(campo) being given by a Count Maldo. The Camaldolensi, however, have spread wide as a branch of Benedictines, and may therefore be classed among the gentlemen of the monastic orders. The society comprehends two orders, monks and hermits; symbolised by their arms, two doves drinking out of the same cup. The monastery in which the monks here reside, is beautifully situated, but a large unattractive edifice, not unlike a factory. The hermitage is placed in a loftier and wilder region of the forest. It comprehends between 20 and 30 distinct residences, each including for its single hermit an inclosed piece of ground and three very small apartments. There are days of indulgence when the hermit may quit his cell, and when old age arrives, he descends from the mountain and takes his abode among the monks. My companion had, in the year 1831, fallen in with the monk, the subject of these two sonnets, who showed him his abode among the hermits. It is from him that I received the following particulars. He was then about 40 years of age, but his appearance was that of au older man. He had been a painter by profession, but on taking orders changed his name from Santi to Raffaello, perhaps with an unconscious reference as well to the great Sanzio d'Urbino as to the archangel. Ile assured my friend that he had been 13 years in the hermitage and had never known melancholy or ennui. In the little recess for study and prayer, there was a small collection of books. "I read only," said he, "books of asceticism and mystical theology." On being asked the names of the most famous mystics, he enumerated Scaramelli, San Giovanni della Croce, St. Diony sius the Areopagite (supposing the work which bears his name to be really his), and with peculiar emphasis Ricardo di San Vittori. The works of Saint Theresa are also in high repute among ascetics. These names may interest some of my readers. We heard that Raffaello was then living in the convent; my friend sought in vain to renew his acquaintance with him. It was probably a day of seclusion. The reader will perceive that these sonnets were supposed to be written when he was a young man. Page 325. "What aim had they the pair of Monks?" In justice to the Benedictines of Camaldoli, by whom notice, that I saw among them no other figures at all strangers are so hospitably entertained, I feel obliged to resembling, in size and complexion, the two Monks described in this Sonnet. What was their office, or the motive which brought them to this place of mortification, which they could not have approached without being carried in this or some other way, a feeling of delicacy prevented me from inquiring. has before been given of the hermitage they were about to enter. It was visited by us toward the end of the month of May; yet snow was lying thick under the pine-trees, within a few yards of the gate. Page 325. "At Vallombrosa.” An account be The name of Milton is pleasingly connected with Vallombrosa in many ways. The pride with which the Monk, without any previous question from me, pointed out his residence, I shall not readily forget. It may proper here to defend the Poet from a charge which has been brought against him, in respect to the passage in "Paradise Lost," where this place is mentioned. It is said, that he has erred in speaking of the trees there being deciduous, whereas they are, in fact, pines. The fault-finders are themselves mistaken; the natural woods of the region of Vallombrosa are deciduous, and spread to a great extent; those near the convent are, indeed, mostly pines; but they are avenues of trees planted within a few steps of each other, and thus composing large tracts of wood; plots of which are periodically cut down. The appearance of those narrow avenues, upon steep slopes open to the sky, on account of the height which the trees attain by being forced to grow upwards, is often very impressive. My guide, a boy of about fourteen years old, pointed this out to me in several places. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. [The Author's political Work on " The Relations of | are united, will have a firm mind, in whatever emGreat Britain, Spain and Portugal," (referred to at barrassments he may be placed; will look steadily at p. 259, and in the Notes, pp. 377 and 389,) has become so rare a volume that I insert here the two following extracts, not only on account of the valuable truths expressed in them, but also as having an especial interest for the American reader. the most undefined shapes of difficulty and danger, of possible mistake or mischance; nor will they appear to him more formidable than they really are. For his attention is not distracted—he has but one business, and that is with the object before him. Neither in general conduct nor in particular emergencies, are his plans subservient to considerations of rewards, estate or title: these are not to have precedence in his thoughts, to govern his actions, but to follow in the train of his duty. Such men in ancient times, were Phocion, Epaminondas, and Philopamen; and such a man was Sir Philip Sidney, of whom it has been said, that he first taught his country the majesty of honest dealing. With these may be named the honour of our own age, Washington, the deliverer of the American Continent; with these, though in many things unlike, Lord Nelson, whom we have lately lost. Lord Peterborough, who fought in Spain a hundred years ago, had the same excellence with a sense of exalted honour, and a tinge of romantic enthusiasm, well suited to the country which was the scene of his exploits." — Pages 54-5-6. Treating of the qualifications needed by military men, as “heads of an army," Wordsworth speaks of,intellectual courage ** that higher quality, which is never found without one or other of the three accompaniments, talents, genius, or principle; talents matured by experience, without which it cannot exist at all; or the rapid insight of peculiar genius, by which the fitness of an act may be instantly determined, and which will supply higher motives than mere talents can furnish for encountering difficulty and danger, and will suggest better resources for diminishing or overcoming them. Thus, through the power of genius, this quality of intellectual courage may exist in an eminent degree, though the moral character be greatly perverted; as in those personages who are so conspicuous in history, conquerors and usurpers, the Alexanders, the Cæsars and Cromwells; and in that other class still more perverted, remorseless and energetic minds, the Catilines, and Borgias, whom poets have denominated "bold bad men." But though a course of depravity will neither preclude nor destroy this quality, nay, in certain circumstances will give it a peculiar promptness and hardihood of decision, it is not on this account the less true, that to consummate this species of courage, and to render it equal to all occasions (especially when a man is not acting for himself, but has an additional claim on his resolution from the circumstance of responsibility to a superior), principle is indispensably requisite. I mean that fixed and habitual principle, which implies the absence of all selfish anticipations, whether of hope or fear, and the inward disavowal of any tribunal higher and more dreaded than the mind's own judgment upon its own act. The existence of such principle cannot but elevate the most commanding genius, add rapidity to the quickest glance, a wider range to the most ample comprehension; but without this principle, the ordinary powers must, in the trying hour, be found utterly wanting. Neither without it can the man of excelling powers be trust-worthy, or have at all times a calm and confident repose in himself. But he, in whom talents, genius, and principle | 139-40.-H. R.] Our duty is our aim ought to be-to employ the true means of liberty and virtue for the ends of liberty and virtue. In such policy, thoroughly understood, there is fitness and concord and rational subordination; it deserves a higher name--organization, health, and grandeur. Contrast, in a single instance, the two processes; and the qualifications which they require. The ministers of that period found it an easy task to hire a band of Hessians, and to send it across the Atlantic, that they might assist in bringing the Americans (according to the phrase then prevalent) to reason. The force with which these troops would attack was gross-tangible—and might be calculated; but the spirit of resistance, which their presence would create, was subtle — ethereal — mighty- and incalculable. Accordingly, from the moment when these foreigners landed -men who had no interest, no business in the quarrel, but what the wages of their master bound them to, and he imposed upon his miserable slaves; nay, from the first rumour of their destination, the success of the British was (as has since been affirmed by judicious Americans) impossible." Pages ON ONE OF THE COLDEST DAYS OF THE CENTURY. The Reader must be apprised, that the Stoves in North-Ger. many generally have the impression of a galloping Horse upon them, this being part of the Brunswick Arms. A PLAGUE on your languages, German and Norse! And the tongs and the poker, instead of that Horse See that Fly,-a disconsolate creature! perhaps A child of the field or the grove; And, sorrow for him! the dull treacherous heat Alas! how he fumbles about the domains He cannot find out in what track he must crawl, Stock-still there he stands like a traveller bemazed: His feelers, methinks, I can see him put forth UPON SEEING A COLOURED DRAWING OF THE BIRD OF WHO rashly strove thy image to portray? In all her brightness, from the dancing crest Or in the diver's grasp fetched up from caves How his spindles sink under him, foot, leg, and thigh! But whose rash hand (again I ask) could dare, His eyesight and hearing are lost; Between life and death his blood freezes and thaws; No Brother, no Mate has he near him- - while I Yet, God is my witness, thou small helpless Thing! Till summer comes up from the South, and with crowds 'Mid casual tokens and promiscuous shows, Plumes that might catch, but cannot keep, a stain; Resplendent Wanderer! followed with glad eyes Where'er her course; mysterious bird! To whom by wondering fancy stirred, Eastern Islanders have given A holy name -the Bird of Heaven! Of thy brethren a march thou shouldst sound through And even a title higher still, the clouds, And back to the forests again! A NIGHT THOUGHT. Lo! where the moon along the sky But when the clouds asunder fly Far different we-a froward race, Their way pursue, If kindred humours e'er would make The Bird of God! whose blessed will Above a world that deems itself most wise When most enslaved by gross realities! CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR. WHO is the happy Warrior? Who is he? It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought Who, with a natural instinct to discern What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn; In face of these doth exercise a power So often that demand such sacrifice; More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure, Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired; -He who though thus endued as with a sense And faculty for storm and turbulence, To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes; Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be, It is his darling passion to approve; More brave for this, that he hath much to love: 'Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high, Who, whether praise of him must walk the ear!! |