SEAL OF WILLIAM, BISHOP OF KILDARE.
The prefixed woodcut represents an impression from the seal of one of the bishops of Kildare anterior to the Reformation, the matrix of which is in the possession of a gentleman in Dublin.
The device exhibits three statues standing in canopied niches, of the florid Gothic or pointed style of architecture of the fifteenth century. The centre figure represents the Virgin and child, and the figures on each side appear intended to represent the patron saints of Ireland. Patrick and Brigid. Below the centre figure there is a smaller niche, containing a figure of another ecclesiastic, with his hands raised, in the attitude of prayer, and his arm supporting the pastoral staff. This figure, it is probable, is intended to represent St Conlæth, the first bishop of Kildare, who was cotemporary with St Brigid, and said to have been the joint founder of that see. On each side of this figure is a shield, one of which bears the arms of France and England quarterly; the other, two keys in saltire, in chief a royal crown; a device which, it is worthy of remark, constitutes the arms anciently and still borne by the archbishops of York, and the appearance of which in this seal may therefore not be easy to account for. The inscription reads as follows:—
“Sigillum Willim dei gracia Kyldarens epi,”
or, Sigillum Willelmi dei gratia Kyldarensis Episcopus (the seal of William, by the grace of God, Bishop of Kildare).
As among the bishops of Kildare two of the name of William occur in the fifteenth century, it may not be easy to determine with certainty to which of them this seal should be assigned; but there appears the greatest reason to ascribe it to the first, who, according to Ware, having been previously archdeacon of Kildare, was appointed to this see by the provision of Pope Eugene IV, in 1432, and, having governed this see fourteen years, died in April 1446.
P.
THE DESOLATION OF SCIO.
(1822.)
A deep, a broken note of woe
Rose from the Archipelago.
The seaman, passing Scio by,
Stood out from shore: the wailful cry
That reached him on the waters blue
Was more than man could listen to;
And when no more the death-cry came,
The rising smoke, the sun-dimmed flame,
The flashings of the scymitar,
Told Scio’s slaughter from afar!
What demon governed your debates,
Ye mighty Christian potentates,
That Greece, the land of light and song,
Should feel the Paynim scourge so long?
That Greece, for all the lore she gave,
Should cry in vain, “Save, Europe, save!”
How could you let the gasping child
Besmear with gore the mother wild?
How could ye let that wild one be
The sport of wanton cruelty?
Or Beauty, from Dishonour’s bed,
Swell reeking piles of kindred dead,
Where mingled, in the corse-fed fires,
The cindered bones of sons and sires!
But all is o’er—the storm hath passed,
Nor oak, nor osier ’scaped the blast,
Nor flow’ret of the loveliest dye—
All, all in one black ruin lie!
In one short day a People fall—
Their mansions make their funeral pall—
Their winding-sheets are sheets of flame—
Their epitaphs, “Shame, Europe, shame!”
Inhuman deed! Oh, murdered race!
To Turk, to Holy League disgrace!
Blush, Christian princes!—heartless men
Who rule the councils, ne’er again
Look on the Cross!—you have its ban—
You crowned it with the Alcoran!
T.
Patriotism.—Patriotism, or love of country, is a sentiment which pervades almost every human breast, and induces each individual to prefer the land of his birth, not because it is better than another country, but merely because it is his country. This sentiment may be illustrated by a variety of anecdotes. Many of the Swiss, on account of the poverty of their country, are induced to seek military service in foreign lands. Yet, in their voluntary exile, so strong is their affection for their native hills, that whole regiments have been said to be on the point of desertion, in consequence of the vivid recollections excited by one of their national songs. A French writer informs us that a native of one of the Asiatic isles, amid the splendours of Paris, beholding a banana-tree in the Garden of Plants, bathed it with tears, and seemed for a moment to be transported to his own land. The Ethiopian imagines that God made his sands and deserts, while angels only were employed in forming the rest of the world. The Maltese, insulated on a rock, distinguished their island by the appellation of “The Flower of the World.” The Javanese have such an affection for the place of their nativity, that no advantages can induce them, particularly the agricultural tribes, to quit the tombs of their fathers. The Norwegians, proud of their barren summits, inscribe upon their rix-dollars, “Spirit, loyalty, valour, and whatever is honourable, let the world learn among the rocks of Norway.” The Esquimaux are no less attached to their frigid zone, esteeming the luxuries of blubber-oil for food, and an ice cabin for a habitation, above all the refinements of other countries.—Fireside Education, by S. G. Goodrich.
If a man be gracious and civil to a stranger, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins them.