Curiosities of Literature Volume I Part 22

Diogenes Laertius describes the person of the Stagyrite.--His eyes were small, his voice hoa.r.s.e, and his legs lank. He stammered, was fond of a magnificent dress, and wore costly rings. He had a mistress whom he loved pa.s.sionately, and for whom he frequently acted inconsistently with the philosophic character; a thing as common with philosophers as with other men. Aristotle had nothing of the austerity of the philosopher, though his works are so austere: he was open, pleasant, and even charming in his conversation; fiery and volatile in his pleasures; magnificent in his dress. He is described as fierce, disdainful, and sarcastic. He joined to a taste for profound erudition, that of an elegant dissipation. His pa.s.sion for luxury occasioned him such expenses when he was young, that he consumed all his property. Laertius has preserved the will of Aristotle, which is curious. The chief part turns on the future welfare and marriage of his daughter. "If, after my death, she chooses to marry, the executors will be careful she marries no person of an inferior rank. If she resides at Chalcis, she shall occupy the apartment contiguous to the garden; if she chooses Stagyra, she shall reside in the house of my father, and my executors shall furnish either of those places she fixes on."

Aristotle had studied under the divine Plato; but the disciple and the master could not possibly agree in their doctrines: they were of opposite tastes and talents. Plato was the chief of the academic sect, and Aristotle of the peripatetic. Plato was simple, modest, frugal, and of austere manners; a good friend and a zealous citizen, but a theoretical politician: a lover indeed of benevolence, and desirous of diffusing it amongst men, but knowing little of them as we find them; his "Republic" is as chimerical as Rousseau's ideas, or Sir Thomas More's Utopia.

Rapin, the critic, has sketched an ingenious parallel of these two celebrated philosophers:--

"The genius of Plato is more polished, and that of Aristotle more vast and profound. Plato has a lively and teeming imagination; fertile in invention, in ideas, in expressions, and in figures; displaying a thousand turns, a thousand new colours, all agreeable to their subject; but after all it is nothing more than imagination. Aristotle is hard and dry in all he says, but what he says is all reason, though it is expressed drily: his diction, pure as it is, has something uncommonly austere; and his obscurities, natural or affected, disgust and fatigue his readers. Plato is equally delicate in his thoughts and in his expressions. Aristotle, though he may be more natural, has not any delicacy: his style is simple and equal, but close and nervous; that of Plato is grand and elevated, but loose and diffuse. Plato always says more than he should say: Aristotle never says enough, and leaves the reader always to think more than he says. The one surprises the mind, and charms it by a flowery and sparkling character: the other illuminates and instructs it by a just and solid method. Plato communicates something of genius, by the fecundity of his own; and Aristotle something of judgment and reason, by that impression of good sense which appears in all he says. In a word, Plato frequently only thinks to express himself well: and Aristotle only thinks to think justly."

An interesting anecdote is related of these philosophers--Aristotle became the rival of Plato. Literary disputes long subsisted betwixt them. The disciple ridiculed his master, and the master treated contemptuously his disciple. To make his superiority manifest, Aristotle wished for a regular disputation before an audience, where erudition and reason might prevail; but this satisfaction was denied.

Plato was always surrounded by his scholars, who took a lively interest in his glory. Three of these he taught to rival Aristotle, and it became their mutual interest to depreciate his merits. Unfortunately one day Plato found himself in his school without these three favourite scholars. Aristotle flies to him--a crowd gathers and enters with him.

The idol whose oracles they wished to overturn was presented to them. He was then a respectable old man, the weight of whose years had enfeebled his memory. The combat was not long. Some rapid sophisms embarra.s.sed Plato. He saw himself surrounded by the inevitable traps of the subtlest logician. Vanquished, he reproached his ancient scholar by a beautiful figure:--"He has kicked against us as a colt against its mother."

Soon after this humiliating adventure he ceased to give public lectures.

Aristotle remained master in the field of battle. He raised a school, and devoted himself to render it the most famous in Greece. But the three favourite scholars of Plato, zealous to avenge the cause of their master, and to make amends for their imprudence in having quitted him, armed themselves against the usurper.--Xenocrates, the most ardent of the three, attacked Aristotle, confounded the logician, and re-established Plato in all his rights. Since that time the academic and peripatetic sects, animated by the spirits of their several chiefs, avowed an eternal hostility. In what manner his works have descended to us has been told in a preceding article, on _Destruction of Books_.

Aristotle having declaimed irreverently of the G.o.ds, and dreading the fate of Socrates, wished to retire from Athens. In a beautiful manner he pointed out his successor. There were two rivals in his schools: Menedemus the Rhodian, and Theophrastus the Lesbian. Alluding delicately to his own critical situation, he told his a.s.sembled scholars that the wine he was accustomed to drink was injurious to him, and he desired them to bring the wines of Rhodes and Lesbos. He tasted both, and declared they both did honour to their soil, each being excellent, though differing in their quality;--the Rhodian wine is the strongest, but the Lesbian is the sweetest, and that he himself preferred it. Thus his ingenuity designated his favourite Theophrastus, the author of the "Characters," for his successor.

ABELARD AND ELOISA.

Abelard, so famous for his writings and his amours with Eloisa, ranks amongst the Heretics for opinions concerning the Trinity! His superior genius probably made him appear so culpable in the eyes of his enemies.

The cabal formed against him disturbed the earlier part of his life with a thousand persecutions, till at length they persuaded Bernard, his old _friend_, but who had now turned _saint_, that poor Abelard was what their malice described him to be. Bernard, inflamed against him, condemned unheard the unfortunate scholar. But it is remarkable that the book which was burnt as unorthodox, and as the composition of Abelard, was in fact written by Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris; a work which has since been _canonised_ in the Sarbonne, and on which the scholastic theology is founded. The objectionable pa.s.sage is an ill.u.s.tration of the _Trinity_ by the nature of a _syllogism_!--"As (says he) the three propositions of a syllogism form but one truth, so the _Father and Son_ const.i.tute but _one essence_. The _major_ represents the _Father_, the _minor_ the _Son_, and the _conclusion_ the _Holy Ghost_!" It is curious to add, that Bernard himself has explained this mystical union precisely in the same manner, and equally clear. "The understanding," says this saint, "is the image of G.o.d. We find it consists of three parts: memory, intelligence, and will. To _memory_, we attribute all which we know, without cogitation; to _intelligence_, all truths we discover which have not been deposited by memory. By _memory_, we resemble the _Father_; by _intelligence_, the _Son_; and by _will_, the _Holy Ghost_." Bernard's Lib. de Anima, cap. i. num. 6, quoted in the "Mem. Secretes de la Republique des Lettres." We may add also, that because Abelard, in the warmth of honest indignation, had reproved the monks of St. Denis, in France, and St. Gildas de Ruys, in Bretagne, for the horrid incontinence of their lives, they joined his enemies, and a.s.sisted to embitter the life of this ingenious scholar, who perhaps was guilty of no other crime than that of feeling too sensibly an attachment to one who not only possessed the enchanting attractions of the softer s.e.x, but, what indeed is very unusual, a congeniality of disposition, and an enthusiasm of imagination.

"Is it, in heaven, a crime to love too well?"

It appears by a letter of Peter de Cluny to Eloisa, that she had solicited for Abelard's absolution. The abbot gave it to her. It runs thus:--"Ego Petrus Cluniacensis Abbas, qui Petrum Abaelardum in monachum Cluniacensem recepi, et corpus ejus furtim delatum Heloissae abbatissae et moniali Paracleti concessi, auctoritate omnipotentis Dei et omnium sanctorum absolvo eum pro officio ab omnibus peccatis suis."

An ancient chronicle of Tours records, that when they deposited the body of the Abbess Eloisa in the tomb of her lover, Peter Abelard, who had been there interred twenty years, this faithful husband raised his arms, stretched them, and closely embraced his beloved Eloisa. This poetic fiction was invented to sanctify, by a miracle, the frailties of their youthful days. This is not wonderful;--but it is strange that Du Chesne, the father of French history, not only relates this legendary tale of the ancient chroniclers, but gives it as an incident well authenticated, and maintains its possibility by various other examples. Such fanciful incidents once not only embellished poetry, but enlivened history.

Bayle tells us that _billets doux_ and _amorous verses_ are two powerful machines to employ in the a.s.saults of love, particularly when the pa.s.sionate songs the poetical lover composes are sung by himself. This secret was well known to the elegant Abelard. Abelard so touched the sensible heart of Eloisa, and infused such fire into her frame, by employing his _fine pen_, and his _fine voice_, that the poor woman never recovered from the attack. She herself informs us that he displayed two qualities which are rarely found in philosophers, and by which he could instantly win the affections of the female;--he _wrote_ and _sung_ finely. He composed _love-verses_ so beautiful, and _songs_ so agreeable, as well for the _words_ as the _airs_, that all the world got them by heart, and the name of his mistress was spread from province to province.

What a gratification to the enthusiastic, the amorous, the vain Eloisa!

of whom Lord Lyttleton, in his curious Life of Henry II., observes, that had she not been compelled to read the fathers and the legends in a nunnery, and had been suffered to improve her genius by a continued application to polite literature, from what appears in her letters, she would have excelled any man of that age.

Eloisa, I suspect, however, would have proved but a very indifferent polemic; she seems to have had a certain delicacy in her manners which rather belongs to the _fine lady_. We cannot but smile at an observation of hers on the _Apostles_ which we find in her letters:--"We read that the _apostles_, even in the company of their Master, were so _rustic_ and _ill-bred,_ that, regardless of common decorum, as they pa.s.sed through the corn-fields they plucked the ears, and ate them like children. Nor did they wash their hands before they sat down to table.

To eat with unwashed hands, said our Saviour to those who were offended, doth not defile a man."

It is on the misconception of the mild apologetical reply of Jesus, indeed, that religious fanatics have really considered, that, to be careless of their dress, and not to free themselves from filth and slovenliness, is an act of piety; just as the late political fanatics, who thought that republicanism consisted in the most offensive filthiness. On this principle, that it is saint-like to go dirty, ragged and slovenly, says Bishop Lavington, in his "Enthusiasm of the Methodists and Papists," how _piously_ did Whitfield take care of the outward man, who in his journals writes, "My apparel was mean--thought it unbecoming a penitent to have _powdered hair_.--I wore _woollen gloves_, a _patched gown_, and _dirty shoes!_"

After an injury, not less cruel than humiliating, Abelard raises the school of the Paraclete; with what enthusiasm is he followed to that desert! His scholars in crowds hasten to their adored master; they cover their mud sheds with the branches of trees; they care not to sleep under better roofs, provided they remain by the side of their unfortunate master. How lively must have been their taste for study!--it formed their solitary pa.s.sion, and the love of glory was gratified even in that desert.

The two reprehensible lines in Pope's Eloisa, too celebrated among certain of its readers--

"Not Cesar's empress would I deign to prove; No,--make me mistress to the man I love!"--

are, however, found in her original letters. The author of that ancient work, "The Romaunt of the Rose," has given it thus _navely_; a specimen of the _natural_ style in those days:--

Si l'empereur, qui est a Rome, Souhz qui doyvent etre tout homme, Me daignoit prendre pour sa femme, Et me faire du monde dame!

Si vouldroye-je mieux, dist-elle Et Dieu en tesmoing en appelle, Etre sa Putaine appellee Qu'etre emperiere couronnee.

PHYSIOGNOMY.

A very extraordinary physiognomical anecdote has been given by De la Place, in his "_Pieces Interessantes et peu Connues_," vol. iv. p. 8.

A friend a.s.sured him that he had seen a voluminous and secret correspondence which had been carried on between Louis XIV. and his favourite physician, De la Chambre, on this science. The faith of the monarch seems to have been great, and the purpose to which this correspondence tended was extraordinary indeed, and perhaps scarcely credible. Who will believe that Louis XIV. was so convinced of that talent which De la Chambre attributed to himself, of deciding merely by the physiognomy of persons, not only on the real bent of their character, but to what employment they were adapted, that the king entered into a _secret correspondence_ to obtain the critical notices of his _physiognomist?_ That Louis XIV. should have pursued this system, undetected by his own courtiers, is also singular; but it appears, by this correspondence, that this art positively swayed him in his choice of officers and favourites. On one of the backs of these letters De la Chambre had written, "If I die before his majesty, he will incur great risk of making many an unfortunate choice!"

This collection of physiognomical correspondence, if it does really exist, would form a curious publication; we have heard nothing of it! De la Chambre was an enthusiastic physiognomist, as appears by his works; "The Characters of the Pa.s.sions," four volumes in quarto; "The Art of Knowing Mankind;" and "The Knowledge of Animals." Lavater quotes his "Vote and Interest," in favour of his favourite science. It is, however, curious to add, that Philip Earl of Pembroke, under James I., had formed a particular collection of portraits, with a view to physiognomical studies. According to Evelyn on Medals, p. 302, such was his sagacity in discovering the characters and dispositions of men by their countenances, that James I. made no little use of his extraordinary talent on _the first arrival of amba.s.sadors at court_.

The following physiological definition of PHYSIOGNOMY is extracted from a publication by Dr. Gwither, of the year 1604, which, dropping his history of "The Animal Spirits," is curious:--

"Soft wax cannot receive more various and numerous impressions than are imprinted on a man's face by _objects_ moving his affections: and not only the _objects_ themselves have this power, but also the very _images_ or _ideas_; that is to say, anything that puts the animal spirits into the same motion that the _object_ present did, will have the same effect with the object. To prove the first, let one observe a man's face looking on a pitiful object, then a ridiculous, then a strange, then on a terrible or dangerous object, and so forth. For the second, that _ideas_ have the same effect with the _object_, dreams confirm too often.

"The manner I conceive to be thus:--the animal spirits, moved in the sensory by an object, continue their motion to the brain; whence the motion is propagated to this or that particular part of the body, as is most suitable to the design of its creation; having first made an alteration in the _face_ by its nerves, especially by the _pathetic_ and _oculorum motorii_ actuating its many muscles, as the dial-plate to that stupendous piece of clock-work which shows what is to be expected next from the striking part; not that I think the motion of the spirits in the sensory continued by the impression of the object all the way, as from a finger to the foot; I know it too weak, though the tenseness of the nerves favours it. But I conceive it done in the medulla of the brain, where is the common stock of spirits; as in an organ, whose pipes being uncovered, the air rushes into them; but the keys let go, are stopped again. Now, if by repeated acts of frequent entertaining of a favourite idea of a pa.s.sion or vice, which natural temperament has hurried one to, or custom dragged, the _face_ is so often put into that posture which attends such acts, that the animal spirits find such latent pa.s.sages into its nerves, that it is sometimes unalterably set: as the _Indian_ religious are by long continuing in strange postures in their _paG.o.ds_. But most commonly such a habit is contracted, that it falls insensibly into that posture when some present object does not obliterate that more natural impression by a new, or dissimulation hide it.

"Hence it is that we see great _drinkers_ with _eyes_ generally set towards the nose, the adducent muscles being often employed to let them see their loved liquor in the gla.s.s at the time of drinking; which were, therefore, called _bibitory Lascivious persons_ are remarkable for the _oculorum n.o.bilis petulantia_, as Petronius calls it. From this also we may solve the _Quaker's_ expecting face, waiting for the pretended spirit; and the melancholy face of the _sectaries_; the _studious_ face of men of great application of mind; revengeful and _b.l.o.o.d.y_ men, like executioners in the act: and though silence in a sort may awhile pa.s.s for wisdom, yet, sooner or later, Saint Martin peeps through the disguise to undo all. A _changeable face_ I have observed to show a _changeable mind_. But I would by no means have what has been said understood as without exception; for I doubt not but sometimes there are found men with great and virtuous souls under very unpromising outsides."

The great Prince of Conde was very expert in a sort of physiognomy which showed the peculiar habits, motions, and postures of familiar life and mechanical employments. He would sometimes lay wagers with his friends, that he would guess, upon the Pont Neuf, what trade persons were of that pa.s.sed by, from their walk and air.

CHARACTERS DESCRIBED BY MUSICAL NOTES.

The idea of describing characters under the names of Musical Instruments has been already displayed in two most pleasing papers which embellish the _Tatler_, written by Addison. He dwells on this idea with uncommon success. It has been applauded for its _originality_; and in the general preface to that work, those papers are distinguished for their felicity of imagination. The following paper was published in the year 1700, in a volume of "Philosophical Transactions and Collections," and the two numbers of Addison in the year 1710. It is probable that this inimitable writer borrowed the seminal hint from this work:--

"A conjecture at dispositions from the modulations of the voice.

"Sitting in some company, and having been but a little before musical, I chanced to take notice that, in ordinary discourse, _words_ were spoken in perfect _notes_; and that some of the company used _eighths_, some _fifths_, some _thirds_; and that his discourse which was the most pleasing, his _words_, as to their tone, consisted most of _concords_, and were of _discords_ of such as made up harmony. The same person was the most affable, pleasant, and best-natured in the company. This suggests a reason why many discourses which one _hears_ with much pleasure, when they come to be _read_ scarcely seem the same things.

"From this difference of MUSIC in SPEECH, we may conjecture that of TEMPERS. We know the Doric mood sounds gravity and sobriety; the Lydian, buxomness and freedom; the aeolic, sweet stillness and quiet composure; the Phrygian, jollity and youthful levity; the Ionic is a stiller of storms and disturbances arising from pa.s.sion; and why may we not reasonably suppose, that those whose speech naturally runs into the notes peculiar to any of these moods, are likewise in nature hereunto congenerous? _C Fa ut_ may show me to be of an ordinary capacity, though good disposition. _G Sol re ut_, to be peevish and effeminate. _Flats_, a manly or melancholic sadness. He who hath a voice which will in some measure agree with all _cliffs_, to be of good parts, and fit for variety of employments, yet somewhat of an inconstant nature. Likewise from the TIMES: so _semi-briefs_ may speak a temper dull and phlegmatic; _minims_, grave and serious; _crotchets_, a prompt wit; _quavers_, vehemency of pa.s.sion, and scolds use them. _Semi-brief-rest_ may denote one either stupid or fuller of thoughts than he can utter; _minimrest,_ one that deliberates; _crotchet-rest_, one in a pa.s.sion. So that from the natural use of MOOD, NOTE, and TIME, we may collect DISPOSITIONS."

MILTON.

It is painful to observe the acrimony which the most eminent scholars have infused frequently in their controversial writings. The politeness of the present times has in some degree softened the malignity of the man, in the dignity of the author; but this is by no means an irrevocable law.

It is said not to be honourable to literature to revive such controversies; and a work ent.i.tled "Querelles Litteraires," when it first appeared, excited loud murmurs; but it has its moral: like showing the drunkard to a youth, that he may turn aside disgusted with ebriety.

Must we suppose that men of letters are exempt from the human pa.s.sions?