July 8th, 1839. A very instructive, and perhaps interesting book might be written under the title, The Secret Diary of a Spanish Inquisitor, or religious aberrations. Imagine a sincere Roman Catholic priest, regularly brought up, and otherwise refined, who at the age of thirty is appointed Inquisitor. He is full of zeal, but has a human heart: he has fully imbibed the prejudices of his education, but his understanding is clear, his reason unperverted, and he loves truth. Prisoners are gradually brought before him, whom he takes a particular pleasure to examine in private. A Protestant discusses his tenets with him, especially respecting authority. The Inquisitor finds many of the prisoner's observations against Rome very weighty, but the constructive part of Protestantism very defective. A total sceptic ;-the Inquisitor is struck with many difficulties against dogmatic religion, but total scepticism, or rather total denial of a religious principle, quite groundless. Lastly, a true Theist; the Inquisitor is caught.-His state of mind under such circumstances. A beautiful Jewish girl, in the prisons of the Inquisition. The Inquisitor in lovehis dangers. He escapes with the girl, loses her, and becomes a victim to what is falsely called Christianity. 11th. My sixty-fourth Birth-day: to what wretchedness was I appointed at my birth! There is an infinite Wisdom to which I submit. Miss and Miss came to see me. This visit increased my sufferings. Most people do not understand real kindness. 19th. I am at that stage of my martyrdom when the flame, which has not been able to extinguish life by suffocation, subsides, and the burning coals melt the limbs. 21st. I have lately read Keightley's Greek and Roman Mythology. It is a well-written book, clever, but rather superficial. The author's ready and contemptuous rejection of the Symbolical System of Creuzer is the effect, I conceive, of his disinclination to write any thing but a book for the London market. 22nd. The unchangeable character of Ecclesiastical perse cution : Multos invenias, quos si interroges, in quibus libris aut in quibus locis (Origenis) dicta sint hæc, quæ arguunt, confitentur, se quidem nescire ea, de quibus affirmant, nec legisse unquam, audisse autem alios dicentes.-The very same thing happened when Dr. Hampden was condemned at Oxford. The Latin passage is from the Preface of an Apology for Origen, written by the Martyr Pamphilus, a Priest of Cæsarea (A.D. 309), in five books, to which Eusebius added one. Nothing but the first book, in Rufinus' Translation, is in existence. 23rd. Letter from Ferdinand, on board the ship "Strabane," Gravesend. He was to sail that afternoon. He commands 129 men and four young officers,the men very young recruits—and no old commissioned officers. August 21st, 1839. Reading early in the morning in the second volume of Michelet's admirable History of France, I found a passage on Flanders, which he calls une Lombardie prosaïque, adding in a Note-Vous y retrouvez la prédilection pour le cygne, qui, selon Virgile, était l'ornement du Mincius et des autres fleuves de Lombardie. Dès l'entrée de l'ancienne Belgique, Amiens, la petite Venise, comme l'appelait Louis XIV. nourissait sur la Somme les cygnes du roi. En Flandre, une foule d'auberges ont pour enseigne le cygne. p. 272. I added in pencil: The swan is to me the poetry of birds. The last swan that has delighted my eyes was, and probably is still, at Redesdale, (the country place of the present Archbishop of Dublin,) the place of my last enjoyments and my last regrets-the regrets of my dying hour. Aug. 21st, 1839. "That which we sometimes call pedantry and innovation, the forced introduction of French words by Chaucer, though hardly more by him than by all his predecessors who translated our neighbours' poetry, and the harsh Latinisms that began to appear soon afterwards, have given English a copiousness and variety which perhaps no other language possesses."-Hallam, Hist. Lit., vol. i. p. 170, 171. It seems presumptuous in me to question this bold assertion. If by variety, we may understand motleyness (sit venia verbo), there is truth in what Mr. H. says: for words of the most various origin have been brought into the language, with scarcely any attempt to naturalize them by modifying their structure. Single words have frequently been introduced; but the most obstinate resistance has at all times been opposed to the use of their derivatives: this resistance takes place even in regard to old English words. The motleyness which I have used will no doubt be objected to; though formed in the most regular manner. Of the Latinisms introduced in the 16th and 17th century, the greatest part are become obsolete. Many of the words of this kind in Johnson's scanty Dictionary are totally disused. My judgment upon this subject will of course be rejected, because it will be supposed to be grounded upon my imperfect knowledge of the language. But I refer myself to the translations from the German which have lately been made by highly educated Englishmen. Does not the poverty and stiffness of the language show itself in the vain attempts to render the thoughts of Niebuhr? It will be said that the difficulty arises from the difference of idiom. The difference of idiom is no insuperable difficulty in translation: if the language translated into is equally copious with that translated from, all that is required is familiarity with both, and taste for the substitution of idiom for idiom. The English language might be copious, in consequence of its want of internal organization. Being a language of mere juxtaposition, any word from any language with an English termination will easily become naturalized. But there is a fastidiousness in the admission of new words which deprives the language of this advantage. The English language is sufficiently copious for purposes thoroughly English: it has great power as used in Parliamentary debates—especially for abuse |