Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 368, June 1846

"Jupiter, hæc nec labra moves, quum mittere vocemDebueras, vel marmoreus, vel aheneus?… Quod nullum discrimen habendum estEffigies inter vestras, statuamque Bathylli?"

And this too, he buys for twenty Napoleons more; and having paid the purchase-money, away goes the possessor of Jupiter, and at the same juncture away goes the Cavaliere – each perfectly satisfied with his visit.

"Molto intelligente, that countryman of yours," said B – , spelling his card. "He seems to take things very much upon trust," said we. "'Tis a pity he don't understand Italian or French better. Otherwise, I might have perhaps suggested better things than those he has actually chosen. But after all," added he, "people don't like being put out of conceit with their own opinions; and think you personally interested, if you offer yours unasked." "I should have been sorry to have taken that vase as antique, as he has done; or to have paid the tenth of the price he has paid you for it." "Oh! don't be afraid; he can afford it – an English gentleman! – and to him it is worth what he paid for it; else, if he did not think so, who forced him to take it?" "I wonder now what Father S – would have said to it;" asked Madame of her husband, looking up to the ceiling, and sighing. "Nothing, 'twas not in his province to pronounce judgment in such a matter." We too wondered, perhaps, what he might have said to Madame, touching her Cavaliere, whose discourse seemed to have told almost as powerfully on her as his sermon at St Carlo's. We wondered, but to ourselves, and making the common-place remark, that it seemed easier to preach than to practise, exchanged smiles with B – and his wife, and withdrew, to think over what we had seen; and to arrive at our own conclusions, touching the general utility of fashionable and popular preaching!

Birbone IV

Herr Ascherson

"Rogare malo, quam emere." – Suidas.

Sly old fox, what pen shall do justice to thy cunning! Grave, venerable, ancient cheat, who showest a Bible, left thee by some pious enthusiast (the old family pew-book, morocco, in silver clasps – well thou lookest to them at least) in return for many dealings with thee, and in requital, so thou sayest, for thine incomparable disinterestedness and honesty!

It would be no harder task to unwind a mummy, than to unroll and unriddle thee, old rogue, in thy endless windings and detours! "Have no dealings with A – ," said that timid rogue, the Florentine attorney R – ; "the man is so gigantic a cheat, that he frightens me!" "and cunning to a degree" was D – 's account of him. "He is up to a thing or two," said S – , looking knowing, and putting his finger, like Harpocrates, to his mouth, that it went no further. A brother dealer called him a Hebrew; another (himself as sly as any fox) admitted that he had been overreached by him. His name, whenever mentioned, seldom failed to call forth a smile, or a shrug, in those who had not dealt with him; and a thundering oath against his German blood in those that had. Mr A – was therefore too remarkable a man for us, ourself an incipient collector, not to visit; and so, as soon as we got to Naples, we dispatched a note, and the next day followed it in person; rang at the bell, and were ushered into his sanctum; where we beheld the old necromancer standing at his table, looking out for us. He put down his eyeglass and his old coin; and said in answer to our question, which was in English, "Ya! ya! mein name is A – ." Forgetting at this moment what R – had said of him, and only recollecting that they were acquainted, we began, by way of introducing ourselves to his best things, to say, that we had lately seen his friend R – at Rome – "Dat is not mein friend, dat is mein enemy," said he, displeased at our mentioning the name; and looking at us half suspiciously, half spitefully. "I hav notin to say wit him more," and he took a huge pinch of snuff, and wasted a deal on his snuffy waistcoat and shirt frill. We at once saw our mistake, which indeed, but for our anxiety to get to business, we should not, assuredly, have been guilty of. We had now to make the best of it. "A mistake, Mr. A – , we assure you. Mr. R – might say that, on one occasion, you had been brusque with him; but advised us, notwithstanding, to pay you a visit, regretting that, from some little difference between you, he could not give us the introduction, which, under more favourable circumstances, he would have pressed upon us;" an announcement which completely mollified the old rogue, who, in his heart of hearts, was thinking that a new victim had turned up to him, and one of Rusca's recommending. "It is pleasant to make peace between two honest men," said we; "Rusca and you should not have quarrelled. Ill-natured people take advantage of these disputes, and begin to profess open distrust as to the age and genuineness of whatever you sell." "For dis reason I hate not Mr Rusca; but he has too much strepitusness of voice —il s'emporte trop facilement." "Ah," interpose we in the mediatorial capacity we had assumed, "'tis the character of the Italian to do so." "Ya, dat is true," assented he; and then we went to look at his coins. "We are not blind friends of Rusca's," said we, sitting down to the first tray which he gave us to look at, and seeing, from the character of the coins therein exhibited, that A – had presumed we might be. "We only buy from R – when he is discreet, and does not overcharge; which, entre nous, he is very apt to do." The old man glanced at us approvingly, and trying hard to look honest, said, "Ya, ya; when he can get ein piastre he will not take ein halb– but when I ask a piastre for any tings, (and he was grave again,) it is tantamount as to say, 'dis is de leastest preis to give.'" "All here has a fixed price, has it?" "Ya, ya." "And what may this pretty little figure be worth?" "I shall confess dat is dear; two hundred piastres is de preis – Rusca would have said four hundred to begin mit." We admitted its beauty; but said two hundred spread out upon the table were also beautiful. "De good ting is de dear ting," said he, and we admitted the truth of the proposition, both in the abstract and in its application; took up a specious-looking coin, which he took as abruptly out of our hand – "Nein gewiss nicht," we must not buy that. "Why?" Because some people had not scrupled to tell him (though they knew better) that it was a Rusca. "Rusca!" said we, "and what does that mean?" "In Neapolitan patois," said he, "we call all our specious but doubtful wares Ruscas! But dis," continued he, taking up a companion to it – "dis I baptize in my own name, and offer for a true John A – ." "Ah!" sighed we, but without emphasis, as if it had only just occurred to us "how difficult, now-a-days, not to be deceived;" and we replaced the J – A – in his box accordingly. "Ven all amateurs," said he, (following out his own thought, rather than replying to ours,) "ven all amateurs were connoisseurs likewise, we might say goot-night to dis bissnesse."

In the days of our novitiate, when we used to say, and think we knew (as the phrase is) what would please us, and would buy according to our means, we found (as indeed all purchasers in these matters find) that time, while it brought with it a nicer appreciation in judging works of art, diminished also our opinion of what we had formerly purchased; and, to avoid fresh disappointments, we used to apply to an antiquario to give us his advice pro re nata; – as the reader will see by the following note of Herr A – , which, as it prevented our making one or two foolish purchases, was not without its value, and we preserved it accordingly. It ran verbatim thus —

"Sir, – You may copy my catalogue, but on Montag ber sur I must hav back. The botel is not good in such a manner. The figure is of no great value; it is not antic, and not fair; so is the bust in stone not antic, and not nice; and every thing that is neither antic nor fair I cannot give any worth. Your obedient servant,

"A – .

"Pray you must not tell to any one my estimation of any thing."

Neither did we, excepting to Maga, to whom we tell every thing.

END OF VOL. LIX

1

Lives of Men of Letters and Science who Flourished in the Time of George III. By Henry Lord Brougham, with Portraits. London: Colburn.

2

Reynard the Fox – a renowned Apologue of the Middle Ages reproduced in Rhyme. By S. Naylor. Longman & Co. London: 1845.

3

Finlay's Greece under the Romans, p. 250.

4

"Mihi multum legenti multum audienti quæ populus Romanus domi militiæque præclara facinora fecissent, forte lubuit attendere quæ res maxime tanta negotia sustinuit. At mihi multa agitanti constabat, paucorum civium egregiam virtutem cuncta patravisse: eoque factum ut divitias paupertas, multitudinem paucitas, superaret." – Sallust, Bell. Cat., 32.

5

They were as high as L.9 sterling in the time of Constantine, a sum probably equal to L.20 of our money. But the freemen were the higher classes alone, and it is probable a similar class, both in France and England, pay at least as much at this time. – See Gibbon, iii. 88.

6

Gibbon, c. i. and c. xxxii. Agathias states the military establishment in its best days at 675,000, which is much more likely its real amount. Agathias, v. p. 157, Paris edition.

7

Gibbon, vol. vi. c. xxxvi. p. 235.

8

Ibid. vol. iii. c. xviii. p. 87. Edition in twelve volumes.

9

"Arantur Gallicana rura barbaris bobus, et juga Germanica captiva præbent colla nostris cultoribus." —Probi Epist. ad Senatum, in Vopesio.

10

Michelet, Histoire de France, vol. i. p. 104-108.

11

Finlay's Greece under the Romans.

12

Tacitus, Annal., xii. 43.

13

De Bello Gild., v. 64, 65.

14

Gibbon, c. xxix.

15

"Advenio supplex, non ut proculcet AraxenConsul ovans, nostræve premant pharetrata securesSusa, nec ut Rubris aquilas figamus arenis.Hæc nobis, hæc ante dabas. – Nunc pabula tantumRoma precor. Miserere tuæ, Pater Optime, gentis —Extremam defende famem.******Tot mihi pro meritis Lybiam Nilumque dedêreUt dominam plebem bellatoremque senatumClassibus astivis alerent.******Nunc inhonorus, egens, perfert miserabile pacisSupplicium, nulloque palam circumdatus hosteObessi discrimen habet. Per singula letumImpendet momenta mihi, dubitandaque pauciPræscribunt alimenta dies." – Claud. De Bello Gild.

16

Finlay's Greece under the Romans, 435, 436.

17

Ibid. 517.

18

Gibbon, c. xxxi. p. 351.

19

Ibid. c. xxxiii. vol. vi. p. 20.

20

Greece under the Romans, 456, 467.

21

Josephus, ii. 16.

22

Finlay, 515.

23

Ibid. 406.

24

Sismondi, Chute de l'Empire Romaine, i. 36.

25

Novell, 81.

26

Finlay, 246, 247.

27

Finlay, 117.

28

Ammianus Marcellinus, c. xiv.

29

Finlay, 544. Ammianus Marcellinus, c. xix.

30

Sismondi, Chute de l'Empire Romaine, i. 50.

31

Gibbon, i. 261, c. vi.

32

Gibbon, c. vi. vol. i. p. 262.

33

Ibid. c. vi. vol. i. p. 268.

34

Ibid. p. 268.

35

Ibid. c. xvii. vol. ii. p. 86.

36

Gibbon, c. xvii. vol. iii. p. 92.

37

Finlay, pp. 49-50.

38

Novell Majorian, tit. iv. p. 34. Gibbon, c. xxxvi. vol. vi. p. 173.

39

Gibbon, c. i. vol. i. p. 30.

40

Ibid. c. i. vol. i. p. 37.

41

Ibid. c. xvii. vol. iii. p. 93.

42

Ibid. c. ii. vol. i. p. 91.

43

Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 5.

44

Περι του μηδειν Δανειξεισθαι "De Ære Alieno vitando." —Plutarch.

45

Finlay, 90.

46

"Verumque confitentibus latifundia perdidêre Italiam, immo ac provincias." – Plin. Hist. Nat.

47

Sismondi, Chute de l'Empire Romaine, i. 51.

48

Ammianus Marcellinus, c. xiv.

49

Sismondi, Chute de l'Empire Romaine, i. 44.

50

Finlay, 219, 220.

51

It is curious to find Tacitus praising the establishment of bounties on the importation of foreign grain by Tiberius, without a word on the evil effects of the system. —Annal. vi. 13. "Quibus e provinciis et quanto majorum, quam Augustus rei frumentariæ copiam advectaret."

52

Finlay, 53.

53

Finlay, 105.

54

Ibid. 137.

55

Tacitus, Annal. xii. 43.

56

Michelet, Histoire de France, i. 277.

57

Edinburgh Review. April 1846. No. 168. Page 370-371.

58

Sismondi, Chute de l'Empire Romaine, i. 233.

59

Finlay, 389.

60

Ibid. 392.

61

Gibbon, chap. ii. vol. i. p. 90.

62

Jacob's Historical Inquiry into the Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals, i. 35, 42.

63

Finlay, 88.

64

Ibid. 90.

65

Finlay, 89.

66

Gibbon, v. 329.

67

Arbuthnott on Ancient Coins, c. 5. Gibbon, i. 90, c. ii.

68

Greaves on Ancient Coins, i. 229, 331.

69

Gibbon, c. 36, vol. vi. 173.

70

See Edinburgh Review. No. 168. April 1846.

71

There are now 20,000,000 inhabitants in Italy, and it was certainly as populous in the time of Augustus, when Rome alone, which now has 180,000, contained 2,386,000 souls.

72

Le Peuple. Par J. Michelet.

73

Du Feu Greçois, des Feux de Guerre, et des Origines de la Poudre-à-Canon. Par MM. Reinaud et Favé.

74

– "Conductâ Paulus agebat Sardonyche." – Juv. Sat. vii.

75

Poor Seneca, for a moral philosopher, seems to have been somewhat harshly handled: here patronised by cheats and gamblers, and here censured by philosophy and dissent! Now invoked by Rusca to assist him in his ingannations; now lugged on the stage to be commented on by the valet of a gambler,[Le Joueur] as he debits him, for his master's consolation, under his losses; here glanced at by Coleridge for his splendid "inconsistencies;" and here by the sour Dissenter, who accuses our Church's ministers of borrowing their sermons from his precepts.

"Preaching the trash they purchase at the stalls,

And more like Seneca's, than HIS!! or Paul's!"

And, as he could make no higher appeal for human virtue than the authority of human wisdom for the plea of expediency, it was not to be wondered at if he should have met with no better fate than to be praised of fools, and neglected of the wise, who wisely deemed him an insufficient, and therefore a dangerous guide.

76

The name of "half honest" exactly suits this class of men, who, adopting one half of what our admirable Taylor lays down in his golden "rules and measures of justice in bargaining," neglect the other half. "In prices of bargaining concerning uncertain merchandises, you may buy as cheap, ordinarily, as you can, and sell as dear as you can;" so far they and Taylor are of a mind. "Provided," continues he, "that you contract on equal terms with persons in all senses (as to the matter and skill of bargaining) equal to yourself; that is, merchants with merchants, wise men with wise men, rich with rich" – and here the mezzo galant'uomo gives up Taylor, to keep true to his name and calling.

77

Mionnet, De la Rareté et du Prix des Medailles Romaines, a very useful work, which no amateur collector should fail to possess, and to carry constantly about with him, non obstant all the abuse heaped upon it by all the dealers.