Volume Iii Part 120 (1/2)

'Oh I yes: kneel down, my son, and receive it with humility.' 'Nay,'

said the other, 'I will not accept it, for were it worth a farthing you would not have offered it.'”

We cannot, however, quit the school-books without mention of the really valuable treatise on arithmetic, composed by Elias Vorster, a Dutchman naturalized in Cork, and subsequently improved by John Gough, of Meath street, one of the society of Friends. ”Book-keeping by Double Entry,” written by Dowling and Jackson, was so judiciously arranged that it is still looked on as a standard work.

The same followers _longo intervallo_ of Stephens and Elzevir published, besides prayer and other devout books, a series of stories and histories, and literary treatises such as they were, printed with worn type, on bad grey paper, cheaply bound in sheep-skin, and sold by the peddlers through the country at a _tester_ (6-1/2d.) each. Of history, voyages, etc., the peddler's basket was provided with ”Hugh Reilly's History of Ireland,” ”Adventures of Sir Francis Drake,” ”The Battle of Aughrim,” and ”Siege of Londonderry,” (the two latter being dramas,) ”Life and Adventures of James Freney the Robber,” ”The Irish Rogues and Rapparees,” ”The Trojan Wars,” and ”Troy's Destruction,”

”The Life of Baron Trenck,” and ”The Nine Worthies--Three Jews, Three Heathens, and Three Christians.”

The fictional department embraced, chiefly in an abridged state, ”The Arabian Nights,” ”The History of Don Quixote,” ”Gulliver's Travels,”

”Esop's Fables,” ”Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,” ”Robin Hood's Garland,” ”The Seven Champions of Christendom,” ”The History of Valentine and Orson,” ”The Seven Wise Masters and Mistresses of Rome,”

”Royal Fairy Tales,” etc., etc.

In the department of the Belles Lettres may be cla.s.sed, ”Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son,” ”The Academy of Compliments,” ”The Fas.h.i.+onable Letter Writer,” ”Hocus Pocus, or the Whole Art of Legerdemain,” ”Joe Miller's Jest Book,” etc.

The list would not be complete without mention of the books of ballads. These were sold in sheets, each forming 8 pages, 18mo, and adorned with cuts, never germain to the ballads they ill.u.s.trated. Some of these sheets contained only one production, the ”Yarmouth Tragedy,”

or some early English ballad sadly disfigured. One related how a ”servant-man” was accused by an envious liveried brother, of being a confirmed card-player. On being examined he obtained a complete victory over the informer, convincing his master that what he, the master, called cards, was to him a prayer-book, a catechism, a calendar, and what not. The different numbers reminded him of the six days of the creation, the seven churches of Asia, the ten commandments, the twelve Apostles, etc. The {681} king recalled to him the duty he owed that supreme magistrate, the ace of hearts, the love due to G.o.d and our neighbor. ”How, is it,” said the master, ”that you have always pa.s.sed over the knave in your reckoning?” ”Ah! I wished to speak no ill of that crooked disciple that went to backbite me to your honor.” The reader antic.i.p.ates the victory of the ingenious rogue.

The purchasers of these sheets sewed them as well as they could in a book form, but they were so thumbed and abused, that it is at this date nearly impossible to procure one of those repertories of song printed toward the close of the last or the beginning of the present century.

Of all these works that we delight in most at present, (it was not so when we were young,) is the unmatched ”Academy of Compliments,” which was the favorite of boys and girls just beginning to think of marriage, or its charming preliminary, courts.h.i.+p. Very feelingly did the writer in his preface insist on the necessity of eloquence. ”Even quick and attractive wit,” as he thoughtfully observed, ”is often foiled for want of words, and makes a man or woman seem a _statute_ or one dumb.” He candidly acknowledges that several treatises like his have been published, ”but he a.s.sures the _courteous reader_ that none have arrived to the perfection of this, for good language and diversion.”

This is the receipt for accosting a lady, and entering into conversation; with her:

”I believe Nature brought you forth to be a scourge to lovers, for she hath been so prodigal of her favor toward you, that it renders you as admirable as you are amiable.”

Another form:

”Your presence is so dear to me, your conversation so _honest_, and your humour so pleasing, that I could desire to be with you perpetually.”

The author directs a slight departure from this form, in case the gentleman has never seen the lady before, and yet has fallen pa.s.sionately in love with her.

”If you accuse me of temerity, you must lay your own beauty in fault, with which I am so taken, that my heart is ravished from me, and wholly subjected to you.”

Decent people would scarcely thank us for troubling them with many of the ”witty questions and answers for the improvement of conversation.”

A few must be quoted, however, with discreet selection.

”Q. What said the tiler to the man when he fell through the rafters of his house?

”A. Well done, faith; I like such an a.s.sistant as thou art, who can go through his work so quickly.

”Q. What said the tailor's boy to the gentleman who, on his presenting his bill, said tartly, he was not running away?

”A. If you are not, sir, I am sorry to say my master is.

”Q. Why is a soldier said to be of such great antiquity?

”A. Because he keeps up the old fas.h.i.+ons when the first bed was upon the bare ground.”

THE BATTLE OF AUGHRIM.

It may appear strange that ”The Battle of Aughrim,” written by an adherent to the Hanoverian succession, should so long have continued a popular volume among the Roman Catholic peasantry. This has, perhaps, been due to the respectful style in which the author treated the officers of Irish extraction. All his contempt and dislike were levelled at St. Ruth, the French General, and his masters, English James and French Louis. Though the style of the rhymed play is turgid enough, there are in it occasional pa.s.sages of considerable vigor and beauty, and a brisk movement in the conduct of the piece; and sentimental youth have an opportunity of shedding a tear over the ill starred love of _G.o.dfrey_ and _Jemima_. It was scarcely fair of the author to represent St. Ruth as a stabber in cold blood, but hear the moving periods he makes Sarsfield utter:

”O heavens! can nature bear the shocking sound Of death or slavery on our native ground.

Why was I nurtured of a n.o.ble race, And taught to stare destruction in the face?