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842 THE REAPER. 1^0. 439, AuftUM 21, l85...
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THE PEOPLE IN CHURCH. The People in Chur...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Napoleonic Books. Lettres De Napoleon I....
|> artes , for there was the famous genealogy made ¦ out by the Emperor Franz before the marriage of his daughter , besides which are the Famiglia Bonaparte dalll & S al 1834 , published anonymously in Naples , 1 S 40 ; and the Storia Genealogicct dell < Famiglia Bonaparte , also anonymous , which appeared in . Horence , 1847 ) . John I . de Bonaparte and his sous were among the noblemen who lea the ^ Lombard citizens to battle against the armies of Pederich Barbarossa , teaching the former how to fight . The same John signea the Treaty of Gonstance , 1183 , as /' Joannes de Bonaparte , de Tarvisio , Consul et Rector , " and his grandson
commanded a band of Guelphs against the Ghibellines , Frederic II . at Castelfranco , ia . 1239 . But inl 357 , the Yenetian Republic decreed the banishment of the family from Trevisa , and broke down their scutcheon from the part of their palace in the place -of St . Andrew , afc Trevisa . During- the civil wars ihe Bonapartes retired to Florence , San-Miniato , And Bologna , where they became magistrates , " negotiators ? ' ( which may he another term for merchants ) , and writers . One of them—Nicolo—was the author of a comedy , La Vedova , printed at Florence , 1592 ; another , nephew and namesake of the last , was professor of law at Pisa : and a third .
Jacopoy yas the author of the Siege of Home , in 1557 , which was formerly imputed to the brother ¦ of Guicliardin , until the brother of the pres « nt emperor published a translation in French at Mcrance , 1830 . Not content with making the Bonapartes noble , the Signori Stefani and Beretta , And after them the Monitevr , have introduced into the family two monks who possessed the giffc of 'Working miracles , and one of whom , it is gravely ¦ told , was the superhumau inuuence that placed the JSmpetor at the head of the French nation , and ¦ went before hina to prepare the "way for victory . T ? Lat the men and their descendants who bore the tricolor from Lisbon to Moscow should be informed aowthat it was not to the genius of their generals , 4 heir own patriotism and brilliant courage , their
successes were-due , but to the ghostly interference « jfFra Sonaveatura , otherwise Giovanni Genesio Bonaparte , who died in the odour of sanctity , 1593 , is , to say the least of ifc , calculated to produce surprise , and feelings not -very flattering to ¦ national vanity . It may be worth while to mention ¦ another discovery of these Italian historians , if only to show how differently a legend may be related . It is stated that the orighial name of the family was Malaparte , "but the people having always seen them in their Tanks and at the head of the / food cause , would not allow them ( the members of the family ) to keep a name so little in accordance with tlie consistency of their affections . By their own authority the people changed Malaparte into Bonaparte . " '
Having made the Emperor a member of the bated noblesse , and deprived him of the original merit of his victories , the imperial histoiio graphers next proceed i ; o place him before the public in the most ridiculous light in which , it is possible for a man to appear . In the Histbire de VImjairatriee Josephine , M . Joseph iLubenas has published a collection of imperial loveletters , which are entirely devoid of literary merit , of not the slightest historical importance , and in
England would probably come under Lord Campt > e ] Ps act . The editor of these epistles writes , " The -conqueror of Italy realises , in fact , in the highest ilegjree , the type of the amorous husband "—a type < rhich has for ages past in Prance been treated with * he greatest ridicule and contempt . With what ieelings , then , can it be supposed the French public ^ rill peruse a correspondence in which passages like tlie following ; occur P—
My . only Josephine—Far from thee there is no Tiappiaaaa ; way from thee the world is a desert , where I remain alone and . - without feeling the soft pleasure of opening my heart . Thou hast taken from me more than my soul ; thou art the Bole thought of my life . If I am "weariei with the annoyances of business , if I fear the issue * if -war cHaguBt me , if I am ready to curse life , I f ilaoa my hand' upon my heart -where thy image beats-3 look upon it , and lore is for me absolute happiness , and all is riairt , » avo the time I am absent from my love . By what art hast thou been able
- to take captive all my Acuities , and concentrate in tbyaelf my moral faculties ? It is magic , my sweetheart , which will only end "With me . Live for Josephine is the history of my life . I work to draw nigh unto tlieo , I dio to be near thoo , O my adorable wife ! I know not what fate awaits me , but if it keeps me from thee longer it will becomo insupportable to nto ; my courage-will not go so far . There was a time -when I prided myself on my courage , and sometimes when I cast my eyes upon the evil men may o me , upon the fate which may bo ia store for mo , I
looked upon the most unheard-of misfortunes without a frown , without feeling astonished ; but to-day that my Josephine may be ill , the idea that she may be unwell , and , above all , the cruel and dismal thought that she may love me less , withers my soul , stops my Mood , renders me sad and broken down , and does not leave me even the courage of furor and of despair . All the letters are in the same strain . In one of them , the conqueror of Italy j > retends to be jealous , and accuses his wife of indulgence in an Italiau fashion : — "In the spring , the country is beautiful , and then the lover of nineteen years is there without
doubt . " In another , he writes of his envy of Junot seeing Josephine : — le He will see thee , he will breathe in thy temple , and , perhaps , even thou wilt accord him the unique and inestimable favour to kiss thy cheek while X shall be alone , far , far away . " In the last of these love-letters , from -which quotations may be permitted , and which are as licentious as Ovid ' s epistles , without the literary merit and poetical imagination to excuse their publication , Napoleon lays claim to conjugal fidelity , with how littleJustice the world is fully informed . He begs his wife to persuade herself " that never it has entered into my mind to think of another
woman , that m my eyes they are all without grace , without beauty , and without wit ; that thou ( Josephine ) all aloiie , such as I see thee , such as thou art , art enabled to please me and absorb all the faculties of my soul , that thou hast touched the entire extent , that my heart has no corners into which thou dost not see , no thoughts that are not subordinate to thee ; that my strength , mv arms , my wit , are all thine ; that my soul is in thy body , and the day that thou shalt change or shalt cease to live will be that of my death ; that nature , the earth , is beautiful in my eyes only because thou
dost inhabit it . " And he concludes by sending " a thousand kisses on thy eyes and-.. on . thy lips ' , ' when it is notorious that poor Josephine suffered from a physical infinnity which rendered it necessary for her to receive company with a handkerchief to her . lips ., , ¦ ' ' ¦ . " ¦ . ,: ¦ .. ¦;• . ¦ " . . . ; -. . ¦ - . ; . . . In reading these extraordinary . productions of one whom M . Joseph Aubenas calls a " poor lovesick hero , " the public bears in mind the numerous intrigues of their author , and his subsequent repudiation of her to whom he wrote in this outrageous strain . The conclusion arrived at in the popular mind is most fatal to the influence and prestige of
the Emperor . His historical figure has no longer the _ moral grandeur and superiority to human passions and failings which it hitherto possessed among frenchmen , for they have now had unveiled to them his frivolity and hypocrisy , his absurdly exaggerated pretension of affection for Josephine so long as her intimacy with Barras and Tallien could serve liis interests and promote the advancement of his family , obtain for modest Joseph the place of " consul in some Italian port where he desires to live with his little wife , far removed from the great whirlwind , and grandcs affaires' *
842 The Reaper. 1^0. 439, Auftum 21, L85...
842 THE REAPER . 1 ^ 0 . 439 , AuftUM 21 , l 858
The People In Church. The People In Chur...
THE PEOPLE IN CHURCH . The People in Church . Their Bights and Duties in connexion with the Music of the Book of Common Prayer . Hell and Daldy . This nervously and elegantly written pica for the more general adoption of music in church evinces the zeal and erudition , if not the soundness of-the author . The subject is worth revival , for while a large proportion of English Christians have drifted into indifference and ignorance about the proper celebration of public worship , there arc many who ( as we believe ) , for want of consideration , continue
to abominate the faintest approximation to tlie musical Church Services of old and of late days . A powerful party 1 ms arisen who , erring on the other side , have bedizened out our ritual with musical coxcombries in tlie disguise of elaborate simplicity , which , not only scandalise the outer public , but also render participation in Diviuo Worship a grave difficulty to all but an initiated few . Mr . Pittman traces very briefly from the earliest times the mixed presence in all worship of poetry
and song . The celebrant , he urges , has always been no proxy for the people , but their leader ; tlie choir or chorus is to govern the . responses , and the precentor , or clerk , is no more than a substitute for the latter . Ho argues that the Office-book , or Prayer-book of our Church , is a collection of mainly poetical services , and that as song and verse have been married together from time- immemorial , it would be strange to find them divorced in the temple of their Creator .
Deum , theCreeds , the Glorias , ought not to be prcsentJS to the youthful mind , in a aaked , dry , baS fe ??? defiance of their poetical frame , their historical associations , and the injunctions surrounding- them The celebration of divine service without its music ever causes an apparent coldness and ¦ tedioMness . a sense of weariness from accumulation and repetition A fritrid mechanical , confused outline of worship is a sad blank to the mind ' and . imagination of the child , and is the man so far removed from the child that to him noue of these observations are applicable ? Song is the ancient medium for conveying the noblest sentiments into the human , mind : and liere are the most glorious tidings that human nature ! r » o » , » v > * K « n .. _« , i _ ii - m ...... , . " "" fa n ., me j . e tnathuman nature
The words " say , " " sing" " read " & c " ~—by the compilers of our rubrics , were intend ?/ * cording to Mr Pittman , to imply s « cw 2 ^ f musical intonation as had been in use befoe C Reformation , and were ampl ,. translated v thou ? variation from the ancient rubrics . This 1 , 1 ^ siders equivalent to a direction for their mJT nance , and argues that the " say" of -th e 5 S service was no recitation in the tones of onEJ intercourse , but was a certain lower degree of S siastical intonation , afterwards termed ;;/ J / S . or song , or , in other words , the « ino dcTson *'" which Queen Elizabeth enjoined to be used inH ' ll parts of the Common Prayer . Ul aU . With the ' youth'of this country ( says Mr Pitt ™ the omission of the music m the great music bookoffi Church produces a sad result . A metrical psalm 2 JS a psalm at all ; and the great hymns . of the Church £ feet , the only Christian hymns of ancient origin the TV
can be oossiblv conpomwi w ; tv ,. „„ . ' can be possibly concerned with- and is music to be forbidden ? '
It cannot be too often repeated that poetry is an expression of higher emotion than that appertaining to ordinary prose , and that song is a portraiture of this emotion in a still stronger and more vivid character . If there he found no more of meaning , no increase of emotion , in the use of poetry and song , this result must not be attributed to any failure in this principle , but from sonic gross error that has been committed in the union of the symmetries of language and of song . In proof that the . prose Psalms of David ai least should be invariably sung by tlie people in churcli , the author adduces the frcqu . Mil direction . of his hymns by David to the chief musician . Reciting the 40 th and 51 st Psalms ,
It is impossible ( he says ) to suppose that lie who created these wondrous specimens of poetry could have resigned them into the hands of a musician , unless there was in existence some marvellous agreement of the harmony of sounds with the beauty of the . words ; some melody , heart-appealing in its-entreaty ,- ' which would mark with still higher feeling these expressions depictive of the utmost depths oi ' misery and woe . With regard to the more . proper and reverential incorporation of music ' with all forms of-religious worship , we arc , of course , of one mind . ¦ with Mr . Pittmau that , gcnci'ally speaking , it is
desirable ; . with the . - propriety of chanting David ' s Psalms we also agree : but we cannot endorse : his implied opinion in favour of services musical , throughout . In our opinion it would be as great an inipossibilily for an heterogeneous congregation , to follow an English Protestant priest intoning ; in English—in fact to . pmy with him musically—as if lie spoke Italian or Latin . Tlie uneducated , who can hardly follow the most distinct of readers , can surely never be expected to do so at all devotionally when monotonous simplicity of ordinary reading is replaced by musical intonation . Tlie difficulties of-chanting , slight as they may appear to experts , arc 1110011801111111 with devout abstraction of those who have do knowledge of music , and they arc
distracting to tlie tin poetically poor and ignorant . We arc no admirers of the parodies oi' Brady and Sate ; but in our idea it were better to maintain them , and the common tunes in which all congregations can naturally take part , U 1 n . 11 to cut off 30 important a part of all congregations as must ever he represented by the ignorant and the uutunoful . Such a change from our present custom as the general adoption of plain song creeds , Gregorian psalm tunes , and llorid anthems , could tend but to the appropriation of distinct churches to the musical and the unmusical worshippers ; or would bo apt to isolate the priest and choir , and to shut out nltog'cthcr from participation in the Church Oificcs such as have no musical voice or car . It has
occurred to us more than once to we present at a church where flic musical arrangements were tlie object of unceasing care to both the clergy and tlie principal laymen of t . Jie district . We have heard employed , in the course of a couple of hours , every degreo of intonation and vocalisation , from the "modc 3 t song" to fche complicated Jfuguo anthem .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1858, page 842, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_21081858/page/18/
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