Domestic Pleasures, or, the Happy Fire-side Part 2

_Mr. B._ It grows wild, like any other shrub, in the hilly parts of the country; but where it is regularly cultivated, the seed is sown in rows, at the distance of about four feet from each other, and the land kept perfectly free from weeds. Vast tracts of hilly ground are planted with it. It is not allowed to grow very tall, for the convenience of the more readily collecting its leaves, which is done first in spring, and twice afterwards in the course of the summer. Its long and tender branches spring up almost from the root, without any intervening naked trunk. It is bushy, like a rose tree, and the blossom bears some resemblance to that flower.

_Emily._ There is a very great difference in the flavour of tea. Does that depend upon the manner of drying it?

_Mr. B._ In some degree it does; but its quality is materially affected by the soil in which it grows, and by the age of the leaves when plucked from the tree. The largest and oldest leaves are least esteemed, and are generally sold to the lowest of the people, with very little previous preparation. The younger ones, on the contrary, undergo great care and much attention, before they are delivered to the purchaser. Every leaf pa.s.ses through the fingers of a female, who rolls it up almost to the form it a.s.sumed before it was expanded by growth. It is afterwards placed upon very thin plates of earthen-ware, or iron, and exposed to the heat of a charcoal fire, which draws all the moisture from the leaves, and renders them dry and crisp.

_Emily._ I have heard that green tea is dried on copper, which gives it its peculiar taste and colour, and renders it less wholesome than black tea.

_Mr. B._ This is, I believe, a mistake: the chief use of copper, in China, is for coinage. Scarcely any utensil is made of that metal, and the Chinese themselves confidently deny the use of copper plates for this purpose. The colour and flavour of green tea is thought to be derived from the early period at which the leaves are plucked, and which, like unripe fruit, are generally green and acrid.

Emily thanked her father for the account he had given her, and all the children gratefully felt the value of their kind parents, who were ever willing to devote their time and attention to the improvement of their beloved family.

_Mr. B._ I hope you are all prepared to give me a further account of Romulus, after tea.

_All_. We hope so, papa.

_Ferdinand_. May I first tell you a very curious account of a little dwarf, which I read today?

_Mr. B._ By all means, my boy.

_Ferdinand_. It is now seventy-four years since he was born, at a village in France. He was a very little creature indeed, as you will suppose, when I tell you he only weighed a pound and a quarter. When he was baptized, they handed him to the clergyman on a plate, and, for a long time, he used to sleep in a slipper. He could not walk alone till he was two years old, and then his shoes were only an inch and a half long. At six years old he was fifteen inches high. Notwithstanding he was so very small, he was well-made and extremely handsome, but he had not much sense. The king of Poland sent for him to his court, called him baby, and kept him in his palace. They tried to teach him dancing and music, but he could not learn. He was never more than twenty-nine inches tall. By the time he was sixteen he began to grow infirm, like an old man. From being very beautiful, the poor little creature became quite deformed. At twenty he was extremely feeble and decrepid, and two years after, he died.

_Mr. B._ Poor little creature: such objects are much to be pitied. There are persons who take pleasure in seeing them; but I must confess, there is something to me extremely unnatural, in such an exposure of our unhappy fellow-creatures.

_Edward_. Did not Peter the Great, on some occasion, a.s.semble a vast number together?

_Mr. B._ He did; and I rather think Emily can give you an account of it.

_Emily_. It was in the year 1710, that a marriage between two dwarfs was celebrated at the Russian court. The preparations for this wedding were very grand, and executed in a style of barbarous ridicule. Peter ordered that all the dwarfs, both men and women, within two hundred miles, should repair to the capital, and insisted that they should be present at the ceremony. Some of them were unwilling to comply with this order, knowing that the object was to turn them into ridicule; but he soon obliged them to obey, and, as a punishment for their reluctance, made them wait on the others. There were seventy a.s.sembled, besides the bride and bridegroom, who were richly adorned in the extreme of fas.h.i.+on.

Everything was suitably provided for the little company; a low table, small plates, little gla.s.ses; in short, all was dwindled down to their own standard. Dancing followed the dinner, and the ball was opened with a minuet by the bride and bridegroom, the latter of whom was exactly three feet two inches high, and the day closed more cheerfully than it had begun.

_Edward._ I had always understood that Peter was a man of a very barbarous disposition, and I think this circ.u.mstance is a strong proof of it. How cruel! to make sport of the misfortunes and miseries of others.

_Mr. B._ The Czar Peter was a most extraordinary man. No monarch ever did more towards the civilization of his subjects, or less towards the subduing of his own barbarous nature. My dear Ferdinand, ring the bell; I believe the tea-things may now be removed.

_Louisa._ Oh! how pleasantly the time has pa.s.sed. I have not once thought of my work. I was afraid I should have been quite impatient to begin the little frock which I cut out last night.

_ Emily._ You have felt interested in the conversation, Louisa, and that has made the time pa.s.s so pleasantly. Sometimes, when you are anxious respecting any pursuit, you think so much of its approach, that you do not attempt to employ the preceding minutes, which is the cause of their appearing so long.

_Mrs. B._ I was just going to make the same remark, Emily. It is very unwise to lose the present time, in the antic.i.p.ation of a moment we may never see:

"Improve the present hour, for all beside Is a mere feather on the torrent's side."

Whilst the servant was clearing away the tea-things, the children employed themselves in preparing for their different occupations, and were soon happily seated around their parents.

_Mr B._ Well, now who will give us an account of the Sabine war? As the eldest, I believe I must call upon you, Emily.

_Emily._ The Sabines having become masters of the Capitoline hill, through the treachery of Tarpeis, a general engagement soon took place, which was renewed for several days, both armies obstinately refusing to submit. The slaughter was prodigious, which seemed rather to increase than diminish their rage. In a moment the attention of both armies was attracted by a most interesting spectacle. The Sabine women, who had been carried off by the Romans, rushed in between the combatants, their hair dishevelled, their dress disordered, and the deepest anguish pictured in their countenances; they seemed quite regardless of consequences, and, with loud outcries, implored their husbands and fathers to desist. Completely overcome by this distressing scene, the combantants let fall their weapons by mutual impulse, and peace was soon restored. It was determined that Tatius and Romulus should reign jointly in Rome, with equal power, and that an hundred Sabines should be admitted into the senate.

_Mr. B_. Was this union permanent, Edward?

_Edward_. Yes, father; though, as might have been expected, little jealousies occasionally crept in among them. Tatius was, however, murdered about five years afterwards, so that Romulus was once more sole master of Rome.

_Mr. B_. Come, Louisa, you have been silent to-night, let me hear you finish the account.

_Louisa_. Romulus soon began to grow very proud and haughty, now he had no one to oppose him. The members of the senate were much disgusted by his arrogance, and contrived to put him to death so privately, that his body was never discovered: they then persuaded the people that he was taken up into heaven, and he was long afterwards wors.h.i.+ped as a G.o.d, under the name of Quirinus.

_Ferdinand_. I am glad Romulus is dead, for I never liked him. Numa Pompilius was a much better man.

_Mr. B._ And pray who was he?

_Ferdinand_. He was a Sabine, papa: the second king of Rome, and was famous for being a just, moderate, and very good man; and that is the best kind of fame, I think.

_Mr. B._ I think so, too, Ferdinand. Was Numa Pompilius elected to the sovereign authority immediately upon the death of Romulus?

_Edward_. No, father: the senators undertook to supply the place of a king, by a.s.suming, each of them in turn, the government for five days; but the plebeians not choosing to have so many masters, insisted upon the nomination of a king, and the choice fell on Numa Pompilius. He was received with universal approbation, and was himself the only person who objected to the nomination. Happy at home, and contented in a private station, he was not ambitious of higher honours, and accepted the dignity with reluctance.

_Ferdinand_. I should have thought just as

Numa did, papa; for I do not think kings can ever be happy.

_Mr. B._ They are certainly placed in a very responsible situation; but those who conscientiously perform their respective duties, need not fear being happy under any circ.u.mstances.

_Ferdinand_. But a king has so many duties to fulfil, and they are so important, that I am sure I had much rather be a subject.

_Mr. B._. I am quite of your opinion, my dear boy, that there is much more happiness to be found in the private walks of life; and I can with truth declare, that I would not exchange my own fire-side, enlivened by so many happy countenances, for the gilded palace of the greatest monarch.

"Nor would we change our dear father and mother," said the cheerful little Louisa, "to be the gayest lords and ladies in the land."

_Mr. B._. Well, my little lady, now let me hear how Numa goes on in his new dignity.

_Louisa_. He was so well calculated to be a king, by his goodness as well as his knowledge, papa, that you may suppose he made his subjects very happy. His whole time was spent in endeavouring to render them pious and virtuous. He built a great many new temples for religious wors.h.i.+p; and, amongst others, one to Ja.n.u.s, which was always open in time of war, and shut in time of peace. He did every thing in his power to encourage agriculture, and, for this purpose, divided the lands which Romulus had conquered in war, among the poor people. His subjects loved him very much, and he lived till he was eighty years old, and then died in peace, after having reigned forty-three years. The temple of Ja.n.u.s was shut during his whole reign.

_Mr. B._ You have given your account very correctly, Louisa; Numa was, indeed, a wise and discreet prince. You have, however, omitted mentionaing his distribution of the tradesmen of Rome into distinct corporations, which Plutarch considered the master-piece of his policy.

The city had been long divided into two factions, occasioned by the mixture of the Sabines with the first Romans. Hence arose jealousies, which were an inexhaustible source of discord. Numa, to remedy this evil, made all the artists and tradesmen of Rome, of whatever nation they originally were, enter into separate companies, according to their respective professions. The musicians, goldsmiths, carpenters, curriers, dyers, tailors, &c. formed distinct communities. He ordained particular statutes for each of them, and granted them peculiar privileges. Every corporation was permitted to hold lands, to have a common treasury, and to celebrate festivals and sacrifices proper to itself;--in short, to become a sort of little republic. By this means the Sabines and Romans, forgetting all their old partialities and party names, were brought to an entire union.

_Ferdinand._ That was a capital contrivance. What a clever man Numa was; and how much good such a king can do to his people.

_Edward._ You did not mention, Louisa, what pains Numa took to reform the calendar. The year, before his time, consisted of but three hundred and four days, which is neither agreeable to the solar nor the lunar year. Numa endeavoured to make it agree with both: he added January and February to the old year, which before consisted of only ten months.

Although he did not render the calendar so complete as it is at present, he remedied the disorders as far as he was able, and put it into a condition of more easily admitting of new corections.

_Mr. B._ Louisa has alreay told us that the temple of Ja.n.u.s was not opened during the whole reign of Numa: he was, indeed a most pacific and amiable prince. He was beloved by his neighbours, and became the arbiter of all the differences among them; and his virtues seemed to have communicated themselves to all the nations around Rome. As to the Romans themselves, it might be literally said, that their weapons of war were changed into implements of husbandry. No seditions, no ambitious desires of the throne, nor so much as any murmurs against the person or administration of the king, appeared amongst his subjects. When he died, they lamented him as severely as if every man had lost his own father; and the concourse of strangers to Rome, to pay the last tribute of respect to his remains, was exceedingly great. Numa had forbidden the Romans to burn his body; they therefore put it into a stone coffin, and, according to his own orders, buried the greatest part of the books he had written, in the same sepulchre with himself. He had made a law, forbidding that any dead body should be buried within the city, and had, himself, chosen a burying-place beyond the Tiber. Thither he was carried, on the shoulders of his senators, and followed by all the people, who bewailed their loss with tears.

_Mrs. B._ How superior to bra.s.s and marble, is such a monument of a people's love.

_Ferdinand._ I suppose Numa named one of his new months January, in compliment to the G.o.d Ja.n.u.s, to whom he had erected the temple.

_Mr. B._ Yes. Ja.n.u.s is always represented with two faces, one looking backwards, the other forwards; and seems to be properly placed at the beginning of the year, to point out to us the necessity of looking back to the time that is past, that we may remedy our crimes in the year ensuing.