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poor. The greatest misfortune attendant upon this Damascene incarceration, is the extreme irregularity with which the doors. are opened in the morning, their janitor having no certain hour of quitting his bed. At Damascus, he saw the place where St Paul had a vision. 'I saw also' says he the stone from which St George mounted his horse, when he went to combat the dragon. It is two feet square; and they say that, when formerly the Saracens attempted to carry it away, in spite of all the strength they employed, they could not succeed. After having seen Damascus, he returns with Sir Samson to Baruth; and communicates his intentions of returning over land to France to his companions. They state to him the astonishing difficulties he will have to overcome in the execution of so extraordinary a project; but the admirable carver, determined to make no bones, and to cut his way through every obstacle, persists in his scheme, and bids them a final adieu. He is determined, however, not to be baffled in his subordinate expedition to Nazareth; and, having now got rid of his timid companions, accomplishes it with ease. We shall here present our readers with an extract from this part of his journal, requesting them to admire the naïf manner in which he speaks of the vestiges of ecclesiastical history.

Acre, though in a plain of about four leagues in extent, is furrounded on three fides by mountains, and on the fourth by the sea. I made acquaintance there with a Venetian merchant called Aubert Franc, who received me well, and procured me much ufeful information refpecting my two pilgrimages, by which I profited. With the aid of his advice, I took the road to Nazareth, and, having croffed an extenfive plain, came to the fountain, the water of which our Lord changed into wine at the marriage of Archétréclin : it is near a village where St Peter is faid to have been born.

• Nazareth is another large village, built between two mountains but the place where the angel Gabriel came to announce to the virgin Mary, that she would be a mother, is in a pitiful ftate. The church hat had been there built is entirely deftroyed; and of the houfe wherein our Lady was when the angel appeared to her, not the smallest remnant exifts.

From Nazareth I went to Mount Tabor, the place where the transfiguration of our Lord, and many other miracles, took effect. Thefe pafturages attract the Arabs who come thither with their beasts; and I was forced to engage four additional men as an escort, two of whom were Arabs. The afcent of the mountain is rugged, because there is no road: I performed it on the back of a mule, but it took me two hours. The fummit is terminated by an almoft circular plain of about two bow-shots in length, and one in width. It was formerly enclofed with walls, the ruins of which, and the ditches, are ftill vifible: within the wall, and around it, were feveral churches, and one efpeci ally, where, although in ruins, full pardon for vice and fin is gained.

'We went to lodge at Samaria, because I wished to fee the lake of Tiberias, where, it is faid, St Peter was accuftomed to fish; and, by fo doing, fome pardons may be gained, for it was the ember-week of September. The Moucre left me to myself the whole day. Samaria is fituated on the extremity of a mountain. We entered it at the close of day, and left it at midnight to visit the lake. The Moucre had propofed this hour to evade the tribute exacted from all who go thither ; but the night hindered me from seeing the furrounding country.

I went first to Jofeph's well, fo called from his being cat into it by his brethren. There is a handfome mofque near it, which I entered, with my Moucre, pretending to be a Saracen.

• Further on is a ftone bridge over the Jordan, called Jacob's Bridge, on account of a houfe hard by, faid to have been the refidence of that patriarch. The river flows from a great lake fituated at the foot of a mountain to the north-weft, on which Namcardin has a very handfome caftle. p. 122-128.

From Damascus, to which he returns after his expedition to Nazareth, the first carver of Philip le Bon sets out with the caravan for Bursa. Before he begins upon his journey, he expatiates with much satisfaction upon the admirable method of shoeing horses at Damascus,-a panegyric which certainly gives us the lowest ideas of that art in the reign of Philip le Bon; for it appears that, out of fifty days, his horse was lame for twenty-one, owing to this ingenious method of shoeing. As a mark of gratitude to the leader of the caravan, the esquire presents him with a pot of green ginger; and the caravan proceeds. Before it has advanced one day's journey, the esquire, however, deviates from the road, to pay his devoirs to a miraculous image of our Lady of Serdenay, which always sweats,-not ordinary sudorific matter,--but an oil of great ecclesiastical efficacy. While travelling with the caravan, he learnt to sit cross-legged, got drunk privately, and was nearly murdered by some Saracens, who discovered that he had money. In some parts of Syria, Mr de la Brocquière met with an opinion, which must have been extremely favourable to the spirit of proselytism, in so very hot a country,-an opinion that the infidels have a very bad smell, and that this is only to be removed by baptism. But as the baptism was according to the Greek ritual, by total immersion, Bertrandon seems to have a distant suspicion that this miracle may be resolved into the simple phenomenon of washing. He speaks well of the Turks, and represents them, to our surprise, as a very gay, laughing people. We thought Turkish gravity had been almost proverbial. The natives of the countries through which he passed pray (he says) for the conversion of Christians, and especially request that there may be never sent among them again such another terrible man as Godfrey of Boulogne. At Couhongue the caravan broke

up;

up; and here he quited a Mamaluke soldier, who had kept him company during the whole of the journey, and to whose courage and fidelity Europe, Philip le Bon, and Mr Johnes of Hafod, are principally indebted for the preservation of the first esquire-carvèr.

I bade adieu' he fays to my Mameluke. This good man, whofe name was Mohammed, had done me innumerable fervices. He was very charitable, and never refused alms when asked in the name of God. It was through charity he had been fo kind to me; and I must confefs that, without his affiftance, I could not have performed my journey without incurring the greatest danger; and that, had it not been for his kindnefs, I should often have been exposed to cold and hunger, and much' embarraffed with my horfe.

On taking leave of him, I was defirous of fhewing my gratitude; but he would never accept of any thing except a piece of our fine European cloth to cover his head, which feemed to please him much. He told me all the occafions that had come to his knowledge, on which, if it had not been for him, I should have run rifks of being affaffinated, and warned me to be very circumfpect in my connexions with the Saracens, for that there were among them fome as wicked as the Franks. I write this to recal to my reader's memory, that the person who, from his love to God, did me so many and effential kindneffes, was a man not of our faith. ' p. 196, 197.

For the rest of the journey, he travelled with the family of the leader of the caravan, without any occurrence more remarkable than those we have already noticed ;-arrived at Constantinople, and passed through Germany to the court of Philip le Bon. Here his narrative concludes; nor does the carver vouchsafe to inform us of the changes which time had made in the appetite of that great prince ;-whether veal was now more pleasing to him than lamb,-if his favourite morsels were still in request,-if animal succulence were as grateful to him as before the departure of the carver, or if this semi-sanguineous partiality had given way to a taste for cinereous and terrefied meats. All these things the first esquire-carver might have said;-none of them he does say; nor does Mr Johnes of Hafod supply, by any antiquarian conjectures of his own, the distressing silence of the original. Saving such omissions, there is something pleasant in the narrative of this arch-divider of fowls. He is an honest, brave, liberal man; and tells his singular story with great brevity and plainness. We are obliged to Mr Johnes for the amusement he has afforded us; and we hope he will persevere in his gentlemanlike, honourable, and useful occupations.

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ART. VII.

Considerations upon the Trade with India; and the Po licy of continuing the Company's Monopoly. 4to. pp. 160. Lon don. 1807.

PRACTICAL

i

men usually object less to the principles of philosophers, than to their application of those principles. A just hypothesis has a wonderful property of being acceptable to mankind so long as it remains quiescent; and it is only when the machine begins to work, that it experiences the difficulties of resist ance and collision. Strange, that general rules should be conceived to have any other use, than that of being applicable to particular cases!

At the same time, it is notorious, that there may be a philosophical, as well as a popular bigotry. Philosophers are apt to make too little account of those limitations under which alone general rules can be adapted to the various and innumerable exigencies of conduct, The minute specialties which distinguish every thing from its like, and which are properly overlooked in forming generic propositions, ought to be most scrupulously kept in view when those propositions come to be acted upon in life; Hence, perhaps, it arises, that minds accustomed to classify and generalize, are not always the fittest for turning to use their own observations. Besides this, the habit of surveying things in the gross, is apt to be allied with a certain fearlessness of consequen ces, and a disposition to hold cheap the risks to which all changes are liable from unforeseen circumstances. Chance and change, indeed, are as closely associated in nature, as in the sayings of the wise; nor ought we to stifle that instinctive love to whatever is, that animal horror of innovation, which seems bestowed upon us, as a most suitable accompaniment for our limited capacity of foresight.

Whoever considers, that the old mercantile theory is now, in speculation, completely exploded, and then reflects how small an effect, comparatively speaking, so great a change of doctrine has produced on the conduct of the commercial world, will allow, that the attachment of practical men to philosophical principles, is, in a great measure, of the Platonic kind. Whoever recollects, on the other side, that so sagacious and cautious a reformer as Hume, was more than inclined to number our whole system of banks and paper-credit, among the wretched devices of the theory just mentioned, and to recommend the abolition of this system,

*Effays on Money-Balance of Trade-Public Credit,

will

will allow, that the wisest philosopher may build on too narrow a foundation of general principles.

How, then, are we to draw the line between popular and philosophical bigotry? If a practical rule be required for the pur pose, a very simple one seems to result from the very state of the case. We should say to the men of practice and the men of philosophy, Hinc vos, vos hinc, mutatis discedite partibus. Let them, acting in the spirit of the golden rule of morals, respectively change places. We do not mean, in point of fact; --that would be a most melancholy exchange for the men of business ;-but in imagination. When the question for example, is, how far a particular part of our commercial policy is to be governed by any given principle which is admitted to be of general application in political economy, let the practical merchant, whose prejudices may require a departure in the specific instance from the general rule, begin with fixing his eyes rather on the authority of the rule than on its liability to exceptions; and reason rather downwards from the principle to its consequences, than upwards from the consequences against the principle. Let him act the part of wit rather than of judgment, if we are truly told, that the former consists in discovering likenesses, and the latter in finding out differences. Thus, will he debar his passions from the exercise of their favourite calling, that of running away with his reason. On the same occasion, let the philosopher candidly examine, whether the case before him may not successfully claim the rare honour, of being governed by a separate jurisdiction of its own. Let him endeavour to discover in it,-not indeed points to which a sophistical advecate may attach the thread of his verbosity,'-but grounds on which philosophical scepticism may make something of a fair stand. Let him then reconsider his general principle, and observe whether it has not been commonly laid down with too much latitude, and reasoned from with too little discrimination. Finally, let him. add to his account an item, of what may be called unspecified sundries, an allowance for the general hazard which attends all change, as such. Thus will he prevent the occurrence of a phenomenon peculiar to men of his profession,-that of having his reason run away with his passions and natural impressions.

The practical rule which we have just delivered, seems to us so simple and excellent, that we feel quite certain of its being approved by all, and adopted by none. A bold attempt, however, to act in the spirit of it, is in our intention on the present occasion, when we are to consider the important question of the monopoly of the East India Company. Steadily keeping in view the great doctrines of commercial freedom, to which our attachment is pretty well known, and from which, indeed, nothing short of

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