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Leader (1850-1860), 7th April 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 330, Untitled Article

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    • the. AMERICANISMS.*
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      Untitled Article

      abbev and voluntarily -suffered the severest discipline of the cloister , . exchanging all the cc / n . forts of rank and wealth , for the privations of ' a severe monastic life . Ever after , he W regardless of tire external trills of fortune , and bore adversity vvith the same equani-S as prosperity ; -so that , when he fell . into the power of Napoleon . and was carried -off forcibly , " without lmen , without his spectacles , " and with only ten pence in his pocket , he never for a moment lost his serenity , and in his interview with h « Imperial captor , proved quite his equal in spirit and resolution . Iso doubt he felt throughout that he was . a system impersonated , and haa not the shadow of fear , AH Dr . Wiseman ' s efforts , therefore , , enlist our sympathy for the man ,:. as . displaying individual heroism of an unworldly kind—notwithstanding- the pressure of destitution and the inconvenience of . imprisonm ent—necessarily fail for there was nothing . even in the captive condition of Pius VII . that put him to the smallest real inconvenience or inspired him with the slightest terror . The state of mind which he retained was part of the system , and implied in the discipline to which he had subjected his youth . Ever mindful that he was a Pope , he forgot that he was also a Man ; the school that had made him the former , had unmade the latter , He , perhaps , also , was a sincere celibate , and not a mere hypocritic sham . Dr . Wiseman throws no light on this point , but leaves us to infer that , in it , whether as monk or pope his hero was-immaculate . ' As the latter , he is praised lor ffoin ^ through the routine of his daily duties with exemplary rWuTaritv and patience . He had , in fact , all the virtues of an accurate machine , and was a faithful servant of the Church as wellas its master , Nevertheless , the Papal Church fell into tribulation in his time , from the defective working of the system of which be - >> was a part What did he do to improve that working-, or the system itself ? Cardinal Wiseman replies , " that which befitted a in an who was neither before nor behind his age . " Had Piusacted otherwise , he contends , and probably with justice , "he would have been ridiculed , deserted , and abused by all parties , wing or tory , conservative or radical , as a fanatic , an unreasonable phenomenon , a man behind the age , which had outgrown revolutionary fancies . . ; That is enough . Pius YH . was a respectable cog- in the wheel , not a . j spirit re « ulnting its motion or modifying its structure , as he might , 5 have done , from within . The highest claim set upfor ^ mn . ( and j this claim is expressed in a paragraph not to be exceeded in the picturesque grandiloquence of its expression , or the mutac ot its march ) is one purely of an histrionic kind—his beTiaviour at a striking public , ceremonial . We are invited to contemplate the j . Pope ,-as borne aloft on an estrade and ¦ beneath a canopy , -in . the ¦ attitude of worship , clasping the golden Monstrance wifli an intensity j of devotion that nothing- might disturb ; " the hands firmly and immovably clasped at the base of the sacred vessel ; the head bent down , not in feebleness but in homage ; the closed eyes , that saw none of the state and magnificence around , but shut out the world from the calm and silent meditation within ; the noble features so composed that no etrpresHi ' on of human feeling or of earthly thought . could be traced irpon , or gathered from , them ; the bare head , scarcely ever uncovered except then , with locks still dark floating unheeded in the breeze '« -these characteristic forms and appearances of a human frame , unmoving and unwaveringns a sculptured figure , mi ^ ht have been taken as the purest and subhmest , . symbol oi entranced adoration . " And what is the ineaning of this ? > ot content with being Christ's Vicar , the Pope will also ^ represent the Jewish Lawgiver when conversing with ( Jod on Sinai ; — - and thus , borne qn the shoulders of . marching men , his Holiness , without any warrant from Scripture , mounted on a public platform , a Having sta « -e , enacts before a street-crowd ( i blasphemous mockery _ o £ that mysterious act in the life of the Hebrew leader . Bitfi . our Cardinal insists on our regarding the scene us a reality . " Abstracted ^ says the writer , " from all that sense could perceive , and ojpntred m one thought , in one act of mind , soul , and heart , in one dutjf # lwnat duty PI of his sublime office , one privilege [ whence derived fj * of his suprotno commiHsioii ; — he [ the Pope ] felt , and was , and you knew him to ho , what ¦ . Mosus was on this mountain , -hface to face , fop all the people , with God _; the Vicar , with his Supreme Pontiff ; the chief shepherd , with the Prince of Pastors ; the highest and frt'st of hvmg men , with the One living God , " And this , in so many words , is the Cardinal's sincere belief on this point ; he bus educated his mind to credit this—the veriest absurdity that was ever played oil to delude a ( rapingpopulace—as jux actual interview botweontho 1 ope , as Mosos , mid QoA as the One Living Doity . J 3 c that as it , may , this mountebank exhibition is ,, in the CVdiniil ' a opinion , the highest . effort of which Pius VII . was capable j a piece of acting m which he excelled all other notors . The imagination of Cavtlinnl Wisoman seems , indeed , to have been strangely impressed with a conviction of : tho identity of the Pope and HMTosos , Wo nioet with the idea again in hia Life of Loo 3 fU . and also with that othor idea to which wo have alluded , and by which a necessary diminution is made between the Pontiff and a inun . _ lnlco them both in tho conglymorato as they stand n \ tho text , lie is describing tho coronntion of Leo : — « But tho Pono himself , aa ho flrafc roao , and than Imolti at tho deacon ' s approach , must have defied the sharpest oyo that souyhfc in hiei « . ffloam of human fiwlhw . Dcop arid u l-abaorbin | j dovotion Imparted a glow to hie pSSturv ' sf an 1 , h wcvor hie person fnight bo aummndod by olv . l pomp S « Soua n . aniuoonco , It was clour that his Bpli' } b wub ooneoiuiw ol only oneSingle Prosecco , add stood ns much ulono aa Mmw could he mid to lo zvlth Onool / ioi' only besides himaolf on Stnttl . Still aothig ^ purq noting ^ and with that characteristic ,, too * I ¦ which Dr . Johnson intended to express whon ho paid ot the

      | celebrated Garrick that " Punch has no feelings . " The sanctuary is to the Pupe a theatre ; and , in the Cardinal ' s mind , this is its principal and characteristic excellence . The notion , it may be said , is in . keeping with the encouragement that the Clmrch has given to art . But we must pause , for we are told that Leo XII . was a reforming Pop ' e . He showed himself , indeed ^ qui te as great a patron of Art as any of his predecessors , but he was most anxious , forsooth , that morality should not be compromised by iL A group Of statues in the new gallery erected by his predecessor disappeared after his -first visit , as " gradually other pieces of ¦ ancient sculpture offensive to Christian modesty . " YVheii a magnificent collection of engravings representing Canova ' s works had been prepared , he purchased , " says the Cardinal , " the plat .-s at an immense cost— -I believe at Florence—that he might-suppress-and destroy such as were not consistent with delicacy of morals . " In other words , Leo XII . was guilty of a great act of vandalism . We hope that his other reforms were better directed . That of the suppression of the cross of light usually suspended from this dome of St . Peter ' s on Thursday and Friday of the Holy " Week certainly was not . " It was over-beautiful ; it attracted multitudes who went only to . see its grand effects . " Enough ! The man ' s teuden- _ cies were ' evidently all to the ascetic . \ Two other Popes remain ; Pius VIII ., acute in canon law , and Gregory XVI ., profound in antiquarian research . Of those four Popes , the last was the only one who enjoyed a robust constitution : the others were infirm in health . It has ever been ihe policy of the Cardinalate to select the aged and the weak for ' -the'Apostolic Chair . A really vigorous Pope wouid endanger the whole systeni . lhe present Pdpe tried to do something , and the world knows , what came of it . Compelled- ' now to attempt nothing , Cardinal Antonelli has long held him in chains , and . the ancient course of corruption still maintains a ruinous proclivity froin bad to worse , from worse to worst . The last stage has been 4 oug neared , and there-. is .. hope * therefore , that things may soon mend . Allis now . in agitatioii ; everywhere the world ecclesiastic trembles . Shocks . of an enrthqualve from time to time are perceptible . A thorough revolution was needed , and is now at hand . From the old systeni higher ..-results thaii those described in Cardinal "Wiseman's book were not : obtainable , liead in the inner spirit , those results are mean and unsatisfactory—frequently perverse and retrograde , never progres' sive—never ' in the interest of life and truth , _ bufc , mere hypocritical pretences , whose real aim was to support ex-fstin . gr abuses where these were profitable to individuals . The best of Popes could not be-other , tlian a more or less accomplished actor in a certain round of routine ceremonials ; the real business of the papacy is managed by office-holders over whom he has no control . Such a state must soon perish . Let the finger of Reform but touch one stone , and the ' entire edifice must fall into cureless ruin .

      rrUIE Yankee nptjou of a joke is gross in extreme . Neither neat-JL ness rior brilliancy is attempted . . Along sailor-like yarn , involving an impossibility or a quasi-bull—llibernian only in its form , but mi in its spint-i-passe ^ for a standard jest . Its journalism is also in . lcsted with abortive attempts at wit , clumsy in . their kind , and impracticable in their exeGtiuon . An America ^ editpr sustains himself by impudent assertion , coarse abuse , and verbal clenching , void of meaning , but ] abrogating cleverness . In the latter , both writer and reader take the will for the deed- and probably , if the pun , however poor , relate to some topic or event of the moment of any interest , both laugh—for want Qf something better to laugh at . They are like great hoys at school , as yet halfeducated who make tentative efforts at humour , whioli require tune and experience to- ' ripen . ' A certain proviuc . ialisiii , in fact , infects' their local literature , which may be fitted for its local habitation , but is no wise built for a cosmopolitan iijuucnee : B . cyond Us birtliplacc it has no vuluc ; , after its birthday it has no . life . * ¦ ¦ ,. , ,. , . . ,, e The editor of the Louisville Journal and bis publishers arc evidently ot a very different opinion . For nine-amt-twohty years the former Imd pleased himself and his readers in that periodical witli his " wit and humour in paragraphs ; " and in the N < tw YvrA Ledyar , within the last two vears . he bus carried on a similar game to tho . satisfaction of Jus public And now the timfi has arrived when the powers have declared that these witticisms should take a permanent place in English literature . Accordingly we have them in a book . These gems of journalism are enshrined in a volume of their own . Qf these specially preserved paragraphs , there are probably more than two thousand ; and one reasonably expected that , many of them would , at least , prove amusing . We must , of course , make allowance - for newspaper jokes becoming stale and out of date . The bloom would necessarily have boon brushed oil' from several of them by the mere wing of Urno ; but one might have hoped for a flown or two that would still respond to question . Alas ! it is scarcely possible to produce a tolerable example ot wit or humour . We dip into the book ut a venture , and produce the following , which it may bo considered is one of the bant . nnfft Ki rt " The Padiioah paper calls one of our city contemporaries , n notable editor . ' Probably he ' ineuiis nut at / la . " ., . - .. „ . „ . This faculty of small punning is characteristic of tho collection , lhe next , no ijoubb , was reckoned capital s— ¦ .,...., ' n of a * , i , h » «• WO suppose there can be up deputing the fact that the first Arktic expedition was got up by Noah . " ' . * 3 > roiitlrmntat or , If'It and llniuunr la 1 ' araf / rapha . JJ ^ -tho Editor of tho iZliotZ Jo ^ ml , Wo * Vo ^ i »^ y and Juokaon ; London : S . Low , Sons , and Oo . . Tho Hqawn'Vhkot , Wohurd Uonlloy . ««„ , ««« li inhni '' N ltltuir ( North OuroliinO kttwncn and Clmn «>( crs . Jty " * "» vhowlflfii Smr ' . iUustruted by JoUu MoLo . mn . V » mv * m Uw , Son , nnd Oo ^

      Untitled Article

      April 7 , 1860 . J Tfie Leader' and Satvrday Analyst . J ^}

      The. Americanisms.*

      the . AMERICANISMS . *

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1860, page 330, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2341/page/15/