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THE SIEGE OF DAMASCUS . The Siege of Damatcut ; a Historical Romance . By James Nisbett , In 3 vols . John Chapman . For some time past Mr . John Chapman has shown a disposition to enlarge the province of his publishing , and—without relinquishing that speciality of bold philosophical books for which he has gained a reputation—to include works of more general literature , not excepting even novels . He has here given us a three volume romance , and what ismore to the purpose , a romance of very unusual power , such as must arrest attention by its qualities as a work of fiction , and help the good cause of liberty of thought . Many novel readers will be scared away by its uncompromising hostility to all dogmatic creeds and the vehemence of its tone with respect to priests of all colours ; but those minds that can let the galled jade wince while their withers are unwrung will be greatly interested by the pictures of fanaticism , superstition , cruelty , and mummery presented by these contrasted religions , Christian Magian and Mussulman . The only fault we find with the book in this respect is that the author is too merciless . He does not give fanaticism sufficient credit for lofty motives . He does not seem to believe ( though he makes an admission to the contrary now and then ) that the religious persecutions and mummeries he exposes had any other source than the vilest motives of personal aggrandisement . In a word , he is intolerant of priests and judges them too harshly . Nevertheless it cannot be denied that the strong animus of the book gives it great vigour and stirring interest . The story of Jonas and Eudocia , upon which the romance is founded , is told by Ockley in his delightful History of the Saracens ( which Mr . Bohn has recently placed within our reach ) , and the author uses it as a thread to connect a variety of adventures and scenes illustrative of the life and creeds of that remote but interesting epoch . The pomp and splendour of romance is prodigally set forth in these pages . We see the enervated luxurious Greeks and Romans in the city of Damascus contrasted with the hardy , warlike , enthusiastic , fanatical Arabs—we assist at the spectacles of Religious Pomp when Christianity had sunk into idolatry and unbelief—we are carried across the desert and made to understand its perils—we are led into the tumult of sieges—and curiosity is kept alive by the cross-purposes that baffle love—while the author acting as Chorus keeps up a running fire of sarcasm , or polemic heat , so that attention never flags . There is no lack of incident ( not always of the newest !) nor of pictures ; and the characters are broadly sketched in the approved style of romance personages . Here are two scenes of X . IFK IN DAMASCUS . " Beside a handsome villa , situated on the brow of a gentle slope , and in one of those charming gaidens which twelve centuries ago ( as from time immemorial to the present day ) surrounded the city of Damascus , there waa gathered , when our story opens , a numerous company of gay and noble young men . On the closely-mown grass were placed luxurious couches and cushions of the richest stuff , upon which some of the youths indolently lay or half reclined ; while others strolled carelessly about among flowers and fragrant hushes , and under magnificently spreading trees . Close by was a clear rivulet , which seemed rather to dance than merely ( low through
a picturesque rocky channel , lhe sparkling stream gave additional freshness to the verdure . The gentle harmony of a hundred little cascades , which sometimes died away or swelled again as a light breeze directed the sound towards the company , easily supplied the imaginative with a natural chorus to their varying thoughts . " Immediately below the rising ground lay a fertile and beautiful country . It was one grand and glorious garden , if it could not better be termed a forest ( with occasional glades ) from the height and denseness of the vegetation . It extended many miles , — -further , indeed , than the eye could discover , till it reached the great Syrian desert . Over the foreground of the scene were
profusely scattered light open pavilions , daintily painted and decorated , to which the pleasure-loving citizens would often repair to enjoy the beauty of the landscape . Swelling brookH and fountains , the natural enchantmentworkers of hot countries , covered fields , orchards , and groves with tropical luxuriance , fnnuinerable fruit and timber trees oi every valuable kind there grew , almost without cultivation . Flowers , the most perfect in shape and lovely in hue , everywhere ( scented the air with delicious odours . There , it wan said , the meadows were
greener , the countless streams purer and aweeter , —the flowers , plants , and trees larger and finer , than in any other portion of the earth . The air , too , was softer , clearer , and more exhilarating ; and the lights of heaven the moon and stars , the very sun itself , shone with a milder radiance . In short , it was believed by the happy natives , and always admitted by travellers from every country , that whatever could best please the senses , and refresh tired nature in a sultry climate , was to be found in perfection on the renowned plain of Damascus . " At a short distance from the spot where the party
reposed , and towards the south and east , rose the lofty walla of the city ; behind which towered innumerable pinnacles , brazen or gilded domes , and battlements , intermingled with the tops of cypresses , and other tall trees . On the other side of the landscape were numerous romantic and diversified valleys . To form these , green hills were picturesquely heaped together , which gradually rose above each other till they terminated at many miles' distance in the barren and rocky ridges of Antilebanon and the snow-crowned Mount Hermon . " Such a scene , beneath an unclouded sky , might well have been judged the nearest resemblance left on earth to the first Paradise , —if , indeed , as many supposed , it were not that very Paradise itself . Pison , Gihon , Hiddekel , and Euphrates , the four famous rivers which watered the garden of Eden , found fit representatives in the branches of
the Barrady . At th e time of our tale tradition pointed out ( as , indeed , it still does ) a place in the immediate vicinity , where Cain was said to have got ' very wroth' with his brother Abel and slew him . Many other legends of the most ancient times localized in and around Damascus the first recorded events in Scripture . " The season was summer , and the time evening . The youths who so £ aily drank the coolest of delicious wines , and over them doubly enjoyed the sweetness of nature among sprightly comrades , were Greeks from the neighbouring city . They had been invited to sup with Alexis , the gayest and most dissipated , and , though still quite young , one of the richest men in all the province . After a splendid banquet within doors , the company had now retired to the fresh and cool lawn to converse at ease , and enjoy in the open balmy air the sweetest fruits and wines with the greater zest .
" Notfar from the party , but concealed from sight by intervening shrubs , was a band of skilful musicians , who played and sang such bacchanalian and epicurean pieces as suited the temper of the hour . Female attendants , distinguished by great beauty and grace , moved beside and among toe guests . Occasionally , these females danced to the music in a brisk and fantastic manner ; or , in slower , more graceful , and expressive movements , realized what has been prettily termed the poetry of motion . At times , also , uniting in a general burst of exquisite harmony , they would repeat the burden of the musicians' song .
'• The exceeding loveliness of these women was made more alluring by a thin and artful apology for dress , which fires the heart more by the imagination of what is heaving beneath than the actual sight of naked charms . But to all voluptuous races the contemplation of graceful female figures is as common and requisite as that of any other beautiful object in nature or art ; and while it tends to refine the taste , does not necessarily destroy the personal purity of the spectator , as the ascetic and frigid might suppose . " Again : —
" A magnificent fountain—the generous gift , in the old Pagan times , of a wealthy citizen—was not far from the minstrels . The proportions were vast , and the architecture highly decorated . In a pool at the bottom of the structure lazily reposed the huge stony forms of sea and river monsters , vomiting great volumes of the clearest water into numerous basins above . Emerging from these last receptacles were the bronze statues of heathen gods and goddesses , the mythological patrons of some well-known stream . These figures , as if in playful
defiance , threw torrents across upon each other , in arched and spaikling sheets . Hosting lightly on the shoulders of these deities , fluttered gilded images of Oreads and other nymphs who presided over winds and mountaintops , and who , in smaller shell-formed basins , which they clasped in their outstretched hands , intercepted the threatening floods of the generous rivals beneath , and , seeming to blow them lightly away , scattered everywhere around a countless multitude of minute jets that shone , in the sunlight , as chains of diamonds .
" Around this fountain were numerous groups of people . Some came to draw water from the constantly gushing sluices at the base , and others to gossip and pleasantly while away the idle hours . In the mid . st of a busy market , it became the natural place for discussion by the citizens on public a flairs and the scandal of the town . Lofty and thickly-spreading trees grew near , which , by their sweet verdure and shade , refreshed the bystanders . Beneath and among the trees were placed the portable ovens of some of those pastrycooks who had been long famous for their exquisitely spiced and flavoured dishes , which were exported to all parts of the eastern world . There were also numerous stalls of
dealers in wine , and in iced drinks and various sweet fluid preparations . Gardeners and fruit-sellers were likewise there , whose baskets were heaped with melons , oranges , grapes , and every other luxurious fruit that could be desired or imagined in a hot country . Behind all these , on a slight rising ground , rose the red granite columns and carved walls of the principal church in Damascus , which was dedicated to Saint . John the Baptist . Other sides of the market-place were principally occupied with various mugnificent public buildings . At . one corner appeared a . portion of the palace of Thomas , the gardens of which extended backwards a considerable distance . " It waa altogether a charming picture , and one which the wanderer from northern climates would fondly bid his memory treasure up .
" The minntrelH had conversed for pome , apparently unnoticed by the groups who stood around the fountain . Hut , as occasionally the accents of a foreign language caught the hearing of the people , the looks anddiscourse of the latter began to be , directed towards the pair , Recent events had excited the popular attention to strangers ; and now , while those around had been eagerly discussing the condition of public mutters , they simultaneously moved a few steps ne , ur the minstrels . It was then that the youth had remarked the circumstance to his father , and began to play a soft prelude to one of his usual songs .
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March 29 , 185 L ] ® t ) C UtatlCX . 299
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« The Ifahan movement , in short , had already far proceeded , and could have reached its end without the friendly he lp of a pope ; nay , was sure to thrive best under the frowns of any man that had trod in the footsteps of oxegory ; but since Pius had given , or was supposed to have given , hints of a better disposition , it was natural that a movement that had already dragged Charles Albert and Leopold of Tuscany along with it , should include even the Roman pontiff in its temporary and conditional adoption . It was certainly not unnatural , though questionable both as to honesty and expediency , that the Italians , beset a s they were with towering difficulties , should find th eir advantag e in flattering the Pope ' s * intense , imbecile vanity ; ' that they should lead him on by stunning applause ; that out of a zealous priest and clement sovereign—the utmost extent of his ambition—they should endeavour to represent him as an arch-reformer and agitator . It was natural for
Gioberti—the precursor of this new Messiah—whose prop hecies about the plenitu de of the times to be brought about by an Italian league , or Guelphish bond , with the successor of Alexander III . at its head—such as announced in his ' Primato ' only three years beforereceived such a signal confirmation by the phenomenon of a liberal pope ; that he should so far forget all man ' s dignity as to tell the Italians that if they worshipped Pius IX . as an immortal being , and offered sacrifices to him as to a god , they would commit only a venial sin ; that the Pope was the real author of that wondrous movement that was then convulsing all Europe ; that he was the Redeemer , the Creator of Italy . ( We blush to confess that such is too often the language of Italian adulation , and are sorry that it ever should have come from one of the leaders of public opinion , no matter how good and great the purpose to which it was made subservient . )
" But , truly , it would have been difficult to conceive to what extent the well-assumed enthusiasm of the wily Italians for their new pope bad imposed upon the whole world—Protestant no less than Catholic , hostile no less than friendly . The conceit of a reformer on the Vatican throne had something in it so novel and strange as to prove irresistible to the natural marvellousness of mankind ! They ' believed because it was incredible . ' It would be amusing at the present day , were the sequel not too melancholy , to inquire upon what ground rested the charge laid upon the Popedom , amongst others , by that deep Lord Brougham , of its ' being the origin of all the European convulsions . ' In , Italy , at least Pius IX . originated nothing . With all his silly vanity
and imbecility , we do not think that the poor Pope could justly be charged with inconsistency , had he always been allowed to speak and act as he actually intended . The beginning and end of his offence was , simply , that amnesty of the 17 th of July , which he suffered his people to clamour for for more than a month ; which , imperfect and conditional as it was at first , was matter of sheer necessity , and which , we are informed , Pius only granted , after long solicitations , to a priest , by name Graziosi , his former tutor , ' whose death was a loss not to his patron merely , but to Rome and Italy . ' That amnesty had , nevertheless , the effect of placing him in the hands of the pardoned , —that is , of the liberal party . His lips were scarcely opened to utter the first word of
forgiveness when the Italian movement—that movement , as we have seen , based on universal amnesty and reconciliation—took hold of him . It was , in fact , the Pope himself , or the Papacy , that was amnestied . lie was whirled along—unconscious—reluctant . It is fearful to think to what extent he was , from his very accession , mystified and practised upon . Italy never received any boon from him that , was not actually wrested from him . The men whose office it was to watch him , were bewildered by the perpetual instability of his purposes . Rome , that headquarters of intrigue , never presented a more insoluble riddle to the looker-on . In more than one instance , decrees and measures , most strenuously opposed by the Pope , were , nevertheless , issued and carried through , as if bearing the sanction of his seal and signature . There were adroit men about him , who did not scruple to
personify him—wilfully to misinterpret or falsify his words . Filippo de f Boni , a violent republican and foe to the Pope , has given a circumstantial account of poor Pius ' s backslidings ; which , notwithstanding a considerable amount of virulence , often bears the mark of irrefragable truth . The Pope ' s mind , in more than one instance , broke through the magic ring of intrigue and falsehood that environed him ; and then his admonition to the Consulta on the opening of its sessions on the l /> th of November , 18-17 , ' that they should not fancy themselves the embryo of a future legislation ; ' his wrath at some wag from the crowd shouting out , ' Long live the constitutional Pope , ' and similar occurrences , without number , gave sullicicnt intimation of the Pope ' s consciousness of having been dragged too far , and of his determination to Ro no farther .
" Those designing persons , who stood between him and his expectant people , endeavoured for a length of time to lay all the blame of the Pope ' s wavering to the baneful influence of the Jesuits , and cried out loudly for their suppression . The works of Gioberti had lately aroused the- dormant , though inextinguishable , hatred of the Italian people for that devoted community . Their hour hud struck throughout the country . Turin was impatient to turn the m out ; l'iiieenza , Genoa , laid a rough hand upon them ; Naple * , itself was compelled to give them up . The Pope alone pertinaciously refused to th <; laHt to part with the obnoxious order . " We cloned the volume with regret , and our last word shall bo tlio cxprcMHiou of a hope that Mariotti will tell us in the name masterly Htyli * . the story of Italy iu IH 4 {) , and celebrate in worthy accents of tfencroiiM admiration the decdu and fortunes of the modern lliemi !
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1851, page 299, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1876/page/15/
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