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EDGEWORTH ON BULLS.

(E. REVIEW, 1803)

Essay on Irish Bulls. By Richard Lovell Edgeworth, and Maria Edgeworth. London, 1802.

balm beyond the precincts of Gilead. If nothing can be said to exist preeminently and emphatically in one country, which exists at all in another, then Frenchmen are not gay, nor Spaniards grave, nor are gentlemen of the Milesian race remarkable for their WE hardly know what to say about disinterested contempt of wealth in this rambling scrambling book; but their connubial relations. It is prothat we are quite sure the author, when bable there is some foundation for a be began any sentence in it, had not the character so generally diffused; though smallest suspicion of what it was about it is also probable that such foundation to contain. We say the author, be- is extremely enlarged by fame. If eanse, in spite of the mixture of sexes there were no foundation for the in the title page, we are strongly in- common opinion, we must suppose clined to suspect that the male contri-national characters formed by chance; butions exceed the female in a very and that the Irish might, by accident, great degree. The Essay on Bulls have been laughed at as bashful and is written much with the same mind, sheepish; which is impossible. The and in the same manner, as a school-author puzzles himself a good deal boy takes a walk: he moves on for about the nature of bulls, without ten yards on the straight road, with coming to any decision about the surprising perseverance; then sets out matter. Though the question is not a after a butterfly, looks for a bird's nest, very easy one, we shall venture to say, or jumps backwards and forwards over that a bull is an apparent congruity, a ditch. In the same manner, this and real incongruity of ideas, suddenly nimble and digressive gentleman is discovered. And if this account of away after every object which crosses bulls be just, they are (as might have his mind. If you leave him at the been supposed) the very reverse of wit; end of a comma, in a steady pursuit for as wit discovers real relations, that of his subject, you are sure to find are not apparent, bulls admit apparent him, before the next full stop, a hundred relations that are not real. The pleasure yards to the right or left, frisking, arising from wit proceeds from our capering, and grinning in a high pa- surprise at suddenly discovering two roxysm of merriment and agility. Mr. things to be similar, in which we susEdgeworth seems to possess the senti-pected no similarity. The pleasure ments of an accomplished gentleman, arising from bulls proceeds from our the information of a scholar, and the discovering two things to be dissimilar, vivacity of a first-rate harlequin. He in which a resemblance might have is fuddled with animal spirits, giddy been suspected. The same doctrine with constitutional joy; in such a state will apply to wit, and to bulls in he must have written on, or burst. A action. Practical wit discovers condischarge of ink was an evacuation nection or relation between actions, in absolutely necessary, to avoid fatal which duller understandings discover and plethoric congestion. none; and practical bulls originate from an apparent relation between two actions, which more correct understandings immediately perceive to have no relation at all.

The object of the book is to prove, that the practice of making bulls is not more imputable to the Irish than to any other people; and the manner in which he sets about it, is to quote examples of bulls produced in other countries. But this is surely a singular way of reasoning the question: for there are goitres out of the Valais, extortioners who do not worship Moses, oat cakes south of the Tweed, and

Louis XIV., being extremely harassed by the repeated solicitations of a veteran officer for promotion, said one day, loud enough to be heard, "That gentleman is the most troublesome officer I have in my service." "That is precisely the charge (said

the old man) which your Majesty's on the contrary, to be some relation enemies bring against me.'

39

between the revenge of the Irish rebels against a banker, and the means which they took to gratify it, by burning all his notes wherever they found them; whereas, they could not have rendered him a more essential service. In both these cases of bulls, the one verbal, the other practical, there is an apparent congruity and real incongruity of ideas. In both the cases of wit, there is an apparent incongruity and a real relation.

"An English gentleman (says Mr. Edgeworth, in a story cited from Joe Miller) was writing a letter in a coffee-house; and perceiving that an Irishmau stationed behind him was taking that liberty which Parmenio used with his friend Alexander, instead of putting his seal upon the lips of the curious impertinent, the English gentleman thought proper to reprove the Hibernian, if not with delicacy, at least with poetical justice. He concluded writing his letter in these words: 'I would say more, but a damned tall Irishman is reading over my It is clear that a bull cannot depend shoulder every word I write.' upon mere incongruity alone; for if a "You lie, you scoundrel,' said the self-man were to say that he would ride to convicted Hibernian."-(p. 29.) London upon a cocked hat, or that he The pleasure derived from the first would cut his throat with a pound of of these stories proceeds from the dis-pickled salmon, this, though completely covery of the relation that subsists incongruous, would not be to make between the object he had in view, and bulls, but to talk nonsense. the assent of the officer to an observation so unfriendly to that end. In the first rapid glance which the mind throws upon his words, he appears, by his acquiescence, to be pleading against himself. There seems to be no relation between what he says and what he wishes to effect by speaking.

In the second story, the pleasure is directly the reverse. The lie given was apparently the readiest means of proving his innocence, and really the most effectual way of establishing his guilt. There seems for a moment to be a strong relation between the means and the object; while, in fact, no irrelation can be so complete.

The

stronger the apparent connection, and
the more complete the real discon-
nection of the ideas, the greater the
surprise and the better the bull. The
less apparent, and the more complete
the relations established by wit, the
higher gratification does it afford.
|great deal of the pleasure experienced
from bulls proceeds from the sense of
superiority in ourselves. Bulls which
we invented, or knew to be invented,
might please, but in a less degree, for
want of this additional zest.

A

As there must be apparent connection, and real incongruity, it is seldom that a man of sense and education finds any form of words by which he is conscious that he might have been deceived into a bull. To con

What connection is there between pelting stones at monkeys and gathering cocoa-nuts from lofty trees? Ap-ceive how the person has been deparently none. But monkeys sit upon cocoa-nut trees; monkeys are imitative animals; and if you pelt a monkey with a stone, he pelts you with a cocoanut in return. This scheme of gathering cocoa-nuts is very witty, and would be more so, if it did not appear useful: for the idea of utility is always inimical to the idea of wit. There appears,

It must be observed, that all the great passions, and many other feelings, extinguish the relish for wit. Thus lympha pudica Deum vidit et erebuit, would be witty, were it not bordering on the sublime. The resemblance between the sandal tree imparting (while it falls) its aromatic fla- |

vour to the edge of the axe, and the benevolent man rewarding evil with good, would be witty, did it not excite virtuous emotions. There are many mechanical contrivances but the attention is absorbed by their util which excite sensations very similar to wit; ity. Some of Merlin's machines, which have no utility at all, are quite similar to wit. A small model of a steam engine, or mere squirt, is wit to a child. A man speculates on the causes of the first, or on its consequences, and so loses the feelings of wit: with the latter he is too familiar to be surprised. In short, the essence of every species of wit is surprise; which, vi termini, must be sudden; and the sensations which wit has a tendency to excite, are impaired or destroyed, as often as they are mingled with much thought or passion.

-formosa superne Desinit in piscem.

We are extremely glad that our avocations did not call us from Bath to London, on the day that the Bath coach conversation took place. We except from this wish the story with which the conversation terminates; for as soon as Mr. Edgeworth enters upon a story he excels.

ceived, he must suppose a degree of first, however, ends in a very foolish information very different from, and a way; species of character very heterogeneous to, his own; a process which diminishes surprise, and consequently pleasure. In the above-mentioned story of the Irishman overlooking the man writing, no person of ordinary sagacity can suppose himself betrayed into such a mistake: but he can easily represent to himself a kind of character that might have been so betrayed. There are some bulls so extremely fallacious, that any man may imagine himself to have been betrayed into them; but these are rare: and, in general, it is a poor contemptible species of amusement; a delight in which evinces a very bad taste in wit.

Whether the Irish make more bulls than their neighbours is, as we have before remarked, not a point of much importance; but it is of considerable importance that the character of a nation should not be degraded and Mr. Edgeworth has great merit in his very benevolent intention of doing justice to the excellent qualities of the Irish. It is not possible to read his book, without feeling a strong and a new disposition in their favour. Whether the imitation of the Irish manner be accurate in his little stories we cannot determine; but we feel the same confidence in the accuracy of the imitation, that is often felt in the resemblance of a portrait of which we have never seen the original. It is no very high compliment to Mr. Edgeworth's creative powers, to say, he could not have formed anything, which was not real, so like reality; but such a remark only robs Peter to pay Paul; and gives everything to his powers of observation which it takes from those of his imagination. In truth, nothing can be better than his imitation of the Irish manner: it is first-rate painting.

We must confess we have been much more pleased with Mr. Edgeworth in his laughing, and in his pathetic, than in his grave and reasoning moods. He meant, perhaps, that we should; and it certainly is not very necessary that a writer should be profound on the subject of bulls. Whatever be the deficiencies of the book, they are, in our estimation, amply atoned for by its merits; by none more, than that lively feeling of compassion which pervades it for the distresses of the wild, kind-hearted, blundering poor of Ireland.

ACCOUNT OF SIERRA LEONE. (E. REVIEW, 1804.)

An Account of Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. Το which is added, An Account of the present State of Medicine among them. By Thomas Winterbottom, Physician to the Colony of Sierra Leone. Hatchard, Piccadilly. Vol. I.

Ir appears from the Preface of this book, that the original design of Dr. Winterbottom was to write only on the medical knowledge of the Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone; but as he had lived among them some time in quality of physician to the colony, and had made many observations on the genius and manners of the various African nations which surround Edgeworth and Co. have another it, it was thought fit (i. e. profitable) faculty in great perfection. They are that he should write one volume for eminently masters of the pathos. The general, and one for therapeutic Firm drew tears from us in the stories of readers. little Dominick, and of the Irish beggar who killed his sweetheart: never was any grief more natural or simple. The

-The latter has not yet come to our hands. The former we have read with pleasure. It is very sensibly and agreeably drawn up; and the only

circumstance we regret is, that, upon | of Sierra Leone, called from them the Man

:

the whole, it must be rather considered as a compilation from previous writers, than as the result of the author's experience not that he is exactly on a footing with mere compilers: because every account which he quotes of scenes to which he is familiar, he sanctions by his authority; and, with the mass of borrowed, there is a certain portion of original matter. It appears also, that a brother of the author, in company with a Mr. Watt, penetrated above 400 miles into a part of Africa totally unknown to Europeans; but there are very few observations quoted from the journal kept in this excursion; and the mention of it served for little more than to excite a curiosity which is not gratified by further communica

tion.

By the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, Mr. Winterbottom means the windward coast, or that portion of the western shore of Africa which extends from the river Senegal to the latitude of nearly five degrees north, where the coast quits its easterly direction, and runs away to the south, or a little to the east of south.

The whole of this coast is inhabited by a great number of independent nations, divided by different shades of barbarism and disputed limits of territory, plunged in the darkest ignorance and superstition, and preyed upon by the homicide merchants of Europe. The most curious passage in this section of the work, is an extract which Mr. Winterbottom has given us from a report made to a Committee of the House of Commons by the Directors of the Sierra Leone Company; and which (as we conjecture, from Dr. Winterbottom's mode of expressing himself, it has never been printed) we shall extract from his book.

"A remarkable proof (say the Directors) exists in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, of the very great advantages of a permanent, though very imperfect, system of government, and of the abolition of those African laws which make slavery the punishment of almost every offence. Not more than seventy years ago, a small number of Mahommedans established themselves in a country about forty miles to the northward

dingo country. As is the practice of the professors of that religion, they formed the doctrines of Mahomet were taught: schools in which the Arabic language and and the customs of Mahommedans, particularly that of not selling any of their own religion for slaves, were adopted; laws founded on the Koran were introduced; those practices which chiefly contribute to depopulate were eradicated; and, in spite of many intestine convulsions, a great comparative idea of civilisation, unity, and consequence, was rapidly increased; and security, was introduced: population, in the whole power of that part of the country in which they are settled has gradually fallen into their hands. Those who have been taught in their schools are succeeding to wealth and power in the neighbouring countries, and carry with them a consider other chiefs are adopting the names asable portion of their religion and laws;

sumed by these Mahommedans, on account of the respect with which it is attended; and the religion of Islam seems to diffuse itself peaceably over the whole district in which the colony is situated, carrying with it those advantages which seem ever to have attended its victory over African super

stition."

Agriculture, though in a rude infant state, is practised all along this coast of Africa. All the lands must be strictly appropriated in a country, and the greater part cultivated, before any can be cultivated well. Where land is of little value, it is cheaper and better to till it slightly than perfectly; or rather, perfection, under such circumstances, consists in idleness and neglect. The great impediment to be removed from the fresh land which the Africans mean to cultivate, are those troublesome weeds called trees; which are first cut down, and then, with the grass, set fire to at a particular season of the year. This operation is performed when the Pleiades, the only stars they observe, are in a certain position with respect to the setting sun. At that season the fires are seen rolling in every direction over the parched and inflammable herbage; and the blazing provinces are discerned at an immense distance in the night by ships approaching the coast. At this period of arson, it is not safe to travel without a tinder-box; for, if a traveller is surprised by the

pursuit of the flame, his only safety, enter, unless his salutation is returned. consists in propagating the same evil Nay, when the door is thus slightly before, by which he is menaced behind; closed, a woman, by pronouncing the and, in trudging on amidst the fiery word Mooradee (I am busy), can prehyphen, multiplying destruction in vent her husband from entering, even order to avoid it. The Foolahs, who though he is assured she is entertaining seem to have made the greatest ad- her gallant. His only remedy is to vances in agriculture, are, however, still wait for their coming out. ignorant of the use of the plough, The explanation of these insulated though Dr. Winterbottom is quite per-pieces of superlative refinement among suaded they might easily be taught to savages, frequently is, that they are use cattle for that purpose. not mere ceremonies, but religious observances; for the faith of barbarous "There came, (says the Doctor) during my residence at the colony, a chief of conpeople commonly regulates all the frifiderable importance, from the river Gam-volous minutiae of life, as well as its bia, attracted by curiosity, and a desire of information. The man, whose appearance instantly announced a mind of no common cast, was so much struck with what he saw there, that before he went away he engaged

in his service two of the most ingenious mechanics in the colony, one of whom, a carpenter, among other things, was to make aplough, and the other was to teach his people the art of training oxen for the draught, and fixing them to the yoke. For a further account of this person, see the Report of the Directors of the Sierra Leone Company. London, 1795.

important duties: indeed, generally considers the first as of greater consequence than the last. And it must be a general fact, at all times, that gross ignorance more tenaciously adheres to a custom once adopted, because it respects that custom as an ultimate rule, and does not discern cases of exception by appealing to any higher rule upon which the first is found.

by selling one of the parties into slavery; and the Christians are always ready to purchase either the plaintiff or defendant, or both; together with all the witnesses, and any other human creature who is of a dusky colour, and worships the great idol Boo-Boo-Boo, with eleven heads.

The Africans are very litigious; and display, in their law-suits or palavers, a most forensic exuberance of images, It is curious to remark, that where and loquacity of speech. Their criany instance of civilisation and refine-minal causes are frequently terminated ment is discovered in the manners of a barbarous people, it exists in a much higher degree than the same virtue in nations generally refined. There are many single points of barbarous courtesy much more rigidly adhered to than the rules of European politeness would require. We have often remarked this in the voyages of Captain Cook, among the islands of the Indian Archipelago; and there is a very remarkable instance of it among the natives of this coast. The houses (says Dr. Winterbottom) have seldom any other opening than the door, of which there are usually two opposite to each other. These serve the purpose of keeping up a current of air; they also admit the light; and afford an exit to the smoke of the fire, which is made in the middle of the floor. The entrance of a house sess, may convince us what a stock of is seldom closed by anything but a mat, which is occasionally let down, and is a sufficient barrier against all intruders. The most intimate friend will not presume to lift the mat and

No great division of labour can of course be expected in such a state of society. Every man is a city in himself, and is his own tailor, hairdresser, shoemaker, and everything else. Among the Foolahs, however, some progress has been made in the division of employments. The tanner and the blacksmith are distinct trades; and the ingenuity which they evince in overcoming obstacles, by means so inadequate to those which Europeans pos

good qualities human nature has in store for cases of emergency. They put to sea canoes of ten tons' burthen hollowed from a single tree; and although they are ignorant of the use of

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