The only friendship spoken of among the Jews, was that which subsisted between Jonathan and David. It is said that David loved him with a love stronger than that of women; but it is also said that David, after the death of his friend, dispossessed Mephibosheth his son, and caused him to be put to death. the very place which, it is said, was strewed with the dead and dying bodies of two thousand young gentlemen, murdered near the Faubourg St. Antoine, because one man in a red cassock displeased some others in black ones! Who could pass the Rue de la Féronerie without shedding tears and falling into paroxysms of rage against the holy and abominable principles which plunged the sword into the heart of the best of Friendship was a point of religion and legislation among the Greeks. The Thebans had a regiment of lovers-a fine regiment! some have taken it for a regi-men, and of the greatest of kings? ment of nonconformists. They are de-} ceived it is taking a shameful accident for a noble principle. Friendship, among the Greeks, was prescribed by the laws and religion. Manners countenanced abuses, but not the laws. FRIVOLITY. We could not walk a step in the streets of Paris on St. Bartholomew's day, without saying, It was here that one of my ancestors was murdered for the love of God: it was here that one of my mother's family was dragged bleeding and mangled; it was here that one half of my countrymen murdered the other. Happily, men are so light, so frivolous, so struck with the present and insensible to the past, that in ten thousand there are not above two or three who make these reflections. WHAT persuades me still more of the existence of providence, said the profound author of "Bacha Billeboquet," is, that to console us for our innumerable miseries, nature has made us frivolous. We are sometimes ruminating oxen, overcome How many boon companions have I by the weight of our yoke; sometimes seen, who, after the loss of children, dispersed doves, tremblingly endeavour-wives, mistresses, fortune, and even health ing to avoid the claws of the vulture, itself, have eagerly resorted to a party to stained with the blood of our companions; retail a piece of scandal, or to a supper foxes, pursued by dogs; and tigers, who to tell humorous stories. Solidity condevour one another. Then we suddenly {sists chiefly in a uniformity of ideas. It become butterflies; and forget, in our has been said, that a man of sense should volatile winnowings, all the horrors that invariably think in the same way: reduced to such an alternative, it would be we have experienced. better not to have been born. The ancients never invented a finer fable than that which bestowed a cup of the water of Lethe { on all who entered the Elysian fields. If we were not frivolous, what man without shuddering could live in a town in which the wife of a Marshal of France, a lady of honour to the queen, was burnt, under the pretext that she had killed a white cock by moonlight; or in the same town in which Marshal Marillac was assassinated according to form, pursuant to a sentence passed by judicial murderers appointed by a priest in his own country-house, in which he embraced Marion de Lorme while these robed wretches executed his sanguinary wishes? Could a man say to himself, without trembling in every nerve, and having his heart frozen with horror, Here I am, in Would you tolerate life, mortals, forget yourselves, and enjoy it. GARAGANTUA. If ever a reputation was fixed on a solid basis, it is that of Garagantua. Yet in the present age of philosophy and criticism, some rash and daring minds have started forward, who have ventured to deny the prodigies believed respecting this extraordinary man persons who have carried their scepticism so far, as even to doubt his very existence. It is probable that the gala of the Ita-, of Venus: thus, to talk gallantries, to lians, and the galan of the Spaniards, give gallantries, to have gallantries, to are derived from the word gul, which contract a gallantry, express very differseems to be originally Celtic: hence, was ent meanings. Nearly all the terms insensibly formed galiant, which signifies which occur frequently in conversation a man forward, or eager to please. The acquire, in the same manner, various term received an improved and more shades of meaning, which it is difficult to noble signification in the times of chivalry, discriminate: the meaning of terms of when the desire to please manifested it-art is more precise and less arbitrary. self in feats of arms, and personal conflict. To conduct himself gallantly, to extricate himself from an affair gallantly, implies, even at present, a man's conducting himself conformably to principle and honour. A gallant man, among the English, signifies a man of courage; in France it means more-a man of noble general demeanour. A gallant (un homme galant), is totally different from a gallant man, (un galant homme); the latter means a man of respectable and honourable feeling-the former, something nearer the character of a petit maitre, a man successfully addicted to intrigue. Being gallant (être galant), in general implies an assiduity to please by studious attentions, and flattering deference. "He was exceedingly gallant to those ladies," means merely, he behaved more than politely to them; but being the gallant of a lady, is an expression of stronger meaning, it significs being her lover; the word is scarcely any longer in use in this sense, except in low or familiar poetry. A gallant is not merely a His mother, Gargamelle, was delivered man devoted to and successful in intrigue, of him from the left ear. Almost at the but the term implies, moreover, someinstant of his birth he called out for drink, what of impudence and effrontery, in with a voice that was heard even in the which sense Fontaine uses it in the fol-districts of Beauce and Vivarais. Sixteen lowing verse, Mais un 'galant,' chercheur des pucelages. Thus are various meanings attached to the same word. The case is similar with the term gallantry, which sometimes signifies a disposition to coquetry, and a habit of flattery; sometimes a present of some elegant toy, or piece of jewelry ; sometimes intrigue, with one woman or with many; and latterly, it has even been applied to signify ironically the favours How is it possible, they ask, that there should have existed in the sixteenth century a distinguished hero, never mentioned by a single contemporary, by St. Ignatius, Cardinal Capitan, Galileo, or Guicciardini, and respecting whom the registers of the Sorbonne do not contain the slightest notice? Investigate the histories of France, of Germany, of England, Spain, and other countries, and you find not a single word about Garagantua. His whole life, from his birth to his death, is a tissue of inconceivable prodigies. ells of cloth were required to make him breeches, and a hundred hides of brown cows were used in his shoes. He had not attained the age of twelve years before he gained a great battle, and founded the abbey of Théléme. Madame Badebec was given to him in marriage, and Badebec is proved to be a Syrian name. He is represented to have devoured six pilgrims in a mere sallad, and the river Seine is stated to have flowed entirely from his person, so that the Parisians are indebted for their beautiful river to him alone. All this is considered contrary to nature by our carping philosophers, who scruple to admit even what is probable, unless it is well supported by evidence. for they reply to everything-that, at the period in question, gazettes and journals were not in existence. It is said in return, that there existed what was equivalent to them, and that is sufficient. Everything is impossible in the history of Garagantua, and from this circumstance itself may be inferred its incontestible truth. For if it were not true, no person could possibly have ventured to imagine it, and its incredibility constitutes the great proof that it ought to be believed. Open all the Mercuries, all the Jour They observe, that if the Parisians have always believed in Garagantua, that is no reason why other nations should believe in him; that, if Garagantua had really performed one single prodigy out of the many attributed to him, the whole world would have resounded with it, all records would have noticed it, and a hun-nals de Trevoux; those immortal works dred monuments would have attested it. In short, they very unceremoniously treat the Parisians who believe in Garagantua, as ignorant simpletons and superstitious idiots, with whom are intermixed a few hypocrites, who pretend to believe in Garagantua, in order to obtain some convenient priorship in the abbey of Thé-ing evidence as nearly approaching to lême. which teem with instruction to the race of man, and you will not find a single line which throws a doubt on the history of Garagantua. It was reserved for our own unfortunate age to produce monsters, who would establish a frightful pyrrhonism, under the pretence of requir mathematical as the case will admit, and of a devotion to reason, truth, and justice. What a pity! Oh for a single argument to confound them! Garagantua founded the abbey of Thé never found; it never had any; but it exists, and produces an income of ten thousand pieces of gold a year. The river Seine exists, and is an eternal monument of the prodigious fountain from which Garagantua supplied so noble a stream. Moreover, what will it cost you to believe in him? ought you not to take the safest side? Garagantua can procure for you wealth, honours, and inAuence. Philosophy can only bestow on you internal tranquillity and satisfaction, which you will of course estimate as a trifle. Believe, then, I again repeat, in Garagantua; if you possess the slightest portion of avarice, ambition, or knavery, it is the wisest part you can adopt. The reverend Father Viret, a Cordelier of full-sleeved dignity, a confessor of ladies, and a preacher to the king, has replied to our pyrrhonian philosophers in a manner decisive and invincible. Helême. The title deeds, it is true, were very learnedly proves, that if no writer, with the exception of Rabelais, has mentioned the prodigies of Garagantua, at least, no historian has contradicted them; that the sage de Thou, who was a believer in witchcraft, divination, and astrology, never denied the miracles of Garagantua. They were not even called in question by La Mothe le Vayer. Mezerai treated them with such respect, as not to say a word against them, or indeed about them. These prodigies were performed before the eyes of all the world. Rabelais was a witness of them. It was impossible that he could be deceived, or that he would deceive. Had he deviated even in the smallest degree from the truth, all the nations of Europe would have been roused against him in indignation; all the gazetteers and journalists of the day would have exclaimed with one voice against the fraud and imposture. GAZETTE: A NARRATIVE of public affairs. It was at the beginning of the seventeenth century that this useful practice was sugIn vain do the philosophers reply-gested and established at Venice, at the { time when Italy still continued the centre signations, with a strictness apparently or European negociations, and Venice somewhat inconsistent with the courtesies was the unfailing asylum of liberty. The of polished society, bestowing the title of leaves or sheets containing this narrative, monsieur only on some particular dewhich were published once a week, were scriptions of persons, and that of sieur called Gazettes, from the word Gazetta, upon others; the authors having forgotten the name of a small coin, amounting that they were not speaking in the name nearly to one of our demi-sous, then cur- of their king. These public journals, it rent at Venice. The example was after-must be added, to their praise, have never wards followed in all the great cities of been debased by calumny, and have alEurope. ways been written with considerable correctness. The case is very different with respect to foreign gazettes; those of London, with the exception of the court gazette, abound frequently in that coarseness and licen{tiousness of observation which the national {liberty allows. The French gazettes esta written with purity, and have sometimes been not a little instrumental in corrupting the language. One of the greatest faults which has found a way into them arises from the authors having concluded that the ancient forms of expression used Journals of this description have been established in China from time immemorial. The Imperial Gazette is published there every day by order of the court. Admitting this gazette to be true, we may easily believe it does not contain all that is true; neither in fact ought it to do so. Theophrastes Renaudot, a physician,blished in that country have been seldom published the first gazettes in France in 1601, and he had an exclusive privilege for the publication, which continued for a long time a patrimony to his family. The like privilege became an object of importance at Amsterdam, and the greater part of the gazettes of the United Pro-in public proclamations and in judicial vinces are still a source of revenue to and political proceedings and documents many of the families of magistrates, who in France, and with which they were parpay writers for furnishing materials for ticularly conversant, were analogous to them. The city of London alone pub-the regular syntax of our language, and lishes more than twelve gazettes in the course of a week. They can be printed only upon stamped paper, and produce no inconsiderable income to the state. from their having accordingly imitated that style in their narrative. This is like a Roman historian's using the style of the law of the twelve tables. The gazettes of China relate solely to In imitation of the political gazettes, that empire; those of the different states literary ones began to be published in of Europe embrace the affairs of all France in 1665; for the first journals countries. Although they frequently were, in fact, simply advertisements of abound in false intelligence, they may the works recently printed in Europe: to nevertheless be considered as supplying this mere announcement of publication good materials for history; because, in was soon added a critical examination or general, the errors of each particular review. Many authors were offended at gazette are corrected by subsequent ones, it, notwithstanding its great moderation. and because they contain authentic copies We shall here speak only of those literary of almost all state papers, which indeed gazettes with which the public, who were are published in them by order of the previously in possession of various joursovereigns or governments themselves.nals from every country in Europe in The French gazettes have always been which the sciences were cultivated, were revised by the ministry. It is on this completely overwhelmed. These gazettes account that the writers of them have al-appeared at Paris about the year 1723, ways adhered to certain forms and de- under many different names, as-" The Parnassian Intelligencer,” “Observations on New Books," &c. The greater number of them were written for the single purpose of making money; and as money is not to be made by praising authors, these productions consisted generally of satire and abuse. They often contained the most odious personalities, and for a time sold in proportion to the virulence of their malignity; but reason and good taste, which are always sure to prevail at last, consigned them eventually to contempt and oblivion. GENEALOGY. SECTION I. duously and virulently circulated afterwords. The Acts of the Apostles, however, inform us that the Jews of Antioch opposed themselves, blaspheming against what Paul spoke to them concerning Jesus; and Origen maintains, that the passage in St. John's gospel—“ We are not born of fornication, we have never been in subjection unto any man,"-was an indirect reproach thrown out by the Jews against Jesus on the subject of his birth. For, as this father informs us, they pretended that Jesus was originally from a small hamlet of Judea, and his mother nothing more than a poor villager subsisting by her labour, who, having been found guilty of adultery with a soldier of the name of Panther, was turned away by her husband, whose occupation was that of a carpenter; that, after this disgraceful expulsion, she wandered about miserably from one place to another, and was privately delivered of Jesus, who, which, full of the miracles he was enabled to perform, he proclaimed himself to be God. MANY volumes have been written by learned divines in order to reconcile St. Matthew with St. Luke on the subject of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The former enumerates only twenty-seven generations from David through Solomon, while Luke gives forty-two, and traces the de-pressed by the necessity of his circumscent through Nathan. The following is stances, was compelled to go and hire the method in which the learned Calmet himself as a servant in Egypt, where he solves a difficulty relating to Melchizedec. acquired some of those secrets which the The orientals and the Greeks, ever Egyptians turn to so good an account, abounding in fable and invention, fabri-and then returned to his own country, in cated a genealogy for him, in which they } give us the names of his ancestors. But, adds this judicious Benedictine, as falsehood always betrays itself, some state his According to a very old tradition, the genealogy according to one series, and name of Panther, which gave occasion to others according to another. There are the mistake of the Jews, was, as we are some who maintain that he descended informed by St. Epiphanius, the surfrom a race obscure and degraded, and name of Joseph's father, or rather, as is there are some who are disposed to re-asserted by St. John Damascene, the present him as illegitimate. proper name of Mary's grandfather. This passage naturally applies to Jesus, As to the situation of a servant with of whom, according to the apostle, Mel-which Jesus was reproached, he declares chizedec was the type or figure. In fact, himself that he came not to be served, but the gospel of Nicomedes expressly states, to serve. Zoroaster, according to the that the Jews, in the presence of Pilate, Arabians, had in like manner been the reproached Jesus with being born of for- servant of Esdras. Epictetus was even nication; upon which the learned Fabri- born in servitude. Accordingly, St. cius remarks, that it does not appear from Cyril of Jerusalem justly observed, that any clear and credible testimony, that the it is no disgrace to any man. Jews objected to Jesus Christ during his On the subject of the miracles, we learn life, or even to his apostles, that calumny indeed from Pliny, that the Egyptians respecting his birth which they so assi-had the secret of dying with different { |