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in the common way : it should be penned and printed like Thalaha . Here is the opening of that poem , written after no such arabesque fashion as Southey supposed , but according to plain sense : — How beautiful is night ! A dewy freshness fills the silent air ; No mist obscures , nor cloud , nor speck , noi' stain Breaks the serene of heaven ; In full-orbed glory , yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark blue depths ; Beneath her steady ray The desert circle spreads , Like the round ocean girdled with the sky . How beautiful is night !' This much-admired passage has the true melody of blank verse , and it may be so written , without any very deadly sin to trouble our consciences : — ' How beautiful is night ! A dewy fresh-Ness fills the silent air ; no mist obscures , Uor cloud , nor speck , nor stain breaks the serene Of heaven ; in full-orbed glory yonder moon Divine—rolls through the dark blue depths ; beneath . Her steady ray the desert circle spreads , Like the round ocean girdled with the sky . How beautiful is night !' But what is hereby gained ? There is often as little pause between two words which are written in different lines as between the two syllables of fresh-ness ; and those who are content that the idea of a line should thus be made a sham , need no longer quarrel with . ' the water gru-El at or absent from the UNiversity of Gottingen . '
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SPENCER'S TOUR THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY . A Tour of Inquiry through France and Italy . Illustrating their Present Social , Political , and Religious Condition . By Edmund Spencer , Esq ., Author of " Travels in Circassian &c . 2 vols . ' Hurst and Blacket ^ Mr . Spencer ' s previous books were devoted to topics in themselves so interesting and unhackneyed , that his qualifications , as a writer , were lost sight of , in the novelty and pleasantness of his subjects . We meet him now on different ground ; and he does not appear to the same advantage . A very ordinary man will arrest the eye , if he appear in the picturesque costume of an Oriental ; but he loses his interest for us the moment he puts on broad-cloth . Mr . Spencer is not a remarkable writer ; not a profound thinker ; not an artist ; not even a statician : he cannot , therefore , place Prance and Italy before us in a novel and more appreciable form ; be cannot give us new views on these countries ; he does not even amass all the detailed information necessary for the thorough understanding of each separate section of these wide-branching topics ; — in a word , his work does not give its raison d ' etre . It might never have been written ; but , since it has been written , we are bound to say that it forms an agreeable and not unsuggestive amusement for a leisure evening or two . Mr . Spencer is an old traveller , and writes like a very pleasant gentleman . All that he has to say we listen to , as to the conversation of one travelling in the same railway carriage , and entitled to a hearing . Nothing strikes us as new , but much of it as sensible . The Tour of Inquiry is a rather ambitious title for the record of an ordinary tour , interspersed with a more than ordinary amount of religious and political '' remark . " Mr . Spencer has a strong feeling against the Catholics , and this runs through the work , giving it unity . It strikes us , however , that he and most other zealous Protestants , prove more than is " safe , " in proving the amount of "imposture" which Catholicism fosters . The very arguments used against Catholic miracles may he turned , with greater force against those of which we have such " irresistible historical evidence . " Let uh quote Mr . Spencer ' s account of Rose Tamisicr : — " It appears that Ko . se Tamisier , the heroine of our tale , had been educated gratuitously in a convent of nuns at Salon , Houches-du-Rhone , where eventually . she became tin inmate , and made herself remarkable by the frequent visits she asserted she was in the habit of receiving from certain saints and angels , above all from the Virgin Alary . At length , impressed with tho belief that to her was confided the divine mission of restoring religion to its original purity in infidel Krai ice , she left the convent , and sought , a retreat in her native village , Saignon , when ; she made her first dvbi \ t on the stage as a miracle-worker , says her biographer , the Abbe Andre , by causing the growth of a miraculous cabbage ! sufficiently large to iced the hungry villagers for several successive weeks , and that during a season of such universal drought , that every other species of vegetation languished or died . In the meantime she refused every species of nourishment , but consecrated wafers , which angels were in the habit , of purloining from the sac-red l ' yx of the Church , wherewith to feed the favourite of Heaven ! and to compensate the good old cure of the Commune , the Abbe Sabon , for their loss , she ; mended his clothes with thread nud bill tons rained from heaven . Hut whether the villagers clamoured for more ( substantial food than cabbage , or the cure demanded a new soutane Cor tin ) loss of bis consecrated wafers , certain it is that one line summer ' s evening she was borne aloft l > y angels , and deposited in the romantic village of St . Saturnin ! " Hi ) to this time the believers in the holy mission of our village saint , chiefly comprised the . simple vine-dresser , the mountain shepherd , and it may be their equally simple cure ; but flic odour of her sanctity , and the fame of her miraculous powers increased so rapidly , and spread so extensively , that she quickly acquired . a lOuropran celebrily . Slit ; bad already performed many surprising miracles , and by the intensity of her devotion caused the representation of across , a heart , a chalice , a spear , and sometimes the image , of the Virgin and Child to appear on various parts of her body , at , first in faint lines , and afterwards so developed as to exude blood ! thereby exciting the ama / . ement and pious admiration ol every beholder . Hut Hhe now workod in the little church of Saint Saturnin the crowning miracle , by causing a picture of ( Ihrist descending from tho cross to emit real blood , and that in prcHeiwe of the parish priest , and a numerous congregation , assembled to witneHis Mm extraordinary event . This to <> k place for tin ; first time on the 10 th of November , IN !> 0 . " Tliu scientific , men of Krance , after despatching several members of their body to ascertain the . exigence of tbeso singular appearances on the body of tho Saint of St . Siiturnin , cumo to the conclusion that intoiiao devotion , whore the mind ih
absorbed in one subject , might from known causes , without the intervention of any supernatural agency , produce similar appearances ; which they termed stygmates sanglant ! But when the statement reached them of blood oozing through the wounds painted on a picture , and at the command of a mere mortal , they confessed science could not afford a satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon . " The affair of the bleeding Christ now assumed an aspect of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the Government ; when M . Grave , the sousprefet of the department , M . Guilliberti juge destruction , M . Jacques , substitufc du procureur de la Kepublique , and other civil and military officers , were despatched to . investigate the correctness of their representations . Even Monsignor , the Archbishop of Avignon , was summoned , with the higher clergy of his diocese , to behold and verify the miracle in proprice persona . these
" On the day appointed by the saint for the performance of the miracle , great civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries , arrayed in the costume and insignia of office , attended her invitation , together with thousands of the curious ^ and devout from every part of the romantic Provence ; and , to prove that no design was entertained of imposing on the credulity of mankind , the painting , at the command of his grace the Archbishop , was remo ved from its place over the high altar , when , lo ! to the astonishment of the awe-struck multitude , the back , which might have contained some machinery for carrying on the imposture , disclosed a numerous colony of spiders , who seemed to have remained there for centuries . Still the blood continued to ooze from the picture of the ' crucified C hrist as fast as his Grace and the Prefet wiped it away with their c ambric hand kerchiefs from the hands , feet , and side of the figure . And what a value did these acquire ! They were immediately cut into shreds , and transmitted to the faithful in every part of France .
" The public authorities and the clergy were satisfied , the spectators were satisfied , and the Archbishop preached an eloquent sermon suitable ^ to so great an occasion ; and , in order that everything should be done systematically and in due form , the Prefet and all the other high dignitaries affixed their names and seals of office to a public document attesting the truth of this most mysterious phenomenon , which was forthwith despatched to Paris , and by means of the public press circulated throughout every country in Christendom . " ' Ah ! it was an imposing spectacle , ever memorable in the annals of France / exclaimed the Abbe M . Grand , the cure of Saint Saturnin , as he pointed out to us , in the little church , the miraculous painting hanging over the high altar . * There knelt the blessed saint herself at the foot of the painting , with the crucifix in her uplifted hands , imploring fieaven to continue the miracle , and by this merciful interposition proclaim to the whole Christian world the severe sufferings of the Saviour , on witnessing the growing infidelity of mankind /
" The fervency with which he expressed himself might be received by the most prejudiced observer , as sufficient evidence to dispel all doubt as to the sincerity of his belief in the divine mission of his protegee . " ' Immediately behind the saint / continued the Abbe , ' knelt his grace the Archbishop of Avignon , with several other dignitaries of the Church , attired in their sacred robes , and surrounded by a host of civil and military officers in their brilliant uniforms ; while thousands who could not gain admittance were to be seen kneeling on the ground outside tbe church and every avenue leading to it , all absorbed in prayer , and so still , that each word pronounced hi the silvery tones of the saint electrified the heart of the hearer . ' " Hose Tamisier was now at the very height of her fame , her miraculous powers acknowledged by tbe highest authorities of tbe land , and her mission adduced by tbe press , and the lectures of the clergy , as a convincing proof of the divine favour of Heaven towards France , in selecting a poor simple-minded peasant as its instrument to call the people to repentance .
"As might be supposed , the fame of the miracle-working saint spread rapidly from city to city , from country to country , till a pilgrimage to St . Saturnin became the fashion of the day . While the sale of tin medals bearing her effigy increased a thousandfold , she deriyed yet more substantial benefit from the jewelled crosses and images of the Virgin set in diamonds presented to her by her numerous friends . Still her enemies , the sceptics , would not yield their faith to the wonder , and man y a painting on canvas might now be . seen in the hands of those , who having bouio slight knowledge of chemistry were indefatigable in their endeavours to ascertain whether it might not be possible to perform a similar miracle , and thus have the honour of unmasking the impostor . But , alas ! the blood of no living thing , cither on the earth , in the air , the water , or under the earth , could be made to flow through the canvas in the same manner as the fluid oozed from the miraculous picture , and which when analyzed at the command of the authorities , was pronounced to be most assuredly the blood of some living creature , but of a purer nature ; than any known on our . sublunary planet .
" The scientific world was puzzled . Any expert mechanician could operate the miracle of a winking or weeping Madonna , any professor of chemistry could liquify blood equally to tbe satisfaction of his audience , as the adroit priest at Naples dissolves that of St . ( Jennarius ! Here , on the contrary , there was no juggling trick ; tbe eye could not detect , evon with the aid of the most'powerful microscope , the smallest , puncture in the front or back of tbe picture , through which it was possible for the blood to distil , and it only hppeared after the most devout prayer and agonized sufferings of tbe saint a simple peasant , who could not be supposed to be acquainted with the difficult science of chemistry . " Tile intellectual man could not explain the mystery , and felt confident ho bad to contend with the inventive brain of some juggler , altogether his superior in running ; and that Jvose Tamisier was his instrument ; but , how to detect , th <; imposture was the question . On the other hand , the devout Romanist contended that . such a miracle ought not . to bo deemed improbable . Were not . the
instruments originally . selected by Divine favour for the propagation of Christianity , taken from among the very lowest ranks of society V And now th . it . infidelity had ditinned itself so widely over the land , and that the ungodly had even lifted their bands against the vice-gcrcnt of Jleaven , driving . him forth to be a wiinderer aniong men , might not this be regarded as a , sign from Heaven to remind tho nations of their ingratitude , and call them lo repentance , by making a poor illiterate woman the instrument , who had no other recommendation Mum her
piety . Now , we beg the render to < H ) inp ? in > thm niirade with any ono of tho inirncIcH of the Ohl or Now TcHliunent , and hco if an fur jih " evidenco " goes it docs not hIm . ihI upon ; i , fjir more aiitlimlur basin . Tho "testimony" in given by men and women of our own time ; digniturien <> i Church and ( Stato " examine" into it , find attest il , H truth by signing a document declaratory thereof ; even " iuiideln , " whatever they way thiuk ot
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66 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1853, page 66, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1969/page/18/
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