Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Engraved for the Oxford Magazine.

The Chariot given by her, Majesty to the Reigning Prince of Mecklenburg Strelitz

The Addrefs of a Schoolmafter, to a leading Alderman, &c.

time, and exacts fervice, that merits ten; on which fide lies the obligation? I have had the care of a public school these seventeen years; my falary five fhillings and five-pence a week, or three pounds eleven fhillings and four-pence a quarter; whereas, a journeyman joiner, who, perhaps knows not a letter, earns nine; an exciseman, that can't fpell, but is dextrous at figures, eighteen fhillings a week.

In my own cafe, I do not recollect, in all my time, any additional favour, though fometimes folicited. Was I to make the public privy to thefe hardfhips, would they believe, I lived in an opulent borough? And would they not rather fix my meridian in Scotland or Wales? I am not fingular in my opinion, that an antient corporation, of the first account for trade and opulence, and, as I am informed, for its juftice and humanity, might purchase no small addition to its honour and glory, by putting literature on a more refpectable foot; as not fuffering fcience to languish, even to death and annihilation. Mafters might poffibly be had, even on bafer terms; but all mafters are not teachers; and here, the genius of your town feems to befeech you to vindicate her fame; and what member of her community is fo mean, fo fordid, fo infenfible to her cry, as not to fympathize in her concerns, which are really his own? A ftranger arrives; a ftranger always enquires about literary establishments; and forms a judgment of your talte for letters and politenefs, from the attention you pay to your public feminaries. What is their figure? How are their interefts fupported? If the fame numerical fums were allowed in the judicious and generous æra of a learned queen, (I need not inform a perfon of your learning and fagacity)

H'

[ocr errors]

179

Elizabeth, my income was more than equal to fifty pounds a year, of the prefent value; with which a teacher of a liberal education might make a decent appearance, to the credit of the community his patrons ; be enabled to purchase a collection of authors proper for his information, fee better fort of company, where his abilities might have play; and meet with countenance and veneration, where he may now find envy and contempt.

A twittering, growling, and devotion-disturbing organift; a levity and vanity inculcating dancingmafter; and an ufelefs time-abufing puppy, called a fidler, fhall each annually pocket hardly fo little as a fat hundred; a crier fixty; a parish clerk and fexton forty or fifty pounds; whilst an excellent grammarian, whose business is the cultivating and reforming, what every man pretends to value up to its dignity, his understanding, is treated worse than the whole group; he puts up with ---fourteen pounds, five fhillings and four-pence !---O tempora! O mores! was never applied with more propriety. He, who has the chief hand in informing gentlemen, is not fo well provided for as a livery rafcal, a breaker of horfes, or a tutor of dogs. Think on these things, and the Lord give you, and your brethren, grace, to do juftice, love mercy, and walk humbly,-the earnest prayer of, Sir, yours, &c.

ΜΑΧΙΜ.

Time is the architype of Toolgrinders; whilft he is giving us a fine edge, experience; he is wearing out our blade, with old age; and makes us good for fomething, and fit for ufe, and to manage the world, when we are about to leave the world.

ER Majelly having prefented a very elegant coach to her elder brother the Duke of Mecklenburg, we thought an Engraving of it would be agreeable to our readers, and have therefore given one: it requires no defcription.

A

On ENGLISH GRAMMAR. Letter IV.

N ARTICLE is a word never ufed by itself, but always joined with fome other word, to define, or fhew, the extant of its fignification. The reafon and use of articles may be thus explained. The vifible and individual fubftances are too numerous to admit, each, a particular name. To remedy this defect, when any individual occurs, which either wants a proper name, or has one which is unknown, we ascertain and define it as well as we can, by referring it to its fpecies; or, if the fpecies be unknown, by referring it to fome genus. Thus when we behold an object with a head, and limbs endued with fenfation and felf-motion, if we know it not as an individual, we refer it to its proper fpecies, and call it---dog, or lion, &c. But if none of these names be right, we have recourse to the genus, and call it an animal.

But this is not fufficient. Suppofing the object we are looking at be neither a Species, nor a genus, What is it then? What? but an individual? We may ask farther, whether it be known, or unknown? or feen now, for the first time, or seen before, and now remembered? By this procefs we arrive at the use of the two English ARTICLES, A, and THE.

WE

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

To our CORRESPONDENTS.

A

E are much obliged to Mr. John Lowe for his computations of the Eclipfes, &c. to Tacitus for his Poem; to J. W. for his fhort Epiftle, and to T. Allen, for his Mathematical Question; all of which fhall, if pof fible, be inferted in our next. Trebor Dalfur is too incorrect for publica tion. Ruelyat muft excufe us if we omit inferting his curious Mifcellany. We fhall, however, give a fample:

O was but Virtue permanent,

And Justice not allow'd to fleep-oh,
Odds then, have at the P--rl---t ;

I fpy fhould end the game at Peep-bo.

All our other Correfpondents favours fhall be inferted as foon as poffible.

Ceremony of the Reception of a Nun, communicated to us by a Gentleman now at Dunkirk. Continued from our last, p. 144.

TH

The Ceremony of taking the black Veil.

HE ceremony of taking the black veil is as follows: When the curtain belonging to the grate of the choir is drawn back, the young nun is difcovered fitting in her white veil at the table, with two wax-candles, one on each fide, and on each fide of the candles is a flower-pot with artificial flowers; between thefe is a crucifix, and, leaning against the crucifix, a parchment fcroll, containing her yows; and behind these a pen and ink, in order to fign them in her hand she holds a book, which he is reading in order to prepare her for communion; on her left hand fits a nun on a chair; and before her stands a large wax-candle, placed in a filver candleftick upon the ground; the nun is there to inftruct her during the ceremony. This large candle is the fame that the held during the ceremony of taking the white veil, and after this day it is confecrated to the fervice of the church. Three ecclefiaftics attend at this proceffion, as there did at the ceremony of taking the white veil. They begin the hymn of Veni Creator, in finging which, they are joined by the nuns. In or about the middle,

the priest leaves off, and the hymn is finifhed by the nuns, who are ranged round the choir in the fame order as at the ceremony of taking the white veil. When I have concluded my account of this ceremony, I fhall lay before the reader an account of a nun's laying in ftate. After Veni Creator, the three priests begin high mafs; the nun continues fitting in the fame pofture at the table, except at thofe parts where it is proper for her to kneel; about the middle of the mafs, the three priests defcend from the altar, and come forward to the grate, where they feat themselves, while a fourth prieft, appointed for that purpose, afcends the pulpit, which ftands close to the grate, and preaches the profeffional fermon; in which he exhorts both the perfon received, and the nuns in general, to a religious obfervance of the duties of their order, and to cultivate friendship and unity amongst each other; recommending to the young nun to examine herself strictly, whether the thought herself able to difcharge the vows fhe was going to make, and to perfift in her refolution during the remainder of her days. The fermon being ended, the priest returns to the altar, and fays part of the mafs; then they return to the grate, and feat themselves as before, and fhe is conducted to the grate by the nun appointed. She holds in her hand a large waxcandle, and kneels down, whilst the priest propofes to her the following questions:

Le Prêtre. Ma fille, que demandez-vous ? VOL. I.

Prieft. Daughter, what do you ask?

La Novice. Je demande à être reçûë dans' cette compagnie réligieuse, pour me confacrer toute à Dieu, & à l'habit de cet ordre de St. Dominique.

Novice. I want to be received into the fociety of religious women, in order to devore myfelf intirely to God, and the habit of St. Dominic.

Le Prêtre. Ma fille, n'auriez-vous pas quel que chagrin, ou quelque perfuafion, ou contrainte, que vous defirez ardemment d'embraffer l'ordre de St. Dominique?

Prieft. Daughter, does not fome trouble, perfuafion, or constraint, impel you to folicit, in this earnest manner, to be received into the order of St. Dominic?

La Novice. Non, mon révérend père, c'est de ma propre volonté, que je defire d'embraffer l'habit de cet ordre.

Novice. No, reverend father, I affure you that I only follow the impulfe of my own will, in defiring to be admitted into that holy order.

Le Prêtre. Allez donc, ma fille, prononcez avec ardeur vos vœux, c'eft ce que je vous accorde de la part le l'illuftre Evêque de Boulogne.

Prieft. Go then, my daughter, and pronounce your vows with zeal. I grant your request, by permiffion of the illuftrious LordBishop of Boulogne.

She then returns to the table, in order to fign and pronounce her vows, which the reads with an audible voice, fo that they may be heard by all prefent. Her candle is first taken from her. It is proper to apprize the reader, before I lay the vows before him, that every woman that enters into the community, as one of the religious, affumes the name of fome particular and favourite faint; and, during the remainder of her life, is always called. by that name. Some are called by the name of St. Paul; fome by that of St. Peter; and fome by that of St. Thomas. The novice however, before fhe makes her vows, declares her real name.

Le Veu. Moi Marie B, dite St. Jofeph, promets à Dieu, à la fainte Vierge Marie, & à tous les faints du Paradis, de faire væeu de la pauvreté, de la chafteté, & de l'obéïffance à Marie Choque dite de St. Paul, à elle, & à ceux qui la surviendront jusqu'au dernier moment de ma vie.

Signeé, Sœur de St. JosErн.

The Vow. I Mary B, alias St. Jofeph, do promife to God, to the holy Virgin Mary, and to all the faints in Heaven, to make the A R

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, to Mary Choque, [the prefent fuperior] alias St. Paul, to her, and to all her fucceflors, to the lait moment of my life.

Signed, Sifter JOSEPH.

If they cannot write, or are prevented by * confufion, they make the fign of the cross; and, during the time of reading and figning, The continues on her knees, in order to render the ceremony more awful and affecting. It paffes before the altar, that is, her face is turned that way, and she can see it through the grate. During the whole time the nuns continue kneeling. This ended, fhe is conducted to the grate, where a prieft attends, in order to adminifter the facrament to her. At this time he is left entirely to herself, and the nun that before attended her stays at a distance. Having received the facrament, the returns to the table, and kneels down till the mafs is faid throughout.

Mafs being over, the priest defcends from the altar, and comes forward to the grate, where he ftays till the ceremony is entirely finished. One of the nuns brings her black ›veil, or fcapular, on a pewter dish, and the priest reads over it the benediction, or bleffing, and makes the fign of the cross with a brush dipped in holy water. The table that stood before her, and every thing upon it, is taken away: her chair is alfo removed. All this time the continues on her knees. The fupe-rior, as foon as the benediction is given to this part of her habit, orders one of the nuns to attend her out of the hall, and give her fome refreshment; as they are not allowed, by the tenets of their religion, to eat any thing before receiving the facrament. At her return to the choir, fhe holds in her hand a large waxcandle, and comes forward to the gra.e, where fhe makes a low bow. She then goes to the fuperior, kneels down before her, and kifles the ground. She continues on her knees till the fuperior has taken off her white veil, and put on her black one, and fcapular. She then kifles the ground a fecond time, by way of acknowledgment for the favour and indul, gence fhewn her, in admitting her as a nun into that religious community, and to give a proof of her humility according to her vow. Upon her kneeling down, her candle is taken from her; but as foon as fhe has kiffed the ground a second time, and then rifen up, it is returned her by the nun who attended her during the former part of the ceremony. By this nun he is led to the bottom of the choir, Avhere fhe makes a low bow to the altar and the fpectators, and begins to fing a hymn fuited to the occafion, called Venez Esprit faint: or, Veni fpiritus fanéte.

She fings the first verfe alone, and begins the reft without any affiftance; but is afterwards joined by the whole choir, She is

[ocr errors]

obliged to fing the first verfe, and begin all the others, in order to fhew her voice, and as a fign that she is willing to make use of the faculties that God has given her.

When the hymn is ended, the gives her candle to the nun, and kneels down on a carpet that is fpread in the midst of the choir. Upon this fhe fpreads her fcapular, and then lies down on it proftrate on her face, while four nuns cover her with a black cloth, having on it the figure of death's heads and marrowbones at each corner, and a white cross in the middle. They hold it at the distance of about a yard, or four feet, from her body. The reft of the nuns are all upon their knees, as well as thefe four, and each holds a wax-candle in her hand. Two other nuns come and kneel behind her, one at each of her feet. They begin to fing a hymn, called Libera nos Domine, which is part of the office they say for the dead. She lies proftrate the whole time the nuns are finging it. When it is finished, fhe receives orders to rife up, and is presented with her wax-candle. The reafon of covering her with this black cloth, which is the fame that is used at their burials to cover the coffins of the nuns deceased, is, to fhew that she is, in a figurative fenfe, dead; that is, dead to all the pleasures and vanities of this world. She is then conducted to the grate, where she kneels down, and is presented with a crucifix. Her candle is at this time taken away from her. The nun that presents her with the crucifix, firft kiffes the hands, then the feet, and then the parts where our Saviour was tranfpierced by the nails. Her example is followed by the new-made nun. This part of the ceremony is to remind her, that our Saviour suffered thefe wounds for the fins of the world, and that he must dedicate the remainder of her days to ferving Chrift, and following his example: that her life must be paffed in fervent prayer, poverty, chastity, and a strict obfervance of God's holy word and commandments.

The nuns, upon this occafion, fing the hymn Qui Lazarum, &c. which is likewise in the office for the dead. When it is ended, she is conducted to the fuperior, holding a crucifix in her hands. She kneels down before her, and kiffes the ground; this she does in token of humility. Being then ordered to rife, she embraces the fuperior. Then the kneels and kifles the ground a fecond time, to return the fuperior thanks for condefcending to falute her. She then proceeds along that row of nuns, bows to each, and falutes them. She next falutes the nun that ferved her as a guide during the ceremony. Being now at the lower end of the choir, and facing the altar, fhe makes a profound bow to it; fhe then pro ceeds to the next row of nuns, bowing to, and faluting each; but she does not kifs the ground in honour of any but the fuperios

All

« ZurückWeiter »