Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

INEQUILIBRIUM OF WEALTH.

181

in some other parts of the world. If wealth accumulates, beyond all reasonable proportion, in one class, and that the least numerous of society, KNOWLEDGE, which is truly said to be POWER, will ultimately impel the larger and destitute class to organize physical force for the destruction of monopoly and the more equal distribution of wealth. This, it is true, will be ROBBERY, attended by blood-shed, and all kinds of crimes. But if Providence permit the hurricane to restore the equilibrium of the atmosphere, while it sweeps whole cities, with all their inhabitants, to destruction, it may sanction the storm of revolution, which subverts the foundations of society, to cure evils that have been growing for ages, fostered by the blind cupidity and the avarice of the human race. The history of the world, and of human nature teaches us that example, or even experience, has little or no influence on man, when his selfish passions are concerned. He will risk all rather than lose a part. When Cicero informed Ptolemy, King of Cyprus, that he might retire, with a certain part of his property, he refused. He went out to sea in a ship, with his treasures, determined to sink himself and them, in one common watery grave. His courage amounted to the destruction of himself; but it could not be wound up to the immersion of his riches in the ocean. He sailed back-deposited his money and jewels in safety for his enemies— and then committed suicide! The application of this historical fact to existing circumstances, is not difficult. Our great depositaries of wealth will not concede to measures that may sacrifice a part to preserve the remainder. They will obstinately retain all, like Ptolemy, till the moment when they must lose all !

Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementit.

It is obviously the interest of popes, priests, and despots to check the dissemination of knowledge among their subjects. Such checks are the only means of procrastinating their power, whether founded on superstition or tyranny. But the gradual illumination of the human mind cannot be long retarded by any means—and much less can it be again precipitated into utter darkness by the irruption of Goths and Vandals from the North. That small, but talismanic engine, the PRESS, would foil the thrusts of ten million of bayonets, could they be collected and pointed against learning and liberty. To stop the progression of these, would not be less difficult than to hurl back the mighty waters of the Rhine to their icy sources in the Alpscheck the fall of the roaring Niagara-or arrest the stream of TIME itself, of which KNOWLEDGE is a branch. Yet purblind power, imperious pride, and selfish passion will attempt these impossibilities. CHAOS may come again, though not in darkness.

Whether the tree of knowledge, when climbed by all, shall be found to yield the fruit of happiness to all, is a problem which time alone can solve. The experience of the past can throw but little light on the future, in this

respect. If virtue has not always gone hand in hand with learning, it does not appear to have been from any necessary incompatibility of their coexistence. The same progress of civilization which gives energy to literature and science, gives also activity and growth to vice!

One thing, however, appears probable; namely, that in proportion as knowledge becomes more equally diffused, its acquisition will be less highly esteemed. What is possessed by all can confer distinction on none. Hence the equalization of learning, arts, and sciences, will be the most mighty of all LEVELLERS. Nor will it be necessary for this levelling system, that the attainment of knowledge should go wide and deep through every ramification of society. Far from it. A certain amount, and a certain dissemination of this precious but dangerous commodity will work wonders-whether of good or evil!

Hitherto the heads of a few have guided the hands of the many-and one channel of thought has fed and set in motion ten thousand springs of action. Ere long, each brain will think for itself, and plan for the common weal. If, in such case, there be any lack of wisdom, it certainly will not be from want of multiplicity of counsellors! Such a state of things is rapidly approaching -nor can it be prevented, even on this oppressed soil, by the Austrian bayonet or Papal crosier. Human wisdom may do much to mitigate the evil, if it be one, by meeting it half way, and lessening the impetus of the revolution. Obstinacy may render the collision of two extremes most awful and destructive!

But this is a digression-a train of reflexions which floated on my mind, while the cicerone of the mansion wasted his pictorial-or rather his parrot learning on my unconscious ear. He doubtless considered me, and I fear with much justice, one of the most stupid and incurious visitors that ever handed him five pauls at the end of the circuit. And yet he made me as low a bow, at parting, as ever obsequious parasite made to minister or minion of

a court.

I formerly alluded to the silence of the streets of Rome. This, however, relates to the "hum of man," and not to the clattering of hammers—to vocal, not instrumental music. In no city of the world, hardly excepting Birmingham, is there heard more discordant sounds than in the capitol of this land of music. In Rome and Naples, no trade, at least no noisy trade, is kept a mystery, except that of religion, which takes care to join in the chorus. Every artisan who wields a sledge, brandishes a hammer, grates a file, turns a lathe, or impels a chissel, pursues his avocations in open shops, and in the best streets, close to the ear of the deafened passenger.* This "concord of sweet

* The reason of all this is the CLIMATE. If artisans had not the advantage

BEGGARS-CICERONI.

183

sounds" is somewhat mellowed and varied by the solemn chauntings from the numberless churches, and the never-ending dirge of CARITA from the army of mendicants! If there were no other draw-backs on happiness or even common enjoyment, than the sight and solicitation of beggars, I would not live in Italy, with the palace and revenue of the richest cardinal. Time must, of course, reconcile the eyes and ears of my countrymen and countrywomen, to the sights and sounds of wretchedness, penury, deformity, and disease, in all the "sad variety of woe;"-else they would fly from the daily and hourly contemplation of their species in the lowest depth of dirt, degradation, and despair! While surveying, with aching and humiliated heart, these swarms of loathsome and horrible objects, the impious question has sometimes flashed across my mind-can these crawling wretches be destined for a bright immortality in the skies, denied to the noble and instinctive animals who never deviate from the laws and forms impressed on them by the hand of their Creator? Such impious thoughts, however, are soon quelled by the reflexion that, whether raised above, or sunk below the level of the brute creation around him, Man has still that awful gift of responsibility— REASON, whether it be dormant or developed-cloathed in rags, or crowned with diadems. He alone, of all created beings, has the power and the permission to sink beneath his rank in the great scale of animated nature—and he alone ought to suffer the penalty. Those too, who, as rulers, contribute to this degradation of their fellow-creatures, will have to answer for their conduct. Those who trample over, are still more guilty than those who are trampled down!

I bear as great an aversion to that tip-staff of antiquity, the Roman Cicerone, as to the London bailif. They both abridge the liberty of the subjectand to neither of them do I ever wish to give employment. Here, as elsewhere, I indulged my peripatetic propensities, perambulating alone through the streets of the eternal city, by day and by night, in the full enjoyment of solitude and meditation-of first impressions, and of undisturbed reflections. By this procedure I saw a great deal more than the CICERONE would have shewn me, without being compelled to listen to endless conjectures. My object in Rome was not so much to hear the fictions of the past, as to see the realities of the present. Time did not permit, and inclination did not lead me to spend all my hours in exploring an endless series of monotonous churches and palaces. Some fifty of the former and half-dozen of the latter sufficed to satisfy my curiosity on those points. I wandered in preference through almost every street and lane on both sides of the Tiber ;-where I was enabled

of such open air and shade as the street and the ground-floor afford them, they would live a shorter time than they even now do. This explanation checks the irritation we feel from the annoyance.

to see with my own eyes, and permit the current of thought to take its natural course, instead of listening to the perpetual chatter of the Cicerone.

It was in one of these desultory peregrinations, and while carefully steering between stinking fish, pungent onions, rotten cabbages, and reeking entrails of animals, that I found myself actually within the portico of the—

PANTHEON.

There needed not the original inscription on its cornice, almost as plain as when chisselled in the days of Agrippa, to tell me where I was. A posse of mendicants soon drove me from this noble portico, and I entered the body of the venerable temple, where, by the light of Heaven, from its summit, I gazed around on its pious and pillared walls.

"Holy St. Francis, what a change is here!"

The tradition of the TITANS is no fable. The sons of Coelus and Terra have, indeed, stormed Olympus, and put every god and goddess to flight. The thrones and seats of Jupiter, Juno, and the great celestial deities, are now quietly and securely occupied by their Patagonian usurpers, male and femaleby MADONNAS and MARTYRS, with pink sashes, faded roses, red petticoats, tin crowns, and tinsel decorations-on whose altars are laid votive offerings, too plainly, though not too faithfully, indicating the heart-sickening depravities and infirmities, moral and physical, of the multitudes who have polluted the porphyry floor of the Pantheon ! Is Jupitor Ultor, to whom the fane was first dedicated, meditating no vengeance, in his long exile, on the painted and pasteboard usurpers and successors of his throne? I suspect that he is. The Pope and the priesthood are now steering between Scylla and Charybdis -the rocks of idolatry and infidelity! If they relax in their mummery and superstition, they lose their hold on the populace, and with it their loaves and fishes. If they persevere, they will draw on them the derision and contempt of enlightened Europe. Unfortunately, they have not even the alternative of these two courses. They must persevere, because blindness and idolatry give the best chance of lasting their day. Their successors must shift for themselves. And, indeed, many of them may conscientiously think that a belief in purgatory, intercession, and remission, is better than no belief except that of final extinction of the soul by death.

The flood of light which pours in from an Italian sky, through the summit of the temple, and amply illuminates every part of its vast area, strongly contrasts with twinkling tapers that are kept burning, for no apparent purpose, before the shrines of its present idols. That system of religion must, indeed, be in darkness, which requires numerous lighted candles in the middle of the

[blocks in formation]

day! Goths and Vandals, Princes and Popes, Cardinals and laymen, have stripped the Pantheon of its bronze, silver, and statues—but no brush, broom or towel has ever been applied to its interior or exterior since the revival of learning and the extinction of decency in Italy. Why does not his HOLINESS -(and we should then entitle him his CLEANLINESS) the POPE, turn the neighbouring fountain of TREVI through the square, the portico, and even the cella of the Pantheon ?-Why, indeed, are the innumerable fountains of Rome permitted to waste their sweets upon the desert air, without being made available for washing the streets?

It is extremely difficult to believe that the dimensions of the Pantheon and the dome of St. Peter's are the same. The former appears to be twice the size of the latter. This may be partly owing to proportion-but perhaps it is principally attributable to the dome of the modern Polytheon being placed over an edifice infinitely larger than itself. Every thing in this world is estimated by comparison with its neighbour. The Pantheon is considered the

" pride of Rome," because the most perfect of all her now remaining ancient edifices. It is rather more ancient, but surely not so perfect as Trajan's Column. This last has never been equalled-much less surpassed—while Michael Angelo has made the "pride of Rome," a cupola to a modern temple.

JEWS' QUARTER.

I had come to the full conclusion that it was impossible to improve upon, that is, to surpass the dirtiness of Rome, notwithstanding that Mr. Matthews has given the palm of victory to Lisbon. I strolled one day into a quarter where, the filth of the streets and the features of the people assumed a different cast from what the eye had been accustomed to in the city generally. An observance of the seed of Abraham, wherever planted, between China and Peru, convinced me that, however climate may blanch or tinge the complexion, the Hebrew features will remain essentially the same in every parallel of latitude and longitude. No one can traverse that part of Rome which lies between the Capitol and the Isola Tiberina, without perceiving that he is in the midst of one of the tribes of Israel. Poor Moses is obliged to take out an expensive license for permission to see the light of heaven, whether under the cross or the crescent! It would be difficult, however, for human ingenuity or malice to devise a more cruel or ignominious tribute for breathing the mephitic atmosphere of the Campagna, than what the Romans have imposed on the Jews-that of being more filthy than themselves! Almost every one, indeed, who has narrowly scrutinized the Eternal City, will be ready to deny the possibility of the thing, and to exclaim-credat Judæus, non ego ! But however impracticable or impayable this tax may have appeared, even to

B b

« AnteriorContinuar »