416 Progress of Literature in different Ages. soil, and all the genial accompaniments of such latitudes. It has, again, on the other hand, been assumed, that all the productions of Eastern climes partake, in a certain degree, of langour, feebleness, and puerility, of conception, if not in works purely of fiction, yet in all their efforts of a scientific nature, or in literary undertakings which require more application or seriousness of thought, and that, as we leave the equinoxial regions, and approximate towards the North, the more frequent do we find the signs of boldness and originality of invention and of intellectual vigour. Of these theories, the first stands supported by no inconsiderable proportion of facts. In works of agreeable fiction in particular, those countries bordering on the regions from whence the ancestors of mankind first emigrated, may have always, in a greater or less degree excelled. "The Arabians and Persians," says an elegant writer, "have always been the greatest Poets of the East, and among them, as amongst other nations, Poetry was the earliest vehicle of all their learning. Arabia also has been long famed for the alluring compositions of fancy, which indicate at least a warmth and exuberance of colouring, and certainly matured about the time of the middle ages, upon her prolific soil, whole swarms of Physicians, Sages, Poets, Orators, and Rhetoricians, who filled their libraries, and transplanted their arts into surrounding, and even distant lands." Multiplied examples of the force and original beauty of the Eastern writers have always been selected from the Sacred Writings, especially from the Prophets, as Dr. Lowth and other Divines have so judiciously pointed out. Of such a character is the Book of Job, the Song of Solomon, and many parts of the writings of David, which have long been celebrated as occasionally displaying in their respective authors, force of sentiment, vigour of thought, and a mind well stored with images. It is reasonable to imagine that countries subject to the fructifying influences of a benign atmosphere, may, by the variety of beautiful objects which variegate their face, by the stores of Nature's gifts, which [May, adorn her vegetative domain, afford to their respective inhabitants a vast superiority over their neighbours of a more inhospitable climate and soil, in point of descriptive eloquence, and copiousness and capacity of utterance. Their ideas may proportionally expand, and their imagination, having a wider field in which to expatiate, may launch out into happy similitudes and innocent combinations, to which those who live in climates marked with comparative sterility, and struggling under accumulated privations of a physical kind, are strangers. The luxuriancy of soil, and richness of vegetation which distinguishes many of the Islands of the Mediterranean; their atmosphere, -mild under the perpetual influence of the sun, and wafting the breezes of a thousand aromatic shrubs, were, doubtless, powerful instruments in assisting the fervid inspirations of some of the antient Poets of Greece and Rome, and, we may add, as corroborative of the hypothesis of the influence of climate upon the human genius, the sportive and sprightly Theocritus, in his beautiful Idyllia, seems especially, to have profited from the peculiarly fortunate situation in which his muse was unfolded. As a pastoral writer, observes an intelligent commentator of this Poet of rural life, he found every advantage in the delicious climate and luxurious landscapes of Sicily. No country could have presented them with a more beautiful assemblage of rural images. The picturesque scenery of the bills and the vallies diversified beyond, an almost endless variety of trees and shrubs; - the grottos, precipices, and fountains, of the most romantic appearance; and the sweetness and serenity of the skies;-all these, combined with the tranquillity of retirement, in awakening the Muse and inspiring the Pastoral numbers." If, as is farther remarked, this attractive writer described what he saw and felt; if "his scenes are the immediate transcript of Nature," it may by no unfair inference be assumed, that the productions of the writer of imagination receives, at once, oftentimes a powerful assistance and a peculiar character. It was an opinion of that eminent critic, Dr. Blair, that the strong hyperbolical perbolical manner which we have been long accustomed to call the Oriental manner of poetry, because some of the earliest poetical productions came to us from the East, -is characteristical of an age, ra ther than of a country;-and be longs, in some measure," to all nations of that period which first gives rise to music and to song." Diversity of climate and of manner of living will however," the same author remarks, "occasion some diversity in the strain of the first Poetry of Nations. Thus," he continues, "we find all the remains of the antient Gothic Poetry remarkably fierce, and breathing nothing but slaughter and blood; while the Peruvian and Chinese songs, turn from the earliest times upon milder subjects. The Celtic Poetry, in the days of Ossian, though chiefly of the martial kind, yet had, in consequence of long cultivation, obtained a considerable mixture of tenderness and refinement." There is, likewise, a considerable share of reason, as well as of fact, to be adduced in favour of the latter hypothesis. It may be said that, throughout Turkey, and indeed all Mahometan countries, an indolence prevails, (which perhaps might be chiefly traced to physical causes,) highly inimical to active intellectual exertions, -to bold sallies of thought, or nervous exhibitions of style and of sentiment. Montesquieu has somewhere remarked, concerning the natives of America, "Ce qui fait qu'il y a tant de nations sauvages Ameriques? C'est que la terre y produit d'elle-même beaucoup de fruits dont on peut se nourrier." Although the fallacy of this apho rism, as far as it relates to the Americans, has been properly exposed by a succeeding writer, it serves at least, in the abstract, to shew that Montesquieu assumed that a luxu... riant soil, spontaneously producing the richest fruits of Nature,-tends to enervate the human character and mind,- an opinion certainly not destitute of support. It has again been often remarked, that the inhabitants of Northern climes pre-eminently evince, in their habits of thinking, and their comGENT, MAG. May 1821. SIR WATKIN, GREAT. exertions have of late been used in the Principality with the view of cultivating the Welsh Language and Literature; and to promote these laudable objects, I observe a Society formed in London, at the head of which is your name. As a native of the Principality, I feel a lively interest in the views of that Society. No language, in my opinion, is too insignificant to merit neglect, and I am sufficiently acquainted with the Welsh to pronounce it eminently deserving of the attention exhibited towards it by the Cambrian Institution. Having said thus much by way of preface, lest I should be considered obnoxious to the charge of any disregard to the interest of my country, I come to the point upon which I take the liberty of addressing you. You are well aware, Sir, that for centuries past, the Welsh Language has been falling gradually into disuse, and the English making rapid advances in the Principality. Such has been the progress of the latter, of late years, that all the respectable part of the Inhabitants are more conversant in it, than in the former; and even the lower orders are not withthe case, I beg leave to propose the out a smattering of it. This being question to the consideration of your Society-whether the plan adopted, to promote the cultivation of the Welsh Language, is not likely to be productive of more evil than good, as regards the real interests of the natives: as it has evidently a strong tendency to check and impede that progress 418 Impolicy of reviving the Welsh Language. progress which the English has been making in that part of the country. This, I think, cannot fail to be the result of the zeal evinced for the Welsh Language, unless some method is bad recourse to, in order to counteract it. To estimate aright the evils arising from the cultivation of the Welsh Language, to the detriment of the English, it will be necessary to take a cursory view of the situation of affairs in Wales, connected as it is at present with England, as respects its religion, its laws, its commerce, and the disposition of its inhabitants. The use of two languages, instead of one, in a religious point of view alone, is productive of no inconsider able evil. As the languages now stand, the service of the Church is performed partly in Welsh, and partly in English; the prayers in the one and the sermon in the other; and so vice versa. Thus one part of the congregation is ever defrauding the other of the benefit of their religion. But the lower orders, on the English Sunday, desert the Church and attend the Conventicle. Having this plea at first for seceding from the establishment, they, by degrees, become professed sectaries; and thus, it must be allowed, religion and morality receive a deep and lasting wound. The next consideration, which, though it be in reality but a second ary matter, yet, as it is less remote in its consequences, will, no doubt, by many be deemed of primary importance, is the administration of justice. The laws are dispersed, and all the written transactions of the Country are carried on in the English Language. On this head the evils are incalculable, and the difficulties often insurmountable. In cases of libel, or defamation, which originated in the Welsh, and are now brought into Court to be tried in the English Language, the parties are frequently foiled, and the ends of justice defeated. No language will admit of a literal translation, or is always capable of giving every word its full force and meaning in another. The Judges are totally ignorant of the Welsh, the Barristers equally so, and the Attorneys, not uncommonly, without any knowledge of it. The issue of the whole matter then rests on the fide [May lity of the Interpreter, who is not, at all times, the most competent for his office. And how, I would ask, can justice and equity be administered in such a case? But the evil does not rest even here. I have myself been present on the Carmarthen Circuit, when, to my personal knowledge, one half of the Jurors were utterly unacquainted with the language in which they were addressed by the Judge; and this too in deciding on the life and death of a fellow creature. As the English and Welsh are now blended and interwoven, by mutual interest, by laws, by commerce, and by intermarriages, it would be for the advantage of the latter of these, were there no Welsh Language; and I mean no disparagement to my country when I say so. But until England becomes Wales, and Wales England (if I may so express it) I would have no man fill a public office without a knowledge of the Welsh Language. The worthy Bishop of St. David's has wisely laid it down as a rule, that no Clergyman should be ordained, or instítuted to a Living in his Diocese, without having first made himself master of the vulgar tongue, in which the service of his Church is generally performed. And, till the desirable end be attained, that the commonalty have but one language for their daily transactions, I would that there were neither Judge nor Magistrate appointed to such an office before he understood the Welsh. tice business is attended in most instances with much difficulty, and even expense, to the lower orders, arising from the little knowledge which Magistrates generally possess of the Welsh tongue; and the matter, at last, is but indifferently done. Jus As the Welsh have for a long series of years past been emulous of imitating the English in their dress, language, manners, and customs, I think it much to their advantage, that every possible encouragement should be given to the English tongue in the common transactions of life, that they might more properly become one people, without distinction of languages, under the same government and the same laws. I cannot therefore but be of opinion, that the attempts now making by by the London Institution to revive the antient spirit of the natives for their mother tongue, will tend greatly to impede their desirable end. It should therefore be understood, that the views of the Society are meant to be confined to the preservation of the Welsh Language in its native purity, merely as a dead language; and some method adopted on the other hand, to promote the use of the English. Should any one be disposed to insinuate that the writer, by the above observations, discovers a deficiency in the true spirit of his country; his answer is that it is his regard for his country alone which bas induced him to offer them, and that he deems he consults its best interests by ob truding them on the notice of his brother Welshmen. Mr. URBAN, THE D. W. May 12. 1 HE recent discussion in the Ecclesiastical Court, and the Judgment pronounced by the enlightened Judge who presided, in the case of Iron Coffins, (see p. 463) has disclosed a subject which well deserves Legis lative inquiry. In endeavouring to settle a proper fee for Burials in this new patent mode of preparing bodies for interment, the value of the space of ground in the Church-yard came fairly into consideration, and it appeared that upon application through several of the parishes, the demand differed according to the limited space of the Burial-ground in some, and according to the extent of the parochial population in others; and this had brought forward a che mical question of the durability of iron beyond that of wood. But in all of them, the space for interment has been generally shewn to be too small, even in addition to the vaults under the Churches. Now, if we look back to the 50 new Churches erected in the reign of Queen Anne, we shall travel over the space of 100 years, in which continual burials, crowded together, have taken place in the metropolis and the vicinity, without any step, except the decay of nature acting upon bodies in humed in damp earth, having been adopted to preserve the immense mass of corruption from one day overpowering the health of the city. In many of the vaults of Churches, the coffins remain crammed together and piled in heaps on each other, unseen and undistinguishable, except in cases where persons of property have obtained a secluded vault for themselves! It is well known, that the deeper any grave is dug in the Church-yard, the fees are justly increased in proportion to the labour, and this affords a reason to account for the far greater number of burials being laid too near the surface, especially of those of the poor. The deeper the body is laid, the more secure it is from the chance of disturbance by neighbouring graves being dug, and the more probable it is, that the dampness of the earth would operate to its more speedy decay; for the oak, of which the coffin is generally made, receives or emits a corrosive moisture, which subdues the lead, of which the inward coffin is generally made, and if there be no lead coffin, the decay may be quicker; I believe this is the fact, but the chemists can better explain it. Hence it would be very advantageous for the living, if the dead were inhumed as deeply as pos sible; and we always find among antient nations, that where it was not their practice to burn the body of the deceased, the interment was either very deep in the earth, or their tomb was sunk many feet still deeper; as those of Cheops and Cephrenes, below the Pyramids of Memphis, and those of Psammeticus and Necho, now exhibiting by Belzoni, (see p. 447), af. ford eminent proofs. We cannot think ourselves secure from plague, or any other fatal visitation, which would, if it should ever happen again, necessarily lay open our charnel-houses and our burial places so extensively as to produce an addition to such a fatality. In a populous parish, and where there is any hospital for the relief of poor persons afflicted with any conta gious distemper, great numbers are consigned to the grave within much too small a space from the surface for the security of passengers; but this danger is most seriously increased when any of the adjoining ground is opened for another interment, over which the mourners, the minister, and the attendants, bend in the last duties of sorrow, incautious of their safety! This caution of making much deeper 420 On Burials in Cities.-Anecdote of Dr. Busby. The Jews never suffer the repose of the dead to be disturbed by burying another body in the same grave, even after a long time; but as they are much scattered in different parts of the kingdom, their number of interments do not increase too inconveniently in the burial grounds. But not to extend these cursory hints too far, let me offer them to the serious attention of those whom they most materially concern in the manage ment of our parochial and spiritual affairs, with whom respect for the dead is happily interwoven in the welfare of the living-and as every one awaits with duteous resignation the awful and certain summons, when this mortal part shall be wrapped in clay, and earth shall reunite with earth from whence it sprung, it behoves us to prepare the silent grave as the last house of all living, so as that the duty and welfare of survi vors be regarded and preserved. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, TH A. H. March 26. HE anecdotes of Queen Elizabeth visiting Westminster School, and of its celebrated Master, Dr. Busby, p. 123, reminds me of au anecdote of that celebrated flagellant, which you may perhaps not object to insert, as a sequel to that just alluded to. It happened one morning, whilst [May, the Doctor was at his desk, hearing a class, that a stone came suddenly through the window, and fell very near him; on which, knowing that some of the boys were without, he dispatched two of the larger boys of the class he was hearing, to bring in the culprit, for whom he, in the inean time, took out his instrument of flagellation. The boys being, however, unwil ling to bring in their offending comrade, who was soon discovered, they laid their hands upon a meagre looking Frenchman, who happened to pass by at the time; they brought him in, and accused him of the trespass, upon which, without hearing what he had to say for himself, the Doctor said "Take him up," and gave him just such a flogging as he would one of his own boys. The Frenchman thinking it in vain to shew his resentment for the unexpected chastisement he had received, to a Master surrounded by his scholars, and exposed to their hootings, indignantly retreated; but at the first coffeehouse he came to, stopped, wrote the Doctor a challenge, and sent it by a porter. Having read this billet doux, he ordered in the messenger, on whose appearance, says the Doctor again, "Take him up," and served him exactly as he had done his employer. It was now the porter's turn to be wrathful, who returned growling and swearing that the Frenchman should make him full amends for the treatment he had exposed him to; from whom, however, all the redress he got, was a shrug of the shoulders, accompanied with the exclamation, "Ab, sure he be de vipping man, he vip me, vip you, and vip all de world." N. Mr. URBAN, Sandwich, April 28. Hrambling about the villages adjacent to my native place, exploring every green lane and unfrequented path, [AVING been for some days past "Where once my careless Childhood stray'd," and also visited again that venerable and sacred edifice in which my father ministered, and where his loved and honoured remains have been long deposited, I am led to mention an antient tablet of painted wood, erected to the memory of Capt. Boyman Sampson, |