LETTER XXIII.
Perhaps the learned unwise men of the world, who spend their lives poring after impossibilities, have never met with a more copious subject of puzzle-pated enjoyment than the derivation of the names of places. In all disputed cases on this subject, the utmost within human reach is conjecture; but the joke of it is, that, fortunately for Mankind, the certainty of it would not be of a single button advantage to them, even if it could be acquired by their search. Doctor Goldsmith, in his Citizen of the World, has thrown this matter into high ridicule; and I recommend it to your perusal, lest this shadow of literature should one day wheedle you from more respectable pursuits. Trent has afforded vast exercise to book-worm conjectures in this way; for, while some pronounce it to be derived from Tridentum, and for this purpose will have it that Neptune was worshipped there, though so far from the sea——others claim the discovery of its derivation from Tribus Torrentibus, or three streams which run there. Now, as to the first, exclusive of forcing Neptune all the way from the Gulph of Venice to their temples, I cannot find any such similarity in the sound of Trent and Trident to warrant the inference; and as to the Tribus Torrentibus, they might as well say that a primmer or hornbook was found there, and that thence it was derived from the Alphabet, since the same analogy subsisted between them, namely, that the letters T,R,E,N,T are to be found in both. But, in the name of God, what signifies what it was called after? Its name is Trent; and if it had been Putney, or John o’ Groat’s house, the town would be neither the better nor the worse, nor the treasures of literature suffer any defalcation from the difference.
The Bishopric of Trent is about sixty miles long, and forty broad——fertile, and abundant in wine, oil, fruit and pasture——and pleasant, the beautiful river Adige meandering through the whole of it from North to South. The inhabitants are bigoted Roman Catholics——you will the less wonder, then, that the Bishop should have so extensive a Principality, and an annual revenue of forty thousand crowns.
As I receded from Germany, and advanced towards Italy, I found the air, the persons and the manners of the People, to display a very great difference, and to resemble those of the Italians more than those of the Germans. Though Popish bigotry be pretty strong in many parts of Germany, it no where there assumes the gloomy, detestable aspect that it does in Italy.
And now, since I have happened to mention the characters of those two People, I may as well, once for all, more particularly as we are got to the verge of both, give you them in full; in both which I am warranted in saying, that all who know the two will agree with me.
Perhaps contrast was never more perfectly exemplified than in a comparison between the Germans and Italians; and that contrast strikes more forcibly and suddenly in passing from one Country to the other, than it would in so short a space between any two People existing. The Italians, jealous, revengeful, treacherous, dissembling, servile, vicious, sanguinary, idle and sensual. The Germans, on the contrary, open, good-natured, free from malice and subtlety, laborious, sincere, honest and hospitable—and, with those valuable qualities, properly complaisant. So happy is the character of this People, that to be German-hearted has long been a phrase signifying an honest man who hated dissimulation: and their hospitality was, even in the days of Julius Cæsar, remarkable; for we learn from him, that their houses were open to all men—that they thought it injustice to affront a traveller, and made it an article of their religion to protect those who came under their roof. Did not intemperance in eating and drinking detract from their virtues, no People on earth would bear comparison with them for intrinsic worth, and particularly for integrity in dealing.
The city of Trent, though not very large in circumference, is populous. The high mountains which surround it, subject it to all the inconveniences of heat and cold——rendering the air excessively hot in Summer, and extremely cold in Winter; besides which, they expose the town to dreadful inundations——the torrents that descend from the mountains being sometimes so impetuous as to roll large pieces of rock with them into it, and having several times laid the whole place waste.
There are in Trent many stately Palaces, Churches and religious houses. The only one, however, that I will particularize, is that of Saint Mary Major, noted for a prodigious large organ, which can be made to counterfeit all sorts of musical instruments, together with the singing of birds, the cries of several beasts, and the sounds of drums and trumpets, so exactly, that it is difficult to distinguish between the imitation and the reality. To what an end such an instrument should be set up in a place of worship, I am at a loss to divine, unless it be to add to the rich, useless lumber that fills all those of Popish Countries.
But that which distinguishes this Church still further, is, that it is the place where the famous Council of Trent was held, concerning the Reformation, at which four thousand persons of a public character, Laymen and Ecclesiastics, assisted. This Council sat eighteen years before it did any thing: but at last the Pope contrived to get the ascendant; and, after debating and deliberating so long, not only the Protestants, but even the German and French Nations, refused to receive its decrees. Certain of the Clergy, finding the ascendancy that the negociation of the Pope was getting in this council, said that the Holy Ghost had been sent there from Rome in a cloakbag!
Trent once boasted a curiosity——which indeed still remains, though out of use——that, I think, would be found serviceable in most towns in Christendom, and elsewhere too, and particularly at Bath, and such places. It was a tower on the river Adige, into which the stream was conducted, for the purpose of drowning such of the Clergy as were convicted of having been too familiar with their neighbours’ wives and daughters!
The People of Trent speak promiscuously, and indifferently, both the German and Italian languages; but whether well or not, I was not adept enough to discover.
My next stage was Bassano, a town in the territory of Vincenza in Italy, situated at the end of a very long narrow valley. It is watered by the river Brenta, which washes that very rich, fertile, serene, healthy and plentiful district of Italy, so celebrated for its admirable wines, as well as for its fine pasture-grounds, rich corn-fields, and prodigious abundance of game, cattle, and mulberry-trees; from all which it is called the Garden and Shambles of Venice.
The next day I arrived at an early hour at Venice, the description of which I shall not injure by commencing it with the mutilated fragment of a Letter, and shall therefore postpone it to my next.
Thus, my dear Frederick, have I, in order to preserve the unity and order of my progress, brought you through Germany with a precise regularity, that, if I was not wishing for your improvement, might be dispensed with——yet have left much, very much indeed, untouched, in the confidence that you will yourself have the industry to find it out.
I confess, my dear boy, that I have often, as I wrote, detected myself in excursions from the road into moral reflection——but I could not stop: your improvement was my object in undertaking the business; and I could not refrain from endeavouring to inculcate such lessons as the progress of the work suggested, and as impressed my mind with a conviction of their truth and utility.
You must have observed, that there are two topics on which I dwell very much——one, Liberty——the other, an abhorrence of Bigotry and Superstition. But, before I proceed further, I must call to your remembrance what I have often said, that by Liberty I do not mean that which some people now give that name to——nor do I mean Religion when I speak of Bigotry; for true Liberty is still more incompatible with Anarchy than with Despotism, and Superstition is the greatest enemy of Religion. Let the first object of your heart and soul be true Morality——the next, rational Liberty: but remember, that the one is not to be found independent of Religion, nor the other ever to be enjoyed but under the restraining hands of wholesome laws and good government——such as England now boasts.
In these times, when human opinion is actually polled on the two extremes of political judgment, I know, that to speak rationally, is to incur the censure of both, or to be, as Pope somewhere says, “by Tories called a Whig, by Whigs a Tory:” But I care not——I speak my opinion with the fair face of independence; nor would scruple to tell the King of Prussia my hatred of Despotism, or the Convention of France my abhorrence of Anarchy——between both of which the true and genuine point of Liberty lies; and England, thank God! draws the line.