Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-01-10

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hold of the queen mother Of France, Louisa Of Sn
voy; which, in an evil hour he accepted; for Louisa
was a miracle Of uvarice and mennness. She stole
the soldiers pay out of the military chest, and
cheated her own servants out Of their scanty sala-
ries. After u few months of her service, CJrne-
Illus, again n husband, ~dolefully punning on his
sorrows, declares that if help come not soon, he
Will be not only HcdicNS, a physician, but Diendic1s
a beggar. Her majesty was prolific in promises.
Week after week, letters came to Cornelius to say
that bis salary would be paid, but ho might as well
have appealed to n stone, Two years the brave
man battled with hunger and hope. Think OF
me" he writes, fought against on every side by
sorrows-by griefs, indeed, greater aud more IN.
cessant than | care to write. There is no friend
here to hell me; all comfort me with vain words,
and the court title, which should have brought
me honor and profit, aggravates my heart, by add.
ing against me envy to contempt" n
Through royal promises, | am turned like lxion
on II wheel, haunted by all the furies. | am al
most losing human senses, and become good tor
nothing" At last he learnt that the queens treas
urer, one Bullion, had Leen instructed TO pay him.
In high hopes, he runs to his Office; Bullion admits
the order, but p~Ostp0nes payment. 10 entreaties,
he opposes mockery; to angry demands, quirks and
bubbles. Such was the fate of many a high
minded scholar in the sixteenth century.
During this long and wearing struggle, AgrippaI
had employed his time in the construction Of a
machine to propel fret alls swiftly, and in the com
position of a work which he entitled "The Vanity
of Science and Arts and the Excellence of the
Word Of God" This last a %congenial occu patton
for a man weighed down with care and slowly re
allizing the blight of his hopes, but no great help
to Agrippa's fame.
"All science" says he, 'is vain. Letters are n
delusiOn, Grammarians have never been able t.
decide whether gerunds are rouns or verbs; how
many pronouns there are; or whether Ii is a letter.
Poets have picked the bostialities of the Gods in
neat verse, communicating the same to posterity,
as mad dogs venom. Historians are at such vari-
ance, one with another, that it is impossible but
most of them must be the greatest liars liz the
world. Sophists are so stupidity employed that
their whole business seems to be to err. Arithme.
tic is such idle and uncertain labor that among
arithmeticians has arisen that irreconcilaLle dis
pute-whether an odd or an even number is most
to be preferred. Music is u vagraut, wandering
up and down after its hire, Dancing is a part Of
lwantonness, geometry is so uncertain that no man
can square the circle. Optics is a vain and use
less science, invented for osteutation and full of
f impostures. Geography is an endless series Of
contentious. Architecture is the home of vanity"
Cornelius handles astrology, magic, and the caba-
la more tenderly, as one who has been a disciples;
e still he admits that they may be turned to bad
uses, and recants somewhat of his earlier work.
Turning to man, he shows how vain are the
Y best opinions about the soul. No two philosophers
/ can agree where it resides, or what it is. Equal
G ~ uncertain are mems opinions on politics and re-
4 ligion. What vanity in the greedy sacerdotal
race hungry for gain, which, not only out of wood
e and stone, but out Of the bones of the saints,
S make instruments CT rapine and extortion ~ How
vain church holidays; priestly despOtism, monkish
: deprayity AS to the court, it is "a college of gil
ants; a convent of noble and famous knaves; a the
1 atre of the worst satellites; a school OF the most
| corrupt morals; an asylum for execrable sins
There none prosper but f~atterers. whisperers. de-
tractors, sland 5rers, sycophants, liars, authors Of
3 discord and outrage among the people, whatever
there is worst in every beast seems TO be brou ght
together in the single flock of the court fold;
there is the ferocity OF the lion; the cruelty of the
tiger, the r0ughness of the bear, the rashness Of
the boar, the pride of the horse, the greed CT the
wolf, the obstinacy of the mule, the fraud Of the
fox, the changefulness of the chameleon, the dogs
4 bite, the camels vengefulness, the cowardice OF
+ the hare, the petulance of the goat, the flthiness
t OF the hog, the faulty Of the OK, the stupidness
$ of the ass, and the apes ~iabbor.' AS to mer-
d chants, Agrippa agrees with St. Chrysostom and
J st. Augustine, who say that no merchant can pos.
sibly be saved. Agriculture is a direct produce of
the sin of Adam. War is nothing but murder and
9 robbery by mutual consent. Nobility springs ont
: of treason, perfdy, cruelty, massacre, and other
crimes, and is maintained Ivy worse. Physic is
e the art OF mechanical homicide. Law, originating
in sin, is infirm and subject to change. The call
a ing of advocates is to pervert equity.
$ The work erds with a learned and elaborate
= dissertation in praise of the ass. How the brave
; mans spirit had Leen broken!
. From Lyons lie journeyed with his family to
Paris, ON his way to Antwerp; but his means fail
ing him, he grounded in the French capital. There
he and his family (now lltge) absolutely endured
hunger from poverty-his wife lay at the point Of
death. 1t was not till next spring that some char
table friend lent the poor scholar sixty crowns,
> with which he paid for the journey to Antwerp.
h There was a flicker of happiness at Antwerp,
n where Agrippa had gathered his family around,
q HIM, and began to practice medicine. But it was
short. His wife died. Il am lost" he writes /;
o "for | have lost her who was the only solace of
l. my life, the sweetest consolation in my labofs-
@ my most loved wife" lie exchanged his indie.
n pendent position us physician for another court
e oihee-that OF historiographer to the emperor.
One is amazed TO find, as in the fOrm0r case, he
could not get any money from his royal employer
G After many months patient endurance, the PRIV
council. to which he had sent petition upon petit
ton, referred him to the emperor. lie set out
/. accordingly. while | follow the court" said he
'absent from home, my family hungers, my little
ones weep, my creditors beset me, my liberty is
insecure" Nor did he gain anything by follow.
ing the court" The emperor cared no more for
his supplications than for the c~roakings of n
q thirsty frog So, one fine day, in the town of
Brussels, cUnstables seized the poor scholar. and
hustled him to Jail for debt. His plea, when
brought up for trial, was bold and unanswerable
p Either tho emperor owes me money or he does
q not. 1t he does, take him as my bnndsman, and
q release me; # he does not, free me from my oath
Of service to him, and | will quickly find means
to pay YOU" They tossed him out Of Jail.
The rest is m%ournful. Monkssof Louvain, fresh
from onslaughts on Erasmus, 2Ounced on hgrippa,
o whose works were now first being published, de
G nOuncing him as a magician, and, worse than
that, n hereto, and stopped the sale of the VANITY
2 Of Sciences and Arts. He married again; thi,
!. time a wretched creature who made him the talb
$ of vulgar minds, till he was forced, in defence Of
e his G. ildren, to divorce her. Dire poverty grounG
d him down, No money ever came from the empe