this, or any nature, honestly argued, it is better, surely, to apply to an indifferent person for an umpire. For instance, the stealing of pocket-handkerchiefs or snuffboxes may, or may not, be vicious; but if we, who have not the wit, or will not take the trouble to decide the question ourselves, want to hear the real rights of the matter, we should not, surely, apply to a pickpocket to know what he thought on the point. It might naturally be presumed that he would be rather a prejudiced person-particularly as his reasoning, if successful, might get him out of jail. This is a homely illustration, no doubt; all we would urge by it, is, that Madame Sand having, according to the French newspapers, had a stern husband, and also having, according to the newspapers, sought "sympathy" elsewhere, her arguments may be considered to be somewhat partial, and received with some little caution. And tell us, Who have been the social reformers?—the haters, that is, of the present system according to which we live, love, marry, have children, educate them, and endow them-are they pure themselves? I do believe not one; and directly a man begins to quarrel with the world and its ways, and to lift up, as he calls it, the voice of his despair, and preach passionately to mankind about this tyranny of faith, customs, laws, if we examine what the personal character of the 'preacher is, we begin pretty clearly to understand the value of the doctrine. Any one can see why Rousseau should be such a whimpering reformer, and Byron such a free-and-easy misanthropist; and why our accomplished Madame Sand, who has a genius and eloquence inferior to neither, should take the present condition of mankind (French-kind) so much to heart, and labor so hotly to set it right. After "Indiana" (which, we presume, contains the lady's notions upon wives and husbands) came "Valentine," which may be said to exhibit her doctrine in regard to young men and maidens, to whom the author would accord, as we fancy, the same tender license. "Valentine" was followed by "Lelia," a wonderful book indeed, gorgeous in eloquence, and rich in magnificent poetry; a regular topsyturvyfication of morality, a thieves' and prostitutes' apotheosis. This book has received some enlargements and emendations by the writer; it contains her notions on morals, and, as we have said, are so peculiar, that, alas! they can only be mentioned here, not particularized: but of "Spiridion" we may write a few pages, as it is her religious manifesto. In this work the lady asserts her pantheistical doctrine, and openly attacks the received Christian creed. She declares it to be useless now, and unfitted to the exigencies and the degree of culture of the actual world; and, though it would be hardly worth while to combat her opinions in due form, it is, at least, worth while to notice them, not merely from the extraordinary eloquence and genius of the woman herself, but because they express the opinions of a great number of people besides: for she not only produces her own thoughts, but imitates those of others very eagerly; and one finds, in her writings, so much similarity with others,-or, in others, so much resemblance to her-that the book before us may pass for the expression of the sentiments of a certain French party. "Dieu est mort," [God is dead,] says another writer of the same class, and of great genius too. "Dieu est mort," writes Mr. Henry Heine, speaking of the Christian God; and he adds, in a daring figure of speech,-" N'entendez vous pas sonner la Clochette?-on porte les sacremens à un Dieu qui se meurt!" [Hear you not the clock? They bear the sacraments to a God who dies.] Another of the pantheist poetical philosophers, Mr. Edgar Quinet, has a poem in which Christ and the Virgin Mary are made to die similarly, and the former is classed with Prometheus. This book of "Spiridion" is a continuation of the theme, and, perhaps, you will listen to some of the author's expositions of it. But now, It must be confessed that the controversialists of the present day have an eminent advantage over their predecessors in the days of folios: it required some learning then to write a book, and some time, at least; for the very labor of writing out a thousand such vast pages would demand a considerable period. in the age of duodecimos, the system is reformed altogether: a male or female controversialist draws upon his imagination, and not his learning; makes a story instead of an argument; and, in the course of one hundred and fifty pages, (where the preacher has it all his own way,) will prove or disprove you anything. In like manner, by means of pretty sentimental A friend of mine, who has just come from Italy, says that he has left there Messrs. Spr P—l and W. Dr————d, who were the lights of the great Church in Newman-street, who were themselves apostles, and declared and believed that every word of nonsense which fell from their lips was a direct spiritual intervention. These gentlemen have become Puseyites already, and are, my friend states, Oin the high-way to Catholicism. Madame Sand herself was a Catholic some time since having been converted to that faith along with M. N, of the Academy of Music, Mr. L, the piano-forte player, and one or two other chosen individuals, by the famous Abbé de la M. Abbé de la M- (so told me, in the diligence, by a priest, who read his breviary and gossiped alternately very curiously and pleasantly) is himself an ame perdue: the man spoke of his brother clergyman with actual horror; and it certainly appears that the Abbé's works of conversion have not prospered; for Madame Sand having brought her hero (and herself, as we may presume) to the point of Catholicism, proceeds directly to dispose of that as she has done of Judaism and Protestantism, and will not leave, of the whole fabric of Christianity, a single stone standing. With regard to the spelling and gram- This wonderful power of language must For I think the fate of our English Newmanstreet apostles, and M. de la M—, the Inad priest, and his congregation of mad converts, should be a warning to such of us as are inclined to dabble in religious speculations; for, in them, as in all others, our flighty brains soon lose themselves, and we find our reason speedily lying prostrate at the mercy of our passions; and I think that Madame Sand's novel of Spiridion may do a vast deal of good, and bears a good moral with it; though not such an one, perhaps, as our fair philosopher intended. anything he learned, Samuel-Peter-Spiridion-Hebronius might have remained a Jew from the beginning to the end. Wherefore be in such a hurry to set up new faiths? Wherefore, Madame Sand, try and be so preternaturally wise? Wherefore be so eager to jump out of one religion, for the purpose of jumping into another? See what good this philosophical friskiness has done you, and on what sort of ground you are come at last. You are so wonderfully sagacious, that you flounder in mud at every step; so amazingly clearsighted, that your eyes cannot see an inch before you, having put out, with that extinguishing genius of yours, every one of the lights that are sufficient for the conduct of common men. truth upon earth; we are all Christs, when we suffer for it!" And this is the ultimatum, the supreme secret, the absolute truth, and it has been It is a pity that this hapless Spiridion, published by Mrs. Sand, for so many Naso eager in his passage from one creed to poleons per sheet, in the Revue des Deux another, and so loud in his profession of Mondes; and the Deux Mondes are to the truth wherever he fancied that he had abide by it for the future. After having found it, had not waited a little before he attained it, are we a whit wiser? "Man avowed himself either Catholic or Protest- is between an angel and a beast: I don't ant, and implicated others in errors and know how long it is since he was a brute follies which might, at least, have been-I can't say how long it will be before he confined to his own bosom, and there have is an angel.' Think of people living by lain comparatively harmless. In what a their wits, and living by such a wit as pretty state, for instance, will Messrs. this! Think of the state of mental deDrd and P-I have left their New- bauch and disease which must have been man-street congregation, who are still passed through ere such words could be plunged in their old superstitions, from written, and could be popular! which their spiritual pastors and masters have been set free! In what a state, too, do Mrs. Sand and her brother and sister philosophers, Templars, Saint Simonians, Fourierites, Lerouxites, or whatever the sect may be, leave the unfortunate people who have listened to their doctrines, and who have not the opportunity, or the fiery versatility of belief, which carries their teachers from one creed to another, leaving only exploded lies and useless recantations behind them! I wish the State would make a law that one individual should not be allowed to preach more than one doctrine in his life; or, at any rate, should be soundly corrected for every change of creed. How many charlatans would have been silenced, how much conceit would have been kept within bounds,-how many fools, who are dazzled by fine sentences, and made drunk by declamation, would have remained quiet and sober, in that quiet and sober way of faith which their fathers held before them! However, the reader will be glad to learn that, after all his doubts and sorrows, Spiridion does discover the truth (the truth, what a wise Spiridion!), and some discretion with it. The book of Spiridion is made up of a history of the rise, progress, and (what our philosopher is pleased to call) decay of Christianity-of an assertion, that the "doctrine of Christ is incomplete;" that "Christ may, nevertheless, take his place in the Pantheon of divine men!" and of a long, disgusting, absurd, and impious vision, in which the Saviour, Moses, David, and Elijah are represented, and in which Christ is made to say-" We are all Messiahs, when we wish to bring the reign of We were beasts, and we can't tell when our tails dropped off: we shall be angels, but when our wings are to begin to sprout who knows? In the mean time, O man of genius, follow our counsel: lead an easy life, don't stick at trifles; never mind about duty, it is only made for slaves; if the world reproach you, reproach the world in return-you have a good loud tongue in your head; if your strait-laced morals injure your mental respiration, fling off the old-fashioned stays, and leave your free limbs to rise and fall as Nature pleases; and when you have grown pretty sick of your liberty, and yet unfit to return to restraint, curse the world, and scorn it, and be miserable, like my Lord Byron and other philosophers of his kidney; or else mount a step higher, and, with conceit still more monstrous, and mental vision still more wretchedly debauched and weak, begin suddenly to find yourself afflicted with a maudlin compassion for the human race, and a desire to set them right after your own fashion. There is the quarrelsome stage of drunkenness, when a man can as yet walk and speak, when he can call names, and fling plates and wine-glasses at his neighbor's head with a pretty good aim; after this comes the pathetic stage, when the patient becomes wondrous philanthropic, and weeps wildly, as he lies in the gutter, and fancies he is at home in bed-where he ought to be; but this is an allegory. MANKIND may be divided into three classes those who do what is right from principle; those who act from appearances; and those who act from impulse. THE DRAMA IN THE MIDDLE AGES. The tianity also tended to suppress it. emperor Theodosius the younger published Of all the remarkable periods of history, laws forbidding shoes at Christmas, Easter, not the least interesting that comprised in the so-called middle ages. With the downfall of the Roman empire every vestige of civilization seemed to be lost in the moral chaos by which that event was succeeded. Dark, however, as the period in question is generally supposed to have been, it was pregnant with the formless elements of modern society, floating amid confused recollections of bygone customs, laws, and achievements-uncertain attempts in a new direction-dependent in a greater degree on the past than the rude intellect of the time was willing to acknowledge. Christianity had found a resting-place in the world, and was silently, though surely, sapping the outworks of ignorance. Printing, gunpowder, the mariner's compass, the telescope, owe their discovery to the middle ages. In the marked distinctions which then prevailed between the various orders of society, the lower classes were reduced to a state of moral and physical degradation. Possessing but very few, if any legal rights, they were entirely at the mercy of the lords of the soil; a position from which they made many desperate, and, in the end, successful attempts to free themselves. When unable to use more offensive weapons, they satirized and ridiculed their masters in their ballads, songs, and rude dramatic representations. In fact, satire is one of the great characteristics of the period; it shows itself everywhere-in the metrical romances, fabliaux, and tales; seizing upon councils, sermons, architecture, religious ceremonies, and all the weak points in the character of the nobles and the clergy, as fair game. It was one of the earliest scintillations of that intelligence which has since effected such mighty changes. From the very dawn of civilization, dramatic genius, in some shape or other, has been continually reproduced. Even the rudest tribes delighted in theatrical amusements, in which deities or demons sustained the principal characters. In common with other arts, it rose to the highest degree of perfection among the Greeks, by whom it was transmitted to the Romans. On the subjugation of the latter power by the Teutonic hordes the drama disappeared; the spread of Chris and Pentecost. The fathers, too, denounced plays in the severest terms; Tertullian, in his work De Spectaculis, animadverts on the evil and profane tendency of theaters. But the spirit of mimicry was not repressed; it manifested itself in palaces, feudal castles, abbeys and cathedrals, and in the public thoroughfares, adapting itself necessarily to the vicissitudes of time and custom, refinement or barbarism. The antiquary of the present day regards the manuscripts of old plays as some of his rarest treasures; and the philologist finds in them many curious and valuable illustrations of the earliest specimens of modern idiom. Notwithstanding the authority of the fathers, we find that after a time the authorities of the Church availed themselves of the drama, to impart instruction to the populace, and at the same time to confirm their own power and authority. The sacred plays, called Mysteries, were written in rude rhyming Latin; but, as the common people were not well acquainted with this language, many popular words and phrases gradually crept in, forming a strange contrast to the sonorous original, until at length, in the fourteenth century, the plays were spoken in the current dialect of the day. Some of the old Latin dramas were so strictly connected with the ceremonies of the Church, that they were never represented but in the interior of sacred edifices, by performers chosen from among the monks and priests. Others, equally religious in their tendency, in which a visible and edifying paraphrase of some portion of the liturgies was set before the ignorant multitude, were acted in some public place within the sacred precincts, by pious laics, under the sanction of the clergy. These dramas were highly relished by the populace, especially when the decline of the feudal system, with its joustings, tilts, and tournaments, left them no other public amusement. In England, the Chester Mysteries, or Whitsun Plays, were frequently acted in that city during the thirteenth century, to the great delight of all classes of spectators. In the programme or proclamation we are told that Done Rondali, moonke of Chester Abbey," was the author: "This moonke, moonke-like, in scriptures well seene, In storyes traveled with the best sorte; comforte; Intermynglinge therewith, onely to make sporte, Some things not warranted by any writt, Which to gladd the hearers he woulde men to take yt." The concluding lines afford a strong presumption that the clerical actors were not averse to the introduction of some lighter topics among the grave matter of the drama, which may probably account for the great degree of public favor they received. So much, indeed, were the plays to the taste of the populace, that they divided attention with the favorite ballads of Robin Hood.* The collection known as the Towneley Mysteries contains many curious instances of chronological error, which may take their place by the side of those committed by Shakspeare, and Beaumont and Fletcher. In one of the plays by the latter writers, Demetrius fires a pistol long ere gunpowder was thought of; and the former makes Hector quote Aristotle. In the Mysteries, however, the high-priest Caiaphas is made to sing mass; Noah's wife is acquainted with "Stafford blew," and swears by the Virgin Mary; the shepherds in the Nativity talk of the foles of Gotham," swear by " Sant Thomas of Kent," and are engaged in beating a man who had stolen one of their sheep, when the angel appears singing the Gloria in excelsis. These incongruities, which would afford "food for laughter" to a modern audience, passed unnoticed by the superstitious spectators of former days. In another of these Mysteries, the Processus talentorum, we have an example of the admixture of Latin with the vulgar dialect. Pilate enters, declaiming somewhat in the style of the "bashful" Irishman :— 66 But the greatest variety of these religious dramas is perhaps to be found in the ancient literature of France. Whether more importance was attached to the due observance of festivals in that country than on this side the channel, or from some other cause, we find numerous short pieces written, to be played on certain feasts and the Mystery of the Nativity, of the Star, saints' days. At Christmas, for instance, or the Adoration of the Magi, was given; while at Easter were represented the Scenes of the Crucifixion, the Tomb, the Three Marys, or the appearance of Christ to the disciples at Emmaus. The Suscitatio Lazari, or the Resurrection of Lazarus, was a favorite piece for occasional performance; and the anniversary of Saint Nicholas was celebrated by the Ludus super iconia Sancti Nicholai. The two latter pieces were written by Hilary, a disciple of Abelard. From the titles of many of these old dramas we obtain a glimpse of the religious feeling of the day, in which the worship of the Virgin was strangely mingled with singular and romantic notions. Some of them would doubtless draw an audience in the present day. What a treat for the lovers of the marvelous would be "The Miracle of Amis and Amilla, the which Amilla killed her two children to cure Amis her husband, who was leprous; and afterward our Lady restored them again to life!" The title of another is, “The Miracle of our Lady, how the King' of Hungary's daughter cut off her hand, for that her father wished to marry her, and a sturgeon kept it (the hand) seven years in his stomach." A third relates to the conversion of one of the early Gaulish kings from paganism; "The Miracle of our Lady, how King Clovis made himself to be christened at the request of Clotilda his wife, for a battle which he had against the Alemans and Senes (Germans and Saxons), and won the victory, and at the christening descended the holy ampulla." In the fourteenth century, however, a change took place; a collection was made of all the principal events of gospel history, and formed into one vast and single representation, no longer played, as formerly, on particular days and festivals, but con For a long period it was popularly believed in France that the ampulla, (vessel of consecrated oil,) used at the coronation of Clovis, was brought down from heaven by a dove. |