, de-
termination, achievement ; and happily in the Presbyterian
Church of to-day, Conformist and Non-Conformist, there are
still many subjects who might sit for the same portrayal.

But to anyone who can remember the Scotch minister of a
generation back, the revolution that has taken place both in
church fabric and pastor is remarkable. I can recollect when
the hideous square or oblong erection, with commonplace roof
and little squat ' campanile ' covering its single 'chappin' bell,
was the prevailing type of parochial church building in most
country districts of northern Albion. Commonly, a low gallery
or loft was reached by an external stone stairway (as in the
fisher's cottage) ; the pews or pens were of unvarnished wood,
the walls bare and whitewashed, doorways and window open-
ings of unredeemed ugliness ; and not a vestige of ornament
or taste to soften the ministrant's hard, dry Calvinism, dry as
the ' stoor ' that was wont to be thumped out of the pulpit
cushion by his intermittent oratorical exertions.

All this has well-nigh departed. An era of ' sweetness and
light ' has supervened with the advent of the young ambitious
cleric, who is everywhere superseding those he doubtless re-
gards as the effete fossils of days gone by. The old-fashioned
dogmas may still be formally subscribed to at ordination, but
the ' covenanted mercies ' reserved exclusively for the elect,
and the torments in store for the condemned, are no longer
proclaimed Sunday after Sunday from a thousand rostra of the

Some Aspects of the Modem Scot. 61

National Kirk. A small remnant of the old Evangelical type
survive, but they are conspicuous by their rarity : like the ex-
cavator's so-called ' buoys ' or pillars left standing in the soil,
only to mark and measure the surrounding mass of material
which has been dug up and carted away.

I can recall, too, the primitive kirk-structures of remote
Highland wilds,- spots more out-of-the-way even than Sydney
Smith's Yorkshire parish, which he described as being ' twelve
miles from a lemon.' I can remember the service in sonorous
Gaelic ; the collie dogs of the shepherds present slinking into
the pews to curl up under their master's feet ; the hands of
these same masters stealing out to the pew handles ere yet the
parting blessing was come to an end ; and then the precipitate
outrush of all and sundry to the open air, as though with a
profoundly thankful sense of a once-a- weekly duty legitimately
finished.

Notwithstanding that one's own form of worship may be
with accompaniment of surplice and liturgy, yet, inasmuch as
in the less frequented localities an Episcopal service is not
always available, one may share in the ministrations of the
Presbyterian Church with satisfaction, and, I hope I may say
for myself, edification. And I must confess to feeling strong-
sympathy with the movement in the Kirk which is assimilating
so much from the sister Church southward of the Border. The
immensely improved hymnal, the general introduction of good
instrumental music ; the beautifying of the church fabrics, the
drawing towards liturgical and weekday services ; the added
order, reverence, and dignity in conducting the ordinances ; —
in all these points surely Scotland has done well not to be
above borrowing what is good and seemly from her Anglican
neighbour. On the other hand, I think some of our surpliced
clergy might usefully take a hint from the sort of excellent
preaching and good oratory one may not infrequently hear in
Presbyterian pulpits : pointed, intellectual, reasonable dis-
courses, with apt illustration and impressive fervour, which are
surely better suited to the wants of the church-going multitude
than elaborate analysis of dogma, or even than expositions of
ritualistic symbolism. Still, there would seem to be a tendency

62 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

in the modern preacher of the Kirk, sometimes to over-tran-
scendentalism, sometimes to a kind of enquiring scepticism or
scientific research, cultivated in what is termed the modern
philosophic spirit. Nay, we are told indeed, that this same
spirit has largely 'caught on' to the Kirk's great seceded rival,
and that Ihe Evangelical guinea stamp which once distin-
guished the separatist communion of Chalmers and Candlish
from the Erastian school of the ' Moderates ' is gone.

Howsoever this may be, the fact remains that Presby-
terianism, both as to pastor and people, has greatly changed in
the lapse of a generation.

Many recollections of hospitality offered and accepted at
odd times in country manses crowd over me. Among these, in
the persons of one or two pastors still living who have cele-
brated their ministrating jnbilees, I call to memory a type of
rural minister perhaps the most interesting of all. Gentle,
genial, courtly, and courteous with an old-fashioned flavour of
manner; using hospitality and giving of their best without
thought of return, I know not if the centuries to come will
produce many of their like. One has presided over the same
parish, in a rich carseland valley, for nearly sixty years. The
pastorate of another, a veritable George Herbert, covers well-
nigh as long a period. Yet a third, in a far-north retreat,
nonagenarian almost, is, or recently was, still ministering to his
flock, and not even laid by from occasional travel. To the old
age of such as these may we not aptly apply the words of
Cicero : ' Quiete et pure et eleganter actae aetatis placida ac
lenis senectus.'

From the Scotch minister it seems a natural transition to the
Scotch Sunday, or, in local parlance, Sabbath. One may be
no Sabbatarian, and yet thoroughly enjoy the reposeful quiet
of ' the Lord's day ' in an average Scottish village, or small
country town. The stillness of the streets, no shriek of rail-
way whistle in your ear, no display of wares in shop window
or chaffering of merchandise in the thoroughfares by the itiner-
ant chapman. The driuking-houses contraband for the day to
all save the so-called bona fide wayfarer, to the enormous pro-
fit of the general community. Then the sound of bell and the

Some Aspects of the Modem Scot.

flocking to public Worship. And in the afternoon or evening
the quiet social stroll along the links, lane, or highway. It is
in its way an idyllic picture. But here again there is change.
Bicyclists in scores now fly through the quiet Boreal hamlets,
and find their way to the public taprooms of a Sunday in the
guise of bona fide travellers : while bands of excursionists
packed into char a bancs shake the dust off their chariot wheels
as they rattle past the village church, but go not into it. This
is, no doubt, in accord with the Jin de siecle spirit, the ' perfect
law of liberty ' after the up-to-date manner. And, in judging
the poor man or the busy toiler whose week days give but
scant opportunity for enjoying the God-given boon of fresh air
and sunlight, let us not be too censorious.

Perhaps, after all, Samuel Johnson was not so far wrong in
his quaint dictum about the observance of Sunday. ' It should
be different from another day. People may walk, but not
throw stones at birds. There may be relaxation, but there
should be no levity.' Excellent, though the inference is perhaps
rather droll — that on week days one might throw stones at
birds. Not unlike the plea I once heard put forward for poly-
gamy: that it is only a bishop who in Holy Writ is enjoined to
be the husband of one wife!

Did space permit, I should be tempted to enlarge upon the
glimpses of Scottish peasant life that have been afforded me in
many a tramp across moor and strath, along highway and by-
way. But, in his exquisite idyll on the Caledonian cottar, the
national bard has, in a few master-strokes, limned us a portrait
of him and his home that will live to all time. Indeed, it
might savour of impertinence to attempt here a necessarily
feeble repetition of what has been so nobly and realistically
done by Scott, Burns, Allan Ramsay, the Ettrick Shepherd,
and so many other Scotsmen of genius and patriotism. Certain
it is that Scotia's 'hardy sons of rustic toil' are a characteristic
study, especially when drawing on into years. Thanks to
their parish schools, they are almost invariably intelligent and
fairly educated, shrewd and observant, 'takin' tent' to purpose
of things in general. Get hold of an old Scotch farm servant,
and the chances are you will find him full of sagacious sayings

• >1 Some Aspects of the Modem Scot.

and homely mother wit. I admire also his ruddy weather-
beaten visage and, for the most part, sturdy well-knit if some-
what bent frame, produet of the daily sweat of his brow. For,
has not a noble devotee of husbandry well said, Hominum
generl imim-so ctdtura agrorum est salutaris? The Scottish
rustic's ' milieu ' is behind the ploughshare and in the barnyard,
but the breath of the strong northern breezes is for ever in his
lungs, the scent of broom or gorse blossom in his nostrils, and
the blue bloom of distant hills within measure of his eyesight.
This is what, I take it, differentiates him from the ordinary
genus of southern chawbacons, although it must be admitted
that as to intelligence English Hodge is growing much more
wideawake than he formerly was.

Knock at the door of the humblest rural homestead betwixt
Cheviot and the Pentland Strait, and more often than not you
will be greeted blithely by the goodwife : ' Come ben and sit
ye doon,' or, ' Will ye no hae a cup o' tea or a drink o' milk ? '
will be asked with warmth and a certain innate dignity of
hostship. And there, in the ' but and ben ' dwelling, by the
' wee bit ingle blinking bonnily,' you will be bid to seat your-
self, and speedily pass into friendly converse, while

' The mither wi' her needle and her shears
Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new.'

Only be sure you put on no patronising or condescending airs,
which the Scot, man, woman, and child alike, hates and re-
sents, as implying his inferiority. You must meet the cottager
as a brother man, and he in his turn will not, as a rule, be
lacking in a certain respectfulness of demeanour. And I think
the Scotch peasant, in common with most of his countrymen,
has in the main a distinct appreciation of the landscape and
seascape amenities of his native land. Probably the plough-
man-poet of Ayrshire, whose songs, like those from the Haw-
thornden lyre, are so saturated with the burden of nature's
loveliness, has done much to drive the inspiration home to
many and make them realise the pricelessuess of their common
inheritance.

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. fio

' Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods,
The sweeping vales, and foaming floods,
Are free alike to all.'

Iii truth, it has always seemed to me that in the intense in-
sistence upon human brotherhood added to the fine sense of
natural external beauty which informs the verse of Burns, is
to be found a sort of reflex of one aspect of the Scottish
character.

I have left nearly to the last certainly not the least interest-
ing of the ' etudes ' in my sketchbook — the Scotswoman. Like
her masculine compatriot, she also has her varieties and sub-
varieties. One of the first notes a stranger will make in Scot-
land is the reserve of the middle and lower classes of women
in public places. Notice them in tramcars, railway carriages,
steamboats, etc. There they sit quite silent and quiescent,
seldom or never venturing on a remark one to another, the
younger of them often pretty but ' couthy ' and shy, those
more matured self-possessed but reticent, if not stiff and at
times even repellent in manner. Generally speaking, the
Englishwoman and her Irish sister are, I think, easier in their
bearing to strangers. The next point is the forbearance, or,
let us say, the reluctance to find fault with or question public
officials in their working arrangements. Scotswomen (I leave
out of this count the upper classes) will stand an amaziug
amount of rough brusque treatment, not to say positive rude-
ness, from surly boorish underlings, such as tram conductors,
railway porters, and the like ; and some of these can be rude
with a vengeance when it so pleases them. Where an Eng-
lishwoman would launch out on an official, and threaten to
report him, take his number, or what not, her Scottish cousin
will hold her peace and pass on. Not, I believe, from any real
lack of spirit, but from natural complaisance and a certain
shyness or shamefacedness inculcated in her upbringing. Well,
' a shamefaced and faithful woman is a double grace,' and to
my mind this quality in her is far preferable to the sort of for-
ward flippant pertness and feminine aggressiveness occasion-
ally resorted to by her sex elsewhere.

' The beauty of a woman,' we read, ' cheereth the counten-
xxiv. 5

66 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

ance, and a man loveth nothing better.' Now, how fares the
British Northland in this matter ? It has been truly said that
probably no quarter of the globe can show a greater propor-
tion of pretty women than London. The pick of the world
are to be seen there : the best-looking and best-dressed women
from all quarters of our own land — to say nothing of the
foreigner — find their way there at one time or another. And,
no doubt, for refinement of feature, symmetry of form, fresh-
ness, and natural unaffected grace, Englishwomen need fear
comparison with none other. To be sure, a humorous French
author has made merry over a certain ungainly type of British
female, flat-chested, angular, large of foot and tooth ; and it
is not infrequent to find Southerners associating a pronounced
variant of this type with Scotswomen. And Scotswomen, un-
doubtedly, there are, large, hard-featured, bony, inclining to
gawkiness ; but these merely serve as foil to a much more
representative and interesting variety. One sees, for example,
the piquant, wistful face, nose a thought retrousse, grey or
violet eyes, and brilliant fresh colour of damask or carnation
— these set now and again upon a full robust figure moulded
with all the shapeliness of the Cnidian Aphrodite. There may
be neither ' style ' nor the art of the costumier, but there is
nature's modelling of limb and lineament, palpable and
admirable. It may be a girl fresh from the labour of the
factory, or a farm lass in kirtle and short skirt, barefoot and
bare-headed, each perchance with a wealth of splendid tresses
built up anyhow into a massive canopy, worthy setting for fair
features and fine form. It may be the ' young lady ' from the
shop, the youthful school-teacher, the new-wed wife of the
smaller professional or mercantile class. Everywhere north of
Cheviot the type crops out instinct with a certain burgeoning
bounteousness of vitality superadded to a gentle flavouring of
womanliness, very attractive to the average man.

And yet, like her own plaintive and touching national
music, full, yet with the minor note ever recurrent, with this
sort of girl or woman, it seems as if the tears were not far
behind the smiles. Nay, have not the very tones of her voice
in speech as they ascend the gamut an appealing strain,

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot 67

suggestive of her northern clime — cloud-shadows never far
away from sunshine : or, again, as though we saw in her a
survival of the archaic bitter-sweet minstrelsy of her land.
And herein we can trace the strong family likeness to her
Cymric cousins.

I am well aware that such is not the presentment of man's
modern rival most in vogue with the promoters of the
Woman's Rights movement. To be strong of mind, un-
sexlike, assertive, and jealous of male ascendancy, are a side
of her character, which falls more to be insisted upon by those
who deem it an impertinence to suggest that women are to
concern themselves with the art of pleasing men. But,
fortunately, these views as yet are confined to a very scanty
assortment of the sex in Scotland. I think it was Oliver
Wendell Holmes who remarked that ' the brain-woman never
interests us like the heart-woman,' and as yet the average
Scottish lass has not unlearned this cardinal fact. Kindliness
is of the essence of her manner, and a certain warmth and
heartiness of demeanour pervade all classes. This I have
always considered one of their strong points —

' Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks
Shall win my love '

is the saying of an immortal writer, and who shall gainsay it ?

The Scottish matron, too, like her younger sister, can be
very charming. Often have I noted matured and even
elderly women, ruddy, brilliant, with sparkling black eyes,
and frames Titianesque but still shapely; every line of their
physiognomies speaking of alert observation, common sense,
and amiability. Of such I call to mind a sample much seen in
the eastern parts of Scotland, as though a raven-haired stock
had at some early time been grafted upon a blonde race.
Then there is an auburn-haired variety, with beautiful soft
complexion and oftentimes opulence of figure. I have seen
striking specimens of this latter kind with hair verging upon
pronounced red : a throw-back or atavism, possibly, from the
primitive Celt.

From such reflections, one turns to Burns's delightful
descriptions of his countrywomen, not the least felicitous of

68 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

his various appreciations. And who can refuse sympathy
with their genuine touch of humanity, making the 'whole
world kin,' that has nevertheless a sad savour when read into
passages of the poet's own life.

' Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman :
Tho' they may gang a kennin' wrang
To step aside is human.'

The Scotswoman, then, remains an illustration for the most
part of a certain northern ' naivete ' and naturalness, piquancy
and semi-bashful reserve, which the advanced sisterhood have
as yet failed to modify into a more obtrusive attitude. And
so long as she retains these feminine attributes, with the
natural charms she has inherited from the vigorous blood and
bone of her race, and the life-giving air of her native soil —
so long will the praise of her, as of her sex voiced aforetime in
ancient writ, endure for ever : ' These bring glory unto men
. . . and have not all men more desire unto her than unto
silver or gold, or any goodly thing whatsoever ! " *

It would take too long to discourse on the ' canniness' of
the Scot, and his inveterate dislike to give a direct answer to
a question. ' Weel, I would na say but it micht,' I have heard
a score of times in reply to queries which admitted of an ab-
solutely affirmative response. The national caution is every-
where, and is writ large in the bewildering jargon of Scots
law, which double-bars every conceivable loophole for evasion
in setting out a bargain, yet ' without prejudice ' to doing
something else thereafter if desired. In the ' Epistle to a
youug friend ' Burns has probably given us the most concise
and telling crystallisation of this trait of Scottish character it
is possible to have.

' Conceal yoursel' as weel's ye can
Frae critical dissection ;
But keek thro' every other man
Wi' sharpened sly inspection.'

The advice has a somewhat Machiavellian ring, but, I fear I

* I. Esdras, iv., 17-19.

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. (39

must add, is not altogether neglected by the knowing
Northerner.

His pushing ambition is another of the commonplaces of
criticism in respect of the Scot. Apropos of this, the oft
quoted or misquoted remark of Johnson at a metropolitan
tavern naturally comes up. ' Sir, the noblest prospect that a
Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to
London.' And, were the great ' hogshead of sense ' alive and
amongst us now, no cause would he have to withdraw the
observation. For the exodus of successful barristers, doctors,
artists, business men, from the ' Land of Cakes ' to the great
southern metropolis is unceasing ; and the Scot's determina-
tion to better himself has generally gone hand in hand with
his efforts to acquire knowledge. ' There is something noble,'
said Johnson, of the Hebridean farmer's son, who was wont to
go annually on foot to Aberdeen for education, returning in
summer and acting as school teacher in his native island,
' there is something noble in a young man's walking 200 miles
and back again, every year, for the sake of learning' On the
other hand, a more critical view of the national peculiarities
might incline to translate Scotch ambition as an eye to the
main chance. Which at once brings to mind Dean Hole's
capital story, as to why St. Andrew was selected to be the
patron saint of Scotland, and the Archdeacon of Calcutta's
suggestion that it may have been ' because he discovered the
lad who had the loaves and fishes.'

Out of the Scot's self-esteem grows his obstinacy, and his
reluctance to change his opinions, or be shown to have been
any wise wrong. We have heard of the raw Sawney who, at
a public dinner, being served with asparagus, a dish that was
new to him, began eating the wrong end of the stalk. To his
next neighbour's suggestion that this was not the edible part
of the vegetable his reply was, ' Much obleeged, but a' prefer
it.' This is it exactly. And thus perhaps may his prevalent
political mould be accounted for. But I must not stray into
politics.

Lastly, let me say a word as to many memories of hospi-
tality in Scottish country homes. England has grown too cos-

70 Some Aspects of the Modern Scot.

mopolitan and is too thickly permeated by the modernising
railway to open the doors of its country houses freely to the
chance way-farer. In the northern recesses of our island it is,
or was different. Antique chateau-like demesne mansions,
solid and deep-walled, with steep-pitched roof and dormers,
flanking turrets, griffiuish gargoyles, and carved escutcheons,
crowd in upon the mind's eye. Old-world gardens trim and
formal, with quaint sun-dials in their midst, lofty and massy
box borders, enormous holly hedges. The ancient dovecot,
near hand to the dwelling house, its walls honey-combed into
cells for the domesticated birds. Stately belts of plantation
clothing the knolls and uplands, within view of the laird's
windows. Outside, the ' sough ' of the firs, the white whisk of
a rabbit's tail, the whirr of disturbed pheasant, the curlew's
warning 'tremolo,' or the little sharp ' screak' of startled snipe
from some marish hollow. Indoors, the snusr well-found
library with assortment of many generations of books, the
corridors set off with portraiture of ancestral warriors point-
laced and rapiered, and family beauties displaying ripe Cythe-
raean charms that Peter Paul might have coveted to place upon
his easel.

In such homes the essence of hospitality was to be met
with. You had the genial welcome, the superabundance of
good fare and good drink. There was the sturdy keeper,
encased in gamebag and gaiters ready with his leash of dogs,
should you like to try the hill. Or the gillie with gaff or
landing-net was at your hest for loch or river, if the rod was
your fancy. In time of snow or winter gale, when the wood-
cock were in and the blast roared down the chimneys, big
cheerful fires lit in hall, reception room, and bed-chamber.
Noteworthy, too, the forthright affability and care for your
wants in the possessors of these secluded homesteads,
sweetened in my own recollection by the graciousness of
many delightful and accomplished women. It was as though
the claims of « the salt ' were a traditional obligation, not to be
set aside, a remnant of the fashion of earlier days before the
world paced so feverishly fast, when locomotion was difficult,
and society scarce. Among other laudable old customs was

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 71

that of ' passing on ' a guest from one country-house to
another. Money, to be sure, was not always too plentiful, and
a Caleb Balder stone might once in a way turn up, though
never in my experience with an empty larder. To-day, such
is the stress of agricultural depreciation, Scottish estates have
changed hands extensively, and upon an old territorial seat
nowadays it is quite a chance if you find the historic name
and race of former days. More likely, Timkins of Manchester
or Jones of Hackney will have bought himself in, with a South
country retinue as remarkable for superfluity of airs as for lack
of aspirates. Or, mayhap, a successful Scots trader with a
broad native brogue may be the latest proprietor. What this
invasion of Scotland by the English and general upturn of the
old properties is, none but those who go much about the
country can conceive ! In some respects, no doubt, the influx
of wealthy newcomers to impoverished estates has its advan-
tages, improving the dwellings ot the tenantry, and circulating
more capital all round to the benefit of the community.

The Scottish capital has always numbered among its resi-
dents many delightful gentlemen of the old school, cadets oft-
times of ancient and noble families, whose lot it has been to
pass into various avocations of professional life. These brought
with them into the higher social coteries of their beautiful
chief city the stately and dignified hospitality of their ancestry.

It has been the good fortune of the writer of these pages to
meet with some such, and to have enjoyed their personal ac-
quaintance. With mention of two, both of whom are gone to
their rest, I will conclude these sketches. Of one I have
already spoken, in connection with Scottish humour. The
charm of his captivating presence and manner was the pro-
perty ot all. A singularly representative example, he, of the
ancient ' gentle ' breed and bearing, genial, dignified, cour-
teous, soothfast, hospitable. No ostentation, no straining after
show or effect, no abruptness, bustle, or hurry, in his manner
or ways. The grace and amenity of a refined home were
secured to him by the presence of the charming young ladies,
kinswomen, who tended his household. He was brimful of
excellent stories of the past. I remember on one occasion at

11 Some Aspects of the Modem Scot.

his dinner table being much struck with an observation he
made very pointedly, evidently anticipating my surprise. ' My
grandfather told me he knew a man who had seen Charles I.
executed.' The statement seems prima facie difficult jof belief ;
but, seeing that the narrator was far into years when I heard
him tell the story (now some twenty years since), and his
grandsire was a boy when he met the individual who had wit-
nessed the execution, it becomes intelligible.

The other example of a race of ' Gentilhommes' nurtured in
« Auld Reekie,' was a scholar of uncommon research, a man of
culture and latterly of leisure ; one who fully realized the ad-
vantages of otium cum dignitate. Moreover, he was a philan-
thropist, and civic benefactor in no small degree. Here again
was that indescribable charm of manner, the gentle urbanity,
the unfailing sprightliness and play of humour, conjoined with
the delightful gift of conversational power, which is so fast
becoming a lost art at this jaded end of an outgrown century.
And there was the hospitable board always spread for any
friend who might drop in to partake of it. I remember men-
tion by this gentleman of a circumstance as within his own
recollection, that Mr. Gladstone was once on the point of
offering himself as a candidate on the Conservative side for a
certain Scottish constituency. One incident in which Mr.

S personally figured, is worth relating. Travelling north

from England by rail on a certain occasion, and not being a
smoker nor liking the smell of tobacco, he had taken his seat
in a non-smoking compartment. Presently, ushered in ob-
sequiously by a railway official, enters a gentleman, pompous-
looking and portly, who, seating himself opposite Mr. S ,

proceeds to produce a cigar case, and take out a cigar. Mr.

S hereupon politely ventured to draw his fellow-traveller's

attention to the fact that this was not a smoking carriage, but
was jumped upon instantly in a strong hectoring tone.

' And what right have you, Sir, to assume that because I
took out a cigar I was going to smoke. Perhaps you will be
good enough to mind your own business.'

Mr. S. said no more, but, after the imperious gentleman had
alighted from the train, asked the guard if he knew who he was.

Some Aspects of the Modern Scot. 73

' Why,' said the railway functionary, 'that is

The odd coincidence was yet to come.

On arriving home that night what should Mr. S. find
awaiting him but a communication from a high official of
State announcing in complimentary terms that Her Gracious
Majesty had been pleased to confer upon him (Mr. S.) an
honorary literary distinction. The State official and signatory
of the letter was the compagnon-de-voyage, a well known
senatorial swash-buckler.

To sum up. The sample modern Scotsman is genial,
neighbourly, kindly, and full of ' pawky ' humour. Square and
solid in build, he is usually large of bone, and with strongly
marked facial lineaments. Keenly intelligent, yet somewhat
deliberate both in his bodily and brain movements, he is
controversial and apt to be dogmatic. As a rule, he is
weighty and law-abiding, staid and respectable, though not
without a stray turn for conviviality. For the rest, he has a
soft side to the diviner sex ; as Cuddle Headrigg puts it in
' Old Mortality,' 'there's naebody sae rough but they have aye
a kind heart to the lasses.' Having an abundant and unfailing
conceit of himself, he is not easily disconcerted : but, on the
other hand, he fiercely resents the suspicion of being patronised.
Being at once ambitious and yet mainly democratic, he hates
privilege till he has tasted its advantages, and despises all
distinctions in the social ladder till he has himself climbed to
the higher rungs. Less fanatic in religion than his forbears,
he retains his attachment to the 'Auld Kirk,' and is not so
insane as to desire her downfall, or the loss of that status and
substance which contribute to her potentialities for good.
Proud of his nationality, but not fool enough to clamour for a
sham nationhood, he is shrewd enough to discern that his own
lion-rampant would gain noth g by dissociation from the
triple lions-passant of England. Hard at a bargain, provident
and prudent, pertinacious and pushing, strong of will, long of
head, and blunt of tongue, the average Scot makes shift to
shoulder his way through the world, commonly with success,
a staunch friend and a ' dour ' foe.

In the typical Scotswoman we meet with neither pertness,

71 Moltke.

smartness, nor flippancy. She is quiet, domesticated, 'douce,'
and sympathetic, but seldom either impulsive or volatile.
Blithe, frolicsome, and often of madcap spirits while a school-
girl, her adult maidenhood seems to take on a certain coyness
and restraint, as though some lingering threads of her past
Puritan garments still clung to her. Nevertheless, the northern
lass can be both arch and 'sonsy,' while frank and simple-
minded withal. Moreover, she has plenty of character when
the time comes to bring it out. She is usually reflective and
observant, well taught as to school learning ; sagacious but
not sharp, with a good stock of common sense. In countenance
she is often high-coloured, piquant, and expressive, though
the even-featured prettiness of her English sister may be
lacking. In figure, commonly tall, robust, and of vigorous
vitality. In matronhood, and even advanced age, the Scots-
woman is wont to retain her fine health-tints, the sheen of her
eyes, the fair and full proportions of her shape. Child or
maiden, wife, mother, or graudame, her sense of melody and
love of song cleave to her, they are her national gifts.
Finally, she is imaginative and often original ; practical, but
penetrated with an undercurrent of ballad lore and romance.
And, like most of her sex at all periods of their life, she fully
appreciates a ' proper man ' when she sees him.

If, then, I have not overdone the colouring of the above
sketches, my readers will doubtless find some excuse for the
rather rhapsodical utterance of a popular modern and patriotic
novelist — ' the happiest lot on earth is to be born a Scotsman.'

T. Pilkington White.

Art. IV.— MOLTKE.

1. The Prussian Staff History of the Campaign of 1866.

2. The Prussian Staff History of the War of 1870.

REMEMBER when it was thought treason to question the
perfection of Wellington's conduct in the great struggle
that ended on the field of Waterloo, yet history has given her

Moltke. 75

verdict for the doubting sceptics ; and Lord Wolseley has
lately ventured to say that had Napoleon retained the vigour
of his youth, the allies in 1815 would have fared as ill, as
Beaulieu aud Colli fared in 1796. A similar change of opinion
may take place, hereafter, in the case of the warrior whose
achievements have been held up to the admiration of mankind,
since the great war of 1870. We cannot feel surprised that
victorious Germany should have given Moltke the name of
' the great strategist,' and should have declared ' that he
invented a new strategy,' and that he ' surpassed Napoleon in
the direction of war ; ' the intoxication of success may excuse
this judgment. Nor can we expect France fairly to describe
her conqueror, or to avoid detraction and caricature, though
Moltke's campaigns have been thoroughly studied and ap-
preciated, in the main, justly, by two or three Frenchmen of
eminent parts.

It is to be regretted, however, that in Great Britain, the
Prussian chief has, with few exceptions, passed into the hands
of a class of critics, ill-adapted to pronounce on his exploits,
who have erred on the side of extravagant eulogy. These
writers are nearly all soldiers, some not without professional
mark ; but, like mauy soldiers, they have been led astray by
the false worship of mere success. Under the influence of
lessons, that appear suggested by the campaigns of 1866 aud
1870-1, they have underrated ' the divine part of war,' that
which belongs to genius in the field, and have dwelt too much
on its 'terrestrial part,' * that which relates to mechanism and
organization ; and, being unaccustomed to weigh evidence,
voluminous and extremely conflicting, and to search out the
truth through masses of details, they have swallowed the Ger-
man accounts of iSadowa, of Gravelotte, and of the national
rising of France, as if these were in all respects trustworthy,
and little was to be said on the opposite side. They, have,
accordingly, extolled Moltke as an ideal warrior, supreme
not only in the preparation of war, but also in the direction of

* See the beautiful passage in the Napoleon Correspondence, 32, 123. It
should be studied by every real thinker on war.

76 Moltke.

armies; they have glossed over, or disregarded facts, which
tell against the views they have formed; and they have mis-
interpreted whole passages, in the great conflict of 1870-1,
which ought to have been placed in their true aspect. A re-
action from this system of undiscerning praise has set in of late
in British opinion; and it will be accelerated by the publica-
tion of German works, which have proved that Moltke and his
lieutenants committed grave mistakes, after the triumph of
Sedan, mistakes from which he was by no means free in many
of his other operations in the field. In this slight sketch I
shall endeavour to show what Moltke was in his real nature,
what estimate should be made of his exploits, and what is his
place among the great men who have organized victory, oi-
led armies. It would ill become me to speak of myself ; but
few in civil life have possessed the means I have had to master
the principles of war ; and education and experience ought to
have made me fitted to conduct an enquiry, in its essence,
judicial.

The features of Moltke's strongly marked character, as they
were moulded by nature, or shaped by habit, are evident to a
thoughtful observer. He was God-fearing and had deep
affections, throughout the course of a domestic life of singular
beauty in all its aspects; he was admirable as a son, a husband,
a brother, a staunch friend, and a loyal comrade ; and the old
age of the warrior, amidst his youthful kinsfolk, as it flowed
on beside the woods of Creisan, forms an idyll of peculiar
charm and interest. Moltke, too, was very brilliant in the
social hour ; the austerity of his bearing to strangers was put
off when he was among friends: his conversation was pregnant
and keen ; and it is wholly untrue that he was ' a morose
recluse,' the ' military monk ' of more than one French writer.
His accomplishments, indeed, were so great and various that
he could not fail to delight companions, whatever might be
their rank or station ; and he had the learning, the culture, the
force of expression, nay, the delicate, vivid, and light fancy,
which would have gained him distinction in the sphere of
letters, though, curiously enough, few of these gifts are ex-
hibited in his writings on war. These are always able and

Moltke. 7 7

thoroughly worked out, but they are uot striking iu thought
and language, the opposite, in this respect, to those of
Napoleon.

Moltke's qualities, however, are most distinctly seen in the
various phases of public life in which he played a conspicuous
part, His greatest gift, perhaps, was immense strength of
character, the chief excellence, Napoleon has said, of a soldier;
and though fortune was seldom adverse to him, this stood him
in good stead on more than one occasion. His intellect was
not of the very first order, but it was admirable for its clear
perception and force, and within certain limits it approached
perfection, especially in the calculations that precede war. His
industry and perseverance were intense ; we see them in every
turn of his career, whether in the assiduous studies of bis
youth of hardships, in his work as a teacher or a surveyor, in
his incessant training of the great Prussian Staff, in the far-
reaching and never-ending toil, by means of whicn he
prepared victory. Moltke, too, was a daring and ambi-
tious man; some of his movements in war prove this
clearly ; and the hesitation and slowness to be detected, in
more than one of his operations in the field, are not to be
ascribed to a want of boldness or energy. The conqueror
therefore of Sadowa and Sedan, had many of the natural gifts
of a great warrior, but he was deficient in some that require
attention. He did not possess the imagination that sees into
the unknown, and intuitively grasps and interprets facts ; this
was apparent in more than one part of his career, especially in
his hazardous advance on Paris. He excelled in carrying out
preconcerted plans ; but he was wanting in dexterity and art,
and was liable to be perplexed and deceived, as appeared in
several striking instances, though this cannot be deemed
surprising, if we reflect that he was an old man when he first
directed war. He had nothing of Napoleon's marvellous skill,
in what we may describe as 'tours de force' in the field,
and he seems to have been wholly devoid of the great master's
genius of surprize and stratagem, one of the most splendid of
Napoleon's gifts. The most marked defect of Moltke's nature,
however, was a certain inability to understand men, and to

78 Mo like.

interpret rightly the teachings of history. We see this
repeatedly in his writings ; and this, added to his hatred and
contempt of Frenchmen— the bad creed of a Prussian junker

led him into errors in 1870-1, the results of which will long

remain manifest.

In 1858, through the influence of the Prince Regent, after-
wards King William and German Emperor, Moltke was made
( Jhief of the Prussian Staff. He had by this time reached his
fifty-eighth year ; and if he had seen very little of war in the
field, he had long commanded the Staff of the 4th Corps d'
Armee ; he was thoroughly versed in military work ; and he
was one of the most learned and accomplished of soldiers.
The main labours of his life begin at this point, andthose form his
principal title to renown. The Chief of the Staff has always
held a conspicuous place in the Prussian army, and Moltke,
partly owing to his great abilities, and partly to the power of
his staunch friend, the King, acquired, ere long, a well-
marked supremacy. His principal work, as Chief of the Staff,
was to select the best officers for the service of the Staff, to
superintend their training in its different branches, and to
make them thoroughly fulfil their duties ; and under his
incessant and skilful care, this most important part of the army
became an admirable instrument for its many uses. Moltke
too, always attentive to the prospects of war, — a tradition
indeed in the Prussian service — inaugurated the practice of
seeking information on the state of the great Continental
armies, especially of those of Austria and France, and the
elaborate statistics that were thus compiled, proved, when the
occasion came, of the very highest value. War, however, the
diligent enquirer knew, was chiefly to be understood, so far as
regards its large combinations and highest parts, by the study
of the exploits of great captains, and Moltke employed many
pens on the Staff in compiling narratives of different cam-
paigns. The series began with his account of the war of 1859,
a characteristic, but masterly sketch, full of sound criticism
and careful description, if sometimes rather too minute in its
details, and wholly without imaginative power.

Moltke, however, was far more than a Chief of the Staff; he

Moltke. 79

became the master spirit of the armed strength of Prussia.
To the King and Roon was, no doubt, due the great increase
of the Prussian army, which took place after 1859, and which
gradually raised it to 700,000 men, including the large reserve
of the Landwehr, and also the general arrangements for these
vast masses, with the material they required to take the field.
But it was Moltke who fashioned the mighty instrument of
war, and gave it its terrible power and efficiency. It was his
peculiar and distinctive merit that, better probably than any
soldier of the time, he saw how the circumstances of a new
era must create new conditions of war, and that he turned
them to the very best advantage. Since the long peace which
succeeded Waterloo, the population of every State had been
rising ; education had been diffused through the masses ;
agriculture had improved, roads had been multiplied, and the
railway system had been developed ; the electric telegraph
had been invented ; and weapons of destruction of the most
formidable kind, the rifled gun and the breech-loading musket,
had been brought gradually into use in armies. Moltke adapted
with admirable resource and skill these facts of the time to the
military force of Prussia. He saw that the immense size of
modern armies, the result of population ever on the increase,
would make them unmanageable in a single hand ; and he
insisted that the armed forces of Prussia should be formed into
separate armies under independent commands. He saw that
mental culture had improved the soldier ; and he laboured hard
to develop the self-reliance of the individual man in all parts
of the service, making him an intelligent warrior, not a fighting
machine, and thus greatly increasing his effective power. He
saw again, that Avar could be made more rapid and decisive
than it had ever been, owing to increased facilities of obtaining
supplies, and improved methods of locomotion ; and he drew
fruitful results for operations in the field, from the growth of
husbandry, of roads, and of railways. He made also material
inventions of the age to minister, with success to his art ; he
caused the steam engine and the telegraph to yield their best
uses to the events of war and the conduct of armies; and he
laid it down clearly that the new warfare must cause fire to

80 Moltke.

be the chief force in battle, and not the shock of charges,
however fierce ; though it was some time apparently before
he thoroughly understood the relations of the three arms in
these days.*

The higher organization of the Prussian army, for actual
operations in the field, was, therefore, in the main, the work
of Moltke. That army, too, it should be remarked, remained
formed on the local territorial system, that is, was divided f
into distinct corps, according to the provinces of the Prussian
Monarchy, and with all their requirements at hand, on the spot,
an arrangement which made its assembly rapid, and secured
celerity in its first movements in war. The Prussian infantry,
too, at this period, was the only infantry generally armed
with the needle gun, a breech-loading rifle; and this single
circumstance gave it an immense advantage over the footmen
in the other armies of Europe. Two additional points require to
be noticed in this brief survey of the armed force of Prussia, as
it was fashioned by degrees after 1859. True to the traditions
of Frederick the Great, and perfectly familiar with the lessons
of war, Moltke spared no pains to ensure that the army should
be always ready to take the offensive, and to possess the
initiative in the field ; and indeed many of his reforms had
this object in view. It seems probable, too, that through his
influence with the King he had much to do with nominating
to the higher commands. It is certain at least that the
Prussian generals, if none could lay claim to supreme genius,
became leaders of a very superior order, bold, active, resolute,
trained to work in concert, and skilled in every part of their
calling; and this was Moltke's idea of what they should be, as
we see repeatedly laid down in his works.

Though not so perfect, as it was made afterwards, the
Prussian army thus soon became by far the best of the great
Continental armies. It could be divided into units not too

* See 'a Retrospect of the Tactical Retrospect.' The translator of this
work, Colonel Ouvry says it was from the pen of Moltke under a feigned
name, though this has been denied.

t The single corps d'elite of the guards is, in some respects, an exception.

Moltke. 81

great in size; it possessed extreme celerity, and ease of
movement; it had been brought up to the level of the age, in
every kind of material invention ; it was better commanded
and more formidably armed than any hostile force it could
meet in the field. The results appeared in the great war of
1866, especially in the campaign in Bohemia, to a considerable
extent directed by Moltke. I can only trace this conflict in
the barest outline, though it is one of the deepest interest for
the true student of war. When hostilities began on the 15th
of June, the Prussian armies, about 270,000 strong, and divided
into three great masses, the Army of the Elbe, the First and
the Second Armies, were disseminated along an immense
front of from 180 to 200 miles,* from the Middle Elbe to
the Upper Neisse ; and Moltke at once assumed the offen-
sive. Saxony was overrun by the 20th of June, and on
the 22nd orders were given that the three armies should
invade Bohemia, converging in double lines, and from wide dis-
tances, on Gitschin, a point many miles south of the great
mountain ranges of the Gebirge. The Austrian army, per-
haps 260,000 men, taking into account its Saxon contingent,
had been, by this time some days in motion, from its principal
leaguers at Briinn and Olmiitz, one corps and the Saxons being
on the Upper Iser ; and the object of its commander, Benedek,
was to reach the table land between the Iser and the Elbe,
and to separate and defeat the Prussian armies before they
could effect their junction. By the 25th the Army of the Elbe,
and the First Army, both now directed by Prince Frederick
Charles, were close to the line of the Upper Iser ; but the
Second Army, under the Crown Prince of Prussia, had not
even crossed the Bohemian frontier, being eighty or ninety
miles away from its supports ; and though Benedek, who had
moved very slowly, was probably by this time too late to carry
out his original plan, a grand opportunity lay open to him.
On the 26th and 27th of June the mass of his army was on
the Upper Elbe, from Josephstadt to Opocno, and Tynist in the

* The Prussian Staff History makes the distance between 100 to 125
miles. But this must be a misprint. See p. 29.
xxiv. 6

82 Moltke.

rear ; and had lie drawn towards him his corps exposed on the
Iser, and directed his main force against the Crown Prince, the
Second Army, immensely inferior in numbers, would hardly
have escaped a serious reverse* Benedek, in fact, at this
moment, possessed a central position, and interior lines against
converging armies widely apart ; and what great captains have
done with this advantage has been shown from the days of
Tureune to those of Lee, and has been illustrated by Napoleon
with peculiar splendour.

Beuedek, however, was merely a brave soldier ; he had none
of the powers of a great commander. He made no use of his
position of vantage ; and in his subsequent movements he
simply played into his enemy's hands. His corps on the Iser, his
left wing, remained isolated and open to attack ; he endeavoured
to push forward the main part of his forces, his centre, when there
was no longer time ; and he directed only two corps against
the Crown Prince, to the right, instead of falling in full
force on him. The results developed themselves with amazing
quickness. Prince Frederick Charles assailed the weak
Austrian left in a series of combats, and advanced on Gitschin ;
the Crown Prince suffered a defeat at Trautenau, but broke the
feeble Austrian right at Nachod and Skalitz, and Benedek's
centre stood as it were paralyzed, unable to give either wing-
support. In these engagements the Austnans lost from 30,000
to 40,000 men, the Prussians not more than 10,000; and
though bad generalship was chiefly to blame, the overwhelm-
ing superiority of the Prussian armies in every respect was made
clearly manifest.

By the 30th of June the three Prussian armies were advancing
On a broad front towards the Elbe, still however, with a wide dis-

* This is admitted by the Prussian Staff History, pp. 65, 67. The
writer, however, followed by Major Adam's Great Campaigns, p. 415, says
that Benedek had no information, but this is flatly contradicted by the
Austrian Staff History, 3, 48. Lord Wolseley, an enthusiastic admirer of
Moltke, United Service Magazine, October, 1891, p. 4, significantly
remarks ' Had the great Napoleon commanded the Austrian armies, the
Prussian forces would have been hurled back into the mountains and
defeated in detail.

Moltke. 83

tance between them, a movement which hasbeen very differently-
judged ; and Benedek, drawing in his defeated forces, was
falling back on all points to the Bistritz, an affluent of the
Elbe, to the north-west of Koniggratz. Moltke had ere long
taken the direction of affairs; but he lost contact with his
beaten enemy, a marked fault often to be observed in him.
By the 2nd of July, however, Prince Frederick Charles
ascertained that the Austriaus were behind the Bistritz ; he
resolved to attack with his two armies, but as Benedek would
be largely superior in force, about 200,000 to 124,000 men, he
sent a message to the Crown Prince, at Konighinhof, about 10
or 12 miles from his camp at Kamenitz, to come to his aid with
part of the Second Army. Moltke, however, as he was at this
time at Gitschin, saw that this was a bad half measure ; * and
he ordered the Crown Prince to advance at once, with his
whole forces, to support his colleague, a most admirable
move as affairs stood, but, owing to the distance between the
Prussian armies, by no means promising certain success. The
great battle of Sadowa followed, but I can only glance at the
broad results. The Army of the Elbe and the First Army
made little progress in the attack for hours, and were in con-
siderable danger for a short time ; for the Crown Prince could
not speedily appear on the field. At last, however, the Second
Army, after immense exertions, came into line, from 90,000
to 100,000 strong. It fell on Benedek's right, which had been
exposed, and reached his centre, almost by accident, and from
that moment the battle was lost to Austria. The defeat,
though decisive, was not overwhelming, for Benedek drew off
the mass of his forces, and the conquerors were unable to
pursue. The strength of Austria was nevertheless broken, and
peace was made in a few weeks.

* Colonel Lecomte, sometime Jomini's first aide-de-camp, an admirable
and well-informed critic, distinctly asserts — Guerre tie la Prusse, 1, 406 —
' that this all important order was not sent in duplicate, which would have
been a grave omission. This has been scornfully denied, and reference
is made to the Prussian Staff History, p. 166. The passage may well mean
that one single order was sent to Prince Frederick Charles at Kamenitz,
and another to the Crown Prince at Konighinhof.

8 1 Molike.

An immense majority of soldiers believed the victory of
Austria certain in 18()G. The decisive superiority of the Prus-
sians was, however, manifest, though the needle-gun was for a
time set down as the paramount cause of the triumph of
Prussia. Moltke's strategy, too, was generally condemned,
especially the advance, in a double line and at wide distances,
into Bohemia, the Austrian army being not far off: no critic
of repute attempted a defence until after the war of 1870-1.
Since that time apologies have been profuse, for success will
always command advocates, even though the movement set at
nought principles of the military art that may be deemed
axioms. Most of these pleas, however, cannot stand the test
of impartial enquiry, when fairly examined. We may reject
the argument of the Prussian Staff, for it does not meet the
facts, and it avoids the issue. Beuedek, we may concede,
had not time enough to carry out his original design, to reach
the table-land between the Iser and the Elbe, and to strike
right and left at the Prussian armies ; had he persisted in this
course he might have been crushed between them. This cir-
cumstance, however, did not prevent him from gaining a cen-
tral position and interior lines on the 26th and 27th June, and
from having it in his power, on those two days, to direct a
preponderating force against the Crown Prince, and afterwards
against Prince Frederick Charles; and his possession of this
advantage, which might have been made decisive, was wholly
due to the fact that the Prussian armies were drawing towards
him with a wide gap between them.

We may also summarily disregard the view that the electric
telegraph reduced the danger of Moltke's operations almost to
nothing, for it enabled him to keep the converging armies in
hand and to regulate their pre-concerted movements. In the
first place, it did nothing of the kind, for Prince Frederick
Charles, in his advance on Gitschin, did not march as had been
projected; and, in the second place, Beuedek had the advan-
tage of the electric telegraph rather more than Moltke, and his
gain was as great as that of his enemy; it can be proved, I
believe, that it was much greater. Nor can I admit the justice
of the last plea I shall notice, that Moltke, as may have been

Moltke. 85

■well the fact, knew that Benedek was a bad general, and that
the Austrian army was a bad army, and therefore ventured on
operations, in theory false, but not actually hazardous as affairs
stood. As Napoleon has written over and over again, and
Moltke has more than once remarked, a whole plan of a cam-
paign founded on the notion, that the adversary is certain to
make gross mistakes and to do everything wrong, is open to
censure, whatever liberties may be safely taken with an in-
capable enemy actually within reach.

The Prussian army, in 1866, was infinitely superior to the
Austrian army, in the real elements of military power. Why
then did Moltke disregard a principle of supreme importance
in the conduct of war, with this result that the Prussian armies
would have been in the gravest peril, for two days at least,
had Benedek been a capable chief? We must seek in events
that preceded the campaign the only true apology that can be
made for him. Moltke wished to assume the offensive as soon
as the forces of Prussia could be assembled, that is long before
the middle of June, and in that case, there is reason to believe
he would have invaded Bohemia on a single line. King
William, however, would not hear of this; he refused to collect
the Prussian armies, for weeks, and kept them, when collected,
in a defensive attitude ; and it was not until the last moment,
when the three armies were spread along the frontier, that he
gave his consent to attack Austria. Thwarted and restricted
as he had been, Moltke, therefore, had two alternatives only,
either to invade Bohemia on double converging lines, taking
risks impossible to avoid, or to lose time in drawing together
the Prussian armies, along the widely extended front they
held, and making the attack on one line only. In this situa-
tion of affairs, it appears probable that he took, on the whole,
the better course, beset as it was with danger ; and though
good judges have denied this, their arguments do not carry con-
viction with them. Under the special circumstances of the case,
therefore, the strategy of Moltke may perhaps be justified ; but
it can be excused in this way only; and it is no grand illustra-
tion of the art of war. As to the direction given by Moltke to
the Crown Prince to mai'ch on Sadowa, with all his forces, this

s»; Mohke.

was a fine and well-conceived movement ; but, hei'e again,
success was very far from certain, as the Prussian armies had
been kept apart, and Benedek, with his defeated army, had a
good chance of victory for some hours.

Moltke gave proof, in the Campaign of 1866, of boldness,
readiness, and force of character, but assuredly not of strategic
genius. He was the chief architect, however, of the armed
strength of Prussia; the Prussian army had completely eclipsed
the Austrian ; and this was his real title to fame. We do not
know exactly the part he had in the immense aggrandisement
of the military power of Prussia, which followed the trium-
phant Peace of Prague, and in the development and improve-
ment of the German armies, but unquestionably it was great
and conspicuous. Within less than four years from the day of
Sadowa, the Prussian army had been increased by nearly a
third ; the states of southern Germany had joined Prussia, and
had given her large auxiliary forces ; the armies of northern
and southern Germany reached the prodigious total of
1,100,000, including the Landwehr, as a reserve, the standing
army being about 600,000, and extraordinary exertions had
been made to bring these vast arrays to the highest point of
excellence. By this time Avar with France was known to be
at hand ; but Napoleon III., crossed by routine and faction,
endeavoured in vain to make the army of France fit to cope
with its coming gigantic enemy. Even in numbers that army
was very inferior, it had only 336,000 men in first line, and the
great mass of its reserves was only a force on paper. Its
organization too, was antiquated, and out of joint; it could not
assemble with ease and quickness; the three arms in it were
not well trained, and its chiefs versed in Algerian warfare, had
little knowledge of the higher parts of war, and of the strategy
and tactics of great modern armies. The French infantry, in-
deed, had, in the Chassepot rifle, a better weapon than the
Prussian needle gun; but this advantage was more than over-
borne by the superiority of the German artillery ; and the
French cavalry had almost lost the habit of exploring, at great
distances, in which the German had been taught to excel.

Molthe. 87

Apart from numbers, there was no comparison between the
two armies as instruments of war.

The war broke out in July, 1870, and Napoleon III., en-
feebled by disease, assumed the supreme command of the
French army. His plan for the campaign had been formed for
some time ; it was borrowed from that of his uncle in 1815,
and it was based on the principle that an inferior force, if
ably led, might contend with success against divided enemies
superior in numbers. The Emperor hoped to assemble 250,000
men behind the great strongholds of Metz and Strasburg ; to
cross the Rhine between Maxen and Germersheim ; to
separate the armies of North and South Germany ; and then,
calling up a reserve of 150,000, supported by Austrian and
Italian contingents, to fall in full force on the Prussian armies.
This forecast, however, quickly proved vain ; the military
organization of France broke down ; the assembly of her forces
was very slow, and they were left without all kinds of require-
ments, and even in numbers they fell far short of what the
Emperor had been led to expect. Eight corps indeed, were
formed, and sent towards the frontier, but they hardly ex-
ceeded 200,000 men, even by the closing days of July, and
they were still in the need of many appliances to enable them
to make a bold offensive movement. In these circumstances,
the ill-fated sovereign left the mass of his forces .spread along
the frontier, on an immense arc from Thionville to Belfort, in
positions exposed to a most dangerous attack, his enemy being
at hand in irresistible force. He probably ought to have
fallen back speedily, but he dreaded the wrath and contempt
of Paris, one main cause of the disasters that followed.

Unlike what had happened in 1866, Moltke was not
hampered on this great occasion, and he was freely given the
chief direction of the armed strength of Germany. He had
anticipated the design of Napoleon III. by summoning the
South German forces to support the North ; and the Emperor,
in any event, would have probably failed. The assembly of
the united forces of Germany, from the Niemen to the Rhine
and the Moselle, was one of the most marvellous of events in
war. The system of organization, bi'ought gradually by Moltke

88 Moltke.

almost to the point of perfection, worked with a celerity and
precision that astounded Europe; but organization was sus-
tained by a mighty effort of lite, and Germany rushed to arms
against her ancient enemy. The gigantic movement was
completed in about sixteen days, and three armies were set on
toot: the First, about 60,000 strong, in the region around
Treves, under the veteran Steinmetz ; the Second, not less than
130,000, spreading from Mayence along the roads to Lorraine,
and with Prince Frederick Charles at its head; and the Third,
about equal in force to the Second, having the Crown Prince
of Pi-ussia as its chief, in the tract around Landau, overhang-
ing Alsace. These vast arrays, fully 320,000 men, were sup-
ported by reserves of 150,000, and they were already threaten-
ing seven French corps, now perhaps 210,000* strong, dissemi-
nated widely on a vulnerable front. The general plan of
Moltke was to take the offensive; to invade France on her
weakest frontier; to penetrate into Alsace and Lorraine; to
overthrow the armies opposed to him ; and having driven
them towards the northern provinces, to make his way to the
capital of France. With certain changes, due to the accidents
of war, he carried out this plan with unflinching constancy,
and with a success that probably he had not ventured to expect.
There was nothing original in this design of Moltke ; the in-
vasion of France, upon these lines, had been arrauged as far
back as the day of Gneisenau ; and Moltke borrowed in this
the thoughts of others, as he had followed the example of
Frederick the Great, when he entered Bohemia before Sadowa.
What is really to be admired in these operations, as a whole,
is the proof they gave of the supreme excellence of the organi-
zation for war of the German armies ; and here again Moltke
may claim high praise. Yet an opportunity was given Napo-
leon III., which a great general might have turned to advan-
tage. The First Army was isolated for a few days ; and it
was possible to have directed against it a force largely superior

There is no official French account of the war, and these numbers can
be only approximate to the truth. Of the eight French corps one, the 6th,
was at Chalons.

Moltke. 89

in numbers ; a movement which might have had immense
results, and given a new turn to the whole campaign.* The
Emperor, however, remained inactive ; and after the puny
demonstration of Sarrebruck — which, however, made Moltke
pause for a moment — the tempest broke over Alsace and
Lorraine. The Third Army, moving across the frontier, routed
a French division, dangerously exposed, and ignorant of the
approach of the enemy, owing to the bad exploring of the
French cavalry, around the old frontier town of Wissembourg ;
and on the 6th of August, it completely defeated the right
wing of the French army — known by the general name of the
Army of the Rhine — in position on the Sauer in front of
Worth. Meanwhile parts of the First and Second Armies had
attacked a corps of the French Army, preparing to fall back
from the Sarre, and after a fierce struggle on the heights of
Spicheren and the adjoining tract, the French retreated
beaten, f These battles, however, were altogether premature,
were fought against the wish of the chiefs in highest command,
and certainly were not well directed, as far as regards the German
movements, though Moltke, who was far distant, was in no
sense to blame. At Worth, 46,000 Frenchmen resisted 100,000

* This is well pointed out by General Hamley, Operations of War, p.
334, ed. 1889 ; and is made very clear, and in full detail, by General
Derre'cagaix In Guerre Moderne, I. 512-13. The Prussian Staff History and
the worshippers of success in England maintain a significant silence.

t The descriptions of Worth and Spicheren in the Prussian Staff History
are not always candid or trustworthy, and some of the accounts compiled
by the courtiers of fortune in England are worse. For instance, a writer
in the United Service Magazine, of January, 1894, practically denies that
the situation had become critical with the Germans about mid-day ; that
the noble charges of the French cavalry were of any use ; and that the 1st
Bavarian corps had a most important influence in deciding the battle.
He is contradicted on these points by the Prussian Staff History, I., pp.
162, 163, 177, 187, 191. He is, however, more fully confuted by General
Derrecagaix, Guerre Moderne, II. , 178, 199, whose careful and exhaustive
account he appears not to have read. The Prussian Staff History, it
should be added — and most English writers blindly follow it — assumes
that the French were largely superior in numbers at Spicheren ; but
General Derrecagaix, who gives precise figures, emphatically denies this.
Guerre Moderne, I., 535.

<)0 Moltke.

Germans, and had for hours a distinct advantage, a result
which could not have been obtained, had not the German at-
tacks been made piecemeal ; and at Spicheren the Germans
must have been defeated, had the French corps received the
assistance of large supports, a few miles from the field. The
consequences of the defeats of Macmahon and Frossard, the
commanders of the French in these engagements, were cer-
tainly, as affairs stood, very great ; but considering the im-
mense superiority of the invaders in force, taking into account
the theatre of war, they might unquestionably have achieved
more than they did.

Worth almost destroyed Macmahon's force, and sent its
remains, in rout through the Vosges, whence, joined on the
way by the corps under Failly, they ultimately arrived at the
Great Camp of Chalons. Spicheren compelled the other parts
of the army of the Rhine, placed in a position critical in the
extreme, to fall back on all points through Lorraine, in a state
of confusion, distress, and terror, greatly aggravated by all
kinds of conflicting orders. Yet Moltke, who was in com-
munication with the victorious hosts by the telegraph, on the
whole scene of action, made no effort to pursue the enemy;
in fact, even the chiefs of the Third Army scarcely tried to
press the wrecked troops of Macmahon. The invading armies
made a well marked pause; Moltke's object being, in part, to
call up the great reserves of his second line, and, in part, to
carry out leisurely, without gathering fruits from his recent
success, the plan of operations he had formed for the campaign.
The Third Army began to move on the 8th of August ; made
its way very slowly through the passes of the Vosges, and
proceeded to the region around Nancy, reaching this early on
the 16th, and having completely lost sight of the enemy. The
First and Second Armies, which had assembled on the Middle
Sarre, in immense force, did not begin to march until the
10th of August ; they formed the pivot, in fact, for the wider
sweep to be made on the left by the Third Army; and they
were not on the Nied until the 13th, having, also, nearly ceased
to be in contact with the French. The object of these move-
ments was to bring an irresistible force upon the Moselle, a

Moltke. 91

line the French army, it was supposed, would defend ; and
having defeated the Array of the Rhine, to drive it northwards,
and to advance on Paris.

This strategy is not to b3 lightly censured, and, in
the end, it completely succeeded, if this is no real test of
its merits. An invasion of France has been always hazar-
dous : Moltke thought the French would make a stand on
the Moselle — a very strong, nay formidable line — and he
seems to have believed this part of the Army of the Rhine
was still about 200,000 strong, though it is difficult to give this
statement credit* Nevertheless, an impartial student ot war
can have little doubt but that at this conjuncture, a great oppor-
tunity was lost by the German leader. I may pass by the question
whether the Third Army might not have annihilated Mac-
mahon"s routed force, had it made a real effort at pursuit;
the feeble attempt it made was in the wrong direction, and
was abandoned within a few hours. The First and Second
Armies, however, had it in their power to destroy the remaining
part of the Army of the Rhine, and in this way probably to
cause the war to close in a single and completely decisive
battle. That army, not yet joined by the corps from Chalons,
was only on the German Nied on the 8th of August. It was
not more than 135,000 strong; chiefs, officers, and men had lost
heart; even when the corps from Chalons reached it, it was not
more thanf 170,000 strong, a great part of this force being
mere levies; and it was not on the French Nied until the 11th.
But on the 8th of August not less than seven corps $ of the
First and Second Armies, with large reserves in their rear,
were collected upon the Middle Sarre in possession of the
great main roads from the frontier ; they must have been

Prussian Staff History, I., 280. This statement seems to have been
made to excuse the loss of the opportunity that Moltke had.

t See the numbers given by Bazaine. L'Armee du Rhin, p. 40.
General Hamley's Operations of War, p. 320, ed. 1889, make the figures
considerably less.

+ Prussian Staff History, I., 271, 279. The seven corps were the 1st,
7th and 8th of the First Army, and the 3rd, 4th, 10th, and Guards of the
Second.

92 Moltke.

200,000 men in first Hue ; they were not more than twenty
miles from the French on that day, and it is idle to deny that,
had they advanced at once, they would have reached and
overwhelmed their much weaker enemy. This was not done,*
and a grand occasion was missed ; but this was thoroughly in
keeping with Moltke's leading. With advantages Napoleon
never possessed, he was not to be compared to Napoleon on
the path of victory; he excelled in carrying out well meditated
plans, but he had little of the inspiration and resource of that
first of warriors, f

While the German armies were thus advancing slowly, the
French, we have seen, were falling back From the frontier.
The intention of the Emperor at first was to retreat far to the
Marue and Chalons, and being, as he was, not pressed by the
enemy, he probably could have attained his object. The fear
of opinion in Paris, however, — his curse and that of France in
this part of the war — induced him to stand on the French Nied,
as if to challenge his approaching foes; but this unfortunate
resolve was soon given up, and the Army of the Rhine, less by
Macmahon and Failly's forces, fell back once more seeking to
reach Metz, and, we repeat, in a most disheartened state. The
chief command was now taken by Bazaine, and that Marshal
received directions to march through Metz, and to advance to
the Meuse, with the object doubtless of getting to Chalons
at last, and effecting his junction with Macmahon. The retreat
of Bazaine was extremely slow ; but, shameful as his conduct

* That an opportunity was lost is practically admitted in Tlte Prussian.
titaff History, I., 280. It states, in its wonted guarded language, 'The
Germans were apparently lingering in their advance.'

t An English apologist for Moltke, writing in the Broad Arrow of Nov.
18th, 1893, denies that the French Army, retreating through Lorraine,
was in a state of demoralization. I may refer him to Bazaine, L'Armee
du Ehin, pp. 40-41, Bazaine, Guerre 1870, pp. 42, 43, 44. As to the
opportunity lost by Moltke, see Major Adams, one of his chief admirers,
Great Campaigns, pp. 614-15. ' The one quality in which Von Moltke
seems deficient is that of reaping the full and instantaneous fruits of
victory. The time that was permitted to elapse, after the first struggle,
lost to the Germans the opportunity of bringing the war to a rapid and
brilliant conclusion.'

Moltke. 93

became afterwards, it would be unfair to blame him for this,
for he only just had his troops in hand; and, curiously enough,
his first idea was to attack the Germans, now at a little dis-
tance, a movement that might perhaps have succeeded. By
the 12th of August the First and Second Armies had almost
come up with the retiring French ; and Moltke oi'dered the
First Army to move to the French Nied, supported by two
corps of the Second Army. Had Bazaine fell boldly on, on
the 13th,* he would not improbably have gained a victory ;
but he was already defiling through Metz, and an opportunity
was, perhaps, lost to the French. By the 14th of August a
part only of the French Army was west of the Moselle, the
other part being still on the eastern bank, for the march
through Metz had been greatly delayed ; and this part was
attacked by two divisions of the First Army, supported ere
long by a third, and by reinforcements from the Second Army.
The battle was well contested and stern, and from a tactical
point of view was drawn ; f but strategically it kept the
whole French army back, and this gave the Germans a great
advantage.

Moltke drew fruitful results from the conflict known as
Colombey Nouilly or Borny. The Third Army was now ap-
proaching Nancy, a considerable part of the Second Army
was sent across the Moselle to the west of Metz, and the First
Army was brought towards the fortress, its advanced guards
drawing near the Seille, an affluent of the great stream of the
Moselle. This movement, screened by masses of horsemen, was
admirably executed, and has been justly admired ; but it may
be remarked that it simply carried out the general plan of the
operations of Moltke, and his ability, in this respect, has been
never questioned. A great mistake, however, was here made,
which might have been attended with the gravest results.
Moltke had wished that the mass of the Second Army should

* See General Derrecagaix, Guerre Moderne, II., p. 57.

t This has been contemptuously denied by the writer in the United
Service Magazine, before referred to. Major Adams Great Camjmigns, p.
534, says, ' Night fell on a drawn battle, in which both sides claim the
victory.'

'.U Moltke.

advance westwards, and attack Bazaine, intercepting him on
bis way to the Meuse, and striking him, in force, in front and
Hank; but Prince Fredrick Charles had convinced himself
that this operation would be too late ; he resolved to follow
Bazaine at once ; and he directed two corps only, to positions
in which he hoped to assail the rear of the Marshal, assumed
to be in precipitate retreat. This was a feeble and most
erroneous movement ; how far Moltke has to account for it,
will probably not be known for years ; but it deserves notice
that he was apprised of the Prince's intentions on the 15th of
August, and counter orders were not despatched.* These
arrangements led to the great battle, fought on 16th, and
called by the Germans Mars la Tour, a battle glorious for
Germany, but which might have been fatal to her. Bazaine
had retreated only a few miles from Metz : he had about
140,000 men in hand, and he was successfully assailed and
brought to bay, at first by a few thousand men only, and even
to the last by a very inferior force. Each side lost about
16,000 men, in an indecisive struggle only closed at night ; but
had Bazaine been a real general, his enemies should have been
trampled in the dust.

The operations of the contending armies became, at this
point, of peculiar interest. There was but one opinion in the
German camp, either that Bazaine would attack on the 17th,
and so try to force his way to the Meuse, or that he would
march northwards, and avoiding a battle, would seek to re-
treat in that direction. Preparations were made for either
attempt, and Moltke no doubt is responsible for them. The
Third Army was left where it was, its chiefs intent on a march
on Paris ; but two corps f of the First Army were placed near
Metz, to the west of the Moselle, while the third corps $ was

* The Prussian Staff History, I., 351-7, if carefully studied, shows that
this account of these operations is, in substance, correct. Mr. Archibald
Forbes, United Service Magazine, March, 1894, has written a well con-
sidered description of what he has called 'Prince Frederick Charles's Mis-
conceptions.' I noticed this mistake as far back as 1891, in my Great Com-
manders, p. 290 ; and more fully in my study of Moltke, pp. 14G-49.

f The 7th and 8th corps. J The 1st corps.

Moltke. 95'

left on the eastern bank of the river, with directions to observe
and menace the fortress, and, if attacked in force, to fall back
to the Nied. Meanwhile the five corps of the Second Army,
at hand, were ranged in a line of about eleven miles in extent,
from the right of the First Army at Ars,* to Hannonville on the
main roads to the Meuse ; and one corps f in the rear, not yet
across the Moselle, was ordered to cross, and to join the main
body. Contact had once more been lost with the enemy, save
where the First Army approached Metz ; and the general plan
of operations was that the pai't of the First Army, west of the
Moselle, should hold the French engaged on the spot, and
should form the pivot for the movement either to attack
Bazaine, or to follow him should he retreat northwards.

These arrangements occupied the 17th of August, and
Bazaine did not attack on that day. Let us now consider
what had become the situation of the German armies, on the
night of the 17th, and until the next morning. One corps
only of the First Army was on the eastern bank of the Moselle;
the Third Army was far away ; and eight corps of the First
and Second Armies were gathering together west of the
Moselle, with little means ol knowing the movements of the
French, their leaders, besides, being, one and all, convinced
that Bazaine was marching westwards for the Meuse. On
the other hand, Bazaine, at the close of the 16th, was only
eight or ten miles from Metz ; and once within the fortress, he
would have a great opportunity for an offensive movement, for
he would hold the chord of the arc on the field of manoeuvre,
and the communications of the Germans lay exposed before
him, covered only by the one corps of the First Army, an in-
significant force compared to his own.

Experience has shown what, in these circumstances, he might
have accomplished had he had the genius, the readiness, the
decision of a great commander. He had ample supplies of food

* That is the right of the two corps of the First Army, west of the
Moselle.

t The 2nd corps. All these movements should be studied in the frussicui
Staff History, 2.

96 Moltl-e.

and munitions;* and had he made up bis mind, on the night of
Mars la Tour, his army, leaving the killed and wounded be-
hind, and perhaps making demonstrations to conceal his pur-
pose, might have been around Meiz on the morning of the 17(h.
To cross the Moselle should have been now his object; he had
six bridges already made,f and three or four might have been
constructed; and, leaving a detachment in the fortress behind,
and giving his troops supplies for four days, he could have
passed through Metz, and reached the eastern bank of the
river by the forenoon of the 18th. The country before him
was open, and the great roads excellent ; and it is not too much
to suppose that by nightfall he could have been on the French
Nied — a distance of less than ten miles — with from 100,000 to
110,000 men, moving, with their impedimenta, on a broad front.
The single corps of the First Army, if not defeated, would,
according to orders, have fallen back ; and it is scarcely
possible that Moltke and his lieutenants could have been
apprised of Bazaine's movement with anything like an approach
to certainty until the Marshal was on the Nied. Any general
placed in a situation like this would have required some hours
to form a decision. Moltke, as his career distinctly proves,
would have paused for some time, surprised and perplexed;
and bearing in mind that the German chiefs all thought that
Bazaine was on his way westwards, and not eastwards, as in
the supposed case, and that to direct huge masses of men to a
direction contrary to that laid out for them, is an affair of
immense difficulty, causing delay, it is idle to contend that
the German armies, or even a considerable part of them,
would be in a position to retrace their steps, and to follow
Bazaine until the 19th at soonest. But this operation would
have been too late ; the Marshal could have reached the Sarre
on the 20th, long before the Germans could be even near ; and
he would thus have seized the communications of his foes, and
practically compelled them to think of themselves. In that
event he would have saved himself and his army, have caused

* Report of Riviere, pp. 31, 34, 38. t Ibid., p. 22.

Moltke. 97

a suspense of the invasion for weeks, and given the war a
wholly new turn.*

Bazaine, however, a most worthless chief, was incapable of
making a movement of this kind. He arrayed his army, about
125,000 strong, along a range of uplands to the west of Metz,
and awaited his enemy in an attitude of passive defence, a bad
attitude as the experience of ages has proved. The Germans,
immensely superior in force, and ultimately more than 200,000
men, marched against Bazaine on the 18th of August ; but
they had all but lost sight of the French army ; and their
march was at first in the wrong direction, a false move that had
bad results. This led to the great battle ot Gravelotte, the
most fiercely contested of the whole war. The advance of
the Germans, when they learned where Bazaine was, has been
justly admired, as an instance of admirable organization in the
field ; but the battle was not well conducted by the German
leaders, whatever may be urged by the courtiers of fortune.
The first attack on the French lines was made at the wrong
place ; the Prussian Guards were nearly cut to pieces ; the
First Army was almost routed, and that this sacrifice was

'' This movement has been indicated by the late General Hamley, with
a slight variation, Operations of War, ed. 1889, 329-32. That it was
practicable is virtually admitted by the Prussian Staff History, II., 533.
I believe it would have been accomplished certainly by Napoleon, who, at
Areola, succeeded in carrying out an operation somewhat analogous, but
far more difficult ; probably by Turenne, Eugene, Villars, or Frederick the
Great, who all performed feats at least as arduous. It is a complete
mistake to suppose that General Hamley is the only soldier who thought of
this movement ; it suggested itself to two Generals at least of Bazaine's
army, to the Austrian Staff, to the illustrious Chanzy, I have reason to
believe, and, as I know, to one distinguished General of the British army
since dead. Mr. Archibald Forbes has tried to prove in the United Service
Magazine of February, 1894, that the operation must have failed, and
would have been defeated by the Germans. T think he has shown that
General Hamley did not suggest the best course that could have been
adopted, but I dissent from his main conclusions. His reasoning looks
at war like a game of chess ; assumes that the German generals saw at
once all the pieces and moves on the board, and had perfect knowledge of
the facts ; and, above all, ignores the element of surprise and perplexity that
must have delayed, perhaps paralysed their movements,
xxiv. 7

98 Moltke.

intended is an idle tale ; and the great turning movement by
which the battle was won was only just successful, and might
have been repulsed with ease. On the other hand, the French,
who had regained heart from the results of the fighting of the
last few days, displayed remarkable valour and constancy ;
they successfully maintained their positions for hours, though
prevented from making counter attacks; and they would have
baffled the decisive turning movement had Bazaine — he was
actually not on the field ! — sent the Imperial Guard to support
his right wing. The German tactics, in a word, were far from
good ; how far Moltke, who was on the spot, is responsible,
will perhaps be never known ; but it appears most probable
that his constant habit of not keeping in contact with his
enemy was the cause of delay in the first instance, and after-
wards of precipitate attacks, ill-directed, and frightfully waste-
ful of life. The ultimate results of Gravelotte were immense ;
but the battle itself reflects no credit on the skill of the German
generals in the field; and this may be the reason that
attempts have been made to misrepresent the real force of the
opposing armies, and to conceal how largely superior the
Germans were in numbers.*

* I believe I can lay claim — see the Academy, 19th December, 1891 — t<x
the credit of having been the first writer to point out the flagrant miscal-
culation made by Moltke in his Precis of the Franco-German War, I., 84,
as to the numbers of the armies engaged at Gravelotte. Attempts have
been made to excuse him, at least as to one gross mis-statement, but they
have either been futile, or have got him out of Scylla to fling him into
Charybdis. It is said that he did include the 2nd corps in his enumeration
of the German forces in the field, but that he wrote the figure ' seven '
corps instead of ' eight.' This is improbable in the highest degree, and it
deserves special notice that the Prussian Staff History, which Moltke, no
doubt, had before him, vol. I. , 438, refers to ' seven ' corps only, and only
includes the ' eight ' corps in an appendix. But, be this as it may, Moltke,
taking this apology as correct, confessedly omitted the whole of the German
cavalry, about 25,000 sabres, out of the account, and this was very nearly
the strength of the 2nd corps. No one has attempted to justify his
omission of part of the 1st corps of the First Army, which shelled Metz
from the eastern bank of the Moselle ; very possibly kept the Imperial
Guard on the spot ; and certainly played an important part in the battle.
In short, in any view of the case Moltke has under-rated the German

Moltke. 99

The operations of Moltke, from Worth and Spichereu to
Gravelotte, have been more or less censured. Passing by the
idolaters of mere success, General Hamley has remarked that
the German leader gave opportunities and missed chances ;
and I certainly think that he ought to have crushed his enemy
before he reached Metz ; that Mars La Tour ought to have
been a German defeat ; that Bazaine, had he been a great
captain, might have severed Moltke's communications and
escaped ; and that Gravelotte, in itself, was no triumph to
boast of.* Moltke, with remarkable daring and energy, in-
vested Metz after the battle of the 18th, with the First Army
and part of the Second; but the investment was at the outset
so weak, that Bazaine, the Prussian staff admits,f might pro-
bably have broken through the German lines, a tolerable proof
of what he might have done had he struck the blow indicated
after Mars la Tour. The operation astounded soldiers in
Europe; but Bazaine had already given proof of such complete
incapacity in the field, that Moltke, as the event showed, was
probably justified in adopting a course without an example in
war before. How Bazaine made no real effort to escape, how
he even neglected to husband the supplies which would have
enabled him to hold out much longer than he did, and how he
dabbled in treason and betrayed his country, is one of the

forces at Gravelotte, by at least 30,000 men. As to his enumeration of the
French forces, he has over-estimated them by from 60,000 to 55,000 men ;
and this has not been seriously disputed even by his most ardent
admirers. The French were not 180,000 strong, as he asserts, but from
120,000 to 130,000 at most ; and this is a higher figure than those of
Bazaine, of General Hamley, and of Col. Malleson. Curiously enough, the
Prussian Staff History, vol. II., p. 10, lets the truth out in one passage, and
says, 'the enemy was estimated at 100,000, or 120,000 men.' No one
wishes to charge Moltke with wilful misrepresentation, but his mis-
statements are not less most palpable, and it is really too much to ask any
reasonable person to swallow the German figures in many parts of the war
of 1870.

* That Moltke was not satisfied with his own operations at this conjunc-
ture is evident from the Prussian Staff History, II. 165-7. These pregnant
comments are probably from his pen.

t Prussian, Staff History, II. 533.

]00 Moltke.

darkest tales in the annals of France; no one is equally to
Maine for the results of the war.

Moltke now formed the Army of the Meuse, and directed it
with the Third Army against Macmahon's forces, as a prelude
to the intended advance on Paris. Macmahon had by this
time assembled from 130,000 to 140,000 men at Chalons, and
his first resolve was to fall back on the capital, and to defend
it with the last army possessed by France. How he was
turned aside from this judicious purpose, partly by an ambig-
uous message from Bazame, but chiefly from dread of Parisian
opinion, once more causing immense disasters, is known to
every student of the war of 1870-1, and I need not repeat an
often-told tale. 1 shall not dwell on his fatal advance to the
.Meuse, ending in the catastrophe of Sedan, for I examined the
subject in this Review lately ; * suffice it to say that operations
n war were never worse conceived or worse carried out.
Moltke's plans, if somewhat tardy, were admirably laid, and
the movements by which the German armies were directed
against their doomed foes, were those of a real master of war.
Fine and just conception, and able execution, were the charac-
teristics of these great efforts, but when it is asserted that they
surpassed all that Napoleon achieved, the student of the His-
tory of War smiles. The march to Sedan was not to be com-
pared to the march on Ulm and the march that led to Marengo.
After Sedan Moltke advanced on Paris, with his mind bent
on the plan he had formed, and in the exultation of immense
success. The invaders on the march were but 150,000 strong;
Bazame and his army lay in their rear, imprisoned certainly,
but a real danger, that kept a great investing force on the
spot ; the German communications with the interior were
hardly opened; and not one even of the main railway lines
leading to the capital had been mastered. This operation was
founded on the contempt Moltke entertained for the French
character — a sentiment that has cost many a warrior dear —
he believed that France would not lift her head, and he was
convinced that Paris would at once succumb, and that the war

* See The Scottish Review, January, 1894, article " Marshal Macmahon.

Moltke. 101

was close to its end. The calculation, however, was wholly
vain ; the movement, it is admitted now by the Germans
themselves, was a mistake resting on false assumptions ; and
King William, who judged correctly what the patriotism and
resources of France were, protested against it to no purpose.*

Moltke was completely undeceived before long ; he suc-
ceeded, indeed, in investing Paris, and maintaining his hold
on the great city, but the Germans were placed in grave peril
for months, through the efforts of the beleaguered capital and
the heroic national resistance of France. The invaders, in
fact, owed much to fortune, and other accidents if they
triumphed at last. Had Bazaine broken through their lines at
Metz — and this remained possible for many weeks — they could
hardly have escaped a disaster ; and but for the premature
and unexpected fall of the fortress, the Army of the Loire
would, after Coulmiers, have marched on Paris and raised the
siege with consequences of supreme importance. Even after-
wards, save for Gambetta's mistakes, D'Aurelle and Chanzy
might have reached the capital, defeating on their way the
covering armies, ill placed and greatly inferior in numbers;
and the issue of the contest remained uncertain, until Bourbaki
was directed to the east, and recklessly involved in a second
Sedan. Surrounded as they were in the midst of France by
the waves of a gigantic national rising, of which their com-
manders never dreamed, the invaders were endangered for a
considerable time ; indeed, until Paris was subdued by famine,
and this too, after triumphs in the field, without a parallel in
the annals of war. The march on the capital, therefore, in
the circumstances in which it was made, was a capital error, it
involved risks enormous alike and needless.

The operations of Moltke, too, in the second part of the war
— by many degrees its most attractive part if slurred over
by mere soldiers — were often imperfect and very mistaken.
Excellent in carrying out pre-arranged plans, he was per-
plexed when confronted with a state of affairs on which he

* I cannot read German, but can refer the reader to a review of the works
of Kunz and Hcenig, contained in The Times of the 8th and 9th February,
in which this is distinctly asserted.

102 Moltke.

had not reckoned beforehand ; and not possessing the search-
ing eye of genius, he was greatly troubled by the rising of
France. For weeks after the investment of Paris, the German
movements were weak and tentative; they exhibited inde-
cision and want of knowledge, and they were badly arranged
on more than one occasion. Moltke, at a conjuncture of extreme
importance, sent large forces in the wrong direction, deceived
by an apparition of aFrenchArmy of the West; before Coulmiers
he was surprised, after Coulmiers he was wholly at fault in
separating the Grand Duke and Tann ; and he was again sur-
prised by Gambetta — a man of extraordinary powers despite
his faults — when the Army of the Loire was collected in front
of Orleans, before the battles of the first days of December.
He was, also, baffled by Chanzy — a real chief whose prema-
ture death was a great loss to France — and in the last stages
of the contest he had no conception that Bourbaki was being
sent to the East, and he was ignorant of this movement for
many days. His idolaters take care not to dwell on these
things, and simply point to the result of the war, but history
notes, and pronounces on them.*

But if these mistakes of Moltke were grave, and very nearly
changed the course of the war, he rose superior to the threats
of fortune, on the only occasion when she appeared frowning.
His grand strength of character stood him in good stead, while
he was struggling for a time in a sea of troubles ; and his
capacity became again manifest towards the end of the con-
test. He took the right course in investing Paris, and not
risking the perils of an assault ; and when it had become evi-
dent that the rising of France, and the stubborn resistance of
her heroic capital had imposed on him a gigantic task, he ad-
dressed himself to it with unflinching constancy, disregarding
murmurs and fears in the German camp. By degrees,
owing to his fine arrangements, a great external zone, com-
posed of troops marched to his aid, was thrown around the
zone of investment ; and this double barrier repelled the

* See for most of these mistakes of Moltke the review of Kunz and
Hcenig before referred to. I may say they are one and all anticipated and
explained in my study on Moltke.

Moltke. 103

efforts of Paris and of the provincial armies advancing to her
relief. The distribution of these forces was sometimes in-
correct, but ultimately Moltke gained and secured a central
position and interior lines against the enemy on the theatre of
war ; and from this position of vantage he directed operations
against the French levies, marked, in some instances, by con-
spicuous skill, especially in the march against JBourbaki, which
really put an end to the war. Yet these exertions of Moltke
might, perhaps, have failed, had he not been seconded by a
great national movement, which has not been sufficiently kept
in view. The war, in its last phases, became a strife of races ;
Germany, aflame with intense and revengeful passion, flocked
across the Rhine to support the invasion ; and this powerfully
contributed to her final triumph.

France was stripped of two of her most loyal provinces by
the unwise and ominous Treaty of Frankfort. Moltke insisted
on the cession of Alsace and Lorraine ; on this, as on several
other occasions, exhibiting a want of knowledge of human
nature, and a contemptuous dislike of the French character.
His memory will probably have to answer for this ; Germany
and Europe may yet lament the day when the Tricolor was
torn down from Metz and Strasbourg, and the pride and pat-
riotism of France were wounded to the quick. My estimate
of this most remarkable man may be collected from what I
have already written. Moltke was truly great in the prepara-
tion of war, though even in this department of the art, he
achieved no marvels like those achieved by Napoleon in pro-
viding for the descent on England, for the invasion of Russia
in 1812, for the reorganisation of the military force of France
in 1813 and 1815. But Moltke had the faculty to perceive
with a fulness of insight that approached genius what were
the new conditions of war in his age, and he adapted the
armed strength of Prussia to them, with an intense persever-
ance, an attention to details, a far reaching, and sound and
practical judgment which entitle him to the very highest
praise. The Army which conquered Austria and France was
mainly his creation in its highest parts ; it proved irresistible
in the field, and was perhaps the best instrument ever forged
for war ; and this is Moltke's enduring title to renown.

]o I Molik

In the conduct of war the Prussian leader did not excel in
11m- same degree. His success in the field was indeed astound-
ing: Jena and Austerlitz were less decisive than Sedan, but
this is not a real test of his powers as a warrior. Moltke had
almost always an overwhelming superiority of force; he was
opposed to generals of a very low type; he had the advantage
of mistakes on the part of his enemy, especially in 1870-71,
beyond all example, and his prodigious triumphs were due far
more to these causes than to his capacity to lead armies.
Genius is not seen in his conceptions of war; the plans of his
campaigns were all borrowed ; and if he could work out most
ably preconcerted schemes, he was unequal to sudden and
brilliant resolves, to those strokes of inspiration and power
which are the distinctive marks of the greatest captains.
Feats of arms due to rapid decision, to stratagem, to craft,
to bold surprises, are not to be found ia his operations ; and
though as a mere strategist he was extremely able when he
had time to mature his projects, his strategy was not of the
very first order. On the other hand, he committed at least his
full share of mistakes, especially in bis advance on Paris, in his
constant and very dangerous habit of losing sight of a de-
feated enemy, and scarcely ever trying to pursue ; and his
movements, after Worth and Spicheren down to the invest-
ment of Metz, disclose many and plain shortcomings, and have
been rightly subjected to adverse comment. He was never
tried by what is the true criterion of generals of the highest
type ; he never was victorious with an inferiority of force ; he
never made genius supply the want of numbers ; he did
nothing that can be compared with what Napoleon accom-
plished in 1796, in 1814, and even before Waterloo. It may
safely be affirmed, as we survey his career, that he could never
have achieved exploits like these : strong, patient, able, but.
requiring time to work out what he had designed, he could
not have carried out the movements that have made Areola,
Rivoli, and Montmirail immortal. Nevertheless Moltke holds
a real place, if not the highest, amoug great commanders ; he
was admirable in executing operations in the field, grand, com-
plicated, vast, and often very difficult, based on plans he had

Moltke. 105

laid down beforehand ; here his power of organization appears
again ; and on several occasions he certainly gave proof of the
readiness, the daring, nay the perfect skill which generals of
renown possess. Had he been a younger man when he first
directed war, his military career might have been more
brilliant.

To superficial observers the most striking feature in the great
wars conducted by Moltke was the superiority in organization of
the German armies. Their celerity, their ease and power in
manoeuvring were as remarkable indeed as their immense
numbers, and as the skill and good will of their chiefs in acting
in concert. From these facts it has been inferred that
mechanism, and not genius in war, is the most decisive element
of success ; Moltke, it has been said, ' has displaced the axis of
ideas in the art ' ; a great organizing chief ranks higher than a
great commander. This is a false and most dangerous notion ;
and Moltke himself has protested against it, That mechanism
and organization can do much in war is a truism on which v\e
need not dwell ; but superior direction has always been, and will
always be, the dominant force that decides the issues of campaigns
and battles. The wars indeed of 1866 and 1870 exhibit this
truth with remarkable clearness. Napoleou, even with Benedek's
army, would probably have overthrown Moltke, in the advance
into Bohemia on a double line ; the Germans must have lost
Mars la Tour, would have had, it is likely, their communications
severed, and would have not been successful at Gravelotte, had
Moltke had a real general in his front. Assuredly Wellington,.
in Macmahon's place, would never have marched an army to
Sedan, but would have fallen back and defended Paris, a move-
ment which would have given a new turn to the war, and have
saved France from an ignominious peace. The issues of war in
their main results depend on the powers of man more than on
anything else; mind rules matter, and will always rule it, a great
captain, with forces even nearly equal, will subdue an adversary of
inferior power.

William O'Connor Morris.

( io»; )

Art. V.— GERMANY IN 1826.

Extracts from a Diary of the late Rev. David Aitken, D.D.,
.\finister of the parish of Minto from 1827 to 1864.

[TT]HE ' Diary ' from which the following passages have been
L -L taken consists simply of rough jottings written down
from day to day, witli considerable gaps here and there.
Apparently it has never been revised. Missing words have
not been supplied, and some names, familiar enough to the
writer in later years, are misspelt (e.g., ' Washington Irvine.')
This fact, while detracting from the literary finish of these
records, adds to their historical value. They are the impressions
of the moment in the mind of a sympathetic student of German
theology and literature. I have added brief notes here and there
on some of the less obvious allusions. Readers of the Scottish
Review may be able to throw light on some matters
that I have failed to explain or in respect to which I have
fallen into error. I have to acknowledge the very kind
help of Dr. Fairbairn in identifying for me several of
the theological writers referred to. The recent publication of
the Life of Dr. Pusey has recalled attention to the controversy
raised by ' Rose's book,' which had just appeared before Mr.
Aitken's visit to Berlin, Halle and Leipzig, and the opinions of
various German theologians on the book regain a fresh interest.
With regard to the interview with Hegel I confess a certain
disappointment. It is less picturesque than the description
which Dr. Aitken in his old age (it must have been in 1873 or
1874) gave me of his visit to the philosopher. He told me how,
as he entered the room, he saw at first only a cloud of smoke ;
as the smoke cleared away he discerned ' a jolly German in a
dressing-gown,' who talked to him about English politics and
The Edinburgh Review. Being asked whether it would be possi
ble by attending a lecture or two to get any idea of his philo-
sophy, Hegel answered: 'In the first Semester you would know
nothing about it ; in the second Semester you would know

Germany in 1826. 107

nothing about it ; in the third Semester you would begin to see
something in it, and in the fourth you might begin to make pro-
gress.' But did Hegel smoke ? To the Nurnberg schoolboys
he spoke of smoking as eine unanstandige Unsitte — ' a bad-
mannered bad custom': yet this and his constant snuffing do
not absolutely prove that the Berlin professor did not smoke.
But it is possible that, after so many years, Dr. Aitken's memory
may have mixed up the picture of Hegel's outward aspect with
that of some other Berlin professor. The deterrent advice about
attending a stray lecture is characteristic enough.

D. G. Ritchie.]

[Berlin] Sunday 16 [April, 1826]. At 7 a.m. heard Schleier-
macher in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche, a plain, circus-formed
building. Text, Christ's address on having washed his disciples'
feet. Leading idea, that true Christianity consisted in display-
ing the obedience and service due to our master, Jesus, by love
and beneficence to his disciples, our fellow-men and neighbours.
Illustrated, plainly but interestingly, the value of this connection
of love to God and beneficence to men, and that charity per-
formed in this spirit had a higher character and more valuable
influence than when practised as a separate duty. The true end
of individual exertion thus achieved, and instead of losing himself,
or what is due to himself, the Christian attained both the welfare
of others and his own by this service tendered to Christ through
his disciples.* S. has nothing striking in appearance or manner,
speaks in a low tone, yet with distinct enunciation. The church
thin, but this might be owing to the wetness and cold of the
morning. A considerable proportion of students, and not a few
of the military present.

At 9 went to the Dom church. This is one of the most
modern and least meritorious in its style. Its towers are of the
pepper-box form. The building is meant to be Doric. Within,
it is narrow and long; arched over, the galleries resting on rows
of Doric pillars. Strauss f very different from Schleiermacher.

This sermon, on John xiii., 12-20, preached on Jubilate Sunday (third
after Easter) 1826, will be found in Schleiermacher's Werke IPe Abth. Bd.
9 p. 387 seq.

t Gh. F. Alb. Strauss, a native of Iserlohn, born 1786, from 1822 Pro-
fessor of Theology in Berlin and Court preacher ; a very influential man
both in Academic and Court circles. He is referred to in The Life oj
Pusey, i. 78.

108 Germany in 1826.

A spare, tall, dark-looking man, with powerful, not unmusical,
voice, bold and animated in manner. This sermon was very
orthodox, and, as these sermons not unfrequently are, somewhat
declamatory. The subject was the Christian victory, the weapons
by which it was to be fought, and the crown with which it is
accompanied. The first part refuted the opinions of those who
make the chief value of a character consist in the enlightening
of the understanding, in the attainments of the mind. This was
done on the ground that to perceive and to perform were not the
same thing; that to know what is right may be attained without
leading to the performance thereof. It was then shown in what
the victory consists, in conquest of the world, sin, ourselves,
weaknesses, and propensities. The means of attaining this, firm
faith in Christ. It was certainly a trait of the military character
of the place that he appealed to his audience as soldiers, who
knew how often large armies had been routed where there was a
want of confidence in the leader, and how, on the contrary, the
smallest bands had conquered where there was the conviction
that their general could not be overcome. This may be called a
seven-years'-war simile. There was another argumentum ad
hominem of the same kind, where he appealed to their knowledge
of the serenity with which the dying warrior could enter on his
rest — which might be extended with greater force to the Chris-
tian hero. There was certainly pith and energy in the discourse,
in style as well as delivery. The church, a large one, was full,
but this might be owing to the circumstance that this was the
Hauptpredigt [principal sermon] as much as that this was the
most popular preacher. But popular men are usually of the
same mould and stuff as Strauss.

Returned to the same place at 11 and heard Neander. Ser-
mon coincided with my idea of the man. Fluent and feeling.
It treated of the fluctuations of life, and painted in a ready style
the cases in which it was most apparent, or those where it was
most disguised; with the consolation against this evil. The
whole might have been improved by a little of Strauss's super-
fluous verve. None of the three clergymen I heard wore the
Lutheran ruff or wig. The service shorter than in Hamburg —
a few verses sung before the preacher enters the pulpit, short
prayer, sermon, benediction, and a concluding psalm ; but neither
the minister nor the greater part of the congregation wait for
this. .

Monday 17. Began to deliver my letters. Went first to
Schleiermacher. Found a number of his catechumens [grown-
up girls] waiting for him in an antechamber, so that there

Germany in 1826. 109

was no room for conversation. Had no idea on seeing him
in the pulpit how very diminutive he is. A small, spare figure,
with shrunk visage, and a few elfin locks straying on his fore-
head. Enter from the antechamber or lobby at once into his
studv. a large room flanked with books. Through this a door
seemed to lead to the sitting-room of the family, from which the
sounds of a piano proceeded. Such a neighbourhood and study,
nay, occupation, presented Schleiermacher in another light than
the imagination of a stranger is apt to place him.

Next found Prof. Marheineke,* whose study and looks seemed
those of a man of the world. Received me politely, yet spoke
somewhat reservedly. Promised to make out a list of useful
theological books.

The third person I visited was Dr. Lachmann, a youngish
man, probably turned of thirty,! agreeable and conversational.
Fair in countenance, verging to sallow. Talked at length on
old poetry, especially that of Germany. Spoke rather disprais-
ingly of Tieck's Minnelieder [absurd system of spelling],
Scheller's Reineke Vos, and Von der Hagen's f merits, although
he allowed that the writings of the latter were deserving as
having disseminated a greater knowledge and love of the subject.
Said the Klage not to be compared with the Nibelunqenlied.
Tristan, rather dry. Publishing with Benecke a new edition of
Iwein, the text of which by Lachmann, and the notes by
Benecke; the work ready, only awaiting Benecke's Anmerkun-
gen. § Spoke of Irish fairy tales translated and prefaced by
Grimm, cutting off or curtailing the excrescences of the Enfdish
annotations. || Grimm says, in them the spirit and turn of Sir
Walter Scott; good in him, bad in his imitators. Seemed very
desirous to learn whether or not any German MSS. existed

* Best known now, perhaps, as one of the editors of Hegel's Works.

t Lachmann was born in 1793. He is best known in this country
as editor of the New Testament (1831 and 1842-50) and of Lucretius (1850).

X Professor of German literature. ' The first to bring old German into
the circle of academic study ' (Goedeke).

§ Lachmann and Benecke's edition of Iwein was published in 1827.

|| Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm published in 1826 Irische Elfenmarchen
aus dent englischen — a translation of Fairy Legends and Traditions of the
South of Ireland (1825), which was written by T. Crofton Croker. Croker
published a second part in 1828, and Part III. (same year) contains a
Dedicatory Letter to Dr. Wilhelm Grimm and a translation of the Brother
Grimm's Essay on Elves. Jakob Grimm is the brother here spoken of by
Lachmann, as the Deutsche Grammatik is his.

110 Germany in 182 (i.

in England. The second volume of Grimm's Grammar almost
too learned — Grimm himself not aware to what length the work
might extend. No good dictionary of the Old German language
— best notices and explanations to be had in the Glossaries to
Benecke's Bonerius and Wigalois. Acquainted with the Danish
language, but sparingly with the Icelandic. Expect from him a
list of books.

Called on Neander. Found students waiting in an ante-room.
After they had been with their Professor some time, 1 entered a
small room booked round and littered withliterary lumber. No parade
or display of a library. Their owner equally unpretending — a thin,
common-looking personage, with dark hair and Jewish look, wear-
ing an old blue chintz morning-gown. Not talkative, speaks in iso-
lated sentences, without continuing a subject or supporting conver-
sation. Knew Erskine,* who sent his books to him, and had read
M'Crie's works with pleasure. Talked of the Scotch as having
a biographical talent, and said of the practical turn given to
theology in Scotland that that was what ought to be. Spoke
praisingly of the efforts made by societies and missionary bodies
in England. Talked of Merle.f Indicated indirectly and in
passing words a warm and Christian spirit. Kindly gave me a
letter of introduction to Raumer, whose work he commended,
and whose studies he said were continued. Could not be less
pretension or pomp of circumstance about any man. Promised
me likewise a list of books.

My last call this day was to Dr. Hegel, Professor of Philosophy —
a free and communicative man with whom I had a long, but not very
philosophical conversation, althoughupon philosophy. Better lodged
and garbed than Neander. Spoke of Scotch metaphysics, the lead-
ing principles of which he knew, but apparently not from the
originals and not very profoundly. I endeavoured to impress him
with some idea of Dr. Thomas Brown. \ An intimate friend of
§ of whose talents and knowledge of German philosophy
he spoke highly. In answer to a question of mine repeatedly
said that there was no book or books which he could recommend
as giving a correct idea of German philosophy. That the
Germans wrote for themselves, and not only that, but also only
for men of profession, and did not possess the talent of writing
for the public. Tennemann and Tiedemann's histories both bad,

* Of Linlathen. t i.e. Merle D'Aubigne.

J Those who have heard pupils of Brown speak of him will know the
admiration and affection with which he was regarded by those who came
under the spell of his personal influence.

§ Name illegible : seems to be ' Anstie.'

Germany in 1826. Ill

the Abridgment by Reichardt [?] * of Leipzig, which I have,
better. Expected a work from Krause of Gottingen, f which
would be { gediegener,' [more solid]. Kant's philosophy not only
no longer in vogue, but to be a Kantist something like a term of
reproach — that, nevertheless, Kant's philosophy explained in his
and other lectures as forming an era, and being the foundation of
modern German metaphysics. Kant's best works — Kritik derreinen
Vernunft, der praktischen Vernunft, and a. third . . kraft.% .
The work upon religion never made a great public impression,
yet internally very interesting. Hegel ascribed the commotions
of modern theology to the circumstance that philosophy or
reason was excluded from theological enquiry. For, if it be
adopted as a principle that reason can judge or decide nothing,
then there must be another source from which our notions and
views are derived. This exists — the Bible. But the Bible is
subjected to exegetical interpretation, and thereby every sect
and every party bring out of it just what is desired. No one of
Schelling's writings (the last person who has formed a system)
gives a good idea of his principles. They rise and are
concatenated — has expressed them most condensedly and
decidedly in some numbers of a Zeitschrift. § Thought that
little possibility of German philosophy being known out of the
country. Said that, whatever difference there might be in the
development, the radical principles of the French and British
philosophy were the same, viewed in contradistinction to the
German. The starting point of Kant Hume's scepticism. An

1| person, though perhaps a little commonplace sometimes,

and not possessed of much clearness of utterance. Read Morning
Chronicle and Review.**

* The abridgment of Tenneman is by Wendt, published by Bahrdt. Can
this be confused with Reinhard's Compendium Histories Philosophice,
Lipshe, 1724 ?

t Krause went to Gottingen in 1823. He never published a History of
Philosophy.

% The syllable kraft is written and a space left ; but the missing title,
der Urtheilskraft has never been written in — clear proof that the diary is
quite unrevised.

§ Schelling edited the Zeitschrift fur speculative Physik in 1800 and 1801,
the Neue Zeitschrift fur spec. Phys. in 1802, and, in combination with
Hegel, the Kritisches Journal der Philosophic in 1802-1803. Hegel
probably refers to the ' Exposition of the system as a whole ' in the first of
these.

|| The missing word I leave my readers to supply for themselves.

** The Edinburgh Revieiv, I suppose ; but the word may be 'Reviews/

112 Germany in 182G.

Tuesday 18. Visited Von Raumer and had a conversation
with him for more than two hours. Of littlish stature, lively,
active and pleasing expression of countenance. Talked of various
subjects, of history in particular. Has begun to prepare a work
on the Reformation,* which he expects to be equally voluminous
as the other. Does not mean to publish any part till the whole
is ready. Knew M'Crie's Life of Knox. Had studied particularly
the reigns of Elizabeth and Mary. Said it was rather odd that
Robertson in the preface to his history so confidently avowed his
ignorance of the German — disappointed with Fox's history f —
had read Burke's sketch of early English history, \ which he re-
garded as a gem. Kindly shewed me his library, and gave me a
list of the most interesting books. Milliner \% has written] a
novel where several old English poets are introduced. Praised
Madame Stich's § Juliet.

Visited Dr. Blume, collaborator of the Bibliotheque, || but found
him engaged. Expect to see him Thursday. Visited Waagen,**
director of the Kunst Gallery — a plain sallowish countenance.
Talked of Rumohr, ff whose attainments as well as talents he ad-
mired. The most attractive objects have their repelling side —
complained of the heat of Milan and the gnats of Venice.
Spoke favourably of Hogarth and Wilkie — one picture of the
latter (' Ths Opening of the Will') he had seen, belonging to the
King of Bavaria, and admired the truth and character displayed
therein. (Schenkel the architect travelled to France and Eng-
land, meant to proceed as far as Edinburgh.)

* This refers, I suppose, to his History of Europe from the end of the 15th
Century, (1832-50, 8 vols). ' The other ' must be the History of the
Hohenstaufen (1824-26, 6 vols).

t Charles James Fox, History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II.
Published after Fox's death, in 1808.

+ Burke, Abridgement of the History of England [to reign of King John].

§ Auguste During, afterwards Madame Crelinger (died 1865).

II There is no further allusion to Dr. Blume in the diary. I do not know
whether 'the Bibliotheque ' [sic] means some publication, or refers to the
Royal Library. In the latter case 'collaborator' would seem to be written
by mistake for some other word.

** A book on Works of Art and Artists in England, by G. F. Waagen,
Director of the Royal Gallery at Berlin, 3 vols., was published by Murray
in London in 1838 (translation by H. E. Lloyd). Waagen wrote similar
works on pictures in Paris, etc. He speaks of himself as a native of
Hamburg.

+t K. F. L. F. v. Rumohr, 1785-1843, author of works on Italian art, etc.

Germany in 1826. 113

Met with an equally kind reception from Prof. Strauss, whom
I visited this afternoon. In him perhaps, more than in any other
I have seen, more of the bustle and consequence of kindness. In
darkness of look and in manner perhaps a little of Dickson of
the West Church.* Likewise spoke favourably of the theological
condition of Scotland, and of the circumstance that the clergy-
men seek less to be distinguished as authors, than as useful
pastors. Spoke of Rose's book.f Approved of it on the whole,
and said that it was approved of by the more evangelical part}",
though censured by the Rationalists. $ (Strauss was not in Berlin
when Rose was here.) Still the work is only true as speaking of
the condition of Germany four or five years ago, for since that time
a very considerable and increasing change had taken place. This
change he ascribed to a variety of causes. At the beginning of the
century state of religion very low. The war which followed the
Befreiungskrieg [War of Liberation] especially deeply impressed
the public mind, and regarding that as a sort of chastisement and
reproof, they were brought to contemplate Christianity in another
light. The origin of the Bible Society at Elberfeld co-operated
powerfully. This place, from the time of the Reformation, has
contributed in an extraordinary degree to the maintenance of
Scriptural religion. The Royal Family, in this respect, have
very considerable merit — the sentiments both of the King and
Queen decidedly favourable to the supernaturalist side of the
question (Anecdote of Sack,§ who offended the Queen by
naturalistic examina and was so mean as to apologise, and ex-
press his willingness to alter his creed) — and lastly, the efforts of
some distinguished men in their works, and the circumstance
that an unusual number of young men had come forward, im-
pressed with pious principles, and who had exerted themselves
with zeal and fidelity in the ministry. For the true way to
operate on the whole and to advance it is for each individual
in his own circle ' to do what his hand findeth to do.'

Knew Chalmers bv name, but so little of his writing's, as to

* St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, of which Dr. David Dickson was minister
from 1803 to 1842.

f The State of the Protestant Religion in Germany. Cambridge, 1825.
The German translation had just appeared at the Leipzig spring fair.

t See Life of Pusey, I. , 149 ff.

§ Dr. Fairbairn suggests that this is the famous court preacher, F. S. G.
Sack, who died 1817, not his son, Prof. K. H. Sack, who was then still
more a Professor than preacher, nor his father, A. F. W. Sack, the court
preacher to Frederick the Great.

xxiv. 8

lit Germany in 182(i.

ask if lie were evangelical. Likewise knew M'Crie's Knox and
Alison's Sermons — little of Christianity. These points were
touched, not merely in the house, but continued during a walk
in a public garden in the neighbourhood, where we were joined
by two young Swiss. Seemed rather strange to hear myself intro-
duced as ' Herr Prediger Aitken aus Edinburgh The two brethren
had lived some time studying in Berlin : they were both from
Zurich. They seemed more fromme Seelen als geistreiche
Kopfe [pious souls than brilliant intellects]. On the whole,
sometimes a little mawkishness in our talk. Spoke of the exam-
ination of children and preparation for Confirmation — points
which in Germany constitute a great and important part of pas-
toral duty. By many this superintendence is conducted in a
very effective manner. A complete system of Theology is taught,
historical, doctrinal and moral. The Old and New Testament
gone through, with a general survey of the history of the
Church ; and by means of Spriiche, or texts collated and ex-
plained, the doctrinal points taught after a Socratic manner.
This is continued, not for a few days or weeks, but, in some
instances, for months and years. When the course is once
finished generally, it is resumed, always extending the range of
objects comprised. This is a labour to which all devote them-
selves, and it was in this way that I found even the profound
and philosophic Schleiermacher engaged, when I called on him.
Strauss expressed the idea that such a course might be begun,
and the Spriiche, or texts, committed to memory even when the
children could not understand them. The understanding will
come in time, and, on the other hand, by delaying till a ripe
period, there is a great risk that the matter may be put off alto-
gether. We understand few things when we begin them — t^tttw
committed to memory by rote before its signification of any
consequence.

Wednesday 19. At 7 a.m. heard Prof. Marheineke in the
Dreifaltigkeitskirche, this being a Buss- and Bettag [day of
penitence and prayer, ' Fast-day ']. The sermon was plain
and very evangelical. On conversion — spoke of three degrees
of it: (1), Conviction and confession of sin; (2), Sorrow
on account of it ; and (3), Belief of forgiveness through the
Saviour. Afterwards the Sacrament of the Supper administered.
Communicants approach the altar standing in the passage
thereto. An address is then delivered of what their sentiments
ought to be ; and on being asked if such be theirs, they answer
together ' Ja.' They then kneel where they stand and confess
their sins : when rising, the clergyman, by virtue of his office,

Germany in 1826. 115

declares to them remission of their sins. They pass by him (first
the male part of the congregation), and in groups of three or
four receive into their mouths from the hand of the clergyman
the bread; so with the cup. Almost the whole present com-
municated, and the church was rather full for the morning ser-
vice. The form observed in Communion in this church was
according to the new royal liturgy.* Several congregations still
resist it.

Heard Dr. Ehrenbergt in the Dom at 9 — a hale, stout person.
Subject — Be ye reconciled to God. Except for the perfect
orthodoxy of the sentiments, the sermon not particularly remark-
able. Part of the royal family were present, and it is seldom, I
believe, that royal personages elsewhere hear such sound Scriptural
truths.

At 11 in the same place, heard Neander again. Was struck
with the resemblance of his voice in beginning to speak with
Gordon's. t Preached on the perverted direction of our wishes
and endeavours as turned away from heaven and God. In both
sermons I have heard from this divine, although the train of
feeling and thought was strictly evangelical, in neither was there
much doctrinal matter. The peculiar truths of Christianity
were alluded to or implied, but not made the subject of separate
or exclusive instruction. In both sermons a tendency to dwell
on the wavs and doinjjs of human life, its cares and changeable-
ness, its passions and pursuits. This was done with much ease
and elegance of language and fineness of feeling : at the same
time more remarkable for the qualities of the heart than the
head. The church was full.

The weather, though cold, was clear and sunny, so that a num-
ber of pedestrians were pacing along under the Linden. The
arrival of the Duke of Wellington and the paying of visits to
him caused also no little stir among the fashionables. Saw the
Crown Prince drive up to the Hotel de Rome, where W. lodged,
in a Russian Droschke. . . Had a visit to-day from Prof.

* The liturgy was introduced in 1822, by Frederick William III., and
was intended to symbolize and give effect to the Union of the Lutheran
and Reformed (Calvinist) Churches, which had been attempted in 1817,
in many parts of Germany, especially in Prussia. But this liturgy hin-
dered, rather than helped, the Union.

fF. E. Ehrenberg, born at Elberfeld in 1776, settled in Berlin from 1807,
was the author of several religious works.

% This, I suppose, is Dr. Robert Gordon, minister of the ' New North '
Church, Edinburgh, from 1825 to 1830, and of the High Church from 1830
till the Disruption of 1843.

lit) Germany in 1826.

Marheineke, who gave me a list of books. In the evening went
to the Opera to hear Haydn's ( Seasons.' . . Had the pleasure
of hearing the celebrated Hummel — a stout, not young man :
plavs with inimitable sweetness, and, to my liking, far superior
to Moscheles.

Thursday, 20. Visited Gernberg — is preparing a Bericht on
the theological state and sects of Scotland.*

Afternoon, visited Neander and walked with him, his sister,

and a Dr. hold f from Stuttgart, to the Thiergarten. Sister

speaks English. Spoke with Neander of Rose's book, which he
knew by the translation — said it was ein seichtes Buck [a shallow
book] ; the person must be ein holzerner Alarm [a wooden
man]. Said" an error of head might be none of heart, J
that it was possible that one might entertain erroneous
notions of religion without ceasing to be a Christian. So
it was at the time of Arius. At present engaged in a
history of the Church, of which he had published the first
part of the first volume, and which he meant to continue with-
out attempting any other work. Lectures on Dogmatik, Church
history, and Exegesis. Only short holiday at Easter and 4
weeks in Autumn. Said it were desirable to have more time
for private study. Knew Henderson. §

Friday, 21. Meant to hear Schleiermacher lecture, but found
unfortunately that he was sick. Visited Marheineke, Lachmann,
and Waagen. [After visiting picture galleries with Waagen — ].-
Dined together. Anecdote of Strauss and Von Raumer of Tieck's
pietistical novel. S. a man divided against himself, holds by the
Pietists, a party of whom at Court — notions prevalent among the
officers — at the same time seems himself to feel the extreme to which
such things have been pushed. Marheineke, little for himself,
thrown into the arms of Hegel. Hegel a man of great original
genius, but not able to express himself well. Writes and lectures in
abrupt sentences. Von Raumer early employed by the State,
gave up good hopes (from Harden berg) from love to science.

* Gernberg, pastor at Seeback and Struvensee in the Mark Brandenburg,
author of a work on the Church of Scotland, Die Schottische Natioualkirche
nach Hirer gegenwart. innern u. aiisseren Verfassung, pub. 1828.

f First part of the name illegible.

X Cf. his favourite saying, ' Pectus facit theologum,'

§ Dr. Fairbairn suggests that this is Ebeuezer Henderson, the Icelandic
missionary, author of works on The Minor Prophets, on Inspiration, etc.
(see Diet. Nat. Biog.)

Germany in 1826. 117

Won this by an early work on Staatsverwaltung* Schleiermacher
very musical — gives sometimes music-opera of Gluck in his own
house. Society of Oharlottenburg, where sometimes lively, witty,
sometimes not. Fame grounded before he came here.f Pro-
fessors in general so employed that they have done little after-
wards. 1,600 students in Berlin.

Passed the evening by J Gernberg, a Prussian officer and Swiss
preacher present — talked of Scotland and of the attack made by
a Scotch troop of infantry, at Waterloo, on a regiment of horse. §

Saturday 22. Visited Schleiermacher, found him disengaged.
— lively and friendly — fine-featured face — de republican — in his
younger davs had principally studied classical learning, and, as
in Scotland, had confined himself To a general knowledge of
Christian truth, but since he had became professor had made it
his chief study. Had still many literary undertakings in view,
and death would probably overtake him, before he had accom-
plished them. Was of opinion that Hose's book, for an Episco-
palian, was grundlich [thorough], and in every respect creditablelf
— met Rose, but Rose did not visit him. Schleiermacher of
opinion that no important change had since occurred; but only
a temporary and fluctuating one, as sometimes one party and
sometimes the other came more into view. Talked of theological
faculty, and professorial duties in Scotland and Germany.
Though sickly and one who had suffered much pain in his day,
he had but on one occasion been confined to bed. There is, he
said, a health of the will as well as of the body. Said that he
must see to get some release ; had a strong desire to visit Eng-
land. Lectures in summer from 6 to 9.

Visited Waagen, got a letter to Schelling** and hints for my
journey. Revisited Hegel, talked of English politics and news-
papers, of which Hegel was a constant reader.

* Probably refers to his work on The British System of Taxation (1810).

t Schleiermacher went to Berlin in 1819.

X I.e., bei, chez.

§ Does this refer to the 42nd at Quatre Bras?

|| This probably means that Schleiermacher was at work on his transla-
tion of Plato's Republic, which was not published till 1828.

IT Pusey, writing to J. H. Newman, in January, 1827, says : ' I have
heard only one voice in favour of Mr. Rose's book (Schleiermacher's).'
Liddon's Life of Pusey, I. , p. 150.

** I have found no record of any visit to Schelling, who at this time was
lecturing at Erlangen. He became professor at Munich, when the Univer-
sity there was founded in 1827.

118 Germany in 1826.

[Halle.] Monday 24th. After breakfast visited Wegscheider,
introducing myself as a stranger. Was politely received.
Wegscheider has a high and intellectual forehead, with an ex-
pression of countenance not remarkably open. Complexion
brownish, rather low in stature. Said I would not have found
the situation of the German Church so heretical as had been
alleged, and that I must have found a Mysticismm unusuallv
prevalent. Spoke of Rose's book as unjust in this respect and
partial : and yet there were theologians in Germany of the same
opinion. Shewed me the last edition of his Institutiones, at the
close of which he shewed me the text which expressed his creed
(love one another).* Recommend [ed] Die Aufstellungen der
neueren Gottesgelehrten in der Christlichen Glaubenslehre von
1760 bis 1805 (Leipzig), although a somewhat superficial book,
written by Fuhrmann f in Westphalia, and at the same time as
containing the opinions of the Rationalizing party. Rohr's
Kritische Predigerbibliothek, a periodical work, 7 volumes. $
Invited me to his summer house out of town, if I meant to stav
longer in Halle. Knew Stewart's || writings.

Visited Tholuck, IF a young man about twenty-six to appear-
ance, agreeable exterior, though with a singular twisting of face
and rubbing of knee. Got a letter from him to Niemeyer. **
The Kanzler was engaged in the morning, but I had the pleasure
of finding him at three. A stout, genteel-looking man. Of
opinion that in these times a want of Christian love and exces-
sive acting upon the principle that whosoever is not with us is
against us. Received from him, as Andenken [keepsake], a pam-

* The Preface to the 5th edition of WegscheiderV/n.s-^wfo'one« Theologiae
Christianae Doijmaticae, dated 'Halted, xvi. Martii a. 1S26,' closes with this
quotation from John xiii. 35 ; ev rotirq) yvwaovrai iravres, 6'rt e/xol /MaOrjTai eVre, eav
ayairriv ?xvr€ & aWrjXois.

f W. D. Fuhrmann (1704-1838) is mentioned in Winer's Handbuch der
theologischen Literatur, as the author of several works ; but the title of
none of them corresponds to that here given.

$ J. F. Ruhr's Letters on Rationalism were published in 1813 ; the
Kritische Predigerbibliothek, continuing earlier periodicals of a similar
kind, was published from 1820-1848.

li Dugald Stewart, I suppose.

IT Tholuck had just been made Professor at Halle. Cf. Liddon Life of
Pusey, I., p. 87.

** A. H. Niemeyer became ' Kanzler ' (Chancellor) and Rector perpetuus
of the University of Halle in 1808. He died in 1828.

Germany in 182(5. 119

phlet which he had published in defence of the scientific pursuit
of theology * . . .

In the evening visited Tholuck, where I met Russel and Gue-
ricke f another attache of the University. Spent somewhat
such an evening as with Gernberg. Limited impressions, and
accidentals for essentials. Talked of the propriety of deciding
positively of the religious character of another. Distinction be-
tween supernaturalists and true Christians. In Germany, an idea
not unprevalent, that the Old Testament is not inspired — the
Book of Daniel attacked with much force by Gesenius,| so that
T. himself confessed that he was unable to decide on the matter.

[Leipzig.] Wednesday 25th. Called on Prof. Lindner, § and
delivered Neander's introduction. Professor squat and paunchy.
Talked of Rose's book, which he blamed in the Auffassumj
\_Seotice, uptake]. Tittmann || threatens a potent review. An
old Literarius Berg translated the discourses.1I . . . Lindner
considered theology as overstudied in Germany, and that it was
better to give the outline in lectures and leave the student to
fill it up by his own reading and study.

Thursday 27th. . . . Expected to have met Tittmann at
Lindner's, but was disappointed. ... In the garden of
Lindner, after the battle of Leipzig, employed in carrying off
and burying the bodies for several days. English wished to
bombard the town with rockets — prevented by Emperor Alex-
ander. Battle all round the town, hottest to the east of it.
Lindner hid in cellar.

Found countenances handsomer and shapes better than in
Berlin. The dialect difficult to my ear. Saw Tauchnitz. . . .

* Niemeyer published in 1825 a Vertlitidigung d. wissensch. Lehrmethode
d. Theol. auf deutsch. Univers. geg. harte Anklagen und scheinbare Einwurfe
(Winer Handbnch. d. theol. Lit.)

t H. E. F. Guericke, b. 1803, d. 1878, was a student at Halle from 1820
to 1823, became a licenciate in theology there in 1825, and Prof, (extraord.)
of Theology in 1829.

X Prof, of Theology at Halle since 1810— the well-known Hebrew scholar.

§ F. W. Lindner, b. 1770, d. 1864, became Prof, of Catechetics and
Psedogogic at Leipzig in 1825.

|| J. A. H. Tittmann, 1773-1831. Prof, of Theology at Leipzig since
1805.

IT Rose, following the Theologisclies Literaturblatt, ascribes the transla-
tion, published anonymously, to ' Herr Prediger Rosenm idler. '

120

rmany in

1826.

[Dresden] Saturday 29th [April]. Visited Tieck — with a
mild, delicately expressioned countenance, but of diminutive
stature, and decrepit by rheumatism. Visited him in his study,
liussel's book unfair* — unworthy of at) Englishman to enter
into all the little absurdities of the German students. Knew
Coleridge intimately, and highly impressed with a sense of his
genius. In Germany, a prejudice against Coleridge founded on
imperfect notions picked up by travellers in England in conversa-
tion, or derived from the popular reviews. Washington Irving
visited Tieck, fell into a discussion about Scott's treatment of
supernatural personages, where Tieck maintained in opposition to
Irving that herein Scott was defective. But Irving probably was
unable to follow Tieck, not understanding the language suf-
ficiently. Ladv Macbeth a weak character, unable for what she
had undertaken, contrasted with Margaret of Anjou. Liked Kean
mdssig [moderately], and the concluding scenes of Kemble's Corio-
lanus, best pleased with Kemble's Cardinal Wolsey.f Prejudices
of a political nature in England against Elizabeth's reign. English
character then different and the language much superior. Un-
commonly versed in old English literature, talked with Douce,!
and found him not so profound. Not certain whether Shake-
speare might not have travelled, was not so illiterate as has been
represented. Knew French, Italian,§ which was then at court
what the French has since been, and probably was able to read
the easiest Latin classics, such as Ovid. Of opinion that Schiller's
Robbers, both in language, poetry and character, though some-
what riesenartig [gigantesque], one of the best of Schiller's plays.
F. Schlegel lost himself in his religious feelings and had with-
drawn from his studies and the pursuit of the arts. Tristan
one of the best Old German poems. Sterne overpraised, now
underrated in England ; in some things superior to Jean Paul.
A good and critical edition of Fletcher much wanted, to ascertain

* The book referred to is, I suppose, A Tour in Germany and some of the
Soutliem Provinces of the Austrian Empire in the years 1820, 1821, 1822, by
John Russell, Esq. In 2 vols. (2nd Edit. Edin. : Constable, 1825.)
Chapter III., on the German Universities, gives an account, unsym-
pathetic certainly, of German student life. In Vol. I., p. 220, there is a
quaint account of Miillner, ' the great living dramatist of Germany.' The
' Russel ' [sic] met at Halle is, I suppose, the same person

t Tieck visited London in 1817.

t Douce's Illustrations to Shalespeare were published in 1807.

§ Not the pronunciation, certainly — witness ' Stephano ' in Merchant of
Venice, Act V. , corrected in Tempest.

Germany in 1826. 121

the date of his writings and how much is to be ascribed to Beau-
mont. Watson, a young traveller, much liked. Article in a
London [periodical], containing a critique on Tieck and transla-
tion of a Mdhrchen, able — wished to know the author.* Milliner,
author of Srhuld, not highly ranked. Plan of Midler's history of
Schweitz | defective in parts, far too minute — individual treated
with no proportion to the whole. Raumer's history of the three
last centuries half finished.

Walked in the grossem % Garten — in the style of an English
park. Some fine trees, but all far back owing- to the backward-
ness of the Spring. The cowslips and the birch leaves only
seasonable sights. Towards the farther end of the garden a
distant view of the basaltic caps so famed in geological contro-
versy. Io the evening drunk tea with Tieck en famille — his
wife quiet, with the remains of beauty — the younger daughter
tall, blonde, handsomish, and accounted a talent — has translated
Shakespeare's Sonnets. § A quiet and peaceful domestic circle ;
the ladies knitting or sewing, and taking occasionally part in the
conversation. Spent the evening agreeably, though the conver-
sation did not flow, and the subject too often changed to permit
of much interest. Though T. ready and affable, yet does not
enter into a subject with enthusiasm. Invited to return when
[not] engaged in the evening.

Sunday, 30. Storm and rain like a dav in November.
Heard Schmalz || preach a sermon of the same kind as the
printed one. Spoke of the views which rulers entertained
towards religion, as a bridle to govern, a prison to confine, a
chain to fetter. That now. as in the first ages, tho' ministers
aided the State, received no support or encouragement from
it, so that its teachers were obliged to throw themselves on the

* This cannot refer to Carlyle's translations. His German Romance ap-
peared in 1827, and none of it seems to have been published previously.

t Johannes v. Midler's Schweizergeschichte was finished in 1805.

J Grossem has been written evidently through the influence of ' im gros-
sen Garten.'

§ August v. Schlegel published a translation of 17 of Shakespeare's plays
(1797-1810). Tieck undertook to complete the translation, but the work
was actually done, under his supervision, by his daughter Dorothea and
Count Baudissin.

|| M. F. Schmalz, b. 1785, became in 1819 pastor of the Neustadt,
Dresden : attracted attention by his polemic against Catholicism in sermons,,
published in 1825 and 1826 (Deutsche Blographie).

122 Germany in 1826.

confidence of their hearers. Schmalz, a dark countenance, black
singularly combed hair, with good voice, and manner alternating
between the formal and familiar. The service here nearly as in
Hamburg, with silent prayer — very long and tedious service.

Afterwards went to the Catholic Church, the Frauenkirche* —
modern Greek. In the sermon remarked at least one good idea, viz.,
that men then only could hope assistance from God when they were
found zealously doing that which was in their power. The music at
Mass is praised, but I did not find it equal to that at Antwerp.
The congregation mostly of the very lowest class of the
community. Saw the King present, an old and formal looking
person. The weather being stormy, remained the rest of the idea
[sic] in the Hotel reading Neander's Church History.

May 1st. . . Visited Deacon Leonhardif — a little common-
place, powdered hair, black knee-breeches, and stockings with
silver buckles. Of opinion that Rose had truly described the
condition of the German Church in general, though he mi^ht
have erred in individual things. That Neander's opinion to°be
ascribed to his own amiable character, the society in which he
lived, and the theological condition of Berlin. L. wished Bishops
— therein agreed with Rose— signed symbolic books. ...

[Vienna] Sunday 21st [May]. . . . In the evening visited
Schlegel,t found his lady, a niece of Schlegel's, and a young Geist-
licher [clergyman] together. After an hour Schlegel came with
a Herr Buchholz. Talked of an essay of his brother's § on proper
names. The Greeks noble origin. The Romans from vegetables —
Cicero, Fabius, Lentulus. So also the French. The°Germans
from trades or places — Schleiermacher, Buchholz, etc. Of the
German language that words of classical origin almost entirely
excluded from poetry, admitted where universally acknowledged
in prose. The Dutch the only people who have translated

* This must surely be an error. The Frauenkirche is Protestant, and in
Russell's Tour (1820-22) it is distinguished from the Catholic Hofkirche.

t In Winer's Handbuch der theol. Lit, Gf. W. Leonhardi is mentioned
as the translator of a book of Thomas Erskine's— Bemerkungen ilber die.
Griinde d. Wahrheit d. geoffenb. Religion aus dern engl. Leipz., 1825. I
-do not know whether this is the person here mentioned.

J Friedrich Schlegel. He died not long after this, in January, 1829.

§ August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Professor of Literature at Bonn. I
have failed to find this essay among A. v. Schlegel's Works, or any refer-
ence to it.

Germany in 1826. 123

the whole — spelling according to the etymology, not the pronun-
ciation. Schlegel and Maccabeus the same signification.*
Handel, Hanly — hen.f Goethe, from an Italian family, Guido,
settled in Frankfort, which, corrupted, gave the name of Goethe.
Heard from Buchholz that Schlegel has been studying Egyptian
hieroglyphics. Schlegel considered the English translation of
his work good, wishes to know the author, and to send him a
copy of his book4 His niece, an artist, going to Borne. Appear-
ance— grey hair, old roundish face, depending head, keen eye, and
broad over the eyes. . . .

Thursday, 25. To-day being Frohnleichnam,§ a great holiday,
there was a splendid procession to the Stephanskirche. Saw
the whole pass first in the streets. The usual banners, crosses,
symbols, etc., wreathed with flowers. The orphans, boys and
girls, forming a part — several of the religious orders in their
monastic garbs, the military, the nobility, and part of the Royal
family joining. The soldiers who guarded wore a handful of
leaves on their caps. Afterwards saw the ceremony in the
church and heard the music. After dinner visited the booths
and show shops in the Prater ; a vast concourse of persons ; car-
rousel and see-saw the favourite amusement. All persons fond
of diversions and in cruest of them, yet did not find their liveli-
ness in enjoying them so very remarkable. No place for similar
entertainments equally well situated — rival bands of musicians
blowing and jingling to drown each other and attract customers.
Towards 6 the fashionable drive again crowded with carriages,
the promenades with pedestrians. The horse-chesnuts in their
fullest luxuriance of blossom and verdure. Drunk tea with
Schlegel, who had a number of his friends with him. Talked of
the depressed state of the drama, and that nothing but horrors,
etc., could gain popularity. Kotzebue translated and acted in

* Schlegel = Schldgel, from schlagen, = i hammer.'

t This is what seems to be written. Query, Hcihnli (South-German) =
Hcihnlein, ' cockerel 1 ' Heintze (Die deutschen Familiennamen) derives
Handel from Hand ; Pott derives it either from Hans or from Hahn.

X Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modem, translated
from the German, was published by Blackwood in Edinburgh in 1818.
This appears to be the only work of Friedrich Schlegel's which had been
translated into English before 1826. In the translation of it, published in
Bonn's Series (1859), this earlier translation, or rather 'free abridgement,'
is ascribed to 'the late Mr. Lockhart.' John Gibson Lockhart died in
1854.

§ Corpus Christi.

124 Germany in 1820.

Italian, which happens rarely, French, Spanish, English, nay,
even in Arcadia, and at Irkutzk — a man of many talents. Pre-
ferred Milliner to Grillparzer. Tieck's Genoveva his greatest
work, and what established his reputation. In Vienna MSS. of
Charles V., many written in his own hand, several confidential
letters to his sister, state papers, and other documents of great
interest; from the perusal of which a greater impression of the
abilities and foresight of the Emperor produced than is generally
entertained. AVritten mostly in the French of that period, some
in Spanish, more in Latin, and a few German. S. had con-
sulted these MSS., which are now properly arranged, and gave
the result in his lectures on modern history. After knowing
them, Robertson's history seems like a romance. And yet R.
might have availed himself of them, as they were at that time in
Brussels. Speaking of historians, commended Weltman's (?)*
History of the Crusades ; had read the first vol. of Raumer, but
did not admire him — want of ' Festigkeitf [firmness], ' zu
wankelnd,' [too wavering]. Saw a niece of S., a young Kunstlerin,
[artiste], who had been in London and had met Russel in Dres-
den. Thought him too anmassend, [assuming]. Schlegel had
also seen Lingard's History of England,] and entertained a
favourable idea of it ; in opposition, but not unfairly polemical —
also liked the style.

Monday, 29th. Weather sultry and thundering. Visited
Schlegel to take farewell — in distress from the death of his sister.
French Geistlicher, the second ecclesiastic I had met — read few
of Scott's Romances — made like gun manufactory — one the
lock, one the barrel, another the stock. Sismondi, originally
called Simon : gave me a letter to this savant tres celebre.% Saw
Madame Pichler,§ the female Walter Scott, as she was styled to
me, of Germany — a round, stout ladv with consequential air,
sporting little bits of sentiment. Talked with raptures of the
idea that a suicide was one who dreaded a few years and had no
fear of eternity.

* The ? is in the MS. Fr. Wilken Geschichte der Kreuzziige is probably
the book referred to. It appeared in 7 vols, at Leipzig, 1807-1832.

+ Lingard's History began to appear in 1819, but was not completed till
1830.

+ As these words are given in French, the foregoing remarks are pro-
bably those of the French priest.

§ Karoline Pichler, 1769-1843. Her collected works are in 60 volumes.

Argyllshire. 125

[Miinchen] 28th June. After dining with Porth [?] in our
hotel, evening went to Cornelius.* The festival of his baptismal
eve, the holiday observed by Catholics in lieu of the birthday. A
prettv large and very interesting party. Began by the party
greeting him on his return from work — his children performing a
little music — his wife [bringing him X] presents — the procession
of the students with torches and military band — of the former up-
wards of 200 ; the latter played some of Weber's music (the artist
so lately dead)f the Gebet [prayer] overture to the Freischiltz, part
of Preciosa, etc. A deputation came upstairs and presented the
well-wishes of the whole. After a Lebewohl [farewell] and three
heartv cheers, returned with music playing. Evening calm, warm
and beautiful. Went to supper, where I had the honour of a place
on Cornelius's right hand. Talked of Sir W. Scott, whose novels
he knew and admired — gave his health — deems him capable of
havincr written works for immortality — praised Wilkie — [praised]
Nibelungenlied in language and conception. Saw title-page of
C.'s composition for this old heroic poem. Padre Abraham's
N&8se.% Spoke in favour of verbal puns. Va-nus a Weh-nuss.
Goethe's Iphigeneia and Tasso finished works. Wilhelm Meister
not finished. Goethe's idea to introduce the leading classes of
character in his age.

Art. VI.— ARGYLLSHIRE.

fpHE great and deeply interesting county of Argyll, situ-
JL ated in the south-west of Scotland, has not only
remarkable natural features, but possesses a history of unique
and striking character. Its varied and strange configuration,
its rock-bound shores, pierced in all directions with inlets and
arms of the sea, make it a work of some difficulty to correctly
estimate its area. Then a great part of the county con-

* Cornelius, the painter, had come to Munich in 1825. Can Porth be
the portrait-painter, 1796-1882 ] But he is spoken of as in Italy between
1825 and 1828 (Deutsche Biographic).

+ Weber had died in London during the night of .Tune 4-5.

X Probably refers to Abraham a Sancta Clara, (his real name was Ulrich
Megerle), who was a humourist of the pulpit (1614-1709). Nusse, =
1 nuts,' and so l riddles, etc' — ' chestnuts,' the modern reader may add.

126 A rgylhhire.

sists of the noble islands which guard its coast, with their sheer
precipitous sides frowning over the dark waters at their base,
and the lofty mountains, whose splintered peaks are descried
afar off by the storm-tossed mariner as his bark nears the
wished for haven of shelter. According to Playfair its area is
about 2,400 square miles, while Dr. Smith estimates its extreme
length, from Loch Eil to the Mull of Kintyre at 115 miles, and
its breadth from the Point of Ardnamurchan to the source of
the Urchay, at Urchay, at 68 miles ; its superficial area being
placed at 2,735 miles, exclusive of the islands. Sir John
Sinclair estimates the area of the mainland of Argyllshire at
2,260 square miles, and that of the islands at 929 square miles,
while Dr. Smith estimates the latter at 1,063 square miles.

Dalriada, the ancient kingdom which plays so conspicuous
a part in the early history of Scotland, from about 503 till
843, comprised nearly the whole existing limits of Argyll-
shire. The Linnhe Loch was its northern boundary, while
Morven, to the north, and Mull were possessed by the Picts.
But the old limits of the ancient province of Argyll extended
as far as Rosshire, though from Tigheruac, and other early
writers, it would appear that Lorn was a distinct territory
from Argyllshire. The old Description of Scotland speaks of the
' mountains which divide Scotland from Argyle,' and gives a
somewhat confused account of its inhabitants. The Scots, as
is well known, came from the North of Ireland, and are first
met with in history in the fourth century A.D. The circum-
stance which enabled them to effect a settlement iu Britain
cannot now be ascertained ; but an epoch in history was
created when they succeeded in vanquishing their opponents,
the Southern Picts. From this period their progress was
marked, though they had to contend against the savage forces
of the northern mountaineers, as well as against the steady
inroads of the Norwegian pirates.

This beautiful and ruggedly grand county presents a large
surface to the ravages of the terrible storms of winds and
waves which prevail iu this part of the kingdom. Exposed to
the tremendous rollers of the Atlantic waves which dash them-
selves against its sides, or gurgle amidst the innumerable

Argyllshire. 127

lonely rocks and islets along the sand-girt shore, there is some-
thing awe inspiring to the traveller as he wanders along this
solitary region. Mingled with the great precipitous cliffs of
granite and limestone, which are encountered on all sides, are
to be found sweet and lovely bits of scenery, all the more
welcome after so much desolation and gloom ; exquisitely
clear bays of pellucid water lave the brilliantly tinted pebbles,
which are everywhere scattered by the ceaseless action of the
waves ; a green carpet of mossy turf constantly clothes the
sides of glens which seam the sides of both the isles and the
mainland, and many a modest wildflower scents the gale in
haunts far removed from the ken of man ; while the white
surges of the ocean foam and dash around each jutting
promontory of rock, which perchance foi*ms a natural break-
water for some quiet harbour that, on an emergency, gives
some shelter from the wintry storm, or in which, at other times,
when all nature is hushed in repose, the gently heaving ocean,
shimmering with its delicate opalescent tints, and unruffled by
the breeze, lightly ripples over the shingly strand.

The county may roughly be divided into six great districts :
1. Mull, with its group of islands, and a portion of the main-
land north of the Linnhe Loch. 2. Lorn, and some smaller
islands. 3. Inveraray, or Argyll proper. 4. The mainland of
Cowal. 5. Kintyre and islets adjacent with Knapdale. 6.
Islay and Jura, and a small portion of Knapdale.

Mull is a magnificent island, and one of the finest day's sail
along the whole west coast of Scotland is enjoyed by the
tourist starting by steamer from Oban in the early morning of a
summer day. The island in itself can scarcely be said to
present very much of what is striking and picturesque in
Scottish sceneiy, but it has a history, and innumerable local
traditions of surpassing interest. Dr. Johnson, in his celebrated
journey to the Western Isles, though greatly interested in this
island, somewhat curtly disposes of its general appearance as
follows: — ' It is not broken by waters, nor shot into promon-
tories, but is a solid and compact mass, of breadth nearly equal
to its length.' It has a noble range of mountains, the loftiest
exceeding 3,000 feet, and here and there, amidst the abounding

128 Argyllshire.

expanse of barren moorland, there are sequestered spots of
much beauty. Much of the seaboard of Mull consists of steep
grassy slopes rising up from the shell-strewn beach, until they
join the trap terraces and basalt rocks of the upper ridges.
Bere and there along the shore noble headlands of precipitous
rocks seem to bar auy further progress, but after rounding
them new prospects open up of verdant steeps and wave-worn
cliffs. Some of the remarkable caves which occur in the
rocky coast of the Western Highlands are to be seen in Mull ;
long dark gloomy caverns, the haunt of the rock-pigeon, the
sea-mew and the cormorant. There are various singular
ranges of basaltic rocks and promontories, some of them with
a mantling cover of ivy, interspersed at intervals with oak
or ash coppices, while an occasional mass of basalt which has
been denuded of soil or verdure presents all the appearance of
a ruined castle. Conspicuous amid their fine surroundings are
the Castle of Aros dominating the dark waters of the Sound of
Mull, the grim looking fortalice of Duart Castle facing the
Linnhe Loch, and the Castle of Moy, near the modern mansion
on Loch Buy. Several fresh water lochs are met with in
different parts of the island, gleaming bright amidst the swell-
ing expanse of. heath-clad muirlands, or reflecting in their
purple depths the beetling precipice on which the eagle's eyrie
is sometimes found. Formerly great masses of wood gave
additional beauty to the island, and clothed its barren sides, but
they have nearly disappeared, although in recent years flourish-
ing plantations of various sorts of firs have again begun to
clothe the landscape.

Almost within hail of Mull there rests in the bosom of the
restless deep that ' star of the western sea,' the far famed island
of Iona. Around its heath clad heights and white pebbly
strand there gathers a wondrous charm. Legends, sacred and
secular, fable, fancy, art and song, all combine to weave an im-
palpable wreath with which to deck this island of the western
seas. The burial place of a long line of Kings whose dust
was brought here to repose after the fevered storms of their
troubled lives, Iona attracts, by the subdued beauty of its
lonely bays and lichen covered rocks, even apart from its

A rgyllshire. 129

memories of saintly heroes, thousands of visitors annually from
all parts of Christendom.

' Isle of Columba's cell,
When Christian piety's soul-cheering spark
(Kindled from Heaven between the light and dark
Of time) shone like the morning star.'

The visit of Dr. Johnson and Boswell to this ' illustrious
island,' as is well known, gave rise to the famous apostrophe
to the emotions aroused by such classic scenes which prompted
the doctor's faithful worshipper to remark, that had their whole
tour produced but this sublime passage, it would not have
been made in vain. The grassy mounds scented with heath
and wild thyme, the strangely shaped rocks sparkling with
quartz and crystal, the exquisitely clear water from the far off
western main filling the quiet bays, the varied colouring of
sparry cave and rocky terrace, the white sand powdering the
reaches of springy turf, the lonely graves of chieftains and
saints, the hoary ruins of monastery and cell, and the flashing
chameleon tints of the sky at the close of the long summer
dav, all combine to render memorable a visit to the ancient
Isle of Columba.

Yet a little northward over the heaving wave and you gain
the basaltic rock of Staffa, where again Nature has placed one
of those strange scenes of weird grandeur which call forth the
poet's, the painter's, and the musician's art. Fingal's, or the
Great Cave, what pen can adequately tell of its solemn power,
its soul-stirring surroundings and associations, — the brush of the
painter and the lyre of the musician seem baffled in certain
phases of its aspect ! At early dawn of day, or when the first
rays of the sun slant into the abyss resonant with the ocean's
hoarse murmurs, or when at the close of eve the solemn
shadows and vapour wreaths gather around the clustered
pillars whose sculptured capitals were wrought by an Almighty
hand, the mind is profoundly impressed with this unequalled
picture.

The district of Lorn comprises some of the finest scenery in
Argyllshire, and has been the theatre of many stirring actions
in our national history. Round this district centred the prin-
xxiv. 9

1 30 A rgyllsh ire.

cipal events in the annals of Dalriada, and its name is sup-
posed to be derived from Labhrin, or Loan, one of the sons
of Ere, who, in 503, left the Irish kingdom of Dalriada and
founded the Scottish monarchy. Many ruined castles and
traditions of fortifications are met with in this region —
indeed one rocky eminence in the parish of Ardchattan is
claimed to be the site of the Selma of Ossian, and here a for-
tress was erected by King Fergus the First. Beregonium, the
supposed site of the capital of Dalriada, is placed by some
writers at this spot, although this is of doubtful authenticity.
The shores of the Linnhe Loch, and the coast districts of this
part of Lorn, are amongst the best cultivated in the county,
and many fine trees, and plantations of firs and other wood,
give a clothed appearance to the undulating lauds. Ardchattan
is one of the grandest and wildest of the parishes in this part of
Argyllshire ; within its limits are some great Highland estates,
Lochnell, Barcaldine, Inverawe and others, though here as
too often has happened with other ancient Scottish properties,
the old lords of the soil have been forced to part with their
ancestral domains. Excellent arable soil is found here, light
and dry, and the appearance of the landscape at harvest time
is proof that for oats, barley, potatoes, and similar crops, it
could not readily be surpassed. Many noble mountains rise
around the traveller as he surveys the scenery near Loch
Etive, especially the two magnificent heights of Buachail
Etive, the 'keepers of Etive,' forming a grand background in
the vicinity of that Loch. The fine old ruined building of
Ardchattan Priory, of the Benedictine order of monks, attracts
many visitors, its venerable walls harmonizing well with the
surrounding scenery. Whether King Robert the Bruce lived
here for a time, and held a Parliament after his disastrous
defeat at the battle of Methven, is matter of considerable
doubt.

Glencoe is the scene of all others in this district which im-
presses the traveller by the savage grandeur of its desolate
valley. Its immense precipices and weather-beaten crags,
the haunt of the eagle, which may be seen wheeling far above
the misty vapour wreaths that hang over this dark glen, have

Argyllshire. 131

echoed to the death cry of those who perished in the aw-
ful massacre. Its rugged cliffs and precipitous braes once
sheltered a peaceful settlement of hardy denizens of the soil,
who lived in patiiarchal simplicity under the eye of their be-
loved chief. The memories of that fearful winter night
when old and young were alike given to the sword, long
haunted even the callous minds of the murderers, and have
invested the narrow glen with weird and undying romance.
Nature here exhibits one of her sternest and most savage
aspects, and yet, when seen under the full blaze of a summer
sun, with all around hushed in idyllic repose, the gentle ripple
of the glancing stream scarce heard amid the whisper of the
thyme-scented breeze, — the traveller seems imbued with a sense
of peace.

There are many ivy-clad castles and fragments of ancient
buildings in this part of Argyllshire, but the most interesting
of them is the historic Castle of DuustafFuage, standing on an
almost insulated promontory washed by the waters of Loch
Etive. About the oldest stronghold in the country, many
stirring traditions cluster round this venerable keep, whose
mouldering walls have given shelter to various warriors and
monarchs. Of square formation, with massive walls sixty-six
feet in height, and having a sea front, to which entrance
used to be gained by a staircase and drawbridge, the
grey ruins have a majestic appearance. The hoarse mur-
mur of the crested waves which scatter their briny foam
over the moss-clad walls, forms an appropriate dirge recall-
ing to the visitor the soul-stirring associations connected with
this historic pile. A little distance off are the ruins of a small
chapel, wheie once the fierce owners of the castle worshipped,
and where, for a time, some of the old regalia of Scotland
were said to have been concealed. In the time of Robert the
Bruce it was possessed by Alexander of Argyll, who adhered
to the party of John Baliol, and to this stronghold fled James,
last Earl of Douglas, after his defeat in Anuandale, and pre-
vailed on the keeper of DunstafFnage to take arms against
King James II. of Scotland. In the castle was long kept the
celebrated 'Lia Fail,' or sacred stone, literally, hoary stone,

132 Argyllshire.

said to have been brought from Palestine, and reckoned the
palladium of the ancient Scottish monarchy. It formed the
coronation chair of Kenneth II., and was removed by that
monarch to the old palace of Scone, from whence it was taken
by Edward I. to Westminster Abbey, where it now rests in the
Coronation Chair. Dunstaffnage is believed to be the original
of Ardenvohr in the Legend of Montrose, from the coincidence
of the curious hillock close by, which is especially referred
to in the remonstrance of Dalgetty ' touching the round
monticle of Drumsnab.'

Turning his steps to the south, the traveller, in the
course of a day's journey, finds himself wandering through
scenery of stern aspect, and rich in historic associations,
until he rests midway down the shores of the glorious
Loch Awe, in the most interesting part of the mainland
of Argyll. He has crossed the fine arm of the sea called
Loch Etive, and seen towering above him the noble form
of the chief mountain of Argyllshire, Ben Cruachan, with
its vast slopes of bracken and heather, and its glistening
granite precipices, from whose crests the streamlets fall in spray
clouds to the green sward below. As he journeys through
the Pass of Brander, he gazes upon the gloomy defile,
hemmed in by smooth walls of rock rising abruptly from the
dark and foaming river of Awe, which ever rushes in continual
descent to Loch Etive, through the rugged cliffs called the
Rocks of Brander. Here is pointed out the large stone in the
centre of the foaming torrent, on which a noted chieftain, Mac-
fadyen by name, who had been defeated by Wallace, stood
and pulled off his armour, and throwing it into the stream,
plunged in and gained the opposite bank amidst a shower of
arrows from his pursuing enemies. Loch Awe now spreads
out before his gaze in its sinuous length of over twenty-four
miles, and its upper shores overshadowed by the lofty Ben
Cruachan, with some beautiful islands, such as Inchonnain,
Inishail, and others, while the eye wanders away into the misty
recesses of Glenurchay and Glenstrae. Another islet, a mere
rock, further to the south, is that of Fraocheilein, or ' heather
island,' on which is the fine ruin of an old castle, built

A rgylhhire. 133

by a Macnaughtau in the time of Alexander III., and now
tenanted by water birds and sea fowl. Curiously enough
this sequestered island was chosen as the scene of the fabled
garden of the Hesperides, which classic legend found its way
into the lay of Ossian. Here perished the chivalrous and
youthful Traoch, after mortally wounding the terrible dragon
which guarded the forbidden fruit from any daring intruder.
It would appear from the poem that the lovely young damsel
Mego longed for the delicious fruit, and her lover, as in duty
bound, went to gather it, and their memory is now enshrined
in the ancient Gaelic ballads.

Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland in the year 17G9,
takes especial note of the fertile territory bordering upon Loch
Etive and Loch Awe. He notices in traversing through Glen-
urchay that the road is very fine, that cattle abound and
pick up their food from the grass which grows plentifully
among the heather. The glen, he says, was pleasing in ap-
pearance, well cultivated, fertile in corn, and even at times its
sides were adorned with numbers of pretty groves; and he
commends the well-chosen site of church and manse, the
grounds decorated with seats of turf, 'indicating the content
and satisfaction of the possessor in the lot Providence has
given him.' The ancient churchyard was famed for some
fine old gravestones, which may be seen at the present day in
good preservation, decorated with figures of warriors, knights
in armour, spears and two handed swords, in addition to
elaborate fret work. Pennant also records that on an eminence
in the valley there dwelt a smith by name of M'Nabb,
whose family had lived there and followed their useful
craft since the year 1440, — the first of the line having been
employed by the Lady of Sir Colin Campbell, the ancestor of
the Breadalbane family, who built the famous Castle of Kil-
churn on Loch Awe. In Pennant's day it was in ruins, although
it had been repaired by its possessor and garrisoned by the
King's troops in 1745. Since then the progress of decay has
unhappily gone on with rapid strides. Pennant passes on to
Inveraray, and is very severe upon the ' wretched hovels,' as
he terms them, of which the old town was composed. He de-

134 Argyllshire.

scribes the Duke's Castle as quadrangular in shape, with a
round tower at each corner, and having in the centre a lofty
square keep with windows on all sides to give light to stair-
case and galleries. The building was of coarse bluish-grey
chloride slate, brought from the opposite side of Loch Fyne,
of the same kind as that found in Norway, of which the
King of Denmark's palace at Copenhagen was built. The
castle, which was demolished to make way for the existing
building, was, as may be seen from the illustration given of it
in Skene's etchings of celebrated scenes, an imposing and
picturesque structure, and is alluded to in the Legend of
Montrose as ' the noble old Gothic castle, with its varied out-
line, embattled walls, towers, and outer and inner courts.'
Pennant seems to have been at Inveraray at the height of
the herring fishing, and describes the hundreds of fishing boats
covering the surface of the Loch, and tells how during the day
the cheering strains of the bagpipes proceeded from the boats,
while the men worked throughout the night at the fishing, and
how on the Sabbath day each boat drew near the land for
devotion, psalm singing, and worship, — the whole being a
scene of decorous edification.

Another traveller, of a different turn of mind from Pennant,
was the late Lord Cockburn, who passed through the same
scenes fifty years ago, and described them in his journals. He
was impressed by the lonely, grey, sterile and sublime char-
acter of the country from Loch Etive to Inveraray, passing by
Loch Awe. Some of the scenes reminded him of David
Roberts' (the artist) pictures of the bare rocky country near
Petra, in Arabia. He regretted the destruction of the timber
which was used to supply the furnaces of the iron works near
Bunawe, and noticed that in some of the ravines heather and
grass seemed scanty. But he was especially indignant at the
neglected condition of Kilchurn Castle, the inside of which was
almost inaccessible, owing to the heaps of ruins which encum-
bered the interior courts, and the masses of crumbling walls in
all directions. Since 1693, when a date intimates that repairs
had been carried on, nothing had been done, and some impor-
tant portions of the castle were giving ominous symptoms of

Argyllshire. 135

decay. Lord Cockburn was very severe upon the noble Mar-
quis of that pei'iod, who could entertain the Queen, exhaust
the powers of art and fancy in decorating Taymouth, spend
£5,000 upon a Gothic marble dairy, and yet refuse to expend
a shilling upon the work of arresting the decay of this great
historic relic.

Certainly it is strange how little regard the old possessors
of these venerable structures seem to have had for what the
proprietors of the present day, as a rule, take pains to
preserve. The old Castle of Inveraray, which was blown
up with gunpowder iu 1745, was a building with many stir-
ring associations clustering round its moss-grown stones. It
was visited by Mary Queen of Scots, who rode from Dunoon
to see her half-sister, the Countess of Argyll, one of the
terrified spectators in the Queen's closet at Holyrood, when
the hapless Rizzio was murdered. Within the old castle also
constantly resided the famous Marquis of Argyll, whence his
correspondence was sent to all parts of Europe ; and here
too lived his son, who met with the same patriot's death
on the scaffold. During the time that the Argyll estates
were under attainder, the castle was the head-quarters of the
Earl of Athole, who drew the rents of the' estates, quartered
his men upon the poor tenants, and thieved and harried the
whole district.

Inveraray has never attained to any size; the founder of
the Castle intended to have built a new town on the west
side of the bay, but beyond a few houses, the old custom-
house, and the hotel, his plan was never carried out. In
the principal street is seen the fine old cross, brought
from Iona, which served for many years as the Town
Cross. And on the grassy plot a little way off is the
curious old cannon taken from the wreck of the Florida, one
of the Spanish Armada, which sank in Tobermory Bay. The
gun, which is of French make, is decorated with the fleur de
lis and emblem of Francis I., and is of the old kind called
' glede gun ' by the natives, the falconet being a term used in
describing old ordnance of the period. Eighty years ago the
pillory was placed in front of the old jail, near the cross, a

136 Argyllshire.

square wooden cage with a door, in which the unfortunates
were incarcerated. An obelisk ot granite standing on the
point of land near the bay, was erected to the memory
of some young gentlemen of good families who were ex-
ecuted by the Earl of Athole, in virtue of the powers which
were given to him of ' fire aud sword ' against all and sundry
who took part against the Stewart government. All the
country around Inveraray abounds, of course, in Gaelic names
and traditions. Of the clans who dwelt in the territory of
Argyll proper, the principal were the M'Naughtans, Monroes,
Macintyres, Mackellars, Mac vicars, Clarks aud Fishers. At one
time also the M'lvors owned land at Inveraray, and there is a
large stone resembling some of the relics of Druidical times,
standing in the lawn near the Castle which was supposed to
mark the boundary between the lands of the M'lvors and
Macvicars. The Macnaughtans were the most powerful of
the clans who held the lands, and there are traces of their
stronghold on a triangle of land close to the bridge over the
Aray. That striking ruin situated on the shores of Loch Fyne
known as Dunderawe Castle, was at one time a strong fortress
of the Macnaughtans. Here John Campbell of Mamore, who
became Duke of Argyll, resided, having come into possession
of the Castle through the forfeiture of a bond of Macnaughtan.
The following inscription is seen in Roman letters over the
door of the Castle : —

I MAN BEHALD THE END BE NOCHT VYSER,
NOR THE HIESTEST,
I HOP IN GOD.

Inveraray has a variable climate, and in winter heavy rains,
hail, frost and snow, alternate with warm sunshine on the same
day. Snow does not remain on the low grounds above a few
days as a rule, and melts off the mountains without doing
much damage to the stock. There are some large woods around
Inveraray and in the Loch Fyne district generally. The
earliest planting of wood, to any extent, was by the Marquis of
Argyll and his unfortunate son the Earl, in whose time most of
the high grounds, the picturesque hill known as Duniquoich,

Argyllshire. 137

the lawn near the Castle, the fine beech avenue near the
entrance, and other plantations, were all laid out. The trees
were mostly oaks, Scotch firs, ashes, beeches, planes and elms.
In 1771 a great addition to the existing plantations took place,
the young trees being cut down at the rate of 3500 to the acrer
or about 4 feet apart, and after 9 years they got their first
thinning. Throughout the parish, and in the county, there
were no turnpike roads, even down to the year 1843. The
highways were the original military roads, and these were
maintained and improved partly at the public expense and
partly at the expense of the county; the Duke of Argyll him-
self making and maintaining many miles of road in all parts
of the parish. The Duke was a great improver in agricultural
matters, and, in 1790, there might have been seen, in the Home
Farm offices, barns with a curious device for drying the sheaves
of corn, several tiers of cross beams being extended from wall
to wall, from each of which descended long poles or spars of
wood, with pegs on all sides about a foot in length. When
the corn was cut, without leaving it to dry in the variable
weather, it was carried into the barns and stuck sheaf by
sheaf on the pegs, when, by the free circulation of air it
was made ready for thrashing.

Near to Inveraray is the fine glen of Glenshira, which
once gave shelter to a considerable population when the
Macuaughtans inhabited the district. In L715 no less than
80 of the Campbells turned out under John Roy Campbell,
the second Duke, who fought at Sheriffmuir, and many
Campbells and Macuaughtans left the glen to fight at
Iuverlochy. There were often disturbances in the glen, in
the early days of the Reformation, between the Protestants
and Catholics, who would meet as they went to church on
different sides of the stream, and discharge their arrows at
one another, a curious preliminary to the services of the
sanctuary. At the upper end of the glen is a beautiful green
knoll called Ben-an-tean, the ' Fairy mountain,' which was
supposed to be a favourite haunt of the sprites. The property
of Boshang, or ' crooked bay,' was given over to the
Marchioness of Argyll by its last owner of the name of

IDS Argyllsliire.

Sinclair, who had no heir, and on this estate the Earl of Hay,
who first introduced the system of confining the red deer
within fences, had a herd within a large enclosure. The ex-
periment did not turn out very satisfactory, as the animals
seemed to pine away, but Duke John of Argyll succeeded
better with the herd of fallow deer which he brought from
the Lowlands.

Throughout many parts of the districts of Argyll which
have been named, red deer are met with, and are carefully
preserved by their owners. Deer stalking is a species of
sport possible only to those who have very ample means, and
its votaiies are always enthusiastic over its excitement and
charms. The stag is a noble animal, with his spreading
antlers, his red hide, smooth and glistening as it catches the
early morning sun rays lighting up the crest of some lofty
peak in the recesses of the Black Mount or Glencoe. He
is seen at his best as he stands in striking profile against
the blue sky, and every few minutes moving down the
hill-side with deliberate pace, as if reconnoitring for unseen
enemies. Usually, unless the deer are massed in a herd, he is
accompanied by one or two hinds, but some stags are lonely
and unsocial, preferring to wander over their bracken-clad
pastures alone. Curiously enough the deer sometimes, though
as a rule difficult to approach, and shunning the vicinity
of man, seem to recognise the shepherds away in their
secluded glens, and appear, by some instinct, to know that
they have nothing to fear from them. There are some red
deer which dwell mostly in the extensive fir plantations of the
county. They are often large and heavy, but the head aud
horns are not so finely developed as in those which frequent
the free mountain side.

Roe deer abound in every district of Argyllshire where
plantations and moors intervene ; graceful creatures, with slim
legs and small head, they enliven the forest glades with their
gambols. Their colour changes from May to October, the skin
and hair being a red brown ; their winter coat is of a fine
dark mouse colour, very long aud close. They destroy
the young shoots of deciduous trees, such as the oak and

A rgy 11 shire. 1 3 9

beech, and strip the fresh tender bark of the larch, completely
peeling the stem. Rose bushes, young ivy leaves, and
corn fields suffer also from them. They delight in solitude,
preferring the recesses of the wood, and in the hot
summer days they frequent the marshes in order to avoid the
torment of the flies. In early summer they sometimes go
great distances to feed in clover fields, when the young plants
are springing up, but nothing delights them so much as the
fields of ripening corn. It is often very difficult to get a shot
at them in the woods, for they keep very close under cover,
avoiding the open, and when chased by dogs they will elude
them with long graceful bounds, though, if driven into open
ground, they soon become exhausted by the superior staying
power of the dogs.

Of the larger birds of prey there are many specimens found
in the county, the great inaccessible cliffs on the higher moun-
tains, and the stupendous precipices of Mull, Eigg, and other
of the islands, affording shelter for their eyries. Both the
golden eagle and the sea eagle are found, though iu decreas-
ing numbers, and they may be seen circling far overhead amid
the wilds of Glencoe and the Blackmount, or skimming along
the crests of the beetling crags of Mull and Islay. The eyrie
of the golden eagle is almost always in a precipice diffi-
cult of access without a rope, while the nest is generally
sheltered by an overhanging ledge of rock. It is composed of
a vast mass of sticks, heather, ferns, and grass, and there are
generally two eggs. They are believed to be rather an
advantage than otherwise in a deer forest, for if the eagles
carry off an occasional weakly red-deer calf, they destroy
the blue hares in numbers, thus benefitting the deer. No
doubt on a sheep farm this fine bird does much harm at the
lambing season, but if the eggs are taken, as the eagle rarely
lays a second time when its nest has been robbed, it is relieved
from the necessity of providing food for its clamorous young.
That grand column or promontory, the Scaur of Eigg, has long
afforded an eyrie for the sea eagle, which generally selects
some inaccessible platform, or rough crevice in the rock, where
the nest is placed, consisting of a bundle of sticks, branches of

1 40 .1 rgyllshire.

heather, and pieces of" turf, with a little wool by way of lining.
On rare occasions the sea eagle has made its nest on a secluded
islet in some unfrequented loch, selecting, as it did some yeai-s
ago, a rowan tree on an island in Loch-na-Ban in the north-
west of Argyllshire ; the nest, an enormous structure, present-
ing an extraordinary appearance. The osprey, that splendid
bird, used regularly to build on the ruined tower of Kilchurn
Castle, and could be seen in its circling flight, poised
over the dark surface of the loch, but it is now only a very
rare visitant, and does not breed in the locality. Sea birds in
great variety are found frequenting the innumerable lochs and
sounds of the seaboard of Argyllshire, from the great solan
goose, which may be seen in long strings of a dozen and more
winging their way round Ardnamurchan point of an evening,
probably to their favourite haunt of St. Kilda, to the little rest-
less sandpiper skimming the surface of the sea, or standing on
an isolated stone, on the verge of the shore, with its body
vibrating as it querulously salutes the intruder.

Of game-birds, as may be supposed, there is a great
variety in the county. Few of the largest of the species, the
capercaillie, are to be met with, though of late they have
begun to appear in the Appin district. This fine game-
bird was one of the delicacies of the royal table in the time of
James the Sixth, as appears from certain instructions given to
the purveyors to have birds forwarded to meet the King at
Durham. The capercaillie seems to have disappeared about
the year 1758 from Scotland, until it was re-introduced in the
present century by the Marquis of Breadalbane and Sir James
Colquhoun. The black grouse, the red grouse, and the
ptarmigan are too abundant to require much notice, and the
moors all over the county afford splendid sport to annually
increasing numbers of visitors. The food of the grouse con-
sists of young heather shoots, and the tops of various Alpine
plants, though it is very fond of picking any farm produce,
especially oats, which may chance to be planted on the
reclaimed patches of moorlands. Black grouse are not so
common as the red grouse. Their food is much the same,
though the blackcock in winter will feed upon the foliage of

Argyllshire. 141

the common polypody fern. Curiously enough, too, this
species cannot be naturalised in Ireland, though repeated
attempts have been made to introduce it.

In Argyllshire will be found most of the birds indigenous to
the country, as well as the numerous summer migrants which
annually visit our shores. A great variety of sea-birds is
found in the Appin district, and in the creeks off the Linn he
Loch there will often be encountered the scaup ducks, guille-
mots, razor-bills, cormorants, goosanders, black-backed gulls,
whimbrels, terns, sheldrakes, and oyster- catchers, — the latter
being seen in numbers flitting about the sea-beach, skilfully
overturning the limpets and scooping out the fish. The shel-
drakes are plentiful also on all the islands off the coast, a
handsome and showily-plumed bird, haunting the wet sands
and searching for its food, chiefly the minute bivalves found
in the muddy estuaries of streams. Its nesT is frequently
found in rocky holes, or excavations scooped in the sand.
The eggs are large and of beautiful colour, and the little
downy brood dive and double under water, when disturbed,
with surprising agility. That tiny little songster, the gold-
crested wren, is common, and the brilliantly plumed kingfisher
has of recent years been frequen+ing the Appin district, and
startling the pedestrian by some lone stream with its shifting
hues of bright emerald and scarlet. Strange to say, the star-
ling, so common a visitant over Scotland, only appeared in the
Benderloch district, near Lochnell House, in 1863, from whence
it made its way across to Barcaldine Castle. In almost every
burn is seen flitting from stone to stone, uttering his sweet
trilling note, the beautiful form of the water-ouzel, or dipper,
always keeping quite close to the wanderer whose steps are
directed near his haunts. This familiar bird delights in deep
linns and brawling rapids, and builds its nest, with its four
lovely, pure white eggs, embedded in soft moss, generally in
some little suspected spot, often under a ledge of earth thickly
bedewed with the constant spray of a waterfall.

The condition of agriculture throughout the county has
wonderfully improved of recent years, and the tenant farmers,
as a rule, are a fine set of industrious, intelligent men. Up to

142 Argyllshire.

the date of the abolition of the feudal system in 1745, and on
to 1820, a bad state of affairs prevailed, but matters have
greatly advanced since then, and there are some large farms
with all the latest improvements in steading and implements.
In 1891 not above 128,000 acres of land were under cultivation;
the stock of cattle throughout the county being 60,000, and
about a million of sheep. The abolition of the feudal system,
the conversion of corn rents, or those of service and kind into
money, the construction of the Caledonian and Crinan Canals,
the suppression of smuggling, improvements in roads, spread
of education, the introduction of farming suitable to soil and
climate, diffusion of information as to agriculture in general,
and steam navigation, have all contributed to a better state of
matters, though more in the direction of improving stock than
husbandry. Much of the earlier improvements effected in
agriculture, in this as in other counties, was no doubt due to
the monks, who paid great attention to the cultivation of the
soil. Even as far back as the 13th century, agricultural
carriages of various descriptions were used, not only for
harvest purposes and for transport of peats from the moors,
but for carrying the wool of the monastery to the nearest sea-
port, and bringing in exchange salt, coals, fish, and sea-borne
commodities. On the estates of the monasteries, water-mills
and wind-mills were used for grinding corn previously
to the 13th century, and in Argyllshire the rude process of the
hand-mill kept its ground down to quite a recent period.
Everywhere strict rules were made for the protection of grow-
ing corn and hay meadows; even wheat was cultivated, and
wheaten bread used on holidays. The high value set upon
pasturage, whether for sheep or cattle, was shown by its
frequent clashing with the rights of game found in the forest,
and by the strict prohibitions against tillage within the bounds
of forests and pasture ranges. This arose, however, chiefly from
a wish to preserve the solitude and quiet necessary for en-
couraging the red deer. The general introduction of sheep-
farming into the Highlands, which has so often been blamed
for causing a great deterioration in the condition of the natives

Argyllshire. 143

largely affected the county of Argyll ; but from a variety of
causes it is much less remunerative now than formerly.

The soil of the greater portion of Argyll is light ;
there is not much strong clay land, which needs extensive
pulverisation. Great tracts of waste lands exist in the
county capable of cultivation. Much of the moorland, in
part covered with heather and in part with peat grass, might
be reclaimed, and the peat earth might be ploughed, covered
with lime, harrowed and manured, so as to yield a good
return. The soft boggy land is more difficult to improve,
but pays better in the long run, as it is chiefly composed
of rich mud and sediment washed down from the higher
grounds, and, when properly drained, makes the finest of
soil. Moss lands are more difficult and costly to reclaim, as
the moss being often from 2 to 8 feet in depth, needs very
deep drains. By the end of 1795 agricultural affairs had cer-
tainly considerably improved, and the Duke of Argyll had in-
troduced various measures which benefitted those who culti-
vated his extensive estates. From the elaborate report pub-
lished for the Board of Agriculture by the Rev. Dr. Smith, of
Campbeltown, we learn a great deal as to the condition of
agriculture throughout the county generally, which may pro-
fitably be studied by those who know its present position.
Farms were of large size, a good many of them being
possessed by tenants in runrig ; the author of the report ob-
serves that, as far back as the days of Pliny, it was found that
large farms were ruining Italy, and so they will every country,
by discouraging population, and destroying the independence
of the natives by putting too much land in the hands of few
cultivators. The Duke's estate in Kiutyre then yielded about
£7,000 of rental, he was a generous landlord who encouraged
the rural population and preferred farms of moderate size, so
giving employment to many hands. Not much land was let
by the acre, the soil being of such diverse quality. Its value
ranged from two to fifteen shillings per acre for arable ground,
although in the neighbourhood of Campbeltown choice land
let for £3 per acre. On the larger estates the rents were gener-
ally paid in money, but on smaller holdings they were often

144 Argyllshire.

paid in produce, and there was usually some special burden
in the shape of servitude for the maintenance of roads. Leases
were generally for 19 years, but often there were none, and
there were not many covenants in the lease, though the Duke
usually enjoined upon his tenants to drain and enclose their
holdings to a certain extent. Many of the proprietors brought
ploughmen from the Lowland country, and the Duke even in-
duced some farmers from England to settle on his estate in
Kintyre.

Cultivation was carried on in a primitive fashion ; often there
were four horses yoked to the plough abreast, and the driver
walked before them backwards, while sometimes, when there
were two horses, no driver was required. Oats was the crop
commonly cultivated, and potatoes were generally grown,
being about the only green crop, although turnips are well
adapted to the soil and country. Polish oats were much used,
and red (Peebles) oats found general favour, but all kinds of
seed needed to be often changed. Beans were not much culti-
vated, pease were little grown, and wheat was coming
more into demand in the deep loam lands near Campbeltown.
Flax also was coming into use, but its culture was not well
understood, though it proved a very profitable crop. Black
cattle were the great article of export, constituting as they
did the chief part of the live stock in the southern parts
of the county, and were of a small hardy breed. A good
many dairy farms existed, especially in the Kintyre district,
and the produce found ready market. The feeding of cows
upon pasture lands was profitable, though there was consider-
able difference in various localities, some of the farmers
growing kail and clover in their gardens to feed their cows
wheu housed. Sheep were only then coming into genei'al
request, and the Duke did much to encourage the breed of
black-faced animals, though Cheviots were on the increase.
Smaller farmers were also having the advantage of improv-
ing their tillage so as to combine farming and stock rearing.
On one large estate the experiment was tried of letting to
about twenty-five of the former tenants one extensive farm, —
the rent being proportionately advanced. All the arable

Argyllshire. 145

land, and as much more as was capable of cultivation, was
divided into as many shares as there were families settled
od each lot. The farm was wrought with plough, spade and
mattock, these methods being often combined to ensure greater
efficiency and economy. At the same time the tenants made
common stock and sent their animals to the mountain grazing,
employing one shepherd to take charge of them all. Every-
thing went on well, flocks were increasing, the fields yielded
excellent crops, private land was profitably added to the
holdings, and enough and to spare was raised for the families
on the farm, while the women spun the wool and sold the
yarn. The experiment was fairly and successfully tried, and
from a hundred to a hundred and fifty souls paid their rent
and gained their support from one farm. Unfortunately it was
believed that they could dispense with the mountain close by
on which the sheep were pastured, and very soon a complete
change came about ; profits fell off and the whole enterprise
failed, showing how essential an element was the valuable hill
pasture. Argyllshire abounds with good pasture lands, and
the young shoots of the heather, the year after it has been
burnt, afford suitable food for sheep.

Great part of the ground was once covered with wood, and
every moss and moor shows remains of the ancient forest,
through which the bear and the wolf roamed and found their
prey in deep glade and grassy hollow. Even at so recent a
period as the commencement of this century, the woods in the
county were held of such little account, especially in the
inland districts, that a large fir plantation in Grlenurchay was
sold to a company of Irish adventurers for little more than a
third of a penny for each tree. But when the iron furnaces
were started near Inveraray and Bona we a change took place,
and large quantities of fine woods were sold at enhanced
prices. The oak and other deciduous trees were commonly
cut every twenty years, except such a number of large trees
as might be agreed on. !So much of the timber was sold, the
rest was made into charcoal and the oak bark was sent to the
tanner. Proprietors were fond of encouraging the growth of
oaks by cutting away any other trees which interfered with
xxiv. 10

14(5 Argyllshire.

them. The soil of the country was most favourable for plant-
ing and raising timber, much of it being dry, and the climate
warm and humid. Even on exposed situations such as a farm
of Rosshill in Kintyre, standing on an elevated promontory
facing the broad waters of the Atlantic, between Islay and the
north of Ireland, there was at one time a complete covering of
ancient forest. Some of these great trunks of oak and fir
trees have been dug up in mosses, at an elevation of over 1000
feet above the sea level, and such will be found to be the case
all over the coast.

Looking to the present state of agriculture and sheep farm-
ing in the country, it must be admitted that a wonderful im-
provement has taken place in every parish. In many parts
the landlords have, for years, drawn little revenue from the
land, it being mostly spent upon improvements of various
descriptions. Of recent years much has been heard of the
grievances under which the crofters, who are found in num-
bers throughout the county, have been suffering, and it is right
that their condition should, if possible, be improved. The intro-
duction of the extensive sheep-farming system, so general over
the Highlands, had naturally the effect of reducing the popu-
lation. The natives were never wealthy, — inhabitants of wild,
mountainous districts do not grow rich, — but many of the
crofters and small farmers possessed their six or eight head of
cattle, and their small flock of sheep, and when the corn crop
turned out a failure, the sale of a few cattle or sheep more
than served to pay their rent, and enabled them to purchase
sufficient meal and corn in the Lowlands for the winter's
supply. In this way they were better off than the labourers
and mechanics of the Lowlands, who in bad years had to
depend on corn almost exclusively, and owing to a rise in pro-
visions might be in considerable straits. When the sheep farm
and clearance system began, numbers of the natives betook
themselves to the coast and began an amphibious life as
crofters and fishermen, often located on moss covered and
ungenial soil, amid depressing surroundings. In Glenurchay,
for instance, there used to be, close to the clachan of Dalmally,
about fifteen small crofters on a plot of ground where now

Argyllshire. 147

there is not one. Near Kilchnrn there are at present some
crofts, favourable specimens of their kind, consisting of thir-
teen or fourteen acres, each supporting a horse and two or
three cows, with a hill in common for pasture, and the occu-
pants are all well to do and contented. An English gentle-
man who, some years ago, rented the shootings in Glenurchay,
made a small deer forest near the Blackmount. He had two
farms, with sheep on them most of the year. When he
came to shoot he removed the sheep to another farm, at some
distance, so that the deer were not disturbed by the sheep. In
spite of much misrepresentation, it has been distinctly ascer-
tained that the supply of mutton and wool has, in no appre-
ciable degree, been lessened by all the deer forests which have
been made throughout the Highlands.

The geological features of the county are marked. The
mainland consists of various primary strata covered by newer
formations. Granite composes the great mountain masses in
the north-east part of the county, but mica slate predominates in
the formation of the mainland and islands. Limestone abounds
eveiywhere, and forms the whole rock in the large and fertile
island of Lismore. In Argyllshire we have abundant evidence
of the great upheaval from the sea, which covered all Scot-
land, of the schist, gneiss, and quartz rocks of the High-
lands. At first the surface may have risen in great broad
ridges, and throughout ages, as the vast rain torrents fell, they
cut for themselves ways to the sea, the drainage would collect
in streams and the action of springs and frost would cleave
deep chasms, and valieys would gradually be formed. Were
it possible to take a bird's eye glance over the entire
surface of Scotland, after it was freed from the first great ice
shroud of the glacial period, it would be seen that the land had
its marked contour of rounded and smooth hills, with valleys
between.

Many of the glens opening from the estuary of the Clyde,
and cutting deep into Argyllshire, show the rocks on their sides
regularly striated. No doubt local glaciers at one time filled all
these valleys with their vast masses of glittering blue ice. The
striations on the rocks seem to be parallel with the axis of the

148 Argyllshire.

valleys, in some of which may be seen accumulations of gravel
and clay like elongated embankments run across the valleys,
while others are parallel, like the lateral and terminal moraines
of Switzerland. The smoothing process to which the land was
subjected in that remote period, may be seen in Loch Ridden,
and in Glendaruel, opening from the head of that arm of the
sea. The islets on the Loch shew on their rocky surface
freshly smoothed and striated markings, and on examining the
faces of the crags in the valley, similar scratchings prove
how the whole mass of ice which filled the glen produced the
striations so distinctly visible. Evidently it was the same
resistless agent which caused this effect, and the long par-
allel marks on the rocks can be followed as they slant over
the west side of the glen, and pass across the Cowal mountains
to Loch Fyne. The Duke of Argyll, in the course of his scien-
tific explorations, found many striated markings on the hill tops
above Loch Fyne, as far up as 1800 feet above the Loch, all of
them running parallel with the valley, like those seen at a
lower level.

Similar processes affecting the contour and appearance of
the land, can be observed in the more northern part of the
county, about Loch Leven and the Linnhe Loch. It is evident
that all along the coast, here and elsewhere, the ancient sea
margins were at a considerable height above the present ones.
At Ballachulish the Loch is contracted to about 150 yards in
width, the terraces upheaved being of flat surface resting on
rock. They are of uniform height, their gravelly surface being
shaped by the same agent, one very distinct terrace existing,
about 65 feet above the Loch, in the grounds of Ballachulish
house. At Connel Ferry, at the entrance of Loch Etive, as
you walk up from the gravel promontory at Ardgour, two
similar terraces may be seen at the height of 43 and 64 feet
above the water. Near the Black Mount there is a lovely sheet
of water, Loch Tulla, and on the rugged hill side above the lake
there is distinct evidence, from the gravel terrace marks, that a
large body of water once existed far above the present level. It
is difficult to ascertain what kept the water in its place, unless
the masses of detritus found plentifully in man}' of the valleys

A rgyllshire. 1 49

constituted a sort of dam. The revelations of geology would
seem to go far to prove that, at a remote period, the whole
of Scotland was submerged to the height of nearly 2000 feet,
and this is ascertained by the finding of quantities of soft
detrital masses, mixed with marine shells, whose superficial
formations bear marks of former levels of sea, at intervals, up
to at least 1200 feet. Nowhere is this remarkable natural
feature more distinctly brought out, than in the well known
instance of the parallel roads of Grlenroy in Inverness-shire.
These terraces are of varying breadth, in some places project-
ing only a few feet from the hill side, in others broadening out
into noble pathways 18 or 20 yards wide. The lowest terrace
is 972 feet above the sea level, the second 1184 feet, and the
highest 1266 feet.

Loch Awe affords a good example of how changes have been
brought about through the agency of vast ice streams slowly
moving clown from the mountains on their way to the sea.
The present outflow of the Loch, through the Pass of Brander, is
comparatively recent, and has been cleft in the lofty ridge of moun-
tains extending from B jn Cruachan awav to the Sound of Jura.
A more recent period must be given to the excavation of the
valley into a long lake basin, and the cutting of a passage
through the Pass of Brander, which may be assigned to the
glacial epoch, while the origin of the main valley of Loch Awe
takes us back to a remote past. While the mass of water was
dammed back by hard rock, the smoothed and polished sur-
face of the barrier, and the striations parallel with the length of
the valley, show that the great mass of ice which once filled up
the present basin of the lake must have passed down the con-
tinuation of the valley towards Kilmartin. In Loch Fyne the
changes in the adjoining land, and in the rocks recovering from
effects of glaciation, and returning to their former condition, may
be distinctly seen. Opposite Tarbert the rocks are of hard quartz,
finely ice worn and smoothed, with numerous striated marks in
their lower parts, protected from decay, owing partly to their
recent upheaval, and partly from being coated with boulder
clay. Above the high water mark the rocks have begun to
shiver and split up.

150 Argyllshire.

In the Sunart and Morven districts gneiss is the prevailing
rock, with granite interspersed near Strontian, and trap rock near
Ardnamurchan. East of the Linnhe Loch the lower rocks are
chiefly mica slate and clay slate, a continuation of the strata
forming the great range of the South Grampians. Mica slate,
the oldest of these formations, is the main component of the
noble and wild mountain peaks near Loch Fyne and Loch Long.
In the Appin district the quartz rock prevails, and its surface
crops up in many places where the landscape is bare and sterile.
In Iona again we have the Lauren tian gneiss, which indeed
forms the whole mass of the outer Hebrides, and is the basis of
nearly all the mountain ranges in the north-west of Scotland.
In Iona this rock formation consists of a great series of strata,
slate, quartz, marble with serpentine, and a mixture of felspar,
quartz and hornblende passing into a composition nearly resem-
bling granite. Opposite are the great mountains of Mull, com-
posed almost entirely of volcanic rocks. Some of the trap
mountains of Mull rest on beds of old red sandstone ; a few are
piled on strata of oolite and lias ; others cover the debris of
chalk, and belong to a more recent period than the middle Terti-
aries. The Duke of Argyll, in his work on Iona, points out the
remarkable fact that, ' in a line between Iona and the headland
of Bourg there is a low basaltic promontory called Ardtun, which
has revealed to us the fact that once there existed on this area
some great country covered with the magnificent vegetation of
the warmer climates of the Miocene age."

From Loch Fyne the chlorite slate runs away into Knapdale
in Kintyre. Clay slate is less common on the mainland, but
occurs at Ballachulish, where it has long been quarried, as also
at Oban and the adjacent islands, and at Dunoon and Toward in
the Cowal district. It is often a dark coloured rock, crystals and
iron pyrites being found in what is the lowest Silurian forma-
tions. To the same may be assigned the quartz rocks of Appin
and the lower end of Glencoe, and of Islay and Jura. The island
of Lismore, in the Linnhe Loch, known in the Gaelic by its more
poetic name, Lios-more, the ' great garden,' is an instance of pure
limestone formation, a narrow ridge of land 8 miles long, uneven in
places, but mostly green, fertile, and well watered. The island used

A rgyllshire. 151

to be the seat of a bishop, who was styled indifferently bishop of
Argyll or of Lismore, but there is no trace either of a cathedral
or of the bishop's residence. There are slight remains of several
old castles along the shores, and one remarkable round fort, with
a gallery within the wall like the Pictish towers. In the low flat
island of Tiree marble is found, often with imbedded crystals.
Green hornblende occurs in beds of gneiss in that island, and it
is famous for the vein of peculiar flesh coloured marble, which
used to be more in favour than now for ornamental purposes.
Manv remains of watch towers and forts, within view of one
another, encircle the coast of Tiree, and it has 9 or 10 curious
standing stones. This island is absolutely destitute of wood, with
the exception of a small species of willow, but it is rich in beauti-
ful pasture of the finest quality. In Mull, Morven, and Ardna-
murchan, are found beds of stone belonging to lias, oolite and
even cretaceous formation, underlying the trap rocks. Leaf beds,
with remains of Miocene plants, have been discovered in the trap
tufa of Mull by the Duke of Argyll, and here and there through-
out the county may be observed the old red sandstone.

Argyllshire is not rich in minerals, but true coal has been
wrought at Campbeltown, no doubt a continuation of the Ayrshire
beds. In 1872 the lead mines of Strontian, in Sunart, yielded
12 tons of lead ore. In 1849 the Duke of Argyll discovered a
vein of arsenical nickel near Inveraray. Fine specimens of cross
stones have been discovered in Strontian, also blood stones in
Rum, and nutrolite and other zeolites in the trap rocks of Mull,
Morven and Lorn. Felspar and porphyries in many varieties
are found in Glencoe, and in the mountains near Loch Fyne.
In the island of Rum are met with pale onyx agates, fine helio-
tropes, and two beautiful sorts of pitchstone, one black, the other
olive green.

One feature in the geology of the county remains to be noticed,
viz., the remarkable boulders which exist in a good many districts.
These strange stones are sometimes found in clustersthick together
or standing alone, poised on the edge of a rock, where they attract
the attention of the least observant of the natives. On examina-
tion they appear to be markedly different in their composition and
character from the surrounding rocks, and many an ancient

152 - 1 rgylUMre.

legend and fairy tale has originated from the grey boulder
resting on some lonely moor. Crusted with lichens or mosses,
and with tufts of heather or hare bell all around the cracks and
fissures which sometimes seam their sides, these curiously shaped
blocks stand as the mute witnesses of some wondrous phenomenon
of nature. It is not likely that they can have been transported by
rivers, they cannot have been upheaved in some tremendous flood
or devastation of water. Huge boulders, shown by their composi-
tion to be of northern rocks, are found clustered frequently on
the mountain peaks at an elevation of 1500 or 2000 feet above
the present sea level. One remarkable boulder is on the hill
above Carrick Castle on Loch Goil, locally known as the ' stone
nicely balanced,' at the height of 1526 feet above the sea. It is
of gneiss, and rests on rocks of clay slate of enormous size, and
lies within a few yards of a precipitous rocky cliff nearly 600 feet
high. It could by no possibility have fallen there from any hill.
Another, 450 feet above the sea, is near the junction of Loch
Goil and Loch Long, an immense mass of stone lying on a small
platform of rock. It is locally known as the ' Giant's Putting
Stone,' as it was believed that in olden times giants lived on
both sides of Loch Long, and were in the habit of amusing
themselves by throwing these boulders across the loch. Pulag
boulder, a large block of gneiss about 7 feet high, lies about 824
feet above the loch, near Glenfinnart, and is almost on the edge
of a precipice which goes down at least 200 feet. It could not
have been rolled or pushed to its present position. As there is
no rock of a similar character within 80 or 100 miles, it follows
that the only agency which could have transplanted these great
blocks was that of ice. Their arrival in the positions they now
occupy must be assigned to a remote glacial period, when part
of the country was under the sea, and snow fields and glaciers
filled the valleys. Immense bergs and ice rafts drifted over the
surface of the sea, carrying boulders to and fro, and occasionally
dropped them over the submerged land.

Argyllshire is especially rich in archeeological remains, which
are scattered over both mainland and islands, and afford endless
material for speculation and study. Of ancient ecclesiastical
structures the most interesting are to be found in Iona, ' once the

Argyllshire. 15

luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and
roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the bless-
ings of religion.' St. Oran's Chapel is the oldest building on the
island, and in all probability it marks the site of the still humbler
church of wood and wattles in which Columba worshipped. The
building, which is roofless, though the walls are still intact, was
erected by the good Queen Margaret, the consort of Malcolm
Can more, to the memory of Columba, about the year 1070. No
feature of the ruin is more striking than the beautiful Norman
arched doorway, with three rows of beak head ornaments, some-
what similar to the doorway in Queen Margaret's Chapel in
Edinburgh Castle, erected about the same time. Inside is the
tomb of St. Oran, with a triple arch canopy over it, in the early
Gothic style probably of the 13th century. A little way off is
thv^ Reilig Odhrain, the ancient burying place of Iona, to which
spot for more than a thousand years were carried kings and chiefs,
even^rom the far distant shores of Norway, that their bodies
might mingle with the dust of the holy isle. The cathedral is
the principal ruin on the island, and is of two distinct periods of
architecture, the latest beino; the 14th centurv. Its chief feature
is the tower, which stands on four cylindrical pillars of Norman
design, and is about 70 feet high, divided into three stories. Per-
haps the most interesting remains upon the island are the curious
and beautiful tombstones and crosses which lie in the Reilig
Odhrain, although thev are removed bv hundreds of vears from
the time of Columba. Some of them with Runic sculptures, may
be as old as the 9th century, the date of the commencement of
the Danish invasion.

It is in the southern part of the county, and more particularly
in Kin tyre and Knapdale, that the most remarkable antiquities
are to be found. All along that rugged coast there are to be
seen ruined castles, which were once strongholds of the old chief-
tains who owned the soil. At one time Tarbert Castle, the most im-
portant position on the Argyllshire coast, was bestowed by King
Robert the Bruce on the son of Walter, the High Steward.
When the Lords of the Isles ruled in all their pride of royal
state, Kintvre was reckoned part of their dominions. On many
points along the coast are found the remains of Danish forts, the

1 54 A rgylhhire.

most considerable of them being the Castle of Aird at Carradale.
On the promontory of Skipness are the rains of Skipness
Castle, of great antiquity, supposed to have been built by the
Danes. One of the most interesting parishes in Kintyre is Kil-
colmkill, in South Knapdale, with its ancient church, dedicated
to the memory of Columba, finely situated in a retired spot, and
having a grand sea view over to the Irish coast. The enclosed
burying-ground beside the church is full of mouldering tombs, of
a date not earlier than the 13th century, and there are caves in
the adjacent precipices which are supposed to have afforded
shelter to Columba, while he sojourned here during his missionary
wanderings. It is believed that the saint often touched at this
spot, when on his various journeys between Scotland and Ireland.
The well in a rock close by is called the Priest's, or Holy-well.
From the green knoll near the church, with the pedestal of an
ancient cross still embedded in the turf on its summit, Columba
was in the habit of addressing the crowds who flocked to hear him
preach the Gospel.

Argyllshire has had a very disturbed ecclesiastical history.
Towards the close of the 8th century, strange ships began to
appear on the northern seas, with prows moulded like eagle
beaks, and sterns tapering like a dragou's tail, impelled by
rowers of savage look. From Norway and Denmark they came
like a terrible tempest, expending their wrath and fury upon the
wretched inhabitants, slaughtering and spoiling, and leaving the
coasts a scene of desolation. Even the sanctuary of Iona had no
exemption from the ruthless marauders, and neither its hallowed
fane, nor the simple lives of the inhabitants, could procure it re-
verence in the eyes of these barbarians. In the Annals of Ulster,
a.d. 802, it is recorded that Icolmkill was burned by these sea
robbers, and four years afterwards its destruction was completed
by the slaughter of the whole community of sixty-eight souls.
Gradually, as the light of Christianity began to spread in these
regions, and a more settled state of affairs prevailed under the
early kings of Scotland, the monastic and religious structures
arose, endowed by the piety of monarchs and nobles, whose ruins
have become such picturesque landmarks. The ancient religious

Argyllshire. 155

edifices, throughout Argyllshire generally, were long in propor-
tion to their breadth, and the windows were usually small, of
lancet type, and the eastern gable unornamented with the fine
windows of the cathedral pattern. But the monks knew well
how to choose favourable sites for their abodes, frequently select-
ing islands where they would be less liable to intrusion. Thus
we find they selected Iona, Tiree, Mull, Oronsay, famous in
Culdee history, even going as far away as St. Kilda, where, on
the west side of the little village, is the ruin of a small church,
twenty-four feet long and fourteen broad. In South Knapdale
there used to be seven ancient chapels, but the remains of only
three can now be traced — one of them, Cove Chapel, on a beauti-
ful situation near the sea, has its west gable nearly entire. It
was dedicated to the memory of St. Columba, and many tradi-
tions of the saint linger about the place, but it has been greatly
injured of recent years by workmen wantonly pulling down the
stones for building purposes.

In the parish of Saddell, on the east of Kintyre, are situated
in a sequestered grove, the interesting remains of an ancient
abbey. Though not of great extent, they include some walls,
arches, doorways, and a few very old monuments and crosses,
chiefly of the Macdonalds. Both Somerlid and Rognvald,
two £reat ancestors of the Lords of the Isles, have the credit of
founding the Abbey, which, after having been richly endowed,
was, with all its possessions, annexed by James IV. to the
bishopric of Argyll. It is believed that part of the present
mansion of Saddell was constructed of stones removed from the
venerable abbey, and a gravestone has actually been inserted in
the walls of the house. The stables bear unmistakeable evidence
of being built from the ruins. In the Church of Saddell there
used to be a curious custom of exposing prominently before the
congregation a human skull, so that they should be reminded of
the inevitable approach of death. In the island of Gigha there
is the ruin of an old chapel, in which is the burial place of the
Macneills, who long possessed the island, and from the notices of
Pennant, Martin, and Sinclair, who all visited Gigha, it must
have contained numerous stone crosses and memorial stones, not
now to be seen.

156 Argyllshire.

Throughout the county there are many secluded spots where
crosses of very antique type are still standing, as also in some of
the islands off its rugged coast. Usually the cross consists
of a long tapering pillar of stone, with two flat faces and
flat edges, and from 12 to 14 feet in height. Both faces
and sides are decorated with curved patterns, cut deep and
bold, to enhance the richness of the effect. The crosses on the
mainland present the same features as those of the islands, of
Iona especially. The patterns are divided into panels on the
faces, each panel having a separate tableau, as hunting scenes,
dogs pursuing deer, warriors, and ladies, archers, galleys, griffins,
various birds, beasts, leaf foliage, plait work and intricate designs
of great beauty. M'Millan's Cross at Kilmory is one of the
finest in the whole of the West Highlands. It stands about 9
feet above the pedestal, but bears no evidence as to its date or his-
tory. It must, however, have been erected to the memory of some
distinguished chief of the clan. On one side is the figure of our
Saviour on the Cross, and two attendant figures adorned with the
nimbus. The figure of our Lord, though rude, has a certain telling-
expression and power, as will be found in similar examples of Celtic-
carving. On the reverse side is more of scroll and plait work, a stag-
hunt, in which the animals are drawn with spirit, a warrior brand-
ishing a battle-axe, and an inscription. In North Knapdale there
is much to interest, not only in its archaeological associations, but
also in its scenery which is varied and beautiful. On the road
sides, as you walk along, you see in their season the hawthorn in
blossom, with honeysuckle twining round its stem, myriads of
primroses and blue bells amid the scattered copses of pale green
birch, oak, hazel and ash. Of flowers there is a rich choice, white
and red roses, sweet scented briers, purple foxgloves, great tall
golden iris, ragged robin, forget-me-nots, white and mauve orchises,
and many other flowerets of exquisite hues. And everywhere along
the coast are the lichen-clad grey crags and solitary boulders,
with the restless gleaming ocean laving the strand, and the blue
misty ranges of Jura in the distance. Then of bird life there
is an infinite variety — wild ducks, teal, widgeons, mergansers,
black and white oyster catchers, sandpipers, dottrel, sea swallows,
curlews, cormorants, gulls, kittiwakes, herons with their harsh

A Journalist in Literature. 157

unmusical scream, and the brilliant tinted sheldrake, as large as
a goose, splendidly plumed, with scarlet bill, and orange, black,
and white feathers.

W. C. Maughan.

Art. VII.— A JOURNALIST IN LITERATURE.

1. Criticisms on Contemporary Thought and Thinkers. Selected

from the Spectator. By Richard Holt Hutton, M.A.
(London). Macmillan & Co. 1894.

2. Literary Essays. By the same. Third Edition. 1888.

3. Theological Essays. By the same. Third Edition. 1888.

4. Essays on some of the Modern Guides of English Thought in

Matters of Faith. By the same. 1888.

WITH the exception of a volume on Sir Walter Scott con-
tributed to the English Men of Letters series, a study of
Cardinal Newman contributed to the English Leaders of Re-
ligion series, and various articles in magazines which have not
been collected and republished, these five volumes represent
the litei'ary output of a writer who has been a power in British
thought and criticism for at least two generations. It is evi-
dent from the dedication of the two most recently published
of these volumes that Mr. Hutton has elected to be regarded
as a journalist in literature rather than as a man of letters in
journalism. He alludes almost with a sigh to ' the temporary
form for which alone they were intended.' I imagine too,
that they are but little altered from this ' temporary form.'
The ' I ' of the personal critic has taken the place of the ' we '
of anonymity — voila tout. The fact, however, that these
volumes are entirely composed of (originally) anonymous con-
tributions to journalism, does not take from their charm, but
positively adds to their value. They give in spirit — I do not
now speak of opinions or even of style — the high water mark
of self-respecting journalism. Mr. Leslie Stephen, in one of
those essays of his which are the embodiments of level-

158 A Journalist in Literature.

headedness, and are written in a style that may be de-
scribed as Johnsonese up to date, discourses thus admirably
on journalism.

' When my young friends consult me as to the conditions of successful
journalism, my first bit of advice comes to this : know something really ;
at any rate try to know something ; be the slave of some genuine idea,
or you will be the slave of a newspaper— a bit of mechanism instead of a
man. You can carry on the business with self-respect — whatever your
success— if it is also something more than a business ; if, for example, you
can honestly feel that you are helping on the propaganda of sound
principle, denouncing real grievances, and speaking from genuine belief.
. . . Every man ought to believe that truth is attainable, and endeavour
with all his power to attain it. He should study the great problems of the
day historically ; for he must know how they have arisen ; what previous
attempts have been made to solve them ; how far reeent suggestions are
mere reproductions of exploded fallacies ; and so qualify himself to see
things in their true relations as facts in a great process of evolution. He
should endeavour to be philosophical, in spirit, so far at least as to seek to
base his opinions upon general principle, and to look at the events of the
day from a higher point of view than personal or party expediency.'

There could scarcely be formed a better working creed for
journalism— or rather for that department of journalism which
concerns itself not with simply recording the facts of contem-
porary history, but with pronouncing an opinion as to their ten-
dency or their inwardness. Nor would Mr. Hutton, I should
say, greatly object to endorse it in essentials at all events as
his own, although he and Mr. Stephen look at most things,
especially Theology and Ethics, from very different standpoints.
By example rather than by precept, he has fought against the
tendency of journalism to become what Mr. Morley has styled
an engine for keeping discussion on a low level. It is im-
possible to conceive him becoming the slave of any newspaper
— even of his own. It is impossible to imagine him spinning
sentences against time much less in disobedience to conscience.
It is quite possible to conceive of his sinking his personality,
but it is quite impossible to conceive of his sinking true dig-
nity of character, in anonymity. Above all things, Mr. Hutton
has always had what Mr. Stephen terms a ' philosophy ' to
guide him. He expresses opinions upon most things on
earth, and not a few things in heaven as well, as becomes an

A Journalist in Literature. 159

open-eyed and open-eared journalist. But that opinion is
never a mere aimless intellectual excursion. It is an act of
political, philosophical, or religious faith. These two volumes
do not, indeed, gives us an adequate representation of all Mr.
Hutton's professional work. They represent — if one may
adopt and adapt the title of a popular book by a popular
essayist of a very different sort — the Graver Thoughts of a
Working Journalist. But one cannot picture their author
thinking or writing on a low intellectual or moral plane. In
this respect Mr. Hutton is to the journalism of the last twenty-
five years what Mr. Gladstone — the Mr. Gladstone whom he
has loved and lost — has been to the politics of the same period.
In range, no less than in spirit, these volumes represent
what is best in the journalism of to-day and of yesterday.
The first contains thirty-nine papers. These deal with such
different men as Thomas Carlyle and Edgar Allan Poe, Emer-
son and Dickens, Amiel and John Stuart Mill, and treat of
such widely different subjects as ' The Genius of Dickens' and
'The Metaphysics of Conversion,' 'The Future of English
Humour ' and ' The Magnanirnhy of Unbelief.' The second
volume, which consists of thirty-eight papers, is equally varied,
treating of Martineau and Lord Houghton, Maurice and
Bagehot, Stanley and Darwin, ' Sir Walter Scott in Adversity,'
'The Theology of "Robert Elsmere,'" 'Poetry and Pessimism/
' Insect Conservatism,' and ' The Conscience of Animals.' They
are examples of the 'study' thoughts with which Mr. Hutton
relieves, sustains and enriches what must of necessity be a
busy ' office ' life. Mr. Hutton keeps his secret to himself, as
every wise man does, but in a remarkable paper entitled
' Recluses and the World,' which ought to be read oy the
many (the too many) who worship what they style ' man-of-
the-worldliness,' and mistake the vinous chatter of the dinner
table for the spirit of the age, he gives us the Hamletic brood-
ing of his soul. ' Isolate some men with their thoughts,' he
says, ' and their thoughts simply dry up altogether. Isolate
others with their thoughts, and the thoughts take living forms
with which their whole being gradually becomes identified.
This is only another way of saying that solitude tends in every

160 .1 Journalist in Literature.

considerable thinker to turn the life of thought into the life of
real action; to him thoughts become action, and therefore also
passion, for effective action breeds passion quite as truly as
passion breeds action ; indeed no passions are higher than
those which spring out of a man's knowledge that his thoughts
are giving him a new hold over the life within and outside
him, and are substituting for a dim and hesitating tradition,
the talisman of a new vision, the spell of a new clue to the
ways either of nature or of man.' This is the way in which a
man who is above all things spiritually minded naturally ex-
presses his belief that in these days of democracy, cosmo-
politanism and social evolution, it is through patient reading and
silent reflection that a genuine knowledge of ' the world ' is
obtained. The Able Editor of fifty years ago was a man who
by dining out acquired that knowledge of the world which
gave impersonal weight to his personal judgments. Such a
course was wise enough. In London, at all events, and so
long as the country was in reality, though not in name, an
aristocratic oligarchy, the dinner-giving class governed the
Empire. Eifty years hence, when probably democracy has
come to its own, and has, above all things, learned toknowits own
political supremacy, the Able Editor will regard dining out as
the least of his business ; he may even leave it judiciously if not
severely alone, as calculated to make him mistake the cackle
of his bourg, or the prejudiced whisper of a vested interest for
the murmur of the world. The power of the press in the
future — if, that is to say, it continues to be anonymous — will
be the power of the pure reason, or at all events as close an
approximation to it as human infirmity will allow. And apart
altogether from the intrinsic value of his literary, religious and
ethical pronouncements, these two volumes of essays are of in-
terest, as examples less of the journalism of the present than
of the journalism of the future. Mr. Hutton is in spite — or is it
in virtue % — of his power as a journalist, one of the preachers of
and to the age. But no preacher ever depended less on pose,
gesticulation, or pulpit-thumping.

Mr. Hutton's systematic and almost austere elimination of
the elements of egotism from his writings, constitutes however,

A Journalist in Literature. 161

their weakness as well as their strength. There is an objective
as well as subjective side to journalism. The public demands
to know how a man looks as well as what he says, and (pre-
sumably) thinks, and is perhaps too inclined to be perfectly
satisfied when this demand has been supplied. Hence it is
that the interviewer, the pictorial artist, and the ' descriptive '
author bulk as largely in present day journalism as the article-
writer and the reporter. This public desire for the ' graphic,'
which dates from the literary dictatorship of Macaulay, Mr.
Hutton is unable — or which comes to the same thing, is
altogether unwilling — to gratify. It is evident from his volumes
that among the British thinkers of the past two generations, the
late Mr. Maurice and Cardinal Newman, and the happily still
living Dr. Martineau, have influenced him most, and have won
his affection, even if they have not absolutely dominated his
reason. Yet even Mr. Watts's portrait of Dr. Martineau, which
was exhibited in the Academy some years ago, and which Mr.
Hutton says is ' in some respects a caricature,' does not tempt
him to give a pen-and-ink sketch of his own. All that he
says is that it ' does not give any adequate impression of Dr.
Martineau's keen and penetrating vision, which almost suggests
the glance of a commander in the field, and which perfectly
expresses the well-marked definiteness of his aims — and it does
not even suggest the lucidity of his method and that capacity
for a firm engineering of the possibilities of life by which he
has been distinguished.' Of all Mr. Hutton's biographical
studies that of Mr. Walter Bagehot is perhaps written with
the closest personal knowledge. And yet we get nothing
more by way of portrait than such sentences as ' It was the life,
humour, and animation looking out of the glance of these
large and brilliant black eyes, and often presenting a curious
contrast with the supposed dryness of the subjects with which
Mr. Bagehot so frequently dealt that made him what he was to
his friends,' and ' He was a dashing rider, and a fresh wind was
felt blowing through his earlier literary efforts, as though he
had been thinking in the saddle — an effect wanting in his later
essays, where you see chiefly the calm analysis of a lucid
observer.' This is interesting and in its way even suggestive.

XXIV. 1 1

162 A Journalist in Literature.

But it is not graphic. Compare it with a passage taken almost
at random from Mr. Stevenson. — Mr. Stevenson, whose art is
essentially objective, not subjective, who concerns himself with
the movement and not at all with the spirituality of life, who
above all things abhors journalism and its ' cheap finish.' Com-
pare, let me say, Mr. Hutton's vague impression of Bagehot
with Mr. Stevenson's portrait of Pepys : —

' Here we have a mouth pouting, moist with desires ; eyes greedy, pro-
tuberant, and apt for weeping too ; a nose, great alike in character and
dimensions ; and altogether a most fleshy melting countenance. The face
is attractive by its promise of reciprocity. I have used the word greedy
but the reader must not suppose that he can change it for that closely
kindred one of hungry, for there is here no aspiration, no waiting for
better things, but an animal joy in all that comes. It could never be the
face of an artist ; it is the face of a viveur — kindly, pleased and pleasing,
protected from excess and upheld in contentment by the shifting versa-
tility of his desires. For a single desire is more rightly to be called a
lust ; but there is health in a variety, where one may balance and control
another. '

Nor can Mr. Hutton be conceived hitting off the popular (and
inaccurate) view of John Knox as does Mr. Stevenson in this
sentence : —

' He remains for posterity in certain traditional phrases brow-beating
Queen Mary, or breaking beautiful carved work in abbeys and cathedrals,
that had long smoked themselves out and were no more than sorry ruins,
while he was still quietly teaching children in a country gentleman's
family.'

Mr. Hutton does not even command the drily graphic style
which constitutes one of the fascinations of Mr. Leslie
Stephen's delightful volumes of common-sense judgments,
Hours in a Library. In all his papers, for example, there is
nothing comparable to this reproduction of the different por-
traits of the author of Clarissa : —

' Richardson looks like a plump white mouse in a wig, at once vivacious
and timid. We see him in one picture, toddling along the Pantiles at
Tunbridge- Wells, in the neighbourhood of the great Mr. Pitt and Speaker
Onslow, and the bigamous Duchess of Kingston and Colley Cibber and
the cracked and shrivelled up Whiston and a (perhaps not the famous)
Mr. Johnson in company with a bishop. In the other, he is sitting in his
parlour with its stiff old-fashioned furniture, and a glimpse into the gar-

A Journalist in Literature. 163

den, reading Sir diaries Grcmdibon to the admirable Miss Mulso, after-
wards Mrs. Chapone, and a small party, inclusive of the artist, Miss High-
more, to whom we owe sincere gratitude for this peep into the past.
Richardson sits in his "usual morning-dress," a kind of brown dressing-
gown with a sknll-cap on his head, filling the chair with his plump little
body, and raising one foot to point his moral with an emphatic stamp.'

Yet the very fact that the objective does not count for
much with Mr. Hutton in making his estimates of events, men,
and books, and that he resolutely disregards it, adds to his
subjective strength. He cares only for the heart of a matter
and goes as straight to it as he can. And I doubt whether
any public writer of the present generation or of its predecessor
— Mr. Hutton recalls Mr. William Rathbone Greg and Mr.
Walter Bagehot and Mr. John Morley rather than the hiero-
phauts of the New Journalism — hasonthespurofthemomentsaid
so many true and sagacious things with so much point. This is
all the more notable that he certainly does not strain after liter-
ary effect in any of its modern forms. He never struggles to be
epigrammatic. He is no devotee of the modern cult of the
snippet ; on the contrary his sentences — here again he
resembles Mr. Gladstone — are often long and involved. But
his resolute and transparent modesty, and his obvious aversion
to the character of poseur, lend emphasis to that beauty of
sanity which is the outstanding feature of his judgments.
Take this characterisation of Emerson as being more of an
oracle than of a poet or a philosopher.

' He rose too much on tiptoe for the poet ; and was too broken in his
insight for a philosopher's steady continuity of thought.'

Take again his comparison between Carlyle's poetry and
Emerson's.

' Carlyle's verse is like the heavy rumble of a van without springs ;
Emerson's which now and then reaches something of the sweetness of
poetry, much more often reminds one of the attempts of a seeress to
induce in herself the ecstacy which will not spontaneously visit her.'

The difference between Mr. Hutton's method and the
ordinary epigrammatist's is admirably illustrated by these
characterisations, and especially by the second. The critic
whose ideal is what is telling not what is true, would almost

164 A Journalist in Literature.

certainly have been carried away by the comparison of
Carlyle's verse to the rumble of a van ; he would have searched
the whole earth for another vehicle by which he could ade-
quately represent Emerson's poetry. But Mr. Hutton resorts
to no such devices which are the mainstay of the fashionable
drawing-room drama of Mr. Oscar Wilde, and of the fashion-
able fin de siecle fiction of ' John Oliver Hobbes.' He simply
seeks for the comparisons which are most fitted to express his
sentiments, and uses them. But although Mr. Hutton has re-
published none of his writings belonging to what in Long-
fellow's case he terms 'the first period of ad captandum writing
which almost every young man of talent passes through,' he
has all that ' aliveness ' to salient points, and that passion for
giving such ' aliveness ' genuine literary expression, which are
much more truly three-fourths of journalism than conduct
even in the Arnoldian sense is three-fourths of life. It would
be difficult too, to say whether Mr. Hutton is the happier in
his critical limitations, or in his critical appreciations. How
true, for instance, is this of Dickens, —

' Directly he tries to create anything in which his swift decisive know-
ledge of detail does not help him, anything in which a general knowledge
of the passions and heart and intellect of man is more needed than a
special knowledge of the dialects of a profession or the habits of a class, he
too often loses all his certainty of touch, and becomes a painful mannerist.'

Not less true — though in a different sense, is this summary
of the career of Maurice.

' His life was a sort of chaunfc, rich, deep, awe-struck, passionately
humble from beginning to end.'

This, however, must be taken with its author's own modifi-
cation.

' When, however, you catch that he feels — as all the deeper religious
natures have always felt — a sort of self- reproachful complicity in every sin-
ful tendency of his age, you feel that the litany in which he expresses his
shame though most genuine, even most piercing in its genuineness, is
not so much morbid self-depreciation as a deep sense of the cruel burden
of social infirmity and social sin, which he laid down, on behalf of all men,
in whose infirmities and sins he could perceive echoes of his own, at the
feet of his Saviour.'

A Journalist in Literature. 165

Take again this judgment — at once a limitation and a
an appreciation — of Dean Stanley : —

' Seldom has such a gallant knight-errant in ecclesiastical matters been
so utterly without a dogmatic inspiration as Dean Stanley. There have
been hundreds who, like Archdeacon Denison, would fight to the death for
a dogma to one who, like the late Dean of Westminster, would fight to the
death in order to relax in all directions the binding force of dogmatic
decisions. In truth, he discerned clearly enough how often dogmatic
belief chokes religious life ; but he was nearly incapable of understanding
the equally important truth how often dogmatic belief strengthens and
ennobles the life which is honestly lived by its guidance.'

Mr. Hutton's estimates of great movements or new forces in
the spiritual world are quite as full of seriousness as are his
estimates of men. Take his characterisation of Comtism : —

' The aspiration of Positivism is an aspiration to combine all sorts of
moral contradictions ; to get the masses of the people to obey an
intellectual oligarchy, without attributing to that oligarchy any qualities
which the masses of the people can readily revere, to get them to love what
is unreal more fervently than they love those whom they come across in
the ordinary paths of life ; to regard with awe sacraments in which
nothing is even supposed to pass, except an electric spark of feeling be-
tween human beings ; to worship a Providence whose decrees are half of
them mistakes and the other half mere conclusions of commonsense ; and
to dwell in imagination on a future life in which nothing will live that has
any but an historical relation to the nature which anticipates it.'

Mr. Hutton's view of Positivism may be sound or unsound ;
that question is outside the limits of such a paper as this.
There can, however, be but opinion as to the force and felicity,
unmingled with violence or literary trickiness, with which Mr.
Hutton has put the view that Comtism is an attempt to re-
concile utterly opposite and mutually inconsistent habits of
mind. Again, take this passage from the paper styled ' Mr.
Ruskin on Nature and Miracle.'

' What Mr. Ruskin freely calls the highest and rarest moments in the
individual human soul, are not half so wide a subject of study as the whole
system of monotonous habit and character on which they shed so much
light. The reason they do shed so much light upon it is just the contrary
— that these moments puncture, as it were, the systematised unconscious
life of man at individual points, and there show the light of the spirit pour-
ing through as at a minute pin-hole ; and the very sharp definition and
limitation of the beam of light gives us a thousand times as much insight

1(56

A Journalist in Literature.

into the spiritual world behind, as if you had had a great network of cross-
ing rays entering in confused pencils from a hundred points at once.'

Apart from its value as an example of Mr. Hutton's mode of
thinking, this passage is notable as giving in a nutshell the
Odyssey of that mystical Wordsworthianism which is of the
essence of his complex creed.

But Mr. Hutton, although above all things a journalist, is a
thinker endowed with a thoroughly original and almost too
subtle mind. Great as is the value of the papers in these two
last volumes regarded as examples of the very best kind of
journalism, their intrinsic value is greater still. If the reader
follows up his perusal of them — as he ought if he wishes to
understand Mr. Hutton's standpoint and his range of reading —
by mastering the two earlier volumes of Literary and Theo-
logical Essays he will find that they reflect the graver
thoughts and the weightier criticism of our time better than
any other collection of the kind that can be mentioned.
They have not, it is true, the special and purely literary deli-
cacy which distinguishes Mr. Matthew Arnold's Essays in
Criticism, and which mark out their author as the British
Erasmus. They do not present that combination of man-of-
the-worldliness and culture which make Mr. Leslie Stephen's
Hours in a Library a veritable arm-chair delight. They have
none of that delicious pensiveness — the pensiveness of the
traveller through life who nevertheless can take his ease and
his flask of wine in his inn, and admire a golden sunset from
his bedroom window, although he knows that the end of his
pilgrimage is dusty death — in which Mr. Stevenson's art is
seen at its best. Even when he is most touched with religious
emotion, Mr. Hutton never rises into that mournful eloquence
which fills, as with the swell of an organ, the pages of Mr.
Kathbone Greg's Enigmas of Life. Yet with all their limita-
tions— perhaps on account of them — Mr. Hutton's papers re-
present at its richest the serious thought of the serious, yet
cultured, Englishman (i say Englishman advisedly) who likes
to keep abreast of the times, but is incapable of breaking
abruptly or irreverently with the past. They represent the
cream of ihe best English Sunday afternoon talk; and, like

A Journalist in Literature. 167

such talk, it is occupied to a not inconsiderable extent with
matters of l'eligion. Mr. Hutton has here been described as a
journalist in literature, but not a few readers of his papers will
be tempted to say rather that he is a preacher in journalism.
It is in such papers as ' The Approach of Dogmatic Atheism,'
' M. Reuau,' ' John Stuart Mill's Religion,' ' Ardent Agnosti-
cism,' and 'Mr. Leslie Stephen and the Scepticism of Believers,'
that such will certainly say the true Mr. Hutton is to be seen.
Among disputants on theology he holds a quite unique place.
He does not formulate his creed ; he is much more bent upon
attacking the positions of others than upon defining his own.
It is indeed much easier to indicate his likes and dislikes than
to foimiulate his platform. Cardinal Newman, Dr. Martiueau,
and Mr. F. D. Maurice he admires greatly, and in about equal
measure. But he is not a Roman Catholic ; he is not a Uni-
tarian ; and he would probably object to being classified as a
Broad Churchman. Enlightened and catholic Evangelicalism
is perhaps better entitled to claim him as an adherent than any
other creed of the country, and yet ' The Hard Church ' in his
Theological Essays is perhaps the heaviest blow ever struck at
that Evangelicalism of which the late Henry Rogers was, although
too much of a pamphleteer, the cleverest exponent. Yet I doubt
if in the religious literature that is written by laymen, at all
events, there could be found a better arsenal of arguments
against Atheism, Agnosticism, Positivism, and ' Scepticism ' of
every variety, than in Mr. Hutton's volumes. While amenity is
the note of all his purely controversial work, he is absolutely fear-
less alike in indicating the ' dangers ' to be apprehended from
the modern forms of ' infidelity,' and in stating the actual de-
mands made by that ' infidelity ' upon the human reason.
Thus in his essay on ' The Approach of Dogmatic Atheism,'
which was provoked by a lecture of the late Professor Clifford,
he says, —

' In him scientific thought in relation to religion and morality appears to
be undergoing a transformation from its chrysalis condition of Agnosticism,
on which it fed so heartily and throve so fast on the vague hopes it killed,
and to be taking to itself ephemeral wings with which it proposes to soar
high above the humility of its previous condition, and, indeed, to flutter
up into those empty spaces from which science, we are now told, has all

168

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but succeeded in expelling the empty dreams of a presiding mind in the
universe, and of a life after death. Automatism, which was a wild hypo-
thesis yesterday, and is still so difficult to state without self-contradiction,
that Professor Clifford's own language is constantly at cross-purposes with
his theory, is to become the creed of all reasonable men to-morrow ; the
faith in Providence is soon to be regarded as " immoral," and we are to
expect before long evidence that " no intelligence or volition has been
concerned in events happening within the range of the solar system, except
that of animals living on the planet "—nay, evidence " of the same kind
and the same cogency " as that which forbids us to assume the existence
between the Earth and Venus of a planet as large as either of them. '

Mr. Hutton, after dealing in detail with the arguments ad-
vanced in support of the automatic theory, assumes it to have
been adopted by the Scotch. He compliments them as —

' A people far more really competent to master and apply abstract ideas
than the Germans.'

And he thus concludes —

' I venture to affirm that the automato-atheistic theory once earnestly
adopted by a nation of graphic and logical mind, like the Scotch, would
make such a hell upon earth, such a world of languors where languors were
not agreeable, and of vehement and lawless moral pressures, where the
application of such pressures was most in keeping with the temperament of
the individual, as civilised men would never have seen before. The happy
device of combining atheism with a distinct and vivid confidence in the ab-
solutely mechanical character of man's bodily life, may be consistent, in a
few isolated instances, as doubtless it is in Professor Clifford's case with a
lofty mind, a strenuous character and a firm will, but in ninety-nine cases out
of a hundred it would lead to the natural or artificial selection and elabora-
tion of those wheels in the corporeal machine which would produce the
kind of motion their owners found most pleasurable ; — and then the crash
and battle of the various revolving cogs of self-interest would be such as
even savage life could not rival.'

This paper is not concerned, as I have said, with the soundness
or the unsoundness of Mr. Hutton's views upon religious ques-
tions. That is no reason, however, why the literary art with
which he has expressed these views should not be adequately
emphasized.

Mr. Hutton's papers on questions of religion and theology —
he himself discriminates between the two though he does not
draw a formal line of demarcation — proceed, as they should,
from the sanctum of his nature. As such they may in virtue

A Journalist in Literature. 1(39

of the spirit in which they are written, not of the opinions
which they more or less clearly express, be recommended to
all who are surfeited with the 'smart' religious writing of
to-day. They will, at the very least, compare favourably with
such a work as Mr. Richard le Gallienue's Religion of a Literary
Man, in which one of the leading controversies of the time is
disposed of in a paragraph : —

' It is no longer necessary for us to dispute painfully concerning docu-
ments. All such matters the German commentators and M. Renan have
already settled for us, and faith has really nothing either to hope or to fear
from the discovery of any number of Gospels. In short, we have accom-
plished the inestimable separation of theology and religion. Our religion
no longer stands or falls by the Hebrew Bible.'

Yet it is in his literary judgments that Mr. Hutton is seen if
not quite at his best certainly at his freest. In them he has no
hesitation in indicating, or even in formulating his convictions.
He ' lets himself go ' as, when sinking the journalist in the man,
he says of Samuel Johnson : —

' A day in which men are almost ashamed to be odd, and quite ashamed
to be inconsistent, in which a simple life, even if the result of intelligent
and intelligible purpose, is almost regarded as a sign of insanity, and in
which society imposes its conventional assumptions and insincerities on
almost every one of us, is certainly a day when it will do more than usual
good to revive the memory of that dangerous and yet tender literary bear
who stood out amongst the men even of his day as one who, whatever else
he was, was always true to himself, and that too almost at the most trying
time of all, even when he had not been faithful to himself — a man who
was more afraid of his conscience than of all the world's opinion — and who
towers above our own generation just because he had the courage to be what
so few of us are, proudly independent of the opinion in the midst of which
he lived.'

But it must be said that Mr. Hutton, with his own very
pronounced ethico-religious bias, could not help being preju-
diced in favour of Johnson, as being above all things a man of
character rather than of genius. But he has no such ' bias ' in
the case of Dickens, whose character on the contrary, as
revealed in Mr. Forster's biography, he estimates by no
means favourably, and for whose occasionally boisterous
Cockney vulgarity he could have nothing but antipathy. But
he frankly acknowledges that Dickens's humour was more

170

A Journalist in Literature.

characterized by genius — that indefinite something which, like
Burns's conversation, carries one off his feet — than that of any
of his contemporaries or successors.

' The wealth and subtlety of his contrasts, the fine aim of his exaggera-
tions, the presence of mind (which is the soul of wit) displayed in his
satire, the exquisitely professional character of the sentiments and
metaphors which fall from his characters, the combined audacity and
microscopic delicacy of his shading in caricature, the quaint flights of his
fancy in illustrating a monstrous absurdity, the suddenness of his strokes
at one moment, the cumulative perseverance of his touches at another, make
him such a humourist as many centuries are not likely to produce.'

The volumes which illustrate the quality of Mr. Hutton's
contributions to the Spectator are full of estimates as carefully
balanced as these. But whoever desires thoroughly to under-
stand Mr. Hutton's standpoint as a critic ought to supplement
the reading of these volumes with the study, as I have said, of
their author's Literary Essays. This volume consists of only nine
papers, but these include studies of Goethe, Wordsworth, Shel-
ley, Browning, Clough, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, and Nath-
aniel Hawthorne, and I should place it unhesitatingly on the
same shelf as Arnold's Essays on Criticism, Mr. Leslie Stephen's
Hours in a Library, and Mr. Stevenson's Men and Books. That
shelf is not an imposing one, but it contains the most solid and
important criticism that British literature can show for a
generation. Mr. Hutton has many more points of dissimilarity
than of similarity with his brother critics ; in particular he
never divorces— he is probably incapable of divorcing — art in
literature from morality and religion. But he is i^ore pains-
taking than any of them : his chief anxiety, as I have already
said, is not to produce epigrams, but to make exhaustive
studies. And in three cases he has attained almost complete
success. His essays on Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, and Haw-
thorne are admirable, but his papers on Goethe, Wordsworth,
and Shelley, are probably the best and cerlainly the most
searching that have appeared.

No critic has been more successful in pointing out that
central weakness of Goethe's character — his incapacity for
genuine self-sacrifice — which, in spite of his marvellous
insight, in spite of his scarcely less marvellous generosity,

A Journalist in Literature. 171

prevents him from being a second Shakespeare, and makes
him only the literary Napoleon of the nineteenth century.
Many who do not look at the final questions of religion and
ethics from Mr. Hutton's standpoint, will agree with him when
he says of Goethe —

' I grant that he was the wisest man of modern days who ever lacked the
wisdom of a child ; the deepest who never knew what it was to kneel in
the dust with bowed head and broken heart. And he was a demigod, if a
demi-god be a being at once more and less than ordinary men, having a
power which few attain, and owing it in part to a deficiency in qualities
in which few are so deficient ; a being who puts forth a stronger fascina-
tion over the earth because expending none of his strength in yearnings
towards heaven. In this sense Goethe was a demi-god : —

" He took the suffering human race ;

He read each wound, each weakness clear ;
He struck his finger on the place,

And said 'Thou ailest here, and here.'"

He knew all symptoms of disease, a few alleviations, no remedies. The
earth was eloquent to him, but the skies were silent. Next to Luther he
was the greatest of the Germans ; next — but what a gulf between !
' ' Adequate to himself " was written on that broad calm forehead, and
therefore men thronged eagerly about him to learn the incommunicable
secret. It was not told, and will not be told. For man it is a weary way to
God, but a wearier far to any demi-god. '

Mr. Hutton's essay on Shelley is quite as exhaustive as his
essay on Goethe, and a good deal more sympathetic. He is
more comprehensively critical than Hazlitt although he has
not Hazlitt's cruelly observant eyes. The last word has not
been said on Shelley, but up to the present time his idealism
has not been better characterised than in this passage : —

' Into one side of human perfection he had a far higher insight than
most men of his day — the passive nobility of beautiful instinct and endur-
ance. But the very idealising tendency which repelled him from human
politics, repelled him also from all human creeds, and the very first objec-
tion he took to them was to their demand of deference for a spiritual king.
From all ai'bitrary authority he recoiled, and never apparently conceived
the possibility of authority properly so called, and yet not arbitrary.
Hence, to save his faith in human nature, he was almost compelled to seat
a shadow on the throne of the universe. The only marvel is that his im-
agination still kept a throne of the universe at all, even for a shadow. His
ideal world was one " where music and moonlight, and feeling, are one,"
and in such a world apparently no throne or sceptre would be needed.'

17:.' .1 Journalist in Literature.

It is unnecessary to say that Mr. Hutton's essay on Words-
worth is full of enthusiasm as well as of insight. He is a
Wordsworthian with limitations, as he is a Martineauist, a
Maurician, a Newmanite — in each case also with limitations.
I quote therefore what Mr. Hutton says of those limita-
tions as an example of his happiest manner : —

' Wordsworth seems to kindle his own poetic flame, like a blind man
kindling his own fire ; and often as it were, he goes through the process of
lighting it without observing that the fuel is damp and has not caught the
spark ; and thus, though he has left us many a beacon of purs and ever-
lasting glory flaming from the hills, he has left us many a monument or
pile of fuel from which the poetic fire has early died away.'

Mr. Hutton's essays belong to that class of literature that can
only be judged by ample quotation, and that suggests the
almost abandoned family practice of reading aloud. Whether
such writing will be appreciated in the future remains to be
seen. Literature is already in the clutch of journalism, and
ere long will be in its possession body and soul. The time is
probably not very far distant when the morning — or is it to be
the evening ? — newspaper will provide us with our fiction, our
criticism, nay, our art, as well as with our news and our
opinion. Perhaps there will be no poet's corner in the news-
paper of the twentieth century — no arm-chair for quiet and
prolonged reflection. If the present adoration of the snippet
continues, the long essay will certainly go the way of all other
fashions in literature. In that case Mr. Hutton may prove to
be the last of the essayists, who have delighted and stimulated
two generations. Yet, when a final judgment comes to be
pronounced upon him it will be said that if he was the last of
such essayists, he was not the least, nay, that in many respects
he was the most typical, in virtue of his capacity for reflecting
the higher moods of that cultured but above every thing,
spiritually minded class which plays a more important part in
the government of the country than it generally gets credit for.

William Wallace.

(173)

SUMMARIES OF FOREIGN REVIEWS.

GERMANY.

Deutsche Rundschau (April, May, June). — A simple, but
excellently written story, ' Ein ganzes Leben,' opens the first of
these three numbers, in which lighter literature is further
represented by ' Die Geschichte einer Amme.' It is by
Carlotta Lefner, Duchess of Cajanello, the well-known Swedish
writer, who found in Italy a home and a grave. The touching
narrative, apart from its excellence as a work of fiction, gives a
very interesting sketch of popular life and manners in Italy. —
The extracts from the diary of Giuseppe Acerbi, make up an
interesting and valuable contribution to the history of German
literature. They record interviews and conversations with
Klopstock, whose acquaintance the young Italian made when the
poet was long past his three score years and ten, and they throw
considerable light on the position which he took up with regard
to contemporary literature. — Herr P. D. Fischer concludes the
reminiscences of his travels through Germany. This closing
instalment is chiefly noticeable for the optimistic view which it
takes of the present situation of Germany. — The impressions of
another traveller, a foreign one, however, and no less a personage
than the Shah of Persia, are communicated by Herr Vambery,
in a summary of the account given by his Highness himself of
his visit to Germany. — In the May number, the first place is
occupied by Herr Paul Heyse, who brings the first instalment of
a charming novelette — Melusine. — Three well-known writers —
Hermann Grimm, Erich Schmidt, and Eduard Hanslick re-
spectively contribute three most readable articles. The first of
them has for its subject the correspondence between Achim von
Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and constitutes an interesting
chapter of literary history. The second is a critical review of
the works of Rudolf Linda, whilst the third continues the re-
miniscences entitled ' Aus meinem Leben,' and brings them
down to the seventies. — An article which is sure to be read with
special interest, even though it may not carry absolute conviction
with it, is Herr W. Preyer's exposition of the principles of
graphology — the name given to the science which has for its
object the reading of character from handwriting. — Finally,
Major Otto Wachs, in a somewhat technical paper, considers
the future of the West Indies and the Nicaragua Canal. — The

June part is largely made up of continuations. Paul Heyse's

1 7 I Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

1 Melusine ' is brought to a close ; Herr Hanslick's ' Aus meinem
Leben ' is advanced a stage further ; and another instalment is
added to ' Ein Staatsman der alten Schule.' — ' Debit and Credit
in Nature,' contributed by Herr Reinke is a paper in which an
abundance of most interesting information is given in popular
form, and in which the great law of Production and Consumption,
of income and expenditure in the economy of the universe is
admirably set forth and illustrated. — In 'Heinrich Heine in
Paris,' Jules Legras communicates a number of letters and other
writings of the German poets which he has succeeded in
unearthing, and which supply important additional material for
biographical purposes.

Westermanns Monats-Hefte (April, May, June). — In the
April number, a rather romantic, but exceedingly well written
story by Use Frapan — ' Weisse Flamme ' — is followed by an
article devoted to Frau Eleonora Duse, the well-known German
actress, whose portrait is given as a frontispiece. — ' Am Fusse
des Gaurisankar,' by Herr Otto Ehlers. takes the reader to
Nepaul, of which both pen and pencil give a most interesting
sketch. — In a rather discursive paper, which he entitles, ' Natur
und Technik,' Herr Geitel shows how the principles of engineering
and construction find their analogy in the human frame. — One
of the longest as well as most interesting articles in the May part
is devoted to a description of Hamburg. Apart from the text no
less than twenty-seven excellent illustrations bring before the
reader a vivid picture of the commercial capital of the German
empire. — A writer who only signs his initial, ' E,' has found a
subject for an article in a pilgrimage to ' Three English Graves,'
of which by the way, two are Scotch — Carlyle's and Hume's.
The third is that of Bacon. — Max von Pettenkoser, one of the
greatest authorities on the science of hygiene and sanitation is in-
troduced to the reader by Herr Hans Buchner, who gives an
interesting and appreciative sketch of his life and work. — A
portrait of Charlotte von Stein, whose name is so closely connected
with that of Goethe, has supplied Herr Schwarz with material
for a short paper of no very great interest. — In a paper which he
entitles i Cyprus, the Bible and Homer,' Herr Ohnetalsch-
Richter gives an illustrated account of the excavation carried on
by him in the island, and of the results as bearing both on the
Bible and on Homer. — ' Darwinismus und Hygiene,' by Herr
Hans Buchner, considers the question raised by Herbert Spencer,
whether the care now given to hygiene and sanitation may not
prove disadvantageous to the development of the human race by
protecting weaker individuals who, in the earlier stages of

Summaries of Foreign Review n. 175

civilisation, would inevitably have fallen as victims in the struggle
for existence, but may now be able to live and to propagate a
weaker race. The writer does not entertain any doubts on the
subject, but is convinced that, on the whole, the result must be
to raise the whole race and lead to its fuller development. — The
name of Fredrich Spielhagen is sufficient guarantee for the
excellence of the sketch headed ' Glances at the modern German
drama.' The dramatists ' glanced at ' are Ernst von Wilden-
bruch, Ludwig Fulda, Hermann Sudermann, Otto Erich
Hartleben, and Gerhart Hauptmann. — A descriptive sketch of
Goslar remains to be mentioned. As usual the illustrations are
plentiful and good.

Theologische Studien und Kritiken (No. 4, 1894). — Dr.
Johannes Bachmaun, of Berlin, contributes a very scholarly
exegetical study on the ' Prophecy of Zephaniah.' This book
is confessedly a' work that has suffered considerably from the
hands of copyists, or redactors, and possibly from both. Its
text is frequently so perplexing, owing to grammatical errors
and gaps, that we can only account for its present state by
supposing numerous blunders on the part of those who have
transcribed it or edited it from time to time. Dr. Bachmann,
assuming this, suggests several emendations in the text, which
at least have the effect of rendering it coherent and intel-
ligible, and which may certainly be commended to the careful
consideration ot Hebrew scholars. — The second article has now
a somewhat mournful interest. Its author, Herr Pfarrer Otto
Schmoller, had completed it and forwarded it to the redac-
tors of this magazine, but died before it was printed. It is
prefaced by a very kindly note laudatory of the writer, and de-
scriptive of his career and work. The article is entitled ' Die
geschichtliche Person Jesu nach den Paulinischen Schriften.'
It deals with the theme so much engaging attention at present
— the historical Christ or the Jesus of fact and of history, as
opposed to the Christ of Christian creeds or of Christian dog-
matics. He admits in his article that the Gospels, being of
later production than the life lived, may express the results of
after reflect. on on the Christ, and not be altogether the bio-
graphical record of the life itself. But he thinks we have
sources extant to which we can appeal to enable us to verify
the evangelic records, or so to illuminate them that in the
light they furnish we can see the Christ as He was, and know
Him and believe in Him, and find salvation in our faith and
loyalty to Him. These sources are to be found in the other
New Testament Scriptures, especially the Pauline Epistles.
His subject is admirably wrought out, and the article is evi-

176 Summaries of Foreign Revieics.

dently the result of patient study and the expression of earnest
conviction. — Dr. Paul Ziegert, of Breslau, follows with an in-
teresting paper, ' Uber die Ansiltze zu einer Mysterienlehre
aufgebaut auf den antiken Mysterien bei Philo Judaeus.' Philo
frequently, in his writings, addresses himself to the mnstai, the
initiated, as likely to understand him better than the multitude.
Had he in view those who were members of the Greek secret
societies ? or was he merely enriching his vocabulary by bor-
rowing a term from theirs'? — Herr Paul Gloatz, of Dabrun,
writes in reference to the late Parliament of Religions at
Chicago, on ' Die Heranziehung der Religionsgeschichte zur
systematischen Theologift.' — Dr. Clemen, of Halle, contributes
a short paper under the title of 'Notiz iiber ein neugefundenes
Fragment einer bisher unbekannten Pilatuslegende ; ' Dr.
Buchwald on ' Ein noch ungedruckter Brief Luthers an Konig
Christian III., von Diinemark ; ' Dr. Burkhardt, of Weimar, on
' Die alteste Kirchen-und-Schulvisitation im ostlichen Thiir-
ingen ' (1527); Herr F. Sander, of Breslau, on ' Friedrich
Liicke und F. C. Baur.' The book reviews includes Dr. Paul
Feine's ' Der Jakobusbrief nach Lehrauschauungeu und
Entstehungsverhaltnissen ; ' and Dr. E. Nestle's ' Marginalien
und Materialien.'

RUSSIA.

Voprosi Philosophii I Psychologii, No. 21, (Questions
Philosophical and Psychological) begins with an article by
Couut Leo Tolstoi, on the question of ' The Freedom of the
Will,' being a fragment from an unpublished MS. If it be en-
quired why a man acts in a particular manner and not otherwise,
the answer is that he acts so because he admits the truth either
from present or past enquiry as to what was his duty, and ac-
cordingly he acts in the way that he does, either from past
conviction or custom. It will be found that a person feels him-
self free or not free, accordingly as he admits or does not ad-
mit the truth. If he act contrary to that which he believes to
be the truth, then he may either believe that his action is right,
or recoguising the truth, couuts it to be evil, or perverse. Thus
a man escapiug out of a burning house without striving to ex-
tinguish the fire or to save his comrade, remains free to admit
the truth as to this, that a man ought at the risk of his life to
save the life of another, or not admitting this truth, counts his
own conduct a natural necessity, and justifies himself in it.
From these opposite actings into which men may be drawn as
they are swayed by interest, prejudice, etc., our author comes
to the discussion of what really constitutes freedom, or as it is
sometimes called, Liberty of the Will. A man is undoubtedly

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 177

free if he only admits that the life of man or of humanity is a
constant movement from darkness to licrht, from lower decrees
of truth to higher — from truth more mixed with error to truth
more free from error ! A man would be unfree if he knew
nothing of truth, aud certainly, he would not be free if he had
no conception of freedom. Thus the author shows that a man's
relation to freedom depends upon his relation to, and his more or
less perfect appropriation of the truth. After these various
statements, that each man is free only in so far as he appro-
priates and walks in harmony with the truth, we have the fol-
lowing illustrations of the same principle. A horse harnessed
in a waggon together with others, is free only to go in one
direction, that in which he goes in common with his fellow-
animals in the waggon. He is not free to go in advance, and
if he holds back, the fore parts of the waggon will strike his
heels, and he is practically compelled to go in the same direc-
tion as the waggon is moving. Limited as he is, he has the
freedom to go in the same direction as the waggon. So is it
also to some extent with man. The freedom which he really
enjoys may seem to be little in comparison with that fantas-
tical freedom to which he would like to attain — nevertheless,
the freedom which is open to him is the true freedom,
leading towards the true life. The true life, according to
the doctrine of Christ, has really and morally only one
path free, that which leads man into the region where he
is really free ! i.e., the region of knowledge and revealed
truth — confessing it and unfailingly following it as the horse
in the cart, whithersoever it leads him. It is the path of Duty,
the way of Truth ! The kingdom of God strives with all its
power to draw men into the way of truth, and this truth lies
not in the observance of external ceremonies, but only in the
recognition and confession of the truth on the part of each indi-
vidual man. — The second article is a continuation of Professor
Kozloff's articles, formerly summarised, on French Positivism.
Here he takes up Fouillee, Guyauand Tarde. The present article
is devoted to Fouillee. Professor Kozloff begins by saying
that he takes the liberty to begin his brief characteristics of
Fouillee, after the manner of Voltaire, by saying that if in the
present time there were no such philosopher as Fouillee, it
would be necessary to invent him, in order that a person loving
philosophy and interested in its farther development should be
made fully to understand that on the ground on which it moved
in its development in the 18th and 19th centuries, future suc-
cesses were no longer possible for it. Contemporary Philosophy
was compelled to take up its abode upon new territory and

XXIV. 1 2

178 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

follow a new path, in its most important and essential relations.
The author rates M. Fouillee as deserving by no means a low
place among the contemporary thinkers of France. On the
contrary, he regards him as occupying a place, which if not
higher, is certainly not lower than Taiue. In general erudition
in the study of philosophy, as well as in special philosophical
learning, he occupies a very high place, and may be said to
surpass his contemporaries and countrymen in his equipment
for the work of the philosopher. He surpasses them too in the
energy with which he began and worked out his philosophical
mission. But notwithstanding his talent, erudition and careful
preparation for the work, and his energy in its execution, the
undertaking of Fouille cannot be counted wholly successful,
mainly because he did not separate himself from the old founda-
tions, and was more or less identified with the preceding schools.
Prof. Kozloff wishes, however, to take note of the new phases
of M. Fouillee's philosophy, first by a reference to his most
important works, which he desires to place as landmarks in the
development of his philosophical system, and secondly, by a
brief analysis of the fundamental conceptions of that system.
In keeping with this we have notices of Fouillee's works on the
philosophy of Plato and Socrates, so remarkable for their
erudition and able exposition. A second stage is marked by
the author's work on the philosophy of Kant, ' La Liberte et le
Determinism e,' a work which has run into a second edition. A
third landmark is his work on ' L'idee mod erne du droit en
Allemagne en Angleterre et en France,' in which he finds
that the Germans have substituted for legal right the idea of
power, the English the idea of profit or utility, while the
French alone retain the true idea of legal right, because in their
history it has been the basis or idea of independence and
freedom ! A specially important signpost in Fouillee's literary
history is his work on ' Critique des systemes de morale cou-
temporaius,' issued in 1883, which is marked above all by its
wealth of knowledge, its acuteness and dialectical power.
In this, while largely rejecting contemporary systems, he
lays the foundation of his own in the metaphysical
theory of idea-power ! But while rejecting these systems as
unsatisfactory, he finds the issue in the combination that in
substance the idea of self-renunciation lies at the root of all
moral systems or unselfishness, or in the loftier form the idea
of righteousness or compassion, which are nothing else than
the negative and positive forms of self-renunciation. These
ideas naturally postulate universal happiness ! The last word
ot Fouillee is his conception of the fdea-poicer, or power which

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 179

he sought to develop in the Revue Philosophique in three
successive articles in which he establishes polemically his own
views as against Bain, Spencer, Maudsley, Huxley and others ;
most of all, however, he attacks Spencer, whom he accuses of
dualism more especially in his theory of the unknown or
unknowable. The article concludes with a critical view of M.
Fouillee's philosophy, which does not appear to us to be too
favourable. He holds that with all M. Fouillee's pretences
to enter upon a new philosophical territory, he nevertheless
in point of fact occupies the old ground. He is held not
to distinguish between consciousness and knowledge. He
shows other inaccuracies, as by a lack of determination
between the concepts matter and motion, etc. — The article
which succeeds is by the editor, on the ' Significance of
the Idea of Pai-allelism in Psychology.' — On this follows a
continuation of the lengthened discussion begun in the last
number of the Voprosi on 'Views of Faith in its relation to
Knowledge,' by M. Alexander Voedenskie. In opening this
second article he begins by restating his different views of
Faith, as either of a simple or naive character, or what he
calls blind, or of a third character which he regards as the
most legitimate. This may be termed a reasoning faith which
discriminates and permits the exercise of a critical judgment.
— The next article is the fifth, on the ' Signification of Love,'
by Wladimir SoloviefF, the Russian thinker. Here in a some-
what mystical vein he discourses about the disappointments
and illusions of earthly love, and then goes on to show that
true love must be a union not of bodies but of spirits, and
points moreover to faith, devotiou, and the other heavenly
elements which may enter into the earthly relation of two
human beings, and make it so purified, sanctified and glorified,
that the life of love between two on earth may become the
beginning of a far wider, loftier and abiding love in the
heavenly world. — There aro a number of interesting papers in
the special part of the journal, e.g., a paper on the problems of
the ' History of Philosophy ; ' the conclusion of a paper begun
in a former number on ' Human Speech ; ' a third on ' Philo-
sophical Principles in Contemporary Physiology ; ' a fourth on
the ' Psychology of the Abnormally Small Headed ; ' a fifth on
the famous Kazan Mathematician Sobatcheffsky's idea of
Space. The usual reviews and bibliography follow.

ROOSKAHYAH Mysl — Russian Opinion — (March, April, and
May). — 'The Island of Saghalien,' a written Itinerary, by A. P.
Tchaikoff, first bursts upon our sight, and continues its lengthy

180 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

view through the March and May numbers. — 'A Literator,' a
tale by the artist V. V. Vereshchaghin, is brought to a close in
the March number. — 'Poetry' is represented by D. S.
Merezhkofski (3 pieces), L. M. Medveydeff, V. Lebedeff, and K.
D. Balmont. — ' Death of a Dignitary,' is an outline of the close
of the career of an anonymous hero, by R. I. SementkofVki. —
'Ancient Traditions in the Government of Olonetz,' is a lectui'e
read at the meeting of the Ethnographical Society on January
1st, 1894, by V. F. Miller. — ' Peasant Economy and Emigration','
by K. Kotchoorofski, and ' Dependence on Sentiment for the
Progress of Society,' a review of M. Tarde's 'La logique sociale
des sentiments,' by L. E. Obolenski, are each complete. — ' Result
of Peasant Reforms in the Kingdom of Poland ' is an unfinished
paper commenced in February, by A. A. Korniloff. — ' Communal
Landholding in Switzerland,' a paper by I. L., and 'Posthumous
Works of Taine,' (Les Origines de la France contemporaine.
Le Regime moderne. Tome II.) are both completed in the
March number. — 'Home Review' gives, as usual, a lengthy list
of contemporary Russian matters. — Three further instalments of
I. I. Ivanyoukoff's ' Outlines of Provincial Life,' add to the
interest as well as extent of the series. — 'Foreign Review ' takes
note of Mr. Gladstone's retirement from and Lord Rosebery's
accession to, the Premiership ; of the Russo-Germanic treaty of
commerce; of the Austrian troubles in Bohemia; of Italian and
French questions ; of the life and death of Kossuth ; of Japanese
progress; of the semi-revolutionary condition of Serbia ; and of
the attempt on the life of Signor Crispi. — ' Scientific Notes ' con-
sists of two papers on ' Organic Life,' by P. P. Kashchenko, and
on 'Meteorology,' by A. V. Klossofski. — 'Contemporary Art'
takes note, as usual, of Moscow theatrical doings. — The
'Bibliographic Division' contains notices of 142 works, a volume
in itself, of 166 closely printed pages. — A further instalment of
the correspondence between ' Alexander Ivanovich Hertzen and
Natalie Alexandrovna Zakharin ' is given. — ' Refutation of Mr.
TchaikofFs Article ' in the December number of last year, which
article has been objected to by residents in the island of Saghalien.
The head of the typographical department of the Censorship has
required the present editor to publish the terms of the complaint
and its rectification, which latter includes the agreement entered
into by employers with their employees, Asiatic and other. —
' Artisan-Education,' which we dignify by the title, Technical
Education, is a timely paper by V. O. Iordan. — ' Romances and
Tales of Eliza Ozheshkoff,' is an appreciative summary by M.
K. Tsebrikoff. — ' Observations on Literature,' are notices of
criticisms on contemporary writers. — ' Labour in Manufactories

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 181

and Professions ' (or Trades), an essay by K. I. Toomskoi, and
one by I. I. Inanoff, entitled ' Reform of the Social Relation
by the French Drama of the Eighteenth Century,' are both
given complete. — 'Agriculture by the Civilized Classes' is a
social study by A. A. lsahyeff. — ' Morals of Different Nations,'
by I. N. K., is a question which occupies many minds at the
present moment. — ' Legislative Regulations on the position of
workers in gold professions,' (or trades), by V. I. Somefski, and
an essay on the literary characteristics of A. P. Tchaikoff, The
Refuted, by V. A. Goltseff, are very interesting reading. —
' Antoine Laurent Lavoisier,' by I. A. Kablookoff, is a slight
record of the life and labours of that great reformer of chemical
nomenclature. — Another chapter is furnished of P. N. Milyou-
koff's treatise, entitled ' Chief Current of Russian Historical
Thought in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.' — The
numbers are as usual well supplied with fiction, original and
translated.

ITALY.

La Nuova Antologia (April 15th). — L. Chiala contributes
a paper on Kossuth and Cavour in 1860-61, in order to
complete, according to a wish expressed by Kossuth him-
self, the narration commenced in Cniala's ' Letters of Camillo
Cavour.' — A. Romanelli writes on the ' Public Debt and the
Taxes.' — A. Medin collects all notices of the fall and death of
Napoleon I. in contemporary poetry. — (May 15th — C. Cantu
publishes and annotates some letters by the poet Grrossi. — V.
endeavours to throw light on the confused political question
of the Italian possessions in Africa ; he advocates au unarmed
colonization of Europeans on a large scale, and closes his
paper in the subsequent number. — D. Guoli relates the story
of Saturn o Gerone, a Spaniard from Barcelona, who went to
Rome during the pontificate of Sixtus IV., in 1473, became a
Roman citizen and obtained the office of apostolic writer,
leaving at his death all his fortune to the Hospital of the
Saviour in the Lateran. — Neera commences in this number
and ends in the next a tale called ' The Solitary Soul,' which is
curiously dedicated to 'Sir Lawrence Dudley, Marquess of
Middleforth, wherever he may be.' The authoress tells how,
when her drama ' The Abbess of Moureal ' suffered a fiasco,
she received a letter signed the Marquess of Middleforth, and
guessed that it must have been written by a person whom she
had met in Villa Borghese, Rome. She describes the change
caused in her mind by this meeting. — The close of tbe paper
on ' Napoleon I. in contemporaneous poetry,' and an article on
the national debt close the number. — (June 1st.) — P. Lioy

182 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

writes a pleasant article on the open country, describing
animals, birds and vegetation. — P. Bertolini contributes a
lengthy political article on Agrarian reform. — Neera sends a
tale ou monastic life. — G. Tesorone describes the antiquated
town of Gubbio, and the Doria Pamphyle palace, in their
beauty and decay, against which he remonstrates. — 0.
Marucchi gives a full account of the latest discoveries in the
Roman catacombs. — G. A. Cesareo's chapters on the origin of
'Pa&quin' are brought to a close. — (June 15th.) — T. Casini
writes on the Jacobin principles of the poet Monti, which have
not been noticed by his biographers. — G. Boglietti contributes
a long article on ' The Anarchic Utopia,' pointing out the
serious peril which its realization would entail on society. —
Jessie White Mario begins a paper on the agricultural products
of Sicily. — F. Porena writes an interesting account of the
p-eographical expeditious of the ancient Romans, his facts
being derived from Latin and German works.

La Rassegna Nazionale (May 1st). — P. E. Castagnoli
ends his paper on ' Modern Roman Poetry ' by asking what
effect the Roman school will have on Italian literature, a
question difficult to answer, for almost all the poets he speaks
of are unknown or forgotten, and only Cossa has been
remembered and appreciated. But the writer believes that
after the close of the present period, these earlier poets will be
remembered, and leave a trace of genius on the whole of
Italian literature. — Follow some aphorisms by A. Rossi ; a
paper on agrarian affairs, the close of the story of ' Caterina
Sporza,' and a lecture delivered by Professor Ricci on ' Heine's
Domestic Life.' The number closes with an article by Signor
Eufrasio on the Biblical question and the encyclical letter
entitled ' Providentissimus Deus.' — E. Fani reviews E. Back-
house and Ch. Taylor's book on The Witnesses to Christ, calling
it ' one of the books so often written in England in which
prejudice takes the place of thoughtful criticism.' The critic
points out several passages that need confirmation, and the
general carelessness of the authors. ' A conscientious writer,'
he says, ' who is sensible of the importance of his work, ought
to reflect before offering opinions that can only raise doubts as
to his competence in the field of his speculations.' — (May 16th).
— G. Grabinski writes in pi'aise of two books on Italy written
by Rene Bazin, who, lie says, shows a great affection for Italy,
and, though he sometimes makes mistakes, is sincere in what
he relates. The book on Sicily, ' Sicile,' he says, is a jewel,
and intensely interesting just now. The other book, 'Les
Italiens d'aujourdhin,' is very good in all that relates to North

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 183

Italy, void of the errors so common to French authors on
Italy. In the part relating to South Italy, the author has very
well understood the important question of the re-sanitation of
Naples, and points out the mistakes made in the rush of
speculation. — Follows a lecture delivered in Genoa by C.
Pozzini on the national budget and national wealth. — We have
the close of the paper on Heine, and of G. Santarelle's account
of Chicago. — E. Rossi describes the interest taken by the
English clergy in labour questions, referring specially to the
Bishop of Manchester's lecture on the Living Wage. He
praises the action of the English clergy, aud regrets that their
example is not imitated in Italy. — (June 1st). — After a paper
by P. Manassei on ' Agrarian Credit,' and another on < Alexander
Battenberg,' we have here an article (delayed in its publica-
tion) by G. Hamilton Cavalette on Mr. Gladstone's late
Ministry, pointing out its difficulties. Mr. Cavaletti speaks of
Mr. Gladstone as the greatest man of his country ; a profoundly
religious man ; a greater orator than writer ; but condemns his
policy. — A. de Pesaro writes on the Joan d'Arc festivals in
France ; G. Garofolini on administrative reform, and E. A.
Toperti on the foreign policy of Italy. — (June 15th). — The
chief papers in this number are a short story by F. Salvatori,
entitled ' The Iconoclast,' 'Professor Charcot and his works'
by Dr. Massalongo ; a lecture on the name of ' Ciulo d'Alcanio,'
by V. di Giovanni ; a discussion about decentralization by R.
Ricci ; a full account of the bi-metallist congress in London, by
A. Rossi ; and some notes from a history of the Popes, by D. N.
Guarini.

La Rassegna (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)— 'Financial Politics.'— ' The
Re-organization of Commercial Representation.' — ' Agrarian
Contracts.' — ' Corn at Two Francs the Quintal.' — ' Rural
Building.' — ' The Arctic Expedition.' — ' The Parliamentary
Syndicate.' — 'Parliamentary Acts.' — ' Statistics.' — ' Reviews.' —
' Financial Politics.' — ' The roads in the province of Teramo.'
— 'Agrarian Syndicates.' — 'The new Senators.' — 'The exhibi-
tion of fruit and vegetables in England.' — ' Electricity in
mineral waters and its physical and therapeutical effects.' —
' The tax on military exemptions.' — ' Popular and Parliamen-
tary initiatives in Switzerland.' — 'Maritime Tariffs.'

Il Giornale Storico di Letteratura Italiano (No.
1 and 2, 1894) Contains ' Notes on the Life and Writings of
Costanza Varano-Sforza (1426-1447),' by B. Feliciangeli ; ' and
' Giambattista Andreina and the company of the Faithful,' by
E. Bevilacqua. — The number ends with varieties and reviews.

1 8 1 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

L'Archivio Storico Italiano (No. 1, 1894). — N. Feste
edits the four Greek letters written by Frederick II., explain-
ing that the inexactitude of the text published by G. Wolff,
Berlin, 1855, justifies his action. — A learned and interesting
article is one by G. E. Saltini, on ' Celion Malaspini,' the last
Italian novelist of the sixteenth century ; to which are added
many letters by that author. — In the portion of the review,
called 'Archives and Libraries,' G. Sforza tells us about
Enreco, Bishop of Luni, and the Pelavicino codex of the
Sarzana archives ; A. Genzzetti describes the Gheradi parch-
ment deposited in the Florence archives.

La Nuova Rassegna (April 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd) —
Contain ' The military crisis.' — ' An erudite poet.' — ' Econo-
mical pessimism.' — ' The legend of Issa.' — ' Romance of State :
The City of the Sun.' — ' Casanovian figures: The Strasburgess.'
— ' Prince Henry of Portugal and the Italian navigators in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.' — 'Reviews.' — 'The pain of
death for Anarchists.' — ' The dialogue between Camillo and
Valerio attributed to Tasso.' — ' Spedaheri and Mamia'ni.' —
' Cecillia Metella.' — ' The legislative function.' — ' Our house.' —
' The last romances of Edward Rod.' — ' Streets, noises, and
passengers of old Rome.' — ' The English pre-Raffaelites.' —
' Archaeological walks.' — ' Military polemics.' — ' The school of
character.' — ' Reviews.' — ' Anarchy.' — ' Jacobin memories.' —
'Labour organisation and the increase of wages.' — 'Instruction
and revolution.' — ' Morphology and the Gulf of Naples.' — ' The
Word of a Profane.' — 'A precursor of H. George.' — ' Evan-
gelium secundum Matthaeum.' — ' The poet Eronda.' — (May
6th, 13th, 20th.) — 'American Protectionism.' — 'Iron-head.' —
' Theocritic studies.' — ' General Baillieucourt's reminiscences of
Italy.' — ' For a new translation of the Georgics.' — ' History
and Geography in schools.' — ' The eight hours labour ques-
tion.'— ' The principle of authority in social questions.' — ' The
Society of Italian Studies in France.' — ' Philosophy of machines.'
— ' Ugo Foscolo, a Positivist.' — ' Will the future Pope be an
Italian'?' — 'Medical and colonial geography.' — 'Castel Sant'
Angelo.' — ' Under the earth.' — ' Villa Medici.' — ' Military
polemics.' — 'The school of character.' — 'University Congresses.
Review of Popular Italian Traditions (April). — ' The
legend and fable of Cuneo.' — 'The Madonna of Modena.' — ' The
Madonna of the Sweet Milk.' — ' Legend of Terranova, Sicily.'
'The day of thei/er/a.' — 'Novellettes.' — 'Popular Songs.'— 'Cus-
toms and funeral beliefs in Bologna.' — 'Fire in the popular
Calabrese belief.' — ' Sardinian conjuring against conflagrations,
headaches, and waterspouts.' — 'Customs.' — 'Cretinopoli.' —
'Psychology of popular dialects.' — 'Miscellanies.'

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 185

L'Archivio Storico per le Province Napolitane (No. 1,
1894). — With the exception of one article, the whole contents
of this number are continuations of previous papers. The one
exception is a description by B. Croce of the old Spanish
romance entitled ' The Question of Love,' which gives an ac-
count of the manners and customs, the festivals, tournaments,
and combats that took place in Naples in the time of the
Spanish viceroys, in the years 1508-1512. In this romance
figure all the nobility of the period, under feigned names,
which, however, all begiu with the initial letter of the real one.
The romance might as well be entitled 'Love, Flirtatiou, and
Arms,' and is of great interest to a student ot Neapolitan
history.

La Reforma Sociale (March, 1894 ; Nos. 1 and 2). Under
this new name the former Rassegna di Scienze Sociale e Poli-
tiche, now appears. The numbers noted contain ' Social
Science and Social Reform,' b}r Professor Loria. — ' Agrarian
Reform in Austria,' by Professor Schullern-Schallenhofer of
Vienna. — ' The Theory and Method of Political Economy,' by
Professor Schmoller, of Berlin. — ' The Wages of Sweat,' by
Beatrice Potter (translated and published in Italian previous to
its appearance in the magazine of the Fabian Society). —
'Peasants and gabelloth in Sicily,' by G. Salvioli. — 'The Teach-
ing of Social and Political Science,' by R. Worms. — ' Practical
Assistance in Germauy,' by 0. de Qaeker of Brussels. — ' The
Rise in the Salt Tax,' by Professor Celli of Rome. — ' The Case
of Sicily,' by Dr. Colajanni, Sicilian Deputy. — ' The Increase of
the Corn Tax,' by Professor Bertolini of Bari. — 'Postal Bauks,'
by the same. — ' The Conversion of French Rents,' by F.
Lanza. — April 10 and 25, and May 10 contain ' The Influ-
ence of Trade Unions in Social and Industrial Life in England,'
by George Howell, — of which the editor says that it is a
luminous proof of the theory that the modern operative move-
ment must act not only on the phenomena of wealth, but also
on the moral and political tendencies of society. — ' The Spirit
of Conquest and its Results,' by J. Novicow. — ' Theory and
Methods of Political Economy,' by Professor Schmoiler. —
' Military Expenditure and Disarmament,' by F. Lanza. — 'The
Agrarian Party and its Social Significance,' by Francis Netti.
— ' The Deduction of Taxes from Incomes,' by Dr. di Marzo. —
'Christian Socialism and Co-opeiation in England,' by M.
Kaufmann. — ' The Organization of Hamburg,' by E. Lepetit.
— ' Agrarian Communism and the Tribes of the Caucasus,' by
Professor Kovalevsky. — ' Military Taxes,' by X. — ' The First
of May,' by F. Netti. — 'Rents of Houses as an Index to Income/

186 Summaries of Foreign Review*.

by Professor elella Volta. — ' The Custom-House Controversy,'
by F. Lanza. — * Forrestal Reform in Italy,' by Max Wirth. —
* Free Trade and Protection,' by A. Naquet. — ' The Pretended
Natural Rights of Man,' by D. S. Ritchie. — < The Origin of the
Saint Simon Doctrine,' by Professor Weill. — ' The Sulphur
Industry in Sicily,' by Dr. Colajanni. — « The Association for
Economical Freedom,' by F. Nitti. — 'Eight Hours Work in
Europe,' by Professor Salvioli. — ' Intellectual Protectionism,'
by F. Nitti. — ' On the Payment of Salaries in Italy,' by Pro-
fessor Graziani. — 'The New Method of Insurance,' by F. Flora.
— ' Economy in the War Budgets,' by P. S. Casaretto. —
Reviews and chronicles. — (May 25, June 10). — ' The Politics
of Labour,' by Sir C. W. Dilke. — ' The Economical and Indus-
trial Importance of Co-operation,' by Dr. Criiger. — ' Labour
Legislation in Spain,' by Professor Hartado. — ' The Values of
Monopoly,' by A. Graziani. — ' The Last English Budget,' by
Professor Bastable. — ' Professions and Classes,' by C. F.
Ferraris. — ' Social Science in France,' by Professor Haurion. —
' Sulphur Mines in Sicily,' by Dr. Colajanni. — ' The Character
of Modern Italians,' by Professor Bianchi.

FRANCE.

Revue de l'Histoire des Religions (No. 2, 1894).— A series
of articles appeared in this Revue by M. L. Horst, extending from
1887 to last year, under the title, 'Etude sur le Deuteronome.'
They were for the most part directed against the position
taken up by the Graf-Wellhausen school of criticism as to the
Book of the Law found by Hilkiah, the priest, in the Temple,
being identical with Deuteronomy or the legal section thereof,
Deut. xii.-xxvi. Their position as regards the substantial
identity of Deuteronomy and Hilkiah's Book of the Laiv, may
be said to be vital to their whole system. If it fails them, their
whole edifice falls to pieces, and would require to be abandoned.
It was only to be expected therefore that very soon after M.
Horst's articles were concluded they would be critically ex-
amined in the pages of this same Revue by some competent
representative of the school, whose central position had been
assailed. M. C. Piepenbring here adventures this task. He
subjects M. Horst's 'Etude' to a detailed and minute examina-
tion, and seeks to repel his attacks on their central position,
and to show that it has not been shaken by them. M. Piepen-
bring admits that that position is vital to the whole system,
which is confessedly built upon it. M. Horst endeavoured to
show that much of what now forms the legal section of
Deuteronomy was of later origin than the reign of Josiah — is

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 187

in fact of exilic date, and could not therefore have formed any
part of the book that so alarmed and distressed the pious king.
These parts are, of course, the parts selected for re-examina-
tion by M. Piepenbring, and he furnishes substantial reasons
for still regarding them as of the date assigned them by his
school, and as forming integral parts of the original Book of
the, Law. He examines in return M. Horst's theory of the
origin and composition of Deuteronomy, and seeks to prove its
inadequacy as a solvent of the historical and critical problems
involved. In a final section he reviews M. Horst's treatment
of the relations of Jeremiah to the Reform, and takes occasion
at the same time to criticise and refute M. Renan's opinions on
this point. The latter assigned a prominent role to that
prophet in the measures taken by Josiah, nay, affirmed that
derriere tous les actes du roi, etait Jeremie. He found the ex-
planation of the fact that Jeremiah's name never once occurs
in connection with the narrative of the discovery of the book,
or the measures that followed it, in the assumption that Jere-
miah was the author of the code, or most of it. M. Horst, on
the other hand, sees in the fact of that silence, and still more
in the fact that nowhere does Jeremiah himself take any direct
notice in his prophecies of the discovery of the book, or of the
measures said to have been taken by Josiah after it, a proof,
if not of the unhistorical character of the narrative in 2 Kings,
xxii., then of its exaggeration of the extent and success of the
reform. M. Piepenbring regards the solution of the first of these
difficulties to lie in this, that Jeremiah had been too short a
time engaged in the prophetic office to have made his mark, so
to speak, when Josiah began his reformatory measures, and
was therefore not consulted by the king, and had no hand in
the carrying out of the measures adopted. The second point
is explained in this way. The chief function of the prophetic
office then was to denounce idolatry and the religious syncret-
ism that had hitherto prevailed. Jeremiah's silence is explic-
able on the supposition that Josiah's reform had been so suc-
cessful that the evils which roused the prophet's ire and in-
spired his denunciations, had come to an end, and there was
therefore no occasion now for the latter. — M. G. Raynaud, in a
short paper on the three principal deities of Mexico, Quetzal-
cohuatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Huitzilopochtli, favours the opinion
that they were originally the supreme deities of three different
tribes or races, and that the differences between them are re-
flections of the temperaments and characteristics of the races
respectively. The first of them were immigrants from the
south, who were conquered afterwards by a race from the

188 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

north, and that again by another tribe, ruder and crueller still.
Quetzalcohuatl was the deity of the first arrivals, the Toltecs ;
then came the Chichimecs with their god Tezcatlipoca, and
finally the Aztecs with their god Huitzilopochtli. The repre-
sentations of each of these deities are then described, and the
import of each sought to be defined. — Under the title, 'Contes
bouddhiques,' MM. G. cle Blonay and L. de la Vallee Poussin
give a translation of the ' Legend of Vidudabha,' from the
Dhammapada. Among the books reviewed we notice Mr. C G.
Montefiore's Hibbert Lectures on ' The Origin and Growth of
Religion, as illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Heb-
rews.' M. Piepenbring, the reviewer, speaks of the work in
the terms of warmest praise.

Revue des Religions (No. 2, 1894.)— M. le Comte de
Charencey commences in this number an interesting article on
' Les deformations craniennes' — the full title of the article is
' Les deformations craniennes et le Concile de Lima,' but le
Concile de Lima receives very scanty notice. The notice is
confined to the quotation of a brief canon of the Council in
question on the subject of artificially manipulated skulls. The
burden of the article is an account of the custom as it was in
existence among the tribes practising it in the New AVorld.
M. de Charencey describes several of the forms affected by
the different tribes or races, and the means used to give the
head of the child the peculiar shape which was in favour with
them. He discusses also the moot questions as to why these
peculiar shapes had become the favourite shapes with this or
that tribe, and what were the effects of these cranial malfor-
mations on the intellectual and moral qualities of those sub-
jected to these artificially produced forms. — M. l'Abbe de Moor
contributes a paper on ' La pseudo-critique biblique moderne.'
He endeavours to show how baseless and unscientific the
methods of the so-called Historical School of Biblical Criticism
are, and so to protect those of the Catholic Faith especially
from being seduced by the writings of that school from their
orthodox beliefs. The learned Abbe seems to distrust the
methods of the Historical School of Criticism, and speaks in
the strongest terms against the adherents of it. Their en-
deavour to solve the problems which their study of the Biblical
books suggest to them are, in the eyes of this writer, vSni-
meuses attaques contre de fondement meme du Christianisme, and
the best he has to say of them is that they are frauduleuses
manoeuvres. Dr. Bernhard Stade (who by the way is described
as the late or deceased Dr. Bernhard Stade, a curious slip), is
selected by M. de Moor as an exemplar of the school in ques-

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 189

tion, and his standpoint and aim in his History of Israel are
set forth and then passed under review, a specimen or two of
his positions being specially criticised. — The 'Chronique' here,
as always, is extremely comprehensive and valuable. In it
the recent 'Parliament of Religious' at Chicago receives con-
siderable attention, as illustrating the influence and growing
importance of the Science of Religions in the civilised world.
M. Bonet Maury's report of the proceedings of the 'Parliament '
is largely quoted from, and the writer's acquaintance with the
proceedings is evidently dependent on that report. It ap-
peared in the Journal des Debats and in the Revue de V Histoire
des Religions. But the Chronique keeps the readers of the
Revue en rapport with religious movements and literature in
both the Old World and in the New, and if most space is given
to Catholic movements and literature, as is natural in a Catholic
periodical, yet the field surveyed is a wide one, and the notices
both of events and books are extremely helpful to all interested
in the religious history of the past and the present. — (No. 3,
1894.) — M. le Comte de Charencey continues his paper on ' Les
deformations craniennes,; and here selects instances of the
same practice in the Old World as he had described as having
been found among the aboriginal tribes in the New. Most of
the instances described here are those of the northern and
eastern provinces of Asia, but the most interesting part of M.
de Charencey's paper (for the facts are familiar enough to
most readers) is that devoted to showing racial connection,
through migration, of the eastern Asiatic races with those
found by the discoverers of America peopling the western
shores of that Continent and extending down to Mexico and
Peru. — M. l'Abbe Peisson, the editor of the Revue, under the
title ' La Science des Religions,' discusses the question, How
is Religion to be accounted for ? He shows, in the first place,
that it is a factor in the life of every normally constituted
human being, and is not only the most universal but the most
tenacious factor in it. Nowhere yet has man been able to
shake himself free from its spell or its control. Denied in this
form it reappears in him in some other. Whence then has it
entered into the constitution of man % Has it come from with-
out, or has it been evolved from within by man's own unaided
intellectual powers ? M. Peisson examines the answers given
by some of the more authoritative representatives of the so-
called Historical School, and endeavours to show how insuffi-
cient these answers are. He regards the Biblical solution as
the only one that satisfies all the facts of experience. Religion
as an inner factor and as an external institution is directly

190 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

from God, aud originated in a primitive revelation. The
various forms it has assumed since, other than the Jewish and
the Catholic Christian, are to be regarded as so many de-
generations of the primitive faith and cult. The article is not
finished in this number. — M. l'Abbe Dr. Bourdais gives a short
article on ' La Banqueroute du Concordisme.' It is a criticism
of a paper which appeared in the Revue Biblique on the ' Cos-
mogenie Mosaic/ or rather of a section of it, which deals with
the efforts so frequently made to prove Genesis in harmony
with Science.

Revue Celtique (April, 1894.) — The first place is given to
an article by M Ernault, in which he discusses the significance
of a Breton phrase occurring in an interesting narrative of
a journey made into Lower Brittany in 1543 by Ambroise
Pare. — After this comes a Confession of Sins attributed to St.
Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, found in the MS. Angers 14, of
about the ninth or tenth century, in which it is followed by a
another written by Alcuin for Charlemagne. The MS.
contains a Psalter and invocations of the Saints Boniface,
Columban aud Gall, as well as of those of the middle and north
of France. Apparently it was written at Tours. The contri-
bution is by M. S. Berger. — The editor has apparently concluded
his article on the Celts in Spain, for in this number we have as
the next piece three indices to them ; the two first being of
the names of ancient and modern places, and the third giving
the personal names occurring in the articles, and explained. —
In ' Nennius Retractatus ' M. Duchesne gives the text ot the
Historia of Nennius from the Chartres MS. and examines it with
special reference to Zmimer'siYennms Vindicatus. — An interest-
ing article follows, in which M. Reiuach shows that Spain and
its silver mines were known to the Greeks in the time of
Homer, and to Homer himself. — We have the usual ' Melanges,'
' Bibliographie,' and ' Chronique,' which, as usual, is full of
information, as is also the ' Periodiques.'

Revue des Deux Mondes (May, June). — The first of these
numbers opens with an extract from the History of the Princes
of the House of Conde, at which the Due d'Aumale has long
been working, aud of which, indeed, several volumes have already
been given to the public. The present instalment is devoted to a
very interesting account of the battle of Seneff, which was
fought in August, 1674, and resulted in a signal victory for Conde.
— In a very solid and very instructive scientific paper,M.P.Duhem
discusses the various theories of light which have been put for-
ward from the time of Descartes to the present day. — In a very
brilliant literary article, M. Emile Faguet treats of Alexandrianisrn,

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 191

and shows that its characteristics are not exclusively those of the
period and the country which the term naturally recalls, but
are to be found in all literatures, whenever a special study of old
models exercise its influence. This leading idea is admirably
and suggestively worked out in a study to which the writer's
admirable style imparts an additional charm. — ' Le mouvement
eeonomique ' marks a new departure. It inaugurates a series of
articles which it is intei.ded to publish quarterly, and in which the
special economical questions and problems of the day are to be
considered. — M. Eugene-Melchior de Vogue's ' Catherine Sforza'
is onlv a review, but it is the review of a work which for various
reasons — its size amongst others — is not likely to fall into the hands
of many readers outside Italy — Count Pasolini's biography of
Caterina kSforza. In comparatively few pages, the reviewer
succeeds in giving not only an excellent summary of the three
bulky volumes, but also an admirable sketch cf the state of Italy
during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. — In the mid-
monthly number, the Due d'Aumale again appears, bringing,
this time, an account of Conde's last campaign, in 1675. — The
various political questions connected with equatorial Africa are
discussed with remarkable calmness and fairness by M. Henri
Deherain. The tone of his article may be gathered from his
concluding words : ' Let us set aside these rivalries. Whoever
they may be, the Europeans who will occupy the equatorial pro-
vince will bring back civilisation to it. The work of Baker, of
Gordon, and of Emin, will only have been interrupted. They
will not have worked and suffered in vain ; their efforts for the
abolition of the slave trade will not have been fruitless. What-
ever flag may wave over Wadelay, the long caravan of wretched
beings marching slowly towards the coast, and strewing the path
with corpses, will be no more than a memory.' — In a very re-
markable and intensely interesting article, the writer who signs
' Arvede Barine,' gives a sketch of Sophie Kovalevsky, and shows
how very little, in her case, the total emancipation dreamt of by
some women conduced to happiness. — In the first of the two
June numbers, M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu continues his deeply-
thought and eloquently written article ' Le regne de 1' Argent' —
It is followed by a paper in which M. Charles Benoist examines,
not in a very friendly sense, the Italian view of the Triple
Alliance set forth in a recent publication by Signor Luigi Chiala.
— An account of the Chicago Exhibition, with special reference
to American science, is contributed by M. Jules Violle ; whilst M.
George Lafenestre gives a first notice of this year's salon. — As a
supplement to the articles on Cardinal Richelieu, which have ap-
peared in former numbers, M. Hanotaux publishes in the number

192 Summaries of Foreign Review?.

for the 15th of June, a study of Marie de Medicis. — An article
of considerable interest in view of the spread of Socialism is that
which M. Emile Faguet devotes to Saint-Simon, who may be
looked upon as its first modern apostle. — It may suffice to indi-
cate by their titles, the remaining articles in this number. They
are 'La Literature Wagnerienne en Allemagne,' by M.Jean
Thorel ; ' Les Prix et le Lover des Maisons en France/ by the
Vicomte d'Avenel, and ' La France et l'Allemagne en Afrique,'
by Dr. Rouire.

Revue des Etudes Juives (No. 1, 1894.) — A third instalment
of the late M. Loeb's masterly essay on the history and charac-
teristics of the Jewish people occupies the first place in this
number. It bears, it will be remembered, the somewhat com-
prehensive title ' Reflexions sur les Juits.' This section treats
first of the repute which the Jews have earned of being a
race of born traders and bankers. Nothing, he proves, is
further from the truth. The commercial spirit has been
generated and fostered in 'them by the force of external
circumstances. The genius of the Jewish race is agricultural,
not commercial. Their ancestors and their typical leaders
through all the period of their possession of Palestine were
shepherds, and then husbandmen and artisans. The attempts
made to establish commercial relations with foreign nations
during the reigns of Solomon and one or two of the other
kings proved altogether abortive. The great merchants were
and continued to be the Phoenicians. It was only when the Jews
lost their independence and were driven or forced into exile,
where their favourite occupations were impossible, that they
turned themselves to traffic and commerce, and began to exhibit
skill as negotiators and merchants. In their colonies where
agriculture was possible, as in Assyria and elsewhere, the Jews
remained faithful to it, and all the Babvlonian rabbis are
known to have been either farmers or tradesmen. It was only
in Alexandria that the Jews distinguished themselves as
merchants. The colony in Rome also, but solely under the
force of circumstances, devoted themselves to this mode of
earning their means of living. Jews being resident in every
country, they were able to carry on commercial transactions
everywhere, and were the means of establishing international
relations of all kinds. When the avenues of commerce were
closed against them by the Christian powers, they were driven
to banking and money lending. Here too they proved them-
selves the pioneers of civilization and the benefactors of man-
kind. M. Loeb not only regards the accusation of usury as a
calumny when applied to the Jewish money lenders as a

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 193

whole, but shows that the accusation was and is, save in a few
•exceptional cases, altogether baseless. Where in the Middle
Ages the rates of interest charged were high, it was caused
almost without exception by the exceptional laws passed
against the Jews, and the disabilities imposed upon them by
Christian rulers for the purpose of augmenting their own
revenues. The Jews in most instances were simply the tools
of Christian need or avarice. But in banking, as in commerce,
M. Loeb shows that the Jews have been everywhere the
creators and teachers of those methods of international
exchange that have done so much to knit the world in unity
and ameliorate the social and individual hardships of human
life. The evidence he produces in this section of his essay as
to the love ot Jews for agricultural pursuits and as to the
numbers of them engaged in the various branches of industry
is very striking and conclusive. — Dr. Julius Oppert furnishes a
series of brief papers on what he styles ' Problemes Bibliques.'
They are dedicated to M. .Joseph Derenbourg, as an offering
of homage aud respectful gratitude that ought by rights to
have been presented to him by a grateful pupil on the occasion
of the celebration of his eightieth birth-day festival. They are
divided into two groups, The first group deals with problems
suggested by the Books of Esther and Judith, and the second
with the exact date of the destruction of the first Temple of
Jerusalem. In the first group the identity of the Ahasuerus of
Esther, Ezi*a, aud Daniel, with the Xerxes of Greek history,
the historical character of the Book of Esther and the
unhistorical character of the Book of Judith, and the mixed
character of the Book of Daniel are discussed ; while in the
second group we have a series of considerations and calcula-
tions presented to us, based on the data furnished by the
cuneiform tablets recovered from the Assyrian ruins which
give us the years, and sometimes even the very days on which
events mentioned in the Bible occurred. Dr. Oppert shows
how inter alia the date of the destruction of the first temple
can thus be precisely determined, as also the date of that of
Herod's Temple by Titus. The former he fixes as having
taken place on August 27th, according to the Julian, August
21st, according to the Gregorian reckoning, of the year 587
B.C., and the latter as having occurred on August 5th, 70 A.D.
— M. Adolphe Buchler gives a detailed account of the intrigues
(and the motives that induced them) of Rabbi Nathan and
Rabbi Meir against the Patriarch Simon ben Gamaliel, which
will be chiefly interesting to non-Jewish readers as illustrations
of the petty feelings that even in religious orders sometimes
dictate and guide religious policy and action. — Dr. J. Goldziher
xxiv. i ?

104 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

writes on 'Usages Juifs d'apres la litterature religieuse des
Musulmans,' showing how anxious the prophet and some of
his followers have been, while profiting by and imitating the
teaching and example of Jews as to religious dogma and
religious rites, to modify them when adopted so as to distinguish
Moslems from Jews. The other articles in this number are,
' Recherches sur le Sepher Ye^ira,' by M. A. Epstein ; ' Notes
sur l'histoire des Juifs d'Espagne,' by M. Kayserling ; and
' Documents inedits sur les Juifs de Montpellier au moyen age,'
by M. S. Kahn. — Under ' Acts et Conferences,' in addition to
the President's address at the annual meeting of the Soe'u'b'
des Etudes Juives, and M. Verne's critical summary of the
publications of the SociStd during 1893, we have a lecture on
Spinoza by M. Rene Worms, which was delivered before the
Socii'te on January 27th of this year.

Revue Semitique d'Epigraphie et d'Histoire Anciexne
(No. 2, 1884.)— M. J. Halevy's series of ' Recherches Bibliques'
is continued, and has, as usual, the first place here. We have
first the concluding part of his critical study of Psalm vii. In
this section he discusses the questions as to the date and
authorship of the psalm. From the similarity it bears to the
utterances, especially in the use of certain terms, of Jeremiah,
and the similarity of sentiment to his with regard to those from
whose oppression both the prophet and the psalmist suffer, M.
Halevy regards the psalm as having been penned by some
disciple and sympathetic friend of the suffering prophet during
the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, who here identified
the sufferings of his master with those of the entire people.
Next follows a short study of Psalm lxxiv., 5. This verse has
perplexed interpreters sadly, and in its present state in the
Massoretic text is devoid of any clear sense. M. H. proposes
to substitute for the first word in the verse the 3rd pers. sing.,
mas. fut. hiphel of ruah = i to make a loud noise,' and he trans-
lates it, ' lis out rugi comme (les bucherous) qui soulevent la
hache contre un fourre d' arbres.' It may be mentioned, how-
ever, that in this reading M. H. has been anticipated by M.
Ledrain, who translates the verse (' La Bible,' Tom. viii., p.
p. 184) ' lis font du bruit comme quand la hache frappe dans
les arbres entrelaces.' — A third study is devoted to determining
the nationality and home of the ' Javan ' or ' Yawan ' of the
Bible. That Greeks are denoted by the term is admitted ; but
what Greeks and where resident ? M. H. takes first, Ezekiel,
xxvii., 19, and gives good reasons for regarding ' Vedun ' as a
mistake for ' Rodan ' ; and ' Rodan and Javan' as indicating
the Greeks inhabiting the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus. As

Summaries of Foreign Revieivs. 195

to the other passages where Javan occurs, in Daniel it refers
to the Macedonians, but in Joel andZechariah the reference is
subject of dispute. Both Stade and Wellhausen locate the
* Javan ' of these writers in Northern Syria ; but M. Halevy
here defends the idea that both writers (M. H. regards
Zechariah as an echo of Joel) have in view Greeks not resi-
dent in Syria, but at a considerable distance from Palestine —
island Greeks such as at Cyprus or Rhodes. — M. Halevy con-
tinues here too his transcription and translation of the Tel-el-
Amarna tablets — those here given, as those in the last number,
being from the tablets in possession of the British Museum. —
M. Clement Huart also continues his paper ' Epigraphie arabe
d'Asie Miueure.' — M. Alfred Boisser furnishes several cuneiform
texts containing lists of medicinal plants. — M. S. Karppe gives
a series of notes, under the title of 'Melanges de critique
biblique et d'Assyriologie,' on some interesting problems in
which Assyrian inscriptions throw considerable light on, or at
least enable us to see more clearly than formerly, the result of
Israel's contact with Babylonian and Assyrian religious views
and customs in the years prior to aud during the captivity. —
M. Peruchon continues his 'Notes pour l'histoire d'Ethiopie. —
M. J. Halevy prints a paper which he communicated first to
the Societe Asiatique on Nov. 10th, on Hebrew epigraphy, also
' Notes Cappadociennes ' ; ' L'Inscription mineenne d' Egypte ; '
'Notes Geographiques ' ; 'Balthasar et Darius le Mede,' and
the ' Bibliographic'

SWIT ZER LAND.

Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse (April, June).
M. Numa Droz opens the quarter with an article, 'Les Patriotes
Neufchatelois en 1793,' in which he shows with what results the
principles of the French Revolution spread through the little
country of Neuchatel, which in those days was under the
suzerainty of Prussia, and how a small revolution was attempted
for the purpose of establishing a purely democratic and indepen-
dent government. — In ' PIrrigation Ancienne dans l'Asie cen-
trale,' M. Henri Moser shows how, many centuries ago, the
western part of Asia was traversed in every direction by canals,
serving chiefly for the transport of produce, and for the irrigation
of the soil, and he urges the necessity of restoring the prosperity
of former days by the extension and the improvement of the
system of irrigation. — Helen Keller is again the subject of an
article, which this time takes the shape of a translation of her
autobiographv. — The condition of Rippoldsau forty years ago
may not be a matter of very general interest, but the article

196 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

which M. Frossard devotes to a description is very pleasant read-
ing, and contains a great deal of quaint information concernincr
that special corner of the Black Forest. — The paper having for
its title ' Temperatures d'autrefois,' is founded on the private
diary of one Nicolas Bergier, who, amongst other items, entered
with scrupulous care and accuracy the meteorological conditions
of each year from 1712 to 1731. This supplies valuable material
towards the solution of the question whether there really has
been a material change in the temperature of the various seasons,
as is sometimes asserted. So far as it goes, Bergier's testimony
does not favour this view. — The first article in the June number
discusses the present condition of Italy, and its causes. The de-
ficit of some 177 millions in the budget is attributed to the ex-
cessive expense entailed by the army and navy, and also to the
malversations of politicians and their friends. The article is,
on the whole, of a distinctly pessimistic tone. — The three remain-
ing contributions are distinctly interesting for English readers,
including in the term all that read English, whether on this side
of the Atlantic or the other. The first is a literary essay — not
yet concluded, however — on Dante Gabriel Rossetti, of whose
sonnets there are some excellent translations. The next is ex-
plained by its title, ' What I saw in the New World.' It has
the merit, not only of being brightly and pleasantly written, but
also of deviating from the beaten track of ordinary tourists.
Finally, 'Catherine Booth,' is not only a biographical sketch, but
also a historical account of the Salvation Army movement.

SPAIN.

La Espana Moderna— Revista de Espafia (April, 1894.) —
' The Secret of a Ministerial Council,' amongst ' Contemporary
Annals,' gives an insight into the motives and conduct of Prim
when the Duke of Genoa was called to the Spanish throne, on
which he sat so uncomfortably and shortly. — Echegaray has a
third and most informing article on ' Explosives,' to which he
promises a continuation. — The occasiou of the paper ' Juan
del Encina, and the origin of the Spanish Theatre,' is the pub-
lication by the Royal Spanish Academy of a complete edition
of the works of this famous dramatic poet of the fifteenth cen-
tury. His influence, life, and works are considered in a well-
informed paper by Emilia Cotarelo. — ' The Social Question in
Andalucia' seeks to examine and explain why in this magnifi-
cent province home has always been found for those evils
that public law and morals, as well as individual security and
interest, condemn. — Under 'Old Time Affairs' we find a sad
account of Madrid finances in 1570, and an interesting list of

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 197

prices of current articles, most useful for comparison. Other
curious local connections with Madrid are noted. — In his
' International Chronicle,' Castelar considers the retiral of
Gladstone and the death of Kossuth as in the foremost place,
seeing two such giant figures seldom occur. He pays an elo-
quent tribute to both as pioneers of liberty. He alludes to the
curious marriage of Don Carlos and the Princess de Rohan as
contrary to the traditions of his house, seeing it is not only an
unequal marriage, but one with a Protestant family that did
great injury to the Church, and in the person of the Cardinal
de Rohan did equal injury to monarchy. He believes that the
denunciation of the Pope by the French Government will not
influence the mass of the people, who are good Catholics. He
holds that the Russian Socialistic idea is an absurdity in
Paris, 'the proud city that believes itself the national capital
of modern civilisation.' The interesting suggestion is made
that the children of the misery of 1870 are influencing thought,
but 'France has no other possible rule but a liberal and con-
servative Republic, of slow progress, and under firm and con-
certed order ? ' — ' A critical review of the life and works of Tirso
de Molina,' who was the second, if not the first, of the Dramatic
Authors of Spain, dating from the begiuning of the seventeenth
century, follows. He seems to have been a friar, and to be
much more popular on the stage than Calderon. — One of the
most novel works noted is entitled ' Studies of Contemporary
Literary Pathology.' — A valuable ' Scientific Chronicle,' in
which, among other matters, the money of the world is
summed up novelly, leads to a life of 'Luis Vives,' a pioneer
of education in Spain in the sixteenth century — especially of the
humanities. — May commences with a valuable account of the
Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities belonging to the Archduke
Raniero, now thrown open to the public in Vienna. It pro-
mises to be a valuable mine of ancient and forgotten know-
ledge, as it continues up to Arabic times. Thus we learn from
it that paper was brought to the West from China in the year
751 of the Christian era. A manufactory was started in
Bagdad in 795. There is also 'printing' by the Arabs from
the tenth century, evidently borrowed from China long before
Gutenberg. It is quite a historical mine, and does much to
prove the oft quoted saying, that there is nothing new under
the sun, for besides a life much like our own, with houses
bonded until at length obliged to be sold, we find that the
Arab Khalifs of Egypt had a complete pigeon express
throughout the country, with fine sheets of paper to send
letters on by them ! The collection is of vast extent. — ' Juan
del Encina ' is continued with critical care. — ' How the

198 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

Japanese have been civilised,' refers to the condition of that
country when the Galleon 'San Felipe' landed for help in
1596, and describes how they were treated. A paper, ' Apropos
of the Case of Varela,' deals with the progress of law, in course
of which the writer remarks that while all sciences have en-
tered on the correct road of observation, law alone remains
conventional, illusory and false. — 'Adam and Eve' concludes
its clever course, into which Emilia Pardo Bazan introduces
many provincialisms and much smart dialogue. — 'The influence
of Spain on Italy ' is of great historic interest and of novel treat-
ment. In it the statements are examined, as to sixteenth cen-
tury Italian being a product of Spanish culture, and that
Spanish culture is a renewal of the School of Seneca and
Lucan. Tne author refers to the literary Court of the
Emperor Frederick II. in Sicily, a prelude to the Scientific
Court of Alphonso the Wise. ' The Semitic-Spanish element
had a great importance in that Sicilian Court.' Valuable
notes on Physical Education in Spain; Anthropology in Spain,
in preparation for an ethnographical map; and the decrease of
population in France. Here again we have a note of the sug-
gestion that the loss is owing to the lack of fecundity of those
born in the calamitous years 1870-71. — (June.) — 'El Hechicero,'
a well told romance by J. Valera, commences this number. It
is pleasant reading, with local colouring and national feeling.
— ' The Psychology of Youth ' in the modern novel, is a clever
bit of literary criticism which is especially fitted for the subtle
Spanish mind. — ' Villergas and his times' is another careful
literary study of a Spanish author, by V. Barrantes. — Of very
different type is the paper on ' Degeneration and the Process
Willie,' the celebrated case of the Englishman at Barcelona,
tried for murder, but escaping with manslaughter owing to
his temporary insanity. The study is a careful one on the
causes of such physical plus mental deterioration or lapse, and
the writer adds that it ' would ' be sad if the degeneration of
those who punished were bound up with the degeneration of
the delinquent ! — The scientific resume deals with how to
measure intellectual work, and the Psychometrical laboratory.
' The couutr}r folks beg of the Emperor William like a father,
and adore him like a god, as forcible, absolutist, military, and
reactionary, because they believe him come to foment with
his intolerance the historic religions, and protect with prohibi-
tionism the rural interests,' says Castelar, but he has had the
courage to make commercial treaties, and country feudalism
has invoked for him all the furies of Avernus. Castelar sug-
gests some occult reasons for Stambuloff's dethronement. —
'The Life of Luis Vives' is continued.

Summaries of Foreign Revieios. 19(J

HOLLAND.

De Gids. — The May number opens with a charming tropical
sketch — the sickness, death and burial of a native sailor, very
touchingly and pathetically told by A. W. Pulle. — The next
article, by Professor Logeman, takes up the subject of ' Indi-
vidualism in Language,' and is a protest against the academic
tendency to arrest development in a living tongue, and at the
same time a plea for greater scope and freedom in adding fresh
words and phrases, though this latter must necessarily have its
limit. — A lady, Geertruida Carelsen, contributes Hygienic notes.
She is an advocate of Nature cures by cold water and sun baths,
and so on, and contemplates a happy future, when influenza, bad
colds, and physic, shall have ceased to be a perpetual subject of
conversation. — A most able and interesting article, written as an
introduction to Messrs. Looy and Gerling's new translation of
Xenophon's ' Memorabilia,' is contributed by Ch. M. Van
Deventer. He brings out especially the value of the work as a
source of information about Xenophon himself, even more than
about Socrates, and gives a high estimate of the great commander,
not only as a man of action, but as an author. — Louis Couperus
continues his journal of ' Italian Travel.' — A political article,
' After the Fight,' by Cort van den Linden, reviews the past of
the Liberal party since 1891, and while deploring the disregard of
truth in the formation of political parties, the want of publicity in
dealing with public interests, and the want of cohesion in political
life, he still thinks it possible that the different sections of the
libei'al party could be got to act unitedly. — June number begins
with an appreciative notice of Robert Fruin, a former editor of
the magazine, who, though still in fnll health and strength,
is obliged this year by the inexorable Dutch law to resign
his professorship at Leiden, having attained his seventieth
year. He may be called the Father of Modern Dutch historio-
graphy, and the public is indebted to him for very many
excellent studies in Dutch history, the minutest annals of which
are familiar to him. — ' The Chinese Stage,' by Henri Borel of
Amoy, is a long and interesting study of Chinese plays and actors,
the result evidently of close observation and study on the spot.
— ' Motives ' is a series of slight but clever sketches of musical
artist life by Nievelt. — Van Rijckevorsel gives some more of his
impressions of travel in the United States. — ' Ass-stories,' by
J. van der Vliet, is a highly entertaining account of the old tales
in which the donkey plays a principal part. In the course of the
article some curious bits of old folk-lore are narrated. — In a
similar line of study A. G. van Hamel takes up the study of old
French tales of the Middle Ages, the days of the jongleur and

200 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

the 'fablieux,' so intensely interesting both in their origin and in
tlu; light they throw upon the life of the time and likewise on
French character, then, as now, essentially optimistic1. — * The
topers of Blienbeek ' is a short dialogue in the North Limburg
dialect, showing how some topers addicted to neat gin follow the
doctor's advice and forsake it for beer, and when the beer dis-
agrees for red wine, and finally for grog, with which they drink
themselves to death. — (July) — Light literature is represented in
this number by a half-serious, half-comic piece of Cyriel Buys^e.
Its title is ' Sursum corda ! ' which is also the name of the marja-
zine, the organ of a society in a Flemish country district, started
by a young man of some culture and ability. His aim is to pro-
mote art and enlightenment among his country neighbours. The
new society is promptly misunderstoood, and even its members
take ludicrously low views of its mission, one of them, for example,
thinking it a clever joke to palm off as original a tale by a well-
known author which he reads at a meeting. The story is
unfinished, but gives very graphic pictures of the boorishness of
Flemish country folk. A review is given of Prof. Blok's history
of the Netherland people, a history on the same lines as Green's
English people. It is carried down to the sixteenth century.
The author has just succeeded Fruin in his Chair at Leiden. —
' On the idea of community ' is Quack's farewell address on
resigning his professorship at Amsterdam. It is a clear and
eloquent statement of his well-known views. The most striking
part is perhaps that in which he depicts anarchism as an
exaggeration and caricature of the individualism against which
he so earnestly contends. He sees in the socialistic state,
organised like the Roman Church in such a way as to include
and give free play to diverse gifts, a remedy for all the misery
and confusion of society. — N. D. Doedes contributes the first
half of an article on Jan van Riebeck, the founder of Cape
Colony, a most interesting chapter for English readers. —
Byvanck has unearthed another unknown and unappreciated
author, this time a Frenchman, Paul Claudel, whose drama,
' Tete d'or,' touched with Eastern mysticism and impressed with
the strong faith of the author, is full of true poetry. — A new
contributor, Betsy Juta, has some harmonious verse, conveying by
no means original ideas.

DENMARK.

Year-Book for Northern Archeology and Antiquities.
(Vol. VIII., Parts 3 and 4 ; 1893).— These somewhat belated
parts are mainly taken up with a long article by Bjorn M.
Olsen on the father of Icelandic History, Ari the learned. The

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 201

immediate cause of Dr. Olsen's paper is an article by Professor
Maurer in Germania, from the conclusions in which Dr. Olsen
strongly dissents. The main points in his long and elaborate
argument are, (1) that the Runic and not the Latin alphabet was
the one in which the earliest Icelandic works were written ;
(2) that Ari did write a Landnama (History of Iceland's
Colonization) distinct from the Islendingabok; (3) that the
Kristni Saga did not form an original part of Landnama, but
is based partly on the work of Gunnlaug the monk, and partly
on Ari's second Islendingabdk. In this section is a long and
searching excursus on the mutual relations of Gunnlaug's,
Odd's, and other versions of the Olafs Saga, and of Kristni
Saga to these ; (4) that Ari's Landnama followed the division
of the land into four districts, of which Melabok preserves the
original order. The whole article (of some 150 pages) is a
valuable contribution to the vexed question of Ari's literary
activity. — Kr. Erslev and A. Fabricius have something to say
about Dr. Bruun's attempt to restore Queen Berengaria's
character ; the former shows that Dr. Bruun's main authority,
Korner, is absolutely untrustworthy, the latter points out that
the traditional view agrees with the character of the Portuguese
family to which Berengaria belonged, especially with that of
her sister Theresa, under whose care she was brought up in
the nunnery of Lorvan. — (Vol. IX., Part 1 ; 1894). — Professor
Wimmer writes on ' The German Runic Monuments ' with his
usual minuteness and absolute certainty, chiefly to record his
dissent from the views of Professor Henning of Strassburg.
The inscriptions specially dealt with are those on the brooches of
Bezenye (read as 'Godahid segun ' = (Godahild, blessing) and
' Arsipoda,' with a little romance invented out of this,) Engers,
Freilaubersheim and Osthofen, with notes on some of the
more difficult inscriptions. Professor Wimmer admits that the
philological information to be got from these inscriptions is
small, but proposes hereafter to show their value for the history
of Runic writing.

( 202 )

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

Philosophy and Development of Religion. Being the GiffbrJ
Lectures delivered before the University of Edinburgh,
1894. By Otto Pflbiderer, D.D., Professor of Theology,
University of Berlin. 2 vols. Edinburgh and London :
William Blackwood & Sons. 1894.

So far the Gifford Lectures have not as a rule been regarded with much
favour, at least in the Theological world. The complaint has been that,
instead of confirming the faith, their tendency has been to undermine it.
Protests have been made against them, and not a little fear and alarm has
been raised. Dr. Pfleiderer's lectures will prove no exception to the rule.
The sensation they caused during the time of their delivery was by no
means favourable. A series of lectures was organised and delivered with
a view to the refutation of their arguments, and it is very unlikely that
the more careful study of these, now that they are printed, will have any
other effect upon the minds of those who dissented from them as they fell
from the Professor's lips, than to deepen the impression they originally
made. Upon those who are accustomed to think along the theological
lines of the orthodox type, it is scarcely possible for them to have any
other effect. Professor Pileiderer is thoroughly German ; his logic is of that
hard and dry type which the late Matthew Arnold was so fond of satiris-
ing ; in respect to Christianity Strauss and Baur are apparently his
masters, while in natural religion, though in some respects different, he
has close and essential affiinities with Spencer and Tylor. To those, on
the other hand, who believe in the infallibility of the Theologians of
Germany and their methods, his lectures will in all probability prove
highly acceptable. They are learned, philosophical, and 'advanced.' Of
their scholarliness and ability indeed there can be no question. In these
respects at least they are worthy of the high position their author has
attained in his own land, and of the imputation he has acquired through-
out Europe. There are other respects, however, in which they will prove
scarcely so satisfactory, even to those who are disposed to give them a
general approval. For our own part, without committing ourselves in any
way to their author's doctrine, either theological or otherwise, while dis-
posed to admire their ability, their learning, and the rigour of their logic,
we are unable to avoid the feeling that they exhibit a pretty considerable
want of the historic sensa. Everything is looked at from a purely Nine-
teenth Century point of view. The hardest and most inflexible logic is applied
to the most ancient utterances. The words of the prophets and the sayings
of Jesus are treated as if they were the cold phlegmatic and precisely
logical expressions of a German professorial mind. No allowance is made
for differences of time, circumstance, or race, and no attempt is made to
arrive at those deeper, and often unutterable, thoughts and feelings which
underly all genuine religious expressions, and of which the words in which
they find utterance are frequently little more than the merest index.
For the adequate treatment of religion, either as to its origin or
development, something more is needed than scholarship or
learning. The theologian who comes to the task of unfolding its origin
and development, armed only with logic and the latest theories of the

Contemporary Literature. 203

schools, will prove but a poor hand in dealing with it. He may expatiate
upon what he calls its phenomena, and all the while miss the living spirit
to which they owe their origin, and know little or nothing of its subtle
and mysterious working. If anything, religion is the poetry of the human
soul, and he who would treat it adequately must have, besides other equip-
ments, something of what the poet calls the 'vision and faculty divine.'
Dr. Ptleiderer is not altogether wanting in this. Here and there, amid
what are otherwise somewhat arid pages, one is surprised with bright
gleams of insight. One can only wish that they were more numerous.
Larger perceptions and a profounder insight might have enabled the
author to have treated his subject, more especially in the latter half, in a
more profoundly appreciative way. This is not the place to enter upon an
examination of Dr. Pheiderer's arguments. We can only say that there is
much in the first volume with which we can agree. In such a passage as
the following, for instance, there is much to commend itself to all :—
' " Thou hast created us for Thj'self, and our heart is restless till it has come
to rest in Thee." This beautiful expression of Augustine is in fact the key
to the whole history of religion. In the universal experience that man's
nature is so constituted that some kind of consciousness of God is inevi-
table to him, although it may be only a presentiment or a search, we must
recognise the original revelation of the love of God. All human conscious-
ness of God presupposes a self-communication of God, a working of the
divine Logos in the finite spirit. Now, as the consciousness of God is a
constitutive element of the human species, it may be rightly said that the
whole of humanity is the object of the divine love, that it is an Immanuel
and Son of God, that its whole history is a continual incarnation of God —
as indeed it is also said in Scripture that we are a divine offspring, and
that we live and move and have our being in God.' So, again, there is
much in Dr. Pfleiderer's treatment of the old arguments for the existence
of God which will find favour with many. Of the two volumes, the first
is decidedly the better. The second is for the most part but a re-state-
ment of what one has heard before, and not for the first time, and contri-
butes little or nothing to our knowledge. A good deal of it might
have been omitted. Some of the explanations are ingenious, as for
instance, that of the conversion of St. Paul, but not satisfactory. The
position assigned to Jesus is very much that which is assigned to him
by the Socinians. Great use is made of Philo, and much too great an in-
fluence is, we venture to think, attributed to his teaching. The translator,
we must add, has done his work in a most scholarly and efficient way.

Scottish Church Society Conference. First Series. Edinburgh :
J. Gardner Hitt. 18CJ4.

The papers contained in this volume represent a movement which has
recently developed among a number of the ministers in the Church of
Scotland. Whether they have a large following among the people of the
Church or whether the views they advocate are widely held few we
imagine are in a position to say. According to some indications they are
not. The general attitude towards them may perhaps be interpreted
either as one of indifference or as one of expectancy. Religious changes
are slow to mature, and it may be, on the other hand, that we have here
the first signs of a movement which may bear important fruits. The
Society we gather from the introductory note was founded in 1892 ' for the
general purpose of defending and advancing Catholic Doctrine as set forth
in the Ancient Creeds and embodied in the Standards of the Church of
Scotland, and of asserting Scriptural principles in all matters relating to

204 Contemporary Literature.

Church Order, Policy, Christian Work, and Spiritual Life throughout
Scotland.' For its motto the Society has taken the words of the Prophet
' Ask for the Old Paths . . . and walk therein.' So far the aims of
the Society seem to be thoroughly conservative and it would appear as if
its members desired to hark back to the thoughts and practices of ancient
times. There is some haziness about the date and even as to the antiquity
of the paths to which they wish to revert — whether the Apostolic Age, the
age during which the ' Ancient Creeds ' were constructed, the period of the
Reformation, or the Sittings of the Westminster Assembly. Generally
speaking, however, the aims of the society seem to be practical rather than
speculative and to have in view alterations in the services of public worship
and the quickening of the life and activity of the Church and nation. So
much at least is manifest from the addresses here printed. They deal
with such topics as The Devotional Life, National Religion, The Present
Call to witness for the Fundamental Truths of the Gospel, The Church's
Call to Study Social Questions, The Divine Order of Church Finance,
Observance in its main Features of the Christian Year, The Holy
Communion and Daily Service. Here and there one meets with a dash of
controversy in the papers, but as a rule they are temperately written and
are the sayings of men who are evidently in earnest. As might be expected
they are of different degrees of interest and vary in ability, but if their
publications serves no other purpose, it will at least have the effect of
placing the Society clearly before the public and of dissipating a number of
mistakes which are afloat in respect to its character and aims.

A History of the Christian Church during the First Six Centuries.

By S. Cheetham, D.D., F.S.A., etc. London and New

York : Macmillan & Co. 1894.

As a student's manual of Church History during the first six centuries
Dr. Cheetham's volume is likely to prove of considerable service. The
nearest approach to it with which we are acquainted is Gieseler's. It is
less bulky than Gieseler's, and does not contain the passages which
illustrate and confirm the statements in the text. On the other hand the
text is much fuller and a great deal more readable. The notes also are
scarcely so numerous, though for the student they are probably sufficient,
inasmuch as they indicate where he will obtain further information and
fuller references. The text is certainly condensed, whole controversies
being often crowded into a few sentences ; but the advantage it presents
is that it contains in the fewest words the conclusions at which the author
has arrived after careful consideration of the original and other sources
mentioned in the notes at the foot of the pages. Of discussion there is
little or none in the volume ; limitations of space forbade it. The narrative
is told briefly and fairly, and with constant reference to the authorities
used and to the principal modern works in which the topics dealt with are
more fully treated. The plan on which the volume is constructed, though
not precisely new, is admirably worked out, and for those who have not
the time to read the larger and more ambitious Church Histories, as well
as for students, the volume will prove a handy and useful introduction to
the history of the first six centuries of the Christian Church. A single
sentence will show the standpoint from which Dr. Cheetham writes. ' The
history of the Church of Christ,' he says, ' is the history of a divine Life
and a divine Society ; of the working of the Spirit of Christ in the world,
and of the formation and development of the Society which acknowledges
Christ as its Head.' This sentence may be said to be the theme of the
volume — the truth or fact which the author seeks to illustrate by all the
incidents he has to relate.

Contemporary Literature. 205

The Celtic Church in Scotland; being an Introduction to the
History of the Christian Church in Scotland doion to the
death of Saint Margaret. By JOHN DOWDEN, D.D., Bishop
of Edinburgh. London : Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge. 1894.

Though not an exhaustive account of the Celtic Church in Scotland, this
work is in every way instructive and has evidently been written with great
care and perpetual reference to the most recent and best authorities.
Dr. Dowden has no new discoveries to relate and no new theories to
propound. As a rule he is contented to follow those who have worked
over the same ground in recent years and is, as all writers must be, largely
indebted to the works of Bishop Reeves, Dr. Skene, Bishop Forbes and
Bishop Healy. For the chapters dealing with the ritual of the Celtic
Church he has placed himself under the excellent guidance of Mr. Warren
whose work on that subject is without an equal, at least in the English
language. Perhaps the most noticeable feature in Dr. Dowden's narrative
is the freedom which he uses in respect to the miraculous stories he has
to record respecting the lives of the Saints. In this respect he affords
a striking contrast to Montalembert. He has little patience with them,
though at the same time he willingly accepts the morsels of information
which may be gathered from the incidental allusions they contain to the
manners and customs, the faiths and practices of the times to which they
relate. Perhaps the most noticeable omission in his volume is that of any
reference to the Life of St. Columba by Cuimene Alba to whom Adamnan
was so much indebted and whose narrative goes back much nearer to the
time of the great apostle of the Picts. Unlike some or at least one writer
on Celtic Church History Dr. Dowden is careful to give on account of St.
Patrick. The chapters on the archaeology of the Celtic Church is specially
interesting. In the appendix on the connection of the apostle St. Andrew
witli Scotland, no reference is made to the other tradition respecting the
way in which his relics are said to have found their resting-place in Scot-
land, that is, by way of Hexham and Acca. As an introduction to the
subject, however, Dr. Dowden's scholarly little volume is deserving of the
greatest praise, and contains by far, the fullest popular account that we
have seen of a subject which presents many difficulties.

The Earliest Translation of the Old Testament into the Basque
Language. (A Fragment.) Edited by LT-EWELYN THOMAS,
M.A. With a Facsimile. (Anecdota Oxonieneia; Mediae-
val and Modern Series — Part X.) Oxford: At the
Clarendon Press. 1894.

The MS. from which this translation is taken is in the Earl of Maccles-
field's Library at Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire. How the MS., which is
extremely valuable, and contains, besides the translation now published, an
elaborate grammar of the Basque Language and a Latin-Basque Diction-
ary, came into the possession of the Macclesfield family, whether by
purchase or by bequest, is unknown. The tradition is that it formed part
of a large collection of Welsh, or supposed Welsh MSS. which was
bequeathed to the second Earl of Macclesfield by William Jones, F.R.S.,
father of the celebrated Sir William Jones, and originally made by a group
of Welsh antiquaries early in the last century. The tradition is not at all
improbable, as at the time the collection was made Basque was supposed
to belong to the Celtic family of languages, and it may be that the Basque

206 Contemporary TAterature.

MSS. in the collection were purchased under the impression that they had
some possible bearing on Celtic studies. Whether they were obtained
directly from the Basque refugee who wrote them or whether they were
bought from a bookseller, to whom they had been sold, is a point on which
there is no information. The translation begins with the first verse of
Genesis, and ends abruptly in the middle of the sixth verse of Exodus
xxii. It is believed to have been made about the year 1700, but whether
in England or on the Continent is unknown. The translator was Pierre
D'Urte, who was also the author of the Grammar and Dictionary referred
to above. Extremely little is known about him. In a note which he
wrote at the beginning of his Grammar he informs us that he was a native
of St. Jean de Luz and a Protestant. A reference discovered by the Edi-
tor, with the assistance of Mr. R. L. Poole, proves, as had already been
conjectured, that he was one of the ministers of the Reformed Church,
who, after the revocation of the Edict Nantes in 1685, sought refuge in
England from the persecution which assailed them at home. It is proba-
ble, however, that he died in England, though nothing on this point is
certainly known. That the translation was made from the French-Geneva
Bible there seems to be no reasonable doubt, as wherever the French ver-
sion of the Bible, published at Geneva in 1588, differs from the Vulgate or
other versions, D'Urte's always follows the variation. ' Every mistake,
mistranslation, misprint, misspelling,' Mr. Thomas tells us, 'is repro-
duced.' 'But to make assurance doubly sure,' he continues, 'there is
another similarity. The French Edition has long summaries of the con-
tents of the chapters which are (I believe) peculiar to it. These appear
clause for clause in D'Urte's translation.' Mr. Thomas's part of the work
has been done with every evidence of painstaking care. The text has been
reproduced letter for letter and line for line. The erasures, of which
there are enough to form a characteristic feature of the MS., have been
indicated. Words and letters apparent^ wrong in the MS. are shown by
the use of different type. Missing words or letters have been supplied in
brackets, and the few lacunae pointed out in footnotes. In adopting this
mode of editing, Mr. Thomas has unquestionably acted wisely. Though
belonging to the eighteenth century, the MS. deserved to be edited with
the utmost care. An instructive as well as interesting introduction pre-
cedes the text, and two useful appendices have been written for the
volume by Professor Julien Vinson and Mr. E. S. Dodgson, the first being
a vocabulary, and the second a list of translations of the Bible, or parts
of it, into Basque.

Aspects of Pessimism. By R. M. WENLEY, M.A., D.Sc, author
ot Socrates and Christ. Edinburgh and London : W.
Blackwood & Sons. 1894.

Mr. Wenley's new work is welcome for many reasons, not the least of
them being that it is entirely free from the cant of the schools, and that it
exhibits a power of expression in scholarly and polished English such as
few of our philosophical writers can command. The freshness and origin-
ality with which the subjects under discussion are treated, and the tirin
handling of the material throughout, will assuredly increase his reputation
as a philosophical writer. While the book embraces a scheme of six
essays, whose subjects are not apparently closely connected, the character
of the work as a unity is jealously preserved. The ' Aspects ' are pano-
ramic rather than kaleidoscopic. ' Jewish Pessimism ' is closely linked in
spirit as well as in treatment with ' Mediaeval Mysticism,' ' Hamlet ' with the
works of Goethe, and the essay on Kant, Berkeley, and Schopenhauer with

Contemporary Literature. 207

that on Pessimism as a System, while all form links in one chain of subtle
exposition and reasoning. The general design is to show how the sense of
mystery, which naturally attaches itself to man's view of life, has grown
with increasing reflection, and to trace through six successive typical
phases of thought a deepening tendency towards a reasoned pessimism,
which is finally reached, in its matured state, in the writings of Schopen-
hauer and Hartmann. Starting from the definition that Pessimism ' sig-
nifies that philosophical scheme which explains the universe by proving its
badness,' Mr. VVenley shows that the Jew was precluded from adopting
this doctrine of despair by the nature of his religious creed. The special
relation of God to the chosen race made the Hebrew a co-operator with the
Deity, for Whom no opposition could be irremediable. Thus although the
' mysterious discrepancy between realisation and aspiration ' was for him
never solved, the problem never pressed itself upon him as one impossible
of solution. The Mystics, again, whom Schopenhauer and Hartmann
claim as their intellectual ancestors, came very near to conclusions of a
definitely pessimistic character by emphasising the impossibility for man in
his present state of any participation in the spiritual nature of the Infinite.
They escaped the metaphysical felo de se of Schopenhauer only to strangle
self and all its human interests in a mystical belief that in this act of
suicide man would attain to a momentary union with God. Hamlet
probes the ever-recurring problem with a keener insight, and is crushed
under the burden of the inexplicableness of life. He never sees through
the enigma involved in the unceasing conflict of ' small opportunity and
high ideal,' though he ultimately unconsciously solves it in his death.
Goethe struggled for long in despairing depths to force from life the secret
of its riddle, and finally reached an imaginative rather than a rational
solution of his difficulties. Kant, in his turn, found that man's critical
reason was bound within limits of knowledge which could not be over-
passed. The Unknowable was for him a perpetual surd which could not
be rationalised. The dualistic system of reason and sense which he thus
set up became the basis for Schopenhauer's pessimistic theories, and for
many of Hartmann's deductions. Schopenhauer finds the ultimate
factor in man's dualistic nature to be a continuous energising Will, the
essence of whose nature is to be for ever dissatisfied. Hartmann dis-
covers the key to the meaning of the Universe in the being of an Un-
conscious Deity whose passion-history is the world's existence and process.
To the discussion of the views indicated in this brief summary, the author
brings an exceptionally wide knowledge of the literature connected with
the subjects, and a keen and discriminating judgment in the analysis of
contending theories. The essay on ' Jewish Pessimism ' especially bears
witness to an accurate gi'asp of the problems which surround the interpre-
tation of Jewish thought, and certain modern views, which, as the author
elsewhere curtly remarks, are inclined to cut and trim facts in order that
they may square with a preconceived theory, fall easy victims to the vigour
of his criticism. In ' Handet ' and the ' Pessimistic Element in Goethe,'
Mr. Wenley displays not only a subtle insight into the minds of the two
great poets, but also a very keen artistic sympathy. ' Hamlet ' in par-
ticular contains many obiter dicta with regard to the natnre of the poet's
art and its relation to truth, which indicate a thorough knowledge of
aesthetics. The reasoned delineation of the character of Shakspeare's
greatest psychological study which is here set forth probably stands alone
amidst other interpretations. In all the essays there is evidence of a
thorough mastery of detail and a facile art in bringing the salient points
into prominence, while the examination and refutation of Schopenhauer
and Hartmann are carried out with much dialectic skill. Mr. Wenley's

208 Contemporary Literature.

positive contributions to the elucidation of the problem of pessimism in a
book which is mainly critical are to be found passim through its pages.
The very conflict which distressed the minds of Hamlet and Faust, of Job
and Koheleth, is, we are told, ' the secret of the ceaseless onward move-
ment of the ages, as well as the motive force of the individual soul's
growth,' while in a passage of striking force and eloquence which closes the
essay on Jewish Pessimism, we find the clue which Mr. Wenley offers for
the understanding of the universe. 'The defeat of the real bad by the
ideal good,' he says, 'the assuaging of misery by devotion to the miserable,
who can themselves be made to become spiritual successes, supply voca-
cations which reveal the depths of man's nature, as they are ends that the
very existence of this nature implies. . . The sinlessness of Christ does
not mean absence of evil, but assurance that despite evil, good, as exem-
plified in a consecrated life, is the mightier because infinitely the more
permanent force. . . Life is capable of cheating only those who, in the
deepest sense, have never been alive.'

An Essay concerning Human Understanding. By JOHN LOCKE.
Collected and Annotated, witb Prolegomena, Biographi-
cal, Critical, and Historical. By Alexander, Campbell
Fraser. Hon. D.C.L., Oxford, Emeritus Professor of Logic
and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. Two
Volumes. Oxford : At the Clarendon Press. 1894.

Professor Fraser is to be warmly congratulated on the completion of
this labour of love. His edition of the Essay is destined to remain the
definitive one for many years, and for several very sufficient reasons.
In the first place, it has been most carefully prepared, and the text is,
consequently, as complete and trustworthy as could be desired. Locke
lived for nearly fifteen years after the appearance of his masterpiece, and,
during the first decennium of this period, the Essay went through four
editions, all of which displayed evidences of thorough revision, mainly in
the introduction of gt eater or lesser changes designed to afford adequate
expression to the maturer conclusions of the author on many important
problems. Not only has Professor Fraser collated these editions, in
order to obtain a perfect text, he has also sought aid from the French
translation of Coste, Locke's private secretary, in which not a fe*v impor-
tant alterations were made — many suggested by Locke himself — which
seem to throw light upon that thinker's more obscure allusions. Nor has
Professor Fraser rested content with adducing merely the results of his
collations, but he has in all cases of importance appended the variant
readings, which are obviously of the utmost value to the student who
would carefully follow out the progress of Locke's distinctive ideas ; a
discipline, it may be remarked, rendered imperative by the present
partizan condition of opinion respecting the writer of the Essay. This
edition, then, is definitive, both in its matter and in its manner.
Once again, while desiring to recognise to the full the value of the
present text of the Essay, one must by no means omit to emphasize
the annotations, and 'prolegomena, critical, historical, and biographical.'
Like other epoch-making thinkers, Locke has been subjected to the most
contradictory interpretations, and, in this country at least, the recent
tendency has been to regard him as an eminently respectable Oxford don,
half courtier, half physician, who dabbled in what he (mistakenly) thought
to be philosophy, and who succeeded in making a rather egregious figure
of himself. Professor Fraser's method of approaching the Essay affords
an admirable correction to such confident, and often ill-informed, fanati-

Contemporary Literature. 200

cism. 'The present work,' he says, 'is meant partly as a homage to its
author's historical importance, as a chief factor in the development of
modern philosophy during the last two centuries. It is also intended to
recall to a study of Locke those who, interested in the philosophical and
theological problems of this age, are apt to be dominated too exclusively
by its spirit and maxims. They may thus study the problems in a fresher,
although cruder, form than they have now assumed, through the con-
troversies of the intervening period.' The suggestion here made by
Professor Fraser is of first importance, not simply because it sum-
marises the spirit in which he has undertaken this laborious piece of
work, but because it puts in a nutshell precisely what is most urgently
necessary to-day in connection alike with Locke and with other thinkers
of the type currently dismissed with a contemptuous reference as
'English.' It may be abundantly true that British thinkers are not
distinguished for speculative profundity, or, at all events, that they do not
indulge themselves with a jargon which suggests depth or incomprehens-
ableness. It may be true, too, that Locke was 'loose and inexact,' and of
' colourless prolixity.' It yet remains, on the other side, that much British
thought is classical, in the highest sense, and that Locke is among the most
classical contributors to it. He, along with a dozen others, embodies posi-
tive elements, chiefly of a distinctively national character, which cannot
be dismissed with a snarl of disparagement. What was their positive
value 1 Professor Fraser, by putting every student of metaphysics in a
position to answer this question for himself at first hand, has conferred a
benefit upon our philosophy which history must be left to weigh. His edi-
tion of Locke, in particular, has appeared at a turning point, and will un-
questionably exercise large influence in determining the relative import-
ance to be attached to some factors in the new speculative departure now
maturing.

Les Origines du Droit International. Par ERNEST Nys. Paris :
Thorin & Fils. Bmxelles : A. Castaigne. 1894.

In this scholarly and ably written volume, which he dedicates to the
memory of the late Professor Lorimer, M. Nys traces the development of
international law from its first almost imperceptible beginning under the
Papacy and the Empire down to the time of Grotius. That international
law exists with the same sanctions and is sustained by the same power or
capable of being enforced in the same way as, for instance, civil law,
M. Nys does not of course pretend. On the other hand he maintains that
it is a law that is steadily acquiring recognition, and though now passing
through the early stages of an existence through which all other laws now
enforced by men have had to pass, it may soon, and certainly sooner or
late will, acquire a power among the nations which will either compel their
respect or vindicate its authority by the enforcement of penalties. In the
course of his narrative M. Nys pays a well merited compliment to the
writers of the middle ages, and defends them against the charges which
have so often been brought against them of utter sterility, by pointing
out that on most matters with which international law is concerned they
have delivered numerous and sound opinions. The volume is a valuable
contribution to a subject which is becoming of more and more importance,
and it is to be hoped that the author will at no distant date continue his
narrative down to the present.

Epitome of Synthetic Philosophy. By F. HOWARD COLLINS.
With Preface by Herbert Spencer. Third Edition.
London : Williams & Norgate. 1894.
xxiv. 14

210 Contemporary Literature.

Mr. Howard Collins's excellent epitome of Mr. Herbert Spencer's system
of philosophy is finding acceptance among a very wide circle of readers,
and is probably doing more to spread a knowledge of the doctrine of
evolution than the works of which it is an abridgement. Already within
less than five years it has reached its third English edition, and its second
edition in a French translation. It has also been published in America,
and translated into Russian. It is probable that few works of the kind
have ever attained so wide a circulation. The characteristics and ex-
cellence of the work were pointed out in the pages of this Review on its
first appearance, and all that need be done now is to chronicle the fact
that in this third edition Mr. Collins has incorporated an abridgement of
Mr. Spencer's work on The Principles of Ethics. The abridgement extends
to close on one hundred pages, representing over a thousand pages of the
original work.

The Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, Lieutenant- General of the
Horse in the Army of the Commonwealth of England, 1625-
1672. Edited, with Appendices of Letters and Illustrative
Documents, by C. H. Firth, M.A. 2 vols. Oxford. At
the Clarendon Press. 1894.

The value of Ludlow's Memoirs for the history of the Great Civil War
has always been acknowledged. Th y have been several times republished,
but this is the first time they have been adequately edited, and Mr. Firth
may be congratulated on having done a much needed work in a very
creditable way — in a way in fact with which few can find fault. Ludlow's
errors, and they are many, have been corrected, and much has been
added in the way of illustration and supplement, more especially in rela-
tion to the first part of the Memoirs where Ludlow is often meagre and
confused. In the Introduction, Mr. Firth gives an account of Ludlow,
supplying many details in respect to his life, which are omitted in the
Memoirs. He also discusses the several questions connected with the date
when the Memoirs were written, their first edition, publication, value and
effect. The idea of writing them, he very plausibly conjectures, was first
suggested to Ludlow by some such incident as that which he describes as
happening at Bern, in 1663, when at a banquet given by the senators of
that town to the exile and his friends, he was asked to narrate the causes
which had led up to the fall of the English republic, and arrives at the
conclusion that they were written sometime between that date and 1673.
Tyers' opinion that Ludlow was not the author of the Memoirs Mr. Firth
sets aside as untenable, and is disposed to the opinion that their first editor
was Littlebury, whose name Hollis wrote at the end of the copy which he
presented to the Library of Bern in 1758. How Littlebury came into
possession of the manuscript, however, is unknown. That the Memoirs
were printed in London by John Darby of Bartholomew Close, and not at
Vevay, as the original title-page bears, seems to be certain. At any rate
the type and style of the work are sufficient to dissipate the idea that it
was issued from any other than an English press, and accepting the story
which makes Littlebury the editor, there can be little doubt that Darby,
who was well known as a publisher of anti-governmental literature, and
was often employed by Littlebury, was the printer. Ludlow was not a
particularly able man ; nor can he be said to have been always consistent.
Of his energy and obstinacy there can be no doubt. Straightforward and
honest according to his lights, he was singularly obtuse and owed his influ-
ence and position quite as much to his extreme opinions and the obstinacy
with which he insisted upon them as to any ability he had. While far

Contemporary Literature. 211

from unprejudiced, his Memoirs, so far as the facts narrated are con-
cerned, are on the whole trustworthy, and he does not intentionally mis-
represent. His inclination, as Mr. Firth points out, was ' rather to gibbet
the memories of the bad men he had known, than to make famous those
of the good.' . . . ' He hated a constant Cavalier much less than an
apostate Republican.' Of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and Cromwell he
has probably said the worst, and has laid himself open to much severe
criticism. Carlyle's opinion of him is well known. The chief value, how-
ever, of his Memoirs, is not so much in the opinions they contain as in the
facts. From few works can a more vivid impression be obtained of the
manner in which the Civil War was waged, or of the way in which English
life was affected by it. If he is often in error in recounting affairs in which
he was not personally concerned, it has to be borne in mind that he
wrote with little assistance in the shape of documents. On the other
hand, his memory of events to which he was an eye witness is, as
Mr. Firth points out, extremely accurate. The Appendices which have
been added to both volumes are of great value. Among them are an
admirable sketch of the Civil War in Wiltshire, two series of letters illus-
trating Ludlow's services in Ireland between the year 1651 and 1654, and
in 1659-60, and a number of letters and documents referring to his
residence in Switzerland. To the second volume an excellent index has
been supplied.

Select Statutes and other Constitutional Documents illustrative of
the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Edited by G. W.
Prothero. Oxford : At the Clarendon Press. 1894.

Every student of English History knows the value of the Bishop of
Oxford's Select Charters and Mr. S. R. Gardiner's Constitutional Docu-
ments of the Puritan Period. The present volume is intended as a contri-
bution towards tilling up the gap between them. The period which it
covers is one of the most important in English History, more especially in
connection with the history of Parliamentary Government. Most of the
documents have of course been printed before. Some of them, however,
have not. But whether printed before or not, the advantage of having
them all between the same covers, and edited as they are here edited,
is obvious. The documents are classitied and chronologically arranged
under their separate headings ; repetitions and what may be termed
unnecessary verbiage are omitted, and footnotes are added which are
often of considerable interest and importance. The introduction which
Mr. Prothero has written for the volume is admirable, both for its clear-
ness and conciseness as well as for the light which it throws on the docu-
ments by which it is followed. These are all carefully analysed, and
placed in their proper historical setting. Among the papers now printed
for the first time are the writ for the Court of Castle Chamber in Ireland,
issued by Elizabeth, and establishing that Court ; two relating to the
Court of High Commission, one referring to the Ecclesiastical Commission
for Wales, under date 1579, and Shirley's Act. A number of other
papers, which have hitherto been only partly printed, are given in full. As
already indicated, many of the documents relate to the history of Parlia-
ment. As might be expected, those referring to ecclesiastical matters
occupy considerable space. In addition to official papers, Mr. Prothero
has included a number of extracts from the political and ecclesiastical
writers of the time. Altogether, the volume is an excellent companion to
the two already named, and for its own period is as indispensable to the
student as they are for theirs. It is to be hoped that other volumes will
follow, and that in some way the gap of three years between Mr.
Prothero's volume and Mr. Gardiner's will be covered.

212 Contemporary Literature.

The Protected Princes of India. By William Lee- Warner,
C.S.I. Macmillan & Co. : London and New York. 1894.

At the present moment, when 30 much attention is directed towards
India, Mr. Lee- Warner's remarkable volume can scarcely fail to be studied
with nmre than ordinary interest. The subject with which it deals is vast
and complicated, and one about which very little is generally known,
though of great importance. That there are protected princes and pro-
tected states in India is known to most, but how they are related to the
Imperial Crown, what measure of protection is afforded them, to what ex-
tent they are independent, to what extent they are subordinate or depen-
dent, and how and by what stages the present state of inter-relation or
union has been brought about, are subjects on which very little is known.
Many of the statements made by writers who profess to deal with them are
apparently, at least, inconsistent with each other, and the reader who has
hitherto attempted to get something like clear and coherent ideas respect-
ing the great Protectorate, is apt to rise from the attempt in a state of
bewilderment. Mr. Lee-Warner's treatment is not exhaustive, but it
has at least the merit of lucidity. The higher flights of philosophic inquiry
he has avoided, and without attempting to deal with abstract principles,
and confining himself to the facts of history, he has traced broadly and
clearly the main lines of the evolution of the political system of India
under British rule. Of the interest attaching to the volume it is useless to
speak. It is sufficient to say that Mr. Lee- Warner writes with fulness of
knowledge and in a clear and judicial spirit.

Documents illustrating Catholic Policy in the reign of James VI.,
1596, 1598. Edited with Introduction and Notes by
Thomas Graves Law. Edinburgh : Scottish History
Society. 1893.

Among the many valuable works which the Scottish History Society has
now published, few are more valuable than the apparently slight documents
which Mr. Law has here edited for the Society. They deal with one of
the many mysterious transactions into which James VI. entered, or is said
to have entered, with foreign Catholic powers for the purpose of securing
to himself the succession to the English throne. At the same time they
incidentally illustrate the discussions which arose among the Catholic exiles
and missionaries both Scottish and English with regard to the policy of
furthering the King's design. The first is in Spanish and bears the title —
' Summary of the memorials that John Ogilvy, Scottish baron, sent by the
King of Scotland, gave to his Catholic Majesty in favour of a League be-
tween the two Kings ; and what John Cecil, priest, an Englishman, on
the part of the Earls and other Catholic lords of Scotland, set forth to the
contrary in the city of Toledo, in the months of May and June 1596.'
The next is a reply to this with the title ' An Apologie and Defence of the
K. of Scotlande against the infamous libell forged by John Cecil, English
Priest, Intelligencer to Treasurer Cecile of England.' This is followed by
certain memoranda consisting of a number of additions and alterations
made in later copies of it by Creichton, the author of the abortive con-
spiracy of the ' Spanish Blanks,' or intended to be incorporated in a Latin
translation of the Apologie, together with some explanatory notes by
certain intelligencers in Flanders, and among others by John Petit, who
in 1596 was in Rome watching the movements of Ogilvy and Cecil, and
duly reporting them to Treasurer Cecil. The three documents are ex-
tremely interesting as well for what they imply as for what they say.

Contemporary Literature. 21,

Their historical value is great. Great also is their value for the student of
human natm-e. There is a good deal of strong language in them, a good
deal of hard-swearing, and a good deal of what passed at the time they
were written for statecraft and diplomacy. The amount of intrigue they
disclose is amazing. Only an editor equipped as Mr. Law is with a
thorough knowledge of the history of the times and the intimate acquaint-
ance with what such men as Ogilvy were in the habit of doing, is capable
of telling what amount of truth the documents contain, or whether they
contain any at all. Thar James did negotiate with foreign powers and made
overtures to certain of the Catholic princes of Europe for assistance in his
cherished design there seems to be an abundance of evidence, but the
character of the witnesses is such as in a great measure to vitiate it, or at
all events to throw doubt upon it, and to leave the matter an open question.
Such light, however, as is to be obtained on the subject Mr. Law has here
given. His introduction and notes show a remarkably intimate acquaint-
ance with the period, and especially with the doings of such men as Cecil
and Petit, and may be said to constitute a brilliant chapter on a very
mysterious subject. But this is what might have been expected from the
author of the Jesuites and Seculars in the Reign of Elizabeth, and of ' The
Spanish Blanks.'

Letters of Edward Fitzgerald. 2 vols. London and New-
York : Macmillan & Co. 1894.

These two volumes form an excellent addition to the Publishers'
' Eversley Series,' and not a few will thank Mr. Aldis Wright for separat-
ing their contents from the other literary remains of their author and
issuing them independently. Beside the long, careful, and elaborate
letters which used to be written, Mr. Fitzgerald's form somewhat of a con-
trast. There is no constraint about them, nor is there any attempt at
elaboration or literary form. They are just such letters as a man of
education, who is acquainted with the telegraph and penny post, may now
be supposed to throw off. They are quiet, easy, pleasant talks. At the
same time they are full of humour and human kindness. To read them
is to come in contact with one of the most gifted of men, full of gentle
and affectionate thoughts, and perfectly unaffected in all his ways. The
letters are of course addressed to his friends, and among these he
numbered most of the best men of his time. They are full of chats about
men and books, and are perfectly delightful in their way. Mr. Aldis
Wright, in his capacity as editor and literary executor, has done all that
was requisite in the way of notes and introduction to make the letters and
the allusions they contain understandable by the reader.

Reliquiae Celticae. Texts, Papers and Studies in Gaelic
Literature and Philology left by the late Rev. Alexander
Cameron, LL.D. Edited by Alexander Macbain, M.A.,
and Rev. John Kennedy. Vol. II., Poetry, History aud
Philology. Inverness : Northern Counties Newspaper and
Printing and Publishing Company. 1894.

With this very substantial volume the editors of the late Dr. Cameron's
papers bring their work to a close. They have devoted much time and
labour to it, and have completed as well as they can, and in no unskilful way,
what Dr. Cameron left unfinished. It is to be hoped that they will not be
without their reward. The papers they have here brought together and
edited are of a very varied character. Some of them are of more than

214 Contemporary Literature.

ordinary interest and value. First of all we have a transcript of the
Fernaig MS. which is here printed for the first time. For the older
Gaelic it is next to the Dean of Lisinore's Book one of the most important
documents. Its poetry, which is mostly religions and political, is of a high
order. Dr. Cameron had transcribed about two-thirds of it. The Editors
have added the rest. They have also written a history of the MS., and
have given, besides several of the poems as transliterated by Dr. Cameron,
a number of transliterations by different hands. The second piece is the
Book of Clanranald valuable alike for its history of the Macdonalds and
for its account of the Montrose wars. Here again the Editors have
supplemented the labours of Dr. Cameron. The transcription of the Black
Book of Clanranald was the work on which he was last engaged and at
the time of his death he had completed about one-third of what is here
given. The text printed is substantially that of the Black Book for the
Macdonald and Montrose histories, the omissions in the Montrose portions
being supplied from the Red Book. The poems of the latter version are
given separately. The Book of Clanranald with its translation and poems
is followed by the text of the Turner MS. xiv., a valuable collection of
poems, mostly of the ballad kind and made in Kintyre during the last
century. Some of the poems belong to the Cuchulinn and Ossianic heroic
cycles. The tragic tale of Deirdre and the sons of Uisneach from the Edin-
burgh MSS. 56 and 53 follows. Dr. Cameron was in the act of preparing the
text and translation of this popular story for this Review when overtaken
by his last illness and left it all but complete. The rest of the volume is
mainly taken up with a collection of Proverbs, several lectures connected
with Gaelic literature and a glossary of unpublished etymologies. The
Editors it may be said have discharged their duties with learning and
patience and have succeeded in raising an enduring monument to one
whose devotion to the literature of his race was during his lifetime almost
unrecognised. Certainly it was not recognised in any substantial way.

The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited from
numerous Manuscripts. By the Rev. Walter W. Skeat,
Litt. D., LL.D., M.A., etc. Vols. I. and II. Oxford: At
the Clarendon Press. 1894

A complete edition of the works of Chaucer skilfully edited with good text
and notes and introductions has long been wanting. Excellent editions
of the ' Canterbury Tales ' and of the ' Minor Poems ' have been issued,
as also of other works of Chaucer, among others notably by Dr. Skeat.
The Chaucer Society and its President have also done good work in this
direction. To the latter, indeed, it may be said that it is to a large
extent due that a good edition of the complete works is now possible. In
some respects Dr. Skeat may be said to have entered upon his task with
advantages no other editors have possessed ; certainly no other editor has
been better qualified to do ample justice to it and to execute it in a more
satisfactory way. His edition of ' Piers the Ploughman,' with which the
work before us is uniform, is a splendid piece of editing, while scarcely
inferior to it are his recent editions of Chaucer's ' Minor Poems ' and
'The Legend of Good Women.' Excellent, however, as these latter are
the present work promises to surpass them, and in fact so far as it goes
does. The intention is to include in the present issue not only the
poetical, but also the prose works. The first volume opens with a Life of
Chaucer, where of course Dr. Skeat has relied chiefly on the work of his
predecessors, and especially on the works issued by the Chaucer Society,
the members of which have done much to clear up many obscure and dis-

Contemporary Literature. 215

puted points in connection with the poet and his family. The date of
Chaucer's birth is placed by Dr. Skeat between 1330 and 1340, with the
remark that ' the reader can incline to whichever end of the decade best
pleases him.' Dr. Skeat himself shows that ' shortly before 1340 fits in
best with all the facts.' The sketch, as need hardly be said, is a very
careful study. It is amply supplied with notes and references, and con-
tains among other things notices of Thomas Chaucer and of Thomas's
mother, and a long list of the passages in the poet's works in which he
alludes to himself or his fortunes. Lists are also given of the historical
allusions contained in his works as well as of the references which are
made to him in the writings of Eustache Deschamps, Gower, Henry
Scogan, and others. The rest of the volume is taken up chiefly by 'The
Rom aunt of the Rose' and the 'Minor Poems.' Hitherto Dr. Skeat has
maintained that the translation of ' Le Roman de la Rose ' usually assigned
to Chaucer is from a different hand, and that Chaucer had no hand what-
ever in its authorship. That Chaucer did translate the ' Le Roman de la
Rose,' or at least some part of it, was, of course, admitted, but what Dr.
Skeat contended for was that the version assigned to Chaucer was not his.
He now maintains, on sufficient grounds, that that version is by different
hands, and that the first 1705 lines are by Chaucer. The arguments are
too elaborate to be adduced here. They may be said, however, to be
based on the discoveries made by Dr. Linden and Dr. Max Kaluza, and
will commend themselves to most Chaucerian scholars as valid. Dr. Skeat
has printed the whole of the English version, and beneath the part now
assigned to Chaucer he has given the French text of ' Le Roman de la
Rose ' down to the end of line 1678. The introduction is very full, and
in every way admirable. The same may be said of the introduction to
the 'Minor Poems.' Compared with the introduction prefixed to Dr.
Skeat's earlier edition of these poems, it shows many additions, omissions,
and alterations. As for the text both of the ' Minor Poems ' and of the
'Romaunt of the Rose,' it is entirely new; that is to say, none of the
printed texts has been followed. Dr. Skeat has worked independently upon
the MSS. and texts before him, and has made his own, registering differ-
ences in spelling as well as all the more important variants at the foot of
each page. Of the 'Minor Poems' the ' Balade Against Women Uncon-
stant,' 'An Amorous Complaint,' and the 'Balade of Complaynt,' have
been relegated to an appendix because they are not expressly attributed
to Chaucer. ' To Rosemounde,' discovered so recently as April 1891 has
been admitted among those regarded as genuine, as has also ' A Compleint
to his Lady,' which was formerly placed in an appendix as doubtful. The
second volume has for its contents Chaucer's prose translation ' Boethius
De Consolatione Philosophic,' and the five books of ' Troilus and Criseyde.'
Both works are preceded by long and scholarly introductions, and are such
as perhaps only Dr. Skeat can write. The notes supplied to all the pieces
in each of the volumes are such as those who are acquainted with the
author's ' Piers the Ploughman ' would naturally expect. They are full
almost to a fault, and so far as we have examined them they seem to leave
nothing obscure and to pass over nothing needing to be explained. The
edition indeed promises to be exactly what an edition of Chaucer ought
to be, and will undoubtedly take its place as the edition. So far as it has
gone it is without an equal, and there is no student of Chaucer or of
English literature who will not hail these volumes with pleasure, and
anxiously await the completion of those which are to follow.

21(5 Contemporary Literature*

The Rhind Lectures in Arcliceology. Scottish land names, their
origin and meaning. By Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart,
M.P. Edinburgh and London : William Blackwood &
Son. 1894.

Sir Herbert Maxwell's introduction of these lectures as ' a contribution
to a study conducted until lately on lines the reverse of scientific ' promises
well ; the fulfilment is not a little disappointing. In a series of Rhind
Lectures one expects a real advancement of knowledge in the department
of Archaeology discussed, but the present series does little more than
present in a popular form results already well known. The first of the six
lectures is wholly devoted to general principles and warnings to the student
of place-names — warnings sometimes exemplified by the lecturer's own
examples — while to the second and third it might be objected that they
are almost entirely reproductions of the previous lectures by Prof. Rhys,
and the views of Lr. Skene. To these as well as to the Rev. Mr.
Johnston's ' Place-names of Scotland ' Sir Herbert Maxwell admits his in-
debtedness, (to the latter it seems to be very large indeed), but it is a pity
to devote three lectures to material already easily accessible. The result
is that as Lecture IV. is devoted to Norse names much of the real matter
has to be compressed into the last two, the scheme of which is good but
not at all exhaustive. With the plan of the work however there would be
less quarrel were it reliable in other respects, but this is unfortunately not
the case. There is throughout a good deal of loose argument and some
amount of that ' pure conjecture ' for which the author blames Mr.
Johnston. Thus the identification in Lecture I. of Almond and Avon is
vitiated by the fact that the word in question is properly written abann,
not amuin ; Latin amnis shows the same change as in Samnium, scamnum,
beside Scibini, scabe'him. The derivation of Fairfield and Fairgirth from/cer,
sheep, would be itself improbable from the rareness of the word, but Fair-
Isle is certainly not of that origin. In Nj&la (c. 154) and the Orkneyinga
Saga it is Fridarey, which has apparently been taken as Fridey synonymous
with Fagrey, and so translated 'Fair Isle,' (Johnston indeed quotes
' Faray, clara insula ' from .1529). So too in Lect. III. the identification
of pit, both, bod (!), bad, fetter, and for would require a much closer
argument to prove it. ' Guessing etymology is of all pursuits the most
deceptive,' says Sir Herbert, but at times he leaves one in doubt as
to whether he is not merely guessing himself. The main defect however
lies in the imperfect acquaintance shown with both Gaelic and Norse,
which is accountable for many grave errors. Sir Herbert Maxwell's Gaelic
is indeed far superior to Mr. Johnston's, but errors in grammar or ortho-
graphy such as amhainn na' fheam, pol na? iubhar, achadh na bheith, coille
nam uinnse, sliabh ri adhairce, meall a' fithiaich, show that the mysteries
of the Gaelic article are too much for him, while genitives like fhiaidh,
fithiaich, eilidh, Orioisd, sealghe, (which is often repeated), would discredit
the scholarship of any one who committed such mistakes in Latin or Greek.
The attribution of eclipsis to the ' pedantry of early Irish writers ' only
shows a complete misunderstanding of Celtic philology, while the charge
against them of being ' ever anxious to cram as many letters as possible
into a word ' might be retorted on Sir Herbert himself when he persists in
giving Amhalghadh as the Gaelic spelling of N. O'lafr. This is to confound
a genuine Irish name with the foreign Amhlaibh, which faithfully represents
O.N. A'leifr, with nasal A', the n being retained in the O.E. spelling
Anldf. So too he translates Row nafarrif as ' rudha na (!) atharrachaidh,
point of the turning,' where it is plain that farrif is simply N. hvarf, while
atharraehadh only means 'changing,' ' mutation,' not 'turning.' Objection

Contemporary Literature. 217

might also be taken to some of the antiquated derivations given, as gadhar,
a greyhound, from gaeth, the wind ; fearann, land, from fear, a man, (it also
produces ea/rann as ' it very often took the aspirate' !) The pronunciation
assigned to Gaelic words is also loose and inconsistent ;fiadh smdjitheach are
botli given nsfeeah, while anfhir and a' choilich are quoted as instances of
initial /),, though neither of them has that sound. Nor does Sir Herbert
Maxwell know the difference between the two words for a well, tiobar (OA.
tipra) and tobar, as he explains both Dalintobar and Tobermory by the for-
mer. Matters are still worse in the Norse derivations, where there is not
even an attempt at grammar ; the two words of the compound being simply
put side by side in the nominative singular. So much is this the case that
it may be safely said not one of these is right except by accident. For in-
stance, breidr vik, trylldir lies, hdr ey, are false concords, which show that
the two latter cannot be the origin of Trotternish and Harris. (Hdey or
rather hdUy gives ' Hoy.') So we get haugr laud for haugaland, hb'fn vdgr
for Jiafnarvdgr, borglt (!) dalr for borgardalr ; Stjarna vdgr would require to
be Stjornuvdgr, but who was she ? (Stornoway is doubtless stjomarvagrb
helm bay.) A proper name is similarly invented to account for Snizort,
which is explained as ' Sney's (!) firth.' To call the Vikings ' Lochlinn,'
as on p. 92, is as much as to call them ' Norway,' while the fixed idea that
Papar is the O.N. word for 'priests.' might have been dispelled by looking
up prestr in Cleasby and Vigfusson. Curious specimens of Norse are kvi rand
and hoi schor setr to account for Quirang and Quoyschorsetter. Finally, as
space forbids an attempt to point out all the errors in this fourth lecture,
suffice it to say that Todhope cannot be Norse ; the Icelandic word is tdta
(more commonly refr) ; shiel cannot be skdli by any law of phonetics ; why
not sel, which Iceland has in Selfors, Seltungur? and haugh from, hagi is im-
possible ; a reference to healh, (halh), in Bos worth-Toller will show its real
origin. Mistakes like these in such a work show the danger of trying to
account for place-names by the dictionary alone. They are the more to be
regretted, as Sir Herbert Maxwell's lectures will naturally be of consider-
able influence in this study, to which they may give a useful impetus, but
will have to be very cautiously used as an authority.

Essays in Historical Chemistry. By T. E. THORPE, Ph.D.,
B.Sc, etc. London and New York : Macmillan and Co.
1894.

The lectures and addresses of which this volume mainly consists have
been delivered to audiences during the last eighteen years, and are now put
together and issued for the purpose of showing how the labours of some of
the greatest masters of Chemical Science have contributed to its develop-
ment. The volume makes no pretensions to being a history of Chemistry,
nor even of the period over which its narratives extend. It is simply a
number of biographical sketches from which those of some who might have
been expected to figure among them are left out. This however need not
in any way militate against the value of the book ; nor does it. Each lec-
ture or address is complete in itself, and tells as much about its subject and
his work as can conveniently be told in the limited space at the author's
disposal. Of the lectures and addresses the first deals with Robert Boyle
and the beginning of the Royal Society, though mainly of course with
Boyle himself. Among the rest we have Mr. Thorpe's lecture on Priestly,
which formed one of the 'Manchester Science Lectures ' in 1874, and the
lecture he delivered in the following year's course of the same Lectures on
Henry Cavendish. Others are his lectures on Thomas Graham, Wohler, J. B.
Andre' Dumas, and Hermann Koff, also the address delivered last year at
Owen's College, and subsequently published in the Fortnightly Review.

218 Contemporary Literature.

Other two pieces are Mr. Thorpe's review of Dr. Benoe Jones's Life of
Faraday, and the sketch of Mendeleeff, which appeared among the ' Scien-
tific Worthies' in Natwre some three or four years ago. For the most
part the papers are popularly written. Mr. Thorpe's aim throughout is to
show what each of the Chemists whose career he sketches contributed to
his science and how he helped on its development. The author exhibits
considerable skill in exposition, and his pages while highly instructive,
and in many places of a highly scientific character, contain a large amount
of extremely interesting reading.

The Ascent of Man. By Henry Drummond. London :

Hodder & Stoughton. 1894.

The object of these Lowell Lectures, as Mr. Drummond informs us, is
to tell in a plain way a few of the things which science is now seeing with
regard to the Ascent of Man. That the ' few things ' he has to tell are
eloquently told need hardly be said. Mr. Drummond is a master of the
English language and few writers are so fertile in apt illustrations. Apart
from the theory it sets forth, his book is sure to be popular and to command
a wide circle of readers of every class. The main thing on which he insists is
that the doctrine of evolution, which furnishes the stand-point from which
he regards his subject, was ' first seen out of focus,' ' was given to the world
out of focus,' and ' has remained out of focus to the present time ; ' and
what he attempts is not the entire readjustment of it to the whole truths
of Nature and of Man, but 'to supply at least the accents of such a
scheme.' In other words, he attempts to supply the missing link in the
doctrine of evolution. That the struggle for life is as Mr. Darwin and
others have insisted, the only factor in evolution, Mr. Drummond denies.
There is another factor he maintains which plays an equally prominent
part with it, and that is, the 'Struggle for the Life of Others.' While the
struggle for life is based on the functions of nutrition, the struggle for the
life of others is based upon that of reproduction. Mr. Drummond dwells
upon the importance of this missing link and points out with abundance
of illustration both in the introduction to the volume and in its text the
part it has played in the development of humanity, and is led to the con-
clusion that the supreme effort of nature has been the production of a
mother. There are many admirable passages in the volume, and even if
the hypothesis set forth should turn out to be nothing more than a ' vision '
it is deserving of careful study. That the Struggle for Life is not the only
factor in nature seems to be evident.

Eight Hours for Work By John Rae, M.A. London : Mac-
millan &' Co. 1894.

The question with which Mr. Rae here deals, if not one of the most
important, is certainly one of those which are now most prominently
before the public mind. Apparently he sat down to the study of it an
unbeliever, and has risen from it a believer. Whether the facts he
adduces will convert others is, of course, a different question. They have
convinced him, and the probability is they will convince many more. For
the facts on which he bases his argument, and to the consideration of
which he owes his conversion, Mr. Rae has travelled over a wide area.
Scarcely one of the nine important industries has been omitted from his
survey, and to say the least, such facts as he has here set forth are
extremely interesting, and go very far indeed to prove his point that an
eight hours day is better for the operative and better for the employer.
In fact, we shall not be far wrong if we say that they do prove it. The

Contemporary Literature. 219

strange thing, however, is that the shortening of the hours of labour does
not in any way lessen the output, and would not, if adopted as a general
rule, necessitate the employment of more workers. The notion that the
shortening of the hours of labour will find work for the unemployed is
characterized as an illusion. ' It stands,' he says, ' in absolute contradic-
tion to our now very abundant experience of the real effects of shortening
the hours of labour, and it stands in absolute contradiction to the natural
operation of economic forces to which it professes to appeal ; and the illu-
sion arises, first, from simply not observing or apparently caring to
observe, the important alteration which the introduction of shorter hours
itself exerts on the productive capacity of the workpeople ; and, second,
from yielding to the gross but evidently very seductive economic fallacy,
which leads so many persons to think that they will all increase the wealth
they individually enjoy by all diminishing the wealth they individually
produce, and to look for a great absorption of the unemployed to flow
from a general restriction of production, the very thing which in reality
would have the opposite effect of reducing the demand for labour, and
throwing multitudes more out of employ.' Mr. Rae writes temperately,
and with an abundance of illustrative facts. His book is calculated to
have great influence in the formation of opinion on the subject. A legis-
lative eight hours day for all, however, finds little favour with Mr. Rae.
He inclines rather to the principle enunciated by Mr. Gladstone of local
trade option.

Man Hunting in the Desert. An account of the Palmer Search
Expedition. By Capt. A. E. Haynes, R.E. 1894.

Capt. Haynes gives a clear and well-written account of one of the
most dramatic incidents of the Egyptian war of 1882. The events
themselves are dramatic, and without any attempt at dramatic writ-
ing they read as a striking story of tragedy and adventure. Prof.
Palmer, the well-known Arabic scholar, was sent by Lord Northbrook
to obtain information as to the Sinai Bedouin, and to conciliate them.
Exaggerated ideas prevailed as to their numbers, and as to their designs
on the Suez Canal, and on the fiank of the British Expedition to
Tsmailieh. Palmer had been a member of the Sinai Survey Party in
1869, and had wandered in the Till Desert in the following year. He
knew the Arabic language well, and believed that he had gained the
affections of the Arabs. He was fearless and able, but he knew nothing of
the political situation, or of the devotion of the Arabs to the cause of
Arabi Pasha, which was partly due to religious feeling, but yet more to
detestation of the Turks. At Nakplin the centre of the desert, a governor
devoted to Arabi was established, and was in communication with all the
tribes. Palmer had never commanded an expedition. He had not been
in the east for 12 years, and his comrades knew nothing either of the
people or of their language. His design seems to have been to convoke
all the tribes at Nakhl, and to lead them to assist the English. What he
intended to do with the Egyptian governor is not clear. On the 9th July
he reached Jaffa, and proceeded in Arab disguise to Gaza, where he met
the Teiahah chiefs ; then proceeding to Suez he entered into treaty
with Metr a chief who lived on the road leading thence to Nakhl, who
does not seem to have had much power. He was watched and pursued
from Gaza ; and orders were sent by Arabi that any Christians entering
the desert should be seized. Palmer took camel men from the Tuwara
tribe to the south ; and the three companions, without any armed escort,
proceeded east from Suez to Wady Sadr, carrying £3000 in gold, and
eager to meet the Sheikh's at Nakhl by the 12th of August. On the

220 Contemporary Literature.

day preceding they were attacked by local Arabs, and the Tuwara deserted,
while their ally Metr also disappeared, and his nephew rode off with the
money on his camel, and buried it in the desert to the west. The attacking
party (well informed) pursued the money, leaving the three prisoners
(Prof. Palmer, Capt. Gill, R.E., and Lt. Chamington, R.N.,) stripped and
defenceless in charge of two Arabs. The faithless Metr returned with ten
men, but instead of carrying them off, he palavered, and finally withdrew,
offering only a few camels for their rescue. The captors returned dis-
appointed of booty, and in revenge drove their victims to the precipice,
and shot them as they fell. Rumours of disaster soon spread ; and a fort-
night after the murder Sir Charles Wan-en was sent out to relieve the party.
Palmer's mistakes hadbeen many. He overestimated his own influence.
He was watched, tricked, and betrayed. He employed Arabs in the terri-
tory of another tribe ; and he took a large sum with him, allowing the fact
to be known. He treated with complete confidence a treacherous and crafty
people, and regarded as friends those who were bitter against all Christians
and Franks. The fate of the search party might have been the same, but for
the combined daring and prudence of Sir Charles Warren — qualities which
he had already shewn as an explorer, and was again to shew in his
subsequent conquest of Bechuanaland, which laid the basis of the recent
advance made in South Africa. When the search party reached Suez it
was rumoured that Palmer had escaped towards Sinai. Every effort was
made to throw suspicion on the Tuwara tribes to the south ; and Wady
Sidri in this distinction was (perhaps purposely) confused with Wady Sadr on
the road due east from Suez. The party therefore endeavoured first to
penetrate from Tor on the Red Sea to Sinai, and to send letters to the
supposed captives. It was not until the Egyptian War had ended in
victory that it became possible to get any hold on the Arabs ; and on
the 4th October the real direction of the journey was discovered. Sir
Charles Warren, with an escort of nearly 400 Egyptian Arabs, then
reached the site of the murder, two and a half months after its occurrence ;
and a fortnight later he recovered part of the stolen money (£1000). He
employed a responsible Sheikh to collect the murderers, and remained on
the spot to ensure success. By rapid journey to Akabah, Sinai, and El
Arish, he collected damnatory evidence, striking terror into the hearts of
the Arabs, and deposing the governors of Nakhl and El Arish. By the
27th January, 1883, twelve prisoners had been taken, including five of the
actual murderers ; and their guilt was duly proved before an Egyptian
tribunal. The remains of the unfortunate victims were brought home,
and buried in St. Paul's Cathedral ; and the striking success of the most
difficult search was duly acknowledged in Parliament. The details form a
volume of great interest and of not a little historical importance.

Scottish Pastorals and Ballads and Other Poems. By ALEX-
ANDER FALCONER. Glasgow : William Hodge & Co.

At once, when one opens the dainty grey and graen covers of this slight
volume, one catches the drifting hawthorn scent, and, by the fireside,
whither the untimely east winds have driven him, there comes to the
reader strange, delightful suggestions of sunny field-paths, bee-haunted
hills, and the silver-foaming western seas. A feeling for the impres-
sions of Nature — colour, and scent, and sound — has from the very
earliest times formed one of the most striking and exquisite charac-
teristics of Scottish poetry. From John Barbour to Burns and Scott,
this and that other quality known as the perfervidum ingeuium Scot-
orum, have formed one unfailing touchstone of the poetic genius of the

Contemporary Literature. 221

North. By this sign Mr. Falconer's volume may be hailed as one of the
fair fruits of that remarkable revival of Scottish feeling in English litera-
ture which is now going on, and of which we are probably destined presently
to see a great deal more. Here one sees the sunshine upon Arran hills,
and hears the autumn leaves rustle by Loch Lomond's shore ; he treads
the green holms of Douglasdale, and breathes the mystic clover-scent in
the garths of Bute. Mere description of nature by itself, however,
soon becomes a rather wearisome affair — a fact which some prose writers
of late, no less than writers of verse, do not seem to have found out. It is
only when ' natural description,' as it is called, has some bearing, by sug-
gestion, analogy, or association, upon human nature, that the thing has
any real interest or value at all. Mr. Falconer, for instance, might have
described Summer, and the description might have been a very dreary busi-
ness. Here, however, are some of his verses : —

' Oh, what more sweet than to lift tired eyes

Unto the fulness and exceeding calm
Of Summer's azure skies,

When every breath of wind is breath of balm,
And drink delight and vigour as we lie

Among the heather or the long, cool grass,

Letting the moments pass
All unconcernedly !

The cuckoo calls in every lane ;

My heart replies, Oh, soon again
The merry May, in blush and snowy white,

Shall gladden young and old,

And Love's eternal tale be told
When lovers linger late and early in the dream-lit heaven of night.'

The passage needs no comment : those of us who are old have once been
young. And such touches abound in the book. The same charm belongs
to Mr. Falconer's ballads. These are not verbal imitations of the old folk-
songs of the country. It is the dismal failure which invariably attends all
attempts at such verbal imitation which has given rise to the dogma that
ballad composition is no longer possible. Mr. Falconer's ballads are ballads
in the sense that they are narrative compositions. Some of them, like that
on ' Grizel Cochrane,' and another on ' Westerha',' deal with well-known
dramatic incidents of Scottish history ; but a greater charm will probably
be thought to belong to others in which the historic element is less con-
scious, such, for instance, as that on 'The Kirk of Saint Bride." These
are instinct with the charm of old romance, full of the suggestion
Of old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.

It would be idle to suggest that no exception might be taken to Mr. Fal-
coner's book. Here and there stanzas might be pointed out which trail
somewhat in the step, and once or twice the burden of the theme seems to
make Pegasus stoop his wing. But these are isolated details, and the
charm of the book remains what has been said. It is a volume of fresh
and sunny verse, wholesome as the air of mountain, field, and moorland,
in which it has been written — a book to wake in the heart the longing for
high-hedged lanes and upland solitudes — which revives once more from
the dust of centuries the romantic charm of the past. For a suggestion of
a certain feeling which has hardly been conveyed in any poetry but one or
two old folk-songs, the reader may be referred to a seemingly slight, but

222 Contemporary Literature.

perfect set of verses, ' The Haunted House ; ' and for a touch of the noble
spirit which rises through English poetry at rare intervals, ' like the throb-
bing of a single string,' — the spirit which breathes in Wordsworth's ' Tin-
tern Abbey,' and in Tennyson's ' Passing of Arthur,' — the lover of poetry
will find his reward in Mr. Falconer's stanzas on ' An Evening Star.'

The Elements of Metaphysics. By Ur. PAUL DEUSSEN. Trans-
lated, with the personal collaboration of the author, C.
M. Duff. Loudon and New York : Macmillan & Co.
1894.

Select Specimens of the Great French Writers in the Seventeenth,
Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries. Edited by G.
Eugene Fasnacht. Same Publishers.

English Prose Selections. Edited by Henry CrAIK. Vol. II.

Same Publishers.

These three volumes are placed together, not because they treat of the
same or similar subjects, but because they are excellent examples of the
kind of text-books which are now being prepared and published for the
use of advanced pupils and students. Compared with the older text-books,
they exhibit in every resjaect a marked advance, and, if anything can, make
the road to learning easy. Dr. Deussen's volume may perhaps be regarded
as somewhat in advance of the two we have placed with it, inasmuch as it
professes to be a guide for lecturers as well as for private study. At any
rate, it will take a student of very considerable ability to master it. But,
given a student of such ability, it will prove a very effective guide. It is
written from the standpoint of the Idealism founded by Kant and wrought
out by Schopenhauer. As might be expected, the style is exceedingly
condensed. At the same time, however, it is perfectly lucid. A skilful
use has been made of different types in emphasising the divisions and sub-
divisions of thoughts. Dr. Deussen travels over the whole ground of
metaphysics, and has produced a really valuable handbook whether for
lecturer or private student. He has added to it the lecture on the Vedanta
in its relations to Western Metaphysics, which he delivered in Bombay at
the beginning of last year. — M. Fasnacht has compiled his selections from
the Great French Writers of the seventeenth and two following centuries
on what may be called, if not a new, at least a very admirable plan. To
begin with, he gives a succinct account of French literature, in the shape of
an abridgement of a discourse by M. Vinet, from the middle of the sixteenth
century down to 1830, and continues it with a sketch for the next fifty
years by M. Faguet. The specimens are placed under three heads — (1)
from Corneille to the death of Louis XIV. ; (2) from the death of Louis
XIV. to the Revolution ; and (3) from the Revolution to the death of
Victor Hugo. The first series of Specimens is prefaced by an account of
the founding of the French Academy, from the pen of M. Sainte-Beuve ;
next we have a sketch of Corneille by M. Faguet, and this is followed by a
sketch of the French Drama before Corneille, by M. Nisard. The style
of Corneille is then described by a passage taken from Sainte-Beuve, after
which M. Nisard gives an account of ' Le Cid,' from which a number of
extracts are given. These are followed by a scene from ' Horace,' of which
play an analysis is given. Extracts from other plays are treated in the
same careful and elaborate way. In short, not only are specimens of
the great writers given, but they are also accompanied by biographi-
cal notices, analyses of the works from which they are taken, and the

Contemporary Literature. 223

judgments of the greatest French critics on the works and style of their
authors. A more complete series of selections, equally well edited or
equally well calculated to inform the student, and to quicken an intelligent
apprehension of the works and merits of the great writers of France during
the chief period of its literature, we have not met with. — Mr. Craik's first
volume of English Prose we had the pleasure of noticing some time ago;
the second volume contains selections from the prose writers of the six-
teenth and the first half of the seventeenth century, beginning with Bacon
and ending with Sir Roger L'Estrange. Among the contributors to this
volume in the way of criticism are, besides the editor, the late Professor
Minto and Mr. G. Saintsbury. Others are J. M. Dodds, W. P. Ker,
Edmund Gorse, W. Wallace, A. W. Ward, and Canon Ainger. As in
the previous volume, the specimens of each writer are preceded by a brief
sketch of his life and writings. The general introduction is contributed
by the Editor.

SHORT NOTICES.

The addresses gathered together by the Rev. D. J. Vaughan, M.A., and
issued under the title Questions of the Day (Macmillan), were delivered
during the last twenty years or so in St. Martin's Church, Leicester, on
special occasions. The questions they deal with are social and national as
well as religious. With these questions, with such, for instance, as the Use
of Politics, the Secret of National Life and Freedom, Capital and Labour,
Trade-Unionism, the Religion of the Masses, and Morality in Business, the
addresses deal in a broad, vigorous, and reverent way. Mr. Vaughan's aim
seems to have been to reach the ear and heart of the working-classes, and
whether he was able to achieve that or not, those who listened to his dis-
courses must have been impressed with the spirit of fairness and the desire
to promote the best and highest interests of all classes with which they
are inspired. His addresses, in fact, to use the old phrase, are veritable
Tracts for the Times.

CJiurch Work : its Means and Method (Macmillan) contains the addresses
delivered by Bishop Moorhouse in the rural deaneries of the diocese of
Manchester. They are full of information respecting the various organisa-
tions at work in the various parishes, and supply many notes as to the
spiritual condition both of the clergy and the people. The suggestions
they contain as to the methods of carrying on Church work, and of meet-
ing and overcoming difficulties, are characterised by sound practical wis-
dom. Bishop Moorhouse seems to have visited every parish in his diocese,
and to have made himself personally acquainted with the work of the
clergy and their lay assistants. The tone throughout is hopeful, earnest,
and reverent.

In Ethics of Citizenship (Maclehose) Professor Maccunn seeks to connect
some of the leading aspects of democratic citizenship with ethical facts and
beliefs. The justification of democracy, or the bestowal of equal civil and
political rights upon every citizen, he finds ' not in the untenable doctrine
that men are equal, but in the fact, recognised alike in moral and religious
experience, that the humblest member of the community possesses a
spiritual worth which effectually parts the man from the chattel and the
animal.' A like spiritual foundation is found for the doctrine of frater-
nity. There is an interesting discussion respecting the influence which a,
democratic form of society is likely to have on the moral character, and
more especially when the society is commercial and industrial. In his last
chapter Mr. Maccunn deals with luxury, and points out that the chief
moral problem which awaits a democratic society is to find securities not

22 I Contemporary IAterature.

so much against lawlessness as against that virtuous materialism which
is the usual and natural concomitant of material prosperity.

Braoe Little Holland and What She has Taught Us (Houghton, Mifilin
& Co., Boston) is a brief history of Holland, meant chiefly for young peo-
ple. Its author, the Rev. Dr. Griftis, is well versed in the history of the
country, and is apparently engaged on a work of larger dimensions dealing
with it. Sufficient attention, he believes, has not been paid to the influ-
ence which Holland has had in the making of the American States. ' In
our government and ideas,' he says, ' the American people are more Dutch
than English.' Coming from a descendant of a Dutch family and the
minister of a Dutch church, the sentiment may possibly be praiseworthy.
History has little sentiment, and the probability is that he will find that
an impartial study of the subject will lead him to the opposite conclusion.

Richard Steele is the latest edition to Mr. Fisher Un win's ' Mermaid
Series' of the best plays of the Old Dramatic Authors. The editor is Mr.
G. A. Aitken, who has here brought together for the first time all the
pieces Steele wrote for the stage, including the two unfinished fragments
published by Nichols in 1809. The text has been carefully collated
throughout. The changes of scene, often unnoticed in the older editions,
are indicated and the spelling is modernised. By way of introduction to
the volume, Mr. Aitken has contributed a careful sketch of Steele's life.

To their ' Golden Treasury Series ' Messrs. Macmillan & Co. have made
a notable addition in the shape of Selections from the Poems of Arthur
Hugh Glough. The famous 'Bothie' is among the selections, and is given
in full, as are also a number of the early poems and a number of the mis-
cellaneous. The selections are preceded by an excellent portrait.

In Conciliation and- Arbitration in Labour Disputes (Crosby Lockwood),
Mr. J. S. Jeans gives an account of the various attempts which have been
made to settle trade disputes by arbitration and conciliation, and of the
present relations between capital and labour. The problem which the
latter presents he appropriately calls the problem of the hour. That it is
waiting for solution there can be no doubt, but that a legislative solution
will be found for it Mr. Jeans does not appear to be very hopeful. His
volume, however, may possibly contribute something towards it. At any
rate, it is well worth reading, both for the information it contains and as
the work of one who is entitled to be heard upon the question.

James Imvick, (Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier) by Mr. P. Hay Hunter,
is a story of Scottish rural life. In wick is a ploughman, and an Elder in
the Church of Scotland, and the chief subject of his thoughts is the
threatened disestablishment of the Church. The story is told in Mr. Hay
Hunter's best style. The plot is simple but quite sufficient to enlist and
hold the attention throughout. The conversations are racy and full of
humour, and the discussions lively. The story is a decided success, and
amongst Scotchmen, if not among others, will be widely read, as it deserves
to be.

Among other books we have received the following : The Distribution of
Wealth, (Macmillan,) by John R. Commons ; Foreign Missions After a
Century, (Fleming, H. Revell & Co.) by Rev. James S. Dennis, D.D. ;
The Seabury Commemoration, (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) by George Shea ;
St. Andrews, (Longmans) by Andrew Lang ; The Continent via Flushing,
(Iliffe & Son) by H. Tiedman ; My Ducats and My Daughter (Oliphant,
Anderson & Ferrier) by P. H. Hunter and Walter White ; Old John and
Other Poems, (Macmillan) by T. E. Brown ; A Camsterie Nacket, (Oliphant,
Anderson & Ferrier) by Jessie M. E. Saxby ; Attempt at a Catalogue of
the late Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, (Sotheran & Co.) by Victor Collins.

THE

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

OCTOBER, 1894.

Art. I. —TUDOR INTRIGUES IN SCOTLAND.

NOTWITHSTANDING- the spy-system which was brought
to such perfection under the Tudors, the study of human
nature was yet in its infancy. The world had long ceased to
be ingenuous, but nations had not yet learned civilized methods
of guarding themselves against their enemies. At a time when
distrust was general, it was simpler, like Machiavelli, to erect
deceit and fraud into a science, and to teach the vile utility of
dissembling, than to scrutinize character and weigh motives.
It was generally understood that opponents might legitimately
be hoodwinked to the limits of their gullibility ; but it was
reserved for Lord Chesterfield two centuries later, to show how
a mam's passions must be studied with microscopic intensity in
order to discover his prevailing passion, and how, that passion
once discovered, he should never be trusted where it is con-
cerned. Thus, for want of insight into Margaret Tudor's
character, the Scottish people were repeatedly betrayed by
one, whose interests they fondly hoped had become by
marriage with their King, identical with their own.

She had come among them at an age, when new impressions
are quickly taken, and experiences of every kind are neces-
sarily very limited, but to the end of her days, she remained
an alien in their midst. From the moment that she had set
xxiv. 15

220 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

foot in Scotland, as a bride of thirteen, she had begun to sow
discord ; but although it was soon apparent that she would
seize every occasion to turn public events to her own profit,
James IV. had so mistaken a belief in her one day becoming
a good Scotchwoman, that when he went to his death at
Flodden Field, he left the whole welfare of his country in her
hands. Not only did he confide the treasure of the realm to her
safe keeping, but by his will he appointed her to the Regency,
with the sole guardianship of his infant son. Such a thing
was unprecedented in Scotland, and it needed all their fidelity
to their chivalrous sovereign, as well as their enthusiasm for
his young and beautiful widow, to induce the Scottish lords to
tolerate an arrangement so distasteful to them all. Had
Margaret cared to fit herself for the duties which lay before
her, her lot might have been a brilliant one. Instead of the
wretched wars which made a perpetual wilderness of the
Borders, and kept the nation in a constant ferment, an advan-
tageous treaty would have secured prosperity to both England
and Scotland, while the various disturbing factions which
rendered Scotland so difficult to govern by main force, would
gradually have subsided under the gentle influence of a Queen
who united all parties through the loyalty which she inspired.
Fierce and rebellious as were so many of the elements which
went to make up the Scottish people at that time, Margaret
had a far easier task than her grand-daughter Mary Stuart,
for, at least, fanatical religious differences did not enter into
the difficulties she had to encounter. But such a Queen of
Scotland, as would have claimed the respect and won the love
of her subjects, was by no means the Margaret Tudor of
history, as she stands revealed in her correspondence.

While James IV. lived, she had comparatively few oppor-
tunities for betraying State secrets, but from the disaster of
Flodden to her death, her history is one long series of intrigues,
the outcome of her two ruling passions, vanity and greed.
Her first short-sighted act of treachery after the death of
James, was to appropriate to her own use, the treasure he had
entrusted to her for his successors, thereby incurring life-long
retribution in her ineffectual attempts to wring her dowry

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 227

from an Exchequer which she had herself impoverished.
Hence the tiresome and ridiculous quarrels in connection with
her ' conjunct feoffment,' for besides other ungentle amenities,
there was in Margaret, as in Henry Tudor, a grotesque element,
arising from a total lack of the sense of humour. There was
a denseness almost bucolic, in the stolid indifference to the
effect they produced on the minds of others, with which the
brother and sister pursued the tenour of their way, and which
was perhaps the crowning similarity that made the one the
counterpart of the other.

The eleven months which elapsed between the 9th Septem-
ber, 1513, to the 4th August, 1514, were the most eventful of
Margaret's whole life. The catastrophe of Flodden left her,
not perhaps without cause, the least mournful womau in Scot-
land, for James IV., with all the heroism that attaches to his
name, had little claim to be called a faithful husband. Un-
hindered, therefore, by any excess of grief, she was the better
able to attend to the affairs of state, and to hasten the corona-
tion of her little son, a baby of one year and five months. In
December, she convened the Parliament of Scotland, to meet
at Stirling Castle, and formally took up her dignity as Regent,
with the consent of the assembled nobles. At this sitting, the
greatest unanimity prevailed. In the acts of the Privy Council
of Scotland, under date 12th January, 1514, occurs the follow-
ing entry: ' to advise of the setting up of the Queen's house-
hold, and what persons and officers are necessary thereto, aud
to advise of the expenses for the supportation of the same, and
by what ways it shall be gotten.' All was peace for a short
time, and the most friendly relations existed between Margaret
and her Council, till the first high-handed attempt of Henry
VIII. to interfere through his sister, in the government of Scot-
land, resulted in her temporary banishment, and the removal of
the baby King from his mother's care.*

* P. Martyr, Ep. 535. For a detailed account of the state of Scotland
for the first nine years after the disastrous defeat at Flodden, see Vol. XIV.
of the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, edited by George Burnett, LL.D. ,
Lyon King of Arms, and A. J. G. Mackay, M.A. (Oxon.) LL.D. (Edin.)
etc. Her Majesty's General Register House, Edinburgh.

228 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

On the 30th of April, Margaret gave birth to a posthumous
son, who received the title of the Duke of Rothesay, and
scarcely had she reappeared in public after the birth of this
child, than an envoy from the Emperor Maximilian brought
overtures of marriage. About the same time, she received a
like proposal from Louis XII. of France ; but sacrificing her
ambition to her fancy, she dismissed both aspirants to her
hand, aud before the first vear of her widowhood had run its
course, she married Archibald Earl of Angus, Margaret being
in her twenty-fifth, he in his nineteenth year. The alliance
was equally unfortunate for Margaret herself and for her
wretched husband, who when the first charm of novelty had
subsided, was disdainfully flung aside, and never restored to
favour. There was an ancient custom of the realm, which
placed the executive power and the person of the King should
he be a minor at the death of the preceding sovereign, in the
hands of the next male heir, and the appointment of the King's
widow to the regency, and to the guardianship of his son, was
made in distinct disregard of all recognised tradition. The
consent of the Scottish lords to the innovation, had been given
entirely from a sense of loyalty to their beloved and un-
fortunate monarch, James IV. But a proviso had been made
in his will, that in the event of the Queen's remarriage, the
regency as well as the guardianship of the young King should
pass to John Duke of Albany, the next heir to the throne.
Margaret, who had not scrupled to make away with the royal
treasure, was scarcely likely to be very conscientious with re-
gard to the duty of laying down a sceptre, the pleasantness of
which she had only just begun to taste. She was already at
variance with her Council, who in despair of any order being
established, had invited Albany, then in France, to come over,
and take up the reins of government. As early as April, 1514,
a bill for his recall had been read in Parliament, aud it was
formally enacted that all the fortresses in Scotland should be
given up ; a blow aimed primarily at Stirling, the Queen's
chief stronghold.* Here, she and Angus had shut themselves

* Brewer. Preface to Cal. 2, Part I. Note.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 229

up, on hearing that Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, was march-
ing upon Edinburgh. They were captured, but escaped and
returned to Stirling, where they were besieged by John Hep-
burn, Prior of St. Andrews.

Margaret, assuming a tone of injured innocence, wrote to
Henry VIII., telling him that she and her party are in great
trouble till they know what help he will give them, that her
enemies continue to usurp the King's authority in Parliament,
holding her and her friends rebels ; and she entreats him to
hasten his army against Scotland by sea and by land.* This
was clearly as much an act of treason as if she had deliberately
invited any other foreign enemy to come and take possession
of the realm, for although her object was merely to regain the
powers she had lost by her own fault, she could estimate
the ruin which would have resulted to Scotland, if Henry had
really been in a position to invade the country. His answer to
her appeal was to send the most urgent instructions to his
sister to prevent Albany's landing by every means at her dis-
posal. Meanwhile, she waited impatiently but in vain for
either troops or money from Henry, who did not think it
necessary to inform her that the French king had agreed to
detain Albany in France, on condition that his dear cousin
should send his sister no help, but leave the various parties in
Scotland to fight out their differences alone. Margaret's posi-
tion at last became intolerable, and she began, no less than her
enemies, to look forward to the Duke's arrival, as a means of
extricating herself from a labyrinth of difficulties. Francis, in
spite of his promise to Henry, had no intention of preventing
Albany, who was more than half a Frenchman, from assuming
a dignity that would result in a strong bond of union between
Scotland and France. He was therefore quietly allowed to
escape, and, when after running the gauntlet of Henry's ships,
he landed in Scotland, Margaret wisely resolved to be friends
with him.f But Henry instructed Lord Dacre, the formidable

* Queen Margaret to Henry VIII., 23rd November, 1514. Cotton
MS. Calig., B. I., 164. British Museum.

t Seb. Giustinian to the Doge. London, 5th August, 1515. Venetian
Archives.

230 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

chief of the Marches, to stir up all the strife possible between
her, the new regent and the Scottish lords, and whenever there
was a sign of a better understanding between them, Dacre was
always careful to insinuate that they would be far less true to
her than her brother was.

Meanwhile Henry wrote to the Council requesting that
Albany might be sent back to France at once. The reply of
the assembled lords was as dignified as Albany's own conduct
throughout, and in strong contrast to Margaret's attitude.
They have, they say, received Henry's letter dated Greenwich,
1st July, 1516, desiring them to remove John Duke of Albany
the Regent from the person of their King, in order to promote
the amity of the two realms. The Duke was chosrm Protector
by the unanimous voice of the three Estates, was sent for by
them from France, left his master, his lady, his living, has
taken great pains in the King's service, has given, and proposes
to give no cause for dissatisfaction, and if he would leave, they
would not let him. Moreover, it is in exact conformity with
their laws that the nearest in succession should have the
governance ; security has been taken by the Queen and others,
to remove all cause of suspicion, and they will spend their lives
if any attempt be made against his Highness.*

This document was signed and sealed by twenty-eight lords,
spiritual and temporal, whose names are still legible. Ten
other names are mutilated beyond recognition, although the
seals remain.

Albany had meanwhile written to Lord Dacre denymg that
he had usurped the King's authority, and declaring that he had
done nothing but by order of the estates of the realm. But
Henry was bent on picking a quarrel with him, and Dacre's
letter to the King of England's Council shows the part he was
instructed to play in the troubles of Scotland, fomenting feuds
between Albany and every member of his government, in the
hope of driving him out of the couutry.f

Difficult, however, as Henry's policy made it, the Regent was

* Scotch Lords to Henry VIII., 4th July, 1516. Record Office.
t Calig. B. II., 341. B. M.

Jador Intrigues in Scotland. 231

determined to maintain peace, and would probably have suc-
ceeeded but for Margaret.*

The good understanding between them was broken by his
summoning her to deliver up the royal children into his
custody, a cruel but necessary proceeding, since the regency
was considered inseparable from the governorship of the King
and the next heir. A true and tender chord is struck at last,
when the Queen, appealing to Henry, exclaims, ' God seud I
were such a woman as might go with my bairns in mine arms.
I trow I should not be long fra you.' Nor is it possible to feel
aught but sympathy for her, when she allows herself to be
stormed in Stirling Castle, before she suffers her children to
be torn from her. Dacre professed to believe, and perhaps
caused Margaret to fear, that they would be destroyed if they
fell into the Duke's hands. On the very day that Dacre wrote
to Henry's Council, advising that money should be sent to en-
able her to hold out, the Regent prepared to bombard her, and
it was not till her friends had forsaken her, flying for their
lives and in terror of Albany's proclamation, that placing the
keys of the fortress in her little son's hands, she desired him
to give them to the Regent, and to beg him to show favour to
himself, to his brother, and to her husband. The Regent
answered that he would be good to the King, to his brother
and to their mother, but that as for Angus, he ' would not dalye
with no traitor.' f

No sooner had Margaret given up her children, than she be-
gan to manoeuvre how to steal them back again, and spirit
them over the Border. While pretending to be too ill to leave
her palace at Linlithgow, where she gave out that she had
' taken her chamber ' in anticipation of her approaching con-
finement, she effected her own escape into England, but the
plan for capturing the King and his brother failed. Nothing
could now exceed her desolate condition, as wandering from
place to place, alone, ill, and worse than friendless, she sought
in vain a refuge in all the wild Border region, where she might

:: Albany to Dacre, 10th August, 15i5. Record Office.
tCalig., B. II. 309. B. M.

232 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

await her hour of peril. Angus, seeing the turn which affairs had
taken, had thought it prudent to abandon her, and after help-
ing her to escape, had returned to Scotland in the hope of
coming to terms with Albany. Margaret was at last thankful
to accept Lord Dacre's rough hospitality in his gloomy Castle
of Harbottle. Here, in the midst of brutal soldiers, with no
woman to render her the most needful service, she gave birth
to a daughter, the Lady Margaret Douglas, on the oth October,
1515. On the tenth, she wrote to Albany to announce her
delivery ' of a cristen sowle, beying a young lady,' and miser-
ably ill though she was, did not omit to demand, ' as tutrix of
the young King and Prince, her tender children, to have the
whole rule and governance of Scotland.'

To this she received an answer from the Council, stating that
the governance of the realm had expired with the death of her
husband, and had devolved to the Estates; that with her con-
sent, they had appointed the Duke of Albany; that she had
forfeited the tutelage of her children, by her second marriage,
and that in all temporal matters, the realm of Scotland had
been immediately subject to Almighty God, not recognising
the Pope or any superior upon earth. With this Margaret was
forced to be contented; further words would have been as un-
availing as a reed against the tempest, and even words were
soon beyond her power to write, for the birth of her daughter
was succeeded by a long and painful illness, which nearly
proved fatal to the unhappy Queen. To add to the bitterness
of her situation, at the moment when she was beginning slowly
to recover, came the news of the illness and sudden death of
the little Duke of Rothesay. Grief, anger, and anxiety for the
safety of the King, served naturally to increase the gravity of
her condition, and for months she lay hovering between life
and death, loudly accusing Albany of having murdered her
child. The accusation was repeated to Albany himself, as soon
as her unsteady fingers could grasp a pen, but the Regent took
no heed of her stinging words, continued to invite her to re-
turn to Scotland, in spite of her persistent refusals, and ap-
parently succeeded at last in convincing her of his innocence.
On her recovery, she wrote to him from Morpeth, to announce

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 233

her departure for the south, Henry having invited her to his
court, accompanying' his invitation with presents of costly
stuffs and money, and clothing for the new-born infant.

Margaret's letter to the Regent is significant of a sudden
change in her demeanour towards him, and to judge by her
subsequent behaviour, the change meant treachery. Instead
of the fierce denunciations she had lately indulged in, she
acknowledges that she has often had goodly and pleasant
words, as well as letters from him, and ' though his conduct has
not always corresponded to them, yet as matters are being ac-
commodated,' she hopes he ' will reform it.' The meaning of
this change of tactics became clear to all but the Regent him-
self, who seems to have been of a singularly unsuspicious
nature, as soon as Margaret reached London. He was still
hoping for a permanent peace with Henry, and more than once
expressed a wish to pay him a friendly visit. This, both Henry
and Margaret encouraged him to do, and writing to Wolsey
about this time, the Scottish Queen expressed the most fervent
hope that he would come, counterbalanced by the fear that he
would not.* Had the matter rested entirely with him, the visit
would certainly have been paid, but his Council, who had
some reason to doubt Henry's plausible words, were urgent in
dissuading him. All things considered, it is fair to surmise
that the Duke would have repented his temerity, if he had
placed his head within the lion's jaws.

Having failed to inveigle him into their power, the brother
and sister instructed Dacre to ' sow debate ' between him and
his Council, but this scheme also failed. Dacre wrote, however,
to show that he was not devoid of zeal, saying that being un-
able to interfere with Scottish affairs in any other way, he
had given rewards to four hundred outlaws, for burnings in
various parts of the kingdom. f No means were too vile, no
instrument unworthy to be employed in the work of destroying
the Regent and advancing Tudor interests. The Queen even
condescended to use her truant husband, and the part played

* Cotton MS. Vesp., F. III., 3G. B. M.
+ Dacre to Wolsey, Calig. B. I., 150. B. M.

234 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

by Angus is scarcely less reprehensible than Margaret's own,
for while he pretended to be loyal to Albany and to Scotland,
he possessed himself of every important State secret, and
transmitted it to his wife, in the hope of appeasing her for his
desertion. She of course passed on all that she thus learned
to Henry and Wolsey.

It is not our purpose to give a detailed account of Mar-
garet's life, or it would be interesting to describe the
pomp and splendour, the feasts and revels with which she
was entertained for a whole year at the English Court —
luxury in strange contrast to the misery she had under-
gone during the first months after her flight from Scotland.
Pageants, tournaments and banquets now took the place of
privation and suffering ; all that met the eye was changed, but
the dark and treacherous under-currents, known to but few of
her contemporaries, remained the same and were the realities
that shaped her course. In spite, however, of plots and
intrigues, Margaret's position was not improving. Her visit
to England could not be prolonged indefinitely, and as she
was evidently not to return to Scotland in triumph, it was
desirable to make as good terms for herself as she could.

The Regent promised that her dowry should be paid, and
that Angus should be allowed to join her, if he were willing
to do so, a somewhat doubtful alternative, as he had not
availed himself of the leave that had already been given to
him. As for the Regent himself, he declared that it had
always been his desire to gratify the Queen and to advise the
best for her and her son.* Reluctantly therefore, Margaret at
last prepared to turn her face northwards, having obtained
permission to take with her a suite befitting her station, safe-
conduct being granted, except in the case of any person among
them plotting harm to the kingdom ; and to these conditions,
the King set his Great Seal.

A letter from the Venetian envoy to the Doge, dated 13th
April, 1517, says : ' The truce between England and Scotland
has been arranged. The Queen is to return, but is not to be

* Calig. B. II., 202. B. M.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 235

admitted to the administration of the kingdom. She may take
with her twenty-four Englishmen and as many Scotch as she
pleases, provided they be not rebels ; ' and he adds that he
has been assured of these facts by Albany's Secretary.

Magnus and Dacre did their best to make her journey
smooth ; but when she arrived at Berwick it needed all
their persuasion to induce her to enter Scotland. ' We did
our best,' they reported to Wolsey, ' to help her forward
and give her counsel, otherwise she would have remained
on the Borders.' At Lamberton Kirk, contrary to the
Regent's expectation, she was met by Angus accompanied
by Morton and other lords, with three hundred men chiefly
Borderers. Albany had left for France, taking with him the
heirs or brothers of the principal men in the country, whom he
had bound over to keep the peace during his absence, which
he then did not intend to prolong more than five months.

Margaret's return was an excellent opportunity for be-
ginning a new and better life, had she been so minded ;
but events proved her to be in a more querulous, treach-
erous and discontented mood than ever. ' Her Grace con-
sidereth now the honour of England, and the poverty
and wretchedness of Scotland,' wrote Magnus to Wolsey,
' which she did not afore, but in her opinion, esteemed Scot-
laud equal with England,' * and her complaints to Henry are
frequent and loud. She complained of her husband, of her
poverty, of the bad faith of the Scottish people who still left
her dowry unpaid, of not being allowed free access to her son.
She has been obliged to lay in wed (pawn) the plate given to
her by her brother, and is likely to be driven to extreme
poverty, as Wolsey will learn by her messenger. She would
have been still worse off, she caused her friends to write, had
not Magnus and Dacre drawn up a book at Berwick, the day
before her entry into Scotland, by which Angus, signing it, re-
nounced all claim to her ' conjunct feoffment.' t But Margaret
did not stop at complaints ; Henry must begin the war again.

* June 16, 1517. Calig., B. II., 253. B. M.

t Dacre to Wolsey. Harbottle, 5th March, 1518. R. O.

236 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

He may, she declares, reasonably cause Scotch ships to be
taken, for she has suffered long and forborne to do evil,
although she knew she would never get good from Scotland
by fair means. When by dint of her constant urging to re-
newed onsets, the Borders had become one vast battle field,
she wrote to the Marquis of Dorset to beg him to spare the Con-
vent of Coldstream, whose abbess had done her good service
in times past* The motive was, however, no mere charitable
one; the abbess being 'one of the best spies for England.'
And now, for the first time, Margaret ventures to express the
wish that has for long been forming itself in her mind. She
has been much troubled by Angus since her coming to Scot-
land, and is so more and more daily. They have not met this
half year, and — after some hovering on the brink of the word,
she pronounces it boldly — she will part with him, if she may
by God's law and with honour to herself, for he loves her not!
Unlike Henry, when seeking a pretext to divorce Queen
Katharine, Margaret was at no pains to disguise the motive
which inspired her, and the possibility of a flaw in the marriage
is openly but a pretext for getting rid of a husband of whom
she was weary. We are at least spared the nausea caused by
Henry's conscientious scruples. She first puts forward honestly
her wish to be free from Angus, and then her determination to
divorce him if she may lawfully. But it was the only piece of
honesty in the whole business, for the suit itself was one long
wearisome series of misrepresentation and falsehood, without
which her cause could by no possibility have been gained.
The usual plea of pre-contracts was brought forward, but as
these were of too flimsy a nature to bear investigation,
Margaret declared that the late King of Scots, her husband,
was still living three years after the battle of Flodden, and
that consequently he was alive when she was married to the
Earl of Angus.f As the King's body had never been found,
this assertion could not be disproved, though there could be no
reasonable doubt as to his having fallen on that calamitous

* Thomas, Marquis of Dorset to Henry VIII. Calig., B. III., 255.
t Magnus to Wolsey. State Papers, Vol. IV., p. 385.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 237

day. But in spite of her bold swearing, Margaret was not so
certain of success, but that she was anxious for Henry's sup-
port, and she not only begged him to befriend her, but pro-
mised that she would only consult his wishes in taking another
husband, and that this time she would not part from him.*
It was, however, no part of Henry's policy that his sister
should put Angus away, for although she had not consulted
him in the choice of her second husband, he was very well
satisfied with him. Henry could to a certain extent control him,
and at all events, while married to him, the Queen could not
contribute by any foreign alliance, to the power and greatness
of Scotland. But Angus was making himself obnoxious to his
wife, beyond her very limited capacity fur endurance. Not
only had he proved a faithless husbaud, but what was in-
finitely worse to her mind, he refused to give up the income of
her Ettrick forest estate, which she had made over to him in
the days when his handsome face and figure had first struck
her fancy, and when she thought nothing too costly to lavish
upon him. She had made him great, to her own and the
country's misfortune, and it was a difficult matter to make him
small again, but all Scotland felt the evil effects of his power,
of his ascendency over the young Kiug, and of the feuds which
resulted therefrom. So great was the scourge felt to be, that
the King's Council appealed to Margaret to recall the Regent
Albany that he might restore order. She was aware that
Albany's return was the thing of all others that Henry wished
to avoid, but it suited her for the nonce to act the part of a
good Scotchwoman, and she wrote an imploring letter to the
Duke, begging him to come back and take pity on his unhappy
country.! Notwithstanding this, her complaints to Henry,
through Dacre, of her bad treatment, and her entreaties to be
allowed to return to England did not cease. She had ' lieuer
be dead than live among the Scotch,' and she entreats that no
peace may be renewed unless ' some good may be taken ' that
she may live at ease.|

Wolsey was not sparing in his remarks on the Queen's

Calig., B. I., 232. t Calig., B. II., 195. $ Calig., B. I., 275.

238 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

double dealing, the facts of which had all been disclosed to
him by spies. He has, lie says, represented to the King ' the
folly of" Queen Margaret in leaning to her enemies, and depart-
ing from her husband,' notwithstanding what Dacre has already
written to her. Dacre, by the King's desire, is to write to her
again and tell her that if she persists in her dishonourable course,
she can expect no favour.*

The Earl of Surrey meanwhile had been despatched with an
army to the Borders, and threatened to invade Scotland unless
the Duke of Albany were abandoned, and Margaret reinstated
as Regent. On the 16th September, 1523, he wrote two letters
to the Queen, one intended for her eyes alone, the other to be
shown to her son's Council. In the first, he says that the King
of England would approve of her son's ' coming forth ' and
shaking off all tutelage but his mother's, for Surrey is about to
waste Scotland, and the young King's plea for emancipating
himself should be, that he cannot suffer his realm to be laid
waste. Margaret is then to summon the lords to take up arms
in her son's defence, and will then be in a position to command
Surrrey to retire. She will thus form a party for her son, and
be enabled to send Albany and his Frenchmen back to France.
Then Surrey will turn his arms against her enemies. If Mar-
garet keeps her promise, money will be forthcoming. In the
event of her causing James V. to ' come forth ' to Edinburgh,
he has no doubt, that if he will command his subjects on
their allegiance to take his part, the most of them will do so,
especially the commons, who must be roused to drive the
French to Dunbar. Surrey will be ready to give assistance.!

The second letter was to the same effect, though more cau-
tiously worded. The King of England would be glad to hear
of his nephew's prosperous estate, but would certainly be dis-
satisfied that his nobles suffered him and themselves to be
kept in subjection by Albany. Surrey was ready to help with
men and money all who would come forward to protect their
natural sovereign ; but peace could never be between the two
realms if the Scots did not abandon the Duke. As for Mar-

Calig., B. Ill, 106. t Calig., B. IV., 196.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 239

garet's hope that Henry would be a better friend to Scotland
on her account, Surrey had been ordered from doing any more
hurt when she wrote. He had now waited a long time, hop-
ing that the lords would have shown themselves more natural,
loving subjects than they now appeared, seeing that the day
appointed for the Duke's arrival had expired, and their King
was in no greater safety than he was before. All the world
would see that the fault was not Henry's, but that of the Scots,
who refused to put him out of the realm who meant to destroy
the King and usurp the crown. Henry would never desist
from making war upon Scotland, until they abandoned Albany,
and sued to him for peace. On their doing this, Surrey had
full authority to treat with them, and to assist them with men
and money*

This advice had no effect whatever upon the Scotch lords,
whose loyalty to the Regent remained unshaken ; but Mar-
garet did not consider herself hampered by any pledges given
to Albany, and two days after the receipt of the letters, she
urged Surrey to come to Edinburgh, or somewhere near it, at
once, declaring that the lords would certainly do as she de-
sired. As for the threatened laying waste, however, ' they
laughed at injuries done only to the poor people.' A thousand
men with artillery would have Edinburgh at their mercy, if
they came suddenly. Surrey must go at it at once or let it
be. Failing this, she desired leave to come to England with
her true servants, adding, ' for I will come away and I should
steal out of it. ' t The truth was, that far from being sure that
the lords would agree to any of the above proposals, Margaret
knew well that she had but a handful of friends in Scotland,
and that her only hope of regaining the Regency lay in
Henry's power of coercion. Trusting that Surrey would really
march on Edinburgh, she did all she could to persuade the
young King's Council to allow of his being brought to that
place, and to appoint new guardians friendly to her interests.

* State Papers, IV. 21. ' Copy of my letter to be showed to the lords
of Scotland.' In Surrey's hand. Record Office.
t State Papers, TV., 26.

240 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

In both these endeavours she however failed, and James re-
mained at Stirling. ' The lords are all fallen away from the
Queen, and adhere to the Governor,' wrote the Abbess of
Coldstream to Sir John Buhner, and Surrey passed on the in-
formation to Wolsey, telling him that she had no credit with
them, and that they looked hourly for Albany's arrival.

As for Surrey's own movements, even if he had been willing
to besiege Edinburgh, he would have been frustrated by the
want of sufficient transport-carriages for his victuals. Had he
not caused his soldiers to carry their food in wallets, and their
drink in bottles, it would not have been possible for him to
have reached the North, and a raid into the enemy's country
necessitated a far ampler stock of provisions than could thus
be carried. The Queen's desire that he should take Edin-
burgh, was he thought, only to provide herself with a means
of escape.*

In England, it was commonly believed that the Scot-
tish lords were in such fear of the Duke of Albany, who
was hourly expected to arrive, that they would break
their covenant with him, even if they had each given
him four of the best of their sons as hostages. But Surrey
declared vehemently that though they should deceive Mar-
garet, they should not deceive him. The suspense wTas at last
ended and Margaret wrote to inform him of the Regent's ar-
rival. He answered at once, desiring to know what number
of horse and foot soldiers had come with him, and what coun-
trymen they were. He could, he said, give her no advice
about coming away, but would meet her in any part of the
Marches, and at whatever time she pleased ; she in return was
to let him know when Albany intended to invade England.
In conclusion, hoping to prevent any agreement between the
Queen and the Regent, he warned her that Albany would
most certainly be King, if the King were not well guarded,
'for the Frenchmen can empoison one, and yet he shall not
die for a year after.' f

* Surrey to Wolsey, Berwick, 21st Sep., 1523. Record Office.

t Surrey's Letterbook. Tanner MS., 90, f. 47. Bodleian Library.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 241

The slippery nature of Margaret's friendships was well
known to Surrey, and he kept up the fiction of Albany's nefa-
rious intentions with regard to the young King, in the hope of
securing her adherence to English policy. But, unluckily for
his schemes, he did not sufficiently study the springs of her
actions, which would have taught him to be a little more
lavish with money. The end of her next letter ought to have
opened his eyes to the necessity of striking a bargain with
her, if he would pretend to draw her into the English net.

After telling him that the Duke has held a Council at
Glasgow and that he means to march into England in a fort-
night, she goes on to warn him that Scotland was never before
made so strong, and says that it is still a secret whether Albany
intends to attack the east or west Border, but that she thinks
both. She gives him a detailed account of the numbers and
condition of his soldiers, and estimates his French contingent
at six thousand men, adding that German reinforcements are
expected by the first fair wind. They trust to win Berwick,
and if they succeed, she and her son are undone. Then she
begs to know how she is to get away and have some money.
If Heury will not help her, she must perforce ask help of the
Duke, and she adds significantly : ' and he will cause me to do
as he will, or else he will give me nothing.' He has not yet
come to her, she says, but he writes ' very good writings of his
own hand, and as many fair words as can be devised,' to which
however she professes to give no credence.* Surrey was of
the opinion that Margaret should remain in Scotland, as her
coming to England would cause embarrassment and expense.
Two thousand marks would hardly satisfy her in England,
whereas she would be content with three or four hundred
pounds a year in Scotland,! to say nothing of the loss Henry
would incur, if she came away, in being deprived of the infor-
mation she sent.

But it was just this haggling over bribes, that prevented
Margaret from being altogether on Henry's side, and which

* Calig., B. VI., 379. State Papers, IV., 40.
t State Papers, IV., 40.

xxiv. 1 6

242 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

threw her into the arms of the more generous Albany,
whenever there was the least hope of gain. Thus, a month
later, after the Governor's somewhat hasty retreat from Wark,
the Queen told Surrey that she had been obliged to take what
money the Duke would give her, that she would do her best to
keep her son, but that she could not displease Albany without
Henry's support. She implored Surrey to plead with the
King for her, and in return for his help, she would inform him
of all she knew, but he must keep it secret.*

Meanwhile, she gave the Duke to understand that she had
incurred her brother's displeasure for his sake,f and the same
legend was repeated to the lords in Council. Complaining to
them of the bad treatment she had received in Scotland, she
begged them to bear in mind the good faith she had always
kept to her son, to the lord Governor and to the realm,
incurring for the last three or four years her brother's
displeasure, for the Governor's sake, at whose desire, she was
always ready to write the best she could.f Immediately after
this remarkable statement comes Henry's answer to her last
appeal, in the guise of one hundred marks for information
received, together with the refusal of the truce which Albany
had repeatedly solicited. § The smallness of the sum prompted
a diplomatic letter to Surrey, in which the Queen declared
that she had promised before the lords to be a good Scotch-
woman, and to accept whatever was for the good of her son,
with whom she is resolved to bide as long as she may,
although the lords are bent on separating them. They say
that they cannot help her to her ' conjunct feoffment ' while
her brother makes war on them, and she knows not where any
other help may be got. If she is to live with her son, Henry
must contribute to her support, as he has done to a certain ex-
tent already. She will do as he commands her, and have as
few servants as possible. She had asked the Governor and
lords in Council why she was holden suspect, and not allowed
to be with her son, and the answer she received was that she

* Oalig., B. I., 281. t lb., 159. % lb., B. IT., 268.

§ lb., B. II., 11. State Papers, IV., CO, 26 Nov., 1523.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 243

was Henry's sister, and would perhaps take the King her son
into England, and they knew well her brother would do more
for her than any other. She had answered that her deeds had
shown otherwise, and that she could prove the malice of such
an imputation ! Jhus Henry would see hoiv she suffered for his
sake*

The next scene in the comedy is her displeasure on hearing
that the Governor is treatiug with Henry for peace, without
her intervention. ' It is hard,' she complains, ' to be out with
the Governor here, and not to know what the King will do
for me ! ' If she had flattered Albany she might have had
' great profits,' but she will not take them till she knows
Henry's mind. She has not spoken with Albany since Surrey
left, and would not do so, as long as he remained in Scotland,
so discontented were they with each other. t

Upon this follows an astounding revelation. Surrey
received a letter from the Queen, containing another docu-
ment, the seals of which had been broken and closed again.
It was a copy of an agreement between Queen Margaret and
the Duke of Albany ; but the manner in which it came to be
enclosed in her letter never transpired, though it was thought
that the packet had been opened by a spy, and the document
inserted, in order to ruin her prospects with her brother.

It ran as follows : — The Queen promises that during the
minority of her son, she will never suffer anything contrary to
the Duke's authority, aud will inform him of it, and hinder as
much as she can any wrong intended against him ; she will
not consent to a truce or peace with England without the
comprehension of her son's allies ; she will assist to keep him
securely, according to the decree of the last Parliament ; she
will do all she can to hinder any practice against him, of which
she may hear, aud will inform the Governor of it, if he be in
the country, and if not, those who have charge of the King;
she will not consent to anything contrary to the alliance with
France or to the treaty of Rouen, and will further a marriage

* Queen Margaret to Surrey, Dec. 1523. Record Office,
t Calig., B. I., 209, April 21, 1524.

244 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

between her son and one of the daughters of the King of
Franco. The Governor promises to do the like, and to obtain
for her an honourable reception by the King of France, if she
incurs the enmity of her brother, and is forced to quit the
country in consequence of the assistance he may give to
Angus, or other evil-disposed persons who may interfere with
her goods and conjunct feoffment ; he will, If she requests,
send some of his servants with her, and will maintain her
against every one except the King her son. Both parties
swear to keep these promises upon the Holy Gospels.*
Wolsey, upon receipt of this information, at once addressed
instructions to Dacre, charging him to find out whether such
an agreement had really been made, and if so, how the copy
of it had found its way into the Queen's letter.

Dacre therefore wrote to her, telling her of the discovery,
and recapitulating the contents of the document, adding that
the King desired to know whether she had consented to it of
her own free will, why it was done, whether she herself sent
the copy, or if not, who did, and with what intent. Margaret
replied by an indignant but weak denial. The instrument in
question was one, she averred, which the Duke had desired
her to execute, but which she had declined at all costs to
meddle with. This explanation was too improbable for
Wolsey to accept, the whole course of Margaret's actions
tending to shew that had Albany tried and failed to draw her
into such a compact, she would unhesitatingly have disclosed
the negotiations in order to make capital out of her refusal.
The opportunity for demanding large sums as a reward for
fidelity to Henry's interests, would have proved irresistible ;
while, as a matter of fact, the transaction had never been
mentioned in any of her letters. Vague hints to the effect
that Albany was continually outbidding Henry, had. been her
refrain for years; but whereas she sent minute and circum-
stantial details ef every other secret likely to prejudice the
country and its Regent, she had been silent as to any definite
overtures such as those contained in the document referred to.

Add. MS., 24, 965, ff. 231 and 234, B.M.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 245

The alternative was to believe that, while pretending to be
false, for once she was true to Scotland ; and yet she stands
so ' rooted in dishonour,' that her acquittal is but little to her
credit. Her only resource, when Dacre persisted in his accusa-
tion, was to complain of the bad treatment she was receiving
at her brother's hands, saying that he neither regarded herself
nor her writing; that she had not failed, aud did not mean to
do so, but that if others had been in her place, they would
have acted very differently.* To this Dacre ruthlessly replied
that it was well known both in Scotland and in England not
only that she had assented to the bond found in her letter, but
that it had passed her sign manual and seal, in return for
which the Duke had given her the wardship and marriage of
the young Earl of Huutly and of others, together with other
gifts and rewards, a proceeding which Dacre declared was a
great dishonour to her brother, and would perhaps after all
avail her but little. He marvelled greatly also at her pre-
tended ignorance of the negotiations on foot between Albany
and himself, since in his last letter he had informed her of all
the proceedings.!

Margaret continued for some time to feebly deny having
allied herself formally with the Governor, complaining of
Dacre's 'sharpness' with her, notwithstanding which, he went
on bringing proofs of her duplicity before her, till Henry at
last ordered him to let the matter drop, whereupon she was
willing to do the same.!

Having failed to secure Margaret's undivided favour in the
past, Henry now took a more indulgent line and tried to con-
vince her how much good might accrue to her in future, if she
would but ' go the fruitful way.' The unfortunate Angus,
who had taken refuge in England, was now sent back to Scot-
land, in the hope that a possible reconciliation with her hus-
band might estrange the Queen from Albany. But this was
far from successful. She could with difficulty be persuaded to
receive him, and all the money that Henry sent to her went to
strengthen the hands of her husband's enemies, so that Angus

*Add. MS., 24, 965, f. 223, B.M., May 19, 1524.

t lb. , 24, 965, f . 244, B. M. , 27th May, 1524. X lb. , 24, 965, f . 253, B. M.

246 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

was obliged to entreat that no farther supplies might be pro-
vided. Margaret then veered round and said that Albany had
sent to her with great offers if she would join his party, adding
that perhaps the Duke would many her after getting her
divorced. How this could be possible, considering that Albany
had a wife already, might puzzle a mind more fettered by the
logic of facts than was the Queen's.

That she was seriously anxious to be agreeable to the Duke
is proved by the instructions she sent to John Cantely, who
was to tell Albany her good will towards him and the king-
dom of France. And lest he should interpret unfavourably
the fact of her having sent ambassadors from herself and her
son to England, she assured him that she would do nothing
without including France. Finally, she wished to know his
intentions towards her, and what he would give her. He
must secure for her the protection of the King of France, in
the event of her taking his part against England, which she
will certainly do if Henry continues to help Angus. If the
King of France desires to have her and her son on his side, he
must support them. Albany is to keep the matter secret, and
not to allow her letters to be sent into England, as has been
done formerly, and she will take his part against everybody
except her son.* These instructions were written on the 22nd
February, 1525, but on the 31st March following, Margaret, in
a stormy interview with Magnus, angrily denied having
favoured Albany at all. She declared that she had always
sought to please Henry, and complained of his letters being
' sore and sharp.' She maintained that she had taken a great
matter on hand at his request, and had had much trouble with
the Duke of Albany for his sake, yet now that she had plainly
told the Duke that she followed Henry's pleasure, Henry
would have no more to do with her. If he will not be kind
to her, she hopes he will not at least cause Angus to trouble
her in her living. She has a plea against Angus before the
Pope, and he cannot interfere with her by law. -j-

* Double de la credence de la Royue et mcmoire de Mr. John Carntdij.
R. O.

t Calig., B. VII., 3.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 247

It was clearly to Henry's interest to persuade Margaret to
take her husband back, for Angus belonged with the whole
Douglas family to Albany's bitterest enemies. The reconcilia-
tion between him and the Regent had been but a short inter-
lude, brought about solely by self-interest, on the part of
Angus, and followed by a deep and lasting feud. Added to
this claim on Henry's favour was the fact of his possessing a
powerful ascendancy over the mind of the young King. But
with the page of Henry's own domestic history open before
us, it is hardly possible to repress a smile at the arguments
against her divorce which Henry put before Margaret at the very
moment when he was trying to force the Pope's hand, in order
to obtain from him a sentence against his own marriage. The
following substance of a letter, written it is true by Wolsey,
but dictated by his master, applies in every detail as well to
Henry's as to Margaret's case. If we change the pronoun,
substitute London for Rome, King for Queen, Katharine
for Angus, wife for husband, all that he causes Wolsey to say,
becomes as applicable to himself as to his sister.

After desiring her to accept favourably Henry's message,
which, he says, much concerns the wealth of her sou and her
own repute, the Cardinal urges her brother's hope that the
' undeceivable Spirit of God which moved him to send to her
will effectually work.' Amid the cares of his government, he
has never forgotten her, and hopes she will turn to God's
Word, 'thevyvely doctrine of Jesu Christ, the only ground ot
salvation ' (1 Cor. 3.) He leminds her of the divine ordinance
of inseparable matrimony, first instituted in Paradise, and
hopes her Grace will perceive how she was seduced by flat-
terers to an unlawul divorce from t the right noble Earl of
Angus, etc.,' upon untrue and insufficient grounds. Further-
more, ' the shameless sentence sent from Rome plainly showed
how unlawfully it was handled, judgment being given against
a party neither present in person, nor by proxy. He urges her
further, for the weal of her soul, and to avoid the inevitable
damnation threatened against ' advoutrers,' to reconcile herself
with Angus as her true husband, or out of mere natural affec-
tion for her daughter whose excellent beauty and pleasant be-

248 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

haviour, nothing less godly than goodly, furnished with virtues
and womanly demeanour, should soften her heart. That she
should be reputed baseborn cannot be avoided, except the
Queen will relinquish the ' advoutrous' company' with him that
is not, nor may not be of right her husband.*

The individual here mentioned was Harry Stuart, with
whom Margaret had already contracted a secret marriage.
She does not appear to have been in the least affected by this
pious letter, but the manner in which her son received the
news of her marriage caused her some inconvenience. In his
displeasure, James sent Lord Erskine to besiege his mother
and her new husband in Stirling Castle; but what promised to
be a tragedy had a somewhat ludicrous ending, for Margaret,
in terror of what might follow, at once gave up her husband,
who after a short imprisonment was allowed to escape. He
promptly rejoined the Queen, and James subsequently forgave
him, and created him Lord Methven.

But not even when James had come to his own, did Margaret
cease to intrigue. Henry's suspicious and overbearing char-
acter made it imperative for him to know all that was going
on in Scotland, and his sister was the only available agent for
the purpose. It does not appear that the treachery, now
doubly odious, cost her the least qualm. The climax was how-
ever reached, when after persuading James to confide to her
his private instructions to the Scotch ambassador residing in
London, she contrived that the information thus obtained
should be in Henry's hands at the same moment that it reached
its legitimate destination. Fortunately for the affairs of Scot-
land, the treacherous correspondence was discovered, and
Margaret narrowly escaped imprisonment. The immediate
consequence was to put an end to the more friendly relations
that had been springing up between the two kings, and to
prevent a meeting in process of negotiation. At this interview,
which was to take place at York, Henry hoped to convert his
nephew to his own views regarding the Pope, and to pave the
way to a good understanding between them, he sent Barlow

Calig., B. VI., 194.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 249

and Holcroft to Scotland with a lengthy document containing,
with much fulsome flattery of James, all Henry's choice
vocabulary of epithets against the ' Bishop of Rome.'* Mar-
garet, ignorant that her son had discovered her treachery,
continued to urge him to proceed to York ; but her eagerness
only roused his suspicions that worse was intended. ' The
Queen, your Grace's sister,' wrote Lord William Howard to
Henry, ' because she hath so earnestly solicited in the cause of
meeting, is in high displeasure with the King her son, he bear-
ing her in hand that she received gifts of your Highness to be-
tray him, with many other unkind and suspicious words.f
Enough has been seen of Margaret's method of conduct to
make it quite clear what her next step would be. Out of
favour with James, she of course threw the whole brunt of her
misfortune on Henry, for whose sake she had incurred so much
danger and expense, having lived for the last six months at
Court, for the sole purpose of advancing his interests.! But
Henry was beginning to weary of his sister's complaints and
appeals for money. Besides, James would in future guard his
secrets better, and Margaret almost cease to be useful as a
spy. So she must not expect him to disburse notable sums
merely because she is his sister, and must learn to be content
with the entirely sufficient provision made for her on her mar-
riage with the King of Scots. §

This was all the consolation he could afford her for some
time to come, for besides his other reasons for disregarding the
letters which she, nothing daunted by his silence, continued
to send him, Henry was too much occupied with his own affairs
to bestow much thought on a sister whose power of helping
him was henceforth small. It was the moment of Anne
Boleyn's disgrace, and he was engrossed with the list of crimes
he was about to accuse her of. On the subject of Margaret's
various marriages, her brother had ever failed to manifest that
sympathy which a similarity of tastes would seem to justify.

* Hamilton Papers, fol. 27. Instructions to Barlow and Holcroft. Oct.
3, 1535.

State Papers, IV., p. 46. J Add MS., 32, 616, fol. 87. B. M.

§ State Papers, V., 56.

250 Tudor Intrigues in Scotland.

He had assumed the tone of a moralist on her separation from
Angus, and had treated Lord Methven in his letters with scant
respect, and when in the course of time she began to weary of
her new spouse, and to complain of him with increasing bitter-
ness, it was long before Henry could be roused to express any
interest in the matter. At last, however, he found a con-
venient season for attending to her affairs. She had written
to inform him that whereas she did Lord Meffen (sic) the honour
to take him as her husband, he had spent her lauds and profits
upon his own kin, and had brought her into debt to the sum of
8000 marks Scots, and would give her no account of it. She
trusted the King, her son, would treat her to his and her own
honour, but if not, she had no refuge but in Henry, and she
begged him not to suffer her to be wronged. To this letter
he deigned to reply that he should be sorry if his good brother
and nephew treated her otherwise than a son should treat his
mother. As it appeared by certain evidence, she was well-
handled and grown to much wealth and quiet ; but according
to other reports, quite the contrary, so that he was in doubt
which to believe. ' Also,' he continues, ' having heard at other
times from you of your evil-treatment by your son aud Lord
Muffyn,(j/V) and as wearesending the bearer into those parts, on
our business, we desire you to show him the points wherein
you note yourself evil-handled, and whether you desire us to
treat of them with your son, or only generally to recommend
your condition. * Margaret had remained faithful to Lord
Methven for about ten years, and it was not till 1537 that she
thought of applying formally for a divorce, her chief plea
being that he wasted her money, although she said she had
' forty famous proofs ' against him. f

James was furious, and ordered that the divorce, whether
obtained at the cost of more false oaths, or whether
Margaret's so-called third husbaud really had a wife
living when he married her, should not be proclaimed in
Scotland. This was what constituted Margaret's grievance

* State Papers, V. 65. 9 lb., V. 63.

f Hamilton Papers, fol. 105. Oct. 13th, 1537.

Tudor Intrigues in Scotland. 251

against her sod, his objection to her divorce being, she
declared, the fear lest she should pa>s into England and
remarry the Earl of Angus. ' And this Harry Stuart Lord of
Methven causes him to believe this of me / ' she exclaimed
contemptuously.* One plea for getting rid of the now
despised Harry Stuart is too amusing to be passed over.
James was in France whither he had gone to bring home his
bride, the young and beautiful Magdalene, daughter of the
French King, and Margaret thought to induce her brother to
interest himself in her divorce through bis jealousy of the
French. After begging him to send a special messenger to
the King her son to know his ' utter mind ' she says : ' For now
dearest brother your Grace I trust will consider that now the
Queen his wife is to come into this realm soon after Easter, as
he hath sent word here, to make ready for the same, and that
being, it will be great dishonour to him that I, his mother
having a just cause to part, can nought get a final end ; and I
trust your Grace will consider I may do your Grace and my
son more honour to be without him (Lord Methven) than to
have him, considering that he is but a sober man, and if the
Queen that is to come, see me not entreated as I should be,
she will think it an evil example.'!

But all efforts were fruitless ; Henry could not be persuaded
to plead his sister's cause, and James was obdurate. Mar-
garet, however, then in her forty-ninth year, dispensed with
the legal formality she had hitherto considered necessary, and
allied herself to a certain John Stuart, who, according to some
opinions, is identical with the adventurous Earl of Arran, so
notorious in the reigu of James VI. Then, a few more miser-
able years of petty intrigues, when it was no longer in her
power to carry on important ones, and the faithless, undignified
life drew to a close. But before the end, a ray of sorrow for
her mis-spent days brightened the hitherto unrelieved gloom
of Margaret's career. Henry's messenger, sent after her death to
gather up the details of her last moments, and above all to
find out whether she had made a will, wrote to his master as

* State Papers, V., 119. f Hamilton Papers, fol. 109.

252 Lord Wolseley's Life of Marlborough.

follows : — ' When she did perceive that death did approach,
she did desire the friars that was her confessors, that they
should sit on their knees before the King, and to beseech him
that he would be good and gracious unto the Earl of Aug-
wische, and did extremely lament and ask God mercy that
she had offended unto the said Earl as she had.'* The friars
were also to plead witli her son for the Lady Margaret
Douglas, the daughter whom she had so remorselessly aban-
doned, and to beg him that she might have some of her
mother's goods. And thus, making what reparation she could,
with penitent words on her lips, Margaret Tudor passed away.
After his sister's death, Henry had few opportunities of
interfering in the affairs of Scotland, and to the end of his
reign, the State Papers relating to the intercourse between
the two Kings, contain little beyond commercial treaties, safe
conducts, and mutual compliments.

Art. II.— LORD WOLSELEY'S LIFE OF
MARLBOROUGH.

The Life of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, to the
Accession of Queen Anne. By Field-Marshal Viscount
Wolseley, K.P. London. 1894.

WE shall sharply criticise parts of this book, but parts of it
are of undoubted merit. Lord Wolseley has given us a
life of Marlborough in the first stages of his splendid career,
which, if very far from a great biography, easily eclipses Coxe's
rather dull narrative, and the extremely imperfect sketch of
Alison. We shall take exception to his account of many
passages of Marlborough's conduct ; his portrait of his subject is
flawed and blemished, and has its lights and shadows badly
arranged ; he has not placed before us the living image of the
man. But he has brought out features of Marlborough's

* Ray to the Privy Council. State Papers, V., pt. IV,, 193.

Lord Wolseley s Life of Marlborough. 253

character which hitherto have remained obscure, or overlaid by
clouds of detraction ; he has added largely to our knowledge of
Marlborough's exploits in the early phase of his military life,
and he has, in some measure, relieved his hero's memory from
charges unduly pressed against him. Lord Wolseley, too,
possesses descriptive skill ; his sketches of Charles and James
II., and of William III., show insight and art ; and he has
caught and reproduced the genius of the age of the Restoration
and of the Revolution of 1G88 — a comprehension of this, we need
hardly say, is essential to the true interpretation of his theme —
though he has not shown distinctly enough how this influence
affected the leading men of the time. Some chapters of
the work are of sterling value, as illustrating military events
of the period ; the narrative of these, if not of the high-
est order, is lucid, judicious, and very well arranged. One
characteristic of Lord Wolseley, as a writer on war, de-
serves special praise. He appreciates the importance of 'the
divine side of the art ; ' perceives that the genius of great cap-
tains is the paramount cause of victory in the field ; and assigns
their just value to the moral forces of enthusiasm, patriotism,
and energetic zeal, which have repeatedly played a decisive part
in war. He has done well clearly to bring out these truths, in an
age when mechanism, organisation, and mere material power,
have been largely accepted as almost the only elements that
determine the issues of campaigns and battles.

The defects of this work, however, are grave and numerous ;
we are compelled to direct attention to them. Lord Wolseley is
Marlborough's avowed champion ; but his championship is
hardly judicious or skilful. Many circumstances of the age, in
a great measure, palliate the misdeeds and even the crimes of
Marlborough, and especially explain why he was held up to
odium, beyond other public men of his clay. Lord Wolseley,
however, does not give the weight to these considerations which
they certainly have in the eyes of a fair-minded enquirer. He
repeatedly adopts a mode of defence, which, in our judgment, is
quite untenable. He sometimes vindicates Marlborough on high
moral grounds, from which he can be dislodged with ease ; he
has raised the subject of his eulogy to a bad eminence, in which

254 Lord Wolseley s Life of Marlborough.

his worst deformities are all the more conspicuous. He makes
excuses, besides, for Marlborough, which really are not excuses
at all ; more than once he evades the true question at issue, in
an examination of Marlborough's conduct ; occasionally he
has recourse to mere sophistry. As regards the two worst acts
of Marlborough's life, his desertion of his master, in the face of
the enemy, and his atrocious treachery in the affair of Brest,
Lord Wolseley's vindication utterly breaks down ; he ought
never to have chosen the lines he has followed. Lord Wolseley,
too, in the course of his narrative, indulges in sallies quite out of
place ; he makes comparisons and draws contrasts which have no
bearing on his immediate subject ; he scoffs at modern statesmen,
and modern opinion, with what we can only describe as
flippancy ; in this respect his heady and impetuous sarcasms
form a bad foil to the serene intelligence, and the unerring
judgment of the great captain and diplomatist he has made his
study. One episode of this work is very erroneous. In his
sketch of the state of the military art in the second part of the
seventeenth century, Lord Wolseley has taken the period when
its decline was marked, as the standard by which it can be
fairly measured ; and, in his brief description of the Army of
France, he has omitted one feature of extreme importance. He
is also hardly just to Turenne, as a strategist, second to
Napoleon alone, and if inferior to Marlborough on the field of
battle, assuredly his superior in the great movements of war.
An irreverent critic, who had read Lord Wolseley's sneers at
merely learned generals, sneers that, in some instances, are mere
paradox, might ascribe these mis-statements to want of know-
ledge; but we think they may be more truly referred to a
desire to magnify his hero's exploits. The book, we must add,
contains some positive mistakes, which should not be found in a
good biography ; and it abounds in words that are hardly pure
English.*

We refer here to a few of these mistakes, not in a carping spirit, but
in order to bring them under the author's notice. I., Vol. I., p. 15 —
Crewkerne is in Somerset, and Lyme Regis in Dorset ; Lord Wolseley has
placed them in Devon. II., Ibid., p. 54 — 'The great majority of the

Lord Wolseley s Life of Marlborough. 255

Lord Wolseley's sketches of the Churchills and Drakes, of
Ash house, and the valley of the Axe, and of all that surrounded
Marlborough's childhood, show much research, and are very
attractive ; but our space precludes us from dwelling on them.
The blood of the Cavalier and the Roundhead mingled in John
Churchill ; but his sympathies were on the side of the Cavaliers ;
he continued, through life, a Tory at heart. The boy learned
the rudiments from a High Church Divine ; was brought up in
the chill shade of poverty ; and witnessed at the Court of
Claims, in Dublin, the miseries endured by loyal Irish gentle-
men ; these associations, Lord Wolseley truly remarks, had, in
all probability, a strong influence on a powerful understanding,
and a cautious nature. Young Churchill was for some time at
St. Paul's, but he appears not to have learned much at school,
though no inference, Lord Wolseley properly says, can be
drawn from the fact that his spelling was bad, and his writings
and speeches plainly show, that, as in the case of all vigorous

English and Scotch subjects,' of Charles II., were certainly not 'Presby-
terians and Nonconformists,' as Lord Wolseley asserts they were. III.,
Ibid., p. 119 — Napoleon Corr., 32, p. 146, charges Turenne with partici-
pating in the bad advice given by Louvois to Louis XIV., in 1672, and
denies that Turenne made the recommendations Lord Wolseley mentions.
IV., Ibid, p. 124 — Turenne was not left 'to complete the Conquest of
Holland,' in 1673, as Lord Wolseley has written ; in that year he was
making one of his finest marches in Germany, while the French were over-
running Holland ; and he was ultimately outgeneralled by Montecuculli on
the Main. Napoleon Corr., pp. 147-8., V. Ibid., p. 272. 'The great
Locke,' did not give '£400' to assist Monmouth in his enterprise ; Lord
Wolseley has confounded Locke with another person called Nicholas
Locke, or Look. Macaulay, II., p. 123, Ed. 1858. VI., Vol. II., p. 8.
The Prince of Wales was not born while ' the trial ' of the Seven Bishops
' was proceeding ; ' he was born nearly three months before the trial.
Macaulay, III., p. 98,110. VII., Ibid., p. 14. Skelton was not 'the
English Ambassador at the Hague ' in 1688 ; that post was held by
Albeville. Macaulay, III., 100. VIII., Ibid., p. 236. Lord Wolseley
scarcely alludes to the fall of Mons, the capital event of the campaign of
1691, which provoked intense indignation against William III. in England.
IX., Ibid., p. 304. The treason of Marlborough in the affair of Brest was
certainly not ' repeated,' as Lord Wolseley has said, ' as an historical fact
for nearly two centuries ; ' it was not even suspected till long after Marl-
borough's death in 1722.

256 Lord Wolseley s Life of Marlborough.

■

intellects, ho could clearly and fully convey his meaning. It is
a tradition that the lad read the work of Veijetius : but almost
certainly he never made the history of war a special study ; nor
was he deeply versed in the learning of his art. He was at a
disadvantage, in this, compared with Conde, trained in military
knowledge from his teens, and to Turenne, who devoted laborious
hours to the campaigns of Caesar and Alexander's marches ; and
Churchill, besides, unlike these great soldiers, was not brought
up among men of the sword.f

Churchill entered the Foot Guards in his eighteenth year, the
first stage in his glorious career as a soldier. We need not in-
quire whether this preferment was due to the shame of Arabella,
his sister ; all that is certain is that James was a beneficent
master, and a kind friend to him ; and this circumstance must
be kept in sight, in examining the servant's subsequent conduct.
Lord Wolseley very properly condemns the extravagance of
Macaulay and other writers, in denouncing, as an inexpiable sin,
the amour of the young Guardsman with Barbara Palmer ;
assuredly, even in these decorous days, a beautiful and reckless
woman of the world has seduced many a handsome boy.
Churchill compares favourably, in the sphere of morals, with
Conde, the most selfish of roues, and even with Turenne, whose

t His genius, however, which consisted rather in inspiration, and judg-
ment in the shock of battle, than in the large combinations of war, was
not of the kind that owed much to learning ; and Churchill, moreover, we
must bear in mind, served, when young, under the eye of Turenne,
experience and discipline of much greater value than anything the reading
of books could afford. Marlborough cannot be deemed a profound student
of war ; but Lord Wolseley rushes into paradox, when, in comparing
Marlborough with William III., that is a commander of the very first
order, with a highly educated man of routine, he almost hints that the
study of war is not of much use. No doubt, a great captain, like a great
poet, is born, not made ; but in the military, as in every other art,
meditation, and the examination of what has been achieved, by consummate
artists, is of immense importance. Napoleon was one of the most learned
of soldiers ; he has placed it on record that the best method of under-
standing war, in its highest aspects, is to master the campaigns of great
warriors ; and Moltke, in our day, has been a grand example, how
industry and vast theoretical knowledge may, in some measure, supply the
want of genius, and even accomplish prodigious success.

Lord Wolseley s Life of Marlborough. 257

ill-starred passion for the Longueville led him fatally astray ; a
charge of this kind would have been never heard of, had there
been nothing more against Marlborough's fame. As for
Churchill's accepting money from a wealthy mistress, such
things, Lord Wolseley remarks, were done in that age ; we find
instances, even in the circle of Versailles ; and if the act shows
the want of a nice sense of honour, it may at least be said that paid
lovers of the Empress Catherine were some of the finest gentle-
men of another day. Nor is there much in the accusation that
the prudent gallant bought an annuity with his illgotten gains ;
this was by no means a very bad specimen of the misplaced parsi-
mony, which was one of the least agreeable features of Marl-
borough's character. The excellence of Churchill, in his mar-
ried life, is, as Lord Wolseley correctly observes, a complete set
off to these youthful sins ; unquestionably he was a model hus-
band, in an age when conjugal virtue was almost unknown.
Lord Wolseley has published a number of letters from Churchill
to his wife, before and after marriage, which form not the least
interesting part of the book ; they touch the heart, after the
lapse of centuries ; they are instinct with passionate devotion
and the deepest tenderness. As we read them we see the best
side of Marlborough's complex and subtle nature; we are attracted
to him despite his misdeeds, we feel that he was not a mere
treacherous Harpagon. This profound affection, we must not
forget, remained unchanged, though Marlborough's wife contri-
buted to his tremendous fall ; and it stood the trial of all that a
violent woman could do to annoy an uxorious husband.

It was the fortune of Churchill, like Eugene and Moltke, to
see war, for the first time, amidst the tribe?, of Islam ; but his
services at Tangiers were of no importance. He was in the fleet
at Solebay in the Dutch War of 1672, was an officer in the ex-
peditionary British force attached, for a time, to the French
army, and was, for some years, in the camp of Turenne. He
distinguished himself greatly at the siege of Maestricht, and was
thanked, on the spot, by Louis XIV. ; and he won golden
opinions from Turenne for his heroism on the oloody day of
Entzheim, and for the intelligence and valour he often displayed.

There can be no doubt that this experience was most valuable in
xxiv. 17

258 Lord Wolseley s Life of Marlborough.

his career afterwards ; and though his genius was different from
that of Turenne, the example and the skill of that illustrious
chief must have taught him many a lesson in war. Lord
Wolseley's account of these passages is somewhat vague, if not
inaccurate ; we are surprised he has not referred to the fact that
Villars, the future adversary of the great Englishman, and a
soldier of hardly inferior power, was a companion in arms of
Churchill at this time, and was also conspicuous for his daring
at the siege of Maestricht.*

In 1678 Churchill became the husband of one of the most
extraordinary women of that age. Lord Wolseley has properly
dwelt, at some length, on the remarkable character of Sarah

* In this part of his book Lord Wolseley has sketched the state of the
art of war in that age ; but his description, as we have said, is misleading.
He has selected the campaign of 1691, as a specimen of the military opera-
tions of the time ; has asserted that war had still the contracted aspect of
the siege operations of the First Nassaus; and has even denied that winter
campaigns were common. All this conveys a very false impression : the
campaign of 1C91, and the campaign that followed, marked a period of
retrogression in the military art,* and contrast unfavourably with the
great passages of arms of the last years of the Thirty Years War, and of
the War closed by the Peace of Nimeguen ; and to set up such a standard is
a sheer fallacy. As to war being what it had been seventy years before,
this ignores the revolution wrought by Gustavus, and even, in a greater
degree, by Turenne, whose genius ' substituted his wars of marches for
the wars of sieges before general ; ' and as to winter campaigns, we need
only refer to Turenne's exploits in 1646, in 1673, and in 1674, noble
examples of fine operations in winter. We have little doubt, we have said,
that Lord Wolseley's object, in making these statements, was to place the
genius of Marlborough in the fullest relief, and to maintain that he gave
a new impulse to war ; but he contradicts history in this respect ; and, in
our judgment, the most brilliant marches of the great War of the Spanish
Succession are hardly equal to the best of those of Turenne, to whost
extraordinary and original gifts, Lord Wolseley has done only scane
justice. In his account too of the French Army of the time, Lord
Wolseley omits the capital fact, that its infantry had been almost trebled
by Turenne— a change that marked a new era in war (Napoleon Corr.,
32, 146.)— and in his sketch of the fight of Entzheim, he contradicts
Napoleon on a most important point— the able movement of Beurnonville

against the French left wing.

This is specially noted by Villars, I. 119. The Vogue edition.

Lord Wolseley's Life of Marlborough. 259

Jennings, for her influence on Marlborough's career was immense;
but for her he might never have won Blenheim ; but for her he
might never have been disgraced in 1712. It is not improbable,
Lord Wolseley has acutely remarked, that a vein of insanity ran
through her being ; her impatience of contradiction, her furious
temper, her fixed passionate ideas seem allied to madness. Yet,
undoubtedly, she was devoted, through life, to Marlborough,
after her eccentric fashion, even if her love sometimes appeared
coquettish, and was accompanied with sallies of untamed violence ;
the scandals told against her are all falsehoods. Lord Wolseley
has also published some of her letters; they are less characteristic
than those of Churchill, and reveal a vehement and uncertain
nature ; but they are affectionate, and, on the whole, pleasing .
and they show what was the best and most human in her. For
the rest, Atossa is a vindictive caricature ; and no one can ques-
tion the genuine love of the great Duchess for her renowned
Lord. A visit to the Blenheim, of forty years ago, where every
room and gallery contained tokens of affection to Marlborough
placed by her hand, would have convinced the most sceptical on
this subject.

We shall only glance at Lord Wolseley 's account of the life
of Churchill during the six years that followed. The admirable
tact, and power of persuasion which made him the first diplomatist
of his time, were evidently perceived, while he was still young ;
he was employed by Charles II. and the Duke of York in various
missions of a delicate kind. Thus he was sent to negotiate with
the Prince of Orange, with reference to some of those demon-
strations against France, which were never sincerely meant by
the King ; and he repeatedly carried messages between the royal
brothers, which prove that he fully possessed their confidence.
The most marked feature, however, of this part of his career is
the position he held as a favourite, and a friend of James, and
the ascendency of his wife, and his own, in his patron's councils.
It is idle to say, as Lord Wolseley hints, that James did not do
much for him; Churchill was made Gentleman of the Bed
Chamber to the Duke of York, a Colonel and a General of
Brigade ; he obtained before long a Scutch Peerage ; and James
endeavoured to raise him to high office in the State. As to Sarah

260 Lord Wolseley's Life of Marlborough.

Churchill, we need not repeat the story how she became Lady
of the Bed Chamber to the Princess Anne ; how Mrs. Freeman,
almost from the first, was loved, honoured, and rewarded by Mrs.
Morley ; and how she acquired that influence over her mistress,
which was to affect the fortunes of Europe. Lord Wolseley
may insinuate that favours like these are trifles hardly deserving
notice ; this reminds us of the famous ' nothings ' of Junius, in
his scornful castigation of Sir William Drapier. The intimacy,
too, of James and of Mary of Modena, with both the Churchill's
was close and cordial, they all lived together in the many
wanderings of the royal pair, in those troubled times ; and we
say again, this must be borne in mind, in considering the be-
trayal of a few years afterwards.

Churchill, in these years, took no part in politics, and refused,
Lord Wolseley tells us, a seat in Parliament. We can hardly
doubt, however, that, with his observant caution, he carefully
watched the signs of the times ; in his case, certainly, as in that
of all the contemporary leading men of England, the influence of
a revolutionary age, which sapped loyalty, destroyed faith and
principle, and made life a scramble of selfishness, had a powerful
and unhappy effect ; and this, too, must be taken into account,
in reviewing all that is worst in his conduct. On the accession
of James, he was made a Peer of England, and — a plain mark
of his acknowledged talents — he was despatched to Versailles to
deal with Louis XIV., in one of those underhand bargains,
which the great King made with his vassal of England. He
soon afterwards obtained a command in the army, employed to
put down the rising of Monmouth, though the incapable Fever-
sham was his chief ; and, on this occasion, he displayed, for the
first time, if on a small scale, and in a petty conflict, the powers
of a real leader in war. Lord Wolseley's description of this
brief campaign is one of the best parts of his book, and largely
redeems its defects and errors. The narrative, if somewhat
wanting in dramatic force, gives proof of true insight and sound
judgment ; the operations are placed clearly before us ; and the
story, on the whole, is admirably told.

We must, however, pass over the excellent account of the
slow and hesitating advance of Monmouth, and of the timidity

Lord Wolseley's Life of Marlborough. 261

and remissness of Feversham ; neither had the capacity of a true
soldier. Nor can we dwell on the graphic description of the
night attack on the rebel army, of the panic in the camp of
Weston Zoylaud, of the discomfiture in front of the Bussex
Rhine, and of the ultimate destruction of Monmouth's levies.
All this is exceedingly well told, save that Lord Wolseley,
perhaps, has condemned Grey too severely for the defeat of his
untrained horsemen, and has not sufficiently shown how the
royal army was, in itself deficient in order and discipline, the
one circumstance that gave its assailants a chance. The point
to be noted is the skill displayed by Churchill in these operations,
from first to last, and especially at Sedgemoor on the field. He
hung on the flank of the rebels as they moved ; seized the
initiative, while his superior lost it ; and often saw through the
enemy's designs. His coolness and resource were admirable too,
in encountering a sudden and perilous attack made in the midst
of confusion and darkness ; and his readiness in directing his
guns and his men to the decisive point where the fight was
raging, and in charging across the Bussex Rhine exhibited the
gifts of a true leader. In these movements, comparatively trifling
as they were, we see a presage of the genius in war which shone
out at Blenheim and Ramillies; and Lord Wolseley has properly
dwelt on them. We should add that he has done justice to
the heroism and stubbornness of the ill-fated rebels ; he rightly
sees what wonders religious fervour and patriotism have often
achieved in the field.

Lord Wolseley dwells at considerable length on the misgovern-
ment of James II., and describes his persistent and unwise attacks
on the liberties, the laws, and the Church of England. He also
sketches the foreign policy of the King ; sets clearly before us
the views and the aims of Louis XIV. and the Prince of Orange,
the great antagonists on the stage of Europe ; and shows how
England was drawn, bv the events of 1688, into the arena of a
mighty Continental war. He owes, for his account of these
remarkable years, more to Macaulay, than he would like to
admit ; and it is a rash and feeble sally of his to call Macaulay
' an historical novelist.' His portrait of James is, however, well
done, as is that of the voluptuous cynic Charles ; and he has

262 Lord Wolseley's Life of Marlborough.

given us a very graphic picture of William III., of his profound
ambition, his heroic nature, his calculating and unscrupulous craft,
his ungainly presence, and his harsh cold manner, so thoroughly
distasteful to English gentlemen. This part of the narrative is
striking and good, but it is injured by what we must call
irrelevance. In describing the position of France, England, and
Holland at this time, Lord Wolseley repeatedly makes allusions
to the European politics of these days ; denounces our want of
preparation for war, our unwise reliance on our navy alone, and
the deficiency of our military force ; and breaks out into sarcasms
against the selfishness and short-sightedness of English parties
and statesmen. All this is well enough in its place, but in the
present work is beside the subject; a biography of Marlborough
should not be mixed up with a pamphlet of the last years of the
nineteenth century.

Churchill kept, as was his wont, aloof from politics, in the
first years of the reign of James. We can readily believe that
he viewed with displeasure, the oppressive and reckless conduct of
the King; and we may accept Lord Wolseley's statement that
he remonstrated against the ascendency being given to Popery.
This did not, however, prevent him from seeking preferment ; he
was raised to the rank of Lieutenant General, a short time before
he abandoned his master. His first steps in treason were made
after Dykveldt's mission ; he joined the conspirators against
James ; and he wrote a plausible letter to the Prince of Orange,
assuring him of his cordial support. He soon became one of the
most powerful agents, in the intrigues that brought about, by
underhand means, the fate of the Stuarts, and the Revolution
of 1688 ; and a very few words will describe his conduct. His
influence over the army, after Sedgemoor, was great ; and, in all
probability, it was he who arranged the defection of Cornbury,
Kirke, and Trelawney. Meantime Lady Churchill had secured
Anne ; and the weak Princess, following the counsels of her
friends, had willingly consented to betray her father. When the
news of what Cornbury had done arrived, James entreated
Churchill, and other officers to say if they would remain true ;
the professions of Churchill were loud and profuse; and he
accompanied the King to Salisbury, to join the army, then at a

Lord Wolseleys Life of Marlborough. 263

short distance from William's camp. At Salisbury Churchill
urged his master to fight ; he then suddenly threw off the mask ;
and, acting on a long preconcerted design, he went over with
Grafton to the Prince of Orange, in open arms against Churchill's
sovereign. This defection annihilated the power of James ; his
army soon proved a broken reed ; and he fled to Whitehall to
find his daughter gone, and his crown already fallen from his
head. We may reject the statement that Churchill had meant
to hand James over to the Prince of Orange; he always preferred
dexterous, to violent measures.

It is impossible to excuse a betrayal like this, premeditated,
cruel, perfidious, and base ; yet some palliating circumstances
may be borne in mind. It is vain, indeed, to urge that other
public men acted after the same fashion as Churchill ; they had
not been from youth the familiar friends of James ; they did not
owe everything in life to him. But the demoralising and cor-
rupting influences of the age, to which we have already adverted,
to a certain extent, explain Churchill's conduct ; the time was
one of violent changes in affairs of State, of savage faction, of
reckless scheming, of political profligacy of the extremest kind ;
and treason and disloyalty cease to appear criminal, when the
sentiment of honour, and the sense of duty, have almost died out
of the hearts of men, and they live, as it were from hand to
mouth, for themselves only. Turenne has been called by a poet
godlike, and has been described as an honour to mankind, by
Montecuculli, his ablest foe ; and yet Turenne, at a period not
unlike that of 1688, abandoned his army, and was false to his
trust, that is, was not free from guilt of the same type as
Churchill's, if not equally odious and shocking. It is fair, too,
to add that, in this instance, a real principle gave colour, at
least, to treason. Churchill cannot be deemed a religious man ;
but he had, from childhood, the reverence of the Cavalier for the
Church ; and it is difficult to understand in our day, how power-
fully this feeling affected conduct. Church stood before King
in the Tory toast ; the Church had been the rallying cry of the
great Torv following for manv troubled vears : and the mis-
government of James had insulted the Church, and placed the
whole institution in danger. It may justly be urged that

264 Lord Wolseley s Life of Marlborough.

Churchill felt his allegiance divided at this crisis ; in what he
did he was ' falsely true ; ' insufficient and feeble as is the plea.

These considerations have not escaped Lord Wolseley ; but
he does not put them forward with sufficient fulness, for they are
nearly all that can be alleged for Churchill. He slips out, too,
angry words at his hero, as if to set things right with his con-
science ; but he, nevertheless, makes a defence for him which we
must pronounce hopeless, and even frivolous. Lord Wolseley
contends that, in this matter, Churchill acted from a lofty sense
of duty, and was in the highest degree a patriot ; his betrayal of
his master was against his interests ; in any case, he did lasting
good to England ; but pleas like these are trifling with the facts,
or sophistry. Churchill's conduct was universally condemned at
the time ; even his fellow conspirators looked askance at him ;
his unhappy master cursed him as the worst of men; and
Reresby expresses the general drift of opinion in recording that
this desertion was deemed black ingratitude. As for Churchill's
interest, he profited largely from the Revolution, and shared in
its spoils ; and it is reasonable to suppose that he believed he
would possess immense influence under the new order of things,
through his wife's instrument, the Princess Anne, though he was
disappointed in this hope afterwards. That what he did was a
national service, may be true : but who has excused Talleyrand in
1814, and Marmont, when he went into the camp of the Allies,
on flimsy pretences, which ignore the real question at issue, their
moral turpitude? In view of the plain facts, our gorge rises,
when we read in these pages that ' in the virtues of public and
private life,' Marlborough ' was far ahead of his contemporaries ; '
that 'no dispassionate judge can withhold his admiration for his
manly, honest, and steadfast resolution ' in destroying his master ;
and that he l preferred the cause of the Reformation (!) to the
loyal promptings of his heart, and to all immediate considerations
of his own immediate interests.'

Churchill was created Earl of Marlborough by William III. ;
was made one of the Council of Nine who ruled England during
the absence of the King ; and received appointments, Macaulay

* Memoirs, p. 370. Ed. 1813.

Lord Wolseley' s Life of Marlborough. 265

tells us, supposed to be worth £12,000 a year; his disinterested
patriotism proved a real god-send. It deserves notice that, as
soon as he had climbed to power, the charges of peculation, ex-
tortion, and greed, which proved fatal afterwards, were made
against him ; exaggerated as they may be, they cannot be dis-
missed by the passing denial of Lord Wolseley. Marlborough
distinguished himself at the bloody skirmish of Walcourt,
described with some spirit in these pages ; it would have been
well for our army had he been in command in the Low Countries
in the campaigns that followed. He remained, however, for the
most part, at home, while William and his Dutch lieutenants
conducted the war, and the consequences must be pronounced
unfortunate. Lord Wolseley dwells on the long doubtful con-
test in Ireland, and justly remarks that it reflects little credit on
the capacity of the King and his generals. One point of consi-
derable importance he omits : William failed to secure the com-
mand of the sea, as Cromwell had secured it forty years before,
and this was attended with bad results ; the conduct of the opera-
tions on the two occasions presents indeed a remarkable contrast.
The combined naval power of Holland and England ought to
have made this advantage certain ; but it was misdirected and
even wasted ; and this was the real cause of the defeat of Beachy
Head, which placed the Revolution in extreme danger. The
one bright episode, in fact, in the war in Ireland, was Marl-
borough's attack on Cork and Kensale, operations admirably told
by Lord Wolseley, and which again give proof of Marlborough's
powers. These strokes were aimed at a vital point, the communi-
cations of the French army by sea ; and ultimately they led to
important success. We are surprised that Lord Wolseley, who
understands what patriotism and a strong faith can accomplish in
war, has not noticed the heroic qualities displayed at London-
derry and Limerick alike.

Lord Wolseley notices the campaigns of William in Belgium,
and comments on his slow and ill-conceived movements. He has
not done justice to one great quality of the King, his indomi-
table constancy in evil fortune, and his account is plainly
intended to mark a contrast with Marlborough's splendid exploits
on the same theatre of war. William, however, was not a great

266 Lord Wolseley s Life of Marlborough.

captain ; he was conscious of this, and expressed his regret that
he had not served under the grand Conde, his adversary on the
field of Scneffe, and probably the issue of Steinkirk and Landen
would have been different had Marlborough commanded the
allied army. An admirer of genius turns with grief and shame
to its dismal eclipse in the years that followed. William had
been hardly seated on the throne when Marlborough began to
plot against him ; he entered into a correspondence with James,
and grovelled at his late master's feet, and he informed Jacobite
agents, Lord Wolseley admits, of what the Government knew
their movements ; may be sent intelligence to Saint Germains
' of naval and military plans ' arranged at the Council Board at
Whitehall. Here, again, something may be said to extenuate, if
justification or excuse are impossible. The settlement of the
Revolution was extremely insecure ; several late ministers of the
exiled sovereign concurred with Marlborough in these acts of
treason, and undoubtedly they were strongly tempted to provide
for their own safety by hedging with Fortune, and dealing with
James, in the not unlikely chance, that he might regain the
crown he had lost. Marlborough, too, had special and potent
reasons to resent much that had lately happened. He had been
coldlv treated by William and Mary at Court ; he had been
baffled in his hope of gaining immense authority through the
agency of the Princess Anne ; above all, conscious as he was of
his military gifts, he felt bitterly that foreigners, not to be com-
pared to him, had been placed over his head in superior command.
If a legitimate King, moreover, in that age could not expect
loyalty from a subject, a usurper certainly could not look for it.
Once more Lord Wolseley refers to the facts which may be
urged on behalf of Marlborough, but, as before, he hardly relies
on them, and he has suggested a defence of no value whatever.
Marlborough, he says, was angling for a pardon from James, and
was not sincere in his negotiations with him ; he did not intend
to betray the Revolution and England. But the question is one
of a moral nature, of the character to be affixed on Marlborough's
conduct, and it does not lessen his guilt, nay, it makes it worse,
if he was deceiving the late King as well as William, and was
playing the part of a double traitor. A spy is not the less a spy,

Lord Wolseleys Life of Marlborough. 267

if he resorts to both camps and acts the part of a villain in both,
and this casuistry only aggravates the case.

We come next to the affair of Brest, and to Marlborough's
share in it, and here his champion, too, has proved a complete
failure. The British expedition was defeated, and Talmash was
slain, because the French had been put on their guard by com-
munications from England to Versailles, and one of these con-
fessedly was made by Marlborough. Lord Wolseley imagines
that he has relieved his hero from blame for a most atrocious
act of treachery — it would have sent him to Tower Hill, even in
that bad age, had it been known or even suspected — by alleging
that Marlborough's letter had been forestalled, and that others
had sent the information before him. Undoubtedly Marlborough
was not the first in the field, and the intelligence he gave was
what is called ' stale news,' but we are at a loss to perceive how
this diminishes, even in the slightest degree, the guilt of conduct
which consisted in telling an enemy a fact of supreme importance
to him. If it could be shown, indeed, that Marlborough knew
that the information he sent had been sent already, this would
not make him less morally culpable, but it would place him in a
less odious light ; unhappily, the evidence points the opposite
way. Marlborough's letter contains the damning words : ' It is
but this day that it came to my knowledge what I send to you ; '
he was, therefore, not aware that the message he conveyed, of
the expedition to Brest, had been conveyed previously, It is sig-
nificant, and very suggestive beside, that Talmash had been pre-
ferred to him : we need not indicate the possibly terrible
inference.

The conduct of Marlborough on this occasion stands out as
the worst act of his life, and even palliation is here impossible.
Some time previously he had been dismissed, with marked igno-
miny, from the service of the King, and his wife and the
Princess Anne were involved in his fall. Notwithstanding
Macaulay's prodiirous research, these occurrences have not
been fully explained ; but Lord Wolseley's account is very
misleading. Lord Wolselev does not believe that Marlborough's
project to induce Parliament to remove from England the
Dutch officers, and the Dutch regiments — that is to deprive

268 Lord Wolseley's Life of Marlborough.

the King of his best supporters — had the restoration of James
in view ; but it is absolutely certain that James and William
suspected at least that this was his purpose. Nor does Lord
Wolseley examine the question, whether the plan of Marlborough
was not a deep design to place Anne on her father's throne, and
through her to become supreme in England, setting both William
and James aside. Many Jacobites thought this was his object,
and on this. very ground they informed to Bentinck against him.
That the man who afterwards sought to obtain an absolute con-
trol over the British army, and who was held up to odium as a
second Cromwell, was capable of such an intention, is not im-
possible ; and the subserviency of Anne, to Marlborough and his
wife, made her, we must recollect, a mere tool in their hands.
Lord Wolseley endeavours to show that the disgrace of Marl-
borough was mainly due to comparatively trifling causes ; to the
personal animosity of the King and the Queen ; to ill-natured
gossip that reached their ears ; to intrigues of the Bed Chamber
and the Palace ; but this is contradicted by the known evidence.
It appears certain that .William believed Marlborough to be a
plotter of a very dangerous kind, and Sarah to be, at least, an
accomplice ; and Anne was harshly treated because she would
not give up friends who, it was tolerably well known, were de-
vising treason.

Marlborough, after these events, was sent to the Tower, and
perhaps narrowly escaped a miserable death. He owed much to
the desperate men, who, very inferior to him in the genius of
intrigue, were endeavouring to restore the exiled house of Stuart.
He was falsely accused by Young and Fenwick : with character-
istic adroitness and resource, turned the charges made by Young
to his own advantage, but remained banished from the Court for
a time. He regained by degrees the favour of William ; was
appointed governor of the young Duke of Gloucester, and ulti-
mately was made Commander-in-chief of our forces in Belgium,
and negotiated the grand alliance of 1701, in conjunction with
the King. We need not dwell on the causes of this return of
fortune, they are set forth by Lord Wolseley and other writers.
William knew that Marlborough was a skilled diplomatist, and a
soldier of the very highest promise ; if he distrusted him, he

Lord Wolseley' s Life of Marlborough. 269

could not dispense with his services ; and, besides, Queen Mary
was dead, the King's days were numbered ; Anne was about to
ascend the throne ; the Act of Settlement had become law ; and
Marlborough had the strongest possible interest to maintain the
existing order of things in England. Lord Wolselev has thrown
fresh light on the protracted councils which inaugurated the
great League against Louis XIV. ; he has clearly brought out
Marlborough's wisdom and tact, especially in the management of
English public men, and he is doubtless correct in hinting that
Marlborough played a greater part in these negotiations than
the dying King. Lord Wolseley, however, has here made a
mistake, in all probability a slip of the pen, in describing the
arrangements made by the Grand Alliance; he states that it was
one of the terms of the compact, that ' a transfer,' of ' the Spanish
Crown,' was not to be made ' to any member of the Bourbon
family;' but the allies in 1701 were willing to leave Spain tc
Philip of Anjou. The point is important, if we recollect the
war policy of the Whigs in 1711-12 ; the ambitious and selfish
conduct of Marlborough, and the long negotiations before the
Peace of Utrecht.

Lord Wolseley's volumes end at this point ; we shall eagerly
look forward to the remaining parts of this work. His account
of Blenheim and Eamillies will, no doubt, be excellent, and we
especially wish to read his comments on Marlborough's great
march from the Meuse to the Danube, a movement, we believe,
inspired by Eugene, unavoidable perhaps, as affairs stood, and
executed with consummate skill ; but, nevertheless, hazardous in
the highest degree, and hardly a specimen of the best type of
strategy.* We shall also expect a careful description of th?
state of English and foreign politics at the time ; of the ascend-
ancy of Marlborough and his wife in our Councils ; of the furious
and reckless strife of parties in the State ; of the quarrel
of Sarah Jennings and Anne Stuart, and finally of Marlborough's
fall from his high estate ; here we shall only remark, that we
hope Lord Wolseley will not, as he has already done, misinterpret

* Napoleon has made notes on this campaign never published. Could
not Lord Wolseley see these % It is believed they are in the Louvre.

270 Three Tales of the Fianu.

Swift. The capital fault of this work is that the author repre-
sents Marlborough as a high-souled being, soiled, no doubt, by
the corrupted currents of the age, but essentially a noble, and
pure minded patriot. This ideal, we believe, is absolutely false ;
and Marlborough, we fear, if the most gifted and illustriou of
the Englishmen of his day, was also one of the most self-seeking,
the most unscrupulous, the most devoid of conscience, and
principle. Yet there were special reasons why this great man
was singled out for contempt and odium ; Lord Wolseley would
have done better to set these out, than to attempt a description
contradicted by the facts. Marlborough was an obscure man,
who rose through his own genius, a kind of rise that usually
provokes jealousy; his avarice and greed if to be ascribed,
perhaps, in some degree, to his youth of privations, were vices
particularly disliked in that age ; he did not permanently belong
to any party in the State, shifted from one to the other, and was
abused by both ; he was a royal favourite, with his wife, for
years, possessing extraordinary power and influence, a position
always viewed with distrust by Englishmen ; and he was suspected
of a design to reach supreme power, and to overthrow our laws
and liberties by his sword. These considerations largely explain
why he was pursued with ferocious obloquy; they must be
borne in mind in judging his conduct, and Lord Wolseley ought
to have placed them in striking relief. We have freely condemned
a great deal in this book, but we have done justice, we hope, to
its real merits.

William O'Connor Morris.

Art. III.— THREE TALES OF THE FIANN.

IF but one half of all that Celtic scholars and students of folk-
lore have written about Fionn and the Fiann within the
past quarter of a century has taken effect on the general reader,
it ought to be the case with their story as with that of Alexander
in Chaucer's time, of whom he says —

' That every wight that hath discretioun
Hath heard somewhat or all of his fortune.

Three Tales of the Fiann. 271

Still there is much left to do for the worker who comes after
even John F. Campbell, and the Fiann have yet to find a Sir
Thomas Malory to sum up their multiplex legend into an
artistic whole, and it would be a legend of chivalry too, though
as different from the Arthurian romance as that is from the tale of
Troy. If the recent revival in Irish literature takes firm root
such a masterpiece may not be so remote after all, but the writer
who attempts it will have to peruse and digest a vast amount of
material, ten times more than any one who has not studied the
subject would ever dream of. The author of the ' Collocpuy
with the Ancients,'* had such an idea before him in his day, but
the legend kept on growing for long after that. A large section
of the materials for such a work belongs to the period of Irish
literature which has of late received least attention, namely, that
contained for the most part in Irish manuscripts of the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries, which exist in large numbers in
Dublin and the British Museum, while the Advocates' Library in
Edinburgh has a sufficient number of specimens to attest their
former prevalence in Scotland. The reasons why these have been
so much neglected in the recent study of Gaelic literature are
that they are not old enough for the philologist or student of
primitive culture, and not new enough for the collector of folk-
lore. The philologist is not particularly interested in the
language of the period to which they belong ; on the customs of
early society they can throw no original light, and the folk-lorist
sets them aside for the reason that they are too obviously works
of fiction to be relied on in matters of fact.

This rejection of these tales by scientific enquirers ought not,
however, to dismiss them from all serious attention : there may
be much that is good in them though useless for their special
purposes. There is indeed perhaps a little danger at present of
Irish literature being judged only by the value of its texts for
such objects of research, and taken too little on its own merits.
A great part of the good literature of any language would have
to be left out of consideration if judged by this standard alone,

* Agallamh na Senorach, the text and translation of which may be found
in Dr. O'Grady's Silva Gadelica.

272 Three Tales of the Fiann.

and the literary aims of the old Irish story-tellers ought to be
taken into account as well as any incidental light their works
may throw on problems of language or the history of culture.

Even for the student of folk-lore a knowledge of these tales is
necessary, for however little they may contain for him in them-
selves, they may often throw a search-light on what is found in
the oral tradition of the present day. The passion for the living
word is indeed one of the snares of folk-lore, which sometimes
entraps itself by accepting as genuine tradition what really came
from written sources not so very far back. When the words of
the illiterate Gael are zealously taken down and printed, it might
be not unadvisable also to take a look at his great-grandfather's
manuscripts, which are often much more worth printing. The
preference for a ' plain unvarnished tale ' is a principle right in
itself, but it is as well to make quite sure that the plainness has
not been attained by a simple process of detrition from the
literary original.

This is a caution that applies particularly to Scottish Gaelic
tradition. Of course, wherever the question is one of ordinary
popular folk-lore — the common mdrchen — we are in a region where
written literature has played but a small part, in most cases none
at all ; but whenever we touch on any point of genuine Celtic
legend, dealing with purely Celtic heroes, there is every chance
that the oral tradition is a more or less distorted version of some
older written tale. It must be remembered that down to the
'45 the trained bards were learned in Irish literature, and this
period is the only safe starting point for any Highland legend
relating to the heroes of the Gaelic cycles. Before that date any
deviation from the ordinary tale could be checked by the written
version which it was part of the bard's education to know, and
that such written versions were in their hands is proved not only
by the evidence given at the enquiry into Ossian's poems, but by
the actual MSS. still preserved. In fact, the whole question of
Fenian (or Ossianic) tradition in Scotland is conditioned by the
existence of these MSS. The ballads collected in the second
half of last century need not have passed through many hands
before being again written down by men like Stone and
Kennedy. The accuracy with which many of them are preserved

Three Tales of the Fiann. 273

may only be the result of a very recent derivation from written
copies.

Both the points involved above are well illustrated by the
tales to be treated of here. Id point of language and of folk-
lore they are of little value, and therefore apt to be neglected by
the scientist, though from a literary point of view they are
clever and interesting compositions. Again, we find imperfectly
remembered versions of them taken down in Scotland in
1800, and again in 1859, which are instructive instances
of what happens to literary works when reproduced in oral
tradition.

These 'Bruighean'* tales, as we may call them for shortness,
from the common element in each, are a few out of the many
which belong to the cycle of Gaelic legend relating to Fionn
and the Fiann. This was the one most beloved by the later Irish
tale-tellers, and the only one that was at all well known in the
Scottish Highlands. To judge from the mass of literature it
produced, both in prose and verse, it must have been quite as
popular and of as perennial interest as the Troy-cycle in Greece,
or the Arthurian romances in France and England. In the case
of all of these the amount of ingenious brains expended on ela-
borating the original tradition must have been prodigious ; in
that of the Fionn-cycle we can fortunately see a great deal of
the growth of the legend, from the small grain of tradition in
the ' Cause of the Battle of Cnucha,' preserved in the ' Book of
the Dun Cow,' down to encyclopasdic works like the ' Colloquy
with the Ancients,' and all the separate prose tales and ballads
that group themselves round the Fiann.

One reason for this great popularity is to be found in the
turn which the legend took. It grew up during the epoch when
the strong grip of Scandinavia on Ireland was being loosened
finger by finger. Of this struggle, Clontarf in 1011 and the fall

* Bruighean (more correctly written Bruidhean, = 0. Ir. bruden, but the
scribes generally use the gh : both dh and gh sound as y) means a ' palace,'
and is so used in the older Irish tales. In the ones here in question it
perhaps has an added idea of ' enchantment.' See a note on the various
meanings of the word in O'Grady's Silva Gadelica, Part 2, p. xvi.
xxiv. 1 8

274 Three Tales of the Fiann.

of Magnus Berfaetr in 1103, were two of the most glorious days,
the latter of which left its mark on the Fionn-legend in the
' Lay of Manus,' one of the commonest of the ballads. The con-
ception then formed of Fionn as the defender of Ireland against
everything Scandinavian was a brilliant idea, and there were
good heads ready to carry it out. He was fitted into history ; a
place was found for him as generalissimo of the militia of Erin
in the days of Cormac mac Art, monarch of Ireland in the third
century. The Cuchulaind-cycle supplied the leading features ;
as Cuchulaind to Conchobhair, so Fionn to Cormac : replace the
Connaughtmen under Ailill and Meyve by the Norsemen and
their various allies, earthly and unearthly, and the story of Fionn
is firmly set on foot. In 'Manus' and some of the other ballads
actual fighting with real Norsemen appears in a form that might
almost be historical, but the writers of the prose tales preferred
less ordinary incidents and could only get under fall sail by
launching into the world of magic and superhuman beings. The
personages with whom the Fionn have to deal at various times
are wonderful enough — terrible hags, one-eyed giants and
giantesses, and still more mysterious creatures ; but worse than
these separate enemies is their having against them the whole
tribe of the Tuatha De Danann.* This people, which plaj's a
great part in early legend under the leadership of the Dagda, is
in Fionn's time relegated to a kind of invisible life, only appear-
ing for the sake of causing him trouble. There is perhaps a
slight inconsistency in this, for the Tuatha De Danann are cele-
brated for their struggles with the invading Fomhoraigh, and as
these, even in the Cuchulaind legend, are identified with the
Norsemen, one would rather have expected them to assist the
Fiann against their Norse enemies. As a matter of fact, all
their magical powers are exerted on the side of Lochlann.

In the tales with which we are here concerned, the troubles

* i.e. The Peoples of the Gods of Danu, whose names are given as Brian,
Iuchair and Iucharba, sons of Danu. They were reckoned as the second
colony in Ireland, and several of the most striking Irish legends are re-
ferred to their time, such as the Fate of the Children of Lir and that of
the Children of Tuireann.

Three Tales of the Fiann. 275

of the Fiann are caused by these Tuatha De Danann, either on
their own account or in combination with the Norsemen. The
texts in question are of frequent occurrence in Irish MSS. of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and bear the following
titles, taking them in order of length : —

1. Bruighean Cheise Chorruin, 'the Enchanted Cave of Kesh-
corran,' which is situated in the parish of Toomour, barony of
Corran, in County Sligo. Texts of the tale are pretty common,
and it has been twice printed of late, first in O'Grady's ' Silva
Gadelica ' (Text, p. 306 ; Trans., p. 343j, and again from a dif-
ferent MS. in the Boston Irish Echo (Vol. IV., No. 2). There
seems to be no trace of this tale in Scottish Gaelic tradition, but
a version of it occurs in the Ardchonail MS., Advocates' Library,
No. xxxvi., different from either of the ones mentioned above.

2. Bruighean Eochaidh bhig d 'he ir g, ' the Palace of little red
Eocha,' which has also appeared in Dublin of late in Bldithfldeasg
de Mhilsedinibh na Gaoidheilge ' (A Garland of Gaelic Selec-
tions), edited by Patrick O'Brien. The text of this edition is
made up from three Dublin MSS. A copy of the tale is found
in the Advocates' Library, MS. No. lvi., agreeing almost verb-
ally with the printed text. That the tale was commonly known
in Scotland is shown by the version cf it in Staffa's Collection,
made in 1801-3, and printed by Campbell in the ' Leabhar na
Feinne,' p. 89. There it is entitled ' Turus Fhinn do Thigh
Odhacha-Beaganich,' or the 'Journey of Fionn to the House of
Odhacha-BeaD-anich • ' connected with it is the ballad of the
' Black Dog,' an incident which occurs in the original tale and
seems to have taken the fancy of reciters (cf. L. na F. pp.
90-93). Another version taken down in 1859 in Barra is printed
in Campbell's West Highland Tales, Vol. II., p. 89. Both of
these versions must have come from the written copies at some
earlier date.

3. Bruighean Chaorthainn, the Rowan-tree Palace, the full
text of which does not seem to have yet found its way into print,
but is common enough in MSS. In those of the Advocates'
Library there are three versions of the story. One is in the
MS. No. xxxiv., written at Dunstaffnage by Ewen MacPhail

•J7ti Three Tales of the Fiann.

in 1603,* which is one of the oldest, copies of the tale extant.
From a transcript of this MS. made in 1804 by the Rev. Donald
Macintosh, about half of the tale is printed by Campbell in the
'Leabhar na Feinne ' (pp. 86-88), but in a form which is very
inaccurate and often absolutely unintelligible. This is the more
to be regretted as the tale is by far the cleverest of the three,
and well deserves to be properly edited. Another copy is in MS.
No. xxxviii. and the third in No. lviii. ; both of these present
a different text, with a greater superfluity of description — a ten-
dency which is often carried to excess in such tales.

From its nature the tale was certain to be popular with re-
citers, and a version of it taken down in 1859 may be found in
Campbell's West Highland Tales (Vol. II., p. 192), who rightly
identifies it with the Bruighean Chaortliainn. An incidental
reference to it in Lachlan Mackinnon's poem of the Biodag
thubaisteach, shows also that the tale was generally known in his
time. Another 'Bruighean' tale connected with the Fiann is
the 'Bruighean bheag na h-Almhaine^ which Dr. O'Grady prefers
to translate by ' The Little Brawl at Almhain ' (Allen), but this
is a humourous account of a row in Fionn's palace, arising out of
a dispute between himself and Goll, and has nothing in common
with the foregoing tales. In thus grouping the stories together
as ' Bruighean ' tales we follow the example of the Irish tale-

i This MS. also contains aversion of the 'Bruighean bheag na h-Al-
mhaine' (another copy of it is in the Ardchonail MS., No. xxxvi.) The
entries of the scribe are exceedingly interesting and deserve to be quoted.
At the end of the Bruighean Chaortliainn he writes : —

' This buik pertening to ane honourable mane callit Eowin mak Phaill
wretter heirof, he or sche that staillis this buik frae me, God nor he be
hangit on ane trie, and sche be drownit upone ane sea. Amen for me,
amen for the, amen for all the companye. '

Another is a letter to John O'Connor, for whom the MS. seems to have
been written, and is half in Gaelic and half in Scottish.

' Beannacht friot, beannacht chugad, Eoin Ui Conchubhair, agus biodh
a fhios agad nach ar sgriobh me ach beag don leabhar fos, agus gur e' is
adhbhar dosin nach roibhe agum caibidil do bhi uaim isin leabhar, oir is
olc learn a bheith uaim. na mair but sua committor committis yow to God
from Dunstaffiniche, the xxii day of October the yeir of God 1G03 yeires.
Eguin mac Phaill.'

In this Ewan explains that his delay in writing the MS. was caused by
the want of a chapter in the copy he had.

Three Tales of the Fiann. 271

tellers themselves, who distinguished the different classes of
narratives by titles which at once gave a clue to their contents.
Thus in the text last mentioned (Silva Gad., p. 379) we read
how the bard went to Goll 'and in front of him recited the
bruidhne or "Forts," the tog/da or '; Destructions," the tana or
"Cattle-liftings," the tochmarca or " Wooings" of his elders and
progenitors.' By reason of the extraordinary feats of memory
expected of them the bards and tale-tellers had to systematize
largely ; indeed nowhere was traditional lore so systematically
arranged and elaborated as in Ireland. This grouping was to
some extent natural in dealing with real traditions, for the in-
cidents in early society worth remembering of course belong to
a few tvpes, such as those enumerated above. In the case of
sheer fiction, however, the one tale most probably suggested the
other, the fix of the Fiann in one bruighean would lead other
imaginative heads to invent new ones. It would of course be
impossible to say which of our tales came first, but a natural
order will be one rising from the simple to the complex, — from
the Cave of Keshcorran through the Palace of Eocha to that of
the Rowan tree.

I. The story of Keshcorran is simple and may be very briefly
told, especially as the translation can easily be got in the Silva
Gadelica, — a translation too that excellently reproduces the
style in which these tales are written, a style intended to carry
the reader or hearer along with it without being too critical as to
the possibility of the incidents.

The Fiann were hunting in the district of Corran, and Fionn,
with only Conan mac Morna beside him, sat on the top of
Keshcorran listening to the music of the chase. In Keshcorran
however ruled Conaran, of the Tuatha De Danann, who sent his
three daughters, witches all of them, to entrap Fionn. These
sat down at the mouth of the cave, hung three hanks of yarn on
three pins of briarwood (or holly) and began to wind them
* withershins.' Fionn and Conan came upon them while they
were thus engaged, and at the sight of the horrible hags and by
the power of the magic all strength left them ; the hags bound
them fast and thrust them into the cave. All the Fiann met
the same fate band by band, until all of them lay bound in the

278 Three Tales of the Fiann.

cave. The three hags now came with their swords to execute
their prisoners, but as they were about to enter the cave they
sow a youth approaching. This was Goll mac Morna, who wore
a shirt given him by Mananan mac Lir that rendered him proof
against all sorcery. In the fight that followed Goll cut two of
the hags right in two with one stroke, which is reckoned, in the
usual systematic way, as one of the three greatest blows ever
given in Ireland, the others being ' the blow given by Fergus in
the battle of the Cattle-raid of Cuailgne, when he cut at one
blow the three Maels of Meath, and the blow given by Conall
Cernach to Cet mac Magach,' which latter is told of in the
' Tale of MacDatho's Pig.'

The elder of the three hags now came behind Goll and clasped
her arms round him, but after a hard wrestling match Goll suc-
ceeded in binding her with the straps of his shield. To save her
life she released the Fiann. Another sister now came upon them
of still more hideous look; 'a small apple or a large sloe would
have stuck fast upon every hair of her eye-lashes and eyebrows,'
and the rest of her person corresponding. She demanded single
combat with any of the Fiann, but, Ossian and all the others
drawing back, Goll had again to take the champion's place, and
after a hard bout succeeded in putting his sword through her.
He then burned the bruighean, and divided the wealth among
the Fiann, while Fionn rewarded him with his daughter in
marriage.

The object of this tale seems to be the glorification of Goll,*
as in other respects it is not a very ingenious composition, its
best features being the descriptions of the hags and of the
hunting. By the want of dialogue and of complexity of plot it
falls much below the other two, which also contain a humorous
element that very successfully relieves the distress of the F-'ann.
This humourous element is furnished by the hero mentioned at

* In the ' Tiomna Ghuill,' (Golfs testament), the hero reckons this
incident among his great exploits : —

' Inghion Conorain nach ar shlim
do mharbhus i a g-ceart comhluinn ;
do thugas an inghion eile slan
go n-a h-airm ghinntlidhe.'

Three Tales of the Fiann. 279

the beginning of the last tale, Con an mac Morna, or to give
him his full title ' Concin maol na mallacht, i., fear millte agus
mdr-bhaaidheartha gacha cuideachta,' ' bald cursing Conan, des-
troyer and annoyer of every company,'* who acts as a perennial
Thersites among the Fiann. It was a bright inspiration, one
that must have been clue to the Irish sense of humour, to supply
the great heroes with this persistent grumbler and mischief-
maker ; perhaps one might have found the Iliad more interesting,
if less sublime, had Homer carried Thersites right through it.
In the Brnighean Eochaidh and Bruighean Chaorthainn Conan
appears at his very best.

II. The 'Palace of little red Eochaidh' runs as follows.
Fionn was hunting in Galway, where a monster stag made its
appearance every seventh year but could never be caught. The
day before Hallowmas (which was the beginning of the Celtic
year and a dangerous period for sorcery), while in this district,
the Fiann asked him to give them a general entertainment.

' Conan mac Morna,' said Fionn, ' invite all the Fiann of Erin.'
' Long have you and all the Fiann cherished anger and ill-will against
the Clan Morna,' said Conan, ' and if I omit a single company of the Fiann
from the invitation they will be seeking to do me harm both secretly and
openly for ever.'

Conan accordingly suggested Caoilte as a proper person to invite

them, and on his agreeing to do so, Galgaoithe was commissioned

to give the invitations. Just then fifteen of the Fiann, including

Ossian, Osgar, Dermid and Conan, went off to the side of a

knoll to play chess and Galgaoithe missed them. On discovering

his omission he went up to them, drawing his sword as he

approached, and asked Ossian kindly to cut off his head as the

penalty of his forgetfulness. Ossian refused, but suggested that

Conan was the very man for the purpose.

' I won't cut off the head of the like of him,' said Conan.
' What is the like of me ? ' said Galgaoithe.

' Well do I know that,' said Conan ; ' do you know why you are called
Galgaoithe \ '
' No,' said he.

* So too in the 'Colloquy,' — 'Conan mid, or 'the bare' mac Morna ;
a breeder of quarrel among followers, a malicious mischief-maker in army
and in host.' Silv. Gad., p. 155.

280 Three Tales of the Fiann.

' I do, though,' said Conan ; e it is because you are one that would spring
aloft with pain {(jaoth) and fear when you heard the shout of battle or
conflict ; I never yet cut off the head of a coward or madman, and I cer-
tainly will not begin with you.'

' I won't stand being insulted and affronted any longer by you,' said
Galgaoithe, and went off in a rage.

Whether Galgaoithe had anything to do with what follows is
not so clear, but soon after his departure a beautiful young
warrior came up to the company, who said he had come to invite
Fionn and the seven battalions of the regular Fiann to pay
him a visit and stay with him till Beltane, ' for I have a feast
waiting; for them.'

' Don't do that,' said Conan, ' take my advice. Here are we, fifteen of
of the Fiann, nobles of the Fiann to boot, Ossian, Osgar, Dermid, and
other good men whose names I don't mention ; wherever they are, one
might say the whole Fiann were there. Fionn would like you to give the
feast to them, and we could put the fame of it in the mouths of learned
men and historians, and poets, and readers of books over all the world if
you will take us with you to consume it. Another reason why you should
not take any more than us with yo\i is that all the Fiann are invited
already except these fifteen.'

' I would rather, ' said the hero, ' that the five provinces of Ireland
went with me all together than that the feast I have prepared were not
consumed.'

Then he gave each of them an apple ; Conan took a bite out of
his, and his example was followed by the others.

' Have you all eaten your apples ? ' said he.

' We have,' said Conan, ' and every mischief be upon me* if ever we
heard a tune played that we would think sweeter than getting our fill of
these.'

' Well then,' said the youth, ' I have seven orchards of these apples, and
you shall get your fill of these till Beltane comes. I wonder if you will go
along me to my residence.'

' Every mischief upon me,' said Conan, ' why shouldn't we go along
with you ? We will bear down the fawns with the swiftness of our
career. '

The youth gathered up his skirts and went off like a swallow,
over glens and greens, invers and sandy shores, till the shades of
evening fell, and after him went the fifteen Fianna.

* This is Conan's regular preface to his remarks all through the story,
hence his title of mallachtach, 'cursing.'

Three Tales of the Fiann. 281

'Fianna of Erin,' said the youth, 'Your swiftness has been put to the
test, and you are no great runners. That is my palace over there : go on
before me and make a fire in it, till I search out some food for you.'

' 111 have we fared,' said they, 'if our food has to be provided now.'

They went into the palace, and Conan lighted a fire, while Ossian
studied the surroundings.

' There is not a calf's or cattle beast's bed in Ireland,' said he, 'that I
have not been in some time of the day or night, either sitting or lying,
sleeping or waking, but I don't know the place I am in now. It seems to
me that I have been transported out of Ireland altogether.'

All the Fiann said the same except Dermid, who said nothing,
and Ossian presently asked his reason. Dermid answered that
he had a suspicion which could be verified by looking whether
there was a huge rock beside the door of the palace. Conan
went out and found it, and Dermid then told how he and Fionn
had once slept there when out hunting. In his sleep Fionn
kicked Dermid in the breast, and on being wakened by Dermid
piercing the soles of his feet, told what he had beeu dreaming, to
wit, that a bruighean would be placed there in which the Fiann
would one day be in danger at the hands of Eochaidh Beag
Dearg and the Tuatha De Danann, which had now come to pass.
Meanwhile Fionn and the seven battalions of the Fiann had
accepted the invitation of a husbandman, and the Fiann had all
gone to his house, where at evening they were joined by Fionn.
The latter by means of putting his thumb under his ' tooth of
vision,'* discovered the strait in which the others were, and set
off to assist them without the knowledge of an\r one. His young
son, however, Aodh Beag (' Little Aodh ') saw and followed him,
and being discovered by Fionn on the way, the two went on
together. Their arrival was hailed with great joy by the fifteen.
Before long Eochaidh made his appearance.

' May the high gods bless you, Fionn mac Cumhail,' t said he, ' better is
the place to which you have come, and worse is the place you have left. I
have some other guests outside here, and I should like you to give them
one side of the house.'

' Who are they ? ' said Fionn.

* Compare the use of this in the Bruighean Chaorthainn.

t The old Lowland Scots wrote this phonetically as ' Fyn mak Coul.'

282 Three Tales of the Fiann.

1 A oilh mac Aodha, and three hundred valiant heroes of the Tuatha De
Danann along with him.'

'Let them come in,' said Fionn.

Those three hundred were soon followed by an equal number
under Conn mac Aodha, and before loner there also came in
Cabhlach, the daughter of Aodh, and three hundred amazons
along with her. all armed with short bows, that were never aimed
without hitting, and never hit without killing. After these had
all entered, Fionn made Con an doorkeeper.

' I accept the post,' said Conan, ' and every mischief upon me if I let
one person out that is inside, or one in that is outside, except with your
leave.'

(1.) The rest of the tale then turns on Conan's troubles as
doorkeeper. First of all there came up an ugly youth, shock-
headed, goggle-eyed, big-nosed, wide-mouthed, who was admitted
and told by Fionn to sit down on the other side of the house.

' I won't sit down,' said he, ' but if I knew which was the best man on
the one side or the other, I would take him out of his seat, and sit down
in his place. ' *

' I tell you,' said Fionn, •' that the bald man east there beside the door
is the best of us.'

The youth straightway seized Conan and threw him outside

into the pool of dirty water in front of the door, and sat down

in his place. Conan instantly returned, and there was a royal

wrestling match in which the Fiann encouraged Conan and the

Tuatha De Danann the youth, until Conan threw him to the

ground, split his head with his sword, and threw his body in the

pool. Cabhlach now arose to avenge the youth, who was her

brother, and Conan, tired out with the previous struggle, was

thrown into the pool, where the hag was proceeding to behead

him, when he besought the help of Dermid. Dermid rose to

assist him, but Fionn stopped him.

' It is tabu t to me,' said he, 'to take away the advantage gained by
any one in single combat, and I will not take it from her.'

This is a practice very common in the Icelandic Sagas,
t ' Is geasa damh-sa.' The Irish geas answered to the Maori tabu, and
occurs passim throughout these tales. Some of the geasa attached to dif-
ferent persons are of the most curious description.

Three Tales of the Fiann. 283

Derinid being thus prevented from going to Conan's assistance, ' the
strength of his shoulder went to his elbow and the strength of his elbow
to his fingers, and he put his fingers to the silken string of his spear and
made a choice throw of it at the hag, but Fionn caught it by the shaft
and stopped it. Then he shook a drop of poison from the point of the
spear on the hag, with which he took away two-thirds of her strength.'

This gave Conan an opportunity to free himself and he suc-
ceeded in mastering the hag ; to save her head she offered him a
ransom.

' What is the ransom,' said Conan.

'This,' said she; 'there is not a bush or cavern for a whole cantred
round about that is not filled with Tuatha De Danann bent on killing you.
You are but seventeen Fianna in all, and I have three hundred amazons
here under my orders, with three hundred bows that never send out an
erring shot ; all that assistance I will take from the Tuatha De if you
spare me.'

' Shall I accept this, Fionn I ' asked Conan.

' Don't refuse any assistance you can get,' said Fionn.

So Conan released her and she retired with her band.

(2.) Conan sat down again by the door, and before long noticed
the Tuatha De looking out with an air of satisfaction on their
faces. Conan also looked out, and saw a second visitor approach-
ing,— a youth leading a black dog by an iron chain, ' and it is a
marvel that she did not set the bruighean in a blaze with every
spark of fire that came out of her mouth and over her jaw.' The
vouth entered and asked Fionn to let his dog have ' her fill of
fighting.'

' Every mischief on the mouth that mentioned it,' said Conan, 'don't
you think your ugly, blackmouthed dog will get her fill of fighting where
there are the seventeen best dogs of the Fiann ? '

The black dog however made short work of the others, till even
the great Bran was frightened, and crept in the shape of a little
'messan' under Fionn's legs. Fionn, on seeing this, began to
encourage him, reminding him of his victories over the venomous
boar of Mount Gulban and the wild cat of the cave of Cruachan.
Bran shook himself and broke his leash, a second shake restored
him to his own form, and then he leapt on the Black Dog. Even
Bran however proved unequal to the stranger, and was suffering
severely, so Dermid separated the two for a moment while

284 Three Tales of the Fiann.

Conan removed the silver shoe that guarded Bran's right paw,
one blow of which tore out the entrails of the black dog and left
him lifeless. The next minute Conan had drawn his sword and
struck the head off the youth himself.

(3.) Conan again sat down by the door, and before long the
expectant looks of the Tuatha De Danann showed that something
else was on foot. Looking out he saw a third youth who carried
a tub of water on his shoulder. He entered and set it down in
the middle of the floor.

' The best man among you,' said he, ' let him come to me till I wash his
feet and his hands.'

' That bald man east there beside the door is the best among us,' said
Fionn.

The youth set the vessel before Conan, who rose (!) and lifted both his
feet at once to put them into the tub.

' Canny there, Conan,' said Fionn, 'the limb that it would be the least
misfortune for you to lose, put that in.'

' That's my little toe,' said Conan.

Conan put his little toe into the tub and it was immediately made dust
and powder.

' Every mischief on me,' said he, 'if I have burned my little toe more
than your flesh and hide shall be burned in it,' and he seized the youth
and thrust him into the tub so that dust and powder was made of him
completely.

Conan then lifted the tub and gave all the Tuatha De a share of
its contents, and again sat down by the door.

(4.) The approach of a fourth youth was once more heralded
by brighter looks among the Tuatha De. This one carried a
shaggy grey boar on his shoulder which he cast down on the
floor, and told Fionn that it had been sent him by Eochaidh for
their supper ' and cook it for yourself.' Nine times nine of the
Tuatha De Danann tried to lift it and take it to the fire, but
could not move it.

'Every mischief on me,' said Conan, ' but that is how I should like to-
see you, with no strength or energy.' He rose and laid hold of the boar,
but could not move it an inch.

' Every mischief on me,' said he ; ' since I cannot take the boar to the
fire, I shall bring the fire to the boar.'

He heaped the fire over the boar and sat down with his back to
it, but as soon as the boar, which was an enchanted one, felt the

Three Tales of the Fiann. 285

fire singeing his bristles he shook himself and scattered all the fire
over Conan : then he went right over him and out at the door.
Conan made search for the youth who had brought it and would
have killed him, had he not promised as ransom to bring him the
boar cooked on four silver spits, which he presently did. Conan
proceeded to apportion the quarters to his company, one to Fionn,
one to the other fifteen Fianna, one to Bran, and the last to him-
self in consideration of all that he had suffered that evening,
' and as for you, O Tuatha De Danann, get food for yourselves,
or want.' Aodh mac Aodha resented this, and tried to take
Conan's quarter from him, but Conan recovered it, and one of
Aodh's youths was killed in the tumult.

(5.) Conan sat down again by the door, and shortly after saw
an innumerable band of the Tuatha De Danann looking in
through the windows of the bruighean. He took out Bran, and
the two made short work of them, being afterwards aided by
Dermid, who went out on pretence of restraining Bran. Eoch-
aidh then persuaded Fionn to sound the Dord Fhiann* on hear-
ing wl ich they were bound to come to him. Conan was thus
brought back to his post as doorkeeper.

(Q.) Another youth carrying a staff that would have been a

full burden for six men next came up, and wanted some one to

fight with. Fionn directed him to Conan, who accepted the

challenge, and again proved victorious. Then Eochaidh spoke

up : —

'Finn mac Cumhail,' he said, 'what we have suffered already is quite
enough for us, and we will stand no more from you.'

Then the Tuatha De Danann arose on the one side, and the
seventeen Fianna on the other, and the battle began. For a
long time nothing was heard but the crash of shields, the heavy
breathing of the combatants and the screams of ravens above the
bruighean. At the request of Aodh a truce was made for the
night, but at day-break they began again. The whole Fiann now

* The Dord Fhiann, so often mentioned in the tales and ballads, is coi -
monly taken as having been some musical instrument, but there seems to
be nothing against its having been a vocal melody ; compare the use of it
in the Bruighean Chaorthainn.

286 Three Tales of the Fiann.

came up, and the battle became general : ' like streams of brine
dripping from the tops of the rocks after heavy waves were the
heads of heroes and warriors falling to the ground in that
conflict.' In the end the Tuatha De Danann were totally routed,
scarcely a man escaped, and thus Eochaidh Beag Dearg and the
Fiann parted from each other.

It will be seen from the above how the whole plot of the story
turns on Conan, whose perversity lands him into trouble from
which his strength has to free him. Apart from the slight
monotony of the successive youths who come to the palace the
plot is well conceived, and the style is clear and lively, especially
in the dialogue. The versions taken down in the Scottish High-
lands have naturally lost most of this, as will be readily believed
by any one who tries to re-tell a well-written short story without
the book. There is however some interest in comparing them
with the original. That in Staffa's collection contains in an
imperfect form the incident of the two invitations, but puts Fionn
in the wrong company. Eochaidh Beag Dearg becomes
Odhacha Beaganach, and receives the surname of Riogh Finnla,
which is taken from the name of Aodh Finnliath, father of
Aodh, Conn, and Cabhlach. Conan is made to bolt the door
before the arrival of the three companies of the Tuatha De
Danann ; his wTrestling with Cabhlach is told with some varia-
tions and additions ; in the story of the boar the incident of the
fire is omitted, Conan cooks it himself, and divides it into three
parts, two of which he gives to the Fiann, and keeps the third for
himself and the doers. With the shoulder-blade he kills one of
O'Finnla's (!) men who reflects on his hospitality. The incident
of the Black Dog is best remembered, and is supplemented by
the ballad, with the additional information that Bran had a
venomous claw on his foot which the shoe was used to guard.
Conan takes the dead dog by the tail and kills those outside with
it, after which the great engagement takes place immediately.
An interesting addition is the revenge taken by O'Finnla, who
puts the women and children of the Fiann into the form of deer,
so that Fionn hounds Bran at them, and most of them are
killed.

The version taken down for Campbell opens with Fionn's

Three Tales of the Fiann. 287

dream, as related by Dermid in our text, and then the narrative
becomes very confused, with apparently some reminiscence of the
the Bruighean Chaorthainn in it. At last the Fiann reaches a
house which is kept by a woman, and answers to the Bruighean
of Eochaidh. The different bands of Tuatha De Danann come
up, and are followed by the lad with the boar, which has died
from leanness. The Fiann reject it, and the lad promises to find
another, which he brings to them. Fionn kills seven men from
every row of the Tuatha De Danann with a bone. The incident
of the black dog is told, and Bran's venomous claw. Bran begins
to kill those outside, and the Fiann go out to help him until
Fionn only is left inside. His enemies attack him, and he sounds
the Ord Fianna, or rather it sounds of itself ; his men return and
save him as he is in the last extremity.

III. The ' Rowan-tree Palace ' is even more ingenious as a
literary product than that of Eochaidh, and has a more historic
significance in the character of the enemies of the Fiann. In
the preceding tales these were the mythical Tuatha De Danann ;
in this they are the historic Norsemen, though a very slight con-
nection with the Tuatha De is implied. The story is as
follows : —

Colgan, King of Lochlann, held a great fair on the green or
Beirbhe ( = Bjorgvin, Bergen) at which the four tribes of Loch-
lann were present. At this fair the king told of his discontent
at bearing the title, ' King of the Islands,' while he had not
sovereignty over Ireland, which his ancestors had taken such
trouble to conquer. He recounted to them how Breas mac
Balair fought the Tuatha De Danann on Magh Mor an Aonaigh
(Great Plain of the Fair, near Ballisadare) and lost the five red
battalions of the Fomhoraigh,* (Fovori) by the hand of Lugh
Lamhfhada j {Lav-ado), and how a year later Balar fell in the
second battle of Moytura.i ' This then,' said he, 'is what I desire
— to go into Erin to take my ancestors' tribute from it.' The

* See ante on the identification of the Fomhoraigh with the Lochlannakjh.
t For this see the 'Fate of the Children of Tuireann,' cc. 9-21.
i in barony of Tirerril, co. Sligo. See the text of the ' Second Battle
of Moytura, in the Bevue Celtique,'' Vol. XII., pp. 52-130.

288 Three Tales of the Fiann.

nobles of Lochlann all said they were willing to go with him, and
the sooner the better, so the King sent a war summons throuo-h-
out the land, and five companies of the Norsemen gathered in
Beirbhe. They launched their ships and went on board in high
spirits ; then steered over the ocean with the wind whistling in the
sails and the waves splashing against the ships, and no hurt nor
harm befel them till they reached the north of Ulster.*

News of the invasion was soon conveyed to Cormac mac Art,
monarch of Ireland, in his royal residence at Tara, and he in
turn sent to the hill of Allen f for Fionn mac Cumhail. Fionn
speedily gathered his Fiann and gave battle to the invaders,
where the powers of Goll mac Morna laid low the Norse King
and put his army to flight. Two of the king's sons were also
slain ; the third, named Miodhach (Mioch) was spared by Fionn.
In professed gratitude, though set at liberty and declared king
of the Lochlannaigh, Miodhach declared that he would never
leave Fionn. ' I shall have the tribute of Lochlann brought to
me in Ireland,' said he, 'and spend it with you, and live with
you for ever.'

After some time had passed, Conan interfered and pointed out
to Fionn the danger of having Miodhach beside him after having
killed his father and brothers.^ Ossian backed him up, and
advised Fionn to give him land for himself. Miodhach, getting
his choice, selected a cantred in Kerry on the south side of
the Shannon and another on the opposite bank. This he did for
two reasons ; first, to be as far beyond the Fiann's notice as
possible, and, second, that he might conveniently bring in a fleet
of his countrymen when the time was ripe for action. § Four-
teen years he spent in making preparations for this.

* This might almost be a genuine picture of a Norse King's invasion of
Ireland; the consultation with the leading men was a necessary step for
such a proceeding, and is often expressly mentioned in the Sagas. The
closest parallel to our text would be the expeditions of Magnus.

t Almhain, Fionn's stronghold, is in Co. Kildare. A confusion of
Almhain with Alhan in the mouths of reciters gave colour to Macpherson's
claim for his Fingal as a Scottish monarch.

J Conan was of Brynhild's opinion ; ' Never trust in the faith of a wolf-
cub, whose father or brother you have slain. A wolf lies in a young son.'
Si'jnh-ifumdl, 35.

§ The Irish had learned this Norse practice by bitter experience.

Three Tales of the Fiann. 289

One day Fionn and the Fiann came to hunt in the west of
Limerick, and Fionn as usual sat on a ' hunting knoll ' with a
number of the Fiann around him. Before long they saw coming
towards them a youth in full armour, — silken coat, Norse byrny,
jewelled helmet, a painted shield on his left shoulder, and two
long spears in his right hand.* He came up and saluted Fionn,
who asked his news.

' 1 am a poet,' said he ; 'I have come with a poem to you.'
'Strange dress that for a poet,' said Fionn, ' sure weeds of war and garb
of battle like that ! '

' 1 am a poet,' said he, ' and I have come with a poem to you.'
' This is no place to reward a poem,' said Fionn ; ' ' come with me to any
of the palaces of Erin and you will get your reward from me there.'

' The only reward I ask for my poem,' said the youth, ' is that you un-
derstand its meaning ; t and I put you under obligations to understand it.'
'Repeat the poem then,' said Fionn.

The youth's poem consisted of four riddles J which Fionn inter-
preted correctly, but the last one made him aware that the

* This is a portrait of a Norse Viking, all except the two spears, which
was rather the Irish custom, though instances are mentioned in the Sagas
of throwing two spears at once, one with each hand.

f Not always easy with Irish poems, which were often composed with a
more than Browningesque obscurity.

J The text as printed by Campbell (L. na F., p. 87, col. 2) is at this
point absolutely unintelligible, as the transcriber has not noticed the proper
arrangement of the lines. The actual reading of the MS. is as follows :—
' Adchonnuirc teach isin tir, as nach tabhuir geill do ri ;

ni loisge teine, ni airge creach, maith sean leur gabhadh an righ-theach.'
' Tuigim sin,' ar Fionn, 'is e sin Brogh na Boinne .i. teach Aonghus Oig
mhic an Dagha, oir ni fheudar a losgadh na creachadh.'
'Is he sin tuigsin an roinn sin,' ar an fear-dana.

' Adchonnuirc fer sa leith thuaith, noch beiras a Ian do buaidh ;
ni fearr leis amh no bruith, no co mhin a gharbh cluith.'
' Tuicim sin,' ar Fionn, 'is e sin cloidhemh Aongusa Oig adchonnairc,
agus ni fearr leis amh no bruithe a' gerradh cnamh agus chorp do laimh
eachtaigh Aonghusa. '

' Adchonnarc bean sa leith thes, agas clann treuna cneas
ciodh mall a ceum tar gach tuaith, is luaithe i no ;ech luath.'
' Tuigim an ben sin adchonnarcus .i. an Boinn dod leith thes agus asiad a
clann do chonnarcus trena cneas .i. '/i:ic mall-chorcra agus a bradain
eochair-breagha, uair ciodh mall an sruth sin is luaithe h4 na eoch luath,
oir siubhluidhe se an domhan re bliadhiiin agus ni dhiongann each da iuaa
an siubhal sin, etc'

XXIV. 19

200 Three Tales of the Fiann.

stranger was a friend to Aonghas of the Boyne, one of the
Tnatha De Danann, and he demanded to know his name. Oonan
however had already solved the mystery.

'He is of your own people,' said Conan, 'and no friend to you, and it
would be more fitting for a man to recognize his enemy than his friend,
for the former may do him injury. This is Miodhach mac Colgan, whose
father and two brothers fell through you, and you gave him his full free-
dom. For fourteen years he has been in your service, and has never
served you with food or drink all that time.'

' That is not my blame at all,' said Miodhach, ' I have had a feast ready
for him every month up till now, and he never came to partake of it ; no
more did I ever invite him. I have a feast ready for him this night ; let
him come to consume it. I have one palace on sea and another on land : the
feast is in the one on the sea, but it is to be consumed in the one on land,
and I put Fionn under obligations to come and consume it this night.'

Miodhach then departed and Fionn prepared to follow him, but

left Ossian with some of the Fiann behind, charging him not to

let them to the palace and promising to send word of what took

place. Among those left with Ossian were Dermid and Caoilte,

while Goll and Conan went with Fionn. On reaching the

Bruio-hean the first to enter was Conan, who found no one there,

but was delighted with the splendour of the place — the floor laid

with carpets of many hues, and the boards all of different colours.

At Conan's glowing report all the rest entered and sat down on

the silken coverings, ' and they would not even have their own

clothing between them and the trappings of the bruighean ' (a

wish easily gratified with the old Irish dress), while a sweet odour

diffused through the palace seemed to lighten their spirits with

its fragrance.

'I marvel,' said Fionn shortly, 'that we are so long in getting anything
to eat here.'

' There is something that I marvel at more than that,' said Goll, ' which
is, that the place that had such a sweet odour when we came into it now
smells fouler than all the closets of the world.'

' There is something I marvel at more than that,' said Glas mac Aoin,
' and that is, that the palace which had every colour on it has now not a
single board in it, but is firmly constructed of hard rods of rowan tree,*
beaten together with the backs of axes and mallets.'

* This use of the rowan is curious, considering how valuable it was as a
defence against witchcraft in later times, as taught in the rhyme,
' R'an-tree an' reid threid
Gars the witches tyne their speed.'

Three, Tales of the Fiann. 291

'There is something I marvel at still more,' said Faolan, 'the palace
which had seven doors * when we entered it has now only one.'

'And I marvel still more,' said Conan, 'that of all the coverings and
carpets that were under us when we sat down there is not one thread
under us now, and methinks it is the clay of the earth that we are on, and
it is colder than the cold snow of one night.'

Fionn began to suspect mischief, aud being subject to a tabu
against staying in a bruighean with only one door, told Conan to
cut another one in the wall. On attempting to rise Conan found
himself stuck fast to the ground, and so were all the others. At
the request of Goll Fionn put his thumb under his 'tooth of
vision,' though with reluctance, 'for,' said he, 'I must chew
skin, flesh, bone and marrow of my finger before 1 get certain
knowledge of our danger.' By this means he discovered the
treachery of Miodhach, who had got the assistance of Sinsear of
the Battles, King of the World, from Greece, along with
thousands of warriors, besides the three Kings of the Island of
Thule, who were devilish druids and terrible heroes. ' It is these
who have put under us this earth to which we are stuck fast,
and they themselves are in the Island Bruighean, and will shortly
come to put us to death, nor is there any escape for us from here
until the blood of these three Kings is poured on that earth.'

The Fiann lamented loudly at this, but Fionn rebuked them
and told them to be bold in the face of death. ' No longer life
was in store for us than what we have had. Let us sing the
Dord Fiann before we die.' This they accordingly began to do.

(a). Meanwhile Ossian had grown impatient for the promised
messenger from Fionn, and two of the party, Fiacha and Innse,
volunteered to go in search of news. As they neared the
Bruighean they heard the Dord Fhiann, and knew that their
companions were in trouble. Fionn, hearing them outside, called
to them and told them how matters lay, and on their refusing to
desert him in his danger, asked them to defend the ford until
some of the rest of the Fiann might chance to arrive. Fiacha
however left Innse alone to guard the ford, while he went on to
the Island Bruighean to see whether the foreigners wez*e there.
The rest of the story then turns on the successive feats at the

Seven doors and seven hearths were the proper number in a bruighean.

292 Three Tales of the Fiann.

ford, a species of fighting very common in the Irish tales; the
best specimen is perhaps that of Cuchulainn and the Fer Diad
in the Tain Bo Cuailnge.

(1). A Greek Earl set out for the Rowan-tree Bruighean with
TOO knights to bring back Fionn's head to the King of the
World, but on reaching the ford found his passage barred by
lnnse, who refused to give way, and after killing the hundred
knights was himself slain by the Earl. ' I will not go on to the
Bruighean now,' said the earl, "' until I get more men with me,
and I shall take this head with me to the King of the World.'
On his way back he met with Fiacha returning from his scouting
expedition and their talk went as follows : —

' Where have you been 1 ' asked Fiacha.

' At the ford ahead of you,' said the Earl.

' What were you doing there 1 ' said Fiacha.

' I went after the head of Fionn mac Cumhail for the King of the
World,' said he, ' but a gallant youth met me in the breast of the ford,
and the hundred knights that went with me fell by his hand.'

' What kept you from falling yourself ? ' said Fiacha.

' The hardiness of my heart and the strength of my hand,' said the Earl,
' and that youth fell before me.'

' If you had done that,' said Fiacha, ' you would have brought tokens of
the victory with you.'

' I have brought his head with me,' said the Earl.

' Give it me,' said Fiacha.

Fiacha seized the head and recognized it and gave it three kisses * and
pressed it to his breast.

'Well did this head become the body on which it was this morning,'
said he ; 'do you know to whom you have given it ? '

' No,' answered the Earl, ' unless you are one of the King of the World's
men.'

' I am not one of his men,' said Fiacha, ' nor shall you be so any longer.'

After a sharp combat the Earl fell by the hand of Fiacha, who

then crossed the ford and went up to the Bruighean, where he

spoke from the door.

' Is that the voice of Fiacha ? ' said Fionn.
' Of a truth it is,' answered he.

' Who was it that made that loud-sounding conflict that I heard at the
ford just now 1 ' asked Fionn.

* The ' three kisses ' is the regular number in the tales, see Cath R%iis
va Rig, § 8. p. 13.

Three Tales of the Fiann. 293

' It was your dear foster-son,' said Fiacha.

' And how is my fosterling after the battle 1 ' said he.

' He is headless,' said Fiacha, 'and my heart is broken for that.'

' Did you see him being slain ? ' asked Fionu.

'I did not,' said Fiacha, fand if I had I would have saved him from
death, but I have brought you the head of the man that killed him.'

'Victory and blessing go with you,' said Fionn ; ' I am sad and sorry
for him. They are good children I have, for small was my share of Erin
until they rose around me, and large was my share of it just now, before I
fell into this prison; and, Fiacha,' said he, 'go and guard the ford till
some company of the Fiann come across you.'

(2). The brother of the Greek Earl then came upon Fiacha
with 400 knights, but he ' went under them and through them
and over them ' till they all fell ; then he sat down by the ford
wounded and weary. The news of these losses reached Miodhach
in the Island Bruighean.

'They have done ill,' he said, 'in going without my knowledge, for if
we all went together against so small a company not one of the Fiann
would escape alive. I shall go now to the Rowan-tree Bruighean, and
take with me food and drink for a hundred men, for there is the man who
most loves his allowance in all Erin, to wit, Conan mac Morna, and when
he sees me devouring that food before his eyes he will lose his sense and
memory out of longing for it ; and I shall put to death all that are in the
Bruighean on the morrow.'

On his way Miodhach was stopped at the ford by Fiacha, and
after a hundred of his knights had fallen in trying to effect a
passage, he came forward in person to engage the Fenian hero.

(6). Meanwhile Ossian wondered why the two scouts were so
long in returning and guessed that something was wrong. Der-
mic! and Fatha canann * volunteered to go in search of them.
As they neared the Bruighean, 'Dermid,' said Fatha canann,
1 do you hear what I hear, — the crash of shields splitting, the
sound of helmets cleaving, and the groans of men n£htino;'?,
They hurried down to the ford and found Fiacha almost ex-
hausted. Dermid threw his spear across the water and wounded
Miodhach, who, however, cut off Fiacha' s head. Dermid crossed
and killed him in turn, while Fatha canann slew such of his fol-
lowers as were left. With the head of Miodhach they made

* ul. Fathcanan or Fathchanan.

294 Three Tales of the Fiann.

their way to the Rowan-tree Bruighean, and Dermid announced
the death of Fiacha (who was a son of Fionn) in the same way
as Fiacha had reported the fall of Innse. Fionn entreated
Dermid to guard the ford till sunrise on the morrow.

Dermid was on the point of departing when Oonan spoke :

' Are you thinking of going 1 ' said he.

' Certainly,' said Dermid.

' Bad is my share of that,' said Conan, ' for the earth to which we are
stuck is colder than icy snow, and worse than that is my hunger and thirst.
The best of every food and drink that has been preparing for fourteen
years is being consumed in the Island Bruighean just now : bring me food
and drink from that.'

' It's a shame for you to be asking that,' said Dermid, ' when the host
of the World is seeking to kill you, and no one but myself and Fathacanann
to defend you.'

'If it were a woman that asked you, you would try to get it for her,'
said Conan ; ' you have taken four wives from me since you have been in
the Fiann, and would have taken more if I had had them.'

' Shame me no more, Conan,' said Dermid, ' and I will go to get a drink
for you however it befall me.'

After this Dermid and Fatha canann went down to the ford.

'Dermid,' said Fatha canann, 'there never was a night when it was
easier for you to get food and drink for Conan, for there is the allowance
of food and drink for a hundred men lying on the bank of the ford. Give
Conan his fill of that.'

'Conan would say that it was dead men's food we gave him,' said Der-
mid, 'and he would satirize me.* Watch you the ford, and I will go to
get food for Conan. '

Dermid entered the Island Bruighean and found the cup-bearer
of the Kino; of the World about to serve his master with old
mead in a jewelled horn. He promptly cut off his head and took
the horn out of his hand. Then he went to the table, kicked
the King of the World in the breast, seized the dish that lay
before him and went back to the ford. There he found Fatha
canann asleep, which he called treason against the king-warrior
of Erin, Alban, England, Lewis, and Lochlann, but without
wakening him went on to the Bruighean and called on Conan.

' I have food for you here,' he said, ' but I don't know how it is to reach
you.'

* This was a serious matter in ancient Ireland, as satire could produce
even physical deformities.

Three Tales of the Fiann. 295

' I know,' said Conan ; ' I am straight opposite the door : throw it to
me.'

Dermid threw the food and spattered it over his mouth and breast.

' I am afraid I have dirtied you,' he said ; 'I have a horn of mead here
too, but I don't know how it can get to you.'

' I know,' said Conan, ' spring up on the roof ; the soil of the Island of
Thule is not on the outside of it : make a hole above my head ami pour
from the horn clown into my mouth. '

After accomplishing this difficult feat, not greatly to Conan's

satisfaction, Dermid returned to the ford and waked Fatha canann.

(3). The three kings of Thule now advanced to avenge
Miodhach, and another battle took place at the ford, ending in
the death of the three kings by the hand of Dermid, who then
took their blood to the Bruighean and by this means freed the
Fiann. Conan however was so firmly fixed that Dermid and
Fatha canann had to pull him up, leaving the skin of his heels,
thighs, shoulders, and head sticking to the earth. From this
incident came his surname of maol, ' bare ' or ' bald.'

(4). The Fianna were so weak that Dermid * and Fatha
canann had to return to guard the ford where they were present-
ly assailed by Borb, son of the King of the World, along with
2000 warriors.

(c). Meanwhile Ossian again grew anxious, and with his party
advanced towards the Bruighean in time to join in the battle.
There Goll killed Borb, and the 2000 fell with him.

(5). The King of the World then advanced in person, and a
great general engagement took place, in which Osgar finally cut
off the King's head, and his host, all but a few, were left dead
on the field. ' Many were the cries of vultures and ravens
battening on the bodies of heroes and warriors ; and covered
with wounds and blood were the Fiann of Erin after fighting
this battle. Thus did Fionn escape from the treachery that the
King of Lochlann played upon him.'

There are some good points in the Bruighean Chaorthainn,
and the story is on the whole well told. The long-meditated

* In the ' Pursuit of Dermid and Grainne ' all the services he renders
on this occasion are recounted by Dermid when he entreats Fionn to
bring him a drink of water, after he has been wounded by the boar.
Tmus. of the Oss. Soc, Vol. III., pp. 186-191.

29(5 'Three Tales of the Fiann.

revenge of Miodhach, the unsuspecting way in which the Fiann
fall into the trap, and the unexpected nature of the treachery
itself are good conceptions, while such pieces of dialogue as that
between Fiacha and Miodhach, Fiacha and Fionn, or Dermid
and Conan are extremely well written. The style is very much
the same as in the preceding tale, plain and perspicuous, with
nothing to perplex the reader except the ingenious contractions
in which all scribes indulge.

The tale of 'Maghach Colgar,' taken down for Campbell,
shows changes of the same nature as the oral versions of the
'Bruighean Eochaidh.' Maghach Colgar is sent to Fionn by
the King of Lochlann to be taught ; the King of Sealg (!) sends
his son, named Innsridh Mac Righ nan Sealg, for the same pur-
pose, the latter being the Innse .mac Suibhne Sealga of our text.
Maghach returns to Lochlann to succeed the K;ng there, and
when the chase fails in Ireland he invites the Fiann over to stay
with him, the 'bruighean on sea and bruighean on land' being
remembered. Some of the Fiann remain in Ireland, among
them being Fiachaire, Innsridh, and Cath Conan ( = Fatha
canann). On entering the bruighean in Lochlann they stick to
the chairs and the chairs stick to the earth, while the knives and
forks stick to their hands. Fionn however manages to strike the
Ord Fiannta, and it is heard in Erin; Fiachaire and Innsridh go
over to Lochlann. Their fortunes are much as in the text but
told in a very different fashion. Dermid and Cath Conan arrive
and kill the men of Lochlann, and take the food from their
bruighean to Fionn and his companions, letting it down through
the roof. Fionn tells Dermid that they can only be released by
the blood of the ' three daughters of King Gil ' (this is got from
the tri righilie Innse Tile). Dermid takes these out of a castle
and wrings the blood out of them to release the Fiann, but none
is left for Conan, and they have to pull him loose. The three
girls are found miraculously alive again, and are replaced in
their castle, while the Fiann go home to Ireland. There are one
or two good touches in the story as told, but it is evidently only
an imperfect version of the written tale, with a few misunder-
standings and a few new inventions to explain them.

Such are the ' Bruighean ' tales, and they must be taken in

Tit e Logic of History. 297

the spirit in which they were written, — works for amusement
and not for instruction. The serio-comic strain in their com-
position, which occurs in other tales as well, forms a pleasant
contrast to the tragic side of the Fenian legend, as it comes out
in the 'Pursuit of Dermic! and Grainne,' or the fall of Oscar
and the Fiann in the Battle of Gabhra. They have a close
parallel in the Icelandic lygi-sogur or ' lying sagas,' which were
just as little meant to be taken seriously by any one. The
authors knew as well as the modern sensational novelist that the
whole story was the sheerest fiction, but they aimed at producing
pleasurable excitement, and by their aim they ought to be judged.
They point the lesson too that the real worth of Irish literature
ouijht to be independent of its value for special studies, and that
even for these it must be taken in its entirety. The gap which
the specialist is apt to leave between the old and the new contains
much that accounts for the later phenomena, and for this reason
as well as for their own merits, which are by no means insignifi-
cant, the tales of the period to which those here treated of
belong are well worth perusal and publication.

W. A. Craigie.

Art. IV.— THE LOGIC OF HISTORY.

History of the Philosophy of History ; Historical Philosophy in
France and French Belgium and Switzerland. By ROBERT
Flint, Professor in the University of Edinburgh, etc.
William Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh and London.
1893.

TAST as are its ramifications, and puzzling as many of its
intricacies are destined yet awhile to remaiu, the or-
ganism of human experience can, nevertheless, be analysed
into comparatively simple elements. The fundamental consti-
tuents, as many incline to think, may be no more than aspects of
one pervading principle. They contrive, at the same time, to
present themselves under phases which compel the recognition

298 The Logic of History.

of clearly marked differences. The outer world of things must
perforce be distinguished from the inner sphere of thoughts,
no matter what view of the relationship between the two
ultimately prevails. Both, once more, stand separated from
ideals, even although the last come to be recognised mainly
uhcii expressed in terms of thought, or actually presented in
works and deeds. Seeing that they combine to produce a
single experience, all three possess some traits in common.
But things and thoughts, matter and ideas, are, in one respect,
widely diverse from ideals. Ttie former appear to have a
finality which the latter lack. No doubt, the everlasting hills,
and the common notions that circle through generations seem
to remain, and their absolute permanence is largely, if not
wholly, an illusion. Be this as it may, no such illusions neces-
sarily attach to ideals. With them, as with nothing else, the
feet of those who have buried the earliest are at the door,
and will carry the latest out. Chiefly for this reason history
is at once a puzzle and a fascination. Compacted of ideals, it
tends to bewilder, and when the ideals of one age are employed
to interpret those of the past, it often happens that the usual
hesitancy is in uo wise abated. Professor Flint's remarkable
volume inculcates many a lessou of this kind. Thinker after
thinker, forgetting the maxim of Marcus Aurelius, injures him-
self by remaining in his own peculiar species of ignorance and
error. From one point of view, this is i levitable; and nccord-
ingly two principal causes combine to intensify the difficulty
of the subject under consideration. The material is itself of a
complex and changing nature, and for the most part it appears
to have been approached from a provisional standpoint. The
understanding of history in terms of certain fundamental pos-
tulates, which are indispensable to the comprehension of the
smallest part of experience, is conspicuous by its absence
nearly till the advent of the present century. Yet, an at-
tempted synthesis of this sort finds, in turn, new obstacles as
accompaniment. The present forms at once its possibility and
its end. History culminates now for every thinker, and the
combination of influences which condition the thought of the
epoch determines the direction, if not the kind, of the doctrines

The Logic of History. 299

formulated. ' The historical theories of individual thinkers
will always be found largely explicable by the contemporary
political condition of the communities to which these thinkers
belong.' *

This persistent relativity, while partly due to the need that
each successive age feels for a philosophy of its own, is trace-
able in larger measure to a certain confusion. History itself
has too often been confounded with philosophy, and a narra-
tive, more than usually reflective of course, seems to have fre-
quently done duty for a reasoned account of past events.
History proper, as one must admit, may be written philosophi-
cally, but this work, attractive as it is, does not constitute a
philosophy of history. Yet many have habituated themselves
to regarding it as if it were such, and many others, no doubt
unconsciously, have proceeded as if philosophy demanded
nothing further. Voltaire may be taken as a representative
of the former, Saint-Simon of the latter. Even during the
present century writers are not wanting who confuse them-
selves mainly by taking a mistaken direction. The rise of the
historical method, and the numerous achievements resulting
from its adoption, have led not a few to suppose that a philo-
sophy of history might be found in the systematic reading of
events backwards, so to speak. To follow up historical pheno-
mena to their first beginnings, to sketch their varying vicissi-
tudes, or to investigate some of their prominent relationships
to other occurrences, was for a writer like Quinet — taking per-
haps the most conspicuous example — to view history philoso-
phically. Few would deny that a discipline of high value lies
here. For, study of this kind implies, always, an analysis ot
constituent elements, and, sometimes, a synthesis of them as
they have stood connected with one another at different typi-
cal periods. Indeed, the worth of such research is inevi-
tably so considerable that it all too easily supplants philosophy
of history in the true sense ot the term, and this not without
subtle reason.

The peculiarity of history among the other sciences, psycho-

* Flint, p. 53.

300 The Logic of History.

logy most conspicuous by exception, is that in it mere delinea-
tion cannot but be overpassed. The human mind, as it dwells
upon man's experience through the centuries, meets with
phenomena, individual, national, racial, that are not foreign to
itself in the same sense as the crust of the earth, or chemical
combinations, or even living bodies in a manner are. And this
familiarity, which results in the more or less ready recognition
of order and progress, very naturally tends to obscure, or mini-
mise, the problems that specially connect themselves with
philosophy. Here, conspicuously, the fascination and the diffi-
culty of philosophy of history may be said to centre ; and herp,
too, the persistence of effort and the record of failure, to which
Dr. Flint is an impartial witness, originate. The familiarity
just noted largely accounts for the limitation of the categories
employed by many thinkers to explain all history. Pagan or
Oriental affinities dominate some ; others fall under the spell
of watchwords like progress, freedom, humanity; a third group
feel most at home in the triumphs of science ; while a fourth
take deepest interest in the evolution of literature or religion.
How naturally any one of these tendencies may predominate
Dr. Flint himself shows in passing. ' Christianity by creating
the Church enormously enlarged and enriched history. It
thereby opened up a central and exhaustless vein in the mine
of human nature, — set in movement a main stream in the flow
of human affairs. The rise of ecclesiastical history was more
to historiography than was the discovery of America to geo-
graphy. It added immensely to the contents of history, and
radically changed men's conceptions of its nature. It at once
caused political history to be seen to be only a part of history,
and carried even into the popular mind the conviction — of
which hardly a trace is to be found in the classic historians —
that all history must move to some general human end, some
divine goal' * It may be taken as proved, accordingly, that
similar reasons produce at once the fascination and the danger
of philosophy of history. History, by its very nature, appeals
with pecular force to everyone who can say, Humani nihil

* Flint, p. 62. The italics itre mine.

The Logic of History. 301

alienum. Yet the very strength of this appeal teuds to divert
attention from the inquiry which can alone be regarded as
philosophical.

What, then, is philosophy of history, to which, as Dr. Flint
well records, so little success and so much difficulty have
clung? Although a reply to this question must depend partly
upon the philosophical conclusions from which the thinker sets
out, it is probably simpler, for the present purpose, to make
answer by way of history itself. Moreover, by accepting Prof.
Flint's own definition of history, one can see with comparative
ease why a philosophy of history is necessary. The kind of
philosophy may, meantime, be left out of consideration. ' His-
tory is all that man has suffered, thought, and executed — the
entire life of humanity — the whole movement of societies. It
is history thus understood which is the subject of the art, and
the science, and the philosophy of history, — of the art which
recalls and delineates it, of the science which analyses it and
traces its laws, and of the philosophy which exhibits it in its
relations to the general system of the universe. To attempt
further to define it would be worse than useless. It would be
unduly to limit, and to distort and pervert, its meaning.' * The
philosophical clue here presented is not hard to discover. The
phrase, ' the whole movement of societies,' furnishes it. For
the moment 'society' is mentioned, we light upon problems to
which no explanation can be given except by philosophy.
History exists because man is a social being. From the nature
of the case he enters into combination with his fellows ; and
this association is not a mere external connection, but implies
a spiritual relation without which man would not be consti-
tuted as he shows himself to be, and humanity would remain
a bare form without material content. Instances of this asso-
ciation might possibly be selected to which the term ' acci-
dental' could fittingly be applied. But association itself, so
far from being accidental, is the prime condition under which
men invariably act when they rise, as individuals or as groups,
to possession of historical significance. Nay, the more they

* Flint, p. 8.

302 The Logic of History.

are enmeshed in the network of human relationships, the larger
they bulk. In this sense one may admit the truth of Turgot's
statement : ' Genius is scattered among the human race much
like gold in a mine. The more mineral you take up the more
metal you may collect. The more men there are, the more
great men, or men capable of becoming great, there will be.' *
As numbers increase the intricacy, extend the variety, and
deepen the intensity of human relationships, the greater the
likelihood of lives in which these new aspects ot social growth
will be summed up. Unity between men is, then, of the essence
of history.

But, what is the nature of this unity ; what, too, does it
portend ? At a stroke these questions bring us into the sphere
of philosophy proper. The association between men, which is
the nerve of history, illustrates certain principles. The unity
is not dead, but works out its own lite along definite lines.
Further, even although we may be unable to trace their absolute
beginnings, principles are always prophetic or, at least, induce
us to look towards an end. The problems, then, (1) of the
kind of this unity among men — of which history is but the
record — aud (2) of the perfect expression of unity, which past
states and the present condition of association imply, are those
whereout philosophy of history arises, and for which it
endeavours to find a solution. Thus, as Dr Flint pointedly
says, philosophy ' of history is not a something separate from
the facts of history, but a something contained in them.'f

These two problems, which together constitute the ' some-
thing' in history, cannot be disjoined. They necessaiily
involve one another. For it is impossible even to formulate
the second without appreciating the first ; and, this, in its turn,
cannot but give rise to the second. Indeed, so intimate is
their connection, that, as we shall see, there remains grave
reason to suppose that our knowledge of the presuppositions
of history still lacks much to the satisfactory statement of the
question of ultimate goal. Although the analogy be not exact
iu every detail, the two enquiries are related somewhat as

* Flint, p. 285. t Ibid., p. 40.

The Logic of History. 303

physiology and biology. They fall within the same sphere,
that is, and their results are mutually suggestive, mutually
helpful. At the same time, a single reservation must be
definitely made. The ultimate problem for philosophy concerns
rather the immanent end of history, as one may provisionally
call it, than the nature of the processes towards this end. And
were it possible to declare conscientiously that the entire
framework of human association had been surveyed, it would
also be possible to confine philosophy of history to discussion of
final cause only. Remembering this limitation, which is indis-
pensable seeing that the kind of the assumed unity is by no
means adequately understood, both discussions equally fall
within the range of philosophy of history. How is history
possible % Having regard to the principles that sway it, to
what does history tend ?

The former question is one of metaphysical interest. A
sharp and fundamental distinction marks it off from historical
research as such. There is no attempt to construct a record
of events, nor to prepare a scheme into which the complex
occurrences of the past may be fitted. The problem, on the
contrary, is one of presuppositions. Beyond isolated, or even
grouped, phenomena lie laws, principles, or organising forces,
which have a sphere of their own. Apart from the historical
data these controlling powers are unknowable, that is, they are
as good as non-existent. But their presence, on the other
hand, ipso facto stamps the data as of historieal import. Just
as space and time are preconditions of individual experience,
so persons, and those associated personalities known variously
as families, clans, tribes, and nations, are presuppositions of
history. Just as it is the great achievement of modern general
metaphysics ' to have established the doctrine of the perfect
coextensiveness and mutuality of existence and consciousness,'
so it is the main work of philosophy of history to prove that
the relations of men to men, in so far as they are capable of
alteration by interaction, express underlying principles incident
to the very existence of personality. These are what might
be called introductory considerations in philosophy of history
proper. But, seeing that the remainder of the inquiry

;'»()4 The Logic of History.

necessai'ily depends upon them, it may be well to pause for a
moment in order to take stock of the position.

In his Introduction, Prof. Flint trenches upon this meta-
phsical inquiry incidentally, lie therepoints out that three leading
historical ideas may be traced — Progress, Humanity, Freedom.
These, at all events, furnish certain aspects of ' the relations of
causation and affinity Avhich connect history with the other
departments of existence and knowledge.'* The conception of
progress is an evolutionary one. In other words, it involves
the presence of all the elements which a developing process
implies. A series of changing states is under review ; a means
of comparing these states is indispensable ; and, accordingly, a
principle of connection is presupposed. This, however, is
tantamount to saying that a comparatively complex notion of
human inter-relationship has been grasped. And, as our author
shows, a competent perception of what progress amounts to
cannot be traced even in such historically specialised com-
munities as those of Israel, of Greece, and of Rome. So, once
more, the idea of humanity grew slowly. Not until the ancient
classical world had exhausted itself, may man ' be regarded as
having at length risen to the apprehension of human unity.'f
The value of manhood as such now began to receive a tardy
recognition. But it was no more than a beginning. All through
the middle ages, class distinctions tended to obscure personal
worth. Men derived dignity and had a claim upon respect,
not from their humanity, but from an accidental connection
with some few of their brethren. In the same way, too, the
idea of freedom, the third of the presuppositions of history,
failed for centuries to strike the imagination. Conscience, as
Roger Williams remarked, had belonged too long to the State,
not to the individual. Even as late as ' the sixteenth century,
theory and practice as to liberty were in all respects and
relations most imperfect. The idea of its nature was as vague
as the actual realisation of its nature was meagre. So far as
the philosophy of history, therefore, depends on insight into the
nature of liberty, a condition of its existence was still at that

* Flint p. 21. t Ibid., p. 114.

' The Logic of History. 305

date wanting.'* If, then, Progress, Humanity, and Freedom,
be presuppositions of history, which only philosophy of history
can fully explain, and if, as Dr Flint has proved, they were far
from being appreciated till within the last two centuries, the
time limits within which the metaphysic of history could be
fruitfully investigated are somewhat narrow. It will, accord-
ingly, be advisible to notice in the sequel how far this research
has actually been pursued with appearance of success.

Now, the ideas of Progress, Humanity, and Freedom are
integral portions of the metaphysical presuppositions of history
mainly because they are pervasive forms under which men's
association with men appears. And, even granted, for the
moment, that they together furnish an exhaustive array of the
kinds of this association, their analysis and explanation would
not be, as we have already tried to see, the entire business of
the philosophy of history. Beyond lies another question, con-
ditioned no doubt, and even rendered possible, by the results
of this investigation. The nerve of philosophy ot history is
what may be strictly termed the logic of history. The
ultimate problem is, not merely metaphysical, but teleological,
in the higher sense. To what do Progress, Humanity, Freedom
tend? Why should there be such principles? Apart from a
teleological view, no reply can be framed. But, even so, a logic
of history, like much else, requires data. The ideal towards
which history travels cannot be guessed. An account of it
must be based upon a metaphysical analysis of the principles of
history ; that is, of the presuppositions which are discovered to
be involved in the facts as recorded. Only when this work has
been thoroughly accomplished can the synthetic process of
logic be initiated. The rise, progress, decline, and demise of
particular ideals warn us against entering too confidently
upon the path of final interpretation. So, very naturally, we
find ourselves asking, is it possible in the present state of
knowledge to do more than attempt a metaphysic of history ?
Is a logic of it yet attainable ? The answer seems, at first
siaht, to be decidedly in the negative. The history of philo-

* Flint, p. 136.
xxiv. 20

306 The Logic of History.

eophy of history has been such as to show that at present we
do not sufficiently understand the presuppositions to be able to
perceive, with any decisive clearness, the immanent end to
which they make.

A pessimistic conclusion of this kind demands qualification,
or at least some less general statement. It is not intended to
assert that philosophy of history has been a total stranger to
progress and success. It is no part of the thesis to prove that
satisfactory results cannot be achieved. The record of its
course in the growth of French thought, for example, is wit-
ness to substantial advance. With Bodiu, mere chronicling
gave place to a species of philosophy. Bossuet, in turn,
formulated a definite scheme ; while Montesquieu and Turgot
elaborated conceptions of a single law which, under changing
aspects, is held to pervade the entire course of human destiny.
From a critical point of view, Voltaire, Rousseau, and
Condorcet add something to previous ideas. But too much
destructive scepticism characterised their labours, and the
constructive answer of Chateaubriand, De Maistre, and
Lammeuais rested somewhat exclusively upon operative
doctrines drawn from a narrow basis of induction. The
intellectual assault was, in short, as so often happens, met by
a simple reaction. Comte at length attained a higher platform
by attempting, probably in unconsciousness of his office, a new
synthesis involving alike the sceptical and ultramontane
dogmas. The sweep of his system was such as to include
formally the principal problems incident to philosophy of
history. Materially, however, he did not specifically address
himself to them. His fundamental defect lay in an ineradicable
inability to comprehend the relation of metaphysics to the
other sciences. He could not understand, what Schopenhauer
a little later expressed with his customary laconic force, that
everything is as much metaphysical as physical. Consequent-
ly, in his effort to be rid of metaphysic, he became too meta-
physical, bowing down to an entity of his own creation,
instead of applying himself to elucidate the principles immanent
in the constitution of society. ' To emancipate physical and
psychological science from a theological and metaphysical

The Logic of History. 307

condition is no less a service to theology and metaphysics than
to physics and psychology. Every science must gain by being
kept in its own place. It is wrong to mix up either theological
beliefs or metaphysical principles among the laws of the
positive sciences. But we by no means do so when we hold
that both physics and psychology presuppose metaphysics,
and yield conclusions of which theology may avail itself, and
that we can still look on the whole earth as made beautiful by
the artist hand of the Creator, on science as the unveiling of His
wisdom, and on history as the manifestation of His provi-
dence.'* To this point, then, the pursuit of philosophy of
histoiy had been unsatisfactory enough. But, while it had
been productive of few solid conclusions, it had, at all events,
provided numerous studies in those general ideas which appear
to be inseparable from any consideration of historical pheno-
mena. Thinkers had shown indirectly that, ere a philo-
sophy of history could be framed, a certain platform must of
necessity be attained. But, they had, at the same time, failed
to indicate what such a philosophy involved. The nineteenth
century had passed through its first quarter ere the subject
began to be approached in a spirit which gave promise of fair
prospect of success.

Further, this comparative failure to perceive wherein
philosophy of history consists, and, more especially, the ten-
dency to misunderstand the relation of the inquiry to meta-
physics, had been accompanied by considerable uncertainty,
hesitation, and absence of continuity in the method pursued.
In this respect, indeed, the very name, philosophy of history,
proved a snare to some. The historical method naturally
suggested itself, and purely empirical investigations and con-
clusions acquired an importance to which they are now seen
to possess no title. Now, the historical method, if aided by
no other organon, is apt to deceive. It appears to achieve
results of a teleological kind, which cannot be attained by its
processes. For, while order may be introduced into confusing
events, while serviceable groupings may be constructed by

* Flint, p. 288.

308 'The Logic of History.

showing that a new arrangement throws fresh light upon the
facts, nevertheless, it is no part of the work of such rearrange-
ment to explain all that the series implies, nor to justify its
very being in any final sense. To follow the course of events,
no matter with what accuracy and understanding, is not to
comprehend their inmost nature.

Again, if the historical method has been applied in too
empirical a manner, the deductive plan has been followed in
far too confident a spirit. Condorcet's statement, made by
him at a venture, has, for example, been taken as a text for a
complete philosophy of history by other writers. ' The pro-
gress of society is subject to the same general laws observable
in the individual development of our faculties, being the result
of that very development considered at once in a great num-
ber of individuals.' Saint-Simon, as Prof. Flint acutely
remarks, erected this hazardous and ephemeral opinion into a
central law, and, with it as basis, built up a huge hypothesis
of historical series which, according to the theory, correspond
in essentials to the various stages in the development of a
single human career. If the historical method had often been
empirically employed, and had accordingly failed to illumine
the presuppositions of history, this a priori plan has, almost as
frequently, been thrust upon history to its distortion. ' The
greatest error into which Saint-Simon fell in connection with
it seems to me to have been his making it the expression of
an hypothesis, instead of regarding it simply as a mode of
arranging facts in such a way as might be hoped would even-
tually lead to the scientific proof the theory.'*

It might, thirdly, be shown that Cousin's psychological
method is not free from similar dangers. While valuable for
the implicit recognition of the importance of objective psy-
chology in preparing the way for an adequate philosophy of
history, it abounds in the possibilities of misleading analogy.
One pauses for a moment — to adduce an example — struck by
the statement that ' what reflection is to the individual history
is to the race.' Yet very brief reflection is sufficient to con-

* Flint, p. 405.

The Logic of History. 309

vince, not only that the doctrine is incapable of justification,
but that, as a matter of sober judgment, hardly any definite
meaning can be attached to it. And, to take only one other
case, a similar criticism applies to the method of Guizot. It
may be quite true that the historian must consider history from
the successive standpoints of the anatomist, the physiologist,
and the physiognomist. No doubt, from description of the
integral facts, from understanding of their general organisation,
and from quick recognition of their external appearance as a
living unity, very much may be learned. Notwithstanding,
all this may be done without trenching upon the sphere of
philosophy of history proper. For, a transcript in any of these
three kinds assumes the very materials which it is the purpose
of philosophy of history to analyse, and evaluate. A science of
history such a method might very well serve to furnish forth,
a philosophy it is incapable of providing. As regards method,
then, as well as with respect to matter, Prof. Flint's investiga-
tion goes to enforce the conclusion that the temper necessary
to a philosophy of history had not been evolved until com-
paratively recent times. ' Theories which represent history as
a mechanically necessitated product, or an inevitable dialectic
movement, or a simple organic growth, or the natural con-
sequence of a struggle for existence between individuals and
societies, or a fundamentally economic evolution,' have been
refuted. Fortified by the experiments of the past, which have
extended both to matter and to method, thinkers may now
go forward more confidently to strike out a new path for
themselves.

In the first place, the wreckage — as many heedlessly call it
— of former systems is fraught with useful and instructive
material. To take a few instances at a venture. A growing
conviction now exists that history, like other records of man's
life, is to be interpreted, not by what is lowest, but by what is
highest in its constitution. The best results of contemporary
culture supply an instrument which it would be folly to leave
unemployed. In the light of the essential import of man's
relations to his fellow man, as this is presently understood,
one can easily perceive many new filiations — new in the sense

310 'Hie Logic of History.

that, though operative always, their influence had not pre-
viously been estimated at its proper worth. Thus, philosophy
of history, while increasing in complexity, becomes more
adequate to the difficulties with which it must needs wrestle.
The hard lesson of learning to distinguish sharply between
mere investigation, witli "ts devotion to isolated or empirical
considerations, and metaphysical interpretation, with its in-
tuition of inner unity, has to some extent been mastered. And
there is great gain in knowing the difference between even
one species of preparation for philosophy and philosophising
proper. Indeed, one might go so far as to say, without undue
temerity, that a philosophy of history can be successfully pro-
pounded only on condition that the paradox which varied
failures embody be cleai'ly grasped. For, if the record of the
subject enforce one truism more than another, it is that history
cannot be reflectively envisaged except from a standpoint
which itself is unhistorical. History achieves its proper
vocation when it accurately recalls all the constituent mem-
bers of a certain series. But, thereafter, the series as a whole
remains. This, in turn, calls for presentation as a unity.
Here the historical vantage ground ceases to be advantageous.
For the immanent unity, being ubiquitous as respects time,
submits to no yoke except that of the present. And the
present in the eyes of the speculative thinker is, if not eternity,
atlea:t the necessary accompaniment of any knowledge what-
soever of the eternal. History, on the whole, as it presents itself
under the form of unity, supplies the subject matter of philo-
sophy of history. Accordingly, principles and ideals are the
objects with which this department of speculation is conversant.
The many disappointments, and the few partial successes of
former essays in the subject combine to show that coincidences,
even though controlled by a seeming law, or cyclic move-
ments, even when recurrent with an approach to regularity,
furnish but fringes round the true inner problems. 'Nothing
can be more important in any attempt at a philosophical
delineation of the course of history than the division into
periods. That ought of itself to exhibit the plan of develop-
ment, the line and distance already traversed, and the direction

The Logic of History. 311

of future movement. It should be made on a single principle,
so that the series of periods may be homogeneous, but on a
principle so fundamental and comprehensive as to pervade the
history not only as a whole, but in each of its elements, and to
be able to furnish guidance to the historian of any special
development of human knowledge and life. The discovery
and proof of such a principle is one of the chief services which
the philosophy of history may be legitimately expected to
render to the historian of science, of religion, of morality, and
of art.' * To-day, as Prof. Flint's weighty words tell, we at
last possess indications of the direction in which to seek
genuine philosophical questions respecting history, even if our
expectations of an immediate answer be none too hopeful.
Consequently, views alike of the matter and of the method of
philosophy of history tend to be unbistorical in themselves,
because relative to the present, from which they derive both
their significance and value.

To attain such a standpoint a special discipline is necessaiy.
It is indispensable, not merely to have acquaintance with
history proper, and with philosophy proper, but also to know
generally how these two departments have hitherto impinged
upon one another. For provision of the requisite training
nothing could be more admirable thau Dr. Flint's work. Free,
from prejudice, fair almost to a fault, of marvellous range and
remarkable for its compendious information, it is well calculated
to render highest service. The record here presented is some-
times far from encouraging, but, taken collectively, it is of the
kind to inspire hope. It tends throughout to discourage
finality, and to foster that eager yet reserved habit of mind on
which philosophical progress so largely depends. It may not
be out of place, therefore, before noting some of the charac-
teristics of the book by way of conclusion, to mention very
briefly one or two of the reflections regarding the matter and
method of philosophy of history which it has suggested.

The presuppositions of that association of men which makes
history possible are, speaking generally, not necessarily obscure

* Flint, p. 328.

312 The Logic of History.

in themselves. The abounding- difficulties of the subject arise
rather from the very complex, and often unexpected, influences
which these factors exercise upon one another. What the in-
tegral elements themselves are has alreadv been hinted. Human
association presupposes subjective and objective conditions in
which all men substantially share alike. It also involves a pecu-
liar experience, growing out of and supplementing the common
possessions just noted, but not enjoyed by all equally, in any
case so far as regards originating power. Society would be
impossible were men incapable of communicating with each
other on the basis of diffused knowledge. Language, silently
accepted conventions, undisputed conclusions as to the nature
of ' external ' agencies are among the most familiar contents of
such knowledge. That is to say, it involves an inner and an
outer side. Men become associated, because they enjoy a
similar experience, and so adopt similar views of life and the
world. This is the subjective side. On the other hand, these
associations are undoubtedly affected by external influences so
called. Climate, configuration of country, opportunities of
foreign intercourse, supply an objective element which is also
of vast effect. In the main, philosophy of history must accept
these conditions, or an account of them, on the authority of
other sciences, and especially from other departments of
philosophical inquiry. Its own special task lies with that
peculiar experience which has been already remarked as the
third, and great, presupposition of history. Ideals and all that
they involve, furnish, as we now perceive, the chief motive
forces of human association. Consequently, a philosophy of
history, in so far as it is truly metaphysical, must essay to
show how ideals operate in this inter-relationship to which the
name history is given. It has been said above that ideals are
not shared by all alike, at least so far as originating genius
goes. And here, probably, the clue to the special problems of
a metaphysic of history is to be found. The very possibility
of a continuous past lies bound up with the origination of
ideals, and with the subsequent effort to effect their realisation.
Now, while it is true that the framers of ideals derive the
materials out of which they build up their own greatness from

The Logic of History. 31o

the social medium of their day, from the accumulated stores of
past knowledge, and from the external conditions under which
they live, it is also true that they superadd something to all
these. The central figure in a historical crisis, the pilot who
sees a new movement through, as the phrase is, may not be
legitimately gifted with all the credit. The crisis, as we are
accustomed to be told, called them forth. Yet, on the contrary,
they, and they alone, achieve the unique results, and are by
this very fact original. Ideals are formulated by them, and so,
to all intents and purposes, they are creators. This calls
attention to the individual element in history. But these
ideals possess a missionary force, and pass over into the general
mind which, by the mastering power of co-operation, strives to
realise them wholly or in part. The reasons for the association
of men which makes history, aud the priucipal conditions or
presuppositions under which it exists are, thus, comparatively
incomplex. But, the moment one comes to view the operations
involved, simplicity vanishes ; hence the numerous failures
with which philosophy has had to bear. Often, for instance, a
conflict of ideals ensues. Some timid souls tend to rest satisfied
with what has already been accomplished, and desire nothing
better than to enjoy quietly such results as have been realised.
Others are ever anxious to adopt new movements, assured that
they are big with promise of a heaven upon earth. In the
same way, too, one nation or race is open to fresh ideals, while
another is impervious, or exhibits strong inclination to remain
dormant for a time. Further, ideals are many sided in them-
selves, and when, having quitted the seclusion of their parent
soul, they traverse the medium of many spirits, they are apt to
acquire new characteristics. ' The pure religion of Christ, for
example, falling on Pagan times, becomes tinged in its ritual
with Pagan idolatry, and in its creed with Pagan philosophy.
Its simple and homogeneous structure, when stretched on the
loom, is swiftly set upon by Greek metaphysicians, Egyptian
mystics, Neo-platonists, Jews, and Orientalists generally, who
interweave it with their subtleties, and dye or stain it with
their peculiar superstitions, sentiments, and habits of thought.
Learned Divines are kept busy in Ecumenical Councils and

314 The Logic of History.

elsewhere, superintending the selection of fibres and blending
of colours; an Emperor occasionally standing by and dictating
the particular threads of subtlety which are to be interwoven,
while his Empress, perhaps, is indulging her preference by
choosing the colour which most strikes her fancy.' The chief
task of philosophy of history, on its metaphysical side, is to
reduce these complexities to simplicity, to discover a general
principle underlying them by the presence of which they
reduce themselves to some kind of rational order.

Where, then, is the attack of philosophy of history upon this
problem most likely to be successful ? Is there any point at
which, on a survey of the past, it ought evidently to be
delivered ? Without employing misleading analogies, one may
say that ideals move in two directions. Aspiration is the
striking note of the originating personality. The tendency is
upward, and the more intense the rational faith, the greater is
the elevating force. When, on the other hand, the faith has
been delivered to the people, the upward movement, though
not ceasing, is complicated by the patent fact of distribution,
and by the varied interpretations put upon the new declared
principle by those who apprehend it more or less clearly.
Perhaps it might be shown that ' moments ' of elevation, which
are necessarily referable to individuals, alternate with
' moments ' of diffusion, which are most usually traceable in
communities. Be this as it may, the point which philosophy
of history must needs attack is that of the relation of these two
'moments' to one another. The problem thus presented is
sufficiently complex for even the most fearless thinker. It is
also sufficiently promising, because it deals with the pre-
suppositions productive of history and contributory day by
day to the continuance of all that most essentially charac-
terizes it.

Space forbids more than a single reference to the complexity
of the problem, and one to its hopefulness, both of which Pro-
fessor Flint supplies by the way. Ideals are difficult of treat-
ment, because their relation to knowledge, strictly so called, is
not as yet perfectly understood. 'Any youug man with a turn for
physical science may easily serve himself heir to the whole of

The Logic of History. 315

the intellectual legacy which " a great physicist" bequeathed to
the race. The gains of intellect being thus transmitted from
person to person, from generation to generation, are constantly
accumulating; the intellectual capital of mankind grows
steadily vaster ; and those who live latest are the heirs of all
the ages, are the richest. In a word, intellectual progress is a
fact. Moral acquisitions, however, are not transmitted and ac-
cumulated. They are entirely personal. Virtue is not herit-
able. There is no evidence that the force of will necessary for
conformity to moral law is increased in the course of ag,js ; or
that the men of to-day act up to their standard of duty more
faithfully than those of the earliest times.'* Philosophy of his-
tory has yet to exhibit the truth and the falsity of this posi-
tion. And a determination of these would very largely elim-
inate the obscurity which still clings around the relation be-
tween experience (in the philosophical sense) and ideals. On
the objective side, Professor Flint, preserving in most admir-
able fashion the true impartial attitude of the historian, does
not permit himself many remarks ; but he indicates his agree-
ment with Renouvier. In connection with the suggestion that
ideals have a double movement in history, one might derive
further assistance from Renouvier's classification of epochs.
Heie the twofold motion could be viewed, not simply in itself,
but also in its results, so far as these happened to be of a spe-
cific character. There may very well be ' "primary epochs" in
which ideals originate ; " secondary epochs," those in which
beliefs are developed into fully formed dogmas ; " tertiary
epochs," those in which faith is revolutionised by the progress
of science and the commingling of peoples.'f The questions,
of the relation of such periods to one another, of the general
development of ideals, and of the associations of men in which
they are respectively revealed, plainly stand in need of com-
pleter elucidation from a new point of view. But whatever
researches may be instituted, whatever divisions may be made,
it is valuable to know that the inquiry and analysis find their
proper material in those intangible forces which individuals

* Flint, pp. 512-3. t Ibid, p. (505.

316 The Logic of History.

originate under ascertainable social conditions, and which
communities elaborate in working out the measure of their
contribution to the onward march of the ages.

Further, all this not only throws light upon the nature of the
unity in which history consists, but also, by implication, upon
the ends towards which it is progressing. A rational meta-
physic of history, in other words, naturally tends to a teleo-
logical logic. It is evident that an association which is the
expression of a double movement of ideals cannot be exhaus-
tively, or even partially, explained by applying the categories
peculiar to a mechanical system. The passage of aspiration
from one personality to many, seeing it involves loss of primary
power, yet with a compensation in scope of distribution, does
not suggest an external combination of parts. Neither is it ex-
plicable as a combination in which each individual brings his
contribution to the whole, and in so doing, drops his own special-
ised nature, only to appear in a new and almost unrecognisable
guise. A more representative analogy would be that of a
living organism. But even this is inadequate ; and part of the
task of philosophy of history is to determine how far the cate-
gories incident to organism furnish an acceptable account of
history, and how far they fall short of this, so leaving room for
the introduction of yet higher notions suitable only to spiritual
experience, on which no external analogy can throw complete
light. Hence, once more, the logic ot history awaits the meta-
physic, and a philosophy of history must grapple with the
latter ere it can hope to enter legitimately upon the former,
its true promised land.

The problem of method, consequently, acquires renewed in-
terest. In this direction, too, the experience of the past proves
full of instruction. The course of inquiry which Dr. Flint him-
self apparently approves, is specifically determined by con-
sideration of former failures. ' In religions are contained
nearly all that we know of remote antiquity; they have always
been intimately connected with the state of moral sentiment
and even intellectual speculation ; the only proper method of
investigating them is that of comparison, analysis, induction,
and all a priori philosophies of history have arbitrarily aud

The Logic of History. 3 17

excessively simplified their course and succession.' * The most
serviceable method, however, is of a complex kind, including
as factors induction, in the broadest sense, and deduction.
Each of these has its own place, and if kept carefully distinct
from the other, its own value. Ultimate reality cannot be
reached by either alone, at least not within the sphere of philo-
sophy of history. Only when the independently ascertained
results of the two coincide, have we a strong presumption that
something essential has been happened upon. Induction may
take note of isolated elements, deduction may lead to the re-
cognition of broad primary causes. But neither satisfies. The
one tends to emphasize constitution, the other to fix upon de-
velopment, progress, humanity, or some such general idea.
Accordingly, while both require to be employed, true philoso-
phical science comes in time to outgrow them. Philosophy of
history must be circumspect in determining this ' psychological
moment.' And, looking to the past, the probabilities are that
the study is not yet ripe for consideration of that controlling
ideal of ideals which it is the business of speculation proper to
set forth. Interpretation is the want ; but the facts to
be interpreted are themselves still desiderata, because they are
as yet under dispute. As far as methods can aid, we have
knowledge and to spare, but the wisdom which depends upon
synthesis still lingers. The knowledge, obtained a priori and
a posteriori, has failed to yield up the elements on which syn-
thesis may be successfully superimposed. Probably this will
ever be the defect of philosophy of history, as of all genuine
speculation ; it constitutes, nevertheless, not only a stumbling
block but an incentive. The knowledge acquired by induc-
tion alone, or by deduction alone, is never any man's enemy,
except in so far as he permits himself to rest satisfied with it.
To arrive at essential reality, he must needs combine. Em-
pirical generalisations philosophy of history cannot help
making. But it does not thus attain its proper sphere. The
synthesis, of which these generalisations are the basis, is a pro-
duct, not of the simple knowledge which they attest, but of

* Flint, pp. 663-4.

318 The Logic of History.

spiritual insight; and Iiex-e deductive interpretation holds
sway. If philosophy of history cau show that the principles
which it adopts as the deductive compleraentaries of its in-
ductive research are not in conflict with the facts of history,
nay, rather throw light upon them; and that they establish a
species of new reading which transforms history without alter-
ing- it, then the basis for a statement of the method will have
been found. Only then, too, will the teleological inquiry,
which is most deeply logical, have come within sight.

In conclusion, one ought to insist that Dr. Flint evinces a
wise instinct in according so large a place to modern theories
of his subject. They, and only they, as we have tried
to notice, grasp the real magnitude of the issues of historical
philosophising. Of the many criticisms which might be passed
upon his work, few seem to damage, chiefly because the author
is so seldom taken at his word. One might object to the
absence of the comparative method of treatment, for example.
But, plainly, it was no part of the plan to split philosophies of
history into nicely balanced groups. One might take excep-
tion to the national arrangement adopted. Yet this is just as
useful as a wider or narrower division would conceivably have
been, and it has the advantage of aiding accuracy. On the
other hand, highest praise is clue to Dr. Flint, first, for his
extraordinary learning and care ; and second, for his complete
elevation above anything like partizanship — a most refreshing
quality in a modern philosophical treatise. No future worker in
this department of speculation can afford to neglect his book.
The vivid manner in which past systems are set forth, the
impartiality that meets out their defects and excellencies, the
acuteness displayed in disentangling their methods, cannot but
form essential portions of the discipline with which future
writers must brace themselves. In this manner mainly Dr.
Flint's work will influence new departures. The dangers and
difficulties special to the inquiry are everywhere indicated ; its
past matter and methods may be conveniently learned here ; and
lessons may be gleaned from consideration of the causes
productive of ancient failure or success. As a compendious
analysis of all these, the History of the Philosophy of History

The Master Masons of Scotland. 319

stands in need of no praise, and cannot be affected by blame.
The admiration which the present volume compels ought to be
the measure of the anxiety with which all real scholars will await
the delivery of future instalments. When completed, the work
will rank high among those aids to intellectual discipline, in the
absence of which speculation is only too likely to be abstract
to permanent futility or shallow to temporary partizau edifi-
cation.

R. M. Wenley.

Art. V.— THE MASTER MASONS OF SCOTLAND.

The Master Masons to the Crown of Scotland. By the Rev. R.
S. Mylne, M.A., B.C.L., F.S.A. Scott & Ferguson:
Edinburgh. 1893.

A NY satisfactory attempt at a complete survey of the
iTJL various works of the royal architects in early times was
a desideratum in the literary and architectural world before
the opportune publication of the King's Master Masons in the
late autumn of 1893. In the course of the earlier chapters of
this bulky work a large amount of original information not
hitherto accessible to the general public has been brought
together, and will prove of special interest to all those learned
persons who make a particular study of the archaeology of
architecture. The record, indeed, (except as regards the
ancient Bridge of Perth) does not commence before the
accession of King James III. in the year 1460, but from that
comparatively early date very full details are given in illustra-
tion of the closing years of the mediaeval period of Scottish
history. Such minute points are the more valuable, as
genuine documents prior to the melancholy death of King
James IV. are not readily to be met with by the student
of the archaeology of North Britain : and are, moreover,
full of instruction in reference to the final close of one

:J)20 Tlw Mutter Masons of Scotland.

great period of modem history, and the marked contrast with
which the next period opens.

Thus it is curious to note in the Charter and Statutes of the
masons and wrights of Edinburgh, anno 1485, that the official
processions of the Guild through the Scottish Capital are to be
conducted in the same method and manner as is usual in the
town of Bruges, showiug some early business connection
between Flanders and Scotland. As may be naturally
expected at this date, there is an intimate alliance between the
Church and the building crafts, who maintain the altar of S.
John the Evangelist, in the Collegiate Church of S. Giles,
whose members for the first and second offence contribute wax
towards the altar lights, and after that are punishable by the
Provost and Bailies of the town.

The contract of 1502 for completing the Tolbooth of Edin-
burgh gives the current rate of wages : — 10s. a week to John
Marser, the principal mason, and 9s. a week to the other
masons employed on this municipal work. Well hewn ashler
stone cost 2d. per foot.

Of greater interest is the Precept of 1503, whereby King
James IV. grants a pension of £40 per annum to Leonard
Logy, his faithful priest and architectural adviser, in considera-
tion of his diligent and great labour upon the palace beside the
Abbey of the Holy Cross : because it appears certain from
other contemporary records that Logy's work includes the
foundations of the present well-known Queen Mary's Tower at
Holyrood, the only portion of the present palace that was
erected before the Reformation. ' Its stout walls and solid
masonry,' as the author ot the Kings Master Masons observes,
1 have withstood the dire effects of fire and siege by the
enemy, as well as the destructive influence of political change,
and internal revolution.'

Another interesting document granted by the same monarch
is the license of 1491 to John Dundas of Dundas, to erect a
Fortress on the Rock of Inchgarvie, lying in the water of
Forth, between the passages of the Queen's Ferry. How
startled would the old laird be, if he could now revisit his
former haunts, and find a massive iron pier of the mighty

The Master Masons of Scotland. 321

Forth Bridge now resting on the precise spot once occupied by
his solid stone castle ! No remnants now of his ' moats, and
iron gates, drawbridge, turnlars, portcullises, battlements,
machicolations, crenelles, skowlares,' and other munitions and
defences ! But such are the manifold changes wrought by the
lapse of time.

Other early writs of the King have been collected by our
author with much care and pains, including one to Nichol
Crawford, Justice Clerk, containing an important clause
dispensing with all future Acts of Parliament ! Mr. Mylue
draws a brief parallel between this ancient writ of James V.,
and the well known dispensing power claimed by Charles I.,
and the later sovereigns of the House of Stuart, which so
materially helped to bring about their final downfall.

But we must pass on to the conclusion of the first chapter,
which contains the remarkable record of all the principal
householders along the High Street of the old town of Edin-
burgh, immediately before the disastrous battle of Flodden.
A list of this kind so early in date is somewhat uncommon, and
it is curious to note what a large proportion of the owners were
ecclesiastics. Mention is also made of the printing premises of
Walter Chepman, a genuine pioneer of all true learning,
distinguished as having set up the first printing press in the
Scottish Capital.

We imagine that the map of the siege of Edinburgh under
the Earl of Hertford in 1544, which is inserted between the
first and second chapters of this book, will form a complete
novelty to most readers. The original sheet is preserved
amongst the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum. Apart
from its reproduction for the Bannatyne Miscellany, it has
never before been given to the public : and there is no plan of
so early a date existing in the North. The Cowgate would
not naturally come into the view of a besieging army
approaching from the northern side of the town, but in
defiance of the rules of perspective, we are shown these lower
houses as well as those situated in the High Street, the object
being to give a complete idea of the city.

Chapter II. gives the public career of Alexander, Abbot of

XXIV. 21

322 The Master Masons of Scotland.

Cambuskenneth — ecclesiastic, statesman, lawyer, historian,
architect. Space forbids any attempt at enumerating in full
detail the wonderful industry of this energetic and powerful
character, who seemed able with equal success to lay his hand
upon all the various threads of public life, and was capable of
shining as a bright luminary amongst the heads of both
Church and State. In the midst of secular occupation he
never forgot his high ecclesiastical position. He was, in fact,
one of the last of those noble ecclesiastical statesmen who
throughout the middle ages were illustrious in the romantic
annals of Scotland. Possessed of the confidence of the people
as well as the King, and in favour with Pope Leo X., his
public position was secure. His zeal for the practical welfare
of the nation was shewn in the erection of bridges, the careful
preservation of ancient documents, and the undertaking of the
laborious duties of first President of the Court of Session, still
the supreme legal tribunal of Scotland. No one can study the
record of his life without pronouncing him great as well as
pious, of wide and statesman-like views, as well as devoted to
the Christian Church.

Incorporated in this second chapter is the Dunkeld Bridge
Account, a long document which has been translated from the
original Latin MS. preserved in the Advocates Library in
Edinburgh with great pains and care. Not only on account of
its antiquity, but also on account of the thorough light shewn
in reference to later mediaeval customs and habits of life, this
particular document possesses a very special interest. We see
plainly both the organisation in detail of a mediasval diocese,
and the general system of building bridges in vogue amongst
mediaeval bishops. When the masons did not dine with the
Bishop of Dunkeld, he always sent them an extra penny
apiece. The mention of steel is remarkable, and there are
some curious words without Latin equivalents, as wesps, nops,
plancheour, garroun, brandier, croy, hames, and thettis.
Noonschanks was afternoon tea, or rather a light supper. If
a workman died, they were careful to provide his ' wyndyn-
schet ' as in the case of Robert Cawquhyn, who had 3 ells of
linen. George Brown, Lord Bishop of Dunkeld, bequeathed

The Master Masons of Scotland. 323

the bulk of his personal property for the completion of the
Bridge, charging Alexander Mylne, the Canon of that
Cathedral, and James Feutoun, the Precentor, to execute the
directions contained in his last will and testament. This they
were very careful to do. Nothing, however, now remains of
the handsome bridge then erected.

Concerning the family of Franche, whose architectural
record is preserved in Chapter III., we may note how Thomas,
the most distinguished of this name, commenced his public
career under that noble Bishop of Aberdeen, William Elphin-
stone, in the honourable capacity of builder of the famous old
bridge over the river Dee, still used for ordinary traffic, though
widened with judgment as well as elegance between the years
1841 and 1844. From the service of the Bishop he passed to
that of the King, and left his permanent and enduring mark on
the royal palaces of Linlithgow and Falkland. In the year
1535, when James V. was at Kelso, the writ under the Privy
Seal of Scotland was issued whereby he became Master Mason
to the Crown 'for all the dais of his lit*.' Henceforth he was
one of the chief architectural advisers of this artistic Stuart
sovereign. Thomas Franche's public career, as our author
justly observes, ' illustrates the great historic fact that at the
beginning (or rather perhaps the middle) of the sixteenth
century the Church ceased to be the great builder amongst
the nations, and the civil government began to occupy the
public position so long held by the Episcoj)ate.' In the same
year that Thomas Franche was appointed King's Master
Mason, he also received a bounty of £20, and an interesting
photograph of the original document will be found opposite to
p. 41 of the book we are now considering. The sign manual
is appended, a somewhat uncommon occurrence in writs of
this class. On the upper portion of the same page is exhibited
a facsimile of the last sheet of the royal accounts for building
purposes for the year 1529, with the authentic signatures of the
Lords Auditors subjoined. First amongst these signatories is
Alexander Cambuskenneth.

Franche's influence, however, was soon eclipsed by the
French masons, who came to Scotland in the train of James

324 The Master Masons of Scotland.

V.'s French bride, Mary of Lorraine. Nicholas Roy was the
chief of this class, and became King's Master Mason under
writ of the Privy Seal in 1539. Moyse or Mogin Martyne
received custody of the Castle of Dunbar, while Peter the
Flemishman carved the figures that yet survive on the
southern front of Falkland Palace. Bartrahame Foliot was
employed in paving the streets by the corporation of Edin-
burgh.

After careful examination, it appears easy to trace at the
present time the definite results of this French influence at
both Stirling Castle and Falkland Palace. The somewhat
fantastic figures placed along the battlements, the decorative
work superadded to the simpler wall structure, the buttress of
Renaissance design in front of mediaeval walls, alike point to
the blending of foreign and native skill, and the joint labours
of French and Scottish workmen. Upon the facts given above
Mr. Mylne thus comments : —

' All authorities note the remarkably French characteristics of the
details— the distinct hint of the Renaissance style superadded to the
Gothic after Parisian fashion, or Orleanois type, so different in detail to the
later influence of the Renaissance throughout the whole of Europe, and
Great Britain in particular. The fantastic decoration, and the peculiar
figures that fill the niches, are more in keeping with the quaint phantasy
of Gaul than the sterner forms prevalent in the North. The mere exuber-
ance of fancy is permitted to run riot, producing a gorgeous but somewhat
extravagant effect. There is great richness, but a lack of purity in this
pai'ticular style.'

The close connection with France is also shewn by various
quotations from contemporary documents. Thus in the
Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer for 1539 the following
entry occurs : —

Item, for the vj. masonis expens quhilk the Duke of Groys sends to the

kingis grace x1'.

In the same year Anthoinette de Bourbon, Duchess of
Lorraine writes to her daughter, the Queen of Scotland : —
( Je este bien ayse voir vous estes contente des massons, etc'
Moreover, Nicholas Roy was succeeded in the office of
King's Master Mason by another Frenchman, John Roytell.

The Master Masons of Scotland. 325

He was also a burgess of Edinburgh, having been admitted at
the special request of the Prior of Holyrood.

' Johannes Ryotell lathomus Gallus effectus est burgensis in
judicio et datur eidem gratis ad requestum prioris monasterii
Sancte Crucis qui prepositum et ballivos in dicto monasterio
predie existentes eosdera bene tractabat.'

At the foot of p. 54 will be found a list of the signed letters
of King James V., preserved in the National Library at Paris.

In the month of June, 1567, Mary Queen of Scots left Holy-
rood for Lochleven Castle, never to return. At once the
French influence was swept away, and the leaders of the Re-
formation in religion obtained the upper hand. There was
much confusion in Church and State for more than a decade
of years.

Harie Balfour became Master of works in 1561, and Sir
Robert Drummond ot Carnock in 1579; who executed works
at Doune Castle, and elsewhere. His successor, however,
William Schaw, was a man of greater distinction. He was a
prominent Freemason, and his name is of frequent occurrence
in the early records of the Incorporation of Mary's Chapel,
Edinburgh. He was also a favourite with Queen Anne, and
while he carried out some works at most of the Royal Palaces,
his name will be always chiefly remembered in connection
with the Abbey of Dunfermline. On his sudden death in 1602,
an elaborate monument was erected to his memory by his
Royal Patroness in this noble Church.

"We must now turn to the family of Mylne, first distinguished
in the annals of Scotland under James III., in connection with
the art of building. At this period, however, John Mylne of
Dundee, wins for himself an assured position of prominence,
which is continually maintained by his descendants in after
generations. He was employed by Loi'd Somerville to build
Drum House, and also erected the old Cross of Dundee, whose
original shaft has recently been erected beside the principal
church of the town. For putting the whole of the harbour
works in a state of efficiency, he was made a Burgess of the
town gratis, while in 1589 he undertook to erect a gallery and
certain other additions for Thomas Banuatyne, in his house at

326 The J faster Masons of Scotland.

the Kirktoun of Newtyle. The original contract is given pp.
6(5-9, and contains some curious regulations and quaint expres-
sions. Thus ' lummingis ' is the chimney shaft, ' kaip ' equals
cope, and ' doucat ' the dovecote.

After executing various other works in the town of Dundee,
in the year 1604 or 1605 he removed to Perth, and spent the
remainder of his life in building the stone bridge of eleven
arches over the water of the Tay, which was swept away by a
tremendous flood on October 14, 1621. The builder had died
earlier in the same year, and thus avoided seeing the bridge's
terrible downfall. Chapter VI. gives a complete sketch of the
history of the various attempts to span the water of Tay be-
side the town of Perth, from the days of King William the
Lion to the time of King Charles II. Those who care for such
archaeological lore would do well to look into this portion of
the work with care and attention, and incidentally they will
find mention of other matters connected with the old town, as
the annual race for the silver bell held at Eastertide, and the
strong objection maintained by the Kirk Session to any citizen
travelling in Spain or Portugal. Alexander Lowrie, having
visited the latter country, was 'admonischit nocht to trawell to
thess partiss agane, except that thay wer wthervyss reformit
in religione.J Yet he was careful to state that he had never
attended high mass. The geographical importance of Perth is
fully appreciated by our author, as by all familiar with the
neighbourhood. ' Situated at the southern outlet of wild
mountain passes in the Grampians, accessible to the North Sea
by means of the broad water of Tay, half way between the
Western Highlands and the chill East Coast, Perth was well
adapted for the royal residence, and the capital of the king-
dom. The swift flowing river was a dividing line, and the
absolute necessity for easy means of transit was keenly felt
with the first dawn of civilisation.'

We must now pass on to other matters. William Wallace
became King's Master Mason in 1617, was an active member
of the Lodge of Mary's Chapel, and executed much work
about the Royal Palaces. In the earlier entries, he is gener-
ally called the Carver, and in the midst of his great work at

The Master Masons of Scotland. 327

Heriot's Hospital, he suddenly died. Though the general plan
was sent from London by the Dean of Rochester, due credit
for the elaboration of detail must be given to this eminent
master builder, while all critics agree in the acknowledged
beauty of the result.

On Wallace's death John Mylneof Perth becameMaster Mason
to Charles I. Commencing his professional career by assisting
his father in the erection of the stone bridge over the water of
Tay, he was called to Edinburgh by the Town Council to
complete the statue of the King upon the Netherbow Port, as
well as to re-erect the Town Cross. His next task was the
building of the Parish Church of Falkland, under contract
with David Lord Scone ; and then the construction of a new
steeple for the Tolbooth of the City of Aberdeen. In 1629-30
he made the sun-dial at present in the beautiful gardens of
Drummond Castle, and re-built portions of this romantic
Perthshire residence. In 1633, together with his two sons, he
constructed the famous sun-dial now in the royal gardens of
Holyrood, so richly decorated with the initials and appropriate
emblems of the noble Princes of the House of Stuart. After-
wards he worked at Heriot's Hospital, of which there are some
good engravings in the book. When he had held the office
of Master Mason five years, he resigned in favour of his son
John, and retired to Perth, where he died Master of the Lodge
of Scone and Perth in 1658. The curious lists of masons
"working on the royal castles and palaces form a special feature
of this seventh chapter, as well as the full particulars concern-
ing the foundation of the Bishopric of Edinburgh, the masonic
document relating to Perth, and the brief notice of Alexander
Mylne, the sculptor, who died at the early age of thirty.

We think, however, that the account of John Mylne of
Edinburgh, contained in the next chapter, will prove of
greater interest. This remarkable man came into prominence
at the early age of twenty-five, when he became Master
Mason to Charles I., and in the next year Master Mason to the
City of Edinburgh. Amongst his architectural works we may
note the Tron Church in the High Street of Edinburgh, Pan-
mure House in the county of Forfar, now the property of the

328 The Master Masons of Scotland.

young Earl of Dalhousie, and the Town Hall of the Royal
Burgh of Linlithgow. He also executed repairs on many im-
portant buildings, notably the famous Church of S. Giles, and
the magnificent Abbey of Jedburgh. The official report on
the latter sacred edifice concludes by saying, 'the Master of
Works wonders how either the minister dare be bold to pray,
or the people to hear.'

Beside making various additions to the College in Edin-
burgh, John Mylne also became Master Mason to Heriot's
Hospital, and executed various minor works in and about the
good town, so well known to fame as the capital of Scotland.
In other departments, however, beside architecture, John
Mylne left distinct traces of his genius and influence, for in
the year 1646 he became Captain of Pioneers, and Master
Gunner for the Castle of Edinburgh and all Scotland, and in
1652 was sent to London as one of the official Commissioners
to arrange a Treaty of Union with the Parliament of England
under the authority of the Lord Protector Oliver Comwell.
He was at the same time one of the members for Edinburgh
in the Scottish Parliament,

On the restoration of King Charles II., he was confirmed in
all his offices by that sovereign, and was employed to make
plans of Holyrood, one of which has recently been discovered
in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Great interest attaches to
this document, because it shews alterations and extensions
which had been intended to have been carried out by earlier
Stuart Princes. According to a learned paper recently read
by W. W. Robertson, Esq., Surveyor for Scotland to H. M.
Office of Works, it also shews the condition of the palace at
the actual date of the Restoration. Of course, the lordly
designs of that unfortunate monarch Charles I., altogether
failed of realisation. What terrible irony is there in the words
of the text with which he crowned such work as he was
enabled to execute !

'HE SHALL BUILD AN HOUSE

FOR MY NAME, AND I WILL

STABLISH THE THRONE

OF HIS KINGDOM

FOR EVER.'

The Master Masons of Scotland. 329

John Mylne died in December, 1667, and the Incorporated
Trades placed an appropriate inscription to his credit and
renown over the entrance door of their hall, S. Mary's Chapel,
in Niddry's Wynd, now destroyed, from which we quote a few
suitable lines: —

Rare man he was, who could unite in one
Highest and lowest occupation.
To sit with Statesmen, Councillor to Kings,
To work with tradesmen in mechanick things.
May all Brethren, Myln's steps strive to trace,
Till one, withall, this house may till his place.

The long Latin inscription in the Greyfriars' churchyard,
over his actual place of burial, is too well known to require
quotation. His nephew, Robert, was appointed his successor
as King's Master Mason, and made for himself an enduring
name as the builder of the present Palace of Holyrood. Why
Charles II. and his administration in Scotland were so anxious
to rebuild the ancient Palace of Holyrood is not very clear,
considering the great scarcity of money in the royal exchequer.
On this point our author writes as follows : —

' Perhaps the close association for so many years with the Royal House
of Stuart was the principal reason that prompted the large expenditure of
ill-spared money that actually took place. The old Tower of Queen Mary
was regarded as a visible badge of the real sovereignty of her princely
descendants. The ecclesiastical associations of the Chapel Royal recalled
the monarchical theory of the divine right of kings. The remains of the
Abbey beside the Palace suggested to the mind the valued connection
between the authorities of the Church and the State. The same idea was
in some sort implied by the very name of Holyrood. More truly than
with Linlithgow, or Falkland, or Stirling, the royal residence in Edinburgh
seemed bound up with the supreme rights of the House of Stuart. Yet
King Charles II. was wedded to Whitehall and Windsor, both by necessity
and by choice. He can never have seriously intended to take up his resi-
dence in Scotland for any length of time.'

Nevertheless, the new works were proceeded with at such
pace as was possible. His Grace the Duke of Lauderdale, his
brother, Sir Charles Maitland, commonly known as Lord Hat-
ton, Sir William Bruce, Sir William Sharp, and Robert Mylne
all did their best to push the business forward, and held fre-
quent conferences, in the King's name and under his royal

.) • >

30 The Master Masons of Scotland.

authority, in order to expedite the matter. In the book we
are now considering the fullest details will be found, extending
from pages 160 to 212. Suffice it to say on the present occa-
sion, that the principal contract, from which the present palace
may be fairly dated, was signed in the month of March, 1(572,
for £57,000 Scots, and there were other subsidiary contracts
involving further expense. In the original plans, never before
printed, and also the numerous private letters between the
King and the Duke of Lauderdale and other eminent persons
in Scotland, a very interesting light is thrown on the general
circumstances of the times. Those who were fortunate enough
to be in the possession of high office seem oftentimes ambitious
of further preferment, while those who were out in the cold
knew they had chance of none. In the actual building opera-
tions the best materials appear to be obtained from the most
suitable quarter, as England, France, or Holland, and free use
of the harbour of Leith is made for shipment. There is no
attempt made at the consumption of exclusively Scottish glass,
or wood, or stone, or iron. In each case the best material is
sought for under the most favourable circumstances, and the
excellent quality of the goods is carefully maintained. Jacob
de Wet, the well known Dutch painter, was employed upon
the interior decorative work; and David Binning supplied
French glass ; while English lead-gold was provided by Henry
Fraser. The wainscott for the King's own apartment came
by sea from Rotterdam, and Jan Vansantvoort carved the
chimney-pieces in the royal chambers. Sir James Stansfield
received £800 Scots for 60 great trees, and John Halbert,
together with George Dunserfield, English plasterers, £252
Scots for plastering the third room of the third story of the
inner side of the north quarter of the Palace. But lack of
space forbids any attempt to enter upon all the details con-
nected with the building of Holyrood. They may be studied
at length in the ninth and tenth chapters of the King's Master
Masons. Opposite page 166 will be found a facsimile of an
autograph letter written by Lord Lauderdale in 1671, and
above it a view of Holyrood under the Commonwealth. The
last of the six original drawings relating to the Palace consists

The Master Masons of Scotland. 331

of a curious map showing' the titles in 1670 to the various
plots of land immediately adjoining the royal residence. It
may not be generally known that some of these (marked 11,
12, 13, 14, 15, 28, on the aforesaid map) were obtained by
purchase from the Lord Bishop and the Dean of Edinburgh.
It is further curious to note how strongly John Evelyn ob-
jected to corner chimney pieces, noting in his diary that in his
opinion the King had in this manner spoilt his new hunting
box at Newmarket. The lengthy contract, pp. 176-81, is a
good specimen of a contemporary document, and throws a side
light on the manners and customs of the building trade in the
seventeenth century. On page 187 there is an interesting list
of all the materials in hand in December, 1674, for the building
of Holyrood. This list was made by Charles Maitland, as also
the elaborate account of the various weapons of defence in the
Castle of Edinburgh in the year 1679, which will be found, pp.
203-9.

Of the present Palace, the western facade was the last por-
tion completed, owing partly to the necessity of taking down
stone-work erected by ' the usurpers,' i.e., the English in the
days of Cromwell, and owing also to some difference of opiuion
amongst the constituted authorities as to the best way of
finishing this portion of the whole structure. In the month of
July, 1676, the contract for the above mentioned work was
signed at Holyrood-house between Sir W. Bruce, Sir W.
Sharp, and Robert Mylne, at £4,200 Scots.

Mr. Mylne's concluding remarks on the completion of Holy-
rood Palace seem worth quoting at this place in our review.

' Perhaps the most elegant feature in this palatial structure is the neat
blending of the columns of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian order on the
three stories of the garden front. If the King had not made objection,
there would have been considerably more external decoration. As it is,
the whole structure falls far short of the intentions of the earlier kings of
Scotland, though sufficient for all actual needs. As the Palace was then
finished, it has since remained a noble and enduring memorial of the
Sovereign Princes of the ancient House of Stuart. '

From the portrait of the builder, opposite page 217, he
seems to have been a genial man, and amongst his other
notable works we may mention the Cross of Perth, Wood's

332 The Master Masons of Scotland.

Hospital at Largo, the bridge over the River Clyde at Rornell-
weill Crags, 29 miles above Lanark, Mylne's Square and
Mylne's Court in the High Street of Edinburgh. It was in a
* laigh shop ' or cellar on the basement floor of a tenement in
the above mentioned square that, according to the old tradi-
tion, the famous treaty of Union was signed and sealed in the
days of good Queen Anne. The Commissioners had assembled
in an ornamental summer-house at Moray House, to affix their
signatures ; but, driven out of that place by the infuriated
mob, they took refuge in the ' laigh shop ' already mentioned,
and there completed the deed destined to have so beneficial
an influence on the fortunes of both countries. Unlike Sir
Robert Mylne of Barnton, whose fortunes rose and fell with the
House of Stuart, Robert Mylne, the builder of Holyrood, seems
to have been on fairly good terms with the administration of
King William III., though of course all his preferment was due
to Charles II. and the powerful Duke of Lauderdale. Late in
life he executed some work at Heriot's Hospital, and fitted up
a house in the Writers Court for the due accommodation of
the Writers to the Signet, and finally died in his own house at
Inveresk, on December 10th, 1710, at the age of seventy-
seven. His handsome monument in the Greyfriars is well
known to the great majority of the visitors to Edinburgh.

In consequence of the Act of Union, passed after much
strenuous opposition in the year 1707, many changes were
made in the entire system of the Scottish administration, the
office of King's Master Mason became of less importance, and
in the end passed into disuse. Here then, in the strict sense,
our subject comes to a natural conclusion. The succession of
the King's Master Masons has been traced with the greatest
care and diligence from the accession of King James III. to
the death of Queen Anne. With the commencement of the
eighteenth century, we come upon a new order of things; and
we are essentially in modern times. The author of The Master
Masons, however, cannot resist the natural impulse to add a
fourth and last section to his great book, in which he traces
what befel the direct descendants of the Master Mason to
Queen Anne. We can only briefly notice this section. While

The Master Masons of Scotland. 333

chapter xii. gives the public career of Thomas Mylne, Surveyor
to the City of Edinburgh, and William Mylne, the architect of
the ponderous North Bridge, which is now threatened with
demolition, the next chapter is full of interest on account of
the remarkable career of Robert Mylne of London, as highly
distinguished as any of the earlier members of the family in
the past annals of architecture.

When but a youth he had the inestimable advantage of
studying art in the great city of Rome. As our author finely
observes : —

' Once within the vast walls of the Eternal City, he found countless
objects of the greatest interest to study — priceless specimens of antique
and medieval art, huge monuments of architectural skill and daring, con-
structed by the autocratic order of mighty Emperors and Popes, who
seem to have thought the whole race of mankind chiefly formed for the
particular purpose of carrying out their imperious will. Like many
another visitor from every quarter of the civilised world, the young archi-
tect, hitherto accustomed to the grey skies and the bleak lands that border
the cold North Sea, was utterly astonished at the warmth of beauty and
the haughty magnificence of the whole scene. He lingered in the mighty
old-world city, and entered upon a serious course of study, enduring for
the space of nigh four years.'

And his study was not without fruit, for in 1758 he obtained
the Papal silver medal of the Academy of S. Luke, as a first
prize in architecture : a fact which Andrew Lumisden, Secre-
tary to the Stuart Princes then exiled in Rome, was careful
to note in his private correspondence with Lord George
Murrav\

Returning to London the following year with a high repu-
tation, Robert Mylne was fortunate enough to be chosen
architect of Blackfriars Bridge by the Lord Mayor and Cor-
poration out of sixty-nine competitors, amongst whom was Sir
William Chambers. The foundation stone was laid with much
official display and ceremony, on November 30th, 1760, and
this noble bridge took near ten years in building. The great
arch of 100 feet span was formally opened on October 1st,
1764, when the Lord Mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen were rowed
underneath in the gorgeous city barge. As Andrew Lumisden,
in the kindness of his heart had prophesied, the new bridge,

.">;'> 1 Tlie Master Masons of Scotland.

built of Portland stone, was a decided success, and ' honour
and fortune were the consequence of the undertaking.' A
long and useful professional career at once opened out for the
young architect. Indefatigable in work, patient in business,
with inexhaustible energy he seized the opportunities of life,
and when he had passed the three score years and ten deemed
to be the alloted span of humanity, there was hardly any dis-
trict of Great Britain which had not received the benefit of his
engineering skill or architectural advice. It were tedious to
enter upon details in these matters, but in Scotland alone he
left his permanent mark on Inverary Castle, to which he made
extensive additions for the Duke of Argyll, the old bridge of
Glasgow, upon which he was consulted by the Corporation,
from whom he received a handsome silver salver, the Heriot's
Park Reservoir in Edinburgh, S. Cecilia's Hall, and the reser-
voir on the Pentland Hills. The noble head of the Argyllshire
clans also consulted him in reference to Rosneath Castle, and
his country farm-steads in Glenshire. Yet London was the
centre of his professional activity, and as Engineer to the New
River Company, he resided above forty years at the New
River Head in the parish of Clerkenwell. In this important
capacity he was charged with the onerous duty of maintaining
the purity and efficiency of the water supply for the chief
portion of the rapidly growing metropolis of the British
Empire. There is grace and elegance in the monumental in-
scription which he placed upon one of the islands in the stream
to the memory of the brave Sir Hugh Myddelton, founder of
the New River in the days of James I. :—

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

Sir HUGH MYDELTON, Baronet,

WHOSE SUCCESSFUL CARE

ASSISTED BY THE PATRONAGE OF HIS KINO

CONVEYED THIS STREAM TO LONDON.

AN IMMORTAL WORK

SINCE MAN CANNOT MORE NEARLY

IMITATE THE DEITY

THAN IX BESTOWING HEALTH.

The Master Masons of Scotland. 335

If, moreover, we should judge of the practical success of a com-
mercial company by the high value of its original shares, every
one will agree that at the present time the New River occupies
a perfectly unique position in the financial world. In this
special department, he was succeeded by his son, who held
office for exactly 50 years; and executed many important
improvements in the water system. For further particulars
we must refer the reader to the elaborate details contained in
the bonk at present under consideration.

As surveyor to the Stationers' Company, Robert Mylne
designed and erected the east front of their Hall on Ludgate
Hill during the first year of the present century.

As surveyor to the Dean and Chapter of S. Paul's he had
charge of the noble fabric of their magnificent Cathedral from
1766 to 1811, and upon his death in the latter year was buried
according to his own desire in the crypt of that great church
beside the remains of Sir Christopher Wren, the great stone of
whose well known monument he had himself duly set the
previous year, as he was careful to note in his own diary.
As may be seen from the two beautiful engraved portraits, he
was a man of dignity and determination, not easily swayed
from any purpose which he might have in hand. The artistic
excellence of these two engravings is indeed a marked feature
of the book, especially perhaps that delicate plate executed in
Paris in the last century, which could hardly be surpassed by
any modern work. True lovers of art, apart from the general
contents, will prize the volume for these superb illustrations.

Another example of this kind is the highly finished plate of
Blackfriars Bridge by Piranesi, the distinguished engraver to
the Pontifical Court towards the close of the eighteenth century.
We also think highly from the artistic point of view of the two
Papal medals shown as an illustration opposite to page 266.
We believe that Freebairn, the Scotchman who executed this
fine work, is now dead, while the portraits of the two Popes,
Clement XIII. and Clement XIV., will well repay the free use
of the magnifying glass. But throughout the entire volume
the standard of illustration is decidedly high, and to
some minds will doubtless form the most attractive feature

336 The Master Masons of Scotland.

in this elegant publication. At the end of all, after the
close of the last chapter, which records the public career
of William Chadwell Mylne, F.R.S., Engineer to the New
River, and Surveyor to the Stationers' Company, and of Itobert
W. Mylne, F.R.S., Surveyor to the Stationers' Company, we
must draw attention to the spirited reproductions of the Four
Crown Steeples of the northern parts of Britain. Perhaps,
however, we ought only to speak of three, as the Crown
Steeple of Linlithgow was taken down in 1820, to avoid the
necessary cost of repair, and has never been replaced. In their
way these Crowns are unique in Gothic architecture, coming
as they do half-way between a spire and a tower. Have they
any connection with the monarchical form of government that
prevailed in Scotland, or the close union between Church and
State existing in the Middle Ages?

Another remarkable picture is the general view of the In-
corporated Trades of Edinburgh engaged in their several
crafts in front of the royal Palace of Holyrood. Painted by
Roderick Chalmers in 1721 for the Lodge of Mary's Chapel,
the original production has since been destroyed in the various
changes that have taken place in Edinburgh. It illustrates
the practical difference between early and modern work, in as
much as we here see the various trades at work in harmony,
doing their respective portions side by side, the Master Mason
putting his hand to it with the rest of the labourers.

Some of the earlier illustrations are also highly creditable,
particularly the engravings of Stirling and Linlithgow, and
opposite page 48 will be found an interesting example of
French workmanship of a decorative character, superadded to
earlier Scottish masonry. The small human figures over
against the old battlements are certainly suggestive of the age
to which they belong, and form an effective picture. Opposite
page 41 are photographs of original MSS., which show the
great trouble incurred by the author in compilation, and one
of these exhibits the sign manual of King James V. It may
be noted that the original of the portrait of John Mylne,
opposite page 104, is now in the National Portrait Gallery in
Edinburgh. Altogether, we have but one complaint to make

Jerusalem. 337

of this book, and that is its excessive weight, amounting to
10 pounds: yet, perchance, we will pardon this little fault for
the excellence of the quality and material. This is the right
way to write family and professional history, and to make per-
manent record of an important office under the Crown.

Art. VI— JERUSALEM.

rnHE present renewal of excavations at Jerusalem lends
-L interest to the question of its ancient topography, and of
the general results of previous explorations on the site. These
results have been published in a lai'ge quarto volume called
the ' Jerusalem ' Volume of the Memoirs of the Survey of
Western Palestine, written jointly by Sir Charles Warren and
by the present writer in 1884 ; and since that time the only
important addition to the literature has been an article by
Sir C. W. Wilson on ' Jerusalem ' in the new volume of Smith's
Bible Dictionary, 1893.

Substantially the results of these various considerations of
the topography are in accord, and there are iudeed only two
questions which remain subject to controversy, one of which
is of very minor importance, namely, (1) the situation in which
the names Akra or 'Lower City' and 'City of David' or
'Zion' should be written, and (2) the extent that should be
embraced within the area of Herod's Temple. As regards the
site of the Upper City, the general direction of the 'Second
Wall,' the position of the later quarter of Bezetha, the position
of En Rogel or Gihon — the only natural water supply of the
original city — and as regards many minor points, all the
explorers are in accord, and they all agree in rejecting the
theory put forward by Dr. Robertson Smith and Prof. Sayce,
which restricts the Jerusalem of the Bible to the narrow spur
South of the Temple — a theory which cannot be reconciled
with the accounts given by Josephus, and which would make
the capital of Israel occupy an area of only 10 or even 5 acres,
which is evidently impossible, since the ancient cities of Pales-
xxiv. 2 2

338 Jerusalem.

tine — suck as Tyre, Csesarea, etc., all cover at least 100 acres,
and since the population of the smaller area would not have
exceeded 500 souls.

The controversies, which have been carried on for the last
half century on this subject, are due to the very brief and
vague character of the literary accounts, and to the imperfect
nature of our actual information due to exploration. The city
being still inhabited, and the modern buildings extending over
the great part of the ancient site, it has always been impossible
to lay bare the foundations except in parts where there are
now no buildings standing. The city and the Temple were
razed to the ground by Titus, and no ruins are left above the
surface, except the western towers and the walls of the Temple
enclosure which were too massive to be overthrown. Huge
mounds of rubbish, often 100 feet in depth, cover the rock and
obscure the ancient conformation of the hills ; and within the
modern city it has only been possible to ascertain the old levels
in cases where foundations have been dug for houses, or where
excavations have been made for other purposes. Yet even
under these difficulties great advance has been made in the
actual study of the site, and the question now rests on a very
different basis from that on which it was perforce considered
before the memorable excavations by Sir Charles Warren.
The rock levels are known at 50 points within the area of the
Haram or Temple enclosure, and in some parts the rock is on
the surface over a large area. More than 230 observations —
sometimes extending over 100 yards distance — have been
made of the rock surface in other parts of the ancient city.
It must also be remembered that the rock is known wherever
it appears on the surface, and that in all other cases its level
cannot be higher than that of the present streets. From such
observations it is clearly possible to attain to a fairly exact
idea of the original features of the ground.

The modern city may be said roughly to be a mile square
within the walls, representing a town not larger than ancient
Winchester, and about two-thirds of the area of Jerusalem
in the time of Titus. The population can never have ex-
ceeded some 30,000 to 40,000 persons ; but even when thinly

Jerusalem. 339

inhabited in the time of Nehemiah it appears (Neh. vii. 4-66 ;
xi. 1,) to have amounted to 5000 at least.* The general
features of the site are too well known to need much des-
cription, excepting- in cases where the ancient hill features
have been obscured by the filling up of the valleys. The
South-western quarter stands on a square flat-topped hill
which, since the 4th century at least, has always been called
Sion, and which in the opinion of all writers of authority
represents the Upper City. This is bounded on the west and
south by the great ravine, which is now called Wady Rababeb,
and which in the general opinion represents the ancient Valley
of Hinnom. The plateau has a level of about 2,500 feet above
the sea, and the ground to the west of the town is at about
the same level.

The Upper City is bounded on the north by a broad deep
valley, now much filled in with debris, but still perceptible,
running eastwards towards the Temple hill. The hill of the
Upper City appears originally to have had an almost precipitous
cliff on its North side, forming the South bank of this broad
deep ravine. The levels of the rock, especially towards the
East, prove the existence of a scarp, or of a very steep slope,
and on the East of the hill this scarp is plainly seen, under the
houses which face the Haram enclosure. The modern South
wall runs over the middle of the flat hill-top, but South of this
the ancient South-west corner of the city is represented by a
rock scarp of great height, with projecting foundations for
towers, under the Protestant School and Cemetery, which
were thoroughly examined during excavations conducted by
Mr. H. Maudslay in 1874. This corner forms a starting point,
from which future excavations may be carried eastwards along
the South wall of the ancient Upper City.

The width and depth of the Northern Valley, which under-
lies the centre of the modern city, were ascertained by excava-
tions conducted by order of the Emperor William of Germany
in 1872-3, on the site of the ancient Hospital of the Knights of

* If the women are not counted in the enumeration the total would be
10,000.

o40 Jerusalem.

St. John, given by the Sultan to Germany. In the great cisterns
and vaults under this Hospital the rock floor was examined
over a considerable distance ; and instead of a narrow and
shallow gulley, formerly supposed here to exist, a very large
ravine was thus discovered, dividing the ancient site into two
great quarters North and South. The spur or knoll North of
this valley, in the vicinity of the present Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, runs out of the plateau West of the city, but has
been proved by numerous observations to be lower and much
smaller than that of the Upper City South of the dividing val-
ley. The highest point on this Northern knoll was ascertained
in 1882 to be the floor of what is now called the Chapel of
Calvary. The rock is here found in a sort of a cliff, reached
by steps from the floor of the church, 10 feet above the general
level. The knoll slopes gradually eastwards, and is bounded
by a deep narrow ravine which runs from the well known
Damascus Gate (in the North wall of the modern city) to
Siloam, East of the upper city; and into this ravine the broader
dividing valley from the West, already noticed, debouches
near the Temple. The rock in this part of the city under the
West wall of the Haram or Temple is at a considerable depth
beneath the surface, and the streets, though gradually leading
down from West to East, are based on a great accumulation of
rubbish. This filling in of the narrow valley may be very
ancient, according to the account given by Josephus of the
Hasmonean engineering works which levelled the city in this
quarter.

The Temple Hill is a long spur, running between the site of
the city and the gorge of the Kedron, which divides it from
Olivet. The spur originally joined the plateau North of the
city, but at au early date it was cut off by a rocky trench, cut
East and West across the hill ; and the crest of the spur South
of this ditch was then scarped on all sides, leaviug an oblong
block of rock which (by common accord) is regarded as the
site of the Citadel of Antonia, overlooking the Temple Courts
at the North-west augle of the enclosure. South of this
scarped block there is a small plateau, which rises into a knoll
formed by the Sakhrah or sacred ' rock,' now covered by the

Jerusalem. 341

famous ' Dome of the Rock ' ; and South of this the spur nar-
rows gradually, having very steep slopes to East and West,
and falling southwards along the crest, so that a small tongue
of hill with very steep sides projects, beyond the Haram, to-
wards the juuction of the Kedrou and of the city valleys at
Siloam. This spur is called 'Ophel' in the Bible, a word which
signifies a ' swelling ' or ' tumour ' of the ground.

The Northern part of this Eastern hill joining the plateau of
the Judean watershed is naturally higher than the level of the
Sakhrah, and it is generally agreed that this represents the
quarter called Bezetha by Josephus. The small ravine which
runs South-east to the Kedron, North of the Haram, partially
divides the Bezetha Hill, and its bed cuts across the N.E. angle
of the Haram.

This is the natural site of Jerusalem as now ascertained by
excavation, and by levels. It is the site described by Jose-
phus (5 Wars, iv. 1) and there is only one detail in his account
concerning which differences of opinion exist, namely as to the
precise situation of what he calls Akra or the Lower City. This
difference does not materially affect the general understanding
of the topography in the time of Christ, or in the earlier days
of the Kings of Judah, and it has little importance except in
the eyes of specialists. Josephus says that the city stood on
two hills, of which the larger supported the Upper City. The
site of this quarter is universally placed, as above noticed,
where the present South-west quarter of Jerusalem exists.
The second hill, divided from the Upper City by the Tyropoeon
Valley, supported Akra or the Lower City ; and the rows of
houses climbed the two slopes of this valley. Josephus pro-
ceeds to describe a third hill, ' over against ' the other two,
and divided from them by a valley, which hill apparently he
does not include within the city itself, which he states to have
occupied only two. The Akra hill he describes as ' gibbous '
in form, so that it can neither have been a square plateau like
that of the Upper City, nor a long ridge like the Temple Hill.

In the opinion of Robinson, De Vogiie, Sir Charles Warren,
and of the present writer, the only site which can be supposed
to represent Akra or the Lower City is the smaller knoll near

342 .Jerusalem.

the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the existence of
which has been proved by the actual examination of the rock.
Sir Charles Warren supposes that the eastern part of this spur,
close to the Temple, was once much higher than now, and that
it was cut down by the Hasmoneans as Josephus states. It is
evident that the term Lower City must have applied to that
part of Jerusalem which lay in the central valleys, lower than
the surrounding hills; but, on the other hand, the term Akra
signifies a ' hill-top ' or ' citadel,' and this Akra is said to have
been originally higher than the Temple. Josephus uses the
term lireim™, in describing the relation of the Akra to the
Temple, which Whiston translates ' adjoined ' ; but the strict
sense of the term is ' to extend opposite ' to some other object,
so that the actual contiguity to the Temple Hill is not proved
by the term.*

Sir Charles Wilson contends that the Akra was the site of
the later Antonia, north of the Temple, basing his conclusion
partly on this Greek expression, and partly on other passages
which may be interpreted in favour of such a view. The
i^kra was destroyed by Simon the Hasmonean at a time when
the hill itself was cut down and the valley inside the city
partly filled in. In this case the 'third hill' must be placed,
as he supposes, where other authorities agree in placing Akra.
The question is thus one of nomenclature, rather than of any
dispute as to the extent of the ancient city, The objections
to this view which seem to be suggested by other incidental
notices of Jerusalem are, 1st, that there were no houses on the
eastern hill where the Temple stood, such as Josephus describes
rising from the Tyropoeon Valley, and 2nd, that Jonathan the
Hasmonean built a wall (1 Mace, xii., 31. 13 Antiq., v., 11)
to separate the Akra from the market of Jerusalem, which
wall is described as being 'in the midst of the city.' It is
well known that, in the times which followed, there was a
wall in the middle of Jerusalem on the north side of
the Upper City, running east to the Temple, and this probably
was Jonathan's wall; but such a wall could hardly be described

* See Antiq., XII., 9, 2.

Jerusalem. 343

as dividing- the market (which was in the Upper City, as it
still is) from the Akra, if the latter was north of the Temple.
If, on the other hand, the Akra was where it is usually placed
the description is easily understood. There was no city
market in the Temple, nor would a wall on the eastern side be
described as in the middle of the city. John Hyrcanus, rather
later than Simon, built the Citadel of Baris, which stood on the
site of the later Antonia,* and it is curious — if Akra was on
this site — that the Hasmoneaus should so soon restore a citadel
which they had destroyed by lowering- its site, and filling in
the valley. For which reasons the nomenclature which is to
be found on nearly all maps of Jerusalem since the time of
Robinson, and which is repeated on the most recent ones
published by scholars both in Oxford and in Cambridge,
appears likely to be generally accepted as final. But contro-
versy on this subject would not have arisen had not the ancient
descriptions been loosely worded, and capable of more than
one plausible explanation.

We may now consider the general growth of Jerusalem,
from the earliest times down to its capture by Saladin, and the
points on which it is expected that further excavations might
throw light. The only points on which any considerable

* Antonia still remains dominating the Temple, but of the Akra
Josephus says, (13 Ant., vi., 7), ' So they all set themselves to the work
and levelled the mountain, and in that work spent both day and night
without intermission, which cost them three whole years before it was
removed, and brought to an entire level with the rest of the city. After
which the Temple was the highest of all the buildings, now the Citadel, as
well as the mountain on which it stood, were demolished. And these
actions were thus performed under Simon.' He says again that there was
' a third hill, but naturally lower than Akra, and parted formerly from
the other by a broad valley. However, in these times when the
Hasmoneans reigned, they filled up that valley with earth, and had a
mind to join the city to the Temple. They then took off part of the height
of Akra, and reduced it to be of less elevation than it was before, that the
Temple might be superior to it.' (5 Wars, iv., 1). All this agrees with
Sir C. Warren's view. A great change was obviously effected in the site,
and Akra became lower than the Temple, whereas Antonia was always
higher, even in the time of Josephus, and still is so.

344 Jerusalem.

difference of opinion exists concern the ' City of David ' and the
site of the Temple. The discoveries already made have set at
rest many points which were previously often in dispute ; and
the theory that the Jerusalem of Pre-Exilic times was merely
a small village south of the Temple, with perhaps a citadel
north of the Temple, is contradicted both by the description of
Josephus, and by the carefully ascertained levels of the rock.
It is certain that the Upper City lay south-west of the Temple
hill, and Josephus definitely states that this was the ' fort of
Sion ' captured by David (7 Ant., viii., 1. 5 Wars, iv., 1). It is
also certain that a valley divided the Upper and Lower City,
both of which quarters, according to the historian, existed in
David's time. No such valley divides into two the eastern
Temple hill; and the south part of that hill is the lowest and
not the highest part of the ridge. Dr. Sayce, indeed, has drawn
such a valle}' on a small sketch plan which he published in
1883, and which bears no scale; but the rock is here visible in
places on the surface, and its level was also determined in 20
places where it is hidden — during the excavations of Sir
Charles Warren. It has thus been made quite certain that
there is no depression in the ridge, where this theoretical valley
has been supposed to have existed.

The earliest known notices of Jerusalem occur in the Tell
Amarna tablets, about 1480-50 B.C., when the name is spelt
Uru-sa-lim, and U-ru-sa-lim, ' the City of Peace,' agreeing with
the usual explanation of the name as meaning ' abode ' (Jeru)
'of peace' (saletri). The King of Jerusalem who writes to
Egypt speaks also of the Bitu Amilu in the city, which may
represent the Millo of the Old Testament, a term which
Josephus connects with the Lower City. In the topographical
chapters of the Book of Joshua the name Jebus stands for
Jerusalem (Joshua, xv., 8), as also in Judges (xix., 10). The
name Jerusalem is also found in the Book of Joshua (x., 1) in
enumerating the Amorite Kings. The boundary line of
Judah ran from Enrogel (now called the Virgin's fountain)
westwards up the valley of Hinnom (Joshua, xv., 8) on the
south side of Jebus, and this again appears clearly to indicate
that Jebus stood on the South-western hill of the Upper City,

Jerusalem. 345

which is bounded by the Valley of Hinnom as already
explained.

There is, however, a later passage which is ofteu quoted as
proving that the ' City of David ' stood on the spur South of
the Temple (2 Chron. xxx. 32), for Hezekiah's aqueduct from
Enrogel or Gihon to Siloam (which still exists, bearing a
Hebrew inscription of Hezekiah's time), is said to have been
brought ' to the West side of the City of David.' It was, how-
ever, long since seen by Keil that this is a mistranslation.
The Hebrew words, marabah al, signify strictly ' westwards
to ; ' for the particle al signifies movement towards, and can-
not be rendered ' on.' The passage properly rendered thus
indicates that the ' City of David ' was West of the eud of the
aqueduct at Siloam. The term is stated by Josephus to mean
nothing more than Jerusalem generally, as the capital and
royal home of David, not including such suburbs as grew up
later. In the Bible (1 Kings, viii. 1) we also learn that the
Temple was not in the City of David, nor was Solomon's
palace (1 Kings, ix. 24; 2 Chron. viii. 11) which adjoined the
Temple (2 Kings, xi. 16 ; Neh. iii. 25), while the wall built on
Ophel, South of the Temple, by King Manasseh (2 Chron.
xxxiii. 14) was equally ' outside ' the City of David. The term
Sion, which seems in some cases to be equivalent to the City
of David (2 Sam. v. 9), and which is never found in Josephus,
appears to be a poetical name for Jerusalem ; and although it
is of very frequent use, there does not appear to be a single
passage in which it is definitely fixed as applying to any par-
ticular quarter of the town. It is only in the fourth century
A.D. that this term begins to be restricted to the ' Castle of
Sion,' or Upper City on the South-west, and since that period
it has never had any other signification.

In the time of David and Solomon the Upper City or Castle
and the Lower City or Millo (2 Sam. v. 9 ; 1 Kings ix. 24)
appear both to have existed ; and outside Jerusalem was the
threshing floor of Araunah, to which the Ark was borne up
out of the City of David (1 Kings viii. 1) when the Temple
was built. It is natural that a suburb should have grown up
on Ophel after the building of the Temple, and that it should

346 Jerusalem.

have been inhabited by the Nethenim (Neh. iii. 26) or Temple
servants. rriiis suburb was walled in by later Kings, who
connected the City and Temple by walls (2 Chron. xxvi. 9 ;
xxvii. 3 ; xxxiii. 14), and the Ophel spur became the Royal
quarter, where was the ' Field of Burial of the Kings,' the
' Royal Garden ' (2 Chron. xxvi. 23 ; Neh. iii. 15 ; 2 Kings xxi.
26 ; Jer. xxxix. 4), and the Royal Palace near the Temple (2
Kings, xi. 16). Whether all the Kings were here buried in the
' City of David,' or only the later ones not thought worth}" to
be laid with David and Solomon, is still a disputed point. The
1 Sepulchres of David ' (Neh. iii. 16) seem certainly to have
been to the East on Ophel, but this statement occurs only in
a later book, and may refer to the royal family generally, and
David lived in the Upper City. It is certain that a very
ancient Jewish tomb exists close to the modern site of the Holy
Sepulchre, inside Jerusalem, which agrees in a remarkable man-
ner with the description (7 Ant. xv. 3 ; 16 Ant. vii. 1) of David's
Sepulchre, which could be entered without the grave itself
being discovered ; for in this tomb the actual graves are sunk
beneath the floor. It is also stated in the Talmud (Tosiphta
Baba Bathra, i.) that there was only one tomb inside Jerusalem
besides that of the Kings, and no other ancient sepulchre is
known within the modern city. If, however, the ' Field of
Burial ' of the Kings, which must have been not far from
Siloam, could be discovered by excavation, this question might
be set at rest ; and it is even possible that very important dis-
coveries may await us in such sepulchres ; but it is known
that David's sepulchre was robbed of treasure according to
tradition (13 Ant. viii. 4), and a second violation attempted
later (16 Ant. vii. 1), and the site was well known as late as
30 a.d. (Acts ii. 29), so that it could not then have been lost
or covered over, whatever may have happened later. The
tradition of the Middle Ages placed this tomb on Sion, where
however no such monument has been found though the rock is
everywhere close on the surface.

Before quitting this period it should be noticed that one
argument in favour of the Ophel spur having been the earliest
quarter of Jerusalem, or Jebus, has been drawn from its proxi-

Jerusalem. 347

mity to the only natural water supply in the Kedron gorge —
the spring of Gihon or Enrogel. The former term signifies a
fountain ' bursting forth,' as the water still does burst out from
an underground cave with a narrow opening acting as a
natural syphon.* The latter name may mean ' Spring of the
Water Channel,' and refer to the Siloam aqueduct. The only
objection to this view lies in the term En Rogel being used in
a topographical chapter of the Book of Joshua, whereas the
Siloam aqueduct was made by Hezekiab. Critical writers
have supposed that the topographical chapters in the Book
of Joshua are later additions to the narrative — a contention
supported by the very meagre account of the Samaritan topo-
graphy. En Rogel is however usually translated ' Spring of
the Fuller.'

That this fountain was the only natural spring of Jerusalem
is fairly certain, but it does not seem to have ever been suffi-
cient to supply the city, which depended on aqueducts and
large rock hewn tanks for its water. Such a tank exists im-
mediately North of the Upper City. It is now called the
Patriarch's Pool, and is generally regarded as being the Pool
Amygdalon (i.e., ' of the great tower/) noticed by Josephus,
and fed by an aqueduct from the West. It is quite possible
that this site is noticed in the Bible (Isaiah xxxvi. 2) as the
'conduit of the Upper Pool,' where the Assyrians sat down
before Jerusalem ; for the site of the Assyrian Camp was
shewn in later times (5 Wars, xii. 2) not far to the North of

* The site of Bethesda (John x. 2) is uncertain. In the fourth century
it was shewn at the 'Twin Pools' north of Antonia : in the twelfth at the
Piscina Interior, further to the north-east and west of St. Anne : since
which it has been placed at the Birket Israil east of the first site. The
name probably means ' House of the Stream,' and the place was by the
Sheep Market, or gate, or place (Probatike). The gathering place where
the flocks drank may be understood, which is now the Virgin's Spring.
The 'troubling of the waters' may be compared with the sudden rush
which occurs at intervals in the Virgin's Spring. The phrase as to the
angel troubling the waters (verse 4) is absent from the four oldest MSS. of
the Gospel, and a natural troubling may therefore be understood. The
Jews still bathe in the "Virgin's Pool to cure rheumatism, and wait till the
troubling of the wrater occurs before they plunge in.

348 Jerusale

this reservoir. It is possible that this tank existed from the
earliest times, and supplied the Jebusites with water. It is
inconceivable that the ' Castle of Sion ' could have stood on
the small spur, commanded by higher ground on all sides, and
if we suppose that the citadel was on the site of the later
Antouia, the difficulty arises that a considerable space, not iu
the City of David, and occupied by Araunah's threshing floor,
separated the Ophel suburb from the 'Castle.'*

In the account ot the building of Solomon's Temple we do
not hear that any Jebusite town or village was cleared to
make room for the sanctuary. AVe gather that there was an
open space, outside the City of David, occupied as a threshing-
floor such as are found, outside and never within, the Palestine
villages. The military and historical objections to the theory
that the Eastern hill was the first to be occupied appear to be
very strong ; and the argument from water-supply is weak:
for ancient sites, such as those of Shiloh, Keilah, etc., are often
at a considerable distance from the nearest spring, while the
artificial supply from reservoirs inside the walls was more cer-
tain iu times of siege. A shaft from the surface of the Ophel
hill was cut to the back of the cave in which the Gihon spring-
welled up, evidently to obtain access from within the walls;
but it is not known when this was done, and it maybe part of
the water-works of King Hezekiah. There is, however, no
part of Jerusalem on which it is more desirable that excava-
tions should be extensively carried out than that now only
occupied by terraces and fig gardens on the Ophel spur South
of the Temple.

Of the extent of the Courts which surrounded Solomon's
Temple nothing is known. Herod greatly enlarged the area,
and took away the ancient foundations (15 Ant. xi. 3,) and no
masonry that can be regarded as being as old as Solomon's
time is now known to exist. The Holy House itself occupied

* The Baris or Antouia was built by Hyrcanus (18 Ant. iv. 3 ; 1 Wars,
iii. 3.) It was divided from Bezetha by a deep ditch (5 Wars, iv. 2), and
Bezetha was the 'New City,' so that this quarter of Jerusalem seems to
be later rather than very early.

Jerusalem. 349

the same site in all ages, but it is only of Herod's enclosure
that any remains are now found.

Nehemiah's restoration of the city walls was nothing more
than a rebuilding on the old foundations, and there was appar-
ently no change in the line of fortifications. Jerusalem had
only one wall at this time, and there is very little difference of
opinion as to the general position of these ramparts. They ran
Westwards from the Temple along the line afterwards called
the 'Second Wall,' to the North-west corner of the Upper City:
the tower Hananeel (Neh. hi. 1,) appears to have occupied the
site of the later Antonia, and is noticed (Zech. xiv. 10,) as the
North-eastern angle of Jerusalem. The South-west angle has
been determined by excavation, but the exact line by which
the ravine above Siloam was crossed is at present unknown.
Sir Charles Warren unearthed the mighty rampart on Ophel,
which though now entirely covered with debris is standing to
the great height of 74 feet, from the rock to the top course of
large masonry of which it is built. He also found a great
projecting tower, answering to that described (Neh. hi. 27,)
as the 'Tower that lieth out;' and he traced the wall to its
junction with the Haram at the present South-east angle.
This discovery is the most important that has been made in
elucidation of the topography, and the earlier theoretic plaus,
which drew the rampart further West, have consequently been
abandoned. Josephus states (5 Wars, iv. 2,) that this rampart
joined the Eastern cloister of the Temple, and this definite
statement cannot be explained away, and naturally leads to
the conclusion that the Eastern cloister must have coincided
with the present East wall of the Haram. The discovery also
shews us that very ancient remains may still lie hidden under
the debris in other parts of the Ophel quarter.

The condition of Jerusalem at the time of the Great Siesre.
the area of Herod's Temple, aud the site of Calvary, and of the
Holy Sepulchre, are the next questions of importance to con-
sider. In this examination we should now ascertain what is
known of the existing remains, and should read the ancient
accounts by the light of such discovery, rather than construct
plans from these descriptions, and attempt to bend the facts to

350 Jerusalem.

the theories. Much that might have been otherwise under-
stood, without the aid of exploration, has become untenable in
consequence of the excavations.

Josephus describes three walls on the North side of Jerusa-
lem, of which two were standing at the time of the Crucifixion,
and the third was begun within thirty years later to enclose
suburbs, which were then already in existence, and which may
have spread beyond the old walls as early as the time of
Herod the Great, or of his immediate successors. He also
describes the three great towers at the N.W. corner of the
Upper City, two of which are still standing. The ' Second
Wall ' was the old rampart, which appears to have been built
by Solomon, and continued by later Kings, and restored by
Nehemiah. The North wall of the Upper City, which ran
through Jerusalem to the Temple, and divided the Southern
and Northern quarters, seems probably to be that already
noticed as built by Jonathan the Hasinonean. It is not des-
cribed in the time of Nehemiah, and it became necessary when
the Macedonian garrison was still in the Akra or Citadel within
the town. Through its existence the Temple and the Upper
City became two redoubts, which conquerors like Pompey and
Titus were obliged to besiege in form, after the Lower City
had been captured. There is no difference of opinion as to
the line of this rampart, on its rocky scarps facing the deep
broad valley to the North usually called the Tyropoeon.

The knoll which culminates near the traditional site of the
Holy Sepulchre is joined to the hill of the Upper City by a nar-
row neck of high land, between the heads of the valleys. On
this saddle the great Amygdalon pool is cut in the rock which
is visible in its sides, and it is clear that the second wall must
have run along this saddle, and could not have been built in
the valley to the east, because commanding ground would
then have existed immediately outside, which would be con-
trary to the practice of fortress builders in any age. West of
the pool Amygdalon a line of wall was discovered, running
north, which was partially excavated in 1886, and found to
consist of the same large masonry discovered on Ophel, and
visible in the foundations of the Temple and of the great tower

Jerusalem. 351

now called David's tower. It is the style of masonry which
the Jews used in the time of the Hasmoneans and of Herod,
ornamented with a shallow drafting in the Greek style, such
as exists in the dated example at Tyrus in Gilead, where the
priest Hyrcanus built his palace in 175 B.C. The wall so dis-
covered, and which ought if possible to be further traced,
occupies exactly the line laid dowu by Robinson for the
' second wall,' near its junction with the first; and it stands in
the natural position for a rampart, on the highest part of the
saddle. The pool Amygdalon appears to have been within
the second wall, for it was not approached by the Romans
until after they had taken and destroyed that rampart (5 Wars,
xi. 4) ; and it is natural that so important a source of water
supply should have been included within the fortifications of
the ancient city. The wall discovered in 1886 may therefore
be taken as a safe starting point in tracing the course of the
second wall.

The second wall 'ran in a circle' (KwcXotfyieiw) enclosing the
northern quarter and joining Antouia. The great trench
which cut off the site of that fortress from the hill of Bezetha
was outside the wall, and there is no dispute as to the point
of junction. From a military point of view it is impossible to
suppose that the high knoll of rock at the traditional site of
Calvary can have been left outside the rampart to command
the city. It must have been the site of a fortress or tower,
either on or close to the wall, and the discovery made in 1886
thus seems to be fatal to the identity of the traditional site.
But unfortunately this spot is in one of the most thickly built
parts of the modem city, and our information as to the details
of the older site is consequently imperfect. Until some for-
tunate chance allows of extensive excavation north of the
present Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it will remain possible
for those who retain a firm belief in the traditional site, to
maintaiu that the second wall passed south of the church,
although the rock pools shew clearly that the ground here
falls away very rapidly into the valley, while north of the
church there is a small plateau about 2480 feet above sea-
level, the extent of which is determined at ten separate points.

352 Jerusalem.

This rounded knoll answers very well to the description of
Akra by Josephus, who calls it 'gibbous,' in shape. Sir
Charles Wilson draws the line of the second wall at this point
so as to include the knoll in question, and in this respect his
plan is in accord with all others recently published ; but
nothing short of excavation will lay the question at rest to
the satisfaction of all.

There is no dispute as to the line of the eastern part of the
third wall — that of Agrippa — on Bezetha, for all writers agree
that it followed the same line now occupied by the north wall
of the city, and that the present north-east angle coincides
with that existing in the time of Titus. Some writers suppose
that the whole course of the third wall coincided with that
of the present north rampart, but there appear to be two
objections to accepting such a line west of the Damascus gate.
The first is its too great proximity to the second wall, and the
second is the fact that Helena's tomb is described (20 Ant, iv.
3) as only three stadia from the city.* The site of this tomb
by general agreement is fixed at the monument popularly
called the ' Tombs of the Kings,' but this is four stadia from
the modern wall. The ' Women's Towers ' (5 Wars, ii., 3)
were an important point on this rampart, opposite the Tomb
of Helena, near the great north road ; and there exists still —
a stadium outside the Damascus gate to the north-west — a
sort of platform of rock with artificial scarps, west of the great
north road. Quite recently remains of what appear to have
been the foundations of a tower have been noticed at this
spot, and there is some reason therefore to regard this site as
representing the Women's Towers. When Dr. Robinson
visited Jerusalem in 1838 it seems that the remains of the
third wall were clearly visible {Biblical Researches, Vol. I.,
p. 315) at various points along the line running south-east

* The words used by Josephus (5 Wars, iv., 2), kui Slo. awrfKaiuv pa<n\iKwv
WKwdpevov eKaniTTero tfv ywalio inS/Tyy, may be rendered 'and across the
caves of the Kings being extended it bent also at the corner tower,' which
may be taken to shew that there were two bends in the wall, one being that
which brought it south-east from the corner at the Women's Towers to
the Royal Caves, which lie under the present wall.

Jerusalem. 353

from the present Russian Cathedral towards the first wall.
These foundations of towers have now entirely disappeared in
the progress of building outside Jerusalem, but Dr. Robinson
gives measurements and angles to shew where they used to
exist, extending north-north-west for a distance of 1400 feet
from the present north-west corner of the city. Many ancient
cisterns and marble tesseraa were here found, which shew that
this part of the site was formerly occupied by buildings of
some kind. It is very desirable that excavations should be
carried out west of the great north road, outside the Damas-
cus gate, where various traces of ancient occupation have
already been found, and where there is a considerable accumu-
lation of soil above +he rock.

As regards the site of Calvary it has now been very gener-
allv agreed, by those who feel that the traditional site stands
in too central a position to answer to the New Testament re-
quirements, that the most probable situation is the knoll out-
side the Damascus Gate, which the Jews point out as the an-
cient place of execution. Christ suffered ' without the gate '
(Heb. xiii. 12) and ' nigh to the city ' (John xix. 20), where
was a garden (verse 41) such as Josephus describes North of
Jerusalem (5 Wars, ii. 9.) having in it a new tomb. The site
of crucifixion was conspicuous from some distance (Mark xv.
40 ; Luke xxiii. 49) and there is no doubt that the traditional
site of execution, on its high knoll with a natural amphitheatre
of flat slopes to the West, is one peculiarly suited for a public
spectacle. Since this view was advocated in 1879 (Tent Work
in Palestine) on account of the tradition which was then for
the first time published, and compared with the account in the
Mishnah (Sanhedrim vi. 1-4) on which it is founded, and since
the discovery was subsequently accepted by General Gordon,
it has become widely popular in England and in America ;
and it has been pointed out that the same site was advocated
by Otto Thenius in 1849, and Felix Howe in 1871 ; but these
earlier writers knew nothing of the Jewish tradition connected
with the spot, and their suggestions were therefore purely
conjectural. It is always the case that any generally accepted
discovery is afterwards found to have occurred to the minds
xxiv. 23

;;,")! Jerusalem.

of writers who did not succeed in impressing their views on
the public, and this is natural because, if a suggestion is ac-
ceptable to the general mind, it is certain to present itself in-
dependently to various minds, as has happened iu so many
cases of important contemporary discoveries by independent
students.

But while there is general accord among critical writers on
this subject, there is equal accord in the belief that the position
of the Holy Sepulchre itself remains a matter of conjecture
only. The ' Garden Tomb,' as it is called, which is cut in the
cliff under the knoll ot Calvary, is not a Jewish tomb. It was
found iu 1873 to be full of human bones to the roof, and when
cleared out two Latin Patriarch's crosses, painted in red, were
discovered on the East wall. The arrangements of the interior
resemble those of the tombs in the Valley of Hinnom, which
were the burial places of monks and nuns belonging to the
Church of Sion. One of these bears the name of Thccla
Augusta, in an inscription not earlier than 867 A.D. There is
no reason to suppose that, in Palestine, the Byzantine or Nor-
man Christians ever buried their dead in ancient disused
tombs ; and there are mauy cases in which rock cut tombs
were certainly prepared especially for Christian burial. In-
scriptions belonging to Byzantine tombs, not older than the
4th century A.D., have been discovered near the knoll now sup-
posed to be that of Calvary, in one of which there is a distinct
allusion to Constantine's Marturion of the Anastasis. There
was also in the 12th century an important Hospice of the
Templars, called the Asnerie, immediately South of the cliffy
of which the mangers and walls were discovered, and recog-
nised by the present writer, in 1873. It is fairly certain that
this ' garden tomb,' with its Latin crosses and innumerable re-
mains of bones, was used for the interment of pilgrims or
others staying at the Hospice, and it has not the character of
a Jewish tomb about the Christian era.

There are several well-known examples of Jewish tombs
about the time of Christ at Jerusalem itself, and some of them
bear inscriptions in the Hebrew character of the age. One of
them, to the east of the Kedron, is now called the ' Tomb of

Jerusalem. 355

St. James,' but is inscribed over the portico with the names of
Jewish priests of the Bene Hazir family. It has within tunnels
or Kokim for the corpses, after the Jewish fashion. But the
most famous example is the great cemetery of the Kings of
Adiabene, who were converted to Judaism in the first century
A.D., and buried at Jerusalem. In this sepulchre, which has
several chambers, the Aramaic inscription of the sarcophagus
of Queen Sarah (apparently Helena) was discovered by De
Saulcy, with various remains including Roman coins of the
period. This monument, popularly called the ' Tomb of the
Kings,' adorned with a semi-Jewish, semi-Greek frieze over the
porch, and fitted with a rolling stone before the door (as in
the case of the Holy Sepulchre), is familiar to all travellers,
and may be taken as an example of a Jewish tomb at the time
of Christ. The chambers have Kokim or longitudinal tunnels,
after the Jewish fashion, although it was constructed about 48
A.D. at earliest. The inmost chamber, which must have been
latest, has, however, loeuli at two sides, after the Greek fashion,
which prevailed in Palestine from the second to the ninth
centuries A.D. This marks the transition from the Jewish to
the Greek style about the time of Christ.

The Holy Sepulchre itself seems to have been a 'new tomb'
in the Greek fashion, otherwise it would have been impossible
to describe the angels as seated at the head and foot of the
grave (John xx. 12). It is remarkable that immediately west
of the place of execution there is a Jewish rock-cut tomb, the
only one yet found in this vicinity which presents the Jewish
arrangement of Kokim, and that this has a second chamber in
which there is a single loculus in the Greek style (see Memoirs
of the Survey of Western Palestine, Jerusalem volume, p. 433, for
the plan and sections). There can be no doubt that in this
case a Jewish tomb, hewn about the time of Christ, has been
discovered, and that it is the only one found in the locality.
It was accordingly suggested by the present writer in 1881
that this might possibly be the real Holy Sepulchre. The
tomb is now in possession of the Dominicans, and the sugges-
tion was abandoned by those who agreed with General Gordon
in pointing to the so-called ' Garden Tomb,' and who imagined

356 Jerusalem.

that a Latin Patriarch's cross might have been painted with
the letters Alpha and Omega beneath and the monogram IC —
xp above, as early as the Christian era. These crosses,
commonly found with such inscriptions in the mediaeval mon-
asteries of Palestine, could not have been painted before the
twelfth century, for the Greek cross is exclusively used before
the Latin conquest of the Crusaders. Moreover, the cross is
never used at all on monuments in the East before the establish-
ment of Christianity by Constantine. The early Christian
texts of the catacombs, and in Syria, have no crosses at all;
but the advocates of the ' Garden Tomb ' appear to have had
little acquaintance with Christian Archaeology, and to have
known nothing of Byzantine epigraphy, since they attributed
to the Christian era inscriptions written in a much later char-
acter.

Turning to the question of the site of the Temple, it is to
be noted that the conditions under which the subject is studied
have been revolutionised by the discoveries of Sir Charles
Warren, so that arguments which had some weight when
the site was less carefully examined must now be abandoned.
The levels of the rock have been determined at 50 points within
the present Haram or Sanctuary, and the sections drawn by
Sir Charles Warren, and published in 1884, are reproduced by
Sir Charles Wilson in his recent article. It is not disputed that
the ridge gradually narrows towards the south, and that only
in the central part of the Haram is there any rocky plateau
near the surface. The surrounding walls rise on the slopes of
steep valleys to east and west, and the interior consists of
made earth, or is supported on extensive vaults. The largest
of these, in the South-east angle, are reconstructions of the
Byzantine period, but a few remains of much heavier and more
ancient vaulting, capable of supporting the weight of the
Temple cloisters, are found in existence, and the double and
triple gateways, on the south wall, present their original lintels;
and, in the case of the double gate, the original domes erected
by Herod are standing supported by mighty pillars. It is also
certain that the south wall of the Haram runs unbroken to the
two present angles, and that the foundations belong to the

Jerusalem. 357

ancient Temple. It is undisputed that the west wall coincides
with that of the time of Herod, and that the great bridge ex-
cavated by Sir Charles Warren is that described by Josephus
as leading (from the Upper City) to the Royal Cloister. The
position of Antonia is also settled, coinciding with the North-
west corner of the Haram, where the present writer in 1874
found the remains of the buttressed walls of the Temple rising
above the level of the interior.

There are various statements in Josephus which seem to
shew that the Temple stood on the top of the plateau, and that
the cloister walls coincided with those now standing. In one
passage (8 Ant., iii., 9) he says that the ground was artificially
made up ' to be on a level with the top of the mountain on
which the Temple was built, and by this means the outmost
Temple, which was exposed to the air, was even with the
Temple itself.' In another passage (5 Wars, v., 1) we learn
that ' at first the plain at the top was hardly sufficient for the
Holy House and the Altar, for the ground about it was very
uneven, and like a precipice.' These statements naturally
point to the situation of the Holy House itself on the highest
part of the plateau south of Antonia, which is now occupied
by the Dome of the Rock ; and placed in such a position the
ascending levels of the various courts naturally fit the rock,
and agree with the present arrangement of a central platform
reached by steps : in any other position the outer courts must
be placed at least as high as the present rock surface, and the
disappearance of substructures reaching up more than 20 feet
at least above the present surface must be supposed, while the
heavy walls of the Temple must have stood, either on made
earth, or on foundations 30 to 90 feet in depth, of which we
have no indications. The known levels make it impossible to
escape from such conclusions, for the rock is visible over large
areas all through the central and north-west part of the Haram,
and under the Dome of the Rock, while near the west wall, and
on the South-east and East, the rock is also proved to exist only
at the base of the walls of the outer enclosure. It has thus
come to be generally recognised, in France and in Germany,
that the results of Sir Charles Warren's excavations

358 Jerusalem.

shew generally that Herod's Enclosure was co-extensive
with the present Haram (except perhaps on the North East) and
that the Temple itself must have occupied a position at or
close to the present Dome of the Rock. So placed it also be-,
comes possible to identify the Bath House, and the secret
passage mentioned in the Talmud (Middoth i., 8) North of the
Temple with existing rock cut souterrains, and to account for
the four Western and two Southern gates of the outer
enclosure, all of which still remain visible.

As regards the position of the cloisters, there is no dispute
concerning the S. W. Angle or the West wall. Josephus states
that the North and East cloisters joined at the Kedron Valley
(20 Ant, ix., 7) and he says that the Ophel wall joined the
East cloister (5 Wars, iv., 2) which stood in a deep valley (6
Wars, iii., 2). This description exactly applies to the present
East wall of the enclosure, and Sir Charles Warren discovered
the Ophel wall joining the East wail of the Haram, so that if
the account by Josephus is at all to be trusted an argument is
provided, by means of exploration, which is unanswerable, and
which no one has attempted to answer.

The objection to this view, raised by the late Mr. Fergusson,
whose theory has been adopted by various later writers in
England, was one very admissible before excavations had
been made. It is purely literary in character, and depends on
the accuracy of Josephus in stating measurements, which can-
not be considered a strong basis when we consider the unreli-
ability of his statements of area in the cases of Caesarea and
Samaria, and his contradictory estimates of distances and
values. His text has been much corrupted by copyists, and
however honest he may have been he cannot be regarded as
other than a very loose writer, generally given to exaggera-
tion, not only in his estimates of height, which are absurd, but
also in his measurements of lengths, which (in the case of the
walls of the city) are irreconcilable either with the facts or
with other statements of his own. Josephus says that the
Temple area was a furlong square, which is taken to mean
about GOO feet either way, (15 Ant., xi., 3-5 ; 20 Ant, ix., 7),
whereas the real area appears, even from his own account, to

Jerusalem. 359

have been roughly, 1000 feet square. It cannot be matter of
surprise that, writing in Italy, his estimate should be incorrect.
It is irreconcilable with the more exact and detailed account
in the Mishnah (Middoth. h., 1*), written perhaps only half a
century later, and written in Palestine while the ruins of the
Temple were still visible.

Critical writers in the present century are not wont to attach
much importance to Oriental statements regarding numbers,
distances, heights, or areas ; and rightly so, because the ordi-
nary Oriental in all ages has been notoriously inexact. Their
buildings are very rarely accurately squared, and this is the
case also in the Haram which has onlv one ri^ht an He. While
admitting the honesty and, generally, the trustworthiness of
Josephus, we can place no reliance on his figures, which are
inexact and contradictory ; and it is perhaps not too much to
say that in estimating the area of the Temple he has been
shewn by the explorers to have been wrong.

In the year 70 A.D. Jerusalem was levelled to the ground.
Only the foundations of the Temple i*amparts, and of the great
towers in the Upper City, were left, with a pinnacle of masonry
at the South-east angle of the Haram. About 135 A.D. the
city was rebuilt by Hadrian, but the area of its walls is not
certainly known, since no description exists. There are re-
mains on the Ophel ridge which may be ascribed to this
period, to which also probably belongs the triumphal arch
now called the Ecce Homo. An inscription by Hadrian is
built upside down into the South wall of the Haram, and the

* The passage in Middoth (ii. , 1) is as follows : — 'The mountain of the
House was 500 cubits (i.e., about 700 feet) square. The largest space was
on the South, the second on the East, the third on the North, and the last
Westwards. ' The Courts, within which no Gentile might approach, occupied
135 cubits North and South, by 332 East and West, according to this
account, of which space only 11 cubits was behind the sanctuary, which
must consequently have been nearer the West than the East cloister. The
whole description is worked out in detail in Conder's Handbook to the Bible
(part ii. , chapter 8), and the actual levels compared with those given in the
Mishnah, and shewn to correspond. These levels are taken from the
Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, from the plans of Sir C. Warren and from
additional observations by the author.

360 Jerusalem.

head of his statue (erected on the site of the Temple and still
standing in 332 A.D.) was found by a peasant among the stones
of the highroad North of Jerusalem. In the fourth century
the South wall of the city seems, like the modern wall, to
have excluded a part of the hill of the Upper City, and it is
conjectured that this was the line of Hadrian's wall, but until
further excavations have been made on the South nothing
definite can be said on the subject. It was not till after the
establishment of Christianity that Jerusalem again became a
sacred city, and a centre where active building operations, of
which remains still exist, were undertaken.

Constantiue erected a splendid basilica on the supposed sites
of the Holy Sepulchre and of Calvary. It is generally agreed
that the sites in question were the same which have ever since
been shewn, but the question remains whether they were cor-
rectly, or even honestly, determined. No one who is ac-
quainted with the Byzantine history of this age is likely to
doubt that credulity, fanaticism, and fraud, are its distinguish-
ing characteristics. We have the testimony of Gregory,
Jerome, and Chrysostom, who were all alike disgusted by the
intrigues, the venality, and the unscrupulous mendacity of the
Greek bishops, whom they denounce. Constantiue himself
was a politician rather than a devout believer : his cruelty is
well known ; and his indifference to disputes on religious
matters which were regarded by the bishops as of fundamental
importance. The chrouialer states that a temple of Venus was
destroyed by Coustantiue's orders ( Vita Constant, iii. 25-8),
and that the Holy Tomb was most unexpectedly found by the
Patriarch underneath the mound ; but Eusebius does not tell
us by what means it was recognised, and the discovery of the
Cross is not noticed until twenty years later. It is not very
probable that the subject was examined by the Patriarch with
the critical coldness of a modern antiquary, and it is conceiv-
able that the site sacred to the Pagans was reconsecrated, just
as Pagan sites were reconsecrated to Christian worship by the
missionaries of Gregory the Great. It is at least certain, from
what Jerome tells us, that the cave manger at Bethlehem was
found by Helena to be a chapel in which the mysteries of

Jerusalem. 361

Adonis were celebrated, before it was reconsecrated as the
site of the Nativity, over which Constantine erected the ear-
liest known orthodox church. There is no pretence on the
part of contemporary writers that any ancient Christian tradi-
tion pointed out the lost site of the Holy Sepulchre, over
which as they tell us a mound had been heaped up, support-
ing a Pagan temple. It is more probable that they relied on
visions and miracles, such as the later chroniclers record to
have guided the pious Helena in the discovery of the sacred
sites.

The new basilica became the centre of worship, and the
Temple site remained in ruins as described by the earlier pil-
grims. The statues of Hadrian still stood on the site of the
Temple, where the Jews came annually to anoint the ' Pierced
Stone ' on the Temple hill. This, in the opinion of most
modern writers, was the Sakhrah or sacred rock, marking the
site of the Holy House, and pierced by a curious shaft leading
through the roof of the cave beneath. It was not until the
sixth century that building operations on the Temple site were
recommenced by Justinian, for Julian's attempt to rebuild the
Temple failed disastrously. Justinian erected a great Basilica
of St. Mary in the Haram, and a Church of St. Sophia on the
supposed site of the Prcetorium, which all Christian writers of
the age agree in placing at Antouia. The remains ol a small
church still exist here, within the precincts of the Turkish bar-
racks. Professor Sepp has proposed to attribute to Justinian
the first erection of a building over the Sakhrah — on account of
the Byzantine character of the pillars, which however are evi-
dently taken from other buildings, hardly two being alike —
but the view that this was the St. Sophia of the Pra3torium is
untenable, since the site of the Prastorium was always — and
correctly — shewn at Antonia. As regards the great Basilica
of Mary there is dispute about the exact site, but it is certain
that the pillars of the present Aksa mosque are Byzantine in
character, and belong to about the sixth century A.D. The
view taken by De Vogiie and Professor Hayter Lewis identi-
fies this building with the Mary Church, and the passage
beneath seems to correspond to the vaults described by Pro-
copius.

362 Jerusalem.

After Omar's Conquest a mosque was erected by that
Khalif on the Temple Hill. Arculph describes it as a large
square building, rudely constructed of wood on ancient ruins.
According to Hisham ibn 'Amman (as quoted in an Arab work
of the 15th century by Jemal ed Din) this mosque was erected
East of the Sakhrah, and no remains of this temporary build-
ing exist. Moslem tradition now places it in a chamber lead-
ing Eastwards out of the Aksa mosque on the South Wall, but
a careful examination of this building, and of its ornate pillars,
shews that it is the work of the Templars in the 12th century.
Popularly the Dome of the Rock is called the < Mosque of
Omar,' but this is doubly wrong, because it is not a mosque at
all, and because it was not erected by Omar.

Arab historians all agree in attributing the Dome of the
Rock to the Damascus Khalif, 'Abd el Melek,iu 688 a.d. The
great Kufic inscription on the arcade gives the date 72 A.H.,
or 688 A.D. for the building, within the reign of the Khalif in
question ; but the outer gates and the roof of the outer wall
bear dates corresponding to 831 A.D., and 913 A.D., in the reign
of El Mamun, and later. The Dome of the Chain is said to
have been the model for the Dome of the Rock, which would
apply if the outer octagonal wall be regarded as added in the
Oth century. The style of the building generally resembles
that of the early Arabs, who employed Greek and Persian
architects. There is nothing classic in its structure or in its
details, with exception of the pillars, which have been torn
from some earlier Christian building or buildings, and fitted to
their present places by supplying caps and pedestals of varying
heights. The general effect of the architecture resembles that
of the Sassanian period in Persia, and the wooden beams
between the pillars resemble those of the old mosque of Amru
in Cairo. There is therefore no reason to dispute the state-
ments contained in the inscriptions and in Arab accounts of the
building.

The next great building period in Jerusalem was that of
the Crusades, when some twenty churches were erected within
the walls. The chapels on the traditional sites of Calvary and
of the Holy Sepulchre were included in a splendid Norman

Jerusalem. 363

Cathedral, which remains almost unchanged to the present
time. To its South the Hospital of the Knights of St. John
spreads over a large area of the city. The Dome of the Rock
became the Templum Domini, and the Aksa mosque was the
Palatium Salomonis given to the Templars. The detailed
account of Jerusalem, written about 1187 after Saladin's con-
quest, gives us so minute a description as to leave no doubt
about the situation of the public buildings, or of the streets and
gates. This account has been translated with notes by the
present writer, for the Palestine Pilgrim Texts Society, and it
is perhaps the most important of all the topographical tracts
which describe Jerusalem in the twelfth century. So complete
is our information that no controversial questions have arisen
in connection with mediaeval Jerusalem, and the majority of
the buildings then erected remain indeed, almost unchanged
in character, at the present time.

The Crusaders, however, and Marino Sanuto in the four-
teenth century, in his great work on Palestine topography,
wrought havoc with the traditional sites, sometimes through
ignorance, and yet oftener in order to discredit their enemies
the Greek clergy, with whom they were constantly at feud.
They transported the site of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen
from its old locality north of Jerusalem — near the knoll of exe-
cution— to the gate on the East, now called Gate of St. Stephen
by Christians. They invented the Templum Domini as distinct
from the Templum Salomonis. They first shewed the Tomb
of David South of the city, and are responsible for supposed
sites of the Mount of Offence (more correctly 'of unctions')
and the Hill of Evil Counsel. They placed Gihon at a pool
which was built by the Germans, West of the city, in the latter
half of the twelfth century, and supposed two Gihons, Upper
and Lower, to have been noticed in the Bible. They trans-
ported En Rogel from its true site to the Well of Joab further
south. They added a new site for Gethsemane to that already
shewn, and they built new churches at sacred spots, which had
not previously been known. The influence of their traditions
survived until Robinson began to study Jerusalem critically,
and it still colours the views and beliefs of many writers, who

364 Jerusalem.

are not always aware of the late and conflicting character of
these traditions, or of the steady growth of sacred places since
the fourth century. When the Bordeau Pilgrim visited Jeru-
salem in 332 A.D. he was not shown the Holy Cross, which
pilgrims begin to notice a quarter of a century later. The
Dome of the Rock, which William of Tyre attributes to Omar,
was believed later to be the actual Temple in which Christ
was presented. The Stone of Jacob from Bethel was supposed
to be the Sakhrah itself, transported to Jerusalem. The
Bordeau Pilgrim is ill informed as to Scripture, and supposed
that the transfiguration occurred on Olivet instead of in Galilee.
The ignorance of the pilgrims and of the priests, their super-
stition and scandalous conduct, were sources of grief to
Gregory of Nazianzeu. In the 4th century the rock struck by
Moses in Horeb w;is shewu in Moab, and the country of Job
was transported from near Petra (where Jerome correctly
p'aces it) to Bashan. It is impossible therefore to feel any
great confidence even in the earlier Byzantine traditions, and
still less in those of the age of the crusaders.

In conclusion, we may inquire briefly into the future of ex-
ploration at Jerusalem, now that the excavations have
been resumed. It is satisfactory to see that the contro-
versial points remaining are few, and often of very secondary
importance; but it is probable that manv important remains
still exist beneath the debris, which would be of the highest
historical interest.

Within the area of the Temple enclosure it is hopeless to
expect that leave to excavate can be obtained from the
Sultan. We should resent excavations in our cathedrals quite
as much as do Moslems in their mosques. If it were possible
to remove the flagging of the platform on which the Dome of
the Rock now stands, or to open the archway in its eastern
retaining wall, over which a mound of earth was heaped in
1881, when the present writer attempted to get leave for this
exploration, we might very probably find the foundations of
the Temple courts and steps beneath. The 'Well of Souls'
under the Sakhrah is a cave which has never been seen by
any one now living, and which is described by no ancient

Jerusalem. 365

writer. It may perhaps be of little importance, but the mys-
tery excites curiosity.

Within the city excavatiou is only possible immediately
west of Antonia, where there is an unoccupied area, or in the
western part of the Hospital of St. John, which still lies be-
neath an accumulation of rubbish twenty feet deep. In all
other parts houses and monasteries cover the ground. Out-
side, on the north, further examination of the ground west of
the Damascus gate is desirable, but on the south there is
greater possibility of work. The slopes of Zion are covered
with terraced orchards, which certainly overlie the remains of
the ancient city, and the walls should be traced along the
south brow of this hill. On Ophel we know that a mighty
rampart 75 feet high lies completely buried, and here Ave may
expect many valuable discoveries in the future. It is impos-
sible to conjecture what is here concealed, and inscriptions of
the early times of Solomon and Hezekiah might very probably
be recovered, with perhaps archives of the early palace, and
the ' Field of Burial of the Kings.' Such discoveries would be
more valuable than any settlement of such questions as the
exact place at which the words ' Lower City ' or ' City of
David' should be written on the map. Controversies of this
nature are never likely to be settled, and generally are for-
gotten when there is no means of reaching a definite conclu-
sion. The most important of such controversies — because it
divides the Christian Churches — is that of the site of the Holy
Sepulchre, but even the discovery of the whole course of the
second wall would probably not convince those who believe
in the traditional site, any more than the recovery of the
Ophel rampart has convinced those few writers who prefer
one particular statement of Josephus to others by the same
author which conflict with it, and to the results of painful
excavation round the walls of the Temple. It is only the
student who stands uncommitted to theory who can in the
future be expected to receive as final the verdict of the spade.

C. R. Conder.

(306)

Art. VII.— THE ORIGIN OF OUR CIVILISATION.

1. Der babylonische Ur sprung die agyptischen Kultur. Von Dr.

Fritz Hommel. Munchen : 1892.

2. The Dawn of Astronomy. By J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S.

London: 1894.

3. The Western Origin of Chinese Civilisation. By Terrien de

Lacouperie. London : 1894.

4. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. London:

1892, etc.

5. Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists.

London: 1893.

G. The ' Higher Criticism ' and the Verdict of the Monuments. By
the Rev. A. H. Sayce, Professor of Assyriology at Oxford.
London (S. P. C. K.) : 1894.

NO one, I suppose, is inclined to dispute that our civilisation is
derived through the Roman Empire, and, at only one
remove, from Greece. * We are all Greeks,' said Shelley, ' our
laws, our literature, our religion, our art, have their roots in
Greece.' If we ask from whom the Greeks received their
civilisation, we are told that it came to them from the Phoenicians
and the Egyptians. Pushing our enquiries still further, we find
that the Phoenicians got theirs certainly from Mesopotamia,*
and, if language be any guide, from the northern region of it
called Assyria. On the other side of Asia, again, in the ' Middle
Kingdom,' which is just now exciting a good deal of attention,

* To save confusing changes of name, I have used the word Mesopotamia
throughout to denote not only the Roman province of that name, but also
the kingdoms on either side of the Tigris and Euphrates formerly known
as Assyria and Babylonia. Of these, Babylonia is supposed to have been
first inhabited by a race sometimes called the Accadian, although it is now
more properly styled the Sumerian, from the name of its chief province,
Sumer (the Biblical Shinar). But with this was mingled, at a very early
date, a large admixture of Semitic blood. Assyria, originally a colony
from Babylonia, contained an even larger Semitic population than the
mother kingdom.

The Origin of our Civilisation. 367

we find an apparently indigenous civilisation perfectly unknown
to any of the nations just mentioned, and extending back in an
unbroken line to the third millenium before Christ. But
beyond this, we have not until now been able to go. Only
a few years back, Dr. Sayce in his excellent Introduction to
Herodotus, summed up the question thus : — ' The civilisations of
the ancient world — of Egypt, of China, and of Babylonia — were
all the creations of great rivers. Every attempt hitherto made
to discover a primitive connection between them has failed.'

This view, however, can hardly be longer maintained. The
decipherment of the celebrated Telel-Amarna tablets (an early
notice of which by Major Conder appeared in this Review*)
helped to convince most Orientalists that the importance of the
Mesopotamian kingdoms in the world's history had long been
greatly underrated. Since then, some of the best equipped
students of the cuneiform texts have devoted themselves almost
exclusively to the relationship of the Mesopotamian civilisation
with that of Egypt and China, until at length success appears
to have crowned their efforts. The volumes before us show that
a great step has been made towards the solution of the problem
— whence came our civilisation ? Even though we are still
unable to say where the Mesopotamian culture found its roots,
we can safely pronounce it ' the mother of all the cultures of
antiquity.'

To take first the case of Egypt : — The mode by which Professor
Hommel proceeds to prove his contention that its culture was
derived from Mesopotamia is, I suppose, the onlv one possible.
The civilisations of the ancient world all resemble each other in
one particular. Unlike those of modern times, they were the
property not of the multitude, but of a class, and in both
Mesopotamia and Egypt this class was the priesthood. The
invention of writing, the power of taking observations of the
heavenly bodies, the fixing of the calendar, and the principles
which underlie the construction of buildings, were all in the
hands of the priests. As a consequence, the whole of the
sciences were so mixed up with the national religion that their

* The Scottish Review for April, 1891.

368 The Origin of our Civilisation.

separation from it was impossible. If, therefore, we succeed in
proving that any great part of the religious system of one
country was derived from the other, we are justified in con-
cluding that the borrowers received with it a large measure of
the priestly sciences as well.

Now, the teaching of the Mesopotamian priests as to the origin
of the gods and the world was as follows : — In the beginning,
said they, was one dark expanse of waters from which by some
imperfectly explained means,* the earth and the abodes of the
gods gradually emerged. The upper or celestial part of this
encircling water was personified by them under the names of
Nun, Anion, or Anna, the father of the gods, to whom the
Semites when admitted to share in the civilisation of their
predecessors gave the name of Anu. From him either alone or
(as Dr. Hommel thinks) with the aid of a consort, Anunit, sprang
Gun-lilla, Mul-lilla, or En-lilla,] the god of the atmosphere,
whose realm occupied the space lying between the Celestial
Ocean or 'Heaven of Anu' and the earth. He in his turn
produced with the aid of a goddess called Bdu, who was but
another feminine personification of the primordial ocean, Gun-ki,
En-hi, or Ea, the lord of the earth and of the waters under the
earth, who presided over the remaining realm of the univarse.
In Anna and Ea, the first and third persons of this triad, we may
see the ' Spirit of Heaven ' and the ' Spirit of Earth ' so frequently
invoked in the magical texts of which I gave some account in a
former article, % and which offer perhaps the oldest specimens of
literature extant ; while En-lilla was probably a later importa-

* T. Gr. Pinches' New Version of the Creation Story, J.R.A.S., n.s.,
XXIII., (1891), p. 3CJ5. The world is there said to have been created
' when within the sea there was a stream.' In one of the numerous Orphic
cosmogonies, this ' stream ' is further described as a whirlpool, by which
the component parts of the world before dispersed through the primordial
ocean, were brought together.

t Called by the Semites Bel, or as Dr. Sayce distinguishes him, Bel of
Nipur. He was a god earlier than, and distinct from, the Bel-Merodach
mentioned later. The alternative names given in the text correspond to
the varying dialects of the inscriptions.

X The Scottish Review for January, 1893.

The Origin of our Civilisation. 369

tion, and perhaps not of Sumerian origin. Yet all three gods
seem to have early faded away from the memory of the
common people, and to have been supplanted by deities known,
in accordance with the invariable rule of polytheism, as their
descendants. Notwithstanding this, an exact parallel to the first
triad of the Mesopotamians occurs in the Egyptian Pantheon,
wherein Nun represents the watery chaos whence sprang all the
gods, Shu, his son, the god of the atmosphere, and Seb, the son
of Shu, the god of the earth. Few pictorial ' documents ' of
Egyptian mythology are so plainly intelligible as the group
wherein Nut, or Nuit (cf. Anunit) the feminine counterpart of
Nun, stretches her star-spangled body in the form of an arch
over the god of the atmosphere, who in his turn bestrides the
recumbent form of the earth-god.* But if the parallel were
close in the case of the metaphorical abstractions which such
gods eventually became, how much more strict was it with those
more real and visible divinities, who received in Mesopotamia as
in Egypt the daily adoration of the multitude. In Mesopotamia,
Girri-Dugga or Mirri-Dugga, better known to us perhaps under
his later Semitic name of Merodach, was the son of the earth-god
Ea,f as, in Egypt, Osiris was the son of the earth-god Seb. But
Merodach had a double personality: in one character he was
Silik-Mulu-dug, ' the hero who does good to man,' the Bel or
Baal of Scripture, and the slayer of the dragon Tiamat ; in the
other, he was Samas, the visible sun, the creator and ruler of
our universe. In both characters the Egyptian divinity was his
exact counterpart : — Osiris was called Unnefer, 'the Good One,'
the slayer of the serpent Apep, while in another aspect he was
Ra, the creator and preserver of the world, of whom the Ritual
says that, ' Osiris findeth the soul of Ra, and embraceth it, and
the two become one.' % Both Merodach and Osiris have the
bull as their symbol, and each has as his spouse a sister
called Istar in Mesopotamia, and Isit, Is't, or Isis in Egypt.

* The best delineation of this group that I have yet seen is in M.
Amelineau's Resume de I'Histoire de VJEgypte, (Paris, 1894) p. 46.

t The wife of Ea and mother of Merodach was Damgal-nunna or Dam-
kina.

I Bool of the Dead, c. XVII.

xxiv. 24

370 The, Origin of our Civilisation.

Now it may be said with some show of reason, that the myths
relating to these cosmic deities are tolerably obvious, and might
occur independently to many peoples on their emerging from the
stage of religion known as Fetichism. But how can we account
on this hypothesis for an absolute identity of names ? Not only
does Dr. Hommel, as has been said, find in the names Anunit and
Nut, Istar and Isis, a complete literal (or rather syllabic) corre-
spondence, but he shows with much skill that the Egyptian Seb
finds its equivalent in Sibba, a late Sumerian form of one of the
names of Ea, while J lnpo (called by the Greeks Anubis) the
Egyptian Hermes, is but a transposed form of the Mesopotamian
Nabu or Nebo, and Chonsu the Egyptian moon-god represents
with hardly any change of name, Gun-zu or En-zu, the corre-
sponding deity in the Mesopotamian pantheon. As to Merodach
and Osiris not only representing the same idea, but being absolutely
the same god, our English savant, Mr. Ball, put this beyond
doubt (as Dr. Hommel generously acknowledges) some years
before the publication of Dr. Hommel's discoveries. For in 1890
he drew attention to the fact that while the name of Osiris is
meaningless in Egyptian, Asaru or Asari is itself a title of Mero-
dach, and the ideogram by which the latter was indicated before
the cuneiform script became cursive, was composed of precisely
the same signs as the Egyptian hieroglyph for Osiris, namely, a
stool and an eye* After this, I think most unprejudiced people
will be content to admit the essential identity of the divine con-
stitutions of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and will not need to follow
the illustrious Munich professor through his identifications (some-
times more ingenious than convincing) of the name of Ea's holy
city Eridu with that of the Egyptian On, of the Aralu or
Sumerian realm of the dead with the Iain or fields wherein the
Egyptians hoped to labour beyond the tomb, and of the Sumerian
prototype of Kronos — who really seem to have been invented to
be the plague of mythologists — with an equally Protean divinity
from the banks of the Nile.

The mention of ideograms, however, brings us naturally to the
art of writing. Some years ago, it would have been considered

* The New Accadian, Proc. S.B.A. XII. (1890), p. 401 sq.

The Origin of our Civilisation. 371

absurd to suggest that any connection was possible between the
cuneiform characters in which all the then known Mesopotamian
texts were written and the Egyptian hieroglyphs. But now the
negative is by no means so clear. The excavations of M. de
Sarzec at Tel-Loh have given to the world inscriptions of a
dynasty of priest-kings which go back to an earlier date than
4000 B.C. Among them we find some in a script not yet cunei-
form, but composed of characters having a more or less obvious
connection with the ideas that they are intended to represent.
We are therefore enabled to say that there was a date when the
Sumerian writing was. like the Egyptian, hieroglyphic, or to use
a better phrase, pictorial. And from amoug the ideographic
characters of the Tel-Loh inscriptions — necessarily few in num-
ber from the scanty extent of the inscriptions themselves — Dr.
Hommel has been able to pick out a list of upwards of thirty that
bear a more or less convincing likeness to well-known hieroglyphs
in common use in Egypt. It may therefore be possible at some
future day to show by unanswerable arguments that the Egyptians
got their writing as well as their gods from Mesopotamia. For,
that the converse could occur, is negatived by the evidence of the
Sumerian ideograms themselves. In the words of a scholar who
has studied them with great thoroughness, they show that they
were invented by a people living in ' a more northern and moun-
tainous country than ' Mesopotamia. ' The signs for mountain

and country are synonymous the lion, tiger, and

the jackal were unknown, but the bear and the wolf were common

animals the ideogram for camel denotes an

animal with two humps, i.e., the species of Upper Asia, as distinct
from the Arabian species. In the flora we find the pine, but not
the palm or the vine, while the house or dwelling was a cave."*
Not one of these signs could have been invented in Egypt ; on
the other hand, they all agree perfectly with the theory that they
were first used in the mountains of Elam or Susiana to the east
of the Tigris, from which country the non-Semitic inhabitants of
Sumer are said to have come.

With regard to Egyptian astronomy, again, we might quote

* W. St. C. Boscawen, British Museum Lectures (London, 1886), p. 8.

372 The Origin of our Civilisation.

the evidence of Berossos* (a writer who flourished in the age of
Alexander the Great), that the Egyptians themselves admitted
it to be derived from the Mesopotamian. This is, indeed,
prima facie probable, because the Sumerian calendar can be
shown to have been founded not later than 6000 B.c.,f while
Egyptian civilisation is claimed to have begun with the reign of
Menes, a date which fluctuates between the 5702 B.C. of Boeckh
and the 3623 B.C. of Bunsen.J Moreover, we find the Egyptians
dividing like the Mesopotamians their year into 360 days, and
their Zodiac into 36 Planetary Stations or Decans of 10 degrees
each — a mode of reckoning; obvious enough when connected with
the sexagesimal system of the Mesopotamians, but ill-adapted to
the Egyptian method of computation. The order, also, in which
the planets were set, viz : the Sun, the Moon, Jupiter, Mercury,
Mars, Saturn, and Venus is the same in a cuneiform text sup-
posed to have been inscribed in the reign of Sargon of Accad
(circa 3800 B.C.), and in an Egyptian monument of the XlXth
Dynasty (1500-1300 B.C.) But the greatest proof of all hangs
on a discovery obtained through a science a good deal more exact
and a good deal less subject to fluctuations of opinion than
archaiolosv is like to be for some time.

The discovery to which I allude is the result of investiga-
tions which Professor Norman Lockyer has earned on during the
last three years into the orientation of temple-sites in Mesopo-
tamia and Egypt. The idea with which he began them, as he
tells us in his newly published work, originated with Professor
Nissen, whose labours he has continued and extended. The
conclusions to which thev have brought him can be given almost
in his own words : — There came (he thinks) into Egypt about
the year 5400 B.C., ' A swarm or swarms from the N.E. One
certainly comes by the Red Sea, and founds Temples at Redisieh
and Denderah ; another may have come over the Isthmus and

founded Anum. They bring the worship of Anu

These people might have come either from North Babylonia, or

* Josephus Ant. I., VIII. 2.

t Miss Piunket, The Accadlan Calendar, Proc. cit., XIV. (1892), p, 117.

J 5000 B.C. is the date suggested by Mariette and most generally adopted.

The Origin of our Civilisation. 373

other swarms of the same race may have invaded North
Babylonia at the same time.' And in the age of the Pyramids
(circa 4200-3700 B.C.) he thinks these invaders were followed by
' Another swarm from the N.E., certainly from Babylonia this
time, and apparently by the Isthmus only .... they no
longer bring Anu alone. There is a Spring Equinox Sun-god.'

Now it is plain that we have here a theory which, if it is borne
out by the evidence, gets rid of an obstacle which every one must
feel in dealing with Dr. Hommel's very skilfully constructed argu-
ment. Dr. Hommel expressly states that his sheet-anchor is the
practical identity of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian pantheons,
and although it seems to me that he has abundantly established
that point, I am by no means so sure that his facts taken by
themselves are strong enough to prove that the Egyptians bor-
rowed their religious system from Mesopotamia rather than the
Mesopotamians theirs from Egypt. It is cpuite true that the points
brought out as to the similarity of scripts and calendars all go in
this direction, but they yet seem to me to amount to less than
what the Canonists would call a ' full ' proof. If, then, Mr.
Lockyer can establish an absolute importation of worships from
Babylonia into Egypt within historic times, he will have supplied a
very important link missing from the chain of Dr. Hommel's evi-
dence. We must therefore examine with some closeness the facts
brought out by Mr. Lockyer's investigations.

The net result of these appears to be that all the Egyptian tem-
ples raised in honour of the sun or of any particular star were so
built that the light from the object of their veneration would at
one particular moment in the year (and at that time only) flash
through a narrowing series of pylons or doors until it illuminated
the adytum or innermost sanctuary. That this was done partly
for the purpose of ritual, and even of imposture, Mr. Lockyer
offers some proofs. But he considers that its principal reason was
the accurate observation of the sun or star on the horizon. This
would enable the priests to ascertain the exact length of the
solar year, and thus to correct the errors in the vague year in
use among the common people. In other words the temple was
not only a telescope directed at one particular point of the heav-
ens, but also a sun-dial on a gigantic scale, which afforded a true

374 The Origin of our Civilisation.

measure of long periods of time. By calculations made on this
hypothesis, Professor Lockyer arrives at the conclusion that the
moment whereat the desired phenomenon would have taken place
in the majority of Egyptian temples to the sun-god, was sunrise
at the summer solstice. This is intimately connected with the
most important event in the national life of Egypt, for it corres-
ponds with the beginning of the inundation on which the fertility
of the land depends. But among these solstitial temples, there
are many others scattered about the north-east corner of Egypt, in
which the wished-for illumination could never have taken place at
the solstice. Owing to their east and west orientation, and for rea-
sons which Mr. Lockyer gives at great length, but with a most
liberal avoidance of technical language, the sun's light would
strike into the sanctuaries of these last-named temples only at
sunrise on the day of the spring equinox. This is a date of no
particular importance for Egypt ; but corresponds closely to the
rise of the Tigris and Euphrates, whose waters, conducted
through a series of canals, played in Mesopotamia!! agriculture
the predominant part assigned in Egypt to the Nile. It is diffi-
cult therefore to resist the conclusion that the construction of
these equinoctial temples was due to Mesopotamia!! builders, for
whom alone their peculiar orientation would have any signifi-
cance.

Mr. Lockyer's researches, however, take us further than this.
By calculations based on the theory described, he is able to get
approximately at the date when these temples were erected. For
the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic causes the position of
the sun at rising to vary to the extent of about a degree in G000
years. At the end of a very long period of time, therefore, the
temple would be useless for the purpose for which it was built.
Moreover, the imperfect sphericity of the earth causes the appar-
ent position of the stars to vary to a much greater extent. A
temple oriented to a particular star — and many of the Egyptian
temples were so oriented — would, in fact, become useless for the
observation of that star after a period of 300 years.* By com-

* Unless the orientation was changed by rebuilding. Mr. Lockyer has
found some that were rebuilt with changed orientation, which confirms his
theory.

The Origin of our Civilisation. ST 5

bining the data thus obtained, Mr. Lockyer is able to announce
the dates of 5400 B.C. and 4200-3100 B.C. respectively as the
periods at which Babylonian astronomy came into Egypt. Both
these dates are noteworthy. The first falls before the mean date
ascribed to Menes, and at a time when a mysterious race or caste,
known to Egyptian tradition as the ' Companions of Horns '
(which might perhaps be construed to mean ' worshippers of the
rising sun ') were ruling the country. The other date corre-
sponds with fair closeness to the time when the power must have
been passing from the Sumerian kings of Mesopotamia, and the
fusion between Sumerian and Semite was in progress which cul-
minated in the glorious reign of Sargon of Accad. Is there not
ground for supposing that some of the elder Mesopotamian na-
tion, disgusted it may be at the accession to power of an inferior
race, then pushed across the frontier into a weak and disunited
Egypt, and succeeded in imposing the worship of their own
fatherland upon their unwilling hosts ?

However this may be, Mr. Lockyer's discovery seems to me
quite conclusive on the main issue. It is of course possible,
though hardly likely, that an equally well-equipped astronomer
might be able to point out some destructive fallacy in Mr.
Lockyer's calculations. But unless this can be done — and Mr.
Lockyer exposes the whole of his method of working with great
frankness and clearness — the result appears to prove Dr.
Hommel's case up to the hilt. We know that the Egyptian
pantheon corresponded in its most important particulars, and, in
especial, in its names, with the Mesopotamian. We know that
the early script of both countries contained many characters in
common. And we now know that in the quarter of Egypt where
immigrants from Western Asia would be most likely to settle,
temples were built at a date long subsequent to the institution of
the Mesopotamian calendar,* these temples being closely
connected with the most important date in that calendar. Can
we any longer doubt that the religion, arts, and sciences — in a
word, the civilisation — of Egypt, were wholly or in part borrowed
from Mesopotamia ?

* V. Note, supra.

37b' The Origin of our Civilisation.

It is rather appalling to turn from Dr. Hommel's concise and
scholarly memoir, and Mr. Lockyer's clear book to the higgledy-
piggledy that Dr. Terrien de Lacouperie has put forth. The
author seems to have studied his subject, if not deeply, yet at
any rate fully and discursively ; but he has unfortunately failed
to put his views upon it in a shape to be understanded of the
people. In his introduction, he recommends us to read the last
25 pages of his book ' before proceeding with any other part,'
but even this inveision of the ordinary mode of perusal will
hardly lead to any satisfactory result, unless the reader happens
to have at his fingers' ends the 150 different pnblications by the
same author of which the present volume professes to be a resume.
It is possible, however, to discern from this and other sources
what Dr. de Lacouperie's theory on the civilisation of China is.
According* to him, about 2330 B.C., certain dwellers in Susiana,
whom he calls the Bak tribes, travelled across the whole breadth
of Central Asia t3 the north-west provinces of China, carrying
with them the elements of writing, ' astronomy, institutions, and
religion,' together with certain historical or quasi-historical tradi-
tions. Historical tradition is seldom without some assured basis,
and the author's identification of the Chinese Shen-nung with
Sargon of Accad, rests, I have been told, upon tolerably solid
proof. The same may be the case with the name of the leader
of the Baks which Dr. de Lacouperie declares to be Nai
Hwang-ti. This is not very far from the Kudur Nakhunte who
appears in some cuneiform texts as an Elamite conqueror of
Mesopotamia. But there is no hint in the present volume of the
source from which the author derives the names of Shen-nunff
and Nai Hwang-ti, of what the Chinese traditions are concern-
ing them, or of the process by which the one pair of names
evolved into the other. Such omissions, as I have already said,
does not proceed from any want of acquaintance between the
author and his subject, but from the incurable vice of his mode
of writing. To give only one instance. On p. 9 he tells us that
' the remains and loans of Chaldean culture, which we can still
now (!) discover in the early Chinese civilisation are so numerous
. . that we cannot summarise them with clearness.' He
then promises to ' enumerate them in rslation to ' (among other

The Origin of our Civilisation. 377

things) ' Institutions, Government and Religion.' Turning to
the sub-title thus headed, we find no enumeration of any remains
of Chaldean culture, but the bare statement that the ' ancient
religion of the Chinese exhibits various traces of importation
from South-west Asia by their civilisers.' Then follows this ex-
traordinary paragraph : — ' The singular dualism of supreme
divinities which differentiates so entirely this religion from those
of the other Mongoloid races of High Asia is most worthy of
attention. Besides the worship of T'ien the Sky-Heaven so
general among these other races, we find in China the cult of a
supreme and personal god Shang-ti specially reserved to the
rulers themselves. I have not yet published the monograph I have
written on the subject to demonstrate this fact ' (the italics are mine)
laud explain how the worship of the supreme god for the time being
when the Bak tribes migrated from the North of Elam developed
among them into the ivorship of Shang-ti.'' Evidently, to derive any
solid benefit from Dr. de Lacouperie's labours in this instance, we
must begin a good deal further back than even the end of the volu-
minous work under review, and read that which he has not yet
published. When I add that the present volume does not con-
tain a single cuneiform or Chinese character, that the reader is
referred throughout to other works by the author and other writers
for the evidence of the assertions contained in it, and that it has
apparently been left to correct itself for the press, it is difficult
to see what object Dr. de Lacouperie can have had in its publication
other than the convenience of getting some of the contents of
his commonplace book into print.*

Yet we are not wholly dependent on Dr. de Lacouperie for
proofs of the derivation of the Chinese culture from Mesopo-
tamia. Mr. Ball of Lincoln's Inn has studied for some time past
the relationship between the Sumerian language and the Chinese,
and has published the fruits of his studies in the Proceedings and
Transactions which appear on our list. From them we learn that

* It is only fair, however, to state that Prof. Douglas and other writers
of great authority on Chinese archaeology consider that Dr. de Lacouperie
has proved his case in other ways, and that his labours have been most
valuable to science.

378 The Origin of our Civilisation.

both the Sumerian and the Chinese grammars enjoy the distinction
— I fancy it is the unique distinction — of possessing no indication
of gender or number. The genitive case, also, in both languages
precedes the governing term, and is sometimes marked by a par-
ticle which is the same in both ; while the subject in Sumerian
as in Chinese precedes instead of following the verb. If we add
to this that the vocabularies of Sumerian — so far as the study of
that, extinct tongue has proceeded — and of Chinese are, in the
words of Mr. Ball, ' substantially identical,' and that there are
considerable signs of borrowing in the correspondence of their
different ideograms, we have pretty fair grounds for inferring a
close relationship between the two tongues. But identity of
language, we are told on high authority, is not a test of race but
of social contact, and it is extremely difficult to see how, save on
some such hypothesis as Dr. de Lacouperie's, any contact be-
tween the Mesopotamian nations and the Chinese can have been
brought about. For the Chinese, who have lied to Europeans
about the antiquity of their history as about nearly everything
else, were by no means the people until late historic times to
make foreign conquests or to travel far in search of trade. ' The
Chinese,' says Dr. de Lacouperie — I am pleased to owe him the
quotation — ' formed for long only a small and comparatively
poor State, or agglomeration of States, struggling to establish
their sway over the native population of the country of their
adoption. They were too far away to be entangled in any of
the wars and political movements which occurred in Western
Asia.' We know, too that their clumsy junks, originally built
for river traffic, were unfitted for anything but coasting voyages.
On the other hand, the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia were
bold and expert sailors, who, as early as 4000 b.c„ must have
sailed across the Indian Ocean and up the whole length of the
Red Sea. It is therefore extremely probable that their ships
may at some time or another have landed them at a point from
which it was easy to penetrate into what is now the Chinese
Empire. Without then entirely accepting Professor Douglas's
dictum that Dr. de Lacouperie and Mr. Ball ' have proved beyond
cavil that the Chinese were immigrants from a centre of civili-

The Origin of our Civilisation. 379

sation in Western Asia,' * they have certainly given us very
good grounds for supposing the Chinese to have drawn the ele-
ments of culture from the Mesopotamian nations.

To sum up, therefore, the results already obtained from the
works under review, we find that of the three civilisations
formerly supposed to be independent of each other, that of
Egypt was certainly, and that of China was most probably
derived from the Mesopotamian. But can we go further than
this? Was the civilisation of the early inhabitants of Mesopo-
tamia native to the soil, or was it imported from abroad ?

To these questions, I think no prudent person can at present
return any but a doubtful answer. All the investigations
hitherto made seem to prove that the Sumerians — if, indeed, the
Mesopotamian civilisation is exclusively attributable to them —
owed nothing, though they may have lent much, to other
nations. But it may be noted before we quit this branch of the
subject that they did not themselves consider their civilisation
indigenous. Their tradition concerning it has been preserved by
Berossos, and runs thus : — ' In the first year (of the world) there
appeared, rising up from the Persian Gulf, a being endowed with
reason whose name was OanneX The body of this monster was
that of a fish, but below the fish's was a second head which was
that of a man, together with the feet ot a man which issued from
his tail, and with the voice of a man ; an image of him is
preserved to this day. This being passed the day among men,
but without taking any food, teaching them letters, sciences, and
the first principles of every art, how to found cities, to construct
temples, to measure and assign limits to land, how to sow and
reap ; in short, everything that can soften manners and constitute
civilisation, so that from that time forward no one has invented any-
thing new.] Tnen at sunset this monster Oannes descended
again into the sea and spent the night among the wave«, for he
was amphibious. Afterwards there appeared several other
similar creatures. . . .' The authority of Berossos stands

* Social and Religious Ideas of the Chinese, Jour. Anth. Inst., XXII.,
(1393) pp. 159, sqq.
t The italics are mine.

380 The Origin of our Civilisation.

much higher than it did since the discovery of many of the
legends he records among the cuneiform texts, and the actual
representation of the legendary monster Oannes can now be seen
in the British Museum.J The story is generally supposed to
mean that the early inhabitants of Mesopotamia received their
civilisation from a few members of a superior race who visited
them in ships. If this be true, we have here a clue to a stage
further back in the history of civilisation than has yet been
travelled by any one. But no satisfactory guess has yet been
made at the land from whence the mysterious visitants must
have come, and I do not propose to offer here any opinion on the
subject. The suggestion thrown out by Prof. Sayce that the
name Oannes might mean either the prophet Jonah or Yavanu,
' the Greek,' does not seem to have been seriously intended.

But, it may be said, what is the use of these speculations
about the origin of civilisation? They may, indeed, serve to
amuse scholars, but what practical interest can such academic
questions have for the man of the 19th century? I venture to
think that their interest even for the most Jin de siecle reader, is
very real indeed, and for a twofold reason.

In the first place, it must be noted that in the presence of the
scheme of education now in vogue, nothing that can throw light
upon the Greek culture can l>e safely neglected. And the
borrowings of Greece from Mesopotamia whether direct or
through the Phoenicians, were neither unimportant nor few. It
was on this point that Mr. Gladstone dwelt in his Inaugural
Address to the Congress of Orientalists, and he submitted in
proof of his statements a list of some 15 points of connection
between the Homeric civilisation and that of Mesopotamia. The
progress of cuneiform study during the last twenty years has
been so rapid, that it would have been a wonder greater than any
to which he alluded had the venerable statesman been able to
keep himself abreast of it anvd the cares of state. Hence, it is not
surprising that his general conclusion was better than the facts on
which he supposed it to rest, and that of his 15 points of resem-

t Nimroud Gallery. It is described in the Catalogue as ' Image of Fish
Deity.'

The Origin of our Civilisation, 381

blance, many were not resemblances at all, while others were due
to other causes than those which he assigned to them. Thus,
he was clearly wrong when he stated, ' The Babylonian Triad of
Anu, Bel, and Hea,' to be ' the possible or probable source of the
Homeric Triad of Zeus, Poseidon, and Aidoneus.' For, although
the Greek Poseidon may have resembled the Suinerian Ea in
that they were both gods of waters, he is neither like Ea the god
of the earth, nor the father of the Sun-god. As for Zeus, the
father of gods and men, there is hardly a point beyond his title
in which he resembles the older Anu. Pie is not like Anu, the
eldest of the gods, for he has a father, Kronos. Poseidon is not
his grandchild as Ea was Anu's, but his brother. Aud, instead
of retiring like Anu to awful and abysmal heights, and leaving
the government of this sublunary universe to Ea and his son
Merodach, the Zeus of Homer is represented as taking so deep
an interest in the affairs of mankind as to indulge in intrigues
with mortal women. As for Aidoneus, there is no point in which
he can be compared to Bel of Nipur ; for the latter is the god
not of the underworld, but of the atmosphere, his Suinerian name
of En-lilla, which was formerly translated ' Lord of Ghosts' being
now shown by Dr. Hommel to mean ' Lord of the air.' And yet,
had Mr. Gladstone carried his researches into the Greek reliction
a little further than the poems which he has done so much to
illustrate, he might have met with striking proofs enough of its
indebtedness to Mesopotamia. In the Theogonia of Hesiod, we
find the Mesopotamian Triad with hardly any alteration
occupying the highest place in the Greek Pantheon. ' First of
all,' says the poet, ' Chaos came into being.' Then follow
Ouranos, ' the airy expanse,' and Gaia, the earth. And, if
Ouranos, who is described by Hesiod in exact accordance
with the Mesopotamian myth as stretching over the earth like a
shield, is fabled to be the first-born, instead of the
father of the earth, it is only because the Greeks like
all Aryan peoples refused to picture the earth save as a goddess.
Further than this, the poet dared not go. For the idea of the
supreme Zeus were too firmly fixed in the Greek mind to be up-
rooted, and it was not until the popular religion had been
corrupted by successive importations of Oriental ideas that he

382 The Origin of our Civilisation.

could be openly identified with the Sun. Quite as significant is the
strange repetition of the same goddess under different names as
the wife of each male personification in succession ; and, although
it is the earth instead of the chaos of waters who here takes
female form, the Greek Gaia, Rhea, and Demeter correspond
pretty closely to the Anunit, Ba'u, and Damkina of the Mesopo-
tamian story. But when some two centuries after Hesio
Dionysos, ' the youngest of the gods,' came to join the older
Olympians, the resemblance between the two systems became nearly
complete. For Dionysos, a name inexplicable in Greek, but
which has been traced to the Assyrian Dian-nisi 'Judge of men,'
is hardly distinguishable from Merodach and Osiris. Like
Merodach, he is the mediator between God and man, fulfilling
towards the latter all the functions of his father ; like him, too,
he fights against the Giants, as Merodach overthrows the
monsters of Chaos ; and like him he is called ravp6/j.oP<pos, 'of bull's
form.' It was hardly necessary for the mystical school which
sprang up in Greece about Pindar's time, and which is known to
us as the Orphic, to make him, in order to complete his resem-
blance to Merodach, at once the creator and the soul of the
world. And this was only one side of his character ; as the divine
Sun he was the benefactor of man, the giver of the harvest, and
the overseer of the earth, on which nothing passes without his
cognizance.* Finally, his identification with Osiris was so com-
plete that no Greek ever thought of disputing it. The Mysteries,
as they passed more and more under the Orphic teaching, appear
to have taught this doctrine formally, and, soon after the founda-
tion of Alexandria, the Greek and Egyptian god became one
under the form of the Ptolemaic deity Sarapis.

Of the Greek myths, again, it would be hard to find one which
has not been traced to a Mesopotamian source. ' It is clear,' says
Dr. Sayce, 'that the Tammuz and Istar of the Babylonian legend
are the Adonis and Aphrodite of Greek mythology.' And the
same has been said with regard to the Labours of Herakles, the
myths of Danae, Prometheus, Circe, Chiron, and many more
which space will not allow us to dwell upon. Mr. Brown,

* Abel's Oiphica (Lipsiae, 1885) passim.

The Origin of our Civilisation. 38S

indeed, who is responsible for many of these identifications, declares
that ' whenever Greek art* or mythology shows us something
apparently meaningless .... and incapable of explana-
tion from internal sources, such representations .... are
to be patiently investigated in the remains of earlier civilisations,'
by which phrase it is clear from the context he means the
monuments of Western Asia. And with these myths, the Greek
astronomy was inextricably mingled. On every celestial globe,
we still read names which the Greeks borrowed direct from the
astronomers of Babylon without always taking the trouble to
understand their signification. The names of the constellations
called the Ram, the Bull, Capricorn, Ophiuchus, Orion, and
Eridanus cannot be explained save by reference to Mesopotamian
legends. t But we need hardly go further than the evidence of
the Greek writers for the Asiatic origin of the Greek star-lore.
Herodotus tells us that the use of the sun-dial and the division of
the day into 12 hours ' were received by the Greeks from the Baby-
lonians,' and they were hardly likely to borrow such important
astronomical matters without taking the names of the stars as
well. It may be noted also that Pythagoras, Democritus, and
other philosophers are reported on more or less credible testimony
to have studied astronomy in Mesopotamia, while Thales, who in-
troduced the science into Greece and laid the foundation of
the splendid edifice of Greek philosophy, was of Asiatic, or at
all events, of Phoenician extraction.

Professor Sayce's oddly-named book reminds us, however, that
there was a nation of antiquity whose beliefs have even a greater
interest for the majority of our countrymen than those of the
Greeks. The close correspondence between the Biblical account
of antediluvian times and the Mesopotamian legends have long
been known to scholars, and to put them into a shape intelligible
to the general public seems to be one of the aims of the present
work. Although in its title it is a protest against the somewhat

* Even Greek Art is supposed to have borrowed from Mesopotamian, V.
Pi not and Chipiez' Art in Chaldaea and Assyria (London, 1884), I., p. 75,
II., p. 393.

t Euphratean Stellar Researches, Proc. cit. XIV. (1892), p. 304.

384 J lie Origin of our Civilisation.

destructive theories of exegesis which have arrogated to them-
selves the name of ' the Higher Criticism,' nearly half its pages
are devoted to translations from the cuneiform texts and their
comparison with Scripture. To this task, Dr. Sayce brings — as
he reminds us in the preface — 'the prepossessions of an Anglican
priest,' combined with an acquaintance with an cuneiform litera-
ture to which few English scholars can lay claim. The result is
that, after a clear and impartial enquiry into the Mesopotamian
legends concerning the creation of the world, the institution of
the Sabbath, the garden of Eden, and the Flood, he pronounces
the resemblance between them and the Biblical account to be 'too
great to be purely accidental.' With regard to the two first-named,
he thinks that the Biblical writer was ' acquainted either directly
or indirectly with the Assyrian and Babvlonian tradition,' that
' the (Biblical) narrative is ultimately of Babylonian origin,' and
that with regard to all four points, ' the language of the Baby-
lonian poet ' must have been known ' to the Biblical writer.' As
to other matters, such as the creation of man, the Tree of Life,
and the Tower of Babel, he hesitates to declare the same corre-
spondence, although it is plain that he expects the decipherment
of further texts to complete the evidence in its favour. He also-
goes at great length into the genealogical table of Gen. x., which
he decides to be purely geographical, and he succeeds in identifying
most of the names therein with those of the various tribes and
nations surrounding Mesopotamia. But all or nearly all of these
borrowings (if borrowings they be) are, according to Dr. Sayce,
long previous to the Babvlonian Exile, the original tradition hav-
ing passed into and having been preserved in Palestine before the
Exodus. The general accuracy of the older Historical Books of
the Old Testament, he holds to have been fairly established by
the monuments, although he considers that the chronology of the
Biblical scribes must be corrected in accordance with the better
evidence of the inscriptions. To quote his own words : ' The
historical records of the Old Testament do not differ from other
historical records whose claim to confidence has been accepted
by the verdict of posterity. The facts contained in them are
trustworthy, and have been honestly copied from older and in
many cases contemporaneous documents ; it is only their setting

The Origin of our Civilisation. 385

and framework, the order in which they are arranged, and the
links of connection by which they are bound together, that
belong to the later compiler. We can question his chronology
while admitting to the fullest the correctness of his facts.'

Dr. Sayce does not extend the same toleration to the Books of
Ezra, Nehemiah, or Daniel. Of the two first, it is sufficient to
say that he considers them, when all allowance has been made
for interpolations, to contain chronological inconsistencies which
i no amount of ingenuity can explain away,' and that he prefers
the narrative of the (Apocryphal) First Book of Esdras to either.
But it is on the Book of Daniel that the weight of his indictment
falls. According to the inscriptions which Dr. Sayce gives at
length, Nabonidos and not Belshazzar was the last King of
Babylon ; Cyrus and not ' Darius the Mede ' was his conqueror
and successor; nor was he slain at the taking of Babylon, which
was peacefully given up to Gobryas, the Persian general. In all
these matters, he declares that the monumental evidence pro-
nounces against ' the historical accuracy of the Scriptural narra-
tive,' and he accordingly relegates the Book of Daniel to ' a
period not later than that of Alexander the Great.'

These are grave matters, and I feel that the end of a long
article is not the place to discuss them. I would rather devote
the little space that remains to me to the reason why Mesopo-
tamia became, as we have seen, the fount of civilisation to the
ancient world. Fortunately we have not far to seek. The his-
tory of Mesopotamia up to the rise of the Persian power, was, as
we now know, the history of the East. Thanks partly to her
unassailable geographical position, partly to the wealth which her
natural fertility gave her, and most of all, perhaps, to the mixture
of races within her borders, the power that was supreme in
Mesopotamia was able to send forth armies so large as to bear
down all opposition. Even before the days of Sargon of Accad,
whose date can be put with great confidence at 3800 B.C., the
kings of Sumer had pushed their conquests as far as the Sinaitic
peninsula, from whence they drew the hard blocks of diorite on
which their inscriptions are engraved. As for Sargon, the first
and perhaps the greatest of the Semitic kings, he boasts in his

inscriptions that his conquests extended from Elam in the East
xxiv. 25

386 The Origin of our Civilisation.

to Cyprus in the West, that he had subdued ' the four quarters
of the world/ and that he had ' neither equal nor rival.'* Sargon's
successors well kept up his policy, and beneath their feet all the
lesser powers of the Syrians, the Hittites, the Phoenicians, and the
Hebrews wrere crushed like glass as soon as they showed signs of
becoming formidable. Only Egypt could stand before them, but
although in a moment of division in Mesopotamia she might in-
vade Asia under a Thothmes or a Rameses, the invaders were
sooner or later driven back to their own country, which had more
than once to receive an Assyrian governor. At length both
Mesopotamia and Egypt fell under the yoke of those Aryan
races against which Semite, Turanian, and African, have never
dashed themselves save in vain. But during the 3000 years that
elapsed between Sargon of Accad and Cyrus of Anzan, how pro-
found must have been the influence which Mesopotamia exercised
over the faith, arts, sciences, and literature of her neighbours
and subjects ! The volumes before us have given us some idea
of this, and we cannot doubt that further discoveries are now in
progress which will all make in the same direction. Assyriolo-
gists have of ten been accused of making 'sensational' discoveries,
but none that they can now make can take away from the im-
portance of Mesopotamia in the history of the world. In the
words of an author who has studied more deeply perhaps than
anyone living the material side of civilisation : ' Among those
distant ancestors of whom we are the direct heirs, those ances-
tors who have left us that heritage of civilisation which grows
with every year that passes, there are none, perhaps, to whom
our respect and our filial gratitude are more justly due than to
the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia.' t

F. Legge.

* Sayce, Hibbert Lectures for 1887, p. 30.
t Perrot, op. cit., p. 399, sq.

(387)

Art. VIII.— COREA.

1. Problems of the Far East. By the Hon. George N.

Curzon, M.P. Japan — Korea — China. London : 1894.

2. Report of a Journey in North Corea. By Mr. C. W. Camp-

bell. China. No. 2, 1891. Presented to both Houses of
Parliament,
o. Corea, the Hermit Nation. By William Elliot Griffis.
London : 1882.

THROUGHthe rivalries of its friends or enemies Corea, Chosen,
or the Land of the Morning Calm has, during the last few
months, been thrown into a state of wild confusion, and become
the scene of war and carnage. Whatever may be the result of
the struggle which its two neighbours are now waging along its
shores and within its borders — whether China or Japan proves the
victor, and whether Corea be declared free and independent, or,
instead of being the almost nominal subject of the Middle
Kingdom, becomes the real vassal of the Land of the Rising
Sun — there can be no doubt that the lot of its inhabitants
is at the present moment far from enviable. Helpless between
their two. powerful and jealous neighbours, they are compelled to
undergo the untold horrors of a war they have not provoked, in
order that the domestic troubles of a young and blustering nation
may be staved off for a little, and its jealousies and ambitions
satisfied. How long this state of affairs will last, or how long it
may be allowed to continue, it is difficult to tell. Before these
pages see the light it may be that China, or even Japan, though
at present that seems far from likely, may have sued for peace
and a hollow truce may have been patched up ; or the Western
Powers, either in the cause of humanity or in their own interest,
may have intervened, and compelled the combatants to lay down
their arms or to shift the scene of their operations elsewhere.
To all appearance things are rapidly approaching a crisis, and
there is no knowing what to-morrow's telegrams may have to
tell. One thing, however, seems to be certain; and that is, that a
new era is opening up in the history of Corea.

388 Co

rea.

The last of the ' hermit ' nations, though the existence of the
peninsula was known in Europe as far back as the sixteenth cen-
tury, and notwithstanding the descriptions given of it by the
Arabian geographers of the Middle Ages, very little was known
about Corea and its inhabitants, at least in the West, until com-
paratively recent times. Within the last fifty years something
like a considerable literature has grown up about them. Most
of it, however, is second-hand ; travellers in Corea have been
few, and the amount of reliable information about it cannot by
any means be called great. A good deal of interesting informa-
tion may be gathered from the narrative of the unfortunate
Dutchman, Hendrik Hamel,* who spent the years between 1653
and 1(367 as a prisoner in Corea, and from Father Dallet's His-
torie de VEglise de Coree, f as also from Life in Corea by Mr.
Carles, sometime H. B. M. Vice-Consul in Corea; but the works
we have indicated above contain most of what is at present really
known. Mr. Griffis's work is for the most part a compilation,
not pre-eminently well arranged, yet of the scholarly and, in the
main, reliable kind. The sources from which he has drawn are
numerous. It is rich in historical traditions and gives a good
account of the manners, customs, folk-lore, superstitions and
government of the country, the history of which is brought
down to the time of writing. Mr. Campbell's Report is interest-
ing on other grounds. Its value and accuracy is borne witness
to by no less competent a judge than Mr. Curzon, who says that,
within a narrow space, it contains the most vivid and accurate
account of Corean life and character he has seen.} Mr. Curzon's
own work is part of the outcome of two journeys made round the
world in 1887-88 and in 1892-98. It deals with Japan, Corea,
and China, and is to be followed by another volume treating of
the other countries lying beyond India in the Far East. Though
in a measure dependent upon the works already mentioned, it is
written for the most part from personal observation. The states-
man and politician is evident on every page. There is little of the
descriptive in it, Mr. Curzon's aim being rather to present the reader

* Printed in Astley and Pinkerton's Voyages.

t 2 Vols. Paris, 1874. t Problems, p. 87.

Corea. 389

with a distinct account of the present political condition of the
three countries about which he writes, and to state his views as to
treir probable future. Its publication at the present juncture is
exceedingly opportune, and will, there can be little doubt, have
considerable influence in shaping public opinion.

' Corea,' it was said some time ago, ' suggests no more than a
sea-shell.' At the present moment, though it certainly suggests
much more than it did, say, some twenty years ago, it is still one
of the least known countries of the globe. In the following
pages, therefore, we propose to give some account of its geo-
graphy, products, people, government and history.

On the north, Corea is bounded for a short distance by the
Tiumen, beyond which lies Siberia ; for the rest of its boundary
on the Asiatic Continent it has the Chinese province of
Manchuria. The peninsula, which may also be called an island,
of which it for the most part consists, hangs down between the
Middle Kindgom and the Land of the Sunrise, separating the
Sea of Japan from the Yellow Sea, between the 34th and 43rd
parallels of North Latitude. Its estimated area together with that
of its outlying islands makes it almost equal to that of Great
Britain, being 82,000 square miles. Its coast line measures 1,740
miles. As pointed out by Mr. Griffis, in general shape and rela-
tive position the peninsula of Corea resembles that of Florida.
Legend and jreoloov alike surest that it was at one time con-
nected with the Chinese promontory and province of Shantung,
and that what is now the Gulf of Pechili and the Yellow Sea
was formerly dry land ; their waters are shallow, and the eleva-
tion of their bottoms but a few feet would suffice to restore their
area to the land surface of the globe. On the other side of the
peninsula the sea of Japan is also shallow, while at their greatest
depth the Straits of Corea, separating Corea from the Japanese
island of Kiushiu, give but 83 feet. The eastern and western
coasts of Corea are very different. The former is comparatively
destitute of harbours, its shores are high and monotonous, but
slightly indented, and with few islands ; the western coast, on
the other hand, is frequently indented, possesses good harbours
and landing places, has a number of navigable rivers, and is
fringed with innumerable islands. The fertility and beauty, and

390 Corea.

the fantastic outlines which these assume have attracted the
attention of travellers. Mr. Adams, who visited the country

previous to 1870, writes : —

' As you approach them you look from the deck of the vessel and see
them dotting the wide, blue, boundless plain of the sea— groups and
clusters of islands stretching away into the far distance. Far as the eye
can reach, these dark masses can faintly be discerned, and as we close, one
after another, the bold outlines of their mountain peaks stand out clearly
against the cloudless sky. The water from which they seem to arise is so
deep around them that a ship can almost range up alongside them. The
rough, gray granite and basaltic cliffs, of which they are composed, show
them to be only the rugged peaks of submerged mountain masses which
have been rent, in some great convulsion of nature, from the peninsula
which stretches into the sea from the mainland. You gaze upward and see
the weird, fantastic outline which some of their torn and riven peaks
present. In fact, they have assumed such peculiar forms as to have sug-
gested to navigators characteristic names. Here, for example, stands out
the fretted crumbling tower of one called Windsor Castle, there frowns a
noble rock-ruin, the Monastery, and here again, mounting to the skies, the
Abbey Peak. Some of the islands of the Archipelago are very lofty, and one
was ascertained to boast of a naked granite peak more than 2000 feet above
the level of the sea. Many of the summits are crowned with a dense
forest of conifers, dark trees, very similar to Scotch firs.'*

On the mainland the most striking feature is a chain of moun-
tains which traverses the peninsula from North to South,
throwing out many off-shoots, and winding in and out, as the
Coreans say, ninety -nine times. To a very large extent it deter-
mines the configuration, climate, river system, and political
divisions of the country. Lying to the eastern side of the
peninsula, the provinces of Eastern Corea, are for the most part
mountainous, and through seven parallels of latitude present a
living wall of verdure to the traveller who approaches the country
from the Sea of Japan. With the exception of Yung-hing, or
Broughton Bay, they are almost entirely destitute of harbours ;
and the only river of importance they possess is the Nak-tong,
which drains the valley between the interior and the sea coast
range. The five western provinces of tha country are spread

* Travels of a Natwalist in Japan and Manchuria, quoted by Mr.
G-riffis, p. 4.

Corea. 391

over the western slopes of the mountain range, the fertile
valleys of which are drained by broad streams. With two
exceptions the political divisions of the peninsula are determined
by the river systems, the rainfall in nearly every province finding
an outlet in its own sea-border. The exceptions are the two
North-Eastern provinces, where part of their waters is discharged
into streams emptying themselves beyond their boundaries. The
Yalu, recently become so famous, and the Han, near to which is
Soul, the capital, are the only streams whose sources lie beyond
their own provinces. After a custom, not unknown in other parts
of the world, but frequently annoying, it is extremely rare that a
river retains the same name throughout the whole or even the
greater part of its course.*

The climate is extremely varied. Great differences also occur
in the same latitude on the opposite sides of the mountain
range. Its general characteristics, however, are said to be excel-
lent, bracing in the North and tempered in the South by the
ocean breezes of summer. As compared with European countries
in the same latitude, Corea is on the whole much colder in winter
and hotter in summer. In the North the Tiumen is usually frozen
during five months in the year, and at Soul the Han may be
crossed on ice during two or three months. Snow is not un-
known in the Southern provinces, though the plains are usually
free. When it does occur it generally disappears within twenty-
four hours. The lowest point to which the mercury fell in the
observations of the French missionaries was at the 35th parallel of
latitude 8°, and at the 37th parallel 15° (F.) The best seasons
are spring and autumn. In summer the heat is great and the
rain often falls in torrents, rendering transport and travelling
impossible. Towards the end of September a period of tempests
and variable winds occurs, f Here and there malaria prevails.

Game, both large and small, is said to be abundant. Tigers
of the largest and fiercest kind abound in the forests, more especially
in those of the two northern provinces. When food fails them,
they attack the villages, and the annual list of victims is very

Corea, pp. 5-7. t Ibid, pp. 5-7,

392 Corea.

large.* Leopards, bears, deer, and the wild hog are numerous, as
also are pheasants, wild ducks, geese, and swans ; the falcon, which
is protected by stringent laws, the eagle, crane, and stork are
common, and the beautiful pink ibis is frequently met with both
singly and in flocks. Corea, however, is not a happy hunting ground
for the sportsman, even after he has managed to get access to the
country. Hotels are unknown, the rest-houses, and even the
best lodgings procurable by means of a letter from the Corean
Foreign Office are abominably filthy ; the natives as a rule are
not hunters, and are too timid to render assistance in hunting
the larger game. The professional hunters, however, are said to
be both bold and expert.

Of domesticated animals, horses, which are mostly of a short
and stunted breed, are numerous. ' The ox,' as Mr. Campbell
observes, ' is the farmer's great assistant,' ploughing, drawing,
and carrying for him. Goats are rare. Sheep are imported
from China for sacrificial purposes. The dog serves for food as
well as for companionship. The Corean pig is black, hairy,
wily and gaunt.

All round the peninsula there is an abundant supply of fish.
Year by year its waters are frequented by immense shoals of
herrings, which during the months of April, May, and June,
attract fleets of junks and thousands of fishermen from the
northern coast provincss of China. Off the eastern shores the
Japanese hunt the whale, which follows the herring shoals in

* ' The number of human lives lost, and the value of property destroyed
by these ravages, is so great,' says Mr. Griffis, ' as to depopulate certain dis-
tricts. A hungry tiger will often penetrate a village in which the houses
are well secured, and will prowl around a hovel or ill-secured dwelling,
during several entire nights. If hunger presses, he will not raise the
siege until he leaps upon the thatched roof. Through the hole thus made
by tearing through, he bounds upon the terrified household. In this case
a hand-to-claw fight ensues, in which the tiger is killed or comes oft*
victorious after glutting himself upon one or more human victims.
Rarely, however, need this King of Corean beasts resort to this expedient,
for such is the carelessness of the villagers that in spite of the man-eater's
presence in the neighbourhood, they habitually sleep during the summer
with the doors of their houses wide open, and oftentimes even in the
sheds in the open fields without dreaming of taking the precaution to light
a tire.' P. 324.

Corea. 393

large schools, and the fishing is said to yield considerable profit.
The pearl fisheries are now utterly neglected, though formerly
the pearls of Corea were famous both for their size and
brilliancy, and were said to outrival those derived from the
fisheries of Tonquin. The industry only needs to be properly
worked to prove lucrative. Thebest pearls are foundoff the coast of
the Yellow Sea province, in the archipelago to the south and at
the island of Quelpart. Sponges of several varieties are met with
in abundance on the western coast, and among many of the islands.
The mineral wealth of Corea, especially in the province of
-Pmg-yang> is said to be very great, though latterly some have
been disposed to suspect the estimates which have been formed
of it as more or less fanciful.

'It is known,' writes Mr. Curzon, 'that gold, lead, and silver (galena),
copper and iron ores are found in some abundance, although hitherto
worked in the most spasmodic and clumsy fashions. Some years ago the
most roseate anticipations were indulged in of impending mineral
productions ; and a financial authority has been found to assert that the
problem of the currencyof the world would be solved by the phenomenal out-
put of the precious metals from Korea. Latterly there has been a correspond-
ing recoil of opinion, which has led people to declare that the Korean
mines are a fraud, and that the wealth-producing capacity of the peninsula
will never be demonstrated in this direction. Those, however, who have
the most intimate knowledge of the interior agree in thinking that the
minerals are there, and are capable of being worked by European hands at
an assured profit. Should the government consent to a concession on an
at all liberal scale, and personally assist instead of obstructing its opera-
tions, the money would be forthcoming to-morrow from more than one
quarter, and it is inconceivable, vain though the Koreans are about
treasures of which they know nothing, but which, because a few foreigners
are running after them, they conceive must be unique in the world, that
many more years must elapse before a serious attempt is made to open
them up. Excellent coal, a soft anthracite, burning brightly and leaving
little ash, is already procured by the most primitive methods from a mine
near Pyong-yang, which is said to contain unlimited quantities. Nearly
all the iron that is used in the country for agricultural and domestic pur-
poses is also of native production, the ore being scratched out of shallow
holes in the ground and smelted in charcoal furnaces. The Koreans have
no conception either of ventilation, drainage, blasting * or lighting. There

* At Chang-yin the owner of the silver mines there told Mr. Carles that
he had came across a piece of hard rock on which his tools had no effect, and
that he had tried gunpowder, but to no purpose. Life in Corea, p. 252.

394 Corea.

is now a Mining Board among the Government Departments at Soul ; but
of its activity no evidence is as yet forthcoming.*

Gold, of which the lion's share has always gone to Japan, is
obtained mostly in placer diggings, and is a Government mono-
poly. The output of the Imperial mines in the year 1891 is
given at 36,265 ounces troy, but this is supposed to be only about
twenty per cent, of the annual export. Indiscriminate gold-seek-
ing is forbidden, but large quantities are yearly smuggled out of
the country by the Chinamen who frequent the herring fishery,
and by those engaged in the overland and Japanese trade.
Five years ago the Government, Mr. Curzon informs us,
' purchased foreign machinery and engaged foreign miners to
work the gold mines in the Pyong-yang district, but the enter-
prise was abandoned before it had a fair trial.' Copper, which,
notwithstanding the native supply, was imported in 1890 to the
value of £40,000, is wrorked up into various kinds of utensils of
which there is a slight export trade with China.

In the north the chief crops are barley, millet and oats ; in the
south, rice, wheat, beans and grain of all kinds are grown, besides
tobacco, for which the Coreans have an especial fondness, The
famous ginseng is a Government monopoly. The most precious
drug in the Chinese pharmacopoeia, though considered worthless
by Europeans, it has been known to realise its weight in gold
and several times its weight in silver at Pekin. An inferior kind
is now, and has been for many years, supplied to the China
market by the United States of America. The Corean root,
however, is still greatly esteemed, though the price it fetches is
nothing like what it used to be before the monopoly was
broken. The annual value of the export is about £40,000.

The principal ports of the country are the three Treaty ports
of Fusan, Gensan, and Chemulpo. Fusan is upon the south-
east coast, opposite to and within sight of the island of Tsushima,
and was for long in possession of the Japanese, with whom a
considerable trade was done. Gensan is upon the east coast,
about half-way between Fusan and Vladivostok. Chemulpo is
upon the west coast, and is the port of the capital, Soul. Mr.
Curzon, who has visited them, describes them as follows : —

* Pp. 189-90.

Corea. 395

' The harbours of Fusan and Gensan are alike in being situated at the
bottom of deep and sheltered bays, which could provide anchorage for
immense armadas, which are visited by a yearly increasing mercantile
marine, flying the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Russian flags. Fusan
as the port nearest to Japan, has retained for centuries a more than
nominal connection with the neighbouring Power, having been from early
times a fief of the daimio or lord of Tsushima, until, in 1876, it became a
trading-port constituted between the two Powers. . . . Gensan is
situated in the southern bottom of the remarkable inlet in the Eastern
Coast, called, from the British navigator who first surveyed it in 1~!*7,
Broughton Bay. A deeper, and even finer indentation of the same bay,
sheltered by the Nakimoff peninsula, in the well-known port of Lazaret!',
first survej'ed and named by the Russians in 1854, and ever since regarded
by that people, from their ice-bound quarters at Vladivostok, with a more
than envious eye. The entire bay is fourteen miles in length, from two
to six in width, and has a depth of from six to twelve fathoms. Seawards
its entrance is masked by an archipelago of islets. ... A less vigorous
trade is here conducted by both Japanese and Chinese (the latter having
only recently entered the field) with the northern provinces, the populous
towns in which are more easily reached from the western coast, and will
ultimately be more naturally served from the river-port of Pyong-yang (or
Ping-yeng), as soon as the latter is opened to foreign commerce, or as the
Korean coasting marine becomes equal to its supply. . . . Chemulfo
has few natural aptitudes as a port beyond its situation on the estuary of
the southern branch of the river Han, or Han-kiang, upon which stands
the Korean capital, and its consequent proximity to the main centre of
population. The river journey is fifty -four miles in length to Mapu, the
landing-place of Soul, which lies three miles farther on. The land march
to Soul is an uninviting stretcii of twenty-six miles. In 1883, when
Chemulfo was first opened to foreign trade, there was only a fishing
hamlet with fifteen Korean huts on the site, where now may be seen a
prosperous town, containing over 3,000 foreigners, of whom 2,500 are
Japanese, 600 Chinamen, and over twenty Europeans, as well as a native
population of equal numbers. There are a European club, several billiard
saloons and restaurants, and some excellent Chinese stores. The outer
anchorage is some two or three miles from the shore, for the tide runs out
here for miles (with a rise and fall of 25 to 30 feet), leaving an exposed
waste of mud-flats and a narrow channel, in which steamers of light
draught rest upon the ooze. The busy streets and harbour are indications
of a rapidly advancing trade, which promises further expansion in the near
future.'*

The value of the export trade passing through these ports fell

Problem*, pp. 88-93.

39(5 Co re a.

in 18(J1 from 3,360,344 dollars to 2,443,739 dollars in 1892,
and that of the imports from 5,256,408 to 4,598,485 dollars in
the same period. The imports were chiefly cotton and woollen
goods, the former consisting chiefly of shirtings, lawns and muslins.
The chief exports were beans, hides, and rice. The returns for
last year show a further decline in the volume of trade. The
value of it was not more than £1,500,000. This refers, however,
to the Treaty ports. The actual trade of the country is much
greater. A large trade is done at the non-treaty ports and with
China and Russia overland. The shipping is almost entirely in
the hands of the Japanese. Last year not a single British
steamer appeared off the coast. A remarkable feature pointed
out by Mr. O'Conor, H.B.M. Minister at Pekin, in his Report for
1893, is the large increase of vessels sailing under the Corean
flag. In eight years they have risen from seven steamers and
three sailing ships to 141 steamers and 149 sailing ships.
British goods find their way to Corea chiefly through China.
The most formidable competitor which Britain has to fear in
her markets is Japan. The cheapness of labour enables the
Japanese manufacturers, whose machinery is said to be equal to
the best here, to produce the same articles at less cost, and con-
sequently to undersell.*

The Coreans, of whom there are said to be some 1 1,000,000
or 12,000,000, the males exceeding the females, belong to the
Mongolian stock, and occupy, as Mr. Curzon points out, a sort
of intermediate stage between the Mongolian Tartar and the
Japanese. Their history they boast goes back for four thousand
years, and certainly the origin of their kingdom is lost in obscur-
ity. For centuries they have, until quite recently, successfully
carried out a policy of isolation. Foreigners of all sorts were
rigidly excluded, and so intent was the Government on barring
their ingress that the shores were laid waste lest the mariner
should be tempted to land, and a stretch of country twenty
leagues in width was some three centuries ao;o laid waste all

* ' The wages of a cotton operative in Japan are from 10 cents to 20
cents (i.e 3d to 6d) a day. Japanese coal is delivered at the mills for 2^
(i.e. Gs. 3d.) a ton.' Problems, p. 51.

Corea. 397

along the Chinese border, in order to prevent intrusions from the
Asian Continent.*

The language spoken by this curious people belongs to the
Turanian family. Many Chinese words have been introduced
into it, and two syllabaries or alphabets are in use — the Nido or
Corean, which gives a phonetic value to some 250 Chinese
ideographs in common use, and is said to have been invented
over a thousand years ago by Syel Chong, a famous scholar and
priest : and the Corean alphabet or script which was first adopted
in 1447 A.D., and is still in use among the lower orders. Com-
munication, however, is always possible with them by means of
the Chinese symbols, which are equally in use. Among the
upper or official classes the usual language both of speech and
correspondence is Chinese, though all are acquainted with Corean.
Chinese is also the official language, and as such is used by the
Government in its publications, examinations and decrees.

Though belonging to the Mongolian race and speaking an

agglutinative language the Coreans are easily distinguished from

their neighbours both on the Continent of Asia and the adjacent

islands of Japan. Physically they are tall, broad-shouldered and

well made. Their dress, as is well known, is peculiar, and would

serve to make them conspicuous anywhere. Mr. Curzon gives

the following graphic account of their appearance :

' The first sight of its whifce-robed people, whose figures if stationary,
might be mistaken at a distance for white mile-posts or tombstones, if

* 'Of late years,' observes Mr. Griffis (p. 8), 'the Chinese Government
has respected the neutrality of this barrier less and less. One of those
recurring historical phenomena peculiar to Manchuria — the increase and
pressure of population — has within a generation caused the occupation of
large portions of this neutral strip. Parts of it have been surveyed and
staked out by Chinese surveyors, and the Corean Government has been
too feeble to prevent the occupation. Though no towns or villages are
marked on the map of this "No man's land," yet already (i.e. in 1882),
a considerable number of small settlements exist upon it. As this once
neutral territory is being gradually obliterated, so the former lines of
palisades and stone walls on the northern border which, two centuries and
more ago, were strong, high, guarded, and kept in repair, have year by
year, during a long period of peace, been suffered to fall into decay. They
exist no longer, and should be erased from the maps.'

398 Corea.

moving, for a colony of swans, acquaints us with a national type and
dress that are quite unique. A dirty people who insist upon dressing in
white is a first peculiarity ; a people inhabiting a northern, and in winter
a very rigorous latitude, who yet insist upon wearing cotton (even though
it be warlded in winter) all the year round, is a second ; a people who
always wear hats, and have a headpiece accommodated to every situation
and almost every incident in life, is a third. But all these combine to
make the wearers picturesque ; while as to Korean standards of comfort
we have nothing to do but to wonder. As to their physique the men are
stalwart, well-built, and bear themselves with a manly air, though of
docile and sometimes timid expression. The hair is worn long, but is
twisted into a topknot, protected by the crown of the aforementioned hat.
The women, of whom those belonging to the upper class are not visible,
but the poorer among whom may be seen by hundreds engaged in manual
labour, cannot be described as beautiful. They have a peculiar arrange-
ment of dress by which a short white bodice covers the shoulders, but
leaves the breasts entirely exposed ; while the voluminous petticoats, very
full at the hips, depend from a waist, just below the armpits, and all but
conceal coarse white or brown pantaloons below. Their hair is black, and
is wound in a big coil round the temples, supplying a welcome contrast to
the greasy though fascinating coiffure of the females of Japan. Indeed, if
the men of the two nations are unlike — the tall, robust, good-looking, idle
Korean, and the diminutive, ugly, nimble, indomitable Japanese — still
more so are the women — the hard visaged. strong-limbed, masterful
housewife of Korea, and the shuffling, knock-kneed, laughing, betwitching
Japanese damsel. The Korean boy, indeed, might more easily be taken
to represent the gentler sex, since, until he is engaged to be married, he
wears his hair parted in the middle and hanging in a long plait down his
back.' *

The Coreans marry early, are prone to have large families,
and are naturally long-lived. According to law each man can have
but one wife, but concubinage is widely practiced. Notwith-
standing the invigorating character of the climate, the habits of
life and morals of the Coreans have made them subject to many
forms of disease. The mortality amongst children is enormous,
and the death-rate is still further increased by the epidemics
which every third or fourth year sweep over the country, and
against the recurrence of which no precautions whatever are
taken. Among the lower classes there is neither cleanliness nor
decency. Poverty in the sense of destitution, Mr. Curzon tells

* Pp. 93-96.

Corea. 399

us, does not exist, but poverty in the sense of having no surplus
beyond the bare means of livelihood is almost universal. In the
neighbourhood of the silver mines of C hang- j in, in the north,
Mr. Carles met with the signs of a destitution almost absolute.
Though usually uncomplaining, the people there complained that
they were very poor, and besought him to tell them how they
might improve their condition. ' Nowhere else in Corea,' he
writes, ' had I seen such universal symptoms of poverty, and the
anxious expression on the faces of the crowd as they waited for
my answer, confirmed the story.' Enterprise is entirely wanting.
Servitude to a form of government which has never either encour-
aged or so much as permitted it, and centuries of isolation from
the rest of the world have made the people apathetic, listless, and
indolent. As individuals, however, Mr. Curzon informs us, they
are not without attractive characteristics — the upper classes being
polite, cultivated, friendly to foreigners, and priding themselves
on correct deportment ; while the lower orders are good tempered,
though excitable, cheerful, and talkative. All classes are fond of
sight-seeing, and there is nothing the Corean loves better than a
Kukyeng, or pleasure trip into the country, where he shirks all
business, and dawdles away his time in amusements, more or less
innocent. Excessive eatina; is a national failing. The Corean
never knows when he has eaten enough. Nor is he in any way
fastidious as to what he eats or as to how it is prepared. His
usual food is rice, but like the Japanese he is fond of raw fish.
He is not averse to a dish of dog's flesh, but can obtain beef only
when permitted by the Government cfficials. As might be
expected from his physique the Corean has a great reserve of
physical strength. It is seldom, however, that he uses it. Mr.
Carles reports that he has seen seven men digging with a single
spade between them, and doing among them the work of one
man ; and Mr. Curzon writes : ' I have seen a Korean coolie
carrying a weight that would make the strongest ox stagger, and
yet I have seen three Koreans lazily employed in turning up
the soil with a shovel by an arrangement of ropes that wasted
the labours of three men without augmenting the strength of
one.' An idiosyncracy of a different kind is mentioned by Mr.
Griffis. As soldiers, he remarks, they are timid to a degree in.

400 Corea.

the open, but behind their fortifications they display an

invincible courage and fight with the utmost determination.*

The Coreans are, for the most part, Buddhists, and numerous

Buddhist monasteries are scattered up and down the country.

Most of them are placed in the midst of lovely scenery, and have

long been places of great resort. The internal arrangements of

these monasteries are usually the same. Mr. Curzon, who visited

the chief or metropolitan monastery of Sak Wang Sa, about

twenty miles from Gensan, gives the following description of

them : —

'Adjoining, sometimes over, the entrance, is a roofed platform or ter-
race, the pillars and sides of which are thickly hung with the votive or
subscription tablets of former pilgrims. Here is usually placed a gigantic
drum, reposing upon the back of a painted wooden monster. Hard by a
big bronze bell hangs behind a grill. The central court, into which one
first enters, contains the principal shrine or temple, usually at the upper
end, and subsidiary shrines or guest-chambers on either side. All are of
the same pattern — low detached buildings, with heavy tiled roofs and over-
hanging eaves, closed by screens or shutters, or doors along the front.
Inside is a single gloomy chamber or hall, the richly carved and painted
ceiling of which is sustained by large red pillars. Opposite the entrance
is the main altar, a green or pink gauze veil hanging in front, of which but
half conceals the gilded figures of seated or standing Buddhas behind,
while all around the sides are ranged grotesque and grinning images,
usually in painted clay, of other demigods, saints, or heroes. A low stool

* ' Chinese, Japanese, French, and Americans,' he says, 'have experi-
enced the fact, and marvelled thereat. . . . The Coreans are poor
soldiers in the open field, and exhibit slight proof of personal valour.
They cannot face a dashing foe nor endure stubborn fighting. But
put the same men behind walls, bring them to bay, and the timid stag
amazes the hounds. Their whole nature seems reinforced. They are
more than brave. Their courage is sublime. They fight to the last
man, and fling themselves on the bare steel when the foe clears the rain-
parts. The Japanese of 1592 looked on the Coreans in the field as a
kitten, but in the castle as a tiger. The French, in l&GG, never found a
force that could face rifles, though behind walls the same men were
invincible. The American handful of tars kept at harmless distance
thousands of black heads in the open, but inside the fort they met giants
in bravery. No nobler foe ever met American steel. Even when dis-
armed they fought their enemies with dust and stones until slain to the
last man. The sailors found that the sheep in the field were lions in the
fort.' Pp. 42-3.

Corea. 401

stands in front of the main altar, and supports a copy of the liturgy and a
small brass bell. Thereat, when the hour strikes for morning or evening
prayer, a monk, hastily pulling a grey robe and red hood over his white
dress, kneels down on a mat, intones a prayer in a language which he does
not understand, touches the ground with his forehead, and strikes the
brass bell with a small deer's horn. Similar replicas of the same sanctu-
ary, dedicated to different deities, stand in the neighbouring courts ' (Pp.
107-8. See also Mr. Campbell's Report).

Many of the monasteries are built on the summits or slopes of
high mountains and are difficult of access. Not a few of them
are further protected by a high enclosing wall, behind which
roval and other f uo-itives have often found refuge when in dis-
tress. Some of these mountain monasteries are said to be rich in
old books, manuscripts, and liturgical furniture. The great
monastery of Tong-to-sa, between Kiung-sang and Chulla is
noted for its library, and is said to possess the entire sacred
canon. The monks are divided into three classes, students, men-
dicants, and soldiers. The mendicants, when not on duty in the
monasteries, travel far and wide in quest of alms. The soldier-
monks act as garrisons and make and keep in order the weapons
to the use of which they are trained. ' This clerical militia,' Mr.
Curzon remarks, ' is a legacy from the days when the Buddha
hierarchy was a great power in the land, and produced statesmen
as well as devotees and students.' There are also several nun-
neries.

In spite of Buddhism, however, the more ancient Shamanism
still prevails, and is probably the basis of whatever faith the
Corean has. Good and evil spirits are believed to be every-
where and to control everything, and nothing of importance is
done without consulting or trying to propitiate them. Ancestor-
worship is also sedulously cultivated. Public celebrations are
held at stated times in honour of the dead, and in most well to do
houses may be seen the gilt and black tablets inscribed with the
names of the departed. Before these tablets the smoke of in-
cense rises daily. Mourning for the dead may be said to form a
part of the national religion, and is regulated as to time and
place and dress by the rules laid down in an official treatise called
the ' Guide to Mourners,' published by the Government. The

colour for mourning is pure, or nearly pure, white, as a contrast
xxiv. 26

do 2 Corea.

to red, the colour of rejoicing. The hat worn during the period
of mourning is high peaked and covers the face as well as the
head. Those wearing it are lost to the world ; they are not to be
spoken to, nor molested, nor even arrested. Missionaries have often
found it a safe disguise, and have been able to move about the
country unharmed, even when the secret police, of whom there
are numbers, were on their track watching to secure them.

At the head of the Government is the King, or Hap-mun,
whose power is absolute. He seldom appears in public, but
close communication is kept up between the palace and popu-
lace by means of pages employed about the Court, or through
officers who are sent out as the King's spies all over the coun-
try, to ascertain the state of popular feeling, or to report on
the conduct of certain officials. They are known as the ' Mes-
sengers on the Dark Path,' and are themselves shadowed and
reported on by another set known as ' Night Messengers.'
Next in authority to the King is the Chief of the three Chong,
or high ministers. After the King and the three chief minis-
ters come the Boards of Government, of which there are eight,
including a Home Department and a Foreign Department,
which have recently been added. The heads of these Boards
report daily of all affairs coming under their jurisdiction,
and refer matters of importance to the Supreme Council, or
three principal Ministers of State. A gazette called the Cho-po
is issued daily, containing information on official matters. The
provinces, of which there are eight, are each under the direc-
tion of a governor, and every district has its magistrate.

Corean society is theoretically divided into three broad
classes : the ' sang,' or upper, the ' chung,' or middle, and
the ' ha,' or lower. The official class, which is known as
the Nyang-pan or Two Orders — civil and military — ' con-
stitutes the aristocracy of birth, descending from an aris-
tocracy of office.' Their number is enormous and in a
measure explains the poverty of the people. Eticpiette, as
well as disposition, forbids them to work, and they can only
hang on to their superiors and pick up what they can. In his
Report for 1885, Mr. Carles mentions that in one province
alone, Pyong-an-do, there were forty-four magistracies, with

Corea. 403

an average of four huudred official hangers-on in each, or in
all 17,600 men who had nothing to do but to police the dis-
trict and collect the taxes. The best account of them is given
by Mr. Campbell in his Report.

'The nyang-pan,' he says, 'enjoys many of the usual privileges of no-
bility. He is exempt from arrest, except by command of the King or the
Governor of the province in which he resides, and then he is not liable to
personal punishment, except for the gravest crimes, such as treason or
extortion. He wields an autocratic sway over the inmates of his house,
and has full licence to resent any real or fancied insult levelled at him by
the ha-in, i.e., 'low men,' the proletariat, just as he pleases. At the same
time the nyang-pan lies under one great obligation, noblesse oblige ; he can-
not perform any menial work or engage in any trade or industrial occu-
pation. Outside the public service, teaching is the only form of
employment open to him. If he seeks any other, he sinks irrevocably to
the level of his occupation. There is no law laid down on the point. The
penalty is enforced socially, and is part of the unwritten code of nyang-pan
etiquette. These privileges and obligations have naturally influenced the
character of the class, so that the officeless nyang-pan, no matter how
poor, is proud and punctilious as a Spanish hidalgo, nor above negotiating
a loan with the most shameless effrontery, yet keen to resent the slightest
shade of disrespect from an inferior ' (Pp. 33-4).

The magistrates surronnd themselves after their fashion with
great pomp and state, and lay great stress on etiquette. Unjust
magistrates are sometimes punished with exile ; it is only on rare
occasions that they are put to death. Good and upright magis-
trates are often commemorated by mok-pi, i.e., inscribed columns
erected to their memory along the public roads by those whose
gratitude they have earned. Civil matters are decided by the
ordinary civil magistrates; criminal cases are tried by the military
commandants. Important cases are referred to the governor of
the province. Cases of treason and rebellion, and charges against
high officials are tiied before a special tribunal appointed by the
King, in the capital, where is also the highest Court of Appeal.
The system of making every five houses a unit is universal, and
facilitates the discovery of criminals. The present criminal
code is, in the main, that which was promulgated in 1785, and
appears to be much less severe than the one in force in Hamel's
time. Every subject of the Sovereign, except nobles of rank, is
required to possess a passport testifying to his personality and the

404 Corea.

group of liouses to which he belongs, and must be ready at any
time to produce it on demand. Foreigners travelling in the
country do well to arm themselves with a letter or passport from
the Corean Foreign Office.

The civilisation of Corea is in its origin Chinese. That of
Japan, on the other hand, was, according to all accounts and by
the admission of its own writers, derived from Corea. The
connection of Corea with the Middle Kingdom goes back into
the centuries before the Christian Era, and is apparently as old
as the Chinese Empire itself. Various Emperors attempted the
subjugation of the peninsula, and invaded it with vast armies
and fleets. The Japanese also attempted to establish themselves
upon its shores, and were long in the habit of regarding it as a
vassal state.

The first Japanese invasion of the country dates as far back as
the year 202 A.D., when the Empress-regent, who rejoiced
in the name of Jingu, or Jingo, made a levy of all the avail-
able forces in her kingdom, and landed them on the coast of
the province, or Kingdom, of Shintra. Terrified by the appear-
ance of her army the King of Shintra at once submitted.
The Empress-regent caused her bow to be suspended over the
gate of his palace as a sign of his submission, and is even said to
have written upon the gate, ' The King of Shintra is the dog of
Japan.' Preparations were then made by Jingu to subdue the
neighbouring province of Hiaksai, but before they were well
completed she was surprised to receive the voluntary submission
of its rulers and offers of tribute. The expedition only lasted
about a couple of months, but it led to important results.

It was not, however, till towards the close of the fourteenth
century that either China or Japan could claim to be the
acknowledged suzerain of the country. The Ming dynasty
having fairly established itself upon the throne of China, the
reigning Emperor sent to Corea demanding pledges of vassalage.
The pledges were refused, and he prepared to invade the country.
Whereupon a revolution took place in Corea, the King and his
family were put to death, and Ny Taijo, the founder of the
present Corean dynasty, who had instigated the revolution,

Corea. 405

ascended the throne.* lie at once sent an envoy to the
Nanking to notify to the Ming Emperor what had happened,
to tender his loyal vassalage, and to beg his investiture as
sovereign. The embassy was favourably received, friendship
was fully established between China and Corea, and a number
of Corean youths were sent to study in the Imperial College
at Nanking. For some reason or other an embassy and
presents were at the same time sent to the Shogun's Court at
Kamakura, but no move was made by Japan. Her rulers were
weak or fighting among themselves, and for the next two hun-
dred years China enjoyed the suzerainty of Corea in peace.

In 1585, however, the Regent Hideyoshi revived the claim
of Japan to the suzerainty, and sent to demand tribute. His
claims were resisted, and in 1592 a Japanese force landed on
the Corean coast near Fushan. China was as much the object of
Hideyoshi as Corea. China was aware of this, and came to the
aid of the Coreans, who were thoroughly unprepared. At first the
Japanese were successful, they overran the peninsula, and the
Chinese were hard pressed. The war dragged out its slow length
till towards the close of 1598, when the Japanese, who in the
meantime had been completely worsted, were compelled to with-
draw, and China remained in undisputed possession. One effect
of the invasion was to leave, as Mr. Curzon remarks, 'a heritage
of wounded pride and national antipathy in the breast of
Coreans, which three centuries have not availed to erase.'

For some time after their retreat the Japanese were too busy
with their own internal affairs to pay much attention to Corea.

: Mr. Griffis tells the following not uninteresting story about him : —
' One day while in the woods, his favourite bird, in pursuing its quarry,
flew so far ahead that it was lost to the sight of its master. Hastening
after it the young man espied a shrine at the roadside into which he saw
his hawk fly. Entering, he found within a hermit priest. Awed and
abashed at the weird presence of the white-bearded sage, the lad for a
moment was speechless ; but the old man, addressing him, said : " What
benefit is it for a youth of your abilities to be seeking a stray falcon ? A
throne is a richer prize. Betake yourself to the capital." Taijo, of
course, took the hint, went to the capital, became general of the Corean
army and son-in-law to the King, and accomplished the revolution. He
was the founder of Soul, and is said to have instituted many reforms.

406 Corea.

But in 1618 Iyemitsu summoned the Coreans to renew tributary
relations and to pay homage to him at Yedo. Five years later he
addressed a letter to the Corean King, styling himself Tai-kun, or
Great Prince. Soul, China notwithstanding, responded to his
call, and sent an embassy with congratulations and presents.
The embassy continued to be sent year by year, but at the expense
of Japan. At last, in the year 1790, owing to the enormous
expense of the barren compliment, the Corean envoys, to whom
the mission had become a pleasant excursion, were invited to
proceed no further on their journey than the island of
Tsushima, situated about half-wav between the two countries.
There they were entertained by the So family of daimios, who
were allowed a stipend in gold kobans for the purpose out of the
Imperial Treasury. The last of these missions, which were
almost purely complimentary, and implied little or nothing in
the way of political subordination, was despatched in 1832.

The ascendancy which China obtained by the submission of
Ni Taijo, she continued to retain. When on their way to China
the Manchu conquerors turned aside to Corea, and after
devastating the country exacted a much more humiliating
submission — a submission which has never since been surrendered,
and down to the present has always been more or less enforced.
The facts in support of this are so well put by Mr. Curzon that
we cannot do better than transcribe his words. Going back to
the middle of the seventeenth century, less than sixty years
after the Japanese forces were expelled from Corea, he says : —

' While Hamel was in Korea, 1653-1666, he testifies to the constant
visits of the representative of the " Great Cham," and to the complete
humility of the Korean Government. Annually a Tribute Mission wended
its way by land from Soul to Peking, conveying the specified tribute, and
receiving in return the Calendar, which it is the Imperial prerogative to
prepare, and the mark of vassalage to receive. In the succeeding century
the tribute was gradually reduced, and the embassy appeared at times to
dwindle into a ceremonial function, carrying presents in return for the
permission to trade at the frontier, rather than tokens of political submis-
sion. Nevertheless, during this epoch a violent disturbance took place if
there was the slightest omission of prescribed deference ; and one Korean
monarch was smartly fined for his omission of some punctilio. From the
time of the Manchu's invasion to the present day every King and Queen of
Korea have received their patent of royalty from the Court at Peking ;

Corea. 407

and the historical tutelary position of China continues to be vindicated in
the following manner.

' In addition to the Imperial investiture, and to the annual despatch of
the Tribute Mission from Soul, which is still maintained — although a
practical mercantile aspect is now lent to the proceeding by its being util-
ised for the export to China by the Chung In of the King's red ginseng —
the name of the reigning monarch of Korea is also given to him by China,
and the era specified in Korean Treaties is that of the accession, not of the
King, but of his Suzerain, the Emperor. The King of Korea is now
allowed to wear the Imperial yellow. When the Imperial Commissioners
arrive from Peking, he is required to proceed outside of his capital in
order to receive them, the Chief Commissioner being of higher rank in the
Chinese official hierarchy than himself : and I have previously spoken of
the ornamental archway outside the west gate of Soul, at which the
vassal prince receives the convoys of his Suzerain. When any notable
events occur in the Court at Peking, they are communicated to the vassal
Court, and are the cause of respectful message either of condolence or of
congratulation from the latter. Similarly, if any death occurs among the
leading members of the Royal Family at Soul, an official intimation of the
fact must be sent to Peking.

' When the late Queen Dowager of Korea died in 1890, the King
deputed a mission at once to report the fact to the Emperor ; and, in
petitioning the latter to dispense with the ordinary ceremonial of a return
mission to convey the condolences of the Suzerain, because of the difficulty
that would be experienced by Korea in consequence of her financial em-
barrassment in carrying out all the prescribed ceremonies, he made the
following statement of his position vis-a-vis with China : — " Our country is
a small kingdom, and a vassal State of China, to which the Emperor has
shown his graciousness from time immemorial. Our Government was
enabled to survive the political troubles of 1882 and 188-t through the
assistance received from the Throne, which secured for our country peace
and tranquility. Since His Majesty has been good enough to confer these
favours upon us, we should make known to him whatever we desire ; and
whatever we wish we trust that he may allow, as to an infant confiding in
the tender mercies of its parents." These compliments, however, did not
induce the Suzerain to forego one tittle of his traditional rights ; although
he so far yielded to the Korean plea of poverty as to permit his Commis-
sioners to travel by sea to Chemulpo, instead of overland, thereby greatly
reducing the cost of the entertainment. An account of the minute and
elaborate ceremonies observed on both sides has since been published with
evident design by the Secretary to the Imperial Commissioners. The
latter, it appears, and by other marks of condescension, suggested the
omission from the programme of the State banquets, music, and jugglery,
with which it was usual to entertain them. " Their motive for this sug-
gestion was to show their consideration for Korean impecuniosity." They

408 Corea.

also declined to receive parting presents from the King, at which the latter
" felt very grateful, and at the same time regretted the fact." When all
was over the King sent a memorial to the Emperor, thanking him for his
graciousness. " The sentiments of this memorial — in their sincerity and
importance — are beyond expression in words, demonstrating that China's
manifold graciousness towards her dependencies is increasing with the
times. The Emperor's consideration for his vassal State, as evinced by
his thoughtfulness in matters pertaining to the mission, is fathomless.
How admirable and satisfactory ! And how glorious."

' Such is the' technical and official expression of the suzerainty of China
which is observed to this day, and such are the evidences of the indisput-
able reality of that relationship.' *

Strange to say the first to promulgate the idea that Corea
is independent and not a vassal State of China were the
Chinese themselves. This they did on three occasions — in
1866, when the French demanded an indemnity for the mas-
sacre of the French missionaries ; in 1871, when the American
Expedition under Admiral Rodgers prepared to sail against
Corea to demand reparation tor the murder of the crew of the
'General Sherman' in 1866, and to force a treaty upon the
Corean Court; and again in 1876, when the Japanese pro-
posed to send a similar expedition for a similar purpose. Sub-
sequently Prince Kung discovered the mistake he had made in
thus repudiating the Suzerainty of the Emperor, and anxiously
strove to regain what he had theoretically lost. At last, after
several diplomatic moves, while the negotiations which led to
the signing of the Corean Treaty with the United States of
America were going on, he insisted upon the King of Corea
addressing the following despatch to the President, facsimiles
of which were sent to the other Treaty Powers : —

' The King of Corea acknowledges that Corea is a tributary of China,
but in regard to both internal administration and foreign intercourse, it
enjoys complete independence. Now, being about to establish Treaty re-
lations between Corea and the United States, on terms of equality, the King
of Corea as an independent monarch, distinctly undertakes to carry out
the articles contained in the Treaty, irrespective of any matters affecting
the tributary relations subsisting between Corea and China, with which the
United States of America have no concern. Having appointed officials to
deliberate upon and settle the Treaty, the King of Corea considers it his
duty to address this despatch to the President of the United States.'

* Pp. 209-13.

Corea. 409

The illogical character of this singular State-paper is obvious
as is also the contradictory position which the King of Corea
is made to take up. He is a tributary priuce and yet he is in-
dependent. He enjoys complete independence both in the
administration of his own country and in his foreign relations,
aud yet he is a vassal to Chiua. Of his vassalage there could
be no doubt. Up to the outbreak of the present war, the power
of China in Corea was increasing. The real ruler of the country
was not the King, nor his ministers, but the representative of
China at the Court of Soul, without whose knowledge or con-
sent nothing could be done.

The causes of the present troubles in Corea are too fresh in
the public memory to need recapitulation. It is already clear
that the real object of Japan is China, and that in its present
attitude we have a revival of the spirit which led to the in-
vasion of Corea in the sixteenth century under Hideyoshi.
What the results of this second invasion will be remains to be
seen.

(410)

SUMMARIES OF FOREIGN REVIEWS.

GERMANY.

Deutsche Rundschau (July, August, September). — Paul
Heyse opens the July number of this magazine with the
remarkable address on Goethe's dramas in their relation to the
present stage, which he recently delivered before the general
meeting of the Goethe Society in Weimar. He very clearly
sets forth the reasons which, in his opinion, render the plays
unsuitable for representation. His views, as they did at the
time, may again arouse some opposition ; but even they who
sympathise with him least, will recognise the able manner in
Avhich he has dealt with his subject. — Another literary article
of considerable interest is that which Jules Legras contributes,
and in which he deals with Heinrich Heine's sojourn in Paris.
On the strength of new and authoritative documents, the young
French savant refutes, once for all, the charge so often brought
against the poet, of having sold himself to the French Govern-
ment.— Edward Hanslick closes his reminiscences — Aus meinem
Leben — with an interesting exposition of his views as to the
duties of a critic. — The number includes two contributions to
the political history of Germany. Ludwig von Hirshfeld's
essay, 'A Statesman of the Old School,' takes us back to the
days of the Karlsbad Congress, whilst the extracts from
Theodor von Bernhardi's diary recalls very vividly what he
names ' The last days of the new era,' and shows Bismarck as
the ' coming man.' — The lighter element is represented by a
continuation of Salvatore Farina's ' Stempelpapier,' and by a
sketch entitled, ' Ihr Mann,' of which the author is Marie von
Bunsen. — The August part has several continued contributions
— ' Ein Staatsman der alten Schule,' ' Aus den Tagebiichern
Theodor von Bernhardi,' and ' Stempelpapier.' In addition to
this there is a somewhat bold, but certainly interesting article
— Uber das Gahnen — in which W. Henke propounds a theory
to account for the phenomenon of yawning. — Pastor Otto
Pfleiderer has a very able essay in which he deals with the
German character as illustrated in religious matters. — At the
head of the table of contents, though mentioned here last, is
one of Ernest Wichert's old-fashioned, but charming stories,
entitled ' der Herr Pathe' — the Godfather. It is concluded in
the August number, which also brings one of Rudolf Lindau's
delightful novelettes, ' Der Verlorene Freund.' — An article

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 411

of both literary and ' topical ' interest is contributed by Arthur
Milchhofer, who, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of
Ernest . Curtius's birthday, gives a sketch of the historian's career
and an estimate of his work. This is followed by a literary
essay bearing the signature of Friedrich Curtius, the octo-
genarian's son. Its subject is the political conflict in Shake-
speare's Coriolanus. — A paper which educationists will read
with interest and profit, is that which Friedrich Paulsea devotes
to German Universities, and in which he considers them under
the twofold aspect of seats of learning and laboratories for
scientific research. — A short, but valuable paper on the Corean
question is contributed by Herr M. von Brandt, formerly
Ambassador in China. As might perhaps be expected, it is not
altogether favourable to the Japanese ; but, due allowance
being made for that, it contains valuable information as to the
facts of the old-standing question between the two great
Eastern powers.

WESTERMANNS MonATS-Hefte (July, August). — A set serial
novel, and two novelettes bring light literature well in the
foreground of the first of these numbers. Herr Konigsbrun-
Schaup, ' Die Bogumilen,' so far as it has gone is most interest-
ing, and gives a very vivid picture of Austrian life. The
shorter stories, of which the authors are, respectively, Otto
Roquete and Gabriele Renter, are also good of their kind. —
In an article entitled, 'Fine Fremdherrschaft,' Julius von
Pflugk-Harting gives a sketch of the French occupation of
Hamburg. The author displays a most unedifying amount of
national animosity. It so far affects his facts as to make him
say that the beginning of the present century marks the pro-
motion of France from the rank of a 'National State' to that
of a great Power (Weltreich). — Goslar and the island of
Rugen are excellently described, the one by August Trinius, the
other by Rudolf von Gottschall. Both are profusely illustrated,
and are well up to the high standard which this periodical has
set itself as regards contributions of this kind. — The life and
work of Gounod are reviewed in a well-written and apprecia-
tive article by Otto Gumprecht. The study is accompanied by a
good portrait of the composer— The most noticeable contribution
to the August number is the article which A. Speir devotes to
the painter, Franz Stuck. From the point of view of literature
as well of artistic criticism, it is excellent ; but considerable
interest is added to it by the admirable series of illustrations
which accompanies it, and which helps very materially to the
appreciation of the study. — A very short paper by Paul
Schellhas is devoted to the Etruscans, about whom, however,

412 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

it does not supply any new information; his paper is rather a
summary of what lias already been written about them. —
Marcus Landau writes about Chateaubriand, but does so with-
out much sympathy or originality. The article may be put
down as mere padding. — With Herr Woldemar Kapen as guide,
the reader has an excellent opportunity ot making a m >st inter-
esting excursion to Mount Vesuvius. — In both the numbers
there are the usual literary notices and news.

Theologische Studien und Kritiken (No. 1, 1895). — This
number, we regret, has come to hand too late for us to do more
than merely note its contents. The list, however, will, we think,
attract attention to it. The first article is by Herr Kolbing, the
head of the theological seminary of the ' Briidergemeine ' in
Gnadenfeld. It is entitled ' Studien ziir Paulinischen Theolome.'
From a summary glance over it it appears to be an effort to pre-
sent Paul's teaching, on at least two vital points, the dikaiosune
theou, of Rom. i. 17, and the hilasterion of Christ, of Rom. iii.
25, in the light of Paul's eschatologv. His eschatology had not
a little influence on his acts as a follower of Jesus and an active
apostle of his gospel, and it would be very strange if its influence
did not also affect his ideas and conceptions of Christian truth as
well. — Dr. Otto Zockler discusses at considerable length the in-
teresting and now much debated question, 'Wo lag das biblische
GalatienT The other articles are ' Johannes von Biclaro,' by Dr.
Franz Gorres ; ' 'Das Prinzip der pastoralen Moral,' by Profes-
sor F. Zimmer ; 'Das Glaubensbijkennfnis in einer Bern 'er
Handschrift aus dem 7-8 Jahrhundert,' by Professor Bratke ;
'Luther's Ordinationsformular in seiner ursprunglichen Ges-
talt,' by Dr. Rietschel ; and ' Ueber Erklarung des Gewissens
durch Autonomic/ by Herr Genu rich.

E USSIA.

Voprosi Philosophii i Psychologii (Questions, Philo-
sophical and Psychological) begins its twenty-second number
by an article by P. G. Boborikin on ' Formulae and Terms in
the sphere of the Beautiful.' This, however, as it deals with
the formulae and terms used in Russ, it is difficult properly to
represent briefly or adequately in another language than Russ.
The author, however, devotes some interesting paragraphs to
Friedrich Schiller, more especially in regard to his work and
position both as a poet, and as one who, step by step, as he
advanced in his art, as poet and dramatist, sought to give an
adequate account to himself of those principles of the Beautiful
in accordance with which he strove to embody it in his

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 413

creations. Our author then passes on to deal with the theory
of Art as a pursuit, which must be followed for its own sake,
and as it were disinterestedly, as one of the terms on which he
dwells in his discussion. In following up this he refers with
approval to an utterance of Plato's in the ' Hippias Major,' in
which Socrates makes use of an exceedingly clear formula and
mot d'ordre as to what is the psycho-physiological element of
the artistic. ' The beautiful is that which is pleasant to us by
hearing and sight.' From Art, for Art's sake the author passes
on to disinterestedness, as also a term in Art, and then to the
creative faculty, an element in Aesthetics. — The second
article is a continuation of Prof. Kozloff s papers on ' French
Positivism,' which are here concluded. The special title of
paper is ' The Semi-positivists — Guyau and Tard.' Prof.
Kozloff considers that the rather full notice which he gave of
Fouillee entitles him to treat Guyau somewhat more briefly.
Of course, he does not hold that M. Guyau is very much a
repetition of Fouillee; but he considers that owing to his close
friendship with that philosopher, and the influence exerted
upon him by this close relationship, there was a close analogy
between the careers of the two thinkers, which made itself
visible in a common direction of thought and a similarity in
the essential points of their philosophical tenets. Indeed,
as a final result they may be said to be marked out
from one another by two prominent qualities; the
first, their marked individuality of character, and the
second, the special peculiarities of this individuality. — The
article following on this is a lengthened controversy which
it is not possible to expound within reasonable limits. —
The next article is a continuation of, and the finishing part of
the formerly noticed paper on the ' World conception of the
Circle of Stankevitch, and the poetry of Kolzoff.' The article
opens with some notes on the doings of Cerebrianski, who, as
previously noticed (See S. i?., April, 1894), was a pupil in the
School for the Clergy in Woronezh, and an enthusiast in poesy,
music, and art. After professing philosophy in this school in
Woronezh, he passed into the Moscow Medico-Surgical
Academy. The whole of the circle, including friends at a dis-
tance, such as Bjelinsky in St. Petersburg, were ardent dis-
ciples of the Natur-philosophie of Schelling, and here we have
some notices of their enthusiastic doings, more especially in
regard to music. All were enthusiasts on the subject, but
Cerebrianski, as became a Professor of Philosophy, was looked
upon as taking a leading part. He expresses himself thus in
regard to music — ' The Poet.' ' Yes! ' writes he, in conclusion,
' Music is the universal ideal of the language of Nature. Its

414 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

accords go out until they become accords of the whole world.
Genius in man .serves thorn in Nature. He collects tunes, sow-
ing them abroad in infinite space, and bringing them to his
ear, lie animates them by the life of his own heart and phan-
tasy. Notation and strings are the characters, the words only
removed from determination by the individual, and remaining
in a musical poetical universality. The strings of Genius
vibrate in the life of the whole world, in the roar of the wild
beast, in the breathings of the zephyr and the boom and the
many tuned laughter of the waves. Touching the strings,
the musician touches the countless multitude of the world-
strings. The force of sound is, as it were, light wings to bear
the soul into the life of the unlimited.' Another member of
the circle, or one who came into contact with it, was
Nadeshdin, Bachelor of Divinity and Professor of Art and
Archasology in Moscow University, where in 1832 to 1835, he
lectured on Art and its various relations. A designation of
his is preserved of Art as the world-structure in miniature.
The lectures of Nadeshdin excited as much enthusiasm as
those of Prof. PavlofF, another member of the circle in the
same University, whom the writer of the article describes as in
some sort an ' antipodes ' to Nadeshdin. Nadeshdin with his
enthusiasm was very 'viewy' about a great many subjects such
as Art, affected by the Greco-Roman mediaeval and modern
times; nor did he fail to put the question, living so far back
as he did in the old despotic days of Russian history, as to the
worth of the times in which he lived ! The circle, narrow as
it was, had its critics within itself. In the midst of this circle
of Schellingists, the young poet was duly esteemed, as setting
the Natur-Philosophie to Music, and our author makes sundry
extracts, wherein he points out, as was indeed done at the time,
that the poems of Kolzoff were redolent of the influences around
him. Another influence of the Schellingism was the mysticism
which grew upon the poet. — The final article, by M.
Tokarski. is on Exorcism by means of arrows exercised by
Tibetan Lamas, of which the author was a witness in Kiachta
in 1889, and which he carefully describes and seeks to prove
to have been in the phenomena he witnessed wrought by
Hypnotism. — This is followed by some four articles of a special
nature, the usual reviews of books and bibliography.

Rooskahyah Mysl — Russian Opinion — (June, 1894). —
A. P. Tchaikoff leads off with a further instalment of his
Itinerary and description of ' The Island of Saghalien.' The
present war between China and Japan lends interest to every-
thing which concerns this important island. The older among

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 415

our readers can remember when this island was accounted,
rightly or wrongly, as Japanese property. Now it is indisputably
Russian. — ' Poetry' in the present single number is represented
by L. M. Medveydeff only. — ' The Indian Ocean,' its present,
and probably future, is a serious paper by M. I. Veynewkoff. —
The article on ' Labour in Manufactories and Professions,' by
K. I. Toomskoi, is still continued. — ' Leon-Battista Alberti,' and
his relation to Science and Art, is an able essay by M. S. Korey-
lin. — 'A Few Remarks on Naturalism in Art' by the foreign
reviewer V. A. Goltseff are, as may be expected, as good as they
are brief. — Another and final article on ' Peasant Economy and
Emigration ' is given from the pen of K. R. Katchorofski (not
Kotchoorofski, as in July number). — ' Historical Method in
Biology ; ' the natural-history view, is it an abstract idea or a
real fact? a question propounded by K. A. Timiryahzeff, is
contained in a brief paper of fif reen pages. — ' Church and State
in Geneva of the Sixteenth Century, during the Epoch of
Calvinism,' by R. U. Whipper, is a paper that might have been
expected in a Scottish rather a Russian Review. — ' Romances
and Tales of Eliza Ozheshkoff ' is a continuation of the apprecia-
tive summary thereof by M. K. Tsebrikoff. — ' Morals of Differ-
ent Nations,' by I. N. K., is still continued. — 'Outlines of
Provincial Life,' by 1. 1. Ivanewkoff, still maintain their interest.
— ' Home Review ' gives, as usual, a summary of domestic events
of general importance, and on the present occasion deals largely
with educational items. A brief necrology of the writer N. M.
Astireff is appended. — ' Foreign Review ' is brief, but varied. —
' First Decade of the Society for the Care of Indigent and
Homeless Children in Moscow' tells its tale in its title, and
shows that in Russia, as elsewhere, the poor are always with us.
— The l Bibliographic Division ' contains notices of thirty-seven
works.

ITALY.

La Nuova Antologia. — (July 1st.) — The poet Carducci
commences in this and continues in several following numbers a
long dissertation on Tasso's ' Aminta ' and the old pastoral
poetry. He denies to the Greeks and Romans any pastoral
poetry proper. — R. de Cesare contributes many pages of descrip-
tion of the work of Dr. Schloezer, and the end of the Kultur-
Kampf. — In an article entitled 'How did Correggio live?'
Professor Rondani gathers together many particulars relating to
Correggio's private life. He succeeded in art while still very
young, travelled afar and examined many celebrated paintings.

416 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

lie commenced his celebrated picture of St. Francisco before he
was twenty-one years of age. In 1520 he married a girl of
eighteen, the daughter of a soldier who had died on the field of
battle. He had no other wife, and by her he had four children,
of whom two must have died in infancy. The remaining son
became a painter like his father, and the remaining daughter
married. From 1514 till his death in 1534, Correggio worked
industriously and incessantly, living mostly in Parma or its
neighbourhood. — Signor Bricchetti gives a description of the
Galla country now under the protection of Italy, and translations
of some African popular songs. — A new and not agreeable
story, ' The Indifferent,' by Matilde Serao, is commenced in this
and concluded in a following number. — Luigi Palma continues
his description of the Sicilian Constitution in 1812. — Guido
Bragi writes on Adolfo Bastolo, the critic. — 0. Baer furnishes
an article on Prince William of Prussia, Regent, and the Italian
war of 1859 ; concluded in the next number. — (July 15th.) —
R. Bonfadini writes a monograph on Sadi Carnot. — T. Cassini
concludes his chapters on the Italian poet, Monti. — A. Venturi
describes the exhibition of paintings at the Burlington Fine Arts
Club, from which, he says, the Italians ought to derive a lesson
on care for works of art. — A. Chiarini describes the classic
schools in Naples from 1860 to the present time.— R. Galli
contributes a paper on ' Venice and Rome,' what he calls a new
page of history from the 6th to the 12th centuries. — (August 1st.)
Signor Bonghi criticises the Apostrophe to the Pope, made by
the Archbishop of St. Paul, U.S., in his speech at Baltimore.
Bonghi points out the defects in the Catholic Church and the
Pope's opinions. He considers that the Archbishop's views are
more human and more practicable than the Pope's. Bonghi's
opinion of the world at the present time is that it is progressing
towards goodness, and that Christianity is not destroyed. —
* * * contributes a long article with many quotations from
a book recently published, ' Le Comte de Cavour et la Contesse
de Circourt.' Anastasia de Circourt, a lady of Russian noble
birth, was early on intimate terms with Cavour's mother and
aunt, and became acquainted with the Count himself when he was
travelling in France in 1835. She received him with all the
warmth of his mother's friend, and grew very fond of him, while
the young man felt for her ' an affection mingled with deep
respect.' In 1836 the Countess and her husband settled in
Paris, and when Count Cavour came there on a second visit in
1837, he found her in her new house in the Rue des Sausayes,
where she introduced the young Piedmontese to the most
distinguished men of the time, and to the aristocratic circles of

/Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 417

Rue St. Germain. The Countess's salon was one of the
most attractive of the period. The Countess and Cavour kept
up a lively correspondence, now published for the first time, from
1835 to 1861, and after the death of Cavour, the Countess con-
tinued writing about him to Nigia up to 1863. After the affair
of Villafranca, the correspondence languished on the part of
Cavour, who, it is said, was not the same man and seemed aged
all at once by several years. But the Countess continued to
write to him, and later on Cavour again took up his pen, describ-
ing his country life at Leri, whither he had retired. The
Countess's admiration for Cavour became almost fanatical. She
wrote to Nigia a very touching letter on receiving the news of
Cavour's death. She seemed only to exist in the memory of her
distinguished friend, made propaganda for ' New Italy,' and
wrote and thought of scarcely anything but Cavour. — Countess
Lovatelli writes on the ancient cult of Bona Dea in Rome, a
goddess who was venerated with mysterious rites, and who in
some measure corresponded to Proserpine and Ceres, the
feminine and generative principles of nature. — Another
writer on the reform of the classic school is G. Chiarini.
— V. Z. Biareco renders a seemingly dry subject, ' The
Metre, the Kilometre, and the Minute,' very pleasant and
interesting. — R. Erculei commences the history of Donna
Ersilia Cortese del Monte, a Roman lady of the 1 6th century ;
concluded in following number. — {August 15th.) — G. Gorrini
writes on the Corea and the war between China and Japan. — L.
Lioy sends a pleasant article on the socialism of animals, quoting
the systems of many kinds of beetles, flies, ants, and other
insects, and even of foxes. — A. Baccelli has something to say of
Pope Pio II. 's memoirs. — (September 1st.) — G. Boglietti com-
mences some chapters on Italian Socialism, and the recent
movement in Sicily and Naples. — P. Fambri notices at length
some new books on the Venetian, Paolo Sarpi. — Short novels in
this and previous number furnish light reading. — L. Celli sends
the first part of a study of the military ordinances of the Venetian
Republic in the 16th century. — D. Zanichelli discusses the French
system. — G. Mancini tells us a great deal about the artificial
production of rain. — (September 15th.) — Besides continuations
ot articles in former numbers, we have only to note here papers
on the railway problem and instrumental music in Italy. There
is besides a tale entitled ' Dolcetta's Marriage.'

La -Iassegna Nazionale (July 1st). — F. Nunziante describes
the emigrant instinct in the human race ; and L. Ferraris writes
on penal scepticism, the doubt that exists as to the efficacy of
xxiv. 2 7

418 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

prisons in reforming individuals, and the still greater doubt
whether punishment is of any avail. — Aeggotos describes the gist
of the question of Established Churches in the Great Britain.
— R. Corniani describes active and non-active political parties
in Italy. — {July 16th.) — G. Jachiero sends a long and learned
article on the work and system of P. Paolo Vergerio, sur-
named the Senior, who lived in the 14th century. — G. Grabinski
begins a review of 'Ze Conclave.' — G. Calchi-Novate contributes
a lecture on divorce. — G. Berthelet discusses the Conserva-
tive Catholic party. — The ' Review of Foieign Literature'
notices a number of English books, giving much space to Sir
Richard Temple's ' Life in Parliament,' — Signora Merlo com-
mences a serial novel entitled 'Poor Dora.' — [August 1st.) — V.
Ausidei has an interesting article on Umbrian lyrics. — E. Verga
criticises Pierre de Nolhac and his poems on Italy. — L. D'Isengaro
unearths a song- book, written by Lorenzo Costa, a poet of the
beginning of this century, which was hidden in the family
archives until now. — G. Marcotti describes the country of the
' Little Russians ' in Galicia. — (August 16th.) — Isabella Anderton
contributes an appreciative paper on Rudyard Kipling, introduc-
ing him to Italians. — V. Marchese writes on the new science of
armies. — (September 1st.) — P. Manasei describes the agrarian laws
in Italv. — G. Morando introduces to Italian readers the ' Inter-
national Journal of Ethics,' published at Philadelphi, and directed
by a staff of celebrated writers, among whom is an Italian,
Professor Barzelotti. The writer of the article describes this
journal at full length, arguing on the subjects presented, and
protesting against some affirmations by Archbishop Satolli in his
paper ' Italy and the Papacy.' — The dialogues on the Temporal
Power, by G. Cassani, still run on. — G. Marcotti sends a critique
of the book ' Caffaro and his Times ;' and G. de Negri writes on
the tax on petroleum. — V. Grossi describes his ' impressions of
travel ' of Rio de Janeiro. — R. Corniani writes an article entitled
' Shall we abolish Juries V He is in favour of such abolition, but
sees no hope of it. — E. Piotelli discusses the reform of the
classic school in Italy.

La Nuova Rassegna (August, September) contain : ' Terri-
torial Recruiting/ ' Shelley's Women,' ' Reform in Secondary
Instruction,' ' The Predecessors of Farini,' ' Cesar Pascarella's
Designs,' 'Full Powers,' 'The Soul in Infants,' 'Election Lists,'
' A New Anthology,' ' Evolution and Socialism,' ' American
Folk-Lore,' 'The Popular Poetry of Brazil,' 'The Beliefs,
Opinions, and Prejudices of Crispi,' 'Hygienic Service,' 'Giorgio
De Naves,' ' Language and Thought,' ' The Scenery of Basil

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 419

Lacatelli,' ' The Round Table of Arthur and the Breton
Legends,' ' Ad Aquas Salvias.'

Il Pensiero Italiaxo (September) contains: 'Leo Tolstoi
and his Political Opinions,' ' Agrarian Credit,' ' The teaching
of French in Italy,' ' Religious and Scientific Morals as regards
the Problem of Population,' ' Providence,' ' The Measure of
Value,' ' A Criticism of Critics.'

Rivista Storica Italiaxa (No. 3, for 1894). — ' Conspiracies
and Law-suits in Lombardy in 1830-35/ ' The Story of the
Lucanis,' 'Religious Sentiment in the Middle Ages,' 'The
Arrest and Death of Count di Carmaguola,' 'Notes of a Biblio-
graphy useful to the History of the Napoleonic period, ' Forty
Letters from Murat to his Daughter Letitia,' ' The Cities and
Castles of Istria,' ' Procida from its Origin to Modern Times.'

Revista della Tradizioxe Popolari Italiani (Septem-
ber).— ' Traditions of Terranova Pausania,' ' Southern popular
Poetry,' ' Sardinian Sacred Legends,' ' The Madonna of the
Seven Veils,' ' The Fay Alcina and the Talking Bird,' etc.

L'Archivio Storico per le Province Napolitane (No. 11,
1894). — E. Percopo continues the publication of his ' Notes on
the writers and artists of the Arragon times,' by a chapter
dedicated to the residence in Naples of Fra Giocondo of
Verona, the famous architect, engineer, sculptor, philologist
and antiquary — a universal man. He came to Naples about
1489, sent for by the Duke of Calabria, and remained till the
end of 1495, when he followed Charles VIII. to France. He
completed in Naples the building of the palace of Poggioreale,
commenced by Guilano of Milan, and at the death of the
latter, took his post as chief architect. In 1492 he drew on
20 parchments the plan and design of some existing fortresses,
and illustrated with 126 designs two books by Francesco of
Siena. — Schipa's monograph on the Duchy of Naples is con-
tinued, as also two other serial papers.

La Rassegna (July). — Financial politics. — The Bank of
England during 1893. — Mineral waters. — The longevity of
trees. — The Chioggites on the Waters of Zara. — The juridical
organisation of farms. — The Parliamentary Syndicate.

La Cultura — (July, August, 1894). — contain ; ' The last
word of a Great Man' (Renan) by B. — Mantica's 'Gay
Rhymes,' by G. Zarmoni. — ' Horace's Odes,' by G. Manera. —
' The Norwegian Drama,' by A. G. Auratucci. — ' Three verses
by Petrarch,' by A. Gianetti. — ' The Century and the Church,'

420 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

by B. — ' Translations of Homer's Odes,' by Zama. — ' The
Home School,' by R. Percopo. — ' First imitation of Accadia,'
by Zannoni. — 'A French Custom,' by B. — Notes and
Reviews.

The Review of Popular Traditions — (Year 1, No. 8). —
The Nurrese legend of San Giuliano and Monte Cristo. — The
Lodigian legend of the Ca of Mosto. — A Genoese legend. — The
Devil's Stone. — A legend of the moon. — The legend of the
climbing gourd. — The Stone of Arzolas Oschiri. — Popular
Oalabrese legend. — The blessed Henry of Comentina. — The
legend of Lupo Cavo.

L'Archivio Storico Italiano (No. 2, 1894). — Contains :
Inedited fragments from the Statutes of Lucca 1224-1232, by
Carlo de Stefani. — Matteo Palmeri of Florence, 15th century,
by A. Messeri. — A geographer of the Renaissance, by A. Mori.
— Notices and correspondence from France, and reviews of
Italian books.

La Riforma Sociale — (July, August). — The colonisation of
Eritrea, by L. Franchetti. — The legislation on factories in Eng-
land, by R. W. C. Taylor. — The corn law and democracy, by
Prof. Chindamo. — American Strikes, by Prof. Virgilii. — Savings
Banks, by L. Paolini. — The Anarchy Peril and Repressions, by
Professor Grasso. — Old and New on Co-operation, by Prof.
Brentano. — The Sulphur Crisis, by F. Ferrario. — Social Studies
and the action of the Ruling Classes in Italy, by Prof. Alessio.
— The Dangerous Re-action, by F. S. Nitti. — The Agrarian
Law for Sicily, by Prof. Salvioli. — Current Accounts and
Interest, by G. de Rosa. — The Unemployed, by U. Rabbeno. —
The Results of Insurance for Invalids and Old People in
Germany, by jeL*. Lepetit. — Apropos of an Anarchist poem at
Paris, by A. Ferraro. — Institutions of Public Charity, by Prof.
Sitta. — Railways in the United States, by U. Rabbeno. —
Chronicles and Reviews.

FRANCE.

Revue de l'Histoire des Religions (No. 3, 1894). — The first
place is given in this number to a translation (or perhaps it may
be a French version, as no translator's name is given) of an
article which appeared in the March number of the Theologische
Tijdschrift, by Dr. L. Knappert. It is one of a series which has
been appearing in the above magazine and in the Bibliotheek van

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 421

Moderne Tlieologie en Letter kunde — a magazine that came to an
untimely end some months ago. This Dutch scholar has given
considerable attention to the mythology of the Teutonic races,
and in these articles is making known the results of his researches.
One of his sources of information on this subject is the lives of
the missionary saints — the records (half legendary perhaps, but
for his purpose extremely useful and valuable) of their conflicts
with the paganism they found flourishing in the provinces which
they invaded or visited. The references to, or descriptions of,
the deities worshipped or rites celebrated, which abound in these
records, or in the story of the lives of these missionary monks,
are often of a kind that throw much interesting light on the
beliefs and practices current in the Germanic villages or districts
where these men laboured. The last saint dealt with was Saint
Lindger. Here, it is St. Gall, one of the companions of Saint
Columban, in his mission to Australasia, and then to the district
near Bergen. The eloquence and zeal of this monk effected
great changes on the faith and life of those to whom he appealed,
but it is not so much his missionary success that Dr. L. Knap-
pert details, but the forms of idolatry he there found rampant,
and the knowledge these give us of the primitive religion and
mythology of the race to which they belonged. — The second
article in this number is entitled ' La reine de Saba.' It is by
M. J. Deramey. The form Saba is that given to the country in
the Vulgate ; but M. Deramey rejects it, and gives good reason
for preferring Sheba or Seba. It appears in the Hebrew text
under these two forms, so far as the initial letter is concerned, —
shin being used in the one case and samekh in the other. But
from the genealogical table in Genesis x., it would seem that
these names indicate two distinct families, or districts (compare
v. 7, and v. 28.) Our author discusses this question very care-
fully, but seems to regard the data at our disposal as insufficient
to warrant a positive judgment on this point. He decides that
whether these terms indicate one or two states, they were neigh-
bouring if two, and were situated in the great peninsula between
the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and lay along the south-west
corner of it. M. Deramey then gives the story of the Queen of
Sheba's visit to Solomon as it appears in the Books of Kings and
Chronicles, and in Josephus. The bulk of his article, however, is
taken up with a summary of a work in great part devoted to that
visit, and which is a great favourite with the Abyssinians, is in
fact a classic in that country, and has received a considerable
amount of attention from European scholars. It bears the title
' Kebra-Nagasht.' The narrative is by a Christian monk, and
was evidently written with a patriotic motive — was written to

422 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

show that through Solomon's marriage with the Queen of Sheba
and the refuge found in that country afterwards for the sacred
vessels of the Temple at Jerusalem when it was destroyed, the
princes or kings of the Cushites who passed over into Ethiopia
and founded the kingdom of Abyssinia, were the true heirs and
successors to the glories of Israel. M. Derainey's summary of
that part of the work which details the visit of the Queen to
Jerusalem, and her marriage to Solomon, is followed by a care-
ful estimate of the historical value of the legend. — M. G. de
Blonay and M. L. de la Vallee Poussin furnish another instal-
ment of their ' Contes Bouddhicpues,' translated from the Dham-
mapada.

Revue des Religions (No. 4, 1894). — M. the Abbe de Moor
opens this number with the first part of what promises to be a
very elaborate defence of the historical veracity and value of the
Book of Judith. He sub-titles his study, 'Un episode de la
defection generate des nations tributaires de l'Assyrie pendant
les annees 652-648.' That then is the period in which he places
the events which the Book of Judith describes. After giving a
brief account of the controversy which from the earliest period
has raged as to the historical character of this wTork, and
mentioned with warm praise some of the most notable of its
advocates, he furnishes us with the programme of his projected
study. 'We will treat first,' he says, 'of the condition of Media
at the time of the reign of Phraortes II. ; secondly, we will
describe the state of Assyria when Phraortes made his attack on
it ; thirdly, we will endeavour to establish the identity of the
Nabuchodonossor and of the Arphaxad of the Book of Judith
with Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, and Phraortes II., king of
the Medes ; fourthly, we will examine the different expeditions
undertaken after the defeat and death of Phraortes II., by the
Assyrian general, Holofernes ; fifthly, we shall describe the
condition of the kingdom of Judah and that of the ten tribes
before and after the last campaign of Holofernes against these
countries, and the different stages of that campaign up to the
siege of Bethulia ; sixthly, we shall describe that siege and its
incidents, with its disastrous issues to Holofernes and his army ;
and, finally, we shall set forth the consequences of this last enter-
prise of the Assyrian general so far as Judah and Assyria were
concerned.' A full and tempting programme, certainly ; but the
learned Abbe sets himself bravely and confidently to his task.
In this section of his essay, and within thirty-nine pages, he
overtakes three of the above given ' heads,' and is well advanced
with the fourth — reaches, in fact, the third campaign of
Holofernes, and disposes of it. It may be inferred from this

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 423

that our author does not enter into too minute details, and does
not indulge in superfluous verbiage. The crucial points in this
section of his essay is the establishment of the identity of the
Nabuchodonossor of Judith and Assurbanipal, and of Arphaxad
and Phraortes II. M. de Moor finds it necessary here to assume
not a little, and rely on hypotheses rather than established facts.
The data of the Book of Judith are compared with the annals of
Assurbanipal's reign, and a measure of resemblance between
them is consequently made out. But why should Assurbanipal
appear in Judith as Nabuchodonossor, or Phraortes as Arphaxad ?
M. de Moor presents two possible reasons for this, but neither
rests on any solid historical ground ; and very strong reasons
may be given for rejecting both. But the author's pleading here
should be carefullv read and criticallv weighed. We certainly
have here all that can be advanced in favour of his thesis. — M.
the Abbe Z. Peisson continues his article on ' The Science of
Religions.' In the previous number he dealt with the question
as to the origin of religion. Here he faces the fact that religion
presents itself to us in manifold and almost infinitely diversified
forms, and posits the very natural question, ' Which of these is
the true form, or the one nearest to the divine original % ' He
does not. however, adventure the task of categorically answering
the question, but contents himself with showing how necessary
the study of the various religions — the science of religions, in
short — is to our getting to a proper solution of the problem. He
gives a sketch of how the question has been treated by the
traditionalists, and how it has fared more recently at the hands
of the modern critical schools ; and goes on then to show in what
spirit he thinks it should be approached and investigated. What
he here says will be highly approved of by every student of the
question, who regards religion as one of the most potent and
most important factors in the development and healthy direction
of humanity. — (No. 5, 1894.) — M. the Abbe de Moor carries
forward here his argument in favour of the historic character of
the Book of Judith. He takes up here the fifth point of his
programme — the condition of Judah and Israel at the period
which he regards as that in which Holofernes invaded Palestine,
and met his fate at the hands of Judith. The difficulty meets
him here at the outset that the Judah of the Book of Judith
knows nothing of kingly rule, but is governed by a body of elders
with the high priest at its head. But he gets over this difficulty
by assuming that there may have been an interregnum in those
days, and finds a place for it when Manasseh was taken captive,
according to the Book of Chronicles, by the King of Assyria,
and lodged in Babylon. Other difficulties as they occur are

424 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

disposed of in a like manner. The bulk of this section of the
essay is taken up with Holof ernes' campaign against Judah. —
The admirable paper read by Monsigneur De Harlez at the
World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago, on ' The nature
and utility of the study of religions ' is printed in this number,
but as it has appeared in the full report of the proceedings of
that Parliament in English, we need only refer to it. It will be
already familiar to most of our readers.

Revue Celtique (Juillet, 1894). — The place of honour is
deservedly given to a Life of St. Guenole in the shape of a
Breton mystery — a copy of which was found among the MSS.
of M. E. Bernard, formerly vicar-general of Quimper by M.
l'abbe Bernard, rector of Kerglof (Finistere.) The original
MS. is in the National Library at Paris. The mystery is
divided into two parts, each of which consists of two acts,
with a prologue for each act, and an epilogue for each of the
parts. It is written in Alexandrines, among which are inter-
calated verses of eight syllables. M. P. le Nestour carefully
analyses the mystery and adds a translation of part of it. — Dr.
Whitely Stokes follows with the first part of an article on the
'Prose Tales in the Rennes Dindsenchas.' The Dindsenchas
is a collection of stories in Middle Irish prose and verse about
the most noted localities in Ireland, and the Rennes Dindsen-
chas is a copy of this collection preserved in the Library at
Rennes, which was probably written, so far as the stories are
concerned, in the fourteenth or following century. As usual,
we have both the text and translation. — M. E. Ernault con-
tinues his Breton studies under the title ' Sur 1' Argot de la
Roche.' — In the ' Bibliographie' Mr. Kuno Meyer continues his
list of corrigenda to the text of the Silva GadeUca. There is
also a review of the 1869 edition of the Lexico-Grammatical
Supplement to Col. A. Troude's French-Breton Dictionary,
from the pen of M. Ernault. — The ' Periodiques ' and ' Chron-
ique' are as usual full of information.

Revue des Etudes Juives (No. 2, 1894). — The fourth
section of the late M. Isidore Loebs treatise, ' Reflexions sur les
Juifs,' receives the place of honour here. These ' reflections '
throughout have been directed against the long existing, and still
current, prejudices and accusations made against the Jews, and
which have instigated so many persecutions from which they
have suffered and made them so odious to thousands and thou-
sands of their fellow-citizens and neighbours. Our summaries
have indicated the nature of M. Loeb's defence of his fellow-
religionists in the three preceding sections of his work. Here he

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 425

takes up and considers the truth, or falsity, of those charges against
the Jews which are based on the special character of their reli-
gion, on their code of morals, and on their general conduct. Their
religion, it is said, contributes to isolate the Jews, to make them
bad citizens, unpatriotic, insubmissive to the laws of the country
in which they live, and of a doubtful morality in their relations
with all not professing their faith. These accusations are said
to rest on the teaching of some parts of the Bible and of the
Talmud, and to be verified in daily experience. M. Loeb here
takes them up seriatim, and asks what amount of truth is in them,
how far they find their justification in either the Bible or the
Talmud, and how far experience attests their veraciousness. We
should like to be able to quote here, and translate the whole of
his spirited defence, for there is not a single sentence in it that
is not of most weighty import to the formation of a judicial ver-
dict on each one of those points, — to the formation, therefore of
a correct historical judgment, and of a sane and wholesome esti-
mate of neighbours and fellow-citizens. He does not anywhere
here indulge in passionate denials of the charges made against
the Jews, or make light of their faults in character or conduct,
or of the extracts commonly quoted from Bible or Talmud.
There is nothing of the special pleading vein, and no abuse of
your adversary. It is throughout a calm historical examination
of positive facts, and a judicial estimate of their teaching. That
his religion occupies the foremost place in a Jew's heart is ac-
knowledged ; but it is shown by undoubted facts, and the testi-
mony of witnesses best able to judge — of statesmen, generals, and
men in positions of authority — that he is not made less loyal, less
submissive to law, less patriotic, less moral by his religion, but
infinitely more so. His exclusiveness, his refusal to mix freely
with and adopt the language of the country where he has found
a home, to intermingle with them in marriage and at meals, is
fully explained, and, so far as it needs to be, is justified. The
accusation is shewn, however, to be grossly exaggerated and mis-
represented ; and the blame for most instances of isolation and
perpetuity of peculiarities is shown to lie not at the doors of the Jews,
but at those of the Gentiles. The teaching of the Bible and the
Talmud complained of is quoted, and its significance fairly and
honestly dealt with. We are reminded, however, of the fact,
which is almost invariably suppressed or ignored by the authors
and vendors of these charges, that these quotations are but
selections, and very bad selections from these works, and do
not represent their general teaching, or the spirit of the faith
embodied in these books. The special circumstances under which
these quotations were written we are reasonably asked to con-

426 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

sider. The injustices their writers were then suffering, the pro-
vocations they were then receiving, the terrible hardships they,
or their fellow religionists were then enduring — and these were
oftentimes indescribably awful — were enough to fire human pas-
sion and human indignation to a white heat, and beget a hatred
of their persecutors both fierce and lasting. But surely not the
words of a man lashed into anger by the severest wrongs, and
speaking in a mood of high strung passion — not these are to be
taken as indicative of what the man qua man is, and to be for
ever quoted as expressing the mood, and temper, and spirit of his
race. Is the literature of any race ever so treated as is the
Jewish here, or any race judged by the standard here applied to
the Jews? But we must resist the temptation of describing
further the contents of this masterly defence of the Jews, and
recommend our readers to its careful study in the pages of this
Revue, or the treatise itself when issued as a separate work. A
series of tables of criminal statistics is given towards the close of
this section of the paper which is as instructive as any part of it.
This paper of M. Loeb is by far and away the most interesting
to the general reader, and we may be pardoned, therefore, for
giving to it all the space at our command. The other articles
are of interest chiefly to Jews, and Jewish scholars and his-
torians. We note the following: 'Relations du marquis de
Langallerie avec les Juifs ; ' ' Le sSfer sekhel Tob abrege de
grammaire hebra'ique de Moise Qimhi ; ' ' Le livre de l'algebre
et le probleme des asymptotes de Simon Motot ; ' ' Documents
sur les Juifs de Wiener-Nenstadt ; ' and ' Napoleon I. et la re-
union du Grand Sanhedrim'

Revue Semitique d'Epigraphie et d'Histoire Ancienne.
(No. 3.) — M. J. Halevy's ' Recherches Bibliques ' in this num-
ber embrace a series of brief studies, bearing on the geographical
position of Haran, where Terah and his family are said to have
settled on their emigration from Ur of the Chaldees, and which
is referred to several times in Scripture ; and also a series of
'Notes pour l'interpretation des Psaumes,' in continuation of his
previous contributions towards that object. The first series of
studies bearing on the geographical position of Haran cover
ground already gone over by him, but furnish additional proofs
in defence of the view as to its situation which he was led many
years ago to adopt. He gives a brief summary of the reasons
which led him to adopt that view then, and adds here the further
considerations which have since confirmed him in regarding it as
the correct one. The commonly held opinion has been that
Haran was situated in Upper Mesopotamia, and was in fact the

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 427

celebrated town Harran, or Carrhae, near Orfa, or that it was
in central Syria, seven days journey north of Galaad. Haran
is definitely said in Gen. xxiv., 10, to have been in Aram
Naharaim. This latter has been generally taken as identical
with Mesopotamia, the territory lying between the two rivers, the
Khabur and the Euphrates. But this district is in reality
traversed by a third important river, the Balih. Schrader has
attempted to get rid of this difficulty by limiting Aram Naharaim
to the district between the Euphrates and Balih. M. Halevy
combats this view also, and gives very weighty reasons for regard-
ing the two rivers indicated in the term as those in the vicinity
of Damascus, and the term Aram Naharaim as denoting the
alluvial and extremely rich plain between the two rivers Amanah
(not Abanah, as in our version) and Pharpar. Critics, M.
Halevy thinks, have been led astray by confounding the descriptive
phrase, applicable to any district lying between two rivers, with
the classical transeuphratic Mesopotamia. He proceeds then to
show how lucid many passages of Scripture become if this be
accepted as the territory indicated by the phrase, Aram Naharaim.
This he shows is especially true of the Balaam narratives. There
is an insuperable difficulty in connection with Numb, xxii., 5,
which at once disappears if the nahar there spoken of is not
identified with the Euphrates, and, taken in connection with what
immediately follows, the clause was read ' Pethor, which was
situated on the river, and was the country of his (Balah's) own
people.' The Balaam narratives are dealt with at some length
bv M. Halevy here, with a view to establishing their unity, as
well as to illustrate and substantiate the opinion put forward as
to the geographical situation of Haran, and of the Aram
Naharaim of early Israelitic story. The ' Notes pour Interpreta-
tion des Psaumes ' suggest many simple emendations of the text
where difficulties seem to have been created by copyists' mistakes.
The sense is much improved in every case, but the method is
subject to dangers and must be adopted with great caution. M.
Halevy, however, is not likely to err by offering rash or hasty
conjectures. His conservative instincts and his veneration for
the sacred text are too strong to permit of that. He gives us
here also a further instalment of his transcription and translation
of the ' correspondence of Amenophis III. and Amenophis IV.,'
and this concludes the series. — M. Clement Huart continues here
also his ' Epigraphie arabe d'Asie Mineure.' — M. J. B. Chabot
furnishes the Syriac text of the Apocalypse of Esdras, taken from
the MS. copy in the Bibliotheque Nationals, No. 326. It is pre-
faced by a brief note descriptive of the MS., and stating where
the other MSS. of this Apocalypse are deposited. Herr F.

428 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

Baethgen published in the Zeitschrift fiir alttestamentliche Wis-
senschaft in 188G, the text of the MS. in the Royal Library at
Berlin, with a German translation. — The other articles in this
No. are ' Notes pour servir a l'etude des inscriptions lihyanites,'
by B. Carra de Vaux ; ' Note sur le monument funeraire
appele nephesh,' by Rubens Duval; 'Notes pour l'histoire
d'Ethiope,' by J. Perruchon — a continuation of the series he has
been contributing to this Revue ; and ' Notes Sumeriennes ' and
' Notes Geographiques,' also part of a series, by M. J. Halevy.
Under Bibliographie he gives an interesting notice of the last
parts issued of the Corpus iuscriptionum semiticarum.

SWITZER LAND.

Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse (July,
August, September). — The commercial relations between France
and Switzerland are dealt with by M. Numa Droz in a long
article bristling with statistics, and discussing a number of
economical questions, interesting enough from the point
of view of political economy, but by no means light reading.
That, however, is amply provided for by the long opening
instalment of what promises to be a capital novel, ' Le Sentier
qui monte,' by M. T. Combe, and also by the concluding part of
the humourous sketches, ' Chateau-Flottant.' — ' Cellque j'ai vu au
Nouveau-Monde,' explains itself. It is only fair to add, however,
that Mme. Mary Bigot's reminiscences and experienced are as
attractive in manner as they are instructive and interesting in
matter, and they supplv excellent reading. — As a piece of literary
and critical wrork M. Henry Jacottet's study of Dante-Gabriel
Rosetti takes high rank. It is thoughtful and well balanced,
and will give foreign readers a very accurate notion of the poet's
work and of his position in literature. — In his paper, 'La Taille
et la Resistance a la Fatigue,' Dr. Chabrie examines, as the title
indicates, the relation between stature and physical endurance.
The details into which he enters are interesting and instructive,
but the data at his disposal are too vague and too few to justify
any very definite conclusion. Nor does there appear to be any-
thing very striking in what the writer is able to put forward as
the result of his comparisons and investigations — that, as regards
men of the same country, the taller possesses a greater power of
endurance than the shorter. — The August number opens with an
article written by a specialist for specialists, ' Horsemanship in
the Army.' It refers more particularly to the French army, but
will be found full of details and suggestions which will be read
with interest and with profit by those who have to do with the

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 429

training of cavalry in any country. — Though perhaps rather
short, in comparison with the subject, the article which M.
Sayous devotes to Diirer and Holbein, considered as portraitists,
is remarkably well written, and being to some extent based on
the most authoritative of recent French and German monographs
on the two masters, will be particularly welcome to those
whose reading has been more limited as regards this subject. —
M. de Verdilhac's article, ' Curiosites bibliographiques et
litteraires,' is f ullv as interesting as the title would lead one to
suppose. It is light and chatty, and full of excellent anecdotes
excellently told. — ' The Duration of Human Life ' may at first
sight appear a technical and rather dry subject, but M. H.
Stilling has treated it in a popular and attractive manner,
introducing a number of interesting cases and anecdotes, and
has written on it a most interesting and thoroughly readable
article. — M. V. de Flouant has an article in the September
number which is sure to be turned to with considerable interest,
for it deals with Japan. The Corean question is not, however,
discussed, and does not even appear in it. What the author does is
to trace the career of the empire of the Mikado from the time it
set itself to adapt itself to western civilisation. The rest of
the number is devoted to light literature, and to the usual
delightful chroniques.

HOLLAND.

De Gids. — The August and September numbers are nearly
half filled with the continuation and conclusion of Cyriel
Buysse's sketches of Flemish country life under the title of
' Sursum Corda.' The whole series of portraits of country
people is monotonously repulsive, and one does not wonder
that the principal character who had made it his aim to elevate
and enlighten the circle in which he found himself placed, re-
tires from the sce?ie disgusted and despairing. He himself
obviously w^ants elevating as much as the otheis. It is to be
hoped that these strongly drawn but coarse delineations are
not true to life. — ' The Extension of Towns,' by Mr. J. V. Kips,
(August) is a paper of much value. Starting from the fact of
the gigantic increase of town populations — the Hague, for in-
stance, had a population of 70,000 in 1851, and in 1893 over
174,000 — he advocates the necessity of providing beforehand
for this apparently inevitable development. The task belongs
to the engineer, the architect, and the jurist. The engineer
ought to arrange the districts, shops, warehouses, villas, work-
men's quarters, and palaces, in the most convenient way, and
contrive the easiest and most direct modes of access. The block

430 Summaries of Foreign Reviews.

system, confusing and ugly, must be eschewed in favour of tri-
angles and radiating lines, such as are to be found in Amsterdam,
Brussels, Florence, etc. The architect must provide beauty.
His rule must be to avoid endless perspectives, or open gaps
at the end of streets because a prospect wholly closed to
the eye is alone aesthetically justifiable. On this the charm of
our ancient cities depends. Again, there must be no artificially
contrived irregularities, but where there is a reason for irregu-
larity it must be made use of. For instance, the crossing of
avenues gives an opportunity for irregularly shaped open
spaces. Then such spaces ought to be apparently closed, as
are for example the Piazza of S. Mark at Venice, and the
beautiful places round the Cathedral at Salzburg and those at
Hildesheim. The abomination of a statue in the middle of a
square where only a fountain or obelisk that is seen to equal
advantage on all sides ought to be is demonstrated. Some
interesting plans are given as illustrations. Finally, the task
of the jurist is to give practical expression and actuality to the
foregoing, perhaps the most difficult task of all. It is certainly
a question of moment whether towns are to be allowed to grow
without any order or arrangement, and to grow more hideous year
by year, or whether they are to be made healthy, convenient and
beautiful — Mr.Doedes'veryinterestingpaperouIan vanRiebeck,
founder of Cape Colony is concluded. (Aug.) His estimate of
this fiery tempered rough and ready little hero of the 17th
century is more favourable than Theal's in his short history of
South Africa. His faults were common to all the men of his
time, but the virtues, the energy and devotion to duty of this
ex-surgeon are still an example. Most striking descriptions
are given of the state of things in the colony when the
European population mustered only 110 men, and 15 women
and children. — Byvanck continues his article on Paul Claude!,
and there is a readable review of modern music. — ' The
Scarcity of Gold,' by Mr. N. G. Pierson (Sept.) is an elaborate
treatise on the currency question. The conclusion he comes
to is that it is much to be regretted that in 1881 an inter-
national understanding was not arrived at. That opportunity,
however, having been lost, he considers that, after all, things
have not turned out so very badly. In no other country was
so risky a trial made as in Netherlands and its colonies, a trial
which during twenty years has worked with wonderful success.
The assimilation of a standard almost entirely silver, or the
equivalents of silver to gold, seemed a hopeless experiment
particularly in Java, still it succeeded, and though the great
declension in silver gives at present an uncomfortable feeling,
there is no reason to be afraid. The difficulties of introducing

Summaries of Foreign Reviews. 431

birnetalism he shows to be very serious, and considers it may
mean only the revival of out of date economic theories.
Scarcity of gold is not caused by the existing standard, and
would not be cured by bimetalism. It has been caused from
time to time by want of production, and there has been
scarcity of goods, but a review of the world's finances shows
that there is no real scarcity of gold, nor is that to be antici-
pated.— ' The new suffrage law and the late elections in
Belgium,' by Gittee, is a review of measures and parties by no
means rose-coloured for liberals. The latest work of the
Belgian Second Chamber has been the abolition of propor-
tionate representation. The towns are now sacrificed to the
country districts which are under the influence of the Romish
priesthood. The only hope for the liberals is in refraining
from their dissensions, which have led them into mistake after
mistake. — ' Concerning a dead Mandarin ' is a curious yet
poetical account of Chinese post mortem conceptions. — Another
paper devoted to Leconte de Lisle and Walter Pater is
entitled, ' Dead on the way to Apollo,' that god representing
the natural, ever-shifting life, striving to attain perfection and
beauty. — There is a review of Zola's Lourdes novel, which is
pronounced the failure it was bound to be in the hands of this
powerful realist. Such a subject, touching the mystic side of
life and the most delicate sjnritual problems, could not be
properly handled by one to whom the outside of life is every-
thing.

(432)

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

Tlie Divine Liturgies of our Fathers among the Saints, John
Chrysostom and Basil the Great, tvith that of the Pre-
sanctified, preceded by the Hesperinos and the Orthros.
Edited with the Greek Text by J. N. W. B. Robertson.
London : David Nutt. 1894.

This is a revised and enlarged edition of a volume which was published
in 188G, and received the approval of various dignitaries of the Orthodox
Church. To the liturgies of SS. Basil and Chrysostom there have now
been added, with very great advantage for Western students and travellers,
the Hesperinos and Orthros (Vespers and Lauds) for the eve and morning
of Sundays and Feasts, the Liturgy of the Presanctitied, and a number of
the changeable forms for different times. It is a pity, however, that pas-
sages of Scripture such as the Odes (p. 175 et seq.) are only indicated by
reference : no one in this country knows them by heart in Greek. Again,
the inaudible prayers are inserted in the middle of the audible ones, in a
way which (although strictly following the text of the Euchologion) would
make it almost impossible for a stranger to follow the service, and this
difficulty is increased by printing them at full length in Greek as well as
English, just as if they would be heard by the congregation, which they
never are. The Greek text is handsomely printed, and accurate so far as
we can see. The translation is in some respects disappointing. The editor
does not say whether it is meant for devotional use or for the assistance of
liturgical students. In either case it might be improved in some points.
Greek liturgical terms are simply transliterated without any attempt at ex-
planation. Pages bristling with words such as Hesperinos, Ektene, Heir-
mos, Mystagogia, repel any but an expert in such studies. A translation
professedly into English should not exhibit such forms as Exodos,
I. Reigns, Abbakum the Prophet, the Precursor, etc.; and might be more
in sympathy with the ecclesiastical terms used in the English language,
and which are often merely the English names of the same things. Why,
for instance, should the corporal be called the heileton ? Mr. Robertson's
translation of the Psalms seems innocent of any of the classical English
versions. Sentences such as 'Come let us adore and fall down,' —
' O Lord my God, Thou art become exceeding magnifical,' — make one
wish that Mr. Robertson had been contented to follow the Prayer Book or
Authorised version so far as the text allows. The same remark applies to
his translation of the prayers, which adheres slavishly to the Greek, though
here and there slips occur. E.g., p. 11, ' us sinners and thine unprofit-
able servants ' is hardly a literal rendering of 7]p.Qv tQv a/j,apTw\Qi> kcl! dxpeiw
oou\wv crov : and there are not a few passages which must jar on the ear of
any one familiar with The Book of Common Prayer, or Bright's Ancient
Collects. A comparison of ' A Prayer of St. Chrysostom ' with the version
on p. 249 of Mr. Robertson's work will bear out what we say. At the
same time Mr. Robertson deserves thanks for presenting these valuable
liturgies in such a handsome and convenient form. His work should be
welcomed by all who take an interest in liturgical studies.

Contemporary Literature. 4'^3

Genetic Philosophy. By David Jayxe Hill. New York and
London': Macmillan & Co. 1893.

Principal Hill's volume before us contains a series of admirable studies
on the genesis of Matter, Life, Consciousness, Feeling, Thought, Will, Art,
Morality, Religion, and Science. They are, so to speak, critical reviews of
the history of the philosophical systems which have been offered in explana-
tion of these things ; and from the standpoint of one who belongs to no
particular school of philosophy, but looks from a vantage point on all, and
sees, or thinks he sees, how the confusion and strife of the schools have
arisen, and how they may be allayed, if not absolutely put an end to.
When one surveys, in however careless a way, the history of speculation
regarding each and all of the points enumerated — sees how system has
followed system in a long and seemingly never ending series — sees how
unsatisfactory every new generation of philosophers finds the work of all
that have preceded them (their work in turn to be found fault with by the
next), one becomes bewildered, and wonders if the philosophy of Matter,
Life, Consciousness, etc., will ever, or can ever, be produced, or discovered.
Are these things inexplicable ? or, are their investigators simply pursuing
false methods of investigation ? What are, or have been, their methods I
and, may the explanation of the universal failure that has attended their
labours not be that their methods have been faulty in the extreme \
Principal Hill attributes their failure to faulty method, and not to the
helpless obscurity or inexplicable mystery of the subjects in question.
Philosophers have all along been guilty, he alleges, of reversing the only
sane, safe, and possibly successf nl method of investigation — the only natural
one. They have begun their labours where they should have ended.
They have theorized when the\T should have been observing — have evolved
from within themselves certain ' principles,' and then set about the help-
less and hopeless task of squaring the phenomena with which they then
found themselves confronted, with these 'principles.' When unscientific
' scientists ' — if the phrase may be pardoned — pursued this same method,
or something similar to it, their efforts were equally unsatisfactory and
useless. So soon, however, as they adopted the rational, and now called
' scientific,' method the results were seen to be of the greatest possible
value, and to be demonstratively accurate. This, Principal Hill here calls
the genetic method — the method of tracing things to their genesis, and
observing them in all their relations and actual details. Nothing is
isolated, and so nothing can be thoroughly understood, or accurately com-
prehended, unless observed, or studied, in all its relations. It is only then
that it is seen to be what it really is, ' the outgrowth of its own antece-
dents,' and a part or stage of a continuous whole. The volume before us
shows us how the non-observance of this method has rendered the mani-
fold, continuous, and laborious efforts of ' philosophers ' so futile from
generation to generation, while the observance of it by ' scientists ' has
produced of late such splendid and beneficent results. The wThole volume is
full of the most pregnant thought. Its style is clear. Its literary qualities
render it fascinating throughout, and there is a fresh, healthy common-
sense in all that is here said that makes the reading of it as wholesome as
it is delightful.

Philosophical Remains of George Groom Robertson, Grote Pro-
fessor of Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College,
Jjondon. With Memoir. Edited by Alexander Bain,
LL.D., and T. Whittaker, B.A. London and Edinburgh :
Williams & Norgate. 1894.
xxiv. 28

434 Contemporary Literature.

Though with very few exceptions the writings here brought together
have all appeared before, the friends of the late Professor Croom Robertson
have done well to collect them and to is^uu them in a separate form.
Unfortunately, Mr. Robertson was cut off in his prime, and though he
apparently meditated something of more importance than we have here,
the state of his health and the multiplicity of his other engagements pre-
vented him from carrying out the plans he seems to have at one time en-
tertained or to accomplish more in the way of writing than a number of
occasional articles. This is all the more to be regretted as such literary
work as Mr. Robertson has left, is sufficient to show that had his life been
spared and health permitted, his contributions to philosophic study might
have enriched our literature to a much greater extent, and that by his
death philosophy suffered a serious loss. Of the value of the papers here
issued nothing need be said. They have already been appraised.
Students of philosophy are well acquainted with them, and the opinion
among them will only be that they are all too few. The exceptions re-
ferred to above are the lectures which the late Professor delivered at the
Russell Institute in 1871 and at Manchester in 1873, the first on the
English Mind and the second on the Senses, and a couple of introductory
lectures delivered at University College, London. The articles on Analogy,
Analysis, Analytic Judgments, Association of Ideas, and Axioms contributed
to the Eucyclopadia Britannica are included. The remaining pieces have
been collected from the pages of Mind. Dr. Bain contributes a brief
memoir of Mr. Robertson, which besides giving a sketch of Mr. Robertson's
career contains many interesting literary reminiscences and does justice
to the skill and conscientious care with which he discharged the duties
both of his Chair in the University and in the editorial Chair of Mind.

A Study of Ethical Principles. By James Seth, M.A., Pro-
fessor of Philosophy in Brown University, U.S.A. Edin-
burgh and London : Blackwood & Sons. " 1894.

As the title indicates, the aim which Professor James Seth has
here in view is not to set forth a new system of Ethics, but to
exhibit and discuss the principles on which any valid system of Ethics
ought to rest and which it ought to develop. The volume divides
itself into four parts, viz., an introduction in which the problem and
method of Ethics are denned, and the relation in which it stands
to psychology; Part I., in which the several types of Ethical theory,
Hedonism, Rigorism, and Eudaemonism, are discussed ; Part II., which
deals with the virtues and duties of the individual and social life,
and the ethical basis and functions of the State ; and Part III., in which
the author treats of the metaphysical problems of morality or the three
problems, of Freedom, God, and Immortality. In the course of the dis-
cussion Professor Seth does good service in re-stating the doctrines of the
ancient moralists. His handling of the speculations of the modern schools
is acute and luminous. Between Hedonism and Eudaemonism he draws a
sharp distinction, as also between the Science of Ethics and the Philosophy
of Ethics. Though the author lays no claim to originality, his volume
everywhere bears proof of freshness, vigour, and independence of thought,
and will, there is every reason to believe, serve as an excellent introduc-
tion to the further study of the subject. It is not often that a philosophi-
cal work is so well written. Here and there the style becomes almost
poetic. Ail the same, Mr. Seth has the art of putting his thoughts with
the utmost clearness, and in a work on philosophy that is no small gain.

Contemporary Literature. 435

Town Life in the Fifteenth Century. Ry Mrs. J. R. GREEN. 2
vols. London and New York : Macmillan & Co. 1894.

Hitherto the history of the municipal institutions of either England or
Scotland has attracted comparatively little attention. A number of local
histories have been written, and in Scotland a fairly large array of Town
Charters and Records have been published, among others by the Burgh
Record Society under the able management of Sir James Marwick, and by
certain Town Councils and private individuals ; but the history of the town
life in either country in a way at all commensurate with its importance has
n<>t yet been written, nor, so far as we are aware, has it ever been so much
as attempted. The reasons are perhaps not far to seek. For one tiling,
the labour which it would involve is probably, for this busy and unleisurely
age. far too herculean ; and for another, the materials are, for the most
part, inaccessible. In the case of many towns it is to be feared that they
are no longer recoverable, while as for those of the rest, the majority of
them would seem to be hid or wasting away and to be scarcely known to
exist. That large quantities of the requisite materials do exist seems to be
certain, but judging from the notes scattered here and there in the reports
of the Historical MSS. Commission, it would appear that with few excep-
tions, much requires to be done with them before they can be at all
available for the purpose. In the two volumes before us Mrs. Green has
made a solid and chivalrous attempt to break into this rude and undigested
mass, and to reveal some of the treasures it contains. A history of Town
Life or of Municipal Institutions they cannot be called. Nor is the slightest
claim that they are such made. They contain a picture of English town
life during the fifteenth century. If we were disposed to find fault we
might complain of the omission of the word ' English ' from the title
p.ige. References are made to the towns of France and Germany during
the period, but the subject of the volume and that which is distinctly dealt
with almost to the entire exclusion of everything else, is the life of the
English towns. One might complain, also, that no reference, so far as we
can remember, is made to the Scottish Burghs or to the Town life of Scot-
land, though the Towns or Burghs there were in many respects on all
fours with those of England. They had the same periods of growth and
decay, and have undergone similar revivals ; they had the same struggles
and the same victories ; their customs and institutions were similar. They
were acquainted with crafts and guilds and pageants; the ' ale-kenner '
went about to test the strength and quality of the ale which was vended,
and the town officer and others were always on the watch to see that no
unauthorised individual exposed goods in the market, or opened a shop
for their sale, though some of the towns enjoyed privileges which appar-
ently no English town possessed, i.e., monopolies in certain industries. But
to find fault would be ungracious, and no one who can appreciate the
immense difficulties with which Mrs. Green has had to cope in the writing
of the first English book on the subject, will be at all disposed. Taking
all things into consideration the work seems to us of rare merit and execu-
tion and represents a world of labour. As we have said it contains a picture.
So far as its broad outlines are concerned, and in many of its details, it
seems to be perfectly veracious. At the same time we are not able to
follow Mrs. Green in all her inferences and conclusions. Nor are we dis-
posed to believe that in some of the details her presentation is strictly
correct. For instance, her description of the relations between Town and
Church, though true in particular instances, is not generally true. Even
in the fifteenth century the relations between the Town and Church in
England were as a rule, we believe, much more intimate than Mrs. Green

4 30 Contemporary Literature.

would .apparently make out. Questions of law often set the clergy and
towns-folk by the ears, but as Mrs. Green owns, the Parish Church was,
as a rule, the centre of burghal life, and the existence of such societies as
that of Corpus Christi, and many others of a similar nature, and as well,
the thoroughly religious character of many of the guilds, would show that
whatever dissensions arose between the Town and Church were only tem-
porary and local. In the first volume we have a brief sketch of the indus-
trial and commercial revolutions which came over the country, dealing for
the most part with the external affairs and the internal government of the
towns, which necessitated a discussion of the relation in which the burghs
and cities stood to their superiors, and the struggle for freedom. In the
first part of the second volume we have chapters devoted to an account of
the inner life of the towns — crafts, guilds, markets, manners, sanitary
arrangements and means of education, while in the remaining chapters the
Common Councils of Southampton, Nottingham, Sandwich, and Norwich
are singled out for separate treatment. The work is rich in particular
instances and abundant in notes, and as a pioneer in a what may be almost
called a new line of historic writing, is deserving of great praise.

The History of Sicily from the Earliest Times. Bv Edward A.

Freeman, M.A., Hon. D.C.L., LL.D., etc. Vol. IV.

Edited from Posthumous MSS., with Supplements and

Notes by Arthur J. Evans, M.A. Maps and Numismatic

Plate. Oxford : At the Clarendon Press. 1894.

This volume is a further reminder of the immense loss which England
and English letters sustained now a little more than two years ago by the
unexpected death of Mr. Freeman at Alicanto while still engaged on the
great task he had set himself of recording for the benefit of English
readers the story of the events which have happened on the shores of
Sicily from the earliest times down to a comparatively recent period, or in
his own words, down to not earlier than the death of the great Sicilian
Emperor. The preceding volumes, one of which was published soon after
his death, have already been noticed in the pages of this Review. The
present volume has been put together from the MSS. Mr. Freeman left,
probably not as he would have printed them himself, but in such wise as
the most reverent regard could suggest. The editor has treated the text
left by Mr. Freeman as sacred, neither altering nor adding to it. Passages
wanting to carry on the story he has for the most part supplied in Mr.
Freeman's own words from the book on Sicily which he contributed to
the ' Story of the Nations ' series. Whatever notes were needed have been
supplied by Mr. Evans, who has not scrupled when anything newer
than was beneath Mr. Freeman's hands was attainable to point out its
bearing on the text. He has also added a variety of supplements and
appendices for the purpose of supplying what appeared to him to be
wanting. Of the manner in which the editor has discharged his duties
there is no need to speak. The work has manifestly been a labour of
devotion and love, and no pains have been spared to make the volume as
complete as possible. Of the three chapters contained in the volume the
first takes up the story of the tyranny of Dionysios at the point where it
was let fall in the third volume, while the second and third carry on the
narrative to the death of Agathokles. In the Supplements he has added
Mr. Evans treats of the monarchy of Dionysios, the Adriatic Colonies of
that monarch and his Finance and Coinage. Another of equal interest
shows the light which numismatics throw upon the Sicily of Timoleon.
Other MSS. than those Mr. Evans has used contain we are glad to learn

Contemporary Literature. 437

fairly connected accounts of the Roman and Norman conquests of Sicily.
It is to be hoped that these will soon see the light under the hands of
editors equally competent and painstaking as Mr. Evans.

A History of Rome to the Battle of Actium. By Evelyn
Shirley Shuckburgh, M.A. Maps and Plans. London
and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894.

To write the history of Rome during the first seven hundred years of its
existence in about as many pages is by no means an easy task. Much has
to be merely touched upon, and much has to be altogether left out. The
danger of giving too much prominence to this and too little to that is
always present, and the greatest care has to be exercised lest the rule of
proportion be violated, and the narrative become lop-sided or over-loaded
in parts with details. When the late Mr. Green accomplished the task of
compressing, within only a few more pages than are here employed by Mr.
Shuckburgh, his elaborate and picturesque history of the English people,
he accomplished what is on all hands recognised to be one of the most
brilliant feats in historical writing. Mr. Shuckburgh's History of Hum*
will in all probability never attain to the same popularity. It is scarcely
to be expected that it will. Still, it is a production which may deservedly
take a place beside Mr. Green's. It is admirably arranged and propor-
tioned, the different eras in the history of the Roman State, within the
period prescribed, are distinctly marked off, and one has no difficulty what-
ever in following step by step the expansion of her power. That the in-
fluence of the Roman people was always increasing is a fact which Mr.
Shuckburgh steadily keeps before the mind of the reader. He is never
allowed to lose sight of it, and no matter into what details the narrative
descends, he is continually made to feel that the story is that of a people
who are continually reaching up, as if impelled by an irresistible fate, to
be masters of the world. A great part of the narrative is of course taken
up with military affairs, not however to the neglect of other and equally
important matters. Constitutional history has received a large share of
attention, being discussed in a series of chapters which bring it down to
the time of the Gracchi, and afterwards with more or less fulness in con-
nection with the development of foreign policy, and the changes in the
relation of Rome to her neighbours and conquered provinces. Social and
literary history are also dealt with, and at the end of each chapter Mr.
Shiukburgh is careful to indicate the original authorities on which his
narrative is based. As a rule he follows the most recent writers in his in-
terpretation of their records, but his pages are here and there marked by a
healthy independence, and on occasion he gives reason for dissenting from
the findings to which they have come, and for the maintenance of his own.
Mr. Shuckburgh's style is clear and forcible, and has a charm altogether
its own. It is to be hoped that we have here only the first volume of Mr.
Shuckburgh's work, and that in another he will tell the story of the Em-
pire and of its decline and fall.

Sources of the Constitution of the United States considered in re-
lation to Colonial and English History. By C. Ellis
Stevens, LL.D., D.C.L. London & New York: Mac-
millan & Co. 1894.

An attempt has been made by a certain school of Constitutional writers
in America to isolate the Constitution of the United States from all previ-
ous history, and to regard it as without sources or antecedents, and as a

438 Contemporary Literature.

purely political invention. Others, while admitting that it has antece-
dents, and is not a pure invention, prefer to look elsewhere than to Eng-
land, and are disposed to maintain that the original home of most of the
American civil institutions was Holland. At the head of these latter may
probably he placed Mr. Douglas Campbell, who, in his Puritan in Hol-
land, England, and America, denies that the American people are of Eng-
lish race, and bases his assumption on the fact that there were resident
along with the English in the Colonies men of other races. Dr. Stevens
here joins issue with both these classes of writers, and while admitting
that some of the institutions of America, such as the free school, the use
of a written ballot, and certain features of the land laws and of the town-
ship system, are traceable in part at least to Dutch influence, and though
not included in the Constitution, have exercised an influence in moulding
the American nation, maintains that the whole of the American Constitu-
tion is more or less distinctly traceable to English origin. To a writer so
well versed in the Constitutional History of America and England as Dr.
Stevens, the task was comparatively easy, and ha has found no difficulty
in proving, with an abundance of illustration, his thesis. His work is
indicative of a movement which is going on in many parts of the United
States, which may perhaps be taken as a proof that what Von Hoist aptly
calls ' the worship of the Constitution ' is on the decay, and is giving place
to sounder views. At any rate, Dr. Stevens' scholarly and carefully written
volume is calculated to show how closely the British and American systems
of Government are connected. At the same time it may have a salutary
effect on this side of the Atlantic, where the United States are regarded by
many as a land void of checks and bars to legislative enactments and con-
stitutional changes. Dr. Stevens is at some pains to point out the strong
conservative element there is in the Constitution of that country, and does
not scruple to express the alarm with which many of his countrymen
regard the endeavours of many to modify and destroy old English institu-
tions, and to point out the baselessness of their belief that America sets
the example of such destructiveness, and that all change is necessarily
progress. Though by no means a large book, the work is a valuable con-
tribution to the subject of which it treats, and at the present moment,
when change is in the air, is deserving of careful study.

Life and Letters of Erasmus. Lectures delivered at Oxford,
1893-4. By J. A. Froude, Regius Professor of Modern
History. London : Longmans, Green, & Co. 1894.

Mr. Fronde has already written at considerable length about Erasmus,
both in his History and in his Short Studies. The present volume, how-
ever, supplies much that is there wanting, and is a brilliant addition to the
literature which deals with the history of the Reformation period in
Northern Europe. For his materials Mr. Froude has depended for the
most part on the letters of Erasmus, which are here abridged, condensed,
and translated with rare skill and with the author's usual felicity of diction.
Some attempt, as was necessary, has also been made to fix the chronology
of the letters, a task not always easy, but which in the hands of Mr.
Froude is made to yield considerable fruit, though here, perhaps, more
than elsewhere in the volume, he has laid himself open to criticism. The
style is decidedly colloquial, as it was almost bound to be, but is none the
less pleasant to read. Three things come out most distinctly in the lec-
tures—the religious condition of Europe, the character of Erasmus, and
the marvellous effect of his writings. Here and there, too, are many
admirable passages, as, for instance, the portraits drawn by Erasmus of

Contemporary Literature. 439

Sir Thomas More, Colet, and Archbishop Warham. His letter's, too, from
which there are copious extracts, are full of humour, and lose nothing of
their original charm under the treatment here given to them. The de-
livery of the lectures must have formed an epoch in the history of the
Modern School of History at Oxford. It is rare, indeed, that so brilliant
a series has been delivered either there or elsewhere. The precarious con-
dition in which the accomplished author is at present lying disarms
criticism. It is to be hoped that the volume now before us is only the
first of many similar ones.

John MacGregor (' Rob Roy'). By Edwin Hodder. Illus-
trated. London : Hodder Brothers. 1894.

Mr. MacGregor is known chiefly to the general reader as a canoeist, but,
as Mr. Hodder here shows, and as many are already aware, he was some-
thing more. In his time he played many parts, and though, as Mr.
Hodder admits, he was apt to ' go a little mad ' over anything in which he
was deeply interested, he deserves to be reckoned among those who have
spent their lives in trying to do good, and probably amongst those who
have a claim to be called philanthropists. Few if any of the movements
in which he was engaged were not highly beneficial. Most of them cer-
tainly were. Take, for instance, the Ragged School movement, or that
which resulted in the foundation of the Shoe-black Brigade. He may
have been slightly erratic in some things, but on the whole his influence
was for good, and his sincerity above .suspicion. Mr. Hodder has written
his life with skill. Perhaps it is a little too voluminous. Still, there is
no lack of interest in its pages, and the reader is put in acquaintanceship
with all the philanthropic works of the past generation, besides being
carried over the greater part of the world in the company of the famous
canoeist. The book is certainly worth reading. Among others who figure
upon its pages are Lords Shaftesbury and Kinnaird, Bishop Will>erforce,
and the father of ' Rob Roy,' who, by the way, was the organiser of the
Royal Constabulary Force in Ireland, and earned the thanks of the Duke
of Wellington for the way in which he accomplished that work.

The Life and Letters of James Macpherson. Containing a
particular Account of his famous quarrel with Dr. Johnson,
and a sketch of the origin and, influence of the Ossiauic
Poems. By Bailky Saunders. London : Swan
Sonnenscheiu & Co. New York : Macmillan & Co. 1894.

A hundred years ago no literary man was better known than the subject
of Mr. Bailey Saunders' biography ; nowadays, however, he is scarcely
known and few ever read the poems which secured to him an almost
European fame. A pretty wide-spread opinion indeed long since set him
down as an impostor. That he altogether dtserved so hard a judgment
may perhaps with some reason be doubted. At any rate the work he
produced, translated, or invented, was not without its influence — an
influence which few will maintain was not on the whole good. Certainly
it quickened an interest in Gaelic poetry and had something like a
freshening effect upon literature in gen> ral. Much has been written about
Macpherson, but chiefly about his poems and their genuineness ; but
hitherto there has been no biography of him. Whether his biography
deserved to be written is a point on which there may be a difference of
opinion. He was not great, nor was there anything heroic about
him, and if biographies should be written of only the great and heroic, he
was not entitled to one ; but, as Mr. Saunders remarks, for a long time he

440 Contemporary Literature.

was an important figure in society and the occasion of a prolonged con-
troversy and may therefore have some claim to have the story of his life
written. For our own part we must own that by gathering together all
that is ascertainable about Macpherson and his methods and unburdening
his mind in print, Mr. Saunders seems to us to have done a good and
useful work. Certainly he has made a much needed contribution to
history of English literature during the last century. Mr. Saunders is
not afflicted with the lues buswelliaiia. He writes without prejudice and
has much that is new to tell.

The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited from num-
erous MSS. by the Rew Walter W. Skeat, Litt.D.,
LL.D., M.A. Vols. 3 and 4. Oxford. At the Clarendon
Press. 1894.

The first and second volumes of this monumental edition of Chaucer's
works have already been noticed in the last number of this Review. All
that was there said of the ability and learning with which it is being edited
is here fully borne out. Mr. Skeat seems to have read everything that has
been written about Chaucer and to have an explanation carefully con-
sidered and well founded for any difficulty his works present, and one
scarcely knows which to esteem most — his wealth of learning, or the admir-
able use to which he puts it. The amount of information which he has
here brought together and condensed is almost amazing, and the student of
Chaucer cannot but be grateful that, so far as our present knowledge goes,
we have here at last the promise of an edition of his works which is almost,
if not all, that can be desired. The pieces contained in the first of the pre-
sent volumes are ' The House of Fame,' ' The Legend of Good Women,' and
the treatise on the ' Astrolabe,' with introduction and notes. In the intro-
duction the editor discusses, as usual, the sources to which Chaucer was
indebted, the character and value of the MSS. containing the text, the
value of the texts already printed, the forms in which the poems or parts
of them have appeared, the metres in which they are written, and the many
other matters it is now the custom to treat of in introductions of the kind.
The portion of the volume, however, to which the majority of readers will
turn first is the last, where we have an elaborate essay on the sources of
the Canterbury Tales. It runs to over a hundred and thirty pages, and exhi-
bits a masterly skill in the art of condensation, and, unless we are mistaken,
contains a larger amount of reliable material on the subject than has ever
before been brought together in a single treatise. One principal value of
this essay is, that like all the rest of Mr. Skeat's introductions, and not
less of the notes in this and the preceding volumes, the references in
which they abound direct the reader to other sources of information where
the views accepted or rejected are more fully discussed. The fourth volume
opens with an introduction giving an account of the sources whence the
text of the Canterbury Tales lias been obtained, and, as might be expected,
contains a complete list of MSS. and printed editions. The text is entirely
new, in the sense that it owes nothing to previously printed texts, but has
been constructed afresh from an independent study of the MSS. Use,
however, has been made of such portions as have already been edited by
Dr. Skeat in conjunction with Dr. Morris. The labour of construction
has, of course, been greatly facilitated b}7 the work done in this connection
by Dr. Furnivall for the Chancer Society. At the beginning of the volume
are given three of the Minor Poems of Chaucer which have quite recently
been discovered. They are entitled — 'Womanly Noblesse,' 'Complaint
to my Mortal Foe,' and 'Complaint to my Lode-sterre.' The first was

Contemporary Literature. 441

found by Dr. Skeat in MS. Phillipps 9030, and the others in the MS.
Harl. 7578.

The Idylls of Theocritus, Translated into English Verse. By
James Henry Hallard, M.A., Oxon. London and New-
York : Longmans, Green & Co. 1894.

Mediaeval Records and Sonnets. By Aubrey de Vere. Lon-
don : Macmillan & Co. 1893.

Poems, Sonnets, Songs, and Verses. By the Author of ' The
Professor, and other Poems.' London and New York :
George Bell &, Sons. 1894.

Nathan the Wise: A Dramatic Poem in Fire Act's. By G. E.
Lessing. Translated by William Jacks. Glasgow :
Published for the Translator bv James Maclehose & Son.
1894.

The Agnostic, and other Poems. By George Axdersox.

Paisley and London : Alex. Gardner. 1894.
The Songs of Thule. By Lawrence James Nicolson.

Same Publisher. 1894.
Poems, Songs, and Sonnets. Bv Kobert Eeid (Rob Wanlock).

Same Publisher. 1894.

Each of these volumes is more or less deserving of notice. One
or two of them are of somewhat exceptional value, and as samples of
modern verse-making none of them is without merit. Among the first
may be mentioned Mr. Hallard's version of the Idylls of Theocritus, in
which he has attempted with considerable success the very difficult task
of satisfying the requirements both of the exacting scholar and the man of
letters. So far as we have examined them his renderings show the exact-
ness of the scholar and the facility of an expert in English verse. The
experiments in hexemeters are commendable, but Mr. Hallard has shown
a wise discretion in discarding in many of the poems the original metre,
and substituting in their place measures to which the English ear is more
accustomed. The translation has evidently been a labour of love, and
the author has his reward in having produced an enjoyable version of the
thoughts and verse of the famous Alexandrian whose feeling for nature was
in many respects almost modern. — Mr. Aubrey de Vere's volume divides
itself into two parts. In the first he endeavours to reproduce some of the
features of the Middle Ages by recounting a number of its legends. The
second part consists of a number of sonnets, several of which are under
the name of Mr. Browning, and others under those of Cardinals Newman
and Manning, Father Damien, and Lord Tennyson. The legends are told
with great spirit, more especially those of the Cid. In these the author is
at his best. The narratives are condensed, vigorous and picturesque, and
here and there lines or descriptions of more than usual strength or beauty
occur, as e.g., ' The hand that battles best is hand to rule ; ' ' Yet greatness
flashed from all his acts,' or

' From a string
Of courtly ladies in the glory clad
Of silver cloudland when a moon sea-born
That silver turns to pearl, Ximena moved

1 1- Contemporary Literature.

Calmly, not quickly without summoning sign,
A sister at each hand in weeds night-black
And stood before the King. No gems she wore
And dark yet star-like shone her large, strong eyes,
A queenly presence. '

All the characteristics of the spirit of the Middle Ages Mr. de Vere does not
attempt to give. Those he deals with are the moral and religious, and
his presentation of these is, to say the least, striking.— The dainty little
volume of Poems, etc., by'the author of The Professor and other Poems, has
a large table of contents, but with one or two exceptions, the poems and snugs
are short, many of them running to not more than a dozen lines, and some
of them to still fewer. They are all characterised however by careful work-
manship. The most considerable poem in the volume is 'A True Story.'
On the whole it is well told, but here and there the diction is a little bald and
prosaic. The shorter poems are free from this and are frequently exquisite
both in thought and language. —Mr. Jack's translation of Nathan the Wise
has the merit of reading well and may be commended as a fairly exact and
spirited rendering of the work by which Lessing is probably best known to
readers in this country. Archdeacon Farrar contributes an introduction to
the volume in which he sketches the life of Lessing and gives an estimate of
his worth and influence as a writer. The etchings which embellish the
work are by Mr. William Strang.— Mr. George Anderson, formerly one of
the members of Parliament for Glasgow, but now we believe a government
official of high standing in Australia, has a considerable command of
English and is a writer of vigorous verse. ' The Agnostic ' reminds us of
some of the books in Wordsworth's ' Excursion,' and has probably been
fashioned upon them. At all events like Wordsworth in the Excursion
Mr. Anderson deals with some of the highest themes of human thought.
The argument is carried on by Gerald, the agnostic, or perhaps^we
should say, the doubter, and Edith, the believer. What arguments are
used are well put, but Mr. Anderson is careful to warn us that they are
not all that can be used nor are they used exhaustively. In the same
strain of thought as is followed by Gerald in the ' Agnostic ' are the poems
' Of Life and Death.' The spirit of despondent doubt pervades them and
adds to their pathos. The rest of the volume is made up for the most
part of poems on Scriptural subjects and war poems. Mr. Anderson's
friends on this side of the planet will be glad to meet with him in his new
character, and though they may not accept all he has to say, to all that is
true and human in what he has written— and there is much of both in his
volume— they are sure to give a hearty welcome. — Mr. Nicolson's volume
deserves commendation. A tine feeling pervades all his verses, while some
of them are remarkable for their pathos and beauty. Most of the poems
are written in English, but here and there we have one or more in the
Scottish or Shetland dialect. But whether he writes in English or Scot-
tish, or in his native Shetland dialect, Mr. Nicolsou writes with equal
technical skill. His verse is always melodious. That some of his songs
have been set to music is not surprising. They are full of emotion of the
purest kind. — Mr. Reid, whose volume is the last on our list, hails from
Canada, but is a native of the little lead-mining village of Wanlockhead,
which is perched away high up among the Lowthers. Notwithstanding
his exile he has neither forgotten the soft dialect of his native hills nor
lost his love for it. In the many poems he has here wi itten he shows
himself deft in its use, and turns its music to excellent account. Among
his fellow-poets he is regarded with esteem ; and deservedly so. His
verses have the true ring about them, and there is no lack of the genuine

Contemporary Literature. 443

poetic vein in his nature. Quotations are here almost impossible, but we
may refer to ' Kirkbride,' ' Stormsted,' ' Kilmeny's Warning,' ' The Hin-
maist Crichton,' and ' The Spirit of the Moor ' as to poems of great merit.
One stanza we will take the liberty of transcribing. It is from a beautiful
little poem entitled ' A. Sprig o' Heather,' and apparently written on
receiving a sprig from Scotland : —

' It brings me a glisk o' the hichts and howes

Wham- grey mists gether,
Whanr blithe birds sing and the wee burn rows

In the wilds o' heather ;
The scent o' the sweet thing tills my min'
L'ke the croon o' an auld sang kent langsyne,
And my heart gangs back to the joyfu' days,
When it's beat was licht as the breeze that strays

Amang the heather.'

Pictures from Bohemia Drawn with Pen and Pencil. By JAMES

Baker, F.R.Gr.S. Map and Illustrations. Loudon:

Religious Tract Society.

To the modern tourist, who is usually supposed to be ubiquitous,
Bohemia is little known. In most of its towns and villages an inhabitant
of these islands would appear according to all accounts to be almost as
rare a sight as he is in some parts of the Dark Continent. This is all the
more surprising as it is second to no other part of Europe in the beauty of
its natural scenery and its curious remains of mediteval architecture and
mediaeval life. Mr. Baker writes of it with enthusiasm, and few who read
his pages will not desire to visit it. If thrown into a more convenient
form, his volume would form a charming guide book to the scenes which
he depicts with so much skill, and winch his acquaintance with the history
and legends of the country enables him to invest with an interest guide
books seldom possess. As depicted in his pages, Bohemia wears the
appearance of a newly discovered land both on account of its remarkable
scenery and singular historic remains as well as on account of the quaint
customs and costumes of its inhabitants. Its scenery is often weird beyond
description, while its rock-castles and rock-towns carry one back to the
the times of Hus and to periods still earlier, and remind one of times
very different from the present. Among the many excellent volumes
which the series to which it belongs contains, Mr. Baker's will take a
place distinctly its own. For the charm of novelty it is almost unrivalled.

Aspects of Modern Study, being University Extension Addresses.

By Various Writers. Loudon and New York: Macrnillan

& Co. 1894.

Abstracts of these addresses have from time to time been given, and the
public is more or less acquainted with them through the newspapers.
Few, however, who have made their acquaintance with them in that way
will not be pleased to have them as they have now been published
apparently under the editorial care of Mr. Roberts, the energetic secretary
of the London Society for the extension of University Teaching. They
are the words of men of exceptional ability, and are admirably adapted for
their purpose. In the first of the lectures Lord Playfair gives an account
of the evolutions of University extension as a part of popular education,
and shows that the main purpose of the movement in connection with
which the lectures were delivered is not to educate the masses, but to

•1 I 1 Contemporary Literature.

permeate them with the desire for intellectual improvement, and to show
them methods by which they can attain this desire. Canon Browne's
address, in which he speaks hopefully of the prospects of the
movement, and describes more at length the character and aims of the
teacliing it is designed to convey, naturally follows. The other lectures are
by Mr. Goschen, Mr. John Morley, Sir James Paget, Professor Max
Midler, the Duke of Argyll, the Bishop of Durham and Professor Jebb.
Dr. Westcott's lecture has already appeared in his volume on The
Incarnation in Common Life. Mr. Goschen gives some excellent advice on
learning, thinking and reading, while Mr. John Morley returns for the
time to his old profession, and speaks of the study of literature. The
Duke of Argyll in an address remarkable for its breadth of treatment dis-
courses on the application of the historical method to economic science.
Professor Jebb deals with the influence of the Greek mind on modern life
repeating to some extent the views he has already set forth in The Growth
and Influence, of Classical Greek Poetry. As popular addresses these
lectures are in every way admirable, and being published at a nearly
nominal price, they should find a very wide circle of readers.

Walks in Palestine. By Henry A. Harper. Illustrated by
sixteen Photooravures from Photographs taken by Cecil V.
Shadbolt. New Edition. London : Religious Tract So-
ciety. 1894.

From Darkness to Light in Polynesia. By W. Wyatt Gill,
LL.D. Same Publishers. 1894.

The Sani'ary Code of the Pentateuch. By Rev. C. G. K.
Gillespie. Same Publishers. 1894.

Among the Tibetans. By Isabella Bird Bishop, F.R.G.S.
With Illustrations by Edward Wuymper. Same Pub-
lishers. 1894.

The Meeting-Place of Geology ami History. Bv Sir J. W.
Dawson, CM. G., LL IX, etc. Same" Publishers. 1894.

Ponds and Rock Pools. With Hint* on. Collecting for, and the
Management of the Micro- Aquarium. By Henry Scher-
REN. Illustrated. Same Publishers. 1894.

Heredity and Personal Responsibility Bv Rev. M. Kaufmann,
M.A. Same Publishers 1894.

Present Day Primers — How to Study the English Bible, by
Canon Girdlestone; .1 Brief Introduction to New Testa-
ment Greek, by Rov. S. G. Gkeex ; A Primer of Assyrio-
logy, by A. H. Sayce. LL.D. Same Publishers. 1894.

The bill of fare which the Editorial Committee of the Religious Tract
Society annually furnish for their numerous readers, is this season un-
usually varied and attractive. While popular, the honks are all of solid
interest, and one or two of th m possess considerable literary charms.
Apart from the interest attaching to it as a description of the most cele-
brated places in the Holy Land, Mr. Harper's Walks in Palestine deserves
commendation on account of the admirable photogravures with which it is
illustrated, and which have been pronounced by several competent judges

Contemporary Literature. 1 l*>

to be finest series of Palestine views yet issued. The volume is a cheaper
reproduction of the original work, and contains in addition a brief memoir
of Mr. Shadbolt, from whose photographs in Palestine the photogravures
are taken. These are beautifully executed, and, as need hardly be said,
are in every way much superior to the pictures which are usually published
as representing scenes in the Holy Land. Mr. Wyatt Gill's volume will
appeal to a very wide circle of readers. His previous works in connection
with the South Sea islands are well known and highly appreciated. Here
he has taken the traditions and songs of the natives, and, with the aid of
his own recollections and observations, extending over a lengthened resi-
dence in the Pacific, endeavoured to write the history of Polynesia
from the earliest known times down to the present. The traditions, of
which there are many, are given, as are also many of the clan songs in
which the traditions are preserved. The work is of value both to the
antiquary and the folk-loriat not less than to those interested in the suc-
cess of Christian missions. Most readers, indeed, will find much that is
attractive in its pages. The clan songs are quite a feature of the volume.
As well as the traditions, they have been taken down from the lips of the
natives. Translations accompany the texts. Mr. Gillespie's little volume
belongs to the Society's series known as By-paths of Bible Knowledge, and
contains a brief account of the legislation contained in the Pentateuch from
the point of view of modern sanitary science. Among the Tibetans is Mrs.
Bishop's latest book, and, like the rest of her books of travel, will not fail
to secure numerous readers. It is full of adventure, and its descriptions
possess all the charms which one has grown so accustomed to in the works
of the far travelled writer. In The Meeting-place of Geology and History
Sir J. W. Dawson carries the reader back to the origin of human life on
the earth, and endeavours as definitely as may be to fix the period in the
history of the earth when man first appeared upon it. The problem is of
profoundest interest, but is involved in the greatest obscui-ity. The
author is of opinion that ' no fact of science is more certainly established
than the recency of man in geological times,' and that though ' the abso-
lute date of his first appearance cannot perhaps be fixed within a few years
or centuries, either by chronology or by the science of the earth,' yet it,
would seem that the Bible history, as well as such hints as we can gather
from the history of other nations, limits us to two or three thousand years
before the Deluge of Noah.' In the course of his argument Sir J. Dawson
makes use of much interesting information, both geological and arch;e . lo-
gical, while his aim throughout is to show in how many different ways
science confirms the teaching of Scripture in respect to the beginnings of
human life. Mr. Scherren's useful little volume will find its way to an
increasing class. It is full of hints and information for those who are
engaged in studying such forms of life as are to be found in ponds and the
pools on the sea-shore. Mr. Kaufmann writes clearly and judiciously on
a subject which is gradually attracting considerable notice, and is deserving
of careful study. As to the three Present Day Primers mentioned in our
list, it is sufficient to say that they have all been carefully drawn up by
experts, whose names are a guarantee for their accuracy.

The Unemployed. By Geoffrey Drage, Secretary to the
Labour Commission. London and New York: Macmillan
& Co. 1894.

The subject of Mr. Drage's volume is very important, and as the Secre-
tary to the Labour Commission, one would naturally suppose that he has
had exceptional facilities for examining into it and for arriving at con-

440 Coht<>)it}>or<try Literature.

elusions of more than usual authority. With the Report of that Commission
Mr. Drage is not at all satisfied, and here and there finds serious fault
with it. Into his controversy with the compilers of it we have no wish to
enter. Our business is rather with Mr. Drage's volume, which as breaking
comparatively new ground and containing much that is informing, may on
the whole be commended. Satisfactory in every respect it can scarcely
said to be. The historical portions are a little meagre, and his own
classification of the unemployed, whatever may be its superiority over that
contained in the Report, is too general to be of much use. Still in the
first part of the volume which deals with the agencies which have hitherto
been employed for the solution of the problem of the unemployed, a good
deal of valuable information is brought together, and though more details
might have been desirable, it is presented in a concise and lucid way. The
least satisfactory part of the volume is the third. Here, besides dealing
with the classification of the unemployed, Mr. Drage treats of the number
of the unemployed and the causes to which the want of employment is
due. To arrive at anything like a fair estimate of the numbers is, under
existing circumstance, difficult, and Mr. Drage has been obliged to confine
himself to such statistics as were accessible to him, chiefly those furnished
by certain of the Trade Societies. As for the unskilled labourers in need
of employment numbers are for the most part wanting The classification
adopted by Mr. Drage throws the unemployed into two great sections —
those temporarily without regular employment, and those permanently
■without it. Those of the first section again are divided into two classes —
those with a prospect of work within a definite period, and those who have no
such prospect. As for those who come within the second section, they are
divided into casual labourers and the unemployable, on account of some
physical or moral defect. The classification is somewhat rough, and may,
so far as it goes, be correct, but it is desirable that a classification entering
more into detail should be made. One indicating the causes to which the
surplus labour and the failure to obtain labour are due would, if reliable,
be of the greatest value. The chapter on the ' Causes of the Problem ' is
to our way of thinking too indefinite and hypothetical. The effect for
instance of strikes in multiplying the ranks of the unemployed is dis-
missed in a few sentences. Nor is much said as to the way in which one
trade is affected by another. It is admitted that strikes may have an
injurious effect, and even that the operation of Trades' Unions may, but
Mr. Drage is extremely reticent with respect to instances. Most people
have arrived at certain conclusions with respect to these things, and what
one turns to a book like Mr. Drage's for, is concrete facts. A few of these
would have lighted up Mr. Drage's speculations, and made his chapter of
greater value. In subsequent chapters a brief but clear account is given of
the attempts made to lessen the number of the unemployed, and some of the
methods adopted or proposed are freely criticised. Mr. Drage"s proposals
are by no means heroic ; he candidly admits that the solution ' is to be
found not so much in any one vast remedy as in a series of smaller
remedies, each attacking one or more of the causes which have sufficed
either to bring about or to intensify the present problem.' For the
remedies suggested, however, we must refer the reader to Mr. Drage's
own words. They have been carefully thought out, and are deserving of
consideration as the suggestions of one who is entitled to speak with some
authority.

SHORT NOTICES.

In his little volume, entitled The Apostles'' Creed (Clay & Sons), Dr.
Swete endeavours to meet the attacks which have recently been made on
that symbol by Professor Harnack in Germany, and which have still more

Contemporary Literature. . 447

recently been popularised in this country by Mrs. Humphry Ward. The
German Professor's pamphlet contains nothing that is particularly new,
most of what he says having been said before, and Dr. Swete being amply
provided with the requisite learning, has no difficulty in meeting his asser-
tions and in arguing against, from the ground of history. Though small,
the volume contains much that will be new to the general reader, and
deserves to be read as containing something of what may be said on the
other side.

Bishop Hedley's volume, entitled A Retreat (Burns & Gates), contains
twenty-four discourses or meditations with directions, intended to furnish
matter for a retreat of eight or ten days. The topics chosen are such as
we might expect. They are handled, however, in a much more vigorous
way than one is accustomed to in treatises of the kind. Bishop Hedley
writes with great skill. His thoughts are suggestive, and there is a force
and penetrativeness about them which must make itself felt in the minds
of those who read them. The religion of the volume is of the solid, ear-
nest, and practical kind, while the directions given are pointed and
searching.

Professor Cowan's Landmarks of Church, History (A. & C. Black), is one
of the Church of Scotland Guild Text Books. It is fairly well arrayed,
and carefully compiled, and will take its place as a useful manual. Its
real worth can be proved, like that of most books of the kind, only in the
hands of an expert teacher.

The Scottish Songstress (Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier), by her grand-
niece, is a delightful little book in which Mrs. A. R. Simpson records a
number of charming reminiscences of her grand-aunt, Caroline, Baroness
Nairne.

Lane's Modern Egyptians has long been a famous book. As the years
go by it will become all the more valuable as recording the manners and
customs of a people who, under the influence of Western civilisation, are
gradually changing their ways. The present reprint (Alex. Gardner), will
help, if such a thing is possible, to make the work more popular. It is
handsomely printed, and contains an abundance of illustrations. A brief
biographical sketch of the author has been added to the volume. Gne
fact not mentioned, and not generally known, is that the author was
offered the honour of knighthood, but declined it, preferring to remain
plain Mr. Lane.

James Macpherson, the Highland Freebooter (Alex. Gardner), by J.
Gordon Phillips, is a thoroughly Scottish story of the old romantic kind.
It is full of incident, intrigue, and fighting. The time of the story is the
first half of the eighteenth century, and the scene is laid in the north of
Scotland. Macpherson, the hero, is partly poet, partly musician, gener-
ally a freebooter, and on the whole a not unlikeable character. Lady Ann
of Aberlour, the heroine of the story, is remarkably well drawn, and the
hardships through which she has to pass on account of the intrigues and
doings of Braco, the villain of the piece, enlist one's sympathy. The plot
is somewhat intricate, and, as in the old romances, we hear much of secret
doors and secret passages, close pursuits, and hairbreadth escapes. Gn
the whole, the story is well told, and carries the reader on at a rapid pace.

Mr. Crockett's contribution to Mr. Fisher Unwin's ' Autonym Library '
has for its title Mad Sir Uchtred of the Hills. The scene is laid in Gallow-
way, and the foundation of the story seem to be one of those local tradi-
tions in which that part of the country is so rich. The reputation won by
the author of The Raiders, will not in any way be diminished by this

44S Contemporary Literature.

Blight, but, on the whole, powerful story. Those who take it up will not
be disposed to lay it down till they reach the end.

William Blackloch, Journalist (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier), by T.
Banks Maclachlan, is apparently a first venture. There are excellent
points about it. Though well drawn, Blacklock is not a character in whom
one can take much interest. He is silly and conceited. The heroine, an
admirable character and excellently well portrayed, shows her good sense
by finally refusing to have anything to do with him. Mr. Maclachan
writes fluently and with skill, and gives promise of doing yet better things.

A Lost Ideal (same Publishers) by Annie S. Swan, is a powerful
story, well and carefully written. The morality is of the old-fashioned,
substantial kind. The hero, if such he may be called, is a literary man,
the incarnation of self-conceit. He is married to Helen Lockhart, the
daughter of a minister, a pure and noble-minded creature, to whom he is
untrue. She had formed a high ideal of his character, but being dis-
appointed in her expectations of him, is compelled to leave him, and
through leaving him, brings him at last to his senses. There is no want
of art in the delineation of their characters, nor is there any lack of inci-
dent. Many of the minor characters the authoress introduces are interest-
ing. Not the least so are Brian Laidlaw and Madam Douglas. The story
is "healthy, and an excellent sample of Mrs. Burnett-Smith's work as a
novelist.

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