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.