template these facts without shuddering? Who can think of them without at the same time reflecting with awe, what may be his own personal share in the responsibility for so many souls lost, so much dishonour done to God? Even taking the lowest ground, who can shut his eyes to the danger which exists of the disruption of all our social institutions by the sudden outbreak of such ungodliness, even now scarcely kept within bounds by the force of human law? What security have we that the masses of the people will not band together, and overturn in wild confusion the whole fabric of society, if they be not restrained by the moral power of conscience?" And again, in suggesting a remedy— "Seeing, however, that the various modes adopted by existing societies have hitherto been ineffectual in accomplishing anything approaching to what is required, it may be well to consider whether some new engine, or some new principle, may not be brought into operation. A restoration of the Church can never be effected without a great change of feeling amongst Churchmen, or rather without a development and expansion of the good feeling, of the existence of which we have so many proofs. We shall do nothing great until the minds of Christian men are embued with a sense of the paramount importance of restoring their Church, for the glory of God, and for the sake of the souls of their brethren." And a change of this kind is not to be made by operating on the minds of one generation, though much might be done thus; but by training the rising generation-by pouring into the minds of the youthful aristocracy the knowledge of the Church's claims-by instilling into their understanding the facts, that their duty and their interest alike require them to support the Church, and also (which is a different thing) to maintain the Establishment. Let them be informed that the preservation of our constitution-of a due gradation of ranks and ordersdepends much upon their exertions; and let those exertions be directed into a right channel by a religious education. In a word, let the University of Cambridge insist on all her members being acquainted with their duty towards God and their duty towards their neighbour; and let her satisfy herself that they are so. We have spoken strongly on this topic, because we feel strongly; but we trust that we have not spoken intemperately. We are quite sure that we feel the deepest respect towards, and the most entire confidence in, the governing body of the University. We believe that each is trusting to others, and all only need to be awakened to the fact that they themselves must speak and vote. 340 ART. V.―Amenities of Literature; consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature. By I. D'ISRAELI, D.C.L., F.S.A. 3 vols. London: Moxon. 1841. A HISTORY of English vernacular Literature seems to have long engaged the attention of Mr. D'Israeli, and he was prosecuting his enquiries in that most interesting path of knowledge, when, in a temporal sense, his friends were afflicted with the melancholy intelligence, that the night had descended upon him, and that the hour of toil was over. He was arrested, we are informed in the Preface to the present volumes, in the midst of his studies, by the loss of sight. The papers now collected are the members of that complete and harmonious frame which the author cheered himself with the hope of creating-a hope no longer to be entertained. Such an affliction reads like an affecting commentary on the complaint of Spenser— "This daie's ensample hath this lesson deare, Deepe written in my heart with yron pen, That blisse may not abide in state of mortal men.”* The The propriety of the title of these volumes has been called in question, and Mr. D'Israeli is willing to commit it to the consideration of his readers; not, however, without a word of introduction and apology. He thinks that the miscellaneous literature with which he has been accustomed to amuse himself, and, let us add, the public, has never obtained a distinctive appellation. Blair borrowed a name from France for his lectures; while Goldsmith, with some affectation, entitles his review of European literature, "An Essay on Polite Learning." Italians, in their "Letteratura Amena," and Pliny, in his general description of "amænitates studiorum," appear to furnish an authority for the name Mr. D'Israeli has bestowed on the present Miscellanies. A contemporary critic, who objects to the word Amenities, supposes it to have been derived from the quaint vocabulary of Sir Thomas Brown; but neither the critic nor the author seem to be aware that the title of Amenities has already been given to an extensive work in Latin-" Amænitates Literariæ," which appeared at Frankfort in 1730, in fourteen volumes. They are properly miscellanies of literature; the amenity depending, in great measure, upon the taste of the reader. We will give the contents of the thirteenth volume, which we happen to have recently consulted : *Faerie Queen, b. 1, c. viii, § xliv. "1. Elogium D. Lucæ Schrokii. 2. De Atheismo Platonis. 3. De Eximiis Suevorum in Orientalem literaturam meritis. 4. De Auctore Librorum de Imitatione Christi. 5. Pentas Epistolarum Renati Massueti. 6. De Stratonis Lampsaceni Atheismo." A copy of this work was bequeathed to the British Museum by Thomas Tyrwhitt. Mr. D'Israeli's Amenities have predecessors in method, not in matter. The first volume opens with some remarks upon the Druidical institution, in which we find little to require notice; no new facts are communicated, and it may be doubted whether Mr. D'Israeli has been accustomed to travel along those roads where new facts in history are likely to be found. Nor do we think that the paper on Britain, the name of England, or the AngloSaxons, will reward the industry of the reader. They are pleasantly, though ambitiously, written, and have the merit of presenting circumstances familiar to every scholar, in a dress not ill adapted to attract the vulgar. What can Mr. D'Israeli tell of the Anglo-Saxons, which Sharon Turner and Palgrave have not already communicated? Surely nothing: and his essay is accordingly a review of what other writers have performed, and would have found its appropriate place in a literary journal. It is, however, a curious fact, and worth repeating, that not one of our historians, from Milton to Hume, "ever referred to an original Saxon authority." The first rays of steady light—for the torches of Spelman and Hickes had died out—were cast over this venerable literature by the lamp of the diligent Sharon Turner in 1805. We turn very gladly to the next chapter, which contains some pleasing remarks upon a few resemblances between Cadmon and Milton. Perhaps to some of our readers the name of Cadmon will be new, among the many supposed sources of imagery to Milton; and they will be surprised to hear that the learned Sharon Turner beheld, in this work of the Anglo-Saxon a Paradise Lost in rude miniature. Rude indeed! But the fancy has not wanted other propagators. Conybere discovers a vivid resemblance between the rebellion and expulsion of Satan and his angels in Milton, and the pictures in Cadmon. Nor is the similarity confined to the single coincidence of subject—it extends also to its treatment: and D'Israeli observes that the Pandemonium of both writers opens with the same scene and the same actors: Cadmon saw the fiend, with his companions, falling from heaven, during three days and nights-Milton beheld them rolling in the gulf of fire "Nine times the space that measures day and night To mortal men." Cadmon (we follow the argument of D'Israeli) describes the expressive name bestowed upon the evil angel by God; Milton speaks of "The arch-enemy, And thence in heaven called Satan." The Saxon monk places Satan and his legions in the same fearful atmosphere of flame and darkness in which they are painted by the English poet. Nor is the manner of their torment unlike; fire and ice are the instruments of punishment which Cadmon and Milton employ. Here also Dante might be included in the parallel. The Šatan of Cadmon is chained in the dungeon of perdition; Milton displays the adamantine chains, in "A dungeon horrible on all sides round." But the evil spirit of Milton was to be potentially active; he was to wander to and fro upon the earth, according to the will of the omnipotent Governor. The English poet accordingly represents Satan in the eager pursuit of vengeance; he raises his head from the surge of flame, and busies himself in those schemes of wickedness which were only to work out his own more complete and terrible damnation. While, therefore, Cadmon despatches an emissary to fulfil his design upon the inhabitants of Paradise, Milton, in his glorious verses, brings the fallen angel before us in his journey. Cædmon sends the messenger of Satan through the doors of hell; Milton unfolds "The infernal doors, that on their hinges grate Harsh thunder."¡ The angel of the Saxon dashes aside the flame with his hand; the Satan of the English poet lifts up his mighty frame from the lake, while "On each hand, the flames, Driv'n backward, slope their pointing spires, and, roll'd Lastly, in the page of Cadmon, Satan appears as an angel who had been the brightest and fairest of the heavenly host, and so beautiful in form, that he resembled the stars in lustre with the same glory he is reflected in the verse of Milton "His form had not yet lost All its original brightness, nor appear'd And again : "His countenance, as the morning star that guides These coincidences of thought are certainly curious, and the reader, who has examined them, will naturally enquire, with D'Israeli, whether Milton was ever acquainted with Cadmon. We shall endeavour to answer this interesting question, out of the information which the industry and penetration of D'Israeli have given to us. It may be regarded as one of the most singular curiosities of literature, that a work like that of Cadmon, which was impressed upon the popular mind during six hundred years, should have disappeared, not only from observation, but from "any visible existence." It was written, according to the supposition of Anglo-Saxon scholars, in the seventh century; and Mr. D'Israeli is inclined to regard it as an attempt to familiarize "the people with the miraculous and the religious narratives in the Scriptures, by a paraphrase in the vernacular idiom." The only known manuscript of Cadmon was given, by Archbishop Usher, Francis Junius. "During thirty years of this eminent scholar's residence in England, including his occasional visits to Holland and Friesland, he devoted his protracted life to the investigation of the origin of the Gothic dialect." By such a man the manuscript of Čadmon was hailed with delight; and accordingly, about three years before the complete blindness of Milton, Junius printed this MS. at Amsterdam: this was in 1655. The composition of "Paradise Lost" was commenced in 1658, carried on in tempest and darkness, under the influence and protection of "White-handed Hope, The hovering angel, girt with golden wings;" * and the poem appeared in 1667. These dates are conclusive as to one point-they restrict Milton's knowledge of Cadmon to the single manuscript of Junius. Now, was Milton acquainted with Junius? If so, would the northern antiquary have entrusted the manuscript to his hands? If he had entrusted it, could Milton have read it? The last enquiry is the most important. D'Israeli answers it in the negative. He remarks that his Saxon annals, in the history of England, are derived from Latin authorities; that in the list of subjects proposed by the poet, as subjects for dramatic composition, the only references, for the Saxon stories, are to Speed and Holinshed; and, * Comus. |