G. Smallfield, Printer, Hackney.
FOOTNOTES.
[3a] Antillon—I cannot mention this illustrious name without a tribute of admiration and gratitude. A life devoted to virtue and literature, an unwearied struggle in the cause of civil and religious liberty, rewarded by the fatal blow of a hired assassin, leaves behind it an impress on the hearts of the generous and the good which will not and cannot be erased.
[3b] It cannot be denied that the seclusion of the convent is so friendly to contemplation and research, that, literature has been, and still is, greatly indebted to it. A glance at the columns of Nich. Antonio’s Biographical Dictionary will give striking proof of this.
[3c] There are many convents in which no book could be found but the service of mass or the rules of the order. In others, there are excellent libraries, of whose value friars have no idea whatever. In the convent of San Miguel de los Reyes, near Valencia, I examined some of the most interesting MSS. in existence, which are in charge of a brotherhood of unlearned Geronomites. The librarian refused to shew me a celebrated MS. of the Roman de la Rose, “because” (he said) “it was the work of a heretic;” though he added, he had written some verses in it to frighten any inquirer who might accidentally open it. He had been recommending the burning a noble illuminated MS. of the “Divina Commedia,” apparently contemporary with Dante, as “the wretch had dared to send even Popes to hell.” Ancient copies of Virgil, Livy and others, are in some danger, should our zealous friar stumble on their history, and learn that they never went to mass.
[3d] Montalvan.
Es Purgatorio—
Toda dicha, comparada
Con la de un frayle, cifrada
Desde el coro al refectorio.
The whole description is admirable, and I am tempted to introduce it here.
Friend, thou art right! A world like this
Hath nothing equal to the bliss
Enjoyed by yonder lazy friar,
Between refectory and choir!
The morning pass’d in sacred song,
(The task is short—the triumph long!)
Why should our portly friar repine?
Enough for him—good man! to see
His cellar stor’d with rosy wine,
His table pil’d with luxury.
Come now, come with me, and partake
Our friar’s poor and modest board:
Meek sufferer—for Jesus’ sake!
Self-sacrific’d—to please the Lord!!
And is this rich and gay domain
His place of penury and pain?
That table his, where rang’d in state
I see so many jovial brothers,
Each with his fingers in his plate,
And his eyes fix’d upon another’s?
O ’tis indeed a lovely sight
To see thus earth and heav’n unite;
And what an enviable union
Of church and kitchen in communion!
While, hark! a voice at intervals,
The pious grace devoutly bawls
Gratias tibi, Domine!
While up and down their arms are moving
Like engines in a factory:
Thus most indisputably proving
How calm and meek and patiently
These pious souls submit to all
The sorrow, suff’ring and privation
Which may an earthly saint befal:
O unexampled resignation!!Principe Perseguido.
[4a] Much was apprehended from the recalled Jesuits: they came—not the learned, the illustrious fathers of former days, but a handful of ignorant, helpless old men, incapable of good, and, I trust, incapable of evil. Father Juan Andres died in Rome in 1817.