As a specimen of the style of Dr. Bruce's description of the Tapestry, we subjoin the following: us EST - and here he is dead. A priest in canonicals is again present, probably the one we saw above, and two attendants wrap up the body for burial. The compartment before us is the only one in the tapestry in which two scenes are given in one breadth." The book will doubtless afford great pleas ure to young and old. The quaint and seemingly time-worn coloring of the bands of Tap[estry may win over some to consider their own history more deeply, and others to study for the first time the actual pages of our older chroniclers. "We next meet with the funeral of the King. The circumstance which chiefly strikes us in it is its simplicity. No gilded cross is borne before the body. No candles, lighted or unlighted, are carried in procession. The attendants, clerical and lay, wear their ordinary dresses. Two youths go by the side of the bier, ringing bells. That the persons who follow the bearers are ecclesiastics is evident from their shaven crowns. Two of them have books, from which they chant some requiem. Only one of them has a mantle, With the inside of the book our praise betokening him to be a person of importance. must end. The outside is very bad. The The body, agreeably to the Saxon custom, has "half-bound morocco," which consists in a been wound up in a cloth, fastened with transverse bandages. It is carried head-foremost. the shelves, is connected with a smooth, very narrow red back, handsome so far on At a date not long subsequent to the Conquest, glazed, paper side, covered with the gaudiest it was usual to carry the bodies of princes to the grave fully exposed to view, dressed in all colors and gilding, displaying patterns which, the habiliments of state. The body, on arriving after due consideration, we found had been at the place of sepulture, would be deposited in suggested by a beautiful border on one of the stone coffin that was prepared to receive it. the pages in the celebrated Benedictional of The legend here is, HIC PORTATUR CORPUS EAD-Ethelwolf. Here we have the inside of a book WARDI REGIS AD ECCLESIAM SANCTI PETRI APOSTOLI Here the body of King Edward is carried to the church of St. Peter the Apostle. On proceeding to the next compartment we are surprised at being introduced into the chamber of the dying King, whose remains we have already seen conducted to the grave. Some writers think that here the artist has been guilty of an oversight, or that the fair ladies who carried out his design have been very inattentive to their instructions. The seeming inconsistency is very Fortunately for us, Queen Matilda chose easily explained. A new subject is now entered the humblest materials for the perpetuation upon, and that subject is the right of succession. of her history. Her worsted stitchery has One important element in it is the grant of the endured almost eight centuries. Had she King. The historian of the tapestry, in dis-selected gold and silver for her threads, the cussing this very important part of his design, record must have shared the fate of the choicfound it necessary to revert to the scenes which est works of Art. Phidias was wise when preceded the death of the Confessor, and to the directions which in his last moments he had given. The narrative which Wace gives us of the last hours of the King agrees well with the tapestry." turned to the outside. Time indeed it is that our book-covers should obtain some consideration; that the principle of protecting the inside be first thought of, instead of studying, as in railway advertisements, what shall first catch the eye on a drawing-room is, but in studying the drawing-room table, table. A library book Dr. Bruce's assuredly he must beware also of the work-basket. he desired to execute his chef-d'œuvre in stone rather than ivory and gold. The bronze statues of Lysippus have all been melted down, and even the Raphael Tapestries of the Vatican and the Armada series of the House of Lords were reduced in number by the Jews for the sake of the precious material that composed them. "Let us now revert to the tapestry. The The Bayeux Tapestry has been, and will feeble condition of the King is well represented. long continue to be, regarded as an historiAn attendant is supporting him behind with a cal document of the greatest importance. It pillow, whilst he makes an attempt to speak. addresses the eye in an almost childish manThe blackness of death has settled upon his shrunken countenance. A priest dressed inner, but with such clear and significant accanonicals stands by, whose uplifted hand and tion that much of the inscription on it could sorrow-stricken face seem to say that the grand have been spared. Actual names alone were climax is at hand. A lady at the foot of the bed necessary. Montezuma would have read such weeps; she is doubtless the wife of the Con- intelligence without interpreters; and we fessor, the sister of Harold. Harold is eagerly can hardly leave the subject without observpressing his claim. The legend here is, HIC ing the wonderful simplicity of narration that appears between these and the Marbles Here King Edward on his bed addresses his recently brought from Nineveh. Not only faithful attendants. Underneath is a scene, the same battle incidents, homage to royalty, which the inscription explains, ET HIC DEFUNCT-and evident haste in executing a commission, EADWARDUS REX IN LECTO ALLOQUIT: FIDELES From The Spectator. -but the varied size of the figures according | speak to him;" how "the sea was to him to rank, the shape of the trees, some radiat- an object of great dread, but he would rather ing in buds with fanciful stems, and the cross the sea than not revenge himself and marking of the waves, minuteness of archi- pursue his right;" how, in his passage, tecture combined with an utter defiance of his face was turned towards England, and perspective, all tend to show that Art has al- thither he looked as though he was about to ways had its expedients and conventionalities. shoot; " and how, in his hurry to arm on the battle-morning, he put on his hauberk back foremost; -these, and many other such touches, are here to help us to some conception of the dim distant fact. In his own part of the book, Mr. Bruce exhibits a genuine antiquary's fertility in accounting for things by theory and inference, and in finding minutiae pregnant; a literary manner with a flavor of the old-fashioned, and a sprinkling of sarcastic salt. An extract relative to the representation of Edward the Confessor dying and dead may indicate these qualities: THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY.* Ir is some time since we have received so interesting an antiquarian book as this. Every square inch of the invaluable tapestry is brought before the eye; every incident of it expounded and commented upon; and that in such a manner that not only is the importance of the work as an historical document of facts and manners clearly exhibited, but the mighty tussel of Saxon thews and pertinacity against Norman chivalry and resource is revivified for the reader. "The compartment before us is the only one The tapestry is printed in sixteen chromo- in the tapestry in which two scenes are given in lithographic plates (with a supplementary one breadth. This is probably not without design. The death and burial of Edward, and the election and coronation of Harold, all took place within eight-and-forty hours. It was of great importance to Harold to get actual posin his claim. It was usual in these times to session of the crown before William could put perform the ceremonies of coronation only at one of the great festivals of the church. Edward died on the last day but one of Christmas; and for Harold to wait till Easter, the next festival, was to throw away the important advantage which he had gained over his rival. Hence, the rapidity with which the coronation of one showing the dimensions of the original), Mr. Bruce stoutly upholds the theory that *The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated: by Reverend John Collingwood Bruce, LL.D., F.S.A., Corresponding Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, &c. Published by J. R. Smith. Harold followed the death of the Confessor. It is to show that no sooner had the vital spirit fled than preparations for the burial were begun, that we have the two scenes in the same com partment. coronation of Harold. William of Malmesbury "The next pictures represent the election and says-While the grief for the King's death was yet fresh, Harold, on the very day of the Epiphany, seized the diadem, and extorted from the nobles their consent, though the English say that it was granted him by the King.' 'HIC Here "In many respects the Tapestry is more candid than the chroniclers. It here says, DEDERUNT HAROLDO CORONAM REGIS, they gave the crown of the King to Harold'; and the next legend is, HIC RESIDET HAROLD REX ANGLORUM, Here is seated Harold King of the English.' One contemporary writer denies that Harold was anointed at all, or had any claim but his own usurpation. In the Doomsday survey, Harold is mentioned as seldom as possible; and when his name does occur, it is not as King Harold, but Harold the Earl. The Norman chroniclers, writing subsequently to the time when William had established his conquest, seldom write his name without appending some derogatory epithet to it, such as the perfidious and perjured King Harold. All found it necessary not entirely to ignore their views. After he was firmly established, he cared not what women stitched, or clerks wrote." this seems to favor the idea that the Tapestry that, in stating his own claims to the crown, he was designed during the first visit of William to Normandy. He had not then broken faith with the Saxon nobles who thronged his court; he was not yet independent of their good-will; so From the National Intelligencer. LAST MOMENTS OF COL. AARON BURR. HAMMOND STREET (N. Y.), Dec. 13, 1855. MR. S. C. REID, Jr.: My Dear Sir, I received yours of Monday, 10th instant, last evening, in which you desire me to give you a full statement of all the facts concerning the last moments of Col. Aaron Burr," &c. In compliance with your desire, I state: That in the summer, about the 20th June, 1836, Col. A. Burr came to Port Richmond Hotel (Staten Island), where he took board, near which I then resided, as also did the relative and friend of Col. Burr, Judge Ogden Edwards. The colonel (Burr) being a valetudinarian, in feeble health, Judge Edwards solicited me, as often as I conveniently could, to visit him and administer the consolations of religion to him, which, he said, was desired by Col. Burr | and would be agreeable to him. At my last interview with him, about 12 o'clock at noon, the day he departed this life, about 2 o'clock P. M. as aforesaid, September 13, 1836, I found him, as usual, pleased to see me, tranquil in mind, and not disturbed by bodily pain. Observing a paleness and change in his countenance and his pulse tremulous, fluttering, and erratic, I asked him how he felt? He replied, Not so well as when I last saw him. I then said, Colonel, I do not wish to alarm you, but, judging from the state of your pulse, your time with us is short. He replied, "I am aware of it." It was then near one o'clock P. M., and his mind and memory seemed perfect. I said to him, In this solemn hour of your apparent dissolution, believing as you do in the sacred Scriptures, your accountability to God, let me ask you how you Accordingly from that time until the 13th Sep- feel in view of approaching eternity; whether tember, 1836, the day on which he died at the you have good hope through grace that all your said Port Richmond House, I visited him as a sins will be pardoned, and that God will in merminister of the gospel once or twice a week. At cy pardon you for the sake of the merits and these consecutive interviews I was uniformly re- righteousness of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus ceived and entertained by him with his accus-Christ, who in love suffered and died for us the tomed politeness and urbanity of manner. The agonizing bitter death of the cross, by whom time spent with him at each interview, which alone we can have the only sure hope of selvawas an hour, more or less, was chiefly employed in religious conversation adapted to his declining health, his feeble state of body, and his advanced age, concluded by prayer to Almighty God for the exercise of his great mercy, the influence of his holy spirit and divine blessing; in all which he appeared to take an interest and be pleased, and particularly would thank me for the prayers I offered up in his behalf, for my kind offices, and the interest I took in his spiritual welfare, saying it gave him pleasure to see me and hear my voice. tion? To which he said, with deep and evident emotion, "On that subject I am coy.' "By which I understood him to mean that on a subject of such magnitude and momentous interest, touching the assurance of his salvation, he felt coy (cautious, as the word denotes) to express himself in full confidence. With his usual cordial concurrence and manifest desire, we kneeled in prayer before the throne of heavenly grace, imploring God's mercy and blessing. He turned in his bed and put himself in an humble devotional posture, and When I reminded him of the advantages he seemed deeply engaged in the religious service, had enjoyed, of his honored and pious ancestry, thanking me, as usual, for the prayer made viz., his father a minister of the gospel and Pres- for him. Calm and composed, I recommended ident of the college at Princeton, Ñ. J., and his him to the mercy of God and to the word of his mother a descendant of the learned and cele- grace with a last farewell. At about 2 o'clock brated divine, Jonathan Edwards, and that P. M., without a groan or struggle, he breathed doubtless many prayers had gone up to heav- his last. His death was easy and gentle as a en from the hearts of his parents for his well-be-taper in the socket and as the summer's wave ing and happiness, it seemed to affect him; and that dies upon the shore. Thus died Col. Aaron when I asked him as to his views of the holy Burr. Scriptures, he responded, "they were the most perfect system of truth the world had ever seen. So that, judging from his own declaration and his behavior to me as his spiritual adviser, he was not an atheist nor a deist. I did not administer the Holy Sacrament to him, nor did he suggest and request me to do it. In regard to other topics, in the course of repeated conversations, he remarked that he was near Gen. Montgomery when he fell at Quebec; His first funeral service was performed by me in the Port Richmond House, where he died. Thence we took his remains to the Chapel of Princeton College, New Jersey, where Dr. Car nahan, the President, and myself performed his last funeral service before the students, the faculty, the military, and a numerous assemblage, and he was buried, as he requested, in the sepulchre of his ancestors. With respects, P. J. VANPELT, D. D. From The Athenæum. The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature; also, Fifteen Sermons, by Joseph Butler, D. C. L., Bishop of Durham: with a Life of the Author, a Copious Analysis, Notes, and Indexes. By Joseph Augus, D. D. Religious Tract Society. A CHANGE has taken place since Bishop Butler wrote his celebrated" Analogy." The open contempt and scorn of the evidences of Christianity, of which he speaks, are no longer heard. The writers whose arguments called forth the "Analogy" are rarely mentioned. Religion is in fashion. The rubrics have become popular reading; and a sort of clerico-layman is one of the most taking characters of the day. It by no means follows that Butler's works are out of date. Although a certain current of opinion carries the careless to church, whereas it used to sweep them into the ranks of the sceptics, perhaps the number of the thoughtless is not materially diminished; and we know that the proportion of those who, as Butler expresses it, read "because arguments are often wanted for some accidental purpose, but never exercise their judgment upon what comes before them," is now very large. We devour all sorts of mental victuals indiscriminately, without considering how the heterogeneous mass is to be digested, or even allowing time for disgestion. The frequent effect is a flabby state of mind incapable of exertion; many become mere sponges, as Coleridge, we think, calls them: what they take in, they return in the same state only a little dirtier. We daily meet several copies of the morning papers habited like men; one friend, indeed, until the recent change in the law, we always considered as an unfair evasion of the Stamp Acts. guishes those upon which the light within us cannot shine. Unfortunately, clearness of style is not one of Butler's excellencies. Whether from an anxiety to avoid all possibility of misrepresentation by his antagonist or from natural defect, his phraseology is often such as to render the apprehension of the full scope of his argument a matter of considerable difficulty. Accordingly, we have had various analyses and outlines of this. work; and to these the present editor freely acknowledges his obligations. The analysis now supplied is not intended to supersede the text, but simply to help in studying it. It consists of a concise and able digest of the author's reasoning prefixed to each chapter. In these the train of argument is indicated by letters and figures corresponding with letters and figures in the margin of the text. This is certainly sufficient to enable the diligent student to master the author's arguments; and none but the diligent can do so with the help of any analysis or outline that can be proposed. A similar analysis is prefixed to each of the sermons. We decidedly prefer this kind of abstract, which leads to an intelligent perusal of the text, to any that may by possibility be perused instead of the works themselves. The Index is founded on that by Dr. Bentham, but is far more copious. The notes have a threefold aim: - they give the history of the opinions Butler is refuting, or trace the influence of the author on later writers; they correct or modify arguments now thought of questionable force, and they point out "what most Christian men will admit to be deficiencies in the evangelical tone or sentiments of the author." Those of the first and second classes are certainly useful, and so, perhaps, is the third, though we think most of the objections to which these are directed arise from a misconception, which Butler endeavors to guard against where he reminds the reader that he argued on the principles of others, not his own, and had omitted what he thought true and of the utmost importance, because by others thought unintelligible or not true. This publication will form a useful addition to the Educational series of the Tract No book in our language is better calculated to excite thoughtful inquiry, and at the same time to train the mind for the exertion incident to it, than Butler's "Analogy." While the author argues boldly on those things which are the proper subject of argument, he, with a "meekness of wisdom" very rare and very admirable, distin- | Society. THE WAR affords a magnificent school for med- | forming a clean surface to the upper and lower icine and surgery. There is, no doubt, great bone, and encouraging a ligamentous union, light thrown upon the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases; and surgeons have found opportunities for trying expedients that can seldom be tested in ordinary practice. Fractured bones, even fractured joints, have been treated by a plan of removing the fractured parts, leaving the limb stiff, but still furnished with a serviceable extremity. Instead of amputation with loss of a hand, for instance, the patient only has a shortened limb, a stiff joint, with a hand such as no mechanist can supply. - Spectator. "LEAN your head upon my breast, Though I sung my ballads through,— Since the rising of the sun : For some angel up in heaven Has, to-day, my music heard; Look! our old vielle has thriven;- This is what my gold shall do. Nay, 'twas ne'er my worn-out strings, Nor my voice-but other thingsWhile I sang, I thought of you! "Through the castle court I passed, Where the hawking was to beBlithe Lord James, he went the last : Why should Lady Mildred grow Whiter than the early snow, If her smile he would not see? So methought, a ditty fit, Would be mother's mournful lay Of the Lady who did sit By the sea with sad surprise, Looking, tearless, to the skies, When The Hope had sailed away. Lady Mildred, full of woe, Wept, and blest, and bade me goAnd a purse to me did throw, Sighing, Only gold is true!' Ah! no wonder if she felt That fond tale her pity melt! While I sang, I thought of you! "Up the hill, and by the gate Of the Abbey of Saint Rule, - From his glory in the sky, Not a letter did I miss, And his hand he bade me kiss, And a golden dollar, this, With his glove he gave me, too! I know why my simple hymn While I sang, I thought of you!" -WORSHIP IN SEBASTOPOL. Thus, the Glee-man's daughter told Smiling all the story throughBut with every crown that fell, "This," she said, "was all the spell, While I sang, I thought of you!" - Keepsake. |
