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Four also relates to the Old Testament, and three to the New. Four and three make up the number of seven days, and the eight is the day of judgment.

devils. All these church possessions must pass through the three links of the Are Maria; for benedicta tu stands for fat abbeys of Benedictines, in mulieribus for monsieur and madame, and fructus ventris for banquets and gormandisers."

The sermons of Barlet and Maillard are all framed after this model, and were delivered half in bad Latin, and half in

One cannot but feel that there is in these allegories an affectation but little compatible with true eloquence. The Fathers, who sometimes made use of these figures, wrote in times and countries in which nearly all the arts were dege-bad French. The Italian sermons were nerating. Their learning and fine genius in the same taste; and the German were were warped by the imperfections of the still worse. This monstrous medley gave age in which they lived. St. Augustin is birth to the macaroni style, the very clinot to be respected the less for having max of barbarism. The species of orapaid this tribute to the bad taste of Africa tory, worthy only of the Indians on the and the fourth century. banks of the Missouri, prevailed even so The discourses of our modern preachers lately as the reign of Louis XIII. The are not disfigured by similar faults. Not jesuit Garasse, one of the most distinthat we dare prefer them to the Fathers; guished enemies of common sense, never but the present age is to be preferred to preached in any other style. He likened the ages in which they wrote. Eloquence the celebrated Theophile to a calf, bewhich became more and more corrupted, cause Theophile's family name was Viaud, and was not revived until later times, fell, something resembling veau (a calf). after them, into still greater extrava- But," said he, "the flesh of a calf is gances; and the languages of all barba-good to roast and to boil, whereas thine rous nations were alike ridiculous until is good for nothing but to burn." the age of Louis XIV. Look at all the All these allegories, used by our bar old collections of sermons; they are far barians, fall infinitely short of those embelow the dramatic pieces on the Passion,ployed by Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, which used to be played at the Hôtel de which proves, that if there be still some Bourgogne. But the spirit of allegory, Goths and Vandals who despise ancient which has never been lost, may be traced fable, they are not altogether in the right. throughout these barbarous discourses. ALMANACK. The celebrated Ménot, who lived in the reign of Francis I. did more honour, perhaps, than any other to the allegorical style. "The worthy administrators of justice," said he, "are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese than twenty mice can do."

Here is another very curious passage· "The woodmen, in a forest, cut large and small branches, and bind them in faggots; just so do our ecclesiastics, with dispensations from Rome, heap together great and small benefices. The cardinal's hat is garnished with bishoprics, the bishoprics are garnished with abbeys and priories, and the whole is garnished with

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It is of little moment to know whether we have the word almanack from the atcient Saxons, who could not write, or from the Arabs, who are known to have been astronomers, and to have had some acquaintance with the courses of the planets, while the western nations were still wrapped in an ignorance as great as their barbarism. I shall here confine myself to one short observation.

Let an Indian philosopher, who has embarked at Meliapour, come to Bayonne. I shall suppose this philosopher to be a man of sense; which, you will say, is rare among the learned of India; to be divested of all scholastic prejudices -a thing which was rare everywhere not

long ago; and I shall suppose him to meet with a blockhead in our part of the world-which is not quite so great a rarity.

ship. The accounts which they sent to Europe were extremely curious. Every statue was a devil; every assembly, a sabbath; every symbolical figure, a talisman; every Brahmin a sorcerer; and these are made the subject of never-ending lamentations. They hope that the harvest will be abundant; and add, by a rather incongruous metaphor, that they

Our blockhead, in order to make him conversant with our arts and sciences, presents him with a Liege almanack, composed by Matthew Lansberg, and the Lame Messenger (Messager boiteur) by Anthony Souci, astrologer and histo-will labour effectually in the vineyard of rian, printed every year at Basle, and sold to the number of 20,000 copies in eight days. There you behold the fine figure of a man, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac, with certain indications must clearly demonstrating that the scales preside over the posteriors, the ram over the head, the fishes over the feet, &c.

Each day of the moon informs you when you must take Le Lievre's balm of life, or Keiser's pills; when you must be { bled, have your nails cut, wean your children, plant, sow, go a journey, or put on a pair of new shoes. The Indian, when he hears these lessons, will do well to say to his guide, that he will have none of his almanacks.

the Lord, in a country where wine has always been unknown. Thus, or nearly thus, have every people judged, not only of distant nations, but of their neighbours.

The Chinese are said to be the most ancient almanack-makers. The finest of their emperor's privileges is that of sending his Calendar to his vassals and neighbours; their refusal of which would be considered as a bravado, and war would forthwith be made upon them, as it used to be made in Europe on feudal lords who refused their homage.

If we have only twelve constellations, the Chinese have twenty-eight, the names of which have not the least affinity with ours -a sufficient proof that they have taken So soon as our simpleton shall have nothing from the Chaldean Zodiac, which shown the philosopher a few of our cere- we have adopted. But though they have monies, which every wise man disap- had a complete system of astrology for proves, but which are tolerated in order more than four thousand years, they reto amuse the populace, through pure con- semble Matthew Lansberg and Anthony tempt for that populace, the traveller, Souci in the fine predictions and secrets of seeing these mummeries, followed by a health, with which they stuff their Impetamborine dance, will not fail to pity usrial Almanack. They divide the day and take us for madmen, who are, never-into ten thousand minutes, and know, theless, very amusing and not absolutely with the greatest precision, what minute cruel He will write home to the Presi-is favourable or otherwise. When the dent of the Grand College of Benares, emperor Kam-hi wished to employ the that we have not common sense; but Jesuit missionaries in making the almathat if His Paternity will send enlightened nack, they are said to have excused themand discreet persons among us, some-selves, at first, on account of the extravathing may, with the blessing of God, begant superstitions with which it must be made of us.

It was precisely in this way that our first missionaries, especially St. Francis Xavier, spoke of the people inhabiting the peninsula of India. They even fell into still grosser mistakes respecting the customs of the Indians, their sciences, their opinions, their manners, and their wor

filled. "I have much less faith than you in the superstitions," replied the Emperor; "only make me a good calendar, and leave it for my learned men to fill up the book with their foolery."

The ingenious author of the Plurality of Worlds ridicules the Chinese, because, says he, they see a thousand stars fall at

year at a time when it does not begin, that is, eight days after the winter solstice.

once into the sea. It is very likely that the emperor Kain-hi ridiculed this notion as well as Fontenelle. Some Chinese al-All the nations composing the Roman manack-maker had, it should seem, been empire submitted to this innovation; even good-natured enough to speak of these the Egyptians, who had until then given meteors after the manner of the people, the law in all that related to almanacks, and to take them for stars. Every received it; but none of these different country has its foolish notions. All the nations altered anything in the distribunations of antiquity made the sun lietion of their feasts. The Jews, like the down in the sea, where for a long time we rest, celebrated their new moons; their sent the stars. We have believed that phase or pascha, the fourteenth day of the the clouds touched the firmament, that the moon of March, called the red-haired firmament was a hard substance, and that moon, which day often fell in April; it supported a reservoir of water. It has their Penticost, fifty days after the pascha; not long been known in our towns that the feast of horns or trumpets, the first the Virgin-thread (fil de la vierge) so day of July; that of tabernacles on the often found in the country, is nothing fifteenth of the same month, and more than the thread spun by a spider. that of the great sabbath, seven days afterLet us not laugh at any people. Let us wards. reflect that the Chinese had astrolabes and spheres before we could read, and that if they have made no great progress in astronomy, it is through that same respect for the ancients which we have had for Aristotle.

The first Christians followed the computation of the Empire, and reckoned by calends, nones, and ides, like their masters; they likewise received the Bissextile, which we have still, although it was found necessary to correct it in the fif-It is consoling to know that the Ro- teenth century, and it must some day be man people, populus lutè rex, were, incorrected again; but they conformed to this particular, far behind Matthew Lans-the Jewish methods in the celebration of berg, and the Lame Messenger, and the their great feasts. They fixed their Easastrologers of China, until the period ter for the fourteenth day of the red moon, when Julius Cæsar reformed the Roman until the council of Nice determined that year, which we have received from him, it should be the Sunday following. and still call by his name-the Julian Those who celebrated it on the fourCalendar, although we have no calends,teenth were declared heretics; and both and he was obliged to reform it himself. were mistaken in their calculation.

The primitive Romans had, at first, The feasts of the Blessed Virgin were, a year of ten months, making three hun-as far as possible, substituted for the new dred and four days; this was neither moons. The author of the Roman Casolar nor lunar, nor anything except bar-lendar (le Calendrier Romain) says, that barous. The Roman year was after wards composed of three hundred and fifty-five days-another mistake, which was corrected so imperfectly that, in Cæsar's time, the summer festivals were held in winter. The Roman generals always triumphed, but never knew on what day they triumphed.

Cæsar reformed everything: he seemed to rule both heaven and earth. I know not through what complaisance for the Roman customs it was that he began the

the reason of this is drawn from the verse of the Canticle, pulchra ut luna, “fair as the moon;" but, by the same rule, these feasts should be held on a Sunday, for in the same verse we find electa ut sol, "chosen like the sun." The Christians also kept the feast of Pentecost; it was fixed, like that of the Jews, precisely fifty days after Easter. The same author asserts that saint-days took the place of the feasts of tabernacles. He adds, that St. John's day was fixed for the 24th of June,

the third century. Addressing the Romans, he says

"Putatis autem nos occultare quod colimus, si delubra et aras non habemus. Quod enim simulacrum Deo fingam, quùm, si rectè existimes, sit Dei homo ipse simulacrum? quod templum ei ex struam, quùm totus hic mundus, ejus opere fabricatus, eum capere non possit? et quùm homo latiùs maneam, intrà unam ædiculum vim tantæ majestatis includam? nonnè meliùs in nostra dedicandus est mente, in nostro imo consecrandus est pectore?"

only because the days then begin to shorten, and St. John had said, when speaking of Jesus Christ, "He must grow, and I must become less"-Oportet illum crescere, me autem minui. There is something very singular in the ancient ceremony of lighting a great fire on St. John's day, in the hottest period of the year. It has been said to be a very old custom, originally designed to commemorate the ancient burning of the world, which awaited a second conflagration. The same writer assures us, that the feast of the Assumption is kept on the 15th of August, because the sun is then in the "You think that we conceal what we sign of the Virgin. He also certifies that adore, because we have neither temples St. Mathias' day is in the month of Fe-nor altars. But what shall we erect like bruary, because he was, as it were, inter- to God, since man himself is God's calated among the twelve Apostles, as a image? What temple shall we build for day is added to February every leap-year. him, when the whole world, which is the There would, perhaps, be something in work of his hands, cannot contain him? these astronomical imaginings to make our { How shall we inclose the power of such Indian philosopher smile; nevertheless, majesty in one dwelling-place? Is it not the author of them was mathematical better to consecrate a temple to him in master to the Dauphin, son of Louis XIV., our minds and in our hearts?" and moreover, an engineer and a very worthy officer.

ALTARS, TEMPLES, RITES,
SACRIFICES, &c.

The Christians, then, had no temples until about the commencement of the reign of Dioclesian. The Church had then become very numerous; and it was found necessary to introduce those decoIt is universally acknowledged that the rations and rites which, at an earlier period, first Christians had neither temples, nor would have been useless and even danaltars, nor tapers, nor incense, nor holygerous to a slender flock, long despised, water, nor any of those rites which the and considered as nothing more than a prudence of pastors afterwards instituted, small sect of dissenting Jews. in conformity with times and places, but It is manifest that, while they were conmore especially with the various wants of founded with the Jews, they could not the faithful. obtain permission to erect temples. The We have ample testimony in Origen, Jews, who paid very dear for their synaAthenagoras, Theophilus, Justin, and Ter-gogues, would themselves have opposed tullian, that the primitive Christians held temples and altars in abomination; and that, not merely because they could not in the beginning obtain permission from the government to build temples, but because they had a real aversion for every thing which seemed to apply any affinity with other religions. This abhorrence existed among them for two hundred and fifty years, as is proved by the following passage of Minutius Felix, who lived in

it; for they were mortal enemies to the Christians, and they were rich. We must not say, with Toland, that the Christians, who at that time made a show of despis{ing temples and altars, were like the fox that said the grapes were sour. This comparison appears as unjust as it is impious, since all the primitive Christians, in so many different countries, agreed in maintaining that there was no need ct raising temples or altars to the true God.

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Providence, acting by second causes, When the famous chief Debar was fightwilled that they should erect a splendid ing in Syria against the generals of the temple at Nicomedia, the residence of the Emperor Heraclius, in the time of the Emperor Dioclesian, as soon as they had Caliph Abubeker, successor to Mahomet, obtained that sovereign's protection. They Peter, who commanded at Damascus, built others in other cities; but still they took thither several women, whom he had had a horror of tapers, lustral water, pon- captured, together with some booty, in tifical habits, &c.; all this pomp and cir- one of his excursions; among the prisoncumstance was in their eyes no other than ers was the sister of Derar. Alvakedi's a distinctive mark of Paganism. These Arabian History, translated by Ockley, customs were adopted under Constantine says that she was a perfect beauty, and and his successors, and have frequently that Peter became enamoured of her, paid changed. great attention to her on the way, and indulged her and her fellow-prisoners with short marches. They encamped in an extensive plain, under tents, guarded by troops posted at a short distance. Cauluh (so this sister of Derar's was named), proposed to one of her companions, called Oserra, that they should endeavour to escape from captivity, and persuaded her rather to die than be a victim to the lewd desires of the Christians. The same Mahometan enthusiasm seized all the women; they armed themselves with the ironpointed staves that supported their tents, and with a sort of dagger, which they wore in their girdles; they then formed a circle, as the cows do when they present their horns to attacking wolves. Peter only laughed at first; he advanced to

Our good women of the present day, who every Sunday hear a Latin mass, at which a little boy attends, imagine that this rite has been observed from the earliest ages-that there never was any other, and that the custom in other countries of assembling to offer up prayers to God in common, is diabolical and quite of recent origin. There is, undeniably, something very respectable in a mass, since it has been authorised by the Church; it is not at all an ancient usage, but is not the less entitled to our veneration.

There is not, perhaps, a single ceremony of this day which was in use in the time of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit has always conformed himself to the times. He inspired the first disciples in a mean apartment; he now communicates his in-wards the women, who gave him hard spirations in St. Peter's at Rome, which cost several millions equally divine, however, in the wretched room, and in the superb edifice of Julius II., Leo X., Paul III., and Sixtus V.

AMAZONS.

blows with the staves; after hesitating for some time, he at length resolved to use force; the sabres of his men were already drawn, when Derar arrived, put the Greeks to flight, and delivered his sister and the other captives.

Nothing can more strongly resemble BOLD and vigorous women have been those times called heroic, sung by Homer. often seen to fight like men. History Here are the same single combats at the makes mention of such; for, without head of armies, the combatants frequently reckoning Semiramis, Thomyris, or Pen-holding a long conversation before they thesilea-who, perhaps, existed only in commence fighting: and this, no doubt, fable-it is certain that there were many justifies Homer. women in the armies of the first caliphs. Thomas, governor of Syria, Heraclius's In the tribe of the Homerites, especi-son-in-law, made a sally from Damascus, ally, it was a sort of law, dictated by love and attacked Sergiabil, having first prayed and courage, that in battle wives should to Jesus Christ. Unjust aggressor,' succour and avenge their husbands, and said he to Sergiabil, "thou canst not remothers their children. sist Jesus, my God, who will fight for the

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