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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11687-0.txt b/11687-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df5606b --- /dev/null +++ b/11687-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8890 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11687 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--MARCH, 1859.--NO. XVII. + + + + + + + + +HOLBEIN AND THE DANCE OF DEATH. + + +At the northwest corner of Switzerland, just on the turn of the Rhine +from its westward course between Germany and Switzerland, to run +northward between Germany and France, stands the old town of Bâle. It is +nominally Swiss; but its situation on the borders of three countries, +and almost in them all, has given to the place itself and to its +inhabitants a somewhat heterogeneous air. "It looks," says one +traveller, "like a stranger lately arrived in a new colony, who, +although he may have copied the dress and the manner of those with whom +he has come to reside, wears still too much of his old costume to pass +for a native, and too little to be received as a stranger." Perhaps we +may get a better idea of the mixed nationality of the place by imagining +a Swiss who speaks French with a German accent. + +Bâle is an ancient city; though Rome was bending under the weight of +more than a thousand years when the Emperor Valentinian built at this +angle of the river a fortress which was called the Basilia. Houses soon +began to cluster round it upon the ruins of an old Helvetian town, and +thus Basel or Bâle obtained its existence and its name. Bâle suffered +many calamities. War, pestilence, and earthquake alternately made it +desolate. Whether we must enumerate among its misfortunes a Grand +Ecclesiastical Council which assembled there in 1431, and sat for +seventeen years, deposing one infallible Pope, and making another +equally infallible, let theological disputants decide. But the +assembling of this Council was of some service to us; for its Secretary, +Aeneas Sylvius, (who, like the saucy little _prima donna_, was one of +the noble and powerful Italian family, the Piccolomini, and afterward, +as Pope Pius II., wore the triple crown which St. Peter did not wear,) +in his Latin dedication of a history of the transactions of that body +to the Cardinal St. Angeli, has left a description of Bâle as it was in +1436. + +After telling us that the town is situated upon that "excellent river, +the Rhine, which divides it into two parts, called Great Bâle and Little +Bâle, and that these are connected by a bridge which the river rising +from its bed sometimes carries off," he, naturally enough for an +ecclesiastic and a future Pope, goes on to say, that in Great Bâle, +which is far more beautiful and magnificent than Little Bâle, there are +handsome and commodious churches; and he naively adds, that, "_although_ +these are not adorned with marble, and are built of common stone, they +are much frequented by the people." The women of Bâle, following the +devotional instincts of their sex, were the most assiduous attendants +upon these churches; and they consoled themselves for the absence of +marble, which the good Aeneas Sylvius seems to imply would partly have +excused them for staying away, by an arrangement in itself as odd as in +Roman Catholic places of worship--to their honor--it is, and ever was, +unusual. Each of them performed her devotions in a kind of inclosed +bench or solitary pew. By most of these the occupant was concealed +only to the waist when she stood up at the reading of the Gospel; some +allowed only their heads to appear; and others of the fair owners were +at once so devout, so cruel, and so self-denying as to shut out the +eyes of the world entirely and at all times. But instances of this +remorseless mortification of the flesh, seem to have been exceedingly +rare. Queer enough these structures were, and sufficiently gratifying +to the pride and provocative of the envy which the beauties of Bâle +(avowedly) went to churches in which there was no marble to mortify. For +they were of different heights, according to the rank of the occupant. +A simple burgher's wife took but a step toward heaven when she went to +pray; a magistrate's of the lower house, we must suppose, took two; a +magistrate's of the upper house, three; a lady, four; a baroness, five; +a countess, six; and what a duchess, if one ever appeared there, did to +maintain her dignity in the eyes of God and man, unless she mounted into +the pulpit, it is quite impossible to conjecture. Aeneas Sylvius gives +it as his opinion that these things were used as a protection against +the cold, which to his Italian blood seemed very great. But that notion +was surely instilled into the courtly churchman by some fair, demure +Bâloise; for had it been well-founded, the sentry-boxes would have risen +and fallen with the thermometer, and not with the rank of the occupant. + +The walls of the churches were hung around with the emblazoned shields +of knights and noblemen, and the roofs were richly painted in various +colors, and glowed with splendor when the rays of the sun fell upon +them. Storks built their nests upon these roofs, and hatched their young +there unmolested; for the Bâlois believed, that, if the birds were +disturbed, they would fire the houses. + +The dwellings of men of any wealth or rank were very curiously planned, +elaborately ornamented, richly painted, and adorned with magnificent +tapestry. The tables were covered with vessels of wrought silver, in +which Sylvius confesses that the Bâlois surpassed even the skilful +and profuse Italians. Fountains, those sources of fantastic and +ever-changing beauty, were numerous,--so numerous, says our +afterward-to-be-infallible authority, that the town of Viterbo, in +Tuscany, had not so many,--and Viterbo was noted for its beauty, and for +being surrounded with the villas of wealthy Italians, who have always +used water freely in the way of fountains. + +Bâle, although it then--four hundred and twenty years ago--acknowledged +the Emperor for its sovereign, was a free town, as it is now; that is, +it had no local lord to favor or oppress it at his pleasure, but was +governed by laws enacted by representatives of the people. The spirit of +a noble independence pervaded the little Canton of which it was and +is the capital. Though it was fortified, its stone defences were not +strong; but when Sylvius tells us that the Bâlois thought that the +strength of their city consisted in the union of its inhabitants, who +preferred death to loss of liberty, we see what stuff its men were made +of, and why the town was free. + +Among its peculiarities, Bâle had no lawyers,--this happy and united +Bâle. The Bâlois did not trouble themselves about the Imperial law, +says Sylvius; but when disputes or accusations were brought before the +magistrates, they were decided according to custom and the equity of +each case. They were nevertheless inexorably severe in administering +justice. A criminal could not be saved either by gold, or by +intercession, or by the authority and influence of his family. He +who was guilty must be punished; and the punishments were terrible. +Criminals were banished, hung, beheaded, broken on the wheel, drowned in +the Rhine, (a bad use to which to put that "excellent river,") left to +starve on a gradually diminished supply of bread and water. To compel +confessions, tortures inconceivably horrible were used, to which the +alternative of death would have been a boon; and yet there were not +wanting those among the Bâlois who would endure these torments rather +than utter their own condemnation. + +They were devoted to religion, and held in great reverence the pictures +and images of the Saints; but not on account of any admiration of the +skill of painter or sculptor; for they cared little for the arts, and +were so ignorant of literature that "no one of them had ever heard of +Cicero or of any other orator." + +The men of Bâle were of noble presence, and dressed well, although they +avoided magnificence. Only those of knightly rank wore purple; the +wealthy burghers confined themselves to black velvet; but their wives, +on fête-days, blazed in splendid silk and satin and jewels. The boys +went with naked feet, and, adds the reverend divine, the women wore upon +their white legs only shoes. There was no distinction of age by costume, +among the women,--a very great singularity in those days, when every +stage and rank of life was marked by some peculiar style of dress; but +in Bâle the face alone distinguished the young girl from the matron +of mature years. It may, however, be doubted by some, whether this is +peculiar to the town of Bâle or to the time of Sylvius. The men were +addicted to voluptuous pleasures; they lived sumptuously, and passed a +long time at table. In the words of our churchman, "They were too much +devoted to Father Bacchus and Dame Venus,"--faults which they deemed +venial. But he adds, that they were jealous of their honor, and held to +what they promised; they would rather be upright than merely seem to be +so. Though provident, they were content, unless very poor. + +Another peculiarity of Bâle: its clocks were one hour ahead of all +others, and so continued at least till the middle of the last century. +This of course depended on no difference of time; it was merely that +when, for instance, at mid-day, the clocks of neighboring towns struck +twelve, the clocks of Bâle struck one. The origin of this seeming effort +to hasten him who usually moves rapidly enough for us all is lost in +obscurity. + +And now why is it that, we have gone back four hundred years and more, +to linger thus long with the Secretary of the Great Ecclesiastical +Council of Bâle, in that quaint and queer old town, with its half +French, half German look, its grand, grotesque old churches, hung round +with knightly shields and filled with women, each in a pulpit of her +own, its stork-crowned roofs, its houses blazing with wrought gold and +silver, its threescore fountains, and the magnificence in which, without +a court, it rivalled the richest capitals of Italy, its noble-spirited +and pleasure-loving, but simple-minded and unlearned burghers, its +white-limbed beauties, and its deceitful clocks? It is not because that +town is now one of the principal ribbon-factories of the world, and +exports to this country alone over $1,200,000 worth yearly; although +some fair readers may suppose that an all-sufficient reason,--and some +of their admirers and protectors, too, for that matter. Think of it! +nearly one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of +ribbons coming to us every year from a single town in Switzerland! The +statement is enough to carry horror and dismay to the heart and the +pocket of every father and brother, and above all, of every husband, +actual or possible, who hears of it. It is a godsend to the +protectionists, who might reëdify their party on the basis of a +prohibitory tariff against ribbons. If they were successful, their +success would be brilliant; for if our fair tyrants could not get +ribbons--those necessaries of life--from Bâle in Switzerland, they +would tease and coax us to build them a Bâle in America; and we should +do it. + +We have gone back to the old Bâle of four hundred and twenty years ago, +because there, and not long after that time,--about 1498,--according +to general belief, Hans Holbein was born; because these were the +surroundings under the influence of which he grew to manhood; and +because there, about sixty years before his birth, a Dance of Death was +painted, the most ancient and important of which we have any remaining +memorial. This Dance was painted upon the wall of the churchyard of the +Dominican Convent in Great Bâle, by order of the very Ecclesiastical +Council of which our Aeneas Sylvius was Secretary, and in commemoration +of a plague which visited the town during the sitting of that Council, +and carried off many of its members. + +What is a Dance of Death? and why should Death be painted dancing? +Some readers may think of it as a frantic revel of grim skeletons, or +perhaps--like me in my boyish musings--imagine nameless shapes with +Death and Hell gleaming in their faces, each clasping a mortal beguiled +to its embrace, all flitting and floating round and round to unearthly +music, and gradually receding through vast mysterious gloom till they +are lost in its horrible obscurity. + +But neither of these notions is near the truth. The Dance of Death is +not a revel, and in it Death does not dance at all. A Dance of Death, or +a Dance Macabre, as it was called, is a succession of isolated pictures, +all informed with the same motive, it is true, but each independent of +the others, and consisting of a group, generally of but two figures, one +of which is the representative of Death. The second always represents +a class; and in this figure every rank, from the very highest to the +lowest, finds its type. The number of these groups or pictures varies +considerably in the different dances, according to the caprice of the +artist, or, perhaps, to the expense of his time and labor which he +thought warranted by the payment he was to receive. But all express, +with sufficient fulness, the idea that Death is the common lot of +humanity, and that he enters with impartial feet the palace and the +cottage, neither pitying youth nor respecting age, and waiting no +convenient season. + +The figure of Death in these strange religious works of Art,--for they +were as purely religious in their origin as the Holy Families and +Madonnas of the same and a subsequent period,--this figure of Death is +not always a skeleton. It is so in but one of the forty groups in the +Dance at Bâle, which was the germ of Holbein's, and which, indeed, until +very recently, was attributed to him, although it was painted more +than half a century before he was born. It is generally assumed that a +skeleton has always been the representative of Death, but erroneously; +for, in fact, Holbein was the first to fix upon a mere skeleton for the +embodiment of that idea. + +The Hebrew Scriptures, which furnish us with the earliest extant +allusion to Death as a personage, designate him as an angel or messenger +of God,--as, for instance, in the record of the destruction of the +Assyrian host in the Second Book of Kings (xix. 35). The ancient +Egyptians, too, in whose strange system of symbolism may be found the +germ, at least, of most of the types used in the religion and the arts +of more modern nations, had no representation of Death as an individual +agent. They expressed the extinction of life very naturally and simply +by the figure of a mummy. Such a figure it was their custom to pass +round among the guests at their feasts; and the Greeks and Romans +imitated them, with slight modifications, in the form of the image and +the manner of the ceremony. Some scholars have found in this custom a +deep moral and religious significance, akin to that which certainly +attached to the custom of placing a slave in the chariot of a Roman +conquering general to say to him at intervals, as his triumphal +procession moved with pomp and splendor through the swarming streets, +"Remember that thou art a man." But this is too subtile a conjecture. +The ceremony was but a silent way of saying, "Let us eat and drink, for +to-morrow we die," which, as Paul's solemn irony makes but too plain, +must be the philosophy of life to those who believe that the dead rise +not, which was the case with the Egyptians and the Greeks, and the +Hebrews also. An old French epitaph expresses to the full this +philosophy:-- + + "Ce que j'ai mangé, + Ce que j'ai bu, + Ce que j'ai dissipé, + Je l'ai maintenant avec moi. + Ce que j'ai laissé, + Je l'ai perdu," + + What I ate, + What I drank, + What I dissipated, + I have with me. + That which I left + I lost. + +The figure of the sad youth leaning upon an inverted torch, in which +the Greeks embodied their idea of Death, is familiar to all who have +examined ancient Art. The Etruscan Death was a female, with wings upon +the shoulders, head, and feet, hideous countenance, terrible fangs and +talons, and a black skin. No example of the form attributed to him by +the early Christians has come down to us, that I can discover; but we +know that they, as well as the later Hebrews, considered Death as the +emissary of the Evil One, if not identical with him, and called him +impious, unholy. It was in the Dark Ages, that the figure of a dead body +or a skull was first used as a symbol of Death; but even then its office +appears to have been purely symbolic, and not representative;--that is, +these figures served to remind men of their mortality, or to mark a +place of sepulture, and were not the embodiment of an idea, not the +creation of a personage,--Death. It is not until the thirteenth or +fourteenth century that we find this embodiment clearly defined and +generally recognized; and even then the figure used was not a skeleton, +but a cadaverous and emaciated body. + +Among the remains of Greek and Roman Art, only two groups are known in +which a skeleton appears; and it is remarkable that in both of these the +skeletons are dancing. In one group of three, the middle figure is a +female. Its comparative breadth at the shoulders and narrowness at the +hips make at first a contrary impression; but the position of the body +and limbs is, oddly enough, too like that of a female dancer of the +modern French school to leave the question in more than a moment's +doubt. Thus the artists who did not embody their idea of death in a +skeleton were the first to conceive and execute a real Dance of Death. +In both the groups referred to, the motive is manifestly comic; and +neither of them has any similarity to the Dances of Death of which +Holbein's has become the grand representative. These had their origin, +we can hardly tell with certainty how, or when, or where; although the +subject has enlisted the investigating labors of such accomplished +scholars and profound antiquaries as Douce and Ottley in England, +and Peignot and Langlois in France. But a story with which they are +intimately connected, even if it is not their germ, has been discovered; +ancient customs which must have aided in their development are familiar +to all investigators of ancient manners, and especially of ancient +amusements; and the motives which inform them all, and the moral +condition of Christendom of which they were the result, are plain +enough. + +We have seen before, that this Dance consisted of several groups of two +or more figures, one of which was always Death in the act of claiming a +victim; and for the clear comprehension of what follows, it is necessary +to anticipate a little, and remark, that there is no doubt that the +Dance was first represented by living performers. Strange as this seems +to us, it was but in keeping with the spirit of the time, which we call, +perhaps with some presumption, the Dark Ages. + +The story which is probably the germ of this Dance was called _Les Trois +Morts et les Trois Vifs_,--"The Three Dead and the Three Living." It is +of indefinable antiquity and uncertain origin. It is said, that three +noble youths, as they returned from hunting, were met in the gloom of +the forest by three hideous spectres, in the form of decaying human +corpses; and that, as they stood rooted to the ground by this appalling +sight, the figures addressed them solemnly upon the vanity of worldly +grandeur and pleasure, and admonished them, that, although in the heyday +of youth, they must soon become as they (the spectres) were. This story, +or _dit_, "saying," as it was called in French, was exceedingly popular +through-out Europe five or six hundred years ago. It is found in the +language of every Christian nation of the period, and, extended by means +of accessory incidents and much moralizing, is made to cover several +pages in more than one old illuminated manuscript. In the Arundel MSS., +in England, there is one of the many versions of the legend written +in French so old that it is quite as difficult for Frenchmen as for +Englishmen to read it. But over an illuminated picture of the incident, +in which three kings are shown meeting the three skeletons, are these +lines in English, as old, but less obsolete:-- + + _Over the Kings_. + + "Ich am afert + Lo whet ich see + Methinketh hit be develes thre." + + _Over the Skeletons_. + + "Ich wes wel fair + Such schel tou be + For Godes love be wer by me." + +In these rude lines is the whole moral of the legend, and of the Dance +of Death which grew out of it. That growth was simple, gradual, and +natural. In the versions and in the pictorial representations of the +legend there soon began to be much variety in the persons who met the +spectres. At first three noble youths, they became three kings, three +noble ladies, a king, a queen, and their son or daughter, and so +on,--the rank of the persons, however, being always high. For, as we +shall have occasion to notice hereafter more particularly, the mystery +of the Dance had a democratic as well as a religious significance; and +it served to bring to mind, not only the irresistible nature of Death's +summons, but the real equality of all men; and this it did in a manner +to which those of high condition could not object. + +The legend was made the subject of a fresco, painted about 1350, by the +eminent Italian painter and architect, Orcagna, upon the walls of the +Campo Santo at Pisa,--which some readers may be glad to be reminded was +a cemetery, so called because it was covered with earth brought from +the Holy Land. It is remarkable, however, that in this work the artist +embodied Death not in the form commonly used in his day, but in the old +Etruscan figure before mentioned. Orcagna's Death is a female, winged +like a bat, and with terrible claws. Armed with a scythe, she swoops +down upon the earth and reaps a promiscuous harvest of popes, emperors, +kings, queens, churchmen, and noblemen. In the rude manner of the time, +Orcagna has divided his picture into compartments. In one of these we +see St. Macarius, one of the first Christian hermits, an Egyptian, +sitting at the foot of a mountain; before him are three kings, who have +returned from the chase accompanied by a gay train of attendants. The +Saint calls the attention of the kings to three sepulchres in which lie +the bodies of three other kings, one of which is much decomposed. The +three living kings are struck with horror; but the painter has much +diminished the moral effect of his work, for this century, at least, by +making one of them hold his nose;--which is regarded by Mr. Ruskin as +an evidence of Orcagna's devotion to the truth; but in this case that +brilliant writer, but most unsafe critical guide, commits an error of a +kind not uncommon with him. The representation of so homely an action, +in such a composition, merely shows that the painter had not arrived at +a just appreciation of the relative value of the actual,--and that he +failed to see that by introducing this unessential incident he diverted +attention from his higher purpose, dragged his picture from a moral to +a material plane, and went at a bound far over the narrow limit between +the horrible and the ludicrous. + +St. Macarius is frequently introduced in the pictures of this subject; +and some antiquaries suppose that hence the Dance of Death derived the +name, Dance Macabre, by which it used to be generally known. Others +derive it from the Arabic _mac-bourah_,--a cemetery. Neither derivation +is improbable; but it is of little consequence to us which is correct. + +It may seem strange that such a legend as this of "The Three Dead and +the Three Living," with such a moral, should become the origin of a +dance. But we should remember that in many countries dancing has been a +religious ceremony. It was so with the Greeks and Romans, and also with +the Hebrews, among whom, however, saltatory worship seems, on most +occasions, to have been performed spontaneously, and by volunteers. All +will remember the case of Miriam, who thus danced to the sound of her +timbrel after the passage of the Red Sea; and who that has read it can +forget the account of the dance which King David executed before the +ark, dancing with all his might, and girded only with a linen ephod? +Dancing has always seemed to us to be an essentially ridiculous +transaction,--for a man, at least; and we confess that we sympathize +with David's wife, Michal, who, seeing this extraordinary _pas seul_ +from her window, "despised David in her heart," and treated him to a +little conjugal irony when he came home. What would the lovely Eugénie +have thought, if, after the fall of Sebastopol, she had seen his +Majesty, the Emperor of the French, "cutting it down," in broad +daylight, before the towers of Notre Dame, girded only with a linen +ephod,--though that's not exactly the name we give the garment +now-a-days? But David was master, not only in Israel, but in his own +household, (which is not the case with all kings and great men,) and +he said to Michal,--"It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy +father and before all his house;.... therefore will I play before the +Lord;.... and of the maid-servants which thou hast spoken of, of them +shall I be had in honor." And Michal all her life repented bitterly the +offence that she had given her husband. + +But dancing was not one of the regular ceremonies of the Christian +Church, even in its corruptest days; and yet dances were performed four +hundred years ago in the churches and in church-yards, as a part of, or +an appendage to, entertainments of a religious character. These were the +Mysteries and Moralities, which are the origin of our drama;--and it is +remarkable that in all countries the drama has been at first a religious +ceremony. These Mysteries and Moralities were religious plays of the +rudest kind: the Mysteries being a representation, partly by dumb show +and partly by words, of some well-known incident related in the Bible; +and the Moralities, a kind of discussion and enforcement of religious +doctrine or moral truth by allegorical personages. They were performed +at first almost entirely in the churches, upon scaffolds erected for the +purpose. + +In a Mystery called "Candlemas Day, or the Killing of the Children of +Israel," which represented the Massacre of the Innocents, and in which +Herod, Simeon, Joseph, the Virgin Mary, Watkin, a comic character, and +Anna the Prophetess, appeared, there was a general dance of all the +characters after the Prologue; and at the close of the play, there is +a stage-direction for another, in response to a command of Anna the +Prophetess, who says,-- + + "Shewe ye sume plesur as ye can + In the worship of Jesu, our Lady, and St. Anne." + +And thereupon King Herod, Simeon, Joseph, the Virgin Mary, Watkin the +funny man, and the Prophetess well stricken in years, proceed to forward +four, and end with a promenade all around. Indeed, our ancestors seem to +have found it edifying, not to say entertaining, to go to a cathedral to +see Satan and an Archbishop dance a hornpipe with the Seven Deadly Sins +and the Five Cardinal Virtues. + +A Morality called "Every Man," written about 1450, has a direct +connection with the subject which we are considering. Every Man, the +principal personage of the piece, is an allegorical representation of +all mankind; and the purpose of the play is told in this sentence, which +introduces it:-- + +"Here begynneth a Treatyse how the Hye Fader of Heven sendeth Dethe +to somon every creature to come & gyve a count of theyr lyves in this +worlde, & is in maner of a Morall Playe." + +On the title-page of an edition printed in 1500, only one copy of which +exists, is a very rude wood-cut, in which an individual, who is labelled +"Every Man," is startled at the sight of Death standing at the door of +a church and summoning him. In this Moral Play, Fellowship, Good Deeds, +Worldly Goods, Knowledge, Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wittes +are characters; and they cannot interpose between Every Man and the +summons of Death, nor will any of them, except Good Deeds, go with him. +The representation of this play was a kind of Dance of Death, and from +the acting of "Every Man" to the execution of that Dance was but a short +step. + +But the Dance of Death had been performed before "Every Man" was +written; and dances in churches and churchyards were of yet greater +antiquity. For, by an order of a Roman council under Pope Pius II. in +the tenth century, priests were directed "to admonish men and women not +to dance and sing in the churches on feast-days, like Pagans." The evil +increased, however, until, according to the old chroniclers, a terrible +punishment fell upon a party of dancers. One of them, Ubert, tells the +story. It was on Christmas Eve, in the time of the Emperor Henry II., +who assumed the imperial diadem in the year 1002, that a company of +eighteen men and women amused themselves by dancing and singing in the +churchyard of St. Magnus, in the diocese of Magdeburg, to the annoyance +of a priest who was saying mass in the church. He ordered them to +desist; but they danced on in reckless mirth. The holy father then +invoked God and St. Magnus to keep them dancing for a whole year; and +not in vain. For twelve months they danced in spite of themselves. +Neither dew nor rain fell upon them; and their shoes and their clothes +were not worn away, although by their dancing they buried themselves +waist-high. Yet, fatigued and famished beyond human endurance, they +danced on, unable to stop an instant for rest or food. The priest's own +daughter was among the dancers; and, unable to undo what the Saint had +done, he sent his son to drag her out of the dance. But when her brother +pulls her by the arm it comes off in his hand, and he in horror takes it +to his father. No blood flows from the wound. The priest buries the arm, +and the next morning he finds it upon the top of the grave. He repeats +the burial, and with the same result. He makes a third attempt, and the +grave casts out the limb with violence before his eyes. Meanwhile the +girl and her companions continue dancing, and the Emperor, having heard +of this strange occurrence, travels from Rome to see so sad a sight. He +orders carpenters to inclose the dancers in a building, but in vain; for +that which is built in the day falls down in the night. The dancers have +neither rest nor mitigation of their curse until the expiration of the +year, when they all rush into the church and fall before the altar in +a swoon, from which they are not recovered for three days. Then they +immediately flee each other's faces, and wander solitary through the +world, still dancing at times in spite of themselves. In the olden time +this was believed to be the origin of St. Vitus's dance; but we can now +see that the dance is the origin of the story. + +The Dance of Death was performed by a large company dressed in the +costumes of various classes of society, which were then very marked in +their difference. One by one the dancers suddenly and silently slipped +off, thus typifying the departure of all mankind at Death's summons. +That this Dance was performed, not only with the consent, but by the +procurement of the clergy, is made certain by the discovery, in the +archives of the Cathedral of Besançon, of the account of the payment of +four measures of wine by the seneschal to those persons who performed +the Dance Macabre on the 10th of July, 1453. + +The moral lesson conveyed by this strange pastime or ceremony seems +hardly calculated to secure for it a noteworthy popularity in any age; +but for a long time it was, either as a ceremony or as a picture, very +popular throughout Europe. We know of forty-four places in which it was +painted or sculptured in some large public building, the oldest example +being that at Little Bâle, which was painted in 1312. This, like that +in Great Bâle, and most of the others, has been destroyed by time or +violence. The Dance was made the ornament of books of devotion, and the +subject of ornamental initial-letters; groups from it were engraved +repeatedly by those fantastic designers and exquisite workmen known as +the Little Masters of Germany; a single group was assumed as a device, +or trademark, by more than one printer; and it was sung in popular +ballads. There is now at Aix-la-Chapelle a huge state-bed-stead, on the +posts, sides, and footboards of which it is elaborately carved, in the +manner of the sixteenth century; and it was even made the ornament of +ladies' fans. + +The reasons for this popularity were a certain strange fascination in +the subject,--yet not so strange at a time when women would crowd to see +men burned or hanged and quartered;--but chiefly, the grand democratic +significance of the dance. Death has ever been, and ever will be, +the greatest leveller; and at a time when rank had an importance and +bestowed advantages of which we can form little idea, while at the same +time men had begun to ask why this should be, such a satire as this +Dance of Death, sanctioned by the Church, that great protector of +established rights and dignities, and yet sparing neither noble nor +hierarch, not even the Pope himself, satisfied an eager craving in the +breast of poor, envious, self-asserting human nature. In one of those +ornamental initial-letters above mentioned, the date of which was some +years prior to the execution of Holbein's Dance, Death appears as a +grave-digger, and lifts on his spade, out of the grave which he is +making, two skulls, one crowned, the other covered with a peasant's hat. +He grins with savage glee at seeing these remnants of the two extremes +of society side by side; and underneath them, on the shovel, is written +_Idem_,--"The Same." In this word is the key to the popularity of the +Dance. + +The most important and interesting of these pictured Dances of Death +were those at Bâle, at Strasbourg, and at Rouen. That at Bâle consisted +of thirty-nine groups, in the first three of which appear a Pope, an +Emperor, and a King. These were portraits of Pope Felix V., the Emperor +Sigismund, and King Albert II., of Rome, all of whom were present at the +Council, by whose order, as we have seen, the Dance was painted. The +last group of this Dance shows the seizure of the painter's child by +Death. It having been almost destroyed by time, the wall on which it was +painted was torn down about a hundred years ago; but engravings had been +made of it in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The Dance at +Strasbourg, like that at Bâle, and many others, was on the wall of +a Dominican convent. It was painted in arched compartments, and is +peculiar in that its groups consist of many figures, among whom Death +intrudes, and carries off one, generally the principal personage of the +company. It was painted about 1450, and probably by the eminent German +painter, Martin Schongauer; but having been utterly neglected and +forgotten, it was finally plastered over, no one knows when. In +repairing the church in 1824, it was accidentally discovered, and +carefully exposed; but it was so much injured that it fell into decay +soon after drawings had been made from it. + +The Dance at Rouen was in the still existing Cemetery of St. Maclou, and +was not a painting, but a sculpture. It was not entirely completed +until 1526. The cemetery is surrounded by a covered gallery open on the +inside, where it was supported by thirty-nine columns, distant about +eleven feet from each other. Thirty-one of these still exist; and upon +the shaft of all but four of them, on the side facing the court of the +cemetery, is sculptured, in high relief, a group of two figures,--one a +living personage, and the other the cadaverous body by which Death was +represented. On the remainder were sculptured the Christian Virtues +and the Fates,--two on each column. The capitals of these columns are +decorated with figures quite in another manner. Cupids, naked female +figures, grotesque masks, and shapes--human and bestial--are ingeniously +substituted for the foliage usually found on that part of a column. The +execution of these figures is of quite a high order. They have all been +sadly mutilated; but, fortunately, that which has suffered least is a +beautiful figure of Eve. Her head is gone; but the flowing lines of the +lovely torso are unbroken, and the round and graceful limbs are almost +as perfect as when they came from the sculptor's chisel. This figure is +so like the Venus de Medici that it might have been copied from it. + +But what is Eve doing in a Dance of Death? Alas! she took the first step +of that dance in Paradise, and the artists of the olden time did not +deprive her of her due precedence. She leads the Dance, but with this +difference from those who follow her:--they, cowering and muffled, +go off the scene with Death; she, upright in her naked innocence and +beauty, brings him on. Poor Eve! she had her punishment and made her +atonement to man for leading him to death, in becoming the source and +the joy and solace of his life; but it was not for the artists of the +Dance of Death to embody this phase of her existence. So essential a +part of the Dance is the temptation of Eve, that the whole subject was +concentrated into the representation of that event by a German engraver, +in this singular manner:--Adam and Eve stand by the Tree of Knowledge, +around which twines the serpent, from whom Eve is receiving the apple; +but the trunk of the tree is formed by the twisted legs and the ribs of +a skeleton, from the head and the outstretched arms of which spring the +branches and the foliage. It is worthy of remark, that many painters, +the greatest of them (Raphael) at their head, have represented the +tempter of Eden as a beautiful woman, whose body terminates in a +serpent. It was a mistake on their part to do so. They knew how much of +the Devil a woman might have in her, and how irresistible a temptress +she is; but they forgot, that, on this occasion, woman, not man, was +tempted. + +There was a Dance of Death in Old St. Paul's Church, in London,--the +one burned down in the Great Fire; and another in the beautiful little +parish church of Stratford-on-Avon,--but this, too, has disappeared. It +is interesting to know that they were there, and that Shakspeare saw +them; for he has woven some of the thoughts that they awakened in his +mind into a noble passage in one of his historical plays. We shall recur +to it in examining Holbein's Dance. + +The Dance was represented, and still exists, in one very singular place. +At Lucerne, in Switzerland, it appears upon a covered bridge, in the +triangles formed by the beams which support the roof. The groups, of +which there are thirty-six, are double, looking away from each other, +and are so arranged, that the passenger, on entering the bridge, has +before him a long array of these grotesque and gloomy pictures. The +motive for placing the Dance in such a place is unknown, and it is +difficult to conjecture what it was. It could hardly have been to +enforce the old adage,--Speak well of the bridge that carries you over. + + * * * * * + +While we have been thus endeavoring to discover the origin of the Dance +of Death, what it was, and what it meant, Holbein has been waiting more +patiently than he was wont, for us to see who he was, and why the Dance, +which was known three hundred years at least before he was born, is now +universally spoken of as his. + +Hans Holbein, the greatest painter of the German school, came honestly +by his talent and his name. He was the son of Hans Holbein, a painter, +who was the son of another Hans Holbein, also a painter. The first Hans +was a poor painter; the second a good one; and the third so great, that +the world, when it speaks their common name, means only him. The father +and grandfather were born at Augsburg, in Bavaria, and of late years +it has been asserted by mousing antiquaries that the grandson was born +there too; but this, perhaps, is not quite certain; and it is much +pleasanter to adhere to the ancient faith, and believe that he was +born at that strange old Bâle, in sight of that great Dance, the +reproduction, or rather recreation, of which was to make so great a part +of his fame,--especially as he was quite surely an inhabitant of the +town at such tender years, that the veriest Know-Nothing in the place +would not have deprived him of his citizenship. + +Of Holbein's life we unfortunately know very little. He showed his +talent early, as all the great painters have done. Conscious of his +abilities, he devoted himself eagerly to the study of the profession to +which his genius urged him. He learned not only painting, but engraving, +the sculpture of metals, and architecture; and of all these, it will be +remembered, Bâle offered him facilities for study, in examples which +must have stimulated both his imagination and his ambition. He did not +lack encouragement; for the nobles and burghers of Bâle had begun to +acquire a taste for the arts, which their ruder fathers contemned; and +they had, at this time, a university in their city, which made them +acquainted with Cicero and the orators, of whom Aeneas Sylvius found +them so ignorant. + +But Holbein, although eminent and well employed, did not thrive. He had +some Bâlois failings, and, as Aeneas Sylvius would have said, worshipped +Father Bacchus and Dame Venus with too much devotion;--not that he was +a drunkard or a debauchee; but he sought in conviviality with men of +talent, and in the company of beautiful women, too happy in the caresses +of the great painter, who was generous with his florins, that happiness +which he could not find at home. For poor Hans was afflicted with what +has been the moral and social ruin of many a better, if not greater man +than he--a froward, shrill-tongued wife. Luckily, however, the great +scholar and philosopher, Erasmus, went into retirement at Bâle, in 1521; +and he soon recognized the genius of Holbein, and became his admirer and +friend. By his advice, and at the solicitation of an English nobleman, +and, poor fellow, seeking refuge from the temper of his wife, whom even +the sweet cares of maternity could not mollify, Holbein determined to +leave Bâle for England. What was the great cause of Frau Holbein's +tantrums,--whether Hans's ears were pierced with conjugal clamors, as +poor Albert Dürer's, the other great German painter's, were, because +he could not supply all his wife's demands for money, to enable her, +perhaps, to exhibit herself at church on holy days in one of those +precious pulpits, splendid in velvet and jewels, to the discomfiture of +the other painters' wives,--we do not know; but whatever was the cause +of her oft-recurring outbreaks, they made him not unwilling to put +France and the English Channel between himself and her, his children, +and the home of his childhood. + +He gave out, at first, that his absence from Bâle would be +temporary,--only for the purpose of raising the value of his works, by +making them more difficult to obtain. Before he went, he finished and +sent home a portrait on which he was engaged. It was one of his best +pictures; and the person for whom it was painted, lost for a while in +admiration of its beauty, noticed at last that a fly, which had settled +upon the forehead, remained there motionless. He stepped up to brush the +insect away, and found that it was a part of the picture. This story +has, since Holbein's time, been told of many painters,--among others, of +Benjamin West. Such a piece of mere imitation should have added nothing +to the reputation of a painter of Holbein's powers; but the story was +soon told all over Bâle, and orders were given to prevent the loss +to the city of so great an artist. But Holbein had quietly gone off, +furnished with letters of introduction from Erasmus, who wrote in one of +them that in Bâle the arts were chilled; which might well be true of a +place where so much ado was made about the painting of a fly. + +In England, Holbein found a friend and patron in Sir Thomas More,--Henry +the Eighth's great Lord Chancellor; and a sight of some of his works won +him, ere long, the favor of the King himself. He was appointed Court +Painter, with apartments at the palace, and a yearly salary of two +hundred florins, (or thirty pounds, equal to about two hundred pounds +now,) which he received in addition to the price of his pictures. After +about three years of prosperity he went home to his wife and children; +but as he soon returned to England, we may safely conclude that his +visit was to provide for the latter, and with no hope of living with the +former. Some years after, in 1538, when his fame was still increasing, +the city of Bâle, proud of its son, offered him a handsome annuity, +in the hope that that might induce him to return to his country, his +children, and his wife. But he could not be tempted. Though not the +wisest of men, he was Solomon enough to know that "it is better to dwell +in a corner of the house-top than with a brawling woman and in a wide +house"; and as he was successful and held in honor in England as well as +Bâle, he contented himself with a corner of King Henry's palace. + +But although he fled from his wife, he painted her portrait; and we need +no testimony to warrant the likeness. She is the very type of one of +those meek shrews, alternately a martyr and a fury, that drive a man to +madness when they speak and to despair when they are silent. We might +reasonably wonder that he would paint so vivid a representation of that +which he so sedulously shunned. But poor Hans, who probably had some +lingering remains of his early love, knew, that, although he should +make a speaking likeness, it would be a silent one, and that this Frau +Holbein must keep the look which he chose to summon to her face. That, +indeed, was knowledge that was power! How he must have chuckled as he +saw his wife looking at him more natural than life and yet without the +power to worry him! His own portrait shows us a broad, good-natured, +ruddy face, in which we see marks of talent when we know that it is +Holbein's. But in spite of its strength, its bronze, and its beard, it +has a somewhat sad and subdued air; and its heavy-lidded, pensive eyes +look deprecatingly at a Frau Holbein in the distance. + +While he lived at Greenwich palace, an incident occurred which may not +be known to all our readers, and which is a striking illustration of the +esteem in which he was held by Henry. It is not a little to the honor +of that monarch, who, arbitrary and sensual as he was, had some noble +traits of character. One day, as Holbein was painting a lady's portrait +in his private studio, a nobleman intruded upon him rudely. Holbein +resented the discourtesy, and, as it was doggedly persisted in, finally +threw my lord downstairs. There was an outcry; and the painter, bolting +his door on the inside, escaped from his window along the eaves of the +roof, and, making his way directly to the King, threw himself before +him and begged a pardon, without telling his offence. Henry promised +forgiveness on condition of a full confession, which the painter began. +But meantime the nobleman arrived, and Henry, in deference to his rank, +gave him precedence, and stepped into another apartment to hear +his story. He accused Holbein of the violence, but suppressed the +provocation; whereat Henry broke into a towering Tudor rage, and, after +reproaching the nobleman for his prevarication, said, "You have to do +with me, Sir. I tell you, that of seven peasants I could make seven +earls like you; but of seven earls I could not make one Holbein. Do not +molest him, if you value your head." And as second-hand heads, though +plentiful about those days, were found to be of no value, even to the +original owner, Holbein remained unmolested. + +Holbein is known chiefly by his portraits. He painted some historical +and sacred pictures; but though they all bear witness to his genius, it +can hardly be denied that they also show that that genius was not suited +to such works. Holbein had an objective perception;--that is, his mind +received impressions entirely uninfluenced by its own character or +condition; and his pictures, therefore, seem like literal transcripts +of what was before his eyes. He nowhere shows that he had an idea of +abstract beauty, or the power of generalizing from individuals, or that +he was at all discontented with the subjects which he painted; so that +his works leave an impression of absolute faithfulness. But to suppose, +therefore, that his portraits have merely the merit of reproducing the +external facts of Nature, like photographs, would do him wrong; for he +was faithful to expression as well as form, and has perpetuated upon +his canvas the voluptuous sweetness of Anne Boleyn, the courtliness and +manly grace of Wyatt, and the severity, the energy, and the penetrating +judgment of Sir Thomas More. His portrait of the last is one of the +greatest portraits ever painted. Some competent critics consider it the +greatest. It is so real, so human, that we might be well content, if one +in twenty of the actual men we meet were half as real and human; and it +expresses, with equal strength and subtilty, the large and noble nature +of the man. Holbein was a great colorist, and imitated all the rich +and tender hues of Nature, in their delicate and almost imperceptible +gradations, with a minute truthfulness which is quite marvellous. + +This being the character of his mind, it would hardly be supposed that +he could produce such a work as the great Dance of Death, which has +caused all others to be forgotten, except by antiquarians. For this +Dance is the most remarkable embodiment in Art of that fantastic and +grotesque idealism which has found its best expression in the works of +German poets and painters; and the preëminence of Holbein's over all the +other representations of the same subject consists in this,--that, while +they are but a dull and formal succession of mere costumed figures +seized by a corpse and shrinking away from its touch, Holbein's groups +are instinct with life, character, and emotion. In particular is this +true of the figure of Death, although it is a mere skeleton,--the face +without a muscle, and for the eye but a rayless cavern. Death is not one +whom "a limner would love to paint or a lady to look upon"; but Holbein +has given a strange and fascinating interest to the figure, which in all +other hands is merely repulsive. The grim monarch sat to a painter who +not only added to the truthfulness of his portrait the charm of poetic +feeling, but the magic touch of whose pencil made his dry bones live. + +The insignificance of the material in which the painter worked, when +compared with the effect which he produced, is also remarkable in this +unique work of Art. For Holbein's Dance of Death is not, like the +others, either a great fresco painting, or a series of sculptures; it +is not a painting at all,--but merely a series of very small woodcuts, +fifty-three in number, forty-six of which were published at Lyons +in 1538, and the whole afterwards at Bâle in 1554, under the title, +_Simulachres de la Mort, Icones Mortis:_ that is, in French and Latin, +"Images of Death,"--for the title "Dance of Death" is of recent origin. +The leaves on which the cuts are printed make but part of a little book +not so large as a child's primer; but a copy of it is now worth ten +times its weight in gold. It was copied and republished in numberless +editions, as a popular book, merely for the sake of the subject, and +the great lesson taught by it,--each print being accompanied by an +admonitory stanza, and a quotation from the Bible. Beside these +editions, endeavors have been made of later years to imitate it +satisfactorily as a work of Art,--but in vain. Great as we think our +advancement in the arts has been,--the mechanical part of them, at +least,--all the efforts of the lithographer, the wood-cutter, and even +the line-engraver, to reproduce the spirit or the very lines of this +work, have been but partially successful. There is as much difference +between the most carefully-executed and costliest copies and good +impressions of the original wood-cuts, made three hundred years ago, and +sold for a franc or two, as there is between pinchbeck and gold. + +Any attempt to reproduce the effect of those groups in words can hardly +fail to fall equally short of the mark; but we will tell our readers +what they are, and endeavor to give some notion of their purpose and +spirit. + +The first shows the Creation of Woman;--we have seen before why she is +made thus prominent in the Dance. The composition is crowded with the +denizens of the earth, the air, and the water; the sun, the moon, and +the stars all appear; the four winds of heaven issue from the laboring +cheeks of figures that impersonate them. The Creator, in the form of +an aged man in royal robes, and wearing the imperial crown, lifts Eve +bodily from the side of the sleeping Adam. + +The second represents the Temptation. Eve reclines upon the ground, and +shows Adam the fruit which she has plucked. Adam stands grasping the +tree with his left hand, and raises his right to gather for himself. The +serpent, who looks down upon Eve, has the face and body of a woman. The +forms in this group are fine; Adam's is remarkable for its symmetry and +grace; but Eve's face is ignoble. Indeed, Holbein, like Rembrandt, seems +to have been incapable of an idea of female beauty. + +In the third we see the Expulsion from Paradise; and here the Dance +begins. Our guilty parents fly before the flaming sword,--poor Eve +cowering, and her hair streaming in a wavy flood upon the wind; and +before them, but unseen, Death leaps and curvets to the sound of a +vielle or rote,--an old musical stringed instrument,--which he has hung +about his neck. His glee, as he leads forth his victims into the valley +where his shadow lies, is perceptible in every line of his angular +anatomy; his very toes curl up like those of a baby in its merriment. + +In the fourth, Adam has begun to till the ground. The pioneer of his +race, he is uprooting a huge tree, all unconscious that another figure +is laboring at his side. It is not Eve, who sits in the background with +her first-born at her breast and her distaff by her side,--but Death, +who, with a huge lever in his bony gripe, goes at his work with a fierce +energy which puts the efforts of his muscular companion to shame. The +people of Holbein's day not only saw in this subject the beginning of +that toil which is the lot of humankind, but, as they looked upon the +common ancestors of all men, laboring for the means of life, they asked, +in the words of an old distich,-- + + "When Adam delved and Eve span, + Where was then the gentleman?" + +The fifth composition seems to represent a general rejoicing over the +Triumph of Death. It shows a churchyard and porch filled with skeletons, +who blow trumpets of all sorts and sizes; one beats frantically upon a +pair of kettle-drums, and another, wearing a woman's nightcap, with a +broad frill border, plays the hurdy-gurdy. + +In the sixth, a Pope, the highest earthly potentate, is in the act of +crowning an Emperor, who kneels to kiss his toe. But the successor of +St. Peter does not see, as he sits upon his throne, giving authority and +sanction to the ruler of an empire, that a skeleton leans from behind +that throne, and grins in his face, and that another in a cardinal's hat +mingles with the throng before him. + +The seventh is one of the finest of the series. An Emperor is enthroned, +with his courtiers round him. He is threatening one with his sword for +some act of injustice from which a poor peasant who kneels before him +has suffered. But, unseen by all, a skeleton bestrides the shoulders of +the monarch and lays his hand upon his very crown. There can be no doubt +that Shakspeare had this subject in his mind when he wrote that fine +passage in "King Richard the Second,"-- + + "Within the hollow crown + That rounds the mortal temples of a king + Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, + Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp; + Allowing him a breath, a little scene + To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks; + Infusing him with self and vain conceit, + As if this flesh which walls about our life + Were brass impregnable; and humored thus, + Comes at the last, and with a little pin + Bores through his castle wall, and--farewell, King!" + +In the eighth we see a King (it is unmistakably Francis I.) dining under +a canopy, and served by a splendid retinue. He stretches out his hand to +receive a wine-cup; for he does not see that Death is filling it. + +A Cardinal appears in the ninth, selling an indulgence for a heavy +bribe; and we all rejoice to see that Death has laid hands upon his +hat,--the symbol of his rank,--and is about to tear it from his head. + +In the tenth, an Empress, passing through her palace-yard, attended by +her ladies, is led by the favorite on whom she leans, and who she does +not see is Death, into an open grave. + +Death, in the next, has assumed the guise of a Court Fool, and has +seized a Queen at the very gate of her palace. She recognizes him, and +struggles, shrieking, to free herself from his grasp; but in vain. With +a grin of fierce delight, he lifts up his hour-glass before her, and, +in spite of her resistance and that of a gentleman who attends her, is +about to bear her off. Every line of this composition is instinct with +life. + +In the twelfth, Death carries off a Bishop from his flock. + +In the thirteenth, an Elector of the Empire, surrounded by his retinue, +is approached by a poor woman, who begs his aid in behalf of herself and +her child; he repulses her scornfully; for he does not see that Death, +the avenger of the oppressed poor, and who is here crowned with +oak-leaves, has laid his gripe upon him. Holbein has put such an +expression of power into the arm and of wrath into the face of this +skeleton, that we expect to see his victim haled off into the air before +our very eyes. + +The Abbot and the Abbess are the subjects of the next two cuts. In the +former, Death has assumed the mitre and the crosier of his victim, and +drags him off with such an expression of fun and burlesque pomp as we +sometimes see in the face of a mischievous boy who mocks his betters. +In the companion group his look is that of a demon; and with his head +fantastically dressed, he drags the Abbess off by the scapulary which +hangs from her neck. + +A Nobleman and a Canon are his prey in the sixteenth and seventeenth +groups. We lack space to describe any but the most remarkable with +particularity. + +The satire of the next three is levelled against the Lawyers, who were +held in such little respect in Bâle. They show a Judge who takes a bribe +from a rich to wrong a poor suitor, and a Counsellor and an Advocate who +lend their talents to wealthy clients, but turn their backs upon the +poor victims of "the oppressor's wrong." In one, a demon is blowing +suggestions into the Counsellor's ear from a pair of bellows, which he +has doubtless used elsewhere for other purposes; in all, Death stands +ready to avenge the poor. + +In the twenty-first, a Preacher addresses a Congregation, whose +interested attention the painter has portrayed with great skill, +knowledge of character, and consequent variety and truth of expression. +Behind the Preacher stands Death, and, with a kind of grotesque +practical pun, holds the jaw of a skeleton over his head, as far more +eloquent than his own. + +A Priest and a Mendicant Friar are the subjects of the twenty-second and +twenty-third. + +The twenty-fourth is of peculiar interest. In it we see a youthful Nun, +who, it is clear, has taken her vows too hastily, kneeling before the +oratory in her cell. But her heart is not in her devotions; for the +lover whom she abandoned has made his way into the apartment, and sits +on her bed singing to his lute. Her hands are clasped, not in prayer, +but in an agony of love and apprehension. She turns from the crucifix to +gaze at him; and we see how the interview will end: for an aged female +attendant, in coif and scapulary, leans over to extinguish the candles. +We see, too, what its consequence will be; for that attendant is Death. + +Among the remaining subjects, which we cannot examine particularly, or +in their order, are those of the Old Man and Old Woman led by Death, +each to the sound of a dulcimer;--the Physician, to whom in mockery +Death himself brings a patient;--the Astronomer, to whom the skeleton +offers a skull in place of a celestial globe;--the Miser, from whom +Death snatches his hoarded gold; and the Merchant, whom the same +inexorable hand tears away from his ships and his merchandise;--the +storm-tossed ship, with Death snapping the mast;--a Count, dressed in +the extreme of courtly splendor, who recognizes Death in the disguise +of a peasant who has flung down his flail to seize his lordship's +emblazoned shield and dash it to pieces;--a Duchess, whom one skeleton +drags rudely from her canopied bed, while another scrapes upon a +violin;--a Peddler;--a Ploughman, of whose four-horse team Death is the +driver;--Gamblers, Drunkards, and Robbers, all interrupted in their +wickedness by Death;--a Wagoner, whose wagon, horse, and load have been +tumbled in a ruinous heap by a pair of skeletons;--a Blind Beggar, who +stumbles over a stony path after Death, who is his deceitful leader, and +who turns back with a look of malicious glee to see his bewilderment +and suffering;--and a Court Fool, whom Death, playing on bagpipes, and +dancing, approaches, and, plucking him by the garment, wins him, with a +coaxing leer, to join his pastime. + +A few others claim our more particular attention. Among them is a +Knight, armed cap-a-pie, who is run through and through, from back to +front, by Death, himself half armed in mockery. There is a concentrated +vigor in the thrust of the lance, and a cool venom in the countenance +of the assailant, that we may seek in vain in the works of famous +battle-painters; and it must always be remembered that Holbein's figure +is entirely without those indications of muscular movement by which we +express our feelings,--in fact, a mere bare-boned skeleton. + +A Bride at her wedding-toilet, whom Holbein has contrived to make almost +beautiful, receives a robe from one attendant; another clasps round her +neck a collar--of gold and jewels? No,--of bones, and with bony fingers. +And the next cut to this shows us the Bridegroom and Bride walking +through an apartment hung with arras, while before them dances Death, +beating a tabor, like a child beside himself with joy. + +One of the finest and most touching conceptions in the whole series +represents a dilapidated Cottage,--a mere shanty, so wretched that the +love of those who live in it is all their happiness,--nay, all their +comfort. The mother is preparing for two little children the simplest +and poorest of meals, at a fire made of a few small sticks. She finds +consolation in the very pranks that hinder her humble task. Death +enters,--there is no door to keep him out,--and, seizing the hand of the +younger child, who turns and stretches out the other imploringly to his +mother, carries him off, remorseless and exulting, leaving her frantic +with grief. We may look with comparative indifference, and sometimes +even with sympathy, upon his other feats,--but who is there that does +not hate that grinning skeleton?--And yet, perhaps, he exults that he +has saved one soul, yet pure, from misery and crime. + +For vigor of movement the group of Death and the Soldier is preëminent. +The field is covered with the wounded and the slain, in the midst +of which the soldier encounters his last enemy. The man is armed in +panoply, and wields a huge two-handed sword with a vigor unabated +by former struggles. Death has caught a shield from the arm of some +previous victim; but his only offensive weapon is a huge thigh-bone, +which we plainly see will bear down all before it. In the distance +another figure of Death flies madly over the hills, beating a drum which +summons other soldiers to the field. It is impossible to convey in words +the fierce eagerness of this figure, minute as it is, and composed of a +few lines. + +The forty-seventh composition is one which has puzzled the critics +and antiquaries; but it is not easy to conjecture why. It shows us a +wretched Beggar, naked, sick, lame,--utterly destitute, miserable, and +forsaken,--suffering at once all the ills that flesh is heir to. He sits +huddled together on some straw, near a large building, and lifts his +hands and face up piteously to heaven. Death is not there; and the +antiquaries ask in wonder, Why is the subject introduced? Why, but to +show that to him alone who would gladly welcome Death, Death will not +come? + +The work ends, as a connected series, with the Last Judgment, where +Christ, who conquered Death, appears seated on the bow of promise,--with +his feet resting on a celestial sphere, attended by angels, and showing +to a throng of those who have risen from the grave the wounds by which +he redeemed them from its power. + +To this is added an ornamental tail-piece called Death's Arms. It shows +a skull in a battered shield, which has for a crest a regal helmet +surmounted by an hour-glass and two bony arms grasping a stone. The +supporters to the shield are a gentleman and lady richly dressed,--said +to represent Holbein and his wife. + +It is not known, positively, when Holbein drew these designs upon the +blocks (for of course he did not engrave them); and it has even been +disputed by one or two eminent antiquarian critics, that he designed +them at all. But there does not appear to be a single valid reason for +thus diminishing his fame. He probably was engaged on them between +1531, the date of his first return to Bâle, and 1538, when they were +published,--the year in which he refused the solicitation of his +townsmen to return to the home of his childhood and the bosom of his +family. + +Holbein continued to live in London until the year 1554, when that city +suffered a visitation of the plague, similar to that which was the +occasion of the painting of the Great Dance of Death at Bâle. Holbein +was struck by the disease; and Death, knowing gratitude as little as +remorse, triumphed over him who had blazoned his triumphs. Upon the +painter's fame, however, and that of his great work, Death could not lay +his hand; but so long as the grim tyrant shall claim his victims, so +long will he perpetuate the memory of Hans Holbein. + +Though he was a royal favorite, it is not known where he died; and the +place where lie the ashes of him who, on a king's word, was greater than +seven earls, is equally unknown; there is not a line or a stone to mark +it. So soon after his death as in the reign of Charles I., (within +one hundred years,) a nobleman--noble by nature as well as by +birth--desirous of erecting a monument to him, sought his grave, but +in vain, and was compelled to abandon his design. And thus was Holbein +driven to live among strangers, to die without a wife to console or +children to mourn him, and to lay his bones in a nameless grave in a +foreign land. + +Such is an imperfect and brief account of the origin, the various forms, +and the meaning of the Dance of Death, and of the life and character of +him whose genius has caused it to be called by his name. It may +smell too much of mortality and antiquity for this fast-living and +forward-looking age; for it is not only a monument of the past, but an +exponent of its spirit. We can look back at it, through the mellowing +mist of centuries, with curiosity not unmixed with admiration; but we +should turn with aversion from such a work, coming from the hands of an +artist of our own day. We think, and with some reason, that we do not +need its teachings; for we are freed from the thraldom that gave edge +to its democratic satire; and we have learned to look with greater +calmness, if not with higher hope, upon the future, to which the grave +is but the ever-open portal. But we may yet profit by a thoughtful +consideration of the eternal truths embodied by Holbein in his Dance of +Death; and in the story of his life there is a lesson for every man, and +every woman too, if they will but find it. + + + + +LIZZY GRISWOLD'S THANKSGIVING. + + +"So John a'n't a-comin', Miss Gris'ld," squeaked Polly Mariner, entering +the great kitchen, where Mrs. Griswold was paring apples and Lizzy +straining squash. + +"Isn't he?" quietly replied the lady addressed, as the tailoress sat +down in the flag-bottomed rocking-chair, and began rocking vehemently, +all the time eyeing Lizzy from the depths of her poke-bonnet with +patient scrutiny. + +"No, he a'n't,--so Mr. Gris'ld says," went on Polly. "You see, I was +a-comin' up here from the Centre, so's to see if Sam couldn't wait for +his roundabout till arter Thanksgivin'; for Keziah Perkins, she 't was +my sister's husband's fust wife's darter, 'n' finally married sister's +fust husband's son, she's a real likely woman, and she's wrote over from +Taunton to ask me to go there to Thanksgivin'; 'n' to-day's Monday; 'n' +I was a-comin' here Tuesday so's to make Sam's roundabout; 'n' yesterday +Miss Luken's boy Simon, he 't a'n't but three year old, he got my +press-board, when he was a-crawlin' round, 'n' laid it right onto the +cookin'-stove, and fust thing Miss Lukens know'd it blazed right up, 'n' +I can't get another fixed afore Wednesday, and then I'd ought to be to +Taunton, 'cause there a'n't no stage runs Thursday, and there hadn't +oughter, of course"---- + +"We have got a press-board," said Mrs. Griswold, quietly. + +"Yes, and I a'n't goin' to grandfather's in my old jacket, Miss Poll," +interposed Sam, one of the "terrible" children who are scattered here +and there through this world. "Catch me where all the folks are, in that +old butternut suit!" added Sam. + +But here his father stepped in at the door,--a fine, sturdy, handsome +farmer, one of New England's model men, whose honesty was a proverb, and +whose goodness a reliance to every creature in Greenfield. + +"John isn't coming, wife," said Mr. Griswold, in a steady, sober tone. +"He says business will delay him, so that he can only get to Coventry +just as we do." + +"So you had a letter," said Mrs. Griswold, carefully avoiding a look at +Lizzy. + +"Yes," said Mr. Griswold, in a very abrupt way.--"Are you ready to go +back, Miss Polly? for I've got to go down to the Centre again with a +load of wheat." + +"Well, yes, I don't know but I be. I ken stay over, if you want help, +Miss Gris'ld. I'm a-goin' to the minister's to help Miss Fletcher a +little mite this afternoon, but I guess she don't lot on it none; 'n' +seein' it's you, I ken stay, if you want help." + +Lizzy looked quickly across the kitchen at her mother. + +"Oh! no, thank you, Miss Polly, I know Mrs. Fletcher would feel very +badly to lose your help, and I really don't need it until to-morrow." + +"Then I'll come round to the door as quick as I've loaded up," said Mr. +Griswold; and Miss Polly settled back in her chair to wait comfortably; +a process much intensified by a large piece of Mrs. Griswold's +gingerbread and a glass of new cider, both brought her by Lizzy's +hospitable hands,--readier even than usual just now, in the vain hope of +stopping Polly Mariner's clattering tongue. But neither gingerbread nor +cider was a specific to that end: Polly talked while she ate, and ate +while she talked. But while she finishes her luncheon, let us make known +to the patient reader whom and what the tailoress discusses. + +John Boynton was a step-cousin of Lizzy Griswold's. Her youngest aunt +had married a widower, with one son, some five years older than Lizzy, +and had always lived in the old homestead at Coventry, with her father; +while the other daughters and sons, six in number, were scattered over +the State, returning once a year, at Thanksgiving, to visit their +birthplace, and bring their children into acquaintance with each other. +Eben Griswold, who lived at Greenfield, was nearer home than any of the +others, and Lizzy, consequently, oftener at her grandfather's house than +her cousins. She and John Boynton were playmates from childhood, and it +was not strange that John, who had never known a pleasure unshared by +Lizzy, or suffered a pain without her consolation, should grow up in +the idea that he could not possibly live without her, an idea also +entertained half-consciously by Miss Lizzy, though neither of them ever +yet had expressed it; for John was poor, and had no home to offer any +woman, much less the petted child of a rich farmer. So Mr. Boynton, Jr., +left home to teach school in Roxbury, five years before the date of our +story, without making any confidences on the subject of his hopes +and fears to Miss Griswold; and she knit him stockings and hemmed +pocket-handkerchiefs for him with the most cold-blooded perseverance, +and nobody but the yarn and the needles knew whether she dropped any +tears on them or not. + +Now it had always been John Boynton's custom to give his school +Thanksgiving-week as a vacation,--to take the train on Monday for +Greenfield, and stay there till Wednesday, when the whole family set off +together for Coventry, to spend the next day, according to time-honored +precedent. + +Whatever John and Lizzy did in those two dull November days, it never +has been made known to the present chronicler; it is only understood +that no point-blank love-making went on; yet the days always ran away, +instead of creeping; and neither of the twain could believe it was +Wednesday when Wednesday came. But this year those forty-eight hours +were destined to drag past, for John wasn't coming; why, we shall +discover,--for Polly Mariner has finished the cider, and the gingerbread +is as much subject of inquiry as "The Indians,--where are they?" + +"So John Boynton a'n't a-comin'? Well! Hetty Maria Clapp's jest got home +from Bunkertown, that's tew mile from Roxbury, 'n' she told Miss Lucas +that Miss Perrit, whose sister's son keeps a grocer's store to Roxbury, +told that Mr. Boynton, their teacher to the 'Cademy, was waitin' on +Miss Roxany Sharp's cousin, a dreadful pretty gal, who'd come down from +Boston to see Roxany, an' liked it so well she staid to Roxbury all +through October. I do'no's I should ha' remembered it, only 't I hed the +dredfullest jumpin' toothache that ever you did, 'n' Miss Lucas, she'd +jest come in to our house, an' she run an' got the lodlum an' was +a-puttin' some on't onto some cotton so's to plug the hole, while she +was tellin'; 'n' I remember I forgot all about the jumpin' while 't she +was talkin', so I ses, ses I, 'Miss Lucas, I guess your talkin's as good +as lodlum'; 'n' she bu'st out larfin', 'n' ses she, 'Polly Mariner, I +declare for't, you do beat all!' 'Well,' ses I, 'I'd die content, ef I +could beat John Boynton; fur ef ever I see a feller payin' attention +to a gal, he's been payin' on't to Lizzy Gris'ld this four year; +and 'ta'n't no wonder 't I think hard on't, for there never was a +prettier-behaved gal than her on Greenfield Hill'; an' I ses"---- + +Lizzy was on the point of "freeing her mind" just at this juncture, when +Mrs. Griswold interposed her quiet voice,-- + +"Don't trouble yourself to defend Lizzy, Miss Mariner; you know John +Boynton is her cousin, and he has been here a good deal. Folks will +talk, I suppose, always; but if John Boynton marries well, I don't think +anybody 'll be more forward to shake hands with him than our Lizzy." + +"Of course I shall," said the young lady, with a most indignant toss of +her head. "Pray, keep your pity, Miss Polly, for somebody else. I don't +need it." + +"H'm," sniffed the sagacious Polly. "Well, I didn't suppose you'd allow +'t you felt put out about it; and I wouldn't, if I was you. Besides, +there's as good fish in the sea as----I declare for 't! there's Mr. +Gris'ld! I'll come round early to-morrer. Good-day, all on ye!" + +So Polly departed. + +"I don't care, if he is!" said Lizzy, flinging herself down on the +settle, when the door closed behind Polly's blue cloak. + +Mrs. Griswold said nothing, but Sam looked up from his whittling, and +coolly remarked,-- + +"It looks as if you did, though!" + +"Sam!" said his mother, with--emphasis. + +Sam whistled, and, with his hands in his pockets, having shut his +jack-knife with a click, and kicked his shavings into the fire, +muttered something about feeding the pigs, and beat an ignominious +retreat,--snubbed, as the race of Adam daily are, and daily will be, let +us hope, for telling "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the +truth." + +For Lizzy certainly did look as if she cared. A pretty enough picture +she made, too, flung down on the old black settle, one well-shaped +hand pinching the arm as if it had been--John Boynton's!--the other as +vigorously clenched on a harmless check-apron that showed no disposition +to get away; her bright red lips trembling a little, and her gray eyes +suspiciously shiny about the lashes, while her soft black hair had +fallen from part of its restraints on to the gay calico dress she wore, +and her foot beat time to some quick step that she didn't sing! + +Mrs. Griswold did not care for the picturesque, just then; she cared +much more for Lizzy, and her acute feminine instinct helped her to the +right word. + +"I don't believe it, dear!" said she; "you'd better finish straining +that squash, or Widow Peters won't have her pies for Thursday." + +Lizzy went to work,--work is a grand panacea, even for sentimental +troubles,--and in doing battle with the obstinate squash,--which was not +as well cooked as it might have been,--Lizzy, for the moment, looked +quite bright, and forgot John, till her father came in to dinner. + +Somebody once said that Mrs. Griswold was "a lesser Providence," and +Lizzy thought so now; for scarce were they all seated at dinner, when +she remarked, in a very unconcerned and natural way,-- + +"What keeps John in Roxbury so long, father?" + +"He has business in Boston," curtly answered Mr. Griswold.--"Sam, did +you go over to the Corners, yesterday, about those sheep?" + +Sam answered, and the conversation went on, but John's name did not +enter it, nor did Mr. Griswold offer to show his letter either to mother +or Lizzy. + +Now the latter lady, not being a perfect woman, had sundry small faults; +she was proud, after a certain fashion of her own; slightly sentimental, +which is rather a failing than a fault; but her worst trait was a +brooding, fault-seeing, persevering tact at making herself miserable, +scarce ever equalled. The smallest bit of vantage-ground was enough for +a start, and on that foundation Lizzy took but a few hours of suspicion +and imagination to build up a whole Castle Doubting. The cause she had +to-day was even greater than was necessary; it was peculiar that +her father should be so reserved; it was more strange that he so +perseveringly withheld John's letter; and certainly he watched Lizzy at +her work with unusually tender eyes, that sometimes filled with a sort +of mist. All these things heaped up evidence for the poor girl; she +brooded over each separate item all night, and added to the sum Polly +Mariner's gossip, and looked forward to the day when everybody in +Greenfield should say, "Lizzy Griswold's had a disapp'intment of John +Boynton!" Poor, dear, Lizzy! as if that were an unheard-of pang! as if +nine-tenths of her accusers were not "disapp'inted" themselves,--some +before, some after marriage,--some in themselves, some in their +children, some in their wretched, dreary lives! But there was only one +John and only one heart-break present to her vision. + +Polly Mariner came to breakfast next day, and pervaded the kitchen +like a daily paper. Horrible murders, barn-burnings, failures, deaths, +births, marriages, separations, lawsuits, slanders, and petty larcenies +outran each other in her glib speech, and her fingers flew as fast on +Sam's blue jacket as her tongue clappered above it. + +Lizzy's pride kept her up before the old woman; she was in and out and +everywhere, a pretty spot of crimson on either fair cheek, her eyes as +sparkling and her step as light as any belle's in a ballroom, and her +whole manner so gay and charming that Polly inwardly pronounced John +Boynton a mighty fool, if he dodged such a pretty girl as that, and one +with "means." + +But night came, and Polly went. Lizzy went to bed with a bad +headache,--convenient synonyme for aches of soul or body that one does +not care to christen! Sleep she certainly did that night, for she +dreamed John was married to a rich Boston girl with red hair and a +yellow flannel dress, and that Polly Mariner was bridesmaid in the +peculiar costume of a blue roundabout and pantaloons! But sleep with +such dreams was scarcely a restorer; and Wednesday morning, when Mrs. +Griswold asked Lizzy if she had put up her carpet-bag to go to Coventry, +she received for answer a flood of tears, and a very earnest petition to +be left at home. + +"Leave you, Lizzy! Why, grandfather couldn't have Thanksgiving without +you! And Uncle Boynton! And Aunt Lizzy is coming up from Stonington with +the new baby;--and--John, too! You must go, Lizzy, dear!" + +"I can't, mother! I can't!" said the poor girl, sobbing after every +word; "please don't ask me. I can't! I've got a headache; oh, dear!" +Here a fresh burst of tears followed, as Lizzy buried her head in her +mother's lap. + +Mrs. Griswold was both grieved and astonished; she sat speechless, +stroking the soft hair that swept over her knee, till Lizzy's sobs +quieted, and then said,-- + +"Well, dear, if you're set on staying at home, I won't oppose it, if +your father thinks best; but I must ask him; only what will you do, +Lizzy, here alone all night?" + +"Chloe and Peter will be here, mother; and I'll make Chloe sleep in +Sam's room, and leave the door open; and when they go down to Dinah's, +I'll lock up, and I shan't feel afraid in broad day." + +Mrs. Griswold shook her head doubtfully. + +"I'll see what father says," said she. So Lizzy lifted her head, and +smoothed her hair, while her mother went out to the barn to consult +"father." + +Here she was, if anything, more puzzled. Mr. Griswold heard the proposal +with a rather misty look, as if he didn't see why, and when his wife +finished, said, gravely,-- + +"What is it, Susan? Anybody 't has lived as long as I have knows pretty +well that a woman's headache stands for a whole dictionary." + +"Why, you see," said Mrs. Griswold, twisting a little lock of hay in her +fingers, and faintly blushing, as if the question had been of herself +rather than Lizzy, "she--well, the fact is, husband, she's kind of riled +about John's not coming; you see we haven't been real particular about +the children, and so"---- + +"You needn't spell it, Susan," said Mr. Griswold, with a half smile; +"Polly Mariner's tongue helped on, I guess. You let Lizzy stay, if she +wants to; 'twon't hurt her; when folks want to sulk, I generally let +'em. She can stay." + +He began to whistle "Yankee Doodle" and pitch hay energetically, while +"Susan" was within hearing; but how would that dear woman's soul have +floundered deeper and deeper in the fog that clouded it now, had she +seen her grave husband sit down on one end of the hay-mow and laugh till +the tears stood in his keen eyes, and then, drawing his coat-sleeve +across the shaggy lashes, say to himself, "Poor child!" and begin his +work with fresh strength! + +So matters were all arranged. After dinner, the rusty, dusty, old +carriage appeared at the door, with the farm-horses harnessed thereto, +jingling, and creaking, and snapping, as if oil and use were strange to +its dry joints and stiff straps. Mrs. Griswold mounted to the back seat, +after kissing Lizzy with hearty regret and tenderness,--her old gray +pelisse and green winter bonnet harmonizing with the useful age of her +conveyance. "Father," in a sturdy great-coat and buckskin mittens, took +the reins; and Sam, whose blue jacket was at that moment crushing his +mother's Sunday cap in a bandbox that sat where Lizzy should have been, +clambered over the front wheel, to the great detriment of the despised +butternut suit, and, seizing the whip, applied it so suddenly to Tom +and Jerry that they started off down the Coventry road at a pace that +threatened a solution of continuity to bones and sinews, as well as wood +and leather. + +Lizzy turned away sadly from the door. Who can say that just at that +minute she did not wish she had gone, too? But nobody heard her say so. +She went up-stairs to her room, and tried to read, but couldn't attach +any ideas to the words; she was half an hour over a page of a very good +book, and then flung it upon the bed with an expression of disgust, as +if it were the book's fault. Poor authors! toil your fingers off, and +spin your brains out! be as wise as Solomon, or witty as Sheridan! your +work is vanity and vexation of spirit, unless the reader's brain choose +to receive and vivify the hieroglyphs of your ideas; think yourselves +successful because a great man praises you, and to-morrow that man is +twisted with dyspepsia, or some woman passes him without a smile, and +your sparkling sketch, your pathetic poem are declared trash! Such is +fame! Of which little homily the moral is,--Write for money! What a +thing it is to be worldly-wise! So was not Lizzy; if she had been, she +would now be at Coventry, kissed and caressed by grandfather, aunts, +uncles, cousins, and----But we won't anticipate. + +Lizzy flung down the book, and went to her closet for another; but it +was as good (or as bad) as Bluebeard's closet, for there hung the pretty +crimson merino, with delicate lace at the throat and round the short +sleeves, in which Miss Lizzy Griswold once intended to electrify Mr. +John Boynton this very evening. True it is that short sleeves are not +the most sensible things for November; but Lizzy was twenty, and had +such round, white arms, that she liked to wear short sleeves, as any +girl would; and who is going to blame her? Not I! A girl doesn't know +her privileges who was never just a little vain,--just a little glad to +be pretty when John is by. Lizzy looked at the crimson merino, and at +the smart slippers on the door with a shining black bow on each instep. +There, too, on a little low table, was a green box; somebody had left +it open,--mother, perhaps,--so she saw on its cotton bed a red coral +bracelet, that came from Roxbury, or thereabout, last year at this time. +Lizzy shut up the box, and went down-stairs to get tea. + +Chloe was indignant to think "Miss 'Lisbeth" thought she couldn't get +supper without help, and Miss 'Lisbeth was vexed with Chloe for being +cross. And then, when supper came, the tea seemed to be very unwilling +to be swallowed, and the new bread was full of large lumps that choked a +person, and the lamps didn't burn clearly at all,--and--and--when Chloe, +still sulky, had cleared the table, Lizzy sat down on a low cricket +beside her mother's stuffed rocking-chair, and had as good a cry as ever +she had in her life, and felt much better for it. + +So she sat there, with her head on the arm of the chair, rather tired +with the cry, rather downhearted for want of the supper she hadn't +eaten, and making pictures in the fire, when all of a sudden it came +into her head to wonder what they were doing at Coventry. There was +grandfather, no doubt, in the keeping-room, telling his never-tiring +stories of Little Robby, and Old Bose, and the Babes in the Wood; of +singing the ever-new ditty of + + "Did you ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,"-- + +and so on, _ad infinitum_, till you got to-- + + "See a man eat a whale?" + +to some half dozen children; while sweet Aunt Lizzy, serenely smiling, +rocked the fair little baby that fifteen cousins had kissed for welcome +that day; and Uncle Boynton trotted the baby's brother on his knee, +inviting him persistently to go to Boston and buy a penny-cake, greatly +to little Eben's aggravation, who would end, Lizzy knew, by crying for +the cake, and being sent to bed. Then there were Sam, and Lucy Peters, +and Jim Boynton, up to all sorts of mischief in the kitchen,--Susan +Boynton and Nelly James cracking nuts and their fingers on the +hearth,--father and mother up-stairs in grandmother's room; for +grandmother was bedridden, but kindly, and good, and humorous, and +patient, even in her hopeless bed, and nobody was dearer to the whole +family than she. Then, of course, there was a fire in the best parlor, +and there were all the older cousins, telling conundrums and stories, +and playing grown-up games, and some two, or four, may-be, looking out +in couples at the moonshine, from behind the curtains,--Sue James, +perhaps, and John. Sue was so pretty! + +Lizzy's head bent lower on the arm of the chair; her thoughts travelled +back over a great many Thanksgivings,--years ago, when she wore short +frocks, and used to go with John to see the turkeys fed, and be +so scared when they gobbled and strutted with rage at her scarlet +bombazette;--how they used to pick up frozen apples and thaw them in +the dish-kettle; how she pounded her thumb, cracking butternuts with a +flat-iron, and John kissed it to make it well,--only it didn't! And +then how they slid down-hill before church, and sat a long two hours +thereafter in the square pew, smelling of "meetin'-seed," and dinted +with the kicks of weary boys in new boots; and finally, after the first +anthem and the two hymns and the three prayers and the long sermon were +over, came home to dinner, where the children had their own table at the +end of the grown people's board, and Lizzy always took the head and +John the foot,--till, exhausted by the good things they had eaten, and +tantalized by the good things they couldn't eat, they crept away to the +fire and their picture-books for a quiet hour, winding up the day with +all the plays that country and city children alike delight in. + +Then came recollections of later days, when John was a young man, and +Lizzy still a little girl,--when long talks banished turkeys and apples +and sliding,--when new books or sleigh-rides crowded out the old +games,--when the two days of John's yearly visit were half-spent in the +leafless, sunny woods, gathering mosses and acorn-cups, delicate fern +leaves, and clusters of fire-moss, and red winter-green berries, for the +pretty frames and baskets Lizzy's skilful fingers fabricated,--when he +shook hands at coming and going, instead of kissing her;--but it seemed +just the same, somehow. Dear me! those days were all gone! John didn't +care about her any more! he was in love with a beautiful Boston lady. +Why should he care about a homely little country cousin? He would go to +live in Boston in a great big house, and he'd be a great man, and people +would talk about him, and she should see his name in the papers, but he +never would come to Coventry any more! And he'd acted as if he did love +her, too!--that was men's way,--heartless things! If John had a good +time, what did he care if Lizzy did grow into a gray-haired, puckered-up +old maid, like Miss Case, with nobody to love her, or take care of her, +or ask about her, or--or--kiss her?--The climax was too much for Lizzy; +great big tears ran down on the arm of the stuffed chair, and she +would have sobbed out loud, only Chloe opened the door, to put up the +tea-things, I suppose, and Lizzy wouldn't cry before her. But, for all +that, she didn't hear Chloe come to the fireplace; she only felt her sit +down in the big chair, and, simultaneously, a pair of strong arms lifted +Miss Lizzy on to John Boynton's knee, and held her there. It wasn't +Chloe. + +I declare, one gets out of patience with these men! they do astonish a +person so sometimes, one doesn't know what to do or say. Lizzy had been +thinking to herself, not two minutes ago, with what cool and smiling +reserve she should meet John Boynton, how dignified and kindly distant +she would be to him,--and now,--well! it was so sudden,--and then, as +I said before, these men do get round one so,--if you happen to love +them.--Lizzy forgot, I suppose; at any rate, she wasn't dignified, or +reserved, or proper, or anything of the kind, for she just hid her +pretty head on his square shoulder, and said, "Oh, John!"--"slowly, and +nothing more,"--as Mr. Tennyson remarks about cutting Iphigenia's head +off with a sharp knife. + +I don't know that John talked much, either. I rather think Lizzy got +over the climax that had troubled her a little while ago. Presently, +she raised her head and gathered up her hair that had fallen down, and +became painfully aware that she had on only a blue calico! John never +knew it; he knew somebody had a very sweet face, full of cloudy blushes +and sunshiny smiles, and, not being a Pre-Raphaelite, the foreground was +of no consequence to him. + +So, after a time, Lizzy slipped down to her cricket again, still leaning +on the arm--of the chair,--and John expounded to her the excellent +reason that had delayed his coming home. He had been offered a large +salary to take the head of a public school in Boston, and those two +days had been devoted to arranging the affair; he had satisfied the +school-committee as to his capacity, and made up his mind on several +points of minor importance to them,--but, perhaps, greater to him. Among +others, he had found a house, a tiny house, with a little yard behind, +and a view of Boston Harbor from the upper windows, all at a reasonable +rent, prospect thrown in; this house he had hired, and now--he had come +to Greenfield for a housekeeper. + +Lizzy suddenly discovered that she was hungry, and invited John into the +kitchen to get a piece of pie; but, after all, instead of eating hers +while he was eating his, she went up-stairs, brushed out her hair +and coiled it up with a coral-topped comb, that came to light, very +strangely, just in time,--put on her merino frock, her bracelet, and her +slippers,--rolled herself up in shawls and hoods and mittens, and was +lifted into John's buggy, to old Chloe's great delight, who held the +lamp, grinning like a lantern herself, and tucking "Mr. John's" fox-skin +round his feet, as if he had been ten years old. + +So Lizzy Griswold did get to Coventry the night before Thanksgiving, +after all; and when Uncle Boynton met her at the door, he called her "my +dear daughter." Perhaps, as John had told Lizzy, on the drive over, that +her father had heard all about his business and his intentions, in that +letter she did not see, the young lady had decided to disinherit him, +and adopt Uncle Boynton in his place; rather an unfair proceeding, it +is true, since the letter was withheld by John's special request; and, +indeed, Lizzy didn't act like a "cruel parient" to her father, when he +came, after uncle, to give her a welcome. + +They had a merry time at Coventry that Thanksgiving,--even merrier +than another smaller assemblage, that took place at Greenfield about +Christmas, when Polly Mariner came over a week before-hand to make Sam +a new suit throughout, and Lizzy looked prettier than anybody ever did +before, in a fresh white dress, and a white rose, off grandmother's +tea-rose-bush, in her hair. It is on record, that she behaved no better +than she did that evening when somebody found her crying in a blue +calico; for Sam was overheard to say, as Polly hustled him off to bed, +that, "if ever he was married, he guessed they wouldn't catch him makin' +a fool of himself by kissin' a girl right before the minister!--if he'd +have been Lizzy, John Boynton's ears would have sung for one while; but +girls _were_ fools!" + +So John Boynton got a housekeeper; and Lizzy had more than one +Thanksgiving-day in her life, beside the Governor's appointments. + + * * * * * + + +ACHMED AND HIS MARE. + + + An old Arabian tale the truth conveys, + That, honor's passion avarice outweighs. + + * * * * * + + Brave Achmed owned a mare of wondrous speed; + He prized her much above his wife or creed. + + And lest some one should steal that precious mare, + He guarded her with unremitting care. + + He tied her every night before his tent; + The fastening-cord then round his pillow went. + + When all in slumber lay, the robber crept, + Unloosed the cord, and on the courser leapt. + + "Wake up!" he cries,--"'tis I, the thief, who call; + See now if she in flight is chief of all!" + + Mount Achmed and his tribe in wrath and shame, + And chase him as a tempest chases flame. + + Hot Achmed nearly to the robber came, + When thus he thought: "My mare will lose her fame. + + "If I o'ertake her, she is then outrun; + But if I reach her not, I am undone. + + "Oh, better she were stolen before my face + Than have her vanquished in this desperate race!" + + One secret sign his mare was taught to heed, + Whenever she must try her utmost speed. + + He to the robber screamed, "Quick, pinch her ear!" + The sign she felt with answering love and fear. + + As like a level thunderbolt she flew, + All chase was vain, the vexed pursuers knew. + + Before this self-betrayal blank surprise + Fills Achmed's comrades, and their wondering cries + + Demand, "How shall thy foolish act be named?"-- + "My mare is lost, her glory is not shamed." + + He says: "I knew, that, if her ear he nipped, + The darling prize could never be outstripped." + + + + +CHARLES LAMB AND SYDNEY SMITH. + + +There were in Great Britain, soon after the commencement of the present +century, three remarkable groups of young men. Distinct schools of +thought, like the philosophic schools of Greece, each of the groups was +marked by peculiar ideas, tastes, and sympathies. The French Revolution, +with its menace of fundamental changes, clashing with sentiments and +convictions which ages had rendered habitual and dear, called for an +inquiry into great principles and the grounds of things. The Napoleonic +age had the terrific formlessness of chaos. Did it premonish the passing +away of old things, and herald the birth of a new order and a new social +state? or did the trouble spring from innate madness in the "younger +strengths" which were trying to overthrow the world's kingdoms? Should +venerable Royalty, after howling in the wilderness and storm, be again +enthroned? or should men attempt to realize the fair ideals which +the word Republic suggested? Should religion be supplanted? should +Protestantism be confirmed? or should, perchance, the crosier of the Old +Church be again waved over Europe? These were the questions that were +mooted, and they aroused unwonted activity and vigor of thought as well +in literature as in politics. + +The old century left in England few celebrated names to take part in the +literature of the new. The men who made the poems, romances, dramas, +reviews, and criticisms for the first quarter of our century had almost +all been in youth contemporaries of the Reign of Terror, and had been +tried in that unparalleled period as by a fiery furnace, while their +opinions were in a formative state. Crabbe and Rogers were traditions of +the time of Goldsmith and Johnson; Gilford wrote with a virulence and +ability which he might have learned in boyhood from Junius; but with +these exceptions, English literature fifty years ago was represented by +young men. + +We mention, as the first group of young thinkers, the founders of the +"Edinburgh Review,"--Sydney Smith, Francis Jeffrey, Francis Horner, and +Henry Brougham,--whose united ages, when the first number of that review +appeared in 1802, made one hundred and seven years. Members of the Whig +party, possessing much learning and more vivacity and earnestness, +and having among them, if not severally, abundance both of daring and +prudence, they startled conservative people, evoked the best efforts of +authors by their brilliant castigations, and inaugurated the discussion +of measures of reform which it took thirty years to get through +Parliament. The critic of the company was Francis Jeffrey, whose +happiness it was to live just when he was needed. Without capacity to +excel either in the realm of ideas or of facts, he was unrivalled in the +power of discovering the relations between the two. He was neither a +statesman, philosopher, nor poet; but while the heavens and the earth +threatened to rush in confusion together, he was an admirable _cicerone_ +to the troubled and wandering wits of men. He had no inherent qualities, +and, if other people had not existed, would not have been alive himself; +his faculty was simply an eye for relations, and his mental life began +when some one threw a series of thoughts across his line of vision. +He could tell all about those thoughts,--how large each was, what +complexion they had, how they stood in order with each other, and how +they compared with other thoughts which he remembered having seen +before. Such a mind might have achieved success among the technicalities +of the law, but nowhere else, had not the "Edinburgh Review" been +created. Jeffrey's critical articles have little value when regarded +according to their aim and as integral compositions; the arguments which +they contain are often insufficient, and the literary judgments wrong. +But they are full of the scattered elements of thought. Many of the best +ideas of the books and men of which they treat are stated in them with +admirable clearness and piquancy, and they are, therefore, pleasant +secondary sources of information. + +Francis Horner died of consumption in Italy before he was forty years of +age, and there is nothing of surpassing brilliancy or power in any of +his writings. Yet he made a most extraordinary impression upon his +contemporaries. His name is never mentioned by his associates except +with unusual respect. Brougham, when he alludes to him, even in a +letter, seems to check his pen into soberness, and to be as cautious as +if he were speaking on a religious subject. Search through the published +correspondence of Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, and Mackintosh, and Horner is +found uniformly mentioned, not with peculiar affection or kindness, not +with any intention of doing him honor, but as a man whose qualities were +quite superior to those of other men, and whose destiny it was to be the +first statesman of his country. Lord Cockburn, who was a schoolmate of +Horner, relates that the latter was at one time selected by his class to +present a book to the master, and adds: "As he stepped forward at +the close of a recitation, and delivered the short Latin +presentation-address, I thought him to be a god." This fascination is +hard to be explained. The great seriousness of Horner's character may in +part account for it. He could not bear trifling on important subjects, +and could not help frowning on all jests which were not more wise +than witty. The calm determination, the unvarying earnestness of his +character, may aid in explaining it. From a boy, he never swerved from +great purposes, pursued the most useful though difficult knowledge, and +cultivated with equal zeal the ornaments of taste and those recondite +historical and statistical studies which are the roots of political +science. He was as far from being flighty as Immanuel Kant. Everything +that he did was marked both by temperance and sagacity. Philosophically +speaking, a personality, any personal being, is undoubtedly the most +mysterious thing in the universe. How abstract ideas come together to +grow and bloom in a young bosom is wholly past the comprehension of +philosophy. As personality in the abstract fascinates a philosopher +by its mystery, so a personality of uncommon purity, intensity, and +completeness fascinates all men, and thus, perhaps, is explained the +high estimation in which Horner was held. He was regarded by those +who knew him, as Pythagoras was by his disciples, with the deference +commanded by a superior person. + +The indefatigable character of Lord Brougham, the only survivor of this +group, cannot yet be sketched in a paragraph. To Sydney Smith we shall +presently return. + +The second group of young men was formed fifteen years later. They were +the antagonists of the Edinburgh reviewers, the authors of the "Noctes +Ambrosianae," the main support of "Blackwood's Magazine," almost from +its beginning. Their names were John Wilson, J.G. Lockhart, James Hogg, +and, for a time, William Maginn. These were very high, as well as, +excepting Hogg, very young Tories. It would be an apotheosis of loyalty +to say that they were also eminently religious, though they drank many +bumpers to their religion. When they meet in the third of the "Noctes" +and have taken their places at the table, North proposes: "A bumper! +The King! God bless him!" and three times three are given. Then Tickler +proposes: "A bumper! The Kirk of Scotland!" and the rounds of cheers +are repeated. These indispensable ceremonies being over, the Blackwood +council proceeds to discuss men and things over nectar and ambrosia. + +Wilson was the centre and best representative of this group. At Oxford, +he had been so democratic that he blacked his own boots on principle. +On leaving Oxford, he had roamed for a time as a wild man in a band of +gypsies. He next took a cottage in the lake district in the North of +England, where he associated with Wordsworth, and occupied himself +alternately with desperate gymnastic exercises and composing slight +descriptive poems. Even after connecting himself with the magazine and +becoming the symposiarch of the "Noctes," and perhaps the greatest Tory +in all broad Scotland, he did not renounce his home among the lakes. He +was a lover of scenery, and an enthusiast and master in manly sports. He +is said to have fished in every trout-brook north of the Clyde, and +he wandered every season over the Highlands. In his sportsman's +accomplishments he took a truly English pride, and made fun of the +Edinburgh Whigs by representing a company of them as getting by chance +into the same room with himself and his associates, and then, pipes and +tobacco being brought, as being fairly smoked out, sickened, and +obliged to retreat by the superior smoking capacities of the Tories. He +ridiculed Leigh Hunt for fancying in one of his poems that he should +like a splendid life on a great estate, when (as Wilson says) he +couldn't even ride without being thrown. Yet, of all the men of this +time, there was probably no one who had wider sympathies or more +delightful prejudices than Professor Wilson, or who made more sagacious +reflections. The centre of a literary clique, he loved to associate +with all the other cliques, and was one of the first to recognize and +proclaim the great merits of Wordsworth. + +The third group was larger than either of the preceding, retained its +_esprit de corps_ longer, and may be most conveniently defined as the +associates of Charles Lamb. Beside Lamb, there were Coleridge, Southey, +Lovel, Dyer, Lloyd, and Wordsworth, among the earlier members of +it,--and Hazlitt, Talfourd, Godwin, De Quincy, Bernard Barton, Procter, +Leigh Hunt, Gary, and Hood, among the later. This group, unlike the +others, did not make politics, but literature, its leading object. It +was composed of literary men,--a title of doubtful import, but which +certainly in civilized society will always designate a class. Political +life has more of outward importance, religious life is holier, but +literary life is the most humane of all the avocations. It is to the +professions what pastoral occupations are to the trades. Politics and +religion both have something to do with institutions. A mechanical +man can play a part in them not very well, but passably well. But +the literary man is sheer humanity, with nothing to help him but his +thoughtfulness and sensibility. He is the unfelled tree, not the timber +framed into the ship of state or carved into ecclesiastic grace. He +lives as Nature lives, putting on the splendor of green when the air +is sunny, and of crystal when the blasts sweep by; and while his roots +reach down into the earth, there rises nothing above him but the +heavens. Past experience shows that he may be harsh, prejudiced, and +unhappy; but it shows also that the richest human juices are within him, +and that not only the most peculiar and most sensitive, but also the +most highly-endowed characters are named in the list of authors. The +central and most admirable figure in this particular group of literary +men is Charles Lamb; and as each of the other groups clustered around +an organ, so at a later period Lamb and his associates supported the +"London Magazine," in which the "Essays of Elia" first appeared. + +If it be asked what gave that strong coherence to these associates which +constituted them groups, a wise man would answer,--congeniality of +character. A wiser man, however, would not overlook the element of +_suppers_. The "Edinburgh Review" seems to have been first suggested +over a quiet bottle of wine; and at a later day the Edinburgh reviewers, +increased in number by the accession of Mackintosh and one or two +others, formed an honored clique by themselves in the splendid society +of Holland House. The "Noctes Ambrosianae" is the enduring monument of +the way in which the Blackwood men passed their nights, and not the less +so from the fact that they were for the most part written out by Wilson +in sober solitude. Charles Lamb began his career of suppers with +Coleridge, as the latter came up to London from the University to visit +him, and the famous Wednesday-evening parties given by him and his +sister Mary would occupy a large space in the literary history of this +epoch. It is a true proverb, that people are but distant acquaintances +till they have eaten salt together. + +The sketches which we have thus given will indicate the leading +tendencies that were operating in English literature, though the groups +themselves did not include all the eminent literary men. +Campbell, Shelley, and Byron were single lights, and did not form +constellations,--unless, perhaps, Shelley and Byron may be regarded as a +wayward and quickly-disappearing Gemini. Sir Walter Scott, and, in their +later years, Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, were of a cosmopolitan +character, and served as links between different parties. And it may be +added, that diplomatic relations and frequent intercommunication existed +between all the groups. + +Passing from the general schedule to the characters and careers of +Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith, it will be our aim to show how these two +most witty men were also intensely serious and dutiful,--how they +were both disciplined by a great sorrow, and obedient to a noble +purpose,--and thus to relieve wit from the charge of having any natural +alliance with frivolity. + +A thorn, it needs not a sage to say, vexes the side of every human +being. Poetry laments the inadequacy of men to their ideals, philosophy +declares an error in the figures which sum up life, religion reveals +the fall of the race. The thorn is known which pierced the matchless +joyousness of Charles Lamb. His family, highly gifted with wit, +tenderness of feeling, and mutual love, had a tinge of madness in the +blood. At twenty years of age he was himself shut up six weeks in a +madhouse, his imagination in a vagary. He was not again affected; but +the poison had sunk deeper into the veins of his sister. The shadow of a +deed done in the dark ever pursued her. Charles devoted his life to +her whose life was an intermittent madness, yet who, in her months of +sanity, was a worthy sister of such a brother. His kindness to her knew +no bounds. It was strange that she had premonition of the recurring fits +of her disorder; and when the ghost of unreason beckoned, Charles +took her by the hand and led her to the appointed home. Charles Lloyd +relates, that, at dusk one evening, he met them crossing the field +together on their melancholy way toward the asylum, both of them in +tears. In the smiles of Charles Lamb, and they were many, his friends +always remarked a prevailing expression of sadness. The "fair-haired +maid," who had been the theme of his first poetizing, appears not again +in his verses or in his life. He and Mary lived together, received +evening visitors together, went to the theatre and picture-gallery +together, visited the lakes and the poets together; and if he was ever +seen in public without her, his friends knew there could be but one +reason for it, and did not ask. When he left the India House, he had +reserved from his income a considerable sum for her support; though the +liberality of his employers, as it proved, rendered this precaution +unnecessary. She was his partner in writing the Shakspearian tales, and +he always affirmed that hers were better done than his own. To her +he dedicated the first poems that he published; and she, too, was a +poetess, excellent in her simple way. Thus was Charles Lamb's life +saddened by a great affliction ever impending over it, and sanctified by +a great duty which he never for a moment forgot. + +It was his good-fortune, while at school at Christ's Hospital, to become +acquainted with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A timid boy, creeping around +among his boisterous companions like a little monk, it was that soaring +spirit which first taught him to look up. Two men whose intellects more +strongly contrasted could not be found. Coleridge suffered throughout +life from over-much speculation. Could he have had his eye less upon the +heavens and more upon the earth, could he have been concentrated upon +some human duty, he would have been a much wiser and better man. Even in +his youth he was the rhapsodist of old philosophies, had resolved social +life into its elements, and dreamed of putting it together again to suit +himself on the banks of the Susquehannah. Though Lamb wondered at the +speculations of Coleridge, and, loving him, loved the metaphysics which +were a part of him, yet it was without changing his own essentially +opposite disposition. Lamb clung to the earth. He cultivated the +excellency of this life. He was concrete, and hugged the world as he +did his sister. He reverently followed the discourses of Coleridge, +admiring, perhaps, "the beauty of the words, but not the words +themselves"; but when the Opium-Eater also began to take speculative +flights before Lamb, the latter stopped him at once by jangling his +metaphysics into jokes. It was in conversation with Coleridge, begun at +school and continued afterward at frequent meetings, that Lamb first +ventured to try his own powers and was prompted to literary activity. +But for a slight defect in his speech, he would probably have followed +Coleridge to the University with the intention of going into the Church. +A delightful clergyman he would have been, if he had duly undertaken the +office, and one would have walked far to see him in the priestly robe, +to hear him chant the service, to receive pastoral advice from him; yet +we fear the "Essays of Elia" would have been less admirable than now. He +was roused by Coleridge; and though he could not put the aureole of the +latter about his own head, he began to do the best he could in his own +way. + +Life is a play between accident and purpose. Why was it, that, of all +the books in the world, Charles Lamb should have fixed his affections +chiefly on the old English dramatists? He might have turned to old +Greece, admired the fruits of the classic ages, and become one of those +sparkling artistic Hellenists that are occasionally seen in modern +times. He might have turned to the mediaeval period. He had an eye +for cloisters and nuns. His fancy would have been struck with the +grotesqueness of many of the ideas and institutions of those times. +He would have got on finely with Gurth the swineherd and Burgundy the +tusk-toothed, and one of his masterly witticisms would have upset Duns +Scotus. Perhaps, of all the mediaeval characters, he would have been +most smitten with the court fool, and, if he could have been seated at +a princely table of the twelfth century, the bowl surely would not have +been round many times before he and the fool would have had a few passes +at each other. There was enough in the Middle Ages to have fascinated +him; and could he, like some romantic Novalis, have once penetrated +thither, and tasted the fruit, he would have found it a lotus, and +would have wished never to depart. His soul would have clung to church +architecture,--under which term may be included all the religious, +political, poetical, moral, and practical life of the Middle Ages. The +accident in the case, however, was, that his uncle's library did not +contain the Greeks, nor the Middle Ages, but did contain the old English +authors. These he mastered; and out of these he created his ideals. In +the affluent vigor of the Elizabethan age, in the buoyant _négligé_ of +the times of merry Charles, he found people that he liked. To every +reflective and slightly scholastic mind, there is a charm in looking +at things in the distance. The perspective fits the eye. This may have +helped the enthusiasm with which he looked upon the writers and heroes +of the old English literature; but its principal cause was their +open-heartedness, their informality, their stout and free humanity +underneath laces and uniform. + +Having thus found his place in literature, he began also to be rich in +friends, and his life was devoted every moment to thought and affection. +The time that he passed at the desk of the India House was time in which +he did not live; or perhaps, while he autographed the mercantile books, +there was a higher half-conscious life of the fancy which lightly +flitted round and round the steady course of his pen. He thus exults, +after his emancipation from his clerkship upon a pension:--"I came +home FOREVER on Tuesday in last week. The incomprehensibleness of my +condition overwhelmed me. It was like passing from life into eternity. +Every year to be as long as three; that is, to have three times as much +time that is real time--time that is my own--in it. I wandered about +thinking I was happy, but feeling I was not. But the tumultuousness is +passing off, and I begin to understand the nature of the gift." For this +one-third of his waking time, to have and to hold unhampered by any +dependence, he had most willingly consigned the rest to drudgery. The +value which he set upon it appears from the following answer which he +made to Bernard Barton, who thought of abandoning his place in a bank +and of relying upon literary labor for support:--"Throw yourself on the +world without any rational plan of support beyond what the chance employ +of booksellers would afford you! Throw yourself, rather, my dear Sir, +from the steep Tarpeian rock, slap-dash, headlong, upon iron spikes. If +you have but five consolatory minutes between the desk and the bed, make +much of them, and live a century in them, rather than turn slave to the +booksellers. Hitherto you have been at arm's length from them,--come +not within their grasp. I have known many authors want for bread,--some +repining, others enjoying the blessed security of a counting-house, +all agreeing that they would rather have been tailors, weavers,--what +not?--rather than the things they were. I have known some starved, some +go mad, one dear friend literally dying in a madhouse. Oh! you know +not--may you never know!--the miseries of subsisting by authorship." +Thus he esteemed of priceless worth honestly-earned independent time for +the pursuits that were dearest to him. + +His literary and social avocations were so intimately blended that they +seem to have been almost the same. He was as thoughtful in his evening +parties as he was in the act of composition, and as gentle and kindly in +writing as he was to his friends. He gathered about him not many of the +most famous, but many of the most original and peculiar men of his time. +His Wednesday-evening parties were assemblies of thinkers. They were +composed in large part of men who were not balanced by a profession, who +were devoted only to wit, fancy, or speculation, who cultivated each a +peculiar field and cherished each peculiar tastes and opinions, who +were interested in different quarters of the heavens, and yet who came +together, prompted by the spirit of sociality and kindliness, to lay +perhaps the backs of their heads together, and to talk always sincerely +and wisely, but in the form of sense or nonsense, as the case might be. +Lamb and his sister were always ready to appreciate every variety of +goodness, and doubtless their guests received an order something like +that which was addressed to the dwellers in Thomson's enchanting +castle:-- + + "Ye sons of Indolence! do what you will, + And wander where you list, through hall or glade; + Be no man's pleasure for another stayed: + Let each as likes him best his hours employ, + And cursed be he who minds his neighbor's trade!" + +To these parties sometimes came Coleridge, who in conversation seems +to have been a happy mixture of a German philosopher and an Italian +_improvvisatore_. Here Hazlitt learned to utter the philosophic +criticisms which he most passionately believed in; and Lloyd, whose +intellect was one of peculiar refinement, discoursed modestly of +metaphysical problems, analyzing to an extent that Talfourd says was +positively painful. Here the social reformer Leigh Hunt came, and for +the moment forgot that social reforms were needed. Here the Opium-Eater +came, and his cloudy abstract loves and hates and visions were exploded +by the sparks of Elia's wit. Here the philosopher Godwin developed +philosophy out of whist. Here the pensive face of the Quaker poet, +Bernard Barton, shed a mild light upon the scene; and here the lawyer +Thomas Noon Talfourd came to admire the finest characters that he knew +of. + +Having thus noticed the painful experience and unfaltering devotion to +noble aims which marked the career of Charles Lamb, we leave him with +his friends, and pass to notice the same elements in the life of his +brother wit. + +Sydney Smith preferred the legal profession, and esteemed himself a +victim in entering the Church. His practical wisdom informed him, that, +from the beginning even until then, qualities like his had not found a +happy sphere of action in the pulpit, but, on the contrary, had rusted +or grown ugly in it. He had as much sentiment as Sterne, and perhaps as +much political sagacity as Swift, yet the finest instincts within him +recoiled from following in the path of either the one or the other. +With a subtile and exuberant wit,--he knew that wit touches not sacred +things. With great practical prudence and a brilliant speculative +capacity,--in a clergyman, prudence is less than faith, and brilliancy +of thought than the glow of the heart. In his rich composite character +he had, indeed, the qualities which make the clergyman; his disposition +was religious, his heart was tender and Christian, he could give the +best advice to the people; and though his appearance was not quite +saint-like, it was at least suggestive of a good man who was walking in +the way which he pointed out to others. But these qualities were not +those with which he was most highly endowed. Energy and sterling +common-sense, which he had inherited from his father, an elastic, +mercurial, and passionate nature, which had come to him from his +Huguenot mother,--these were the strong points in his character, and it +belongs to neither of them to take the lead in the Church. Sydney had +scanned the whole field. Having questioned well his desires, examined +well his blood, derived what wisdom he could from history and +observation, he deliberately chose the law. Why, then, did he take +to theology? We read that his father had incurred so much expense in +educating his eldest son for the legal profession, and in fitting out +two others for India, that he could not well furnish the means for +Sydney's education, and strongly recommended him to go into the Church; +and that the son sacrificed his own to his father's inclination. + +We may imagine Sydney Smith's reflections. With his versatile talent, +honorable ambition, and consciousness that he could have made a shining +name in political life, his object now was to find a sufficient sphere +for the exercise of all his powers in the Church. It was no fault of his +that he was unwilling to settle as curate and have no aim beyond his +parish except to go to heaven at last. With his superfluity of human +nature, for him to become a saint was out of the question. What then? +Should he enter the realm of dogmatics, and become a learned and +redoubted champion of the faith, passing his life amid exegesis? Should +he renounce thorough thinking, and become a polished and popular pastor, +an ornament of the pulpit and of society? Should he signalize himself +for gravity, orthodoxy, and ability, seek the earthly prizes of his +profession, and perhaps become Archbishop of Canterbury? Should he +become a jolly, vinous, and Friar-Tuck sort of clergyman? God forbid! he +said to each of these queries, and rushed forward into his profession. +Regarding himself as a lamb for the slaughter, yet tremendously in +earnest not to be sacrificed, he went into the Church groping and +fearing, but resolute. Trembling lest he should not do his duty both to +himself and to his sacred office, he yet determined to try. Thus the +thorn which troubled Sydney Smith was not an affliction, but was what he +regarded as a danger; and, though less patent and pointed than that +in the life of Charles Lamb, probably had not less influence in the +discipline of character. + +Behold, then, the long and venerable line of the clergy opening to +receive him, and behold him entering it! The clergy, the priesthood, +the holy fathers, the strong bishops, the monks, the ghostly race, the +retired enthusiasts, now melancholy, now rapt, now merry-making, the +consolers of sorrow, the divine heroes in an earthly life,--even one +of this family does Sydney propose to be. At the age of twenty-four +he becomes curate in the little hamlet of Salisbury Plain,--the young +graduate of Oxford sent into the country to be pastor to the inmates of +half-a-dozen hovels! Then he writes his description of a curate:--"The +poor working man of God,--a learned man in a hovel, good and patient,--a +comforter and a teacher,--the first and purest pauper of the hamlet; +yet showing that in the midst of worldly misery he has the heart of a +gentleman, the spirit of a Christian, and the kindness of a pastor." +He regards himself as almost excluded from his kind, and quotes (or +originates) the proverb, that there are three sexes, men, women, and +clergymen. He took long solitary walks over the plains of Salisbury, +reflecting upon the manifold activities of the world, in which he had no +part. The only society that he had was during the occasional visits of +the squire to the neighborhood, who, surprised to find the curate so +interesting a person, gave him frequent invitations to dinner. Thus +passed two years, when the squire consigned his son to the curate to +be educated, and Sydney Smith, starting with the young man for the +Continent, was driven by stress of war to Edinburgh. + +There he met Horner, Jeffrey, Brougham, and others, young thinkers and +full of matter,--Horner the philosopher, Jeffrey the critic, Brougham +the statesman, and Sydney Smith the divine,--and the divine was +unsurpassed by any of the others in wit, energy, or decision of +character. While the events with which the times were rife were striking +fire in all their brains, it was the divine who first turned their +thoughts to account by suggesting that they should start a review. +The suggestion was acted upon, and under his editorial care the +first numbers of the "Edinburgh Review" appeared. His prudence and +remonstrances saved it from manifold excesses; for Jeffrey was not a man +to be moderate in times like those. The brilliant critic received not a +few such lectures as the following:--"I certainly, my dear Jeffrey, in +conjunction with the Knight of the Shaggy Eyebrows [Homer], do protest +against your increasing and unprofitable skepticism. I exhort you to +restrain the violent tendency of your nature for analysis, and to +cultivate synthetical propensities. What is virtue? What's the use +of truth? What's the use of honor? What's a guinea but a d--d yellow +circle? The whole effort of your mind is to destroy. Because others +build slightly and eagerly, you employ yourself in kicking down their +houses, and contract a sort of aversion for the more honorable, useful, +and difficult task of building well yourself." It was the boast of +Sydney Smith in old age that he had very little to change in the +opinions which he had at various times advanced,--that he had seen +every important measure which he had advocated passed and become +recognized as beneficent. The variety of the review suited the +versatility of his talent; the problem, What worthy thing shall I employ +myself in doing? was solved; and an ample public career was opened to +him. When, after five years, he passes from Edinburgh to London, he is +not only a poor clergyman, but a famous Edinburgh reviewer. He becomes +popular in society and as a preacher, and delivers pictures on Moral +Philosophy to crowded houses of the _élite_ of the metropolis. + +When he is again exiled as a curate, his solitude is not unbroken, but +he receives and returns the visits of the most eminent people. His +neighbors ran to him one day, shortly after his arrival, exclaiming, +--"Please your honor, a coach! a coach! a coach!" Sydney saw in the +distance the equipage of Lord Holland, and challenged the admiration of +his parishioners by boldly answering,--"Well, my good friends, _stand +firm_; never mind, even if there should be a coach; it will do us no +harm;--let us see." A simple pastor and an eminent man, with flashing +energy he approves himself a good man. Sunday he preached, Monday he +doctored the sick, Tuesday Sir James Mackintosh visited him for a week, +Wednesday he read Ariosto, Thursday he began an article, Friday he +reviewed his patients, Saturday he repaired his barn. Now he is laying +down a rule that no day shall pass in which he will not make somebody +happy; now he is fixing a bar whereon it shall be convenient for his +cows to scrape their backs; now he is watching by the side of his +sleeping baby, with a rattle in hand to wake the young spirit into +joyousness the moment its sleep breaks. He goes through the parish as +doctor, wit, and priest, guide, philosopher, and friend, studying the +temper and needs of the simple congregation to which he preaches on +Sunday, while his brain is racking with great thoughts. With these +higher thoughts he has to do as he sits at his desk and writes an +article for the larger parish of the United Kingdom. With a wild play of +wit and fancy and laughter he graces the sturdy column of his virtue +and fidelity. He lived in what was said to be the ugliest and most +comfortable house in England, admired by every visitor for his +independence, manliness, refinement, and liveliness. When he visited +London, as he often did, and when in later years he lived there and was +_lionné_, his simplicity of character remained. To the last he was one +of the sincerest and most active of clergymen and of men. + +It is probable that there were not living at the time two more serious +men than the two wits whose careers we have outlined. Indeed, it is +quite a mistake to suppose that wit has anything to do with temper or +sentiment at all. A man may be perpetually sulky, and yet habitually +witty,--may smile, and smile, and smile, and yet be a most melancholy +individual. Wit is simply a form of thought, and is as intellectual as +scientific study. It differs from other thought only in being a little +_outré_,--a little in excess; it overdoes the thing only because it has +so much energy in it. It is what Charles Lamb said a pun was,--"a sole +digest of wisdom." All great thoughts are at first witty, and afterward +come to be common and flat. When Pythagoras discovered the theorem of +the squares erected on the sides of a right-angled triangle, it had the +effect on him of a most preposterous joke. The apple dropping on the +head of Newton struck him like a very far-fetched pun. Show a child the +picture of a wild Tartar, and his first motion will be to laugh at it. +We have seen a man while reading Kant, the dryest of metaphysicians, +slap his knee, leap upon his feet, and swear, in exuberance of mirth, +that Kant had said a good thing. If it were discovered to-morrow to be +a scientific truth that this world is wrong side out, and if inventive +genius should discover a way to put the other side out, we should all of +us think it a funny thing, but our transversed descendants would +regard the matter as a commonplace. New proposals in the arts, and new +discoveries in the sciences are always at first laughed at. Thus wit +is only thought that is beyond the present capacity of the listeners, +thought of whose meaning they can catch only a glimpse; it is the +forerunner of what our very stupid race, which is always a little behind +the times, is wont to call wisdom. If the race should ever become +completely sage, nothing less than a joke would ever be uttered. + +The likenesses of Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith make them both very +severe-looking men. Like marble, which in costume takes the appearance +of the finest lace, so that it seems as if it would yield to the touch +of a finger, their delicate fancies and sentiments were but the surface +of a solid and thorough character. + +They lived in different spheres, corresponding to the difference in +their genius. Sydney Smith had the more versatile and fruitful mind. +With restless energy he supported various characters, being equally +famous as a wit, Whig, Edinburgh reviewer, eloquent preacher, brilliant +man of society, and canon of Saint Paul's. His biographer well describes +him as a rough rider of subjects, and with surpassing good sense he +overran every problem with which the public mind was occupied. He was a +reformer, but it was after the English and not the French fashion. He +had unbounded respect for existing human blessings, believed in things +substantially as they were, and couldn't have been persuaded to try an +experiment that had much of hazard in it. A Frenchman is always at +home amid earthquakes and volcanoes and hurricanes, and the immediate +prospect of an end to everything that is and a beginning of something +the like of which never has been. The spirit of the great French +Revolution was to exterminate all the results of time up to that point, +and, having made a clear field, to begin over again. Hence heads went +off, religion was proscribed, thrones were burned, the calendar was +changed; even the heavenly bodies should no longer bear down their +freight of old associations, and Orion received the name of Napoleon. +Could the earth have in any way been transformed, could grass possibly +have been made blue and the heavens green, or could man have been done +over into any other sort of animal, there is not the slightest doubt +that those Frenchmen would have undertaken it. In comparison with such +men, Sydney Smith sank into insignificance as a reformer. He lived under +a religion, government, and system of manners, all of which he was +desirous to retain. He did not wish for his children any institutions +very much more comfortable than England offered at the moment. He +regarded the advantages of life with great complacency, thinking, +doubtless, that men had better opportunities than they availed +themselves of; and the chief intensity of his purpose was not to make +better opportunities, but to improve them better. He probably did not +approve of all the men and customs that he saw, was decidedly opposed +both to wickedness and stupidity; but he did not propose, like a +Frenchman, at the first fault, to blot out the heavens and the earth. +He demonstrated in his life how genial, under existing institutions, a +clergyman could be, how discreet a young enthusiast could be, how widely +active a curate could be, how acceptable in society an honest man could +be, how brilliant a plain Englishman could be. A great reformer he was, +--but the spirit of his reform consisted chiefly, not in changing, but +in making better use of the blessings which we already possess. Compared +with this prevailing spirit of personal reform, the reformatory +public measures which he was prominent in advocating were of slight +consequence. Merry on the surface, with an iron core of stubborn +resolution within, he equally delighted his most homely and his most +elegant friends, and while he sympathized with humble life, he had a +profound respect for the technically best society. + +Charles Lamb lived within a narrower and peculiar range. With more of +concentration, he had a less abounding energy than Sydney Smith. His +character was an odd and elegant miniature, while that of Sydney Smith +was voluminous. He loved a particular sort of men, and that sort was +honest men; while the merry divine could deal with politicians and even +with Talleyrand himself. Sydney was playing a part in the Whig party, +among the advocates of reforms; the sympathies of Elia went for +the reform of the United Kingdom, and of the universe, too, if +possible,--but he was more interested in a profound thought, brought +forth from the struggling breast of Hazlitt, than in any bill introduced +into Parliament. He was occupied with his old books, his sincere +friends, his beloved sister. He cared little for the _beau monde_, would +rather not look upon a duke or a duchess without a grating between; but, +turning from the current into an eddy, content with the many thoughtful +and original persons whom he had about him, he delighted to fish for the +shyest tenants of the stream and to dive for strange pearls. He loved +remote thoughts, quaint expressions, fantastic ideas. He especially +attached himself to any violent symptoms of human nature. Being in a +picture-gallery, he observed a stout sailor in towering disgust at one +of the old masters, spit his tobacco-juice at it, and swear, with an +expletive, that he could do better himself. The honest opinion honestly +expressed, the truth and vigor of the man, delighted Lamb, and he rushed +up to him to shake hands. Whenever the sailor, after that, wrote to +his friends in London, he wished to be particularly remembered to Mr. +Charles Lamb, who wouldn't be humbugged about that old painting. + +It was this strong sympathy with human character which made Elia rather +a contemner of the worship of Nature. He liked things that were as +definite as the works of men, and found great difficulty in sympathizing +with a landscape. There was nothing on Fleet Street for which he did not +feel a personal attachment; all the hurry and majestic order of a great +city, all the little by-ways and hedges of city life, the wealth, the +poverty, the splendor, the rags, the men and women, all acting under +the stern discipline of an immense society, the boys, the beggars, the +chimney-sweeps, the hilarious and the sorrowful, the fine ladies and +noble lords, were all duly appreciated by him. If he had been taken +up to the pinnacle of a mountain, instead of entertaining one of +Wordsworth's sublime contemplations, he would have been very likely to +flap his arms and crow like chanticleer. Indeed, in middle age he was +accustomed to boast that he had never seen a mountain. Born in London, +and always residing in London till the last years of his life, esteeming +man the crown and purpose of the universe, he was much inclined +to regard the love of Nature, which figures so largely in modern +literature, as a popular delusion. He would have sympathized with the +French philosopher who, after accompanying a young lady to the Highlands +of Scotland, surprised her raptures by saying to her,--"_Aimez-vous les +beautés de la nature? Pour moi, je les abhorre_." + +The diverse religious character of these two men may be illustrated by +an allusion to their different habits with respect to Art. Sydney Smith, +visiting Paris, satisfied himself by a fifteen-minutes' observation in +the galleries of the Louvre. His mind, almost orbicular in its various +capacity, took in the scene at a glance. There were pictures from almost +every country, statues from almost every age, representations of the +finest imaginations of the mind and of the noblest labors of history. He +was not a barbarian with respect to the Louvre, but understood all about +it, and knew its excellence and value; yet he mingled his sentiment +and common-sense well together, and took a rapid walk from chamber to +chamber. He probably entertained large views of Art during his impetuous +progress through the ages, from battle-field to battle-field, from saint +to saint, from philosopher, poet, and hero, to landscape, shepherdess, +and domestic scene. He took in thought with lightning swiftness, and +lived for fifteen minutes amid statues and paintings which collected +scenes from all the universe. He went forth, satisfied that the Louvre +was a fine gallery of Art, that Art was a very fine thing, that painters +and sculptors ought to be encouraged, and that he had been looking at +many things which were worthy a man's consideration. If he had been +called upon at once to preach a sermon, there is no doubt that he would +have made very judicious reflections upon the spectacle which he had +beheld. + +Charles Lamb, too, visited Paris, and though it is not recorded that he +went into the Louvre, yet we can hardly be mistaken in conjecturing that +he did, and the thoughts with which he went. He would have entered those +galleries with timid ecstasy. He would at first have shrunk away from +the full splendor, and made acquaintance with some modest painting in +a corner. Happy would some friend near him be to hear the half-tender, +half-witty, yet most appreciative conceit which should first come +stammering from his lips. He would have advanced slowly, and only after +much delay would have ventured to stand before the great masters, and +to look up eye to eye at the spirit of the Louvre. After taking his +departure, he would never have thought familiarly of the scene, but it +would have remained in his mind as terrible and sacred an episode as was +the descent into Hades to Virgil's hero. + +Not only in the Louvre, but in the world, Charles Lamb was the more +timid worshipper. The whole character of his mind, the intensity of his +thought within a narrow sphere, made him reverent of the Infinite. The +thought of departure from the life which he now lived was to him a very +solemn one. Religious ideas were so sacred to him that he never referred +to them lightly, and seldom at all. When he did mention them, it was +with peculiar impressiveness. No one can read the account of his share +in a conversation on "persons one would like to have seen," without +admiring the energy and pathos with which he alluded to one Person, +whose name, however, he did not utter. Discussions on religious subjects +he never tolerated in anybody but Coleridge. One evening, after he and +Leigh Hunt had returned from a visit to Coleridge, Hunt began to express +his surprise that a man of so much genius as the Highgate sage should +entertain such religious opinions as he did, and mentioned one of his +doctrines for especial reprobation. Lamb, who was preparing the second +bowl of punch, answered, hesitatingly, with a gentle smile,--"Never mind +what Coleridge believes; he is full of fun." He was an humble, sinful +worshipper, and while he bowed his head tremblingly before Heaven, he +poured out the stream of his affections to his sister and his friends. + +The religious character of Sydney Smith was less peculiar than that of +Elia. An earnest Christian, with a will too resolute to allow the aid +of the punch-bowl in vanquishing trouble, professionally wielding the +religious and moral ideas, and habitually obeying them, he stood erect +and looked at the life to come with a firm eye. "The beauty of the +Christian religion," he says, "is that it carries the order and +discipline of heaven into our very fancies and conceptions, and, by +hallowing the first shadowy notions of our minds, from which actions +spring, makes our actions themselves good and holy." This central and +vital beauty he had cultivated in a very diversified life, and he looked +with confidence for the prize which is laid up for the well-doer. + +Probably, if any successful life were examined, it would be found to +consist of a series of hairbreadth escapes. Every movement would be the +crossing of the Rubicon. That man is of little account who at every step +that he has taken has not been weighing matters as nicely as if he were +matching diamonds. How narrowly did Coleridge escape being the greatest +preacher, philosopher, poet, or author of his time! Almost everything +was possible to him; and one can but marvel how he went through life +avoiding in turn each of his highest possibilities. It is the glory of +Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith, that, as far as it can be said of any +men, they did the best that was possible with their circumstances and +endowments. The old fancy which says of every person, that there is an +ideal character which he can attain, in which he shall be peculiar and +unsurpassed, was in their cases realized. + +Their characters were projected into literature, where they remain as +permanent blessings. The style of writing of both of them approaches to +the simplest way of saying things. Elia employed the choicest language +of the seventeenth century, and the divine used the plainest English of +the day. The perpetual danger of literature is of becoming rhetorical; +and hardly fares vigor of thought when long words and periods are +preferred to short ones, and when the native shape and properties of +ideas are less cared for than the abundant drapery. The style of the +"Essays of Elia" is as admirable as their fancy. The author hated a +formal sentence as much as he disliked stately and insipid society. +Unlike Thomas Carlyle, in avoiding the faults of rhetorical culture, he +did not become a literary barbarian. In refusing to comb his hair like a +prig, he did not go to the extreme of making himself horridly uncomely. +His sentences are unsurpassed for neatness, are as graceful as they are +quaint and clear. The writings of Sydney Smith rarely attain the +perfect grace which uniformly distinguishes Elia; yet he never attempts +magnificence, and he so unites brilliancy and plainness as to make his +statements seem equally felicitous to the rude and the scholarly ear. +His Peter Plymley letters are remarkable examples of the way in which +one yeoman speaks to another. His literary bequest, however, is neither +so valuable nor so charming as that of Charles Lamb. His powers were too +various, and he engaged in too many fields of labor, to attain supreme +success in any direction. The best result of his life is his own +exuberant and unresting character, which harmonized all the diversities +in his career; and adequately to behold this there is needed a fuller +and more philosophical biography of him than has yet been written. + + + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +On the morning of the day which brought the downfall of Stearine and his +indorsers, Sandford and Fayerweather, with the Vortex, whose funds +they had misappropriated, Monroe came to the counting-room unusually +cheerful. His anxiety respecting his little property was relieved, for +he thought the monetary crisis was past, and that thenceforth affairs +would improve. He had reasoned with himself that such a pressure could +not last always, and that this had certainly reached its limit. The +clear, bracing air of the morning had its full influence over his +sensitive nature. All Nature seemed to rejoice, and he, for the time, +forgot the universal distress, and sympathized with it. But the +thermometer fell rapidly as he caught the expression which the face +of his employer wore. Mr. Lindsay, of the house of Lindsay & Co., was +usually a reserved, silent man--in business almost a machine, honest +both from instinct and habit, and proud, in his quiet way, of his +position and his stainless name. He had a wife and daughter, and +therefore was presumed to have affections; but those whom he met in the +market never thought of him, save as the systematic merchant. Well as +Monroe knew him, being his confidential clerk, he never had seen more +than the case in which the buying, selling, and note-paying machinery +was inclosed. He respected the evident integrity and worth of the head +of the house, but never dreamed of a different feeling; he could as +easily have persuaded himself into cherishing an affection for the +counting-house clock. + +This morning, Mr. Lindsay's face wore an unusually sleepless, anxious +look. The man of routine was but a man, after all, and, in his distress, +he longed for some intelligent, friendly sympathy. Monroe recognized the +mute appeal, but, from long habits of reticence, he was at a loss how +to approach his stately chief. Determined, however, to give him an +opportunity to speak, if he chose, Monroe asked after the news, the +day's failures, and the prospects of business. The merchant needed only +a word, and broke out at once,-- + +"Prospect? there is no prospect but ruin. If a whirlwind would bury the +city, or a conflagration leave it a heap of ashes, it would be better +for all of us." + +"But don't you think the darkest time has past?" + +"Not at all; the pressure will continue until scores more are brought +down. Better fail at once than live in dread of it." + +"You surprise me! Why, you are not in danger?" + +"Did you ever consider? Look at the bales of goods in our lofts,--goods +which nobody will buy and nobody can pay for. And our acceptances have +been given to the manufacturers for them,--acceptances that are maturing +daily. Up to this time I have taken up all our paper, as it became due; +but God knows how the next payments are to be made." + +"I had not thought of that." + +"The house of Lindsay & Co. has never known dishonor"-- + +The merchant wiped his spectacles,--but it was the eyes that were dim, +not the glasses. His lips quivered and his breath came hard, as he +continued,-- + +"But the time has come; the house must go down." + +"I hope not," said Monroe, fervently. "Can nothing be done?" + +"Nothing. Every resource has been used. The banks won't discount; and I +suppose they can't; they are fully as weak as their customers." + +"I don't know but the offer may be useless, contemptible, even; but I +have a small sum, in good notes, that may be available." + +The merchant shook his head. + +"Whatever it is, you are welcome to it. Perhaps ten thousand dollars"-- + +"Ten thousand dollars!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsay,--"_you_ have that sum?" + +"Yes,--the little property that was my father's. Let me go and get the +notes, and see if I can't get some money upon them." + +Mr. Lindsay rose and took the clerk's hand with a heartiness that +astonished him. + +"God bless you, Monroe," he said. "I may be saved, after all. Ten +thousand dollars will be enough for the present pinch, and before the +next acceptance is due some relief may come." + +"Don't speak of thanks. I'll get the notes in a moment." + +Tears stole silently down the unaccustomed furrows; the gateway of +feeling was open, but the tremulous lips refused to speak. Before he +could recover his self-possession, Monroe was gone. Mr. Lindsay tried to +read the newspapers, but the print before his eyes conveyed no idea to +his preoccupied brain. Then his thoughts turned to his beautiful villa +in Brookline, and he remembered how that morning his daughter stepped +lightly into the brougham with him at the back piazza, rode down the +winding path between the evergreen-hedges, and, after giving him a kiss, +sprang out when they reached the gate. He knew, that, when he returned +in the evening, he should find her in her place under the great +horse-chestnut, at the foot of the hill, ready to ride to the house. How +could he meet her with the news he would have to carry? how crush the +spirits of his invalid wife? Humiliating as the idea of failure was when +considered in his relations with the mercantile world, the thought of +home, with its changed feelings and circumstances, and the probable +deprivation of habitual indulgences, was far more poignant. + +It was not long before Monroe returned, but with a less buoyant air. Mr. +Lindsay's spirits fell instantly. "I see it all," said he, "you can't do +anything." + +"Perhaps I may, yet. The notes I spoke of, though due to me, are in the +hands of Mr. Sandford, Secretary of the Vortex Insurance Company. I have +been there, and cannot see him. His shutting himself up, I am afraid, +bodes me no good. However, I'll go again an hour hence." + +"No harm in trying. Did you indorse the notes to him?" + +"No. They were merely left with him for convenience' sake, as he was my +agent in loaning the money." + +"Then he can't make way with them,--honestly." + +Monroe seemed hurt by the implied suspicion, but did not reply, thinking +it best, if possible, to change the subject of conversation. + +Mr. Lindsay sat in silence, a silence that was broken only once or twice +during the morning, and then by some friend or business acquaintance +asking, in hurried or anxious tones, "Anything over to-day?" A mournful +shake of the head was the only answer, and the merchant sunk into a +deeper gloom. + +Again Monroe went to see Mr. Sandford, but with no better success. The +third time he naturally spoke in a peremptory tone, and, giving his name +and business, said, that he must and would see Mr. Sandford, or get the +notes. The weight of his employer's trouble rested on him, and gave an +unwonted force to his usually kind and modest temper. The clerk, not +daring to break his instructions, and seeing that it was not far from +two o'clock, intimated, in a half-confidential tone, that he would +do well to ask Mr. Tonsor, the broker, about them. Nervous with +apprehension, Monroe walked swiftly to Tonsor's office. At the door he +met Fletcher coming out with exultation in every feature. Within stood +Bullion, his legs more astride than usual, his chin more confidently +settled over his collar, and the head of his cane pressed against his +mouth. As Monroe entered, Tonsor ceased the conversation, and, looking +up, said, blandly, "My young friend, can I do anything for you?" Bullion +at the same time turned the eyes that might have been only glittering +petrifactions, and pointed the long eyebrow at him inquiringly. + +"I hope so," was the reply. "Have you some notes in your possession +payable to Walter Monroe?" + +"Who asks the question?"--very civilly. + +"My name is Monroe." + +"Ah! Mr. Sandford is your agent, I presume?" + +"Yes. I left the notes with him." + +"And you wanted to raise some money on them?" + +"Yes, that is what I wish." + +"Then you'll be pleased to know that Mr. Sandford has anticipated you. I +loaned him eight thousand dollars upon them this morning." + +"Loaned _him_ eight thousand dollars?" + +"Certainly. Is it extraordinary that your agent has done what you +desired?" + +"I never asked him to borrow for me; and I never authorized him to +transfer the notes." + +"He hasn't transferred them; he has only pledged them." + +"He couldn't pledge them; he had no legal right in them." + +"But he _has_ pledged them, and they are in my safe, subject to the +repayment of the sum I loaned." + +"If you have loaned Mr. Sandford money, that is your affair." + +"And yours, too, my friend, you will find, if he doesn't pay it." + +"You haven't a right to detain the notes a moment." + +"I have the possession, which will answer as well as the right. And let +me advise you,--don't get excited and conclude that everything is wrong. +You are not so well posted as you might be. Go and see Mr. Sandford, and +I haven't a doubt you'll find the money ready for you." + +"I shall go. But I wish you to understand, that, if I am not 'posted,' +as you say, I do know my rights, and I shall take proper measures to +get possession of my property. You have no more hold upon it than a +pawnbroker has upon a stolen spoon." + +Trembling with the unusual excitement, and despairing of being able to +aid his employer, Monroe did not wait for a reply, but rushed to the +Vortex again. Mr. Sandford had gone out on business, was the answer. He +had not gone far, if the truth were known; for his position commanded +the office-door, and he saw every visitor. + +Time did not lag that eventful day; the hands seemed to sweep round the +dial on the Old State House as though they had been swords in pursuit +of some dilatory debtor. It now lacked only fifteen minutes of two, and +Monroe, sick at heart, turned his steps towards Milk Street, to announce +the utter failure of his plan. Mr. Lindsay received the intelligence +with more firmness than might have been expected. + +"Monroe, my friend,--for I can truly call you so,--you have done what +you could. It was not your fault that your agent deceived and swindled +you. You generously offered me your all. I shall never forget it. I +can't say more now. Please stay and inform the notary, when he comes, +that he must take the usual course. Tell John, when he comes with the +brougham, that he may drive back. I shall take the cars to-day, and +shall not be at home, probably, until after tea. I pray God, Monroe, +that you may never go home as I do now. O Clara, my daisy, my darling! +how can I tell you?" + +Still murmuring to himself, Mr. Lindsay slowly walked out of the +counting-room. + +It was not strange, that, under the pressure of his own calamity, Mr. +Lindsay had no thought for the losses of others. He forgot that Monroe +was really in a far worse position, since, if the ten thousand dollars +were lost, it was his all. Neither did Monroe, at first, reflect upon +his own impending misfortune; he had been so intent upon preserving the +credit of the house, that his own interest had been lost sight of. + +Presently the notary came with the inevitable demand. He was a cheerful +fellow in his sorry business, blithe as an old stager of an undertaker +at a first-class funeral. He chatted about the crisis, and, as a matter +of course, brought all the latest news from State Street. Monroe +listened to one piece of news, but had ears for no more. "Sandford and +Fayerweather had failed, and the old Vortex, which they had managed, was +dead broke, cleaned out." + +Mr. Lindsay was not the only heart-stricken man who left the +counting-room that day. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Monroe was walking sorrowfully homeward, when he met Easelmann near the +corner of Summer Street. He was in no humor for conversation, but he +could not civilly avoid the painter, who evidently was waiting to speak +to him. + +"Glad to see one man that isn't a capitalist. You and I, Monroe, are +independent of banks and brokers." + +Monroe faintly smiled. + +"This is a deadly time here in Boston,--a horrible stagnation. Every +man avoids his neighbor as though he had the plague; and we have no +Boccaccio to tell us stories while the dead-carts go by." + +"The dead-cart went through our street to-day." + +"You don't tell me! Who is the lucky corpse that is out of his misery?" + +"Mr. Lindsay. Our house is shut up, and I am a vagrant." + +"A pair of us! For the last month I have performed the Wandering Jew all +by myself. Now I have company. What shall we do to be jolly?" + +"_Jolly!_"--with a tone of melancholy surprise. + +"When should a man be jolly, if he can't when he's nothing to do? I +am the slave of gold, you understand. If any rich magician rubs his +double-eagles before me, woe is me, if I don't paint! When the magicians +send their eagles on other errands, I am free from their drudgery. +Meanwhile, I live on air, flattened out and packed away, like a Mexican +horned-frog, or a dreaming toad, in a fissure of a preadamite rock." + +"I am sorry I haven't your art of making misfortune comfortable." + +"Misfortune? My philosophical friend, there isn't any such thing. The +true man is superior to circumstances or accidents. (Some old fellow, I +believe, has said that; somebody always says my good things before me; +but no matter.) Nothing can happen amiss to the wise and good." + +"Then I am neither wise nor good, for I have lost my all, and it comes +confoundedly amiss to me." + +"Your all? That's what the shoemaker said; but he bought a new one for +six-pence. But, how happened it?" + +"By my folly." + +"I knew that, of course; but I wanted to know what folly in particular." + +"I trusted it to a man whom I thought not only honest, but my friend, +and he has proved a scoundrel." + +"You shouldn't have led him into temptation. You are _particeps +criminis_, and the partaker is as bad as the thief. Don't trust without +taking security, my friend; it's offering a premium to crime. Consider +your guilt now! Think of the family into whose innocent bosom you have +brought sin and remorse! Who is the luckless person?" + +"Sandford!" + +"I knew it. I expected it. He was too good by half. I didn't blame him +for his widow-and-orphan business; somebody must do it; but I made up my +mind some time ago that he would come to grief." + +"Prophets are always plenty after the event." + +"True, my friend. But just think! He passed by my pictures in the +Exhibition, and bought the canvas of my friend Greenleaf,--a man of +genius, doubtless, but young, you understand, young. Can you conceive +of the wickedness? I felt sure from that moment, that, if he were not +totally depraved, he at least had a moral inability, as the preachers +call it, that would be his ruin." + +"Well, he is ruined effectually; but the worst of it is, that he has +dragged innocent people down with him." + +"'Innocent,'--yes, you have the word. A man that cares for money at all, +and trusts all he has without security to any fair-spoken financier, is +an innocent, truly." + +"Well, there is no use in lamenting, and just as little in the +consolation of thinking how the loss might have been avoided." + +"I don't know. I don't admit that. I am not to be deprived of the rights +of a freeborn American. The 'I told-you-so' is a fine balm for all sorts +of wounds,--rather more soothing to physician than patient, perhaps. +Combined with the 'You-might-have-known-it,' it gets up a wholesome +blister in the least possible time, especially where 'a raw' has been +established previously." + +"I don't think I was prudent." + +"Of course not; if you had been, you wouldn't have lost. There are +no such things as mistakes in the world.--But to look at affairs. +_Imprimis_.--Lindsay smashed, house closed, salary stopped." + +"I suppose so." + +"_Item_,--private funds gone; owner taken in by the patent-safe game. + +"_Item_,--dwelling-house standing; so much gain,--but + +"_Item_,--the dweller is not alone, having other mouths to feed. + +"But don't be discouraged. I don't doubt you will find something to do +in good time." + +"But when is the good time coming? I must earn something at once." + +"The danger of being made to work isn't pressing. Ships will have time +to get well rested. Truckmen are actually growing civil with a little +starvation. The beggars don't hold out their hands for coppers; they +make more money by hauling out their old stockings and lending at five +per cent. a month." + +"You will laugh me out of my misery in spite of myself." + +"I hope so; but I am not sure that a man can be laughed out of a thing +he wasn't laughed into. Now, Monroe, I am going to surprise you. I am +going to bore you, annoy you; for I am to see you every day for the +next week. Can you bear it? I shall be worse than the balm of +'I-told-you-so.'" + +Monroe pressed his friend's hand. + +"Come, by all means. And now we are near my house; go in and take tea +with us." + +"No, not to-day. It is _dies nefastus_. Good-bye!" + +Twirling his grizzly moustaches and humming to himself, Easelmann turned +back. He did not go to his room, however, but went down a quiet street, +apparently guided by instinct, and rang the bell at a well-known door. + +"Is Mr. Holworthy at home?" + +The servant-girl nodded and smiled, and Easelmann entered. Mr. Holworthy +was emphatically at home, for he was on all-fours, his three children +riding cock-horse, with merry shouts, varied by harmless tumbles and +laborious clamberings up. Mr. Holworthy rose with a flushed and happy +face, and the children rushed at once to clasp the knees of their +familiar old friend. + +"We all have to come down at times, I believe," said Mr. Holworthy, +smoothing the few thin hairs on his handsomely arched crown. + +"Certainly; a man that can't be a boy with his children deserves to have +none. Now the reason I am a bachelor is that I feared I could never +unbend, being somewhat remarkable for my perpendic"-- + +The word was cut off by a sudden movement; the children in their playful +struggles had, in fact, thrown him down. In a moment more they were on +his back and he trotting round the room with the grace of an elephant. + +"Come, children," said the father, "that was a rough joke. Get off, now, +and go for your bread and milk." + +Rather reluctantly they obeyed, casting wishful glances backward to the +grown-up boy with whom they had hoped to have a frolic. + +"Glad to see you," said Mr. Holworthy. "You have been unsocial, lately." + +"Yes; all the effect of the panic. I am such a butterfly that I seem out +of place in a work-a-day community. I am constantly advised, like the +volatile person in the fable, to learn wisdom from my aunt; but I can't, +for the soul of me." + +"You ought to visit the more, to cheer the wretched and downcast." + +"Oh, but it's a fearful waste of magnetism. Five minutes' talk with a +man who has notes to pay draws all the virtue out of me. It lowers my +vital tone like standing in an ice-house. You feel such a man from afar +like a coming iceberg. _You_ don't have notes to pay? I thought not. I +should go at once." + +"No, my little shop pays its way. I buy for cash. I pay my hands when +they bring in their work, and I have customers enough who ask me for no +credit." + +"Happy man! most fortunate of tailors!--I have been thinking, +Holworthy, among your many benevolent projects, why you never devised +some means of relieving people who are supposed to be in good +circumstances,--a society for ameliorating the condition of the rich." + +"Bless me! the poor are quite numerous enough, and are in unusual +straits just now." + +"I know, and for that reason they are better off than usual. People say, +'How the poor must suffer in these pinching times!' So they double their +charities." + +"Poverty is an ocean without bottom, my friend. All that is given is +like emptying stones into the sea; the waves swallow them and sweep over +as before." + +"True, you can't satisfy the beggars till you drown 'em. Wouldn't +a gentle asphyxia by water, now, be the best thing for some of the +Broad-Street cellarers?" + +"Very likely; but they would probably object to the remedy." + +"But to return to my project. I see some forms of distress that seem to +me far more painful than utter poverty. I won't expatiate, but state a +case. I know a man of good sense and culture, able and willing to do +his part in the world. His employer has failed, so that his salary will +stop. He is unmarried, but has a mother, an invalid, who never stirs out +of doors; and besides has some poor relation or other to support. He has +a house, it is true; so they needn't sleep in the street; but how are +the mouths to be fed, the backs to be clothed?" + +"Let him sell his house and wait till better times for employment." + +"It is easy to say _sell_; but who will buy? A house won't fetch half +its value, and there isn't any money to be had. Besides,--and this is +the hardship,--the pride and the feelings of association cling round a +house that has been consecrated by years of affection and by the memory +of the dead.--I believe I am making an oration; but I despair of +expressing myself." + +"I understand you perfectly; it is sad, indeed." + +"Excuse me, you don't understand me. Some men put off old houses and put +on new ones, like their clothes, without a thought. Others grow into +their habitations and become a part of them. You might as well say to +a lobster, 'Get out of your shell,' when you know that the poor +wretch will die when his naked, quivering members are exposed to the +sharp-edged stones. A delicate nature, proud, but gentle, too sensitive +to accept charity, and doubtful of a friendly service even, suffers more +anguish in one hour, under such circumstances, than your brazen beggar +feels from his dirty cradle to his nameless grave." + +Mr. Holworthy mused. + +"He has nothing to do, then?" + +"Nothing, but to suck his thumbs." + +"Is he willing to work, even if the task should appear irksome?" + +"I haven't a doubt. He has no _false_ pride. Anything honorable would be +welcome." + +"Perhaps I can find something for him to do; it will be temporary, but +its continuance will depend upon himself." + +"And what is it?" + +"In visiting the district which has been allotted to me, I have found an +unusual number of ignorant, vicious boys, cared for by no one, growing +up for the prison or the gallows. I have thought of making some effort +to gather them together and start a ragged school. Some friends have +agreed to provide the means. But the pay would necessarily be small, and +the labor and difficulty great." + +"A teacher of tatterdemalions! It _isn't_ an inviting field of labor." + +"No, to a refined man it must be repulsive. Nothing but the idea of +doing good would make it a pleasure or even endurable." + +"I confess myself utterly without any such motive. I hate poor people, +and ragged children, and sick women, the forlorn wives of drunken +brutes. I shut my eyes to all such odious sights. They say, in a hotel +you must never go into the kitchen, if you would keep your appetite; and +I am sure one must avoid these wretches in the cellar, if he would have +a cheerful view of life in his attic." + +"You are not so hard-hearted as you would have me believe. Somebody must +relieve their distresses." + +"Somebody, too, must cut off legs, and sew up spouting arteries, and +extirpate cancers. Ugh! but I shan't. I leave such jobs to the doctors, +whose ears are familiar with shrieks, and whose appetites are not +disturbed by the sight of blood." + +"So the Levite left the wounded man by the wayside, in disgust at his +bruises: but still the good Samaritan who helped him hadn't a doctor's +degree." + +"Oh, I know. You have me, I acknowledge. But I can't change my temper, +and I shrink from suffering as from death. I would rather bear it than +see it. Society always provides its good Samaritans; and you are one +of them. Don't look modest. I went once through some of those damnable +alleys near Half-Moon Court, the agreeable place where you spend so much +of your leisure. I was looking for a subject to paint. For curiosity, I +asked an urchin if he knew you. He flung his ragged cap twenty feet into +the air, turned a somerset, and came up smiling as well as he could +through the dirt,--'Don't I, though? He brung us meal an' 'taters when +dad broke his leg, and he fetched oranges in his pocket when marm had +the fevers. He's one of 'em, he is.'--Don't interrupt me.--An old +woman, whom I asked, said, 'Do I know Mister 'Olworthy? A blissed saint +in the flesh; my poor ol' bones would 'ave hached many a cold night but +for the blankets he brought me. God in 'eaven reward 'im for that same!' +I spare you the rest of the answers. Oh, you are a saint, without robe +or wings." + +"Hadn't we better come back to the subject," said Mr. Holworthy, in a +mild voice. "We shan't aid your friend in this way." + +"Right, my considerate Mentor. But talk is tempting. I believe I should +forget my errand and let a friend hang, if I got into an argument with +the Governor while he was filling out the pardon." + +"I hope the gentleman you speak of is not so much afraid of contact with +what is disagreeable as you are?" + +"Perhaps not; he has an artistic temperament, and therefore loves what +is comely; but he would go through fire to what he thought his duty." + +"And wouldn't you?" + +"What a question! Go through fire? No, I should bawl for the engine." + +"It's plain, then, that he will answer better than you for the place." + +"No doubt. I shouldn't answer at all. I tell you I never talk with these +creatures. I can't. If an old woman stops me, with her dried-apple face +and whining voice, I give her a sixpence and tell her to hush up and +go about her business. I fling coppers to the boys with slit breeches +before they ask me, for I know they will tell me of mothers sick with +consumption. Their devilish tears are contagious; and I can't cry; it +chokes me. So I buy apples and oranges from the imploring-looking +girls; it's the easiest way of getting rid of them. The little change +don't amount to much in a day, and I save my nerves and my digestion at +a cheap rate." + +Mr. Holworthy smiled at Easelmann's notion of his own hard-heartedness, +and said, hesitatingly,-- + +"I am afraid that some professedly charitable persons don't do so much." + +"Of course they don't. I don't mean that I do anything. It's pure +selfishness on my part, as I told you. But you may feel pretty sure, +that, if a man's name is always in the papers, as 'our estimable +fellow-citizen, President This, Director That, and Treasurer T'other,' +he 'does not give indiscriminate alms':--I believe that is the phrase. +Perhaps he won't rob, like my friend Sandford; but his 'disinterested +labors' are an economical substitute for substantial charity, and his +desire for a place in the public eye is the mainspring of all his +actions." + +"Most of the distress in the community is relieved by organized effort; +individual charities, however well meant, would be entirely inadequate. +Besides, you should not be severe upon all because one prominent person +has proved unworthy." + +"Sandford is a type of the class. If there is anybody I hate worse than +a sick beggar, it is a man who makes a trade of philanthropy." + +"And yet you are consenting to your friend's earning a living by +teaching a ragged school." + +"True, one may stop at any place in a storm, just for shelter." + +"And you can console yourself further with the assurance that your +friend won't make enough in this place to induce him to take up the +'trade,' as you call it." + +"I hope not. Starve him judiciously. If he should come out, after a +year or so, with a white neckcloth, spectacles, and a sanctified face, +soliciting aid for his school, in Pecksniffian tones, I should regret +that I hadn't furnished him with a cord and a bag of stones to drop +himself into the dock with." + +"I don't know why a teacher or a street-missionary may not be a +gentleman." + +"Sure enough, why not? Whatever Walter Monroe is, he will always be a +gentleman." + +"Suppose you bring him to see me to-morrow or next day; we will talk +about this." + +"I will. Now, good-bye! My regrets to the children that we couldn't +finish our romp." + +"Good-bye," said Holworthy. "Come again; the children will be glad to +see you." + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +As Mr. Sandford walked homeward, the streets seemed to close up behind +him; he was shut out from the scenes of his activity, no more to return; +State Street was henceforth for him a thing of memory. He had played his +game there, while admirers and friends watched his far-seeing moves. He +had lost; and now, after checkmate, he must resign his place. How he +struggled against the idea! He could not bring himself to acknowledge +that the past was irretrievable. His spirit seemed in prison, shut in as +by the bars of a dungeon, against which he might tug and rage in vain. + +At home, dinner was on the table, waiting for him. As he entered the +hall, he met his sister-in-law. She saw the fatal news in his face, and +with a sinking heart gave him her usual greeting. Marcia took her place +at the table, but with less animation than usual. Charles sat down with +his studied indifference. Each one seemed to be absorbed in separate +spheres of thought, and the courses came on and were removed in painful +silence. At last Mr. Sandford spoke. + +"I suppose I need not tell you that it is all over." + +"All over!" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Yes,--I have failed; so has Fayerweather; so has Stearine." + +"Failed?" said Marcia, in an incredulous tone. "I thought it was the +great people,--I mean people in business, or with estates, that failed." + +"Well, have I not been in business?" + +"Yes,--as secretary, and you have a salary. How can a man with a salary +fail?" + +"Quite easily. Suppose the Vortex fails? My salary would stop." + +"That isn't failing, is it? Then Pompey might fail, if he didn't get his +pay for brushing your boots." + +Mr. Sandford gave a contemptuous look. + +"That shows how much you know about business." + +"I never did know about your business; nor does anybody, I believe. I +never could understand how, with your little property, you had these +'transactions,' as you call them, where you owed people and people owed +you so many thousands." + +"It is not necessary for you to know. Women can't understand these +things." + +"But women feel their effects, and it's a pity they could not learn +about what concerns them." + +"Will it change your situation at once?" asked Mrs. Sandford of her +brother. + +"I can't say; probably not at once; but without some aid, all I have +must go." + +"What! the house?" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Yes,--the house, Marcia, and the furniture. We shall be stripped." + +"The deuse!" said Charles. + +"Heaven help us! what shall we do?" + +"I haven't had time to form any plan. I trust, indeed, that Heaven will +help us, as you rather lightly wished." + +His face wore a touching look of faith and resignation, while at the +same time his hand rested with secret satisfaction upon his pocket-book. + +The conversation was disagreeable to Charles, and he sauntered off to +the drawing-room. + +Mrs. Sandford inwardly determined to return to her home, or at least +to go elsewhere in the city, so as not to be a burden to her +brother-in-law; but she remained silent. Mr. Sandford balanced his +knife, sliced his bread into figures, then hummed and beat a tattoo upon +the table,--sure indications of forgetfulness in one so scrupulous +as he. At length, with a bland voice, but a sharp, inquiring eye, he +said,-- + +"How is it about this painter, Marcia? Are you going to marry him?" + +She looked fixedly, as she replied,-- + +"Why do you ask? You know I am going to marry him." + +"Oh, it's settled, is it? You know, sister, you have had similar +intentions before,--several times, in fact,--intentions that haven't +come to much." + +She did not answer further; a flush of anger came, then went, leaving +her pale face with a rather sterner expression. + +"While I was prosperous, I was not disposed to be mercenary; though I +did think you were not worldly-wise. Now that I am destitute, you can +see that to marry a man not worth a dollar, and with a precarious +profession, is not what it would have been." + +"Mr. Greenleaf earns a good income, doesn't he?" + +"He hasn't sold a picture, except to friends whom I persuaded to buy." + +"You have friends and influence still?" + +"I don't know; a man's friends don't last long after his money is gone. +Besides, nobody wants to buy now. Raphael himself couldn't sell a +picture here till times improve. A painter is a pretty butterfly for +fine weather; what is he to do with his flimsy wings in such a hurricane +as this?" + +"I think I understand you, Brother Henry. You begin afar off; but I +know what you are coming to. You want to bring up that odious Denims +again,--a man whom I hate, and whom you yourself would show out of +doors, like a vagrant, if it were not for his money!" + +The effort exhausted her, and she breathed painfully. + +"You think yourself quick. I haven't mentioned Denims. In fact, you have +treated him in such a way that I am quite sure he would never trouble +himself to be even civil to you again." + +"I am glad of it,--the fool!" + +"Sister Marcia, I have borne much from your turbulent temper. You are a +spoiled child. Fortune has let you have your own way hitherto; so much +the worse for you. But circumstances have changed. I can no longer +supply you as though you were a duchess. In fact, I don't know what +may be before us. I hope no actual want. [_Another grip of the +pocket-book_.] But I advise you to consider whether it is for the +interest of a dependent woman to go out of her way to thwart and insult +me." + +"You would compel me, then, and threaten starvation as the alternative?" + +"What odiously blunt language you use!" + +"I only translated your roundabout phrases as I understood them." + +"You need not be violent." + +"You cannot cajole me by soft words, when your purposes are so obvious. +You think Denims may save the wreck of your fortune; and you are willing +to sacrifice me, if he were ten times the brute he is, to further your +ends. But I shall marry Greenleaf." + +"Greenleaf will be a powerful protector! I doubt if he can raise money +enough to pay the clergyman for marrying you! He will be without a +shilling in a month, if he is not now. Go to him, Sister Marcia. I +would, now. You can live in his attic studio, you know. In such a +romantic place you would never be hungry, of course." + +Mrs. Sandford interposed,-- + +"Don't, Henry! This is not the way." + +Marcia's eyes flashed through her tears, as she answered,-- + +"You say _you_ are ruined,--that the house and furniture must go. How +much better off shall I be here?" + +"Well, you have your choice." + +"And when the time comes, I shall take it." + +Sobs and tears followed, but her lips were firm and her hands clenched. + +"As you please, sister." + +"You come home ill-tempered, and the rage which you could not or dared +not give vent to in the street you pour out here." + +"Perhaps you would have been pleased, if I had not come home at all?" + +"I'm sure we should have been quite as happy without you." + +"Very well. I may leave you, yet." + +"I don't care how soon." + +New sobs and a firmer pressure of the lips. + +Oddly enough, at that moment, Mr. Sandford was summoned to the +drawing-room, where a man was waiting for him. Fearful of the result, he +went to his own room, first, and left the precious pocketbook, and then +descended to the hall. + +Notwithstanding the words she had spoken, Marcia waited with breathless +anxiety her brother's return; for the sound of voices, in earnest, if +not angry, conversation, rose through the house. Presently he came back +with a look his face seldom wore,--a fierce look that transformed his +handsome features to a fiend's. + +"You have your wish, Sister Marcia,"--and the words were shot out like +fiery arrows,--"I am to leave you, and go to jail." + +"To jail?" exclaimed both at once, in terror. + +"Yes,--to jail. Gratifying to you, I suppose. 'Tis to me,--very." + +"What is the meaning of this?" asked Mrs. Sandford. + +"It means, that one of my creditors pretends to believe that I am about +to abscond, and has had me arrested, that I may give bail not to run +away with an empty pocket." + +"Can't you get out?" + +"Some time, undoubtedly; but not till I give bail." + +"For how much?"-- + +"Twenty thousand dollars." + +"Can't you get some one to become security?" + +"I don't know. Perhaps I might get Greenleaf!" + +Marcia winced, but did not answer the taunt. + +"Good-bye, my dear and independent sister!" + +Marcia turned her back upon him, confounded between sorrow and +resentment. + +Crowding his hat over his eyes, Mr. Sandford left his house and walked +with the officer towards Cambridge Street. + +"Gone to jail!" exclaimed Charles, returning, "How doosid awkward! What +a jolly wow it will make when it gets about town! By gwacious, if you +aren't cwying! Go to bed, both of you; I'll go to the club." + +He went accordingly; and the women, who could ill console each other, +were about to go to their own rooms when the door-bell rang again. + +"What next, I wonder?" asked Marcia, in despair. + +"Please, Ma'am," said the servant, "there's a man at the door, who looks +quare, and says, if he can't see Mr. Sandford, he must see you." + +"Tell him I am ill,--and besides, I don't transact my brother's +business." + +"Yes'm." + +But she soon returned with a new message. The man would not go. Mrs. +Sandford at once went to the hall to learn what was the matter, leaving +Marcia trembling in every limb. The conversation was not carried on in +whispers; in fact, Marcia heard every word. + +"Sorry to disturb you, Ma'am, especially as Mr. Sandford isn't at home; +but duty is duty, and must be 'tended to. My orders is, to 'tach the +furnitur', and stay till I git a receipter." + +Mrs. Sandford's reply was inaudible. The voice proceeded:-- + +"Can't help it, Ma'am. Won't be back to-night, won't he? Bad, cert'in. +But duty is duty, as I said afore. I'll bunk here on the sofy, an' +to-morror we'll see what's to be done." + +Another pause. + +"Oh, you won't run off 'ith anythin'? I s'pose not. But duty is duty, +as I said afore, and I must mind orders. 'Stick by till you git a +receipter,' sez he. 'I will,' sez I,--an' I must.--Never mind about +bedclose. I c'n sleep jest ez I be. You jest go up-stairs. I'll make +myself 't home." + +Glad to be out of the society of the officer, Mrs. Sandford started to +go upstairs, but was recalled by the voice. + +"I say, Ma'am! A long night afore a chap, all by himself." + +Mrs. Sandford trembled with mingled terror and rage. + +"No 'bjection to light the gaas, I 'spose, so's't a feller can read a +paper? Thought o' that, and brought the 'York Herald' and 'Clipper.' If +you don't like tobarker, you c'n shet your doors and the smell won't git +in." + +"Do what you like. I can't prevent you." + +"Oh, well, no 'fence, I hope? Good-night, Ma'am." + +Mrs. Sandford found Marcia walking about the room in great excitement. + +"The odious wretch!" exclaimed Marcia. "If Henry were only here, or even +Charles, he should be horsewhipped, pitched out of the house. To sleep +with his dirty clothes on my sofa! I'm glad it's to be sold. I never +could touch the filthy thing again. Then his pipe! Good heavens, what is +to be done? The abominable wretch! I smell the tobacco now, worse than +an Irishman's. The smoke will be all through the house. Faugh! it +suffocates, nauseates me!" + +"Be calm, Marcia. We will go to the upper chambers, shut the doors, and +open the windows for fresh air. It's only for one night. We can't go +away, you know; and we can't get the fellow away, of course." + +"I wish I had died when I was sick. This disgrace, this infamy, this +shocking barbarity, is worse than death. What are we to do? and where +are we to go? Ruin is a light thing to talk about, I have read of ruin +in the papers, until it has become a matter of course;--I begin to know +what it means." + +It was a changeful, terrible beauty that beamed on her face. She looked +like an inspired priestess before the altar,--then like Norma in +her despair,--then like the maddened Medea in Rachel's thrilling +impersonation. Then disgust and fright overcame her, and her sensitive +womanly nature bore sway. It was more than she could bear, this +accumulation of misfortune, disgrace, and insult. Her soul rebelled, +contended desperately with fate, till, overcome, she sank into her +chair, and suffered herself to be led to her room. + +Shut up in their retreat, the women waited for the morning with +sleepless eyes, or with only transient lapses of consciousness. Sometime +after midnight, they were startled by the sound of a body falling +heavily in the hall, and, an instant after, by the shout of "Burglars! +thieves!" They rushed to the staircase in extreme fright, and soon +learned the cause. The wary officer evidently did not believe the tale +that had been told him respecting the absence of Mr. Sandford; and, that +nobody should go out or in without his knowledge, he had drawn the sofa +across the hall, completely cutting off all passage. A small jet of gas +was left burning. Charles, returning late from the club in a mild stage +of inebriation, entered the house by means of his latch-key, not without +difficulty, and at once fell headlong over the sofa, and the worthy +official sleeping thereon. When he heard the cry of "Burglars!" it +occurred to him that he must have been knocked down by one of the gang; +and he joined his own voice to the uproar,-- + +"BuggLARS! buggLARS!" + +An instant after, there was a grip on his collar. + +"Now I got ye, ye vill'in! What ye doin' on here?" + +"What _you_ doin' on, you rasc'l, inagen'l'm'n'shouse thistim'o'night?" + +"Arnswer me, you scoundrel, breakin' into a peaceful dwellin'!" + +"Tha'swhat_I_wan'to know.--How'd _you_com'ere? What'syerbusiness? +Le'gomycollar. I'lsen'forp'lice. Le'go!" + +Tipsy as he was, he managed to give his assailant a pretty substantial +token of regard under the ear, with his knuckles. + +"Now young'un, you're drunk! I won't hit you back, 'cause a case for +manslaughter might be expensive. How'd you break in here, when you are +so drunk you can't stand? I don't see how you could get in with the door +open." + +"Noneo'yerimp'r'ence! Cl'out! Adecen'bugglar'sbad'nough; +yousmokerot'nt'baccah. G'off! youdirtybugg_lar!_" + +"Young chap, it's time to stop this nonsense, or I'll have you in the +watch-house in no time. Who are you? and how came you here?" + +"Tha'sit; who _are_ you? tha'swhat_I_wan'know." + +"Charles!" (_from above_.) + +"WhocallsCh'rl's? HereIam. Igott'afellah, the bugg_lar_. Callp'lice! +P'LICE!" + +"Charles!" (_once more_.) + +"Do you belong here, young chap?" + +"B'long'ere? 'vcourseIdo; wherethedevilsh'dIb'long?" + +"You are not Mr. Sandford?" + +"Howd'yeknowIa'n't? I _am_ Mis'rr-Sanf'd." + +"You are Mr. Sandford's brother, are you?" + +"No, Mis'rr Sanf'd's _my_ bro'rr." + +"Well, if you've got brains enough to understand, listen to me." + +"I'm all 'tensh'n, 's Balaam said to th'ass. G'on, ol' fellah!--an' then +g'off!" + +"I am an officer, sent to 'tach your brother's furnitur' and stuff; and +as there's nobody here to go bail, I hed to stay and look arter things." + +"H'mushbailyewant? I'llgi'bail. An' I'll plankzemoney. +I'vegotsev'ndollars'n'alf." + +"Charles!" (_the third time_.) + +"Wha'nyewant?" + +"They want you to go to bed, where you b'long." + +"Gotobed? 'llseeyoudam'f'st! Leave'nofficer'nth'ouse? Guessnot!" + +"Young'un, I say, take your hand out of my neckhan'kercher! Hold up! +None o' yer chokin' games! Quit, I say! or, by hokey, I'll settle ye!" + +"_Thought_sh'dmakeyesquawk, ol't'bacc'worm! Go'n'tocl'out? +Go'n'tovacateprem'scs?" + +"Ooo-arr-awkk!" said the man, under the pressure of a tightening cravat, +at the same time giving the assailant "a settler," as he had threatened. +The two unfortunate women had hitherto looked down upon the conflict, as +celestial beings might upon the affairs of men, with no small degree of +interest, but clad in robes too ethereal to descend. But when they saw +Charles felled to the floor, and a deathlike silence ensued, they forgot +their fears, and rushed down the stairs. The officer had already raised +Charles up. He was stunned, senseless, and his face was covered with +blood. + +"You brute! you have murdered him!" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Guess not, Ma'am. Wet his head in col' water, put him to bed, an' he'll +sleep it off." + +"It's useless to talk to such a fellow," whispered Mrs. Sandford; +"besides, we want his aid to carry Charles upstairs." + +"Ye see, I couldn't help it, Ma'am. He nigh about choked me to death, +and I give him fair warnin'." + +"Never mind now about the quarrel," said Mrs. Sandford; "you help him +upstairs to his room, and we'll bathe his head." + +While the officer was carrying the young man up-stairs, Mrs. Sandford +put on a shawl, and, by the time he had reached the second flight, she +opened a door, and lighted the gas with a taper, saying,-- + +"In here, if you please. My brother Henry's room is the most +convenient." + +The officer's eyes twinkled. + +"So this is Mr. Sandford's room?" + +"Yes, but he is absent, as you were told before. Lay Charles on the bed, +if you please. There, that will do. I will attend to him now. You can +return to the lower story." + +"In a minit, Ma'am. Duty is duty, and this 'ere accident saves some +trouble," casting sharp glances around the room. + +The facts, that Sandford had drawn from the bank, and that he had +borrowed from Tonsor, were known to the creditors. The officer had +determined, therefore, to make what search he could for the money. The +unlooked-for accident had given him the opportunity he wanted. + +"What do you mean, Sir? Go back to your place." + +"Softly, Ma'am, softly! Duty is duty; an' 'f any damage is done, I'm +responsible." + +His eyes fastened upon a dressing-case that lay on a table near the +mirror,--apparently the last article handled by the occupant of the +room. + +"No robbery, Ma'am," said he, opening the case, and taking out its +contents. "Razors and brushes, and such like, is personal, and not +subject to levy; but these, Ma'am, you see, air." + +He held up a pocket-book full of bank-notes. + +"I'll count 'em before you, Ma'am, if you please, so's there'll be no +mistake. Thirteen thousand! A pretty good haul! I'll go down, now. If +anythin's wantin' for the chap when he comes to, jest le'me know." + +With a gleam of intense satisfaction on his sharp and vulgar features, +the officer descended the stairs. + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +John Fletcher sat by his fireside, reading the evening papers. The +failures of the day, of course, engaged his attention; among them, those +of Sandford and his associates were not unexpected. His little wife sat +by him, fondling the weakly baby. + +"Old Sandford has gone by the board, ducky. Good enough for him! He's +come to grief, as he deserved. He'll never trouble me any more." + +"I'm afraid a good many more'll come to grief, as you say, before this +panic is over." + +"Some, of course; the dead trees, and the worm-eaten, powder-posted +ones, will fall in the high winds, naturally. But old Bullion is +safe. No rotten hollow in his old white-oak trunk;--sound as a ship's +mainmast." + +"Is it Bullion who owes you?" + +"Yes. I have his notes for ten thousand dollars; and our next +settlement, I calculate, will give me as much more." + +"Why don't you get your pay?" + +"What should I do with it, my duck? I couldn't lend it to anybody safer. +If I deposit, the bank is as likely to fail as he. As long as he has the +whole capital to swing, he will make the more for us both." + +"I would rather have the money." + +"That shows how little you know about it." + +"I know, if you had it, and didn't lend it nor speculate with it, you +couldn't lose it." + +"Now, ducky, don't interfere. You take care of babies nicely. Let me +manage my own affairs." + +"You always treat me like a child that has to be petted with +sugar-plums." + +"That's because you are a child. What the devil does a woman know about +business?" + +The "ducky" cried a little, and was quite sure that John would go on and +risk what he had, till he lost all. + +"Little woman, none of your blubbering! It annoys me. Am I to be +harassed by business all day, and have no peace when I come home?" + +He settled himself to read the papers, once more, and the wife picked up +the fretful, puny infant, and retreated to the kitchen, where she could +indulge her sorrow without rebuke or interruption. + +Presently, Bullion entered, though not unexpected; for he had given +Fletcher an intimation, that, in order to have a private interview, he +would endeavor to see him at home. + +"Nice little box," said the capitalist, looking around. "Any babies?" + +"One," said Fletcher. + +"Boy or girl?" + +"A girl." + +"Bad. Girls always an expense. Dress, piano, parties, and d--d nonsense. +Boys, you put 'em into harness and work 'em till they're willing to +_eat_ their wild oats; he! he!" + +The eyebrow flourished over the jocose idea; the stony eye glittered a +moment like a revolving light, and then relapsed into darkness. + +"However, I have but one, and I think I can make her comfortable." + +"Yes, my boy, quite comfortable. Let me see, I owe you ten thousand. How +does the new account stand?" + +"Here are the figures, taken from Tonsor's book," said Fletcher. +"Seventy-nine thousand eight hundred and forty-three. Ten per cent. to +me is seven thousand nine hundred and eighty-four." + +"A big pile of money, Fletcher." + +"Yours, you mean? Yes, seventy thousand and odd is a big pile." + +"Yours,--I meant yours." + +"Why, yes," replied Fletcher, indifferently, "a good fair sum, for a man +that hadn't any before." + +"Don't you think, now, Fletcher, that the ten thousand pays you for all +you've done? Isn't it enough for a month or two's work?" + +"I think I am paid when I get what was agreed on," replied Fletcher, +stoutly. + +The eyebrow was raised with a deprecatory, inquiring look. + +"Why, Fletcher, sharp's the word, is it?" + +"That's what you said, when we started." + +"Suppose I pay you the notes and a thousand or two more, and we call it +square? Then you salt down what you got." + +"And you propose to haul off from operating?" + +"Well, no, I can't say I do. I may try the bulls another fall or two. +But you haven't anything else. If we lose, you are smashed. I have other +property to fall back on." + +"So it's merely to do me a kindness and make me safe and snug that you +propose to keep back the six thousand that belong to me?" + +"You put it rather strong, youngster. I didn't agree to pay till the +scheme was carried out. But we've done better than we 'xpected, and, to +take you out of danger, I offered to pay part down. In a business as +ticklish as stocks, you don't expect a man to come down with the ready +without a consideration?" + +"You know you could never have kept the run of the market, if it hadn't +been for me; and the ten per cent. is no more than a fair share. This +isn't a matter of dollars altogether, though dollars are useful, but of +information, activity, brains." + +"Well, remember, young man, I offer you now twelve thousand. If anything +happens, don't squawk nor play baby." + +"Why, you're not going to fail?" + +"No,--not if the world don't tip over." + +"And you're going on with your operations?" + +"Yes,--till the wind shifts. It's due east yet." + +"Well, I think the ship that carries you is safe enough for me. Make me +the notes, and let the operations go on another week." + +With an increased respect for his agent, when he found that he could +neither humbug nor frighten him, Bullion filled out and signed the +notes. Next they reviewed the stock-market, and decided upon the course +to be pursued. Bullion then fell into a profound meditation, and did not +speak for five minutes, though the busy eyebrow showed that his mind was +not lost in vacancy. At last he started up, saying,-- + +"I must go. But, Fletcher, any _reason_ why you particularly wanted to +pay Sandford that thousand, to-day?" + +Fletcher turned pale, and his heart rose in his mouth. + +"No,--no reason,--that is--he wanted it--I--I was willing to oblige"-- + +"No matter about reasons," said Bullion, with a quiet air. "I never +tread on people's corns. Only when it's wanted let me know. You see he +went by the board. He begged me to save him. How could I? I've done +enough for other people. Must take care of number one, now. Kerbstone, +he begs, too. I shan't help him." + +Fletcher felt relieved; at the same time he determined without delay to +make a new effort to get the fatal evidence of his former crime into his +own possession. + +"Oh," said Bullion, as if he had forgotten something, "the wife and +baby, let's see 'em." + +Fletcher called his wife, who came in timidly, and shrank from the +fierce look of the man of money. + +"How d'e do, Ma'am? Your servant, Ma'am. Glad to see you. But the baby?" + +"Fetch the baby, lovey," said Fletcher. + +Baby was brought, smiling with as little reason as possible, and winking +very hard in the light. + +"Pretty dear!" said Bullion, chucking her under the chin. + +"I wonder what the devil this means," thought Fletcher. + +How was his surprise increased when, after a moment, Bullion inquired,-- + +"Teeth cut yet? Some of 'em, I see. More to come. Want something to +bite, little one?" + +He pulled out his purse and gave the child three or four large gold +pieces. The little hands could not hold them, and they fell on the +carpet, rolling in different directions. Bullion left hastily, with a +quick nod and a clipped "Good-bye." + +"Well, I vow!" said Fletcher, with a long breath. "It's well he didn't +stay to pick 'em up; they'd 'ave stuck to his fingers like wax. He +couldn't have let 'em alone." + +"What a good man he is!" said the overjoyed little woman. + +"_Good_ man! He's crazy. Old Bullion giving away gold pieces to a baby! +He's lost his wits, sure. He never gave away a sixpence before in his +life. Oh, he's cracked, without a doubt. I must keep watch of him. When +_he_ grows generous, there's something wrong." + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE WATERFALL. + + + Down across the green and sunny meadow, + Where the grass hangs thick with glistening dew,-- + In the birch-wood's flickering light and shadow, + Where, between green leaves, the sun shines through,-- + + Plunging deeper in the wood's dark coolness, + Where the path grows rougher and more steep, + Where the trees stand thick in leafy fulness, + And the moss lies green in shadows deep:-- + + Hark! the wind amid the tree-tops rushing + In a sudden gust along the hills!-- + No,--the leaves are still,--'tis water gushing + From some hidden haunt of mountain-rills. + + Upward through the rugged pathway struggling, + Loud and louder yet the music grows; + Near and nearer still, the water's gurgling + Guides me where o'er moss-grown rocks it flows. + + Breathless, for its welcome coolness thirsting, + On I haste, led by the rushing sound, + Till upon my full sight sudden bursting, + Lo, the forest's hidden treasure found! + + See the gathered waters madly leaping, + Plunging from the rocks in headlong chase, + Boiling, eddying, whirling, downward sweeping + All that meets them in their foaming race! + + From the broken waters riseth ever, + Fresh and cool, a soft and cloud-like spray; + And where through the boughs slant sunbeams quiver, + On the mist the sudden rainbows play. + + On a branch high o'er the torrent swinging + Sits a bird, with joyful-swelling throat;-- + Only to the eye and heart he's singing; + Through the roar below I hear no note. + + All the forest seems as if enchanted, + Seems to lie in wondrous stillness bound; + Hushed its voices, silenced and supplanted, + Interwoven with this ceaseless sound. + + Gazing on the whirl of waters meeting, + Dizzy with its rush, I stand and dream, + Till it almost seems my own heart's beating, + And no more the voice of mountain-stream. + + + + +THE WINTER-BIRDS. + + +We are prone to set an extraordinary value upon all sources of pleasure +that arrive in a season when they are few and unexpected. Hence the +peculiar charm of the early flowers of spring, and of those equally +delightful flowers that come up to cheer the short and melancholy days +of November. The winter-birds, though they do not sing, are, on the same +account, particularly interesting. The Chicadees and the little speckled +Woodpeckers, that tarry with us in midwinter, and make the still cold +days lively and cheerful by their merry voices, are, in animated nature, +what flowers would be in inanimate nature, if they were found blooming +under the snow. Nature does not permit, at any season, an entire dearth +of those sources of enjoyment that spring from observation of the +external world; and as there are evergreen mosses and ferns that supply +in winter the places of the absent flowers, in like manner there are +chattering birds that linger in the wintry woods; and Nature has +multiplied the echoes at this season, that their few and feeble voices +may be repeated by their lively responses among the hills. + +To those who look upon Nature with the feelings of a poet or a painter, +we need not speak of the value of the winter-birds as enliveners of the +landscape. Any circumstance connected with scenery, that exercises our +feelings of benevolence, adds to the picturesque charms of a prospect; +and no man can see a little bird, or any other animal, at this time, +without feeling a lively interest in its welfare. The sight of a flock +of Snow-Buntings descending, like a shower of meteors, upon a field +of grass, and eagerly devouring the seeds contained in its drooping +pannicles that extend above the snow-drifts,--of a company of Crows +rejoicing with noisy sociability over some newly-discovered feast in the +pine-wood,--of the party-colored Woodpeckers winding round the trees +and hammering upon their trunks,--all these, and many other sights +and sounds, are associated with our ideas of the happiness of these +creatures; and while our benevolent feelings are thus agreeably +exercised, the objects that cause our emotions add a positive charm to +the dreary aspects of winter. These reflections have always led me to +regard the birds and other interesting animals as having a value to +mankind not to be estimated in dollars and cents, and which is entirely +independent of any services they may render to the farmer or the +orchardist by preventing the over-multiplication of noxious insects. + +The greater number of small birds that remain in northern latitudes +during winter, except the Woodpeckers and their congeners, are such as +subsist chiefly upon seeds. Those insectivorous species that gather +their food chiefly from the ground are under a particular necessity of +migrating. Hence the common Robin, living entirely on insects and a +little fruit, that serves him rather as a dessert than as substantial +fare, a bird that never feeds upon grain or seeds of any kind, but +devours the insects that are found upon the surface of the soil, cannot +subsist in our latitude, except in open winters. During such favorable +seasons, the Robins are able to collect vast quantities of dormant +insects from the open ground. These birds always endeavor to keep on the +outside of extensive snows; and if in any year, very early in November, +a large quantity of snow should fall in the latitude of New Jersey and +Pennsylvania, while north of it the ground remained uncovered, the +Robins would be retarded in their journey and tarry with us in unusual +numbers. A great many of them must perish of hunger, or be reduced to +the necessity of feeding on the berries of the Viburnum and Juniper, +should they be overtaken by an extensive and enduring snow that cuts off +their journey of emigration. + +The Woodpeckers and their allied species, though insectivorous, are not +thus affected by the winter. Gathering all their food, consisting of +larvae and insects, from the bark and wood of trees, the snow cannot +conceal it or place it beyond their reach. The quantity of this kind of +food is less than in summer, but the birds can obtain it with about +the same facility at all times, because other species of birds are +diminished, which in summer divide with them this spoil. Hence, +Woodpeckers, Creepers, and Tomtits do not migrate. They simply scatter +more widely over the country, instead of keeping in the woods, and thus +accommodate themselves to their more limited supplies of food. The +Swallow tribes, that catch their food in the air, are the first to +migrate, because the swarms of insects are vastly diminished by the +early frosts of autumn. + +It is not often that we are led to reflect upon the extreme loneliness +that would prevail in all solitary places in winter, were all the birds +to migrate at this season to a warmer climate, or to sink into a state +of torpidity, like frogs, dormice, and other small animals. But Nature, +to preserve the pleasantness of this season, has endowed certain +birds with power to endure the severest cold, and with the faculty of +providing for their wants at a time when it would seem that there was +not sustenance enough among the hidden stores of the season to keep them +from starvation. The woodman, however insensible he may be to the charms +of all such objects, is gladdened and encouraged in his toils by the +sight of these sprightly creatures, some of which, like the Jay and the +Woodpecker, are adorned with the most beautiful plumage, and are all +pleasantly garrulous, filling the otherwise silent woods with constant +and vociferous merriment. + +In my early days, for the supposed benefit of my health, I passed a +winter in Tennessee, and, being unoccupied, except with my studies, I +spent a great portion of my time in botanical and zoölogical excursions +in the woods adjoining the city of Nashville. It was during that season +I experienced the full power of the winter-birds to give life and beauty +to the scenes of Nature; for, though not one was heard to sing, they +seemed as active and as full of merriment as in the early summer. The +birds that most particularly attracted my attention at this time +were the Woodpeckers, of which several species were very numerous. +Conspicuous among them was the Pileated Woodpecker, (_Picus pilcaius_,) +a bird with rusty-black plumage, a red crest and moustaches, and a white +stripe on each side of the neck,--one of the largest of the tribe. His +loud croaking note was heard at all times in the deep woods, and his +great size and his frequent hammering upon the resounding boles of the +trees attracted every one's attention. + +A more beautiful, but smaller species, was the Redheaded Woodpecker, +(_P. erythrocephalus_,) with head, neck, and throat of crimson, and +other parts of his plumage variously marked with white and changeable +blue. This species, though never seen in Eastern Massachusetts, is a +common resident in this latitude, west of the Green-Mountain range. The +birds of this species were very numerous, during my excursions, and the +woods were constantly flushing with their bright colors as they flitted +among the trees. They were sometimes joined by another species, hardly +less beautiful, the Redbreasted Woodpecker (_P. Caroliniensis_). + +It is impossible to describe the charm which these birds afforded to +the otherwise solitary woods. The loud croaking of the Log-cock, the +cackling screams of the Redheaded Woodpecker, and the solemn, +tolling note of the Redbreast, blended with the occasional cooing of +Turtle-doves, formed a sylvan charm, that made my winter-rambles, at +this period, as interesting as any I ever pursued in summer or autumn. + +In our latitude, after the first flight of snow has covered the ground, +the winter-birds, pressed by hunger, are compelled to make extensive +forages in quest of food. Hence our attention is more closely +attracted to them at this time, as many parties of them will visit our +neighborhood in the course of the day, when if no snow had fallen, they +would have confined themselves to a more limited range. One of the +most attractive sights on such occasions is caused by the flocks of +Snow-Buntings, which are particularly gregarious in their habits. In +Sweden they are called "Bad-Weather-Birds," because they are mostly seen +when the fallen snow has caused them to roam from place to place, in +quest of their subsistence. They are far from being birds of ill-omen, +however, as we see them commonly when the storm is past. Few sights are +more picturesque than these flocks of Snow-Buntings, whirling with the +subsiding winds, and moving as if they were guided by an eddying breeze, +now half-concealed by the direction in which they meet the rays of the +sun, then suddenly flashing with a simultaneous turn they present the +under white side of their wings to the light of heaven. The power which +these diminutive creatures seem to possess, of enduring the cold of +winter, and of contending with the storm, attaches to their appearance +a quality which is allied to sublimity. I cannot look upon them, +therefore, in any other view than as important parts in that +ever-changing picture of light, motion, and beauty, with which Nature +benevolently consoles for those evils which are assigned by fate to all +the inhabitants of the earth. + +The common Snow-Birds (_Fringilla nivalis_) are more interesting as +individuals, but they are never seen in compact flocks. They go usually +in scattered parties, and appear in Massachusetts about the middle of +autumn, arriving from Canada and Labrador, where they spend the summer. +They have many of the habits of the common Hair-Bird, (_Fringilla +socialis_,) assembling around our houses and barns, and picking up +crumbs of bread and other fragments of food. They differ entirely +from the Buntings in their appearance, the latter being called +White Snow-Birds, to distinguish them from the others, which are +slate-colored. These birds are quite as remarkable, however, for their +power of enduring the cold, and of sustaining the force of the tempest. +In the midst of a snow-storm, they may often be seen sporting, as it +were, in the very whirlpool of the driving snows, and alighting upon the +tall sedges and weeds, and eagerly gathering the produce. The Hemp-Bird +often joins their parties, and his cheerful and well-known twitter may +be heard, as he hurriedly flits from one bush to another, hunting for +the seeds of the golden-rods and asters. + +The cause of the migration of these birds from their native northern +latitudes is not, probably, the severe cold of those regions, but the +deep snows that bury up their cereal stores at a very early period. But +even if the grounds in those cold latitudes were only partially covered, +these birds must scatter themselves over a wide extent of territory, in +proportion as their food becomes less abundant. They live principally +upon seeds, and hence their forages are made chiefly in the tilled +lands, where the weeds afford them an abundance of food. The negligence +of the tiller of the soil is, therefore, a great gain to the small +birds, by leaving a supply of seeds in the annual grasses that grow +thriftily with his crops. + +Among these flocks of Snow-Birds, a few individuals of the common +Hair-Bird (_Fringilla socialis_) may frequently be seen. The majority of +this species migrate to a more open clime; but sufficient numbers remain +to entitle them to be included with other Snow-Birds of the Finch tribe. +He is one of the smallest of the Sparrows, of a brownish ash color +above, and grayish white beneath. He wears a little cap or turban of +brown velvet on his head, and by this mark he is readily distinguished +from his kindred Sparrows. Relying on his diminutive size for his +security, he comes quite up to our door-step, mindless of the people who +are assembled round it, and, fearless of danger, picks up the crumbs +that are scattered there. He may be seen at all seasons of the year, +though his voice is not heard in the spring so early as that of the +Song-Sparrow or the Blue-Bird. He lives chiefly on seeds, though, +like other granivorous birds, he feeds his young with grubs and small +insects. This is a general practice with the granivorous tribes, in +order to provide their young with soft and digestible food before they +are strong enough to digest the hard, coriaceous seed. Nature has formed +an exception in the Pigeon tribe; but has compensated them by providing +that the parent bird shall soften the food in her own crop before it is +given to the tender young. From the peculiar manner in which the young +are fed comes the epithet, "sucking doves." + +It is common to speak disparagingly of the little Hair-Bird, as if he +were good for nothing, without beauty and without song, and, what is of +still more consequence in the eyes of the sordid epicure, too small to +be eaten, his weight of flesh not being worth a charge of powder and +shot. We can never sufficiently rejoice that there are some birds +too small to excite the avaricious feelings of these knights of the +fowling-piece and the rifle. The Hair-Bird is not to be despised, +except by epicures. Though he is contemptuously styled the +"Chipping-Sparrow,"--a name which I will never consent to apply to +him,--his voice is no mean accompaniment to the general chorus which may +be heard every still morning before sunrise, during May and June. His +continued trilling note is to this warbling band what the octave flute +is to a grand concert of artificial instruments. The voices of numbers +of these birds, which are the very first to be heard and the last to +become silent in the morning, serve to fill up the pauses in this sylvan +anthem, like a running _appoggiatural_ accompaniment in certain admired +musical compositions. How little soever the Hair-Bird may generally be +valued as a songster, his voice, I am sure, would be most sadly missed, +were it never more to be heard charmingly blending with the other louder +voices of the feathered choristers. + +How often, on still, sultry nights in July, when scarcely a breath of +air is stirring among the foliage of the trees, when the humming of the +Moth might be plainly heard, as it glided by my open window, have I been +charmed with the voice of this little bird, uttered in a low, trilled +note, from the branch of some neighboring tree! He seems to be the +sentinel whom Nature has appointed to watch for the first gleam of dawn, +which he always faithfully announces before any other bird has begun to +stir. Two or three strains from his octave pipe are the signal for a +general awakening of the birds, and one by one they join the song, +until the whole air resounds with an harmonious medley of voices. +The Hair-Bird has a singular habit of sitting upon the ground, while +chirping in the early morning. His nest is placed commonly upon an +apple-tree, sometimes in a bush, but never on the ground. It is very +neatly constructed of the fibres of roots closely woven together, and +beautifully lined with fine soft hair, whence he has obtained his name. +It is not surpassed in neatness and beauty by the nest of any other +bird. + +I will leave the granivorous birds to speak of another class, equally +hardy, but of habits more like those of the Woodpecker. I allude to the +Chicadees, to whose lively notes we are indebted for a great part of the +cheerfulness of a winter's walk. These notes are not a song; but there +is a liveliness in their sound, most frequently uttered during a +pleasant winter-day, causing them to be associated with these agreeable +changes in the weather. The Chicadees are not seen, like Snow-Birds, +most numerous during a snow-storm, or after a fall of snow. Their habits +are nearly the same in all weathers, except that they are more prone to +be noisy and loquacious on pleasant, sunny days. + +The sounds from which the Chicadee has derived his name appear to be his +call-notes, like the crowing of a Cock or the gobbling of a Turkey, and +are probably designed by Nature to enable the birds, while scattered +singly over the forest, to signalize their presence to others of the +same species. Hence it may be observed, that, when the call is rapidly +repeated, a multitude of his kindred will immediately assemble around +the one that gave the alarm. When no alarm is intended to be given, the +bird utters these notes but seldom, and only as he passes from one tree +to another. He is probably accustomed to hearing a response, and, if one +is not soon heard, he will repeat his call until it is answered; for as +these birds do not forage the woods in flocks, this continual hailing +is carried on between them to satisfy their desire for each other's +company. A similar conversation passes between the individuals of a +flock of Chickens, when scattered over a farmyard; one, on finding +itself alone, will chirp until it hears a response, when it seems +immediately satisfied. The call-notes of the Chicadee are very lively, +with a mixture of querulousness in their tone, that renders them the +more pleasing. + +The Chicadee is the smallest of the birds that remain with us during the +winter. He is a permanent resident, and everybody knows him. He is a +lively chatterer and an agreeable companion; and as he never tarries +long in one place, he does not tire one with his garrulity. He is our +attendant in all our pleasant winter-walks, in the orchard or the wood, +in the garden or by the rustic wayside. We have seen him, on still +winter-days, flitting from tree to tree, with the liveliest motions and +in the most engaging attitudes, examining every twig and branch, and +winding over and under and in and out among them, and, after a +few lively notes, hopping to another tree to pass through the same +manoeuvres. Even those who are confined to the house are not excluded +from a sight of these birds; one cannot open a window, on a bright +winter's morning, without a greeting from one of them on the nearest +tree. + +Beside the note from which the Chicadee derives his name, he sometimes +utters two very plaintive notes, which are separated by a regular +musical interval, making a fourth on the descending scale. They slightly +resemble those of the Pewee, and are often supposed to come from some +other bird, so different are they from the common note of the Chicadee. +I have not been able to ascertain the circumstances under which the bird +repeats this plaintive strain, but it is uttered both in summer and +winter. Indeed, there is such a variety in the notes uttered at +different times by this bird, that, if they were repeated in +uninterrupted succession, they would form one of the most agreeable of +woodland melodies. + +The Chicadee is not a singing-bird. He utters his usual notes at all +times of the year; but in the early part of summer he is addicted to a +very low but pleasant kind of warbling, considerably varied, and wanting +only more loudness and precision to entitle him to a rank with the +singing-birds. This warbling does not seem intended to cheer his +partner, but it is rather a sort of soliloquizing for his own amusement. +If it was uttered by the young birds only, we might suppose them to be +taking lessons in music, and that this was a specimen of their first +attempts. I have often heard the Golden Robin warbling in a similar +manner. + +In company with the Chicadees in their foraging excursions, we often see +two Speckled Woodpeckers, differing apparently only in size, each having +a sort of red crest. The smaller of the two (_Picus pubescens_) is the +Downy Woodpecker. The birds of this species are called "Sap-Suckers," +from their habit of making perforations in the sound branches of trees +through the bark without penetrating the wood, as if they designed only +to obtain the sap. These perforations are often made in a circle round +the branch, and it is highly probable that they follow the path of a +grub that is concealed underneath the bark. Our farmers, who suspect +every bird of some mischievous designs, accuse them of boring into the +tree for the purpose of drinking the sap. + +The Woodpecker is a more restless, though not a more industrious +bird than the Chicadee, and seldom gives the branches so thorough an +examination as the latter. He searches for grubs that are concealed in +the wood of the tree; he examines those spots only where he hears their +scratchings, bores the wood to obtain them, and then flies off. But the +Chicadee looks for insects on or near the surface, and does not confine +his search to trees. He examines fences, the under part of the eaves of +houses, and the woodpile, and destroys, in the course of his foraging, +many an embryo moth and butterfly which would otherwise become the +parent of noxious larvae. The Woodpecker is often represented as the +emblem of industry; but the Chicadee is more truly emblematical of this +virtue, and the Woodpecker of perseverance, as he never tires when +drilling into the wood of a tree in quest of his prey. + +Another of the companions of the Chicadee is the Brown Creeper, +(_Certhia familiaris_,) of similar habits, and commonly seen moving in a +spiral direction around the trunks and branches of trees, and, when +he is conscious of being observed, keeping on the further side of the +branch. He is more frequently seen in the winter than in the summer, +when he confines himself to the seclusion of the pine forest. The +different birds which I have named, as companions of the Chicadee, often +assemble by seeming accident in large numbers upon one tree, and meeting +with more company than is agreeable to them, they will often on these +occasions make the wood resound with their noisy disputes. They may +have been assembled by some accidental note of alarm, and on finding +no particular cause for it, they raise a shout that reminds one of the +extraordinary vociferation with which young men and boys conclude a +false alarm of fire in the early part of the night. These different +birds, though evidently social, are not gregarious, and seldom, without +vexation, endure the presence of more than two or three companions. + +The Nut-Hatch (_Sitta Caroliniensis_) is often found among these +assemblages, and may be recognized by his piercing trumpet-like note. +This bird resembles the Woodpeckers in the shape of the bill, but has +only one hinder toe, instead of two; and is said to have derived its +name from a habit of breaking open or hatching nuts, to obtain the +kernel. He is a permanent inhabitant of the cold parts of the American +continent, resembling the Titmouse in his diligence and activity, and in +the various manoeuvres he performs while in quest of his insect-food. + +There are times when even this class of birds, that collect their food +from the bark and wood of trees, are driven to great extremities. When +the trees are incased with ice, which, though not impenetrable by their +strong bills, prevents their laying hold of the bark with their claws +for support, they are in some danger of starving. It is at such times +that the gardens and barnyards are frequented by large numbers of +Woodpeckers, Creepers, and Nut-Hatches, driven by this necessity from +their usual haunts. A piece of suet fastened to the branch of a tree, +at any time of the winter, would soon be discovered by these birds and +afford them a grateful repast. I have frequently assembled them under my +windows by this allurement. + +I will leave the Chicadees and their companions to speak of another +class of birds of different character and habits: these are the Jays, +and their sable-plumed congeners of the Crow family. In all parts of +the country that abound in woods of any description, we are sure to be +greeted by the loud voice of the Blue Jay, one of the most conspicuous +tenants of the forest. He has a beautiful outward appearance, under +which he conceals an unamiable temper and a propensity to mischief. +Indeed, there is no other bird in our forest that is arrayed in equal +splendor. His neck of fine purple, his pale azure crest and head +with silky plumes, his black crescent-shaped collar, his wings and +tail-feathers of bright blue with stripes of white and black, and his +elegant form and vivacious manners, combine to render him attractive to +all observers. + +But with all this beauty, he has, like the Peacock, a harsh voice; he is +a thief, and a disturber of the peace. He is a sort of Ishmael among the +sylvan tribes, who are startled at the sound of his voice, and fear him +as a bandit. The farmer, who is well acquainted with his habits, is no +friend to him; for he not only takes what is required for his immediate +wants, but hoards a variety of articles in large quantities for future +use. It would seem as if he were aware when he was engaged in an honest +and when in a dishonest expedition; for while searching for food in the +the wood or open field, he is extremely noisy,--but when he ventures +into a barn, to take what does not belong to him, he is silent and +stealthy, and exhibits all the peculiar manners of a thief. + +It would be no mean task to enumerate all the acts of mischief +perpetrated by this bird; and I cannot but look upon him as one the +most guilty of the feathered tribe. He plunders the cornfield both +at seed-time and harvest; he steals everything that is eatable, and +conceals it in his hoarding-places; he destroys the eggs of smaller +birds and devours their young; he quarrels with all other species, and +his life is a constant scene of contentions. He is restless, pugnacious, +and irascible, and always seems like one who is out on some expedition. +Yet, though a pest to other birds, he is a watchful parent and a +faithful guardian of his off-spring. It is dangerous to venture near +the nest of a pair of Jays, as they immediately attack the adventurer, +aiming their blows at his face and eyes with the most savage +determination. + +Like the Magpie, the Jay has considerable talent for mimicry, and in a +state of domestication may be taught to articulate words like a Parrot. +At certain times I have heard this bird utter a few notes resembling the +tinkle of a bell, and which, if syllabled, might form such a word as +_dilly-lily_; but it is not a musical strain. Indeed, there is no music +in his nature, and in all his imitations of other sounds he prefers the +harsh to the melodious, such as the voice of the Hawk, the Owl, and +other unmusical birds. + +The Blue Jay is a true American; he is known throughout this continent, +and never visits any other country. At no season is he absent from our +woods, and he is an industrious consumer of the larger insects and +grubs, atoning in this way for some of his evil deeds. In this respect, +however, his services are not to be compared to those of the Robin and +the Blue-Bird. Yet I am not prepared to say that I would consent to his +banishment, for he is one of the most cheering tenants of the groves, at +a season when they have but few inhabitants; and I never listen to his +voice without recalling a crowd of charming reminiscences of pleasant +winter excursions and adventures at an early period of my life. The very +harshness of his voice has caused it to be impressed more forcibly upon +the memory, in connection with these scenes. + +The common Crow may be considered the representative, in America, of +the European Rook, which he resembles in many of his habits, performing +similar services, and being guilty of the same mischievous deeds. It +is remarkable that in Europe, where land is more valuable than in this +country, and where agriculture is carried on with an amount of skill and +nicety that would astonish an American farmer, the people are not +so jealous of the birds. In Great Britain rookeries are regular +establishments, and the Rooks, notwithstanding the mischief they do, are +protected, on account of their services to agriculture. The farmers of +Europe, having learned by repeated observation, that, without the aid +of mischievous birds, the work of the farmer would be sacrificed to +the more destructive insect-race, forgive them their trespasses, as we +forgive the trespasses of cats and dogs. The respect shown to birds by +any people seems to bear a certain ratio to the antiquity of the nation. +Hence the sacredness with which they are regarded in Japan, where the +population is so dense that the inhabitants would feel that they could +ill afford to divide the produce of their fields with the birds, unless +they were convinced of their usefulness. + +The Crow is one of the most unfortunate of the feathered tribe in his +relations to man; for by almost all nations he is regarded with hatred, +and every man's hand is against him. He is protected neither by custom +nor superstition; the sentimentalist cares nothing for him as an object +of poetical regard, and the utilitarian is blind to his services as a +scavenger. The farmer considers him as the very ringleader of mischief, +and uses all means he can invent for his destruction; the friend of the +singing-birds bears him a grudge as the destroyer of their eggs and +young; and even the moralist is disposed to condemn him for his cunning +and dissimulation. + +Hence he is everywhere hated and persecuted, and the expedients used for +his destruction are numerous and revolting to the sensibilities. He +is outlawed by acts of Parliament and other legislative bodies; he is +hunted with the gun; he is caught in crow-nets; he is hoodwinked with +bits of paper smeared with bird-lime, in which he is caught by means of +a bait; he is poisoned with grain steeped in hellebore and strychnine; +the reeds in which he roosts are treacherously set on fire; he is +pinioned by his wings, on his back, and is made to grapple his +sympathizing companions who come to his rescue; like an infidel, he is +not allowed the benefit of truth to save his reputation; and children, +after receiving lessons of humanity, are taught to regard the Crow as +an unworthy subject when they carry their precepts into practice. Every +government has set a price upon his head, and every people holds him up +to public execration. + +As an apology for these atrocities, might be enumerated a long catalogue +of misdemeanors of which he is guilty. He pillages the cornfield, and +pulls up the young shoots of maize to obtain the kernels attached to +their roots; he destroys the eggs and the young of innocent birds which +we should like to preserve; he purloins fruit from the garden and +orchard, and carries off young ducks and chickens from the farmyard. +Beside his mischievous propensities and his habits of thieving, he is +accused of cunning, and of a depraved disposition. He who would plead +for the Crow will not deny the general truth of these accusations, but, +on the other hand, would enumerate certain special benefits which he +confers upon man. + +In the catalogue of the services of this bird we find many details +which should lead us to pause before we consent to his destruction. He +consumes, in the course of the year, vast quantities of grubs, worms, +and noxious vermin; he is a valuable scavenger, and clears the land +of offensive masses of decaying animal substances; he hunts the +grass-fields, and pulls out and devours the underground caterpillars, +wherever he perceives the signs of their operations, as evinced by the +wilted stalks; he destroys mice, young rats, lizards, and the smaller +serpents; lastly, he is a volunteer sentinel about the farm, and drives +the Hawk from its inclosures, thus preventing greater mischief than +that of which he himself is guilty. It is chiefly during seed-time and +harvest that the depredations of the Crow are committed; during the +remainder of the year we witness only his services; and so highly are +these services appreciated by those who have written of birds, that I +cannot name an ornithologist who does not plead in his behalf. + +Let us turn our attention, for a moment, to his moral qualities. In vain +is he accused of cunning, when without this quality he could not live. +His wariness is really a virtue, and, under the circumstances in which +he is placed, it is his principal means of self-preservation. He has no +moral principles, no creed, to which he is under obligations to offer +himself as a martyr. His cunning is his armor; and I am persuaded that +the persecutions to which he has always been subjected have caused the +development of an amount of intelligence that elevates him many degrees +above the majority of the feathered race. + +There are few birds that equal the Crow in sagacity. He observes many +things that would seem to require the faculties of a rational being. He +judges with accuracy, from the deportment of the person approaching him, +if he is prepared to do him an injury; and seems to pay no regard to one +who is strolling the fields in search of flowers or for recreation. On +such occasions, one may get so near him as to observe his manners, and +even to note the varying shades of his plumage. But in vain does the +sportsman endeavor to approach him. So sure is he to fly at the right +moment for his safety, that one might suppose he could measure the +distance of gunshot. + +The voice of the Crow is like no other sound uttered by the feathered +race; it is harsh and unmelodious, and though he is capable, when +domesticated, of imitating human speech, he cannot sing. But Aesop +mistook the character of this bird when he represented him as the dupe +of the fox, who gained the bit of cheese he carried in his mouth by +inducing him to exhibit his musical powers. The Crow could not be fooled +by any such appeals to his vanity. + +The Crow is commonly regarded as a homely bird; yet he is not without +beauty. His coat of glossy black with violet reflections, his dark eyes +and sagacious expression of countenance, his stately and graceful gait, +and his steady and equable flight, combine to give him a proud and +dignified appearance. The Crow and the Raven have always been celebrated +for their gravity, a character that seems to be the result of their +black sacerdotal vesture, and of certain manifestations of intelligence +in their ways and general deportment. Indeed, any one who should watch +the motions of the Crow for the space of five minutes, either when he is +stalking alone in the field, or when he is careering with his fellows +around some tall tree in the forest, would acknowledge that he deserves +to be called a grave bird. + +Setting aside the services rendered by the Crow to agriculture, I esteem +him for certain qualities which are agreeably associated with the charms +of Nature. It is not the singing-birds alone that contribute by their +voices to gladden the husbandman and cheer the solitary traveller. The +crowing of the Cock at the break of day is as joyful a sound, though not +so musical, as the voice of the Robin who chants his lays at the same +early hour. To me the cawing of the Crow is cheering and delightful, and +it is heard long before the majority of birds have left their perch. If +not one of the melodies of morn, it is one of the most notable sounds +that herald its approach. And how intimately is the voice of this bird +associated with the sunshine of calm winter-days,--with our woodland +excursions during this inclement season,--with the stroke of the +woodman's axe,--with open doors in bright and pleasant weather, when the +eaves are dripping with the melting snow,--and with all those cheerful +sounds that enliven the groves during that period when every object +is valuable that relieves the silence or softens the dreary aspect of +Nature! + +If we leave the open fields and woods, and ramble near the coast to some +retired and solitary branch of the sea, our meditations may be suddenly +startled by the harsh voice of the Kingfisher, like the sound of a +watchman's rattle. This bird is seldom seen in winter in the interior; +most of his species migrate southwardly and to the sea-coast, just so +far as to be within reach of the open waters. As they subsist on the +smaller kinds of fishes, they would perish with hunger, after the waters +are frozen, if they did not migrate. But the Kingfisher often remains on +the coast during open winters, and may therefore be considered one of +our winter-birds. + +This bird is the celebrated Alcedo, or Halcyon, of the ancients, who +attributed to him many apparently supernatural powers. He was supposed +to construct his nest upon the waves, on which it was made to float like +a skiff. But as the turbulence of a storm would be likely to cause its +destruction, Nature had gifted him with the extraordinary power of +stilling the motions of the winds and waves, during the period of +incubation. Hence the serene weather that accompanies the summer +solstice was supposed to be occasioned by the benign influence of this +bird, and the term "halcyon days" was applied to this period. It is +remarkable that the fable should add to these supernatural gifts the +power of song, as one of the accomplishments of the Kingfisher. These +superstitions must have been very general among the ancients, and were +not confined to the Greeks and Romans. Some of the Asiatic nations still +wear the skin of the Kingfisher about their persons, as a protection +against both moral and physical evils; the feathers are used as +love-charms; and it is believed, that, if the body of the Kingfisher be +evenly fixed upon a pivot, it will turn its head to the north, like the +magnetic needle. + +This bird is singularly grotesque in his appearance, though not without +beauty of plumage. With his long, straight, and quadrangular bill, his +short and diminutive feet and legs, and his immense head, his plumage +of a handsome dusky blue, with a bluish band on the breast and a white +collar around the neck,--when this mixture of the grotesque and the +beautiful is considered in connection with the singularity of his +habits, we need not marvel at the superstitions connected with his +history. He sits patiently, like an angler, on a post at the head of a +wharf, or on a branch of a tree that extends over the bank, and, leaning +obliquely, with extended head and beak, he watches for his finny prey. +There, with the light blue sky above him and the dark blue waves +beneath, nothing on the surface of the water can escape his penetrating +eyes. Quickly, with a sudden swoop, he seizes a single fish from an +unsuspecting shoal, and announces his success by the peculiar sound of +his rattle. + +It may not have been observed by all that the most interesting periods +or situations for rambling are not those which most abound with exciting +scenes and objects. There must be a certain dearth of individual objects +that draw the attention, intermingled with occasional remarkable or +mysterious sights and sounds, to yield an excursion its greatest +interest. The hunter (unless he be a purveyor for the market) +understands this philosophy, and knows that there is more pleasure +in chasing a single deer or a solitary fox over miles of pasture +and moorland, than in hunting where these animals are abundant, and +slaughtering them as fast as one can load his gun. The pleasures +attending a rural excursion in the winter are founded on this fact, and +may be explained by this principle. There, amid the general silence, +every sound attracts attention and is accompanied by its echo; and since +the trees and shrubs have lost their leafy garniture, every tree and +other object has its own distinct shadow, and we fix our attention +more easily upon anything that excites our interest than when it is +distracted by the confusion of numbers. + +Hence it is in the winter that the picturesque character of the flight +of birds is particularly noticeable. In summer, and in autumn, before +the fall of the leaf, birds are partially concealed by the foliage of +trees, so that the manner of their flight does not become so readily +apparent. But in winter, if we start a flock of birds from the ground, +we can hardly avoid taking notice of all the peculiarities of their +movements. I have alluded to the descent of Snow-Buntings upon the +landscape as singularly picturesque; but the motions of a flock of +Quails, when suddenly aroused from a thicket, are not less so. When a +Pigeon, or any other bird with strong and large wings, takes flight, the +motions of its wings are not vibratory, and its progress through the air +is so rapid as to injure the pleasing effect of its motions, because we +obtain no distinct perception of the bird during its flight. It is quite +otherwise with the Quail. The body of this bird is plump and heavy, and +his wings are short, and have a peculiar concavity of the under surface +when expanded; their motions are very rapid, and, having but little +sweep, the bird seems to sail on the air, carried along by a gentle but +rapid vibration of the wings, which describe only a very small arc of a +circle. Hence we observe the entire shape of the bird during its flight. +The Partridge, and other gallinaceous birds, fly in a similar manner; +but, on account of their larger size, their motions are less attractive. + +The Humming-Bird has proportionally larger wings than the Quail, and, +when flying, his wings describe almost a complete circle in their rapid +vibrations. If we look upon one during his flight, he seems to have no +wings, but rather to be encircled by a semi-transparent halo. There +are other birds that seem to be wings only, their bodies being hardly +perceptible, on account of their small proportional size; such are the +Swallow, the Pigeon, the Cuckoo, and the Night-Hawk. + +Birds of prey are remarkable for their steady and graceful flight; the +motion of their wings is slow, while, like the Pigeon, they are capable +of propelling themselves through the air with great rapidity. The +circumgyrations of a Hawk, when reconnoitring far aloft in the air, are +singularly graceful. The flight of the Crow and the Raven is slow and +apparently difficult, and they are easily overtaken and annoyed by the +King-Bird and other small birds. They are not formed, like the Falcon, +to catch their prey upon the wing, and, though their wings are large and +powerful, they are incapable of performing those graceful and difficult +evolutions which we observe in the flight of birds of prey. The flight +of Herons resembles that of the Raven. + +Small birds, with the exception of a few species, move in an undulating +course, alternately rising and sinking. Birds that move in this manner +are, I believe, incapable of making a long journey on the wing without +rest, and commonly perform their migrations by short daily stages. + +The flight of the little Sand-Pipers, which frequent the salt marshes in +numerous flocks, is particularly worthy of study. It is not unlike the +flight of Quails, but more evenly sustained, on account of the greater +length and power of their wings. These birds are capable of holding an +even flight in a perfectly horizontal line, only a few inches above the +surface of the ground. When they alight, they seldom make a curve or +gyration, but descend in a straight and oblique course. Snow-Buntings +usually turn about, just before they reach the ground; and I have +seen them perform the most intricate changes, like the movements of a +cotillon-party, executed with the rapidity of arrows, when suddenly +checked in their flight by the discovery of a good tract of forage. + +With these observations, which might be indefinitely extended, I take +leave of the subject, simply remarking, that to the motions of birds, no +less than to their beauty of plumage and the sounds of their voices, +are we indebted for a great part of the picturesque attractions of +landscape; and the more we study them, the more are we convinced, that, +in whatever direction we turn our observations, we may extend them to +infinity. There is no limit to any study of Nature, and even one so +apparently insignificant as the flight of birds leads to an endless +series of interesting facts, and opens the eyes to new beauties in the +aspect of Nature and new sources of rational delight. + + + + +"THE NEW LIFE" OF DANTE. + +[Concluded.] + + +III. + + +The year 1289 was one marked in the annals of Florence and of Italy by +events which are still famous, scored by the genius of Dante upon the +memory of the world. It was in this year that Count Ugolino and his sons +and grandsons were starved by the Pisans in their tower prison. A few +months later, Francesca da Rimini was murdered by her husband. Between +the dates of these two terrible events the Florentines had won the great +victory of Campaldino; and thus, in this short space, the materials had +been given to the poet for the two best-known and most powerful stories +and for one of the most striking episodes of the "Divina Commedia." + +In the great and hard-fought battle of Campaldino Dante himself took +part. "I was at first greatly afraid," he says, in a letter of which +but a few sentences have been preserved,[A]--"but at the end I felt the +greatest joy,--according to the various chances of the battle." When the +victorious army returned to Florence, a splendid procession, with the +clergy at its head, with the arts of the city each under its banner, and +with all manner of pomp, went out to meet it. There were long-continued +feasts and rejoicings. The battle had been fought on the 11th of June, +the day of St. Barnabas, and the Republic, though already engaged in +magnificent works of church-building, decreed that a new church should +be erected in honor of the Saint on whose day the victory had been won. + +[Footnote A: See Lionardo Aretino's _Vita di Dante._] + +A little later in that summer, Dante was one of a troop of Florentines +who joined the forces of Lucca in levying war upon the Pisan territory. +The stronghold of Caprona was taken, and Dante was present at its +capture; for he says, (_Inferno,_ xxi. 94-96,) "I saw the foot-soldiers, +who, having made terms, came out from Caprona, afraid when they beheld +themselves among so many enemies."[B] + +[Footnote B: Landino, and most of the commentators after him, state that +Dante refers in this passage to the fear of the garrison taken in +the place when it was recaptured the next year by the Pisans. But as +Florence and Pisa continued at desperate enmity, Dante could hardly have +witnessed this latter scene.] + +Thus, during a great part of the summer of 1289, Dante was in active +service as a soldier. He was no lovesick idler, no mere home-keeping +writer of verses, but was already taking his part in the affairs of the +state which he was afterwards to be called on for a time to assist in +governing, and he was laying up those stores of experience which were to +serve as the material out of which his vivifying imagination was to form +the great national poem of Italy. But of this active life, of these +personal engagements, of these terrible events which took such strong +possession of his soul, there is no word, no suggestion even, in the +book of his "New Life." In it there is no echo, however faint, of those +storms of public violence and private passion which broke dark over +Italy. In the midst of the tumults which sprang from the jealousies of +rival states, from the internal discords of cities, from the divisions +of parties, from the bitterness of domestic quarrels,--this little book +is full of tenderness and peace, and tells its story of love as if the +world were the abode of tranquillity. No external excitements could +break into the inner chambers of Dante's heart to displace the love that +dwelt within them. The contrast between the purity and the serenity of +the "Vita Nuova" and the coarseness and cruelty of the deeds that were +going on while it was being written is complete. Every man in some sort +leads a double life,--one real and his own, the other seeming and the +world's,--but with few is the separation so entire as it was with +Dante. + +But in these troubled times the "New Life" was drawing to its close. +The spring of 1290 had come, and the poet, now twenty-five years old, +sixteen years having passed since he first beheld Beatrice, was engaged +in writing a poem to tell what effect the virtue of his lady wrought +upon him. He had written but the following portion when it was broken +off, never to be resumed:-- + + "So long hath Love retained me at his hest, + And to his sway hath so accustomed me, + That as at first he cruel used to be, + So in my heart he now doth sweetly rest. + Thus when by him my strength is dispossessed, + So that the spirits seem away to flee, + My frail soul feels such sweetness verily, + That with it pallor doth my face invest. + Then Love o'er me such mastery doth seize, + He makes my sighs in words to take their way, + And they unto my lady go to pray + That she to give me further grace would please. + Where'er she sees me, this to me occurs, + Nor can it be believed what humbleness is hers." + +"'Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo! facta est quasi vidua domina +gentium!' [How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how +is she become as a widow, she that was great among the nations!][C] + +[Footnote C: _Lamentations_, I. 1.] + +"I was yet engaged upon this Canzone, and had finished the above stanza, +when the Lord of justice called this most gentle one unto glory under +the banner of that holy Queen Mary whose name was ever spoken with +greatest reverence by this blessed Beatrice.[D] + +[Footnote D: There is among the Canzoni of Dante one beginning, + + "Morte poich' io non truovo a cui mi doglia," + +which seems to have been written during the illness of Beatrice, in view +of her approaching death. It is a beautiful and touching poem. Death is +besought to spare that lady, "who of every good is the true gate."--"If +thou extinguishest the light of those beautiful eyes, which were wont to +be so sweet a guide to mine, I see that thou desirest my death." + + "O Death, delay not mercy, if 'tis thine! + For now I seem to see the heavens ope, + And Angels of the Lord descending here, + Intent to bear away the holy soul + Of her whose honor there above is sung."] + +"And although it might give pleasure, were I now to tell somewhat of her +departure from us, it is not my intention to treat of it here for three +reasons. The first is, that it is no part of the present design, as may +be seen in the proem of this little book. The second is, that, supposing +it were so, my pen would not be sufficient to treat of it in a fitting +manner. The third is, that, supposing both the one and the other, it +would not be becoming in me to treat of it, since, in doing so, I +should be obliged to praise myself,--a thing altogether blameworthy in +whosoever does it,--and therefore I leave this subject to some other +narrator. + +"Nevertheless, since in what precedes there has been occasion to make +frequent mention of the number nine,[E] and apparently not without +reason, and since in her departure this number appeared to have a large +place, it is fitting to say something on this point, seeing that it +seems to belong to our design. Wherefore I will first tell how it had +place in her departure, and then I will assign some reason why this +number was so friendly to her. I say, that, according to the mode of +reckoning in Italy, her most noble soul departed in the first hour of +the ninth day of the month; and according to the reckoning, in Syria, +she departed in the ninth month of the year, since the first month there +is Tismim, which with us is October; and according to our reckoning, she +departed in that year of our indiction, that is, of the years of the +Lord, in which the perfect number[F] was completed for the ninth time in +that century in which she had been set in the world; and she was of the +Christians of the thirteenth century.[G] + +[Footnote E: In the earlier part of the _Vita Nuova_ there are many +references to this number. We translate in full the passage given above, +as one of the most striking illustrations of Dante's youthful fondness +for seeking for the mystical relations and inner meanings of things. The +attributing such importance to the properties of the number nine, though +it might at first seem puerile and an indication of poverty of feeling, +was a portion of the superstitious belief of the age, in which Dante +naturally shared. The mysterious properties of numbers were a subject of +serious study, and were connected with various branches of science and +of life. + +"Themistius vero, et Boethius, et Averrois Babylonius, cum Platone, sic +numeros extollunt, ut neminem absque illis posse recte philosophari +putent. Loquuntur autem de numero rationali et formali, non de +materiali, sensibili, sive vocali numero mercatorum.... Sed intendunt ad +proportionem ex illo resultantem, quem numerum naturalem et formalem et +rationalem vocant; ex quo magna sacramenta emanant, tam in naturalibus +quam divinis atque coelestibus.... In numeris itaque magnam latere +efficaciam et virtutem tam ad borum quam ad malum, non modo +splendidissimi philosophi unanimiter docent, sed etiam doctores +Catholici."--Cornelii Agrippae _De Occulta Philosophia_, Liber Secundus, +cc. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote F: The perfect number is ten.] + +[Footnote G: Thus it appears that Beatrice died on the 9th of June, +1290. She was a little more than twenty-four years old.] + +"One reason why this number was so friendly to her may be this: since, +according to Ptolemy and the Christian truth, there are nine heavens +which move, and, according to the common astrological opinion, these +heavens work effects here below according to their relative positions, +this number was her friend, to the end that it might be understood that +at her generation all the nine movable heavens were in most perfect +conjunction.[H] This is one reason; but considering more subtilely and +according to infallible truth, this number was she herself,--I speak in +a similitude, and I mean as follows. The number three is the root of +nine, since, without any other number, multiplied by itself, it makes +nine,--as we see plainly that three times three are nine. Then, if +three is the factor by itself of nine, and the Author of Miracles[I] +by himself is three,--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are three and +one,--this lady was accompanied by the number nine that it might be +understood that she was a nine, that is, a miracle, whose only root is +the marvellous Trinity. Perhaps a more subtle person might discover some +more subtile reason for this; but this is the one that I see for it, and +which pleases me the best." + +[Footnote H: Compare with this passage Ballata v., + + "Io mi son pargoletta bella e nova," + +and Sonnet xlv., + + "Da quella luce che 'I suo corso gira"; + +the latter probably in praise of Philosophy.] + +[Footnote I: The point is here lost in a translation,--_factor_ and +_author_ being expressed in the original by one word, _fattore_.] + +After thus treating of the number nine in its connection with Beatrice, +Dante goes on to say, that, when this most gentle lady had gone from +this world, the city appeared widowed and despoiled of every dignity; +whereupon he wrote to the princes of the earth an account of its +condition, beginning with the words of Jeremiah which he quoted at the +entrance of this new matter. The remainder of this letter he does not +give, because it was in Latin, and in this work it was his intention, +from the beginning, to write only in the vulgar tongue; and such was the +understanding of the friend for whom he writes,--that friend being, as +we may suppose, Guido Cavalcanti, whom Dante, it may be remembered, +has already spoken of as the chief among his friends. Then succeeds +a Canzone lamenting the death of Beatrice, which, instead of being +followed by a verbal exposition, as is the case with all that have gone +before, is preceded by one, in order that it may seem, as it were, +desolate and like a widow at its end. And this arrangement is preserved +in regard to all the remaining poems in the little volume. In this poem +he says that the Eternal Sire called Beatrice to himself, because he saw +that this world was not worthy of such a gentle thing; and he says of +his own life, that no tongue could tell what it has been since his lady +went away to heaven. + +Among the sonnets ascribed to Dante is one which, if it be his, must +have been written about this time, and which, although not included in +the "Vita Nuova," seems not unworthy to find a place here. Its imagery, +at least, connects it with some of the sonnets in the earlier portion of +the book. + + "One day came Melancholy unto me, + And said, 'With thee I will awhile abide'; + And, as it seemed, attending at her side, + Anger and Grief did bear her company. + + "'Depart! Away!' I cried out eagerly. + Then like a Greek she unto me replied; + And while she stood discoursing in her pride, + I looked, and Love approaching us I see. + + "In cloth of black full strangely was he clad, + A little hood he wore upon his head, + And down his face tears flowing fast he had. + + "'Poor little wretch! what ails thee?' then I said. + And he replied, 'I woful am, and sad, + Sweet brother, for our lady who is dead.'" + +About this time, Dante tells us, a person who stood to him in friendship +next to his first friend, and who was of the closest relationship to his +glorious lady, so that we may believe it was her brother, came to +him and prayed him to write something on a lady who was dead. Dante, +believing that he meant the blessed Beatrice, accordingly wrote for him +a sonnet; and then, reflecting that so short a poem appeared but a poor +and bare service for one who was so nearly connected with her, added to +it a Canzone, and gave both to him. + +As the months passed on, his grief still continued fresh, and the memory +of his lady dwelt continually with him. It happened, that, "on that day +which completed a year since this lady was made one of the citizens of +eternal life, I was seated in a place where, remembering her, I drew +an Angel upon certain tablets. And while I was drawing it, I turned +my eyes, and saw at my side certain men to whom it was becoming to do +honor, and who were looking at what I did; and, as was afterward told +me, they had been there now some time before I perceived them. When I +saw them, I rose, and, saluting them, said, 'Another was just now with +me, and on that account I was in thought.' When these persons had gone, +I returned to my work, that is, to drawing figures of Angels; and while +doing this, a thought came to me of saying words in rhyme, as for an +anniversary poem for her, and of addressing them to those who had come +to me. Then I said this sonnet, which has two beginnings:-- + + FIRST BEGINNING. + + "Unto my mind remembering had come + The gentle lady, with such pure worth graced, + That by the Lord Most High she had been placed + Within the heaven of peace, where Mary hath her home." + + SECOND BEGINNING. + + "Unto my mind had come, indeed, in thought, + That gentle one for whom Love's tears are shed, + Just at the time when, by his power led, + To see what I was doing you were brought. + + "Love, who within my mind did her perceive, + Was roused awake within my wasted heart, + And said unto my sighs, 'Go forth! depart!' + Whereon each one in grief did take its leave. + + "Lamenting they from out my breast did go, + And uttering a voice that often led + The grievous tears unto my saddened eyes. + + "But those which issued with the greatest woe, + 'O noble soul,' they in departing said, + 'To-day makes up the year since thou to heaven didst rise.'" + +The preceding passage is one of the many in the "Vita Nuova" which are +of peculiar interest, as illustrating the personal tastes of Dante, and +the common modes of his life. "I was drawing," he says, "the figure of +an Angel"; and this statement is the more noticeable, because Giotto, +the man who set painting on its modern course, was not yet old enough +to have exercised any influence upon Dante.[J] The friendship which +afterwards existed between them had its beginning at a later period. At +this time Cimabue still held the field. He often painted angels around +the figures of the Virgin and her Child; and in his most famous picture, +in the Church of Sta. Maria Novella, there are certain angels of which +Vasari says, with truth, that, though painted in the Greek manner, they +show an approach toward the modern style of drawing. These angels may +well have seemed beautiful to eyes accustomed to the hard unnaturalness +of earlier works. The love of Art pervaded Florence, and a nature so +sensitive and so sympathetic as Dante's could not but partake of it +in the fullest measure. Art was then no adjunct of sentimentalism, no +encourager of idleness. It was connected with all that was most serious +and all that was most delightful in life. It is difficult, indeed, to +realize the delight which it gave, and the earnestness with which it was +followed at this period, when it seemed, as by a miracle, to fling off +the winding-sheet which had long wrapped its stiffened limbs, and to +come forth with new and unexampled life. + +[Footnote J: In this year, 1291, Giotto was but fifteen years old, +and probably a student with Cimabue. Benvenuto da Imola, who lectured +publicly at Bologna on the _Divina Commedia_ in the year 1378, reports, +that, while Giotto, still a young man, was painting at Padua, Dante +visited him. And Vasari says, that it was a tradition, that Giotto had +painted, in a chapel at Naples, scenes out of the _Apocalypse_, from +designs furnished him by the poet. If we may believe another tradition, +which there seems indeed little reason to doubt, Giotto went to Ravenna +during the last years of Dante's life, that he might spend there some +time in company with his exiled friend.] + +The strength and the intelligence of Dante's love of Art are shown in +many beautiful passages and allusions in the "Divina Commedia." There +was something of universality, not only in his imagination, but also in +his acquisitions. Of the sources of learning which were then open, there +was not one which he had not visited; of the fountains of inspiration, +not one out of which he had not drunk. All the arts--poetry, painting, +sculpture, and music--were alike dear to him. His Canzoni were written +to be sung; and one of the most charming scenes in the great poem is +that in which is described his meeting with his friend Casella, the +musician, who sang to him one of his own Canzoni so sweetly, that "the +sweetness still within me sounds."[K] + +[Footnote K: This Canzone, to the exposition of which the third Trattato +of the _Convito_ is devoted, has been inimitably translated by the +Reverend Charles T. Brooks. We believe it to be the happiest version +of one of Dante's minor poems that exists in our language,--and every +student of the poet will recognize the success with which very great +difficulties have been overcome. It appeared in the _Crayon_, for +February, 1853.] + +"Dante took great delight in music, and was an excellent draughtsman," +says Aretino, his second biographer; and Boccaccio reports, that in his +youth he took great pleasure in music, and was the friend of all the +best musicians and singers of his time. There is, perhaps, in the +whole range of literature, no nobler homage to Art than that which is +contained in the tenth and twelfth cantos of the "Purgatory," in which +Dante represents the Creator himself as using its means to impress the +lessons of truth upon those whose souls were being purified for the +final attainment of heaven. The passages are too long for extract, and +though their wonderful beauty tempts us to linger over them, we must +return to the course of the story of Dante's life as it appears in the +concluding pages of the "New Life." + +Many months had passed since Beatrice's death, when Dante happened to +be in a place which recalled the past time to him, and filled him with +grief. While standing here, he raised his eyes and saw a young and +beautiful lady looking out from a window compassionately upon his sad +aspect. The tenderness of her look touched his heart and moved his +tears. Many times afterwards he saw her, and her face was always full +of compassion, and pale, so that it reminded him of the look of his own +most noble lady. But at length his eyes began to delight too much in +seeing her; wherefore he often cursed their vanity, and esteemed +himself as vile, and there was a hard battle within himself between the +remembrance of his lady and the new desire of his eyes. + +At length, he says, "The sight of this lady brought me into so new +a condition, that I often thought of her as of one who pleased me +exceedingly,--and I thought of her thus: 'This is a gentle, beautiful, +young, and discreet lady, and she has perhaps appeared by will of +Love, in order that my life may find repose.' And often I thought more +amorously, so that my heart consented in it, that is, approved my +reasoning. And after it had thus consented, I, moved as if by reason, +reflected, and said to myself, 'Ah, what thought is this that in so vile +a way seeks to console me, and leaves me scarcely any other thought?' +Then another thought rose up and said, 'Now that thou hast been in so +great tribulation of Love, why wilt thou not withdraw thyself from such +bitterness? Thou seest that this is an inspiration that sets the desires +of Love before thee, and proceeds from a place no less gentle than +the eyes of the lady who has shown herself so pitiful toward thee.' +Wherefore, I, having often thus combated with myself, wished to say some +words of it. And as, in this battle of thoughts, those which spoke for +her won the victory, it seemed to me becoming to address her, and I said +this sonnet, which begins, 'A gentle thought'; and I called it _gentle_ +because I was speaking to a gentle lady,--but otherwise it was most +vile. + + "A gentle thought that of you holds discourse + Cometh now frequently with me to dwell, + And in so sweet a way of Love doth tell, + My heart to yield unto him he doth force. + "'Who, then, is this,' the soul says to the heart, + 'Who cometh to bring comfort to our mind? + And is his virtue of so potent kind, + That other thoughts he maketh to depart?' + "'O saddened soul,' the heart to her replies, + 'This is a little spirit fresh from Love, + Whose own desires he before me brings; + "'His very life and all his power doth move + Forth from the sweet compassionating eyes + Of her so grieved by our sufferings.'" + +"One day, about the ninth hour, there arose within me a strong +imagination opposed to this adversary of reason. For I seemed to see +the glorified Beatrice in that crimson garment in which she had first +appeared to my eyes, and she seemed to me young, of the same age as when +I first saw her. Then I began to think of her, and, calling to mind the +past time in its order, my heart began to repent bitterly of the desire +by which it had so vilely allowed itself for some days to be possessed, +contrary to the constancy of reason. And this so wicked desire being +expelled, all my thoughts returned to their most gentle Beatrice, and +I say that thenceforth I began to think of her with my heart possessed +utterly by shame, so that it was often manifested by my sighs; for +almost all of them, as they went forth, told what was discoursed of in +my heart,--the name of that gentlest one, and how she had gone from +us.... And I wished that my wicked desire and vain temptation might be +known to be at an end; and that the rhymed words which I had before +written might induce no doubt, I proposed to make a sonnet in which I +would include what I have now told." + +With this sonnet Dante ends the story in the "Vita Nuova" of the +wandering of his eyes, and the short faithlessness of his heart; but +it is retold with some additions in the "Convito" or "Banquet," a work +written many years afterward; and in this later version there are some +details which serve to fill out and illustrate the earlier narrative.[L] +The same tender and refined feeling which inspires the "Vita Nuova" +gives its tone to all the passages in which the poet recalls his +youthful days and the memory of Beatrice in this work of his sorrowful +manhood. In the midst of its serious and philosophic discourse this +little story winds in and out its thread of personal recollection and of +sweet romantic sentiment. It affords new insight into the recesses of +Dante's heart, and exhibits the permanence of the gracious qualities of +his youth. + +[Footnote L: The differences in the two accounts of this period of +Dante's experience, and the view of Beatrice presented in the _Convito,_ +suggest curious and interesting questions, the solution of which has +been obscured by the dulness of commentators. We must, however, leave +the discussion of these points till some other opportunity.] + +Its opening sentence is full of the imagery of love. "Since the death of +that blessed Beatrice who lives in heaven with the angels, and on +earth with my soul, the star of Venus had twice shone in the different +seasons, as the star of morning and of evening, when that gentle lady, +of whom I have made mention near the close of the "New Life," first +appeared before my eyes accompanied by Love, and gained some place in my +mind. ... And before this love could become perfect, there arose a +great battle between the thought that sprang from it and that which was +opposed to it, and which still held the fortress of my mind for the +glorified Beatrice."[M] + +[Footnote M: _Convito_, Tratt. ii. c. 3.] + +And so hard was this struggle, and so painful, that Dante took +refuge from it in the composition of a poem addressed to the Angelic +Intelligences who move the third heaven, that is, the heaven of Venus; +and it is to the exposition of the true meaning of this Canzone that +the second book or treatise of the "Convito" is directed. In one of the +later chapters he says, (and the passage is a most striking one, from +its own declaration, as well as from its relation to the vision of the +"Divina Commedia,")--"The life of my heart was wont to be a sweet and +delightful thought, which often went to the feet of the Lord of those +to whom I speak, that is, to God,--for, thinking, I contemplated the +kingdom of the Blessed. And I tell [in my poem] the final cause of my +mounting thither in thought, when I say, 'There I beheld a lady in +glory'; [and I say this] in order that it may be understood that I was +certain, and am certain, through her gracious revelation, that she was +in heaven, whither I in my thought oftentimes went,--as it were, seized +up. And this made me desirous of death, that I might go there where she +was."[N] Following upon the chapter in which this remarkable passage +occurs is one which is chiefly occupied with a digression upon the +immortality of the soul,--and with discourse upon this matter, says +Dante, "it will be beautiful to finish speaking of that living and +blessed Beatrice, of whom I intend to say no more in this book.... And +I believe and affirm and am certain that I shall pass after this to +another and better life, in which that glorious lady lives of whom my +soul was enamored."[O] + +[Footnote N: _Convito_, Tratt. ii. c. 8.] + +[Footnote O: Id. c. 9.] + +But it is not from the "Convito" alone that this portion of the "Vita +Nuova" receives illustration. In that passage of the "Purgatory" in +which Beatrice is described as appearing in person to her lover the +first time since her death, she addresses him in words of stern rebuke +of his fickleness and his infidelity to her memory. The whole scene is, +perhaps, unsurpassed in imaginative reality; the vision appears to have +an actual existence, and the poet himself is subdued by the power of his +own imagination. He tells the words of Beatrice with the same feeling +with which he would have repeated them, had they fallen on his mortal +ear. His grief and shame are real, and there is no element of feigning +in them. That in truth he had seemed to himself to listen to and to +behold what he tells, it is scarcely possible to doubt. Beatrice says,-- + + "Some while at heart my presence kept him sound; + My girlish eyes to his observance lending, + I led him with me on the right way bound. + When of my second age the steps ascending, + I bore my life into another sphere, + Then stole he from me, after others bending. + When I arose from flesh to spirit clear, + When beauty, worthiness, upon me grew, + I was to him less pleasing and less dear."[P] + +[Footnote P: Purgatory, c. xxx. vv. 118-126.--CAYLEY'S Translation.] + +But although Beatrice only gives utterance to the self-reproaches of +Dante, we have seen already how fully he had atoned for this first and +transient unfaithfulness of his heart. The remainder of the "Vita Nuova" +shows how little she had lost of her power over him, how reverently he +honored her memory, how constant was his love of her whom he should see +never again with his earthly eyes. Returning to the "New Life,"-- + +"After this tribulation," he says, "at that time when many people were +going to see the blessed image which Jesus Christ left to us as the +likeness of his most beautiful countenance,[Q] which my lady now beholds +in glory, it happened that certain pilgrims passed through a street +which is almost in the middle of that city where the gentlest lady was +born, lived, and died,--and they went along, as it seemed to me, very +pensive. And thinking about them, I said to myself, 'These appear to me +to be pilgrims from a far-off region, and I do not believe that they +have even heard speak of this lady, and they know nothing of her; their +thoughts are rather of other things than of her; for, perhaps, they are +thinking of their distant friends, whom we do not know.' Then I said to +myself, 'I know, that, if these persons were from a neighboring country, +they would show some sign of trouble as they pass through the midst of +this grieving city.' Then again I said, 'If I could hold them awhile, I +would indeed make them weep before they went out from this city; for I +would say words to them which would make whoever should hear them weep.' +Then, when they had passed out of sight, I proposed to make a sonnet in +which I would set forth that which I had said to myself; and in order +that it might appear more pity-moving, I proposed to say it as if I had +spoken to them, and I said this sonnet, which begins, 'O pilgrims.' + +[Footnote Q: The most precious relic at Rome, and the one which chiefly +attracted pilgrims, during a long period of the Middle Ages, was the +Veronica, or representation of the Saviour's face, supposed to have been +miraculously impressed upon the handkerchief with which he wiped his +face on his way to Calvary. It was preserved at St. Peter's and shown +only on special occasions. Compare with this passage the lines in the +_Paradiso_, c. xxxi. 103-8:-- + + "As one that haply from Croatia came + To see our Veronica, and no whit + Could be contented with its olden fame, + Who in his heart saith, when they're showing it, + 'O Jesu Christ! O very Lord God mine! + Does truly this thy feature counterfeit?'" + CAYLEY. + +G. Villani says, that in 1300, the year of jubilee, for the consolation +of Christian pilgrims, the Veronica was shown in St. Peter's every +Friday, and on other solemn festivals. viii. 36.] + +"I called them _pilgrims_ in the wide sense of that word; for pilgrims +may be understood in two ways,--one wide, and one narrow. In the wide, +whoever is out of his own country is so far a pilgrim; in the narrow +use, by pilgrim is meant he only who goes to or returns from the house +of St. James.[R] Moreover, it is to be known that those who travel in +the service of the Most High are called by three distinct terms. Those +who go beyond the sea, whence often they bring back the palm, are called +_palmers_. Those who go to the house of Galicia are called _pilgrims_, +because the burial-place of St. James was more distant from his country +than that of any other of the Apostles. And those are called _romei_ who +go to Rome, where these whom I call pilgrims were going. + +[Footnote R: The shrine of St. James, at Compostella, (contracted from +_Giacomo Apostolo_,) in Galicia, was a great resort of pilgrims during +the Middle Ages,--and Santiago, the military patron of Spain, was one of +the most popular saints of Christendom. Chaucer says, the Wif of Bathe + + "Had passed many a straunge streem; + At Rome sche hadde ben, and at Boloyne, + In Galice at Seynt Jame, and at Coloyne." + +And Shakspeare, in _All's Well that Ends Well_, makes Helena represent +herself as "St. Jacques's pilgrim."] + + "O pilgrims, who in pensive mood move + slow, + Thinking perchance of those who absent + are, + Say, do ye come from land away so far + As your appearance seems to us to show? + + "For ye weep not, the while ye forward go + Along the middle of the mourning town, + Seeming as persons who have nothing + known + Concerning the sad burden of her woe. + + "If, through your will to hear, your steps ye + stay, + Truly my sighing heart declares to me + That ye shall afterwards depart in tears. + + "For she[S] her Beatrice hath lost: and ye + Shall know, the words that man of her + may say + Have power to make weep whoever + hears." + +[Footnote S: The city.] + +Some time after this sonnet was written, two ladies sent to Dante, +asking him for some of his rhymes. That he might honor their request, he +wrote a new sonnet and sent it to them with two that he had previously +composed. In his new sonnet, he told how his thought mounted to heaven, +as a pilgrim, and beheld his lady in such condition of glory as could +not be comprehended by his intellect; for our intellect, in regard to +the souls of the blessed, is as weak as our eyes are to the sun. But +though he could not clearly see where his thought led him, at least he +understood that his thought told of his lady in glory. + + "Beyond the sphere that widest orbit hath + Passeth the sigh that issues from my + heart, + While weeping Love doth unto him impart + Intelligence which leads him on his path, + + "When at the wished-for place his flight he + stays, + A lady he beholds, in honor dight, + And shining so, that, through her splendid + light, + The pilgrim spirit upon her doth gaze. + + "He sees her such that his reporting words + I understand not, for he speaketh low + And strange to the sad heart which makes + him tell; + + "He speaketh of that gentle one, I know, + Since oft he Beatrice's name records; + So, ladies dear, I understand him well." + +This was the last of the poems which Dante composed in immediate honor +and memory of Beatrice, and is the last of those which he inserted in +the "Vita Nuova." It was not that his love grew cold, or that her image +became faint in his remembrance; but, as he tells us in a few concluding +and memorable words, from this time forward he devoted himself to +preparation for a work in which the earthly Beatrice should have less +part, while the heavenly and blessed spirit of her whom he had loved +should receive more becoming honors. The lover's grief was to find no +more expression; the lamentations for the loss which could never be made +good to him were to cease; the exhibition of a personal sorrow was at an +end. Love and grief, in their double ministry, had refined, enlarged, +and exalted his spirit to the conception of a design unparalleled in its +nature, and of which no intellectual genius, unpurged by suffering, and +impenetrated in its deepest recesses by the spiritualizing heats of +emotion, would have been capable of conceiving. Moreover, as time wore +on, its natural result was gradually to withdraw the poet from the +influence of temporary excitements of feeling, resulting from his +experience of love and death, and to bring him to the contemplation +of life as affected by the presence and the memory of Beatrice in its +eternal and universal relations. He tells us in the "Convito," that, +"after some time, my mind, which neither such consolation as I could +give it, nor that offered to it by others, availed to comfort, +determined to turn to that method by which others in grief had consoled +themselves. And I set myself to read that book, but little known, of +Boethius, in which in prison and exile he had consoled himself. And +hearing, likewise, that Tully had written a book, in which, treating +of friendship, he had offered some words of comfort to Laelius, a most +excellent man, on the death of Scipio, his friend, I read this also. And +although at first it was hard for me to enter into their meaning, I at +length entered into it so far as my knowledge of language, and such +little capacity as I had, enabled me; by means of which capacity, I had +already, like one dreaming, seen many things, as may be seen in the 'New +Life.' And as it might happen that a man seeking silver should, beyond +his expectation, find gold, which a hidden chance presents to him, not, +perhaps, without Divine direction, so I, who sought for consolation, +found not only a remedy for my tears, but also acquaintance with +authors, with knowledge, and with books." + +Nor did these serious and solitary studies withdraw him from the pursuit +of wisdom among men and in the active world. Year by year, he entered +more fully into the affairs of state, and took a larger portion of their +conduct upon himself. + +His heart kept fresh by abiding recollections of love, his faith +quickened by and intermingled with the tenderest hopes, his imagination +uplifted by the affection which overleaped the boundaries of the +invisible world, and his intellect disciplined by study of books and +of men, his experience enlarged by constant occupation in affairs, his +judgment matured by the quick succession of important events in which +he was involved,--every part of his nature was thus prepared for the +successful accomplishment of that great and sacred design which he set +before himself now in his youth. Heaven had called and selected him for +a work which even in his own eyes partook somewhat of the nature of a +prophetic charge. His strength was to be tested and his capacity to be +approved. Life was ordered for the fulfilment of his commission. The men +to whom God intrusts a message for the world find the service to +which they are appointed one in which they must be ready to sacrifice +everything. Dante looked forward, even at the beginning, to the end, and +saw what lay between. + +The pages of the "New Life" fitly close with words of that life in which +all things shall be made new, "and there shall be no more death, neither +sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former +things are passed away." The little book ends thus:-- + +"Soon after this, a wonderful vision appeared to me, in which I saw +things which made me purpose to speak no more of this blessed one until +I could more worthily treat of her. And to attain to this, I study to +the utmost of my power, as she truly knoweth. So that, if it shall +please Him through whom all things live, that my life be prolonged for +some years, I hope to speak of her as never was spoken of any woman. And +then may it please Him who is the Lord of Grace, that my soul may go to +behold the glory of its lady, the blessed Beatrice, who in glory looks +upon the face of Him, _qui est per omnia saecula benedictus_ [who is +Blessed forever]!" + +In 1320, or perhaps not till 1321, the "Paradiso" was finished; in 1321, +Dante died. + + * * * * * + + +THE DOUBLE-HEADED SNAKE OF NEWBURY. + + + "Concerning ye Amphisbaena, as soon as I received your commands, I made + diligent inquiry: he assures me y't it had really two heads, one at each + end, two mouths, two stings or tongues." + + Rev. Christopher Toppan to Cotton Mather. + + + Far away in the twilight time + Of every people, in every clime, + Dragons and griffins and monsters dire, + Born of water, and air, and fire, + Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud + And ooze of the old Deucalion flood, + Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage, + Through dusk tradition and ballad age. + So from the childhood of Newbury town + And its time of fable the tale comes down + Of a terror which haunted bush and brake, + The Amphisbaena, the Double Snake! + + Thou who makest the tale thy mirth, + Consider that strip of Christian earth + On the desolate shore of a sailless sea, + Full of terror and mystery, + Half-redeemed from the evil hold + Of the wood so dreary and dark and old, + Which drank with its lips of leaves the dew + When Time was young and the world was new, + And wove its shadows with sun and moon + Ere the stones of Cheops were squared and hewn; + Think of the sea's dread monotone, + Of the mournful wail from the pine-wood blown, + Of the strange, vast splendors that lit the North, + Of the troubled throes of the quaking earth, + And the dismal tales the Indian told, + Till the settler's heart at his hearth grew cold, + And he shrank from the tawny wizard's boasts, + And the hovering shadows seemed full of ghosts, + And above, below, and on every side, + The fear of his creed seemed verified;-- + And think, if his lot were now thine own, + To grope with terrors nor named nor known, + How laxer muscle and weaker nerve + And a feebler faith thy need might serve; + And own to thyself the wonder more + That the snake had two heads and not a score! + + Whether he lurked in the Oldtown fen, + Or the gray earth-flax of the Devil's Den, + Or swam in the wooded Artichoke, + Or coiled by the Northman's Written Rock, + Nothing on record is left to show; + Only the fact that he lived, we know, + And left the cast of a "double head" + In the scaly mask which he yearly shed. + For he carried a head where his tail should be, + And the two, of course, could never agree, + But wriggled about with main and might, + Now to the left and now to the right; + Pulling and twisting this way and that, + Neither knew what the other was at. + + A snake with two heads, lurking so near!-- + Judge of the wonder, guess at the fear! + Think what ancient gossips might say, + Shaking their heads in their dreary way, + Between the meetings on Sabbath-day! + How urchins, searching at day's decline + The Common Pasture for sheep or kine, + The terrible double-ganger heard + In leafy rustle or whirr of bird! + Think what a zest it gave to the sport + In berry-time of the younger sort, + As over pastures blackberry-twined + Reuben and Dorothy lagged behind, + And closer and closer, for fear of harm, + The maiden clung to her lover's arm; + And how the spark, who was forced to stay, + By his sweetheart's fears, till the break of day, + Thanked the snake for the fond delay! + + Far and wide the tale was told, + Like a snowball growing while it rolled. + The nurse hushed with it the baby's cry; + And it served, in the worthy minister's eye, + To paint the primitive Serpent by. + Cotton Mather came posting down + All the way to Newbury town, + With his eyes agog and his ears set wide, + And his marvellous inkhorn at his side; + Stirring the while in the shallow pool + Of his brains for the lore he learned at school, + To garnish the story, with here a streak + Of Latin, and there another of Greek: + And the tales he heard and the notes he took, + Behold! are they not in his Wonder-Book? + + Stories, like dragons, are hard to kill. + If the snake does not, the tale runs still + In Byfield Meadows, on Pipestone Hill. + And still, whenever husband and wife + Publish the shame of their daily strife, + And, with mad cross-purpose, tug and strain + At either end of the marriage-chain, + The gossips say, with a knowing shake + Of their gray heads, "Look at the Double Snake! + One in body and two in will, + The Amphisbaena is living still!" + + + + +A PLEA FOR THE FIJIANS; + +OR, CAN NOTHING BE SAID IN FAVOR OF ROASTING ONE'S EQUALS? + + +It is with a feeling of no mean satisfaction, that, in this year of +1859, the philosopher can calmly propose the investigation of a subject, +the mere mention of which would have created universal disgust, and even +horror, at a period not long past. Thanks to the progress of liberal +ideas and sound criticism, we are able, in the middle of the +ever-memorable Nineteenth Century, serenely to examine anew those +questions which for entire centuries stolid prejudice and narrow +dogmatism considered settled, and adjudicated in the High Court of +Humanity for all times to come. However signal the progress of our age +may be in the useful arts and in aesthetics, especially in upholstery, +in chemistry, in the government of large cities, and in the purity of +commerce, in pottery, pills, and poetry, and in the dignity of politics, +nothing, we may venture to say, will so distinctly and so broadly +characterize the period in which we happily live, when the future +historian shall sweep with his star-seeker over the past, as the +joyful fact, that we, above all others, have divested ourselves of +long-cherished errors, hugged by our forefathers as truths full of life +and vigor, and have, indeed, so to speak, founded a Novum Organon in +fact and reality, while the great Bacon proposed one in mind and theory. +To our enlightened age it was reserved to return to polygamy, after +nearly three thousand dragging years of dull adhesion of our race to +tiresome monogamy, leaping back by one bound over the whole European +Past into ancient and respectable Asia. _Ex Oriente lux; ex Oriente +gaudia seraglii!_ It is in our blessed epoch that atheism, by some, and +pantheism, by others, are boldly taught and vindicated, as once they +were by Greeks or Orientals, and with an earnestness and enthusiasm very +different from the sneer with which Encyclopaedists of Voltaire's time +attacked Christianity and Deism. To prove, however, the magnificent +many-sidedness of our noble times, it is we that have returned once more +to pictures of the Virgin Mary with winking and with weeping eyes, or +to her apparitions talking _patois_, as that of La Valette, and to a +hundred things in the Church, cautiously passed over _sub silentio_ in +the last century, but now joyously proclaimed and sustained with defiant +erudition by English and German _doctores graces_, and by the Parisian +"Univers," which, openly rejoicing in the English blood spilt by +the Sepoys,--for it is but Protestant blood, and that of hateful +freemen,--heralds the second or third advent of universal love +and Papacy. It is in our age that representative, and indeed all +institutional government, for the first time, is called effete +parliamentarism, a theatrical delusion, for which, according to the +requirements of advanced civilization, the beneficent, harmonious, and +ever-glorious Caesarism, _pur et simple_, must be substituted, as it +was once sublimely exhibited in the attractive Caesars of Rome, those +favorites of History and very pets of Clio. In the time of Tiberius, as +President Troplong beautifully and officially expressed it, "Democracy +at last seated herself on the imperial throne, embodied in the +Caesars,"--those worshipful incarnations of democracy, brought to our +view in the _tableaux_ of Suetonius and by the accounts of Tacitus. We +have at last returned to Caesarism, or Asiatic absolutism, improved by +modern light, and making the emperor a Second Providence, opening and +shutting the mouths of the universal-suffrage people, for words or +bread, as imperial divinity finds best. This is the progress of our age +in Europe, while we, in this hemisphere, have taken, for the first +time in history, a rational view of party strife, and with unclouded +intelligence maintain that judges and presidents are, and ought to be, +party exponents, doing away with those once romantic, but certainly +superannuated ideas of Country, Justice, Truth, and Patriotism. All real +progress tends toward simplification; and how simple are the idea of +party and the associations clustering around this sacred word, compared +with the confusing and embarrassing unreality of those ideas and +juvenile feelings we have mentioned last! + +But we have not done yet with the glory of our age. It is this, the +decennium we are soon going to close, that has risen to that enviable +eminence whence slavery is declared a precious good of itself, +a hallowed agent of civilization, an indispensable element of +conservatism, and a foundation of true socialism. From this lofty +eminence the seer-statesman--rising far above the philosophical sagacity +displayed by Aristotle and Varro, when they discussed the sacred +topic--proclaims that Capital ought to own, and has a divine right to +own, and always more or less does own, Labor; and that, since Labor +constitutes the whole humanity of the laboring man, it clearly follows +that he himself must be owned, if his labor be owned. Would you own the +bird without its cage? Generous gospel of the rich! Blessed are the +wealthy! + +It is the destiny of the middle of the nineteenth century--well may +we be forgiven, if we pronounce it with some pride--unhesitatingly +to defend the African slave-trade, and to smile at what sickly +philanthropists used to consider the unutterable woe, the unmeasured +crime, and the diabolical hard-heartedness of that traffic. We have +changed all this; and, to say the truth, it was high time to discover +that the negro-trade forms a charming chapter in the history of Europe, +and that the protracted efforts to put it down were unchristian and +unstatesmanlike. Pitt, Roscoe, Wilberforce, Burke, Washington, Franklin, +Madison, Adams, Lowndes,--puny names! short-sighted men! By the African +slave-trade, creatures that are hardly deserving the name of men, on +account of organic, intellectual, and moral incapacity, are forcibly +carried into the regions of Christian religion and civilization, there +to become civilized in spite of their unfitness for civilization. The +mariners, usually occupied in risking life or health merely for the +sake of base traffic and filthy lucre, are suddenly transformed into +ministering agents of civilization and religion. It gives a priestly +character to the captain of a slave-ship,--to him that is willing to +break the laws of his country, even daring the gallows, for the benefit +of the sable brother, and of his law-abiding conservative society. How +different from those dark times when the poet could say, _--Homo ignoto +homini lupus est!_ The missionary only endeavors to carry the Church to +Africa; the slave-trader carries Africa to the Church, to civilization, +and to the auction-table. + +There are but two more returns to truth and justice necessary,--the +Inquisition and the Witch-Trials. These restored, we may safely +congratulate ourselves on having regained the ground on which our race +stood before the Reformation, that untoward event, whence all the +mischief dates that has befallen man in the shape of human rights, +liberty, and other deplorable things, as lately a grave writer--not a +Catholic, nor a Jew either--gravely assured us. Gentle readers, let us +not be impatient. Progress has been of late so rapid, that many of you, +it is to be hoped, will yet have an opportunity of hailing the return of +those two noble institutions, _pro majore gloriâ Dei_, for which they +always existed, as long as chill and misty skepticism did not extinguish +their glowing poetry. Ah! happy times! poetic age! when there existed +not only "words that burn," but also laws that burned! + +In the mean time, it may not be inappropriate to commence the +consideration of a topic somewhat farther removed from us, but which, +according to our humble opinion, ought not to remain wholly beyond the +limits of a candid, liberal, and unprejudiced examination,--we mean the +important question, Whether the choicest of all substances, the most +delicate of all muscular texture, that substance of which kings, +philosophers, policemen, and supporters of crinoline are fashioned +by the plastic hand of Nature, ought forever to be excluded from the +reproductive process of wasted energy and proportionably consumed +nervous and cerebral fibre. Reader, do not shrink; grant us a patient +ear. You do not know how rapidly you may change your own opinion and +feelings. Do you not remember with what awe we first read in the +"Almanach des Gourmands," that a certain _sauce piquante_ was so fine +that with it a man would eat his own mother? This was only twenty years +ago; yet all of us, now, are helping a high-bred gentleman, trading, on +a gigantic scale, in the bones of his great ancestor. What sublimity of +peddling! + +To those who say, It is unnatural to eat our friends, we would answer, +that it is the office of civilization to remove us farther and farther +from Nature. Analyze the present magnitude called Lady, and you can +arithmetically state it, how little of it is nature-woman, and how +much is hoop-civilization. To those, again, who object, that it is too +primitive, we would reply, that the highest civilization is always a +return to Nature, which is likewise exemplified by many of our ladies in +the ball-room,--we mean by their upper portion. + +But _revenons à nos moutons_. The Rev. Messrs. Williams and Calvert, +missionaries, for many long years, among the Fijians, state, in their +recently published work, that those unsophisticated children of Nature +eat "long pig,"--as they call, with graceful humor, roast-man, in +contradistinction to "short-pig," by which they designate our squealing +fellow-roasters,--from three different motives.--When a chief has a +gala-day, or desires to signal his arrival by a right royal feast, it is +considered befitting to slaughter some men, to let the blood run in +the path of royalty, and to have on the table some _roast-homme_. Our +Captain Wilkins told us, years ago, that, for this _roast-homme_, a +plump Fijiana, of some twelve or thirteen years, is preferred. They know +very well what is good!--The second motive is hatred. When a Fijian +mortally hates a person, he endeavors to kill him; and having killed the +enemy, why should the victim not be eaten?--Lastly, it would seem that +affectionate regard, especially for a favorite wife, sometimes rises +to a mordant passion and an unconquerable longing for material +assimilation,--so much so, that the loving husband roasts his Penelope, +and neighbors are invited to participate in his better fourth or fifth, +as the polygamic case may be. Perhaps, years after, when with less +demonstrative nations the memory of the beloved one would have passed +away, the Fijian Fidelio may smack his lips, and exclaim, with +Petrarch's fervor,-- + + "Perchè Morte fura + Prima i migliori, e lascia star i rei: + Questa aspettata al regno degli Dei + Cosa bella mortal passa e non dura." + +Now we are very anxious not to be misunderstood by our readers. In +writing this paper, we do not mean to urge the reintroduction of +Cannibalism among us at once. The public mind may not yet be ripe for +it; but we desire to assist in placing the subject in its proper light, +and in showing that an enlightened impartiality can find very much in +defence of the Fijians,--more, indeed, than the Rev. Mr. Froude has been +able to accumulate in favor of his wife-devouring hero,--or than Mr. +Spratt can say in favor of humanization in general, and the breaking-up +of the Union in particular, by the reopening of the African +slave-trade,--or than our venerable chief-justice has contrived to say +in favor of reintroducing slavery in conquered territory, where positive +law had abolished or excluded it, by the abstract Constitution itself, +_proprio vigore_, (not quite unlike a wagoner, it seems to us, that +carries the soil of distant parts, _ipsâ adhesione_, as it sticks to +his boots, into the tavern-room,) without special law, which even the +ancient civilians very stupidly declared to be necessary. First, you +will remember, it was passionately maintained that the Constitution of +the United States does not know the Common Law; and now it is insisted +that Common Law (so far as slavery is concerned) is as inherent in the +Constitution as the black pigment is in the negro. You cannot wash it +out; it inheres physiologically in the Constitution. I tell you, reader, +we are _fast_ people indeed; we travel fast in our opinions, with now +and then a somerset for the delectation of the philosopher. + +Let us sit down, and have a philosophical conversation; above all, let +us discard sentiment, feeling,--what you call heart, and all that sort +of thing. You know how much mischief Las Casas has done by allowing his +feelings to interfere when the Spaniards roasted Indians, from what he +chose to call diabolical lust of gold, and sheer, abstract cruelty. Poor +Bishop! He belonged to the softs. Let us be philosophers, economists, +and, above all, Constitutionalists. Some philosophers, indeed, have +said that all idea of Right and Wrong, and the idea that there is +a difference between the two, must needs, first of all, start from +sentiment; but leave, I implore you, such philosophic fogyism behind +you. + +First, then, as to the principle of Right. It is a fact, that most +tribes and races, probably all nations in their earliest days, +have killed old and useless parents, and have eaten enemies, once +slain,--perhaps friends, too. Some nations carried the eating of human +flesh far down into their civilized periods and into recent times. The +Spaniards found the civilized Aztecs enjoying their _petits soupers_ +of babes _à la Tartare_, or gorgeous dinners on fattened heroes _aux +truffes_. Have you forgotten that from that fine Introduction to +Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" a flavor of roast "long pig" steams into +our nostrils as from a royal kitchen? Eating our equals, therefore, +is sound Common Law of all mankind, even more so than slavery, for it +exists before slavery can be introduced. Slavery is introduced when the +prisoner of war may be made to work,--when the tilling of the soil has +commenced; though then not always; for we now know that slavery was +introduced among the Greeks at a comparatively late period: but killing +parents and eating enemies exists in the hunter's state, and at those +periods when people find it hard work to obtain food, each one for +himself, to keep even a starved body and a little bit of soul together. +Chewing our neighbor is even better, for it is older Common Law, than +the universal buying of a wife and consequent selling of daughters which +exists even now over far the greater portion of the globe. We take it +that our species began with eating itself without paying for the fare. +Partaking of our neighbor precedes all _lex scripta_, all statute law, +all constitutions. As to ourselves in particular, whose law is the +English law, we know that the Druids sacrificed human beings to their +gods; and every one knows full well, that man, when in gastronomic +contact with the gods, always appropriates the most savory morsels +and the largest portions of the sacrifice to himself, leaving to the +ethereal taste of Jove or Tezcatlipoca the smell of some burnt bones or +inwards. Yet there is no law on record abolishing human sacrifices. We +know, indeed, that some Teutonic tribes, when they adopted Christianity, +positively prohibited the eating of horse-flesh, but no law ever forbade +to honor our fathers and mothers by making them parts of our feasts; so +that no lawyer of the true sort will deny, that, to this day, the right +of sacrificing fellow-men, and the reasonable concomitant of eating the +better portion of the sacrifice, still exists. Greeks and Romans have +sacrificed men; why should not we? That men have their individual rights +is no valid objection. Rights depend exclusively upon the law; and the +law, we have shown, does not grant equal rights (at least, not equal +destinations) to the Eater and the Eatee; for it seems to be one thing +to eat, and another to be eaten. It was a very silly maxim of the +ancient Civil Law, That the law, the _regula_, is derived from the right +(_jus_), not the _jus_ from the law. Has not a Supreme Court in one of +our States lately denied to a negro even the right to choose between +liberty and slavery,--the choice being left to him by his deceased +master,--because the creature (which, when doing wrong, is responsible +and has a will imputed to him) has no will to choose, because it cannot +have any, says the Supreme Court of that State? + +However, it will doubtless be objected by some, that it is simply +disgusting to eat our fellow-creatures of the same species,--that it is +unnatural and against our religion,--and that so remarkable a diversity +of taste can be explained only on the ground of our belonging to +different races. We do not believe that the Fijians belong to a +different race. Fijian, or Fijician, results, by a slight change of +letters, from the word Phoenician; and there can be no doubt that +the Fijians are descendants of those Phoenicians who, according to +Herodotus, sailed, in the reign of the Egyptian King Necho, from the +Persian Gulf round the Cape of Good Hope, and entered the Mediterranean +through the Pillars of Hercules. How they came to be wafted to the +opposite hemisphere is not for us to explain, nor do we know it. Suffice +it to say, that Fijician and Phoenician are the same word. Possibly old +Admiral Hanno preceded Captain Cook. Who can prove the contrary? + +As to the first of these objections, we admit that some people may +feel a degree of aversion to _roast-homme_; but so does the Mahometan +abominate roast "short pig"; and a Brahmin, taken to Cincinnati and its +environs, at the sanguinary hog-murder time, would die outright, of +horror. We almost died, ourselves, at the sickening sight of that +porcian massacre. _De gustibus non est disputantibus_, as our colonel +used to say. Disgust, is the result of a special treaty of amity and +reciprocity between the stomach and the imagination, differing according +to difference in the contracting parties. We have known many persons +who would not touch mutton, and others who would rather starve than eat +oysters; while we ourselves revolt at sourkrout, which, nevertheless, +millions of Germans, French, and Americans consider delicious. Disgust +is arbitrary; it does not furnish us with a philosophical ground for +argumentation. The Fijian does not feel disgust at the flavor of a +well-roasted white sailor; and as long as he does not insist upon our +relishing his fare, what right have we to ask him to feel disgusted? +When the panther-tailed Aztec priest fattened his prisoner, or carried +along the children decked with wreaths, soon to be smothered in their +own juice, he cannot have felt disgust, any more than the Malay, of whom +Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles tells us, that, with epicurean refinement, +he cut the choicest bits from his living prisoner, in order to baste +them to a turn and season them with choice pepper. + +Is it unnatural? We have once seen, with our own eyes, a very large +unroasted "small pig" devour one of her own piglets, whilst the others +lustily drew nourishment from the grunting mother. It look our appetite +away for forty-eight hours; yet it was nature; and in some portions of +Europe, people express the highest degree of fondness by the expressive +phrase,--"I could eat you." We may rely upon it, that, as Mr. Agassiz +says,--"There is no difference in kind, but only in degree." + +With reference to religion, we readily acknowledge that dining _à la +Fijienne_ does not appear exactly to be a divine institution, as slavery +has recently been discovered to be. From olden times it used to be the +belief of superstitious man that there was a divine afflatus in liberty; +but our profound theological scholars and Biblical critics have found +out that the divinity is on the other side. Neither Tertullian nor +Austin, neither St. Bernard nor any Pope, good or bad, neither Luther, +Bossuet, Calvin, nor Baxter, no commentator, exegetist, or preacher, +ever found out, what these profoundest inquirers have at length +discovered, that slavery is divine, like matrimony. Had they discovered +this great truth before the Catholic Church settled the number of +sacraments, there must have been eight instead of seven. Why was their +advent so late? + +Possibly these grave and candid, deep and fervent theologians, whose +opinions on theology are quoted everywhere, whose works are spread over +the globe, and whose lore is stupendous, may yet discover that there is +a divine flavor even in a soup _à la Mexicaine_. One thing, however, +is quite certain, namely,--that there is no prohibition of digestively +assimilating our neighbor with ourselves, from one end of the Bible to +the other. Was not Fielding's parson logical, who preferred punch to +wine, because it is nowhere spoken ill of in Scripture? When Baron +Viereck was rebuked by a friend for having given his daughter in +marriage to the King of Denmark, the Queen, undivorced, continuing to +occupy the throne, the shrewd father replied, that he had found no +passage in the Bible that prohibits a King of Denmark from having two +wives; and has not the democratic Fijian as good a right to that logic +as the noble Baron had? + +To say the truth, all these objections are founded mainly upon +sentiment, and we trust that morbid sentimentality will have no weight +in an age which ridicules the horror of the British Commons at the +descriptions of the middle passage, and demands calm judgment when the +question arises, how to increase the number of representatives and the +profits on sugar and cotton,--in our poetic age, in which republican +senators have openly declared their chivalrous allegiance to the +sovereign substance of which night-caps are made, and petticoats,--to +His Majesty, King Cotton,--not a very merry king, it must be owned, as +young King Charles was, or old King Cole, but still a worthy sovereign; +for, after all, he is but a new and most bulky avatar of Almighty +Dollar. + +No objection whatsoever can be made to the _deglutinatio Fijiana_ on the +score of utility. The islands of the Fijians are but small; no Fijian +Attila can lead forth his hosts into neighboring countries; no Fijian +Goths can pour down from Polynesian Alps into an Oceanic Italy; no +Athenians can there send sons and gods to a Coreyra: and no Fijian Miles +Standish can there walk up and down before his pipe-clayed bandoleers in +foreign colonies. How, then, can an over-increase of population be more +harmoniously prevented than by making the young and sleek furnish the +starving with a plump existence? Is it not, economically viewed, +the principle of Dr. Franklin's smoke-consuming pipe applied to the +infinitely more important sphere of human existence? The festive table, +to which, according to the great Malthus, Nature declines inviting a +large portion of every well-peopled country, will never be known by +the happy Fijian Say or Senior, so long as wise conservatism shall not +change its old and sacred laws, and shall allow Nature to invite one +happy portion as guests, and another happy portion as savory dishes. It +is Nature in modest simplicity, as it is exhibited in half-a-dozen mice +in a deep kettle, of whom one survivor and material representative +remains. The Chinese expose female infants, and lawful infanticide has +been abolished in some districts of the British East Indies within these +thirty years only. Would it not be wiser to reassimilate the tender dear +ones, and think of them ever after with smacking memory? + +It is true, indeed, that, upon the whole, Fijian gastronomy leers more +toward the tender sex than toward that which in our country wears the +trousers uncrinolined. But, we submit, is this a fair objection? Why +_is_ the tender sex more _tender?_ Lately, when an orator had strongly +expressed himself against the maxim of patriotic office-hunters,--"To +the victor belong the spoils," he was very logically asked,--"And pray, +Sir, to whom should the spoils belong, if not to the victor?" So we +would ask, should any one complain of girls being thus economized by +men,--"Who, in the name of common sense, should, if not men? Would you +have them perform that sacrificial duty for one another?" + +But whatever may be thought, by some of our lovely readers, of this last +argument, (which henceforth may be termed _argumentum marcianum_,) and +which, in the case before us, will always be an _ex parte_ argument, all +will agree that no objection can be taken to making repasts on _porcus +longus_ once fairly killed,--for instance, on heroes stretched on the +battle-field. This was the cogent argument of the New Zealander, after +baptism,--used in discussing the topic with the Rev. Mr. Yale. Willing +to give up slaughtering fellow-men for the sake of eating them, he could +not see why it was not wicked to waste so much good food. + +If it were objected, that, admitting the making of your enemy's +flesh flesh of your own flesh would necessarily lead to skirmishes, +"surprise-parties," and battles for the sole purpose of getting a +dinner,--to a sort of pre-prandial exercise, as in fishing,--we would +simply answer, "Too late!" Our friends who desire the reopening of the +African slave-trade declare that they wish to buy slaves only. When +statesmen, and missionaries, and simple people with simple sense and +simple hearts, cry out to them, "Stop! for the sake of our common +Father, stop! By reopening the slave-trade, you revive the vilest +crimes, and, for every negro ultimately sold to you on the coast, you +cause the murder of at least ten in the interior, not to speak of those +that are coolly massacred in the barracoon, when no demand exists,"--the +satisfactory reply is: "We have nothing to do with all that; we do not +travel beyond the record. We buy the negro who is a slave; what made him +a slave we do not care to know. The pearl in the market does not show +the toil of the fisher." And so the Fijian would properly reply: "Do not +mix up different subjects. I rescue my departed brother from ignominious +decay, and remake a man of him. How he came to depart,--that belongs to +quite a different chapter." + +This utilitarian view acquires a still greater importance when applied +to criminals under sentence of capital punishment. Soon after Beccaria, +it was asked, if we mistake not, by Voltaire: "Of what use is the +dead body of a criminal? You cannot restore the victim to life by the +execution of the murderer." And many pardons in America have been +granted on the assumption that no satisfactory answer could be given to +the philosophical question: "What use can the swinging body of the poor +creature be to any one?" The Fijian alone has a perfectly satisfactory +reply. + +The missionaries, already named in this paper, give a long account of +the execution of a supposed Fijian conspirator, which ends with these +words: "At last he was brought down to the ground by a club; after which +he was eaten." + +We can discern many advantages to be derived from the introduction of +what we will call "_pâtés penitentiaires_." + +There would be no waste of food. + +The sentence of the judge would sound more civilized; for, instead of +hearing the odious words, "You shall be hanged by the neck until you +are dead," words would be pronounced somewhat like these: "You shall be +taken to Delmonico, and there and by him be served up on such a day, as +_scélérat en papillotes_." + +There would be a greater readiness in jurors to convict interesting +criminals, who now-a-days cannot be found guilty,--especially were a law +passed that the jury should have the criminal. We read in the "Scottish +Criminal Trials," that a woman, clearly convicted of an atrocious +murder, was, nevertheless, found not guilty. The astonished lord +justiciary asked the foreman, how it was possible to find the prisoner +not guilty, with such overwhelming evidence, and was answered: "Becaase, +my laird, she is purty." Would not the delicacy of the prisoner have +been an additional reason for finding her guilty with Fijian jurors? + +Fourthly, there would be an obvious national advantage in some +countries, in which the government is at one and the same time busily +engaged in finding cheap food for the people, and in transporting +annually many hundreds of political _suspects_ to killing colonies. It +is, indeed, surprising, that so sagacious and parental a government as +that of Napoleon the Third,--may His Majesty be long preserved for the +civilization of France, the peace of Europe, and the glory of mankind in +general!--it is surprising, that his all-providing and all-foreseeing +government has not long ago discovered how the craving of the national +stomach for food, and of the popular mind for political purification, +might be stilled by no longer transporting political offenders and +_suspects_ to French Guiana or Lambessa, where they uselessly and +ignobly perish, but by sentencing them, instead, to the enviable lot of +making a feast for their brethren. Would not every Socialist, receiving +permission thus to help feed society, exclaim: _C'est magnifique! mais +c'est sublime!_ + +When Robespierre was in the zenith of his guillotinacious glory, the +_bonnes_ would sit around the scaffold, minding children and knitting +stockings, to see the head of a marquis or of a shoemaker fall. We leave +it to every reader, whether there would not be more historic unity and +poetic completeness in the _tableau_, were we to read that these good +creatures dined upon the _ci-devant_, after the execution. + +Imperial Rome is the _beau idéal_ of the present government of _la belle +France_; and we must own, that, when perusing the exhilarating pages of +Suetonius, it has often occurred to our mind that there is something +wanting in the list of high deeds related of those superb specimens of +humanity exhibited in the Caligulas and Heliogabali. They did so much +for cookery! Yet they seem never to have risen above an indirect +consumption of their subjects, by feeding their lobsters with ignoble +slaves; never did they directly bestow upon Roman freemen the honor of +being served up for the imperial table. Nero murdered his mother and +bade his teacher open his own veins. Would it not read much more +civilized, if the annals of the empire were telling us: _Nero, jam +divus, leniter dixit: O Seneca, Pundit delectabilis et philosophe laute, +quis dubitet te libentissime mihi hodie proferre artocreatem stoicum?_ + +Strange as it may appear to some readers, that thus the polished Romans +might have learned a lesson of civilization from the Fijians, they will +not reject our suggestion, when they reflect, that, only a short time +ago, they were, probably, as much surprised at finding the government +of so great a country as France adopting imperial Rome as a model +body-politic. Familiarize your mind with the idea, and all difficulties +vanish. It is only the last step which costs,--not the first. + +There are many more reasons that might be urged in favor of the +Fijians. We are not aware that the reverend missionaries have given +any statistical tables, showing a regularity in the annual numbers of +consumed persons, male and female, classed according to the reasons why +consumed; but no one can doubt that such tables might be given, and if +so, the whole question of anthropophagism could be very easily buckled +up in a tidy little valise. The Fijians, in the plural, we take it, +have little or nothing to do with it; it is the abstract, will-less, +impersonal Fijian--who, according to the learned Ferrari,[A] would be +called, now, Podesta Fijian, now Consul Fijian, now Papa Fijianus--that +snuffs the flavor of his own dear natural _pot à feu_; and Right +or Wrong, Just or Unjust, Commendable or Revolting, are schoolboy +distinctions, no longer recognized by the philosophical historian, who +treats all moral questions and national movements like questions of +natural philosophy,--like social chemistry, in which so puerile a word +as poison has no place. Arsenic is arsenic with certain effects, and +nothing more; and society poisons itself annually to such an amount, +arithmetically expressed. + +[Footnote A: _Histoire des Revolutions d'Italie, ou Guelf's et +Gibelins_. Par J. Ferrari. Paris, 1858.] + +We ask leave to add two suggestions in favor of the Fijians, both, it +would seem, of philosophic importance. If you do not like the Fijian +national dish,--_national_ in more than one sense,--have the dear +sons of Nature, as Carlyle probably would call them, not the right to +reply,--"We do not like your _sauerkraut_, if you are a German; your +_polenta_, if you are an Italian; your _olla podrida_, if you are a +Spaniard; nor your _grit_, if you are a Dane; your bacon and greasy +greens, if you are a Southerner; nor your baked beans, if you are a +Northerner; nor any other stuff called national dishes,--all of which +are vile, except English roast beef and plum-pudding, and Neapolitan +maccaroni." + +The other suggestion is this: Is it likely that Nature has placed the +Fijians exactly in the same meridian with Greenwich, which in some +measure may be called the meridian of civilization, for nothing?--is it +likely that all the solar and cosmic influences which must result from +this fact have really left the Fijian in that state of hyper-brutality +which you think is proved by his _menage_? Is it, we ask, fairly to be +supposed? We think not. + +We do not presume to know whether we have carried conviction to the +minds of our readers; but even if we have not,--if we have only been +sufficiently fortunate to give the first impulse to the great inquiry, +we shall be satisfied. If we consider the history of some opinions now +openly preached and vehemently maintained,--how timidly they were +first hinted at, within our own recollection, and with what surprising +rapidity they have risen to an unblushing amplitude, rustling and +sweeping proudly and defiantly along the Broadway of human events +and opinions,--how that which but a lustre ago was wicked is now +virtuous,--we see no reason for despair; and our century may yet witness +the time when it will be considered the highest mixture of philosophic +courtesy and Christian urbanity to make the most graceful semi-lateral +bow, as you pass your friend in the street, and, kissing the tip of your +finger, to lisp, with bending head and smiling eye,-- + +"May I never disagree with you!" + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +[_The Professor talks with the Reader. He tells a Young Girl's Story_.] + +When the elements that went to the making of the first man, father of +mankind, had been withdrawn from the world of unconscious matter, the +balance of creation was disturbed. The materials that go to the making +of one woman were set free by the abstraction from inanimate nature of +one man's-worth of masculine constituents. These combined to make our +first mother, by a logical necessity involved in the previous creation +of our common father. All this, mythically, illustratively, and by no +means doctrinally or polemically. + +The man implies the woman, you will understand. The excellent gentleman +whom I had the pleasure of setting right in a trifling matter a few +weeks ago believes in the frequent occurrence of miracles at the present +day. So do I. I believe, if you could find an uninhabited coral-reef +island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with plenty of cocoa-palms +and bread-fruit on it, and put a handsome young fellow, like our +Marylander, ashore upon it, if you touched there a year afterwards, you +would find him walking under the palm trees arm in arm with a pretty +woman. + +Where would she come from? + +Oh, that's the miracle! + +----I was just as certain, when I saw that fine, high-colored youth at +the upper right-hand corner of our table, that there would appear some +fitting feminine counterpart to him, as if I had been a clairvoyant, +seeing it all beforehand. + +----I have a fancy that those Marylanders are just about near enough to +the sun to ripen well.--How some of us fellows remember Joe and Harry, +Baltimoreans, both! Joe, with his cheeks like lady-apples, and his eyes +like black-heart cherries, and his teeth like the whiteness of the flesh +of cocoa-nuts, and his laugh that set the chandelier-drops rattling +overhead, as we sat at our sparkling banquets in those gay times! Harry, +champion, by acclamation, of the College heavyweights, broad-shouldered, +bull-necked, square-jawed, six feet and trimmings, a little science, +lots of pluck, good-natured as a steer in peace, formidable as a +red-eyed bison in the crack of hand-to-hand battle! Who forgets the +great muster-day, and the collision of the classic with the democratic +forces? The huge butcher, fifteen stone,--two hundred and ten +pounds,--good weight,--steps out like Telamonian Ajax, defiant. No words +from Harry, the Baltimorean,--one of the quiet sort, who strike first, +and do the talking, if there is any, afterwards. No words, but, in the +place thereof, a clean, straight, hard hit, which took effect with a +spank like the explosion of a percussion-cap, knocking the slayer of +beeves down a sand-bank,--followed, alas! by the too impetuous youth, so +that both rolled down together, and the conflict terminated in one of +those inglorious and inevitable Yankee _clinches_, followed by a general +_melée_, which make our native fistic encounters so different from such +admirably-ordered contests as that which I once saw at an English fair, +where everything was done decently and in order, and the fight began and +ended with such grave propriety, that a sporting parson need hardly have +hesitated to open it with a devout petition, and, after it was over, +dismiss the ring with a benediction. + +I can't help telling one more story about this great field-day, though +it is the most wanton and irrelevant digression. But all of us have a +little speck of fight underneath our peace and goodwill to men,--just +a speck, for revolutions and great emergencies, you know,--so that we +should not submit to be trodden quite flat by the first heavy-heeled +aggressor that came along. You can tell a portrait from an ideal head, I +suppose, and a true story from one spun out of the writer's invention. +See whether this sounds true or not. + +Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin sent out two fine blood-horses, Barefoot and +Scrab by name, to Massachusetts, something before the time I am talking +of. With them came a Yorkshire groom, a stocky little fellow, in velvet +breeches, who made that mysterious hissing noise, traditionary in +English stables, when he rubbed down the silken-skinned racers, in great +perfection. After the soldiers had come from the muster-field, and +some of the companies were on the village-common, there was still some +skirmishing between a few individuals who had not had the fight taken +out of them. The little Yorkshire groom thought he must serve out +somebody. So he threw himself into an approved scientific attitude, and, +in brief, emphatic language, expressed his urgent anxiety to accommodate +any classical young gentleman who chose to consider himself a candidate +for his attentions. I don't suppose there were many of the college boys +that would have been a match for him in the art which Englishmen know +so much more of than Americans, for the most part. However, one of the +Sophomores, a very quiet, peaceable fellow, just stepped out of the +crowd, and, running straight at the groom, as he stood there, sparring +away, struck him with the sole of his foot, a straight blow, as if it +had been with his fist,--and knocked him heels over head and senseless, +so that he had to be carried off from the field. This ugly way of +hitting is the great trick of the French _savate,_ which is not +commonly thought able to stand its ground against English pugilistic +science.--These are old recollections, with not much to recommend them, +except, perhaps, a dash of life, which may be worth a little something. + +The young Marylander brought them all up, you may remember. He recalled +to my mind those two splendid pieces of vitality I told you of. Both +have been long dead. How often we see these great red flaring flambeaux +of life blown out, as it were, by a puff of wind,--and the little, +single-wicked night-lamp of being, which some white-faced and attenuated +invalid shades with trembling fingers, flickering on while they go out +one after another, until its glimmer is all that is left to us of the +generation it belonged to! + +I told you that I was perfectly sure, beforehand, we should find some +pleasing girlish or womanly shape to fill the blank at our table and +match the dark-haired youth at the upper corner. + +There she sits, at the very opposite corner, just as far off as accident +could put her from this handsome fellow, by whose side she ought, of +course, to be sitting. One of the "positive" blondes, as my friend, +you may remember, used to call them. Tawny-haired, amber-eyed, +full-throated, skin as white as a blanched almond. Looks dreamy to me, +not self-conscious, though a black ribbon round her neck sets it off as +a Marie-Antoinette's diamond-necklace could not do. So in her dress, +there is a harmony of tints that looks as if an artist had run his eye +over her and given a hint or two like the finishing touch to a picture. +I can't help being struck with her, for she is at once rounded and fine +in feature, looks calm, as blondes are apt to, and as if she might run +wild, if she were trifled with.--It is just as I knew it would be,--and +anybody can see that our young Marylander will be dead in love with her +in a week. + +Then if that little man would only turn out immensely rich and have the +good-nature to die and leave them all his money, it would be as nice as +a three-volume novel. + +Little Boston is in a flurry, I suspect, with the excitement of having +such a charming neighbor next him. I judge so mainly by his silence and +by a certain rapt and serious look on his face, as if he were thinking +of something that had happened, or that might happen, or that ought to +happen,--or how beautiful her young life looked, or how hardly Nature +had dealt with him, or something which struck him silent, at any rate. I +made several conversational openings for him, but he did not fire up as +he often does. I even went so far as to indulge in a fling at the State +House, which, as we all know, is in truth a very imposing structure, +covering less ground than St. Peter's, but of similar general effect. +The little man looked up, but did not reply to my taunt. He said to +the young lady, however, that the State House was the Parthenon of our +Acropolis, which seemed to please her, for she smiled, and he reddened a +little,--so I thought. I don't think it right to watch persons who are +the subjects of special infirmity,--but we all do it. + +I see that they have crowded the chairs a little at that end of +the table, to make room for another new-comer of the lady sort. A +well-mounted, middle-aged preparation, wearing her hair without +a cap,--pretty wide in the parting, though,--contours vaguely +hinted,--features very quiet,--says little as yet, but seems to keep her +eye on the young lady, as if having some responsibility for her.-- + + * * * * * + +My record is a blank for some days after this. In the mean time I have +contrived to make out the person and the story of our young lady, +who, according to appearances, ought to furnish us a heroine for a +boarding-house romance before a year is out. It is very curious that +she should prove connected with a person many of us have heard of. +Yet, curious as it is, I have been a hundred times struck with the +circumstance that the most remote facts are constantly striking each +other; just as vessels starting from ports thousands of miles apart pass +close to each other in the naked breadth of the ocean, nay, sometimes +even touch, in the dark, with a crack of timbers, a gurgling of water, a +cry of startled sleepers,--a cry mysteriously echoed in warning dreams, +as the wife of some Gloucester fisherman, some coasting skipper, wakes +with a shriek, calls the name of her husband, and sinks back to uneasy +slumbers upon her lonely pillow,--a widow. + +Oh, these mysterious meetings! Leaving all the vague, waste, endless +spaces of the washing desert, the ocean-steamer and the fishing-smack +sail straight towards each other as if they ran in grooves ploughed for +them in the waters from the beginning of creation! Not only things and +events, but our own thoughts, are so full of these surprises, that, if +there were a reader in my parish who did not recognize the familiar +occurrence of what I am now going to mention, I should think it a case +for the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of Intelligence +among the Comfortable Classes. + +There are about as many twins in the births of thought as of children. +For the first time in your lives you learn some fact or come across some +idea. Within an hour, a day, a week, that same fact or idea strikes +you from another quarter. It seems as if it had passed into space and +bounded back upon you as an echo from the blank wall that shuts in the +world of thought. Yet no possible connection exists between the two +channels by which the thought or the fact arrived. Let me give an +infinitesimal illustration. + +One of the Boys mentioned, the other evening, in the course of a very +pleasant poem he read us, a little trick of the Commons table-boarders, +which I, nourished at the parental board, had never heard of. Young +fellows being always hungry----Allow me to stop dead-short, in order +to utter an aphorism which has been forming itself in one of the blank +interior spaces of my intelligence, like a crystal in the cavity of a +geode. + + * * * * * + +_Aphorism by the Professor._ + +In order to know whether a human being is young or old, offer it food of +different kinds at short intervals. If young, it will eat anything at +any hour of the day or night. If old, it observes stated periods, and +you might as well attempt to regulate the time of high-water to suit a +fishing-party as to change these periods. + +The crucial experiment is this. Offer a bulky and boggy bun to the +suspected individual just ten minutes before dinner. If this is eagerly +accepted and devoured, the fact of youth is established. If the subject +of the question changes color and expresses surprise and incredulity, as +if you could not possibly be in earnest, the fact of maturity is no less +clear. + + * * * * * + +----Excuse me,--I return to my story of the Commons-table.--Young +fellows being always hungry, and tea and dry toast being the meagre fare +of the evening meal, it was a trick of some of the Boys to impale a +slice of meat upon a fork, at dinner-time, and stick the fork holding it +beneath the table, so that they could get it at tea-time. The dragons +that guarded this table of the Hesperides found out the trick at last, +and kept a sharp look-out for missing forks;--they knew where to find +one, if it was not in its place.--Now the odd thing was, that, after +waiting so many years to hear of this college trick, I should hear it +mentioned _a second time_ within the same twenty-four hours by a college +youth of the present generation. Strange, but true. And so it has +happened to me and to every person, often and often, to be hit in rapid +succession by these twinned facts or thoughts, as if they were linked +like chain-shot. + +I was going to leave the simple reader to wonder over this, taking it as +an unexplained marvel. I think, however, I will turn over a furrow of +subsoil in it. The explanation is, of course, that in a great many +thoughts there must be a few coincidences, and these instantly arrest +our attention. Now we shall probably never have the least idea of the +enormous number of impressions which pass through our consciousness, +until in some future life we see the photographic record of our thoughts +and the stereoscopic picture of our actions. There go more pieces to +make up a conscious life or a living body than you think for. Why, +some of you were surprised when a friend of mine told you there +were fifty-eight separate pieces in a fiddle. How many "swimming +glands"--solid, organized, regularly formed, rounded disks, taking an +active part in all your vital processes, part and parcel, each one of +them, of your corporeal being--do you suppose are whirled along, like +pebbles in a stream, with the blood which warms your frame and colors +your cheeks?--A noted German physiologist spread out a minute drop +of blood, under the microscope, in narrow streaks, and counted the +globules, and then made a calculation. The counting by the micrometer +took him _a week_.--You have, my full-grown friend, of these little +couriers in crimson or scarlet livery, running on your vital errands day +and night as long as you live, sixty-five billions, five hundred and +seventy thousand millions. Errors excepted.--Did I hear some gentleman +say, "Doubted?"--I am the Professor. I sit in my chair with a petard +under it that will blow me through the skylight of my lecture-room, if I +do not know what I am talking about and whom I am quoting. + +Now, my dear friends, who are putting your hands to your foreheads, and +saying to yourselves that you feel a little confused, as if you had been +waltzing until things began to whirl slightly round you, is it possible +that you do not clearly apprehend the exact connection of all that I +have been saying, and its bearing on what is now to come? Listen, then. +The number of these living elements in our bodies illustrates the +incalculable multitude of our thoughts; the number of our thoughts +accounts for those frequent coincidences spoken of; these coincidences +in the world of thought illustrate those which we constantly observe in +the world of outward events, of which the presence of the young girl now +at our table, and proving to be the daughter of an old acquaintance some +of us may remember, is the special example which led me through this +labyrinth of reflections, and finally lands me at the commencement of +this young girl's story, which, as I said, I have found the time and +felt the interest to learn something of, and which I think I can tell +without wronging the unconscious subject of my brief delineation. + + * * * * * + + +IRIS. + + +You remember, perhaps, in some papers published awhile ago, an odd poem +written by an old Latin tutor? He brought up at the verb _amo_, I love, +as all of us do, and by and by Nature opened her great living dictionary +for him at the word _filia_, a daughter. The poor man was greatly +perplexed in choosing a name for her. _Lucretia_ and _Virginia_ were the +first that he thought of; but then came up those pictured stories of +Titus Livius, which he could never read without crying, though he had +read them a hundred times. + +--Lucretia sending for her husband and her father, each to bring one +friend with him, and awaiting them in her chamber. To them her wrongs +briefly. Let them see to the wretch, she will take care of herself. Then +the hidden knife flashes out and sinks into her heart. She slides +from her seat, and falls dying. "Her husband and her father cry +aloud."--No,--not Lucretia. + +--Virginius,--a brown old soldier, father of a nice girl. She engaged +to a very promising young man. Decemvir Appius takes a violent fancy to +her,--must have her at any rate. Hires a lawyer to present the arguments +in favor of the view that she was another man's daughter. + +There used to be lawyers in Rome that would do such things.--All right. +There are two sides to everything. _Audi alteram partem_. The legal +gentleman has no opinion,--he only states the evidence.--A doubtful +case. Let the young lady be under the protection of the Honorable +Decemvir until it can be looked up thoroughly.--Father thinks it best, +on the whole, to give in. Will explain the matter, if the young lady and +her maid will step this way. _That_ is the explanation,--a stab with a +butcher's knife, snatched from a stall, meant for other lambs than this +poor bleeding Virginia! + +The old man thought over the story. Then he must have one look at the +original. So he took down the first volume and read it over. When he +came to that part where it tells how the young gentleman she was engaged +to and a friend of his took up the poor girl's bloodless shape and +carried it through the street, and how all the women followed, wailing, +and asking if that was what their daughters were coming to,--if that was +what they were to get for being good girls,--he melted down into his +accustomed tears of pity and grief, and, through them all, of delight at +the charming Latin of the narrative. But it was impossible to call his +child Virginia. He could never look at her without thinking she had a +knife sticking in her bosom. + +_Dido_ would be a good name, and a fresh one. She was a queen, and the +founder of a great city. Her story had been immortalized by the greatest +of poets,--for the old Latin tutor clove to "Virgilius Maro," as he +called him, as closely as ever Dante did in his memorable journey. So +he took down his Virgil,--it was the smooth-leafed, open-lettered quarto +of Baskerville,--and began reading the loves and mishaps of Dido. It +wouldn't do. A lady who had not learned discretion by experience, and +came to an evil end. He shook his head, as he sadly repeated, + + "--misera ante diem, subitoque accensa + furore"; + +but when he came to the lines, + + "Ergo Iris croceis per coelum roscida pennis + Mille trahens varios adverso Sole colores," + +he jumped up with a great exclamation, which the particular recording +angel who heard it pretended not to understand, or it might have gone +hard with the Latin tutor some time or other. + +"_Iris_ shall be her name!"--he said. So her name was Iris. + +--The natural end of a tutor is to perish by starvation. It is only a +question of time, just as with the burning of college libraries. These +all burn up sooner or later, provided they are not housed in brick or +stone and iron. I don't mean that you will see in the registry of deaths +that this or that particular tutor died of well-marked, uncomplicated +starvation. They _may_, even, in extreme cases, be carried off by a +thin, watery kind of apoplexy, which sounds very well in the returns, +but means little to those who know that it is only debility settling on +the head. Generally, however, they fade and waste away under various +pretexts,--calling it dyspepsia, consumption, and so on, to put a decent +appearance upon the case and keep up the credit of the family and the +institution where they have passed through the successive stages of +inanition. + +In some cases it takes a great many years to kill a tutor by the +process in question. You see, they do get food and clothes and fuel, in +appreciable quantities, such as they are. You will even notice rows of +books in their rooms, and a picture or two,--things that look as if +they had surplus money; but these superfluities are the _water of +crystallization_ to scholars, and you can never get them away till +the poor fellows effloresce into dust. Do not be deceived. The tutor +breakfasts on coffee made of beans, edulcerated with milk watered to the +verge of transparency; his mutton is tough and elastic, up to the +moment when it becomes tired out and tasteless; his coal is a sullen, +sulphurous anthracite, which rusts into ashes, rather than burns, in +the shallow grate; his flimsy broadcloth is too thin for winter and too +thick for summer. The greedy lungs of fifty hot-blooded boys suck the +oxygen from the air he breathes in his recitation-room. In short, he +undergoes a process of gentle and gradual starvation. + +--The mother of little Iris was not called Electra, like hers of the old +story, neither was her grandfather Oceanus. Her blood-name, which she +gave away with her heart to the Latin tutor, was a plain old English +one, and her water-name was Hannah, beautiful as recalling the mother of +Samuel, and admirable as reading equally well from the initial letter +forwards and from the terminal letter backwards. The poor lady, seated +with her companion at the chess-board of matrimony, had but just pushed +forward her one little white pawn upon an empty square, when the Black +Knight, that cares nothing for castles or kings or queens, swooped down +upon her and swept her from the larger board of life. + +The old Latin tutor put a modest blue stone at the head of his late +companion, with her name and age and _Eheu!_ upon it,--a smaller one +at her feet, with initials; and left her by herself, to be rained and +snowed on,--which is a hard thing to do for those whom we have cherished +tenderly. + +About the time that the lichens, falling on the stone, like drops of +water, had spread into fair, round rosettes, the tutor had starved into +a slight cough. Then he began to draw the buckle of his black pantaloons +a little tighter, and took in another reef in his never-ample waistcoat. +His temples got a little hollow, and the contrasts of color in his +cheeks more vivid than of old. After a while his walks fatigued him, and +he was tired and breathed hard after going up a flight or two of stairs. +Then came on other marks of inward trouble and general waste, which he +spoke of to his physician as peculiar, and doubtless owing to accidental +causes; to all which the doctor listened with deference, as if it had +not been the old story that one in five or six of mankind in temperate +climates tells, or has told for him, as if it were something new. As +the doctor went out, he said to himself,--"On the rail at last. +Accommodation train. A good many stops, but will get to the station by +and by." So the doctor wrote a recipe with the astrological sign of +Jupiter before it, (just as your own physician does, inestimable reader, +as you will see, if you look at his next prescription,) and departed, +saying he would look in occasionally. After this, the Latin tutor began +the usual course of "getting better," until he got so much better that +his face was very sharp, and when he smiled, three crescent lines +showed at each side of his lips, and when he spoke, it was in a muffled +whisper, and the white of his eye glistened as pearly as the purest +porcelain,--so much better, that he hoped--by spring--he----might be +able--to--attend----to his class again.--But he was recommended not +to expose himself, and so kept his chamber, and occasionally, not having +anything to do, his bed. The unmarried sister with whom he lived took +care of him; and the child, now old enough to be manageable, and even +useful in trifling offices, sat in the chamber, or played about. + +Things could not go on so forever, of course. One morning his face was +sunken and his hands very, very cold. He was "better," he whispered, but +sadly and faintly. After a while he grew restless and seemed a little +wandering. His mind ran on his classics, and fell back on the Latin +grammar. + +"Iris!" he said,--"_filiola mea!_"--The child knew this meant _my dear +little daughter_ as well as if it had been English.--"Rainbow!"--for he +would translate her name at times, "come to me,--_veni_"--and his lips +went on automatically, and murmured, "_vel venito!_"--The child came +and sat by his bedside and took his hand, which she could not warm, but +which shot its rays of cold all through her slender frame. But there she +sat, looking steadily at him. Presently he opened his lips feebly, and +whispered, "_Moribundus._" She did not know what that meant, but she saw +that there was something new and sad. So she began to cry; but presently +remembering an old book that seemed to comfort him at times, got up and +brought a Bible in the Latin version, called the Vulgate. "Open it," he +said,--"I will read,--_segnius irritant_,--don't put the light +out,--ah! _haeret lateri_,--I am going,--_vale, vale, vale_, good-bye, +good-bye,--the Lord take care of my child!--_Domine, audi_--_vel +audito!_" His face whitened suddenly, and he lay still, with open eyes +and mouth. He had taken his last degree. + +----Little Miss Iris could not be said to begin life with a very +brilliant rainbow over her, in a worldly point of view. A limited +wardrobe of man's attire, such as poor tutors wear,--a few good books, +especially classics,--a print or two, and a plaster model of the +Pantheon, with some pieces of furniture which had seen service,--these, +and a child's heart full of tearful recollections and strange doubts and +questions, alternating with the cheap pleasures which are the anodynes +of childish grief; such were the treasures she inherited.--No,--I +forgot. With that kindly sentiment which all of us feel for old men's +first children,--frost-flowers of the early winter season,--the old +tutor's students had remembered him at a time when he was laughing and +crying with his new parental emotions, and running to the side of the +plain crib in which his _alter ego_, as he used to say, was swinging, +to hang over the little heap of stirring clothes, from which looked the +minute, red, downy, still, round face, with unfixed eyes and working +lips,--in that unearthly gravity which has never yet been broken by a +smile, and which gives to the earliest moon-year or two of an infant's +life the character of a _first old age_, to counterpoise that _second +childhood_ which there is one chance in a dozen it may reach by and by. +The boys had remembered the old man and young father at that tender +period of his hard, dry life. There came to him a fair, silver goblet, +embossed with classical figures, and bearing on a shield the graven +words, _Ex dono pupillorum_. The handle on its side showed what use the +boys had meant it for; and a kind letter in it, written with the best of +feeling, in the worst of Latin, pointed delicately to its destination. +Out of this silver vessel, after a long, desperate, strangling cry, +which marked her first great lesson in the realities of life, the child +took the blue milk, such as poor tutors and their children get, tempered +with water, and sweetened a little, so as to bring it nearer the +standard established by the touching indulgence and partiality of +Nature,--who has mingled an extra allowance of sugar in the blameless +food of the child at its mother's heart, as compared with that of its +infant brothers and sisters of the bovine race. + +But a willow will grow in baked sand wet with rain-water. An air-plant +will grow by feeding on the winds. Nay, those huge forests that +overspread great continents have built themselves up mainly from the +air-currents with which they are always battling. The oak is but a +foliated atmospheric crystal deposited from the aërial ocean that holds +the future vegetable world in solution. The storm that tears its leaves +has paid tribute to its strength, and it breasts the tornado clad in the +spoils of a hundred hurricanes. + +Poor little Iris! What had she in common with the great oak in the +shadow of which we are losing sight of her?--She lived and grew like +that,--this was all. The blue milk ran into her veins and filled them +with thin, pure blood. Her skin was fair, with a faint tinge, such as +the white rosebud shows before it opens. The doctor who had attended +her father was afraid her aunt would hardly be able to "raise" +her,--"delicate child,"--hoped she was not consumptive,--thought there +was a fair chance she would take after her father. + +A very forlorn-looking person, dressed in black, with a white +neckcloth, sent her a memoir of a child who died at the age of two years +and eleven months, after having fully indorsed all the doctrines of the +particular persuasion to which he not only belonged himself, but +thought it very shameful that everybody else did not belong. What with +foreboding looks and dreary deathbed stories, it was a wonder the child +made out to live through it. It saddened her early years, of course,--it +distressed her tender soul with thoughts which, as they cannot be fully +taken in, should be sparingly used as instruments of torture to break +down the natural cheerfulness of a healthy child, or, what is infinitely +worse, to cheat a dying one out of the kind illusions with which the +Father of All has strewed its downward path. + +The child would have died, no doubt, and, if properly managed, might +have added another to the long catalogue of wasting children who have +been as cruelly played upon by spiritual physiologists, often with the +best intentions, as ever the subject of a rare disease by the curious +students of science. + +Fortunately for her, however, a wise instinct had guided the late Latin +tutor in the selection of the partner of his life, and the future mother +of his child. The deceased tutoress was a tranquil, smooth woman, easily +nourished, as such people are,--a quality which is inestimable in a +tutor's wife,--and so it happened that the daughter inherited enough +vitality from the mother to live through childhood and infancy and fight +her way towards womanhood, in spite of the tendencies she derived from +her other parent. + +----Two and two do not always make four, in this matter of hereditary +descent of qualities. Sometimes they make three, and sometimes five. It +seems as if the parental traits at one time showed separate, at another +blended,--that occasionally the force of two natures is represented in +the derivative one by a diagonal of greater value than either original +line of living movement,--that sometimes there is a loss of vitality +hardly to be accounted for, and again a forward impulse of variable +intensity in some new and unforeseen direction. + +So it was with this child. She had glanced off from her parental +probabilities at an unexpected angle. Instead of taking to classical +learning like her father, or sliding quietly into household duties like +her mother, she broke out early in efforts that pointed in the direction +of Art. As soon as she could hold a pencil she began to sketch outlines +of objects round her with a certain air and spirit. Very extraordinary +horses, but their legs looked as if they could move. Birds unknown to +Audubon, yet flying, as it were, with a rush. Men with impossible legs, +which did yet seem to have a vital connection with their most improbable +bodies. By-and-by the doctor, on his beast,--an old man with a face +looking as if Time had kneaded it like dough with his knuckles, with a +rhubarb tint and flavor pervading himself and his sorrel horse and all +their appurtenances. A dreadful old man! Be sure she did not forget +those saddlebags that held the detestable bottles out of which he used +to shake those loathsome powders which, to virgin childish palates that +find heaven in strawberries and peaches, are----Well, I suppose I had +better stop. Only she wished she was dead sometimes when she heard him +coming. On the next leaf would figure the gentleman with the black coat +and white cravat, as he looked when he came and entertained her with +stories concerning the death of various little children about her age, +to encourage her, as that wicked Mr. Arouet said about shooting Admiral +Byng. Then she would take her pencil and with a few scratches there +would be the outline of a child, in which you might notice how one +sudden sweep gave the chubby cheek, and two dots darted at the paper +looked like real eyes. + +By-and-by she went to school, and caricatured the schoolmaster on the +leaves of her grammars and geographies, and drew the faces of her +companions, and, from time to time, heads and figures from her fancy, +with large eyes, far apart, like those of Raffaelle's mothers and +children, sometimes with wild floating hair, and then with wings and +heads thrown back in ecstasy. This was about twelve, as the dates of +these drawings show, and, therefore, three or four years before she came +among us. Soon after this time, the ideal figures began to take the +place of portraits and caricatures, and a new feature appeared in her +drawing-books in the form of fragments of verse and short poems. + +It was dull work, of course, for such a young girl to live with an old +spinster and go to a village school. Her books bore testimony to this; +for there was a look of sadness in the faces she drew, and a sense of +weariness and longing for some imaginary conditions of blessedness or +other, which began to be painful. She might have gone through this +flowering of the soul, and, casting her petals, subsided into a sober, +human berry, but for the intervention of friendly assistance and +counsel. + +In the town where she lived was a lady of honorable condition, somewhat +past middle age, who was possessed of pretty ample means, of cultivated +tastes, of excellent principles, of exemplary character, and of more +than common accomplishments. The gentleman in black broadcloth and white +neckerchief only echoed the common voice about her, when he called her, +after enjoying, beneath her hospitable roof, an excellent cup of tea, +with certain elegancies and luxuries he was unaccustomed to, "The Model +of all the Virtues." + +She deserved this title as well as almost any woman. She did really +bristle with moral excellences. Mention any good thing she had not done; +I should like to see you try! There was no handle of weakness to take +hold of her by: she was as unseizable, except in her totality, as a +billiard-ball; and on the broad, green, terrestrial table, where she had +been knocked about, like all of us, by the cue of Fortune, she glanced +from every human contact, and "caramed" from one relation to another, +and rebounded from the stuffed cushion of temptation, with such exact +and perfect angular movements, that the Enemy's corps of Reporters had +long given up taking notes of her conduct, as there was no chance for +their master. + +What an admirable person for the patroness and directress of a slightly +self-willed child, with the lightning zigzag line of genius running like +a glittering vein through the marble whiteness of her virgin nature! One +of the lady-patroness's peculiar virtues was calmness. She was resolute +and strenuous, but still. You could depend on her for every duty; she +was as true as steel. She was kind-hearted and serviceable in all +the relations of life. She had more sense, more knowledge, more +conversation, as well as more goodness, than all the partners you have +waltzed with this winter put together. + +Yet no man was known to have loved her, or even to have offered himself +to her in marriage. It was a great wonder. I am very anxious to +vindicate my character as a philosopher and an observer of Nature by +accounting for this apparently extraordinary fact. + +You may remember certain persons who have the misfortune of presenting +to the friends whom they meet a cold, damp hand. There are states of +mind in which a contact of this kind has a depressing effect on the +vital powers that makes us insensible to all the virtues and graces of +the proprietor of one of these life-absorbing organs. When they touch +us, virtue passes out of us, and we feel as if our electricity had been +drained by a powerful negative battery, carried about by an overgrown +human torpedo. + +"The Model of all the Virtues" had a pair of searching eyes as clear as +Wenham ice; but they were slower to melt than that fickle jewelry. Her +features disordered themselves slightly at times in a surface-smile, but +never broke loose from their corners and indulged in the riotous tumult +of a laugh--which, I take it, is the mob-law of the features,--and +propriety the magistrate who reads the riot-act. She carried the +brimming cup of her inestimable virtues with a cautious, steady hand, +and an eye always on them, to see that they did not spill. Then she +was an admirable judge of character. Her mind was a perfect laboratory +of tests and reagents; every syllable you put into breath went into +her intellectual eudiometer, and all your thoughts were recorded on +litmus-paper. I think there has rarely been a more admirable woman. +Of course, Miss Iris was immensely and passionately attached +to her.----Well,--these are two highly oxygenated adverbs,--grateful,-- +suppose we say,--yes,--grateful, dutiful, obedient to her wishes for +the most part,--perhaps not quite up to the concert pitch of such a +perfect orchestra of the virtues. + +We must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it +much. People that do not laugh or cry, or take more of anything than +is good for them, or use anything but dictionary-words, are admirable +subjects for biographies. But we don't always care most for those +flat-pattern flowers that press best in the herbarium. + +This immaculate woman,--why couldn't she have a fault or two? Isn't +there any old whisper which will tarnish that wearisome aureole of +saintly perfection? Doesn't she carry a lump of opium in her pocket? +Isn't her cologne-bottle replenished oftener than its legitimate use +would require? It would be such a comfort! + +Not for the world would a young creature like Iris have let such words +escape her, or such thoughts pass through her mind. Whether at the +bottom of her soul lies any uneasy consciousness of an oppressive +presence, it is hard to say, until we know more about her. Iris sits +between the little man and the "Model of all the Virtues," as the +black-coated gentleman called her.--I will watch them all. + +----Here I stop for the present. What the Professor said has had to make +way this time for what he saw and heard. + + * * * * * + +----And now you may read these lines, which were written for gentle +souls who love music, and read in even tones, and, perhaps, with +something like a smile upon the reader's lips, at a meeting where these +musical friends had gathered. Whether they were written with smiles or +not, you can guess better after you have read them. + + + + +THE OPENING OF THE PIANO. + + + In the little southern parlor of the house you + may have seen + With the gambrel-roof, and the gable looking + westward to the green, + At the side toward the sunset, with the window + on its right, + Stood the London-made piano I am dreaming + of to-night. + + Ah me! how I remember the evening when it + came! + What a cry of eager voices, what a group of + cheeks in flame, + When the wondrous box was opened that had + come from over seas, + With its smell of mastic-varnish and its flash + of ivory keys! + + Then the children all grew fretful in the restlessness + of joy, + For the boy would push his sister, and the + sister crowd the boy, + Till the father asked for quiet in his grave + paternal way, + But the mother hushed the tumult with the + words, "Now, Mary, play." + + For the dear soul knew that music was a very + sovereign balm; + She had sprinkled it over Sorrow and seen its + brow grow calm, + In the days of slender harpsichords with tapping + tinkling quills, + Or carolling to her spinet with its thin metallic + thrills. + + So Mary, the household minstrel, who always + loved to please, + Sat down to the new "Clementi," and struck + the glittering keys. + Hushed were the children's voices, and every + eye grew dim, + As, floating from lip and finger, arose the + "Vesper Hymn." + + --Catharine, child of a neighbor, curly and + rosy-red, + (Wedded since, and a widow--something like + ten years dead,) + Hearing a gush of music such as none + before, + Steals from her mother's chamber and peeps + at the open door. + + Just as the "Jubilate" in threaded whisper + dies, + --"Open it! open it, lady!" the little maiden + cries + (For she thought 'twas a singing creature + caged in a box she heard,) + "Open it! open it, lady! and let me see the + _bird!_" + + + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION; + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + + +If General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary memory, the first Secretary of +War of the Republic, had dreamed that the successor to his portfolio, +after an interval of seventy years, would recommend to Congress the +purchase of a thousand camels for military purposes, he would have +attributed the fancy to excited nerves or a too hearty dinner. Had he +dreamed, further, that the grotesque mounted corps was to be employed +in regions two thousand miles beyond the frontier of the Anglo-Saxon +pioneer of 1789, to guard travel to an actual El Dorado, the vision +would have appeared still more extraordinary. And its absurdity would +have seemed complete, if he had fancied the high road of this travel +as leading through a community essentially Oriental in its social and +political life, which was nevertheless ripening into a State of the +American Union. Yet if General Knox could be roused from his grave at +Thomaston, he would see the dream realized. On the Pacific lies El +Dorado; among the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains there is a community +which blends the voluptuousness of Bagdad with the economy of Cape Cod; +and within two years a regiment of camel-riders will be scouring the +Great American Plains after Cheyennes, Navajoes, and Camanches. + +The propagation of the religion of which Joseph Smith was the prophet +has just begun to attract the notice its extraordinary success +deserves. So long as the head of the Mormon Church was considered a kind +of Mahometan Sam Slick, and his associates a crazy rabble, it was vain +to expect that the whole sect could be treated with more attention than +any of the curiosities in a popular museum. But a juster appreciation of +the constitution of the Mormon community begins to prevail, and with it +comes a conviction that questions are involved in its relations to the +parent government which are not exceeded in importance by any that have +ever been agitated at Washington. Brigham Young no longer seems to the +American public a religious mountebank, only one grade removed from the +man Orr, who claimed to be the veritable Angel Gabriel, and was killed +in a popular commotion which he had himself excited in Dutch Guiana. On +the contrary, he begins to appear as a man of great native strength and +scope of mind, who understands the phases of human character and knows +how to avail himself of the knowledge, and who has acquired spiritual +dominion over one hundred and fifty thousand souls, combined with +absolute temporal supremacy over fifty thousand of the number. + +The situation of the Mormon community in Utah has been peculiarly +adapted, heretofore, to the eccentricities of its inhabitants. Isolated +from Christendom on the east and west by plains incapable of settlement +for generations to come, and encompassed by mountain-ranges, the line +of whose summits runs above the boundary of eternal snow, it was +independent of the influences of Christian civilization. No missionary +of any Christian sect ever attempted to propagate his doctrines in +Utah,--nor, perhaps, would any such propagation have been tolerated, had +it been attempted. The Mormon religion was free to run its own course +and develop whatever elements it possessed of good and evil. When +Brigham Young and his followers from Nauvoo descended the Wahsatch range +in the summer of 1847, and took up their abode around the Great Salt +Lake, the avowed creed of the Church was different from that proclaimed +to-day. The secret doctrines entertained by its leaders were perhaps +the same as at present, but the religion of the people was a species of +mysticism which it is not impossible to conceive might commend itself +even to a refined mind. The existence of polygamy was officially denied +by the highest ecclesiastical authority, although we know to-day that +the denial was a shameless lie, and that Joseph Smith, during his +lifetime, had a plurality of wives, and at his death bequeathed them to +his successor, who already possessed a harem of his own. Property was +almost equally distributed among the people, the leaders being as poor +as their disciples. In this respect at that time they were accustomed +exultantly to compare their condition with that of the early Christians. + +Ten years passed, and the change was extraordinary. The doctrines +of Mormonism, if plainly stated, are no longer such as can commend +themselves to a mind not perverted nor naturally prurient. Polygamy is +inculcated as a religious duty, without which dignity in the Celestial +Kingdom is impossible, and even salvation hardly to be obtained. +Property is distributed unjustly, the bulk of real and personal estate +in the Territory being vested in the Church and its directors, between +whom and the mass of the population there exists a difference in social +welfare as wide as between the Russian nobleman and his serf. In brief, +the Mormons no longer claim to be a Christian sect, but assert, and +truly, that their religion is as distinct from Christianity as that is +from Mahometanism. Many of the doctrines whispered in 1847 only to +those who had been admitted to the penetralia of the Nauvoo Temple are +proclaimed unblushingly in 1857 from the pulpit in the Tabernacle at +Salt Lake City. A system of polytheism has been ingrafted on the creed, +according to which there are grades among the Gods, there being no +Supreme Ruler of all, but the primeval Adam of Genesis being the deity +highest in spiritual rank, and Christ, Mahomet, Joseph Smith, and, +finally, Brigham Young, partaking also of divinity. The business of +these deities in the Celestial Kingdom is the propagation of souls to +people bodies begotten on earth, and the sexual relation is made to +permeate every portion of the creed as thoroughly as it pervaded the +religions of ancient Egypt and India. In the Endowment House at Salt +Lake City, secret rites are practised of a character similar to the +mysteries of the Nile, and presided over by Young and Kimball, two +Vermont Yankees, with all the solemnity of priests of Isis and Osiris. +In these rites, which are symbolical of the mystery of procreation, both +sexes participate, clad in loose flowing robes of white linen, with +cleansed bodies and anointed hair. Since the revelation of the processes +of the Endowment, which was first fully made by a young apostate named +John Hyde, other dissenters, real and pretended, have attempted to +impose on the public exaggerated accounts of these ceremonies; but in +justice to the Mormon Church it ought to be said, that there is no +foundation for the reports that they are such as would outrage decency. +To be sure, an assemblage of members of both sexes, clad in white +shifts, with oiled and dishevelled hair, in a room fitted up in +resemblance of a garden, to witness a performance of the allegory of +Adam and Eve in Eden, which is conducted so as to be sensually symbolic, +is not suggestive of refined ideas; but it is necessary to take into +consideration the character both of performers and witnesses, which is +not distinguished in any way by delicacy. According to their standard of +morality and taste, the rites of the Endowment are devoid of immodesty. + +In their political bearing, however, they are more important, and justly +liable to the severest censure. It is established beyond question, that +the initiated, clad in the preposterous costume before described, take +an oath, in the presence of their Spiritual Head, to cherish eternal +enmity towards the government of the United States until it shall have +avenged the death of their prophet, Joseph Smith. And this ceremony is +not a mere empty form of words. It is an oath, the spirit of which the +Endowed carry into their daily life and all their relations with +the Gentile world. In it lies the root of the evasion, and finally +subversion, of Federal authority which occasioned the recent military +expedition to Utah. + +When the Territory was organized in 1850, the government at Washington, +acting on an imperfect knowledge of the nature of Mormonism, conferred +the office of Governor upon Brigham Young. For this act Mr. Fillmore has +been unjustly censured. It appeared to him, at the time, a proper, as +well as politic, appointment. But before the succession of General +Pierce to the Presidency, its evil results became apparent, in the +expulsion of civil officers from the Territory and the subversion of +all law. A feeble, and of course unsuccessful, attempt was then made to +supplant Young with Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe, a meritorious, but too +amiable officer of the regular army,--the same whose defeat by the +Cayuses, Spokans, and Coeur d'Alènes, last May, occasioned the Indian +war in Washington Territory. During the summer of 1855, he led a +battalion overland, wintering in Salt Lake City. It was at his option, +at any time during his sojourn, to have claimed the supreme executive +authority. He did not do so, but even headed a recommendation to +President Pierce for the reappointment of Brigham Young. This was the +result of his winter's residence, during which he and some of his +fellow-officers were feasted to their stomachs' content, and entirely +careless concerning the political condition of the Territory. Late in +the spring, he marched away to California, after having expressed to +the President that it was "his unqualified opinion, based on personal +acquaintance, that Brigham Young is [was] the most suitable person for +the office of Governor." Brigham's views of the winter's proceedings, on +the other hand, were expressed in a sermon preached in the Tabernacle, +the Sunday after the departure of the Lieutenant-Colonel, in which he +repeated his declaration of three years previous:-- + +"I am, and will be, governor, and no power can hinder it, until the Lord +Almighty says, 'Brigham, you need not be governor any longer.'" And he +added,--"I do not know what I shall say next winter, if such men make +their appearance here as some last winter. I know what I think I shall +say; if they play the same game again, let the women be ever so bad, so +help me God, we will slay them." + +Most of the other civil officers who were commissioned about the same +time with Colonel Steptoe arrived the August after he had departed. +Within eighteen months their lot was the same as that of their +predecessors. In April, 1857, before the snow had begun to melt on the +mountains, all of them, in a party led by Surveyor-General Burr, were on +their way to the States, happy in having escaped with life. During the +previous February, the United States District Court had been broken up +in Salt Lake City. A mob had invaded the courtroom, armed with pistols +and bludgeons, a knife was drawn on the judge in his private room, +and he was ordered to adjourn his court _sine die_, and yielded. +Indian-Agent Hurt was the only Gentile official who remained in the +Territory. + +In the mean while, however, a change of national administration had +taken place, and General Pierce had been succeeded by Mr. Buchanan. For +nearly three years the country had been convulsed by an agitation of the +Slavery question, originating with Senator Douglas, which culminated in +the Presidential election of 1856. The Utah question, grave though it +was, was forgotten in the excitement concerning Kansas, or remembered +only by the Republican party, as enabling them to stigmatize more +pungently the political theories of the Illinois Senator, by coupling +polygamy and slavery, "twin relics of barbarism," in the resolution of +their Philadelphia Platform against Squatter Sovereignty. In the lull +which succeeded the election, Mr. Buchanan had leisure, at Wheatland, to +draft a programme for his incoming administration. His paramount idea +was to gag the North and induce her to forget that she had been robbed +of her birthright, by forcing on the attention of the country other +questions of absorbing interest. One of the most obvious of these was +supplied by the condition of affairs in Utah. It had been satisfactorily +established, that the Mormons, acting under the influence of leaders +to whom they seemed to have surrendered their judgment, refused to be +controlled by any other authority; that they had been often advised to +obedience, and these friendly counsels had been answered with defiance; +that officers of the Federal Government had been driven from the +Territory for no offence except an effort to do their sworn duty, while +others had been prevented from going there by threats of assassination; +that judges had been interrupted in the performance of their functions, +and the records of their courts seized, and either destroyed or +concealed; and, finally, that many other acts of unlawful violence had +been perpetrated, and the right to repeat them openly claimed by the +leading inhabitants, with at least the silent acquiescence of nearly +all the rest of the population. In view of these facts, Mr. Buchanan +determined to supersede Brigham Young in the office of Governor, and to +send to Utah a strong military force to sustain the new appointee in the +exercise of his authority. + +The rumors of the impending expedition reached the Mormons at the very +moment they were prepared to apply to Congress for admission as a State. +A Constitution had been framed by a Convention assembled without the +sanction of an enabling act, and was intrusted to George A. Smith and +John Taylor, two of the Twelve Apostles of the Church, for presentation +to Congress. These men, both of them of more than ordinary ability, +helped to present the Mormon side of the question to the country through +the newspapers, during the winter of 1856-7. The essence of their +vindication was, that the character of some of the Federal officers who +had been sent to Utah was objectionable in the extreme; but, granting +the truth of all their statements on this subject, they supplied no +excuse for the utter subversion of Federal authority in the Territory. +Their narrative, however, formed a most spicy chapter in the annals of +official scandal. The three United States judges, Kinney, Drummond, +and Stiles, were presented to the public stripped of all judicial +sanctity;--Kinney, the Chief Justice, as the keeper of a grocery-store, +dance-room, and boarding-house, enforcing the bills for food and lodging +against his brethren of the law by expulsion from the bar in case of +non-payment, and so tenacious of life, that, before departing from the +Territory, he solicited and received from Brigham Young a patriarchal +blessing; Drummond, as an amorous horse-jockey, who had taken to Utah, +as his mistress, a drab from Washington, and seated her beside him once +upon the bench of the court; Stiles as himself a Mormon, so far as the +possession of two wives could make him one. From the early days of +Joseph Smith, his disciples have never minced their language, and they +expended their whole vocabulary now on such themes as have been cited, +proving, to the satisfaction of everybody, that, in respect to the +judiciary, they had indeed had just cause for complaint. The mission of +Smith and Taylor failed, as might have been expected,--the Chairman of +the Committee on Territories, Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, refusing even +to present their Constitution to the House,--and they prepared to return +to Utah. + +A month or two later, Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated, and preparations for +the Utah Expedition were immediately ordered. In the first place, an +opinion was solicited from General Scott as to the feasibility of the +undertaking until the next year. That distinguished soldier gave a +decision adverse to the immediate dispatch of the expedition. He +considered that the arrangements necessary to be made were so extensive, +and the distances from which the regiments must be concentrated so +great, that the wiser plan was to consume the year in getting everything +in readiness for the troops to march from the frontier early in the +spring of 1858. It would have been well, had his advice prevailed; +but it was overruled, and the preparations for the expedition were +commenced. The troops detailed for the service were the Fifth Infantry, +then busy fighting Billy Bowlegs among the everglades of Florida,--the +Tenth Infantry, which was stationed at the forts in Upper +Minnesota,--the Second Dragoons, which was among the forces assembled +at Fort Leavenworth, to be used, if necessary, in Kansas, at the +requisition of Governor Walker,--and Phelps's light-artillery battery, +the same which so distinguished itself at Buena Vista, under the command +of Captain Washington. An ordnance-battery, also, was organized for the +purposes of the expedition. Brevet Brigadier-General Harney was assigned +to the command-in-chief, an officer of a rude force of character, +amounting often to brutality, and careless as to those details of +military duty which savor more of the accountant's inkstand than of +the drum and fife, but ambitious, active, and well acquainted with the +character of the service for which he was detailed. He was, at the time, +in command in Kansas, subject in a measure to the will of Governor +Walker. + +The whole number of troops under orders for the expedition was hardly +twenty-five hundred, but from this total no estimate can be predicated +of the enormous quantities of commissary stores and munitions of war +necessary to be dispatched to sustain it. It was thought advisable +to send a supply for eighteen months, so that the trains exceeded in +magnitude those which would accompany an army of twenty thousand in +ordinary operations on the European continent, where _dépôts_ could be +established along the line of march. To appreciate such preparations, it +is necessary to understand the character of the country to be traversed +between the Missouri River and the Great Salt Lake. + +The route selected for the march was along the emigrant road across +the Plains, first defined fifty years ago by trappers and _voyageurs_ +following the trail by which the buffalo crossed the mountains, +described by Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, in the reports of his earlier +explorations, and subsequently adopted by all the overland emigration +across the continent. It is, perhaps, the most remarkable natural road +in the world. The hand of man could hardly add an improvement to the +highway along which, from the Missouri to the Great Basin, Nature has +presented not a single obstacle to the progress of the heaviest loaded +teams. From the frontier, at Fort Leavenworth, it sweeps over a broad +rolling prairie to the Platte, a river shallow, but of great width, +whose course is as straight as an arrow. Pursuing the river-bottom more +than three hundred miles, to the Black Hills, steep mounds dotted with +dark pines and cedars, it enters the broad belt of mountainous country +which terminates in the rim of the Basin. Following thence the North +Fork of the Platte, and its tributary, the Sweetwater,--so named by an +old French trapper, who had the misfortune to upset a load of sugar into +the stream,--it emerges from the Black Hills into scenery of a different +character. On the northern bank of the Sweetwater are the Rattlesnake +Mountains, huge excrescences of rock, blistering out of an arid plain; +on the southern bank, the hills which bear the name of the river, and +are only exaggerations of the bluffs along the Platte. The dividing +ridge between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific is reached in the +South Pass, at the foot of a spur of the Wind River range, a group of +gigantic mountains, whose peaks reach three thousand feet above the line +of perpetual snow. There the emigrant strikes his tent in the morning +on the banks of a rivulet which finds its way, through the Platte, +Missouri, and Mississippi, into the Gulf of Mexico,--and pitches it, at +his next camp, upon a little creek which trickles into Green River, and +at last, through the Colorado, into the Gulf of California. Not far +distant spring the fountains of the Columbia. A level table-land extends +to the fords of Green River, a clear and rapid stream, whose entire +course has never yet been mapped by an intelligent explorer. Here the +road becomes entangled again among mountains, and winds its way over +steep ridges, across foaming torrents, and through cañons so narrow that +only noonday sunshine penetrates their depths, until it emerges, through +a rocky gate in the great barrier of the Wahsatch range, upon the bench +above Salt Lake City, twelve hundred miles from Fort Leavenworth. The +view at this point, from the mouth of Emigration Cañon, is enchanting. +The sun, sinking through a cloudless western sky, silvers the long line +of the lake, which is visible twenty miles away. Beyond the city the +River Jordan winds quietly through the plain. Below the gazer are roofs +and cupolas, shady streets, neat gardens, and fields of ripening grain. +The mountains, which bound the horizon on every side, except where a +wavering stream of heated air shows the beginning of the Great Desert, +are tinged with a soft purple haze, in anticipation of the sunset, but +every patch of green grass on their slopes glows through it like an +emerald, while along the summits runs an undulating thread of snow. + +Throughout this vast line of road, the only white inhabitants are the +garrisons of the military posts, the keepers of mail-stations, and +_voyageurs_ and mountaineers, whose cabins may be found in every +locality favorable to Indian trade. These last are a singular race +of men, fast disappearing, like the Indian and the buffalo, their +neighbors. Most of them are of French extraction, and some have died +without having learned to speak a word of English. Their wealth consists +in cattle and horses, and little stocks of goods which they purchase +from the sutlers at the forts or the merchants at Salt Lake City. Some +of the more considerable among them have the means of sending to the +States for an annual supply of blankets, beads, vermilion, and other +stuff for Indian traffic; but the most are thriftless, and all are +living in concubinage or marriage with squaws, and surrounded by troops +of unwashed, screeching half-breeds. Once in from three to six years, +they will make a journey to St. Louis, and gamble away so much of their +savings since the last visit as has escaped being wasted over greasy +card-tables during the long winter-evenings among the mountains. The +Indian tribes along the way are numerous and formidable, the road +passing through country occupied by Pawnees, Cheyennes, Sioux, +Arapahoes, Crows, Snakes, and Utahs. With the Cheyennes war had been +waged by the United States for more than two years, which interfered +seriously with the expedition; for, during the month of June, a +war-party from that tribe intercepted and dispersed the herd of +beef-cattle intended for the use of the army. + +The natural characteristics of the entire route are as unpromising as +those of its inhabitants. At the distance of about two hundred miles +from the Missouri frontier the soil becomes so pervaded by sand, that +only scientific agriculture can render it available. Along the Platte +there is no fuel. Not a tree is visible, except the thin fringe of +cottonwoods on the margin of the river, all of which upon the south +bank, where the road runs, were hewed down and burned at every +convenient camp, during the great California emigration. When the Rocky +Mountains are entered, the only vegetation found is bunch-grass, so +called because it grows in tufts,--and the _artemisia_, or wild sage, an +odorous shrub, which sometimes attains the magnitude of a tree, with a +fibrous trunk as thick as a man's thigh, but is ordinarily a bush +about two feet in height. The bunch-grass, grown at such an elevation, +possesses extraordinary nutritive properties, even in midwinter. About +the middle of January a new growth is developed underneath the snow, +forcing off the old dry blade that ripened and shed its seed the +previous summer. From Fort Kearney to Fort Laramie, almost the only +fuel to be obtained is the dung of buffalo and oxen, called, in the +vocabulary of the region, "chips,"--the _argal_ of the Tartar deserts. +Among the mountains the sage is the chief material of the traveller's +fire. It burns with a lively, ruddy flame, and gives out an intense +heat. In the settlements of Utah all the wood consumed is hauled from +the cañons, which are usually lined with pines, firs, and cedars, while +the broadsides of the mountains are nothing but terraces of volcanic +rock. The price of wood in Salt Lake City is from twelve to twenty +dollars a cord. + +From this brief review of the natural features of the country, some idea +may be formed of the intensity of the religious enthusiasm which has +induced fifty thousand Mormon converts to traverse it, many of them on +foot and trundling handcarts, to seek a home among the valleys of +Utah, in a region hardly more propitious; and some idea, also, of the +difficulties which were to attend the march of the army. + +During the spring of 1857, the preparations for the expedition were +hurried forward, and in June the whole force was collected at Fort +Leavenworth. All Western Missouri was in a ferment. The river foamed +with steamboats freighted with military stores, and the levee at +Leavenworth City was covered all summer long with the frames of wagons. +Between the 18th and the 24th of July, all the detachments of the little +army were on the march, except a battalion of two companies of infantry, +which had been unable to join their regiment at the time it moved from +Minnesota, and the Second Dragoons, which Governor Walker retained in +Kansas to overawe the uneasy people of the town of Lawrence. General +Harney also tarried in Kansas, intending to wait until after the October +election there, at which disturbances were anticipated that it might be +necessary to quell by force. + +At Washington, movements of equal importance were taking place. The +Postmaster-General, in June, annulled the contract held by certain +Mormons for the transportation of the monthly mall to Utah, ostensibly +on account of non-performance of the service within the stipulated time, +but really because he was satisfied that the mails were violated, either +_en route_ or after arrival at Salt Lake City. The office of Governor +of the Territory was offered by the President to various persons, and +finally accepted, July 11th, by Alfred Cumming, a brother of the Cumming +of Georgia who fought multitudinous duels with McDuffie of South +Carolina, all of which both parties survived. Mr. Cumming had been a +sutler during the Mexican War, and more recently a Superintendent of +Indian Affairs on the Upper Missouri. He was reputed to be a gentleman +of education, ambition, and executive ability. The office of Chief +Justice was conferred on Judge D.R. Eckels, of Indiana, a person well +fitted for the position by the circumstances of his early life, of the +utmost determination, and whose judicial integrity was above suspicion. + +The news of the stoppage of the mail reached Salt Lake Valley July 24th, +an eventful anniversary in the history of Mormonism. It was on the 24th +of July, 1847, that Brigham Young entered the Valley from the East, and +the day had always afterwards been kept as a holiday of the Church. On +this occasion, the celebration was held in Cottonwood Cañon, one of the +wildest and grandest gorges among the Wahsatch Mountains, opening at +the foot of the Twin Peaks, about twenty miles southeast from Salt Lake +City. Thither more than twenty-five hundred people had flocked from the +city on the previous day, and prepared to hold their festival under +bowers built of fragrant pines and cedars around a little lake far up +among the mountains. During the afternoon of the 24th, while they were +engaged in music, dancing, and every manner of lively sport, two dusty +messengers rode up the cañon, bringing from the States the news of the +stoppage of the mail and of the approaching march of the troops. This +mode of announcement was probably preconcerted with Brigham Young, who +was undoubtedly aware of the facts on the preceding day. A scene of +the maddest confusion ensued, which was heightened by the inflammatory +speeches of the Mormon leaders. Young reminded the fanatical throng, +that, ten years ago that very day, he had said, "Give us ten years of +peace and we will ask no odds of the United States"; and he added, +that the ten years had passed, and now they asked no odds,--that they +constituted henceforth a free and independent state, to be known no +longer as Utah, but by their own Mormon name of Deseret. Kimball, the +second in authority in the Church, called on the people to adhere to +Brigham, as their "prophet, seer, and revelator, priest, governor, +and king." The sun set on the first overt act in the rebellion. The +fanatics, wending their way back to the city, across the broad plain, in +the moonlight, were ready to follow wherever Brigham Young might choose +to lead. + +On the succeeding Sundays the spirit of rebellion was breathed from the +pulpit in language yet more intemperate, and often profane and obscene. +Military preparations were made with the greatest bustle; and the Nauvoo +Legion--under which name, transplanted from Illinois, the militia were +organized--was drilled daily in the streets of the city. The martial +fervor ran so high that even the boys paraded with wooden spears and +guns, and the little ragamuffins were inspected and patted on the head +by venerable and veritable Fathers of the Church. + +In total ignorance that the standard of rebellion had already been +raised, General Harney, in the beginning of August, detached Captain Van +Vliet, the Quarter-master on his staff, to proceed rapidly to Utah to +make arrangements for the reception of the army in the Valley. He passed +the troops in the vicinity of Fort Laramie. About thirty miles west +of Green River he was met by a party of Mormons, who escorted him, +accompanied only by his servant, to the city. There he was politely +treated, but informed that his mission would be fruitless, for the +Mormon people were determined to resist the ingress of the troops. At +a meeting in the Tabernacle, at which the Captain was present on the +platform, when Brigham Young called on the audience for an expression of +opinion, every hand was raised in favor of the policy of resistance, and +in expression of willingness, if it should become necessary, to abandon +harvest and homestead, retreat with the women to the mountains, and wage +there a war of extermination. They took pains to conduct the Captain +through the well-kept gardens and blooming fields, to show him their +household comforts, the herds of cattle, the stacks of hay and grain, +and all their public improvements, in order to present a contrast +between such plenty and prosperity and such a scene of desolation as +they depicted. Profoundly impressed by the devotion of the people to +their leaders, he started on his return, accompanied by Mr. Bernhisel, +the Mormon delegate to Congress. Two days after he left the city, a +proclamation was issued by Young, in his capacity of Governor, in which +the army was denounced as a mob and forbidden to enter the Territory, +and the people of Utah were summoned to arms to repel its advance. + +When this document reached the troops, they had already crossed the +Territorial line, and were prepared for its reception by the report of +Captain Van Vliet as he passed them on his return to the States. Their +position was embarrassing. In the absence of General Harney, each +separate detachment constituted an independent command. The senior +officer present was Colonel Alexander, of the Tenth Infantry, a thorough +soldier in the minutiae of his profession, and distinguished by +gallantry during the Mexican War. He resolved, very properly, in view +of his seniority, to assume the command-in-chief until General Harney +should arrive from the East. On the 27th of September, before the +proclamation was received, the first division of the army crossed Green +River, having accomplished a march of a thousand miles in little more +than two months. That same night it hastened forwards thirty miles to +Ham's Fork,--a confluent of Black's Fork, which empties into Green +River,--where several supply-trains were gathered, upon which there +was danger that the Mormons would make an attack. The other divisions +followed within the week, and the whole force was concentrated. On the +night of October 5th, after the last division had crossed the river, two +supply-trains, of twenty-five wagons each, were captured and burned just +on the bank of the stream, by a party of mounted Mormons led by a man +named Lot Smith, and the next morning another train was destroyed by +the same party, twenty miles farther east, on the Big Sandy, in Oregon +Territory. The teamsters were disarmed and dismissed, and the cattle +stolen. No blood was shed; not a shot fired. Immediately upon the news +of this attack reaching Ham's Fork, Colonel Alexander, who had then +assumed the command-in-chief, dispatched Captain Marcy, of the Fifth +Infantry, with four hundred men, to afford assistance to the trains, and +punish the aggressors, if possible. But when the Captain reached Green +River, all that was visible near the little French trading-post was two +broad, black rings on the ground, bestrewn with iron chains and bolts, +where the wagons had been burned in _corral_. He was able to do +nothing except to send orders to the other trains on the road to halt, +concentrate, and await the escort of Brevet Colonel Smith, of the Tenth +Infantry, who had started from the frontier in August with the two +companies mentioned as having been left behind in Minnesota, and by +rapid marches had already reached the Sweetwater. The condition of +affairs at this moment was indeed critical. By the folly of Governor +Walker's movements in Kansas the expedition was deprived of its mounted +force, and consisted entirely of infantry and artillery. The Mormon +marauding parties, on the contrary, which it now became evident were +hovering on every side, were all well mounted and tolerably well armed. +The loss of three trains more would reduce the troops to the verge +of starvation before spring, in case of inability to reach Salt Lake +Valley. Nothing was heard from General Harney, and in his absence no one +possessed instructions adequate to the emergency. + +To understand the movements which followed, it is necessary to describe +briefly the topography of the country between Green River and the Great +Salt Lake. The entire interval, one hundred and fifty miles in breadth, +is filled with groups and chains of mountains, the direct route through +which to Salt Lake City lies along water-courses, following them through +cañons so narrow that little science is necessary to render the natural +defences impregnable. In this respect, and in the general character of +the scenery, it bears much resemblance to the Tyrol. In the narrowest of +these gorges, Echo Cañon, twenty-five miles in length, whose walls of +rock often approach within a stone's throw of each other, it became +known that the Mormons were erecting breastworks and digging ditches, +by means of which they expected to be able to submerge the road to the +depth of several feet, for miles. The only known mode of avoiding a +passage through this gorge was by a circuitous route, following the +eastern slope of the rim of the Great Basin northward, more than a +hundred miles, to Soda Springs, at the northern bend of Bear River, the +principal tributary of the Salt Lake,--then crossing the rim along the +course of the river, and pursuing its valley southward, and that of the +Roseaux or Malade, into Salt Lake Valley. The distance of Salt Lake +City from the camp on Ham's Fork was by this route nearly three hundred +miles,--while the distance by the road past Fort Bridger, through the +cañons, was less than one hundred and fifty miles. At that fort, about +twenty miles west from the encampment of the army, the Mormon marauding +parties had their head-quarters and principal _dépôt_. It was there that +Colonel Alexander was ordered, about this time, by Brigham Young, +to surrender his arms to the Mormon Quartermaster-General, on which +condition and an agreement to depart eastward early the following +spring, he and his troops should be fed during the winter; otherwise, +Young added, they would perish from hunger and cold, and rot among the +mountains. In his perplexity, Colonel Alexander called a council of +war, and, with its approval, resolved to commence a march towards Soda +Springs, leaving Fort Bridger unmolested on his left. For more than +a fortnight the army toiled along Ham's Fork, cutting a road through +thickets of greasewood and wild sage, incumbered by a train of such +unwieldy length that often the advance-guard reached its camp at night +before the rear-guard had moved from the camp of the preceding day, and +harassed by Mormon marauding parties from the Fort, which hung about the +flanks out of the reach of rifle-shot, awaiting opportunities to descend +on unprotected wagons and cattle. The absence of dragoons prevented a +dispersion of these banditti. Some companies of infantry were, indeed, +mounted on mules, and sent to pursue them, but these only excited their +derision. The Mormons nicknamed them "jackass cavalry." Their only +exploit was the capture of a Mormon major and his adjutant, on whose +person were found orders issued by D.H. Wells, the Commanding General of +the Nauvoo Legion, to the various detachments of marauders, directing +them to burn the whole country before the army and on its flanks, to +keep it from sleep by night surprises, to stampede its animals and set +fire to its trains, to blockade the road by felling trees and destroying +river-fords, but to take no life. On the 13th of October, eight hundred +oxen were cut off from the rear of the army and driven to Salt Lake +Valley. Thus the weary column toiled along until it reached the spot +where it expected to be joined by Colonel Smith's battalion, about fifty +miles up Ham's Fork. The very next day snow fell to the depth of more +than a foot. Disheartened, vacillating, and perplexed, Colonel Alexander +called another council of war, and, acting on its judgment, resolved to +retrace his steps. An express reached him that same day, from Colonel +Smith, by which he was informed of the approach of Colonel Albert S. +Johnston, of the Second Cavalry, who had been detailed to take command +of the expedition in the place of General Harney, and now sent orders +that the troops should return to Black's Fork, where he proposed to +concentrate the entire army. + +During the month of August, it having become evident that General Harney +was reluctant to proceed to Utah, anticipating a brighter field for +military distinction in Kansas, Colonel Johnston was summoned from +Texas to Washington and there ordered to hasten to take command of the +expedition. On the 17th of September, he left Fort Leavenworth, and by +rapid travel overtook Colonel Smith while he was engaged in collecting +the trains which he intended to escort to the main body. On the 27th of +October, the column moved forwards. The escort had been reinforced by a +squadron of dragoons from Fort Laramie, but its entire strength was less +than three hundred men, a number obviously insufficient to defend a line +of wagons six miles in length. An attack by the Mormons was expected +every day, but none was made; and on the 3d of November, the whole army, +with its munitions, supplies, and commander, was concentrated on Black's +Fork. Colonel Alexander had arrived at the place of rendezvous some days +previously, being no nearer Salt Lake City November 3d than he had been +a month before. The country was covered with snow, winter having fairly +set in among the mountains, the last pound of forage was exhausted, and +the cattle and mules were little more than animated skeletons. + +Colonel Johnston had already determined, while in the South Pass, that +it would be impracticable to cross the Wahsatch range until spring, +and shaped his arrangements accordingly. He resolved to establish +winter-quarters in the vicinity of Fort Bridger, and on the 6th of +November the advance towards that post commenced. The day was memorable +in the history of the expedition. Sleet poured down upon the column from +morning till night. On the previous evening, five hundred cattle had +been stampeded by the Mormons, in consequence of which some trains +were unable to move at all. After struggling along till nightfall, the +regiments camped wherever they could find shelter under bluffs or among +willows. That night more than five hundred animals perished from +hunger and cold, and the next morning the camp was encircled by their +carcasses, coated with a film of ice. It was a scene which could be +paralleled only in the retreat of the French from Moscow. Had there been +any doubt before concerning the practicability of an immediate advance +beyond Fort Bridger, none existed any longer. It was the 16th of +November when the vanguard reached that post, which the Mormons had +abandoned the week before. Nearly a fortnight had been consumed in +accomplishing less than thirty miles. + +It is time to return to the States and record what had been transpiring +there, in connection with the expedition, while the army was staggering +towards its permanent winter-camp. The only one of the newly-appointed +civil officials who was present with the troops was Judge Eckels, +who had left his home in Indiana immediately after receiving his +appointment, and started across the Plains with his own conveyance. Near +Fort Laramie he was overtaken by Colonel Smith, whom he accompanied in +his progress to the main body. Governor Cumming, in the mean while, +dilly-dallied in the East, travelling from St. Louis to Washington and +back again, begging for an increase of salary, for a sum of money to be +placed at his disposal for secret service, and for transportation +to the Territory,--all which requests, except the last, were denied. +Towards the close of September, he arrived at Fort Leavenworth. Governor +Walker had, by this time, released his hold on the dragoons, and, +notwithstanding the advanced period of the season, they were preparing +to march to Utah. The Governor and most of the other civil officers +delayed until they started, and travelled in their company. The march +was attended with the severest hardships. When they reached the Rocky +Mountains, the snow lay from one to three feet deep on the loftier +ridges which they were obliged to cross. The struggle with the elements, +during the last two hundred miles before gaining Fort Bridger, was +desperate. Nearly a third of the horses died from cold, hunger, and +fatigue; everything that could be spared was thrown out to lighten the +wagons, and the road was strewn with military accoutrements from the +Rocky Ridge to Green River. On the 20th of November, Colonel Cooke +reached the camp with a command entirely incapacitated for active +service. + +The place selected by Colonel Johnston for the winter-quarters of +the army was on the bank of Black's Fork, about two miles above Fort +Bridger, on a spot sheltered by high bluffs which rise abruptly from the +bottom at a distance of five or six hundred yards from the channel of +the stream. The banks of the Fork were fringed with willow brush and +cottonwood trees, blasted in some places where the Mormons had attempted +to deprive the troops of fuel. The trees were fortunately too green to +burn, and the fire swept through acres, doing no more damage than to +consume the dry leaves and char the bark. The water of the Fork, clear +and pure, rippled noisily over a stony bed between two unbroken walls +of ice. The civil officers of the Territory fixed their quarters in +a little nook in the wood above the military camp. The Colonel, +anticipating a change of encampment, determined not to construct +quarters of logs or sod for the army. A new species of tent, which had +just been introduced, was served out for its winter dwellings. An iron +tripod supported a pole from the top of which depended a slender but +strong hoop. Attached to this, the canvas sloped to the ground, forming +a tent in the shape of a regular cone. The opening at the top caused a +draught, by means of which a fire could be kept up beneath the tripod +without choking the inmates with smoke. An Indian lodge had evidently +been the model of the inventor. Most of the civil officers, however, dug +square holes in the ground, over which they built log huts, plastering +the cracks with mud. Their little town they named Eckelsville, after the +Chief Justice. A _dépôt_ for all the military stores was established at +Fort Bridger, where a strong detachment was encamped. At the time of its +occupation, the Fort consisted merely of two stone walls, one twenty, +the other about ten feet in height, inclosing quadrangles fifty paces +long and forty broad. These walls were built of cobble-stones cemented +with mortar. Half-a-dozen cannonballs would have knocked them to pieces, +although they constituted a formidable defence against infantry. When +the Mormons evacuated the post, they burned all the buildings inside +these quadrangles. Colonel Johnston proceeded to set up additional +defences for the _dépôt_, and within a month two lunettes were completed +with ditches and _chevaux-de-frise_, in each of which was mounted a +piece of artillery. + +The work of unloading the trains commenced, and after careful +computation the Chief Commissary determined, that, by an abridgment of +the ration, diminishing the daily issue of flour, and issuing bacon only +once a week, his supplies would last until the first of June. All the +beef cattle intended for the use of the army having been intercepted by +the Cheyennes, it became necessary to kill those draught oxen for beef, +which had survived the march. Shambles were erected, to which the poor +half-starved animals were driven by hundreds to be butchered. The flesh +was jerked and stored carefully in cabins built for the purpose. + +The business of loading the trains had been carelessly performed at Fort +Leavenworth. In this respect the quartermaster who superintended the +work might have learned a lesson from the experience of the British in +the Crimea. But, unwilling to take the trouble to assign to each train +a proportionate quantity of all the articles to be transported, he had +packed one after another with just such things as lay most conveniently +at hand. The consequence was, that in the wagons which were burned +were contained all the mechanics' implements, stationery, and +horse-medicines, although the loss of the latter was not to be +regretted. The rest of their contents was mostly flour and bacon. Had +the Mormons burned the next three trains upon the road, they would have +destroyed all the clothing intended for the expedition. As it was, upon +searching those trains, only one hundred and fifty pairs of boots and +shoes and six hundred pairs of stockings were found provided for an army +of two thousand men, and some of the soldiers already had nothing but +moccasins to cover their feet, with the thermometer at 16 degrees below +zero,--while there were found one thousand leather neck-stocks and three +thousand bed-sacks, articles totally useless. "How not to do it" had +evidently been the motto of the Quarter-master's Department. The ample +supplies of some articles were rendered unavailable by deficiencies in +other articles equally necessary. In some of its arrangements it seemed +to have proceeded on the presumption that there would be an armed +collision, while in others the probability of such an event was entirely +disregarded. One wagon was loaded wholly with boiling-kettles, but there +was no brine to boil, and at the close of November not a pound of salt +remained in the camp. + +One of the first and most important of Colonel Johnston's duties was +to provide for the keeping, during the winter, of the mules and horses +which survived. On Black's Fork there was no grass for their support. It +had either been burned by the Mormons or consumed by their cavalry. He +decided to send them all to Henry's Fork, thirty-five miles south of +Fort Bridger, where he had at one time designed to encamp with the whole +army. The regiment of dragoons was detailed to guard them. A supply of +fresh animals for transportation in the spring was his next care. The +settlements in New Mexico are less than seven hundred miles distant from +Fort Bridger, and to them he resolved to apply. Captain Marcy was +the officer selected to lead in the arduous expedition. He had been +previously distinguished in the service by a thorough exploration of the +Red River of Louisiana. Accompanied by only thirty-five picked men, all +volunteers, and by two guides, he started for Taos, November 27th,--an +undertaking from which, at that season of the year, the most experienced +mountaineers would have shrunk. A party was dispatched at the same +time to the Flathead country, in Oregon and Washington Territories, to +procure horses to remount the dragoons, and to induce the traders in +that region to drive cattle down to Fort Bridger for sale. + +On the day of Captain Marcy's departure, Governor Cumming issued a +proclamation, declaring the Territory to be in a state of rebellion, +and commanding the traitors to lay down their arms and return to their +homes. It announced, also, that proceedings would be instituted against +the offenders, in a court to be organized in the county by Judge Eckels, +which would supersede the necessity of appointing a military commission +for that purpose. This document was sent to Salt Lake City by a Mormon +prisoner who was released for the purpose. The Governor sent also, by +the same messenger, a letter to Brigham Young, in which there were +expressions that indicated a disposition to temporize. + +The whole camp, at this time, was a scene of confusion and bustle. Some +of the stragglers around the tents were Indians belonging to a band of +Pah-Utahs, among whom Dr. Hurt, already mentioned as the only Federal +officer who did not abandon the Territory in the spring of 1857, had +established a farm upon the banks of the Spanish Fork, which rises among +the snows of Mount Nebo, and flows into Lake Utah from the East. Shortly +after the issue of Brigham Young's proclamation of September 15th, the +Mormons resolved to take the Doctor prisoner. No official was ever more +obnoxious to the Church than he; for by his authority over the tribes +he had been able to counteract in great measure the influences by which +Young had endeavored to alienate both Snakes and Utahs from the control +of the United States. On the 27th of September, two bands of mounted men +moved towards the farm from the neighboring towns of Springville and +Payson. Warned by the faithful Indians of his danger, the Doctor fled to +the mountains, and twenty Pah-Utahs and Uinta-Utahs escorted him to the +South Pass, where he joined Colonel Johnston on the 23d of October. It +was an act of devotion which has rarely been excelled in Indian history. +The sufferings of his naked escort on the journey were severe. They +crossed the Green River Mountains, breaking the crust of the snow and +leading their animals, being reduced at the time to tallow and roots for +their own sustenance. On the advance of the army towards Fort Bridger, +they accompanied its march. + +Another class of stragglers, and one most dangerous to the peace of the +camp, was composed of the thousand teamsters who were discharged from +employment on the supply-trains. Many of these men belonged to the scum +of the great Western cities,--a class more dangerous, because more +intelligent and reckless, than the same class of population in New York. +Others had sought to reach California, not anticipating a state of +hostilities which would bar their way. Now, thrown out of employment, +with slender means, a great number became desperate. Hundreds attempted +to return to the States on foot, some of whom died on the way,--and +nine-tenths of them would have perished, had they encountered the storms +of the preceding winter among the mountains. But the majority hung +around the camp. To some of these the Quartermaster was able to furnish +work, but he was obviously incapable of affording this assistance to +all. Thefts and assaults became frequent, and promised to multiply as +the season advanced. To remedy this trouble, Colonel Johnston assumed +the responsibility of organizing a volunteer battalion. The term of +service for which the men enlisted was nine months. For their pay they +were to depend on the action of Congress. The four companies which the +battalion comprised selected for their commander an officer from the +regular army, Captain Bee, of the Tenth Infantry. + +The organization of a District Court, by Judge Eckels, helped quite as +essentially to enforce order. Its convicts were received by Colonel +Johnston and committed to imprisonment in the guard-tents of the army. +The grand jury, impanelled for the purposes of the court, were obliged +to take cognizance of the rebellion, and, after thoroughly investigating +the facts of the case, they returned bills of indictment against Brigham +Young and sixty of his principal associates. + +During "the campaign of Ham's Fork," as Colonel Alexander's march up and +down that stream was facetiously called by the Mormons, he had been in +constant receipt of communications from Young, of a character similar to +the letter in which the army was commanded to surrender its arms at Fort +Bridger. This correspondence was now abruptly terminated by Colonel +Johnston. Two messengers came to the camp from Salt Lake City at the +beginning of December, escorted by a party of Mormon militia, and +bringing four pack-mules loaded with salt, which a letter from Young +offered as a present, with assurances that it was not poisoned. This +letter contained, besides, certain threats concerning the treatment +of prisoners, and reminded Colonel Johnston that the Mormons also had +prisoners in their power, on whom anything which might befall those in +camp should be retaliated. The Colonel returned no other answer to this +epistle than to dismiss its bearers with their salt, informing them +that he could accept no favors from traitors and rebels, and that any +communication which they might in future hold with the army must be +under a flag of truce, although as to the manner in which they might +communicate with the Governor it was not within his province to +prescribe. A week or two later, a thousand pounds of salt were forced +through to the camp from Fort Laramie, thirty out of the forty-six mules +on which it was packed perishing on the way. + +Thus the long and dreary winter commenced in the camp of the army of +Utah. It mattered not that the rations were abridged, that communication +with the States was interrupted, and that every species of duty at such +a season, in such a region, was uncommonly severe. Confidence and even +gayety were restored to the camp, by the consciousness that it was +commanded by an officer whose intelligence was adequate to the +difficulties of his position. Every additional hardship was cheerfully +endured. As the animals failed, all the wood used in camp was obliged to +be drawn a distance of from three to six miles by hand, but there were +few gayer spectacles than the long strings of soldiers hurrying the +wagons over the crunching snow. They built great pavilions, decorated +them with colors and stacks of arms, and danced as merrily on Christmas +and New Year's Eves to the music of the regimental bands, as if they had +been in cozy cantonments, instead of in a camp of fluttering canvas, +more than seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. In the +pavilion of the Fifth Infantry, there drooped over the company the flags +which that regiment had carried, ten years before, up the sunny slopes +of Chapultepec, and which were torn in a hundred places by the storm of +bullets at Molinos del Rey. + +Meanwhile, how hearts were beating in the States with anxious +apprehension for the safety of kindred and friends, those who felt that +anxiety, and not those who were the objects of it, best know. + +Perhaps the disposition of the camp would have been more in harmony +with the scenery and the season, if the army had dreamed that the +administration, which had launched it so recklessly into circumstances +of such privation and danger, was about to turn its labors and +sufferings into a farce, and to claim the approval of the country for +an act of mistaken clemency, which was, in reality, a grave political +error. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +WHICH TREATS OF ROMANCE. + + +There is no word in the English language more unceremoniously and +indefinitely kicked and cuffed about, by what are called sensible +people, than the word _romance_. When Mr. Smith or Mr. Stubbs has +brought every wheel of life into such range and order that it is one +steady, daily grind,--when they themselves have come into the habits and +attitudes of the patient donkey, who steps round and round the endlessly +turning wheel of some machinery, then they fancy that they have gotten +"the victory that overcometh the world." + +All but this dead grind, and the dollars that come through the mill, +is by them thrown into one waste "catch-all" and labelled _romance_. +Perhaps there was a time in Mr. Smith's youth,--he remembers it +now,--when he read poetry, when his cheek was wet with strange tears, +when a little song, ground out by an organ-grinder in the street, had +power to set his heart beating and bring a mist before his eyes. Ah, in +those days he had a vision!--a pair of soft eyes stirred him strangely; +a little weak hand was laid on his manhood, and it shook and trembled; +and then came all the humility, the aspiration, the fear, the hope, +the high desire, the troubling of the waters by the depending angel of +love,--and a little more and Mr. Smith might have become a man, instead +of a banker! He thinks of it now, sometimes, as he looks across the +fireplace after dinner and sees Mrs. Smith asleep, innocently shaking +the bouquet of pink bows and Brussels lace that waves over her placid +red countenance. + +Mrs. Smith wasn't his first love, nor, indeed, any love at all; but they +agree reasonably well. And as for poor Nellie,--well, she is dead and +buried,--all that was stuff and romance. Mrs. Smith's money set him up +in business, and Mrs. Smith is a capital manager, and he thanks God that +he isn't romantic, and tells Smith Junior not to read poetry or novels, +and to stick to realities. + +"This is the victory that overcometh the world,"--to learn to be fat and +tranquil, to have warm fires and good dinners, to hang your hat on the +same peg at the same hour every day, to sleep soundly all night, and +never to trouble your head with a thought or imagining beyond. + +But there are many people besides Mr. Smith who have gained this +victory,--who have strangled their higher nature and buried it, and +built over its grave the structure of their life, the better to keep it +down. + +The fascinating Mrs. T., whose life is a whirl between ball and opera, +point lace, diamonds, and schemings of admiration for herself, and of +establishments for her daughters,--there was a time, if you will believe +me, when that proud, worldly woman was so humbled, under the touch of +some mighty power, that she actually thought herself capable of being a +poor man's wife. She thought she could live in a little, mean house on +no-matter-what-street, with one servant, and make her own bonnets +and mend her own clothes, and sweep the house Mondays, while Betty +washed,--all for what? All because she thought that there was a man +so noble, so true, so good, so high-minded, that to live with him in +poverty, to be guided by him in adversity, to lean on him in every rough +place of life, was a something nobler, better, purer, more satisfying, +than French laces, opera-boxes, and even Madame Roget's best gowns. + +Unfortunately, this was all romance,--there was no such man. There +was, indeed, a person of very common, self-interested aims and worldly +nature, whom she had credited at sight with an unlimited draft on all +her better nature; and when the hour of discovery came, she awoke +from her dream with a start and a laugh, and ever since has despised +aspiration, and been busy with the _realities_ of life, and feeds poor +little Mary Jane, who sits by her in the opera-box there, with all the +fruit which she has picked from the bitter tree of knowledge. There is +no end of the epigrams and witticisms which she can throw out, this +elegant Mrs. T., on people who marry for love, lead prosy, worky lives, +and put on their best cap with pink ribbons for Sunday. "Mary Jane shall +never make a fool of herself"; but, even as she speaks, poor Mary Jane's +heart is dying within her at the vanishing of a pair of whiskers from an +opposite box,--which whiskers the poor little fool has credited with a +_résumé_ drawn from her own imaginings of all that is grandest and +most heroic, most worshipful in man. By-and-by, when Mrs. T. finds the +glamour has fallen on her daughter, she wonders; she has "tried to keep +novels out of the girl's way,--where did she get these notions?" + +All prosaic, and all bitter, disenchanted people talk as if poets +and novelists _made_ romance. They do,--just as much as craters make +volcanoes,--no more. What is romance? whence comes it? Plato spoke to +the subject wisely, in his quaint way, some two thousand years ago, when +he said, "Man's soul, in a former state, was winged and soared among the +gods; and so it comes to pass, that, in this life, when the soul, by the +power of music or poetry, or the sight of beauty, hath her remembrance +quickened, forthwith there is a straggling and a pricking pain as of +wings trying to come forth,--even as children in teething." And if an +old heathen, two thousand years ago, discoursed thus gravely of the +romantic part of our nature, whence comes it that in Christian lands +we think in so pagan a way of it, and turn the whole care of it to +ballad-makers, romancers, and opera-singers? + +Let us look up in fear and reverence and say, "GOD is the great maker +of romance. HE, from whose hand came man and woman,--HE, who strung the +great harp of Existence with all its wild and wonderful and manifold +chords, and attuned them to one another,--HE is the great Poet of life." +Every impulse of beauty, of heroism, and every craving for purer love, +fairer perfection, nobler type and style of being than that which closes +like a prison-house around us, in the dim, daily walk of life, is +God's breath, God's impulse, God's reminder to the soul that there is +something higher, sweeter, purer, yet to be attained. + +Therefore, man or woman, when thy ideal is shattered,--as shattered a +thousand times it must be,--when the vision fades, the rapture burns +out, turn not away in skepticism and bitterness, saying, "There is +nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink," but rather +cherish the revelations of those hours as prophecies and foreshadowings +of something real and possible, yet to be attained in the manhood, of +immortality. The scoffing spirit that laughs at romance is an apple of +the Devil's own handing from the bitter tree of knowledge;--it opens the +eyes only to see eternal nakedness. + +If ever you have had a romantic, uncalculating friendship,--a boundless +worship and belief in some hero of your soul,--if ever you have so +loved, that all cold prudence, all selfish worldly considerations have +gone down like drift-wood before a river flooded with new rain from +heaven, so that you even forgot yourself, and were ready to cast your +whole being into the chasm of existence, as an offering before the feet +of another, and all for nothing,--if you awoke bitterly betrayed and +deceived, still give thanks to God that you have had one glimpse of +heaven. The door now shut will open again. Rejoice that the noblest +capability of your eternal inheritance has been made known to you; +treasure it, as the highest honor of your being, that ever you could so +feel,--that so divine a guest ever possessed your soul. + +By such experiences are we taught the pathos, the sacredness of life; +and if we use them wisely, our eyes will ever after be anointed to see +what poems, what romances, what sublime tragedies lie around us in the +daily walk of life, "written not with ink, but in fleshly tables of the +heart." The dullest street of the most prosaic town has matter in it for +more smiles, more tears, more intense excitement, than ever were written +in story or sung in poem; the reality is there, of which the romancer is +the second-hand recorder. + +So much of a plea we put in boldly, because we foresee grave heads +beginning to shake over our history, and doubts rising in reverend and +discreet minds whether this history is going to prove anything but a +love-story, after all. + +We do assure you, right reverend Sir, and you, most discreet Madam, that +it is not going to prove anything else; and you will find, if you will +follow us, that there is as much romance burning under the snow-banks +of cold Puritan preciseness as if Dr. H. had been brought up to attend +operas instead of metaphysical preaching, and Mary had been nourished on +Byron's poetry instead of "Edwards on the Affections." + +The innocent credulities, the subtle deceptions, that were quietly at +work under the grave, white curls of the Doctor's wig, were exactly of +the kind which have beguiled man in all ages, when near the sovereign +presence of her who is born for his destiny;--and as for Mary, what did +it avail her that she could say the Assembly's Catechism from end to +end without tripping, and that every habit of her life beat time to +practical realities, steadily as the parlor clock? The wildest Italian +singer or dancer, nursed on nothing but excitement from her cradle, +never was more thoroughly possessed by the awful and solemn mystery of +woman's life than this Puritan girl. + +It is quite true, that, the next morning after James's departure, +she rose as usual in the dim gray, and was to be seen opening the +kitchen-door just at the moment when the birds were giving the first +little drowsy stir and chirp,--and that she went on setting the +breakfast-table for the two hired men, who were bound to the fields with +the oxen,--and that then she went on skimming cream for the butter, +and getting ready to churn, and making up biscuit for the Doctor's +breakfast, when he and they should sit down together at a somewhat later +hour; and as she moved about, doing all these things, she sung various +scraps of old psalm-tunes; and the good Doctor, who was then busy with +his early exercises of devotion, listened, as he heard the voice, now +here, now there, and thought about angels and the Millennium. Solemnly +and tenderly there floated in at his open study-window, through the +breezy lilacs, mixed with low of kine and bleat of sheep and hum of +early wakening life, the little silvery ripples of that singing, +somewhat mournful in its cadence, as if a gentle soul were striving to +hush itself to rest. The words were those of the rough old version of +the Psalms then in use:-- + + "Truly my waiting soul relies + In silence God upon; + Because from him there doth arise + All my salvation." + +And then came the busy patter of the little footsteps without, the +moving of chairs, the clink of plates, as busy hands were arranging the +table; and then again there was a pause, and he thought she seemed +to come near to the open window of the adjoining room, for the voice +floated in clearer and sadder:-- + + "O God, to me be merciful, + Be merciful to me! + Because my soul for shelter safe + Betakes itself to thee. + + "Yea, in the shadow of thy wings + My refuge have I placed, + Until these sore calamities + Shall quite be overpast." + +The tone of life in New England, so habitually earnest and solemn, +breathed itself in the grave and plaintive melodies of the tunes then +sung in the churches; and so these words, though in the saddest minor +key, did not suggest to the listening ear of the auditor anything more +than that pensive religious calm in which he delighted to repose. A +contrast indeed they were, in their melancholy earnestness, to the +exuberant carollings of a robin, who, apparently attracted by them, +perched himself hard by in the lilacs, and struck up such a merry +_roulade_ as quite diverted the attention of the fair singer;--in fact, +the intoxication breathed in the strain of this little messenger, whom +God had feathered and winged and filled to the throat with ignorant +joy, came in singular contrast with the sadder notes breathed by that +creature of so much higher mould and fairer clay,--that creature born +for an immortal life. + +But the good Doctor was inly pleased when she sung,--and when she +stopped, looked up from his Bible wistfully, as missing something, he +knew not what; for he scarce thought how pleasant the little voice +was, or knew he had been listening to it,--and yet he was in a manner +enchanted by it, so thankful and happy that he exclaimed with fervor, +"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly +heritage." + +So went the world with him, full of joy and praise, because the voice +and the presence wherein lay his unsuspected life were securely near, so +certainly and constantly a part of his daily walk that he had not even +the trouble to wish for them. But in that other heart how was it?--how +with the sweet saint that was talking to herself in psalms and hymns and +spiritual songs? + +The good child had remembered her mother's parting words the night +before,--"Put your mind upon your duties,"--and had begun her first +conscious exercise of thought with a prayer that grace might be given +her to do it. But even as she spoke, mingling and interweaving with that +golden thread of prayer was another consciousness, a life in another +soul, as she prayed that the grace of God might overshadow him, shield +him from temptation, and lead him up to heaven; and this prayer so got +the start of the other, that, ere she was aware, she had quite forgotten +self, and was feeling, living, thinking in that other life. + +The first discovery she made, when she looked out into the fragrant +orchard, whose perfumes steamed in at her window, and listened to the +first chirping of birds among, the old apple-trees, was one that has +astonished many a person before her; it was this: she found that all +that had made life interesting to her was suddenly gone. She herself had +not known, that, for the month past, since James came from sea, she had +been living in an enchanted land,--that Newport harbor, and every rock +and stone, and every mat of yellow seaweed on the shore, that the +two-mile road between the cottage and the white house of Zebedee Marvyn, +every mullein-stalk, every juniper-tree, had all had a light and a charm +which were suddenly gone. There had not been an hour in the day for the +last four weeks that had not had its unsuspected interest,--because he +was at the white house, because, possibly, he might be going by, or +coming in; nay, even in church, when she stood up to sing, and thought +she was thinking only of God, had she not been conscious of that tenor +voice that poured itself out by her side? and though afraid to turn her +head that way, had she not felt that he was there every moment,--heard +every word of the sermon and prayer for him? The very vigilant care +which her mother had taken to prevent private interviews had only served +to increase the interest by throwing over it the veil of constraint +and mystery. Silent looks, involuntary starts, things indicated, not +expressed, these are the most dangerous, the most seductive aliment of +thought to a delicate and sensitive nature. If things were said out, +they might not be said wisely,--they might repel by their freedom, or +disturb by their unfitness; but what is only looked is sent into the +soul through the imagination, which makes of it all that the ideal +faculties desire. + +In a refined and exalted nature, it is very seldom that the feeling of +love, when once thoroughly aroused, bears any sort of relation to the +reality of the object. It is commonly an enkindling of the whole power +of the soul's love for whatever she considers highest and fairest; it +is, in fact, the love of something divine and unearthly, which, by a +sort of illusion, connects itself with a personality. Properly speaking, +there is but One true, eternal Object of all that the mind conceives, in +this trance of its exaltation. Disenchantment must come, of course; and +in a love which terminates in happy marriage, there is a tender and +gracious process, by which, without shock or violence, the ideal is +gradually sunk in the real, which, though found faulty and earthly, is +still ever tenderly remembered as it seemed under the morning light of +that enchantment. + +What Mary loved so passionately, that which came between her and God in +every prayer, was not the gay, young, dashing sailor,--sudden in anger, +imprudent of speech, and, though generous in heart, yet worldly in plans +and schemings,--but her own ideal of a grand and noble man,--such a man +as she thought he might become. He stood glorified before her, an image +of the strength that overcomes things physical, of the power of command +which controls men and circumstances, of the courage which disdains +fear, of the honor which cannot lie, of constancy which knows no shadow +of turning, of tenderness which protects the weak, and, lastly, of +religious loyalty which should lay the golden crown of its perfected +manhood at the feet of a Sovereign Lord and Redeemer. This was the man +she loved, and with this regal mantle of glories she invested the person +called James Marvyn; and all that she saw and felt to be wanting she +prayed for with the faith of a believing woman. + +Nor was she wrong;--for, as to every leaf and every flower there is an +ideal to which the growth of the plant is constantly urging, so is there +an ideal to every human being,--a perfect form in which it might appear, +were every defect removed and every characteristic excellence stimulated +to the highest point. Once in an age, God sends to some of us a friend +who loves in us, _not_ a false imagining, an unreal character, but, +looking through all the rubbish of our imperfections, loves in us the +divine ideal of our nature,--loves, not the man that we are, but the +angel that we may be. Such friends seem inspired by a divine gift of +prophecy,--like the mother of St. Augustine, who, in the midst of the +wayward, reckless youth of her son, beheld him in a vision, standing, +clothed in white, a ministering priest at the right hand of God,--as he +has stood for long ages since. Could a mysterious foresight unveil to us +this resurrection form of the friends with whom we daily walk, compassed +about with mortal infirmity, we should follow them with faith and +reverence through all the disguises of human faults and weaknesses, +"waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." + +But these wonderful soul-friends, to whom God grants such perception, +are the exceptions in life; yet sometimes are we blessed with one who +sees through us, as Michel Angelo saw through a block of marble, when he +attacked it in a divine fervor, declaring that an angel was imprisoned +within it;--and it is often the resolute and delicate hand of such a +friend that sets the angel free. + +There be soul-artists, who go through this world, looking among their +fellows with reverence, as one looks amid the dust and rubbish of old +shops for hidden works of Titian and Leonardo, and, finding them, +however cracked or torn or painted over with tawdry daubs of pretenders, +immediately recognize the divine original, and set themselves to cleanse +and restore. Such be God's real priests, whose ordination and anointing +are from the Holy Spirit; and he who hath not this enthusiasm is not +ordained of God, though whole synods of bishops laid hands on him. + +Many such priests there be among women;--for to this silent ministry +their nature calls them, endowed, as it is, with fineness of fibre, and +a subtile keenness of perception outrunning slow-footed reason;--and she +of whom we write was one of these. + +At this very moment, while the crimson wings of morning were casting +delicate reflections on tree, and bush, and rock, they were also +reddening innumerable waves round a ship that sailed alone, with a wide +horizon stretching like an eternity around it; and in the advancing +morning stood a young man thoughtfully looking off into the ocean, with +a book in his hand,--James Marvyn,--as truly and heartily a creature of +this material world as Mary was of the invisible and heavenly. + +There are some who seem made to _live;_--life is such a joy to them, +their senses are so fully _en rapport_ with all outward things, the +world is so keenly appreciable, so much a part of themselves, they are +so conscious of power and victory in the government and control of +material things, that the moral and invisible life often seems to hang +tremulous and unreal in their minds, like the pale, faded moon in the +light of a gorgeous sunrise. When brought face to face with the great +truths of the invisible world, they stand related to the higher wisdom +much like the gorgeous, gay Alcibiades to the divine Socrates, or like +the young man in Holy Writ to Him for whose appearing Socrates longed;-- +they gaze, imperfectly comprehending, and at the call of ambition or +riches turn away sorrowing. + +So it was with James;--in full tide of worldly energy and ambition, +there had been forming over his mind that hard crust, that skepticism +of the spiritual and exalted, which men of the world delight to call +practical sense; he had been suddenly arrested and humbled by the +revelation of a nature so much nobler than his own that he seemed +worthless in his own eyes. He had asked for love; but when _such_ love +unveiled itself, he felt like the disciple of old in the view of a +diviner tenderness,--"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." + +But it is not often that all the current of a life is reversed in one +hour; and now, as James stood on the ship's deck, with life passing +around him, and everything drawing upon the strings of old habits, Mary +and her religion recurred to his mind as some fair, sweet, inexplicable +vision. Where she stood he saw; but how _he_ was ever to get there +seemed as incomprehensible as how a mortal man should pillow his form on +sunset clouds. + +He held the little Bible in his hand as if it were some amulet charmed +by the touch of a superior being; but when he strove to read it, his +thoughts wandered, and he shut it, troubled and unsatisfied. Yet there +were within him yearnings and cravings, wants never felt before, the +beginning of that trouble which must ever precede the soul's rise to a +higher plane of being. + +There we leave him. We have shown you now our three different +characters, each one in its separate sphere, feeling the force of that +strongest and holiest power with which it has pleased our great Author +to glorify this mortal life. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +WHICH TREATS OF THINGS SEEN. + + +As, for example, the breakfast. It is six o'clock,--the hired men and +oxen are gone,--the breakfast-table stands before the open kitchen-door, +snowy with its fresh cloth, the old silver coffee-pot steaming up a +refreshing perfume,--and the Doctor sits on one side, sipping his coffee +and looking across the table at Mary, who is innocently pleased at +the kindly beaming in his placid blue eyes,--and Aunt Katy Scudder +discourses of housekeeping, and fancies something must have disturbed +the rising of the cream, as it is not so thick and yellow as wont. + +Now the Doctor, it is to be confessed, was apt to fall into a way +of looking at people such as pertains to philosophers and scholars +generally, that is, as if he were looking through them into the +infinite,--in which case, his gaze became so earnest and intent that it +would quite embarrass an uninitiated person; but Mary, being used to +this style of contemplation, was only quietly amused, and waited till +some great thought should loom up before his mental vision,--in which +case, she hoped to hear from him. + +The good man swallowed his first cup of coffee and spoke:-- + +"In the Millennium, I suppose, there will be such a fulness and plenty +of all the necessaries and conveniences of life, that it will not be +necessary for men and women to spend the greater part of their lives in +labor in order to procure a living. It will not be necessary for each +one to labor more than two or three hours a day,--not more than will +conduce to health of body and vigor of mind; and the rest of their time +they will spend in reading and conversation, and such exercises as +are necessary and proper to improve their minds and make progress in +knowledge." + +New England presents probably the only example of a successful +commonwealth founded on a theory, as a distinct experiment in the +problem of society. It was for this reason that the minds of its great +thinkers dwelt so much on the final solution of that problem in this +world. The fact of a future Millennium was a favorite doctrine of the +great leading theologians of New England, and Dr. H. dwelt upon it with +a peculiar partiality. Indeed, it was the solace and refuge of his soul, +when oppressed with the discouragements which always attend things +actual, to dwell upon and draw out in detail the splendors of this +perfect future which was destined to glorify the world. + +Nobody, therefore, at the cottage was in the least surprised when there +dropped into the flow of their daily life these sparkling bits of ore, +which their friend had dug in his explorations of a future Canaan,--in +fact, they served to raise the hackneyed present out of the level of +mere commonplace. + +"But how will it be possible," inquired Mrs. Scudder, "that so much less +work will suffice in those days to do all that is to be done?" + +"Because of the great advance of arts and sciences which will take +place before those days," said the Doctor, "whereby everything shall +be performed with so much greater ease,--also the great increase of +disinterested love, whereby the skill and talents of those who have much +shall make up for the weakness of those who have less. + +"Yes," he continued, after a pause,--"all the careful Marthas in those +days will have no excuse for not sitting at the feet of Jesus; there +will be no cumbering with much serving; the Church will have only Maries +in those days." + +This remark, made without the slightest personal intention, called a +curious smile into Mrs. Scudder's face, which was reflected in a +slight blush from Mary's, when the crack of a whip and the rattling of +wagon-wheels disturbed the conversation and drew all eyes to the door. + +There appeared the vision of Mr. Zebedee Marvyn's farm-wagon, stored +with barrels, boxes, and baskets, over which Candace sat throned +triumphant, her black face and yellow-striped turban glowing in the +fresh morning with a hearty, joyous light, as she pulled up the reins, +and shouted to the horse to stop with a voice that might have done +credit to any man living. + +"Dear me, if there isn't Candace!" said Mary. + +"Queen of Ethiopia," said the Doctor, who sometimes adventured a very +placid joke. + +The Doctor was universally known in all the neighborhood as a sort of +friend and patron-saint of the negro race; he had devoted himself to +their interests with a zeal unusual in those days. His church numbered +more of them than any in Newport; and his hours of leisure from study +were often spent in lowliest visitations among them, hearing their +stories, consoling their sorrows, advising, and directing their plans, +teaching them reading and writing, and he often drew hard on his slender +salary to assist them in their emergencies and distresses. + +This unusual condescension on his part was repaid on theirs with all the +warmth of their race; and Candace, in particular, devoted herself to the +Doctor with all the force of her being. + +There was a legend current in the neighborhood, that the first efforts +to catechize Candace were not eminently successful, her modes of +contemplating theological tenets being so peculiarly from her own +individual point of view that it was hard to get her subscription to +a received opinion. On the venerable clause in the Catechism, in +particular, which declares that all men sinned in Adam and fell with +him, Candace made a dead halt:-- + +"I didn't do dat ar', for one, I knows. I's got good mem'ry,--allers +knows what I does,--nebber did eat dat ar' apple,--nebber eat a bit ob +him. Don't tell me!" + +It was of no use, of course, to tell Candace of all the explanations of +this redoubtable passage,--of potential presence, and representative +presence, and representative identity, and federal headship. She met all +with the dogged,-- + +"Nebber did it, I knows; should 'ave 'membered, if I had. Don't tell +me!" + +And even in the catechizing class of the Doctor himself, if this answer +came to her, she sat black and frowning in stony silence even in his +reverend presence. + +Candace was often reminded that the Doctor believed the Catechism, and +that she was differing from a great and good man; but the argument made +no manner of impression on her, till, one day, a far-off cousin of hers, +whose condition under a hard master had often moved her compassion, came +in overjoyed to recount to her how, owing to Dr. H.'s exertions, he had +gained his freedom. The Doctor himself had in person gone from house +to house, raising the sum for his redemption; and when more yet was +wanting, supplied it by paying half his last quarter's limited salary. + +"He do dat ar'?" said Candace, dropping the fork wherewith she was +spearing doughnuts. "Den I'm gwine to b'liebe ebery word _he_ does!" + +And accordingly, at the next catechizing, the Doctor's astonishment was +great when Candace pressed up to him, exclaiming-- + +"De Lord bress you, Doctor, for opening de prison for dem dat is bound! +I b'liebes in you now, Doctor. I's gwine to b'liebe ebery word you say. +I'll say de Catechize now,--fix it any way you like. I did eat dat ar' +apple,--I eat de whole tree, an' swallowed ebery bit ob it, if you say +so." + +And this very thorough profession of faith was followed, on the part of +Candace, by years of the most strenuous orthodoxy. Her general mode of +expressing her mind on the subject was short and definitive. + +"Law me! what's de use? I's set out to b'liebe de Catechize, an' I'm +gwine to bliebe it,--so!" + +While we have been telling you all this about her, she has fastened her +horse, and is swinging leisurely up to the house with a basket on either +arm. + +"Good morning, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder. "What brings you so early?" + +"Come down 'fore light to sell my chickens an' eggs,--got a lot o' money +for 'em, too. Missy Marvyn she sent Miss Scudder some turkey-eggs, an' +I brought down some o' my doughnuts for de Doctor. Good folks must lib, +you know, as well as wicked ones,"--and Candace gave a hearty, unctuous +laugh. "No reason why Doctors shouldn't hab good tings as well as +sinners, is dere?"--and she shook in great billows, and showed her white +teeth in the _abandon_ of her laugh. "Lor bress ye, honey, chile!" she +said, turning to Mary, "why, ye looks like a new rose, ebery bit! Don't +wonder _somebody_ was allers pryin' an' spyin' about here!" + +"How is your Mistress, Candace?" said Mrs. Scudder, by way of changing +the subject. + +"Well, porly,--rader porly. When Massa Jim goes, 'pears like takin' de +light right out her eyes. Dat ar' boy trains roun' arter his mudder like +a cosset, he does. Lor', de house seems so still widout him!--can't a +fly scratch his ear but it starts a body. Missy Marvyn she sent down, +an' says, would you an' de Doctor an' Miss Mary please come to tea dis +arternoon." + +"Thank your mistress, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder; "Mary and I will +come,--and the Doctor, perhaps," looking at the good man, who had +relapsed into meditation, and was eating his breakfast without taking +note of anything going on. "It will be time enough to tell him of it," +she said to Mary, "when we have to wake him up to dress; so we won't +disturb him now." + +To Mary the prospect of the visit was a pleasant one, for reasons which +she scarce gave a definite form to. Of course, like a good girl, she had +come to a fixed and settled resolution to think of James as little as +possible; but when the path of duty lay directly along scenes and among +people fitted to recall him, it was more agreeable than if it had lain +in another direction. Added to this, a very tender and silent friendship +subsisted between Mrs. Marvyn and Mary; in which, besides similarity of +mind and intellectual pursuits, there was a deep, unspoken element of +sympathy. + +Candace watched the light in Mary's eyes with the instinctive shrewdness +by which her race seem to divine the thoughts and feelings of their +superiors, and chuckled to herself internally. Without ever having been +made a _confidante_ by any party, or having a word said to or before +her, still the whole position of affairs was as clear to her as if +she had seen it on a map. She had appreciated at once Mrs. Scudder's +coolness, James's devotion, and Mary's perplexity,--and inly resolved, +that, if the little maiden did not think of James in his absence, it +should not be her fault. + +"Laws, Miss Scudder," she said, "I's right glad you's comin'; 'cause you +hasn't seen how we's kind o' splendified since Massa Jim come home. You +wouldn't know it. Why, he's got mats from Mogadore on all de entries, +and a great big 'un on de parlor; and ye ought to see de shawl he +brought Missus, an' all de cur'us kind o' tings to de Squire. 'Tell +ye, dat ar' boy honors his fader and mudder, ef he don't do nuffin +else,--an' dat's de fus' commandment wid promise, Ma'am; an' to see him +a-settin' up ebery day in prayer-time, so handsome, holdin' Missus's +han', an' lookin' right into her eyes all de time! Why, dat ar' boy is +one o' de 'lect,--it's jest as clare to me; and de 'lect has got to come +in,--dat's what I say. My faith's strong,--real clare, 'tell ye," +she added, with the triumphant laugh which usually chorused her +conversation, and turning to the Doctor, who, aroused by her loud and +vigorous strain, was attending with interest to her. + +"Well, Candace," he said, "we all hope you are right." + +"_Hope_, Doctor!--I don't hope,--I _knows_. 'Tell ye, when I pray for +him, don't I feel enlarged? 'Tell ye, it goes wid a rush. I can feel it +gwine up like a rushin', mighty wind. I feels strong, I do." + +"That's right, Candace," said the Doctor, "keep on; your prayers stand +as much chance with God as if you were a crowned queen. The Lord is no +respecter of persons." + +"Dat's what he a'n't, Doctor,--an' dere's where I 'gree wid him," said +Candace, as she gathered her baskets vigorously together, and, after +a sweeping curtsy, went sailing down to her wagon, full laden with +content, shouting a hearty "Good mornin', Missus," with the full power +of her cheerful lungs, as she rode off. + +As the Doctor looked after her, the simple, pleased expression with +which he had watched her gradually faded, and there passed over his +broad, good face a shadow, as of a cloud on a mountain-side. + +"What a shame it is," he said, "what a scandal and disgrace to the +Protestant religion, that Christians of America should openly practise +and countenance this enslaving of the Africans! I have for a long time +holden my peace,--may the Lord forgive me!--but I believe the time is +coming when I must utter my voice. I cannot go down to the wharves or +among the shipping, without these poor dumb creatures look at me so that +I am ashamed,--as if they asked me what I, a Christian minister, was +doing, that I did not come to their help. I must testify." + +Mrs. Scudder looked grave at this earnest announcement; she had +heard many like it before, and they always filled her with alarm, +because--Shall we tell you why? + +Well, then, it was not because she was not a thoroughly indoctrinated +anti-slavery woman. Her husband, who did all her thinking for her, had +been a man of ideas beyond his day, and never for a moment countenanced +the right of slavery so far as to buy or own a servant or attendant +of any kind; and Mrs. Scudder had always followed decidedly along the +path of his opinions and practice, and never hesitated to declare the +reasons for the faith that was in her. But if any of us could imagine an +angel dropped down out of heaven, with wings, ideas, notions, manners, +and customs all fresh from that very different country, we might easily +suppose that the most pious and orthodox family might find the task of +presenting him in general society and piloting him along the courses of +this world a very delicate and embarrassing one. However much they might +reverence him on their own private account, their hearts would probably +sink within them at the idea of allowing him to expand himself according +to his previous nature and habits in the great world without. In like +manner, men of high, unworldly natures are often reverenced by those who +are somewhat puzzled what to do with them practically. + +Mrs. Scudder considered the Doctor as a superior being, possessed by a +holy helplessness in all things material and temporal, which imposed +on her the necessity of thinking and caring for him, and prevising the +earthly and material aspects of his affairs. + +There was not in Newport a more thriving and reputable business at that +time than the slave-trade. Large fortunes were constantly being turned +out in it, and what better Providential witness of its justice could +most people require? + +Beside this, in their own little church, she reflected with alarm, that +Simeon Brown, the richest and most liberal supporter of the society, had +been, and was then, drawing all his wealth from this source; and rapidly +there flashed before her mind a picture of one and another, influential +persons, who were holders of slaves. Therefore, when the Doctor +announced, "I must testify," she rattled her tea-spoon uneasily, and +answered,-- + +"In what way, Doctor, do you think of bearing testimony? The subject, I +think, is a very difficult one." + +"Difficult? I think no subject can be clearer. If we were right in our +war for liberty, we are wrong in making slaves or keeping them." + +"Oh, I did not mean," said Mrs. Scudder, "that it was difficult to +understand the subject; the _right_ of the matter is clear, but what to +_do_ is the thing." + +"I shall preach about it," said the Doctor; "my mind has run upon it +some time. I shall show to the house of Judah their sin in this matter." + +"I fear there will be great offence given," said Mrs. Scudder. "There's +Simeon Brown, one of our largest supporters,--he is in the trade." + +"Ah, yes,--but he will come out of it,--of course he will,--he is all +right, all clear. I was delighted with the clearness of his views +the other night, and thought then of bringing them to bear on this +point,--only, as others were present, I deferred it. But I can show him +that it follows logically from his principles; I am confident of that." + +"I think you'll be disappointed in him, Doctor;--I think he'll be angry, +and get up a commotion, and leave the church." + +"Madam," said the Doctor, "do you suppose that a man who would be +willing even to give up his eternal salvation for the greatest good of +the universe could hesitate about a few paltry thousands that perish in +the using?" + +"He may feel willing to give up his soul," said Mrs. Scudder, naïvely, +"but I don't think he'll give up his ships,--that's quite another +matter,--he won't see it to be his duty." + +"Then, Ma'am, he'll be a hypocrite, a gross hypocrite, if he won't," +said the Doctor. "It is not Christian charity to think it of him. I +shall call upon him this morning and tell him my intentions." + +"But, Doctor," exclaimed Mrs. Scudder, with a start, "pray, think a +little more of it. You know a great many things depend on him. Why! he +has subscribed for twenty copies of your 'System of Theology.' I hope +you'll remember that." + +"And why should I remember that?" said the Doctor,--hastily turning +round, suddenly enkindled, his blue eyes flashing out of their usual +misty calm,--"what has my 'System of Theology' to do with the matter?" + +"Why," said Mrs. Scudder, "it's of more importance to get right views of +the gospel before the world than anything else, is it not?--and if, by +any imprudence in treating influential people, this should be prevented, +more harm than good would be done." + +"Madam," said the Doctor, "I'd sooner my system should be sunk in the +sea than it should be a millstone round my neck to keep me from my duty. +Let God take care of my theology; I must do my duty." + +And as the Doctor spoke, he straightened himself to the full dignity of +his height, his face kindling with an unconscious majesty, and, as he +turned, his eye fell on Mary, who was standing with her slender figure +dilated, her large blue eye wide and bright, in a sort of trance of +solemn feeling, half smiles, half tears,--and the strong, heroic man +started, to see this answer to his higher soul in the sweet, tremulous +mirror of womanhood. One of those lightning glances passed between his +eyes and hers which are the freemasonry of noble spirits,--and, by +a sudden impulse, they approached each other. He took both her +outstretched hands, looked down into her face with a look full of +admiration, and a sort of naïve wonder,--then, as if her inspired +silence had been a voice to him, he laid his hand on her head, and +said,-- + +"God bless you, child! 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast +thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest +still the enemy and the avenger!'" + +In a moment he was gone. + +"Mary," said Mrs. Scudder, laying her hand on her daughter's arm, "the +Doctor loves you!" + +"I know he does, mother," said Mary, innocently; "and I love +him,--dearly!--he is a noble, grand man!" + +Mrs. Scudder looked keenly at her daughter. Mary's eye was as calm as a +June sky, and she began, composedly, gathering up the teacups. + +"She did not understand me," thought the mother. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +REVIEW. + +_The New Testament_. Translated from the Original Greek, etc. By +LEICESTER AMBROSE SAWYER. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1858. + + +Few books merit the criticism which they receive; fewer receive all they +merit. Here is a work, a translation, which is more likely than most to +get its deserts, because its circle of critics will be unusually large. +It purports to be a new and improved version of "the Book of Books," +and puts forth claims which will be conceded only after it shall have +sustained the most extensive, minute, and even prejudiced scrutiny. The +Bible has more readers than any other book; and that which claims to be +an improved Bible must, if it secure anything like a general attention, +meet with criticisms from all quarters. Mr. Sawyer is fortunate in one +respect: his work will be examined and judged by multitudes who never +undertook to criticize any other book; he will have, therefore, +ultimately, a popular judgment of his task and its performance. But he +is unfortunate in another point: for he must meet that popular sentiment +which at the outset looks with disfavor upon anything that has even the +appearance of meddling with the commonly received and almost universally +approved version of the Holy Scriptures. Let us, in a brief space and +with as little of formal and scholastic criticism as possible, examine +Mr. Sawyer's translation. + +A work of such a character as this should be judged not more by its +absolute or intrinsic merits than by a comparison of them with the +design avowed and the claims advanced by the author. In a task of such +magnitude we ought not to expect to find everything perfect. If the +completed structure have a symmetry of proportions and excellence of +finish approaching reasonably near to the plan proposed, we should not +too severely censure minor defects. Critics rarely accord all that +authors claim; the former measure the actual achievement,--the latter +look to the ideal conception; if the one be in a reasonable degree +commensurate with the other, we should be lenient toward the faults of +the performance. + +With this charitable substratum for our critical structure, let us test +Mr. Sawyer's new version by contrasting it with his own avowed design +and the claims with which he introduces his completed task. In the +Preface he says,-- + +"This is not a work of compromises, or of conjectural interpretations +of the Sacred Scriptures, neither is it a paraphrase, but a strict +[strictly] literal rendering. It neither adds nor takes away; but aims +to express the original with the utmost clearness and force, and with +the utmost precision." + +This is a somewhat pretentious claim. A strictly literal rendering of +any language into another is by no means always an easy task; and it is +especially difficult to couple, as the translator in this case asserts +he has done, the utmost clearness, force, and precision in the +expression of the thought, with minute exactness of version. We +are surprised that Mr. Sawyer should have rested his claim for the +excellence and superiority of his translation mainly upon this quality +of literalism, for it is often the case that the closest literalist is +the worst translator. It is often impossible to render the thoughts +expressed in the peculiar idioms of one tongue into exactly +corresponding idioms of another. There are idiomatic forms, especially +in the Greek, which have no precisely correspondent forms in the +English, and yet these are not unfrequently the most forcible +expressions of any to be found in the original; any attempt to render +these literally must be abortive; and a literal rendering, or as nearly +literal as possible, is the worst translation, because it sacrifices +the clearness, force, and precision, to say nothing of the grace and +delicacy, of the original. The French language abounds in words and +phrases the literal translation of which into English perverts the +meaning and destroys the force of the original. Still more is a strictly +literal rendering incompatible with the preservation and transference of +the beauties of style and the strength of diction. The widest range of +the thought, its more delicate shades and subtiler connections, often +depend in great part upon the peculiar forms of the language in which +they are first clothed; and by a strictly literal translation the scope +of the thought is narrowed, its finer lines obscured, and that which +is of more importance than all else, the fitness of the expression, is +altogether lost. The utmost strictness of literal translation is a poor +compensation for the resultant poverty of language and dilution of +thought; and by as much as the original is more impressive in its rich +and fitting garb, by so much the more is it made to appear mean and +unlike itself when forced to clothe itself in scanty second-hand +habiliments. + +We have said thus much on this point for two reasons: first, because it +is on this chiefly that Mr. Sawyer appeals to the public for a verdict +in favor of his translation; and secondly, because it is a common and +popular notion, that, the more literal a translation can be made, +especially in the case of the Bible, the better and more trustworthy +it will be. And we are willing to admit, that, in translating the Holy +Scriptures, the greatest degree of strictness in literal rendering, +compatible with the full and correct expression of the thought, is and +should be a first consideration; the translator should take no liberties +with the text, by way either of omission, alteration, or compromise; he +must in no way vitiate the thought; and if he keep within this rule, +he will have escaped just criticism, and may claim the merit of +faithfulness to his task. Has Mr. Sawyer, then, in his New Testament, +given a strictly literal rendering? and is it an improvement on +the common version? We have space for only a few specimens of his +translation, and we have taken some of the first that attracted our +notice; it will be observed that they are none of them abstruse or +disputed passages. + +COMMON VERSION. + +_Matt_. ii. 16. + +"Then Herod, when he saw that he was _mocked_ of the _wise men_, was +exceeding wroth, and sent forth and _slew_ all the children that were in +Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, +according to the time which he _had diligently inquired_ of the _wise +men_." + + +SAWYER'S VERSION. + +_Chap_. ii. _verse_ 4. + +"Then Herod seeing that he was _despised_ by the _Magi_, was exceedingly +angry, and sent and _destroyed_ all the children, in Bethlehem, and in +all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the precise +time which he _had learned_ of the _Magi_." + +Here is a comparison of the two translations of a simple narrative text +taken at random. The essential changes (improvements?) made by Mr. +Sawyer are in the words which we have Italicized. Two of these changes, +the substitution of "Magi" for "wise men," and of "destroyed" for +"slew," we shall pass with the single observation, that the rendering +of the common version is in both instances the more accurate and better +expressed. Mr. Sawyer substitutes "despised" for "mocked," as the +translation of [Greek: henepaichthae]. Is this literal? or is it an +improvement? The Greek verb [Greek: hemaiso] has the signification +primarily _to deride, to mock, to scoff at_, and secondarily _to delude, +to deceive, to disappoint_, but it has not the meaning to _despise_. The +word _mock_ is used in our language in both these significations,--in +the secondary sense when it refers to men's hopes or expectations,--as, +_to mock one's hopes_, that is, to delude or disappoint one's +expectations. In this sense, and in this alone, it is obviously used in +this passage. The wise men did not scoff at King Herod, but they did +delude him; they mocked his expectation of their return, and went back +to their own country without returning to report to him, because they +had been "warned of God in a dream," not because they despised the +king. To say, as Mr. Sawyer does, that they "despised" him, is neither +warranted by the meaning of [Greek: _enepaichthae_], nor is such a +rendering accordant with the facts of the story or the connections of +the thought. It is a forced and far-fetched translation, and a change +from the common version much for the worse. The same word is of frequent +occurrence in the Scriptures. In the Septuagint, Jer. x. 14, it is used +in the same sense as in Matt. ii. 16. It is worthy of note that in no +other instance does Mr. Sawyer render it by "despised." In Luke xviii. +32 and xxii. 63, and Matt. xx. 19, he translates it "mocked," like the +common version. Mr. Sawyer should be more consistent, if he would have +us put faith in his scholarly pretensions and literal accuracy. The +passage in which he indulges in this variation from his own rule is the +one of all the list where such a translation is particularly fitting, +and where neither force, clearness, nor precision is gained by the +substitution. + +Mr. Sawyer renders [Greek: _katha thov chrinon du haekribose_] thus: +"according to the precise time which he had learned."--Is this literal +or correct? [Greek: _'Akriboo_] signifies _to inquire diligently, +assiduously, or accurately_, and has no such signification primarily as +_to learn_. If the reader will now turn to Mr. Sawyer's translation of +the 7th verse of the same chapter of Matthew, he will there find that +he translates [Greek: _haekribose_] "asked"! And yet it stands in that +passage in precisely the same connection of thought as in the 16th +verse; so that we have our translator, who gives us only strictly +literal renderings, translating the same word, occurring in the same +relative connection, in the one instance by "asked," and in the other +by "had learned,"--neither of them legitimate translations, and neither +precisely expressing the thought. The rendering "asked" falls as far +short of the full and forcible meaning of [Greek: _haekribose_], in +the one case, as "had learned" varies from its strictly literal +signification in the other. + +We will now examine another passage illustrating Mr. Sawyer's consistent +fidelity to literal renderings. He translates the word [Greek: +_phuchae_], Luke xii. 19, 20, and 23, "soul"; thus, "I will say to my +_soul_," find "Is not the _soul_ more than the food?"--agreeing with +the common version in the first instance, and differing from it in the +second. But he renders [Greek: _phuchae_] in Mark viii. 36, 37, Luke +xvii. 33, and Matt. xvi. 26, "life"; thus, "For what is a man profited, +if he shall gain the whole world and lose his _life_?" "For whoever +wishes to save his _life_ shall lose it." In these cases he seems to +have made his choice between the renderings "soul" and "life" according +to no rule of translation or of criticism in philology, but as his fancy +dictated. How shall we explain these inconsistencies, and, at the same +time, grant Mr. Sawyer his claim to literalness of rendering? + +Luke ix. 24, 25, Mr. Sawyer translates [Greek: _phuchae_] "life," and +then renders [Greek: _eauthon de apolesas ae zaemiotheis_] "and destroys +himself or loses his life." The common version is "and lose himself or +be cast away," which is not only more strictly literal, but far more +forcible. [Greek: _'Apollumi_] conveys the strongest idea of _total, +irremediable ruin_; and [Greek: _zaemioo_], when used, as in this +passage, in the aorist tense, has the signification of _bringing loss +or ruin upon one's self_. Both these thoughts are lost in Mr. Sawyer's +translation; and a more tame, insufficient, and tautological rendering +than his could scarcely be imagined. + +Another instance of Mr. Sawyer's singular choice of renderings, in his +zeal for improvement, is found in Luke viii. 46, which he translates, +"Some one touched me; for I perceived a _power_ going from me." The +common version, "Somebody touched me; for I perceive that _virtue_ is +gone out of me," is clear and precise; Mr. Sawyer's version, "a power," +is more indefinite and less forcible. Any intelligent reader will at +once perceive that the common version is the better, and that Mr. +Sawyer's improved rendering is almost meaningless. + +One more example of these strictly literal renderings must suffice, John +iii. 4. common version,--"Nicodemus saith unto him, 'How can a man be +born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb +and be born?'" Sawyer's version,--"Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man +be born when he is old? can he become an unborn infant of his mother a +second time, and be born?'" The absurdity of the form of language put +into the mouth of Nicodemus by Mr. Sawyer is obvious at a glance; no +such thought was ever so expressed by any speaker in any language; it is +wholly forced and unnatural; and upon comparing Mr. Sawyer's translation +with the original, we find that he has paraphrased the passage with a +vengeance, altogether omitting to translate the clause [Greek: _eis +thaen koilian ... eiselthein kai gennaethaenai_], and interpolating an +expression, instead, which is neither in the original text nor in the +thought. Probably Mr. Sawyer's motive for taking this extraordinary +liberty was a false delicacy, amounting to prudery; but it ill assorts +with his assertion, that his work is not a paraphrase, nor one of +compromises, or of conjectural interpretations. + +We might proceed with numerous illustrations' exhibiting the weakness of +Mr. Sawyer's claim of an improved and strictly literal rendering, but +these are enough. Before he claims much on the score of scholarly +accuracy or critical rendering, he must explain these inconsistencies +and remove these blemishes. But if such faults are patent in the +simplest narrative passages, what confidence can we place in Mr. Sawyer +as a translator of difficult, abstruse, doctrinal, and disputed texts? +In every instance in which we have tested his translation of the +original, the changes which he has made from the common version not +only, in our judgment, are no improvements, but positively render the +expression less clear, less forcible, and less precise; of course, as +the language is made worse, the thought is, in the same proportion, +obscured. + +Another peculiarity of Mr. Sawyer's translation, which we suppose he +claims as an improvement, does not meet our approval. In all cases where +there is no word in our language which expresses the signification +of the Greek, as in the names of weights and measures, Mr. Sawyer +substitutes for the language of the common version the foreign word of +the original,--sometimes merely giving the orthography of the Greek in +English letters, sometimes affixing a termination,--and frequently he +adds, in brackets, an explanation of his rendering. As examples of this, +we quote the following:-- + +"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a _modius_ [1.916 +gallon measure]." + +"I tell you that you shall not go out thence till you have paid even the +last _lepton_ [2 mills]." + +"It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three _sata_ [33 +quarts] of flour." + +"And there were six stone water-jars there, placed for the purification +of the Jews, containing two or three _metretes_ [16.75 or 25.125 +gallons] each." + +"And he desired to fill his stomach with the _carob pods_ which the +swine eat." + +"And one poor widow came and cast in two _lepta_, which is a _quadrans_ +[4 mills]." + +It requires no knowledge of the original to pass judgment on such +changes as are here made from the common version. The practice which +Mr. Sawyer here introduces and sanctions is a vicious one in any +translation, and is especially so in the case of the Holy Scriptures, +which are to be read by the unlearned and ignorant as well as by the +scholar and the critic. Mr. Sawyer's translation of such words as we +have noted above conveys no idea to the mind of the common reader, and +requires a glossary to make it intelligible. There is in his choice of +words a pedantry and affectation of learning that are in bad taste. +But in this, as in his other strictly literal renderings, he is +inconsistent, and does not adhere to his own rule. He translates Matt. +vi. 30,--"And if God so clothes the grass of the field, which to-day is, +and tomorrow is cast into the _oven_," etc. If he were consistent in his +practice, he would have rendered the word "oven" _klibanon_, and then, +in parenthesis, explained that it signifies "a large round pot, of +earthen or other material, two or three feet high, narrowing towards +the top, on the sides of which the dough was spread to be baked in thin +cakes." Probably Mr. Sawyer was deterred from following his rule in this +case by the formidableness of the necessary parenthesis; but there is as +much reason why he should have written _klibanon_ instead of "oven," +as there is for substituting _lepton_ for "farthing," or _modius_ for +"bushel," or _carob pods_ for "husks,"--and in fact more reason, +because the word "oven," which he indorses and uses, conveys a far more +imperfect idea of the original, [Greek: _klibanon_], than those words of +the common version which he has rejected do of their originals. All such +changes as those instanced above, in our judgment, mar the simplicity +and obscure the meaning of the passages where they occur. + +But we will now notice what appears to us a more serious defect than +any of those already mentioned. Mr. Sawyer throughout his translation +substitutes vulgar Latinisms and circumlocutions for the vigorous +phrases of the received version. Sometimes this is done at the expense +of homely Saxon words which are the very sinews of our language; and +wherever such words are sacrificed for Latinisms, the beauty and force +of the whole are impaired or destroyed. Again, the translator seems to +have a peculiar antipathy to everything like poetical expressions or the +euphonious arrangement of sentences. He has evidently fallen into the +error of supposing that the most prosaic rendering is necessarily +the most exact; whereas the fact is, that the most poetical form of +expression of which a passage is susceptible is often the most clear, +forcible, and precise. The best method of giving the reader an idea of +the justice of this portion of our criticism of Mr. Sawyer's version is +to quote some passages in contrast with the common version. + +COMMON VERSION. + +"_If thou wilt_, let us make here three tabernacles." + +"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of +Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: +thou knowest that _I love thee_." + +"God be _merciful_ to me a sinner." + +"Give us this day our _daily_ bread." + +"_And therefore_ I cannot come." + +"And to whom men have _committed_ much, of him they will ask the more." + +"I _give tithes_ of all that I _possess_." + +"For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and +_counteth the cost_?" + +"And upon this rock I will build my _church_." + +"If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if _he repent_, +forgive him." + +"And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, +saying unto them, _Rejoice with me_, for I have found my sheep which was +lost." + +"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, _Peace_, be +still." + +"As we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen +_deemed that they drew near to some country_." + +"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate and _broad_ is the +way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; +because strait is the gate and _narrow_ is the way which leadeth unto +life, and few there be that find it." + +"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they _toil not_, +neither do they spin." + +SAWYER'S VERSION. + +"_If you please_, we will make here three tabernacles." + +"When therefore they had breakfasted, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, +son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, +you know that _I am a friend to you_." + +"God, be _propitious_ to me a sinner." + +"Give us to-day our _essential_ bread." + +"_On this account_ I cannot come." + +"And of him with whom men have _deposited_ much, they will ask more." + +"I _tithe_ all I _acquire_." + +"For what man of you wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down +and _estimate the expense_?" + +"And upon this rock will I build my _assembly_." + +"If your brother sins, reprove him; and if _he changes his mind_, +forgive him." + +"And coming to the house, he calls together his friends and neighbors, +saying, _Congratulate me_; for I have found my sheep that was lost." + +"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said to the lake, _Hush!_ Be +still!" + +"When we were borne along in the Adriatic, at about midnight the sailors +_suspected that some land was approaching them_." + +"Enter in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and _spacious_ +the way which leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in by +it; for narrow is the gate, and _compressed_ the way which leads to +life, and few are those who find it." + +"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they _perform no hard +labor_, neither do they spin." + +These must suffice. We cannot extend our quotations, nor is there +occasion to do so. We think we have seen enough of Mr. Sawyer's use of +words and phrases, enough of his improvements on the common version of +the Bible, to convince any candid mind that his is neither a literal nor +a correct translation; that so far from having improved the version, +by adding clearness, force, or precision, he has injured it in each +of these respects; and that the world would be immensely the loser +by accepting him as a substitute for the forty-seven translators who +composed the famous Council of King James in 1611. We are informed that +Mr. Sawyer has completed his improved version of the Old Testament, and +will soon publish it. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f92ff9a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11687 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11687) diff --git a/old/11687-8.txt b/old/11687-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcf0ae8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11687-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9319 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 17, March, +1859, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 17, March, 1859 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 23, 2004 [eBook #11687] +[Date last updated: July 24, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 3, ISSUE +17, MARCH, 1859*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--MARCH, 1859.--NO. XVII. + + + + + + + + +HOLBEIN AND THE DANCE OF DEATH. + + +At the northwest corner of Switzerland, just on the turn of the Rhine +from its westward course between Germany and Switzerland, to run +northward between Germany and France, stands the old town of Bâle. It is +nominally Swiss; but its situation on the borders of three countries, +and almost in them all, has given to the place itself and to its +inhabitants a somewhat heterogeneous air. "It looks," says one +traveller, "like a stranger lately arrived in a new colony, who, +although he may have copied the dress and the manner of those with whom +he has come to reside, wears still too much of his old costume to pass +for a native, and too little to be received as a stranger." Perhaps we +may get a better idea of the mixed nationality of the place by imagining +a Swiss who speaks French with a German accent. + +Bâle is an ancient city; though Rome was bending under the weight of +more than a thousand years when the Emperor Valentinian built at this +angle of the river a fortress which was called the Basilia. Houses soon +began to cluster round it upon the ruins of an old Helvetian town, and +thus Basel or Bâle obtained its existence and its name. Bâle suffered +many calamities. War, pestilence, and earthquake alternately made it +desolate. Whether we must enumerate among its misfortunes a Grand +Ecclesiastical Council which assembled there in 1431, and sat for +seventeen years, deposing one infallible Pope, and making another +equally infallible, let theological disputants decide. But the +assembling of this Council was of some service to us; for its Secretary, +Aeneas Sylvius, (who, like the saucy little _prima donna_, was one of +the noble and powerful Italian family, the Piccolomini, and afterward, +as Pope Pius II., wore the triple crown which St. Peter did not wear,) +in his Latin dedication of a history of the transactions of that body +to the Cardinal St. Angeli, has left a description of Bâle as it was in +1436. + +After telling us that the town is situated upon that "excellent river, +the Rhine, which divides it into two parts, called Great Bâle and Little +Bâle, and that these are connected by a bridge which the river rising +from its bed sometimes carries off," he, naturally enough for an +ecclesiastic and a future Pope, goes on to say, that in Great Bâle, +which is far more beautiful and magnificent than Little Bâle, there are +handsome and commodious churches; and he naively adds, that, "_although_ +these are not adorned with marble, and are built of common stone, they +are much frequented by the people." The women of Bâle, following the +devotional instincts of their sex, were the most assiduous attendants +upon these churches; and they consoled themselves for the absence of +marble, which the good Aeneas Sylvius seems to imply would partly have +excused them for staying away, by an arrangement in itself as odd as in +Roman Catholic places of worship--to their honor--it is, and ever was, +unusual. Each of them performed her devotions in a kind of inclosed +bench or solitary pew. By most of these the occupant was concealed +only to the waist when she stood up at the reading of the Gospel; some +allowed only their heads to appear; and others of the fair owners were +at once so devout, so cruel, and so self-denying as to shut out the +eyes of the world entirely and at all times. But instances of this +remorseless mortification of the flesh, seem to have been exceedingly +rare. Queer enough these structures were, and sufficiently gratifying +to the pride and provocative of the envy which the beauties of Bâle +(avowedly) went to churches in which there was no marble to mortify. For +they were of different heights, according to the rank of the occupant. +A simple burgher's wife took but a step toward heaven when she went to +pray; a magistrate's of the lower house, we must suppose, took two; a +magistrate's of the upper house, three; a lady, four; a baroness, five; +a countess, six; and what a duchess, if one ever appeared there, did to +maintain her dignity in the eyes of God and man, unless she mounted into +the pulpit, it is quite impossible to conjecture. Aeneas Sylvius gives +it as his opinion that these things were used as a protection against +the cold, which to his Italian blood seemed very great. But that notion +was surely instilled into the courtly churchman by some fair, demure +Bâloise; for had it been well-founded, the sentry-boxes would have risen +and fallen with the thermometer, and not with the rank of the occupant. + +The walls of the churches were hung around with the emblazoned shields +of knights and noblemen, and the roofs were richly painted in various +colors, and glowed with splendor when the rays of the sun fell upon +them. Storks built their nests upon these roofs, and hatched their young +there unmolested; for the Bâlois believed, that, if the birds were +disturbed, they would fire the houses. + +The dwellings of men of any wealth or rank were very curiously planned, +elaborately ornamented, richly painted, and adorned with magnificent +tapestry. The tables were covered with vessels of wrought silver, in +which Sylvius confesses that the Bâlois surpassed even the skilful +and profuse Italians. Fountains, those sources of fantastic and +ever-changing beauty, were numerous,--so numerous, says our +afterward-to-be-infallible authority, that the town of Viterbo, in +Tuscany, had not so many,--and Viterbo was noted for its beauty, and for +being surrounded with the villas of wealthy Italians, who have always +used water freely in the way of fountains. + +Bâle, although it then--four hundred and twenty years ago--acknowledged +the Emperor for its sovereign, was a free town, as it is now; that is, +it had no local lord to favor or oppress it at his pleasure, but was +governed by laws enacted by representatives of the people. The spirit of +a noble independence pervaded the little Canton of which it was and +is the capital. Though it was fortified, its stone defences were not +strong; but when Sylvius tells us that the Bâlois thought that the +strength of their city consisted in the union of its inhabitants, who +preferred death to loss of liberty, we see what stuff its men were made +of, and why the town was free. + +Among its peculiarities, Bâle had no lawyers,--this happy and united +Bâle. The Bâlois did not trouble themselves about the Imperial law, +says Sylvius; but when disputes or accusations were brought before the +magistrates, they were decided according to custom and the equity of +each case. They were nevertheless inexorably severe in administering +justice. A criminal could not be saved either by gold, or by +intercession, or by the authority and influence of his family. He +who was guilty must be punished; and the punishments were terrible. +Criminals were banished, hung, beheaded, broken on the wheel, drowned in +the Rhine, (a bad use to which to put that "excellent river,") left to +starve on a gradually diminished supply of bread and water. To compel +confessions, tortures inconceivably horrible were used, to which the +alternative of death would have been a boon; and yet there were not +wanting those among the Bâlois who would endure these torments rather +than utter their own condemnation. + +They were devoted to religion, and held in great reverence the pictures +and images of the Saints; but not on account of any admiration of the +skill of painter or sculptor; for they cared little for the arts, and +were so ignorant of literature that "no one of them had ever heard of +Cicero or of any other orator." + +The men of Bâle were of noble presence, and dressed well, although they +avoided magnificence. Only those of knightly rank wore purple; the +wealthy burghers confined themselves to black velvet; but their wives, +on fête-days, blazed in splendid silk and satin and jewels. The boys +went with naked feet, and, adds the reverend divine, the women wore upon +their white legs only shoes. There was no distinction of age by costume, +among the women,--a very great singularity in those days, when every +stage and rank of life was marked by some peculiar style of dress; but +in Bâle the face alone distinguished the young girl from the matron +of mature years. It may, however, be doubted by some, whether this is +peculiar to the town of Bâle or to the time of Sylvius. The men were +addicted to voluptuous pleasures; they lived sumptuously, and passed a +long time at table. In the words of our churchman, "They were too much +devoted to Father Bacchus and Dame Venus,"--faults which they deemed +venial. But he adds, that they were jealous of their honor, and held to +what they promised; they would rather be upright than merely seem to be +so. Though provident, they were content, unless very poor. + +Another peculiarity of Bâle: its clocks were one hour ahead of all +others, and so continued at least till the middle of the last century. +This of course depended on no difference of time; it was merely that +when, for instance, at mid-day, the clocks of neighboring towns struck +twelve, the clocks of Bâle struck one. The origin of this seeming effort +to hasten him who usually moves rapidly enough for us all is lost in +obscurity. + +And now why is it that, we have gone back four hundred years and more, +to linger thus long with the Secretary of the Great Ecclesiastical +Council of Bâle, in that quaint and queer old town, with its half +French, half German look, its grand, grotesque old churches, hung round +with knightly shields and filled with women, each in a pulpit of her +own, its stork-crowned roofs, its houses blazing with wrought gold and +silver, its threescore fountains, and the magnificence in which, without +a court, it rivalled the richest capitals of Italy, its noble-spirited +and pleasure-loving, but simple-minded and unlearned burghers, its +white-limbed beauties, and its deceitful clocks? It is not because that +town is now one of the principal ribbon-factories of the world, and +exports to this country alone over $1,200,000 worth yearly; although +some fair readers may suppose that an all-sufficient reason,--and some +of their admirers and protectors, too, for that matter. Think of it! +nearly one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of +ribbons coming to us every year from a single town in Switzerland! The +statement is enough to carry horror and dismay to the heart and the +pocket of every father and brother, and above all, of every husband, +actual or possible, who hears of it. It is a godsend to the +protectionists, who might reëdify their party on the basis of a +prohibitory tariff against ribbons. If they were successful, their +success would be brilliant; for if our fair tyrants could not get +ribbons--those necessaries of life--from Bâle in Switzerland, they +would tease and coax us to build them a Bâle in America; and we should +do it. + +We have gone back to the old Bâle of four hundred and twenty years ago, +because there, and not long after that time,--about 1498,--according +to general belief, Hans Holbein was born; because these were the +surroundings under the influence of which he grew to manhood; and +because there, about sixty years before his birth, a Dance of Death was +painted, the most ancient and important of which we have any remaining +memorial. This Dance was painted upon the wall of the churchyard of the +Dominican Convent in Great Bâle, by order of the very Ecclesiastical +Council of which our Aeneas Sylvius was Secretary, and in commemoration +of a plague which visited the town during the sitting of that Council, +and carried off many of its members. + +What is a Dance of Death? and why should Death be painted dancing? +Some readers may think of it as a frantic revel of grim skeletons, or +perhaps--like me in my boyish musings--imagine nameless shapes with +Death and Hell gleaming in their faces, each clasping a mortal beguiled +to its embrace, all flitting and floating round and round to unearthly +music, and gradually receding through vast mysterious gloom till they +are lost in its horrible obscurity. + +But neither of these notions is near the truth. The Dance of Death is +not a revel, and in it Death does not dance at all. A Dance of Death, or +a Dance Macabre, as it was called, is a succession of isolated pictures, +all informed with the same motive, it is true, but each independent of +the others, and consisting of a group, generally of but two figures, one +of which is the representative of Death. The second always represents +a class; and in this figure every rank, from the very highest to the +lowest, finds its type. The number of these groups or pictures varies +considerably in the different dances, according to the caprice of the +artist, or, perhaps, to the expense of his time and labor which he +thought warranted by the payment he was to receive. But all express, +with sufficient fulness, the idea that Death is the common lot of +humanity, and that he enters with impartial feet the palace and the +cottage, neither pitying youth nor respecting age, and waiting no +convenient season. + +The figure of Death in these strange religious works of Art,--for they +were as purely religious in their origin as the Holy Families and +Madonnas of the same and a subsequent period,--this figure of Death is +not always a skeleton. It is so in but one of the forty groups in the +Dance at Bâle, which was the germ of Holbein's, and which, indeed, until +very recently, was attributed to him, although it was painted more +than half a century before he was born. It is generally assumed that a +skeleton has always been the representative of Death, but erroneously; +for, in fact, Holbein was the first to fix upon a mere skeleton for the +embodiment of that idea. + +The Hebrew Scriptures, which furnish us with the earliest extant +allusion to Death as a personage, designate him as an angel or messenger +of God,--as, for instance, in the record of the destruction of the +Assyrian host in the Second Book of Kings (xix. 35). The ancient +Egyptians, too, in whose strange system of symbolism may be found the +germ, at least, of most of the types used in the religion and the arts +of more modern nations, had no representation of Death as an individual +agent. They expressed the extinction of life very naturally and simply +by the figure of a mummy. Such a figure it was their custom to pass +round among the guests at their feasts; and the Greeks and Romans +imitated them, with slight modifications, in the form of the image and +the manner of the ceremony. Some scholars have found in this custom a +deep moral and religious significance, akin to that which certainly +attached to the custom of placing a slave in the chariot of a Roman +conquering general to say to him at intervals, as his triumphal +procession moved with pomp and splendor through the swarming streets, +"Remember that thou art a man." But this is too subtile a conjecture. +The ceremony was but a silent way of saying, "Let us eat and drink, for +to-morrow we die," which, as Paul's solemn irony makes but too plain, +must be the philosophy of life to those who believe that the dead rise +not, which was the case with the Egyptians and the Greeks, and the +Hebrews also. An old French epitaph expresses to the full this +philosophy:-- + + "Ce que j'ai mangé, + Ce que j'ai bu, + Ce que j'ai dissipé, + Je l'ai maintenant avec moi. + Ce que j'ai laissé, + Je l'ai perdu," + + What I ate, + What I drank, + What I dissipated, + I have with me. + That which I left + I lost. + +The figure of the sad youth leaning upon an inverted torch, in which +the Greeks embodied their idea of Death, is familiar to all who have +examined ancient Art. The Etruscan Death was a female, with wings upon +the shoulders, head, and feet, hideous countenance, terrible fangs and +talons, and a black skin. No example of the form attributed to him by +the early Christians has come down to us, that I can discover; but we +know that they, as well as the later Hebrews, considered Death as the +emissary of the Evil One, if not identical with him, and called him +impious, unholy. It was in the Dark Ages, that the figure of a dead body +or a skull was first used as a symbol of Death; but even then its office +appears to have been purely symbolic, and not representative;--that is, +these figures served to remind men of their mortality, or to mark a +place of sepulture, and were not the embodiment of an idea, not the +creation of a personage,--Death. It is not until the thirteenth or +fourteenth century that we find this embodiment clearly defined and +generally recognized; and even then the figure used was not a skeleton, +but a cadaverous and emaciated body. + +Among the remains of Greek and Roman Art, only two groups are known in +which a skeleton appears; and it is remarkable that in both of these the +skeletons are dancing. In one group of three, the middle figure is a +female. Its comparative breadth at the shoulders and narrowness at the +hips make at first a contrary impression; but the position of the body +and limbs is, oddly enough, too like that of a female dancer of the +modern French school to leave the question in more than a moment's +doubt. Thus the artists who did not embody their idea of death in a +skeleton were the first to conceive and execute a real Dance of Death. +In both the groups referred to, the motive is manifestly comic; and +neither of them has any similarity to the Dances of Death of which +Holbein's has become the grand representative. These had their origin, +we can hardly tell with certainty how, or when, or where; although the +subject has enlisted the investigating labors of such accomplished +scholars and profound antiquaries as Douce and Ottley in England, +and Peignot and Langlois in France. But a story with which they are +intimately connected, even if it is not their germ, has been discovered; +ancient customs which must have aided in their development are familiar +to all investigators of ancient manners, and especially of ancient +amusements; and the motives which inform them all, and the moral +condition of Christendom of which they were the result, are plain +enough. + +We have seen before, that this Dance consisted of several groups of two +or more figures, one of which was always Death in the act of claiming a +victim; and for the clear comprehension of what follows, it is necessary +to anticipate a little, and remark, that there is no doubt that the +Dance was first represented by living performers. Strange as this seems +to us, it was but in keeping with the spirit of the time, which we call, +perhaps with some presumption, the Dark Ages. + +The story which is probably the germ of this Dance was called _Les Trois +Morts et les Trois Vifs_,--"The Three Dead and the Three Living." It is +of indefinable antiquity and uncertain origin. It is said, that three +noble youths, as they returned from hunting, were met in the gloom of +the forest by three hideous spectres, in the form of decaying human +corpses; and that, as they stood rooted to the ground by this appalling +sight, the figures addressed them solemnly upon the vanity of worldly +grandeur and pleasure, and admonished them, that, although in the heyday +of youth, they must soon become as they (the spectres) were. This story, +or _dit_, "saying," as it was called in French, was exceedingly popular +through-out Europe five or six hundred years ago. It is found in the +language of every Christian nation of the period, and, extended by means +of accessory incidents and much moralizing, is made to cover several +pages in more than one old illuminated manuscript. In the Arundel MSS., +in England, there is one of the many versions of the legend written +in French so old that it is quite as difficult for Frenchmen as for +Englishmen to read it. But over an illuminated picture of the incident, +in which three kings are shown meeting the three skeletons, are these +lines in English, as old, but less obsolete:-- + + _Over the Kings_. + + "Ich am afert + Lo whet ich see + Methinketh hit be develes thre." + + _Over the Skeletons_. + + "Ich wes wel fair + Such schel tou be + For Godes love be wer by me." + +In these rude lines is the whole moral of the legend, and of the Dance +of Death which grew out of it. That growth was simple, gradual, and +natural. In the versions and in the pictorial representations of the +legend there soon began to be much variety in the persons who met the +spectres. At first three noble youths, they became three kings, three +noble ladies, a king, a queen, and their son or daughter, and so +on,--the rank of the persons, however, being always high. For, as we +shall have occasion to notice hereafter more particularly, the mystery +of the Dance had a democratic as well as a religious significance; and +it served to bring to mind, not only the irresistible nature of Death's +summons, but the real equality of all men; and this it did in a manner +to which those of high condition could not object. + +The legend was made the subject of a fresco, painted about 1350, by the +eminent Italian painter and architect, Orcagna, upon the walls of the +Campo Santo at Pisa,--which some readers may be glad to be reminded was +a cemetery, so called because it was covered with earth brought from +the Holy Land. It is remarkable, however, that in this work the artist +embodied Death not in the form commonly used in his day, but in the old +Etruscan figure before mentioned. Orcagna's Death is a female, winged +like a bat, and with terrible claws. Armed with a scythe, she swoops +down upon the earth and reaps a promiscuous harvest of popes, emperors, +kings, queens, churchmen, and noblemen. In the rude manner of the time, +Orcagna has divided his picture into compartments. In one of these we +see St. Macarius, one of the first Christian hermits, an Egyptian, +sitting at the foot of a mountain; before him are three kings, who have +returned from the chase accompanied by a gay train of attendants. The +Saint calls the attention of the kings to three sepulchres in which lie +the bodies of three other kings, one of which is much decomposed. The +three living kings are struck with horror; but the painter has much +diminished the moral effect of his work, for this century, at least, by +making one of them hold his nose;--which is regarded by Mr. Ruskin as +an evidence of Orcagna's devotion to the truth; but in this case that +brilliant writer, but most unsafe critical guide, commits an error of a +kind not uncommon with him. The representation of so homely an action, +in such a composition, merely shows that the painter had not arrived at +a just appreciation of the relative value of the actual,--and that he +failed to see that by introducing this unessential incident he diverted +attention from his higher purpose, dragged his picture from a moral to +a material plane, and went at a bound far over the narrow limit between +the horrible and the ludicrous. + +St. Macarius is frequently introduced in the pictures of this subject; +and some antiquaries suppose that hence the Dance of Death derived the +name, Dance Macabre, by which it used to be generally known. Others +derive it from the Arabic _mac-bourah_,--a cemetery. Neither derivation +is improbable; but it is of little consequence to us which is correct. + +It may seem strange that such a legend as this of "The Three Dead and +the Three Living," with such a moral, should become the origin of a +dance. But we should remember that in many countries dancing has been a +religious ceremony. It was so with the Greeks and Romans, and also with +the Hebrews, among whom, however, saltatory worship seems, on most +occasions, to have been performed spontaneously, and by volunteers. All +will remember the case of Miriam, who thus danced to the sound of her +timbrel after the passage of the Red Sea; and who that has read it can +forget the account of the dance which King David executed before the +ark, dancing with all his might, and girded only with a linen ephod? +Dancing has always seemed to us to be an essentially ridiculous +transaction,--for a man, at least; and we confess that we sympathize +with David's wife, Michal, who, seeing this extraordinary _pas seul_ +from her window, "despised David in her heart," and treated him to a +little conjugal irony when he came home. What would the lovely Eugénie +have thought, if, after the fall of Sebastopol, she had seen his +Majesty, the Emperor of the French, "cutting it down," in broad +daylight, before the towers of Notre Dame, girded only with a linen +ephod,--though that's not exactly the name we give the garment +now-a-days? But David was master, not only in Israel, but in his own +household, (which is not the case with all kings and great men,) and +he said to Michal,--"It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy +father and before all his house;.... therefore will I play before the +Lord;.... and of the maid-servants which thou hast spoken of, of them +shall I be had in honor." And Michal all her life repented bitterly the +offence that she had given her husband. + +But dancing was not one of the regular ceremonies of the Christian +Church, even in its corruptest days; and yet dances were performed four +hundred years ago in the churches and in church-yards, as a part of, or +an appendage to, entertainments of a religious character. These were the +Mysteries and Moralities, which are the origin of our drama;--and it is +remarkable that in all countries the drama has been at first a religious +ceremony. These Mysteries and Moralities were religious plays of the +rudest kind: the Mysteries being a representation, partly by dumb show +and partly by words, of some well-known incident related in the Bible; +and the Moralities, a kind of discussion and enforcement of religious +doctrine or moral truth by allegorical personages. They were performed +at first almost entirely in the churches, upon scaffolds erected for the +purpose. + +In a Mystery called "Candlemas Day, or the Killing of the Children of +Israel," which represented the Massacre of the Innocents, and in which +Herod, Simeon, Joseph, the Virgin Mary, Watkin, a comic character, and +Anna the Prophetess, appeared, there was a general dance of all the +characters after the Prologue; and at the close of the play, there is +a stage-direction for another, in response to a command of Anna the +Prophetess, who says,-- + + "Shewe ye sume plesur as ye can + In the worship of Jesu, our Lady, and St. Anne." + +And thereupon King Herod, Simeon, Joseph, the Virgin Mary, Watkin the +funny man, and the Prophetess well stricken in years, proceed to forward +four, and end with a promenade all around. Indeed, our ancestors seem to +have found it edifying, not to say entertaining, to go to a cathedral to +see Satan and an Archbishop dance a hornpipe with the Seven Deadly Sins +and the Five Cardinal Virtues. + +A Morality called "Every Man," written about 1450, has a direct +connection with the subject which we are considering. Every Man, the +principal personage of the piece, is an allegorical representation of +all mankind; and the purpose of the play is told in this sentence, which +introduces it:-- + +"Here begynneth a Treatyse how the Hye Fader of Heven sendeth Dethe +to somon every creature to come & gyve a count of theyr lyves in this +worlde, & is in maner of a Morall Playe." + +On the title-page of an edition printed in 1500, only one copy of which +exists, is a very rude wood-cut, in which an individual, who is labelled +"Every Man," is startled at the sight of Death standing at the door of +a church and summoning him. In this Moral Play, Fellowship, Good Deeds, +Worldly Goods, Knowledge, Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wittes +are characters; and they cannot interpose between Every Man and the +summons of Death, nor will any of them, except Good Deeds, go with him. +The representation of this play was a kind of Dance of Death, and from +the acting of "Every Man" to the execution of that Dance was but a short +step. + +But the Dance of Death had been performed before "Every Man" was +written; and dances in churches and churchyards were of yet greater +antiquity. For, by an order of a Roman council under Pope Pius II. in +the tenth century, priests were directed "to admonish men and women not +to dance and sing in the churches on feast-days, like Pagans." The evil +increased, however, until, according to the old chroniclers, a terrible +punishment fell upon a party of dancers. One of them, Ubert, tells the +story. It was on Christmas Eve, in the time of the Emperor Henry II., +who assumed the imperial diadem in the year 1002, that a company of +eighteen men and women amused themselves by dancing and singing in the +churchyard of St. Magnus, in the diocese of Magdeburg, to the annoyance +of a priest who was saying mass in the church. He ordered them to +desist; but they danced on in reckless mirth. The holy father then +invoked God and St. Magnus to keep them dancing for a whole year; and +not in vain. For twelve months they danced in spite of themselves. +Neither dew nor rain fell upon them; and their shoes and their clothes +were not worn away, although by their dancing they buried themselves +waist-high. Yet, fatigued and famished beyond human endurance, they +danced on, unable to stop an instant for rest or food. The priest's own +daughter was among the dancers; and, unable to undo what the Saint had +done, he sent his son to drag her out of the dance. But when her brother +pulls her by the arm it comes off in his hand, and he in horror takes it +to his father. No blood flows from the wound. The priest buries the arm, +and the next morning he finds it upon the top of the grave. He repeats +the burial, and with the same result. He makes a third attempt, and the +grave casts out the limb with violence before his eyes. Meanwhile the +girl and her companions continue dancing, and the Emperor, having heard +of this strange occurrence, travels from Rome to see so sad a sight. He +orders carpenters to inclose the dancers in a building, but in vain; for +that which is built in the day falls down in the night. The dancers have +neither rest nor mitigation of their curse until the expiration of the +year, when they all rush into the church and fall before the altar in +a swoon, from which they are not recovered for three days. Then they +immediately flee each other's faces, and wander solitary through the +world, still dancing at times in spite of themselves. In the olden time +this was believed to be the origin of St. Vitus's dance; but we can now +see that the dance is the origin of the story. + +The Dance of Death was performed by a large company dressed in the +costumes of various classes of society, which were then very marked in +their difference. One by one the dancers suddenly and silently slipped +off, thus typifying the departure of all mankind at Death's summons. +That this Dance was performed, not only with the consent, but by the +procurement of the clergy, is made certain by the discovery, in the +archives of the Cathedral of Besançon, of the account of the payment of +four measures of wine by the seneschal to those persons who performed +the Dance Macabre on the 10th of July, 1453. + +The moral lesson conveyed by this strange pastime or ceremony seems +hardly calculated to secure for it a noteworthy popularity in any age; +but for a long time it was, either as a ceremony or as a picture, very +popular throughout Europe. We know of forty-four places in which it was +painted or sculptured in some large public building, the oldest example +being that at Little Bâle, which was painted in 1312. This, like that +in Great Bâle, and most of the others, has been destroyed by time or +violence. The Dance was made the ornament of books of devotion, and the +subject of ornamental initial-letters; groups from it were engraved +repeatedly by those fantastic designers and exquisite workmen known as +the Little Masters of Germany; a single group was assumed as a device, +or trademark, by more than one printer; and it was sung in popular +ballads. There is now at Aix-la-Chapelle a huge state-bed-stead, on the +posts, sides, and footboards of which it is elaborately carved, in the +manner of the sixteenth century; and it was even made the ornament of +ladies' fans. + +The reasons for this popularity were a certain strange fascination in +the subject,--yet not so strange at a time when women would crowd to see +men burned or hanged and quartered;--but chiefly, the grand democratic +significance of the dance. Death has ever been, and ever will be, +the greatest leveller; and at a time when rank had an importance and +bestowed advantages of which we can form little idea, while at the same +time men had begun to ask why this should be, such a satire as this +Dance of Death, sanctioned by the Church, that great protector of +established rights and dignities, and yet sparing neither noble nor +hierarch, not even the Pope himself, satisfied an eager craving in the +breast of poor, envious, self-asserting human nature. In one of those +ornamental initial-letters above mentioned, the date of which was some +years prior to the execution of Holbein's Dance, Death appears as a +grave-digger, and lifts on his spade, out of the grave which he is +making, two skulls, one crowned, the other covered with a peasant's hat. +He grins with savage glee at seeing these remnants of the two extremes +of society side by side; and underneath them, on the shovel, is written +_Idem_,--"The Same." In this word is the key to the popularity of the +Dance. + +The most important and interesting of these pictured Dances of Death +were those at Bâle, at Strasbourg, and at Rouen. That at Bâle consisted +of thirty-nine groups, in the first three of which appear a Pope, an +Emperor, and a King. These were portraits of Pope Felix V., the Emperor +Sigismund, and King Albert II., of Rome, all of whom were present at the +Council, by whose order, as we have seen, the Dance was painted. The +last group of this Dance shows the seizure of the painter's child by +Death. It having been almost destroyed by time, the wall on which it was +painted was torn down about a hundred years ago; but engravings had been +made of it in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The Dance at +Strasbourg, like that at Bâle, and many others, was on the wall of +a Dominican convent. It was painted in arched compartments, and is +peculiar in that its groups consist of many figures, among whom Death +intrudes, and carries off one, generally the principal personage of the +company. It was painted about 1450, and probably by the eminent German +painter, Martin Schongauer; but having been utterly neglected and +forgotten, it was finally plastered over, no one knows when. In +repairing the church in 1824, it was accidentally discovered, and +carefully exposed; but it was so much injured that it fell into decay +soon after drawings had been made from it. + +The Dance at Rouen was in the still existing Cemetery of St. Maclou, and +was not a painting, but a sculpture. It was not entirely completed +until 1526. The cemetery is surrounded by a covered gallery open on the +inside, where it was supported by thirty-nine columns, distant about +eleven feet from each other. Thirty-one of these still exist; and upon +the shaft of all but four of them, on the side facing the court of the +cemetery, is sculptured, in high relief, a group of two figures,--one a +living personage, and the other the cadaverous body by which Death was +represented. On the remainder were sculptured the Christian Virtues +and the Fates,--two on each column. The capitals of these columns are +decorated with figures quite in another manner. Cupids, naked female +figures, grotesque masks, and shapes--human and bestial--are ingeniously +substituted for the foliage usually found on that part of a column. The +execution of these figures is of quite a high order. They have all been +sadly mutilated; but, fortunately, that which has suffered least is a +beautiful figure of Eve. Her head is gone; but the flowing lines of the +lovely torso are unbroken, and the round and graceful limbs are almost +as perfect as when they came from the sculptor's chisel. This figure is +so like the Venus de Medici that it might have been copied from it. + +But what is Eve doing in a Dance of Death? Alas! she took the first step +of that dance in Paradise, and the artists of the olden time did not +deprive her of her due precedence. She leads the Dance, but with this +difference from those who follow her:--they, cowering and muffled, +go off the scene with Death; she, upright in her naked innocence and +beauty, brings him on. Poor Eve! she had her punishment and made her +atonement to man for leading him to death, in becoming the source and +the joy and solace of his life; but it was not for the artists of the +Dance of Death to embody this phase of her existence. So essential a +part of the Dance is the temptation of Eve, that the whole subject was +concentrated into the representation of that event by a German engraver, +in this singular manner:--Adam and Eve stand by the Tree of Knowledge, +around which twines the serpent, from whom Eve is receiving the apple; +but the trunk of the tree is formed by the twisted legs and the ribs of +a skeleton, from the head and the outstretched arms of which spring the +branches and the foliage. It is worthy of remark, that many painters, +the greatest of them (Raphael) at their head, have represented the +tempter of Eden as a beautiful woman, whose body terminates in a +serpent. It was a mistake on their part to do so. They knew how much of +the Devil a woman might have in her, and how irresistible a temptress +she is; but they forgot, that, on this occasion, woman, not man, was +tempted. + +There was a Dance of Death in Old St. Paul's Church, in London,--the +one burned down in the Great Fire; and another in the beautiful little +parish church of Stratford-on-Avon,--but this, too, has disappeared. It +is interesting to know that they were there, and that Shakspeare saw +them; for he has woven some of the thoughts that they awakened in his +mind into a noble passage in one of his historical plays. We shall recur +to it in examining Holbein's Dance. + +The Dance was represented, and still exists, in one very singular place. +At Lucerne, in Switzerland, it appears upon a covered bridge, in the +triangles formed by the beams which support the roof. The groups, of +which there are thirty-six, are double, looking away from each other, +and are so arranged, that the passenger, on entering the bridge, has +before him a long array of these grotesque and gloomy pictures. The +motive for placing the Dance in such a place is unknown, and it is +difficult to conjecture what it was. It could hardly have been to +enforce the old adage,--Speak well of the bridge that carries you over. + + * * * * * + +While we have been thus endeavoring to discover the origin of the Dance +of Death, what it was, and what it meant, Holbein has been waiting more +patiently than he was wont, for us to see who he was, and why the Dance, +which was known three hundred years at least before he was born, is now +universally spoken of as his. + +Hans Holbein, the greatest painter of the German school, came honestly +by his talent and his name. He was the son of Hans Holbein, a painter, +who was the son of another Hans Holbein, also a painter. The first Hans +was a poor painter; the second a good one; and the third so great, that +the world, when it speaks their common name, means only him. The father +and grandfather were born at Augsburg, in Bavaria, and of late years +it has been asserted by mousing antiquaries that the grandson was born +there too; but this, perhaps, is not quite certain; and it is much +pleasanter to adhere to the ancient faith, and believe that he was +born at that strange old Bâle, in sight of that great Dance, the +reproduction, or rather recreation, of which was to make so great a part +of his fame,--especially as he was quite surely an inhabitant of the +town at such tender years, that the veriest Know-Nothing in the place +would not have deprived him of his citizenship. + +Of Holbein's life we unfortunately know very little. He showed his +talent early, as all the great painters have done. Conscious of his +abilities, he devoted himself eagerly to the study of the profession to +which his genius urged him. He learned not only painting, but engraving, +the sculpture of metals, and architecture; and of all these, it will be +remembered, Bâle offered him facilities for study, in examples which +must have stimulated both his imagination and his ambition. He did not +lack encouragement; for the nobles and burghers of Bâle had begun to +acquire a taste for the arts, which their ruder fathers contemned; and +they had, at this time, a university in their city, which made them +acquainted with Cicero and the orators, of whom Aeneas Sylvius found +them so ignorant. + +But Holbein, although eminent and well employed, did not thrive. He had +some Bâlois failings, and, as Aeneas Sylvius would have said, worshipped +Father Bacchus and Dame Venus with too much devotion;--not that he was +a drunkard or a debauchee; but he sought in conviviality with men of +talent, and in the company of beautiful women, too happy in the caresses +of the great painter, who was generous with his florins, that happiness +which he could not find at home. For poor Hans was afflicted with what +has been the moral and social ruin of many a better, if not greater man +than he--a froward, shrill-tongued wife. Luckily, however, the great +scholar and philosopher, Erasmus, went into retirement at Bâle, in 1521; +and he soon recognized the genius of Holbein, and became his admirer and +friend. By his advice, and at the solicitation of an English nobleman, +and, poor fellow, seeking refuge from the temper of his wife, whom even +the sweet cares of maternity could not mollify, Holbein determined to +leave Bâle for England. What was the great cause of Frau Holbein's +tantrums,--whether Hans's ears were pierced with conjugal clamors, as +poor Albert Dürer's, the other great German painter's, were, because +he could not supply all his wife's demands for money, to enable her, +perhaps, to exhibit herself at church on holy days in one of those +precious pulpits, splendid in velvet and jewels, to the discomfiture of +the other painters' wives,--we do not know; but whatever was the cause +of her oft-recurring outbreaks, they made him not unwilling to put +France and the English Channel between himself and her, his children, +and the home of his childhood. + +He gave out, at first, that his absence from Bâle would be +temporary,--only for the purpose of raising the value of his works, by +making them more difficult to obtain. Before he went, he finished and +sent home a portrait on which he was engaged. It was one of his best +pictures; and the person for whom it was painted, lost for a while in +admiration of its beauty, noticed at last that a fly, which had settled +upon the forehead, remained there motionless. He stepped up to brush the +insect away, and found that it was a part of the picture. This story +has, since Holbein's time, been told of many painters,--among others, of +Benjamin West. Such a piece of mere imitation should have added nothing +to the reputation of a painter of Holbein's powers; but the story was +soon told all over Bâle, and orders were given to prevent the loss +to the city of so great an artist. But Holbein had quietly gone off, +furnished with letters of introduction from Erasmus, who wrote in one of +them that in Bâle the arts were chilled; which might well be true of a +place where so much ado was made about the painting of a fly. + +In England, Holbein found a friend and patron in Sir Thomas More,--Henry +the Eighth's great Lord Chancellor; and a sight of some of his works won +him, ere long, the favor of the King himself. He was appointed Court +Painter, with apartments at the palace, and a yearly salary of two +hundred florins, (or thirty pounds, equal to about two hundred pounds +now,) which he received in addition to the price of his pictures. After +about three years of prosperity he went home to his wife and children; +but as he soon returned to England, we may safely conclude that his +visit was to provide for the latter, and with no hope of living with the +former. Some years after, in 1538, when his fame was still increasing, +the city of Bâle, proud of its son, offered him a handsome annuity, +in the hope that that might induce him to return to his country, his +children, and his wife. But he could not be tempted. Though not the +wisest of men, he was Solomon enough to know that "it is better to dwell +in a corner of the house-top than with a brawling woman and in a wide +house"; and as he was successful and held in honor in England as well as +Bâle, he contented himself with a corner of King Henry's palace. + +But although he fled from his wife, he painted her portrait; and we need +no testimony to warrant the likeness. She is the very type of one of +those meek shrews, alternately a martyr and a fury, that drive a man to +madness when they speak and to despair when they are silent. We might +reasonably wonder that he would paint so vivid a representation of that +which he so sedulously shunned. But poor Hans, who probably had some +lingering remains of his early love, knew, that, although he should +make a speaking likeness, it would be a silent one, and that this Frau +Holbein must keep the look which he chose to summon to her face. That, +indeed, was knowledge that was power! How he must have chuckled as he +saw his wife looking at him more natural than life and yet without the +power to worry him! His own portrait shows us a broad, good-natured, +ruddy face, in which we see marks of talent when we know that it is +Holbein's. But in spite of its strength, its bronze, and its beard, it +has a somewhat sad and subdued air; and its heavy-lidded, pensive eyes +look deprecatingly at a Frau Holbein in the distance. + +While he lived at Greenwich palace, an incident occurred which may not +be known to all our readers, and which is a striking illustration of the +esteem in which he was held by Henry. It is not a little to the honor +of that monarch, who, arbitrary and sensual as he was, had some noble +traits of character. One day, as Holbein was painting a lady's portrait +in his private studio, a nobleman intruded upon him rudely. Holbein +resented the discourtesy, and, as it was doggedly persisted in, finally +threw my lord downstairs. There was an outcry; and the painter, bolting +his door on the inside, escaped from his window along the eaves of the +roof, and, making his way directly to the King, threw himself before +him and begged a pardon, without telling his offence. Henry promised +forgiveness on condition of a full confession, which the painter began. +But meantime the nobleman arrived, and Henry, in deference to his rank, +gave him precedence, and stepped into another apartment to hear +his story. He accused Holbein of the violence, but suppressed the +provocation; whereat Henry broke into a towering Tudor rage, and, after +reproaching the nobleman for his prevarication, said, "You have to do +with me, Sir. I tell you, that of seven peasants I could make seven +earls like you; but of seven earls I could not make one Holbein. Do not +molest him, if you value your head." And as second-hand heads, though +plentiful about those days, were found to be of no value, even to the +original owner, Holbein remained unmolested. + +Holbein is known chiefly by his portraits. He painted some historical +and sacred pictures; but though they all bear witness to his genius, it +can hardly be denied that they also show that that genius was not suited +to such works. Holbein had an objective perception;--that is, his mind +received impressions entirely uninfluenced by its own character or +condition; and his pictures, therefore, seem like literal transcripts +of what was before his eyes. He nowhere shows that he had an idea of +abstract beauty, or the power of generalizing from individuals, or that +he was at all discontented with the subjects which he painted; so that +his works leave an impression of absolute faithfulness. But to suppose, +therefore, that his portraits have merely the merit of reproducing the +external facts of Nature, like photographs, would do him wrong; for he +was faithful to expression as well as form, and has perpetuated upon +his canvas the voluptuous sweetness of Anne Boleyn, the courtliness and +manly grace of Wyatt, and the severity, the energy, and the penetrating +judgment of Sir Thomas More. His portrait of the last is one of the +greatest portraits ever painted. Some competent critics consider it the +greatest. It is so real, so human, that we might be well content, if one +in twenty of the actual men we meet were half as real and human; and it +expresses, with equal strength and subtilty, the large and noble nature +of the man. Holbein was a great colorist, and imitated all the rich +and tender hues of Nature, in their delicate and almost imperceptible +gradations, with a minute truthfulness which is quite marvellous. + +This being the character of his mind, it would hardly be supposed that +he could produce such a work as the great Dance of Death, which has +caused all others to be forgotten, except by antiquarians. For this +Dance is the most remarkable embodiment in Art of that fantastic and +grotesque idealism which has found its best expression in the works of +German poets and painters; and the preëminence of Holbein's over all the +other representations of the same subject consists in this,--that, while +they are but a dull and formal succession of mere costumed figures +seized by a corpse and shrinking away from its touch, Holbein's groups +are instinct with life, character, and emotion. In particular is this +true of the figure of Death, although it is a mere skeleton,--the face +without a muscle, and for the eye but a rayless cavern. Death is not one +whom "a limner would love to paint or a lady to look upon"; but Holbein +has given a strange and fascinating interest to the figure, which in all +other hands is merely repulsive. The grim monarch sat to a painter who +not only added to the truthfulness of his portrait the charm of poetic +feeling, but the magic touch of whose pencil made his dry bones live. + +The insignificance of the material in which the painter worked, when +compared with the effect which he produced, is also remarkable in this +unique work of Art. For Holbein's Dance of Death is not, like the +others, either a great fresco painting, or a series of sculptures; it +is not a painting at all,--but merely a series of very small woodcuts, +fifty-three in number, forty-six of which were published at Lyons +in 1538, and the whole afterwards at Bâle in 1554, under the title, +_Simulachres de la Mort, Icones Mortis:_ that is, in French and Latin, +"Images of Death,"--for the title "Dance of Death" is of recent origin. +The leaves on which the cuts are printed make but part of a little book +not so large as a child's primer; but a copy of it is now worth ten +times its weight in gold. It was copied and republished in numberless +editions, as a popular book, merely for the sake of the subject, and +the great lesson taught by it,--each print being accompanied by an +admonitory stanza, and a quotation from the Bible. Beside these +editions, endeavors have been made of later years to imitate it +satisfactorily as a work of Art,--but in vain. Great as we think our +advancement in the arts has been,--the mechanical part of them, at +least,--all the efforts of the lithographer, the wood-cutter, and even +the line-engraver, to reproduce the spirit or the very lines of this +work, have been but partially successful. There is as much difference +between the most carefully-executed and costliest copies and good +impressions of the original wood-cuts, made three hundred years ago, and +sold for a franc or two, as there is between pinchbeck and gold. + +Any attempt to reproduce the effect of those groups in words can hardly +fail to fall equally short of the mark; but we will tell our readers +what they are, and endeavor to give some notion of their purpose and +spirit. + +The first shows the Creation of Woman;--we have seen before why she is +made thus prominent in the Dance. The composition is crowded with the +denizens of the earth, the air, and the water; the sun, the moon, and +the stars all appear; the four winds of heaven issue from the laboring +cheeks of figures that impersonate them. The Creator, in the form of +an aged man in royal robes, and wearing the imperial crown, lifts Eve +bodily from the side of the sleeping Adam. + +The second represents the Temptation. Eve reclines upon the ground, and +shows Adam the fruit which she has plucked. Adam stands grasping the +tree with his left hand, and raises his right to gather for himself. The +serpent, who looks down upon Eve, has the face and body of a woman. The +forms in this group are fine; Adam's is remarkable for its symmetry and +grace; but Eve's face is ignoble. Indeed, Holbein, like Rembrandt, seems +to have been incapable of an idea of female beauty. + +In the third we see the Expulsion from Paradise; and here the Dance +begins. Our guilty parents fly before the flaming sword,--poor Eve +cowering, and her hair streaming in a wavy flood upon the wind; and +before them, but unseen, Death leaps and curvets to the sound of a +vielle or rote,--an old musical stringed instrument,--which he has hung +about his neck. His glee, as he leads forth his victims into the valley +where his shadow lies, is perceptible in every line of his angular +anatomy; his very toes curl up like those of a baby in its merriment. + +In the fourth, Adam has begun to till the ground. The pioneer of his +race, he is uprooting a huge tree, all unconscious that another figure +is laboring at his side. It is not Eve, who sits in the background with +her first-born at her breast and her distaff by her side,--but Death, +who, with a huge lever in his bony gripe, goes at his work with a fierce +energy which puts the efforts of his muscular companion to shame. The +people of Holbein's day not only saw in this subject the beginning of +that toil which is the lot of humankind, but, as they looked upon the +common ancestors of all men, laboring for the means of life, they asked, +in the words of an old distich,-- + + "When Adam delved and Eve span, + Where was then the gentleman?" + +The fifth composition seems to represent a general rejoicing over the +Triumph of Death. It shows a churchyard and porch filled with skeletons, +who blow trumpets of all sorts and sizes; one beats frantically upon a +pair of kettle-drums, and another, wearing a woman's nightcap, with a +broad frill border, plays the hurdy-gurdy. + +In the sixth, a Pope, the highest earthly potentate, is in the act of +crowning an Emperor, who kneels to kiss his toe. But the successor of +St. Peter does not see, as he sits upon his throne, giving authority and +sanction to the ruler of an empire, that a skeleton leans from behind +that throne, and grins in his face, and that another in a cardinal's hat +mingles with the throng before him. + +The seventh is one of the finest of the series. An Emperor is enthroned, +with his courtiers round him. He is threatening one with his sword for +some act of injustice from which a poor peasant who kneels before him +has suffered. But, unseen by all, a skeleton bestrides the shoulders of +the monarch and lays his hand upon his very crown. There can be no doubt +that Shakspeare had this subject in his mind when he wrote that fine +passage in "King Richard the Second,"-- + + "Within the hollow crown + That rounds the mortal temples of a king + Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, + Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp; + Allowing him a breath, a little scene + To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks; + Infusing him with self and vain conceit, + As if this flesh which walls about our life + Were brass impregnable; and humored thus, + Comes at the last, and with a little pin + Bores through his castle wall, and--farewell, King!" + +In the eighth we see a King (it is unmistakably Francis I.) dining under +a canopy, and served by a splendid retinue. He stretches out his hand to +receive a wine-cup; for he does not see that Death is filling it. + +A Cardinal appears in the ninth, selling an indulgence for a heavy +bribe; and we all rejoice to see that Death has laid hands upon his +hat,--the symbol of his rank,--and is about to tear it from his head. + +In the tenth, an Empress, passing through her palace-yard, attended by +her ladies, is led by the favorite on whom she leans, and who she does +not see is Death, into an open grave. + +Death, in the next, has assumed the guise of a Court Fool, and has +seized a Queen at the very gate of her palace. She recognizes him, and +struggles, shrieking, to free herself from his grasp; but in vain. With +a grin of fierce delight, he lifts up his hour-glass before her, and, +in spite of her resistance and that of a gentleman who attends her, is +about to bear her off. Every line of this composition is instinct with +life. + +In the twelfth, Death carries off a Bishop from his flock. + +In the thirteenth, an Elector of the Empire, surrounded by his retinue, +is approached by a poor woman, who begs his aid in behalf of herself and +her child; he repulses her scornfully; for he does not see that Death, +the avenger of the oppressed poor, and who is here crowned with +oak-leaves, has laid his gripe upon him. Holbein has put such an +expression of power into the arm and of wrath into the face of this +skeleton, that we expect to see his victim haled off into the air before +our very eyes. + +The Abbot and the Abbess are the subjects of the next two cuts. In the +former, Death has assumed the mitre and the crosier of his victim, and +drags him off with such an expression of fun and burlesque pomp as we +sometimes see in the face of a mischievous boy who mocks his betters. +In the companion group his look is that of a demon; and with his head +fantastically dressed, he drags the Abbess off by the scapulary which +hangs from her neck. + +A Nobleman and a Canon are his prey in the sixteenth and seventeenth +groups. We lack space to describe any but the most remarkable with +particularity. + +The satire of the next three is levelled against the Lawyers, who were +held in such little respect in Bâle. They show a Judge who takes a bribe +from a rich to wrong a poor suitor, and a Counsellor and an Advocate who +lend their talents to wealthy clients, but turn their backs upon the +poor victims of "the oppressor's wrong." In one, a demon is blowing +suggestions into the Counsellor's ear from a pair of bellows, which he +has doubtless used elsewhere for other purposes; in all, Death stands +ready to avenge the poor. + +In the twenty-first, a Preacher addresses a Congregation, whose +interested attention the painter has portrayed with great skill, +knowledge of character, and consequent variety and truth of expression. +Behind the Preacher stands Death, and, with a kind of grotesque +practical pun, holds the jaw of a skeleton over his head, as far more +eloquent than his own. + +A Priest and a Mendicant Friar are the subjects of the twenty-second and +twenty-third. + +The twenty-fourth is of peculiar interest. In it we see a youthful Nun, +who, it is clear, has taken her vows too hastily, kneeling before the +oratory in her cell. But her heart is not in her devotions; for the +lover whom she abandoned has made his way into the apartment, and sits +on her bed singing to his lute. Her hands are clasped, not in prayer, +but in an agony of love and apprehension. She turns from the crucifix to +gaze at him; and we see how the interview will end: for an aged female +attendant, in coif and scapulary, leans over to extinguish the candles. +We see, too, what its consequence will be; for that attendant is Death. + +Among the remaining subjects, which we cannot examine particularly, or +in their order, are those of the Old Man and Old Woman led by Death, +each to the sound of a dulcimer;--the Physician, to whom in mockery +Death himself brings a patient;--the Astronomer, to whom the skeleton +offers a skull in place of a celestial globe;--the Miser, from whom +Death snatches his hoarded gold; and the Merchant, whom the same +inexorable hand tears away from his ships and his merchandise;--the +storm-tossed ship, with Death snapping the mast;--a Count, dressed in +the extreme of courtly splendor, who recognizes Death in the disguise +of a peasant who has flung down his flail to seize his lordship's +emblazoned shield and dash it to pieces;--a Duchess, whom one skeleton +drags rudely from her canopied bed, while another scrapes upon a +violin;--a Peddler;--a Ploughman, of whose four-horse team Death is the +driver;--Gamblers, Drunkards, and Robbers, all interrupted in their +wickedness by Death;--a Wagoner, whose wagon, horse, and load have been +tumbled in a ruinous heap by a pair of skeletons;--a Blind Beggar, who +stumbles over a stony path after Death, who is his deceitful leader, and +who turns back with a look of malicious glee to see his bewilderment +and suffering;--and a Court Fool, whom Death, playing on bagpipes, and +dancing, approaches, and, plucking him by the garment, wins him, with a +coaxing leer, to join his pastime. + +A few others claim our more particular attention. Among them is a +Knight, armed cap-a-pie, who is run through and through, from back to +front, by Death, himself half armed in mockery. There is a concentrated +vigor in the thrust of the lance, and a cool venom in the countenance +of the assailant, that we may seek in vain in the works of famous +battle-painters; and it must always be remembered that Holbein's figure +is entirely without those indications of muscular movement by which we +express our feelings,--in fact, a mere bare-boned skeleton. + +A Bride at her wedding-toilet, whom Holbein has contrived to make almost +beautiful, receives a robe from one attendant; another clasps round her +neck a collar--of gold and jewels? No,--of bones, and with bony fingers. +And the next cut to this shows us the Bridegroom and Bride walking +through an apartment hung with arras, while before them dances Death, +beating a tabor, like a child beside himself with joy. + +One of the finest and most touching conceptions in the whole series +represents a dilapidated Cottage,--a mere shanty, so wretched that the +love of those who live in it is all their happiness,--nay, all their +comfort. The mother is preparing for two little children the simplest +and poorest of meals, at a fire made of a few small sticks. She finds +consolation in the very pranks that hinder her humble task. Death +enters,--there is no door to keep him out,--and, seizing the hand of the +younger child, who turns and stretches out the other imploringly to his +mother, carries him off, remorseless and exulting, leaving her frantic +with grief. We may look with comparative indifference, and sometimes +even with sympathy, upon his other feats,--but who is there that does +not hate that grinning skeleton?--And yet, perhaps, he exults that he +has saved one soul, yet pure, from misery and crime. + +For vigor of movement the group of Death and the Soldier is preëminent. +The field is covered with the wounded and the slain, in the midst +of which the soldier encounters his last enemy. The man is armed in +panoply, and wields a huge two-handed sword with a vigor unabated +by former struggles. Death has caught a shield from the arm of some +previous victim; but his only offensive weapon is a huge thigh-bone, +which we plainly see will bear down all before it. In the distance +another figure of Death flies madly over the hills, beating a drum which +summons other soldiers to the field. It is impossible to convey in words +the fierce eagerness of this figure, minute as it is, and composed of a +few lines. + +The forty-seventh composition is one which has puzzled the critics +and antiquaries; but it is not easy to conjecture why. It shows us a +wretched Beggar, naked, sick, lame,--utterly destitute, miserable, and +forsaken,--suffering at once all the ills that flesh is heir to. He sits +huddled together on some straw, near a large building, and lifts his +hands and face up piteously to heaven. Death is not there; and the +antiquaries ask in wonder, Why is the subject introduced? Why, but to +show that to him alone who would gladly welcome Death, Death will not +come? + +The work ends, as a connected series, with the Last Judgment, where +Christ, who conquered Death, appears seated on the bow of promise,--with +his feet resting on a celestial sphere, attended by angels, and showing +to a throng of those who have risen from the grave the wounds by which +he redeemed them from its power. + +To this is added an ornamental tail-piece called Death's Arms. It shows +a skull in a battered shield, which has for a crest a regal helmet +surmounted by an hour-glass and two bony arms grasping a stone. The +supporters to the shield are a gentleman and lady richly dressed,--said +to represent Holbein and his wife. + +It is not known, positively, when Holbein drew these designs upon the +blocks (for of course he did not engrave them); and it has even been +disputed by one or two eminent antiquarian critics, that he designed +them at all. But there does not appear to be a single valid reason for +thus diminishing his fame. He probably was engaged on them between +1531, the date of his first return to Bâle, and 1538, when they were +published,--the year in which he refused the solicitation of his +townsmen to return to the home of his childhood and the bosom of his +family. + +Holbein continued to live in London until the year 1554, when that city +suffered a visitation of the plague, similar to that which was the +occasion of the painting of the Great Dance of Death at Bâle. Holbein +was struck by the disease; and Death, knowing gratitude as little as +remorse, triumphed over him who had blazoned his triumphs. Upon the +painter's fame, however, and that of his great work, Death could not lay +his hand; but so long as the grim tyrant shall claim his victims, so +long will he perpetuate the memory of Hans Holbein. + +Though he was a royal favorite, it is not known where he died; and the +place where lie the ashes of him who, on a king's word, was greater than +seven earls, is equally unknown; there is not a line or a stone to mark +it. So soon after his death as in the reign of Charles I., (within +one hundred years,) a nobleman--noble by nature as well as by +birth--desirous of erecting a monument to him, sought his grave, but +in vain, and was compelled to abandon his design. And thus was Holbein +driven to live among strangers, to die without a wife to console or +children to mourn him, and to lay his bones in a nameless grave in a +foreign land. + +Such is an imperfect and brief account of the origin, the various forms, +and the meaning of the Dance of Death, and of the life and character of +him whose genius has caused it to be called by his name. It may +smell too much of mortality and antiquity for this fast-living and +forward-looking age; for it is not only a monument of the past, but an +exponent of its spirit. We can look back at it, through the mellowing +mist of centuries, with curiosity not unmixed with admiration; but we +should turn with aversion from such a work, coming from the hands of an +artist of our own day. We think, and with some reason, that we do not +need its teachings; for we are freed from the thraldom that gave edge +to its democratic satire; and we have learned to look with greater +calmness, if not with higher hope, upon the future, to which the grave +is but the ever-open portal. But we may yet profit by a thoughtful +consideration of the eternal truths embodied by Holbein in his Dance of +Death; and in the story of his life there is a lesson for every man, and +every woman too, if they will but find it. + + + + +LIZZY GRISWOLD'S THANKSGIVING. + + +"So John a'n't a-comin', Miss Gris'ld," squeaked Polly Mariner, entering +the great kitchen, where Mrs. Griswold was paring apples and Lizzy +straining squash. + +"Isn't he?" quietly replied the lady addressed, as the tailoress sat +down in the flag-bottomed rocking-chair, and began rocking vehemently, +all the time eyeing Lizzy from the depths of her poke-bonnet with +patient scrutiny. + +"No, he a'n't,--so Mr. Gris'ld says," went on Polly. "You see, I was +a-comin' up here from the Centre, so's to see if Sam couldn't wait for +his roundabout till arter Thanksgivin'; for Keziah Perkins, she 't was +my sister's husband's fust wife's darter, 'n' finally married sister's +fust husband's son, she's a real likely woman, and she's wrote over from +Taunton to ask me to go there to Thanksgivin'; 'n' to-day's Monday; 'n' +I was a-comin' here Tuesday so's to make Sam's roundabout; 'n' yesterday +Miss Luken's boy Simon, he 't a'n't but three year old, he got my +press-board, when he was a-crawlin' round, 'n' laid it right onto the +cookin'-stove, and fust thing Miss Lukens know'd it blazed right up, 'n' +I can't get another fixed afore Wednesday, and then I'd ought to be to +Taunton, 'cause there a'n't no stage runs Thursday, and there hadn't +oughter, of course"---- + +"We have got a press-board," said Mrs. Griswold, quietly. + +"Yes, and I a'n't goin' to grandfather's in my old jacket, Miss Poll," +interposed Sam, one of the "terrible" children who are scattered here +and there through this world. "Catch me where all the folks are, in that +old butternut suit!" added Sam. + +But here his father stepped in at the door,--a fine, sturdy, handsome +farmer, one of New England's model men, whose honesty was a proverb, and +whose goodness a reliance to every creature in Greenfield. + +"John isn't coming, wife," said Mr. Griswold, in a steady, sober tone. +"He says business will delay him, so that he can only get to Coventry +just as we do." + +"So you had a letter," said Mrs. Griswold, carefully avoiding a look at +Lizzy. + +"Yes," said Mr. Griswold, in a very abrupt way.--"Are you ready to go +back, Miss Polly? for I've got to go down to the Centre again with a +load of wheat." + +"Well, yes, I don't know but I be. I ken stay over, if you want help, +Miss Gris'ld. I'm a-goin' to the minister's to help Miss Fletcher a +little mite this afternoon, but I guess she don't lot on it none; 'n' +seein' it's you, I ken stay, if you want help." + +Lizzy looked quickly across the kitchen at her mother. + +"Oh! no, thank you, Miss Polly, I know Mrs. Fletcher would feel very +badly to lose your help, and I really don't need it until to-morrow." + +"Then I'll come round to the door as quick as I've loaded up," said Mr. +Griswold; and Miss Polly settled back in her chair to wait comfortably; +a process much intensified by a large piece of Mrs. Griswold's +gingerbread and a glass of new cider, both brought her by Lizzy's +hospitable hands,--readier even than usual just now, in the vain hope of +stopping Polly Mariner's clattering tongue. But neither gingerbread nor +cider was a specific to that end: Polly talked while she ate, and ate +while she talked. But while she finishes her luncheon, let us make known +to the patient reader whom and what the tailoress discusses. + +John Boynton was a step-cousin of Lizzy Griswold's. Her youngest aunt +had married a widower, with one son, some five years older than Lizzy, +and had always lived in the old homestead at Coventry, with her father; +while the other daughters and sons, six in number, were scattered over +the State, returning once a year, at Thanksgiving, to visit their +birthplace, and bring their children into acquaintance with each other. +Eben Griswold, who lived at Greenfield, was nearer home than any of the +others, and Lizzy, consequently, oftener at her grandfather's house than +her cousins. She and John Boynton were playmates from childhood, and it +was not strange that John, who had never known a pleasure unshared by +Lizzy, or suffered a pain without her consolation, should grow up in +the idea that he could not possibly live without her, an idea also +entertained half-consciously by Miss Lizzy, though neither of them ever +yet had expressed it; for John was poor, and had no home to offer any +woman, much less the petted child of a rich farmer. So Mr. Boynton, Jr., +left home to teach school in Roxbury, five years before the date of our +story, without making any confidences on the subject of his hopes +and fears to Miss Griswold; and she knit him stockings and hemmed +pocket-handkerchiefs for him with the most cold-blooded perseverance, +and nobody but the yarn and the needles knew whether she dropped any +tears on them or not. + +Now it had always been John Boynton's custom to give his school +Thanksgiving-week as a vacation,--to take the train on Monday for +Greenfield, and stay there till Wednesday, when the whole family set off +together for Coventry, to spend the next day, according to time-honored +precedent. + +Whatever John and Lizzy did in those two dull November days, it never +has been made known to the present chronicler; it is only understood +that no point-blank love-making went on; yet the days always ran away, +instead of creeping; and neither of the twain could believe it was +Wednesday when Wednesday came. But this year those forty-eight hours +were destined to drag past, for John wasn't coming; why, we shall +discover,--for Polly Mariner has finished the cider, and the gingerbread +is as much subject of inquiry as "The Indians,--where are they?" + +"So John Boynton a'n't a-comin'? Well! Hetty Maria Clapp's jest got home +from Bunkertown, that's tew mile from Roxbury, 'n' she told Miss Lucas +that Miss Perrit, whose sister's son keeps a grocer's store to Roxbury, +told that Mr. Boynton, their teacher to the 'Cademy, was waitin' on +Miss Roxany Sharp's cousin, a dreadful pretty gal, who'd come down from +Boston to see Roxany, an' liked it so well she staid to Roxbury all +through October. I do'no's I should ha' remembered it, only 't I hed the +dredfullest jumpin' toothache that ever you did, 'n' Miss Lucas, she'd +jest come in to our house, an' she run an' got the lodlum an' was +a-puttin' some on't onto some cotton so's to plug the hole, while she +was tellin'; 'n' I remember I forgot all about the jumpin' while 't she +was talkin', so I ses, ses I, 'Miss Lucas, I guess your talkin's as good +as lodlum'; 'n' she bu'st out larfin', 'n' ses she, 'Polly Mariner, I +declare for't, you do beat all!' 'Well,' ses I, 'I'd die content, ef I +could beat John Boynton; fur ef ever I see a feller payin' attention +to a gal, he's been payin' on't to Lizzy Gris'ld this four year; +and 'ta'n't no wonder 't I think hard on't, for there never was a +prettier-behaved gal than her on Greenfield Hill'; an' I ses"---- + +Lizzy was on the point of "freeing her mind" just at this juncture, when +Mrs. Griswold interposed her quiet voice,-- + +"Don't trouble yourself to defend Lizzy, Miss Mariner; you know John +Boynton is her cousin, and he has been here a good deal. Folks will +talk, I suppose, always; but if John Boynton marries well, I don't think +anybody 'll be more forward to shake hands with him than our Lizzy." + +"Of course I shall," said the young lady, with a most indignant toss of +her head. "Pray, keep your pity, Miss Polly, for somebody else. I don't +need it." + +"H'm," sniffed the sagacious Polly. "Well, I didn't suppose you'd allow +'t you felt put out about it; and I wouldn't, if I was you. Besides, +there's as good fish in the sea as----I declare for 't! there's Mr. +Gris'ld! I'll come round early to-morrer. Good-day, all on ye!" + +So Polly departed. + +"I don't care, if he is!" said Lizzy, flinging herself down on the +settle, when the door closed behind Polly's blue cloak. + +Mrs. Griswold said nothing, but Sam looked up from his whittling, and +coolly remarked,-- + +"It looks as if you did, though!" + +"Sam!" said his mother, with--emphasis. + +Sam whistled, and, with his hands in his pockets, having shut his +jack-knife with a click, and kicked his shavings into the fire, +muttered something about feeding the pigs, and beat an ignominious +retreat,--snubbed, as the race of Adam daily are, and daily will be, let +us hope, for telling "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the +truth." + +For Lizzy certainly did look as if she cared. A pretty enough picture +she made, too, flung down on the old black settle, one well-shaped +hand pinching the arm as if it had been--John Boynton's!--the other as +vigorously clenched on a harmless check-apron that showed no disposition +to get away; her bright red lips trembling a little, and her gray eyes +suspiciously shiny about the lashes, while her soft black hair had +fallen from part of its restraints on to the gay calico dress she wore, +and her foot beat time to some quick step that she didn't sing! + +Mrs. Griswold did not care for the picturesque, just then; she cared +much more for Lizzy, and her acute feminine instinct helped her to the +right word. + +"I don't believe it, dear!" said she; "you'd better finish straining +that squash, or Widow Peters won't have her pies for Thursday." + +Lizzy went to work,--work is a grand panacea, even for sentimental +troubles,--and in doing battle with the obstinate squash,--which was not +as well cooked as it might have been,--Lizzy, for the moment, looked +quite bright, and forgot John, till her father came in to dinner. + +Somebody once said that Mrs. Griswold was "a lesser Providence," and +Lizzy thought so now; for scarce were they all seated at dinner, when +she remarked, in a very unconcerned and natural way,-- + +"What keeps John in Roxbury so long, father?" + +"He has business in Boston," curtly answered Mr. Griswold.--"Sam, did +you go over to the Corners, yesterday, about those sheep?" + +Sam answered, and the conversation went on, but John's name did not +enter it, nor did Mr. Griswold offer to show his letter either to mother +or Lizzy. + +Now the latter lady, not being a perfect woman, had sundry small faults; +she was proud, after a certain fashion of her own; slightly sentimental, +which is rather a failing than a fault; but her worst trait was a +brooding, fault-seeing, persevering tact at making herself miserable, +scarce ever equalled. The smallest bit of vantage-ground was enough for +a start, and on that foundation Lizzy took but a few hours of suspicion +and imagination to build up a whole Castle Doubting. The cause she had +to-day was even greater than was necessary; it was peculiar that +her father should be so reserved; it was more strange that he so +perseveringly withheld John's letter; and certainly he watched Lizzy at +her work with unusually tender eyes, that sometimes filled with a sort +of mist. All these things heaped up evidence for the poor girl; she +brooded over each separate item all night, and added to the sum Polly +Mariner's gossip, and looked forward to the day when everybody in +Greenfield should say, "Lizzy Griswold's had a disapp'intment of John +Boynton!" Poor, dear, Lizzy! as if that were an unheard-of pang! as if +nine-tenths of her accusers were not "disapp'inted" themselves,--some +before, some after marriage,--some in themselves, some in their +children, some in their wretched, dreary lives! But there was only one +John and only one heart-break present to her vision. + +Polly Mariner came to breakfast next day, and pervaded the kitchen +like a daily paper. Horrible murders, barn-burnings, failures, deaths, +births, marriages, separations, lawsuits, slanders, and petty larcenies +outran each other in her glib speech, and her fingers flew as fast on +Sam's blue jacket as her tongue clappered above it. + +Lizzy's pride kept her up before the old woman; she was in and out and +everywhere, a pretty spot of crimson on either fair cheek, her eyes as +sparkling and her step as light as any belle's in a ballroom, and her +whole manner so gay and charming that Polly inwardly pronounced John +Boynton a mighty fool, if he dodged such a pretty girl as that, and one +with "means." + +But night came, and Polly went. Lizzy went to bed with a bad +headache,--convenient synonyme for aches of soul or body that one does +not care to christen! Sleep she certainly did that night, for she +dreamed John was married to a rich Boston girl with red hair and a +yellow flannel dress, and that Polly Mariner was bridesmaid in the +peculiar costume of a blue roundabout and pantaloons! But sleep with +such dreams was scarcely a restorer; and Wednesday morning, when Mrs. +Griswold asked Lizzy if she had put up her carpet-bag to go to Coventry, +she received for answer a flood of tears, and a very earnest petition to +be left at home. + +"Leave you, Lizzy! Why, grandfather couldn't have Thanksgiving without +you! And Uncle Boynton! And Aunt Lizzy is coming up from Stonington with +the new baby;--and--John, too! You must go, Lizzy, dear!" + +"I can't, mother! I can't!" said the poor girl, sobbing after every +word; "please don't ask me. I can't! I've got a headache; oh, dear!" +Here a fresh burst of tears followed, as Lizzy buried her head in her +mother's lap. + +Mrs. Griswold was both grieved and astonished; she sat speechless, +stroking the soft hair that swept over her knee, till Lizzy's sobs +quieted, and then said,-- + +"Well, dear, if you're set on staying at home, I won't oppose it, if +your father thinks best; but I must ask him; only what will you do, +Lizzy, here alone all night?" + +"Chloe and Peter will be here, mother; and I'll make Chloe sleep in +Sam's room, and leave the door open; and when they go down to Dinah's, +I'll lock up, and I shan't feel afraid in broad day." + +Mrs. Griswold shook her head doubtfully. + +"I'll see what father says," said she. So Lizzy lifted her head, and +smoothed her hair, while her mother went out to the barn to consult +"father." + +Here she was, if anything, more puzzled. Mr. Griswold heard the proposal +with a rather misty look, as if he didn't see why, and when his wife +finished, said, gravely,-- + +"What is it, Susan? Anybody 't has lived as long as I have knows pretty +well that a woman's headache stands for a whole dictionary." + +"Why, you see," said Mrs. Griswold, twisting a little lock of hay in her +fingers, and faintly blushing, as if the question had been of herself +rather than Lizzy, "she--well, the fact is, husband, she's kind of riled +about John's not coming; you see we haven't been real particular about +the children, and so"---- + +"You needn't spell it, Susan," said Mr. Griswold, with a half smile; +"Polly Mariner's tongue helped on, I guess. You let Lizzy stay, if she +wants to; 'twon't hurt her; when folks want to sulk, I generally let +'em. She can stay." + +He began to whistle "Yankee Doodle" and pitch hay energetically, while +"Susan" was within hearing; but how would that dear woman's soul have +floundered deeper and deeper in the fog that clouded it now, had she +seen her grave husband sit down on one end of the hay-mow and laugh till +the tears stood in his keen eyes, and then, drawing his coat-sleeve +across the shaggy lashes, say to himself, "Poor child!" and begin his +work with fresh strength! + +So matters were all arranged. After dinner, the rusty, dusty, old +carriage appeared at the door, with the farm-horses harnessed thereto, +jingling, and creaking, and snapping, as if oil and use were strange to +its dry joints and stiff straps. Mrs. Griswold mounted to the back seat, +after kissing Lizzy with hearty regret and tenderness,--her old gray +pelisse and green winter bonnet harmonizing with the useful age of her +conveyance. "Father," in a sturdy great-coat and buckskin mittens, took +the reins; and Sam, whose blue jacket was at that moment crushing his +mother's Sunday cap in a bandbox that sat where Lizzy should have been, +clambered over the front wheel, to the great detriment of the despised +butternut suit, and, seizing the whip, applied it so suddenly to Tom +and Jerry that they started off down the Coventry road at a pace that +threatened a solution of continuity to bones and sinews, as well as wood +and leather. + +Lizzy turned away sadly from the door. Who can say that just at that +minute she did not wish she had gone, too? But nobody heard her say so. +She went up-stairs to her room, and tried to read, but couldn't attach +any ideas to the words; she was half an hour over a page of a very good +book, and then flung it upon the bed with an expression of disgust, as +if it were the book's fault. Poor authors! toil your fingers off, and +spin your brains out! be as wise as Solomon, or witty as Sheridan! your +work is vanity and vexation of spirit, unless the reader's brain choose +to receive and vivify the hieroglyphs of your ideas; think yourselves +successful because a great man praises you, and to-morrow that man is +twisted with dyspepsia, or some woman passes him without a smile, and +your sparkling sketch, your pathetic poem are declared trash! Such is +fame! Of which little homily the moral is,--Write for money! What a +thing it is to be worldly-wise! So was not Lizzy; if she had been, she +would now be at Coventry, kissed and caressed by grandfather, aunts, +uncles, cousins, and----But we won't anticipate. + +Lizzy flung down the book, and went to her closet for another; but it +was as good (or as bad) as Bluebeard's closet, for there hung the pretty +crimson merino, with delicate lace at the throat and round the short +sleeves, in which Miss Lizzy Griswold once intended to electrify Mr. +John Boynton this very evening. True it is that short sleeves are not +the most sensible things for November; but Lizzy was twenty, and had +such round, white arms, that she liked to wear short sleeves, as any +girl would; and who is going to blame her? Not I! A girl doesn't know +her privileges who was never just a little vain,--just a little glad to +be pretty when John is by. Lizzy looked at the crimson merino, and at +the smart slippers on the door with a shining black bow on each instep. +There, too, on a little low table, was a green box; somebody had left +it open,--mother, perhaps,--so she saw on its cotton bed a red coral +bracelet, that came from Roxbury, or thereabout, last year at this time. +Lizzy shut up the box, and went down-stairs to get tea. + +Chloe was indignant to think "Miss 'Lisbeth" thought she couldn't get +supper without help, and Miss 'Lisbeth was vexed with Chloe for being +cross. And then, when supper came, the tea seemed to be very unwilling +to be swallowed, and the new bread was full of large lumps that choked a +person, and the lamps didn't burn clearly at all,--and--and--when Chloe, +still sulky, had cleared the table, Lizzy sat down on a low cricket +beside her mother's stuffed rocking-chair, and had as good a cry as ever +she had in her life, and felt much better for it. + +So she sat there, with her head on the arm of the chair, rather tired +with the cry, rather downhearted for want of the supper she hadn't +eaten, and making pictures in the fire, when all of a sudden it came +into her head to wonder what they were doing at Coventry. There was +grandfather, no doubt, in the keeping-room, telling his never-tiring +stories of Little Robby, and Old Bose, and the Babes in the Wood; of +singing the ever-new ditty of + + "Did you ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,"-- + +and so on, _ad infinitum_, till you got to-- + + "See a man eat a whale?" + +to some half dozen children; while sweet Aunt Lizzy, serenely smiling, +rocked the fair little baby that fifteen cousins had kissed for welcome +that day; and Uncle Boynton trotted the baby's brother on his knee, +inviting him persistently to go to Boston and buy a penny-cake, greatly +to little Eben's aggravation, who would end, Lizzy knew, by crying for +the cake, and being sent to bed. Then there were Sam, and Lucy Peters, +and Jim Boynton, up to all sorts of mischief in the kitchen,--Susan +Boynton and Nelly James cracking nuts and their fingers on the +hearth,--father and mother up-stairs in grandmother's room; for +grandmother was bedridden, but kindly, and good, and humorous, and +patient, even in her hopeless bed, and nobody was dearer to the whole +family than she. Then, of course, there was a fire in the best parlor, +and there were all the older cousins, telling conundrums and stories, +and playing grown-up games, and some two, or four, may-be, looking out +in couples at the moonshine, from behind the curtains,--Sue James, +perhaps, and John. Sue was so pretty! + +Lizzy's head bent lower on the arm of the chair; her thoughts travelled +back over a great many Thanksgivings,--years ago, when she wore short +frocks, and used to go with John to see the turkeys fed, and be +so scared when they gobbled and strutted with rage at her scarlet +bombazette;--how they used to pick up frozen apples and thaw them in +the dish-kettle; how she pounded her thumb, cracking butternuts with a +flat-iron, and John kissed it to make it well,--only it didn't! And +then how they slid down-hill before church, and sat a long two hours +thereafter in the square pew, smelling of "meetin'-seed," and dinted +with the kicks of weary boys in new boots; and finally, after the first +anthem and the two hymns and the three prayers and the long sermon were +over, came home to dinner, where the children had their own table at the +end of the grown people's board, and Lizzy always took the head and +John the foot,--till, exhausted by the good things they had eaten, and +tantalized by the good things they couldn't eat, they crept away to the +fire and their picture-books for a quiet hour, winding up the day with +all the plays that country and city children alike delight in. + +Then came recollections of later days, when John was a young man, and +Lizzy still a little girl,--when long talks banished turkeys and apples +and sliding,--when new books or sleigh-rides crowded out the old +games,--when the two days of John's yearly visit were half-spent in the +leafless, sunny woods, gathering mosses and acorn-cups, delicate fern +leaves, and clusters of fire-moss, and red winter-green berries, for the +pretty frames and baskets Lizzy's skilful fingers fabricated,--when he +shook hands at coming and going, instead of kissing her;--but it seemed +just the same, somehow. Dear me! those days were all gone! John didn't +care about her any more! he was in love with a beautiful Boston lady. +Why should he care about a homely little country cousin? He would go to +live in Boston in a great big house, and he'd be a great man, and people +would talk about him, and she should see his name in the papers, but he +never would come to Coventry any more! And he'd acted as if he did love +her, too!--that was men's way,--heartless things! If John had a good +time, what did he care if Lizzy did grow into a gray-haired, puckered-up +old maid, like Miss Case, with nobody to love her, or take care of her, +or ask about her, or--or--kiss her?--The climax was too much for Lizzy; +great big tears ran down on the arm of the stuffed chair, and she +would have sobbed out loud, only Chloe opened the door, to put up the +tea-things, I suppose, and Lizzy wouldn't cry before her. But, for all +that, she didn't hear Chloe come to the fireplace; she only felt her sit +down in the big chair, and, simultaneously, a pair of strong arms lifted +Miss Lizzy on to John Boynton's knee, and held her there. It wasn't +Chloe. + +I declare, one gets out of patience with these men! they do astonish a +person so sometimes, one doesn't know what to do or say. Lizzy had been +thinking to herself, not two minutes ago, with what cool and smiling +reserve she should meet John Boynton, how dignified and kindly distant +she would be to him,--and now,--well! it was so sudden,--and then, as +I said before, these men do get round one so,--if you happen to love +them.--Lizzy forgot, I suppose; at any rate, she wasn't dignified, or +reserved, or proper, or anything of the kind, for she just hid her +pretty head on his square shoulder, and said, "Oh, John!"--"slowly, and +nothing more,"--as Mr. Tennyson remarks about cutting Iphigenia's head +off with a sharp knife. + +I don't know that John talked much, either. I rather think Lizzy got +over the climax that had troubled her a little while ago. Presently, +she raised her head and gathered up her hair that had fallen down, and +became painfully aware that she had on only a blue calico! John never +knew it; he knew somebody had a very sweet face, full of cloudy blushes +and sunshiny smiles, and, not being a Pre-Raphaelite, the foreground was +of no consequence to him. + +So, after a time, Lizzy slipped down to her cricket again, still leaning +on the arm--of the chair,--and John expounded to her the excellent +reason that had delayed his coming home. He had been offered a large +salary to take the head of a public school in Boston, and those two +days had been devoted to arranging the affair; he had satisfied the +school-committee as to his capacity, and made up his mind on several +points of minor importance to them,--but, perhaps, greater to him. Among +others, he had found a house, a tiny house, with a little yard behind, +and a view of Boston Harbor from the upper windows, all at a reasonable +rent, prospect thrown in; this house he had hired, and now--he had come +to Greenfield for a housekeeper. + +Lizzy suddenly discovered that she was hungry, and invited John into the +kitchen to get a piece of pie; but, after all, instead of eating hers +while he was eating his, she went up-stairs, brushed out her hair +and coiled it up with a coral-topped comb, that came to light, very +strangely, just in time,--put on her merino frock, her bracelet, and her +slippers,--rolled herself up in shawls and hoods and mittens, and was +lifted into John's buggy, to old Chloe's great delight, who held the +lamp, grinning like a lantern herself, and tucking "Mr. John's" fox-skin +round his feet, as if he had been ten years old. + +So Lizzy Griswold did get to Coventry the night before Thanksgiving, +after all; and when Uncle Boynton met her at the door, he called her "my +dear daughter." Perhaps, as John had told Lizzy, on the drive over, that +her father had heard all about his business and his intentions, in that +letter she did not see, the young lady had decided to disinherit him, +and adopt Uncle Boynton in his place; rather an unfair proceeding, it +is true, since the letter was withheld by John's special request; and, +indeed, Lizzy didn't act like a "cruel parient" to her father, when he +came, after uncle, to give her a welcome. + +They had a merry time at Coventry that Thanksgiving,--even merrier +than another smaller assemblage, that took place at Greenfield about +Christmas, when Polly Mariner came over a week before-hand to make Sam +a new suit throughout, and Lizzy looked prettier than anybody ever did +before, in a fresh white dress, and a white rose, off grandmother's +tea-rose-bush, in her hair. It is on record, that she behaved no better +than she did that evening when somebody found her crying in a blue +calico; for Sam was overheard to say, as Polly hustled him off to bed, +that, "if ever he was married, he guessed they wouldn't catch him makin' +a fool of himself by kissin' a girl right before the minister!--if he'd +have been Lizzy, John Boynton's ears would have sung for one while; but +girls _were_ fools!" + +So John Boynton got a housekeeper; and Lizzy had more than one +Thanksgiving-day in her life, beside the Governor's appointments. + + * * * * * + + +ACHMED AND HIS MARE. + + + An old Arabian tale the truth conveys, + That, honor's passion avarice outweighs. + + * * * * * + + Brave Achmed owned a mare of wondrous speed; + He prized her much above his wife or creed. + + And lest some one should steal that precious mare, + He guarded her with unremitting care. + + He tied her every night before his tent; + The fastening-cord then round his pillow went. + + When all in slumber lay, the robber crept, + Unloosed the cord, and on the courser leapt. + + "Wake up!" he cries,--"'tis I, the thief, who call; + See now if she in flight is chief of all!" + + Mount Achmed and his tribe in wrath and shame, + And chase him as a tempest chases flame. + + Hot Achmed nearly to the robber came, + When thus he thought: "My mare will lose her fame. + + "If I o'ertake her, she is then outrun; + But if I reach her not, I am undone. + + "Oh, better she were stolen before my face + Than have her vanquished in this desperate race!" + + One secret sign his mare was taught to heed, + Whenever she must try her utmost speed. + + He to the robber screamed, "Quick, pinch her ear!" + The sign she felt with answering love and fear. + + As like a level thunderbolt she flew, + All chase was vain, the vexed pursuers knew. + + Before this self-betrayal blank surprise + Fills Achmed's comrades, and their wondering cries + + Demand, "How shall thy foolish act be named?"-- + "My mare is lost, her glory is not shamed." + + He says: "I knew, that, if her ear he nipped, + The darling prize could never be outstripped." + + + + +CHARLES LAMB AND SYDNEY SMITH. + + +There were in Great Britain, soon after the commencement of the present +century, three remarkable groups of young men. Distinct schools of +thought, like the philosophic schools of Greece, each of the groups was +marked by peculiar ideas, tastes, and sympathies. The French Revolution, +with its menace of fundamental changes, clashing with sentiments and +convictions which ages had rendered habitual and dear, called for an +inquiry into great principles and the grounds of things. The Napoleonic +age had the terrific formlessness of chaos. Did it premonish the passing +away of old things, and herald the birth of a new order and a new social +state? or did the trouble spring from innate madness in the "younger +strengths" which were trying to overthrow the world's kingdoms? Should +venerable Royalty, after howling in the wilderness and storm, be again +enthroned? or should men attempt to realize the fair ideals which +the word Republic suggested? Should religion be supplanted? should +Protestantism be confirmed? or should, perchance, the crosier of the Old +Church be again waved over Europe? These were the questions that were +mooted, and they aroused unwonted activity and vigor of thought as well +in literature as in politics. + +The old century left in England few celebrated names to take part in the +literature of the new. The men who made the poems, romances, dramas, +reviews, and criticisms for the first quarter of our century had almost +all been in youth contemporaries of the Reign of Terror, and had been +tried in that unparalleled period as by a fiery furnace, while their +opinions were in a formative state. Crabbe and Rogers were traditions of +the time of Goldsmith and Johnson; Gilford wrote with a virulence and +ability which he might have learned in boyhood from Junius; but with +these exceptions, English literature fifty years ago was represented by +young men. + +We mention, as the first group of young thinkers, the founders of the +"Edinburgh Review,"--Sydney Smith, Francis Jeffrey, Francis Horner, and +Henry Brougham,--whose united ages, when the first number of that review +appeared in 1802, made one hundred and seven years. Members of the Whig +party, possessing much learning and more vivacity and earnestness, +and having among them, if not severally, abundance both of daring and +prudence, they startled conservative people, evoked the best efforts of +authors by their brilliant castigations, and inaugurated the discussion +of measures of reform which it took thirty years to get through +Parliament. The critic of the company was Francis Jeffrey, whose +happiness it was to live just when he was needed. Without capacity to +excel either in the realm of ideas or of facts, he was unrivalled in the +power of discovering the relations between the two. He was neither a +statesman, philosopher, nor poet; but while the heavens and the earth +threatened to rush in confusion together, he was an admirable _cicerone_ +to the troubled and wandering wits of men. He had no inherent qualities, +and, if other people had not existed, would not have been alive himself; +his faculty was simply an eye for relations, and his mental life began +when some one threw a series of thoughts across his line of vision. +He could tell all about those thoughts,--how large each was, what +complexion they had, how they stood in order with each other, and how +they compared with other thoughts which he remembered having seen +before. Such a mind might have achieved success among the technicalities +of the law, but nowhere else, had not the "Edinburgh Review" been +created. Jeffrey's critical articles have little value when regarded +according to their aim and as integral compositions; the arguments which +they contain are often insufficient, and the literary judgments wrong. +But they are full of the scattered elements of thought. Many of the best +ideas of the books and men of which they treat are stated in them with +admirable clearness and piquancy, and they are, therefore, pleasant +secondary sources of information. + +Francis Horner died of consumption in Italy before he was forty years of +age, and there is nothing of surpassing brilliancy or power in any of +his writings. Yet he made a most extraordinary impression upon his +contemporaries. His name is never mentioned by his associates except +with unusual respect. Brougham, when he alludes to him, even in a +letter, seems to check his pen into soberness, and to be as cautious as +if he were speaking on a religious subject. Search through the published +correspondence of Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, and Mackintosh, and Horner is +found uniformly mentioned, not with peculiar affection or kindness, not +with any intention of doing him honor, but as a man whose qualities were +quite superior to those of other men, and whose destiny it was to be the +first statesman of his country. Lord Cockburn, who was a schoolmate of +Horner, relates that the latter was at one time selected by his class to +present a book to the master, and adds: "As he stepped forward at +the close of a recitation, and delivered the short Latin +presentation-address, I thought him to be a god." This fascination is +hard to be explained. The great seriousness of Horner's character may in +part account for it. He could not bear trifling on important subjects, +and could not help frowning on all jests which were not more wise +than witty. The calm determination, the unvarying earnestness of his +character, may aid in explaining it. From a boy, he never swerved from +great purposes, pursued the most useful though difficult knowledge, and +cultivated with equal zeal the ornaments of taste and those recondite +historical and statistical studies which are the roots of political +science. He was as far from being flighty as Immanuel Kant. Everything +that he did was marked both by temperance and sagacity. Philosophically +speaking, a personality, any personal being, is undoubtedly the most +mysterious thing in the universe. How abstract ideas come together to +grow and bloom in a young bosom is wholly past the comprehension of +philosophy. As personality in the abstract fascinates a philosopher +by its mystery, so a personality of uncommon purity, intensity, and +completeness fascinates all men, and thus, perhaps, is explained the +high estimation in which Horner was held. He was regarded by those +who knew him, as Pythagoras was by his disciples, with the deference +commanded by a superior person. + +The indefatigable character of Lord Brougham, the only survivor of this +group, cannot yet be sketched in a paragraph. To Sydney Smith we shall +presently return. + +The second group of young men was formed fifteen years later. They were +the antagonists of the Edinburgh reviewers, the authors of the "Noctes +Ambrosianae," the main support of "Blackwood's Magazine," almost from +its beginning. Their names were John Wilson, J.G. Lockhart, James Hogg, +and, for a time, William Maginn. These were very high, as well as, +excepting Hogg, very young Tories. It would be an apotheosis of loyalty +to say that they were also eminently religious, though they drank many +bumpers to their religion. When they meet in the third of the "Noctes" +and have taken their places at the table, North proposes: "A bumper! +The King! God bless him!" and three times three are given. Then Tickler +proposes: "A bumper! The Kirk of Scotland!" and the rounds of cheers +are repeated. These indispensable ceremonies being over, the Blackwood +council proceeds to discuss men and things over nectar and ambrosia. + +Wilson was the centre and best representative of this group. At Oxford, +he had been so democratic that he blacked his own boots on principle. +On leaving Oxford, he had roamed for a time as a wild man in a band of +gypsies. He next took a cottage in the lake district in the North of +England, where he associated with Wordsworth, and occupied himself +alternately with desperate gymnastic exercises and composing slight +descriptive poems. Even after connecting himself with the magazine and +becoming the symposiarch of the "Noctes," and perhaps the greatest Tory +in all broad Scotland, he did not renounce his home among the lakes. He +was a lover of scenery, and an enthusiast and master in manly sports. He +is said to have fished in every trout-brook north of the Clyde, and +he wandered every season over the Highlands. In his sportsman's +accomplishments he took a truly English pride, and made fun of the +Edinburgh Whigs by representing a company of them as getting by chance +into the same room with himself and his associates, and then, pipes and +tobacco being brought, as being fairly smoked out, sickened, and +obliged to retreat by the superior smoking capacities of the Tories. He +ridiculed Leigh Hunt for fancying in one of his poems that he should +like a splendid life on a great estate, when (as Wilson says) he +couldn't even ride without being thrown. Yet, of all the men of this +time, there was probably no one who had wider sympathies or more +delightful prejudices than Professor Wilson, or who made more sagacious +reflections. The centre of a literary clique, he loved to associate +with all the other cliques, and was one of the first to recognize and +proclaim the great merits of Wordsworth. + +The third group was larger than either of the preceding, retained its +_esprit de corps_ longer, and may be most conveniently defined as the +associates of Charles Lamb. Beside Lamb, there were Coleridge, Southey, +Lovel, Dyer, Lloyd, and Wordsworth, among the earlier members of +it,--and Hazlitt, Talfourd, Godwin, De Quincy, Bernard Barton, Procter, +Leigh Hunt, Gary, and Hood, among the later. This group, unlike the +others, did not make politics, but literature, its leading object. It +was composed of literary men,--a title of doubtful import, but which +certainly in civilized society will always designate a class. Political +life has more of outward importance, religious life is holier, but +literary life is the most humane of all the avocations. It is to the +professions what pastoral occupations are to the trades. Politics and +religion both have something to do with institutions. A mechanical +man can play a part in them not very well, but passably well. But +the literary man is sheer humanity, with nothing to help him but his +thoughtfulness and sensibility. He is the unfelled tree, not the timber +framed into the ship of state or carved into ecclesiastic grace. He +lives as Nature lives, putting on the splendor of green when the air +is sunny, and of crystal when the blasts sweep by; and while his roots +reach down into the earth, there rises nothing above him but the +heavens. Past experience shows that he may be harsh, prejudiced, and +unhappy; but it shows also that the richest human juices are within him, +and that not only the most peculiar and most sensitive, but also the +most highly-endowed characters are named in the list of authors. The +central and most admirable figure in this particular group of literary +men is Charles Lamb; and as each of the other groups clustered around +an organ, so at a later period Lamb and his associates supported the +"London Magazine," in which the "Essays of Elia" first appeared. + +If it be asked what gave that strong coherence to these associates which +constituted them groups, a wise man would answer,--congeniality of +character. A wiser man, however, would not overlook the element of +_suppers_. The "Edinburgh Review" seems to have been first suggested +over a quiet bottle of wine; and at a later day the Edinburgh reviewers, +increased in number by the accession of Mackintosh and one or two +others, formed an honored clique by themselves in the splendid society +of Holland House. The "Noctes Ambrosianae" is the enduring monument of +the way in which the Blackwood men passed their nights, and not the less +so from the fact that they were for the most part written out by Wilson +in sober solitude. Charles Lamb began his career of suppers with +Coleridge, as the latter came up to London from the University to visit +him, and the famous Wednesday-evening parties given by him and his +sister Mary would occupy a large space in the literary history of this +epoch. It is a true proverb, that people are but distant acquaintances +till they have eaten salt together. + +The sketches which we have thus given will indicate the leading +tendencies that were operating in English literature, though the groups +themselves did not include all the eminent literary men. +Campbell, Shelley, and Byron were single lights, and did not form +constellations,--unless, perhaps, Shelley and Byron may be regarded as a +wayward and quickly-disappearing Gemini. Sir Walter Scott, and, in their +later years, Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, were of a cosmopolitan +character, and served as links between different parties. And it may be +added, that diplomatic relations and frequent intercommunication existed +between all the groups. + +Passing from the general schedule to the characters and careers of +Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith, it will be our aim to show how these two +most witty men were also intensely serious and dutiful,--how they +were both disciplined by a great sorrow, and obedient to a noble +purpose,--and thus to relieve wit from the charge of having any natural +alliance with frivolity. + +A thorn, it needs not a sage to say, vexes the side of every human +being. Poetry laments the inadequacy of men to their ideals, philosophy +declares an error in the figures which sum up life, religion reveals +the fall of the race. The thorn is known which pierced the matchless +joyousness of Charles Lamb. His family, highly gifted with wit, +tenderness of feeling, and mutual love, had a tinge of madness in the +blood. At twenty years of age he was himself shut up six weeks in a +madhouse, his imagination in a vagary. He was not again affected; but +the poison had sunk deeper into the veins of his sister. The shadow of a +deed done in the dark ever pursued her. Charles devoted his life to +her whose life was an intermittent madness, yet who, in her months of +sanity, was a worthy sister of such a brother. His kindness to her knew +no bounds. It was strange that she had premonition of the recurring fits +of her disorder; and when the ghost of unreason beckoned, Charles +took her by the hand and led her to the appointed home. Charles Lloyd +relates, that, at dusk one evening, he met them crossing the field +together on their melancholy way toward the asylum, both of them in +tears. In the smiles of Charles Lamb, and they were many, his friends +always remarked a prevailing expression of sadness. The "fair-haired +maid," who had been the theme of his first poetizing, appears not again +in his verses or in his life. He and Mary lived together, received +evening visitors together, went to the theatre and picture-gallery +together, visited the lakes and the poets together; and if he was ever +seen in public without her, his friends knew there could be but one +reason for it, and did not ask. When he left the India House, he had +reserved from his income a considerable sum for her support; though the +liberality of his employers, as it proved, rendered this precaution +unnecessary. She was his partner in writing the Shakspearian tales, and +he always affirmed that hers were better done than his own. To her +he dedicated the first poems that he published; and she, too, was a +poetess, excellent in her simple way. Thus was Charles Lamb's life +saddened by a great affliction ever impending over it, and sanctified by +a great duty which he never for a moment forgot. + +It was his good-fortune, while at school at Christ's Hospital, to become +acquainted with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A timid boy, creeping around +among his boisterous companions like a little monk, it was that soaring +spirit which first taught him to look up. Two men whose intellects more +strongly contrasted could not be found. Coleridge suffered throughout +life from over-much speculation. Could he have had his eye less upon the +heavens and more upon the earth, could he have been concentrated upon +some human duty, he would have been a much wiser and better man. Even in +his youth he was the rhapsodist of old philosophies, had resolved social +life into its elements, and dreamed of putting it together again to suit +himself on the banks of the Susquehannah. Though Lamb wondered at the +speculations of Coleridge, and, loving him, loved the metaphysics which +were a part of him, yet it was without changing his own essentially +opposite disposition. Lamb clung to the earth. He cultivated the +excellency of this life. He was concrete, and hugged the world as he +did his sister. He reverently followed the discourses of Coleridge, +admiring, perhaps, "the beauty of the words, but not the words +themselves"; but when the Opium-Eater also began to take speculative +flights before Lamb, the latter stopped him at once by jangling his +metaphysics into jokes. It was in conversation with Coleridge, begun at +school and continued afterward at frequent meetings, that Lamb first +ventured to try his own powers and was prompted to literary activity. +But for a slight defect in his speech, he would probably have followed +Coleridge to the University with the intention of going into the Church. +A delightful clergyman he would have been, if he had duly undertaken the +office, and one would have walked far to see him in the priestly robe, +to hear him chant the service, to receive pastoral advice from him; yet +we fear the "Essays of Elia" would have been less admirable than now. He +was roused by Coleridge; and though he could not put the aureole of the +latter about his own head, he began to do the best he could in his own +way. + +Life is a play between accident and purpose. Why was it, that, of all +the books in the world, Charles Lamb should have fixed his affections +chiefly on the old English dramatists? He might have turned to old +Greece, admired the fruits of the classic ages, and become one of those +sparkling artistic Hellenists that are occasionally seen in modern +times. He might have turned to the mediaeval period. He had an eye +for cloisters and nuns. His fancy would have been struck with the +grotesqueness of many of the ideas and institutions of those times. +He would have got on finely with Gurth the swineherd and Burgundy the +tusk-toothed, and one of his masterly witticisms would have upset Duns +Scotus. Perhaps, of all the mediaeval characters, he would have been +most smitten with the court fool, and, if he could have been seated at +a princely table of the twelfth century, the bowl surely would not have +been round many times before he and the fool would have had a few passes +at each other. There was enough in the Middle Ages to have fascinated +him; and could he, like some romantic Novalis, have once penetrated +thither, and tasted the fruit, he would have found it a lotus, and +would have wished never to depart. His soul would have clung to church +architecture,--under which term may be included all the religious, +political, poetical, moral, and practical life of the Middle Ages. The +accident in the case, however, was, that his uncle's library did not +contain the Greeks, nor the Middle Ages, but did contain the old English +authors. These he mastered; and out of these he created his ideals. In +the affluent vigor of the Elizabethan age, in the buoyant _négligé_ of +the times of merry Charles, he found people that he liked. To every +reflective and slightly scholastic mind, there is a charm in looking +at things in the distance. The perspective fits the eye. This may have +helped the enthusiasm with which he looked upon the writers and heroes +of the old English literature; but its principal cause was their +open-heartedness, their informality, their stout and free humanity +underneath laces and uniform. + +Having thus found his place in literature, he began also to be rich in +friends, and his life was devoted every moment to thought and affection. +The time that he passed at the desk of the India House was time in which +he did not live; or perhaps, while he autographed the mercantile books, +there was a higher half-conscious life of the fancy which lightly +flitted round and round the steady course of his pen. He thus exults, +after his emancipation from his clerkship upon a pension:--"I came +home FOREVER on Tuesday in last week. The incomprehensibleness of my +condition overwhelmed me. It was like passing from life into eternity. +Every year to be as long as three; that is, to have three times as much +time that is real time--time that is my own--in it. I wandered about +thinking I was happy, but feeling I was not. But the tumultuousness is +passing off, and I begin to understand the nature of the gift." For this +one-third of his waking time, to have and to hold unhampered by any +dependence, he had most willingly consigned the rest to drudgery. The +value which he set upon it appears from the following answer which he +made to Bernard Barton, who thought of abandoning his place in a bank +and of relying upon literary labor for support:--"Throw yourself on the +world without any rational plan of support beyond what the chance employ +of booksellers would afford you! Throw yourself, rather, my dear Sir, +from the steep Tarpeian rock, slap-dash, headlong, upon iron spikes. If +you have but five consolatory minutes between the desk and the bed, make +much of them, and live a century in them, rather than turn slave to the +booksellers. Hitherto you have been at arm's length from them,--come +not within their grasp. I have known many authors want for bread,--some +repining, others enjoying the blessed security of a counting-house, +all agreeing that they would rather have been tailors, weavers,--what +not?--rather than the things they were. I have known some starved, some +go mad, one dear friend literally dying in a madhouse. Oh! you know +not--may you never know!--the miseries of subsisting by authorship." +Thus he esteemed of priceless worth honestly-earned independent time for +the pursuits that were dearest to him. + +His literary and social avocations were so intimately blended that they +seem to have been almost the same. He was as thoughtful in his evening +parties as he was in the act of composition, and as gentle and kindly in +writing as he was to his friends. He gathered about him not many of the +most famous, but many of the most original and peculiar men of his time. +His Wednesday-evening parties were assemblies of thinkers. They were +composed in large part of men who were not balanced by a profession, who +were devoted only to wit, fancy, or speculation, who cultivated each a +peculiar field and cherished each peculiar tastes and opinions, who +were interested in different quarters of the heavens, and yet who came +together, prompted by the spirit of sociality and kindliness, to lay +perhaps the backs of their heads together, and to talk always sincerely +and wisely, but in the form of sense or nonsense, as the case might be. +Lamb and his sister were always ready to appreciate every variety of +goodness, and doubtless their guests received an order something like +that which was addressed to the dwellers in Thomson's enchanting +castle:-- + + "Ye sons of Indolence! do what you will, + And wander where you list, through hall or glade; + Be no man's pleasure for another stayed: + Let each as likes him best his hours employ, + And cursed be he who minds his neighbor's trade!" + +To these parties sometimes came Coleridge, who in conversation seems +to have been a happy mixture of a German philosopher and an Italian +_improvvisatore_. Here Hazlitt learned to utter the philosophic +criticisms which he most passionately believed in; and Lloyd, whose +intellect was one of peculiar refinement, discoursed modestly of +metaphysical problems, analyzing to an extent that Talfourd says was +positively painful. Here the social reformer Leigh Hunt came, and for +the moment forgot that social reforms were needed. Here the Opium-Eater +came, and his cloudy abstract loves and hates and visions were exploded +by the sparks of Elia's wit. Here the philosopher Godwin developed +philosophy out of whist. Here the pensive face of the Quaker poet, +Bernard Barton, shed a mild light upon the scene; and here the lawyer +Thomas Noon Talfourd came to admire the finest characters that he knew +of. + +Having thus noticed the painful experience and unfaltering devotion to +noble aims which marked the career of Charles Lamb, we leave him with +his friends, and pass to notice the same elements in the life of his +brother wit. + +Sydney Smith preferred the legal profession, and esteemed himself a +victim in entering the Church. His practical wisdom informed him, that, +from the beginning even until then, qualities like his had not found a +happy sphere of action in the pulpit, but, on the contrary, had rusted +or grown ugly in it. He had as much sentiment as Sterne, and perhaps as +much political sagacity as Swift, yet the finest instincts within him +recoiled from following in the path of either the one or the other. +With a subtile and exuberant wit,--he knew that wit touches not sacred +things. With great practical prudence and a brilliant speculative +capacity,--in a clergyman, prudence is less than faith, and brilliancy +of thought than the glow of the heart. In his rich composite character +he had, indeed, the qualities which make the clergyman; his disposition +was religious, his heart was tender and Christian, he could give the +best advice to the people; and though his appearance was not quite +saint-like, it was at least suggestive of a good man who was walking in +the way which he pointed out to others. But these qualities were not +those with which he was most highly endowed. Energy and sterling +common-sense, which he had inherited from his father, an elastic, +mercurial, and passionate nature, which had come to him from his +Huguenot mother,--these were the strong points in his character, and it +belongs to neither of them to take the lead in the Church. Sydney had +scanned the whole field. Having questioned well his desires, examined +well his blood, derived what wisdom he could from history and +observation, he deliberately chose the law. Why, then, did he take +to theology? We read that his father had incurred so much expense in +educating his eldest son for the legal profession, and in fitting out +two others for India, that he could not well furnish the means for +Sydney's education, and strongly recommended him to go into the Church; +and that the son sacrificed his own to his father's inclination. + +We may imagine Sydney Smith's reflections. With his versatile talent, +honorable ambition, and consciousness that he could have made a shining +name in political life, his object now was to find a sufficient sphere +for the exercise of all his powers in the Church. It was no fault of his +that he was unwilling to settle as curate and have no aim beyond his +parish except to go to heaven at last. With his superfluity of human +nature, for him to become a saint was out of the question. What then? +Should he enter the realm of dogmatics, and become a learned and +redoubted champion of the faith, passing his life amid exegesis? Should +he renounce thorough thinking, and become a polished and popular pastor, +an ornament of the pulpit and of society? Should he signalize himself +for gravity, orthodoxy, and ability, seek the earthly prizes of his +profession, and perhaps become Archbishop of Canterbury? Should he +become a jolly, vinous, and Friar-Tuck sort of clergyman? God forbid! he +said to each of these queries, and rushed forward into his profession. +Regarding himself as a lamb for the slaughter, yet tremendously in +earnest not to be sacrificed, he went into the Church groping and +fearing, but resolute. Trembling lest he should not do his duty both to +himself and to his sacred office, he yet determined to try. Thus the +thorn which troubled Sydney Smith was not an affliction, but was what he +regarded as a danger; and, though less patent and pointed than that +in the life of Charles Lamb, probably had not less influence in the +discipline of character. + +Behold, then, the long and venerable line of the clergy opening to +receive him, and behold him entering it! The clergy, the priesthood, +the holy fathers, the strong bishops, the monks, the ghostly race, the +retired enthusiasts, now melancholy, now rapt, now merry-making, the +consolers of sorrow, the divine heroes in an earthly life,--even one +of this family does Sydney propose to be. At the age of twenty-four +he becomes curate in the little hamlet of Salisbury Plain,--the young +graduate of Oxford sent into the country to be pastor to the inmates of +half-a-dozen hovels! Then he writes his description of a curate:--"The +poor working man of God,--a learned man in a hovel, good and patient,--a +comforter and a teacher,--the first and purest pauper of the hamlet; +yet showing that in the midst of worldly misery he has the heart of a +gentleman, the spirit of a Christian, and the kindness of a pastor." +He regards himself as almost excluded from his kind, and quotes (or +originates) the proverb, that there are three sexes, men, women, and +clergymen. He took long solitary walks over the plains of Salisbury, +reflecting upon the manifold activities of the world, in which he had no +part. The only society that he had was during the occasional visits of +the squire to the neighborhood, who, surprised to find the curate so +interesting a person, gave him frequent invitations to dinner. Thus +passed two years, when the squire consigned his son to the curate to +be educated, and Sydney Smith, starting with the young man for the +Continent, was driven by stress of war to Edinburgh. + +There he met Horner, Jeffrey, Brougham, and others, young thinkers and +full of matter,--Horner the philosopher, Jeffrey the critic, Brougham +the statesman, and Sydney Smith the divine,--and the divine was +unsurpassed by any of the others in wit, energy, or decision of +character. While the events with which the times were rife were striking +fire in all their brains, it was the divine who first turned their +thoughts to account by suggesting that they should start a review. +The suggestion was acted upon, and under his editorial care the +first numbers of the "Edinburgh Review" appeared. His prudence and +remonstrances saved it from manifold excesses; for Jeffrey was not a man +to be moderate in times like those. The brilliant critic received not a +few such lectures as the following:--"I certainly, my dear Jeffrey, in +conjunction with the Knight of the Shaggy Eyebrows [Homer], do protest +against your increasing and unprofitable skepticism. I exhort you to +restrain the violent tendency of your nature for analysis, and to +cultivate synthetical propensities. What is virtue? What's the use +of truth? What's the use of honor? What's a guinea but a d--d yellow +circle? The whole effort of your mind is to destroy. Because others +build slightly and eagerly, you employ yourself in kicking down their +houses, and contract a sort of aversion for the more honorable, useful, +and difficult task of building well yourself." It was the boast of +Sydney Smith in old age that he had very little to change in the +opinions which he had at various times advanced,--that he had seen +every important measure which he had advocated passed and become +recognized as beneficent. The variety of the review suited the +versatility of his talent; the problem, What worthy thing shall I employ +myself in doing? was solved; and an ample public career was opened to +him. When, after five years, he passes from Edinburgh to London, he is +not only a poor clergyman, but a famous Edinburgh reviewer. He becomes +popular in society and as a preacher, and delivers pictures on Moral +Philosophy to crowded houses of the _élite_ of the metropolis. + +When he is again exiled as a curate, his solitude is not unbroken, but +he receives and returns the visits of the most eminent people. His +neighbors ran to him one day, shortly after his arrival, exclaiming, +--"Please your honor, a coach! a coach! a coach!" Sydney saw in the +distance the equipage of Lord Holland, and challenged the admiration of +his parishioners by boldly answering,--"Well, my good friends, _stand +firm_; never mind, even if there should be a coach; it will do us no +harm;--let us see." A simple pastor and an eminent man, with flashing +energy he approves himself a good man. Sunday he preached, Monday he +doctored the sick, Tuesday Sir James Mackintosh visited him for a week, +Wednesday he read Ariosto, Thursday he began an article, Friday he +reviewed his patients, Saturday he repaired his barn. Now he is laying +down a rule that no day shall pass in which he will not make somebody +happy; now he is fixing a bar whereon it shall be convenient for his +cows to scrape their backs; now he is watching by the side of his +sleeping baby, with a rattle in hand to wake the young spirit into +joyousness the moment its sleep breaks. He goes through the parish as +doctor, wit, and priest, guide, philosopher, and friend, studying the +temper and needs of the simple congregation to which he preaches on +Sunday, while his brain is racking with great thoughts. With these +higher thoughts he has to do as he sits at his desk and writes an +article for the larger parish of the United Kingdom. With a wild play of +wit and fancy and laughter he graces the sturdy column of his virtue +and fidelity. He lived in what was said to be the ugliest and most +comfortable house in England, admired by every visitor for his +independence, manliness, refinement, and liveliness. When he visited +London, as he often did, and when in later years he lived there and was +_lionné_, his simplicity of character remained. To the last he was one +of the sincerest and most active of clergymen and of men. + +It is probable that there were not living at the time two more serious +men than the two wits whose careers we have outlined. Indeed, it is +quite a mistake to suppose that wit has anything to do with temper or +sentiment at all. A man may be perpetually sulky, and yet habitually +witty,--may smile, and smile, and smile, and yet be a most melancholy +individual. Wit is simply a form of thought, and is as intellectual as +scientific study. It differs from other thought only in being a little +_outré_,--a little in excess; it overdoes the thing only because it has +so much energy in it. It is what Charles Lamb said a pun was,--"a sole +digest of wisdom." All great thoughts are at first witty, and afterward +come to be common and flat. When Pythagoras discovered the theorem of +the squares erected on the sides of a right-angled triangle, it had the +effect on him of a most preposterous joke. The apple dropping on the +head of Newton struck him like a very far-fetched pun. Show a child the +picture of a wild Tartar, and his first motion will be to laugh at it. +We have seen a man while reading Kant, the dryest of metaphysicians, +slap his knee, leap upon his feet, and swear, in exuberance of mirth, +that Kant had said a good thing. If it were discovered to-morrow to be +a scientific truth that this world is wrong side out, and if inventive +genius should discover a way to put the other side out, we should all of +us think it a funny thing, but our transversed descendants would +regard the matter as a commonplace. New proposals in the arts, and new +discoveries in the sciences are always at first laughed at. Thus wit +is only thought that is beyond the present capacity of the listeners, +thought of whose meaning they can catch only a glimpse; it is the +forerunner of what our very stupid race, which is always a little behind +the times, is wont to call wisdom. If the race should ever become +completely sage, nothing less than a joke would ever be uttered. + +The likenesses of Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith make them both very +severe-looking men. Like marble, which in costume takes the appearance +of the finest lace, so that it seems as if it would yield to the touch +of a finger, their delicate fancies and sentiments were but the surface +of a solid and thorough character. + +They lived in different spheres, corresponding to the difference in +their genius. Sydney Smith had the more versatile and fruitful mind. +With restless energy he supported various characters, being equally +famous as a wit, Whig, Edinburgh reviewer, eloquent preacher, brilliant +man of society, and canon of Saint Paul's. His biographer well describes +him as a rough rider of subjects, and with surpassing good sense he +overran every problem with which the public mind was occupied. He was a +reformer, but it was after the English and not the French fashion. He +had unbounded respect for existing human blessings, believed in things +substantially as they were, and couldn't have been persuaded to try an +experiment that had much of hazard in it. A Frenchman is always at +home amid earthquakes and volcanoes and hurricanes, and the immediate +prospect of an end to everything that is and a beginning of something +the like of which never has been. The spirit of the great French +Revolution was to exterminate all the results of time up to that point, +and, having made a clear field, to begin over again. Hence heads went +off, religion was proscribed, thrones were burned, the calendar was +changed; even the heavenly bodies should no longer bear down their +freight of old associations, and Orion received the name of Napoleon. +Could the earth have in any way been transformed, could grass possibly +have been made blue and the heavens green, or could man have been done +over into any other sort of animal, there is not the slightest doubt +that those Frenchmen would have undertaken it. In comparison with such +men, Sydney Smith sank into insignificance as a reformer. He lived under +a religion, government, and system of manners, all of which he was +desirous to retain. He did not wish for his children any institutions +very much more comfortable than England offered at the moment. He +regarded the advantages of life with great complacency, thinking, +doubtless, that men had better opportunities than they availed +themselves of; and the chief intensity of his purpose was not to make +better opportunities, but to improve them better. He probably did not +approve of all the men and customs that he saw, was decidedly opposed +both to wickedness and stupidity; but he did not propose, like a +Frenchman, at the first fault, to blot out the heavens and the earth. +He demonstrated in his life how genial, under existing institutions, a +clergyman could be, how discreet a young enthusiast could be, how widely +active a curate could be, how acceptable in society an honest man could +be, how brilliant a plain Englishman could be. A great reformer he was, +--but the spirit of his reform consisted chiefly, not in changing, but +in making better use of the blessings which we already possess. Compared +with this prevailing spirit of personal reform, the reformatory +public measures which he was prominent in advocating were of slight +consequence. Merry on the surface, with an iron core of stubborn +resolution within, he equally delighted his most homely and his most +elegant friends, and while he sympathized with humble life, he had a +profound respect for the technically best society. + +Charles Lamb lived within a narrower and peculiar range. With more of +concentration, he had a less abounding energy than Sydney Smith. His +character was an odd and elegant miniature, while that of Sydney Smith +was voluminous. He loved a particular sort of men, and that sort was +honest men; while the merry divine could deal with politicians and even +with Talleyrand himself. Sydney was playing a part in the Whig party, +among the advocates of reforms; the sympathies of Elia went for +the reform of the United Kingdom, and of the universe, too, if +possible,--but he was more interested in a profound thought, brought +forth from the struggling breast of Hazlitt, than in any bill introduced +into Parliament. He was occupied with his old books, his sincere +friends, his beloved sister. He cared little for the _beau monde_, would +rather not look upon a duke or a duchess without a grating between; but, +turning from the current into an eddy, content with the many thoughtful +and original persons whom he had about him, he delighted to fish for the +shyest tenants of the stream and to dive for strange pearls. He loved +remote thoughts, quaint expressions, fantastic ideas. He especially +attached himself to any violent symptoms of human nature. Being in a +picture-gallery, he observed a stout sailor in towering disgust at one +of the old masters, spit his tobacco-juice at it, and swear, with an +expletive, that he could do better himself. The honest opinion honestly +expressed, the truth and vigor of the man, delighted Lamb, and he rushed +up to him to shake hands. Whenever the sailor, after that, wrote to +his friends in London, he wished to be particularly remembered to Mr. +Charles Lamb, who wouldn't be humbugged about that old painting. + +It was this strong sympathy with human character which made Elia rather +a contemner of the worship of Nature. He liked things that were as +definite as the works of men, and found great difficulty in sympathizing +with a landscape. There was nothing on Fleet Street for which he did not +feel a personal attachment; all the hurry and majestic order of a great +city, all the little by-ways and hedges of city life, the wealth, the +poverty, the splendor, the rags, the men and women, all acting under +the stern discipline of an immense society, the boys, the beggars, the +chimney-sweeps, the hilarious and the sorrowful, the fine ladies and +noble lords, were all duly appreciated by him. If he had been taken +up to the pinnacle of a mountain, instead of entertaining one of +Wordsworth's sublime contemplations, he would have been very likely to +flap his arms and crow like chanticleer. Indeed, in middle age he was +accustomed to boast that he had never seen a mountain. Born in London, +and always residing in London till the last years of his life, esteeming +man the crown and purpose of the universe, he was much inclined +to regard the love of Nature, which figures so largely in modern +literature, as a popular delusion. He would have sympathized with the +French philosopher who, after accompanying a young lady to the Highlands +of Scotland, surprised her raptures by saying to her,--"_Aimez-vous les +beautés de la nature? Pour moi, je les abhorre_." + +The diverse religious character of these two men may be illustrated by +an allusion to their different habits with respect to Art. Sydney Smith, +visiting Paris, satisfied himself by a fifteen-minutes' observation in +the galleries of the Louvre. His mind, almost orbicular in its various +capacity, took in the scene at a glance. There were pictures from almost +every country, statues from almost every age, representations of the +finest imaginations of the mind and of the noblest labors of history. He +was not a barbarian with respect to the Louvre, but understood all about +it, and knew its excellence and value; yet he mingled his sentiment +and common-sense well together, and took a rapid walk from chamber to +chamber. He probably entertained large views of Art during his impetuous +progress through the ages, from battle-field to battle-field, from saint +to saint, from philosopher, poet, and hero, to landscape, shepherdess, +and domestic scene. He took in thought with lightning swiftness, and +lived for fifteen minutes amid statues and paintings which collected +scenes from all the universe. He went forth, satisfied that the Louvre +was a fine gallery of Art, that Art was a very fine thing, that painters +and sculptors ought to be encouraged, and that he had been looking at +many things which were worthy a man's consideration. If he had been +called upon at once to preach a sermon, there is no doubt that he would +have made very judicious reflections upon the spectacle which he had +beheld. + +Charles Lamb, too, visited Paris, and though it is not recorded that he +went into the Louvre, yet we can hardly be mistaken in conjecturing that +he did, and the thoughts with which he went. He would have entered those +galleries with timid ecstasy. He would at first have shrunk away from +the full splendor, and made acquaintance with some modest painting in +a corner. Happy would some friend near him be to hear the half-tender, +half-witty, yet most appreciative conceit which should first come +stammering from his lips. He would have advanced slowly, and only after +much delay would have ventured to stand before the great masters, and +to look up eye to eye at the spirit of the Louvre. After taking his +departure, he would never have thought familiarly of the scene, but it +would have remained in his mind as terrible and sacred an episode as was +the descent into Hades to Virgil's hero. + +Not only in the Louvre, but in the world, Charles Lamb was the more +timid worshipper. The whole character of his mind, the intensity of his +thought within a narrow sphere, made him reverent of the Infinite. The +thought of departure from the life which he now lived was to him a very +solemn one. Religious ideas were so sacred to him that he never referred +to them lightly, and seldom at all. When he did mention them, it was +with peculiar impressiveness. No one can read the account of his share +in a conversation on "persons one would like to have seen," without +admiring the energy and pathos with which he alluded to one Person, +whose name, however, he did not utter. Discussions on religious subjects +he never tolerated in anybody but Coleridge. One evening, after he and +Leigh Hunt had returned from a visit to Coleridge, Hunt began to express +his surprise that a man of so much genius as the Highgate sage should +entertain such religious opinions as he did, and mentioned one of his +doctrines for especial reprobation. Lamb, who was preparing the second +bowl of punch, answered, hesitatingly, with a gentle smile,--"Never mind +what Coleridge believes; he is full of fun." He was an humble, sinful +worshipper, and while he bowed his head tremblingly before Heaven, he +poured out the stream of his affections to his sister and his friends. + +The religious character of Sydney Smith was less peculiar than that of +Elia. An earnest Christian, with a will too resolute to allow the aid +of the punch-bowl in vanquishing trouble, professionally wielding the +religious and moral ideas, and habitually obeying them, he stood erect +and looked at the life to come with a firm eye. "The beauty of the +Christian religion," he says, "is that it carries the order and +discipline of heaven into our very fancies and conceptions, and, by +hallowing the first shadowy notions of our minds, from which actions +spring, makes our actions themselves good and holy." This central and +vital beauty he had cultivated in a very diversified life, and he looked +with confidence for the prize which is laid up for the well-doer. + +Probably, if any successful life were examined, it would be found to +consist of a series of hairbreadth escapes. Every movement would be the +crossing of the Rubicon. That man is of little account who at every step +that he has taken has not been weighing matters as nicely as if he were +matching diamonds. How narrowly did Coleridge escape being the greatest +preacher, philosopher, poet, or author of his time! Almost everything +was possible to him; and one can but marvel how he went through life +avoiding in turn each of his highest possibilities. It is the glory of +Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith, that, as far as it can be said of any +men, they did the best that was possible with their circumstances and +endowments. The old fancy which says of every person, that there is an +ideal character which he can attain, in which he shall be peculiar and +unsurpassed, was in their cases realized. + +Their characters were projected into literature, where they remain as +permanent blessings. The style of writing of both of them approaches to +the simplest way of saying things. Elia employed the choicest language +of the seventeenth century, and the divine used the plainest English of +the day. The perpetual danger of literature is of becoming rhetorical; +and hardly fares vigor of thought when long words and periods are +preferred to short ones, and when the native shape and properties of +ideas are less cared for than the abundant drapery. The style of the +"Essays of Elia" is as admirable as their fancy. The author hated a +formal sentence as much as he disliked stately and insipid society. +Unlike Thomas Carlyle, in avoiding the faults of rhetorical culture, he +did not become a literary barbarian. In refusing to comb his hair like a +prig, he did not go to the extreme of making himself horridly uncomely. +His sentences are unsurpassed for neatness, are as graceful as they are +quaint and clear. The writings of Sydney Smith rarely attain the +perfect grace which uniformly distinguishes Elia; yet he never attempts +magnificence, and he so unites brilliancy and plainness as to make his +statements seem equally felicitous to the rude and the scholarly ear. +His Peter Plymley letters are remarkable examples of the way in which +one yeoman speaks to another. His literary bequest, however, is neither +so valuable nor so charming as that of Charles Lamb. His powers were too +various, and he engaged in too many fields of labor, to attain supreme +success in any direction. The best result of his life is his own +exuberant and unresting character, which harmonized all the diversities +in his career; and adequately to behold this there is needed a fuller +and more philosophical biography of him than has yet been written. + + + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +On the morning of the day which brought the downfall of Stearine and his +indorsers, Sandford and Fayerweather, with the Vortex, whose funds +they had misappropriated, Monroe came to the counting-room unusually +cheerful. His anxiety respecting his little property was relieved, for +he thought the monetary crisis was past, and that thenceforth affairs +would improve. He had reasoned with himself that such a pressure could +not last always, and that this had certainly reached its limit. The +clear, bracing air of the morning had its full influence over his +sensitive nature. All Nature seemed to rejoice, and he, for the time, +forgot the universal distress, and sympathized with it. But the +thermometer fell rapidly as he caught the expression which the face +of his employer wore. Mr. Lindsay, of the house of Lindsay & Co., was +usually a reserved, silent man--in business almost a machine, honest +both from instinct and habit, and proud, in his quiet way, of his +position and his stainless name. He had a wife and daughter, and +therefore was presumed to have affections; but those whom he met in the +market never thought of him, save as the systematic merchant. Well as +Monroe knew him, being his confidential clerk, he never had seen more +than the case in which the buying, selling, and note-paying machinery +was inclosed. He respected the evident integrity and worth of the head +of the house, but never dreamed of a different feeling; he could as +easily have persuaded himself into cherishing an affection for the +counting-house clock. + +This morning, Mr. Lindsay's face wore an unusually sleepless, anxious +look. The man of routine was but a man, after all, and, in his distress, +he longed for some intelligent, friendly sympathy. Monroe recognized the +mute appeal, but, from long habits of reticence, he was at a loss how +to approach his stately chief. Determined, however, to give him an +opportunity to speak, if he chose, Monroe asked after the news, the +day's failures, and the prospects of business. The merchant needed only +a word, and broke out at once,-- + +"Prospect? there is no prospect but ruin. If a whirlwind would bury the +city, or a conflagration leave it a heap of ashes, it would be better +for all of us." + +"But don't you think the darkest time has past?" + +"Not at all; the pressure will continue until scores more are brought +down. Better fail at once than live in dread of it." + +"You surprise me! Why, you are not in danger?" + +"Did you ever consider? Look at the bales of goods in our lofts,--goods +which nobody will buy and nobody can pay for. And our acceptances have +been given to the manufacturers for them,--acceptances that are maturing +daily. Up to this time I have taken up all our paper, as it became due; +but God knows how the next payments are to be made." + +"I had not thought of that." + +"The house of Lindsay & Co. has never known dishonor"-- + +The merchant wiped his spectacles,--but it was the eyes that were dim, +not the glasses. His lips quivered and his breath came hard, as he +continued,-- + +"But the time has come; the house must go down." + +"I hope not," said Monroe, fervently. "Can nothing be done?" + +"Nothing. Every resource has been used. The banks won't discount; and I +suppose they can't; they are fully as weak as their customers." + +"I don't know but the offer may be useless, contemptible, even; but I +have a small sum, in good notes, that may be available." + +The merchant shook his head. + +"Whatever it is, you are welcome to it. Perhaps ten thousand dollars"-- + +"Ten thousand dollars!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsay,--"_you_ have that sum?" + +"Yes,--the little property that was my father's. Let me go and get the +notes, and see if I can't get some money upon them." + +Mr. Lindsay rose and took the clerk's hand with a heartiness that +astonished him. + +"God bless you, Monroe," he said. "I may be saved, after all. Ten +thousand dollars will be enough for the present pinch, and before the +next acceptance is due some relief may come." + +"Don't speak of thanks. I'll get the notes in a moment." + +Tears stole silently down the unaccustomed furrows; the gateway of +feeling was open, but the tremulous lips refused to speak. Before he +could recover his self-possession, Monroe was gone. Mr. Lindsay tried to +read the newspapers, but the print before his eyes conveyed no idea to +his preoccupied brain. Then his thoughts turned to his beautiful villa +in Brookline, and he remembered how that morning his daughter stepped +lightly into the brougham with him at the back piazza, rode down the +winding path between the evergreen-hedges, and, after giving him a kiss, +sprang out when they reached the gate. He knew, that, when he returned +in the evening, he should find her in her place under the great +horse-chestnut, at the foot of the hill, ready to ride to the house. How +could he meet her with the news he would have to carry? how crush the +spirits of his invalid wife? Humiliating as the idea of failure was when +considered in his relations with the mercantile world, the thought of +home, with its changed feelings and circumstances, and the probable +deprivation of habitual indulgences, was far more poignant. + +It was not long before Monroe returned, but with a less buoyant air. Mr. +Lindsay's spirits fell instantly. "I see it all," said he, "you can't do +anything." + +"Perhaps I may, yet. The notes I spoke of, though due to me, are in the +hands of Mr. Sandford, Secretary of the Vortex Insurance Company. I have +been there, and cannot see him. His shutting himself up, I am afraid, +bodes me no good. However, I'll go again an hour hence." + +"No harm in trying. Did you indorse the notes to him?" + +"No. They were merely left with him for convenience' sake, as he was my +agent in loaning the money." + +"Then he can't make way with them,--honestly." + +Monroe seemed hurt by the implied suspicion, but did not reply, thinking +it best, if possible, to change the subject of conversation. + +Mr. Lindsay sat in silence, a silence that was broken only once or twice +during the morning, and then by some friend or business acquaintance +asking, in hurried or anxious tones, "Anything over to-day?" A mournful +shake of the head was the only answer, and the merchant sunk into a +deeper gloom. + +Again Monroe went to see Mr. Sandford, but with no better success. The +third time he naturally spoke in a peremptory tone, and, giving his name +and business, said, that he must and would see Mr. Sandford, or get the +notes. The weight of his employer's trouble rested on him, and gave an +unwonted force to his usually kind and modest temper. The clerk, not +daring to break his instructions, and seeing that it was not far from +two o'clock, intimated, in a half-confidential tone, that he would +do well to ask Mr. Tonsor, the broker, about them. Nervous with +apprehension, Monroe walked swiftly to Tonsor's office. At the door he +met Fletcher coming out with exultation in every feature. Within stood +Bullion, his legs more astride than usual, his chin more confidently +settled over his collar, and the head of his cane pressed against his +mouth. As Monroe entered, Tonsor ceased the conversation, and, looking +up, said, blandly, "My young friend, can I do anything for you?" Bullion +at the same time turned the eyes that might have been only glittering +petrifactions, and pointed the long eyebrow at him inquiringly. + +"I hope so," was the reply. "Have you some notes in your possession +payable to Walter Monroe?" + +"Who asks the question?"--very civilly. + +"My name is Monroe." + +"Ah! Mr. Sandford is your agent, I presume?" + +"Yes. I left the notes with him." + +"And you wanted to raise some money on them?" + +"Yes, that is what I wish." + +"Then you'll be pleased to know that Mr. Sandford has anticipated you. I +loaned him eight thousand dollars upon them this morning." + +"Loaned _him_ eight thousand dollars?" + +"Certainly. Is it extraordinary that your agent has done what you +desired?" + +"I never asked him to borrow for me; and I never authorized him to +transfer the notes." + +"He hasn't transferred them; he has only pledged them." + +"He couldn't pledge them; he had no legal right in them." + +"But he _has_ pledged them, and they are in my safe, subject to the +repayment of the sum I loaned." + +"If you have loaned Mr. Sandford money, that is your affair." + +"And yours, too, my friend, you will find, if he doesn't pay it." + +"You haven't a right to detain the notes a moment." + +"I have the possession, which will answer as well as the right. And let +me advise you,--don't get excited and conclude that everything is wrong. +You are not so well posted as you might be. Go and see Mr. Sandford, and +I haven't a doubt you'll find the money ready for you." + +"I shall go. But I wish you to understand, that, if I am not 'posted,' +as you say, I do know my rights, and I shall take proper measures to +get possession of my property. You have no more hold upon it than a +pawnbroker has upon a stolen spoon." + +Trembling with the unusual excitement, and despairing of being able to +aid his employer, Monroe did not wait for a reply, but rushed to the +Vortex again. Mr. Sandford had gone out on business, was the answer. He +had not gone far, if the truth were known; for his position commanded +the office-door, and he saw every visitor. + +Time did not lag that eventful day; the hands seemed to sweep round the +dial on the Old State House as though they had been swords in pursuit +of some dilatory debtor. It now lacked only fifteen minutes of two, and +Monroe, sick at heart, turned his steps towards Milk Street, to announce +the utter failure of his plan. Mr. Lindsay received the intelligence +with more firmness than might have been expected. + +"Monroe, my friend,--for I can truly call you so,--you have done what +you could. It was not your fault that your agent deceived and swindled +you. You generously offered me your all. I shall never forget it. I +can't say more now. Please stay and inform the notary, when he comes, +that he must take the usual course. Tell John, when he comes with the +brougham, that he may drive back. I shall take the cars to-day, and +shall not be at home, probably, until after tea. I pray God, Monroe, +that you may never go home as I do now. O Clara, my daisy, my darling! +how can I tell you?" + +Still murmuring to himself, Mr. Lindsay slowly walked out of the +counting-room. + +It was not strange, that, under the pressure of his own calamity, Mr. +Lindsay had no thought for the losses of others. He forgot that Monroe +was really in a far worse position, since, if the ten thousand dollars +were lost, it was his all. Neither did Monroe, at first, reflect upon +his own impending misfortune; he had been so intent upon preserving the +credit of the house, that his own interest had been lost sight of. + +Presently the notary came with the inevitable demand. He was a cheerful +fellow in his sorry business, blithe as an old stager of an undertaker +at a first-class funeral. He chatted about the crisis, and, as a matter +of course, brought all the latest news from State Street. Monroe +listened to one piece of news, but had ears for no more. "Sandford and +Fayerweather had failed, and the old Vortex, which they had managed, was +dead broke, cleaned out." + +Mr. Lindsay was not the only heart-stricken man who left the +counting-room that day. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Monroe was walking sorrowfully homeward, when he met Easelmann near the +corner of Summer Street. He was in no humor for conversation, but he +could not civilly avoid the painter, who evidently was waiting to speak +to him. + +"Glad to see one man that isn't a capitalist. You and I, Monroe, are +independent of banks and brokers." + +Monroe faintly smiled. + +"This is a deadly time here in Boston,--a horrible stagnation. Every +man avoids his neighbor as though he had the plague; and we have no +Boccaccio to tell us stories while the dead-carts go by." + +"The dead-cart went through our street to-day." + +"You don't tell me! Who is the lucky corpse that is out of his misery?" + +"Mr. Lindsay. Our house is shut up, and I am a vagrant." + +"A pair of us! For the last month I have performed the Wandering Jew all +by myself. Now I have company. What shall we do to be jolly?" + +"_Jolly!_"--with a tone of melancholy surprise. + +"When should a man be jolly, if he can't when he's nothing to do? I +am the slave of gold, you understand. If any rich magician rubs his +double-eagles before me, woe is me, if I don't paint! When the magicians +send their eagles on other errands, I am free from their drudgery. +Meanwhile, I live on air, flattened out and packed away, like a Mexican +horned-frog, or a dreaming toad, in a fissure of a preadamite rock." + +"I am sorry I haven't your art of making misfortune comfortable." + +"Misfortune? My philosophical friend, there isn't any such thing. The +true man is superior to circumstances or accidents. (Some old fellow, I +believe, has said that; somebody always says my good things before me; +but no matter.) Nothing can happen amiss to the wise and good." + +"Then I am neither wise nor good, for I have lost my all, and it comes +confoundedly amiss to me." + +"Your all? That's what the shoemaker said; but he bought a new one for +six-pence. But, how happened it?" + +"By my folly." + +"I knew that, of course; but I wanted to know what folly in particular." + +"I trusted it to a man whom I thought not only honest, but my friend, +and he has proved a scoundrel." + +"You shouldn't have led him into temptation. You are _particeps +criminis_, and the partaker is as bad as the thief. Don't trust without +taking security, my friend; it's offering a premium to crime. Consider +your guilt now! Think of the family into whose innocent bosom you have +brought sin and remorse! Who is the luckless person?" + +"Sandford!" + +"I knew it. I expected it. He was too good by half. I didn't blame him +for his widow-and-orphan business; somebody must do it; but I made up my +mind some time ago that he would come to grief." + +"Prophets are always plenty after the event." + +"True, my friend. But just think! He passed by my pictures in the +Exhibition, and bought the canvas of my friend Greenleaf,--a man of +genius, doubtless, but young, you understand, young. Can you conceive +of the wickedness? I felt sure from that moment, that, if he were not +totally depraved, he at least had a moral inability, as the preachers +call it, that would be his ruin." + +"Well, he is ruined effectually; but the worst of it is, that he has +dragged innocent people down with him." + +"'Innocent,'--yes, you have the word. A man that cares for money at all, +and trusts all he has without security to any fair-spoken financier, is +an innocent, truly." + +"Well, there is no use in lamenting, and just as little in the +consolation of thinking how the loss might have been avoided." + +"I don't know. I don't admit that. I am not to be deprived of the rights +of a freeborn American. The 'I told-you-so' is a fine balm for all sorts +of wounds,--rather more soothing to physician than patient, perhaps. +Combined with the 'You-might-have-known-it,' it gets up a wholesome +blister in the least possible time, especially where 'a raw' has been +established previously." + +"I don't think I was prudent." + +"Of course not; if you had been, you wouldn't have lost. There are +no such things as mistakes in the world.--But to look at affairs. +_Imprimis_.--Lindsay smashed, house closed, salary stopped." + +"I suppose so." + +"_Item_,--private funds gone; owner taken in by the patent-safe game. + +"_Item_,--dwelling-house standing; so much gain,--but + +"_Item_,--the dweller is not alone, having other mouths to feed. + +"But don't be discouraged. I don't doubt you will find something to do +in good time." + +"But when is the good time coming? I must earn something at once." + +"The danger of being made to work isn't pressing. Ships will have time +to get well rested. Truckmen are actually growing civil with a little +starvation. The beggars don't hold out their hands for coppers; they +make more money by hauling out their old stockings and lending at five +per cent. a month." + +"You will laugh me out of my misery in spite of myself." + +"I hope so; but I am not sure that a man can be laughed out of a thing +he wasn't laughed into. Now, Monroe, I am going to surprise you. I am +going to bore you, annoy you; for I am to see you every day for the +next week. Can you bear it? I shall be worse than the balm of +'I-told-you-so.'" + +Monroe pressed his friend's hand. + +"Come, by all means. And now we are near my house; go in and take tea +with us." + +"No, not to-day. It is _dies nefastus_. Good-bye!" + +Twirling his grizzly moustaches and humming to himself, Easelmann turned +back. He did not go to his room, however, but went down a quiet street, +apparently guided by instinct, and rang the bell at a well-known door. + +"Is Mr. Holworthy at home?" + +The servant-girl nodded and smiled, and Easelmann entered. Mr. Holworthy +was emphatically at home, for he was on all-fours, his three children +riding cock-horse, with merry shouts, varied by harmless tumbles and +laborious clamberings up. Mr. Holworthy rose with a flushed and happy +face, and the children rushed at once to clasp the knees of their +familiar old friend. + +"We all have to come down at times, I believe," said Mr. Holworthy, +smoothing the few thin hairs on his handsomely arched crown. + +"Certainly; a man that can't be a boy with his children deserves to have +none. Now the reason I am a bachelor is that I feared I could never +unbend, being somewhat remarkable for my perpendic"-- + +The word was cut off by a sudden movement; the children in their playful +struggles had, in fact, thrown him down. In a moment more they were on +his back and he trotting round the room with the grace of an elephant. + +"Come, children," said the father, "that was a rough joke. Get off, now, +and go for your bread and milk." + +Rather reluctantly they obeyed, casting wishful glances backward to the +grown-up boy with whom they had hoped to have a frolic. + +"Glad to see you," said Mr. Holworthy. "You have been unsocial, lately." + +"Yes; all the effect of the panic. I am such a butterfly that I seem out +of place in a work-a-day community. I am constantly advised, like the +volatile person in the fable, to learn wisdom from my aunt; but I can't, +for the soul of me." + +"You ought to visit the more, to cheer the wretched and downcast." + +"Oh, but it's a fearful waste of magnetism. Five minutes' talk with a +man who has notes to pay draws all the virtue out of me. It lowers my +vital tone like standing in an ice-house. You feel such a man from afar +like a coming iceberg. _You_ don't have notes to pay? I thought not. I +should go at once." + +"No, my little shop pays its way. I buy for cash. I pay my hands when +they bring in their work, and I have customers enough who ask me for no +credit." + +"Happy man! most fortunate of tailors!--I have been thinking, +Holworthy, among your many benevolent projects, why you never devised +some means of relieving people who are supposed to be in good +circumstances,--a society for ameliorating the condition of the rich." + +"Bless me! the poor are quite numerous enough, and are in unusual +straits just now." + +"I know, and for that reason they are better off than usual. People say, +'How the poor must suffer in these pinching times!' So they double their +charities." + +"Poverty is an ocean without bottom, my friend. All that is given is +like emptying stones into the sea; the waves swallow them and sweep over +as before." + +"True, you can't satisfy the beggars till you drown 'em. Wouldn't +a gentle asphyxia by water, now, be the best thing for some of the +Broad-Street cellarers?" + +"Very likely; but they would probably object to the remedy." + +"But to return to my project. I see some forms of distress that seem to +me far more painful than utter poverty. I won't expatiate, but state a +case. I know a man of good sense and culture, able and willing to do +his part in the world. His employer has failed, so that his salary will +stop. He is unmarried, but has a mother, an invalid, who never stirs out +of doors; and besides has some poor relation or other to support. He has +a house, it is true; so they needn't sleep in the street; but how are +the mouths to be fed, the backs to be clothed?" + +"Let him sell his house and wait till better times for employment." + +"It is easy to say _sell_; but who will buy? A house won't fetch half +its value, and there isn't any money to be had. Besides,--and this is +the hardship,--the pride and the feelings of association cling round a +house that has been consecrated by years of affection and by the memory +of the dead.--I believe I am making an oration; but I despair of +expressing myself." + +"I understand you perfectly; it is sad, indeed." + +"Excuse me, you don't understand me. Some men put off old houses and put +on new ones, like their clothes, without a thought. Others grow into +their habitations and become a part of them. You might as well say to +a lobster, 'Get out of your shell,' when you know that the poor +wretch will die when his naked, quivering members are exposed to the +sharp-edged stones. A delicate nature, proud, but gentle, too sensitive +to accept charity, and doubtful of a friendly service even, suffers more +anguish in one hour, under such circumstances, than your brazen beggar +feels from his dirty cradle to his nameless grave." + +Mr. Holworthy mused. + +"He has nothing to do, then?" + +"Nothing, but to suck his thumbs." + +"Is he willing to work, even if the task should appear irksome?" + +"I haven't a doubt. He has no _false_ pride. Anything honorable would be +welcome." + +"Perhaps I can find something for him to do; it will be temporary, but +its continuance will depend upon himself." + +"And what is it?" + +"In visiting the district which has been allotted to me, I have found an +unusual number of ignorant, vicious boys, cared for by no one, growing +up for the prison or the gallows. I have thought of making some effort +to gather them together and start a ragged school. Some friends have +agreed to provide the means. But the pay would necessarily be small, and +the labor and difficulty great." + +"A teacher of tatterdemalions! It _isn't_ an inviting field of labor." + +"No, to a refined man it must be repulsive. Nothing but the idea of +doing good would make it a pleasure or even endurable." + +"I confess myself utterly without any such motive. I hate poor people, +and ragged children, and sick women, the forlorn wives of drunken +brutes. I shut my eyes to all such odious sights. They say, in a hotel +you must never go into the kitchen, if you would keep your appetite; and +I am sure one must avoid these wretches in the cellar, if he would have +a cheerful view of life in his attic." + +"You are not so hard-hearted as you would have me believe. Somebody must +relieve their distresses." + +"Somebody, too, must cut off legs, and sew up spouting arteries, and +extirpate cancers. Ugh! but I shan't. I leave such jobs to the doctors, +whose ears are familiar with shrieks, and whose appetites are not +disturbed by the sight of blood." + +"So the Levite left the wounded man by the wayside, in disgust at his +bruises: but still the good Samaritan who helped him hadn't a doctor's +degree." + +"Oh, I know. You have me, I acknowledge. But I can't change my temper, +and I shrink from suffering as from death. I would rather bear it than +see it. Society always provides its good Samaritans; and you are one +of them. Don't look modest. I went once through some of those damnable +alleys near Half-Moon Court, the agreeable place where you spend so much +of your leisure. I was looking for a subject to paint. For curiosity, I +asked an urchin if he knew you. He flung his ragged cap twenty feet into +the air, turned a somerset, and came up smiling as well as he could +through the dirt,--'Don't I, though? He brung us meal an' 'taters when +dad broke his leg, and he fetched oranges in his pocket when marm had +the fevers. He's one of 'em, he is.'--Don't interrupt me.--An old +woman, whom I asked, said, 'Do I know Mister 'Olworthy? A blissed saint +in the flesh; my poor ol' bones would 'ave hached many a cold night but +for the blankets he brought me. God in 'eaven reward 'im for that same!' +I spare you the rest of the answers. Oh, you are a saint, without robe +or wings." + +"Hadn't we better come back to the subject," said Mr. Holworthy, in a +mild voice. "We shan't aid your friend in this way." + +"Right, my considerate Mentor. But talk is tempting. I believe I should +forget my errand and let a friend hang, if I got into an argument with +the Governor while he was filling out the pardon." + +"I hope the gentleman you speak of is not so much afraid of contact with +what is disagreeable as you are?" + +"Perhaps not; he has an artistic temperament, and therefore loves what +is comely; but he would go through fire to what he thought his duty." + +"And wouldn't you?" + +"What a question! Go through fire? No, I should bawl for the engine." + +"It's plain, then, that he will answer better than you for the place." + +"No doubt. I shouldn't answer at all. I tell you I never talk with these +creatures. I can't. If an old woman stops me, with her dried-apple face +and whining voice, I give her a sixpence and tell her to hush up and +go about her business. I fling coppers to the boys with slit breeches +before they ask me, for I know they will tell me of mothers sick with +consumption. Their devilish tears are contagious; and I can't cry; it +chokes me. So I buy apples and oranges from the imploring-looking +girls; it's the easiest way of getting rid of them. The little change +don't amount to much in a day, and I save my nerves and my digestion at +a cheap rate." + +Mr. Holworthy smiled at Easelmann's notion of his own hard-heartedness, +and said, hesitatingly,-- + +"I am afraid that some professedly charitable persons don't do so much." + +"Of course they don't. I don't mean that I do anything. It's pure +selfishness on my part, as I told you. But you may feel pretty sure, +that, if a man's name is always in the papers, as 'our estimable +fellow-citizen, President This, Director That, and Treasurer T'other,' +he 'does not give indiscriminate alms':--I believe that is the phrase. +Perhaps he won't rob, like my friend Sandford; but his 'disinterested +labors' are an economical substitute for substantial charity, and his +desire for a place in the public eye is the mainspring of all his +actions." + +"Most of the distress in the community is relieved by organized effort; +individual charities, however well meant, would be entirely inadequate. +Besides, you should not be severe upon all because one prominent person +has proved unworthy." + +"Sandford is a type of the class. If there is anybody I hate worse than +a sick beggar, it is a man who makes a trade of philanthropy." + +"And yet you are consenting to your friend's earning a living by +teaching a ragged school." + +"True, one may stop at any place in a storm, just for shelter." + +"And you can console yourself further with the assurance that your +friend won't make enough in this place to induce him to take up the +'trade,' as you call it." + +"I hope not. Starve him judiciously. If he should come out, after a +year or so, with a white neckcloth, spectacles, and a sanctified face, +soliciting aid for his school, in Pecksniffian tones, I should regret +that I hadn't furnished him with a cord and a bag of stones to drop +himself into the dock with." + +"I don't know why a teacher or a street-missionary may not be a +gentleman." + +"Sure enough, why not? Whatever Walter Monroe is, he will always be a +gentleman." + +"Suppose you bring him to see me to-morrow or next day; we will talk +about this." + +"I will. Now, good-bye! My regrets to the children that we couldn't +finish our romp." + +"Good-bye," said Holworthy. "Come again; the children will be glad to +see you." + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +As Mr. Sandford walked homeward, the streets seemed to close up behind +him; he was shut out from the scenes of his activity, no more to return; +State Street was henceforth for him a thing of memory. He had played his +game there, while admirers and friends watched his far-seeing moves. He +had lost; and now, after checkmate, he must resign his place. How he +struggled against the idea! He could not bring himself to acknowledge +that the past was irretrievable. His spirit seemed in prison, shut in as +by the bars of a dungeon, against which he might tug and rage in vain. + +At home, dinner was on the table, waiting for him. As he entered the +hall, he met his sister-in-law. She saw the fatal news in his face, and +with a sinking heart gave him her usual greeting. Marcia took her place +at the table, but with less animation than usual. Charles sat down with +his studied indifference. Each one seemed to be absorbed in separate +spheres of thought, and the courses came on and were removed in painful +silence. At last Mr. Sandford spoke. + +"I suppose I need not tell you that it is all over." + +"All over!" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Yes,--I have failed; so has Fayerweather; so has Stearine." + +"Failed?" said Marcia, in an incredulous tone. "I thought it was the +great people,--I mean people in business, or with estates, that failed." + +"Well, have I not been in business?" + +"Yes,--as secretary, and you have a salary. How can a man with a salary +fail?" + +"Quite easily. Suppose the Vortex fails? My salary would stop." + +"That isn't failing, is it? Then Pompey might fail, if he didn't get his +pay for brushing your boots." + +Mr. Sandford gave a contemptuous look. + +"That shows how much you know about business." + +"I never did know about your business; nor does anybody, I believe. I +never could understand how, with your little property, you had these +'transactions,' as you call them, where you owed people and people owed +you so many thousands." + +"It is not necessary for you to know. Women can't understand these +things." + +"But women feel their effects, and it's a pity they could not learn +about what concerns them." + +"Will it change your situation at once?" asked Mrs. Sandford of her +brother. + +"I can't say; probably not at once; but without some aid, all I have +must go." + +"What! the house?" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Yes,--the house, Marcia, and the furniture. We shall be stripped." + +"The deuse!" said Charles. + +"Heaven help us! what shall we do?" + +"I haven't had time to form any plan. I trust, indeed, that Heaven will +help us, as you rather lightly wished." + +His face wore a touching look of faith and resignation, while at the +same time his hand rested with secret satisfaction upon his pocket-book. + +The conversation was disagreeable to Charles, and he sauntered off to +the drawing-room. + +Mrs. Sandford inwardly determined to return to her home, or at least +to go elsewhere in the city, so as not to be a burden to her +brother-in-law; but she remained silent. Mr. Sandford balanced his +knife, sliced his bread into figures, then hummed and beat a tattoo upon +the table,--sure indications of forgetfulness in one so scrupulous +as he. At length, with a bland voice, but a sharp, inquiring eye, he +said,-- + +"How is it about this painter, Marcia? Are you going to marry him?" + +She looked fixedly, as she replied,-- + +"Why do you ask? You know I am going to marry him." + +"Oh, it's settled, is it? You know, sister, you have had similar +intentions before,--several times, in fact,--intentions that haven't +come to much." + +She did not answer further; a flush of anger came, then went, leaving +her pale face with a rather sterner expression. + +"While I was prosperous, I was not disposed to be mercenary; though I +did think you were not worldly-wise. Now that I am destitute, you can +see that to marry a man not worth a dollar, and with a precarious +profession, is not what it would have been." + +"Mr. Greenleaf earns a good income, doesn't he?" + +"He hasn't sold a picture, except to friends whom I persuaded to buy." + +"You have friends and influence still?" + +"I don't know; a man's friends don't last long after his money is gone. +Besides, nobody wants to buy now. Raphael himself couldn't sell a +picture here till times improve. A painter is a pretty butterfly for +fine weather; what is he to do with his flimsy wings in such a hurricane +as this?" + +"I think I understand you, Brother Henry. You begin afar off; but I +know what you are coming to. You want to bring up that odious Denims +again,--a man whom I hate, and whom you yourself would show out of +doors, like a vagrant, if it were not for his money!" + +The effort exhausted her, and she breathed painfully. + +"You think yourself quick. I haven't mentioned Denims. In fact, you have +treated him in such a way that I am quite sure he would never trouble +himself to be even civil to you again." + +"I am glad of it,--the fool!" + +"Sister Marcia, I have borne much from your turbulent temper. You are a +spoiled child. Fortune has let you have your own way hitherto; so much +the worse for you. But circumstances have changed. I can no longer +supply you as though you were a duchess. In fact, I don't know what +may be before us. I hope no actual want. [_Another grip of the +pocket-book_.] But I advise you to consider whether it is for the +interest of a dependent woman to go out of her way to thwart and insult +me." + +"You would compel me, then, and threaten starvation as the alternative?" + +"What odiously blunt language you use!" + +"I only translated your roundabout phrases as I understood them." + +"You need not be violent." + +"You cannot cajole me by soft words, when your purposes are so obvious. +You think Denims may save the wreck of your fortune; and you are willing +to sacrifice me, if he were ten times the brute he is, to further your +ends. But I shall marry Greenleaf." + +"Greenleaf will be a powerful protector! I doubt if he can raise money +enough to pay the clergyman for marrying you! He will be without a +shilling in a month, if he is not now. Go to him, Sister Marcia. I +would, now. You can live in his attic studio, you know. In such a +romantic place you would never be hungry, of course." + +Mrs. Sandford interposed,-- + +"Don't, Henry! This is not the way." + +Marcia's eyes flashed through her tears, as she answered,-- + +"You say _you_ are ruined,--that the house and furniture must go. How +much better off shall I be here?" + +"Well, you have your choice." + +"And when the time comes, I shall take it." + +Sobs and tears followed, but her lips were firm and her hands clenched. + +"As you please, sister." + +"You come home ill-tempered, and the rage which you could not or dared +not give vent to in the street you pour out here." + +"Perhaps you would have been pleased, if I had not come home at all?" + +"I'm sure we should have been quite as happy without you." + +"Very well. I may leave you, yet." + +"I don't care how soon." + +New sobs and a firmer pressure of the lips. + +Oddly enough, at that moment, Mr. Sandford was summoned to the +drawing-room, where a man was waiting for him. Fearful of the result, he +went to his own room, first, and left the precious pocketbook, and then +descended to the hall. + +Notwithstanding the words she had spoken, Marcia waited with breathless +anxiety her brother's return; for the sound of voices, in earnest, if +not angry, conversation, rose through the house. Presently he came back +with a look his face seldom wore,--a fierce look that transformed his +handsome features to a fiend's. + +"You have your wish, Sister Marcia,"--and the words were shot out like +fiery arrows,--"I am to leave you, and go to jail." + +"To jail?" exclaimed both at once, in terror. + +"Yes,--to jail. Gratifying to you, I suppose. 'Tis to me,--very." + +"What is the meaning of this?" asked Mrs. Sandford. + +"It means, that one of my creditors pretends to believe that I am about +to abscond, and has had me arrested, that I may give bail not to run +away with an empty pocket." + +"Can't you get out?" + +"Some time, undoubtedly; but not till I give bail." + +"For how much?"-- + +"Twenty thousand dollars." + +"Can't you get some one to become security?" + +"I don't know. Perhaps I might get Greenleaf!" + +Marcia winced, but did not answer the taunt. + +"Good-bye, my dear and independent sister!" + +Marcia turned her back upon him, confounded between sorrow and +resentment. + +Crowding his hat over his eyes, Mr. Sandford left his house and walked +with the officer towards Cambridge Street. + +"Gone to jail!" exclaimed Charles, returning, "How doosid awkward! What +a jolly wow it will make when it gets about town! By gwacious, if you +aren't cwying! Go to bed, both of you; I'll go to the club." + +He went accordingly; and the women, who could ill console each other, +were about to go to their own rooms when the door-bell rang again. + +"What next, I wonder?" asked Marcia, in despair. + +"Please, Ma'am," said the servant, "there's a man at the door, who looks +quare, and says, if he can't see Mr. Sandford, he must see you." + +"Tell him I am ill,--and besides, I don't transact my brother's +business." + +"Yes'm." + +But she soon returned with a new message. The man would not go. Mrs. +Sandford at once went to the hall to learn what was the matter, leaving +Marcia trembling in every limb. The conversation was not carried on in +whispers; in fact, Marcia heard every word. + +"Sorry to disturb you, Ma'am, especially as Mr. Sandford isn't at home; +but duty is duty, and must be 'tended to. My orders is, to 'tach the +furnitur', and stay till I git a receipter." + +Mrs. Sandford's reply was inaudible. The voice proceeded:-- + +"Can't help it, Ma'am. Won't be back to-night, won't he? Bad, cert'in. +But duty is duty, as I said afore. I'll bunk here on the sofy, an' +to-morror we'll see what's to be done." + +Another pause. + +"Oh, you won't run off 'ith anythin'? I s'pose not. But duty is duty, +as I said afore, and I must mind orders. 'Stick by till you git a +receipter,' sez he. 'I will,' sez I,--an' I must.--Never mind about +bedclose. I c'n sleep jest ez I be. You jest go up-stairs. I'll make +myself 't home." + +Glad to be out of the society of the officer, Mrs. Sandford started to +go upstairs, but was recalled by the voice. + +"I say, Ma'am! A long night afore a chap, all by himself." + +Mrs. Sandford trembled with mingled terror and rage. + +"No 'bjection to light the gaas, I 'spose, so's't a feller can read a +paper? Thought o' that, and brought the 'York Herald' and 'Clipper.' If +you don't like tobarker, you c'n shet your doors and the smell won't git +in." + +"Do what you like. I can't prevent you." + +"Oh, well, no 'fence, I hope? Good-night, Ma'am." + +Mrs. Sandford found Marcia walking about the room in great excitement. + +"The odious wretch!" exclaimed Marcia. "If Henry were only here, or even +Charles, he should be horsewhipped, pitched out of the house. To sleep +with his dirty clothes on my sofa! I'm glad it's to be sold. I never +could touch the filthy thing again. Then his pipe! Good heavens, what is +to be done? The abominable wretch! I smell the tobacco now, worse than +an Irishman's. The smoke will be all through the house. Faugh! it +suffocates, nauseates me!" + +"Be calm, Marcia. We will go to the upper chambers, shut the doors, and +open the windows for fresh air. It's only for one night. We can't go +away, you know; and we can't get the fellow away, of course." + +"I wish I had died when I was sick. This disgrace, this infamy, this +shocking barbarity, is worse than death. What are we to do? and where +are we to go? Ruin is a light thing to talk about, I have read of ruin +in the papers, until it has become a matter of course;--I begin to know +what it means." + +It was a changeful, terrible beauty that beamed on her face. She looked +like an inspired priestess before the altar,--then like Norma in +her despair,--then like the maddened Medea in Rachel's thrilling +impersonation. Then disgust and fright overcame her, and her sensitive +womanly nature bore sway. It was more than she could bear, this +accumulation of misfortune, disgrace, and insult. Her soul rebelled, +contended desperately with fate, till, overcome, she sank into her +chair, and suffered herself to be led to her room. + +Shut up in their retreat, the women waited for the morning with +sleepless eyes, or with only transient lapses of consciousness. Sometime +after midnight, they were startled by the sound of a body falling +heavily in the hall, and, an instant after, by the shout of "Burglars! +thieves!" They rushed to the staircase in extreme fright, and soon +learned the cause. The wary officer evidently did not believe the tale +that had been told him respecting the absence of Mr. Sandford; and, that +nobody should go out or in without his knowledge, he had drawn the sofa +across the hall, completely cutting off all passage. A small jet of gas +was left burning. Charles, returning late from the club in a mild stage +of inebriation, entered the house by means of his latch-key, not without +difficulty, and at once fell headlong over the sofa, and the worthy +official sleeping thereon. When he heard the cry of "Burglars!" it +occurred to him that he must have been knocked down by one of the gang; +and he joined his own voice to the uproar,-- + +"BuggLARS! buggLARS!" + +An instant after, there was a grip on his collar. + +"Now I got ye, ye vill'in! What ye doin' on here?" + +"What _you_ doin' on, you rasc'l, inagen'l'm'n'shouse thistim'o'night?" + +"Arnswer me, you scoundrel, breakin' into a peaceful dwellin'!" + +"Tha'swhat_I_wan'to know.--How'd _you_com'ere? What'syerbusiness? +Le'gomycollar. I'lsen'forp'lice. Le'go!" + +Tipsy as he was, he managed to give his assailant a pretty substantial +token of regard under the ear, with his knuckles. + +"Now young'un, you're drunk! I won't hit you back, 'cause a case for +manslaughter might be expensive. How'd you break in here, when you are +so drunk you can't stand? I don't see how you could get in with the door +open." + +"Noneo'yerimp'r'ence! Cl'out! Adecen'bugglar'sbad'nough; +yousmokerot'nt'baccah. G'off! youdirtybugg_lar!_" + +"Young chap, it's time to stop this nonsense, or I'll have you in the +watch-house in no time. Who are you? and how came you here?" + +"Tha'sit; who _are_ you? tha'swhat_I_wan'know." + +"Charles!" (_from above_.) + +"WhocallsCh'rl's? HereIam. Igott'afellah, the bugg_lar_. Callp'lice! +P'LICE!" + +"Charles!" (_once more_.) + +"Do you belong here, young chap?" + +"B'long'ere? 'vcourseIdo; wherethedevilsh'dIb'long?" + +"You are not Mr. Sandford?" + +"Howd'yeknowIa'n't? I _am_ Mis'rr-Sanf'd." + +"You are Mr. Sandford's brother, are you?" + +"No, Mis'rr Sanf'd's _my_ bro'rr." + +"Well, if you've got brains enough to understand, listen to me." + +"I'm all 'tensh'n, 's Balaam said to th'ass. G'on, ol' fellah!--an' then +g'off!" + +"I am an officer, sent to 'tach your brother's furnitur' and stuff; and +as there's nobody here to go bail, I hed to stay and look arter things." + +"H'mushbailyewant? I'llgi'bail. An' I'll plankzemoney. +I'vegotsev'ndollars'n'alf." + +"Charles!" (_the third time_.) + +"Wha'nyewant?" + +"They want you to go to bed, where you b'long." + +"Gotobed? 'llseeyoudam'f'st! Leave'nofficer'nth'ouse? Guessnot!" + +"Young'un, I say, take your hand out of my neckhan'kercher! Hold up! +None o' yer chokin' games! Quit, I say! or, by hokey, I'll settle ye!" + +"_Thought_sh'dmakeyesquawk, ol't'bacc'worm! Go'n'tocl'out? +Go'n'tovacateprem'scs?" + +"Ooo-arr-awkk!" said the man, under the pressure of a tightening cravat, +at the same time giving the assailant "a settler," as he had threatened. +The two unfortunate women had hitherto looked down upon the conflict, as +celestial beings might upon the affairs of men, with no small degree of +interest, but clad in robes too ethereal to descend. But when they saw +Charles felled to the floor, and a deathlike silence ensued, they forgot +their fears, and rushed down the stairs. The officer had already raised +Charles up. He was stunned, senseless, and his face was covered with +blood. + +"You brute! you have murdered him!" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Guess not, Ma'am. Wet his head in col' water, put him to bed, an' he'll +sleep it off." + +"It's useless to talk to such a fellow," whispered Mrs. Sandford; +"besides, we want his aid to carry Charles upstairs." + +"Ye see, I couldn't help it, Ma'am. He nigh about choked me to death, +and I give him fair warnin'." + +"Never mind now about the quarrel," said Mrs. Sandford; "you help him +upstairs to his room, and we'll bathe his head." + +While the officer was carrying the young man up-stairs, Mrs. Sandford +put on a shawl, and, by the time he had reached the second flight, she +opened a door, and lighted the gas with a taper, saying,-- + +"In here, if you please. My brother Henry's room is the most +convenient." + +The officer's eyes twinkled. + +"So this is Mr. Sandford's room?" + +"Yes, but he is absent, as you were told before. Lay Charles on the bed, +if you please. There, that will do. I will attend to him now. You can +return to the lower story." + +"In a minit, Ma'am. Duty is duty, and this 'ere accident saves some +trouble," casting sharp glances around the room. + +The facts, that Sandford had drawn from the bank, and that he had +borrowed from Tonsor, were known to the creditors. The officer had +determined, therefore, to make what search he could for the money. The +unlooked-for accident had given him the opportunity he wanted. + +"What do you mean, Sir? Go back to your place." + +"Softly, Ma'am, softly! Duty is duty; an' 'f any damage is done, I'm +responsible." + +His eyes fastened upon a dressing-case that lay on a table near the +mirror,--apparently the last article handled by the occupant of the +room. + +"No robbery, Ma'am," said he, opening the case, and taking out its +contents. "Razors and brushes, and such like, is personal, and not +subject to levy; but these, Ma'am, you see, air." + +He held up a pocket-book full of bank-notes. + +"I'll count 'em before you, Ma'am, if you please, so's there'll be no +mistake. Thirteen thousand! A pretty good haul! I'll go down, now. If +anythin's wantin' for the chap when he comes to, jest le'me know." + +With a gleam of intense satisfaction on his sharp and vulgar features, +the officer descended the stairs. + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +John Fletcher sat by his fireside, reading the evening papers. The +failures of the day, of course, engaged his attention; among them, those +of Sandford and his associates were not unexpected. His little wife sat +by him, fondling the weakly baby. + +"Old Sandford has gone by the board, ducky. Good enough for him! He's +come to grief, as he deserved. He'll never trouble me any more." + +"I'm afraid a good many more'll come to grief, as you say, before this +panic is over." + +"Some, of course; the dead trees, and the worm-eaten, powder-posted +ones, will fall in the high winds, naturally. But old Bullion is +safe. No rotten hollow in his old white-oak trunk;--sound as a ship's +mainmast." + +"Is it Bullion who owes you?" + +"Yes. I have his notes for ten thousand dollars; and our next +settlement, I calculate, will give me as much more." + +"Why don't you get your pay?" + +"What should I do with it, my duck? I couldn't lend it to anybody safer. +If I deposit, the bank is as likely to fail as he. As long as he has the +whole capital to swing, he will make the more for us both." + +"I would rather have the money." + +"That shows how little you know about it." + +"I know, if you had it, and didn't lend it nor speculate with it, you +couldn't lose it." + +"Now, ducky, don't interfere. You take care of babies nicely. Let me +manage my own affairs." + +"You always treat me like a child that has to be petted with +sugar-plums." + +"That's because you are a child. What the devil does a woman know about +business?" + +The "ducky" cried a little, and was quite sure that John would go on and +risk what he had, till he lost all. + +"Little woman, none of your blubbering! It annoys me. Am I to be +harassed by business all day, and have no peace when I come home?" + +He settled himself to read the papers, once more, and the wife picked up +the fretful, puny infant, and retreated to the kitchen, where she could +indulge her sorrow without rebuke or interruption. + +Presently, Bullion entered, though not unexpected; for he had given +Fletcher an intimation, that, in order to have a private interview, he +would endeavor to see him at home. + +"Nice little box," said the capitalist, looking around. "Any babies?" + +"One," said Fletcher. + +"Boy or girl?" + +"A girl." + +"Bad. Girls always an expense. Dress, piano, parties, and d--d nonsense. +Boys, you put 'em into harness and work 'em till they're willing to +_eat_ their wild oats; he! he!" + +The eyebrow flourished over the jocose idea; the stony eye glittered a +moment like a revolving light, and then relapsed into darkness. + +"However, I have but one, and I think I can make her comfortable." + +"Yes, my boy, quite comfortable. Let me see, I owe you ten thousand. How +does the new account stand?" + +"Here are the figures, taken from Tonsor's book," said Fletcher. +"Seventy-nine thousand eight hundred and forty-three. Ten per cent. to +me is seven thousand nine hundred and eighty-four." + +"A big pile of money, Fletcher." + +"Yours, you mean? Yes, seventy thousand and odd is a big pile." + +"Yours,--I meant yours." + +"Why, yes," replied Fletcher, indifferently, "a good fair sum, for a man +that hadn't any before." + +"Don't you think, now, Fletcher, that the ten thousand pays you for all +you've done? Isn't it enough for a month or two's work?" + +"I think I am paid when I get what was agreed on," replied Fletcher, +stoutly. + +The eyebrow was raised with a deprecatory, inquiring look. + +"Why, Fletcher, sharp's the word, is it?" + +"That's what you said, when we started." + +"Suppose I pay you the notes and a thousand or two more, and we call it +square? Then you salt down what you got." + +"And you propose to haul off from operating?" + +"Well, no, I can't say I do. I may try the bulls another fall or two. +But you haven't anything else. If we lose, you are smashed. I have other +property to fall back on." + +"So it's merely to do me a kindness and make me safe and snug that you +propose to keep back the six thousand that belong to me?" + +"You put it rather strong, youngster. I didn't agree to pay till the +scheme was carried out. But we've done better than we 'xpected, and, to +take you out of danger, I offered to pay part down. In a business as +ticklish as stocks, you don't expect a man to come down with the ready +without a consideration?" + +"You know you could never have kept the run of the market, if it hadn't +been for me; and the ten per cent. is no more than a fair share. This +isn't a matter of dollars altogether, though dollars are useful, but of +information, activity, brains." + +"Well, remember, young man, I offer you now twelve thousand. If anything +happens, don't squawk nor play baby." + +"Why, you're not going to fail?" + +"No,--not if the world don't tip over." + +"And you're going on with your operations?" + +"Yes,--till the wind shifts. It's due east yet." + +"Well, I think the ship that carries you is safe enough for me. Make me +the notes, and let the operations go on another week." + +With an increased respect for his agent, when he found that he could +neither humbug nor frighten him, Bullion filled out and signed the +notes. Next they reviewed the stock-market, and decided upon the course +to be pursued. Bullion then fell into a profound meditation, and did not +speak for five minutes, though the busy eyebrow showed that his mind was +not lost in vacancy. At last he started up, saying,-- + +"I must go. But, Fletcher, any _reason_ why you particularly wanted to +pay Sandford that thousand, to-day?" + +Fletcher turned pale, and his heart rose in his mouth. + +"No,--no reason,--that is--he wanted it--I--I was willing to oblige"-- + +"No matter about reasons," said Bullion, with a quiet air. "I never +tread on people's corns. Only when it's wanted let me know. You see he +went by the board. He begged me to save him. How could I? I've done +enough for other people. Must take care of number one, now. Kerbstone, +he begs, too. I shan't help him." + +Fletcher felt relieved; at the same time he determined without delay to +make a new effort to get the fatal evidence of his former crime into his +own possession. + +"Oh," said Bullion, as if he had forgotten something, "the wife and +baby, let's see 'em." + +Fletcher called his wife, who came in timidly, and shrank from the +fierce look of the man of money. + +"How d'e do, Ma'am? Your servant, Ma'am. Glad to see you. But the baby?" + +"Fetch the baby, lovey," said Fletcher. + +Baby was brought, smiling with as little reason as possible, and winking +very hard in the light. + +"Pretty dear!" said Bullion, chucking her under the chin. + +"I wonder what the devil this means," thought Fletcher. + +How was his surprise increased when, after a moment, Bullion inquired,-- + +"Teeth cut yet? Some of 'em, I see. More to come. Want something to +bite, little one?" + +He pulled out his purse and gave the child three or four large gold +pieces. The little hands could not hold them, and they fell on the +carpet, rolling in different directions. Bullion left hastily, with a +quick nod and a clipped "Good-bye." + +"Well, I vow!" said Fletcher, with a long breath. "It's well he didn't +stay to pick 'em up; they'd 'ave stuck to his fingers like wax. He +couldn't have let 'em alone." + +"What a good man he is!" said the overjoyed little woman. + +"_Good_ man! He's crazy. Old Bullion giving away gold pieces to a baby! +He's lost his wits, sure. He never gave away a sixpence before in his +life. Oh, he's cracked, without a doubt. I must keep watch of him. When +_he_ grows generous, there's something wrong." + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE WATERFALL. + + + Down across the green and sunny meadow, + Where the grass hangs thick with glistening dew,-- + In the birch-wood's flickering light and shadow, + Where, between green leaves, the sun shines through,-- + + Plunging deeper in the wood's dark coolness, + Where the path grows rougher and more steep, + Where the trees stand thick in leafy fulness, + And the moss lies green in shadows deep:-- + + Hark! the wind amid the tree-tops rushing + In a sudden gust along the hills!-- + No,--the leaves are still,--'tis water gushing + From some hidden haunt of mountain-rills. + + Upward through the rugged pathway struggling, + Loud and louder yet the music grows; + Near and nearer still, the water's gurgling + Guides me where o'er moss-grown rocks it flows. + + Breathless, for its welcome coolness thirsting, + On I haste, led by the rushing sound, + Till upon my full sight sudden bursting, + Lo, the forest's hidden treasure found! + + See the gathered waters madly leaping, + Plunging from the rocks in headlong chase, + Boiling, eddying, whirling, downward sweeping + All that meets them in their foaming race! + + From the broken waters riseth ever, + Fresh and cool, a soft and cloud-like spray; + And where through the boughs slant sunbeams quiver, + On the mist the sudden rainbows play. + + On a branch high o'er the torrent swinging + Sits a bird, with joyful-swelling throat;-- + Only to the eye and heart he's singing; + Through the roar below I hear no note. + + All the forest seems as if enchanted, + Seems to lie in wondrous stillness bound; + Hushed its voices, silenced and supplanted, + Interwoven with this ceaseless sound. + + Gazing on the whirl of waters meeting, + Dizzy with its rush, I stand and dream, + Till it almost seems my own heart's beating, + And no more the voice of mountain-stream. + + + + +THE WINTER-BIRDS. + + +We are prone to set an extraordinary value upon all sources of pleasure +that arrive in a season when they are few and unexpected. Hence the +peculiar charm of the early flowers of spring, and of those equally +delightful flowers that come up to cheer the short and melancholy days +of November. The winter-birds, though they do not sing, are, on the same +account, particularly interesting. The Chicadees and the little speckled +Woodpeckers, that tarry with us in midwinter, and make the still cold +days lively and cheerful by their merry voices, are, in animated nature, +what flowers would be in inanimate nature, if they were found blooming +under the snow. Nature does not permit, at any season, an entire dearth +of those sources of enjoyment that spring from observation of the +external world; and as there are evergreen mosses and ferns that supply +in winter the places of the absent flowers, in like manner there are +chattering birds that linger in the wintry woods; and Nature has +multiplied the echoes at this season, that their few and feeble voices +may be repeated by their lively responses among the hills. + +To those who look upon Nature with the feelings of a poet or a painter, +we need not speak of the value of the winter-birds as enliveners of the +landscape. Any circumstance connected with scenery, that exercises our +feelings of benevolence, adds to the picturesque charms of a prospect; +and no man can see a little bird, or any other animal, at this time, +without feeling a lively interest in its welfare. The sight of a flock +of Snow-Buntings descending, like a shower of meteors, upon a field +of grass, and eagerly devouring the seeds contained in its drooping +pannicles that extend above the snow-drifts,--of a company of Crows +rejoicing with noisy sociability over some newly-discovered feast in the +pine-wood,--of the party-colored Woodpeckers winding round the trees +and hammering upon their trunks,--all these, and many other sights +and sounds, are associated with our ideas of the happiness of these +creatures; and while our benevolent feelings are thus agreeably +exercised, the objects that cause our emotions add a positive charm to +the dreary aspects of winter. These reflections have always led me to +regard the birds and other interesting animals as having a value to +mankind not to be estimated in dollars and cents, and which is entirely +independent of any services they may render to the farmer or the +orchardist by preventing the over-multiplication of noxious insects. + +The greater number of small birds that remain in northern latitudes +during winter, except the Woodpeckers and their congeners, are such as +subsist chiefly upon seeds. Those insectivorous species that gather +their food chiefly from the ground are under a particular necessity of +migrating. Hence the common Robin, living entirely on insects and a +little fruit, that serves him rather as a dessert than as substantial +fare, a bird that never feeds upon grain or seeds of any kind, but +devours the insects that are found upon the surface of the soil, cannot +subsist in our latitude, except in open winters. During such favorable +seasons, the Robins are able to collect vast quantities of dormant +insects from the open ground. These birds always endeavor to keep on the +outside of extensive snows; and if in any year, very early in November, +a large quantity of snow should fall in the latitude of New Jersey and +Pennsylvania, while north of it the ground remained uncovered, the +Robins would be retarded in their journey and tarry with us in unusual +numbers. A great many of them must perish of hunger, or be reduced to +the necessity of feeding on the berries of the Viburnum and Juniper, +should they be overtaken by an extensive and enduring snow that cuts off +their journey of emigration. + +The Woodpeckers and their allied species, though insectivorous, are not +thus affected by the winter. Gathering all their food, consisting of +larvae and insects, from the bark and wood of trees, the snow cannot +conceal it or place it beyond their reach. The quantity of this kind of +food is less than in summer, but the birds can obtain it with about +the same facility at all times, because other species of birds are +diminished, which in summer divide with them this spoil. Hence, +Woodpeckers, Creepers, and Tomtits do not migrate. They simply scatter +more widely over the country, instead of keeping in the woods, and thus +accommodate themselves to their more limited supplies of food. The +Swallow tribes, that catch their food in the air, are the first to +migrate, because the swarms of insects are vastly diminished by the +early frosts of autumn. + +It is not often that we are led to reflect upon the extreme loneliness +that would prevail in all solitary places in winter, were all the birds +to migrate at this season to a warmer climate, or to sink into a state +of torpidity, like frogs, dormice, and other small animals. But Nature, +to preserve the pleasantness of this season, has endowed certain +birds with power to endure the severest cold, and with the faculty of +providing for their wants at a time when it would seem that there was +not sustenance enough among the hidden stores of the season to keep them +from starvation. The woodman, however insensible he may be to the charms +of all such objects, is gladdened and encouraged in his toils by the +sight of these sprightly creatures, some of which, like the Jay and the +Woodpecker, are adorned with the most beautiful plumage, and are all +pleasantly garrulous, filling the otherwise silent woods with constant +and vociferous merriment. + +In my early days, for the supposed benefit of my health, I passed a +winter in Tennessee, and, being unoccupied, except with my studies, I +spent a great portion of my time in botanical and zoölogical excursions +in the woods adjoining the city of Nashville. It was during that season +I experienced the full power of the winter-birds to give life and beauty +to the scenes of Nature; for, though not one was heard to sing, they +seemed as active and as full of merriment as in the early summer. The +birds that most particularly attracted my attention at this time +were the Woodpeckers, of which several species were very numerous. +Conspicuous among them was the Pileated Woodpecker, (_Picus pilcaius_,) +a bird with rusty-black plumage, a red crest and moustaches, and a white +stripe on each side of the neck,--one of the largest of the tribe. His +loud croaking note was heard at all times in the deep woods, and his +great size and his frequent hammering upon the resounding boles of the +trees attracted every one's attention. + +A more beautiful, but smaller species, was the Redheaded Woodpecker, +(_P. erythrocephalus_,) with head, neck, and throat of crimson, and +other parts of his plumage variously marked with white and changeable +blue. This species, though never seen in Eastern Massachusetts, is a +common resident in this latitude, west of the Green-Mountain range. The +birds of this species were very numerous, during my excursions, and the +woods were constantly flushing with their bright colors as they flitted +among the trees. They were sometimes joined by another species, hardly +less beautiful, the Redbreasted Woodpecker (_P. Caroliniensis_). + +It is impossible to describe the charm which these birds afforded to +the otherwise solitary woods. The loud croaking of the Log-cock, the +cackling screams of the Redheaded Woodpecker, and the solemn, +tolling note of the Redbreast, blended with the occasional cooing of +Turtle-doves, formed a sylvan charm, that made my winter-rambles, at +this period, as interesting as any I ever pursued in summer or autumn. + +In our latitude, after the first flight of snow has covered the ground, +the winter-birds, pressed by hunger, are compelled to make extensive +forages in quest of food. Hence our attention is more closely +attracted to them at this time, as many parties of them will visit our +neighborhood in the course of the day, when if no snow had fallen, they +would have confined themselves to a more limited range. One of the +most attractive sights on such occasions is caused by the flocks of +Snow-Buntings, which are particularly gregarious in their habits. In +Sweden they are called "Bad-Weather-Birds," because they are mostly seen +when the fallen snow has caused them to roam from place to place, in +quest of their subsistence. They are far from being birds of ill-omen, +however, as we see them commonly when the storm is past. Few sights are +more picturesque than these flocks of Snow-Buntings, whirling with the +subsiding winds, and moving as if they were guided by an eddying breeze, +now half-concealed by the direction in which they meet the rays of the +sun, then suddenly flashing with a simultaneous turn they present the +under white side of their wings to the light of heaven. The power which +these diminutive creatures seem to possess, of enduring the cold of +winter, and of contending with the storm, attaches to their appearance +a quality which is allied to sublimity. I cannot look upon them, +therefore, in any other view than as important parts in that +ever-changing picture of light, motion, and beauty, with which Nature +benevolently consoles for those evils which are assigned by fate to all +the inhabitants of the earth. + +The common Snow-Birds (_Fringilla nivalis_) are more interesting as +individuals, but they are never seen in compact flocks. They go usually +in scattered parties, and appear in Massachusetts about the middle of +autumn, arriving from Canada and Labrador, where they spend the summer. +They have many of the habits of the common Hair-Bird, (_Fringilla +socialis_,) assembling around our houses and barns, and picking up +crumbs of bread and other fragments of food. They differ entirely +from the Buntings in their appearance, the latter being called +White Snow-Birds, to distinguish them from the others, which are +slate-colored. These birds are quite as remarkable, however, for their +power of enduring the cold, and of sustaining the force of the tempest. +In the midst of a snow-storm, they may often be seen sporting, as it +were, in the very whirlpool of the driving snows, and alighting upon the +tall sedges and weeds, and eagerly gathering the produce. The Hemp-Bird +often joins their parties, and his cheerful and well-known twitter may +be heard, as he hurriedly flits from one bush to another, hunting for +the seeds of the golden-rods and asters. + +The cause of the migration of these birds from their native northern +latitudes is not, probably, the severe cold of those regions, but the +deep snows that bury up their cereal stores at a very early period. But +even if the grounds in those cold latitudes were only partially covered, +these birds must scatter themselves over a wide extent of territory, in +proportion as their food becomes less abundant. They live principally +upon seeds, and hence their forages are made chiefly in the tilled +lands, where the weeds afford them an abundance of food. The negligence +of the tiller of the soil is, therefore, a great gain to the small +birds, by leaving a supply of seeds in the annual grasses that grow +thriftily with his crops. + +Among these flocks of Snow-Birds, a few individuals of the common +Hair-Bird (_Fringilla socialis_) may frequently be seen. The majority of +this species migrate to a more open clime; but sufficient numbers remain +to entitle them to be included with other Snow-Birds of the Finch tribe. +He is one of the smallest of the Sparrows, of a brownish ash color +above, and grayish white beneath. He wears a little cap or turban of +brown velvet on his head, and by this mark he is readily distinguished +from his kindred Sparrows. Relying on his diminutive size for his +security, he comes quite up to our door-step, mindless of the people who +are assembled round it, and, fearless of danger, picks up the crumbs +that are scattered there. He may be seen at all seasons of the year, +though his voice is not heard in the spring so early as that of the +Song-Sparrow or the Blue-Bird. He lives chiefly on seeds, though, +like other granivorous birds, he feeds his young with grubs and small +insects. This is a general practice with the granivorous tribes, in +order to provide their young with soft and digestible food before they +are strong enough to digest the hard, coriaceous seed. Nature has formed +an exception in the Pigeon tribe; but has compensated them by providing +that the parent bird shall soften the food in her own crop before it is +given to the tender young. From the peculiar manner in which the young +are fed comes the epithet, "sucking doves." + +It is common to speak disparagingly of the little Hair-Bird, as if he +were good for nothing, without beauty and without song, and, what is of +still more consequence in the eyes of the sordid epicure, too small to +be eaten, his weight of flesh not being worth a charge of powder and +shot. We can never sufficiently rejoice that there are some birds +too small to excite the avaricious feelings of these knights of the +fowling-piece and the rifle. The Hair-Bird is not to be despised, +except by epicures. Though he is contemptuously styled the +"Chipping-Sparrow,"--a name which I will never consent to apply to +him,--his voice is no mean accompaniment to the general chorus which may +be heard every still morning before sunrise, during May and June. His +continued trilling note is to this warbling band what the octave flute +is to a grand concert of artificial instruments. The voices of numbers +of these birds, which are the very first to be heard and the last to +become silent in the morning, serve to fill up the pauses in this sylvan +anthem, like a running _appoggiatural_ accompaniment in certain admired +musical compositions. How little soever the Hair-Bird may generally be +valued as a songster, his voice, I am sure, would be most sadly missed, +were it never more to be heard charmingly blending with the other louder +voices of the feathered choristers. + +How often, on still, sultry nights in July, when scarcely a breath of +air is stirring among the foliage of the trees, when the humming of the +Moth might be plainly heard, as it glided by my open window, have I been +charmed with the voice of this little bird, uttered in a low, trilled +note, from the branch of some neighboring tree! He seems to be the +sentinel whom Nature has appointed to watch for the first gleam of dawn, +which he always faithfully announces before any other bird has begun to +stir. Two or three strains from his octave pipe are the signal for a +general awakening of the birds, and one by one they join the song, +until the whole air resounds with an harmonious medley of voices. +The Hair-Bird has a singular habit of sitting upon the ground, while +chirping in the early morning. His nest is placed commonly upon an +apple-tree, sometimes in a bush, but never on the ground. It is very +neatly constructed of the fibres of roots closely woven together, and +beautifully lined with fine soft hair, whence he has obtained his name. +It is not surpassed in neatness and beauty by the nest of any other +bird. + +I will leave the granivorous birds to speak of another class, equally +hardy, but of habits more like those of the Woodpecker. I allude to the +Chicadees, to whose lively notes we are indebted for a great part of the +cheerfulness of a winter's walk. These notes are not a song; but there +is a liveliness in their sound, most frequently uttered during a +pleasant winter-day, causing them to be associated with these agreeable +changes in the weather. The Chicadees are not seen, like Snow-Birds, +most numerous during a snow-storm, or after a fall of snow. Their habits +are nearly the same in all weathers, except that they are more prone to +be noisy and loquacious on pleasant, sunny days. + +The sounds from which the Chicadee has derived his name appear to be his +call-notes, like the crowing of a Cock or the gobbling of a Turkey, and +are probably designed by Nature to enable the birds, while scattered +singly over the forest, to signalize their presence to others of the +same species. Hence it may be observed, that, when the call is rapidly +repeated, a multitude of his kindred will immediately assemble around +the one that gave the alarm. When no alarm is intended to be given, the +bird utters these notes but seldom, and only as he passes from one tree +to another. He is probably accustomed to hearing a response, and, if one +is not soon heard, he will repeat his call until it is answered; for as +these birds do not forage the woods in flocks, this continual hailing +is carried on between them to satisfy their desire for each other's +company. A similar conversation passes between the individuals of a +flock of Chickens, when scattered over a farmyard; one, on finding +itself alone, will chirp until it hears a response, when it seems +immediately satisfied. The call-notes of the Chicadee are very lively, +with a mixture of querulousness in their tone, that renders them the +more pleasing. + +The Chicadee is the smallest of the birds that remain with us during the +winter. He is a permanent resident, and everybody knows him. He is a +lively chatterer and an agreeable companion; and as he never tarries +long in one place, he does not tire one with his garrulity. He is our +attendant in all our pleasant winter-walks, in the orchard or the wood, +in the garden or by the rustic wayside. We have seen him, on still +winter-days, flitting from tree to tree, with the liveliest motions and +in the most engaging attitudes, examining every twig and branch, and +winding over and under and in and out among them, and, after a +few lively notes, hopping to another tree to pass through the same +manoeuvres. Even those who are confined to the house are not excluded +from a sight of these birds; one cannot open a window, on a bright +winter's morning, without a greeting from one of them on the nearest +tree. + +Beside the note from which the Chicadee derives his name, he sometimes +utters two very plaintive notes, which are separated by a regular +musical interval, making a fourth on the descending scale. They slightly +resemble those of the Pewee, and are often supposed to come from some +other bird, so different are they from the common note of the Chicadee. +I have not been able to ascertain the circumstances under which the bird +repeats this plaintive strain, but it is uttered both in summer and +winter. Indeed, there is such a variety in the notes uttered at +different times by this bird, that, if they were repeated in +uninterrupted succession, they would form one of the most agreeable of +woodland melodies. + +The Chicadee is not a singing-bird. He utters his usual notes at all +times of the year; but in the early part of summer he is addicted to a +very low but pleasant kind of warbling, considerably varied, and wanting +only more loudness and precision to entitle him to a rank with the +singing-birds. This warbling does not seem intended to cheer his +partner, but it is rather a sort of soliloquizing for his own amusement. +If it was uttered by the young birds only, we might suppose them to be +taking lessons in music, and that this was a specimen of their first +attempts. I have often heard the Golden Robin warbling in a similar +manner. + +In company with the Chicadees in their foraging excursions, we often see +two Speckled Woodpeckers, differing apparently only in size, each having +a sort of red crest. The smaller of the two (_Picus pubescens_) is the +Downy Woodpecker. The birds of this species are called "Sap-Suckers," +from their habit of making perforations in the sound branches of trees +through the bark without penetrating the wood, as if they designed only +to obtain the sap. These perforations are often made in a circle round +the branch, and it is highly probable that they follow the path of a +grub that is concealed underneath the bark. Our farmers, who suspect +every bird of some mischievous designs, accuse them of boring into the +tree for the purpose of drinking the sap. + +The Woodpecker is a more restless, though not a more industrious +bird than the Chicadee, and seldom gives the branches so thorough an +examination as the latter. He searches for grubs that are concealed in +the wood of the tree; he examines those spots only where he hears their +scratchings, bores the wood to obtain them, and then flies off. But the +Chicadee looks for insects on or near the surface, and does not confine +his search to trees. He examines fences, the under part of the eaves of +houses, and the woodpile, and destroys, in the course of his foraging, +many an embryo moth and butterfly which would otherwise become the +parent of noxious larvae. The Woodpecker is often represented as the +emblem of industry; but the Chicadee is more truly emblematical of this +virtue, and the Woodpecker of perseverance, as he never tires when +drilling into the wood of a tree in quest of his prey. + +Another of the companions of the Chicadee is the Brown Creeper, +(_Certhia familiaris_,) of similar habits, and commonly seen moving in a +spiral direction around the trunks and branches of trees, and, when +he is conscious of being observed, keeping on the further side of the +branch. He is more frequently seen in the winter than in the summer, +when he confines himself to the seclusion of the pine forest. The +different birds which I have named, as companions of the Chicadee, often +assemble by seeming accident in large numbers upon one tree, and meeting +with more company than is agreeable to them, they will often on these +occasions make the wood resound with their noisy disputes. They may +have been assembled by some accidental note of alarm, and on finding +no particular cause for it, they raise a shout that reminds one of the +extraordinary vociferation with which young men and boys conclude a +false alarm of fire in the early part of the night. These different +birds, though evidently social, are not gregarious, and seldom, without +vexation, endure the presence of more than two or three companions. + +The Nut-Hatch (_Sitta Caroliniensis_) is often found among these +assemblages, and may be recognized by his piercing trumpet-like note. +This bird resembles the Woodpeckers in the shape of the bill, but has +only one hinder toe, instead of two; and is said to have derived its +name from a habit of breaking open or hatching nuts, to obtain the +kernel. He is a permanent inhabitant of the cold parts of the American +continent, resembling the Titmouse in his diligence and activity, and in +the various manoeuvres he performs while in quest of his insect-food. + +There are times when even this class of birds, that collect their food +from the bark and wood of trees, are driven to great extremities. When +the trees are incased with ice, which, though not impenetrable by their +strong bills, prevents their laying hold of the bark with their claws +for support, they are in some danger of starving. It is at such times +that the gardens and barnyards are frequented by large numbers of +Woodpeckers, Creepers, and Nut-Hatches, driven by this necessity from +their usual haunts. A piece of suet fastened to the branch of a tree, +at any time of the winter, would soon be discovered by these birds and +afford them a grateful repast. I have frequently assembled them under my +windows by this allurement. + +I will leave the Chicadees and their companions to speak of another +class of birds of different character and habits: these are the Jays, +and their sable-plumed congeners of the Crow family. In all parts of +the country that abound in woods of any description, we are sure to be +greeted by the loud voice of the Blue Jay, one of the most conspicuous +tenants of the forest. He has a beautiful outward appearance, under +which he conceals an unamiable temper and a propensity to mischief. +Indeed, there is no other bird in our forest that is arrayed in equal +splendor. His neck of fine purple, his pale azure crest and head +with silky plumes, his black crescent-shaped collar, his wings and +tail-feathers of bright blue with stripes of white and black, and his +elegant form and vivacious manners, combine to render him attractive to +all observers. + +But with all this beauty, he has, like the Peacock, a harsh voice; he is +a thief, and a disturber of the peace. He is a sort of Ishmael among the +sylvan tribes, who are startled at the sound of his voice, and fear him +as a bandit. The farmer, who is well acquainted with his habits, is no +friend to him; for he not only takes what is required for his immediate +wants, but hoards a variety of articles in large quantities for future +use. It would seem as if he were aware when he was engaged in an honest +and when in a dishonest expedition; for while searching for food in the +the wood or open field, he is extremely noisy,--but when he ventures +into a barn, to take what does not belong to him, he is silent and +stealthy, and exhibits all the peculiar manners of a thief. + +It would be no mean task to enumerate all the acts of mischief +perpetrated by this bird; and I cannot but look upon him as one the +most guilty of the feathered tribe. He plunders the cornfield both +at seed-time and harvest; he steals everything that is eatable, and +conceals it in his hoarding-places; he destroys the eggs of smaller +birds and devours their young; he quarrels with all other species, and +his life is a constant scene of contentions. He is restless, pugnacious, +and irascible, and always seems like one who is out on some expedition. +Yet, though a pest to other birds, he is a watchful parent and a +faithful guardian of his off-spring. It is dangerous to venture near +the nest of a pair of Jays, as they immediately attack the adventurer, +aiming their blows at his face and eyes with the most savage +determination. + +Like the Magpie, the Jay has considerable talent for mimicry, and in a +state of domestication may be taught to articulate words like a Parrot. +At certain times I have heard this bird utter a few notes resembling the +tinkle of a bell, and which, if syllabled, might form such a word as +_dilly-lily_; but it is not a musical strain. Indeed, there is no music +in his nature, and in all his imitations of other sounds he prefers the +harsh to the melodious, such as the voice of the Hawk, the Owl, and +other unmusical birds. + +The Blue Jay is a true American; he is known throughout this continent, +and never visits any other country. At no season is he absent from our +woods, and he is an industrious consumer of the larger insects and +grubs, atoning in this way for some of his evil deeds. In this respect, +however, his services are not to be compared to those of the Robin and +the Blue-Bird. Yet I am not prepared to say that I would consent to his +banishment, for he is one of the most cheering tenants of the groves, at +a season when they have but few inhabitants; and I never listen to his +voice without recalling a crowd of charming reminiscences of pleasant +winter excursions and adventures at an early period of my life. The very +harshness of his voice has caused it to be impressed more forcibly upon +the memory, in connection with these scenes. + +The common Crow may be considered the representative, in America, of +the European Rook, which he resembles in many of his habits, performing +similar services, and being guilty of the same mischievous deeds. It +is remarkable that in Europe, where land is more valuable than in this +country, and where agriculture is carried on with an amount of skill and +nicety that would astonish an American farmer, the people are not +so jealous of the birds. In Great Britain rookeries are regular +establishments, and the Rooks, notwithstanding the mischief they do, are +protected, on account of their services to agriculture. The farmers of +Europe, having learned by repeated observation, that, without the aid +of mischievous birds, the work of the farmer would be sacrificed to +the more destructive insect-race, forgive them their trespasses, as we +forgive the trespasses of cats and dogs. The respect shown to birds by +any people seems to bear a certain ratio to the antiquity of the nation. +Hence the sacredness with which they are regarded in Japan, where the +population is so dense that the inhabitants would feel that they could +ill afford to divide the produce of their fields with the birds, unless +they were convinced of their usefulness. + +The Crow is one of the most unfortunate of the feathered tribe in his +relations to man; for by almost all nations he is regarded with hatred, +and every man's hand is against him. He is protected neither by custom +nor superstition; the sentimentalist cares nothing for him as an object +of poetical regard, and the utilitarian is blind to his services as a +scavenger. The farmer considers him as the very ringleader of mischief, +and uses all means he can invent for his destruction; the friend of the +singing-birds bears him a grudge as the destroyer of their eggs and +young; and even the moralist is disposed to condemn him for his cunning +and dissimulation. + +Hence he is everywhere hated and persecuted, and the expedients used for +his destruction are numerous and revolting to the sensibilities. He +is outlawed by acts of Parliament and other legislative bodies; he is +hunted with the gun; he is caught in crow-nets; he is hoodwinked with +bits of paper smeared with bird-lime, in which he is caught by means of +a bait; he is poisoned with grain steeped in hellebore and strychnine; +the reeds in which he roosts are treacherously set on fire; he is +pinioned by his wings, on his back, and is made to grapple his +sympathizing companions who come to his rescue; like an infidel, he is +not allowed the benefit of truth to save his reputation; and children, +after receiving lessons of humanity, are taught to regard the Crow as +an unworthy subject when they carry their precepts into practice. Every +government has set a price upon his head, and every people holds him up +to public execration. + +As an apology for these atrocities, might be enumerated a long catalogue +of misdemeanors of which he is guilty. He pillages the cornfield, and +pulls up the young shoots of maize to obtain the kernels attached to +their roots; he destroys the eggs and the young of innocent birds which +we should like to preserve; he purloins fruit from the garden and +orchard, and carries off young ducks and chickens from the farmyard. +Beside his mischievous propensities and his habits of thieving, he is +accused of cunning, and of a depraved disposition. He who would plead +for the Crow will not deny the general truth of these accusations, but, +on the other hand, would enumerate certain special benefits which he +confers upon man. + +In the catalogue of the services of this bird we find many details +which should lead us to pause before we consent to his destruction. He +consumes, in the course of the year, vast quantities of grubs, worms, +and noxious vermin; he is a valuable scavenger, and clears the land +of offensive masses of decaying animal substances; he hunts the +grass-fields, and pulls out and devours the underground caterpillars, +wherever he perceives the signs of their operations, as evinced by the +wilted stalks; he destroys mice, young rats, lizards, and the smaller +serpents; lastly, he is a volunteer sentinel about the farm, and drives +the Hawk from its inclosures, thus preventing greater mischief than +that of which he himself is guilty. It is chiefly during seed-time and +harvest that the depredations of the Crow are committed; during the +remainder of the year we witness only his services; and so highly are +these services appreciated by those who have written of birds, that I +cannot name an ornithologist who does not plead in his behalf. + +Let us turn our attention, for a moment, to his moral qualities. In vain +is he accused of cunning, when without this quality he could not live. +His wariness is really a virtue, and, under the circumstances in which +he is placed, it is his principal means of self-preservation. He has no +moral principles, no creed, to which he is under obligations to offer +himself as a martyr. His cunning is his armor; and I am persuaded that +the persecutions to which he has always been subjected have caused the +development of an amount of intelligence that elevates him many degrees +above the majority of the feathered race. + +There are few birds that equal the Crow in sagacity. He observes many +things that would seem to require the faculties of a rational being. He +judges with accuracy, from the deportment of the person approaching him, +if he is prepared to do him an injury; and seems to pay no regard to one +who is strolling the fields in search of flowers or for recreation. On +such occasions, one may get so near him as to observe his manners, and +even to note the varying shades of his plumage. But in vain does the +sportsman endeavor to approach him. So sure is he to fly at the right +moment for his safety, that one might suppose he could measure the +distance of gunshot. + +The voice of the Crow is like no other sound uttered by the feathered +race; it is harsh and unmelodious, and though he is capable, when +domesticated, of imitating human speech, he cannot sing. But Aesop +mistook the character of this bird when he represented him as the dupe +of the fox, who gained the bit of cheese he carried in his mouth by +inducing him to exhibit his musical powers. The Crow could not be fooled +by any such appeals to his vanity. + +The Crow is commonly regarded as a homely bird; yet he is not without +beauty. His coat of glossy black with violet reflections, his dark eyes +and sagacious expression of countenance, his stately and graceful gait, +and his steady and equable flight, combine to give him a proud and +dignified appearance. The Crow and the Raven have always been celebrated +for their gravity, a character that seems to be the result of their +black sacerdotal vesture, and of certain manifestations of intelligence +in their ways and general deportment. Indeed, any one who should watch +the motions of the Crow for the space of five minutes, either when he is +stalking alone in the field, or when he is careering with his fellows +around some tall tree in the forest, would acknowledge that he deserves +to be called a grave bird. + +Setting aside the services rendered by the Crow to agriculture, I esteem +him for certain qualities which are agreeably associated with the charms +of Nature. It is not the singing-birds alone that contribute by their +voices to gladden the husbandman and cheer the solitary traveller. The +crowing of the Cock at the break of day is as joyful a sound, though not +so musical, as the voice of the Robin who chants his lays at the same +early hour. To me the cawing of the Crow is cheering and delightful, and +it is heard long before the majority of birds have left their perch. If +not one of the melodies of morn, it is one of the most notable sounds +that herald its approach. And how intimately is the voice of this bird +associated with the sunshine of calm winter-days,--with our woodland +excursions during this inclement season,--with the stroke of the +woodman's axe,--with open doors in bright and pleasant weather, when the +eaves are dripping with the melting snow,--and with all those cheerful +sounds that enliven the groves during that period when every object +is valuable that relieves the silence or softens the dreary aspect of +Nature! + +If we leave the open fields and woods, and ramble near the coast to some +retired and solitary branch of the sea, our meditations may be suddenly +startled by the harsh voice of the Kingfisher, like the sound of a +watchman's rattle. This bird is seldom seen in winter in the interior; +most of his species migrate southwardly and to the sea-coast, just so +far as to be within reach of the open waters. As they subsist on the +smaller kinds of fishes, they would perish with hunger, after the waters +are frozen, if they did not migrate. But the Kingfisher often remains on +the coast during open winters, and may therefore be considered one of +our winter-birds. + +This bird is the celebrated Alcedo, or Halcyon, of the ancients, who +attributed to him many apparently supernatural powers. He was supposed +to construct his nest upon the waves, on which it was made to float like +a skiff. But as the turbulence of a storm would be likely to cause its +destruction, Nature had gifted him with the extraordinary power of +stilling the motions of the winds and waves, during the period of +incubation. Hence the serene weather that accompanies the summer +solstice was supposed to be occasioned by the benign influence of this +bird, and the term "halcyon days" was applied to this period. It is +remarkable that the fable should add to these supernatural gifts the +power of song, as one of the accomplishments of the Kingfisher. These +superstitions must have been very general among the ancients, and were +not confined to the Greeks and Romans. Some of the Asiatic nations still +wear the skin of the Kingfisher about their persons, as a protection +against both moral and physical evils; the feathers are used as +love-charms; and it is believed, that, if the body of the Kingfisher be +evenly fixed upon a pivot, it will turn its head to the north, like the +magnetic needle. + +This bird is singularly grotesque in his appearance, though not without +beauty of plumage. With his long, straight, and quadrangular bill, his +short and diminutive feet and legs, and his immense head, his plumage +of a handsome dusky blue, with a bluish band on the breast and a white +collar around the neck,--when this mixture of the grotesque and the +beautiful is considered in connection with the singularity of his +habits, we need not marvel at the superstitions connected with his +history. He sits patiently, like an angler, on a post at the head of a +wharf, or on a branch of a tree that extends over the bank, and, leaning +obliquely, with extended head and beak, he watches for his finny prey. +There, with the light blue sky above him and the dark blue waves +beneath, nothing on the surface of the water can escape his penetrating +eyes. Quickly, with a sudden swoop, he seizes a single fish from an +unsuspecting shoal, and announces his success by the peculiar sound of +his rattle. + +It may not have been observed by all that the most interesting periods +or situations for rambling are not those which most abound with exciting +scenes and objects. There must be a certain dearth of individual objects +that draw the attention, intermingled with occasional remarkable or +mysterious sights and sounds, to yield an excursion its greatest +interest. The hunter (unless he be a purveyor for the market) +understands this philosophy, and knows that there is more pleasure +in chasing a single deer or a solitary fox over miles of pasture +and moorland, than in hunting where these animals are abundant, and +slaughtering them as fast as one can load his gun. The pleasures +attending a rural excursion in the winter are founded on this fact, and +may be explained by this principle. There, amid the general silence, +every sound attracts attention and is accompanied by its echo; and since +the trees and shrubs have lost their leafy garniture, every tree and +other object has its own distinct shadow, and we fix our attention +more easily upon anything that excites our interest than when it is +distracted by the confusion of numbers. + +Hence it is in the winter that the picturesque character of the flight +of birds is particularly noticeable. In summer, and in autumn, before +the fall of the leaf, birds are partially concealed by the foliage of +trees, so that the manner of their flight does not become so readily +apparent. But in winter, if we start a flock of birds from the ground, +we can hardly avoid taking notice of all the peculiarities of their +movements. I have alluded to the descent of Snow-Buntings upon the +landscape as singularly picturesque; but the motions of a flock of +Quails, when suddenly aroused from a thicket, are not less so. When a +Pigeon, or any other bird with strong and large wings, takes flight, the +motions of its wings are not vibratory, and its progress through the air +is so rapid as to injure the pleasing effect of its motions, because we +obtain no distinct perception of the bird during its flight. It is quite +otherwise with the Quail. The body of this bird is plump and heavy, and +his wings are short, and have a peculiar concavity of the under surface +when expanded; their motions are very rapid, and, having but little +sweep, the bird seems to sail on the air, carried along by a gentle but +rapid vibration of the wings, which describe only a very small arc of a +circle. Hence we observe the entire shape of the bird during its flight. +The Partridge, and other gallinaceous birds, fly in a similar manner; +but, on account of their larger size, their motions are less attractive. + +The Humming-Bird has proportionally larger wings than the Quail, and, +when flying, his wings describe almost a complete circle in their rapid +vibrations. If we look upon one during his flight, he seems to have no +wings, but rather to be encircled by a semi-transparent halo. There +are other birds that seem to be wings only, their bodies being hardly +perceptible, on account of their small proportional size; such are the +Swallow, the Pigeon, the Cuckoo, and the Night-Hawk. + +Birds of prey are remarkable for their steady and graceful flight; the +motion of their wings is slow, while, like the Pigeon, they are capable +of propelling themselves through the air with great rapidity. The +circumgyrations of a Hawk, when reconnoitring far aloft in the air, are +singularly graceful. The flight of the Crow and the Raven is slow and +apparently difficult, and they are easily overtaken and annoyed by the +King-Bird and other small birds. They are not formed, like the Falcon, +to catch their prey upon the wing, and, though their wings are large and +powerful, they are incapable of performing those graceful and difficult +evolutions which we observe in the flight of birds of prey. The flight +of Herons resembles that of the Raven. + +Small birds, with the exception of a few species, move in an undulating +course, alternately rising and sinking. Birds that move in this manner +are, I believe, incapable of making a long journey on the wing without +rest, and commonly perform their migrations by short daily stages. + +The flight of the little Sand-Pipers, which frequent the salt marshes in +numerous flocks, is particularly worthy of study. It is not unlike the +flight of Quails, but more evenly sustained, on account of the greater +length and power of their wings. These birds are capable of holding an +even flight in a perfectly horizontal line, only a few inches above the +surface of the ground. When they alight, they seldom make a curve or +gyration, but descend in a straight and oblique course. Snow-Buntings +usually turn about, just before they reach the ground; and I have +seen them perform the most intricate changes, like the movements of a +cotillon-party, executed with the rapidity of arrows, when suddenly +checked in their flight by the discovery of a good tract of forage. + +With these observations, which might be indefinitely extended, I take +leave of the subject, simply remarking, that to the motions of birds, no +less than to their beauty of plumage and the sounds of their voices, +are we indebted for a great part of the picturesque attractions of +landscape; and the more we study them, the more are we convinced, that, +in whatever direction we turn our observations, we may extend them to +infinity. There is no limit to any study of Nature, and even one so +apparently insignificant as the flight of birds leads to an endless +series of interesting facts, and opens the eyes to new beauties in the +aspect of Nature and new sources of rational delight. + + + + +"THE NEW LIFE" OF DANTE. + +[Concluded.] + + +III. + + +The year 1289 was one marked in the annals of Florence and of Italy by +events which are still famous, scored by the genius of Dante upon the +memory of the world. It was in this year that Count Ugolino and his sons +and grandsons were starved by the Pisans in their tower prison. A few +months later, Francesca da Rimini was murdered by her husband. Between +the dates of these two terrible events the Florentines had won the great +victory of Campaldino; and thus, in this short space, the materials had +been given to the poet for the two best-known and most powerful stories +and for one of the most striking episodes of the "Divina Commedia." + +In the great and hard-fought battle of Campaldino Dante himself took +part. "I was at first greatly afraid," he says, in a letter of which +but a few sentences have been preserved,[A]--"but at the end I felt the +greatest joy,--according to the various chances of the battle." When the +victorious army returned to Florence, a splendid procession, with the +clergy at its head, with the arts of the city each under its banner, and +with all manner of pomp, went out to meet it. There were long-continued +feasts and rejoicings. The battle had been fought on the 11th of June, +the day of St. Barnabas, and the Republic, though already engaged in +magnificent works of church-building, decreed that a new church should +be erected in honor of the Saint on whose day the victory had been won. + +[Footnote A: See Lionardo Aretino's _Vita di Dante._] + +A little later in that summer, Dante was one of a troop of Florentines +who joined the forces of Lucca in levying war upon the Pisan territory. +The stronghold of Caprona was taken, and Dante was present at its +capture; for he says, (_Inferno,_ xxi. 94-96,) "I saw the foot-soldiers, +who, having made terms, came out from Caprona, afraid when they beheld +themselves among so many enemies."[B] + +[Footnote B: Landino, and most of the commentators after him, state that +Dante refers in this passage to the fear of the garrison taken in +the place when it was recaptured the next year by the Pisans. But as +Florence and Pisa continued at desperate enmity, Dante could hardly have +witnessed this latter scene.] + +Thus, during a great part of the summer of 1289, Dante was in active +service as a soldier. He was no lovesick idler, no mere home-keeping +writer of verses, but was already taking his part in the affairs of the +state which he was afterwards to be called on for a time to assist in +governing, and he was laying up those stores of experience which were to +serve as the material out of which his vivifying imagination was to form +the great national poem of Italy. But of this active life, of these +personal engagements, of these terrible events which took such strong +possession of his soul, there is no word, no suggestion even, in the +book of his "New Life." In it there is no echo, however faint, of those +storms of public violence and private passion which broke dark over +Italy. In the midst of the tumults which sprang from the jealousies of +rival states, from the internal discords of cities, from the divisions +of parties, from the bitterness of domestic quarrels,--this little book +is full of tenderness and peace, and tells its story of love as if the +world were the abode of tranquillity. No external excitements could +break into the inner chambers of Dante's heart to displace the love that +dwelt within them. The contrast between the purity and the serenity of +the "Vita Nuova" and the coarseness and cruelty of the deeds that were +going on while it was being written is complete. Every man in some sort +leads a double life,--one real and his own, the other seeming and the +world's,--but with few is the separation so entire as it was with +Dante. + +But in these troubled times the "New Life" was drawing to its close. +The spring of 1290 had come, and the poet, now twenty-five years old, +sixteen years having passed since he first beheld Beatrice, was engaged +in writing a poem to tell what effect the virtue of his lady wrought +upon him. He had written but the following portion when it was broken +off, never to be resumed:-- + + "So long hath Love retained me at his hest, + And to his sway hath so accustomed me, + That as at first he cruel used to be, + So in my heart he now doth sweetly rest. + Thus when by him my strength is dispossessed, + So that the spirits seem away to flee, + My frail soul feels such sweetness verily, + That with it pallor doth my face invest. + Then Love o'er me such mastery doth seize, + He makes my sighs in words to take their way, + And they unto my lady go to pray + That she to give me further grace would please. + Where'er she sees me, this to me occurs, + Nor can it be believed what humbleness is hers." + +"'Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo! facta est quasi vidua domina +gentium!' [How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how +is she become as a widow, she that was great among the nations!][C] + +[Footnote C: _Lamentations_, I. 1.] + +"I was yet engaged upon this Canzone, and had finished the above stanza, +when the Lord of justice called this most gentle one unto glory under +the banner of that holy Queen Mary whose name was ever spoken with +greatest reverence by this blessed Beatrice.[D] + +[Footnote D: There is among the Canzoni of Dante one beginning, + + "Morte poich' io non truovo a cui mi doglia," + +which seems to have been written during the illness of Beatrice, in view +of her approaching death. It is a beautiful and touching poem. Death is +besought to spare that lady, "who of every good is the true gate."--"If +thou extinguishest the light of those beautiful eyes, which were wont to +be so sweet a guide to mine, I see that thou desirest my death." + + "O Death, delay not mercy, if 'tis thine! + For now I seem to see the heavens ope, + And Angels of the Lord descending here, + Intent to bear away the holy soul + Of her whose honor there above is sung."] + +"And although it might give pleasure, were I now to tell somewhat of her +departure from us, it is not my intention to treat of it here for three +reasons. The first is, that it is no part of the present design, as may +be seen in the proem of this little book. The second is, that, supposing +it were so, my pen would not be sufficient to treat of it in a fitting +manner. The third is, that, supposing both the one and the other, it +would not be becoming in me to treat of it, since, in doing so, I +should be obliged to praise myself,--a thing altogether blameworthy in +whosoever does it,--and therefore I leave this subject to some other +narrator. + +"Nevertheless, since in what precedes there has been occasion to make +frequent mention of the number nine,[E] and apparently not without +reason, and since in her departure this number appeared to have a large +place, it is fitting to say something on this point, seeing that it +seems to belong to our design. Wherefore I will first tell how it had +place in her departure, and then I will assign some reason why this +number was so friendly to her. I say, that, according to the mode of +reckoning in Italy, her most noble soul departed in the first hour of +the ninth day of the month; and according to the reckoning, in Syria, +she departed in the ninth month of the year, since the first month there +is Tismim, which with us is October; and according to our reckoning, she +departed in that year of our indiction, that is, of the years of the +Lord, in which the perfect number[F] was completed for the ninth time in +that century in which she had been set in the world; and she was of the +Christians of the thirteenth century.[G] + +[Footnote E: In the earlier part of the _Vita Nuova_ there are many +references to this number. We translate in full the passage given above, +as one of the most striking illustrations of Dante's youthful fondness +for seeking for the mystical relations and inner meanings of things. The +attributing such importance to the properties of the number nine, though +it might at first seem puerile and an indication of poverty of feeling, +was a portion of the superstitious belief of the age, in which Dante +naturally shared. The mysterious properties of numbers were a subject of +serious study, and were connected with various branches of science and +of life. + +"Themistius vero, et Boethius, et Averrois Babylonius, cum Platone, sic +numeros extollunt, ut neminem absque illis posse recte philosophari +putent. Loquuntur autem de numero rationali et formali, non de +materiali, sensibili, sive vocali numero mercatorum.... Sed intendunt ad +proportionem ex illo resultantem, quem numerum naturalem et formalem et +rationalem vocant; ex quo magna sacramenta emanant, tam in naturalibus +quam divinis atque coelestibus.... In numeris itaque magnam latere +efficaciam et virtutem tam ad borum quam ad malum, non modo +splendidissimi philosophi unanimiter docent, sed etiam doctores +Catholici."--Cornelii Agrippae _De Occulta Philosophia_, Liber Secundus, +cc. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote F: The perfect number is ten.] + +[Footnote G: Thus it appears that Beatrice died on the 9th of June, +1290. She was a little more than twenty-four years old.] + +"One reason why this number was so friendly to her may be this: since, +according to Ptolemy and the Christian truth, there are nine heavens +which move, and, according to the common astrological opinion, these +heavens work effects here below according to their relative positions, +this number was her friend, to the end that it might be understood that +at her generation all the nine movable heavens were in most perfect +conjunction.[H] This is one reason; but considering more subtilely and +according to infallible truth, this number was she herself,--I speak in +a similitude, and I mean as follows. The number three is the root of +nine, since, without any other number, multiplied by itself, it makes +nine,--as we see plainly that three times three are nine. Then, if +three is the factor by itself of nine, and the Author of Miracles[I] +by himself is three,--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are three and +one,--this lady was accompanied by the number nine that it might be +understood that she was a nine, that is, a miracle, whose only root is +the marvellous Trinity. Perhaps a more subtle person might discover some +more subtile reason for this; but this is the one that I see for it, and +which pleases me the best." + +[Footnote H: Compare with this passage Ballata v., + + "Io mi son pargoletta bella e nova," + +and Sonnet xlv., + + "Da quella luce che 'I suo corso gira"; + +the latter probably in praise of Philosophy.] + +[Footnote I: The point is here lost in a translation,--_factor_ and +_author_ being expressed in the original by one word, _fattore_.] + +After thus treating of the number nine in its connection with Beatrice, +Dante goes on to say, that, when this most gentle lady had gone from +this world, the city appeared widowed and despoiled of every dignity; +whereupon he wrote to the princes of the earth an account of its +condition, beginning with the words of Jeremiah which he quoted at the +entrance of this new matter. The remainder of this letter he does not +give, because it was in Latin, and in this work it was his intention, +from the beginning, to write only in the vulgar tongue; and such was the +understanding of the friend for whom he writes,--that friend being, as +we may suppose, Guido Cavalcanti, whom Dante, it may be remembered, +has already spoken of as the chief among his friends. Then succeeds +a Canzone lamenting the death of Beatrice, which, instead of being +followed by a verbal exposition, as is the case with all that have gone +before, is preceded by one, in order that it may seem, as it were, +desolate and like a widow at its end. And this arrangement is preserved +in regard to all the remaining poems in the little volume. In this poem +he says that the Eternal Sire called Beatrice to himself, because he saw +that this world was not worthy of such a gentle thing; and he says of +his own life, that no tongue could tell what it has been since his lady +went away to heaven. + +Among the sonnets ascribed to Dante is one which, if it be his, must +have been written about this time, and which, although not included in +the "Vita Nuova," seems not unworthy to find a place here. Its imagery, +at least, connects it with some of the sonnets in the earlier portion of +the book. + + "One day came Melancholy unto me, + And said, 'With thee I will awhile abide'; + And, as it seemed, attending at her side, + Anger and Grief did bear her company. + + "'Depart! Away!' I cried out eagerly. + Then like a Greek she unto me replied; + And while she stood discoursing in her pride, + I looked, and Love approaching us I see. + + "In cloth of black full strangely was he clad, + A little hood he wore upon his head, + And down his face tears flowing fast he had. + + "'Poor little wretch! what ails thee?' then I said. + And he replied, 'I woful am, and sad, + Sweet brother, for our lady who is dead.'" + +About this time, Dante tells us, a person who stood to him in friendship +next to his first friend, and who was of the closest relationship to his +glorious lady, so that we may believe it was her brother, came to +him and prayed him to write something on a lady who was dead. Dante, +believing that he meant the blessed Beatrice, accordingly wrote for him +a sonnet; and then, reflecting that so short a poem appeared but a poor +and bare service for one who was so nearly connected with her, added to +it a Canzone, and gave both to him. + +As the months passed on, his grief still continued fresh, and the memory +of his lady dwelt continually with him. It happened, that, "on that day +which completed a year since this lady was made one of the citizens of +eternal life, I was seated in a place where, remembering her, I drew +an Angel upon certain tablets. And while I was drawing it, I turned +my eyes, and saw at my side certain men to whom it was becoming to do +honor, and who were looking at what I did; and, as was afterward told +me, they had been there now some time before I perceived them. When I +saw them, I rose, and, saluting them, said, 'Another was just now with +me, and on that account I was in thought.' When these persons had gone, +I returned to my work, that is, to drawing figures of Angels; and while +doing this, a thought came to me of saying words in rhyme, as for an +anniversary poem for her, and of addressing them to those who had come +to me. Then I said this sonnet, which has two beginnings:-- + + FIRST BEGINNING. + + "Unto my mind remembering had come + The gentle lady, with such pure worth graced, + That by the Lord Most High she had been placed + Within the heaven of peace, where Mary hath her home." + + SECOND BEGINNING. + + "Unto my mind had come, indeed, in thought, + That gentle one for whom Love's tears are shed, + Just at the time when, by his power led, + To see what I was doing you were brought. + + "Love, who within my mind did her perceive, + Was roused awake within my wasted heart, + And said unto my sighs, 'Go forth! depart!' + Whereon each one in grief did take its leave. + + "Lamenting they from out my breast did go, + And uttering a voice that often led + The grievous tears unto my saddened eyes. + + "But those which issued with the greatest woe, + 'O noble soul,' they in departing said, + 'To-day makes up the year since thou to heaven didst rise.'" + +The preceding passage is one of the many in the "Vita Nuova" which are +of peculiar interest, as illustrating the personal tastes of Dante, and +the common modes of his life. "I was drawing," he says, "the figure of +an Angel"; and this statement is the more noticeable, because Giotto, +the man who set painting on its modern course, was not yet old enough +to have exercised any influence upon Dante.[J] The friendship which +afterwards existed between them had its beginning at a later period. At +this time Cimabue still held the field. He often painted angels around +the figures of the Virgin and her Child; and in his most famous picture, +in the Church of Sta. Maria Novella, there are certain angels of which +Vasari says, with truth, that, though painted in the Greek manner, they +show an approach toward the modern style of drawing. These angels may +well have seemed beautiful to eyes accustomed to the hard unnaturalness +of earlier works. The love of Art pervaded Florence, and a nature so +sensitive and so sympathetic as Dante's could not but partake of it +in the fullest measure. Art was then no adjunct of sentimentalism, no +encourager of idleness. It was connected with all that was most serious +and all that was most delightful in life. It is difficult, indeed, to +realize the delight which it gave, and the earnestness with which it was +followed at this period, when it seemed, as by a miracle, to fling off +the winding-sheet which had long wrapped its stiffened limbs, and to +come forth with new and unexampled life. + +[Footnote J: In this year, 1291, Giotto was but fifteen years old, +and probably a student with Cimabue. Benvenuto da Imola, who lectured +publicly at Bologna on the _Divina Commedia_ in the year 1378, reports, +that, while Giotto, still a young man, was painting at Padua, Dante +visited him. And Vasari says, that it was a tradition, that Giotto had +painted, in a chapel at Naples, scenes out of the _Apocalypse_, from +designs furnished him by the poet. If we may believe another tradition, +which there seems indeed little reason to doubt, Giotto went to Ravenna +during the last years of Dante's life, that he might spend there some +time in company with his exiled friend.] + +The strength and the intelligence of Dante's love of Art are shown in +many beautiful passages and allusions in the "Divina Commedia." There +was something of universality, not only in his imagination, but also in +his acquisitions. Of the sources of learning which were then open, there +was not one which he had not visited; of the fountains of inspiration, +not one out of which he had not drunk. All the arts--poetry, painting, +sculpture, and music--were alike dear to him. His Canzoni were written +to be sung; and one of the most charming scenes in the great poem is +that in which is described his meeting with his friend Casella, the +musician, who sang to him one of his own Canzoni so sweetly, that "the +sweetness still within me sounds."[K] + +[Footnote K: This Canzone, to the exposition of which the third Trattato +of the _Convito_ is devoted, has been inimitably translated by the +Reverend Charles T. Brooks. We believe it to be the happiest version +of one of Dante's minor poems that exists in our language,--and every +student of the poet will recognize the success with which very great +difficulties have been overcome. It appeared in the _Crayon_, for +February, 1853.] + +"Dante took great delight in music, and was an excellent draughtsman," +says Aretino, his second biographer; and Boccaccio reports, that in his +youth he took great pleasure in music, and was the friend of all the +best musicians and singers of his time. There is, perhaps, in the +whole range of literature, no nobler homage to Art than that which is +contained in the tenth and twelfth cantos of the "Purgatory," in which +Dante represents the Creator himself as using its means to impress the +lessons of truth upon those whose souls were being purified for the +final attainment of heaven. The passages are too long for extract, and +though their wonderful beauty tempts us to linger over them, we must +return to the course of the story of Dante's life as it appears in the +concluding pages of the "New Life." + +Many months had passed since Beatrice's death, when Dante happened to +be in a place which recalled the past time to him, and filled him with +grief. While standing here, he raised his eyes and saw a young and +beautiful lady looking out from a window compassionately upon his sad +aspect. The tenderness of her look touched his heart and moved his +tears. Many times afterwards he saw her, and her face was always full +of compassion, and pale, so that it reminded him of the look of his own +most noble lady. But at length his eyes began to delight too much in +seeing her; wherefore he often cursed their vanity, and esteemed +himself as vile, and there was a hard battle within himself between the +remembrance of his lady and the new desire of his eyes. + +At length, he says, "The sight of this lady brought me into so new +a condition, that I often thought of her as of one who pleased me +exceedingly,--and I thought of her thus: 'This is a gentle, beautiful, +young, and discreet lady, and she has perhaps appeared by will of +Love, in order that my life may find repose.' And often I thought more +amorously, so that my heart consented in it, that is, approved my +reasoning. And after it had thus consented, I, moved as if by reason, +reflected, and said to myself, 'Ah, what thought is this that in so vile +a way seeks to console me, and leaves me scarcely any other thought?' +Then another thought rose up and said, 'Now that thou hast been in so +great tribulation of Love, why wilt thou not withdraw thyself from such +bitterness? Thou seest that this is an inspiration that sets the desires +of Love before thee, and proceeds from a place no less gentle than +the eyes of the lady who has shown herself so pitiful toward thee.' +Wherefore, I, having often thus combated with myself, wished to say some +words of it. And as, in this battle of thoughts, those which spoke for +her won the victory, it seemed to me becoming to address her, and I said +this sonnet, which begins, 'A gentle thought'; and I called it _gentle_ +because I was speaking to a gentle lady,--but otherwise it was most +vile. + + "A gentle thought that of you holds discourse + Cometh now frequently with me to dwell, + And in so sweet a way of Love doth tell, + My heart to yield unto him he doth force. + "'Who, then, is this,' the soul says to the heart, + 'Who cometh to bring comfort to our mind? + And is his virtue of so potent kind, + That other thoughts he maketh to depart?' + "'O saddened soul,' the heart to her replies, + 'This is a little spirit fresh from Love, + Whose own desires he before me brings; + "'His very life and all his power doth move + Forth from the sweet compassionating eyes + Of her so grieved by our sufferings.'" + +"One day, about the ninth hour, there arose within me a strong +imagination opposed to this adversary of reason. For I seemed to see +the glorified Beatrice in that crimson garment in which she had first +appeared to my eyes, and she seemed to me young, of the same age as when +I first saw her. Then I began to think of her, and, calling to mind the +past time in its order, my heart began to repent bitterly of the desire +by which it had so vilely allowed itself for some days to be possessed, +contrary to the constancy of reason. And this so wicked desire being +expelled, all my thoughts returned to their most gentle Beatrice, and +I say that thenceforth I began to think of her with my heart possessed +utterly by shame, so that it was often manifested by my sighs; for +almost all of them, as they went forth, told what was discoursed of in +my heart,--the name of that gentlest one, and how she had gone from +us.... And I wished that my wicked desire and vain temptation might be +known to be at an end; and that the rhymed words which I had before +written might induce no doubt, I proposed to make a sonnet in which I +would include what I have now told." + +With this sonnet Dante ends the story in the "Vita Nuova" of the +wandering of his eyes, and the short faithlessness of his heart; but +it is retold with some additions in the "Convito" or "Banquet," a work +written many years afterward; and in this later version there are some +details which serve to fill out and illustrate the earlier narrative.[L] +The same tender and refined feeling which inspires the "Vita Nuova" +gives its tone to all the passages in which the poet recalls his +youthful days and the memory of Beatrice in this work of his sorrowful +manhood. In the midst of its serious and philosophic discourse this +little story winds in and out its thread of personal recollection and of +sweet romantic sentiment. It affords new insight into the recesses of +Dante's heart, and exhibits the permanence of the gracious qualities of +his youth. + +[Footnote L: The differences in the two accounts of this period of +Dante's experience, and the view of Beatrice presented in the _Convito,_ +suggest curious and interesting questions, the solution of which has +been obscured by the dulness of commentators. We must, however, leave +the discussion of these points till some other opportunity.] + +Its opening sentence is full of the imagery of love. "Since the death of +that blessed Beatrice who lives in heaven with the angels, and on +earth with my soul, the star of Venus had twice shone in the different +seasons, as the star of morning and of evening, when that gentle lady, +of whom I have made mention near the close of the "New Life," first +appeared before my eyes accompanied by Love, and gained some place in my +mind. ... And before this love could become perfect, there arose a +great battle between the thought that sprang from it and that which was +opposed to it, and which still held the fortress of my mind for the +glorified Beatrice."[M] + +[Footnote M: _Convito_, Tratt. ii. c. 3.] + +And so hard was this struggle, and so painful, that Dante took +refuge from it in the composition of a poem addressed to the Angelic +Intelligences who move the third heaven, that is, the heaven of Venus; +and it is to the exposition of the true meaning of this Canzone that +the second book or treatise of the "Convito" is directed. In one of the +later chapters he says, (and the passage is a most striking one, from +its own declaration, as well as from its relation to the vision of the +"Divina Commedia,")--"The life of my heart was wont to be a sweet and +delightful thought, which often went to the feet of the Lord of those +to whom I speak, that is, to God,--for, thinking, I contemplated the +kingdom of the Blessed. And I tell [in my poem] the final cause of my +mounting thither in thought, when I say, 'There I beheld a lady in +glory'; [and I say this] in order that it may be understood that I was +certain, and am certain, through her gracious revelation, that she was +in heaven, whither I in my thought oftentimes went,--as it were, seized +up. And this made me desirous of death, that I might go there where she +was."[N] Following upon the chapter in which this remarkable passage +occurs is one which is chiefly occupied with a digression upon the +immortality of the soul,--and with discourse upon this matter, says +Dante, "it will be beautiful to finish speaking of that living and +blessed Beatrice, of whom I intend to say no more in this book.... And +I believe and affirm and am certain that I shall pass after this to +another and better life, in which that glorious lady lives of whom my +soul was enamored."[O] + +[Footnote N: _Convito_, Tratt. ii. c. 8.] + +[Footnote O: Id. c. 9.] + +But it is not from the "Convito" alone that this portion of the "Vita +Nuova" receives illustration. In that passage of the "Purgatory" in +which Beatrice is described as appearing in person to her lover the +first time since her death, she addresses him in words of stern rebuke +of his fickleness and his infidelity to her memory. The whole scene is, +perhaps, unsurpassed in imaginative reality; the vision appears to have +an actual existence, and the poet himself is subdued by the power of his +own imagination. He tells the words of Beatrice with the same feeling +with which he would have repeated them, had they fallen on his mortal +ear. His grief and shame are real, and there is no element of feigning +in them. That in truth he had seemed to himself to listen to and to +behold what he tells, it is scarcely possible to doubt. Beatrice says,-- + + "Some while at heart my presence kept him sound; + My girlish eyes to his observance lending, + I led him with me on the right way bound. + When of my second age the steps ascending, + I bore my life into another sphere, + Then stole he from me, after others bending. + When I arose from flesh to spirit clear, + When beauty, worthiness, upon me grew, + I was to him less pleasing and less dear."[P] + +[Footnote P: Purgatory, c. xxx. vv. 118-126.--CAYLEY'S Translation.] + +But although Beatrice only gives utterance to the self-reproaches of +Dante, we have seen already how fully he had atoned for this first and +transient unfaithfulness of his heart. The remainder of the "Vita Nuova" +shows how little she had lost of her power over him, how reverently he +honored her memory, how constant was his love of her whom he should see +never again with his earthly eyes. Returning to the "New Life,"-- + +"After this tribulation," he says, "at that time when many people were +going to see the blessed image which Jesus Christ left to us as the +likeness of his most beautiful countenance,[Q] which my lady now beholds +in glory, it happened that certain pilgrims passed through a street +which is almost in the middle of that city where the gentlest lady was +born, lived, and died,--and they went along, as it seemed to me, very +pensive. And thinking about them, I said to myself, 'These appear to me +to be pilgrims from a far-off region, and I do not believe that they +have even heard speak of this lady, and they know nothing of her; their +thoughts are rather of other things than of her; for, perhaps, they are +thinking of their distant friends, whom we do not know.' Then I said to +myself, 'I know, that, if these persons were from a neighboring country, +they would show some sign of trouble as they pass through the midst of +this grieving city.' Then again I said, 'If I could hold them awhile, I +would indeed make them weep before they went out from this city; for I +would say words to them which would make whoever should hear them weep.' +Then, when they had passed out of sight, I proposed to make a sonnet in +which I would set forth that which I had said to myself; and in order +that it might appear more pity-moving, I proposed to say it as if I had +spoken to them, and I said this sonnet, which begins, 'O pilgrims.' + +[Footnote Q: The most precious relic at Rome, and the one which chiefly +attracted pilgrims, during a long period of the Middle Ages, was the +Veronica, or representation of the Saviour's face, supposed to have been +miraculously impressed upon the handkerchief with which he wiped his +face on his way to Calvary. It was preserved at St. Peter's and shown +only on special occasions. Compare with this passage the lines in the +_Paradiso_, c. xxxi. 103-8:-- + + "As one that haply from Croatia came + To see our Veronica, and no whit + Could be contented with its olden fame, + Who in his heart saith, when they're showing it, + 'O Jesu Christ! O very Lord God mine! + Does truly this thy feature counterfeit?'" + CAYLEY. + +G. Villani says, that in 1300, the year of jubilee, for the consolation +of Christian pilgrims, the Veronica was shown in St. Peter's every +Friday, and on other solemn festivals. viii. 36.] + +"I called them _pilgrims_ in the wide sense of that word; for pilgrims +may be understood in two ways,--one wide, and one narrow. In the wide, +whoever is out of his own country is so far a pilgrim; in the narrow +use, by pilgrim is meant he only who goes to or returns from the house +of St. James.[R] Moreover, it is to be known that those who travel in +the service of the Most High are called by three distinct terms. Those +who go beyond the sea, whence often they bring back the palm, are called +_palmers_. Those who go to the house of Galicia are called _pilgrims_, +because the burial-place of St. James was more distant from his country +than that of any other of the Apostles. And those are called _romei_ who +go to Rome, where these whom I call pilgrims were going. + +[Footnote R: The shrine of St. James, at Compostella, (contracted from +_Giacomo Apostolo_,) in Galicia, was a great resort of pilgrims during +the Middle Ages,--and Santiago, the military patron of Spain, was one of +the most popular saints of Christendom. Chaucer says, the Wif of Bathe + + "Had passed many a straunge streem; + At Rome sche hadde ben, and at Boloyne, + In Galice at Seynt Jame, and at Coloyne." + +And Shakspeare, in _All's Well that Ends Well_, makes Helena represent +herself as "St. Jacques's pilgrim."] + + "O pilgrims, who in pensive mood move + slow, + Thinking perchance of those who absent + are, + Say, do ye come from land away so far + As your appearance seems to us to show? + + "For ye weep not, the while ye forward go + Along the middle of the mourning town, + Seeming as persons who have nothing + known + Concerning the sad burden of her woe. + + "If, through your will to hear, your steps ye + stay, + Truly my sighing heart declares to me + That ye shall afterwards depart in tears. + + "For she[S] her Beatrice hath lost: and ye + Shall know, the words that man of her + may say + Have power to make weep whoever + hears." + +[Footnote S: The city.] + +Some time after this sonnet was written, two ladies sent to Dante, +asking him for some of his rhymes. That he might honor their request, he +wrote a new sonnet and sent it to them with two that he had previously +composed. In his new sonnet, he told how his thought mounted to heaven, +as a pilgrim, and beheld his lady in such condition of glory as could +not be comprehended by his intellect; for our intellect, in regard to +the souls of the blessed, is as weak as our eyes are to the sun. But +though he could not clearly see where his thought led him, at least he +understood that his thought told of his lady in glory. + + "Beyond the sphere that widest orbit hath + Passeth the sigh that issues from my + heart, + While weeping Love doth unto him impart + Intelligence which leads him on his path, + + "When at the wished-for place his flight he + stays, + A lady he beholds, in honor dight, + And shining so, that, through her splendid + light, + The pilgrim spirit upon her doth gaze. + + "He sees her such that his reporting words + I understand not, for he speaketh low + And strange to the sad heart which makes + him tell; + + "He speaketh of that gentle one, I know, + Since oft he Beatrice's name records; + So, ladies dear, I understand him well." + +This was the last of the poems which Dante composed in immediate honor +and memory of Beatrice, and is the last of those which he inserted in +the "Vita Nuova." It was not that his love grew cold, or that her image +became faint in his remembrance; but, as he tells us in a few concluding +and memorable words, from this time forward he devoted himself to +preparation for a work in which the earthly Beatrice should have less +part, while the heavenly and blessed spirit of her whom he had loved +should receive more becoming honors. The lover's grief was to find no +more expression; the lamentations for the loss which could never be made +good to him were to cease; the exhibition of a personal sorrow was at an +end. Love and grief, in their double ministry, had refined, enlarged, +and exalted his spirit to the conception of a design unparalleled in its +nature, and of which no intellectual genius, unpurged by suffering, and +impenetrated in its deepest recesses by the spiritualizing heats of +emotion, would have been capable of conceiving. Moreover, as time wore +on, its natural result was gradually to withdraw the poet from the +influence of temporary excitements of feeling, resulting from his +experience of love and death, and to bring him to the contemplation +of life as affected by the presence and the memory of Beatrice in its +eternal and universal relations. He tells us in the "Convito," that, +"after some time, my mind, which neither such consolation as I could +give it, nor that offered to it by others, availed to comfort, +determined to turn to that method by which others in grief had consoled +themselves. And I set myself to read that book, but little known, of +Boethius, in which in prison and exile he had consoled himself. And +hearing, likewise, that Tully had written a book, in which, treating +of friendship, he had offered some words of comfort to Laelius, a most +excellent man, on the death of Scipio, his friend, I read this also. And +although at first it was hard for me to enter into their meaning, I at +length entered into it so far as my knowledge of language, and such +little capacity as I had, enabled me; by means of which capacity, I had +already, like one dreaming, seen many things, as may be seen in the 'New +Life.' And as it might happen that a man seeking silver should, beyond +his expectation, find gold, which a hidden chance presents to him, not, +perhaps, without Divine direction, so I, who sought for consolation, +found not only a remedy for my tears, but also acquaintance with +authors, with knowledge, and with books." + +Nor did these serious and solitary studies withdraw him from the pursuit +of wisdom among men and in the active world. Year by year, he entered +more fully into the affairs of state, and took a larger portion of their +conduct upon himself. + +His heart kept fresh by abiding recollections of love, his faith +quickened by and intermingled with the tenderest hopes, his imagination +uplifted by the affection which overleaped the boundaries of the +invisible world, and his intellect disciplined by study of books and +of men, his experience enlarged by constant occupation in affairs, his +judgment matured by the quick succession of important events in which +he was involved,--every part of his nature was thus prepared for the +successful accomplishment of that great and sacred design which he set +before himself now in his youth. Heaven had called and selected him for +a work which even in his own eyes partook somewhat of the nature of a +prophetic charge. His strength was to be tested and his capacity to be +approved. Life was ordered for the fulfilment of his commission. The men +to whom God intrusts a message for the world find the service to +which they are appointed one in which they must be ready to sacrifice +everything. Dante looked forward, even at the beginning, to the end, and +saw what lay between. + +The pages of the "New Life" fitly close with words of that life in which +all things shall be made new, "and there shall be no more death, neither +sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former +things are passed away." The little book ends thus:-- + +"Soon after this, a wonderful vision appeared to me, in which I saw +things which made me purpose to speak no more of this blessed one until +I could more worthily treat of her. And to attain to this, I study to +the utmost of my power, as she truly knoweth. So that, if it shall +please Him through whom all things live, that my life be prolonged for +some years, I hope to speak of her as never was spoken of any woman. And +then may it please Him who is the Lord of Grace, that my soul may go to +behold the glory of its lady, the blessed Beatrice, who in glory looks +upon the face of Him, _qui est per omnia saecula benedictus_ [who is +Blessed forever]!" + +In 1320, or perhaps not till 1321, the "Paradiso" was finished; in 1321, +Dante died. + + * * * * * + + +THE DOUBLE-HEADED SNAKE OF NEWBURY. + + + "Concerning ye Amphisbaena, as soon as I received your commands, I made + diligent inquiry: he assures me y't it had really two heads, one at each + end, two mouths, two stings or tongues." + + Rev. Christopher Toppan to Cotton Mather. + + + Far away in the twilight time + Of every people, in every clime, + Dragons and griffins and monsters dire, + Born of water, and air, and fire, + Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud + And ooze of the old Deucalion flood, + Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage, + Through dusk tradition and ballad age. + So from the childhood of Newbury town + And its time of fable the tale comes down + Of a terror which haunted bush and brake, + The Amphisbaena, the Double Snake! + + Thou who makest the tale thy mirth, + Consider that strip of Christian earth + On the desolate shore of a sailless sea, + Full of terror and mystery, + Half-redeemed from the evil hold + Of the wood so dreary and dark and old, + Which drank with its lips of leaves the dew + When Time was young and the world was new, + And wove its shadows with sun and moon + Ere the stones of Cheops were squared and hewn; + Think of the sea's dread monotone, + Of the mournful wail from the pine-wood blown, + Of the strange, vast splendors that lit the North, + Of the troubled throes of the quaking earth, + And the dismal tales the Indian told, + Till the settler's heart at his hearth grew cold, + And he shrank from the tawny wizard's boasts, + And the hovering shadows seemed full of ghosts, + And above, below, and on every side, + The fear of his creed seemed verified;-- + And think, if his lot were now thine own, + To grope with terrors nor named nor known, + How laxer muscle and weaker nerve + And a feebler faith thy need might serve; + And own to thyself the wonder more + That the snake had two heads and not a score! + + Whether he lurked in the Oldtown fen, + Or the gray earth-flax of the Devil's Den, + Or swam in the wooded Artichoke, + Or coiled by the Northman's Written Rock, + Nothing on record is left to show; + Only the fact that he lived, we know, + And left the cast of a "double head" + In the scaly mask which he yearly shed. + For he carried a head where his tail should be, + And the two, of course, could never agree, + But wriggled about with main and might, + Now to the left and now to the right; + Pulling and twisting this way and that, + Neither knew what the other was at. + + A snake with two heads, lurking so near!-- + Judge of the wonder, guess at the fear! + Think what ancient gossips might say, + Shaking their heads in their dreary way, + Between the meetings on Sabbath-day! + How urchins, searching at day's decline + The Common Pasture for sheep or kine, + The terrible double-ganger heard + In leafy rustle or whirr of bird! + Think what a zest it gave to the sport + In berry-time of the younger sort, + As over pastures blackberry-twined + Reuben and Dorothy lagged behind, + And closer and closer, for fear of harm, + The maiden clung to her lover's arm; + And how the spark, who was forced to stay, + By his sweetheart's fears, till the break of day, + Thanked the snake for the fond delay! + + Far and wide the tale was told, + Like a snowball growing while it rolled. + The nurse hushed with it the baby's cry; + And it served, in the worthy minister's eye, + To paint the primitive Serpent by. + Cotton Mather came posting down + All the way to Newbury town, + With his eyes agog and his ears set wide, + And his marvellous inkhorn at his side; + Stirring the while in the shallow pool + Of his brains for the lore he learned at school, + To garnish the story, with here a streak + Of Latin, and there another of Greek: + And the tales he heard and the notes he took, + Behold! are they not in his Wonder-Book? + + Stories, like dragons, are hard to kill. + If the snake does not, the tale runs still + In Byfield Meadows, on Pipestone Hill. + And still, whenever husband and wife + Publish the shame of their daily strife, + And, with mad cross-purpose, tug and strain + At either end of the marriage-chain, + The gossips say, with a knowing shake + Of their gray heads, "Look at the Double Snake! + One in body and two in will, + The Amphisbaena is living still!" + + + + +A PLEA FOR THE FIJIANS; + +OR, CAN NOTHING BE SAID IN FAVOR OF ROASTING ONE'S EQUALS? + + +It is with a feeling of no mean satisfaction, that, in this year of +1859, the philosopher can calmly propose the investigation of a subject, +the mere mention of which would have created universal disgust, and even +horror, at a period not long past. Thanks to the progress of liberal +ideas and sound criticism, we are able, in the middle of the +ever-memorable Nineteenth Century, serenely to examine anew those +questions which for entire centuries stolid prejudice and narrow +dogmatism considered settled, and adjudicated in the High Court of +Humanity for all times to come. However signal the progress of our age +may be in the useful arts and in aesthetics, especially in upholstery, +in chemistry, in the government of large cities, and in the purity of +commerce, in pottery, pills, and poetry, and in the dignity of politics, +nothing, we may venture to say, will so distinctly and so broadly +characterize the period in which we happily live, when the future +historian shall sweep with his star-seeker over the past, as the +joyful fact, that we, above all others, have divested ourselves of +long-cherished errors, hugged by our forefathers as truths full of life +and vigor, and have, indeed, so to speak, founded a Novum Organon in +fact and reality, while the great Bacon proposed one in mind and theory. +To our enlightened age it was reserved to return to polygamy, after +nearly three thousand dragging years of dull adhesion of our race to +tiresome monogamy, leaping back by one bound over the whole European +Past into ancient and respectable Asia. _Ex Oriente lux; ex Oriente +gaudia seraglii!_ It is in our blessed epoch that atheism, by some, and +pantheism, by others, are boldly taught and vindicated, as once they +were by Greeks or Orientals, and with an earnestness and enthusiasm very +different from the sneer with which Encyclopaedists of Voltaire's time +attacked Christianity and Deism. To prove, however, the magnificent +many-sidedness of our noble times, it is we that have returned once more +to pictures of the Virgin Mary with winking and with weeping eyes, or +to her apparitions talking _patois_, as that of La Valette, and to a +hundred things in the Church, cautiously passed over _sub silentio_ in +the last century, but now joyously proclaimed and sustained with defiant +erudition by English and German _doctores graces_, and by the Parisian +"Univers," which, openly rejoicing in the English blood spilt by +the Sepoys,--for it is but Protestant blood, and that of hateful +freemen,--heralds the second or third advent of universal love +and Papacy. It is in our age that representative, and indeed all +institutional government, for the first time, is called effete +parliamentarism, a theatrical delusion, for which, according to the +requirements of advanced civilization, the beneficent, harmonious, and +ever-glorious Caesarism, _pur et simple_, must be substituted, as it +was once sublimely exhibited in the attractive Caesars of Rome, those +favorites of History and very pets of Clio. In the time of Tiberius, as +President Troplong beautifully and officially expressed it, "Democracy +at last seated herself on the imperial throne, embodied in the +Caesars,"--those worshipful incarnations of democracy, brought to our +view in the _tableaux_ of Suetonius and by the accounts of Tacitus. We +have at last returned to Caesarism, or Asiatic absolutism, improved by +modern light, and making the emperor a Second Providence, opening and +shutting the mouths of the universal-suffrage people, for words or +bread, as imperial divinity finds best. This is the progress of our age +in Europe, while we, in this hemisphere, have taken, for the first +time in history, a rational view of party strife, and with unclouded +intelligence maintain that judges and presidents are, and ought to be, +party exponents, doing away with those once romantic, but certainly +superannuated ideas of Country, Justice, Truth, and Patriotism. All real +progress tends toward simplification; and how simple are the idea of +party and the associations clustering around this sacred word, compared +with the confusing and embarrassing unreality of those ideas and +juvenile feelings we have mentioned last! + +But we have not done yet with the glory of our age. It is this, the +decennium we are soon going to close, that has risen to that enviable +eminence whence slavery is declared a precious good of itself, +a hallowed agent of civilization, an indispensable element of +conservatism, and a foundation of true socialism. From this lofty +eminence the seer-statesman--rising far above the philosophical sagacity +displayed by Aristotle and Varro, when they discussed the sacred +topic--proclaims that Capital ought to own, and has a divine right to +own, and always more or less does own, Labor; and that, since Labor +constitutes the whole humanity of the laboring man, it clearly follows +that he himself must be owned, if his labor be owned. Would you own the +bird without its cage? Generous gospel of the rich! Blessed are the +wealthy! + +It is the destiny of the middle of the nineteenth century--well may +we be forgiven, if we pronounce it with some pride--unhesitatingly +to defend the African slave-trade, and to smile at what sickly +philanthropists used to consider the unutterable woe, the unmeasured +crime, and the diabolical hard-heartedness of that traffic. We have +changed all this; and, to say the truth, it was high time to discover +that the negro-trade forms a charming chapter in the history of Europe, +and that the protracted efforts to put it down were unchristian and +unstatesmanlike. Pitt, Roscoe, Wilberforce, Burke, Washington, Franklin, +Madison, Adams, Lowndes,--puny names! short-sighted men! By the African +slave-trade, creatures that are hardly deserving the name of men, on +account of organic, intellectual, and moral incapacity, are forcibly +carried into the regions of Christian religion and civilization, there +to become civilized in spite of their unfitness for civilization. The +mariners, usually occupied in risking life or health merely for the +sake of base traffic and filthy lucre, are suddenly transformed into +ministering agents of civilization and religion. It gives a priestly +character to the captain of a slave-ship,--to him that is willing to +break the laws of his country, even daring the gallows, for the benefit +of the sable brother, and of his law-abiding conservative society. How +different from those dark times when the poet could say, _--Homo ignoto +homini lupus est!_ The missionary only endeavors to carry the Church to +Africa; the slave-trader carries Africa to the Church, to civilization, +and to the auction-table. + +There are but two more returns to truth and justice necessary,--the +Inquisition and the Witch-Trials. These restored, we may safely +congratulate ourselves on having regained the ground on which our race +stood before the Reformation, that untoward event, whence all the +mischief dates that has befallen man in the shape of human rights, +liberty, and other deplorable things, as lately a grave writer--not a +Catholic, nor a Jew either--gravely assured us. Gentle readers, let us +not be impatient. Progress has been of late so rapid, that many of you, +it is to be hoped, will yet have an opportunity of hailing the return of +those two noble institutions, _pro majore gloriâ Dei_, for which they +always existed, as long as chill and misty skepticism did not extinguish +their glowing poetry. Ah! happy times! poetic age! when there existed +not only "words that burn," but also laws that burned! + +In the mean time, it may not be inappropriate to commence the +consideration of a topic somewhat farther removed from us, but which, +according to our humble opinion, ought not to remain wholly beyond the +limits of a candid, liberal, and unprejudiced examination,--we mean the +important question, Whether the choicest of all substances, the most +delicate of all muscular texture, that substance of which kings, +philosophers, policemen, and supporters of crinoline are fashioned +by the plastic hand of Nature, ought forever to be excluded from the +reproductive process of wasted energy and proportionably consumed +nervous and cerebral fibre. Reader, do not shrink; grant us a patient +ear. You do not know how rapidly you may change your own opinion and +feelings. Do you not remember with what awe we first read in the +"Almanach des Gourmands," that a certain _sauce piquante_ was so fine +that with it a man would eat his own mother? This was only twenty years +ago; yet all of us, now, are helping a high-bred gentleman, trading, on +a gigantic scale, in the bones of his great ancestor. What sublimity of +peddling! + +To those who say, It is unnatural to eat our friends, we would answer, +that it is the office of civilization to remove us farther and farther +from Nature. Analyze the present magnitude called Lady, and you can +arithmetically state it, how little of it is nature-woman, and how +much is hoop-civilization. To those, again, who object, that it is too +primitive, we would reply, that the highest civilization is always a +return to Nature, which is likewise exemplified by many of our ladies in +the ball-room,--we mean by their upper portion. + +But _revenons à nos moutons_. The Rev. Messrs. Williams and Calvert, +missionaries, for many long years, among the Fijians, state, in their +recently published work, that those unsophisticated children of Nature +eat "long pig,"--as they call, with graceful humor, roast-man, in +contradistinction to "short-pig," by which they designate our squealing +fellow-roasters,--from three different motives.--When a chief has a +gala-day, or desires to signal his arrival by a right royal feast, it is +considered befitting to slaughter some men, to let the blood run in +the path of royalty, and to have on the table some _roast-homme_. Our +Captain Wilkins told us, years ago, that, for this _roast-homme_, a +plump Fijiana, of some twelve or thirteen years, is preferred. They know +very well what is good!--The second motive is hatred. When a Fijian +mortally hates a person, he endeavors to kill him; and having killed the +enemy, why should the victim not be eaten?--Lastly, it would seem that +affectionate regard, especially for a favorite wife, sometimes rises +to a mordant passion and an unconquerable longing for material +assimilation,--so much so, that the loving husband roasts his Penelope, +and neighbors are invited to participate in his better fourth or fifth, +as the polygamic case may be. Perhaps, years after, when with less +demonstrative nations the memory of the beloved one would have passed +away, the Fijian Fidelio may smack his lips, and exclaim, with +Petrarch's fervor,-- + + "Perchè Morte fura + Prima i migliori, e lascia star i rei: + Questa aspettata al regno degli Dei + Cosa bella mortal passa e non dura." + +Now we are very anxious not to be misunderstood by our readers. In +writing this paper, we do not mean to urge the reintroduction of +Cannibalism among us at once. The public mind may not yet be ripe for +it; but we desire to assist in placing the subject in its proper light, +and in showing that an enlightened impartiality can find very much in +defence of the Fijians,--more, indeed, than the Rev. Mr. Froude has been +able to accumulate in favor of his wife-devouring hero,--or than Mr. +Spratt can say in favor of humanization in general, and the breaking-up +of the Union in particular, by the reopening of the African +slave-trade,--or than our venerable chief-justice has contrived to say +in favor of reintroducing slavery in conquered territory, where positive +law had abolished or excluded it, by the abstract Constitution itself, +_proprio vigore_, (not quite unlike a wagoner, it seems to us, that +carries the soil of distant parts, _ipsâ adhesione_, as it sticks to +his boots, into the tavern-room,) without special law, which even the +ancient civilians very stupidly declared to be necessary. First, you +will remember, it was passionately maintained that the Constitution of +the United States does not know the Common Law; and now it is insisted +that Common Law (so far as slavery is concerned) is as inherent in the +Constitution as the black pigment is in the negro. You cannot wash it +out; it inheres physiologically in the Constitution. I tell you, reader, +we are _fast_ people indeed; we travel fast in our opinions, with now +and then a somerset for the delectation of the philosopher. + +Let us sit down, and have a philosophical conversation; above all, let +us discard sentiment, feeling,--what you call heart, and all that sort +of thing. You know how much mischief Las Casas has done by allowing his +feelings to interfere when the Spaniards roasted Indians, from what he +chose to call diabolical lust of gold, and sheer, abstract cruelty. Poor +Bishop! He belonged to the softs. Let us be philosophers, economists, +and, above all, Constitutionalists. Some philosophers, indeed, have +said that all idea of Right and Wrong, and the idea that there is +a difference between the two, must needs, first of all, start from +sentiment; but leave, I implore you, such philosophic fogyism behind +you. + +First, then, as to the principle of Right. It is a fact, that most +tribes and races, probably all nations in their earliest days, +have killed old and useless parents, and have eaten enemies, once +slain,--perhaps friends, too. Some nations carried the eating of human +flesh far down into their civilized periods and into recent times. The +Spaniards found the civilized Aztecs enjoying their _petits soupers_ +of babes _à la Tartare_, or gorgeous dinners on fattened heroes _aux +truffes_. Have you forgotten that from that fine Introduction to +Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" a flavor of roast "long pig" steams into +our nostrils as from a royal kitchen? Eating our equals, therefore, +is sound Common Law of all mankind, even more so than slavery, for it +exists before slavery can be introduced. Slavery is introduced when the +prisoner of war may be made to work,--when the tilling of the soil has +commenced; though then not always; for we now know that slavery was +introduced among the Greeks at a comparatively late period: but killing +parents and eating enemies exists in the hunter's state, and at those +periods when people find it hard work to obtain food, each one for +himself, to keep even a starved body and a little bit of soul together. +Chewing our neighbor is even better, for it is older Common Law, than +the universal buying of a wife and consequent selling of daughters which +exists even now over far the greater portion of the globe. We take it +that our species began with eating itself without paying for the fare. +Partaking of our neighbor precedes all _lex scripta_, all statute law, +all constitutions. As to ourselves in particular, whose law is the +English law, we know that the Druids sacrificed human beings to their +gods; and every one knows full well, that man, when in gastronomic +contact with the gods, always appropriates the most savory morsels +and the largest portions of the sacrifice to himself, leaving to the +ethereal taste of Jove or Tezcatlipoca the smell of some burnt bones or +inwards. Yet there is no law on record abolishing human sacrifices. We +know, indeed, that some Teutonic tribes, when they adopted Christianity, +positively prohibited the eating of horse-flesh, but no law ever forbade +to honor our fathers and mothers by making them parts of our feasts; so +that no lawyer of the true sort will deny, that, to this day, the right +of sacrificing fellow-men, and the reasonable concomitant of eating the +better portion of the sacrifice, still exists. Greeks and Romans have +sacrificed men; why should not we? That men have their individual rights +is no valid objection. Rights depend exclusively upon the law; and the +law, we have shown, does not grant equal rights (at least, not equal +destinations) to the Eater and the Eatee; for it seems to be one thing +to eat, and another to be eaten. It was a very silly maxim of the +ancient Civil Law, That the law, the _regula_, is derived from the right +(_jus_), not the _jus_ from the law. Has not a Supreme Court in one of +our States lately denied to a negro even the right to choose between +liberty and slavery,--the choice being left to him by his deceased +master,--because the creature (which, when doing wrong, is responsible +and has a will imputed to him) has no will to choose, because it cannot +have any, says the Supreme Court of that State? + +However, it will doubtless be objected by some, that it is simply +disgusting to eat our fellow-creatures of the same species,--that it is +unnatural and against our religion,--and that so remarkable a diversity +of taste can be explained only on the ground of our belonging to +different races. We do not believe that the Fijians belong to a +different race. Fijian, or Fijician, results, by a slight change of +letters, from the word Phoenician; and there can be no doubt that +the Fijians are descendants of those Phoenicians who, according to +Herodotus, sailed, in the reign of the Egyptian King Necho, from the +Persian Gulf round the Cape of Good Hope, and entered the Mediterranean +through the Pillars of Hercules. How they came to be wafted to the +opposite hemisphere is not for us to explain, nor do we know it. Suffice +it to say, that Fijician and Phoenician are the same word. Possibly old +Admiral Hanno preceded Captain Cook. Who can prove the contrary? + +As to the first of these objections, we admit that some people may +feel a degree of aversion to _roast-homme_; but so does the Mahometan +abominate roast "short pig"; and a Brahmin, taken to Cincinnati and its +environs, at the sanguinary hog-murder time, would die outright, of +horror. We almost died, ourselves, at the sickening sight of that +porcian massacre. _De gustibus non est disputantibus_, as our colonel +used to say. Disgust, is the result of a special treaty of amity and +reciprocity between the stomach and the imagination, differing according +to difference in the contracting parties. We have known many persons +who would not touch mutton, and others who would rather starve than eat +oysters; while we ourselves revolt at sourkrout, which, nevertheless, +millions of Germans, French, and Americans consider delicious. Disgust +is arbitrary; it does not furnish us with a philosophical ground for +argumentation. The Fijian does not feel disgust at the flavor of a +well-roasted white sailor; and as long as he does not insist upon our +relishing his fare, what right have we to ask him to feel disgusted? +When the panther-tailed Aztec priest fattened his prisoner, or carried +along the children decked with wreaths, soon to be smothered in their +own juice, he cannot have felt disgust, any more than the Malay, of whom +Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles tells us, that, with epicurean refinement, +he cut the choicest bits from his living prisoner, in order to baste +them to a turn and season them with choice pepper. + +Is it unnatural? We have once seen, with our own eyes, a very large +unroasted "small pig" devour one of her own piglets, whilst the others +lustily drew nourishment from the grunting mother. It look our appetite +away for forty-eight hours; yet it was nature; and in some portions of +Europe, people express the highest degree of fondness by the expressive +phrase,--"I could eat you." We may rely upon it, that, as Mr. Agassiz +says,--"There is no difference in kind, but only in degree." + +With reference to religion, we readily acknowledge that dining _à la +Fijienne_ does not appear exactly to be a divine institution, as slavery +has recently been discovered to be. From olden times it used to be the +belief of superstitious man that there was a divine afflatus in liberty; +but our profound theological scholars and Biblical critics have found +out that the divinity is on the other side. Neither Tertullian nor +Austin, neither St. Bernard nor any Pope, good or bad, neither Luther, +Bossuet, Calvin, nor Baxter, no commentator, exegetist, or preacher, +ever found out, what these profoundest inquirers have at length +discovered, that slavery is divine, like matrimony. Had they discovered +this great truth before the Catholic Church settled the number of +sacraments, there must have been eight instead of seven. Why was their +advent so late? + +Possibly these grave and candid, deep and fervent theologians, whose +opinions on theology are quoted everywhere, whose works are spread over +the globe, and whose lore is stupendous, may yet discover that there is +a divine flavor even in a soup _à la Mexicaine_. One thing, however, +is quite certain, namely,--that there is no prohibition of digestively +assimilating our neighbor with ourselves, from one end of the Bible to +the other. Was not Fielding's parson logical, who preferred punch to +wine, because it is nowhere spoken ill of in Scripture? When Baron +Viereck was rebuked by a friend for having given his daughter in +marriage to the King of Denmark, the Queen, undivorced, continuing to +occupy the throne, the shrewd father replied, that he had found no +passage in the Bible that prohibits a King of Denmark from having two +wives; and has not the democratic Fijian as good a right to that logic +as the noble Baron had? + +To say the truth, all these objections are founded mainly upon +sentiment, and we trust that morbid sentimentality will have no weight +in an age which ridicules the horror of the British Commons at the +descriptions of the middle passage, and demands calm judgment when the +question arises, how to increase the number of representatives and the +profits on sugar and cotton,--in our poetic age, in which republican +senators have openly declared their chivalrous allegiance to the +sovereign substance of which night-caps are made, and petticoats,--to +His Majesty, King Cotton,--not a very merry king, it must be owned, as +young King Charles was, or old King Cole, but still a worthy sovereign; +for, after all, he is but a new and most bulky avatar of Almighty +Dollar. + +No objection whatsoever can be made to the _deglutinatio Fijiana_ on the +score of utility. The islands of the Fijians are but small; no Fijian +Attila can lead forth his hosts into neighboring countries; no Fijian +Goths can pour down from Polynesian Alps into an Oceanic Italy; no +Athenians can there send sons and gods to a Coreyra: and no Fijian Miles +Standish can there walk up and down before his pipe-clayed bandoleers in +foreign colonies. How, then, can an over-increase of population be more +harmoniously prevented than by making the young and sleek furnish the +starving with a plump existence? Is it not, economically viewed, +the principle of Dr. Franklin's smoke-consuming pipe applied to the +infinitely more important sphere of human existence? The festive table, +to which, according to the great Malthus, Nature declines inviting a +large portion of every well-peopled country, will never be known by +the happy Fijian Say or Senior, so long as wise conservatism shall not +change its old and sacred laws, and shall allow Nature to invite one +happy portion as guests, and another happy portion as savory dishes. It +is Nature in modest simplicity, as it is exhibited in half-a-dozen mice +in a deep kettle, of whom one survivor and material representative +remains. The Chinese expose female infants, and lawful infanticide has +been abolished in some districts of the British East Indies within these +thirty years only. Would it not be wiser to reassimilate the tender dear +ones, and think of them ever after with smacking memory? + +It is true, indeed, that, upon the whole, Fijian gastronomy leers more +toward the tender sex than toward that which in our country wears the +trousers uncrinolined. But, we submit, is this a fair objection? Why +_is_ the tender sex more _tender?_ Lately, when an orator had strongly +expressed himself against the maxim of patriotic office-hunters,--"To +the victor belong the spoils," he was very logically asked,--"And pray, +Sir, to whom should the spoils belong, if not to the victor?" So we +would ask, should any one complain of girls being thus economized by +men,--"Who, in the name of common sense, should, if not men? Would you +have them perform that sacrificial duty for one another?" + +But whatever may be thought, by some of our lovely readers, of this last +argument, (which henceforth may be termed _argumentum marcianum_,) and +which, in the case before us, will always be an _ex parte_ argument, all +will agree that no objection can be taken to making repasts on _porcus +longus_ once fairly killed,--for instance, on heroes stretched on the +battle-field. This was the cogent argument of the New Zealander, after +baptism,--used in discussing the topic with the Rev. Mr. Yale. Willing +to give up slaughtering fellow-men for the sake of eating them, he could +not see why it was not wicked to waste so much good food. + +If it were objected, that, admitting the making of your enemy's +flesh flesh of your own flesh would necessarily lead to skirmishes, +"surprise-parties," and battles for the sole purpose of getting a +dinner,--to a sort of pre-prandial exercise, as in fishing,--we would +simply answer, "Too late!" Our friends who desire the reopening of the +African slave-trade declare that they wish to buy slaves only. When +statesmen, and missionaries, and simple people with simple sense and +simple hearts, cry out to them, "Stop! for the sake of our common +Father, stop! By reopening the slave-trade, you revive the vilest +crimes, and, for every negro ultimately sold to you on the coast, you +cause the murder of at least ten in the interior, not to speak of those +that are coolly massacred in the barracoon, when no demand exists,"--the +satisfactory reply is: "We have nothing to do with all that; we do not +travel beyond the record. We buy the negro who is a slave; what made him +a slave we do not care to know. The pearl in the market does not show +the toil of the fisher." And so the Fijian would properly reply: "Do not +mix up different subjects. I rescue my departed brother from ignominious +decay, and remake a man of him. How he came to depart,--that belongs to +quite a different chapter." + +This utilitarian view acquires a still greater importance when applied +to criminals under sentence of capital punishment. Soon after Beccaria, +it was asked, if we mistake not, by Voltaire: "Of what use is the +dead body of a criminal? You cannot restore the victim to life by the +execution of the murderer." And many pardons in America have been +granted on the assumption that no satisfactory answer could be given to +the philosophical question: "What use can the swinging body of the poor +creature be to any one?" The Fijian alone has a perfectly satisfactory +reply. + +The missionaries, already named in this paper, give a long account of +the execution of a supposed Fijian conspirator, which ends with these +words: "At last he was brought down to the ground by a club; after which +he was eaten." + +We can discern many advantages to be derived from the introduction of +what we will call "_pâtés penitentiaires_." + +There would be no waste of food. + +The sentence of the judge would sound more civilized; for, instead of +hearing the odious words, "You shall be hanged by the neck until you +are dead," words would be pronounced somewhat like these: "You shall be +taken to Delmonico, and there and by him be served up on such a day, as +_scélérat en papillotes_." + +There would be a greater readiness in jurors to convict interesting +criminals, who now-a-days cannot be found guilty,--especially were a law +passed that the jury should have the criminal. We read in the "Scottish +Criminal Trials," that a woman, clearly convicted of an atrocious +murder, was, nevertheless, found not guilty. The astonished lord +justiciary asked the foreman, how it was possible to find the prisoner +not guilty, with such overwhelming evidence, and was answered: "Becaase, +my laird, she is purty." Would not the delicacy of the prisoner have +been an additional reason for finding her guilty with Fijian jurors? + +Fourthly, there would be an obvious national advantage in some +countries, in which the government is at one and the same time busily +engaged in finding cheap food for the people, and in transporting +annually many hundreds of political _suspects_ to killing colonies. It +is, indeed, surprising, that so sagacious and parental a government as +that of Napoleon the Third,--may His Majesty be long preserved for the +civilization of France, the peace of Europe, and the glory of mankind in +general!--it is surprising, that his all-providing and all-foreseeing +government has not long ago discovered how the craving of the national +stomach for food, and of the popular mind for political purification, +might be stilled by no longer transporting political offenders and +_suspects_ to French Guiana or Lambessa, where they uselessly and +ignobly perish, but by sentencing them, instead, to the enviable lot of +making a feast for their brethren. Would not every Socialist, receiving +permission thus to help feed society, exclaim: _C'est magnifique! mais +c'est sublime!_ + +When Robespierre was in the zenith of his guillotinacious glory, the +_bonnes_ would sit around the scaffold, minding children and knitting +stockings, to see the head of a marquis or of a shoemaker fall. We leave +it to every reader, whether there would not be more historic unity and +poetic completeness in the _tableau_, were we to read that these good +creatures dined upon the _ci-devant_, after the execution. + +Imperial Rome is the _beau idéal_ of the present government of _la belle +France_; and we must own, that, when perusing the exhilarating pages of +Suetonius, it has often occurred to our mind that there is something +wanting in the list of high deeds related of those superb specimens of +humanity exhibited in the Caligulas and Heliogabali. They did so much +for cookery! Yet they seem never to have risen above an indirect +consumption of their subjects, by feeding their lobsters with ignoble +slaves; never did they directly bestow upon Roman freemen the honor of +being served up for the imperial table. Nero murdered his mother and +bade his teacher open his own veins. Would it not read much more +civilized, if the annals of the empire were telling us: _Nero, jam +divus, leniter dixit: O Seneca, Pundit delectabilis et philosophe laute, +quis dubitet te libentissime mihi hodie proferre artocreatem stoicum?_ + +Strange as it may appear to some readers, that thus the polished Romans +might have learned a lesson of civilization from the Fijians, they will +not reject our suggestion, when they reflect, that, only a short time +ago, they were, probably, as much surprised at finding the government +of so great a country as France adopting imperial Rome as a model +body-politic. Familiarize your mind with the idea, and all difficulties +vanish. It is only the last step which costs,--not the first. + +There are many more reasons that might be urged in favor of the +Fijians. We are not aware that the reverend missionaries have given +any statistical tables, showing a regularity in the annual numbers of +consumed persons, male and female, classed according to the reasons why +consumed; but no one can doubt that such tables might be given, and if +so, the whole question of anthropophagism could be very easily buckled +up in a tidy little valise. The Fijians, in the plural, we take it, +have little or nothing to do with it; it is the abstract, will-less, +impersonal Fijian--who, according to the learned Ferrari,[A] would be +called, now, Podesta Fijian, now Consul Fijian, now Papa Fijianus--that +snuffs the flavor of his own dear natural _pot à feu_; and Right +or Wrong, Just or Unjust, Commendable or Revolting, are schoolboy +distinctions, no longer recognized by the philosophical historian, who +treats all moral questions and national movements like questions of +natural philosophy,--like social chemistry, in which so puerile a word +as poison has no place. Arsenic is arsenic with certain effects, and +nothing more; and society poisons itself annually to such an amount, +arithmetically expressed. + +[Footnote A: _Histoire des Revolutions d'Italie, ou Guelf's et +Gibelins_. Par J. Ferrari. Paris, 1858.] + +We ask leave to add two suggestions in favor of the Fijians, both, it +would seem, of philosophic importance. If you do not like the Fijian +national dish,--_national_ in more than one sense,--have the dear +sons of Nature, as Carlyle probably would call them, not the right to +reply,--"We do not like your _sauerkraut_, if you are a German; your +_polenta_, if you are an Italian; your _olla podrida_, if you are a +Spaniard; nor your _grit_, if you are a Dane; your bacon and greasy +greens, if you are a Southerner; nor your baked beans, if you are a +Northerner; nor any other stuff called national dishes,--all of which +are vile, except English roast beef and plum-pudding, and Neapolitan +maccaroni." + +The other suggestion is this: Is it likely that Nature has placed the +Fijians exactly in the same meridian with Greenwich, which in some +measure may be called the meridian of civilization, for nothing?--is it +likely that all the solar and cosmic influences which must result from +this fact have really left the Fijian in that state of hyper-brutality +which you think is proved by his _menage_? Is it, we ask, fairly to be +supposed? We think not. + +We do not presume to know whether we have carried conviction to the +minds of our readers; but even if we have not,--if we have only been +sufficiently fortunate to give the first impulse to the great inquiry, +we shall be satisfied. If we consider the history of some opinions now +openly preached and vehemently maintained,--how timidly they were +first hinted at, within our own recollection, and with what surprising +rapidity they have risen to an unblushing amplitude, rustling and +sweeping proudly and defiantly along the Broadway of human events +and opinions,--how that which but a lustre ago was wicked is now +virtuous,--we see no reason for despair; and our century may yet witness +the time when it will be considered the highest mixture of philosophic +courtesy and Christian urbanity to make the most graceful semi-lateral +bow, as you pass your friend in the street, and, kissing the tip of your +finger, to lisp, with bending head and smiling eye,-- + +"May I never disagree with you!" + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +[_The Professor talks with the Reader. He tells a Young Girl's Story_.] + +When the elements that went to the making of the first man, father of +mankind, had been withdrawn from the world of unconscious matter, the +balance of creation was disturbed. The materials that go to the making +of one woman were set free by the abstraction from inanimate nature of +one man's-worth of masculine constituents. These combined to make our +first mother, by a logical necessity involved in the previous creation +of our common father. All this, mythically, illustratively, and by no +means doctrinally or polemically. + +The man implies the woman, you will understand. The excellent gentleman +whom I had the pleasure of setting right in a trifling matter a few +weeks ago believes in the frequent occurrence of miracles at the present +day. So do I. I believe, if you could find an uninhabited coral-reef +island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with plenty of cocoa-palms +and bread-fruit on it, and put a handsome young fellow, like our +Marylander, ashore upon it, if you touched there a year afterwards, you +would find him walking under the palm trees arm in arm with a pretty +woman. + +Where would she come from? + +Oh, that's the miracle! + +----I was just as certain, when I saw that fine, high-colored youth at +the upper right-hand corner of our table, that there would appear some +fitting feminine counterpart to him, as if I had been a clairvoyant, +seeing it all beforehand. + +----I have a fancy that those Marylanders are just about near enough to +the sun to ripen well.--How some of us fellows remember Joe and Harry, +Baltimoreans, both! Joe, with his cheeks like lady-apples, and his eyes +like black-heart cherries, and his teeth like the whiteness of the flesh +of cocoa-nuts, and his laugh that set the chandelier-drops rattling +overhead, as we sat at our sparkling banquets in those gay times! Harry, +champion, by acclamation, of the College heavyweights, broad-shouldered, +bull-necked, square-jawed, six feet and trimmings, a little science, +lots of pluck, good-natured as a steer in peace, formidable as a +red-eyed bison in the crack of hand-to-hand battle! Who forgets the +great muster-day, and the collision of the classic with the democratic +forces? The huge butcher, fifteen stone,--two hundred and ten +pounds,--good weight,--steps out like Telamonian Ajax, defiant. No words +from Harry, the Baltimorean,--one of the quiet sort, who strike first, +and do the talking, if there is any, afterwards. No words, but, in the +place thereof, a clean, straight, hard hit, which took effect with a +spank like the explosion of a percussion-cap, knocking the slayer of +beeves down a sand-bank,--followed, alas! by the too impetuous youth, so +that both rolled down together, and the conflict terminated in one of +those inglorious and inevitable Yankee _clinches_, followed by a general +_melée_, which make our native fistic encounters so different from such +admirably-ordered contests as that which I once saw at an English fair, +where everything was done decently and in order, and the fight began and +ended with such grave propriety, that a sporting parson need hardly have +hesitated to open it with a devout petition, and, after it was over, +dismiss the ring with a benediction. + +I can't help telling one more story about this great field-day, though +it is the most wanton and irrelevant digression. But all of us have a +little speck of fight underneath our peace and goodwill to men,--just +a speck, for revolutions and great emergencies, you know,--so that we +should not submit to be trodden quite flat by the first heavy-heeled +aggressor that came along. You can tell a portrait from an ideal head, I +suppose, and a true story from one spun out of the writer's invention. +See whether this sounds true or not. + +Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin sent out two fine blood-horses, Barefoot and +Scrab by name, to Massachusetts, something before the time I am talking +of. With them came a Yorkshire groom, a stocky little fellow, in velvet +breeches, who made that mysterious hissing noise, traditionary in +English stables, when he rubbed down the silken-skinned racers, in great +perfection. After the soldiers had come from the muster-field, and +some of the companies were on the village-common, there was still some +skirmishing between a few individuals who had not had the fight taken +out of them. The little Yorkshire groom thought he must serve out +somebody. So he threw himself into an approved scientific attitude, and, +in brief, emphatic language, expressed his urgent anxiety to accommodate +any classical young gentleman who chose to consider himself a candidate +for his attentions. I don't suppose there were many of the college boys +that would have been a match for him in the art which Englishmen know +so much more of than Americans, for the most part. However, one of the +Sophomores, a very quiet, peaceable fellow, just stepped out of the +crowd, and, running straight at the groom, as he stood there, sparring +away, struck him with the sole of his foot, a straight blow, as if it +had been with his fist,--and knocked him heels over head and senseless, +so that he had to be carried off from the field. This ugly way of +hitting is the great trick of the French _savate,_ which is not +commonly thought able to stand its ground against English pugilistic +science.--These are old recollections, with not much to recommend them, +except, perhaps, a dash of life, which may be worth a little something. + +The young Marylander brought them all up, you may remember. He recalled +to my mind those two splendid pieces of vitality I told you of. Both +have been long dead. How often we see these great red flaring flambeaux +of life blown out, as it were, by a puff of wind,--and the little, +single-wicked night-lamp of being, which some white-faced and attenuated +invalid shades with trembling fingers, flickering on while they go out +one after another, until its glimmer is all that is left to us of the +generation it belonged to! + +I told you that I was perfectly sure, beforehand, we should find some +pleasing girlish or womanly shape to fill the blank at our table and +match the dark-haired youth at the upper corner. + +There she sits, at the very opposite corner, just as far off as accident +could put her from this handsome fellow, by whose side she ought, of +course, to be sitting. One of the "positive" blondes, as my friend, +you may remember, used to call them. Tawny-haired, amber-eyed, +full-throated, skin as white as a blanched almond. Looks dreamy to me, +not self-conscious, though a black ribbon round her neck sets it off as +a Marie-Antoinette's diamond-necklace could not do. So in her dress, +there is a harmony of tints that looks as if an artist had run his eye +over her and given a hint or two like the finishing touch to a picture. +I can't help being struck with her, for she is at once rounded and fine +in feature, looks calm, as blondes are apt to, and as if she might run +wild, if she were trifled with.--It is just as I knew it would be,--and +anybody can see that our young Marylander will be dead in love with her +in a week. + +Then if that little man would only turn out immensely rich and have the +good-nature to die and leave them all his money, it would be as nice as +a three-volume novel. + +Little Boston is in a flurry, I suspect, with the excitement of having +such a charming neighbor next him. I judge so mainly by his silence and +by a certain rapt and serious look on his face, as if he were thinking +of something that had happened, or that might happen, or that ought to +happen,--or how beautiful her young life looked, or how hardly Nature +had dealt with him, or something which struck him silent, at any rate. I +made several conversational openings for him, but he did not fire up as +he often does. I even went so far as to indulge in a fling at the State +House, which, as we all know, is in truth a very imposing structure, +covering less ground than St. Peter's, but of similar general effect. +The little man looked up, but did not reply to my taunt. He said to +the young lady, however, that the State House was the Parthenon of our +Acropolis, which seemed to please her, for she smiled, and he reddened a +little,--so I thought. I don't think it right to watch persons who are +the subjects of special infirmity,--but we all do it. + +I see that they have crowded the chairs a little at that end of +the table, to make room for another new-comer of the lady sort. A +well-mounted, middle-aged preparation, wearing her hair without +a cap,--pretty wide in the parting, though,--contours vaguely +hinted,--features very quiet,--says little as yet, but seems to keep her +eye on the young lady, as if having some responsibility for her.-- + + * * * * * + +My record is a blank for some days after this. In the mean time I have +contrived to make out the person and the story of our young lady, +who, according to appearances, ought to furnish us a heroine for a +boarding-house romance before a year is out. It is very curious that +she should prove connected with a person many of us have heard of. +Yet, curious as it is, I have been a hundred times struck with the +circumstance that the most remote facts are constantly striking each +other; just as vessels starting from ports thousands of miles apart pass +close to each other in the naked breadth of the ocean, nay, sometimes +even touch, in the dark, with a crack of timbers, a gurgling of water, a +cry of startled sleepers,--a cry mysteriously echoed in warning dreams, +as the wife of some Gloucester fisherman, some coasting skipper, wakes +with a shriek, calls the name of her husband, and sinks back to uneasy +slumbers upon her lonely pillow,--a widow. + +Oh, these mysterious meetings! Leaving all the vague, waste, endless +spaces of the washing desert, the ocean-steamer and the fishing-smack +sail straight towards each other as if they ran in grooves ploughed for +them in the waters from the beginning of creation! Not only things and +events, but our own thoughts, are so full of these surprises, that, if +there were a reader in my parish who did not recognize the familiar +occurrence of what I am now going to mention, I should think it a case +for the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of Intelligence +among the Comfortable Classes. + +There are about as many twins in the births of thought as of children. +For the first time in your lives you learn some fact or come across some +idea. Within an hour, a day, a week, that same fact or idea strikes +you from another quarter. It seems as if it had passed into space and +bounded back upon you as an echo from the blank wall that shuts in the +world of thought. Yet no possible connection exists between the two +channels by which the thought or the fact arrived. Let me give an +infinitesimal illustration. + +One of the Boys mentioned, the other evening, in the course of a very +pleasant poem he read us, a little trick of the Commons table-boarders, +which I, nourished at the parental board, had never heard of. Young +fellows being always hungry----Allow me to stop dead-short, in order +to utter an aphorism which has been forming itself in one of the blank +interior spaces of my intelligence, like a crystal in the cavity of a +geode. + + * * * * * + +_Aphorism by the Professor._ + +In order to know whether a human being is young or old, offer it food of +different kinds at short intervals. If young, it will eat anything at +any hour of the day or night. If old, it observes stated periods, and +you might as well attempt to regulate the time of high-water to suit a +fishing-party as to change these periods. + +The crucial experiment is this. Offer a bulky and boggy bun to the +suspected individual just ten minutes before dinner. If this is eagerly +accepted and devoured, the fact of youth is established. If the subject +of the question changes color and expresses surprise and incredulity, as +if you could not possibly be in earnest, the fact of maturity is no less +clear. + + * * * * * + +----Excuse me,--I return to my story of the Commons-table.--Young +fellows being always hungry, and tea and dry toast being the meagre fare +of the evening meal, it was a trick of some of the Boys to impale a +slice of meat upon a fork, at dinner-time, and stick the fork holding it +beneath the table, so that they could get it at tea-time. The dragons +that guarded this table of the Hesperides found out the trick at last, +and kept a sharp look-out for missing forks;--they knew where to find +one, if it was not in its place.--Now the odd thing was, that, after +waiting so many years to hear of this college trick, I should hear it +mentioned _a second time_ within the same twenty-four hours by a college +youth of the present generation. Strange, but true. And so it has +happened to me and to every person, often and often, to be hit in rapid +succession by these twinned facts or thoughts, as if they were linked +like chain-shot. + +I was going to leave the simple reader to wonder over this, taking it as +an unexplained marvel. I think, however, I will turn over a furrow of +subsoil in it. The explanation is, of course, that in a great many +thoughts there must be a few coincidences, and these instantly arrest +our attention. Now we shall probably never have the least idea of the +enormous number of impressions which pass through our consciousness, +until in some future life we see the photographic record of our thoughts +and the stereoscopic picture of our actions. There go more pieces to +make up a conscious life or a living body than you think for. Why, +some of you were surprised when a friend of mine told you there +were fifty-eight separate pieces in a fiddle. How many "swimming +glands"--solid, organized, regularly formed, rounded disks, taking an +active part in all your vital processes, part and parcel, each one of +them, of your corporeal being--do you suppose are whirled along, like +pebbles in a stream, with the blood which warms your frame and colors +your cheeks?--A noted German physiologist spread out a minute drop +of blood, under the microscope, in narrow streaks, and counted the +globules, and then made a calculation. The counting by the micrometer +took him _a week_.--You have, my full-grown friend, of these little +couriers in crimson or scarlet livery, running on your vital errands day +and night as long as you live, sixty-five billions, five hundred and +seventy thousand millions. Errors excepted.--Did I hear some gentleman +say, "Doubted?"--I am the Professor. I sit in my chair with a petard +under it that will blow me through the skylight of my lecture-room, if I +do not know what I am talking about and whom I am quoting. + +Now, my dear friends, who are putting your hands to your foreheads, and +saying to yourselves that you feel a little confused, as if you had been +waltzing until things began to whirl slightly round you, is it possible +that you do not clearly apprehend the exact connection of all that I +have been saying, and its bearing on what is now to come? Listen, then. +The number of these living elements in our bodies illustrates the +incalculable multitude of our thoughts; the number of our thoughts +accounts for those frequent coincidences spoken of; these coincidences +in the world of thought illustrate those which we constantly observe in +the world of outward events, of which the presence of the young girl now +at our table, and proving to be the daughter of an old acquaintance some +of us may remember, is the special example which led me through this +labyrinth of reflections, and finally lands me at the commencement of +this young girl's story, which, as I said, I have found the time and +felt the interest to learn something of, and which I think I can tell +without wronging the unconscious subject of my brief delineation. + + * * * * * + + +IRIS. + + +You remember, perhaps, in some papers published awhile ago, an odd poem +written by an old Latin tutor? He brought up at the verb _amo_, I love, +as all of us do, and by and by Nature opened her great living dictionary +for him at the word _filia_, a daughter. The poor man was greatly +perplexed in choosing a name for her. _Lucretia_ and _Virginia_ were the +first that he thought of; but then came up those pictured stories of +Titus Livius, which he could never read without crying, though he had +read them a hundred times. + +--Lucretia sending for her husband and her father, each to bring one +friend with him, and awaiting them in her chamber. To them her wrongs +briefly. Let them see to the wretch, she will take care of herself. Then +the hidden knife flashes out and sinks into her heart. She slides +from her seat, and falls dying. "Her husband and her father cry +aloud."--No,--not Lucretia. + +--Virginius,--a brown old soldier, father of a nice girl. She engaged +to a very promising young man. Decemvir Appius takes a violent fancy to +her,--must have her at any rate. Hires a lawyer to present the arguments +in favor of the view that she was another man's daughter. + +There used to be lawyers in Rome that would do such things.--All right. +There are two sides to everything. _Audi alteram partem_. The legal +gentleman has no opinion,--he only states the evidence.--A doubtful +case. Let the young lady be under the protection of the Honorable +Decemvir until it can be looked up thoroughly.--Father thinks it best, +on the whole, to give in. Will explain the matter, if the young lady and +her maid will step this way. _That_ is the explanation,--a stab with a +butcher's knife, snatched from a stall, meant for other lambs than this +poor bleeding Virginia! + +The old man thought over the story. Then he must have one look at the +original. So he took down the first volume and read it over. When he +came to that part where it tells how the young gentleman she was engaged +to and a friend of his took up the poor girl's bloodless shape and +carried it through the street, and how all the women followed, wailing, +and asking if that was what their daughters were coming to,--if that was +what they were to get for being good girls,--he melted down into his +accustomed tears of pity and grief, and, through them all, of delight at +the charming Latin of the narrative. But it was impossible to call his +child Virginia. He could never look at her without thinking she had a +knife sticking in her bosom. + +_Dido_ would be a good name, and a fresh one. She was a queen, and the +founder of a great city. Her story had been immortalized by the greatest +of poets,--for the old Latin tutor clove to "Virgilius Maro," as he +called him, as closely as ever Dante did in his memorable journey. So +he took down his Virgil,--it was the smooth-leafed, open-lettered quarto +of Baskerville,--and began reading the loves and mishaps of Dido. It +wouldn't do. A lady who had not learned discretion by experience, and +came to an evil end. He shook his head, as he sadly repeated, + + "--misera ante diem, subitoque accensa + furore"; + +but when he came to the lines, + + "Ergo Iris croceis per coelum roscida pennis + Mille trahens varios adverso Sole colores," + +he jumped up with a great exclamation, which the particular recording +angel who heard it pretended not to understand, or it might have gone +hard with the Latin tutor some time or other. + +"_Iris_ shall be her name!"--he said. So her name was Iris. + +--The natural end of a tutor is to perish by starvation. It is only a +question of time, just as with the burning of college libraries. These +all burn up sooner or later, provided they are not housed in brick or +stone and iron. I don't mean that you will see in the registry of deaths +that this or that particular tutor died of well-marked, uncomplicated +starvation. They _may_, even, in extreme cases, be carried off by a +thin, watery kind of apoplexy, which sounds very well in the returns, +but means little to those who know that it is only debility settling on +the head. Generally, however, they fade and waste away under various +pretexts,--calling it dyspepsia, consumption, and so on, to put a decent +appearance upon the case and keep up the credit of the family and the +institution where they have passed through the successive stages of +inanition. + +In some cases it takes a great many years to kill a tutor by the +process in question. You see, they do get food and clothes and fuel, in +appreciable quantities, such as they are. You will even notice rows of +books in their rooms, and a picture or two,--things that look as if +they had surplus money; but these superfluities are the _water of +crystallization_ to scholars, and you can never get them away till +the poor fellows effloresce into dust. Do not be deceived. The tutor +breakfasts on coffee made of beans, edulcerated with milk watered to the +verge of transparency; his mutton is tough and elastic, up to the +moment when it becomes tired out and tasteless; his coal is a sullen, +sulphurous anthracite, which rusts into ashes, rather than burns, in +the shallow grate; his flimsy broadcloth is too thin for winter and too +thick for summer. The greedy lungs of fifty hot-blooded boys suck the +oxygen from the air he breathes in his recitation-room. In short, he +undergoes a process of gentle and gradual starvation. + +--The mother of little Iris was not called Electra, like hers of the old +story, neither was her grandfather Oceanus. Her blood-name, which she +gave away with her heart to the Latin tutor, was a plain old English +one, and her water-name was Hannah, beautiful as recalling the mother of +Samuel, and admirable as reading equally well from the initial letter +forwards and from the terminal letter backwards. The poor lady, seated +with her companion at the chess-board of matrimony, had but just pushed +forward her one little white pawn upon an empty square, when the Black +Knight, that cares nothing for castles or kings or queens, swooped down +upon her and swept her from the larger board of life. + +The old Latin tutor put a modest blue stone at the head of his late +companion, with her name and age and _Eheu!_ upon it,--a smaller one +at her feet, with initials; and left her by herself, to be rained and +snowed on,--which is a hard thing to do for those whom we have cherished +tenderly. + +About the time that the lichens, falling on the stone, like drops of +water, had spread into fair, round rosettes, the tutor had starved into +a slight cough. Then he began to draw the buckle of his black pantaloons +a little tighter, and took in another reef in his never-ample waistcoat. +His temples got a little hollow, and the contrasts of color in his +cheeks more vivid than of old. After a while his walks fatigued him, and +he was tired and breathed hard after going up a flight or two of stairs. +Then came on other marks of inward trouble and general waste, which he +spoke of to his physician as peculiar, and doubtless owing to accidental +causes; to all which the doctor listened with deference, as if it had +not been the old story that one in five or six of mankind in temperate +climates tells, or has told for him, as if it were something new. As +the doctor went out, he said to himself,--"On the rail at last. +Accommodation train. A good many stops, but will get to the station by +and by." So the doctor wrote a recipe with the astrological sign of +Jupiter before it, (just as your own physician does, inestimable reader, +as you will see, if you look at his next prescription,) and departed, +saying he would look in occasionally. After this, the Latin tutor began +the usual course of "getting better," until he got so much better that +his face was very sharp, and when he smiled, three crescent lines +showed at each side of his lips, and when he spoke, it was in a muffled +whisper, and the white of his eye glistened as pearly as the purest +porcelain,--so much better, that he hoped--by spring--he----might be +able--to--attend----to his class again.--But he was recommended not +to expose himself, and so kept his chamber, and occasionally, not having +anything to do, his bed. The unmarried sister with whom he lived took +care of him; and the child, now old enough to be manageable, and even +useful in trifling offices, sat in the chamber, or played about. + +Things could not go on so forever, of course. One morning his face was +sunken and his hands very, very cold. He was "better," he whispered, but +sadly and faintly. After a while he grew restless and seemed a little +wandering. His mind ran on his classics, and fell back on the Latin +grammar. + +"Iris!" he said,--"_filiola mea!_"--The child knew this meant _my dear +little daughter_ as well as if it had been English.--"Rainbow!"--for he +would translate her name at times, "come to me,--_veni_"--and his lips +went on automatically, and murmured, "_vel venito!_"--The child came +and sat by his bedside and took his hand, which she could not warm, but +which shot its rays of cold all through her slender frame. But there she +sat, looking steadily at him. Presently he opened his lips feebly, and +whispered, "_Moribundus._" She did not know what that meant, but she saw +that there was something new and sad. So she began to cry; but presently +remembering an old book that seemed to comfort him at times, got up and +brought a Bible in the Latin version, called the Vulgate. "Open it," he +said,--"I will read,--_segnius irritant_,--don't put the light +out,--ah! _haeret lateri_,--I am going,--_vale, vale, vale_, good-bye, +good-bye,--the Lord take care of my child!--_Domine, audi_--_vel +audito!_" His face whitened suddenly, and he lay still, with open eyes +and mouth. He had taken his last degree. + +----Little Miss Iris could not be said to begin life with a very +brilliant rainbow over her, in a worldly point of view. A limited +wardrobe of man's attire, such as poor tutors wear,--a few good books, +especially classics,--a print or two, and a plaster model of the +Pantheon, with some pieces of furniture which had seen service,--these, +and a child's heart full of tearful recollections and strange doubts and +questions, alternating with the cheap pleasures which are the anodynes +of childish grief; such were the treasures she inherited.--No,--I +forgot. With that kindly sentiment which all of us feel for old men's +first children,--frost-flowers of the early winter season,--the old +tutor's students had remembered him at a time when he was laughing and +crying with his new parental emotions, and running to the side of the +plain crib in which his _alter ego_, as he used to say, was swinging, +to hang over the little heap of stirring clothes, from which looked the +minute, red, downy, still, round face, with unfixed eyes and working +lips,--in that unearthly gravity which has never yet been broken by a +smile, and which gives to the earliest moon-year or two of an infant's +life the character of a _first old age_, to counterpoise that _second +childhood_ which there is one chance in a dozen it may reach by and by. +The boys had remembered the old man and young father at that tender +period of his hard, dry life. There came to him a fair, silver goblet, +embossed with classical figures, and bearing on a shield the graven +words, _Ex dono pupillorum_. The handle on its side showed what use the +boys had meant it for; and a kind letter in it, written with the best of +feeling, in the worst of Latin, pointed delicately to its destination. +Out of this silver vessel, after a long, desperate, strangling cry, +which marked her first great lesson in the realities of life, the child +took the blue milk, such as poor tutors and their children get, tempered +with water, and sweetened a little, so as to bring it nearer the +standard established by the touching indulgence and partiality of +Nature,--who has mingled an extra allowance of sugar in the blameless +food of the child at its mother's heart, as compared with that of its +infant brothers and sisters of the bovine race. + +But a willow will grow in baked sand wet with rain-water. An air-plant +will grow by feeding on the winds. Nay, those huge forests that +overspread great continents have built themselves up mainly from the +air-currents with which they are always battling. The oak is but a +foliated atmospheric crystal deposited from the aërial ocean that holds +the future vegetable world in solution. The storm that tears its leaves +has paid tribute to its strength, and it breasts the tornado clad in the +spoils of a hundred hurricanes. + +Poor little Iris! What had she in common with the great oak in the +shadow of which we are losing sight of her?--She lived and grew like +that,--this was all. The blue milk ran into her veins and filled them +with thin, pure blood. Her skin was fair, with a faint tinge, such as +the white rosebud shows before it opens. The doctor who had attended +her father was afraid her aunt would hardly be able to "raise" +her,--"delicate child,"--hoped she was not consumptive,--thought there +was a fair chance she would take after her father. + +A very forlorn-looking person, dressed in black, with a white +neckcloth, sent her a memoir of a child who died at the age of two years +and eleven months, after having fully indorsed all the doctrines of the +particular persuasion to which he not only belonged himself, but +thought it very shameful that everybody else did not belong. What with +foreboding looks and dreary deathbed stories, it was a wonder the child +made out to live through it. It saddened her early years, of course,--it +distressed her tender soul with thoughts which, as they cannot be fully +taken in, should be sparingly used as instruments of torture to break +down the natural cheerfulness of a healthy child, or, what is infinitely +worse, to cheat a dying one out of the kind illusions with which the +Father of All has strewed its downward path. + +The child would have died, no doubt, and, if properly managed, might +have added another to the long catalogue of wasting children who have +been as cruelly played upon by spiritual physiologists, often with the +best intentions, as ever the subject of a rare disease by the curious +students of science. + +Fortunately for her, however, a wise instinct had guided the late Latin +tutor in the selection of the partner of his life, and the future mother +of his child. The deceased tutoress was a tranquil, smooth woman, easily +nourished, as such people are,--a quality which is inestimable in a +tutor's wife,--and so it happened that the daughter inherited enough +vitality from the mother to live through childhood and infancy and fight +her way towards womanhood, in spite of the tendencies she derived from +her other parent. + +----Two and two do not always make four, in this matter of hereditary +descent of qualities. Sometimes they make three, and sometimes five. It +seems as if the parental traits at one time showed separate, at another +blended,--that occasionally the force of two natures is represented in +the derivative one by a diagonal of greater value than either original +line of living movement,--that sometimes there is a loss of vitality +hardly to be accounted for, and again a forward impulse of variable +intensity in some new and unforeseen direction. + +So it was with this child. She had glanced off from her parental +probabilities at an unexpected angle. Instead of taking to classical +learning like her father, or sliding quietly into household duties like +her mother, she broke out early in efforts that pointed in the direction +of Art. As soon as she could hold a pencil she began to sketch outlines +of objects round her with a certain air and spirit. Very extraordinary +horses, but their legs looked as if they could move. Birds unknown to +Audubon, yet flying, as it were, with a rush. Men with impossible legs, +which did yet seem to have a vital connection with their most improbable +bodies. By-and-by the doctor, on his beast,--an old man with a face +looking as if Time had kneaded it like dough with his knuckles, with a +rhubarb tint and flavor pervading himself and his sorrel horse and all +their appurtenances. A dreadful old man! Be sure she did not forget +those saddlebags that held the detestable bottles out of which he used +to shake those loathsome powders which, to virgin childish palates that +find heaven in strawberries and peaches, are----Well, I suppose I had +better stop. Only she wished she was dead sometimes when she heard him +coming. On the next leaf would figure the gentleman with the black coat +and white cravat, as he looked when he came and entertained her with +stories concerning the death of various little children about her age, +to encourage her, as that wicked Mr. Arouet said about shooting Admiral +Byng. Then she would take her pencil and with a few scratches there +would be the outline of a child, in which you might notice how one +sudden sweep gave the chubby cheek, and two dots darted at the paper +looked like real eyes. + +By-and-by she went to school, and caricatured the schoolmaster on the +leaves of her grammars and geographies, and drew the faces of her +companions, and, from time to time, heads and figures from her fancy, +with large eyes, far apart, like those of Raffaelle's mothers and +children, sometimes with wild floating hair, and then with wings and +heads thrown back in ecstasy. This was about twelve, as the dates of +these drawings show, and, therefore, three or four years before she came +among us. Soon after this time, the ideal figures began to take the +place of portraits and caricatures, and a new feature appeared in her +drawing-books in the form of fragments of verse and short poems. + +It was dull work, of course, for such a young girl to live with an old +spinster and go to a village school. Her books bore testimony to this; +for there was a look of sadness in the faces she drew, and a sense of +weariness and longing for some imaginary conditions of blessedness or +other, which began to be painful. She might have gone through this +flowering of the soul, and, casting her petals, subsided into a sober, +human berry, but for the intervention of friendly assistance and +counsel. + +In the town where she lived was a lady of honorable condition, somewhat +past middle age, who was possessed of pretty ample means, of cultivated +tastes, of excellent principles, of exemplary character, and of more +than common accomplishments. The gentleman in black broadcloth and white +neckerchief only echoed the common voice about her, when he called her, +after enjoying, beneath her hospitable roof, an excellent cup of tea, +with certain elegancies and luxuries he was unaccustomed to, "The Model +of all the Virtues." + +She deserved this title as well as almost any woman. She did really +bristle with moral excellences. Mention any good thing she had not done; +I should like to see you try! There was no handle of weakness to take +hold of her by: she was as unseizable, except in her totality, as a +billiard-ball; and on the broad, green, terrestrial table, where she had +been knocked about, like all of us, by the cue of Fortune, she glanced +from every human contact, and "caramed" from one relation to another, +and rebounded from the stuffed cushion of temptation, with such exact +and perfect angular movements, that the Enemy's corps of Reporters had +long given up taking notes of her conduct, as there was no chance for +their master. + +What an admirable person for the patroness and directress of a slightly +self-willed child, with the lightning zigzag line of genius running like +a glittering vein through the marble whiteness of her virgin nature! One +of the lady-patroness's peculiar virtues was calmness. She was resolute +and strenuous, but still. You could depend on her for every duty; she +was as true as steel. She was kind-hearted and serviceable in all +the relations of life. She had more sense, more knowledge, more +conversation, as well as more goodness, than all the partners you have +waltzed with this winter put together. + +Yet no man was known to have loved her, or even to have offered himself +to her in marriage. It was a great wonder. I am very anxious to +vindicate my character as a philosopher and an observer of Nature by +accounting for this apparently extraordinary fact. + +You may remember certain persons who have the misfortune of presenting +to the friends whom they meet a cold, damp hand. There are states of +mind in which a contact of this kind has a depressing effect on the +vital powers that makes us insensible to all the virtues and graces of +the proprietor of one of these life-absorbing organs. When they touch +us, virtue passes out of us, and we feel as if our electricity had been +drained by a powerful negative battery, carried about by an overgrown +human torpedo. + +"The Model of all the Virtues" had a pair of searching eyes as clear as +Wenham ice; but they were slower to melt than that fickle jewelry. Her +features disordered themselves slightly at times in a surface-smile, but +never broke loose from their corners and indulged in the riotous tumult +of a laugh--which, I take it, is the mob-law of the features,--and +propriety the magistrate who reads the riot-act. She carried the +brimming cup of her inestimable virtues with a cautious, steady hand, +and an eye always on them, to see that they did not spill. Then she +was an admirable judge of character. Her mind was a perfect laboratory +of tests and reagents; every syllable you put into breath went into +her intellectual eudiometer, and all your thoughts were recorded on +litmus-paper. I think there has rarely been a more admirable woman. +Of course, Miss Iris was immensely and passionately attached +to her.----Well,--these are two highly oxygenated adverbs,--grateful,-- +suppose we say,--yes,--grateful, dutiful, obedient to her wishes for +the most part,--perhaps not quite up to the concert pitch of such a +perfect orchestra of the virtues. + +We must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it +much. People that do not laugh or cry, or take more of anything than +is good for them, or use anything but dictionary-words, are admirable +subjects for biographies. But we don't always care most for those +flat-pattern flowers that press best in the herbarium. + +This immaculate woman,--why couldn't she have a fault or two? Isn't +there any old whisper which will tarnish that wearisome aureole of +saintly perfection? Doesn't she carry a lump of opium in her pocket? +Isn't her cologne-bottle replenished oftener than its legitimate use +would require? It would be such a comfort! + +Not for the world would a young creature like Iris have let such words +escape her, or such thoughts pass through her mind. Whether at the +bottom of her soul lies any uneasy consciousness of an oppressive +presence, it is hard to say, until we know more about her. Iris sits +between the little man and the "Model of all the Virtues," as the +black-coated gentleman called her.--I will watch them all. + +----Here I stop for the present. What the Professor said has had to make +way this time for what he saw and heard. + + * * * * * + +----And now you may read these lines, which were written for gentle +souls who love music, and read in even tones, and, perhaps, with +something like a smile upon the reader's lips, at a meeting where these +musical friends had gathered. Whether they were written with smiles or +not, you can guess better after you have read them. + + + + +THE OPENING OF THE PIANO. + + + In the little southern parlor of the house you + may have seen + With the gambrel-roof, and the gable looking + westward to the green, + At the side toward the sunset, with the window + on its right, + Stood the London-made piano I am dreaming + of to-night. + + Ah me! how I remember the evening when it + came! + What a cry of eager voices, what a group of + cheeks in flame, + When the wondrous box was opened that had + come from over seas, + With its smell of mastic-varnish and its flash + of ivory keys! + + Then the children all grew fretful in the restlessness + of joy, + For the boy would push his sister, and the + sister crowd the boy, + Till the father asked for quiet in his grave + paternal way, + But the mother hushed the tumult with the + words, "Now, Mary, play." + + For the dear soul knew that music was a very + sovereign balm; + She had sprinkled it over Sorrow and seen its + brow grow calm, + In the days of slender harpsichords with tapping + tinkling quills, + Or carolling to her spinet with its thin metallic + thrills. + + So Mary, the household minstrel, who always + loved to please, + Sat down to the new "Clementi," and struck + the glittering keys. + Hushed were the children's voices, and every + eye grew dim, + As, floating from lip and finger, arose the + "Vesper Hymn." + + --Catharine, child of a neighbor, curly and + rosy-red, + (Wedded since, and a widow--something like + ten years dead,) + Hearing a gush of music such as none + before, + Steals from her mother's chamber and peeps + at the open door. + + Just as the "Jubilate" in threaded whisper + dies, + --"Open it! open it, lady!" the little maiden + cries + (For she thought 'twas a singing creature + caged in a box she heard,) + "Open it! open it, lady! and let me see the + _bird!_" + + + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION; + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + + +If General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary memory, the first Secretary of +War of the Republic, had dreamed that the successor to his portfolio, +after an interval of seventy years, would recommend to Congress the +purchase of a thousand camels for military purposes, he would have +attributed the fancy to excited nerves or a too hearty dinner. Had he +dreamed, further, that the grotesque mounted corps was to be employed +in regions two thousand miles beyond the frontier of the Anglo-Saxon +pioneer of 1789, to guard travel to an actual El Dorado, the vision +would have appeared still more extraordinary. And its absurdity would +have seemed complete, if he had fancied the high road of this travel +as leading through a community essentially Oriental in its social and +political life, which was nevertheless ripening into a State of the +American Union. Yet if General Knox could be roused from his grave at +Thomaston, he would see the dream realized. On the Pacific lies El +Dorado; among the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains there is a community +which blends the voluptuousness of Bagdad with the economy of Cape Cod; +and within two years a regiment of camel-riders will be scouring the +Great American Plains after Cheyennes, Navajoes, and Camanches. + +The propagation of the religion of which Joseph Smith was the prophet +has just begun to attract the notice its extraordinary success +deserves. So long as the head of the Mormon Church was considered a kind +of Mahometan Sam Slick, and his associates a crazy rabble, it was vain +to expect that the whole sect could be treated with more attention than +any of the curiosities in a popular museum. But a juster appreciation of +the constitution of the Mormon community begins to prevail, and with it +comes a conviction that questions are involved in its relations to the +parent government which are not exceeded in importance by any that have +ever been agitated at Washington. Brigham Young no longer seems to the +American public a religious mountebank, only one grade removed from the +man Orr, who claimed to be the veritable Angel Gabriel, and was killed +in a popular commotion which he had himself excited in Dutch Guiana. On +the contrary, he begins to appear as a man of great native strength and +scope of mind, who understands the phases of human character and knows +how to avail himself of the knowledge, and who has acquired spiritual +dominion over one hundred and fifty thousand souls, combined with +absolute temporal supremacy over fifty thousand of the number. + +The situation of the Mormon community in Utah has been peculiarly +adapted, heretofore, to the eccentricities of its inhabitants. Isolated +from Christendom on the east and west by plains incapable of settlement +for generations to come, and encompassed by mountain-ranges, the line +of whose summits runs above the boundary of eternal snow, it was +independent of the influences of Christian civilization. No missionary +of any Christian sect ever attempted to propagate his doctrines in +Utah,--nor, perhaps, would any such propagation have been tolerated, had +it been attempted. The Mormon religion was free to run its own course +and develop whatever elements it possessed of good and evil. When +Brigham Young and his followers from Nauvoo descended the Wahsatch range +in the summer of 1847, and took up their abode around the Great Salt +Lake, the avowed creed of the Church was different from that proclaimed +to-day. The secret doctrines entertained by its leaders were perhaps +the same as at present, but the religion of the people was a species of +mysticism which it is not impossible to conceive might commend itself +even to a refined mind. The existence of polygamy was officially denied +by the highest ecclesiastical authority, although we know to-day that +the denial was a shameless lie, and that Joseph Smith, during his +lifetime, had a plurality of wives, and at his death bequeathed them to +his successor, who already possessed a harem of his own. Property was +almost equally distributed among the people, the leaders being as poor +as their disciples. In this respect at that time they were accustomed +exultantly to compare their condition with that of the early Christians. + +Ten years passed, and the change was extraordinary. The doctrines +of Mormonism, if plainly stated, are no longer such as can commend +themselves to a mind not perverted nor naturally prurient. Polygamy is +inculcated as a religious duty, without which dignity in the Celestial +Kingdom is impossible, and even salvation hardly to be obtained. +Property is distributed unjustly, the bulk of real and personal estate +in the Territory being vested in the Church and its directors, between +whom and the mass of the population there exists a difference in social +welfare as wide as between the Russian nobleman and his serf. In brief, +the Mormons no longer claim to be a Christian sect, but assert, and +truly, that their religion is as distinct from Christianity as that is +from Mahometanism. Many of the doctrines whispered in 1847 only to +those who had been admitted to the penetralia of the Nauvoo Temple are +proclaimed unblushingly in 1857 from the pulpit in the Tabernacle at +Salt Lake City. A system of polytheism has been ingrafted on the creed, +according to which there are grades among the Gods, there being no +Supreme Ruler of all, but the primeval Adam of Genesis being the deity +highest in spiritual rank, and Christ, Mahomet, Joseph Smith, and, +finally, Brigham Young, partaking also of divinity. The business of +these deities in the Celestial Kingdom is the propagation of souls to +people bodies begotten on earth, and the sexual relation is made to +permeate every portion of the creed as thoroughly as it pervaded the +religions of ancient Egypt and India. In the Endowment House at Salt +Lake City, secret rites are practised of a character similar to the +mysteries of the Nile, and presided over by Young and Kimball, two +Vermont Yankees, with all the solemnity of priests of Isis and Osiris. +In these rites, which are symbolical of the mystery of procreation, both +sexes participate, clad in loose flowing robes of white linen, with +cleansed bodies and anointed hair. Since the revelation of the processes +of the Endowment, which was first fully made by a young apostate named +John Hyde, other dissenters, real and pretended, have attempted to +impose on the public exaggerated accounts of these ceremonies; but in +justice to the Mormon Church it ought to be said, that there is no +foundation for the reports that they are such as would outrage decency. +To be sure, an assemblage of members of both sexes, clad in white +shifts, with oiled and dishevelled hair, in a room fitted up in +resemblance of a garden, to witness a performance of the allegory of +Adam and Eve in Eden, which is conducted so as to be sensually symbolic, +is not suggestive of refined ideas; but it is necessary to take into +consideration the character both of performers and witnesses, which is +not distinguished in any way by delicacy. According to their standard of +morality and taste, the rites of the Endowment are devoid of immodesty. + +In their political bearing, however, they are more important, and justly +liable to the severest censure. It is established beyond question, that +the initiated, clad in the preposterous costume before described, take +an oath, in the presence of their Spiritual Head, to cherish eternal +enmity towards the government of the United States until it shall have +avenged the death of their prophet, Joseph Smith. And this ceremony is +not a mere empty form of words. It is an oath, the spirit of which the +Endowed carry into their daily life and all their relations with +the Gentile world. In it lies the root of the evasion, and finally +subversion, of Federal authority which occasioned the recent military +expedition to Utah. + +When the Territory was organized in 1850, the government at Washington, +acting on an imperfect knowledge of the nature of Mormonism, conferred +the office of Governor upon Brigham Young. For this act Mr. Fillmore has +been unjustly censured. It appeared to him, at the time, a proper, as +well as politic, appointment. But before the succession of General +Pierce to the Presidency, its evil results became apparent, in the +expulsion of civil officers from the Territory and the subversion of +all law. A feeble, and of course unsuccessful, attempt was then made to +supplant Young with Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe, a meritorious, but too +amiable officer of the regular army,--the same whose defeat by the +Cayuses, Spokans, and Coeur d'Alènes, last May, occasioned the Indian +war in Washington Territory. During the summer of 1855, he led a +battalion overland, wintering in Salt Lake City. It was at his option, +at any time during his sojourn, to have claimed the supreme executive +authority. He did not do so, but even headed a recommendation to +President Pierce for the reappointment of Brigham Young. This was the +result of his winter's residence, during which he and some of his +fellow-officers were feasted to their stomachs' content, and entirely +careless concerning the political condition of the Territory. Late in +the spring, he marched away to California, after having expressed to +the President that it was "his unqualified opinion, based on personal +acquaintance, that Brigham Young is [was] the most suitable person for +the office of Governor." Brigham's views of the winter's proceedings, on +the other hand, were expressed in a sermon preached in the Tabernacle, +the Sunday after the departure of the Lieutenant-Colonel, in which he +repeated his declaration of three years previous:-- + +"I am, and will be, governor, and no power can hinder it, until the Lord +Almighty says, 'Brigham, you need not be governor any longer.'" And he +added,--"I do not know what I shall say next winter, if such men make +their appearance here as some last winter. I know what I think I shall +say; if they play the same game again, let the women be ever so bad, so +help me God, we will slay them." + +Most of the other civil officers who were commissioned about the same +time with Colonel Steptoe arrived the August after he had departed. +Within eighteen months their lot was the same as that of their +predecessors. In April, 1857, before the snow had begun to melt on the +mountains, all of them, in a party led by Surveyor-General Burr, were on +their way to the States, happy in having escaped with life. During the +previous February, the United States District Court had been broken up +in Salt Lake City. A mob had invaded the courtroom, armed with pistols +and bludgeons, a knife was drawn on the judge in his private room, +and he was ordered to adjourn his court _sine die_, and yielded. +Indian-Agent Hurt was the only Gentile official who remained in the +Territory. + +In the mean while, however, a change of national administration had +taken place, and General Pierce had been succeeded by Mr. Buchanan. For +nearly three years the country had been convulsed by an agitation of the +Slavery question, originating with Senator Douglas, which culminated in +the Presidential election of 1856. The Utah question, grave though it +was, was forgotten in the excitement concerning Kansas, or remembered +only by the Republican party, as enabling them to stigmatize more +pungently the political theories of the Illinois Senator, by coupling +polygamy and slavery, "twin relics of barbarism," in the resolution of +their Philadelphia Platform against Squatter Sovereignty. In the lull +which succeeded the election, Mr. Buchanan had leisure, at Wheatland, to +draft a programme for his incoming administration. His paramount idea +was to gag the North and induce her to forget that she had been robbed +of her birthright, by forcing on the attention of the country other +questions of absorbing interest. One of the most obvious of these was +supplied by the condition of affairs in Utah. It had been satisfactorily +established, that the Mormons, acting under the influence of leaders +to whom they seemed to have surrendered their judgment, refused to be +controlled by any other authority; that they had been often advised to +obedience, and these friendly counsels had been answered with defiance; +that officers of the Federal Government had been driven from the +Territory for no offence except an effort to do their sworn duty, while +others had been prevented from going there by threats of assassination; +that judges had been interrupted in the performance of their functions, +and the records of their courts seized, and either destroyed or +concealed; and, finally, that many other acts of unlawful violence had +been perpetrated, and the right to repeat them openly claimed by the +leading inhabitants, with at least the silent acquiescence of nearly +all the rest of the population. In view of these facts, Mr. Buchanan +determined to supersede Brigham Young in the office of Governor, and to +send to Utah a strong military force to sustain the new appointee in the +exercise of his authority. + +The rumors of the impending expedition reached the Mormons at the very +moment they were prepared to apply to Congress for admission as a State. +A Constitution had been framed by a Convention assembled without the +sanction of an enabling act, and was intrusted to George A. Smith and +John Taylor, two of the Twelve Apostles of the Church, for presentation +to Congress. These men, both of them of more than ordinary ability, +helped to present the Mormon side of the question to the country through +the newspapers, during the winter of 1856-7. The essence of their +vindication was, that the character of some of the Federal officers who +had been sent to Utah was objectionable in the extreme; but, granting +the truth of all their statements on this subject, they supplied no +excuse for the utter subversion of Federal authority in the Territory. +Their narrative, however, formed a most spicy chapter in the annals of +official scandal. The three United States judges, Kinney, Drummond, +and Stiles, were presented to the public stripped of all judicial +sanctity;--Kinney, the Chief Justice, as the keeper of a grocery-store, +dance-room, and boarding-house, enforcing the bills for food and lodging +against his brethren of the law by expulsion from the bar in case of +non-payment, and so tenacious of life, that, before departing from the +Territory, he solicited and received from Brigham Young a patriarchal +blessing; Drummond, as an amorous horse-jockey, who had taken to Utah, +as his mistress, a drab from Washington, and seated her beside him once +upon the bench of the court; Stiles as himself a Mormon, so far as the +possession of two wives could make him one. From the early days of +Joseph Smith, his disciples have never minced their language, and they +expended their whole vocabulary now on such themes as have been cited, +proving, to the satisfaction of everybody, that, in respect to the +judiciary, they had indeed had just cause for complaint. The mission of +Smith and Taylor failed, as might have been expected,--the Chairman of +the Committee on Territories, Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, refusing even +to present their Constitution to the House,--and they prepared to return +to Utah. + +A month or two later, Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated, and preparations for +the Utah Expedition were immediately ordered. In the first place, an +opinion was solicited from General Scott as to the feasibility of the +undertaking until the next year. That distinguished soldier gave a +decision adverse to the immediate dispatch of the expedition. He +considered that the arrangements necessary to be made were so extensive, +and the distances from which the regiments must be concentrated so +great, that the wiser plan was to consume the year in getting everything +in readiness for the troops to march from the frontier early in the +spring of 1858. It would have been well, had his advice prevailed; +but it was overruled, and the preparations for the expedition were +commenced. The troops detailed for the service were the Fifth Infantry, +then busy fighting Billy Bowlegs among the everglades of Florida,--the +Tenth Infantry, which was stationed at the forts in Upper +Minnesota,--the Second Dragoons, which was among the forces assembled +at Fort Leavenworth, to be used, if necessary, in Kansas, at the +requisition of Governor Walker,--and Phelps's light-artillery battery, +the same which so distinguished itself at Buena Vista, under the command +of Captain Washington. An ordnance-battery, also, was organized for the +purposes of the expedition. Brevet Brigadier-General Harney was assigned +to the command-in-chief, an officer of a rude force of character, +amounting often to brutality, and careless as to those details of +military duty which savor more of the accountant's inkstand than of +the drum and fife, but ambitious, active, and well acquainted with the +character of the service for which he was detailed. He was, at the time, +in command in Kansas, subject in a measure to the will of Governor +Walker. + +The whole number of troops under orders for the expedition was hardly +twenty-five hundred, but from this total no estimate can be predicated +of the enormous quantities of commissary stores and munitions of war +necessary to be dispatched to sustain it. It was thought advisable +to send a supply for eighteen months, so that the trains exceeded in +magnitude those which would accompany an army of twenty thousand in +ordinary operations on the European continent, where _dépôts_ could be +established along the line of march. To appreciate such preparations, it +is necessary to understand the character of the country to be traversed +between the Missouri River and the Great Salt Lake. + +The route selected for the march was along the emigrant road across +the Plains, first defined fifty years ago by trappers and _voyageurs_ +following the trail by which the buffalo crossed the mountains, +described by Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, in the reports of his earlier +explorations, and subsequently adopted by all the overland emigration +across the continent. It is, perhaps, the most remarkable natural road +in the world. The hand of man could hardly add an improvement to the +highway along which, from the Missouri to the Great Basin, Nature has +presented not a single obstacle to the progress of the heaviest loaded +teams. From the frontier, at Fort Leavenworth, it sweeps over a broad +rolling prairie to the Platte, a river shallow, but of great width, +whose course is as straight as an arrow. Pursuing the river-bottom more +than three hundred miles, to the Black Hills, steep mounds dotted with +dark pines and cedars, it enters the broad belt of mountainous country +which terminates in the rim of the Basin. Following thence the North +Fork of the Platte, and its tributary, the Sweetwater,--so named by an +old French trapper, who had the misfortune to upset a load of sugar into +the stream,--it emerges from the Black Hills into scenery of a different +character. On the northern bank of the Sweetwater are the Rattlesnake +Mountains, huge excrescences of rock, blistering out of an arid plain; +on the southern bank, the hills which bear the name of the river, and +are only exaggerations of the bluffs along the Platte. The dividing +ridge between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific is reached in the +South Pass, at the foot of a spur of the Wind River range, a group of +gigantic mountains, whose peaks reach three thousand feet above the line +of perpetual snow. There the emigrant strikes his tent in the morning +on the banks of a rivulet which finds its way, through the Platte, +Missouri, and Mississippi, into the Gulf of Mexico,--and pitches it, at +his next camp, upon a little creek which trickles into Green River, and +at last, through the Colorado, into the Gulf of California. Not far +distant spring the fountains of the Columbia. A level table-land extends +to the fords of Green River, a clear and rapid stream, whose entire +course has never yet been mapped by an intelligent explorer. Here the +road becomes entangled again among mountains, and winds its way over +steep ridges, across foaming torrents, and through cañons so narrow that +only noonday sunshine penetrates their depths, until it emerges, through +a rocky gate in the great barrier of the Wahsatch range, upon the bench +above Salt Lake City, twelve hundred miles from Fort Leavenworth. The +view at this point, from the mouth of Emigration Cañon, is enchanting. +The sun, sinking through a cloudless western sky, silvers the long line +of the lake, which is visible twenty miles away. Beyond the city the +River Jordan winds quietly through the plain. Below the gazer are roofs +and cupolas, shady streets, neat gardens, and fields of ripening grain. +The mountains, which bound the horizon on every side, except where a +wavering stream of heated air shows the beginning of the Great Desert, +are tinged with a soft purple haze, in anticipation of the sunset, but +every patch of green grass on their slopes glows through it like an +emerald, while along the summits runs an undulating thread of snow. + +Throughout this vast line of road, the only white inhabitants are the +garrisons of the military posts, the keepers of mail-stations, and +_voyageurs_ and mountaineers, whose cabins may be found in every +locality favorable to Indian trade. These last are a singular race +of men, fast disappearing, like the Indian and the buffalo, their +neighbors. Most of them are of French extraction, and some have died +without having learned to speak a word of English. Their wealth consists +in cattle and horses, and little stocks of goods which they purchase +from the sutlers at the forts or the merchants at Salt Lake City. Some +of the more considerable among them have the means of sending to the +States for an annual supply of blankets, beads, vermilion, and other +stuff for Indian traffic; but the most are thriftless, and all are +living in concubinage or marriage with squaws, and surrounded by troops +of unwashed, screeching half-breeds. Once in from three to six years, +they will make a journey to St. Louis, and gamble away so much of their +savings since the last visit as has escaped being wasted over greasy +card-tables during the long winter-evenings among the mountains. The +Indian tribes along the way are numerous and formidable, the road +passing through country occupied by Pawnees, Cheyennes, Sioux, +Arapahoes, Crows, Snakes, and Utahs. With the Cheyennes war had been +waged by the United States for more than two years, which interfered +seriously with the expedition; for, during the month of June, a +war-party from that tribe intercepted and dispersed the herd of +beef-cattle intended for the use of the army. + +The natural characteristics of the entire route are as unpromising as +those of its inhabitants. At the distance of about two hundred miles +from the Missouri frontier the soil becomes so pervaded by sand, that +only scientific agriculture can render it available. Along the Platte +there is no fuel. Not a tree is visible, except the thin fringe of +cottonwoods on the margin of the river, all of which upon the south +bank, where the road runs, were hewed down and burned at every +convenient camp, during the great California emigration. When the Rocky +Mountains are entered, the only vegetation found is bunch-grass, so +called because it grows in tufts,--and the _artemisia_, or wild sage, an +odorous shrub, which sometimes attains the magnitude of a tree, with a +fibrous trunk as thick as a man's thigh, but is ordinarily a bush +about two feet in height. The bunch-grass, grown at such an elevation, +possesses extraordinary nutritive properties, even in midwinter. About +the middle of January a new growth is developed underneath the snow, +forcing off the old dry blade that ripened and shed its seed the +previous summer. From Fort Kearney to Fort Laramie, almost the only +fuel to be obtained is the dung of buffalo and oxen, called, in the +vocabulary of the region, "chips,"--the _argal_ of the Tartar deserts. +Among the mountains the sage is the chief material of the traveller's +fire. It burns with a lively, ruddy flame, and gives out an intense +heat. In the settlements of Utah all the wood consumed is hauled from +the cañons, which are usually lined with pines, firs, and cedars, while +the broadsides of the mountains are nothing but terraces of volcanic +rock. The price of wood in Salt Lake City is from twelve to twenty +dollars a cord. + +From this brief review of the natural features of the country, some idea +may be formed of the intensity of the religious enthusiasm which has +induced fifty thousand Mormon converts to traverse it, many of them on +foot and trundling handcarts, to seek a home among the valleys of +Utah, in a region hardly more propitious; and some idea, also, of the +difficulties which were to attend the march of the army. + +During the spring of 1857, the preparations for the expedition were +hurried forward, and in June the whole force was collected at Fort +Leavenworth. All Western Missouri was in a ferment. The river foamed +with steamboats freighted with military stores, and the levee at +Leavenworth City was covered all summer long with the frames of wagons. +Between the 18th and the 24th of July, all the detachments of the little +army were on the march, except a battalion of two companies of infantry, +which had been unable to join their regiment at the time it moved from +Minnesota, and the Second Dragoons, which Governor Walker retained in +Kansas to overawe the uneasy people of the town of Lawrence. General +Harney also tarried in Kansas, intending to wait until after the October +election there, at which disturbances were anticipated that it might be +necessary to quell by force. + +At Washington, movements of equal importance were taking place. The +Postmaster-General, in June, annulled the contract held by certain +Mormons for the transportation of the monthly mall to Utah, ostensibly +on account of non-performance of the service within the stipulated time, +but really because he was satisfied that the mails were violated, either +_en route_ or after arrival at Salt Lake City. The office of Governor +of the Territory was offered by the President to various persons, and +finally accepted, July 11th, by Alfred Cumming, a brother of the Cumming +of Georgia who fought multitudinous duels with McDuffie of South +Carolina, all of which both parties survived. Mr. Cumming had been a +sutler during the Mexican War, and more recently a Superintendent of +Indian Affairs on the Upper Missouri. He was reputed to be a gentleman +of education, ambition, and executive ability. The office of Chief +Justice was conferred on Judge D.R. Eckels, of Indiana, a person well +fitted for the position by the circumstances of his early life, of the +utmost determination, and whose judicial integrity was above suspicion. + +The news of the stoppage of the mail reached Salt Lake Valley July 24th, +an eventful anniversary in the history of Mormonism. It was on the 24th +of July, 1847, that Brigham Young entered the Valley from the East, and +the day had always afterwards been kept as a holiday of the Church. On +this occasion, the celebration was held in Cottonwood Cañon, one of the +wildest and grandest gorges among the Wahsatch Mountains, opening at +the foot of the Twin Peaks, about twenty miles southeast from Salt Lake +City. Thither more than twenty-five hundred people had flocked from the +city on the previous day, and prepared to hold their festival under +bowers built of fragrant pines and cedars around a little lake far up +among the mountains. During the afternoon of the 24th, while they were +engaged in music, dancing, and every manner of lively sport, two dusty +messengers rode up the cañon, bringing from the States the news of the +stoppage of the mail and of the approaching march of the troops. This +mode of announcement was probably preconcerted with Brigham Young, who +was undoubtedly aware of the facts on the preceding day. A scene of +the maddest confusion ensued, which was heightened by the inflammatory +speeches of the Mormon leaders. Young reminded the fanatical throng, +that, ten years ago that very day, he had said, "Give us ten years of +peace and we will ask no odds of the United States"; and he added, +that the ten years had passed, and now they asked no odds,--that they +constituted henceforth a free and independent state, to be known no +longer as Utah, but by their own Mormon name of Deseret. Kimball, the +second in authority in the Church, called on the people to adhere to +Brigham, as their "prophet, seer, and revelator, priest, governor, +and king." The sun set on the first overt act in the rebellion. The +fanatics, wending their way back to the city, across the broad plain, in +the moonlight, were ready to follow wherever Brigham Young might choose +to lead. + +On the succeeding Sundays the spirit of rebellion was breathed from the +pulpit in language yet more intemperate, and often profane and obscene. +Military preparations were made with the greatest bustle; and the Nauvoo +Legion--under which name, transplanted from Illinois, the militia were +organized--was drilled daily in the streets of the city. The martial +fervor ran so high that even the boys paraded with wooden spears and +guns, and the little ragamuffins were inspected and patted on the head +by venerable and veritable Fathers of the Church. + +In total ignorance that the standard of rebellion had already been +raised, General Harney, in the beginning of August, detached Captain Van +Vliet, the Quarter-master on his staff, to proceed rapidly to Utah to +make arrangements for the reception of the army in the Valley. He passed +the troops in the vicinity of Fort Laramie. About thirty miles west +of Green River he was met by a party of Mormons, who escorted him, +accompanied only by his servant, to the city. There he was politely +treated, but informed that his mission would be fruitless, for the +Mormon people were determined to resist the ingress of the troops. At +a meeting in the Tabernacle, at which the Captain was present on the +platform, when Brigham Young called on the audience for an expression of +opinion, every hand was raised in favor of the policy of resistance, and +in expression of willingness, if it should become necessary, to abandon +harvest and homestead, retreat with the women to the mountains, and wage +there a war of extermination. They took pains to conduct the Captain +through the well-kept gardens and blooming fields, to show him their +household comforts, the herds of cattle, the stacks of hay and grain, +and all their public improvements, in order to present a contrast +between such plenty and prosperity and such a scene of desolation as +they depicted. Profoundly impressed by the devotion of the people to +their leaders, he started on his return, accompanied by Mr. Bernhisel, +the Mormon delegate to Congress. Two days after he left the city, a +proclamation was issued by Young, in his capacity of Governor, in which +the army was denounced as a mob and forbidden to enter the Territory, +and the people of Utah were summoned to arms to repel its advance. + +When this document reached the troops, they had already crossed the +Territorial line, and were prepared for its reception by the report of +Captain Van Vliet as he passed them on his return to the States. Their +position was embarrassing. In the absence of General Harney, each +separate detachment constituted an independent command. The senior +officer present was Colonel Alexander, of the Tenth Infantry, a thorough +soldier in the minutiae of his profession, and distinguished by +gallantry during the Mexican War. He resolved, very properly, in view +of his seniority, to assume the command-in-chief until General Harney +should arrive from the East. On the 27th of September, before the +proclamation was received, the first division of the army crossed Green +River, having accomplished a march of a thousand miles in little more +than two months. That same night it hastened forwards thirty miles to +Ham's Fork,--a confluent of Black's Fork, which empties into Green +River,--where several supply-trains were gathered, upon which there +was danger that the Mormons would make an attack. The other divisions +followed within the week, and the whole force was concentrated. On the +night of October 5th, after the last division had crossed the river, two +supply-trains, of twenty-five wagons each, were captured and burned just +on the bank of the stream, by a party of mounted Mormons led by a man +named Lot Smith, and the next morning another train was destroyed by +the same party, twenty miles farther east, on the Big Sandy, in Oregon +Territory. The teamsters were disarmed and dismissed, and the cattle +stolen. No blood was shed; not a shot fired. Immediately upon the news +of this attack reaching Ham's Fork, Colonel Alexander, who had then +assumed the command-in-chief, dispatched Captain Marcy, of the Fifth +Infantry, with four hundred men, to afford assistance to the trains, and +punish the aggressors, if possible. But when the Captain reached Green +River, all that was visible near the little French trading-post was two +broad, black rings on the ground, bestrewn with iron chains and bolts, +where the wagons had been burned in _corral_. He was able to do +nothing except to send orders to the other trains on the road to halt, +concentrate, and await the escort of Brevet Colonel Smith, of the Tenth +Infantry, who had started from the frontier in August with the two +companies mentioned as having been left behind in Minnesota, and by +rapid marches had already reached the Sweetwater. The condition of +affairs at this moment was indeed critical. By the folly of Governor +Walker's movements in Kansas the expedition was deprived of its mounted +force, and consisted entirely of infantry and artillery. The Mormon +marauding parties, on the contrary, which it now became evident were +hovering on every side, were all well mounted and tolerably well armed. +The loss of three trains more would reduce the troops to the verge +of starvation before spring, in case of inability to reach Salt Lake +Valley. Nothing was heard from General Harney, and in his absence no one +possessed instructions adequate to the emergency. + +To understand the movements which followed, it is necessary to describe +briefly the topography of the country between Green River and the Great +Salt Lake. The entire interval, one hundred and fifty miles in breadth, +is filled with groups and chains of mountains, the direct route through +which to Salt Lake City lies along water-courses, following them through +cañons so narrow that little science is necessary to render the natural +defences impregnable. In this respect, and in the general character of +the scenery, it bears much resemblance to the Tyrol. In the narrowest of +these gorges, Echo Cañon, twenty-five miles in length, whose walls of +rock often approach within a stone's throw of each other, it became +known that the Mormons were erecting breastworks and digging ditches, +by means of which they expected to be able to submerge the road to the +depth of several feet, for miles. The only known mode of avoiding a +passage through this gorge was by a circuitous route, following the +eastern slope of the rim of the Great Basin northward, more than a +hundred miles, to Soda Springs, at the northern bend of Bear River, the +principal tributary of the Salt Lake,--then crossing the rim along the +course of the river, and pursuing its valley southward, and that of the +Roseaux or Malade, into Salt Lake Valley. The distance of Salt Lake +City from the camp on Ham's Fork was by this route nearly three hundred +miles,--while the distance by the road past Fort Bridger, through the +cañons, was less than one hundred and fifty miles. At that fort, about +twenty miles west from the encampment of the army, the Mormon marauding +parties had their head-quarters and principal _dépôt_. It was there that +Colonel Alexander was ordered, about this time, by Brigham Young, +to surrender his arms to the Mormon Quartermaster-General, on which +condition and an agreement to depart eastward early the following +spring, he and his troops should be fed during the winter; otherwise, +Young added, they would perish from hunger and cold, and rot among the +mountains. In his perplexity, Colonel Alexander called a council of +war, and, with its approval, resolved to commence a march towards Soda +Springs, leaving Fort Bridger unmolested on his left. For more than +a fortnight the army toiled along Ham's Fork, cutting a road through +thickets of greasewood and wild sage, incumbered by a train of such +unwieldy length that often the advance-guard reached its camp at night +before the rear-guard had moved from the camp of the preceding day, and +harassed by Mormon marauding parties from the Fort, which hung about the +flanks out of the reach of rifle-shot, awaiting opportunities to descend +on unprotected wagons and cattle. The absence of dragoons prevented a +dispersion of these banditti. Some companies of infantry were, indeed, +mounted on mules, and sent to pursue them, but these only excited their +derision. The Mormons nicknamed them "jackass cavalry." Their only +exploit was the capture of a Mormon major and his adjutant, on whose +person were found orders issued by D.H. Wells, the Commanding General of +the Nauvoo Legion, to the various detachments of marauders, directing +them to burn the whole country before the army and on its flanks, to +keep it from sleep by night surprises, to stampede its animals and set +fire to its trains, to blockade the road by felling trees and destroying +river-fords, but to take no life. On the 13th of October, eight hundred +oxen were cut off from the rear of the army and driven to Salt Lake +Valley. Thus the weary column toiled along until it reached the spot +where it expected to be joined by Colonel Smith's battalion, about fifty +miles up Ham's Fork. The very next day snow fell to the depth of more +than a foot. Disheartened, vacillating, and perplexed, Colonel Alexander +called another council of war, and, acting on its judgment, resolved to +retrace his steps. An express reached him that same day, from Colonel +Smith, by which he was informed of the approach of Colonel Albert S. +Johnston, of the Second Cavalry, who had been detailed to take command +of the expedition in the place of General Harney, and now sent orders +that the troops should return to Black's Fork, where he proposed to +concentrate the entire army. + +During the month of August, it having become evident that General Harney +was reluctant to proceed to Utah, anticipating a brighter field for +military distinction in Kansas, Colonel Johnston was summoned from +Texas to Washington and there ordered to hasten to take command of the +expedition. On the 17th of September, he left Fort Leavenworth, and by +rapid travel overtook Colonel Smith while he was engaged in collecting +the trains which he intended to escort to the main body. On the 27th of +October, the column moved forwards. The escort had been reinforced by a +squadron of dragoons from Fort Laramie, but its entire strength was less +than three hundred men, a number obviously insufficient to defend a line +of wagons six miles in length. An attack by the Mormons was expected +every day, but none was made; and on the 3d of November, the whole army, +with its munitions, supplies, and commander, was concentrated on Black's +Fork. Colonel Alexander had arrived at the place of rendezvous some days +previously, being no nearer Salt Lake City November 3d than he had been +a month before. The country was covered with snow, winter having fairly +set in among the mountains, the last pound of forage was exhausted, and +the cattle and mules were little more than animated skeletons. + +Colonel Johnston had already determined, while in the South Pass, that +it would be impracticable to cross the Wahsatch range until spring, +and shaped his arrangements accordingly. He resolved to establish +winter-quarters in the vicinity of Fort Bridger, and on the 6th of +November the advance towards that post commenced. The day was memorable +in the history of the expedition. Sleet poured down upon the column from +morning till night. On the previous evening, five hundred cattle had +been stampeded by the Mormons, in consequence of which some trains +were unable to move at all. After struggling along till nightfall, the +regiments camped wherever they could find shelter under bluffs or among +willows. That night more than five hundred animals perished from +hunger and cold, and the next morning the camp was encircled by their +carcasses, coated with a film of ice. It was a scene which could be +paralleled only in the retreat of the French from Moscow. Had there been +any doubt before concerning the practicability of an immediate advance +beyond Fort Bridger, none existed any longer. It was the 16th of +November when the vanguard reached that post, which the Mormons had +abandoned the week before. Nearly a fortnight had been consumed in +accomplishing less than thirty miles. + +It is time to return to the States and record what had been transpiring +there, in connection with the expedition, while the army was staggering +towards its permanent winter-camp. The only one of the newly-appointed +civil officials who was present with the troops was Judge Eckels, +who had left his home in Indiana immediately after receiving his +appointment, and started across the Plains with his own conveyance. Near +Fort Laramie he was overtaken by Colonel Smith, whom he accompanied in +his progress to the main body. Governor Cumming, in the mean while, +dilly-dallied in the East, travelling from St. Louis to Washington and +back again, begging for an increase of salary, for a sum of money to be +placed at his disposal for secret service, and for transportation +to the Territory,--all which requests, except the last, were denied. +Towards the close of September, he arrived at Fort Leavenworth. Governor +Walker had, by this time, released his hold on the dragoons, and, +notwithstanding the advanced period of the season, they were preparing +to march to Utah. The Governor and most of the other civil officers +delayed until they started, and travelled in their company. The march +was attended with the severest hardships. When they reached the Rocky +Mountains, the snow lay from one to three feet deep on the loftier +ridges which they were obliged to cross. The struggle with the elements, +during the last two hundred miles before gaining Fort Bridger, was +desperate. Nearly a third of the horses died from cold, hunger, and +fatigue; everything that could be spared was thrown out to lighten the +wagons, and the road was strewn with military accoutrements from the +Rocky Ridge to Green River. On the 20th of November, Colonel Cooke +reached the camp with a command entirely incapacitated for active +service. + +The place selected by Colonel Johnston for the winter-quarters of +the army was on the bank of Black's Fork, about two miles above Fort +Bridger, on a spot sheltered by high bluffs which rise abruptly from the +bottom at a distance of five or six hundred yards from the channel of +the stream. The banks of the Fork were fringed with willow brush and +cottonwood trees, blasted in some places where the Mormons had attempted +to deprive the troops of fuel. The trees were fortunately too green to +burn, and the fire swept through acres, doing no more damage than to +consume the dry leaves and char the bark. The water of the Fork, clear +and pure, rippled noisily over a stony bed between two unbroken walls +of ice. The civil officers of the Territory fixed their quarters in +a little nook in the wood above the military camp. The Colonel, +anticipating a change of encampment, determined not to construct +quarters of logs or sod for the army. A new species of tent, which had +just been introduced, was served out for its winter dwellings. An iron +tripod supported a pole from the top of which depended a slender but +strong hoop. Attached to this, the canvas sloped to the ground, forming +a tent in the shape of a regular cone. The opening at the top caused a +draught, by means of which a fire could be kept up beneath the tripod +without choking the inmates with smoke. An Indian lodge had evidently +been the model of the inventor. Most of the civil officers, however, dug +square holes in the ground, over which they built log huts, plastering +the cracks with mud. Their little town they named Eckelsville, after the +Chief Justice. A _dépôt_ for all the military stores was established at +Fort Bridger, where a strong detachment was encamped. At the time of its +occupation, the Fort consisted merely of two stone walls, one twenty, +the other about ten feet in height, inclosing quadrangles fifty paces +long and forty broad. These walls were built of cobble-stones cemented +with mortar. Half-a-dozen cannonballs would have knocked them to pieces, +although they constituted a formidable defence against infantry. When +the Mormons evacuated the post, they burned all the buildings inside +these quadrangles. Colonel Johnston proceeded to set up additional +defences for the _dépôt_, and within a month two lunettes were completed +with ditches and _chevaux-de-frise_, in each of which was mounted a +piece of artillery. + +The work of unloading the trains commenced, and after careful +computation the Chief Commissary determined, that, by an abridgment of +the ration, diminishing the daily issue of flour, and issuing bacon only +once a week, his supplies would last until the first of June. All the +beef cattle intended for the use of the army having been intercepted by +the Cheyennes, it became necessary to kill those draught oxen for beef, +which had survived the march. Shambles were erected, to which the poor +half-starved animals were driven by hundreds to be butchered. The flesh +was jerked and stored carefully in cabins built for the purpose. + +The business of loading the trains had been carelessly performed at Fort +Leavenworth. In this respect the quartermaster who superintended the +work might have learned a lesson from the experience of the British in +the Crimea. But, unwilling to take the trouble to assign to each train +a proportionate quantity of all the articles to be transported, he had +packed one after another with just such things as lay most conveniently +at hand. The consequence was, that in the wagons which were burned +were contained all the mechanics' implements, stationery, and +horse-medicines, although the loss of the latter was not to be +regretted. The rest of their contents was mostly flour and bacon. Had +the Mormons burned the next three trains upon the road, they would have +destroyed all the clothing intended for the expedition. As it was, upon +searching those trains, only one hundred and fifty pairs of boots and +shoes and six hundred pairs of stockings were found provided for an army +of two thousand men, and some of the soldiers already had nothing but +moccasins to cover their feet, with the thermometer at 16 degrees below +zero,--while there were found one thousand leather neck-stocks and three +thousand bed-sacks, articles totally useless. "How not to do it" had +evidently been the motto of the Quarter-master's Department. The ample +supplies of some articles were rendered unavailable by deficiencies in +other articles equally necessary. In some of its arrangements it seemed +to have proceeded on the presumption that there would be an armed +collision, while in others the probability of such an event was entirely +disregarded. One wagon was loaded wholly with boiling-kettles, but there +was no brine to boil, and at the close of November not a pound of salt +remained in the camp. + +One of the first and most important of Colonel Johnston's duties was +to provide for the keeping, during the winter, of the mules and horses +which survived. On Black's Fork there was no grass for their support. It +had either been burned by the Mormons or consumed by their cavalry. He +decided to send them all to Henry's Fork, thirty-five miles south of +Fort Bridger, where he had at one time designed to encamp with the whole +army. The regiment of dragoons was detailed to guard them. A supply of +fresh animals for transportation in the spring was his next care. The +settlements in New Mexico are less than seven hundred miles distant from +Fort Bridger, and to them he resolved to apply. Captain Marcy was +the officer selected to lead in the arduous expedition. He had been +previously distinguished in the service by a thorough exploration of the +Red River of Louisiana. Accompanied by only thirty-five picked men, all +volunteers, and by two guides, he started for Taos, November 27th,--an +undertaking from which, at that season of the year, the most experienced +mountaineers would have shrunk. A party was dispatched at the same +time to the Flathead country, in Oregon and Washington Territories, to +procure horses to remount the dragoons, and to induce the traders in +that region to drive cattle down to Fort Bridger for sale. + +On the day of Captain Marcy's departure, Governor Cumming issued a +proclamation, declaring the Territory to be in a state of rebellion, +and commanding the traitors to lay down their arms and return to their +homes. It announced, also, that proceedings would be instituted against +the offenders, in a court to be organized in the county by Judge Eckels, +which would supersede the necessity of appointing a military commission +for that purpose. This document was sent to Salt Lake City by a Mormon +prisoner who was released for the purpose. The Governor sent also, by +the same messenger, a letter to Brigham Young, in which there were +expressions that indicated a disposition to temporize. + +The whole camp, at this time, was a scene of confusion and bustle. Some +of the stragglers around the tents were Indians belonging to a band of +Pah-Utahs, among whom Dr. Hurt, already mentioned as the only Federal +officer who did not abandon the Territory in the spring of 1857, had +established a farm upon the banks of the Spanish Fork, which rises among +the snows of Mount Nebo, and flows into Lake Utah from the East. Shortly +after the issue of Brigham Young's proclamation of September 15th, the +Mormons resolved to take the Doctor prisoner. No official was ever more +obnoxious to the Church than he; for by his authority over the tribes +he had been able to counteract in great measure the influences by which +Young had endeavored to alienate both Snakes and Utahs from the control +of the United States. On the 27th of September, two bands of mounted men +moved towards the farm from the neighboring towns of Springville and +Payson. Warned by the faithful Indians of his danger, the Doctor fled to +the mountains, and twenty Pah-Utahs and Uinta-Utahs escorted him to the +South Pass, where he joined Colonel Johnston on the 23d of October. It +was an act of devotion which has rarely been excelled in Indian history. +The sufferings of his naked escort on the journey were severe. They +crossed the Green River Mountains, breaking the crust of the snow and +leading their animals, being reduced at the time to tallow and roots for +their own sustenance. On the advance of the army towards Fort Bridger, +they accompanied its march. + +Another class of stragglers, and one most dangerous to the peace of the +camp, was composed of the thousand teamsters who were discharged from +employment on the supply-trains. Many of these men belonged to the scum +of the great Western cities,--a class more dangerous, because more +intelligent and reckless, than the same class of population in New York. +Others had sought to reach California, not anticipating a state of +hostilities which would bar their way. Now, thrown out of employment, +with slender means, a great number became desperate. Hundreds attempted +to return to the States on foot, some of whom died on the way,--and +nine-tenths of them would have perished, had they encountered the storms +of the preceding winter among the mountains. But the majority hung +around the camp. To some of these the Quartermaster was able to furnish +work, but he was obviously incapable of affording this assistance to +all. Thefts and assaults became frequent, and promised to multiply as +the season advanced. To remedy this trouble, Colonel Johnston assumed +the responsibility of organizing a volunteer battalion. The term of +service for which the men enlisted was nine months. For their pay they +were to depend on the action of Congress. The four companies which the +battalion comprised selected for their commander an officer from the +regular army, Captain Bee, of the Tenth Infantry. + +The organization of a District Court, by Judge Eckels, helped quite as +essentially to enforce order. Its convicts were received by Colonel +Johnston and committed to imprisonment in the guard-tents of the army. +The grand jury, impanelled for the purposes of the court, were obliged +to take cognizance of the rebellion, and, after thoroughly investigating +the facts of the case, they returned bills of indictment against Brigham +Young and sixty of his principal associates. + +During "the campaign of Ham's Fork," as Colonel Alexander's march up and +down that stream was facetiously called by the Mormons, he had been in +constant receipt of communications from Young, of a character similar to +the letter in which the army was commanded to surrender its arms at Fort +Bridger. This correspondence was now abruptly terminated by Colonel +Johnston. Two messengers came to the camp from Salt Lake City at the +beginning of December, escorted by a party of Mormon militia, and +bringing four pack-mules loaded with salt, which a letter from Young +offered as a present, with assurances that it was not poisoned. This +letter contained, besides, certain threats concerning the treatment +of prisoners, and reminded Colonel Johnston that the Mormons also had +prisoners in their power, on whom anything which might befall those in +camp should be retaliated. The Colonel returned no other answer to this +epistle than to dismiss its bearers with their salt, informing them +that he could accept no favors from traitors and rebels, and that any +communication which they might in future hold with the army must be +under a flag of truce, although as to the manner in which they might +communicate with the Governor it was not within his province to +prescribe. A week or two later, a thousand pounds of salt were forced +through to the camp from Fort Laramie, thirty out of the forty-six mules +on which it was packed perishing on the way. + +Thus the long and dreary winter commenced in the camp of the army of +Utah. It mattered not that the rations were abridged, that communication +with the States was interrupted, and that every species of duty at such +a season, in such a region, was uncommonly severe. Confidence and even +gayety were restored to the camp, by the consciousness that it was +commanded by an officer whose intelligence was adequate to the +difficulties of his position. Every additional hardship was cheerfully +endured. As the animals failed, all the wood used in camp was obliged to +be drawn a distance of from three to six miles by hand, but there were +few gayer spectacles than the long strings of soldiers hurrying the +wagons over the crunching snow. They built great pavilions, decorated +them with colors and stacks of arms, and danced as merrily on Christmas +and New Year's Eves to the music of the regimental bands, as if they had +been in cozy cantonments, instead of in a camp of fluttering canvas, +more than seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. In the +pavilion of the Fifth Infantry, there drooped over the company the flags +which that regiment had carried, ten years before, up the sunny slopes +of Chapultepec, and which were torn in a hundred places by the storm of +bullets at Molinos del Rey. + +Meanwhile, how hearts were beating in the States with anxious +apprehension for the safety of kindred and friends, those who felt that +anxiety, and not those who were the objects of it, best know. + +Perhaps the disposition of the camp would have been more in harmony +with the scenery and the season, if the army had dreamed that the +administration, which had launched it so recklessly into circumstances +of such privation and danger, was about to turn its labors and +sufferings into a farce, and to claim the approval of the country for +an act of mistaken clemency, which was, in reality, a grave political +error. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +WHICH TREATS OF ROMANCE. + + +There is no word in the English language more unceremoniously and +indefinitely kicked and cuffed about, by what are called sensible +people, than the word _romance_. When Mr. Smith or Mr. Stubbs has +brought every wheel of life into such range and order that it is one +steady, daily grind,--when they themselves have come into the habits and +attitudes of the patient donkey, who steps round and round the endlessly +turning wheel of some machinery, then they fancy that they have gotten +"the victory that overcometh the world." + +All but this dead grind, and the dollars that come through the mill, +is by them thrown into one waste "catch-all" and labelled _romance_. +Perhaps there was a time in Mr. Smith's youth,--he remembers it +now,--when he read poetry, when his cheek was wet with strange tears, +when a little song, ground out by an organ-grinder in the street, had +power to set his heart beating and bring a mist before his eyes. Ah, in +those days he had a vision!--a pair of soft eyes stirred him strangely; +a little weak hand was laid on his manhood, and it shook and trembled; +and then came all the humility, the aspiration, the fear, the hope, +the high desire, the troubling of the waters by the depending angel of +love,--and a little more and Mr. Smith might have become a man, instead +of a banker! He thinks of it now, sometimes, as he looks across the +fireplace after dinner and sees Mrs. Smith asleep, innocently shaking +the bouquet of pink bows and Brussels lace that waves over her placid +red countenance. + +Mrs. Smith wasn't his first love, nor, indeed, any love at all; but they +agree reasonably well. And as for poor Nellie,--well, she is dead and +buried,--all that was stuff and romance. Mrs. Smith's money set him up +in business, and Mrs. Smith is a capital manager, and he thanks God that +he isn't romantic, and tells Smith Junior not to read poetry or novels, +and to stick to realities. + +"This is the victory that overcometh the world,"--to learn to be fat and +tranquil, to have warm fires and good dinners, to hang your hat on the +same peg at the same hour every day, to sleep soundly all night, and +never to trouble your head with a thought or imagining beyond. + +But there are many people besides Mr. Smith who have gained this +victory,--who have strangled their higher nature and buried it, and +built over its grave the structure of their life, the better to keep it +down. + +The fascinating Mrs. T., whose life is a whirl between ball and opera, +point lace, diamonds, and schemings of admiration for herself, and of +establishments for her daughters,--there was a time, if you will believe +me, when that proud, worldly woman was so humbled, under the touch of +some mighty power, that she actually thought herself capable of being a +poor man's wife. She thought she could live in a little, mean house on +no-matter-what-street, with one servant, and make her own bonnets +and mend her own clothes, and sweep the house Mondays, while Betty +washed,--all for what? All because she thought that there was a man +so noble, so true, so good, so high-minded, that to live with him in +poverty, to be guided by him in adversity, to lean on him in every rough +place of life, was a something nobler, better, purer, more satisfying, +than French laces, opera-boxes, and even Madame Roget's best gowns. + +Unfortunately, this was all romance,--there was no such man. There +was, indeed, a person of very common, self-interested aims and worldly +nature, whom she had credited at sight with an unlimited draft on all +her better nature; and when the hour of discovery came, she awoke +from her dream with a start and a laugh, and ever since has despised +aspiration, and been busy with the _realities_ of life, and feeds poor +little Mary Jane, who sits by her in the opera-box there, with all the +fruit which she has picked from the bitter tree of knowledge. There is +no end of the epigrams and witticisms which she can throw out, this +elegant Mrs. T., on people who marry for love, lead prosy, worky lives, +and put on their best cap with pink ribbons for Sunday. "Mary Jane shall +never make a fool of herself"; but, even as she speaks, poor Mary Jane's +heart is dying within her at the vanishing of a pair of whiskers from an +opposite box,--which whiskers the poor little fool has credited with a +_résumé_ drawn from her own imaginings of all that is grandest and +most heroic, most worshipful in man. By-and-by, when Mrs. T. finds the +glamour has fallen on her daughter, she wonders; she has "tried to keep +novels out of the girl's way,--where did she get these notions?" + +All prosaic, and all bitter, disenchanted people talk as if poets +and novelists _made_ romance. They do,--just as much as craters make +volcanoes,--no more. What is romance? whence comes it? Plato spoke to +the subject wisely, in his quaint way, some two thousand years ago, when +he said, "Man's soul, in a former state, was winged and soared among the +gods; and so it comes to pass, that, in this life, when the soul, by the +power of music or poetry, or the sight of beauty, hath her remembrance +quickened, forthwith there is a straggling and a pricking pain as of +wings trying to come forth,--even as children in teething." And if an +old heathen, two thousand years ago, discoursed thus gravely of the +romantic part of our nature, whence comes it that in Christian lands +we think in so pagan a way of it, and turn the whole care of it to +ballad-makers, romancers, and opera-singers? + +Let us look up in fear and reverence and say, "GOD is the great maker +of romance. HE, from whose hand came man and woman,--HE, who strung the +great harp of Existence with all its wild and wonderful and manifold +chords, and attuned them to one another,--HE is the great Poet of life." +Every impulse of beauty, of heroism, and every craving for purer love, +fairer perfection, nobler type and style of being than that which closes +like a prison-house around us, in the dim, daily walk of life, is +God's breath, God's impulse, God's reminder to the soul that there is +something higher, sweeter, purer, yet to be attained. + +Therefore, man or woman, when thy ideal is shattered,--as shattered a +thousand times it must be,--when the vision fades, the rapture burns +out, turn not away in skepticism and bitterness, saying, "There is +nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink," but rather +cherish the revelations of those hours as prophecies and foreshadowings +of something real and possible, yet to be attained in the manhood, of +immortality. The scoffing spirit that laughs at romance is an apple of +the Devil's own handing from the bitter tree of knowledge;--it opens the +eyes only to see eternal nakedness. + +If ever you have had a romantic, uncalculating friendship,--a boundless +worship and belief in some hero of your soul,--if ever you have so +loved, that all cold prudence, all selfish worldly considerations have +gone down like drift-wood before a river flooded with new rain from +heaven, so that you even forgot yourself, and were ready to cast your +whole being into the chasm of existence, as an offering before the feet +of another, and all for nothing,--if you awoke bitterly betrayed and +deceived, still give thanks to God that you have had one glimpse of +heaven. The door now shut will open again. Rejoice that the noblest +capability of your eternal inheritance has been made known to you; +treasure it, as the highest honor of your being, that ever you could so +feel,--that so divine a guest ever possessed your soul. + +By such experiences are we taught the pathos, the sacredness of life; +and if we use them wisely, our eyes will ever after be anointed to see +what poems, what romances, what sublime tragedies lie around us in the +daily walk of life, "written not with ink, but in fleshly tables of the +heart." The dullest street of the most prosaic town has matter in it for +more smiles, more tears, more intense excitement, than ever were written +in story or sung in poem; the reality is there, of which the romancer is +the second-hand recorder. + +So much of a plea we put in boldly, because we foresee grave heads +beginning to shake over our history, and doubts rising in reverend and +discreet minds whether this history is going to prove anything but a +love-story, after all. + +We do assure you, right reverend Sir, and you, most discreet Madam, that +it is not going to prove anything else; and you will find, if you will +follow us, that there is as much romance burning under the snow-banks +of cold Puritan preciseness as if Dr. H. had been brought up to attend +operas instead of metaphysical preaching, and Mary had been nourished on +Byron's poetry instead of "Edwards on the Affections." + +The innocent credulities, the subtle deceptions, that were quietly at +work under the grave, white curls of the Doctor's wig, were exactly of +the kind which have beguiled man in all ages, when near the sovereign +presence of her who is born for his destiny;--and as for Mary, what did +it avail her that she could say the Assembly's Catechism from end to +end without tripping, and that every habit of her life beat time to +practical realities, steadily as the parlor clock? The wildest Italian +singer or dancer, nursed on nothing but excitement from her cradle, +never was more thoroughly possessed by the awful and solemn mystery of +woman's life than this Puritan girl. + +It is quite true, that, the next morning after James's departure, +she rose as usual in the dim gray, and was to be seen opening the +kitchen-door just at the moment when the birds were giving the first +little drowsy stir and chirp,--and that she went on setting the +breakfast-table for the two hired men, who were bound to the fields with +the oxen,--and that then she went on skimming cream for the butter, +and getting ready to churn, and making up biscuit for the Doctor's +breakfast, when he and they should sit down together at a somewhat later +hour; and as she moved about, doing all these things, she sung various +scraps of old psalm-tunes; and the good Doctor, who was then busy with +his early exercises of devotion, listened, as he heard the voice, now +here, now there, and thought about angels and the Millennium. Solemnly +and tenderly there floated in at his open study-window, through the +breezy lilacs, mixed with low of kine and bleat of sheep and hum of +early wakening life, the little silvery ripples of that singing, +somewhat mournful in its cadence, as if a gentle soul were striving to +hush itself to rest. The words were those of the rough old version of +the Psalms then in use:-- + + "Truly my waiting soul relies + In silence God upon; + Because from him there doth arise + All my salvation." + +And then came the busy patter of the little footsteps without, the +moving of chairs, the clink of plates, as busy hands were arranging the +table; and then again there was a pause, and he thought she seemed +to come near to the open window of the adjoining room, for the voice +floated in clearer and sadder:-- + + "O God, to me be merciful, + Be merciful to me! + Because my soul for shelter safe + Betakes itself to thee. + + "Yea, in the shadow of thy wings + My refuge have I placed, + Until these sore calamities + Shall quite be overpast." + +The tone of life in New England, so habitually earnest and solemn, +breathed itself in the grave and plaintive melodies of the tunes then +sung in the churches; and so these words, though in the saddest minor +key, did not suggest to the listening ear of the auditor anything more +than that pensive religious calm in which he delighted to repose. A +contrast indeed they were, in their melancholy earnestness, to the +exuberant carollings of a robin, who, apparently attracted by them, +perched himself hard by in the lilacs, and struck up such a merry +_roulade_ as quite diverted the attention of the fair singer;--in fact, +the intoxication breathed in the strain of this little messenger, whom +God had feathered and winged and filled to the throat with ignorant +joy, came in singular contrast with the sadder notes breathed by that +creature of so much higher mould and fairer clay,--that creature born +for an immortal life. + +But the good Doctor was inly pleased when she sung,--and when she +stopped, looked up from his Bible wistfully, as missing something, he +knew not what; for he scarce thought how pleasant the little voice +was, or knew he had been listening to it,--and yet he was in a manner +enchanted by it, so thankful and happy that he exclaimed with fervor, +"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly +heritage." + +So went the world with him, full of joy and praise, because the voice +and the presence wherein lay his unsuspected life were securely near, so +certainly and constantly a part of his daily walk that he had not even +the trouble to wish for them. But in that other heart how was it?--how +with the sweet saint that was talking to herself in psalms and hymns and +spiritual songs? + +The good child had remembered her mother's parting words the night +before,--"Put your mind upon your duties,"--and had begun her first +conscious exercise of thought with a prayer that grace might be given +her to do it. But even as she spoke, mingling and interweaving with that +golden thread of prayer was another consciousness, a life in another +soul, as she prayed that the grace of God might overshadow him, shield +him from temptation, and lead him up to heaven; and this prayer so got +the start of the other, that, ere she was aware, she had quite forgotten +self, and was feeling, living, thinking in that other life. + +The first discovery she made, when she looked out into the fragrant +orchard, whose perfumes steamed in at her window, and listened to the +first chirping of birds among, the old apple-trees, was one that has +astonished many a person before her; it was this: she found that all +that had made life interesting to her was suddenly gone. She herself had +not known, that, for the month past, since James came from sea, she had +been living in an enchanted land,--that Newport harbor, and every rock +and stone, and every mat of yellow seaweed on the shore, that the +two-mile road between the cottage and the white house of Zebedee Marvyn, +every mullein-stalk, every juniper-tree, had all had a light and a charm +which were suddenly gone. There had not been an hour in the day for the +last four weeks that had not had its unsuspected interest,--because he +was at the white house, because, possibly, he might be going by, or +coming in; nay, even in church, when she stood up to sing, and thought +she was thinking only of God, had she not been conscious of that tenor +voice that poured itself out by her side? and though afraid to turn her +head that way, had she not felt that he was there every moment,--heard +every word of the sermon and prayer for him? The very vigilant care +which her mother had taken to prevent private interviews had only served +to increase the interest by throwing over it the veil of constraint +and mystery. Silent looks, involuntary starts, things indicated, not +expressed, these are the most dangerous, the most seductive aliment of +thought to a delicate and sensitive nature. If things were said out, +they might not be said wisely,--they might repel by their freedom, or +disturb by their unfitness; but what is only looked is sent into the +soul through the imagination, which makes of it all that the ideal +faculties desire. + +In a refined and exalted nature, it is very seldom that the feeling of +love, when once thoroughly aroused, bears any sort of relation to the +reality of the object. It is commonly an enkindling of the whole power +of the soul's love for whatever she considers highest and fairest; it +is, in fact, the love of something divine and unearthly, which, by a +sort of illusion, connects itself with a personality. Properly speaking, +there is but One true, eternal Object of all that the mind conceives, in +this trance of its exaltation. Disenchantment must come, of course; and +in a love which terminates in happy marriage, there is a tender and +gracious process, by which, without shock or violence, the ideal is +gradually sunk in the real, which, though found faulty and earthly, is +still ever tenderly remembered as it seemed under the morning light of +that enchantment. + +What Mary loved so passionately, that which came between her and God in +every prayer, was not the gay, young, dashing sailor,--sudden in anger, +imprudent of speech, and, though generous in heart, yet worldly in plans +and schemings,--but her own ideal of a grand and noble man,--such a man +as she thought he might become. He stood glorified before her, an image +of the strength that overcomes things physical, of the power of command +which controls men and circumstances, of the courage which disdains +fear, of the honor which cannot lie, of constancy which knows no shadow +of turning, of tenderness which protects the weak, and, lastly, of +religious loyalty which should lay the golden crown of its perfected +manhood at the feet of a Sovereign Lord and Redeemer. This was the man +she loved, and with this regal mantle of glories she invested the person +called James Marvyn; and all that she saw and felt to be wanting she +prayed for with the faith of a believing woman. + +Nor was she wrong;--for, as to every leaf and every flower there is an +ideal to which the growth of the plant is constantly urging, so is there +an ideal to every human being,--a perfect form in which it might appear, +were every defect removed and every characteristic excellence stimulated +to the highest point. Once in an age, God sends to some of us a friend +who loves in us, _not_ a false imagining, an unreal character, but, +looking through all the rubbish of our imperfections, loves in us the +divine ideal of our nature,--loves, not the man that we are, but the +angel that we may be. Such friends seem inspired by a divine gift of +prophecy,--like the mother of St. Augustine, who, in the midst of the +wayward, reckless youth of her son, beheld him in a vision, standing, +clothed in white, a ministering priest at the right hand of God,--as he +has stood for long ages since. Could a mysterious foresight unveil to us +this resurrection form of the friends with whom we daily walk, compassed +about with mortal infirmity, we should follow them with faith and +reverence through all the disguises of human faults and weaknesses, +"waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." + +But these wonderful soul-friends, to whom God grants such perception, +are the exceptions in life; yet sometimes are we blessed with one who +sees through us, as Michel Angelo saw through a block of marble, when he +attacked it in a divine fervor, declaring that an angel was imprisoned +within it;--and it is often the resolute and delicate hand of such a +friend that sets the angel free. + +There be soul-artists, who go through this world, looking among their +fellows with reverence, as one looks amid the dust and rubbish of old +shops for hidden works of Titian and Leonardo, and, finding them, +however cracked or torn or painted over with tawdry daubs of pretenders, +immediately recognize the divine original, and set themselves to cleanse +and restore. Such be God's real priests, whose ordination and anointing +are from the Holy Spirit; and he who hath not this enthusiasm is not +ordained of God, though whole synods of bishops laid hands on him. + +Many such priests there be among women;--for to this silent ministry +their nature calls them, endowed, as it is, with fineness of fibre, and +a subtile keenness of perception outrunning slow-footed reason;--and she +of whom we write was one of these. + +At this very moment, while the crimson wings of morning were casting +delicate reflections on tree, and bush, and rock, they were also +reddening innumerable waves round a ship that sailed alone, with a wide +horizon stretching like an eternity around it; and in the advancing +morning stood a young man thoughtfully looking off into the ocean, with +a book in his hand,--James Marvyn,--as truly and heartily a creature of +this material world as Mary was of the invisible and heavenly. + +There are some who seem made to _live;_--life is such a joy to them, +their senses are so fully _en rapport_ with all outward things, the +world is so keenly appreciable, so much a part of themselves, they are +so conscious of power and victory in the government and control of +material things, that the moral and invisible life often seems to hang +tremulous and unreal in their minds, like the pale, faded moon in the +light of a gorgeous sunrise. When brought face to face with the great +truths of the invisible world, they stand related to the higher wisdom +much like the gorgeous, gay Alcibiades to the divine Socrates, or like +the young man in Holy Writ to Him for whose appearing Socrates longed;-- +they gaze, imperfectly comprehending, and at the call of ambition or +riches turn away sorrowing. + +So it was with James;--in full tide of worldly energy and ambition, +there had been forming over his mind that hard crust, that skepticism +of the spiritual and exalted, which men of the world delight to call +practical sense; he had been suddenly arrested and humbled by the +revelation of a nature so much nobler than his own that he seemed +worthless in his own eyes. He had asked for love; but when _such_ love +unveiled itself, he felt like the disciple of old in the view of a +diviner tenderness,--"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." + +But it is not often that all the current of a life is reversed in one +hour; and now, as James stood on the ship's deck, with life passing +around him, and everything drawing upon the strings of old habits, Mary +and her religion recurred to his mind as some fair, sweet, inexplicable +vision. Where she stood he saw; but how _he_ was ever to get there +seemed as incomprehensible as how a mortal man should pillow his form on +sunset clouds. + +He held the little Bible in his hand as if it were some amulet charmed +by the touch of a superior being; but when he strove to read it, his +thoughts wandered, and he shut it, troubled and unsatisfied. Yet there +were within him yearnings and cravings, wants never felt before, the +beginning of that trouble which must ever precede the soul's rise to a +higher plane of being. + +There we leave him. We have shown you now our three different +characters, each one in its separate sphere, feeling the force of that +strongest and holiest power with which it has pleased our great Author +to glorify this mortal life. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +WHICH TREATS OF THINGS SEEN. + + +As, for example, the breakfast. It is six o'clock,--the hired men and +oxen are gone,--the breakfast-table stands before the open kitchen-door, +snowy with its fresh cloth, the old silver coffee-pot steaming up a +refreshing perfume,--and the Doctor sits on one side, sipping his coffee +and looking across the table at Mary, who is innocently pleased at +the kindly beaming in his placid blue eyes,--and Aunt Katy Scudder +discourses of housekeeping, and fancies something must have disturbed +the rising of the cream, as it is not so thick and yellow as wont. + +Now the Doctor, it is to be confessed, was apt to fall into a way +of looking at people such as pertains to philosophers and scholars +generally, that is, as if he were looking through them into the +infinite,--in which case, his gaze became so earnest and intent that it +would quite embarrass an uninitiated person; but Mary, being used to +this style of contemplation, was only quietly amused, and waited till +some great thought should loom up before his mental vision,--in which +case, she hoped to hear from him. + +The good man swallowed his first cup of coffee and spoke:-- + +"In the Millennium, I suppose, there will be such a fulness and plenty +of all the necessaries and conveniences of life, that it will not be +necessary for men and women to spend the greater part of their lives in +labor in order to procure a living. It will not be necessary for each +one to labor more than two or three hours a day,--not more than will +conduce to health of body and vigor of mind; and the rest of their time +they will spend in reading and conversation, and such exercises as +are necessary and proper to improve their minds and make progress in +knowledge." + +New England presents probably the only example of a successful +commonwealth founded on a theory, as a distinct experiment in the +problem of society. It was for this reason that the minds of its great +thinkers dwelt so much on the final solution of that problem in this +world. The fact of a future Millennium was a favorite doctrine of the +great leading theologians of New England, and Dr. H. dwelt upon it with +a peculiar partiality. Indeed, it was the solace and refuge of his soul, +when oppressed with the discouragements which always attend things +actual, to dwell upon and draw out in detail the splendors of this +perfect future which was destined to glorify the world. + +Nobody, therefore, at the cottage was in the least surprised when there +dropped into the flow of their daily life these sparkling bits of ore, +which their friend had dug in his explorations of a future Canaan,--in +fact, they served to raise the hackneyed present out of the level of +mere commonplace. + +"But how will it be possible," inquired Mrs. Scudder, "that so much less +work will suffice in those days to do all that is to be done?" + +"Because of the great advance of arts and sciences which will take +place before those days," said the Doctor, "whereby everything shall +be performed with so much greater ease,--also the great increase of +disinterested love, whereby the skill and talents of those who have much +shall make up for the weakness of those who have less. + +"Yes," he continued, after a pause,--"all the careful Marthas in those +days will have no excuse for not sitting at the feet of Jesus; there +will be no cumbering with much serving; the Church will have only Maries +in those days." + +This remark, made without the slightest personal intention, called a +curious smile into Mrs. Scudder's face, which was reflected in a +slight blush from Mary's, when the crack of a whip and the rattling of +wagon-wheels disturbed the conversation and drew all eyes to the door. + +There appeared the vision of Mr. Zebedee Marvyn's farm-wagon, stored +with barrels, boxes, and baskets, over which Candace sat throned +triumphant, her black face and yellow-striped turban glowing in the +fresh morning with a hearty, joyous light, as she pulled up the reins, +and shouted to the horse to stop with a voice that might have done +credit to any man living. + +"Dear me, if there isn't Candace!" said Mary. + +"Queen of Ethiopia," said the Doctor, who sometimes adventured a very +placid joke. + +The Doctor was universally known in all the neighborhood as a sort of +friend and patron-saint of the negro race; he had devoted himself to +their interests with a zeal unusual in those days. His church numbered +more of them than any in Newport; and his hours of leisure from study +were often spent in lowliest visitations among them, hearing their +stories, consoling their sorrows, advising, and directing their plans, +teaching them reading and writing, and he often drew hard on his slender +salary to assist them in their emergencies and distresses. + +This unusual condescension on his part was repaid on theirs with all the +warmth of their race; and Candace, in particular, devoted herself to the +Doctor with all the force of her being. + +There was a legend current in the neighborhood, that the first efforts +to catechize Candace were not eminently successful, her modes of +contemplating theological tenets being so peculiarly from her own +individual point of view that it was hard to get her subscription to +a received opinion. On the venerable clause in the Catechism, in +particular, which declares that all men sinned in Adam and fell with +him, Candace made a dead halt:-- + +"I didn't do dat ar', for one, I knows. I's got good mem'ry,--allers +knows what I does,--nebber did eat dat ar' apple,--nebber eat a bit ob +him. Don't tell me!" + +It was of no use, of course, to tell Candace of all the explanations of +this redoubtable passage,--of potential presence, and representative +presence, and representative identity, and federal headship. She met all +with the dogged,-- + +"Nebber did it, I knows; should 'ave 'membered, if I had. Don't tell +me!" + +And even in the catechizing class of the Doctor himself, if this answer +came to her, she sat black and frowning in stony silence even in his +reverend presence. + +Candace was often reminded that the Doctor believed the Catechism, and +that she was differing from a great and good man; but the argument made +no manner of impression on her, till, one day, a far-off cousin of hers, +whose condition under a hard master had often moved her compassion, came +in overjoyed to recount to her how, owing to Dr. H.'s exertions, he had +gained his freedom. The Doctor himself had in person gone from house +to house, raising the sum for his redemption; and when more yet was +wanting, supplied it by paying half his last quarter's limited salary. + +"He do dat ar'?" said Candace, dropping the fork wherewith she was +spearing doughnuts. "Den I'm gwine to b'liebe ebery word _he_ does!" + +And accordingly, at the next catechizing, the Doctor's astonishment was +great when Candace pressed up to him, exclaiming-- + +"De Lord bress you, Doctor, for opening de prison for dem dat is bound! +I b'liebes in you now, Doctor. I's gwine to b'liebe ebery word you say. +I'll say de Catechize now,--fix it any way you like. I did eat dat ar' +apple,--I eat de whole tree, an' swallowed ebery bit ob it, if you say +so." + +And this very thorough profession of faith was followed, on the part of +Candace, by years of the most strenuous orthodoxy. Her general mode of +expressing her mind on the subject was short and definitive. + +"Law me! what's de use? I's set out to b'liebe de Catechize, an' I'm +gwine to bliebe it,--so!" + +While we have been telling you all this about her, she has fastened her +horse, and is swinging leisurely up to the house with a basket on either +arm. + +"Good morning, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder. "What brings you so early?" + +"Come down 'fore light to sell my chickens an' eggs,--got a lot o' money +for 'em, too. Missy Marvyn she sent Miss Scudder some turkey-eggs, an' +I brought down some o' my doughnuts for de Doctor. Good folks must lib, +you know, as well as wicked ones,"--and Candace gave a hearty, unctuous +laugh. "No reason why Doctors shouldn't hab good tings as well as +sinners, is dere?"--and she shook in great billows, and showed her white +teeth in the _abandon_ of her laugh. "Lor bress ye, honey, chile!" she +said, turning to Mary, "why, ye looks like a new rose, ebery bit! Don't +wonder _somebody_ was allers pryin' an' spyin' about here!" + +"How is your Mistress, Candace?" said Mrs. Scudder, by way of changing +the subject. + +"Well, porly,--rader porly. When Massa Jim goes, 'pears like takin' de +light right out her eyes. Dat ar' boy trains roun' arter his mudder like +a cosset, he does. Lor', de house seems so still widout him!--can't a +fly scratch his ear but it starts a body. Missy Marvyn she sent down, +an' says, would you an' de Doctor an' Miss Mary please come to tea dis +arternoon." + +"Thank your mistress, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder; "Mary and I will +come,--and the Doctor, perhaps," looking at the good man, who had +relapsed into meditation, and was eating his breakfast without taking +note of anything going on. "It will be time enough to tell him of it," +she said to Mary, "when we have to wake him up to dress; so we won't +disturb him now." + +To Mary the prospect of the visit was a pleasant one, for reasons which +she scarce gave a definite form to. Of course, like a good girl, she had +come to a fixed and settled resolution to think of James as little as +possible; but when the path of duty lay directly along scenes and among +people fitted to recall him, it was more agreeable than if it had lain +in another direction. Added to this, a very tender and silent friendship +subsisted between Mrs. Marvyn and Mary; in which, besides similarity of +mind and intellectual pursuits, there was a deep, unspoken element of +sympathy. + +Candace watched the light in Mary's eyes with the instinctive shrewdness +by which her race seem to divine the thoughts and feelings of their +superiors, and chuckled to herself internally. Without ever having been +made a _confidante_ by any party, or having a word said to or before +her, still the whole position of affairs was as clear to her as if +she had seen it on a map. She had appreciated at once Mrs. Scudder's +coolness, James's devotion, and Mary's perplexity,--and inly resolved, +that, if the little maiden did not think of James in his absence, it +should not be her fault. + +"Laws, Miss Scudder," she said, "I's right glad you's comin'; 'cause you +hasn't seen how we's kind o' splendified since Massa Jim come home. You +wouldn't know it. Why, he's got mats from Mogadore on all de entries, +and a great big 'un on de parlor; and ye ought to see de shawl he +brought Missus, an' all de cur'us kind o' tings to de Squire. 'Tell +ye, dat ar' boy honors his fader and mudder, ef he don't do nuffin +else,--an' dat's de fus' commandment wid promise, Ma'am; an' to see him +a-settin' up ebery day in prayer-time, so handsome, holdin' Missus's +han', an' lookin' right into her eyes all de time! Why, dat ar' boy is +one o' de 'lect,--it's jest as clare to me; and de 'lect has got to come +in,--dat's what I say. My faith's strong,--real clare, 'tell ye," +she added, with the triumphant laugh which usually chorused her +conversation, and turning to the Doctor, who, aroused by her loud and +vigorous strain, was attending with interest to her. + +"Well, Candace," he said, "we all hope you are right." + +"_Hope_, Doctor!--I don't hope,--I _knows_. 'Tell ye, when I pray for +him, don't I feel enlarged? 'Tell ye, it goes wid a rush. I can feel it +gwine up like a rushin', mighty wind. I feels strong, I do." + +"That's right, Candace," said the Doctor, "keep on; your prayers stand +as much chance with God as if you were a crowned queen. The Lord is no +respecter of persons." + +"Dat's what he a'n't, Doctor,--an' dere's where I 'gree wid him," said +Candace, as she gathered her baskets vigorously together, and, after +a sweeping curtsy, went sailing down to her wagon, full laden with +content, shouting a hearty "Good mornin', Missus," with the full power +of her cheerful lungs, as she rode off. + +As the Doctor looked after her, the simple, pleased expression with +which he had watched her gradually faded, and there passed over his +broad, good face a shadow, as of a cloud on a mountain-side. + +"What a shame it is," he said, "what a scandal and disgrace to the +Protestant religion, that Christians of America should openly practise +and countenance this enslaving of the Africans! I have for a long time +holden my peace,--may the Lord forgive me!--but I believe the time is +coming when I must utter my voice. I cannot go down to the wharves or +among the shipping, without these poor dumb creatures look at me so that +I am ashamed,--as if they asked me what I, a Christian minister, was +doing, that I did not come to their help. I must testify." + +Mrs. Scudder looked grave at this earnest announcement; she had +heard many like it before, and they always filled her with alarm, +because--Shall we tell you why? + +Well, then, it was not because she was not a thoroughly indoctrinated +anti-slavery woman. Her husband, who did all her thinking for her, had +been a man of ideas beyond his day, and never for a moment countenanced +the right of slavery so far as to buy or own a servant or attendant +of any kind; and Mrs. Scudder had always followed decidedly along the +path of his opinions and practice, and never hesitated to declare the +reasons for the faith that was in her. But if any of us could imagine an +angel dropped down out of heaven, with wings, ideas, notions, manners, +and customs all fresh from that very different country, we might easily +suppose that the most pious and orthodox family might find the task of +presenting him in general society and piloting him along the courses of +this world a very delicate and embarrassing one. However much they might +reverence him on their own private account, their hearts would probably +sink within them at the idea of allowing him to expand himself according +to his previous nature and habits in the great world without. In like +manner, men of high, unworldly natures are often reverenced by those who +are somewhat puzzled what to do with them practically. + +Mrs. Scudder considered the Doctor as a superior being, possessed by a +holy helplessness in all things material and temporal, which imposed +on her the necessity of thinking and caring for him, and prevising the +earthly and material aspects of his affairs. + +There was not in Newport a more thriving and reputable business at that +time than the slave-trade. Large fortunes were constantly being turned +out in it, and what better Providential witness of its justice could +most people require? + +Beside this, in their own little church, she reflected with alarm, that +Simeon Brown, the richest and most liberal supporter of the society, had +been, and was then, drawing all his wealth from this source; and rapidly +there flashed before her mind a picture of one and another, influential +persons, who were holders of slaves. Therefore, when the Doctor +announced, "I must testify," she rattled her tea-spoon uneasily, and +answered,-- + +"In what way, Doctor, do you think of bearing testimony? The subject, I +think, is a very difficult one." + +"Difficult? I think no subject can be clearer. If we were right in our +war for liberty, we are wrong in making slaves or keeping them." + +"Oh, I did not mean," said Mrs. Scudder, "that it was difficult to +understand the subject; the _right_ of the matter is clear, but what to +_do_ is the thing." + +"I shall preach about it," said the Doctor; "my mind has run upon it +some time. I shall show to the house of Judah their sin in this matter." + +"I fear there will be great offence given," said Mrs. Scudder. "There's +Simeon Brown, one of our largest supporters,--he is in the trade." + +"Ah, yes,--but he will come out of it,--of course he will,--he is all +right, all clear. I was delighted with the clearness of his views +the other night, and thought then of bringing them to bear on this +point,--only, as others were present, I deferred it. But I can show him +that it follows logically from his principles; I am confident of that." + +"I think you'll be disappointed in him, Doctor;--I think he'll be angry, +and get up a commotion, and leave the church." + +"Madam," said the Doctor, "do you suppose that a man who would be +willing even to give up his eternal salvation for the greatest good of +the universe could hesitate about a few paltry thousands that perish in +the using?" + +"He may feel willing to give up his soul," said Mrs. Scudder, naïvely, +"but I don't think he'll give up his ships,--that's quite another +matter,--he won't see it to be his duty." + +"Then, Ma'am, he'll be a hypocrite, a gross hypocrite, if he won't," +said the Doctor. "It is not Christian charity to think it of him. I +shall call upon him this morning and tell him my intentions." + +"But, Doctor," exclaimed Mrs. Scudder, with a start, "pray, think a +little more of it. You know a great many things depend on him. Why! he +has subscribed for twenty copies of your 'System of Theology.' I hope +you'll remember that." + +"And why should I remember that?" said the Doctor,--hastily turning +round, suddenly enkindled, his blue eyes flashing out of their usual +misty calm,--"what has my 'System of Theology' to do with the matter?" + +"Why," said Mrs. Scudder, "it's of more importance to get right views of +the gospel before the world than anything else, is it not?--and if, by +any imprudence in treating influential people, this should be prevented, +more harm than good would be done." + +"Madam," said the Doctor, "I'd sooner my system should be sunk in the +sea than it should be a millstone round my neck to keep me from my duty. +Let God take care of my theology; I must do my duty." + +And as the Doctor spoke, he straightened himself to the full dignity of +his height, his face kindling with an unconscious majesty, and, as he +turned, his eye fell on Mary, who was standing with her slender figure +dilated, her large blue eye wide and bright, in a sort of trance of +solemn feeling, half smiles, half tears,--and the strong, heroic man +started, to see this answer to his higher soul in the sweet, tremulous +mirror of womanhood. One of those lightning glances passed between his +eyes and hers which are the freemasonry of noble spirits,--and, by +a sudden impulse, they approached each other. He took both her +outstretched hands, looked down into her face with a look full of +admiration, and a sort of naïve wonder,--then, as if her inspired +silence had been a voice to him, he laid his hand on her head, and +said,-- + +"God bless you, child! 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast +thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest +still the enemy and the avenger!'" + +In a moment he was gone. + +"Mary," said Mrs. Scudder, laying her hand on her daughter's arm, "the +Doctor loves you!" + +"I know he does, mother," said Mary, innocently; "and I love +him,--dearly!--he is a noble, grand man!" + +Mrs. Scudder looked keenly at her daughter. Mary's eye was as calm as a +June sky, and she began, composedly, gathering up the teacups. + +"She did not understand me," thought the mother. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +REVIEW. + +_The New Testament_. Translated from the Original Greek, etc. By +LEICESTER AMBROSE SAWYER. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1858. + + +Few books merit the criticism which they receive; fewer receive all they +merit. Here is a work, a translation, which is more likely than most to +get its deserts, because its circle of critics will be unusually large. +It purports to be a new and improved version of "the Book of Books," +and puts forth claims which will be conceded only after it shall have +sustained the most extensive, minute, and even prejudiced scrutiny. The +Bible has more readers than any other book; and that which claims to be +an improved Bible must, if it secure anything like a general attention, +meet with criticisms from all quarters. Mr. Sawyer is fortunate in one +respect: his work will be examined and judged by multitudes who never +undertook to criticize any other book; he will have, therefore, +ultimately, a popular judgment of his task and its performance. But he +is unfortunate in another point: for he must meet that popular sentiment +which at the outset looks with disfavor upon anything that has even the +appearance of meddling with the commonly received and almost universally +approved version of the Holy Scriptures. Let us, in a brief space and +with as little of formal and scholastic criticism as possible, examine +Mr. Sawyer's translation. + +A work of such a character as this should be judged not more by its +absolute or intrinsic merits than by a comparison of them with the +design avowed and the claims advanced by the author. In a task of such +magnitude we ought not to expect to find everything perfect. If the +completed structure have a symmetry of proportions and excellence of +finish approaching reasonably near to the plan proposed, we should not +too severely censure minor defects. Critics rarely accord all that +authors claim; the former measure the actual achievement,--the latter +look to the ideal conception; if the one be in a reasonable degree +commensurate with the other, we should be lenient toward the faults of +the performance. + +With this charitable substratum for our critical structure, let us test +Mr. Sawyer's new version by contrasting it with his own avowed design +and the claims with which he introduces his completed task. In the +Preface he says,-- + +"This is not a work of compromises, or of conjectural interpretations +of the Sacred Scriptures, neither is it a paraphrase, but a strict +[strictly] literal rendering. It neither adds nor takes away; but aims +to express the original with the utmost clearness and force, and with +the utmost precision." + +This is a somewhat pretentious claim. A strictly literal rendering of +any language into another is by no means always an easy task; and it is +especially difficult to couple, as the translator in this case asserts +he has done, the utmost clearness, force, and precision in the +expression of the thought, with minute exactness of version. We +are surprised that Mr. Sawyer should have rested his claim for the +excellence and superiority of his translation mainly upon this quality +of literalism, for it is often the case that the closest literalist is +the worst translator. It is often impossible to render the thoughts +expressed in the peculiar idioms of one tongue into exactly +corresponding idioms of another. There are idiomatic forms, especially +in the Greek, which have no precisely correspondent forms in the +English, and yet these are not unfrequently the most forcible +expressions of any to be found in the original; any attempt to render +these literally must be abortive; and a literal rendering, or as nearly +literal as possible, is the worst translation, because it sacrifices +the clearness, force, and precision, to say nothing of the grace and +delicacy, of the original. The French language abounds in words and +phrases the literal translation of which into English perverts the +meaning and destroys the force of the original. Still more is a strictly +literal rendering incompatible with the preservation and transference of +the beauties of style and the strength of diction. The widest range of +the thought, its more delicate shades and subtiler connections, often +depend in great part upon the peculiar forms of the language in which +they are first clothed; and by a strictly literal translation the scope +of the thought is narrowed, its finer lines obscured, and that which +is of more importance than all else, the fitness of the expression, is +altogether lost. The utmost strictness of literal translation is a poor +compensation for the resultant poverty of language and dilution of +thought; and by as much as the original is more impressive in its rich +and fitting garb, by so much the more is it made to appear mean and +unlike itself when forced to clothe itself in scanty second-hand +habiliments. + +We have said thus much on this point for two reasons: first, because it +is on this chiefly that Mr. Sawyer appeals to the public for a verdict +in favor of his translation; and secondly, because it is a common and +popular notion, that, the more literal a translation can be made, +especially in the case of the Bible, the better and more trustworthy +it will be. And we are willing to admit, that, in translating the Holy +Scriptures, the greatest degree of strictness in literal rendering, +compatible with the full and correct expression of the thought, is and +should be a first consideration; the translator should take no liberties +with the text, by way either of omission, alteration, or compromise; he +must in no way vitiate the thought; and if he keep within this rule, +he will have escaped just criticism, and may claim the merit of +faithfulness to his task. Has Mr. Sawyer, then, in his New Testament, +given a strictly literal rendering? and is it an improvement on +the common version? We have space for only a few specimens of his +translation, and we have taken some of the first that attracted our +notice; it will be observed that they are none of them abstruse or +disputed passages. + +COMMON VERSION. + +_Matt_. ii. 16. + +"Then Herod, when he saw that he was _mocked_ of the _wise men_, was +exceeding wroth, and sent forth and _slew_ all the children that were in +Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, +according to the time which he _had diligently inquired_ of the _wise +men_." + + +SAWYER'S VERSION. + +_Chap_. ii. _verse_ 4. + +"Then Herod seeing that he was _despised_ by the _Magi_, was exceedingly +angry, and sent and _destroyed_ all the children, in Bethlehem, and in +all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the precise +time which he _had learned_ of the _Magi_." + +Here is a comparison of the two translations of a simple narrative text +taken at random. The essential changes (improvements?) made by Mr. +Sawyer are in the words which we have Italicized. Two of these changes, +the substitution of "Magi" for "wise men," and of "destroyed" for +"slew," we shall pass with the single observation, that the rendering +of the common version is in both instances the more accurate and better +expressed. Mr. Sawyer substitutes "despised" for "mocked," as the +translation of [Greek: henepaichthae]. Is this literal? or is it an +improvement? The Greek verb [Greek: hemaiso] has the signification +primarily _to deride, to mock, to scoff at_, and secondarily _to delude, +to deceive, to disappoint_, but it has not the meaning to _despise_. The +word _mock_ is used in our language in both these significations,--in +the secondary sense when it refers to men's hopes or expectations,--as, +_to mock one's hopes_, that is, to delude or disappoint one's +expectations. In this sense, and in this alone, it is obviously used in +this passage. The wise men did not scoff at King Herod, but they did +delude him; they mocked his expectation of their return, and went back +to their own country without returning to report to him, because they +had been "warned of God in a dream," not because they despised the +king. To say, as Mr. Sawyer does, that they "despised" him, is neither +warranted by the meaning of [Greek: _enepaichthae_], nor is such a +rendering accordant with the facts of the story or the connections of +the thought. It is a forced and far-fetched translation, and a change +from the common version much for the worse. The same word is of frequent +occurrence in the Scriptures. In the Septuagint, Jer. x. 14, it is used +in the same sense as in Matt. ii. 16. It is worthy of note that in no +other instance does Mr. Sawyer render it by "despised." In Luke xviii. +32 and xxii. 63, and Matt. xx. 19, he translates it "mocked," like the +common version. Mr. Sawyer should be more consistent, if he would have +us put faith in his scholarly pretensions and literal accuracy. The +passage in which he indulges in this variation from his own rule is the +one of all the list where such a translation is particularly fitting, +and where neither force, clearness, nor precision is gained by the +substitution. + +Mr. Sawyer renders [Greek: _katha thov chrinon du haekribose_] thus: +"according to the precise time which he had learned."--Is this literal +or correct? [Greek: _'Akriboo_] signifies _to inquire diligently, +assiduously, or accurately_, and has no such signification primarily as +_to learn_. If the reader will now turn to Mr. Sawyer's translation of +the 7th verse of the same chapter of Matthew, he will there find that +he translates [Greek: _haekribose_] "asked"! And yet it stands in that +passage in precisely the same connection of thought as in the 16th +verse; so that we have our translator, who gives us only strictly +literal renderings, translating the same word, occurring in the same +relative connection, in the one instance by "asked," and in the other +by "had learned,"--neither of them legitimate translations, and neither +precisely expressing the thought. The rendering "asked" falls as far +short of the full and forcible meaning of [Greek: _haekribose_], in +the one case, as "had learned" varies from its strictly literal +signification in the other. + +We will now examine another passage illustrating Mr. Sawyer's consistent +fidelity to literal renderings. He translates the word [Greek: +_phuchae_], Luke xii. 19, 20, and 23, "soul"; thus, "I will say to my +_soul_," find "Is not the _soul_ more than the food?"--agreeing with +the common version in the first instance, and differing from it in the +second. But he renders [Greek: _phuchae_] in Mark viii. 36, 37, Luke +xvii. 33, and Matt. xvi. 26, "life"; thus, "For what is a man profited, +if he shall gain the whole world and lose his _life_?" "For whoever +wishes to save his _life_ shall lose it." In these cases he seems to +have made his choice between the renderings "soul" and "life" according +to no rule of translation or of criticism in philology, but as his fancy +dictated. How shall we explain these inconsistencies, and, at the same +time, grant Mr. Sawyer his claim to literalness of rendering? + +Luke ix. 24, 25, Mr. Sawyer translates [Greek: _phuchae_] "life," and +then renders [Greek: _eauthon de apolesas ae zaemiotheis_] "and destroys +himself or loses his life." The common version is "and lose himself or +be cast away," which is not only more strictly literal, but far more +forcible. [Greek: _'Apollumi_] conveys the strongest idea of _total, +irremediable ruin_; and [Greek: _zaemioo_], when used, as in this +passage, in the aorist tense, has the signification of _bringing loss +or ruin upon one's self_. Both these thoughts are lost in Mr. Sawyer's +translation; and a more tame, insufficient, and tautological rendering +than his could scarcely be imagined. + +Another instance of Mr. Sawyer's singular choice of renderings, in his +zeal for improvement, is found in Luke viii. 46, which he translates, +"Some one touched me; for I perceived a _power_ going from me." The +common version, "Somebody touched me; for I perceive that _virtue_ is +gone out of me," is clear and precise; Mr. Sawyer's version, "a power," +is more indefinite and less forcible. Any intelligent reader will at +once perceive that the common version is the better, and that Mr. +Sawyer's improved rendering is almost meaningless. + +One more example of these strictly literal renderings must suffice, John +iii. 4. common version,--"Nicodemus saith unto him, 'How can a man be +born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb +and be born?'" Sawyer's version,--"Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man +be born when he is old? can he become an unborn infant of his mother a +second time, and be born?'" The absurdity of the form of language put +into the mouth of Nicodemus by Mr. Sawyer is obvious at a glance; no +such thought was ever so expressed by any speaker in any language; it is +wholly forced and unnatural; and upon comparing Mr. Sawyer's translation +with the original, we find that he has paraphrased the passage with a +vengeance, altogether omitting to translate the clause [Greek: _eis +thaen koilian ... eiselthein kai gennaethaenai_], and interpolating an +expression, instead, which is neither in the original text nor in the +thought. Probably Mr. Sawyer's motive for taking this extraordinary +liberty was a false delicacy, amounting to prudery; but it ill assorts +with his assertion, that his work is not a paraphrase, nor one of +compromises, or of conjectural interpretations. + +We might proceed with numerous illustrations' exhibiting the weakness of +Mr. Sawyer's claim of an improved and strictly literal rendering, but +these are enough. Before he claims much on the score of scholarly +accuracy or critical rendering, he must explain these inconsistencies +and remove these blemishes. But if such faults are patent in the +simplest narrative passages, what confidence can we place in Mr. Sawyer +as a translator of difficult, abstruse, doctrinal, and disputed texts? +In every instance in which we have tested his translation of the +original, the changes which he has made from the common version not +only, in our judgment, are no improvements, but positively render the +expression less clear, less forcible, and less precise; of course, as +the language is made worse, the thought is, in the same proportion, +obscured. + +Another peculiarity of Mr. Sawyer's translation, which we suppose he +claims as an improvement, does not meet our approval. In all cases where +there is no word in our language which expresses the signification +of the Greek, as in the names of weights and measures, Mr. Sawyer +substitutes for the language of the common version the foreign word of +the original,--sometimes merely giving the orthography of the Greek in +English letters, sometimes affixing a termination,--and frequently he +adds, in brackets, an explanation of his rendering. As examples of this, +we quote the following:-- + +"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a _modius_ [1.916 +gallon measure]." + +"I tell you that you shall not go out thence till you have paid even the +last _lepton_ [2 mills]." + +"It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three _sata_ [33 +quarts] of flour." + +"And there were six stone water-jars there, placed for the purification +of the Jews, containing two or three _metretes_ [16.75 or 25.125 +gallons] each." + +"And he desired to fill his stomach with the _carob pods_ which the +swine eat." + +"And one poor widow came and cast in two _lepta_, which is a _quadrans_ +[4 mills]." + +It requires no knowledge of the original to pass judgment on such +changes as are here made from the common version. The practice which +Mr. Sawyer here introduces and sanctions is a vicious one in any +translation, and is especially so in the case of the Holy Scriptures, +which are to be read by the unlearned and ignorant as well as by the +scholar and the critic. Mr. Sawyer's translation of such words as we +have noted above conveys no idea to the mind of the common reader, and +requires a glossary to make it intelligible. There is in his choice of +words a pedantry and affectation of learning that are in bad taste. +But in this, as in his other strictly literal renderings, he is +inconsistent, and does not adhere to his own rule. He translates Matt. +vi. 30,--"And if God so clothes the grass of the field, which to-day is, +and tomorrow is cast into the _oven_," etc. If he were consistent in his +practice, he would have rendered the word "oven" _klibanon_, and then, +in parenthesis, explained that it signifies "a large round pot, of +earthen or other material, two or three feet high, narrowing towards +the top, on the sides of which the dough was spread to be baked in thin +cakes." Probably Mr. Sawyer was deterred from following his rule in this +case by the formidableness of the necessary parenthesis; but there is as +much reason why he should have written _klibanon_ instead of "oven," +as there is for substituting _lepton_ for "farthing," or _modius_ for +"bushel," or _carob pods_ for "husks,"--and in fact more reason, +because the word "oven," which he indorses and uses, conveys a far more +imperfect idea of the original, [Greek: _klibanon_], than those words of +the common version which he has rejected do of their originals. All such +changes as those instanced above, in our judgment, mar the simplicity +and obscure the meaning of the passages where they occur. + +But we will now notice what appears to us a more serious defect than +any of those already mentioned. Mr. Sawyer throughout his translation +substitutes vulgar Latinisms and circumlocutions for the vigorous +phrases of the received version. Sometimes this is done at the expense +of homely Saxon words which are the very sinews of our language; and +wherever such words are sacrificed for Latinisms, the beauty and force +of the whole are impaired or destroyed. Again, the translator seems to +have a peculiar antipathy to everything like poetical expressions or the +euphonious arrangement of sentences. He has evidently fallen into the +error of supposing that the most prosaic rendering is necessarily +the most exact; whereas the fact is, that the most poetical form of +expression of which a passage is susceptible is often the most clear, +forcible, and precise. The best method of giving the reader an idea of +the justice of this portion of our criticism of Mr. Sawyer's version is +to quote some passages in contrast with the common version. + +COMMON VERSION. + +"_If thou wilt_, let us make here three tabernacles." + +"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of +Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: +thou knowest that _I love thee_." + +"God be _merciful_ to me a sinner." + +"Give us this day our _daily_ bread." + +"_And therefore_ I cannot come." + +"And to whom men have _committed_ much, of him they will ask the more." + +"I _give tithes_ of all that I _possess_." + +"For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and +_counteth the cost_?" + +"And upon this rock I will build my _church_." + +"If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if _he repent_, +forgive him." + +"And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, +saying unto them, _Rejoice with me_, for I have found my sheep which was +lost." + +"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, _Peace_, be +still." + +"As we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen +_deemed that they drew near to some country_." + +"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate and _broad_ is the +way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; +because strait is the gate and _narrow_ is the way which leadeth unto +life, and few there be that find it." + +"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they _toil not_, +neither do they spin." + +SAWYER'S VERSION. + +"_If you please_, we will make here three tabernacles." + +"When therefore they had breakfasted, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, +son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, +you know that _I am a friend to you_." + +"God, be _propitious_ to me a sinner." + +"Give us to-day our _essential_ bread." + +"_On this account_ I cannot come." + +"And of him with whom men have _deposited_ much, they will ask more." + +"I _tithe_ all I _acquire_." + +"For what man of you wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down +and _estimate the expense_?" + +"And upon this rock will I build my _assembly_." + +"If your brother sins, reprove him; and if _he changes his mind_, +forgive him." + +"And coming to the house, he calls together his friends and neighbors, +saying, _Congratulate me_; for I have found my sheep that was lost." + +"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said to the lake, _Hush!_ Be +still!" + +"When we were borne along in the Adriatic, at about midnight the sailors +_suspected that some land was approaching them_." + +"Enter in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and _spacious_ +the way which leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in by +it; for narrow is the gate, and _compressed_ the way which leads to +life, and few are those who find it." + +"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they _perform no hard +labor_, neither do they spin." + +These must suffice. We cannot extend our quotations, nor is there +occasion to do so. We think we have seen enough of Mr. Sawyer's use of +words and phrases, enough of his improvements on the common version of +the Bible, to convince any candid mind that his is neither a literal nor +a correct translation; that so far from having improved the version, +by adding clearness, force, or precision, he has injured it in each +of these respects; and that the world would be immensely the loser +by accepting him as a substitute for the forty-seven translators who +composed the famous Council of King James in 1611. We are informed that +Mr. Sawyer has completed his improved version of the Old Testament, and +will soon publish it. We almost shudder in anticipation of the sounds +which he has probably evoked from the harp of Judah's minstrel king, of +the colors which he has put on the canvas where are painted the glowing +visions of Isaiah, and of the rude matter-of-fact method in which he +has doubtless used the modern telescope to penetrate and scatter the +glorious and solemn mysteries of the cloud-land of prophecy out of which +spake the God of Daniel. But we forbear, and must wait till we have the +remainder of this _magnum opus_ before we venture to hazard an opinion +of its merits. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Notes from Plymouth Pulpit; A Collection of Memorable Passages from the +Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher. By Augusta Moore. New York. Derby & +Jackson. 12mo. $1.00. + +History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty. Vol. 1. By John Gorham +Palfrey. Boston. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 17, March, 1859 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 23, 2004 [eBook #11687] +[Date last updated: July 24, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 3, ISSUE +17, MARCH, 1859*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. III.--MARCH, 1859.--NO. XVII. + + + + + + + + +HOLBEIN AND THE DANCE OF DEATH. + + +At the northwest corner of Switzerland, just on the turn of the Rhine +from its westward course between Germany and Switzerland, to run +northward between Germany and France, stands the old town of Bale. It is +nominally Swiss; but its situation on the borders of three countries, +and almost in them all, has given to the place itself and to its +inhabitants a somewhat heterogeneous air. "It looks," says one +traveller, "like a stranger lately arrived in a new colony, who, +although he may have copied the dress and the manner of those with whom +he has come to reside, wears still too much of his old costume to pass +for a native, and too little to be received as a stranger." Perhaps we +may get a better idea of the mixed nationality of the place by imagining +a Swiss who speaks French with a German accent. + +Bale is an ancient city; though Rome was bending under the weight of +more than a thousand years when the Emperor Valentinian built at this +angle of the river a fortress which was called the Basilia. Houses soon +began to cluster round it upon the ruins of an old Helvetian town, and +thus Basel or Bale obtained its existence and its name. Bale suffered +many calamities. War, pestilence, and earthquake alternately made it +desolate. Whether we must enumerate among its misfortunes a Grand +Ecclesiastical Council which assembled there in 1431, and sat for +seventeen years, deposing one infallible Pope, and making another +equally infallible, let theological disputants decide. But the +assembling of this Council was of some service to us; for its Secretary, +Aeneas Sylvius, (who, like the saucy little _prima donna_, was one of +the noble and powerful Italian family, the Piccolomini, and afterward, +as Pope Pius II., wore the triple crown which St. Peter did not wear,) +in his Latin dedication of a history of the transactions of that body +to the Cardinal St. Angeli, has left a description of Bale as it was in +1436. + +After telling us that the town is situated upon that "excellent river, +the Rhine, which divides it into two parts, called Great Bale and Little +Bale, and that these are connected by a bridge which the river rising +from its bed sometimes carries off," he, naturally enough for an +ecclesiastic and a future Pope, goes on to say, that in Great Bale, +which is far more beautiful and magnificent than Little Bale, there are +handsome and commodious churches; and he naively adds, that, "_although_ +these are not adorned with marble, and are built of common stone, they +are much frequented by the people." The women of Bale, following the +devotional instincts of their sex, were the most assiduous attendants +upon these churches; and they consoled themselves for the absence of +marble, which the good Aeneas Sylvius seems to imply would partly have +excused them for staying away, by an arrangement in itself as odd as in +Roman Catholic places of worship--to their honor--it is, and ever was, +unusual. Each of them performed her devotions in a kind of inclosed +bench or solitary pew. By most of these the occupant was concealed +only to the waist when she stood up at the reading of the Gospel; some +allowed only their heads to appear; and others of the fair owners were +at once so devout, so cruel, and so self-denying as to shut out the +eyes of the world entirely and at all times. But instances of this +remorseless mortification of the flesh, seem to have been exceedingly +rare. Queer enough these structures were, and sufficiently gratifying +to the pride and provocative of the envy which the beauties of Bale +(avowedly) went to churches in which there was no marble to mortify. For +they were of different heights, according to the rank of the occupant. +A simple burgher's wife took but a step toward heaven when she went to +pray; a magistrate's of the lower house, we must suppose, took two; a +magistrate's of the upper house, three; a lady, four; a baroness, five; +a countess, six; and what a duchess, if one ever appeared there, did to +maintain her dignity in the eyes of God and man, unless she mounted into +the pulpit, it is quite impossible to conjecture. Aeneas Sylvius gives +it as his opinion that these things were used as a protection against +the cold, which to his Italian blood seemed very great. But that notion +was surely instilled into the courtly churchman by some fair, demure +Baloise; for had it been well-founded, the sentry-boxes would have risen +and fallen with the thermometer, and not with the rank of the occupant. + +The walls of the churches were hung around with the emblazoned shields +of knights and noblemen, and the roofs were richly painted in various +colors, and glowed with splendor when the rays of the sun fell upon +them. Storks built their nests upon these roofs, and hatched their young +there unmolested; for the Balois believed, that, if the birds were +disturbed, they would fire the houses. + +The dwellings of men of any wealth or rank were very curiously planned, +elaborately ornamented, richly painted, and adorned with magnificent +tapestry. The tables were covered with vessels of wrought silver, in +which Sylvius confesses that the Balois surpassed even the skilful +and profuse Italians. Fountains, those sources of fantastic and +ever-changing beauty, were numerous,--so numerous, says our +afterward-to-be-infallible authority, that the town of Viterbo, in +Tuscany, had not so many,--and Viterbo was noted for its beauty, and for +being surrounded with the villas of wealthy Italians, who have always +used water freely in the way of fountains. + +Bale, although it then--four hundred and twenty years ago--acknowledged +the Emperor for its sovereign, was a free town, as it is now; that is, +it had no local lord to favor or oppress it at his pleasure, but was +governed by laws enacted by representatives of the people. The spirit of +a noble independence pervaded the little Canton of which it was and +is the capital. Though it was fortified, its stone defences were not +strong; but when Sylvius tells us that the Balois thought that the +strength of their city consisted in the union of its inhabitants, who +preferred death to loss of liberty, we see what stuff its men were made +of, and why the town was free. + +Among its peculiarities, Bale had no lawyers,--this happy and united +Bale. The Balois did not trouble themselves about the Imperial law, +says Sylvius; but when disputes or accusations were brought before the +magistrates, they were decided according to custom and the equity of +each case. They were nevertheless inexorably severe in administering +justice. A criminal could not be saved either by gold, or by +intercession, or by the authority and influence of his family. He +who was guilty must be punished; and the punishments were terrible. +Criminals were banished, hung, beheaded, broken on the wheel, drowned in +the Rhine, (a bad use to which to put that "excellent river,") left to +starve on a gradually diminished supply of bread and water. To compel +confessions, tortures inconceivably horrible were used, to which the +alternative of death would have been a boon; and yet there were not +wanting those among the Balois who would endure these torments rather +than utter their own condemnation. + +They were devoted to religion, and held in great reverence the pictures +and images of the Saints; but not on account of any admiration of the +skill of painter or sculptor; for they cared little for the arts, and +were so ignorant of literature that "no one of them had ever heard of +Cicero or of any other orator." + +The men of Bale were of noble presence, and dressed well, although they +avoided magnificence. Only those of knightly rank wore purple; the +wealthy burghers confined themselves to black velvet; but their wives, +on fete-days, blazed in splendid silk and satin and jewels. The boys +went with naked feet, and, adds the reverend divine, the women wore upon +their white legs only shoes. There was no distinction of age by costume, +among the women,--a very great singularity in those days, when every +stage and rank of life was marked by some peculiar style of dress; but +in Bale the face alone distinguished the young girl from the matron +of mature years. It may, however, be doubted by some, whether this is +peculiar to the town of Bale or to the time of Sylvius. The men were +addicted to voluptuous pleasures; they lived sumptuously, and passed a +long time at table. In the words of our churchman, "They were too much +devoted to Father Bacchus and Dame Venus,"--faults which they deemed +venial. But he adds, that they were jealous of their honor, and held to +what they promised; they would rather be upright than merely seem to be +so. Though provident, they were content, unless very poor. + +Another peculiarity of Bale: its clocks were one hour ahead of all +others, and so continued at least till the middle of the last century. +This of course depended on no difference of time; it was merely that +when, for instance, at mid-day, the clocks of neighboring towns struck +twelve, the clocks of Bale struck one. The origin of this seeming effort +to hasten him who usually moves rapidly enough for us all is lost in +obscurity. + +And now why is it that, we have gone back four hundred years and more, +to linger thus long with the Secretary of the Great Ecclesiastical +Council of Bale, in that quaint and queer old town, with its half +French, half German look, its grand, grotesque old churches, hung round +with knightly shields and filled with women, each in a pulpit of her +own, its stork-crowned roofs, its houses blazing with wrought gold and +silver, its threescore fountains, and the magnificence in which, without +a court, it rivalled the richest capitals of Italy, its noble-spirited +and pleasure-loving, but simple-minded and unlearned burghers, its +white-limbed beauties, and its deceitful clocks? It is not because that +town is now one of the principal ribbon-factories of the world, and +exports to this country alone over $1,200,000 worth yearly; although +some fair readers may suppose that an all-sufficient reason,--and some +of their admirers and protectors, too, for that matter. Think of it! +nearly one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of +ribbons coming to us every year from a single town in Switzerland! The +statement is enough to carry horror and dismay to the heart and the +pocket of every father and brother, and above all, of every husband, +actual or possible, who hears of it. It is a godsend to the +protectionists, who might reedify their party on the basis of a +prohibitory tariff against ribbons. If they were successful, their +success would be brilliant; for if our fair tyrants could not get +ribbons--those necessaries of life--from Bale in Switzerland, they +would tease and coax us to build them a Bale in America; and we should +do it. + +We have gone back to the old Bale of four hundred and twenty years ago, +because there, and not long after that time,--about 1498,--according +to general belief, Hans Holbein was born; because these were the +surroundings under the influence of which he grew to manhood; and +because there, about sixty years before his birth, a Dance of Death was +painted, the most ancient and important of which we have any remaining +memorial. This Dance was painted upon the wall of the churchyard of the +Dominican Convent in Great Bale, by order of the very Ecclesiastical +Council of which our Aeneas Sylvius was Secretary, and in commemoration +of a plague which visited the town during the sitting of that Council, +and carried off many of its members. + +What is a Dance of Death? and why should Death be painted dancing? +Some readers may think of it as a frantic revel of grim skeletons, or +perhaps--like me in my boyish musings--imagine nameless shapes with +Death and Hell gleaming in their faces, each clasping a mortal beguiled +to its embrace, all flitting and floating round and round to unearthly +music, and gradually receding through vast mysterious gloom till they +are lost in its horrible obscurity. + +But neither of these notions is near the truth. The Dance of Death is +not a revel, and in it Death does not dance at all. A Dance of Death, or +a Dance Macabre, as it was called, is a succession of isolated pictures, +all informed with the same motive, it is true, but each independent of +the others, and consisting of a group, generally of but two figures, one +of which is the representative of Death. The second always represents +a class; and in this figure every rank, from the very highest to the +lowest, finds its type. The number of these groups or pictures varies +considerably in the different dances, according to the caprice of the +artist, or, perhaps, to the expense of his time and labor which he +thought warranted by the payment he was to receive. But all express, +with sufficient fulness, the idea that Death is the common lot of +humanity, and that he enters with impartial feet the palace and the +cottage, neither pitying youth nor respecting age, and waiting no +convenient season. + +The figure of Death in these strange religious works of Art,--for they +were as purely religious in their origin as the Holy Families and +Madonnas of the same and a subsequent period,--this figure of Death is +not always a skeleton. It is so in but one of the forty groups in the +Dance at Bale, which was the germ of Holbein's, and which, indeed, until +very recently, was attributed to him, although it was painted more +than half a century before he was born. It is generally assumed that a +skeleton has always been the representative of Death, but erroneously; +for, in fact, Holbein was the first to fix upon a mere skeleton for the +embodiment of that idea. + +The Hebrew Scriptures, which furnish us with the earliest extant +allusion to Death as a personage, designate him as an angel or messenger +of God,--as, for instance, in the record of the destruction of the +Assyrian host in the Second Book of Kings (xix. 35). The ancient +Egyptians, too, in whose strange system of symbolism may be found the +germ, at least, of most of the types used in the religion and the arts +of more modern nations, had no representation of Death as an individual +agent. They expressed the extinction of life very naturally and simply +by the figure of a mummy. Such a figure it was their custom to pass +round among the guests at their feasts; and the Greeks and Romans +imitated them, with slight modifications, in the form of the image and +the manner of the ceremony. Some scholars have found in this custom a +deep moral and religious significance, akin to that which certainly +attached to the custom of placing a slave in the chariot of a Roman +conquering general to say to him at intervals, as his triumphal +procession moved with pomp and splendor through the swarming streets, +"Remember that thou art a man." But this is too subtile a conjecture. +The ceremony was but a silent way of saying, "Let us eat and drink, for +to-morrow we die," which, as Paul's solemn irony makes but too plain, +must be the philosophy of life to those who believe that the dead rise +not, which was the case with the Egyptians and the Greeks, and the +Hebrews also. An old French epitaph expresses to the full this +philosophy:-- + + "Ce que j'ai mange, + Ce que j'ai bu, + Ce que j'ai dissipe, + Je l'ai maintenant avec moi. + Ce que j'ai laisse, + Je l'ai perdu," + + What I ate, + What I drank, + What I dissipated, + I have with me. + That which I left + I lost. + +The figure of the sad youth leaning upon an inverted torch, in which +the Greeks embodied their idea of Death, is familiar to all who have +examined ancient Art. The Etruscan Death was a female, with wings upon +the shoulders, head, and feet, hideous countenance, terrible fangs and +talons, and a black skin. No example of the form attributed to him by +the early Christians has come down to us, that I can discover; but we +know that they, as well as the later Hebrews, considered Death as the +emissary of the Evil One, if not identical with him, and called him +impious, unholy. It was in the Dark Ages, that the figure of a dead body +or a skull was first used as a symbol of Death; but even then its office +appears to have been purely symbolic, and not representative;--that is, +these figures served to remind men of their mortality, or to mark a +place of sepulture, and were not the embodiment of an idea, not the +creation of a personage,--Death. It is not until the thirteenth or +fourteenth century that we find this embodiment clearly defined and +generally recognized; and even then the figure used was not a skeleton, +but a cadaverous and emaciated body. + +Among the remains of Greek and Roman Art, only two groups are known in +which a skeleton appears; and it is remarkable that in both of these the +skeletons are dancing. In one group of three, the middle figure is a +female. Its comparative breadth at the shoulders and narrowness at the +hips make at first a contrary impression; but the position of the body +and limbs is, oddly enough, too like that of a female dancer of the +modern French school to leave the question in more than a moment's +doubt. Thus the artists who did not embody their idea of death in a +skeleton were the first to conceive and execute a real Dance of Death. +In both the groups referred to, the motive is manifestly comic; and +neither of them has any similarity to the Dances of Death of which +Holbein's has become the grand representative. These had their origin, +we can hardly tell with certainty how, or when, or where; although the +subject has enlisted the investigating labors of such accomplished +scholars and profound antiquaries as Douce and Ottley in England, +and Peignot and Langlois in France. But a story with which they are +intimately connected, even if it is not their germ, has been discovered; +ancient customs which must have aided in their development are familiar +to all investigators of ancient manners, and especially of ancient +amusements; and the motives which inform them all, and the moral +condition of Christendom of which they were the result, are plain +enough. + +We have seen before, that this Dance consisted of several groups of two +or more figures, one of which was always Death in the act of claiming a +victim; and for the clear comprehension of what follows, it is necessary +to anticipate a little, and remark, that there is no doubt that the +Dance was first represented by living performers. Strange as this seems +to us, it was but in keeping with the spirit of the time, which we call, +perhaps with some presumption, the Dark Ages. + +The story which is probably the germ of this Dance was called _Les Trois +Morts et les Trois Vifs_,--"The Three Dead and the Three Living." It is +of indefinable antiquity and uncertain origin. It is said, that three +noble youths, as they returned from hunting, were met in the gloom of +the forest by three hideous spectres, in the form of decaying human +corpses; and that, as they stood rooted to the ground by this appalling +sight, the figures addressed them solemnly upon the vanity of worldly +grandeur and pleasure, and admonished them, that, although in the heyday +of youth, they must soon become as they (the spectres) were. This story, +or _dit_, "saying," as it was called in French, was exceedingly popular +through-out Europe five or six hundred years ago. It is found in the +language of every Christian nation of the period, and, extended by means +of accessory incidents and much moralizing, is made to cover several +pages in more than one old illuminated manuscript. In the Arundel MSS., +in England, there is one of the many versions of the legend written +in French so old that it is quite as difficult for Frenchmen as for +Englishmen to read it. But over an illuminated picture of the incident, +in which three kings are shown meeting the three skeletons, are these +lines in English, as old, but less obsolete:-- + + _Over the Kings_. + + "Ich am afert + Lo whet ich see + Methinketh hit be develes thre." + + _Over the Skeletons_. + + "Ich wes wel fair + Such schel tou be + For Godes love be wer by me." + +In these rude lines is the whole moral of the legend, and of the Dance +of Death which grew out of it. That growth was simple, gradual, and +natural. In the versions and in the pictorial representations of the +legend there soon began to be much variety in the persons who met the +spectres. At first three noble youths, they became three kings, three +noble ladies, a king, a queen, and their son or daughter, and so +on,--the rank of the persons, however, being always high. For, as we +shall have occasion to notice hereafter more particularly, the mystery +of the Dance had a democratic as well as a religious significance; and +it served to bring to mind, not only the irresistible nature of Death's +summons, but the real equality of all men; and this it did in a manner +to which those of high condition could not object. + +The legend was made the subject of a fresco, painted about 1350, by the +eminent Italian painter and architect, Orcagna, upon the walls of the +Campo Santo at Pisa,--which some readers may be glad to be reminded was +a cemetery, so called because it was covered with earth brought from +the Holy Land. It is remarkable, however, that in this work the artist +embodied Death not in the form commonly used in his day, but in the old +Etruscan figure before mentioned. Orcagna's Death is a female, winged +like a bat, and with terrible claws. Armed with a scythe, she swoops +down upon the earth and reaps a promiscuous harvest of popes, emperors, +kings, queens, churchmen, and noblemen. In the rude manner of the time, +Orcagna has divided his picture into compartments. In one of these we +see St. Macarius, one of the first Christian hermits, an Egyptian, +sitting at the foot of a mountain; before him are three kings, who have +returned from the chase accompanied by a gay train of attendants. The +Saint calls the attention of the kings to three sepulchres in which lie +the bodies of three other kings, one of which is much decomposed. The +three living kings are struck with horror; but the painter has much +diminished the moral effect of his work, for this century, at least, by +making one of them hold his nose;--which is regarded by Mr. Ruskin as +an evidence of Orcagna's devotion to the truth; but in this case that +brilliant writer, but most unsafe critical guide, commits an error of a +kind not uncommon with him. The representation of so homely an action, +in such a composition, merely shows that the painter had not arrived at +a just appreciation of the relative value of the actual,--and that he +failed to see that by introducing this unessential incident he diverted +attention from his higher purpose, dragged his picture from a moral to +a material plane, and went at a bound far over the narrow limit between +the horrible and the ludicrous. + +St. Macarius is frequently introduced in the pictures of this subject; +and some antiquaries suppose that hence the Dance of Death derived the +name, Dance Macabre, by which it used to be generally known. Others +derive it from the Arabic _mac-bourah_,--a cemetery. Neither derivation +is improbable; but it is of little consequence to us which is correct. + +It may seem strange that such a legend as this of "The Three Dead and +the Three Living," with such a moral, should become the origin of a +dance. But we should remember that in many countries dancing has been a +religious ceremony. It was so with the Greeks and Romans, and also with +the Hebrews, among whom, however, saltatory worship seems, on most +occasions, to have been performed spontaneously, and by volunteers. All +will remember the case of Miriam, who thus danced to the sound of her +timbrel after the passage of the Red Sea; and who that has read it can +forget the account of the dance which King David executed before the +ark, dancing with all his might, and girded only with a linen ephod? +Dancing has always seemed to us to be an essentially ridiculous +transaction,--for a man, at least; and we confess that we sympathize +with David's wife, Michal, who, seeing this extraordinary _pas seul_ +from her window, "despised David in her heart," and treated him to a +little conjugal irony when he came home. What would the lovely Eugenie +have thought, if, after the fall of Sebastopol, she had seen his +Majesty, the Emperor of the French, "cutting it down," in broad +daylight, before the towers of Notre Dame, girded only with a linen +ephod,--though that's not exactly the name we give the garment +now-a-days? But David was master, not only in Israel, but in his own +household, (which is not the case with all kings and great men,) and +he said to Michal,--"It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy +father and before all his house;.... therefore will I play before the +Lord;.... and of the maid-servants which thou hast spoken of, of them +shall I be had in honor." And Michal all her life repented bitterly the +offence that she had given her husband. + +But dancing was not one of the regular ceremonies of the Christian +Church, even in its corruptest days; and yet dances were performed four +hundred years ago in the churches and in church-yards, as a part of, or +an appendage to, entertainments of a religious character. These were the +Mysteries and Moralities, which are the origin of our drama;--and it is +remarkable that in all countries the drama has been at first a religious +ceremony. These Mysteries and Moralities were religious plays of the +rudest kind: the Mysteries being a representation, partly by dumb show +and partly by words, of some well-known incident related in the Bible; +and the Moralities, a kind of discussion and enforcement of religious +doctrine or moral truth by allegorical personages. They were performed +at first almost entirely in the churches, upon scaffolds erected for the +purpose. + +In a Mystery called "Candlemas Day, or the Killing of the Children of +Israel," which represented the Massacre of the Innocents, and in which +Herod, Simeon, Joseph, the Virgin Mary, Watkin, a comic character, and +Anna the Prophetess, appeared, there was a general dance of all the +characters after the Prologue; and at the close of the play, there is +a stage-direction for another, in response to a command of Anna the +Prophetess, who says,-- + + "Shewe ye sume plesur as ye can + In the worship of Jesu, our Lady, and St. Anne." + +And thereupon King Herod, Simeon, Joseph, the Virgin Mary, Watkin the +funny man, and the Prophetess well stricken in years, proceed to forward +four, and end with a promenade all around. Indeed, our ancestors seem to +have found it edifying, not to say entertaining, to go to a cathedral to +see Satan and an Archbishop dance a hornpipe with the Seven Deadly Sins +and the Five Cardinal Virtues. + +A Morality called "Every Man," written about 1450, has a direct +connection with the subject which we are considering. Every Man, the +principal personage of the piece, is an allegorical representation of +all mankind; and the purpose of the play is told in this sentence, which +introduces it:-- + +"Here begynneth a Treatyse how the Hye Fader of Heven sendeth Dethe +to somon every creature to come & gyve a count of theyr lyves in this +worlde, & is in maner of a Morall Playe." + +On the title-page of an edition printed in 1500, only one copy of which +exists, is a very rude wood-cut, in which an individual, who is labelled +"Every Man," is startled at the sight of Death standing at the door of +a church and summoning him. In this Moral Play, Fellowship, Good Deeds, +Worldly Goods, Knowledge, Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wittes +are characters; and they cannot interpose between Every Man and the +summons of Death, nor will any of them, except Good Deeds, go with him. +The representation of this play was a kind of Dance of Death, and from +the acting of "Every Man" to the execution of that Dance was but a short +step. + +But the Dance of Death had been performed before "Every Man" was +written; and dances in churches and churchyards were of yet greater +antiquity. For, by an order of a Roman council under Pope Pius II. in +the tenth century, priests were directed "to admonish men and women not +to dance and sing in the churches on feast-days, like Pagans." The evil +increased, however, until, according to the old chroniclers, a terrible +punishment fell upon a party of dancers. One of them, Ubert, tells the +story. It was on Christmas Eve, in the time of the Emperor Henry II., +who assumed the imperial diadem in the year 1002, that a company of +eighteen men and women amused themselves by dancing and singing in the +churchyard of St. Magnus, in the diocese of Magdeburg, to the annoyance +of a priest who was saying mass in the church. He ordered them to +desist; but they danced on in reckless mirth. The holy father then +invoked God and St. Magnus to keep them dancing for a whole year; and +not in vain. For twelve months they danced in spite of themselves. +Neither dew nor rain fell upon them; and their shoes and their clothes +were not worn away, although by their dancing they buried themselves +waist-high. Yet, fatigued and famished beyond human endurance, they +danced on, unable to stop an instant for rest or food. The priest's own +daughter was among the dancers; and, unable to undo what the Saint had +done, he sent his son to drag her out of the dance. But when her brother +pulls her by the arm it comes off in his hand, and he in horror takes it +to his father. No blood flows from the wound. The priest buries the arm, +and the next morning he finds it upon the top of the grave. He repeats +the burial, and with the same result. He makes a third attempt, and the +grave casts out the limb with violence before his eyes. Meanwhile the +girl and her companions continue dancing, and the Emperor, having heard +of this strange occurrence, travels from Rome to see so sad a sight. He +orders carpenters to inclose the dancers in a building, but in vain; for +that which is built in the day falls down in the night. The dancers have +neither rest nor mitigation of their curse until the expiration of the +year, when they all rush into the church and fall before the altar in +a swoon, from which they are not recovered for three days. Then they +immediately flee each other's faces, and wander solitary through the +world, still dancing at times in spite of themselves. In the olden time +this was believed to be the origin of St. Vitus's dance; but we can now +see that the dance is the origin of the story. + +The Dance of Death was performed by a large company dressed in the +costumes of various classes of society, which were then very marked in +their difference. One by one the dancers suddenly and silently slipped +off, thus typifying the departure of all mankind at Death's summons. +That this Dance was performed, not only with the consent, but by the +procurement of the clergy, is made certain by the discovery, in the +archives of the Cathedral of Besancon, of the account of the payment of +four measures of wine by the seneschal to those persons who performed +the Dance Macabre on the 10th of July, 1453. + +The moral lesson conveyed by this strange pastime or ceremony seems +hardly calculated to secure for it a noteworthy popularity in any age; +but for a long time it was, either as a ceremony or as a picture, very +popular throughout Europe. We know of forty-four places in which it was +painted or sculptured in some large public building, the oldest example +being that at Little Bale, which was painted in 1312. This, like that +in Great Bale, and most of the others, has been destroyed by time or +violence. The Dance was made the ornament of books of devotion, and the +subject of ornamental initial-letters; groups from it were engraved +repeatedly by those fantastic designers and exquisite workmen known as +the Little Masters of Germany; a single group was assumed as a device, +or trademark, by more than one printer; and it was sung in popular +ballads. There is now at Aix-la-Chapelle a huge state-bed-stead, on the +posts, sides, and footboards of which it is elaborately carved, in the +manner of the sixteenth century; and it was even made the ornament of +ladies' fans. + +The reasons for this popularity were a certain strange fascination in +the subject,--yet not so strange at a time when women would crowd to see +men burned or hanged and quartered;--but chiefly, the grand democratic +significance of the dance. Death has ever been, and ever will be, +the greatest leveller; and at a time when rank had an importance and +bestowed advantages of which we can form little idea, while at the same +time men had begun to ask why this should be, such a satire as this +Dance of Death, sanctioned by the Church, that great protector of +established rights and dignities, and yet sparing neither noble nor +hierarch, not even the Pope himself, satisfied an eager craving in the +breast of poor, envious, self-asserting human nature. In one of those +ornamental initial-letters above mentioned, the date of which was some +years prior to the execution of Holbein's Dance, Death appears as a +grave-digger, and lifts on his spade, out of the grave which he is +making, two skulls, one crowned, the other covered with a peasant's hat. +He grins with savage glee at seeing these remnants of the two extremes +of society side by side; and underneath them, on the shovel, is written +_Idem_,--"The Same." In this word is the key to the popularity of the +Dance. + +The most important and interesting of these pictured Dances of Death +were those at Bale, at Strasbourg, and at Rouen. That at Bale consisted +of thirty-nine groups, in the first three of which appear a Pope, an +Emperor, and a King. These were portraits of Pope Felix V., the Emperor +Sigismund, and King Albert II., of Rome, all of whom were present at the +Council, by whose order, as we have seen, the Dance was painted. The +last group of this Dance shows the seizure of the painter's child by +Death. It having been almost destroyed by time, the wall on which it was +painted was torn down about a hundred years ago; but engravings had been +made of it in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The Dance at +Strasbourg, like that at Bale, and many others, was on the wall of +a Dominican convent. It was painted in arched compartments, and is +peculiar in that its groups consist of many figures, among whom Death +intrudes, and carries off one, generally the principal personage of the +company. It was painted about 1450, and probably by the eminent German +painter, Martin Schongauer; but having been utterly neglected and +forgotten, it was finally plastered over, no one knows when. In +repairing the church in 1824, it was accidentally discovered, and +carefully exposed; but it was so much injured that it fell into decay +soon after drawings had been made from it. + +The Dance at Rouen was in the still existing Cemetery of St. Maclou, and +was not a painting, but a sculpture. It was not entirely completed +until 1526. The cemetery is surrounded by a covered gallery open on the +inside, where it was supported by thirty-nine columns, distant about +eleven feet from each other. Thirty-one of these still exist; and upon +the shaft of all but four of them, on the side facing the court of the +cemetery, is sculptured, in high relief, a group of two figures,--one a +living personage, and the other the cadaverous body by which Death was +represented. On the remainder were sculptured the Christian Virtues +and the Fates,--two on each column. The capitals of these columns are +decorated with figures quite in another manner. Cupids, naked female +figures, grotesque masks, and shapes--human and bestial--are ingeniously +substituted for the foliage usually found on that part of a column. The +execution of these figures is of quite a high order. They have all been +sadly mutilated; but, fortunately, that which has suffered least is a +beautiful figure of Eve. Her head is gone; but the flowing lines of the +lovely torso are unbroken, and the round and graceful limbs are almost +as perfect as when they came from the sculptor's chisel. This figure is +so like the Venus de Medici that it might have been copied from it. + +But what is Eve doing in a Dance of Death? Alas! she took the first step +of that dance in Paradise, and the artists of the olden time did not +deprive her of her due precedence. She leads the Dance, but with this +difference from those who follow her:--they, cowering and muffled, +go off the scene with Death; she, upright in her naked innocence and +beauty, brings him on. Poor Eve! she had her punishment and made her +atonement to man for leading him to death, in becoming the source and +the joy and solace of his life; but it was not for the artists of the +Dance of Death to embody this phase of her existence. So essential a +part of the Dance is the temptation of Eve, that the whole subject was +concentrated into the representation of that event by a German engraver, +in this singular manner:--Adam and Eve stand by the Tree of Knowledge, +around which twines the serpent, from whom Eve is receiving the apple; +but the trunk of the tree is formed by the twisted legs and the ribs of +a skeleton, from the head and the outstretched arms of which spring the +branches and the foliage. It is worthy of remark, that many painters, +the greatest of them (Raphael) at their head, have represented the +tempter of Eden as a beautiful woman, whose body terminates in a +serpent. It was a mistake on their part to do so. They knew how much of +the Devil a woman might have in her, and how irresistible a temptress +she is; but they forgot, that, on this occasion, woman, not man, was +tempted. + +There was a Dance of Death in Old St. Paul's Church, in London,--the +one burned down in the Great Fire; and another in the beautiful little +parish church of Stratford-on-Avon,--but this, too, has disappeared. It +is interesting to know that they were there, and that Shakspeare saw +them; for he has woven some of the thoughts that they awakened in his +mind into a noble passage in one of his historical plays. We shall recur +to it in examining Holbein's Dance. + +The Dance was represented, and still exists, in one very singular place. +At Lucerne, in Switzerland, it appears upon a covered bridge, in the +triangles formed by the beams which support the roof. The groups, of +which there are thirty-six, are double, looking away from each other, +and are so arranged, that the passenger, on entering the bridge, has +before him a long array of these grotesque and gloomy pictures. The +motive for placing the Dance in such a place is unknown, and it is +difficult to conjecture what it was. It could hardly have been to +enforce the old adage,--Speak well of the bridge that carries you over. + + * * * * * + +While we have been thus endeavoring to discover the origin of the Dance +of Death, what it was, and what it meant, Holbein has been waiting more +patiently than he was wont, for us to see who he was, and why the Dance, +which was known three hundred years at least before he was born, is now +universally spoken of as his. + +Hans Holbein, the greatest painter of the German school, came honestly +by his talent and his name. He was the son of Hans Holbein, a painter, +who was the son of another Hans Holbein, also a painter. The first Hans +was a poor painter; the second a good one; and the third so great, that +the world, when it speaks their common name, means only him. The father +and grandfather were born at Augsburg, in Bavaria, and of late years +it has been asserted by mousing antiquaries that the grandson was born +there too; but this, perhaps, is not quite certain; and it is much +pleasanter to adhere to the ancient faith, and believe that he was +born at that strange old Bale, in sight of that great Dance, the +reproduction, or rather recreation, of which was to make so great a part +of his fame,--especially as he was quite surely an inhabitant of the +town at such tender years, that the veriest Know-Nothing in the place +would not have deprived him of his citizenship. + +Of Holbein's life we unfortunately know very little. He showed his +talent early, as all the great painters have done. Conscious of his +abilities, he devoted himself eagerly to the study of the profession to +which his genius urged him. He learned not only painting, but engraving, +the sculpture of metals, and architecture; and of all these, it will be +remembered, Bale offered him facilities for study, in examples which +must have stimulated both his imagination and his ambition. He did not +lack encouragement; for the nobles and burghers of Bale had begun to +acquire a taste for the arts, which their ruder fathers contemned; and +they had, at this time, a university in their city, which made them +acquainted with Cicero and the orators, of whom Aeneas Sylvius found +them so ignorant. + +But Holbein, although eminent and well employed, did not thrive. He had +some Balois failings, and, as Aeneas Sylvius would have said, worshipped +Father Bacchus and Dame Venus with too much devotion;--not that he was +a drunkard or a debauchee; but he sought in conviviality with men of +talent, and in the company of beautiful women, too happy in the caresses +of the great painter, who was generous with his florins, that happiness +which he could not find at home. For poor Hans was afflicted with what +has been the moral and social ruin of many a better, if not greater man +than he--a froward, shrill-tongued wife. Luckily, however, the great +scholar and philosopher, Erasmus, went into retirement at Bale, in 1521; +and he soon recognized the genius of Holbein, and became his admirer and +friend. By his advice, and at the solicitation of an English nobleman, +and, poor fellow, seeking refuge from the temper of his wife, whom even +the sweet cares of maternity could not mollify, Holbein determined to +leave Bale for England. What was the great cause of Frau Holbein's +tantrums,--whether Hans's ears were pierced with conjugal clamors, as +poor Albert Duerer's, the other great German painter's, were, because +he could not supply all his wife's demands for money, to enable her, +perhaps, to exhibit herself at church on holy days in one of those +precious pulpits, splendid in velvet and jewels, to the discomfiture of +the other painters' wives,--we do not know; but whatever was the cause +of her oft-recurring outbreaks, they made him not unwilling to put +France and the English Channel between himself and her, his children, +and the home of his childhood. + +He gave out, at first, that his absence from Bale would be +temporary,--only for the purpose of raising the value of his works, by +making them more difficult to obtain. Before he went, he finished and +sent home a portrait on which he was engaged. It was one of his best +pictures; and the person for whom it was painted, lost for a while in +admiration of its beauty, noticed at last that a fly, which had settled +upon the forehead, remained there motionless. He stepped up to brush the +insect away, and found that it was a part of the picture. This story +has, since Holbein's time, been told of many painters,--among others, of +Benjamin West. Such a piece of mere imitation should have added nothing +to the reputation of a painter of Holbein's powers; but the story was +soon told all over Bale, and orders were given to prevent the loss +to the city of so great an artist. But Holbein had quietly gone off, +furnished with letters of introduction from Erasmus, who wrote in one of +them that in Bale the arts were chilled; which might well be true of a +place where so much ado was made about the painting of a fly. + +In England, Holbein found a friend and patron in Sir Thomas More,--Henry +the Eighth's great Lord Chancellor; and a sight of some of his works won +him, ere long, the favor of the King himself. He was appointed Court +Painter, with apartments at the palace, and a yearly salary of two +hundred florins, (or thirty pounds, equal to about two hundred pounds +now,) which he received in addition to the price of his pictures. After +about three years of prosperity he went home to his wife and children; +but as he soon returned to England, we may safely conclude that his +visit was to provide for the latter, and with no hope of living with the +former. Some years after, in 1538, when his fame was still increasing, +the city of Bale, proud of its son, offered him a handsome annuity, +in the hope that that might induce him to return to his country, his +children, and his wife. But he could not be tempted. Though not the +wisest of men, he was Solomon enough to know that "it is better to dwell +in a corner of the house-top than with a brawling woman and in a wide +house"; and as he was successful and held in honor in England as well as +Bale, he contented himself with a corner of King Henry's palace. + +But although he fled from his wife, he painted her portrait; and we need +no testimony to warrant the likeness. She is the very type of one of +those meek shrews, alternately a martyr and a fury, that drive a man to +madness when they speak and to despair when they are silent. We might +reasonably wonder that he would paint so vivid a representation of that +which he so sedulously shunned. But poor Hans, who probably had some +lingering remains of his early love, knew, that, although he should +make a speaking likeness, it would be a silent one, and that this Frau +Holbein must keep the look which he chose to summon to her face. That, +indeed, was knowledge that was power! How he must have chuckled as he +saw his wife looking at him more natural than life and yet without the +power to worry him! His own portrait shows us a broad, good-natured, +ruddy face, in which we see marks of talent when we know that it is +Holbein's. But in spite of its strength, its bronze, and its beard, it +has a somewhat sad and subdued air; and its heavy-lidded, pensive eyes +look deprecatingly at a Frau Holbein in the distance. + +While he lived at Greenwich palace, an incident occurred which may not +be known to all our readers, and which is a striking illustration of the +esteem in which he was held by Henry. It is not a little to the honor +of that monarch, who, arbitrary and sensual as he was, had some noble +traits of character. One day, as Holbein was painting a lady's portrait +in his private studio, a nobleman intruded upon him rudely. Holbein +resented the discourtesy, and, as it was doggedly persisted in, finally +threw my lord downstairs. There was an outcry; and the painter, bolting +his door on the inside, escaped from his window along the eaves of the +roof, and, making his way directly to the King, threw himself before +him and begged a pardon, without telling his offence. Henry promised +forgiveness on condition of a full confession, which the painter began. +But meantime the nobleman arrived, and Henry, in deference to his rank, +gave him precedence, and stepped into another apartment to hear +his story. He accused Holbein of the violence, but suppressed the +provocation; whereat Henry broke into a towering Tudor rage, and, after +reproaching the nobleman for his prevarication, said, "You have to do +with me, Sir. I tell you, that of seven peasants I could make seven +earls like you; but of seven earls I could not make one Holbein. Do not +molest him, if you value your head." And as second-hand heads, though +plentiful about those days, were found to be of no value, even to the +original owner, Holbein remained unmolested. + +Holbein is known chiefly by his portraits. He painted some historical +and sacred pictures; but though they all bear witness to his genius, it +can hardly be denied that they also show that that genius was not suited +to such works. Holbein had an objective perception;--that is, his mind +received impressions entirely uninfluenced by its own character or +condition; and his pictures, therefore, seem like literal transcripts +of what was before his eyes. He nowhere shows that he had an idea of +abstract beauty, or the power of generalizing from individuals, or that +he was at all discontented with the subjects which he painted; so that +his works leave an impression of absolute faithfulness. But to suppose, +therefore, that his portraits have merely the merit of reproducing the +external facts of Nature, like photographs, would do him wrong; for he +was faithful to expression as well as form, and has perpetuated upon +his canvas the voluptuous sweetness of Anne Boleyn, the courtliness and +manly grace of Wyatt, and the severity, the energy, and the penetrating +judgment of Sir Thomas More. His portrait of the last is one of the +greatest portraits ever painted. Some competent critics consider it the +greatest. It is so real, so human, that we might be well content, if one +in twenty of the actual men we meet were half as real and human; and it +expresses, with equal strength and subtilty, the large and noble nature +of the man. Holbein was a great colorist, and imitated all the rich +and tender hues of Nature, in their delicate and almost imperceptible +gradations, with a minute truthfulness which is quite marvellous. + +This being the character of his mind, it would hardly be supposed that +he could produce such a work as the great Dance of Death, which has +caused all others to be forgotten, except by antiquarians. For this +Dance is the most remarkable embodiment in Art of that fantastic and +grotesque idealism which has found its best expression in the works of +German poets and painters; and the preeminence of Holbein's over all the +other representations of the same subject consists in this,--that, while +they are but a dull and formal succession of mere costumed figures +seized by a corpse and shrinking away from its touch, Holbein's groups +are instinct with life, character, and emotion. In particular is this +true of the figure of Death, although it is a mere skeleton,--the face +without a muscle, and for the eye but a rayless cavern. Death is not one +whom "a limner would love to paint or a lady to look upon"; but Holbein +has given a strange and fascinating interest to the figure, which in all +other hands is merely repulsive. The grim monarch sat to a painter who +not only added to the truthfulness of his portrait the charm of poetic +feeling, but the magic touch of whose pencil made his dry bones live. + +The insignificance of the material in which the painter worked, when +compared with the effect which he produced, is also remarkable in this +unique work of Art. For Holbein's Dance of Death is not, like the +others, either a great fresco painting, or a series of sculptures; it +is not a painting at all,--but merely a series of very small woodcuts, +fifty-three in number, forty-six of which were published at Lyons +in 1538, and the whole afterwards at Bale in 1554, under the title, +_Simulachres de la Mort, Icones Mortis:_ that is, in French and Latin, +"Images of Death,"--for the title "Dance of Death" is of recent origin. +The leaves on which the cuts are printed make but part of a little book +not so large as a child's primer; but a copy of it is now worth ten +times its weight in gold. It was copied and republished in numberless +editions, as a popular book, merely for the sake of the subject, and +the great lesson taught by it,--each print being accompanied by an +admonitory stanza, and a quotation from the Bible. Beside these +editions, endeavors have been made of later years to imitate it +satisfactorily as a work of Art,--but in vain. Great as we think our +advancement in the arts has been,--the mechanical part of them, at +least,--all the efforts of the lithographer, the wood-cutter, and even +the line-engraver, to reproduce the spirit or the very lines of this +work, have been but partially successful. There is as much difference +between the most carefully-executed and costliest copies and good +impressions of the original wood-cuts, made three hundred years ago, and +sold for a franc or two, as there is between pinchbeck and gold. + +Any attempt to reproduce the effect of those groups in words can hardly +fail to fall equally short of the mark; but we will tell our readers +what they are, and endeavor to give some notion of their purpose and +spirit. + +The first shows the Creation of Woman;--we have seen before why she is +made thus prominent in the Dance. The composition is crowded with the +denizens of the earth, the air, and the water; the sun, the moon, and +the stars all appear; the four winds of heaven issue from the laboring +cheeks of figures that impersonate them. The Creator, in the form of +an aged man in royal robes, and wearing the imperial crown, lifts Eve +bodily from the side of the sleeping Adam. + +The second represents the Temptation. Eve reclines upon the ground, and +shows Adam the fruit which she has plucked. Adam stands grasping the +tree with his left hand, and raises his right to gather for himself. The +serpent, who looks down upon Eve, has the face and body of a woman. The +forms in this group are fine; Adam's is remarkable for its symmetry and +grace; but Eve's face is ignoble. Indeed, Holbein, like Rembrandt, seems +to have been incapable of an idea of female beauty. + +In the third we see the Expulsion from Paradise; and here the Dance +begins. Our guilty parents fly before the flaming sword,--poor Eve +cowering, and her hair streaming in a wavy flood upon the wind; and +before them, but unseen, Death leaps and curvets to the sound of a +vielle or rote,--an old musical stringed instrument,--which he has hung +about his neck. His glee, as he leads forth his victims into the valley +where his shadow lies, is perceptible in every line of his angular +anatomy; his very toes curl up like those of a baby in its merriment. + +In the fourth, Adam has begun to till the ground. The pioneer of his +race, he is uprooting a huge tree, all unconscious that another figure +is laboring at his side. It is not Eve, who sits in the background with +her first-born at her breast and her distaff by her side,--but Death, +who, with a huge lever in his bony gripe, goes at his work with a fierce +energy which puts the efforts of his muscular companion to shame. The +people of Holbein's day not only saw in this subject the beginning of +that toil which is the lot of humankind, but, as they looked upon the +common ancestors of all men, laboring for the means of life, they asked, +in the words of an old distich,-- + + "When Adam delved and Eve span, + Where was then the gentleman?" + +The fifth composition seems to represent a general rejoicing over the +Triumph of Death. It shows a churchyard and porch filled with skeletons, +who blow trumpets of all sorts and sizes; one beats frantically upon a +pair of kettle-drums, and another, wearing a woman's nightcap, with a +broad frill border, plays the hurdy-gurdy. + +In the sixth, a Pope, the highest earthly potentate, is in the act of +crowning an Emperor, who kneels to kiss his toe. But the successor of +St. Peter does not see, as he sits upon his throne, giving authority and +sanction to the ruler of an empire, that a skeleton leans from behind +that throne, and grins in his face, and that another in a cardinal's hat +mingles with the throng before him. + +The seventh is one of the finest of the series. An Emperor is enthroned, +with his courtiers round him. He is threatening one with his sword for +some act of injustice from which a poor peasant who kneels before him +has suffered. But, unseen by all, a skeleton bestrides the shoulders of +the monarch and lays his hand upon his very crown. There can be no doubt +that Shakspeare had this subject in his mind when he wrote that fine +passage in "King Richard the Second,"-- + + "Within the hollow crown + That rounds the mortal temples of a king + Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, + Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp; + Allowing him a breath, a little scene + To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks; + Infusing him with self and vain conceit, + As if this flesh which walls about our life + Were brass impregnable; and humored thus, + Comes at the last, and with a little pin + Bores through his castle wall, and--farewell, King!" + +In the eighth we see a King (it is unmistakably Francis I.) dining under +a canopy, and served by a splendid retinue. He stretches out his hand to +receive a wine-cup; for he does not see that Death is filling it. + +A Cardinal appears in the ninth, selling an indulgence for a heavy +bribe; and we all rejoice to see that Death has laid hands upon his +hat,--the symbol of his rank,--and is about to tear it from his head. + +In the tenth, an Empress, passing through her palace-yard, attended by +her ladies, is led by the favorite on whom she leans, and who she does +not see is Death, into an open grave. + +Death, in the next, has assumed the guise of a Court Fool, and has +seized a Queen at the very gate of her palace. She recognizes him, and +struggles, shrieking, to free herself from his grasp; but in vain. With +a grin of fierce delight, he lifts up his hour-glass before her, and, +in spite of her resistance and that of a gentleman who attends her, is +about to bear her off. Every line of this composition is instinct with +life. + +In the twelfth, Death carries off a Bishop from his flock. + +In the thirteenth, an Elector of the Empire, surrounded by his retinue, +is approached by a poor woman, who begs his aid in behalf of herself and +her child; he repulses her scornfully; for he does not see that Death, +the avenger of the oppressed poor, and who is here crowned with +oak-leaves, has laid his gripe upon him. Holbein has put such an +expression of power into the arm and of wrath into the face of this +skeleton, that we expect to see his victim haled off into the air before +our very eyes. + +The Abbot and the Abbess are the subjects of the next two cuts. In the +former, Death has assumed the mitre and the crosier of his victim, and +drags him off with such an expression of fun and burlesque pomp as we +sometimes see in the face of a mischievous boy who mocks his betters. +In the companion group his look is that of a demon; and with his head +fantastically dressed, he drags the Abbess off by the scapulary which +hangs from her neck. + +A Nobleman and a Canon are his prey in the sixteenth and seventeenth +groups. We lack space to describe any but the most remarkable with +particularity. + +The satire of the next three is levelled against the Lawyers, who were +held in such little respect in Bale. They show a Judge who takes a bribe +from a rich to wrong a poor suitor, and a Counsellor and an Advocate who +lend their talents to wealthy clients, but turn their backs upon the +poor victims of "the oppressor's wrong." In one, a demon is blowing +suggestions into the Counsellor's ear from a pair of bellows, which he +has doubtless used elsewhere for other purposes; in all, Death stands +ready to avenge the poor. + +In the twenty-first, a Preacher addresses a Congregation, whose +interested attention the painter has portrayed with great skill, +knowledge of character, and consequent variety and truth of expression. +Behind the Preacher stands Death, and, with a kind of grotesque +practical pun, holds the jaw of a skeleton over his head, as far more +eloquent than his own. + +A Priest and a Mendicant Friar are the subjects of the twenty-second and +twenty-third. + +The twenty-fourth is of peculiar interest. In it we see a youthful Nun, +who, it is clear, has taken her vows too hastily, kneeling before the +oratory in her cell. But her heart is not in her devotions; for the +lover whom she abandoned has made his way into the apartment, and sits +on her bed singing to his lute. Her hands are clasped, not in prayer, +but in an agony of love and apprehension. She turns from the crucifix to +gaze at him; and we see how the interview will end: for an aged female +attendant, in coif and scapulary, leans over to extinguish the candles. +We see, too, what its consequence will be; for that attendant is Death. + +Among the remaining subjects, which we cannot examine particularly, or +in their order, are those of the Old Man and Old Woman led by Death, +each to the sound of a dulcimer;--the Physician, to whom in mockery +Death himself brings a patient;--the Astronomer, to whom the skeleton +offers a skull in place of a celestial globe;--the Miser, from whom +Death snatches his hoarded gold; and the Merchant, whom the same +inexorable hand tears away from his ships and his merchandise;--the +storm-tossed ship, with Death snapping the mast;--a Count, dressed in +the extreme of courtly splendor, who recognizes Death in the disguise +of a peasant who has flung down his flail to seize his lordship's +emblazoned shield and dash it to pieces;--a Duchess, whom one skeleton +drags rudely from her canopied bed, while another scrapes upon a +violin;--a Peddler;--a Ploughman, of whose four-horse team Death is the +driver;--Gamblers, Drunkards, and Robbers, all interrupted in their +wickedness by Death;--a Wagoner, whose wagon, horse, and load have been +tumbled in a ruinous heap by a pair of skeletons;--a Blind Beggar, who +stumbles over a stony path after Death, who is his deceitful leader, and +who turns back with a look of malicious glee to see his bewilderment +and suffering;--and a Court Fool, whom Death, playing on bagpipes, and +dancing, approaches, and, plucking him by the garment, wins him, with a +coaxing leer, to join his pastime. + +A few others claim our more particular attention. Among them is a +Knight, armed cap-a-pie, who is run through and through, from back to +front, by Death, himself half armed in mockery. There is a concentrated +vigor in the thrust of the lance, and a cool venom in the countenance +of the assailant, that we may seek in vain in the works of famous +battle-painters; and it must always be remembered that Holbein's figure +is entirely without those indications of muscular movement by which we +express our feelings,--in fact, a mere bare-boned skeleton. + +A Bride at her wedding-toilet, whom Holbein has contrived to make almost +beautiful, receives a robe from one attendant; another clasps round her +neck a collar--of gold and jewels? No,--of bones, and with bony fingers. +And the next cut to this shows us the Bridegroom and Bride walking +through an apartment hung with arras, while before them dances Death, +beating a tabor, like a child beside himself with joy. + +One of the finest and most touching conceptions in the whole series +represents a dilapidated Cottage,--a mere shanty, so wretched that the +love of those who live in it is all their happiness,--nay, all their +comfort. The mother is preparing for two little children the simplest +and poorest of meals, at a fire made of a few small sticks. She finds +consolation in the very pranks that hinder her humble task. Death +enters,--there is no door to keep him out,--and, seizing the hand of the +younger child, who turns and stretches out the other imploringly to his +mother, carries him off, remorseless and exulting, leaving her frantic +with grief. We may look with comparative indifference, and sometimes +even with sympathy, upon his other feats,--but who is there that does +not hate that grinning skeleton?--And yet, perhaps, he exults that he +has saved one soul, yet pure, from misery and crime. + +For vigor of movement the group of Death and the Soldier is preeminent. +The field is covered with the wounded and the slain, in the midst +of which the soldier encounters his last enemy. The man is armed in +panoply, and wields a huge two-handed sword with a vigor unabated +by former struggles. Death has caught a shield from the arm of some +previous victim; but his only offensive weapon is a huge thigh-bone, +which we plainly see will bear down all before it. In the distance +another figure of Death flies madly over the hills, beating a drum which +summons other soldiers to the field. It is impossible to convey in words +the fierce eagerness of this figure, minute as it is, and composed of a +few lines. + +The forty-seventh composition is one which has puzzled the critics +and antiquaries; but it is not easy to conjecture why. It shows us a +wretched Beggar, naked, sick, lame,--utterly destitute, miserable, and +forsaken,--suffering at once all the ills that flesh is heir to. He sits +huddled together on some straw, near a large building, and lifts his +hands and face up piteously to heaven. Death is not there; and the +antiquaries ask in wonder, Why is the subject introduced? Why, but to +show that to him alone who would gladly welcome Death, Death will not +come? + +The work ends, as a connected series, with the Last Judgment, where +Christ, who conquered Death, appears seated on the bow of promise,--with +his feet resting on a celestial sphere, attended by angels, and showing +to a throng of those who have risen from the grave the wounds by which +he redeemed them from its power. + +To this is added an ornamental tail-piece called Death's Arms. It shows +a skull in a battered shield, which has for a crest a regal helmet +surmounted by an hour-glass and two bony arms grasping a stone. The +supporters to the shield are a gentleman and lady richly dressed,--said +to represent Holbein and his wife. + +It is not known, positively, when Holbein drew these designs upon the +blocks (for of course he did not engrave them); and it has even been +disputed by one or two eminent antiquarian critics, that he designed +them at all. But there does not appear to be a single valid reason for +thus diminishing his fame. He probably was engaged on them between +1531, the date of his first return to Bale, and 1538, when they were +published,--the year in which he refused the solicitation of his +townsmen to return to the home of his childhood and the bosom of his +family. + +Holbein continued to live in London until the year 1554, when that city +suffered a visitation of the plague, similar to that which was the +occasion of the painting of the Great Dance of Death at Bale. Holbein +was struck by the disease; and Death, knowing gratitude as little as +remorse, triumphed over him who had blazoned his triumphs. Upon the +painter's fame, however, and that of his great work, Death could not lay +his hand; but so long as the grim tyrant shall claim his victims, so +long will he perpetuate the memory of Hans Holbein. + +Though he was a royal favorite, it is not known where he died; and the +place where lie the ashes of him who, on a king's word, was greater than +seven earls, is equally unknown; there is not a line or a stone to mark +it. So soon after his death as in the reign of Charles I., (within +one hundred years,) a nobleman--noble by nature as well as by +birth--desirous of erecting a monument to him, sought his grave, but +in vain, and was compelled to abandon his design. And thus was Holbein +driven to live among strangers, to die without a wife to console or +children to mourn him, and to lay his bones in a nameless grave in a +foreign land. + +Such is an imperfect and brief account of the origin, the various forms, +and the meaning of the Dance of Death, and of the life and character of +him whose genius has caused it to be called by his name. It may +smell too much of mortality and antiquity for this fast-living and +forward-looking age; for it is not only a monument of the past, but an +exponent of its spirit. We can look back at it, through the mellowing +mist of centuries, with curiosity not unmixed with admiration; but we +should turn with aversion from such a work, coming from the hands of an +artist of our own day. We think, and with some reason, that we do not +need its teachings; for we are freed from the thraldom that gave edge +to its democratic satire; and we have learned to look with greater +calmness, if not with higher hope, upon the future, to which the grave +is but the ever-open portal. But we may yet profit by a thoughtful +consideration of the eternal truths embodied by Holbein in his Dance of +Death; and in the story of his life there is a lesson for every man, and +every woman too, if they will but find it. + + + + +LIZZY GRISWOLD'S THANKSGIVING. + + +"So John a'n't a-comin', Miss Gris'ld," squeaked Polly Mariner, entering +the great kitchen, where Mrs. Griswold was paring apples and Lizzy +straining squash. + +"Isn't he?" quietly replied the lady addressed, as the tailoress sat +down in the flag-bottomed rocking-chair, and began rocking vehemently, +all the time eyeing Lizzy from the depths of her poke-bonnet with +patient scrutiny. + +"No, he a'n't,--so Mr. Gris'ld says," went on Polly. "You see, I was +a-comin' up here from the Centre, so's to see if Sam couldn't wait for +his roundabout till arter Thanksgivin'; for Keziah Perkins, she 't was +my sister's husband's fust wife's darter, 'n' finally married sister's +fust husband's son, she's a real likely woman, and she's wrote over from +Taunton to ask me to go there to Thanksgivin'; 'n' to-day's Monday; 'n' +I was a-comin' here Tuesday so's to make Sam's roundabout; 'n' yesterday +Miss Luken's boy Simon, he 't a'n't but three year old, he got my +press-board, when he was a-crawlin' round, 'n' laid it right onto the +cookin'-stove, and fust thing Miss Lukens know'd it blazed right up, 'n' +I can't get another fixed afore Wednesday, and then I'd ought to be to +Taunton, 'cause there a'n't no stage runs Thursday, and there hadn't +oughter, of course"---- + +"We have got a press-board," said Mrs. Griswold, quietly. + +"Yes, and I a'n't goin' to grandfather's in my old jacket, Miss Poll," +interposed Sam, one of the "terrible" children who are scattered here +and there through this world. "Catch me where all the folks are, in that +old butternut suit!" added Sam. + +But here his father stepped in at the door,--a fine, sturdy, handsome +farmer, one of New England's model men, whose honesty was a proverb, and +whose goodness a reliance to every creature in Greenfield. + +"John isn't coming, wife," said Mr. Griswold, in a steady, sober tone. +"He says business will delay him, so that he can only get to Coventry +just as we do." + +"So you had a letter," said Mrs. Griswold, carefully avoiding a look at +Lizzy. + +"Yes," said Mr. Griswold, in a very abrupt way.--"Are you ready to go +back, Miss Polly? for I've got to go down to the Centre again with a +load of wheat." + +"Well, yes, I don't know but I be. I ken stay over, if you want help, +Miss Gris'ld. I'm a-goin' to the minister's to help Miss Fletcher a +little mite this afternoon, but I guess she don't lot on it none; 'n' +seein' it's you, I ken stay, if you want help." + +Lizzy looked quickly across the kitchen at her mother. + +"Oh! no, thank you, Miss Polly, I know Mrs. Fletcher would feel very +badly to lose your help, and I really don't need it until to-morrow." + +"Then I'll come round to the door as quick as I've loaded up," said Mr. +Griswold; and Miss Polly settled back in her chair to wait comfortably; +a process much intensified by a large piece of Mrs. Griswold's +gingerbread and a glass of new cider, both brought her by Lizzy's +hospitable hands,--readier even than usual just now, in the vain hope of +stopping Polly Mariner's clattering tongue. But neither gingerbread nor +cider was a specific to that end: Polly talked while she ate, and ate +while she talked. But while she finishes her luncheon, let us make known +to the patient reader whom and what the tailoress discusses. + +John Boynton was a step-cousin of Lizzy Griswold's. Her youngest aunt +had married a widower, with one son, some five years older than Lizzy, +and had always lived in the old homestead at Coventry, with her father; +while the other daughters and sons, six in number, were scattered over +the State, returning once a year, at Thanksgiving, to visit their +birthplace, and bring their children into acquaintance with each other. +Eben Griswold, who lived at Greenfield, was nearer home than any of the +others, and Lizzy, consequently, oftener at her grandfather's house than +her cousins. She and John Boynton were playmates from childhood, and it +was not strange that John, who had never known a pleasure unshared by +Lizzy, or suffered a pain without her consolation, should grow up in +the idea that he could not possibly live without her, an idea also +entertained half-consciously by Miss Lizzy, though neither of them ever +yet had expressed it; for John was poor, and had no home to offer any +woman, much less the petted child of a rich farmer. So Mr. Boynton, Jr., +left home to teach school in Roxbury, five years before the date of our +story, without making any confidences on the subject of his hopes +and fears to Miss Griswold; and she knit him stockings and hemmed +pocket-handkerchiefs for him with the most cold-blooded perseverance, +and nobody but the yarn and the needles knew whether she dropped any +tears on them or not. + +Now it had always been John Boynton's custom to give his school +Thanksgiving-week as a vacation,--to take the train on Monday for +Greenfield, and stay there till Wednesday, when the whole family set off +together for Coventry, to spend the next day, according to time-honored +precedent. + +Whatever John and Lizzy did in those two dull November days, it never +has been made known to the present chronicler; it is only understood +that no point-blank love-making went on; yet the days always ran away, +instead of creeping; and neither of the twain could believe it was +Wednesday when Wednesday came. But this year those forty-eight hours +were destined to drag past, for John wasn't coming; why, we shall +discover,--for Polly Mariner has finished the cider, and the gingerbread +is as much subject of inquiry as "The Indians,--where are they?" + +"So John Boynton a'n't a-comin'? Well! Hetty Maria Clapp's jest got home +from Bunkertown, that's tew mile from Roxbury, 'n' she told Miss Lucas +that Miss Perrit, whose sister's son keeps a grocer's store to Roxbury, +told that Mr. Boynton, their teacher to the 'Cademy, was waitin' on +Miss Roxany Sharp's cousin, a dreadful pretty gal, who'd come down from +Boston to see Roxany, an' liked it so well she staid to Roxbury all +through October. I do'no's I should ha' remembered it, only 't I hed the +dredfullest jumpin' toothache that ever you did, 'n' Miss Lucas, she'd +jest come in to our house, an' she run an' got the lodlum an' was +a-puttin' some on't onto some cotton so's to plug the hole, while she +was tellin'; 'n' I remember I forgot all about the jumpin' while 't she +was talkin', so I ses, ses I, 'Miss Lucas, I guess your talkin's as good +as lodlum'; 'n' she bu'st out larfin', 'n' ses she, 'Polly Mariner, I +declare for't, you do beat all!' 'Well,' ses I, 'I'd die content, ef I +could beat John Boynton; fur ef ever I see a feller payin' attention +to a gal, he's been payin' on't to Lizzy Gris'ld this four year; +and 'ta'n't no wonder 't I think hard on't, for there never was a +prettier-behaved gal than her on Greenfield Hill'; an' I ses"---- + +Lizzy was on the point of "freeing her mind" just at this juncture, when +Mrs. Griswold interposed her quiet voice,-- + +"Don't trouble yourself to defend Lizzy, Miss Mariner; you know John +Boynton is her cousin, and he has been here a good deal. Folks will +talk, I suppose, always; but if John Boynton marries well, I don't think +anybody 'll be more forward to shake hands with him than our Lizzy." + +"Of course I shall," said the young lady, with a most indignant toss of +her head. "Pray, keep your pity, Miss Polly, for somebody else. I don't +need it." + +"H'm," sniffed the sagacious Polly. "Well, I didn't suppose you'd allow +'t you felt put out about it; and I wouldn't, if I was you. Besides, +there's as good fish in the sea as----I declare for 't! there's Mr. +Gris'ld! I'll come round early to-morrer. Good-day, all on ye!" + +So Polly departed. + +"I don't care, if he is!" said Lizzy, flinging herself down on the +settle, when the door closed behind Polly's blue cloak. + +Mrs. Griswold said nothing, but Sam looked up from his whittling, and +coolly remarked,-- + +"It looks as if you did, though!" + +"Sam!" said his mother, with--emphasis. + +Sam whistled, and, with his hands in his pockets, having shut his +jack-knife with a click, and kicked his shavings into the fire, +muttered something about feeding the pigs, and beat an ignominious +retreat,--snubbed, as the race of Adam daily are, and daily will be, let +us hope, for telling "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the +truth." + +For Lizzy certainly did look as if she cared. A pretty enough picture +she made, too, flung down on the old black settle, one well-shaped +hand pinching the arm as if it had been--John Boynton's!--the other as +vigorously clenched on a harmless check-apron that showed no disposition +to get away; her bright red lips trembling a little, and her gray eyes +suspiciously shiny about the lashes, while her soft black hair had +fallen from part of its restraints on to the gay calico dress she wore, +and her foot beat time to some quick step that she didn't sing! + +Mrs. Griswold did not care for the picturesque, just then; she cared +much more for Lizzy, and her acute feminine instinct helped her to the +right word. + +"I don't believe it, dear!" said she; "you'd better finish straining +that squash, or Widow Peters won't have her pies for Thursday." + +Lizzy went to work,--work is a grand panacea, even for sentimental +troubles,--and in doing battle with the obstinate squash,--which was not +as well cooked as it might have been,--Lizzy, for the moment, looked +quite bright, and forgot John, till her father came in to dinner. + +Somebody once said that Mrs. Griswold was "a lesser Providence," and +Lizzy thought so now; for scarce were they all seated at dinner, when +she remarked, in a very unconcerned and natural way,-- + +"What keeps John in Roxbury so long, father?" + +"He has business in Boston," curtly answered Mr. Griswold.--"Sam, did +you go over to the Corners, yesterday, about those sheep?" + +Sam answered, and the conversation went on, but John's name did not +enter it, nor did Mr. Griswold offer to show his letter either to mother +or Lizzy. + +Now the latter lady, not being a perfect woman, had sundry small faults; +she was proud, after a certain fashion of her own; slightly sentimental, +which is rather a failing than a fault; but her worst trait was a +brooding, fault-seeing, persevering tact at making herself miserable, +scarce ever equalled. The smallest bit of vantage-ground was enough for +a start, and on that foundation Lizzy took but a few hours of suspicion +and imagination to build up a whole Castle Doubting. The cause she had +to-day was even greater than was necessary; it was peculiar that +her father should be so reserved; it was more strange that he so +perseveringly withheld John's letter; and certainly he watched Lizzy at +her work with unusually tender eyes, that sometimes filled with a sort +of mist. All these things heaped up evidence for the poor girl; she +brooded over each separate item all night, and added to the sum Polly +Mariner's gossip, and looked forward to the day when everybody in +Greenfield should say, "Lizzy Griswold's had a disapp'intment of John +Boynton!" Poor, dear, Lizzy! as if that were an unheard-of pang! as if +nine-tenths of her accusers were not "disapp'inted" themselves,--some +before, some after marriage,--some in themselves, some in their +children, some in their wretched, dreary lives! But there was only one +John and only one heart-break present to her vision. + +Polly Mariner came to breakfast next day, and pervaded the kitchen +like a daily paper. Horrible murders, barn-burnings, failures, deaths, +births, marriages, separations, lawsuits, slanders, and petty larcenies +outran each other in her glib speech, and her fingers flew as fast on +Sam's blue jacket as her tongue clappered above it. + +Lizzy's pride kept her up before the old woman; she was in and out and +everywhere, a pretty spot of crimson on either fair cheek, her eyes as +sparkling and her step as light as any belle's in a ballroom, and her +whole manner so gay and charming that Polly inwardly pronounced John +Boynton a mighty fool, if he dodged such a pretty girl as that, and one +with "means." + +But night came, and Polly went. Lizzy went to bed with a bad +headache,--convenient synonyme for aches of soul or body that one does +not care to christen! Sleep she certainly did that night, for she +dreamed John was married to a rich Boston girl with red hair and a +yellow flannel dress, and that Polly Mariner was bridesmaid in the +peculiar costume of a blue roundabout and pantaloons! But sleep with +such dreams was scarcely a restorer; and Wednesday morning, when Mrs. +Griswold asked Lizzy if she had put up her carpet-bag to go to Coventry, +she received for answer a flood of tears, and a very earnest petition to +be left at home. + +"Leave you, Lizzy! Why, grandfather couldn't have Thanksgiving without +you! And Uncle Boynton! And Aunt Lizzy is coming up from Stonington with +the new baby;--and--John, too! You must go, Lizzy, dear!" + +"I can't, mother! I can't!" said the poor girl, sobbing after every +word; "please don't ask me. I can't! I've got a headache; oh, dear!" +Here a fresh burst of tears followed, as Lizzy buried her head in her +mother's lap. + +Mrs. Griswold was both grieved and astonished; she sat speechless, +stroking the soft hair that swept over her knee, till Lizzy's sobs +quieted, and then said,-- + +"Well, dear, if you're set on staying at home, I won't oppose it, if +your father thinks best; but I must ask him; only what will you do, +Lizzy, here alone all night?" + +"Chloe and Peter will be here, mother; and I'll make Chloe sleep in +Sam's room, and leave the door open; and when they go down to Dinah's, +I'll lock up, and I shan't feel afraid in broad day." + +Mrs. Griswold shook her head doubtfully. + +"I'll see what father says," said she. So Lizzy lifted her head, and +smoothed her hair, while her mother went out to the barn to consult +"father." + +Here she was, if anything, more puzzled. Mr. Griswold heard the proposal +with a rather misty look, as if he didn't see why, and when his wife +finished, said, gravely,-- + +"What is it, Susan? Anybody 't has lived as long as I have knows pretty +well that a woman's headache stands for a whole dictionary." + +"Why, you see," said Mrs. Griswold, twisting a little lock of hay in her +fingers, and faintly blushing, as if the question had been of herself +rather than Lizzy, "she--well, the fact is, husband, she's kind of riled +about John's not coming; you see we haven't been real particular about +the children, and so"---- + +"You needn't spell it, Susan," said Mr. Griswold, with a half smile; +"Polly Mariner's tongue helped on, I guess. You let Lizzy stay, if she +wants to; 'twon't hurt her; when folks want to sulk, I generally let +'em. She can stay." + +He began to whistle "Yankee Doodle" and pitch hay energetically, while +"Susan" was within hearing; but how would that dear woman's soul have +floundered deeper and deeper in the fog that clouded it now, had she +seen her grave husband sit down on one end of the hay-mow and laugh till +the tears stood in his keen eyes, and then, drawing his coat-sleeve +across the shaggy lashes, say to himself, "Poor child!" and begin his +work with fresh strength! + +So matters were all arranged. After dinner, the rusty, dusty, old +carriage appeared at the door, with the farm-horses harnessed thereto, +jingling, and creaking, and snapping, as if oil and use were strange to +its dry joints and stiff straps. Mrs. Griswold mounted to the back seat, +after kissing Lizzy with hearty regret and tenderness,--her old gray +pelisse and green winter bonnet harmonizing with the useful age of her +conveyance. "Father," in a sturdy great-coat and buckskin mittens, took +the reins; and Sam, whose blue jacket was at that moment crushing his +mother's Sunday cap in a bandbox that sat where Lizzy should have been, +clambered over the front wheel, to the great detriment of the despised +butternut suit, and, seizing the whip, applied it so suddenly to Tom +and Jerry that they started off down the Coventry road at a pace that +threatened a solution of continuity to bones and sinews, as well as wood +and leather. + +Lizzy turned away sadly from the door. Who can say that just at that +minute she did not wish she had gone, too? But nobody heard her say so. +She went up-stairs to her room, and tried to read, but couldn't attach +any ideas to the words; she was half an hour over a page of a very good +book, and then flung it upon the bed with an expression of disgust, as +if it were the book's fault. Poor authors! toil your fingers off, and +spin your brains out! be as wise as Solomon, or witty as Sheridan! your +work is vanity and vexation of spirit, unless the reader's brain choose +to receive and vivify the hieroglyphs of your ideas; think yourselves +successful because a great man praises you, and to-morrow that man is +twisted with dyspepsia, or some woman passes him without a smile, and +your sparkling sketch, your pathetic poem are declared trash! Such is +fame! Of which little homily the moral is,--Write for money! What a +thing it is to be worldly-wise! So was not Lizzy; if she had been, she +would now be at Coventry, kissed and caressed by grandfather, aunts, +uncles, cousins, and----But we won't anticipate. + +Lizzy flung down the book, and went to her closet for another; but it +was as good (or as bad) as Bluebeard's closet, for there hung the pretty +crimson merino, with delicate lace at the throat and round the short +sleeves, in which Miss Lizzy Griswold once intended to electrify Mr. +John Boynton this very evening. True it is that short sleeves are not +the most sensible things for November; but Lizzy was twenty, and had +such round, white arms, that she liked to wear short sleeves, as any +girl would; and who is going to blame her? Not I! A girl doesn't know +her privileges who was never just a little vain,--just a little glad to +be pretty when John is by. Lizzy looked at the crimson merino, and at +the smart slippers on the door with a shining black bow on each instep. +There, too, on a little low table, was a green box; somebody had left +it open,--mother, perhaps,--so she saw on its cotton bed a red coral +bracelet, that came from Roxbury, or thereabout, last year at this time. +Lizzy shut up the box, and went down-stairs to get tea. + +Chloe was indignant to think "Miss 'Lisbeth" thought she couldn't get +supper without help, and Miss 'Lisbeth was vexed with Chloe for being +cross. And then, when supper came, the tea seemed to be very unwilling +to be swallowed, and the new bread was full of large lumps that choked a +person, and the lamps didn't burn clearly at all,--and--and--when Chloe, +still sulky, had cleared the table, Lizzy sat down on a low cricket +beside her mother's stuffed rocking-chair, and had as good a cry as ever +she had in her life, and felt much better for it. + +So she sat there, with her head on the arm of the chair, rather tired +with the cry, rather downhearted for want of the supper she hadn't +eaten, and making pictures in the fire, when all of a sudden it came +into her head to wonder what they were doing at Coventry. There was +grandfather, no doubt, in the keeping-room, telling his never-tiring +stories of Little Robby, and Old Bose, and the Babes in the Wood; of +singing the ever-new ditty of + + "Did you ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,"-- + +and so on, _ad infinitum_, till you got to-- + + "See a man eat a whale?" + +to some half dozen children; while sweet Aunt Lizzy, serenely smiling, +rocked the fair little baby that fifteen cousins had kissed for welcome +that day; and Uncle Boynton trotted the baby's brother on his knee, +inviting him persistently to go to Boston and buy a penny-cake, greatly +to little Eben's aggravation, who would end, Lizzy knew, by crying for +the cake, and being sent to bed. Then there were Sam, and Lucy Peters, +and Jim Boynton, up to all sorts of mischief in the kitchen,--Susan +Boynton and Nelly James cracking nuts and their fingers on the +hearth,--father and mother up-stairs in grandmother's room; for +grandmother was bedridden, but kindly, and good, and humorous, and +patient, even in her hopeless bed, and nobody was dearer to the whole +family than she. Then, of course, there was a fire in the best parlor, +and there were all the older cousins, telling conundrums and stories, +and playing grown-up games, and some two, or four, may-be, looking out +in couples at the moonshine, from behind the curtains,--Sue James, +perhaps, and John. Sue was so pretty! + +Lizzy's head bent lower on the arm of the chair; her thoughts travelled +back over a great many Thanksgivings,--years ago, when she wore short +frocks, and used to go with John to see the turkeys fed, and be +so scared when they gobbled and strutted with rage at her scarlet +bombazette;--how they used to pick up frozen apples and thaw them in +the dish-kettle; how she pounded her thumb, cracking butternuts with a +flat-iron, and John kissed it to make it well,--only it didn't! And +then how they slid down-hill before church, and sat a long two hours +thereafter in the square pew, smelling of "meetin'-seed," and dinted +with the kicks of weary boys in new boots; and finally, after the first +anthem and the two hymns and the three prayers and the long sermon were +over, came home to dinner, where the children had their own table at the +end of the grown people's board, and Lizzy always took the head and +John the foot,--till, exhausted by the good things they had eaten, and +tantalized by the good things they couldn't eat, they crept away to the +fire and their picture-books for a quiet hour, winding up the day with +all the plays that country and city children alike delight in. + +Then came recollections of later days, when John was a young man, and +Lizzy still a little girl,--when long talks banished turkeys and apples +and sliding,--when new books or sleigh-rides crowded out the old +games,--when the two days of John's yearly visit were half-spent in the +leafless, sunny woods, gathering mosses and acorn-cups, delicate fern +leaves, and clusters of fire-moss, and red winter-green berries, for the +pretty frames and baskets Lizzy's skilful fingers fabricated,--when he +shook hands at coming and going, instead of kissing her;--but it seemed +just the same, somehow. Dear me! those days were all gone! John didn't +care about her any more! he was in love with a beautiful Boston lady. +Why should he care about a homely little country cousin? He would go to +live in Boston in a great big house, and he'd be a great man, and people +would talk about him, and she should see his name in the papers, but he +never would come to Coventry any more! And he'd acted as if he did love +her, too!--that was men's way,--heartless things! If John had a good +time, what did he care if Lizzy did grow into a gray-haired, puckered-up +old maid, like Miss Case, with nobody to love her, or take care of her, +or ask about her, or--or--kiss her?--The climax was too much for Lizzy; +great big tears ran down on the arm of the stuffed chair, and she +would have sobbed out loud, only Chloe opened the door, to put up the +tea-things, I suppose, and Lizzy wouldn't cry before her. But, for all +that, she didn't hear Chloe come to the fireplace; she only felt her sit +down in the big chair, and, simultaneously, a pair of strong arms lifted +Miss Lizzy on to John Boynton's knee, and held her there. It wasn't +Chloe. + +I declare, one gets out of patience with these men! they do astonish a +person so sometimes, one doesn't know what to do or say. Lizzy had been +thinking to herself, not two minutes ago, with what cool and smiling +reserve she should meet John Boynton, how dignified and kindly distant +she would be to him,--and now,--well! it was so sudden,--and then, as +I said before, these men do get round one so,--if you happen to love +them.--Lizzy forgot, I suppose; at any rate, she wasn't dignified, or +reserved, or proper, or anything of the kind, for she just hid her +pretty head on his square shoulder, and said, "Oh, John!"--"slowly, and +nothing more,"--as Mr. Tennyson remarks about cutting Iphigenia's head +off with a sharp knife. + +I don't know that John talked much, either. I rather think Lizzy got +over the climax that had troubled her a little while ago. Presently, +she raised her head and gathered up her hair that had fallen down, and +became painfully aware that she had on only a blue calico! John never +knew it; he knew somebody had a very sweet face, full of cloudy blushes +and sunshiny smiles, and, not being a Pre-Raphaelite, the foreground was +of no consequence to him. + +So, after a time, Lizzy slipped down to her cricket again, still leaning +on the arm--of the chair,--and John expounded to her the excellent +reason that had delayed his coming home. He had been offered a large +salary to take the head of a public school in Boston, and those two +days had been devoted to arranging the affair; he had satisfied the +school-committee as to his capacity, and made up his mind on several +points of minor importance to them,--but, perhaps, greater to him. Among +others, he had found a house, a tiny house, with a little yard behind, +and a view of Boston Harbor from the upper windows, all at a reasonable +rent, prospect thrown in; this house he had hired, and now--he had come +to Greenfield for a housekeeper. + +Lizzy suddenly discovered that she was hungry, and invited John into the +kitchen to get a piece of pie; but, after all, instead of eating hers +while he was eating his, she went up-stairs, brushed out her hair +and coiled it up with a coral-topped comb, that came to light, very +strangely, just in time,--put on her merino frock, her bracelet, and her +slippers,--rolled herself up in shawls and hoods and mittens, and was +lifted into John's buggy, to old Chloe's great delight, who held the +lamp, grinning like a lantern herself, and tucking "Mr. John's" fox-skin +round his feet, as if he had been ten years old. + +So Lizzy Griswold did get to Coventry the night before Thanksgiving, +after all; and when Uncle Boynton met her at the door, he called her "my +dear daughter." Perhaps, as John had told Lizzy, on the drive over, that +her father had heard all about his business and his intentions, in that +letter she did not see, the young lady had decided to disinherit him, +and adopt Uncle Boynton in his place; rather an unfair proceeding, it +is true, since the letter was withheld by John's special request; and, +indeed, Lizzy didn't act like a "cruel parient" to her father, when he +came, after uncle, to give her a welcome. + +They had a merry time at Coventry that Thanksgiving,--even merrier +than another smaller assemblage, that took place at Greenfield about +Christmas, when Polly Mariner came over a week before-hand to make Sam +a new suit throughout, and Lizzy looked prettier than anybody ever did +before, in a fresh white dress, and a white rose, off grandmother's +tea-rose-bush, in her hair. It is on record, that she behaved no better +than she did that evening when somebody found her crying in a blue +calico; for Sam was overheard to say, as Polly hustled him off to bed, +that, "if ever he was married, he guessed they wouldn't catch him makin' +a fool of himself by kissin' a girl right before the minister!--if he'd +have been Lizzy, John Boynton's ears would have sung for one while; but +girls _were_ fools!" + +So John Boynton got a housekeeper; and Lizzy had more than one +Thanksgiving-day in her life, beside the Governor's appointments. + + * * * * * + + +ACHMED AND HIS MARE. + + + An old Arabian tale the truth conveys, + That, honor's passion avarice outweighs. + + * * * * * + + Brave Achmed owned a mare of wondrous speed; + He prized her much above his wife or creed. + + And lest some one should steal that precious mare, + He guarded her with unremitting care. + + He tied her every night before his tent; + The fastening-cord then round his pillow went. + + When all in slumber lay, the robber crept, + Unloosed the cord, and on the courser leapt. + + "Wake up!" he cries,--"'tis I, the thief, who call; + See now if she in flight is chief of all!" + + Mount Achmed and his tribe in wrath and shame, + And chase him as a tempest chases flame. + + Hot Achmed nearly to the robber came, + When thus he thought: "My mare will lose her fame. + + "If I o'ertake her, she is then outrun; + But if I reach her not, I am undone. + + "Oh, better she were stolen before my face + Than have her vanquished in this desperate race!" + + One secret sign his mare was taught to heed, + Whenever she must try her utmost speed. + + He to the robber screamed, "Quick, pinch her ear!" + The sign she felt with answering love and fear. + + As like a level thunderbolt she flew, + All chase was vain, the vexed pursuers knew. + + Before this self-betrayal blank surprise + Fills Achmed's comrades, and their wondering cries + + Demand, "How shall thy foolish act be named?"-- + "My mare is lost, her glory is not shamed." + + He says: "I knew, that, if her ear he nipped, + The darling prize could never be outstripped." + + + + +CHARLES LAMB AND SYDNEY SMITH. + + +There were in Great Britain, soon after the commencement of the present +century, three remarkable groups of young men. Distinct schools of +thought, like the philosophic schools of Greece, each of the groups was +marked by peculiar ideas, tastes, and sympathies. The French Revolution, +with its menace of fundamental changes, clashing with sentiments and +convictions which ages had rendered habitual and dear, called for an +inquiry into great principles and the grounds of things. The Napoleonic +age had the terrific formlessness of chaos. Did it premonish the passing +away of old things, and herald the birth of a new order and a new social +state? or did the trouble spring from innate madness in the "younger +strengths" which were trying to overthrow the world's kingdoms? Should +venerable Royalty, after howling in the wilderness and storm, be again +enthroned? or should men attempt to realize the fair ideals which +the word Republic suggested? Should religion be supplanted? should +Protestantism be confirmed? or should, perchance, the crosier of the Old +Church be again waved over Europe? These were the questions that were +mooted, and they aroused unwonted activity and vigor of thought as well +in literature as in politics. + +The old century left in England few celebrated names to take part in the +literature of the new. The men who made the poems, romances, dramas, +reviews, and criticisms for the first quarter of our century had almost +all been in youth contemporaries of the Reign of Terror, and had been +tried in that unparalleled period as by a fiery furnace, while their +opinions were in a formative state. Crabbe and Rogers were traditions of +the time of Goldsmith and Johnson; Gilford wrote with a virulence and +ability which he might have learned in boyhood from Junius; but with +these exceptions, English literature fifty years ago was represented by +young men. + +We mention, as the first group of young thinkers, the founders of the +"Edinburgh Review,"--Sydney Smith, Francis Jeffrey, Francis Horner, and +Henry Brougham,--whose united ages, when the first number of that review +appeared in 1802, made one hundred and seven years. Members of the Whig +party, possessing much learning and more vivacity and earnestness, +and having among them, if not severally, abundance both of daring and +prudence, they startled conservative people, evoked the best efforts of +authors by their brilliant castigations, and inaugurated the discussion +of measures of reform which it took thirty years to get through +Parliament. The critic of the company was Francis Jeffrey, whose +happiness it was to live just when he was needed. Without capacity to +excel either in the realm of ideas or of facts, he was unrivalled in the +power of discovering the relations between the two. He was neither a +statesman, philosopher, nor poet; but while the heavens and the earth +threatened to rush in confusion together, he was an admirable _cicerone_ +to the troubled and wandering wits of men. He had no inherent qualities, +and, if other people had not existed, would not have been alive himself; +his faculty was simply an eye for relations, and his mental life began +when some one threw a series of thoughts across his line of vision. +He could tell all about those thoughts,--how large each was, what +complexion they had, how they stood in order with each other, and how +they compared with other thoughts which he remembered having seen +before. Such a mind might have achieved success among the technicalities +of the law, but nowhere else, had not the "Edinburgh Review" been +created. Jeffrey's critical articles have little value when regarded +according to their aim and as integral compositions; the arguments which +they contain are often insufficient, and the literary judgments wrong. +But they are full of the scattered elements of thought. Many of the best +ideas of the books and men of which they treat are stated in them with +admirable clearness and piquancy, and they are, therefore, pleasant +secondary sources of information. + +Francis Horner died of consumption in Italy before he was forty years of +age, and there is nothing of surpassing brilliancy or power in any of +his writings. Yet he made a most extraordinary impression upon his +contemporaries. His name is never mentioned by his associates except +with unusual respect. Brougham, when he alludes to him, even in a +letter, seems to check his pen into soberness, and to be as cautious as +if he were speaking on a religious subject. Search through the published +correspondence of Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, and Mackintosh, and Horner is +found uniformly mentioned, not with peculiar affection or kindness, not +with any intention of doing him honor, but as a man whose qualities were +quite superior to those of other men, and whose destiny it was to be the +first statesman of his country. Lord Cockburn, who was a schoolmate of +Horner, relates that the latter was at one time selected by his class to +present a book to the master, and adds: "As he stepped forward at +the close of a recitation, and delivered the short Latin +presentation-address, I thought him to be a god." This fascination is +hard to be explained. The great seriousness of Horner's character may in +part account for it. He could not bear trifling on important subjects, +and could not help frowning on all jests which were not more wise +than witty. The calm determination, the unvarying earnestness of his +character, may aid in explaining it. From a boy, he never swerved from +great purposes, pursued the most useful though difficult knowledge, and +cultivated with equal zeal the ornaments of taste and those recondite +historical and statistical studies which are the roots of political +science. He was as far from being flighty as Immanuel Kant. Everything +that he did was marked both by temperance and sagacity. Philosophically +speaking, a personality, any personal being, is undoubtedly the most +mysterious thing in the universe. How abstract ideas come together to +grow and bloom in a young bosom is wholly past the comprehension of +philosophy. As personality in the abstract fascinates a philosopher +by its mystery, so a personality of uncommon purity, intensity, and +completeness fascinates all men, and thus, perhaps, is explained the +high estimation in which Horner was held. He was regarded by those +who knew him, as Pythagoras was by his disciples, with the deference +commanded by a superior person. + +The indefatigable character of Lord Brougham, the only survivor of this +group, cannot yet be sketched in a paragraph. To Sydney Smith we shall +presently return. + +The second group of young men was formed fifteen years later. They were +the antagonists of the Edinburgh reviewers, the authors of the "Noctes +Ambrosianae," the main support of "Blackwood's Magazine," almost from +its beginning. Their names were John Wilson, J.G. Lockhart, James Hogg, +and, for a time, William Maginn. These were very high, as well as, +excepting Hogg, very young Tories. It would be an apotheosis of loyalty +to say that they were also eminently religious, though they drank many +bumpers to their religion. When they meet in the third of the "Noctes" +and have taken their places at the table, North proposes: "A bumper! +The King! God bless him!" and three times three are given. Then Tickler +proposes: "A bumper! The Kirk of Scotland!" and the rounds of cheers +are repeated. These indispensable ceremonies being over, the Blackwood +council proceeds to discuss men and things over nectar and ambrosia. + +Wilson was the centre and best representative of this group. At Oxford, +he had been so democratic that he blacked his own boots on principle. +On leaving Oxford, he had roamed for a time as a wild man in a band of +gypsies. He next took a cottage in the lake district in the North of +England, where he associated with Wordsworth, and occupied himself +alternately with desperate gymnastic exercises and composing slight +descriptive poems. Even after connecting himself with the magazine and +becoming the symposiarch of the "Noctes," and perhaps the greatest Tory +in all broad Scotland, he did not renounce his home among the lakes. He +was a lover of scenery, and an enthusiast and master in manly sports. He +is said to have fished in every trout-brook north of the Clyde, and +he wandered every season over the Highlands. In his sportsman's +accomplishments he took a truly English pride, and made fun of the +Edinburgh Whigs by representing a company of them as getting by chance +into the same room with himself and his associates, and then, pipes and +tobacco being brought, as being fairly smoked out, sickened, and +obliged to retreat by the superior smoking capacities of the Tories. He +ridiculed Leigh Hunt for fancying in one of his poems that he should +like a splendid life on a great estate, when (as Wilson says) he +couldn't even ride without being thrown. Yet, of all the men of this +time, there was probably no one who had wider sympathies or more +delightful prejudices than Professor Wilson, or who made more sagacious +reflections. The centre of a literary clique, he loved to associate +with all the other cliques, and was one of the first to recognize and +proclaim the great merits of Wordsworth. + +The third group was larger than either of the preceding, retained its +_esprit de corps_ longer, and may be most conveniently defined as the +associates of Charles Lamb. Beside Lamb, there were Coleridge, Southey, +Lovel, Dyer, Lloyd, and Wordsworth, among the earlier members of +it,--and Hazlitt, Talfourd, Godwin, De Quincy, Bernard Barton, Procter, +Leigh Hunt, Gary, and Hood, among the later. This group, unlike the +others, did not make politics, but literature, its leading object. It +was composed of literary men,--a title of doubtful import, but which +certainly in civilized society will always designate a class. Political +life has more of outward importance, religious life is holier, but +literary life is the most humane of all the avocations. It is to the +professions what pastoral occupations are to the trades. Politics and +religion both have something to do with institutions. A mechanical +man can play a part in them not very well, but passably well. But +the literary man is sheer humanity, with nothing to help him but his +thoughtfulness and sensibility. He is the unfelled tree, not the timber +framed into the ship of state or carved into ecclesiastic grace. He +lives as Nature lives, putting on the splendor of green when the air +is sunny, and of crystal when the blasts sweep by; and while his roots +reach down into the earth, there rises nothing above him but the +heavens. Past experience shows that he may be harsh, prejudiced, and +unhappy; but it shows also that the richest human juices are within him, +and that not only the most peculiar and most sensitive, but also the +most highly-endowed characters are named in the list of authors. The +central and most admirable figure in this particular group of literary +men is Charles Lamb; and as each of the other groups clustered around +an organ, so at a later period Lamb and his associates supported the +"London Magazine," in which the "Essays of Elia" first appeared. + +If it be asked what gave that strong coherence to these associates which +constituted them groups, a wise man would answer,--congeniality of +character. A wiser man, however, would not overlook the element of +_suppers_. The "Edinburgh Review" seems to have been first suggested +over a quiet bottle of wine; and at a later day the Edinburgh reviewers, +increased in number by the accession of Mackintosh and one or two +others, formed an honored clique by themselves in the splendid society +of Holland House. The "Noctes Ambrosianae" is the enduring monument of +the way in which the Blackwood men passed their nights, and not the less +so from the fact that they were for the most part written out by Wilson +in sober solitude. Charles Lamb began his career of suppers with +Coleridge, as the latter came up to London from the University to visit +him, and the famous Wednesday-evening parties given by him and his +sister Mary would occupy a large space in the literary history of this +epoch. It is a true proverb, that people are but distant acquaintances +till they have eaten salt together. + +The sketches which we have thus given will indicate the leading +tendencies that were operating in English literature, though the groups +themselves did not include all the eminent literary men. +Campbell, Shelley, and Byron were single lights, and did not form +constellations,--unless, perhaps, Shelley and Byron may be regarded as a +wayward and quickly-disappearing Gemini. Sir Walter Scott, and, in their +later years, Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, were of a cosmopolitan +character, and served as links between different parties. And it may be +added, that diplomatic relations and frequent intercommunication existed +between all the groups. + +Passing from the general schedule to the characters and careers of +Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith, it will be our aim to show how these two +most witty men were also intensely serious and dutiful,--how they +were both disciplined by a great sorrow, and obedient to a noble +purpose,--and thus to relieve wit from the charge of having any natural +alliance with frivolity. + +A thorn, it needs not a sage to say, vexes the side of every human +being. Poetry laments the inadequacy of men to their ideals, philosophy +declares an error in the figures which sum up life, religion reveals +the fall of the race. The thorn is known which pierced the matchless +joyousness of Charles Lamb. His family, highly gifted with wit, +tenderness of feeling, and mutual love, had a tinge of madness in the +blood. At twenty years of age he was himself shut up six weeks in a +madhouse, his imagination in a vagary. He was not again affected; but +the poison had sunk deeper into the veins of his sister. The shadow of a +deed done in the dark ever pursued her. Charles devoted his life to +her whose life was an intermittent madness, yet who, in her months of +sanity, was a worthy sister of such a brother. His kindness to her knew +no bounds. It was strange that she had premonition of the recurring fits +of her disorder; and when the ghost of unreason beckoned, Charles +took her by the hand and led her to the appointed home. Charles Lloyd +relates, that, at dusk one evening, he met them crossing the field +together on their melancholy way toward the asylum, both of them in +tears. In the smiles of Charles Lamb, and they were many, his friends +always remarked a prevailing expression of sadness. The "fair-haired +maid," who had been the theme of his first poetizing, appears not again +in his verses or in his life. He and Mary lived together, received +evening visitors together, went to the theatre and picture-gallery +together, visited the lakes and the poets together; and if he was ever +seen in public without her, his friends knew there could be but one +reason for it, and did not ask. When he left the India House, he had +reserved from his income a considerable sum for her support; though the +liberality of his employers, as it proved, rendered this precaution +unnecessary. She was his partner in writing the Shakspearian tales, and +he always affirmed that hers were better done than his own. To her +he dedicated the first poems that he published; and she, too, was a +poetess, excellent in her simple way. Thus was Charles Lamb's life +saddened by a great affliction ever impending over it, and sanctified by +a great duty which he never for a moment forgot. + +It was his good-fortune, while at school at Christ's Hospital, to become +acquainted with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A timid boy, creeping around +among his boisterous companions like a little monk, it was that soaring +spirit which first taught him to look up. Two men whose intellects more +strongly contrasted could not be found. Coleridge suffered throughout +life from over-much speculation. Could he have had his eye less upon the +heavens and more upon the earth, could he have been concentrated upon +some human duty, he would have been a much wiser and better man. Even in +his youth he was the rhapsodist of old philosophies, had resolved social +life into its elements, and dreamed of putting it together again to suit +himself on the banks of the Susquehannah. Though Lamb wondered at the +speculations of Coleridge, and, loving him, loved the metaphysics which +were a part of him, yet it was without changing his own essentially +opposite disposition. Lamb clung to the earth. He cultivated the +excellency of this life. He was concrete, and hugged the world as he +did his sister. He reverently followed the discourses of Coleridge, +admiring, perhaps, "the beauty of the words, but not the words +themselves"; but when the Opium-Eater also began to take speculative +flights before Lamb, the latter stopped him at once by jangling his +metaphysics into jokes. It was in conversation with Coleridge, begun at +school and continued afterward at frequent meetings, that Lamb first +ventured to try his own powers and was prompted to literary activity. +But for a slight defect in his speech, he would probably have followed +Coleridge to the University with the intention of going into the Church. +A delightful clergyman he would have been, if he had duly undertaken the +office, and one would have walked far to see him in the priestly robe, +to hear him chant the service, to receive pastoral advice from him; yet +we fear the "Essays of Elia" would have been less admirable than now. He +was roused by Coleridge; and though he could not put the aureole of the +latter about his own head, he began to do the best he could in his own +way. + +Life is a play between accident and purpose. Why was it, that, of all +the books in the world, Charles Lamb should have fixed his affections +chiefly on the old English dramatists? He might have turned to old +Greece, admired the fruits of the classic ages, and become one of those +sparkling artistic Hellenists that are occasionally seen in modern +times. He might have turned to the mediaeval period. He had an eye +for cloisters and nuns. His fancy would have been struck with the +grotesqueness of many of the ideas and institutions of those times. +He would have got on finely with Gurth the swineherd and Burgundy the +tusk-toothed, and one of his masterly witticisms would have upset Duns +Scotus. Perhaps, of all the mediaeval characters, he would have been +most smitten with the court fool, and, if he could have been seated at +a princely table of the twelfth century, the bowl surely would not have +been round many times before he and the fool would have had a few passes +at each other. There was enough in the Middle Ages to have fascinated +him; and could he, like some romantic Novalis, have once penetrated +thither, and tasted the fruit, he would have found it a lotus, and +would have wished never to depart. His soul would have clung to church +architecture,--under which term may be included all the religious, +political, poetical, moral, and practical life of the Middle Ages. The +accident in the case, however, was, that his uncle's library did not +contain the Greeks, nor the Middle Ages, but did contain the old English +authors. These he mastered; and out of these he created his ideals. In +the affluent vigor of the Elizabethan age, in the buoyant _neglige_ of +the times of merry Charles, he found people that he liked. To every +reflective and slightly scholastic mind, there is a charm in looking +at things in the distance. The perspective fits the eye. This may have +helped the enthusiasm with which he looked upon the writers and heroes +of the old English literature; but its principal cause was their +open-heartedness, their informality, their stout and free humanity +underneath laces and uniform. + +Having thus found his place in literature, he began also to be rich in +friends, and his life was devoted every moment to thought and affection. +The time that he passed at the desk of the India House was time in which +he did not live; or perhaps, while he autographed the mercantile books, +there was a higher half-conscious life of the fancy which lightly +flitted round and round the steady course of his pen. He thus exults, +after his emancipation from his clerkship upon a pension:--"I came +home FOREVER on Tuesday in last week. The incomprehensibleness of my +condition overwhelmed me. It was like passing from life into eternity. +Every year to be as long as three; that is, to have three times as much +time that is real time--time that is my own--in it. I wandered about +thinking I was happy, but feeling I was not. But the tumultuousness is +passing off, and I begin to understand the nature of the gift." For this +one-third of his waking time, to have and to hold unhampered by any +dependence, he had most willingly consigned the rest to drudgery. The +value which he set upon it appears from the following answer which he +made to Bernard Barton, who thought of abandoning his place in a bank +and of relying upon literary labor for support:--"Throw yourself on the +world without any rational plan of support beyond what the chance employ +of booksellers would afford you! Throw yourself, rather, my dear Sir, +from the steep Tarpeian rock, slap-dash, headlong, upon iron spikes. If +you have but five consolatory minutes between the desk and the bed, make +much of them, and live a century in them, rather than turn slave to the +booksellers. Hitherto you have been at arm's length from them,--come +not within their grasp. I have known many authors want for bread,--some +repining, others enjoying the blessed security of a counting-house, +all agreeing that they would rather have been tailors, weavers,--what +not?--rather than the things they were. I have known some starved, some +go mad, one dear friend literally dying in a madhouse. Oh! you know +not--may you never know!--the miseries of subsisting by authorship." +Thus he esteemed of priceless worth honestly-earned independent time for +the pursuits that were dearest to him. + +His literary and social avocations were so intimately blended that they +seem to have been almost the same. He was as thoughtful in his evening +parties as he was in the act of composition, and as gentle and kindly in +writing as he was to his friends. He gathered about him not many of the +most famous, but many of the most original and peculiar men of his time. +His Wednesday-evening parties were assemblies of thinkers. They were +composed in large part of men who were not balanced by a profession, who +were devoted only to wit, fancy, or speculation, who cultivated each a +peculiar field and cherished each peculiar tastes and opinions, who +were interested in different quarters of the heavens, and yet who came +together, prompted by the spirit of sociality and kindliness, to lay +perhaps the backs of their heads together, and to talk always sincerely +and wisely, but in the form of sense or nonsense, as the case might be. +Lamb and his sister were always ready to appreciate every variety of +goodness, and doubtless their guests received an order something like +that which was addressed to the dwellers in Thomson's enchanting +castle:-- + + "Ye sons of Indolence! do what you will, + And wander where you list, through hall or glade; + Be no man's pleasure for another stayed: + Let each as likes him best his hours employ, + And cursed be he who minds his neighbor's trade!" + +To these parties sometimes came Coleridge, who in conversation seems +to have been a happy mixture of a German philosopher and an Italian +_improvvisatore_. Here Hazlitt learned to utter the philosophic +criticisms which he most passionately believed in; and Lloyd, whose +intellect was one of peculiar refinement, discoursed modestly of +metaphysical problems, analyzing to an extent that Talfourd says was +positively painful. Here the social reformer Leigh Hunt came, and for +the moment forgot that social reforms were needed. Here the Opium-Eater +came, and his cloudy abstract loves and hates and visions were exploded +by the sparks of Elia's wit. Here the philosopher Godwin developed +philosophy out of whist. Here the pensive face of the Quaker poet, +Bernard Barton, shed a mild light upon the scene; and here the lawyer +Thomas Noon Talfourd came to admire the finest characters that he knew +of. + +Having thus noticed the painful experience and unfaltering devotion to +noble aims which marked the career of Charles Lamb, we leave him with +his friends, and pass to notice the same elements in the life of his +brother wit. + +Sydney Smith preferred the legal profession, and esteemed himself a +victim in entering the Church. His practical wisdom informed him, that, +from the beginning even until then, qualities like his had not found a +happy sphere of action in the pulpit, but, on the contrary, had rusted +or grown ugly in it. He had as much sentiment as Sterne, and perhaps as +much political sagacity as Swift, yet the finest instincts within him +recoiled from following in the path of either the one or the other. +With a subtile and exuberant wit,--he knew that wit touches not sacred +things. With great practical prudence and a brilliant speculative +capacity,--in a clergyman, prudence is less than faith, and brilliancy +of thought than the glow of the heart. In his rich composite character +he had, indeed, the qualities which make the clergyman; his disposition +was religious, his heart was tender and Christian, he could give the +best advice to the people; and though his appearance was not quite +saint-like, it was at least suggestive of a good man who was walking in +the way which he pointed out to others. But these qualities were not +those with which he was most highly endowed. Energy and sterling +common-sense, which he had inherited from his father, an elastic, +mercurial, and passionate nature, which had come to him from his +Huguenot mother,--these were the strong points in his character, and it +belongs to neither of them to take the lead in the Church. Sydney had +scanned the whole field. Having questioned well his desires, examined +well his blood, derived what wisdom he could from history and +observation, he deliberately chose the law. Why, then, did he take +to theology? We read that his father had incurred so much expense in +educating his eldest son for the legal profession, and in fitting out +two others for India, that he could not well furnish the means for +Sydney's education, and strongly recommended him to go into the Church; +and that the son sacrificed his own to his father's inclination. + +We may imagine Sydney Smith's reflections. With his versatile talent, +honorable ambition, and consciousness that he could have made a shining +name in political life, his object now was to find a sufficient sphere +for the exercise of all his powers in the Church. It was no fault of his +that he was unwilling to settle as curate and have no aim beyond his +parish except to go to heaven at last. With his superfluity of human +nature, for him to become a saint was out of the question. What then? +Should he enter the realm of dogmatics, and become a learned and +redoubted champion of the faith, passing his life amid exegesis? Should +he renounce thorough thinking, and become a polished and popular pastor, +an ornament of the pulpit and of society? Should he signalize himself +for gravity, orthodoxy, and ability, seek the earthly prizes of his +profession, and perhaps become Archbishop of Canterbury? Should he +become a jolly, vinous, and Friar-Tuck sort of clergyman? God forbid! he +said to each of these queries, and rushed forward into his profession. +Regarding himself as a lamb for the slaughter, yet tremendously in +earnest not to be sacrificed, he went into the Church groping and +fearing, but resolute. Trembling lest he should not do his duty both to +himself and to his sacred office, he yet determined to try. Thus the +thorn which troubled Sydney Smith was not an affliction, but was what he +regarded as a danger; and, though less patent and pointed than that +in the life of Charles Lamb, probably had not less influence in the +discipline of character. + +Behold, then, the long and venerable line of the clergy opening to +receive him, and behold him entering it! The clergy, the priesthood, +the holy fathers, the strong bishops, the monks, the ghostly race, the +retired enthusiasts, now melancholy, now rapt, now merry-making, the +consolers of sorrow, the divine heroes in an earthly life,--even one +of this family does Sydney propose to be. At the age of twenty-four +he becomes curate in the little hamlet of Salisbury Plain,--the young +graduate of Oxford sent into the country to be pastor to the inmates of +half-a-dozen hovels! Then he writes his description of a curate:--"The +poor working man of God,--a learned man in a hovel, good and patient,--a +comforter and a teacher,--the first and purest pauper of the hamlet; +yet showing that in the midst of worldly misery he has the heart of a +gentleman, the spirit of a Christian, and the kindness of a pastor." +He regards himself as almost excluded from his kind, and quotes (or +originates) the proverb, that there are three sexes, men, women, and +clergymen. He took long solitary walks over the plains of Salisbury, +reflecting upon the manifold activities of the world, in which he had no +part. The only society that he had was during the occasional visits of +the squire to the neighborhood, who, surprised to find the curate so +interesting a person, gave him frequent invitations to dinner. Thus +passed two years, when the squire consigned his son to the curate to +be educated, and Sydney Smith, starting with the young man for the +Continent, was driven by stress of war to Edinburgh. + +There he met Horner, Jeffrey, Brougham, and others, young thinkers and +full of matter,--Horner the philosopher, Jeffrey the critic, Brougham +the statesman, and Sydney Smith the divine,--and the divine was +unsurpassed by any of the others in wit, energy, or decision of +character. While the events with which the times were rife were striking +fire in all their brains, it was the divine who first turned their +thoughts to account by suggesting that they should start a review. +The suggestion was acted upon, and under his editorial care the +first numbers of the "Edinburgh Review" appeared. His prudence and +remonstrances saved it from manifold excesses; for Jeffrey was not a man +to be moderate in times like those. The brilliant critic received not a +few such lectures as the following:--"I certainly, my dear Jeffrey, in +conjunction with the Knight of the Shaggy Eyebrows [Homer], do protest +against your increasing and unprofitable skepticism. I exhort you to +restrain the violent tendency of your nature for analysis, and to +cultivate synthetical propensities. What is virtue? What's the use +of truth? What's the use of honor? What's a guinea but a d--d yellow +circle? The whole effort of your mind is to destroy. Because others +build slightly and eagerly, you employ yourself in kicking down their +houses, and contract a sort of aversion for the more honorable, useful, +and difficult task of building well yourself." It was the boast of +Sydney Smith in old age that he had very little to change in the +opinions which he had at various times advanced,--that he had seen +every important measure which he had advocated passed and become +recognized as beneficent. The variety of the review suited the +versatility of his talent; the problem, What worthy thing shall I employ +myself in doing? was solved; and an ample public career was opened to +him. When, after five years, he passes from Edinburgh to London, he is +not only a poor clergyman, but a famous Edinburgh reviewer. He becomes +popular in society and as a preacher, and delivers pictures on Moral +Philosophy to crowded houses of the _elite_ of the metropolis. + +When he is again exiled as a curate, his solitude is not unbroken, but +he receives and returns the visits of the most eminent people. His +neighbors ran to him one day, shortly after his arrival, exclaiming, +--"Please your honor, a coach! a coach! a coach!" Sydney saw in the +distance the equipage of Lord Holland, and challenged the admiration of +his parishioners by boldly answering,--"Well, my good friends, _stand +firm_; never mind, even if there should be a coach; it will do us no +harm;--let us see." A simple pastor and an eminent man, with flashing +energy he approves himself a good man. Sunday he preached, Monday he +doctored the sick, Tuesday Sir James Mackintosh visited him for a week, +Wednesday he read Ariosto, Thursday he began an article, Friday he +reviewed his patients, Saturday he repaired his barn. Now he is laying +down a rule that no day shall pass in which he will not make somebody +happy; now he is fixing a bar whereon it shall be convenient for his +cows to scrape their backs; now he is watching by the side of his +sleeping baby, with a rattle in hand to wake the young spirit into +joyousness the moment its sleep breaks. He goes through the parish as +doctor, wit, and priest, guide, philosopher, and friend, studying the +temper and needs of the simple congregation to which he preaches on +Sunday, while his brain is racking with great thoughts. With these +higher thoughts he has to do as he sits at his desk and writes an +article for the larger parish of the United Kingdom. With a wild play of +wit and fancy and laughter he graces the sturdy column of his virtue +and fidelity. He lived in what was said to be the ugliest and most +comfortable house in England, admired by every visitor for his +independence, manliness, refinement, and liveliness. When he visited +London, as he often did, and when in later years he lived there and was +_lionne_, his simplicity of character remained. To the last he was one +of the sincerest and most active of clergymen and of men. + +It is probable that there were not living at the time two more serious +men than the two wits whose careers we have outlined. Indeed, it is +quite a mistake to suppose that wit has anything to do with temper or +sentiment at all. A man may be perpetually sulky, and yet habitually +witty,--may smile, and smile, and smile, and yet be a most melancholy +individual. Wit is simply a form of thought, and is as intellectual as +scientific study. It differs from other thought only in being a little +_outre_,--a little in excess; it overdoes the thing only because it has +so much energy in it. It is what Charles Lamb said a pun was,--"a sole +digest of wisdom." All great thoughts are at first witty, and afterward +come to be common and flat. When Pythagoras discovered the theorem of +the squares erected on the sides of a right-angled triangle, it had the +effect on him of a most preposterous joke. The apple dropping on the +head of Newton struck him like a very far-fetched pun. Show a child the +picture of a wild Tartar, and his first motion will be to laugh at it. +We have seen a man while reading Kant, the dryest of metaphysicians, +slap his knee, leap upon his feet, and swear, in exuberance of mirth, +that Kant had said a good thing. If it were discovered to-morrow to be +a scientific truth that this world is wrong side out, and if inventive +genius should discover a way to put the other side out, we should all of +us think it a funny thing, but our transversed descendants would +regard the matter as a commonplace. New proposals in the arts, and new +discoveries in the sciences are always at first laughed at. Thus wit +is only thought that is beyond the present capacity of the listeners, +thought of whose meaning they can catch only a glimpse; it is the +forerunner of what our very stupid race, which is always a little behind +the times, is wont to call wisdom. If the race should ever become +completely sage, nothing less than a joke would ever be uttered. + +The likenesses of Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith make them both very +severe-looking men. Like marble, which in costume takes the appearance +of the finest lace, so that it seems as if it would yield to the touch +of a finger, their delicate fancies and sentiments were but the surface +of a solid and thorough character. + +They lived in different spheres, corresponding to the difference in +their genius. Sydney Smith had the more versatile and fruitful mind. +With restless energy he supported various characters, being equally +famous as a wit, Whig, Edinburgh reviewer, eloquent preacher, brilliant +man of society, and canon of Saint Paul's. His biographer well describes +him as a rough rider of subjects, and with surpassing good sense he +overran every problem with which the public mind was occupied. He was a +reformer, but it was after the English and not the French fashion. He +had unbounded respect for existing human blessings, believed in things +substantially as they were, and couldn't have been persuaded to try an +experiment that had much of hazard in it. A Frenchman is always at +home amid earthquakes and volcanoes and hurricanes, and the immediate +prospect of an end to everything that is and a beginning of something +the like of which never has been. The spirit of the great French +Revolution was to exterminate all the results of time up to that point, +and, having made a clear field, to begin over again. Hence heads went +off, religion was proscribed, thrones were burned, the calendar was +changed; even the heavenly bodies should no longer bear down their +freight of old associations, and Orion received the name of Napoleon. +Could the earth have in any way been transformed, could grass possibly +have been made blue and the heavens green, or could man have been done +over into any other sort of animal, there is not the slightest doubt +that those Frenchmen would have undertaken it. In comparison with such +men, Sydney Smith sank into insignificance as a reformer. He lived under +a religion, government, and system of manners, all of which he was +desirous to retain. He did not wish for his children any institutions +very much more comfortable than England offered at the moment. He +regarded the advantages of life with great complacency, thinking, +doubtless, that men had better opportunities than they availed +themselves of; and the chief intensity of his purpose was not to make +better opportunities, but to improve them better. He probably did not +approve of all the men and customs that he saw, was decidedly opposed +both to wickedness and stupidity; but he did not propose, like a +Frenchman, at the first fault, to blot out the heavens and the earth. +He demonstrated in his life how genial, under existing institutions, a +clergyman could be, how discreet a young enthusiast could be, how widely +active a curate could be, how acceptable in society an honest man could +be, how brilliant a plain Englishman could be. A great reformer he was, +--but the spirit of his reform consisted chiefly, not in changing, but +in making better use of the blessings which we already possess. Compared +with this prevailing spirit of personal reform, the reformatory +public measures which he was prominent in advocating were of slight +consequence. Merry on the surface, with an iron core of stubborn +resolution within, he equally delighted his most homely and his most +elegant friends, and while he sympathized with humble life, he had a +profound respect for the technically best society. + +Charles Lamb lived within a narrower and peculiar range. With more of +concentration, he had a less abounding energy than Sydney Smith. His +character was an odd and elegant miniature, while that of Sydney Smith +was voluminous. He loved a particular sort of men, and that sort was +honest men; while the merry divine could deal with politicians and even +with Talleyrand himself. Sydney was playing a part in the Whig party, +among the advocates of reforms; the sympathies of Elia went for +the reform of the United Kingdom, and of the universe, too, if +possible,--but he was more interested in a profound thought, brought +forth from the struggling breast of Hazlitt, than in any bill introduced +into Parliament. He was occupied with his old books, his sincere +friends, his beloved sister. He cared little for the _beau monde_, would +rather not look upon a duke or a duchess without a grating between; but, +turning from the current into an eddy, content with the many thoughtful +and original persons whom he had about him, he delighted to fish for the +shyest tenants of the stream and to dive for strange pearls. He loved +remote thoughts, quaint expressions, fantastic ideas. He especially +attached himself to any violent symptoms of human nature. Being in a +picture-gallery, he observed a stout sailor in towering disgust at one +of the old masters, spit his tobacco-juice at it, and swear, with an +expletive, that he could do better himself. The honest opinion honestly +expressed, the truth and vigor of the man, delighted Lamb, and he rushed +up to him to shake hands. Whenever the sailor, after that, wrote to +his friends in London, he wished to be particularly remembered to Mr. +Charles Lamb, who wouldn't be humbugged about that old painting. + +It was this strong sympathy with human character which made Elia rather +a contemner of the worship of Nature. He liked things that were as +definite as the works of men, and found great difficulty in sympathizing +with a landscape. There was nothing on Fleet Street for which he did not +feel a personal attachment; all the hurry and majestic order of a great +city, all the little by-ways and hedges of city life, the wealth, the +poverty, the splendor, the rags, the men and women, all acting under +the stern discipline of an immense society, the boys, the beggars, the +chimney-sweeps, the hilarious and the sorrowful, the fine ladies and +noble lords, were all duly appreciated by him. If he had been taken +up to the pinnacle of a mountain, instead of entertaining one of +Wordsworth's sublime contemplations, he would have been very likely to +flap his arms and crow like chanticleer. Indeed, in middle age he was +accustomed to boast that he had never seen a mountain. Born in London, +and always residing in London till the last years of his life, esteeming +man the crown and purpose of the universe, he was much inclined +to regard the love of Nature, which figures so largely in modern +literature, as a popular delusion. He would have sympathized with the +French philosopher who, after accompanying a young lady to the Highlands +of Scotland, surprised her raptures by saying to her,--"_Aimez-vous les +beautes de la nature? Pour moi, je les abhorre_." + +The diverse religious character of these two men may be illustrated by +an allusion to their different habits with respect to Art. Sydney Smith, +visiting Paris, satisfied himself by a fifteen-minutes' observation in +the galleries of the Louvre. His mind, almost orbicular in its various +capacity, took in the scene at a glance. There were pictures from almost +every country, statues from almost every age, representations of the +finest imaginations of the mind and of the noblest labors of history. He +was not a barbarian with respect to the Louvre, but understood all about +it, and knew its excellence and value; yet he mingled his sentiment +and common-sense well together, and took a rapid walk from chamber to +chamber. He probably entertained large views of Art during his impetuous +progress through the ages, from battle-field to battle-field, from saint +to saint, from philosopher, poet, and hero, to landscape, shepherdess, +and domestic scene. He took in thought with lightning swiftness, and +lived for fifteen minutes amid statues and paintings which collected +scenes from all the universe. He went forth, satisfied that the Louvre +was a fine gallery of Art, that Art was a very fine thing, that painters +and sculptors ought to be encouraged, and that he had been looking at +many things which were worthy a man's consideration. If he had been +called upon at once to preach a sermon, there is no doubt that he would +have made very judicious reflections upon the spectacle which he had +beheld. + +Charles Lamb, too, visited Paris, and though it is not recorded that he +went into the Louvre, yet we can hardly be mistaken in conjecturing that +he did, and the thoughts with which he went. He would have entered those +galleries with timid ecstasy. He would at first have shrunk away from +the full splendor, and made acquaintance with some modest painting in +a corner. Happy would some friend near him be to hear the half-tender, +half-witty, yet most appreciative conceit which should first come +stammering from his lips. He would have advanced slowly, and only after +much delay would have ventured to stand before the great masters, and +to look up eye to eye at the spirit of the Louvre. After taking his +departure, he would never have thought familiarly of the scene, but it +would have remained in his mind as terrible and sacred an episode as was +the descent into Hades to Virgil's hero. + +Not only in the Louvre, but in the world, Charles Lamb was the more +timid worshipper. The whole character of his mind, the intensity of his +thought within a narrow sphere, made him reverent of the Infinite. The +thought of departure from the life which he now lived was to him a very +solemn one. Religious ideas were so sacred to him that he never referred +to them lightly, and seldom at all. When he did mention them, it was +with peculiar impressiveness. No one can read the account of his share +in a conversation on "persons one would like to have seen," without +admiring the energy and pathos with which he alluded to one Person, +whose name, however, he did not utter. Discussions on religious subjects +he never tolerated in anybody but Coleridge. One evening, after he and +Leigh Hunt had returned from a visit to Coleridge, Hunt began to express +his surprise that a man of so much genius as the Highgate sage should +entertain such religious opinions as he did, and mentioned one of his +doctrines for especial reprobation. Lamb, who was preparing the second +bowl of punch, answered, hesitatingly, with a gentle smile,--"Never mind +what Coleridge believes; he is full of fun." He was an humble, sinful +worshipper, and while he bowed his head tremblingly before Heaven, he +poured out the stream of his affections to his sister and his friends. + +The religious character of Sydney Smith was less peculiar than that of +Elia. An earnest Christian, with a will too resolute to allow the aid +of the punch-bowl in vanquishing trouble, professionally wielding the +religious and moral ideas, and habitually obeying them, he stood erect +and looked at the life to come with a firm eye. "The beauty of the +Christian religion," he says, "is that it carries the order and +discipline of heaven into our very fancies and conceptions, and, by +hallowing the first shadowy notions of our minds, from which actions +spring, makes our actions themselves good and holy." This central and +vital beauty he had cultivated in a very diversified life, and he looked +with confidence for the prize which is laid up for the well-doer. + +Probably, if any successful life were examined, it would be found to +consist of a series of hairbreadth escapes. Every movement would be the +crossing of the Rubicon. That man is of little account who at every step +that he has taken has not been weighing matters as nicely as if he were +matching diamonds. How narrowly did Coleridge escape being the greatest +preacher, philosopher, poet, or author of his time! Almost everything +was possible to him; and one can but marvel how he went through life +avoiding in turn each of his highest possibilities. It is the glory of +Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith, that, as far as it can be said of any +men, they did the best that was possible with their circumstances and +endowments. The old fancy which says of every person, that there is an +ideal character which he can attain, in which he shall be peculiar and +unsurpassed, was in their cases realized. + +Their characters were projected into literature, where they remain as +permanent blessings. The style of writing of both of them approaches to +the simplest way of saying things. Elia employed the choicest language +of the seventeenth century, and the divine used the plainest English of +the day. The perpetual danger of literature is of becoming rhetorical; +and hardly fares vigor of thought when long words and periods are +preferred to short ones, and when the native shape and properties of +ideas are less cared for than the abundant drapery. The style of the +"Essays of Elia" is as admirable as their fancy. The author hated a +formal sentence as much as he disliked stately and insipid society. +Unlike Thomas Carlyle, in avoiding the faults of rhetorical culture, he +did not become a literary barbarian. In refusing to comb his hair like a +prig, he did not go to the extreme of making himself horridly uncomely. +His sentences are unsurpassed for neatness, are as graceful as they are +quaint and clear. The writings of Sydney Smith rarely attain the +perfect grace which uniformly distinguishes Elia; yet he never attempts +magnificence, and he so unites brilliancy and plainness as to make his +statements seem equally felicitous to the rude and the scholarly ear. +His Peter Plymley letters are remarkable examples of the way in which +one yeoman speaks to another. His literary bequest, however, is neither +so valuable nor so charming as that of Charles Lamb. His powers were too +various, and he engaged in too many fields of labor, to attain supreme +success in any direction. The best result of his life is his own +exuberant and unresting character, which harmonized all the diversities +in his career; and adequately to behold this there is needed a fuller +and more philosophical biography of him than has yet been written. + + + + +BULLS AND BEARS. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +On the morning of the day which brought the downfall of Stearine and his +indorsers, Sandford and Fayerweather, with the Vortex, whose funds +they had misappropriated, Monroe came to the counting-room unusually +cheerful. His anxiety respecting his little property was relieved, for +he thought the monetary crisis was past, and that thenceforth affairs +would improve. He had reasoned with himself that such a pressure could +not last always, and that this had certainly reached its limit. The +clear, bracing air of the morning had its full influence over his +sensitive nature. All Nature seemed to rejoice, and he, for the time, +forgot the universal distress, and sympathized with it. But the +thermometer fell rapidly as he caught the expression which the face +of his employer wore. Mr. Lindsay, of the house of Lindsay & Co., was +usually a reserved, silent man--in business almost a machine, honest +both from instinct and habit, and proud, in his quiet way, of his +position and his stainless name. He had a wife and daughter, and +therefore was presumed to have affections; but those whom he met in the +market never thought of him, save as the systematic merchant. Well as +Monroe knew him, being his confidential clerk, he never had seen more +than the case in which the buying, selling, and note-paying machinery +was inclosed. He respected the evident integrity and worth of the head +of the house, but never dreamed of a different feeling; he could as +easily have persuaded himself into cherishing an affection for the +counting-house clock. + +This morning, Mr. Lindsay's face wore an unusually sleepless, anxious +look. The man of routine was but a man, after all, and, in his distress, +he longed for some intelligent, friendly sympathy. Monroe recognized the +mute appeal, but, from long habits of reticence, he was at a loss how +to approach his stately chief. Determined, however, to give him an +opportunity to speak, if he chose, Monroe asked after the news, the +day's failures, and the prospects of business. The merchant needed only +a word, and broke out at once,-- + +"Prospect? there is no prospect but ruin. If a whirlwind would bury the +city, or a conflagration leave it a heap of ashes, it would be better +for all of us." + +"But don't you think the darkest time has past?" + +"Not at all; the pressure will continue until scores more are brought +down. Better fail at once than live in dread of it." + +"You surprise me! Why, you are not in danger?" + +"Did you ever consider? Look at the bales of goods in our lofts,--goods +which nobody will buy and nobody can pay for. And our acceptances have +been given to the manufacturers for them,--acceptances that are maturing +daily. Up to this time I have taken up all our paper, as it became due; +but God knows how the next payments are to be made." + +"I had not thought of that." + +"The house of Lindsay & Co. has never known dishonor"-- + +The merchant wiped his spectacles,--but it was the eyes that were dim, +not the glasses. His lips quivered and his breath came hard, as he +continued,-- + +"But the time has come; the house must go down." + +"I hope not," said Monroe, fervently. "Can nothing be done?" + +"Nothing. Every resource has been used. The banks won't discount; and I +suppose they can't; they are fully as weak as their customers." + +"I don't know but the offer may be useless, contemptible, even; but I +have a small sum, in good notes, that may be available." + +The merchant shook his head. + +"Whatever it is, you are welcome to it. Perhaps ten thousand dollars"-- + +"Ten thousand dollars!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsay,--"_you_ have that sum?" + +"Yes,--the little property that was my father's. Let me go and get the +notes, and see if I can't get some money upon them." + +Mr. Lindsay rose and took the clerk's hand with a heartiness that +astonished him. + +"God bless you, Monroe," he said. "I may be saved, after all. Ten +thousand dollars will be enough for the present pinch, and before the +next acceptance is due some relief may come." + +"Don't speak of thanks. I'll get the notes in a moment." + +Tears stole silently down the unaccustomed furrows; the gateway of +feeling was open, but the tremulous lips refused to speak. Before he +could recover his self-possession, Monroe was gone. Mr. Lindsay tried to +read the newspapers, but the print before his eyes conveyed no idea to +his preoccupied brain. Then his thoughts turned to his beautiful villa +in Brookline, and he remembered how that morning his daughter stepped +lightly into the brougham with him at the back piazza, rode down the +winding path between the evergreen-hedges, and, after giving him a kiss, +sprang out when they reached the gate. He knew, that, when he returned +in the evening, he should find her in her place under the great +horse-chestnut, at the foot of the hill, ready to ride to the house. How +could he meet her with the news he would have to carry? how crush the +spirits of his invalid wife? Humiliating as the idea of failure was when +considered in his relations with the mercantile world, the thought of +home, with its changed feelings and circumstances, and the probable +deprivation of habitual indulgences, was far more poignant. + +It was not long before Monroe returned, but with a less buoyant air. Mr. +Lindsay's spirits fell instantly. "I see it all," said he, "you can't do +anything." + +"Perhaps I may, yet. The notes I spoke of, though due to me, are in the +hands of Mr. Sandford, Secretary of the Vortex Insurance Company. I have +been there, and cannot see him. His shutting himself up, I am afraid, +bodes me no good. However, I'll go again an hour hence." + +"No harm in trying. Did you indorse the notes to him?" + +"No. They were merely left with him for convenience' sake, as he was my +agent in loaning the money." + +"Then he can't make way with them,--honestly." + +Monroe seemed hurt by the implied suspicion, but did not reply, thinking +it best, if possible, to change the subject of conversation. + +Mr. Lindsay sat in silence, a silence that was broken only once or twice +during the morning, and then by some friend or business acquaintance +asking, in hurried or anxious tones, "Anything over to-day?" A mournful +shake of the head was the only answer, and the merchant sunk into a +deeper gloom. + +Again Monroe went to see Mr. Sandford, but with no better success. The +third time he naturally spoke in a peremptory tone, and, giving his name +and business, said, that he must and would see Mr. Sandford, or get the +notes. The weight of his employer's trouble rested on him, and gave an +unwonted force to his usually kind and modest temper. The clerk, not +daring to break his instructions, and seeing that it was not far from +two o'clock, intimated, in a half-confidential tone, that he would +do well to ask Mr. Tonsor, the broker, about them. Nervous with +apprehension, Monroe walked swiftly to Tonsor's office. At the door he +met Fletcher coming out with exultation in every feature. Within stood +Bullion, his legs more astride than usual, his chin more confidently +settled over his collar, and the head of his cane pressed against his +mouth. As Monroe entered, Tonsor ceased the conversation, and, looking +up, said, blandly, "My young friend, can I do anything for you?" Bullion +at the same time turned the eyes that might have been only glittering +petrifactions, and pointed the long eyebrow at him inquiringly. + +"I hope so," was the reply. "Have you some notes in your possession +payable to Walter Monroe?" + +"Who asks the question?"--very civilly. + +"My name is Monroe." + +"Ah! Mr. Sandford is your agent, I presume?" + +"Yes. I left the notes with him." + +"And you wanted to raise some money on them?" + +"Yes, that is what I wish." + +"Then you'll be pleased to know that Mr. Sandford has anticipated you. I +loaned him eight thousand dollars upon them this morning." + +"Loaned _him_ eight thousand dollars?" + +"Certainly. Is it extraordinary that your agent has done what you +desired?" + +"I never asked him to borrow for me; and I never authorized him to +transfer the notes." + +"He hasn't transferred them; he has only pledged them." + +"He couldn't pledge them; he had no legal right in them." + +"But he _has_ pledged them, and they are in my safe, subject to the +repayment of the sum I loaned." + +"If you have loaned Mr. Sandford money, that is your affair." + +"And yours, too, my friend, you will find, if he doesn't pay it." + +"You haven't a right to detain the notes a moment." + +"I have the possession, which will answer as well as the right. And let +me advise you,--don't get excited and conclude that everything is wrong. +You are not so well posted as you might be. Go and see Mr. Sandford, and +I haven't a doubt you'll find the money ready for you." + +"I shall go. But I wish you to understand, that, if I am not 'posted,' +as you say, I do know my rights, and I shall take proper measures to +get possession of my property. You have no more hold upon it than a +pawnbroker has upon a stolen spoon." + +Trembling with the unusual excitement, and despairing of being able to +aid his employer, Monroe did not wait for a reply, but rushed to the +Vortex again. Mr. Sandford had gone out on business, was the answer. He +had not gone far, if the truth were known; for his position commanded +the office-door, and he saw every visitor. + +Time did not lag that eventful day; the hands seemed to sweep round the +dial on the Old State House as though they had been swords in pursuit +of some dilatory debtor. It now lacked only fifteen minutes of two, and +Monroe, sick at heart, turned his steps towards Milk Street, to announce +the utter failure of his plan. Mr. Lindsay received the intelligence +with more firmness than might have been expected. + +"Monroe, my friend,--for I can truly call you so,--you have done what +you could. It was not your fault that your agent deceived and swindled +you. You generously offered me your all. I shall never forget it. I +can't say more now. Please stay and inform the notary, when he comes, +that he must take the usual course. Tell John, when he comes with the +brougham, that he may drive back. I shall take the cars to-day, and +shall not be at home, probably, until after tea. I pray God, Monroe, +that you may never go home as I do now. O Clara, my daisy, my darling! +how can I tell you?" + +Still murmuring to himself, Mr. Lindsay slowly walked out of the +counting-room. + +It was not strange, that, under the pressure of his own calamity, Mr. +Lindsay had no thought for the losses of others. He forgot that Monroe +was really in a far worse position, since, if the ten thousand dollars +were lost, it was his all. Neither did Monroe, at first, reflect upon +his own impending misfortune; he had been so intent upon preserving the +credit of the house, that his own interest had been lost sight of. + +Presently the notary came with the inevitable demand. He was a cheerful +fellow in his sorry business, blithe as an old stager of an undertaker +at a first-class funeral. He chatted about the crisis, and, as a matter +of course, brought all the latest news from State Street. Monroe +listened to one piece of news, but had ears for no more. "Sandford and +Fayerweather had failed, and the old Vortex, which they had managed, was +dead broke, cleaned out." + +Mr. Lindsay was not the only heart-stricken man who left the +counting-room that day. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Monroe was walking sorrowfully homeward, when he met Easelmann near the +corner of Summer Street. He was in no humor for conversation, but he +could not civilly avoid the painter, who evidently was waiting to speak +to him. + +"Glad to see one man that isn't a capitalist. You and I, Monroe, are +independent of banks and brokers." + +Monroe faintly smiled. + +"This is a deadly time here in Boston,--a horrible stagnation. Every +man avoids his neighbor as though he had the plague; and we have no +Boccaccio to tell us stories while the dead-carts go by." + +"The dead-cart went through our street to-day." + +"You don't tell me! Who is the lucky corpse that is out of his misery?" + +"Mr. Lindsay. Our house is shut up, and I am a vagrant." + +"A pair of us! For the last month I have performed the Wandering Jew all +by myself. Now I have company. What shall we do to be jolly?" + +"_Jolly!_"--with a tone of melancholy surprise. + +"When should a man be jolly, if he can't when he's nothing to do? I +am the slave of gold, you understand. If any rich magician rubs his +double-eagles before me, woe is me, if I don't paint! When the magicians +send their eagles on other errands, I am free from their drudgery. +Meanwhile, I live on air, flattened out and packed away, like a Mexican +horned-frog, or a dreaming toad, in a fissure of a preadamite rock." + +"I am sorry I haven't your art of making misfortune comfortable." + +"Misfortune? My philosophical friend, there isn't any such thing. The +true man is superior to circumstances or accidents. (Some old fellow, I +believe, has said that; somebody always says my good things before me; +but no matter.) Nothing can happen amiss to the wise and good." + +"Then I am neither wise nor good, for I have lost my all, and it comes +confoundedly amiss to me." + +"Your all? That's what the shoemaker said; but he bought a new one for +six-pence. But, how happened it?" + +"By my folly." + +"I knew that, of course; but I wanted to know what folly in particular." + +"I trusted it to a man whom I thought not only honest, but my friend, +and he has proved a scoundrel." + +"You shouldn't have led him into temptation. You are _particeps +criminis_, and the partaker is as bad as the thief. Don't trust without +taking security, my friend; it's offering a premium to crime. Consider +your guilt now! Think of the family into whose innocent bosom you have +brought sin and remorse! Who is the luckless person?" + +"Sandford!" + +"I knew it. I expected it. He was too good by half. I didn't blame him +for his widow-and-orphan business; somebody must do it; but I made up my +mind some time ago that he would come to grief." + +"Prophets are always plenty after the event." + +"True, my friend. But just think! He passed by my pictures in the +Exhibition, and bought the canvas of my friend Greenleaf,--a man of +genius, doubtless, but young, you understand, young. Can you conceive +of the wickedness? I felt sure from that moment, that, if he were not +totally depraved, he at least had a moral inability, as the preachers +call it, that would be his ruin." + +"Well, he is ruined effectually; but the worst of it is, that he has +dragged innocent people down with him." + +"'Innocent,'--yes, you have the word. A man that cares for money at all, +and trusts all he has without security to any fair-spoken financier, is +an innocent, truly." + +"Well, there is no use in lamenting, and just as little in the +consolation of thinking how the loss might have been avoided." + +"I don't know. I don't admit that. I am not to be deprived of the rights +of a freeborn American. The 'I told-you-so' is a fine balm for all sorts +of wounds,--rather more soothing to physician than patient, perhaps. +Combined with the 'You-might-have-known-it,' it gets up a wholesome +blister in the least possible time, especially where 'a raw' has been +established previously." + +"I don't think I was prudent." + +"Of course not; if you had been, you wouldn't have lost. There are +no such things as mistakes in the world.--But to look at affairs. +_Imprimis_.--Lindsay smashed, house closed, salary stopped." + +"I suppose so." + +"_Item_,--private funds gone; owner taken in by the patent-safe game. + +"_Item_,--dwelling-house standing; so much gain,--but + +"_Item_,--the dweller is not alone, having other mouths to feed. + +"But don't be discouraged. I don't doubt you will find something to do +in good time." + +"But when is the good time coming? I must earn something at once." + +"The danger of being made to work isn't pressing. Ships will have time +to get well rested. Truckmen are actually growing civil with a little +starvation. The beggars don't hold out their hands for coppers; they +make more money by hauling out their old stockings and lending at five +per cent. a month." + +"You will laugh me out of my misery in spite of myself." + +"I hope so; but I am not sure that a man can be laughed out of a thing +he wasn't laughed into. Now, Monroe, I am going to surprise you. I am +going to bore you, annoy you; for I am to see you every day for the +next week. Can you bear it? I shall be worse than the balm of +'I-told-you-so.'" + +Monroe pressed his friend's hand. + +"Come, by all means. And now we are near my house; go in and take tea +with us." + +"No, not to-day. It is _dies nefastus_. Good-bye!" + +Twirling his grizzly moustaches and humming to himself, Easelmann turned +back. He did not go to his room, however, but went down a quiet street, +apparently guided by instinct, and rang the bell at a well-known door. + +"Is Mr. Holworthy at home?" + +The servant-girl nodded and smiled, and Easelmann entered. Mr. Holworthy +was emphatically at home, for he was on all-fours, his three children +riding cock-horse, with merry shouts, varied by harmless tumbles and +laborious clamberings up. Mr. Holworthy rose with a flushed and happy +face, and the children rushed at once to clasp the knees of their +familiar old friend. + +"We all have to come down at times, I believe," said Mr. Holworthy, +smoothing the few thin hairs on his handsomely arched crown. + +"Certainly; a man that can't be a boy with his children deserves to have +none. Now the reason I am a bachelor is that I feared I could never +unbend, being somewhat remarkable for my perpendic"-- + +The word was cut off by a sudden movement; the children in their playful +struggles had, in fact, thrown him down. In a moment more they were on +his back and he trotting round the room with the grace of an elephant. + +"Come, children," said the father, "that was a rough joke. Get off, now, +and go for your bread and milk." + +Rather reluctantly they obeyed, casting wishful glances backward to the +grown-up boy with whom they had hoped to have a frolic. + +"Glad to see you," said Mr. Holworthy. "You have been unsocial, lately." + +"Yes; all the effect of the panic. I am such a butterfly that I seem out +of place in a work-a-day community. I am constantly advised, like the +volatile person in the fable, to learn wisdom from my aunt; but I can't, +for the soul of me." + +"You ought to visit the more, to cheer the wretched and downcast." + +"Oh, but it's a fearful waste of magnetism. Five minutes' talk with a +man who has notes to pay draws all the virtue out of me. It lowers my +vital tone like standing in an ice-house. You feel such a man from afar +like a coming iceberg. _You_ don't have notes to pay? I thought not. I +should go at once." + +"No, my little shop pays its way. I buy for cash. I pay my hands when +they bring in their work, and I have customers enough who ask me for no +credit." + +"Happy man! most fortunate of tailors!--I have been thinking, +Holworthy, among your many benevolent projects, why you never devised +some means of relieving people who are supposed to be in good +circumstances,--a society for ameliorating the condition of the rich." + +"Bless me! the poor are quite numerous enough, and are in unusual +straits just now." + +"I know, and for that reason they are better off than usual. People say, +'How the poor must suffer in these pinching times!' So they double their +charities." + +"Poverty is an ocean without bottom, my friend. All that is given is +like emptying stones into the sea; the waves swallow them and sweep over +as before." + +"True, you can't satisfy the beggars till you drown 'em. Wouldn't +a gentle asphyxia by water, now, be the best thing for some of the +Broad-Street cellarers?" + +"Very likely; but they would probably object to the remedy." + +"But to return to my project. I see some forms of distress that seem to +me far more painful than utter poverty. I won't expatiate, but state a +case. I know a man of good sense and culture, able and willing to do +his part in the world. His employer has failed, so that his salary will +stop. He is unmarried, but has a mother, an invalid, who never stirs out +of doors; and besides has some poor relation or other to support. He has +a house, it is true; so they needn't sleep in the street; but how are +the mouths to be fed, the backs to be clothed?" + +"Let him sell his house and wait till better times for employment." + +"It is easy to say _sell_; but who will buy? A house won't fetch half +its value, and there isn't any money to be had. Besides,--and this is +the hardship,--the pride and the feelings of association cling round a +house that has been consecrated by years of affection and by the memory +of the dead.--I believe I am making an oration; but I despair of +expressing myself." + +"I understand you perfectly; it is sad, indeed." + +"Excuse me, you don't understand me. Some men put off old houses and put +on new ones, like their clothes, without a thought. Others grow into +their habitations and become a part of them. You might as well say to +a lobster, 'Get out of your shell,' when you know that the poor +wretch will die when his naked, quivering members are exposed to the +sharp-edged stones. A delicate nature, proud, but gentle, too sensitive +to accept charity, and doubtful of a friendly service even, suffers more +anguish in one hour, under such circumstances, than your brazen beggar +feels from his dirty cradle to his nameless grave." + +Mr. Holworthy mused. + +"He has nothing to do, then?" + +"Nothing, but to suck his thumbs." + +"Is he willing to work, even if the task should appear irksome?" + +"I haven't a doubt. He has no _false_ pride. Anything honorable would be +welcome." + +"Perhaps I can find something for him to do; it will be temporary, but +its continuance will depend upon himself." + +"And what is it?" + +"In visiting the district which has been allotted to me, I have found an +unusual number of ignorant, vicious boys, cared for by no one, growing +up for the prison or the gallows. I have thought of making some effort +to gather them together and start a ragged school. Some friends have +agreed to provide the means. But the pay would necessarily be small, and +the labor and difficulty great." + +"A teacher of tatterdemalions! It _isn't_ an inviting field of labor." + +"No, to a refined man it must be repulsive. Nothing but the idea of +doing good would make it a pleasure or even endurable." + +"I confess myself utterly without any such motive. I hate poor people, +and ragged children, and sick women, the forlorn wives of drunken +brutes. I shut my eyes to all such odious sights. They say, in a hotel +you must never go into the kitchen, if you would keep your appetite; and +I am sure one must avoid these wretches in the cellar, if he would have +a cheerful view of life in his attic." + +"You are not so hard-hearted as you would have me believe. Somebody must +relieve their distresses." + +"Somebody, too, must cut off legs, and sew up spouting arteries, and +extirpate cancers. Ugh! but I shan't. I leave such jobs to the doctors, +whose ears are familiar with shrieks, and whose appetites are not +disturbed by the sight of blood." + +"So the Levite left the wounded man by the wayside, in disgust at his +bruises: but still the good Samaritan who helped him hadn't a doctor's +degree." + +"Oh, I know. You have me, I acknowledge. But I can't change my temper, +and I shrink from suffering as from death. I would rather bear it than +see it. Society always provides its good Samaritans; and you are one +of them. Don't look modest. I went once through some of those damnable +alleys near Half-Moon Court, the agreeable place where you spend so much +of your leisure. I was looking for a subject to paint. For curiosity, I +asked an urchin if he knew you. He flung his ragged cap twenty feet into +the air, turned a somerset, and came up smiling as well as he could +through the dirt,--'Don't I, though? He brung us meal an' 'taters when +dad broke his leg, and he fetched oranges in his pocket when marm had +the fevers. He's one of 'em, he is.'--Don't interrupt me.--An old +woman, whom I asked, said, 'Do I know Mister 'Olworthy? A blissed saint +in the flesh; my poor ol' bones would 'ave hached many a cold night but +for the blankets he brought me. God in 'eaven reward 'im for that same!' +I spare you the rest of the answers. Oh, you are a saint, without robe +or wings." + +"Hadn't we better come back to the subject," said Mr. Holworthy, in a +mild voice. "We shan't aid your friend in this way." + +"Right, my considerate Mentor. But talk is tempting. I believe I should +forget my errand and let a friend hang, if I got into an argument with +the Governor while he was filling out the pardon." + +"I hope the gentleman you speak of is not so much afraid of contact with +what is disagreeable as you are?" + +"Perhaps not; he has an artistic temperament, and therefore loves what +is comely; but he would go through fire to what he thought his duty." + +"And wouldn't you?" + +"What a question! Go through fire? No, I should bawl for the engine." + +"It's plain, then, that he will answer better than you for the place." + +"No doubt. I shouldn't answer at all. I tell you I never talk with these +creatures. I can't. If an old woman stops me, with her dried-apple face +and whining voice, I give her a sixpence and tell her to hush up and +go about her business. I fling coppers to the boys with slit breeches +before they ask me, for I know they will tell me of mothers sick with +consumption. Their devilish tears are contagious; and I can't cry; it +chokes me. So I buy apples and oranges from the imploring-looking +girls; it's the easiest way of getting rid of them. The little change +don't amount to much in a day, and I save my nerves and my digestion at +a cheap rate." + +Mr. Holworthy smiled at Easelmann's notion of his own hard-heartedness, +and said, hesitatingly,-- + +"I am afraid that some professedly charitable persons don't do so much." + +"Of course they don't. I don't mean that I do anything. It's pure +selfishness on my part, as I told you. But you may feel pretty sure, +that, if a man's name is always in the papers, as 'our estimable +fellow-citizen, President This, Director That, and Treasurer T'other,' +he 'does not give indiscriminate alms':--I believe that is the phrase. +Perhaps he won't rob, like my friend Sandford; but his 'disinterested +labors' are an economical substitute for substantial charity, and his +desire for a place in the public eye is the mainspring of all his +actions." + +"Most of the distress in the community is relieved by organized effort; +individual charities, however well meant, would be entirely inadequate. +Besides, you should not be severe upon all because one prominent person +has proved unworthy." + +"Sandford is a type of the class. If there is anybody I hate worse than +a sick beggar, it is a man who makes a trade of philanthropy." + +"And yet you are consenting to your friend's earning a living by +teaching a ragged school." + +"True, one may stop at any place in a storm, just for shelter." + +"And you can console yourself further with the assurance that your +friend won't make enough in this place to induce him to take up the +'trade,' as you call it." + +"I hope not. Starve him judiciously. If he should come out, after a +year or so, with a white neckcloth, spectacles, and a sanctified face, +soliciting aid for his school, in Pecksniffian tones, I should regret +that I hadn't furnished him with a cord and a bag of stones to drop +himself into the dock with." + +"I don't know why a teacher or a street-missionary may not be a +gentleman." + +"Sure enough, why not? Whatever Walter Monroe is, he will always be a +gentleman." + +"Suppose you bring him to see me to-morrow or next day; we will talk +about this." + +"I will. Now, good-bye! My regrets to the children that we couldn't +finish our romp." + +"Good-bye," said Holworthy. "Come again; the children will be glad to +see you." + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +As Mr. Sandford walked homeward, the streets seemed to close up behind +him; he was shut out from the scenes of his activity, no more to return; +State Street was henceforth for him a thing of memory. He had played his +game there, while admirers and friends watched his far-seeing moves. He +had lost; and now, after checkmate, he must resign his place. How he +struggled against the idea! He could not bring himself to acknowledge +that the past was irretrievable. His spirit seemed in prison, shut in as +by the bars of a dungeon, against which he might tug and rage in vain. + +At home, dinner was on the table, waiting for him. As he entered the +hall, he met his sister-in-law. She saw the fatal news in his face, and +with a sinking heart gave him her usual greeting. Marcia took her place +at the table, but with less animation than usual. Charles sat down with +his studied indifference. Each one seemed to be absorbed in separate +spheres of thought, and the courses came on and were removed in painful +silence. At last Mr. Sandford spoke. + +"I suppose I need not tell you that it is all over." + +"All over!" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Yes,--I have failed; so has Fayerweather; so has Stearine." + +"Failed?" said Marcia, in an incredulous tone. "I thought it was the +great people,--I mean people in business, or with estates, that failed." + +"Well, have I not been in business?" + +"Yes,--as secretary, and you have a salary. How can a man with a salary +fail?" + +"Quite easily. Suppose the Vortex fails? My salary would stop." + +"That isn't failing, is it? Then Pompey might fail, if he didn't get his +pay for brushing your boots." + +Mr. Sandford gave a contemptuous look. + +"That shows how much you know about business." + +"I never did know about your business; nor does anybody, I believe. I +never could understand how, with your little property, you had these +'transactions,' as you call them, where you owed people and people owed +you so many thousands." + +"It is not necessary for you to know. Women can't understand these +things." + +"But women feel their effects, and it's a pity they could not learn +about what concerns them." + +"Will it change your situation at once?" asked Mrs. Sandford of her +brother. + +"I can't say; probably not at once; but without some aid, all I have +must go." + +"What! the house?" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Yes,--the house, Marcia, and the furniture. We shall be stripped." + +"The deuse!" said Charles. + +"Heaven help us! what shall we do?" + +"I haven't had time to form any plan. I trust, indeed, that Heaven will +help us, as you rather lightly wished." + +His face wore a touching look of faith and resignation, while at the +same time his hand rested with secret satisfaction upon his pocket-book. + +The conversation was disagreeable to Charles, and he sauntered off to +the drawing-room. + +Mrs. Sandford inwardly determined to return to her home, or at least +to go elsewhere in the city, so as not to be a burden to her +brother-in-law; but she remained silent. Mr. Sandford balanced his +knife, sliced his bread into figures, then hummed and beat a tattoo upon +the table,--sure indications of forgetfulness in one so scrupulous +as he. At length, with a bland voice, but a sharp, inquiring eye, he +said,-- + +"How is it about this painter, Marcia? Are you going to marry him?" + +She looked fixedly, as she replied,-- + +"Why do you ask? You know I am going to marry him." + +"Oh, it's settled, is it? You know, sister, you have had similar +intentions before,--several times, in fact,--intentions that haven't +come to much." + +She did not answer further; a flush of anger came, then went, leaving +her pale face with a rather sterner expression. + +"While I was prosperous, I was not disposed to be mercenary; though I +did think you were not worldly-wise. Now that I am destitute, you can +see that to marry a man not worth a dollar, and with a precarious +profession, is not what it would have been." + +"Mr. Greenleaf earns a good income, doesn't he?" + +"He hasn't sold a picture, except to friends whom I persuaded to buy." + +"You have friends and influence still?" + +"I don't know; a man's friends don't last long after his money is gone. +Besides, nobody wants to buy now. Raphael himself couldn't sell a +picture here till times improve. A painter is a pretty butterfly for +fine weather; what is he to do with his flimsy wings in such a hurricane +as this?" + +"I think I understand you, Brother Henry. You begin afar off; but I +know what you are coming to. You want to bring up that odious Denims +again,--a man whom I hate, and whom you yourself would show out of +doors, like a vagrant, if it were not for his money!" + +The effort exhausted her, and she breathed painfully. + +"You think yourself quick. I haven't mentioned Denims. In fact, you have +treated him in such a way that I am quite sure he would never trouble +himself to be even civil to you again." + +"I am glad of it,--the fool!" + +"Sister Marcia, I have borne much from your turbulent temper. You are a +spoiled child. Fortune has let you have your own way hitherto; so much +the worse for you. But circumstances have changed. I can no longer +supply you as though you were a duchess. In fact, I don't know what +may be before us. I hope no actual want. [_Another grip of the +pocket-book_.] But I advise you to consider whether it is for the +interest of a dependent woman to go out of her way to thwart and insult +me." + +"You would compel me, then, and threaten starvation as the alternative?" + +"What odiously blunt language you use!" + +"I only translated your roundabout phrases as I understood them." + +"You need not be violent." + +"You cannot cajole me by soft words, when your purposes are so obvious. +You think Denims may save the wreck of your fortune; and you are willing +to sacrifice me, if he were ten times the brute he is, to further your +ends. But I shall marry Greenleaf." + +"Greenleaf will be a powerful protector! I doubt if he can raise money +enough to pay the clergyman for marrying you! He will be without a +shilling in a month, if he is not now. Go to him, Sister Marcia. I +would, now. You can live in his attic studio, you know. In such a +romantic place you would never be hungry, of course." + +Mrs. Sandford interposed,-- + +"Don't, Henry! This is not the way." + +Marcia's eyes flashed through her tears, as she answered,-- + +"You say _you_ are ruined,--that the house and furniture must go. How +much better off shall I be here?" + +"Well, you have your choice." + +"And when the time comes, I shall take it." + +Sobs and tears followed, but her lips were firm and her hands clenched. + +"As you please, sister." + +"You come home ill-tempered, and the rage which you could not or dared +not give vent to in the street you pour out here." + +"Perhaps you would have been pleased, if I had not come home at all?" + +"I'm sure we should have been quite as happy without you." + +"Very well. I may leave you, yet." + +"I don't care how soon." + +New sobs and a firmer pressure of the lips. + +Oddly enough, at that moment, Mr. Sandford was summoned to the +drawing-room, where a man was waiting for him. Fearful of the result, he +went to his own room, first, and left the precious pocketbook, and then +descended to the hall. + +Notwithstanding the words she had spoken, Marcia waited with breathless +anxiety her brother's return; for the sound of voices, in earnest, if +not angry, conversation, rose through the house. Presently he came back +with a look his face seldom wore,--a fierce look that transformed his +handsome features to a fiend's. + +"You have your wish, Sister Marcia,"--and the words were shot out like +fiery arrows,--"I am to leave you, and go to jail." + +"To jail?" exclaimed both at once, in terror. + +"Yes,--to jail. Gratifying to you, I suppose. 'Tis to me,--very." + +"What is the meaning of this?" asked Mrs. Sandford. + +"It means, that one of my creditors pretends to believe that I am about +to abscond, and has had me arrested, that I may give bail not to run +away with an empty pocket." + +"Can't you get out?" + +"Some time, undoubtedly; but not till I give bail." + +"For how much?"-- + +"Twenty thousand dollars." + +"Can't you get some one to become security?" + +"I don't know. Perhaps I might get Greenleaf!" + +Marcia winced, but did not answer the taunt. + +"Good-bye, my dear and independent sister!" + +Marcia turned her back upon him, confounded between sorrow and +resentment. + +Crowding his hat over his eyes, Mr. Sandford left his house and walked +with the officer towards Cambridge Street. + +"Gone to jail!" exclaimed Charles, returning, "How doosid awkward! What +a jolly wow it will make when it gets about town! By gwacious, if you +aren't cwying! Go to bed, both of you; I'll go to the club." + +He went accordingly; and the women, who could ill console each other, +were about to go to their own rooms when the door-bell rang again. + +"What next, I wonder?" asked Marcia, in despair. + +"Please, Ma'am," said the servant, "there's a man at the door, who looks +quare, and says, if he can't see Mr. Sandford, he must see you." + +"Tell him I am ill,--and besides, I don't transact my brother's +business." + +"Yes'm." + +But she soon returned with a new message. The man would not go. Mrs. +Sandford at once went to the hall to learn what was the matter, leaving +Marcia trembling in every limb. The conversation was not carried on in +whispers; in fact, Marcia heard every word. + +"Sorry to disturb you, Ma'am, especially as Mr. Sandford isn't at home; +but duty is duty, and must be 'tended to. My orders is, to 'tach the +furnitur', and stay till I git a receipter." + +Mrs. Sandford's reply was inaudible. The voice proceeded:-- + +"Can't help it, Ma'am. Won't be back to-night, won't he? Bad, cert'in. +But duty is duty, as I said afore. I'll bunk here on the sofy, an' +to-morror we'll see what's to be done." + +Another pause. + +"Oh, you won't run off 'ith anythin'? I s'pose not. But duty is duty, +as I said afore, and I must mind orders. 'Stick by till you git a +receipter,' sez he. 'I will,' sez I,--an' I must.--Never mind about +bedclose. I c'n sleep jest ez I be. You jest go up-stairs. I'll make +myself 't home." + +Glad to be out of the society of the officer, Mrs. Sandford started to +go upstairs, but was recalled by the voice. + +"I say, Ma'am! A long night afore a chap, all by himself." + +Mrs. Sandford trembled with mingled terror and rage. + +"No 'bjection to light the gaas, I 'spose, so's't a feller can read a +paper? Thought o' that, and brought the 'York Herald' and 'Clipper.' If +you don't like tobarker, you c'n shet your doors and the smell won't git +in." + +"Do what you like. I can't prevent you." + +"Oh, well, no 'fence, I hope? Good-night, Ma'am." + +Mrs. Sandford found Marcia walking about the room in great excitement. + +"The odious wretch!" exclaimed Marcia. "If Henry were only here, or even +Charles, he should be horsewhipped, pitched out of the house. To sleep +with his dirty clothes on my sofa! I'm glad it's to be sold. I never +could touch the filthy thing again. Then his pipe! Good heavens, what is +to be done? The abominable wretch! I smell the tobacco now, worse than +an Irishman's. The smoke will be all through the house. Faugh! it +suffocates, nauseates me!" + +"Be calm, Marcia. We will go to the upper chambers, shut the doors, and +open the windows for fresh air. It's only for one night. We can't go +away, you know; and we can't get the fellow away, of course." + +"I wish I had died when I was sick. This disgrace, this infamy, this +shocking barbarity, is worse than death. What are we to do? and where +are we to go? Ruin is a light thing to talk about, I have read of ruin +in the papers, until it has become a matter of course;--I begin to know +what it means." + +It was a changeful, terrible beauty that beamed on her face. She looked +like an inspired priestess before the altar,--then like Norma in +her despair,--then like the maddened Medea in Rachel's thrilling +impersonation. Then disgust and fright overcame her, and her sensitive +womanly nature bore sway. It was more than she could bear, this +accumulation of misfortune, disgrace, and insult. Her soul rebelled, +contended desperately with fate, till, overcome, she sank into her +chair, and suffered herself to be led to her room. + +Shut up in their retreat, the women waited for the morning with +sleepless eyes, or with only transient lapses of consciousness. Sometime +after midnight, they were startled by the sound of a body falling +heavily in the hall, and, an instant after, by the shout of "Burglars! +thieves!" They rushed to the staircase in extreme fright, and soon +learned the cause. The wary officer evidently did not believe the tale +that had been told him respecting the absence of Mr. Sandford; and, that +nobody should go out or in without his knowledge, he had drawn the sofa +across the hall, completely cutting off all passage. A small jet of gas +was left burning. Charles, returning late from the club in a mild stage +of inebriation, entered the house by means of his latch-key, not without +difficulty, and at once fell headlong over the sofa, and the worthy +official sleeping thereon. When he heard the cry of "Burglars!" it +occurred to him that he must have been knocked down by one of the gang; +and he joined his own voice to the uproar,-- + +"BuggLARS! buggLARS!" + +An instant after, there was a grip on his collar. + +"Now I got ye, ye vill'in! What ye doin' on here?" + +"What _you_ doin' on, you rasc'l, inagen'l'm'n'shouse thistim'o'night?" + +"Arnswer me, you scoundrel, breakin' into a peaceful dwellin'!" + +"Tha'swhat_I_wan'to know.--How'd _you_com'ere? What'syerbusiness? +Le'gomycollar. I'lsen'forp'lice. Le'go!" + +Tipsy as he was, he managed to give his assailant a pretty substantial +token of regard under the ear, with his knuckles. + +"Now young'un, you're drunk! I won't hit you back, 'cause a case for +manslaughter might be expensive. How'd you break in here, when you are +so drunk you can't stand? I don't see how you could get in with the door +open." + +"Noneo'yerimp'r'ence! Cl'out! Adecen'bugglar'sbad'nough; +yousmokerot'nt'baccah. G'off! youdirtybugg_lar!_" + +"Young chap, it's time to stop this nonsense, or I'll have you in the +watch-house in no time. Who are you? and how came you here?" + +"Tha'sit; who _are_ you? tha'swhat_I_wan'know." + +"Charles!" (_from above_.) + +"WhocallsCh'rl's? HereIam. Igott'afellah, the bugg_lar_. Callp'lice! +P'LICE!" + +"Charles!" (_once more_.) + +"Do you belong here, young chap?" + +"B'long'ere? 'vcourseIdo; wherethedevilsh'dIb'long?" + +"You are not Mr. Sandford?" + +"Howd'yeknowIa'n't? I _am_ Mis'rr-Sanf'd." + +"You are Mr. Sandford's brother, are you?" + +"No, Mis'rr Sanf'd's _my_ bro'rr." + +"Well, if you've got brains enough to understand, listen to me." + +"I'm all 'tensh'n, 's Balaam said to th'ass. G'on, ol' fellah!--an' then +g'off!" + +"I am an officer, sent to 'tach your brother's furnitur' and stuff; and +as there's nobody here to go bail, I hed to stay and look arter things." + +"H'mushbailyewant? I'llgi'bail. An' I'll plankzemoney. +I'vegotsev'ndollars'n'alf." + +"Charles!" (_the third time_.) + +"Wha'nyewant?" + +"They want you to go to bed, where you b'long." + +"Gotobed? 'llseeyoudam'f'st! Leave'nofficer'nth'ouse? Guessnot!" + +"Young'un, I say, take your hand out of my neckhan'kercher! Hold up! +None o' yer chokin' games! Quit, I say! or, by hokey, I'll settle ye!" + +"_Thought_sh'dmakeyesquawk, ol't'bacc'worm! Go'n'tocl'out? +Go'n'tovacateprem'scs?" + +"Ooo-arr-awkk!" said the man, under the pressure of a tightening cravat, +at the same time giving the assailant "a settler," as he had threatened. +The two unfortunate women had hitherto looked down upon the conflict, as +celestial beings might upon the affairs of men, with no small degree of +interest, but clad in robes too ethereal to descend. But when they saw +Charles felled to the floor, and a deathlike silence ensued, they forgot +their fears, and rushed down the stairs. The officer had already raised +Charles up. He was stunned, senseless, and his face was covered with +blood. + +"You brute! you have murdered him!" exclaimed Marcia. + +"Guess not, Ma'am. Wet his head in col' water, put him to bed, an' he'll +sleep it off." + +"It's useless to talk to such a fellow," whispered Mrs. Sandford; +"besides, we want his aid to carry Charles upstairs." + +"Ye see, I couldn't help it, Ma'am. He nigh about choked me to death, +and I give him fair warnin'." + +"Never mind now about the quarrel," said Mrs. Sandford; "you help him +upstairs to his room, and we'll bathe his head." + +While the officer was carrying the young man up-stairs, Mrs. Sandford +put on a shawl, and, by the time he had reached the second flight, she +opened a door, and lighted the gas with a taper, saying,-- + +"In here, if you please. My brother Henry's room is the most +convenient." + +The officer's eyes twinkled. + +"So this is Mr. Sandford's room?" + +"Yes, but he is absent, as you were told before. Lay Charles on the bed, +if you please. There, that will do. I will attend to him now. You can +return to the lower story." + +"In a minit, Ma'am. Duty is duty, and this 'ere accident saves some +trouble," casting sharp glances around the room. + +The facts, that Sandford had drawn from the bank, and that he had +borrowed from Tonsor, were known to the creditors. The officer had +determined, therefore, to make what search he could for the money. The +unlooked-for accident had given him the opportunity he wanted. + +"What do you mean, Sir? Go back to your place." + +"Softly, Ma'am, softly! Duty is duty; an' 'f any damage is done, I'm +responsible." + +His eyes fastened upon a dressing-case that lay on a table near the +mirror,--apparently the last article handled by the occupant of the +room. + +"No robbery, Ma'am," said he, opening the case, and taking out its +contents. "Razors and brushes, and such like, is personal, and not +subject to levy; but these, Ma'am, you see, air." + +He held up a pocket-book full of bank-notes. + +"I'll count 'em before you, Ma'am, if you please, so's there'll be no +mistake. Thirteen thousand! A pretty good haul! I'll go down, now. If +anythin's wantin' for the chap when he comes to, jest le'me know." + +With a gleam of intense satisfaction on his sharp and vulgar features, +the officer descended the stairs. + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +John Fletcher sat by his fireside, reading the evening papers. The +failures of the day, of course, engaged his attention; among them, those +of Sandford and his associates were not unexpected. His little wife sat +by him, fondling the weakly baby. + +"Old Sandford has gone by the board, ducky. Good enough for him! He's +come to grief, as he deserved. He'll never trouble me any more." + +"I'm afraid a good many more'll come to grief, as you say, before this +panic is over." + +"Some, of course; the dead trees, and the worm-eaten, powder-posted +ones, will fall in the high winds, naturally. But old Bullion is +safe. No rotten hollow in his old white-oak trunk;--sound as a ship's +mainmast." + +"Is it Bullion who owes you?" + +"Yes. I have his notes for ten thousand dollars; and our next +settlement, I calculate, will give me as much more." + +"Why don't you get your pay?" + +"What should I do with it, my duck? I couldn't lend it to anybody safer. +If I deposit, the bank is as likely to fail as he. As long as he has the +whole capital to swing, he will make the more for us both." + +"I would rather have the money." + +"That shows how little you know about it." + +"I know, if you had it, and didn't lend it nor speculate with it, you +couldn't lose it." + +"Now, ducky, don't interfere. You take care of babies nicely. Let me +manage my own affairs." + +"You always treat me like a child that has to be petted with +sugar-plums." + +"That's because you are a child. What the devil does a woman know about +business?" + +The "ducky" cried a little, and was quite sure that John would go on and +risk what he had, till he lost all. + +"Little woman, none of your blubbering! It annoys me. Am I to be +harassed by business all day, and have no peace when I come home?" + +He settled himself to read the papers, once more, and the wife picked up +the fretful, puny infant, and retreated to the kitchen, where she could +indulge her sorrow without rebuke or interruption. + +Presently, Bullion entered, though not unexpected; for he had given +Fletcher an intimation, that, in order to have a private interview, he +would endeavor to see him at home. + +"Nice little box," said the capitalist, looking around. "Any babies?" + +"One," said Fletcher. + +"Boy or girl?" + +"A girl." + +"Bad. Girls always an expense. Dress, piano, parties, and d--d nonsense. +Boys, you put 'em into harness and work 'em till they're willing to +_eat_ their wild oats; he! he!" + +The eyebrow flourished over the jocose idea; the stony eye glittered a +moment like a revolving light, and then relapsed into darkness. + +"However, I have but one, and I think I can make her comfortable." + +"Yes, my boy, quite comfortable. Let me see, I owe you ten thousand. How +does the new account stand?" + +"Here are the figures, taken from Tonsor's book," said Fletcher. +"Seventy-nine thousand eight hundred and forty-three. Ten per cent. to +me is seven thousand nine hundred and eighty-four." + +"A big pile of money, Fletcher." + +"Yours, you mean? Yes, seventy thousand and odd is a big pile." + +"Yours,--I meant yours." + +"Why, yes," replied Fletcher, indifferently, "a good fair sum, for a man +that hadn't any before." + +"Don't you think, now, Fletcher, that the ten thousand pays you for all +you've done? Isn't it enough for a month or two's work?" + +"I think I am paid when I get what was agreed on," replied Fletcher, +stoutly. + +The eyebrow was raised with a deprecatory, inquiring look. + +"Why, Fletcher, sharp's the word, is it?" + +"That's what you said, when we started." + +"Suppose I pay you the notes and a thousand or two more, and we call it +square? Then you salt down what you got." + +"And you propose to haul off from operating?" + +"Well, no, I can't say I do. I may try the bulls another fall or two. +But you haven't anything else. If we lose, you are smashed. I have other +property to fall back on." + +"So it's merely to do me a kindness and make me safe and snug that you +propose to keep back the six thousand that belong to me?" + +"You put it rather strong, youngster. I didn't agree to pay till the +scheme was carried out. But we've done better than we 'xpected, and, to +take you out of danger, I offered to pay part down. In a business as +ticklish as stocks, you don't expect a man to come down with the ready +without a consideration?" + +"You know you could never have kept the run of the market, if it hadn't +been for me; and the ten per cent. is no more than a fair share. This +isn't a matter of dollars altogether, though dollars are useful, but of +information, activity, brains." + +"Well, remember, young man, I offer you now twelve thousand. If anything +happens, don't squawk nor play baby." + +"Why, you're not going to fail?" + +"No,--not if the world don't tip over." + +"And you're going on with your operations?" + +"Yes,--till the wind shifts. It's due east yet." + +"Well, I think the ship that carries you is safe enough for me. Make me +the notes, and let the operations go on another week." + +With an increased respect for his agent, when he found that he could +neither humbug nor frighten him, Bullion filled out and signed the +notes. Next they reviewed the stock-market, and decided upon the course +to be pursued. Bullion then fell into a profound meditation, and did not +speak for five minutes, though the busy eyebrow showed that his mind was +not lost in vacancy. At last he started up, saying,-- + +"I must go. But, Fletcher, any _reason_ why you particularly wanted to +pay Sandford that thousand, to-day?" + +Fletcher turned pale, and his heart rose in his mouth. + +"No,--no reason,--that is--he wanted it--I--I was willing to oblige"-- + +"No matter about reasons," said Bullion, with a quiet air. "I never +tread on people's corns. Only when it's wanted let me know. You see he +went by the board. He begged me to save him. How could I? I've done +enough for other people. Must take care of number one, now. Kerbstone, +he begs, too. I shan't help him." + +Fletcher felt relieved; at the same time he determined without delay to +make a new effort to get the fatal evidence of his former crime into his +own possession. + +"Oh," said Bullion, as if he had forgotten something, "the wife and +baby, let's see 'em." + +Fletcher called his wife, who came in timidly, and shrank from the +fierce look of the man of money. + +"How d'e do, Ma'am? Your servant, Ma'am. Glad to see you. But the baby?" + +"Fetch the baby, lovey," said Fletcher. + +Baby was brought, smiling with as little reason as possible, and winking +very hard in the light. + +"Pretty dear!" said Bullion, chucking her under the chin. + +"I wonder what the devil this means," thought Fletcher. + +How was his surprise increased when, after a moment, Bullion inquired,-- + +"Teeth cut yet? Some of 'em, I see. More to come. Want something to +bite, little one?" + +He pulled out his purse and gave the child three or four large gold +pieces. The little hands could not hold them, and they fell on the +carpet, rolling in different directions. Bullion left hastily, with a +quick nod and a clipped "Good-bye." + +"Well, I vow!" said Fletcher, with a long breath. "It's well he didn't +stay to pick 'em up; they'd 'ave stuck to his fingers like wax. He +couldn't have let 'em alone." + +"What a good man he is!" said the overjoyed little woman. + +"_Good_ man! He's crazy. Old Bullion giving away gold pieces to a baby! +He's lost his wits, sure. He never gave away a sixpence before in his +life. Oh, he's cracked, without a doubt. I must keep watch of him. When +_he_ grows generous, there's something wrong." + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE WATERFALL. + + + Down across the green and sunny meadow, + Where the grass hangs thick with glistening dew,-- + In the birch-wood's flickering light and shadow, + Where, between green leaves, the sun shines through,-- + + Plunging deeper in the wood's dark coolness, + Where the path grows rougher and more steep, + Where the trees stand thick in leafy fulness, + And the moss lies green in shadows deep:-- + + Hark! the wind amid the tree-tops rushing + In a sudden gust along the hills!-- + No,--the leaves are still,--'tis water gushing + From some hidden haunt of mountain-rills. + + Upward through the rugged pathway struggling, + Loud and louder yet the music grows; + Near and nearer still, the water's gurgling + Guides me where o'er moss-grown rocks it flows. + + Breathless, for its welcome coolness thirsting, + On I haste, led by the rushing sound, + Till upon my full sight sudden bursting, + Lo, the forest's hidden treasure found! + + See the gathered waters madly leaping, + Plunging from the rocks in headlong chase, + Boiling, eddying, whirling, downward sweeping + All that meets them in their foaming race! + + From the broken waters riseth ever, + Fresh and cool, a soft and cloud-like spray; + And where through the boughs slant sunbeams quiver, + On the mist the sudden rainbows play. + + On a branch high o'er the torrent swinging + Sits a bird, with joyful-swelling throat;-- + Only to the eye and heart he's singing; + Through the roar below I hear no note. + + All the forest seems as if enchanted, + Seems to lie in wondrous stillness bound; + Hushed its voices, silenced and supplanted, + Interwoven with this ceaseless sound. + + Gazing on the whirl of waters meeting, + Dizzy with its rush, I stand and dream, + Till it almost seems my own heart's beating, + And no more the voice of mountain-stream. + + + + +THE WINTER-BIRDS. + + +We are prone to set an extraordinary value upon all sources of pleasure +that arrive in a season when they are few and unexpected. Hence the +peculiar charm of the early flowers of spring, and of those equally +delightful flowers that come up to cheer the short and melancholy days +of November. The winter-birds, though they do not sing, are, on the same +account, particularly interesting. The Chicadees and the little speckled +Woodpeckers, that tarry with us in midwinter, and make the still cold +days lively and cheerful by their merry voices, are, in animated nature, +what flowers would be in inanimate nature, if they were found blooming +under the snow. Nature does not permit, at any season, an entire dearth +of those sources of enjoyment that spring from observation of the +external world; and as there are evergreen mosses and ferns that supply +in winter the places of the absent flowers, in like manner there are +chattering birds that linger in the wintry woods; and Nature has +multiplied the echoes at this season, that their few and feeble voices +may be repeated by their lively responses among the hills. + +To those who look upon Nature with the feelings of a poet or a painter, +we need not speak of the value of the winter-birds as enliveners of the +landscape. Any circumstance connected with scenery, that exercises our +feelings of benevolence, adds to the picturesque charms of a prospect; +and no man can see a little bird, or any other animal, at this time, +without feeling a lively interest in its welfare. The sight of a flock +of Snow-Buntings descending, like a shower of meteors, upon a field +of grass, and eagerly devouring the seeds contained in its drooping +pannicles that extend above the snow-drifts,--of a company of Crows +rejoicing with noisy sociability over some newly-discovered feast in the +pine-wood,--of the party-colored Woodpeckers winding round the trees +and hammering upon their trunks,--all these, and many other sights +and sounds, are associated with our ideas of the happiness of these +creatures; and while our benevolent feelings are thus agreeably +exercised, the objects that cause our emotions add a positive charm to +the dreary aspects of winter. These reflections have always led me to +regard the birds and other interesting animals as having a value to +mankind not to be estimated in dollars and cents, and which is entirely +independent of any services they may render to the farmer or the +orchardist by preventing the over-multiplication of noxious insects. + +The greater number of small birds that remain in northern latitudes +during winter, except the Woodpeckers and their congeners, are such as +subsist chiefly upon seeds. Those insectivorous species that gather +their food chiefly from the ground are under a particular necessity of +migrating. Hence the common Robin, living entirely on insects and a +little fruit, that serves him rather as a dessert than as substantial +fare, a bird that never feeds upon grain or seeds of any kind, but +devours the insects that are found upon the surface of the soil, cannot +subsist in our latitude, except in open winters. During such favorable +seasons, the Robins are able to collect vast quantities of dormant +insects from the open ground. These birds always endeavor to keep on the +outside of extensive snows; and if in any year, very early in November, +a large quantity of snow should fall in the latitude of New Jersey and +Pennsylvania, while north of it the ground remained uncovered, the +Robins would be retarded in their journey and tarry with us in unusual +numbers. A great many of them must perish of hunger, or be reduced to +the necessity of feeding on the berries of the Viburnum and Juniper, +should they be overtaken by an extensive and enduring snow that cuts off +their journey of emigration. + +The Woodpeckers and their allied species, though insectivorous, are not +thus affected by the winter. Gathering all their food, consisting of +larvae and insects, from the bark and wood of trees, the snow cannot +conceal it or place it beyond their reach. The quantity of this kind of +food is less than in summer, but the birds can obtain it with about +the same facility at all times, because other species of birds are +diminished, which in summer divide with them this spoil. Hence, +Woodpeckers, Creepers, and Tomtits do not migrate. They simply scatter +more widely over the country, instead of keeping in the woods, and thus +accommodate themselves to their more limited supplies of food. The +Swallow tribes, that catch their food in the air, are the first to +migrate, because the swarms of insects are vastly diminished by the +early frosts of autumn. + +It is not often that we are led to reflect upon the extreme loneliness +that would prevail in all solitary places in winter, were all the birds +to migrate at this season to a warmer climate, or to sink into a state +of torpidity, like frogs, dormice, and other small animals. But Nature, +to preserve the pleasantness of this season, has endowed certain +birds with power to endure the severest cold, and with the faculty of +providing for their wants at a time when it would seem that there was +not sustenance enough among the hidden stores of the season to keep them +from starvation. The woodman, however insensible he may be to the charms +of all such objects, is gladdened and encouraged in his toils by the +sight of these sprightly creatures, some of which, like the Jay and the +Woodpecker, are adorned with the most beautiful plumage, and are all +pleasantly garrulous, filling the otherwise silent woods with constant +and vociferous merriment. + +In my early days, for the supposed benefit of my health, I passed a +winter in Tennessee, and, being unoccupied, except with my studies, I +spent a great portion of my time in botanical and zooelogical excursions +in the woods adjoining the city of Nashville. It was during that season +I experienced the full power of the winter-birds to give life and beauty +to the scenes of Nature; for, though not one was heard to sing, they +seemed as active and as full of merriment as in the early summer. The +birds that most particularly attracted my attention at this time +were the Woodpeckers, of which several species were very numerous. +Conspicuous among them was the Pileated Woodpecker, (_Picus pilcaius_,) +a bird with rusty-black plumage, a red crest and moustaches, and a white +stripe on each side of the neck,--one of the largest of the tribe. His +loud croaking note was heard at all times in the deep woods, and his +great size and his frequent hammering upon the resounding boles of the +trees attracted every one's attention. + +A more beautiful, but smaller species, was the Redheaded Woodpecker, +(_P. erythrocephalus_,) with head, neck, and throat of crimson, and +other parts of his plumage variously marked with white and changeable +blue. This species, though never seen in Eastern Massachusetts, is a +common resident in this latitude, west of the Green-Mountain range. The +birds of this species were very numerous, during my excursions, and the +woods were constantly flushing with their bright colors as they flitted +among the trees. They were sometimes joined by another species, hardly +less beautiful, the Redbreasted Woodpecker (_P. Caroliniensis_). + +It is impossible to describe the charm which these birds afforded to +the otherwise solitary woods. The loud croaking of the Log-cock, the +cackling screams of the Redheaded Woodpecker, and the solemn, +tolling note of the Redbreast, blended with the occasional cooing of +Turtle-doves, formed a sylvan charm, that made my winter-rambles, at +this period, as interesting as any I ever pursued in summer or autumn. + +In our latitude, after the first flight of snow has covered the ground, +the winter-birds, pressed by hunger, are compelled to make extensive +forages in quest of food. Hence our attention is more closely +attracted to them at this time, as many parties of them will visit our +neighborhood in the course of the day, when if no snow had fallen, they +would have confined themselves to a more limited range. One of the +most attractive sights on such occasions is caused by the flocks of +Snow-Buntings, which are particularly gregarious in their habits. In +Sweden they are called "Bad-Weather-Birds," because they are mostly seen +when the fallen snow has caused them to roam from place to place, in +quest of their subsistence. They are far from being birds of ill-omen, +however, as we see them commonly when the storm is past. Few sights are +more picturesque than these flocks of Snow-Buntings, whirling with the +subsiding winds, and moving as if they were guided by an eddying breeze, +now half-concealed by the direction in which they meet the rays of the +sun, then suddenly flashing with a simultaneous turn they present the +under white side of their wings to the light of heaven. The power which +these diminutive creatures seem to possess, of enduring the cold of +winter, and of contending with the storm, attaches to their appearance +a quality which is allied to sublimity. I cannot look upon them, +therefore, in any other view than as important parts in that +ever-changing picture of light, motion, and beauty, with which Nature +benevolently consoles for those evils which are assigned by fate to all +the inhabitants of the earth. + +The common Snow-Birds (_Fringilla nivalis_) are more interesting as +individuals, but they are never seen in compact flocks. They go usually +in scattered parties, and appear in Massachusetts about the middle of +autumn, arriving from Canada and Labrador, where they spend the summer. +They have many of the habits of the common Hair-Bird, (_Fringilla +socialis_,) assembling around our houses and barns, and picking up +crumbs of bread and other fragments of food. They differ entirely +from the Buntings in their appearance, the latter being called +White Snow-Birds, to distinguish them from the others, which are +slate-colored. These birds are quite as remarkable, however, for their +power of enduring the cold, and of sustaining the force of the tempest. +In the midst of a snow-storm, they may often be seen sporting, as it +were, in the very whirlpool of the driving snows, and alighting upon the +tall sedges and weeds, and eagerly gathering the produce. The Hemp-Bird +often joins their parties, and his cheerful and well-known twitter may +be heard, as he hurriedly flits from one bush to another, hunting for +the seeds of the golden-rods and asters. + +The cause of the migration of these birds from their native northern +latitudes is not, probably, the severe cold of those regions, but the +deep snows that bury up their cereal stores at a very early period. But +even if the grounds in those cold latitudes were only partially covered, +these birds must scatter themselves over a wide extent of territory, in +proportion as their food becomes less abundant. They live principally +upon seeds, and hence their forages are made chiefly in the tilled +lands, where the weeds afford them an abundance of food. The negligence +of the tiller of the soil is, therefore, a great gain to the small +birds, by leaving a supply of seeds in the annual grasses that grow +thriftily with his crops. + +Among these flocks of Snow-Birds, a few individuals of the common +Hair-Bird (_Fringilla socialis_) may frequently be seen. The majority of +this species migrate to a more open clime; but sufficient numbers remain +to entitle them to be included with other Snow-Birds of the Finch tribe. +He is one of the smallest of the Sparrows, of a brownish ash color +above, and grayish white beneath. He wears a little cap or turban of +brown velvet on his head, and by this mark he is readily distinguished +from his kindred Sparrows. Relying on his diminutive size for his +security, he comes quite up to our door-step, mindless of the people who +are assembled round it, and, fearless of danger, picks up the crumbs +that are scattered there. He may be seen at all seasons of the year, +though his voice is not heard in the spring so early as that of the +Song-Sparrow or the Blue-Bird. He lives chiefly on seeds, though, +like other granivorous birds, he feeds his young with grubs and small +insects. This is a general practice with the granivorous tribes, in +order to provide their young with soft and digestible food before they +are strong enough to digest the hard, coriaceous seed. Nature has formed +an exception in the Pigeon tribe; but has compensated them by providing +that the parent bird shall soften the food in her own crop before it is +given to the tender young. From the peculiar manner in which the young +are fed comes the epithet, "sucking doves." + +It is common to speak disparagingly of the little Hair-Bird, as if he +were good for nothing, without beauty and without song, and, what is of +still more consequence in the eyes of the sordid epicure, too small to +be eaten, his weight of flesh not being worth a charge of powder and +shot. We can never sufficiently rejoice that there are some birds +too small to excite the avaricious feelings of these knights of the +fowling-piece and the rifle. The Hair-Bird is not to be despised, +except by epicures. Though he is contemptuously styled the +"Chipping-Sparrow,"--a name which I will never consent to apply to +him,--his voice is no mean accompaniment to the general chorus which may +be heard every still morning before sunrise, during May and June. His +continued trilling note is to this warbling band what the octave flute +is to a grand concert of artificial instruments. The voices of numbers +of these birds, which are the very first to be heard and the last to +become silent in the morning, serve to fill up the pauses in this sylvan +anthem, like a running _appoggiatural_ accompaniment in certain admired +musical compositions. How little soever the Hair-Bird may generally be +valued as a songster, his voice, I am sure, would be most sadly missed, +were it never more to be heard charmingly blending with the other louder +voices of the feathered choristers. + +How often, on still, sultry nights in July, when scarcely a breath of +air is stirring among the foliage of the trees, when the humming of the +Moth might be plainly heard, as it glided by my open window, have I been +charmed with the voice of this little bird, uttered in a low, trilled +note, from the branch of some neighboring tree! He seems to be the +sentinel whom Nature has appointed to watch for the first gleam of dawn, +which he always faithfully announces before any other bird has begun to +stir. Two or three strains from his octave pipe are the signal for a +general awakening of the birds, and one by one they join the song, +until the whole air resounds with an harmonious medley of voices. +The Hair-Bird has a singular habit of sitting upon the ground, while +chirping in the early morning. His nest is placed commonly upon an +apple-tree, sometimes in a bush, but never on the ground. It is very +neatly constructed of the fibres of roots closely woven together, and +beautifully lined with fine soft hair, whence he has obtained his name. +It is not surpassed in neatness and beauty by the nest of any other +bird. + +I will leave the granivorous birds to speak of another class, equally +hardy, but of habits more like those of the Woodpecker. I allude to the +Chicadees, to whose lively notes we are indebted for a great part of the +cheerfulness of a winter's walk. These notes are not a song; but there +is a liveliness in their sound, most frequently uttered during a +pleasant winter-day, causing them to be associated with these agreeable +changes in the weather. The Chicadees are not seen, like Snow-Birds, +most numerous during a snow-storm, or after a fall of snow. Their habits +are nearly the same in all weathers, except that they are more prone to +be noisy and loquacious on pleasant, sunny days. + +The sounds from which the Chicadee has derived his name appear to be his +call-notes, like the crowing of a Cock or the gobbling of a Turkey, and +are probably designed by Nature to enable the birds, while scattered +singly over the forest, to signalize their presence to others of the +same species. Hence it may be observed, that, when the call is rapidly +repeated, a multitude of his kindred will immediately assemble around +the one that gave the alarm. When no alarm is intended to be given, the +bird utters these notes but seldom, and only as he passes from one tree +to another. He is probably accustomed to hearing a response, and, if one +is not soon heard, he will repeat his call until it is answered; for as +these birds do not forage the woods in flocks, this continual hailing +is carried on between them to satisfy their desire for each other's +company. A similar conversation passes between the individuals of a +flock of Chickens, when scattered over a farmyard; one, on finding +itself alone, will chirp until it hears a response, when it seems +immediately satisfied. The call-notes of the Chicadee are very lively, +with a mixture of querulousness in their tone, that renders them the +more pleasing. + +The Chicadee is the smallest of the birds that remain with us during the +winter. He is a permanent resident, and everybody knows him. He is a +lively chatterer and an agreeable companion; and as he never tarries +long in one place, he does not tire one with his garrulity. He is our +attendant in all our pleasant winter-walks, in the orchard or the wood, +in the garden or by the rustic wayside. We have seen him, on still +winter-days, flitting from tree to tree, with the liveliest motions and +in the most engaging attitudes, examining every twig and branch, and +winding over and under and in and out among them, and, after a +few lively notes, hopping to another tree to pass through the same +manoeuvres. Even those who are confined to the house are not excluded +from a sight of these birds; one cannot open a window, on a bright +winter's morning, without a greeting from one of them on the nearest +tree. + +Beside the note from which the Chicadee derives his name, he sometimes +utters two very plaintive notes, which are separated by a regular +musical interval, making a fourth on the descending scale. They slightly +resemble those of the Pewee, and are often supposed to come from some +other bird, so different are they from the common note of the Chicadee. +I have not been able to ascertain the circumstances under which the bird +repeats this plaintive strain, but it is uttered both in summer and +winter. Indeed, there is such a variety in the notes uttered at +different times by this bird, that, if they were repeated in +uninterrupted succession, they would form one of the most agreeable of +woodland melodies. + +The Chicadee is not a singing-bird. He utters his usual notes at all +times of the year; but in the early part of summer he is addicted to a +very low but pleasant kind of warbling, considerably varied, and wanting +only more loudness and precision to entitle him to a rank with the +singing-birds. This warbling does not seem intended to cheer his +partner, but it is rather a sort of soliloquizing for his own amusement. +If it was uttered by the young birds only, we might suppose them to be +taking lessons in music, and that this was a specimen of their first +attempts. I have often heard the Golden Robin warbling in a similar +manner. + +In company with the Chicadees in their foraging excursions, we often see +two Speckled Woodpeckers, differing apparently only in size, each having +a sort of red crest. The smaller of the two (_Picus pubescens_) is the +Downy Woodpecker. The birds of this species are called "Sap-Suckers," +from their habit of making perforations in the sound branches of trees +through the bark without penetrating the wood, as if they designed only +to obtain the sap. These perforations are often made in a circle round +the branch, and it is highly probable that they follow the path of a +grub that is concealed underneath the bark. Our farmers, who suspect +every bird of some mischievous designs, accuse them of boring into the +tree for the purpose of drinking the sap. + +The Woodpecker is a more restless, though not a more industrious +bird than the Chicadee, and seldom gives the branches so thorough an +examination as the latter. He searches for grubs that are concealed in +the wood of the tree; he examines those spots only where he hears their +scratchings, bores the wood to obtain them, and then flies off. But the +Chicadee looks for insects on or near the surface, and does not confine +his search to trees. He examines fences, the under part of the eaves of +houses, and the woodpile, and destroys, in the course of his foraging, +many an embryo moth and butterfly which would otherwise become the +parent of noxious larvae. The Woodpecker is often represented as the +emblem of industry; but the Chicadee is more truly emblematical of this +virtue, and the Woodpecker of perseverance, as he never tires when +drilling into the wood of a tree in quest of his prey. + +Another of the companions of the Chicadee is the Brown Creeper, +(_Certhia familiaris_,) of similar habits, and commonly seen moving in a +spiral direction around the trunks and branches of trees, and, when +he is conscious of being observed, keeping on the further side of the +branch. He is more frequently seen in the winter than in the summer, +when he confines himself to the seclusion of the pine forest. The +different birds which I have named, as companions of the Chicadee, often +assemble by seeming accident in large numbers upon one tree, and meeting +with more company than is agreeable to them, they will often on these +occasions make the wood resound with their noisy disputes. They may +have been assembled by some accidental note of alarm, and on finding +no particular cause for it, they raise a shout that reminds one of the +extraordinary vociferation with which young men and boys conclude a +false alarm of fire in the early part of the night. These different +birds, though evidently social, are not gregarious, and seldom, without +vexation, endure the presence of more than two or three companions. + +The Nut-Hatch (_Sitta Caroliniensis_) is often found among these +assemblages, and may be recognized by his piercing trumpet-like note. +This bird resembles the Woodpeckers in the shape of the bill, but has +only one hinder toe, instead of two; and is said to have derived its +name from a habit of breaking open or hatching nuts, to obtain the +kernel. He is a permanent inhabitant of the cold parts of the American +continent, resembling the Titmouse in his diligence and activity, and in +the various manoeuvres he performs while in quest of his insect-food. + +There are times when even this class of birds, that collect their food +from the bark and wood of trees, are driven to great extremities. When +the trees are incased with ice, which, though not impenetrable by their +strong bills, prevents their laying hold of the bark with their claws +for support, they are in some danger of starving. It is at such times +that the gardens and barnyards are frequented by large numbers of +Woodpeckers, Creepers, and Nut-Hatches, driven by this necessity from +their usual haunts. A piece of suet fastened to the branch of a tree, +at any time of the winter, would soon be discovered by these birds and +afford them a grateful repast. I have frequently assembled them under my +windows by this allurement. + +I will leave the Chicadees and their companions to speak of another +class of birds of different character and habits: these are the Jays, +and their sable-plumed congeners of the Crow family. In all parts of +the country that abound in woods of any description, we are sure to be +greeted by the loud voice of the Blue Jay, one of the most conspicuous +tenants of the forest. He has a beautiful outward appearance, under +which he conceals an unamiable temper and a propensity to mischief. +Indeed, there is no other bird in our forest that is arrayed in equal +splendor. His neck of fine purple, his pale azure crest and head +with silky plumes, his black crescent-shaped collar, his wings and +tail-feathers of bright blue with stripes of white and black, and his +elegant form and vivacious manners, combine to render him attractive to +all observers. + +But with all this beauty, he has, like the Peacock, a harsh voice; he is +a thief, and a disturber of the peace. He is a sort of Ishmael among the +sylvan tribes, who are startled at the sound of his voice, and fear him +as a bandit. The farmer, who is well acquainted with his habits, is no +friend to him; for he not only takes what is required for his immediate +wants, but hoards a variety of articles in large quantities for future +use. It would seem as if he were aware when he was engaged in an honest +and when in a dishonest expedition; for while searching for food in the +the wood or open field, he is extremely noisy,--but when he ventures +into a barn, to take what does not belong to him, he is silent and +stealthy, and exhibits all the peculiar manners of a thief. + +It would be no mean task to enumerate all the acts of mischief +perpetrated by this bird; and I cannot but look upon him as one the +most guilty of the feathered tribe. He plunders the cornfield both +at seed-time and harvest; he steals everything that is eatable, and +conceals it in his hoarding-places; he destroys the eggs of smaller +birds and devours their young; he quarrels with all other species, and +his life is a constant scene of contentions. He is restless, pugnacious, +and irascible, and always seems like one who is out on some expedition. +Yet, though a pest to other birds, he is a watchful parent and a +faithful guardian of his off-spring. It is dangerous to venture near +the nest of a pair of Jays, as they immediately attack the adventurer, +aiming their blows at his face and eyes with the most savage +determination. + +Like the Magpie, the Jay has considerable talent for mimicry, and in a +state of domestication may be taught to articulate words like a Parrot. +At certain times I have heard this bird utter a few notes resembling the +tinkle of a bell, and which, if syllabled, might form such a word as +_dilly-lily_; but it is not a musical strain. Indeed, there is no music +in his nature, and in all his imitations of other sounds he prefers the +harsh to the melodious, such as the voice of the Hawk, the Owl, and +other unmusical birds. + +The Blue Jay is a true American; he is known throughout this continent, +and never visits any other country. At no season is he absent from our +woods, and he is an industrious consumer of the larger insects and +grubs, atoning in this way for some of his evil deeds. In this respect, +however, his services are not to be compared to those of the Robin and +the Blue-Bird. Yet I am not prepared to say that I would consent to his +banishment, for he is one of the most cheering tenants of the groves, at +a season when they have but few inhabitants; and I never listen to his +voice without recalling a crowd of charming reminiscences of pleasant +winter excursions and adventures at an early period of my life. The very +harshness of his voice has caused it to be impressed more forcibly upon +the memory, in connection with these scenes. + +The common Crow may be considered the representative, in America, of +the European Rook, which he resembles in many of his habits, performing +similar services, and being guilty of the same mischievous deeds. It +is remarkable that in Europe, where land is more valuable than in this +country, and where agriculture is carried on with an amount of skill and +nicety that would astonish an American farmer, the people are not +so jealous of the birds. In Great Britain rookeries are regular +establishments, and the Rooks, notwithstanding the mischief they do, are +protected, on account of their services to agriculture. The farmers of +Europe, having learned by repeated observation, that, without the aid +of mischievous birds, the work of the farmer would be sacrificed to +the more destructive insect-race, forgive them their trespasses, as we +forgive the trespasses of cats and dogs. The respect shown to birds by +any people seems to bear a certain ratio to the antiquity of the nation. +Hence the sacredness with which they are regarded in Japan, where the +population is so dense that the inhabitants would feel that they could +ill afford to divide the produce of their fields with the birds, unless +they were convinced of their usefulness. + +The Crow is one of the most unfortunate of the feathered tribe in his +relations to man; for by almost all nations he is regarded with hatred, +and every man's hand is against him. He is protected neither by custom +nor superstition; the sentimentalist cares nothing for him as an object +of poetical regard, and the utilitarian is blind to his services as a +scavenger. The farmer considers him as the very ringleader of mischief, +and uses all means he can invent for his destruction; the friend of the +singing-birds bears him a grudge as the destroyer of their eggs and +young; and even the moralist is disposed to condemn him for his cunning +and dissimulation. + +Hence he is everywhere hated and persecuted, and the expedients used for +his destruction are numerous and revolting to the sensibilities. He +is outlawed by acts of Parliament and other legislative bodies; he is +hunted with the gun; he is caught in crow-nets; he is hoodwinked with +bits of paper smeared with bird-lime, in which he is caught by means of +a bait; he is poisoned with grain steeped in hellebore and strychnine; +the reeds in which he roosts are treacherously set on fire; he is +pinioned by his wings, on his back, and is made to grapple his +sympathizing companions who come to his rescue; like an infidel, he is +not allowed the benefit of truth to save his reputation; and children, +after receiving lessons of humanity, are taught to regard the Crow as +an unworthy subject when they carry their precepts into practice. Every +government has set a price upon his head, and every people holds him up +to public execration. + +As an apology for these atrocities, might be enumerated a long catalogue +of misdemeanors of which he is guilty. He pillages the cornfield, and +pulls up the young shoots of maize to obtain the kernels attached to +their roots; he destroys the eggs and the young of innocent birds which +we should like to preserve; he purloins fruit from the garden and +orchard, and carries off young ducks and chickens from the farmyard. +Beside his mischievous propensities and his habits of thieving, he is +accused of cunning, and of a depraved disposition. He who would plead +for the Crow will not deny the general truth of these accusations, but, +on the other hand, would enumerate certain special benefits which he +confers upon man. + +In the catalogue of the services of this bird we find many details +which should lead us to pause before we consent to his destruction. He +consumes, in the course of the year, vast quantities of grubs, worms, +and noxious vermin; he is a valuable scavenger, and clears the land +of offensive masses of decaying animal substances; he hunts the +grass-fields, and pulls out and devours the underground caterpillars, +wherever he perceives the signs of their operations, as evinced by the +wilted stalks; he destroys mice, young rats, lizards, and the smaller +serpents; lastly, he is a volunteer sentinel about the farm, and drives +the Hawk from its inclosures, thus preventing greater mischief than +that of which he himself is guilty. It is chiefly during seed-time and +harvest that the depredations of the Crow are committed; during the +remainder of the year we witness only his services; and so highly are +these services appreciated by those who have written of birds, that I +cannot name an ornithologist who does not plead in his behalf. + +Let us turn our attention, for a moment, to his moral qualities. In vain +is he accused of cunning, when without this quality he could not live. +His wariness is really a virtue, and, under the circumstances in which +he is placed, it is his principal means of self-preservation. He has no +moral principles, no creed, to which he is under obligations to offer +himself as a martyr. His cunning is his armor; and I am persuaded that +the persecutions to which he has always been subjected have caused the +development of an amount of intelligence that elevates him many degrees +above the majority of the feathered race. + +There are few birds that equal the Crow in sagacity. He observes many +things that would seem to require the faculties of a rational being. He +judges with accuracy, from the deportment of the person approaching him, +if he is prepared to do him an injury; and seems to pay no regard to one +who is strolling the fields in search of flowers or for recreation. On +such occasions, one may get so near him as to observe his manners, and +even to note the varying shades of his plumage. But in vain does the +sportsman endeavor to approach him. So sure is he to fly at the right +moment for his safety, that one might suppose he could measure the +distance of gunshot. + +The voice of the Crow is like no other sound uttered by the feathered +race; it is harsh and unmelodious, and though he is capable, when +domesticated, of imitating human speech, he cannot sing. But Aesop +mistook the character of this bird when he represented him as the dupe +of the fox, who gained the bit of cheese he carried in his mouth by +inducing him to exhibit his musical powers. The Crow could not be fooled +by any such appeals to his vanity. + +The Crow is commonly regarded as a homely bird; yet he is not without +beauty. His coat of glossy black with violet reflections, his dark eyes +and sagacious expression of countenance, his stately and graceful gait, +and his steady and equable flight, combine to give him a proud and +dignified appearance. The Crow and the Raven have always been celebrated +for their gravity, a character that seems to be the result of their +black sacerdotal vesture, and of certain manifestations of intelligence +in their ways and general deportment. Indeed, any one who should watch +the motions of the Crow for the space of five minutes, either when he is +stalking alone in the field, or when he is careering with his fellows +around some tall tree in the forest, would acknowledge that he deserves +to be called a grave bird. + +Setting aside the services rendered by the Crow to agriculture, I esteem +him for certain qualities which are agreeably associated with the charms +of Nature. It is not the singing-birds alone that contribute by their +voices to gladden the husbandman and cheer the solitary traveller. The +crowing of the Cock at the break of day is as joyful a sound, though not +so musical, as the voice of the Robin who chants his lays at the same +early hour. To me the cawing of the Crow is cheering and delightful, and +it is heard long before the majority of birds have left their perch. If +not one of the melodies of morn, it is one of the most notable sounds +that herald its approach. And how intimately is the voice of this bird +associated with the sunshine of calm winter-days,--with our woodland +excursions during this inclement season,--with the stroke of the +woodman's axe,--with open doors in bright and pleasant weather, when the +eaves are dripping with the melting snow,--and with all those cheerful +sounds that enliven the groves during that period when every object +is valuable that relieves the silence or softens the dreary aspect of +Nature! + +If we leave the open fields and woods, and ramble near the coast to some +retired and solitary branch of the sea, our meditations may be suddenly +startled by the harsh voice of the Kingfisher, like the sound of a +watchman's rattle. This bird is seldom seen in winter in the interior; +most of his species migrate southwardly and to the sea-coast, just so +far as to be within reach of the open waters. As they subsist on the +smaller kinds of fishes, they would perish with hunger, after the waters +are frozen, if they did not migrate. But the Kingfisher often remains on +the coast during open winters, and may therefore be considered one of +our winter-birds. + +This bird is the celebrated Alcedo, or Halcyon, of the ancients, who +attributed to him many apparently supernatural powers. He was supposed +to construct his nest upon the waves, on which it was made to float like +a skiff. But as the turbulence of a storm would be likely to cause its +destruction, Nature had gifted him with the extraordinary power of +stilling the motions of the winds and waves, during the period of +incubation. Hence the serene weather that accompanies the summer +solstice was supposed to be occasioned by the benign influence of this +bird, and the term "halcyon days" was applied to this period. It is +remarkable that the fable should add to these supernatural gifts the +power of song, as one of the accomplishments of the Kingfisher. These +superstitions must have been very general among the ancients, and were +not confined to the Greeks and Romans. Some of the Asiatic nations still +wear the skin of the Kingfisher about their persons, as a protection +against both moral and physical evils; the feathers are used as +love-charms; and it is believed, that, if the body of the Kingfisher be +evenly fixed upon a pivot, it will turn its head to the north, like the +magnetic needle. + +This bird is singularly grotesque in his appearance, though not without +beauty of plumage. With his long, straight, and quadrangular bill, his +short and diminutive feet and legs, and his immense head, his plumage +of a handsome dusky blue, with a bluish band on the breast and a white +collar around the neck,--when this mixture of the grotesque and the +beautiful is considered in connection with the singularity of his +habits, we need not marvel at the superstitions connected with his +history. He sits patiently, like an angler, on a post at the head of a +wharf, or on a branch of a tree that extends over the bank, and, leaning +obliquely, with extended head and beak, he watches for his finny prey. +There, with the light blue sky above him and the dark blue waves +beneath, nothing on the surface of the water can escape his penetrating +eyes. Quickly, with a sudden swoop, he seizes a single fish from an +unsuspecting shoal, and announces his success by the peculiar sound of +his rattle. + +It may not have been observed by all that the most interesting periods +or situations for rambling are not those which most abound with exciting +scenes and objects. There must be a certain dearth of individual objects +that draw the attention, intermingled with occasional remarkable or +mysterious sights and sounds, to yield an excursion its greatest +interest. The hunter (unless he be a purveyor for the market) +understands this philosophy, and knows that there is more pleasure +in chasing a single deer or a solitary fox over miles of pasture +and moorland, than in hunting where these animals are abundant, and +slaughtering them as fast as one can load his gun. The pleasures +attending a rural excursion in the winter are founded on this fact, and +may be explained by this principle. There, amid the general silence, +every sound attracts attention and is accompanied by its echo; and since +the trees and shrubs have lost their leafy garniture, every tree and +other object has its own distinct shadow, and we fix our attention +more easily upon anything that excites our interest than when it is +distracted by the confusion of numbers. + +Hence it is in the winter that the picturesque character of the flight +of birds is particularly noticeable. In summer, and in autumn, before +the fall of the leaf, birds are partially concealed by the foliage of +trees, so that the manner of their flight does not become so readily +apparent. But in winter, if we start a flock of birds from the ground, +we can hardly avoid taking notice of all the peculiarities of their +movements. I have alluded to the descent of Snow-Buntings upon the +landscape as singularly picturesque; but the motions of a flock of +Quails, when suddenly aroused from a thicket, are not less so. When a +Pigeon, or any other bird with strong and large wings, takes flight, the +motions of its wings are not vibratory, and its progress through the air +is so rapid as to injure the pleasing effect of its motions, because we +obtain no distinct perception of the bird during its flight. It is quite +otherwise with the Quail. The body of this bird is plump and heavy, and +his wings are short, and have a peculiar concavity of the under surface +when expanded; their motions are very rapid, and, having but little +sweep, the bird seems to sail on the air, carried along by a gentle but +rapid vibration of the wings, which describe only a very small arc of a +circle. Hence we observe the entire shape of the bird during its flight. +The Partridge, and other gallinaceous birds, fly in a similar manner; +but, on account of their larger size, their motions are less attractive. + +The Humming-Bird has proportionally larger wings than the Quail, and, +when flying, his wings describe almost a complete circle in their rapid +vibrations. If we look upon one during his flight, he seems to have no +wings, but rather to be encircled by a semi-transparent halo. There +are other birds that seem to be wings only, their bodies being hardly +perceptible, on account of their small proportional size; such are the +Swallow, the Pigeon, the Cuckoo, and the Night-Hawk. + +Birds of prey are remarkable for their steady and graceful flight; the +motion of their wings is slow, while, like the Pigeon, they are capable +of propelling themselves through the air with great rapidity. The +circumgyrations of a Hawk, when reconnoitring far aloft in the air, are +singularly graceful. The flight of the Crow and the Raven is slow and +apparently difficult, and they are easily overtaken and annoyed by the +King-Bird and other small birds. They are not formed, like the Falcon, +to catch their prey upon the wing, and, though their wings are large and +powerful, they are incapable of performing those graceful and difficult +evolutions which we observe in the flight of birds of prey. The flight +of Herons resembles that of the Raven. + +Small birds, with the exception of a few species, move in an undulating +course, alternately rising and sinking. Birds that move in this manner +are, I believe, incapable of making a long journey on the wing without +rest, and commonly perform their migrations by short daily stages. + +The flight of the little Sand-Pipers, which frequent the salt marshes in +numerous flocks, is particularly worthy of study. It is not unlike the +flight of Quails, but more evenly sustained, on account of the greater +length and power of their wings. These birds are capable of holding an +even flight in a perfectly horizontal line, only a few inches above the +surface of the ground. When they alight, they seldom make a curve or +gyration, but descend in a straight and oblique course. Snow-Buntings +usually turn about, just before they reach the ground; and I have +seen them perform the most intricate changes, like the movements of a +cotillon-party, executed with the rapidity of arrows, when suddenly +checked in their flight by the discovery of a good tract of forage. + +With these observations, which might be indefinitely extended, I take +leave of the subject, simply remarking, that to the motions of birds, no +less than to their beauty of plumage and the sounds of their voices, +are we indebted for a great part of the picturesque attractions of +landscape; and the more we study them, the more are we convinced, that, +in whatever direction we turn our observations, we may extend them to +infinity. There is no limit to any study of Nature, and even one so +apparently insignificant as the flight of birds leads to an endless +series of interesting facts, and opens the eyes to new beauties in the +aspect of Nature and new sources of rational delight. + + + + +"THE NEW LIFE" OF DANTE. + +[Concluded.] + + +III. + + +The year 1289 was one marked in the annals of Florence and of Italy by +events which are still famous, scored by the genius of Dante upon the +memory of the world. It was in this year that Count Ugolino and his sons +and grandsons were starved by the Pisans in their tower prison. A few +months later, Francesca da Rimini was murdered by her husband. Between +the dates of these two terrible events the Florentines had won the great +victory of Campaldino; and thus, in this short space, the materials had +been given to the poet for the two best-known and most powerful stories +and for one of the most striking episodes of the "Divina Commedia." + +In the great and hard-fought battle of Campaldino Dante himself took +part. "I was at first greatly afraid," he says, in a letter of which +but a few sentences have been preserved,[A]--"but at the end I felt the +greatest joy,--according to the various chances of the battle." When the +victorious army returned to Florence, a splendid procession, with the +clergy at its head, with the arts of the city each under its banner, and +with all manner of pomp, went out to meet it. There were long-continued +feasts and rejoicings. The battle had been fought on the 11th of June, +the day of St. Barnabas, and the Republic, though already engaged in +magnificent works of church-building, decreed that a new church should +be erected in honor of the Saint on whose day the victory had been won. + +[Footnote A: See Lionardo Aretino's _Vita di Dante._] + +A little later in that summer, Dante was one of a troop of Florentines +who joined the forces of Lucca in levying war upon the Pisan territory. +The stronghold of Caprona was taken, and Dante was present at its +capture; for he says, (_Inferno,_ xxi. 94-96,) "I saw the foot-soldiers, +who, having made terms, came out from Caprona, afraid when they beheld +themselves among so many enemies."[B] + +[Footnote B: Landino, and most of the commentators after him, state that +Dante refers in this passage to the fear of the garrison taken in +the place when it was recaptured the next year by the Pisans. But as +Florence and Pisa continued at desperate enmity, Dante could hardly have +witnessed this latter scene.] + +Thus, during a great part of the summer of 1289, Dante was in active +service as a soldier. He was no lovesick idler, no mere home-keeping +writer of verses, but was already taking his part in the affairs of the +state which he was afterwards to be called on for a time to assist in +governing, and he was laying up those stores of experience which were to +serve as the material out of which his vivifying imagination was to form +the great national poem of Italy. But of this active life, of these +personal engagements, of these terrible events which took such strong +possession of his soul, there is no word, no suggestion even, in the +book of his "New Life." In it there is no echo, however faint, of those +storms of public violence and private passion which broke dark over +Italy. In the midst of the tumults which sprang from the jealousies of +rival states, from the internal discords of cities, from the divisions +of parties, from the bitterness of domestic quarrels,--this little book +is full of tenderness and peace, and tells its story of love as if the +world were the abode of tranquillity. No external excitements could +break into the inner chambers of Dante's heart to displace the love that +dwelt within them. The contrast between the purity and the serenity of +the "Vita Nuova" and the coarseness and cruelty of the deeds that were +going on while it was being written is complete. Every man in some sort +leads a double life,--one real and his own, the other seeming and the +world's,--but with few is the separation so entire as it was with +Dante. + +But in these troubled times the "New Life" was drawing to its close. +The spring of 1290 had come, and the poet, now twenty-five years old, +sixteen years having passed since he first beheld Beatrice, was engaged +in writing a poem to tell what effect the virtue of his lady wrought +upon him. He had written but the following portion when it was broken +off, never to be resumed:-- + + "So long hath Love retained me at his hest, + And to his sway hath so accustomed me, + That as at first he cruel used to be, + So in my heart he now doth sweetly rest. + Thus when by him my strength is dispossessed, + So that the spirits seem away to flee, + My frail soul feels such sweetness verily, + That with it pallor doth my face invest. + Then Love o'er me such mastery doth seize, + He makes my sighs in words to take their way, + And they unto my lady go to pray + That she to give me further grace would please. + Where'er she sees me, this to me occurs, + Nor can it be believed what humbleness is hers." + +"'Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo! facta est quasi vidua domina +gentium!' [How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how +is she become as a widow, she that was great among the nations!][C] + +[Footnote C: _Lamentations_, I. 1.] + +"I was yet engaged upon this Canzone, and had finished the above stanza, +when the Lord of justice called this most gentle one unto glory under +the banner of that holy Queen Mary whose name was ever spoken with +greatest reverence by this blessed Beatrice.[D] + +[Footnote D: There is among the Canzoni of Dante one beginning, + + "Morte poich' io non truovo a cui mi doglia," + +which seems to have been written during the illness of Beatrice, in view +of her approaching death. It is a beautiful and touching poem. Death is +besought to spare that lady, "who of every good is the true gate."--"If +thou extinguishest the light of those beautiful eyes, which were wont to +be so sweet a guide to mine, I see that thou desirest my death." + + "O Death, delay not mercy, if 'tis thine! + For now I seem to see the heavens ope, + And Angels of the Lord descending here, + Intent to bear away the holy soul + Of her whose honor there above is sung."] + +"And although it might give pleasure, were I now to tell somewhat of her +departure from us, it is not my intention to treat of it here for three +reasons. The first is, that it is no part of the present design, as may +be seen in the proem of this little book. The second is, that, supposing +it were so, my pen would not be sufficient to treat of it in a fitting +manner. The third is, that, supposing both the one and the other, it +would not be becoming in me to treat of it, since, in doing so, I +should be obliged to praise myself,--a thing altogether blameworthy in +whosoever does it,--and therefore I leave this subject to some other +narrator. + +"Nevertheless, since in what precedes there has been occasion to make +frequent mention of the number nine,[E] and apparently not without +reason, and since in her departure this number appeared to have a large +place, it is fitting to say something on this point, seeing that it +seems to belong to our design. Wherefore I will first tell how it had +place in her departure, and then I will assign some reason why this +number was so friendly to her. I say, that, according to the mode of +reckoning in Italy, her most noble soul departed in the first hour of +the ninth day of the month; and according to the reckoning, in Syria, +she departed in the ninth month of the year, since the first month there +is Tismim, which with us is October; and according to our reckoning, she +departed in that year of our indiction, that is, of the years of the +Lord, in which the perfect number[F] was completed for the ninth time in +that century in which she had been set in the world; and she was of the +Christians of the thirteenth century.[G] + +[Footnote E: In the earlier part of the _Vita Nuova_ there are many +references to this number. We translate in full the passage given above, +as one of the most striking illustrations of Dante's youthful fondness +for seeking for the mystical relations and inner meanings of things. The +attributing such importance to the properties of the number nine, though +it might at first seem puerile and an indication of poverty of feeling, +was a portion of the superstitious belief of the age, in which Dante +naturally shared. The mysterious properties of numbers were a subject of +serious study, and were connected with various branches of science and +of life. + +"Themistius vero, et Boethius, et Averrois Babylonius, cum Platone, sic +numeros extollunt, ut neminem absque illis posse recte philosophari +putent. Loquuntur autem de numero rationali et formali, non de +materiali, sensibili, sive vocali numero mercatorum.... Sed intendunt ad +proportionem ex illo resultantem, quem numerum naturalem et formalem et +rationalem vocant; ex quo magna sacramenta emanant, tam in naturalibus +quam divinis atque coelestibus.... In numeris itaque magnam latere +efficaciam et virtutem tam ad borum quam ad malum, non modo +splendidissimi philosophi unanimiter docent, sed etiam doctores +Catholici."--Cornelii Agrippae _De Occulta Philosophia_, Liber Secundus, +cc. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote F: The perfect number is ten.] + +[Footnote G: Thus it appears that Beatrice died on the 9th of June, +1290. She was a little more than twenty-four years old.] + +"One reason why this number was so friendly to her may be this: since, +according to Ptolemy and the Christian truth, there are nine heavens +which move, and, according to the common astrological opinion, these +heavens work effects here below according to their relative positions, +this number was her friend, to the end that it might be understood that +at her generation all the nine movable heavens were in most perfect +conjunction.[H] This is one reason; but considering more subtilely and +according to infallible truth, this number was she herself,--I speak in +a similitude, and I mean as follows. The number three is the root of +nine, since, without any other number, multiplied by itself, it makes +nine,--as we see plainly that three times three are nine. Then, if +three is the factor by itself of nine, and the Author of Miracles[I] +by himself is three,--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are three and +one,--this lady was accompanied by the number nine that it might be +understood that she was a nine, that is, a miracle, whose only root is +the marvellous Trinity. Perhaps a more subtle person might discover some +more subtile reason for this; but this is the one that I see for it, and +which pleases me the best." + +[Footnote H: Compare with this passage Ballata v., + + "Io mi son pargoletta bella e nova," + +and Sonnet xlv., + + "Da quella luce che 'I suo corso gira"; + +the latter probably in praise of Philosophy.] + +[Footnote I: The point is here lost in a translation,--_factor_ and +_author_ being expressed in the original by one word, _fattore_.] + +After thus treating of the number nine in its connection with Beatrice, +Dante goes on to say, that, when this most gentle lady had gone from +this world, the city appeared widowed and despoiled of every dignity; +whereupon he wrote to the princes of the earth an account of its +condition, beginning with the words of Jeremiah which he quoted at the +entrance of this new matter. The remainder of this letter he does not +give, because it was in Latin, and in this work it was his intention, +from the beginning, to write only in the vulgar tongue; and such was the +understanding of the friend for whom he writes,--that friend being, as +we may suppose, Guido Cavalcanti, whom Dante, it may be remembered, +has already spoken of as the chief among his friends. Then succeeds +a Canzone lamenting the death of Beatrice, which, instead of being +followed by a verbal exposition, as is the case with all that have gone +before, is preceded by one, in order that it may seem, as it were, +desolate and like a widow at its end. And this arrangement is preserved +in regard to all the remaining poems in the little volume. In this poem +he says that the Eternal Sire called Beatrice to himself, because he saw +that this world was not worthy of such a gentle thing; and he says of +his own life, that no tongue could tell what it has been since his lady +went away to heaven. + +Among the sonnets ascribed to Dante is one which, if it be his, must +have been written about this time, and which, although not included in +the "Vita Nuova," seems not unworthy to find a place here. Its imagery, +at least, connects it with some of the sonnets in the earlier portion of +the book. + + "One day came Melancholy unto me, + And said, 'With thee I will awhile abide'; + And, as it seemed, attending at her side, + Anger and Grief did bear her company. + + "'Depart! Away!' I cried out eagerly. + Then like a Greek she unto me replied; + And while she stood discoursing in her pride, + I looked, and Love approaching us I see. + + "In cloth of black full strangely was he clad, + A little hood he wore upon his head, + And down his face tears flowing fast he had. + + "'Poor little wretch! what ails thee?' then I said. + And he replied, 'I woful am, and sad, + Sweet brother, for our lady who is dead.'" + +About this time, Dante tells us, a person who stood to him in friendship +next to his first friend, and who was of the closest relationship to his +glorious lady, so that we may believe it was her brother, came to +him and prayed him to write something on a lady who was dead. Dante, +believing that he meant the blessed Beatrice, accordingly wrote for him +a sonnet; and then, reflecting that so short a poem appeared but a poor +and bare service for one who was so nearly connected with her, added to +it a Canzone, and gave both to him. + +As the months passed on, his grief still continued fresh, and the memory +of his lady dwelt continually with him. It happened, that, "on that day +which completed a year since this lady was made one of the citizens of +eternal life, I was seated in a place where, remembering her, I drew +an Angel upon certain tablets. And while I was drawing it, I turned +my eyes, and saw at my side certain men to whom it was becoming to do +honor, and who were looking at what I did; and, as was afterward told +me, they had been there now some time before I perceived them. When I +saw them, I rose, and, saluting them, said, 'Another was just now with +me, and on that account I was in thought.' When these persons had gone, +I returned to my work, that is, to drawing figures of Angels; and while +doing this, a thought came to me of saying words in rhyme, as for an +anniversary poem for her, and of addressing them to those who had come +to me. Then I said this sonnet, which has two beginnings:-- + + FIRST BEGINNING. + + "Unto my mind remembering had come + The gentle lady, with such pure worth graced, + That by the Lord Most High she had been placed + Within the heaven of peace, where Mary hath her home." + + SECOND BEGINNING. + + "Unto my mind had come, indeed, in thought, + That gentle one for whom Love's tears are shed, + Just at the time when, by his power led, + To see what I was doing you were brought. + + "Love, who within my mind did her perceive, + Was roused awake within my wasted heart, + And said unto my sighs, 'Go forth! depart!' + Whereon each one in grief did take its leave. + + "Lamenting they from out my breast did go, + And uttering a voice that often led + The grievous tears unto my saddened eyes. + + "But those which issued with the greatest woe, + 'O noble soul,' they in departing said, + 'To-day makes up the year since thou to heaven didst rise.'" + +The preceding passage is one of the many in the "Vita Nuova" which are +of peculiar interest, as illustrating the personal tastes of Dante, and +the common modes of his life. "I was drawing," he says, "the figure of +an Angel"; and this statement is the more noticeable, because Giotto, +the man who set painting on its modern course, was not yet old enough +to have exercised any influence upon Dante.[J] The friendship which +afterwards existed between them had its beginning at a later period. At +this time Cimabue still held the field. He often painted angels around +the figures of the Virgin and her Child; and in his most famous picture, +in the Church of Sta. Maria Novella, there are certain angels of which +Vasari says, with truth, that, though painted in the Greek manner, they +show an approach toward the modern style of drawing. These angels may +well have seemed beautiful to eyes accustomed to the hard unnaturalness +of earlier works. The love of Art pervaded Florence, and a nature so +sensitive and so sympathetic as Dante's could not but partake of it +in the fullest measure. Art was then no adjunct of sentimentalism, no +encourager of idleness. It was connected with all that was most serious +and all that was most delightful in life. It is difficult, indeed, to +realize the delight which it gave, and the earnestness with which it was +followed at this period, when it seemed, as by a miracle, to fling off +the winding-sheet which had long wrapped its stiffened limbs, and to +come forth with new and unexampled life. + +[Footnote J: In this year, 1291, Giotto was but fifteen years old, +and probably a student with Cimabue. Benvenuto da Imola, who lectured +publicly at Bologna on the _Divina Commedia_ in the year 1378, reports, +that, while Giotto, still a young man, was painting at Padua, Dante +visited him. And Vasari says, that it was a tradition, that Giotto had +painted, in a chapel at Naples, scenes out of the _Apocalypse_, from +designs furnished him by the poet. If we may believe another tradition, +which there seems indeed little reason to doubt, Giotto went to Ravenna +during the last years of Dante's life, that he might spend there some +time in company with his exiled friend.] + +The strength and the intelligence of Dante's love of Art are shown in +many beautiful passages and allusions in the "Divina Commedia." There +was something of universality, not only in his imagination, but also in +his acquisitions. Of the sources of learning which were then open, there +was not one which he had not visited; of the fountains of inspiration, +not one out of which he had not drunk. All the arts--poetry, painting, +sculpture, and music--were alike dear to him. His Canzoni were written +to be sung; and one of the most charming scenes in the great poem is +that in which is described his meeting with his friend Casella, the +musician, who sang to him one of his own Canzoni so sweetly, that "the +sweetness still within me sounds."[K] + +[Footnote K: This Canzone, to the exposition of which the third Trattato +of the _Convito_ is devoted, has been inimitably translated by the +Reverend Charles T. Brooks. We believe it to be the happiest version +of one of Dante's minor poems that exists in our language,--and every +student of the poet will recognize the success with which very great +difficulties have been overcome. It appeared in the _Crayon_, for +February, 1853.] + +"Dante took great delight in music, and was an excellent draughtsman," +says Aretino, his second biographer; and Boccaccio reports, that in his +youth he took great pleasure in music, and was the friend of all the +best musicians and singers of his time. There is, perhaps, in the +whole range of literature, no nobler homage to Art than that which is +contained in the tenth and twelfth cantos of the "Purgatory," in which +Dante represents the Creator himself as using its means to impress the +lessons of truth upon those whose souls were being purified for the +final attainment of heaven. The passages are too long for extract, and +though their wonderful beauty tempts us to linger over them, we must +return to the course of the story of Dante's life as it appears in the +concluding pages of the "New Life." + +Many months had passed since Beatrice's death, when Dante happened to +be in a place which recalled the past time to him, and filled him with +grief. While standing here, he raised his eyes and saw a young and +beautiful lady looking out from a window compassionately upon his sad +aspect. The tenderness of her look touched his heart and moved his +tears. Many times afterwards he saw her, and her face was always full +of compassion, and pale, so that it reminded him of the look of his own +most noble lady. But at length his eyes began to delight too much in +seeing her; wherefore he often cursed their vanity, and esteemed +himself as vile, and there was a hard battle within himself between the +remembrance of his lady and the new desire of his eyes. + +At length, he says, "The sight of this lady brought me into so new +a condition, that I often thought of her as of one who pleased me +exceedingly,--and I thought of her thus: 'This is a gentle, beautiful, +young, and discreet lady, and she has perhaps appeared by will of +Love, in order that my life may find repose.' And often I thought more +amorously, so that my heart consented in it, that is, approved my +reasoning. And after it had thus consented, I, moved as if by reason, +reflected, and said to myself, 'Ah, what thought is this that in so vile +a way seeks to console me, and leaves me scarcely any other thought?' +Then another thought rose up and said, 'Now that thou hast been in so +great tribulation of Love, why wilt thou not withdraw thyself from such +bitterness? Thou seest that this is an inspiration that sets the desires +of Love before thee, and proceeds from a place no less gentle than +the eyes of the lady who has shown herself so pitiful toward thee.' +Wherefore, I, having often thus combated with myself, wished to say some +words of it. And as, in this battle of thoughts, those which spoke for +her won the victory, it seemed to me becoming to address her, and I said +this sonnet, which begins, 'A gentle thought'; and I called it _gentle_ +because I was speaking to a gentle lady,--but otherwise it was most +vile. + + "A gentle thought that of you holds discourse + Cometh now frequently with me to dwell, + And in so sweet a way of Love doth tell, + My heart to yield unto him he doth force. + "'Who, then, is this,' the soul says to the heart, + 'Who cometh to bring comfort to our mind? + And is his virtue of so potent kind, + That other thoughts he maketh to depart?' + "'O saddened soul,' the heart to her replies, + 'This is a little spirit fresh from Love, + Whose own desires he before me brings; + "'His very life and all his power doth move + Forth from the sweet compassionating eyes + Of her so grieved by our sufferings.'" + +"One day, about the ninth hour, there arose within me a strong +imagination opposed to this adversary of reason. For I seemed to see +the glorified Beatrice in that crimson garment in which she had first +appeared to my eyes, and she seemed to me young, of the same age as when +I first saw her. Then I began to think of her, and, calling to mind the +past time in its order, my heart began to repent bitterly of the desire +by which it had so vilely allowed itself for some days to be possessed, +contrary to the constancy of reason. And this so wicked desire being +expelled, all my thoughts returned to their most gentle Beatrice, and +I say that thenceforth I began to think of her with my heart possessed +utterly by shame, so that it was often manifested by my sighs; for +almost all of them, as they went forth, told what was discoursed of in +my heart,--the name of that gentlest one, and how she had gone from +us.... And I wished that my wicked desire and vain temptation might be +known to be at an end; and that the rhymed words which I had before +written might induce no doubt, I proposed to make a sonnet in which I +would include what I have now told." + +With this sonnet Dante ends the story in the "Vita Nuova" of the +wandering of his eyes, and the short faithlessness of his heart; but +it is retold with some additions in the "Convito" or "Banquet," a work +written many years afterward; and in this later version there are some +details which serve to fill out and illustrate the earlier narrative.[L] +The same tender and refined feeling which inspires the "Vita Nuova" +gives its tone to all the passages in which the poet recalls his +youthful days and the memory of Beatrice in this work of his sorrowful +manhood. In the midst of its serious and philosophic discourse this +little story winds in and out its thread of personal recollection and of +sweet romantic sentiment. It affords new insight into the recesses of +Dante's heart, and exhibits the permanence of the gracious qualities of +his youth. + +[Footnote L: The differences in the two accounts of this period of +Dante's experience, and the view of Beatrice presented in the _Convito,_ +suggest curious and interesting questions, the solution of which has +been obscured by the dulness of commentators. We must, however, leave +the discussion of these points till some other opportunity.] + +Its opening sentence is full of the imagery of love. "Since the death of +that blessed Beatrice who lives in heaven with the angels, and on +earth with my soul, the star of Venus had twice shone in the different +seasons, as the star of morning and of evening, when that gentle lady, +of whom I have made mention near the close of the "New Life," first +appeared before my eyes accompanied by Love, and gained some place in my +mind. ... And before this love could become perfect, there arose a +great battle between the thought that sprang from it and that which was +opposed to it, and which still held the fortress of my mind for the +glorified Beatrice."[M] + +[Footnote M: _Convito_, Tratt. ii. c. 3.] + +And so hard was this struggle, and so painful, that Dante took +refuge from it in the composition of a poem addressed to the Angelic +Intelligences who move the third heaven, that is, the heaven of Venus; +and it is to the exposition of the true meaning of this Canzone that +the second book or treatise of the "Convito" is directed. In one of the +later chapters he says, (and the passage is a most striking one, from +its own declaration, as well as from its relation to the vision of the +"Divina Commedia,")--"The life of my heart was wont to be a sweet and +delightful thought, which often went to the feet of the Lord of those +to whom I speak, that is, to God,--for, thinking, I contemplated the +kingdom of the Blessed. And I tell [in my poem] the final cause of my +mounting thither in thought, when I say, 'There I beheld a lady in +glory'; [and I say this] in order that it may be understood that I was +certain, and am certain, through her gracious revelation, that she was +in heaven, whither I in my thought oftentimes went,--as it were, seized +up. And this made me desirous of death, that I might go there where she +was."[N] Following upon the chapter in which this remarkable passage +occurs is one which is chiefly occupied with a digression upon the +immortality of the soul,--and with discourse upon this matter, says +Dante, "it will be beautiful to finish speaking of that living and +blessed Beatrice, of whom I intend to say no more in this book.... And +I believe and affirm and am certain that I shall pass after this to +another and better life, in which that glorious lady lives of whom my +soul was enamored."[O] + +[Footnote N: _Convito_, Tratt. ii. c. 8.] + +[Footnote O: Id. c. 9.] + +But it is not from the "Convito" alone that this portion of the "Vita +Nuova" receives illustration. In that passage of the "Purgatory" in +which Beatrice is described as appearing in person to her lover the +first time since her death, she addresses him in words of stern rebuke +of his fickleness and his infidelity to her memory. The whole scene is, +perhaps, unsurpassed in imaginative reality; the vision appears to have +an actual existence, and the poet himself is subdued by the power of his +own imagination. He tells the words of Beatrice with the same feeling +with which he would have repeated them, had they fallen on his mortal +ear. His grief and shame are real, and there is no element of feigning +in them. That in truth he had seemed to himself to listen to and to +behold what he tells, it is scarcely possible to doubt. Beatrice says,-- + + "Some while at heart my presence kept him sound; + My girlish eyes to his observance lending, + I led him with me on the right way bound. + When of my second age the steps ascending, + I bore my life into another sphere, + Then stole he from me, after others bending. + When I arose from flesh to spirit clear, + When beauty, worthiness, upon me grew, + I was to him less pleasing and less dear."[P] + +[Footnote P: Purgatory, c. xxx. vv. 118-126.--CAYLEY'S Translation.] + +But although Beatrice only gives utterance to the self-reproaches of +Dante, we have seen already how fully he had atoned for this first and +transient unfaithfulness of his heart. The remainder of the "Vita Nuova" +shows how little she had lost of her power over him, how reverently he +honored her memory, how constant was his love of her whom he should see +never again with his earthly eyes. Returning to the "New Life,"-- + +"After this tribulation," he says, "at that time when many people were +going to see the blessed image which Jesus Christ left to us as the +likeness of his most beautiful countenance,[Q] which my lady now beholds +in glory, it happened that certain pilgrims passed through a street +which is almost in the middle of that city where the gentlest lady was +born, lived, and died,--and they went along, as it seemed to me, very +pensive. And thinking about them, I said to myself, 'These appear to me +to be pilgrims from a far-off region, and I do not believe that they +have even heard speak of this lady, and they know nothing of her; their +thoughts are rather of other things than of her; for, perhaps, they are +thinking of their distant friends, whom we do not know.' Then I said to +myself, 'I know, that, if these persons were from a neighboring country, +they would show some sign of trouble as they pass through the midst of +this grieving city.' Then again I said, 'If I could hold them awhile, I +would indeed make them weep before they went out from this city; for I +would say words to them which would make whoever should hear them weep.' +Then, when they had passed out of sight, I proposed to make a sonnet in +which I would set forth that which I had said to myself; and in order +that it might appear more pity-moving, I proposed to say it as if I had +spoken to them, and I said this sonnet, which begins, 'O pilgrims.' + +[Footnote Q: The most precious relic at Rome, and the one which chiefly +attracted pilgrims, during a long period of the Middle Ages, was the +Veronica, or representation of the Saviour's face, supposed to have been +miraculously impressed upon the handkerchief with which he wiped his +face on his way to Calvary. It was preserved at St. Peter's and shown +only on special occasions. Compare with this passage the lines in the +_Paradiso_, c. xxxi. 103-8:-- + + "As one that haply from Croatia came + To see our Veronica, and no whit + Could be contented with its olden fame, + Who in his heart saith, when they're showing it, + 'O Jesu Christ! O very Lord God mine! + Does truly this thy feature counterfeit?'" + CAYLEY. + +G. Villani says, that in 1300, the year of jubilee, for the consolation +of Christian pilgrims, the Veronica was shown in St. Peter's every +Friday, and on other solemn festivals. viii. 36.] + +"I called them _pilgrims_ in the wide sense of that word; for pilgrims +may be understood in two ways,--one wide, and one narrow. In the wide, +whoever is out of his own country is so far a pilgrim; in the narrow +use, by pilgrim is meant he only who goes to or returns from the house +of St. James.[R] Moreover, it is to be known that those who travel in +the service of the Most High are called by three distinct terms. Those +who go beyond the sea, whence often they bring back the palm, are called +_palmers_. Those who go to the house of Galicia are called _pilgrims_, +because the burial-place of St. James was more distant from his country +than that of any other of the Apostles. And those are called _romei_ who +go to Rome, where these whom I call pilgrims were going. + +[Footnote R: The shrine of St. James, at Compostella, (contracted from +_Giacomo Apostolo_,) in Galicia, was a great resort of pilgrims during +the Middle Ages,--and Santiago, the military patron of Spain, was one of +the most popular saints of Christendom. Chaucer says, the Wif of Bathe + + "Had passed many a straunge streem; + At Rome sche hadde ben, and at Boloyne, + In Galice at Seynt Jame, and at Coloyne." + +And Shakspeare, in _All's Well that Ends Well_, makes Helena represent +herself as "St. Jacques's pilgrim."] + + "O pilgrims, who in pensive mood move + slow, + Thinking perchance of those who absent + are, + Say, do ye come from land away so far + As your appearance seems to us to show? + + "For ye weep not, the while ye forward go + Along the middle of the mourning town, + Seeming as persons who have nothing + known + Concerning the sad burden of her woe. + + "If, through your will to hear, your steps ye + stay, + Truly my sighing heart declares to me + That ye shall afterwards depart in tears. + + "For she[S] her Beatrice hath lost: and ye + Shall know, the words that man of her + may say + Have power to make weep whoever + hears." + +[Footnote S: The city.] + +Some time after this sonnet was written, two ladies sent to Dante, +asking him for some of his rhymes. That he might honor their request, he +wrote a new sonnet and sent it to them with two that he had previously +composed. In his new sonnet, he told how his thought mounted to heaven, +as a pilgrim, and beheld his lady in such condition of glory as could +not be comprehended by his intellect; for our intellect, in regard to +the souls of the blessed, is as weak as our eyes are to the sun. But +though he could not clearly see where his thought led him, at least he +understood that his thought told of his lady in glory. + + "Beyond the sphere that widest orbit hath + Passeth the sigh that issues from my + heart, + While weeping Love doth unto him impart + Intelligence which leads him on his path, + + "When at the wished-for place his flight he + stays, + A lady he beholds, in honor dight, + And shining so, that, through her splendid + light, + The pilgrim spirit upon her doth gaze. + + "He sees her such that his reporting words + I understand not, for he speaketh low + And strange to the sad heart which makes + him tell; + + "He speaketh of that gentle one, I know, + Since oft he Beatrice's name records; + So, ladies dear, I understand him well." + +This was the last of the poems which Dante composed in immediate honor +and memory of Beatrice, and is the last of those which he inserted in +the "Vita Nuova." It was not that his love grew cold, or that her image +became faint in his remembrance; but, as he tells us in a few concluding +and memorable words, from this time forward he devoted himself to +preparation for a work in which the earthly Beatrice should have less +part, while the heavenly and blessed spirit of her whom he had loved +should receive more becoming honors. The lover's grief was to find no +more expression; the lamentations for the loss which could never be made +good to him were to cease; the exhibition of a personal sorrow was at an +end. Love and grief, in their double ministry, had refined, enlarged, +and exalted his spirit to the conception of a design unparalleled in its +nature, and of which no intellectual genius, unpurged by suffering, and +impenetrated in its deepest recesses by the spiritualizing heats of +emotion, would have been capable of conceiving. Moreover, as time wore +on, its natural result was gradually to withdraw the poet from the +influence of temporary excitements of feeling, resulting from his +experience of love and death, and to bring him to the contemplation +of life as affected by the presence and the memory of Beatrice in its +eternal and universal relations. He tells us in the "Convito," that, +"after some time, my mind, which neither such consolation as I could +give it, nor that offered to it by others, availed to comfort, +determined to turn to that method by which others in grief had consoled +themselves. And I set myself to read that book, but little known, of +Boethius, in which in prison and exile he had consoled himself. And +hearing, likewise, that Tully had written a book, in which, treating +of friendship, he had offered some words of comfort to Laelius, a most +excellent man, on the death of Scipio, his friend, I read this also. And +although at first it was hard for me to enter into their meaning, I at +length entered into it so far as my knowledge of language, and such +little capacity as I had, enabled me; by means of which capacity, I had +already, like one dreaming, seen many things, as may be seen in the 'New +Life.' And as it might happen that a man seeking silver should, beyond +his expectation, find gold, which a hidden chance presents to him, not, +perhaps, without Divine direction, so I, who sought for consolation, +found not only a remedy for my tears, but also acquaintance with +authors, with knowledge, and with books." + +Nor did these serious and solitary studies withdraw him from the pursuit +of wisdom among men and in the active world. Year by year, he entered +more fully into the affairs of state, and took a larger portion of their +conduct upon himself. + +His heart kept fresh by abiding recollections of love, his faith +quickened by and intermingled with the tenderest hopes, his imagination +uplifted by the affection which overleaped the boundaries of the +invisible world, and his intellect disciplined by study of books and +of men, his experience enlarged by constant occupation in affairs, his +judgment matured by the quick succession of important events in which +he was involved,--every part of his nature was thus prepared for the +successful accomplishment of that great and sacred design which he set +before himself now in his youth. Heaven had called and selected him for +a work which even in his own eyes partook somewhat of the nature of a +prophetic charge. His strength was to be tested and his capacity to be +approved. Life was ordered for the fulfilment of his commission. The men +to whom God intrusts a message for the world find the service to +which they are appointed one in which they must be ready to sacrifice +everything. Dante looked forward, even at the beginning, to the end, and +saw what lay between. + +The pages of the "New Life" fitly close with words of that life in which +all things shall be made new, "and there shall be no more death, neither +sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former +things are passed away." The little book ends thus:-- + +"Soon after this, a wonderful vision appeared to me, in which I saw +things which made me purpose to speak no more of this blessed one until +I could more worthily treat of her. And to attain to this, I study to +the utmost of my power, as she truly knoweth. So that, if it shall +please Him through whom all things live, that my life be prolonged for +some years, I hope to speak of her as never was spoken of any woman. And +then may it please Him who is the Lord of Grace, that my soul may go to +behold the glory of its lady, the blessed Beatrice, who in glory looks +upon the face of Him, _qui est per omnia saecula benedictus_ [who is +Blessed forever]!" + +In 1320, or perhaps not till 1321, the "Paradiso" was finished; in 1321, +Dante died. + + * * * * * + + +THE DOUBLE-HEADED SNAKE OF NEWBURY. + + + "Concerning ye Amphisbaena, as soon as I received your commands, I made + diligent inquiry: he assures me y't it had really two heads, one at each + end, two mouths, two stings or tongues." + + Rev. Christopher Toppan to Cotton Mather. + + + Far away in the twilight time + Of every people, in every clime, + Dragons and griffins and monsters dire, + Born of water, and air, and fire, + Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud + And ooze of the old Deucalion flood, + Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage, + Through dusk tradition and ballad age. + So from the childhood of Newbury town + And its time of fable the tale comes down + Of a terror which haunted bush and brake, + The Amphisbaena, the Double Snake! + + Thou who makest the tale thy mirth, + Consider that strip of Christian earth + On the desolate shore of a sailless sea, + Full of terror and mystery, + Half-redeemed from the evil hold + Of the wood so dreary and dark and old, + Which drank with its lips of leaves the dew + When Time was young and the world was new, + And wove its shadows with sun and moon + Ere the stones of Cheops were squared and hewn; + Think of the sea's dread monotone, + Of the mournful wail from the pine-wood blown, + Of the strange, vast splendors that lit the North, + Of the troubled throes of the quaking earth, + And the dismal tales the Indian told, + Till the settler's heart at his hearth grew cold, + And he shrank from the tawny wizard's boasts, + And the hovering shadows seemed full of ghosts, + And above, below, and on every side, + The fear of his creed seemed verified;-- + And think, if his lot were now thine own, + To grope with terrors nor named nor known, + How laxer muscle and weaker nerve + And a feebler faith thy need might serve; + And own to thyself the wonder more + That the snake had two heads and not a score! + + Whether he lurked in the Oldtown fen, + Or the gray earth-flax of the Devil's Den, + Or swam in the wooded Artichoke, + Or coiled by the Northman's Written Rock, + Nothing on record is left to show; + Only the fact that he lived, we know, + And left the cast of a "double head" + In the scaly mask which he yearly shed. + For he carried a head where his tail should be, + And the two, of course, could never agree, + But wriggled about with main and might, + Now to the left and now to the right; + Pulling and twisting this way and that, + Neither knew what the other was at. + + A snake with two heads, lurking so near!-- + Judge of the wonder, guess at the fear! + Think what ancient gossips might say, + Shaking their heads in their dreary way, + Between the meetings on Sabbath-day! + How urchins, searching at day's decline + The Common Pasture for sheep or kine, + The terrible double-ganger heard + In leafy rustle or whirr of bird! + Think what a zest it gave to the sport + In berry-time of the younger sort, + As over pastures blackberry-twined + Reuben and Dorothy lagged behind, + And closer and closer, for fear of harm, + The maiden clung to her lover's arm; + And how the spark, who was forced to stay, + By his sweetheart's fears, till the break of day, + Thanked the snake for the fond delay! + + Far and wide the tale was told, + Like a snowball growing while it rolled. + The nurse hushed with it the baby's cry; + And it served, in the worthy minister's eye, + To paint the primitive Serpent by. + Cotton Mather came posting down + All the way to Newbury town, + With his eyes agog and his ears set wide, + And his marvellous inkhorn at his side; + Stirring the while in the shallow pool + Of his brains for the lore he learned at school, + To garnish the story, with here a streak + Of Latin, and there another of Greek: + And the tales he heard and the notes he took, + Behold! are they not in his Wonder-Book? + + Stories, like dragons, are hard to kill. + If the snake does not, the tale runs still + In Byfield Meadows, on Pipestone Hill. + And still, whenever husband and wife + Publish the shame of their daily strife, + And, with mad cross-purpose, tug and strain + At either end of the marriage-chain, + The gossips say, with a knowing shake + Of their gray heads, "Look at the Double Snake! + One in body and two in will, + The Amphisbaena is living still!" + + + + +A PLEA FOR THE FIJIANS; + +OR, CAN NOTHING BE SAID IN FAVOR OF ROASTING ONE'S EQUALS? + + +It is with a feeling of no mean satisfaction, that, in this year of +1859, the philosopher can calmly propose the investigation of a subject, +the mere mention of which would have created universal disgust, and even +horror, at a period not long past. Thanks to the progress of liberal +ideas and sound criticism, we are able, in the middle of the +ever-memorable Nineteenth Century, serenely to examine anew those +questions which for entire centuries stolid prejudice and narrow +dogmatism considered settled, and adjudicated in the High Court of +Humanity for all times to come. However signal the progress of our age +may be in the useful arts and in aesthetics, especially in upholstery, +in chemistry, in the government of large cities, and in the purity of +commerce, in pottery, pills, and poetry, and in the dignity of politics, +nothing, we may venture to say, will so distinctly and so broadly +characterize the period in which we happily live, when the future +historian shall sweep with his star-seeker over the past, as the +joyful fact, that we, above all others, have divested ourselves of +long-cherished errors, hugged by our forefathers as truths full of life +and vigor, and have, indeed, so to speak, founded a Novum Organon in +fact and reality, while the great Bacon proposed one in mind and theory. +To our enlightened age it was reserved to return to polygamy, after +nearly three thousand dragging years of dull adhesion of our race to +tiresome monogamy, leaping back by one bound over the whole European +Past into ancient and respectable Asia. _Ex Oriente lux; ex Oriente +gaudia seraglii!_ It is in our blessed epoch that atheism, by some, and +pantheism, by others, are boldly taught and vindicated, as once they +were by Greeks or Orientals, and with an earnestness and enthusiasm very +different from the sneer with which Encyclopaedists of Voltaire's time +attacked Christianity and Deism. To prove, however, the magnificent +many-sidedness of our noble times, it is we that have returned once more +to pictures of the Virgin Mary with winking and with weeping eyes, or +to her apparitions talking _patois_, as that of La Valette, and to a +hundred things in the Church, cautiously passed over _sub silentio_ in +the last century, but now joyously proclaimed and sustained with defiant +erudition by English and German _doctores graces_, and by the Parisian +"Univers," which, openly rejoicing in the English blood spilt by +the Sepoys,--for it is but Protestant blood, and that of hateful +freemen,--heralds the second or third advent of universal love +and Papacy. It is in our age that representative, and indeed all +institutional government, for the first time, is called effete +parliamentarism, a theatrical delusion, for which, according to the +requirements of advanced civilization, the beneficent, harmonious, and +ever-glorious Caesarism, _pur et simple_, must be substituted, as it +was once sublimely exhibited in the attractive Caesars of Rome, those +favorites of History and very pets of Clio. In the time of Tiberius, as +President Troplong beautifully and officially expressed it, "Democracy +at last seated herself on the imperial throne, embodied in the +Caesars,"--those worshipful incarnations of democracy, brought to our +view in the _tableaux_ of Suetonius and by the accounts of Tacitus. We +have at last returned to Caesarism, or Asiatic absolutism, improved by +modern light, and making the emperor a Second Providence, opening and +shutting the mouths of the universal-suffrage people, for words or +bread, as imperial divinity finds best. This is the progress of our age +in Europe, while we, in this hemisphere, have taken, for the first +time in history, a rational view of party strife, and with unclouded +intelligence maintain that judges and presidents are, and ought to be, +party exponents, doing away with those once romantic, but certainly +superannuated ideas of Country, Justice, Truth, and Patriotism. All real +progress tends toward simplification; and how simple are the idea of +party and the associations clustering around this sacred word, compared +with the confusing and embarrassing unreality of those ideas and +juvenile feelings we have mentioned last! + +But we have not done yet with the glory of our age. It is this, the +decennium we are soon going to close, that has risen to that enviable +eminence whence slavery is declared a precious good of itself, +a hallowed agent of civilization, an indispensable element of +conservatism, and a foundation of true socialism. From this lofty +eminence the seer-statesman--rising far above the philosophical sagacity +displayed by Aristotle and Varro, when they discussed the sacred +topic--proclaims that Capital ought to own, and has a divine right to +own, and always more or less does own, Labor; and that, since Labor +constitutes the whole humanity of the laboring man, it clearly follows +that he himself must be owned, if his labor be owned. Would you own the +bird without its cage? Generous gospel of the rich! Blessed are the +wealthy! + +It is the destiny of the middle of the nineteenth century--well may +we be forgiven, if we pronounce it with some pride--unhesitatingly +to defend the African slave-trade, and to smile at what sickly +philanthropists used to consider the unutterable woe, the unmeasured +crime, and the diabolical hard-heartedness of that traffic. We have +changed all this; and, to say the truth, it was high time to discover +that the negro-trade forms a charming chapter in the history of Europe, +and that the protracted efforts to put it down were unchristian and +unstatesmanlike. Pitt, Roscoe, Wilberforce, Burke, Washington, Franklin, +Madison, Adams, Lowndes,--puny names! short-sighted men! By the African +slave-trade, creatures that are hardly deserving the name of men, on +account of organic, intellectual, and moral incapacity, are forcibly +carried into the regions of Christian religion and civilization, there +to become civilized in spite of their unfitness for civilization. The +mariners, usually occupied in risking life or health merely for the +sake of base traffic and filthy lucre, are suddenly transformed into +ministering agents of civilization and religion. It gives a priestly +character to the captain of a slave-ship,--to him that is willing to +break the laws of his country, even daring the gallows, for the benefit +of the sable brother, and of his law-abiding conservative society. How +different from those dark times when the poet could say, _--Homo ignoto +homini lupus est!_ The missionary only endeavors to carry the Church to +Africa; the slave-trader carries Africa to the Church, to civilization, +and to the auction-table. + +There are but two more returns to truth and justice necessary,--the +Inquisition and the Witch-Trials. These restored, we may safely +congratulate ourselves on having regained the ground on which our race +stood before the Reformation, that untoward event, whence all the +mischief dates that has befallen man in the shape of human rights, +liberty, and other deplorable things, as lately a grave writer--not a +Catholic, nor a Jew either--gravely assured us. Gentle readers, let us +not be impatient. Progress has been of late so rapid, that many of you, +it is to be hoped, will yet have an opportunity of hailing the return of +those two noble institutions, _pro majore gloria Dei_, for which they +always existed, as long as chill and misty skepticism did not extinguish +their glowing poetry. Ah! happy times! poetic age! when there existed +not only "words that burn," but also laws that burned! + +In the mean time, it may not be inappropriate to commence the +consideration of a topic somewhat farther removed from us, but which, +according to our humble opinion, ought not to remain wholly beyond the +limits of a candid, liberal, and unprejudiced examination,--we mean the +important question, Whether the choicest of all substances, the most +delicate of all muscular texture, that substance of which kings, +philosophers, policemen, and supporters of crinoline are fashioned +by the plastic hand of Nature, ought forever to be excluded from the +reproductive process of wasted energy and proportionably consumed +nervous and cerebral fibre. Reader, do not shrink; grant us a patient +ear. You do not know how rapidly you may change your own opinion and +feelings. Do you not remember with what awe we first read in the +"Almanach des Gourmands," that a certain _sauce piquante_ was so fine +that with it a man would eat his own mother? This was only twenty years +ago; yet all of us, now, are helping a high-bred gentleman, trading, on +a gigantic scale, in the bones of his great ancestor. What sublimity of +peddling! + +To those who say, It is unnatural to eat our friends, we would answer, +that it is the office of civilization to remove us farther and farther +from Nature. Analyze the present magnitude called Lady, and you can +arithmetically state it, how little of it is nature-woman, and how +much is hoop-civilization. To those, again, who object, that it is too +primitive, we would reply, that the highest civilization is always a +return to Nature, which is likewise exemplified by many of our ladies in +the ball-room,--we mean by their upper portion. + +But _revenons a nos moutons_. The Rev. Messrs. Williams and Calvert, +missionaries, for many long years, among the Fijians, state, in their +recently published work, that those unsophisticated children of Nature +eat "long pig,"--as they call, with graceful humor, roast-man, in +contradistinction to "short-pig," by which they designate our squealing +fellow-roasters,--from three different motives.--When a chief has a +gala-day, or desires to signal his arrival by a right royal feast, it is +considered befitting to slaughter some men, to let the blood run in +the path of royalty, and to have on the table some _roast-homme_. Our +Captain Wilkins told us, years ago, that, for this _roast-homme_, a +plump Fijiana, of some twelve or thirteen years, is preferred. They know +very well what is good!--The second motive is hatred. When a Fijian +mortally hates a person, he endeavors to kill him; and having killed the +enemy, why should the victim not be eaten?--Lastly, it would seem that +affectionate regard, especially for a favorite wife, sometimes rises +to a mordant passion and an unconquerable longing for material +assimilation,--so much so, that the loving husband roasts his Penelope, +and neighbors are invited to participate in his better fourth or fifth, +as the polygamic case may be. Perhaps, years after, when with less +demonstrative nations the memory of the beloved one would have passed +away, the Fijian Fidelio may smack his lips, and exclaim, with +Petrarch's fervor,-- + + "Perche Morte fura + Prima i migliori, e lascia star i rei: + Questa aspettata al regno degli Dei + Cosa bella mortal passa e non dura." + +Now we are very anxious not to be misunderstood by our readers. In +writing this paper, we do not mean to urge the reintroduction of +Cannibalism among us at once. The public mind may not yet be ripe for +it; but we desire to assist in placing the subject in its proper light, +and in showing that an enlightened impartiality can find very much in +defence of the Fijians,--more, indeed, than the Rev. Mr. Froude has been +able to accumulate in favor of his wife-devouring hero,--or than Mr. +Spratt can say in favor of humanization in general, and the breaking-up +of the Union in particular, by the reopening of the African +slave-trade,--or than our venerable chief-justice has contrived to say +in favor of reintroducing slavery in conquered territory, where positive +law had abolished or excluded it, by the abstract Constitution itself, +_proprio vigore_, (not quite unlike a wagoner, it seems to us, that +carries the soil of distant parts, _ipsa adhesione_, as it sticks to +his boots, into the tavern-room,) without special law, which even the +ancient civilians very stupidly declared to be necessary. First, you +will remember, it was passionately maintained that the Constitution of +the United States does not know the Common Law; and now it is insisted +that Common Law (so far as slavery is concerned) is as inherent in the +Constitution as the black pigment is in the negro. You cannot wash it +out; it inheres physiologically in the Constitution. I tell you, reader, +we are _fast_ people indeed; we travel fast in our opinions, with now +and then a somerset for the delectation of the philosopher. + +Let us sit down, and have a philosophical conversation; above all, let +us discard sentiment, feeling,--what you call heart, and all that sort +of thing. You know how much mischief Las Casas has done by allowing his +feelings to interfere when the Spaniards roasted Indians, from what he +chose to call diabolical lust of gold, and sheer, abstract cruelty. Poor +Bishop! He belonged to the softs. Let us be philosophers, economists, +and, above all, Constitutionalists. Some philosophers, indeed, have +said that all idea of Right and Wrong, and the idea that there is +a difference between the two, must needs, first of all, start from +sentiment; but leave, I implore you, such philosophic fogyism behind +you. + +First, then, as to the principle of Right. It is a fact, that most +tribes and races, probably all nations in their earliest days, +have killed old and useless parents, and have eaten enemies, once +slain,--perhaps friends, too. Some nations carried the eating of human +flesh far down into their civilized periods and into recent times. The +Spaniards found the civilized Aztecs enjoying their _petits soupers_ +of babes _a la Tartare_, or gorgeous dinners on fattened heroes _aux +truffes_. Have you forgotten that from that fine Introduction to +Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" a flavor of roast "long pig" steams into +our nostrils as from a royal kitchen? Eating our equals, therefore, +is sound Common Law of all mankind, even more so than slavery, for it +exists before slavery can be introduced. Slavery is introduced when the +prisoner of war may be made to work,--when the tilling of the soil has +commenced; though then not always; for we now know that slavery was +introduced among the Greeks at a comparatively late period: but killing +parents and eating enemies exists in the hunter's state, and at those +periods when people find it hard work to obtain food, each one for +himself, to keep even a starved body and a little bit of soul together. +Chewing our neighbor is even better, for it is older Common Law, than +the universal buying of a wife and consequent selling of daughters which +exists even now over far the greater portion of the globe. We take it +that our species began with eating itself without paying for the fare. +Partaking of our neighbor precedes all _lex scripta_, all statute law, +all constitutions. As to ourselves in particular, whose law is the +English law, we know that the Druids sacrificed human beings to their +gods; and every one knows full well, that man, when in gastronomic +contact with the gods, always appropriates the most savory morsels +and the largest portions of the sacrifice to himself, leaving to the +ethereal taste of Jove or Tezcatlipoca the smell of some burnt bones or +inwards. Yet there is no law on record abolishing human sacrifices. We +know, indeed, that some Teutonic tribes, when they adopted Christianity, +positively prohibited the eating of horse-flesh, but no law ever forbade +to honor our fathers and mothers by making them parts of our feasts; so +that no lawyer of the true sort will deny, that, to this day, the right +of sacrificing fellow-men, and the reasonable concomitant of eating the +better portion of the sacrifice, still exists. Greeks and Romans have +sacrificed men; why should not we? That men have their individual rights +is no valid objection. Rights depend exclusively upon the law; and the +law, we have shown, does not grant equal rights (at least, not equal +destinations) to the Eater and the Eatee; for it seems to be one thing +to eat, and another to be eaten. It was a very silly maxim of the +ancient Civil Law, That the law, the _regula_, is derived from the right +(_jus_), not the _jus_ from the law. Has not a Supreme Court in one of +our States lately denied to a negro even the right to choose between +liberty and slavery,--the choice being left to him by his deceased +master,--because the creature (which, when doing wrong, is responsible +and has a will imputed to him) has no will to choose, because it cannot +have any, says the Supreme Court of that State? + +However, it will doubtless be objected by some, that it is simply +disgusting to eat our fellow-creatures of the same species,--that it is +unnatural and against our religion,--and that so remarkable a diversity +of taste can be explained only on the ground of our belonging to +different races. We do not believe that the Fijians belong to a +different race. Fijian, or Fijician, results, by a slight change of +letters, from the word Phoenician; and there can be no doubt that +the Fijians are descendants of those Phoenicians who, according to +Herodotus, sailed, in the reign of the Egyptian King Necho, from the +Persian Gulf round the Cape of Good Hope, and entered the Mediterranean +through the Pillars of Hercules. How they came to be wafted to the +opposite hemisphere is not for us to explain, nor do we know it. Suffice +it to say, that Fijician and Phoenician are the same word. Possibly old +Admiral Hanno preceded Captain Cook. Who can prove the contrary? + +As to the first of these objections, we admit that some people may +feel a degree of aversion to _roast-homme_; but so does the Mahometan +abominate roast "short pig"; and a Brahmin, taken to Cincinnati and its +environs, at the sanguinary hog-murder time, would die outright, of +horror. We almost died, ourselves, at the sickening sight of that +porcian massacre. _De gustibus non est disputantibus_, as our colonel +used to say. Disgust, is the result of a special treaty of amity and +reciprocity between the stomach and the imagination, differing according +to difference in the contracting parties. We have known many persons +who would not touch mutton, and others who would rather starve than eat +oysters; while we ourselves revolt at sourkrout, which, nevertheless, +millions of Germans, French, and Americans consider delicious. Disgust +is arbitrary; it does not furnish us with a philosophical ground for +argumentation. The Fijian does not feel disgust at the flavor of a +well-roasted white sailor; and as long as he does not insist upon our +relishing his fare, what right have we to ask him to feel disgusted? +When the panther-tailed Aztec priest fattened his prisoner, or carried +along the children decked with wreaths, soon to be smothered in their +own juice, he cannot have felt disgust, any more than the Malay, of whom +Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles tells us, that, with epicurean refinement, +he cut the choicest bits from his living prisoner, in order to baste +them to a turn and season them with choice pepper. + +Is it unnatural? We have once seen, with our own eyes, a very large +unroasted "small pig" devour one of her own piglets, whilst the others +lustily drew nourishment from the grunting mother. It look our appetite +away for forty-eight hours; yet it was nature; and in some portions of +Europe, people express the highest degree of fondness by the expressive +phrase,--"I could eat you." We may rely upon it, that, as Mr. Agassiz +says,--"There is no difference in kind, but only in degree." + +With reference to religion, we readily acknowledge that dining _a la +Fijienne_ does not appear exactly to be a divine institution, as slavery +has recently been discovered to be. From olden times it used to be the +belief of superstitious man that there was a divine afflatus in liberty; +but our profound theological scholars and Biblical critics have found +out that the divinity is on the other side. Neither Tertullian nor +Austin, neither St. Bernard nor any Pope, good or bad, neither Luther, +Bossuet, Calvin, nor Baxter, no commentator, exegetist, or preacher, +ever found out, what these profoundest inquirers have at length +discovered, that slavery is divine, like matrimony. Had they discovered +this great truth before the Catholic Church settled the number of +sacraments, there must have been eight instead of seven. Why was their +advent so late? + +Possibly these grave and candid, deep and fervent theologians, whose +opinions on theology are quoted everywhere, whose works are spread over +the globe, and whose lore is stupendous, may yet discover that there is +a divine flavor even in a soup _a la Mexicaine_. One thing, however, +is quite certain, namely,--that there is no prohibition of digestively +assimilating our neighbor with ourselves, from one end of the Bible to +the other. Was not Fielding's parson logical, who preferred punch to +wine, because it is nowhere spoken ill of in Scripture? When Baron +Viereck was rebuked by a friend for having given his daughter in +marriage to the King of Denmark, the Queen, undivorced, continuing to +occupy the throne, the shrewd father replied, that he had found no +passage in the Bible that prohibits a King of Denmark from having two +wives; and has not the democratic Fijian as good a right to that logic +as the noble Baron had? + +To say the truth, all these objections are founded mainly upon +sentiment, and we trust that morbid sentimentality will have no weight +in an age which ridicules the horror of the British Commons at the +descriptions of the middle passage, and demands calm judgment when the +question arises, how to increase the number of representatives and the +profits on sugar and cotton,--in our poetic age, in which republican +senators have openly declared their chivalrous allegiance to the +sovereign substance of which night-caps are made, and petticoats,--to +His Majesty, King Cotton,--not a very merry king, it must be owned, as +young King Charles was, or old King Cole, but still a worthy sovereign; +for, after all, he is but a new and most bulky avatar of Almighty +Dollar. + +No objection whatsoever can be made to the _deglutinatio Fijiana_ on the +score of utility. The islands of the Fijians are but small; no Fijian +Attila can lead forth his hosts into neighboring countries; no Fijian +Goths can pour down from Polynesian Alps into an Oceanic Italy; no +Athenians can there send sons and gods to a Coreyra: and no Fijian Miles +Standish can there walk up and down before his pipe-clayed bandoleers in +foreign colonies. How, then, can an over-increase of population be more +harmoniously prevented than by making the young and sleek furnish the +starving with a plump existence? Is it not, economically viewed, +the principle of Dr. Franklin's smoke-consuming pipe applied to the +infinitely more important sphere of human existence? The festive table, +to which, according to the great Malthus, Nature declines inviting a +large portion of every well-peopled country, will never be known by +the happy Fijian Say or Senior, so long as wise conservatism shall not +change its old and sacred laws, and shall allow Nature to invite one +happy portion as guests, and another happy portion as savory dishes. It +is Nature in modest simplicity, as it is exhibited in half-a-dozen mice +in a deep kettle, of whom one survivor and material representative +remains. The Chinese expose female infants, and lawful infanticide has +been abolished in some districts of the British East Indies within these +thirty years only. Would it not be wiser to reassimilate the tender dear +ones, and think of them ever after with smacking memory? + +It is true, indeed, that, upon the whole, Fijian gastronomy leers more +toward the tender sex than toward that which in our country wears the +trousers uncrinolined. But, we submit, is this a fair objection? Why +_is_ the tender sex more _tender?_ Lately, when an orator had strongly +expressed himself against the maxim of patriotic office-hunters,--"To +the victor belong the spoils," he was very logically asked,--"And pray, +Sir, to whom should the spoils belong, if not to the victor?" So we +would ask, should any one complain of girls being thus economized by +men,--"Who, in the name of common sense, should, if not men? Would you +have them perform that sacrificial duty for one another?" + +But whatever may be thought, by some of our lovely readers, of this last +argument, (which henceforth may be termed _argumentum marcianum_,) and +which, in the case before us, will always be an _ex parte_ argument, all +will agree that no objection can be taken to making repasts on _porcus +longus_ once fairly killed,--for instance, on heroes stretched on the +battle-field. This was the cogent argument of the New Zealander, after +baptism,--used in discussing the topic with the Rev. Mr. Yale. Willing +to give up slaughtering fellow-men for the sake of eating them, he could +not see why it was not wicked to waste so much good food. + +If it were objected, that, admitting the making of your enemy's +flesh flesh of your own flesh would necessarily lead to skirmishes, +"surprise-parties," and battles for the sole purpose of getting a +dinner,--to a sort of pre-prandial exercise, as in fishing,--we would +simply answer, "Too late!" Our friends who desire the reopening of the +African slave-trade declare that they wish to buy slaves only. When +statesmen, and missionaries, and simple people with simple sense and +simple hearts, cry out to them, "Stop! for the sake of our common +Father, stop! By reopening the slave-trade, you revive the vilest +crimes, and, for every negro ultimately sold to you on the coast, you +cause the murder of at least ten in the interior, not to speak of those +that are coolly massacred in the barracoon, when no demand exists,"--the +satisfactory reply is: "We have nothing to do with all that; we do not +travel beyond the record. We buy the negro who is a slave; what made him +a slave we do not care to know. The pearl in the market does not show +the toil of the fisher." And so the Fijian would properly reply: "Do not +mix up different subjects. I rescue my departed brother from ignominious +decay, and remake a man of him. How he came to depart,--that belongs to +quite a different chapter." + +This utilitarian view acquires a still greater importance when applied +to criminals under sentence of capital punishment. Soon after Beccaria, +it was asked, if we mistake not, by Voltaire: "Of what use is the +dead body of a criminal? You cannot restore the victim to life by the +execution of the murderer." And many pardons in America have been +granted on the assumption that no satisfactory answer could be given to +the philosophical question: "What use can the swinging body of the poor +creature be to any one?" The Fijian alone has a perfectly satisfactory +reply. + +The missionaries, already named in this paper, give a long account of +the execution of a supposed Fijian conspirator, which ends with these +words: "At last he was brought down to the ground by a club; after which +he was eaten." + +We can discern many advantages to be derived from the introduction of +what we will call "_pates penitentiaires_." + +There would be no waste of food. + +The sentence of the judge would sound more civilized; for, instead of +hearing the odious words, "You shall be hanged by the neck until you +are dead," words would be pronounced somewhat like these: "You shall be +taken to Delmonico, and there and by him be served up on such a day, as +_scelerat en papillotes_." + +There would be a greater readiness in jurors to convict interesting +criminals, who now-a-days cannot be found guilty,--especially were a law +passed that the jury should have the criminal. We read in the "Scottish +Criminal Trials," that a woman, clearly convicted of an atrocious +murder, was, nevertheless, found not guilty. The astonished lord +justiciary asked the foreman, how it was possible to find the prisoner +not guilty, with such overwhelming evidence, and was answered: "Becaase, +my laird, she is purty." Would not the delicacy of the prisoner have +been an additional reason for finding her guilty with Fijian jurors? + +Fourthly, there would be an obvious national advantage in some +countries, in which the government is at one and the same time busily +engaged in finding cheap food for the people, and in transporting +annually many hundreds of political _suspects_ to killing colonies. It +is, indeed, surprising, that so sagacious and parental a government as +that of Napoleon the Third,--may His Majesty be long preserved for the +civilization of France, the peace of Europe, and the glory of mankind in +general!--it is surprising, that his all-providing and all-foreseeing +government has not long ago discovered how the craving of the national +stomach for food, and of the popular mind for political purification, +might be stilled by no longer transporting political offenders and +_suspects_ to French Guiana or Lambessa, where they uselessly and +ignobly perish, but by sentencing them, instead, to the enviable lot of +making a feast for their brethren. Would not every Socialist, receiving +permission thus to help feed society, exclaim: _C'est magnifique! mais +c'est sublime!_ + +When Robespierre was in the zenith of his guillotinacious glory, the +_bonnes_ would sit around the scaffold, minding children and knitting +stockings, to see the head of a marquis or of a shoemaker fall. We leave +it to every reader, whether there would not be more historic unity and +poetic completeness in the _tableau_, were we to read that these good +creatures dined upon the _ci-devant_, after the execution. + +Imperial Rome is the _beau ideal_ of the present government of _la belle +France_; and we must own, that, when perusing the exhilarating pages of +Suetonius, it has often occurred to our mind that there is something +wanting in the list of high deeds related of those superb specimens of +humanity exhibited in the Caligulas and Heliogabali. They did so much +for cookery! Yet they seem never to have risen above an indirect +consumption of their subjects, by feeding their lobsters with ignoble +slaves; never did they directly bestow upon Roman freemen the honor of +being served up for the imperial table. Nero murdered his mother and +bade his teacher open his own veins. Would it not read much more +civilized, if the annals of the empire were telling us: _Nero, jam +divus, leniter dixit: O Seneca, Pundit delectabilis et philosophe laute, +quis dubitet te libentissime mihi hodie proferre artocreatem stoicum?_ + +Strange as it may appear to some readers, that thus the polished Romans +might have learned a lesson of civilization from the Fijians, they will +not reject our suggestion, when they reflect, that, only a short time +ago, they were, probably, as much surprised at finding the government +of so great a country as France adopting imperial Rome as a model +body-politic. Familiarize your mind with the idea, and all difficulties +vanish. It is only the last step which costs,--not the first. + +There are many more reasons that might be urged in favor of the +Fijians. We are not aware that the reverend missionaries have given +any statistical tables, showing a regularity in the annual numbers of +consumed persons, male and female, classed according to the reasons why +consumed; but no one can doubt that such tables might be given, and if +so, the whole question of anthropophagism could be very easily buckled +up in a tidy little valise. The Fijians, in the plural, we take it, +have little or nothing to do with it; it is the abstract, will-less, +impersonal Fijian--who, according to the learned Ferrari,[A] would be +called, now, Podesta Fijian, now Consul Fijian, now Papa Fijianus--that +snuffs the flavor of his own dear natural _pot a feu_; and Right +or Wrong, Just or Unjust, Commendable or Revolting, are schoolboy +distinctions, no longer recognized by the philosophical historian, who +treats all moral questions and national movements like questions of +natural philosophy,--like social chemistry, in which so puerile a word +as poison has no place. Arsenic is arsenic with certain effects, and +nothing more; and society poisons itself annually to such an amount, +arithmetically expressed. + +[Footnote A: _Histoire des Revolutions d'Italie, ou Guelf's et +Gibelins_. Par J. Ferrari. Paris, 1858.] + +We ask leave to add two suggestions in favor of the Fijians, both, it +would seem, of philosophic importance. If you do not like the Fijian +national dish,--_national_ in more than one sense,--have the dear +sons of Nature, as Carlyle probably would call them, not the right to +reply,--"We do not like your _sauerkraut_, if you are a German; your +_polenta_, if you are an Italian; your _olla podrida_, if you are a +Spaniard; nor your _grit_, if you are a Dane; your bacon and greasy +greens, if you are a Southerner; nor your baked beans, if you are a +Northerner; nor any other stuff called national dishes,--all of which +are vile, except English roast beef and plum-pudding, and Neapolitan +maccaroni." + +The other suggestion is this: Is it likely that Nature has placed the +Fijians exactly in the same meridian with Greenwich, which in some +measure may be called the meridian of civilization, for nothing?--is it +likely that all the solar and cosmic influences which must result from +this fact have really left the Fijian in that state of hyper-brutality +which you think is proved by his _menage_? Is it, we ask, fairly to be +supposed? We think not. + +We do not presume to know whether we have carried conviction to the +minds of our readers; but even if we have not,--if we have only been +sufficiently fortunate to give the first impulse to the great inquiry, +we shall be satisfied. If we consider the history of some opinions now +openly preached and vehemently maintained,--how timidly they were +first hinted at, within our own recollection, and with what surprising +rapidity they have risen to an unblushing amplitude, rustling and +sweeping proudly and defiantly along the Broadway of human events +and opinions,--how that which but a lustre ago was wicked is now +virtuous,--we see no reason for despair; and our century may yet witness +the time when it will be considered the highest mixture of philosophic +courtesy and Christian urbanity to make the most graceful semi-lateral +bow, as you pass your friend in the street, and, kissing the tip of your +finger, to lisp, with bending head and smiling eye,-- + +"May I never disagree with you!" + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +[_The Professor talks with the Reader. He tells a Young Girl's Story_.] + +When the elements that went to the making of the first man, father of +mankind, had been withdrawn from the world of unconscious matter, the +balance of creation was disturbed. The materials that go to the making +of one woman were set free by the abstraction from inanimate nature of +one man's-worth of masculine constituents. These combined to make our +first mother, by a logical necessity involved in the previous creation +of our common father. All this, mythically, illustratively, and by no +means doctrinally or polemically. + +The man implies the woman, you will understand. The excellent gentleman +whom I had the pleasure of setting right in a trifling matter a few +weeks ago believes in the frequent occurrence of miracles at the present +day. So do I. I believe, if you could find an uninhabited coral-reef +island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with plenty of cocoa-palms +and bread-fruit on it, and put a handsome young fellow, like our +Marylander, ashore upon it, if you touched there a year afterwards, you +would find him walking under the palm trees arm in arm with a pretty +woman. + +Where would she come from? + +Oh, that's the miracle! + +----I was just as certain, when I saw that fine, high-colored youth at +the upper right-hand corner of our table, that there would appear some +fitting feminine counterpart to him, as if I had been a clairvoyant, +seeing it all beforehand. + +----I have a fancy that those Marylanders are just about near enough to +the sun to ripen well.--How some of us fellows remember Joe and Harry, +Baltimoreans, both! Joe, with his cheeks like lady-apples, and his eyes +like black-heart cherries, and his teeth like the whiteness of the flesh +of cocoa-nuts, and his laugh that set the chandelier-drops rattling +overhead, as we sat at our sparkling banquets in those gay times! Harry, +champion, by acclamation, of the College heavyweights, broad-shouldered, +bull-necked, square-jawed, six feet and trimmings, a little science, +lots of pluck, good-natured as a steer in peace, formidable as a +red-eyed bison in the crack of hand-to-hand battle! Who forgets the +great muster-day, and the collision of the classic with the democratic +forces? The huge butcher, fifteen stone,--two hundred and ten +pounds,--good weight,--steps out like Telamonian Ajax, defiant. No words +from Harry, the Baltimorean,--one of the quiet sort, who strike first, +and do the talking, if there is any, afterwards. No words, but, in the +place thereof, a clean, straight, hard hit, which took effect with a +spank like the explosion of a percussion-cap, knocking the slayer of +beeves down a sand-bank,--followed, alas! by the too impetuous youth, so +that both rolled down together, and the conflict terminated in one of +those inglorious and inevitable Yankee _clinches_, followed by a general +_melee_, which make our native fistic encounters so different from such +admirably-ordered contests as that which I once saw at an English fair, +where everything was done decently and in order, and the fight began and +ended with such grave propriety, that a sporting parson need hardly have +hesitated to open it with a devout petition, and, after it was over, +dismiss the ring with a benediction. + +I can't help telling one more story about this great field-day, though +it is the most wanton and irrelevant digression. But all of us have a +little speck of fight underneath our peace and goodwill to men,--just +a speck, for revolutions and great emergencies, you know,--so that we +should not submit to be trodden quite flat by the first heavy-heeled +aggressor that came along. You can tell a portrait from an ideal head, I +suppose, and a true story from one spun out of the writer's invention. +See whether this sounds true or not. + +Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin sent out two fine blood-horses, Barefoot and +Scrab by name, to Massachusetts, something before the time I am talking +of. With them came a Yorkshire groom, a stocky little fellow, in velvet +breeches, who made that mysterious hissing noise, traditionary in +English stables, when he rubbed down the silken-skinned racers, in great +perfection. After the soldiers had come from the muster-field, and +some of the companies were on the village-common, there was still some +skirmishing between a few individuals who had not had the fight taken +out of them. The little Yorkshire groom thought he must serve out +somebody. So he threw himself into an approved scientific attitude, and, +in brief, emphatic language, expressed his urgent anxiety to accommodate +any classical young gentleman who chose to consider himself a candidate +for his attentions. I don't suppose there were many of the college boys +that would have been a match for him in the art which Englishmen know +so much more of than Americans, for the most part. However, one of the +Sophomores, a very quiet, peaceable fellow, just stepped out of the +crowd, and, running straight at the groom, as he stood there, sparring +away, struck him with the sole of his foot, a straight blow, as if it +had been with his fist,--and knocked him heels over head and senseless, +so that he had to be carried off from the field. This ugly way of +hitting is the great trick of the French _savate,_ which is not +commonly thought able to stand its ground against English pugilistic +science.--These are old recollections, with not much to recommend them, +except, perhaps, a dash of life, which may be worth a little something. + +The young Marylander brought them all up, you may remember. He recalled +to my mind those two splendid pieces of vitality I told you of. Both +have been long dead. How often we see these great red flaring flambeaux +of life blown out, as it were, by a puff of wind,--and the little, +single-wicked night-lamp of being, which some white-faced and attenuated +invalid shades with trembling fingers, flickering on while they go out +one after another, until its glimmer is all that is left to us of the +generation it belonged to! + +I told you that I was perfectly sure, beforehand, we should find some +pleasing girlish or womanly shape to fill the blank at our table and +match the dark-haired youth at the upper corner. + +There she sits, at the very opposite corner, just as far off as accident +could put her from this handsome fellow, by whose side she ought, of +course, to be sitting. One of the "positive" blondes, as my friend, +you may remember, used to call them. Tawny-haired, amber-eyed, +full-throated, skin as white as a blanched almond. Looks dreamy to me, +not self-conscious, though a black ribbon round her neck sets it off as +a Marie-Antoinette's diamond-necklace could not do. So in her dress, +there is a harmony of tints that looks as if an artist had run his eye +over her and given a hint or two like the finishing touch to a picture. +I can't help being struck with her, for she is at once rounded and fine +in feature, looks calm, as blondes are apt to, and as if she might run +wild, if she were trifled with.--It is just as I knew it would be,--and +anybody can see that our young Marylander will be dead in love with her +in a week. + +Then if that little man would only turn out immensely rich and have the +good-nature to die and leave them all his money, it would be as nice as +a three-volume novel. + +Little Boston is in a flurry, I suspect, with the excitement of having +such a charming neighbor next him. I judge so mainly by his silence and +by a certain rapt and serious look on his face, as if he were thinking +of something that had happened, or that might happen, or that ought to +happen,--or how beautiful her young life looked, or how hardly Nature +had dealt with him, or something which struck him silent, at any rate. I +made several conversational openings for him, but he did not fire up as +he often does. I even went so far as to indulge in a fling at the State +House, which, as we all know, is in truth a very imposing structure, +covering less ground than St. Peter's, but of similar general effect. +The little man looked up, but did not reply to my taunt. He said to +the young lady, however, that the State House was the Parthenon of our +Acropolis, which seemed to please her, for she smiled, and he reddened a +little,--so I thought. I don't think it right to watch persons who are +the subjects of special infirmity,--but we all do it. + +I see that they have crowded the chairs a little at that end of +the table, to make room for another new-comer of the lady sort. A +well-mounted, middle-aged preparation, wearing her hair without +a cap,--pretty wide in the parting, though,--contours vaguely +hinted,--features very quiet,--says little as yet, but seems to keep her +eye on the young lady, as if having some responsibility for her.-- + + * * * * * + +My record is a blank for some days after this. In the mean time I have +contrived to make out the person and the story of our young lady, +who, according to appearances, ought to furnish us a heroine for a +boarding-house romance before a year is out. It is very curious that +she should prove connected with a person many of us have heard of. +Yet, curious as it is, I have been a hundred times struck with the +circumstance that the most remote facts are constantly striking each +other; just as vessels starting from ports thousands of miles apart pass +close to each other in the naked breadth of the ocean, nay, sometimes +even touch, in the dark, with a crack of timbers, a gurgling of water, a +cry of startled sleepers,--a cry mysteriously echoed in warning dreams, +as the wife of some Gloucester fisherman, some coasting skipper, wakes +with a shriek, calls the name of her husband, and sinks back to uneasy +slumbers upon her lonely pillow,--a widow. + +Oh, these mysterious meetings! Leaving all the vague, waste, endless +spaces of the washing desert, the ocean-steamer and the fishing-smack +sail straight towards each other as if they ran in grooves ploughed for +them in the waters from the beginning of creation! Not only things and +events, but our own thoughts, are so full of these surprises, that, if +there were a reader in my parish who did not recognize the familiar +occurrence of what I am now going to mention, I should think it a case +for the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of Intelligence +among the Comfortable Classes. + +There are about as many twins in the births of thought as of children. +For the first time in your lives you learn some fact or come across some +idea. Within an hour, a day, a week, that same fact or idea strikes +you from another quarter. It seems as if it had passed into space and +bounded back upon you as an echo from the blank wall that shuts in the +world of thought. Yet no possible connection exists between the two +channels by which the thought or the fact arrived. Let me give an +infinitesimal illustration. + +One of the Boys mentioned, the other evening, in the course of a very +pleasant poem he read us, a little trick of the Commons table-boarders, +which I, nourished at the parental board, had never heard of. Young +fellows being always hungry----Allow me to stop dead-short, in order +to utter an aphorism which has been forming itself in one of the blank +interior spaces of my intelligence, like a crystal in the cavity of a +geode. + + * * * * * + +_Aphorism by the Professor._ + +In order to know whether a human being is young or old, offer it food of +different kinds at short intervals. If young, it will eat anything at +any hour of the day or night. If old, it observes stated periods, and +you might as well attempt to regulate the time of high-water to suit a +fishing-party as to change these periods. + +The crucial experiment is this. Offer a bulky and boggy bun to the +suspected individual just ten minutes before dinner. If this is eagerly +accepted and devoured, the fact of youth is established. If the subject +of the question changes color and expresses surprise and incredulity, as +if you could not possibly be in earnest, the fact of maturity is no less +clear. + + * * * * * + +----Excuse me,--I return to my story of the Commons-table.--Young +fellows being always hungry, and tea and dry toast being the meagre fare +of the evening meal, it was a trick of some of the Boys to impale a +slice of meat upon a fork, at dinner-time, and stick the fork holding it +beneath the table, so that they could get it at tea-time. The dragons +that guarded this table of the Hesperides found out the trick at last, +and kept a sharp look-out for missing forks;--they knew where to find +one, if it was not in its place.--Now the odd thing was, that, after +waiting so many years to hear of this college trick, I should hear it +mentioned _a second time_ within the same twenty-four hours by a college +youth of the present generation. Strange, but true. And so it has +happened to me and to every person, often and often, to be hit in rapid +succession by these twinned facts or thoughts, as if they were linked +like chain-shot. + +I was going to leave the simple reader to wonder over this, taking it as +an unexplained marvel. I think, however, I will turn over a furrow of +subsoil in it. The explanation is, of course, that in a great many +thoughts there must be a few coincidences, and these instantly arrest +our attention. Now we shall probably never have the least idea of the +enormous number of impressions which pass through our consciousness, +until in some future life we see the photographic record of our thoughts +and the stereoscopic picture of our actions. There go more pieces to +make up a conscious life or a living body than you think for. Why, +some of you were surprised when a friend of mine told you there +were fifty-eight separate pieces in a fiddle. How many "swimming +glands"--solid, organized, regularly formed, rounded disks, taking an +active part in all your vital processes, part and parcel, each one of +them, of your corporeal being--do you suppose are whirled along, like +pebbles in a stream, with the blood which warms your frame and colors +your cheeks?--A noted German physiologist spread out a minute drop +of blood, under the microscope, in narrow streaks, and counted the +globules, and then made a calculation. The counting by the micrometer +took him _a week_.--You have, my full-grown friend, of these little +couriers in crimson or scarlet livery, running on your vital errands day +and night as long as you live, sixty-five billions, five hundred and +seventy thousand millions. Errors excepted.--Did I hear some gentleman +say, "Doubted?"--I am the Professor. I sit in my chair with a petard +under it that will blow me through the skylight of my lecture-room, if I +do not know what I am talking about and whom I am quoting. + +Now, my dear friends, who are putting your hands to your foreheads, and +saying to yourselves that you feel a little confused, as if you had been +waltzing until things began to whirl slightly round you, is it possible +that you do not clearly apprehend the exact connection of all that I +have been saying, and its bearing on what is now to come? Listen, then. +The number of these living elements in our bodies illustrates the +incalculable multitude of our thoughts; the number of our thoughts +accounts for those frequent coincidences spoken of; these coincidences +in the world of thought illustrate those which we constantly observe in +the world of outward events, of which the presence of the young girl now +at our table, and proving to be the daughter of an old acquaintance some +of us may remember, is the special example which led me through this +labyrinth of reflections, and finally lands me at the commencement of +this young girl's story, which, as I said, I have found the time and +felt the interest to learn something of, and which I think I can tell +without wronging the unconscious subject of my brief delineation. + + * * * * * + + +IRIS. + + +You remember, perhaps, in some papers published awhile ago, an odd poem +written by an old Latin tutor? He brought up at the verb _amo_, I love, +as all of us do, and by and by Nature opened her great living dictionary +for him at the word _filia_, a daughter. The poor man was greatly +perplexed in choosing a name for her. _Lucretia_ and _Virginia_ were the +first that he thought of; but then came up those pictured stories of +Titus Livius, which he could never read without crying, though he had +read them a hundred times. + +--Lucretia sending for her husband and her father, each to bring one +friend with him, and awaiting them in her chamber. To them her wrongs +briefly. Let them see to the wretch, she will take care of herself. Then +the hidden knife flashes out and sinks into her heart. She slides +from her seat, and falls dying. "Her husband and her father cry +aloud."--No,--not Lucretia. + +--Virginius,--a brown old soldier, father of a nice girl. She engaged +to a very promising young man. Decemvir Appius takes a violent fancy to +her,--must have her at any rate. Hires a lawyer to present the arguments +in favor of the view that she was another man's daughter. + +There used to be lawyers in Rome that would do such things.--All right. +There are two sides to everything. _Audi alteram partem_. The legal +gentleman has no opinion,--he only states the evidence.--A doubtful +case. Let the young lady be under the protection of the Honorable +Decemvir until it can be looked up thoroughly.--Father thinks it best, +on the whole, to give in. Will explain the matter, if the young lady and +her maid will step this way. _That_ is the explanation,--a stab with a +butcher's knife, snatched from a stall, meant for other lambs than this +poor bleeding Virginia! + +The old man thought over the story. Then he must have one look at the +original. So he took down the first volume and read it over. When he +came to that part where it tells how the young gentleman she was engaged +to and a friend of his took up the poor girl's bloodless shape and +carried it through the street, and how all the women followed, wailing, +and asking if that was what their daughters were coming to,--if that was +what they were to get for being good girls,--he melted down into his +accustomed tears of pity and grief, and, through them all, of delight at +the charming Latin of the narrative. But it was impossible to call his +child Virginia. He could never look at her without thinking she had a +knife sticking in her bosom. + +_Dido_ would be a good name, and a fresh one. She was a queen, and the +founder of a great city. Her story had been immortalized by the greatest +of poets,--for the old Latin tutor clove to "Virgilius Maro," as he +called him, as closely as ever Dante did in his memorable journey. So +he took down his Virgil,--it was the smooth-leafed, open-lettered quarto +of Baskerville,--and began reading the loves and mishaps of Dido. It +wouldn't do. A lady who had not learned discretion by experience, and +came to an evil end. He shook his head, as he sadly repeated, + + "--misera ante diem, subitoque accensa + furore"; + +but when he came to the lines, + + "Ergo Iris croceis per coelum roscida pennis + Mille trahens varios adverso Sole colores," + +he jumped up with a great exclamation, which the particular recording +angel who heard it pretended not to understand, or it might have gone +hard with the Latin tutor some time or other. + +"_Iris_ shall be her name!"--he said. So her name was Iris. + +--The natural end of a tutor is to perish by starvation. It is only a +question of time, just as with the burning of college libraries. These +all burn up sooner or later, provided they are not housed in brick or +stone and iron. I don't mean that you will see in the registry of deaths +that this or that particular tutor died of well-marked, uncomplicated +starvation. They _may_, even, in extreme cases, be carried off by a +thin, watery kind of apoplexy, which sounds very well in the returns, +but means little to those who know that it is only debility settling on +the head. Generally, however, they fade and waste away under various +pretexts,--calling it dyspepsia, consumption, and so on, to put a decent +appearance upon the case and keep up the credit of the family and the +institution where they have passed through the successive stages of +inanition. + +In some cases it takes a great many years to kill a tutor by the +process in question. You see, they do get food and clothes and fuel, in +appreciable quantities, such as they are. You will even notice rows of +books in their rooms, and a picture or two,--things that look as if +they had surplus money; but these superfluities are the _water of +crystallization_ to scholars, and you can never get them away till +the poor fellows effloresce into dust. Do not be deceived. The tutor +breakfasts on coffee made of beans, edulcerated with milk watered to the +verge of transparency; his mutton is tough and elastic, up to the +moment when it becomes tired out and tasteless; his coal is a sullen, +sulphurous anthracite, which rusts into ashes, rather than burns, in +the shallow grate; his flimsy broadcloth is too thin for winter and too +thick for summer. The greedy lungs of fifty hot-blooded boys suck the +oxygen from the air he breathes in his recitation-room. In short, he +undergoes a process of gentle and gradual starvation. + +--The mother of little Iris was not called Electra, like hers of the old +story, neither was her grandfather Oceanus. Her blood-name, which she +gave away with her heart to the Latin tutor, was a plain old English +one, and her water-name was Hannah, beautiful as recalling the mother of +Samuel, and admirable as reading equally well from the initial letter +forwards and from the terminal letter backwards. The poor lady, seated +with her companion at the chess-board of matrimony, had but just pushed +forward her one little white pawn upon an empty square, when the Black +Knight, that cares nothing for castles or kings or queens, swooped down +upon her and swept her from the larger board of life. + +The old Latin tutor put a modest blue stone at the head of his late +companion, with her name and age and _Eheu!_ upon it,--a smaller one +at her feet, with initials; and left her by herself, to be rained and +snowed on,--which is a hard thing to do for those whom we have cherished +tenderly. + +About the time that the lichens, falling on the stone, like drops of +water, had spread into fair, round rosettes, the tutor had starved into +a slight cough. Then he began to draw the buckle of his black pantaloons +a little tighter, and took in another reef in his never-ample waistcoat. +His temples got a little hollow, and the contrasts of color in his +cheeks more vivid than of old. After a while his walks fatigued him, and +he was tired and breathed hard after going up a flight or two of stairs. +Then came on other marks of inward trouble and general waste, which he +spoke of to his physician as peculiar, and doubtless owing to accidental +causes; to all which the doctor listened with deference, as if it had +not been the old story that one in five or six of mankind in temperate +climates tells, or has told for him, as if it were something new. As +the doctor went out, he said to himself,--"On the rail at last. +Accommodation train. A good many stops, but will get to the station by +and by." So the doctor wrote a recipe with the astrological sign of +Jupiter before it, (just as your own physician does, inestimable reader, +as you will see, if you look at his next prescription,) and departed, +saying he would look in occasionally. After this, the Latin tutor began +the usual course of "getting better," until he got so much better that +his face was very sharp, and when he smiled, three crescent lines +showed at each side of his lips, and when he spoke, it was in a muffled +whisper, and the white of his eye glistened as pearly as the purest +porcelain,--so much better, that he hoped--by spring--he----might be +able--to--attend----to his class again.--But he was recommended not +to expose himself, and so kept his chamber, and occasionally, not having +anything to do, his bed. The unmarried sister with whom he lived took +care of him; and the child, now old enough to be manageable, and even +useful in trifling offices, sat in the chamber, or played about. + +Things could not go on so forever, of course. One morning his face was +sunken and his hands very, very cold. He was "better," he whispered, but +sadly and faintly. After a while he grew restless and seemed a little +wandering. His mind ran on his classics, and fell back on the Latin +grammar. + +"Iris!" he said,--"_filiola mea!_"--The child knew this meant _my dear +little daughter_ as well as if it had been English.--"Rainbow!"--for he +would translate her name at times, "come to me,--_veni_"--and his lips +went on automatically, and murmured, "_vel venito!_"--The child came +and sat by his bedside and took his hand, which she could not warm, but +which shot its rays of cold all through her slender frame. But there she +sat, looking steadily at him. Presently he opened his lips feebly, and +whispered, "_Moribundus._" She did not know what that meant, but she saw +that there was something new and sad. So she began to cry; but presently +remembering an old book that seemed to comfort him at times, got up and +brought a Bible in the Latin version, called the Vulgate. "Open it," he +said,--"I will read,--_segnius irritant_,--don't put the light +out,--ah! _haeret lateri_,--I am going,--_vale, vale, vale_, good-bye, +good-bye,--the Lord take care of my child!--_Domine, audi_--_vel +audito!_" His face whitened suddenly, and he lay still, with open eyes +and mouth. He had taken his last degree. + +----Little Miss Iris could not be said to begin life with a very +brilliant rainbow over her, in a worldly point of view. A limited +wardrobe of man's attire, such as poor tutors wear,--a few good books, +especially classics,--a print or two, and a plaster model of the +Pantheon, with some pieces of furniture which had seen service,--these, +and a child's heart full of tearful recollections and strange doubts and +questions, alternating with the cheap pleasures which are the anodynes +of childish grief; such were the treasures she inherited.--No,--I +forgot. With that kindly sentiment which all of us feel for old men's +first children,--frost-flowers of the early winter season,--the old +tutor's students had remembered him at a time when he was laughing and +crying with his new parental emotions, and running to the side of the +plain crib in which his _alter ego_, as he used to say, was swinging, +to hang over the little heap of stirring clothes, from which looked the +minute, red, downy, still, round face, with unfixed eyes and working +lips,--in that unearthly gravity which has never yet been broken by a +smile, and which gives to the earliest moon-year or two of an infant's +life the character of a _first old age_, to counterpoise that _second +childhood_ which there is one chance in a dozen it may reach by and by. +The boys had remembered the old man and young father at that tender +period of his hard, dry life. There came to him a fair, silver goblet, +embossed with classical figures, and bearing on a shield the graven +words, _Ex dono pupillorum_. The handle on its side showed what use the +boys had meant it for; and a kind letter in it, written with the best of +feeling, in the worst of Latin, pointed delicately to its destination. +Out of this silver vessel, after a long, desperate, strangling cry, +which marked her first great lesson in the realities of life, the child +took the blue milk, such as poor tutors and their children get, tempered +with water, and sweetened a little, so as to bring it nearer the +standard established by the touching indulgence and partiality of +Nature,--who has mingled an extra allowance of sugar in the blameless +food of the child at its mother's heart, as compared with that of its +infant brothers and sisters of the bovine race. + +But a willow will grow in baked sand wet with rain-water. An air-plant +will grow by feeding on the winds. Nay, those huge forests that +overspread great continents have built themselves up mainly from the +air-currents with which they are always battling. The oak is but a +foliated atmospheric crystal deposited from the aerial ocean that holds +the future vegetable world in solution. The storm that tears its leaves +has paid tribute to its strength, and it breasts the tornado clad in the +spoils of a hundred hurricanes. + +Poor little Iris! What had she in common with the great oak in the +shadow of which we are losing sight of her?--She lived and grew like +that,--this was all. The blue milk ran into her veins and filled them +with thin, pure blood. Her skin was fair, with a faint tinge, such as +the white rosebud shows before it opens. The doctor who had attended +her father was afraid her aunt would hardly be able to "raise" +her,--"delicate child,"--hoped she was not consumptive,--thought there +was a fair chance she would take after her father. + +A very forlorn-looking person, dressed in black, with a white +neckcloth, sent her a memoir of a child who died at the age of two years +and eleven months, after having fully indorsed all the doctrines of the +particular persuasion to which he not only belonged himself, but +thought it very shameful that everybody else did not belong. What with +foreboding looks and dreary deathbed stories, it was a wonder the child +made out to live through it. It saddened her early years, of course,--it +distressed her tender soul with thoughts which, as they cannot be fully +taken in, should be sparingly used as instruments of torture to break +down the natural cheerfulness of a healthy child, or, what is infinitely +worse, to cheat a dying one out of the kind illusions with which the +Father of All has strewed its downward path. + +The child would have died, no doubt, and, if properly managed, might +have added another to the long catalogue of wasting children who have +been as cruelly played upon by spiritual physiologists, often with the +best intentions, as ever the subject of a rare disease by the curious +students of science. + +Fortunately for her, however, a wise instinct had guided the late Latin +tutor in the selection of the partner of his life, and the future mother +of his child. The deceased tutoress was a tranquil, smooth woman, easily +nourished, as such people are,--a quality which is inestimable in a +tutor's wife,--and so it happened that the daughter inherited enough +vitality from the mother to live through childhood and infancy and fight +her way towards womanhood, in spite of the tendencies she derived from +her other parent. + +----Two and two do not always make four, in this matter of hereditary +descent of qualities. Sometimes they make three, and sometimes five. It +seems as if the parental traits at one time showed separate, at another +blended,--that occasionally the force of two natures is represented in +the derivative one by a diagonal of greater value than either original +line of living movement,--that sometimes there is a loss of vitality +hardly to be accounted for, and again a forward impulse of variable +intensity in some new and unforeseen direction. + +So it was with this child. She had glanced off from her parental +probabilities at an unexpected angle. Instead of taking to classical +learning like her father, or sliding quietly into household duties like +her mother, she broke out early in efforts that pointed in the direction +of Art. As soon as she could hold a pencil she began to sketch outlines +of objects round her with a certain air and spirit. Very extraordinary +horses, but their legs looked as if they could move. Birds unknown to +Audubon, yet flying, as it were, with a rush. Men with impossible legs, +which did yet seem to have a vital connection with their most improbable +bodies. By-and-by the doctor, on his beast,--an old man with a face +looking as if Time had kneaded it like dough with his knuckles, with a +rhubarb tint and flavor pervading himself and his sorrel horse and all +their appurtenances. A dreadful old man! Be sure she did not forget +those saddlebags that held the detestable bottles out of which he used +to shake those loathsome powders which, to virgin childish palates that +find heaven in strawberries and peaches, are----Well, I suppose I had +better stop. Only she wished she was dead sometimes when she heard him +coming. On the next leaf would figure the gentleman with the black coat +and white cravat, as he looked when he came and entertained her with +stories concerning the death of various little children about her age, +to encourage her, as that wicked Mr. Arouet said about shooting Admiral +Byng. Then she would take her pencil and with a few scratches there +would be the outline of a child, in which you might notice how one +sudden sweep gave the chubby cheek, and two dots darted at the paper +looked like real eyes. + +By-and-by she went to school, and caricatured the schoolmaster on the +leaves of her grammars and geographies, and drew the faces of her +companions, and, from time to time, heads and figures from her fancy, +with large eyes, far apart, like those of Raffaelle's mothers and +children, sometimes with wild floating hair, and then with wings and +heads thrown back in ecstasy. This was about twelve, as the dates of +these drawings show, and, therefore, three or four years before she came +among us. Soon after this time, the ideal figures began to take the +place of portraits and caricatures, and a new feature appeared in her +drawing-books in the form of fragments of verse and short poems. + +It was dull work, of course, for such a young girl to live with an old +spinster and go to a village school. Her books bore testimony to this; +for there was a look of sadness in the faces she drew, and a sense of +weariness and longing for some imaginary conditions of blessedness or +other, which began to be painful. She might have gone through this +flowering of the soul, and, casting her petals, subsided into a sober, +human berry, but for the intervention of friendly assistance and +counsel. + +In the town where she lived was a lady of honorable condition, somewhat +past middle age, who was possessed of pretty ample means, of cultivated +tastes, of excellent principles, of exemplary character, and of more +than common accomplishments. The gentleman in black broadcloth and white +neckerchief only echoed the common voice about her, when he called her, +after enjoying, beneath her hospitable roof, an excellent cup of tea, +with certain elegancies and luxuries he was unaccustomed to, "The Model +of all the Virtues." + +She deserved this title as well as almost any woman. She did really +bristle with moral excellences. Mention any good thing she had not done; +I should like to see you try! There was no handle of weakness to take +hold of her by: she was as unseizable, except in her totality, as a +billiard-ball; and on the broad, green, terrestrial table, where she had +been knocked about, like all of us, by the cue of Fortune, she glanced +from every human contact, and "caramed" from one relation to another, +and rebounded from the stuffed cushion of temptation, with such exact +and perfect angular movements, that the Enemy's corps of Reporters had +long given up taking notes of her conduct, as there was no chance for +their master. + +What an admirable person for the patroness and directress of a slightly +self-willed child, with the lightning zigzag line of genius running like +a glittering vein through the marble whiteness of her virgin nature! One +of the lady-patroness's peculiar virtues was calmness. She was resolute +and strenuous, but still. You could depend on her for every duty; she +was as true as steel. She was kind-hearted and serviceable in all +the relations of life. She had more sense, more knowledge, more +conversation, as well as more goodness, than all the partners you have +waltzed with this winter put together. + +Yet no man was known to have loved her, or even to have offered himself +to her in marriage. It was a great wonder. I am very anxious to +vindicate my character as a philosopher and an observer of Nature by +accounting for this apparently extraordinary fact. + +You may remember certain persons who have the misfortune of presenting +to the friends whom they meet a cold, damp hand. There are states of +mind in which a contact of this kind has a depressing effect on the +vital powers that makes us insensible to all the virtues and graces of +the proprietor of one of these life-absorbing organs. When they touch +us, virtue passes out of us, and we feel as if our electricity had been +drained by a powerful negative battery, carried about by an overgrown +human torpedo. + +"The Model of all the Virtues" had a pair of searching eyes as clear as +Wenham ice; but they were slower to melt than that fickle jewelry. Her +features disordered themselves slightly at times in a surface-smile, but +never broke loose from their corners and indulged in the riotous tumult +of a laugh--which, I take it, is the mob-law of the features,--and +propriety the magistrate who reads the riot-act. She carried the +brimming cup of her inestimable virtues with a cautious, steady hand, +and an eye always on them, to see that they did not spill. Then she +was an admirable judge of character. Her mind was a perfect laboratory +of tests and reagents; every syllable you put into breath went into +her intellectual eudiometer, and all your thoughts were recorded on +litmus-paper. I think there has rarely been a more admirable woman. +Of course, Miss Iris was immensely and passionately attached +to her.----Well,--these are two highly oxygenated adverbs,--grateful,-- +suppose we say,--yes,--grateful, dutiful, obedient to her wishes for +the most part,--perhaps not quite up to the concert pitch of such a +perfect orchestra of the virtues. + +We must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it +much. People that do not laugh or cry, or take more of anything than +is good for them, or use anything but dictionary-words, are admirable +subjects for biographies. But we don't always care most for those +flat-pattern flowers that press best in the herbarium. + +This immaculate woman,--why couldn't she have a fault or two? Isn't +there any old whisper which will tarnish that wearisome aureole of +saintly perfection? Doesn't she carry a lump of opium in her pocket? +Isn't her cologne-bottle replenished oftener than its legitimate use +would require? It would be such a comfort! + +Not for the world would a young creature like Iris have let such words +escape her, or such thoughts pass through her mind. Whether at the +bottom of her soul lies any uneasy consciousness of an oppressive +presence, it is hard to say, until we know more about her. Iris sits +between the little man and the "Model of all the Virtues," as the +black-coated gentleman called her.--I will watch them all. + +----Here I stop for the present. What the Professor said has had to make +way this time for what he saw and heard. + + * * * * * + +----And now you may read these lines, which were written for gentle +souls who love music, and read in even tones, and, perhaps, with +something like a smile upon the reader's lips, at a meeting where these +musical friends had gathered. Whether they were written with smiles or +not, you can guess better after you have read them. + + + + +THE OPENING OF THE PIANO. + + + In the little southern parlor of the house you + may have seen + With the gambrel-roof, and the gable looking + westward to the green, + At the side toward the sunset, with the window + on its right, + Stood the London-made piano I am dreaming + of to-night. + + Ah me! how I remember the evening when it + came! + What a cry of eager voices, what a group of + cheeks in flame, + When the wondrous box was opened that had + come from over seas, + With its smell of mastic-varnish and its flash + of ivory keys! + + Then the children all grew fretful in the restlessness + of joy, + For the boy would push his sister, and the + sister crowd the boy, + Till the father asked for quiet in his grave + paternal way, + But the mother hushed the tumult with the + words, "Now, Mary, play." + + For the dear soul knew that music was a very + sovereign balm; + She had sprinkled it over Sorrow and seen its + brow grow calm, + In the days of slender harpsichords with tapping + tinkling quills, + Or carolling to her spinet with its thin metallic + thrills. + + So Mary, the household minstrel, who always + loved to please, + Sat down to the new "Clementi," and struck + the glittering keys. + Hushed were the children's voices, and every + eye grew dim, + As, floating from lip and finger, arose the + "Vesper Hymn." + + --Catharine, child of a neighbor, curly and + rosy-red, + (Wedded since, and a widow--something like + ten years dead,) + Hearing a gush of music such as none + before, + Steals from her mother's chamber and peeps + at the open door. + + Just as the "Jubilate" in threaded whisper + dies, + --"Open it! open it, lady!" the little maiden + cries + (For she thought 'twas a singing creature + caged in a box she heard,) + "Open it! open it, lady! and let me see the + _bird!_" + + + + +THE UTAH EXPEDITION; + +ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. + + +If General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary memory, the first Secretary of +War of the Republic, had dreamed that the successor to his portfolio, +after an interval of seventy years, would recommend to Congress the +purchase of a thousand camels for military purposes, he would have +attributed the fancy to excited nerves or a too hearty dinner. Had he +dreamed, further, that the grotesque mounted corps was to be employed +in regions two thousand miles beyond the frontier of the Anglo-Saxon +pioneer of 1789, to guard travel to an actual El Dorado, the vision +would have appeared still more extraordinary. And its absurdity would +have seemed complete, if he had fancied the high road of this travel +as leading through a community essentially Oriental in its social and +political life, which was nevertheless ripening into a State of the +American Union. Yet if General Knox could be roused from his grave at +Thomaston, he would see the dream realized. On the Pacific lies El +Dorado; among the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains there is a community +which blends the voluptuousness of Bagdad with the economy of Cape Cod; +and within two years a regiment of camel-riders will be scouring the +Great American Plains after Cheyennes, Navajoes, and Camanches. + +The propagation of the religion of which Joseph Smith was the prophet +has just begun to attract the notice its extraordinary success +deserves. So long as the head of the Mormon Church was considered a kind +of Mahometan Sam Slick, and his associates a crazy rabble, it was vain +to expect that the whole sect could be treated with more attention than +any of the curiosities in a popular museum. But a juster appreciation of +the constitution of the Mormon community begins to prevail, and with it +comes a conviction that questions are involved in its relations to the +parent government which are not exceeded in importance by any that have +ever been agitated at Washington. Brigham Young no longer seems to the +American public a religious mountebank, only one grade removed from the +man Orr, who claimed to be the veritable Angel Gabriel, and was killed +in a popular commotion which he had himself excited in Dutch Guiana. On +the contrary, he begins to appear as a man of great native strength and +scope of mind, who understands the phases of human character and knows +how to avail himself of the knowledge, and who has acquired spiritual +dominion over one hundred and fifty thousand souls, combined with +absolute temporal supremacy over fifty thousand of the number. + +The situation of the Mormon community in Utah has been peculiarly +adapted, heretofore, to the eccentricities of its inhabitants. Isolated +from Christendom on the east and west by plains incapable of settlement +for generations to come, and encompassed by mountain-ranges, the line +of whose summits runs above the boundary of eternal snow, it was +independent of the influences of Christian civilization. No missionary +of any Christian sect ever attempted to propagate his doctrines in +Utah,--nor, perhaps, would any such propagation have been tolerated, had +it been attempted. The Mormon religion was free to run its own course +and develop whatever elements it possessed of good and evil. When +Brigham Young and his followers from Nauvoo descended the Wahsatch range +in the summer of 1847, and took up their abode around the Great Salt +Lake, the avowed creed of the Church was different from that proclaimed +to-day. The secret doctrines entertained by its leaders were perhaps +the same as at present, but the religion of the people was a species of +mysticism which it is not impossible to conceive might commend itself +even to a refined mind. The existence of polygamy was officially denied +by the highest ecclesiastical authority, although we know to-day that +the denial was a shameless lie, and that Joseph Smith, during his +lifetime, had a plurality of wives, and at his death bequeathed them to +his successor, who already possessed a harem of his own. Property was +almost equally distributed among the people, the leaders being as poor +as their disciples. In this respect at that time they were accustomed +exultantly to compare their condition with that of the early Christians. + +Ten years passed, and the change was extraordinary. The doctrines +of Mormonism, if plainly stated, are no longer such as can commend +themselves to a mind not perverted nor naturally prurient. Polygamy is +inculcated as a religious duty, without which dignity in the Celestial +Kingdom is impossible, and even salvation hardly to be obtained. +Property is distributed unjustly, the bulk of real and personal estate +in the Territory being vested in the Church and its directors, between +whom and the mass of the population there exists a difference in social +welfare as wide as between the Russian nobleman and his serf. In brief, +the Mormons no longer claim to be a Christian sect, but assert, and +truly, that their religion is as distinct from Christianity as that is +from Mahometanism. Many of the doctrines whispered in 1847 only to +those who had been admitted to the penetralia of the Nauvoo Temple are +proclaimed unblushingly in 1857 from the pulpit in the Tabernacle at +Salt Lake City. A system of polytheism has been ingrafted on the creed, +according to which there are grades among the Gods, there being no +Supreme Ruler of all, but the primeval Adam of Genesis being the deity +highest in spiritual rank, and Christ, Mahomet, Joseph Smith, and, +finally, Brigham Young, partaking also of divinity. The business of +these deities in the Celestial Kingdom is the propagation of souls to +people bodies begotten on earth, and the sexual relation is made to +permeate every portion of the creed as thoroughly as it pervaded the +religions of ancient Egypt and India. In the Endowment House at Salt +Lake City, secret rites are practised of a character similar to the +mysteries of the Nile, and presided over by Young and Kimball, two +Vermont Yankees, with all the solemnity of priests of Isis and Osiris. +In these rites, which are symbolical of the mystery of procreation, both +sexes participate, clad in loose flowing robes of white linen, with +cleansed bodies and anointed hair. Since the revelation of the processes +of the Endowment, which was first fully made by a young apostate named +John Hyde, other dissenters, real and pretended, have attempted to +impose on the public exaggerated accounts of these ceremonies; but in +justice to the Mormon Church it ought to be said, that there is no +foundation for the reports that they are such as would outrage decency. +To be sure, an assemblage of members of both sexes, clad in white +shifts, with oiled and dishevelled hair, in a room fitted up in +resemblance of a garden, to witness a performance of the allegory of +Adam and Eve in Eden, which is conducted so as to be sensually symbolic, +is not suggestive of refined ideas; but it is necessary to take into +consideration the character both of performers and witnesses, which is +not distinguished in any way by delicacy. According to their standard of +morality and taste, the rites of the Endowment are devoid of immodesty. + +In their political bearing, however, they are more important, and justly +liable to the severest censure. It is established beyond question, that +the initiated, clad in the preposterous costume before described, take +an oath, in the presence of their Spiritual Head, to cherish eternal +enmity towards the government of the United States until it shall have +avenged the death of their prophet, Joseph Smith. And this ceremony is +not a mere empty form of words. It is an oath, the spirit of which the +Endowed carry into their daily life and all their relations with +the Gentile world. In it lies the root of the evasion, and finally +subversion, of Federal authority which occasioned the recent military +expedition to Utah. + +When the Territory was organized in 1850, the government at Washington, +acting on an imperfect knowledge of the nature of Mormonism, conferred +the office of Governor upon Brigham Young. For this act Mr. Fillmore has +been unjustly censured. It appeared to him, at the time, a proper, as +well as politic, appointment. But before the succession of General +Pierce to the Presidency, its evil results became apparent, in the +expulsion of civil officers from the Territory and the subversion of +all law. A feeble, and of course unsuccessful, attempt was then made to +supplant Young with Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe, a meritorious, but too +amiable officer of the regular army,--the same whose defeat by the +Cayuses, Spokans, and Coeur d'Alenes, last May, occasioned the Indian +war in Washington Territory. During the summer of 1855, he led a +battalion overland, wintering in Salt Lake City. It was at his option, +at any time during his sojourn, to have claimed the supreme executive +authority. He did not do so, but even headed a recommendation to +President Pierce for the reappointment of Brigham Young. This was the +result of his winter's residence, during which he and some of his +fellow-officers were feasted to their stomachs' content, and entirely +careless concerning the political condition of the Territory. Late in +the spring, he marched away to California, after having expressed to +the President that it was "his unqualified opinion, based on personal +acquaintance, that Brigham Young is [was] the most suitable person for +the office of Governor." Brigham's views of the winter's proceedings, on +the other hand, were expressed in a sermon preached in the Tabernacle, +the Sunday after the departure of the Lieutenant-Colonel, in which he +repeated his declaration of three years previous:-- + +"I am, and will be, governor, and no power can hinder it, until the Lord +Almighty says, 'Brigham, you need not be governor any longer.'" And he +added,--"I do not know what I shall say next winter, if such men make +their appearance here as some last winter. I know what I think I shall +say; if they play the same game again, let the women be ever so bad, so +help me God, we will slay them." + +Most of the other civil officers who were commissioned about the same +time with Colonel Steptoe arrived the August after he had departed. +Within eighteen months their lot was the same as that of their +predecessors. In April, 1857, before the snow had begun to melt on the +mountains, all of them, in a party led by Surveyor-General Burr, were on +their way to the States, happy in having escaped with life. During the +previous February, the United States District Court had been broken up +in Salt Lake City. A mob had invaded the courtroom, armed with pistols +and bludgeons, a knife was drawn on the judge in his private room, +and he was ordered to adjourn his court _sine die_, and yielded. +Indian-Agent Hurt was the only Gentile official who remained in the +Territory. + +In the mean while, however, a change of national administration had +taken place, and General Pierce had been succeeded by Mr. Buchanan. For +nearly three years the country had been convulsed by an agitation of the +Slavery question, originating with Senator Douglas, which culminated in +the Presidential election of 1856. The Utah question, grave though it +was, was forgotten in the excitement concerning Kansas, or remembered +only by the Republican party, as enabling them to stigmatize more +pungently the political theories of the Illinois Senator, by coupling +polygamy and slavery, "twin relics of barbarism," in the resolution of +their Philadelphia Platform against Squatter Sovereignty. In the lull +which succeeded the election, Mr. Buchanan had leisure, at Wheatland, to +draft a programme for his incoming administration. His paramount idea +was to gag the North and induce her to forget that she had been robbed +of her birthright, by forcing on the attention of the country other +questions of absorbing interest. One of the most obvious of these was +supplied by the condition of affairs in Utah. It had been satisfactorily +established, that the Mormons, acting under the influence of leaders +to whom they seemed to have surrendered their judgment, refused to be +controlled by any other authority; that they had been often advised to +obedience, and these friendly counsels had been answered with defiance; +that officers of the Federal Government had been driven from the +Territory for no offence except an effort to do their sworn duty, while +others had been prevented from going there by threats of assassination; +that judges had been interrupted in the performance of their functions, +and the records of their courts seized, and either destroyed or +concealed; and, finally, that many other acts of unlawful violence had +been perpetrated, and the right to repeat them openly claimed by the +leading inhabitants, with at least the silent acquiescence of nearly +all the rest of the population. In view of these facts, Mr. Buchanan +determined to supersede Brigham Young in the office of Governor, and to +send to Utah a strong military force to sustain the new appointee in the +exercise of his authority. + +The rumors of the impending expedition reached the Mormons at the very +moment they were prepared to apply to Congress for admission as a State. +A Constitution had been framed by a Convention assembled without the +sanction of an enabling act, and was intrusted to George A. Smith and +John Taylor, two of the Twelve Apostles of the Church, for presentation +to Congress. These men, both of them of more than ordinary ability, +helped to present the Mormon side of the question to the country through +the newspapers, during the winter of 1856-7. The essence of their +vindication was, that the character of some of the Federal officers who +had been sent to Utah was objectionable in the extreme; but, granting +the truth of all their statements on this subject, they supplied no +excuse for the utter subversion of Federal authority in the Territory. +Their narrative, however, formed a most spicy chapter in the annals of +official scandal. The three United States judges, Kinney, Drummond, +and Stiles, were presented to the public stripped of all judicial +sanctity;--Kinney, the Chief Justice, as the keeper of a grocery-store, +dance-room, and boarding-house, enforcing the bills for food and lodging +against his brethren of the law by expulsion from the bar in case of +non-payment, and so tenacious of life, that, before departing from the +Territory, he solicited and received from Brigham Young a patriarchal +blessing; Drummond, as an amorous horse-jockey, who had taken to Utah, +as his mistress, a drab from Washington, and seated her beside him once +upon the bench of the court; Stiles as himself a Mormon, so far as the +possession of two wives could make him one. From the early days of +Joseph Smith, his disciples have never minced their language, and they +expended their whole vocabulary now on such themes as have been cited, +proving, to the satisfaction of everybody, that, in respect to the +judiciary, they had indeed had just cause for complaint. The mission of +Smith and Taylor failed, as might have been expected,--the Chairman of +the Committee on Territories, Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, refusing even +to present their Constitution to the House,--and they prepared to return +to Utah. + +A month or two later, Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated, and preparations for +the Utah Expedition were immediately ordered. In the first place, an +opinion was solicited from General Scott as to the feasibility of the +undertaking until the next year. That distinguished soldier gave a +decision adverse to the immediate dispatch of the expedition. He +considered that the arrangements necessary to be made were so extensive, +and the distances from which the regiments must be concentrated so +great, that the wiser plan was to consume the year in getting everything +in readiness for the troops to march from the frontier early in the +spring of 1858. It would have been well, had his advice prevailed; +but it was overruled, and the preparations for the expedition were +commenced. The troops detailed for the service were the Fifth Infantry, +then busy fighting Billy Bowlegs among the everglades of Florida,--the +Tenth Infantry, which was stationed at the forts in Upper +Minnesota,--the Second Dragoons, which was among the forces assembled +at Fort Leavenworth, to be used, if necessary, in Kansas, at the +requisition of Governor Walker,--and Phelps's light-artillery battery, +the same which so distinguished itself at Buena Vista, under the command +of Captain Washington. An ordnance-battery, also, was organized for the +purposes of the expedition. Brevet Brigadier-General Harney was assigned +to the command-in-chief, an officer of a rude force of character, +amounting often to brutality, and careless as to those details of +military duty which savor more of the accountant's inkstand than of +the drum and fife, but ambitious, active, and well acquainted with the +character of the service for which he was detailed. He was, at the time, +in command in Kansas, subject in a measure to the will of Governor +Walker. + +The whole number of troops under orders for the expedition was hardly +twenty-five hundred, but from this total no estimate can be predicated +of the enormous quantities of commissary stores and munitions of war +necessary to be dispatched to sustain it. It was thought advisable +to send a supply for eighteen months, so that the trains exceeded in +magnitude those which would accompany an army of twenty thousand in +ordinary operations on the European continent, where _depots_ could be +established along the line of march. To appreciate such preparations, it +is necessary to understand the character of the country to be traversed +between the Missouri River and the Great Salt Lake. + +The route selected for the march was along the emigrant road across +the Plains, first defined fifty years ago by trappers and _voyageurs_ +following the trail by which the buffalo crossed the mountains, +described by Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, in the reports of his earlier +explorations, and subsequently adopted by all the overland emigration +across the continent. It is, perhaps, the most remarkable natural road +in the world. The hand of man could hardly add an improvement to the +highway along which, from the Missouri to the Great Basin, Nature has +presented not a single obstacle to the progress of the heaviest loaded +teams. From the frontier, at Fort Leavenworth, it sweeps over a broad +rolling prairie to the Platte, a river shallow, but of great width, +whose course is as straight as an arrow. Pursuing the river-bottom more +than three hundred miles, to the Black Hills, steep mounds dotted with +dark pines and cedars, it enters the broad belt of mountainous country +which terminates in the rim of the Basin. Following thence the North +Fork of the Platte, and its tributary, the Sweetwater,--so named by an +old French trapper, who had the misfortune to upset a load of sugar into +the stream,--it emerges from the Black Hills into scenery of a different +character. On the northern bank of the Sweetwater are the Rattlesnake +Mountains, huge excrescences of rock, blistering out of an arid plain; +on the southern bank, the hills which bear the name of the river, and +are only exaggerations of the bluffs along the Platte. The dividing +ridge between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific is reached in the +South Pass, at the foot of a spur of the Wind River range, a group of +gigantic mountains, whose peaks reach three thousand feet above the line +of perpetual snow. There the emigrant strikes his tent in the morning +on the banks of a rivulet which finds its way, through the Platte, +Missouri, and Mississippi, into the Gulf of Mexico,--and pitches it, at +his next camp, upon a little creek which trickles into Green River, and +at last, through the Colorado, into the Gulf of California. Not far +distant spring the fountains of the Columbia. A level table-land extends +to the fords of Green River, a clear and rapid stream, whose entire +course has never yet been mapped by an intelligent explorer. Here the +road becomes entangled again among mountains, and winds its way over +steep ridges, across foaming torrents, and through canons so narrow that +only noonday sunshine penetrates their depths, until it emerges, through +a rocky gate in the great barrier of the Wahsatch range, upon the bench +above Salt Lake City, twelve hundred miles from Fort Leavenworth. The +view at this point, from the mouth of Emigration Canon, is enchanting. +The sun, sinking through a cloudless western sky, silvers the long line +of the lake, which is visible twenty miles away. Beyond the city the +River Jordan winds quietly through the plain. Below the gazer are roofs +and cupolas, shady streets, neat gardens, and fields of ripening grain. +The mountains, which bound the horizon on every side, except where a +wavering stream of heated air shows the beginning of the Great Desert, +are tinged with a soft purple haze, in anticipation of the sunset, but +every patch of green grass on their slopes glows through it like an +emerald, while along the summits runs an undulating thread of snow. + +Throughout this vast line of road, the only white inhabitants are the +garrisons of the military posts, the keepers of mail-stations, and +_voyageurs_ and mountaineers, whose cabins may be found in every +locality favorable to Indian trade. These last are a singular race +of men, fast disappearing, like the Indian and the buffalo, their +neighbors. Most of them are of French extraction, and some have died +without having learned to speak a word of English. Their wealth consists +in cattle and horses, and little stocks of goods which they purchase +from the sutlers at the forts or the merchants at Salt Lake City. Some +of the more considerable among them have the means of sending to the +States for an annual supply of blankets, beads, vermilion, and other +stuff for Indian traffic; but the most are thriftless, and all are +living in concubinage or marriage with squaws, and surrounded by troops +of unwashed, screeching half-breeds. Once in from three to six years, +they will make a journey to St. Louis, and gamble away so much of their +savings since the last visit as has escaped being wasted over greasy +card-tables during the long winter-evenings among the mountains. The +Indian tribes along the way are numerous and formidable, the road +passing through country occupied by Pawnees, Cheyennes, Sioux, +Arapahoes, Crows, Snakes, and Utahs. With the Cheyennes war had been +waged by the United States for more than two years, which interfered +seriously with the expedition; for, during the month of June, a +war-party from that tribe intercepted and dispersed the herd of +beef-cattle intended for the use of the army. + +The natural characteristics of the entire route are as unpromising as +those of its inhabitants. At the distance of about two hundred miles +from the Missouri frontier the soil becomes so pervaded by sand, that +only scientific agriculture can render it available. Along the Platte +there is no fuel. Not a tree is visible, except the thin fringe of +cottonwoods on the margin of the river, all of which upon the south +bank, where the road runs, were hewed down and burned at every +convenient camp, during the great California emigration. When the Rocky +Mountains are entered, the only vegetation found is bunch-grass, so +called because it grows in tufts,--and the _artemisia_, or wild sage, an +odorous shrub, which sometimes attains the magnitude of a tree, with a +fibrous trunk as thick as a man's thigh, but is ordinarily a bush +about two feet in height. The bunch-grass, grown at such an elevation, +possesses extraordinary nutritive properties, even in midwinter. About +the middle of January a new growth is developed underneath the snow, +forcing off the old dry blade that ripened and shed its seed the +previous summer. From Fort Kearney to Fort Laramie, almost the only +fuel to be obtained is the dung of buffalo and oxen, called, in the +vocabulary of the region, "chips,"--the _argal_ of the Tartar deserts. +Among the mountains the sage is the chief material of the traveller's +fire. It burns with a lively, ruddy flame, and gives out an intense +heat. In the settlements of Utah all the wood consumed is hauled from +the canons, which are usually lined with pines, firs, and cedars, while +the broadsides of the mountains are nothing but terraces of volcanic +rock. The price of wood in Salt Lake City is from twelve to twenty +dollars a cord. + +From this brief review of the natural features of the country, some idea +may be formed of the intensity of the religious enthusiasm which has +induced fifty thousand Mormon converts to traverse it, many of them on +foot and trundling handcarts, to seek a home among the valleys of +Utah, in a region hardly more propitious; and some idea, also, of the +difficulties which were to attend the march of the army. + +During the spring of 1857, the preparations for the expedition were +hurried forward, and in June the whole force was collected at Fort +Leavenworth. All Western Missouri was in a ferment. The river foamed +with steamboats freighted with military stores, and the levee at +Leavenworth City was covered all summer long with the frames of wagons. +Between the 18th and the 24th of July, all the detachments of the little +army were on the march, except a battalion of two companies of infantry, +which had been unable to join their regiment at the time it moved from +Minnesota, and the Second Dragoons, which Governor Walker retained in +Kansas to overawe the uneasy people of the town of Lawrence. General +Harney also tarried in Kansas, intending to wait until after the October +election there, at which disturbances were anticipated that it might be +necessary to quell by force. + +At Washington, movements of equal importance were taking place. The +Postmaster-General, in June, annulled the contract held by certain +Mormons for the transportation of the monthly mall to Utah, ostensibly +on account of non-performance of the service within the stipulated time, +but really because he was satisfied that the mails were violated, either +_en route_ or after arrival at Salt Lake City. The office of Governor +of the Territory was offered by the President to various persons, and +finally accepted, July 11th, by Alfred Cumming, a brother of the Cumming +of Georgia who fought multitudinous duels with McDuffie of South +Carolina, all of which both parties survived. Mr. Cumming had been a +sutler during the Mexican War, and more recently a Superintendent of +Indian Affairs on the Upper Missouri. He was reputed to be a gentleman +of education, ambition, and executive ability. The office of Chief +Justice was conferred on Judge D.R. Eckels, of Indiana, a person well +fitted for the position by the circumstances of his early life, of the +utmost determination, and whose judicial integrity was above suspicion. + +The news of the stoppage of the mail reached Salt Lake Valley July 24th, +an eventful anniversary in the history of Mormonism. It was on the 24th +of July, 1847, that Brigham Young entered the Valley from the East, and +the day had always afterwards been kept as a holiday of the Church. On +this occasion, the celebration was held in Cottonwood Canon, one of the +wildest and grandest gorges among the Wahsatch Mountains, opening at +the foot of the Twin Peaks, about twenty miles southeast from Salt Lake +City. Thither more than twenty-five hundred people had flocked from the +city on the previous day, and prepared to hold their festival under +bowers built of fragrant pines and cedars around a little lake far up +among the mountains. During the afternoon of the 24th, while they were +engaged in music, dancing, and every manner of lively sport, two dusty +messengers rode up the canon, bringing from the States the news of the +stoppage of the mail and of the approaching march of the troops. This +mode of announcement was probably preconcerted with Brigham Young, who +was undoubtedly aware of the facts on the preceding day. A scene of +the maddest confusion ensued, which was heightened by the inflammatory +speeches of the Mormon leaders. Young reminded the fanatical throng, +that, ten years ago that very day, he had said, "Give us ten years of +peace and we will ask no odds of the United States"; and he added, +that the ten years had passed, and now they asked no odds,--that they +constituted henceforth a free and independent state, to be known no +longer as Utah, but by their own Mormon name of Deseret. Kimball, the +second in authority in the Church, called on the people to adhere to +Brigham, as their "prophet, seer, and revelator, priest, governor, +and king." The sun set on the first overt act in the rebellion. The +fanatics, wending their way back to the city, across the broad plain, in +the moonlight, were ready to follow wherever Brigham Young might choose +to lead. + +On the succeeding Sundays the spirit of rebellion was breathed from the +pulpit in language yet more intemperate, and often profane and obscene. +Military preparations were made with the greatest bustle; and the Nauvoo +Legion--under which name, transplanted from Illinois, the militia were +organized--was drilled daily in the streets of the city. The martial +fervor ran so high that even the boys paraded with wooden spears and +guns, and the little ragamuffins were inspected and patted on the head +by venerable and veritable Fathers of the Church. + +In total ignorance that the standard of rebellion had already been +raised, General Harney, in the beginning of August, detached Captain Van +Vliet, the Quarter-master on his staff, to proceed rapidly to Utah to +make arrangements for the reception of the army in the Valley. He passed +the troops in the vicinity of Fort Laramie. About thirty miles west +of Green River he was met by a party of Mormons, who escorted him, +accompanied only by his servant, to the city. There he was politely +treated, but informed that his mission would be fruitless, for the +Mormon people were determined to resist the ingress of the troops. At +a meeting in the Tabernacle, at which the Captain was present on the +platform, when Brigham Young called on the audience for an expression of +opinion, every hand was raised in favor of the policy of resistance, and +in expression of willingness, if it should become necessary, to abandon +harvest and homestead, retreat with the women to the mountains, and wage +there a war of extermination. They took pains to conduct the Captain +through the well-kept gardens and blooming fields, to show him their +household comforts, the herds of cattle, the stacks of hay and grain, +and all their public improvements, in order to present a contrast +between such plenty and prosperity and such a scene of desolation as +they depicted. Profoundly impressed by the devotion of the people to +their leaders, he started on his return, accompanied by Mr. Bernhisel, +the Mormon delegate to Congress. Two days after he left the city, a +proclamation was issued by Young, in his capacity of Governor, in which +the army was denounced as a mob and forbidden to enter the Territory, +and the people of Utah were summoned to arms to repel its advance. + +When this document reached the troops, they had already crossed the +Territorial line, and were prepared for its reception by the report of +Captain Van Vliet as he passed them on his return to the States. Their +position was embarrassing. In the absence of General Harney, each +separate detachment constituted an independent command. The senior +officer present was Colonel Alexander, of the Tenth Infantry, a thorough +soldier in the minutiae of his profession, and distinguished by +gallantry during the Mexican War. He resolved, very properly, in view +of his seniority, to assume the command-in-chief until General Harney +should arrive from the East. On the 27th of September, before the +proclamation was received, the first division of the army crossed Green +River, having accomplished a march of a thousand miles in little more +than two months. That same night it hastened forwards thirty miles to +Ham's Fork,--a confluent of Black's Fork, which empties into Green +River,--where several supply-trains were gathered, upon which there +was danger that the Mormons would make an attack. The other divisions +followed within the week, and the whole force was concentrated. On the +night of October 5th, after the last division had crossed the river, two +supply-trains, of twenty-five wagons each, were captured and burned just +on the bank of the stream, by a party of mounted Mormons led by a man +named Lot Smith, and the next morning another train was destroyed by +the same party, twenty miles farther east, on the Big Sandy, in Oregon +Territory. The teamsters were disarmed and dismissed, and the cattle +stolen. No blood was shed; not a shot fired. Immediately upon the news +of this attack reaching Ham's Fork, Colonel Alexander, who had then +assumed the command-in-chief, dispatched Captain Marcy, of the Fifth +Infantry, with four hundred men, to afford assistance to the trains, and +punish the aggressors, if possible. But when the Captain reached Green +River, all that was visible near the little French trading-post was two +broad, black rings on the ground, bestrewn with iron chains and bolts, +where the wagons had been burned in _corral_. He was able to do +nothing except to send orders to the other trains on the road to halt, +concentrate, and await the escort of Brevet Colonel Smith, of the Tenth +Infantry, who had started from the frontier in August with the two +companies mentioned as having been left behind in Minnesota, and by +rapid marches had already reached the Sweetwater. The condition of +affairs at this moment was indeed critical. By the folly of Governor +Walker's movements in Kansas the expedition was deprived of its mounted +force, and consisted entirely of infantry and artillery. The Mormon +marauding parties, on the contrary, which it now became evident were +hovering on every side, were all well mounted and tolerably well armed. +The loss of three trains more would reduce the troops to the verge +of starvation before spring, in case of inability to reach Salt Lake +Valley. Nothing was heard from General Harney, and in his absence no one +possessed instructions adequate to the emergency. + +To understand the movements which followed, it is necessary to describe +briefly the topography of the country between Green River and the Great +Salt Lake. The entire interval, one hundred and fifty miles in breadth, +is filled with groups and chains of mountains, the direct route through +which to Salt Lake City lies along water-courses, following them through +canons so narrow that little science is necessary to render the natural +defences impregnable. In this respect, and in the general character of +the scenery, it bears much resemblance to the Tyrol. In the narrowest of +these gorges, Echo Canon, twenty-five miles in length, whose walls of +rock often approach within a stone's throw of each other, it became +known that the Mormons were erecting breastworks and digging ditches, +by means of which they expected to be able to submerge the road to the +depth of several feet, for miles. The only known mode of avoiding a +passage through this gorge was by a circuitous route, following the +eastern slope of the rim of the Great Basin northward, more than a +hundred miles, to Soda Springs, at the northern bend of Bear River, the +principal tributary of the Salt Lake,--then crossing the rim along the +course of the river, and pursuing its valley southward, and that of the +Roseaux or Malade, into Salt Lake Valley. The distance of Salt Lake +City from the camp on Ham's Fork was by this route nearly three hundred +miles,--while the distance by the road past Fort Bridger, through the +canons, was less than one hundred and fifty miles. At that fort, about +twenty miles west from the encampment of the army, the Mormon marauding +parties had their head-quarters and principal _depot_. It was there that +Colonel Alexander was ordered, about this time, by Brigham Young, +to surrender his arms to the Mormon Quartermaster-General, on which +condition and an agreement to depart eastward early the following +spring, he and his troops should be fed during the winter; otherwise, +Young added, they would perish from hunger and cold, and rot among the +mountains. In his perplexity, Colonel Alexander called a council of +war, and, with its approval, resolved to commence a march towards Soda +Springs, leaving Fort Bridger unmolested on his left. For more than +a fortnight the army toiled along Ham's Fork, cutting a road through +thickets of greasewood and wild sage, incumbered by a train of such +unwieldy length that often the advance-guard reached its camp at night +before the rear-guard had moved from the camp of the preceding day, and +harassed by Mormon marauding parties from the Fort, which hung about the +flanks out of the reach of rifle-shot, awaiting opportunities to descend +on unprotected wagons and cattle. The absence of dragoons prevented a +dispersion of these banditti. Some companies of infantry were, indeed, +mounted on mules, and sent to pursue them, but these only excited their +derision. The Mormons nicknamed them "jackass cavalry." Their only +exploit was the capture of a Mormon major and his adjutant, on whose +person were found orders issued by D.H. Wells, the Commanding General of +the Nauvoo Legion, to the various detachments of marauders, directing +them to burn the whole country before the army and on its flanks, to +keep it from sleep by night surprises, to stampede its animals and set +fire to its trains, to blockade the road by felling trees and destroying +river-fords, but to take no life. On the 13th of October, eight hundred +oxen were cut off from the rear of the army and driven to Salt Lake +Valley. Thus the weary column toiled along until it reached the spot +where it expected to be joined by Colonel Smith's battalion, about fifty +miles up Ham's Fork. The very next day snow fell to the depth of more +than a foot. Disheartened, vacillating, and perplexed, Colonel Alexander +called another council of war, and, acting on its judgment, resolved to +retrace his steps. An express reached him that same day, from Colonel +Smith, by which he was informed of the approach of Colonel Albert S. +Johnston, of the Second Cavalry, who had been detailed to take command +of the expedition in the place of General Harney, and now sent orders +that the troops should return to Black's Fork, where he proposed to +concentrate the entire army. + +During the month of August, it having become evident that General Harney +was reluctant to proceed to Utah, anticipating a brighter field for +military distinction in Kansas, Colonel Johnston was summoned from +Texas to Washington and there ordered to hasten to take command of the +expedition. On the 17th of September, he left Fort Leavenworth, and by +rapid travel overtook Colonel Smith while he was engaged in collecting +the trains which he intended to escort to the main body. On the 27th of +October, the column moved forwards. The escort had been reinforced by a +squadron of dragoons from Fort Laramie, but its entire strength was less +than three hundred men, a number obviously insufficient to defend a line +of wagons six miles in length. An attack by the Mormons was expected +every day, but none was made; and on the 3d of November, the whole army, +with its munitions, supplies, and commander, was concentrated on Black's +Fork. Colonel Alexander had arrived at the place of rendezvous some days +previously, being no nearer Salt Lake City November 3d than he had been +a month before. The country was covered with snow, winter having fairly +set in among the mountains, the last pound of forage was exhausted, and +the cattle and mules were little more than animated skeletons. + +Colonel Johnston had already determined, while in the South Pass, that +it would be impracticable to cross the Wahsatch range until spring, +and shaped his arrangements accordingly. He resolved to establish +winter-quarters in the vicinity of Fort Bridger, and on the 6th of +November the advance towards that post commenced. The day was memorable +in the history of the expedition. Sleet poured down upon the column from +morning till night. On the previous evening, five hundred cattle had +been stampeded by the Mormons, in consequence of which some trains +were unable to move at all. After struggling along till nightfall, the +regiments camped wherever they could find shelter under bluffs or among +willows. That night more than five hundred animals perished from +hunger and cold, and the next morning the camp was encircled by their +carcasses, coated with a film of ice. It was a scene which could be +paralleled only in the retreat of the French from Moscow. Had there been +any doubt before concerning the practicability of an immediate advance +beyond Fort Bridger, none existed any longer. It was the 16th of +November when the vanguard reached that post, which the Mormons had +abandoned the week before. Nearly a fortnight had been consumed in +accomplishing less than thirty miles. + +It is time to return to the States and record what had been transpiring +there, in connection with the expedition, while the army was staggering +towards its permanent winter-camp. The only one of the newly-appointed +civil officials who was present with the troops was Judge Eckels, +who had left his home in Indiana immediately after receiving his +appointment, and started across the Plains with his own conveyance. Near +Fort Laramie he was overtaken by Colonel Smith, whom he accompanied in +his progress to the main body. Governor Cumming, in the mean while, +dilly-dallied in the East, travelling from St. Louis to Washington and +back again, begging for an increase of salary, for a sum of money to be +placed at his disposal for secret service, and for transportation +to the Territory,--all which requests, except the last, were denied. +Towards the close of September, he arrived at Fort Leavenworth. Governor +Walker had, by this time, released his hold on the dragoons, and, +notwithstanding the advanced period of the season, they were preparing +to march to Utah. The Governor and most of the other civil officers +delayed until they started, and travelled in their company. The march +was attended with the severest hardships. When they reached the Rocky +Mountains, the snow lay from one to three feet deep on the loftier +ridges which they were obliged to cross. The struggle with the elements, +during the last two hundred miles before gaining Fort Bridger, was +desperate. Nearly a third of the horses died from cold, hunger, and +fatigue; everything that could be spared was thrown out to lighten the +wagons, and the road was strewn with military accoutrements from the +Rocky Ridge to Green River. On the 20th of November, Colonel Cooke +reached the camp with a command entirely incapacitated for active +service. + +The place selected by Colonel Johnston for the winter-quarters of +the army was on the bank of Black's Fork, about two miles above Fort +Bridger, on a spot sheltered by high bluffs which rise abruptly from the +bottom at a distance of five or six hundred yards from the channel of +the stream. The banks of the Fork were fringed with willow brush and +cottonwood trees, blasted in some places where the Mormons had attempted +to deprive the troops of fuel. The trees were fortunately too green to +burn, and the fire swept through acres, doing no more damage than to +consume the dry leaves and char the bark. The water of the Fork, clear +and pure, rippled noisily over a stony bed between two unbroken walls +of ice. The civil officers of the Territory fixed their quarters in +a little nook in the wood above the military camp. The Colonel, +anticipating a change of encampment, determined not to construct +quarters of logs or sod for the army. A new species of tent, which had +just been introduced, was served out for its winter dwellings. An iron +tripod supported a pole from the top of which depended a slender but +strong hoop. Attached to this, the canvas sloped to the ground, forming +a tent in the shape of a regular cone. The opening at the top caused a +draught, by means of which a fire could be kept up beneath the tripod +without choking the inmates with smoke. An Indian lodge had evidently +been the model of the inventor. Most of the civil officers, however, dug +square holes in the ground, over which they built log huts, plastering +the cracks with mud. Their little town they named Eckelsville, after the +Chief Justice. A _depot_ for all the military stores was established at +Fort Bridger, where a strong detachment was encamped. At the time of its +occupation, the Fort consisted merely of two stone walls, one twenty, +the other about ten feet in height, inclosing quadrangles fifty paces +long and forty broad. These walls were built of cobble-stones cemented +with mortar. Half-a-dozen cannonballs would have knocked them to pieces, +although they constituted a formidable defence against infantry. When +the Mormons evacuated the post, they burned all the buildings inside +these quadrangles. Colonel Johnston proceeded to set up additional +defences for the _depot_, and within a month two lunettes were completed +with ditches and _chevaux-de-frise_, in each of which was mounted a +piece of artillery. + +The work of unloading the trains commenced, and after careful +computation the Chief Commissary determined, that, by an abridgment of +the ration, diminishing the daily issue of flour, and issuing bacon only +once a week, his supplies would last until the first of June. All the +beef cattle intended for the use of the army having been intercepted by +the Cheyennes, it became necessary to kill those draught oxen for beef, +which had survived the march. Shambles were erected, to which the poor +half-starved animals were driven by hundreds to be butchered. The flesh +was jerked and stored carefully in cabins built for the purpose. + +The business of loading the trains had been carelessly performed at Fort +Leavenworth. In this respect the quartermaster who superintended the +work might have learned a lesson from the experience of the British in +the Crimea. But, unwilling to take the trouble to assign to each train +a proportionate quantity of all the articles to be transported, he had +packed one after another with just such things as lay most conveniently +at hand. The consequence was, that in the wagons which were burned +were contained all the mechanics' implements, stationery, and +horse-medicines, although the loss of the latter was not to be +regretted. The rest of their contents was mostly flour and bacon. Had +the Mormons burned the next three trains upon the road, they would have +destroyed all the clothing intended for the expedition. As it was, upon +searching those trains, only one hundred and fifty pairs of boots and +shoes and six hundred pairs of stockings were found provided for an army +of two thousand men, and some of the soldiers already had nothing but +moccasins to cover their feet, with the thermometer at 16 degrees below +zero,--while there were found one thousand leather neck-stocks and three +thousand bed-sacks, articles totally useless. "How not to do it" had +evidently been the motto of the Quarter-master's Department. The ample +supplies of some articles were rendered unavailable by deficiencies in +other articles equally necessary. In some of its arrangements it seemed +to have proceeded on the presumption that there would be an armed +collision, while in others the probability of such an event was entirely +disregarded. One wagon was loaded wholly with boiling-kettles, but there +was no brine to boil, and at the close of November not a pound of salt +remained in the camp. + +One of the first and most important of Colonel Johnston's duties was +to provide for the keeping, during the winter, of the mules and horses +which survived. On Black's Fork there was no grass for their support. It +had either been burned by the Mormons or consumed by their cavalry. He +decided to send them all to Henry's Fork, thirty-five miles south of +Fort Bridger, where he had at one time designed to encamp with the whole +army. The regiment of dragoons was detailed to guard them. A supply of +fresh animals for transportation in the spring was his next care. The +settlements in New Mexico are less than seven hundred miles distant from +Fort Bridger, and to them he resolved to apply. Captain Marcy was +the officer selected to lead in the arduous expedition. He had been +previously distinguished in the service by a thorough exploration of the +Red River of Louisiana. Accompanied by only thirty-five picked men, all +volunteers, and by two guides, he started for Taos, November 27th,--an +undertaking from which, at that season of the year, the most experienced +mountaineers would have shrunk. A party was dispatched at the same +time to the Flathead country, in Oregon and Washington Territories, to +procure horses to remount the dragoons, and to induce the traders in +that region to drive cattle down to Fort Bridger for sale. + +On the day of Captain Marcy's departure, Governor Cumming issued a +proclamation, declaring the Territory to be in a state of rebellion, +and commanding the traitors to lay down their arms and return to their +homes. It announced, also, that proceedings would be instituted against +the offenders, in a court to be organized in the county by Judge Eckels, +which would supersede the necessity of appointing a military commission +for that purpose. This document was sent to Salt Lake City by a Mormon +prisoner who was released for the purpose. The Governor sent also, by +the same messenger, a letter to Brigham Young, in which there were +expressions that indicated a disposition to temporize. + +The whole camp, at this time, was a scene of confusion and bustle. Some +of the stragglers around the tents were Indians belonging to a band of +Pah-Utahs, among whom Dr. Hurt, already mentioned as the only Federal +officer who did not abandon the Territory in the spring of 1857, had +established a farm upon the banks of the Spanish Fork, which rises among +the snows of Mount Nebo, and flows into Lake Utah from the East. Shortly +after the issue of Brigham Young's proclamation of September 15th, the +Mormons resolved to take the Doctor prisoner. No official was ever more +obnoxious to the Church than he; for by his authority over the tribes +he had been able to counteract in great measure the influences by which +Young had endeavored to alienate both Snakes and Utahs from the control +of the United States. On the 27th of September, two bands of mounted men +moved towards the farm from the neighboring towns of Springville and +Payson. Warned by the faithful Indians of his danger, the Doctor fled to +the mountains, and twenty Pah-Utahs and Uinta-Utahs escorted him to the +South Pass, where he joined Colonel Johnston on the 23d of October. It +was an act of devotion which has rarely been excelled in Indian history. +The sufferings of his naked escort on the journey were severe. They +crossed the Green River Mountains, breaking the crust of the snow and +leading their animals, being reduced at the time to tallow and roots for +their own sustenance. On the advance of the army towards Fort Bridger, +they accompanied its march. + +Another class of stragglers, and one most dangerous to the peace of the +camp, was composed of the thousand teamsters who were discharged from +employment on the supply-trains. Many of these men belonged to the scum +of the great Western cities,--a class more dangerous, because more +intelligent and reckless, than the same class of population in New York. +Others had sought to reach California, not anticipating a state of +hostilities which would bar their way. Now, thrown out of employment, +with slender means, a great number became desperate. Hundreds attempted +to return to the States on foot, some of whom died on the way,--and +nine-tenths of them would have perished, had they encountered the storms +of the preceding winter among the mountains. But the majority hung +around the camp. To some of these the Quartermaster was able to furnish +work, but he was obviously incapable of affording this assistance to +all. Thefts and assaults became frequent, and promised to multiply as +the season advanced. To remedy this trouble, Colonel Johnston assumed +the responsibility of organizing a volunteer battalion. The term of +service for which the men enlisted was nine months. For their pay they +were to depend on the action of Congress. The four companies which the +battalion comprised selected for their commander an officer from the +regular army, Captain Bee, of the Tenth Infantry. + +The organization of a District Court, by Judge Eckels, helped quite as +essentially to enforce order. Its convicts were received by Colonel +Johnston and committed to imprisonment in the guard-tents of the army. +The grand jury, impanelled for the purposes of the court, were obliged +to take cognizance of the rebellion, and, after thoroughly investigating +the facts of the case, they returned bills of indictment against Brigham +Young and sixty of his principal associates. + +During "the campaign of Ham's Fork," as Colonel Alexander's march up and +down that stream was facetiously called by the Mormons, he had been in +constant receipt of communications from Young, of a character similar to +the letter in which the army was commanded to surrender its arms at Fort +Bridger. This correspondence was now abruptly terminated by Colonel +Johnston. Two messengers came to the camp from Salt Lake City at the +beginning of December, escorted by a party of Mormon militia, and +bringing four pack-mules loaded with salt, which a letter from Young +offered as a present, with assurances that it was not poisoned. This +letter contained, besides, certain threats concerning the treatment +of prisoners, and reminded Colonel Johnston that the Mormons also had +prisoners in their power, on whom anything which might befall those in +camp should be retaliated. The Colonel returned no other answer to this +epistle than to dismiss its bearers with their salt, informing them +that he could accept no favors from traitors and rebels, and that any +communication which they might in future hold with the army must be +under a flag of truce, although as to the manner in which they might +communicate with the Governor it was not within his province to +prescribe. A week or two later, a thousand pounds of salt were forced +through to the camp from Fort Laramie, thirty out of the forty-six mules +on which it was packed perishing on the way. + +Thus the long and dreary winter commenced in the camp of the army of +Utah. It mattered not that the rations were abridged, that communication +with the States was interrupted, and that every species of duty at such +a season, in such a region, was uncommonly severe. Confidence and even +gayety were restored to the camp, by the consciousness that it was +commanded by an officer whose intelligence was adequate to the +difficulties of his position. Every additional hardship was cheerfully +endured. As the animals failed, all the wood used in camp was obliged to +be drawn a distance of from three to six miles by hand, but there were +few gayer spectacles than the long strings of soldiers hurrying the +wagons over the crunching snow. They built great pavilions, decorated +them with colors and stacks of arms, and danced as merrily on Christmas +and New Year's Eves to the music of the regimental bands, as if they had +been in cozy cantonments, instead of in a camp of fluttering canvas, +more than seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. In the +pavilion of the Fifth Infantry, there drooped over the company the flags +which that regiment had carried, ten years before, up the sunny slopes +of Chapultepec, and which were torn in a hundred places by the storm of +bullets at Molinos del Rey. + +Meanwhile, how hearts were beating in the States with anxious +apprehension for the safety of kindred and friends, those who felt that +anxiety, and not those who were the objects of it, best know. + +Perhaps the disposition of the camp would have been more in harmony +with the scenery and the season, if the army had dreamed that the +administration, which had launched it so recklessly into circumstances +of such privation and danger, was about to turn its labors and +sufferings into a farce, and to claim the approval of the country for +an act of mistaken clemency, which was, in reality, a grave political +error. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING. + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +WHICH TREATS OF ROMANCE. + + +There is no word in the English language more unceremoniously and +indefinitely kicked and cuffed about, by what are called sensible +people, than the word _romance_. When Mr. Smith or Mr. Stubbs has +brought every wheel of life into such range and order that it is one +steady, daily grind,--when they themselves have come into the habits and +attitudes of the patient donkey, who steps round and round the endlessly +turning wheel of some machinery, then they fancy that they have gotten +"the victory that overcometh the world." + +All but this dead grind, and the dollars that come through the mill, +is by them thrown into one waste "catch-all" and labelled _romance_. +Perhaps there was a time in Mr. Smith's youth,--he remembers it +now,--when he read poetry, when his cheek was wet with strange tears, +when a little song, ground out by an organ-grinder in the street, had +power to set his heart beating and bring a mist before his eyes. Ah, in +those days he had a vision!--a pair of soft eyes stirred him strangely; +a little weak hand was laid on his manhood, and it shook and trembled; +and then came all the humility, the aspiration, the fear, the hope, +the high desire, the troubling of the waters by the depending angel of +love,--and a little more and Mr. Smith might have become a man, instead +of a banker! He thinks of it now, sometimes, as he looks across the +fireplace after dinner and sees Mrs. Smith asleep, innocently shaking +the bouquet of pink bows and Brussels lace that waves over her placid +red countenance. + +Mrs. Smith wasn't his first love, nor, indeed, any love at all; but they +agree reasonably well. And as for poor Nellie,--well, she is dead and +buried,--all that was stuff and romance. Mrs. Smith's money set him up +in business, and Mrs. Smith is a capital manager, and he thanks God that +he isn't romantic, and tells Smith Junior not to read poetry or novels, +and to stick to realities. + +"This is the victory that overcometh the world,"--to learn to be fat and +tranquil, to have warm fires and good dinners, to hang your hat on the +same peg at the same hour every day, to sleep soundly all night, and +never to trouble your head with a thought or imagining beyond. + +But there are many people besides Mr. Smith who have gained this +victory,--who have strangled their higher nature and buried it, and +built over its grave the structure of their life, the better to keep it +down. + +The fascinating Mrs. T., whose life is a whirl between ball and opera, +point lace, diamonds, and schemings of admiration for herself, and of +establishments for her daughters,--there was a time, if you will believe +me, when that proud, worldly woman was so humbled, under the touch of +some mighty power, that she actually thought herself capable of being a +poor man's wife. She thought she could live in a little, mean house on +no-matter-what-street, with one servant, and make her own bonnets +and mend her own clothes, and sweep the house Mondays, while Betty +washed,--all for what? All because she thought that there was a man +so noble, so true, so good, so high-minded, that to live with him in +poverty, to be guided by him in adversity, to lean on him in every rough +place of life, was a something nobler, better, purer, more satisfying, +than French laces, opera-boxes, and even Madame Roget's best gowns. + +Unfortunately, this was all romance,--there was no such man. There +was, indeed, a person of very common, self-interested aims and worldly +nature, whom she had credited at sight with an unlimited draft on all +her better nature; and when the hour of discovery came, she awoke +from her dream with a start and a laugh, and ever since has despised +aspiration, and been busy with the _realities_ of life, and feeds poor +little Mary Jane, who sits by her in the opera-box there, with all the +fruit which she has picked from the bitter tree of knowledge. There is +no end of the epigrams and witticisms which she can throw out, this +elegant Mrs. T., on people who marry for love, lead prosy, worky lives, +and put on their best cap with pink ribbons for Sunday. "Mary Jane shall +never make a fool of herself"; but, even as she speaks, poor Mary Jane's +heart is dying within her at the vanishing of a pair of whiskers from an +opposite box,--which whiskers the poor little fool has credited with a +_resume_ drawn from her own imaginings of all that is grandest and +most heroic, most worshipful in man. By-and-by, when Mrs. T. finds the +glamour has fallen on her daughter, she wonders; she has "tried to keep +novels out of the girl's way,--where did she get these notions?" + +All prosaic, and all bitter, disenchanted people talk as if poets +and novelists _made_ romance. They do,--just as much as craters make +volcanoes,--no more. What is romance? whence comes it? Plato spoke to +the subject wisely, in his quaint way, some two thousand years ago, when +he said, "Man's soul, in a former state, was winged and soared among the +gods; and so it comes to pass, that, in this life, when the soul, by the +power of music or poetry, or the sight of beauty, hath her remembrance +quickened, forthwith there is a straggling and a pricking pain as of +wings trying to come forth,--even as children in teething." And if an +old heathen, two thousand years ago, discoursed thus gravely of the +romantic part of our nature, whence comes it that in Christian lands +we think in so pagan a way of it, and turn the whole care of it to +ballad-makers, romancers, and opera-singers? + +Let us look up in fear and reverence and say, "GOD is the great maker +of romance. HE, from whose hand came man and woman,--HE, who strung the +great harp of Existence with all its wild and wonderful and manifold +chords, and attuned them to one another,--HE is the great Poet of life." +Every impulse of beauty, of heroism, and every craving for purer love, +fairer perfection, nobler type and style of being than that which closes +like a prison-house around us, in the dim, daily walk of life, is +God's breath, God's impulse, God's reminder to the soul that there is +something higher, sweeter, purer, yet to be attained. + +Therefore, man or woman, when thy ideal is shattered,--as shattered a +thousand times it must be,--when the vision fades, the rapture burns +out, turn not away in skepticism and bitterness, saying, "There is +nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink," but rather +cherish the revelations of those hours as prophecies and foreshadowings +of something real and possible, yet to be attained in the manhood, of +immortality. The scoffing spirit that laughs at romance is an apple of +the Devil's own handing from the bitter tree of knowledge;--it opens the +eyes only to see eternal nakedness. + +If ever you have had a romantic, uncalculating friendship,--a boundless +worship and belief in some hero of your soul,--if ever you have so +loved, that all cold prudence, all selfish worldly considerations have +gone down like drift-wood before a river flooded with new rain from +heaven, so that you even forgot yourself, and were ready to cast your +whole being into the chasm of existence, as an offering before the feet +of another, and all for nothing,--if you awoke bitterly betrayed and +deceived, still give thanks to God that you have had one glimpse of +heaven. The door now shut will open again. Rejoice that the noblest +capability of your eternal inheritance has been made known to you; +treasure it, as the highest honor of your being, that ever you could so +feel,--that so divine a guest ever possessed your soul. + +By such experiences are we taught the pathos, the sacredness of life; +and if we use them wisely, our eyes will ever after be anointed to see +what poems, what romances, what sublime tragedies lie around us in the +daily walk of life, "written not with ink, but in fleshly tables of the +heart." The dullest street of the most prosaic town has matter in it for +more smiles, more tears, more intense excitement, than ever were written +in story or sung in poem; the reality is there, of which the romancer is +the second-hand recorder. + +So much of a plea we put in boldly, because we foresee grave heads +beginning to shake over our history, and doubts rising in reverend and +discreet minds whether this history is going to prove anything but a +love-story, after all. + +We do assure you, right reverend Sir, and you, most discreet Madam, that +it is not going to prove anything else; and you will find, if you will +follow us, that there is as much romance burning under the snow-banks +of cold Puritan preciseness as if Dr. H. had been brought up to attend +operas instead of metaphysical preaching, and Mary had been nourished on +Byron's poetry instead of "Edwards on the Affections." + +The innocent credulities, the subtle deceptions, that were quietly at +work under the grave, white curls of the Doctor's wig, were exactly of +the kind which have beguiled man in all ages, when near the sovereign +presence of her who is born for his destiny;--and as for Mary, what did +it avail her that she could say the Assembly's Catechism from end to +end without tripping, and that every habit of her life beat time to +practical realities, steadily as the parlor clock? The wildest Italian +singer or dancer, nursed on nothing but excitement from her cradle, +never was more thoroughly possessed by the awful and solemn mystery of +woman's life than this Puritan girl. + +It is quite true, that, the next morning after James's departure, +she rose as usual in the dim gray, and was to be seen opening the +kitchen-door just at the moment when the birds were giving the first +little drowsy stir and chirp,--and that she went on setting the +breakfast-table for the two hired men, who were bound to the fields with +the oxen,--and that then she went on skimming cream for the butter, +and getting ready to churn, and making up biscuit for the Doctor's +breakfast, when he and they should sit down together at a somewhat later +hour; and as she moved about, doing all these things, she sung various +scraps of old psalm-tunes; and the good Doctor, who was then busy with +his early exercises of devotion, listened, as he heard the voice, now +here, now there, and thought about angels and the Millennium. Solemnly +and tenderly there floated in at his open study-window, through the +breezy lilacs, mixed with low of kine and bleat of sheep and hum of +early wakening life, the little silvery ripples of that singing, +somewhat mournful in its cadence, as if a gentle soul were striving to +hush itself to rest. The words were those of the rough old version of +the Psalms then in use:-- + + "Truly my waiting soul relies + In silence God upon; + Because from him there doth arise + All my salvation." + +And then came the busy patter of the little footsteps without, the +moving of chairs, the clink of plates, as busy hands were arranging the +table; and then again there was a pause, and he thought she seemed +to come near to the open window of the adjoining room, for the voice +floated in clearer and sadder:-- + + "O God, to me be merciful, + Be merciful to me! + Because my soul for shelter safe + Betakes itself to thee. + + "Yea, in the shadow of thy wings + My refuge have I placed, + Until these sore calamities + Shall quite be overpast." + +The tone of life in New England, so habitually earnest and solemn, +breathed itself in the grave and plaintive melodies of the tunes then +sung in the churches; and so these words, though in the saddest minor +key, did not suggest to the listening ear of the auditor anything more +than that pensive religious calm in which he delighted to repose. A +contrast indeed they were, in their melancholy earnestness, to the +exuberant carollings of a robin, who, apparently attracted by them, +perched himself hard by in the lilacs, and struck up such a merry +_roulade_ as quite diverted the attention of the fair singer;--in fact, +the intoxication breathed in the strain of this little messenger, whom +God had feathered and winged and filled to the throat with ignorant +joy, came in singular contrast with the sadder notes breathed by that +creature of so much higher mould and fairer clay,--that creature born +for an immortal life. + +But the good Doctor was inly pleased when she sung,--and when she +stopped, looked up from his Bible wistfully, as missing something, he +knew not what; for he scarce thought how pleasant the little voice +was, or knew he had been listening to it,--and yet he was in a manner +enchanted by it, so thankful and happy that he exclaimed with fervor, +"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly +heritage." + +So went the world with him, full of joy and praise, because the voice +and the presence wherein lay his unsuspected life were securely near, so +certainly and constantly a part of his daily walk that he had not even +the trouble to wish for them. But in that other heart how was it?--how +with the sweet saint that was talking to herself in psalms and hymns and +spiritual songs? + +The good child had remembered her mother's parting words the night +before,--"Put your mind upon your duties,"--and had begun her first +conscious exercise of thought with a prayer that grace might be given +her to do it. But even as she spoke, mingling and interweaving with that +golden thread of prayer was another consciousness, a life in another +soul, as she prayed that the grace of God might overshadow him, shield +him from temptation, and lead him up to heaven; and this prayer so got +the start of the other, that, ere she was aware, she had quite forgotten +self, and was feeling, living, thinking in that other life. + +The first discovery she made, when she looked out into the fragrant +orchard, whose perfumes steamed in at her window, and listened to the +first chirping of birds among, the old apple-trees, was one that has +astonished many a person before her; it was this: she found that all +that had made life interesting to her was suddenly gone. She herself had +not known, that, for the month past, since James came from sea, she had +been living in an enchanted land,--that Newport harbor, and every rock +and stone, and every mat of yellow seaweed on the shore, that the +two-mile road between the cottage and the white house of Zebedee Marvyn, +every mullein-stalk, every juniper-tree, had all had a light and a charm +which were suddenly gone. There had not been an hour in the day for the +last four weeks that had not had its unsuspected interest,--because he +was at the white house, because, possibly, he might be going by, or +coming in; nay, even in church, when she stood up to sing, and thought +she was thinking only of God, had she not been conscious of that tenor +voice that poured itself out by her side? and though afraid to turn her +head that way, had she not felt that he was there every moment,--heard +every word of the sermon and prayer for him? The very vigilant care +which her mother had taken to prevent private interviews had only served +to increase the interest by throwing over it the veil of constraint +and mystery. Silent looks, involuntary starts, things indicated, not +expressed, these are the most dangerous, the most seductive aliment of +thought to a delicate and sensitive nature. If things were said out, +they might not be said wisely,--they might repel by their freedom, or +disturb by their unfitness; but what is only looked is sent into the +soul through the imagination, which makes of it all that the ideal +faculties desire. + +In a refined and exalted nature, it is very seldom that the feeling of +love, when once thoroughly aroused, bears any sort of relation to the +reality of the object. It is commonly an enkindling of the whole power +of the soul's love for whatever she considers highest and fairest; it +is, in fact, the love of something divine and unearthly, which, by a +sort of illusion, connects itself with a personality. Properly speaking, +there is but One true, eternal Object of all that the mind conceives, in +this trance of its exaltation. Disenchantment must come, of course; and +in a love which terminates in happy marriage, there is a tender and +gracious process, by which, without shock or violence, the ideal is +gradually sunk in the real, which, though found faulty and earthly, is +still ever tenderly remembered as it seemed under the morning light of +that enchantment. + +What Mary loved so passionately, that which came between her and God in +every prayer, was not the gay, young, dashing sailor,--sudden in anger, +imprudent of speech, and, though generous in heart, yet worldly in plans +and schemings,--but her own ideal of a grand and noble man,--such a man +as she thought he might become. He stood glorified before her, an image +of the strength that overcomes things physical, of the power of command +which controls men and circumstances, of the courage which disdains +fear, of the honor which cannot lie, of constancy which knows no shadow +of turning, of tenderness which protects the weak, and, lastly, of +religious loyalty which should lay the golden crown of its perfected +manhood at the feet of a Sovereign Lord and Redeemer. This was the man +she loved, and with this regal mantle of glories she invested the person +called James Marvyn; and all that she saw and felt to be wanting she +prayed for with the faith of a believing woman. + +Nor was she wrong;--for, as to every leaf and every flower there is an +ideal to which the growth of the plant is constantly urging, so is there +an ideal to every human being,--a perfect form in which it might appear, +were every defect removed and every characteristic excellence stimulated +to the highest point. Once in an age, God sends to some of us a friend +who loves in us, _not_ a false imagining, an unreal character, but, +looking through all the rubbish of our imperfections, loves in us the +divine ideal of our nature,--loves, not the man that we are, but the +angel that we may be. Such friends seem inspired by a divine gift of +prophecy,--like the mother of St. Augustine, who, in the midst of the +wayward, reckless youth of her son, beheld him in a vision, standing, +clothed in white, a ministering priest at the right hand of God,--as he +has stood for long ages since. Could a mysterious foresight unveil to us +this resurrection form of the friends with whom we daily walk, compassed +about with mortal infirmity, we should follow them with faith and +reverence through all the disguises of human faults and weaknesses, +"waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." + +But these wonderful soul-friends, to whom God grants such perception, +are the exceptions in life; yet sometimes are we blessed with one who +sees through us, as Michel Angelo saw through a block of marble, when he +attacked it in a divine fervor, declaring that an angel was imprisoned +within it;--and it is often the resolute and delicate hand of such a +friend that sets the angel free. + +There be soul-artists, who go through this world, looking among their +fellows with reverence, as one looks amid the dust and rubbish of old +shops for hidden works of Titian and Leonardo, and, finding them, +however cracked or torn or painted over with tawdry daubs of pretenders, +immediately recognize the divine original, and set themselves to cleanse +and restore. Such be God's real priests, whose ordination and anointing +are from the Holy Spirit; and he who hath not this enthusiasm is not +ordained of God, though whole synods of bishops laid hands on him. + +Many such priests there be among women;--for to this silent ministry +their nature calls them, endowed, as it is, with fineness of fibre, and +a subtile keenness of perception outrunning slow-footed reason;--and she +of whom we write was one of these. + +At this very moment, while the crimson wings of morning were casting +delicate reflections on tree, and bush, and rock, they were also +reddening innumerable waves round a ship that sailed alone, with a wide +horizon stretching like an eternity around it; and in the advancing +morning stood a young man thoughtfully looking off into the ocean, with +a book in his hand,--James Marvyn,--as truly and heartily a creature of +this material world as Mary was of the invisible and heavenly. + +There are some who seem made to _live;_--life is such a joy to them, +their senses are so fully _en rapport_ with all outward things, the +world is so keenly appreciable, so much a part of themselves, they are +so conscious of power and victory in the government and control of +material things, that the moral and invisible life often seems to hang +tremulous and unreal in their minds, like the pale, faded moon in the +light of a gorgeous sunrise. When brought face to face with the great +truths of the invisible world, they stand related to the higher wisdom +much like the gorgeous, gay Alcibiades to the divine Socrates, or like +the young man in Holy Writ to Him for whose appearing Socrates longed;-- +they gaze, imperfectly comprehending, and at the call of ambition or +riches turn away sorrowing. + +So it was with James;--in full tide of worldly energy and ambition, +there had been forming over his mind that hard crust, that skepticism +of the spiritual and exalted, which men of the world delight to call +practical sense; he had been suddenly arrested and humbled by the +revelation of a nature so much nobler than his own that he seemed +worthless in his own eyes. He had asked for love; but when _such_ love +unveiled itself, he felt like the disciple of old in the view of a +diviner tenderness,--"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." + +But it is not often that all the current of a life is reversed in one +hour; and now, as James stood on the ship's deck, with life passing +around him, and everything drawing upon the strings of old habits, Mary +and her religion recurred to his mind as some fair, sweet, inexplicable +vision. Where she stood he saw; but how _he_ was ever to get there +seemed as incomprehensible as how a mortal man should pillow his form on +sunset clouds. + +He held the little Bible in his hand as if it were some amulet charmed +by the touch of a superior being; but when he strove to read it, his +thoughts wandered, and he shut it, troubled and unsatisfied. Yet there +were within him yearnings and cravings, wants never felt before, the +beginning of that trouble which must ever precede the soul's rise to a +higher plane of being. + +There we leave him. We have shown you now our three different +characters, each one in its separate sphere, feeling the force of that +strongest and holiest power with which it has pleased our great Author +to glorify this mortal life. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +WHICH TREATS OF THINGS SEEN. + + +As, for example, the breakfast. It is six o'clock,--the hired men and +oxen are gone,--the breakfast-table stands before the open kitchen-door, +snowy with its fresh cloth, the old silver coffee-pot steaming up a +refreshing perfume,--and the Doctor sits on one side, sipping his coffee +and looking across the table at Mary, who is innocently pleased at +the kindly beaming in his placid blue eyes,--and Aunt Katy Scudder +discourses of housekeeping, and fancies something must have disturbed +the rising of the cream, as it is not so thick and yellow as wont. + +Now the Doctor, it is to be confessed, was apt to fall into a way +of looking at people such as pertains to philosophers and scholars +generally, that is, as if he were looking through them into the +infinite,--in which case, his gaze became so earnest and intent that it +would quite embarrass an uninitiated person; but Mary, being used to +this style of contemplation, was only quietly amused, and waited till +some great thought should loom up before his mental vision,--in which +case, she hoped to hear from him. + +The good man swallowed his first cup of coffee and spoke:-- + +"In the Millennium, I suppose, there will be such a fulness and plenty +of all the necessaries and conveniences of life, that it will not be +necessary for men and women to spend the greater part of their lives in +labor in order to procure a living. It will not be necessary for each +one to labor more than two or three hours a day,--not more than will +conduce to health of body and vigor of mind; and the rest of their time +they will spend in reading and conversation, and such exercises as +are necessary and proper to improve their minds and make progress in +knowledge." + +New England presents probably the only example of a successful +commonwealth founded on a theory, as a distinct experiment in the +problem of society. It was for this reason that the minds of its great +thinkers dwelt so much on the final solution of that problem in this +world. The fact of a future Millennium was a favorite doctrine of the +great leading theologians of New England, and Dr. H. dwelt upon it with +a peculiar partiality. Indeed, it was the solace and refuge of his soul, +when oppressed with the discouragements which always attend things +actual, to dwell upon and draw out in detail the splendors of this +perfect future which was destined to glorify the world. + +Nobody, therefore, at the cottage was in the least surprised when there +dropped into the flow of their daily life these sparkling bits of ore, +which their friend had dug in his explorations of a future Canaan,--in +fact, they served to raise the hackneyed present out of the level of +mere commonplace. + +"But how will it be possible," inquired Mrs. Scudder, "that so much less +work will suffice in those days to do all that is to be done?" + +"Because of the great advance of arts and sciences which will take +place before those days," said the Doctor, "whereby everything shall +be performed with so much greater ease,--also the great increase of +disinterested love, whereby the skill and talents of those who have much +shall make up for the weakness of those who have less. + +"Yes," he continued, after a pause,--"all the careful Marthas in those +days will have no excuse for not sitting at the feet of Jesus; there +will be no cumbering with much serving; the Church will have only Maries +in those days." + +This remark, made without the slightest personal intention, called a +curious smile into Mrs. Scudder's face, which was reflected in a +slight blush from Mary's, when the crack of a whip and the rattling of +wagon-wheels disturbed the conversation and drew all eyes to the door. + +There appeared the vision of Mr. Zebedee Marvyn's farm-wagon, stored +with barrels, boxes, and baskets, over which Candace sat throned +triumphant, her black face and yellow-striped turban glowing in the +fresh morning with a hearty, joyous light, as she pulled up the reins, +and shouted to the horse to stop with a voice that might have done +credit to any man living. + +"Dear me, if there isn't Candace!" said Mary. + +"Queen of Ethiopia," said the Doctor, who sometimes adventured a very +placid joke. + +The Doctor was universally known in all the neighborhood as a sort of +friend and patron-saint of the negro race; he had devoted himself to +their interests with a zeal unusual in those days. His church numbered +more of them than any in Newport; and his hours of leisure from study +were often spent in lowliest visitations among them, hearing their +stories, consoling their sorrows, advising, and directing their plans, +teaching them reading and writing, and he often drew hard on his slender +salary to assist them in their emergencies and distresses. + +This unusual condescension on his part was repaid on theirs with all the +warmth of their race; and Candace, in particular, devoted herself to the +Doctor with all the force of her being. + +There was a legend current in the neighborhood, that the first efforts +to catechize Candace were not eminently successful, her modes of +contemplating theological tenets being so peculiarly from her own +individual point of view that it was hard to get her subscription to +a received opinion. On the venerable clause in the Catechism, in +particular, which declares that all men sinned in Adam and fell with +him, Candace made a dead halt:-- + +"I didn't do dat ar', for one, I knows. I's got good mem'ry,--allers +knows what I does,--nebber did eat dat ar' apple,--nebber eat a bit ob +him. Don't tell me!" + +It was of no use, of course, to tell Candace of all the explanations of +this redoubtable passage,--of potential presence, and representative +presence, and representative identity, and federal headship. She met all +with the dogged,-- + +"Nebber did it, I knows; should 'ave 'membered, if I had. Don't tell +me!" + +And even in the catechizing class of the Doctor himself, if this answer +came to her, she sat black and frowning in stony silence even in his +reverend presence. + +Candace was often reminded that the Doctor believed the Catechism, and +that she was differing from a great and good man; but the argument made +no manner of impression on her, till, one day, a far-off cousin of hers, +whose condition under a hard master had often moved her compassion, came +in overjoyed to recount to her how, owing to Dr. H.'s exertions, he had +gained his freedom. The Doctor himself had in person gone from house +to house, raising the sum for his redemption; and when more yet was +wanting, supplied it by paying half his last quarter's limited salary. + +"He do dat ar'?" said Candace, dropping the fork wherewith she was +spearing doughnuts. "Den I'm gwine to b'liebe ebery word _he_ does!" + +And accordingly, at the next catechizing, the Doctor's astonishment was +great when Candace pressed up to him, exclaiming-- + +"De Lord bress you, Doctor, for opening de prison for dem dat is bound! +I b'liebes in you now, Doctor. I's gwine to b'liebe ebery word you say. +I'll say de Catechize now,--fix it any way you like. I did eat dat ar' +apple,--I eat de whole tree, an' swallowed ebery bit ob it, if you say +so." + +And this very thorough profession of faith was followed, on the part of +Candace, by years of the most strenuous orthodoxy. Her general mode of +expressing her mind on the subject was short and definitive. + +"Law me! what's de use? I's set out to b'liebe de Catechize, an' I'm +gwine to bliebe it,--so!" + +While we have been telling you all this about her, she has fastened her +horse, and is swinging leisurely up to the house with a basket on either +arm. + +"Good morning, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder. "What brings you so early?" + +"Come down 'fore light to sell my chickens an' eggs,--got a lot o' money +for 'em, too. Missy Marvyn she sent Miss Scudder some turkey-eggs, an' +I brought down some o' my doughnuts for de Doctor. Good folks must lib, +you know, as well as wicked ones,"--and Candace gave a hearty, unctuous +laugh. "No reason why Doctors shouldn't hab good tings as well as +sinners, is dere?"--and she shook in great billows, and showed her white +teeth in the _abandon_ of her laugh. "Lor bress ye, honey, chile!" she +said, turning to Mary, "why, ye looks like a new rose, ebery bit! Don't +wonder _somebody_ was allers pryin' an' spyin' about here!" + +"How is your Mistress, Candace?" said Mrs. Scudder, by way of changing +the subject. + +"Well, porly,--rader porly. When Massa Jim goes, 'pears like takin' de +light right out her eyes. Dat ar' boy trains roun' arter his mudder like +a cosset, he does. Lor', de house seems so still widout him!--can't a +fly scratch his ear but it starts a body. Missy Marvyn she sent down, +an' says, would you an' de Doctor an' Miss Mary please come to tea dis +arternoon." + +"Thank your mistress, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder; "Mary and I will +come,--and the Doctor, perhaps," looking at the good man, who had +relapsed into meditation, and was eating his breakfast without taking +note of anything going on. "It will be time enough to tell him of it," +she said to Mary, "when we have to wake him up to dress; so we won't +disturb him now." + +To Mary the prospect of the visit was a pleasant one, for reasons which +she scarce gave a definite form to. Of course, like a good girl, she had +come to a fixed and settled resolution to think of James as little as +possible; but when the path of duty lay directly along scenes and among +people fitted to recall him, it was more agreeable than if it had lain +in another direction. Added to this, a very tender and silent friendship +subsisted between Mrs. Marvyn and Mary; in which, besides similarity of +mind and intellectual pursuits, there was a deep, unspoken element of +sympathy. + +Candace watched the light in Mary's eyes with the instinctive shrewdness +by which her race seem to divine the thoughts and feelings of their +superiors, and chuckled to herself internally. Without ever having been +made a _confidante_ by any party, or having a word said to or before +her, still the whole position of affairs was as clear to her as if +she had seen it on a map. She had appreciated at once Mrs. Scudder's +coolness, James's devotion, and Mary's perplexity,--and inly resolved, +that, if the little maiden did not think of James in his absence, it +should not be her fault. + +"Laws, Miss Scudder," she said, "I's right glad you's comin'; 'cause you +hasn't seen how we's kind o' splendified since Massa Jim come home. You +wouldn't know it. Why, he's got mats from Mogadore on all de entries, +and a great big 'un on de parlor; and ye ought to see de shawl he +brought Missus, an' all de cur'us kind o' tings to de Squire. 'Tell +ye, dat ar' boy honors his fader and mudder, ef he don't do nuffin +else,--an' dat's de fus' commandment wid promise, Ma'am; an' to see him +a-settin' up ebery day in prayer-time, so handsome, holdin' Missus's +han', an' lookin' right into her eyes all de time! Why, dat ar' boy is +one o' de 'lect,--it's jest as clare to me; and de 'lect has got to come +in,--dat's what I say. My faith's strong,--real clare, 'tell ye," +she added, with the triumphant laugh which usually chorused her +conversation, and turning to the Doctor, who, aroused by her loud and +vigorous strain, was attending with interest to her. + +"Well, Candace," he said, "we all hope you are right." + +"_Hope_, Doctor!--I don't hope,--I _knows_. 'Tell ye, when I pray for +him, don't I feel enlarged? 'Tell ye, it goes wid a rush. I can feel it +gwine up like a rushin', mighty wind. I feels strong, I do." + +"That's right, Candace," said the Doctor, "keep on; your prayers stand +as much chance with God as if you were a crowned queen. The Lord is no +respecter of persons." + +"Dat's what he a'n't, Doctor,--an' dere's where I 'gree wid him," said +Candace, as she gathered her baskets vigorously together, and, after +a sweeping curtsy, went sailing down to her wagon, full laden with +content, shouting a hearty "Good mornin', Missus," with the full power +of her cheerful lungs, as she rode off. + +As the Doctor looked after her, the simple, pleased expression with +which he had watched her gradually faded, and there passed over his +broad, good face a shadow, as of a cloud on a mountain-side. + +"What a shame it is," he said, "what a scandal and disgrace to the +Protestant religion, that Christians of America should openly practise +and countenance this enslaving of the Africans! I have for a long time +holden my peace,--may the Lord forgive me!--but I believe the time is +coming when I must utter my voice. I cannot go down to the wharves or +among the shipping, without these poor dumb creatures look at me so that +I am ashamed,--as if they asked me what I, a Christian minister, was +doing, that I did not come to their help. I must testify." + +Mrs. Scudder looked grave at this earnest announcement; she had +heard many like it before, and they always filled her with alarm, +because--Shall we tell you why? + +Well, then, it was not because she was not a thoroughly indoctrinated +anti-slavery woman. Her husband, who did all her thinking for her, had +been a man of ideas beyond his day, and never for a moment countenanced +the right of slavery so far as to buy or own a servant or attendant +of any kind; and Mrs. Scudder had always followed decidedly along the +path of his opinions and practice, and never hesitated to declare the +reasons for the faith that was in her. But if any of us could imagine an +angel dropped down out of heaven, with wings, ideas, notions, manners, +and customs all fresh from that very different country, we might easily +suppose that the most pious and orthodox family might find the task of +presenting him in general society and piloting him along the courses of +this world a very delicate and embarrassing one. However much they might +reverence him on their own private account, their hearts would probably +sink within them at the idea of allowing him to expand himself according +to his previous nature and habits in the great world without. In like +manner, men of high, unworldly natures are often reverenced by those who +are somewhat puzzled what to do with them practically. + +Mrs. Scudder considered the Doctor as a superior being, possessed by a +holy helplessness in all things material and temporal, which imposed +on her the necessity of thinking and caring for him, and prevising the +earthly and material aspects of his affairs. + +There was not in Newport a more thriving and reputable business at that +time than the slave-trade. Large fortunes were constantly being turned +out in it, and what better Providential witness of its justice could +most people require? + +Beside this, in their own little church, she reflected with alarm, that +Simeon Brown, the richest and most liberal supporter of the society, had +been, and was then, drawing all his wealth from this source; and rapidly +there flashed before her mind a picture of one and another, influential +persons, who were holders of slaves. Therefore, when the Doctor +announced, "I must testify," she rattled her tea-spoon uneasily, and +answered,-- + +"In what way, Doctor, do you think of bearing testimony? The subject, I +think, is a very difficult one." + +"Difficult? I think no subject can be clearer. If we were right in our +war for liberty, we are wrong in making slaves or keeping them." + +"Oh, I did not mean," said Mrs. Scudder, "that it was difficult to +understand the subject; the _right_ of the matter is clear, but what to +_do_ is the thing." + +"I shall preach about it," said the Doctor; "my mind has run upon it +some time. I shall show to the house of Judah their sin in this matter." + +"I fear there will be great offence given," said Mrs. Scudder. "There's +Simeon Brown, one of our largest supporters,--he is in the trade." + +"Ah, yes,--but he will come out of it,--of course he will,--he is all +right, all clear. I was delighted with the clearness of his views +the other night, and thought then of bringing them to bear on this +point,--only, as others were present, I deferred it. But I can show him +that it follows logically from his principles; I am confident of that." + +"I think you'll be disappointed in him, Doctor;--I think he'll be angry, +and get up a commotion, and leave the church." + +"Madam," said the Doctor, "do you suppose that a man who would be +willing even to give up his eternal salvation for the greatest good of +the universe could hesitate about a few paltry thousands that perish in +the using?" + +"He may feel willing to give up his soul," said Mrs. Scudder, naively, +"but I don't think he'll give up his ships,--that's quite another +matter,--he won't see it to be his duty." + +"Then, Ma'am, he'll be a hypocrite, a gross hypocrite, if he won't," +said the Doctor. "It is not Christian charity to think it of him. I +shall call upon him this morning and tell him my intentions." + +"But, Doctor," exclaimed Mrs. Scudder, with a start, "pray, think a +little more of it. You know a great many things depend on him. Why! he +has subscribed for twenty copies of your 'System of Theology.' I hope +you'll remember that." + +"And why should I remember that?" said the Doctor,--hastily turning +round, suddenly enkindled, his blue eyes flashing out of their usual +misty calm,--"what has my 'System of Theology' to do with the matter?" + +"Why," said Mrs. Scudder, "it's of more importance to get right views of +the gospel before the world than anything else, is it not?--and if, by +any imprudence in treating influential people, this should be prevented, +more harm than good would be done." + +"Madam," said the Doctor, "I'd sooner my system should be sunk in the +sea than it should be a millstone round my neck to keep me from my duty. +Let God take care of my theology; I must do my duty." + +And as the Doctor spoke, he straightened himself to the full dignity of +his height, his face kindling with an unconscious majesty, and, as he +turned, his eye fell on Mary, who was standing with her slender figure +dilated, her large blue eye wide and bright, in a sort of trance of +solemn feeling, half smiles, half tears,--and the strong, heroic man +started, to see this answer to his higher soul in the sweet, tremulous +mirror of womanhood. One of those lightning glances passed between his +eyes and hers which are the freemasonry of noble spirits,--and, by +a sudden impulse, they approached each other. He took both her +outstretched hands, looked down into her face with a look full of +admiration, and a sort of naive wonder,--then, as if her inspired +silence had been a voice to him, he laid his hand on her head, and +said,-- + +"God bless you, child! 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast +thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest +still the enemy and the avenger!'" + +In a moment he was gone. + +"Mary," said Mrs. Scudder, laying her hand on her daughter's arm, "the +Doctor loves you!" + +"I know he does, mother," said Mary, innocently; "and I love +him,--dearly!--he is a noble, grand man!" + +Mrs. Scudder looked keenly at her daughter. Mary's eye was as calm as a +June sky, and she began, composedly, gathering up the teacups. + +"She did not understand me," thought the mother. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +REVIEW. + +_The New Testament_. Translated from the Original Greek, etc. By +LEICESTER AMBROSE SAWYER. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1858. + + +Few books merit the criticism which they receive; fewer receive all they +merit. Here is a work, a translation, which is more likely than most to +get its deserts, because its circle of critics will be unusually large. +It purports to be a new and improved version of "the Book of Books," +and puts forth claims which will be conceded only after it shall have +sustained the most extensive, minute, and even prejudiced scrutiny. The +Bible has more readers than any other book; and that which claims to be +an improved Bible must, if it secure anything like a general attention, +meet with criticisms from all quarters. Mr. Sawyer is fortunate in one +respect: his work will be examined and judged by multitudes who never +undertook to criticize any other book; he will have, therefore, +ultimately, a popular judgment of his task and its performance. But he +is unfortunate in another point: for he must meet that popular sentiment +which at the outset looks with disfavor upon anything that has even the +appearance of meddling with the commonly received and almost universally +approved version of the Holy Scriptures. Let us, in a brief space and +with as little of formal and scholastic criticism as possible, examine +Mr. Sawyer's translation. + +A work of such a character as this should be judged not more by its +absolute or intrinsic merits than by a comparison of them with the +design avowed and the claims advanced by the author. In a task of such +magnitude we ought not to expect to find everything perfect. If the +completed structure have a symmetry of proportions and excellence of +finish approaching reasonably near to the plan proposed, we should not +too severely censure minor defects. Critics rarely accord all that +authors claim; the former measure the actual achievement,--the latter +look to the ideal conception; if the one be in a reasonable degree +commensurate with the other, we should be lenient toward the faults of +the performance. + +With this charitable substratum for our critical structure, let us test +Mr. Sawyer's new version by contrasting it with his own avowed design +and the claims with which he introduces his completed task. In the +Preface he says,-- + +"This is not a work of compromises, or of conjectural interpretations +of the Sacred Scriptures, neither is it a paraphrase, but a strict +[strictly] literal rendering. It neither adds nor takes away; but aims +to express the original with the utmost clearness and force, and with +the utmost precision." + +This is a somewhat pretentious claim. A strictly literal rendering of +any language into another is by no means always an easy task; and it is +especially difficult to couple, as the translator in this case asserts +he has done, the utmost clearness, force, and precision in the +expression of the thought, with minute exactness of version. We +are surprised that Mr. Sawyer should have rested his claim for the +excellence and superiority of his translation mainly upon this quality +of literalism, for it is often the case that the closest literalist is +the worst translator. It is often impossible to render the thoughts +expressed in the peculiar idioms of one tongue into exactly +corresponding idioms of another. There are idiomatic forms, especially +in the Greek, which have no precisely correspondent forms in the +English, and yet these are not unfrequently the most forcible +expressions of any to be found in the original; any attempt to render +these literally must be abortive; and a literal rendering, or as nearly +literal as possible, is the worst translation, because it sacrifices +the clearness, force, and precision, to say nothing of the grace and +delicacy, of the original. The French language abounds in words and +phrases the literal translation of which into English perverts the +meaning and destroys the force of the original. Still more is a strictly +literal rendering incompatible with the preservation and transference of +the beauties of style and the strength of diction. The widest range of +the thought, its more delicate shades and subtiler connections, often +depend in great part upon the peculiar forms of the language in which +they are first clothed; and by a strictly literal translation the scope +of the thought is narrowed, its finer lines obscured, and that which +is of more importance than all else, the fitness of the expression, is +altogether lost. The utmost strictness of literal translation is a poor +compensation for the resultant poverty of language and dilution of +thought; and by as much as the original is more impressive in its rich +and fitting garb, by so much the more is it made to appear mean and +unlike itself when forced to clothe itself in scanty second-hand +habiliments. + +We have said thus much on this point for two reasons: first, because it +is on this chiefly that Mr. Sawyer appeals to the public for a verdict +in favor of his translation; and secondly, because it is a common and +popular notion, that, the more literal a translation can be made, +especially in the case of the Bible, the better and more trustworthy +it will be. And we are willing to admit, that, in translating the Holy +Scriptures, the greatest degree of strictness in literal rendering, +compatible with the full and correct expression of the thought, is and +should be a first consideration; the translator should take no liberties +with the text, by way either of omission, alteration, or compromise; he +must in no way vitiate the thought; and if he keep within this rule, +he will have escaped just criticism, and may claim the merit of +faithfulness to his task. Has Mr. Sawyer, then, in his New Testament, +given a strictly literal rendering? and is it an improvement on +the common version? We have space for only a few specimens of his +translation, and we have taken some of the first that attracted our +notice; it will be observed that they are none of them abstruse or +disputed passages. + +COMMON VERSION. + +_Matt_. ii. 16. + +"Then Herod, when he saw that he was _mocked_ of the _wise men_, was +exceeding wroth, and sent forth and _slew_ all the children that were in +Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, +according to the time which he _had diligently inquired_ of the _wise +men_." + + +SAWYER'S VERSION. + +_Chap_. ii. _verse_ 4. + +"Then Herod seeing that he was _despised_ by the _Magi_, was exceedingly +angry, and sent and _destroyed_ all the children, in Bethlehem, and in +all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the precise +time which he _had learned_ of the _Magi_." + +Here is a comparison of the two translations of a simple narrative text +taken at random. The essential changes (improvements?) made by Mr. +Sawyer are in the words which we have Italicized. Two of these changes, +the substitution of "Magi" for "wise men," and of "destroyed" for +"slew," we shall pass with the single observation, that the rendering +of the common version is in both instances the more accurate and better +expressed. Mr. Sawyer substitutes "despised" for "mocked," as the +translation of [Greek: henepaichthae]. Is this literal? or is it an +improvement? The Greek verb [Greek: hemaiso] has the signification +primarily _to deride, to mock, to scoff at_, and secondarily _to delude, +to deceive, to disappoint_, but it has not the meaning to _despise_. The +word _mock_ is used in our language in both these significations,--in +the secondary sense when it refers to men's hopes or expectations,--as, +_to mock one's hopes_, that is, to delude or disappoint one's +expectations. In this sense, and in this alone, it is obviously used in +this passage. The wise men did not scoff at King Herod, but they did +delude him; they mocked his expectation of their return, and went back +to their own country without returning to report to him, because they +had been "warned of God in a dream," not because they despised the +king. To say, as Mr. Sawyer does, that they "despised" him, is neither +warranted by the meaning of [Greek: _enepaichthae_], nor is such a +rendering accordant with the facts of the story or the connections of +the thought. It is a forced and far-fetched translation, and a change +from the common version much for the worse. The same word is of frequent +occurrence in the Scriptures. In the Septuagint, Jer. x. 14, it is used +in the same sense as in Matt. ii. 16. It is worthy of note that in no +other instance does Mr. Sawyer render it by "despised." In Luke xviii. +32 and xxii. 63, and Matt. xx. 19, he translates it "mocked," like the +common version. Mr. Sawyer should be more consistent, if he would have +us put faith in his scholarly pretensions and literal accuracy. The +passage in which he indulges in this variation from his own rule is the +one of all the list where such a translation is particularly fitting, +and where neither force, clearness, nor precision is gained by the +substitution. + +Mr. Sawyer renders [Greek: _katha thov chrinon du haekribose_] thus: +"according to the precise time which he had learned."--Is this literal +or correct? [Greek: _'Akriboo_] signifies _to inquire diligently, +assiduously, or accurately_, and has no such signification primarily as +_to learn_. If the reader will now turn to Mr. Sawyer's translation of +the 7th verse of the same chapter of Matthew, he will there find that +he translates [Greek: _haekribose_] "asked"! And yet it stands in that +passage in precisely the same connection of thought as in the 16th +verse; so that we have our translator, who gives us only strictly +literal renderings, translating the same word, occurring in the same +relative connection, in the one instance by "asked," and in the other +by "had learned,"--neither of them legitimate translations, and neither +precisely expressing the thought. The rendering "asked" falls as far +short of the full and forcible meaning of [Greek: _haekribose_], in +the one case, as "had learned" varies from its strictly literal +signification in the other. + +We will now examine another passage illustrating Mr. Sawyer's consistent +fidelity to literal renderings. He translates the word [Greek: +_phuchae_], Luke xii. 19, 20, and 23, "soul"; thus, "I will say to my +_soul_," find "Is not the _soul_ more than the food?"--agreeing with +the common version in the first instance, and differing from it in the +second. But he renders [Greek: _phuchae_] in Mark viii. 36, 37, Luke +xvii. 33, and Matt. xvi. 26, "life"; thus, "For what is a man profited, +if he shall gain the whole world and lose his _life_?" "For whoever +wishes to save his _life_ shall lose it." In these cases he seems to +have made his choice between the renderings "soul" and "life" according +to no rule of translation or of criticism in philology, but as his fancy +dictated. How shall we explain these inconsistencies, and, at the same +time, grant Mr. Sawyer his claim to literalness of rendering? + +Luke ix. 24, 25, Mr. Sawyer translates [Greek: _phuchae_] "life," and +then renders [Greek: _eauthon de apolesas ae zaemiotheis_] "and destroys +himself or loses his life." The common version is "and lose himself or +be cast away," which is not only more strictly literal, but far more +forcible. [Greek: _'Apollumi_] conveys the strongest idea of _total, +irremediable ruin_; and [Greek: _zaemioo_], when used, as in this +passage, in the aorist tense, has the signification of _bringing loss +or ruin upon one's self_. Both these thoughts are lost in Mr. Sawyer's +translation; and a more tame, insufficient, and tautological rendering +than his could scarcely be imagined. + +Another instance of Mr. Sawyer's singular choice of renderings, in his +zeal for improvement, is found in Luke viii. 46, which he translates, +"Some one touched me; for I perceived a _power_ going from me." The +common version, "Somebody touched me; for I perceive that _virtue_ is +gone out of me," is clear and precise; Mr. Sawyer's version, "a power," +is more indefinite and less forcible. Any intelligent reader will at +once perceive that the common version is the better, and that Mr. +Sawyer's improved rendering is almost meaningless. + +One more example of these strictly literal renderings must suffice, John +iii. 4. common version,--"Nicodemus saith unto him, 'How can a man be +born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb +and be born?'" Sawyer's version,--"Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man +be born when he is old? can he become an unborn infant of his mother a +second time, and be born?'" The absurdity of the form of language put +into the mouth of Nicodemus by Mr. Sawyer is obvious at a glance; no +such thought was ever so expressed by any speaker in any language; it is +wholly forced and unnatural; and upon comparing Mr. Sawyer's translation +with the original, we find that he has paraphrased the passage with a +vengeance, altogether omitting to translate the clause [Greek: _eis +thaen koilian ... eiselthein kai gennaethaenai_], and interpolating an +expression, instead, which is neither in the original text nor in the +thought. Probably Mr. Sawyer's motive for taking this extraordinary +liberty was a false delicacy, amounting to prudery; but it ill assorts +with his assertion, that his work is not a paraphrase, nor one of +compromises, or of conjectural interpretations. + +We might proceed with numerous illustrations' exhibiting the weakness of +Mr. Sawyer's claim of an improved and strictly literal rendering, but +these are enough. Before he claims much on the score of scholarly +accuracy or critical rendering, he must explain these inconsistencies +and remove these blemishes. But if such faults are patent in the +simplest narrative passages, what confidence can we place in Mr. Sawyer +as a translator of difficult, abstruse, doctrinal, and disputed texts? +In every instance in which we have tested his translation of the +original, the changes which he has made from the common version not +only, in our judgment, are no improvements, but positively render the +expression less clear, less forcible, and less precise; of course, as +the language is made worse, the thought is, in the same proportion, +obscured. + +Another peculiarity of Mr. Sawyer's translation, which we suppose he +claims as an improvement, does not meet our approval. In all cases where +there is no word in our language which expresses the signification +of the Greek, as in the names of weights and measures, Mr. Sawyer +substitutes for the language of the common version the foreign word of +the original,--sometimes merely giving the orthography of the Greek in +English letters, sometimes affixing a termination,--and frequently he +adds, in brackets, an explanation of his rendering. As examples of this, +we quote the following:-- + +"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a _modius_ [1.916 +gallon measure]." + +"I tell you that you shall not go out thence till you have paid even the +last _lepton_ [2 mills]." + +"It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three _sata_ [33 +quarts] of flour." + +"And there were six stone water-jars there, placed for the purification +of the Jews, containing two or three _metretes_ [16.75 or 25.125 +gallons] each." + +"And he desired to fill his stomach with the _carob pods_ which the +swine eat." + +"And one poor widow came and cast in two _lepta_, which is a _quadrans_ +[4 mills]." + +It requires no knowledge of the original to pass judgment on such +changes as are here made from the common version. The practice which +Mr. Sawyer here introduces and sanctions is a vicious one in any +translation, and is especially so in the case of the Holy Scriptures, +which are to be read by the unlearned and ignorant as well as by the +scholar and the critic. Mr. Sawyer's translation of such words as we +have noted above conveys no idea to the mind of the common reader, and +requires a glossary to make it intelligible. There is in his choice of +words a pedantry and affectation of learning that are in bad taste. +But in this, as in his other strictly literal renderings, he is +inconsistent, and does not adhere to his own rule. He translates Matt. +vi. 30,--"And if God so clothes the grass of the field, which to-day is, +and tomorrow is cast into the _oven_," etc. If he were consistent in his +practice, he would have rendered the word "oven" _klibanon_, and then, +in parenthesis, explained that it signifies "a large round pot, of +earthen or other material, two or three feet high, narrowing towards +the top, on the sides of which the dough was spread to be baked in thin +cakes." Probably Mr. Sawyer was deterred from following his rule in this +case by the formidableness of the necessary parenthesis; but there is as +much reason why he should have written _klibanon_ instead of "oven," +as there is for substituting _lepton_ for "farthing," or _modius_ for +"bushel," or _carob pods_ for "husks,"--and in fact more reason, +because the word "oven," which he indorses and uses, conveys a far more +imperfect idea of the original, [Greek: _klibanon_], than those words of +the common version which he has rejected do of their originals. All such +changes as those instanced above, in our judgment, mar the simplicity +and obscure the meaning of the passages where they occur. + +But we will now notice what appears to us a more serious defect than +any of those already mentioned. Mr. Sawyer throughout his translation +substitutes vulgar Latinisms and circumlocutions for the vigorous +phrases of the received version. Sometimes this is done at the expense +of homely Saxon words which are the very sinews of our language; and +wherever such words are sacrificed for Latinisms, the beauty and force +of the whole are impaired or destroyed. Again, the translator seems to +have a peculiar antipathy to everything like poetical expressions or the +euphonious arrangement of sentences. He has evidently fallen into the +error of supposing that the most prosaic rendering is necessarily +the most exact; whereas the fact is, that the most poetical form of +expression of which a passage is susceptible is often the most clear, +forcible, and precise. The best method of giving the reader an idea of +the justice of this portion of our criticism of Mr. Sawyer's version is +to quote some passages in contrast with the common version. + +COMMON VERSION. + +"_If thou wilt_, let us make here three tabernacles." + +"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of +Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: +thou knowest that _I love thee_." + +"God be _merciful_ to me a sinner." + +"Give us this day our _daily_ bread." + +"_And therefore_ I cannot come." + +"And to whom men have _committed_ much, of him they will ask the more." + +"I _give tithes_ of all that I _possess_." + +"For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and +_counteth the cost_?" + +"And upon this rock I will build my _church_." + +"If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if _he repent_, +forgive him." + +"And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, +saying unto them, _Rejoice with me_, for I have found my sheep which was +lost." + +"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, _Peace_, be +still." + +"As we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen +_deemed that they drew near to some country_." + +"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate and _broad_ is the +way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; +because strait is the gate and _narrow_ is the way which leadeth unto +life, and few there be that find it." + +"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they _toil not_, +neither do they spin." + +SAWYER'S VERSION. + +"_If you please_, we will make here three tabernacles." + +"When therefore they had breakfasted, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, +son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, +you know that _I am a friend to you_." + +"God, be _propitious_ to me a sinner." + +"Give us to-day our _essential_ bread." + +"_On this account_ I cannot come." + +"And of him with whom men have _deposited_ much, they will ask more." + +"I _tithe_ all I _acquire_." + +"For what man of you wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down +and _estimate the expense_?" + +"And upon this rock will I build my _assembly_." + +"If your brother sins, reprove him; and if _he changes his mind_, +forgive him." + +"And coming to the house, he calls together his friends and neighbors, +saying, _Congratulate me_; for I have found my sheep that was lost." + +"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said to the lake, _Hush!_ Be +still!" + +"When we were borne along in the Adriatic, at about midnight the sailors +_suspected that some land was approaching them_." + +"Enter in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and _spacious_ +the way which leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in by +it; for narrow is the gate, and _compressed_ the way which leads to +life, and few are those who find it." + +"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they _perform no hard +labor_, neither do they spin." + +These must suffice. We cannot extend our quotations, nor is there +occasion to do so. We think we have seen enough of Mr. Sawyer's use of +words and phrases, enough of his improvements on the common version of +the Bible, to convince any candid mind that his is neither a literal nor +a correct translation; that so far from having improved the version, +by adding clearness, force, or precision, he has injured it in each +of these respects; and that the world would be immensely the loser +by accepting him as a substitute for the forty-seven translators who +composed the famous Council of King James in 1611. We are informed that +Mr. Sawyer has completed his improved version of the Old Testament, and +will soon publish it. We almost shudder in anticipation of the sounds +which he has probably evoked from the harp of Judah's minstrel king, of +the colors which he has put on the canvas where are painted the glowing +visions of Isaiah, and of the rude matter-of-fact method in which he +has doubtless used the modern telescope to penetrate and scatter the +glorious and solemn mysteries of the cloud-land of prophecy out of which +spake the God of Daniel. But we forbear, and must wait till we have the +remainder of this _magnum opus_ before we venture to hazard an opinion +of its merits. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Notes from Plymouth Pulpit; A Collection of Memorable Passages from the +Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher. By Augusta Moore. New York. Derby & +Jackson. 12mo. $1.00. + +History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty. Vol. 1. By John Gorham +Palfrey. Boston. 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