VOL. 4.] Historical Particulars of Aix-la-Chapelle. 391 to the splendid notoriety of such an another expressive glance, she hoped achievement. If it should be success- the Moon contained an infirmary for ful, what intelligence she would bring fools, and was told that a larger planet to the philosophic world, what importa- seemed to be kept for their accommotions of gossamer gauze aud spider-nets dation. In the eagerness of her enterfrom the milliners of a lighter element, prising spirit, she insisted upon shewing and what instructions to the Whip Club, our Arctic philosopher a machine conand Almanac des Gourmands, respect- structed by her father, my learned ing the newest flourish of a comet's friend, Dr. Blinkensop. This machine, drive, and the flavour of carp in the which for certain reasons he had placed Moon's lakes! To construct a balloon on the roof of the house, resembled a of sufficient diameter, I proposed to canoe in shape; and Lady Townly buy the canvas used in making the having conducted Neonous to view it, Temple of Concord a few years ago, or suggested that it might be attached to to form a collection of all the old silk their balloon, to serve as the car or parparasols in the kingdom. Neonous re- achute. They seated themselves in it marked, that no cargo would be requir- to consider and ascertain its fitness pered, except a few phials of that celebra- fectly; but at that unfortunate moment, ted German elixir which is said to an- Dr. Blinkensop being mentally agitated swer all the purposes of meat and drink, by the philosophical questions connectas no inns can be found in the air; cork ed with the Arctic expedition, dreamed hats, coats of Indian rubber, and head- that the Isabella was split on an icedresses of spun-glass, or a little Trico- rock. Starting up in his sleep, he ran sian fluid, as artificial appendages might to the roof, cut the ropes which held he apt to change colour by the way. his new-invented life-boat, and the two This hint alarmed the lady, and indu- projectors descended in it to the ground, ced her to ask what kind of hair dis- as a Dutch philosopher once did in tinguished the Moon's people." Ma- a boat which he had prepared for dam," replied Neonous, very gravely, a second deluge. Sir Pertinax was "in some of the lunar provinces they rather surprised to find his wife had have no heads. The Moon is a kind rolled from the roof to the area as safeof workshop, from whence Nature sends ly in her canoe as a celebrated antiquamen like bundles of canes, to be headed rian is said to have fallen down stairs in with brass, gold,or tortoise-shell, in this a vase of true Pompeiian clay. But our world."-Lady Townly cast a melan- Arctic Islander's skull seems incurably choly glance at her husband, which fractured, though the Professor endea seemed to imply that she considered voured to arrange the fragments accordherself a twig of myrtle tied to a crab- ing to the art of French chirurgery, and stick; while Sir Pertinax drily enquir- to cement them with Vancouver's iron ed if any trees ornamented the Moon, glue. My only consolation is to preand how they grew." With their serve this history of the week he spent roots upwards, no doubt!" interposed in London, and to translate the brief his wife, "if they live upon air; and record of his colony's origin, which I if, as Fontenelle says, the atmosphere received from him, and shall transmit to affords no rain, they are probably nurs you as the last memorial of his existed by a steam-engine. Then, with ence. V. AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, AND THE EMPEROR CHARLEMAGNE. From the New Monthly Magazine, November 1818. [Concluded from p. 319.] N 806, Charlemagne caused (for he ter these Princes' deaths, of choosing could not write) a will to be made, their own sovereign, provided he were and signed by all the French nobility of the blood royal. and the Pope, which he divided his dominions among his three sons; and what is very singular, he, in this testament, left to his people the liberty, af In 1097 and 1101, the Emperor Henry IV. made to the Assembly of States, at Aix, a pathetic speech on the rebellion of his eldest son, Conrad, and 392 Anecdotes of Charlemagne, &e. This city fell into the disgrace of being put under the ban of the empire in 1598. This sentence was executed by the Electors of Cologne and Treves, with the Bishop of Liege. the Protestant magistrates were displaced, and condemned to pay the expenses attending it, which not being able to perform, all the inhabitants professing that religion were driven from the city in 1605. [VOL. 4 engaged them to transfer bis right of of sepulture. At length, his son, disasuccession to his younger brother, Hen- greeing in his turn with the sovereign ry. This Prince, in consequence, bound pontiff, thought proper, in defiance of himself to forbear, during the life-time his Holiness's power, to have the body of his father, from ever doing any thing of his father intombed in the vault of against his authority, or interfering in the Emperors at Spires. the affairs of his government, whether in the empire, the Duchy of Franconia, or the hereditary dominions of his house. But as Conrad was seduced by the wily caresses of the celebrated Countess Matilda to forfeit his oath of allegiance to his father and his king, so was Henry tempted by ambition to do the same. When this rebellion took place, the Emperor was under the excommunication of the Pope, Pascal II. who absolved young Henry from his oaths of never As the readers of Jourdals are as undertaking any thing against the au- miscellaneous in character, taste, and thority and interest of his father. That mental acquirements, as the subjects of father endeavoured to recal him to his which those works are composed, this duty by the most touching remonstran- article may fall under the eye of oce ces; but they made no impression on who may not have given much attenhis unnatural son, who merely answer- tion to the historic branch of literature ed, that he could neither consider a per- to such a person, a few more particson who was excommunicated as a ulars relative to the mighty patron of father nor a sovereign. In a conference the city of which we have treated, will which afterwards took place between therefore not be unacceptable. them, the son agreed to submit to his king, and to obtain for him the Pope's absolution; on which the Emperor disbanded his troops, when his treacherous son arrested him at Ingelheim, and after despoiling him of all his royal insignia, forced him to renounce all right to the empire. This miserable father made many attempts to regain it, but after some few successes his army was finally beaten by that of his son. In this extremity, he supplicated the Bishop of Spires to give him a prebendal stall in his cathedral, representing to him that, having studied, he was adequate to filling the office of lecturer, or that, as he had a good voice, he might perform as a sub-chanter, if he would allow him; but even these humble requests were refused: and thus abandoned by all the world, he died in great distress at Liege, after having sent to He gave German names to the his son his sword and his crown. At months and the winds; devised ecclesiLiege he was buried; but even there astical, as well as civil laws; among he was not allowed to rest, for the some of the latter is one which decrees Pope's enmity followed him to that that all the weights and measures last asylum of the wretched, and he throughout the Empire should be alike. was by his orders disinterred and de- The present mode of reckoning by liprived, during five years, of the rights vres, sols, and deniers, was invented by It has been already observed that this celebrated hero was ignorant of the art of writing, yet he loved and cultivated the arts and sciences, and made the most strenuous efforts to spread them through his wide dominions. Besides a school at Paris, he established one in every Cathedral Church: at Rome also he founded a seminary, all which under his auspices and liberal care could not fail to prove the nurseries of learning. His comprehensive mind and wakeful eye embraced all that could tend to enlighten, polish, and benefit his people; and even the church music came within his influence; for it was this Prince who introduced into France and Germany the Gregorian Chant; for the teaching of which he founded a school at Metz. VOL. 4.] Madame d'Arblay-Politeness-Dr. Watts-Woman. 393 him, with difference, that the weight of dress, as described by Eginhard (his supposed son-in-law) must have exhibited a singular kind of savage grandeur. his livre was real, while at this period it is merely nominal The sumptuary laws which regulated the price of stuffs, and distinguished the rank and situation of individuals, by obliging them to wear a particular dress, also originated in him, and he wisely and leniently decreed that every soldier found drunk on duty should, for the future, drink nothing but water. It consisted of a doublet made of otter skins, over a tunic of cloth embroidered with silk; on his shoulders he wore a blue cloak of an inferior cloth, and for stockings, bands of different colours crossed over each other. There is little doubt but his cloak and tunic were made from wool of his daughters' In the middle of the market-place at spinning, to which employment he Aix-la-Chapelle, which is very spa- kept them most strictly. A statue of cious, and surrounded by handsome Charlemagne guards also one of the buildings, is a fountain built of blue two springs which are in the lower part stone, which from six pipes, throws of the city of Aix; and over the other water into a noble bason of marble, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary : thirty feet in circumference. This foun- these are for drinking; near which are tain is surmounted by a fine statue of several piazzas to walk in, between Charlemagne, of brass gilt, which repre- taking the different glasses. We now sents him with a sceptre in one hand, take leave of this gay place, which ofand a globe in the other. The figure fers every accommodation for the invaof this Emperor, it is said, surpassed in lid, and every amusement for those who height and strength that of any person are well. of his day, and when clad in his winter CORNUCOPIA. From the New Monthly Magazine, December, 1818. considerably over-rated. That they con- make a bow to the shark, the accident would never have happened.” DR. WATTS. Dr. Watts was of so extremely mild a disposition, and so averse from dissension, that when reproached by a friend for not having severely reprimanded a man who had done him a serious inju ry, he exclaimed, "I wish, my dear sir, you would do it for me." WOMAN. It is no less remarkable than true, that a piece full of marked characters will always be void of nature. The error Carcinnus, in Semele says, "Oh Juinto which Madame D'Arblay has fall- piter, what evil thing is it proper to call en is that of dedicating too much of her woman?" Reply. It will be suffitime to making all her personages al- cient if you merely say woman! Hamways talk in character; whereas in the let exclaims," Frailty, thy name is wo present refined or depraved state of so- man!" and Shakspeare elsewhere says, ciety, most people endeavour to conceal "She is the devil." Otway's Castalio, their defects rather than display them. like a blubbering school-boy, who has been disappointed of his plaything, also bursts into the following splenetic recapitulation. POLITENESS. Sir Brooke Watson was an extremely polite man; and one who knew him well, upon hearing that he had lost a Jeg by the bite of a shark while bathing in the sea, exclaimed, "Ah! I can see how that was; if he had not staid to 3B ATHENEUM. Vol. 4. I'd leave the world for him that hates a woman! 394 Morland the Painter-Umbrellas-Literary Shoemakers. Who was the cause of a long ten years war, But quickly woman longed to go astray; [voL. 4 at one time, we are told, in a lodging at Somers' Town, in the following most extraordinary circumstances:-His infant child, that had been dead nearly three weeks, lay in its coffin in one And the first devil she saw she changed her love! corner of the room; an ass and foal To his temptations lewdly she inclined How often does man, with a strange and almost unaccountable perversity, abuse that in which he most delights, and mar the blessings which his Creator has provided for him! As the gem will commonly sink in our estimation when possessed, so the amiable qualities of woman dwindle into comparative nothingness when ungrateful man becomes more habituated to them. Who will deny that The world was sad-the garden was a wild, And man the hermit mourned till woman smiled! Let us, then, believe that All ill stories of the sex are false; That woman, lovely woman! nature made stood munching barley-straw out of the cradle; a sow and pigs were solacing in the recess of an old cupboard; and himself whistling over a beautiful picture that he was finishing at his easel, with a bottle of gin hung up on one side, and a live mouse sitting (or rather kicking) for his portrait, on the other! INTRODUCTION OF THE UMBRELLA.. To Jonas Hanway, we owe the first introduction of this most useful article. He had seen it in his travels in Persia used as a defence against the burning rays of the sun; and converting it into a protection from the rain, was generally mobbed as he walked on a wet day thro the streets of London. Now the poorest cottager frequently boasts the pos session of a convenience, at that time To temper man-we had been brutes without her. an object of universal curiosity and Angels are painted fair to look like her ; There's in her all that we conceive of Heaven, ANECDOTE OF MORLAND. wonder-a lesson this, not to be deterred from the introduction or adoption of a thing really useful, by the idle laugh of the ignorant and thoughtless. LITERARY SHOEMAKERS ! His conduct was irregular beyond all calculation, and all powers of descrip- The fraternity of shoemakers have, tion; and while the vigour of his ge- unquestionably, given rise to some nius and the soundness of his judgment characters of great worth and genius. never forsook him in a picture, they The late Mr. Holcroft was originally a scarcely ever accompanied him in any shoemaker, and though he was, unhapother employment, action, or sentiment pily, at the beginning of the French of his life. Capable of the most regu- revolution, infected with French prinlar and profound reflection on every ciples, yet he was certainly a man of thing connected with his art, capable great genius, and, on the whole, a moral even of the clearest distinctions of mo- writer. His dramatic pieces must rank ral rectitude he never appears to have among the best of those on the English dedicated a single leisure hour to sober stage. Robert Bloomfield wrote his conversation or innocent pleasantry, to poem of the "The Farmer's Boy," any of the endearing intercourses of while employed at this business, and domestic or social life, or to any ration- Dr. William Carey, Professor of Sanal purpose whatever. He is generally scrit and Bengalee, at the college of acknowledged to have spent all the tinie Fort William, Calcutta, and the able in which he did not paint, in drinking, and indefatigable translator of the and in the meanest dissipations, with Scriptures into many of the eastern lanpersons the most eminent he could se- guages, was in early life a shoemaker lect for ignorance or brutality; and a in Northamptonshire. The present rabble of carters, ostlers, butchers' men, Mr. Gifford, the translator of Juvenal, smugglers, poachers, and postillions, and the supposed editor of the Quarterwere constantly in his company, and ly Review, spent some of his early days frequently in his pay. He was found in learning the "craft and mystery" of VOL. 4.] Conviviality-Cowper-T. Sheridan-English Etymology. 395 a shoemaker, as he tells us, in one of than unravelled the GORDIAN knots to the most interesting pieces of auto-bio- be met within his original. graphy ever penned, and prefixed to his nervous and elegant version of the Great Roman Satirist. CONVIVIALITY. It was said by the ancients, that to enjoy the "feast of reason, and the flow of soul," the party should never be more than the Muses or less than the Graces. HOPE. Though Hope is a flatterer, she is the most uninterested of all parasites, for she visits the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superior. ANECDOTE OF THOMAS SHERIDAN, The "delicia amantium" must surely ard Brinsley Sheridan. He early entered the army, and Lord Moira, then then have been either unknown or unfashionable, for what two lovers in an commander-in-chief in Scotland, apagreeable tete-a-tete would be anxious for an augmentation of their number? DIFIDENCE IN CONVERSATION ACCOUN TED FOR. That excessive diffidence, that insurmountable shyness, which is so apt to freeze the current of conversation in England, has been very correctly accounted for by Cowper, who says, pointed him one of his aides-de-camp. Having contracted the habit of keeping bad hours, the noble Earl exposed the impropriety of such conduct in the following very gentle, but most effectual way. In the capacity of aide-de-camp, the young man resided in the splendid mansion of his patron; and one evening his lordship, purposely sending all the servants to bed, sat up himself till four or five in the morning, when Mr. Sheridan, who happened to be the juCOWPER'S TRANSLATION. nior officer on his staff, returned in high Though Cowper in his translation of spirits, from a ball. He was not perHomer has been too literal, and inat- mitted to knock long, for his illustrious tentive to the melody of his versifica- commander obeyed the first summons tion, he has infused much more of the with the utmost promptitude, and gosimple majesty of the divine Bard than ing down with a couple of candles, cerhis predecessor Pope, who appears to emoniously lighted the astonished subhave wielded the sword of Alexander altern to his bed-chamber.-Pan. throughout, and to have cut, rather Our sensibilities are so acute, The fear of being silent makes us mute. ENGLISH LANGUAGE. From the Literary Gazette. OBSERVATIONS INTRODUCTORY TO A WORK ON ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY. BY JOHN THOM SON, M.A.S. RE LONDON 1818. The publication before us is a marked exceptio to the rule. The Diversions of Purley proved that Etymology EVIEWERS are very often sadly might be rendered an entertaining subbaulked in taking up books with ject, but we had no conception of the captivating titles, and, though anony- quantity of amusement which it was mous, hinted to have been written by capable of having mixed up with its such or such a popular author, which, curious information till we read these 52 on perusal, they find to be very dull pages. and vapid stuff. And it is seldom that Strictly speaking, we do not consider they are compensated for these annoy- the production to be what it purports ; ances by reverse cases: What are at least, it is not a regular introduction called familiarly" agreeable disappoint- to any work on Etymology, since we ments" rarely fail to their lot, and are so little introduced to the plan in works with ominously heavy names, contemplation as to be unable to tell generally true to promise, preserve the our readers (further than our first excharacter most faithfully throughout tract conveys) what are its outlines, their contents. extent, or precise nature. Mr. Thom |