The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-09-24
Psalmanazar, the Literary Forger.

Psalmanazar died in 1868, some years
before Chatterton. In some respects he
was yet more remarkable with less genius,
doubtless, without even talent or real liter
airy aptitude, he displayed fertility of in
vention hardly to be surpassed. Psalman-
azar, to speak correctly, was not fabrica-
tor of autographs; he was more and less
than that-the inventor of language,
of a chirography-what do l say?-of a
nation. But his life was yet more wonder
full than his inventions. 1t is all romance.
This romance he has written; we possess
his autobiography, yet we do not know his
name! Out of regard for his family he has
sought to conceal it, and he has carried his
secret with him: we shall never know who
he was, nor even whence he was. 1t is
supposed, however, that he was born in
the south of France, in Languedoc or Pro
vence. His family was poor his father es-
tablished at distance in Germany. Geo.
had been brought up with the Jesuits. then
with the Domnicians having finished his
theological course, he was received as per-
ceptor in several families. But he had in
dolent adventurous tastes. He was not
slow to adopt the role of religious impos-
tor, no doubt in order to profit by his tleo-
logical studies. We find him borrowing,
begging, traversing Provence, on his way
to Rome repairing to Germany playing
the part sometimes of converted Hugue-
not, sometimes of an Irish student, or
again, of a pilgrim. He ran many risks,
came near being shot as a spy, fell into the
depths of misery, and beheld himself COW
cred with sores and vermin. From adven-
ture to adventure, from knavery to kna-
very, George arrived at the grand fraud of
his life. Finding himself in protestant
country, he could remain neither pilgrim
nor Catholic: he gave himself out as a
Japanese from the island of Formosa, taken
to Europe, he said by Dutch merchants
Fo,mosa was very little known the young
impostor recalled, as well as possible, such
accounts of Japan as he had heard among
the Jesuits then, upon this slight canvas,
he began to embroider whole world of
fancy. He fabricated so-called language
of Formosa, an alphabet for writing it, a
grammar to explain the rules. He made
a new division of the year into twenty
months. He invented a new religion, with
a book of prayers, and went SO far as to
worship the rising and setting sun, with
oil cnrfc of farms opI p,rmmorins Eip,l
ly, he accustomed himself to eat raw meat
The idea Of doubling the veracity of man
who ate raw meat, and who wrote tluently
in characters which no one knew! Mean
while Psalmanazar (such was the name lie
had adopted on becoming japanese, and
which he retained to the end of his life had
met another rogue, who conceived the plan
of profiting by him. This person, named
Innes, was chaplain of a Scotch regiment
then in garrison at Sluis, in Holland. 1t
was here that Psalmanazar made. his ac-
quaintance, and that they became intimate.
1t is probable that lines at first had been
himself deceived by the false japanese,
and it is certain that he soon discovered the
fraud however, he did not abandon his
designs on that account. lines took up
Psalmanazar, taught him English, carried
him to England, showed him to the Bishop
of London, baptized him with much cere-
mony and altogether, managed so we'll that
he ended by obtaining from the Bishop, as
a reward for services rendered to religion,
living in the county of Essex. Psalman-
azar, under such patronage, could not fail
to develop his happy gifts and ingenious
knaveries. He fastened to translate the
English catechism into the Formosian
language, and had the pleasure of behold
ing the Bishop of London accord gracious
reception to this work. 1t was submitted
to sayans, who saw in it nothing out of the
way. To whom could it occur to suspect
young man of twenty of so colossal an i'm
posture? Not that there were not, here
and there, weak points in the system of the
Formosian. 1t is impossible to be fore
warned of everything he had forgotten to
give names to the letters of his alphabet,
which caused him some embarrassment
He had believed that the japanese wrote
from right to left, like other Oriental ma
lions, which furnished another argument
against him. He had asserted, rather
carelessly, that the inhabitants of Formosa
sacrificed eighteen thousand male infants
every year; and when it was represented
| to him that, at this rate, the island would
] lonn before have been denonulated he had