with joy, with joy and grace-xapis. Think of him who Sternitur, et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos; of the Spartan, who "smiles in dying;" re- Ἐν δ' άνεμος πρῆσε μέσον ιστίον, ἀμφὶ δὲ κῦμα The salute of the primitive Romans, like their social character, their manners, their institutions, was founded upon the idea of bodily strength, vigor, aptitude for war: with them virtue (virtus, manhood) was synonymous with being "frigoris et famei patiens"-their ideal man was Patria idoneus, utilis agris, "Salve," "vale"-be healthy, be strong! Surely this is as perfect a portrait as xaipe, as Shalum. What a people that must have been, where virtue signified manliness, and valor (literally strength) at the same time value and courage; a man's whole value being in the measure of his valor. These are a pair of convertible terms, whose existence forms the best commentary on the elder history of Rome. Was not the poet right when he cried out in that noble rapture, We are not sure whether this single word xaps be not a better key to the people than all the sage books from Gronovius to Grote. In Homer one does not meet with much variety of greeting: indeed forms could hardly have flourished at such a time. Everybody appears to be acquainted with everybody else in the throng of the onslaught as perfectly as so many Tipperary boys at a faction fight; for they almost always prelude their encounter with a little chaffing, to the same effect as the Come out, ye thief o' the world, till I bate the skin aff the ugly bones of you!" We say to the same effect, for the Homeric heroes use, even in their most excited moments, language which never loses a character of majesty, still further heightened by the sonorous recitative of the divine hexameter. The comedy-writers, no less than the great Mæonian, afford innumerable examples of chaffing, often of a truly rich, imaginative, and altogether Hellenic luxuriance: but we must not allow our pen to linger in these "shady spaces." As to the Neo-Grecks, having lost all distinctive for true valor, virtue, manliness, consists nationality, they of course have not pre- quite as much in sparing the overthrown as served anything really original in language. in warring down the proud. A people with Theirs is a vile piebald jargon, with just so such words familiarly in their mouths could many traces remaining of the glorious speech not help being dominant. What a tone of of old as to make the contemplative more frank gravity, of rough military bluntness keenly feel its degradation; like a baker's there is in all their older language! One oven piled up of ruin-stones, among which man meets another, by whose side he may glances out here and there some broken bit have stood when the savage-eyed shaggyof Phidian bas-relief put in upside down. haired Gaul was hurled back in the full fury The Greeks of Otho say xaves? what dost of his shrieking onset from the steady line of thou?—a phrase which evidently could by the Legion, and he says to his-not friend or no possibility have grown up indigenously "bruder," but--fellow-citizen, "be healthy," among such a chattering, cheating, unprofit-"be strong." But observe, as they declined able people. Our wise old poet, Lord Brooke, from the "barbata simplicitas," how their salutations grew more and more ingenious :- says Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, caveto: Occurrit quidam, notus mihi nomine tantum, 66 449 simply upon the state of our digestion. This indeed is more profound than it seems; and the connection between "pulchrè concoquere" and" nihil timere," is so close, delicate, and This dulcissime rerum, something like the mysterious, that the only aim of half the "my dear creatures" and childs" of Con- metaphysical and political treatises that have greves's and Farquhar's fops, is a shrewd ever been published, is to trace the bond argument of degeneracy; a Roman of the which unites them. The French theorem days of Camillus who should have used a just quoted was promulgated at a time when phrase of such effeminate turn, would have the whole surface of society, nay, the very been pulled up before the Censor and foundations of right and wrong were heaving swinged for corrupting the morals of the and cracking: and it was received with some Quirites. We too hear occasionally, "Oh alarm by the few. On the whole, it was a you sweet, dear little thing!" but it is said merry sort of a time--pleasant but wrong; only to a baby, and it is but young ladies of and was admirably formulized by Madame sixteen who say it. On the other hand the Du Barri (Madame's own existence being Quid agis?-what dost thou ?--is evidently nothing else but an intense individualization a good deal older than the Dulcissime rerum, of the epoch) in her "après nous le déand characteristic of the true manners-diluge!"--a mot to the full as picturesque as rect straightforwardness and indomitable ac- the equally renowned exclamation of Titivity. "Pretty well, as times go," answers berius: poor Horace, "and I am your most obedient;" dying to get rid of the unmerciful togaholder. Cupio omnia quæ vis is far from being a badly devised phrase for the purpose of showing a man politely to the door: but it bears strong marks (as indeed does the very idea of showing a man to the door at all, nay, even the abstract notion and entelechy of a bore) of being the product of an advanced civilization. The Romans, in the plump days of Horace, had grown to be a singularly idle, quidnunc, gaping, lounging tribe; but they continued to attach an inordinate value to health, inasmuch, as a fit of illness kept them at home amid the gloom and discomfort of their miserable lodgings, and deprived them of the darling pleasure of lazzaroning away their mornings at the audiences of their patron, at the bath, or in the fish-market. Thus the very effeminacy of their present life contributed to keep up the old salve, vale, and other corporeal good wishes, which had other corporeal good wishes, which had been invented as an expression of military courage, and of a readiness to plough or fight with equal energy for the good of Rome, to devote oneself with Decius to the Infernal Gods, or sup on "turnips roasted in a Sabine farm:" Bene nam valetis omnes, and this line of the poet gives us a perfect anticipation of the famous dictum of Madame Du Deffand, who asserted that all happiness and misery, all virtue and vice, depend VOL. XXI. NO. IV. After the final extinction of constitutional Έμου θανόντος γαια μιχθήτω πυρί! liberty and order in Rome, when slavery and conquest went hand in hand, and marched. with such colossal strides over the prostrate world, there was reigning throughout society precisely the same selfish levity, the same desperate laissez aller, the same want of earnest belief, and neglect of everything but momentary pleasure and profit, as characterFrance, just before the tremendous eruption ized the state of Europe, but especially of the long-confined volcano. The locomotive was spinning along, sure to go off the rails at last, and all they had to do was to keep the wheels well greased in the meantime. The greatest blessing of life was then Romans, it may be remarked, had another "a good stomach and a bad heart.' form of salutation, used the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night-the last, too, at a funeral, as in those lovely lines of Catullus to his brother's memory— The Nunc et in ætornum, Frater, ave atque vale! being the sacramental words used when the corpse was burning on the pile, and the mourners circled around it thrice in sad procession, crying out the final adieu. What can be the original meaning of the word? It seems we must wait for that until Etruria finds a Rawlinson; but if we knew its pedicharacteristic as salve or vale? who doubts that we should find it as gree, or rather from the corrupted Latin called In the languages derived from the Latin, Romanz, we can see the same delicacy of 29 shoding; but if we were able to make all the collections and researches which the full discussion of such a subject requires, we should be obliged to write, not an article, but an Encyclopædia. We must content ourselves with a few indications. The Genoese in the middle ages used to say Sanità e guadagno Health and gain: a phrase combining the two elements of their character in such perfection that no commentary can either simplify or condense it. But the Italians have been metamorphosed since the merchant princes and the golden book—" Bottom, thou art translated!"-and until some better means than they have of late been trying shall have raised them up again into men, we must content ourselves with taking them as they are, and remarking the Crescele in santita of the priest-ridden Neapolitan, and the "I am your slave" of the liberal Piedmontese. The same pliable, pitiable servility may be traced through most of the forms of the country, dedications of books, subscriptions of letters, and so forth; there is hardly an idiom which does not partake of this faint odor. In Come sta? Come state? we have packed together the nearly opposite tendencies which go to make up the main groundwork of the Italian character-an extreme nervous mobility, expressed in the come, combined with the altogether unprogressive indolence of the state. Surely this must be a nation not destined for a sudden re-develop ment of vitality. And is not Italy the land of farniente? To stand, to be, to exist, in such a region, is in itself such a blessing that life fleets lazily and sunnily away, without giving a temptation or a motive to more activity than is required for the procuring of a sufficient quantity of iced water and maccaroni. In the toil-compelling north such a phrase as Come state?-the very syllables of which seem to come out languidly, as when one is lying half asleep under the shade of a great patulous beech-tree in a blazing midsummer noon-would be impossible. In Spanish, one finds, superadded to the Italian immobility and passiveness, a certain smack of the fine old Castilian pride and haughty gravity : Don Hermogenes. Buenas tardes, Señores. Don Pedro. A la orden de VS. Don Antonio. Felicisimas, amigo Don Hermogenes. "Good late," instead of "Good evening," is of the same stamp with that other Hispanicism of calling the evening sereno. Vaya con Dios, Señor Caballero! has a relish of strong self-respect mingled with religiosity,-and the phrase gives one a high idea of the tone of personal character which must anciently have predominated in the dominions of the catholic kings; as do Quede VS. con Dios: Queremos hacerle a VS. cuantos obsequios sean posibles:-Mi alegre mucho de ver a VS., y de conocerlo, Señor Doctor :-Beso las manos a VS. :-Soy de VS. The highly elliptical form of the last salutation is worthy of notice. It should be noted also, that the Spaniard, with all his religion, does not place the religious idea first, as the Oriental does, but says Vaya con Dios! He is not of the mind of honest Dogberry-" and put God first, for God forbid but God should go before such rascals." In "May you live muchos anos," or a thousand years, however, one plainly perceives traces of the Moor. An Englishman would never be able to conquer so far his inracinated dread of what he in his ultra-poetical slang calls humbug and flummery, as to use so hyperbolical a formula, Life, too-mere life in the abstract—is much less desirable under our cloudy skies and among our easterly winds than in Spain; for which reason the wish for long life could never among us be a common greeting. We reserve it for solemn occasions, as Long live the Queen! Above all, note the " VS." so prodigally used. Does not the very exaggeration of this contraction-a contraction which must have been gradual, and each step dictated by the wish to save time-indicate the proud politeness of "your Don," who would have a hundred times a day to "brook the stab" if he omitted "phrase of courtesy." And if this process took place where time is of so little value-a fact proved no less clearly by the language-above all others fertile in big, rumbling, rolling, long-tailed words-than by their siestas, guitar-strumming, and interminable screeching of romances-what must have been the frequency of call that finally screwed Vuestra Mercedes into Ustedes (spoken) and VS. (written)? Comment vous portez-vous? Most readily do we acknowledge the flood of light which has been thrown on French phrases* by M. * M. Tarver's work is really a valuable addition to our Dictionary shelf-the most important shelf in every man's library. The nice skill with which he has compared and contrasted the phrases of the two most influential of modern tongues can hardly be over-praised. Such a book might well deserve a distinct notice; but we are happy to take this opportunity, meantime, of saying that one of the volumes has now been in constant use with us for five years, and we should be at a loss to name another recent one of its class which we have found more . Tarver--but every syllable of this deserves | just as the French mind is a heap of flutterto be studied by a Bopp or a Grimm for half ing odds and ends, all alive and dancing-all a cannister of Canaster at least, that all the herisse, to use their own admirable word— profound essence-quinta pars nectaris--may yet the result an inimitable medium, not for be completely extracted and distilled out of poetry or eloquence, nor lofty reasoning, but it ad residuum, by the bee-like acumen of for chat--which they are the only people to some linguistic Berzelius, or philological render neither bald nor disjointed. Latin, Scheele. This little phrase of three words with all the Roman flowingness and music (for the vous being repeated only counts for taken out of it, snipped, and nipped, and one) contains the very soul of the French clipped, like a Versailles yew-tree. Think character, their manners, their history; and of French being precisely-as far as elemennot only gives the portrait of their Past, but tary structure and origin are concerned--the helps us to an almost infallible prognostica- same tongue as Italian, and then calculate tion of their Future. Qualitas is monstrously what must be the difference of idiosyncrasy developed in proportion to quidditas. How from one and the same plastic substance to is the formula, not what. He busies himself have produced two such fabrics. The effect mainly with the shapes and shows of things; is far more astonishing than if the two had and therefore comment is the prominent and had quite independent sources, and is truly leading stroke in that involuntary photograph an overwhelming proof of the power of nawhich he strikes off fifty times a day. Then tional character to give its own form and the portez-vous. How do you carry your- pressure to language, just as the larva of the self? Outside, externally, superficial ginger- insect lends its shape to the silky envelop. It bread work in every letter of it. An impres is the same as to the pronunciation; where sionable, eager, restless, vivacious manner of we find the process begun by cutting off all man, always ready to make love-and a droll the ends--the inflections--of the grand imsort of love it is nowadays-or to cock his perial words, carried still farther, as far, incap over his and mourir pour la deed, as it will go, and all so completely patrie;" doing trivial things in a solemn way Dismembered, maimed, hacked, rent, and torn, and solemn things in a trivial one; a tigresinge, as he was called by the vales who as nearly to have driven the Académie frantic, knew him best, and now and then a singe- and to have extorted from unhappy Charles tigre. Sterne's old story of the little barber Nodier those plaintive lamentations which we proposing to "immerge the wig in the ocean, may peruse with much profit in the "Essai will be true to the end of the chapter. A sur la Linguistique"--one of the cleverest vaporing, acting, aggressive, demonstrative small books of its age. For instance, let us people, on whom little things and great make compare the words Pacem, Salutem, et Fraan equally strong and equally fugitive im- ternitatem--pronounced not after the abominpression; jesting commonly at everything able English guise, which Milton justly calls. except trifles, and never more irresistably "as ill-hearing as law-French," but with the comic than when trying with all their true broad Trasteverine sound of the vowels might to be serious--for instance, play-fine, rolling, organ-like vocables, with a ing at constitution-making--a spectacle that reminds one of a party of little Emmies and Carries playing at companies. In this Comment vous portez-vous? one sees the theatrical character in perfection, the instant identification of the person speaking with the person spoken to, which is the definition of theatricality. The whole language how like the people! Every phrase composed of a heap of minute particles, y, ne, ça, and so forth, eyes, smack of the old Roman majesty in their very intonation-compare them, we say, with pé, salu, e fraternité. Comment ça va-t-il? How that goes it? Even here we have not been able in our literal translation to give any account of the miserable unfortunate stuck in, euphonic gratia, between the verb and the second nominative: and what a truly Gallic flippancy in the ça! The old Middle-Age French, on the other hand, bears a general character of useful. The idea was happy, and the execution has uniformity and strong religious feeling. been most laudably careful. We have been infinitely" Adieu, vous die, messire Gauvain, mon obliged to it in reading the lighter French literature chier et doulx ami!" as we have it in Merlin of this day--so full of vocables fresh from the mint l'Enchanteur. All such "skipping measures," of camp or guinguette, and lively audacious turns, such fantastical off-hand quaintnesses and pwvavτa JUVETOIdiv, undreamt ef by "the forty"which would have puzzled Voltaire as much as familiarities as Comment ça va-t-il ?-Portezvous? and the like, could have had no ex Johnson. istence in those times; they would have been as discordant with their serious, simple tone, as London slang with a tournament. And here we may remark that slang-a word of wide meaning, including all the ideas and expressions that spring from the notion of knowingness-slang, we say, could in no wise have existed at a period of Faith, of pure child-like trust in matters of knowledge, of state, and of religion. With slang we must be careful not to confound humors, which are quite a different thing-as different as Corporal Nym from Sam Weller, or Bobadil from the Game Chicken. The modern Gascons, in their patois, which has retained much more resemblance to Latin than we see in "Frenshe of Paris"-being, indeed, nearly pure langue d'oc-say Coumo vas ?-and herein we may plainly mark the difference between the more indolent and sensuous Southern and the eager, mocking, trivial Parisian. Indolent for observe how the subject of the phrase is altogether suppressed, while we have none of the jags and tags of language that dangle about its classical edition; for though Coumo vas and Comment ça va-t-il are much alike as far as the fundamentals are concerned, the former consists of only two words while the latter contains five, the greater part of which are little insignificant particles, not at all nece sary for the intelligibleness of the proposition. The Gascon, then, is evidently a more easy-going sort of a person, and does not give himself the trouble to waste good breath. He is of the mind of the noble wit who exclaimed against the absurdity of a man's muddling away his income in paying bills. It may perhaps appear odd that, in a nation which has so long ceased to possess any claim to the title of religious, the formula adieu should have kept its footing. We must allow for the impression bequeathed by the Roman Catholic faith, an impression likely to remain more durable on manners than on sentiments. This, and the convenience of the phrase itself, together with the difficulty of changing -for nothing is at bottom so immutable as language, apparently the most frail and chameleon-like of things--have contributed to maintain "adieu," and probably it will last when Notre Dame is a play-house. Madame de Staël stole and popularized J. P. Richter's saying, that to the German was reserved the empire of the air-an acute and beautiful judgment, corroborated not only by the vague and phantasmagoric character of German literature, and particularly poetry, when she was manufacturing her "De l'Alle magne," but even more powerfully perhaps by the tone of German metaphysics, and by the German supremacy in music. As for personal practical activity, whether of body or mind, for taking, in short, the bull by the horns, the German makes but an indifferent chulo; and the bull will have him over his head in a moment, thereby producing a funcion of no unedifying kind at his expense. His ordinary salutation, when he meets you in the morning, sauntering along the Kartoffelgasse or the Amalienstrasse, as the case may be, is Wie geht's? How goes it? Not, How do you get on? but it-things in generala pure abstraction, a reines Vernunftwesen, quite independent of himself or you, expressed by es a word of the most unseizable meaning and in its most unseizable form. It is that mysterious abstract it, that ideal of nonentity, which is to get on, but whether, or how? Let the Sphynx answer. It is es which is to go; we "humans are but mere playthings in the hand of an uncontrollable Destiny; feathers, down-particles, gossamers driven onward by the resistless roaring whirlwind of ANATKH. If we think for a moment of the ideal vagueness of this chaotic particle, our brain begins to "turn o' the toe like a parish top;" we dare not pursue it into the unfathomable void of breathless interlunar space. This touches us nearly, the German element being so mingled in our own character; but we shall presently see how of this element we have taken only so much as harmonizes with the rest of our natureso like and yet so unlike that of our Saxon forefathers. Again, in Wie geht's? there is a stronge tinge of simple cordiality, perfectly in accordance with the friendly, homely, familiar life of the Germans of all classes: among whom--we speak of them as in the anti-reform ages-you could find surprisingly little difference in accent, idiom, or turn of thinking between the Prince of Saxe-Pumpernickelhausen and his Serene Highness's postilion. In this brief Wie geht's? the whole tournure seems to breathe a comfortable, easy-going, good-natured spirit, the very atmosphere of the puppet-show court and lazy bourgeoisie of a queer, quaint, sleepy, Lilliputian city of old amiable Deutschland. The same thing may be said of the parting words of "our fat friend" in the plum-colored inexpressibles and apple-green coat, with the somewhat frowzy cap on his head, the plethoric bloated umbrella in his hand; for on the Amalienstrasse, from morn till dewy eve, in all weathers, rain or shine, summer or winter,— |
