The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863

"Le Cardinal, oracle de la France,Réunissaut Virgile avec Platon,Vengeur du ciel et vainqueur de Lucrèce."

The last line of this remarkable eulogy has a movement and balance not unlike the Latin verse of Turgot, or that which suggested it in the poem of Polignac; but the praise which it so pointedly offers attests the fame of the author; nor was this praise confined to the "fine frenzy" of verse. The "Anti-Lucretius" was gravely pronounced the "rival of the poem which it answered,"—"with verses as flowing as Ovid, sometimes approaching the elegant simplicity of Horace and sometimes the nobleness of Virgil,"—and then again, with a philosophy and a poetry combined "which would not be disavowed either by Descartes or by Virgil."48

Turning now to the poem itself, we shall see how completely the verse of Turgot finds its prototype there. Epicurus is indignantly described as denying to the gods all power, and declaring man independent, so as to act for himself; and here the poet says, "Braving the thunderous recesses of heaven, he snatched the lightning from Jove and the arrows from Apollo, and, liberating the mortal race, ordered it to dare all things,"—

"Cœli et tonitralia templa lacessens,Eripuit fulmenque Jovi, Phœboque sagittas;Et mortale manumittens genus, omnia jussitAudere."49

To deny the power of God and to declare independence of His commands, which the poet here holds up to judgment, is very unlike the life of Franklin, all whose service was in obedience to God's laws, whether in snatching the lightning from the skies or the sceptre from tyrants; and yet it is evident that the verse which pictured Epicurus in his impiety suggested the picture of the American plenipotentiary in his double labors of science and statesmanship.

But the present story will not be complete without an allusion to that poem of antiquity which was supposed to have suggested the verse of Turgot, and which doubtless did suggest the verse of the "Anti-Lucretius." Manilius is a poet little known. It is difficult to say when he lived or what he was. He is sometimes supposed to have lived under Augustus, and sometimes under Theodosius. He is sometimes supposed to have been a Roman slave, and sometimes a Roman senator. His poem, under the name of "Astronomicon," is a treatise on astronomy in verse, which recounts the origin of the material universe, exhibits the relations of the heavenly bodies, and vindicates this ancient science. It is while describing the growth of knowledge, which gradually mastered Nature, that the poet says,—

"Eriputque Jovi fulmen, viresque tonandi."50

The meaning of this line will be seen in the context, which, for plainness as well as curiosity, I quote from a metrical version of the first book of the poem,51 entitled, "The Sphere of Marcus Manilius made an English Poem, by Edward Sherburne," which was dedicated to Charles II.:—

"Nor put they to their curious search an endTill reason had scaled heaven, thence viewed this roundAnd Nature latent in its causes found:Why thunder does the suffering clouds assail;Why winter's snow more soft than summer's hail;Whence earthquakes come and subterranean fires;Why showers descend, what force the wind inspires:From error thus the wondering minds uncharmed,Unsceptred Jove, the Thunderer disarmed."

Enough has been said on the question of origin; but there is yet one other aspect of the story.

The verse was hardly divulged when it became the occasion of various efforts in the way of translation. Turgot had already done it into French; so had D'Alembert. M. Nogaret wrote to Franklin, inclosing an attempted translation, and says in his letter,—"The French have done their best to translate the Latin verse, where justice is done you in so few words. They have appeared as jealous of transporting this eulogy into their language as they are of possessing you. But nobody has succeeded, and I think nobody will succeed."52 He then quotes a translation which he thinks defective, although it appeared in the "Almanach des Muses" as the best:—

"Cet homme que tu vois, sublime en tous les tems,Dérobe aux dieux la foudre et le sceptre aux tyrans."

To this letter Dr. Franklin made the following reply:53—

"Passy, 8 March, 1781.

"SIR,—I received the letter you have done me the honor of writing to me the 2d instant, wherein, after overwhelming me with a flood of compliments, which I can never hope to merit, you request my opinion of your translation of a Latin verse that has been applied to me. If I were, which I really am not, sufficiently skilled in your excellent language to be a proper judge of its poesy, the supposition of my being the subject must restrain me from giving any opinion on that line, except that it ascribes too much to me, especially in what relates to the tyrant, the Revolution having been the work of many able and brave men, wherein it is sufficient honor for me, if I am allowed a small share. I am much obliged by the favorable sentiments you are pleased to entertain of me.

"With regard, I have the honor to be, Sir, etc.,

"B. FRANKLIN."

In his acknowledgment of this letter M. Nogaret says,—"Paris is pleased with the translation of your 'Eripuit,' and your portrait, as I had foreseen, makes the fortune of the engraver."54 But it does not appear to which translation he refers.

Here is another attempt:—

"Il a par ses travaux, toujours plus étonnans,Ravi la foudre aux Dieux et le sceptre aux tyrans."

There are other verses which adopt the idea of Turgot. Here, for instance, is a part of a song by the Abbé Morellet, written for one of the dinners of Madame Helvétius:55—

"Comme un aigle audacieux,Il a volé jusqu'aux cieux,Et dérobé le tonnerreDont ils effrayaient la terre,Heureux larcinDe l'habile Benjamin."L'Américain indomptéRecouvre sa liberté;Et ce généreux ouvrage,Autre exploit de notre sage,Est mis à finPar Louis et Benjamin."

Mr. Sparks found among Franklin's papers the following paraphrastic version:56—

"Franklin sut arrêter la foudre dans les airs,Et c'est le moindre bien qu'il fit à sa patrie;Au milieu de climats divers,Où dominait la tyrannie,Il fit régner les arts, les mœurs, et le génie;Et voilà le héros que j'offre à l'univers."

Nor should I omit a translation into English by Mr. Elphinstone:—

"He snatched the bolt from Heaven's avenging hand,Disarmed and drove the tyrant from the land."

In concluding this sketch, I wish to say that the literary associations of the subject did not tempt me; but I could not resist the inducement to present in its proper character an interesting incident which can be truly comprehended only when it is recognized in its political relations. To this end it was important to exhibit its history, even in details, so that the verse which has occupied so much attention should be seen not only in its scholarly fascination, but in its wide-spread influence in the circles of the learned and the circles even of the fashionable in Paris and throughout France, binding this great nation by an unchangeable vow to the support of American liberty. Words are sometimes things; but never were words so completely things as those with which Turgot welcomed Franklin. The memory of that welcome cannot be forgotten in America. Can it ever be forgotten in France?

POSTSCRIPT.

And now the country is amazed by the report that the original welcome of France to America and the inspired welcome of Turgot to Franklin are forgotten by the France of this day, or, rather let me say, forgotten by the Emperor, whose memory for the time is the memory of France. It is said that Louis Napoleon is concerting an alliance with the Rebel slavemongers of our country, founded on the recognition of their independence, so that they may take their place as a new power in the family of nations. Indeed, we have been told, through the columns of the official organ, the "Moniteur," that he wishes to do this thing. Perhaps he imagines that he follows the great example of the last century.

What madness!

The two cases are in perfect contrast,—as opposite as the poles, as unlike as Liberty and Slavery.

The struggle for American Independence was a struggle for Liberty, and was elevated throughout by this holy cause. But the struggle for Slavemonger Independence is necessarily and plainly a struggle for Slavery, and is degraded throughout by the unutterable vileness of all its barefaced pretensions.

The earlier struggle, adopted by the enlightened genius of France, was solemnly placed under the benediction of "God and Liberty." The present struggle, happily thus far discarded by that same enlightened genius, can have no other benediction than "Satan and Slavery."

The earlier struggle was to snatch the sceptre from a kingly tyrant. The present struggle is to put whips into the hands of Rebel slavemongers with which to compel work without wages, and thus give wicked power to vulgar tyrants without number.

The earlier struggle was fitly pictured by the welcome of Turgot to Franklin. But another spirit must be found, and other words must be invented, to picture the struggle which it is now proposed to place under the protection of France.

The earlier struggle was grandly represented by Benjamin Franklin, who was already known by a sublime discovery in science. The present struggle is characteristically represented by John Slidell, whose great fame is from the electioneering frauds by which he sought to control a Presidential election; so that his whole life is fitly pictured, when it is said, that he thrust fraudulent votes into the ballot-box, and whips into the hands of task-masters.

The earlier struggle was predicted by Turgot, who said, that, in the course of Nature, colonies must drop from the parent stem, like ripe fruit. But where is the Turgot who has predicted, that, in the course of Nature, the great Republic must be broken, in order to found a new power on the corner-stone of Slavery?

The earlier struggle gathered about it the sympathy of the learned, the good, and the wise, while the people of France rose up to call it blessed. The present struggle can expect nothing but detestation from all who are not lost to duty and honor, while the people of France must cover it with curses.

The earlier struggle enjoyed the favor of France, whether in assemblies of learning or of fashion, in spite of its King. It remains to be seen if the present struggle must not ignobly fail in France, still mindful of its early vows, in spite of its Emperor.

Where duty and honor are so plain, it is painful to think that even for a moment there can be any hesitation.

Alas for France!

REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES

History of Spanish Literature. By GEORGE TICKNOR. In Three Volumes. Third American Edition, corrected and enlarged. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

The first edition of this work was published in 1849, in three volumes octavo, and it is hardly necessary for us to add, that it was received with very great favor both at home and abroad. Indeed, we may go farther, and say that it was received with the highest favor by those who were best qualified to pronounce upon its merits. The audience which it addressed was small at home, and not numerous anywhere; for the literature of Spain, in general, does not present strong attractions to those who are not natives of the Peninsula. In our country, at the time of its publication, there was hardly a man competent to examine and criticize it; and in Europe, outside of Spain itself, the number of thorough Spanish scholars was and is but small, and of these a large proportion is found in Germany. But by these, whether in Germany, France, or England, Mr. Ticknor's History was received with a generous and hearty admiration which must have been to him as authentic a token of the worth of his book as the voice of posterity itself. But, of course, it was exposed to the severest trial in Spain, the people of which are intensely national, loving their literature, like everything else which belongs to them, with a passionate and exclusive love, and not disposed to treat with any tenderness a foreign writer who should lay an incompetent hand upon any of their great writers, though in a friendly and liberal spirit. But by the scholars and men of letters in Spain it was greeted with a kindliness of welcome which nothing but the most substantial excellence could have assured. Universal assent to the views of a foreigner and a Protestant was not to be expected: this or that particular judgment was questioned; but no one said, or could say, that Mr. Ticknor's History was superficial, or hastily prepared, or prejudiced, or wanting in due proportions. On the other hand, a most hearty tribute of admiration was paid to its thorough learning, its minute and patient research, its accurate judgments, its candid temper and generous spirit. Cultivated Spaniards were amazed that a foreigner had so thoroughly traced the stream of their literature from its fountain-heads, omitting nothing, overlooking nothing, and doing justice to all.

Such a work could never attain any very wide popularity, and this from the nature of its subject. To the general reader books about books are never so attractive as histories and biographies, which deal with the doings of men, and glow with the warmth of human interests. But every man of literary taste, though but superficially acquainted with Spanish literature, could recognize the merits of Mr. Ticknor's work, its philosophical spirit, its lucid arrangement, its elegant and judicious criticisms, and its neat, correct, and accurate style. He could not fail to see that the works of Bouterwek and Sismondi were, by comparison, merely a series of graceful sketches, with no claim to be called a complete and thorough history. It took its place at once as the highest authority in any language upon the subject of which it treated, as the very first book which everybody would consult who wanted any information upon that subject.

The present edition of the "History of Spanish Literature" is by no means identical with those which have preceded it. It omits nearly the whole of the inedited, primitive Castilian poems which have heretofore filled about seventy pages at the end of the last volume; and in other parts of the work a corresponding, and even more than a corresponding, amount of new matter has been introduced, which will, it is believed, be accounted of greater interest than the early poetry it displaces. These additions and changes have been derived from very various sources. In the first place, Mr. Ticknor was in Europe himself in 1856 and 1857, and visited the principal libraries, public and private, in England, France, Germany, and Italy, in which any considerable collection of Spanish books was to be found, and by examination of these supplied any wants there might be in his own very ample stores. In the second place, his History has been translated into German and Spanish, the former version being illustrated with notes by Dr. Ferdinand Wolf, perhaps the best Spanish scholar in Germany, and the latter by Don Pascual de Gayangos, one of the best scholars in Spain. From the results of the labors of these distinguished annotators Mr. Ticknor has taken—with generous acknowledgment—everything which, in his judgment, could add value, interest, or completeness to the present revised edition. And lastly, in the period between the publication of the first edition and the present time much has been done for the illustration of Spanish literature, both in the Peninsula and out of it. This is due in part to the interest in the subject which Mr. Ticknor himself awakened; and in Spain it is one of the consequences of the rapid progress in material development and vital energy which that country has been making during the last fifteen years. New lives of some of its principal writers have been published, and new editions of their works have been prepared. From all these sources a very ample supply of new materials has been derived, so that, while the work remains substantially the same in plan, outline, and spirit, there are hardly three consecutive pages in it which do not contain additions and improvements. We will briefly mention a few of the more prominent of these.

In the first volume, pages 446-455, the life of Garcilasso de la Vega is almost entirely rewritten from materials found in a recent biography by Don Eustaquio Navarrete, which Mr. Ticknor pronounces "an important contribution to Spanish literary history." The writer is the son of the learned Don Martin Navarrete.

In the second volume, pages 75-81, many new and interesting facts are stated in regard to the life of Luis de Leon, derived from a recently published report of the entire official record of his trial before the Inquisition, of which Mr. Ticknor says that it is "by far the most important authentic statement known to me respecting the treatment of men of letters who were accused before that formidable tribunal, and probably the most curious and important one in existence, whether in manuscript or in print. Its multitudinous documents fill more than nine hundred pages, everywhere teeming with instruction and warning on the subject of ecclesiastical usurpations, and the noiseless, cold, subtle means by which they crush the intellectual freedom and manly culture of a people."

In the same volume, pages 118-119, some new and interesting facts are stated which prove beyond a doubt, that Lope de Vega was actuated by ungenerous feelings towards his great contemporary, Cervantes. The evidence is found in some autograph letters of Lope, extracts from which were made by Duran, and are now published by Von Schack, an excellent Spanish scholar.

In the same volume, page 191, is a copy of the will of Lope de Vega, recently discovered, and obtained from the late Lord Holland.

In the same volume, pages 354-357, is a learned bibliographical note upon the publication and various editions of the plays of Calderon.

In the third volume, Appendix B., pages 408-414, is a learned bibliographical note on the Romanceros.

In the same volume, Appendix C., pages 419-422, is an elaborate note on the Centon Epistolario, in reply to an article by the Marques de Pidal.

In the same volume, Appendix D., pages 432-434, is a new postscript on the clever literary forgery, El Buscapié.

At the close of the third volume there are seven pages giving a brief and condensed account of the several works connected with Spanish literature which have been published within two or three years past, and since the stereotype plates for the present work were cast.

The present edition is in a duodecimo, instead of an octavo form, and is sold at a less price than the previous ones.

In the closing sentences of the preface to this edition, Mr. Ticknor says: "Its preparation has been a pleasant task, scattered lightly over the years that have elapsed since the first edition of this work was published, and that have been passed, like the rest of my life, almost entirely among my own books. That I shall ever recur to this task again, for the purpose of further changes or additions, is not at all probable. My accumulated years forbid any such anticipation; and therefore, with whatever of regret I may part from what has entered into the happiness of so considerable a portion of my life, I feel that now I part from it for the last time. Extremum hoc munus habeto." This is a very natural feeling, and gracefully expressed; but whatever of sadness there may be in parting from a book which has so long been a constant resource, a daily companion, may in this case be tempered by the thought that the work, as now dismissed, is so well founded, so symmetrically proportioned, so firmly built, as to defy the sharpest criticism—that of Time itself.

1

The circumstances connected with the introduction of the British troops into Boston will be found related in the "Atlantic Monthly" for June, 1862; and the number for the following August contains a view of the relation of the question of removal to the arbitrary policy contemplated for the Colonies.

2

Boston, printed in the "Gazette" of February 12, 1770. A letter printed in the "Boston Evening Post," October 9, 1789, from London, received by the last ship, after eulogizing "the noble stand of the colonists," says, "I am charmed with the prudent conduct of the Bostonians in particular, and that you have been able lo preserve so much tranquillity among you, while the spirits of the people must have been so soured and agitated by oppression. You have certainly very wise and prudent men concerned in the conduct of your affairs." A Tory view of Boston in these times, (by "Sagittarius,") is as follows:—"The Town-Meeting at Boston is the hot-bed of sedition. It is there that all their dangerous insurrections are engendered; it is there that the flame of discord and rebellion was first lighted up and disseminated over the Provinces; it is therefore greatly to be wished that Parliament may rescue the loyal inhabitants of that town and Province from the merciless hand of an ignorant mob, led on and inflamed by self-interested and profligate men."

3

Reliq. Wotton., p. 317, et seq.

4

Of clay he says, "It is a cursed step-dame to almost all vegetation, as having few or no meatuses for the percolation of alimental showers."

5

Sir William Temple gives this list of his pears:—Blanquet, Robin, Rousselet, Pepin, Jargonel; and for autumn: Buree, Vertlongue, and Bergamot.

6

Brougham's Speeches, Vol. II. p. 233.

7

Vol. IV. p. 443, First Series.

8

Notes and Queries, Vol. V. p. 17.

9

Ibid.

10

Lib. I. v. 104.

11

Sparks's Works of Franklin, Vol. VIII. p. 538.

12

Notes and Queries, Vol. V. p. 549, First Series.

13

Ibid. Vol. V. p. 140. See, also, Ibid. Vol. V. p. 571; Vol. VI. p. 88; Dublin Review for March, 1847, p. 212; Quarterly Review for June, 1850.

14

Œuvres de Turgot, Tom. IX. p. 140.

15

Œuvres de Condorcet, par O'Connor, Tom. V. p. 162.

16

Sparks's Works of Franklin, Vol. VIII. p. 537; Mignet, Notices et Portraits, Tom. II. p. 480.

17

Cabania, Oeuvres, Tom. V. p. 251.

18

Lettres de Madame Du Deffant, Tom. III. p. 367.

19

Ibid. Tom. IV. p. 35.

20

Lacretelle, Histoire de France, Tom. V. p. 90.

21

Oeuvres de Condorcet, par O'Connor, Tom. V. pp. 406, 407.

22

Capefigue, Louis XVI, Tom. II. pp. 12, 13, 42, 49, 50. The rose-water biographer of Diane de Poitiers, Madame de Pompadour, and Madame du Barry would naturally disparage Franklin.

23

Mignet, Notices at Portraits, Tom. II. p. 427.

24

La Gazette Secrète, 15 Jan. 1777; Capefigue, Louis XVI., Tom. II. p. 15.

25

Œuvres de Turgot, Tom. II. p. 66.

26

Œuvres de Turgot, Tom. VIII. p. 496.

27

Vol. X. p. 107.

28

Mémoires de Madame D'Épinay, Tom. III. p. 431.

29

Galiani, Correspondance, Tom. II. p. 275, Lettre de 25 Juillet, 1778. Nobody saw America with a more prophetic eye than this inspired Pulcinello of Naples. As far back as the eighteenth of May, 1776, several weeks before the Declaration of Independence, he wrote,—"The epoch is come for the total fall of Europe and its transmigration to America. Do not buy your house in the Chaussée d'Antin, but at Philadelphia. The misfortune for me is that there are no abbeys in America." Tom. II. p. 203. See also Grimm, Correspondence, Tom. IX. p. 285 (1776).

30

The dictionaries of Michaud and Didot concur in the date of her death; but there is reason to suppose that they are both mistaken.

31