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diff --git a/13631-0.txt b/13631-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7702f5e --- /dev/null +++ b/13631-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8865 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13631 *** + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + * * * * * + +VOL. XII.--SEPTEMBER, 1863.--NO. LXXI. + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + * * * * * + +THE PURITAN MINISTER. + + +It is nine o'clock upon a summer Sunday morning, in the year sixteen +hundred and something. The sun looks down brightly on a little forest +settlement, around whose expanding fields the great American wilderness +recedes each day, withdrawing its bears and wolves and Indians into an +ever remoter distance,--not yet so far but that a stout wooden gate at +each end of the village street indicates that there is something outside +which must stay outside, if possible. It would look very busy and +thriving in this little place, to-day, but for the Sabbath stillness +which broods over everything with almost an excess of calm. Even the +smoke ascends more faintly than usual from the chimneys of these +abundant log-huts and scanty framed houses, and since three o'clock +yesterday afternoon not a stroke of this world's work has been done. +Last night a preparatory lecture was held, and now comes the +consummation of the whole week's life, in the solemn act of worship. In +which settlement of the Massachusetts Colony is the great observance to +pass before our eyes? If it be Cambridge village, the warning drum is +beating its peaceful summons to the congregation. If it be Salem +village, a bell is sounding its more ecclesiastic peal, and a red flag +is simultaneously hung forth from the meeting-house, like the +auction-flag of later periods, but offering in this case goods without +money and beyond price. But if it be Haverhill village, then Abraham +Tyler has been blowing his horn assiduously for half an hour, a service +for which Abraham, each year, receives a half-pound of pork from every +family in town. + +Be it drum, bell, or horn, which gives the summons, we will draw near to +this important building, the centre of the village, the one public +edifice,--meeting-house, town-house, school-house, watch-house, all in +one. So important is it, that no one can legally dwell more than a +half-mile from it. And yet the people ride to meeting, short though the +distance be, for at yonder oaken block a wife dismounts from behind her +husband;--and has it not, moreover, been found needful to impose a fine +of forty shillings on fast trotting to and fro? All sins are not modern +ones, young gentlemen. + +We approach nearer still, and come among the civic institutions. This is +the pillory, yonder the stocks, and there is a large wooden cage, a +terror to evil-doers, but let us hope empty now. Round the meeting-house +is a high wooden paling, to which the law permits citizens to tie their +horses, provided it be not done too near the passage-way. For at that +opening stands a sentry, clothed in a suit of armor which is painted +black, and cost the town twenty-four shillings by the bill. He bears +also a heavy matchlock musket; his rest, or iron fork, is stuck in the +ground, ready to support the weapon; and he is girded with his +bandoleer, or broad leather belt, which sustains a sword and a dozen tin +cartridge-boxes. + +The meeting-house is the second to which the town has treated itself, +the first having been "a timber fort, both strong and comely, with flat +roof and battlements,"--a cannon on top, and the cannonade of the gospel +down below. But this one cost the town sixty-three pounds, hard-earned +pounds, and carefully expended. It is built of brick, smeared outside +with clay, and finished with clay-boards, larger than our clapboards, +outside of all. It is about twenty-five feet square, with a chimney half +the width of the building, and projecting four feet above the thatched +roof. The steeple is in the centre, and the bell-rope, if they have one, +hangs in the middle of the broad aisle. There are six windows, two on +each of the two sides, and two more at the end, part being covered with +oiled paper only, part glazed in numerous small panes. And between the +windows, on the outside, hang the heads of all the wolves that have been +killed in the township within the year. But the Quakers think that the +wolves have cheated the parish and got inside, in sheep's clothing. + +The people are assembling. The Governor has passed by, with his four +vergers bearing halberds before him. The French Popish ambassadors, who +have just arrived from Canada, are told the customs of the place, and +left to stay quietly in the Governor's house, with sweetmeats, wines, +and the liberty of a private walk in the garden. The sexton has just +called for the minister, as is his duty twice every Sunday, and, +removing his cocked hat, he walks before his superior officer. The +minister enters and passes up the aisle, dressed in Geneva cloak, black +skull-cap, and black gloves open at thumb and finger, for the better +handling of his manuscript. He looks round upon his congregation, a few +hundred, recently _seated_ anew for the year, arranged according to rank +and age. There are the old men in the pews beneath the pulpit. There are +the young men in the gallery, or near the door, with ruffs, showy belts, +gold and silver buttons, "points" at the knees, and great boots. There +are the young women, with "silk or tiffany hoods or scarfs," +"embroidered or needle-worked caps," "immoderate great sleeves," "cut +works,"--a mystery,--"slash apparel,"--another mystery,--"immoderate +great vayles, long wings," etc.,--mystery on mystery, but all recorded +in the statutes, which forbid these splendors to persons of mean estate. +There are the wives of the magistrates in prominent seats, and the +grammar-school master's wife next them; and in each pew, close to the +mother's elbow, is the little wooden cage for the youngest child, still +too young to sit alone. All boys are held too young to sit alone also; +for, though the emigrants left in Holland the aged deaconess who there +presided, birch in hand, to control the rising generation in Sunday +meetings, yet the urchins are now herded on the pulpit- and +gallery-stairs, with four constables to guard them from the allurements +of sin. And there sits Sin itself embodied in the shrinking form of some +humiliated man or woman, placed on a high stool in the principal aisle, +bearing the name of some dark crime written on paper and pinned to the +garments, or perhaps a Scarlet Letter on the breast. + +Oh, the silence of this place of worship, after the solemn service sets +in! "People do not sneeze or cough here in public assemblies," says one +writer, triumphantly, "so much as in England." The warning caution, "Be +short," which the minister has inscribed above his study-door, claims no +authority over his pulpit. He may pray his hour, unpausing, and no one +thinks it long; for, indeed, at prayer-meetings four persons will +sometimes pray an hour each,--one with confession, one with private +petitions, a third with petitions for church and kingdom, and a fourth +with thanksgiving,--neither part of the quartette being for an instant +confused with the other. Then he may preach his hour, and, turning his +hour-glass, may say,--but that he will not anticipate the levity to be +born in a later century with Mather Byles,--"Now, my hearers, we will +take another glass." + +In short, this is the pomp and circumstance of glorious preaching. Woe +to any one who shall disturb its proprieties! It is written in the +statute, "If any one interrupt or oppose a preacher in season of +worship, they shall be reproved by the magistrate, and on repetition +shall pay £5, or stand two hours on a block four feet high, with this +inscription in capitals, 'A Wanton Gospeller.'" Nor this alone, but the +law stands by the minister's doctrine even out of the meeting-house. It +is but a few days since Nathaniel Hadlock was sentenced to be severely +whipped for declaring that he could receive no profit from Mr. H----'s +preaching,--since Thomas Maule was mauled to the extent of ten stripes +for declaring that Mr. H---- preached lies, and that his instruction was +the doctrine of devils,--since even the wife of Nicholas Phelps was +sentenced to pay five pounds or be whipped, for asserting that this same +Mr. H---- sent abroad his wolves and bloodhounds among the sheep and +lambs. Truly, it is a perilous thing to attend public worship in such +reverential days. However, it is equally dangerous to stay at home; +there are tithing-men to look after the absentees, and any one +unnecessarily absent must pay five shillings. He may be put in the +stocks or in the wooden cage, if delinquent for a month together. + +But we must give our attention to the sermon. It is what the +congregation will pronounce "a large, nervous, and golden discourse," a +Scriptural discourse,--like the skeleton of the sea-serpent, all +backbone and a great deal of that. It may be some very special and +famous effort. Perhaps Increase Mather is preaching on "The Morning +Star," or on "Snow," or on "The Voice of God in Stormy Winds"; or it may +be his sermon entitled "Burnings Bewailed," to improve the lesson of +some great conflagration, which he attributes partly to Sabbath-breaking +and partly to the new fashion of monstrous periwigs. Or it may be Cotton +Mather, his son, rolling forth his resounding discourse during a +thunder-storm, entitled "Brantologia Sacra,"--consisting of seven +separate divisions or thunderbolts, and filled with sharp lightning from +Scripture and the Rabbinical lore, and Cartesian natural philosophy. +Just as he has proclaimed, "In the thunder there is the voice of the +glorious God," a messenger comes hastening in, as in the Book of Job, to +tell him that his own house has just been struck, and though no person +is hurt, yet the house hath been much torn and filled with the +lightnings. With what joy and power he instantly wields above his +audience this providential surplus of excitement, reminding one +irresistibly of some scientific lecturer who has nearly blown himself up +by his own experiments, and proceeds beaming with fresh confidence, the +full power of his compound being incontestably shown. Rising with the +emergency, he tells them grandly, that, as he once had in his house a +magnet which the thunder changed instantly from north to south, so it +were well if the next bolt could change their stubborn souls from Satan +to God. But afterward he is compelled to own that Satan also is +sometimes permitted to have a hand in the thunder, which is the reason +why it breaks oftener on churches than on any other buildings; and again +he admits, pensively, at last, that churches and ministers' houses have +undoubtedly the larger share. + +The sermon is over. The more demoralized among the little boys, whose +sleepy eyes have been more than once admonished by the hare's-foot wand +of the constables,--the sharp paw is used for the boys, the soft fur is +kept for the smooth foreheads of drowsy maidens,--look up thoroughly +awakened now. Bright eyes glance from beneath silk or tiffany hoods, for +a little interlude is coming. Many things may happen in this pause after +the sermon. Questions may be asked of the elders now, which the elders +may answer,--if they can. Some lay brother may "exercise" on a text of +Scripture,--rather severe exercise, it sometimes turns out. Candidates +for the church may be proposed. A baptism may take place. If it be the +proper month, the laws against profaning the Sabbath may be read. The +last town-regulations may be read; or, far more exciting, a new marriage +may be published. Or a darker scene may follow, and some offending +magistrate may be required to stand upon a bench, in his worst garments, +with a foul linen cap drawn close to his eyes, and acknowledge his sins +before the pious people, who reverenced him so lately. + +These things done, a deacon says impressively, "Brethren, now there is +time for contribution; wherefore, as God hath prospered you, so freely +offer." Then the people in the galleries come down and march two +abreast, "up one ile and down the other," passing before the desk, where +in a long "pue" sit the elders and deacons. One of these holds a +moneybox, into which the worshippers put their offerings, usually +varying from one to five shillings, according to their ability and +good-will. Some give paper pledges instead; and others give other +valuables, such as "a fair gilt cup, with a cover," for the +communion-service. Then comes a psalm, read, line after line, by some +one appointed, out of the "Bay Psalm-Book," and sung by the people. +These psalms are sung regularly through, four every Sunday, and some ten +tunes compose the whole vocal range of the congregation. Then come the +words, "Blessed are they who hear the word of the Lord and keep it," and +then the benediction. + +And then the reverend divine descends from his desk and walks down the +aisle, bowing gravely right and left to his people, not one of whom +stirs till the minister has gone out; and then the assembly disperses, +each to his own home, unless it be some who have come from a distance, +and stay to eat their cold pork and peas in the meeting-house. + +Roll aside the panorama of the three-hours' Sunday service of two +centuries ago, lest that which was not called wearisome in the passing +prove wearisome in the delineation now. It needed all this accumulation +of small details to show how widely the externals of New-England +church-going have changed since those early days. But what must have +been the daily life of that Puritan minister for whom this exhausting +service was but one portion of the task of life! Truly, they were "pious +and painful preachers" then, as I have read upon a stone in the old +Watertown graveyard;--"princely preachers" Cotton Mather calls them. He +relates that Mr. Cotton, in addition to preaching on Sunday and holding +his ordinary lecture every Thursday, preached thrice a week besides, on +Wednesday and Thursday early in the morning, and on Saturday afternoon. +He also held a daily lecture in his house, which was at last abandoned +as being too much thronged, and frequent occasional days occurred, when +he would spend six hours "in the word and in prayer." On his voyage to +this country, he being accompanied by two other ministers, they commonly +had three sermons a day,--one after every meal. He was "an universal +scholar and a walking library,"--he studied twelve hours a day, and +said he liked to sweeten his mouth with a piece of Calvin before he went +to sleep. + +A fearful rate of labor; a strange, grave, quaint, ascetic, rigorous +life. It seems a mystery how the Reverend Joshua Moody could have +survived to write four thousand sermons, but it is no mystery why the +Reverend John Mitchell was called "a truly aged young man" at +thirty,--especially when we consider that he was successor at Cambridge +to "the holy, heavenly, sweet-affecting, and soul-ravishing Mr. +Shepard," in continuance of whose labors he kept a monthly lecture, +"wherein he largely handled man's misery by sin and made a most +entertaining exposition of the Book of Genesis." + +For the minister's week-days were more arduous than his Sundays, and to +have for each parish both pastor and teacher still left a formidable +duty for each. He must visit families during several afternoons in every +week, sending previous notice, so that children and domestics might be +ready for catechizing. He was "much visited for counsel" in his own +home, and must set apart one day in the week for cases of conscience, +ranging from the most fine-drawn self-tormentings up to the most +unnatural secret crimes. He must often go to lectures in neighboring +towns, a kind of religious dissipation which increased so fast that the +Legislature at last interfered to restrict it. He must have five or six +separate seasons for private prayer daily, devoting each day in the week +to special meditations and intercessions,--as Monday to his family, +Tuesday to enemies, Wednesday to the churches, Thursday to other +societies, Friday to persons afflicted, and Saturday to his own soul. He +must have private fasts, spending whole days locked in his study and +whole nights prostrate on the floor. Cotton Mather "thought himself +starved," unless he fasted once a month at farthest, while he often did +it twice in a week. Then there were public fasts quite frequently, +"because of sins, blastings, mildews, drought, grasshoppers, +caterpillars, small pox," "loss of cattle by cold and frowns of +Providence." Perhaps a mouse and a snake had a battle in the +neighborhood, and the minister must expound it as "symbolizing the +conflict betwixt Satan and God's poor people," the latter being the +mouse triumphant. Then if there were a military expedition, the minister +might think it needful to accompany it. If there were even a muster, he +must open and close it with prayer, or, in his absence, the captain must +officiate instead. + +One would naturally add to this record of labors the attendance on +weddings and funerals. It is strange how few years are required to make +a usage seem ancestral, or to reunite a traditional broken one. Who now +remembers that our progenitors for more than a century disused religious +services on both these solemn occasions? Magistrates alone could perform +the marriage ceremony; though it was thought to be carrying the monopoly +quite too far, when Governor Bellingham, in 1641, officiated at his own. +Prayer was absolutely forbidden at funerals, as was done also by Calvin +at Geneva, by John Knox in Scotland, by the English Puritans in the +Westminster Assembly, and by the French Huguenots. The bell might ring, +the friends might walk, two and two, to the grave; but there must be no +prayer uttered. The secret was, that the traditions of the English and +Romish Churches must be avoided at all sacrifices. "Doctor," said King +James to a Puritan divine, "do you go barefoot because the Papists wear +shoes and stockings?" Even the origin of the frequent New-England habit +of eating salt fish on Saturday is supposed to have been the fact that +Roman Catholics eat it on Friday. + +But if there were no prayers said on these occasions, there were +sermons. Mr. John Calf, of Newbury, described one specimen of funeral +sermon in immortal verse:-- + + "On Sabbath day he went his way, + As he was used to do, + God's house unto, that they might know + What he had for to show; + + God's holy will he must fulfil, + For it was his desire + For to declare a sermon rare + Concerning Madam Fryer." + +The practice of wedding discourses was handed down into the last +century, and sometimes beguiled the persons concerned into rather +startling levities. For instance, when Parson Smith's daughter Mary was +to marry young Mr. Cranch,--(what graceful productions of pen and pencil +have come to this generation from the posterity of that union!)--the +father permitted the saintly maiden to decide on her own text for the +sermon, and she meekly selected, "Mary hath chosen the better part, +which shall not be taken away from her," and the discourse was duly +pronounced. But when her wild young sister Abby was bent on marrying a +certain Squire Adams, called John, whom her father disliked and would +not even invite to dinner, she boldly suggested for _her_ text, "John +came, neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say he hath a +devil." But no sermon stands recorded under this prefix, though Abby +lived to be the wife of one President of the United States and mother of +another. + +The Puritan minister had public duties also upon him. "New England being +a country," said Cotton Mather, "whose interests are remarkably +enwrapped in theological circumstances, ministers ought to interest +themselves in politics." Indeed, for many years they virtually +controlled the franchise, inasmuch as only male church-members could +vote or hold office, at least in the Massachusetts Colony. Those +malecontents who petitioned to enlarge the suffrage were fined and +imprisoned in 1646, and even in 1664 the only amendment was by +permitting non-church-members to vote on a formal certificate to their +orthodoxy from the minister. The government they aimed at was not +democracy, but theocracy: "God never did ordain democracy as a fit +government," said Cotton. Accordingly, when Cotton and Ward framed their +first code, Ward's portion was rejected by the colony as heathen,--that +is, based on Greek and Roman models, not Mosaic,--and Cotton's was +afterwards rebuked in England as "fanatical and absurd." But the +government finally established was an ecclesiastical despotism, tempered +by theological controversy. + +In Connecticut it was first the custom, and then the order, lasting as +late as 1708, that "the ministers of the gospel should preach a sermon, +on the day appointed by law for the choice of civil rulers, proper for +the direction of the town in the work before them." They wrote +state-papers, went on embassies, and took the lead at town-meetings. At +the exciting gubernatorial election in 1637, Rev. John Wilson, minister +of the First Church in Boston, not satisfied with "taking the stump" for +his candidate, took to a full-grown tree and harangued the people from +among the boughs. Perhaps the tree may have been the Great Elm which +still ornaments the Common; but one sees no chips of that other old +block among its branches now. + +One would expect that the effect of this predominant clerical influence +would have been to make the aim of the Puritan codes lofty, their +consistency unflinching, their range narrow, and their penalties +severe,--and it certainly was so. Looking at their educational +provisions, they seem all noble; looking at their schedule of sins and +retributions, one wonders how any rational being could endure them for a +day. Communities, like individuals, furnish virtues piecemeal. Roger +Williams, with all his wise toleration, bequeathed to Rhode Island no +such system of schools as his persecutors framed for Massachusetts. But +the children who were watched and trained thus carefully might be put to +death, if they "cursed their orderly parents" after the age of +sixteen;--not that the penalty ever was inflicted, but it was on the +statute-book. Sabbath-breaking was placed on a level with +murder,--though Calvin himself allowed the old men to play at bowls and +the young men to practise military training, after afternoon service, +at Geneva. Down to 1769 not even a funeral could take place on Sunday in +Massachusetts, without license from a magistrate. Then the stocks and +the wooden cage were in frequent use, though "barbarous and cruel" +punishments were forbidden in 1641. Scolds and railers were set on a +ducking-stool and dipped over head and ears three times, in running +water, if possible. Mrs. Oliver, a troublesome theologian, was silenced +with a cleft stick applied to her tongue. Thomas Scott, in 1649, was +sentenced for some offence to learn "the chatachise," or be fined ten +shillings, and, after due consideration, paid the fine. Sometimes +offenders, with a refinement of cruelty, were obliged to "go and talk to +the elders." And if any youth made matrimonial overtures to a young +female without the consent of her parents, or, in their absence, of the +County Court, he was first fined and then imprisoned. A new etymology +for the word "courting." + +An exhibition of this mingled influence was in the relation of the +ministers to the Indian wars. Roger Williams, even when banished and +powerless, could keep the peace with the natives. But when the brave +Miantonimo was to be dealt with for suspected treason, and the civil +authorities decided, that, though it was unsafe to set him at liberty, +they yet had no ground to put him to death, the matter being finally +referred to five "elders," Uncas was straightway authorized to slay him +in cold blood. The Pequots were first defeated and then exterminated, +and their heroic King Philip, a patriot according to his own standard, +was hunted like a wild beast, his body quartered and set on poles, his +head exposed as a trophy for twenty years on a gibbet in Plymouth, and +one of his hands sent to Boston: then the ministers returned thanks, and +one said that they had _prayed_ the bullet into Philip's heart. Nay, it +seems that in 1677, on a Sunday in Marblehead, "the women, as they came +out of the meeting-house, fell upon two Indians, that had been brought +in as captives, and in a tumultuous way very barbarously murdered them," +in revenge for the death of some fishermen: a moral application which +certainly gives a singular impression of the style of gospel prevailing +inside the meeting-house that day. But it is good to know, on the other +side, that, when the Commissioners of the United Colonies had declared +an Indian war, and the Massachusetts Colony had become afterwards +convinced that the war was unrighteous, the troops were recalled, though +already far towards the field, and no pride or policy prevented the +order from being rescinded. + +These were some of the labors of the clergy. But no human being lives +without relaxation, and they may have had theirs. True, "ministers have +little to joy in in this world," wrote old Norton; and one would think +so, to read the dismal diaries, printed or manuscript, of those days. "I +can compare with any man living for fears," said Hooker. "I have sinned +myself into darkness," said Bailey. "Many times have I been ready to lay +down my ministry, thinking God had forsaken me." "I was almost in the +suburbs of hell all day." Yet who can say that this habit of agonizing +introspection wholly shut out the trivial enjoyments of daily life? Who +drank, for instance, that twelve gallons of sack and that six gallons of +white wine which the General Court thought it convenient that the +Auditor should send, "as a small testimony of the Court's respect, to +the reverend assembly of Elders at Cambridge," in 1644? Did the famous +Cambridge Platform rest, like the earth in the Hebrew cosmology, upon +the waters,--strong waters? Was it only the Derry Presbyterians who +would never give up a p'int of doctrine, nor a pint of rum? It is +startling to remember that in 1685 it was voted, on occasion of a public +funeral, that "some person be appointed to look after the burning of the +wine and the heating of the cider," and to hear that on this occasion +there were thirty-two gallons of wine and still more of cider, with one +hundred and four pounds of that ensnaring accessory, sugar. Francis +Higginson, in writing back to the mother country that one sup of New +England's air was better than a whole draught of Old England's ale, gave +convincing proof that he had tasted both beverages. But, after all, the +very relaxations of the Puritan minister were more spiritual than +spirituous, and to send forth a good Nineteenthly from his own lips was +more relishing than to have the best Double X go in. + +In spite of the dignity of this influential class, they were called only +Elders for a long time. Titles were carefully adjusted in those days. +The commonalty bore the appellations of Goodman and Goodwife, and one of +Roger William's offences was his wishing to limit these terms to those +who gave some signs of deserving them. The name "Mr." was allowed to +those who had taken the degree of Master of Arts at College, and also to +professional men, eminent merchants, military officers, and mates of +vessels, and their wives and daughters monopolized the epithet "Mrs." +Mr. Josiah Plastow, when he had stolen four baskets of corn from the +Indians, was degraded into plain Josiah. "Mr." seems to have meant +simply "My Sir," and the clergy were often called "Sir" merely, a title +given also to college graduates, on Commencement programmes, down to the +time of the Revolution. And so strong was the Puritan dislike to the +idolatry of saints' names, that the Christian Apostles were sometimes +designated as Sir Paul, Sir Peter, and Sir James. + +In coming to the private affairs of the Puritan divines, it is +humiliating to find that anxieties about salary are of no modern origin. +The highest compensation I can find recorded is that of John Higginson +in 1671, who had £160 voted him "in country produce," which he was glad, +however, to exchange for £120 in solid cash. Solid cash included +beaver-skins, black and white wampum, beads, and musket-balls, value one +farthing. Mr. Woodbridge in Newbury at this same time had £60, and Mr. +Epes preached in Salem for twenty shillings a Sunday, half in money and +half in provisions. Holy Mr. Cotton used to say that nothing was cheap +in New England but milk and ministers. Down to 1700, Increase Mather +says, most salaries were less than £100, which he thinks "might account +for the scanty harvests enjoyed by our farmers." He and his son Cotton +both tell the story of a town where "two very eminent ministers were +only allowed £30 per annum" and "the God who will not be mocked made +them lose £300 worth of cattle that year." The latter also complains +that the people were very willing to consider the ministers the stars, +rather than the mere lamps, of the churches, provided they, like the +stars, would shine without earthly contributions. + +He also calls the terms of payment, in one of his long words, +"Synecdotical Pay,"--in allusion to that rhetorical figure by which a +part is used for the whole. And apparently various causes might produce +this Synecdoche. For I have seen an anonymous "Plea for Ministers of the +Gospel," in 1706, which complains that "young ministers have often +occasion in their preaching to speak things offensive to some of the +wealthiest people in town, on which occasion they may withhold a +considerable part of their maintenance." It is a comfort to think how +entirely this source of discomfort, at least, is now eradicated from the +path of the clergy; and it is painful to think that there ever was a +period when wealthy parishioners did not enjoy the delineation of their +own sins. + +However, the ministerial households contrived to subsist, in spite of +rhetorical tropes and malecontent millionnaires. The Puritan divine +could commonly afford not only to keep house, but to keep horse +likewise, and to enjoy the pet professional felicity of printing his own +sermons. As to the last privilege there could have been no great +trouble, for booksellers were growing rich in New England as early as +1677,--not that it is always an inevitable inference that authors +are,--and Cotton Mather published three hundred and eighty-two +different works for his own share. Books were abundant enough at that +day, though somewhat grim and dingy, and two complete Puritan libraries +are preserved in the rich collection of the American Antiquarian Society +at Worcester,--without whose treasures, let me add, this modest +monograph never could have been written. As for the minister's horse, +the moral sentiment of the community protected him faithfully; for a man +was fined in Newbury for "killing our elder's mare, and a special good +beast she was." The minister's house was built by the town; in Salem it +was "13 feet stud, 23 by 42, four chimnies and no gable-ends,"--so that +the House with Seven Gables belonged to somebody else;--and the +Selectmen ordered all men to appear with teams on a certain day and put +the minister's grounds in order. + +Inside the parsonage-house, however, there was sometimes trouble. Rev. +Ezekiel Rogers wrote in 1657 to his brother in England,--"Much ado I +have with my own family; hard to get a servant who enjoys catechising or +family duties. I had a rare blessing of servants in England, and those I +brought over were a blessing; but the young brood doth much afflict me." +Probably the minister's wife had the worst of this; but she seems to +have been generally, like the modern minister's wife, a saint, and could +bear it. Cotton Mather, indeed, quotes triumphantly the Jewish phrase +for a model female,--"one who deserved to marry a priest"; and one of +the most singular passages in the history of the human heart is the old +gentleman's own narrative, in his manuscript diary, of a passionate +love-adventure, in his later years, with a fascinating young girl, an +"ingenious child," as he calls her, whom his parish thought by no means +a model female, but from whom it took three days of solitary fasting and +prayer to wean him at last. + +He was not the only Puritan minister who bestowed his heart somewhat +strangely. Rev. John Mitchell, who succeeded the soul-ravishing Shepard +at Cambridge, as aforesaid, married his predecessor's widow "on the +general recommendation of her," and the college students were greatly +delighted, as one might imagine. Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, in 1691, +wooed the Widow Avery in a written discourse, which I have seen in +manuscript, arranged under twelve different heads,--one of which treats +of the prospect of his valuable life being preserved longer by her care. +She having children of her own, he offers mysteriously to put some of +his own children "out of the way," if necessary,--a hint which becomes +formidable when one remembers that he was the author of that once famous +theological poem, "The Day of Doom," in which he relentingly assigned to +infants, because they had sinned only in Adam, "the easiest room in +hell." But he wedded the lady, and they were apparently as happy as if +he had not been a theologian; and I have seen the quaint little +heart-shaped locket he gave her, bearing an anchor and a winged heart +and "Thine forever." + +Let us glance now at some of the larger crosses of the Puritan minister. +First came a "young brood" of heretics to torment him. Gorton's +followers were exasperating enough; they had to be confined in irons +separately, one in each town, on pain of death, if they preached their +doctrines,--and of course they preached them. But their offences and +penalties were light, compared with those of the Quakers. When the +Quakers assembled by themselves, their private doors might be broken +open,--a thing which Lord Chatham said the king of England could not do +to any one,--they might be arrested without warrant, tried without jury, +for the first offence be fined, for the second lose one ear, for the +third lose the other ear, and for the fourth be bored with red-hot iron +through the tongue,--though this last penalty remained a dead letter. +They could be stripped to the waist, tied to a cart, and whipped through +town after town,--three women were whipped through eleven towns, eighty +miles,--but afterwards the number was limited to three. Their testimony +was invalid, their families attainted, and those who harbored them were +fined forty shillings an hour. They might be turned out shelterless +among wolves and bears and frosts: they could be branded H for Heretic, +and R for Rogue; they could be sold as slaves; and their graves must not +be fenced to keep off wild beasts, lest their poor afflicted bodies +should find rest there. + +Yet in this same age female Quakers had gone as missionaries to Malta +and to Turkey and returned unharmed. No doubt the monks and the Sultan +must have looked on the plain dress much as some clerical gentlemen have +since regarded the Bloomer costume,--and the Inquisition imprisoned the +missionaries, though the Sultan did not. But meanwhile the Quaker women +in New England might be walking to execution with their male +companions,--like Mary Dyer in Boston,--under an armed guard of two +hundred, led on by a minister seventy years old, and the fiercer for +every year. When they asked Mary Dyer, "Are you not ashamed to walk thus +hand in hand between two young men?" she answered, "No, this is to me an +hour of the greatest joy I could enjoy in this world. No tongue could +utter and no heart understand the sweet influence of the Spirit which +now I feel." Then they placed her on the scaffold, and covered her face +with a handkerchief which the Reverend Mr. Wilson lent the hangman; and +when they heard that she was reprieved, she would not come down, saying +that she would suffer with her brethren. And suffer death she did, at +last, and the Reverend Mr. Wilson made a pious ballad on her execution. + +It is no wonder, if some persons declare that about this time the wheat +of Massachusetts began to be generally blasted, and the peas to grow +wormy. It is no wonder, that, when the witchcraft excitement came on, +the Quakers called it a retribution for these things. But let us be +just, even to the unjust. Toleration was a new-born virtue in those +days, and one which no Puritan ever for a moment recognized as such, or +asked to have exercised toward himself. In England they did not wish to +be tolerated for a day as sectaries, they claimed to have authority as +the one true church. They held with Pym, that "it is the duty of +legislators to establish the true religion and to punish false,"--a +doctrine equally fatal, whether applied to enforce the right theology or +the wrong. They objected to the Church of England, not that it +persecuted, but that its persecution was wrongly aimed. It is, +therefore, equally absurd to praise them for a toleration they never +professed, or to accuse them of any inconsistency when they practised +intolerance. They have been so loosely praised, that they are as loosely +blamed. What was great in them was their heroism of soul, not their +largeness. They sought the American wilderness not to indulge the whims +of others, but their own. They said to the Quakers, "We seek not your +death, but your absence." All their persecution, after all, was an +alternative sentence; all they asked of the Quakers was to keep out of +their settlements and let them alone. Moreover, their worst penalties +were borrowed from the English laws, and only four offenders were put to +death from the beginning;--of course, four too many. + +Again, it is to be remembered that the Quaker peculiarities were not +theological only, but political and social also. Everything that the +Puritan system of government asserted the Quakers denied; they rendered +no allegiance, owned no laws, paid no taxes, bore no arms. With the best +possible intentions, they subverted all established order. Then their +modes of action were very often intemperate and violent. One can hardly +approve the condemnation pronounced by Cotton Mather upon a certain +Rarey among the Friends in those days, who could control a mad bull that +would rend any other man. But it was oftener the Quakers who needed the +Rareys. Running naked through the public streets,--coming into meeting +dressed in sackcloth, with ashes on their heads and nothing on their +feet,--or sitting there with their hats on, groaning and rocking to and +fro, in spite of elders, deacons, and tithing-men: these were the +vagaries of the zealots, though always repudiated by the main body. The +Puritans found themselves reproached with permitting these things, and +so took refuge in outrageous persecutions, which doubled them. Indeed, +the Quakers themselves began to persecute, on no greater provocation, in +Philadelphia, thirty years afterwards,--playing over again upon George +Keith and his followers the same deluded policy of fines and +imprisonment from which they had just escaped;--as minorities have +persecuted sub-minorities ever since intolerance began. + +Indeed, so far as mere language went, the minority always watched the +majority. Grave divines did not like to be pelted with such epithets as +these: "Thou fiery fighter and green-headed trumpeter! thou hedgehog and +grinning dog! thou mole! thou tinker! thou lizard! thou bell of no metal +but the tone of a kettle! thou wheelbarrow! thou whirlpool! thou +whirligig! thou firebrand! thou moon-calf! thou ragged tatterdemalion! +thou gormandizing priest! thou bane of reason and beast of the earth! +thou best to be spared of all mankind!"--all of which are genuine +epithets from the Quaker books of that period, and termed by Cotton +Mather, who collected them, "quills of the porcupine." They surpass even +Dr. Chauncy's catalogue of the unsavory epithets used by Whitefield and +Tennent a century later; and it was not likely that they would be +tolerated by a race whose reverence for men in authority was so +comprehensive that they actually fined some one for remarking that Major +Phillips's old mare was as lean as an Indian's dog. + +There is a quaint anecdote preserved, showing the continuance of the +Quaker feud in full vigor as lately as 1705. A youth among the Friends +wished to espouse a fair Puritan maiden; but the Quakers disapproved his +marrying out of their society, and the Congregationalists his marrying +into theirs; so in despair he thus addressed her:--"Ruth, let us break +from this unreasonable bondage. I will give up my religion, and thou +shalt give up thine; and we will marry and go into the Church of +England, and go to the Devil together." And they fulfilled the +resolution, the Puritan historian says, _so far_ as going into the +Church, and marrying, and staying there for life. But probably the +ministers thought it to be another case of synecdoche. + +With the same careful discrimination we must try to study the +astonishing part played by the ministers in the witchcraft delusions. It +must be remembered that the belief in this visitation was no new or +peculiar thing in New England. The Church, the Scriptures, the mediæval +laws, had all made it a capital crime. There had been laws against it in +England for a hundred years. Bishop Jewel had complained to Queen +Elizabeth of the alarming increase of witches and sorcerers. Sir Thomas +Browne had pronounced it flat atheism to doubt them. High legal and +judicial authorities, as Dalton, Keeble, Sir Matthew Hale, had described +this crime as definitely and seriously as any other. In Scotland four +thousand had suffered death for it in ten years; Cologne, Nuremberg, +Geneva, Paris, were executing hundreds every year; even in 1749 a girl +was burnt alive in Würtzburg; and is it strange, if, during all that +wild excitement, Massachusetts put to death twenty? The only wonder is +in the independence of the Rhode Island people, who declared that "there +were no witches on the earth, nor devils,--except" (as they profanely +added) "the New-England ministers, and such as they." + +John Higginson sums it up best:--"They proceeded in their integrity with +a zeal of God against sin, according to their best light and law and +evidence." "_But there is a question_," he wisely adds, "whether some of +the laws, customs, and privileges used by judges and juries in England, +which were followed as patterns here, were not insufficient." Cotton +Mather also declared that he observed in judges and juries a +conscientious endeavor to do the thing which was right, and gives a long +list of the legal authorities whom they consulted; observing, finally, +that the fact of fifty confessions was, after all, the one irresistible +vindication of their strong measures. + +It must have been so. Common sense and humanity might have refuted every +other evidence than that of the victims themselves. But what were the +authorities to do, when, in addition to all legal and Scriptural +precedents, the prisoners insisted on entering a plea of guilty? When +Goody E---- testified that she and two others rode from Andover to a +witch-meeting on a broomstick, and the stick broke and she fell and was +still lame from it,--when her daughter testified that she rode on the +same stick, and confirmed all the details of the casualty,--when the +grand-daughter confirmed them also, and added, that she rode on another +stick, and they all signed Satan's book together,--when W. B----, aged +forty, testified that Satan assembled a hundred fine blades near Salem +Meeting-House, and the trumpet sounded, and bread and wine were carried +round, and Satan was like a black sheep, and wished them to destroy the +minister's house, (by thunder probably,) and set up his kingdom, and +"then all would be well,"--when one woman summoned her three children +and some neighbors and a sister and a domestic, who all testified that +she was a witch and so were they all,--what could be done for such +prisoners by judge or jury, in an age which held witchcraft a certainty? +It was only the rapid rate of increase which finally stopped the +convictions. + +One thing is certain, that this strange delusion, a semi-comedy to +us,--though part of the phenomena may find their solution in laws not +yet unfolded,--was the sternest of tragedies to those who lived in it. +Conceive, for an instant, of believing in the visible presence and +labors of the arch-fiend in a peaceful community. Yet from the bottom of +their souls these strong men held to it, and they waged a hand-to-hand +fight with Satan all their days. Very inconveniently the opponent +sometimes dealt his blows, withal. Surely it could not be a pleasant +thing to a sound divine, just launched upon his seventeen-headed +discourse, to have a girl with wild eyes and her hair about her ears +start up and exclaim, "Parson, your text is too long,"--or worse yet, +"Parson, your sermon is too long,"--or most embarrassing of all, +"There's a great yellow bird sitting on the parson's hat in the pulpit." +But these formidable interruptions veritably happened, and received the +stern discipline in such cases made and provided. + +But beside Quakers and witches, the ministers had other female +tormentors to deal with. There was the perpetual anxiety of the +unregenerated toilet. "Immodest apparel, laying out of hair, borders, +naked necks and arms, or, as it were, pinioned with superfluous +ribbons,"--these were the things which tried men's souls in those days, +and the statute-books and private journals are full of such plaintive +inventories of the implements of sin. Things known as "slash apparel" +seem to have been an infinite source of anxiety; there must be only one +slash on each sleeve and one in the back. Men also must be prohibited +from shoulderbands of undue width, double ruffs and cuffs, and +"immoderate great breeches." Part of the solicitude was for modesty, +part for gravity, part for economy: none must dress above their +condition. In 1652, three men and a woman were fined ten shillings each +and costs for wearing silver-lace, another for broad bone-lace, another +for tiffany, and another for a silk hood. Alice Flynt was accused of a +silk hood, but, proving herself worth more than two hundred pounds, +escaped unpunished. Jonas Fairbanks, about the same time, was charged +with "great boots," and the evidence went hard against him; but he was +fortunately acquitted, and the credit of the family saved. + +The question of veils seems to have rocked the Massachusetts Colony to +its foundations, and was fully discussed at Thursday Lecture, March 7th, +1634. Holy Mr. Cotton was utterly and unalterably opposed to veils, +regarding them as a token of submission to husbands in an unscriptural +degree. It is pleasant to think that there could be an unscriptural +extent of such submission, in those times. But Governor Endicott and +Rev. Mr. Williams resisted stoutly, quoting Paul, as usual in such +cases; so Paul, veils, and vanity carried the day. But afterward Mr. +Cotton came to Salem to preach for Mr. Skelton, and did not miss his +chance to put in his solemn protest against veils; he said they were a +custom not to be tolerated; and so the ladies all came to meeting +without their veils in the afternoon. Probably the most astounding +visible result from a single sermon within the memory of man. + +Beginning with the veils, the eye of authority was next turned on what +was under them. In 1675 it was decided, that, as the Indians had done +much harm of late, and the Deity was evidently displeased with +something, the General Court should publish a list of the evils of the +time. And among the twelve items of contrition stood this: "Long hair +like women's hair is worn by some men, either their own or others' hair +made into periwigs;--and by some women wearing borders of hair, and +their cutting, curling, and immodest laying out of their hair," (does +this hint at puff-combs?) "which practice doth increase, especially +among the younger sort." Not much was effected, however,--"divers of the +elders' wives," as Winthrop lets out, "being in some measure partners in +this disorder." The use of wigs also, at first denounced by the clergy, +was at last countenanced by them: in portraits later than 1700 they +usually replace the black skull-cap of earlier pictures, and in 1752 the +tables had so far turned that a church-member in Newbury refused +communion because "the pastor wears a wigg." Yet Increase Mather thought +they played no small part in producing the Boston Fire. "Monstrous +Periwigs, such as some of our church-members indulge in, which make them +resemble the Locusts that came out of y'e Bottomless Pit. Rev. ix. 7, +8,--and as an eminent Divine calls them, _Horrid Bushes of Vanity_; such +strange apparel as is contrary to the light of Nature and to express +Scripture. 1 Cor. xi. 14, 15. Such pride is enough to provoke the Lord +to kindle fires in all the towns in the country." + +Another vexation was the occasional arrival of false prophets in a +community where every man was expected to have a current supply of +religious experiences always ready for circulation. There was a certain +hypocritical Dick Swayn, for instance, a seafaring man, who gave much +trouble; and E.F.,--for they mostly appear by initials,--who, coming to +New Haven one Saturday evening, and being dressed in black, was taken +for a minister, and asked to preach: he was apparently a little insane, +and at first talked "demurely," but at last "railed like Rabshakeh," +Cotton Mather says. There was also M.J., a Welsh tanner, who finally +stole his employer's leather breeches and set up for a preacher,--less +innocently apparelled than George Fox. But the worst of all was one +bearing the since sainted name of Samuel May. This vessel of wrath +appeared in 1699, indorsed as a man of a sweet gospel spirit,--though, +indeed, one of his indorsers had himself been "a scandalous fire-ship +among the churches." Mather declares that every one went a-Maying after +this man, whom he maintains to have been a barber previously, and who +knew no Latin, Greek, Hebrew, nor even English,--for (as he indignantly +asserts) "there were eighteen horrid false spells, and not one point, in +one very short note I received from him." This doubtful personage copied +his sermons from a volume by his namesake, Dr. Samuel Bolton,--"Sam the +Doctor and Sam the Dunce," Mather calls them. Finally, "this eminent +worthy stranger," Sam, who was no dunce, after all, quarrelled with his +parish for their slow payments, and "flew out like a Dragon, spitting +this among other fire at them:--'I see, no longer pipe, no longer +dance,'--so that they came to fear he was a cheat, and wish they had +never seen him." Then "the guilty fellow, having bubbled the silly +neighbors of an incredible number of pounds, on a sudden was gone," and +Cotton Mather sent a letter after him, which he declares to have been +the worst penalty the man suffered. + +It is safer to say little of the theological scheme of the Puritan +ministers, lest the present writer be pronounced a Wanton Gospeller, and +have no tithingman to take his part. But however it may be with the +regular standards of theology of that period, every one could find a +sufficient variety to suit him among its heresies. Eighty-two "pestilent +heresies" were counted as having already sprung up in 1637; others say +one hundred and six; others, two hundred and ten. The Puritans kept +Rhode Island for what housekeepers call an "odd drawer," into which to +crowd all these eccentricities. It was said, that, if any man happened +to lose his religious opinion, he might be sure to find it again at some +village in Rhode Island. Thither went Roger Williams and his Baptists; +thither went Quakers and Ranters; thither went Ann Hutchinson, that +extraordinary woman, who divided the whole politics of the country by +her Antinomian doctrines, denouncing the formalisms around her, and +converting the strongest men, like Cotton and Vane, to her opinions. +Thither went also Samuel Gorton, a man of no ordinary power, who +proclaimed a mystical union with God in love, thought that heaven and +hell were in the mind alone, but esteemed little the clergy and the +ordinances. The colony was protected also by the thoughtful and +chivalrous Vane, who held that water baptism had had its day, and that +the Jewish Sabbath should give place to the modern Sunday. All these, +and such as these, were called generally "Seekers" by the Puritans,--who +claimed for themselves that they had found that which they sought. It is +the old distinction; but for which is the ship built, to be afloat or to +be at anchor? + +Such were those pious worthies, the men whose names are identified with +the leadership of the New-England colonies,--Cotton, Hooker, Norton, +Shepard, the Higginsons, the Mathers. To these might be added many an +obscurer name, preserved in the quaint epitaphs of the +"Magnalia":--Blackman, "in spite of his name, a Nazarene whiter than +snow";--Partridge, "a hunted partridge," yet "both a dove and an +eagle";--Ezekiel Rogers, "a tree of knowledge, whose apples the very +children might pluck";--Nathaniel Rogers, "a very lively preacher and a +very preaching liver, he loved his church as if it had been his family +and he taught his family as if it had been his church";--Warham, the +first who preached with notes, and who suffered agonies of doubt +respecting the Lord's Supper;--Stone, "both a loadstone and a flint +stone," and who set the self-sacrificing example of preaching only one +hour. + +These men had mingled traits of good and evil, like all mankind,--nobler +than their descendants in some attributes, less noble in others. The +most strait-laced Massachusetts Calvinist of these days would have been +disciplined by them for insufferable laxity, and yet their modern +successor would count it utter shame, perhaps, to own a slave in his +family or to drink rum-punch at an ordination,--which Puritan divines +might do without rebuke. Not one of them has left on record a statement +so broad and noble as that of Roger Williams:--"To be content with food +and raiment,--to mind, not our own, but every man the things of +another,--yea, and to suffer wrong, and to part with what we judge to be +right, yea, our own lives, and, as poor women martyrs have said, as many +as there be hairs upon our heads, for the name of God and for the Son of +God's sake,--this is humanity, this is Christianity; the rest is but +formality and picture-courteous idolatry, and Jewish and Popish +blasphemy against the Christian religion." And yet the mind of Roger +Williams was impulsive, erratic, and unstable, compared with theirs; and +in what respect has the work they left behind them proved, after the +testing of two centuries, less solid or durable than his? + +These men were stern even to cruelty against all that they held +evil,--Satan and his supposed emissaries, witches, Quakers, Indians, +negligent parishioners, disobedient offspring, men with periwigs, and +women in slash apparel. Yet the tenderest private gentleness often lay +behind this gloomy rigor of the conscience. Some of them would never +chastise a son or daughter, in spite of Solomon; others would write in +Greek characters in their old almanacs quaint little English verses on +the death of some beloved child. That identical "Priest Wilson" who made +the ballad at Mary Dyer's execution attended a military muster one day. +"Sir," said some one, "I'll tell you a great thing: here's a mighty body +of people, and there's not seven of them all but loves Mr. Wilson." +"Sir," it was replied, "I'll tell you as good a thing: here's a mighty +body of people, and there's not one of them all but Mr. Wilson loves +him." Mr. Cotton was a terror to evil-doers, yet, when a company of men +came along from a tavern and said, "Let us put a trick upon Old Cotton," +and one came and cried in his ear, "Cotton, thou art an old fool,"--"I +know it, I know it," retorted cheerily the venerable man, and pungently +added, "The Lord make both me and thee wiser!" Mr. Hooker was once +reproving a boy in the street, who boldly replied, "I see you are in a +passion; I will not answer you," and so ran away. It contradicts all +one's notions of Puritan propriety, and yet it seems that the good man, +finding afterwards that the boy was not really guilty, sent for him to +apologize, and owned himself to have been wrong. + +What need to speak of the strength and courage, the disinterestedness +and zeal, with which they bore up the fortunes of the colony on their +shoulders, and put that iron into the New-England blood which has since +supplied the tonic for a continent? It was said of Mr. Hooker, that he +was "a person who, while doing his Master's work, would put a king in +his pocket"; and it was so with them all: they would pocket anything but +a bribe to themselves or an insult to God or their profession. They +flinched from no reproof that was needed: "Sharp rebukes make sound +Christians" was a proverb among them. They sometimes lost their tempers, +and sometimes their parishes, but never their independence. I find a +hundred anecdotes of conscientious cruelty laid up against them, but not +one of cowardice or of compromise. They may have bored the tongues of +others with a bar of iron, but they never fettered their own tongues +with a bar of gold,--as some African tribes think it a saintly thing to +do, and not African tribes alone. + +There was such an absolute righteousness among them, that to this day +every man of New-England descent lives partly on the fund of virtuous +habit they accumulated. And, on the other hand, every man of the many +who still stand ready to indorse everything signed by a D.D.--without +even adding the commercial E.E., for Errors Excepted--is in part the +victim of the over-influence they obtained. Yet there was a kind of +democracy in that vast influence also: the Puritans were far more +thorough Congregationalists than their successors; they recognized no +separate clerical class, and the "elder" was only the highest officer of +his own church. Each religious society could choose and ordain its own +minister, or dispense with all ordaining services at will, without the +slightest aid or hindrance from council or consociation. So the stern +theology of the pulpit only reflected the stern theology of the pews; +the minister was but the representative man. If the ministers were +recognized as spiritual guides, it was because they were such to the +men of their time, whatever they might be to ours. Demonax of old, when +asked about the priests' money, said, that, if they were really the +leaders of the people, they could not have too much payment,--or too +little, if they were not. I believe that on these conditions the Puritan +ministers well earned their hundred and sixty pounds a year, with a +discount of forty pounds, if paid in wampum-beads, beaver-skins, and +musket-balls. What they took in musket-balls they paid back in the +heavier ammunition of moral truth. Here is a specimen of their +grape-shot:--"My fathers and brethren," said John Higginson, "this is +never to be forgotten, that our New England is originally a plantation +of religion, and not a plantation of trade. Let merchants and such as +are making cent. per cent. remember this. Let others who have come over +since at sundry times remember this, that worldly gain was not the end +and design of the people of New England, but religion. And if any man +among us make religion as twelve and the world as thirteen, let such a +man know he hath neither the spirit of a true New-England man, nor yet +of a sincere Christian." + + * * * * * + +THOREAU'S FLUTE. + + + We, sighing, said, "Our Pan is dead; + His pipe hands mute beside the river;-- + Around it wistful sunbeams quiver, + But Music's airy voice is fled. + Spring mourns as for untimely frost; + The bluebird chants a requiem; + The willow-blossom waits for him;-- + The Genius of the wood is lost." + + Then from the flute, untouched by hands, + There came a low, harmonious breath: + "For such as he there is no death;-- + His life the eternal life commands; + Above man's aims his nature rose: + The wisdom of a just content + Made one small spot a continent, + And tuned to poetry Life's prose. + + "Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild, + Swallow and aster, lake and pine, + To him grew human or divine,-- + Fit mates for this large-hearted child. + Such homage Nature ne'er forgets, + And yearly on the coverlid + 'Neath which her darling lieth hid + Will write his name in violets. + + "To him no vain regrets belong, + Whose soul, that finer instrument, + Gave to the world no poor lament, + But wood-notes ever sweet and strong. + O lonely friend! he still will be + A potent presence, though unseen,-- + Steadfast, sagacious, and serene: + Seek not for him,--he is with thee." + + * * * * * + +MR. MARTIN'S DISAPPOINTMENTS. + + +The circumstances of a first meeting so color long years of +acquaintanceship, that, should these circumstances be comic in their +nature, the intercourse which follows partakes much of the grotesque. +Thus, perhaps, it is, that the misfortunes of Edward Martin, apart from +the whimsical demeanor of the man himself, provoke in my memory a smile +rather than a sigh. + +Some years ago, journeying on foot through Northern Connecticut, it +became necessary for me to stop overnight at the quiet inn of Deacon +S----. + +Sharon I had visited, fair as Berkshire, but less an old story; I had +lingered about the twin lakes of Salisbury; I had carried away many +sweet memories of Warramaug and its mountain; and I now found myself in +the neighborhood of Gramley Bridge, eager for fresh water, clean towels, +and the plenty of a country tea-table,--not averse to strawberry +short-cake, or the snowy delights of cottage-cheese. + +It was rapidly growing dark, when, as I hurried on toward my cheerful +welcome, a bend in the road brought me in sight of a figure that filled +me with curiosity and amazement. + + "Was it a man? + A devil infernal? + An angel supernal?" + +Was it were-wolf spectral, or bear aboriginal? It lived and moved, and, +as I cautiously neared the spot, I seemed to recognize a human being in +the singular form,--stooping, squatting, and groping before me. + +The man, for such it proved, was performing most wondrous gymnastics +upon the ground,--smelling here, smelling there, too agile to be tipsy, +too silent to be mad. I had no desire to be alone in a lonely road at +nightfall with a maniac, and I was not sorry when my nearer approach +resolved these strange phenomena into a well-dressed pedestrian on +all-fours in the middle of a dusty highway. + +He rose as I approached, and I smiled to see that the spectacles astride +his handsome nose were minus one lens. He seemed half blind and wholly +bewildered. I looked at once for the lost glass, and there it lay +shining at me from the very spot where he had been so industriously +peering. He laughed grimly as I handed it to him, fitted his treasure +into its wonted rim, took out his watch, and with a low chuckle said,-- + +"Twenty-five minutes is a long time to search for a bit of such small +circumference. Thank you. Do you go to the Deacon's?" + +"Yes." + +"So do I." + +We walked on together in silence, till we reached our journey's end,--I +too tired, he too reserved, too preoccupied, or too shy, to speak again; +but when, at last, we were seated with our cigars on the Deacon's +door-step, he turned suddenly to me and asked,-- + +"Are you fond of the country?" + +"Why, yes! What else is there?" I answered, laughing. + +"Ah, you are an artist!" + +"I hope to be one." + +"Its a bad business," said he, testily,--"a very bad business. If I were +you, I would give it up." + +"Have you ever tried it?" + +"Tried it?" he ejaculated, kicking the gravel-walk,--"yes, and +everything else, I believe. If I thought it would do you any good, I +would give you the benefit of my experience; but you'd only laugh, and +make a good story of it to your wife." + +"Alas! I have no such incumbrance." + +"The worse for you, if you have genius and the modesty of genius. A true +artist, who seeks to interpret Nature in its purest and most exquisite +relations, who penetrates the deepest temples of the woods and the +silent sanctuaries of the mountains, must be a true, pure, and good man. +He must be a happy man,--happy in a sweet and natural way. A man whose +life is passed in a daily delight that gently stirs without feverish +excitement will be tender and most lovely to women. He _ought_ to +marry." + +"Did you ever write poetry?" I asked. + +"I began to compose when I was six years old. I wrote a poem on the sea, +commencing,-- + + 'O thou earthly sea, + Every person thinks of thee,-- + The sailor, and the busy bee, + And the Chinese drinking tea!' + +I thought it very fine. I have written many things since then, and they +seemed good to me at the time. I would not venture to say how they +struck others." + +He smiled pleasantly. + +"Do not be frightened by the shadow of a possible wife from unfolding +your history," said I. "Chance has thrown us together; befriend me with +your experience." + +"Take warning, then, if need be. + +"In college I was thought 'a very able fellow,' one 'who held the pen of +a ready writer'; and I graduated as vain of my supposed talents as a +young miss of her first conquest. + +"My earliest literary essay was in a new magazine, which, as it was just +rising into notice, would be, I imagined, greatly assisted by my +condescension. It was a charity, indeed, to give my support to this +fledgling, and I sent to it a long article, entitled, 'The Cultivated, +as Moving and Educational Powers.' My manuscripts were returned, with +this quiet bit of advice:--'Before "X.Y.Z." institutes any other +reforms, we would advise him to reperuse his English Grammar.' Far from +having a salutary effect, this rebuff only rankled in my soul. I +determined to revenge myself on the paltry malignant who dared to +despise my efforts. I therefore wrote a slashing criticism for one of +the evening papers, demolishing (as I thought) the delinquent +periodical, and denouncing its whole corps of writers as frivolous and +almost illiterate. My satire was returned, being too personal for +publication. + +"Just at this time I chanced to fall in love with Miss Ellen Wilson, now +Mrs. Martin. Fancying my passion unrequited, I poured forth my feelings +in ten melancholy stanzas, beginning,-- + + 'Oh! what avails it, if the spring be bright?' + +These verses were very morbid and dreary, but they were published in the +'Tri-Weekly Tribune,' and 'Hope revived again.' + +"The drama I next deemed worthy of my attention, and wrote a play, the +plot of which I thought quite new and original. A large fortune is left +to my hero, who forthwith becomes enamored of a fair damsel; but, +fearful lest the beloved object should worship his money more than his +merits, he disguises himself in a wig and blue spectacles, becomes tutor +to her brother, and wins her affections while playing pedagogue. On her +acknowledging her attachment, he flings his disguises into the sea, and, +in the wildness of his joy at being adored for his profundity in Latin, +Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, German, Mathematics, Natural Science, +and Civil Engineering, folds his loved one in his arms, and springs into +the surf, where both are drowned. + +"This, you see, was quite new." + +"Quite," I replied, laughing. + +"I published it at my own expense, and I must say I have yet to receive +the first remittance for this truly original work. + +"During the next season, I met with Hans Andersen's inimitable +'Märchen,' and, immediately setting myself to work, I wrote 'Uncle Job's +Legacies,' a series of children's tales, full, as I fondly fancied, of +poetry, pleasantry, and information. I sent them to 'The Juvenile +Weekly,' then published in the city. They were accepted with a profusion +of thanks; and in a few days I called, by request, at the office, +expecting large compensation for services so eagerly received. + +"I went up a dirty staircase, into a mean, slovenly back-office, where a +small, uncleanly man sat tipped back in his chair, picking his teeth. He +seemed the personification of _nonchalance_, impudence, and conceit. As +I entered, he looked up with a lazy insolence, which, had I been a +woman, would have brought a hot flush of indignation to my face, and, on +my mentioning my name, he rose and extended a very dirty hand. + +"'Glad to see you, Sir,--hope you'll continue your contributions,--Uncle +Job,--good idea, Sir,--love the little ones? So do we, Sir,--work very +hard for them,--don't pay at all,--poor business,--pure charity,--that's +all.' + +"'But you don't mean to say,' I exclaimed, 'that your contributors are +expected to work from charity?' + +"'Glad to pay them, if we could, but we can't afford it,--more +contributions than we can use,--best authors in the country write for +us,--pure love for the little ones, I assure you.' + +"'Will you give me my manuscripts?' I said. 'I do not vouchsafe to +bestow my time and thoughts for nothing. If you do not pay, I can offer +them to others who do.' + +"'You won't find a child's paper in the United States that pays,' he +growled. 'We don't care for contributions. Me and my partner writes most +of the articles ourselves.' + +"'Will you give me my manuscripts?' I said again, anxious to put an end +to the interview, and disgusted with the fellow's falsehood. + +"'Hallo! Mortimer, do you know where them are?' + +"'Sorry I can't oblige you,' said a fat man, dirtier and greasier than +the first, emerging from an inner den; 'they're gone to press.' + +"'If you tell me any more lies,' cried I, becoming furious, 'I shall +take measures that you will not at all relish. If you will not _give_ me +my manuscripts, I shall _take_ them'; and, suiting the action to the +word, I snatched them from a shelf, where they lay conspicuous, and +carried them off without further parley. + +"This cured me for a while of all literary ambition. But the unquiet +spirit within me would not rest, and during the following summer I wrote +a sentimental tale, full of aspirations, large adjectives, and soft +epithets. It was accepted by a well-known monthly, then supposed to be +in the height of its prosperity. This was a grain of comfort, and I +looked forward confidently to a long future of remuneration and renown, +when a letter of regret arrived from the fair editress, returning my +story, and explaining, that, being unable to meet her engagements, the +magazine had been sold to pay her debts. + +"This was bad; but my story was my own, and I accordingly despatched it +to 'The Salmagundian,' a periodical of the highest reputation. There it +was published, praised, and further contributions requested. Several +weeks passed away. I indited a poem, entitled, 'Past and Future, or, +Golden and Leaden Hours.' This also appeared in print, and my thirst for +fame was beginning to be satisfied, when a polite note reached me from +'The Salmagundian' office, begging for another tale, and offering to pay +me in _back numbers of the magazine_. I wrote no more." + +"Art beguiled you then, perhaps?" + +"Alas, yes, the siren! I had taken lessons from a very clever colorist, +and was thoroughly imbued with his enthusiasm. 'I, too, am a painter,' I +took for my motto; and, hiring a small studio in ---- Street, I bought a +large canvas, on which I sketched out a picture which cost me much +money, more time, and many anxious thoughts. + +"It represented the interior of a church, at the dim end of which a +marriage was being solemnized. In the foreground, a group of ten people, +in anomalous costumes, was gathered round a youth supposed to be a +rejected and despairing lover, who had fallen on the ground in a swoon. +It was very affecting, I thought.--it would be very effective. Were +_she_ to see it, she would be stung with remorse,--she would behold the +probable effects of her present indifference,--she would relent. + +"No one knew of my painting. I would keep it a profound secret, till it +was a complete and glorious success. So I worked on in my quiet studio, +draping before a cheval-glass for my women, attitudinizing and agonizing +for my men, until the last touches were on, the varnish dry, and it was +all ready for the Spring Exhibition. Then came doubts and speculations. +Would it be accepted? Was it good, after all? Would Ellen like it? How +would it seem among so many others? Should I take her to look at it? +Should I tell her it was mine? Who would buy it? + +"I had hired my studio under an assumed name, and under an assumed name +sent my picture to the Academy. Now, when I went to see it, I found it, +by some strange chance, hung next to a beautiful portrait by Huntington. +The juxtaposition gave me a new idea. I saw at once what a villanous +daub mine was, and went away oppressed with shame and a new-found +modesty. Some time after this I strolled again into the Exhibition, in +the hope of finding Miss Wilson; as I entered the vestibule, I met her +coming out. + +"'Oh, Mr. Martin!' she exclaimed, 'I am just going away, but I _must_ +turn back, and show you the _funniest_ picture! So theatrical! So +distorted!' + +"'Does it hang next to a lady in a purple shawl, by Huntington?' + +"'Yes. Of course I might have known you would appreciate it, you are +such a good critic of pictures. Isn't it the very worst specimen of art +you ever saw?' + +"Can you imagine my feelings?" + +"I think I can." + +"This was not all, however. That afternoon I went to my now forsaken +studio, previous to taking my departure from it forever. I was carefully +packing my materials, when I heard a knock at the door. I opened it, and +an elderly, shrewd-looking man walked into the room. + +"'Are you T. Markham Worthington?' he asked. + +"'I am a friend of his.' + +"'Authorized to sell his picture in the Academy, Number ----?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'How much does he ask for it?' + +"'How much are you willing to give?' + +"'Not more than twenty-five dollars,' + +"'That will do. Where shall it be sent?' + +"He paid the money, wrote the address, and, bowing, left the studio. +Twenty-five dollars just paid for the frame. Who had bought my picture? +I looked at the card:-- + + 'PARKER J. SPERRY, + '_Yankee Pie Depot_, + '126 ---- Street.'" + +"Did you ever paint again?" + +"Once only. I made a portrait of my sister-in-law, and sent it to her in +a gorgeous frame. I happened to go into her sitting-room, one morning, +when she was out, and found my picture hanging with its face to the +wall. I turned it round. Directly across the mouth was pasted a white +label, on which I saw neatly printed in India-ink,--'Queen of the +Deplorables.' I took it home with me, and hung it in my library as a +lesson to me for all future time. + +"So," said Martin, throwing away the of his third cigar, "you have heard +my experience. May you profit by it! I am now in the pork-packing +business, and make a handsome income for my wife and two children. +To-morrow I go to New York, to bring them into these wilds for change of +air. And now, good night." + + * * * * * + +ROBERT AND CLARA SCHUMANN. + +FLORESTAN'S STORY. + + +I. + +In every person's memory there are niches fixed, and in those niches are +sacred persons. These are such as never obtruded themselves upon you, +staining the pane through which their light shone with their own images, +but who became perfectly transparent to the word they uttered, the song +they sang, or the work they did. Such a sacred person to me is the +gifted woman who first interpreted for me Schumann's Albums. Many years +ago it was, as she told me, that she one day stood unperceived in the +half-open door of her master, near the lesson-hour, and heard him softly +rendering a theme which stole far into places of her heart, which had +been awaiting its spell unconsciously. Presently he felt that there was +a listener, and, hastily brushing away a tear, he placed the music in a +far corner of the room, away from his _répertoire_. She confessed, that, +afterward, when he was not present, she had looked on that which he +evidently desired to conceal; she saw written, in pencil, upon it, +"Sternenkranz." Thenceforth shops and catalogues were ransacked, but no +"Sternenkranz" was found,--the word was evidently her master's own +fancy; so she summoned all her heroism, one day, when Herr Otto +complained of her indifference to the pieces he set before her, and +informed him that she should perish at his feet, unless he would give +her "Sternenkranz." Of course her guilt was manifest, and Herr Otto, in +a spasm of anger at "prying women," as he called them, brought out the +treasure, and with it others of a very rare album of Schumann's, to +which he had given no names, leaving them to whisper their own names to +each soul that could receive them: Star-Wreath it might be to one, Bower +of Lilies to another. It was the same as with that white stone which the +Seer of Patmos saw,--within it "a name written which no man knoweth, +saving he that receiveth it." + +This piece was to the lady a touch of consecration. Thenceforth she was +known among us as "the Schumannite woman." I verily believe that to-day, +next to the divine Clara herself, she is the best interpreter of Robert +Schumann's works living; and if the love she has obtained for him is not +as universal, it is just as fervent. Many silent and holy hours have I +sat communing, through her, with him whom the Germans love to call their +Tone-Poet; and the music remained to clothe with the full vesture of +romance the meagre paragraphs of the journals which hinted his love, his +sorrow, and at length his insanity and death. More, however, I longed to +know of him,--of the wedlock of these Brownings of music; and more I +came to know, in the way which, with this preface, I now proceed to +relate. + +A bitter December evening found me tumbling through snow and ice to +accommodate a certain lyceum in one of our Northwestern cities. Cold +winds from over the Lakes made me wish that the Modern Athens had kept +its lecture-system at home; for it has always seemed to me, that, +wherever this has gone, her eastern storms have gone with it. Such ugly +thoughts were shamed, however, by the beaming welcome which shone from +the face of the kindest of landladies, and at length completely thawed +out of me by the glowing fire to which she introduced me, and which +animated the coziest of rooms. Why has not some poet celebrated the +experience of thawing? How deliciously each fibre of the thawee responds +to the informing ray, evolving its own sweet sensation of release until +all unite in a soft choral reverie! Carried thus, in a few moments, from +the Arctic to the Tropic, I thought, as dear Heine says, my "sweet +nothing-at-all thoughts," until a subtile breath of music won me back to +life. + +Heavens! what is that? A strain, strong and tender, pressed its way into +the room, soothed my temples, then broke over me in a shower of pearls. +Confused, I started up; and it was some moments before I understood that +the music proceeded from the room adjoining mine in the hotel. Not +altogether unfamiliar was the theme; the priestess of whom I have spoken +had once brought it from the Holy of Holies, when she was appointed to +stand; and now, remembering, I broke out with the word, "Florestan!" + +As I uttered it, the music ceased with the dreary fall of an octave. +Whether the musician had heard the exclamation, or whether such a +terrible termination was in the music, I knew not: the latter was quite +probable, for, alas! such fearful Icarus-falls are not rare in poor +Schumann's music. However, I did not consider long, but, rising quickly, +passed into the hall, and knocked gently at the door of the next room. + +"Enter," replied a voice, eagerly, but softly. + +Enter I did, and stood before a man of about forty winters. His face was +so swart that I could see only the German in the blue eye, and at once +imagined that a stream of Plutonic fire had streamed into his veins from +some more Oriental race. I stammered out an apology for my intrusion, +but told him how irresistible were such subtile threads as Schumann's +"Carnival" had projected through the walls which separated our rooms. + +"Florestan," I said, "was too much for me." + +Then his eye lighted up as might that of some Arctic voyager, which, +having for bleak months rested only on the glittering scales of the +ice-dragon coiled about him, is suddenly filled with the warm spread of +the Polar Sea. Taking my hand, he said,-- + +"In me, wanderer that I am,--in me, with the _Heimweh_ in my heart never +to be stilled but in that home where Schumann has already gone,--you see +Florestan." + +"Louis Boehner!" + +Filled with wonder, and scarcely knowing what I did, I took a little +piece of paper which he unwrapped from many folds and placed in my hand. +On it these words were written:-- + + + "_Peace and joy attend thee, Louis Boehner! and mayst thou never + want for such a friend as thou hast been to_ + + ROBERT SCHUMANN." + +I could say no word; never have I felt a profounder emotion than when, +at this moment, I drew so near one whose brow Art had crowned with a +living halo. + +Students of German music and composers will need no word to bring before +them the fulness of this incident. But to others I may briefly mention +some facts connected with Schumann's "Carnival, or _Scènes Mignonnes_, +on Four Notes." Not by any means representing the pure depths of +Schumann's soul, this strange medley is yet pregnant with historic +associations. The composer wrote it in his young days, stringing +twenty-two little pieces on four letters composing the name of Asch, a +town of Saxony, "whither," according to Sobolewski, "Schumann's thoughts +frequently strayed, because at that time there was an object there +interesting to his sensitive soul." In the letters A, S, C, H, it must +be remembered that the H in German stands for our B natural, and S or +_es_ for E flat. The Leipsic "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" was begun and +for ten years edited by Schumann,--in what spirit we may gather from his +own words:--"The musical state of Germany, at that time, was not very +encouraging. On the stage Rossini yet reigned, and on the piano Herz and +Hünten excluded all others. And yet how few years had passed since +Beethoven, Weber, and Schubert lived among us! True, Mendelssohn's star +was ascending, and there were wonderful whispers of a certain Pole, +Chopin; but it was later that these gained their lasting influence. One +day the idea took possession of our young and hot heads,--Let us not +idly look on; take hold, and reform it; take hold, and the Poetry of Art +shall be again enthroned!" Then gathered together a Protestant-league of +music, whose Luther and Melancthon in one was Schumann. The Devil at +which they threw their inkstands and semi-breves was the _Philistines_, +which is the general term amongst German students, artists, poets, etc., +for prosaic, narrow, hard, ungenial, commonplace respectabilities. +"Young Germany" was making itself felt in all coördinate directions: +forming new schools of plastic Art in Munich and Dresden,--a sharp and +spirited Bohemian literature at Frankfort, under the lead of Heine and +Boerne; and now, music being the last to yield in Germany, because most +revered, as it is with religion in other countries, a new vitality +brought together in Kühne's cellar in Leipsic the revolutionists, "who +talked of Callot, Hoffmann, and Jean Paul, of Beethoven and Franz +Schubert, and of the three foreign Romanticists beyond the Rhine, the +friends of the new phenomenon in French poetry, Victor Hugo." This was +the _Davidsbund_, or League of David (the last of the "Scènes Mignonnes" +is named "Marche des _Davidsbündler_ contre les Philistines"). An +agreeable writer in the "Weimarer Somitagsblatt" has given us a fine +sketch of this company, which we will quote. + +"The head of the table was occupied by a lively, flexible man of middle +age, intellectual in conversation, and overflowing with sharp and witty +remarks. He was the instructor of more than one of the young musicians +around him, who all listened to his observations with profound +attention. He was very fond of monopolizing the conversation and +suffering himself to be admired. For he called many a young, highly +promising musician his pupil, and had, besides, the certain +consciousness of having moulded his daughter Clara, at that time a girl +of fourteen, into a prodigy, whose first appearance delighted the whole +world, and whose subsequent artist-activity became the pride of her +native city, Leipsic. By his side sat a quiet, thoughtful young man of +twenty-three, with melancholy eyes. But lately a student in Heidelberg, +he had now devoted himself entirely to music, had removed to Leipsic and +was now a pupil of the 'old schoolmaster,' as the father of Clara Wieck +liked to be called. Young Robert Schumann had good reason to be +melancholy. After long struggles, he had only been able to devote +himself entirely to music comparatively late in life, and had been +obliged to pass a part of his precious youth in studies which were as +uncongenial as possible to his artist-spirit. He had finally decided for +the career of a _virtuoso_, and was pursuing the study of the piano with +an almost morbid zeal, when the disabling of one of his fingers, a +consequence of his over-exertions, obliged him to give up this career +forever. He did not yet suspect that this accident would prove fortunate +for him in the end, by directing him to his true vocation, composition. +Perhaps, too, it was the first germ of love, in the garb of admiration +for the wondrous talent of Clara, which made young Robert so quiet and +dreamy. His companions were all the more lively. There sat the eccentric +Louis Boehner,[A] who long ago had served as the model for E.T.A. +Hoffmann's fantastic pictures. Here J.P. Lyser, a painter by profession, +but a poet as well, and a musician besides. Here Carl Bauck, the +indefatigable, yet unsuccessful composer of songs,--now, in his capacity +of critic, the paper bugbear of the Dresden artists. He had just +returned from Italy, and believed himself in possession of the true +secret of the art of singing, the monopoly of which every singing-master +is wont to claim for himself. C.F. Becker, too, the eminent organist and +industrious collector, belonged to this circle, as well as many more +young and old artists of more or less merit and talent."[B] + +[Footnote A: The "Florestan" of the "Scènes Mignonnes"; "Chiara" is +Clara herself; "Eusebius" was Robert Schumann.] + +[Footnote B: See Dwight's _Journal of Music_, Vol. VIII. No. 3.] + +Florestan then stood before me; and with him, although invisible, stood +that sacred circle, which had unconsciously borne within it the germs of +so many future sorrows and glories. + +"With him," said Louis Boehner, "I began life, when we were boys +together at Heidelberg; with him I stood when the dawn of a better day, +which since has blessed hill and vale, was glowing for his eye alone; +this breast held his sorrows and his hopes, when he was struggling to +reach his Clara; these hands saved him when in his madness he cast +himself into the Rhine; these eyes dropped their hot tears on his +eyelids when they were closed in death." + +Overcome by his emotion, he sat down and sobbed aloud. + +At that moment, hearing my name called loudly in the hall, I went out, +and was informed that my audience was waiting at the Lyceum, and had +been waiting nearly fifteen minutes! + + +II. + +Next morning, bright and early, I was in the artist-pilgrim's room, +listening to that which it thrilled him to tell and me to hear. And +first he told me the story of Schumann's love. + +The "old schoolmaster," Wieck, trained his daughter more ambitiously +than judiciously; and, indeed, none but one of the elect would ever have +survived the tasks imposed on her childhood. Indeed, she had no +childhood: at the piano she was kept through all the bright days, roving +only from scale to scale, when she should have been roving from flower +to flower. At length her genius asserted itself, and she entered into +her destiny; thenceforth flowers bloomed for her out of exercise-books, +and she could touch the notes which were sun-bursts, and those which +were mosses beneath them. From this training she came before the best +audience in Germany, and stood a sad-eyed, beautiful child of fourteen +summers, and by acclamation was crowned the Queen of the Piano. Franz +Liszt remembered his enthusiasm of that period, and many years afterward +wrote in his extravagant way,--"When we heard Clara Wieck in Vienna, +fifteen years ago, she drew her hearers after her into her poetic world, +to which she floated upward in a magical car drawn by electric sparks +and lifted by delicately prismatic, but nervously throbbing winglets." +At her performance of Beethoven's F Minor Sonata, Grillparzer was +inspired to write the following verses:-- + + "A weird magician, weary of the world, + In sullen humor locked his charms all up + Within a diamond casket, firmly clasped, + And threw the key into the sea, and died. + The manikins here tried with all their might; + In vain! no tool can pick the flinty lock; + His magic arts still slumber, like their master. + A shepherd's child, along the sea-shore playing, + Watches the waves, in hurrying, idle chase. + Dreaming and thoughtless, as young maidens are, + She dippeth her white fingers in the flood, + And grasps, and lifts, and holds it! 'Tis the key. + Up springs she, up, her heart still beating higher. + The casket glances, as with eyes, before her. + The key fits well, up flies the lid. The spirits + All mount aloft, then bow themselves submissive + To this their gracious, innocent, sweet mistress, + Who with white fingers guides them in her play." + +The first, perhaps, to recognize the surpassing ability of that child +was the young editor of the "Zeitschrift." Robert Schumann. On her first +appearance, he wrote,--"Others make poetry,--she is a poem." And soon +afterward,--"She early lifted the veil of Isis. The child looks calmly +up,--the man would, perhaps, be dazzled by the brilliancy." + +From this moment there was an elasticity and purpose about the young +composer, the secret of which no one knew, not even himself. Like one +caught in the whorls of some happy dream, who will not pause to ask, +"Whither?" he poured out before this child the half-revealed hopes +striving within him; an equal spell was woven about her ingenuous and +earnest heart, and their souls were joined in that purple morning; in +due time they were to be rather _clenched_, through pain. It was under +this baptismal touch of Love that Schumann wrote his first +sonata,--"Florestan and Eusebius." It gained him at once a fame with all +from whom fame was graceful. + +In the light of this period of his life must be interpreted those +wonderful little "pieces" which mystify whilst they fascinate; without +it their meaning is as strange as their names. Often did he say,--"I can +write only where my life is in unison with my works." "Listen now to +these," said Florestan, as he opened an album and struck the piano; +"these are the voices of a new life." The "Alternatives," with song, "My +peace is o'er"; "Evening Thoughts"; "Impromptus," (whose first theme was +written by Clara): these; seemed like the emotion of some newly winged +aspirant released from its chrysalis, resting on its first flower. But +faster than planets through the abysses Love moves on. Florestan ceased, +and there was a long silence; and then he told the unspeakable portion +of his story by performing these two: "Sternenkranz," "Warum." Who has +ever scaled the rapture of the former, or fathomed the pathos of the +latter? Every summit implies its precipice; and the star-wreath that +crowned Love was snatched at by the Fate which soon burdened two hearts +with the terrible questioning, _Wherefore?_ + +Thus: before these two were fully conscious of the love they bore each +other, the shrewd eye of old Wieck had caught a glimpse of what was +coming to pass. He had educated this girl to be an artist to bring _him_ +fame; alas, it must be confessed that he thought also of certain +prospective thalers. Willing as he was that all Leipsic should admire +his daughter, he did not like the enthusiasm of the "Zeitschrift." He +then began to warn Clara against "this Faust in modern garb, who, when +he had gained one finger, would soon have the whole hand, and finally +the poor soul into the bargain!" Stupid old schoolmaster, thou shouldst +have known that it is Mephistopheles, and not Faust, that women hate! + +The old man, finding that his warnings were of no avail, forbade all +acquaintance, forbade Robert's visits to his house. Then, inaugurating +at once Clara's career as a _virtuoso_, he took her to Vienna. + +No wonder, that, when she appeared there, it was to be as the priestess +of Beethoven. It takes something besides an academy to train artists up +to Beethoven. Robert was forbidden to write to her; but the +"Schwärmibriefe of Eusebius to Chiara," utterly unintelligible to the +general reader of the "Zeitschrift," who, doubtless, fancied that its +editor had gone mad, were quite clear to a certain little lady in +Vienna, who consequently pined less than her father had anticipated. + +"Amid all our musical soul-feasts," he writes, "there always peeps out +an angel-face, which more than resembles a certain Clara. Why art thou +not with us? (_Warum!_) And how thou wilt have thought of us last +night, from the 'Meeresstille' to the flaming close of the A major +symphony! I also thought of thee then, Chiara, pure one, bright one, +whose hands are stretched towards Italy, whither thy longing draws thee, +but thy dreamy eye still turned to us." + +At length a sun-burst. In 1840 appeared the first number of Schumann's +"Myrthen," whose dedication, _Seiner geliebten Braut_, breaks forth in +the passionate and beautiful song,--"Thou my soul, O thou my heart!" + +But this word _Braut_ means Bride in the German sense of "affianced"; +and although the joy of this relation passed over Schumann like the +breath of a Tropic, bringing forth, amongst other gorgeous fruits, his +glorious First Symphony, which some one has well called the Symphony of +Bliss, yet, ere this bliss was more than an elusive vision, the two +passed through fierce wildernesses, and drank together of bitter Marahs. +"But of all this," said Florestan, "you will know, if you have the right +to know, from these,"--his "Voice from afar," and his "Night-Pieces." + +Neither of us dared break the silence claimed by these exquisite pieces +when they ceased; we shook hands and parted without a word. + + +III. + +But another mystery about the loved and lost master, which I longed to +have revealed, would not let me leave the city. In the afternoon I +sought Boehner, and asked him to walk with me. As soon as we had alluded +to the one subject that bound us together, I requested him to tell me, +what had not yet been given to the world, the details of Schumann's +insanity and death. + +Then, as one who takes up a heavy burden to bear it, he proceeded:-- + +"The heart of Robert Schumann was a lyre so delicate, and with strings +so sensitive, that the effect of his pains and his joys, both always in +extremes, was as if you gave an Æolian harp to be swept now by a cold +north-wind and now by a hot sirocco. His spirit wore on to the confines +of his flesh, and was not warmly covered thereby, but only veiled. Under +his grief he seemed stronger; but when his joy came, when Clara was his +own, and went through Europe with him, giving expression to the voices +within, which, to him, had been unutterable,--then we saw that the +emotions which would have been safe, had they been suffered to well up +gently from the first, could come forth now only as a fierce and perhaps +devastating torrent. + +"Schumann saddened his intimate friends by times of insanity, five or +six years before the world at large knew anything of it. At such times +he imagined himself again cruelly separated from the patient and tender +being who never left his side; and he would write pieces full of +distractions, in the midst of each of which, however, some touchingly +beautiful theme would float up, like a fair island through seething +seas. Then there were longer intervals, of seven and eight months, in +which he was perfectly sane; at which times he would write with a +wearing persistence which none could restrain: he would put our advice +aside gently, saying,--'A long life is before me; but it must be lived +in a few years.' And, indeed, the works which have reached farthest into +hearts that loved him most deeply date from these times. I remember, +that, when he sat down to compose his last symphony, he said,--'It is +almost accomplished; but the invisible mansion needs another chamber.' + +"Once when I was at Frankfort, Clara Schumann sent me this word: +'Hasten.' I left all my affairs, and came to watch for many months +beside this beloved one. It was not a wild delirium which had taken +possession of him; the only fit of that kind was that in which he tried +to drown himself in the Rhine,--at the time when the papers got hold of +the terrible secret. His insanity was manifested in his conviction that +he was occupied by the souls of Beethoven and Schubert. Much in the +manner of your American mediums, he would be seized by a controlling +power,--would snatch a pencil, and dash out upon paper the wildest +discords. These we would play for him, at his request, from morning till +night,--during much of which time he would seem to be in a happy trance. +Of this music no chord or melody was true; they were jangling memories +of his earlier works. + +"One day he called his wife and myself, and took our hands in his +own:--'Beethoven says that my earthly music is over; it cannot be +understood here; he writes for angels, and I shall write for them.' +Then, turning to me, he said,--'Louis, my friend, farewell! This is my +last prayer for you,'--handing me the paper which I have shown you; 'and +now leave us, to come again and kiss me when I am cold.' + +"Then I left him alone with his Clara. + +"A month from that time, Schumann was no more." + + * * * * * + +Out under the glowing sunset, I clasped hands parting with Louis +Boehner, and said, as my voice would let me.--"Take this paper, and when +you would have a friend, such as you have been to Robert Schumann, come +and help me to be that friend." + + * * * * * + +THE FREEDMEN AT PORT ROYAL. + + +Two questions are concerned in the social problem of our time. One is, +Will the people of African descent work for a living? and the other is, +Will they fight for their freedom? An affirmative answer to these must +be put beyond any fair dispute before they will receive permanent +security in law or opinion. Whatever may be the theses of philosophers +or the instincts of the justest men, the general sense of mankind is not +likely to accord the rights of complete citizenship to a race of +paupers, or to hesitate in imposing compulsory labor on those who have +not industry sufficient to support themselves. Nor, in the present +development of human nature, is the conscience of great communities +likely to be so pervasive and controlling as to restrain them from +disregarding the rights of those whom it is perfectly safe to injure, +because they have not the pluck to defend themselves. Sentiment may be +lavished upon them in poetry and tears, but it will all be wasted. Like +all unprivileged classes before them, they will have their full +recognition as citizens and men when they have vindicated their title to +be an estate of the realm, and not before. Let us, then, take the world +as we find it, and try this people accordingly. But it is not pertinent +to any practical inquiry of our time to predict what triumphs in art, +literature, or government they are to accomplish, or what romance is to +glow upon their history. No Iliad may be written of them and their woes. +No Plutarch may gather the lives of their heroes. No Vandyck may delight +to warm his canvas with their forms. How many or how few astronomers +like Banneker, chieftains like Toussaint, orators like Douglass they may +have, it is not worth while to conjecture. It is better to dismiss these +fanciful discussions. To vindicate their title to a fair chance in the +world as a free people, it is sufficient, and alone sufficient, that it +appear to reasonable minds that they are in good and evil very much like +the rest of mankind, and that they are endowed in about the same degree +with the conservative and progressive elements of character common to +ordinary humanity. + +It is given to the people of this country and time, could they realise +it, to make a new chapter of human experience. The past may suggest, but +it can do little either in directing or deterring. There is nothing in +the gloomy vaticinations of Tocqueville, wise and benevolent as he is, +which should be permitted to darken our future. The mediæval antagonisms +of races, when Christianity threw but a partial light over mankind, and +before commerce had unfolded the harmony of interests among people of +diverse origin or condition, determine no laws which will fetter the +richer and more various development of modern life. Nor do the results +of emancipation in the West Indies, more or less satisfactory as they +may be, afford any measure of the progress which opens before our +enfranchised masses. The insular and contracted life of the colonies, +cramped also as they were by debt and absenteeism, has no parallel in +the grand currents of thought and activity ever sweeping through the +continent on which our problem is to be solved. + +In the light of these views, the attempt shall be made to report +truthfully upon the freedmen at Port Royal. A word, however, as to the +name. Civilization, in its career, may often be traced in the +nomenclatures of successive periods. These people were first called +contrabands at Fortress Monroe; but at Port Royal, where they were next +introduced to us in any considerable number, they were generally +referred to as freedmen. These terms are milestones in our progress; and +they are yet to be lost in the better and more comprehensive designation +of citizens, or, when discrimination is convenient, citizens of African +descent. + +The enterprise for the protection and development of the freedmen at +Port Royal has won its way to the regard of mankind. The best minds of +Europe, as well as the best friends of the United States, like Cairnes +and Gasparin, have testified much interest in its progress. An English +periodical of considerable merit noticed at some length "Mr. Pierce's +Ten Thousand Clients." In Parliament, Earl Russell noted it in its +incipient stage, as a reason why England should not intervene in +American affairs. The "Revue des Deux Mondes," in a recent number, +characterizes the colony as "that small pacific army, far more important +in the history of civilization than all the military expeditions +despatched from time to time since the commencement of the civil war." + + * * * * * + +No little historical interest covers the region to which this account +belongs. Explorations of the coast now known as that of the Carolinas, +Georgia, and Florida, involving the rival pretensions of Spain and +France, were made in the first half of the sixteenth century. They were +conducted by Ponce de Leon, Vasquez, Verrazani, and Soto, in search of +the fountain of perpetual youth, or to extend empire by right of +discovery. But no permanent settlement by way of colony or garrison was +attempted until 1562. + +In that year,--the same in which he drew his sword for his faith, and +ten years before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, in which he fell the +most illustrious victim,--Admiral Coligny, the great Protestant chief, +anxious to found beyond the seas a refuge for persecuted Huguenots, +fitted out the expedition of Jean Ribault, which, after a voyage of over +three months across the ocean and northward along the coast, cast anchor +on May 27th in the harbor of Port Royal, and gave it the name which it +retains to this day. That year was also to be ever memorable for another +and far different enterprise, which was destined to be written in dark +and perpetual lines on human history. Then it was that John Hawkins +sailed for Africa in quest of the first cargo of negroes ever brought to +the New World. The expedition of Ribault was the first visit of +Europeans to Port Royal or to any part of South Carolina, and the +garrison left by him was the first settlement under their auspices ever +made on this continent north of Mexico. There is not space or need to +detail here the mutiny and suffering of this military colony, their +abandonment of the post, the terrible voyage homeward, or the +perseverance of Coligny in his original purpose. Nor is it within the +compass of this narrative to recount the fortunes of the second +garrison, which was founded on the St. John's, the visit of John Hawkins +in 1565 with timely relief, the return of Ribault from France and his +sad fate, the ferocity of Melendez against all heretic Frenchmen, and +the avenging chivalry of Dominic de Gourges. The student is baffled in +attempts to fix localities for the deeds and explorations of this +period, even with the help of the several accounts and the drawings of +Le Moyne; and, besides, these later vicissitudes did not involve any +permanent occupation as far north as Port Royal, that region having been +abandoned by the French, and being then visited by the Spanish only for +trade or adventure. + +Some merchants of Barbados, in 1663, sent William Hilton and other +commissioners to Florida, then including Port Royal, to explore the +country with reference to an emigration thither. Hilton's Narration, +published in London the year after, mentions St. Ellens as one of the +points visited, meaning St. Helena, but probably including the Sea +Islands under that name. The natives were found to speak many Spanish +words, and to be familiar enough with the report of guns not to be +alarmed by it. The commissioners, whose explorations were evidently +prompted by motives of gain, close a somewhat glowing description of the +country by saying, "And we could wish that all they that want a happy +settlement of our English nation were well transported thither." + +Hitherto England had borne no part in exploring this region. But, +relieved of her civil wars by the Restoration, she began to seek +colonial empire on the southern coast of North America. In 1663, Charles +II. granted a charter to Clarendon, Monk, Shaftsbury,--each famous in +the conflicts of those times,--and to their associates, as proprietors +of Carolina. The genius of John Locke, more fitted for philosophy than +affairs, devised a constitution for the colony,--an idle work, as it +proved. In 1670, the first emigrants, under Governor William Sayle, +arrived at Port Royal, with the purpose to remain there; but, disturbed +probably with apprehensions of Spanish incursions from Florida, they +removed to the banks of the Ashley, and, after another change of site, +founded Charleston. + +In 1682, a colony from Scotland under Lord Cardross was founded at Port +Royal, but was driven away four years later by the Spanish. No permanent +settlement of the Beaufort district appears to have succeeded until +1700. This district is divided into four parishes, St. Peter's, St. +Luke's, St. Helena, and Prince William, being fifty-eight miles long and +thirty-two broad, and containing 1,224,960 acres. St. Helena parish +includes the islands of St. Helena, Ladies, Port Royal, Paris, and a few +smaller islands, which, together with Hilton Head, make the district +occupied by our forces. The largest and most populous of these islands +is St. Helena, being fifteen miles long and six or seven broad, +containing fifty plantations and three thousand negroes, and perhaps +more since the evacuation of Edisto. Port Royal is two-thirds or +three-quarters the size of St. Helena, Ladies half as large, and Hilton +Head one-third as large. Paris, or Parry, has five plantations, and +Coosaw, Morgan, Cat, Cane, and Barnwell have each one or two. Beaufort +is the largest town in the district of that name, and the only one at +Port Royal in our possession. Its population, black and white, in time +of peace may have been between two and three thousand. The first lots +were granted in 1717. Its Episcopal church was built in 1720. Its +library was instituted in 1802, had increased in 1825 to six or eight +hundred volumes, and when our military occupation began contained about +thirty-five hundred. + +The origin of the name Port Royal, given to a harbor at first and since +to an island, has already been noted. The name of St. Helena, applied to +a sound, a parish, and an island, originated probably with the +Spaniards, and was given by them in tribute to Saint Helena, the mother +of Constantine the Great, whose day in the calendar is August 18th. +Broad River is the equivalent of La Grande, which was given by Ribault. +Hilton Head may have been derived from Captain Hilton, who came from +Barbados. Coosaw is the name of a tribe of Indians. Beaufort is likely +to have been so called for Henry, Duke of Beauford, one of the lord +proprietors, while Carolina was a province of Great Britain. + +The Beaufort District is not invested with any considerable +Revolutionary romance. In 1779, the British forces holding Savannah sent +two hundred troops with a howitzer and two field-pieces to Beaufort. +Four companies of militia from Charleston with two field-pieces, +reinforced by a few volunteers from Beaufort, repulsed and drove them +off. The British made marauding incursions from Charleston in 1782, and +are said to have levied a military contribution on St. Helena and Port +Royal Islands. + +There are the remains of Indian mounds and ancient forts on the islands. +One of these last, it is said, can be traced on Paris Island, and is +claimed by some antiquaries to be the Charles Fort built by Ribault. +There are the well-preserved walls of one upon the plantation of John J. +Smith on Port Royal Island, a few miles south of Beaufort, now called +Camp Saxton, and recently occupied by Colonel Higginson's regiment. It +is built of cemented oyster-shells. Common remark refers to it as a +Spanish fort, but it is likely to be of English construction. The site +of Charles Fort is claimed for Beaufort, Lemon Island, Paris Island, and +other points. + +The Sea Islands are formed by the intersection of the creeks and arms of +the sea. They have a uniform level, are without any stones, and present +a rather monotonous and uninteresting scenery, spite of the raptures of +French explorers. The creeks run up into the islands at numerous points, +affording facilities for transportation by flats and boats to the +buildings which are usually near them. The soil is of a light, sandy +mould, and yields in the best seasons a very moderate crop, say fifteen +bushels of corn and one hundred or one hundred and thirty pounds of +ginned cotton to the acre,--quite different from the plantations in +Mississippi and Texas, where an acre produces five or six hundred +pounds. The soil is not rich enough for the cultivated grasses, and one +finds but little turf. The coarse saline grasses, gathered in stacks, +furnish the chief material for manure. The long-fibred cotton peculiar +to the region is the result of the climate, which is affected by the +action of the salt water upon the atmosphere by means of the creeks +which permeate the land in all directions. The seed of this cotton, +planted on the upland, will produce in a few years the cotton of coarser +texture; and the seed of the latter, planted on the islands, will in a +like period produce the finer staple. The Treasury Department secured +eleven hundred thousand pounds from the islands occupied by our forces, +including Edisto, being the crop, mostly unginned, and gathered in +storehouses, when our military occupation began. + +The characteristic trees are the live-oak, its wood almost as heavy as +lignum-vitæ, the trunk not high, but sometimes five or six feet in +diameter, and extending its crooked branches far over the land, with the +long, pendulous, funereal moss adhering to them,--and the palmetto, +shooting up its long, spongy stem thirty or forty feet, unrelieved by +vines or branches, with a disproportionately small cap of leaves at the +summit, the most ungainly of trees, albeit it gives a name and +coat-of-arms to the State. Besides these, are the pine, the red and +white oak, the cedar, the bay, the gum, the maple, and the ash. The soil +is luxuriant with an undergrowth of impenetrable vines. These +interlacing the trees, supported also by shrubs, of which the cassena is +the most distinguished variety, and faced with ditches, make the +prevailing fences of the plantations. The hedges are adorned in March +and April with the yellow jessamine, (_jelseminum_,)--the cross-vine +(_bignonia_,) with its mass of rich red blossoms,--the Cherokee rose, +(_loevigata_,) spreading out in long waving wreaths of white,--and, two +months later, the palmetto royal, (_yucca gloriosa_,) which protects the +fence with its prickly leaves, and delights the eyes with its +pyramid-like clusters of white flowers. Some of these trees and shrubs +serve a utilitarian end in art and medicine. The live-oak is famous in +shipbuilding. The palmetto, or cabbage-palmetto, as it is called, +resists destruction by worms, and is used for facing wharves. It was +employed to protect Fort Moultrie in 1776, when bombarded by the British +fleet; and the cannon-balls were buried in its spongy substance. The +moss (_tillandsia usneoides_) served to calk the rude vessel of the +first French colonists, longing for home. It may be used for bedding +after its life has been killed by boiling water, and for the subsistence +of cattle when destitute of other food. The cassena is a powerful +diuretic. + +The game and fish, which are both abundant and of desirable kinds, and +to the pursuit of which the planters were much addicted, are described +in Eliot's book. Russell's "Diary" may also be consulted in relation to +fishing for devil and drum. + +The best dwellings in Beaufort are capacious, with a piazza on the first +and second stories, through each of which runs a large hall to admit a +free circulation of air. Only one, however, appeared to have been built +under the supervision of a professional architect. Those on the +plantations, designed for the planters or overseers, were, with a few +exceptions, of a very mean character, and a thriving mechanic in New +England would turn his back on them as unfit to live in. Their yards are +without turf, having as their best feature a neighboring grove of +orange-trees. One or two dwellings only appear to be ancient. Indeed, +they are not well enough built to last long. The estates upon Edisto +Island are of a more patrician character, and are occasionally +surrounded by spacious flower-gardens and ornamental trees fancifully +trimmed. + +The names of the planters indicated mainly an English origin, although +some may be traced to Huguenot families who sought a refuge here from +the religious persecutions of France. + +The deserted houses were generally found strewn with religious +periodicals, mainly Baptist magazines. This characteristic of Southern +life has been elsewhere observed in the progress of our army. +Occasionally some book denouncing slavery as criminal and ruinous was +found among those left behind. One of these was Hewatt's history of +South Carolina, published in 1779, and reprinted in Carroll's +collection. Another was Gregoire's vindication of the negro race and +tribute to its distinguished examples, translated by Warden in 1810. +These people seem, indeed, to have had light enough to see the infinite +wrong of the system, and it is difficult to believe them entirely +sincere in their passionate defence of it. Their very violence, when the +moral basis of slavery is assailed, seems to be that of a man who +distrusts the rightfulness of his daily conduct, has resolved to persist +in it, and therefore hates most of all the prophet who comes to confront +him for his misdeeds, and, if need be, to publish them to mankind. + +Well-authenticated instances of cruelty to slaves were brought to notice +without being sought for. The whipping-tree is now often pointed out, +still showing the place where it was worn by the rope which bound the +sufferer to it. On the plantation where my own quarters were was a woman +who had been so beaten when approaching the trials of maternity as to +crush out the life of the unborn child. But this planter had one +daughter who looked with horror on the scenes of which she was the +unwilling witness. She declared to her parents and sisters that it was +hell to live in such a place. She was accustomed to advise the negroes +how best to avoid being whipped. When the war began, she assured them +that the story of the masters that the Yankees were going to send them +to Cuba was all a lie. Surely a kind Providence will care for this noble +girl! This war will, indeed, emancipate others than blacks from bonds +which marriage and kindred have involved. But it is unpleasant to dwell +on these painful scenes of the past, constant and authentic as they are; +and they hardly concern the practical question which now presses for a +solution. Nor in referring to them is there any need of injustice or +exaggeration. Human nature has not the physical endurance or moral +persistence to keep up a perpetual and universal cruelty; and there are +fortunate slaves who never received a blow from their masters. Besides, +there was less labor exacted and less discipline imposed on the loosely +managed plantations of the Sea Islands than in other districts where +slave-labor was better and more profitably organized and directed. + +The capture of Hilton Head and Bay Point by the navy, November 7th, +1861, was followed by the immediate military occupation of the Sea +Islands. In the latter part of December, the Secretary of the Treasury, +Mr. Chase, whose foresight as a statesman and humane disposition +naturally turned his thoughts to the subject, deputed a special agent to +visit this district for the purpose of reporting upon the condition of +the negroes who had been abandoned by the white population, and of +suggesting some plan for the organization of their labor and the +promotion of their general well-being. The agent, leaving New York +January 13th, 1862, reached that city again on his way to Washington on +the 13th of February, having in the mean time visited a large number of +the plantations, and talked familiarly with the negroes in their cabins. +The results of his observations, in relation to the condition of the +people, their capacities and wishes, the culture of their crops, and the +best mode of administration, on the whole favorable, were embodied in a +report. The plan proposed by him recommended the appointment of +superintendents to act as guides of the negroes and as local +magistrates, with an adequate corps of teachers. It was accepted by the +Secretary with a full indorsement, and its execution intrusted to the +same agent. The agent presented the subject to several members of +Congress, with whom he had a personal acquaintance, but, though they +listened respectfully, they seemed either to dread the magnitude of the +social question, or to feel that it was not one with which they as +legislators were called upon immediately to deal. The Secretary himself, +and Mr. Olmsted, then connected with the Sanitary Commission, alone +seemed to grasp it, and to see the necessity of immediate action. It is +doubtful if any member of the Cabinet, except Mr. Chase, took then any +interest in the enterprise, though it has since been fostered by the +Secretary of War. At the suggestion of the Secretary, the President +appointed an interview with the agent. Mr. Lincoln, who was then chafing +under a prospective bereavement, listened for a few moments, and then +said, somewhat impatiently, that he did not think he ought to be +troubled with such details,--that there seemed to be an itching to get +negroes into our lines; to which the agent replied, that these negroes +were within them by the invitation of no one, being domiciled there +before we commenced occupation. The President then wrote and handed to +the agent the following card:-- + +"I shall be obliged if the Sec. of the Treasury will in his discretion +give Mr. Pierce such instructions in regard to Port Royal contrabands as +may seem judicious. + +"A. LINCOLN. + +"Feb. 15, 1862." + +The President, so history must write it, approached the great question +slowly and reluctantly; and in February, 1862, he little dreamed of the +proclamations he was to issue in the September and January following. +Perhaps that slowness and reluctance were well, for thereby it was given +to this people to work out their own salvation, rather than to be saved +by any chief or prophet. + +Notwithstanding the plan of superintendents was accepted, there were no +funds wherewith to pay them. At this stage the "Educational Commission," +organized in Boston on the 7th of February, and the "Freedmen's Relief +Association," organized in New York on the 20th of the same month, +gallantly volunteered to pay both superintendents and teachers, and did +so until July 1st, when the Government, having derived a fund from the +sale of confiscated cotton left in the territory by the Rebels, +undertook the payment of the superintendents, the two societies, +together with another organized in Philadelphia on the 3d of March, and +called the "Port Royal Relief Committee," providing for the support of +the teachers. + +When these voluntary associations sprang into being to save an +enterprise which otherwise must have failed, no authoritative assurance +had been given as to the legal condition of the negroes. The Secretary, +in a letter to the agent, had said, that, after being received into our +service, they could not, without great injustice, be restored to their +masters, and should therefore be fitted to become self-supporting +citizens. The President was reported to have said freely, in private, +that negroes who were within our lines, and had been employed by the +Government, should be protected in their freedom. No official assurance +of this had, however, been given; and its absence disturbed the +societies in their formation. At one meeting of the Boston society +action was temporarily arrested by the expression of an opinion by a +gentleman present, that there was no evidence showing that these people, +when educated, would not be the victims of some unhappy compromise. A +public meeting in Providence, for their relief, is said to have broken +up without action, because of a speech from a furloughed officer of a +regiment stationed at Port Royal, who considered such a result the +probable one. But the societies, on reflection, wisely determined to do +what they could to prepare them to become self-supporting citizens, in +the belief, that, when they had become such, no Government could ever be +found base enough to turn its back upon them. These associations, it +should be stated, have been managed by persons of much consideration in +their respective communities, of unostentatious philanthropy, but of +energetic and practical benevolence, hardly one of whom has ever filled +or been a candidate for a political office. + +There was a pleasant interview at this time which may fitly be +mentioned. The venerable Josiah Quincy, just entered on his ninety-first +year, hearing of the enterprise, desired to see one who had charge of +it. I went to his chamber, where he had been confined to his bed for +many weeks with a fractured limb. He talked like a patriot who read the +hour and its duty. He felt troubled lest adequate power had not been +given to protect the enterprise,--said that but for his disability he +should be glad to write something about it, but that he was living "the +postscript of his life"; and as we parted, he gave his hearty +benediction to the work and to myself. Restored in a measure to +activity, he is still spared to the generation which fondly cherishes +his old age; and recently, at the organization of the Union Club, he +read to his fellow-citizens, gathering close about him and hanging on +his speech, words of counsel and encouragement. + +On the morning of the 3d of March, 1862, the first delegation of +superintendents and teachers, fifty-three in all, of whom twelve were +women, left the harbor of New York, on board the United States +steam-transport Atlantic, arriving at Beaufort on the 9th. It was a +voyage never to be forgotten. The enterprise was new and strange, and it +was not easy to predict its future. Success or defeat might be in store +for us; and we could only trust in God that our strength would be equal +to our responsibilities. As the colonists approached the shores of South +Carolina, they were addressed by the agent in charge, who told them the +little he had learned of their duties, enjoined patience and humanity, +impressed on them the greatness of their work, the results of which were +to cheer or dishearten good men, to settle, perhaps, one way or the +other, the social problem of the age,--assuring them that never did a +vessel bear a colony on a nobler mission, not even the Mayflower, when +she conveyed the Pilgrims to Plymouth, that it would be a poorly written +history which should omit their individual names, and that, if faithful +to their trust, there would come to them the highest of all recognitions +ever accorded to angels or to men, in this life or the next,--"Inasmuch +as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto Me." + +This first delegation of superintendents and teachers were distributed +during the first fortnight after their arrival at Beaufort, and at its +close they had all reached their appointed posts. They took their +quarters in the deserted houses of the planters. These had all left on +the arrival of our army, only four white men, citizens of South +Carolina, remaining, and none of those being slaveholders, except one, +who had only two or three slaves. Our operations were, therefore, not +interfered with by landed proprietors who were loyal or pretended to be +so. The negroes had, in the mean time, been without persons to guide and +care for them, and had been exposed to the careless and conflicting talk +of soldiers who chanced to meet them. They were also brought in +connection with some _employés_ of the Government, engaged in the +collection of cotton found upon the plantations, none of whom were doing +anything for their education, and most of whom were in favor of leasing +the plantations and the negroes upon them as _adscripti gleboe_ looking +forward to their restoration to their masters at the close of the war. +They were uncertain as to the intentions of the Yankees, and were +wondering at the confusion, as they called it. They were beginning to +plant corn in their patches, but were disinclined to plant cotton, +regarding it as a badge of servitude. No schools had been opened, except +one at Beaufort, which had been kept a few weeks by two freedmen, one +bearing the name of John Milton, under the auspices of the Rev. Dr. +Peck. This is not the place to detail the obstacles we met with, one +after another overcome,--the calumnies and even personal violence to +which we were subjected. These things occurred at an early period of our +struggle, when the nation was groping its way to light, and are not +likely to occur again. Let unworthy men sleep in the oblivion they +deserve, and let others of better natures, who were then blind, but now +see, not be taunted with their inconsiderate acts. The nickname of +Gibeonites, applied to the colonists, may, however, be fitly remembered. +It may now justly claim rank with the honored titles of Puritan and +Methodist. The higher officers of the army were uniformly respectful and +disposed to coöperation. One of these may properly be mentioned. Our +most important operations were in the district under the command of +Brigadier-General Isaac I. Stevens, an officer whose convictions were +not supposed to be favorable to the enterprise, and who, during the +political contest of 1860, had been the chairman of the National +Breckinridge Committee. But such was his honor as a gentleman, and his +sense of the duty of subordination to the wishes of the Government, +that his personal courtesies and official aid were never wanting. He +received his mortal wound at Chantilly, Virginia, on the first of +September following, and a braver and abler officer has not fallen in +the service. + +Notwithstanding our work was commenced six weeks too late, and other +hindrances occurred, detailed in the second report of the agent, some +eight thousand acres of esculents,--a fair supply of food,--and some +four thousand five hundred acres of cotton (after a deduction for +over-estimates) were planted. This was done upon one hundred and +eighty-nine plantations, on which were nine thousand and fifty people, +of whom four thousand four hundred and twenty-nine were field-hands, +made up of men, women, and children, and equivalent, in the usual +classification and estimate of the productive capacity of laborers, to +three thousand eight hundred and five and one-half full hands. The +cotton-crop produced will not exceed sixty-five thousand pounds of +ginned cotton. Work enough was done to have produced five hundred +thousand pounds in ordinary times; but the immaturity of the pod, +resulting from the lateness of the planting, exposed it to the ravages +of the frost and the worm. Troops being ordered North, after the +disasters of the Peninsular campaign, Edisto was evacuated in the middle +of July, and thus one thousand acres of esculents, and nearly seven +hundred acres of cotton, the cultivation of which had been finished, +were abandoned. In the autumn, Major-General Mitchell required forty +tons of corn-fodder and seventy-eight thousand pounds of corn in the +ear, for army-forage. These are but some of the adverse influences to +which the agricultural operations were subjected. + +It is fitting here that I should bear my testimony to the +superintendents and teachers commissioned by the associations. There was +as high a purpose and devotion among them as in any colony that ever +went forth to bear the evangel of civilization. Among them were some of +the choicest young men of New England, fresh from Harvard, Yale, and +Brown, from the divinity-schools of Andover and Cambridge,--men of +practical talent and experience. There were some of whom the world was +scarce worthy, and to whom, whether they are among the living or the +dead, I delight to pay the tribute of my respect and admiration. + +Four of the original delegation have died. William S. Clark died at +Boston, April 25th, 1863, a consumptive when he entered on the work, +which he was obliged to leave six months before his death. He was a +faithful and conscientious teacher. Though so many months had passed +since he left these labors, their fascination was such that he dwelt +fondly upon them in his last days. + +The colony was first broken by the death of Francis E. Barnard, at St. +Helena Island, October 18th, 1862. He was devoted, enthusiastic,--and +though not fitted, as it at first appeared, for the practical duties of +a superintendent, yet even in this respect disappointing me entirely. He +was an evangelist, also, and he preached with more unction than any +other the gospel of freedom,--always, however, enforcing the duties of +industry and self-restraint. He was never sad, but always buoyant and +trustful. He and a comrade were the first to be separated from the +company, while at Hilton Head, and before the rest went to +Beaufort,--being assigned to Edisto, which had been occupied less than a +month, and was a remote and exposed point; but he went fearlessly and +without question. The evacuation of Edisto in July, the heat, and the +labor involved in bringing away and settling his people at the village +on St. Helena Island, a summer resort of the former residents, where +were some fifty vacant houses, were too much for him. His excessive +exertions brought on malarious fever. This produced an unnatural +excitement, and at mid-day, under a hot sun, he rode about to attend to +his people. He died,--men, women, and children, for whom he had toiled, +filling the house with their sobs during his departing hours. His +funeral was thronged by them, his coffin strewn with flowers which they +and his comrades had plucked, and then his remains were borne to his +native town, where burial-rites were again performed in the old church +of Dorchester. Read his published journal, and find how a noble youth +can live fourscore years in a little more than one score. One high +privilege was accorded to him. He lived to hear of the immortal edict of +the twenty-second of September, by which the freedom of his people was +to be secured for all time to come. + +Samuel D. Phillips was a young man of much religions feeling, though he +never advertised himself as having it, and a devout communicant of the +Episcopal Church. He was a gentleman born and bred, inheriting the +quality as well as adding to it by self-discipline. He had good +business-capacity, never complained of inconveniences, was humane, yet +not misled by sentiment, and he gave more of his time, otherwise +unoccupied, to teaching than almost any other superintendent. I was +recently asking the most advanced pupils of a school on St. Helena who +first taught them their letters, and the frequent answer was, "Mr. +Phillips." He was at home in the autumn for a vacation, was at the +funeral of Barnard in Dorchester, and though at the time in imperfect +health, he hastened back to his charge, feeling that the death of +Barnard, whose district was the same as his own, rendered his immediate +return necessary to the comfort of his people. He went,--but his health +never came back to him. His quarters were in the same house where +Barnard had died, and in a few days, on the 5th of December, he followed +him. He was tended in his sickness by the negroes, and one day, having +asked that his pillow might be turned, he uttered the words, "Thank +God," and died. There was the same grief as at Barnard's death, the same +funeral-rites at the St. Helena Church, and his remains were borne North +to bereaved relatives. + +Daniel Bowe was an alumnus of Yale College, and a student of the Andover +Theological Seminary, not yet graduated when he turned from his +professional studies at the summons of Christian duty. He labored +faithfully as a superintendent, looking after the physical, moral, and +educational interests of his people. He had a difficult post, was +overburdened with labor, and perhaps had not the faculty of taking as +good care of himself as was even consistent with his duties. He came +home in the summer, commended the enterprise and his people to the +citizens and students of Andover, and returned. He afterwards fell ill, +and, again coming North, died October 30th, a few days after reaching +New York. The young woman who was betrothed to him, but whom he did not +live to wed, has since his death sought this field of labor; and on my +recent visit I found her upon the plantation where he had resided, +teaching the children whom he had first taught, and whose parents he had +guided to freedom. Truly, the age of Christian romance has not passed +away! + + * * * * * + +On the first of July, 1862, the administration of affairs at Port Royal +having been transferred from the Treasury to the War Department, the +charge of the freedmen passed into the hands of Brigadier-General Rufus +Saxton, a native of Massachusetts, who in childhood had breathed the +free air of the valley of the Connecticut, a man of sincere and humane +nature; and under his wise and benevolent care they still remain. The +Sea Islands, and also Fernandina and St. Augustine in Florida, are +within our lines in the Department of the South, and some sixteen or +eighteen thousand negroes are supposed to be under his jurisdiction. + +The negroes of the Sea Islands, when found by us, had become an abject +race, more docile and submissive than those of any other locality. The +native African was of a fierce and mettlesome temper, sullen and +untamable. The master was obliged to abate something of the usual rigor +in dealing with the imported slaves. A tax-commissioner, now at Port +Royal, and formerly a resident of South Carolina, told me that a native +African belonging to his father, though a faithful man, would +perpetually insist on doing his work in his own way, and being asked the +threatening question, "A'n't you going to mind?" would answer, with +spirit, "No, a'n't gwine to!" and the master desisted! Severe discipline +drove the natives to the wilderness, or involved a mutilation of person +which destroyed their value for proprietary purposes. In 1816, eight +hundred of these refugees were living free in the swamps and everglades +of Florida. There the ancestors of some of them had lived ever since the +early part of the eighteenth century, rearing families, carrying on +farms, and raising cattle. They had two hundred and fifty men fit to +bear arms, led by chiefs brave and skilful. The story of the Exiles of +Florida is one of painful interest. The testimony of officers of the +army who served against them is, that they were more dangerous enemies +than the Indians, fighting the most skilfully and standing the longest. +The tax-commissioner before referred to, who was a resident of +Charleston during the trial and execution of the confederates of Denmark +Vesey, relates that one of the native Africans, when called to answer to +the charge against him, haughtily responded,--"_I was a prince in my +country, and have as much right to be free as you!_" The Carolinians +were so awe-struck by his defiance that they transported him. Another, +at the execution, turned indignantly to a comrade about to speak, and +said, "_Die silent, as I do!_" and the man hushed. The early newspapers +of Georgia recount the disturbances on the plantations occasioned by +these native Africans, and even by their children, being not until the +third generation reduced to obedient slaves. + +Nowhere has the deterioration of the negroes from their native manhood +been carried so far as on these Sea Islands,--a deterioration due to +their isolation from the excitements of more populous districts, the +constant surveillance of the overseers, and their intermarriage with +each other, involving a physical degeneracy with which inexorable Nature +punishes disobedience to her laws. The population with its natural +increase was sufficient for the cultivation of the soil under existing +modes, and therefore no fresh blood was admitted, such as is found +pouring from the Border States into the sugar and cotton regions of the +Southwest. This unmanning and depravation of the native character had +been carried so far, that the special agent, on his first exploration, +in January, 1862, was obliged to confess the existence of a general +disinclination to military service on the part of the negroes; though it +is true that even then instances of courage and adventure appeared, +which indicated that the more manly feeling was only latent, to be +developed under the inspiration of events. And so, let us rejoice, it +has been. You may think yourself wise, as you note the docility of a +subject race; but in vain will you attempt to study it until the burden +is lifted. The slave is unknown to all, even to himself, while the +bondage lasts. Nature is ever a kind mother. She soothes us with her +deceits, not in surgery alone, when the sufferer, else writhing in pain, +is transported with the sweet delirium, but she withholds from the +spirit the sight of her divinity until her opportunity has come. Not +even Tocqueville or Olmsted, much less the master, can measure the +capacities and possibilities of the slave, until the slave himself is +transmuted to a man. + + * * * * * + +My recent visit to Port Royal extended from March 25th to May 10th. It +was pleasant to meet the first colonists, who still toiled at their +posts, and specially grateful to receive the welcome of the freedmen, +and to note the progress they had made. There were interesting scenes to +fill the days. I saw an aged negro, Cæsar by name, not less than one +hundred years old, who had left children in Africa, when stolen away. +The vicissitudes of such a life were striking,--a free savage in the +wilds of his native land, a prisoner on a slave-ship, then for long +years a toiling slave, now again a freeman under the benign edict of the +President,--his life covering an historic century. A faithful and +industrious negro, Old Simon, as we called him, hearing of my arrival, +rode over to see me, and brought me a present of two or three quarts of +pea-nuts and some seventeen eggs. I had an interview with Don Carlos, +whom I had seen in May, 1862, at Edisto, the faithful attendant upon +Barnard, and who had been both with him and Phillips during their last +hours,--now not less than seventy years of age, and early in life a +slave in the Alston family, where he had known Theodosia Burr, the +daughter of Aaron Burr, and wife of Governor Alston. He talked +intelligently upon her personal history and her mysterious fate. He had +known John Pierpont, when a teacher in the family of Colonel Alston, and +accompanying the sons on their way North to college after the completion +of their preparatory studies. Pierpont was a classmate of John C. +Calhoum at Yale College, and, upon graduating, went South as a private +tutor. + +Aunt Phillis was not likely to be overlooked,--an old woman, with much +power of expression, living on the plantation where my quarters had +formerly been. The attack on Charleston was going on, and she said, "If +you're as long beating Secesh everywhere as you have been in taking the +town, guess it'll take you some time!" Indeed, the negroes had somewhat +less confidence in our power than at first, on account of our not having +followed up the capture of Bay Point and Hilton Head. The same quaint +old creature, speaking of the disregard of the masters for the feelings +of the slaves, said, with much emphasis, "They thought God was dead!" + +I visited Barnwell Island, the only plantation upon which is that of +Trescot, formerly Secretary of Legation at London, a visit to whom +Russell describes in his "Diary." But the mansion is not now as when +Russell saw it. Its large library is deposited in the Smithsonian +Institution at Washington. Its spacious rooms in the first and second +stories, together with the attics, are all filled with the families of +negro refugees. From this point, looking across the water, we could see +a cavalry-picket of the Rebels. The superintendent who had charge of the +plantation, and accompanied me, was Charles Follen, an inherited name, +linked with the struggles for freedom in both hemispheres. + +The negro graveyards occasionally attracted me from the road. They are +usually in an open field, under a clump of some dozen or twenty trees, +perhaps live-oaks, and not fenced. There may be fifty or a hundred +graves, marked only by sticks eighteen inches or two feet high and about +as large as the wrist. Mr. Olmsted saw some stones in a negro graveyard +at Savannah, erected by the slaves, and bearing rather illiterate +inscriptions; but I never succeeded in finding any but wooden memorials, +not even at Beaufort. Only in one case could I find an inscription, and +that was in a burial-place on Ladies Island. There was a board at the +head of the grave, shaped something like an ordinary gravestone, about +three feet high and six inches wide. The inscription was as follows:-- + + OLd Jiw + de PArt his + Life on the + 2 of WAY + Re st frow + LAuer + +On the foot-board were these words:-- + + We ll + d OW N. + +The rude artist was Kit, the son of the old man. He can read, and also +write a little, and, like his deceased father, is a negro preacher. He +said that he used to carry his father in his arms in his old age,--that +the old man had no pain, and, as the son expressed it, "sunk in years." +I inquired of Kit concerning several of the graves; and I found, by his +intelligent answers, that their tenants were disposed in families and +were known. These lowly burial-places, for which art has done nothing, +are not without a fascination, and in some hours of life they take a +faster hold on the sentiments than more imposing cemeteries, adorned +with shafts of marble and granite, and rich in illustrious dead. + +There were some superstitions among the people, perhaps of African +origin, which the teachers had detected, such as a belief in hags as +evil spirits, and in a kind of witchcraft which only certain persons can +cure. They have a superstition, that, when you take up and remove a +sleeping child, you must call its spirit, else it will cry, on awaking, +until you have taken it back to the same place and invoked its spirit. +They believe that turning an alligator on his back will bring rain; and +they will not talk about one when in a boat, lest a storm should thereby +be brought on. + +But the features in the present condition of the freedmen bearing +directly on the solution of the social problem deserve most +consideration. + +And, first, as to _education_. There are more than thirty schools in the +territory, conducted by as many as forty or forty-five teachers, who are +commissioned by the three associations in Boston, New York, and +Philadelphia, and by the American Missionary Association. They have an +average attendance of two thousand pupils, and are more or less +frequented by an additional thousand. The ages of the scholars range in +the main from eight to twelve years. They did not know even their +letters prior to a year ago last March, except those who were being +taught in the single school at Beaufort already referred to, which had +been going on for a few weeks. Very many did not have the opportunity +for instruction till weeks and even months after. During the spring and +summer of 1862 there were not more than a dozen schools, and these were +much interrupted by the heat, and by the necessity of assigning at times +some of the teachers to act as superintendents. Teachers came for a +brief time, and upon its expiration, or for other cause, returned home, +leaving the schools to be broken up. It was not until October or +November that the educational arrangements were put into much shape; and +they are still but imperfectly organized. In some localities there is as +yet no teacher, and this because the associations have not had the funds +wherewith to provide one. + +I visited ten of the schools, and conversed with the teachers of others. +There were, it may be noted, some mixed bloods in the schools of the +town of Beaufort,--ten in a school of ninety, thirteen in another of +sixty-four, and twenty in another of seventy. In the schools on the +plantations there were never more than half a dozen in one school, in +some cases but two or three, and in others none. + +The advanced classes were reading simple stories and didactic passages +in the ordinary school-books, as Hillard's Second Primary Reader, +Willson's Second Reader, and others of similar grade. Those who had +enjoyed a briefer period of instruction were reading short sentences or +learning the alphabet. In several of this schools a class was engaged on +an elementary lesson in arithmetic, geography, or writing. The eagerness +for knowledge and the facility of acquisition displayed in the beginning +had not abated. + +On the 25th of March I visited a school at the Central Baptist Church on +St. Helena Island, built in 1855, shaded by lofty live-oak trees, with +the long, pendulous moss everywhere hanging from their wide-spreading +branches, and surrounded by the gravestones of the former proprietors, +which bear the ever-recurring names of Fripp and Chaplin. This school +was opened in September last, but many of the pupils had received some +instruction before. One hundred and thirty-one children were present on +my first visit, and one hundred and forty-five on my second, which was a +few days later. Like most of the schools on the plantations, it opened +at noon and closed at three o'clock, leaving the forenoon for the +children to work in the field or perform other service in which they +could be useful. One class, of twelve pupils, read page 70th in +Willson's Reader, on "Going Away." They had not read the passage before, +and they went through it with little spelling or hesitation. They had +recited the first thirty pages of Towle's Speller, and the +multiplication-table as high as fives, and were commencing the sixes. A +few of the scholars, the youngest, or those who had come latest to the +school, were learning the alphabet. At the close of the school, they +recited in concert the Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd," requiring +prompting at the beginning of some of the verses. They sang with much +spirit hymns which had been taught them by the teachers, as,-- + + "My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty"; + +also,-- + + "Sound the loud timbrel"; + +also, Whittier's new song, written expressly for this school, the +closing stanzas of which are,-- + + "The very oaks are greener clad, + The waters brighter smile; + Oh, never shone a day so glad + On sweet St. Helen's Isle! + + "For none in all the world before + Were ever glad as we,-- + We're free on Carolina's shore, + We're all at home and free!" + +Never has that pure Muse, which has sung only of truth and right, as the +highest beauty and noblest art, been consecrated to a better service +than to write the songs of praise for these little children, chattels no +longer, whom the Saviour, were he now to walk on earth, would bless as +his own. + +The prevalent song, however, heard in every school, in church, and by +the way-side, is that of "John Brown," which very much amuses our white +soldiers, particularly when the singers roll out,-- + + "We'll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree!" + +The children also sang their own songs, as,-- + + "In de morning' when I rise, + Tell my Jesus. Huddy oh?[A] + In de mornin' when I rise, + Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh? + + "I wash my hands in de mornin' glory, + Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh? + I wash my hands in de mornin' glory, + Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh? + + "Pray, Tony, pray, boy, you got de order, + Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh? + Pray, Tony, pray, boy, you got de order, + Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh? + + "Pray, Rosy, pray, gal," etc. + +[Footnote A: How d' y' do?] + +Also,-- + + "I would not let you go, my Lord, + I would not let you go, + I would not let you go, my Lord, + I would not let you go. + + "Dere's room enough, dere's room enough, + Dere's room enough in de heab'nly groun', + Dere's room enough, dere's room enough, + I can't stay behin'. + + "I can't stay behin', my Lord, + I can't stay behin', + I can't stay behin', my Lord, + I can't stay behin'. + + "De angels march all roun' de trone, + De angels march all roun' de trone, + De angels march all roun' de trone, + I can't stay behin'. + + "I can't stay behin', my Lord. + I can't stay behin', + I can't stay behin', my Lord, + I can't stay behin'. + + "Dere's room enough," etc. + +Other songs of the negroes are common, as, "The Wrestling Jacob," "Down +in the lonesome valley," "Roll, Jordan, roll," "Heab'n shall-a be my +home." Russell's "Diary" gives an account of these songs, as he heard +them in his evening row over Broad River, on his way to Trescot's +estate. + +One of the teachers of this school is an accomplished woman from +Philadelphia. Another is from Newport, Rhode Island, where she had +prepared herself for this work by benevolent labors in teaching poor +children. The third is a young woman of African descent, of olive +complexion, finely cultured, and attuned to all beautiful sympathies, of +gentle address, and, what was specially noticeable, not possessed with +an overwrought consciousness of her race. She had read the best books, +and naturally and gracefully enriched her conversation with them. She +had enjoyed the friendship of Whittier; had been a pupil in the +Grammar-School of Salem, then in the State Normal School in that city, +then a teacher in one of the schools for white children, where she had +received only the kindest treatment both from the pupils and their +parents,--and let this be spoken to the honor of that ancient town. She +had refused a residence in Europe, where a better social life and less +unpleasant discrimination awaited her, for she would not dissever +herself from the fortunes of her people; and now, not with a superficial +sentiment, but with a profound purpose, she devotes herself to their +elevation. + +At Coffin Point, on St. Helena Island, I visited a school kept by a +young woman from the town of Milton, Massachusetts, "the child of +parents passed into the skies," whose lives have both been written for +the edification of the Christian world. She teaches two schools, at +different hours in the afternoon, and with different scholars in each. +One class had read through Hillard's Second Primary Reader, and were on +a review, reading Lessons 19, 20, and 21, while I was present. Being +questioned as to the subjects of the lessons, they answered +intelligently. They recited the twos of the multiplication-table, +explained numeral letters and figures on the blackboard, and wrote +letters and figures on slates. Another teacher in the adjoining +district, a graduate of Harvard, and the son of a well-known Unitarian +clergyman of Providence, Rhode Island, has two schools, in one of which +a class of three pupils was about finishing Ellsworth's First +Progressive Reader, and another, of seven pupils, had just finished +Hillard's Second Primary Header. Another teacher, from Cambridge, +Massachusetts, on the same island, numbers one hundred pupils in his two +schools. He exercises a class in elocution, requiring the same sentence +to be repeated with different tones and inflections, and one could not +but remark the excellent imitations. + +In a school at St. Helena village, where were collected the Edisto +refugees, ninety-two pupils were present as I went in. Two ladies were +engaged in teaching, assisted by Ned Loyd White, a colored man, who had +picked up clandestinely a knowledge of reading while still a slave. One +class of boys and another of girls read in the seventh chapter of St. +John, having begun this Gospel and gone thus far. They stumbled a little +on words like "unrighteousness" and "circumcision"; otherwise they got +along very well. When the Edisto refugees were brought here, in July, +1862, Ned, who is about forty or forty-five years old, and Uncle Cyrus, +a man of seventy, who also could read, gathered one hundred and fifty +children into two schools, and taught them as best they could for five +months until teachers were provided by the societies. Ned has since +received a donation from one of the societies, and is now regularly +employed on a salary. A woman comes to one of the teachers of this +school for instruction in the evening, after she has put her children to +bed. She had become interested in learning by hearing her younger sister +read when she came home from school; and when she asked to be taught, +she had learned from this sister the alphabet and some words of one +syllable. Only a small proportion of the adults are, however, learning. + +On the 8th of April, I visited a school on Ladies Island, kept in a +small church on the Eustis estate, and taught by a young woman from +Kingston, Massachusetts. She had manifested much persistence in going to +this field, went with the first delegation, and still keeps the school +which she opened in March, 1862. She taught the pupils their letters. +Sixty-six were present on the day of my visit. A class of ten pupils +read the story which commences on page 86th of Hillard's Second Primary +Reader. One girl, Elsie, a full black, and rather ungainly withal, read +so rapidly that she had to be checked,--the only case of such fast +reading that I found. She assisted the teacher by taking the beginners +to a corner of the room and exercising them upon an alphabet card, +requiring them to give the names of letters taken out of their regular +order, and with the letters making words, which they were expected to +repeat after her. One class recited in Eaton's First Lessons in +Arithmetic; and two or three scholars with a rod pointed out the states, +lakes, and large rivers on the map of the United States, and also the +different continents on the map of the world, as they were called. I saw +the teacher of this school at her residence, late in the afternoon, +giving familiar instruction to some ten boys and girls, all but two +being under twelve years, who read the twenty-first chapter of the Book +of Revelation, and the story of Lazarus in the eleventh chapter of St. +John. Elsie was one of these. Seeing me taking notes, she looked archly +at the teacher, and whispered,--"he's putting me in the book"; and as +Elsie guessed, so I do. The teacher was instructing her pupils in some +dates and facts which have had much to do with our history. The +questions and answers, in which all the pupils joined, were these:-- + +"Where were slaves first brought to this country?" + +"Virginia." + +"When?" + +"1620." + +"Who brought them?" + +"Dutchmen." + +"Who came the same year to Plymouth, Massachusetts?" + +"Pilgrims." + +"Did they bring slaves?" + +"No." + +A teacher in Beaufort put these questions, to which answers were given +in a loud tone by the whole school:-- + +"What country do you live in?" + +"United States." + +"What State?" + +"South Carolina." + +"What island?" + +"Port Royal." + +"What town?" + +"Beaufort." + +"Who is your Governor?" + +"General Saxton." + +"Who is your President?" + +"Abraham Lincoln." + +"What has he done for you?" + +"He's freed us." + +There were four schools in the town of Beaufort, all of which I visited, +each having an average attendance of from sixty to ninety pupils, and +each provided with two teachers. In some of them writing was taught. But +it is unnecessary to describe them, as they were very much like the +others. There is, besides, at Beaufort an industrial school, which meets +two afternoons in a week, and is conducted by a lady from New York, with +some dozen ladies to assist her. There were present, the afternoon I +visited it, one hundred and thirteen girls from six to twenty years of +age, all plying the needle, some with pieces of patchwork, and others +with aprons, pillow-cases, or handkerchiefs. + +Though I have never been on the school-committee, I accepted invitations +to address the schools on these visits, and particularly plied the +pupils with questions, so as to catch the tone of their minds; and I +have rarely heard children answer with more readiness and spirit. We had +a dialogue substantially as follows:-- + +"Children, what are you going to do when you grow up?" + +"Going to work, Sir." + +"On what?" + +"Cotton and corn, Sir." + +"What are you going to do with the corn?" + +"Eat it." + +"What are you going to do with the cotton?" + +"Sell it." + +"What are you going to do with the money you get for it?" + +One boy answered in advance of the rest,-- + +"Put it in my pocket, Sir." + +"That won't do. What's better than that?" + +"Buy clothes, Sir." + +"What else will you buy?" + +"Shoes, Sir." + +"What else are you going to do with your money?" + +There was some hesitation at this point. Then the question was put,-- + +"What are you going to do Sundays?" + +"Going to meeting." + +"What are you going to do there?" + +"Going to sing." + +"What else?" + +"Hear the parson." + +"Who's going to pay him?" + +One boy said,--"Government pays him"; but the rest answered,-- + +"We's pays him." + +"Well, when you grow up, you'll probably get married, as other people +do, and you'll have your little children; now, what will you do with +them?" + +There was a titter at this question; but the general response came,-- + +"Send 'em to school, Sir." + +"Well, who'll pay the teacher?" + +"We's pays him." + +One who listens to such answers can hardly think that there is any +natural incapacity in these children to acquire with maturity of years +the ideas and habits of good citizens. + +The children are cheerful, and, in most of the schools, well-behaved, +except that it is not easy to keep them from whispering and talking. +They are joyous, and you can see the boys after school playing the +soldier, with corn-stalks for guns. The memory is very susceptible in +them,--too much so, perhaps, as it is ahead of the reasoning faculty. + +The labor of the season has interrupted attendance on the schools, the +parents being desirous of having the children aid them in planting and +cultivating their crops, and it not being thought best to allow the +teaching to interfere in any way with industrious habits. + +A few freedmen, who had picked up an imperfect knowledge of reading, +have assisted our teachers, though a want of proper training materially +detracts from their usefulness in this respect. Ned and Uncle Cyrus have +already been mentioned. The latter, a man of earnest piety, has died +since my visit. Anthony kept four schools on Hilton Head Island last +summer and autumn, being paid at first by the superintendents, and +afterwards by the negroes themselves; but in November he enlisted in the +negro regiment. Hettie was another of these. She assisted Barnard at +Edisto last spring, continued to teach after the Edisto people were +brought to St. Helena village, and one day brought some of her pupils to +the school at the Baptist Church, saying to the teachers there that she +could carry them no farther. They could read their letters and words of +one syllable. Hettie had belonged to a planter on Wadmelaw Island, a +kind old gentleman, a native of Rhode Island, and about the only citizen +of Charleston who, when Samuel Hoar went on his mission to South +Carolina, stood up boldly for his official and personal protection. +Hettie had been taught to read by his daughter; and let this be +remembered to the honor of the young woman. + +Such are the general features of the schools as they met my eye. The +most advanced classes, and these are but little ahead of the rest, can +read simple stories and the plainer passages of Scripture; and they +could even pursue self-instruction, if the schools were to be suspended. +The knowledge they have thus gained can never be extirpated. They could +read with much profit a newspaper specially prepared for them and +adapted to their condition. They are learning that the world is not +bounded north by Charleston, south by Savannah, west by Columbia, and +east by the sea, with dim visions of New York on this planet or some +other,--about their conception of geography when we found them. They are +acquiring the knowledge of figures with which to do the business of +life. They are singing the songs of freemen. Visit their schools; +remember that a little more than a twelve-month ago they knew not a +letter, and that for generations it has been a crime to teach their +race; then contemplate what is now transpiring, and you have a scene +which prophets and sages would have delighted to witness. It will be +difficult to find equal progress in an equal period since the morning +rays of Christian truth first lighted the hill-sides of Judea. I have +never looked on St. Peter's, or beheld the glories of art which Michel +Angelo has wrought or traced; but to my mind the spectacle of those poor +souls struggling in darkness and bewilderment to catch the gleams of the +upper and better light transcends in moral grandeur anything that has +ever come from mortal hands. + + * * * * * + +Next as to _industry_. The laborers, during their first year under the +new system, have acquired the idea of ownership, and of the security of +wages, and have come to see that labor and slavery are not the same +thing. The notion that they were to raise no more cotton has passed +away, since work upon it is found to be remunerative, and connected with +the proprietorship of land. House-servants, who were at first +particularly set against it, now generally prefer it. The laborers have +collected the pieces of the gins which they destroyed on the flight of +their masters, the ginning being obnoxious work, repaired them, and +ginned the cotton on the promise of wages. Except upon plantations in +the vicinity of camps, where other labor is more immediately +remunerative, and an unhealthy excitement prevails, there is a general +disposition to cultivate it. The culture of the cotton is voluntary, the +only penalty for not engaging in it being the imposition of a rent for +the tenement and land adjacent thereto occupied by the negro, not +exceeding two dollars per month. Both the Government and private +individuals, who have become owners of one-fourth of the land by the +recent tax-sales, pay twenty-five cents for a standard day's-work, which +may, by beginning early, be performed by a healthy and active hand by +noon; and the same was the case with the tasks under the slave-system on +very many of the plantations. As I was riding through one of Mr. +Philbrick's fields one morning, I counted fifty persons at work who +belonged to one plantation. This gentleman, who went out with the first +delegation, and at the same time gave largely to the benevolent +contributions for the enterprise, was the leading purchaser at the +tax-sales, and combining a fine humanity with honest sagacity and close +calculation, no man is so well fitted to try the experiment. He bought +thirteen plantations, and on these has had planted and cultivated eight +hundred and sixteen acres of cotton where four hundred and ninety-nine +and one twelve-hundredth acres were cultivated last year,--a larger +increase, however, than will generally be found in other districts, due +mainly to prompter payments. The general superintendent of Port Royal +Wand said to me,--"We have to restrain rather than to encourage the +negroes to take land for cotton." The general superintendent of Hilton +Head Island said, that on that island the negroes had, besides adequate +corn, taken two, three, and in a few cases four acres of cotton to a +hand, and there was a general disposition to cultivate it, except near +the camps. A superintendent on St. Helena Island said, that, if he were +going to carry on any work, he should not want bettor laborers. He had +charge of the refugees from Edisto, who had been brought to St. Helena +village, and who had cleared and fenced patches for gardens, felling the +trees for that purpose. + +The laborers do less work, perhaps, than a Yankee would think they might +do; but they do about as much as he himself would do, after a residence +of a few years in the same climate, and when he had ceased to work under +the influence of Northern habits. Northern men have sometimes been +unjust to the South, when comparing the results of labor in the +different sections. God never intended that a man should toil under a +tropical sun with the same energy and constancy as in our bracing +latitude. There has been less complaint this year than last of "a pain +in the small of the back," or of "a fever in the head,"--in other words, +less _shamming_. The work has been greatly deranged by the draft, some +features of which have not been very skilfully arranged, and by the +fitfulness with which the laborers have been treated by the military +authorities. The work both upon the cotton and the corn is done only by +the women, children, and disabled men. It has been suggested that +field-work does not become women in the new condition; and so it may +seem to some persons of just sympathies who have not yet learned that no +honest work is dishonorable in man or woman. But this matter may be left +to regulate itself. Field-work, as an occupation, may not be consistent +with the finest feminine culture or the most complete womanliness; but +it in no way conflicts with virtue, self-respect, and social +development. Women work in the field in Switzerland, the freest country +of Europe; and we may look with pride on the triumphs of this +generation, when the American negroes become the peers of the Swiss +peasantry. Better a woman with the hoe than without it, when she is not +yet fitted for the needle or the book. + +The negroes were also showing their capacity to organize labor and apply +capital to it. Harry, to whom I referred in my second report, as "my +faithful guide and attendant, who had done for me more service than any +white man could render," with funds of his own, and some borrowed money, +bought at the recent tax-sales a small farm of three hundred and +thirteen acres for three hundred and five dollars. He was to plant +sixteen and a half acres of cotton, twelve and a half of corn, and one +and a half of potatoes. I rode through his farm on the 10th of April, my +last day in the territory, and one-third of his crop was then in. +Besides some servant's duty to an officer, for which he is well paid, he +does the work of a full hand on his place. He hires one woman and two +men, one of the latter being old and only a three-quarters hand. He has +two daughters, sixteen and seventeen years of age, one of whom is +likewise only a three-quarters hand. His wife works also, of whom he +said, "She's the best hand I got"; and if Celia is only as smart with +her hoe as I know her to be with her tongue, Harry's estimate must be +right. He has a horse twenty-five years old and blind in both eyes, whom +he guides with a rope,--carrying on farming, I thought, somewhat under +difficulties. Harry lives in the house of the former overseer, and +delights, though not boastingly, in his position as a landed proprietor. +He has promised to write me, or rather dictate a letter, giving an +account of the progress of his crop. He has had much charge of +Government property, and when Captain Hooper, of General Saxton's staff, +was coming North last autumn, Harry proposed to accompany him; but at +last, of his own accord, gave up the project, saying, "It'll not do for +all two to leave together." + +Another case of capacity for organization should be noted. The +Government is building twenty-one houses for the Edisto people, eighteen +feet by fourteen, with two rooms, each provided with a swinging +board-window, and the roof projecting a little as a protection from +rain. The journey-carpenters are seventeen colored men, who have fifty +cents per day without rations, working ten hours. They are under the +direction of Frank Barnwell, a freedman, who receives twenty dollars a +month. Rarely have I talked with a more intelligent contractor. It was +my great regret that I had not time to visit the village of improved +houses near the Hilton Head camp, which General Mitchell had +extemporized, and to which he gave so much of the noble enthusiasm of +his last days. + + * * * * * + +Next as to the _development of manhood_. This has been shown, in the +first place, in the prevalent disposition to acquire land. It did not +appear upon our first introduction to these people, and they did not +seem to understand us when we used to tell them that we wanted them to +own land. But it is now an active desire. At the recent tax-sales, six +out of forty-seven plantations sold were bought by them, comprising two +thousand five hundred and ninety-five acres, sold for twenty-one hundred +and forty-five dollars. In other cases the negroes had authorized the +superintendent to bid for them, but the land was reserved by the United +States. One of the purchases was that made by Harry, noted above. The +other five were made by the negroes on the plantations combining the +funds they had saved from the sale of their pigs, chickens, and eggs, +and from the payments made to them for work,--they then dividing off the +tract peaceably among themselves. On one of these, where Kit, before +mentioned, is the leading spirit, there are twenty-three field-hands, +who are equivalent to eighteen full hands. They have planted and are +cultivating sixty-three acres of cotton, fifty of corn, six of potatoes, +with as many more to be planted, four and a half of cow-peas, three of +pea-nuts, and one and a half of rice. These facts are most significant. +The instinct for land--to have one spot on earth where a man may stand, +and whence no human being can of right drive him--is one of the most +conservative elements of our nature; and a people who have it in any +fair degree will never be nomads or vagabonds. + +This developing manhood is further seen in their growing consciousness +of rights, and their readiness to defend themselves, even when assailed +by white men. The former slaves of a planter, now at Beaufort, who was a +resident of New York when the war broke out, have generally left the +plantation, suspicious of his presence, saying that they will not be his +bondmen, and fearing that in some way he may hold them, if they remain +on it. A remarkable case of the assertion of rights occurred one day +during my visit. Two white soldiers, with a corporal, went on Sunday to +Coosaw Island, where one of the soldiers, having a gun, shot a chicken +belonging to a negro. The negroes rushed out and wrested the gun from +the corporal, to whom the soldier had handed it, thinking that the +negroes would not take it from an officer. They then carried it to the +superintendent, who took it to head-quarters, where an order was given +for the arrest of the trespasser. Other instances might be added, but +these are sufficient. + +Another evidence of developing manhood appears in their desire for the +comforts and conveniences of household life. The Philadelphia society, +for the purpose of maintaining reasonable prices, has a store on St. +Helena Island, which is under the charge of Friend Hunn, of the good +fellowship of William Penn. He was once fined in Delaware three thousand +dollars for harboring and assisting fugitive slaves; but he now harbors +and assists them at a much cheaper rate. Though belonging to a society +which is the advocate of peace, his tone is quite as warlike as that of +the world's people. In this store alone--and there are others on the +island, carried on by private enterprise--two thousand dollars' worth of +goods are sold monthly. To be sure, a rather large proportion of these +consists of molasses and sugar, "sweetening," as the negroes call it, +being in great demand, and four barrels of molasses having been sold the +day of my visit. But there is also a great demand for plates, knives, +forks, tin ware, and better clothing, including even hoop-skirts. +Negro-cloth, as it is called, osnaburgs, russet-colored shoes,--in +short, the distinctive apparel formerly dealt out to them, as a uniform +allowance,--are very generally rejected. But there is no article of +household-furniture or wearing apparel, used by persons of moderate +means among us, which they will not purchase, when they are allowed the +opportunity of labor and earning wages. What a market the South would +open under the new system! It would set all the mills and workshops +astir. Four millions of people would become purchasers of all the +various articles of manufacture and commerce, in place of the few +coarse, simple necessaries, laid in for them in gross by the planters. +Here is the solution of the vexed industrial question. The indisposition +to labor is overcome in a healthy nature by instincts and motives of +superior force, such as the love of life, the desire to be well clothed +and fed, the sense of security derived from provision for the future, +the feeling of self-respect, the love of family and children, and the +convictions of duty. These all exist in the negro, in a state of greater +or less development. To give one or two examples. One man brought +Captain Hooper seventy dollars in silver, to keep for him, which he had +obtained from selling pigs and chickens,--thus providing for the future. +Soldiers of Colonel Higginson's regiment, having confidence in the same +officer, intrusted him, when they were paid off, with seven hundred +dollars, to be transmitted by him to their wives, and this besides what +they had sent home in other ways,--showing the family-feeling to be +active and strong in them. They have also the social and religious +inspirations to labor. Thus, early in our occupation of Hilton Head, +they took up, of their own accord, a collection to pay for the candles +for their evening meetings, feeling that it was not right for the +Government longer to provide them. The result was a contribution of two +dollars and forty-eight cents. They had just fled from their masters, +and had received only a small pittance of wages, and this little sum was +not unlike the two mites which the widow cast into the treasury. Another +collection was taken, last June, in the church on St. Helena Island, +upon the suggestion of the pastor that they should share in the expenses +of worship. Fifty-two dollars was the result,--not a bad collection for +some of our Northern churches. I have seen these people where they are +said to be lowest, and sad indeed are some features of their lot, yet +with all earnestness and confidence I enter my protest against the +wicked satire of Carlyle. + +Is there not here some solution of the question of prejudice or caste +which has troubled so many good minds? When these people can no longer +be used as slaves, men will try to see how they can make the most out of +them as freemen. Your Irishman, who now works as a day-laborer, honestly +thinks that he hates the negro; but when the war is over, he will have +no objection to going South and selling him groceries and +household-implements at fifty per cent. advance on New-York prices, or +to hiring him to raise cotton for twenty-five or fifty cents a day. Our +prejudices, under any reasonable adjustment of the social system, +readily accommodate themselves to our interests, even without much aid +from the moral sentiments. + +Let those who would study well this social question, or who in public +trusts are charged with its solution, be most careful here. Every motive +in the minds of these people, whether of instinct, desire, or duty, must +be addressed. All the elements of human nature must be appealed to, +physical, moral, intellectual, social, and religious. Imperfect indeed +is any system which, like that at New Orleans, offers wages, but does +not welcome the teacher. It is of little moment whether three dollars or +thirty per month be paid the laborer, so long as there is no school to +bind both parent and child to civil society with new hopes and duties. + +There are some vices charged upon these people, or a portion of them, +and truth requires that nothing be withheld. There is said to be a good +deal of petty pilfering among them, although they are faithful to +trusts. This is the natural growth of the old system, and is quite +likely to accompany the transition-state. Besides, the present +disturbed and unorganized condition of things is not favorable to the +rigid virtues. But inferences from this must not be pressed too far. +When I was a private soldier in Virginia, as one of a three-months' +regiment, we used to bide from each other our little comforts and +delicacies, even our dishes and clothing, or they were sure to +disappear. But we should have ridiculed an adventurous thinker upon the +characteristics of races and classes, who should have leaped therefrom +to the conclusion that all white men or all soldiers are thieves. And +what inferences might not one draw, discreditable to all traders and +manufacturers, from the universal adulteration of articles of food! +These people, it is said, are disposed to falsehood in order to get +rations and small benefits,--a natural vice which comes with slavery, +and too often attends on poverty without slavery. Those of most +demonstrative piety are rarely better than the rest, not, indeed, +hypocritical, but satisfying their consciences by self-depreciation and +indulgence in emotion,--psychological manifestations which one may find +in more advanced communities. They show no special gratitude to us for +liberating them from bonds. Nor do they ordinarily display much +exhilaration over their new condition,--being quite unlike the Italian +revolutionist who used to put on his toga, walk in the forum, and +personate Brutus and Cassius. Their appreciation of their better lot is +chiefly seen in their dread of a return of their masters, in their +excitement when an attack is feared, in their anxious questionings while +the assault on Charleston was going on, and in their desire to get their +friends and relatives away from the Rebels,--an appreciation of freedom, +if not ostentatious, at least sensible. + +But away with such frivolous modes of dealing with the rights of races +to self-development! Because Englishmen may be classified as hard and +conceited, Frenchmen as capricious, Austrians as dull, and the people of +one other nation are sometimes thought to be vainglorious, shall these +therefore be slaves? And where is that model race which shall sway them +all? A people may have grave defects, but it may not therefore be +rightfully disabled. + + * * * * * + +During my recent visit, I had an opportunity, on three different +occasions, to note carefully Colonel T.W. Higginson's colored regiment, +known as the First Regiment of South-Carolina Volunteers. Major-General +Hunter's first regiment was mainly made up of conscripts, drafted May +12th, 1862, and disbanded August 11th, three months afterwards, there +being no funds wherewith to pay them, and the discharged men going home +to find the cotton and corn they had planted overgrown with weeds. On +the 10th of October, General Saxton, being provided with competent +authority to raise five thousand colored troops, began to recruit a +regiment. His authority from the War Department bore date August 25th, +and the order conferring it states the object to be "to guard the +plantations, and protect the inhabitants from captivity and murder." +This was the first clear authority ever given by the Government to raise +a negro regiment in this war. There were, indeed, some ambiguous words +in the instructions of Secretary Cameron to General Sherman, when the +original expedition went to Port Royal, authorizing him to organize the +negroes into companies and squads for such services as they might be +fitted for, but this not to mean a general arming for military service. +Secretary Stanton, though furnishing muskets and red trousers to General +Hunter's regiment, did not think the authority sufficient to justify the +payment of the regiment. The first regiment, as raised by General +Saxton, numbered four hundred and ninety-nine men when Colonel Higginson +took command of it on the 1st of December; and on the 19th of January, +1863, it had increased to eight hundred and forty-nine. It has made +three expeditions to Florida and Georgia,--one before Colonel Higginson +assumed the command, described in Mrs. Stowe's letter to the women of +England, and two under Colonel Higginson, one of which was made in +January up the St. Mary's, and the other in March to Jacksonville, which +it occupied for a few days until an evacuation was ordered from +head-quarters. The men are volunteers, having been led to enlist by duty +to their race, to their kindred still in bonds, and to us, their allies. +Their drill is good, and their time excellent. They have borne +themselves well in their expeditions, quite equalling the white +regiments in skirmishing. In _morale_ they seemed very much like white +men, and with about the same proportion of good and indifferent +soldiers. Some I saw of the finest metal, like Robert Sutton, whom +Higginson describes in his report as "the real conductor of the whole +expedition at the St. Mary's," and Sergeant Hodges, a master-carpenter, +capable of directing the labors of numerous journeymen. Another said, +addressing a meeting at Beaufort, that he had been restless, nights, +thinking of the war and of his people,--that, when he heard of the +regiment being formed, he felt that his time to act had come, and that +it was his duty to enlist,--that he did not fight for his rations and +pay, but for wife, children, and people. + +These men, as already intimated, are very much like other men, easily +depressed, and as easily reanimated by words of encouragement. Many have +been reluctant to engage in military service,--their imagination +investing it with the terrors of instant and certain death. But this +reluctance has passed away with participation in active service, with +the adventure and inspiration of a soldier's life, and the latent +manhood has recovered its rightful sway. Said a superintendent who was +of the first delegation to Tort Royal in March, 1862,--a truthful man, +and not given to rose-colored views,--"I did not have faith in arming +negroes, when I visited the North last autumn, but I have now. They will +be not mere machines, but real tigers, when aroused; and I should not +wish to face them." One amusing incident may be mentioned. A man +deserted from the regiment, was discovered hidden in a chimney in the +district where he had lived, was taken back to camp, went to Florida in +Higginson's first expedition, bore his part well in the skirmishes, +became excited with the service, was made a sergeant, and, receiving a +furlough on his return, went to the plantation where he had hid, and +said he would not take five thousand dollars for his place. + +But more significant, as showing the success of the experiment, is the +change of feeling among the white soldiers towards the negro regiment, a +change due in part to the just policy of General Saxton, in part to the +President's Proclamation of January 1st, which has done much to clear +the atmosphere everywhere within the army-lines, but more than all to +the soldierly conduct of the negroes themselves during their +expeditions. I had one excellent opportunity to note this change. On the +6th of April, Colonel Higginson's regiment was assigned to picket-duty +on Port Royal Island,--the first active duty it had performed on the Sea +Islands,--and was to relieve the Pennsylvania Fifty-Fifth. When, after a +march of ten miles, it reached the advanced picket-station, there were +about two hundred soldiers of the Pennsylvania Fifty-Fifth awaiting +orders to proceed to Beaufort. I said, in a careless tone, to one of the +Pennsylvania soldiers, who was looking at Higginson's regiment as it +stood in line,-- + +"Isn't this rather new, to be relieved by a negro regiment?" + +"All right," said he. "They've as much right to fight for themselves as +I have to fight for them." + +A squad of half a dozen men stood by, making no dissent, and accepting +him as their spokesman. Moving in another direction, I said to a +soldier,-- + +"What do you think of that regiment?" + +The answer was,-- + +"All right. I'd rather they'd shoot the Rebels than have the Rebels +shoot me"; and none of the by-standers dissented. + +As one of the negro companies marched off the field to picket a station +at the Ferry, they passed within a few feet of some twenty of the +Pennsylvania soldiers, just formed into line preparatory to marching to +Beaufort. The countenances of the latter, which I watched, exhibited no +expression of disgust, dislike, or disapprobation, only of curiosity. +Other white soldiers gave to the weary negroes the hominy left from the +morning meal. The Major of the Fifty-Fifth, highest in command of the +relieved regiment, explained very courteously to Colonel Higginson the +stations and duties of the pickets, and proffered any further aid +desired. This was, it is true, an official duty, but there are more ways +than one in which to perform even an official duty. I rode back to +Beaufort, part of the way, in company with a captain of the First +Massachusetts Cavalry, who was the officer of the day. He said "he +wasn't much of a negro-man, but he had no objection to their doing our +fighting." He pronounced the word as spelled with two _g_s; but I prefer +to retain the good English. Colonel Montgomery, who had a partly filled +regiment, most of whom were conscripts, said that on his return from +Jacksonville he sent a squad of his men ashore in charge of some +prisoners he had taken. Some white soldiers seeing them approach from +the wharf, one said,-- + +"What are those coming?" + +"Negro soldiers," (word pronounced as in the former case,) was the +answer. + +"Damn 'em!" was the ejaculation. + +But as they approached nearer, "What have they got with 'em?" was +inquired. + +"Why, some Secesh prisoners." + +"Bully for the negroes!" (the same pronunciation as before,) was then +the response from all. + +So quick was the transition, when it was found that the negroes had +demonstrated their usefulness! It is, perhaps, humiliating to remember +that such an unreasonable and unpatriotic prejudice has at any time +existed; but it is never worth while to suppress the truth of history. +This prejudice has been effectually broken in the Free States; and one +of the pageants of this epoch was the triumphal march through Boston, on +the 28th of May, on its way to embark for Port Royal, of the +Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, the first regiment of +negro soldiers which the Free States have sent to the war. On the day +previous, May 27th, a far different scene transpired on the banks of the +Mississippi. Two black regiments, enlisted some months before in +Louisiana under the order of Major-General Butler, both with line and +one with field officers of their own lineage, made charge after charge +on the batteries of Port Hudson, and were mown down like summer's grass, +the survivors, many with mutilated limbs, closing up the thinned ranks +and pressing on again, careless of life, and mindful only of honor and +duty, with a sublimity of courage unsurpassed in the annals of war, and +leaving there to all mankind an immortal record for themselves and their +race. + +I cannot here forbear a momentary tribute to Wentworth Higginson. +Devoting himself heroically to his great work, absorbed in its duties, +and bearing his oppressive responsibility as the leader of a regiment in +which to a great extent are now involved the fortunes of a race, he adds +another honorable name to the true chivalry of our time. + + * * * * * + +Homeward-bound, I stopped for two days at Fortress Monroe, and was again +among the familiar scenes of my soldier-life. It was there that +Major-General Butler, first of all the generals in the army of the +Republic, and anticipating even Republican statesmen, had clearly +pointed to the cause of the war. At Craney Island I met two accomplished +women of the Society of Friends, who, on a most cheerless spot, and with +every inconvenience, were teaching the children of the freedmen. Two +good men, one at the fort and the other at Norfolk, were distributing +the laborers on farms in the vicinity, and providing them with +implements and seeds which the benevolent societies had furnished. +Visiting Hampton, I recognized, in the shanties built upon the charred +ruins, the familiar faces of those who, in the early days of the war, +had been for a brief period under my charge. Their hearty greetings to +one whom they remembered as the first to point them to freedom and cheer +them with its prospect could hardly be received without emotion. But +there is no time to linger over these scenes. + + * * * * * + +Such are some of the leading features in the condition of the freedmen, +particularly at Port Royal. The enterprise for their aid, begun in +doubt, is no longer a bare hope or possibility. It is a fruition and a +consummation. The negroes will work for a living. They will fight for +their freedom. They are adapted to civil society. As a people, they are +not exempt from the frailties of our common humanity, nor from the vices +which hereditary bondage always superadds to these. As it is said to +take three generations to subdue a freeman completely to a slave, so it +may not be possible in a single generation to restore the pristine +manhood. One who expects to find in emancipated slaves perfect men and +women, or to realize in them some fair dream of an ideal race, will meet +disappointment; but there is nothing in their nature or condition to +daunt the Christian patriot; rather, there is everything to cheer and +fortify his faith. They have shown capacity for knowledge, for free +industry, for subordination to law and discipline, for soldierly +fortitude, for social and family relations, for religious culture and +aspirations; and these qualities, when stirred and sustained by the +incitements and rewards of a just society, and combining with the +currents of our continental civilization, will, under the guidance of a +benevolent Providence which forgets neither them nor us, make them a +constantly progressive race, and secure them ever after from the +calamity of another enslavement, and ourselves from the worse calamity +of being again their oppressors. + + * * * * * + +NO AND YES. + + + I watched her at her spinning; + And this was my beginning + Of wooing and of winning. + + But when a maid opposes, + And throws away your roses, + You say the case forecloses. + + Yet sorry wit one uses, + Who loves and thinks he loses + Because a maid refuses. + + For by her once denying + She only means complying + Upon a second trying. + + When first I said, in pleading, + "Behold, my love lies bleeding!" + She heard me half unheeding. + + When afterward I told her, + And blamed her growing colder,-- + She dropped upon my shoulder. + + Had I a doubt? That quelled it: + Her very look dispelled it, + I caught her hand, and held it. + + Along the lane I led her, + And while her cheeks grew redder, + I sued outright to wed her. + + Good end from bad beginning! + My wooing came to winning,-- + And still I watch her spinning. + + * * * * * + +THE MATHER SAFE. + + +The service I was able to render an official personage connected with +----College in New England procured me access to the library belonging +to that institution. In common with many of my fellow-citizens, I had +previously enjoyed the pleasure of responding to circulars petitioning +for money to buy books for interment in this choice literary catacomb; +nay, I was even allowed the satisfaction of an annual stare at them +through an iron grating, and of reading a placard to the effect that +nobody was allowed to enter an alcove or take down a volume. As it +occurred to me that the generous donors could not object to add one more +to the select half-dozen or so, who, by having the privilege of the +shelves, could really use the library, I demanded this favor of the +gentleman who desired to recompense me for what I had done for him. The +Librarian, who valued books as things capable of being locked up in +cells like criminals, there to figure numerically to the confusion of +rival institutions, was manifestly disturbed when I presented my +credentials. The authority, however, was not to be questioned;--I was to +be admitted to the library at any hour of the day; and I took care to +drop a civil expression to imply my estimation of the privilege and my +purpose of enjoying it. + +Wanting the leisure to attempt that ponderous undertaking known as "a +course of reading," it became my habit to browse about the building upon +Saturday afternoons, and finally to establish myself, with whatever +authors I had selected, in a certain retired alcove devoted to the +metaphysicians. This comfortable nook opens just behind Crawford's bust +of the late President T----, and is nearly opposite the famous Mather +Safe. As it is possible that I am addressing some who are not graduates +of ---- College, nor familiar with its library, it may be well to say a +word of the history of the spacious and ancient coffer to which +allusion is made. + +The Mather Safe--which, by the way, is not of iron, but of oak heavily +bound with that metal--is said to have been among the possessions of the +author of the "Magnalia." Its last private proprietor was a collateral +descendant of the Mathers, an eccentric character, popularly known as +Miser Farrel. As Farrel was a bachelor, and had the reputation of being +enormously rich, the College authorities of his day were accustomed to +treat him with distinguished consideration, and went so far, I believe, +as to vote him some minor degree. What effect these academic +blandishments may have had upon their object cannot at present be +determined. For when the day came for the long-expected will to be +opened, it was found that the old gentleman had bequeathed to the +College only his Mather Safe, with certain papers carefully let into the +wood-work in one corner of the same,--which papers were not to be +removed or opened for a hundred years. + +It may be conceived that this bulky benefaction was not accepted with +the best grace, particularly as the testator made no provision for +considerable expense necessarily incurred in moving and setting it up in +the library. Yet, not satisfied with this culpable negligence, Mr. +Farrel had affixed still other conditions to the acceptance of his gift. +He had caused two massive locks to be put upon the Mather Safe, of which +he enjoined that the respective keys should be forever held by the +President and Treasurer of the College, to the end that neither could +have access to its contents except in the presence of the other. +Moreover, he required that the Safe should be used only as a receptacle +for packages which the depositors desired to keep from the world for at +least fifty years. Of course no right-minded corporation would have +endured this posthumous fussiness, were it not for the mysterious papers +left in the Safe,--these being considered instruments whereby immense +possessions would finally come to the College. But, as their worthy +friend, however niggardly in other respects, had taken care to save +nothing in lawyers, there were really no means of disregarding his +wishes, except by relinquishing all claims under the will. And so, many +years ago, the Mather Safe came to be opened to the public on the +conditions already declared. At first, it was matter of surprise that so +many persons appeared to claim the privilege of Farrel's singular +legacy. Carefully enveloped packages had been consigned to various +periods of oblivion by all conditions of men and women. These were +numbered and registered in a volume kept for the purpose; they were +severally addressed, perhaps to a specified descendant of some living +person, perhaps to the future occupant of some professor's chair or +metropolitan pulpit. + +It was near the Mather Safe, as I have already said, that my favorite +alcove opened. In the short winter afternoon, when the twilight +thickened without the building, and the type began to blur within, I +would lay aside my book and muse over wild rumors of secrets borne by +this messenger between the generations. Journals and letters, it was +said, were there concealed, which should change the current gossip of +history, and explode many bubble-reputations that had glittered on the +world. There were hints of deadly sins, committed by men high in Church +and State, which their perpetrators lacked the courage to confess before +their fellows, but which, in the bitterness of remorse, they had +recorded in the Mather Safe, to blacken their fame to future +times,--thus taking a ghastly satisfaction from the knowledge that they +should not always appear as whited sepulchres before men. There was +vague talk, also, of funds which had been deposited to found some +professorship in the College, to furnish some instruction which the age +was not advanced enough to accept. Then, too, there were intimations of +endowments to establish scholarships for women, who,--so it was +argued,--after the increasing enlightenment of a few score of years, +would be admitted to every privilege of culture offered to men. In +short, there was matter enough to send a curdling tingle through the +blood, as this tough old ark, buffeting slowly through the years, +entered its familiar night. If there was deficiency in the testimony +which consigned any special wonder to its keeping, there was, doubtless, +sufficient truth in common reports to justify the imagination in +interpreting misty hieroglyphics of its own device. + +During the latter part of a certain August--my family being established +at the seaside--I determined to devote a long day to the College +Library. The fact was, that a trifling domestic incident--no other than +the smoking of a kitchen-chimney--had turned my attention to the +conditions of atmospheric changes. Certain phenomena I had observed +seemed inconsistent with the law assumed in popular text-books. Indeed, +as it appeared to me, modifications of a received theory--which might be +determined by a diligent comparison of existing authorities--would +suggest a household economy of great practical importance. Certain +facts, which must have been noted by all the great voyagers of the +world, might give me data from which to establish the suspected +conclusion. I accordingly repaired to the library at a very early hour, +and labored through the day in collecting and committing to writing what +had been observed by many eminent navigators upon the point in question. +Four o'clock in the afternoon found me too tired to apply any process of +analysis to the observations obtained. I therefore retired to my +accustomed seat, took down almost the first book which came to hand, and +resigned myself to the impressions of a favorite author. I had passed +about an hour in a delicious state of dreamy tranquillity, sometimes +reading, sometimes pausing to color the faded page with the brilliant +hues of more modern thought, when my attention was attracted by a +familiar voice proceeding from the neighborhood of the Mather Safe. + +"The President and Treasurer were to have been here at five o'clock." + +"I have heard nothing of it," said the Librarian. "I am sure that the +President is out of town for the day." + +"Strange! strange!" exclaimed the Reverend Mr. Clifton, in a very +excited tone. "I wish to make a deposit of great importance in the +Mather Safe. I had the assurance that the Safe should be opened at five +this afternoon. Here, read the solemn promise upon which I have come +from Foxden!" + +The Librarian glanced at an open letter which Clifton held out to him, +and said, in a quiet manner,-- + +"The President promises to meet you in the College Library on the +afternoon of Thursday, the twenty-fourth instant; to-day is Wednesday, +the twenty-third." + +"Is it possible?" muttered the clergyman, with a look of startled +despair. "Pardon my disturbance. I have been hardly myself for these +last weeks. Yet I can wait." + +I spoke to Mr. Clifton as he was about to leave the library. He blenched +at hearing my voice, and strove to conceal the package beneath his arm. + +"How do my good friends in Foxden?" said I, inviting him into my alcove. +"Is it true that Dr. Dastick has presented his cabinet of curiosities to +the town?" + +"What are you reading?" said the clergyman, in a tone of curt authority +very foreign to the mild persuasiveness of his usual professional +accents. + +I exhibited the title of the book: it was the "Meditations of +Descartes." + +"And do you follow those who vainly seek for truth through the inner +world of man, not conforming themselves to the necessities of the +outward world and the teachings of Revelation?" + +I defended the usefulness of some acquaintance with the original and +powerful thinker, whose apologies are certainly profuse enough to +satisfy the most orthodox. + +"Yes; I suppose you read Spinoza, Hegel, Fichte, the Atheism of +D'Holbach, Utilitarianism Systematized by Auguste Comte! Did you ever go +fishing in a dory when the wind was off shore?" + +There was an alarm in the eye and manner of Mr. Clifton, a tremulous +restlessness in his speech, which warned me to avoid discussion, and +endeavor to soothe his agitation. It was only to the last interrogatory, +therefore, that I made some light reply. + +"The sea sparkles gayly," pursued the clergyman, in the manner of an +extemporaneous preacher who strives to catch in a net of decorations +some illustration which presents itself,--"the boat tosses on from wave +to wave, for dories will sail before the wind. Soon we are miles from +shore, and throw the anchor. What auspicious expansion of soul and body! +How we slide up and down the backs of great billows, and cast our lines +with ever-varying success! But the night comes, and with it the +necessity of rowing back against wind and tide. Ah, then how long the +lonely ocean-leagues! How distant the time when we may hope to stand +confused and giddy upon solid earth! Some never see the land again, but +are swept out into the storm and darkness, and are lost,--_lost_!" + +"I presume I understand the significance of your similitude," I replied, +a little annoyed at this inopportune indulgence of the pastoral +privilege. "You would imply the dangerous tendency of a certain sort of +philosophical speculation; and so far we doubtless agree. Yet I ought to +say, that, in cases where personal investigation is possible, I would +take neither popular clamor nor learned dogmatism as conclusive evidence +against any writer's honesty and usefulness. With the vulgar, genius has +always seemed a sort of madness; and should a man rise preeminent above +the teachers of his generation, his wisdom would appear to them as +foolishness." + +A change came over the face of Clifton as I said these words. It was as +if a mask had fallen. Perchance he had wished to appear to me in that +character of instructor which he desired some competent person to assume +to him. Now, the relaxed muscles and averted eye only asked the sympathy +of an equal. He spoke with forced, and almost grating, utterance. + +"Then you have used experience well enough to know that some minds may +bear into the world a light, a knowledge too fine for general +perception, too pure for even exceptional recognition." + +"I fully believe it possible," I said. "Yonder old Safe, if rumor says +true, holds many mystic signals which the past and present could address +only to the future,--signs meaningless, no doubt, to you or me, but +which the freemasonry of higher intelligence shall render plain in the +time hereafter." + +"And what if I had come," exclaimed Clifton, eagerly,--"what if I had +come to add to those deposits which are not for this time, but which may +be for other times? What blame to me, if I am here to do this? Should we +common men, who find a life full of active duties presented to our +acceptance,--should such as we, I say, receive this world as a pageant +before which we must sit down and evolve a doctrine? The conceit of +external education is at present too strong to acknowledge a divine +element radiating from the depths of the soul, and finding in the mind +only an awkward and imperfect instrument. Any extravagance is now +tolerated, but an extravagance of spirituality; and we find altogether +wanting the perception, that, rising from the gross symbols of language, +can know the subtile and precious emotion which in a more advanced state +of being those symbols might suggest." + +As it was evident that Mr. Clifton was laboring under great nervous +excitability, I judged it prudent not to question the sequence of what +he said, or even demand that it be made intelligible by further +explanation. Indeed, I was sufficiently occupied in striving to identify +this incomprehensible person with my familiar acquaintance, the pastor +of the First Church in Foxden. It occurred to me that something had +once been said of Clifton's connection with that topsy-turvy sodality +popularly known as "The Transcendentalists." But this was many years +ago; and the world always supposed that he had outgrown his early +errors, and found, in the liberal theology of New England, a more +genuine inspiration. In meeting him in his pastoral relation, I had only +remarked that he was one of those men who find it very difficult to +resist the social influences into which they may be thrown. This was +probably the case even where that influence tended to degrade him from +the plane he would have occupied, if left to himself. His spiritual life +seemed to lack that vigor and buoyancy so infinitely important to +contemplative men. He appeared to be ever yearning for something which +should add robustness to his convictions. After a pause of some moments, +Clifton again addressed me. + +"Recollections of moments, months of excitement, of intense power, have +returned! They may not fade again unspoken. You shall know my +long-cherished secret. Younger in years, you may scarcely advise; but, +at least, you may give sympathy that shall confirm my decision. I have +engaged rooms at the neighboring hotel. Come and pass the evening--nay, +the night--with me; for much must be read and thought and spoken before +the black veil of personality can be lifted between us." + +It has already been observed that my family were at the seaside. This +circumstance left me sole disposer of my time and localities. How, then, +resist the inclination to see out the adventure upon which I had +stumbled? Let me credit myself also with a worthier motive: I saw that +my companion was in no state to be left to himself,--and, really, there +was no mutual friend to whom I could consign him. Accordingly I offered +my arm in a manner to imply acquiescence in his proposal. + +We soon reached the hotel, and ascended to a room in the remote corner +of a spacious wing. Clifton at once turned the key, placed his package +upon the table, and proceeded to employ a stray bit of carpet in +stopping a ventilator which communicated with the entry. Having +satisfied himself that this passage was rendered impervious to sound, he +drew two chairs up to the table, motioned me into one, and planted +himself in the other with the air of a man, in popular phrase, about to +make a night of it. + +"Did you ever hear of Herbert Vannelle?" he asked, abruptly. + +It can hardly be necessary to say that a substitute is here placed for +the name really mentioned. + +I replied in the negative, and asked where the gentleman lived. + +"He lives nowhere on earth; he is dead,--just dead." + +"A friend of yours?" + +"A master once; now a presence eluding, haunting, torturing. He left me +this manuscript; it is a 'Philosophy of the Absolute.'" (Here Clifton +drew from a curiously contrived case of parchment a cluster of pages.) +"It has now twenty-two hours to appear in the present century. You shall +devote the night to reading it, and tell me that I have acted well." + +A sultry August evening, a smoky boarding-house lamp, much skirmishing +of mosquitoes, and--a manuscript system of philosophy! The prospect was +not inviting. The reading of other people's manuscripts is surely the +crucial test of a devoted benevolence. There are few ways in which I am +so little ready to oblige my fellow-men. I had, indeed, at times, been +induced to inspect sundry romances in blotted embryo; but, as yet, +nobody had called upon me with a system of philosophy. _Printed_ +philosophy is none too easy reading. But to sit there, under the +guardianship of Clifton, and spell out the dim dogmatism of some +nebulous fanatic,--of course it was not to be thought of for a moment. +With a _suave_ periphrasis of speech I questioned the expediency of the +proposition. + +"I shall ring for candles that will burn during the night," said Mr. +Clifton, heedless of my expostulation. "Also some refreshment. You take +tea, I suppose? You shall read the first ten pages of Vannelle's +writing. It is possible you may exercise self-control enough to abandon +it unfinished. But you will not sleep tonight." + +There was a confidence in the minister's tone which gave rather +unpleasant emphasis to this final prophecy. Still, I believed myself +capable of the ten pages without establishing a hopelessly wakeful +condition,--indeed, it was something to be guarantied against the +opposite infirmity. The tea, accompanied by a few thin shavings of +toast, presently arrived. The means of procuring light were also +furnished us. Clifton's hand lay heavily upon the manuscript until the +attendant had disappeared for the last time, and the door was locked +behind him. He then opened the papers before me, and signified that the +time had come. I braced myself as for a serious undertaking. + +Thus I accepted the task. How give words to the singular emotions which +soon possessed me? As if some charm, some spell of magnetism, had been +given to the paper, my whole consciousness was riveted upon it. I know +not how to represent this bold, this startling attempt to establish a +positive basis for metaphysical philosophy, an exact science of all +things human and divine. Here was a man, perchance of more courage and +conscience, perchance of more devilish recklessness, than any of his +contemporaries. But how deal with what came to me from that wondrous +writing in the ambiguities of common language? All thought--even +supposing it embodied in a perfect form of speech--is subject to the +limitations of the recipient mind. My own glimpses of the writer's +meaning were necessarily most indistinct. I cannot attempt to transfer +them. I was controlled by a force not my own. The shadow of a mysterious +power was over me. The mists of sentimental pantheism were left far +below the clear-cut summits whither the reader was invited to ascend. +There was an interpretation of Revelation far more removed from the +apparent letter than that of Swedenborg. Here was reaffirmed (though for +a widely different purpose) what the Romish Church has ever +declared,--that the Scriptures, recording spiritual truth, cannot be +comprehensible to the natural understanding,--that, while the Sacred +Writings contain a natural letter, it can be translated into spiritual +verity only by a few exceptional men. If this scheme of philosophy was +an idealism, it nevertheless manifested itself through the plainest +realities. The solution of the problem seemed to come not from one +point, but from all points. Certainly there was a tendency towards the +supersensible; but this direction was taken through stern grappling with +the actual. At one time I struggled against the august spirit that was +borne in upon me; at another, I was utterly subdued by the lofty +enthusiasm of the writer,--something within me capable of absolute +cognition seemed responding to his appeals. But the pith and vitality of +this marvel could be recognized only by long experience. And here the +student was required to stake his soul upon a perilous cast. For, if not +pursued and fathomed to full satisfaction, this view of things would be +disturbing, paralyzing. With any half-acceptance a man might scarcely +live. It must fashion the mind as an artist fashions the passive metals +into a musical instrument, and then every event in time might touch it +to exquisite harmony. But the more ravishing the beauty which seemed +offered through perfect realization of this knowledge, the more +blighting would be its effects, if entertained in the spirit of a +selfish dilettanteism. For in certain passages were breathed faint +suggestions, that moral codes held sacred by the people could not bind +the initiated,--nay, that what seemed most evil might be so explained as +to become wholly legitimate to the elect. + +It was far into the night. I had gone over about a third of the +manuscript. Sharp questions assailed my ears. Was I bound to jeopard +all the common good of life for the chance of--just failing to know +existence from a higher plane? Could I ascend so far above the frailties +of average men as to receive in purity and innocence the license which +acceptance of this strange scheme would surely give? Dim-sighted as I +was, it was necessary to rise and dispel this splendid phantasm. I +shuddered in sudden alarm at the danger which threatened me. By a +spasmodic movement, in which I failed to recognize any presence of my +will, the manuscript was closed and handed to Clifton. Welcome existence +under coarsest and harshest terms, rather than tamper with such fearful +possibilities! + +For hours the minister had gazed into my face, partaking the excitement +to which he had subjected me. He had lighted and trimmed the candles, as +was necessary, but had never broken silence. And now there came from him +the deep sigh of relief from an absorbing interest; he sighed as a +little child when the fairytale is ended and the tense strain of +attention may be relaxed. + +"What was this man?" I demanded, hurriedly. + +"What he was is to be discovered through these writings, if it may be +found out at all. What he was is not for me nor for you to know. It is +possible that he may meet with competent judges hereafter, even among +men. Look at this address." + +Clifton handed me a little memorandum relating to the ultimate +disposition of the manuscript. It was to remain for eighty years in the +Mather Safe, and was then to be consigned to the occupant of the Chair +of Moral Philosophy in the College. + +"Say rather to the last minority-candidate for the professorship!" I +exclaimed. "I doubt if the actual winner of that comfortable possession +will feel disposed to abandon the market-worth of conventional +acquirements, and set forth as a humble student of unpopular truth." + +The minister seemed struck with the suggestion, and made the alteration +I had indicated. + +The darkest hour of the night had come. Every sound of human activity +had long ago ceased. It was the quiet time when one may most easily +probe an intense experience. I felt that more was to be +known,--something which the minister longed to tell,--something to which +what he had caused me to read was to serve as a prelude. I suspected how +powerless must have been this sensitive man in the presence of the Idea +which he had carried. Doubtless, in one of his peculiar tendencies, it +might prevent all harmonious action,--it might ever goad the intellect, +and crush the heart. As the confession trembled upon the lips of +Clifton, I signified my profound sympathy. It is an awful moment, when a +mature man tries to put off the solitariness of his life. + +What was then communicated I can repeat only in the first person. The +pathetic earnestness of the speaker imprinted on my memory the very +phrases that he used; there can be few verbal changes as they now flow +from the pen. + + +II. + +NARRATIVE OF THE REVEREND CHARLES CLIFTON. + +I am indebted for education to a bachelor uncle, who, after our great +bereavement, received at his house an infant sister and myself. I was at +that time about twelve years old. My relative enjoyed a handsome +annuity, which he spent with the utmost liberality. As I was rather a +thoughtful, though not very studious boy, it was determined that I +should go to college. I entered with some difficulty soon after my +seventeenth birthday,--an age somewhat later than the average at that +time. + +Two years before me in college was the class of 18--. Upon the roll of +its fifty-two members stood the name of Herbert Vannelle. Rich, an +orphan, inclined to thought and study beyond the limited academic range +of those days, endowed with personal fascinations of a very rare and +peculiar kind,--there seemed only one possible shadow to darken his +career. In his family there had been said to exist a tendency to +eccentric independence of action, which vulgarly, perhaps justly, passed +for insanity. His father, who died soon after Herbert entered college, +had given much uneasiness to the wealthy and respectable city-circle +with which he was socially connected. Upon the death of his wife he had +retired to the Vannelle homestead in the northwestern part of +Connecticut, and there lived in studious seclusion. There he insisted +upon bringing up his only son, deprived of such recreations and +companionships as are suitable to youth. He had, indeed, superintended +his studies with patience and thoroughness, and had not failed to +accomplish him in the grace of physical power, at that time little +recognized as a part of education. + +So much was known of Vannelle when he appeared at college among the +young men of the Junior Class. And little more was known of him when he +left America on the day his class graduated. His connections with the +other students had been very slight. He had never cared to acquire that +fluency in retailing the thoughts of others upon which college-rank +depends. An access to the library was all that he seemed to value in his +connection with the institution. And here he busied himself, not with +the openings to the solid and rational sciences, but with the +bewildering sophistries of the school-philosophies, and their aimless +wrangling over verbal conceits. + +At that time I happened to be taking a young man's first enchanting +rounds upon the tread-mill of metaphysics. At the library I often +encountered Vannelle in search of some volume of which I had just +possessed myself. This led to an acquaintance. I was soon fascinated by +a power which streamed from his large, expressive eyes, and persuaded by +a voice modulated in a pathos and sweetness that I have heard in no +other person. His influence upon me at this time was not unlike that +which the mesmerists had just begun to exercise. Yet, while he showed an +interest in directing my inquiries along the paths to which they +naturally tended, he never communicated the results of his own studies, +or offered me the slightest assistance in generalizing my random +observations. What he thought himself, or by what writers he was +influenced, it was not easy to fathom. He was deeply acquainted with the +writings of the New-England Transcendentalists, then at their greatest +notoriety, yet never for an instant seemed giddy upon the hazy heights +where those earnest spirits soared. + +Vannelle spent two years in Germany, and returned to America about the +time that my college-course was finished. The little I knew of him +during his absence was from the scattered notices of +newspaper-correspondents, who intimated that Herbert possessed the +privilege of friendly intercourse with men most distinguished for +knowledge in the Old World. Just before Class-Day, I received a letter +dated from X----, in Connecticut, inviting me, in terms which seemed +almost a command, to spend the summer at the Vannelle homestead. Herbert +had returned, and thus abruptly summoned me. Intending to postpone until +the autumn the study of a profession, I promised to come to him for a +few weeks,--a visit which might be extended, were it mutually agreeable. + +There was, at that time, a day of weary staging after leaving the cars, +before arriving in the village of X----; there were also six rough miles +of carriage-conveyance before the traveller could attain the old house +by the damp river-marsh whereto I was destined. When I arrived there, +Vannelle stood at the door to greet me. + +"We have six months' concern together," he said, as if delivering +himself of some studied speech,--"we have six months' concern together; +then we may stand at the parting of the ways,--we may cleave to one +another, or separate forever." + +A low, dark house. The south-side planted out from the sun by pines and +cedars. The parlors covered with well-worn Turkey carpets, chafed into +dusty ridges. The wretched window-glass breaking and distorting the +pine-trees without. Little oval mirrors distorting the human countenance +within. In the living-room (so called by those able to live in it) +loomed a rusty air-tight stove of cathedral proportion,--a ghastly altar +which the bitterest enemy of the family might feel fully justified in +protecting. A square, cellarless room, about twenty feet from the house, +had been the study of the elder Vannelle. Tables covered with a confused +mass of writing-materials. A jumble of retorts and other chemical +apparatus about the floor. Cabinets of the ugliest pattern reached to +the ceiling;--at first I supposed them to be made of painted wood; +afterwards I discovered they were of iron, and filled with rare books +and manuscripts. + +"My father built this study," said Vannelle, as we passed into it. "He +wished to get rid of those periodical clearings-up from which there is +no escape in a New-England household. Mrs. Brett, the wife of our +farmer, could never resist the feminine itch to put things to rights. +She was always contriving to arrange papers and books in symmetrical +piles where nothing could be found. My father could never turn his back +but she was sure to annihilate important scraps of writing that were +lying about the floor, and, under pretence of sweeping, invoke a simoom +of dust that hours were insufficient to allay. But when he built this +room, and kept the key of it, there was no more trouble." + +I shudder as I hurry through these descriptions, for a confession which +I hardly dare to put into words must accompany them. All these +surroundings, seen by me for the first time, had a fearful familiarity. +In some occult state of spiritual existence I seemed to have known them +all. I have learned that the soul may enter into communion with other +minds otherwise than through the senses,--nay, more, it may thus take an +inexplicable cognizance of material things. Of this I have had such +proof as it would be infatuation to doubt. I was compelled to test this +startling suspicion for the first time. + +"You need not take me up-stairs, Herbert," I said, as we returned to the +house. "The picture of your father, which hangs in the large chamber +projecting over the porch, was doubtless a good likeness of the mask he +wore at city club-houses and family-dinners,--but the man as you knew +him _here_, how little does it resemble! As for the Chinese cabinet +which stands between the windows, it has associations, no doubt, but it +is sadly out of repair. Those pink tiles about the fireplace may be +interesting to antiquaries; but I rather prefer the blue variety, as +corresponding to the mental state in which their infinitely pretentious +subjects and execrable drawing always put me." + +The lightness of speech was painfully forced. Vannelle turned to me and +said, slowly,-- + +"Have you been here before?" + +"No." + +"Has any one described to you this house or its contents?" + +"No." + +"Then thought has been conveyed from mind to mind in unconditioned +purity. It is as I had supposed. We are brothers forever." + +The next day, after an early breakfast, Vannelle summoned me to the +study. I glanced distrustfully at the confusion of the room, which +seemed in strange contrast with the exquisitely neat and even +fashionable attire of its proprietor. A smile of proud pity touched the +lips of Vannelle, as he seemed to divine my thought. Then, as if I had +read them in letters of light, these words seemed to answer me:-- + +"Shall we, the stewards and guardians of the highest interests of +mankind, fret our souls at trifles,--we, who are to be instruments in +marshalling the race from slavery and folly to wisdom and freedom? +Behold, in one bound, the hovels and palaces of earth shall be alike, +and, floating free in spiritual space, we will win such dominion as the +highest graduates in saintship dimly perceived, but were never able to +declare!" + +These thoughts, energizing the brain of my companion, seemed thrown into +my consciousness with far more distinctness than if they had been +uttered. It was with awe that this mystic correspondence between mind +and mind was made plain to me. One man out of this myriad-bodied +humanity had sought me out, and in his presence I was never more to be +alone. The gigantic shadow of self passed from me; I was as clay in the +potter's hands! + +At length Herbert spoke. + +"Our work in this world is determined for us; mine is allotted to +me,--not by my own choice. I return to this house never to leave it till +I go to join my father, with his great work more nearly completed than +when it came to my hands. At that table he died, with some glimpses of +the promised land whither he tended,--where he prayed that I might +enter." + +There escaped from me a feeble remonstrance,--no utterance of the heart, +but rather a dry rattling of such conventional proprieties as lingered +in the memory. + +"And you intend to leave this wholesome world,--you, whose career might +be such as few have it in their power to choose? You know, you must +know, the wonderful gifts which you possess; you cannot alone be +ignorant of the fascination you might exercise over man and woman." + +"I know all these temptations, and others that you cannot surmise," +exclaimed Vannelle, "and I will conquer them,--if not through spiritual +grace, then by some bodily penance of lasting effect. I discern in you +certain qualities of mind that may serve to regulate the equipoise of +mine. I have the means to provide for us both during the high +speculations in which we shall engage. Let us be comrades in this +undertaking. I seek to bridge the great gulf that separates the natural +from the spiritual. My father firmly believed in the possibility of +obtaining an absolute ground for the philosophy which should include all +things human and divine. He passed onward before the inestimable gift he +seemed to have won could be set forth in the symbols of the world. To +see is not difficult, but only to contrive a popular adaptation through +which others may discern the thought. I seek the means to express the +truth which he saw, and of which I can catch some glimpses through such +colored mythologies as represent the higher religions of the world. Man +has found out the knowledge by which a universe was evoked from chaos: +shall he not perfect that knowledge in the Law which includes the divine +element by which the universe is informed? How can we love with our +whole heart what we do not know with our whole mind? Clifton, I declare +to you that knowledge of the Law by which the Creator is and acts is +possible to man!" + +I shall seem to you weak and unstable in no common degree to have been +moved by utterance like this. Remember that I can reproduce only the +words, not the wild power of that persuasive voice, not the aspiring +courage that struck me from his eye. Almost against my will there was +produced in me a plasticity of mind that seemed to demand the impress of +some foreign mould. The tree of knowledge was set in the midst of the +garden, and again were audible the seductive serpent-tones: "Your eyes +shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." + +I found Vannelle so far my superior in the knowledge of all earthly +lores, that I at length came to think it possible he might be the +appointed instrument of communicating the singular intelligence that he +sought. He proposed to review the different systems built by human +thought before applying himself to the problem of finding a system of +philosophy which should include them all. His idea was, that from the +extreme negation of the so-called transcendental position--when that +position had been legitimately attained by a thoroughly conscientious +thinker--some new light must break upon the mind. His was no shrinking +from the conflict with real things to indulge in vague yearnings after +the inaccessible, but a definite effort so to place the soul and +discipline the understanding that wisdom could be realized without +process or media. Unlike most inquirers of that time, he had no love for +the abstract and the controversial, but entertained them freely as +finally discovering some path to the concrete and the unquestioned. He +declared that only to superficial persons was skepticism the terminus of +speculative deism. Let me also say this for my friend,--that his +directing stimulus to action was neither ambition nor curiosity, but +what, had it been directed to any recognized end, the world would have +called a religious principle. He was never guilty of the shallow +wickedness of seeking self-culture as an end; he sought the highest +self-culture only as a state of more passionate yearning for +regeneration. + +What need to tell how I was fascinated, mesmerized, into a humble +companionship? how I became inspired with his own mighty belief in the +feasibility of the object he strove to attain? We read together certain +manuscripts of the elder Vannelle, in which, wrapt in a gorgeous +symbolism, seemed dimly to approach a great truth, which, at times, +could be faintly perceived, but never mastered. There were hints, +apparently of the deepest significance, which, when the mind endeavored +to grasp them, vanished like a vision. + +Day after day, almost night after night, for five months, I passed with +Vannelle in the room I have described. And during that vivid period I +knew an intellectual intoxication which seemed the pure ecstasy of +spirit wholly delivered from the burden of the flesh. Vannelle talked +like one inspired upon the higher problems of metaphysical research, +showing, or appearing to show, in what sense the speculations of the +philosophers were true, and in what sense absolutely false. We seemed to +have cut ourselves adrift from the human race, and to look down upon it +from a position whence its basest moral corruptions and most detestable +oppressions marked the rhythm in a majestic poem. The infinite vagaries +of crime, the unspeakable ecstasies of blessedness, were equally +wholesome as equally full of Law. At times it seemed impossible that any +words could so mould themselves as to give distinctness to the thought +which flashed through our minds. At times a representation corresponding +to what Vannelle so eloquently uttered seemed embodied in every phase of +opinion man had known. But, alas, there were also periods of doubt and +despair analogous to those which succeed physical intoxication. The +grosser systems of antiquity were not only considered, but actually +personated in our experience. Here it was necessary for us to penetrate +into some of the darkest recesses of the human soul, and to test how +nearly allied is that which exalts man to that which degrades him, how +the noblest virtues plunge headlong into the maddest passions. Yet we +learned to welcome these convulsions of Chaos and Old Night, as blindly +bearing us onward towards our destined goal. + +--But enough of this. I would only faintly express how terribly real was +the delusion (the world would so call it, and who am I to gainsay it?) +which has overhung my earthly life. + +Let me tell in briefest words how the spell was broken,--partially +broken. During those months of passionate exaltation, letters from +friends once dear to me had been thrown aside half-read, and wholly +valueless. On the eleventh of November I started,--as a black seal was +to be broken. My uncle had suddenly died. The last instalment of his +annuity had been paid, and my little sister, an orphan and penniless, +was thrown upon me for education and support. Shame to me that I then +hesitated! Yet it was some hours before I could persuade myself to put +the letter into Vannelle's hand, and say that I must abandon him +forever. Let me forget the bitter temptation. Of course my friend begged +to provide for my sister from his own ample means, and even offered her +an asylum at his house. I still retained sufficient sanity to perceive +the wrong of bringing a young child to that dismal place to wither +removed from all human companionship and sympathy. A spirit not in a +condition to be sustained and elevated by the society of Herbert would +be confused, and finally petrified. Had this refined probing and +questioning deadened all sense of duty? Was this the end of my Absolute +Philosophy, that the intellect should usurp the place of the conscience +and the moral law? Shame to me that I could have paused to ask such +questions! yet any claim but one tittle less urgent I should have +bantered aside. I seemed to realize the torture described in the dream +of Dante,--two souls struggling together in one frail body. I had been +applauding good and condemning evil when it cost me nothing but the +sentiment; but when the fiery test came, my purpose cracked and +shrivelled before it. Yes, I conquered; but the scars that purchased the +victory have ached through my life. + +There was but one calling wherein it seemed possible for me to earn my +bread; for how could I descend to chaffer in the market, to trim and +huckster through the world,--_I_, who had thought to condition the +Spirit of the Universe? But there were metaphors faintly shadowing +divine things, symbols adapted to the limitations of the popular mind, +and with these I might do an honest work for the souls of men. _Honest?_ +Yes,--unless Augustine was a hypocrite, when he declared that he spoke +of the Unseen as unity in three persons, less to say something than not +to remain altogether silent. To a certain order of minds among the +clergy this is the daily cross,--the necessity of maintaining a fixed +position, and ever looking down from it to teach, instead of ever +yearning upward to be taught. + +It is enough to say, that, supporting myself and my sister by +school-teaching, I achieved such courses of reading as are supposed to +qualify for enrolment among the liberal clergy of New England. Until the +time when my sister left me by marriage I was settled at N----, on the +Connecticut. Soon after this event, died old Dr. P---- of Foxden, and I +received a call to his vacant parish. I knew that the sort of society to +be found in that place would minister to my most urgent need. I craved +some intellectual clanship which should never seek to rise to an equal +spiritual companionship. For there was only one man to whom I might +speak freely, and from him my path ever diverged. How far apart the +years had led us! Sometimes there came a whisper that I had been +snatched from the hand of Satan, killer of souls; sometimes my only +opportunities of salvation seemed left in that sad, damp homestead. I +could never return to him; I could never be wholly free from him. Ever +was I controlled by a shadowy force which reached me from his abundant +power. No occupation was so absorbing as to protect me from the invading +presence of Herbert Vannelle. + + * * * * * + +The first Sunday of the present month brought the twentieth anniversary +of the day that I parted from Vannelle. In the morning I had preached a +written sermon on those solemn words of the Apostle, "Whatsoever is not +of faith is sin." For the first time I shrank from the consciousness +that the words uttered were true to me in a very different sense from +that in which the congregation received them. I found it difficult to +poise in tremulous balance between Truth and its available +representation to common men. It is my custom to preach extemporaneously +in the afternoon. Upon rising, after the introductory services, I could +perceive that my pulse and breathing were accelerated. A certain +numbness of the brain seemed pierced with convulsive, fugitive shocks. +An inexplicable influence, a command for cerebral sympathy, seemed +beating at my forehead. I turned the sacred pages before me, but could +find nothing upon which to base my remarks. But to my lips would come +incessantly a passage from Sir Thomas Browne. At last I gave it voice:-- + +"There are, as in philosophy, so in divinity, sturdy doubts and +boisterous objections wherewith the unhappiness of our knowledge too +nearly acquainteth us. More of these no man hath known than myself; +which I confess I conquered, not in martial attitude, but on my knees." + +An extraordinary impetus seemed imparted to my mental powers. Men have +said that I spoke with a fluency and eloquence unknown to them before. +Indeed, I was conscious of a capacity to receive and convey such +portions of divine wisdom as corresponded to their needs. To speak in +figure, my heavenly race was as if the Lord of Evil pursued my soul. + +Thoroughly exhausted by the effort, I returned to my study and threw +myself upon a sofa. More fully than ever before, I entered that state +where one far distant may make himself perceived and known. The occult +power of foreknowing events, the delicate perception of forbidden +things, worked their abnormal invigoration in the brain. I became +conscious that a carriage miles off was rolling nearer and nearer; I +knew that it would stop at my door. I waited, waited long into the +night. One by one went out the scattered village-lights. Another +consciousness of twenty years seemed compressed into those brilliant, +bitter hours. My lamp flickered. I rose with effort and supplied oil; it +would now burn till morning. The carriage came nearer. I knew that +Vannelle was in it. At last the heavy rumble ceased at the door. + +A figure stood before me. The old fascination in the eyes; a soul +burning with lofty enthusiasm looked through and kindled them. But the +face,--it was ghastly, livid as the face of a leper: it was +spectral,--blanched and dried with the white flames of his exalted +vigils. Ah, black eyes, well may you shine in terrible triumph! The old +idolatry this man demanded of me would not be repelled. I gazed upon my +visitor as upon a phantom from another sphere, and knew no reckoning of +time. His magnetism was upon me; I could only crouch into myself--and +wait. At length the silence was broken. + +"Charles Clifton, teacher of the people, listen that you may be taught! +For the last time I have come down into your world of passion and sense. +The impulses with which you vainly strive and wrestle are behind me. +Alone, alone, I have risen from the abysmal depths of personality. I +have struggled fiercely. I have also conquered." + +The livid face showed no change. It suddenly came to me, that, by some +voluntary disfigurement of his exquisite beauty of feature, this man had +cut away the lusts for pleasure, fame, and influence. What woman would +kiss that ghastly cheek? What sycophant could fawn and smirk in that +chilly presence? The injunctions concerning the offending eye and hand +Vannelle had interpreted literally. + +"I hold," he continued, "the noble prize of intellectual satisfaction +seized by effort. Multiply the self-satisfactions of earth by infinity, +and you may guess a little of the sublime contentment which wraps me +round! Does the best stage-trick of your liberal clergy help them to +anything but a plasticity of mind to be moulded into artistic forms of +skepticism? How can you feel the delight of a definite, positive +affirmation which accounts for and includes all creeds and lives of men? +How can you come out from your partial dogmas to enter Truth and find it +alone dogmatic and compulsive? Clifton, I pity you. I would rescue you +from this haze of thought and feeling,--I, who have even now discarded +Intelligence and enthroned Wisdom." + +"I hope to be pardoned," I said,--"the current of this life sets so in +favor of Utility and the Practical; men long to be fed with +sentiment,--why try to give them ideas?" + +"Fulfil, then, forever your little round of decencies and proprieties," +exclaimed Vannelle; "I judge you not. Perchance your weakness is the +pardonable weakness of one who has done his best. You may be guiltless +in failing to attain the strength, the glory, of a true conviction." + +"Is it too late?" I asked, faintly. + +"It is the question I must put to you," replied Herbert. "I bring you in +this manuscript the result of my life,--the result of two lives. Here is +written, as clearly as can be written in gross symbols of human +language, that which may suggest the Absolute, the Alpha and Omega, the +System, not humanly built upon hypothesis, but divinely founded upon +Law." + +I knew that a package had been placed upon the table at my side. + +"If you can so far command the fragmentary life you lead as to give this +manuscript the sober, searching thought which it invites, the truth may +be brought to you. But if these twenty years have only filled you with +the pride of inventing arguments and detecting analogies, if they have +only given you the petty skill of a petty scholar, why then dally on +with a tinsel variety of superficial attainments, and give others the +blessed privilege you are not strong enough to accept." + +"Take it from me," I said. "It has haunted me too long. What you may +have found, it is for your honor to promulgate." + +"The finding is enough for one life," replied Vannelle. "The spiritual +manhood is indeed complete, but the shell which enclosed it totters +towards earth. My responsibility in this matter is at an end: yours will +now begin." + +A tremor ran through my frame as he spoke these words. A mystery rigid +as Fate seemed to shackle me. Without seeing him go, I knew that +Vannelle had left the room. Again was I conscious of the carriage-rumble +growing fainter, fainter, fainter in the distance. A dream of passionate +excitement, a phantasmagoria of old wishes, old hopes, of the life I +might have led, flew before me. For a moment the energy of Vannelle +seemed to have transfused itself through every fibre. An unquenchable +thirst that I had never summoned struck into my brain. I seized the +manuscript, and devoured page after page. Then I felt the approaches of +a supreme despotism that might annihilate all I had been, all I hoped to +be,--that might compel me to denounce all that I had taught, to hear all +that was respectable and healthy in the world jeer at me as an impostor, +an enthusiast, a madman. It was not that I was simply invited to come +above the ordinary doctrines of the day, and stand supported and +encouraged by a few advanced minds; but I was called to place myself +where the most earnest souls--unless a second birth could be granted +them--would scoff with the ignorance and intolerance of the mass. + +At last the gray light of morning shone upon me. + +One of my deacons, whistling sturdily, passed along the street. A +physical emanation from his healthy vitality partially counteracted the +influence of the night. Gathering up every muscle of my feeble will, I +closed the manuscript forever. Hereditary imperfections of body and mind +confine me to a sphere of reputable usefulness. If I have sinned in the +past, I have also suffered. If, as I sometimes suspect, I have thrust +from me the grandest opportunity ever offered to man, the loss through +all eternity will be mine. + +In eight days I heard of the death of Herbert Vannelle. + + +III. + +As the last words of his strange narration fell from Clifton's lips, he +bowed his head and was greatly agitated. The vast theologic conception +over which he had so long brooded, instead of lifting him on high, had +crushed him to the earth. His moral consciousness had demanded a +satisfaction which he lacked integrity of purpose to pursue and +challenge. A fixed conviction of the dreariest pessimism would have been +better for this man than the lofty uncertainty which had tortured his +days; for in the belief that one may neither struggle nor aspire there +is a certain practical drift. But how shall he do any good who bears +about him a quick conscience, a skeptical understanding, sensitive +religious affections, and a feeble will? Charles Clifton had neither the +leisure, nor possibly the application, to follow the creeping advances +of systematic knowledge. He had listened to a fatal persuasion, and at +the same time had sought to satisfy contradictory principles of the +human mind. The kindest thing I could do for him was soon perceived. + +"Reverend Sir," I said, "you must permit me to advise you. It is now six +o'clock. In an hour the early train leaves for Foxden. You must take it +and return home. Any further vacuum in your daily employment will +produce a crushing pressure from without that might endanger reason +itself. I solemnly promise to deposit this manuscript in the Mather +Safe,--nay, I will not leave town until the President and Treasurer have +met me this afternoon according to your agreement. I pledge you my honor +that the parchment shall be consigned to its resting-place with every +necessary formality." + +My companion gazed long upon vacancy before returning any answer. He +strove to dispel the cloud-pageantry which had sailed above him in +shapeless beauty. He walked up and down the chamber, paused, threw open +the window, and looked upon the street below. I felt that every petty +detail of man's daily craft struck outlines of painful vividness upon +the morbid sensibility of his condition. Finally he spoke to this +effect: -- + +"A grief has been lessened in giving it words. My deepest and most +solitary moments have been revealed to human sympathy, and the relief is +great. It may be that I have been created to some wholesome end,--that +some truth may shine before the world through what seems the failure of +my life. I will return at once to the sphere of the senses: it is, as +you say, all that is left me. Let who will inquire into the significance +and purpose of the Universe; it is for me to work in the bondage of the +flesh, to be the humble tool of the age in which my lot is cast." + +Yet it was not easy to induce the clergyman to commit to my care the +conclusion of the enterprise which had brought him to town. His peculiar +nervous temperament foretold a thousand accidents that might befall the +precious legacy of his friend. It was only by addressing his reason in +repeated arguments, and by solemnly asseverating my entire fidelity, +that I induced him to yield. + +It was a gracious gift to be once more alone. + +I seemed awakened from a dream of pining exultation, of dark foreboding. +Without acknowledging it to myself, I had been strangely wrought upon by +what I had read and heard. As Clifton emerged from the magical influence +of Vannelle, was it not concentrated upon me? The impulse to return to +the perusal of the manuscript was almost irresistible. Yet it was +evident, that, failing to receive as my very life what was there +written, I should become hopelessly entangled in discrepancies and +contradictions. A glance at the imminent peril sent me shuddering to my +only safety. + +It has been mentioned that I had interested myself in some inquiries +tending to modify the received understanding of a certain natural law. +During my morning in the College Library I had collected the records of +many facts, which, laboriously compared, might confirm the hypothesis I +had conceived. I now braced myself to the task of tracing an order in +these random observations. I was soon stimulated by perceiving that my +statistics seemed to confirm the justice of the reasoning which at +first roused my suspicion. More and more plainly did man's experience +respond to the results I had dared to predict. Trivial circumstances, +noted in remote times and disconnected places, pointed in one direction, +and there beat the regular pulse of Nature. + +It is perhaps a little humiliating to mention, what I afterwards +discovered, that the doctrine which I endeavored to reach had been +already conceived and passed upon by a not very eminent scientist in one +of the Western States. But at that time absorption in the search for +attainable truth was necessary to my welfare; and, with very brief +intervals for rest and refreshment, I continued my pursuit until the +afternoon-hour for visiting the library. + +The President and Treasurer entered the building at five o'clock. + +For some minutes I had stood before the massive doors of the Mather +Safe, wondering if any of its mysterious contents could be more singular +than the consignment about to be made to its keeping. + +"Is Mr. Clifton of Foxden in the library?" inquired the President. + +"I am here to represent him," I replied. "He made a strange mistake in +the day of appointment, and was compelled to leave town this morning. +The package which he wished to deposit in the Mather Safe I hold in my +hand." + +"_Lex Universalis Naturæ_; THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE," exclaimed +the Treasurer, reading the inscription upon the outer parchment. "Poh, +poh! I thought that sort of philosophy had long ago been handed over to +the limbo of fallacies." + +"By those who have neither feeling nor imagination enough to care for +anything not transmutable into dollars, perhaps it has," I rejoined, +somewhat tartly. + +"Come, come!" said the President, in his good-natured, rolling tones; +"since the days of the great Jonathan, our New-England metaphysicians +have generally been broken-down poets, and should be treated with the +greatest tenderness. Some flighty minds will prefer dangerous trips to +dream-land to the rigid demonstrations of figures; but the mass of our +graduates accept the teaching of their Alma Mater, that only the +mathematician has the right to investigate, and that of all philosophers +only natural philosophers are competent instructors." + +"Yet, Sir," I said, "you will remember that the time was when your +natural philosophers were persecuted as wizards by Church and State. +Even the mathematician is defined by an old lexicographer to be '_Magus +dæmonum invocator_'; and I cannot forget that all that is of honor and +respect to-day is but the actual of a once despised ideal." + +I really marvelled at my own audacity in presuming to question the words +of this distinguished and excellent gentleman. Indeed, it was +particularly surprising, because (if I knew myself) I precisely agreed +with him. But there is a certain waywardness in my composition, which +loves to puncture an inflated conventionality, even when I myself am +most conventional. + +In the mean time the Treasurer, taking the President's key with his own, +had opened the Safe. I looked in and beheld coffers of lead and oak, +nooks and pigeon-holes covered and sealed with the College seal, little +cells of glass which appeared to hold documents of the utmost +importance, and, in short, whatever might best defy the injuries of +time. The weighty book which registered the contents of the Safe was +opened before me. I was told to write the number assigned to the +manuscript, to describe its present condition, and to indicate its +destination. This I carefully did, and was about to confide my charge to +its long oblivion. + +"Stay!" said the President. "You have forgotten the mottoes! Here is +only one; and it is our rule that every deposit in the Mather Safe be +distinguished by three, in as many languages. + + '_Alteri Sæculo_.' + +The selection is good, though it has already been adopted by a +Massachusetts statesman. It is now for you to supply two others." + +Singular as it may appear, this sudden call to perform a trifling office +which I had not anticipated, filled me with a conflict of emotions. In +choosing another's words, I seemed to indorse or repudiate the strange +matter with which they were to be associated. I thought of Vannelle's +wondrous language, of Clifton's exhilaration, and of the vivid buoyancy +with which my spirit had striven to rise. I even groped for some phrase +which might hint what delicate aërial impressions had tended to condense +the soul on the supreme point of spiritual ecstasy. But memory was a +blank when I demanded words for this seeming-glorious fact in the +experience of humanity. Success was made impossible by the very +intensity of the effort to summon an appropriate message to be dropped +over the abyss of Time. I was confident that there were many apt things +which might be said, if I could come at them, as it were, sideways. In +order that I might take them at this advantage, I snatched a letter from +my pocket, and began to read. My eye was soon caught by the impression +of a seal that I had once given my wife. It was a good [woman's] motto, +I jestingly told her; and now it was returned to me at my sorest need. +Six little words of the good Pascal,-- + + "_Le plus sûr est de croire_." + +Something compelled me to write them, and a new freedom was with me when +I had done so. + +"Make haste, make haste, for the prayer-bell is ringing!" cried the +President "See, here is a copy of Plato's 'Phædrus,'--a work which our +vapory brethren are fond of quoting, generally at second-hand; perhaps +you may pick out a sentence that will prophesy with sufficient +ambiguity." + +But it was not Plato or his "Phædrus" that then claimed my thoughts. +There loomed a Rock graven with more august instruction than the sage of +the Academy was privileged to communicate,--a Rock against which the +heaving surface of human opinion had chafed and broken in vain. Tossed +to and fro upon the tide of life, who has not sometimes listened to the +wrangling voices which shouted, "Mystical Interpretation," "Absolute +Fiction," "Huge Conglomerate of Myths"? Whose eye has never been caught +by the sparkling tinsel of modern philosophies, with their Seers, +Heroes, Missions, Developments, Insights, Principles of Nature, +Clairvoyance, and Magnetic Currents? Happy those who are able to return +to that one channel through which magnetic currents have indeed +descended from an unseen sphere, and touched the noblest hearts! For +there _is_ a certain mediation between the necessities and aspirations +of man,--an assured deliverance from the gross and sordid surroundings +of his earthly life. There came before me one simple period from a +familiar Book. Most direct and confident is the solemn statement. I +wrote it as the final motto. + + + "NOW THE SERPENT WAS MORE SUBTILE THAN ANY BEAST OF THE FIELD WHICH + THE LORD GOD HAD MADE." + +THE TERTIARY AGE, AND ITS CHARACTERISTIC ANIMALS. + + +In entering upon the Tertiaries, we reach that geological age which, +next to his own, has the deepest interest for man. The more striking +scenes of animal life, hitherto confined chiefly to the ocean, are now +on land; the extensive sheets of fresh water are filled with fishes of a +comparatively modern character,--with Whitefish, Pickerel, Perch, Eels, +etc.,--while the larger quadrupeds are introduced upon the continents so +gradually prepared to receive them. The connection of events throughout +the Tertiaries, considered as leading up to the coming of man, may be +traced not only in the physical condition of the earth, and in the +presence of the large terrestrial Mammalia, but also in the appearance +of those groups of animals and plants which we naturally associate with +the domestic and social existence of man. Cattle and Horses are first +found in the middle Tertiaries; the grains, the Rosaceæ, with their +variety of fruits, the tropical fruit-trees, Oranges, Bananas, etc., the +shade- and cluster-trees, so important to the comfort and shelter of +man, are added to the vegetable world during these epochs. The fossil +vegetation of the Tertiaries is, indeed, most interesting from this +point of view, showing the gradual maturing and completion of those +conditions most intimately associated with human life. The earth had +already its seasons, its spring and summer, its autumn and winter, its +seed-time and harvest, though neither sower nor reaper was there; the +forests then, as now, dropped their thick carpet of leaves upon the +ground in the autumn, and in many localities they remain where they +originally fell, with a layer of soil between the successive layers of +leaves,--a leafy chronology, as it were, by which we read the passage of +the years which divided these deposits from each other. Where the leaves +have fallen singly on a clayey soil favorable for receiving such +impressions, they have daguerreotyped themselves with the most wonderful +accuracy, and the Oaks, Poplars, Willows, Maples, Walnuts, Gum- and +Cinnamon-trees, etc., of the Tertiaries are as well known to us as are +those of our own time. + +It was an eventful day, not only for science, but for the world, when a +Siberian fisherman chanced to observe a singular mound lying near the +mouth of the River Lena, where it empties into the Arctic Ocean. During +the warmer summer-weather, he noticed, that, as the snow gradually +melted, this mound assumed a more distinct and prominent outline, and at +length, on one side of it, where the heat of the sun was greatest, a +dark body became exposed, which, when completely uncovered, proved to be +that of an immense elephant, in so perfect a state of preservation that +the dogs and wolves were attracted to it as by the smell of fresh meat, +and came to feed upon it at night. The man knew little of the value of +his discovery, but the story went abroad, and an Englishman travelling +in Russia, being curious to verify it, visited the spot, and actually +found the remains where they had been reported to lie, on the frozen +shore of the Arctic Sea,--strange burial-place enough for an animal +never known to exist out of tropical climates. Little beside the +skeleton was left, though parts of the skin remained covered with hair, +showing how perfect must have been the condition of the body when first +exposed. The tusks had been sold by the fisherman; but Mr. Adams +succeeded in recovering them; and collecting all the bones except those +of one foot, which had been carried off by the wolves, he had them +removed to St. Petersburg, where the skeleton now stands in the Imperial +Museum. The inhabitants of Siberia seem to be familiar with this animal, +which they designate by the name of _Mammoth_, while naturalists call +it _Elephas primigenius_. The circumstance that they abound in the +frozen drift of the great northern plain of Asia, and are occasionally +exposed in consequence of the wearing of the large rivers traversing +Siberia, has led to the superstition among the Tongouses, that the +Mammoths live under ground, and die whenever, on coming to the surface, +the sunlight falls upon them. + +[Illustration] + +Had this been the only creature of the kind found so far from the +countries to which elephants are now exclusively confined, it might have +been believed that some strange accident had brought it to the spot +where it was buried. But it was not long before similar remains were +found in various parts of Europe,--in Russia, in Germany, in Spain, and +in Italy. The latter were readily accounted for by the theory that they +must be the remains of the Carthaginian elephants brought over by the +armies of Hannibal, while it was suggested that the others might have +been swept from India by some great flood, and stranded where they were +found. It was Cuvier, entitled by his intimate acquaintance with the +anatomy of living animals to an authoritative opinion in such matters, +who first dared to assert that these remains belonged to no elephant of +our period. He rested this belief upon structural evidence, and insisted +that an Indian elephant, brought upon the waves of a flood to Siberia, +would be an Indian elephant still, while all these remains differed in +structure from any species existing at present. This statement aroused +research in every direction, and the number of fossil Mammalia found +within the next few years, and proved by comparison to be different from +any living species, soon demonstrated the truth of his conclusion. + +[Illustration] + +Shortly after the discovery of fossil elephants had opened this new path +of investigation, some curious bones were found by some workmen in the +quarries of Montmartre, near Paris, and brought to Cuvier for +examination. Although few in number, and affording but very scanty +_data_ for such a decision, he at once pronounced them to be the remains +of some extinct animal preceding the present geological age. Here, then, +at his very door, as it were, was a settlement of that old creation in +which he could pursue the inquiry, already become so important in its +bearings. It was not long before other bones of the same kind were +found, though nothing as yet approaching an entire skeleton. However, +with such means as he had, Cuvier began a comparison with all the living +Mammalia,--with the human skeleton first, with Monkeys, with the larger +Carnivora and Ruminants, then with all the smaller Mammalia, then with +the Pachyderms; and here, for the first time, he began to find some +resemblance. He satisfied himself that the animal must have belonged to +the family of Pachyderms; and he then proceeded to analyze and compare +all the living species, till he had collected ample evidence to show +that the bones in question did not correspond with any species, and +could not even be referred to any genus, now in existence. At length +there was discovered at Montmartre an upper jaw of the same +animal,--next a lower jaw, matching the upper one, and presently a whole +head with a few backbones was brought to light. These were enough, with +Cuvier's vast knowledge of animal structure, to give him a key to the +whole skeleton. At about the same time, in the same locality, were found +other bones and teeth also, differing from those first discovered, and +yet equally unlike those of any living animal. The first evidently +belonged to some stout and heavy animal, the others were more slender +and of lighter build. From these fragments, ample evidence to him of his +results, he drew the outlines of two animals: one which he called the +Palæotherium, (old animal,) a figure of which is given in the above +wood-cut, and the other Anoplotherium, (animal without fangs). He +presented these figures with an explanatory memoir at the Academy, and +announced them as belonging to some creation preceding the present, +since no such animals had ever existed in our own geological period. +Such a statement was a revelation to the scientific world: some looked +upon it with suspicion and distrust; others, who knew more of +comparative anatomy, hailed it as introducing a new era in science; but +it was not till complete specimens were actually found of animals +corresponding perfectly to those figured and described by Cuvier, and +proving beyond a doubt their actual existence in ancient times, that all +united in wonder and admiration at the result obtained by him with such +scanty means. + +It would seem that the family of Pachyderms was largely represented +among the early Mammalia; for, since Cuvier named these species, a +number of closely allied forms have been found in deposits belonging to +the same epoch. Of course, the complete specimens are rare; but the +fragments of such skeletons occur in abundance, showing that these +old-world Pachyderms, resembling the Tapirs more than any other living +representatives of the family, were very numerous in the lower +Tertiaries. + +There is, however, one animal now in existence, forming one of those +singular links before alluded to between the present and the past, of +which I will say a few words here, though its relation is rather with a +later group of Tertiary Pachyderms than with those described by Cuvier. +On the coast of Florida there is an animal of very massive, clumsy +build, long considered to be a Cetacean, but now recognized, by some +naturalists at least, as belonging to the order of Pachyderms. In form +it resembles the Cetaceans, though it has a fan-shaped tail, instead of +the broad flapper of the Whales. It inhabits fresh waters or shoal +waters, and is not so exclusively aquatic as the oceanic Cetaceans. Its +most striking feature is the form of the lower jaw, which is bent +downward, with the front teeth hanging from it. This animal is called +the Manatee, or Sea-Cow. There are three species known to +naturalists,--one in Tampa Bay, one in the Amazon, and one in Africa. In +the Tertiary deposits of Germany there has been found an animal allied +in some of its features to those described by Cuvier, but it has the +crown of its teeth folded like the Tapir, while the lower jaw is turned +down with a long tusk growing from it. This animal has been called the +Dinotherium. A part of the head, showing the heavy jaws and the +formidable tusk, is represented in the subjoined wood-cut. + +[Illustration] + +Its hanging lower jaw, with the protruding tusk, corresponds perfectly +to the formation of the lower jaw and teeth in the Manatee. Some +resemblance of the Dinotherium to the Mastodon suggested a comparison +with that animal as the next step in the investigation, when it was +found that at the edge of the lower jaw of the latter there was a pit +with a small projecting tooth, also corresponding exactly in its +position to the tusk in the Dinotherium. The Elephant was now examined; +and in him also a rudimentary tooth appeared in the lower jaw, not cut +through, but placed in the same relation to the jaw and the other teeth +as that of the Mastodon. It would seem, then, that the Manatee makes one +in this series of Dinotherium, Mastodon, and Elephant, and represents +the aquatic Pachyderms, occupying the same relation to the terrestrial +Pachyderms as the Seals bear to the terrestrial Carnivora, and, like +them, lowest in structure among their kind. + +The announcement of Cuvier's results stimulated research, and from this +time forward Tertiary Mammalia became the subject of extensive and most +important investigations among naturalists. The attention of collectors +once drawn to these remains, they were found in such numbers that the +wonder was how they had been so long hidden from the observation of men. +They remind us chiefly of tropical animals; indeed, Tigers, Hyenas, +Rhinoceroses, Hippopotamuses, Mastodons, and Elephants had their home in +countries which now belong to the Cold Temperate Zone, showing that the +climate in these latitudes was much milder then than it is at present. +Bones of many of these animals were found in caverns in Germany, France, +Italy, and England. Perhaps the story of Kirkdale Cave, where the first +important discovery of this kind was made on English soil, may not be so +well known to American readers as to forbid its repetition here. + +It was in the summer of 1821 that some workmen, employed in quarrying +stone upon the slope of a limestone hill at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, came +accidentally upon the mouth of a cavern. Overgrown with grass and +bushes, the mouth of this cave in the hill-side had been effectually +closed against all intruders, and it was not strange that its existence +had never been suspected. The hole was small, but large enough to admit +a man on his hands and knees; and the workmen, creeping in through the +opening, found that it led into a cavern, broad in some parts, but low +throughout. There were only a few spots where a man could stand upright; +but it was quite extensive, with branches opening out from it, some of +which have not yet been explored. The whole floor was strewn, from one +end to the other, with hundreds of bones, like a huge dog-kennel. The +workmen wondered a little at their discovery, but, remembering that +there had been a murrain among the cattle in this region some years +before, they came to the conclusion that these must be the bones of +cattle that had died in great numbers at that time; and, having so +settled the matter to their own satisfaction, they took little heed to +the bones, but threw many of them out on the road with the common +limestone. Fortunately, a gentleman, living in the neighborhood, whose +attention had been attracted to them, preserved them from destruction; +and a few months after the discovery of the cave, Dr. Buckland, the +great English geologist, visited Kirkdale, to examine its strange +contents, which proved indeed stranger than any one had imagined; for +many of these remains belonged to animals never before found in England. +The bones of Hyenas, Tigers, Elephants, Rhinoceroses, and Hippopotamuses +were mingled with those of Deer, Bears, Wolves, Foxes, and many smaller +creatures. The bones were gnawed, and many were broken, evidently not by +natural decay, but seemed to have been snapped violently apart. After +the most complete investigation of the circumstances, Dr. Buckland +convinced himself, and proved to the satisfaction of all scientific men, +that the cave had been a den of Hyenas[A] at a time when they, as well +as Tigers, Elephants, Rhinoceroses, etc., existed in England in as great +numbers as they now do in the wildest parts of tropical Asia or Africa. +The narrow entrance to the cave still retained the marks of grease and +hair, such as one may see on the bars of a cage in a menagerie against +which the imprisoned animals have been in the habit of rubbing +themselves constantly, and there were marks of the same kind on the +floor and walls. + +[Footnote A: Among the other facts showing that Kirkdale Cave had been +the den of these animals, and not tenanted as their home by any of the +other creatures whose remains occurred there, were the excrements of the +Hyenas found in considerable quantity by Dr. Buckland, and identified as +such by the keeper of a menagerie. Any one who may wish to read the +whole history of Dr. Buckland's investigations of this matter, showing +the patience and sagacity with which he collected and arranged the +evidence, will find a full account of Kirkdale Cave and other caverns +containing fossil bones in his "Reliquiæ Diluvianæ."] + +It was evident that the Hyenas were the lords of this ancient cavern, +and the other animals their unwilling guests; for the remains of the +latter were those which had been most gnawed, broken, and mangled; and +the head of an enormous Hyena, with gigantic fangs found complete, bore +ample evidence to their great size and power. Some of the animals, such +as the Elephants, Rhinoceroses, etc., could not have been brought into +the cave without being first killed and torn to pieces, for it is not +large enough to admit them. But their gnawed and broken bones attest, +nevertheless, that they were devoured like the rest; and probably the +Hyenas then had the same propensity which characterizes those of our own +time, to tear in pieces the body of any dead animal, and carry it to +their den to feed upon it apart. + +[Illustration] + +While Kirkdale Cave was evidently the haunt of Hyenas chiefly, other +caverns in Germany and France were tenanted in a similar manner by a +gigantic species of Bear. Their remains, mingled with those of the +animals on which they fed, have been found in great numbers in the +Cavern of Gailenreuth, in Franconia. The subjoined wood-cut shows the +head of this formidable beast, which must have exceeded in size any Bear +now living. Indeed, although there were many smaller kinds, and the +other types of the Animal Kingdom in the Tertiaries seem to approach +very nearly both in size and general character their modern +representatives, yet, on the whole, the earlier Mammalia were giants in +comparison with those now living. The Mastodon and Mammoth, as compared +with the modern Elephant, the Megatherium, as compared with the Sloths +of present times, the Hyenas and Bears of the European caverns, and the +fossil Elk of Ireland, by the side of which even the Moose of our +Northern woods is belittled, are remarkable instances in proof of this. +One cannot but be struck with the fact that this first representation of +Mammalia, the very impersonation of brute force in power, size, and +ferocity, immediately preceded the introduction of man, with whose +creation intelligence and moral strength became the dominant influences +on earth. + +[Illustration] + +Among these huge Tertiary Mammalia, one of those most common on the +North-American continent seems to have been the Mastodon. The +magnificent specimens preserved in this country are too well known to +require description. The remains of the Rhinoceros occur also in the +recent Tertiary deposits of North America, though as yet no perfect +skeletons have been found. The Edentata, now confined to South America +and the western coast of Africa, were also numerous in the Southern +States during that time; their remains have been found as far north as +the Salt Lick in Kentucky. But we must not judge of the Tertiary +Edentata by any now known to us. The Sloths, the Armadillos, the +Ant-Eaters, the Pangolins, are all animals of rather small size; but +formerly they were represented by the gigantic Megatherium, the +Megalonyx, and the Mylodon, some of which were larger than the Elephant, +and others about the same size of the Rhinoceros or Hippopotamus. The +subjoined wood-cut represents a Mylodon in the act of lifting himself +against the trunk of a tree. + +[Illustration] + +They were clumsy brutes, and though their limbs were evidently built +with reference to powerful movements, perhaps climbing, or at least +rising on their hind quarters, the act of climbing with them cannot have +had anything of the nimbleness or activity generally associated with it. +On the contrary, they probably were barely able to support their huge +bodies on their hind limbs, which are exceedingly massive, and on the +stiff, heavy tail, while they dragged down with their front limbs the +branches of the trees, and fed upon them at leisure. The Zoölogical +Museum at Cambridge is indebted to the generosity of Mr. Joshua Bates +for a very fine set of casts taken from the Megatherium in the British +Museum. They are now mounted, and may be seen in one of the +exhibition-rooms of the building. Large Reptiles, but very unlike those +of the Cretaceous and Jurassic epochs, belonging chiefly to the types of +Turtles, Crocodiles, Pythons, and Salamanders, existed during the +Tertiary epochs. The wood-cut below represents a gigantic Salamander of +the Tertiary deposits. It is a curious fact, illustrative of the +ignorance of all anatomical science in those days, that, when the +remains of this reptile (Audrias, as it is now called) were first +discovered toward the close of the seventeenth century, they were +described by old Professor Scheuchzer as the bones of an infant +destroyed by the Deluge, and were actually preserved, not for their +scientific value, but as precious relics of the Flood, and described in +a separate pamphlet, entitled, "Homo Diluvii Testis." Among the Tertiary +Reptiles the Turtles seem to have been a very prominent type, by their +size as well as by their extensive distribution. Their remains have been +found both in the far West and in the East. The fossil Turtles of +Nebraska are well known to American naturalists; but the Oriental one +exceeds them in size, and is, indeed, the most gigantic representative +of the order known thus far. A man could stand under the arch of the +shield of the old Himalayan Turtle preserved in the British Museum. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +It would carry me too far, were I to attempt to give anything more than +the most cursory sketch of the animals of the Tertiary age; and, indeed, +they are so well known, and have been so fully represented in +text-books, that I fear some of my readers may think even now that I +have dwelt too long upon them. Monkeys were unquestionably introduced +upon earth before the close of the Tertiaries; some bones have been +found in Southern France, and also on Mount Pentelicus in Greece, in the +later Tertiary deposits; but these remains have not yet been collected +in sufficient number to establish much more than the fact of their +presence in the animal creation at that time. I do not offer any opinion +respecting the fossil human bones so much discussed recently, because +the evidence is at present too scanty to admit of any decisive judgment +concerning them. It becomes, however, daily more probable that facts +will force us sooner or later to admit that the creation of man lies far +beyond any period yet assigned to it, and that a succession of human +races, as of animals, have followed one another upon the earth. It may +be the inestimable privilege of our young naturalists to solve this +great problem, but the older men of our generation must be content to +renounce this hope; we may have some prophetic vision of its fulfilment, +we may look from afar into the land of promise, but we shall not enter +in and possess it. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +The other great types of the Animal Kingdom are very fully represented +in the Tertiaries, and in their general appearance they approach much +more closely those of the present creation than of any previous epochs. +Professor Heer has collected and described the Tertiary Insects in great +number and variety; and the Butterflies, Bugs, Flies, Grasshoppers, +Dragon-Flies, Beetles, etc., described in his volumes, would hardly be +distinguished from our own, except by a practised entomologist. Among +Crustacea, the Shrimp-like forms of the earlier geological epochs have +become much less conspicuous, while Crabs and Lobsters are now the +prominent representatives of the class. Among Mollusks, the Chambered +Shells, hitherto so numerous, have become, as they now are, very few in +comparison with the naked Cephalopods. The Nautili, however, resemble +those now living in the Pacific Ocean; and some fragments of the +Paper-Nautilus have been found, showing that this delicate shell was +already in existence. There is one very peculiar type of this class, +belonging to the Tertiaries, which should not be passed by unnoticed. It +partakes of the character both of the Cretaceous Belemnites and of the +living Cuttle-Fish, and is known as the Spirulirostra. Another very +characteristic group among the Tertiary Shells is that of the +Nummulites, formerly placed by naturalists in immediate proximity with +the Ammonites, on account of their internal partitions. This is now +admitted to have been an error; their position is not yet fully +determined, but they certainly stand very low in the scale, and have no +affinity whatever with the Cephalopods. The subjoined wood-cut +represents one of these Shells, so numerous in the Tertiaries that large +masses of rock consist of their remains. The Univalve Shells or +Gasteropods of the Tertiaries embraced all the families now living, +including land and fresh-water Shells as well as the marine +representatives of the type. Some of the latter, as, for instance, the +Cerithium, are accumulated in vast numbers. The limestone quarries out +of which Paris is chiefly built consist wholly of these Shells. The +fresh-water basins were filled with Helices, one of which is represented +in the following wood-cut, with Planorbis, Limnæus and other Shells +resembling those now so common in all our lakes and rivers, and +differing from the living ones only by slight specific characters. The +Bivalves also have the same resemblance to the present ones, including +fresh-water Mussels as well as the marine Clams and Oysters. Among +Radiates, the higher Echini (Sea-Urchins) have become numerous, while +the other Echinoderms of all families abound. Corals include, for the +first time, the more highly organized Madrepores. + +[Illustration] + +In the Tertiaries we see the dawn of the present condition of things, +not only in the character of the animals and plants, but in the height +of the mountains and in the distribution of land and sea. + +Let us give a glance at the continents whose growth we have been +following, and see what these more recent geological epochs have done +for their completion. In Europe they have filled the basin in Central +France, and converted all that region into dry land: they have filled +also the channel between France and Spain; they have united Central +Russia with the rest of Europe by the completion of Poland, and have +greatly enlarged Austria and Turkey; they have completed the +promontories of Italy and Greece, and have converted the inland sea at +the foot of the Jura into the plain of Switzerland. But this fruitful +period in the progress of the world, when the character of organic life +was higher and the physical features of the earth more varied than ever +before, was not without its storms and convulsions. The Pyrenees, the +Apennines, the Alps, and with them the whole range of the Caucasus and +Himalayas, were raised either immediately after the Cretaceous epoch, or +in the course of the Tertiaries. Indeed, with this most significant +passage in her history, Europe acquired all her essential characters. +There remained, it is true, much to be done in what is called by +geologists "modern times." The work of the artist is not yet finished +when his statue is blocked out and the grand outline of his conception +stands complete; and there still remained, after the earth was rescued +from the water, after her framework of mountains was erected, after her +soil was clothed with field and forest, processes by which her valleys +were to be made more fruitful, her gulfs to be filled with the rich +detritus poured into them by the rivers, her whole surface to be +rendered more habitable for the higher races who were to possess it. + +We left America at the close of the Carboniferous epoch. A glance at the +geological map will show the reader that during the Permian, Triassic, +and Jurassic epochs little was added to the United States, though here +and there deposits belonging to each of them crop out. In the Cretaceous +epoch, however, large tracts of land were accumulated, chiefly in the +South and West; and during the Tertiaries the continent was very nearly +completed, leaving only a narrow gulf running up to the neighborhood of +St. Louis to be filled by modern detritus, and the peninsula of Florida +to be built by the industrious Coral-Workers of our own period. The age +of the Alleghany chain is not yet positively determined, but it was +probably raised at the close of the Carboniferous epoch. Up to that +time, only the Laurentian Hills, the northern side of that mountainous +triangle which now makes the skeleton, as it were, of the United States, +existed. The upheaval of the Alleghanies added its eastern side, raising +the central part of the continent so as to form a long slope from the +base of the Alleghanies to the Pacific Ocean; but it was not until the +Tertiary Age that the upheaval of the great chain at the West completed +the triangle, and transformed that wide westerly slope into the +Mississippi Valley, bounded on one side by the Alleghanies, and on the +other by the Rocky Mountains. + +It is my belief, founded upon the tropical character of the Fauna, that +a much milder climate then prevailed over the whole northern hemisphere +than is now known to it. Some naturalists have supposed that the +presence of the tropical Mammalia in the Northern Temperate Zone might +be otherwise accounted for,--that they might have been endowed with +warmer covering, with thicker hair or fur. But I think the simpler and +more natural reason for their existence throughout the North is to be +found in the difference of climate; and I am the more inclined to this +opinion because the Tertiary animals generally, the Fishes, Shells, +etc., in the same regions, are more closely allied in character to those +now living in the Tropics than to those of the Temperate Zones. The +Tertiary age may be called the geological summer; we shall see, +hereafter, how abruptly it was brought to a close. + +One word more as to the relation of the Tertiary Mammalia to the +creation which preceded them. I can only repeat here the argument used +before: the huge quadrupeds characteristic of these epochs make their +appearance suddenly, and the deposits containing them follow as +immediately upon those of the Cretaceous epoch, in which no trace of +them occurs, as do those of the Cretaceous upon those of the Jurassic +epoch. I would remind the reader that in the central basin of France, in +which Cuvier found his first Palæotherium, and which afterwards proved +to have been thickly settled by the early Mammalia, the deposits of the +Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary epochs follow each other in +immediate, direct, uninterrupted succession; that the same is true of +other localities, in Germany, in Southern Europe, in England, where the +most complete collections have been made from all these deposits; and +there has never been brought to light a single fact leading us to +suppose that any intermediate forms have ever existed through which more +recent types have been developed out of older ones. For thirty years +Geology has been gradually establishing, by evidence the fulness and +accuracy of which are truly amazing, the regularity in the sequence of +the geological formations, and distinguishing, with ever-increasing +precision, the specific differences of the animals and plants contained +in these accumulations of past ages. These results bear living testimony +to the wonderful progress of the kindred sciences of Geology and +Palæontology in the last half-century; and the development-theory has +but an insecure foundation so long as it attempts to strengthen itself +by belittling the geological record, the assumed imperfection of which, +in default of positive facts, has now become the favorite argument of +its upholders. + +THE NEW SANGREAL. + + + "Show me the Sangreal, Lord! Show me Thy blood! + Thy body and Thy blood! Give me the Quest! + Lord, I am faint and tired; my soul is sick + Of all the falseness, all the little aims, + The weary vanities, the gasping joys, + The slow procession of this satiate world! + Dear Lord, I burn for Thee! Give me Thy Quest! + Down through the old reverberating time, + I see Thy knights in wonderful array + Go out to victory, like the solemn stars + Fighting in courses, with their conquering swords, + Their sad, fixed lips of purity and strength, + Their living glory, their majestic death. + Give me Thy Quest! Show me the Sangreal, Lord!" + + He lay upon a mountain's rocky crest, + So high, that all the glittering, misty world, + All summer's splendid tempests, lay below, + And sudden lightnings quivered at his feet; + So still, not any sound of silentness + Expressed the silence, nor the pallid sun + Burned on his eyelids; all alone and still, + Save for the prayer that struggled from his lips, + Broken with eager stress. Then he arose. + But always, down the hoary mountain-side, + Through whispering forests, by soft-rippled streams, + In clattering streets, or the great city's roar, + Still from his never sated soul went up, + "Give me Thy Quest! Show me the Sangreal, Lord!" + + Through all the land there poured a trumpet's clang, + And when its silvery anger smote the air, + Men sprang to arms from every true man's home, + And followed to the field. He followed, too,-- + All the mad blood of manhood in his veins, + All the fierce instincts of a warring race + Kindled like flame in every tingling limb, + And raging in his soul on fire with war. + He heard a thousand voices call him on: + Lips hot with anguish, shrieking their despair + From swamps and forests and the still bayous + That hide the wanderer, nor bewray his lair: + From fields and marshes where the tropic sun + Scorches a million laborers scourged to work; + From homes that are not homes; from mother-hearts + Torn from the infants lingering at their breasts; + From parted lovers, and from shuddering wives; + From men grown mad with whips and tyranny; + From all a country groaning in its chains. + Nor sleep, nor dream beguiled him any more; + He leaped to manhood in one torrid hour, + And armed, and sped to battle. Now no more + He cried or prayed,--"Show me the Sangreal, Lord!" + + So in the front of deadly strife he stood; + The glorious thunder of the roaring guns, + The restless hurricane of screaming shells, + The quick, sharp singing of the rifle-balls, + The sudden clash of sabres, and the beat + Of rapid horse-hoofs galloping at charge, + Made a great chorus to his valorous soul, + The dreadful music of a grappling world, + That hurried him to fight. He turned the tide, + But fell upon its turning. Over him + Fluttered the starry flag, and fluttered on, + While he lay helpless on the trampled sward, + His hot life running scarlet from its source, + And all his soul in sudden quiet spent, + As still as on the silent mountain-top; + So still that from his quick-remembering heart + Burst that old cry,--"Show me the Sangreal, Lord!" + + Then a bright mist descended over him, + And in its central glory stood a shape, + Wounded, yet smiling. With His bleeding hands + Stretched toward that bleeding side, His eyes divine + Like a new dawn, thus softly spake the Lord:-- + "The blood poured out for brothers is my blood; + The flesh for brothers broken is my flesh; + No more in golden chalices I dwell, + No longer in a vision, angel-borne: + Here is the Sangreal, here the Holy Quest. + Thy prayer is heard, thy soul is satisfied: + Come, my belovèd! I am come for thee. + As first I broke the bread and poured the wine, + So have I broken thee and poured thy life, + So do I bless thee and give thanks for thee, + So do I bear thee in my wounded hands." + Smiling, He stooped, and kissed the tortured brow, + And over all its anguish stole a smile; + The blood-sealed lips unclosed; the dying breath + Sighed, like the rain-sound in a summer wind, + Sobbing, but sweet,--"I see the Sangreal, Lord!" + +THOMAS DE QUINCEY. + + +In the notice of so memorable a man, even the briefest prelusive +flourish seems uncalled for; and so indeed it would be, if by such means +it were meant simply to justify the undertaking. In regard to any of the +great powers in literature there exists already a prevailing interest, +which cannot be presumed to slumber for one moment in any thinking +mind.[A] By way of notification, there is no need of prelude. Yet there +are occasions, as, for example, the entrances of kings, which absolutely +demand the inaugural flourish of arms,--which, like the rosy flood of +dawn, require to be ushered in by a train of twilight glories. And there +are lives which proceed as by the movements of music,--which, must +therefore be heralded by overtures: majestic steppings, heard in the +background, compel us, through mere sympathy with their pomp of +procession, to sound the note of preparation. + +[Footnote A: "_In any thinking mind_." Yet it must be confessed that +there _does_ exist a woful ignorance or negligence concerning De Quincey +in quarters from which better things might be expected. Misappreciation +it cannot be called, where no trouble has been taken to estimate claims +that needed only to be weighed to be truly valued. Up to this time, +there has never been published in England a single essay on the life or +the genius of De Quincey that indicated even a good acquaintance, on the +part of the writer, with that author's works; and in such a case, of +course, not much could be looked for in the way of just interpretation. +Gilfillan did him gross injustice: indeed, from what he condescended to +say of the man, it would be difficult to conjecture that a greater than +Gilfillan was there. And, will the reader believe it? in Professor +Craik's "English Literature"--a work of great excellence--the name of De +Quincey is not mentioned! "Sam Johnson," says Craik, "was the last king +that sat upon the throne of English prose literature." Let it be that +Sam was a proper king; yet it is just as true that De Quincey was +legitimately his successor. First, in the matter of time: Sam died in +1784, and De Quincey was born in 1785, just in time to continue the +regal line. What was it, again, that entitled Johnson to kingly honors? +Was it learning? De Quincey was as erudite. Was it his style? There is +no writer in the language who in that matter may look down on De +Quincey. + +If there ever was a writer "damned with faint praise," it was De +Quincey. Some stupid writer for the London "Athenæum," for instance, +dared to compliment the poor "opium-chewer" after the following +style:--"He possessed taste, but _he lacked creative energy_; and his +subtle and highly refined intellect was ingenious and acute rather than +powerful." This reminds me of a criticism once passed upon Shakspeare by +a mere pedagogue, to the effect that the great poet had considerable +genius, but very little taste!] + +Else I should plunge _in medias res_ upon a sketch of De Quincey's life; +were it not a rudeness amounting to downright profanity to omit the +important ceremony of prelibation, and that at a banquet to which, +implicitly, gods are invited. The reader will assuredly unite with me in +all such courtesies,-- + + "Neu desint epulis rosæ"; + +particularly as the shade we deal with can be evoked only by peculiar +incantations,--only the heralding of certain precise claims will this +monarch listen to as the just _inferiæ_, the fitting sacrifice or +hecatomb of our homage. + +The key-note of preparation, the claim which preëminently should be set +forth in advance, is this: that De Quincey was the prince of +hierophants, or of pontifical hierarchs, as regards all those profound +mysteries which from the beginning have swayed the human heart, +sometimes through the light of angelic smiles lifting it upwards to an +altitude just beneath the heavens, and sometimes shattering it, with the +shock of quaking anguish, down to earth. As it was the function of the +hierophant, in the Grecian mysteries, to show the sacred symbols as +concrete incarnations of faith, so was it De Quincey's to reveal in open +light the everlasting symbols, universally intelligible when once +disclosed, which are folded in the involutions of dreams and of those +meditations which most resemble dreams; and as to the manner of these +revelations, no Roman _pontifex maximus_, were it even Cæsar himself, +could have rivalled their magisterial pomp. + +The peculiarities of his life all point in the direction here indicated. +It was his remarkable experience which furnished him the key to certain +secret recesses of human nature hitherto sealed up in darkness. Along +that border-line by which the glimmerings of consciousness are, as by +the thinnest, yet the most impervious veil, separated from the regions +of the unexplored and the undefinable, De Quincey walked familiarly and +with privileged eye and ear. Many a nebulous mass of hieroglyphically +inscribed meanings did he--this Champollion, defying all human enigmas, +this Herschel, or Lord Rosse, forever peering into the obscure chasms +and yawning abysses of human astronomy--resolve into orderly +constellations, that, once and for all, through his telescopic +interpretation and enlargement, were rendered distinct and commensurable +amongst men. The conditions of his power in this respect are +psychologically inseparable from the remarkable conditions of his life, +two of which are especially to be noticed. First, a ruling disposition +towards meditation, constituting him, in the highest sense of the word, +a poet. Secondly, the peculiar qualities which this singular mental +constitution derived from his use of opium,--qualities which, although +they did not increase, or even give direction to his meditative power, +at least magnified it, both optically, as to its visual capacity, and +creatively, as to its constructive faculty. These two conditions, each +concurrent with the other in its ruling influence, impart to his life a +degree of psychological interest which belongs to no other on record. +Nor is this all. The reader knows how often a secondary interest will +attach to the mightiest of conquerors or to the wisest of sovereigns, +who is not merely in himself, and through his own deeds, magnificent, +but whose glory is many times repeated and piled up by numerous +reverberations of itself from a contemporary race of Titans. Thus, +doubtless, Charles V., although himself King of Spain, Germany, the +Netherlands, and a portion of Italy, gloried in the sublime empery of +the Turkish Solyman, as by some subtile connection of fate sympathetic +with his own. A secondary interest of this nature belongs to the life of +De Quincey,--a life which inclosed, as an island, a whole period of +English literature, one, too, which in activity and originality is +unsurpassed by any other, including the names of Scott and Dickens, of +Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, and Southey, of Moore, Byron, Shelley, and +Keats. His connection with very many of these was not simply that of +coëxistence, but also of familiar intercourse. + +Between De Quincey's life and his writings it is impossible that there +should be any distraction of interest, so intimately are the two +interwoven: in this case more so than in that of any known author. +Particularly is this true of his more impassioned writings, which are a +faithful rescript of his all-impassioned life. Hierophant we have called +him,--the prince of hierophants,--having reference to the matter of his +revelations; but in his _manner_, in his style of composition, he is +something more than this: here he stands the _monarch_ amongst +rhapsodists. In these writings are displayed the main peculiarities of +his life and genius. + +But, besides these, there is a large section of his works, the aim of +which is purely intellectual, where feeling is not at all involved; and +surely there is not, in either ancient or modern literature, a section +which, in the same amount of space, exhibits the same degree of intense +activity on the part of the analytic understanding, applied to the +illustration of truth or to the solution of vexed problems. This latter +class is the more remarkable from its polar antithesis to the former; +just as, in his life, it is a most remarkable characteristic of the man, +that, rising above all other men through the rhapsodies of dreams, he +should yet be able truly to say of himself that he had devoted a greater +number of hours to intellectual pursuits than any other man whom he had +seen, heard of, or read of. A wider range is thus exhibited, not of +thought merely, but also of the possible modes of expressing thought, +than is elsewhere to be found, even in writers the most skilled in +rhetorical subtilty. The distance between these two opposites De Quincey +does not traverse by violent leaps; he does not by some feat of +legerdemain evanish from the fields of impassioned eloquence, where he +is an unrivalled master, to appear forthwith in those of intellectual +gymnastics, where, at least, he is not surpassed. He is familiar with +every one of the intervening stages between the rhapsody and the +demonstration,--between the loftiest reach of aspirant passion, from +which, with reptile instinct, the understanding slinks downwards to the +earth, and that fierce antagonism of naked thoughts, where the crested +serpent "mounts and burns." His alchemy is infinite, combining light +with warmth in all degrees,--in pathos, in humor,[A] in genial +illumination. Let the reader, if he can, imagine Rousseau to have +written "Dinner, Real and Reputed," or the paper on "The Essenes," in +both of which great erudition is necessary, but in which erudition is as +nothing when compared to the faculty of recombining into novel forms +what previously had been so grouped as to be misunderstood, or had +lacked just the one element necessary for introducing order. To have +written these would have entitled Rousseau to a separate sceptre. Or, +moving into a realm of art totally distinct from this, suppose him to +have been the author of "Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts": +that would mount a new plume in Rousseau's hat. But I happen just now to +be reminded of another little paper, numbering about six pages, +entitled, "On the Knocking at the Gate, in Macbeth": give him _that_, +too. Why, the little French king is beginning to assume an imperial +consequence! We beg the reader's pardon for indulging in comparisons of +this nature, which are always disagreeable; but we have this excuse, +that the two writers are often mentioned as on the same level, and with +no appreciation of that unlimited range of power which belongs to De +Quincey, but not at all to Rousseau. All but one of the trophies which +we have hypothetically transferred to the Frenchman adorn a single +volume out of twenty-two, in the Boston edition. Nor is this one +imperial column adorned by these alone: there are, besides,--alas for +Rousseau!--two other _spolia opima_ by which the French master is, in +his own field, proved not the first, nor even the second,--_proximus, +sed non secundus_,--so wide is the distance between De Quincey and _any_ +other antagonist. These two are the essays respectively entitled, "Joan +of Arc," and "The English Mail-Coach." + +[Footnote A: Of De Quincey's humor, a friend once remarked to me, that +it always reminded him of an elephant attempting to dance. Now, without +any doubt, an elephant could dance after an elephantine fashion; but +surely you would never catch him going through the movements of a jig or +a Virginia "breakdown." He never lets you forget that he is an elephant. +So with De Quincey. Levity is an element farthest removed from _his_ +humor; in fact, whenever he allows himself to indulge in humor at all, +you may be sure that murder is going on somewhere in the vicinity, a +tragedy of pretty frequent occurrence in De Quincey's works. + +There was sufficient humor in De Quincey to have endowed a dozen +Aristophaneses. There was something, too, in its order, by which it +resembled the gigantesque features of the old Greek master. I will +illustrate my meaning by a single instance from each. In Aristophanes's +"Clouds," Strepsiades is being initiated into the Socratic +_Phrontisterium_, and in the course of the ceremony Socrates directs his +pupil's attention to the moon for certain mysterious purposes. But the +moon only reminds Strepsy of numerous imperturbable duns that storm +about his ears with lunar exactness, (literally so, since the Greeks +paid, or refused to pay, regularly on the last day of the month,)--and +here it is that the opportunity is offered for a monstrous stroke of +humor; for, at this crisis, Strepsy is made to exclaim, "Some magic is +it, O Socrates, about the moon? Well! since you are up to that sort of +thing, what do you say, now, to a spell by which I could snap the old +monster out of her course for a generation or so?" Now for the parallel +case from De Quincey. It is from his paper on "California," a +politico-economical treatise. The author's object is to illustrate the +fact that scarcity of gold is not due to its non-existence, but to the +difficulty of obtaining it. "Emeralds and sapphires," says he, "are +lying at this moment in a place which I could indicate, and no policeman +is on duty in the whole neighborhood to hinder me or the reader from +pocketing as many as we please. We are also at perfect liberty to pocket +the anchors of Her Majesty's ship the Victoria, (one hundred and twenty +guns,) and to sell them for old iron. Pocket them by all means, and I +engage that the magistrate sitting at the Thames police-office will have +too much respect for your powers to think of detaining you. If he does, +your course is to pocket the police-office, and all which it inherits. +The man that pockets an anchor may be a dangerous customer, but not a +customer to be sneezed at." This strikes us as very similar to +Strepsiades's bagging the moon.] + +It is impossible to be exhaustive upon such a subject as that which I +have undertaken. I shall select, therefore, two prominent centres, about +which the thoughts which I wish to present naturally revolve: De +Quincey's childhood, and his opium-experiences. + +Thomas de Quincey--hierophant, rhapsodist, philosopher--was born at +Greenhay, then a suburb of Manchester, in Lancashire County, England, on +the 15th of August, 1785. According to his own account, the family of +the De Quinceys was of Norwegian origin; and after its transfer to +France, in connection with William the Norman, it received its +territorial appellation from the village of Quincy, in Normandy. Thence, +at the time of the Norman Invasion, it was transplanted to England, +where, as afterwards in Scotland, it rose to the highest position, not +merely in connection with a lordly title and princely estates, but +chiefly on account of valuable services rendered to the State, and +conferring preeminence in baronial privilege and consideration. + +So sensitive was De Quincey, even at the early age of fifteen, on the +point of his descent, lest from his name he might be supposed of French +extraction, that, even into the ears of George III. (that king having, +in an accidental interview with him at Frogmore, suggested the +possibility of his family having come to England at the time of the +Huguenot exodus from France) he ventured to breathe the most earnest +protest against any supposition of that nature, and boldly insisted upon +his purely Norman blood,--blood that in the baronial wars had helped to +establish the earliest basis of English constitutional liberty, and that +had flowed from knightly veins in the wars of the Crusades. Robert De +Quincey came into England with William the Conqueror, uniting with whose +fortunes, he fared after the Conquest as a feudal baron, founding the +line of Winchester; and that he was a baron of the first water is +evident from the statement of Gerard Leigh,--that his armorial device +was inscribed (and how inscribed, if not memorially and as a mark of +eminent distinction?) on the stained glass in the old church of St. +Paul's. + +And here it is proper that the reader's attention should be momentarily +diverted to the American branch of this family, at the head of which +stands the Hon. Josiah Quincy, (the aristocratic _De_ being omitted,)--a +branch which fled from England in the early part of the seventeenth +century, to avoid a strife which had then become too intense and fiery +to admit of reconciliation, and which, indeed, a few years after their +withdrawal, culminated in civil war. As illustrating the inevitableness +of any great moral issue, no matter how vast the distance which at a +critical moment we may put between it and ourselves,--as indicating how +surely the Nemesis, seemingly avoided, but really only postponed, will +continue to track our flying footsteps, even across the barren wastes of +ocean, that ought, if anything could, to interpose an effectual barrier +between us and all pursuers, and, having caught up with us in our +fancied retreat, will precipitate upon our devoted heads its +accumulated violence,--as demonstrating thus the melancholy persistence +with which that ugly Sphinx who impersonates Justice in our human +affairs doggedly insists on having her questions answered, and, coming +by a circuitous route upon those who by good luck have escaped her +direct path, through an incarnation of unusual terror compels her dread +alternative,--it is interesting to note how this same family, separated +by over seven generations from one political revolution, the momentous +crisis of which was by them successfully evaded, are now, after an +interval of unsound and hollow peace, compelled to witness the precise +reiteration of that storm, in the very land to which they fled for +refuge,--a reiteration that repeats, only on a different stage, and +under an aggravation of horror as to minute details, not merely two +antagonistic races corresponding on either side to those which met in +battle on Marston Moor, but also interests far outweighing any that +could possibly attach to a conflict between royalty and democracy. + +But the Earls of Winchester, in England, whatever may have been their +prosperity during the nine or ten generations after the Conquest, came +suddenly to an abrupt termination, abutting at length on some guilty +traitor in the line, who, like a special Adam for the family, involved +in his own ruin that prosperity which would else have continued to his +successors. The dissevered fragments of the old feudal estate, however, +remained in possession of separate members of the family, as De Quincey +tells us, until the generation next preceding his own, when the last +vestige slipped out of the hands of the one sole squire who, together +with the name, held also some relic of its ancient belongings. But above +the diluvial wreck of the Winchester estates there has arisen an estate +far more royal and magnificent, and beneath a far-reaching bow of +promise, sealed in magical security against a similar disaster. For just +here, where every hold is lost upon the original heritage, is the family +freshly grounded upon a second heritage,--one sublime in its order above +that of all earthly possessions, one that is forever +imperishable,--namely, the large domain which the gigantic intellect of +Thomas De Quincey has absolved from aboriginal darkness and brought +under distinct illumination for all time to come. These are the vast +acres over which human pride must henceforth soar,--acres that have +been, through the mighty realizations of human genius, built out into +the mysterious ocean-depths of chaotic Nature, and that have in some +measure bridged over infinite chasms in thought, and by just so far have +extended the fluctuating boundaries of human empire. And for De Quincey +himself, in view of that monumental structure which rises above the +shattered wrecks of his poor, frail body, as above the mummied dust of +Egyptian kings remain eternally the pyramids which they wrought in their +lifetime, we find it impossible to cherish a single regret, that, +possibly, by the treasonable slip of a predecessor, he may have been +robbed of an earldom,--or even that, during a life which by some years +overlapped the average allotment to humanity, and through which were +daily accumulating the most splendid results in the very highest +departments of philosophy and art, these accumulations nevertheless went +on without any notable recognition from a court the most liberal in all +Europe; no badge of outward knighthood coming to him through all these +years, as formerly to Sir Thomas Browne for his subtile meditations, and +to Sir William Hamilton for his philosophic speculations. The absence of +such merely _nominal_ titles excites in us no deep regret; there is in +them little that is monumental, and the pretty tinsel, with which they +gild monuments already based on substantial worth, is easily, and +without a sigh, exchanged for that everlasting sunshine reflected from +the loving remembrances of human hearts. + +But at the same time that we so willingly dispense with these nominal +conditions in the case of De Quincey,--though, assuredly, there was +never a man upon earth whom these conditions, considered as aërial +hieroglyphs of the most regal pomp and magnificence, would more +consistently fit,--we cannot thus easily set aside those other outward +conditions of affluence and respectability, which, by their presence or +absence, so materially shape and mould the life, and particularly in its +earliest tendencies and impulses,--in that season of immature +preparation when the channels of habit are in the process of formation, +and while yet a marvellous uncertainty hangs and broods over the +beginnings of life, as over the infant rivulet yet dandled and tended by +its mountain-nurses. For, although there are certain elements which +rigidly and by a foreseen certainty determine its course, as, for +instance, an extraordinary vantage-height of source, securing for it the +force and swiftness of a torrent,--yet how shifting are the +mountain-winds, chilling into frosty silence or quickening with Favonian +warmth, and how shifting the flying clouds, which, whether marshalled in +mimic tournament above it, or in the shock of a real conflict, forever +sway its tender fountains! Thus, even in inexperienced childhood, do the +scales of the individual destiny begin, favorably or unfavorably, to +determine their future preponderations, by reason of influences merely +material, and before, indeed, any sovereignty save a corporeal one (in +conjunction with heavenly powers) is at all recognized in life. For, in +this period, with which above all others we associate influences the +most divine, "with trailing clouds of glory," those influences which are +purely material are the most efficiently operative. Against the former, +adult man, in whom reason is developed, _may_ battle, though ignobly, +and, for himself, ruinously; and against the latter oftentimes he _must_ +struggle, to escape ignominious shipwreck. But the child, helpless alike +for both these conflicts, is, through the very ignorance which shields +him from all conscious guilt, bound over in the most impotent (though, +because impotent and unconscious, the least humiliating) slavery to +material circumstance,--a slavery which he cannot escape, and which, +during the period of its absolutism, absorbs his very blood, bone, and +nerve. To poverty, which the strong man resists, the child succumbs; on +the other hand, that affluence of comfort, from which philosophy often +weans the adult, wraps childhood about with a sheltering care; and +fortunate indeed it is, if the mastery of Nature over us during our +first years is thus a gentle dealing with us, fertilizing our powers +with the rich juices of an earthly prosperity. And in this respect De +Quincey _was_ eminently fortunate. The powers of heaven and of earth +and--if we side with Milton and _other_ pagan mythologists in +attributing the gift of wealth to some Plutonian dynasty--the dark +powers _under_ the earth seem to have conjointly arrayed themselves in +his behalf. Whatever storms were in the book of Fate written against his +name they postponed till a far-off future, in the mean time granting him +the happiest of all childhoods. Really of gentle blood, and thus gaining +whatever substantial benefits in constitutional temperament and +susceptibilities _could_ be thence derived, although lacking, as Pope +also had lacked, the factitious circumstance and airy heralding of this +distinction, he was, in addition to this, surrounded by elements of +aristocratic refinement and luxury, and thus hedged in not merely +against the assault, in any form, of pinching poverty, (as would be any +one in tolerably comfortable circumstances,) but even against the most +trivial hint of possible want,--against all necessity of limitation or +retrenchment in any normal line of expenditure. + +He was the son of a merchant, who, at the early age of thirty-nine, +died, leaving to his family--a wife and six children--an estate yielding +annually an income of sixteen hundred pounds. And as at his father's +death De Quincey was seven years old, we may reasonably infer, that, +during this previous period, while his father was still living, and +adding to this fixed a fluctuating income from his yearly gains, (which +to a wholesale merchant of his standing were considerable,) the +family-fortunes were even more auspicious, amounting to the yearly +realization of between two and three thousand pounds, and that at a time +when Napoleon had not as yet meddled with the financial affairs of +Europe, nor by his intimidations caused even pounds and shillings to +shrink into less worth and significance than they formerly had,--in view +of which fact, if we are to charge Alexander the Great (as in a famous +anecdote he was charged) with the crime of highway-robbery, as the +"snapper-up of unconsidered trifles" in the way of crowns and a few +dozen sceptres, what a heinous charge must be brought against this +Corsican as universal pickpocket! This pecuniary depreciation De Quincey +himself realized some years later, when, determining to quit school, he +thought himself compelled[A] to cut off all communication with his +guardians, and gave himself up to a Bohemian life among the Welsh +mountains, wandering from one rustic valley to another with the most +scanty means of support,--for just then the Allies were in full rig +against France, and the shrinkage of guineas in our young wanderer's +pocket became palpably evident in view of the increased price of his +dinner. + +[Footnote A: But afterwards he discovered his mistake, and that it was +only by the lack on his part of that frankness which the kindness of his +guardians deserved that he had brought so much misery upon himself in +after-life. His younger brother, Richard,--the Pink of the +"Autobiographic Sketches,"--made the same mistake, a mistake which in +his case was never rectified, but led to a life of perilous wanderings +and adventures.] + +The time _did_ come at length when the full epos of a remarkable +prosperity was closed up and sealed for De Quincey. But that was in the +unseen future. To the child it was not permitted to look beyond the hazy +lines that bounded his oasis of flowers into the fruitless waste abroad. +Poverty, want, at least so great as to compel the daily exercise of his +mind for mercenary ends, was stealthily advancing from the rear; but the +sound of its stern steppings was wholly muffled by intervening years of +luxurious opulence and ease. + +I dwell thus at length upon the aristocratic elegance of De Quincey's +earliest surroundings, (which, coming at a later period, I should notice +merely as an accident,) because, although not a _potential_ element, +capable of producing or of adding one single iota to the essential +character of genius, it is yet a negative condition--a _sine qua +non_--to the displays of genius in certain directions and under certain +aspects. By misfortune it is true that power may be intensified. So may +it by the baptism of malice. But, given a certain degree of power, there +still remains a question as to its _kind_. So deep is the sky: but of +what _hue_, of what aspect? Wine is strong, and so is the crude alcohol +but what the _mellowness_? And the blood in our veins, it is an infinite +force: but of what temper? Is it warm, or is it cold? Does it minister +to Moloch, or to Apollo? Will it shape the Madonna face, or the Medusa? +Why, the simple fact that the rich blue sky over-arches this earth of +ours, or that it is warm blood which flows in our veins, is sufficient +to prove that no malignant Ahriman made the world. Just here the +question is not, what increment or what momentum genius may receive from +outward circumstances, but what coloring, what mood. Here it is that a +Mozart differs from a Mendelssohn. The important difference which +obtains, in this respect, between great powers in literature, otherwise +coördinate, will receive illustration from a comparison between De +Quincey and Byron. For both these writers were capable, in a degree +rarely equalled in any literature, of reproducing, or rather, we should +say, of reconstructing, the pomp of Nature and of human life. In this +general office they stand together: both wear, in our eyes, the regal +purple; both have caused to rise between earth and heaven miracles of +grandeur, such as never Cheops wrought through his myriad slaves, or +Solomon with his fabled ring. But in the final result, as in the whole +_modus operandi_, of their architecture, they stand apart _toto coelo_. +Byron builds a structure that repeats certain elements in Nature or +humanity; but they are those elements only which are allied to gloom, +for he builds in suspicion and distrust, and upon the basis of a +cynicism that has been nurtured in his very flesh and blood from birth; +he erects a Pisa-like tower which overhangs and threatens all human +hopes and all that is beautiful in human love. Who else, save this +archangelic intellect, shut out by a mighty shadow of eclipse from the +bright hopes and warm affections of all sunny hearts, could have +originated such a Pandemonian monster as the poem on "Darkness"? The +most striking specimen of Byron's imaginative power, and nearly the most +striking that has ever been produced, is the apostrophe to the sea, in +"Childe Harold." But what is it in the sea which affects Lord Byron's +susceptibilities to grandeur? Its destructiveness alone. And _how_? Is +it through any high moral purpose or meaning that seems to sway the +movements of destruction? No; it is only through the gloomy mystery of +the ruin itself,--ruin revealed upon a scale so vast and under +conditions of terror the most appalling,--ruin wrought under the +semblance of an almighty passion for revenge directed against the human +race. Thus, as an expression of the attitude which the sea maintains +toward man, we have the following passage of Æschylian grandeur, but +also of Æschylian gloom:-- + + "Thou dost arise + And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields + For earth's destruction thou dost all despise, + Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies, + And send'st him, shivering in thy _playful_ spray, + And howling, to his gods, where haply lies + His petty hope in some near port or bay, + And dashest him again to earth: there let him lay!" + +Who but this dark spirit, forever wooing the powers of darkness, and of +darkness the most sullen, praying to Nemesis alone, could, with such +lamentable lack of faith in the purity and soundness of human +affections, have given utterance to a sentiment like this:-- + + "O love! no habitant of earth thou art,-- + An _unseen_ seraph we believe in thee"? + +or the following:-- + + "Who loves, raves,--'tis youth's frenzy," etc.? + +and again:-- + + "Few--_none_--find what they love or could have loved, + Though accident, blind contact, and the strong + Necessity of loving having removed + Antipathies"? + +This, then, is the nearest approach to human love,--the removal of all +antipathies! But even these + + "recur erelong, + Envenomed with irrevocable wrong: + And circumstance--that unspiritual god + And miscreator--makes and helps along + Our coming evils with a crutch-like rod, + Whose touch turns hope to dust,--the dust which all have trod." + +De Quincey, on the other hand, in whose heart there was laid no such +hollow basis for infidelity toward the master-passions of humanity, +repeated the pomps of joy or of sorrow, as evolved out of universal +human nature, and as, through sunshine and tempest, typified in the +outside world,--but never for one instant did he seek alliance, on the +one side, with the shallow enthusiasm of the raving Bacchante, or, on +the other, with the overshadowing despotism of gloom; nor can there be +found on a single page of all his writings the slightest hint indicating +even a latent sympathy with the power which builds only to crush, or +with the intellect that denies, and that against the dearest objects of +human faith fulminates its denials and shocking recantations solely for +the purposes of scorn. + +Whence this marked difference? To account for it, we must needs trace +back to the first haunts of childhood the steps of these two fugitives, +each of whom has passed thence, the one into a desert _mirage_, teeming +with processions of the gloomiest falsities in life, and the other--also +into the desert, but where he is yet refreshed and solaced by an +unshaken faith in the genial verities of life, though separated from +them by irrecoverable miles of trackless wastes, and where, however +apparently abandoned and desolate, he is yet ministered unto by angels, +and no mimic fantasies are suffered to exercise upon his heart their +overmastering seductions to + + "Allure, or terrify, or undermine." + +Whether the days of childhood be our happiest days, is a question all by +itself. But there can be no question as to the inevitable certainty with +which the conditions of childhood, fortunate or unfortunate, determine +the main temper and disposition of our lives. For it is underneath the +multitude of fleeting proposals and conscious efforts, born of reason, +and which, to one looking upon life from any superficial stand-point, +seem to have all to do with its conduct, that there runs the +undercurrent of disposition, which is born of Nature, which is cradled +and nurtured with us in our infancy, which is itself a general choice, +branching out into our specific choices of certain directions and aims +among all opposite directions and aims, and which, although we rarely +recognize its important functions, is in all cases the arbiter of our +destiny. And in the very word _disposition_ is indicated the finality of +its arbitraments as contrasted with all _proposition_. + +Now, with respect to this disposition: Nature furnishes its basis; but +it is the external structure of circumstance, built up or building about +childhood,--to shelter or imprison,--which, more than all else, gives it +its determinate character; and though this outward structure may in +after-life be thoroughly obliterated, or replaced by its +opposite,--porcelain by clay, or clay by porcelain,--yet will the +tendencies originally developed remain and hold a sway almost +uninterrupted over life. And, generally, the happy influences that +preside over the child may be reduced under three heads: first, a genial +temperament,--one that naturally, and of its own motion, inclines toward +a centre of peace and rest rather than toward the opposite centre of +strife; secondly, profound domestic affections; and, thirdly, affluence, +which, although of all three it is the most negative, the most material +condition, is yet practically the most important, because of the degree +in which it is necessary to the full and unlimited prosperity of the +other two. For how frequent are the cases in which the happiest of +temperaments are perverted by the necessities of toil, so burdensome to +tender years, or in which corroding anxieties, weighing upon parents' +hearts, check the free play of domestic love!--and in all cases where +such limitations are present, even in the gentlest form, there must be a +cramping up of the human organization and individuality somewhere; and +everywhere, and under all circumstances, there must be sensibly felt the +absence of that leisure which crowns and glorifies the affections of +home, making them seem the most like summer sunshine, or rather like a +sunshine which knows no season, which is an eternal presence in the +soul. + +As regards all these three elements, De Quincey's childhood was +prosperous; afterwards, vicissitudes came,--mighty changes capable of +affecting all other transmutations, but thoroughly impotent to annul the +inwrought grace of a pre-established beauty. On the other hand, Byron's +childhood was, in all these elements, unfortunate. The sting left in his +mother's heart by the faithless desertion of her husband, after the +desolation of her fortunes, was forever inflicted upon him, and +intensified by her fitful temper; and notwithstanding the change in his +outward prospects which occurred afterwards, he was never able to lift +himself out of the Trophonian cave into which his infancy had been +thrust, any more than Vulcan could have cured that crooked gait of his, +which dated from some vague infantile remembrances of having been +rudely kicked out of heaven over its brazen battlements, one summer's +day,--for that it was a summer's day we are certain from a line of +"Paradise Lost," commemorating the tragic circumstance:-- + + "From morn till noon he fell, from noon till dewy eve-- + _A summer's day_." + +And this allusion to Vulcan reminds us that Byron, in addition to all +his other early mishaps, had also the identical clubfoot of the Lemnian +god. Among the guardians over Byron's childhood was a demon, that, +receiving an ample place in his victim's heart, stood demoniacally his +ground through life, transmuting love to hate, and what might have been +benefits to fatal snares. Over De Quincey's childhood, on the contrary, +a strong angel guarded to withstand and thwart all threatened ruin, +teaching him the gentle whisperings of faith and love in the darkest +hours of life: an angel that built happy palaces, the beautiful images +of which, and their echoed festivals, far outlasted the splendor of +their material substance. + +"We,--the children of the house,--" says De Quincey, in his +"Autobiographic Sketches," "stood, in fact, upon the very happiest tier +in the social scaffolding for all good influences. The prayer of +Agur--'Give me neither poverty nor riches'--was realized for us. That +blessing we had, being neither too high nor too low. High enough we were +to see models of good manners, of self-respect, and of simple dignity; +obscure enough to be left in the sweetest of solitudes. Amply furnished +with all the nobler benefits of wealth, with _extra_ means of health, of +intellectual culture, and of elegant enjoyment, on the other hand we +knew nothing of its social distinctions. Not depressed by the +consciousness of privations too sordid, nor tempted into restlessness by +privileges too aspiring, we had no motives for shame, we had none for +pride. Grateful, also, to this hour I am, that, amidst luxuries in all +things else, we were trained to a Spartan, simplicity of diet,--that we +fared, in fact, very much less sumptuously than the servants. And if +(after the manner of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius) I should return thanks +to Providence for all the separate blessings of my early situation, +these four I would single out as worthy of special commemoration: that I +lived in a rural solitude; that this solitude was in England; that my +infant feelings were moulded by the gentlest of sisters, and not by +horrid pugilistic brothers; finally, that I and they were dutiful and +loving members of a pure, holy, and magnificent church." + +Let the reader suppose a different case from that here presented. Let +him suppose, for instance, that De Quincey, now arrived at the age of +seven, and having now at least one "pugilistic brother" to torment his +peace, could annul his own infancy, and in its place substitute that of +one of the factory-boys of Manchester, of the same age, (and many such +could be found,) among those with whom daily the military +predispositions of this brother brought him into a disagreeable +conflict. Instead of the pure air of outside Lancashire, let there be +substituted the cotton-dust of the Lancashire mills. The contrast, even +in thought, is painful. It is true that thus the irrepressible fires of +human genius could not be quenched. Nay, through just these +instrumentalities, oftentimes, is genius fostered. We need not the +instance of Romulus and Remus, or of the Persian Cyrus, to prove that +men have sometimes been nourished by bears or by she-wolves. +Nevertheless, this is essentially a Roman nurture. The Greeks, on the +contrary, laid their infant heroes on beds of violets,--if we may +believe the Pindaric odes,--set over them a divine watch, and fed them +with angels' food. And this Grecian nurture De Quincey had. + +And not the least important element of this nurture is that of perfect +_leisure_. Through this it is that we pass from the outward to the +subjective relations of De Quincey's childhood; for only in connection +with these has the element just introduced any value, since leisure, +which is the atmosphere, the breathing-place of genius, is also cap and +bells for the fool. In relation to power, it is, like solitude, the open +heaven through which the grandeurs of eternity flow into the penetralian +recesses of the human heart, after that once the faculties of thought, +or the sensibilities, have been powerfully awakened. Sensibility _had_ +been thus awakened in De Quincey, through grief occasioned by the loss +of a sister, his favorite and familiar playmate,--a grief so profound, +that he, somewhere, in speaking of it, anticipates the certainty of its +presence in the hour of death; and thought, also, had been prematurely +awakened, both under the influence of this overmastering pathos of +sorrow, and because of his strong predisposition to meditation. Both the +pathos and the meditative tendencies were increased by the halcyon peace +of his childhood. In a memorial of the poet Schiller, he speaks of that +childhood as the happiest, "of which the happiness has survived and +expressed itself, not in distinct records, but in deep affection, in +abiding love, and the hauntings of meditative power." His, at least, was +the felicity of this echoless peace. + +In no memorial is it so absolutely requisite that a marked prominence +should be given to its first section as in De Quincey's. This is a +striking peculiarity in his life. If it were not so, I should have +seriously transgressed in keeping the reader's attention so long upon a +point which, aside from such peculiarity, would yield no sufficient, at +least no proportionate value. But, in the treatment of any life, that +cannot seem disproportionate which enters into it as an element only and +just in that ratio of prominence with which it enters into the life +itself, No stream can rise above the level of its source. No life, which +lacks a prominent interest as to its beginnings, can ever, in its entire +course, develop any distinguishing features of interest. This is true of +any life; but it is true of De Quincey's above all others on record, +that, through all its successive arches, ascending and descending, it +repeats the original arch of childhood. Repeats,--but with what +marvellous transformations! For hardly is its earliest section passed, +when, for all its future course, it is masked by a mighty trouble. No +longer does it flow along its natural path, and beneath the open sky, +but, like the sacred Alpheus, runs + + "Through caverns measureless to man, + Down to the sunless sea." + +Yet, amid the "briny tides" of that sea, amid turmoil and perplexity and +the saddest of mysteries, it preserves its earliest gentleness, and its +inward, noiseless peace, till once more it gushes up toward the sweet +heaven through the Arethusan font of death. Easily, then, is it to be +seen why De Quincey himself continually reverted, both in his conscious +reminiscences and through the subconscious relapses of dreams, from a +life clouded and disguised in its maturer years, to the unmasked purity +of its earliest heaven. And what from the vast desert, what from the +fatal wreck of life, was he to look back upon, for even an imaginary +solace, if not upon the rich argosies that spread their happier sails +above a calmer sea? We are forcibly reminded of the dream which +Milton[A] gives to his Christ in the desert, hungry and tired:-- + + "There he slept, + And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream, + Of meats and drinks, Nature's refreshment sweet. + Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood, + And saw the ravens with their horny beaks + Food to Elijah bringing even and morn, + Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought: + He saw the prophet also, how he fled + Into the desert, and how there he slept + Under a juniper, then how, awaked, + He found his supper on the coals prepared, + And by the angel was bid rise and eat, + And eat the second time after repose, + The strength whereof sufficed him forty days; + Sometimes that with Elijah he partook, + Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse." + +[Footnote A: _Paradise Regained_, Book II.] + +If the splendors of divinity could be so disguised by the severe +necessities of the wilderness and of brutal hunger as to be thus +solicited and baffled even in dreams,--if, by the lowest of mortal +appetites, they could be so humiliated and eclipsed as to revel in the +shadowy visions of merely human plenty,--then by how much more must the +human heart, eclipsed at noon, revert, under the mask of sorrow and of +dreams, to the virgin beauties of the dawn! with how much more violent +revulsion must the weary, foot-sore traveller, lost in a waste of sands, +be carried back through the gate of ivory or of horn to the dewy, +flower-strewn fields of some far happier place and time! + +The transition from De Quincey's childhood to his opium-experiences is +as natural, therefore, as from strophe to antistrophe in choral +antiphonies. Henceforth, as the reader already understands, we are not +permitted to look upon a simple, undisguised life, unless we draw aside +a veil as impenetrable as that which covers the face of Isis or the +poppy-sceptred Demeter. Under this _papaverian_ mask it is likely to be +best known to the reader; for it is under the title of "Opium-Eater" +that he is most generally recognized. It was through his +Opium-Confessions, popular both as to matter and style, that he first +conciliated and charmed the reading public,--and to such a degree that +great expectations were awakened as to anything which afterwards he +might write. This expectation heightens appreciation; and in this case +it helped many a metaphysical dose down the voracious throat of the +public, without its being aware of the nauseating potion, or +experiencing any uncomfortable consequences. The flood of popularity +produced by the Opium-Confessions among that large intellectual class of +readers who, notwithstanding their mental capacity, yet insist upon the +graces of composition and upon a subject of immediate and moving +interest, was sufficient to float into a popular haven many a ship of +heavier freightage, which might else have fallen short of port. + +The general interest which is manifested in De Quincey _personally_ is +also very much due to the fact that he was an opium-eater, and an +opium-eater willing to breathe into the public ear the peculiarities of +his situation and its hidden mysteries, or "_suspiria de profundis_." +This interest is partly of that vulgar sort which connects itself with +all mysterious or abnormal phenomena in Nature or in the human mind, +with a "What is it?" or a spiritual medium, and which is satisfied with +a palpable exhibition of the novelty; and partly it is of a +philosophical order, inquiring into the causes and modes of the abnormal +development. It is rarely the case that human vision is especially or +deliberately directed to the sun or the moon, except at the marvellous +season of eclipse, when interest is awakened by the novelty of the +appearance among the vulgar, and among philosophers by the unusual +nature of the phenomenon, demanding explanation. Then it is that the +people inhabiting this globe are excited by something which calls off +their attention from terrestrial trifles to that which connects them +with unknown worlds. If we had been born Hindoos, we should, at such +times, exhibit our skittish tendencies, "shying" at the sun-eating +monster with nervous apprehension, and should doubtless do our best, +through horrid yells and tintinnabulations, towards getting up a +tremendous counter-irritation upon the earth that should tell mightily +on the nerves of this umbratilous tiger in the heavens. But since we are +neither Hindoos nor Egyptians, nor skittish heathen of any sort, we take +defiant attitudes and look through smoked glasses. At any rate, it is +only at such times that we pay particular attentions, by way of +courtesy, to foreign worlds. And of all the creatures of God which come +within the circle of human knowledge or notice, which is it that may be +said to enjoy the most continuous round of attentions, and to live in +excitement the most nearly approaching to perpetual? It is the comet, +which no sooner gets out of reach of _our_ flying compliments than she +becomes the pet of Jupiter's magnificent citizens, or calls forth +deprecating murmurs from our shy sister Venus, and Mercury, our milder +brother, who, from all such mischiefs, creeps as nearly as possible +under the paternal wings of the Sun. No one of these erratic visitors +can remember the time when she was not making a stir somewhere in the +universe, or when a cloudy night, intercepting her from vision, would +not have been as surely execrated as are the colds which afflict _prima +donnas_. + +Strikingly similar to our interest in these heavenly bodies is that +which we manifest in mortal men. Here, too, it is the darkened orb or +the eccentric comet that bespeaks especial notice. Judged by this +interest, considered in its vulgar aspects, De Quincey would suffer +gross injustice. Externally, and at one period of his life, I am certain +that he had all the requisite qualifications for collecting a mob about +him, and that, had he appeared in the streets of London after one of his +long sojourns amongst the mountains, no unearthly wight of whatever +description, no tattered lunatic or Botany-Bay convict, would have been +able to vie with him in the picturesque _déshabillé_ of the whole +"turnout." Picture to yourself the scene. This "king of shreds and +patches"--for, to the outward sense, he seems that now--has been "at +large" for days, perhaps for two or three weeks; he has been +unkennelled, and, among the lawless mountains, has felt no restraint +upon his own lawlessness, however Cyclopean. Doubtless he has met with +panthers and wolves, each one of whom will to its dying day retain +impressive recollections of the wee monster, from which they fled as a +trifle too uncanny even for them. As to his subsistence during these +rambles, it would be very difficult to say how he managed that affair, +at these, or indeed at any other times; and it may be that the prophetic +limitation of a fast to forty days is now the urgent occasion of his +return from vagabondism. One thing we may be sure of,--that he has made +plentiful use of a certain magical drug hid away in his +waistcoat-pocket. Like Wordsworth's brook, he has been wandering +purposely and at his own sweet will, or rather where his feet have taken +him; and he has laid him down to sleep wherever sleep may have chanced +to find him. + +The result we have here, in this uncouth specimen of humanity, in the +matted hair, the soiled garments, and the straggling gait; and what +gives the finishing touch to this grotesque picture is his utter +unconsciousness of the ludicrous features of his situation, as they +appear to other eyes. Soon, it is true, he will go through an Æson-like +rejuvenation; for, in a certain cottage, there are hearts that anxiously +await his return, and hands ready to fulfil their oft-repeated duties in +the way of refitting him out for another tramp. But, before this +transformation is effected, let us suppose the case of his being set +down in the streets of London, somewhere in the vicinity of Cheapside. +What an eddying of stragglers about this new-found focus of attraction! +what amazement, and curiosity to find him out, if, indeed, he be +find-out-able, and not, as the unmistakable papaverian odor suggests, +some Stygian bird, hailing from the farther side of Lethe. But, Stygian +or not, neither Hermes nor Pan (nor Panic, his namesake) could muster +such a rabble at his heels, supposing _him_ to appear on Cheapside! + +In his innermost sensibilities he would have shrunk from this vulgar +notice as from pollution itself. It would be monstrous to conceive of +him in such situations, except for the purpose of showing that he had +very much in his outward habit that would readily attract such a notice. +In the same light we are to regard some illustrations which J. Hill +Burton has given in "The Book-Hunter" of similar features in his +character, and which I take the liberty of introducing here; for, +although they have appeared in "Blackwood," and more lately in a +book-form, they are still unpublished to many of my readers. + +Thus, we have him pictured to us as he appeared at a dinner, "whereto he +was seduced by the false pretence that he would there meet with one who +entertained novel and anarchical views regarding the 'Golden Ass' of +Apuleius. The festivities of the afternoon are far on, when a commotion +is heard in the hall, as if some dog or other stray animal had forced +its way in. The instinct of a friendly guest tells him of the arrival; +he opens the door, and fetches in the little stranger. What can it be? A +street-boy of some sort? His costume, in fact, is a boy's duffle +great-coat, very threadbare, with a hole in it, and buttoned tight to +the chin, where it meets the fragments of a party-colored belcher +handkerchief; on his feet are list shoes, covered with snow, for it is a +stormy winter night; and the trousers,--some one suggests that they are +inner linen garments blackened with writing-ink, but that Papaverius +never would have been at the trouble so to disguise them." De Quincey, +led on by the current of his own thoughts,--though he was always too +courteous to absorb the entire conversation,--talks on "till it is far +into the night, and slight hints and suggestions are propagated about +separation and home-going. The topic starts new ideas on the progress of +civilization, the effect of habit on men in all ages, and the power of +the domestic affections. Descending from generals to the specials, he +could testify to the inconvenience of late hours: for was it not the +other night, that, coming to what was, or what he believed to be, his +own door, he knocked and knocked, but the old woman within either +couldn't or wouldn't hear him, so he scrambled over a wall, and, having +taken his repose in a furrow, was able to testify to the extreme +unpleasantness of such a couch?" + +"Shall I try another sketch of him, when, travel-stained and foot-sore, +he glided in on us one night like a shadow, the child by the fire gazing +on him with round eyes of astonishment, and suggesting that he should +get a penny and go home,--a proposal which he subjected to some +philosophical criticism very far wide of its practical tenor. How far he +had wandered since he had last refreshed himself, or even whether he had +eaten food that day, were matters on which there was no getting +articulate utterance from him. How that wearied, worn little body was to +be refreshed was a difficult problem: soft food disagreed with him; the +hard he could not eat. Suggestions pointed at length to the solution of +that vegetable unguent to which he had given a sort of lustre, and it +might be supposed that there were some fifty cases of acute toothache to +be treated in the house that night. How many drops? Drops! nonsense! If +the wineglasses of the establishment were not beyond the ordinary normal +size, there was no risk,--and so the weary is at rest for a time. + +"At early morn, a triumphant cry of '_Eureka!_' calls me to his place of +rest. With his unfailing instinct he has got at the books, and lugged a +considerable heap of them around him. That one which specially claims +his attention--my best-bound quarto--is spread upon a piece of +bedroom-furniture readily at hand, and of sufficient height to let him +pore over it as he lies recumbent on the floor, with only one article of +attire to separate him from the condition in which Archimedes, according +to the popular story, shouted the same triumphant cry. He had discovered +a very remarkable anachronism in the commonly received histories of a +very important period. As he expounded it, turning up his unearthly face +from the book with an almost painful expression of grave eagerness, it +occurred to me that I had seen something like the scene in Dutch +paintings of the Temptation of St. Anthony." + +I cannot refrain from quoting from Mr. Burton one more example, +illustrative of the fact that De Quincey, in money-matters, considered +merely the immediate and pressing exigencies of the present. "He arrives +very late at a friend's door, and on gaining admission,--a process in +which he often endured impediments,--he represents, with his usual +silver voice and measured rhetoric, the absolute necessity of his being +then and there invested with a sum of money in the current coin of the +realm,--the amount limited, from the nature of his necessities, which he +very freely states, to seven shillings and sixpence. Discovering, or +fancying he discovers, that his eloquence is likely to prove +unproductive, he is fortunately reminded, that, should there be any +difficulty in connection with security for the repayment of the loan, he +is at that moment in possession of a document which he is prepared to +deposit with the lender,--a document calculated, he cannot doubt, to +remove any feeling of anxiety which the moat prudent person could +experience in the circumstances. After a rummage in his pockets, which +develops miscellaneous and varied, but as yet by no means valuable, +possessions, he at last comes to the object of his search, a crumpled +bit of paper, and spread it out,--a fifty-pound bank-note! All sums of +money were measured by him through the common standard of immediate use; +and, with more solemn pomp of diction than he applied to the bank-note, +might he inform you, that, with the gentleman opposite, to whom he had +hitherto been entirely a stranger, but who happened to be the nearest to +him at the time when the exigency occurred to him, he had just succeeded +in negotiating a loan of two-pence." + +These pictures, though true to certain phases of De Quincey's outward +life, are yet far from personally representing him, even to the eye. +They satisfy curiosity, and that is about all. As to the real character +of the man, they are negative and unessential; they represent, indeed, +his utter carelessness as to all that, like dress, may at pleasure be +put on or off, but "the human child incarnate" is not thus brought +before us. For, could we but once look upon his face in rest, then +should we forget these inferior attributes; just as, looking upon the +Memnonian statues, one forgets the horrid nicknames of "Shandy" and +"Andy" which they have received from casual travellers, observing merely +their grotesque features. Features of this latter sort "dislimn" and +yield, as the writing on palimpsests, to the regal majesty of the divine +countenance, which none can look upon and smile. Let me paint De +Quincey's face as at this moment I seem to see it. It is wrinkled as +with an Homeric antiquity; arid it is, and sallow, as parchment. Through +a certain Bedouin-like conformation,--which, however, is idealized by +the lofty, massive forehead, and by the prevailing subtilty of the +general expression,--it seems fitted to desert solitudes; and in this +respect it is truly Memnonian. In another respect, also, is it +Memnonian,--that, whenever should rest upon its features the morning +sunlight, we should surely await its responsive requiem or its trembling +_jubilate_. By a sort of instinctive palmistry (applied, not to the +hands, but to the face) we interpret symbols of ineffable sorrow and of +ineffable peace. These, too, are Memnonian,--as is also that infinite +distance which seems to interpose between its subtile meanings and the +very possibility of interpretation. This air of remoteness, baffling the +impertinent crowd not less effectually than the dust which has gathered +for centuries about the heads of Sphinxes, is due partly to the deeply +sunken eyes beneath the wrinkled, overarching forehead; partly it arises +from that childlike simplicity and sweetness which lurk in gentle +undulations of the features,--undulations as of happy wavelets set in +motion ages since, and that cannot cease forever; but chiefly it is born +of a dream-like, brooding eternity of speculation, which we can trace +neither to the eye alone, nor to the mouth, but rather to the effect +which both together produce in the countenance. + +This is the face which for more than half a century opium veiled to +mortal eyes, and which refuses to reveal itself save through hints the +most fugitive and impalpable. Here are draperies and involutions of +mystery from which mere curiosity stands aloof. This is the head which +we have loved, and which in our eyes wears a triple wreath of glory: the +laurel for his Apollo-like art, the lotos-leaf for his impassioned +dreams, and roses for his most gentle and loving nature. + +How much of that which glorified De Quincey was due to opium? Very +little as to quality, but very much as to the degree and the peculiar +manner in which original qualities and dispositions are developed, for +here it is that the only field of influence open to abnormal agencies +lies. Coleridge, as an opium-eater, is the only individual worthy of +notice in the same connection. Had _he_ also confessed, it is uncertain +what new revelations might have been made. It is certain that opium +exercised a very potent effect upon him; for it was generally after his +dose that his remarkable intellectual displays occurred. These displays +were mostly confined to his conversations, which were usually +long-winded metaphysical epics, evolving a continued series of +abstractions and analyses, and, for their movement, depending upon a +sort of poetic construction. A pity it is that we must content ourselves +with empty descriptions of this nature. Here, doubtless, if anywhere, +opium was an auxiliary to Coleridge. For a laudanum negus, whatever +there may be about it that is pernicious, will, to a mind that is +metaphysically predisposed, open up thoroughfares of thought which are +raised above the level of the gross material, and which lead into the +region of the shadowy. Show us the man who habitually carries pills of +_any_ sort in his waistcoat-pocket, be they opium or whatever else, and +we can assure you that that man is an _aërobat_,--that somehow, in one +sense or another, he walks in the air above other men's heads. Whatever +disturbs the healthful isolation of the nervous system is prosperous to +metaphysics, because it attracts the mental attention to the organism +through which thought is carried on. Numerous are the instances of men +who would never have been heard of as thinkers or as reflective poets, +if they had had sufficient muscular ballast to pull against their +teeming brains. The consequence of the disproportion has been that the +superfluous brain has exhaled, as a mere necessity.[A] If Tacitus had +fared in any sort like his brother,--if there had been anything like an +equitable division between them of muscle and brain, it is more than +probable that we should have lost the illustrious historian. + +[Footnote A: It has been adduced as an important proof of the soul's +immortality, that frequently, as physical power declines, the mind +exhibits unusual activity. But the argument moves in the opposite +direction. For of what sort is this unusual activity? That which results +from unbalanced nerves; and the indications are that not only are the +physical harmonies disturbed, but that the same disturbing cause has +impaired the delicate adjustments of thought itself. Sometimes there is +manifested, towards the near approach of death, an almost insane +brilliancy; as, for instance, in the case of a noted theologian, who +occupied the last minutes of his ebbing life with a very subtile +mathematical discourse concerning the exceeding, the excruciating +smallness of nothing divided into infinitesimal parts. And strange as it +may seem, I once heard this identical instance cited as a triumphant +vindication of the most sublime article of either Pagan or Christian +faith. Nay, from the lips of a theological professor, the fragmentary +glimmerings of a maniac's mind have been adduced for precisely the same +purpose.] + +Coleridge was indolent from temperament, a disposition which was +increased by opium. Hence De Quincey was of the opinion that it injured +Coleridge's poetic faculties; which probably was the case, since in +genuine poetry the mind is prominently realistic, its motions are all +outward, and therefore excessive indolence must of necessity be fatal. + +De Quincey's physical system, on the contrary, seemed preconformed to +opium: it demanded it, and would be satisfied with nothing else. No +temptation so strong _could_ have been presented to Coleridge. De +Quincey really craved the drug. His stomach was deranged, and was still +suffering from the sad results of his youthful wanderings in London. It +seems almost as if fate had compelled the unfortunate course into which +he finally drifted. The craving first appeared in the shape of a horrid +gnawing at the stomach; afterwards this indefinite yearning gave place +to a specific one, which was unmistakable in its demands. Daily, like +the daughters of the horse-leech, it cried, "Give, give!" Toward the +last, this craving became, in De Quincey's solemn belief, an animal +incarnate, and the opium-eater reasoned after the following fashion:--It +is not I that eat, it is not I that am responsible either for the fact +of eating or the amount; am I the keeper of this horrid monster's +conscience? He even carried the conceit so far as to consider a portion +of each meal as especially devoted to this insane stomachic reveller, +just as a voracious Greek or Roman would have attributed no small part +of his outrageous appetite to the gods, as eating by proxy through the +mouths of mortals. This is almost as bad as the case reported of +Stonewall Jackson, who, it is said, religiously believed that whatever +he ate was, by some mysterious physiological economy, conveyed into his +left leg. + +No less was De Quincey _psychologically_ preconformed to opium. The +prodigious mental activity so early awakened in him counteracted the +narcotic despotism of the drug, and made it a sort of ally. The reader +sees from this how much depends upon predispositions as to the effect of +opium. De Quincey himself says that the man whose daily talk is of oxen +will pursue his bovine speculations into dreams. Opium originates +nothing; but, given activity of a certain type and moving in a certain +direction, and there will be perhaps through opium a multiplication of +energies and velocities. What was De Quincey _without_ opium? is, +therefore, the question preliminary to any proper estimate as to what in +him was due to opium. This question has already been answered in the +remarks made concerning his childhood. His meditative tendencies were +especially noticed as most characteristic. There was besides this a +natural leaning toward the mysterious,--the mysterious, I mean, as +depending, not upon the terrible or ghostly, or upon anything which +excites gloom or fear, but upon operations that are simply inscrutable +as moving in darkness. Take, for example, the idea of a grand +combination of human energies mustered together in secret, and operating +through invisible agencies for the downfall of Christianity,--an idea +which was conveyed to De Quincey in his childhood through the Abbé +Baruel's book exposing such a general conspiracy was existing throughout +Europe: this was the sort of mystery which arrested and engrossed his +thoughts. Similar elements invested all secret societies with an awful +grandeur in his conception. So, too, the complicated operations of great +cities such as London, which he call the "Nation of London," where even +Nature is mimicked, both in her strict regularity of results, and in the +seeming unconsciousness of all her outward phases, hiding all meaning +under the enigmas that defy solution. In order to this effect it was +absolutely necessary that there should be not simply one mystery +standing alone by itself, and striking in its portentous significance; +there must have been more than this,--namely, a network of occult +influences, a vast organization, wheeling in and out upon itself, +gyrating in mystic cycles and epicycles, repeating over and again its +dark omens, and displaying its insignia in a never-ending variety of +shapes. To him intricacy the most perplexing was also the most inviting. +It was this which lent an overwhelming interest to certain problems of +history that presented the most labyrinthian mazes to be disinvolved: +for the demon that was in him sought after hieroglyphics that by all +others had been pronounced undecipherable; and not unfrequently it was +to his eye that for the first time there seemed to be an unknown element +that must be supplied. Such a problem was presented by the religious +sect among the Hebrews entitled the _Essenes_. Admitting the character +and functions of this sect to have been those generally ascribed to it +no special importance. But the idea once having occurred to De Quincey +that the general assumption was the farthest removed from the +truth,--than there was an unknown _x_ in the problem, which could be +satisfied by no such meagre hypothesis,--that, to meet the urgent +demands of the case, there must be substituted for this Jewish sect an +organization of no less importance than the Christian Church +itself,--that this organization, thus suddenly brought to light, was +one, moreover, that, from the most imperative necessity, veiled itself +from all eyes, uttering its sublime articles of faith, and even its very +name, to itself only in secret recesses of silence:--from the moment +that all this was revealed to De Quincey, there was thenceforth no limit +to his profound interest. Two separate essays he wrote on this +subject,[A] of which he seemed never to tire. + +[Footnote A: Yet, marvellous as it may seem, he wrote the second without +being distinctly conscious of having written a previous one. It was no +uncommon thing for him to forget his own writings. In one case it is +known that for a long time he persisted in disowning his production. His +American editor--a fact which is little known--selected, from among the +mass of periodical writings in the various magazines for which De +Quincey wrote, those which, having no other clue to guide him than, +their peculiar style, he judged to have proceeded from De Quincey's pen. +In one instance,--as to the "Traditions of the Rabbins,"--after +considerable examination, he still hesitated, and finally wrote to De +Quincey, to set himself right. The latter disowned the essay: he had +forgotten it. Mr. F., however, after another examination, concluded, +that, notwithstanding De Quincey's denial of the fact, he _must_ have +written it; accordingly, at his own risk, he published it. Afterwards De +Quincey owned up, and ever after that referred all disputed cases of +this nature to his Boston publishers.] + +"Klosterheim" is from beginning to end only the development, through +regular stages, of an intricately involved mystery of this subtile +nature. Oftentimes De Quincey deals with the horrid tragedy of murder; +but the mere fact of a murder, however shocking, was not sufficient to +arrest him. With the celebrated Williams murders, on the contrary, he +was entirely taken up, since these proceeded in accordance with designs +not traceable to the cursory glance, but which tasked the skill of a +decipherer to interpret and reduce to harmony. Here were murders that +revolved musically, that modulated themselves to master-principles, and +that at every stage of progress sought alliance with the hidden +mysteries of universal human nature. I know of no writer but De Quincey +who invests mysteries of this tragic order with their appropriate +drapery, so that they shall, to our imaginations, unfold the full +measure of their capacities for striking awe into our hearts. + +This sort of mystery is always connected with dreams. They owe their +very existence to darkness, which withdraws them from the material +limitations of every-day life; they are shifted to an ideal +_proscenium_; their _dramatis personæ_, however familiar nominally, and +however much derived from material suggestions, are yet in all their +motions obedient to an alien centre as opposite as is possible to the +ordinary centre about which the mere mechanism of life revolves. We +should therefore expect beforehand in De Quincey an overruling tendency +towards this remote architecture of dreams. The careful reader of his +"Autobiographic Sketches" will remember, that, at the early age of +seven, and before he knew of even the existence of opium, the least +material hint which bordered on the shadowy was sufficient to lift him +up into aërial structures, and to lead his infant footsteps amongst the +clouds. Such hints, after his little sister's death, were furnished by +certain expressions of the Litany, by pictures in the stained windows of +the church, and by the tumult of the organ. Nor were the dreams thus +introduced mere fantasies, irregular and inconsistent. Throughout, they +were self-sustained and majestic. + +The natural effects of opium were concurrent with preëxisting tendencies +of De Quincey's mind. If, instead of having his restless intellect, he +had been indolent,--if, instead of loving the mysterious, because it +invited a Titanic energy to reduce its anarchy to order, he had loved it +as simply dark or obscure,--if his natural subtilty of reflection had +been less, or if he had been endowed with inferior powers in the sublime +architecture of impassioned expression,--then might he as well have +smoked a meerschaum, taken snuff or grog or any other stimulant, as to +have gone out of his way for the more refined pleasures of opium. + +The reader will indulge us in a single philosophical distinction, at +this point, by which we mean to classify the effects of opium under two +heads: first, the _external_, and, secondly, the _internal_. Properly +speaking, all the _positive_ effects of opium must be internal; for all +its movements are inward in their direction, being refluent upon the +focal centres of life. Thus, one of the most noticeable phenomena +connected with opium-eating is the burden of life resting back upon the +heart, which deliberately pulsates the moments of existence, as if the +most momentous issues depended upon each separate throb. But this very +reflux of sensibility will produce great effects at the surface, which +are purely negative. This latter class of effects Homer has indicated +with considerable accuracy, in the ninth Odyssey, (82-105,) where he +notices specifically an air of carelessness regarding external +things,--carelessness as to the mutual interchange of conversation by +question and answer, and as to the ordinary pursuits of life as +disturbing an inward peace. The same characteristics are more fully +developed in Tennyson's "Lotos-Eaters":-- + + "Branches they bore of that enchanted stem, + Laden with flower and fruit, whereof they gave + To each; but whoso did receive of them, + And taste, to him the gushing of the wave, + Far, far away, did seem to mourn and rave + On alien shores; and if his fellows spake, + His voice was thin, as voices from the grave; + And deaf-asleep he seemed, yet all awake, + And music in his ears his beating heart did make." + +By causing the life to flow inward upon a more ideal centre, opium +deepens the consciousness, and compels it to give testimony to processes +and connections that in ordinary moments escape unrecorded. It is as if +new materials were found for a history of the individual +life,--materials which, like freshly discovered records, sound the +deepest meanings of the present and measure the abysses of the past. +Thus it is that the fugitive imagery of sense is interpreted as a scroll +which hides infinite truths under the most fleeting of symbols,--symbols +which are not sufficiently enduring to call them words, or even +syllables of words, since the most trivial hint or whisper of them has +hardly reached us ere they have perished. Thus it is that even the still +more intangible record of memory, where are preserved only images and +echoes of that which undeniably has perished, is revivified and +enlarged. + +There is, then, in the opium-eater a most marked, a polar antithesis +between his every-day life and the central manifestations of his genius. +In the latter, there is beautiful order, as in a symphony of +Beethoven's; but in the former, looked upon from without, all seems +confusion. There is the same antithesis in every meditative mind; but +here opium has heightened each part of the contrast. The more we admire +the _en_centric harmonies of inwrapt power, the more do we find to draw +forth laughter in the eccentricities of outward habit. The very same +agencies which undisguised and unveiled the deep, divine heaven, masked +the earth with desert sands; and De Quincey's outward life was thus +masked and rendered abnormal, that the blue heaven in which he revelled +might be infinitely exalted. + +Thus is it possible for the seemingly ludicrous to harmonize with +transcendent sublimity. We smile at De Quincey's giving in "copy" on the +generous margins of a splendid "Somnium Scipionis"; but the precious +words, that might perhaps have found some more fit vehicle to the +composer's eye, could have found no deeper place in our hearts. We look +at the hatless sleeper among the mountains: his face seems utterly blank +and meaningless, and to all intents and purposes he seems as good as +dead; but let us ascend with him in his dreams, and we shall soon forget +that under God's heavens there exists mortality or the commonplace uses +of mortality. + +As we ascend from grotesque features to such as are more intellectual, +that peculiarity of his character which most strikes us is his +inimitable courtesy. Mr. F.,--to whom I am indebted for the most novel +and interesting portions of this memorial,--from his own personal +interviews with the man, among many other things, retains this chiefly +in remembrance,--that De Quincey was the perfectest gentleman he had +ever seen. + +I take the liberty here of particularizing somewhat in regard to one +visit which this friend of De Quincey's paid him, particularly as it +introduces us to the man towards the last of his life (1851). Mr. F., +curious as it may seem, found but one person in Edinburgh who could +inform him definitely as to De Quincey's whereabouts. In return to a +note, giving De Quincey information of his arrival, etc., the latter +replies in a letter which is very characteristic, and which may well be +highly prized, so rarely was it that any friend was able to obtain from +him such a memento. The style, perhaps, is as familiar as it was ever +his habit to indulge in; and it shows how impossible it was for him, +even on the most temporary summons, to dispense with his usual +regularity of expression or with any logical nicety of method. The +letter runs thus:-- + + + _Thursday evening, August 26, 1851_. + + "My dear Sir,--The acccompanying billet from my daughter, short at + any rate under the pressure of instant engagements, has been cut + shorter by a sudden and very distressing headache; I, therefore, + who (from a peculiar nervousness connected with the act of writing) + so rarely attempt to discharge my own debts in the letter-writing + department of life, find myself unaccountably, I might say + mysteriously, engaged in the knight-errantry of undertaking for + other people's. Wretched bankrupt that I am, with an absolute + refusal on the part of the Commissioner to grant me a certificate + of the lowest class, suddenly, and by a necessity not to be evaded, + I am affecting the large bounties of supererogation. I appear to be + vaporing in a spirit of vainglory; and yet it is under the mere + coercion of '_salva necessitas_' that I am surprised into this + unparalleled instance of activity. Do you walk? That is, do you + like walking for four hours '_on end_'--(which is our archaic + expression for _continuously_)? If I knew _that_, I would arrange + accordingly for meeting you. The case as to distance is this. The + Dalkeith railway, from the Waverley station, brings you to Esk + Bank. That is its nearest approach,--its _perihelion_, in relation + to ourselves; and it is precisely two and three-quarters miles + distant from _Mavis Bush_,--the name of our cottage. Close to us, + and the most noticeable object for guiding your inquiries, is _Mr. + Annandale's Paper-Mills_. + + "Now, then, accordingly as you direct my motions, I will--rain + being supposed absent--join you at your hotel in Edinburgh any time + after 11 A.M. and walk out the whole distance, (seven miles from + the Scott monument,) or else I will meet you at Esk Bank; or, if + you prefer coming out in a carriage, I will await your coming here + in that state of motionless repose which best befits a philosopher. + Excuse my levity; and believe that with sincere pleasure we shall + receive your obliging visit. + + "Ever your faithful servant, + + "THOMAS DE QUINCEY." + +In order to appreciate the physical powers of him who proposed a walk of +the distance indicated in the letter, we must remember that he was then +just sixty-six years _plus_ ten days old. He was now living with his +daughters, in the utmost simplicity. On his arrival, Mr. F. found De +Quincey awaiting him at the door of his cottage,--a short man, with +small head, and eyes that were absolutely indescribable as human +features, with a certain boyish awkwardness of manner, but with the most +urban-like courtesy and affability. From noon till dark, the time is +spent in conversation, continued, various, and eloquent. What a presence +is there in this humble, unpretending cottage! And as the stream of +Olympian sweetness moves on, now in laughing ripples, and again in a +solemn majestic flood, what a past do we bring before ourselves! what a +present! For this is he that talked with Coleridge, that was the friend +of Wilson,--and--what furnishes a more sublime suggestion--this is he +that knows by heart the mountain-fells and the mysterious recesses of +hidden valleys for miles around; and we think, if he could convey us +from the haunts of this Lasswade of his old age to those which glorified +the Grasmere of his youth, what new chords he might touch,--of human +love, for there it was that the sweetness of his wedded life had been +buried and embalmed in a thousand outward memorials of happy hours long +gone by,--and of human sadness, for there it was that he had experienced +the reversal of every outward fortune, and the alienations of +friendships which he most highly valued. But the remembrances of +Grasmere and of youth seem now to have been removed as into some other +life: the man of a past generation walks alone, and amid other scenes. +And yonder is the study in which he spends hours that are most +holy,--hours consecrated to what specific employments is known to none, +since across its threshold no feet save his have passed for years. Now +and then some grand intellectual effort proceeds forth from its sacred +precincts; but that only happens when pecuniary necessities compel the +exertion. How is it that the time not thus occupied is spent?--in what +remembrances, in what hidden thoughts, what passing dreams? + +As it grows dark, De Quincey's guest, having spent most precious moments +which he feels ought never to cease, signifies the necessity of his +taking his departure. To take leave of this strange man, however, is not +so easy a matter as one might rashly suppose. There is a genius of +procrastination about him. Was he ever known to make his appearance at +any dinner in season, or indeed at any entertainment? Yes, he did +_once_, at the recital of a Greek tragedy on the Edinburgh stage; but +that happened through a trick played on him by an acquaintance, who, to +secure some remote chance of his seeing the performance, told him that +the doors opened at half-past six, whereas, in fact, they opened at +seven. How preposterous, then, to suppose that he would let an +opportunity pass for procrastinating other people, and putting all +manner of snares about their feet! It is dangerous with such a man to +hint of late hours; for just that lateness is to him the very jewel of +the thing. In mentioning the circumstance, you only suggest to him the +infinite pleasure connected with the circumstance. Perhaps he will +deliberately set to work to prove that candle-light is the one +absolutely indispensable condition to genial intercourse,--which would +doubtless suggest a great contrast, in that respect, between the ancient +and modern economy,--and where, then, _is_ there to be an end? All +attempts to extricate yourself by unravelling the net which is being +woven about you are hopelessly vain; you cannot keep pace with _him_. +The thought of delay enchants him, and he dallies with it, as a child +with a pet delicacy. Thus, he is at the house of a friend; it storms, +and a reasonable excuse is furnished for his favorite experiment. The +consequence is, that, once started in this direction, the delay is +continued for a year. Late hours were particularly potent to "draw out" +De Quincey; and, understanding this, Professor Wilson used to protract +his dinners almost into the morning, a tribute which De Quincey +doubtless appreciated. + +So that it is better to be on the sly about saying "Good bye" to this +host of yours. When, however, it was absolutely necessary to be gone, De +Quincey forthwith insisted on accompanying his guest. What, then, was to +be done? Ominously the sky looked down upon them, momently threatening a +storm. No resource was there but to give the man his way, and accept his +offer of companionship for a short distance, painfully conscious though +you are of the fact that every step taken forwards must, during this +same August night, be retraced by the weary-looking old man at your +side, who now lacks barely four years of life's average allotment. Thus +you move on: and the heavens move on their hurricanes by nearer +approaches, warnings of which propagate themselves all around you in +every sound of the wind and every rustle of the forest-leaves. +Meanwhile, there is no rest to the silvery vocal utterances of your +companion: every object by the way furnishes a ready topic for +conversation. Just now you are passing an antiquated old mansion, and +your guide stops to tell you that in this house may have been committed +most strange and horrible murders, that, in spite of the tempestuous +mutterings heard on every side, ought now and here to be specially and +solemnly memorialized by human relation. A woman passes by, a perfect +stranger, but De Quincey steps entirely out of the road to one side, +takes off his hat, and in the most reverent attitude awaits her +passage,--and you, poor astonished mortal that you are, lest you should +yourself seem scandalously uncourteous, are compelled to do likewise. In +this incident we see what infinite majesty invested the very semblance +of humanity in De Quincey's thoughts: and something of the same +remarkable courtesy was manifested by Rufus Choate, who uniformly +addressed the lowest of women in the witness-box as if they were every +one of them worthy of the most queenly consideration. + +Onward you proceed,--one,--two,--three miles, and you can endure no +longer the thought that your friend shall go on farther, increasing thus +at every step the burden of his journey back. You have, reached the Esk +bank and the bridge which spans the stream; the storm so long threatened +begins now to let loose its rage against all unsheltered mortals. Here +De Quincey consents to bid you good-bye,--to you his last good-bye; and +as here you leave him, so is he forever enshrined in your thoughts, +together with the primal mysteries of night and of storm, of human +tragedies and of the most pathetic human tenderness. + +But this paper, already sufficiently prolonged, should draw to a close. +It is a source of great mortification to me that I cannot find some very +disagreeable thing to say of De Quincey, merely as a matter of poetic +justice; for assuredly he was in the habit of saying all the malicious +things _he_ could about his friends. If there was anything in a man's +face or shape particularly uncouth, you might trust De Quincey for +noticing _that_. Even Wordsworth he could not let off without a Parthian +shot at his awkward legs and round shoulders; Dr. Parr he rated soundly +on his mean proportions; and one of the most unfortunate things which +ever happened to the Russian Emperor Alexander was to have been seen in +London by De Quincey, who, even amid the festivities of national and +international congratulation on the fall of Napoleon, could not forget +that this imperial ally was a very commonplace-looking fellow, after +all. But, in regard to physical superiority, De Quincey lived in a glass +house too fragile to admit of his throwing many stones at his neighbors. +The very fact that he valued personal appearance at so low an estimate +takes away the sting from his remarks on the deformities of other +people: he could not have meant any detraction, but simply wished to +present a perfect picture to the eye, preserving the ugly features with +the faultless, just as we all insist on doing in regard to those we +love. De Quincey and myself, therefore, are likely to part good friends. +Surely, if there was anything which vexed the tender heart of this man, +it was "the little love and the infinite hate" which went to make up the +sum of life. If morbid in any direction, it was not in that of spite, +but of love; and as an instance of almost unnatural intensity of +affection, witness his insane grief over little Kate Wordsworth's +grave,--a grief which satisfied itself only by reasonless prostrations, +for whole nights, over the dark mould which covered her from his sight. + +It only remains for us to look in upon De Quincey's last hours. We are +enabled to take almost the position of those who were permitted really +to watch at his bedside, through a slight unpublished sketch, from the +hand of his daughter, in a letter to an American friend. I tremble +almost to use materials that personally are so sacred; but sympathy, and +the tender interest which is awakened in our hearts by such a life, are +also sacred, and in privilege stand nearest to grief. + +During the few last, days of his life De Quincey wandered much, mixing +up "real and imaginary, or apparently imaginary things." He complained, +one night, that his feet were hot and tired. His daughter arranged the +blankets around them, saying, "Is that better, papa?" when he answered, +"Yes, my love, I think it is; you know, my dear girl, these are the feet +that Christ washed." + +Everything seemed to connect itself in his mind with little children. He +aroused one day, and said suddenly,--"You must know, my dear, the +Edinburgh cabmen are the most brutal set of fellows under the sun. I +must tell you that I and the little children were all invited to supper +with Jesus Christ. So, as you see, it was a great honor. I thought I +must buy new dresses for the little ones; and--would you believe it +possible?--when I went out with the children, these wretches laughed at +their new dresses." + +"Of my brothers he often spoke, both those that are dead and those that +are alive, as if they were his own brothers. One night he said, when I +entered the room,-- + +"'Is that you, Horace?' + +"'No, papa.' + +"'Oh, I see! I thought you were Horace; for he was talking to me just +now, and I suppose has just left the room.'" + +Speaking of his father, one day, suddenly and without introduction, he +exclaimed,--"There is one thing I deeply regret, that I did not know my +dear father better; for I am sure a better, kinder, or juster man could +never have existed." + +When death seemed approaching, the physician recommended that a telegram +should be sent to the eldest daughter,[A] who resided in Ireland, but he +forbade any mention of this fact to the patient. De Quincey seemed to +have a prophetic feeling that she was on her way to him, saying, "Has M. +got to that town yet, that we stopped at when we went to Ireland? How +many hours will it be before she can be here? Let me see,--there are +eight hours before I can see her, and three added to that!" His daughter +came sooner than the family expected; but the time tallied very nearly +with the computation he had made. On the morning his daughter arrived +occurred the first intimation his family had seen that the hand of death +was laid upon him. He had passed a quiet, but rather sleepless night, +appearing "much the same, yet more than ordinarily loving." After +greeting his child, he said, "And how does mamma's little girl like her +leaving her?" "Oh, they were very glad for me to come to grandpapa, and +they sent you this kiss,--which they did of their own accord." He seemed +much pleased. It was evident that M. presented herself to him as the +mother of children, the constant theme of his wanderings. Once when his +daughter quitted the room, he said, "They are all leaving me but my +_dear_ little children." "I heard him call, one day, distinctly, +'Florence! Florence! Florence!'--again, 'My dear, dear mother!'--and to +the last he called us 'my love,' and it sounded like no other sound +ever uttered. I never heard such pathos as there was in it, and in every +tone of his voice. It gave me an idea of a love that passeth all +understanding." + +[Footnote A: De Quincey, at his death, had two sons and three daughters. +The, eldest of the daughters became the wife of Robert Craig of Ireland. +It was this one, and the youngest, who were present during his last +hours. The second daughter, Florence, was with her husband (a colonel of +the British army) in India. The two sons were both absent: one in India, +a captain in the army; the other, a physician, in Brazil.] + +During the next night he was thought dying, "but he lingered on and on +till half past nine the next morning. He told me something about +'to-morrow morning,' and something about sunshine; but the thought that +he was talking about what he would never see drove the exact idea out of +my head, though I am sure it was morning in another world he was talking +of." + +"There was an extraordinary appearance of youth about him, both for some +time before and after death. He looked more like a boy of fourteen, and +very beautiful. We did not like to let in the morning light, and the +candle was burning at nine o'clock, when the post brought the following +letter, which my sister and myself glanced over by the candle-light, +just as we were listening to his decreasing breath. At the moment it did +not strike me with the astonishment, at such an extraordinary +coincidence, that when we came to read it afterwards it did. + + + "'_Brighton, Dec. 7th, 1859_. + + "'My Dear De Quincey,--Before I quit this world, I most ardently + desire to see your handwriting. In early life, that is, more than + sixty years ago, we were school-fellows together and mutually + attached; nay, I remember a boyish paper ("The Observer") in which + we were engaged. Yours has been a brilliant literary career, mine + far from brilliant, but I hope not unuseful as a theological + student. It seems a pity we should not once more recognize one + another before quitting the stage. I have often read your works, + and never without remembering the promise of your talents at + Winkfield. My life has been almost a domestic tragedy. I have four + children in lunatic-asylums. Thank God, it is now drawing to a + close; but it would cheer the evening of my days to receive a line + from you, for I am, with much sincerity, + + "'Your old and attached friend, + + "'E.H.G.' + +"I do not remember the name of G., but the name of Edward constantly +recurred in his wanderings. + +"Half an hour after the reading of that letter we heard those last +pathetic sighs, so terrible from their very softness, and saw the poor, +worn-out garment laid aside." Just before he died, he looked around the +room, and said very tenderly to the nurse, the physician, and his +daughters, who were present, "Thank you,--thank you all!" Sensible thus +to the very last of kindness, he breathed out his life in simple thanks, +swayed even in death by the spirit of profound courtesy that had ruled +his life. + +MRS. LEWIS. + +A STORY IN THREE PARTS. + + +PART I. + + +I. + +"Here's something Gus Lewis would like to send by you, mother," said my +hasty boy John, plunging into the room at nine in the evening, and +stumbling over two trunks, three valises, and bandboxes countless. + +The floor was strewn with bundles, and the mantel-piece adorned with +letters, directed to Springfield, Hartford, New Haven, and New York. + +"Oh! ah! yes. Any packages, if not too large," said I, wistfully eying +the box, (a foot square,) full of fresh maple-sugar, with its card of +direction to "_Mrs. Lulu L., by the politeness of Mrs. Prince_." +Boy-like. + +"First of all, my John, go you to bed, where Charley has been this +half-hour, and say good-bye, for we shall be off before you are up." + +"See, then, father, if you are!" retorted the wide-awake youth, going +out of the room in ground and lofty tumbling, and up-stairs in +somersets. + +"I don't see," said I, pettishly, "how I _am_ to get this bundle into my +trunk, nor where in the world this great box of sugar is to go. See! not +a direction! but I suppose she is in New York somewhere." + +"We shall see her at all events, which is something. I should like to +know what she is like,--not to look after her boy for two mortal years," +said the Dominie. + +"I hope not like Gus. He'd make an ugly woman, with his black hair and +heavy eyebrows, and his big, black eyes always staring. He don't look +like an American child." + +"If we could only say what an American type is. At present, it is a +little of everything." + +"I mean a New-Englander,--an original American." + +"Well, he don't.--What do you say to these trunks? Shall we try again to +compress the gigantic genie into the copper vessel? I thought it was a +dangerous move, that last one of yours, taking out Tirzah White's +quilted coat. And what's to be done with these three packages?" + +"Well! we can't sit here!" said I, briskly; "half-past nine already, and +only one trunk packed! Never mind. You can put these three bundles in +with your clothes." + +"Bursting the lock, now." + +"How easy 'tis to pack other people's things! But what, then, have you +in there,--I mean, besides your shirts, etc.?" + +"_Imprimis_. Eight volumes of Scott's Commentaries, brought by Deacon +Boardman. I am to exchange them. They are imperfect. _Item_. A dozen of +'Sinbad the Sailor,' sent by mistake to the Association, instead of +Doddridge. These books won't press nor give, more than sound doctrine; +and I must have room for my gown, without which I am nothing." + +The clock struck ten, and we were still struggling with unabated ardor +to compress Lorana Briggs's shawl, and the flat packages from Burt's, +into the largest carpet-bag, that there might be room for the seventeen +letters on top of the minister's luggage, inside the sanctuary of his +silk gown. + +"We can carry a good deal in your coat-pocket, my dear," said I, +cheerfully; for really we seemed to be coming to daylight, a little. + +"Full." + +The knocker sounded. + +"My galoches at last! Deacon, I can't ask you to come in, we are so +untidy; but I couldn't pack as I meant to, this afternoon." + +How we dreaded his coming in,--half deacon, half shoemaker, and +two-thirds missionary, with his "Panoplist" sticking out of his +coat-pocket, and his ears evermore pricked up for the latest news from +Bombay! and how angry I had been for three weeks because I couldn't get +those indispensable galoches! + +It seemed as if he never would go from the half-open door. He reckoned +the York folks would stare to see so many patches; he expected ministers +down to York warn't quite so carfle and troubled about many things, as +they be to Weston; but he added, with a grim joyfulness,-- + +"We took up a good collection, though, last Sabbath! eight dollars and +fifteen cents, clear!" + +"Yes, Deacon," responded the minister, with as much heartiness as he +could muster, between the pushings, puffings, and pressings at the +carpet-bag; "a cup of cold water shall in no wise lose its reward, we're +told.--These carpet-bags stretch well!" + +"Them poor, dear heathen!" groaned the Deacon. + +"Oh, dreadful!" chimed I; "give me that biggest shawl, will you?--no, +the other,--Ursula Drury's! Shall we ever finish packing?" + +"S'pose ye'll see th' A.B.C.F.M.!--Lucina Rand's put in 'the avails of a +hen,'--and Semela Briggs sold the silver thimble her aunt gin her. 'T +all helps the good work. I told the Widow Rand she'd ough' to do +somethin' for the heathen, so she's gone to raisin' mustard. She said +she hadn't more 'n a grain o' that to spare, she was so poor; but I told +her 't would be blest, I guessed. Widow Rand's rather worldly-minded, +I'm afraid." + +A minute more and we should have had Hindostan, Harriet Newell, and +Juggernaut. Happily, somebody came for the Deacon, and we were left to +our packing again. + + +II. + +This was the second week in May, in the year 1830. We were a promising +country, but had not yet performed. Neither railroads, telegraphs, nor +cheap postage had been established. Enthusiastic inventors yet sucked +their fingers in garrets, waiting for the good time coming; and +philanthropic statesmen aired their vocabularies in vain, in +Congressional halls, built in defiance of acoustics. Their words rose, +their fine sentiments curled up and down the pillars of the temple of +eloquence, and fell flat to the floor. Meanwhile human nature travelled +by stage-coaches; and postage for over a hundred miles rose to eighteen +cents. Not a lover's sigh for a cent less; and it took a fortune for +persons of sensibility to exchange sentiments. + +The consequence to country-people of this last-mentioned fact was, that +everybody who went anywhere took everybody's letters, and, as there were +no expresses, added, of course, everybody's packages and messages. And +the consequence of this was, that everybody made everybody's purchases, +whether gowns, books, bonnets, or what not. It mattered little who did +errands, so only they were done. Generally, the one store-keeper bought +our bonnets when he went to Boston for his yearly stock of goods, and +our one bonnet lasted in those days a year, being retrimmed for winter +weather. I remember, too, when our one store-keeper, mingling in the +æsthetic conversation at one of our parties, where Art was on the +_tapis_, made a comical mistake, but one natural enough, too,--stating +that he could buy, and had bought, Vandykes for ten dollars. We were not +thinking of exactly the same kind of Vandyke that he was. + +Many a time have I carried in my trunk more letters than the mail-bag +did to Boston, and conscientiously finished all the parish's business +before touching my own. + +A certain amount of self-complacency and satisfaction is felt, and +laudably earned, by being intrusted with commissions; and I flatter +myself few persons ever set off for New York with such an array of them +as I did on this occasion. + +Looking over my list, I must confess to a flush of real enjoyment at +finding _carte blanche_ for a scarf. "Now, that is something like!" said +I. "I can see now how pleasantly an artist feels, or would feel, at an +order for a picture,--'your own subject,--your own terms.' Miss Patty +Jones knows what is what, and shall be my patroness." + +And did I not vindicate triumphantly Miss Patty's confidence? I knew +better than to buy her a gray and brown thing, merely because she, too, +was gray and brown. I wreathed her with lilies and hyacinths and French +green leaves, and she blossomed under it like a rose. If she were not +the garland, she wore it, and so borrowed bloom and gay freshness. She +extolled my taste to all Weston. + +Then Mrs. Eben Loring had concluded on the whole that I should buy her a +hat, in Maiden Lane, at the very tip-top milliner's. The thought of my +return was somewhat embittered by the prospective necessity of carrying +two very large bandboxes in my lap, in case of rain. Rain might not +unreasonably be expected in the course of a three days' journey. Think +of all the bandboxes that in such a case would be put in at the +coach-window by the driver, to be held in the hapless laps of the nine +passengers! Almost I was persuaded to leave my own black satin bonnet, +and perambulate the streets of New York in my travelling-calash, which +looked exactly like, and was nearly of the size of, a "bellows-top +shay." + +I was thinking of this last sacrifice, when my husband said, in a +dreamy, bewildered way,-- + +"Here are five boxes, mother, two bundles, and the rest of these books. +I give up!" + +"Give up? Not I! Now, where a man's energies are exhausted, a woman's +just begin to show themselves. First and foremost, lock this trunk, and +let me put the key in my pocket. That's one thing done, and can't be +undone." + +He stepped back from the trunk. + +"What's this? all your clothes on the floor!" + +"Well, yes, my dear, most of 'em. You see, I couldn't leave Zipporah +Haven's shawl out, which she sends to her grandmother; and I must put in +these bundles of the Burts's, and Mary Skinner's box of linen thread. If +my own things are lost, why, they must be replaced, you know, my dear; +that is all." + +"And we must keep a good lookout, ourselves, that our bandboxes and +bundles don't fall off behind," replied the Dominie, faintly. + +"Yes; and you can put the small trunk under my feet, and the big basket +under your own, and you will keep an eye on my red shawl,--and pray +don't lose the umbrella, nor your great-coat, nor your cane. I will, on +my part, see to these three small bundles, and my parasol. Doubtless we +shall go on smoothly as need be, only I am afraid you won't be able to +think up many sermons on the highway. There! I forgot the jar of +currant-jelly to go to Ruth Hoyt's aunt! However, we must manage +somehow. You are sure our names are down at the stage-office?" + +But, like Charles XII., "after Pultowa's dreadful day," when the +tale-teller listened for his sympathy, + + "The king had been an hour asleep." + +I am ashamed to say that I must have lost myself after that, though I +thought I was only thinking of the Day of Judgment. But I must have +dreamed it, or how should I have thought it the last trumpet, when it +was only the stage-driver's warning knock? + +It was delightful to hear the knock, and the simultaneous clang of pots +and pans which assured us, that, though night had been no night to us, +the dark morning would usher in our breakfast with coffee by the +faithful Polly. The driver coming in again before we had finished, we +seduced him without scruple into taking a cup of boiling comfort, while +we guiltily collected the waifs and strays of our multifarious luggage. +Many a time I have waited, myself, in the coach, while similar orgies +were going on among the unready, so I know just how vexed and impatient +the passengers were. But what use to go on without the driver? At last +we squeezed into the full stage. + + +III. + +No sooner in than out, however. I was determined not to die before my +time, as I was sure to do on the back-seat of an overloaded stage, with +nine passengers, besides numerous, because gratuitously earned, +children. "For who," as it was sometimes pertinently asked, "would +charge anything for a poor little innocent child?" The younger, the more +innocent, of course, and the more numerous. + +"If you'll set up here 'long o' me, Miss Prince, there's a plenty o' +room,--and for you, too, Parson," said the good-natured driver. + +Extricating ourselves from the Black Hole, we delightedly clambered to +the heights above, regardless of risk, and catching at wheel and step +like Alpine hunters. How comfortable the seat was, with the fresh, early +morning air blowing freely in our faces! How small the horses looked in +the dim light of three o'clock! How oddly the wheel-horses looked, all +backs and no legs!--and how mysteriously many were the reins that were +tied round and round the iron lantern-rod! + +"Just let me put the mail-bag under your feet, Miss Prince. Here we are, +now, all right, and nothin' to do but go along!" + +"Now, then!" + +"Come up! come! come!" + +But in vain were caresses; in vain were chirrups, duckings, and kisses, +wafted to the nigh leader. Like the rebellious South of to-day, he had +taken his attitude, and stood now on four legs, now on two, pawing only +the dark air, and regardless of the general welfare behind him. + +"Now what will you do, driver?" said cowardly I, who, always mortally +afraid of horse-flesh, felt on this occasion a strange confidence: +partly in the staid, heavy mass of determination beside me, who looked +so calm and good-natured; and partly in the queer, elfin look of the +beast, who seemed so far off as to have no necessary connection with our +safety or ultimate progress. It seemed quite possible for us to get on +with the other three pulling, while our demoniacal friend ornamented the +occasion by plunges, rearings, and kickings. + +Still gathering the reins lightly in his large hand, the stable and sure +intelligence beside me calmly chirruped, and then as calmly switched his +long whip at the distant rebel brute. How the switching and snapping +galled his proud neck! How his black back curved, and his small head +tossed! Still, he would not pull an ounce, but just pawed like a fairy +horse, or as if he were born to tread on clouds alone, or to herald in +the morning. + +"He'll start by-'m-by,--he's a devil of a spirit in him, when he doos +start," remarked our Phoebus, composedly, giving, through the darkness, +the unerring switch every half minute. + +What acted on the capricious thing at last,--whether the Inevitability +behind him, or the folly exhausting itself, nobody knows; but the +"beautiful disdain" left his black back and tossing mane in a moment, +and he buckled down to his work with an energy worthy of the cause, and +with a good-will that was an example to the other three. + +"There! you see he can do well enough, 'f he's jest a mind to! nothin' +wantin' but the will! There's a pair on 'em," said the driver, "but I +won't never drive 'em together. Staples drove the pair last summer. He +says they'd run till they dropped down dead. I guess they would. He's a +putty critter enough, and well made, but dreadful ugly. Now, I like that +'ere wheeler!"--he pointed his whip towards the horse below my foot. +"She's kind,--that mare is; and she's fast enough, and handsome. Broad +back,--short legs,--goes like a duck!" + +In such pleasant chat (and why not? for wasn't the driver a cousin of my +own?--a man of means,--owning his team,--and with more knowledge of his +district than most members of Congress have? Indeed, I believe he's in +Congress this minute!) we pulled up hill and tore down dale. Nobody +knows a hill by experience but New-Hampshire travellers. The Green +Mountains are full of comparatively gentle slopes, and verdure crowns +their highest and tallest tops; but the hills of New Hampshire are +Alpine in their steepness and barrenness, and the roads of old time made +by the Puritans took the Devil by the horns. There was no circuitous, +soothing, easy passage. The road ran straight over mountains and pitched +deep down ravines, the surveyors having evidently kept only in view the +shortest air-line between places. + +Sometimes we chained the wheels, but not often. Oftenest we ran down a +steep place, and the impetus carried us up the opposite hill. At the +foot of a long hill, of a two-mile stretch, the driver generally +stopped, to indicate the propriety of the male passengers, at least, +ascending the hill on foot. And often the whole stage-load gladly +availed itself of the permission. It was handy for the owners of +bandboxes, to pick them up from the rocky road, as they tumbled off now +and then; and the four beasts, like those in Revelation, said "Amen" to +the kindly impulse of humanity that lightened their load, and left them +to scramble comfortably from one side to the other of the still +ascending path. When they did get to the top of some of those Walpole +hills, would they could have taken in the living glory and beauty of the +far-reaching and most magnificent landscape! + + +IV. + +We had the mails to change at the post-offices, and a seemingly +inexhaustible store, intrusted to the care and courtesy of the driver, +and surrounding him like a rampart,--of newspapers, bundles, cans, +pillow-cases full of dried apples, and often letters. + +At the red house near the mill below Surrey, a sweet-looking girl ran +out, as we passed, holding her hand forward for a letter, which our +driver pretended to drop half a dozen times, on purpose to tantalize +her. It was pretty to see her blushing, sparkling face, as the blood +danced to her brow with hope, and back with the baffled expectancy to +her heart. + +"Neouw, Sil, be still! give to me, yeouw!" + +If it hadn't been Yankee, it was soft and melodious enough for an +Italian peasant. As picturesque, too, was her short, blue woollen +petticoat, and white short-gown, that "half hid and half revealed" the +unconstrained grace of healthy mountain-nature; and more modest the +happy look with which she received the letter at last, and flew with it +like a bird back to the red nest. + +"A love-letter, I suppose," said I, answering the twinkle of the +driver's good-natured eye. + +"Wal, I expect 's likely. They've been sparking now over a year. And +it's a pity, too, such a real clever girl as that is! She a'n't so +dreadful bright, but she's real clever, and ough' to hev a better chance +'n Jim Ruggles." + +"A bad match for her?" + +"Wal, Jim's a good feller enough, but he drinks. I don't mean to say +nothin' agin moderate drinkin'. I drink myself moderately. But Jim's a +real sponge. He'd drink all day hard and never show it, without it is +bein' cross, maybe, and paler 'n common. Now I say,--and I a'n't no +'reformed inebriate,' nor Father Matthew sort,--but I do say, and will +hold to it, such a man at twenty-one makes a poor beginnin'. If he +lives, he'll be a poor shote, and no mistake. I'm sorry for the gal." + +"Somebody ought to tell her. Why not you?" + +"Wal, what's the good on 't? She wouldn't hear a word. When a woman's +once sot her mind, don't do no good to talk. For that matter, talkin' +never did do much, I'm thinkin',--exceptin' preachin'. We're bound to +hear that, Parson," he added, laughing, and with a nod which might seem +respectful. + +In three hours we had driven thirteen miles. Pretty good progress this +of a warm day, and with a full complement of passengers. We had watched +the sun rise over Walpole hills, and the specks in the distance where +the early farmers were ploughing and sowing. The breaking day, the +bursting spring, and all the outward melodies with which the welcoming +day rings as we toil on, are so many incentives to appetite, and we are +all sharp for the ready breakfast, at six o'clock. + +Then, as I am talking of the past, and not of the present, there was +time enough: time enough for the comfortable discussion of breakfast, +for the changing of raiment among the babies, for chatting in the +bar-room, for the interchange of news among the men, and even for +glasses of milk-punch. Tell it not in modern Gath that even the Dominie +spiced his half-mug of flip with an anecdote, and that every man and +woman took cider as well as coffee. + +How can I describe the events and vicissitudes that befell us during +this journey of three days and a half to New York? Modern travellers, +who are, or are not, as it happens, run off the track, smashed up, or +otherwise suddenly and summarily disposed of, have little notion of our +successive and amusing accidents, and of how they diversified and +occupied the mind, so as entirely to preclude the _ennui_ which comes +from railroad-travelling, with its ninety-nine chances of safety to one +of accident. + +That we were tipped out and over repeatedly,--that one of the leaders +had fits, (which amiable weakness was understood and allowed for by our +driver, who was in hopes the critter wouldn't have 'em that day,)--that +the coach wholly collapsed once, letting all the patient passengers into +a promiscuous heap of unbroken bones,--this, and such as this, will be +easily believed by any New-England traveller who remembers thirty years +back. But how we fell so softly that the brains were never damaged,--why +falling into ditches at night wasn't an unhealthy process,--and, above +all, how the driver's stock of leathern straps, strings, and nails +should always prove exhaustless, and be always so wonderfully adapted to +every emergency,--that was a wonder, and is a wonder still to me. No +amount of mechanical skill, though the Yankee has made machines that +almost think, and altogether do, for him, has superseded or exhausted +his natural tact, expediency, and invention. With string and nail in his +pocket, I would defy the horses of Phoebus to get away from a Yankee, or +his chariot to get out of gear; and if Phaeton had only been a +Vermonter, the deserts of Ethiopia might to this day have been covered +with roses instead of sand. Our driver, though he didn't know his own +powers, knew all about Phoebus, and had read Virgil and Ovid by the +light of a pine-knot in his father's kitchen. This rude culture is the +commonest fact among our mountaineers. + +We "stopped over" one day in Hartford, to see the deaf-mutes. Their +bright, concentrated, eager looks haunted me long after. I should like +to know who would stop anywhere now to see anything! One might as well +be put into a gun and fired off to New York as go there now by +steam-cars. Line a gun with red plush, and it is not unlike a "resonant +steam-eagle." And you would see as much in one as in the other. + +But travelling in 1830 enlarged your mind. A journey then was one as +_was_ a journey. You saw people, you made their acquaintance, you +entered their hearts and took lodgings,--sometimes for life. + +Then the country! You saw that, too,--not the poorest part of it, +scooting round wherever it is most level, till you pronounce the whole +way flat, and are glad to shut your eyes and listen to the engine, +rather than have them ache with seeing everything you would never wish +to look at! + +All these days were full of great, beautiful pictures. From the time we +leave the Granite State, with it a wild, fierce grandeur, its long, +dreary reaches of unfertile pastures, and its wealth of stone wall,--so +abundant that travellers wonder where the stones came from to build it, +seeing no lack in the road or field,--from the time we enter on trim, +well-kept Massachusetts, the panorama shifts with ever new interest and +beauty. We leave the pretentious brick houses, or the glaring white +ones, which mark the uncultivated taste of the American Switzerland, and +enter for the first time regions impressed with the necessary element of +fine landscape, maturity. With and under the old oaks and birches rest +the sad-colored houses that have held life and experience,--birth, +death, and old historic adventure. + +Looking over the broad meadows that skirt the Connecticut by Hadley and +Northampton, one seems to see under the distant oaks spectral shapes of +Indian struggle, or wandering regicides, hiding their noble heads in +caves, or bursting out like white spirits to lead and avenge. The air is +peopled with traditions far back from the present, but with which the +grave, imposing, characteristic landscape seems still to sympathize. + +In two days we emerged from the brown chrysalis of a New-Hampshire +spring into the exultant richness of the winged butterfly,--into white, +fragrant fields of blossoming fruit, and the odor of tree-lilacs. + +In my enchantment at the bounteous panorama that spread out before me in +ever varying abundance, I forgot to cultivate any interest in my +fellow-passengers, and, except in listening to some communicative old +women, might really, as far as society was concerned, as well have been +travelling in the style of to-day. Beyond the casual acquaintances I +made when rain compelled me to indoor chat, I saw nobody who interested +me until we reached Springfield. There, at the top of the first short +hill outside the town, after looking back on the white houses standing +in the river-mist like so many ghosts in white muslin, I saw somebody +whom my prophetic soul announced as a companion, looking wholly unlike a +ghost, and very unlike a mist. He raised his hand, just as we were about +passing him, as if signalling an omnibus, and our driver suddenly reined +in his team. + +A full, hearty voice, not a bit nasal, but fresh from the broad chest, +showed us a traveller by the road-side, waiting to be taken up. + +He sprang with two bounds to the top of the coach, and made room for +himself just above us among the countless boxes. + +"Don't let me disturb you, Madam All right. Just room for my bag. Go on, +driver." + +"Fine day," said we. + +"A warm morning. I have been walking for the last fifteen miles,--but +the sun is too hot for me." + +He took off his travelling-hat of weather-beaten Panama, and dried his +broad brow with his handkerchief. Then he looked at us with clear blue +eyes, and tossed back his curling brown hair. He had a gray +travelling-dress, such as everybody wears now, but which was then a +novelty; and something in his curt, clear accents, and his crimson lips, +and the fresh life in his limbs and action, betrayed that he was not an +American. So much the better. + + +V. + +I said he looked sharply at us two. He seemed to have a habit of +investigating, at least to a certain extent; and he took us in at once, +evidently. A country-parson and his wife. If I say his pretty wife, I +will promise faithfully that it shall be the last time I will refer to +myself or my prettiness, the whole way, further than may be absolutely +necessary; and it isn't every woman who will do as much. For with this +man and his belongings I came to have much to do in the course of the +next five years. Little thought I, as I heard him chatting soberly with +my husband, and nodding from time to time gravely at me, as If to take +me into the conversation,--little thought I of the shadow he would one +day cast over both of our lives! + +He showed us his travelling-apparatus for making a cup of tea in ten +minutes, toasting bread, and boiling eggs. It was like a doll's +cooking-stove six inches square, a curious invention, new then, and a +wonderful convenience. + +"With my tea and this," said he, "I can go over the United States. Good +bread and sweet butter I can always get at your farm-houses, and I often +walk fifty miles together." + +We looked and spoke our New-English astonishment. In our part of the +world nobody walked anywhere. Everybody, however poor, had a wagon, if +not a chaise; and he must be miserable indeed who did not own at least +one horse. Nobody in his sober senses demeaned himself to walking. +Perhaps it was the climate. Perhaps our fathers instituted the custom, +to be as unlike the British as possible,--as they did of making their +houses like lanterns, to show they had no window-tax to pay. + +This man's hearty voice and healthy frame, charged, as it seemed, with +fresh air, jollity, and strength, made us think better of walking. We +looked at his six feet of height, his broad chest, and his firmly knit +limbs, and fancied how Antaeus gained supernatural vigor from natural +contact: he trod the earth with a loving and free step, as a child +approaches and caresses his mother. So, too, his voice, and the topics +he chose in talking, gave us the feeling of out-door existence always +connected with him: of singing-birds, and the breeze of mountain-tops, +of great walnut- and chesnut-trees, and children gathering nuts beneath; +never of the solemn hush of pines, or twilight, or anything "sough"-ing +or whispering: no, all about him sounded like the free, dashing, rushing +water. So were his bright blue eyes, merry lips, and wind-crimsoned +cheeks, interpreters of his nature. They linked him firmly to the +outward. The man's soul was made up of joyfulness, strength, and a sort +of purposeless activity,--energy for its own sake. While his energies +harmonized with the right, or were exercised in the pursuit of +knowledge, one felt that he would have much power for good. But suppose +his activities to take a wrong direction, all his powers would help him +to be and enjoy the wrong. In either case, his nature would have the +same harmonious energy, and the moral part of him would not disturb the +balance of his character. He had no special liking for evil, I am sure; +yet, according to all the theories, his intense love of Nature ought to +have elevated and refined him far more than it had done. + +Before we had been an hour together, I had also observed that he was +good-natured, impulsive, and, in a sort, kindly,--that he loved himself +and his own enjoyment too well ever knowingly to annoy or distress +another. There is a little difference between this and kindness. No +matter how I found him out. He who runs may read, if he looks sharply +enough; and in travelling, people betray and assert character +continually. I was also as sure as I was years afterwards, that he would +walk rough-shod over heart-violets and -daisies, nor once notice them +bleeding under his heel. It was in the grain of the man's nature. He had +lived at least thirty-five years, and was too old to be made over into +anything else by any experience. + +His bag was half full of tulip-bulbs which he had bought and begged, he +said. He had a passion at present for cultivating tulips, and was quite +sure, that, if he had lived in the seventeenth instead of the nineteenth +century, he would have ruined himself twenty times over for a favorite +bulb, even without being a Dutchman. + +His dominant idea, to which for the first hour he sacrificed without +scruple every other, was flowers. I had a mischievous pleasure in +professing a similar passion, on purpose to confound him with a +description of a Weston flower-garden. If he talked of jessamine and +Daphne odora, I talked of phlox and bachelor's-buttons. If he raved of +azaleas and gladioluses, I told him of our China-asters, sunflowers, +and hollyhocks. + +"Ah, now I see you are laughing at me!" said he, good-humoredly, after I +had said, that, after all, I could not get up an admiration for +day-lilies or tulips; "promise me that I may show you my tulips, and I +will promise you that you shall like botany hereafter." + +We agreed at last to bury the hatchet at the foot of a rose-bush, which +I said I would allow, excused the existence of other flowers. The bulbs +he gave me on the top of the stage-coach that day made a revolution in +the taste of Weston; and some climbing plants, from his house +afterwards, took root in our rude homes, and have displaced the old +glaring colors with soft beauty and grace. Before I left Weston, which +happened in time, we had prairie-roses, honeysuckles, and woodbine +clambering over half the houses in the place, and bouncing-Bets were +extinguished forever. + +I forgot that we had never heard this man's name, though it did not +matter at all. He was a cultivated gentleman, and we had no occasion for +introduction. We met freely on that platform, and it was pleasant to us +to talk on so many subjects outside of personal interest. He had +travelled, and gave us results, in a sketchy, off-hand way, of much that +he had observed that was extremely entertaining in foreign manners. + +Suddenly his loud, cheery voice rang out,-- + +"Halloo, old boy, get up here!" + +He did get up, a languid, pale man, with sharp features, and a frame so +attenuated that I involuntarily placed a soft bag for him to lean +against, and removed a cane and umbrella that seemed likely to hurt his +bones. + +It was about half an hour before I saw that the new man was not at all +an invalid, but of the natural gaunt frame and pallid complexion of my +countrymen. My eyes had become so full of the fresh, rosy life of the +Englishman's face, that the new man's face was bleached and unhealthy to +me. I happened to glance back from him to the Dominie, and saw, that, +allowing for green spectacles, they were both of a color. We were so +arranged on the top of the coach, that with reasonable twisting of necks +we were able to maintain an animated conversation, and soon found our +account in the new element. + +"Well, Remington!" + +"Well, Lewis!" + +"Where from now?" + +"From Niagara, and home by the White Hills." + +"And what of the last, or of both?" + +"Miss Rugg has fallen into the one, and Miss Somebody has been to the +top of the other. Had to be brought down, though. Women shouldn't climb +mountains." + +"There has been some talk of a road, or practicable path at least, to +the top of Mount Washington." + +"Never'll be done. Impossible on the face of the thing." + +"Nothing is impossible to Yankees, Remington." + +"This is. And now, Lewis, whence come you, and whither go?" + +"From Weston, and to New York." + +Here was a _denouement!_ We looked at him with new interest, and saw at +once, such was the force of imagination, the very eyes and eyebrows of +Gus Lewis. However, it proved afterwards to be only imagination. When we +told him we came from Weston only two days and a half before, the +conversation assumed the native style of New England, and for the next +quarter of an hour we talked of each other and each other's affairs.' +Mr. Lewis was delighted to see us, had stayed only an hour in Weston, +and there heard of our trip from Auguste,--profanely called Gus,--took +the box of maple-sugar in charge at once, laughed at the boy-like +direction without even a surname, and ended with recommending us to go +at once to Miss Post's, on Broadway, where himself and his wife were at +present boarding. All the particulars of life, character, and relative +interests were discussed between ourselves and Mr. Lewis with the +relish and zest of compatriots. I had forgotten how close a tie was that +of Yankee birth, and how like an unknown tongue our talk was to the +Englishman, till we stopped and turned to him to say something, and +found him fast asleep. Then I was glad that he hadn't heard my satirical +description of "donation-parties" at Weston, nor the account I gave of +our two boys, our salary of five hundred dollars, and the various +comical shifts we had to make to live comfortably on that sum and +support aged parents and graceless relations. Little touches told Mr. +Lewis the whole story. I knew very well that Mr. Remington would be +entirely abroad about such a social existence as ours in Weston, travel +he ever so long or widely. + +Mr. Lewis had black eyes and hair, and bent like an habitual student. He +had a scar on his right eyebrow, which he had got by a fall, and by +which he had saved the life of Mr. Remington, who was a connection of +his wife's. This he told us, afterwards, and I amused myself with +drawing parallels between his face and his mind. One side was gentle, +sweet-humored, sentimental, with a touch of melancholy. The other, +disfigured with the scar, seemed to have been turned harsh, suspicious, +proud, reserved, and unrelenting. These were many qualities, all to +depend on a scar, to be sure; but they generally herd together, and he +might be one man or another, as life presented its dark or sunny side to +him. To me, he was very interesting, from the first; and my husband was +delighted with him. The Dominie starved in Weston for congenial +intellectual nutriment. Nobody but myself could tell what a drain it was +on him always to impart, always to simplify, to descend, to walk on the +ground with wings folded flat to his back, and the angel in him +habitually kept out of view. The most he could do was to insinuate now +and then a thought above the farming interest, and in a direction aside +from Bombay. More than that exposed him to suspicion, and hindered his +usefulness in Coös County. + +Somehow, we got talking of Mr. Remington, which we might well do, seeing +him there before us, sleeping like a baby. + +"That he could always do, like Napoleon," said Mr. Lewis, "and so can +accomplish much without fatigue." + +"Is he married?" said I. + +"Yes. His wife is in delicate health." + +I was surprised to hear that he was married. + +"He hasn't a married look, has he?" + +"You are talking about me," said Remington, waking up. "I felt it +mesmerically. And, to give you a good opportunity, I will walk a mile or +two. Give me a good character, Lewis. Hold up, driver!" + +Springing down, he went on, laughing, before us, now and then calling +back to ask if we were nearly through? + +"He has not the 'subdued domestic smile upon his features mild', that +marks the man who has a wife at home," said I. + +"No. He is a man, however, born under a lucky star, and his cup filled +with good-fortune to the brim. His self-lordship has been to him no +heritage of woe, thus far." + +"A certain happiness, but necessarily of a poor quality, comes from +being able to gratify our wishes. If he has no more, it is poor enough." + +"Do you mean that pleasure must be an outgrowth of pain to be properly +appreciated?" said Mr. Lewis. + +"Somewhat,--mostly," said the minister; "since the insensibility that +protects one from pain prevents also delicate picture. I think, indeed, +a rational being must suffer in order to enjoy, after infancy." + +"His eyes don't look as if they had been in training of any sort," said +I, without knowing what my words implied, till I saw the harsh +expression on Mr. Lewis's face.' + +"I mean that they have a sort of undisciplined expression, as if he had +never been tamed by suffering or sorrow of any sort," said I. + +"That sadness is the true human look," said the minister, "the look that +redeems us from the mere animal expression of enjoyment. It is the +stamp God puts on those He loves. He chastens them; after that, they are +no more servants, but sons of the house." + +I saw by Mr. Lewis's eyes that he understood and felt this. Also, that +from his nature he bought his enjoyments every step of the way of life. +How differently his cousin laid hold on the cornucopia of enjoyment, and +covered himself with bountiful beauty, drinking in at every sense +pleasure! The former, as could be seen too, held his title to happiness +by the most uncertain tenure; the nervous quiver betraying, and the +sensitive blood witnessing, how keenly he felt and how dearly he paid +for every passing pleasure. I remember, as I saw his purple, thrilling +face, that I hoped his home-life was happy, feeling that to such a man +it must be everything. Yet I was sure, from what he did not say, with +eye or lips, that he had not learned religious trust. Still, he did not +listen to the mere minister, but to the friend; and there sprang up +between the two the corresponding interest and respect belonging to +natures kindred in depth and sensibility, though of widely differing +experience. In after-years, he who had already attained was able +frequently to hold out a helping hand to his younger brother; but now, +only a smile and a look told much. This acquaintance of the soul is very +fascinating. In the two or three steps we take together, with cognizance +and measure of each other, what a long path opens before us of alternate +shade and sunshine, and how imagination borders every step of the way +with richest heart-blossoms! In friendship, all is glowing and +enriching. As it has not the depth of love, it neither anticipates nor +requires sacrifice. We do not think of doing or suffering for a friend; +but the friend ministers to our weakness, and exalts our strength. He +sympathizes gently with our self-love, he magnifies every excellence. He +is perpetually charmed, alike with the novelty and the similarity of our +experience, and unwearied in comparing thoughts and balancing opinions. +All, and more, that he gives us, he receives; and so an incipient +friendship is one of the most intoxicating delights of life. What long +leaps in acquaintance we took during our first hour, and while Mr. +Remington still walked up-hill before us! + +"You will probably have an opportunity to see and judge for yourselves +of Mr. Remington, as we are together a great deal, and he is a cousin of +Mrs. Lewis's. This will be better than for me to attempt a description, +I think, and, on the whole, more satisfactory. He annoys me, and offends +me frequently; and then I am not just to him, of course. But he is a +fine fellow, honorable and agreeable; and with a love of natural science +that leads him, for the time, like a dog. Just now, he is wild with +floriculture. Last year, it was geology. You will see." + +And then, as if he feared to trust himself with his cousin's character, +or that it was a distasteful subject for some reason, he turned to the +minister, and began talking about Cherry Mountain and the scenery in +Coös. + +Mr. Remington called out, at the top of the hill,-- + +"Now it is my turn! Let me ride, and I will give your character!" + +"Oh! we don't need it, I assure you," said I; "we understand him +entirely." + +"Not a bit of it!" said he, shaking his brown curls; "I am the +transparent one." + +He stepped up on the wheel-hub to get his bag, and to say he should +strike off for Middleton on foot. He would see us very soon in New York, +and claim our promise to visit him. + +Being relieved from the fascination of personal beauty and presence, +with only the impression of character remaining, I was a little ashamed +to find how much I had liked, without being at all able to esteem him. +It was with a very different feeling that I looked at Mr. Lewis, whose +ugly, positively ugly face was being perpetually transfigured with +emotion and variety. Without grace of feature or figure, he impressed +one as a living soul; and this inward light gave a translucent beauty +to the frail, chance-shapen vase, which all Mr. Remington's personal +advantages of form and color failed to impress us with. Only dark eyes +of un-sounded depth, and a voice whose rich cadences had an answering +rhythm in the inward man, showed what his attractions might be, or were, +to a woman. We became curious to see Mrs. Lewis, of whom we gained no +idea from his casual references to her. + + * * * * * + +LYRICS OF THE STREET. + + + VI. + + PLAY. + + From yon den of double-dealing, + With its Devil's host, + Come I, maddened out of healing: + All is lost! + + So the false wine cannot blind me, + Nor the braggart toast; + But I know that Hell doth bind me: + All is lost! + + Where the lavish gain attracts us, + And the easy cost, + While the damning dicer backs us, + All is lost! + + Blest the rustic in his furrows, + Toil- and sweat-embossed; + Blest are honest souls in sorrows. + All is lost! + + Wifely love, the closer clinging + When men need thee most, + Shall I come, dishonor bringing? + All is lost! + + Babe in silken cradle lying, + To low music tossed, + Will they wake thee for my dying? + All is lost! + + Yonder where the river grimly + Whitens, like a ghost, + Must I plunge and perish dimly; + All is lost! + +INTERESTING MANUSCRIPTS OF EDMUND BURKE. + + +Macaulay opens his most remarkable article on Milton by saying, "The +dexterous Capuchins never choose to preach on the life and miracles of a +saint, till they have awakened the devotional feelings of their auditors +by exhibiting some relic of him,--a thread of his garment, a lock of his +hair, or a drop of his blood." If we were in the mood, we might take +advantage of interesting manuscripts of Edmund Burke, which are now +before us, to say something of this remarkable character. But we shall +confine ourselves for the present to a passing glance at the manuscripts +which have strayed across the Atlantic.[A] + +[Footnote A: These manuscripts are now in the possession of the Hon. +Charles Sumner, who is also the fortunate owner of the _Album Amicorum_ +containing the autograph of John Milton.--ED.] + +The authentic manuscripts of Burke have passed through several hands. On +his death, they were intrusted to the eminent civilian, Dr. French +Lawrence, of Doctors' Commons, and to Dr. King, afterwards Bishop of +Rochester. To these two gentlemen we are indebted for the first eight +volumes of the London octavo edition of Burke's Works. The career of Dr. +Lawrence was cut short by death in 1809. His associate had the exclusive +charge of the papers till 1812, when the venerable widow of Burke died +at Beaconsfield, and by her last will gave to Earl Fitzwilliam, the +Bishop of Rochester, and the Right Honorable William Elliott the entire +direction of the printing and publishing of such parts of the works of +her late husband as were not published before her decease,--bequeathing +to them all the printed and manuscript papers for this purpose. Eight +more volumes were published by the Bishop, who died in 1828, a few +months after the publication of the fifteenth and sixteenth volumes. Mr. +Elliott had already died in 1818. The papers now came into the sole +possession of Earl Fitzwilliam, the distinguished nobleman associated +with the latter portion of Burke's life, from whom they descended to his +son, the late Earl Fitzwilliam, who, in conjunction with Sir Richard +Bourke, published, in 1844, the four volumes of correspondence, with a +few notes of unpublished speeches. + +We have personal reason to know that there are yet other unpublished +manuscripts of Burke in the hands of Lord Fitzwilliam, some of which it +was our fortune many years ago to inspect. Mr. Macknight, it appears, +applied to the present Earl for permission to publish some of those +which are preserved in the archives of Wentworth House, but, "out of +obedience to the expressed wish of his father, who published all he +thought necessary, he declined to sanction any further publication of +these documents."[A] + +[Footnote A: Macknight's _Life of Burke_, Vol. III. p. 737.] + +There are also letters of Burke which from time to time have seen the +light, as they were communicated by their possessors. Among these none +equals in interest that addressed to Pitt with regard to his pension, +which has been printed recently by Lord Stanhope, in his small, but rich +and rare collection, entitled "Miscellanies." This important letter came +to light among the papers of Pitt, and has been described by Macaulay as +"interesting and very characteristic." + +The manuscripts now before us are none of these. They have a history of +their own. + +They constitute a thin volume in folio, neatly bound, having a +book-mark, and arms with the name of _Fillingham_. Here are four +familiar autograph-letters from Burke to his amanuensis, Swift, all of +them written from Margate, on the sea-shore, and bearing Burke's frank +as a member of Parliament. According to habit with us, the frank of a +member of Congress is written in the right-hand upper corner of the +superscription, while the old English frank is in the left-hand lower +corner. But English law, while the privilege of franking existed, +required also that the name of the place where the letter was pasted, +and the day on which it was posted, written at length, should appear in +the superscription. Take, for instance, the following frank of Burke in +this collection:-- + + "Margate July seventeenth, 1791 + "Mr Swift, + "Mr Burke's Chambers + "4 Stone Buildings + "Lincoln's Inn + "London. + + "Edm. Burke." + +These letters have been recently published by Mr. Macknight, who says of +them that "they show how kind and familiar Burke was to the humblest +dependants with whom he was thrown into any human relationship"; they +also "show the statesman, when at the height of literary fame, as busy +and anxious in sending his sheets through the press, and making +corrections and alterations, as any young author with his first proofs"; +and he adds, "These letters seem to me quite as important, as +illustrations of Burke's private character, as those which he wrote to +the Nagles in former years." It seems that the amanuensis to whom they +were addressed had at his death other similar letters in his possession; +but his wife, ignorant of their value, deliberately committed them to +the names, and the four now before us are all that were saved. Mr. +Macknight adds, in a note,--"These letters I owe to the kindness of John +Fillingham, Esq., of Hoxton, who allowed me to inspect and copy the +originals."[A] + +[Footnote A: _Life of Burke_, Vol. III. p. 410.] + +Of one of these letters there is an accurate _fac-simile_, which will be +found in the third volume of Mr. Macknight's elaborate biography of +Burke. + +But the main paper in the collection is none other than the manuscript +of the "Observations on the Conduct of the Minority," being the +_identical copy_ from which the surreptitious publication was made which +disturbed the last hours of Burke. The body of it is in the handwriting +of the amanuensis to whom the familiar letters were addressed; but it +shows the revision of Burke, and on several pages most minute and +elaborate corrections and additions, with changes of sections. Of one of +these pages there is an accurate _fac-simile_ in the third volume of Mr. +Macknight, who says that "the manuscript was given by Swift's sister, +after his death, to the gentleman who kindly permitted him to inspect +it." [A] + +[Footnote A: _Lifo of Burke_, Vol. III. p. 700.] + +These manuscripts--both the letters and the Observations--all concern +the closing period of Burke's life, after the unhappy feud between +himself and Fox, to which they directly relate. In order to appreciate +their value, we must glance at the scene by which the memorable +friendship of these men was closed. + +Few political events in English history are read with more interest than +the separation of Burke and Fox. They had been friends and allies; but +the French Revolution, which separated so many persons in France, +reached across the Channel to separate them. They differed so radically +with regard to this portentous, undeveloped movement, that their +relations, both political and personal, were rudely severed. Burke, in +the House of Commons, openly announced this result. He was most +earnestly inveighing against France, when he said, "It may be indiscreet +in me at my time of life to provoke enemies, and give occasion to +friends to desert me." Fox whispered, "There is no loss of friends." +Burke for a moment paused, and then exclaimed, "Yes, there is a loss of +friends; I know the price of my conduct. I have done my duty at the +expense of my friend. Our friendship is at an end." As he finished, +Burke walked across the floor of the House, and squeezed himself between +Pitt and Dundas on the Treasury Bench. Fox rose to reply, while tears +streamed down his face. In the course of his remarks he intimated that +Burke had heaped upon him the most ignominious terms. Burke at once said +that he did not recollect having used any; when Fox replied, "My right +honorable friend does not recollect the epithets. They are out of his +mind. Then they are completely and forever out of mine. I cannot cherish +a recollection so painful; and from this moment they are obliterated and +forgotten." + +But the difference was too intense. A few days later it broke forth +again. "I complain," said Burke, "of being obliged to stand upon my +defence by the right honorable gentleman, who, when a young man, was +brought to me and evinced the most promising talents, which I used my +best endeavors to cultivate; and this man, who has arrived at the +maturity of being the most brilliant and powerful debater that ever +existed, has described me as having deserted and abandoned every one of +my principles!" Fox replied, but alluded to Burke no longer as "friend", +but as "the right honorable gentleman", and said, in a taunting style, +that "all he had to do was to repent, and his friends would be ready to +receive him back and love him as they had previously done". Burke was +indignant. He said,--"I have gone through my youth without encountering +any party disgrace, and though in my age I have been so unfortunate as +to meet it, I do not solicit the right honorable gentleman's friendship, +nor that of any other man, either on one side of the House or the +other." [A] This most important and historic friendship was at an end. + +[Footnote A:_Parliamentary History_ Vol. XXIX. p. 426.] + +The larger part of the Whigs at that time sided with Fox. But Burke +turned away from Parliament and politicians in one of the most masterly +productions of his pen, entitled, "An Appeal from the New to the Old +Whigs." One of the autograph-letters in the collection before us, +addressed to the amanuensis, Swift, relates to the last corrections of +this tract, and contains the title, arranged for the printer. It is the +letter of which a _fac-simile_ is given by Mr. Macknight. + +Meanwhile, the difference between the two statesmen became more fixed +and intense. The Whig Club declared, "that their confidence in Mr. Fox +was confirmed, strengthened, and increased by the calumnies against +him." Burke and some forty-five noblemen and gentlemen withdrew from the +club. It was then that Burke, in justification of himself and his +friends, took the pen, and drew up what his biographer Prior calls the +"famous" paper, entitled, "Observations on the Conduct of the Minority, +particularly in the Last Session of Parliament, addressed to the Duke of +Portland and Lord Fitzwilliam, 1793," which will be found in the third +volume of Bonn's edition of his Works. + +This paper presents, in fifty-four articles, duly numbered, objections +to the course and policy of Fox. It was, in brief, an arraignment of +that distinguished gentleman. But it was not intended for publication, +at least at that time. It was transmitted to the Duke of Portland, with +a letter, asking that it might not even be read at once, but that the +Duke would keep it locked in the drawer of his library-table, and when a +day of compulsory reflection came, then be pleased to turn to it. +Communicated thus in confidence, it might have remained indefinitely, if +not always, unknown to the public, locked in the ducal drawer, if the +amanuensis whom Burke employed in copying it had not betrayed him. This +was none other than Swift, to whom the familiar letters were addressed. +Unknown to his employer, he had appropriated to himself a copy in his +own handwriting, with corrections and additions by Burke, which seems to +have come between the original rough draught and the final copy +transmitted to the Duke of Portland. Some time afterwards, while Burke +was in his last illness, feeble and failing fast, this faithless +scrivener communicated this copy to an equally faithless publisher, by +whom it was advertised as "Fifty-Four Articles of Impeachment against +the Eight Honorable C.J. Fox." When this was seen by Mrs. Burke, she +felt it her duty to keep all newspapers and letters from her husband, +that he might know nothing of the treachery, at least until it was +relieved so far as it could be. Dr. Lawrence and Dr. King, assisted by +the affidavit of Mr. Rivington, succeeded in obtaining an injunction +against the publisher on the very day when the tract appeared. But two +thousand copies had already stolen abroad. + +It was not until Mrs. Burke, on opening a letter from Dr. Lawrence to +her husband, learned that the injunction had been obtained, that, at two +o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th of February, 1797, she delivered to +him his newspapers and correspondence for the past week. He was less +disturbed than had been expected. "This affair does vex me," he said; +"but I am not in a state of health at present to be deeply vexed at +anything. Had I intended it for the public, I should have been more +exact and full. Many temperaments and explanations there would have +been, if ever I had had a notion that it should meet the public eye." He +was justly indignant at the knavish publisher, whose conduct surpassed +that of the Dublin pirates, or Edmund Curll. But he was at a loss to +know how the publisher obtained a copy. He did not suppose that the Duke +of Portland had given up his, and he remembered only "the rough and +incorrect papers" constituting the first draught, which, it seems, Dr. +Lawrence, about a year before, had paid the false Swift a guinea to +deliver back. He had forgotten the intermediate copy made by Swift and +corrected by himself. + +This illicit publication, especially under such a title, was calculated +to attract attention. Its author was dying, so that it seemed to be his +last words. Pitt read it with delight, and declared it to be a model in +that style of composition. But his latest biographer says of it, that +"it may, perhaps, be regretted that Burke ever wrote the 'Observations +on the Conduct of the Minority.' It is certainly the least pleasing of +all his compositions."[A] In style, it is direct, terse, and compact, +beyond any other composition of Burke's. Perhaps, as it was not intended +for the public, he was less tempted to rhetorical indulgence. But the +manuscript now before us exhibits the minute care with which it was +executed. Here also may be traced varieties of expression, constituting +the different forms which a thought assumed, not unlike the various +drawings of Raffaelle for the same wonderful picture. + +[Footnote A: Macknight, Vol. III. p. 532.] + +But we must stop. It is only as a literary curiosity that we are now +dealing with this relic. + +HARVARD'S HEROES. + + +The stranger who enters the nave of St. Paul's Cathedral in London +cannot fail to notice the superb pulpit which stands at the angle of the +choir. It is composed of rare and costly marbles and other precious +stones. But, beautiful and fitting as it is, its greatest value lies in +the circumstance which placed it there. It is a memorial, the tribute of +affection. It was erected by his surviving comrades in arms to a noble +officer of the Indian army. Yet this, from its position a [Greek: ktêma +es aei], is only one among numberless like monuments which the traveller +in England meets at every turn. In public squares, in parish churches, +in stately cathedrals,--wherever the eye of the wayfarer can be +arrested, whereever the pride of country is most deeply stirred, +wherever the sentiment of loyalty is consecrated by religion,--the +Englishman loves to guard from oblivion the names of his honored dead. +There is in this both a cause and a consequence of that intense local +pride and affection by which the men of Great Britain are bound to the +scenes of their early lives. + +"It will never do for us to be beaten," said the Duke at Waterloo; +"think what they will say of us at home!"--and this simple sentence went +straight to the heart of every man who heard. What they will say at home +is the prevailing thought in each young soldier's heart as he goes into +his first fight. And "home" does not mean for him so much broad England +as it does the little hamlet where he was born, the school where he was +trained, the county in which his forefathers were honored in times gone +by. He thinks of his name, henceforward linked with a glorious victory! +whispered around among the groups who linger in the church-yard after +the morning service. He trusts, that, if he fall nobly, there will be +for him the memorial window through whose blazoned panes the sunlight +will fall softly across the "squire's pew," where as a boy he knelt and +worshipped, or touch with a crimson and azure gleam the marble effigies +of his knightly sires recumbent on their tombs. Or he thinks of a place +among the lettered names high up on the old oaken wall of the +school-room at Winchester or Harrow or Westminster,--that future boys, +playing where he played, shall talk of him whom they never knew as "one +of ours." For he is well aware that he is making fame not for himself +alone, but to be prized where he himself has been most loved and +happiest. + +We, in this new land of ours, have but a very faint experience of the +intense working of such influences upon a people in whom the local +association and sentiment are ingrained. We are but just beginning where +Englishmen began eight centuries and more ago. Hence our glorifying of +the past has been a little indiscriminate, and withal has sought to +commemorate events more than individuals. But the last two years have +taken us through one of those great periods which, in their concentrated +energy, compress the work of years into days, and which mark the +water-sheds of history. The United States of 1865 will be as unlike the +same land in 1855 as the youth is unlike the child. Life is measured by +action, not duration. The brilliant epoch of the first Persian invasion +was more to Greece than its slumbering centuries under Turkish rule, and +"fifty years of Europe" more "than a cycle of Cathay." We shall look +back upon a past. We shall have a truly national existence. It will be +but natural, as it will be most wise, that we take heed of those +elements which have ever been so potent in strengthening national +character. One of these has been briefly hinted at above. Yet it may be +undesirable to perpetuate the memory of events in which the whole +country cannot participate, which will not for the remainder of this +century be thought of by one section without shame and confusion of +face, and which will only tend to keep alive the sad old jealousies and +hates. We shall be very loath to place our monumental columns upon the +fields of Antietam and Gettysburg. We should not tolerate them upon the +slopes of Manassas or the bluffs of Edwards' Ferry. When the war is +ended, and the best guardian of our internal commerce is the loyalty of +the returning citizens to their old allegiance, we shall do wisely to +level the earthworks of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. In the city where +mob-violence is crushed under the force of armed law, no one cares to +keep for a day the crumbling walls and the shattered barricade, though +they may have witnessed heroism as splendid as Arcola or Wagram, for +they witness also to a wickedness and a terror which all would gladly +forget. The only memorial that a wise and high-souled nation _can_ erect +after this war will be the single monument which shall commemorate the +hour of peace restored. + +But while we are debarred from thus recording upon tablets more lasting +than brass the story of our mournful triumphs over erring brethren, we +are doubly bound in gratitude to keep green the memory of the men who +have deserved well of their country in the hour of utmost need. We ought +to do this also in that temper which shall look most singly to the noble +end of forming heroic traditions for the youth of our future land. I +know no place where this can be more fitly carried out than in +New-England's foremost university. Coeval with the commonwealth itself, +the starry roll of its heroes links it with all the fortunes of our +history. Men who sat in the Long Parliament, and who may have seen the +Battles of Worcester and Dunbar, took their early degrees upon Harvard's +first Commencement-stage. Her sons fought against King Philip, were +colonels and captains in the "old French War," went forth in the days of +Wolfe and Amherst, and exchanged the lexicon for the musket in the eight +years' struggle which gave to the Thirteen Colonies their independence. +Alumni still survive who did military duty in the second war with +England. The men of Harvard were with Taylor at Buena Vista, and helped +Scott in his victorious march upon the Aztec capital. Of these the only +record is in the annual necrology and the quaint Latin of the +"Triennial." + +For the young heroes who dropped the oar and took up the sword, who laid +aside the gown for the sash and shoulder-strap, who, first in the +bloodless triumphs of the regatta and in "capital training" for the +great race of life where literary and professional fame are the prizes, +went forth to venture all for honor and country, the Alma Mater surely +should have a special commemoration. For her own sake, because of her +high responsibility in the education of "ingenuous youth," she can do no +less. I will venture to say that not a Harvard man, among all the loyal +thousands of her surviving Alumni, but feels his heart beat quicker as +he reads the story of her children amid their "baptism of fire." There +is a notable peculiarity about this the most purely New-England of our +colleges,--the continual recurrence of familiar patronymics. I take up +the last semi-annual catalogue, and there among the five hundred names I +can almost make out my own classmates of twenty years ago. Abbots, +Bigelows, Lawrences, Masons, Russells,--they come with every +Commencement-season. Some families have had for every generation in a +hundred and fifty years a representative in her halls. There is a patent +of nobility in this, such peerage as a republic can rightly confer, the +coronet which marks the union of birth and worth. We cannot, we, the +Alumni, suffer these our brothers to sleep unhonored. Those who shall +come after us, who shall fill our places in dear Old Harvard, shall +occupy our ancient rooms in Hollis and Massachusetts and Stoughton and +Holworthy, have a right not only to count the academic wreaths which +have been won in past days by their namesakes, but also to be taught the +inspiring lesson of holy love of country, of highest courage and truth +and soldierly virtue. + +And how shall this be done? Let these few remaining lines suggest at +least one plan. Harvard's chief want is a hall for her Alumni, one +worthy, in architecture and convenience, of her children's fame, which +Harvard Hall is not. That long, awkward room, very hot and cramped to +dine in at midsummer, hotter and more cramped still for the Class-day +dances, is just fit for one purpose,--the declamation-exercises of the +Sophomore year. Let us have a hall fit for Commencements, for Alumni and +Phi-Beta orations, for our annual dinners, worthy of the "Doctor's" +poems and the "General's" speeches, with a wainscot, not of vulgar +plaster, but of noble oak, against which Copley's pictures and Story's +busts may properly be placed. + +Then let its windows be filled, as in the glorious halls and chapels of +England, with memorial glass. Let one of these, if no more, be formed, +of the costliest and most perfect workmanship our art can compass, to +the memory of the Heroes of Harvard. It shall be the gift of every class +which counts among its members one of these. There, amid the gorgeous +emblazonry, shall be read their names, their academic year, their +battles. + +Or, if this may not be, because our Alma Mater is still too poor or too +humble to offer to her returning children such banqueting-place,--if +there is no Wykcham or Waynflete or Wolsey to arch for us the +high-embowed roof, let us place our memorial in the Library, along its +shaded alcoves and above its broad portals. There the bright shadows +shall sleep and pass with the sliding day, where the young scholars +mused and studied. There the future student, as he walks, shall read as +noble a lesson as he can glean from any of the groaning shelves and +dusty tomes. There shall be for Harvard her _Libro d'Oro_ wherein she +has written the names of her best-beloved. + +Some token let us have that they are unforgotten. It was no quarrel of +vulgar ambition in which they fell. It was the sacred strife for which +the mother armed them when she sent them forth. For her they fought, for +culture, generous learning, noble arts, for all that makes a land great +and glorious, against the barbarism of anarchy and the baseness of a +system founded upon wrong and oppression. We cannot, indeed, forget them +while we live to come up to our annual gathering, and see the vacant +places amid familiar ranks. There will then be question and reply, +saddening, but proud. "He fell at Port Hudson, cheering on the forlorn +hope." "He lies beneath the forest-trees of Chancellorsville." "He was +slain upon the glacis of Fredericksburg." "He died in the foul prisons +of Richmond." We cannot forget them, and we would fain leave the +memorial of them to future generations. Their fame belongs to Harvard; +for what they learned there could not be other than noble, inspiring, +manly. Let Harvard make the plan, and give the call, and all of us, from +our distant homes and according to our ability, will offer our gifts +with gladness. Let the graduates who have leisure and taste and means, +and who are still dwelling under the pleasant shades of the Cambridge +elms, come together and take up the matter while love and gratitude and +pride are fresh. + +WHO IS ROEBUCK? + + +An inquiring American mind, seeking the solution of this momentous +question, would naturally turn to Appleton's "New Cyclopædia," Vol. +XIV., page 131. The inquiring mind would be enlightened in a somewhat +bewildering manner by the description there laid down of a little +animal, some of whose qualities are thus set forth in the first article +on the page indicated above:-- + +"ROEBUCK. A small European deer of the genus _Capreolus_.... The skull +has a very small, shallow suborbital pit, ... tear-bag indistinct, hoofs +narrow and triangular.... The color in summer is reddish brown, in +winter olive, with paler shades; inside of the ears fulvous, and a black +spot at the angles of the mouth.... It is about four feet long.... The +horns are used for knife-handles.... They congregate in small families, +but not in herds.... From their strong scent they are easily hunted; +though they frequently escape by their speed, doublings, springing to +cover, and other artifices.... The roebucks are represented in North +America by the Virginia deer." + +Inquiring mind, not wishing for researches in the direction of Natural +History, albeit the subject of parallelisms is a somewhat curious study +and in special cases infinitely amusing, passes on to the next article +in the Cyclopædia. + + * * * * * + +It is sufficiently obvious that it requires neither fame nor greatness +to excite public curiosity. A notorious criminal or an unusually +eccentric lunatic frequently gives rise to a larger share of +newspaper-comment and general discussion than the wisest and most +virtuous of mankind. It must be well remembered by those who have read +Tom Taylor's Life of Haydon that a dwarf was attracting thousands to the +Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, while the historical painter, stung +to madness by the neglect of the frivolous crowd, committed the hideous +and ghastly suicide which threw a tragic darkness over the close of his +strange and troubled existence. The desperate and dangerous frequently +succeed in placing themselves on a bad eminence, from which they are +conspicuous enough; and if to be talked of and pointed at be the sole +object of their ambition, they can, of course, be congratulated on their +success. Virtue may sit in humble and obscure usefulness at a thousand +quiet firesides, while the work of the incendiary may be seen to spread +widely, and the tumult of his mischief be heard from afar. And so any +public man or politician, whose taste is so morbidly depraved and whose +aim in life is so debased as to prefer notoriety to honest, useful +service, may revel in the questionable enjoyment of being the especial +theme of public debate and private conversation. Hence it happens that +so many of our fellow-countrymen are at this moment asking the question +with which we head these pages,--"Who is Roebuck?" + +An unhappy culprit, who combined with an innocent taste for green peas a +thievish method of acquiring their usual savory accompaniment, is +reported to have been addressed by an English judge in the following +felicitous terms:--"Prisoner at the bar, Providence has endowed you with +health and strength, _instead of which_ you go about the country +stealing ducks." Providence has endowed John Arthur Roebuck, member of +the Parliament of Great Britain, with fair talents and some power of +speech, _instead of which_ (to use the accurate judicial ellipsis) he +goes about using violent and vulgar words of menace against those who +have never offended him, and scattering firebrands as if there were no +gun-powder anywhere to ignite and explode. This would be a mean and +mischievous occupation for the dullest man; but for one who has proved +by his very failures that he is not devoid of intellect or energy, it +is a monstrous perversion of mental gifts, even if they are small. + +A portion of the fiery heat of his nature may be traced, perhaps, to the +fact that he was born at Madras; but as on the mother's side he is +descended from the poet Tickell, the friend of Addison, it would not be +altogether unreasonable to have expected in him some few of the +amenities of the _literæ humaniores_. He soon, however, exchanged the +torrid scenes of Oriental life for the snows of Canada, where he +received his education; and when we remember what the bizarre oddities +of his subsequent career have been, it might be interesting, if we had +the materials for the purpose, to inquire what that education was. The +British Provinces, however, were not deemed a sufficiently ample theatre +of action for the energy of the capacious soul that dwelt in that not +over-capacious body; and so, at the age of twenty-three, he repaired to +England and commenced his studies for the profession of the law. + +He was called to the bar in 1832. He had, however, by no means paid an +exclusive attention to the study of the law, or his success in his +profession might have been greater, and the world might have had a good +lawyer instead of a bad politician. The period of his Inner-Temple +student-life was a very stirring time in England. Old principles were +dying out, and wrestling in death-struggle with newer and wider theories +of human liberty and human progress. The young East-Indian Canadian +rushed with natural impetuosity into the arena, and was one of the most +reckless and noisy debating-club spouters of the day. In speaking of the +Reform Bill at a meeting at a tavern in London, he said, that, if the +bill did not pass, he for one should like to "wade the streets of the +capital knee-deep in blood." It was consoling to reflect, even at the +time, that the atrocious aspiration was mitigated by the reflection that +it would not require a deluge of gore to reach the knees of such a +Zacchæus as Roebuck. "Pretty wicious that for a child of six!" said the +amiable Mr. Squeers on one occasion; and pretty sanguinary that, say we, +for a rising little demagogue of thirty. + +As England was at that time in a seething ferment of excitement, men who +were unscrupulous in their language were at a premium in the political +market, and the respectable constituency of the pleasant watering-place +of Bath, in Somersetshire, elected the fierce little man as their +representative in the Imperial Parliament. This was a great start in +life for the new-fledged barrister, and, had he moderated his +overweening vanity, and studied wisely, and with some self-abnegation +and honest adherence to party, he might have risen to some useful +position, and been saved, at least, from the indignity of fetching and +carrying for the Emperor of Austria, and from the impertinence of +intruding himself into the august presence of Mr. Kinglake's amiable and +virtuous friend, the Emperor of France. The English nation might then +possibly have pointed to his portrait in their historical gallery as +that of an efficient public servant who had deserved well of his +country, and he might have escaped a ludicrous immortality as the Dog +Tear-'em, in the recent admirable sketch in "Punch." + +But, in the words of a political song,-- + + "There weren't no such luck + For John A. Roebuck, + And he thought he would teach the whole nation + That the Tories were fools, + And the Whigs only tools, + But Roebuck was England's salvation." + +And he, according to this programme, set himself to reform the +Constitution and protect the Colonies. + + "Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri," + +he was an eclectic in politics,--acknowledged no leader, had himself no +followers. A chief without a party, an apostle without disciples, a +critic without the merest ordinary penetration, a cynic whose bitterness +was not enlivened by wit or humor, a spouter whose arguments, when he +had any, were usually furnished from the mint, John Arthur Roebuck was +for many years that impersonation of terrific honesty, glaring purity, +and indignant virtue, known in English politics as an INDEPENDENT member +of Parliament. When party-spirit runs high, and many party-men are +disposed to be unscrupulous in the measures and artifices by which they +win or retain place and power, such a position, occupied with judgment +and fortified by modesty and good sense, is a most powerful and a most +beneficent one; but it is useless when seized on by one whose obtrusive +egotism and more than feminine vanity disqualify him for any serious or +permanent influence on his fellow-men. When a Pocket-Diogenes rolls his +little tub into the House of Commons, and complains that everybody is +standing between him and the sun,--why, in an assembly of educated and +sensible men the sham is soon discovered, the pseudo-cynic seen through, +and his affected misanthropy deservedly gains for him universal derision +and scorn. Some years after he entered Parliament, Mr. Disraeli, with +whom he had many encounters, in which he was invariably worsted, made +the House roar with laughter by taunting Roebuck with his "Sadler's +Wells sarcasms and melodramatic malignities," and drew a most amusing +picture of him as "a solitary sentinel pacing round the deserted citadel +of his own opinions." + + "He who surpasses or subdues mankind + Must look down on the hate of those below"; + +but as Mr. Roebuck has done neither the one nor the other, his only +chance of not being utterly forgotten, instead of being feared or hated, +by his contemporaries, is to continue his work of mischief, and merely +change the object of his puny attacks as one becomes more prominent than +another, and as he can manage to maintain his own quasi-importance by +attaching his name to great questions. He had no special dislike for +this country; so far from that, he admired and praised us, as by an +extract from one of his books we will presently prove; but since he has +become a self-appointed lackey, has donned imperial livery, and as a +volunteer does the dirty work of despots, he must have lost all sympathy +with and all regard for an independent, free, and brave people. We hope +and believe that this country vastly prefers his censure to his praise, +and, as far as it has leisure at the present crisis for any serious +consideration of his erratic pranks, would rather have his enmity than +his friendship. _Non tali auxilio!_ + +But we must recur to his inconsistent and rather uninteresting career, +and so satisfy, and perhaps weary, the curiosity of any reader who is +still disposed to ask the momentous question, "Who is Roebuck?" + +In 1835, he was appointed the agent--the _paid_ agent--of the House of +Assembly of Lower Canada, during the dispute then raging between the +Executive Government and the House of Assembly. As Englishmen especially +plume themselves on the fact that the members of their legislative +bodies are unremunerated, it is somewhat difficult to understand how +this exception was made in John Arthur's favor. As a precedent it is to +be hoped that it has not been followed; for it is obvious that such an +arrangement, however advantageous or pleasant to individual members, +might throw grave suspicions on the purity of public men, and introduce +a wholesale venality into public life. If such a system is permitted, +any foreign monarch or any foreign government may secure the services of +a British senator as his agent and representative. It is quite appalling +to think that the chivalrous Earl of Derby or the conscientious Mr. +Gladstone should be shocked by the offer of a handsome annual salary +paid quarterly, (not deducting the income-tax,) made by the King of +Dahomey for an eloquent defence of his humane and enlightened rule, or +by an equally munificent donative from the famous and merry monarch of +the Cannibal Islands for the support of himself and his loyal subjects +in their copious consumption of human flesh. We should be sorry wantonly +to raise so dreadful a suspicion; but if British M.P.s are permitted, +according to the Roebuck precedent, to be PAID agents, why has not +Southern money found its way into senatorial pockets? Greedy Mr. Laird, +and unscrupulous, money-loving Mr. Lindsay,[A] always resolutely +grubbing for the main chance, are perhaps sufficiently paid by indirect, +though heavy gains in shipbuilding. Needy Mr. Roebuck may be salaried by +the Emperor of Austria, though there is nothing to prove, except his own +open-mouthed and loud-tongued professions of purity, that he is not +"_paid_ agent" of the Confederate Government. The indulgence of the evil +feelings of malice and uncharitableness may, however, sufficiently +recompense him; and to him, perhaps, his virtue may be its own reward. +But if paid agencies are not permitted, a very serious suspicion fastens +on that hard-mouthed, rising lordling, Robert Cecil, son of the Marquis +of Salisbury, and one of the most active and energetic champions of the +slave-mongers of the South. The young lord, it is well known, stepped +down from the lofty pedestal of a bad pedigree to marry the fair, but +portionless daughter of an English judge; his father is proverbially +mean and stingy, and the young lord himself proportionately poor; and in +the intervals of his strenuous advocacy of the claims of the Rebels to +European recognition he laudably ekes out his very narrow income by +writing articles for the London newspapers and reviews; and rumor says +that he communicates gossiping letters, full of piquant and satirical +sketches of the proceedings of the House of Commons to two or three of +the provincial papers. He is under these circumstances peculiarly open +to suspicion. If the proceeding in question is a usual one, why does he +not openly avow it? If it is unusual or improper, why does he not deny +the soft impeachment so much credited both in this country and in his +own? It is really refreshing to contemplate, that Roebuck, after being +the paid agent of the Canadian House of Assembly, should have become +such a _purist_ as to drag poor Mr. Isaac Butt before the notice of the +Commons, and scream for the censure on him on a mere suspicion that he +had touched the yellow and handsome gold coins of one of the innumerable +Indian princes and rajahs who come to England with complaints of +grievances, sometimes real, and sometimes fictitious, against the +British Government. + +[Footnote A: Lindsay's fawning, plastic sycophancy is well known this +side the water. After shrewdly filling his coffers with profits from +Northern business-transactions, he now turns about, kicks his old +friends, who always half suspected his knavish propensities, bows, cap +in hand, to visionary cotton-bales, and hopes to turn some honest +pounds, shillings, and pence by advocating the slave-drivers' rebellion. +A "fool's gudgeon" will surely reward his laborious endeavors for +Southern gold, that article growing beautifully less every day.] + +During the period of the "paid agency" Roebuck was tolerably industrious +with his pen; but in literature and journalism he proved his utter +incapacity for joining in any combined action. Such was his dogged +self-assertion and indomitable egotism that none of the ordinary +channels would answer his purpose; and so he issued a series of +political papers, entitled "Pamphlets for the People," to which the +curious may sometimes refer, but which have now lost all their +significance and interest. His quarrels with editors and publishers were +notorious; and an altercation with Mr. Black, the well-known editor of +the "Morning Chronicle," eventuated in a duel so bloodless as to be +ridiculous. David's pebble did not reach Goliath, and Goliath was +equally merciful to David. In these pamphlets he violently assailed the +whole body of editors, sub-editors, reporters, etc., of most of the +papers of any note. And the more accustomed he became to the House of +Commons, the greater liberties did he take with the conventional +fairness and courtesy of debate. His personality and scurrility were so +indiscriminating and excessive that he was perhaps at this time the most +unpopular member of the House. + +In 1837 he lost his election for Bath, but was reelected in 1841. In a +subsequent contest at Bath he was successfully opposed by Lord Ashley, +the present Earl of Shaftesbury. On this occasion he exhibited even more +than his usual bad temper and bad taste. He declined to accept Lord +Ashley's proffered hand; and in the chagrin and vexation occasioned by +unexpected defeat he uttered a rabid invective against the +Non-Conformist ministers of the place, to whose influence he rightly +attributed his rival's success. Lord Ashley was a well-known +philanthropist, and his consistent support and patronage of many +religious and charitable societies had naturally given him popularity +among the Protestant clergy of all denominations,--a popularity +heightened in the case of the Evangelical and Calvinistic ministers by +his Lordship's strict Sabbatarianism and his belief in cold dinners on +Sunday. On the other hand, Mr. Roebuck was openly accused of private +professions of skepticism in matters of religion; and this report, so +dangerous to the repute of any public man in England, (where theology +and politics so frequently cross each other,) considerably damaged his +chance of success. Lord Ashley, however, was in no way responsible for +the rumor; and the difference between the conduct of the two during the +contest was this, that Lord Ashley behaved like a gentleman and Mr. +Roebuck did not. + +During his retirement into private life, after this defeat in 1847, he +wrote his work entitled "The History of the Whig Ministry of 1830,"--a +book in the preparation of which he is said to have received +considerable and valuable assistance from no less a person than Lord +Brougham. Despite the aid that he received, it is amusing to find in his +preface a characteristic vaunting of his entire difference with Lord +Brougham about the character of King William IV. "Lord Brougham," he +writes, "is accustomed to describe William IV as frank, just, and +straightforward. We believe him to have been very weak and very false, a +finished dissembler, and always bitterly hostile to the Whig Ministry +and their great measure of Reform." This is Roebuck all over. He would +infinitely rather argue that white was black than quietly coincide in +any generally received opinion. + +While on the subject of his writings, we will mention the book in which +he vouchsafed to praise those whom he now so elaborately vilifies. In +1849 he published an octavo volume of two hundred and forty-eight pages +on "The Colonies of England." Speaking (page 84) of the vast and rapid +progress made by this country, he says:-- + +"We are led to inquire by what machinery, by what favoring +circumstances, such a result has been brought about. The people, be it +remarked, are the same as ourselves,--the original Thirteen States were +the work of Englishmen. English heads, English hearts, English hands +brought those new communities into existence. No longer connected by +government with us, they nevertheless retained the characteristics of +the race from which they sprang, and proceeding in the great work to +which they were destined, they strode across the continent, the fairest +portion of which they could now call their own. In planting new +settlements they were aided by our own people,--the very elements _out +of which we endeavor to frame colonies, and with which we do produce +sickly, miserable communities that can only be said to exist, and to +linger on in a sort of half-life_, without the spirit of a young, or the +amenities and polish of an old community, and, above all, _without any +spirit of independence_." + +Again, speaking of colonization In this country as opposed to Canada and +other English colonies, he writes (page 88):--"Certain adventurous +persons, the 'pioneers' of civilization, wishing to make new settlements +beyond the boundaries of Pennsylvania and Virginia, upon wild lands +belonging to the United States, made formal application to the +Government of the United States at Washington, who, being bound to +afford all possible facility, thereupon take steps to have the land +surveyed and laid out into counties, townships, parishes. The roads are +also indicated, and at once the law exists; and security, guarantied by +the authority of the United States, immediately follows, both for person +and property; and all the machinery known to the Common Law, and needed +for the maintenance of this security, and the enforcement of the law's +decrees, is at once adopted. A municipal authority comes into existence; +a court-house, a jail, a school-room, arise in the wilderness; and +although these buildings be humble, and the men who exercise authority +in them may appear to be in some degree rude, yet is the law there in +all its useful majesty. To it a reverent obedience is rendered; and the +plain magistrate, who, in a hunter's frock, may, in the name of the +United States, pronounce the law's decree, commands an obedience as +complete and sincere as that which is paid to the Chief-Justice of the +Supreme Court at Washington, or to the ermined judge who presides in the +courts of our Lady the Queen in Westminster Hall." + +This in 1849; but what a very different tone has he thought fit to adopt +now! Was any agency then expected which has not been forthcoming? Or, +having degenerated from being a supporter of liberal opinions in his +youth to being the fond and fatuous admirer of autocrats in his old age, +does he think that it is absolutely necessary that the firm friend of +Austrian despotism should be the malignant assailant of the Government +and people of the United States? The man is consistent in nothing but +his spiteful vindictiveness and love of mischief. He is now the general +object of deserved ridicule and contempt for his flunkyistic attendance +at the Tuileries. At the time of Louis Napoleon's visit to London, +Roebuck raved and ranted about his "perjured lips having kissed the +Queen of England." + +He has, on some occasions, put himself prominently forward, and in such +a way as to make himself an influential member of Parliament. He moved +the vote of confidence in the Whig Government in 1850, when the great +debate ensued in which the late Sir Robert Peel made his last speech, +and they were kept in office by a poetical majority of nine. But the +speech with which Roebuck introduced the motion was entirely eclipsed by +the magnificent declamation of Sir Alexander Cockburn, the present +Lord-Chief-Justice of England. On another great occasion, in January, +1855, he brought forward in the House of Commons a motion for inquiry +into the conduct of the Crimean War. Lord Aberdeen's Government was +defeated by an immense majority, and, of course, resigned. Mr. Roebuck +was chairman of the Committee of Inquiry; but the cabinet that came in +discreetly declined to give him any official post in their ranks. They +knew too well the terrible uncertainty and inconsistency of the man's +conduct. They could place no reliance either on his temper or his +discretion. In 1855 he was one of the numerous candidates for the +chairmanship of the Metropolitan Board of Works, but failed to inspire +the electors with any confidence in his capacity for the post. In the +following year he became the chairman of the Administrative Reform +Association, and although the league had at first been highly +successful, and aided much in awaking public attention to the +miscarriages and mismanagement in the Crimea, yet, under this fatal +presidency, it became speedily and ingloriously defunct. This was his +last great failure, before abdicating all his early liberal principles. +He has of late years endeavored to solace himself for the now +irretrievable blunders of his career by an exaggerated indulgence in his +idiosyncratic waywardness, paradox, and eccentricity. He is proud of +being considered the acquaintance of the Emperor of Austria, and rather +pleased than otherwise at being assailed on this account. He affects the +society and friendship of conservative members of the House of Commons. +He has become tolerant of lords. He may be seen sitting next to Lord +Robert Cecil, indulging in ill-natured jocosities, from which his +Lordship probably borrows when he indites ill-natured articles for the +misguided "Saturday Review."[A] He hates the Manchester school of +politicians, because their liberality and their sympathy with the cause +of freedom and civilization in this country remind Roebuck of his own +deflection from the right path. + +[Footnote A: This journal is now owned by Mr. Alexander James Beresford +Beresford-Hope, (we dare not omit any portion of this august name,) who +has ample means to enlist the talents of reckless, "smart" young men in +search of employment for any work he may require, no matter how +unprincipled the job in hand.] + +His private undertakings have not been more fortunate than his public +acts. He was chairman of a bank, which was unsuccessful, to say the +least of it. He has been connected with other enterprises, which soon +courted and obtained failure. + +What he has recently said and done in reference to this country is too +fresh in our memories to require that we should recite or recapitulate +it here. His past career, as we have reviewed it, may account for the +now intolerable acerbity of temper and the ludicrous vanity which +disgrace him. Never was a Nemesis more just than that which has for the +present consigned him to a melancholy obscurity. The political +extinguisher has certainly dropped upon his head, and this burning and +shining light has gone out with an unpleasant odor into utter darkness. + +In summing up his character, it is evident that excessive vanity is his +besetting sin. He is not too clever or too honest to act in union with +other people, but he is too _vain_. He is by no means too good for the +rest of the world; but he is too conceited and self-opinionated to +condescend to coöperate with them. As, at some of the minor theatres, a +single actor may play an army, so, in the House of Commons, Roebuck is a +host in himself,--is his own party, and leads it. His occasional +popularity in his own country is due to the fact, that, in his own +character, he, to a certain extent, represents and crystallizes a few of +the good and many of the bad qualities of Englishmen. He has their +courage and audacity, their independence and pride, their generally +defiant front to the rest of the world; but he is also vain, obstinate, +bigoted, prejudiced, narrow in his views, and boastful in his language. +His vulgar swagger, for instance, about the navy sweeping the seas, +would have been condemned here, if it had been addressed by the most +violent of demagogues to the most ignorant of Irish mobs. + +We have heard him speak in the House of Commons in his palmier days, +before he was as decrepit in mind as he is in body. He had great +fluency, some power of invective, and a vast stock of assurance. We +listened to him upon one occasion, when, without the slightest +provocation, he used the most undignified personalities to the late Sir +Robert Peel,--to which Sir Robert, very wisely, never replied. + +We cannot say that we feel any profound interest as to his future. He +has compared himself to a dog,--but, on behalf of that faithful and +valued companion of man, we protest against the similitude. He has the +kind of pugnacity which prompts a cur or a puppy to attack a +Newfoundland or a mastiff. He has not the fidelity and many other good +qualities of the canine race. At any rate, he has become a mischievous +dog,--and a dull dog,--and will soon be a "sad dog." + +We would venture to suggest, that he should at once be raised to the +peerage, under the title of Baron Tear-'em. He might then aid the good +cause of the slave-mongers of the South, and act in unison with that +just, generous, moral, and virtuous nobleman, the Marquis of +Clanricarde. + +We ought to apologize to our readers for so lengthy an account of so +undeserving a person,--but, at any rate, they ought by this time to know +"Who is Roebuck?" + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Six Months in the Federal States_. By EDWARD DICEY. In Two Volumes. +London and Cambridge: Macmillan & Co. + +This is a very _gentlemanly_ book. Whatever excellence of commendation +belongs to the adjective we have Italicized must be awarded to Mr. +Dicey. And it is ill-adapted to the manufactures of most British +tourists who have preceded him. For, to make no mention of the vulgar +buffooneries of Bunn or Grattan, we hold that neither the exalted and +irrepressible prosiness of Dr. Charles Mackay, nor the cleverish +magic-lantern pictures of that good-natured book-maker, Mr. Anthony +Trollope, would be perfectly fitted with this polite addition. It is no +mean praise to say that the word _gentlemanly_ naturally applies itself +to a traveller's work. And it is necessary to allow that the majority of +Americans who have printed their impressions of a scamper over Europe +have fallen as hopelessly below it as a few have risen far above it. +Some word of deeper meaning must characterize the sterling sentences of +"English Traits"; some epithet of more rare and subtile significance is +suggested by those exquisitely painted scenes of foreign life with which +Hawthorne is even now adorning the pages of the "Atlantic." But after +the manner in which such a well-informed, modest, humane man as we would +emphatically credit as an American _gentleman_ might speak of six months +in England, so has Mr. Dicey spoken of his six months in the Federal +States. + +And, at this present time, far better than all curious delineations or +"stereographic" descriptions are the sober testimonies concerning us +which Mr. Dicey offers to his countrymen. To such loyal Americans as +these volumes may reach they will give a heart not to be found in Dr. +Russell's pictorial neutrality, in the dashing effects of popular Mr. +Trollope, nor even--making all allowance for the sanative influence of +counter-irritation--in the weekly malignity of that _ex_-Moral Minstrel +whom the London "Times" has sent to the aid of our insurgent +slave-masters. For, instead of gloating over objections and picking out +what petty enigmas may not be readily soluble, Mr. Dicey has a manly, +English way of accepting the preponderant evidence concerning the crisis +he came to study. He seldom gets entangled in trivial events, but knows +how to use them as illustrations of great events. It is really +refreshing to meet with a British traveller who is so happily delivered +from the haunting consciousness of a personal identity. The reader is +not called upon to bemoan the tribulations of temperance-taverns, the +hardships of indiscriminate railroad-carriages, nor the rapacity of +New-York hackmen. There is scarcely an offence against good taste or +good feeling in Mr. Dicey's volumes; and whatever American homes may +have been opened to him would doubtless reopen far more readily than to +most publishing tourists from the mother-land. + +Mr. Dicey clearly exhibits the bearing of the Rebellion upon the fate of +the servile population of the South, and confesses that his deep +sympathy with the Federal cause came from the conviction that the +supremacy or overthrow of Slavery was intimately connected with the +success or failure of Secession. In acknowledging the necessity that was +upon loyal Americans of defending the fundamental law of their society, +he is not disposed to adopt the lamentation of some of our foreign +well-wishers who are troubled by the fear of a military despotism in the +Free States. He has the sagacity to perceive that the genius and +development of the graduates of Northern school-houses are totally +opposed to a military rule. Mr. Dicey cordially recognizes the +democratic idea which sanctifies our convulsion, and displays a careful +observation in noting "the self-restraint, the moderation, and the +patience of the American people in the conduct of the people's war." He +is not over-disturbed because this same people loved law and order more +than freedom itself, and with few murmurs committed high principles to +the championship of whatever petty men happened to represent them. +Indeed, one of the best sayings he reports is that of an old Polish +exile, who congratulates himself that there will be no saviours of +society, no fathers of their country, to be provided for when the war +is over. + +Throughout these two volumes British readers may discern something more +than the barren facts of our struggle: they may catch glimpses of its +energy and movement; they may see it as reflected from the most generous +American minds. For it seems to have been Mr. Dicey's good fortune in +this country to have gained admission to the society of men and women of +high intelligence, in whom the religious sentiment was living and +powerful; and he appears to estimate the full weight of testimony such +persons offered in sending their loved ones to Virginia to fall beneath +the rifle of some Southern boor. It is this silent public opinion of the +North which our foreign critics have generally failed to comprehend. +They have been so long accustomed to parody the rhetorical elation of +our third-rate political speakers, and to represent this as a universal +American characteristic, that they signally failed to estimate the +genuine emotion with which it is never connected. When the cherished +barbarism of slaveholders arose and threatened our Western civilization, +those who most felt and have best wrought for their country were +cautious in their speech. They knew that the principle underlying the +struggle must submit itself to the checks and counter-checks of +constitutional law. While the fire of liberty burned at the heart of +citizens of abiding loyalty, it seemed best, that, like the Psalmist, +they should hold their peace even from good words. Many thought it an +act of necessary self-restraint to dwell only upon the Union as a symbol +of that universal freedom which they felt the Union must finally +represent. The dread of overleaping the restraints of law, which, +perchance, has prolonged the conflict, has been most creditable to the +genuine democracy we have represented. We are proud to remember many +intelligent soldiers who used no language of passionate denunciation +towards the guilty institution which called them to the field, yet who +knew the end when they gave their lives to a cause utterly antagonistic +to its despotic claims. + +By the representations of Secessionists encountered in the Free States, +as well as from disloyal newspapers which the "Lincoln despotism" never +sought to suppress, Mr. Dicey was convinced that the sole purpose of the +Rebellion was to get possession of the vast regions which lie west of +the Mississippi, wherein to establish Slave States and Territories. "The +North," he declares, "is fighting against, the South is fighting for, +the power of extending slavery across the American continent; and if +this was all that could be said, it is clear on which side must be the +sympathies of any one who really and honestly believes that slavery is +an evil and a sin." But it is not here that Mr. Dicey rests the case of +the North as appealing to the Christian sentiment of the world. He shows +that the inexorable logic of facts must work the overthrow of slavery +where it now exists. The suppression of the slave-trade, the recognition +of Hayti, abolition in the District of Columbia, and finally the +Proclamation of January have one tendency and can have but one result. +We state these views as one more confirmation of the fact, that, whether +agreeable to us or not, the sympathies of liberal men in Europe are to +be had on the sole ground that ours is an anti-slavery war. + +Mr. Dicey's predilections lead him to make a generous, although +discriminating, estimate of those men who, in time past, have endeavored +to serve their country by leaving the level commonplaces of respectable +citizenship. It is no slight praise to say that his chapter upon the +New-England Abolitionists is clear and just. Their points of +disagreement with the Republican party are stated with no common +accuracy. Careful sentences give the precise position of Garrison and +his adherents: the intrinsic essence of the movement of these reformers +is divested of the subordinate and trivial facts so often put forward to +misrepresent it. Although Mr. Dicey endeavors not to commit himself upon +the vital differences in the agitation of anti-slavery sentiments by the +Abolitionists and by the Republican party, it is very evident that he +inclines to the belief that the former, in their advocacy of disunion, +acted not from a perverse and fanatical philosophy, but from the logical +compulsions of a critical understanding, stimulated by an intense +conviction of the national sin. + +We have dwelt thus upon Mr. Dicey's views of the war, and of the great +moral question with which it is connected, because these portions of his +volumes are most pertinent to us, as well as creditable to him. His +sketches of public characters are good common-sense grasps at them, +which generally get their externals, and occasionally something more. +The description of the President is forcible, though a little too +graphic for perfect courtesy. Caleb Cushing impresses the traveller as +one of the ablest of our public men, and Wendell Phillips as by far the +most eloquent speaker he ever heard. General Butler, however, is not to +Mr. Dicey's taste. Indeed, he is hardly behind the "Saturday Review" in +the terrible epithets he bestows upon the man who he acknowledges "was +associated with the grandest triumph of the Federal arms, and by some +means or other preserved New Orleans to the Union with but little cost +of either men or money." It is rather late to renew discussion about the +notorious order relating to the women of the subjected city. But Mr. +Dicey chooses to express his belief in an infamous intention of General +Butler at the time of its issue,--though he declares that "the strictest +care was taken lest the order should be abused," and that the "Southern +ladies [?] were grossly insulting in their behavior to the Union +soldiers, using _language and gestures_ which, in a city occupied by +troops of any other nation, would have subjected them, _without orders_, +to the coarsest retaliation." To which we have only to reply, that +General Butler may be a villain, but that he is certainly not a fool. +Nobody doubts that he has military or civil aspirations for the future, +and, for such ends, if for nothing else, wishes the approbation of his +loyal countrymen. Now Mr. Dicey testifies to "the almost morbid +sentiment of Americans in the Free States with regard to women": he +tells us that "it renders them ridiculously susceptible to female +influences"; also, that this same "sentiment" among us "protects women +from the natural consequences of their own misconduct." These +characteristics of his countrymen are just as familiar to General Butler +as they are patent to Mr. Dicey; and we hold it to be simply incredible +that one who is at least a very shrewd politician used language which +_he intended_ should convey a meaning that must necessarily consign his +future career to privacy and infamy. It is perhaps not wonderful that +men who have deluged their country in blood, to propagate a system which +consigns unborn millions to enforced harlotry, should put an evil +interpretation upon the indignant stigma applied to _acts_ which, in +civilized States, come from one class of women, and are designed for one +purpose. Neither is it very astonishing that such persons as have been +employed to pump the New-York sewers into the _cloaca maxima_ which sets +towards us from Printing-House Square should share the sensitive +chastity of the slave-masters whose work they are put to do. But it is +passing strange that a gentleman so fair and reasonable as Mr. Dicey, +one so appreciative of the moral tone which Northern society demands of +its representatives, should join in an accusation whose absurdity is +only lost in its infinite offence. + +There are small inaccuracies, as well as occasional instances of +carelessness or repetition, in these volumes, which, had circumstances +allowed time for revision, might have been avoided. It would require the +"Pathfinder" himself to discover "Fremont Street" in the city where we +write; the "Courier" is _not_ "the most largely circulated of any Boston +paper"; and our Ex-Mayor "Whiteman" requires no fanciful orthography to +free his name from the obloquy of an over-devotion to the interests of +colored citizens. These are local illustrations of mistakes which are +excusable in view of the commendable expedition with which the work was +issued,--for, in the late crisis of our affairs, an Englishman who had +any good words to give us fulfilled the proverb by giving twice in +giving quickly. But, whatever trifling details might be subjected to +criticism, the total impression of what Mr. Dicey has written bears +honorable testimony to the accuracy of his observation, as well as to +his powers of comparison and judgment. + +As has been already remarked, we cannot be blind to the fact that our +only supporters in England are those men who recognize at the heart of +our contest that genuine principle of Liberty which is not to be limited +to caste or to race. And it is only by hastening to justify their +confidence that we can win to our cause the great people they address. +If we cannot gain the national sympathy of England, we must do without +the true sympathy of any nation. It was, indeed, remarked by De +Tocqueville, that, "in the eyes of the English, the cause which is most +useful to England is always the cause of justice." But the rare insight +of the philosopher assigns the phenomenon, not to a political +Machiavelism, but to a "laudable desire to connect the actions of one's +country with something more stable than interest." The English have a +peculiar gift of fixing their whole attention upon certain traits or +single circumstances which they desire to see. We doubt not that a +portion of their sympathy with the energy and endurance of those in arms +against their country is estimable according to its light. But as the +dignity of our mission in this struggle becomes more and more apparent, +the moral intelligence of England will be forced to unite itself with +the Government of the United States. Let that day come when it will, +posterity will remember its obligations to those Englishmen who did so +much to avert the hideous calamity of a war between the two liberal +powers of the world. And to us of this present generation it is grateful +to know that our brave and generous young men have not died wholly +unrecognized in the land of their ancestors. Mill, Ellison, +Hughes,--what need to name the rest?--have stood up to report them and +their cause aright to the unsatisfied: in which roll of the honorable +and honored we are glad to write the name of Edward Dicey. + + * * * * * + +_Hospital Transports_. A Memoir of the Embarkation of the Sick and +Wounded from the Peninsula of Virginia in the Summer of 1862. Compiled +and published at the Request of the Sanitary Commission. Boston: Ticknor +and Fields. + +If pure benevolence was ever organized and utilized into beneficence, +the name of the institution is the Sanitary Commission. It is a standing +answer to Samson's riddle, "Out of the strong came forth sweetness." Out +of the very depths of the agony of this cruel and bloody war springs +this beautiful system, built of the noblest and divinest attributes of +the human soul. Amidst all the heroism of daring and enduring which this +war has developed, amidst all the magnanimity of which it has shown the +race capable, the daring, the endurance, and the greatness of soul which +have been discovered among the men and women who have given their lives +to this work shine as brightly as any on the battle-field,--in some +respects even more brightly. They have not the bray of trumpets nor the +clash of swords to rouse enthusiasm, nor will the land ever resound with +their victories. Theirs is the dark and painful side, the menial and +hidden side, but made light and lovely by the spirit that shines in and +through it all. Glimpses of this agency are familiar to our people; but +not till the history of its inception, progress, and results is calmly +and adequately written out and spread before the public will any idea be +formed of the magnitude and importance of the work which it has done. +Nor even then. Never, till every soldier whose last moments it has +soothed, till every soldier whose flickering life it has gently steadied +into continuance, whose waning reason it has softly lulled into quiet, +whose chilled blood it has warmed into healthful play, whose failing +frame it has nourished into strength, whose fainting heart it has +comforted with sympathy,--never, until every full soul has poured out +its story of gratitude and thanksgiving, will the record be complete; +but long before that time, ever since the moment that its helping hand +was first held forth, comes the Blessed Voice, "Inasmuch as ye have done +it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." + +An institution asking of Government only permission to live and +opportunity to work, planting itself firmly and squarely on the +generosity of the people, subsisting solely by their free-will +offerings, it is a noble monument of the intelligence, the munificence, +and the efficiency of a free people, and of the alacrity with which it +responds when the right chord is rightly touched. It is, however, not +unnatural that doubts should exist as to the success of a plan so +far-reaching in its aims and hitherto so untried. Stories have been +circulated of a mercenary disposition of its stores and trickery among +its officers. Where these stories have found considerable credence, they +have been tracked to their source and triumphantly refuted; but it would +indeed be hardly less than miraculous, if an institution ramifying so +widely, with agents so numerous, and resources so extensive, should have +no knaves among its servants, and no waste in its circulation. The +wonder is, that more leakage has not been proved than has ever been +suspected. All that is necessary to remove floating doubts, to convince +all heads of the wisdom which projected this Commission, and to warm all +hearts up to its continued and sufficient support, is a knowledge of +what it has done, is doing, and purposes to do. This information the +Commission has, at different times, and by piecemeal, furnished: +necessarily by piecemeal, since, as this book justly remarks, the +immense mass of details which a circumstantial account of its operations +in field and hospital must involve would prove nearly as laborious in +the reading as in the performance. In this little volume we have, +photographed, a single phase of its operations. It consists simply of +extracts from letters and reports. There is no attempt at completeness +or dramatic arrangement; yet the most elaborate grouping would probably +fail to present one-half as accurately a picture of the work and its +ways as these unpretending fragments. It delights us to see the--we can +hardly say cheerful, as that savors too much of the "self-sacrifice" +which benevolence sometimes tarnishes by talking about--but, rather, the +gay, lively, merry manner in which the most balky matters are taken hold +of. Men and women seem to have gone into the service with good-will and +hearty love and buoyant spirits. It refreshes and strengthens us like a +tonic to read of their taking the wounded, festering, filthy, miserable +men, washing and dressing them, pouring in lemonade and beef-tea, and +putting them abed and asleep. There is not a word about "devotion" or +"ministering angels," (we could wish there were not quite so much about +"ladies,") but honest, refined, energetic, able women, with quick brains +and quick hands, now bathing a poor crazy head with ice-water, to be +rewarded with one grateful smile from the parting soul,--now standing in +the way of a procession of the slightly wounded, to pour a little brandy +down their throats, or put an orange into their hands, just to keep them +up till they reach food and rest,--now running up the river in a +steam-tug, scrambling eggs in a wash-basin over a spirit-lamp as they +go,--now groping their way, at all hours of the night, through torrents +of rain, into dreadful places crammed with sick and dying men, "calling +back to life those in despair from utter exhaustion, or again and again +catching for mother or wife the last faint whispers of the dying,"--now +leaving their compliments to serve a disappointed colonel instead of his +dinner, which they had nipped in the bud by dragging away the stove with +its four fascinating and not-to-be-withstood pot-holes;--and let the +sutler's name be wreathed with laurel who not only permitted this, but +offered his cart and mule to drag the stove to the boat, and would take +no pay! + +The blessings of thousands who were ready to perish, and of tens of +thousands who love their country and their kind, rest upon those who +originated, and those who sustain, this noble work. Let the people's +heart never faint and its hand never weary; but let it, of its +abundance, give to this Commission full measure, pressed down, shaken +together, and running over, that, wherever the red trail of war is seen, +its divine footsteps may follow,--that, wherever the red hand of war is +lifted to wound, its white hand may be lifted to heal,--that its work +may never cease until it is assumed by a great Christian Government, or +until peace once more reigns throughout the land. And even then, +gratitude for its service, and joy in its glory, shall never die out of +the hearts of the American people. + + * * * * * + +_The History of the Supernatural, in all Ages and Nations, and in all +Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a Universal Faith_. By +WILLIAM HOWITT. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. + +There has been a great change of late years in connection with the +science of Pneumatology and with the manner of treating it. There was a +revolution of opinion on this subject in the middle of the last century; +there is a counter-revolution to-day. + +The superstitions and credulities of the Middle Ages eventuated, during +the course of the eighteenth century, in the Encyclopædism of French +philosophy. The grounds upon which the Church based her doctrine of the +supernatural were fiercely attacked. The proofs brought forward to prove +the insufficiency of such grounds were assumed to prove more than lack +of logic in the Church; they were taken as proofs, that, in the nature +of things, there is no evidence for the supernatural, in any sense of +the term; in other words, that there is no knowledge within the reach of +mortals, except that which relates to the physical,--to this earth, as +the only phase of existence,--to the vital body, as the all of the human +being. Emotional and intellectual phenomena were but results of material +organization, as heat is the result of combustion: they exhibited +themselves so long as vitality continued; they disappeared when death +supervened, as the warmth from a fire dies out with the cessation of +combustion. No hypothetical soul was needed to account for the thousand +phenomena of thought or of sensation. Pneumatology was no science, but +the mere fancy of an excited imagination. + +Not to the literature and the social life of France alone was this +materialistic influence confined. The mind of Germany, of England, and, +more or less, of the rest of Europe, and of America, was pervaded by it. +The tendency, all over the civilized world, was towards unbelief, not +merely in miracles, but in all things spiritual. Science, with her +strict tests and her severe inductions, lent her aid in the same +direction. + +It does not seem to have occurred to the philosophers of the +Encyclopædian school that a doctrine is not necessarily false because an +insufficient argument is brought forward to prove it. It does not appear +to have occurred to skeptical physicists that there may be laws of +Nature regulating ultramundane phenomena, as fixed, as invariable, as +those which decide the succession of geological phenomena and the +products of chemical combinations. + +Here is a theory which is worth considering. May it not be that God +adapts the proofs of that which it is important that man should know to +the intellectual progress of mankind? Is it certain that the same +evidence which sufficed for the foundation of religious faith five +hundred years ago will suffice equally well to-day? Truths are eternal; +laws of Nature vary not. But of the world's thoughts there is a +childhood, a youth, a manhood; and there may be various classes of +arguments suited to various stages of progress. + +Again, assuming that the materialist takes a contracted view of the +economy of human life, ignoring every portion of it except its present +phase, (that phase being but the preparation for another and a higher,) +may it not be, that, as the world advances, men may gradually be +permitted, occasionally and to a limited extent, to become aware of +influences exerted from a more advanced phase of existence over this? +May it not be that the links connecting the two phases of existence are +gradually to become more numerous and apparent? + +Such are the general views which William Howitt's work is intended to +illustrate and enforce. He selects, as a title-page motto, an axiom from +Butler's "Analogy,"--"There are two courses of Nature: the ordinary and +the extraordinary." By the supernatural he does not mean phenomena out +of the course of Nature, but such comparatively rare phenomena as are +governed by laws with which we are unacquainted, and as are, therefore, +to us something extraordinary, something to be wondered at,--miracles. + +The author travels over a vast extent of ground,--more, we think, than +can be properly explored in the compass of two duodecimo volumes. All +ages, all countries, all faiths, furnish their quota towards his +collection. It is curious, interesting, suggestive, rather than +conclusive. It exhibits more industry than logic. It consists rather of +abundant materials for others to use, than of materials worked up by the +collector. It gives evidence of learning, research, and a comprehensive +study of the subject. It is a _thesaurus_ of pneumatological knowledge, +collected with German assiduity. It will set many to thinking, though it +may convince but few, except of the one truth, that the faith in the +supernatural has been a universal faith, pervading all nations, +persisting through all ages. + +The number of those who take an interest in the subject treated of in +Mr. Howitt's book, and who believe that great truths underlie popular +superstitions, increases day by day; and the work will probably have a +wide circulation. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. September, +1863, No. LXXI., by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13631 *** |